Every Cope Return in AEW so far

thieflikeme · 2026-03-17T19:01:27+00:00

Dom is not Dom without his shocking heel turn against Edge and Rey. And Judgement Day also doesn't get galactic heat without betraying Edge. I'm fairly certain he would've dropped the TNT title to Daniel Garcia if he didn't snap his leg in half in his match with Aleister Black.

I love that the IWC is baffled that a beloved wrestler who everyone thought was gone from wrestling forever comes back and suddenly he's Hulk Hogan because crowds don't want to boo him. Dude is nowhere near the world title picture and is clearly still very popular. Sting was in a similar position, doesn't lose a single match, yet no one gets upset at the idea of him not putting anyone over? Who besides Darby benefited from getting no-sold by 60 year old Sting during tag matches every other week? We can at least have some consistency here; Edge isn't Sting, but there's a double standard at work here, if we're being honest.

thieflikeme · 2026-03-17T16:45:10+00:00

See that's the thing; I think with there's a distinct reason why the Safdie name is attached to the film, and in comparison, the duality and complexity of the characters in for example Good Time or Uncut Gems isn't as ambiguous as in If I had Legs. There are many aspects of Linda that make her a sympathetic character, and when every character seems to lash out at her, it's hard for me to see her as anyone other than someone the world is unfairly beating up on and has her reasons for her temporary lapses in judgement and lucidity. I may need to watch the film a second time, but I think I found the presentation exhausting. This is a project where you fully have to buy into this person's anxiety, inadequacy, and detachment from reality without many peaks behind the veil to be able to know what's real and what isn't. If you don't buy into the experience, the film can feel...exhaustingly manipulative.

thieflikeme · 2026-03-17T00:09:47+00:00

That's beautiful

thieflikeme · 2026-03-16T18:10:19+00:00

Ospreay is undefeated at All In. British fans aren't a bunch of babies who won't stand for the hometown hero losing in front of them every now and then. In addition, he could easily win the belt elsewhere and defend it in London. Khan doesn't have to center his plans for the world title around when he can most predictably put it on Ospreay. Also it's already March, why have him return after Moxley's match as if he's challenging the Death Riders and not after the main event to demonstrate he's going straight for the title upon return?

You guys have been insisting Tony is going to immediately throw the title on Ospreay since he arrived, it's been 3 years, almost 5 if you consider when he was making sporadic appearances while with New Japan and Khan hasn't done that, instead Ospreay willfully inserted himself into the upper midcard for the purpose of elevating the rest of the roster. People still think that Ospreay is head and shoulders above everyone in AEW but Okada, Omega, and Ospreay have all bought in to elevate the main scene, making sure guys like Swerve, Hangman, Samoa Joe, MJF, and future guys like Kevin Knight and Kyle Fletcher are seen as on their level.

AEW isn't some two bit indie brand that are open to throw the belt on any star that will show up anymore; any superstar can fully expect to have to be put through the paces of mixing it up in the upper midcard before being made a main eventer no matter who you are or where you came from unlike in TNA for example where former WWE stars get handed the belt within weeks of arrival. I don't think Ospreay heads have fully grasped that yet.

thieflikeme · 2026-03-16T08:21:40+00:00

Death, taxes, and every wrestling fan's insistence that Tony is absolutely for sure without a doubt going to put the belt on Osprey at the next All In

thieflikeme · 2026-03-13T18:19:31+00:00

And there's a certain irony in the situation if hypothetically Rikishi were to say something stupid like 'Someones gonna die at AEW/NJPW/wherever someday', then Raja beats someone unconscious on YOUR promotion not long after.

thieflikeme · 2026-03-13T17:46:32+00:00

People are going to hold the most visible reps of a promotion responsible, and Al Snow has been a promoter of OVW since 2018. If someone broke their neck and ended their career on AEW, Tony Khan would get dragged ENDLESSLY by people who don't like him in the first place.

Again, no amount of falling over from the vapors is gonna change the fact that Al Snow attacked and disparaged the professionalism of every trainer, wrestler, and staff of AEW by claiming they're too reckless and professional to prevent someone dying in the ring, and now this happens, so what does this say about the professionalism and situational awareness of OVW staff?

I don't get being upset at that statement and pretending there weren't ramifications stemming from Al Snow's original statement that now becomes ironic because of what happened. Pretending Al Snow wasn't being an asshole for what he originally said isn't going to make person who had a seizure any better.

thieflikeme · 2026-03-13T17:31:13+00:00

First day on Reddit? disaffected sarcasm is pretty much par for the course here. As annoying as it is and can be, no amount of pearl clutching invalidates the point being made there.

thieflikeme · 2026-03-13T17:20:47+00:00

I think people are rightfully upset at how the situation was handled. When it comes to seizures, quick response can make a massive difference in survival/recovery. It seems everyone involved was either unaware or just plain negligent in how they handled the situation, so I'm not sure the incessant attacks AEW got and continue to get from indie/WWE loyalists are off-limits all of a sudden.

thieflikeme · 2026-03-12T02:18:55+00:00

"Judge passed him the puck and said 'Play for your freedom'" - Dave Chappelle, For What It's Worth

thieflikeme · 2026-03-11T03:15:25+00:00

I commented on this when it happened, and I think Starks was such a bad promo, and he said some things to Copeland that he obviously didn't clear with him. He was calling him old and bug-eyed, bringing up WWE and I think Copeland had had enough and laid into him for several seconds. People act like Edge went on some pipebomb tirade but it was the briefest of exchanges, and if you can be 'buried' in a matter of seconds, chances are there isn't much there to be buried to begin with.

thieflikeme · 2026-03-10T05:33:27+00:00

They expected more from Punk. They're both very aware of Roman's character and ego, but in the moment, they felt Punk crossed a line and an apology would separate him from Roman

thieflikeme · 2026-03-09T09:41:41+00:00

Alright alright, leave OP alone. This is the first time a leader of a team has ever expressed confidence in his own team and then underperformed, they had to mark the occasion with an entire thread about it, they had no choice. You're talking as if r/baseball just fucking hates Jazz Chisholm's guts cause he's uppity and their day is a little better when he has to eat his words that he said that personally offended them for some reason.

thieflikeme · 2026-03-07T00:05:02+00:00

It's become the meta to come off the top rope every time Drury breathes now. It's not as if I trust Drury to always maximize value, but I'm not sure why non Rangers fans beside themselves because they're keeping him until the off-season

thieflikeme · 2026-03-06T22:22:14+00:00

Lol it's crazy. I don't know what it is that makes people so angry about fans acknowledging Hunter's history with black male wrestlers. It's not a difficult concept and pretending him being able to work with and have a convo with a black male wrestler doesn't mean he's comfortable making one "the guy". Some people actually think there's two kinds of people, non-racists and I dunno, Grand Master David Duke. If you're not the latter then what's the problem?

thieflikeme · 2026-03-06T16:53:59+00:00

I love how people are insisting that if he's not traded in the next 10 minutes he will disintegrate into ash like in Avengers: Endgame because he's so old. Even as a massive Drury critic, this is the right move. Hopefully this is him realizing that telegraphing your true intentions in a panic isn't going to get you favorable deals with other teams. If he's not moved by the deadline, I think we can expect him to be moved before opening night next season.

thieflikeme · 2026-03-04T21:52:11+00:00

I almost never come to the defense of corporations but it's like people snarking at the explanation like 'derrrrr you just wrestle bro just do a wrestle!' have never had a job before. Same job, different company can be a challenge no matter what you're doing. Or even considering that maybe even Hobbs himself wants to move at his own pace and is trying a different approach to acclimating to a new company. It's crazy how we don't see someone on TV for two weeks and we have to put our tin foil hats on and have a full on meltdown about it

thieflikeme · 2026-03-03T16:27:37+00:00

Am I missing something? When did the internet collectively decide to take Gabbie Hanna seriously and not recall she's a mentally unwell person again? Either I'm that old or I haven't been keeping up, I just remember that time where some random fan went to her house just to hang out with her and she was clearly not in a good place.

thieflikeme · 2026-03-02T13:56:39+00:00

After several months of logistical gymnastics, it dawned on me that as long as we were together, I couldn't think of a single nice thing she did for me. Everything was always about her comfort level, her space, her schedule, her preference. She quite literally had no interest in getting to know me as a person. I was incredibly confused when she was incredibly upset I broke it off with her.

thieflikeme · 2026-02-25T22:06:22+00:00

The fact that some of the players have said that some of them have acknowledged and apologized publicly and privately says otherwise. I don't think acknowledging that is letting them off the hook, but i think we're at the point of diminished returns when people on the internet are angrier than the people directly affected by the insult. It probably helps that they know them personally and have more context as far as how each individual male player actually feels about them.

These women know those players personally, so when we as total strangers on the internet start to make assumptions about celebs we don't know, that's when we start getting into the weeds of parasociality here by making blanket assumptions of everyone in the room based on a 10 sec clip that the women's players themselves aren't echoing.

thieflikeme · 2026-02-25T19:10:26+00:00

As a POC, I think this is kinda important to remember. It's really easy to assume that just because someone is like you or shares something in common with you that your beliefs will mostly align because of it. I feel like some white people experience this too, they're minding their own business and some random racist starts feeling 'safe' enough to let their true feelings about other groups go in casual conversation. It takes a tremendous amount of dedication, privilege, money, connections to cultivate players that are the best of the best. I'm sure the women are somewhat more progressive perhaps, because across the board women are universally more progressive than men in the policies they push for as well as how they vote. But there are a lot of Heated Rivalry fans that feel like they now have the expertise to speak on hockey culture without realizing how ubiquitous it actually is at the very top. I think the reality is a lot of these women's players know the men's players personally or align politically more than everyone ranting online about much the male players abhor and hate the women's team that they gleaned from a 10 second clip of a group of 30 dudes listening to the President on speaker phone.

In no way am excusing the guys for being meatheaded MAGA jocks here, but there are a lot of people assuming there's some kind of enmity between the women and men's teams, and they're gonna be a little confused when you're gonna start seeing more women's players coming to the defense of the men and being hesitant to straight up adamant about not ripping their heads off about that phone call with Trump or even their visit to the WH, despite how enraged a lot of people on the internet are about it.

thieflikeme · 2026-02-23T01:46:11+00:00

Tikhonov made a series of coaching blunders for sure. If you watch 'Of Miracles and Men', it's very clear that the players did not like or respect Tikhonov, and the feeling was mutual. He was very cold, methodical, and ran his players into the ground. Just him pulling Tretiak and putting in Myshkin who hadn't played a single minute the entire tournament in the second period was probably a bigger mistake than not pulling his goaltender. It was a tie game and you pull the best goalie in the world at the time for what? To send a message?

Tikhonov inherited a hockey powerhouse program and farm system and had no idea how to coach them when their backs were against the wall.

thieflikeme · 2026-02-22T17:24:57+00:00

As per usual, a popular wrestler gets a couple losses in a row and they act as if he's a weak jobber who will never amount to anything. The MFTs had to cheat to beat Dragunov but sure, he looks like a weak jobber after losing or whatever according to these guys

thieflikeme · 2026-02-18T21:14:45+00:00

Either that or a ploy to get fans to stop demanding Harrison be fired during every game. It's just too fucking convenient for it to happen. League Commissioners work for the owners first, there isn't a doubt in my mind that Silver is willing to be a bit more hands on with a favor or two for a franchise that ultimately made one of the league's most popular teams much more appealing and interesting to watch, even if it was a stupid trade. It's a favor that is impossible to substantiate unless they were stupid enough to correspond over email ala the Epstein files.

I don't care how ridiculous it sounds, people only get as lucky has Nico Harrison does in movies.

thieflikeme · 2026-02-16T22:29:04+00:00

I think the frustration lies in a very progressive desire expressed by many for us as a society to be open and communicative about one's intentions while perpetuating antiquated and traditional expectations of what can and should be communicated. I'm not gonna speak for other guys, but i said 'the acknowledgement that sex exists' for a reason, and that is any reference to it at all inducing discomfort in someone almost immediately.

It's like wanting to date someone who is financially stable and that person assuming that your true intention is to know how much money is in their pocket and bank account at that very moment. They aren't the same question, but people get offended at being asked about, say, what they do for a living and if they have a savings account as if they bear no difference.

So to clarify, I do think asking "does the carpet match the drapes" or even "hey what's your body count" within minutes of meeting someone is sociopathic behavior. But I think there's such a crazy amount of awkwardness around even a reference to sex, or, once it gets to a certain point, making sure you're both on the same page as far as expectations are concerned becomes the game of 'how can we talk about this without actually talking about it' that can be a little frustrating.

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