iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

She does not perform very well in the ring, and her size has nothing to do with it.

010

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

How could anyone want to see Zelina wrestle?

110

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

The match is passé and there are two on the same show. The cash-in makes faces look cowardly, titles look cheap, and the company looks incompetent. Why would a sport allow a way for its biggest prize to be won in such an unsporting manner?

000

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Last years C2 was a marked improvement in both quality and scale, too. Both the Owen and C2 will become big draws for AEW if they treat them right.

000

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Yep. They have got better each year, but the bar is high now.

040

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

I think it was Q magazine who said it was the only guitar album of the 90s that sounded like the future. That is a stretch, but it's not far off.

010

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

I read this as an undeserved market, which is probably more accurate.

000

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Apparently Meltzer said Iwatani is going to the US.

010

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

AEW is a success, and the doomers, grifters, and WWE PR puppets know they can't deny it anymore. You can tell because they are trying to spell a new narrative that it was never possible for them to fail.

030

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

The Baba method. Once you merge your singles guys into the tag division it becomes stacked pretty quickly. They don't all even have to be active at the same time.

110

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Turns out she didn't have many places.

000

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

Enough talent for a female C2 in the summer.

140

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

Same vibes as Seth Rollins. Wacky clothing as a substitute for personality.

010

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

He has Yeet written across his face.

020

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

It wouldn't matter in the least.

000

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

I remember when Jey won the Rumble people rushing to defend the idea he should main event Wrestlemania. Meanwhile, even WWE knew all along his "Main Event" gimmick is a rib.

020

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Punk's quest to main event Mania could have been a big story in next years road to Wrestlemania but you can't re-tell that story now, just for the sake of being a minor plot point in a muddy, tepid three-way story.

020

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

That's what I meant by 'booked better'.

010

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

That's a symptom of HHHs priorities. Rhea v Belair could have if it had been booked better.

110

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

As in you could have done something bigger with it and save it to headline night 2. It's pretty incidental to this story and doesn't feel important.

100

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

This call causes multiple problems. It means neither Rumble winner gets a main event. It means "Main Event" Jey Uso is once again midcard. It means no women headliners again. It burns the story of Punk finally headlining Mania for a secondary spot.

220

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

They keep talking about cards. Sometimes it's the cards that win the game, but usually it's the player.

010

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

What great albums came out when you were 21

000

Reposted by Chris Bourke

Jesse Collings @jessecollings.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Still looking for more respondents to my annual AEW Fan Survey--would love if people could take it and share it wherever there are wrestling fans! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

docs.google.com

AEW Fan Survey 2025

A survey of AEW fans and their feelings on the product in 2025--produced by Jesse Collings and the Gentlemen's Wrestling Podcast

62721

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

Realistically, all brawls should be pull-aparts if security are doing their job.

000

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

You wouldn't prefer to see any of the two in a singles match? Triple threats just dilute a singles match in my experience.

120

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Who actually wants a triple threat?

120

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Season 7 was a season of two halves. We were 18th at the halfway point but finished 8th, our highest placing. The turning point was ditching 442 variations and longball tactics.

Part of this save was to play 442 longball, but it was limiting the team. This is the formation that worked for me in a previous save and turned our fortunes around here too.

We had the worst defence in the league and seemed to concede every shot on target.

A win over Blackburn on the final day saw us leapfrog them into our best ever finish. If we had our form over the last 19 games for the whole season we would have finished 3rd.

Sagi Burton and Carlo Nash are the only Eagle originals and both are still in the first team.

000

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

I think it was more of an obligation than a passion.

010

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

WWE's top storyline is that there is an evil executive on the board who abuses his power in an attempt to own his subordinate's souls and satisfy his lust for control over people. I wonder what inspired it.

130

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

This scratches the surface of the many examples of WWE's over-production, causing an inauthenticity in their product beyond the work done inside the ropes.

010

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Cody should have been scrunching up his face like "what's he talking about?" instead of laughing and nodding along. They are making this up as they go along.

120

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

It suddenly became a thing on the first Raw on Netflix. Wouldn't be so bad if you could put it all down to Rock bullshitting, but Cody was going along with it, too.

100

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Makes Cody look like such a chump.

000

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

So, have WWE started doing the US national anthem for all their non-Wrestlemania PPVs, or did they start in Canada?

000

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

That would raise even more questions. Feels like they had an idea of the big turn without thinking through why it makes sense.

110

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

And what would have Cena done if Cody accepted Rock's offer. And what would have happened if one of the other 5 won EC, did Rock have a deal with Paul, Rollins, Priest Punk and McIntyre too?

120

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

AEW Revolution has won the WON Best Major Show award more times than Wrestlemania.

1121

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Has someone "surprised" Triple H again by nominating all his Wrestlemania matches in the top 50?

000

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

I could hear aircraft and other ambient noise during that match. The only pop was when Steph went through the table.

000

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

I was at this one live. At times, the crowd fell eerily silent. Until All In, I just assumed that was the acoustics of a stadium show. I thought it was pretty good up to the ladder match. After that, the crowd were spent until Brock/Goldberg woke them up temporarily.

100

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

I'm surprised he doesn't consider workrate how much you can work the booker into paying you a higher rate.

130

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Work rate is a term misunderstood by many, including Kev Nash.

100

Chris Bourke @chrisbourke.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

"Mind games" is the lowest form of wrestling angle. You can explain any old tosh as an attempt at playing mind games.

000