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This thread is like having spiders hatch out of your dickhole. Just when you hope the excrutiating ordeal is over ... nope. More dickhead spiders.

I'm glad they changed his name to Big E...Marcus Cor Von was a stupid name.

#fuckmoney and fuck Virgil

Our buddies at Lucha Underground are getting a ton of press in advance of tonight's season two premiere. Sportcenter last night, Forbes this morning, and Rolling Stone just dropped an interview with Pentagon Junior. Good times.

These pervy butt-shots need to end

I don't think Kalisto sucks, but I do think Neville would be better in that role. Neville had a 6 month run near the end of his NXT stint where he was as good as anybody in the company.

I believe Bo Dallas wets himself down so much before matches to hide his genetic hyperhidrosis inherited from his father, the world's most sweatiest man, Irwin R. Shyster.

We are making this a family affair tonight, I'll be watching with my wife and my daughter, who has made her own lucha mask for the occasion. Naturally we have an appropriate snack for the occasion - Nachos Underground.

Do we get large-print versions of the Drivers now?

I concur

TELL DA TROOT

Oh shit sorry guys I thought I was in the gif thread

We lost him 13 years ago today.

Vince Russo is actually making more sense on his podcast than WWE's booking, which is really scary. Like, I saw where he was talking about Kevin Owens and figured it would be a typical "Russo hates indie darlings" rant, but his idea for pushing Owens made more sense than what WWE has done so far. Here is the thing though. All those fuckers, Russo, Hall, Nash, Bischoff, Hogan, Fererra. They all talk a great game and if you listen to interviews with all of them from about 1998 on they make sense and they sound reasonable. The problem is the chasm between talking and doing is a NASA project.

Linda can comeback without me bitching if she's still using that sweet Michael Jackson knock off WM X theme.

Dave Meltzer, on why Lana has heat backstage, unleashed perhaps the most Meltzerian phrase ever uttered in the history of our sport:

You can't have the entire roster on a stable.

Uncle Kracker.

Not here, but I've seen people who were complaining about AJ "not being allowed" to use the Clash at the Rumble or RAW now complaining that they "wasted the debut" against Axel. Like, I get WWE has burned people so many times and all... but at this point it seems like it doesn't even matter what they do, people will find an angle to turn it into some kind of negative.

A big surprise return at the Main Event tapings:

I think that's also just the way that everything is today. Nothing in main stream media, old or new, really takes chances. Everything is safe. Even something like Netflix, which is more free than anything to really try new stuff, uses analytics to make their shows check off the boxes their data tells them. That's just the way things work today. Certainly not a WWE exclusive issue. Everything is so planned out and focus grouped. No network is going to take the chance on spending a bunch of money for a David Lynch type to make something like Twin Peaks in this era. And now, no one will give him money to make anything BUT Twin Peaks, because internet data has shown how popular it is on various streaming platforms. It's a strange time.

I suck at math you guys

This ties into what the WWE's biggest problem right now is. Whenever a true boom period started, it comes from someone who was doing their own thing and it caught fire, to the point it made people excited for them- then when lightning struck, the company captured it and rode it out for as long as it could go. By contrast now, the WWE wants to have a boom period to be popular in the mainstream again...but they want it ON WWE'S TERMS. If someone is catching fire that isn't a chosen one that WWE decided they want to catch fire, they'll do nothing with them and let it fail just because they'd rather fail with "their" guys then succeed with something they didn't plan on.

"This man does things he's not proud of."

Isn't the problem that WWE has no idea what to do when something gets over organically? Like when a Ryder or Sandow gets over, the knock against them might be that they're not great in the ring, or perhaps their characters or one-dimensional. And even if this is true, they are over at a time when no one is over. You don't have to put them in the main event. You don't even need to put them in the US title picture. But it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to try to make use of them in some way. I even look at something like the New Day and feel like WWE knows they have something but are utterly clueless how to make money off of them. It's almost like they can't get past the fact that they envisioned them as tag-team and made them heels. Thus, your hottest act in the company is stuck in a division no one cares about giving face style promos.

Yeah, but it's *your* problem. It's not like I think it's a good name, but it's preventing *you* from taking him seriously. "Triple H" isn't a good name either, but nobody really pays any attention to that because he's protected. Dolph hasn't been protected. And holy hell, a Russo-esque gimmick shirking promo from Dolph would be eight different kinds of cringeworthy.

You need to hear Jerichos side about Ralphus banging tons of women and getting a big head backstage

It's like, how much more fonts could this be? And the answer is, like, none. None more fonts.

I knew that two weeks from now.

Quality.

Owens needs to make a pit stop back in nxt and beat the shit out of Alex Riley some more.

If that's true, I really hope the monitor Rusev stole from ringside is there

It looks better in motion, but Warrior clearly pussed out and pulled back from the punch, which made Flair overextend. As usual, Warrior ruins everything.

Toniiiiiiiiight, Toniiiiiiiignt, LU is back tonight....

Sandow got a great reaction on Sunday, but by your theory it was due to his absence from TV.

http://youtu.be/vM9E8nnk7I4Wrong again.

I'm a gimmick poster. My gimmick just isn't over. I'm being repacked soon, My new username will be "Will Work for Cheap Heat". (makes sad panda face)

I hate to agree and I hate to say this but at this point, Dolph almost needs a long-term injury so he can come back fresh. He's getting very old in TV years, especially consecutively, and his face needs a rest. Even the McMahons went off TV for a while.

Your opinions are always presented so forcefully, but you never actually say anything.

I actually think Ziggler would be about the easiest guy in the 'E in to book. He's still super over, makes almost everyone he wrestles look good. I'd go back to him doing the show-off entrance (complete with the swiveling Mr. Ass-ish butt thing) and talking about stealing the show, give him back the Sleeperhold as his go-to finisher, then I'd probably give him the Intercontinental Title and have him talk about how the Honky Tonk Man has the longest reign of all-time and that Ziggler is going to break that record and become the gold standard of IC champions (You could also look up who has the most IC title defences, and have him take aim at that record, as well). Then send an endless array of heel challangers - Owens, Breeze, ADR, Rusev, Harper - at him and have him beat them all (Sometimes by count-out, sometimes outside interference, sometimes a shock roll-up). Then you can either A) Have him get increasingly heel-ish and start to cheat to win to keep his title off young guys like Kalisto and other NXT graduates or B) Have heels come after merely to spoil the record-chase. He's a perfect IC-Title level guy in that wrestlers rarely look poor against him, and beating him still means enough that he's a decent stepping stone for young guys to get their first big wins. If you can't properly book a guy who's lost as much as Ziggler, yet still stays really over, that's on you, not on him.

They won't do this in a million years, but I'd love to see them redo this. The Rock stuff was absolutely fantastic. Not sure why anyone would think this was a New Day burial... they more than held their own with Rock on the mic, and he was corpsing like crazy for their shtick. He's the rare guy who can elevate you just by being out there and letting you do your thing on him. AJ/Jericho was fun, but 50/50 INDY DREAM MATCH~! really isn't the way you should've debuted him. Stick him in there with one of the Outcasts or a low-level NXT guy who will pinball like crazy for him.

The nit-picking over Ambrose's offense is funny to me considering how white hot the crowd is for just about everything he does.

First, their website redesign really is bad. It's amazing that these are people that live and die by what the internet says but it looks like it was designed by someone that's never seen the internet before. There's a handful of reasons TNA released that statement. None of them particularly good. 1. It's TNA. 2. Misguided attempt to siphon attention off of Styles' impending WWE debut. 3. Impotent attempt at looking competitive by putting it out there that they thought they had Styles and co. signed. 4. Pathetic attempt at making Styles and co. look bad for not sticking with their letters of intent. 5. See 1. It's not necessarily illegal to make the negotiations public. Just unprofessional and it further depletes the amount of goodwill they've somehow got left with both the wrestlers and fans. A letter of intent isn't necessarily a binding contract. Especially in an independent contractor situation. So TNA obviously has no breach claim against them. Conversely, the other side has no libel claim because there's no damages unless WWE pulls their offer because of this. Anderson and Gallows' reputation doesn't count cause have you heard their podcast? Anderson negotiating with TNA isn't contract tampering. Neither is signing a LOI. It's a contractor lining up future work after their current gig is up. People are so quick to jump up TNA's butt that they don't realize WWE has done the same thing with both him and Nakamura. Johnny Ace deservedly gets shit about signing the wrong one-legged guy but at least he eventually got the right one-legged guy signed. Big has failed to re-sign the face of the company twice now. And the first time all he had to do was offer him the same amount of money that he was already making. The second time he started moving forward creatively without actually having him signed. And trying to do a deal with three guys at the same time seems really dumb too. It's called 'divide and conquer' for a reason. Also, he let James Storm go when Storm asked for his release only to re-sign him for more money just so they could have a surprise for the Pop TV debut. Storm had no real negotiating leverage because his in at WWE was Billy Gunn who got released shortly after he arrived. But hey, at least he locked up Bram through 2006.

Kris & David are joined by Jordan Breen (Sherdog) to discuss the week that was January 19-25, 1998. We discuss Hulk Hogan/WWF rumors that were running rampant, lots of WCW shows proper, AJPW/WWF business relations growing, NJPW contract season, Antonio Pena suing everybody, ECW/WWF business relations growing, Bobo Brazil’s death, and the mass hysteria surrounding the Steve Austin/Mike Tyson angle…a extremely fun show!!!!!!!! 0:00:00 WCW 1:50:09 Japan: AJPW, NJPW, BattlARTS, Michinoku Pro, RINGS, & JWP 2:24:35 Mexico: AAA, EMLL, & Promo Azteca 2:52:04 ECW 3:04:50 Potpourri 3:12:46 WWF http://placetobenation.com/between-the-sheets-27-january-19-25-1998-featuring-jordan-breen/

Besides keeping Alex Riley around?