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Well, that took a slightly weird turn.

For fucks sake, it's only July 7. Come on.

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It's a shame because he was putting in probably the best work on the roster. He was at least Top 3 guy in terms of match psychology and consistency. And he was getting over pretty much through just wrestling, kind of like Matt Hardy did over that year post-Edge feud. He's not a guy I'd build around, but he's a guy I'd have fucking plans for, whether it's as a gatekeeper like Matt says, or just as perenial midcard IC title threat. He makes other people look better, he's a good talker, and most importantly he can make people give a shit even when they're too tired to give a shit. I told my son Aries was let go and he said "Vince is terrible." I don't even know where he gets this from. I don't go around telling him about the inner workings of how shit works.

If it's anything like usual indy squabbles, it boils down to the promoter acting like he's Vince McMahon without being, y'know, Vince McMahon, or having, y'know, Vince McMahon money to throw around. There are waaaaay too many promoters that demand you only work for them, boycott other competing shows, etc, while still only paying an absolute pittance. And 99% of the workers do it without hesitation.

Ugh, it's so accurate I almost hate you for it. Fucking Russo.

Well when it's a house of them...

The Babyface didn't win. It's right there. This was a Clash match vs a PPV match. It was a well built TV match. It wasn't the culmination of a story. It also didn't have as resounding a finish of any of those. Simple, straightforward wrestling works for a reason. This was meat and potatoes. Roddy started strong. Roode kept getting advantages by taking a powder or using space or the ref as a distraction. The babyface outwrestles the heel in the shine. The heel gets advantages in underhanded (but not necessarily chickenshit) ways. The face powers through it. Roode was great at stooging throughout this, at drawing heat, at making the babyface look good. Their timing and crispness was solid the whole match. There was polish throughout. Everything looked like it it like it was supposed to but always organically. There was just base professionalism in that regard. Strong made up for the size disadvantage with speed and finesse and by focusing right from the get go on the back. The first act ends with a bit of heat and comeback/cut off spots before Strong's comeback. He gets his foot caught in the stairs. Roode capitalizes and we're into act 2. Legwork is used so often for a reason too. It's highly visual, with the whole body coming into play. There's a ton you can do to the leg (and Roode does both simple and more complex things). The selling works for the back rows. And it's so, so easy to set up cut off spots with it. Even a crowd so smarky can be taken up and down (especially given the emotional build and use of the family), and they do that, with Roddy fighting back repeatedly, occasionally getting in shots on Roode's back, only to get cut off with a kick to the leg, or by not being able to lift Roode up correctly. They use this to foreshadow him eventually hitting moves, thus giving everything meaning. Ultimately, that sort of thing is what I loved about this match the most. Nothing in the match happened without reason. They didn't do any spot just to hit a spot. Everything had a narrative reason behind it or at least in shaping it. Nothing was done because it was cool. I'm not just talking about transitions here. The first glorious DDT didn't end the match because Roode had just eaten a bunch of backwork and made sure to sell just for a couple of seconds before trying for the pin. It wasn't just another finisher kick-out; it was worked as part of the match. That foreshadowing? It was for a fireman's carry lungblower, and when Strong DOES hit it, it's by the ropes and Roode rolls out. By the time Strong gets him back in, he can't get the 3 count. It protects the move, protects Strong to a degree (if only he hit that in the middle of the ring!), makes Roode seem both vulnerable and canny at the same time, and furthers the escalation of the match. The kickouts, even finisher kickouts, aren't WWE MAIN EVENT STYLE (or, I assume, NJPW style), but instead something explained and organic. It's not about workrate or fighting spirit. It's about storytelling. That's why this works.

Counterpoint: She willingly lives with Bubba Ray Dudley.

If he does a head crusher gimmick the guy would be the greatest wrestler who ever lived. I CRUSH YOUR HEAD!!!

GET IT BRO? WHEN YA SEE HUH YOO PUT YUH HAND ON YUH CAWK BRO!

While on the subject of WCW and public domain music: BTW, I liked Benoit's hand clapping theme. I loved the Hollywood Blondes theme. If I were to hear it somewhere, you better believe I'll do the camera rolling hand gesture they did. The Kids in the Hall clip gets me thinking there needs to be a Canadian indy wrestler that uses the KITH theme as his or her entrance music.

Dumb

Dude, indy promotions are built on 60 year olds with bad knees trying to work a match.

Like the saying goes, the best heels believe they're right, and Bret was absolutely in the right in his mind, and in his fans' minds, which is what made the dynamic work so insanely well, especially once WWE got smart and started pitting US fans against Canadian fans. It was crazy to see the differing "hometown" reactions.

For some reason this makes me think that there has been a fourth little pig all along that the storytellers have left out. Perhaps our society would be less sexually repressed if you pulled back this censorship and reclaimed the fourth pig. "The fourth little pig built his house out of dongs and when the big bad wolf came upon it......"

We tried a Platinum, once. Once.

OSJ - Thank you. I am planning my new start-up, RAFco. I will franchise out my gimmick to any young green workers, returning vets, rodeo clowns, burly dominatrices and deranged cosplayers. I get 10% of their earnings, and I will flow 10% of that to you, you smart cookie. Based on my old paydays, expect a check for $.03 quite soon. Please fill out a W-9. - rich in spirit, RAF

"You're welcome."

A certain song is now in everyone's head...

For what, fudge?

You know maybe they could have shown the MSG show on the Network but I know that's crazy talk

I was a big fan of Vampiro's trippy theme. Kinda sounded like a more hippy-ish version of Cherub Rock by Smashing Pumpkins.

I loved this one. My other fave WCW rip-off theme was Raven's.

I think it's just the design of the outfit. If you want a fashion show of horrors, google Prime Time Wrestling 1991, Vince seems to have a more bizarre work out casual outfit on like every show in every color of the rainbow.... Seriously, I was alive and In college in the 1990's. I don't remember seeing outfits like Vince's anywhere. Was this like bodybuilding culture clothes? Was this him wearing something he was going to market as part of body stars?

If there's any place Bray can prove to be a real master of puppets it'd be at a Metallica concert.

Dammit, some days I love this place. Y'all have the laughs I need when I needs 'em.

You'd think these guys would have mentioned the fourth pig and his house of dongs. Maybe there's a follow up coming.

And you thought dongs would do the trick, huh?

21 years ago today, the world turned upside down...

Just making sure you read it until the end

As much as I dislike Quackenbush, I don't think anything is "muddy" here. He created the character and assigned it to a guy. Later, he assigned it to someone else. It's still a character Quackenbush created. If you think it's muddy, show me all the guys using their WWE names outside WWE or look at a guy like the artist formerly known as Pentagon Jr., who had to change his name to some convoluted shit. Huh? So your argument is, "he's doing well on the indies with a gimmick that he doesn't own, so you could argue it should just be his." I want you as my lawyer at my next theft trial. "Your honor, my client did steal that car. But he's driving it really well so one could argue that it should be his." According to the law, Quackenbush owns it. Shit, the fact that this is the second incarnation of that character probably strengthens Quackenbush's argument.

Note the applauding fans behind Vince and Brain.

What the fuck? I thought the Knicks fired Phil Jackson!

The big difference was that Isiah and Joey and Vinnie could switch gears into running and gunning if needed. Man, Joe Dumars would be a GM's dream in this day and age. Never gets in any trouble off the court, one is the greatest perimeter defenders of all-time, a solid three point shooter who can play point or wing... Teams would be lining up to offer him the max.

Spoiled for size, sexy leggies

I liked Steve giving Bayley advice on how to tweak her character to show a little more fire and aggression, yet still remaining true to the established Bayley character. Bayley seemed to understand, but also seems like she feels stuck and bored with the current gimmick that she's been running for 4-5 years now. She mentioned just changing up her gear as a simple tweak, or taking out her ponytail. That got me thinking that maybe a way to tie all those things together would be that in a match with Alexa (or whomever), Alexa rips the tie out of Bayley's hair and her ponytail falls out and her hair in her face. This triggers an emotional response in Bayley and she turns up that fire and aggression like we've never seen from Bayley before and she ultimately wins the match. This goes on in future matches where Bayley eventually starts taking the pony tail down on her own when things are getting rough in the ring and she needs to turn it up. It can be like when Lawler would take down the strap. When that pony tail comes down, you know shit is about to happen. That could be a simple tweak to the Bayley character to help push her aggression to another level, while still being able to keep the overall character intact.

If anyone wants a free PDF copy of OSJ's book with the font changed to Comic Sans and the really out of context blowjob scene from Good Will Hunting thrown into a chapter, let me know.

I went to both nights and just wanted to give a few quick thoughts. - First and foremost, this was EASILY the most fun I've ever had attending a wrestling event. I've never done Mania weekend, though I did do Rumble weekend this past January. G1 Special blew that out of the water. Just a really great energy throughout the whole weekend. - The wrestling very much lived up to my expectations. Kenny-Ishii and Kenny-Elgin were both tremendous; I would personally give both 4.75 stars. I would also rate Ishii-ZSJ a solid 4.5. Great storytelling that made both guys look like total bad-asses. - Many of the mult-mans were great fun, though CHAOS-Bullet Club from Night 2 was my favorite. It managed to weave five solid minutes of comedy into some tremendous action. That match leads me into my next point... - Cody's over. He gets a lot of criticism, a lot of it warranted. I watched Best in the World and was mortified at him popping up before Daniels after taking big offense. However, I thought his worst tendencies were reined in for the Night 1 main (which I'd rate a good 4.25 to 4.5). He also elicited real, genuine heel heat and he felt like a real star. He's someone who I don't think is too far from being molded into a truly special worker. - On the same tip, Michael Elgin and Juice Robinson were two guys I gave zero shits about in ROH and NXT. Both have become sooooo awesome. Juice had an excellent match with Naito for the IC title previously this year, so it's no surprise the two had an awesome interaction in Sunday's 10-man. Still awesome and somewhat mind-blowing to see CJ Parker working so well with a bonafide Wrestler of the Year contender.

Just to be pedantic, there are a couple of different issues being talked about here under the catch-all of "copyright". I sort of know this shit backward and forward because in thirty years of editing collections and novels by deceased writers, I had to learn the hard way how to dot all the i's and cross the t's. Anyway, copyright governs intellecyual property such as a written work or performance. Hence, this is why youtube stuff can get yanked by the copyright owner. Trademark refers to a particular brand, used commercially, unlike copyright, trademark is governed by use, for example, I could wrestle a match as Thee Rev. Axl Future and unless the real Axl Future has trademarked the name, there wouldn't be a thing he could do about it. Further, to win a trademark violation you have to prove (1.) financial harm or (2.) creating intentional confusion in the marketplace which is really a part of (1.) Now, using this silly example, the real Axl Future might have a hell of a time proving financial harm, since he never made a bunch on money and no one's going to pay a sixty year-old with bad knees to try and work a match. However, he can very easily cite "attempting to create confusion in the marketplace" and then it becomes up to the judge to decide what the potential damages might be. Bottom line kids, don't steal shit that doesn't belong to you and don't try to get booked as Rick Flare, Naitch doesn't have much of a sense of humor. I'll be more than happy to be corrected by a real lawyer like LawfulMetal, me, I'm just a layman that knows some shit.

It's Yoshitatsu vs Yoshitatsu in a battle nobody was waiting for!

How's that gonna work? They spam you w/videos until you pay them to stop?

Considering it's the week of a Raw PPV, it's a good way to boost a little interest in SmackDown this week while also boosting up MSG a bit, and house shows in general. They should do that kind of thing more often.

Gail Kim is the mystery opponent?!?!? Get out!!! I could have never seen that coming!

And some here would hate it.

Humid climates must be hell for Carlito.

If this show has made me want anything its for Marc Maron to play 70s era Stan Lee James