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MLW wrestler Mike Parrow has come out of the closet and is engaged to his boyfriend of 4 years. https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/pro-wrestler-mike-parrow/

Please let there be a cobra popping out of a box Nikki is opening.

You made the comparison, dude.

I am shocked - SHOCKED - that someone from Ohio State is causing all these problems

Somebody actually did a mock up of one for the 2015 Rumble, unfortunately his Vince voice is predictably lacking but his attention to detail on the graphics oozes nerd love And just whets my appetite for a modern rumble with an authentic flashback intro

People think Stephanie spends her spare time admiring her stuffed Lindberg baby and making a coat out of the 102nd dalmation. Why are you surprised? Personally, I think Stephanie gets a lot less grief if she was male.

Now I'm imagining Stephanie screaming ..."The Boss Sasha Banks!... Natalya!... Miss Money in the Bank Carmella!... Winner of the first ever women's Royal Rumble and face of the women's revolution Stephanie McMahon!... Dana Brooke!..."

See you guys are proving my point! Here is Foley talking about it on Austin's podcast what appears a few years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-vSWRNCqFc Basically Foley describes it as "it just got out of hand" Agreed upon number of shots was 5 (Austin must have said that like 3 or 4 times along with saying "This was agreed upon") It seems like over time Foley has accepted he had more of a role in it than just laying it all at the feet of the Rock. (The big part being that Foley should have been moving the spots along from the first shot but it's clear he had a concussion after the first one but Rock was clearly going with what the vet was calling and no one at that time properly having any clue how to work around brain trauma.)

Kenta Kobashi:

Now I want a sequence of portraits for every participant over the old timey Royal Rumble theme while Stephanie McMahon screams every name with maximum excitement. (okay I actually want Vince to do it but I'll allow Stephanie)

I'd much rather watch upper end Luke Harper stuff then Terry Gordy stuff, but I'm weird. Like Harper was probably the best guy in my favorite match of this decade (first SHIELD Wyatts match)

Fuck Chavo for his shitty frog splash alone.

Of course, no election cycle is complete without an appearance by Deez Nuts.

Meanwhile in Alabama.... Doug Jones was officially certified as the winner of the Senate election today. And ol' coot Roy Moore STILL has not conceded. Now, for your enjoyment, a sampling of the write-in votes: BIG GAME JAMES GOES TO WASHINGTON is a movie I'd like to see.

Per Meltz, the Rusev Day shirts have been a HUGE hit and are absolutely flying off the shelves at live events.

It's as if Tony Kozina got a lobotomy and they went through his teeth to do it.

I had never heard of this dude, but goddamn is he a physical specimen! What a fucking moose!! Good for him for being in a place where he feels like he can be exactly who he is and not concern himself too much with people's reactions.

Different one. That was Kurt Angle of Earth-2.

If they had DQs/countouts enforced in multiman matches they that should mean the person DQed/counted out would just be eliminated. To me that's how it should have been from the start, and only when needed they could go without DQ/countout.

Mikaze is so terrible at Madden but otherwise he's a cool dude.

I would love to hear Vince yelling "THE EMPRESS OF TOMORROW... ASUKA!!!!" with the old theme blaring. So, if Ronda is in this and wins it, that take a pretty big crap on the rest of the division. I'm not into that.

That's some Scott Steiner level math right there.

The gif in your signature must be Randy watching a Chavo frog splash.

Same here

Eh, complaining about the arrested development of fans of Star Wars is probably going to be a waste of your time.

It seems like Hamill's, and seemingly many fans, understanding of the character was frozen in time in 1983. Feeling linked to a character is one thing, but assuming a character would not evolve in 35 years is something else. Did Hamill and the upset fans really expect the same heroic Luke Skywalker from over three decades ago to show up and wreck shit on the Empire again? Like he'd just take the lightsaber from Rey and say, "fuck yeah let's roll!" This new film's portrayal is far more realistic, and adult, and I think a lot of people can't deal with that.

As an actor, you are trained to take ownership of a character, to understand who they are, and how they would react to things. Which in a play or stand alone movie is great, the script is your Bible, and you make those decisions based on it. But sequels and TV shows mean you keep getting new scripts. So I imagine it can be a real mindfuck when they write a script that violates how you've developed the character in your own head.

Salvador Guerrero IV was 47 years old

Joe is the best heel right now. The way he fucking told Renee that Ambrose should be glad that he spends his holidays with the ones he loves while giving Renee the shittiest grin ever. Holy shit. Look at this shit. That is some good subtle evil shit right there. Assholes aspire to be like Samoa Joe. I salute Joe. And Kudos for Renee for providing the acting.

I have said it before in other threads, but kayfabe died for me when I found out Manaukea Mossman was just some dude, and NOT a guy doing a Moss Man gimmick.

To quote my lawyer: "It is so clear they have no queer folks on that graphic design team, otherwise someone would have mentioned the subtextual implications of calling someone a "top" in conjunction with that fist imagery. "

Too bad that one match is Xavier vs English and not Rusev vs E.

Settle down, Hollywood Zeidlernetico

I see you ... ... and raise you.

He's the one with hair, right?

WWE Battleground 2013. Alberto Del Rio Vs Rob van Dam: No DQ match. Well, I have to say I enjoyed the heck out of this. Adding the weapons was a miracle worker, because now RVD gets to do crazy stunts, and ADR has tools for his aggression. ADR is one of the biggest stock going up guys of this project for me. I liked him at the time, but I think his second run combined with all his personal baggage being out there kinda affected my opinion of him as a worker. This first go around he really was a very good worker, and has been one of the better workers of 2013 at least. Really refreshing to see a heel who isn't Triple H or Randy Orton go over so strong as well, as here he sees off the interference by Ricardo and then makes RVD tap out to a chair-assisted cross armbreaker. Both guys take some painful-looking bumps. RVD doing a frog splash off the apron onto ADR who is under a ladder stood out in that regard. Crowd was super into this as well. Credit to both guys. The Real Americans Vs The Great Khali and Santino Marella: Fuck you Cesaro for getting me to root for a Tea Party gimmick. USA chants leading to JBL asking why the crowd is chanting USA for the Great Khali... This was not a good match, but was totally worth it for Cesaro doing the giant swing on Khali. Everyone lost their shit for that. Great visual. Curtis Axel Vs R-Truth: This Axel title reign is lasting a lot longer than I remembered it doing. These two work hard and have a pretty solid match. One of the better Axel matches actually. AJ Lee Vs Brie Bella: AJ is paired with Tamina now, which at least means she's cheating to win. This is another spirited affair. Brie has improved loads, and AJ bumps with her usual gusto. Tamina attacks Nikki on the outside which causes the distraction for AJ to win. Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins Vs Cody Rhodes and Goldust: Now this is everything that pro wrestling should be. From the pre-match interview with the Rhodes family, to Dusty swinging his belt at Dean Ambrose, to Ambrose having 'Errand Boy' written on his taped fists (a reference to a famous Dusty promo), to the crowd heat, to the sense of high stakes, to the incredible in-ring action and the feel-good ending and celebration. I have the flu right now and I'm not quite feeling myself, but I have to say I got a little emotional watching this. Goldust is my man of the match here. Great on offence, and a great face in peril, but Cody looks better than he ever has. So intense. The way he hits that match-ending Cross Rhodes is a real goosebumps moment. The Shield, for their part, put in a great old school heel tag performance. Great, great stuff. Bray Wyatt Vs Kofi Kingston: Good competitive squash, which maybe goes a bit longer than it needs to. Bray's offence looks great, especially the running tackle he does that looks like it breaks Kofi's ribs. CM Punk Vs Ryback: All that stuff with Heyman proposing to Ryback was really weird. And not good weird. Punk looks like he's working hurt. Or just really worn down. I think he said he got hurt when Ryback slammed him through a table on Raw, so it's probably that. Coming to the end of the line for him. Ryback is weird. Sometimes he looks like a great killer heel, other times he looks like he barely knows what he's doing. And I'm talking in the same match. This is pretty good, mostly dominated by Ryback. Punk wins with a low-blow. Daniel Bryan Vs Randy Orton: So, yes, after the fast count shenanigans, Bryan is stripped of the title, which is now vacant. Oh shit, I forgot about 'abeyance'. WWE and their stupid terminology. This is another step up from the Night of Champions match. Bryan is so, so good on offence, so intense. The match is escalating beautifully to the point where Bryan gets Orton in the yes-lock, and then here comes the Big Show. Crying, failed-strip-mall-owning, gonna-die-early-cuz-he's-a-giant Big Show is really the worst. So he knocks out Bryan, but then gets all conflicted and knocks out Orton too. Then his music plays and the show ends with him celebrating. Like, the fans were gonna be happy with Show freeing himself from the Authority at the expense of Bryan winning the title. Really deluded move from the company there, but that was par for the course for this whole period. Match of the night: Rhodes/Shield at 4 1/4 stars. ADR/RVD and Bryan/Orton get 3 1/2 stars. Punk/Ryback gets 3 stars. Show rating: I just read on wiki that this was voted worst show of the year in the WON awards, which is a real head scratcher to me, as I thought this was a tonne of fun. I can see at the time the main event finish leaving a seriously bad taste in people's mouths, but it was a very good match leading up to that. Otherwise, you had a hot crowd, 3 very good matches (one of which was legit great), and the one match you might say was actively bad at least had the great spot of Cesaro swinging Khali. I think this is one of the best shows of the year. 3 3/4 stars.

Even if you take it at face value, $765 a week take home is a hell of a lot more money than a hell of a lot of people get.

The one thing about the box office @Beech27 is that many of the overseas markets that Disney wanted to expand in dropped significantly compared to The Force Awakens. Star Wars will probably always be king here in the states but I'm not sure what to expect in some of these other markets. It'll be interesting moving forward.

Apple's uncle chimes in.

Also, no one could possibly make her happier than that cuddly bear that is Rusev.

Lest we forget: Eddie Guerrero is his father-in-law. Sounds like this was a hell of a match.

Funnies:

I laughed. Sami is so good at whatever he does.

The Rock getting carried away and Foley agreeing to the headshots at all (then stupidly letting his kids watch it in the crowd) are one thing. Vince telling Foley, "Never do anything like that again," after Hell in a Cell and then letting that match happen is among the shittiest and most irresponsible things Vince has ever done.

Now I know why I blocked everything out of my mind from this show other than the Austin/Vince parts of the Rumble, the horrific finish to the I Quit match and and the dark match. And yea - I remember my buddy and I were blown away by that dark match.

I'm so glad this guy wasn't around for the Attitude Era.

Heavy D was a pro wrestler?