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How good is Mike Jackson? He's so good that as he's punching Arn as part of a comeback, with these awesome, awesome punches, he's selling the arm that Arn worked over so well that the strap drops naturally, increasing the sheer power and presence of the comeback. Of course then he runs right into the Spinebuster, but man, he was so good.

You can stop pretending you actually like this garbage. Nobody believes you.

“I have something here for you. Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough, but your uncle wouldn't allow it. He feared you might follow old <Ian Rotten> on some damn fool idealistic crusade like your father did. It's your father's light <tube bundle>. This is the weapon of a <hardcore m’fr> . Not as clumsy or as random as a <barb wire chair> but an elegant weapon for a more civilized age. For over a thousand generations, the <deathmatch workers> were the guardians of <hardcore> and <violence> in the <south>. Before the dark times, before the <pussy ass commission kicked us out of all the buildings>“

But if he was flying to Japan and back even more, he'd be four or five years older by now, because of the time travel. 1983 was 500 days long and all that.

Hey, it's Hook's 22nd birthday so let's all wish our guiding light a happy fuckin' birt'day. Happy birthday, on this most sacred of days, to the one and only Hook Katahajime. ???

Dolfan's in the Florida Keys, on vacation. I could watch Bobby Lashley kicking the shit out of Braun all day.

The problem is, so many of these people either don't have the right instincts because they weren't trained that way, or else they had the instincts trained out of them. Surely Dana should be doing the move the way she always does and trusting on Charlotte to time her spot right. And then, if she doesn't time it right, which she obviously didn't, they wouldn't look like fucking idiots.

Precisely, and that is the reason I gave for why I wouldn't hire her if it were me. What does it say about leadership / management if you make that kind of call? That you are more concerned about trying to boost ratings via name dropping more than you are about the harmony of the locker room? Like I said, the best thing Khan can do is to cultivate the talent he already has. Why hire Tessa Blanchard when he's already got a heel in Britt Baker that can generate white hot heat without being a disruptive force in the back?

May the 4th be with y'all!

I'm just seeing this news and it's hitting me harder than I would ever think. OSJ has been a fixture in my life for years and I've always loved his presence on the board. He talked to me when I made a post about getting clean from drugs and alcohol and it meant a lot to me, something I've carried with me as a reason I've returned to this board almost daily since high school. He will be missed, quite a bit. RIP.

I always forget about Animal's little run in Battlarts. He was pretty nice with that dragon screw.

#Heenanwasright

Heels should think they are in the right, they shouldn't BE right. Otherwise they aren't heels.

Is this a hot take? Les Kellett is the greatest comedic wrestler of all time. Maybe this is a hot take: Kellett and Ebessan/Kikutaro are not merely great comedic wrestlers, both rank pretty highly among the greatest pro wrestlers of all time. In AxB's defense, Kellett's comedy was certainly more subtle and witty than what we generally saw on American wrestling programs in the '80s. Big Daddy on the other hand...

'Nuff said!

I think what a lot of people are missing is that Tessa has a locker room problem. She has been such a terrible person that other women don’t want to work with her. This is a very different situation than somebody who has issues in their personal life or has a history of Bad Tweets that might embarrass the company. If that was all it was with Tessa, she would’ve been back with WWE/Impact/AEW by now. Call it a double standard all you want, but that’s always been the case in a wrestling: Fuck up your life all you want, just don’t fuck up the locker room. Tessa done fucked up there, and she is paying the price for it. Until she fixes that problem, she hasn’t a hope in Hell of clawing her way back from obscurity. Nobody is going to risk nuking morale in their women’s locker room for her. Nobody is even in a position where they’d even need to consider it right now.

Fixed. ?

Either a) Scott was an underrated, world class seller or b) Michael Hayes punched him directly in the jaw

If Ian is an example of the Jedi, I'm more in support of Order 66.

Hogan would do petty heelish shit all the time (see the Sid elimination at RR '92), so let's not try to rehabilitate his character as simply a smart babyface. He was, in fact, a dick when it came to his character.

Hogan-Savage is a year long epic storyline done right. One of the absolute highlights of professional wrestling storylines with a definitive beginning, middle and end where the principles are always acting in character and takes you flawlessly from Wrestlemania IV to V as one complete arc. It's amazing. You are correct that people now have an understandable motive to say Hogan was a bad worker because he's a bad person but Lord, what an angle the Megapowers Exploding was.

Bit late but Tsuyoshi Kikuchi has retired after 33 years.

Can we all agree this is fast forward booking to get to a match they haven't earned becuase they are determined to get to this match?

Pinnacle winning and establishing themselves as the big heel faction in AEW is the right move here. I could see one of Jericho or Sammy surrendering to save the other, as that's the only good move for a babyface to lose in these matches. Jericho should be vulnerable at this stage of his career, so I'd go with him. Santana & Ortiz need to move on from the Inner Circle ASAP. Santana is really showing some serious star power or it factor, whatever you want to call it. Dude's got the Jheri curl and glasses like he's Eazy E.

I think El Phantasmo has done one of those. As for the WWE stuff, I think many of us have been so disappointed for so long we can't even bring ourselves to hate WWE anymore- we've just grown completely indifferent to it- and that is worse for WWE.

My hot take is that the modern UK wrestling scene pissed their amazing legacy of unique, brilliant, technical, personality-driven wrestling away for a attention-starved, entitled, spotty, smarky, self-conscious, cookie cutter style.

My wrestling hot take is that over the last few years WWE effectively killed the town. They were positioned absolutely perfectly. All of those attitude era wrestling fans were now entering their prime earning years with disposable income and young children. The indies/performance center had produced a talent surplus. The tv/streaming wars would give them more money for programming than they could imagine. Yet between endless bad press, boring/bad tv and ignoring the audience they managed to turn off most of their fan base.

Woah woah woah, now hold up right there: I don't remember HHH and Orton doing any temporal pincer movements!

This is funny to me. Fans in NXT booed her because she represented the "WWE style divas" to them and they worked themselves into a shoot. WWE smartly for once leaned into it and head faked them into believing they would put the NXT women's title on her for the Bayley match (and I think they did something similar with a battle royal where she hid outside the ring and came in at the end). Eva Marie is like the post modern heel who gets heat because 'she sucks' and therefor is given no reason to improve in ring because the moment she becomes respected by this audience, the gimmick no longer makes sense. She represents the hot fitness models who got wrestling contracts and smart fans especially find this highly offensive for reasons. And if you want to say she won't draw heat, I don't see anyone talking about anything else on this thread. Not that anyone talks about WWE anymore... because it sucks. And WWE does suck. Yes. Vince's vision on how to build a promotion is garbage. Yes. The shits I give about Bruce Prichard are so small you would need an electron microscope to find them.

Yes, but "WWE Defender" is literally the worst insult that can be levyed against someone on this board, and is the go to for most people if you don't shit on everything that shows up on a Titan show.

I mean this in all seriousness - exactly how often does a guy have to commit dirty acts and get suspended for the league to get REALLY serious and suspend him for a year or life? I mean, in this case, we're talking about a guy who jammed a guy forehead-first into the ice a la Steve Moore and then sucker-punched him while he's on the ice. That's a multi-game suspension for a first-timer, IMHO, let alone Wilson. I mean, we're talking about a guy who's just had a 7-game suspension that isn't even close to the longest of his career. This isn't one of those "well, you could sorta say I hit him in the shoulder" head shot deals either. Just a blatant cheap shot sucker punch. I'd be cool with a lifetime ban but 40+ games at minimum should be the standard given his history. https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nhl/news/tom-wilson-suspension-timeline-history-fines-capitals-penguins-zach-aston-reese/k3plwl8lfkot11flpw7ah3yf7

Man, if there was ever a time for the confused emoji to come back that'd be it.

Angel Garza is the shit. Firing The Iiconics & Mickie James to bring back Eva Marie is fucking dumb. Shoehorn Charlotte being shoved into another main event is also fucking dumb.

Did you think you got a Playgirl by accident?

AJ Styles: "Stripping community?!?"

FTR would likely be number one and two, Spears likely three since he's got reasonable wind and its the middle of the match anyway with MJF and Wardlow batting clean up. Sammy, Santana, Hagar, Ortiz and Jericho for the big final entrant because he's the biggest pop and Hagar (the natural 'big gun') isn't over enough for the final entrance pop. EDIT: So start with Sammy and Dax, Cash comes in to save his partner and FTR play ring generals directing traffic because this will be a lot of moving pieces, Santana saves Sammy and evens the odds, Spears comes in and feeds the babyfaces but gives FTR a chance to turn the tide, Hagar comes in to pound three people, Wardlow comes in to counter Hagar, Ortiz comes in and gets some rally but the heels to get the advantage so MJF can come in and pick the bones until Jericho makes the final save before they go to whatever finish. I think someone made the right call going to a Jericho quits to save Sammy (or vice versa). This also reflects to MJF's turn on Cody except this time, it was with good intentions and completes a story beat. Pinacle needs to win or they are totally and completely dead in the water, never to recover.

Contrary to some of the prevailing opinion on here, I had no problem with the Macho Documentary whatsoever and thought it was the best one of the series so far. If it burst your bubble a bit, well, Randy wasn't always a great guy. He had a real dark side and that shouldn't be swept under the rug. George's story was important and I'm glad it was told. As far as Hogan goes well he was a big part of Randy's life and he had a place in the doc. Bubba (who apparently is some fat piece of shit in an NYPD hat which just really endeared me to him, of course) didn't, being an antagonist who had nothing worth saying that somebody else could have, so I agree there. Lanny was saying what a brother would say. Toadie? I wouldn't go that far. Lex is contrite; I did not like them playing the 911 tape again and I didn't like it when Vice did either. But overall this was a well-crafted, detailed, nuanced piece of work that said way, way more about his life than the Dark Side piece. Oh, and Hogan still got to underline he's a piece of shit yet again with that snide comment about George being "a cute piece that looked good for the gimmick" or whatever. Fuck you dude.

As far as The Heel is Right gimmicks, Vince McMahon's bizarrely aligned moral compass has a lot to answer for. A lot of times there, the Babyface was presented as being morally upstanding simply because they were a babyface, rather than because they actually behaved in a noble or sportsmanlike way.

But what about some where that might be the case like with Savage and Hogan? Savage was territorial but Hogan was getting friendly with Elizabeth? Unless one thinks that cancels out I see Savage as being in the right on that one. So what would that make it then in regards to Savage as a heel?

That movie always seemed like it was the third or fourth flick in a franchise, like they didn't know what to do with Quigley anymore so they sent him to Australia. I don't think it was a flop due to Tom Selleck, no one was interested in standard westerns or standard westerns with a twist in 1990, they could have put a bigger star in that role and it still would have broken even. It had a second life on cable where most people saw it and enjoyed it, but how can you not enjoy Alan Rickman as a villain, Laura San Giacomo playing crazy, along with some kick ass stunts and shootouts. Quigley is #2 on the list of Tom Selleck movies, with Mr. Baseball being #1, that movie is way better than it should be.

If this is for me, I don't watch RAW and haven't in ... years I think? WWE sucks.

This might belong in the hot take thread but...Smackdown is a good show! It's definitely caught up in some anti-WWE residuals due to just how God awful Raw is. Raw is...I don't know...just so bad. The worst it's ever been.

Big Daddy falling on top of someone with an Irish name and Catweazel wasn't comedy wrestling?

There's a decent amount of attitude ear stuff that has simply not aged well. For everything great Austin -McMahon storyline, you get some real garbage, plus the whole "not enough wrestling on the wrestling shows" complain that was true.

Make sure you DVR it manually again. Booker T is next, followed by HBK. Here's a write-up A&E did for it... https://www.biography.com/news/shawn-michaels-addiction