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Amanda Huber on Instagram.

Would you rather sign one 50-year-old Bobby Lashley, or 50 one-year-old Bobby Lashleys?

Call me crazy, but I'm beginning to think this business doesn't attract a lot of forward-thinkers with sound decision-making skills.

That very same DiBiase bump for Savage’s great “jump over the top rope neck-snap” was the best:

New name alert Harlem Bravado - Andre Chase Drew Kasper - Brutus Creed Jacob Kasper - Julius Creed Avery Taylor - Jacy Jayne I am amused that they are already setting up the Kaspers turning on each other

One of my all time favourite videos. Fuck Hogan. Enjoy!

Jungle Boy HAS to win his next match like this, right? Similar to when Darby finally won it, you can’t go to the “amazing outing but come up just short” well again with him.

Really felt like the right time to put the title on Jungle Boy, even if for just a short reign. I mean, it always feels like the right time to take a belt off Kenny Omega, therefore making him less of a focal point, but this REALLY felt like the right time. All this "end the show with heat" gets repetitive. Would've been a good idea to have the fans go home happy, especially since there's no way Miro is losing to Pillman Jr next week. This was another really solid show, with the weakness being the same as it always is; the EVP's being allowed to book themselves over everyone for reasons. I don't dislike them because they're doing good heel work. I dislike them because they make every show they're on worse with their shooty insider bullshit and their "Mormon kid after one day of detention" wanna be tough guy acts. They could all disappear off the face of the earth and the show would be a thousand times better. That isn't heel heat. That's the definition of "go away" heat.

I think that was the most I have enjoyed Kenny in the ring since Dominion 6/9/18. They match up about as well as we were all expecting. That crowd was great all night, at least from what I saw (my wife has night shift so I was looking after the girls,but they kindly let me watch the whole main event match without interruption, which I appreciated). Looking forward to watching the replay more closely, but for me at least that championship match totally lived up to my high expectations. I loved seeing Jungle Boy's family's reactions as well.

That might be an improvement.

You know... I'm starting to think that the WCW Saturday Night call in to vote for the main event wasn't on the up n up

Chop chop chop

How did Kona Reeves survive another round of cuts???

At the very least, I think WarnerMedia/TNT are doing some great promos with A+ graphics to promote Rampage: Like these promos are on par with WWE production values. For many years on Spike, I never really felt like TNA was stepping up the graphics and production values game. TNA would often look, sound, feel bush league. Like small, miniature little league wrestling.

Heading to Denny's to smoke cloves, drink coffee, and not leave a tip

It's just really frustrating because almost everything on this show that doesn't involve the Elite is so good. Even Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page, who I normally don't vibe on, were really good tonight. But ugh, Omega and the Bucks were just even more insufferable than usual tonight. Particularly the Bucks, who once again come off as Hall and Nash, if Hall and Nash were 5'8 and looked like Guitar Center employees...

Miro with another great promo.

Damn good show, but I gotta put over Hobbs who wisely avoided a "Scott Steiner slams Christian Cage's head into the steps"-level potential botch. Dude's got endless potential, as do so many others on the roster. Miro fucken rules.

This nails my problem with the Elite: it smacks so hard of the NWO, and brings me right back to 1997. They have the same kind of heat with me to where it's on the verge of change the channel. These pricks gotta lose sometime and to the right people because if they drag it on any longer then it won't just be me upset, but the fanbase, and that won't be good.

Damn, that show delivered. That main event was probably the best Omega singles match I've seen in AEW. Jungle Boy was great out there. The Konan/Tully interview segment also ruled, the Bunny/Statlander match was quite good, and Hobbs/Page gave me exactly what I wanted. Real good show, this. Not even Vicky Guerrero could kill it.

Well he (Konnan) was strong enough to take a piledriver tonight! His mic work was best of all though. I thought he was doing good in Impact as LAX's mouthpiece on their last go-round but this was straight fire. "You're from North Carolina, where the men are men and the sheep are afraid", "That's Spanish, you might wanna learn it so you can communicate with your grandchildren", it's not often you get someone who can go over the top of Tully fucking Blanchard but he did it. This was my first time seeing Hobbs in singles and he looks strong, though the humidity was clearly wearing everyone out quick until later. Kris Statlander also looked real good, as did Ethan Page who is gonna be a blast working a coffin match. Miro saying "thank you God for keeping my hot wife flexible" was third best line of the night. And hey guess what, Kenny Omega is tolerable if you slow him down! That was probably the best match/my favorite match I've ever seen him in, and yes I've seen all the New Japan stuff. Jungle Boy is gonna be a big big star for them.

You shouldn't listen to Russo and his bitch boy Billi Bhatti. Bhatti is a scumbag of the highest order.

The last time they did that I turned the WWE off for 15 years.

I think what you’re saying here speaks to the general confusion I see about what a “bottle episode” is these days. And I think a lot of that confusion comes from the term itself—people think that a bottle episode is when the show is being “bottled up,” being confined to smaller space/time/etc., literally making the show smaller for an episode. But that’s not at all what the term refers to! It actually refers to the exact opposite phenomenon—making an episode feel just as full as a “regular” episode despite significant constraints (smaller budget, core cast/sets only). It’s a reference to it being like a magic trick, “pulling a genie out of a bottle.” Just think, if that guy had said that they “pulled a rabbit out of a hat” instead, they’d be called “hat episodes” and there would probably be a lot less confusion. And the idea that bottle episodes primarily serve a function as character development episodes is another misconception. You can absolutely propel a narrative forward in massive ways using only core cast/sets, and many actual bottle episodes do. The truth is—and I’m going to sound like a pro wrestler scolding smart marks for using insider terms here—there’s no way to tell if something is a bottle episode unless you can see the budget and know the intent of the show runner. For instance, “Leslie and Ron” from the final season of PARKS & REC certainly looks like a bottle episode on the surface (it’s focused on two main characters who are locked in a single space over night), but in actuality it was one of the first stories conceived for that season and is intended to be the emotional heart of that season’s/the series’ story. They’re locked in together because that was the best way to resolve those characters’ conflict and put an exclamation point on the show’s overall theme, not because the show NEEDED to get smaller for that episode. Words have to mean something! And, really, the people to blame here are a certain generation of TV bloggers, who don’t actually know how the TV business works, incorrectly using a term they don’t understand to the point that it trains the general public to use it the wrong way, too. I’ve seen people at major publications (LOOKING AT YOU, RINGER) try to say that stuff like “International Assassin” and “Blackwater” and “Teddy Perkins” are bottle episodes, and I’m just like…what? Y’all are journalists? Anyway, yes, “Lamentis” is not a bottle episode. It’s just a regular ol’ episode of TV that happens to focus on two of the main characters going off on an adventure away from the main action. And a very good one, at that!

Lance picked apart the Pillman doc rather easily because, yeah, the stories I remember hearing back then about Pillman indicated he liked a good time and would f*** anything that moved. I thought Dark Side of the Ring treated him with kid gloves when it came to the topic of his infidelity. As Lance points out, Pillman was married and supposedly happy when he saw photos of Melanie in Penthouse, and decided he wanted to meet/sleep with/marry her. I mean, that says a lot about how he viewed his wife and kids, and relationships in general.

Yeah. D-Von used to do the seizure sell as well.

Writing for the WWE isn't all that different than any other serial drama but it's harder because it's live. You have to write within certain time limits because of live commercials. On top of it, you also have performers who have to also make sure they nail their cues and have to pause and react to an audience. And some of the performers may have just wrestled and have an injury or are just winded. Or some of the performers suck at performing or go into business for themselves and don't care about time constraints or where they're supposed to stand. Or a wrestler will get injured in the 6th minute of a 14 minute match. The only other show that's anything like the WWE in its format is Saturday Night Live. I really don't think wrestling fans appreciate just how fucking insane it is for the WWE to have consistently had live shows for this many years. It's always a huge deal if they miss a pinfall or something on camera. That's because their production is so ridiculously good that any mistakes really stand out. That's not to say that everything Kevin Dunn does works. But it's just nuts how they are able to pull together a few hours of live shows a week, especially factoring in all of the variables that can happen.

"Those responsible for sacking the people who have been sacked, have been sacked." And then replaced by llamas.

I wouldn't overthink it, Endgame broke it's own time travel rules with Old Cap.

I can’t imagine such a devout Christian would stan the devil’s favourite demon.

I'm all for cancelling downers, but decided to go with "Sad" due to Mums! Hang in there, buddy! You know we all love you... a lot! Yeah, it's kinda absurd that I've now lived longer without my mother around than I ever did with her. That last year was just god-awful. She fought so hard, though. When I say last year, it's kinda tricky, the whole cancer took no more than 18 months overall, but it was the second go at it.

It's crazy to think that Terry was only 45 in 89.

Since all of MFr's like Baltimora so much, you should open your eyes on to more Italo Disco, because that shit is amazing! Tell me Sunny Beach shouldn't have entered his UWF matches to "Vamos A La Playa" and you and I are gonna have 'em words!

Woods could leave WWE, stream exclusively on Twitch and do indie shows or whatever, and probably make more money than he does in WWE. Also never underestimate the allure of complete creative freedom and a company that dominates the business you love firing some of your best friends (or firing others and mandating that you edit them out of a video game stream, fucking up the flow and your future plans for said channel/series).

That reminds me of someone asking Ice T if he thought his "street cred" or whatever took a hit for doing Leprechaun in Da Hood. T said something like, "They paid me $50,000 for two days of work. If that ain't gangsta I don't know what the fuck is."

Thanks for the recommendations. I went back and watched the Sasha series (I saw the ppv matches at the time but don’t remember much of them), I’ll try to watch the other stuff when I get a chance. I came out of it probably a bit more positive on Alexa - she’s definitely good at some stuff (mainly on offence) - but the criticisms I have are still there (some of it not aided by the booking). Great Balls of Fire - this had the best structure but was hurt by the finish. Sasha got shine early, with Alexa pulling the double jointed fake out to hit a great forearm and take over, really cool spot. From there her offence is good, some vicious looking stuff, including standing on her back and stomping on her head, a hair-pull backbreaker, and even the chokeslam/STO was good here. This is helped by Sasha’s flexibility and contorting her body, making everything look nasty. Alexa uses crafty, opportunistic stuff to cut Sasha off. Sasha comes back as we go into the finishing sequence, Alexa hits a nice code red out of the corner. Sasha gets the bank statement, with Alexa staying in this too long, going over half way across the ring to reach the ropes. This is the sort of little thing where I think Alexa is presented too strong, being craftier and more vicious than the face is good, but also being tough enough to survive their finisher in this way isn’t. It then ends on Alexa taking a count out loss to retain the title, fine with this as a heel move but really shouldn’t be done on ppv (that’s not on Alexa though). Summerslam - This is probably the best match, but I didn’t really like the layout. It starts with Alexa getting the better of Sasha in a strike exchange, she’s hits a really good forearm again here, but I don’t like this. I think, with some exceptions, the heel shouldn’t be looking tougher than the face in a strike exchange. Following this, I think Alexa just takes far too much, basically dominating for a good chunk with no real hope spots thrown in. Again, a lot of the offence is good and vicious looking, but the crafty, opportunistic stuff of the first match is gone and it’s just Alexa being better than Sasha, there’s a couple of cut offs with weak clotheslines which kind of highlights my issue, Alexa shouldn’t be dominating physically like that, it’s stuff like this where I think she misjudges her role sometimes. As Sasha starts to comeback there’s a nice call back to the last match as the code red is countered into a sort of Alabama slam in the corner, cool spot. Alexa gets back in control pulling out the apron to trip Sasha to the outside, much better cut off and it leads into some nice arm work as Sasha injured her shoulder. Sasha then comes back to get the bank statement, it gets briefly countered using the bad arm, but Alexa gets caught again and Sasha takes the title. Raw - This one felt the weakest, maybe not helped by the ad break in the middle. It’s worked as a lot more of a back and forth, throwing in some similar spots seen in the other matches. Alexa generally good on offence and there’s a nice superplex. Ending feels a bit out of nowhere, Alexa gets out of the bank statement, hits a ddt and thats it. This did nothing for Sasha, no cheating or anything to mitigate the loss, just the heel being better than her. So yeah, Alexa generally good on offence, selling is fine, but some of the choices of spots and general layout of matches position her too strongly. In a kayfabe sense I thought Alexa generally looked a lot better than Sasha and that’s probably why I don’t think I’d consider Alexa outright good. Sasha made Alexa look good with her selling, Alexa made herself look good but probably to the detriment of Sasha, given she’s playing crafty heel rather than dominant heel I think that’s an issue.

It was better when three dudes booked around Vince’s pool.

Yearly shout out to watch the documentary Knuckleball. And after that, why not watch the Battered Bastards of Baseball again because it rules.

25 years ago. GOAT promo.