Leaderboard

What?!

"Mashing" Cody Rhodes. ...I'll let myself out.

Am I the only one who thinks that Cody's departure is not going to do much to harm AEW and his arrival isn't going to mean much for WWE? He's an above average pro wrestler who doesn't really bring anything to the table that makes me want to watch, but if he's on TV, I don't change the channel. He's kind of like a baked potato, I'm not going to turn it down and with the right toppings it can be delicious, but when it comes to potatoes is rather have them mashed, French fried, or au gratin. Cody's good but I'd never order that shit if some scalloped potatoes are available.

My Top 5 Potato Foods : -French Fries -Potato Chips -Baked Potato -Cody Rhodes -Mashed Potatoes

For the uninitiated...

Opposite take: I love Cody. Any man who will take 10 whips to the back, jump off an (AEW tall) cage, and go through an overly burning table, just for the passion of loving wrestling, has my respect. And those early AEW babyface promos were some of the best work he's done. It just didn't work after that.

Spoilers for his debut: Flashing CODY letters everywhere, Picture of him and Pharao in 3D, music plays for 3 minutes. "Can it be? It is! OH MY!" Then he stands in the ring for 15 minutes while they replay his entrance, show a highlight reel of Pharao, go to commercial, three times, run something backstage where Pharao gets the 24/7 title. Cut back to the ring, Cody gone.

"she's just a common girl, working hard for her curls"

I believe "selling out" exists. It happens when you forsake something you believe in for money. But I also believe Cody didn't "sell out" because all the stuff he's been telling us he believed since leaving WWE was a con. I'm glad he signed with WWE because he represented the type of old school carny con artist bullshit I'd rather not have to watch in AEW. They're doing fine without him.

Say what you will about Kenny Omega, but that is one tough son of a bitch to be wrestling the schedule he has with the high quality of matches he consistently puts out with such a shit ton of injuries. Take you a well earned rest, Mr. Omega

We are accepting every Urban Meyer story as fact because they are all funny and we need every laugh we can get in this shitty world.

To be fair, the ratio of assholes to regular people is higher than average in Texas.

Julia is TOTALLY EVIL now! YAAAAY! I'm guessing the 2022 Evil Cheerleader thing is about to totally kick in. Skye Blue carried her to the best match of Julia's young career even if they did completely fuck up the finish. Julia will have to get one of those Smells Like Teen Spirit Satanic cheerleading get-ups when she finally joins the House of Black. Push the Ass Boys. They are the 2022 American Males without the Scotty Riggs dropkick. Darius Martin was good as the Ricky Morton to Chaos Project's Lazertron/Boogie-Woogie Man. Strange match as it was Top Flight making Chaos Project look good for 90% of the match. Ruby Soho/Anna Jay vs Emi Sakura/The Bunny was a good last match from Emi for a while. Lance Archer does the Jericho In Canada promo was awesome. HE ATTACKED A FAN! WHO BOUGHT A FRONT ROW TICKET! WHAT NEXT?!?! A TEN YEAR OLD?!?! Stu Grayson is the best thing on Evil Uno's vlog. He is so French Canadian. YAY! It's Nick Comoroto! Will he beel someone? Stu Grayson and John Silver are like a miniature version of the Mongols. I loved the crazy over the corner bump by Grayson to take out Marshall and Comoroto. John Silver was the glue that held that whole wacky final sequence differently than he usually holds it together. That was good. EVIL JULIA! YAY! Stu Grayson is the best wrestler in AEW? Eh, maybe....

I think everyone has to admit that Cody has definitely succeeded in getting a ton of buzz around himself. That's impressive.

No. Really.

Plumber

I know people are excited about the shape Bret seems to be in, but doesn't it make sense for Arn to end up with a face-leaning Revival since he barely has anything to do with Cody and Brandi gone?

Somewhere, Ultimo Dragon is nodding in approval.

Both Giant and Hall "turned" in that match. Sting and Giant were Team WCW taking on Team Wolfpac. nWo had just split into two factions at that point. Sting wanted payback on Nash for costing him the title at Spring Stampede against Savage. Nash was teaming with Hall. So basically, Hall colluded with Giant to turn on Nash, and they both sided with Hogan/nWo Black & White, so Nash was betrayed. Sting, who was Team WCW looked on in disbelief/disgust that Hall could turn on his best friend like that.

Maybe the Steelers can get Jimmy as well as Mitch and they can change the team name to the Pittsburgh Failing Upwards.

I don't particularly care for the guy, but I don't understand the criticism of him. People seem to be mad that they got worked by a professional worker into believing that he was something he wasn't. All these accusations of being "fake" and "phony" don't make a lick of sense in the world of wrestling. Isn't that exactly what the business is? It'd be like getting mad that Hogan didn't actually take his vitamins and say his prayers. How dare you lie to us Hulkster!?!

In kayfabe, Arn helped negotiate their contracts. Yes, that's this week's entry in "AEW angles we all forgot about."

I’m friends with the woman running this account, and I’m really excited for what she helps create.

I don't think Cody sold out because I think he's always been a sellout, if that makes sense. I don't mean that negatively, either. He's always been out to make a lot of money. I have zero problems with that. It's just that when you present yourself as the guy who's going to break the throne and take down that evil company up north, you have to expect there to be some raised eyebrows when you immediately go back to working for them. @Craig Hbrought up the idea of punk bands and selling out. I just don't think that applies to Cody. He's not Green Day. He's Nickleback. He never had "cred". He's always been a major label guy.

Thank you! I'm not begrudging Cody for making money, I'm begrudging him for being a phony. Everything from that Tweeted list of aspirational indy stuff he wanted to do, designed to look like aw shucks he just loves wrestling but in reality all those bookings were already done before he posted it, to the throne smashing and all the other performative "one of us" acts of rebellion, is what I begrudge the guy for. I know it's quaint to call out fakes and sellouts in our cynical age but fuck it, I'll be quaint. The guy is a phony. Good for him that everything worked out because Vince loves nothing more than re-signing guys who shit on him, but he's still a phony.

all well in good, this is why you don't burn bridges. Or make it look to the fans that you actively despise the competition if you really don't. He is either a sell out or phony. Take your pick. Nobody forced him to do the over the top entrances with the sledge hammer, the false pedigrees, the theme song lyrics. It's different if someone like Omega or the Bucks left because they never really went out of their way to bury the competition only to come running to them the minute he was "unhappy" Had Cody not gone out of his way to bash WWE any chance he had (and hell he created the chances himself) I would have 0 issue with him leaving if he isn't happy. I left my last job not because of money but because I don't want to work with assholes. I told the company owner that very sentence the day I left. I wasn't happy I left. If I am not happy now I won't go back to the former company even if they offered me 7 figures. It wouldn't happen. If Cody wasn't happy at AEW he is damn fortunate WWE took him back after the stuff he pulled. Imagine if they didn't where would he go?

That is one harsh take and probably the one that is the most true.

That's s good counterpoint! But... You may recall an isolated asshole fan trying to start a "What?" chant during an emotional ( Kingston? Mox? Punk?) promo on a recent episode of AEW TV and getting shut down immediately while receiving ZERO apparent support from anyone else in the crowd. I can recall Jericho successfully asking the crowd to stop with WWE-reference chants as "bad ideas from bad creative" and I am pleasantly surprised by how easily Bryan kept an "AEW Yes Movement" from becoming a thing that grew out of control. I won't even pretend to argue that there aren't asshole wrestling fans. Obviously in any large gathering of human beings there are going to be at least a few assholes. I might, however, try to argue that the assholes certainly don't seem to be the majority any more... at least not in AEW crowds. Not sure what the ratio might be for a WM weekend crowd in Texas.

I liked how they said that Sheamus, Ridge and Butch grew up together. a 44 year old Irishman, a 33 year old rugby player from Liversedge, and a 28 year old backyard Wrestler from Birmingham. Just hanging out at weekends together, in the past. As children.

IT'S YOUR KIDS, LEIA! SOMETHING'S GOTTA BE DONE ABOUT YOUR KIDS!

Hawt take: it's OK to value sincerity, even within a traditionally insincere business. Also: this is pretty intriguing: What does Dusty's daughter know that we don't?

Do y'all get this worked up when some actor goes on Jimmy Fallon's show or a podcast and blows smoke about a new movie they're not really feeling? I can't imagine applying this rigid standard of public honesty to any other type of entertainer. I guess it'd be nice if people were straight with you, but it's not a requirement and being so demanding of dudes on TV is weird as shit to me. Beyond that, the "lying every second they're in public" is clearly a gross misrepresentation. It's okay to just dislike the guy without making up nonsense justifications.

Brandi will be his sweet potato pie

Just because Washington is an idiotic franchise - it doesn't mean the rest of the teams are gonna make the same mistake

These wiki pages is why Watson was able to do what he did. Finding a franchise QB is brutally hard. You'd think with 7 billion people in the world that there would be more than five people that could play QB great, but nope.

Oh man, there is nothing worse than going into the quarterback wilderness. I thank my lucky stars that my children got Dak right after Romo. Aikman to Romo was so horrendous.

To hell with that DC pizza place...I want to see this place's basement.

And nothing has helped AEW grow more. A "war" brings tension and excitement to a competition. How's Impact doing by playing nice with everyone? Basically irrelevant. And the only time they were relevant is when they brought in Hogan and tried to make it into a "war". AEW would still be good TV without all those shots at WWE. But wouldn't feel as real. When WWE extended Smackdown that one episode to go head to head with Rampage Grand Slam and TK did Danielson vs Suzuki on Youtube against Smackdown, that shit was fun. And that was purely TK making that call, not Cody. Another point that doesn't get mentioned enough, is the age of the talent. The majority of guys hot in this "war" grew up during The Monday Night Wars. They got to experience that shit in real time and feel how much fun it was. Don't sleep on the fact all of the "war" stuff makes the whole industry more fun to be in. Not to mention anytime there's a "war" the money goes up for the boys. There's literally no negatives to creating that vibe.

I think the obvious answer is Tony bought the IP of the World Bodybuilding Federation and is planning on using Cage in the Lex Luger role

Salient point here. Counterpoint: Douchebag wrestling fans will chant any old shit.

What did you do today? I was in Bucksnort, TN looking for Bunkhouse Buck ?

Great. That always turns out well among wrestling promoters.

?

Can I get two hours starting at approx 6:05 on a Saturday night?

Meh. Call it selling out if you want, but the correct term is cashing in. The wrestling business is a... business. Always weird to me when fans turn on a guy for doing what he's supposed to be doing. Making money. I would have preferred if he stayed in AEW because I liked the narrative of him betting on himself and trying to live up to his father by being more than just the wrestler. But that's all just a narrative. None of it's true. He didn't own AEW. Not even a piece of it. He is a businessman trying to make the most money possible. Good on him for cashing in. You sold out is about the dumbest thing anyone could ever chant at a wrestler. EC-dub chants didn't buy Taz a house, but that WWE money sure did. I loved ECW. But this idea that wrestlers are supposed to destroy their bodies for "the love of the game" and not piles and piles of cash is pretttttttty antiquated.

I think Waltman is right to speak the truth on this. The pandemic era has been very hard on people in recovery the isolation and stress has lead to relapses across the country for every type of addiction. None of that discounts the hard work Hall put in over the past ten years. It’s not Scott’s fault that there has been a lack of resources provided to both people in recovery and those who work with them. My work deals with some of this stuff and we applied for a grant in April 2020 to provide support specifically related to these issues and it wasn’t approved and funded until September 2021 by that time the damage has been done. Scott didn’t “fail” his sobriety, society failed him and many others.