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meanwhile, Buff Bagwell's twitter is a ride this was his response to a Twitter rando attempting transphobia in his responses in a thread that started with this:

When Sabu and RVD were training under The Sheikh, it was all fundamentals and no high spots. They would only do the dives and flips when Sheikh would go to the house to get a drink. And for the first few years of Sabu’s career (as Terry S.R. or Terry Essar) he was a standard collar and elbow- headlock- international spot guy. It was only when Sheikh took him to FMW and changed his name to Sabu that he told him “No more headlocks. Do that crazy shit you and Rob do when you think I’m not watching “.

CANADA IS GOING TO THE WORLD CUP!!! ????

Just throwing it out there that Trips got into the creative meetings because of his relationship with Shawn. Im not faulting him, but I wouldn’t describe it as an example of dedication. It’s an example of networking.

I'd rather have RVD get busted with some weed than plowing down vicodin after vicodin and be dead at the age of 45. Thankfully the US is getting more lenient on Marijuana as they should - but I will never bash someone who wants to smoke the Devil's Lettuce. That shit is way "better" for you than being reliant on 30+ medications a day. Trust me, when I was a delivery driver for a pharmacy, the amount of pills some people were taking was RIDICULOUS. Edit - I should add I also smoke weed so that also gives me some insight. I remember being 14 and told ghat weed was a gateway drug lol What a load of bullshit.

We disagree pretty strongly on some of this, so allow me to retort. I couldn't disagree with this more, I think he believes that he is one of the best technicians, but I think it is one of the reasons he's been kind of terrible to watch for good parts of his career. He's at his best as a brawler. Honestly, I want you to think about your favorite HHH matches, and think about how many of them were wild brawls and how many were technical masterpieces. I'd bet you'd have twice as many brawls. Honestly, I'd say that his best matches are with Foley overall, because HHH was one of the few people who could stand toe to toe with Foley and give and take a beating. I think his selling is really underrated, he is someone who is generally more giving in the ring that you'd assume based on all the politicking he did behind the scenes. Don't get me wrong, when he's in the ring with a technician, he can do his part, and hold his own. The problem is when he is the technician in a match, the match is going to suck. If he has to lead, I'd much rather the match be a knock down drag out fight, not a technical wrestling match. The thing about HHH is that he's legitimately good at almost everything, but he's much better as the canvas than he is as the painter. He's a potentially great opponent with almost everyone, but I'd rather have a more limited wrestler make the decisions while HHH fills in the white space. This is where this is the most interesting to me, especially with hindsight. I feel at the time that he should have put all of these guys over, but I'm not sure if that is true now. Jericho is one of the better wrestlers of all-time and in my mind is head and shoulders better than HHH in pretty much every way. Jericho can thrive in almost every single situation, he's better on the mic, a better technical wrestler, just as good in a brawl, and has been one of the better heavyweight flyers of his generation. Not putting Jericho over is pretty much inexcusable then and now. Edge on the other hand is kind of understandable to me. I think Edge is good, but I don't think I've ever thought of him as a guy to build your show around. He's at his best as a crafty heel who is kind of what HHH was already doing. The characters are very different in execution, but very similar in where and how they fit on the card. If you are HHH, why would you put over a character who is essentially filling the exact same role that you are filling. Both are conniving heels who rely on being dastardly to win as much if not more than their wrestling skills. If HHH puts him over, he's basically telling the audience that Edge is better than him at what he's good at, and I can see why he wouldn't want to do that. They are both kind of the same guy to me, guys who spent a good bit of time at the top of the card, who have a bunch of good matches, but none I ever really feel the need to watch. The only reason I think he should have put Booker T over is that they built racism in the feud and you can't have the racist win...except they let the racist win. I don't think Booker would have been a great world champion, but not making him world champion was a worse decision based on the feud. I never saw RVD as worthy as a world championship, but he was incredibly over. Now we get to Kurt Angle, who for all intents and purposes was the person they should have been pushing to be their next big star. With the benefit of hindsight, we know that would have been a terrible choice. I have no idea when Angle's drug problems became apparent to people behind the scenes, but the only viable excuse for not putting Angle over HHH at the time is that they knew he was having health issues and drug problems. Angle was arguably better in and out of the ring than HHH, and was only a couple years into his career so there is no reason to think he wouldn't get better with more experience. He was a better face, a better heel, and was just plain more entertaining to watch. So, in my opinion Jericho and Angle are the most egregious examples of HHH holding down a worker who he should have put over. Jericho and Angle were both capable of being in the main event as a face or a heel, were better in the ring, and were better promos. Edge is the one I go back and forth on the most. I like Edge well enough, but I don't know if the show is any better if HHH puts him over. I think it would be just about the same with a guy we like more, which isn't nothing. Booker T should have gone over because they told a story that only works if he is put over, but I don't think he was the right guy at the time. I honestly think RVD hit his ceiling as a credible World Championship challenger, but I never saw him as a World Champion. I agree 100%, but I'd like to add one more thing. I think the thing he did best is prove that there was a large audience for a traditional wrestling show. I loved HHH's NXT because it made me realize that I still love wrestling when it is done well. I have not been able to sit through an episode of Raw or Smackdown in well over a decade. They've had an all-time great roster of workers during this time, but seem to squander far more talent than they showcase. The best part of NXT was that everyone on the show was given a chance to get themselves over, and were rewarded when it worked. That is all I really want from a wrestling show. Give me a varied cast of wrestlers who are working their asses off to put together the best show possible. Not everyone has to be trying to put on five star classics, but they have to be trying to master their particular characters. I loved Emma's character, because it was utterly ridiculous, but got over because of her commitment to that character. When they called her up to Raw, they put her on TV and no one got it...so they just scrapped it. That fucking sucked, because she was playing a character that is based on building a relationship with the audience. I think they could have eventually got her over as the endearing goofball who overcomes the odds, but they didn't give it a chance. That is not what I want from wrestling, I want to get introduced to new characters and follow their trajectory. HHH proved, at least to me, that the kind of wrestling I've been longing for can exist, except WWE has no desire to give it to me.

Yes please.

Chris Rock no-sells like a Road Warrior.

I could be wrong on this, but if I remember correctly (and I could be off base on this) - but I seem to recall Prichard saying on his podcast years ago that they had initially penciled in the Steiner/HHH feud to be a 3 eventer (Rumble, No Way Out, Mania) but that Scott's in ring performance was so bad they had to pivot away from that and we ended up with Booker T. Post Mania, we were always going to get Goldberg vs. Triple H because let's be honest, there's no way they were going to keep Goldberg away from the title when they only had him on a year long contract and certainly weren't gonna do a "Dubya Cee Dubya" feud with Booker T and Goldberg. Had they done Steiner/HHH 3 at Mania, it probably would've been in the exact same position with the exact same outcome.

I know I kind of got the ball rolling on this, but I don't have a ton to say at this juncture. Let me put it this way though. For those of us who were that initial smarky internet audience in the late 90s and into the early 00s... In the 00s, he was exactly the enemy we deserved. In the 10s, he exactly was the friend we deserved. That says as much about us as it does about him.

If Booker T doesn’t deserve to be a top babyface carrying the company as Champion after Wrestlemania , he shouldn’t be the top babyface challenging for the title at Wrestlemania.

This is a bad take. I wrote like 3,000 words putting over how much I enjoyed Triple H's career, so I am from someone clouded by that Raw run. And I very much disagree with you here. It's not about liking or not liking someone, it's about hypocrisy. You mean the guy whose whole character was "he's a pothead, lol" was a pothead and the company acted shocked? That's some hardcore corporate pearl clutching. If you're gonna make money off of a man's personality, don't act shocked and outraged when that very personality is put on display publicly. Triple H worked hard as fuck. He lived wrestling and breathed wrestling. Still does. RVD has also dedicated his life to wrestling and worked just as hard, just in different ways. It's not fair to act like RVD didn't do hours of yoga and flexibility workouts just because he doesn't have a bodyguy look. He was most certainly a gym guy, but worked on form and function stuff. Putting in just as much time as any other professional dedicated to his craft. So you blasting him for being lazy and unmotivated is you just buying into the pothead personality stuff. You're basing your whole argument on stereotypes instead of facts.

And his batting average on the other end of the spectrum isn’t great either. Just looking at Wrestlemania, since that’s key to WWE mythology, for every Bryan match, Rousey tag, or triple threat, there are relative duds like the matches against Sting, Sheamus, and Booker, to bombs like the Orton and Reigns main events. Also, however fun the shows were for a bit, had his visions for NXT ultimately won out, I think it would have been a disaster for the global wrestling scene. The last thing anyone but WWE needs is the whole industry being pop-up franchises/a collection of corporate IP action figures.

The NWA promoters convention of 1961 held in Toronto.

Wrestling is littered with guys who though they were better than they were. Hunter is possibly the best of that bunch, and one of the few who got to try to pull it off. He was a good character worker, but not the kind you build a promotion around. They tried it anyway. He had charisma, but not the kind to break out into mainstream crossover success. They tried it anyway. He was a good wrestler, but not a superworker whose strengths lent themselves to epic in-ring classics. They tried it anyway. He had a good physique. So they booked him in a posedown with Scott Steiner. He had a couple of storylines where he was devious and manipulative. So they dubbed him the Cerebral Assassin and had him... hit people with sledgehammers and play-act necrophilia. He was ultimately, ironically, a solid B+.

My wife has been watching wrestling for less than a year and I came home from work to this last night: I think they turned out pretty darn well for her first time. Next week she wants to try Darby Allin's tree facepaint.

The new Esquire magazine (Jake Gyllenhaal cover) has an outstanding article about and with Mr. CM Punk. https://www.esquire.com/sports/a39008053/cm-punk-aew-profile/ Very worth the read. Often pieces about wrestlers and wrestling aimed for non-fans are far more informative and insightful; Michael Avedon pics too. If you had told me about this 20+ years ago when I worked him at The Brat Stop in WI we both would have laughed and laughed (maybe for different reasons). When you get old, you get free magazine subscriptions - one of the few benefits.

...and Takeshita confirms!

To tie together Shartnado's post and the recent ones about Cody, my closest wrestling friend has been fully on board with AEW since last summer after Punk's return, and last bridge for him will be to shell out for the pay per views. He also watched the first Dynamite and periodically saw some episodes between then and Punk's debut, but now likes AEW as much as I do. Anyway, when we were texting about Cody leaving, he was basically non-plussed about it since he only saw the worst of the Codyverse in action and thought that was the one kind of messed up thing in AEW. He could not believe my argument/belief that Cody was one of the MVP's of AEW during the first year or so of the company (he also followed most of his WWE run, so he would have some of the Stardust stink on his mind also). This is one of those cases where a fresh start elsewhere may be healthy for all parties (though Cody will likely be miserable again there in due time and I do not expect him to be a WWE lifer this time around either).

That’s commendable, though not really something we can reliably track. Many, many wrestlers were/are enormous fans without making “student of the game” their gimmick and part of their company-branded mythos. And ultimately, it matters less how much Triple H studied than what that study yielded. There’s a proud legacy of non-fans who just went to work and were better ultimately than he was, just like there are footage-chasing obsessives who were better.

Given the nature of this thread I use it to gaze my navel for a bit. So, early this year I got FITE.tv's AEW+ service for a year. I also got the last two PPV's. With so many Dynamite's and Rampage's in the back-catalogue, it has been wonderful, but also taking up all my wrestling viewing time. I tried to keep up with NXT 2.0, since I still enjoyed it quite a bit and there was still plenty of watchable stuff on The Network. I fall a couple of weeks behind on that and get an irritated message from my friend regarding Pete Dunne. He keeps referring to the movie Snatch for some reason. All I can think of is that he didn't like the cricket bat gimmick? It's been forever since I've seen Snatch, I don't really recall if the Brad Pitt character was called Butch, or not. So I'm puzzled. A couple of weeks later I get around to watching what ended up being Pete Dunne's swansong (for now) on NXT. I mention it to my friend and he's still going on about "Butch", so I change the subject. I get around to seeing Ziggler winning the NXT title and complain about that a little bit. Later in the evening, I accidentally turn on SmackDown on Finnish tv, and see Dunne in a weird getup interfering in a Sheamus match along with Ridge Holland. THIS is what the fuck he was talking about. The next morning, I cancelled the Network. You do NOT do this to my only ride or die left in the WWE. How is someone called "Butch" is supposed to beat Roman Reings and retire Brock Lesnar on the same night to unify ALL of the titles at the main event night 2 of some Wrestlemania a few years from now? I mean the odds of someone called Pete Dunne doing that aren't exactly stellar either, but Butch won't get beyond a tag title match or the Andre battle royal, ever. In a normal situation, I probably would have let this one slide, but now that I have something considerably better to watch, the move to cancel the subscription, (while done in a burst of irrational anger and hatred towards a provider of shitty product), was made much easier. With a couple of months of subscription money saved, I can purchase more AEW PPV's from the past to get more up to speed. The AEW roster right now is so stellar, almost including all of my biggest favorites from NXT as well. I don't even have enough time to watch all the AEW I want, since I haven't watched a single whole episode of Dark or Elevation and still have a mountain of Dynamites and Rampages to pick and choose from. I never thought there would become a time when I would decide that the Network isn't worth the money, but why would I pay for it now, if I don't really have the time to watch it? It took me a week or two to get some emotional attachment to AEW product and characters but now I'm definitely all in and promoting this to all of my friends that have even a passing interest to professional wrestling. So far, it's been rather easy sell. Naval status: Gazed

We should end this by saying Aytch had some good matches with Mick Foley because that's all I got.

First ever Elite 8 for my Miami Hurricanes! If you watched the game on Friday and saw the guy in the 67 football jersey, that's actually a buddy of mine from college. His name is Cory Fishman and he was a walkon offensive lineman from 94-98. We lived on the same floor my freshman year of college and we're pretty good friends.

Oh my fucking GAWD. Next time I need an epicac I'm just going to read Cena's post over and over.

Booker had not hit his ceiling by the HHH match. He was WAYYYY over after the team with Goldust ended and badly needed that win to cement him as a top guy. I don't think Booker is a great worker or anything, but there's no way to watch Booker catch fire in the run-up to that match and make the argument that he'd hit his ceiling. HHH's best TV match is probably against Rikishi in 2000. For a guy who worked on TV for so many years, he has a shocking lack of quality TV matches.

I demand that the fourth Chinatown movie be called The Two Jessicas.

Walk-off STOLEN HOME is a new one.

They're building him up slowly as they should. Talk of tnt titles after a few matches was silly, especially in AEW.

Oh dude... now I want Serena Deeb with Regal & Co.

If we're being objective there's really three Triple H's. 1. In ring performer Triple H 2. Backstage political Triple H 3. Executive / NXT booker Triple H 1. In ring performer Triple H was one of the best technicians of the last 20 years. Now I will be the first to admit his intentionally slowed down territory heel act from 2003 - 2005 was a chore to watch. That character was heel and he was trying to be hated, but he did it in such an unenjoyably way. It was so unenjoyable that everyone universally despises it and it taints the objective view of his ring work. 1998 - 2002 Triple H was fucking awesome. The 1998 Rock IC Title feud and ladder match was very good. 1999 Triple H putting all the pieces together finally was fun as hell to watch. 2000 Triple H was the best in the world at the time having dope matches with everyone from Taka to Foley to Jericho and everyone in between. Plus that killer love triangle story. 2001 Triple H was just as good but the injury derailed him. 2002 Triple H was not quite as good, but he was so incredibly over when he came back that it carried him to a solid year. From 2006 on he was basically an amalgamation of the peak good Triple H mixed with bad territory Triple H. Never bad in the ring. But never quite hitting that peak run. But he still had great matches with Batista and Cena. Less great tag stuff with DX. Mostly bad stuff against Orton. Then you have part time Triple H who was still quite good. The Bryan WM match being the peak. Some good Undertaker WM matches. A few solid Lesnar matches. The bad Punk / Nash stuff. Overall his run in ring is pretty favorable if you're being honest. But what truly taints that is... 2. The backstage politics of Triple H are unparalleled. From latching onto The Clique, to marrying the boss' daughter, to complaining that Kurt Angle was too small to be believable... this is by far the worst aspect of his legacy. His slow Harley / Flair territory in ring stuff also coincided with him holding down a whole host of more likable performers. He was outspoken about not believing in Jericho, and Edge, and Booker, & RVD, & Angle. And when he finally did put someone over it was Goldberg who was universally hated at the time. Which multiplied the resentment. But then you do have to give him credit for going all out for the guys he did believe in. He put Benoit over strong as fuck. He put Batista over strong as fuck. He put Cena over strong as fuck (even if it was undermined by the choice to acknowledge Cena "can't wrestle"). As time went on he also undercut Punk among others. He squashed Booker again when Booker was at his absolute peak doing the king gimmick. Political Triple H is probably close to the most detestable political animal wrestling has ever had. But a lot of that has softened over the years because... 3. Executive / Booker Triple H is one of the best of the last 20 years. He took a floundering developmental program over and completely molded it into smart fan's ideal dream promotion. FCW was nothing. Games show NXT was nothing. But Triple H's vision merged them and turned them into the most fan friendly thing WWE has ever had. We can argue if his NXT prepared guys for the main roster. But that point is moot in my opinion. There's nothing that can prepare anyone for that. Because the "main roster" is literally just whatever Vince's whims are. They change constantly. And he only likes what he likes, regardless of how ready you are. We got a prime studio wrestling show mixed with a super indy mixed with some names that we never thought would get a foot in the door. The matches and characters that really worked REALLY FUCKING WORKED. Bayley, baby face Sami Zayn, ect. He revitalized tag wrestling in WWE (for a short period of time). He completely re-imagined women's wrestling by giving them the platform to do what they were always capable of. He went from probably the most hated personality in the business to being sent fruit baskets by those same ranting fans. Un-fucking-matched. He's not Rock/Cena/Hogan. He's not Undertaker/Andre/Lesnar. He's more like mixing the careers of Ultimate Warrior, Macho Man, & Pat Patterson. He's not on my mount rushmore for wrestling. But for me he absolutely is on the mount rushmore of executives / bookers / creative minds. Under rated and simultaneously over rated for in ring performance. Unparalleled for backstage political fuckery. But when both of those were out of the picture, one of the best fucking ever when using his mind for the benefit of others. Legit a legendary & iconic figure with no true equal. He's one of a kind. And in a lot of ways that's harder to accomplish than being an Austin/Rock transcendent figure. There's no road map for the shit Triple H was able to accomplish.

100%. We don't have to give the benefit of the doubt to people who do not earn it. The game stops working when we stop playing along with it. None of these people have any ability to not tell on themselves if you ask them a single follow up question. It's all bullshit and you don't have to tolerate it.

bad news for Cody Rhodes, Vince just booked Seth Rollins vs Will Smith for Wrestlemania

Does "If you see it on TV, it's a work" apply to the Oscars as well as wrestling?

Takeshita is my favourite wrestler so I'm jazzed about this.

Big win for Dustin, there! What will the better way be for Jay Lethal? Fuego calls out HoB? Dude, no! Matthew's new gear is choice! Oh, wow, Dark Order to the rescue! There's plenty of Evil out there to combat House of Black's brand of evil! So, out of the currently active guys, Dark Order is basically three sets of tag teams, Cult Cabana and Anna Jay? Is that about right? Well, this team was no match for Red Dragon on this night, though. Scorpio Sky (and Lambert) have a point that since Sky had to wait for his shot, so will everybody else. Nyla did beast things and Hook gave no fucks about the award he was presented and even less, if possible, about being cursed by Danhausen. Main event was fast paced and high impact. Swerve will have such a line up of guys to work with, but Starks finally getting some significant title defences is nice. I kinda figured Lee would bust through the big sign, but he threw somebody else through it. Just as well. This show could use another hour, but now it's kinda like the old NXT episodes, so that is good, too!

This is a very good point. In that the goal of watching all that stuff is to learn and grow as a performer, and get better. He did put in more effort in tape study for sure, we agree there. But there are other ways to learn and grow. I'm not saying we should grade RVD an A+ at this aspect, but he was a student of the game in other ways. Road trips with The Sheik early in his career. Constantly being creative and coming up with new outside the box concepts (vs aping Harley and Flair stuff). Triple H's dedication is unmatched. But we can't know for sure that RVD didn't take it pretty serious. You're just basing that entirely on his personality. A stereotype. Also how do we rate on the scale a guy like an AJ Styles? Did not watch wrestling growing up. Incredibly hard worker with a ton of high end work. But he's not out there studying tapes like Triple H did either. Shouldn't we credit them for what was presented on the canvas, more so than how they came to those skills? Triple H did far more study. But I'd argue RVD's output was almost as good even if he didn't have to study. (Alot of this is a style arguement to be fair. I lean towards new and outside of the box vs traditional / old school). This isn't a fair point at all. Production meetings weren't open to anyone who wanted to go. You had to have the political clout in the first place. Had RVD wanted to go he would have been denied. Triple H shouldn't get credit for something 98% of the roster was never going to be allowed to do anyways. I agree that "because Steph" gets used wayyy too often. He was in those production meetings before they were dating. But he was there because he was Shawn's boy. Not hating on that. But he was part of 3 way calls with Shawn & Vince on Montreal strategy suggestions and other booking stuff. Him being the one pushing for the screwjob earned him more clout with Vince than dating Steph. But dating Steph definitely leveled him up. We're not *that* far off. Triple H was badass in my opinion. And he worked hard as fuck in all aspects of the business. But him going above and beyond shouldn't negate the fact that other people were able to get over and become more entertaining. Triple H certainly worked harder / loved the business more than Hogan. But I don't see anyone saying because of that Hunter was more important and better for WWE on top than Hogan was. I'd take Triple H's 2000 over any year for RVD. But that doesn't negate the fact that RVD was more than deserving of runs on top. And getting the equivalent of a summary offense & fine should not have been enough to derail his chances.

Blank Check reviewing one of my favorite movies ever with the Doughboys? Quality podcasting right there!

Aside from the reign of terror in 2002-2003 where Booker should have won at WM 19 and Goldberg in the elimination chamber, I always thought Triple H was a solid champion. He just wanted to be Ric Flair without all of Flairs baggage. I think he redeemed himself for all that hate the iwc had him with nxt. His nxt had plenty of stars for the wwe. It's not his fault that Vince didn't see anything in those people. If given the chance he probably could be a competent head of a show but thats never happening until Vince is gone.

I hate to make it seem like I'm shitting on HHH because I, almost shed a tear watching him speak about his health situation and his kids. I've enjoyed different parts of his career and there's been part I haven't and I've always thought he has a great mind for the business. In fact I believe especially as he stopped being full time inring he was a better asset to the company even still having to compromise with the boss's ultimate decisions obviously but I do believe when you are in the trenches as a full time worker alot of your politicking is based off self preservation

He was very dedicated, he was very good but I don't think he was this all time great he was precieved to be. I watched the first televised triple threat match on Raw with him ,Owen and Goldust today on Instagram and I remember I enjoyed his work so much as the Greenwich snob right up to before DX was formed. He was so good as taking a beating with his Flair esq bumps early on. He was some really good matches with Mero, Goldust, Mankind and guys at that level at the early part of his run. He had some good matches with Rock too later as a Face because it was like up to that point he was really still trying to prove he should be in the main event spot. Being the overly dominant heel champ in a babyface territory really hurt things especially once Austin and Rock was gone.

I love Vinegar Syndrome and will probably hit them up at the Halfway Sale proper for some of their back catalogue. But the prices for this new stuff is inching up to a space where I feel like my sickness if being exploited. On the plus side, I've been saving for VinSyn Sales so often, that I've neglected some of the other labels. So the price increase gives me a good reason to look elsewhere to scratch that itch. I'll be back. I'll always be back. I haven't bought a Criterion in years, and I know they have some. Really wish they'd upgrade "Z". That's a big one for me. The Kino Sale has some bangers. It goes through April 19th so I'll probably nab some next month, since I already spent my habit allowance. That Edgar Wright photo is my goal. I've already overflowed my new shelf after 4 years. Anybody else getting Critic's Choice Video catalogues? I guess they got my address from Kino Lorber(I don't remember consenting to that, but in this case I don't mind). Haven't ordered from them but I have to say there's something nice about having a paper catalogue I can leaf through and mark up.

I think the CYN thing is tricky, because if you are an Extremely Online person then it's really clear that they are running the exact same rhetorical playbook as various shitty far-right internet chud groups. It's all the same phrases and winks and nods and not saying exactly what you mean. But I can also see it just scanning as eccentric weirdness if you're not already familiar with that milieu.

There are countless wrestlers with better and worse careers, but I don't know how many people have had more interesting careers than HHH. By interesting, I'm not taking about any of the stuff that happens onscreen, but all the conversations that we've had about everything outside of the ring. Whether he was unfairly punished for the curtain call, or his behind the scenes politicking, or turning NXT into something that made us had hope for the future of WWE, he's been fascinating to talk about for 25 years.