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I wish I had the time to write a deeper critical analysis of the Roman/Sami story, because for all of the fawning over the storytelling, nobody (that I’ve read yet) has sniffed out the far more interesting stuff going on under the surface—specifically, the way the story changed after Vince was forced out and what that change says about Vince, HHH, and their relationship to each other. I think writers tend to reveal a lot about themselves through their work, whether they intend to or not. So, consider… In Vince’s version, Sami is a bumbling, wannabe family member, a hanger-on. He’s a joke, and the punchline is that he’s never going to REALLY be accepted, no matter how hard he tries. Roman lets him hang around because he’s amusing and an occasionally useful idiot. In HHH’s version, Sami is cast in a more sympathetic light. He’s a put upon hero who jumps through every hoop, endures every taunt, and compromises his own values to earn Roman’s respect and affection, but is met with second-guessing, derision, threats, and suffering, building to a breaking point where Sami stabs him in the back and attempts to take away what matters most to him. Gosh, it’s almost like Roman is Vince, Sami is HHH, and the Bloodline has been their own story as viewed from each of their perspectives. If someone from The Ringer is lurking this thread, you can have that idea for free, but I’m expecting 5,000 words on it by Wednesday.

Ariel, please stop posting on DVDVR.

This tweet really stood out to me after reading about Sami not bring a "top guy" all weekend

No you can’t. Because Jey was the doubtful Thomas. He eventually came to accept and love Sami. And when Sami broke free, he saw a little something in himself that has put the indecision of what to do in his mind. Sami also acknowledged him - putting Jey on the same level as Roman. Sami is the trigger for Jey’s next action. You need that motivator to make it happen. And it happened.

Turned on a game Saturday afternoon and was briefly impressed at the size of the crowd. Hot crowd. They were cheering their heads off. Took me about 30 seconds to realize I had left the tv on the NFL Network the the night before and the game on the screen was actually a replay of the Jacksonville-KC playoff game from a few weeks earlier. Crowd was decidedly more mild once I flipped stations to an actual XFL game.

He must have forgotten the "hard questions" in his other pants when he interviewed HHH.

I think the love people have for Sami has clouded their perception of what the story really is.. Sami is closer to Jey Uso than he is to Roman. Jey Uso is the one who was jumped into The Bloodline while Jimmy, Solo and even Sami himself had an EZ pass. Also, ending a 900-day title reign 6 weeks before WrestleMania would have certainly been a choice... a bad choice, there's way more eyeballs on WrestleMania than Elimination Chamber. WrestleMania is where everything leads, it's the season finale for wrestling. People talk about Sami's quarter ratings and viewership but all of this is built off the back of The Bloodline story that's been red hot even before Sami. To Sami's credit he elevated the story even more.

I haven't looked at any of the critic's reviews to the match. But it's two days later and I am still thinking and texting about Sami/Roman. I'm not one to get pissy about booking decisions. And I'm not. Because The Bloodline saga isn't just "Who can beat Roman?" It's also about KO and Sami reuniting (KO's been a big part of the journey, too) to take down The Usos - the greatest of all-time on the greatest run in their careers. It's about Jey finding it in himself to stand up against Roman and become his own man again. It's about Jey and Jimmy's relationship in the midst of all of this. It's about Jey finally accepting and loving Sami only to see Sami turn on Roman and now inadvertently hit Jey in the match during his moment of indecision. But man does that ending stick with me. I really really really really wanted Sami to win. But sometimes the good guys in life and in stories do not win. There are certainly "technically better" matches, although that match was awesome in terms of execution and layout. And it was a masterpiece in manipulating the crowd's emotions. But there are only a few times in life watching wrestling where I was still thinking about how a match hit me emotionally. And all of those times came when the good guy won. Not when the good guy lost. I have no idea (or really care) how many stars Meltzer is giving or the like. But seriously -- this match has climbed so high up my list of "best matches of my lifetime as a wrestling fan." Give me some time and distance and I can literally see it being my favorite match of all-time. But I need some time and distance for it to sink in.

Just like quarterbacks. I used that line in my upcoming WCW book when they have the WCW title and the "International World title."

So in the Defenders game, security took away the fan's beer cup snake so they threw lemons on the field in retaliation. I don't know why they had lemons. They picked up some of them but then gave up and resumed play.

Honestly, I'd rather have mid match shit talking and character work for the back row than a non-stop parade of "bangers" just for the sake of it. It's probably because I'm a wrestling boomer and liked it better when people didn't chase snowflakes and told actual stories that weren't "how many times can I kick out of a finisher". Not saying WWE doesn't do that *stares straight at Brock*, but I've been somewhat appreciative of focusing more on characater work than getting 2000 moves in.

fuego-Juice was fine, I guess being in Laredo means we get guys in masks even if they’re white dudes from Alabama, and heat for threatening to unmask them. Kind of surprised that Juice is stuck with opening YouTube shows. Athena beats someone’s ass, always fun, nothing new. Big Bill and Lee Moriarty look as though they’re going to squash some dudes, but it ends up being a perfectly fine, competitive match. Big Bill shows some personality and cockiness. Women’s trios was pretty disappointing given the participants. Shafir has improved to the point of not being a total detriment to a match or her opponents. Madison Rayne in-ring continues to be the weirdest signing but since she’s mostly YouTube or JTTS it’s not a huge deal. Very little of Willow in this match, and the whole thing was just kind of there. Hobbs squashes some dude, gives his some stiff clobbering and then hits a particularly gnarly spinebuster. The literal book stuff is weird. 10-man was chaotic, fair amount of comedy, the kind of thing to make the fans happy because they get to see Dark Order, Best Friends, and Matt Hardy wrestle. The announcers totally missed that Butcher and Blade were part of the Hardy Family not even a year ago. Oh boy, Lucha Brothers are back.. Funny moment from Tony Nese where he has Penta in the tree of woe and instead of a dropkick or cannonball he stops short, lies on his back, and kicks him while doing bicycle knee touches. Not much of Rey Fenix in this one, but he gets some impressive air and hang time on a cutter. I assume they’re going to be one of the teams in the PPV 4-way.

Unless you have legit proof, I would not be making that accusation as part of the media. Brett Favre is suing people somehow for defamation of character and like people have more than enough proof that he's stealing welfare funds. Other than speculation on social media, unless he was doing rails with Tony, he doesn't have any proof. Moreover, he's in bed with a company that is owned by a man who probably has done TK's body weight in cocaine and booked by a man who admitted to taking PEDs. Welcome to pro wrestling, buddy.

It's Fuego del Sol and Juice Robinson! ROCK HARD! Fuego starts off getting the better of ROCK HARD! Fuego makes a comeback! Juice Robinson is awesome at making Fuego look like a million bucks. Juice UNMASKS Fuego and gets the pin! Fuego looked great. Juice Robinson rules it. ATHENA! ATHENA! ATHENA! I don't think I've seen Evelyn Carter before. ATHENA RULES! She tells a little story. It involves ATHENA beating the hell out of Evelyn Carter. What a fabulous ass beating, Big Bill and Lee Moriarty crush two dudes. AFTER A WHILE! Zack Zilla and Moriarty have a fun section. Big Bill DOES A LITTLE DANCE! Zack Zilla and partner get in all kinds of offense before Bill finally kills the dude. It's Willow Nightingale, Leva Bates and Madison Rayne taking on EMI! EMI! EMI! Nyla and Marina Shafir. Madison Rayne becomes our face in peril! EMI smokes her with BIG CHOP! VICKIE CHEATS! Willow is fucking GREAT after the hot tag! SO MUCH ENERGY! Leva makes with some kicks that spell defeat and Nyla murdalizes her with a Beast Bomb. Powerhouse Hobbs destroys Sal Muscat. A ten man match! The Dark Order! The Best Friends! The FIRM! The Butcher and The Blade! Ethan Page dances! Ethan Page doesn't let Zay say things on the mic! Uno punches Zay in the face! Uno becomes our face in peril though Matt Hardy is the most over babyface in the match. The Butcher looks fucking great in this. Ethan Page is GREAT as a heel- raking the eyes, talking shit. Chuck makes the hot tag and backdrops Zay who screams like a little girl! The Best Friends kill Zay! Evil Uno hits the Twist of Page! Uno gets killed by the Butcher and the Blade! They have VERY elaborate finish that was really great. Zay gets beat because Ethan Page is too worried about Matt Hardy to tag in. That was good. Smart Mark Sterling calls Laredo is stinky! TAKE THEIR MASKS! The Lucha Brothers! ARE OVER IN LAREDO! PENTA irritates dudes on the board! Tony Nese is a HEAT MACHINE! Nese and PENTA are great in the ring together. PENTA is great as face in peril. This match is great. STERLING STORMS THE RING! ALEX does things to his face! Nese takes a Stuff Piledriver! That was fun.

I watched SuperBrawl 1994 last night. Arn and Regal basically go a 30 minute broadway but Regal cheats to win in the final 10 or 15 seconds. The amount of sweat in this match...disgusting. You never know where those tax cheats might be hiding. There surely are tax havens underwater.

I'm glad they didn't hotshot it to Sami. Did WWE write themselves into a corner? Yes, they did. But I'd prefer they stick with the plan than call an audible on this one. The only way I'd accept an audible here is if they seriously give the belt to to Sami and do it at WrestleMania and then full on turn Cody heel and make Cody the most obnoxious, chickenshit scumbag on the planet and become a ridiculous screeching spoiled brat that he didn't get his way and that he's a failed golden child. And unless WWE goes 100% on that, I see no point in changing course now. Would Cody even be on board with that? Look at all the dumb shit he was doing in AEW that went absolutely nowhere. Also you don't build up Roman this much and split the titles right before WrestleMania. Frankly, the brand extension is useless anyway and having two world champions is stupid. Think about this. Roman has been the undisputed champion for almost a year. That hasn't hurt or killed business at all for WWE. In fact, they've been doing some of their best numbers in a long time. If anything, it's further proof that this highly eroded brand extension is idiotic and unnecessary.

Just got through it. I'm not going to do a full write up, I thought it was a pretty great White performance, with Kingston serving as the Platonic ideal that he had to press up against. The way I read it was that White was a man lost, who started the match not taking it all seriously. He led by mouthing off to Eddie that this was his big moment, immediately went to the throat, and only could keep up any offense by going dirty (shin, eyes, throat). Eddie just kept powering through it, often with one chop. There was a moment after he went dirty and then followed it up with a suplex into the corner, that White started to look to the camera. He was about to taunt, about to be nonchalant, lean into the Bullet Club mentality, but it all felt empty and worthless and bankrupt and you could see it in his eyes. As the match went on, he started to tangibly feel more and more how much Eddie wanted this, how much he valued it, the heart of wonder that he could find in every opportunity wrestling for NJPW. At first, White didn't care. Then, he wanted it just because Eddie wanted it. And as the match went on, he started to feel the value of it, started to try to prove that he was worthy of it. It wasn't his dream though. It was Eddie's. He was just stealing it to fill the vacant hole within himself and no matter how talented he was, he couldn't rise to Eddie's level by stealing someone else's dream. There was one moment of doubt, where Eddie, in his frustration and angry at White's vacillating spirit that went from rising to the occasion and falling back to dirty tricks, let his own humanity overcome his Inoki-ism and he resorted to an eyerake as well. He paid for that by eating White's finish, but redeemed himself by being too much and rolling to the outside. The finishing stretch was White as a desperate man, now finally realizing what he was about to lose, what he had taken for granted, ready to start a journey only to find the door quickly closing. And in those last moments as he rose again and again, Eddie finally saw in him a man who deserved this opportunity, only to understand that it all came too late, something Eddie understands more than most men. I guess that's more or less a full write up anyway, but yeah, even if 70% of that was intentional, it was a hell of a thing.

But what is Cody at this moment? He's still a guy in his AEW packaging who started off hot and got injured and then got the cushiest Rumble win ever. Sami actually had a story. Cody seems totally manufactured at this point, through my eyes.

Meanwhile Ron Wright’s son looks like the person who gets blamed for a string of unsolved murders in the area. Either a bit short or that guy is close to 6’4” in either real or worked height

There's a lot of that thing where white people just don't have to fuck it up, where black people have to be exceptional. There are a lot of white coordinators who have been given a shot with less experience and success than Bienemy.

Two days later and the finish still irks me. I 100% agree that Cody is the guy to go with but just give people that moment of Sami winning, give him a 3 week run (like Edge in 2006 when he cashed in) and still let Cody have his story end at Mania and it doesn’t hurt either one bit. Just give the fans something different just to reiterate that “anything can happen in the WWE” or whatever and still let your handpicked champion finish out Mania.

I've seen a couple of folks here go into it, but it's wild to me looking at the Twitter discourse, and how many people not understanding that Sami was never supposed to be the story. I love Sami, and that match was amazing until the finish, but he was never more than a happy accident in the broader Bloodline story. Some otherwise smart people have convinced themselves that Elimination Chamber was supposed to be the endpoint, and idk man. I'm not even a Cody guy, but I also know that going with him is the right move. Also, the "make it a triple threat" people are wild, because all that would do is making Sami a double loser.

Also Jey Uso is clearly at least *a little bit* Stephanie in HHH’s version (though that doesn’t line up as cleanly) but was maybe a Shane stand-in during the early days of Vince’s Bloodline.

I didn’t think the Usos were even allowed into Canada with their DWI convictions! How does the Bloodline avoid Immigration authorities? Roman’s melodrama is my least favorite genre. I came in with such hope that WWE wouldn’t fuck this up. I can only hope the crowd Goldberg / Lesnars the shit out of Cody / Roman. it’s not supposed to be this boring

I wrote about that angle in the Ringer this week https://www.theringer.com/2023/2/17/23604726/jerry-jarrett-three-great-memphis-wrestling-angles

It's already pressed, probably on plain black, and been doing a killing for my friends at Sorry State Records in Raleigh. Was the top three or four record for them for a couple weeks.

I know "am I the only one" is an annoying type of question because you're probably never the only one, but am I the only one who preferred babyface Roman that was desperately clinging on to the imagery of the Shield and getting mixed reactions? I think part of it is my preference for weird misshapen objects like that rather than things as cleanly black-and-white as Roman's current presentation. But it's more than that. Maybe it's something that they started doing more and more of during the PC/Thunderdome days and whatnot (and maybe someone who was watching more of that can confirm or deny), but Roman's matches don't feel like wrestling matches to me -- They're like plodding, overly-verbal-for-the-TV-mic plays that just happen to be taking place in a wrestling match. And I remember Roman used to have what I conceive of as wrestling matches. Weird babyface Roman that some people found off-putting probably would have had a more satisfying match with Sami last night, correct? There certainly wouldn't be the worst kind of slow, flat, nothing heat that Roman seems to enjoy these days. The road here might not have been as hot and satisfying, but there's a better Roman Reigns-Sami Zayn match in them. I don't know. I used to have Roman matches I really would like to have seen. I'd have liked to have seen Roman vs Omega at one point. The king WWE guy vs the kind non-WWE guy at one time, fun clash of styles. Not so much with this Roman though, even if this is what the king WWE guy does now. Regardless, the MVP was Mrs Sami Zayn. A great "spouse who isn't part of the show and is very concerned" performance. If they're going to go for very heavy drama, that stuff plays well. Happy for Sami getting the push too. The match? I'm happy some people were satisfied, but not for me.

Haven’t been on the site for a couple months, so probably a good time for an update. Still have stage 4 lung cancer. Finished my fourth round of chemo on Jan 31. On Tuesday, I go in for a scan then meet with my oncologist. If the scans look good, I am done with chemo for the time being and will continue on with immunotherapy (Keytruda) every three weeks. If something alarming shows up on the scan, we will continue with chemotherapy. Scans I had done six weeks ago looked encouraging, so my oncologist isn’t expecting to order more chemo for me, but it all depends on how Tuesday morning goes. I’ll probably end up going in every three weeks for Keytruda for the next two years, but Keytruda doesn’t have the severe side effects chemo does. Survived four rounds of chemo so far. First two rounds were tolerable and I was able to keep going to my office and doing a little bit around the house. I was zonked out for a couple days but bounced back reasonably well. Third and fourth rounds just kicked my ass. Not only tired, but fatigued. Deep, all-consuming fatigue. Driving tired me out. Standing tired me out. I stayed home and slept more. I’ve been constantly tired the past few months, which I can handle, but the fatigue is something else. Even thinking about doing something takes so much effort. Nausea hasn’t been too bad. They have decent drugs for that now. I’ve lost very little weight. Had some bad go-rounds with muscle aches, but those bouts were few and far-between. Hicupped for almost two days straight at the beginning. Side effect of the steroid I am on for my immune system. Had to take something for that too. Family and friends have been great. People constantly offer to do things for me, give me rides, bring me food. I turned everyone down almost every single time. I have done tons of stuff I had no energy for but did it anyway. Drove myself to work, went to birthday parties, did chores around the house. People keep asking me if I’m up to this stuff and I want to scream at them “are you insane? I may collapse with one more step.”. I can understand why people stay in and curl up and wait for chemo to be over, but it’s not me. There will be plenty of time later for friends and family to figure out what life looks like without me around. No one needs a preview now. I am determined to hobble through this best I can. I am very much my father’s son, lol. Stayed caught up at work better than I hoped. I have good people who rose to the occasion and covered my slack. I don’t have the sort of job where I can just take time off or get a replacement. And…. We all care about the company. Obviously, I don’t have a lot of young people working for me, lol. Made partner. We’ve been talking about that for while with very little being done, but either someone finally lit a partner under the partnership's collective ass or, more likely, they.’re trying to see to it that my wife is comfortable financially after….. I have that taken care of, I think, but I appreciate the gesture. Also, we are very profitable these days. I’m hoping we grow large enough to attract the attention of one of the mega corps in our field snd they buy us up and make most everyone in the place damn wealthy. That.’s my goal from here on in: get us bought out before something happens to me. I’ve always been goal-oriented, so trying to race ahead of deadlines is old hat to me. Ok, enough for now. Getting tired and wife wants to watch a movie.

NOW it's baseball season.

I am pretty sure the top 5% have already looked into this at the very least. And speaking of misappropriated funds, I wonder if one of the Million Dollar Man's summer residences will be the Mariana Trench.

It’s actually because he gave Michael Fassbender all the clues.

Oh my god, Larry Santo knowing this is his one and only opportunity to talk in his career on television cuts the most southern fried, generic rasslin promo that's it is awesomely bad. What makes it even better is Chris Candido, who obviously isn't a promo guy, knows we're about to have a terrible promo visited upon us and makes the requisite and most situation appropriate facial expressions as such.

IRS cutting a promo on Jean-Pierre LaFitte about paying taxes on his underwater pirate treasure

could the Jets and Giants consolidate the "visit our stadium" part of the Derek Carr wooing process?

I re-upped my AJPW TV subscription due to the hype behind the Miyahara/Nagata match, really enjoyed it! So much that I probably do have it so far as my second favourite match of the year (ahead of Omega/Ospreay, behind Okada/Takagi). Nagata (and Kojima last year) proving he's still got gas in the tank and I wish New Japan would utilise better. I'll stick around for the CC, specifically looking forward to Kento/Yuma/T-Hawk matches with each other.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this, but the 12/24/83 Mid-South must be the very first instance of Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler as PBP/commentator ever, right? I can't imagine that there was a time before this that it would have happened.

Hell yes - "he just knocked Dusty Rhodes out with that 100-pound bag of wheat!" is one of my favorite sneak-attacks.

I just had a dream that cumulated in the surprise AEW debut of Sabu (turns out that one of the masked dudes in some segment was actually Sabu), so if Sabu emerges suddenly in 2023, blame my dreams for it happening. I don’t really remember any of the other people in the segment though.

Just to chime in on the Cody/Triple H "beef" stemming from Cody "targeting" him by destroying the throne. Triple H had to have loved that shit. When your ego is the size of his and your mentor is Vince McMahon himself, the fact that the other company is taking shots at you and not at Cena or Roman or Vince means that you are the guy that is symbolically "The 'Fed." Cody Rhodes could've come out and mocked the Undertaker. He could've come out and done the "Vince walk." He could've done any number of things to point out that the WWE was still all about nostalgia and main eventers from 15 years ago and part-timers and that AEW was all about the future. But he used symbols linked to Triple H. If you're Triple H, that's not a scathing indictment, its a form of flattery.

I think women's secondary titles are a good thing. As it is once a woman wins the world title there's really no where to go. If you had a women's IC title you could watch a women's wrestler go from tag/IC to world title like Bret and Shawn

I couldn't disagree more.. The Bloodline started with Jey, why shouldn't he have a hand in ending it ?

If you have two world titles, you have no world title.

Keith Lee looked like he has one day left on the force till retirement

Will this affect your username?

I hope Dustin continues to cut confused old man promo's about doritos and stuff "Swerve I'm from Texas! And if you play in Texas you best have a fiddle in the band!"

In hindsight, Boston should have punished Udoka by letting him coach the Nets.

Watched The Founder because I've never seen it before and I don't know much about the history of McDonalds. Ray Kroc is a real piece of shit, huh? I think the only positive was seeing that after his death his wife donated millions to NPR. Good movie though, that goes from aww shucks to, "man...fuck that guy." I think the only thing that really bothered me was the entire time it felt like Michael Keaton needed to go back to the dentist to get a different set of teeth. He had that sound of someone who was trying to let their partials fall out.