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I don't think this will be helpful to anyone but it'll probably be helpful to me, so bear with me. I didn't think I had a lot to say but now I'm on the other side of the Rumble (and a lot of people watching it like... it was any other Rumble) and the scrum. Vince won. It's hard for me to even sum up just how much he won. When you look at what he wanted throughout his career, at the top of the list, it was respect from people outside the industry, and total and absolute control over the world he created. He probably didn't get the first half, though if you look at the TKO ribbon cutting ceremonies and how his peers on the board spoke of him, he kind of sort of did. When it came to the control though? Absolutely. If there was a turnover of audience, and especially an enhancement with younger people in 84-85, in 97-99, and then over the last few years, this last one is the most insidious because it had social media to support it. I can't even imagine the sort of rebellion that happened in 2014 now and that was just ten years ago. I can't imagine the current audience even thinking that whatever they were fed wasn't the absolute correct thing in the first place. It's so telling how quickly they realized they should be singing along to Cody's song or how they do the "It's Clobbering Time" better than anyone else. Stories in the WWE aren't about human issues, not really, or if they are, they're all through the lens of the mythos Vince has created. They're detached from real life. Everyone's not fighting for money and glory but instead for corporate recognition. They're all fighting to be employee of the month, basically, because that is the loftiest goal as seen by all the wrestlers and the fanbase as a whole. It is dystopian down to the language and terminology and branding. And it's all supported by almost bulletproof revenue streams that aren't affected by how good or bad the product is, including, of course, Saudi money. Here's where I'm at. When they stop calling the wrestlers Superstars, I'll start considering checking in on WWE programming again. Seems like a pretty good thematic line.

"I didn’t read the lawsuit" though. I. DIDN'T. READ. THE. LAWSUIT. Motherfucker, everybody interested in pro wrestling read that lawsuit or a breakdown of it. People NOT interested in wrestling whatsoever did, even if it was for their jobs. In this instance you are asking to get dragged.

I actually believe he didn't read it. And that's really the problem, isn't it?

Triple H had an AEW shot ready in the chamber, but didn’t have a boilerplate corporate statement ready for any Vince questions. Fucking lol.

I know AEW has their attendance issues, but I’ll take a smaller, passionate crowd over a huge one with the same handful of dorks in the front row every show reacting to nothing.

Somebody could write a book about how Vince’s own body dysmorphia has influenced generations of young men.

“I haven’t read the lawsuit” is a variation of when a Senator/House Rep. wants to duck giving their opinion on what was said/done/written/etc. by [not naming who]…”I haven’t watched the video”, “I haven’t read the interview”, “I haven’t seen the speech”. It’s bullshit then, and it was bullshit now. It happens often enough that just *one time* I’d like to see the reporter anticipate this avoidance strategy by immediately following up with, “no problem - here you go!” and handing them a printed copy of the lawsuit. “Summary is only a couple of pages - we’ll give you a few minutes for your thoughts on it.”

Monkey’s Paw: Billy Corgan announces that NWA will start doing post show scrums streaming live on Truth Social.

HHH - Handles Harassment Horribly please, no standing applause. We got not have so much time and let the other posters get an opportunity to post. Save your loud cheering and whooping for the end.

Boy calls me down to the basement. “Dad! Come see this!” Proceeds to unload some damn-near-perfect Kobashi/Kingston machine gun chops on the heavy bag.

*stops doing Hindu squats while hauling myself over the coals for having a McNugget meal last night* What do you mean?

“I haven’t read the lawsuit” was a wild thing to say. Really wish somebody would’ve followed up on that.

you think those fans they showed in the Slim Jim section pre-title match knew how close they came to not getting free Slim Jims tonight

No. He tries his moves out on me.

One of the things recent rumbles have brought into focus is how terrible and indistinguishable from one another most current WWE theme songs are. I felt like on at least half the men’s rumble entrances you didn’t even get the big countdown pop because nobody could tell who was coming out based on the music hitting. Just this delayed “oh yeah, that guy.”

I realize there’s only one Pat Patterson, but it’s shocking the degree to which they’ve completely forgotten what makes a Rumble good. This shit was so boring.

Did other people know? Sure. Absolutely. Are people probably projecting who they think it is for whatever reason (personal dislike of that person, a desire to completely clean the company top to bottom, an assumption based on available information, et cetera, et cetera)? Yes. And that's sort of the problem. People are trying to connect dots and letting their own personal biases get in the way rather than wait for facts and judging based on them.

Collision was definitely "My AEW." Hard hitting opening tag with a limb focus. Orange Cassidy match; not the best but still a lot of fun with percolating storylines underneath. Solid women's match to get May over even more; she's very active and in the moment all times with her crowd interaction. That just awesome stretch of the Kingston match, the wonderful Danielson match that you couldn't get anywhere else, Deeb's return, and then the wild six man cage match full of bells and whistles and family and hatred. Such a great show. Granted, it's AEW so I'm not looking forward to Dynamite much (Jericho vs Fletcher, Deonna vs Taya, Strickland vs RVD?, Page vs Toa).

There are times to be a "positive vibes only" kind of dude, and last night wasn't one of those times. Triple H has been pretty famously obtuse about his surroundings (the one that sticks out to me because it's relevant to my personal interests is him saying he didn't know "joshi" was a real word a few months ago), but he did himself no favors with that press conference. All he had to do was say "there are active investigations and I cannot comment". I doubt anything will come of it, but it is, how one might say, a bad look.

I want to give that crowd a shout out. Especially for being directly against the Rumble, they were loud and awesome. That’s how it’s done, Savanah

Triple H: " I haven’t read the lawsuit.” That's a problem. Those answers by Trips, ugh.

For as shitty as this was, all respect to Thurston, Alba, and Hawkins. People like to talk shit about wrestling journalism, sometimes for good cause, but they did their job.

Can you even imagine the things he’s managed not to read, see, hear over the years as they were happening in the next office, backstage, in the hotel. he’s just a doomed creature.

I expected Hunter to be vague, but I was surprised at how much lamer he handled it. Like he could've said "it's fluid we're still sorting things out, so I can't comment on specifics now." Instead he was like "guys this week was amazing."

Dude, read your username. You're not Chaotic Metal.

Should have kicked the FG.

Pretty much this. I think what people forget when they do a lot of the "what if the territories had survived" scenarios is that a lot of those territories were doomed anyway, and WWF hastened their demise. Take Black Saturday, for example. Georgia was buckling under the weight of trying to expand too quickly and the Briscoes wanted to get out anyway. If it wasn't going to be sold to Vince, it would have been sold to someone else. Watts? Watts crashes in 1986/1987 anyway; nothing stops the oil prices from falling and his territory from cratering. If anything, Turner's demand that someone run a studio show in Atlanta might spread Watts' territory out and buy him a little bit of time, but he still ends up going under if his home base is still the Mid-South area. Crockett probably crashes even faster than he did if he buys Georgia in 1984 instead of buying the slot from Vince, because then he tries to expand sooner than he did, and his staff wasn't capable of managing it. The question is really if Turner would be more willing to buy Crockett in, say, 1985/1986 rather than 1988. The AWA still dies because Verne Gagne's problem wasn't Vince, his problem was his refusal to change with the times. He had Hogan when Hogan was red hot and wouldn't put his belt on him because he wanted a cut of Hogan's Japan dates, which forced Hogan out. Then he got gift-wrapped Sgt. Slaughter, who was almost as hot as Hogan at the time, and squandered Slaughter. World Class still has the problem with the Von Erichs having their issues, and the territory becoming stale even if they do survive. If Turner somehow stays in the wrestling business and if the situation described by Mister TV doesn't kill most of the groups, then whoever lands on Turner and survives in the mid-1990s still likely gets cancelled in 2001 when Jamie Kellner restructures TBS and TNT's programming. People say it's WCW's financials that got them cancelled, but both channels got rebranded around the same time WCW got dropped. It was clear that the merged AOL Time Warner wanted to change their programming and WCW's financials were an easy out for them. It stands to reason that no matter how healthy WCW was, or whoever was in their spot, they don't survive 2001. This isn't to say that Vince was a genius or anything, but he was incredibly lucky and often in the right place at the right time. So assuming there's no WWF national expansion, eventually someone will end up trying (likely pushed by Turner as cable expands) and practically everyone ends up crashing due to their already extant problems.

Triple H claiming he hasn't even read the lawsuit might be the biggest lie he's ever told and that's saying something.

Jesus Christ, Mahomes is getting the full Tom Brady "your defense and the other team making huge mistakes won a game you were mediocre in, so we are going to verbally give you a hand job while all but ignoring everybody else" treatment.

Cody is, and always has been, corny as fuck. He’s exactly where he’s supposed to be in his career. Being the top guy in the underdog opposition promotion is not for him. He’s always at the ready to toss the salad of his corporate overlords.

I'd be okay with CZWFANS still existing.

Yeah I think someone else may have attempted to nationalize, but what Vince really did was create a relationship between wrestling and pop culture. It’s had its ups and downs but that relationship has meant everything to professional wrestling as a whole ever since .

Like cockroaches, the business will always survive on some level, even if it’s just at county fairs and fire halls.

Vince has been pro wrestling's #1 enemy since he found out what his dad did. His influence on the industry and the artform has done lasting damage to how wrestling is presented and accepted and could take years to correct if they even want to

Football managers too. Whenever an Arsenal player got a red or yellow card, or conceded a penalty, Arsene Wenger would always say he hadn’t seen it. Now if one of his players was the one being fouled, you bet your arse he would have seen it, and had a strong opinion on how the refs should do more to protect his players.

Serena Deeb bringing the FIRE! Love to see it, one of my all time favs. Great match and promo. Robyn Renegade's also been shining in all of her outings lately, so this all ruled. Opening tag was fun. Bryan/Nagata was as awesome as would be expected. Really enjoyed the main event. Thought all the story beats were really well executed and the escapes all made sense. Particularly dug Brody tackling Dax out the door. Loved Mark Briscoe not just disappearing but coming back around to be a major part of the finish. Star quality ending for Garcia. Great stuff.

I’m so screwed, guys

I thought it was a really fun show. I mean, it's the Royal Rumble? The Woman's Rumble was excellent. On top of all of the really big moments, I came away thinking that the woman's division can now fill a Rumble where the worst entrant is "not too bad." Even someone like Shotzi has an awesome entrance, presence and at least one good splash. The top end of the women's roster has been great for about a decade now. The lower end is now a really solid group of performers. I also came away really impressed with Becky Lynch. I know I'm not breaking anything new about her being a generational talent and performer. But she had so many awesome little moments sprinkled throughout this -- like when she was in awe watching Jade toss out Nia (the woman standing in Becky's way for years now) and her elimination. The way they're setting up Becky's Last Stand against Rhea has been fantastic -- where Becky has to see if she still has her mojo or if this new generation has passed her. The two of them together have some real "lightning in a bottle" energy where I can see us clamoring for that to be a WM main event. I'm also elated that Bayley won. It sorta blew my mind that she's never had a singles match at WM. Nobody deserves a big WM singles match more than her. I'm pretty sure Bayley has to be the GOAT WWE Woman's Wrestler now. I don't know if we even have a Woman's Rumble match without Bayley/Sasha tearing down the house at NXT. Those two showed not just women's wrestling as a serious entity but you could build a promotion around women's wrestling as your main feud. Bayley was the best babyface of her era. She's had so many great moments on the main roster. Her and Sasha carried the promotion during the pandemic and right after. She hits it out of the park even when she's taking a step back from the starring role. We're really lucky to have her. I'm also happy Cody won. I was not into Cody at all when he arrived. He's won me over. Great babyface who connects with the audience. It hit me watching the final two men end that this was somehow a perfect way to end a week in wrestling that literally changed everything. Cody started the first rival to have any legs in years and came back to win WWE. He beat CM Punk, a guy who made his name as a truth-teller and a black sheep and -- despite the many many many things that can be said about Punk -- has bitten the hand that feeds him a bunch of times. It was a great exclamation point to the chapter in the book.

Long day but caught Collision on a dvr type recording. Very good wrestling television show. The type of fun variety I like. OC vs Komander reminded me of a fun CHIKARA match. Technical lucha with fun gimmicks and shenanigans sprinkled in. Two women’s matches! Look at that. Tony comes through. Deebs is awesome. Glad she is back. Excited for her to mix it up in high profile matches. Kingston vs Mack was ugly delicious. Classic Eddie underdog but King Road Tributing his way through. I was worried about Willie for a second with him not backflip if and landing on his head, but they did a good job making it work because of the knee. Was very well played and made the match even better. Danielson is a prick and hates Eddie. Love it! Bryan Danielson vs Yuji Nagata I’m jotting down as a MOTYC. I absolutely adored this. Yuji still has it and was really getting me excited with his rising and lowering up and down the top rope. I will tell lil Octopus about this Danielson AEW run when he is older. Forgot to mention the opening tag. Good stuff. Cage Match was very fun. I liked the dynamic of starting outside of the cage, the swerve of thinking we’re getting Briscoe, and the actually getting a beat up Garcia. Who might I add sold wonderfully throughout the match. Daniel Garcia was a real highlight. I like the dynamics of teams where escaping can actually put your team in peril. The late part with Buddy climbing back up really made sense and added to it. I also don’t care as much for door usage, but it can be done well and I liked it here. You have to carry the momentum of the match and have everyone down or something. It worked even in the flawed way. The mist was cool. Loved the ending with a returning Mark. Good guys hug. They really feel like the Collision Crew. House of Black still look strong. In summation: Neat.

This should have been Big E

My only real thought is that Bron Breakker is a star the second he shows up on the main roster, he stood out in that match in a way literally none of the other 29 men did.

So dang frustrating. 30 minutes of the worst coaching you'll ever see.

Yeah, kudos to Bossier City! Fun show! BCC v STP was on point. Mox's entrances have been wonderfully bananas lately. OC v Kommander went 2 for 2 and an A+ for variety. OC v CMLL on the way!? Storm promo was solid. I loved Mariah v Frost. Both were excellent. Mariah is a total star. Very much dug the Hanger/Swerve promos. They need a slightly less clunky way of introducing the Dealers Choice gimmick, but it's a fun idea. What does RVD v Swerve look like? I don't love Strickland needing interference here. Kingston v Mack was awesome. Willie Mack is a great hand. He's also a presentation tweak and a tag partner away from a more signifcant place on the card. Hoping he's doing alright today. That was really scary. Best wishes to Willie. The transition to Nagata v Danielson was excellent. Wonderfully fun booking here. Deeb v Renegade was a nice competitive enhancement match. Deeb promo made pretty well the most of her minutes. She should talk more inbetween matches. So should everybody in the division. Garcia/FTR v House of Black was so fun. They worked very well with such a easily clunky gimmick. My only real question is 'why would Dax suddenly leave the cage as he did? Not gonna tell your teammates there Dax?' Amusingly, it seemed like a dick move. Also, Mark Briscoe is too proven tough to be done after that single stage bump. He should have had a follow up attack. Brody's finisher? Visually I would have loved a medical staff attending to Mark. That said,so much to love here. Most everything. Especially loved the dive Brody threw. Of course, Cash is Money. Nice storytelling, @MattD was right to assume they'd pull it off. I shouldn't have doubted this stellar 6. Fuck yeah! DUB RULE WORLD.

I don’t necessarily mean that Vince is the only one who could’ve done it, but he probably was the only one who could’ve on the level he did. Like, I don’t see Crockett getting involved with MTV or selling NBC on their product. Yeah, WCW beat them for a while, but it was the Hogan turn that kicked that into motion and you need “Vince’s” Hogan to have existed for it to work. Ugh. Here I am defending Vince. Jesus. I need a shower.

This does beg us to ask the question, exactly what were they supposed to get excited about? I didn’t make it home for the women’s match, but the men’s rumble was a brutal slog. The flow of the Rumble has always been built on entrance pops, new guys getting their shine, elimination teases, rare/odd face-offs, and, yes finally, dudes getting yeeted* over the top. Probably some other things I’m forgetting, but generally that’s what the crowd responds to. Well, most modern WWE theme music sucks and you can barely tell one from the next, so nobody pops for entrances. The intervals between entrances are so short, especially when they speed it up in the middle, so guys get very little time to shine. (Punk was in the ring for what felt like 30 seconds before he was on his ass, getting worked over, in his big return to a WWE ring. The crowd could barely get a decent CM Punk chant going.) And most of the time, if guys aren’t involved in a scripted shine/elimination moment, nobody is really doing anything of dramatic interest. Which really becomes a problem when the match goes long stretches without any eliminations, as last night’s match did. *Like Jey Uso was in the match for almost an hour, and I couldn’t tell you a single thing he did between the opening face-off with Jimmy and his elimination sequence. The guy’s whole thing is yeeting people AND YOU DIDN’T BOOK HIM TO YEET A BUNCH OF PEOPLE? The crowd was clearly ready to chant YEET all night, and instead you had him take a long nap in a corner most of the match. What are we even doing here? So I was not the least bit surprised that the crowd was dead.

No it’s not. If he’s not gunning for Bruno, this has run out of steam. Even if he is, it’s run out of steam. Nothing about this is important. Roman went last a year ago and went in the cool down spot this year for a reason.

I’m willing to bet a major media outlet will report on the COO of WWE basically dismissing the Vince stuff and wanting to focus on the positives of the weekend.

Good thing there are more than those two options!

What a total fucking snooze fest this show was. Also, does every women in this company wear face paint now or what?

Danielson (in a dragon costume) against Survival Tobita. And I guess I'd take Danielson vs. Keita Yano too, but that's about all I want.