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"Rocky, I've... seen... things... you people wouldn't believe. Explosions botching in the heart of Jacksonville..."

Thats about where I fell on all of that too and a lot of the older heel promos from 1980s and prior. I imagine Piper's first real money-drawing heat feud being against Chavo Guerrero in Los Angeles probably planted that bug as well when it came to his heel promos. I think for my own personal line a lot of that type of stuff in heel promos comes down to whether the heel got his comeuppance at some point. More often than not, ultimately at some point the faces that were often the targets of the more incendiary promos would get their shine back down the road. Another heel Piper example would be when he called Bruno Sammartino an Italian slur in front of 20000 fans at Madison Square Garden during Pipers Pit. This was then followed however by Bruno beating the holy hell out of Piper and leaving him bloody in cage matches around the horn. I think thats why Triple H going down that road with his promos against Booker T prior to Wrestlemania 2003 is so memorably cringe. It was already (and rightfully so) criticized in real time as being an outdated approach to building heel heat. But then the match ends with Triple H pinning Booker clean and there is never that "heel gets his comeuppance" feelgood moment to wash the bad taste away.

It’s been like 10 hours since Raw, so I’m sure someone has beaten me to this connection by now, but Cody with his blonde hair bleeding in the rain made me think of the end of Blade Runner. I’ve no doubt that a true cornball geek like him was lobbying production to let him cut a social media promo after the show where he could work in a “tears in rain” quote.

Is Dustin still under AE-Dub contract? Cause him coming out to get absolutely slaughtered by Roman would be the bee's knees.

This was beautiful.

Thanks. I work from home a half hour from Baltimore so it's super rare for me to go anywhere near Baltimore. Even when I lived by Dundalk for a few years I went on the bridge maybe a couple times. But to say the least this is a major event that right now just feels very shocking. I have many questions and they don't really have lots of answers so I'm hoping they'll have more information on hand in the next update.

The occasional profanity only works when everyone else is not doing it…that’s why when Bret flipped his lid it’s still remembered word for word 27 years later.

The great documentary 'Memphis Heat' is up on full on YouTube. I have no idea if it's been officially authorised for upload or not, so maybe jump on it now in case it's gone later. Memphis Heat 2011 (youtube.com)

MAMARHODES needs to whip the shit out of the Rock.

I think he was just more of the old school say/do anything to get heat on an angle taste be damned.

Surprisingly, I only had about 6 hours of AEW to go through after more than a week away from Triller Tv. Well, I have it on my phone as well, but was too busy with, well, Italy. Both Rampages were good, enjoyed Collison, with Eddie vs Okada, there was a Bryan vs Shibata in there somewhere, too! The Infantry upset House of Black, I had a bad feeling that they would, but was surprised that it was due to Mark Briscoe (although it makes sense). The women's street fight was wild, as was the I Quit match. I had a feeling Christian would quit before getting Spiked. The coward. It will be interesting to see who steps up to Copeland after this? Looking at Shibata vs Ospreay and Swerve vs Takeshita there is some really cool stuff lined up. I just have like 5 episodes of ROH and 3-4 Impacts to get to as well and not very much free time to get that done!

Dustin training the next generation, two more bulls of the woods!

Glad to hear you're ok Niko - you and the rest of the guys in that area were my first thoughts when I saw the news/video

Uncensored version The Rock crushing Cody at the end of the show:

It's almost hard to fathom how much of a wide impact this is then you see that Biden is speaking about this along with the international coverage that was mentioned earlier. Damn. He also is saying the government is going to pay for the rebuild and relying on Congressional support. Without going into why I have my doubts but do appreciate the sentiment.

I meant to say this last week but I'm really loving the changes in production they're doing on Raw. They're trying new things and from what I saw so far it's fucking great. I remember last week the had the camera follow Sami walking to the back and after he disappears they focus on another angle with Miz and R Truth. It was so awesome and man do I not miss dipshit Kevin Dunn.

The crew of the ship issued a mayday distress signal and warned of possible collision with the bridge shortly before impact. It was apparently enough to give the workers a couple of minutes to close and evacuate the bridge. (NYT)

A couple of doc's that I hadn't seen mentioned but are coming very soon... ENTER THE CLONES OF BRUCE Documents the rise of Bruce Lee clones that came out after his untimely death.

NSFW:

IMO, if Roman takes a Stunner or Austin otherwise causes the finish, then yes. Otherwise, no. I don't have any real logic behind it, just instinct, and the amped up crowd might well prove me naive, but I think if Cody's sidekicks are losing to the Masters of Samoan Evil outside and Rock is about to make it to the ring but Austin pops up to even the odds, it probably won't hurt Cody or the win.

Hollywood Rock is best Rock.

After Black Adam flopping and some Dwayne fatigue setting in, retreating to things people used to like him for and re-upping his relationship with that audience is actually pretty smart. He gained a lot from it when he did it with Cena. And between lucking into this heel stuff that people seem to be responding to, and doing a Benny Safdie A24 movie I get the sense people like him getting out of his comfort zone of the last decade or so. He seems to be gaining a lot out of this. And he still plays it safe by saying he’s playing a heel when he goes on Kimmel.

Coincidence?

Red = Green.

More of Ronda Rousey airing her grievances, including regarding Vince. https://www.cagesideseats.com/2024/3/25/24108542/ronda-rousey-interview-lifelong-concussion-history-where-wwe-run-went-wrong-vince-mcmahon-prichard

not sure when people finally figured out that they should stop paying attention to Westboro, but it was a glorious change when it happened

10 matches for Mania so far, 2 weeks to go! Let's see what else gets added this week. In the meantime, Drew just keeps on doing his thing...

As far as later Wilder, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes has always been one of my favorite Holmes adaptations.

MLW is bringing Barbaro Cavernario to Chicago in May. So perhaps that'll pave the way for him to head to AEW soon.

I grew up in Baltimore and lived either in the city or in the area until my mid-30s but, like @NikoBaltimore, I only went on the Key Bridge a few times in my life. What a tragedy and just a rough situation for Baltimore.

BTW, I rewatched the closing angle again and man, the Rock was seriously channeling southern slave owner with his dialogue. He was like something out of Django Unchained with how over the top he was.

I do agree that there’s so much more heat for Cody vs Rock now. If Rock is going to show the movie career down a little bit for the next year then you may as well do Cody vs Rock at Summerslam and then Roman vs Rock at WM41. Provided the Rock stays healthy, which is a big if.

We’ve been in Perryville for a couple of days and have to go through Baltimore to get home today so it’ll set us back and extra thirty maybe but we’ll deal with that in a few hours.

YouTube is littered with fan-made sizzle reels of wrestlers, including at least two I've seen of Williams looking like a terrifying monster in AJPW. If WWF had wanted to, they absolutely could have gotten him over two fans with maybe two 30-second spots of highlights; build the threat around the possibility of Doc landing the backdrop driver on Austin's recently broken neck (don't forget, Austin never had to take the move, just get waistlocked and fight for the ropes a few times), maybe bring in someone non-cartoony as his mouthpiece, and you've got the makings of a solid six-month run at least.

It’s a really important highway, too. I-95 is the big interstate along the east coast of America. It goes under Baltimore as a tunnel. There’s a “beltway” that is essentially a loop road around the city for vehicles too big for the tunnel/people who want to avoid city traffic and for locals in that area. That’s what the bridge is on. Going to be pretty disruptive for moving cargo around the US for a while. The video is absolutely wild.

Probably 90% of the early stuff is on there, with some years missing a show or two. I think mainly 2004 is the only one with a lot left out with just 4 events from it.

Dirtsheets: "Rock has heat backstage because he swears." Rock on Monday afterwards: "This is what happens when you FUCK with the Final Boss." Rock is just on a whole other level compared to ANYBODY else in wrestling. And it isn't the swearing putting him on that level.

Yeah that was my initial thought but now it's looking like The Rock and Roman are just two egomaniacs from the same tree.

Also... I don't think there was a script for Punk and McIntyre. They were just out there doing a good old fashioned roast session and that too was incredible. Maybe the best RAW I've seen in years...

Corporate/Hollywood Rock beat the shit out of Cody IN THE RAIN outside of the arena and left him bleeding. What year is this?? That was EPIC.

The Rock. Cody. Color. Beat down in the rain. Yes…all of it.

Doc was one of those acquisitions where guy has a name so they'll just drop him in cold, give him nothing, he either sinks or swims. Austin was even kinda like that. It's Vince saying "Well the staff likes him, maybe he can move the needle a bit, but I've got my own pet projects first of all." (Like, y'know, the Truth Commission, or Nacho Man vs. the Huckster featuring Billionaire Ted and whatever the name was for poor Okerlund.)

cold comfort when the bad officials and even worse rulebook can still bleed you dry of even three successful challenges in one quarter (hell, one drive) indeed. really the whole thing is oriented backwards, teams should get to challenge early and often and should basically never be "out of challenges" "BUT THAT WOULD TAKE FOREVER!" Just run more split-screen commercials or do more live ad reads, don't tell me the NFL wouldn't love to have more commercials. Maybe if they actually streamlined the rulebook instead of letting it be an ever-sprawling byzantine bunch of reactive and contrary counter-clauses hinging on micro-minutae that's beyond the capacity of the human eye to legislate, there wouldn't be 30 calls a game that need challenging.

Plus, in the 70s and 80s, an American performer could probably perform in Sun City without it getting much attention at home. Similar to them making commercials in Japan. Almost no one in America saw Sean Connery doing Japanese tire commercials. id bet most Americans didn’t even know what or where Sun City was until the music video. (And now this will be stuck in my head all day)

If you're right when you challenge, your challenges should be unlimited.

If you want a copy of the show you have to do it the way god intended: send a money order for $27 to the sketchiest person you've ever met on the internet then wait 6-8 weeks for the VHS tape that also contains the last half of Desperado taped off of Showtime.

Settle down Rheanetico