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WWE mingling with TNA & Bloodsport makes more sense when you view it from the TKO perspective. They just paid out MLW 20 million in a settlement they didn't want to go to trial. They just settle a UFC anti-trust lawsuit. They don't want scrutiny on that independent contractor status / antitrust lawsuits. This is their way of mitigating all that. Having something to point to and say hey we aren't trying to monopolize. There's a clear #2 and we're working with the #3s & #4s to help them out. Some of it can be a shift in philosophy because Triple H & Shawn don't see the business in those same black and white 'I need it all' terms that Vince did. But TKO wanting to keep their nose clean is the driving force I'd say.

Hope everyone still have all ten fingers

- Mone has been acting like a heel from the beginning - the extra lavish entrance, the CEO nickname (I mean, is there anyone more hated in modern late capitalist society than a CEO?), the fact that she got visually pinned by Willow in their TBS Title match, the condescending tone of every one of her promos - but I think they didn't want to necessarily beat the audience's heads with it because (a) there was merch money to be made and (b) the fans in Boston and in other cities did want to cheer for her initially because she was the biggest star in the division so seeing her live was always going to get a huge pop.* And, who knows? Maybe they also thought she might get over as a babyface despite clearly being a heel so best not to have Excalibur and Schiavone and Tazz sell her as a villain the way they do the Young Bucks or The Learning Tree? Here's hoping that, moving forward, they do start having the commentary make it clear that she is buddy-buddy with the Bucks and has an attitude (but can back it up in the ring). Then, let Mercedes do the rest of the work to get heat. Also - last thought - I wasn't a huge fan of Britt's lengthy promo. It's a shame that shooting straight from the heart and revealing a very real medical issue has become a wrestling trope, but it has. It just seems like every 6 weeks, somebody is coming out to detail some horrendous career-ending injury and how they're now medically cleared and are back to take their spot back. I'm hoping they make this feud less about "AEW Original vs. AEW Outsider" because that's also a trope and maybe more about their characters. Something like: Mercedes Mone is an arrogant, entitled drama queen who pretends to be pro-woman but has thrown a temper tantrum and walked out every time she's been asked to step aside for a new woman to get the spotlight. Britt Baker is a big fish in a small pond and, like her husband, is too fragile to have ever actually achieved anything at the level that Mercedes has. They don't like each other. They don't respect each other. Now they're going to fight. That, to me, is a dynamic where I'm not sure who is going to win. - They really need to do more with Takeshita. I don't know why Tony doesn't see him as, if not their Brock Lesnar, than at least their GUNTHER. I thought they were setting him up to beat Briscoe for the ROH Championship but that doesn't seem like where they're going. I'd love to see him go after Perry for the TNT Title but I don't think they're going in that direction either. For a company with a half-dozen titles floating around, how this guy doesn't get one and then just go on an undefeated streak for the next 3 years makes no sense to me. * I love to bring up this story just because so I again...Somewhere between 2004-2006, I went to an indy show here in Cleveland (it was pre-AIW, so I'm guessing it was either a Cleveland All-Pro show run by JT Lightning or a Pro Wrestling Ohio show) where Buff Bagwell was the big star they brought in. Of course, the whole time, before he makes his entrance, fans are just goofing on Bagwell, talking about Judy, chatting amongst ourselves at how far Buff had fallen to be doing this show, etc. Then, Bagwell shows up, sporting the top hat, looking like "The Stuff," doing all the shtick and all 100 or so fans are just going wild for him. Myself included. Sure, there was still some "Where's Judy?" heckling, but Buff had fun with it and worked the match as the babyface and got babyface reactions. We came to ridicule and boo this guy, we left with our wallets $20 lighter because we all wanted a Polaroid with him and the hat. In a larger sense, this is why you couldn't have Mercedes debut as a heel. The live audiences were going to mark out for her.

I miss Aussie Open.

He's Kyle Fletcher. He is an afterthought.

It was a hip toss.

The match all the crossover promotions have been building towards: Cena vs Joe Hendry

I want the Aussie Open guy who's injured to fight the Butcher so you can squint and pretend it's a man fighting himself.

Agreed. The tag/trios division feel aimless. I know the Bucks/Acclaimed are working towards something, but the tag division was once such a strength and now it feels like WWE where the tag division is an afterthought. Weren't the MCMG supposed to be coming in soon?

I couldn't even imagine the dredges of social media if Aubrey Edwards became more prominent.

From my upcoming ECW history book, "King of Philadelphia:" "Tod Gordon put Bill Alfonso in charge because there were no rules for him to enforce. So Fonzie stopped the match at the first sign of blood. Then he left the building to stop a brawl between the Gangstas and Public Enemy. That meant the Rottens could destroy each other in peace."

Coming out of Forbidden Door, who honestly looks like the best New Japan wrestler? It's certainly not Naito. It's Zack.

Opening segment with the Men's MITB participants was alright. Jey and Knight standing tall at the end was nice to see. Street Profits vs. Pretty Deadly was good. Good showcase for both teams. Bianca/Jade vs. Indi/Candace was decent. Curious to see if and when a match with Unholy union goes down if it does. Bayley/Piper was solid though a step down from their Clash match with the focus on giving the Women's MITB a chance to shine. Was good to see Nia attack post match and Mia make the save. Owens's speech about his mother was lovely. DIY vs. A-Town Down Under was pretty damn good. Loved how the action and nearfalls played out as the match went on. Was worried about the pacing with how much time left, but it got all the time it needed to breathe. Glad to see Ciampa and Gargano as champs. Its been good seeing their momentum grow the past few months and finally pay off here with the crowd fully behind them. The final video was short but good with Solo making his reasons for dethroning Roman as Tribal Chief and his intentions to reclaim the title for the Bloodline clear. Cody is totally losing tomorrow. Matches were pretty enjoyable though the standouts were definitely the men's tag. DIY vs. ATDU was damn near great and is definitely worth catching. The segments were decent and did a good job of building up the main event and MITB. Good show

Double retirement match Cena v Bryan with a Bella in each corner. Cena and Bella reunite for one night and she turns on him and hits him with a hamper for Bryan to win.

Men's MITB felt a bit rougher than usual in terms of danger. Was a fun mess. Drew winning was predictable but probably the right move. Sami/Bron was damn good as expected. Wasn't expecting Sami to get a straightforward victory, but Bron can afford such a loss here. Will be more about how he responds to it. Surprisingly dug Priest/Seth more than expected with the two just going at it from the getgo while constantly worrying about the looming threat of Drew cashing in. A fuckup at the pin screwed up the momentum, but Drew finally coming down to cash in right after managed to mitigate the damage a good deal. Punk's interference was expected but well done and welcomed by the crowd. I did like no one quite being happy with the results but Punk. Seth got as screwed as Drew while Priest continues to not quite cement his spot as a top guy. The Women's MITB was kind of insane and scary with everyone doing some dumb crazy shit at some point. When a ladder fall through tables is one of the safer spot you know things are crazy. Thought everyone got in some good moments and love result. Io and Zoey are fucking insane and need their heads checked both mentally and medically after this. Loved what Chelsea did character wise, and it was great seeing Tiffany take home the win. Bloodline vs. Cody/Orton/KO built into something good though it had a hard time following the Women's MITB. Jacob looked good and poor Tanga got knocked loopy saving him. Was happy to see Solo get the pin on Cody. Dug all of the matches and overall results here. The women's match was insane and easily MOTN. Sami/Bron was probably the best right after it. Good show. Cena announcing a retirement tour was unexpected. Hope he gets a good retirement at next year's Wrestlemania.

Hahaha this rules so much

Also, Stan Hansen had perfect eyesight.

I think he's actually got potential as a future guy. He's young, got good size, can keep up with the main event style, and hanging out with Ospreay will hopefully enhance his charisma (which I think is there, but not showing currently as a Callis goon). I can imagine him as an AEW main eventer in few years easier than like Hook. The trios division is fine. When Buddy gets back from his honeymoon, HOB have feuds lined up with the Patriarchy and BCG, who are feuding with each other in the mean time. Jericho and Joe's competing educational institutions have a strong non-title feud and either group could be easily moved into the title scene when that's done. You still have Death Triangle and Top Flight floating around. I do agree that the tag division is lost right now, though, especially since FTR went down. Seems like they can only do one at a time. MCMG were rumored/seem like an ideal fit, but I don't think that was ever confirmed.

I think the trios division is partly to blame for the recent lackluster tag division. Like Acclaimed without Billy Gunn, Lucha Brothers without PAC, HoB doing Freebirds style or just letting Malakai or Brody be a singles wrestler, Top Flight without Andretti, Gunns without Juice or Switch. Then Aussie Open as the Callis team, MCMG, maybe Nick Wayne and Killswitch as Jurassic Express redux.

This may be a controversial opinion, but I think that referees should be used more as characters, rather than just a set of stripes in there to count pinfalls. I'm not saying you have to have Babyface/heel refs and a ton of cheating and so forth, but just defined personalities, biases, and strengths/weaknesses. Like, in baseball, everyone knows Angel Hernandez, CB Bucker and Joe West were shit refs. In college basketball, Ted Valentine was a camera hog, etc. It would be easy to lean into something like Rick Knox being an incompetent official, Bryce having a faster count than Paul Turner, Aubrey quicker to pull the trigger on a DQ - shit like that. The actual problem with that is that certain workers have favorite refs that always work their matches (for logical behind the scenes reasons), and in this day and age with earpieces and live cues and such, they are almost like a stage manager in the ring too, and that role factors in a lot more than in the bygone days of yesteryear.

I haven't seen the original, but the remake is more dimly lit and Colin Farrell's character is a bit more sympathetic and less outwardly charming than Clint Eastwood's. The remake is more focused on the women in the story versus the original.

I agree with you on this, but I think this may be (somewhat) by design, that way the Continental Classic does come off as the more grueling competition. What I think kinda kills the momentum of The Owen in the way you're describing is how the matches are haphazardly scheduled. Perfect example is doing Danielson vs Pac, a second round match, before Hangman vs Jarrett, a first round match. Things like that make it seem like it is being shoe-horned in, rather than being featured bouts the show was built around.

All the little asides in the Nitro book are just jaw dropping when it comes to these shows. "Yeah, so Kevin Sullivan was busy having GHB overdoses and seizing on the floor instead of writing for the nightly show, so I just kept a truck the size of a house full of stuff we might happen to need in any given town... tables, chairs, upholstery for Flair, Scott Steiner's lions which we fed at $8000 a pop on a daily basis; you know, the usual."

I loved SD tonight. Just like last week, it was a great two hour wrestling TV show where everything made sense and was structured perfectly. Owens brought tears to my eyes during that great bit with the Babyface alliance. Then there was a tag title change that was perfectly booked and the closing Bloodline video that ruled. OK, the opening bit with all the MITB guys was hokey and the Profits vs PD had some phony looking shit. But overall, this was a really fun show with a great crowd.

️

Tekno Team 2000 really was from the future. But they were actually from 2002 (the 2000 gimmick was for marketing purposes), and came back to the WWF because they knew that both WCW and ECW went out of business. Sadly, their lack of skills still doomed them. 'Wildcat' Chris Harris was a TNA wrestler. When he signed with WWE, a multiversal rift opened, and his counterpart from a parallel universe, Braden Walker, traded places with him. Neither was able to return to their original universes. We missed out on Chris Harris having a fortuitous run and eventual WWE Title run and instead got the disappointing "Best of Braden Walker" dvd future (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwyFABQX62A). But OUR Chris Harris has had an extremely successful career in his new world. it really wasn't Snitsky's fault.

I don't like Cornette, but that is great on seeing him as a 5k donation there.

it would fit with the booking philosophy I've heard Cornette cite often (which he attributes to Jerry Jarrett, and it's probably even older than that), which is You Tell The Truth at A, B, and C, so that when you work 'em at D and E, they believe it.

Here's some random thing I thought of recently- Jim Cornette's constant shit talking of AEW is a work that Tony Khan put him up to. I came up with this as Corny has mentioned a few times how Tony called him when he was first putting AEW together for advice but Cornette had no interest in working there as he doesn't need the money and has no inclination to travel or work in wrestling full time again. He's also made a few passing references to an NDA Tony later made him sign. Cornette is one of those people who doesn't know how to not be in character and him hating most modern wrestling isn't too far of a stretch, but the theory is that Tony knew him bashing AEW every week was free publicity. Even if it leads to hate watching or people talking shit online, there's no publicity and online engagement or trending is bad attention. *Just to clarify, in the original spirit of the thread I don't intend for this to be serious either

2 Ultimate Warriors/the original Warrior died can probably be laid at the feet of: 1) Kerry Von Erich looked a lot like Warrior without face paint and joined the WWF shortly before Warrior’s first disappearance, and left around the same time as Warrior’s 2nd departure 2) Kerry Von Erich actually did die in that same general time frame 3) still mostly no internet to spread “accurate” info 4) little kids are stupid 5) wrestling fans are stupid

That one kid's older brother in every town that started the rumor, along with the rumor that (insert local summer camp) is where they filmed Friday the 13th...

who do we blame for every schoolbus having a kid that insisted the Ultimate Warrior died?

Well that was a really good show. I even sat through the post show press conference which is something I never do. I figured Drew would win the MITB match so I was right about that. But I didn't think he would actually cash in tonight. I figured he was playing mind games by saying that. I didn't see the CM Punk thing coming which was nice. Drew going absolutely ape shit in the post show was some great stuff. Plus we get the continuation of the Punk/Rollins feud. Women's MITB was really good. Better than the mens match. Gotta hand it to Chelsea for taking that huge bump at the end of the match. I was hoping she would win just so Matt Cardona could claim he was half the MITB winner since they split everything 50/50. But I'm glad Tiffany won. She's going to be so good as the MITB holder. Rest of the show was good. Sami/Bron, and the Six Man were fantastic. Just a really good show all around.

Summerslam is Priest/Gunther.

That women's MITB match is not just the best women's MITB ever but maybe a top 3 or 5 overall. Everyone absolutely was willing to kill themselves for the moment Jacob Fatu was a dangerous man on the indies and completely out of control. Now he is slimmer and maybe faster and a complete monster. On another level tonight Not sure what I think of the Punk thing. Drew got his moment winning the MITB and then almost immediately was made to look like a dummy again by Punk. And now Rollins is going to added to the mess. So is Summerslam a 4 way for the title or are they somehow going to save Rollins for later

Today is the 70th or something anniversary of the release of Blood Feast, so watch something from this thread

Well the USSF finally fired Berhalter. I'm guessing Canada making the Quarters was the final nail.

... indeed I do not know what they are thinking.

My understanding is that KS lived on one of those little islands in Washington state, or at least did a few years ago.

For a second, I imagined comedian Nicole Sullivan as Kevin’s daughter.

Block B is fascinating - here are how many of their scheduled matches each participant has which have never been done before in singles: Goto 6 ELP 5 Tsuji 2 Cobb 5 HENARE 5 Finlay 6 Narita 4 Uemura 7 Takeshita 9 Boltin 9 Other than Narita and Tsuji, everyone is scheduled for a majority of fresh matches, and I'm not sure that would even be true of Narita without counting matches that took place before they 'graduated'. Anyone subbing up for the tournament who is mad about Ishii not being involved can go back and check out his match against YOSHI-HASHI which has been very well received. Bit surprised Newman went over Yosh. Taichi had a great promo after his match against TJP rallying against being moved aside for younger talent: 'If the youth drew enough on their own you would have made the switch years ago'. Personally I'd like to see that angle played up more. Olds against youth is a classic formula and the motivation rings true with Tanahashi outright stating that was the company's intention. Complaining about younger talents and their comparative lack of ability/accomplishments is usually a heel move but here there'll be fans who agree wholeheartedly. Disband Chaos and the non-WarDogs/HoT Bullet Club seeing as no-one really knows what they are anymore and assemble a Grumpy-Gun as part of the reshuffle.

I need to start calling my Iranian friend "The Iron Chic."

That's AWESOME. Ronnie turning around and throwing that right cross a split second before Tully tackles him is simply beautiful.

Horrible trigger discipline, all three of them. Is the photographer still alive?

Movies today, didn't watch as much as I wanted to. Although today, inspired by the earlier Abel Ferrara talk, I bought a copy of the 4K version of Bad Lieutenant. Now I get to that movie in all its 4K glory! Shakespeare-Wallah (Mubi, leaving at the end of the month) - 3/5 stars What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (Criterion Channel, leaving at the end of the month) - 5/5 stars

my Dish DVR has been failing me more often than not, not recording 2 weeks ago, then recording last week, but not recording this week. so I'm catching up on 3 weeks. Nice series of tags in the 2 weeks ago episode. Also surprised to see Las Bandidas go over Chantilly & Holidead. Thought everyone looked good in the IQ/Dojo tag. Classmaster's chokeslam finisher was indeed killer. Solid Tormenta/Reina main event match. - Onto last week, nice tag opener. I had almost forgotten about Foxy & Roxy Fierce so it's good to see them finally come back around to come after Chainsaw. I liked the trifecta of having all three former members of Exile in singles matches even if they all lost. Ice Cold/Ariel was solid. Exodus vs Keta was quick but a fun continuation of their last match draw which I loved. Aussie/Genesis was an awesome main event. Too much of a step up for Genesis to get the win, but she looked excellent hanging in there. - Now back to Youtube for this past week's episode. Fun trios bout, Top Tier continue to look awesome together and Sierra Breeze with the Dojo Defenders worked well together. All American Girls vs. Las Bandidas was pretty good, nice finish from Santana and dug the setup for a future trios title match. Chantilly & Holidead with a nice bounceback victory over the Heavy Metal sisters, epic double team finish. The Classmaster made a pretty good matchup/defense for the Beast in the main event, both looked good there.

Yeah, I meant for this to be silly and weird, but if y'all wanna do real ones, I'm certainly game. I 100% believe Daniel Bryan could've dome back from his first long-term injury much sooner than he did, but Vince wouldn't let WWE doctors clear him because he was more over than Roman. I also believe Dean Ambrose's shitty booking was an attempt to undercut him because he was more over than Roman.

Man... That match is why we watch wrestling.

I had to go to a mental hospital for 8 days. Was there over Memorial Day weekend. My bipolar got really hard to manage and I had been struggling for a while. It was a wild 8 days. I am glad I went because I was going down some very dark places unfortunately. But even better — I really learned there what empathy for others really looks like. My first few days there were very scary. I was still completely out of it but when I came to — I was the only person my age who was functioning. People were either talking to delusions or just really zonked on medication. There was one 23-year-old who could have a conversation but that was it. My first night: We were also in our little outside area when there was a major fight in the building next to ours that was filled with really hard looking dudes — a lot of smashing and yelling and they had to evacuate all of the people on that floor to their rear pen while staff fled to whatever was going on. I was afraid it was a planned breakout and was just freaked out. A few other things were jarring. First — multiple homeless people were in the unit. This was not jarring in a bad way, but when do you ever share space with unhoused people? It was also affecting me because I went down the “these people have real problems, what the fuck is wrong with me?” rabbit hole. In PA, if you go to an emergency room and say you’re suicidal, they will find an available bed for you at a psych hospital. A lot of homeless know about this rule and will use it for housing, especially in the winter. It sounds like a loophole (it is) but if you’re homeless you also very likely need psychiatric care and that’s the only way you’re getting it. Another jarring thing: There was this really big guy who is schizophrenic on the floor. He would fight with the voices in his head and because of that would scream obscenities. He was in the room next to me and trying to rest and relax and sleep with someone screaming that all night long was really scary. But then later on, one of the staff members told us he was just a scared 23-year-old kid dealing with this awful disease and felt horrible about how people were scared of him. We started incorporating him more and more into activities and conversations. And over time (and because of the inclusion, partly) he started not having his outbursts. It was really great to see. The wildest stuff came from disruptive patients. Remember what I said before about the ER rule? A lot of addicts know about that rule, but a lot have no intention of trying to get clean. People with addiction are supposed to get into a drug unit but since Philly is the drug capital of the country these are few and far between. People in addiction who are there to get clean are usually very quiet since there is a huge amount of shame involved. But a good amount are there to try and score a dosage and prescription of some kind of benzo (Ativan and klonopin the most popular, especially from meth users.) They intend to be there for as few days as possible and will be as disruptive as they possibly can do a doctor will write them a prescription and send them on their way. One of the rules where I was at was that you had to keep your door shut if you were not in your room. So if you needed to go to the bathroom, you needed to get a floor tech (there are only 2) to open your door. But if someone is busy threatening a nurse or busy using the n-word or hiding a pill under their tongue and lying about it — that takes up all of the oxygen and attention so you have to wait to take a leak until that stops. But it got more comfortable as we progressed. More people were able to talk and it was a lot of really nice people who were dealing with similar stuff like I was — manic episodes lasting a few days where people were so sleep deprived they were having hallucinations (I have come close to that), or people dealing with major life stressors dealing with depression and suicide ideation (yep!) who wanted to become safe. People end up taking care of each other that way — even if someone is delusional or paranoid but really functioning. I will write more about all of this later. But it has been a wild summer for me.

Kensuke Sasaki vs Yuji Nagata, 4th of January 2004: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b65V0KZeMw0