Greggulator

This is incredible. Dude from Turner Movie Classics is introducing “Timeless” Toni Storm tonight. Even better: Ben Mankiewicz is the grandson of director Joseph Mankiewicz, who directed All About Eve. That’s the inspiration for the Mariah May gimmick they are running right now.

Only saw the main event. That was a wild, brutal strike fest. I was really hoping Kingston was going to get one back on Danielson, but that was just two dudes blasting each other for my entertainment, much respect.

Please give me Bronson Reed vs. Ivar every Raw from here until the end of time, thx. That ruled.

Please give me Bronson Reed vs. Ivar every Raw from here until the end of time, thx. That ruled.

Wasn’t Punk getting boo boos because he couldn’t main event WM but The Miz did? The Miz is a pretty remarkable WWE performer and also a very solid wrestler who does absolutely anything needed and works to get everything he can over. Or he makes others go above and beyond to cement their spot — LA Knight. He is a PROFESSIONAL and the kind of performer who should get big spots.

And my final thoughts on Punk, because man this is going to take up too much oxygen: * The dude got into at least two fights with co-workers. That’s so lame. * He went off-script on TV because ha had boo boos about Adam Page (that alone should have benched him) and then he did so even worse in his press conference where he put Colt Cabana’s mom on blast. * His biggest beef were apparently with The Bucks and Omega and etc. I am not a fan of their in-ring style. But those guys have done everything outside of the corporate wrestling structure, built up a brand completely on their own, and essentially started a new national TV promotion. Want to talk about DIY punk ethos? * Punk got paid a lot of money to perform in the promotion they were the backbone of. Punk had creative freedom, which he abused. Then TK even gave Punk his own TV show and he flamed out on that for who knows why. That is not a guy who should be rewarded with a big spot in any promotion. The WWE has been REALLY great and for a while now. I know a lot of big wrestling fans will never like WWE, and that’s fine, different tastes. But for people who like big US mainstream wrestling — it has been awesome. The Bloodline story was awesome. They do things like have a 20-minute Raw Main Event with Chad Gable and Gunther (as good a Raw TV match as anything)or will have Ivar of the Viking team go for a multi-segment match against Kofi. The anchor of the promotion right now is arguably Rhea Ripley. Cena ate like 19 Samoan Spikes. And the main core of dudes — Sami/KO/Cody/Seth/Jey Uso/Finn/Damian Priest/Drew/Dom Mysterio— is a really weird and awesome mix, and they can all chew up TV time with good mic work and back it up with high-end matches. I really don’t want those guys or a lot of other people a little further down the card like Santos Escobar to get less time because of a guy who is a spoiled brat AND also does a mic work style I am completely over.

AEW only exists as long as a TV network allows it to exist. TK might be able to put on a YouTube show or something but that won’t be sustainable. He can have all the billions he wants but if a TV network says “no dice” and he can’t get another to pick it up then sadly AEW is gone. There’s enough demand for programming out there but maybe not at the really big payday AEW is hoping for. That’s reality. It’s not a good thing if that happens. AEW is pretty hit-and-miss for me, but having as much good wrestling as possible is a good thing.

I actually skipped out on AEW a bit for the MJF feud because of parenting. Will watch these now!

I really am not excited for Punk. Everyone has their own taste obviously. But worked-shoot stuff to me is empty calorie cheap heat — kind of the same thing as, say, insulting a local hockey team (another Punk specialty.) My tastes lean much more into how wrestlers use character work to tell their stories. I think a lot of wrestling fans are over that. The Bloodline ran its course (or is on pause) but it was the best storyline in WWE history, IMO. There was almost zero work-shoot stuff in it, and Paul Heyman — who leaned into work-shoot stuff harder than anyone — is actively involved. I really can’t remember a Punk promo I dug in AEW. The only one I really remember was the one with Kingston, and Eddie stole the show by delivering his material with real emotion while Punk was saying cornball stuff like “ST. LOUIS KNOWS!!!” If Punk was coming back as a sXe goon and tormenting other members of Rey Mysterio’s family — I would be all in. Being able to deliver stories while playing a character I am all in on. But “maybe we’ll bring back ice cream bars NOW!!!” is not for me.

Glad to know HHH and Nick Khan also do t-shirt and web design.

Here is how this story goes: 1) Punk does shoot-y style promos and they are irritating because the WWE doesn’t really do that right now and it hasn’t missed a beat. There are quickly diminishing returns but people pretend to like it anyways. 2) Punk gets hurt in about six weeks. 3) Punk comes back and some drama happens and he’s gone by SummerSlam.

I am glad we are at the time of year when The Miz reminds everyone why he has been here for 20 years and is really high on the list of best WWE performers in the company’s history. Dude’s career is absolutely remarkable.

Yeah, this was a keeper of heel work. The infection is what really sells it. A lesser heel would just say “I hope your leg gets amputated.” But saying “I hope your surgery goes bad” and then saying you hope it leads to an infection and then amputation — that’s such a great specific detail and reflects on just how much thought Santos has given to hurting Rey.

The Iowa/VA Tech women's game tonight was so good. I am going out of my way to watch every Caitlyn Clark game I can this year. She's absolutely incredible. A female Pete Maravich pretty much.

I have to say that I'm so impressed with Lexi King so far. Brian Pillman Jr. in AEW was the dregs. He was so complete uninteresting in terms of personality and in-ring. I had no idea this was coming. It's so weird because the guy he reminds me of the most right now? He's doing an era appropriate version of his dad's Loose Cannon shtick. We're not in the time period where he's going to do the "bookerman" stuff but he's breaking out as a chaos agent stirring the pot to skip the line.

You know what, I could actually see Jack doing a good Hollywood Brat thing. That's what I've wanted from him all along -- him doing the whole "Do you know who the f my dad was?' kind of stuff or him actually starting to believe he's Dylan McKay while his goons look at him completely weird. Or him dangling "big movie and TV roles" ahead as the carrot for his minions. One thing that hit me -- Do you know who would be a really good Devil it turns out? Brian Pillman, Jr. I thought he was on the shortlist of lamest wrestlers we've ever seen. But whoever came up with his new persona and him leaning into it is really great. He'd be so great as something like that.

Yeah, the last we saw Jungle Jack was as a smarmy cowardly heel running away from Hook. He was fine at that and getting better but trying to explain that into “Mastermind wearing a devil’s mask swaying four dudes to wear masks and do his bidding” is a big stretch. The only way you can maybe explain it is if Jungle Jack used his inheritance to pay them off but then afterwards how these guys would stay in line in following the orders of a total dweeb would be so stupid.

The Toni Storm/new woman angle is a reference to All About Eve, which is one of the best movies ever made. It stars Bette Davis as Margo Channing. The plot is about a big star sort of approaching the downward slope of her career who is approached by a giant fan (Eve Harrington) who works her way into her life as her assistant and then manipulated her way to replacing her as the next big star. Bette Davis gives an all-time great performance and the movie has one really famous line: “Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy night.” The RJ City intro to her I believe is a direct reference. I only saw All About Eve once. It’s FANTASTIC. Timeless Toni Storm is Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard, which is my favorite movie. Norma Desmond is a faded silent move star who preys upon a struggling young writer to return her to glory as she descends further and further into madness. Toni’s “I’m ready for my closeup!” line before she does her rubbing hip smash in the corner and the “We had FACES” she said before introducing the silent films for the first time and now the obedient butler are all directly taken from Sunset Boulevard, along with Timeless Toni’s overacting and pathos. I have been doing an e-fed character the past two years based off Norma Desmond but as a manager. I love Timeless Toni so much. My comment before about All About Eve — they have not really established Timeless Toni yet. We know the backstory and saw the transformation and it is awesome. But she has not been established (once again) as the best in the division with this new character or the like. For them to do All About Eve properly, they need to do this a few months into Timeless Toni’s reign and then have their Eve Harrington enter the picture before Toni loses the title and then sees her understudy steal her glory by winning the title back. Fun fact about both films: They are both probably the two best movies ever made about Hollywood, and especially how a starlet deals with losing their fame and adulation. Bette Davis and Gloria Swanson (who plays Norma Desmond and really was a silent movie star) give two of the best performances ever captured in film. They both came out in 1950 and they were both up for Best Picture and Best Actress (two nominees for All About Eve between Bette Davis and the woman who played her understudy) and etc. All About Eve won Best Picture, Best Director (Joseph Mankiewicz), Best Supporting Actor and Best Story (Adapted Screenplay.) But the actress in a movie called Born Yesterday (which I have never seen) won Best Actress. Sunset Boulevard only won Best Original Screenplay. Sunset Boulevard holds up a lot better than All About Eve. I am not the movie nerd I used to be but I think it’s the best movie ever made and Billy Wilder is hands down the best director of all-time.

I am fine with Joe vacating the title because AEW needs about 75 percent less titles. It’s the prestige sub-division TV title — who cares? Do they still have the pure title? There is though a 95 percent chance this leads to a tournament of some kind. And on a funny note a friend of mine pointed out: What were they using the office Max got tossed into for? Like did Bowens need a notary or something and they stumbled down there and the Devil’s dudes were there? I like the intrigue of who it could be. It will be hilarious if it is Jungle Jack because that dude would be so so so bad at the evil mastermind role. Swerve/Penta ruled so much. It has so many great weird Swerve spots. That dude is a perfect combination of being insanely athletic but he knows how to fill in the gaps by moving slow and calculating (reminds me a lot of Randy Orton) and making things like his stomp off the apron look so so so nasty. That dude rules. OC’s promo was a banger.

Can’t believe they are doing All About Eve already…

ROTFLMAO this is so stupid. What does that even mean? IF THIS IS EVEN TRUE (spoiler, it’s not): Networks give out TV deals over a few years — like four or five years. NXT is for five years. So an “eight-figure deal” sounds really impressive. But that breaks down to $10 million over 5 years or $2 million a year. So that’s impressive but not as much of a “WOW” as that headline makes you believe. Also: Come on. Keller is getting that information from Billy Corgan or the guy who works for Billy Corgan. It’s not anything at all that would pass any level of smell test. CW’s biggest sports property is LIV Golf. Now, LIV has a lot of problems — backlash because it’s Saudi owned, ridiculous team format, distracting war with the PGA, etc. But it has some of the biggest names in golf (people my wife has heard of and she knows nothing about golf.) And golf gets the most coveted audience members — the worst people alive (ala rich white people.) Even with crappy ratings the people watching are still wealthy. LIV was actually looking to buy time from TV networks like an infomercial before it found a deal with The CW. So knowing that, I doubt that the CW even paid LIV and “eight-figure deal.” Let alone a fly-by-night wrestling company no one cares about even among wrestling fans run by the very dependable businessman/Zwan lead singer Billy Corgan. Let’s also use some more logic here. The WWE is a really big deal. It’s a massive corporate entity. The CW wants to make a splash and is building out its programming around sports and sports-ish stuff. Getting NXT from the much more established USA Network gives The CW some of that rub and reminds people that it used to have Smackdown years ago. On top of possibly making them money, it’s good for putting its name out there to the world. A TV deal between any company takes a really long time to put together. If it is between two companies with stock the general public can buy and sell like the WWE and the CW’s owners, then it becomes even more complicated because of government regulations. And one thing that was absolutely included in the negotiations and The CW agreed to without any hesitation at all would be: “You can’t have any other wrestling on your network” and also very very very certainly “You can’t negotiate with any other wrestling company while we hammer this out.” Who at The CW was going to go out and say “You know what? Let’s risk this whole WWE relationship by going behind their back and against well-established official negotiating practices to give $10 million to a wrestling company even wrestling fans don’t care about that is owned by the guy who made life hell for Guitar Center employees in 1992 when every teenager in the world came in and tried out the opening line to ‘Today’ on a Fender they had no money to actually buy. None of this NWA stuff is even remotely true. Is there any actual reporting on what AEW gets? The only thing I saw was from wrestling journalists and hahahahahaha about them writing anything knowledgeably about the actual business world.

Came on here to see if anyone else dug her. I am not hip to the plagiarism charges. But man so many of the songs off the new album are absolutely wild in terms of the music and production. And in terms of teeny bop lyrics her stuff hits in a way no one else really ever has. Also: A photo is floating around my Facebook feed of her hanging out with The Breeders! She rules so much. National treasure.

I know a woman who went out on a few dates with him. They lived in the same neighborhood in Brooklyn and they were on the same dating app. She said he was kinda dumb but really nice and she could not resist the ability to tell people “You know that guy James Iha from Smashing Pumpikns? Well…”

I want the James Mitchell cocaine bit ruins NWA on CW and WWE snakes it away to be as true as anyone else but there is absolutely no way that happened. WWE and CW are both owned by publicly traded companies. The CW is 75 percent owned by Nextstar if you want to quibble and Nextstar is a soulless media company (and not some religious group.) Have you ever bought a house or a car? Do you remember how much insane work goes into all of it before you and the old owner come to an agreement on the price and who has to pay for what things need to be fixed while the real estate brokers and a bunch of other people are involved? NXT going on CW is going to be that but about 500 times more complicated. And, also, since both companies are on the stock exchange (publicly traded), there are also all kinds of regulations you have to tend to for these sorts of deals. If the rules aren’t followed it’s really easy to get sued. The announcement came out the same day TKO (the WWE’s corporate owner) made its first public statements telling everyone how much money they made the past few months. That is not an accident. Timing big announcements on the same day a company tells the public how it is doing financially (earnings call day) is pretty commonplace. It is a sign that this has been in the works for a really long time. Billy Corgan is an idiot. And a narcissist. Sure, I like a few songs on Gish and Siamese Dream like anyone else who went to high school in the 90s and had exposure to an alternative rock station. But he’s not a business owner. He is not an executive unless you count bossing around James Iha or seeing how much Zwan merchandise is left in the warehouse as an executive skill. My very strong hunch is that Corgan had a meeting with a CW executive who is a fan of his music, since the CW exec knows they want to get into sports and they had a possible thing going on with NXT, and they nodded and smiled and wished Corgan luck and since he is a maniac without any experience he went and told some wrestling journalist they had a deal in the works and whoever wrote up the article has no clue how any of this works (or how to call the Nextstar media relations team so they could say ‘this is not true’) and wrote it like it was fact and not some insane Billy Corgan delusion.

I only watched OC/Claudio because Survivor takes priority for me. But man that was an absolute banger and one of the best AEW matches flat out. Those two guys are a perfect pairing as dance partners — Claudio is not just a beast but he is also one of the most creative wrestlers ever at alternating his spots, and OC is one of the best “thinking man’s wrestler” archetypes we have ever had. Those two are such unique storytellers and I want to see a Best of 7, High water mark for both guys, and think about that. The only TV match with Claudio I can think of at that level was the crazy match against Cena for the US Title. But man this was just so fun