Phantom Lord

I don't know about his drinking ability. But I remember he was on Jay Leno probably in 98 and Leno asked what a normal meal for him was and he said two large pizzas and a gallon of milk.

Before AEW started, since Cody got a run at the NWA Title I thought for sure Dustin going for it would be a lock. A few years ago (before he went back to WWE) I remember Dustin posting on twitter that he did want to make a run at the NWA Title because it was the only thing that eluded him in his career. If Hogan never went to WCW, Dustin probably would have been world champion in 95 or 96.

So today is the 21st anniversary of the end of Goldberg's winning streak/him losing the title to Kevin Nash. Finger poke of doom a week later aside, you know what still annoys me to no end to this day. A competent company would have had a hell of a blood feud with Goldberg and Hall. If Hall couldn't live up to his end because of his issues at the time, they could have easily had Scott Steiner dress up as a security guy and do the taser bit. Point is they should have had Goldberg do this huge revenge feud before he finally got his chance at Hogan. Of course I feel I'm forgetting something in all of this. Did Goldberg breaking the limo window and slicing his wrist happen around this time in 99?

Joe going on a murder spree against the AOP could be so much fun. In a perfect world this leads to Joe/Seth at the Rumble. Assuming Smackdown wins the rumble, we get a RAW elmination chamber match to determine who faces Brock at Mania. Joe wins and he makes Brock tap out in the main event (or opening match depending on Brock's mood that day). This isn't a perfect world though. So I'm not holding my breath on any of that.

One of the few bright spots in TNA a couple years ago was Bobby Lashley. He hit his stride, was having really good matches. Everything the WWE wants him to be as this amazingly gifted freak of nature...he did back then. But for some reason the WWE doesn't believe Lashley can be any of that so they give him the goofy gimmicks, the manager, the cuckholding storyline. I mean if Lana had a stable and it was Rusev and Lashley as this team who just demolished people we all would be raving about the Viking Raiders vs. Rusev/Lashley wars. Oh yeah sure, it's getting ratings and youtube views. But so do car crash compilations and disaster footage. Just because people are watching it does not mean it's a good thing. If anything some people are tuning in just to see if it could get any worse and last night it got worse. All of this is building to a wedding and we've seen enough soap weddings and WWE weddings to know what's going to happen. Lana gets thrown through the cake. The rest of the show seemed like it was on auto pilot. A long tag match between The Raiders and OC. Then that gauntlet match. I turned the show off before that finished. I'm upset they hot shotted Deanna Perazzo up to RAW with no build up what so ever. But hey, at least they're gonna get a second chance at Emmalina with Liv Morgan (which sucks because she deserves so much better).

I thought it was a good show. Could have been better in parts, but overall it was fun to watch. I thought for sure Storm was going to win the NWA Title. Is Aldis a heel or a face? With Marty there he's going to have to go full heel because no one is cheering him over The Villain. I hope Melina and ODB are sticking around. They can be a good veteran anchor for a lot of those up and coming women. Plus I want to see Thunder Rosa vs. ODB.

TV has changed so much in the last 18 years since Nitro/Thunder were on against RAW/Smackdown. I'm sure some people look at the ratings from this week and they think "well, shit...it's over". The overall rating doesnt matter. They only care about those demos. Personally I believe broadcast and cable television will be pretty much gone soon. Every network will have their own streaming service (I mean they do now) and a show's success will be how many subscribers it brings in. I'm not particularly worried if AEW and NXT tie in ratings. It's all niche at this point. If your supporting AEW you're watching them. If you support NXT you're watching them. As for AEW they need that heel that people will tune in to see get his ass kicked. MJF is going to be mega for them in 2020 if they don't screw it up. He's really channeling Piper in 1985 with some of his heat and that's gonna be a good thing.

Now I wish Adonis went to JCP in 88 when Murdoch was there. They could have had a North/South Connection reunion. Perfect US Tag Title placeholders when the Midnight's weren't tag champions. As much as I love Bret Hart, even if Stu were working with Crockett I can't see bland babyface Bret ever working in mid 80's NWA.

Wrestling wise the show was pretty good tonight. But storyline wise it was all over the place which just isnt helping. For starters this Brandi thing is so stupid. Like why didn't they just have her and Nyla team up because aside from the weird hair fetish thing, Nyla and Awesome Kong have the same exact gimmick. But yeah the Brandi thing is dumb. I understand people in the company can do probably almost whatever they want, but a little quality control would be nice. Though I doubt anyone is going to tell the boss's wife her angle sucks. Now I thought the Cody promo to MJF was great. I can really see MJF drawing this one out for quite a while and when he's finally forced to face Cody (maybe in a Bullrope match or something) it's going to be great. But with Cody offering him all this money and his possesions, I know I couldn't have been the only one thinking it's going to set up MJF wanting Brandi as the prize for the match. This would all work much better if Brandi just stayed as Cody's Baby Doll instead of her doing whatever it is she is doing. Jericho was great as usual. But they really need to focus with the ratings stuff. Moxley is number one so it makes sense Jericho is gonna duck him. So who's number 2? According to their ranking thing, It's Pac. I didn't hear him being named on the Lexicon of Le Champion. I think there is a huge upside for Luchasauras and Jungle Boy. But they need a run as tag champions first before we start spliting them up. Moxley/Janela was good. Could have been better, but AEW really needs to tighten up the main events especially when they only have 10 minutes till the end of the show. I have a feeling Pac will be the one to beat Moxley first (probably the new years show). But yeah, they need to work on storylines big time.

What really annoyed me was Lawler shitting all over Tozawa. At least Samoa Joe was putting over that Tozawa has some pretty damn good strikes he can get you with. You could almost hear Vince screaming HE'S NOT EVEN 6 FOOT TALL. HOW THE HELL IS SOMEONE THAT SHORT GONNA KICK MY ASS?

I kinda feel sorry for Lana. I mean it's not her fault for this whole angle and she certain is better than the material she's been given. I wonder if Vince is doing one of his bullshit loyalty tests with Rusev. See how much shit you can throw on a guy to get people to not care about him long enough to see if he'll stay with the company. Though, Rusev remains super over. I only watched up till Charlotte vs. Kabuki Warriors. That was a really good match and I still find it impossible to boo Kairi Sane. No mist though. I figured Askua would do the mist but hit Kairi by mistake allowing Charlotte to win. The InSane elbow is a thing of beauty. No Becky Lynch again. Always a good idea to keep one of your most over people off tv like that.

Knowing the WWE mentality, it was to put him in his place. Show how he's just a large fish in an entire ocean.

This show in it's 2 and a half hours was so damn good. I mean it was a quick show that didn't feel long (though the Dunne/Priest/Dain triple threat did go too long in my view). We can compare that to tonight's show that will feel every bit of the 4 hours it will probably be. The women's War Games was fantastic. I don't know why they just didn't keep this as the only war games match for the show. I thought it was overkill to do two in one night. Dakota Kai's turn is everything Bayley should have done to turn in heel like two years ago with Sasha. I thought for sure Mia Yim was gonna pull a Sting from the Clash against Rick Rude and get into the cage and fight. But Dakota's heel turn (even though seen coming a mile away) was so perfect. Even the bit with her shoving Regal. Regal looked so pissed. I kinda wanted to see him pull out the brass knucks "I DON'T CARE IF YOU'RE A BLOODY LADY, TRY ME AGAIN SUNSHINE" . Rhea is going to be a huge star for them. If Ronda ever comes back, I want to see her and Rhea. The rest of the show was pretty damn good. I liked the triple threat. It amazes me that Killian Dain was on Smackdown and they saw nothing in him. Though knowing Vince he probably was put off by the body hair or something. They really have backed themselves into a corner though with Dunne getting a title shot at Survivor Series. The Men's war games match was good but at the same time the table spots were way too much. We can't have blood. We can't have piledrivers. Choking, chair shots to the head and so on. But a damn Air Raid Crash from the top of a cage through some tables is perfectly fine? Other than that I enjoyed it. So is Finn back in NXT full time or is he gone once the wednesday night stuff evens out? I loved his match with Riddle. I kinda hate to see him leave and go back to RAW.

Give them a chance to call him up and Vince gets bored with him. Like I can see Vince be all "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS BASKING STUFF SUPPOSED TO BE?" It did give us what should be a Wrestlemania match moment with Lee vs. Braun. I had no idea I wanted that match till they were sizing each other up. I can't wait for this stupid brand shit to be over with. Too many triple threats. Too many people literally being thrown on a team because their name was drawn from the hat.

Because older folks have been watching the WWE since probably the 70's or got into in the 80's when their kids (us) were into it. I don't think this was so much a win for NXT. Maybe if they promoted who would be there and told us ahead of time Becky vs. Rhea, that number would have been over a million. It's kinda the same reason some people stick with soaps despite how bad it might have gotten. "Well, I've been watching since X date so I don't want to give up now just cause it's bad". AEW is so refreshing to watch though. It's not perfect, but stylistically is just so different than the WWE. Like in AEW I can think of at least five guys who could actually be World Champion and if those same 5 guys were in the WWE, they'd be lucky to get on Main Event. AEW is fantastic with presentation like that.

The battle royal was so random. But after last night I want to see MJF vs. Orange Cassidy. It's probably happened at some indy before, but I've never seen it so I hope it's a match they go with. I really like Adam Page, but I would have rather seen Jungle Boy win to face MJF. I can just imagine the promo's MJF would do about him and you know there would be some nuclear heat if he named dropped Luke Perry in anyway. The Dark Order video was interesting. Nick Jackson said it might not seem like it now, but in six months there's gonna be something to the Dark Order that will make everyone realize how good they are. I like them. But for a cult, they need a leader. They need someone like a Kevin Sullivan to be revealed as the master. I was never really sold on Santana and Ortiz in TNA (though that was almost certainly cause of TNA), but I love them here in AEW. I kinda hope the thing with The Bucks leads to a Skywalkers match if Cody is snapping up everything he can that Dusty came up with. I mean you can just see Santana and Ortiz do the Road Warriors promo with them dropping pumpkins and stuff off the top of a building to signify the Buck's heads. Later I have to watch Darby vs. Mox cause I missed it. But yeah Darby is a huge star. Just listen to the crowd when his theme starts. I can easily see him being AEW Champion down the line.

Tyler Bate is so damn good. Ohno vs Bate might be one of my favorite matches of the year. It's a shame if he ever made it to the main roster, he'd be the British Shorty G. Oh wow. I just realized Gable vs Bate is a match I want now.

If you think of every top good guy in the company with the exception of Backlund and Sammartino, most of them have all been assholes. Notice when Seth is getting beat down. No one is running out to save his ass.

I only watched up until Walter/Seth and the impromptu 8 man. The women's tag wasn't bad to open the show. It's amazing how Charlotte is now in her own version of Ric Flair in the mid to late 90's. Like if there was a Women's US or Intercontinental title, She would be that champion and we would be getting Charlotte vs. Zelina Vega as an homage to Ric vs. Eddie Guerrero over the US Title. I love Kairi too much to ever boo her. Moving along to Seth/Walter, just listening to the commentary it's so bad that Jerry Lawler does not watch any of the WWE at all. He was all "oh so this guy is pretty big huh?". Graves would have been touting all of Walter's accomplishments. After Friday night I still want Walter vs. Otis.

I thought the show was pretty good the other night. My only complaint with Omega/Moxley was it went way too long. Like it should have ended after the spider net thing. It was overkill when they went to pulling up the ring mat.

I don't understand the point of the red light. I mean can only imagine how terrible it must be live for anyone in the building.

I read he picked them up in Iceland. According to Google it's a 12 hour flight from Iceland to Saudi Arabia. I love Ric Flair. But could you imagine being in a small plane at about the six hour mark when he starts salsa dancing and cutting a promo on Hogan. So i only watched like an hour of the show. To be honest I was only interested in the women's match to see how long it would go and what they would have to wear. As much as I like Lacey with her pinup gimmick, I liked her look in minimal make up. This was also easily her best tv match since NXT. Fury vs. Braun wasn't the train wreck I thought it would be. Still akward at times, but Tyson could really make a go in wrestling if he wanted. I was plesantly suripsied but Cesaro vs. Mansoor. Mansoor came off as a total star and they should really try to do something with him. Cesaro also might be a Bret Hart level miracle worker when it comes to carrying guys.

Weren't they trying to buy CMLL a couple months ago? Vince always has been the take what you need kinda businessman. I skipped this show. Nothing about it beforehand screamed to me "this is worth investing 3 hours into". I see I made the right decision. I wonder if someone had to explain what sex addiction is Vince. Poor Rusev. I hope at this point he doesn't resign. Go to Japan and be the new Hansen or something.

This draft was so boring and infuriating at the same time. 97% of everyone drafted to their given brands were either a champion there all ready or had been on that show anyway. I was kinda shocked to see Buddy Murphy and Cedric Alexander end up on RAW. With the "pure sports build" Fox wants, both of them would be perfect for Smackdown. It's a shame they are wasting Fury/Strowman on the Saudi show. If they ran this for Wrestlemania it would probably get them all that mainstream sports coverage they so desperately want. I don't think Bray Wyatt is dead in the water. But they always do this when the fans want someone else in the top spot. A few years ago we wanted Daniel Bryan. The WWE was all "tough shit, you get Roman Reigns". Now it's "tough shit...you get scrappy underdog Seth Rollins". I noticed they dropped the whole Boyfriend/Girlfriend thing with him and Becky. I mean I haven't heard them mention it at all lately. I thought it would build to a great heel turn with Seth going crazy over everyone giving Becky more attention and him simply becoming her BF. I mean that would go perfect with his naturally whiney persona. Bray got drafted to Smackdown. Though Booker T might have been spoiling tomorrow because he said something about a trade. I hope the trade option is used in the future and not just because Vince wants to sabotage Smackdown to stack RAW.

Yeah, seeing Kofi just all happy and with the pancakes in hand after Lesnar obliterated him in seven seconds just annoyed the hell out of me. Okay...I get it. We have to do all the Saudi show shit for the next couple of weeks. But I'm pretty sure you could have had Kofi in the meantime not look like a putz. So in the "war rooms" were there any actual executives or were those all your local indy guys who usually get cast as security. Ah well. All hail Dark Bayley. Long may she reign and sit on a throne made of the skulls of her enemy's. Becky really got Charlotte with the whole "quantity vs. quality" argument a week ago. It's great that Charlotte is a 10 time women's champion. But I think all but two of them she lost within the following week.