Doc Townsend

Yeah, very thankful nothing more happened. Everything happened so fast last night that I really didn’t have time to think about it. Have time to think about the incident today and I’m kinda shaken. I’m comfortable with having guns in the house for protection. Turns out I am less comfortable with the idea of having to use a gun for protection. Anyway, weapons are back under lock and key where they belong. Hopefully, it’s another 28 years before I have to do anything with them except go to the gun range for target practice.

I just googled the Briscoes and was stunned to discover they are only in their late 30’s. Lol, they look older than me and I’m in my early 50’s. Mark definitely does not look 38 On the positive side, holy shit, would I look great for my age if I stood beside them. That’s the trick to aging gracefully. Hang out with people who look rough for their age. I am kind of curious why the Briscoes seem to be morphing into extras from Pirates of the Caribbean. Does that explain why they look 50-ish? I guess the pirate life is not for thee? I do feel bad for these guys. I feel like they’re going to be in awful shape during the second part of their lives. I’ve seen a lot of Briscoe Bros. matches over the years and the one that stands out is the very first time I saw them. They wrestled in CZW and beat the stuffing out of each other with gratuitous head drops and unprotected chair shots. I’m surprised those two guys are still in the business 20 years later. Hell, I’m surprised those two guys still have a few functioning brain cells between them.

Stranger things have happened, but I’ll believe Vince would sell to the Khans after it happens. If nothing else, I think Vince’s ego would get in the way, He wouldn’t want to risk Tony Khan making the company a bigger success than he did. i don’t necessarily think it would be the best move for AEW. TK would probably be overextended and it would really just be exchanging one monopoly for another. Personally, I think Vince is more likely to sell to Shao Khan (edit: it’s spelled Kahn, not Khan) than Shad Khan.

My wife walked by during the Darby match and asked me if Juice was the Geico Caveman buffed out. I said yes. Why not? She’ll never know the difference. I still don’t get the Acclaimed. I mostly just feel old and tired when they’re on tv. Just one more reminder AEW is not my thing and that’s ok.

Had some excitement last night. Dude drove up into our community, plowed several parked cars and finally hit the side of a garage. When the car was no longer drivable, he wandered around screaming obscenities and trying to break into homes. Guy was obviously on something. He could barely stand up and walk and wasn’t coherent. Around the time the cops rolled in, he staggered onto my porch and tried to smash the sliding door open with a brick. Fortunately, he didn’t put much oomph into it and didn’t even crack the glass. Very fortunate for him. I walked into the room in time to see him swing the brick but too late to stop him. If he had broken the glass and stepped in, I might have ended up shooting him. Cops caught up to him before he could take a second swing. I’ve kept guns in house for close to 30 years and last night was the first time I’ve handled any of them for anything other than cleaning or the practice range. We almost got rid of them a few years ago, but decided against it. Criminals seem to have more rights than homeowners these days. Really hoping I never have to shoot anyone or even threaten to.

There are several Buckaroo Banzai books by the screenwriter out there but I’m not sure If they are reprints of the original novelization or something else. He definitely wrote a novelization of the movie back in ‘84. I think the movie script came first, then he rewrote it as a novel. Apparently, the novelization is very different from the movie and equally terrible,

Have you read King’s other books? I liked his Batman run and Heroes in Crisis well enough, but they’re not the King books I’d recommend. You didn’t mention my favorite King books, Personally, I think Sheriff of Babylon is his best work. Admittedly, it’s not everyone’s thing. It’s a semi-autobiographical murder mystery about am American military consultant trying to solve a murder in Iraq. King was stationed in Iraq during his CIA days. I reread his Omega Men run a few weeks ago and love it. Keeps the basic premise from earlier Omega Men books but gives everything more depth and complexity. It’s horrific, shades-of-gray stuff. Primus and Kalista fight a just guerilla war against a brutal dictatorship, but in the process reveal themselves to be even bigger bastards than their enemies. Poor, poor Kyle Rayner. King’s Mister Miracle run is heady stuff. Dark, but with emotional weight. King tells two stories, one about Scott Free’s war with Darkseid, the other about Scott Free’s war with fatherhood and his own demons. Can’t really discuss it without giving too much away, but the ending is powerful and devastating. Nominally a superhero book but it really is closer to a family drama. Strange Adventures was powerful. Falls somewhere between standard DC and King’s Mister Miracle. Basically grounds Adam Strange in “war is hell” territory. Thematically similar to Omega Men in how it views its protagonist. Read Rorschach. Like the other titles I have mentioned, it takes a standard superhero premise and warps it into something strange and thoughtful. Rorschach is basically a police procedural. It has ties to Watchmen, but is set decades after Moore’s story so it’s not really using the Watchmen characters. More “inspired by” Watchmen than playing in the Watchmen sandbox. if you haven’t read them, read King’s Swamp Thing Winter Special and Batman/Elmer Fudd one-shots. The Swamp Thing story might be King’s best single issue and Jason Fabok kills it as penciler. The Elmer Fudd crossover is strange and ridiculous in all the right ways. It’s a very hard-boiled, noir take on both Bats and Elmer. Honestly most of the DC/Hanna Barbera stuff is great. King’s standard superhero books are fine, but he really excels when DC gives him minor characters and more freedom.

BC has published nine articles since yesterday leaking 5G plans. More to come, I’m sure. So far, it sounds decent to me. I’m not terribly excited by most of the ideas, but they’d be fine. All depends on the execution. I’m not too interested in current DC, but they have a number of writers working for them that can sell me a book, King, Ridley, Tom Taylor, Joshua Williamson, Johns, etc. I’m mostly intrigued by how they would inevitably retcon 5G and de-age Bruce, Clark, and Diana back to their “normal” ages. The big weakness of 5G probably would have been the new characters, So far, reception to Jon Kent, Jace Fox and the Brazilian Wonder Woman seems mixed, at best. I don’t have much faith they’ll ever carry the line or even be as popular as, say, Kyle Rayner. The plans for Clark sound intriguing and are probably better than what they’ve done with Clark and Jon Kent the past few years. I don’t hate the idea of

Xbox also said yesterday that Starfield is getting its own showcase soonish. Bethesda is still saying that the game will release during the first half of the year.

Tua’s next contract negotiation is going to be interesting. Assuming he can find a doctor to clear him for next year, and the league doesn’t find some way to boot him and all the concussion talk offstage. At the moment, I don’t think anyone should hand him a new deal and a starting job. His future was sort of uncertain even before the concessions. He probably needed a stellar year to prove Flores was wrong about him and, well….

I don’t think Vince sells to the Saudis unless he’s fairly confident his corporate partners will stick with him - particularly the tv partners. Obviously, situations like this are volatile and Vince wouldn’t be the first CEO to misread the room, but, if there is a sale, I think most of the important pieces stay in place. That said, it’s risky. I think Vince is already feeling out corporate partners if he’s serious about the Saudis. investors don’t seem concerned. WWE stock price is down two cents (so basically even and up a fair bit from a week ago). Hoping Vince appears on tV Friday. Meltzer doesn’t think paying crowds will boo him. I don’t either.

I’m reluctant to agree with Piers Morgan about anything, but he seems to get Prince Harry fairly well. I’d dial down the vitriol, but royal family to reality tv sleaze is an interesting career choice,

I am slowly convincing myself Vince is going to take the company private again and sell to the Saudis. I mean, it’s the riskiest option. It could alienate advertisers and potential tv partners. But I can see Vince going that route because it gets Vince what he wants. I have no idea if Stephanie and Nick Khan were looking to sell or not. It’s feasible that was why Nick Khan was brought in in the first place. Vince has had the company up for sale since 2015-ish “for the right offer” - which he didn’t get. One theory is that Vince wants to sell the company but broker the sale himself in order to sell to someone who will leave him in charge, or at least promise that. It’s possible that Vince doesn’t want the company sold without him because he’ll find himself locked out if a sale goes through while he’s exiled from the company. ’Course, the problem with getting this scenario is getting the buyer honor that agreement. NBC Universal isn’t going to agree to leave Vince in power no matter what. Sooner or later, something is going to go sideways. Vince will prove too hard to deal with, damaging allegations about Vince will keep coming out, the new owners will want to cut costs, whatever. It’s being heavily hinted that there are more damaging revelations about Vince out there, so selling to a tv partner or other corporate stakeholder May not keep Vince in control very long. At the very least, a new owner is going to give Vince a lot less leeway. That’s the appeal of going private. It’s arguably easier to bury bad behavior when you’re not publicly traded. Journalists and the public are a bit less interested, there’s less accountability, less paperwork. Also the Saudis can probably afford to give Vince his asking price as soon as the contract is signed. If I wanted to get my money asap, I’d sell to someone like the Saudis and stay away from a corporation like NBC U OR WBD. Dealing with WVD probably nets me a deposit and a payment schedule that goes a few decades. There’s also the matter of the Saudis maybe having more trouble finding someone to run the company than NBC would have. Which makes Vince more indispensable. Anyway, I’m just spitballing. The only one who really knows what the endgame is is Vince and his confidants. Maybe he’s afraid Stephanie will crash the company. Maybe he’s afraid she’ll succeed without him and dent his ego. Maybe he doesn’t think of Stephanie at all and it’s just what he wants at the moment. Who knows? I don’t knowVince, obviously, but he doesn’t seem like someone who developed interests and relationships outside of work or put anything or anyone before his business, so maybe this is just his primal reptile brain kicking in to try to keep life meaningful. lol, Companies this large don’t operate like this and, after seeing this shit show, we all understand why.

So does this mean NXT is going to become NXT 2.0 2.0?

Pittsburgh?

Lol, Dave’s been saying that Vince might retake his old roles “in a coupe months” but that there wouldn’t be any immediate changes. Lol, Vince will be back in gorilla position by the end of January. Or Friday, Whichever. I’m trying hard not to think that Stephanie was involved with the leaks that pointed the WSJ to the nondisclosure agreements that forced Vince out in the first place, and now that he’s back, his enemies are going to turn up with figurative knives in their backs (or literal knives, who knows). Problem is, I do not believe that. Lol, not at all. It’s also worth noting that Stephanie’s first “leave” was widely perceived as a firing, particularly since the company went out of its way to bury her as she headed for the door.

To me, he seems like a better fit for AEW, but AEW also has a limited amount of tv and already has a number of guys they could be elevating. White might just get lost in the shuffle. Personally, I’m hoping he signs with WWE. I don’t watch a lot of WWE these days, but I’ll probably watch more WWE than AEW this year and beyond, so I’m more likely to see him there.

I don’t think you can make that argument because the semis were both classics. I do think your odds of getting a lopsided game are better when you start letting in dark horses, though. But thems the breaks. I expected TCU to remember they’re TCU and turn into a pumpkin much earlier than they did. Last month of the season, the conference title game, the semi. Never happened. They won out against some strong opponents so they earned their way into the championship game. But, yeah, last night’s game was no bueno. I almost did something rash and flipped over to RAW instead, Fortunately, the urge passed, but I wasn’t much interested in the second half and channel-surfed frequently,

I’d like to think these otherwise smart people are only talking to the Broncos to see just what kind of Monopoly money the team is willing to throw at them, but I know better. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a long list of guys convinced that they and only they can fix Russell Wilson. It’s been a long time coming but Russ is now the hot but crazy girl you dated in high school. Time really is a flag circle. Lol, there is one difference, I in no way believe Russ will put out next season. I predict whoever gets the job has a lot of cold showers in their future.

Would New England have made the playoffs if they had beat Las Vegas a few weeks ago (the “lateral” game)?

Dolphins up by 3 with 18 secs. Sorry Steelers.

I kind of understand the logic in calling that last turnover a fumble, so I can go with it as the right call. But it still looks like an incomplete pass to me.

I lol’ed hard at the beginning of the final Titans drive when the announcers threw out a stat that Dobbs’ last fourth quarter touchdown was thrown in 2016. That last fourth down pass tells you everything you need to know about Dobbs. 4 and about 17, 1:30 to go, game and postseason berth on the line. Annnndddd…. Dobbs throws a short-yardage dump-off pass to a guy who is going to have to run through 2 or 3 defenders to pick up enough yards for the first down.

I’m tying to imagine Vince playing the doting grandfather and babysitting Steph and Shane’s kids and I absolutely cannot do it.

The problem with getting the LIV tour on tv is the PGA Tour will presumably freeze out any network or streamer doing business with them. If you’re doing business with the PGA tour now, or you hope to in the future, the Saudis are probably radioactive. WWE doesn’t have that problem, but selling to the Saudis has a lot of potential pitfalls and unknowns. You’re probably going to alienate at least one or two prospective tv partners if you sell to the Saudis and risk a lot of bad pr. On the other hand, the company ultimately gets sold to whoever Vince feels like selling to. As the past 48 hours have proved, Vince is less constrained by the checks and balances (that come along with taking a company public) than you’d expect. Keeping the “voting” stock in the family was a shrewd idea, but it also has some disadvantages. I can think of a couple reasons Saudi money might appeal to Vince more than, say, Comcast or Fox, so maybe Vince will go that way despite the downsides. I worked on Wall Street for a while, long time ago (dinosaurs still walked the planet, iirc). My professional opinion is that anyone who says they know where this is going is shitting you, to use the industry terminology. I doubt anyone but Vince’s inner circle knows his endgame. I wouldn’t be surprised if Vince doesn’t know. He may just want to negotiate a sale and tv rights today, but is going to wake up Thursday and decide he wants to keep full control, sale is off. Vince has never been predictable and seems willing to adjust strategy at a moment’s notice. If he is selling, I think he’s already got the buyer in mind. The company has been up for sale (for the right offer) for six or seven years. I don’t think Vince would go so public about a sale unless he was sure a buyer was there. I’m more curious about why he’s hellbent on selling, if he really is. Suddenly aware he’s an old man and can’t run the company much longer regardless? Ego won’t let him believe Steph can run the company? He finally watched an Uncle Howdy segment and is determined to save us from more of that? I have no idea. I find WWE’s corporate stricture intriguing, it’s a shame there will never be an unbiased “year in the life” business book about WWE’s corporate workings written by an actual journalist, I can’t imagine Vince giving anyone that sort of access without having the option to approve the material and control the narrative. WWE’s fairly unique in how it operates. Basically, it’s a mammoth corporation that never quite lost it’s Mom and Pop roots. So fascinating. I kinda wish Tony Khan was more off the rails. He has his moments. I’m meh about wrestling as an entertainment option, but I”ll probably keep coming back as long as Vince is alive and doing crazy shit no other CEO would or could get away with.