Cobra Commander

I really don't pay much attention to the WON HOF but I'm surprised that Sabu didn't get voted in like 25 years ago in the window between Dave picking the first class and Sabu leaving ECW.

Meanwhile Ron Wright’s son looks like the person who gets blamed for a string of unsolved murders in the area. Either a bit short or that guy is close to 6’4” in either real or worked height

I just had a dream that cumulated in the surprise AEW debut of Sabu (turns out that one of the masked dudes in some segment was actually Sabu), so if Sabu emerges suddenly in 2023, blame my dreams for it happening. I don’t really remember any of the other people in the segment though.

The good ol days of stabbing your opponent in the head.

When I typed that American Midnight was the last of my Christmas haul of books. I wasn't lying. I got a copy of the following book before Christmas and only just read it in the last week. "Invisible Storm: A Soldier's Memoir of Politics and PTSD" by Jason Kander is a book where the author tells the story of his time in Afghanistan as an intelligence officer, his time as a candidate/elected official, his time being considered as a Presidential candidate, and how ultimately he ended up ending a Mayoral campaign to go into therapy to treat his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. There are parts of this book that sorta retell parts of his 2018 book ("Outside The Wire: 10 Lessons in Everyday Courage") which came out months before his announcement but this book tells some of that from a different angle with the knowledge that the events in Afghanistan had an impact on his life after coming home. This book can be interesting/thought provoking even if you didn't serve in the military (FTR, I didn't) as it also mentions the impact of his PTSD on the people around him. During the week or so I spent reading this book, a current US Senator revealed he was in treatment for depression (due to a stroke last year, PTSD isn't a contest as this book mentions). The last few years have had no shortage of mental health challenges for people all over the world so it's a very relevant topic. Now, having typed all that, full disclosure: I know the author. Not in the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the TV meme sense. I volunteered on his campaigns in several ways, I was at the election night parties for his win (2012) and loss (2016) and at his announcement for mayor (2018) shortly before he decided to get treated (three events mentioned in this book). Back in 2016, I thought Jason could get mentioned as a Presidential candidate if he won. So having that sort of talk happen after he lost a Senate race surprised me. Knowing what I know from reading this book, i'm really happy that he was able to step back and get treatment because his writing makes it clear how bad things were getting after being bad for years before that. The writing about complexities about trying to deal with 'The Monster' is very interesting, for one, he mentions how his perception that he didn't "earn" PTSD meant that he didn't get treatment for years and how he's happier working with Veterans Community Project than all the time he spent flying around the country and missing out on time with his family. So the book is good and hopefully helps as many people as possible.

reading quotetweets of a video of Hogan dropping Belzer with a front face lock sees someone tweet "I think Hogan was trying to teach him a lesson and it accidentally went too far. At least he didn’t go to a jail in Iraq like Vader did for keeping kayfabe?" I suspect Vader assaulting a dude on TV would have went a lot different if he did it in Iraq in 1997. (It happened in Kuwait, if you didn't know)

feels risky to suggest a WWE secondary title for women knowing that they'd probably bring back the Divas Championship to be the Women's Intercontinental title.

turns out you don't need to make a show about cancelling the WWE Network every time you're mad when you get it for free thru xfinity (for now)

I'm not expecting him to be the exact same as the sort of guy he was (or was rumored to be) 10-20 years ago. Maybe having some time away from the scene due to the whole near heart failure will impact him enough? (I'm adding extra words since obviously there'll be some emotional impact from almost dying) As for the overall product, is it safe to say that the WWE is sorta out of the "Triple H is undoing some recent mistakes" phase and more towards him setting a path for better or worse?

I think the criticisms for how the WWE has booked face champions recently are pretty similar. Kofi held the belt for 6 months and only the beginning and end are remembered Rey’s 2005 title reign gets criticized for booking him too weakly as well. I’m sure there’s some criticisms of [name redacted]’s 2004 reign So clearly all Cody has to do to avoid the face champ rut is to turn heel quickly after beating Roman.

I remember when someone on here said that the WWE would elevate AEW if they pushed an AEW midcarder like Cody Rhodes

Then again you don’t actually have a B singles title on the women’s side in the WWE, like how the AEW TBS title is pretty much the B title. So if there was one women’s title then a portion of your roster would need to do things not involving a title and it can be a bit of a stretch to keep fan interest if there’s no title up for grabs.

Johnny Knoxville gets a WWE title match so Sami can get his win back

the concept of https?

isn't the entire Roman villain arc the biggest WWE story, even if a good portion of it happened during the Pandemic? so cumulating that story means no more Bloodline, doesn't it?

There's a case I should put this in the EC thread, but I don't think anybody there is arguing to split the titles, so I don't wanna beat the strawman there... I disagree when I read people online saying about how the WWE should split the titles to have a Raw and Smackdown title again. They did that for most of the last 20 years until last year. Splitting the titles just feels like running back to that crutch (plus there isn't really a logical way to do a split since they're not doing Raw/Smackdown GMs anymore). Maybe having the IC title and US title as the main titles on the weekly shows will always be like having B titles in the top spots, but if you bring back brand specific HW titles, it's gonna be difficult to have them be of equal/close to equal prestige and as I already noted, it's a crutch. The time's right to find new booking crutches to use for the next decade or two.

I'm gonna go with the canon that the WWE referees notice how much the crowd is into the match and they're not inclined to end the match on a cheap DQ because they think that would disappoint the crowd. Sorta like how officials in other sports can almost get worked by the crowd or atmosphere. That they're gonna give Sami the chance to pin or get pinned. Anyways... I still want a bullshit Brock Lesnar vs Bray Wyatt feud where Brock is Sid destroying the Barbershop over and over and Bray is trying to tell us that Brock Lesnar can't destroy his way out of this mess. A feud that is basically the world's dumbest repetitive roleplaying game.

It was a huge moment (and it was also aired at the same time as the fingerpoke of doom) so people remember that way more than them changing the title 3 times in 3 weeks in January/February. Although the Rumble 99 match can be remembered for Beyond the Mat showing Mick's family watching him get his brains scrambled in person. Pure Crash TV wasn't booked for great long term stories, but moments, because the main goal was to win the ratings every week.

there's no shortage of people who'll believe something despite all the concrete evidence to the contrary, why should Jey Uso be an exception for at least the next 6 weeks? if the footage suggests one thing but his brother, and his father, and Heyman, and Roman Reigns all say that Sami betrayed him, then who knows. Or just refuse to be subtle and have Roman say that Rikishi's health care is getting cut off if Jey doesn't play ball

Considering that Jey took the spear and pretty much disappeared offstage, maybe he's so groggy as a result of what happened that the Bloodline will spend the next week "convincing" him that Sami Zayn really did spear him on purpose Sorta like how Paul Heyman was able to convince Tommy Dreamer to use his personal credit cards for the sake of funding ECW. Some people in the Bloodline do have experience with gaslighting the vulnerable. I was actually thinking that Roman was moving out of the way during the chairshot callback so that Jey accidentally hit Sami when he meant to hit Roman, and Owens would be the one to think Jey hit Sami on purpose. Owens would have less reason to trust Jey Uso than Sami, afterall.

another "unexpected upside" part of tonight's results? the bullshit finish for Brock/Lashley did make it a lot less likely that they were gonna end Sami/Roman on a DQ or another assorted nonsense. Anyways, if we're doing the "Sami should have won because Lex Luger".. might as well do a literal Dusty finish*, have Sami leave with the belt, and then have it get overturned next Friday on a technicality or other nonsense. (* - it's a real Dusty finish if they overturn it after the card ends)

1) fortunately Luger beating Hogan and losing it 5 days later didn't cheapen Sting/Hogan. They made sure to cheapen Sting/Hogan on their own without involving Luger. 2) having Sami drop the title 6 days later to Roman would have been shit all over, don't lie to yourself here Either they finally make the move for Cody or you're gonna hear about a 1000+ title reign

for how much people loved Foley winning the title in January 1999, I wonder how much of the current fan mentality would have totally shit all over having 3 title changes between that match and WM15 your February World title changes have been mostly been Elimination Chamber matches, with the exceptions of Goldberg showing up to get the title in 2017 and 2020, Rock beating Angle to set up a big money match in 2001, the 1999 Russobooking, 1997 with injuries.. but with nothing running on the other channel against Raw or Smackdown, there isn't as much of a reason to do a hotshot in February, especially since they're out of the half of switching one of their belts in an Elimination Chamber match Zayn winning the title, even if you wanted it to happen, would have been a hot shot

I am impressed that they're able to distinguish Jimmy and Jey enough that people know which twin is currently the evil one but yeah, Sami and Owens over the Usos for the title in the consolation price match at WM

Jesse the Body mode ON Can you believe it, Sami Zayn cost himself the title because he attacked Jey Uso "Will you stop?" You tell me what happened then. I saw Sami Zayn spear Jey Uso when Jey was trying to help him. "Roman moved" What is he Roman Reigns or Jesse Owens? Speaking of speed, where was Sami's gooodd friend Kevin Owens? Didn't look like Kevin was very timely tonight "Kevin wasn't gonna interfere in Sami's match, you know that" And that's why Sami's not the champion. Roman's smarter than Sami. Sami stabbed one of his friends in the back and the other one stabbed him in the back. I'm just telling it like it is. Jesse the Body move OFF