Rehabilitated Rick

I understand, Seth

wrong audience

I'm speechless. This is America

Brock is probably the greatest ever. On all fronts.

I almost think Hogan was the patriarch of the HHH style. I know discussing Hogan is a sensitive subject here. It makes me sick that he destroyed everything when those tapes were released, and there's no excuse for it and I'd rather not discuss him at all. But yeah. Hoganism is very much the precursor to Triple H.

Solid point.

Another quality is Trips' comedic timing. You could say D-X were problematic, they were. It was a product of a fucked up time period. Bad optics. But he hasn't lost that comedic value. The alibi of any 90's cultural figure is ''oh this was just the manifestation of societal norms then and we delivered the content for the market''. Fine. Trips on commentary just a MONTH ago was a net for attitudinal fans (like myself) to stay tuned in. He is hilarious. I haven't been following the empty arena era really. But Jericho and Triple H has made me turn on the cable box.

Triple H having veto power the moment he married into the McMahon family was his biggest enemy, not timing. He was conscripted into a war of scrutiny whether he knew it or not. Which is where the cries of ''glorified mid-carder'' or ''Ric Flair cosplayer'' stem from. It's very difficult to analyze a career which I admit had no real grassroots. I understand where the criticism comes from.

https://www.complex.com/life/2020/04/new-yorkers-ingested-disinfectants-trump-coronavirus-comments Wow.

But HHH's matches are good. I can go into some autism about match quality metrics. But I personally don't buy into the progressive match style of Davey Richards-NJPW-PWG synthesis moving my emotional palette than say, Dustin vs. Cody did. Kenny Omega is a good wrestler for the most part, but TNT viewing data suggests he isn't catching on like I've lead to believe he could. So am I wrong here? Cody vs. Dustin was fucking incredible! and that match style was vastly different than whatever is the norm domestically now. And that was a Triple H match to the fucking tee.

Another one in recent times is Rollins. I think Rollins is garbage. The worst. But HHH contributed to getting him over. Owens was a HHH pick, too. HHH keeping his spot is a symptom of WWE's overall problem, which is their inability to let go of the older vanguard. Also if we're talking matches. Go back and watch HHH's match with Ambrose at Roadblock. That's some good shit.

There are times where the machine - see Reigns (2017) and Orton (2003) have been reliant on Trips' to be the balance and reason to work within the confines of the command structure (Vince's expectations) where fans have rejected whoever the machine want's to lead the company into the future, and he has come up short. There's no denying that. Not to his own faults. And there are times where fans were clamoring for something else - see Jericho (2000) and Booker T (2003) where he outright used his clout to stamp them out. Which could be due to Trips' own selfishness and insecurities. Who knows? WWE has always been cut-throat, and why, in the peak of his in-ring career would Trips' not politic to keep his spot at the top secure? As I said, when HHH relinquishes his ego, and the more he has matured, the better he has become. I think we have to separate HHH at the height of his dominance which produced outliers like Evolution, and the businessman that produced NXT, Bryan, and whatever else.

The license to counter-signal anything Trump does is a phenomena that will be studied for decades

HHH's main strength is his understanding of developing future talent, to be honest. It obviously had it's roots in the creation of Evolution and really become noticeable through the creation of NXT as a legitimate developmental territory. I remember an episode of Raw from 2004, and the entire episode was geared towards putting a newly drafted Shelton Benjamin over the top, and Trips' made him a star that night. As far as Trips' career goes, there's few people that I would trust to be a hype man and to deliver a satisfying payoff than him. Not without his faults, obviously. The Booker T shit was garbage fire. Dimming CM Punk's light post-Pipebomb is fucking hilarious in hindsight, but yeah. I like HHH. The fact that these hot takes on Trips' career and the hyperbole that followed was spawned by a Trump tweet is hilarious too by the way. Hysterical. I do feel the revisionism and astroturfing pooped out by the WWE machine is overblown, sure. It's always going to be. I don't think Taker was as good as some think he is, and has been helped by the WWE propaganda system too, but I'm not going to say he outright sucks or anything. And he is absolutely the archetypal WWE product.

So you're telling me someone went to great lengths, flipped through mutual security caches, gained access to his personal phone number, had a voice changer to mimic his voice, to somehow gain access to his instagram account. Only to send sausage delights to anonymous fans in exchange for nudes? Am I reading this right? Was it Russian hackers?

I'll take that as a no.

Understandable. Maybe it's the barbarian inside me. Wrestling is fine. Politics really gets my revs going. I'd love to to be able to able to spar with @West Newbury Bad Boy. Maybe we will find some common ground.

This take might cause third degree burns but the Dem establishment rallying behind the establishment candidate in senile Joe Biden has only proven to me that the presidents seat is nothing but a puppet position. Permanent Washington and it's bureaucracy run the show. Trump riggled through and shocked the world. His presidency has been nullified and has been reduced to dopamine hits to his supporters provided by his tweets. His populist platform, curated, nurtured and cooked by Buchananism was nothing but a sham. Trump is useless. And Hilary, to her faults, would have absolutely been more effective at handling this pandemic than the GOP. Anyway there should really be a politics thread on here. I have seen political takes bleed through on various sections of the board. I understand the divisive nature of party politics may create hostility, and I respect the admins decisions. But it's going to keep happening. It's here. It's not going to go away.

Like neoliberalism hasn't?

here we go again @Nice Guy Eddie

One of my good childhood friends signed to NXT told me that Bryan, above anyone else, made him feel welcome during his first house show loop. I think that's what separates him from the pack the most, his ideals. Gulak wouldn't be doing anything right now if it wasn't for Bryan's stroke. Selfishly, I'd love for him to finish his career travelling the independent circuit one last time.

I blame Trump for his administrations slack response, I blame the media being far too focused on impeachment in January, and I blame Vince for not safeguarding his most vulnerable performers. Every institution in the managerial class deserves equal blame for this getting out of control. Miz is a grug-brained company man, but literally any crew member could be a carrier of the virus.

Well this fucked me up real good. If you're repressing some stuff, I suggest avoiding it. I don't think I was ever really emotionally invested in wrestling again after the Benoit murders. In hindsight, Cody got off lightly for taking that unprotected chairshot months ago, and with Dean Malenko providing oversight making it even more egregious.

>Journalists >Integrity Pick one

easy there Goebbels Great numbers for AEW, although not surprising given the circumstance