SovietShooter

I agree with this 100%. He has a good look for his gimmick. But of the three guys in HOB, he is the one that impresses me the least in the ring. And the HOB vignettes are kinda old hat to me at this point.

I honestly think one of those Benoit vs Sullivan brawls might've started in the back before it was scheduled, and maybe interrupted a Mike Enos vs Wayne Bloom match?

He very well may be, but I don't know if he ever got the infamous ”Is All Elite” graphic. However, he never was under contract to AAA Along those same lines... Black Taurus recently popped up for a couple matches in AEW. He had been regularly working for AAA and Impact, but was not under contract. Apparently he has either signed with or will be regularly appearing for AEW/ROH going forward and no longer taking AAA bookings, so AAA went after him for using the "Black Taurus" name. Some future AAA lineups are out advertising a "Black Taurus", so either he is being false advertised, or AAA is going to put someone else under the mask.

Short version is, supposedly the deal between AEW and CMLL is that the CMLL talent can't be on the same show as AAA talent. Now, what starts to make the answer longer and rambling is who and what qualifies as AAA talent. AAA really only runs 25-30 shows a year, their TV tapings. So, they actually have very few wrestlers under contract. Of all the "AAA wrestlers" that appear on AEW, only Hijo del Vikingo is under contract to AAA. Pentagon, Fenix, and Bandido are all under AEW contract. Kommander is straight up freelance, as is pretty much any other lucahdor that had shown up to AEW previously. The talent AAA has under contract are mostly midcard and prelim guys that benefit from AAA booking them out to affiliated and independent shows. Most of their main event and headliners are freelance workers that they only bring in for big shows (LA Park, Wagner, Blue Demon Jr, Alberto, etc), because they can make more money handling their own schedule. Only a few top guys like Vikingo and Psycho Clown are under contract. Supposedly CMLL does put talent under contract, but with how easily talent has shown it is to walk out on CMLL in the past, I think they just have booking agreements. CMLL runs so many shows (and at their own venues) that they can fill up a wrestler's schedule. Between CMLL's own shows and outside shows they book their talent out to, that is a lot of work to lose out on by working a show with AAA talent - so the wrestlers just don't do it.

That's the impression that I get.

Yes, to the former Hijo del Pantera de Ring, the unofficial 2022 CMLL Rookie of the Year. They called him "Mascara Dorada 2.0" at first, but then dropped the "2.0" part after the original came back and worked the loop as Metalik and teamed with his successor.

Not for nothing, but the mask in the pic is Mascara Sagrada, not Mascara Dorada. The original Mascara Sagrada spawned a bunch of lawsuits when he originally left AAA, as Peña claimed he owned the gimmick. They put other folks under the mask thru the years after that. Mascarita Sagrada was the OG mini superstar, and had the same mask. When he left AAA he kept using the gimmick, but AAA put another guy under the mask who was damn good too. By the mid-00s CMLL was looking to reboot their Mini division, and the replacement mini jumped to CMLL and was re-cristened "Mascarita Dorada". He was hugely popular, and when a young prospect out of Guadalajara named Gran Metalik was getting the call up to Mexico City, they introduced him as the full sized counterpart, Mascara Dorada. Eventually the mini left to join WWE as Torito, and later the full sized version went to NJPW, and then WWE. The current Mascara Dorada started off as Hijo del Panterita Del Ring - his father is longtime CMLL mainstay Ephesto, who used the "Panterita Del Ring" name early in his career. When it was pretty obvious that Panterita was going to be a big star, CMLL brought Metalik back in for a short stint, and passed the Dorada gimmick over to him, as "Mascara Dorada 2.0". Almost immediately the "2.0" was dropped. The current Dorada mask is virtually the same, except 2.0 has eyeholes, while the original had a solid mesh face.

One of the things I always liked about WCW was how Mene Gene would do the interviews from the entranceway. It was a natural progression from the old Worldwide promos with David Crockett in front of the cardboard backdrop in front of the live crowd.

Matt's middle name is legitimately "Ronjohn", like the surf shop.

With the attention span folks have these days, I get why they do it, but it is a Kayfabe killer for sure.

I used to hate when DDP got a guy up for a piledriver, and then just fell forward, instead actually piledriving the guy. It looked wonky, and from a Kayfabe point of view, why wouldn't you drop the guy on his head instead of a belly flop?

IMHO, the laddermatch jumped the shark when it became a McGuffin for crazy dives and stunts, rather than two guys beating the shit out of each other with a ladder. I think cage matches have generally jumped the shark too. The purpose of a cage is to keep interference out, and keep the wrestlers in. Now, the sole purpose of the cage is for them to get out of it so there can be a brawl on the outside (or a crazy dive off the cage). I want cage matches where they beat each other bloody inside the cage. Sammartino-style escape-the-cage matches I don't like to begin with, as it makes no sense from a psychology standpoint; "I want to get this guy 1-on-1 in a cage, so I can then run away from him!!!"

I'm not sure offhand what Slam Fans is/was, but I suppose it could be me!

Ha! You can kinda see me in the background during Paperboy's match. I was just breaking into the business, and the veteran that took me under his wing worked this show, so I tagged along and helped out putting up the ring and such. I think there were 20 paid fans at that show... All the publicity that Les got from this and the Pillman shows filled the school up, so I never worked HWA until much later...

I've been lurking on occasion. More recently to be sure. I had to completely disassociate with all things wrestling for mental health reasons back in 2012ish. I've been slowly adding it back into my life over the last few years.

IMHO, that is a money idea.

Without delving into Fantasy Booking, I really like the idea that if Cole is the Devil (or at minimum is turning on MJF), that the turn will a betrayal of Roddy, too. Cole is using him as a ruse. That way after the turn we have Devil & four ninjas vs MJF, Roddy, Kingdom & Joe.

Not basketball, but soccer.

I believe Mark Burnett's production company (Survivor and other reality show fame) owns all the US IP. So, if they care about it at all, it could be pricey.

Britt as the Devil with Perry as her Sith Apprentice helping her frame Cole would actually be very interesting.

So has Britt. I can actually see a scenario where the devil pulls the mask off to reveal it is Britt, and then Adam Cole nails MJF from behind, and we find out it was the two of them working together all along. Maybe the other two ninjas are Perry & KOR? That would set the stage for Strong/Bennett/Taven vs Cole/Perry/KOR matches.

It is a double entendre. 69 + 8 = 77 Girls like 77 because they get eight more.

Whoa, I used to wrestle on shows with him in the NWA back in 2001-2002ish. He worked under a mask as "Rain". He was trained by Jamie Noble and Tyson Smith (not Kenny Omega... a dude that worked as Star\Vinny Viagra, that was featured on a reality show about Loss Prevention.

So, IANAL, but how exactly does that work? "With Cause" means he violated his contract, right? I know anyone can file a lawsuit for anything, but assuming that the general contract language says you cannot physically assault your coworkers, and that there is security footage (along with eyewitness testimony) of Punk assaulting Perry, what grounds would Punk have for a lawsuit? Could he try to argue disparagement/defamation or a hostile work environment?

Been a long time since I posted here, but I've been lurking for a bit, and decided to chime in on this one... When I was working in the Pittsburgh indys, one of the other companies in the area was booking Matt Bourne whenever they rans shows (which was like every other month or so) since he was living in the area. They actually booked him as Matt Bourne. Dude always showed up drunk (at least) and just kinda did whatever he wanted, bled all over the place, and apparently that was only if he showed up. For as many Indy groups were in that area, or within a decent drive, dude never really got booked. People booked fake Doinks, but not Borne. So I just can't see why any of the larger Indy groups at the time would've booked him, perhaps aside from Ian at IWAMS.