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I don't mean to pick on Shartnado here, but it's a good jumping off point. This talking point needs to go away. Smackdown pulled 2.4 million total and a crazy 2.7 million I believe for Roman's segment last week. All the complaining about Roman is unwarranted. It's working. He has a big deal aura. He's surpassed Brock. He's at least on par with Cena as far as presentation and moving the needle. Ratings are up. Attendance is up. And it's because the top guy is being booked so strongly for once (and has very captivating stories happening for him and everyone in his orbit). I get not enjoying the sameness of one person holding a title. But this is how you really make stars (when you don't have once in a generation performers like Rock & Austin). Roman holding the title this long is great for business. Creating a new title for the other brand isn't ideal but it's TV negotiating time and USA has bitched about not having a champion for a year now. I understand people wanting the shows to align more with what they personally like, but I just wish there was also a stated understanding of what they are doing is right for business, even if it's not your cup of tea.

Ironically enough, the reason why I chose the clip I did was to show how crazy the audiences for both shows go for him - who knows, it could be a case of the viewership overlapping moreso than 'following' him from one promotion to the other. In any case, all I'm trying to convey is: homeboy's definitely got his fans outside of our little world here. You can think he's the shits bell to bell all you want (your tastes are your tastes - no argument from me, you dig what you dig) but it's not like he's a Road Dogg kind of guy - if you take away the sing-along, there's still plenty of substance there IMO Edit: Also, thank you to everyone who came through with WALTER recs - greatly appreciate you as always

Congratulations to GUNTHER holding the WWE Intercontinental Championship for an entire year long reign joining Pedro Morales, Randy Savage and The Honky Tonk Man.

This is pretty spot on. In skimming the cards the undercard was split so you had a west coast crew and an east coast crew, but the draws are the top half of the card being shuttled across the country. The JCP philosophy of "go 20 minutes or more, no nights off" didn't help either, because I don't care who you are, going 20 minutes when you've done four cross-continental flights in eight days is a lot to ask of anyone. I think people went "well, Flair can do it, so everyone can", forgetting that Flair was a medical marvel that should have died a couple of hundred times from his escapades. Even without these cross-continental flights, JCP had a lot of decisions that asked a lot of their talent. For example, the main event of nearly every Bash show in 1987 was an eight-man cage match with the Horsemen against Dusty, Nikita, and the Road Warriors. So for a month straight you're asking your main event guys to go hard in a cage and at least a couple of people need to bleed. Yeah, you take turns, but that's so physically taxing. That same philosophy costs JCP the Powers of Pain a few months later when they book the Road Warriors and the Powers of Pain in a series(!) of scaffold matches. That's way too much to ask of people to take even a ten foot bump every night for four weeks straight - and that's being generous, the JCP scaffold was usually 15-20 feet. And the easy response is "blame Dusty, he booked it". The buck had to stop somewhere, and Crockett should've said "hey, you know, maybe we don't do a month of cage matches on top". This is also right around when the fans started getting sick of Dusty and friends against the Horsemen, which goes back to where we were at the original start of this... what if Magnum doesn't get in the crash. The people who were pessimistic about Dusty say "well Dusty turns Magnum heel" or "Dusty's ego won't let Magnum be the bigger star", but I personally don't believe that. Dusty loved Magnum and I think would've gladly moved Magnum over him. At that point everything freshens up because the Horsemen get a new arch-enemy. So... after a couple of days of discussion, is JCP in a better spot with a healthy Magnum? I think they are. I think they still buy the UWF for the syndication because the goal was to expand nationally, I think they just take it slower and don't rush to try and book the UWF towns as frequently. They're still screwed if they buy Florida. I don't think they make as many panic moves but they still have a bunch of bad ideas that don't help their overall goal. I think they still sell to Turner, but maybe in 1989 or 1990. If they don't, then they end up becoming a lot like Memphis... slowly regressing to eventual failure in the mid- to late-1990s. It's still a grim proposition but it's a better one than what they had. Magnum puts them in a better spot but by October 1986 Vince had pulled pretty far ahead. Losing Magnum just made it worse.

Eh. Cole held the title from June 1st 2019 to July 1st 2020 losing the title to Keith Lee in the double title match (I remember the discourse being that they waited too long to crown Lee) that got spoiled when one of the Indus Sher guys posted a pic with Lee in the ring with confetti. Lee lost to Kross the next month but Kross got hurt then Finn won the title in September of 2020 and held it until Kross came back in April of 2021 with Kross losing to Joe. Outside of the title picture, we had Cole vs Pat McAfee with Pat getting Burch, Oney and Holland as his goons for Wargames which then fed into the UE having their extended dissolution and Cole/Kyle having their feud the end it all which led to the birth of 2.0. Cole (and the UE) were a focal point of NXT for most of that period. I don't care about ratings or anything because it's out of my hands and if a show gets canned then it gets canned. But if we're going to talk ratings, NXT was never going to beat AEW because the end game of NXT was getting to the main roster no matter what they say. Who wants to wrestle in a 200 (I'm sure the PC is less, but Full Sail was right) seat arena when you could tour the world in front of crowds 10-20 times bigger? AEW was the end game, it just looked different than anything NXT could put on week to week. It's like comparing Sinclair ROH or Impact to WWE, they're not the same and it's very noticeable when you watch. I have some thoughts about the nonsense they're trying to pull with main roster folks appearing on NXT to pump ratings, but that's for a different thread.

The craziest thing is how much money they had to pay whenever they used the crow on a show. They had to pay for plane tickets for the crow handler, the crow...and a back-up crow. IIRC, according to JJ Dillon it was like $10K or more anytime they used a crow and they did it more than just at that Clash. They used it for various videos and stuff for Sting. JJ wrote that they should've just gotten a bunch of shots with the crow once and interspliced them but anytime they needed the crow, they'd just fork over the $10K or whatever and fly in the whole crow entourage for one off shoots. WCW paid for plane tickets for a stunt crow...multiple times. How does anyone listen to Eric Bischoff when it comes to the "business of the wrestling business"?

That was a really nice, satisfying finish to the main event today. I LOVED SAP's matching gear and loved seeing them on TV again. The hour always flies by. Dynamite is (once again) STACKED next week! But to me a simple hour of entertaining pro wrestling and associated bullshit (like we got today) is often every bit as satisfying as a jam-packed supershow.

That's you re-contextualizing the promo to fit your point of view. The music & the lights comment was a word for word rip off of what Cole said in a promo with Karrion Cross in NXT. They give you the cool music & the lights to make you look like a big deal. All they do for me to make me look like a big deal is ring the freakin bell. It pretty much murdered Cross dead because it was true. It was all smoke & mirrors for him then his ring work was bland as can be. That comment was just a clever callback not some 4D chess shot at TK for bringing Cole in and how he can't draw an audience. You're getting out of hand with all of this. Like & dislike whoever you want. Just please I ask that when conversing back and forth with us, keep your opinions rooted in reality. That's all. Because that's some looney tunes shit up there lol.

I’m rewatching Deadpool for the first time in years and holy fuck is Gina Carano a bad actor. Most of her lines are ADR’d and there’s even a scene where she’s in the background, out of focus, and her lines are ADR while they CG her lips moving. Fuuuuck.

No one gets worked by twitter more than the Dolph Man, particularly when it meets his interests. Well they already have my money with the two announced matches, everything else is just gravy.

I think you’re riding a fine line well here (and I think you’re a cool dude) and like how you didn’t “mean to pick on @Shartnado” I don’t mean to pick on you. I do find it troublesome (the same way you do with people saying a booking decision is “stupid”) to dismiss criticism (usually Art criticism like film criticism, wrestling booking discussions, music reviews, etc) with well it’s popular and makes money. I personally saw a lot of it when the first Avatar came out. The discussion of taste and evaluating story was often met with “well it’s popular for a reason.” I also feel the initial post you quoted was less an insult towards Roman having the titles and more a joke towards introducing a new title without having the other guy drop it, so we can have more titles. Gunther not dropping the IC title but bringing back the European belt or even a new one like AEW was initially mocked for having too many belts. But yes, if having Seth or whoever as an opposite show’s new main title makes WWE more money, then it is smart for the company to do. Someone can think it is “stupid” from a storytelling opinion without having to tip toe around language that involves financials. Or we as readers can use context and if we respect the person making the statement, understand where they are actually coming from. Twilight is stupid in my opinion, and yet people made an enormous amount of money from it. Buuuuuut, very likely I’m being a hypocrite here: I tend to eye-roll when people say things a long the lines of “[insert wrestler here] can’t layout a match” and things of that nature. I mentally require the same careful language that you are requesting. So yes, maybe I need to evaluate the feelings that arise when I felt the need to defend my wet-fart-hazardous-weather-friend from my name-playing-off-fun-tag-team-slogan friend, when I myself am in the same position of NoSpotsOnlyRestholds. So don’t mind me as I reevaluate my thoughts. I do this posts out of love of the game, self discovery, and a hope we can all grow closer and internet friends.

This is like when they drop key plot elements and context on BTE. Dynamite viewers are going to be so confused.

Congrats @Pete

Yeah, Speedball needs that match to happen and everyone wants to see it!

I would *hope* the show gets headlined by Speedball vs. Ospreay since that was supposed to happen at the first Multiverse United before Ospreay's injury I could see Bully Ray lobbying for a match with Tanahashi since it's the ECW Arena

I’m certain I’m missing some big ones, but I’d go (in no particular order): Omega vs. Mox Punk vs. MJF The Ballad of Hangman Page Orange Cassidy’s Improbable Streak MJF & Wardlow

Might as well break Honky's record now that they are already within months of it happening. Wait, I have an even better idea: Have Gunther break the record and have him holding on to the title without putting anyone over for so long that they have to create a new title that someone else can win something... no, I take that back. That would be a stupid idea.

Imagine if 2021 version of you told you that Jeff Jarrett would be in the ring in a 6 person match in AEW and one of his opponents is Papa Briscoe

The one where Cole was North American Champion? That was in Melrose, MA and indeed fucking great to see in person.

Good rampage. Totally different feel than last week obviously. I absolutely hate how the Lucha Bros just come into the ring whenever they want to. It lowers the stakes and the drama and it's not a "lucha" thing at all. Traditionally in lucha, the rudos will do that and then the ref will hold the tecnicos back from doing it because they work on a different set of rules/a different moral code and that's where a lot of the drama on beatdowns happens. In a Lucha Bros tag, they come in whenever they want during the shine but then look like idiots for not doing that during the heat with no explanation or logic. I think Dax's logic of "the legal man always touches the legal man and the illegal man only goes after the illegal man" after things break down towards the end of a match is too much, but this is way too little. The Big Bill stuff was otherwise fun. I basically wish anyone else had the ROH belts. I got a kick out of the JR's coffee line. Interesting thing about Hobbs. He wrestled Spears over the weekend and midway through the match they switched it and Hobbs ended as a babyface. Makes you wonder. Good on the Colorado Springs crowd for really going up for the local guy even if he got squished. I thoroughly enjoyed the SAP vs Acclaimed match. I like Angelico's theme but it stunk SAP didn't come out to the Masters of the Universe one, just to hear it on a bigger stage. I like Caster using the atomic drop/inverted atomic drop. I don't remember if he'd been doing that but that's a good pick up for him. Very happy for Skye Blue who has been putting the work in. She seemed honestly choked up at the end. Nice to see Martinez in with these people to freshen things up a bit. They ran the lockjaw/half crab spot at the house show too, btw, so they're really using them a trial ground for new things. It's funny that Nyla still has her pyro even though she's way down the card. They should have a screwy finish and run it back on the first Collision in front of the hometown crowd.

They announced the blocks at the Road to Strong show. A, B, C, D. A (aka SANADA and the kids) = SANADA, Umino, Narita, Tsuji, Hikuleo, Chase Owans (zero points possibility!), Kidd, Kiyomiya. B (aka LOL, what is Loa doing here) = Okada, YOSHI-HASHI, Loa, El-P, TAICHI, Ospreay, O-Khan, KENTA C (aka Let's hit hard!) = Tama, Ishii, Takagi, Nicholls, Henare, Kingston, Finlay, EVIL D (aka Alex's trial by fire) = Tanahashi, Goto, Yano, Naito, ZSJ, Haste, Cobb, Coughlin

Cole and WALTER had an awesome match in EVOLVE that no one saw because it was just after Cole had signed with WWE. To my earlier comment about enjoying Cole best wheneating a beating, see that match. Dude gets creamed.

Obviously, you had different crews working different shows with a private jet involved for the handful of guys who were making dates across the country. However, part of it was the commitment to continue doing the Mid Atlantic towns as well as the Georgia territory towns on top of trying emulate Vince's expansion. Vince had TV commitments in Philly, the NYC markets, Baltimore, Boston etc. So you still had shows at MSG, the Spectrum, the Capitol Centre, the Boston Garden, Maple Leaf Gardens, Nassau Coliseum, Baltimore Civic Center/Arena, and other venues on top of doing shows EVERYWHERE else. The biggest problem even if you split crews is the lack of starpower to do multiple shows across a week. Vince could get away with it. Crockett couldn't.

I’m pretty sure Adam Cole was only NXT champion for a few months into Dynamite’s debut, lost it sometime in early 2020, and then it was Finn Balor’s cross to bare until they moved to Tuesdays. Of course I remember nothing about NXT or the pandemic era of WWE, but even if his stuff was still the focal point while he wasn’t champion, obviously the show as a whole did nothing to bring viewers back in if they only won the ratings war once out of the year plus they went head to head. You can’t lay all that blame at the feet of one man. NXT was set up to fail from day one in October 2019.

You've been insisting for weeks (months?) that Cole actively drags the ratings down. You in fact predicted his segment, the highest rated one from this week, would be the lowest rated one.

You really need to especially: 3. GUNTHER vs. Ricochet. Smackdown, 16th December 2022. 2. GUNTHER vs. Sheamus vs. Drew McIntyre. WrestleMania XXXIX. *****. 1. GUNTHER vs. Sheamus. Clash at the Castle 2022. *****.

I feel like this is what the should have done with Rampage, have that show anchored by OC v Buddy or The Trios belts instead of having OC defend against the likes of QT. If this does happen I hope Rampage becomes the home of The Dark/Elevation crew (maybe anchored by Statlander?)

https://www.theinvasionhasbegun.com/?c=us The password is: RSD3PX5N7S

1/2/91: Battle Royal! These are so fun. I'm glad I went back for it. It was maybe 6 minutes and it's just constant pins. They do the angle with Taue and Kawada right at the front and they brawl around the arena for the whole thing though we can't see a chunk of it. There's a bit where Misawa takes out Spivey and Kobashi and Ace take out Hansen and everyone just pins them. There's a teeter totter with Kobashi and Kimala II where both guys get pinned. Hansen takes out Kobashi with a chair for the hell of it in there. And somehow, Ace wins it all! (with Kobashi, post pin, helping out). Fun stuff. 1/19/91: Hansen (c) vs Jumbo: This was awesome. It was like the title match version of the hoss fight main event style. It was Godzilla vs King Kong. It didn't have the same energy that Doc or Gordy bring but it had such gravitas and struggle. They were just pushing up against each other the whole time. It was more methodological but you could see the exhaustion and exertion from the two of them as the match went on. There was just such weight to it. It built to Hansen using the belly to back a few times to really stick it to Jumbo and Jumbo countering by kicking off the ropes. He reversed a suplex too. He worked over the arm. But Hansen was able to come back with a lariat out of nowhere. The finish was pretty awesome with each man trying for bombs but not being able to put the other way and really not being able to hit their best stuff exactly how they wanted. Finally, Jumbo ducks the lariat and hits the Neckbreaker Drop! as the announcers shout Baba's name over and over again. It felt somehow so meaningful that Jumbo went into the well and used that to win. People over at PWO have been pretty low on this over the years and but in context, I thought it was awesome stuff. It's not Hansen vs Andre or a crazy brawl but I just bought into the atmosphere as something entirely different.

100% agree. That being said... Perhaps there would be money to be made and fun to be had in a Tony Nese (or Pretty Peter) growing a moustache and a mullet, donning a sequined robe, and entering the ring to intone: "Consider this a BoPo trigger warning: What I'd like right now is for all you adipose-ally gifted, differently-fit plant-based pork substitutes to keep the noise down while I take my robe off and show absolutely anyone who is sexually attracted to the male form what a cis male body that rigidly conforms to outdated societal norms looks like." Or, on second thought, maybe there wouldn't be much money to be made or fun to be had there, after all.

If you want that sweet, sweet DVDVR access you gotta be good in the neighborhood. Try our 2 for $20 or 2 for $25 (now including our delicious Bourbon Street Steaks) with a spectacular from the plastic container margaritas. Enjoy, and God Bless. See you at Applebees.

So, ah, yeah Sisu fucking RULES. It's about a mean as fuck old Finnish dude who kills a bunch of Nazis. That's it, that's the review. I mean, what more do you need? I also watched John Wick 4. It was John Wick but 3 hours long with repetitive boring fight scenes and completely po-faced and weirdly dull.

That word deserves a filter

I am far too addicted to Diablo 4. It's so freaking good. It took them long enough, but it seems like they figured out from their time of owning Bungie to looking at what Lost Ark and Path of Exile were doing for how to make a Diablo 4 live service game. One thing I really like is that you're always vulnerable from the start to just about the end game. Potion management is a must. In Diablo 3 I could basically sleepwalk my way through the entire game. It was just way too easy. Now though, even on the second difficulty level, there are fights that are really tough and I'm relying on the dodge button a lot. The one thing I don't like is that for whatever reason, it's the only PC game I own and play that makes my PC sound like a vacuum cleaner. Hopefully future patches optimize how it's using resources, but my god, the heat on my CPU and GPU ramp way up while playing it. It hasn't caused a hard shutdown or anything, but I wind up playing D4 with the door to my PC open just to get a ton of ventilation in there. I have one large fan in the back of the case, 2 on top, 2 in the front, and an aftermarket cooler on my CPU. It's really making me consider getting an all in one water cooling kit.

You know damn well your arguments about Cole aren’t entirely about “talent level”. It’s also about star power - which even someone like Danielson hasn’t been able to translate into new viewers - and more importantly, body shaming him, and the Young Bucks, at every turn. But you’re clearly not the only one here that’s comfortable in doing that - I guess since Ric Flair did it decades ago, it’s okay, and the ones upset about it are bowing to woke culture or some bullshit. Like Ric Flair is an example that anyone should be following anyway, but whatever. Cole, or the Young Bucks, aren’t my idealistic version of a pro wrestler, and I’m sure they aren’t for a lot of others either, but none of us post constantly about how unbelievable their shit is because he’s skinny or lacks muscle definition or whatever. Let’s just call it what it is, it’s pretty fucking toxic. You can shit on these wrestlers without resorting to real, personal attacks. Do better.

Eddie not matching up with Taichi is criminal. Also, Ishii has faced so many Americans over the years the luster is gone, and he’s lost a step from when he was at his peak. The Shingo match has a really good chance of being good, but I wish there were more chances for Eddie to show out. I mean, come on, you couldn’t match him up with Yano?!?

I'm barking out bro In other lucha libre news, Rush (and his dad) just up and quit AAA despite being booked in the Triplemania co-main w/ LA Park vs. Psycho Clown & Sam Adonis. He claims he's "completely independent".

I think it’s worth keeping in mind that the CFPA is a totally made-up thing with no real power or influence. They’re grandstanding on this to try to get some traction. The vast majority of players will take the free $500 and enjoy seeing themselves immortalized in polygons. My hunch is that EA will enter into separate, individual NIL deals with the star players who legitimately could command more money as part of the marketing for the game, in order to secure their likenesses.

The Phillies had a bunch of vaccine conspiracy dudes last year, so let's consider the possibility that they're a bit crazy. But it's possible to timestamp these things to figure out if there's any real difference between real time and clock time in Philly. Anyways.. Verne Gagne doesn't see a problem with this arrangement.

It's definitely the best sell of a Walter/Gunther chop I've personally seen.

I already posted the "zombie gambler named Pokerface" idea in the RIP thread, but I realize the name Pokerface would work for a masked gambler too. You see, he has a great pokerface because it's his mask

Don’t work yourself into a shoot brother

I heard PAC was backstage and there was an embarrassing situation where Gravity introduced himself, because apparently it skipped his mind that they’d met before.

Fletcher vs Daniels: I love Fletcher's hammerlock hook set up. I kind of wish he'd do it from a reverse DDT position with the arm under the body and just go back with it into a cutter/facebuster sort of thing because I think that'd look gnarlier than his fall forward tombstone thing. I respect Daniels. I think a lot of the "floaty" issues he had for much of his career have sorted themselves out with age crumpling his natural athleticism (unbridled athleticism can be bad and make things seem less organic/natural/gritty? Gasp!). But I never have anything to say about his matches really. Clatyon vs Sydal: Only thing to mention here is that I love how Clayton took the meteora. It's one of the iffiest moves in wrestling because it involves the opponent to sit up in a way that they never actually do in the course of any other match, but Clayton sold the damage to the neck in a way that it seemed like he was fighting to even sit up as opposed to just looking like an idiot and waiting for his opponent. Dralistico vs Mack was pretty good. This has been a show of relatively even guys. I liked the comeback spot with the headstand a lot. It just felt big. Indirect interference finish here was probably the right call. Willow vs Rachael was solid. They put over her strength and power well enough and I hope she stays around in ROH. They had put Willow front and center in the graphic hyping this which shows that they have a better sense of what they (kind of sort of) lucked into so I was a little surprised this wasn't the main event. Has Willow used the camel clutch before? It's a natural for her visually and a weird before-the-fact Iron Sheik tribute. There was no Sheik tribute on AEW right? That was kind of weird. Embassy vs Eli/Cheeseburger/Kross was a fine competitive squash. Some of the tandem stuff is coming along with the Gates. Nigel saying Kross was Landel's illigitmate kid was funny The Dragonball thing seemed like a way for him to get over and that's gone so maybe he should work a Buddy Landel gimmick. Martinez vs Vertvixen mainly made me want an actual program for Mercedes. I'd be for the Athena II match or Willow getting a win back against her for NJPW Strong but I'd rather have something based on a non-title storyline, be it with Alize or Lady Frost or Skye Blue or anyone really. Great to see Garrison back as he was the one with the upside in the blonds but he looked to have some ring rust here maybe? Maybe the chemistry just wasn't there with Moriarty? Not sure. More later!

A classic turns five today. Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada at NJPW Dominion 2018.

If you haven't seen it, I'd recommend his 2009 ECW on Syfy run as being highly praised, filled with killer TV matches against a variety of opponents.

Yes, Perry Mason was really good, especially the second season after they brought on the creative team from THE KNICK to run it. In Matthew Rhys-related news, partially inspired by Perry, I’ve recently gone back to rewatch THE AMERICANS. I fell out of watching it early in the third season, so it’s been long enough that I really don’t remember much about it, and hot damn this show was great.