Greggulator

That gauntlet match was beautiful. I was expecting we'd get either Chad or Sami at the start ala KofiMania and go from there. I love how they went with things instead. Not every gauntlet match should follow the same pattern. The final leg between Sami and Chad was very special professional wrestling between two of the best. I want to see those guys have a 30-minute one-on-one match now.

Wow. This is absolutely fantastic. Crying while reading it at a hotel breakfast buffet restaurant while wearing a lanyard. https://theathletic.com/5279301/2024/03/06/tom-meschery-nba-warriors-cancer-poet/?source=user_shared_article

I never thought I would say this… but Drew rules. Trolling autograph seekers by blasting Cult of Personality in your rental car is a level.

One thing I loved in The Rock/Roman promo was Solo lurking behind Roman once Roman snatched the mic. Crowd is going to pop so huge when Solo ends up spiking either The Rock or Roman at the first Raw after WM.

That do-si-do spot would have worked so well against Juice/Switchblade. Doesn't work in a match with "real ones" like the BCC and with Kingston at your side. Just a matter of context. I'm such a mark for when The Fantastics or The Rockers or RnR's would do a do-si-do. That was a fun match. I really liked how Mox pumped his fist and Claudio lorded the win over whichever FTR guy was on the floor (forget who.) It made their win seem important.

Two awesome carry jobs last night from Stat and OC. Stat just rules so much. She's the absolute total package -- an athletic wunderkind but also understands her character and naturally connects with the fans. She's kind of like Bayley, except she's so strong physically she can't work underneath. Stat held everything together, let Sky Blue lean into the "lost high school freshman who met a lonely goth junior at the mall who convinced her steal a Ministry cassette tape" character stuff, and have a really good TV match. OC/Nick Wayne was along the same lines. OC was so generous in that match and (to no one's surprise) was in the right place throughout for Wayne to do his wild dives. Wayne reminds me a lot of a young Sean Waltman, who was the first heel cruiserweight I remember -- he knew when to preen and show-off and gloat. Having one of the best to ever understand that timing as your patriarch probably really helps with that. I love OC also selling his back progressively more throughout the match to set up the in-ring story for the Roddy match, with OC having an easy target for Roddy to target. Who else does that level of set-up than OC? He's one of the smartest workers to ever do it. It's no shock both OC and Stat are IRL best friends. They're both so good and get it.

Sami/Nak had what was arguably the best match in NXT history (not my pick, but I won’t yell too loud if it’s yours.) You can just give those guys any amount of time and they will have an absolutely dynamite match. This was so so so so great. The best babyface in the WWE. I think Nak has also been very uniquely doing his best work on the main roster these past few months and they changed his presentation. He comes off so sinister and heartless and it’s a perfect character for the role he’s in of “heel who has great matches and puts over the biggest babyfaces on the roster.” Man, Drew is just setting a bar right now. I never liked him and thought he was a snooze. I was always disappointed because he always showed personality in commercials or the out-of-character stuff I‘be seen him in. He’s now showing us that and why the hell did it take this long? He’s so good. The Gunther intrigue is also so good. The Imperium/New Day match was also great and brutal. I hope Rhea squashes the hell out of Becky.

Hot damn that was quality tonight. Opening match was fantastic and peak TV wrestling — a perfect length right before the interference came. Drew and Cody are going to bring the house down at a PPV main event sooner than later. Truthline was the funniest I have ever intentionally laughed while watching wrestling. Plenty of times I have laughed at things I was not supposed to laugh at. But this was just absurdity at its great. Not sure what I liked better — the This Is Us reference or the “Pony” shout-out, The 4 on 4 sprint after was fun. They have done such an awesome job with those quick little segments. The New Day one tonight really stood out to me — made those guys look deadly serious and badass in setting up the No DQ match. I missed Gable vs. Ivar but sounds like that tore the house down. That main event was fucking bananas good. Gunther’s the best TV worker in the world right now. As much as I love OC, Gunther just has everything right now. I was wondering when we were going to get to Jey/Jimmy for WM and here we are. I loved the finish of this so much, good fake-outs to make us think Jey still had a shot.

In the 90s, the only place where you could bill a team of black gang members from and have them feel legitimate would either be South Central or Compton. Early 90s had the LA Riots and then Death Row took over pop culture for a while.

Awesome night of professional wrestling. I skipped a few things but from what I saw: 1) Mox vs. Dax was really good. Two absolutely professionals beating each other up. There may have been a bit too much of the “Yay! Boo!” type of spots but nothing too egregious. 2) Christian is just the best slimebag heel. I love that Mrs. Wayne was giving off Elizabeth Holmes vibes. 3) EVP Bucks vs. Top Flight was possibly the most I have ever liked the Bucks in the ring. Everything about this version of them clicks. They are such great old-school heel pricks. What I liked best was they the referee was actually used in the match and used well. Tag wrestling is the best wrestling when you just adhere to the simple conceit of a referee being there to enforce rules that the heels look to exploit, When you have that with two really good athletic babyfaces against two really charismatic heels doing some great over-the-top shtick and stooging perfectly, you really have quality. 3A) I loved the post-match stuff with The Bucks and Tony. Great lure job where it looked like they were about to give him the trigger. 3B) The run-in stuff with Darby was so fucking corny. Talking about stuff from years ago and being whiny. Just, like, do a run in with the Bucks backing away in fear. Way too overthought and needlessly shoot-y and it only really reminded me of Cody Rhodes and how huge of a star he is in the other promotion. Bleh. 4) That main event was absolutely nuts. Not sure why they had a Texas Death stipulation for the set-up match before Roddy gets his shot against OC. But man if those guys want to go all out and do all kinds of insane stuff like that by all means. The Taven dive into the table was absolutely batshit and makes me think he has severe mental health issues. But what I liked best about the match is that it very much told a story throughout — OC is an all-time great babyface. Great wild match.

OC vs. Ishii was just a perfect secondary title TV main event match. Man, that was just beautiful professional wrestling.

That was absolutely incredible. I had a few friends of mine who don’t watch wrestling anymore text me about it. Legitimately one of the best wrestling segments of all-time. Just absolute star power all around.

Eric Bischoff said this somewhere so I did not initially believe it. But I checked it out. Laurinaitis’s attorney appears to be more of a Florida divorce attorney than someone who typically represents clients in a high profile sexual assault type of case with looming pending criminal charges. It probably explains the legal strategy of “saying a bunch of crazy shit in public” that in now way no how will backfire (I say sarcastically.). The dogs on the homepage are cute, though. https://www.lutzlegalcenter.com/about-us

Sting’s entire career was made in the Broadway against Flair at Clash of Champions 1. One of the defining matches in wrestling history.

Oh man, that was a great night of wrestling. I wasn’t able to watch the BCC match yet, either. That opening match was a damn near perfect match. Hangman was so good being a great subtle heel and growing more and more heelish throughout. The one knock I had is that they could have done a “five minutes remaining” announcer spot because the time limit draw felt a little out of nowhere. But that is just the slightest of nitpicks. This and Swerve In Their Glory vs The Acclaimed are two of the best matches in AEW history. What a fucking wild match. Joe’s promo after was also fun. Takeshita vs. Jericho was damn good. I can’t believe they didn’t stop the match when Jericho’s head bounced off the mat at the end. Great heel chickanery leading to Jericho tapping out to his own move — perfect heeling and credit to Jericho for doing that. That main event was special. So much good ECW brawling, with Sting’s insane dive. Big Bill catching Darby off the rope was truly a Holy Shit chant. I was not expecting Sting and Darby to get the win — thought the Bucks were going to cost them the belts — but it was such a great moment. I thought they were going to end with the celebration with Sting’s kids. But Matthew and Nicholas laying them all out was fantastic, easily the most I have enjoyed The Bucks. The EVP Trigger is such a great name. The white suits to make the blood pop is a chef’s kiss to one really awesome night of rasslin’.

Yeah, that's pretty much what was in the lawsuit. I think the lawsuit focused more on "Vince had people cross state lines into Connecticut" but it's the same theory. I'm no legal expert by any means, but the lawsuit talked about traversing state lines.

I don't watch a ton of NXT. But man, that tag match was out-of-this world. On top of all the crazy spots, there were so many well-time false finishes and cut-offs and etc. I hope everyone watches this match. Absolute MOTYC type of match. Also, The WolfDogs on commentary were awesome -- they put everything over while acting like major jerks, and then laid everyone out. I wanted to watch to see the Hayes/Trick aftermath. Hayes was so awesome. I loved the presentation -- totally aped from the legendary Eddie heel turn promo where he screams at Rey's mask. No need to reinvent the wheel with motivations. Just let Melo give his reasoning in a way that reeks of him being a total dickhead. So hatable. The crowd is going to go nuts when Trick finally comes back.

Also, if the WWE did get paid for Tribute to the Troops, they'd probably want to report it. They just got a big check from the US government. That's a big sign of legitimacy to the really big huge investors out there.

I didn't see anything in any financial documents about Tribute to the Troops. I didn't scour every document, but I just did a little bit. There are references to Saudi Arabia, though. This leads me to believe that the Tribute to the Troops is just all PR for the WWE. If they made a lot of money from Tribute to the Troops, they'd disclose it in the documents. If there's any money they make from it, it's just like a normal house show (since they have it at arenas now.) Maybe the military pays for travel or set-up. There's probably a FOIA request someone can file to get some more information about how the whole thing unfolded but that's way more paperwork than I'm interested in dealing with right now.

Fun night of wrestling. Drew McIntyre is on the run of his career with his character. What a great manipulative scumbag to worm his way into everything. Plus, that shirt… That Fatal Four Way was wicked fun. Great combination of reckless dives and the like. Am I alone in thinking Becky/Shayna was at another level? Match had a really good story and flow to it. It felt like peak NXT Shayna when she was THE heel and did the nastiest limb work. Women’s tag match was fun. Good Rhea/Nia brawl, too. Jey vs. Gunther with his old frienemies The New Day having his back in their hate feud is a really great way to tie in the past of the epic New Day/Usos feud and rivalry, all while Gunther sets his own legacy. Has anyone had a better 2.5 years than Jey Uso? The guy is absolutely mega over. That Sami promo was an all-time great babyface promo. Sami really is just the best at being sympathetic and expressing the struggles of wrestling. The main event was fun. Shinsuke was perfect for selling nutshots from the bullrope and the like.

I read that. And I'm also skeptical of that, too. That's just the healthy way to approach this for everyone -- take everything everyone says with a huge grain of salt right now.

I read the lawsuit, too. One of my many reporting jobs was to go through complaints (the first step in a lawsuit) — none of them related to anything close to this, but similar. To just run a little counter to Trevor (I have no idea who he is): 1) Including the WWE in the lawsuit is not surprising. The woman worked for the WWE and says she was harassed in the capacity of her employment at WWE. 2) You have to take anything that is in a lawsuit with some degree of skepticism. The basics of a complaint are “file as many things as possible with some of the evidence you have because chances are a judge is going to narrow a lot of this down or negotiated away because that is how the American Justice system works.” There’s a lot in this lawsuit that came with actual proof (snippets of text messages) and that a woman put her name in public where she is stating as fact the most degrading things a person can have had happen to them — and you wouldn’t do that (or have a lawyer sign off on it) unless you can back up that it really happened to you. But the things about who knew what in the WWE corporate hierarchy that’s alleged is something you really do need to take with a grain of salt. EX: I am pretty sure it is in the lawsuit and not something in the media (I can’t check right this second), but the victim claims the WWE didn’t reach out to her when conducting its own internal investigation. Would the WWE — being looked at by the SEC for Vince’s payoffs along with Vince and who knows who else internally facing a criminal investigation and in the midst of a potential giant corporate merger while shopping around a billion media rights deal — be that stupid to not follow all of the internal investigation stuff to the letter of the law? Or, more accurately, would the very expensive law firm they hired to conduct the investigation put their reputation at risk to help out a wrestling company? Because lawyers are the ones who handle those types of investigations, which they then present to the board (or a select committee of board members, but usually the internal committee tells the whole board) for the board to consult. So, please, let this unfold. Don’t speculate names as to who knew what. We don’t know.

He didn't sell the shares to Endeavor. How it works is this -- Vince sold 8.4 million shares to an underwriter (it looks like Morgan Stanley) who paid him $670 million or so. The underwriter and the company came up with a price per share based on where the price of the stock was around the time they were negotiating the deal. The underwriter then owns the stocks and then can sell them, which is usually done to the "open market." I put that in quotes just because it's a little tricky to explain. But in this case -- Endeavor then paid the underwriter $100 million to buy back however many shares that could get them. And at the same time, a few board members also decided to buy some shared ($1 million each or so.) There's nothing on its face too wild about any of this. The most likely reason why Vince sold his shares was "I want $670 million." You'd also have to be insane if you're Endeavor's executives to sign off on some kind of stock manipulation or what not when the SEC is already out in the public about looking into the WWE for Vince paying NDAs out of the company piggy bank without telling anyone.

The criminal investigation into this stuff is absolutely not a surprise. TBH, I was expecting this news to drop sooner than later. They've been looking at him for a while, now. The subpoenas that were reported from the summer are looking for items related to everything in the suit and who knows what else. Johnny's lawyer talking about the complaint the way he did now reads like code for "Johnny's going to do anything he can for a plea deal" if/when it gets to the indictment part of the story. It might take a while to get there if more women are coming forward that we don't know about yet. And there's a good chance of that. The woman in the complaint's attorney said that yesterday. You usually have to take with a huge grain of salt anything anyone's attorney says when they're fighting in the media over a lawsuit. (Which they're doing.) But these tea leaves...

This is a civil suit. Nobody is going to jail. But Johnny doesn’t want to pay the damages the woman can get.