For Great Justice

We’ve had 200 posts on Cody/Brock and exactly one post discussing Bianca and Rhea planting the seed that they will go the distance this year and face each other at WM40. That will be a main event. It will rule. More talk about that.

I’ll take back everything bad I ever said about Cody if he gives us a Cold Blooded Sausage Maker promo tonight

All the hullabaloo about the WM finish. Not that it isn’t an important part of this, but there are a hundred posts in the WM thread already

Off the back of this weekend I’m going to make an observation, and I’m just curious if people agree. And I’m leaving CodyGate out of it because that’s enough talk on that Observation is that Tony Khan is the best week to week matchmaker / booker in the US, and Triple H is the best quarter to quarter booker in the US. Like I’d rather watch Dynamite over Raw and SD every single week and not think twice, but objectively the WWE under HHH has stronger and more well established champions across the board (with OC vs Theory being the one exception) and a much tighter long term narrative. Both do very well with their PPVs. But I feel like WWE kind of sucks week to week and AEW is a mess long term.

Yeah, color-coded kendo sticks and chairs was lame as shit and all, but that’s indeed a “stop the match” gash and not a “why isn’t WWE allowing blood in HIAC this sucks” cut. Finn is a beast for that.

The thing about the Vince stache that kills me is the still shaving off the top half of the stache.

The biggest curiosity I have is Vince’s role, and whether it will have any real decision-making authority. In my day job I see a ton of M&A deals. It’s extremely common for the acquired CEO to be given some fancy title within the new company, but that’s almost always an honorarium with no real power. Common titles are Executive Chairman, Vice Chairman, etc. That said, this is Vince, so I can’t see him agreeing to anything without any real power. If I were to *guess*, it is indeed a bullshit honorarium and a board seat (not chairman, though). But we’ll see.

I like how over here it’s all “fuck this company,” and just one subforum over it’s “I can’t believe they didn’t have Mark beat Joe, but I guess there’s more to the story.” And one dude’s shoot brother died and the other had never won anything meaningful in his career until this year’s Rumble. Love all the passion. And I get that 80 percent of the board disagrees with me on this, and that’s why this place is great. But to me, booking wrestling is a lot like being a magician in that there are two parallel stories going on with the audience: there’s the trick itself (the show you see on TV), which is the most important one and it needs to be impressive. And then there’s the question of how the magician pulled the trick off (the wrestling equivalent being the writing and will they / won’t they / why are they when it comes to booking decisions). And you want to show just enough of the strings of (2) to enhance (1). That’s part of what makes great booking to me, and it drove a lot of the appeal of this exact match as well as Montreal last month. That’s on purpose. And I think Triple H gets that. “I can’t believe these fuckers didn’t put Cody over” is one of those components from that second layer that will be used to reinforce the story from the first layer as they move this forward. That’s how this works.

I couldn’t believe that tool bag asked Roman the Endeavor question, knowing that Hunter was coming out later. Like what the fuck. Let’s ask 2018 Tom Brady about rumors the Pats are for sale.

Reading (admittedly, way) between the lines on Hunter’s answer just now at the presser as to why Cody didn’t go over, I got a vibe that he was concerned the fans would turn on him at some point later in the run. I could be seeing ghosts there, though. Hunter’s doing great here. Him marking out over Gunther was awesome.

We are now back to The Next One having not revealed itself. And that includes to anyone in Stamford. If it wasn’t Sami last month, and it isn’t Cody tonight, then we aren’t even close to it. For all we know it could be Montez Ford or Carmelo Hayes 3-4 years from now.

Hey Codes, my man, Lands End makes a nice white button down. You’ll need it for that trip to the Mall of America next year

Definitely independent entities but just like any other M&A there are a ton of back office efficiencies here. Production specifically - one fleet of trucks, rigging, AV, wiring, lighting. It’s a massive save if they align UFC to the WWE touring schedule, which I’m sure they will to at least a degree.

I’m very curious what this means for the upcoming TV rights package. Looking at existing UFC partners, could Fox (SD) + ESPN (Raw, obviously with MNF considerations) + ESPN+ (PLE) be the move?

I agree with the Luger analogy. I don’t think Cody has the chops to be the next guy but he certainly won’t even have that chance if he loses tonight.

If they don’t call the public holding company Titan Sports we’re doing it wrong

I mentioned the Dawkins catch but didn’t see anyone post the video I mean if you’re a fellow wrestler, that’s the best move of the night. Amazing.

I’m not so sure I agree on this one. Sure it’s this story that’s gotten him to where he is now, but “ungrateful shithead son of the greatest babyface of all time who thinks he’s hard but is such a little bitch” translates to beyond just the feud with Rey proper to me. Like he can go feud with Montez Ford later this year over the US title but he’s still just as much of a bitch. I think he stays being a heat magnet for a good long while, though he does have a ceiling with the current state of his in-ring. Which isn’t bad but…well, look at the roster they have now.

100% on board with “Dominic Mysterio is a better heel than MJF” being a Contentious DVDVR Talking Point (tm). Because it’s true. It isn’t all bad for Max though. Much better in the ring and almost certainly a better babyface (though we haven’t seen it for an extended period yet).

Dawkins will have a job for life man. See exhibit A of him performing the greatest dive catch I’ve ever seen and saving Ricochet’s life. See exhibit B of truck sticking Braun Stroman, reminding everyone that there’s popcorn muscles and then there’s division one athlete muscles. Dude was the MVP of that match with Chad Gable right there too. Another guy with a job for life.

Another fantastic WM Night 1. Rey/Dom was pro wrestling as SHIT. From the recap video to the entrances to the family drama to the action in the ring to stable wars to celebrity bullshit and a happy ending, this one was full of ALL the good shit that works in 1983, 2003 or 2023. I know most will say 2-3 other matches from this same show were better, but this is my MOTY right now. So, so good.

Fantastic show. Everything clicked for me. Indi winning is the highlight.

Top Dolla just needs to pack it in after that absolute nuke by Cole tonight. Geeeeyawlee. The LWO is going to turn on Rey, and Dom is going to quit Judgement Day, and we’re going to leave Mania with Dom as 1998 Eddie leading the LWO aren’t we. This will be glorious sleazy bullshit. And in all the praise for the buildup to Mania and excitement and all, I kind of lost sight of one thing: LA crowds suuuuuuuuck

My man Coach TK was DVDVR as shit right there, right down to the green board-era upload speeds

This looks excellent. WM Night 1 last year was my show of the year, and they’ve really perfected this whole summer blockbuster movie version of pro wrestling vibe. Say what you want about WWE TV for the last couple of years, but their big PPV shows have delivered.