Technico Support

Does anybody know what the story is with Drake Younger? Did he just not fit what they wanted but he took a job as a ref for some stability? You know NXT is awesome when the opening match referee is better than a good chunk of the wrestlers on the main roster.

That's an amazing idea, except Vince would fuck up NXT because it's not sports entertainment enough for USA in his mind. Incredible show and I have to echo the sentiments of others who are dreading any of these guys being called up. How the hell can the same company that produces three hours of hot garbage that I could not give two shits about on Mondays make something this awesome? There is serious need for an overhaul of the main product because the "minor league" is outdoing them in every way.

They need to wear brighter colors for some contrast. Puma stands out fine but so many other guys are wearing dark colors that it just looks muddy. Cholo getting slammed off the top rope looks like that time your local zany weather guy wore a green suit for Halloween. All I see is arms and a head. That arena is so dark and dingy Buffalo Bill put down his lotion, poked his head out of his torture dungeon and said "god damn that place is dark and dingy."

"In traditional wrestling...." This is the 31st annual edition of this event. What's your definition of "traditional wrestling?"

Aside from the truly awful PowerPoints is the confirmation of what we already knew but didn't want to admit: that movies, which people love and revere as art and can be a huge part of our lives, are just another investment to be focus-grouped, merchandised and micromanaged until they become nothing but lowest-common-denominator revenue generators, no different from Big Macs or 4-ply toilet paper. . Sure we all knew it was true but god damn, reading some of those slides and analyses was just disheartening. "Film" and "art" don't mean shit to these guys. It's all about how we can make our most risk-averse investment and still separate the marks from their money. Some gems: Calculating the "risks" of the "Annie" remake, they actually list "casting apprehension." OH SHIT THE NEW ANNIE IS BLACK. HOW IS THAT GOING TO PLAY IN GREEN BAY??? Stressing the need to keep focus off America-centric topics while promoting "White House Down." White. House. Down. Urging the people making commercials for Elysium to downplay the sociopolitical subtext. The guy's previous film was a sci-fi retelling of Apartheid. I think we all knew what we were getting.

Jason Hervey meets Kendall Windham backstage at Clash of the Champions 2.

Replacing the briefcase with a HUGE brass ring would be fucking amazing and if WWE doesn't do it, some other company should rip off that idea.

YOU TALK ABOUT BEEFCAKE OOOH BAYBAAAYYYY

Dave is a national treasure. I fear for the day when he quits and all we'll have is Alvarez.

I know that. But we're talking about Vince McMahon's tastes and what he wants put forward for his company. He's tone deaf to what's going out out there. John Cena looks like a wrestler, to him. Punk does not.

It's also pretty obvious Punk simply did not have a look they wanted as a face of the company. Forget that he would never be the guy; they didn't want him representing the company anywhere, even as a third or fourth guy. The Wizard World thing, the Ink Master thing, the movie thing, the video game cover thing...every time Punk was set to represent the company, they tried to plug in someone different. Every single time. From the company's perspective, he was "skinny fat," smaller than Vince's superman ideal, greasy and grimy looking, not very pretty, all tatted up and just not what a sports entertainer is supposed to look like. He was not, nor ever would be, the guy they wanted representing them. You think Nash was the only one who said he looked like the cook at Waffle House? In WWE's eyes, Punk was always going to be a cult hero there to placate one small portion of the audience. He was a fool, and just as delusional as every other wrestler, to think things would ever be otherwise. Punk thinking that WM main event was just around the corner was no less foolish than Dennis Stamp on his trampoline anticipating that next big booking.

If that ring were any smaller I'd put my WWF LJN figures in it,

Wow. It's like Michael Elgin. Only with charisma! It's like Brian Cage, only fat and more indy-looking

Yeah, the Broncos clearly needed those crooked refs' help beating the Bills. Who paid for the plastic surgery, brother???

Wow, I've never seen that one. That's up there with the WWF New Generation commercials about the baseball strike and they were insufferable. Yes, wrestlers have no strikes and no offseason. When your labor practices have more in common with circus animals than athletes, that's actually not a good thing.

If it's anything like the time I took my wife to an ROH show (oh man) years ago, have her put some Vapo-rub under her nose like an autopsy technician. She'll thank you later.

Well if you want goofy old school Bond, you can't get more wacky than Skyfall's "Home Alone" sequence.

Awesome Steen vignette. Never thought I'd see a screengrab from a PWG show on WWE TV.

Punk dong truthers

He looks like a guy I'd see working shitty Baltimore area indies in the early 90s.

So is Steen going to take Bull Dempsey's "chubby guy who just wants to kick people's asses" spot? Because I really, really hope so.

Holy shit I was right dudes Daniel Craig: Bond movies had to go darker because "Mike Myers fucked us" http://io9.com/the-james-bond-movies-had-to-go-darker-because-mike-my-1667143453

oh shit that is hilarious wtf

The one in White Marsh is still there and I stop in from time to time to look at used stuff and laugh at their new releases priced at $27.99 Seriously? Dude, I'm surprised White Marsh Mall is still there, let alone Suncoast.

I really had my doubts as to whether he could ever be as good without the mask. I'm glad I was wrong, though I'm hoping he gets to do one Midnight Rider style angle sometime in NXT/WWE.