Technico Support

Why do we need Dustin Rhodes, whose only storyline is to pop up every 7-10 weeks and say “I’m old but I still love rasslin,” getting 12 meaningless minutes on TV? They’re never doing anything else with him. Maybe let one of your younger, more talented JTTS guys like Kommander or Bryan Keith get a TV win and invest in your future a bit. Jesus fuck. What does Dustin on TV do for anyone?

Wrestling Challenge s1e6 kicks off with a murderer vs a domestic abuser, introduced by a sexual predator and referred by a…checks notes…t-shirt bootlegger. Old wrestling is tough to watch sometimes.

Wikipedia says about two months. He debuted the gimmick in late December 95 but the episode aired in early January 96. By March 11, he dropped the nickname.

Not to be outdone, TNA is going to hold a PPV called “Falcon Crest” in May.

Nothing like hiring a wrestler who only knows WWE’s style of presentation, then hiring a writer — just for her — who only knows WWE’s style. Shit, why not go for the trifecta and hire Kevin Dunn to direct her segments?

So I got a PS5 recently and just started playing FirePro. It’s pretty great (I used to play 6 Man Scramble with a buddy back in 96 on his modded Saturn). I’m working through the story mode right now as a heavyweight. Can anyone tell me if it’s any different playing as a junior? Thanks!

Hook, ironically. Anderson, with complete sincerity.

Hangman will push Swerve down a flight of stairs before the main event at Dynasty.

Yeah, all this. I’m sincerely holding out hope that she’s incredible in the ring, because everything she’s done so far just feels inauthentic and dull. When the person working a supernatural spooky witch gimmick feels more like a fully realized human being than you do, something is terribly wrong.

The shift in public perception of celebs doing commercials is like this, too. Back in the day, celebs would sneak off to Japan to make that sweet, secret advertising money. Today we have Oscar winners shilling everything in broad daylight.

“Blackpool Combat Kings” and ”Kings of Blackpool” both sound awesome.

Wrestling is far different from acting, of course, because of kayfabe. Carrol O’Connor didn’t stay in character in real life, going around trying to convince the marks that Archie Bunker was a real person. I don’t think any wrestler should get the protection of “I was just playing a character” when called out for on-screen racism when they went out of their way to convince everyone that they weren’t playing a character in every other aspect. You couldn’t just selectively kayfabe. When we see “our guest tonight is Joe Anoai, who plays Roman Reigns on TV,” then we can talk about wrestlers distancing themselves from their characters.

I grew up in Baltimore and lived either in the city or in the area until my mid-30s but, like @NikoBaltimore, I only went on the Key Bridge a few times in my life. What a tragedy and just a rough situation for Baltimore.

No, but fans do wonder what the hell they’re doing here. Word is the general impression is they don’t belong here.

Vince did Saudi shows despite the outcry after the Kashoggi murder. He absolutely would have played Sun City.

Even with only two people at the gym, odds are that guy is still on the pec deck right when you need it.

Yes! The fact that he had three matches with Rude and only one was any good is the telling part. I need to dig through the WWE network thread and find my notes. Rude was so awesome and Warrior almost killed him at least twice.

Same guy was there today. After his extensive Smith benching, he did Smith squats, with even worse ROM than benching! I swear, maybe 10 degree knee bends. I’m fascinated.

I’m just saying Becky crediting Vince alone with all her good fortune in life is sad.

Exactly! They’d be a great get 10-15 years ago.

I can’t remember which is which, but whatever the second match in the series was, was the best for me. Warrior had his rare working boots on and never came close to fucking up and killing Rude, which is more than I can say for the other two. Seeing the third match actually regress was depressing.

This is the Jedi Mind Trick/wrestlers are insecure thing again. That company needs to hire a cult deprogrammer.

I’ll respectfully disagree with both points. I fairly recently re-watched every WWF PPV up to maybe 92 and I have to tell you that Warrior was awful. He had three marquee matches with Rude and two were terrible. His match with Savage was a triumph of storytelling overcoming poor work and seriously, fuck kicking out of 5 flying elbows. That’s not work, it’s spectacle. His match with Hogan was a miracle rooted in lots of planning. Hogan could and did work. I dislike the narrative that Hogan was lazy in the U.S. It’s often peddled by people amazed that Hogan did maybe three more moves when working in Japan. Yes, after 86 he transitioned into more of a routine worker but shit, Flair was a routine worker too. Hogan got by on charisma and a routine but the idea that he couldn’t or didn’t also work when he was in the ring is just wrong. I feel like a lot of wrestling criticism has its roots in Meltzer’s writing in the 80s, where guys who worked a technical style were just automatically seen as better workers. Which is pretty funny if you think about it; smart fans were getting worked and believing the “scientific wrestler” gimmick. It was shocking, rewatching all this stuff, how so many wrestlers considered “bad” by conventional wisdom (typically big guys who worked a more power or brawling style, Hercules Hernandez for example) were really competent workers.

All this but swap Austin/Bret double turn match for Austin/Michaels. Maybe honorable mention to the screwjob, too. Also, it’s wild that maybe 97% of the matches mentioned so far are Attitude era and earlier. Almost nothing WWE did after killing all their competition matters at all, it’s just content. Some real Ozymandias shit, nothing left to conquer.

Yeah, this is the thing. There needed to be an explanation of why BCC wasn’t in the tournament after beating FTR and apparently becoming the top team in AEW on the last PPV. Because sure, FTR wins the tournament, but then BCC shows up like, “well you never beat us, though, and we’re the best!” but then there’s the gaping logic hole of, “well why weren’t you in the tournament then?” It’s like Hogan and Andre being inexplicably left out of the Mania 4 tournament and then showing up on Superstars the next week to challenge Savage.