NoFistsJustFlips

Man as a companion to the tape trading talk, how many other people used to do the two VCR deal to copy tapes they rented? I had a huge collection because of it. I would rent all the wrestling tapes at every rental store in my city. Id even get rides to out of town rental places to see if they had any tapes I didn't have. At a certain point VHS tapes had some sort of copy protection on them. Where the copy you made would be all scrambled like a PPV you didn't buy in the old days. But of course I still found a way around that. As if they thought I wouldn't test out ways around it. Two pieces of electrical tape over the copy protection square usually did the trick. I may have taken it too far. Because I eventually got a job at a Blockbuster. So I would go to stores and buy new VHS tapes. Copy them. Then take them to work and use the shrink wrap machine to reseal them and return them. I had an addiction for sure.

Since The PPV is in Chicago (and at The United Center) I expect Punk will make an appearance. Nothing major. Just a promo saying he wished he could wrestle. Or awarding the interim title to the winner or something. Now I'm really interested to see what kind of t-shirt he wears if he does show up.

Everyone pontificating about the title being meant to be defended abroad are forgetting one thing... It's still geographically inaccurate. Even if that is the plan (and hey, it might be) the name of the title is a big strike against it for me. I'm sure eventually that annoyance will go away for me. But people just kind of trying to downplay it as a title being out there in the ether.... regardless... it's still inaccurately named. So that talking point doesn't help me be less annoyed by it. I've never seen Clark work. But the other three are top tier talents. Its gonna be good even if Clark sucks. But I would assume if NJPW is putting him in this spot he's at least solid or better.

Because it's for a weird new geographically incorrect title. That's my reason at least lol.

I think she was fine for that role too. I don't think she's good or even adequate in the ring. But that too was also a two match glorified enhancement story. -Win an enhancement match on Dynamite. -Lost decisively to Jade on Rampage. It's hard to say she deserved to be on when that's a whole lot of talented people ahead of her that aren't getting on TV. But you have to take in the totality of the story they used her for. She got beat decisively by Jade. Would you be happy with any of the talented people you like having that same story? They get one win over an enhancement talent then get squashed out by Jade? Ruby, Statlander, Nyla, Deeb, Mercedes Martinez, Britt, Hayter, Toni, Rosa, Riho, Shida, etc are all too valuable for that story. So I don't have a problem with them sparing those talents from that story to not lower their equity and importance. Looking at it from a strictly why is she on TV over person X isn't on TV, without taking the story into consideration is surface level thinking. Gotta take more into consideration to understand why it was her and why she was fine for the role.

I am so down for John Wick 5: Fast & Furious 11. The real interpromotional dream match we've been longing for.

Shafir is a glorified enhancement talent in this story. -Loses to Rosa. Gets beat up after by Storm. -Loses to Storm. Gets beat up after by Rosa. She was a plot device to bring Rosa & Storm together. You don't want to throw away someone that's over on that role. Like do you wanna job Ruby or Statlander out twice like that? I get that there are great talents being left off TV due to the dumb one women's match only formatting. But Shafir was fine for this role. And you wouldn't want to waste someone good on being jobbed out a bunch.

I get that you're coming from a place of knowledge and experience. And I truly hope that's how it's all playing out behind the scenes. I'm just very cynical on it all, at least when it comes to this specific business. This isn't a financial sector company. This isn't a well esteemed production company in Hollywood. This is that 'fake rasslin stuff' to the masses. The way forward for them is ignorance and playing up that 'huyck huyck scucks guys it's just rasslin' stance. They've already won the first battle. What respectable company under investigation gets away with the well he's stepping down as CEO for now but he's staying on as the head of creative? Like he's still the head of the on screen product they put out. Again to compare it to Weinstien if he was like okay guys I'm going to step down as CEO of this production company.... buuttttt I'm staying on as the writer and director for every movie the company still produces that would not have worked. It's already worked for Vince. No one cares. As much as they try to shed the wrestling image and transform it into sports entertainment to look legitimate, it's still just that 'silly rasslin' and that's will save Vince's ass. (Again hope I'm wrong, that's just my pessimistic take on what's played out).

More matches being announced is a good thing. But I'm noticing an AEW trend that I hope doesn't stick. The last PPV and this one have both had super rushed builds. With multiple matches being announced days out from the PPV. Why would you wait until 4 days before the PPV to announce so many matches? One of the things we were led to believe is the lowered amount of PPVs vs WWE was because they wanted to turn back the clock and have more methodical and important builds to all the PPV matches. Instead of the frantic throw everything on last minute. But here they are two PPVs in a row announcing 3-4 matches DAYS before the event. I don't like that. I'm willing to hand waive this one away because of the structure of New Japan and not being able to spoil the results of Domino & what not just to announce the PPV matches earlier. But I just hope when All Out comes around we have 90% of the card know more than 3 weeks out. It's fine to throw one match on the week of the show as an added value bonus kind of thing. But I hope they get back to having the card laid out well ahead of time with plenty of time to advertise and push the issues.

There's seven announced matches. Plus maybe ZSJ vs Danielson. That gets you to eight if that's a go. There's soooo many people being left off of this show it's mind boggling. From both sides. A couple more matches could get added this week. But they're really holding back here. A lot. I get that Punk is hurt. MJF is in a worked / shoot contract angle. The Hardy's being out due to Jeff's relapse. Andrade / Lucha Bros AAA politics. But there's still The Young Bucks, Red Dragon, Sting, Darby, Wardlow, Swerve, Keith Lee, Scorpio, Jungle Express, & Samoa Joe as people that have been regularly featured AEW stars that have no match. I mean shit I'm a little heated it's Sammy in the six man tag and not Garcia. Which makes way more sense. Both thematically and stylistically. (I assume Cole & Hangman are in the IWGP Title Match). New Japan has all of LIJ and Bullet Club sitting out (except for Jay White). Ibushi is injured / in contract dispute. But Okada may be left off. As well a bunch more featured mid card acts. Maybe we get a pre show match with two of them against Hookhausen? I mean no Naito & Hiromu is a real head scratcher to me. Do something weird to get them on like LIJ vs Sting & Darby. Hiromu vs Darby would be dope. Plus just cool to see Sting interact with Naito. Idk man. Seems like a real let down from what could have been. Especially with them booking the biggest building in Chicago for it. Even if Punk didn't get hurt, this was still going to feel like a let down lineup.

One or the other could have been a concession. But they are in contrast with each other. He wouldn't have wanted to be stretchered out and then also no sell it to do a promo. It's plausible that MJF could have been like hey let me do this live mic thing and I'll do whatever finish you want. And what they wanted was probably the stretcher job. But then you get competing things that don't jive. If that is the case and he wanted the promo as a concession (plausible), they should have scrapped the stretcher job.

I'd actually argue it was a mistake to do the stretcher job in the first place. You knew you had a big Dynamite coming up in LA where you wanted MJF to riff off of how the weekend played out. So why book yourself into a corner like that? We've all railed on WWE for 20 years now about Triple H getting flipped over by a forklift and showing up on Raw the next night with only a bandage on his forehead. This is the same thing. Do the match exactly the same. Once he hits the pin, no stretcher. You just have him do the kicking dirt on a dead body taunt as he walks away. You keep the camera focus on him all the way up the ramp, and you do the All Elite graphic. And you don't show MJF at all. That's how you keep the focus on Wardlow. What they did was keep the focus on MJF. The story conclusion ended up being about MJF and not Wardlow. And that's why it's fallen flat since. Wardlow also should have steam rolled Scorpio in LA for The TNT Title too. If there's a new title coming down the pike and you know you're gonna have a long term focus on that, the TNT Title should have been booked in contrast. A shocking surprise kind of thing where it's now on a completely new (and over) performer. New. Fresh. Surprising. Exciting. AEW is great at doing the long stories. But they need to mix in some good surprise booking once and awhile. (No, not Russo swerves. Think more like 123 Kid beating Razor out of nowhere cool moments every so foten).

I guess we'll see. But the story has completely blown over in the public discourse. Wrestlenomics put out a series of tweets detailing a bunch of other nasty Vince scandals and one stuck out to me. When Vince was on The Donahue Show and former ref Rita Charlton was on confronting Vince about his alleged rape of her, Donahue took questions from the audience. The first woman asked ' but isn't all that wrestling fake anyways'? As if caring if a rape happened or not was immaterial to making sure everyone knew that she knew wrestling is fake. That's how all the media outlets are treating this. That's where I'm at with it. People are enamored by the "but it's fake" talking point. It's more important to the average non fan to show that they know this is all fake than it is to stay on task and talk about whatever the serious issue is. Vince has already been on TV twice and been cheered. The ratings for Smackdown were up. No business partner or sponsor is going to care that an old man hooked up with an employee and paid her a bunch of his own money. ESPECIALLY when there is no fan or public backlash or outrage. And when it even IMPROVED business. Dude's going to get away with it just like everything else he's survived the last 40 years.

I think it's pretty clear Vince is going to skate here. The worst of it (as far as publicity) is over. That CNN piece and all the other mainstream stuff just wanted to make puns about how fake wrestling is, instead of hammer one of the top corporate executives in America for being a sex pest. He's temporarily "stepped down" as CEO & Chairman. But you just know he was in his office all weekend working on the same shit he always did as CEO. I know Gregg has done a great job explaining the hows and whys of the stock market and why this is a big deal to shareholders. But it's all kind of moot. No sponsors seem to care. No business partners seem to care. There's literally been no blow back on that front. The mainstream dropped the ball on holding a sex pest to account, just so they could get their fake wrestling jokes in. It'd literally be like news outlets downplaying Harvey Weinstein allegations to get jokes in about the movies he produces not being real.

Oh great now A_K is gonna rant about how CNN is fake and the language he spoke during the interview is a work and how we're all dumb dumbs for not seeing through this obviously worked storyline CNN is doing to show how bad a journalist Meltzer is

Citation needed here. If that happened, I'll like to know who said it so I can put them on ignore.

Royalties. Games work a bit different than standard footage for WWE. He's already getting royalties for the footage he's in. But they have to cut a separate check if he's shown in the game. They probably just don't think it was worth the $.01 per 100 copies sold or whatever. Which is the definition of petty.

I love Statlander, but this is a pretty crazy statement. Statlander is over and very good in the ring. Sasha is at least a level or two above her tho (due to time, experience, & exposure). Joe was a fully formed totally main event act when Angle went to TNA. Statlander is in the middle of the pack for the women's mid card title. Having a Wrestlemania main eventer come in and beat a middle of the pack mid card title level competitor is not Joe vs Angle. Joe may not have been TNA champion a that point but he was ROH's longest raining champion and a huge star with multiple PPV main events in multiple companies. I love Statlander dude. She's great. But she isn't penciled in to have a run any time soon. She's not beating Jade. She's not involved in the world title story. Sasha coming in and beating her, or going 50-50 with her is an improvement over just being Athena's backup against the baddies.

Vince has 80% of the voting power. Stephanie has 5% of the voting power. Linda has 1% of the voting power. Shane & Triple H both have 0% of the voting power. Ain't nobody voting Vince out of anywhere. He has 80% of the votes. He will never be ousted without a long and dirty fight.

As I said in the pics thread about the Marina & Rosa picture... That's the most "Please start liking me again internet" picture I have ever seen You gotta admire the thought process but that's the most dishonest peace offering picture of all time.

That's the most "Please start liking me again internet" picture I have ever seen You gotta admire the thought process but that's the most dishonest peace offering picture of all time.

That Dax vs Ospreay match. I think Dax might be my favorite worker currently. Loved the ladder match. And sometimes even when you know a moment is coming, it still delivers. And that was a great turn by Christian. Christian vs Jungle Boy is going to be a money feud. Also like that the women are still represented on the PPV even tho there's no AEW vs NJPW component. Leaving women off completely would have been a mistake. Hoping for a Toni win. Did not like the layout of the Wardlow deal. But that's nit-picky, it was mostly fine.

I imagine as we all workshop our scenarios here, Vince is in his office re-writing Smackdown for the 17th time this week. Prichard knocks and asks if he's able to knock off a few hours early due to all the damage control they'll be doing tomorrow. Vince gives his fake announcer chuckle and says something along the lines of 'god damn pal damage control? The US government couldn't take me down why would you think a run in on a beautiful woman will? It's business as usual. Get back in your office and get me 13 Veer promos to approve. He's a male model now make sure you write in some good one liners about the funny faces models make.'

This is an interesting story to follow. In virtually every instance of something like this happening the CEO / Chairman would be ousted. But the way WWE is structured, there's not much they can do if Vince fights it. The question is, how stubborn is he? Is he willing to tank the company to stay in power? Lose out on sponsors and business partners and shareholders? Go back to lean and mean years where they're taking water coolers out of the office? Or is 76 years old a good enough time to call it a day, retire, and find a hobby? Vince has zero interests outside of WWE. He doesn't watch movies or tv or sports or go golfing or any of that shit. If he bows out and has to sit on his ass he'll go nuts. So buckle up, this crazy old man will probably try to fight it.

The words arrogance and condescension are now represented by two letters on this board. I'm sure yall can read between the lines there.... moving on... I was active in the Jeff conversation in the main pro wrestling thread yesterday before AEW put out their press release. I am totally good with how it shook out. It was equal parts compassion & consequences. My position was never that he should be allowed to get away with it and it's no big deal. My stance was let's not pile on and ban him from the business when he needs help. He has to live with consequences from his poor judgement and reckless behavior. I'm okay with that. I'm just glad he wasn't fired and isn't banned for life like lots of people wanted. If he takes this serious and truly rehabilitates himself, I hope people wont be so harsh on AEW giving him another chance. He's a valuable performer and can and does deserve to have another run for all he's given to the business. *IF* he gets clean. Sorry I'll let yall get back to DVDR Dinners Drive ins & Dives now