NoFistsJustFlips

I'm going by memory here and it could be faulty, but how I remember it is RVD established his name prior to ECW. He created it & and Heyman just booked him. ECW & Heyman created The Dudley name & characters. Then he found performers to play those roles. So ECW owns the names. WWE bought ECW assets in 2001 so WWE owns all intellectual property created by ECW. Which means they own The Dudley names. RVD owns his because he created it, not ECW. 1000% ECW didn't care about copyrights. Hence all the unlicensed music. They were willing to roll the dice that Looney Tunes wouldn't sure. WWE, having already lost a lawsuit to Marvel over the Hulk trademark, were not about to play with fire like that. And hopped a unique spelling would be enough if WB came calling. Same with Rhino & Marvel.

That's.... not exactly how it works. For example CM Punk gets signed. They allow him to keep the name and have him sign the name over (on a temporary basis, not in perpetuity). When you sign the name over that's more just for convenience. WWE doesn't have to get approval on every piece of marketing with that name or toy or merchandise. They basically run the administration of your name during the length of your contracted services. But then you leave and once the deal is terminated WWE no longer have rights to it. CM Punk is still CM Punk. AJ Styles, Rey Mysterio, Christian Cage, etc. If you owned the name prior, WWE don't get to keep it when you leave. But as with Christian, if WWE shortened your name you don't get to go by that. You have to use the full name again. So Kofi can legally use his prior full name. Kofi Nahje Kingston. Woods (and Big E if he were to get out of his deal just to be a corner man) would not be keeping the same names tho.

Sweat is about heat regulation, not conditioning. Sweat doesn't mean they're blown up. Just means thier body is too hot. Hashtag science and all that lol

Without invoking the name of Shawn Michaels can you explain why turning your foot 90 degrees makes the kick have more force? Its all wrestling and analyzing this stuff can make you go crosseyed lol. If I kick a heavy bag full force from the front, I can grate the exact same force as I can superkicking the bag. So why is one more protected than the other? Not a criticism of your take. More a jumping off point for a thought experiment. Why do people say xyz throw too many super kicks and not xyz throws too many front kicks? Its all the same thing. Only reason why people care, in my theory here at least, is that the super kick was someone's finish for a long time.

Thats a taste preference tho. I generally like a little spooky from time to time, or at least spooky adjacent. Its worked more than Sullivan & Undertaker just off the top of my head Kane & Bray. Undeniable that element is what helped each of them break through after both having failed other gimmicks. I personally loved HOB. But I also liked the Flock in WCW. And The Deadpool (ICP, Vamp, & Muta). And The Brood. Take, Kane (original version), Danhausen, Dark Order, Darby, Sting. Different shades and flavors of it. But the spooky shit works. Not always and not for everyone. But thats why wrestling is a circus. You dont have to like every act. I cant stand Mox and The Death Riders, but thats a taste thing as well because thats a way minority opinion overall.

And before I get push back for wanting Black back, theres some fun meta booking you can do with a guy the fans think wont job. You can also get a hell of a reaction for a surprise job to someone lesser than him. If he's willing to play ball and job when told to, he's an asset. He's got a great look, unique work, and visually a great presentation that also elevated others. Give me a slow burn stirring the pot with Uno reviving Dark Order or reform HOB but make it House of Brody and Black & Murphy do the tag thing. Lots of possibilities.

Okay but first name a time Kamala read poetry like The Genius. You dont have to like the smirk into the camera stuff but thats thier characters. Kamala wasn't a poet. The Young Bucks arent ass kickers. Neither were The Rock n Roll Express or The Rockers. You just have whatever issue you have with them and then you literally make shit up to support the argument. And its so god damn tiresome. But I will stop it there. That wasnt even the point you were intending to make anyways. You just drag that shit into everything and Im sorry for the tangent and thread derail. The answers to what everyone is talking about are Kari, MCMG, and Malachai. Those are who I would bring in.

You're co-signing onto a throught that The Young Bucks "throw striks like an 8 year old". Also previously stated but not part of this specific rant "they work matches like The Road Warriors and dont sell". No. Neither of those are true. You can not like whoever you want. No one cares. But when you repeatedly drill the same false talking points over and over to support your hyper fixation grudge (like Drew does all the time), no one gives your other takes any credibility. As for your specific addition, "...One way or another, they manage to convince you that they're capable of kicking people's asses. The Bucks can't pull that off." No. Thats just wrong as well. Have you ever been full force kicked in the face? How about 10x in a row? Thier strikes look good. They sell. Their size is fine. The unwarrented hate those two guys get is insane.

No. They dont. You just have a weird grudge.

I wanted The Giants to take Caleb Downs so bad and they didnt and The Cowboys got him instead. Thats gonna sting for the next 15 years if he turns out as good as I think he will. That Eagles trade jump story is wild. Pittsburgh was on thr phone with Lemon getting ready to take him at 21 but it was still 20 still and the Cowboys of all twams traded 20 to The Eagles and they stole him before The Steelers could get him while he was still on the phoen with The Steelers lol.

100% agree with you. Especially with how well recieved the moment was by the audience. Felt like a big deal. I guess we'll see.

Oba/Brock, Ladder Match, Jade/Rhea, Danhausen's segment, and Punk/Roman all hit just right for me. Still a ludacris amount of monetization (a fucking guy getting to sit at the commentary desk for a match... come onnnnn....) but it hurts less when the show is so good. I did not expect the Oba match to be so perfect. Thats exactly what I think was needed. Oba is a star. I love The Danhausen segment. Just enough weird and wackyness. I do think they're still gonna run Brock vs Gunther at Summer Slam. But they really shouldn't. That was the perfect way for him to go out.

After a day to process it, Im in favor of the Dexter Lawrence trade. He's a great DT, top 5 in the league even, but asking for that much of an extension coming off of just 0.5 sacks last year... is bad business. But hey somebody was willing to. So it's a win / win. Hope he does well in Cincy. Now The Giants get to pick twice in the top ten and have enough money left to pick up an adequate free agent DT and hopefully improve overall.from where they were before this trade.

Yeah all of this true. But AEW taking down WWE (like WCW did for a short period of time) was a net positive for the business. WWE got better. No more TL Hoppers and King Mable world title matches. 1995 was the peak of WWE awfulness. And that peak never would have come down if it wasnt forced to. So in that sense AEW being healthy and profitable still doesnt end in a net positive for improving WWE. I dont think Im really explaining my thought well. Like WCW kicking WWE's ass made them not boring anymore. If AEW never kicks WWE's ass (makes them number two for a short period of time), they have no need to get better. Record profits and all that arent really a catalyst for change ya know.

This show is starting to feel a lot like the current US political climate. Without making it about politics what I mean by that is the sunken cost fallacy. The most bought in people are just denying reality because they're in too deep. The current WWE is bad. All time bad. Im not talking about the work or the characters. Its not a talent thing. Its the way they do the whole production. All the gaudy sponsor logos. All thr commercials. Monetizing everything. Lack of actual meaningful content (wrestling / promos / story telling angles). Current WWE is dog shit. The totality of WWE. Thats not me saying Gunther sucks or lots of guys arent over and doing fun things. This is me saying watching the WWE product is like going to a shady website that has 18 pop up ads for every 1 minute of site interaction. In the 1990s quality dip gave WCW a chance. In the 2020s quality dip doesnt give AEW a chance. Because the viewing audience are all indoctrinated in the culture war of wrestling. "But bro this is WWE everything else is outlaw mudshow shit." My final though (and this heavy opinion so its okay if you disagre...) there was not one match on night one that even hit the Jericho vs Riccochet level from Dynasty. And thats not even in the top 5 of matches from the last AEW PPV.

I also think having The Elimination Chamber be for the other world title shots really makes for a boring storytelling device. Every WM world title match has the exact same stories. Two have a Rumble winner. Two have a Chamber winner. Locks us in to the same thing over and over. Keep The Rumble winners. Have your creative team creatively write *different* stories for that second shot. Just my 2 cents at least. Flat. Safe. Boring. That's the WWE way.

One Saudi event pays them more than the entire gates of WM1 - WM36 combined. I do think it has helped them. I hate the deal and want it done. But the financial component cannot be denied.

That's the vibe I got from the backstage deal with Omega & Ospreay. Ospreay gives him encouragement. In actuality he just got Kenny's gears turning. Heel turn and dirty win over Darby to set up Ospreay winning The Owen and Omega vs Ospreay is your All In main event.

The only Jey Uso punch thrown was pulled so blatantly. Sooo itssssa work.

Define broadcast. Because this is streaming. I'm honestly not sure if streaming is subject to the same rules or not.

My guess is Darby up, drops the title back to MJF at the next ppv. Big moment during WM week, in Darby's hometown, fresh tv title change that gets Darby on your list of champions but MJF gets it right back to keep it moving towards whatever thier All In plan is.

I posted in a previous thread that Oba has *it* and even if he loses here, he's going to find a way to the top regardless. But why give him a loss and ruin his trajectory? But also we know that Brock's people don't want him losing until he retires. So this is where creativity comes into place. Here's how I would get out of this corner and keep everyone strong. (Note Id prefer Oba over clean as a sheet tho). They've done the ring breaking spot before. But have they done one mid show? Id book them breaking the ring (in a way that is fixable, WWE's magic department can figure that part out). You have them throw bombs for 10 mins, big spot that breaks the ring. Tons of chaos. Oh no, how do we finish Mania. Well WWE always has a practice ring setup in the back. You have Triple H "scramble" to find two wrestlers not booked on the show and he sends them to the practice ring to work an unscheduled match as the crew "fix" the ring. Oba doesn't lose. Brock doesn't lose. It's a retread of something they've done in the past but in a new memorable way where they make you watch a match in the practice ring, empty arena style, for 10 mins then the ring is fixed in time for the last 2 or 3 matches. Just spit balling here. But that's what I think is missing from current WWE. Unpredictability. There's probably a dozen viable ideas that get you out of either guy losing, you just have to be willing to think outside of the box and find them.

Moving past how bad the reveal was... so what's the internal logic of doing this massive heel beatdown to Cody by Orton in Orton's home town? Is this one of those things where they knew what they were doing and there's a double turn coming? Because if not, ho boy how fucking dumb is your writing team? Let's get all these people that love this man, and a segment of the crowd even know him personally from interacting with him around town. Sure I'm sure they'll boo him just for beating up the champ I get that McAfee was an Ari idea (reportedly). I don't think there's a chance in hell Ari chose *when* the reveal happened... which means the writing team did. And if they legitimately overlooked / didn't care that Orton was gonna get cheered, what are we even doing here?

Because Ari Emanuel forcing Travis Scott as the focal point of Cena vs Cody worked so well, let's run it back with Orton Cody & McAfee. This sucks. I generally like McAfee but who in the world thinks his best use? Why build up the vignettes the way they did when they KNOW the reveal was gonna get shit on? Its the same thing they did with Danhausen's debut. They are making people think the reveals are supposed to be tippy top tier import people and they just arent. Why let wild speculation and excitement happen if the end game is just the commentator. Terrible.

If they develop a program that's a VR simulator and they do 4 hours a day on thier off day / non travel days you don't think that's the same as getting reps? You don't think refs make mistakes that could be corrected with more practice? I could be off base here. But if more practice doesnt make you better why is practice a thing? Like players improve greatly from it. You dont think refs would? I guess its a cost issue but if you invest in the refs as employees its going to make them better. A lot of off season programs have VR simulators for QBs to stay sharp. I just think the more plays you see, the more odd calls the simulator shows you, the better you'll be in real time.