Kevin Wilson

Ok this is starting to get more crazy. Tweet embedding is having a bad day so I'll just quote the tweet: “The reason she (Giulia) is delaying her WWE start is so she could at least be there to kick off the (Rossy Ogawa) promotion for a while and get the promotion going, and then she is gonna end up with WWE at some point, But when WWE was interested in her, she basically gave (Ogawa) her word that she would help when he started out and that’s what she’s gonna do. She’s actually postponing her WWE debut because she gave him her word.” - Dave Meltzer (WOR) I guess this new promotion situation is legit, based on what Dave and Rossy himself are saying. I wonder how many wrestlers will leave with him? Who is the financial backer and can they match/exceed the pay that the wrestlers are getting in Stardom? Will they have a TV or streaming deal? So many questions.

Yay more promotion splintering, just what the Japanese scene always needs. But that is just the ebb and flow of puroresu, can't do much about fate.

Wrestling promotions surprise me but I'd be particularly surprised if Stardom "dies" due to this. Stardom has a really stacked roster, they can afford to lose 10 to 15 wrestlers and the promotion would just keep trucking along, especially if they filled those holes with Freelancers. Also, even with the issues, where are these wrestlers theoretically going if Stardom stops existing? WWE/AEW wouldn't want ~40 Joshi wrestlers (long rumored NXT Japan or not) and outside of TJPW I don't know if there is another women's promotion that pays a full time wage to their wrestlers. So in that hypothetical, the "leftover" wrestlers either would quit wrestling altogether or try the Freelance schedule, which few wrestlers can pull off. I can see some of the OGs leaving (hell, Hazuki has quit twice before) but I just don't expect a grand exodus like All Japan back in the day. Ice Ribbon and WAVE have both survived their stars leaving (even though it shrunk their popularity), Joshi promotions do rarely close, they just shrink. The only way I can see Stardom closing is if Bushiroad just says "fuck it", takes the top ten or so they like and merge them into New Japan/New Japan Strong and not sign the rest. But I feel like that's not a likely outcome. Either way I'm interested to see what happens come March.

Jesus. Just tragic, she was only 21.

Well that was always the thing with GamePass. How would Microsoft be able to (fairly) determine how successful a game was when the majority of people are playing it as part of GamePass? Do they only look at new sign-ups that month, or how long people stay signed up, etc. I've always felt that GamePass was "too good" of a deal, but I am glad Microsoft is handling that not by making GamePass worse but potentially releasing their games on other systems too.

TK immediately made two tweets related to it. Which just adds another wrinkle, and if the "AEW wasn't interested in Giulia" rumor was related to Rossy potentially joining WWE and getting wrestlers like Giulia to join him. Just a hypothetical but somehow AEW is either involved or impacted by whatever was going on. Gonna be a messy next few days, I think.

Everyone involved with wrestling is crazy. Rossy Ogawa is 66 years old, I can't imagine (me personally) starting a new venture/duties with a different company at that age. I'd just retire. There have been some rumblings of issues within Stardom last year, if he wasn't happy there for whatever personal or professional reason, I get it. But him at his age leaving for WWE (or the hypothetic NXT Japan) is something else for sure. Its a shame there aren't any better "sources" for Joshi wrestling as while I thought the Stardom product was still strong in 2023 just due to the quality of their wrestlers, there clearly were a lot of issues behind the scenes we either don't know about or only got hints about.

You guys have no idea how lucky we are that HHH isn't able to wrestle anymore for health reasons, as he'd 100% have inserted himself into... something.... if they felt that WrestleMania needed to be saved. Not saying he'd have taken the Rock spot but maybe the GUNTER or Seth match. I am intrigued to see if the fans turn on it like they did Goldberg/Lesnar and Batista/Yes Movement. Or even Roman/Rock at the Rumble so long ago. I don't know how much the fanbase has changed since those events happened, if fans will just go with the flow or be vocally against it at live shows. If nothing else, I do think The Rock has to be at the top of his game. He can't stumble through a bad promo or look out of place, I think one way or the other fans won't be amused if it looks like he took Cody's spot but wasn't prepared for it.

I think, in general, fans/teams turn on head coaches too easily and blame them for too much of what happens. Not every coach can win a SB, most don't, it doesn't make them "bad". Not every coach can have a Top 5 Defense, it doesn't make the other 27 coaches bad. He was just Coach of the Year two years ago. While there are exceptions of course (like Josh McDaniels, notably), I think most of the time a team is bad equally by some other factor (players, injuries, bad luck) and not directly the head coach. The Titans were 54-45 with him as coach, the players seemed to fight for him (we saw that in the last week of last season), and he reached the playoffs three times which is more than a lot of coaches can say. I don't even LIKE him, as a Bills fan I don't like anyone from New England or the Titans. But fans just look for any reason to jettison the coach, you can't convince me he is worse than Canales or Quinn. So, that's why I figure its more his personality holding him back but I assume he'll get another chance next year, they always do if they have some results.

So we all know owners talk to each other, is Vrabel THAT hard to get along with/manage and that spread around? There didn't seem to be much interest in him at all even though by all accounts (including my own eyes) he was a damn good coach. Unless he just wanted to take a year off so teams could get re-excited about him. I have no inside sources but my thought now is maybe he becomes an 'assistant head coach' somewhere and just bides his time.

As much as it pains me to say something nice about Purdy, I do think that has been something oft repeated about him but not actually true. In 2023 he was #2 in the NFL in Air Yards Per Completion (at 7.2 yards) and #8 in attempted air yards per attempt (https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2023/passing_advanced.htm). I found conflicting rankings on different sites but all had him in the Top 10, some #1 depending on how the math was done. Some of that I do think is A LOT of teams were doing those WR screens this year, not just the 49ers, it was the "it" play of 2023 which probably impacted everyone's numbers. And a lot of his highlights are the screens to Deebo or CMC but he did throw deeper than most other QBs on average. EDIT: aww Tabe beat me to it

Every QB healthy and interested in going will be at the Pro Bowl. The Legendary Gardner Minshew has been added.

Ben Johnson is definitely taking a risk. We've seen before when a OC or DC was "hot" and many teams wanted them, and after a cold year suddenly there was no interest. If he wants to stay with the Lions, more power to him but I hope if HC is his eventually goal that he doesn't get passed over for the next hot coordinator. Course, every year it seems there are 6 to 8 coaching jobs open so as long as the Lions offense stays hot, he'll get another go at it.

Starting to think this Embracer Group is a bunch of dumbfucks.

Those FG choices were brutal. Just brutal. And that's not in a "in hindsight" way, it seemed obvious in real time. I know that Campbell has an identity he is going for and wants to stick with it. And I respect it, I do. But there needs to be a time and place for it, you can be aggressive and still minimize the risk. its all about balance. I hope this was a learning lesson for him that he can be crazy and chaotic but sometimes its ok to take the safe route.

Honestly if I had to rank the MVPs of the women's rumble, she'd be in the top three somewhere (Chelsea was also great). She looked really polished, hit her spots well, and seemed to fit in just fine. I remember her saying in the past one reason she wasn't rushing to WWE is her other hobbies/interests/revenue streams but I think if she ever wants to go there she'd do really well.

That was clearly a bait comment, no one here was wishing Punk got hurt and mentioning after a wrestling show "so and so may have been injured" is a rather normal thing we do after every event. I had the same concern about Orton, anytime a wrestler is "selling" an injury that didn't seem to be part of the storyline, AND the commentators don't acknowledge it, I am concerned its legitimate. Course it could be anything from a bruise to a tear, since wrestlers don't react to bad injuries as a normal human does. Hopefully both just got hit funny and nothing serious happened.

The power of Slim Jim. (I'm sure it still would have happened and could be unrelated, but losing a major sponsor certainly didn't help)

Finally on the front page of ESPN, anyone's guess how long it lasts. I don't watch their talking head shows so don't know if its been mentioned on-air.

I have always been more of a physical media guy as I rarely re-play games so I like to trade them in (got over $400 in credits at eStarland in the last month), but since I buy multiple consoles I don't mind the xbox being my "GamePass Machine" (which it is now) and the PlayStation being the higher powered physical media machine. So hopefully all three don't go in that direction or I'll be a sad panda.

At least the major news sites seem to be picking it up (still nothing on the ESPN website). I'm always afraid that some mainstream media will take the "well wrestling is scummy, what can ya do?" approach but this goes far beyond that, I want it to get big enough that Endeavour has to make some real changes. Not just changes that look good in a press release (investigate this, suspend this person) but real actual changes. I don't want to get optimistic of course as we've seen this happen before with little change, but maybe this is bad enough that finally people will be held accountable for their actions.

Sorry you are "bothered" so much by someone having a different thought than you on a public situation. While I sincerely appreciate you being able to read my mind and my intentions, you are of course extremely wrong. I mentioned Cena and Rock as they have left the wrestling industry and have their own revenue streams not related to Vince, and still decide to rub elbows with Vince anyway. I specifically said I do not blame those that wrestle as a livelihood from being in a tough spot. Nor do I know of Owens, Danielson, Sami, and numerous others spending their free time with Vince. So while that was a quality attempt to twist my words and make up things I had in my brain, I just felt the need to let everyone know how wrong you are and maybe you should focus more on your own thoughts instead of making up the thoughts of others. I am also suspicious of anyone that uses the term "witch hunt" so I'll put you in a special category in my brain of people whose opinion mean nothing to me.

Well, don't forget that Rhule is suing Carolina due to not paying him what he says he is owed after no longer coaching there. So potential coaches see that too, really there was nothing positive about that job.

Even going beyond the allegations, which of course are horrendous, my first thought was just how people that seem "good" to fans (mostly Cena and Rock in his case) had to know about it, but are always supporting and backing Vince. Going places with him, still working together, always being positive. I can't say how I'd respond if I knew my boss was doing those kind of things, especially in an environment where they were the biggest place to work, so I don't feel right judging EVERYONE that knew for not quitting and talking about it. But those two... those two don't need Vince or WWE. They don't need to say nice things about Vince and pal around with him. If they felt it wasn't their story to tell, that can be debated, but regardless they could have distanced themselves from him. And they didn't. It just makes you question things, its not a great feeling. I am going off the assumption/hope that the women didn't know. I hope Becky, Charlotte, etc. didn't know about it as even if Vince bragged about it he was probably selective on who was around as to not offend the 'wrong' parties. But you'd be hard pressed to convince me that Cena, Rock, and Taker weren't aware.