w. josh

I mean, Reigns/Rowan/Harper would be a pretty great stable.

The metal shirts are completely lost on me. I need someone to start rocking 90s indie rock shirts. They should have kept Simon Gotch around and thrown him in Archers of Loaf and Yo La Tengo shirts every week.

There's a part of me that wonders if a quiet, brooding Seth could work somehow. Give him the Crow Sting gimmick, more or less. His voice, cadence, and cartoonish facial expressions have been his big detriments as a face and a heel; he's TOO obnoxious as a heel and gets go-away heat instead of boo-this-man heat, and he's just a dork with abs as a face. So maybe put him in a leather jacket and make him shut the hell up and see what happens.

I really, really hate the corny Rob Zombie horror presentation and Hot Topic mask, but they have to commit to SOMEONE other than Reigns and Rollins going forward, and Bray is a rare case of a guy that had cooled off completely suddenly becoming the hottest act in the company. Put the belt on him, build Balor or Black up as the vaguely supernatural face equivalent for Wrestlemania, and let Rollins go develop a personality for a year or so if he's gonna be a top guy going forward.

Owens getting fired and heading to NXT would be a pretty hot storyline for the USA debut, honestly.

On one hand, the King of the Ring should pretty much always be a heel, so that they can be obnoxious and sniveling and mistreat underlings. On the other hand, Baron Corbin is as exciting as watching a receding hairline and bad tattoos dry. King Joe would have been great, and Joe vs. Gable (or Ricochet vs. Gable if they wanted to go with a face) could have been potentially classic matches. But they seem to have this pathological need to troll the audience at this point. Gable is fantastic, and they could easily sell him as the second coming of Kurt Angle between the Olympic credentials and the great comedy timing. Instead, they're harping on his biggest perceived weakness (his height) and have dropped everything about him that made him stand out. He looks like a Create-A-Wrestler now, and every other sentence on commentary is a short joke. That works if he 's proving everyone wrong (or at least popping Corey in the mouth in an opening segment next week), but if/when he loses to Corbin, or wins and immediately fades back to the lower midcard...

The current one-hour, three-match formula doesn't really lend itself to Stokely greatness. When they've got more time to play with, I imagine he'll get a chance to be the best personality in wrestling for a while until Vince, who has absolutely no say in NXT ever never and you're stupid for asking, gently reminds everyone that managers are too rasslin', pal.

It really is going to be fascinating how they handle the "third brand" aspect. Worst case scenario, they go the ECW Champion Big Show route, shuffling over fading veterans to give it "credibility" and throwing NXT title matches on B-level PPVs and Big 4 pre-shows. They're really going to need a storyline reason for the brand to be whatever it is if it's not a developmental territory/stepping stone to the main roster. Luckily, WWE storytelling is immaculate in its logic and masterful in its execution.

Again, though, the main roster is filled with guys with recognizable names who can promo at least as well as Cass and have either size or athleticism, AND don't have the stink of being associated with a garbage person. I'd rather see Apollo Crews do his robot/gymnast act against a fresh set of talent, or No Way Jose eat up time with goofy party segments, or AoP squash local dudes.

Even if I was a fan of Big Cass and Enzo (I am very, very not), there are so many people who get no time on the main roster that could slot in to the upper card in NXT. There's absolutely no reason to go out and sign shitty wrestlers with negative buzz at this point.

The only conversation I remember seeing re: the Street Profits and Evolve was some optimism that working with guys not in the NXT/PC system might help round them out as performers and get them to the next level, which is of course a completely reasonable, measured thing to think. I would need to see literally any evidence of anyone saying "STREET PROFITS WERE EVOLVE CHAMPS THEY MUST BE PUSHED NOW!!!!" to not dismiss it as a ridiculous reach from someone who drew a conclusion and is working backwards from it.

I've always thought someone should do a 90 minute live show with a 30 minute studio show lead-in. Take some of the longer form web content they create, do sit down interviews, recap the week, hype up the show. Basically a better version of the PPV pre-shows, with the filler that makes the two hour shows drag pulled out and put in a better context.

They also had Tino Sabatelli cut a web promo with the same idea, so it might be leading to FACTION WARZ! Though, honestly, Lee and Thorne could be a fun team.

Say what you will about the tenets of COBRA...at least it's an ethos.

I've seen people pointing out that Alison Brie implied in an interview after GLOW Season 1 that one of the pro wrestlers involved made them uncomfortable. Season 2, Carlito was back, but Tyrus had disappeared. So there's probably a pattern of behavior there.

I wonder what prompted the return to name changes for established indie guys. They had backed off of that for the most part for a while, minus a Tommy End here and there.

Also from New Jersey? Joey Janela. SHOTS FIRED AEW.

Frank Grimes. Ol' Grimey, as he liked to be called.

Ridge Holland is...not good, but having the guy not be named after period blood is nice. Bugez is confusing, as it could be "Boogs," "Bugs," or "Boo-jes."

The Swiss Martian Manhunter?

The Panama Sunrise is just the absolute worst. Asking me to buy into the internal logic of a Canadian Destroyer is one thing; asking me to THEN believe that hopping down from the middle rope first makes it more devastating is beyond the pale. Glad to see Street Profits finally win the tag belts though.

Well, AOC retweeted Cody's diversity answer today with praise. This is starting to feel more and more like a huge deal.

Dolph is pretty much the Platonic ideal of "old guy blocking new guys." There's absolutely no reason he still has an upper card spot when we could name a dozen younger workers that could be elevated at this point. And running Kofi/Dolph reinforces the idea of the World title as a mid-card belt. Kofi can work as either "underutilized talent finally getting to prove himself against main eventers" or "veteran who gets taken to the limit by young workers but uses his experience and athleticism to eke out a win." The former gets a few fresh match-ups and establishes Kofi as legit. The latter eventually elevates a new guy. Kofi/Dolph gets you a failed stand-up comic with a jacket full of JC Penney "metal" patches who got clowned by Amy Schumer for being bad in bed.

"MEGADEATH" didn't help.

Maybe it's a belt/division for the folks they bring up from NXT but have no plan for. The Quad-A title?