EVA

Shedeur is a Day 2 developmental prospect. But for developmental picks to pay off, they have to be coachable. When you spend the entire draft process loudly broadcasting that you’re not coachable, you shouldn’t be surprised when teams lower their valuation of you to a Day 3 “sure, we’ll buy in cheap and spin the wheel and see what happens” pick. Compare this to Jalen Milroe, who—while far less ready to play as a rookie than Shedeur—has a reputation for being immensely coachable and a great locker room guy (and has the highest ceiling of any QB in this draft *if* it all comes together for him), and as a result probably went exactly when he should have.

I dunno. As time has gone on, I feel like Black is one of those guys Vince was right about. Just not a good singles guy. Only consistently looks good when he’s either getting to just squash somebody or working another guy who can go shoot style with him (like the KOR match last year). Otherwise, he just rarely clicks with people because his ring style is so weird, and also probably because his body is cooked, no matter how much he denies it. The match with Velveteen all those years ago seems more and more like a minor miracle as time goes by. (Hooray for rehearsing matches at the PC, I guess.) Good tag guy, though! Which is why I think AEW ultimately had him accurately slotted. But even then, he ended up being, at best, the 3rd most over person in his own stable.

Very cool news. I’m hopeful that, even with the influx of AEW talent, the cards will be as eclectic as the original event last year.

Watching the first two episodes of season two of ANDOR has just reaffirmed my belief that I really should’ve rewatched the first season beforehand. SO MANY characters and relationships to remember, and the show is NOT holding your hand.

Bill Hader’s next project for HBO will be a series about Jonestown. Which is deeply hilarious news coming so soon after the first episode of THE STUDIO.

After AJ Styles kicked off a minor online firestorm earlier this year because of his newfound belief that moments matter more than matches, I have a profound respect for his efforts to bring both sides of that debate together by having a Mania match that was neither good nor had a single moment anyone will remember.

Dom winning the IC title was also the exact same finish as the women’s title match. Where is the quality control?

I was really liking Cody/Cena until the Travis Scott saunter-in. Liked the second-rope double axehandles for Cena’s control. Liked Cena very deliberately going through his moves of doom. But the closing stretch was absolute dog shit. Both nights of Mania ended on heels winning with a low blow and a weapon shot btw. Get a new finish, you unoriginal bastards.

The women’s 3-way was incredible. By far the match of WWE’s weekend. They told a strong story through ACTION, not corny melodrama and monologues by sub-community theatre players. HELL YEAH.

This probably also explains why he seems to be carrying more weight around his midsection again. Cake is back on the menu, boys.

Obviously it’s The Fucking Ryback. I remembered Heyman managing Axel, but going down the Wiki rabbit hole, I did NOT remember him getting all those non-decisive wins over HHH that went nowhere.

So winning the World title was ultimately a net negative for Gunther’s career, right (I mean, aside from the money, presumably)? Went from stoic badass that has bangers with everybody to being your typical WWE Bitchy Heel who has kind-of-okay matches with the likes of Damien Priest and Jey Uso, and ultimately got completely clowned in losing the belt. Like, did not even get to kinda look tough in losing that match. The “aura,” as the kids say these days, is gone.

I’m far from a lucha expert, but Cubs recently went into detail on how CMLL has reorganized their business around tourism, to the extent that it hardly even matters who’s on their shows at this point. I don’t necessarily think that WWE engaging in their usual tactics of signing away talent would work for them against CMLL in the same way it historically has against competitors in the States. The one guy who probably makes a significant difference in business is Mistico, and…well..I sincerely wish WWE good luck in convincing him to come back. The one AAA guy I’m curious how this affects is El Hijo deal Dr. Wagner Jr. He was heavily rumored to WWE when he left NOAH, but he ultimately chose to sign with AAA, presumably to clean up in Mexico and make big money on losing his mask before going to the Fed. Those plans may be off the table now.

Just don’t let him behind the wheel again.

The middle part of this show was basically an episode of Raw, but Things That Were Cool: Jade’s electric chair spinning powerbomb Gable’s inverted 450 Knight and Fatu doing the Fleisch/Divine German off the top spot from 2002.

Charlotte/Tiffany was a tale of two halves. First half where Charlotte was trying to prove she was just as athletic as Tiffany was a clunky mess, and it mainly served to make Charlotte look old and washed. But once Tiffany went after her leg and she got pissed, it turned into the nasty fight it should’ve been all along, and that was quite good. Charlotte at this point in her career might be the least athletic person to try to do a Great Natural Athlete gimmick, and she’d be a lot better off just leaning into her size and being a mean slugger, like the Rhea match and here. On the downside of that latter part of the match is that Tiffany is still figuring out how to work from underneath as a face, and she couldn’t sell her knee for shit.

Is Gunther leaving the territory? He got fucking buried by the Yeet Man.

To. Be clear, this is getting rebranded as NXT Mexico within a year and then getting shuttered within 5.

I’m mainly watching Mania out of obligation. Between a lackluster build, only like one match I’m really interested in seeing, and WWE going full mask-off this week, I probably wouldn’t be watching if this wasn’t a thing I do with my best friend every year.

AAA has sucked for a while now, but this is terrible for wrestling.

Alberto is their top champion. That about says it all.

My gut tells me there was a delayed Dusty in WWE at some point (maybe all the way back in the WWF era), but my mind can’t conjure it up.

I felt like Joe choking out Mox to win and setup a World title match at DON was clearly the move here, but the Death Riders Derangement Syndrome is so strong, I couldn’t believe it until I saw it.

DYNAMITE SHOW OF THE YEAR IM BOUTTA TURN INTO A DAMN WEREWOLF RARRRRR

Can they afford him?