Timbo Slice

Dustin knows how to make a young guy, and it’s going to be a Dustin bloodletting. Kyle as young stud heel champ is going to be amazing, too. He should get a long reign and tear up the under card, especially on PPVs. He is already such a complete package, and when he eventually turns on Callis way down the line (when necessary if they need a face turn), it’ll be huge. I get why they won’t wait until All Out because Tony had plans for Kyle right away, but even though he won’t have the big Moment, it won’t matter after the first big title defense. Love how things are setting up going forward.

The other thing about the weight designation in the US was that eventually, most outfits stopped trying to do multiple non-heavyweight weight divisions. Some territories may have had two non-heavies (I believe it was rare), but most decided to name their juniors welter/cruiser/light heavy as the non-heavyweight wrestlers for the most part. The biggest thing that is probably missing here from a cultural standpoint that might help David (or at least I didn’t see when I skimmed this thread) was that in America in the early part of the century, boxing was king, and being the heavyweight champion of the world meant you were the most popular athlete in the country. As big as Babe Ruth was, there was a level of fame being the heavyweight champion that was unmatched. With pro wrestling being presented as trying to be somewhat legit relative to boxing around that time, and those earlier matches were seen as competing against the big boxing fare, wrestling tried to mirror that to bring in a lot of the same crowds when they could, and that meant they needed heavyweights to draw against. Thats not to say the lighter wrestlers weren’t featured, but as heavyweight boxing took off and became the defining sport of the first part of the 20th century (while baseball was popular, the biggest boxing matches were normally more popular), I feel there was a template in place once the NWA took hold and tried to match up similar to the boxing federations.

And Hodge crushing too many apples with his double-tendoned hands only made fewer pieces of fruit for folks.

Danny Hodge was a star, especially in the Oklahoma territories, after finishing his amateur career and was highly regarded even though junior heavies weren’t highly featured in the 60s and 70s. He’s probably the best analogue for the majority of the French footage we have, but he was an outlier for the time.

Both guys being so beat up means this doesn’t have the kinetic energy the matches in Japan had, and while this is fundamentally sound, it’s not what a lot of folks wanted it to be.

I just now read that and boy, that is dumb.

They are and they’re being combined to become the United title?

Kenny needs to pick a damn theme song already.

HELL YES TONI TIME

Put the belt on Goldberg, you cowards

DUSTIN!!!!!

Yeah, I imagine with his concussion history, it has to be that, or maybe even neck-related. Either way, that’s not the way for anyone to go out, sadly.

Also, if you haven’t heard it yet, Darby was on Marc Maron’s podcast telling Everest stories and how it affected him and it was pretty amazing.

The Page/Swerve confrontation followed by Mox losing his shit that two men traumatized by each other went to impromptu therapy (and showing Mox’s eventual emotional weakness) and it was PAGE who went to Swerve after what he did in the cage match might be the most progressive thing done by straight men in wrestling maybe ever? Two days before their tentpole show and their two top stars go out of their way to do angle showing how to improve their mental health? Phenomenal stuff.

Considering how the main event is being booked, the run-ins to chase off the Death Riders, which should include both Darby and (hopefully) Eddie returning should lead to some great stories the second half of the year, too. Darby finally figuring out how to deal with Mox on his way to climbing towards the world title is going to be a big deal, and him and Hangman haven’t interacted too much, which is going to lead to a lot of intrigue. And with Ospreay’s challenge at Forbidden Door now murky with the tag stips, there’s a lot Tony is throwing at us to keep us guessing. Truly like the days of AEW yore. Toni ending Mone’s streak is absolutely the play, and it gets a monkey off her back while allowing her to probably ease off the belt collector gimmick into something else by the end of the year. It’s very weird to have this much excitement for the product when the attendance is not going to match what the last two stadium shows did. I don’t know how you change that given certain reliable regions seem more dead now than they did at the company’s peak a couple years ago, but they should be able to do some long term plays that could set up a big draw in the years to come. It’s not a needle they need to thread, because I think there’s plenty of paths forward, but the more possibilities they give themselves, the better they can move on what gets hot to propel them forward.

The 1985 Bash dropping in full is one of the best things they’ve done in a while.

He looked slower, but yeah, at least functional.

Also, Hangman’s promo was fucking phenomenal; the crowd was loving it. I would take that over Cena’s pandering Manadarin any day of the week.

That ring was absolutely an Arena Mexico standard; that shit was taut and had basically no give. An amazing vibe that captures what that place truly means to wrestling. That happening weeks after When Worlds Collide being the most milquetoast presentation ever made it even better.

…who the hell comes up with these names, man?

So let me get this straight…instead of running back Cena/Punk at Money in the Bank to bring that full circle and run the warm-up rematch tag at Saudi Arabia, they swap the matches for…R-Truth scissoring his braids off to become Ron Killings again. Because they got dumb and released him. K.

I don’t know why the new WWE protocol is to debut someone without a name and then give them their name the following week. Very odd.

Watch them have a bloodless technical match.

The one thing that was always creepy with Vince liking Killings and him being close was that it was pretty obvious Vince saw him as a minstrel of sorts; looking back, there are plenty of cringey moments that made me feel bad for Ron given the racial stuff Vince was obviously getting at. And I get where TKO is coming from, but also? That doesn’t allow you the leeway to actually create stars. One of the main reasons why I’ve been out on UFC for a while strictly for the in-octagon product is due to the fact that the fighters have become homogenized and it’s tougher for them to become notable unless they do something stupid. It’s also what allows TKO to continue to underpay them and why certain stars were able to get their own paydays by calling their bluff and proving value elsewhere. If that’s where they see the need to send WWE, then for all the complaints we have now, we are gonna be drowning in them like AI slop in the coming years.

A great show top to bottom, filled with the little details like Manders’ selling and some of the Cibernetico pair offs, which blew my mind with how hard all ten guys went. Bryan’s appearance and the main event were a fantastic flourish, too. As tight and as fulfilling a two hours of wrestling you’ll watch all year.