Timbo Slice

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.

That tells you all you need to know about what they think about ADR. Plus, WWE Canon usually dictates how they want to start things, regardless of what’s already in place.

Okay, that was a choice; I’m not even the biggest Ospreay guy but that seems like a result too cute by half.

If I recall, a lot of that had to do with giving folks freedom to work elsewhere given AAA knew they had money problems, so they couldn’t just keep folks under a binding contract knowing they wouldn’t be able to make money otherwise.

LOL, so they’re just gonna run Vegas again. K

They CALLED HIM JEFF COBB WHEN HE DEBUTED. If this was the plan, either you have incompetent people who can’t file a fucking trademark in a timely fashion, or you have incompetent people who think fans won’t notice.

Anarchy sounds awesome but the faces look like they’re short a man. Kenny/Swerve/Joe/Hobbs/???, and it won’t be Bailey because it looks like he’s gonna get Okada.

The problem is they’d know how much they need to pay Takeshita and the money he’s making with AEW is good enough that NJPW can’t pay him what he’s worth. While some of his complaints a while back were a work, part of it was so he could have a contract that would satisfy what he’s been presented as on TV, and I doubt after letting Naito leave they’ll give Takeshita what he wants given it’s gonna be just as much as he asked for. There’s a chance he might bolt if the US economy downturn to come is bad enough that it’s worth being in NJPW for, but it won’t be anytime soon. Although I do see him being a part of the G1 and probably get to the final this time.

Ricochet whooping Zack Gowen was classic pro wrestling bullshit; Gowen still knows how to sell and bump really well.

They’re running a very similar angle to the Death Riders too with this whole “This is bigger than us” thing.

If there’s no Swoll, there should be no Master P cameo.

So they really did this so Cody can just become Homelander, huh?