Bix

A lot of indies have gotten flak for not preparing, but...I'm not seeing it that much? PWG pivoted a while ago. Even a group like AAW, which I see treated as the ur example of over-relying on the buzzy indie stars a lot, has been developing people for quite a while now. Beyond will be fine, and Uncharted Territory is clearly helping them build. GCW has been making a more obvious attempt than most (with the clear, concerted efforts to make certain people overnight) for quite a while and will be more than fine. (Shane Mercer has been a great addition and will probably break out even bigger after the Sekimoto match, for example.) Defy doesn't get nearly enough credit for the great job they've done mixing names with their own crew. On the indie scene right now, who is there really that did/does seem poised to go from "thriving" to "OH FUCK," exactly?

Eh I get what Sek is saying, though, I've seen people, not necessarily here, who have gotten that vibe. But the big thing that most immediately put Tony into prime position—and this is luck and privilege as much as anything else—is that he's a super duper hardcore fan who's not just part of a billionaire family, but part of an *NFL owner* family. He's done the work to make the deals and made the right connections, that's for sure, but it shows that, even among billionaires, There's Levels To This Shit. The Bucks/Cody/Omega and All In were the right people with the right proof of concept at the right time, sure, but it's very obvious that Tony was able to get the right meetings on the right timeline with people who probably never would have taken, say, Impact seriously.

But Jim Hellwig changed his legal name to "Warrior" to better link himself to his wrestling persona and his widow is billed by WWE as "the widow of the Ultimate Warrior." Also, Warrior is/was much more famous and vocal than Dick Murdoch.

Everyone else has covered several of the important beats, but setting aside your dumber points that have nothing to do with the issue at hand (I don't get paid by clicks, even if I'm glad the article was widely read) did you just...not read the article? All of this is covered in the article, including links to sources every single time, but, in case you need Cliff's Notes in lieu of doing the reading: * Dana Warrior did a pride tweet last year with a photo herself in a rainbow shirt. It passed without comment as a nice gesture because she was her own person tweeting as herself on her own merits. * In October, for GLAAD Spirit Day, she did a post for WWE.com's community blog built around her in purple Ultimate Warrior paint/gear. The response to the WWE tweets about it was exactly as negative as it was to her tweet last Thursday because of the whole "using dead chud homophobe husband as a gay pride mascot" thing. She and WWE would have known this going into last week, when they did the same fucking thing again. * Her only public comment about her husband's general shittyness—this was not specific to LGBTQ+ issues, in part because she was contacted at a time when WWE was doing the "Unleash Your Warrior" Komen stuff—was this to VICE Sports in 2017: "I will not be disloyal to my husband's memory or speak ill of a man who is not here to defend himself. I can, however, tell you his heart was changed by conversations with his two daughters. The true testament of the man behind the character is his ability to evolve. My husband did just that." Note the complete lack of specifics: His heart was changed on...who or what, exactly? * Two days after the VICE article came out, Ultimate Creations sent a DMCA takedown notice to The Internet Archive, demanding they pull their archives of UltimateWarrior.com from The Wayback Machine. Since Archive tends not to fight takedown notices because they don't have the resources for a legal fight, the most complete copy of Warrior's spate of homophobic/racist/bigoted/xenophobic/anti-aboriginal/inexplicably anti-cancer patient blogs—with the best provenance of their legitimacy as well—has been removed from the public internet. * Warrior's blogs included comments about his intent to raise his daughters as bigots, particularly homophobes (thankfully someone saved one where he said that and I could authenticate it) and he went off in his DePaul speech about his then-kindergarten age daughter was too feminine to ever be gay. * Warrior, as a political and non-wrestling figure, is best known for his homophobia, even if it goes MUCH deeper, like his ties to the Charles Martel Society that I found in March. * The WWE and Dana Warrior "Warrior as pride symbol" is being done without a hint of irony, just like the Warrior Award stuff, which Stephanie basically admitted from the jump was a cynical marketing tactic. * There's still sufficient evidence that Dana Warrior, even if she wasn't joining in on the "Warrior as gay pride mascot" thing, is/was complicit in her husband's bigotry and the attempted whitewashing thereof, to the point that she has plenty to answer for. * The whole idea of the photos, both times, is so obviously dumb on its face that it only makes sense if it's an intentional gaslighting of the public to try to reinvent awful-ass Jim Hellwig as a symbol of unity and strength. Which he fucking isn't. Now, with that in mind, go do the fucking reading.

It's interesting how Tony's genuine fannishness on the Austin pod is bring mistaken for him overhyping the Double or Nothing matches in some responses that I've seen, including on Twitter. Not that his fannishness couldn't potentially pose a problem, but it's far from just hype on his part, even if we're not exactly used to that in this role. Also, it was fun how genuinely impressed Austin was by the type of knowledge that Tony had gleaned from watching old tapes, if just because he's going to be the closest thing we ever get to a PWO regular as a major wrestling promoter.

Im about 99.9% sure it's a parody, I'm just not sure WHY.

I haven't heard any of the Dave audio, but 200,000 was definitely the number of Google searches for the show on Saturday.

Ashley's affidavit was not available to the public until Friday. The allegation was only known about in broad strokes from what was alleged in the amended complaint after she joined the lawsuit.

I know this isn't entirely new—one of the Bucks had tweeted about never having had a contract with NJPW several months back, but wasn't it reported when they signed their 2017 contract with ROH that if WAS a dual contract with NJPW? That said, the Bucks clearly overestimated their value to NJPW.

To be clear, I'm not running with the theory as much as showing that if nothing else, Royal was telling the truth about the there being a trial and there's probably a lot more down that well Gino was even a big part of his appeal: He wasn't charged with anything having to do with Gino's death, but the idea that Gino died from Royal's "bad cocaine" was still introduced at his federal drug trafficking trial. (And without making further judgments on Royal, it certainly seems he got screwed in terms of that being allowed at trial and it not being viewed as enough for the appellate court to rule in his favor. That stuff is prejudicial as hell.) I do think, after seeing the doc, that there's something more than a simple O.D. to Gino's death, though, albeit more from the autopsy report discrepancies than the cocaine levels in the toxicology report. I'm also not really sure what I think of the end. On first viewing weeks ago when I got the screener, I thought the anonymous drug runner was reassuring Gino's mom that the family was never in danger after his death. And maybe I just didn't pay close enough attention to what he was saying but I didn't at all think he was saying Gino's death was just a vanilla O.D.?

There are some roll-ups as hope spots, yes. And as for the "fully-formed Bret Hart performances before his singles runs" thing goes....yeah, I guess the ones that have been mentioned? I'd have to rewatch them, though, because I don't think of the Bret performances in those being Bret The Genius as much as Bret The Great Mechanic.

I've seen Bret-Magee. I can't say how or send it to you, but it will be on WWE Network in 2-3 weeks. Here's my review, cobbled together from my tweet thread last night. --- So…I’ve seen The Match. It’s the most fully-formed Bret Hart performance I’ve ever seen from before his WWF singles runs. It’s not a great match, but it’s not supposed to be. And aside from a couple timing issues, it definitely has less seams than any non-DiBiase Magee match. And there could very well be some minor issues that aren’t noticeable in the DiBiase match because we just have the hard cam, while Bret-Magee is a fully produced multi-camera shoot with commentary.) The first big thing I noticed is that DiBiase and Bret immediately figured out that you don’t let Magee punch, kick, try to work holds. or sell demonstratively. Get those things out of the way, and you can build an entertaining match out of the cool shit that he CAN do. And Magee deserves some credit, too: Bret’s account has always been that he asked him for his 5 best moves to build around. Magee was self-aware enough to know that those best moves were all flippy stuff, roll-ups, and arm drags. DiBiase figured out one trick that Bret didn’t, though: Chop him instead of punching him. It’s brilliant: Instead of making a green guy sell in an obviously green and overly “fake”-looking way, DiBiase threw strikes that, while safe, actually hurt, so Magee reacts naturally. Bret handled Magee’s less than refined selling in a completely different way: Here, it looks like he told Magee to…I wouldn’t say die on him while selling, but get much closer to that than you’d normally want a babyface to during the heat. So we don’t get any Magee flailing. To “get" this match, you'll need to watch all the Magee footage you can find first. You have to understand what Magee matches usually looked like & how others tried to carry him. And you’ll want to keep in mind how a more typical Flair, Michaels, etc broomstick match looks. This is not Bret Hart having a match around a green guy and making it about himself. This is Bret Hart leading a green guy by the hand, constantly telling him every single thing to do, and having a match WITH him that got him over big with both the crowd and the office. I can’t wait for everyone to see this when it hits WWE Network in the next 2-3 weeks. As long as you know what you’re looking for, it’s truly a pleasure to watch and absolutely lives up to the hype of what Bret was able to do. Oh, one more thing: It’s also a testament to Bret that he gets the crowd to react big to everything Magee does in a 1986 WWF TV taping prelim between an unknown and a mid-card tag team wrestler. They don’t react like a pavlovian, wait for the music WWF TV crowd of that era at all

Yes.

I think that was going with the overarching reality bending theme for the series: You have the guy who regrets coming up with it telling his whole truth for the first time, while his mortal enemy is taking credit for the same thing that he very obviously didn't come up with in a weak grasp at relevance.

Yes. You'll know who it is immediately after viewing the teaser at the start of the episode.

There's a Bruce Prichard talking head with a throwaway line about "your champion showing up on Nitro" that the producers left in because they didn't think he meant it literally. That's about it.

Orange Cassidy had been having better and much more varied matches lately. I dunno how much was the different opponent's or figuring he'd be wrestling in front of unfamiliar fans or what, but be basically wrestled the same match over and over and it brought his stock down a lot for me, at least in that gimmick. If you wanna see what got people more into him recently, check out the David Starr and Tracy Williams matches from Beyond.

We do need to keep in mind that this was a seriously traumatic incident for everyone in that babyface locker room, especially Tony. Even with wrestlers, over 30 years it's not like it's impossible that the details have shifted in their minds a bit.

What the fuck was that? Obviously, going in I knew that this would be Great Technician Shane Strickland, a style he's way too insistent on working in spite of not being nearly as good at it as he when he's Workrate Indie Superstar Shane Strickland. But I didn't expect him to take a good 80% or more of the match. I have no clue where he got the idea that he should work like this in a regular basis, but it's made him significantly less enjoyable and I hope he returns to form in WWE. This completely lost the crowd, and with good reason.

Not much I can add except to say that an already great match probably benefitted from being a change of pace here. Even with the surprising variance in style between each match and Takeda's background, this ended to being the only chaotic style clash on the show after the 2018 version had a bunch. Wonderful match.