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I felt Mauro actually did a good job reminding folks that this was a 58 year old in there. He was the voice of reason in the booth.

Holy shit Brody vs Claudio is gonna bang so hard

Personally I've been glad to see him get his due after being underappreciated in WWE for so long, and he's the perfect player/coach type who's older but can still go.

Tony should start cutting promos on GCW "Vince in Memphis" style.

So Ricky Starks was supposed to do 3 matches in GCW off of the promo he did (one was announced/advertised already), but AEW got mad about the company complaining about them booking Hammerstein so close to the GCW show and pulled him. I almost hope this is all part of some angle because it's stupid for GCW to get mad over it since ROH has run Final Battle in December for literal decades, and frequently in the Hammerstein.

Watching the Bloodsport show yesterday and it was wild to me to see wrestlers from the top 3 US companies on one show. Charlie Dempsey, Myles Borne, and Karmen Petrovic from NXT Marina Shafir (accompanied by Moxley), MVP, and Mike Bailey (who is rumored to have just signed) from AEW Josh Alexander, Masha Slamovich, Jody Threat, and Lei Ying Lee (the former Xia Li) from TNA As someone who came of age in an era where promotions never acknowledged the existence of others, it was blowing my mind.

By the way, does anyone think GCW is working with WWE? The opening match on GCW's halloween show had the women doing Undertaker and Stone cold cosplays complete with their theme music. Today's show had Kurt Angle an Mick Foley (who did an autograph signing earlier in the day) do a skit to open things up, and later on Ricky Starks showed up to cut a promo very much shitting on AEW without naming them (not proof they are working with WWE of course but you know WWE wasn't mad about it). I just find it funny considering how much they very much strive for the "gritty modern day ECW who tells the big companies to GFY" may secretly be on the payroll with the 'E like the actual ECW was.

I agree. I'm sure only the inner circle along with HBK/HHH knew all the details but the rest of the crew had to be smartened up to at least some level. It was really only a shoot in terms of how Wendi Richter being shoot pinned by Moolah was: everyone knew was was about to happen except for the victim

Most places would have had a stunt driver do that crash at the end but I'd wager that was actually Darby driving.

So the newest prospect was announced as Kylie Rae. Happy for her to get the opportunity, but I still don't know if her mental health can handle being part of a major promotion

I think the diverticulitis did a number on him, imo. Brock coming back from it barely missing a step is not the usual recovery, especially since it's been reported that this was an especially rough episode for him. Besides, the main story is the Death Riders doing "what if the nWo was done by people who aren't selfish assholes" since by all accounts Moxley is big on making sure the young talent isn't just spinning their wheels. If anything, Kenny should be the final boss between them fully taking over so he doesn't need to be around right now. Also New Japan announced an International Women's Cup four way match where the spots will be filled by AEW/ROH/CMLL/Stardom each having their own four way match. The winner gets to challenge for "the title of their choosing" which is interesting phrasing, seemingly indicating it could be in any of the promotions involved.

holy shit it looks like Bo Dallas is physically turning into Bray

Rhea with a Regal quality WAHGAMES there to set up the women's 5 on 5

So WWE announced their WWE ID program where they partner with wrestling schools of WWE related folks (like Cody's, Seth's and Booker's) to develop and mentor prospects on the indy scene they see something in. In addition they will give them a stipend for their prospects to be able to live on so they can focus more time on development. According to them, they want to raise the profile of top indy names and strengthen the whole "independent wrestling ecosystem" as they call it. On paper this all sounds good, WWE gets a pipleline of talent and it will help at least some folks on the indies make ends meet while trying to better their craft. In the Vince days, this 100% would be a plot to raid all the top indy groups and put them out of business. Hunter seems to be more aware that it's in the best interests of pro wrestling as a whole to have a relatively healthy independent scene so more people can have experience working live crowds (and even working for TV crowds if they are working for a group that has a Triller TV deal). Even for their own business needs, it's smart for WWE to have guys go through wrestling schools they can vouch for and just keep NXT a finishing school to give folks that last bit of polish before going to the big time. Could it still end up being a plot to strip mine the indy scene? Sure. At least in this era I can at least see a possibility that it is actually meant to do what they say it will and be a net benefit all around.

I keep expecting Toni Storm to come back every time Mariah is out there, I suppose that's saved for the celebration with MIna? I don't mind the Hurt Syndicate, I just think its funny Shelton is supposed to be this bad ass assassin but he keeps getting cheered since people are happy to see him finally get some recognition.

Raw ending with Roman calling for the Wiseman only for the number to be disconnected was kinda brilliant in the overall story of "Roman keeps trying to do it his way and keeps getting left on his ass as a result"

Figure its easier this way It seems obvious that since Raw is going back to 3 hours (give or take) on Netflix, they don't want to change the pace of the shows too much. It seemed like the show last night just stopped at 2 hours and there was still more to go.

Interested to see what they do with Mariah vs Anna Jay. They were teasing Toni Storm's return on Dynamite but it seems the way TK usually books Anna would win the belt. Perhaps she returns to cost May the loss?

Man it was wild seeing a WWE developmental show taking place in the ECW Arena, and dare I say it wasn't a bad show.

In something that seems to have gone largely under the radar on wrestling news sites that I've noticed, Al Derusha passed away recently at the age of 88. He was more or less the Kevin Dunn of the AWA behind the scenes (minus the dizzying editing), and would occasionally appear on screen as well. His son Gary was also a ref in the AWA, which always stood out to me watching as a kid as I couldn't ever figure out why that was the only ref they seemed to go out of their way to mention the name of.

Yeah the show wasn't bad by any stretch, but it felt very B-show in the sense of everything was clearly just forwarding storylines. That also is fine, but they usually try to make the Saudi shows a little more special so in that sense it was underwhelming I'm guessing the Bloodline saga will have Roman/Usos/Sami all squabbling until Heyman comes back to guide the ship again.

The Crown Jewel title reminds me of the old Mid South big ass North American title

Love that KO is sporting the Cowboy Bob shirt tonight

To be fair Nia has been much better in this run. Granted that is damning with faint praise, but still.

So since I took the day off for Halloween, I was able to watch the show tonight (which to be fair, was pretty good). During the show they mentioned Chris Bey's injury and plugged his GoFundme for his medical bill which may have been the most embarrassingly bush league thing I've ever seen. As much as we make fun of TNA, they are owned by a multi million dollar company and for them to act like a podunk indy fed was a terrible look. Not wanting to invest more in your rasslin' promotion is one thing, shilling the crowd funding campaign for a guy who broke his fuckin neck on your show should be something that should give even the most corporate brained exec pause.