sek69

I would argue Okada jumped business to as much of a peak you could reasonably expect considering their TV situation is less than idea. They were on quite the roll before COVID kneecapped them, and you can't blame that on him either.

I wonder if this will be a WWE style intergender match where it's basically a women's match and a men's match happening at the same time and the two never interact, or AAA style.

The Best Friends thing was 100% designed as a spoof/homage to the Okada spot ("look at these lovable goofs doing one of the GOAT's spots!"), but I never got the impression Okada's version was in any way WWE inspired. Not saying that it is or isn't, just that it's not a connection my brain ever made when I saw it.

I love how Trish became the Poochie of WWE women's legends, and any other woman from the past must namedrop her at least once a promo.

WWE wouldn't have to give him anything since his actual name is Walter. WWE obviously wanted a name they can copyright and they have a not caring how stupid a name sounds as long as they are the ones making money off it.

I get why they didn't, but it would have been cool to have Ivy out there throwing down with the dudes. It's not like it wouldn't look believable.

My man GUNTER out here giving Roddy the best match he'll ever be involved in.

I'm starting to really dig Baby Uso, even if they are doing the "we'll never mention who his family is, but we'll also keep coyly referring to it" deal with him too.

My lord, Indi in that post match brawl looked like she legit forgot how to fight. Good thing she's really good at getting WWE comedy over since that's the far better skill to have in her position. OK I'll admit it, this Sarray as Anime Hero gimmick could be really funny/good but unfortunately being done by the one goddamn company you can count on to fuck it up.

Watching NXT, and while I really like that they are having some of the non-native English speakers to cut promos in their native languages I can't help that's just repeating the mistakes of Original Flavor NXT since that won't help anyone on the main roster either. Also Kay Lee Ray needs to be on the main roster ASAP. She's too good to be spending her time babysitting here.

Yeah it's also a stupid name for a wrestler in 2022. They don't seem to realize (or care) a big reason they can't get new fans is because they give all the new and new-to-WWE people stupid fucking names that make them sound like jokes from the start. Also it looks like Sarray is getting a Sailor Moon style schoolgirl gimmick. Can't imagine how that could possibly end badly.

I think it was Kevin Nash, it was a former WCW guy at least, who once said Vince would rather make a million dollars with his own idea than make ten million with someone else's.

Yeah the issue wasn't that the other Stark was any kind of prominent member, but more of "holy shit how does no one in WWE not know how to even do a Google search on a name" kind of deal.

I can just imagine the discussion: Bruce: uh Vince, that name we just trademarked? Turns out it's the name of a Nazi commander. Vince: Oh wow, really? *pause* THATS GOOD SHIT, PAL! TELL THAT BLOOM KID HE'S GETTING A NEW GIMMICK

When you search it on the English Wikipedia, there's no direct page but the fourth result is for the type of U boat he commanded and mentions his name. Either way, it's more of less standard protocol for any major company to run even a perfunctory search to see if the name/term they want to copyright has any negative connotations.

I don't think he's leaving, but it seems pretty clear him and the other EVPs are on different pages in terms of vision and that's why the Codyverse seems so detached from everything else going on. Like, I don't think they hate each other or get into fistfights behind the scenes, but it seems clear they have different visions.

On top of that, WWE has a weird phobia of having two people with the same name at the same time and they have Zoey Stark in NXT.

Lashley/Rollins was fun but it was yet another case of WWE booking a match between two people who can't lose so they telegraph the fuck finish a mile away.

Boy they really are trying to avoid the hard cam since it shows so many empty seats.

Yeah so far this much hyped expanded playoff format so far produced 3 blowouts and one game (Bengals/Raiders) that wasn't technically a blowout but was never really in doubt.

The EVPs probably have a separate performing deal so this most likely doesn't mean much, but it is quite a thing to consider that if Cody did leave it wouldn't even be that damaging tp AEW at the moment. There's so many super talented people working there now they've reached the stage where one top guy leaving wouldn't be the end of the world.

It should be noted that Ali has been adamant that he did not want to play any stereotypical Muslim/Arab gimmicks and for him to have a heated argument pretty much tells me that's probably what Vince was trying to pitch.

From Fightful:

Honestly, I would say by and large yeah. I don't think any wrestling company would even do something like that in 2022. The fact that there's several openly gay wrestlers who being gay is just part of who they are instead of it being a gimmick to attract heat is a testament to how far things have come. Now I'm not saying pro wres solved homophobia or anything, there's always going to be some chodes lurking around, but even Ian Rotten has gone on record saying his locker room is open to anyone.

Also isn't the entirety of Portland footage available limited to the tapes Buddy kept that got transferred to DVD years ago? Or did I miss another source appearing?