sek69

Love how Nikki Cross's character is just ALMOST a superhero so they're basically saying she's still a jobber with delusions of grandeur.

The problem with WWE's strategy is while of course it's more in line with what Vince is historically comfortable, but wrestling fans have moved past that decades ago. No one is going to be impressed by big tall muscle men that can't wrestle for shit. So Vince can wrap himself in his security blanket of living like it's still 1985, and any wrestler fans actually want to see can find success in AEW/ROH/Impact/MLW/NWA/whoever else pops up.

I mean..... I never looked at Sheik, or Abdullah, or if we want a more modern comp someone like Nick Gage and think "well that just doesn't look credible". My thoughts were more like "he just stabbed a motherfucker".

Funny thing, I'd imagine the people who would be directly involved in hiring her like Vince and Bruce would be aware of her rep.

NXT finally signed her? Well I suppose if you're going to blow the place up tossing in one extra grenade won't matter much.

So apparently Michael Elgin posted a video on YouTube suggesting self harm/suicide, and then complaining that it getting little views are another reason he might do it. Like, I do legit hope he gets some help as he's clearly dealing with some mental issues and those are a bitch sometimes, but also fuck that guy for being such a manipulative shitbag. The stuff listed on the restraining order against him was heinous, and for him to be doing things to make himself the victim when he's finally somewhat dealing with the consequences of being a shitty person is some real emotional abuser garbage.

NXT became noticeably more WWE-like once it was clear they were going to be the hammer used to beat down AEW. A lot of what drew people to NXT in the first place was taken away, and of course a lot of the reason was they were the in-house alternative to Raw/SD and someone came along that did it better.

It's not surprising, no, but the funny part is back in the 80s people would push back on his ideas and you know in the 'Tude Era Russo wasn't just blindly going along with everything, it's really only been in the last 20 years no-real-competition era where Vince has completely cut himself off from anyone not just a 100% yes man. I'm sure it's not a coincidence that the product has been on a rocket ship to bland sameness since then.

It is interesting to see Vince's response to AEW (that the fans have clearly showed they prefer to NXT), is to make it like the 80s WWF all over again. I wonder if it ever dawns on him that the precise reason AEW kicked NXT's ass is that they were offering something new and different rather than the same old formula. People were tired of only having pro wrestling as seen through the lens of a guy in his 70s with a muscle fetish and narrow views on who could be "allowed" to be a star. Dave made a point to mention Bruce isn't there to offer any new ideas, just to make sure what Vince wants gets carried out. The whole system seems to be built around making sure Vince's ideas never get challenged until it creates an "Emperor's New Clothes" situation where everyone in Vince's inner circle is just sitting there pretending his balls aren't out there waving in the breeze.

I'm mostly surprised Kevin even knows NXT exists. As much as I enjoy the in ring on NXT, the production is awful. The graphics/music come off like some emo kid's nu metal blog from the early 2000s. I do like Vic and Wade announcing. Beth still comes off like her chair is constantly sending electrical shocks though.

Well her fiancée is there and her dad will probably show up there at some point. Makes sense she would want to join them. Funny thing is Ric ended his podcast because he didn't want it to create a situation where he said something that affected Charlotte's career, him going to AEW would probably piss Vince off more than anything that would happen on a podcast.

Another interesting tidbit was that Andrade is telling people he wants his whole family, meaning Rush/Dragon Lee/Beastia as well as Ric and Charlotte, to join him in AEW at some point.

So listening to the morning WON show, Dave is mentioning how he doesn't expect a lot of people in WWE to leave for AEW since apparently a lot of people in WWE are brainwashed that AEW is actually not good and all the sellouts are fake because Tony Khan buys all the tickets.

I get the impression Cole has more of a chance than people realize since apparently HBK is really high on him, something like he thinks Cole is this era's version of himself. Vince has always had an unexplainable soft spot for Shawn so he might give a guy he's lobbying for more of a chance than he normally would.

Dave often talks about the difference between someone winning a match and someone getting put over. WCW was full of examples of guys winning matches but not getting put over, Cody was able to make the people he faces look like a million bucks even in losing, which made them a bigger deal in the fans's eyes when they got their big wins.

Amazing how redDragon had so much buzz as a top tag team when they went to NXT, and then the only thing they did with them was to be the Tully & Arn to Adam Cole's Ric Flair.

I think the key to Sid was he seemed aware he wasn't that good but he was so damn excited to be doing what he was doing you couldn't help but pop for the guy. He would come out all amped up like FUCK YEAH I GET TO WRESTLE and everyone would be like FUCK YEAH ITS SID.

In a shocking turn of events, it appears that signing indy talents isn't a sustainable way to run your developmental program.

Dave's take on WOR this morning was this was Vince's response to NXT failing so badly against AEW. He noted WWE doesn't start fights they think they can lose, and it's clear reading between the lines (and also from Vince's comments at the shareholder meeting) that he clearly thought he was going to be able to stomp them down fast, and seeing them succeed like this clearly is upsetting him. Dave referred to HHH as the "losing General" and now is taking his lumps because of it.

Sid is the ultimate proof that charisma is all that matters in wrestling.

Cole supposedly goes to wherever Smackdown is being held to meet with Vince, then suddenly news breaks that like half of NXT gets cut right after the show goes off the air. Even if it was just a coincidence, it's certainly not the message you want to send to someone you're trying to keep around.

News came out that Renee Young was under a WWE employee contract so her non compete was for a year and unlike the talent non competes it was unpaid. Another fun part of all this, since people are getting cut in the middle of programs no one is jobbing their way out of the territory so it kind of removes the "WWE castoff" stigma when they sign elsewhere.

Yeah, that one seems pretty suspect. Get brained by a WWE trained wrestler and then get the ax while recovering. Also interesting they are pulling all the stops to woo Cole into signing (he was meeting with Vince at Smackdown tonight) then one of his friends gets cut as part of a late Friday night bloodletting. Makes me wonder how they can lure any indy names to sign with them now. You can't keep waiving the "someday you'll make main roster money" carrot when they seemingly pull a dozen names out of a hat to randomly cut every month or so.

Also Deonna is so good, she can probably get a better match out of Melina than anyone else they could get. In fact that low key could be the show stealer match since Kamille/Layla has train wreck potential since Kamille has looked pretty green in what I've seen of her (which to be fair was back when NWA was on YouTube every week).

Most of the Old School shows were added to the 'Cock in the last couple days, so you can watch those. As far as All Star Wrestling, that show was more squash match/angle advancement than great matches, so the best you're likely to get is if someone decided to let the job guy they were facing get some offense.