sek69

It's odd every year, but the WWE MLK Day video is especially weird this time around.

Lesnar vs Lashley sounds like the all time BIG MEATY MEN SLAPPING MEAT match and I'm all for it. Also I'm really uncomfortable with Ric Flair apparently being a weekly TV character. Not for the angle itself, which is whatever, but a guy his age who nearly died from health issues not that long ago is the last person who should be in a building full of WWE personnel at this point. I

Ethan Page is very talented, and his time in Impact was great. The North were a great act, but on social media he's come off for a long time as someone getting high on their own supply. in terms of believing his own hype. His feed reads like someone who was fully expecting Impact to back the truck up for him and got offended when they didn't. You, like most people I've seen, thought it was a funny little segment. Page apparently thought he had filmed the next cinematic masterpiece. Also I'll admit I don't have perfect recollection but IIRC Scarlett has largely been used as eye candy everywhere she went. Her Impact run was one big "look at me I'm hot" with all the Smoke Show stuff, which while amusing, was hardly anything I'd classify as memorable. Just like when she was in AAA her role was mostly "come to ringside and show your ass" while occasionally teaming with Sammy Guevara while challenging for the mixed tag titles. Plus her man is likely to get a mega push in WWE as long as he stays healthy since he's a Typical Vince Guy body wise and their entrance will probably be over huge when crowds come back.

That's all true, but WWE doesn't have the juice the NCAA or NFL has in terms of being able to put fans in the stands with little to no backlash. Especially with the company no longer having any political leverage by the time Mania rolls around. Ironically Vince better hope the new administration goes door to door with vaccinations to make sure it won't blow up in their faces.

I'm guessing the hope is by then enough vaccinations will be in place to reduce the risk, but having a live crowd in a stadium in 2021 (in Florida!) seems like an unnecessary gamble.

Someone asked Cody on Twitter if they were going to be picking up Ethan Page, and he did the facetious "I don't know who that is" reply. It seems like he must rub people the wrong way for sure. Impact under Callis and D'Amore has been a place where they try to do whatever to make sure everyone there is happy, it would seem odd that they would suddenly go all WWE on Page here. TBH the whole Karate Man thing was stupid when it was something Page was doing to pop his fans on social media, I can just imagine Impact trying to make sense of it for a PPV segment. From all accounts it was played as a goof, like a bad karate flick, which was probably the only way could have done it. I'd guess they were thrilled to have Ethan over their shoulder giving editing tips as if he had just filmed the next Citizen Kane.

Ethan Page was not happy how the Karate Man segment went down:

Makes sense. I know sometimes I'll watch a movie and there will be a Brit or Aussie character speaking slang and I have no clue what's going on.

So did they have he same announcers for France and Quebec? I always hear from folks in both places that while each place speaks French on a technical level it's actually kinda different.

Matt "Zach Ryder" Cardona showed up at the PPV, I guess AEW put in a good word for him? At any rate, it seems like a good fit. His bro Brian Myers is there and he's someone who Impact can use while getting a nice run to hopefully reinvent himself.

It never fails to amaze me how often the best stuff out of WWE is so often things like this where it's a Network only show, YouTube, social media, basically anywhere than their stifling and restrictive TV format.

It did lead to bald Vince in a fedora while champion of WWE ECW, which was baller.

New Japan is owned by Bushiroad, which is worth somewhere between $9-10 billon dollars. They *could* match WWE in a bidding war if they wanted to but would most likely never do so because that's not really how Japanese business works, Not to mention breaking the bank for one person would set the expectations higher for the entire roster, which can quickly lead to a "Nash and Hall signing with WCW" situation where suddenly you have an arms race where everyone wants to be the highest paid person.

I love how "get someone lower on the totem pole to get the heat for you" is baked in to the very being of WWE management. It's extremely fucked up to have refs pay their own way, and then turn around and make it part of their responsibilities to stooge on the same people who could help them out with those same expenses. I'm sure that $500-1000 they collect in fines could allow them to afford a hotel room or two.

The biggest issue with Vince largely keeping himself off TV is we don't see him gradually aging anymore so when we do see him it's shocking. I'd wager if he was still appearing (not that I'm saying I wish he was still all over TV every week) it wouldn't be as much of a surprise to see how he looks now.

It's not uncommon for there to be some negative feelings toward someone coming in from outside the industry getting a position of power over those who did. I've seen it at my workplace and you hear about it all the time in sports that X person doesn't have what it takes to be a coach/GM/whatever because he didn't come up the ranks. LIke @C.S. said it probably doesn't help him that he comes off like a douchebag every time I've seen him in a WWE show or documentary. Like Johnny Ace without the charisma.

Herb Abrams had the kind of death I'd have expected from Vince, to be honest.

We joke, but his mom is still going strong at 100 so it's not out of the question he has at least another 20 years left in him.

The real question is will Steph walk around carrying an urn with Vince's ashes like Maresala does in AAA.

NXT was really good. Xia Li gives me Kevin Von Erich vibes in that half the time I can't tell if she's just working snug or knocking the shit out of people. Also I know it comes from a good place since he played such a role building NXT, but it's starting to come off weird that they still do all the Dusty stuff when their goal in existing now is to do damage to the company Dusty's actual kids are both involved in.

I second the Sean Waltman mention, he seems like a guy who really gets the parts of the business most folks don't I can't imagine why he's never been given a shot at being a producer anywhere, he must not want to do the daily grind anymore.

Brian Cage doing Big Guy Stuff to Darby is great

Tay has improved tremendously since getting away from the PC, but yes Serena has been the MVP of the women so far.

It's cool to see Danny Limelight on national TV, he's killing it in Championship Wrestling from Hollywood as half of their UWN tag team champions.

I'm digging Fenix's new gimmick of being a jean jacket enthusiast.