sek69

At this stage, Mania would draw well no matter how ice cold WWE gets. A 100,000 seater like Dallas might be a stretch, but going to Wrestlemania is still a bucket list item for most wrestling fans and I'm pretty sure they'll get 50-60,000 no matter what the company poops out. Also I think Wrestle Kingdom *could* have been a fair comparison. Running a socially distanced show in a city as large and densely populated as Tokyo could have been seen as proof running a open stadium show could be done safely....had Vince's BFF done even the bare minimum to try to contain things. Even Alanis Morisette would have to apricate that irony. Did anyone else see were Roman said he wanted to face the Rock at WM 39 in LA? Seems like it would be the logical end game of the Tribal Chief gimmick, and it would be one Official Wrestlemania Moment that wouldn't get changed at the last second. Hell, if they kick it off at the Raw after Mania this year it could get the Hogan -Savage year long build and be the mega event they could use to fill out a monster stadium like Dallas legit (or as legit as WWE sellouts get).

The best part is that the Fiend wasn't even physically on the show. Instead we had GHOST FIEND on the swing set with Alexa.

Boogey would have been just as bad if not worse if he was positioned as a main eventer that we were supposed to take seriously. As a midcarder terrorizing other midcarders there was little harm that could be done.

That's some quality carny-ing right there.

He seemed to crib a lot from Ray, including the "flip over the turnbuckle and land on the apron" spot, so it makes sense. Even if you take into account typical wrestler exaggeration, just the idea that Ray Stevens was doing things like this 20 odd years before Flair is a good testament to his abilities.

I had no clue who it was until I saw people mentioning it on Twitter.

I still think Bray would be better served doing horror movies like Rob Zombie. Dude can come up with some creative ideas, they just don't translate very well to wrestling.

Oh God now I can't unsee her transformation to Evil Alexa as a bizarro world Super Sayian deal.

GILLBERG

Omos looking uncharacteristically underdressed tonight.

Seeing the replay reminding me how Charlotte is showing us her babyface bonafides by *checks notes* attempting to break Peyton's leg because reasons. She is the most unlikeable character to the point if we had crowds Lacey would end up getting babyfaced over this.

Also interesting WWE would follow AEW's lead with the "make our Japanese women's champion look like she's pissing herself in fear over the creepy challenger".

Man the more they have Alexa acting/dressing like a child the more it comes off as some "lol i pretend u said 18" shit.

Mace/Dio Madden is a dude with a look that just screams future star once he has more experience.

The Intelligent, Sensational Randy Orton.

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.