sek69

Is Roman Reigns gonna have to choke a bitch? Apparently yes.

Bringing out the original IC belt was a nice touch, although it's kind of tacky to me so see them bringing back Gerald Brisco when he got covid fired.

Wrestling is an appearance driven business, and everyone involved (men and women alike) benefit from having gear that is either flattering or works for whatever gimmick they are going for. Just look at Kevin Owens, who has a similar body type to Chris Hero and wears similar "t-shirt and baller shorts" gear as he did. It's done in a way that isn't unflattering to him. It's not even a matter of fat-shaming either, WWF/E has tons of examples where they put people who aren't heavier-set in gear that isn't flattering to them at all. It's like the reason Kevin Nash never wore short trunks in his career, because he had tiny legs due to all his knee problems from playing basketball. Saying that doesn't mean it's body shaming, it's pointing out it would not have been a flattering look for him in what again, is an appearance based business.

The weird thing about that article is how they mention Callis' deal is up and assuming Impact is just going to allow one of their EVPs to walk away to become a manager in AEW, which seems.....unlikely? I mean maybe that's what will happen, but it seems odd that Impact wouldn't make a play for a guy that has done the work to rebuild them from the LOLTNA days.

I mean, ring gear might be the most fiscally responsible thing Ric Flair has ever spent his money on. But yes, the cost women in general have to bear (women's stuff tends to cost more), plus how much more they have to spend on (the male wrestlers don't have to spend money on hair and makeup products) is going to cause their overall take home pay to be even lower.

Sting in a couple of multiple man tags while being a walking member-berry for lapsed fans who used to watch rasslin in TNT back in the day isn't the worst use of the guy. Plus he'll be in a company full of people who grew up idolizing him as kids rather than a company who only wanted to use him as an avatar to keep winning a war they already won, that alone will make a world of difference on how he's used.

So I'm watching yesterday's episode of Impact, and Karl Anderson accepted Ethan Page's challenge for a match on their next "Network event" equivalent on January 12. Karl accepts his challenge and adds "I know you got friends, I have friends too. After all, I'm a Good Brother" which certainly hits different after AEW. (should be noted this is part of an angle where Luke Gallows was attacked by Page and was out of action so Karl was pointedly not talking about his usual partner)

I wonder how the average Japanese fan views the Elite guys, especially Kenny. Normally they don't begrudge foreigners who leave since they aren't expected to abide by the "stay with your home company" tradition that the Japanese wrestlers tend to follow. Kenny might be an exception since he made such an effort to assimilate with the culture, cutting extensive promos in fairly fluent Japanese, he was the most un-gaijin foreigner possible. Also it's one thing to leave for WWE like AJ and the Good Brothers did, can't be too mad at someone making a change to secure the bag. Kenny leaving New Japan on top to join an (at the time) unproven commodity with this friends might have been viewed differently. Also it seems like the Impact website crashed after the angle took place so I suppose they're already getting a return on their investment in terms of interest. Tuesday's gonna be the most watched episode of their show since like the Spike days.

I believe the shows go up the next day on Impactplus, yes.

Impact airs their shows live on Twitch for free, but I think you need to sub to their channel to get access to the archives. I'm pretty sure you can watch the archives on impactplus.tv, you have to make an account but you don't have to pay unless you want to go way back.

Gotta give 'em props, that was a very nice tribute to Pat Patterson to open NXT tonight.

I mean the story was Kenny could have won the first match but got cocky, now Mox did the same in the second one. Textbook storytelling to set up the rubber match IMO. I'm sure in a perfect world they would have wanted to work this kind of angle with New Japan, but between covid and it not being clear if NJPW wants to play ball yet, it's just not feasible at this point.

Conversely, this is Impact's chance to show a bigger audience that they aren't the same old LOLTNA (and they really aren't anymore).

AEW vs IMPACT, interesting development.

They got Callis back to call this, nice.

Tony belting out an "It's STIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING" hit me hard in the feels.

STIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING

Darby is such a star it's crazy.

Is it me or does Layla Hirsch look like an even tinier Jordynn Grace?

Britt getting over with me with the Steeler logo gear.

It's Britt O clock!

That was great, I love they teased the "oh we forgot that guy was still in" only to point out Wardlow was too smart for that.

I would wager most people don't even know what DDT is, and a good chunk of those who do know what it is have never watched any of it and only know of it secondhand.

There seems to be a lot of stories where people who were previously not supportive of gay people changed their minds because of Pat. That might be his greatest legacy.

It's been pretty cool to see people from all across wrestling like Cody, Jericho, and even Dixie Carter paying their respects as well as the official Twitter account for the Cow Palace.