sek69

British Brock coming out to drop off Adam Cole's corpse was not the ending I was expecting to the show.

I can't help but keep noticing they have to have randos sitting at the commentary table with Vic to try to hide that Beth and Barrett are not there in person.

They are both very adept at being examples of what said departments should't aim for.

So they remodeled the PC to make it like the Thunderdome and Full Sail had a weird baby. Walls of video screens and about 100 people in the crowd live. Naming it the Capitol Wrestling Center (and using an updated version of the CWC logo) is a good way to market it to the over 50 demo that is their most loyal audience I suppose.

Taker had a broken ankle or some other kind of serious leg injury going in to that match, so he had no business climbing to the top of a cage to begin with.

Not to mention it makes KO look stupid for putting himself in place for what should have been an obvious trap, especially since his character in particular tends to call those out.

A counterpoint, a lot of the wackiness and angles of olden times is seen through the rose colored glasses of nostalgia. Yes a lot of it was great, but there was a lot of shit back then too. I think a lot of it comes from everyone being used to the strictly scripted promo style where 80% of the people come off looking like wooden robots struggling to read verbiage no human being would use. Then you watch tapes of old stuff where folks who were considered third rate promos at the time come off sounding like the Rock since they are real people putting emotions into it.

I think it's a combination of several factors: 1: There hasn't been a company on the level of WWE in a generation, so someone telling Vince to GFY was potentially limiting their careers to the indy level unless they could latch on in Japan somehow. At the end of the day it still comes down to the talent to come together of course, but it should be noted there is a lot going against them from being in an industry accustomed to being a monopoly to almost certainly getting fed non stop anti unionization FUD on a regular basis. 2. By all accounts Vince is very good at convincing people to pledge their unyielding loyalty to him. We've seen several folks in the company flat out embarrass themselves on various platforms licking the company boots, and not all of them were low card folks doing it for understandable job security reasons. What stood out to me when it happens is how they all use the same verbiage in a matter that clearly shows there is an effort in the company to train people to be like this. Folks who've come up through the PC seem to have terminal Company Brain so clearly not all the time there is being spent on football drills and weightlifting. 3. People still having the "well that guy got fucked, but they wouldn't do that to *me*" mentality despite all the evidence to the contrary. I will say though some things do appear to be changing. For better or worse this era of talent is far more aware of the power you get from being successful on Twitch or YouTube. Meltzer has said many times his son and his friends know Xavier Woods and Kenny Omega as video game people more than wrestlers. Vince trying to horn in on anything built not using a WWE owned brand name might just be a line too far for some. Not to mention there appear to be a lot of folks venting to Andrew Yang, so clearly people are saying something. Dave got a lot of people talking to him when this first started too. I don't discount the possibility that if Yang ends up in a cabinet position (or as he said he's likely to be in contact with those who do if he's doesn't), folks might just start giving him the info he needs to make changes. After all, people will put up with a lot of bullshit but if you start messing with their money it's a different story.

The Miz was a potted plant in the background to the real stars (Rock and Cena). That's why it's been used as a way to get him heel heat over the years. Becky and Ronda were pushed as the main event and Charlotte ended up getting wedged in because reasons, but it was the marquee event.

Agreed. The factual content may be debatable but Nash seems custom made for a gig just sitting around bullshitting with people. It would certainly be entertaining if nothing else.

I don't disagree, but I see people using WM as a negative since it went on last on a marathon show which muted the crowd, and the finish was botched which kind of ruined it. Also if she doesn't come back I see her getting stuck with the "wasn't around on top long enough" tag.

Never forget Kerry Von Erich got released when he did because Vince didn't want him to commit suicide while under contract. Also Vince was adamant he didn't want an Olympic medalist dying on his watch either, which is why he never brought Angle back until he was convinced Kurt was clean.

I know here in Pittsburgh, which is probably the most (American) football obsessed city in the world, our eyes were opened when we found out about Mike Webster. Learning a dude we saw as the centerpiece of an iconic sports dynasty reduced to living in his car because concussions cost him his ability to be able to function as a normal adult was a hard slap in the face.

I suppose that's fair. The big shift came when the main sports leagues were forced to acknowledge the long term effects and could no longer rely on mark doctors to clear players with scrambled brains anymore. Although anyone who saw the NFL try to kill Cam Newton last year might argue that still happens.

We've always known concussions are bad, what's new is just how far reaching CTE can be, It used to be believed concussions were something that can be shaken off and only folks like boxers suffer long term effects. Now it's understood more how long lasting it can be.

Diablo Velasco as well. He trained several generations of Lucha stars from the 40s to the 90s.

Yeah the only time live vs taped made a difference was when WCW was an asshole about it on national TV. Spoilers on the internet have never made that much of a difference.

FWIW I'm of the belief wrestling is usually better taped, at least for weekly shows. There's no reason they have to run live every week (that goes for all companies) other than that's what was done when WWF and WCW had a dick waving contest in the 90s. It makes for a better show and it's financially smarter for the company.

Nice (and hygenic!) touch adding the glove to the Lockjaw for Dr. Britt.

Billy Mitchell is a better heel to be fair. (for those who don't know he was caught using emulation to get some of his arcade records, and when they were thrown out he sued Twin Galaxies arcade over it.)

Somewhere JJ has a tear of pride seeing Tully cheat to win.

You can probably infer by who appears on the show who's affected or at least adjacent to people that were.

He was also running Bar Wrestling, so *maybe* income from that plus what he was earning from his own bookings adds up to that.

Hopefully there will be some lawyers willing to do some pro bono work for them. You'd think "defending sexual assault victims from a lawsuit brought by the assaulter" would be something a lawyer would want to have on the resume. Especially since any lawyer worth their salt could easily turn it around on him and put him on the hook for court costs at the very least.

A huge difference in ages, especially when the man is older, is a red flag for grooming behavior. Also the whole deal with the company just recently having an issue with at least two known cases of talent reaching out to teenagers online and do this kind of angle right now is extra gross because it comes off as the company endorsing those folks' behavior.