sek69

If Vince's rule of not hyping a match you aren't planning to deliver, you'd think Drew wins here since they are clearly pushing for him vs Roman.

Funny how Lana got put through a table about 47 million times and is still available for Survivor series, but Mandy & Dana are out after one attack each.

I don't begrudge anyone getting whatever work they can these days, but I admit that was a head scratcher for me too.

So I've been listening to the Wrestling Game Rewind show, thanks to a helpful little birdie. The first show was kind of meh, a lot of obvious reading of Wikipedia pages (referring to AKI as it's current company name for example), and a lot of "eh I don't remember" in response to a lot of the questions, which is understandable considering the infamously brutal workload video game devs live through, but there were some interesting tidbits. For example, and I never thought about it at the time, but the makers of the WCW vs the World game were the first people to see Sting's new crow look since WCW wanted him featured on the cover. It was also clear the reason the games were so good is because the devs involved were big fans of Japanese wrestling games (which were far superior to anything the US was getting at the time). They also made notice of how all the people from the original Japanese version got ridiculous names and realize how unfortunate in hindsight that Road Warrior Hawk was renamed "Overdose". The second episode was much better, partly I think due to having the format a little more sorted and also due to them having extra folks involved in the discussion to minimize the "I don't remember" answers. It was interesting to hear them answer a question that I always was puzzled by at the time, as to why some folks in WCW weren't in the game. Nash and Hall's WCW deals were still being finalized at the time of development, and folks who split time in New Japan like Scott Norton had their primary contracts in Japan and they didn't have the rights to include them in a WCW game. It's also interesting (and so very WCW) that it seems clear that WCW saw this game primarily as a way to promote Crow Sting and kind of ended up going ass backward into releasing the best wrestling game the US had seen up to that point. It also seems like they were keeping up some kind of video game industry kayfabe when talking about how all the magazines were pushing wrestling games so hard as if it wasn't an open secret in the game biz that magazines will pimp any game the publisher puts the cash up to promote. Now to be fair if the game sucks it won't last longer than a month or two, but anyone who has a stash of old gaming mags can see how chock full of hype for games that were clearly piles of shit. All in all there is a lot of interesting info mentioned, it definitely seems like a show that will get better the more episodes that they do. If you're like me and happen to be someone who's known about the inner workings of both the wrestling and video game industries you won't necessarily find out any previously unknown details but it's been fascinating to listen to the devs discuss what ended up kicking off a golden age of wrestling games.

The worst thing to happen to Black was to become one of the people Heyman wanted to push when he took over Raw. Everyone knew it his run wouldn't last and once he was gone anyone he was backing would be fucked.

I get the impression Dave pushes the historical candidates because he feels (probably rightly) they'll be forgotten to time otherwise. He honestly doesn't seem to think he has any effect on the more recent candidates despite him clearly pushing for certain guys in most years. On the other hand, the folks he lobbies for don't always get in so I suppose that could be an indication he doesn't have as much influence as we think after all. I will say it is going to be extremely difficult for anyone who's body of work is entirely or primarily post 2000s WWE to get in since no one is built to be a star and the brand is the main attraction. The way they run the company now more or less eliminates at least 2 of the WON HOF's criteria for entry, so how is anyone going to be able to get in? John Cena is the last WWE centered person who I would consider a "lock" to get in, and he's already in.

They're married now, which is why everyone is making the joke that he'll get put through a table 8 weeks in a row like Lana. Also I love how when someone is truly deeply programmed like Alexa is (remember her "cancel culture" comments last week) ends up giving the most damning evidence how disorganized the whole company is.

Considering practically every Trump adjacent fundraiser is a grift to line Trump's pockets and/or pay for his defense fund, it would be interesting to see if somehow she's getting a cut.

I'm sure it sounded good at the time, it wasn't a completely crazy idea that she could win in a state like CT, but the state proved they didn't want to elect the rasslin' lady and they kept screwing that chicken. I suppose he might consider it was worth it since she ended up getting a cabinet position.

I listened to Bryan Alvarez and Lance Storm's show the other day and they mentioned how shockingly low the pay is for most women in WWE, and with no house shows and little merch sales (most of that came from houseshows/TV tapings) it's not going to take much for them to make way more outside of WWE. Lance laid it out how most non-main eventers in WWE didn't care what their downside was since the live event and merch money usually dwarfed that, but now that folks have to live off that downside that isn't looking nearly as attractive. The top guys with the large guarantees are loving it since they work even less now and make the same money, but pretty much everyone else is taking a pretty big hit, moreso the women. If this takes off it certainly would put Steph in an awkward spot. How can the Creator of Women's Wrestling and All Other Feminism spin it if the women start to bail on the company because they can make a better living playing video games and doing cosplay.

Drake Wuertz also follows a UK far right/anti Muslim dude on there as well, wonder what Ali thinks about that.

Chelsea Green was supposed to win the 4 way tonight but broke her arm early on in the match.

True, but that clarification means it probably went down like this: 1. They approach her asking to give up her OnlyFans like a good little worker bee 2. She tells them to GTFO with that nonsense 3. They fire her 4. *Then* she makes that tweet before they can make their usual canned corporate response Makes it even more of a badass move that she would do it then knowing it would be a scorched earth play that would get a lot of negative attention to the company.

One can only have hope.

In other fun WWE news: Drake Wuertz follows the Proud Boys on Perler (basically Facebook for MAGA chuds and racists).

Twitch stuff aside, firing people in a pandemic (that is only getting worse) when the company is literally setting all time record profits is the grossest thing this company has done. Especially since they went out of their way to target folks who recently got themselves a larger payday.

The best part is you know damn well Vince is probably mad about that tweet like "that ungrateful bitch, we wished her well in her future endeavors and she mentions a UNION???"

From today's Observer update:

I wonder if this match is designed to write out Seth for a while since Becky Lynch is set to be due soon.

It would be on a company by company basis. The argument that unions would crush smaller indies by adding too many costs, while probably true, is moot because mostly every company in the US actually treats its independent contractors like independent contractors. Guys in AEW/TNA/ROH are all allowed to do outside gigs as long as they don't conflict with their primary promotion, which most people consider reasonable. Also considering WWE normally allows people on Legends type deals like Jerry Lawler to take outside bookings makes it apparent they are only interested in controlling the folks on the active roster while crushing all potential competitors by any means necessary.

It also can't be stressed enough how smart it was for her to get that tweet out before the announcement was made. I'm seeing tons of folks who are into wrestling but not "in the bubble" like we are making comments on how WWE fired her for being pro union. It was a well placed kick to the dick by her that set the optics before WWE could.

Apparently her Only Fans was a problem, WWE did not like her having one despite it not being under her WWE name and with disclaimers there's no nudes.

I know there's always pushback when AEW signs ex WWE people, but A: they need all the talented women they can get and B: she could be the next Jon Moxley in terms of "person fucked by WWE finally able to do what they are best at".

She's well known, an attractive woman, and is actually into gaming. It would be shocking if she *wasn't* making loads of money. If I'm her and Vince tries to tell me that's now counting against my downside guarantee I'd tell him to GFY as well.

Also it seems like going in to people's pockets and grabbing their Twitch money was finally a bridge too far for a lot of folks. I bet Andrew Yang's mentions are exploding right now.