sek69

I don't know how much is true, but the word was after he did the one Saudi show his Hollywood people basically told him to cut that shit out since it could affect his movie career. Timeline wise it seems to fit since it appears that WWE cooled on him around that same time. They'll probably never fully cut ties with him because he's still a reliable company robot for them plus he's a Make-a-Wish legend, but it's clear there's at least some bruised feelings on WWE's part since he's no longer their go to guy.

Reading this post, I didn't "get" the H. Ivy Thomsen one until I said it out loud and I'm torn between how awful it is and my love of terrible puns.

WWE fanboys will probably be even extra saltier considering this happens the same week WWE can't seem to give tickets away for Stomping Ground.

Here's what I don't get: Jim's a smart guy, he knows most of what goes on in wrestling now isn't his cup of tea, why does he spend so much time upset about it? It's not like someone in WWE is going to be like "oh shit, Jim Cornette didn't like our last show, we better get on that", and he knows that. It seems like his podcast is an audio version of Dave engaging with Twitter randos, wasting the time of someone with tons of expertise that could be better utilized elsewhere.

Vince is also the guy who would try to convince talent to take out large mortgages (even offering to co sign on them) in order to keep guys financially beholden to him. I would imagine there's nothing that upsets him more than someone he views as "his" telling him he no longer is needed. That's why he always had a hard on for guys who badmouth WWE the most to come crawling with him, and never offered someone like Bobby Heenan a gig after WCW.

There are reasons: WWE doesn't want anyone to stand out, it's Brand Uber Alles. Their biggest fear is someone becoming another Rock or Batista and becoming a big star who doesn't need them anymore. Their need to have 100% control on every aspect makes anyone who has an Enzo like level charisma unable or unwilling to stand out. For all his faults, the main reason he got over so big despite being in a role most people struggle in is that he clearly gave zero F's who's feathers he ruffled along the way. The WWE system has been finely curated to eliminate any chance of that happening again anytime soon. Anyone coming along who could potentially be another Enzo would most likely be either jobbed to oblivion until their confidence is shattered, or sent off to the phantom zone never to be seen again. The only reason Enzo got the chances he did was because he was part of a package with a 7 foot jacked guy designed to press all the right buttons with Vince.

WWE is in full "you're nothing if you leave us" mode, based on reports of the pep talks guys here and on the main roster are getting. The funny thing is, all giving people random names accomplishes is that they can go back to using their more familiar names if/when they leave. I don't understand why some of these guys signed though. Unless they got some life changing money offers just to be in NXT, I don't get why someone like Trevor Lee would sign with them. I know he's got connections with the North Carolina crew, but Vince is going to take one look at him with his "Geico caveman dressed like a New Japan young lion" getup and ask who the fuck hired that guy.

Plus he's gone full circle with his AEW gimmick of basically going back to the Natural with faux-Goldust facepaint. Speaking of, Cody going from little-brother-cosplaying-big-brother to suit-wearing-company-Exec was a pretty big one. No one would have suspected Stardust would end up changing the game like this.

The Sandman going from a dork in a wetsuit to a guy in a T-shirt and Zubaz pants ended up creating one of the most iconic characters in a promotion that tended to generate a lot of those.

That's all true, but unfortunately Enzo is a toxic piece of shit and future PR nightmare waiting to happen if signed to a major company. Boosting the crusierweight division wouldn't be worth the extra baggage.

Queering may not make the world work, but apparently empty PR stunts do.

They do that during football season too, they tend to disappear when it's clear a show is going to be low rated.

I really hope someone calls them out for continuing to conflate the "this is hope" chants from the Dubai match with having women wrestle in Saudi Arabia. Dubai is in the UAE, which is nowhere near as strict on women. WWE makes it sound like the while Middle East is one giant country with the exact same rules and restrictions, instead of many different countries that have different laws. Most countries in the region would allow something like women's wrestling to take place as long as the participants had appropriate attire, which is something that I really don't see happening in Saudi Arabia anytime soon. I know Dave keeps talking about the Russian circus that performed there that included women, but he never mentions (or maybe he doesn't know) that it led to government officials being fired for allowing it to happen.

As far as Taker goes, most people have enough awareness not to wear clothes that have SS insignias on them if they aren't down with what that symbolizes. The KISS comparison is weak, as there was never any indication that the S's in their logo were meant to be a Nazi reference. The logo on the shirt Taker is wearing was clearly Nazi related, and someone of his celebrity status not seeing anything wrong with having a photo taken of him wearing it speaks volumes.

What was going to happen to him? I don't think he's untouchable status in WWE, so there was a chance the company would get upset at him for doing that and possibly upsetting a large source of income for them. Not to mention the inherent risks of doing anything pro LGBT while actually *in* Saudi Arabia. It wouldn't shock me to see Finn on the "not allowed" list for the next Saudi show, which might have been his plan all along.

Finn posted a photo on Twitter of him in an Equality for All shirt prior to the show with the caption "Happy Pride Month from Saudi Arabia". I know there's been jokes about the size of his unit, but he undoubtedly has the biggest balls in wrestling for that.

It's a shame this new era of Impact being a quality product happened when they have their worst possible TV coverage. Yet they keep bringing people like TJP back and signing folks to contracts. Is their India deal that lucrative? Is Anthem more willing to take more of a bath on this than anticipated? Every time I read about another Impact signing or PPV event, I have a Joe Swanson-like "how can you afford this?" moment.

The thing about it is, Eric's a tremendous storyteller but it's difficult for me to believe anything he says anymore. The combination of poor memory and outright bullshittery makes a convenient cover for anyone to pick and choose the parts they want to believe is true.

Watching 84-85 Mid South, and thought about an interesting "what if". Shawn Michaels is on these shows in enhancement duty early in his career, and what surprised me is Bill Watts seems to be keen on him, even on job duty. Considering Shawn had a dislike of him that carried into the WWF years, it was surprising to hear him get put over like that. Made me think what would have happened if Watts decided to do something with him, and made him an NWA type guy instead of being in the right place at the right time when Vince was signing everyone who was working for Verne just to fuck with him.

Yeah so much of this seems to be due to them getting pissed they got shown up by a fan while doing a tired "you're a virgin" routine. It's just funny ROH is pretending to spend so much time looking into this. Who's doing the looking? Surely not the folks actually running the show, Bully's cool with them. Sinclair couldn't care less what goes on inside the ROH locker room, who could possibly believe anything would come of this?

To be fair to Taker, it looked like Goldberg stuck his head out on the Tombstone instead of tucking. Reminded me of that guy who broke his neck on the Styles Clash by having his head in the wrong position. Not denying Taker's too old to be doing this, but he's always been super protective when doing that move.

Not to mention ROH said they completed their 48 hour investigation, which apparently didn't involve talking to the fan at all. So that tells you how hard they looked into it.

Perhaps, but his reply of "off planning the next beheading" when asked why the Saudi ruling class weren't sitting on couches on the front row like last time was a pretty good "snarky 80s newsletter Dave" moment. He was clearly enjoying the opportunity to not have to walk on eggshells around the Offend-arazzi during the show.

Not to mention Mansoor is probably already better at wrestling at this early stage than Tiger ever was. Also on top of everything else going on with that show, it's funny how it slipped under the radar that they were doing an outdoor show in JUNE in Saudi Arabia.

He's shown up on both versions of NXT recently (US and UK), he wasn't too bad actually. Way too green to be getting a National Superhero type push of course, but they could have picked worse guys.