sek69

I would assume if Punk ever did anything else wrestling related, this would be how he does it. All the pieces seem to fit, especially since Ace Steel was involved. The down side is now we probably have to deal with all the newz sites posting "PUNK TO AEW???" clickbait stories.

I wouldn't say "worked" as much as "got angry at people who connected the obvious dots and assumed he was going to AEW".

Following up on this, after watching a few episodes he's in (previously I've only been aware of him via magazines) I wonder if Dustin Rhodes pays him royalties since Goldust is basically this gimmick + movie references. I've heard people say it before, but watching it in action it's apparent as hell.

I wonder at what point did WWE forget what made a good heelish commentator? Jesse and Bobby rooted for the heels and pointed out the double standard when Vince (or Gorilla) would condone a face cheating, but they would never flat out shit on someone while on commentary. Now it seems like the only direction anyone gets on the main roster when they want a heel announcer is "be the biggest asshole possible".

So Sam Roberts went weirdly heel on Dana Brooke during Main Event, so I guess his gimmick now is heel announcer who randomly goes off on women wrestlers?

Fantasma left AAA since he was part of the Lucha Underground lawsuit, and since AAA and LU are (were?) sister companies, it turned into a "AJ Lee working for WWE while Punk was in a lawsuit with them" level of awkwardness. His dad is the Lucha commissioner for Mexico City still, so it might help out if NJPW wants to do any Mexico based shows to have a guy who can grease the wheels if need be.

Fascinating how this show was pretty much the same format as most Mid South TV. I wonder how hands on McGuirk was at this point since it seems like Watts was steering the ship.

I think that is where the disconnect is. I'm thinking (and I could be wrong here) that Herodes was referring to the response on the general Internet Wrestling Universe rather than this specific board. I think we've shown that this place has a higher level of discourse than angry neckbeards yelling at people on Twitter.

Again, I think it's all a matter of how the person approaches it. Someone like Dean or Harper just quietly told the company they're done and/or nor resigning and goes off to do their thing. Folks have been trained by generations of pro-corporation, anti-worker propaganda that businesses all give people jobs out of the kindness of their hearts and if any worker bee has an issue, then they are the ingrate. This has been a thing both in wrestling and IRL, the level of fealty one is expected to show to your employer has always been a weird thing to witness. Also I wouldn't dismiss there being some other motivation behind people looking differently at Sasha either. I can't imagine WWE being a company that a woman could speak out about feeling slighted without people dog-piling. It happened to Gail Kim not to long ago and she was just confirming what other people were saying about the toxic work environment. There's an intersect between weird, possessive wrestling fans who stan WWE 4 Life, folks who don't like it when the wimminz start speaking up, and folks who think POC who complain too much are uppity *fill in the word you know goes here*. Yes there are white knights and woke warriors out there, but that doesn't mean the internet is pretty much a sewer for women on a good day let along for one who's not happy with her job.

I suppose it's possible, but it doesn't fit that a group that seems to have a good sense of business would sign an Impact-like TV deal. I get wrestling isn't exactly high value programming to TV execs, but you'd think a group that has buzz and backing from an NFL owner would allow them to land a better deal than that.

So it came out in the Observer that Cuatrero of the New Generation Dinamitas is in a relationship with Sofia Alonso, and Forastero is married to Ultimo Guerrero's daughter. The joke in CMLL now is that it's good that NGD is a good trio that deserves to be on top since they're going to be on top anyway.

I've long felt there's a really good story to tell in Carmella being a second generation star, but with the twist that her father was a jobber rather than a legend. Like I could see her having a real good feud with Charlotte, cutting promos on how she grew up in the business too but didn't have things handed to her as the heir to a great legacy.

Yeah, Hall saying he never talked with Shawn about it seemed more of a whopper than anything Russo said.

Plus it was pretty well known that Sunny and Shawn were a thing at the time, so for him to make the allegation towards Bret was like some ribbing-on-the-square bullshit. I thought it was a pretty good summation of the whole thing where Bruce Pritchard ends up being the voice of reason by pointing out this all could have been avoided if the two of them could have got over themselves.

I just figured it was the term people used for the time after the Attitude Era and before the current PG/Network Era. Kind of like how the reigns of Japanese Emperors get decided after the fact. So like 2002-2013 or so? I suppose deciding when the AE officially ended would spawn another heated debate.

I know they did a lot to mess with her personally, but Lana really seems like a case study in career suicide. I'm wondering if she has some dirt on Vince and is daring him to fire her, I can't recall someone who seemingly tries harder to get shitcanned that she does.

Vince has a long documented aversion to any real life story, everything has to be a WWE branded creation or he wants nothing to do with it unless he's forced to.

Remember when they had him do that obstacle course and everyone was wowed at how easily a big dude like that crushed it? I thought that would have been the spark for them to capitalize on him being a legit genetic freak (especially since that's entirely in Vince's wheelhouse) but all we ever got was him doing a posing gimmick where he would slap his own butt cheeks.

Oh my goodness, the shows from 84 include Adrian Street showing up I can't think of a more perfect gimmick/promotion combo than that.

Woods slowly losing his grip on sanity because all his gaming friends keep getting sent to Raw is the best non-official storyline in WWE right now.

Of that, Nia is out a year with double knee surgery, Sasha will either be gone or be boo-boo facing the rest of her contract, so there's not too much left there.

There's not much left of the women's side on Raw, is there? Odd that they would send just Liv to Smackdown, she doesn't seem to have much going for her as a solo act.

Also I guess Kairi's call-up is kind of a backdoor spoiler that they plan to have Io be the one to dethrone Shanya.

Spoiler alert: they are all in on Lacey.

I just assumed Bryan is doing the "ex champion goes away to stew about losing his title" deal while they reshuffle the deck on both shows. I'd think any injury would have come out by now, and there's no need to start his next program immediately when they have so many other irons in the fire. Also, not to incur the wrath of the bossman, wasn't the deal with the IIconics some sort of copyright issue? They were the Iconic Duo in NXT and I seem to remember they were supposed to have that name on the main roster, but someone found out it was already claimed by someone else. Doesn't make the spelling any less stupid, but at least there was a story behind it.