sek69

Tokyo Sports just announced that Kenny Omega is leaving NJPW. Didn't say where, but I guess we're about to find out how big that WWE offer was.

Mean Gene in heaven smiling with pride right now.

There was something hilarious about the six man titles being the only ones not changing hands at the end of the day. I'm more excited about the Fantasica Mania shows than anything else at the moment. Watching lucha in Japan is like the wrestling equivalent of mixing chocolate and peanut butter.

Except it wasn't, she almost killed herself on a dive like a week before and crushed Zelina Vega with a knee to the face a few weeks before that. The Liv incident was like the third thing in about a month she was involved in. Ospreay had (has?) a rep for taking dangerous bumps where he lands on his head or neck, which while not great, is different than hurting other people. You can make the argument I suppose that Brie was just rusty since it was her return from a long layoff, and AFAIK she didn't have any previous issues. In New Japan news, New Year's Dash sure seemed less eventful than prior years. They confirmed matchups people were expecting based on pushes, but there wasn't any major "AJ gets beaten out of the Bullet Club" angles.

Well again Brie got the heat she did for having a rep hurting others/herself that to my knowledge Ospreay doesn't. People in the company really wanted to make it a "the internet is picking on a girl" thing when it wasn't. It's been stated many times that there's a difference between a "shit happens" moment and a sloppy worker, last night seemed to be the former rather than the latter. However I was side eyeing the ref for seemingly not being concerned that Ibushi appeared to be KTFO.

The cynical view (which is usually the proper one when wrestling is concerned) is that it's a way to get Hogan back on TV while minimizing the risk he'll get booed. How can you be mean to poor Hulkster when his dear friend passed away?

Not sure what the more notable part of the show was for me, all the titles changing or how decisive the finishes were. It's such a breath of fresh air after seeing how WWE hesitates to the point of missing the window on nearly everyone while New Japan goes out of their way on their biggest show to say "these are the important motherfuckers now". Granted, some of it was kind of by necessity to write out folks like the Bucks/Cody/maybe KUSHIDA, but they didn't leave any doubt who people should get behind in the coming year. Speaking of KUSHIDA, holy shit that super realistic mask that little kid wore during his entrance was nightmare fuel.

Listening to a WON show Dave did earlier today with Garrett, he said there's going to be a meeting between ROH/AEW/New Japan to discuss working together. Dave's feeling is they all *want* to work together but politics might get in the way. Basically ROH/AEW being able to get along being the key.

To be fair, rovert isn't a gimmick. He spends seemingly all his waking hours on Twitter and message boards talking about wrestling. Like nearly 24/7 for years. I would imagine it would be difficult not to gain knowledge at that rate, but he can't expect everyone to keep up the pace he does.

This, and also you know that this is what will piss off Vince the most no matter what TV they get or what talent jumps.

Yeah. Contrary to belief the entire universe doesn't follow you on Twitter my dude. Not to mention any scoops you may have tend to get lost in all the....well.....*gestures at above exchange*

TV made a big difference for Impact though. They were getting over a million viewers on Spike until Dixie had to go Dixie it up for them. You do make a good point however, bad TV can be worse than having none at all. A station like WGN that has nearly as many homes as USA would be a big deal for AEW, but being on a bargain bin-ass network like the one Impact is moving to would be more harm than good.

Britt Baker just announced as signed with AEW.

He did though?

Not sure what exactly you're referring to here? Les Moore went on Twitter basically demanding Dave apologize to his customers for being on the AEW payroll as if he had some kind of smoking gun proving it. Somewhere along the way he went from a guy needling the admittedly sometimes self-important wrestling news scene to being near Single White Female in his obession.

Well I do in the sense that less places for work is not a good thing for the business or the wrestlers.

In what appears to be a part of the Cody/Nick Aldis NWA title swap deal, ROH announced they are going to be taking part in the 2019 Crockett Cup. The NWA is mentioning adding other partners, so it seems like they might be trying to make some kind of super indy tag tournament out of this like how the original Crockett Cup had teams from different NWA territories.

I was never a Hulkamaniac but I always popped for a good "WELL LEMME TELL YA SOMETHING, MENE GENE". Agreed with the above how it's odd to say someone so iconic could be underrated, but the fact that WWF/E never found anyone since who could do the job 1/4th as good as he did. Not only was the the perfect straight man for all the crazy cartoon characters in the WWF, the way he would sell when a heel would say something dastardly is one of those little things that helped get someone over that no one does anymore.

Back when they were building up the annoucement, they (meaning Cody, the Bucks, and Kenny) said they'd be sticking together wherever they went in 2019. I'm assuming they make some kind of working agreement with New Japan to let Kenny work shows for them. The issue I could see causing a problem is if ROH declares them the enemy, New Japan might not want to work with someone feuding with one of their business partners, since they've tried to discourage their talent from working shows with AAA guys because of thier partnership with CMLL (ironically New Japan seems to be the only one left keeping the CMLL vs AAA beef alive). Perhaps if AEW takes off they could replace ROH as their US ally. There's a twist no one really talks about.

Re Bix's post: I'll just say I respect Loss too much to clutter up his board with an argument with you, but let me just clarify some things: I'm not trying to "gotcha" you, I'm just pointing out you frequently end up being passively aggressive towards people for real or imagined slights, to the point of obessiveness. There's a reason one of the message boards we used to frequent years ago turned your name into a verb. When you would go on one of your tangents it was known as "bixing up the thread". Also per your PM, I never was two faced toward you, I never had an issue telling anyone how I feel to their face. I just don't go around actively starting fights with people/stalking other message boards. If someone else pointed out your behavior there's no reason for me to lie and say it wasn't true. Besides, I always assume you're a member of any wrestling related board I've ever gone to. You always have to check to see if people are talking about you. The comments about jealousy were more geared toward people like Les Moore, who is outright demanding Dave make apologies for things Les is making up out of whole cloth. That's some Vince Russo fanboy level bullshit, and he should probably be careful he doesn't cross the line legally because his comments could be seen as potentially libelous (not that Dave would ever take the time to sue someone, but you can't just accuse someone of something with no evidence and demand they confess/apologize for it). I never suspected you were jealous of Dave, more a combination of your belief that his friendship of Cody and the Bucks is somehow a ethical lapse and maybe some transfer of heat from your issues with Bryan. From the time Being the Elite got big to them becoming big stars in ROH/NJPW to the AEW stuff starting to bubble up, you've beome more and more weirdly hostile on Twitter. As far as Dave himself goes, what's he supposed to do in this situation? He's known the guys involved for a long time, now that they're potentially the biggest story in decades he's supposed to stop talking to them so that people on the internet don't accuse him of bias? That's not how it works.

Watching this Naomi/Usos/Mandy Rose storyline I keep thinking of Lance Storm saying after he got married Randy Savage gave him some advice: "I did an angle with my wife one time and now I aint got no wife no more"

AEW just tweeted a pic of Cody, Brandi, the Bucks, and Page officially signing their contracts so there's that. I believe it was Ryan Satin who pointed out Marty Scurll is the luckiest man in wrestling right now. He has until April to keep doing his Villian Club deal while being paired up with two newcomers to ROH, and by then it should be clear if AEW will be a legit option or not. At that point he can either re sign with ROH if AEW doesn't take off, join up with his friends if it does, or use either previous option to see if he can get a fat offer from WWE.

Because when he was on the WWE payroll way back then he realized how it created a conflict of interest and was adamant in not allowing that to happen again. He's stated numerous times over the years that tons of companies have offered him jobs, and he's turned them down every time. People are making the accusation now with no evidence other than Dave scooping them on a big story. The narrative was that Dave doesn't get the scoops anymore so when he does get one it must be because he's being paid by the guys involved.

Muta's another favorite who updated his look with the times. When he really couldn't be the high flying ninja Muta anymore, he switched it up for his more monster-ish look that I always assume Drago was inspired by when he came up with his gimmick.

I always was a fan of guys in the 80s who had their initials in script on their trunks. After a while it started to get watered down when even jobbers would do it, but it was a cool visual marker of my favorite era.