sek69

Watching his Mid South work on the Network really opened my eyes to what an agile big man he was in an era where that really wasn't a thing. Plus everyone will always think of him when they hear the Soviet national anthem.

So the NXT UK tapings took place, I assume it's a Network only deal but do any of our resident UK-ians know if it's going to be on TV over there? I figured it would be since the whole thing is a reaction to ITV trying to get into the wrestling game.

He's also taking advantage of being in an industry that is able to skate under the radar of press scrutiny for everything short of murder-suicide.

WWE is pretty much the only company in wrestling that is in the position to turn them down though. It's one think if it was Impact doing these shows where that kind of money is legit life changing for people in and around that company. WWE doesn't need Saudi money, they just got a billion dollars for their TV deal so they have never been in a better position to say "you know, we're really not cool with being used as a PR agency for a brutal regieme just so Vince has more money to blow on his silly football league". If I was running WWE, I would absolutely say the money recieved would not be worth the negative connotations of being associated with them. It's also fair to say I might not feel the same way if I was running literally any other wrestling company.

Funny you should say that as I find myself far more engrossed watching 1984 Mid South on the Network than almost anything currently taking place.

Watching this weeks show, and I literally lol'ed at Scarlett Bordeaux doing a Steph-like "activist for women's rights" gimmick with the twist of her goal being to end hot-shaming.

I would say stars in someone who was given a chance to get over and not get cut off at the knees. Enzo and Cass definately count, and Enzo was probably going to be the biggest star of all until he had to go all CONSENTUAL PENIS on everyone.

It seems a little disingenious to include Strowman since it seems all he did in the PC was work out in the gym and be a Rosebud. Big E would probably be the biggest star so far of the NXT/PC era.

I think it's been kind of underrated how quickly Tom Lawlor has grasped pro wrestling. He really has only been doing this full time since his UFC suspension and he's already someone carrying themselves like a star.

I don't get why Toni got dumped on, it wasn't her fault the company decided to make her the champ in what was essentially a shoot situation knowing she had limited dates with them.

JCP would release VHS tapes, but they were famous for being edited like it was being done by Edward Scissorhands after 10 cups of coffee.

They tried to hide it as best they can without running afoul of financial rules, and there's likely other things stuffed in that category as well, but it appears they got over $40 million for the show. Now that could be the lump sum for the year or just the amount they got for the Greatest Rumble, but either way it's pretty clear why WWE was so eager to sell the women down the river. From the Observer site's synopsis of the Q2 report that dropped today:

Part of the reason why Dave gets asked all the time if different people have final say on Raw and SD is how it seems to be two separate promotions. SD is able to have focus on multiple storylines and generally try to elevate people, while Raw is usually the same way-to-long slog with the same people as the focus constantly. So while SD has seemed to go back to the better show it was for a while, it doesn't make it any less true that the rest of the main roster programming has been lacking.

This week is a tribute to the Poffo family, in additon to the tag match they're also adding Angelo vs Pat Patterson and Lanny vs Nick Bockwinkel.

joeg made a good point in the "Comments that don't require a thread" thread: It seems that the Performance Center is functioning more as a finishing school for guys who wrestled elsewere to get the needed polishing to go to the main WWE roster. Yet WWE itself claims that the PC is where all this homegrown talent is coming from, something that really hasn't borne fruit as of yet.

Good idea.

Good lord, this. I guess it got forgotten since apparently Sydal didn't break his neck, but holy crap that was a scary moment.

Miz/Bryan is also helped by both guys lighting each other up in promos, and while Styles/Joe may get there it's not yet.

Saw that they are bringing in Matt Stryker, which has the potential to greatly diminish my enjoyment of their show.

My favorite part of the Penta-Sami match was after a blinded Penta mistakenly put the ref in his arm breaker spot and when the fans chanted "you fucked up" Don Callis just deadpanned "he sure did".

They just started another female ref in NXT so there's at least two now, so it's possible they could do that.

WWE seems to be going out of their way to make Ronda as unattractive as possible. There was that week where the makeup they put on her made her look like she had pink eye, the wierd cross-braiding they did the other week to make her head look like an iced cinnamon bun (she even posted the best memes of it on her Instagram), and now this pic. For a company so obsessed with looks, it's a strange thing to see constantly happening.

Seems like the only thing the main roster writers know how to do is make their babyfaces look like geeks and/or losers, so I could see them doing something like having Braun fail his cash-in.

I couldn't get past them choosing a photo that makes Ronda look like a stroke victim to even notice the makeup.

Going to laugh so hard when Roman wins and gets Coronation 3.0 at SS, only for Braun to come out and cash in 30 seconds later.