sek69

Did Carlos Colon not ever copyright "Universal championship" at any point in the last 40 or so years, or did WWE forget Puerto Rico is part of the US?

Interesting that Dave said the Cesaro thing was shoot-ish in the sense of he apparently decided to do his own angle in the promo and they're running with it. Interesting if this turns out to be his Austin 3:16 moment.

The name may not mean much to people outside the Pittsburgh area, but for those of us who grew up here every generation knew Bill Cardille. In the 50s-60s, he was the host of the Studio Wrestling TV program that nearly everyone in town watched to follow hometown legend Bruno Sammartino. The generation after that knew him better as "Chilly Billy", the host of a show that aired schlocky horror movies with a cast of characters - kind of a tame version of Howard Stern's Wack Pack- like Terminal Stare, a zombie like silent woman who would stare menacingly into the camera while Bill talked about the upcoming movie. People of all ages knew him as the host of the local segments during the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon every Labor Day weekend. In addition to all that, he was also the weatherman for the local NBC affiliate (where the wrestling show was taped in its day as well). Sadly, very little if any of the footage still remains of the Pittsburgh studio wrestling show. It was kind of the NXT of its day, as Bruno would give guys a test run in his circuit before taking them to New York. George Steele had one of his first big heel runs here, and my mother (who was hardly a wrestling fan) had fond memories of going to a big show at Forbes Field. The shows were extremely popular, and it was one of the reasons Pittsburgh was always part of the WWWF circuit and still gets semi-regular TV and PPV shows to this day. Bonus trivia, Bill Cardille had a cameo in the original Night of the Living Dead movie as an easter egg to the locals since the movie was filmed in the Pittsburgh area.

He struck me as different, which is refreshing in WWE these days.

I think it's because he wasn't as "polished" as much as some of the more experienced guys, and maybe a little subconsciously that no matter how much we complain about it WWE has trained us to think of someone with a speech impediment as bad.

For those who missed it, Coach was on ESPN defending Vince in the new round of concussion lawsuits saying he (Vince) takes care of all the old timers and all he asks is they show up at WM weekend to sign autographs. Obviously there's lots wrong with that statement, and Dave called him out on it as well as former WCW announcer Chris Cruise. Coach apparently didn't know Cruise's background and tried big timing him saying he knows more because he spent 10 years in the business. That resulted in an epic DAVE'D moment in response pointing out Cruise's wrestling and news background. Coach then tried to big time Dave himself by pulling out the "newsletter writers trying to get famous off me" line, leading to another epic DAVE'ing and half of wrestling twitter booting him in the ass.

Latest content dump is 2006 Raws for those who were looking forward to that.

The only way NXT could start harming the bottom line is if the carrot of future WWE paychecks stop being the lure for indy guys it currently is.

NXT signings aren't adding a ton of cost to the company, and if they did the cost could be justified by having to fill out two separate shows. They've already made it clear they view NXT as a cost-of-doing-business to build for the future, plus most of the A tour shows are probably drawing enough to balance out some of the costs.

I know, I just wanted to sneak in a Futurama reference whenever I can.

I don't know if it's 100% across the board, but the general rule of thumb is that if you've used a name prior to WWE they can't keep you from using it after unless you sign the rights over to them. Dustin used the Rhodes name prior to WWE, but Cody didn't. Sucks for him, but WWE is technically correct, and as Hermes Conrad would tell you, that's the best kind of correct.

Gary Hart didn't come up with "Cody Rhodes" though. If I become a wrestler and decide to call myself Sek Hogan, it doesn't mean WWE can't copyright my name because Hulk Hogan was around 40 years ago.

Because people signed to NXT deals tend to not get paid shit unless they're a Balor or Joe and able to make their own deals.

I hope Da Mack gets signed to either NXT or to fill the Cruiserweight roster on Raw. His unique look with his spider limbs with his charisma seems tailor made for WWE. I just hope they resist the urge to make him "black Alex Wright" just because he's German. Also seeing "Hot & Spicy" on his tights made me wish Christopher Daniels was available to have Curry Man be his tag partner.

So apparently it was reported that the plan for Roman's return is to go right back to pushing him as top babyface. Between that and having someone other than Bayley as Sasha's mystery partner, that could spell quite the fan backlash on the PPV on Sunday.

Pretty sure they did it for the Rock so he would use the name in movies. Also those are two guys Vince can be most assured of (after Hunter I guess) that they won't ever try to work for a rival wrestling company.

Alvarez was mentioning on Twitter that the final details were hammered out minutes before the pre show started.

Considering the whole point of this is to make Smackdown more appealing to USA, I suspect Grimmas is going to be very happy.

I don't think it's so much the wrestlers themselves as much as WWE seemingly achieving their goal of making everyone under contract as bland as possible. Everyone has to use the same heavy handed non-human sounding verbiage and work the same style. It takes someone with ridiculous levels of charisma like Nakamura or Enzo to overcome that, so 99% of your roster comes off as interchangeable boring guys.

WWE is in a tough place, because if they don't enforce the trademark with Cody they set a precedent they don't want, and if they do enforce it they're seen as being dicks to the son of a beloved employee.

Is it me or does it seem like Mick Foley was a last minute fill in for someone else they couldn't close the deal on? It makes no sense for Steph to pick him since she's made it clear in promos she doesn't care what the fans think and that people who pander to them are stupid. From that to making "Mr. Hometown Cheap Pop" her GM is baffling unless its either factoring in as a plotline to Foley's network show or just her doing an insider rib picking the guy the internet says her husband hates (and don't pretend they aren't that petty to do something like that either).

I believe he did at some point in OVW.

Most of the wrestler deaths from the 80s were due to rampant cocaine use taking its toll on hearts already pushed to the max by steroid inflated bodies. Most of the 2000s wrestler deaths came from enlarged hearts due to the PED of choice switching to HGH. The only exception really were the ECW guys who were a combination of a non stop party lifestyle combined with the punishment they took. Of course a lot of the WWE policy is largely PR, and there's clearly guys not being tested and/or skirting the system, but there have been some positive aspects as well. Bottom line, Vince doesn't want guys dying on his watch, which despite it being largely a CYA measure is a good thing for the guys involved.

If they trademarked it, which all accounts seem to suggest they did in 2009, they kind of have to in order to protect their trademarks. Dusty and Dustin worked under the Rhodes name prior to WWF/WWE but Cody never did. They trademarked "Cody Rhodes" like they would any other person coming up through developmental. Also this is why second/third generation guys are never allowed to use their family names anymore.

This. Coming to the ring dressed like Mexican Magic Mike is not doing him any favors.