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Dave mentions in today's update how Patterson's big reveal is laughable because everyone in the business knew for decades, which seems like he's missing the point. The fact that a pro wrestling promotion positively featured someone coming out of the closet publicly is kind of a big deal given how socially backwards the business has been throughout history.

I would wager it was because they were sharing real stories with real emotional impact.

I would imagine her shoot kneedropping Naomi, breaking her oribital bone, and changing plans for both WM and probably Total Divas did in Aksana. I'll never understand what prompted her to do that either. I get she was having a brainfart, but what makes you think "shit, I forgot the spot, lemme make up for it by dropping my knee right on her goddamn face".

I had someone who knows what's going on tell me the day after Payback that Trips was incensed at how Kevin Dunn and his crew missed the shot of the Shield standing tall over his body at the end of the show. Once it came out that Hunter and Steph want to shitcan him the moment they take over, I had no problem believing Dunn would start fucking him and his pet projects over at every turn.

She was, kind of. Her whole gimmick was being the "Anti-Diva" raging against the bleach blonde Barbie stereotype.

Paige flounders because they book her to take a beating the whole match only to luck in to her finisher. If they pushed her as the bad ass chick they did in NXT she wouldn't be floundering nearly as much.

I think WWE should rip that off now that they are trying to push Network subs. "We're out of time but you can see all the action on the WWE Network's Raw Backstage Pass!" That was specifically asked on a WO show not too long after the network launched, and the response was it wouldn't be worth pissing off USA by using their show as a sales tool for the network. Of course that was before they signed a new deal so maybe they could do it now.

She actually wrote a lot of the "Mystery Worker Has Opinions" columns that appear on the WON site, Dave accidentally published one with her name on it once.

That's funny, I remember Hunter as a talking head in one of their DVDs about having dinner with the family when he started dating Steph. He had a line to the effect of if you think meeting your girlfriend's parents is bad, imagine if her dad is Vince McMahon.

...and since NXT is Hunter's baby (and has been putting on better shows than the main roster as of late) I'm expecting everyone getting a call-up to get buried immediately.

I like how Ambrose got so into his promo he spiked the mic at the end, then realized he was supposed to hand it off of Reigns.

It's not even so much that he's bogged down in numbers, but when you start throwing algebra in the patented Meltzer wall of text paragraph it's like adding number croutons to a word salad.

So it seems that WWE has been holding back on a lot of stuff that we know was ready since it was previously up on 24/7 like Raw/Nitros all through the Monday Night Wars and episodes of territory TV like WCW Saturday Night. The reason that I keep hearing is they want to save something for the first round of renewals and don't want to shoot their wad all at once. OK, I can accept that. However now Network subs are not where they want them to be and they are pinning a large part of the future of the company on this taking off. At what point to they start opening the vaults a little wider and releasing more content before a large chunk of their current subs gets bored by Legends House repeats and Raws from 1994. Now I'm not saying they'll get 2 million people to sign up if only they'd show AWA TV, but it seems they are missing out on the exact kind of fan the Network seems geared toward.

Maybe it's me, but it seems these "minor neck surgeries" end up causing worse problems than they intend to fix.

I watched Bash 1991 out of morbid curiosity and found out it was not nearly as bad as the Skeith review made it out to be. The biggest problem of course was the whole upper third of the card got fucked up due to the Flair stuff and Scott Steiner being injured, but I thought the Lex/Barry match was really solid and perhaps Barry's last stand as a good worker before fully morphing into Blackjack Mulligan Jr physically.

I don't know if they're ever going to be best pals, but it seems like they buried the hatchet enough to be civil to each other at least.

Just wait until someone mentions New York City and Vince's head explodes.

Yes, and then HHH could be Harley Race to Randy and Seth's Dick Slater and Bob Orton (hey!)

I don't have a problem with the breakup, after all there wasn't much left for them to do as a unit, but why put them over so strong the day before? If they were going to break them up now, there should have been some kind of dissension like when Owen was the only Hart to lose which was fuel for his turn. This seemed like doing a turn just for shock value.

Can't wait for Bo as Mr. NXT.

I was happy to see Bret and Ric looking better than they have in a while. With Bret it seemed like it was just a matter of not dressing like a homeless person for once, but Ric looked less like the bloated drunk mess he's been lately and more like a human being. There was a tidbit in the WON a few issues back about Flair working out and dropping weight, and it shows.

Am I the only one who finds JBL absolutely unbearable these days?

TNA is reaching the point WCW was at where I subconsciously block out large periods of their history because it causes my brain to weep uncontrollably.

People point to the "What" chants as the worst thing to ever get over since it ruined other people's promos for over a decade, but I have to think Vince getting the evil boss gimmick over so well has been worse because every other promotion in the US has been copying it nonstop ever since. What makes it worse is 95% of the time the evil authority figure is someone who can be overruled by someone else, so what the hell is the point?

How is the size queen stuff an issue when Bryan, Rollins, and Ambrose are 3 of the top 5 faces in the company? And the biggest push they've given to a guy out of development is years went to Bray Wyatt, a somewhat unspectacular looking overweight dude? There was a time when you could say WWE thought they knew better, but I don't see how it's a big issue right now. They're giving us Daniel Bryan and the Shield as the top two babyface acts right now, they're positioning Cesaro for big things long-term, they've given the Wyatts a big push, Zayn and Neville are the top pushed faces in NXT. It took them some time to recognize how badly the crowd wanted Bryan to have his Mania moment, but when they did they booked him as strongly as you possibly could - kicking HHH, Orton, and Batista's asses on the go-home RAW, kicking out of the pedigree and beating HHH clean with the knee at Mania, thwarting HHH's interference and laying him out with his own sledgehammer, surviving a powerbomb/neckbreaker through a table and stretcher job, and making Batista tap clean in the middle of the ring. And then he went on last at Extreme Rules, above a big HHH match, and won clean. And the plan was for him to then beat Batista the next month. The Shield is a top act, but Reigns is the one they see as the next Top Level Guy. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming into pushing Bryan, and they seemed baffled by the crowd shitting on Batista's return. To be fair, since NXT is Hunter's baby they seem to be focusing less on big guys, but then you have reports of guys not getting developmental deals because the feeling in the company is they have enough small guys who can wrestle.