Coffey

How many POC are in positions of power behind the scenes, not just wrestlers on TV?

First of all, I had no idea that Tay Conti had working elbow strikes that looked like that. That was the first thing I noticed. Her "knockout" strike looks great. The Gotch Piledriver on the table was also vicious. Secondly, I don't know if that split/slip in the thumbtacks by The Bunny was planned or a happy accident but either way, her selling it & it leading to the finish was great. She pulled out the brass knuckles but then something went wrong so she wasn't able to use them & it led to the barbed wire rear naked choke, which was an awesome finish. Modern wrestling is weird in that kayfabe is so far dead & buried that the heel of the match afterwords gets a ton of respect & support on social media due to all that they endured. Britt Baker last time & now The Bunny this time. Not saying it's not deserved, just shows how much the curtain has really been pulled back. These women busted their asses & I'm glad to see people acknowledging that. I just hope that Honky Tonk Khan's dumb ass tweet/shit-stirring & the Swole drama doesn't overshadow it.

Same reason the Kofi run didn't matter to me, to be honest. You can't be a comedy character for five years & then just expect to be a big deal because they give you a belt. Also, not saying this is necessarily the case with Big E, but sometimes it feels like in WWE when a long-time character wins a title, it's more of a panic move than or a payoff. It never felt like Big E moved up the card to me & then he was a top guy. Same with Drew McIntyre & Jinder Mahal.

This is probably true but they just came out with that statement that they were looking for younger, more attractive women. Toni is 26 & beautiful, so not sure exactly what they're actually looking for. Is 26 too old for WWE standards now? I mean, if she asked for her release, it's obviously because she's disgruntled with how she's been used, right? So this isn't just an overnight WWE blunder. If I had to sign 10 female pro wrestlers right now from anywhere in the world, I think Toni Storm would be in my top 10. So this is lunacy to me.

Who knew that Nick Khan & Vince McMahon, Jr. didn't like cake? I mean, Vince is pretty old, so I reckon I can see that... but damn. How can you not market Toni Storm & her look in modern society?

Yeah, he still has a literally babyface & it's tough for me to buy him as an ass-kicker but he certainly has promise. What's irking me right now is the way he keeps putting on the Tazmission so lazily. Like, that's your finisher, man. Slap that shit on. Why is he like doing the leg grapevine part first? So awkward.

I feel like with these cards, I'm not going to bother trying to watch the show live. I think for the first time in a long time, I'll pick & choose matches after the show to seek out. Shingo/Okada will be good. The winner against Ospreay will be good. I will watch Naito/Cobb. KENTA/Tanahashi, not sure - maybe ten years ago. Now it's a question mark. I don't care about any of the multiman matches. I do have some morbid curiosity for Shibata but really, I just want him to be healthy. I don't get the mentality but that's pro-wrestlers for you.

That kickout got me. Won't fucking front. This match is GREAT.

I wouldn't be surprised if we got a fuck finish, to be honest. AEW doesn't do it that often & if it were from a big debut, I don't think the crowd would shit on it. Dunno.

Anyone expecting any big debuts tonight?

He was great & I agree. On the flip side, I hope I never see Todd Sinclair again.

I'm watching Final Battle solely for the Briscoes tag match & because it'll in all likelihood be the last Ring of Honor show. Thus far, to call this show a whimper would be an overstatement. It's... depressing. EDIT: It got better when the actual show started. The Dragon Lee match was fine. Skip the pre-show, for sure.

Interestingly, speaking about Angle & Taz, I remember how angry I was when they did Taz's WWF debut after leaving ECW... where they had him beat Angle in MSG with the Katahajime but then the story going forward, and sold on commentary, was that it was an illegal choke & therefore the win shouldn't count. They killed off Taz from the jump.

This is fair. You're right, I apologize.

I think calling him the next Angle is putting the carriage before the horse, for sure... but he didn't go out there & fall on his face. I noticed little things, like him getting lost a few times & relying on posing due to it, which I can see the comparison to Jade there because she's done that too. But I think Jade is a lot more green after the time she's put in. This was the first I - or I think any of us - have seen of Hook & he didn't look like David Flair out there. I thought he did really well & he'll only improve.

I can genuinely never tell when you're trolling or not. It can go either way.

I still want Samoa Joe in AEW to be with Punk & Danielson. I'm actually bummed that he went back to WWE after they fired him.

No one in WWE is hot sans maybe Brock & Roman & even they are having people turning on them due to a prolonged push (Roman) or because they think they're kinda played out, like Brock. I certainly don't feel like Drew McIntyre or Bobby Lashley are the answer. And I like Big E but I don't exactly know how well he's catching on at the top guy. So if no one is hot & you have no stars & no big money match to build to, I wouldn't be opposed to just hot shotting the fuck out of someone. Just have Bron win the fucking thing, why not? It would instantly make him look like a big deal, even to the non-NXT viewers & then you can start working on making a new top guy without all the back-and-forth 50/50 shit that kills so many stars before they ever get a chance.

I don't think it's a secret that I'm a fan of the hoss in pro-wrestling. Today I was thinking about WWE developmental & their training & I just started laughing aloud at the idea of some trainer trying to get a guy like The One Man Gang to do forward rolls. Unless that forward roll has icing & cinnamon on it, that's gonna be a no from the Gang, dawg.

Not unless those fans also own stock or can make new TV contracts for WWE.

One of my biggest knocks against Johnny Gargano was always how it felt like he was just trying to recreate old Shawn Michaels moments - but it wasn't even his fault. Because it was all very directed. Namely the trope of the shocked face that the truck has to zoom all the way in on for the facial expression for. Gargano does those all the time. And the first time I really remember it being a thing was with The Undertaker when Shawn Michaels kicked out of the Tombstone at Wrestlemania. After that, it was EVERYWHERE with EVERYONE doing it all the damn time & it's a huge pet peeve. And then I turn on AEW & what do I see? People like Ruby Soho doing the exact same thing. So it seems weird that Khan wouldn't be a fan of Gargano when he's doing what AEW is already parroting anyway. As far as ring work goes, Gargano works that same Indie style that 90% of AEW already works, so I don't get it. How is he not a fan of Gargano but loves The Young Bucks & Adam Cole? It's the same fucking thing.

How did we go from Nia Jax being a bad wrestler that never got any better & had no reason to be in pro wrestling to begin with, to somehow turning that into trying to shit on one of the greatest pro wrestlers in history? LMFAO. Talk about whataboutism.

It's a fascinating look into how humans operate, really. We have the most readily available information in history at our fingertips & instead of educating ourselves better, we spread misinformation & distrust things more than ever. In just the last couple of years, I've had to read about or watch people try to explain that the earth is flat, that the moon landing was fake, that 9/11 was an inside job, that the Holocaust never happened & like you mentioned, the election & vaccine shit. I legitimately had a co-worker that refused to get the CoVid-19 vaccine because he thought it was full of microchips that the Democrats (his words) would use to track him. He explained this to me, of course, while on his cell phone. Because of course he did. And although those things might not be pro wrestling only, we've seen how it has tied into & effected pro wrestling. Chris Jericho's cruise, apparently people like Nix Jax getting released due to not wanting to get the vaccine, Drake Wuertz lunatic rants, etc.

If anything, saying it's "1989 thinking" makes you look out of touch, El-P. Kind of like when Cody Rhodes said AEW didn't need heels or babyfaces anymore.