Coffey

Sonya looks like a freaking superstar. Goodness.

Roman Reigns Vs. Edge is... an odd choice. That doesn't feel like a Wrestlemania draw at all. I don't really understand that one. If you've spent the whole year building up Roman as the top heel, does it not then make sense to have him get toppled at Wrestlemania by a FRESH babyface? That way you build someone else up. Bringing in Edge it's like, that's just another WWE lose-lose scenario. Either you blow the year build-up on a 50-year-old dude or you have your top heel beat a 50-year-old dude. It just doesn't make any sense. One step forward, two steps back, like always in WWEland.

Well, I have been sports entertained.

THE BIG DAWG

Owens is gone. I'm happy.

I think I like the Sami Zayn option the most honestly. Really though, I'm in the anyone but Kevin Owens camp.

I thought for sure Corbin would come out last. At least he got some new gear.

I don't like that they've mic'd up the pods & are doing this much talking like this. Makes the match not feel as dangerous & serious as it should be imo.

We don't have an all-encompassing "Austin Aries is an Idiot" thread, right?

Can't argue about those goddamn t-shirts sells though. Holy fuck.

The conversation about Vince McMahon, Jr. & the legacy of his WWF after he passes is going to be truly legendary to both witness in real time & read opinions about, especially after the fact. I can't think of a more polarizing person in professional wrestling. Hard to argue about his success as a promoter but really, WWF has done two big things: the cable TV expansion where they pretty much just bought out all the talent (which Vince got WWWF/New York from his dad which gave him the means to do so, really) and that WCW shot themselves in the foot when they had WWF in real trouble/danger. The last twenty years or so, they've done... not much. Which is part of the reason why I think WWE feels so stale. They had guys on top, like John Cena. They did the WWE Network, which is a big deal. But really, the biggest things since WCW died were the Saudi Arabia deal & the FOX Smackdown deal. Neither of which made their shows better. The biggest detriment to WWE imho is the change to focus on the brand instead of the talent. Be it due to paranoia of big stars leaving him again or whatever, it really hurts WWE as a whole when no one is really over & everyone is 50/50 booking with constant stop/start pushes. Also, if you're so scared of your big stars getting bigger than WWE & leaving, like The Rock did, why do you then give so much to a part time guy like Brock Lesnar?

Every time I think of how old WWE is & how stale they are, I just think of how they misused poor Rusev when he could have been a main event guy for them. Of course, it turned into more pettiness because that's what WWE does. Vince thinks Lana is too hot for Rusev? Writing is on the wall. Fuck if it hurts business, right? WWE shoots themselves in the foot more than any company I can think of ever has, including WCW & TNA. They've just came out on top twice with the cable TV boom & buying up the territories & then WCW running their can't-miss shit into the ground. That's really what WWE's legacy is, since Vince, Jr. took over. Cable TV WWF & then "winning" the Monday Night War, which they still reference twenty years later & haven't moved on from.

I feel like the old man yelling at a cloud at this point, I know I'm in the minority, but all the stuff they doing with Brodie Lee's son doesn't sit right with me. Not that they're doing it, I think that's awesome. But that they're filming it all & showing it all. That bothers me. It's an extraordinary circumstance & I can't imagine what that family is dealing with - who the hell am I to judge? It just feels like AEW is trying to siphon some of the sympathy & that irks me. Maybe I'm dramatically overanalyzing the situation entirely. One of the positives about AEW that I prefer over WWE is the way they have seemingly been a lot more relatable & inclusive, so maybe it's entirely justifiable to accuse me of making a mountain out of a mole hill, or to not give them the benefit of the doubt which they rightly may have earned at this point. I know a lot of the people there loved Brodie & just want to help his family while they grieve. I just feel icky about being a fan & seeing it all like that. Not that the kid is getting to experience those cool things. Just that we have to know that AEW is providing the kid with those things, y'know? Am I just a bitter sumbitch? Brother El-P has a lot more finger on the pulse of AEW than I do, or MoS, so has anyone else had thoughts like this so far? Zero issues with the Brodie Lee tribute show. That was phenomenal. And to be fair, not everything is airing on Dynamite, some of it is just social media stuff. I just question why we have to show everyone everything.

I.. Hmm. I think I'm going with Terry. You sold me.

Yeah, I had to shut off the Royal Rumble Jim Cornette's Drive-Thru. Once it got to the women's Royal Rumble & he was rooting for Charlotte, whom apparently he didn't know had already not only been in a Rumble but won the fucking thing, but he also seemingly had a problem with Bianca, whom is like... one of the can't miss WWE women prospects, so I just don't know what the fuck that guy wants anymore. It's like, he goes off on these rants & tangents about how women's wrestling doesn't work... and then he puts over Rhea Ripley. I think he's just too far down his own gimmick hyperbole rabbit hole at this point. He contradicts himself with every second sentence.

The last thing AEW needs is Thunder. Keep the roster special & don't risk overexposing everyone. If the roster starts to get too bloated, start releasing some talent.

Hopefully working with AEW can lead to NJPW getting some better merch. Would love to get a couple of shirts but the NJPW pickings are super slim. Unless you just want the NJPW lion logo tee. Whomever they have in charge of their designs... woof.

Just wanna chime in that Butch Reed was great. Rest in peace.

I don't know if he's the MOST unselfish guy, but I want to give a nod to Cactus Jack/Mick Foley. Maybe part of it was that he could always get over with his microphone skills so he was kind of bulletproof from losses but that dude never felt like he cared about winning the top matches & I would argue he made several guys, like Triple H, Edge or Randy Orton. Or at least really helped cement them as top guys. He could be a babyface or a heel & could work super serious or complete comedy. He was pretty beloved by the fans too. I actually think as a whole he kind of gets slept on anymore, especially when people are reminiscing about the Attitude Era. Outside of maybe mentioning the whole "that'll put asses in seats" thing or of course the HIAC, it's like Foley is an afterthought but a lot of the Rock, Austin, 'Taker, HHH stuff isn't what it is without him. Hell, even as the commissioner he was helping get acts like Edge & Christian over, as a non-wrestler. I guess the biggest knock against Foley would be he was never really the #1 guy because he was hot when Austin & Rock were also hot so he was like defacto #3 in line. Arguably behind 'Taker too. But really even before the Mankind HIAC days he was doing great shit with Shawn Michaels.

There are genuinely only two things that I ever remember about The Undertaker's Wrestlemania match with Snuka: 1. Snuka was wearing fucking boots. I remember thinking "WTF, Snuka never wears boots" because as a kid, a big part of his appeal, was that he wrestled bare foot & 2. the Tombstone finish looked like shit. I'm also interested in when the first on-air mention of his Wrestlemania streak is. I know it was already a thing by the time he wrestled Ric Flair at X-Seven.

Um. HOLY SHIT. That is awesome. Straight up.

To be fair, music has changed a lot over the last several years, ever since the internet really took off, honestly. The turn started with the Napster drama & now all music is pretty much streaming. No one really buys physical media anymore. Unless, like me, you're into vinyl but even that I end up ordering online because you can't find anything in person anymore. Especially in smaller cities like where I'm from. I turn 40-years-old this year & I still listen to multiple hours of music daily but, although technologically speaking, it's easier than ever to find new music, it's also harder to branch out, so-to-speak. It's kind of a shot in the dark & hope you get lucky method for me. According to the year in review for Spotify, I listened to over 40,000 minutes of music in 2020. Of my top 5 played artists of the year, 4 were bands/artists that I discovered in 2020. I think all of them I found via the "similar artists" option in Spotify. Oh, I like Flogging Molly, who is similar to them? The Rumjacks... they're pretty cool. I love Tom Waits, who is like him? Hmm, never heard of Tindersticks before! My most listened to albums of 2020 were all albums that came out in the last three years. It's not like I'm listening to the shit from when I was a teenager still, or not actively trying to seek out new music constantly but if I'm looking for new genres - how is someone like me ever going to stumble on someone like Bad Bunny? Maybe it's if you're in the Pop genre tab, or if there's a discover new artists or something? I also never click on the trending tab on YouTube. I honestly have no idea how kids find new music nowadays outside of word of mouth from friends & classmates. For me, it's all about just going down a random wormhole, clicking on similar artists, listening to a track or two & seeing if from the first few tracks I randomly click on if I like them. Very much an imperfect system. I could click on a band that I would really like otherwise, choose poorly in the first couple of tracks & completely write them off due to those choices. I don't watch TV, I watch streaming services. I don't get commercials, I use ad-blocks. I stream all of my music. I watch Twitch all the time too. So I don't feel like I'm out of touch, I just think it's hard to get targeted nowadays with new stuff if it's not in your specific, particular circle. I used to hear new stuff on Twitch when watching streamers but now that's gone with all of the copywrite shit making all of the streamers not be allowed to play music anymore. A friend just a few days ago did turn me onto the website music-map.com & I have been having some success with it thus far but it is genuinely a struggle to constantly & consistently continue to find new music. I don't care if AC/DC, U2 or Metallica come out with a new album, in example, I am actively seeking new artists - new to me, anyway. During the pandemic, I've had a lot of time to do so & it is not easy. When I was growing up, I had the radio & MTV & I could go into music stores & listen to the albums that were on the racks. I can't really do any of that anymore. Not where I'm at. I don't know who Bad Bunny is. After hearing his performance at the Royal Rumble, it was obvious his music isn't geared toward me or something that I would be into but I don't think that made me out of touch so much as it makes me prefer a different style of music. I can tell, usually when I'm getting passed by on shit. One time at a LAN center, I had to have an employee show me how to sync up a controller to a console to get a wireless controller to work. I had no idea how to do it. They showed me & then I asked for a controller with a cord instead. THAT was being out of touch.

The women's Rumble was a lot better than the men's. They got the last two & the winner right. The women feel young, fresh, energetic & hungry. Sans people like Nia. The men all feel outdated & stale. And I can't get excited for even potential match-ups like Riddle Vs. Bryan as Riddle is apparently a sex pest. At least I thought Damien Priest's main roster debut looked pretty good. Nothing else on the show mattered. Drew feels like an afterthought & has made no splash whatsoever as champion. Not sure what beating Goldberg is supposed to do for him. It was a lose-lose scenario. If you lose, you lost to an old man. If you win, grats, you beat an old man. Roman Reigns is the best thing WWE has going & they're having him waste his time with the likes of fucking Kevin Owens. Whom does the Stunner now for... reasons & got a bunch of tattoos but is still just a dude with a beer gut & neckbeard that wrestles in basketball shorts & looks like a fucking jobber. Sasha should be such a bigger star than she is. She just did The Mandalorian & WWE has her treading water with Carmella. The issue is you can tell that all the people in charge are old as dirt because they book the show as if it's for an audience of people old as dirt full of a bunch of outdated, bland talent. Like, who was clamoring for Kane to hobble his stupid ass down to the ring? The women's Rumble was def better than the men's but even that was full of NXT people, women pulling double duty & people like Torrie Wilson & Jillian Hall as "surprises" so even the women's side is very thin.

You can't make this shit up! What's next, they bringing back Alberto Del Rio again!?