Coffey

Wow, I had actually totally forgotten about that part but you're right. Yeah, that's pretty transparent. Shame too because by all accounts Jinder seems like a great dude that's pretty well liked.

I don't know how I would feel about the matches but the MOMENT where he would show up & hit the RKO on someone would be freakin' HUGE. That's definitely bigger than Moxley walking through the crowd to the ring IMO. Can you imagine how loud the crowd would be if he showed up? That would be great.

These last several years, if WWE went all-in on their roster & actually tried to make dudes instead of doing 50/50 booking or getting cold feet/changing their mind on pushes, imagine how different the top of the card would look. They could have made Kofi. They could have made Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley, Braun Strowman, Bray Wyatt... hell, maybe even Jinder. His new entrance & what not was money but I think he got hurt? They brought back Khali for some reason. Fans weren't buying it. Again, because they didn't build him up first. He just like won a random 4-way match or some shit. Roman should have been THE guy. The next John Cena. They even let him beat Undertaker at Wrestlemania (which would have been a lot bigger deal had they not given it to Brock first), even with the unforeseen cancer but they had Seth leave Wrestlemania with the belt after a stupid-ass cash-in and we had to suffer Seth for YEARS as he failed on top as both a babyface and a heel. UGH

I just don't think you can be booked for a decade as a nobody and then suddenly just become world champion. It doesn't work. It didn't work with Kofi and it didn't work with Jinder. Because at the end of the day, when the bell rings, it's still Kofi & Jinder doing Kofi & Jinder things. Prowrestling should still be about drawing money, not about giving guys "thank you" runs. Look at all the guys on the roster during the late 80's or early 90's that didn't get a shot on top because Hogan was there. Guys like DiBiase, Rude or Hennig weren't good enough? Of course they were. Hogan was just the guy. Like Bret & Shawn both climbed to the top but they weren't jobbers for a decade. They were in a tag team, then went solo, worked their way up & it was credible & believable when they were on top. Kofi didn't even change anything. It was the same New Day Kofi but suddenly he's a main eventer because WWE said so. Yeah, the fans did get behind him, admittedly. His match with Bryan was good, admittedly. And his moment was special. But couldn't that exact same scenario have played out with literally anyone else as well? Daniel is going to have a good match with damn near anyone. If you use 'Mania to make someone it's usually special - WWE for a long time did that with guys. Push an underdog & the fans have a strong chance of getting behind them. But Kofi went from being the guy that did a spot once a year in the Rumble to winning the world title at Wrestlemania overnight & as a fan, it just felt way too forced. It didn't feel organic. And Vince McMahon injecting himself into the story I would argue made it even worse. Part of the issue is also due to how devalued all of the midcard belts have become. How many times has Kofi an IC or US title? And none of those reigns mean anything. That's not on Kofi. That's because the midcard titles have no prestige about them anymore. They're basically paperweights. So Kofi being a 30-time midcard champ isn't anything special. Anymore than Jericho having them 40 times or Christian or Edge or Jeff Hardy or Miz or whomever else. I don't think it's just about Kofi. Which maybe it comes off that way during my ranting but really, it's just more that the WWE machine is broken. And Kofi was a casualty of the broken machine. Because this should have made him. And instead it just felt like he was role playing on top for awhile. That's on WWE.

That's exactly what he is. He's a total jobber geek that never should have won the title.

They were doing some crazy shit in the Taurus/Vikingo match. A bunch of big bombs back and forth. It was pretty good.

I'm actually having a lot of fun watching this. I popped for Big Mama.

Damn, this All Glory "show" is a disaster. Technical difficulties so they were trying to live stream it via a cell phone. Then Josh Matthews said he needed his phone back, so the stream went offline. Then they're back up on a new phone. Just horrible. I feel awful for all the people involved. Talk about looking bush league & unprofessional.

Thanks for saying this, I was just going to ask. I think me & the gf will check this out tonight.

I saw it in a Reddit thread. That thread credits KIIS FM radio show from yesterday morning.

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin during his praise of AEW mentioned that if he were doing a draft in all of wrestling that Jon Moxley would be his #1 overall pick. I thought that was interesting. I don't think I would take Moxley over Roman Reigns & I'm pretty sure I wouldn't take Roman Reigns first, so it's definitely an interesting talking point, if nothing else.

The last thing they should want is Kofi back in the world title picture...

Me too. I switched to preseason NBA basketball & the ALCS MLB game.

Another fuck finish to an advertised match on Smackdown is not what they should be doing. Not after the last two weeks of letdowns.

BAYLEY JOINS MIZ TV TO TALK! SIX WOMAN CLUSTERFUCK FOR A TITLE SHOT THAT DOESN'T MATTER 8 MAN TAG OF JOBBERS As the late great Dusty Rhodes told a young Paul E. "Where's the money, baby?"

Tonight is the 3rd week that Smackdown will have been on FOX & I already feel complete apathy toward the show. Week one, they had The Rock (and promised other big names even if they didn't deliver). Week 2 the draw was the Draft & that it was supposed to matter this time(if you ignore that the draft order was spoiled). So, what's the draw for this week? Because the announced matches... I don't think anyone gives a fuck. Maybe Roman/Nakamura? But Shinsuke's entire WWE run has been as entertaining as watching paint dry.

Did you listen to his new Podcast with Conrad about Taboo Tuesday? Like, the first half hour is him just being pissy & going off on a fan that said he was phoning it in & the mentioned Jungle Jack stuff. It's really funny hearing how pissed off about it all he is.

They also weren't going up against playoff baseball last night either as the game was rained out.

I don't know if I would say she's Eva Marie levels of bad, as Eva couldn't run the ropes or bump, but I'm also firmly in the Riho isn't good camp. I think the women's division is easily the worst part of the show & I think it's actively going to hurt AEW. What on the first few AEW shows have the rabid fans not accepted though? They're accepting everything right now, even the stuff that isn't good, like The Librarians. This goes back to my "why did AEW need a women's division from the jump?" point when they very obviously don't have the roster for it. I think Riho was the wrong person but I also think Nyla would have been wrong which is why I was against the title match being Nyla Vs. Riho. Even a part-time Awesome Kong would have been better... Or, best case scenario, as I've said before, wait a few months, build the division up & then introduce the title.

Jesus Christ, is that Maria Manic "Man Eater" tattoo real?

The best thing about SCU Vs. Best Friends is that one of the teams has to lose to get knocked out of the tournament. Because they're both boring as hell. Orange Cassidy is pretty damn over though, should probably get him away from the Best Friends. I would also get Marko Stunt away from Jurassic Express... I don't care about Riho/Baker. Jericho/Allin will be interesting though. I assume the Moxley tag ends in a no contest.

It would be pretty wild to be able to watch Misawa matches on WWE Network. Maybe WWE getting into Japan could lead to them acknowledging the Japanese Legends too. I wouldn't be against seeing guys like Jushin Liger & The Great Muta go into the WWE Hall of Fame. They did work the States & WWE owns WCW...

If WWE were to purchase a Japanese promotion, like NOAH, would that mean that they acquire their tape library to put on WWE Network too?

Well, I definitely liked the first week more than the second week but there was some good stuff this week too. I'm never going to give a flying fuck about Colt Cabana or Ken Anderson but at least it was short. That's probably one of the positives about the show, actually. Since it's only an hour long, nothing really starts to drag. I hope NWA doesn't start trying to do freakin' comedy... It feels like the wrestling takes a backseat to the non-wrestling on NWA Power which I don't hate because they have some good talkers. I'm really digging Nick Aldis, James Storm & Eddie Kingston so far. Look forward to next week.