Coffey

The video game poses thing really stuck out to me. It's one of the first things I noticed about Tessa Blanchard - and she's not even in WWE. But it's like she's trying to condition herself the same way. Do everything exactly the same way every single time, so it doesn't feel organic but becomes muscle memory. Come out, turn your ass to the camera, look back over your shoulder and wink. Walk to the ring. Get into the ring. Turn your ass to the camera, look back over your shoulder and wink. Every. Single. Time. It's like she's posing for a video game designer to add her animation into the computer. And EVERYONE in WWE does this. It's like they literally count their steps when walking to the ring. "OK, step number eight needs to be on my left foot & I make a slight hesitation before giving a head nod to the second row..." The only thing missing is masking tape on the ground to tell them where to stand for the shot & some off cam jabrone with a cue card reminder saying HARD CAM to tell them where to look. It doesn't feel like an organic wrestling shows with stakes on the line, it feels like an overproduced high school play where the director is expecting these seventeen year olds to become the next Bob DeNiro while reciting lines from a Troma movie. Regardless of what Vince McMahon wants to believe or tell people, these are still professional wrestlers on a wrestling show, not actors making a movie. It's just more homogenization. One of the perks of going to a live show used to be that you might get to see stuff that other people have not seen. Like look at all the different Undertaker entrances over the years. But if then they make it so it's exactly the same every time, how is that any different than what you've just watched from your couch every week? Why would you be more enticed to buy a ticket? WWE used to have different sets with different entrances & wrestlers doing different things. Now all the shows just feel like RAW, look like RAW & never feel more important than a RAW. Including Wrestlemania. Which now even seemingly takes a backseat to the blood money Saudi house show.

When I was watching AEW Double or Nothing, it felt like they were doing a very specific, something for everyone style approach. I'm not the type of fan that a Young Bucks match is going to appeal to. That, to me, is the antithesis of what is good pro-wrestling. However, there's a market for that match style. My preferred match style would be the Cody/Dustin match. The blood match. The old school Southern wrestling feeling heated match with good story-telling. That's the match that was for me. So on Double or Nothing, as a fan, as a viewer, I was happy. I got Cody/Dustin and the other fans got Bucks/Lucha Bros & everyone is happy. Last night on NXT TakeOver, which match was supposed to be for fans like me? The closest one is probably Shayna/Io & I think the wrong person won. I didn't get a Cody/Dustin match. I got car crashed & false finishes & a ton of moves. It DEFINITELY wasn't the main event, which was just their version of the Young Bucks modern-day Indie style match. With six-thousand moves that don't mean shit, kicking out of everything & waiting for crowd chants. Who is NXT trying to cater to? What's the demographic? I've been watching pro-wrestling for thirty years & that show didn't feel like it was for me. And I usually love TakeOver. I've liked I think all but two of them. They're usually above-and-beyond. But last night, I wasn't feeling it. So it's not a case of just being negative for contrarian sake on my part or whatever, there was a real disconnect last night.

If you like fucking superkicks though, boy howdy was that match for you!

This show has sucked. Everyone has felt a step slow & like they're moving in molasses. Also there's been a lot of ugly bumps & what I think, wrong booking decisions. But the live crowd is eating it all up, so maybe I'm just really out of touch. How many fucking superkicks has this main event had? Why did Io not win?

Jim Cornette's entire rant during that part of the podcast was pretty much about how the pre-show is supposed to sell the viewers on the show & they were marching person after person out there that no one knew & they didn't tell us shit about any of them. Which was why Cornette was describing Sonny in the first place. So if you're unfamiliar with him, or any other wrestler, and you have to describe them - because the commentators aren't - what do you come up with? That's all he was doing. Same with Sunny Daze, Luchasaurus, & the other people he wasn't familiar with.

Size is for sure an issue. But that's not exclusive to Joey Ryan nowadays. Even in WWE, the previous Land of the Giants, the majority of their roster are pretty small people. The bigger issue for Joey Ryan to me is what does he bring to the table that you can't get from someone else that wouldn't also have the added bonus of not bringing the circus & drama with it? Like, why would you bring in Joey Ryan would you could get, say, Marty Scurll? And it's not like I'm a big Marty fan but you're not going to get the dog & pony show with him. In that regard, I kind of think the Adam Cole comparison is apt. Who wouldn't take Cole over Ryan from a promoter standpoint?

I was a fan of The Sheik, Ed Farhat, from the Detroit area. So seeing Josef Samael basically doing a tribute act to him, with the railroad spike, hooked boots, fireballs, etc. is really cool to me. We need more of that in wrestling. More guys that aren't just about workrate matches. They stand out a lot more because they're different. MLW Fury Road is tonight. So that will be on YouTube in a couple of days. I'll probably catch it then because I want to watch TakeOver tonight.

I pointed out on Twitter that Sonny Kiss was similar to Adrian Street, Adrian Adonis, Rico & early Goldust. Apparently that wasn't the right thing to do either. So I just don't know anymore, man. Twitter wrestling is pretty bad in general.

It's cool. I'm more than willing to admit ignorance to the entire subject. I'm the wrong person to speak on any of it. Truth be told, Cornette is too. I can understand why it would ruffle feathers. I was just surprised at the negative reaction that came out after the podcast because people were really upset & I had just listened to it & thought "wait, what part are they talking about?" While listening that part didn't even make my ears perk up. I noticed more that he was dumping on the preshow as a whole & I remembered doing the same thing.

I still really enjoy NXT but I only watch the TakeOver shows, I don't watch the weekly show. So maybe that's why? I think in particular, they're doing pretty good with Io right now & I think she'll be the one to finally unseat Shayna. Then Shayna probably gets called-up. Even though the women's roster on the main show already feels bloated since they have quite a few women that they're not even currently utilizing. Meanwhile the NXT women are quite thin.

I genuinely didn't know what Cornette said was "bad" until reading this thread. I'm still pretty confused about what people (more specifically C.S.) are going off on, truthfully. He used the wrong terminology? I grew up watching Rocky Horror. Transvestite wasn't exactly a derogatory term in that movie. It was just Tim Curry dressed up in women's clothing. Which is very similar to what Sonny Kiss is doing. Is it really that far-fetched? I think people are just overreacting, like always. This is a non-story that nobodies on Twitter are trying to make into a story. It also doesn't have anything to do with liking Cornette or not based on shit he's done in wrestling.

I've been blowing this trumpet for awhile. That guy is a superstar. I imagine he'll wind-up in WWE just because of the Samoan Dynasty heritage & history with that company. He would be a huge get for AEW as their Umaga monster though. AEW is going to have to slow down a lot of signings too though.

Yeah, Coach was another complete headscratcher. They brought him back & after working previously for WWE & then working for ESPN, he was some how worse. How the hell does that happen?

She was fantastic at that role when they had her doing it. They've hired multiple women, including Charly since then, just to replace the role that Rene did. Honest question: did they put her on commentary just because she's a woman & they're doing the Women's Evolution thing? Because it seems silly to me to replace someone from a role that they're doing a really good job in.

Coincidentally, I posted on Twitter earlier that Rene leaving WWE for AEW to become Jon Moxley's valet seems like it would be beneficial to all involved. It gets her off of the WWE commentary booth, still gives her a job & she would be working with her husband again. Seems like win/win. Of course I have no idea what her WWE contract is like or anything. It should be noted though that she was great as a backstage interviewer. I'm sure some of the reason why she's bad at commentary is it being a 3-person booth plus constantly having someone in their ear, but a lot of it is still on her.

There are some great quotes in here. Super fun listen. Listening to him shit all over the creative is very entertaining.

When a stream gets shut down, it takes about twelve to fifteen seconds to find a new one. No company can ever stop all streams, nor keep up with the speed that new streams pop-up. It's a waste of time, effort & resources. If someone is internet savvy & committed to watching a show w/out paying for it, they can do so pretty easily in this day & age.

WWE has managed to make their whole roster feel like they have a bunch of Big John Studds walking out there. Except of course they're also all 5'10" & 190lbs.

It took an hour to have a match at all & when they did it was that Shane McMahon fuckery...

They don't want that. Can't have a WWE Superstar™ getting more over with the WWE Universe™ than the brand, pal. This is Sports Entertainment™, goddamn!

I wonder what an AEW cage match would look like?

Not black, but AEW should really try to get Jacob Fatu. I think I've said it before, probably more than once, but I think he's going to be a big star. He could be their monster. Umaga style monster, not like giant monster. But still, with their roster, all of those guys playing Pinball? Man.

You 100% don't want to watch the Young Bucks Vs. Lucha Bros. match then! Holy crap... I've never seen so many moves killed & mean nothing. Was probably my biggest complaint of the entire night, which other than the preshow, was mostly full of praise & gushing.

The main event disappointed & that finish was the shits. But overall, fantastic PPV. Great first showing. The Cody/Dustin match was amazing. Still might get a big surprise.

That was the match of Cody's career. Best match he's ever had.