https://www.ringsidenews.com/vince-mcmahons-80th-birthday-party-featured-kid-rock-acdc-tight-lipped-guests-gotham-hall/
There's a whole lot that could be said about this, but I'll just say that being so filthy rich that you can hire AC/DC to play at your birthday party is unfathomable to me.
Does Booker T really have good mic skills? Other than his catchphrases, I mainly remember him for the worst attempt at a British accent in history as King Booker.
https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-releases/2025/08/wwe-premium-live-events-to-debut-on-espn-platforms-in-the-u-s-beginning-september-20-with-first-ever-wrestlepalooza/
The ESPN era is beginning four months early. Apparently, the reason WWE ran so many PLEs this year was so they could get out of their Peacock deal by meeting their contractual obligation for shows. And all mentions of AEW have naturally been removed from the ESPN website. By the way, Peacock just announced a price increase. Enshittification all over.
I'd agree that House of Torture are equivalent to Makai Club and Voodoo Murders (I made that comparison myself earlier in the thread), but using that as an argument in House of Torture's favor is baffling to me. Saying they must be good for business because they wouldn't be pushed if they weren't is circular reasoning. And they can't be written off as a goofy midcard act when their leader was just in the G1 final. House of Torture may not be the only or even the primary problem with the product, but they're clearly not helping. And at this stage of the game, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
Yeah, Hogan's matwork was really just a handful of canned sequences that never went anywhere or led to anything. Even so, as a worker, he was Kenta Kobashi compared to Big Daddy. By the way, it was in the AWA that he came into his own as a promo guy. It didn't happen overnight, but he pretty much had it figured out by 1983.
Whatever one may think of Cornette's views on other matters, he hit the nail on the head with Hogan when he said "His real stories were good enough." His actual career was so incredible as to practically sound like fiction, so it boggles the mind that he felt the need to embellish his life story to such an absurd degree.
Punk/Gunther ruled, obviously. I thought it took a bit to get going, but I'd probably enjoy it more on a re-viewing because I'd go in with a better understanding of what they were going for storywise. I'm also thankful they held off on the Rollins cash-in until the actual match was over.