NintendoLogic

Holy shit.

He was part of the crew that got future endeavored to preserve WWE's record profits during the pandemic.

The economics are different now from when Lance was in WWE. According to the latest Observer, sales on WWE Shop have skyrocketed to the point where total merch sales are virtually identical to what they were pre-COVID. And house shows have been an overall money loser for a while now, so I'd be willing to bet that for most wrestlers, the lack of money from live gates is balanced out by fewer road expenses. But if they are taking a financial hit from no house shows, that would explain why someone like Vega is willing to walk since the Observer is also reporting that WWE is telling talent the old way of touring won't be coming back even post-COVID.

SAG involvement could very well be a game-changer. Unlike most wrestlers, their pockets are deep enough to go through protracted litigation without being ruined financially, which takes away WWE's trump card of bleeding the other side dry by dragging things out. And Linda surely did her husband no favors by jumping on the Stop the Steal crazy train. Vince could be in for a long 2021.

Knowing this company, we can expect Aleister Black to start getting put through tables every week.

My guess is they tried to come after her for her OnlyFans account and she told them to stick it. At least somebody (formerly) in this company has a backbone. Good for her.

For what it's worth, I've seen speculation that Kota Ibushi's appearance works against him in HOF voting. Because he looks so young, he's perceived as a young up-and-comer rather than a guy in his late 30s who's been a main event star for years.

It's finally out. The inductees: Medico Asesino Karloff Lagarde Kenny Omega Jun Akiyama Dan Koloff Kazuchika Okada debuts on the ballot next year, and he's obviously a slam-dunk pick. Also on the ballot for the first time: Nikki Bella. In fairness, she's probably a stronger candidate than Big Daddy.

A couple of weeks ago, he said that more people voted for Japanese candidates than ever before. That has me pessimistic about the prospects for Taue and Akiyama since more people voting makes it harder to the get the necessary percentage of votes. Also, he said last week that the HOF issue would have bios of two historical figures that most today know little about. That leads me to believe that at least two of the historical performers got in. Take your guess as to which ones.

Hager's not that much of a shooter. All of his opponents in Bellator have been tomato cans, and he barely survived his last fight. I mean, he's much better than CM Punk, but he'd get slaughtered by any decent heavyweight. And he had great matches with Christian in ECW, so he's at least carryable. As an aside, it seems like all the guys who had beef with Cena in WWE (Hager, Tyler Reks, Alex Riley) turned out to be MAGA chuds. John Cena confirmed for antifa.

I take it there was nothing that actually shifted the balance of power in wrestling?

After reviewing Young Bucks/FTR, Cornette explains how he would have booked the match. He would have FTR spend the match "not cooperating" with the Bucks and then "double-cross" them on the finish by putting one of them in a small package and not allowing him to kick out. The next day, they would announce on the Internet that they're holding the belts hostage until they get a raise. His hatred of AEW has turned him into Vince Russo.

And they're down again. The chances of any new updates are basically zero even if they do go back up, so we might as well just stick to the archived versions.

Remember when Bayley joined the other Raw women in a 5-on-1 beatdown of one of the women on Smackdown? That was probably the first hint that NXT Bayley wasn't going to make it on the main roster.

I hate to say it, but if the plan all along was for Ibushi to walk out of WK as champion, they should have kept the belts on EVIL. That way, Ibushi could have beaten him on night 1 and White on night 2. Have him become God by vanquishing the company's most vile and hated heels rather than their most popular wrestler.

This is false. Nobody actually enjoys current WWE. I mean, look at the weekly threads. We spend far more time talking about what the wrestlers do on social media than what they do on Raw or Smackdown.

Note how the interviewer went out of her way to avoid putting Alexa on the spot by changing the topic mid-question from the status of WWE wrestlers as independent contractors to whether she had ever felt pressured to work while injured. Regardless, anyone who uses the term "cancel culture" unironically is almost certainly a massive doofus.

Matt Morgan is the mayor of Longwood, where I had the misfortune of living for three years as a kid. It should be noted that Biden actually carried Seminole County (where Longwood is located), the first Democrat to do so since 1948. He's also the first Democrat to carry Duval County (where Jacksonville is located) since 1976. So wrestling can't be held responsible for Florida being a Republican hellscape. Also, the Trump campaign booking the wrong Four Seasons for a press conference is the political equivalent of Johnny Ace signing the wrong one-legged wrestler. He truly belongs in the WWE Hall of Fame.

I watched Cody/Darby and Bucks/FTR and liked them both, the former much more so. I'm in agreement with Phil Schneider that the latter had some great moments but was too bloated to be a truly great match. Cash Wheeler turning into an insane bump machine is an interesting development, though. The main event is something that I will never watch. I don't care for I Quit matches as a rule, and crap like rubbing alcohol and barbed wire causes me to instantly nope out. Like intergender wrestling, deathmatch torture porn has no place in a major league promotion.

Meanwhile... Jericho and Aries have me thinking Nash was right about the vanilla midgets.

The only problem is that an I Quit match is the kind of match that a main event babyface has to win 100% of the time (other than a Russo-style screwjob finish, which AEW is rightfully distancing itself from). Plus, Kingston is good enough on the mic that he can get his heat back pretty easily after losing.

Hopefully Jericho won't be too depressed to perform.

Eddie Kingston is like Orange Cassidy in that he doesn't fit into the cookie-cutter mold of what a wrestling star should be, but they're complete opposites in almost every other way. And they've both become breakout stars for AEW. It's amazing what can happen when you give people the chance to get themselves over and book to their strengths instead of cutting them off at the knees for no reason. I'm also intrigued by Bucks/FTR. Matt's leg is legitimately injured so it's likely to be more of a storytelling match, which is fine by me.

Dave has said on many occasions that Santo is the most enduring star in wrestling history. A few examples: https://twitter.com/search?q=santo (from%3Adavemeltzerwon)&src=typed_query