NintendoLogic

Your career self-immolation of the week:

Orton said that the better man won at Mania but the better wrestler didn't, and to prove it, he challenged Edge to a Straight-Up Wrestling Match at Backlash.

It's possible, but I find it hard to believe that someone would choose Impact over AEW.

I'm quite surprised that AEW seemingly didn't make a play for either her or Drew Gulak. Maybe Tony Khan just isn't a fan of technical wrestling.

Yeah, the only thing distinctively ethnic about the Kabuki Warriors is their name. They're basically Japanese IIconics. It's for that reason that the gimmick has go-away heat with me, but that's neither here nor there.

Well, of course. You can't have The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever in an empty arena.

Drew McIntyre, Seth Rollins, Ali, and Elias are all basically palette swaps of each other.

What a shame for Sammy Guevara that he didn't make the cut and missed out on the opportunity to spend months at the Performance Center doing forward rolls and being yelled at by Lacey Evans.

I don't think they can be prosecuted since ex post facto laws are prohibited by the Japanese constitution. That doesn't mean they can't face social consequences for their actions, though.

Cinematic wrestling needs to die.

I popped for the Batman reference.

Every other competitor teaming up to take someone out is a hell of a way to get a newcomer over.

FUCKING MOTHER FUCKERRRRR

Jesus, what a bump to take for someone not even in the match.

Who's the female ring announcer? Did something happen to Justin Roberts?

More terrible news. Social media is cancer.

People were calling her CHHHarlotte as early as 2017, but it seemed to really pick up after she ended Asuka's undefeated streak.

Most of Edge's most notable matches were multi-man gimmick matches with a lot of moving parts. I'm sure it takes a certain kind of ring generalship to put those matches together and keep them from falling apart. Straight wrestling matches are another matter.

Cornette vs. Rollins is the biggest heel vs. heel program since the Klan took on the Westboro Baptist Church.

Is Ricky Steamboat really a Richard Blood?

Corbin is the heir to Kane, which is the problem. They're both usually slotted as upper-midcard heel gatekeepers, but just about everybody they feud with ends up less over than they were previously. However, I found it simultaneously amusing and baffling during the Team Hell No era when people who were smart enough to know better would insist that Kane had actually become actively good and wasn't just being hidden in tag matches. Then the team broke up and he went right back to sucking.

I think it's pretty clear that it's WWE that Martha hates rather than pro wrestling in general. She happily accepted on Owen's behalf when he was inducted into the Thesz/Tragos Hall of Fame. Also, my recollection is that the bulk of the vitriol directed at her was in the mid-late 00s. That was the period when WWE was releasing DVDs centered around classic matches, expanding their circulation beyond the hardcore tape trader community. At the same time, it was nothing like today where just about anything you'd want to see is available online at the drop of a hat. So if a match wasn't on an official WWE release, it was beyond the reach of most fans. And a lot of fans have been trained to see wrestlers as comic book or video game characters rather than human beings. To them, not being able to watch Owen's matches was akin to not being able to play as Mileena in Mortal Kombat 11. That doesn't justify the way those fans treated Martha by any means, but it makes it maybe 1% more understandable.

Awful news. All the focus right now is on his qualities as a human being, as it should be, but I also remember liking the strap match he had with JTG after Cryme Tyme broke up.

Ember Moon suffering a possible career-ending injury in a 24/7 backstage segment is peak WWE.

Both are better than 2020 WWE.