NintendoLogic

The absolute madman Dave Meltzer gave Cody/Dustin the full fiveboy. Yet another nail in the coffin of the "Dave only likes matches with MOVEZ" talking point.

Sorry, but I can't see a full-blown exotico getting over in America beyond a niche audience. More importantly, I see it as a huge turnoff to a significant portion of the fanbase, particularly the lapsed fans AEW is aiming for.

In fairness, it's a lot easier to not be driven by money when you have no pressing financial obligations. Would he be able to turn down the Million Dollar Man if his house and truck weren't paid off? Regardless, I really want to know what Vince wanted Moxley to say that would have caused sponsors to drop WWE.

Does anyone else find Juice Robinson absolutely unbearable on commentary? To me, he's almost as grating and obnoxious as Jason Hervey.

You're telling me that Vince McMahon is out of touch and WWE's creative process is broken? Stop the presses! It's always great to hear detailed first-hand accounts of Vince's insanity, though.

No, when streams get shut down, most people just give up trying to watch. If they're interested in a specific match, they'll wait for it to show up on Dailymotion. It's safe to assume that the overwhelming majority of those giving feedback on the show watched it legitimately.

History has shown that the Veblen effect tends to apply for PPV prices. And Turner and/or B/R Live were really aggressive in shutting down illegal streams.

What would be your basis for this assumption?

Liger isn't a true freelancer, though. He's mostly free to book himself around the world in between tours, but New Japan has some degree of veto power. There's no way he'd be able to work a AAA show on a Friday night in Mexico City, which is probably the closest equivalent to the NXT/ROH situation. If they wanted to prevent him from working a show in direct competition with one of their business partners, they could have.

If true, that is absolutely massive. That's better than most WWE B-PPVs were doing before the launch of the Network, and that was when Raw had roughly twice as many viewers as it does now.

NJPW's relationship with ROH is completely one-sided, though. They're perfectly willing to stab ROH in the back when it suits them, like when they allowed Liger to work NXT the same day as Field of Honor. The only business partner they're loyal to is CMLL. Regardless, I hope the partnership continues so we can see Jeff Cobb in the G1.

Given the track record of Rumble winners, it stands to reason that the skills required to throw people out of the ring while avoiding being thrown out yourself are strongly correlated with the skills required to pin and submit opponents in standard wrestling matches.

I'm pleasantly surprised at how well-received Cody/Dustin has been. Even the folks on r/SquaredCircle and the F4W board are raving about it. I'm hard-pressed to think of a match that received such universal praise from workrate fans and non-workrate fans alike. Maybe the Hart/Austin submission match. Interestingly, both matches featured heavy blood during periods when blading had fallen out of vogue in the major promotions. There's probably some kind of lesson that can be drawn from that.

Are you seriously complaining about lack of representation in a promotion with a black female executive and a trans woman star?

New #1 for 2019.

I checked out out Cody/Dustin, and I'll add my voice to the chorus of praise it's been receiving. It was a textbook example of how blood can elevate the drama of a match. The opening minutes were nothing special, but it hit MOTYC territory after Dustin's gusher. The shot of blood pouring from his head like a faucet was literally Muta-esque. Cody did a good enough job of working over the cut, and Dustin's selling and hope spots took the match to another level. A lot of the spots and sequences will be familiar to those who've seen Dustin in WCW, but seeing them in today's landscape made them seem fresh and new. They probably overdid it with the nearfalls in the closing stretch, but I suppose that's unavoidable in this day and age. It's heartening to know that a match built around punches and blood can get over in front of an audience of Young Bucks fans. This'll be hard to beat for MOTY. This show deserves a thumbs-up based on Cody/Dustin alone. I'll admit that the pre-show had me fearing the worst. Between the production gaffes, the gimmick match with excessively convoluted rules, and the cringey backstage "comedy," I was having TNA flashbacks. But they seemed to get it together for the main show. The matches mostly delivered, and they did a great job of subverting expectations and delivering surprises that weren't just swerves for their own sake. I'm excited for the future.

All the streams I could find kept getting shut down, but it sounds like Cody/Dustin was a must-see. I'll be sure to track it down.

Excalibur is generating go-away heat with me with his insistence on referring to Britt as Dr. Britt Baker every single time.

The Elite making fun of WWE's worked attendance figures was pretty funny.

Dave didn't say that Omega was better than Steamboat. Someone tweeted at him that people didn't want to spend 60 dollars to watch an unproven entity, and he replied that calling Omega, Jericho, and the Young Bucks unproven in 2019 would be like calling Flair, Steamboat, and the Midnight Express unproven in 1989. He did say that Omega's matches with Elgin, Okada, Ibushi, and Tanahashi were better than Savage/Steamboat. I don't agree with that, but I will grant that it's probably the consensus view among those viewing the matches without the benefit of nostalgia. And Steamboat's matches with Flair and Savage really were closer to the modern workrate style than some would care to admit.

The date won't be announced until after the conclusion of Omega/Jericho, but it'll most likely be at All In 2 on August 31. PAC/Omega was supposed to take place at some point afterward. Apparently, AEW figured that even if PAC was still champion at that point, Dragon Gate wouldn't have a problem with him losing to Omega due to Omega's level of stardom in Japan. It was within the last week or so that DG made it known that they had no plans to take the belt off PAC and he wouldn't be doing any jobs while champion. But it's not like Bayley had anything to do with scripting that segment. And Cody should know the score given that he used to work for WWE.

The main issue is that, rightly or wrongly, the crowd at Double or Nothing would have shit all over a draw/DQ finish and Tony Khan didn't want that kind of reaction on his debut PPV.

There needs to be more discussion about how the ending of Wrestlemania took the wind out of Becky's sails. She was set up to establish herself as The Man and end the undefeated streak of The Baddest Woman on the Planet, and she does it by...pinning Ronda with a crucifix? With Ronda's shoulders clearly off the mat? It's up there with Sting/Hogan as a kneecapping of a babyface at their moment of triumph.

Even setting aside the Kuwait story, WWE doesn't come across well at all in the Observer obit. Not only did they throw her in the ring with no training, they prevented her from getting trained on her own when the injuries started piling up. Her family should seriously consider filing a wrongful death lawsuit if doctors discover CTE.

According to the latest Observer, it was USA's idea. They knew something had to be done to turn ratings around and had been pitching ideas as of late. Apparently, all the ideas were terrible, but Vince knew he had to use one of them and the 24/7 title was the best of the bunch.