NintendoLogic

You know what, just make everybody a heel at this point. It seems to be the only way to get over and/or pushed.

I'd say the obvious way to salvage this is to have Nia replace Becky at Survivor Series and have Ronda destroy her in less than a minute. Ronda looks like even more of a killer without running the risk of the crowd turning on her. Becky burnishes her anti-establishment cred and gets even more over. NIa hopefully gets future endeavored immediately afterward. Everybody wins. Of course, WWE will probably find some way to fuck it up regardless, but hope springs eternal.

I finally sat down and watched this, and I agree that it was pretty fantastic. Dueling limbwork is one of my favorite things in wrestling, especially when it comes into play in unorthodox ways. Aja escaping a cross armbreaker by headbutting Shida's injured leg could very well be the best spot of 2018. They do start to move away from it toward the end, but they never abandon it completely. I really want to see Aja in next year's Mae Young Classic. She looks pretty much the same as she did two decades ago, she can clearly still go in the ring, and I'm sure she'd get over huge with the Full Sail audience.

Believe it or not, the Observer reported at the time that both of Cornette's Mushnick rants were his own idea and Vince had no involvement with either beyond running the first one by his lawyers beforehand. But yeah, they haven't exactly aged well, to put it mildly.

The Team Challenge Series was everything I hoped it would be and more. I mean, say what you want about the Broken Matt stuff in TNA, but that was at least somewhat tongue-in-cheek. This was completely in earnest. Words fail me.

Random question: what are the Mexican commission rules regarding wrestlers who voluntarily unmask to assume a different persona? Like, could Alberto Del Rio go back to being Dos Caras Jr. if he wanted to?

Boyd Pierce?

This is like saying that WCW died because of Jamie Kellner and the decisions by those in charge had nothing to do with it. Fame is not one of the criteria for induction.

One of the true revelations from the NWA Houston footage. He was 83.

Well, I think some people would dispute the notion that Dave is any less into theatricality today, as well as the idea that New Japan main event style is closer to Bret's style than Shawn's.

Have you seen Joe vs. Daniels from Final Resolution 2006? It's my second-favorite TNA match. Roode/Aries at Destination X 2012 is worth a look as well. I don't know how well it holds up, but it was a great moment at the time because it felt like TNA had actually turned a corner.

Really interesting tweet from Dave on Bret vs. Shawn. There's a number of directions I'd like to go, but I need some more time to formulate my thoughts, so I'll let the board take a crack at it first.

This doesn't address my point. You can get in on straight work if and only if a substantial contingent views you as the greatest performer they've ever seen/worked with and the reason they got into the business. Whether you personally agree with that assessment is immaterial. You also probably need a run as a main event-level star in a major promotion (see also, Styles and Danielson). Have you ever laid out the case for him on any public forum? Most of the arguments I've seen for him boil down to "he was really famous" and "the drawing standards wrestlers in other regions have to meet shouldn't apply to him because reasons."

I'm officially All In on Ripley after her match with Io. She grabbed the hell out of that brass ring in a match she wasn't even supposed to be in.

Saying that Shawn got in "off just work alone" seems to be an attempt to elide the issue. When he was still on the ballot, Dave would note that there's a generation that views him as the greatest in-ring performer of all time or close to it. So yes, you can get in off work alone if you're a GOAT candidate. I don't know of any substantial contingent that views Breaks or CIMA or the like in that way.

There's also been an issue recently with American voters with no knowledge of the region voting for Big Daddy for the lulz and hurting everyone else's percentages.

Somebody on the F4W board started a thread called "So, who's ready for Crown Jewel?" and posted this. It made me laugh harder than it probably should have.

Good for them if true. It'd be pretty amusing if this event ended up being the catalyst for unionization in the industry.

I had always avoided this match for obvious reasons, but I figured I owed it to myself to see a match with this degree of notoriety at least once, so I decided to give it a watch. And color me shocked, I thought it was legitimately great. The story of the match was about as straightforward as it gets, but it worked for me because they both had enough quality mid-range offense to keep things interesting before they started going for the big bombs. Also, the shifts in momentum felt earned for the most part. They had to hit big counters before they could mount any sustained offense because they'd get cut off otherwise. It probably helps to know that the quasi-Regal Stretch Kyoko kept going for was a legitimate finisher (it's called the Spider's Nest, and she beat Toshiyo Yamada with it to win the All Pacific title at Wrestling Queendom in 1994). By the time Toyota was worn down enough for her to get it in, Kyoko herself was too worn down to apply it properly, so she had to go back to throwing bombs. That's a nice psychological wrinkle I wasn't expecting. Toyota being too exhausted to get Kyoko up for the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex and having to settle for a straightjacket German near the end was another nice touch. Kyoko's selling down the stretch is what made really this match, but Toyota being able to fly around the way she was more than 50 minutes in was nothing short of astounding. Also, I could have sworn I heard the commentator say "Sabu desu ne" when Toyota hit the splash onto the table. I used to think it was a travesty that this match won the WON MOTY award for 1995, but now that I've seen it, I think it's as worthy a candidate as any non-All Japan match from that year.

I actually kind of like the idea of honoring Warrior by celebrating people he had nothing but contempt for during his lifetime. It's like they're putting his memory to good use by undoing his life's work.

Believe it or not, I just watched this match for the first time. Two things that I wasn't expecting stood out for me. One, even though I've seen it on a million video packages, Undertaker throwing Foley off the cell still felt shocking because it came pretty much out of nowhere. There was no build or teasing beforehand, they brawled on top of the cell for a bit and then Taker just threw him off. Two, the bulk of the match actually took place after the two huge bumps. I have no idea how Foley was able to keep it together and work a match after what he went through.

I believe the story is that Edge was never seen as a tippy top guy until the live sex celebration did a huge quarter hour.

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about tonight. I'm just asking whether WWE's involvement with Saudi Arabia is really that much worse than the things Vince has been directly implicated in over the years.

If I can play devil's advocate for a moment, it this really that much worse than covering up a murder?

They'll probably treat it like an episode of Raw in a city Vince doesn't think is big league enough to mention on the air.