NintendoLogic

The fact that Omega and the Bucks are EVPs makes this far more than a typical clash of egos. Management getting into fistfights with talent is completely unacceptable. Some kind of punishment is obviously warranted if Punk threw the first punch. But executives have a responsibility to defuse tensions, not escalate them. Barging into a guy's dressing room en masse is not the way to do that. If it wasn't already, it should be clear by now that letting wrestlers just do whatever they want in the ring and say whatever they want in interviews is not tenable in the long run. We're seeing the fruits of the former in the sky-high injury rate and the fruits of the latter in...all this.

The Luger example is instructive. The argument that it would take the shine off Hogan/Sting made perfect sense in theory, but it ended up not being the case at all in practice. At least in that case there was a concrete goal that was being built toward. What is the endgame here that needs to be protected? Roman killing everybody forever? A prospective Rock/Roman match wouldn't be diminished one iota by a quickie Drew title reign. Neither would Roman/Cody.

Sheamus/Gunther was a hell of a thing.

It was actually Pat O'Connor who thought that. Muchnick thought Flair was the second coming of Buddy Rogers when Larry Matysik showed him some tapes. Anyway, you can definitely see WWE Brain when people discuss Adam Cole's physique, including on this very board. I've also seen people complain about AEW champions not receiving automatic rematches after losing the title. As far as size goes, boxing and MMA have absolutely shown that smaller fighters can draw, but it's important to remember that they're facing fighters in the same weight class. Smaller guys beating up much larger opponents almost always looks at least somewhat silly. Thankfully, that's not as much of an issue in modern wrestling since size has gone down pretty much across the board. Look at how Billy Gunn, who was never thought of as particularly big in his heyday, dwarfs virtually everybody in AEW.

NARRATIVE STATUS: UNCONTROLLED

Tony said absolutely nothing wrong. This is a star-driven business, and the biggest stars can and should receive preferential booking. The men's and women's divisions shouldn't be treated equally, but they should be treated fairly. If a woman becomes the biggest star in the company (like Becky Lynch was in WWE a while back), she should be booked accordingly. But pretending that Thunder Rosa is anywhere near as big a star as CM Punk would be ludicrous. By the way, as someone whose knowledge of active soccer players other than Messi and Ronaldo is basically nonexistent, I initially thought the thread title was referring to either Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland or Parker "Harland" Boudreaux.

Is there any evidence the locker room is pissed beyond the world of some Twitter rando who claims to be a WWE employee? Also, the last time I remember the locker room being united against a perceived slight was the Dave Meltzer/Peyton Royce situation, which was a huge embarrassment for everyone involved. As for Drew, let him have his Lex Luger moment and win the title in Cardiff before dropping it back in a week or two. Roman has been rolling over everyone for long enough. It's time for a babyface hope spot.

I know we moved past that conversation, but I just thought of another famous backstage confrontation. Karl Gotch and Bill Miller did a number on Buddy Rogers and broke his hand. I believe that led to Gotch being blacklisted for a time because it put the NWA's champion and biggest drawing card out of action.

Wade Barrett isn't Welsh. Did you mix him up with Mason Ryan?

But that isn't even true since Nattie Neidhart and Tessa Blanchard are both third-generation. It might be true when looking only at women wrestlers (Samantha Starr is the daughter of Baby Doll, who is the daughter of Lorraine Johnson), but in that case, there's no need to bring up Grizzly Smith at all.

That's nothing compared to what John Tenta did in WCW. He had his tiger tattoo (because he went to LSU) changed to a shark to fit his Dungeon of Doom gimmick. Talk about going the extra mile.

https://b-ok.cc/book/22350180/cdfff6 Brian Gewirtz wrote a book about his time in WWE. If you like stories about Vince's insanity and the stupidity of Wrestler's Court, this is the book for you.

Regal wasn't shooting on Goldberg. He was trying to have a competitive wrestling match. He kept giving Goldberg openings, but Goldberg didn't capitalize and looked lost because he had only worked squashes at that point.

Booker T and Batista as well. And yes, Scott kicked DDP's ass. DDP threw the first punch, but Scott took him down and pounded on him for a solid minute before they could be separated.

A backstage fight that led a wrestler being suspended and the build to a planned PPV match being abruptly aborted would be a topic of interest in any era.

I have literally never heard of Klondyke Kate.

To me, that's completely backwards. Professional courtesy (and common sense) say the person cutting the promo should clear the content beforehand with the person the promo is being cut on. Don't just assume it's OK to go somewhere because they didn't go out of their way to tell you it wasn't.

Controversy creates cash.

I mean, they brought Cody back after seeing the Codyverse, so who knows.

The company that ran maybe the tightest ship in wrestling history when it came to keeping things under wraps all of a sudden is leaking like a sieve. There's way too much smoke for there to not be any fire. (On a side note, why is the report of Sasha pitching a fit backstage after dropping the tag belts regarded with such derision? It's not like her maturity and judgment are beyond reproach. Not to mention she walked out of the company shortly afterward.) Looking back, Cody jumping ship out of the blue was a pretty big red flag. Maybe he saw tensions were building to an unsustainable degree and didn't want to be around when everything boiled over. On a lighter note:

Fightful is reporting there was a mandatory talent meeting before Dynamite. The plot thickens.

At least now we'll be spared the secondhand embarrassment from witnessing him alternately suck up to AEW in hopes of getting hired and acting like a jilted teenager when they leave him on read.

You see it all the time in non-worked sports. Just about every team has conflict between teammates and between players and management. As long as the team is winning, they're kept under wraps for fear of rocking the boat. But when the losses start piling up, the knives come out and the recriminations start. It seems highly unlikely that there were never any issues in the AEW locker room considering how ego-driven the business is. But they were easier to paper over when it looked like WWE was a sinking ship and AEW was the company everyone wanted to work for. With AEW in a bit of a slump and WWE gaining momentum, those tensions have come bubbling to the surface.

I think most people would find it difficult to completely turn on someone who helped make them rich and famous beyond their wildest dreams regardless of what misconduct that person might be guilty of.

"Medically unavailable" most likely means "unvaxxed and therefore not allowed to enter Canada."