NintendoLogic

Have Gargano be the third judge. He can attack Hangman after the match and then stare at his hands and wonder why he's so violent.

So has Veer Mahaan made it to Raw yet?

The babyface tries to launch a sneak attack with a weapon and gets outsmarted by the heel. Just another day in the WWE Universe.

WWE contracts are officially for a fixed term. But WWE maintains the unilateral authority to terminate the agreement at any time for any reason, and they're only on the hook for paying the wrestler during the 90-day non-compete period. That's why the joke is that WWE contracts are 90-day deals that renew at WWE's sole discretion. And no, that's not at all the norm for American employment contracts, let alone for professional athletes. In fact, I'd bet that if the contracts were challenged in court, they'd be thrown out as unenforceable. I don't know Sami's situation, but Owens has a family to take care of. For him, re-upping with WWE is a win-win. If he gets paid, great. If he gets the ax due to budget cuts, AEW will surely snatch him up. I doubt he pulled a Good Brothers and verbally committed to them only to leave Tony hanging when WWE started throwing money at him.

Tonight:

I watched the title match. Maybe it's because I knew going in that they were going 60, but I started losing interest around 20 minutes in. I felt like it was mainly just a bunch of stuff happening without a strong storyline hook. I got back into it when it looked like they were going to go in a more story-based direction (Hangman's arm+blood loss vs. Danielson's leg), but they never fully committed to it and instead just kept Doing Stuff. One spot that stuck out to me was Danielson going for an armbar on Hangman's left arm rather than the injured right one to make it easier for him to make the ropes so they could do the deadeye on the apron. To their credit, a lot of the stuff they did was really cool in a vacuum, and it was obviously an incredible achievement from a cardio standpoint (especially Danielson skinning the cat 59 minutes in). In that respect, it's probably the pinnacle of CrossFit wrestling. From a booking standpoint, I think the goal was to get Hangman over as a worthy champion by showing he's a super worker who can go 60 minutes with the great Bryan Danielson. That sort of thing is a bit too meta for my tastes, but that's just the reality of pro wrestling these days. By the way, it really bothers me that Danielson doesn't fully extend his arms when he does jumping jacks. If he does that for heel heat, mission accomplished. I popped for the "Vince fears W-2s" sign.

Monday Night HEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAATT

Is she supposed to be a Mortal Kombat character

imagine if it turns out every one of Rock's career moves was done with the end goal of taking over WWE and screwing over DX. Some Count of Monte Cristo-level shit.

Charlotte going for a pin on an opponent who was lying face-down was worse than anything Toni did. We've created a generation of wrestlers who are so focused on hooking the leg that they've forgotten the goal is to pin the opponent's shoulders to the mat.

Hook right now reminds me of Tay Conti when she was in NXT: definitely a work in progress, but the potential is clearly there. The difference is that he's training at a school where they actually teach pro wrestling and don't just do forward rolls all day, so it shouldn't take years for him to reach his potential.

I know this will be hard to believe, but last night's Charlotte match had a spot that didn't go according to plan.

Gargano was most likely NXT for life had he stayed. Dave's speculation is that he would have been kept strong enough that it would mean something when he put a young guy over. However, I'm sure Gargano saw how Rey Mysterio and Jeff Hardy were booked on the main roster and took that into account. Plus, he surely knows that WWE guarantees aren't worth the paper they're written on. In other news, Kairi Sane is a free agent now that her WWE contract has expired. Hopefully we'll see her back in Stardom soon.

Considering what a money-grubbing ghoul Gene Simmons is, he'll probably demand more for the rights than Europe did for The Final Countdown. If they need licensed music for Hook, this can probably be had for far cheaper.

I don't think that's the case. According to the Observer, they gave him a strong offer and he turned it down. He's going to take some time off and weigh his options after the birth of his child. WWE seems to think he'll be back, which is why he was written off in a way that opens the door for a return. Still, it says a lot that he would turn down a contract and place himself on the open market when he has a kid on the way.

And now Bandido is off Final Battle after testing positive for COVID. Talk about going out with a whimper.

https://www.voicesofwrestling.com/2021/12/08/roman-reigns-and-the-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-world-title-reign/ tl;dr Roman still a flop Read the whole thing, though.

https://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/wwe-raw-draws-record-low-rating-18-49-demo-362046 Guess we won't be seeing Liv Morgan in main events again anytime soon.

What all the WM25 shocked face copycats seem to overlook is that finishers were still heavily protected in WWE at that point and no finisher was more protected than the tombstone. In that context, a shocked reaction to a kickout was warranted. These days, everybody kicks out of everything. If anything, a shocked face should come after a finisher keeps someone down for a three-count.

I hope so. Hair matches only really work for me if the heel loses and wears a wig and headgear to hide his baldness and the whole thing is played for comedy. Otherwise, who gives a shit? I mean, it's just hair. It'll grow back. And if it doesn't, you're better off shaving it off anyway.

It is well past time for a moratorium on shocked faces after kickouts. I mean, I'll allow it if someone kicks out of the One Winged Angel. But there's no reason to act like you just saw a ghost when someone kicks out of your tertiary finisher.

Meanwhile, in NXT... I can't believe the foolproof combination of scantily clad women and toilet humor isn't knocking them dead in the ratings.

If it was simply a case of getting his bell rung, they surely would have sent him to a local medical facility. Also, you're not supposed to fly after sustaining a concussion.

No offense bubba, but you also like Jinder Mahal, Eva Marie, and Naomichi Marufuji, so that's not saying much. Also, let's not rewrite history. Nia was the one who sent the Charlotte match off the rails with this bullshit. Charlotte had every right to go off on her after that.