NintendoLogic

The BOSJ final will main event Dominion ahead of the IWGP title match. I guess that's the company's way of acknowledging the EVIL main event push has been a failure. Better late than never.

The Saudis might as well just buy WWE outright at this point.

Doesn't WWE conduct social media classes? Whoever runs them needs to be fired because seemingly everyone in the company is terrible at it.

The first time I watched it, I didn't think it was that bad. Not good by any means, but not all-time terrible. Then I watched it again and yes, it really was that bad. And it was a pre-taped promo! "We did 20 takes and that was the best one." In much more auspicious news: Now we're talking.

Gunther/Sheamus was pretty great, probably the best match from an American promotion so far this year. I liked how Gunther would repeatedly go for headlocks in the early going as a subtle indicator that Sheamus was giving him more than he could handle in the striking department. The chop to the back of the neck was classic pro wrestling smoke and mirrors as it looked and sounded devastating but was actually directed at Sheamus's upper back. They did meander a bit during the initial Sheamus comeback, but they got things back on track after the leg injury spot. Gunther's leg work was solid and Sheamus's selling was borderline brilliant, particularly his inability to execute proper covers due to the damage to his leg. Popping up after the German suplex wasn't ideal, but the way Sheamus collapsed after hitting the brogue kick made it clear that it was a temporary burst of adrenaline and not a no-sell of everything that had preceded it. Some unintentional comedy at the end as Pat McAfee (who earlier in the match helpfully informed us that Ringgeneral is German for ring general) tried to say "How much does the King of the Ring mean to Sheamus?" only to be interrupted mid-sentence by Sheamus tapping out.

PWInsider is reporting the new Wyatt Family will consist of Bo Dallas, Nikki Cross, Dexter Lumis, Joe Gacy, and Erick Rowan. We're well into Ship of Theseus territory here.

Today's wrestlers are soft because they get upset when fans yell degrading things at them while heels in the old days had to deal with fans attacking them. Or something. Regardless, saying they came out in droves is overstating it a bit. There will always be dweeb wrestling fans ready to spew bile whenever a woman exists, and they have been emboldened somewhat by Elon turning Twitter into Xchan (a disproportionate number of them seem to have blue checks). But they're few and far between, and they're almost always either ratio'd into oblivion or ignored entirely. The modern wrestling community is the most diverse and accepting it's ever been. We've come a long way from ECW fans chanting "she's a crack whore" and the like.

I enjoyed the main event quite a bit. It did suffer from the modern disease of throwing too many ideas out there rather than committing to a few and developing them thoroughly, and the burning hammer kick-out at one was inexcusable. Also, that kimura spot achieved the seemingly impossible feat of killing the red-hot French crowd dead. Maybe Cody wants to train audiences to expect the kimura as a finisher, so hopefully it'll pay dividends in the future. I really liked how Cody was still registering the damage from AJ's blows during his fighting spirit hulk-up and started his comeback by blocking a kick. It looks like the "wrestlers charging at each other like knights jousting" spot is going to be a thing going forward thanks to Danielson/Ospreay, so we might as well get used to it now. Regardless, I'm glad to see the best American wrestler of the 21st century is still capable of producing bangers.

The real tragedy is that WWE has once again failed to give the fans what they really want.

It's a bad time to be a sex pest in WWE as Drew Gulak and Gable Steveson both got released along with a bunch of NXT no-names. The timing is especially rough for Gable because it comes a few weeks after the Olympic trials, which he would have been heavily favored in. Oh, well. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

A chart like that is worthless if it doesn't tell us how those numbers compare to the typical ratings pattern for the show.

If Baron Corbin joined the Bloodline, WWE would be bigger in France than Ligue 1 and Top 14 combined.

Or he really wants the case to go to arbitration because he's terrified of what might come out in a trial. Given his attorney's previous statements, it seems likely he'll flip right back around on Vince if it does go to trial.

Let's not forget Goldberg in Santa's Slay.

On the other hand, there were more horror-themed wrestling gimmicks than you could shake a stick at. As for the lack of wrestling-themed horror movies, my best guess is that movie studios, even low-budget horror ones, considered pro wrestling too far beneath contempt to acknowledge. Look at how wrestling fans were portrayed in Ready to Rumble (a movie, keep in mind, for which wrestling fans were the target audience). There were a few wrestling-themed porn movies during that era, which pretty well indicates how well it was regarded in the public consciousness.

Finally got around to watching Danielson/Ospreay. I dug Danielson's body blows and Ospreay countering a triangle choke with a Styles Clash, but it fell pretty flat for me overall. The biggest turnoff from my perspective was the lack of any real strategic focus, which I feel is a necessity for a match of that length. I like when a wrestler either has a clear game plan going in or capitalizes on an opening and the opponent has to adapt and overcome. They hinted in that direction with Danielson targeting Ospreay's midsection after cutting him off with a kick to the gut and later going after the arm to neutralize the hidden blade, but they never fully committed to it. I checked out completely when Ospreay did a fighting spirit hulk-up roughly one minute after taking a tiger superplex. There were a ridiculous number of spots with next to no margin for error that were executed impeccably, so I'll give them that.

Nick Khan has filed to sell all of his TKO stock. Looks like things might be about to really pick up.

Once Danielson officially wraps it up as a full-time wrestler, he'd be the perfect choice to serve as a troubleshooting commissioner type who maintains law and order and occasionally steps in the ring to put the heels in their place when they get too far out of line. I'd be much more interested in that than an increasingly self-indulgent dream match retirement tour.

I'm so used to calculating time periods starting in the early 2000s for work that I must have adopted that as my default starting date as a cognitive shortcut and turned 1980 into 2000 in my head. That's the only explanation I can offer for such a glaring error. Regardless, my overall point stands as long as you ignore the mistake that invalidates it. By the way, has there been an explosion of ads on this board for anyone else? There used to be just one at the top of the page, but now I'm seeing multiple ones in each thread interspersed between the posts.

Artists are supposed to become eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their first record. Ozzy's first solo album came out in 1980, so he shouldn't even be eligible until next year. Than again, a good chunk of the inductees in recent years aren't even rock musicians, so there's no sense in quibbling over criteria.

I would argue that it's better for a heel to backdoor her way into the title by winning a battle royal than to beat someone for it straight-up, especially if she's just keeping the belt warm until Rhea returns.

Liv Morgan has fans? With that said, I do think Liv winning the title after taking credit for putting Rhea on the shelf to set up Rhea coming back for revenge is a more compelling story. Not to mention Rhea just beat Becky clean a few weeks ago. But I'm not the Cerebral Assassin, so what do I know?

Steve Sims once wrote that more luchadores than you might think dislike working under masks because they restrict vision, make it harder to breathe, and are uncomfortable overall (and almost as importantly, make it harder to get laid). And I remember reading that El Santo's ears were pinned to the side of his head from wearing his mask all the time in public.

It looks like Rock bringing back blood and swearing has opened the door for the rest of the roster to push the envelope rather than being a special dispensation for him alone.

If they think that's bad, wait until they find out that some of the fights on the card might have been fixed. Athletic commission regulation of pro wrestling is such a ridiculous anachronism.