NintendoLogic

Hey, she's younger than Asuka. And she's blonde, so there's a good chance of her getting a push on that basis alone. Also signed: Harlem Bravado. Don't be fooled by the name, because he's a white guy from North Carolina. The wrestling equivalent of Reggie Cleveland.

To be clear, Dave was referring specifically to St. Louis when he said this. Here's something he wrote in 2014 about Dusty finishes: Also, I was under the impression Flair was a full-fledged babyface in the Carolinas in the early 80s up until he turned on Dusty in 1985.

It was a poster with the screen name of HowardJuneau. Does that ring a bell?

Meltzer has confirmed that Sammy was pulled from Impact over creative differences but says there don't seem to be any hard feelings on either side. Apparently, most of what was planned for Sammy ended up going to Black Taurus. If I were Guevara, I'd veto being part of Decay too.

Kip Sabian and Penelope Ford got written up in the New York Times wedding section. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/12/style/kayfabe-but-for-real.html They'd better issue a correction for calling Orange Cassidy a bad guy, though.

I'm willing to overlook a wrestler being a murderer or rapist for the sake of enjoying their matches, but I draw the line at being a conservative.

It was the way Piper cracked up when Hart mentioned killer instinct and Vince responding that killer instinct was the one thing Snuka definitely had that gives it an inside joke vibe. Given WWE's track record, I'm hardly inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Speaking of Mutoh, he's the new GHC heavyweight champion.That makes him the third wrestler in history to have held all three major heavyweight titles in Japan along with Kensuke Sasaki and Yoshihiro Takayama.

Let's remember that the sexual abuse of children by WWF employees was something the company used to joke about on the air. Also, someone on the F4W board said that the names Michael Cole and Tom Phillips were inside joke references to Tom Cole and Mel Phillips. I can't vouch for the accuracy of that, but it wouldn't surprise me.

The Observer says the rotator cuff tear is in his left arm. In that case, he can probably get away with spending the bulk of the match on the apron and mainly sticking to punches when he's in. Even before the injury, I figure the plan all along was to have the women work most of the way and throw in enough sports entertainment gaga to make it entertaining or at least watchable.

Remember Rhea Ripley? She's back, in Karen form!

Good to see you back. To your point, I find the overall tone here far more genial than it was back in the day. I can't remember the last time civility broke down because someone needlessly raised the temperature over something trivial like it did so often in the past. I'd love to see more thoughtful in-depth discussion and analysis, but it's not really worth it if it comes at the cost of turning the board into a combat zone.

How's this for a crazy story: Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (Q-CO) might be the fruit of Sweet Stan's loins.

I figured Tito Ortiz had an unassailable position as the dumbest person to come out of MMA (an incredibly high bar to begin with), but I think she managed to surpass him. Being handed a golden ticket and flushing it down the toilet by doubling down on chuddery is on another level.

So what are the chances WWE brings in Gina Carano and has her blame Sasha for getting fired from The Mandalorian? It'd be like Hulk Hogan vs. Zeus all over again.

So, ummm...Charlie Haas isn't looking so hot these days. Meanwhile, Shelton Benjamin looks basically the same now as he did 20 years ago.

I've never seen "twinkletoes" used in any way but to describe someone who really likes or is really good at dancing. Cornette using it to describe Omega is in the same vein as comments like Kenny Olivier and jazz hands-he's trying to criticize Omega for treating wrestling too much like a theater performance. Trying to spin that as homophobic seems like a real reach. It reminds me of when people tried to claim that "sweaty" was a racial code word when talking about Mark Henry. Again, though, there are no good guys here. Cornette's comments about women's wrestling in general and joshi in particular are frequently infuriating, but the people wrestlers like Itoh cater to belong on a government watch list.

I know she's the worker. But the Twitter stans liking Itoh's tweet and swarming Cornette are not. By the way, I've seen Itoh work. I must not be in the target demo, because her singing gimmick is zero buys in my book.

Sorry, but Cornette vs. creepy joshi stans is a heel vs. heel matchup.

That's another important point. Edge has been exposed pretty badly by this current run, I think. Not only did his Rumble win not mean a thing for ratings, his appearance on NXT got destroyed head-to-head by the wedding segment on Dynamite. It's almost as if he's relied on smoke and mirrors to get people to care about him his entire career and the notion of him as an all-time legend is a total joke.

Average age: 41. But the real problem is their TV age. Other than AJ, WWE could have had this exact match in 2009. And this this coming on the heels of the oldest Rumble in history, breaking the year-old record set by the 2020 Rumble. But hey, it's not like they have a multimillion-dollar developmental facility or anything. Also, this happened:

Update: Riki Choshu/Kensuke Sasaki/Shiro Koshinaka/Kuniaki Kobayashi/Kantaro Hoshino vs. Animal Hamaguchi/Masanobu Kurisu/Super Strong Machine/Tatsutoshi Goto/Hiro Saito (NJPW, 6/26/90) I was prepared for a letdown after the February 1993 NJPW/WAR ten-man didn't do much for me, but this was everything I hoped it would be and more. This manages to be amazing despite the almost complete lack of star power. One side at least has a superstar in Choshu and a future star in Sasaki, but the other side consists entirely of sleazy midcarders. They compensate for the dearth of stars by serving up bucketloads of hatred. If you like 5-on-1 gang beatdowns and pre-CTE awareness headbutts, this'll be right up your alley. Another curveball comes in the form of this being 2/3 falls rather than elimination rules. The lack of ring-out eliminations opens the door to brawling on the floor, and they exploit it to the hilt. Kurisu in particular is a massive prick throughout, taking seemingly every opportunity to land a cheap shot or exploit an unfair advantage. He goes on the warpath with a chair in the first fall, and it's an awesome moment when he gets a taste of his own medicine in the third fall. But this is far from a one-man show, as the breakneck pace means everybody gets a chance to shine. Hamaguchi has some of the best elbow drops I've ever seen, Sasaki nearly breaks Goto's neck with a Rick Steiner-tier bulldog, Hoshino runs around punching people in the face like a pint-sized martial arts master in a 70s kung fu film, and Saito repeatedly flings himself into the guardrail like he's trying to cash in on a Lloyd's of London policy. A lot of 2/3 falls tags go awry by treating each fall as a self-contained mini-match with its own FIP section, hot tag, and finishing run. This is worked more like a high-end lucha apuestas match in that the falls are treated as part of an interconnected narrative. In the first fall, Koshinaka ends up falling victim to the numbers game and gets pinned without even coming close to making a tag. The massacre continues into the second fall, but he eventually tags out and even gets the pin for his side. He manages an additional receipt in the third fall when he headbutts Saito in the groin. More than anything, this is the kind of match that makes you appreciate wrestlers who can tell a story in the ring without needing the viewer to have an encyclopedic knowledge of context or backstory. I have absolutely no idea why these two groups are beefing with each other, but the way they go at it tooth and nail tells me everything I need to know. For my money, this is the second-best New Japan gang warfare match, behind only the August 1987 elimination match. ****1/2

Mahomes is obviously an entitled millennial too busy playing video games in the locker room to reach for the brass ring. He also got screwed in the first half by the most crooked officiating since evil twin Earl Hebner. As much as I despise Brady, I have to give the devil his due. He's accomplished more in his forties than most quarterbacks do their entire careers. He's the Tenryu of football.

Yeah, this is awesome. Brother KinchStalker bursting out the gate like Lesnar. It makes more sense when you remember that the Beatles had their series of concerts at the Budokan in late June and early July 1966, when Jumbo was 15. They were actually incredibly controversial at the time because the venue had been built to house martial arts competitions and ultranationalist types considered allowing a Western rock group to perform there to be sacrilege. There you have it. Jumbo was the Lex Luger of Japan. Also, Choshu having heat with Jumbo, worked or not, over careerism is a bit rich considering he's the one who bucked the traditional order by jumping to All Japan and then jumping back a few years later. The public was willing to accept the former due to all the scandals in New Japan, but the latter move was purely a business decision and made him seem like a greedy American athlete rather than an honorable Japanese sportsman. Supposedly, it led to a short-term dip in the popularity of pro wrestling in the country. Oh, the irony.

If you can't re-sign the real Lesnar, I guess this is the next best thing. He won't be the next big thing going through the Performance Center. I can't wait for the inevitable "he's been training for years but still looks completely green" comment in a future Observer. That is, if he doesn't blow out his knees with hours of forward rolls.