MoS

Also, is it me, or does the recap of the Vader fight leave you with a better impression of Leon's shoot skills? He hit Ondorff with an open-handed slap, clearly not meant to hurt him too much, and then, instead of GnPing him, he started shouting at him. Then Arn got in the way and when Paul got up, he basically threw a sucker punch, given Vader was engaged with Arn at that time. It was aimed at Vader's chin and yes, it knocked him out, but as all of us who watch MMA know, most knockout blows are the ones that land to the chin when the person getting hit doesn't see or expect them. Clearly Vader did not see the punch nor was expecting it, given he was engaged with Arn. This doesn't really show me that Ondorff beat Vader in an actual shoot. This is not like the Booker-Batista fight, where both parties decided to actually fight, and Booker clearly got the better of Batista and left him wounded, Batista sucker-punching Booker later notwithstanding. Or even Hart-Michaels in 1997, where Hart yanked a lot of hair out of Shawn's head and where Corny has said that Bret was absolutely destroying Shawn and would have injured him bad had Lawler not interrupted his shit and broken up the fight.

Oh also, the recap of the plane ride from hell sounds intriguing

Mine as well I have seen the 4 star summit - I think it's on YouTube actually - and amongst the 4 journalists, Meltzer is the only one I would go out of my way to listen to, and I do love you TTK, so you don't have to recap it lol. I would also like to read the Jim Herd recap You are doing the Lord's work, man. Thank you for all of this

Apropos nothing, but who the fuck buys a dream house in fucking WYOMING

Our Dave is the fucking man. I don't even like Bischoff at all, but TTK's recaps are absolutely epic. I still don't know how much I believe Eric, cuz he is the epitome of an unreliable narrator (literally, given all his memory lapses), but it doesn't matter when the recaps are so good

As over as Nash was with the crowds - and as big as Wolfpac was - he was not close to being the draw that Goldberg was. He should not have ended the streak. As Heenan said, they should not even have been thinking about ending the streak

I get what you are saying, but with Goldberg, it was pretty well-known that he was by far the biggest TV ratings and merchandise draw that WCW had. The Observers from that time period keep mentioning it

Mox's song sounds a bit like Bret's song, at least the opening notes and the refrain. Hangman is another guy with an excellent theme

I think Darby has the best theme in AEW rn. The opening riff is perfect for pro wrestling

On that note, while I know hard rock and metal can be cliche, I have always wondered why AEW did not purchase the rights to AC/DC's "I'm TNT, I'm Dynamite." The show is called Dynamite and it airs on TNT - it writes itself

I think the correct answer is that they should not have ended the streak, and not even thought of ending the streak, unless Goldberg completely stopped working, and/or they had an extremely hot new heel who could be slotted into that situation. Andre was brought up and is a good point, yes, but, for instance, did Vince Sr worry about whom Bruno would put over clean in the 60s? Did Vince Jr worry about Hogan losing to someone in the 80s? Yeah, Warrior did not pan out, but that reinforces my point. Just don't worry about ending the streak until you have an objectively bad situation to manage, or when you have a really hot new young heel prospect.

Given that it is basically equivalent of having Gerald Brisco headline against Steve Austin in 1998, I am guessing no one is talking about it cuz they don't want to shit on WWE too much cuz shitting on WWE seems to be tired and almost like bullying. (And I know Brisco was a heel while Pearce is a face; the relative credibility is the exact same)

I get that, but with Goldberg, given he was still really over, some live-crowd boos notwithstanding - by far their biggest TV ratings and merchandise draw - they should have just continued the streak and should have booked everyone to job to him. Don't fix what's broken, don't kill the golden goose, etc etc

I think one of the reasons I love Jericho's entrance is that the crowd singing Judas reminds me of the Ballroom fans singing Enter Sandman

Oh I know, I am just glad that of all the WWE wrestlers they could have done a puff piece about, they chose Sasha. She's deserved it for the longest time

Very well-deserved. Sasha is a genuine star and I am so happy she is finally getting recognised.

I think it's obvious that the big rating (relatively speaking of course) was due to Hogan and Flair being advertised. We have seen this a hundred times by now. WWE pops a big number, people try to attribute it to the product or booking decisions (like the big Christmas rating for SD, which was clearly due to the massive lead-in) even though there are obvious external reasons for this. Then the ratings and viewership drop right down to the obscenely low average the next week (like SD this week), and they are followed by the product setting new low viewership records. Hell, it happened with Raw and Ric Flair this very summer. Maybe we should stop going so easy and generous on WWE booking. One year ago, the idea that Hogan and Flair would draw barely above 2 million viewers would have been laughed out of the building. Now, it's considered good news!! Sorry, but at some point, WWE will have to get their head out of the sand and understand that the problem is them, their booking, their approach, their philosophy. If they don't, this pattern will keep repeating and a year from now, we will be celebrating a Raw which does 1.5 million viewers as a major ratings success.

Meh first hour, but the 2nd hour picked up. I am hoping this means the Bucks are full-blown heels finally, instead of whatever crap they had been doing the last couple of months. I am intrigued by how they book this invasion

Rey Fenix is incredible

The build to this match was terrible, but I am liking Abadon-Shida so far. I am sure I am in the minority, but I think it's been great

That was the absolute worst frogsplash I have ever seen in my life

Pleasantly surprised they put over Wardlow clean. Not sure about Brodie Lee Jr. actually participating in angles on TV

Both the WWE and the US empires are falling in front of our eyes

These rappers are terrible and I am stunned no one has told them to cut it out