MoS

Dave on the latest WOR spent 15 seconds reporting actual news - that there are no plans yet for Punk/FTR v. Elite as yet - and about 15 minutes detailing his thoughts on what he thinks Punk/FTR's "intentions" are for talking about a potential return and match. It's kind of BS really; I highly doubt Punk has told him that his comments about his return are in bad faith, his intention is to be unprofessional "under the guise of being professional" and that in reality, he wants the Elite to leave AEW. All of this is pure speculation on his part. I would have thought he'd have learnt his lesson from the last time he spoke about Punk - and then spent an entire WOR episode apologising for it.

I only knew of the Bloody Mary legend where she appears if you say her name in front of the mirror 3 times, so the last few posts have been like modern pop-culture classes for me. Thanks, brothers.

Eh, I've never seen Dory Sr. wrestle, so I don't know how good he was, and Dory Jr. often bores me to death with his "stoicisim". Terry of course is an easy GOAT contender, far better than anyone the Anoa'i family has ever produced, but that's just one person. So in terms of depth, I don't think the Funks are anywhere near the GOAT family.

Whatever, dude

Jesus Christ x2 And yes, Vickie, having sex with someone when they are too drunk to consent is sexual assault. You piece of shit. Evil, repugnant shit.

HEY!!! (I mean, you're not wrong, but still)

Jesus Christ. Turning your back on your children after a traumatic event like this is like one of the absolute worst things that a human being can do

It was also the Raw after a white-hot WM (which is hotter, red-hot or white-hot?) and they spent 2 hours 30 minutes advertising a main event of Roman and Solo v. Cody and Brock, which not only is a massive main event, but also probably made fans feel that the Roman-Cody story was going to continue. Of course, in classic 21st-century Vince style, it was a bait and switch, they did not deliver on it, they never had any intention of delivering on it, and it has now also become clear that Cody will be shunted away from Roman after losing to him, at least for a few months. And given Brock's normal wrestling schedule, their feud will probably be Cody cutting 15-min promos every week for 2 months before Brock shows up again. I think the ratings of the shows in a month's time or two would be far more significant

Ironically, while the Austin heel turn destroyed WWF's business and still remains the worst booking decision in the promotion's history, the live crowd on the night didn't mind it at all. Unlike Roman-Cody, the crowd wasn't deflated and depressed. But that's due to extenuating circumstances- they were in Houston, Austin's home state, and literally all the fans cared about was seeing their hero win the world title. Don't get me wrong, WM 17 was definitely the worse decision by a huge margin. I highly doubt this year's finish will destroy WWE's business like Austin's heel turn did, but Rock was a massive heel that night. He didn't work heel the way he switched mid-way in the WM 18 Hogan match cuz obviously, Austin was going to turn heel at the end of the night, but the live crowd was fine with Austin aligning with Vince as long as he won the title. Austin v. Rock always worked best when Austin was face and Rock was heel. Or when both were faces I guess, but the fans would choose for Austin to cheer more than they would The Rock anyway. There was something off and weird about heel Austin v. face Rock. I remember in late 2001, they had an MSG house show with face Rock v. heel Austin as the main event, and it sold a pathetic 7k tickets. Austin v. Rock. Selling only 7k tickets. At Madison Square Garden. It's unimaginable and yet it happened.

I can't help but be cynical about this sale. As a massive MMA fan and someone who has modded a prominent MMA site for 6 years, I have seen what happened to UFC after it was sold to Endeavor. A soulless entity that cuts some of its best fighters, has meaningless "interim" title fights, and tries to fill out its cards with jobbers from Dana White's contender series who are happy to fight for 20k/20k, instead of actual good mid-level fighters, with the sole purpose being to increase its profit margin. Like WWE was during the first year of the pandemic era, except on steroids.

Truly, genuinely, the greatest of all time

Certainly not the look I would choose less than a year after sexual assault allegations

Yes, assuming everything goes smoothly

Given how creepy a lot of Sasha/Mercedes stans are, one can hardly blame her

Stephanie is no longer with WWE, remember?

Very disappointed that both Mark Briscoe and Eddie Kingston lost on the ROH supercard. TK does not seem to realise that ultimately, fans want their faves to win, else ultimately they stop rooting for them. He books heels to win way too often. It's a problem that modern WWE has had as well since the start of this century - way too many long heel title runs. I do not believe in the bullshit about the money being in the chase; that's just an excuse for bookers tnot book faces and their championship runs in a compelling manner. It's bookers being lazy and not doing their jobs. Somewhere in the archives of this board, there is a post by S.L.L about how the adage of the money being in the chase is misplaced and ultimately a myth, but all you need to do is look at the 80s and see who won the wrestling war, and how the winning promotion's world champion was booked.

Fuck DFG

I love how he skips over his own role in the shitshow. And now he casually mentions that all sides had in principle agreed to Punk coming back, something he had never reported before. I love Dave more than a lot of people here but he has fucked up bad in this entire incident.

Not sure if this is real or fake, but lol

A brief but hilarious bit this episode was Claudio putting on Don Callis's sunglasses after beating the fuck out of him

I've always thought of it this way: if I knew CM Punk personally, I would definitely not want to be friends with him. I wouldn't want to hang out with him. But he is not my friend, and as long as he doesn't hurt anyone, I don't care how he is in his personal life. What I do care about is his wrestling ability, and in my mind, it is undeniable that he is an incredible pro wrestler. Like, he gets it. His one-year AEW run was full of all-time great moments. His "Maxwell Jacob Friedman, will you be my valentine" dog collar promo still gives me goosebumps. I definitely want him on my wrestling TV. That said, the cheap shot he took at Hangman was beyond unprofessional and over the line. He knew Hangman couldn't respond. To quote his own self, it was coward shit.

Mox sort of continued the angle in kayfabe on Renee's podcast, where while he did not admit they did it, he didn't deny it either. Danielson v. Omega 2 should be an absolute blast.

Heel Danielson is the best. I hope he kicks every Elite member's fucking head in. I liked the Perry-MJF exchange. I think Perry has improved a hundredfold on the mic. Working with Christian has definitely helped him improve as a wrestler, even if Christian was out for several months. Take notes, Chris Jericho!

I said this in the Meltzer thread, but Dave made a massive massive mistake by leaving out the crucial part of the story where Punk was injured at that time and not cleared to wrestle and was asked to wrestle anyway. That makes TK look really bad and Meltzer absolutely fucked up by not reporting that part of the story. Punk is a grouchy asshole who keeps grudges and does not forgive anyone for any perceived slight, whether justified or not, but he was absolutely right to get mad at Dave here. Especially given the context of why he left WWE in 2014 in the first place.

Dave made a massive massive mistake by leaving out the crucial part of the story where Punk was injured at that time and not cleared to wrestle and was asked to wrestle anyway. That makes TK look really bad and Meltzer absolutely fucked up by not reporting that part of the story.