Migs

Looks like MLW will now be on Vice TV - if they link that up with Dark Side, it might move the needle for MLW a bit.

She concussed Britt Baker with a kick and then yeah, there was some weird thing after a match that I'm forgetting the details of. That's what I meant when I initially said it may have been an attitude issue.

That may have been part of it too. Even before, they were using her kinda sporadically, but yeah, makes sense that the Japan thing probably cut it off for good.

Chelsea Green - was on All In, signed with WWE before AEW properly got going Tessa Blanchard - was on All In, was locked up with Impact and then has completely dropped off Kylie Rae - the official story is she freaked out at the pressure and quit; given the similar thing that happened with Impact, I'm inclined to believe that Mercedes Martinez - signed with WWE Bea Priestley - seemed like a safety/attitude issue? Priscilla Kelly - no clue. Maybe her relationship with Darby ending had something to do with it? Allysin Kay - no clue, I think she'd be an asset I honestly don't remember Tenille doing anything with them, but frankly she's been pretty terrible every time I've seen her post WWE, so I don't think she's a loss.

Yeah, this has nothing to do with the booking and everything to do with New Japan trying to make up for capacity limits on big shows by running an endless series of Korakuen house shows. They must have made the decision that drawing whatever for these is profitable, but a New Japan house show without a title match is not a fair comparison to other companies' big shows.

I think right now, it's especially appreciated. Look at someone like Alex Zayne - he was literally doing delivery to make ends meet during the pandemic. While I'm sure he'd love to get a push in NXT, a six-figure salary is definitely welcome, and if WWE outbid everyone else, I absolutely understand him taking that money even if its not the best for him artistically.

If that's what did it (and it might have - unopposed nights in the past haven't ascended nearly that high), this could be a real inflection point in the story of the company.

As your resident tax guy, that's just the deadline for paying taxes on last year's income, so it's probably a coincidence. It's not like these cuts could even give them extra cash to pay their tax bill, since they usually pay people for the length of the non-compete.

That angle drew some crazy money in 2018, so clearly people want to see it, but it's a fair point that for anyone who's been following them for a bit, it's an absolute rerun (with Kenny playing heel instead of Cody this time).

They took a little too long getting there, but loving the flip back to the heel Bucks, especially without crowds. From a work perspective, they are much better heels than babyfaces (might be why they resisted properly turning in ROH for so long), and I thought the motivations made sense and followed through on the story nicely. They (and Omega) will get plenty of cheers still when there's a big crowd, but the Bucks thrive when there's a counter-energy to the cheers (see the old PWG chants - "Young Bucks!" "Fuck the" "Young Bucks!"). I was with the people last week who wanted the belts off them, but now I'm kinda in on seeing them defend against Uno/Greyson, SCU, Mox/Kingston, whoever.

It's all in the balance. I get why they maybe didn't want to do Jericho-Mox again when Mox's reign was gonna go long, but not doing a rematch on Cody-MJF was kinda ridiculous. And part of that was, I think, not having a PPV for it right away - they had the TNT tournament final at DoN (and of course, MJF couldn't be in that because of Covid), but then they didn't have another show until September and Cody was off taping Go Big, and when he came back they wanted to move to Darby... shit happens, but they probably have a slot for it if they have a July PPV and not just a TV special.

Thought this was an interesting quote from Seth Rollins regarding the way WWE is pulled between different parts of its fan base nowadays. Rollins was interviewed by Ryan Satin and made these comments (Fightful transcription) regarding fans at TV vs. no fans at Thunderdome. “I still think social media still plays quite a role in how shows are written and how characters are portrayed. (Not having fans) has allowed us to tell our stories a little cleaner in the sense that things aren't up and down as they may normally be. Whether that's good or bad, I'm not entirely sure. I miss the fans and live interaction, but I like being able to cut a promo and getting all the way through without having to side-eye the audience. It's nice to get a thought out without being interrupted by 'C.M. Punk' chants.” "Some stories have overstayed their welcome, but we've definitely been allowed to tell fully fleshed out stories over six or seven months that we wouldn't get through normally because a live crowd would force creative to change course. I had a blast working with the Mysterios, though things got carried away at the end. I was proud of the eye-for-an-eye match." While the match itself was heavily criticized due to the stupidity of the stipulation, the actual work in the match was great. Regarding the period just before he was turned, which was after his portrayal as a face in the feud with The Fiend just killing him, “It got weird and very odd. I would go to live events and the response was not what you would see on TV. The crowds were two totally different crowds. At a live event, the crowd would be 100% pro-Rollins and it was a party. Then we'd come to TV and the louder half would be down my throat. It's very confusing and sometimes I think it pushes our creative process in directions that maybe we shouldn't be going, but that's how the business is these days and you gotta figure it out and adapt.

Interesting to see the reaction for heel Reigns be kinda subdued, although I think that's actually a win for them - big pops for his two opponents, and the cool character hasn't swung Reigns around to being a bg babyface.

Kevin Dunn - millions of a camera cuts, but can't cut away from the maskless idiots in the crowd fast enough.

I do like the Weeknd song they're using constantly for these bumpers.

Biggest moment in Nigerian wrestling history since the Great Power Uti defeated Festus.

I came in somewhere in the middle of the women's tag, and while this hasn't been great, it also hasn't been a six hour death slog. Hope they keep going with the two nights.

You can find me wherever they end up doing Mox-Gage.

Tankman taking that burning hammer on the chairs was ca-razy.

I meant from a character direction standpoint... there seemed to be a lot of story in the Ibushi going mad with greatness/power ("I am God") thing they were doing, and that kinda gets cut off with the title loss. But maybe he just gets the belt back at Dominion and we continue from there.

It was a stunner. Really curious where they go from here with Ibushi. I thought the match was great, not an all-time classic or anything. Probably about the best Ospreay is capable of (against a non-Okada opponent), felt like it lacked a little in emotional story from Ibushi, but very much worth seeing.

How are these WHW episodes in which they're doing 86 Crockett? If Tony's telling fun '80s stories, I'm in, if they're doing a running stream of dick jokes, hard pass.

I think this is a good read. They haven't done much at all with Omega on BTE recently (even the interactions between the Bucks and Good Brothers are a few weeks back now). The BTE stuff has been more about Callis clearly getting in the Bucks' heads - particularly Matt.

To be fair, that was probably not on Scott. Crockett and later Turner were obsessed with expanding WCW outside the core markets instead of taking advantage of the places where they had history.

What this has really revealed is how dependent they were on outside talent to come in and freshen up the main event scene. Without the ability to just fly in a Mox or Jericho, they just don't have depth on top, and they've burned through a lot of story with their current top guys that are in the country. Add that to them running a million Korakuen shows to try to make up ticket sales on volume instead of quality and they feel really stale. The reason the 4/4 show is weak is that they need to save stuff for the 4 large shows they're running in late April/early May, plus the stadium shows, and oh by the way they're running like 8 Korakuen shows that need some kind of hook in April. It's too much. It might be making them a little money in the short term but it's really taking the luster off them, and I'm not sure it's going to be as easy as flipping switch when the restrictions are lifted.