C.S.

It's not just me who thinks Hogan is good worker - I'm not arrogant enough to declare myself the final say on the matter - it's also other workers who think so. The Daddy comparisons, as you readily acknowledged, are absurd.

Anyone who says Hogan was a "bad worker" is someone whose opinions on wrestling I immediately dismiss, because they so blatantly don't know what the fuck they're talking about.

Just gonna say what needs to be said here: It should be Christian's picture and name first in this graphic. Christian has been in AEW longer than Copeland. Christian is a far bigger star in AEW than Copeland. Christian has always been a better wrestler, entertainer, and personality than Copeland, period.

I'm old, so... Who the fuck is Tom McDonald?

FWIW, someone on Reddit claiming to be a promoter said they tried to book Scarlett and she was "too busy." Grain of salt and all that, but it wouldn't surprise me.

You post this like it's a hot take and surprising revelation instead of an inevitability.

Which is ironic when night 1 was better in every possible way.

Not sure if Brother @Dav'oh is responding to my post specifically or in general. I get where you're coming from. But the issue is that Hulk Hogan and Terry Bollea were not separate entities at the end. For example, which one humped for Trump? Was it Hogan, Bollea, or both? So, how exactly do you separate the art from the artist in this case, when the artist stopped doing that himself long ago? P.S. Not important, but Gene, not Jean.

I initially thought you had linked to this embarrassing article by Ringmaster author Josephine Riesman, and I was ready to rant on it. https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/hulk-hogan-dead-anti-eulogy-josephine-riesman Full disclosure: I stopped reading Riesman's article almost immediately. Why? Because it describes Hogan as a "pot-bellied non-athlete with a handlebar mustache." There's a ton you can say about Hogan - all pretty well covered in this thread already - but "pot-bellied non-athlete" isn't one of them, lol. If you're going to get something so basic so wrong, I assume everything else is wrong too, and I'm not going to waste a single second of my time reading another word of something I assume is lazy and poorly researched. This now has me questioning what Riesman might have gotten wrong in Ringmaster. But I'm posting it the article here in case anyone else wants to waste their time.

You seem to be under the very misguided impression that I'm referring to the Tyrus/Thom Latimer version of the NWA. No, I'm talking about when it was cooking with Nick Aldis, Tim Storm, Kamille, Austin Idol, Eddie Kingston, etc. Lots of interesting workers and personalities to learn from at that time.

Everything you described is hearsay though, reported third-hand from dirt sheet carnies with an agenda. I don't take wrestling "journalists" seriously. TMZ and The National Enquirer have more credible reporting at this point. (They're sleazy U.S. tabloids, in case my meaning isn't clear.) The reality is: They don't know what actually happened between Ricky Starks and AEW, and neither do we. You're not wrong. But I remember getting lambasted on PWO for suggesting that he would've been better off staying in the NWA a while longer and getting more experience and seasoning. To be clear, I said this when the NWA was still viable. In retrospect, he wouldn't have wanted to be stuck there for several more years or anything like that, but I think another year or so would've done wonders for him. The pandemic fucked everything up though, so it is what it is.

What choice? AEW wasn't using him. Staying there and continuing to ride the bench wasn't a viable option, other than monetarily, and that was only a short-term gain.

Billy Bitchcakes has only himself to blame for burning the AEW bridge by calling it "too cheesy."

Bitchcakes Bill bitched up a storm to toady Ariel Helwani about how WWE handled his retirement. He also buried GUNTHER'S chops. Just total entitled asshole behavior. The only thing I agree with Goldberg on is what a joke it was that his speech was cut for a million ads. Either don't air it or make it a Peacock/Netflix/YouTube special after the show like the dumb "press" conferences are.

This show is probably fine, but four wrestling PPVs/PLEs in two days (with three of the shows being WWE) isn't it. Neither company understands the meaning of pacing anymore.