C.S.

This week's Broken Skull Sessions on the WWE Network is with Kurt Angle, and it's shocking how lax WWE was about concussions as late as the early '00s. Nothing we didn't already know, but seeing the clips and hearing it all laid out really hammers the point home. They also missed/ignored a shitload of warning signs about Eddie Guerrero's heart-related health problems.

The Broken Skull Sessions with Stone Cold interviewing Kurt Angle is heavy. Multiple concussions, handled poorly with a "the show must go on" mentality - which was par for the course back then, but still - eventually ending up with Angle becoming a hot mess of drugs, painkillers, and mental issues. TNA allowing him four DUIs under their watch tells you all you need to know about how incompetent and uncaring Dixie Carter really was. If she wasn't malicious, she was at the very least harmfully naive. Was anyone fooled by her at any point? Kurt's crappy WWE return where he wasn't allowed to wrestle was heartbreaking, ending with a useless retirement match against Baron Corbin. Kurt was understandably hurt that the red carpet wasn't rolled out for him the way it was for Goldberg (who was mentioned by name, but Kurt said he understood why Goldberg was made champ). But considering how Kurt left the company (there's a story I haven't heard before, which I won't spoil), I can connect the dots and understand why Vince would be skittish to go all in on him again. I was reminded of Kurt's WM match with Shawn Michaels, which is somewhat of a forgotten unsung classic - although I'm sure everyone at PWO hates it because of Shawn. The build for that was fantastic, with great nostalgia overload. They also mentioned Benoit several times without ever saying his name, and Guerrero, whose name they obviously did mention.

To be fair, they're probably too dumb to realize what that really is. Wrestlers, by and large, are not intelligent people. We'd like to think they are, but when dumb dodos like Kane are lauded as among the smartest people in the company, that says it all. Any large group who uses "brother" and "daddy" in sentences unironically cannot possibly be intellectual.

Another sad example of the toxic WWE culture: Sami Zayn on assimilating to WWE culture: I still didn't have that realization, that heartbreaking moment where you realize, 'Oh, you can't just be yourself' because you have to put on this facade and if anything, that's a testament to how amazing my life was. I only learned that lesson at 28! Most people learned that lesson when they're six! More here: https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2020/09/sami-zayn-recalls-wwe-star-talking-to-him-about-being-675344/

Joey Ryan somehow looks even creepier without the mustache - with a shave, he went from gigolo rapist to serial killer.

I'm confused...

Because he probably hadn't.

Then you think all white dudes with mustaches and beards look alike.

It happens, but when combined with WWE's real life issues, it's a bad idea and look all around. Part of the problem is that they keep people in NXT forever, so guys like Murphy are seen as "young." This angle would not be nearly as problematic in AEW, where they have actual young guys. Marko Stunt texting Aliyah? Fine, because there's only a small age gap there.

No Raw Underground tonight. Has it been cancelled already? They always resort to cutaways like that when Ric is around because he presumably can't take bumps anymore.

Unless putting Lawler in there is a rib on him, which is something this company might think is funny.

This storyline sucks. If Murphy really wanted to win over Aliyah, he'd walk away from the match instead of, ya know, beating the shit out of her brother. But I guess Aliyah is supposed to be an idiot or naive child, or both.

Aleister Black shoulda wrestled with the eyepatch. He's back to being "just another guy" without it.

Murphy is a creep going after 19-year-old Aliyah Mysterio. I'm sure The King approves wholeheartedly.

In this case, your accusation is accurate - I quoted you from Bubba's post. Your longer take makes a ton more sense and I mostly agree. So, to quote the great philosopher Ron Killings, my bad. With that said, cousins do physically fight and scrap a lot - it's not hard to imagine that being taken to the next level by an insecure man who feels the pressure mounting of having to be the "tribal chief" of the family and put food on everyone's table - especially during a pandemic and especially after recovering from leukemia. Plus, as I and others have been mentioned, the "tribal chief" designation is very real in Samoan culture - and it is obviously leading to The Rock coming back since he's legitimately the High Chief of the family now.