C.S.

Let's go through your post piece by piece: That's true about Bret, but he still had national and international television coverage then. Bryan, by and large, did not. Doing one-shots or a few tours in Japan in this era means nothing to me, because that's something every ham 'n hagger from ROH has had access to. Carving a lengthy career there is far more impressive. Of course, I am not blind to Bryan's talent at all. He could have been a top guy in Japan for decades if he wanted to be - assuming there were no "gaijin" or "Junior Heavyweight" politics standing in his way. So, who are the five teams ahead of them? They're easily top 2-3 in my book for WWF teams of the 1980s. I was genuinely asking. I still wouldn't hold it against Bret though. That schedule was grueling. Why kill yourself in Peoria when the fans of that time won't care or appreciate it, and Vince won't see it and reward you for it? I wouldn't. Yes and no. Bryan also came up in a system and among fans who actively cared about "great matches." Bret did not. He made fans graduate from the Hulk/Warrior type of match to appreciating his more technical style. I'd argue that what Bret accomplished was just as impressive in his own way. Also, he doesn't get that main event spot if he doesn't get over slowly but surely in the midcard/IC scene. Acting like Bryan was the only self-created star and Bret wasn't is a ludicrous myth. Yes, luck and circumstances helped Bret along (steroid trial, etc.), but the same is true of Bryan - that doesn't happen if fans don't completely shit all over Batista and a stale Batista-Orton main event. You are really starting to lose me here. Bret vs. Shawn wasn't a "real" feud because they ended up hating each other? Whaaaaaat?! They feuded for the better part of ten years, on and off - first with The Hart and Hart Foundation and The Rockers, after as singles in the IC Division, and finally as main eventers for the World Title. That is absolutely one of Bret's signature feuds. So is Austin. So are a few others. The Authority feud reshaping WWE booking is such a double-edged sword, but it would of course be unfair to hold that against Bryan. The Kofi feud was very good, but it was one and done. With that said, I'd count Piper as one of Bret's signature feuds even though it was also one and done, so I'll give you Kofimania because it was epic. We'll see if the Bryan vs. Roman feud becomes as epic as you're imagining, but most of what they've done in the past was pretty forgettable feud-wise. Doesn't mean I wouldn't love to see more though, because I absolutely would and I hope we do. This is where you've completely fucking lost me... No Wyatt match - I don't care who his opponent is - will ever be better than any Bret match. But I suppose that's because I saw Bret vs. Diesel (very good matches, BTW) as a kid. P.S. Starting a thread centered around a question and then sniping at someone who gives you an answer you don't like or doesn't pick the same wrestler you did is considered very poor form.

Are people really holding Bret's tag team run and lack of main event singles matches during that run against him? Come on. Different time. Different philosophy. He was never going to be pushed as a top singles guy in the '80s (even in the NWA) or given access to the quality of opponents Bryan was at that point in their early respective careers. Don't think it's fair to use that as a knock against Bret. Also, as others said, "have the best match" was the philosophy when Bryan was coming up. It was not the philosophy in three shows a night, twice on Sundays WWF of the 1980s. With that said, have we ever heard reports of Bret dogging it at house shows? IMO, compare their main event runs and go from there. For me, it's Bret. Does Bryan really have one classic, career-defining feud under his belt? Not in WWE. Bret does. Note: I said feud, not matches. Bryan has a ton of great rasslin' matches, but name his one defining career opponent. You can't. (And I don't mean what he did in bingo halls in front of 200 people.)

Haven't looked at the video yet, but I assume you mean Kofi Kingston? Eddie Kingston appearing on a WWE video for any reason would be huge news.

Interviewer: What do you think Herb Abrams would be doing now? Mick Foley: Time. (Laughter) Herb Abrams would be doing time.

Jon Alba too, before the idiot admitted he only skimmed the article, and then erased all of his tweets about it.

Is that real or just a fantastic and hilarious shop?

Probably should've done this days ago. He might still have a job if he did. What an idiot.

Fucking savage, LOL. On a serious note, I'm shocked no one is digging into Bruce's teaching career and looking for something. Not that I would seriously advocate for that - I most definitely would not - but Twitter being Twitter and sleazy, slimy, scuzzy rasslin' fans being what they are, I'm surprised. As for Mitchell making money from the Torch, who knows, but with his teaching career, I was always under the impression that the Torch was a side gig with very little or no money involved.

Nothing IMO. But Dave loves Bruce and even named "The Mitchell Rule" (or something like that) after him. I was thinking Bruce would be used more for the website - columns, podcasts, etc. - than the actual newsletter. When I last subscribed to the Torch a few months ago, the newsletter seemed like an afterthought - it was 90% show results and 10% old news - with the website and podcasts in particular being the real focus. I have no idea if the Observer is the same way now. The Torch was much better a decade ago and seems like a shell of its former self now - at least if you're like me and only interested in the newsletter (Torch Talks, once the bread and butter, are nonexistent now) and don't care about podcasts. Needless to say, I didn't renew after the month was up.

No idea why I ventured onto Bruce's Twitter (I don't follow him anymore). I'm too curious for my own good, I guess. He's posting song lyrics and, well, this... WTF is he talking about? @rovert

Sad to see it come to that, but Bruce doubling down like an arrogant twat presumably left Wade no choice. I assume Dave will scoop him up, which would be a disastrous mistake IMO, but he'll have to deal with those consequences (I could see AEW/Khan completely cutting off access to Dave - Meltzer Driver or not - if that happened).

Bruce is doubling down on his bullshit. Just awful. I am not one to say Wade Keller should "cancel" a 30-year friendship and business relationship, especially since Dave Meltzer worships Bruce and would probably scoop him up, but I'm not so sure that would be such a bad thing for Wade at this point (or a good thing for Dave).

Which is awesome, but the problem is, this is WWE, so there will be very little follow-up and no push of any kind resulting from this - just the usual 50-50 booking.

Cole used to work in TV news and I believe covered wars and things of that nature, so it's probably part of his training.

Sarcasm?

This dumb dipshit wrote a book called Shooters and now thinks he's one. (This is neither here nor there, but the book was a total bore - I couldn't even finish it, and I managed to finish Mayor Kane.)

I take it all back - Chris Hero looks fantastic in basketball shorts! Hero's level-headed tweet is refreshing compared to this astonishingly bad take.

To give him the benefit of the doubt (even though he has done nothing to deserve that), I assume he's referring to the new mutation in England that's more contagious but not more deadly.

Good call. I'm erasing the link from my post. Please erase it from your quote. Anyway, I just read it... Yep, absolutely fucking terrible. He's not wrong about the need for more transparency about Covid, but using that to launch wild conspiracy theories about Jon Huber's death is at best irresponsible and at worse libelous. Keller and Mitchell better have great lawyers. This is one time where trashy rasslin' "journalism" may actually have to pay the piper.

Based on my long readership of The Torch (although not recently), I can safely call Bruce Mitchell the laziest writer on the planet. Once a year, he will write something fantastic - the kind of stuff that has earned him a good reputation, above 99% of what else is out there for wrestling content. (Granted, not exactly the hardest hill to climb, but still...) Every other week, it's lazy, low-effort, sarcastic, condescending, shit-post garbage. This sounds even worse - like a lawsuit waiting to happen. WTF was Keller thinking, allowing this to see publication? Is it available on the regular Torch site, or locked behind the "VIP" paywall? Edit: I found it. Reading now...

Rowan posted. https://www.instagram.com/p/CJT2nzwjUAP/ I love this idea!

Watched the Broken Skull Sessions with Drew McIntyre last night... Pretty interesting interview, especially about his life between WWE stints, his early push, de-push with 3MB, wrestling during the pandemic, gauging fan reactions, his promos against Orton, etc. But I was pretty sleepy, and his voice honestly didn't help. Still, it was a good listen. You could play a drinking game for every time he said "thank you" after Stone Cold complimented him. Austin seems to be a pretty big fan of Drew's, which is cool.

Fuuuuck! https://www.instagram.com/p/CJSX4wzpYy8/

To be fair, so did everyone else. That hashtag is trending for a reason.

Stephanie just posted her condolences.