C.S.

There's hopeful optimism, Bubba, and then there's whatever this is.

Dressing up as comic book/horror movie villains doesn't make Retribution any better. What an ice cold DOA act.

Aren't both of those useless geeks also anti-facemask types who feel they shouldn't have to care about other "unhealthy" people?

Austin Aries with a half-assed, half-baked statement about the Chrissy Hemme incident: https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2020/09/austin-aries-responds-to-being-called-a-sexual-harasser-675007/ I was going to say, "Can this guy just go away?" - but it sounds like he's done with wrestling, thank fuck. If only Austin Aries was anywhere near as good as he thought he was, he'd be the biggest star in the history of wrestling instead of a bland geek who never lasts long anywhere and is impossible to invest in as a fan for that reason. (Ditto for Low-Ki.)

Another sleazy promotion...

Renee Young on her "meeting-in-the-hallway" style first meeting with former boss Vince McMahon: "Little me is walking around backstage with a clean face, squeaky clean, and he comes walking down the hallway, and I'm like, 'Hi!' And I don't remember who it was with him, but they said Vince should not see you without makeup on. You should be fully done...He would not remember that, but I just remember that happening and I had not a clue that that was how it's supposed to work." https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2020/09/renee-young-recalls-weird-first-meeting-with-vince-mcmahon-674898/ This company, man...

The Pat Laprade Andre book is once again $5 on Kindle. I subscribe to the Kindle Daily Deals mailing list, and a new thing they're doing is giving out credits for books they think might interest you based on what else you've bought/read. I just got a $6 credit for Rowdy (the Piper book written by his kids), which brings the price down from $12.99 to $6.99. I was waiting for it to drop to $5, but it has never gone below $12.99 on Kindle since its release four years ago, so I may just buy it now at this price. Has anyone else read it?

The Sept. 9th issue (yes, I'm a week behind) was more of the same + two misspellings of Swole in the same review and a column presumably by Greg Parks that ends with a footnote about Bruce Mitchell, so it's unclear who actually wrote it (but probably Parks). What a sloppy shop. Far cry from what the Torch used to be. It's kind of sad to see. The site is dominated by audio shows, which I have no interest in, so maybe I'm just not the ideal audience for what the Torch is now.

Aren't there like 6 or 7 seasons? I heard the final season is terrible, but this is the first I'm hearing that it was terrible for a while before that.

I will eventually watch it, but the problem is, I've been spoiled on so much - King Joffrey, Red Wedding, Jon Snow, and now The Mandalorian.

Googling "Pedro Pascal unhappy with The Mandalorian" leads to absolutely nothing, so... Without spoiling anything, the Season 1 finale features the Mandalorian character without a mask for some of the episode and it's impactful precisely because we hadn't really seen him without it other than in brief flashbacks. Considering that the mask is a central part of who he is, and there's a whole mythos centered around Mandalorians keeping it on - sort of like luchas in Mexico - I find it hard to believe that Pedro Pascal would willingly compromise his character for ego reasons when he would've known all along exactly what the role entailed. Plus, it's not always him under the mask - stunt doubles do some of the work - but he is the one getting the lion's share of credit and money. Sounds like a sweet deal to me. Being upstaged by Baby Yoda might irk him - who knows - but I'm sure he understood beforehand that the Star Wars galaxy is home to a number of popular creatures. As for Game of Thrones, I've never seen it, but Bubba kind of gave away what happens to Pedro's character there. And yeah, Hollywood is far sleazier than wrestling - Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, the "casting couch," you name it - but the benefits are obviously still much better. Even if you're "blackballed" by a major studio head, you can always find work in independent films, direct-to-DVD flicks, or work the Christian movie circuit. In wrestling, up until recently, it was WWE or nothing if you wanted a full-time career in the U.S. It's better now with the emergence of AEW and various indies, but even that is still a far cry from a Hollywood career - whether you're an a-list star or your movies are found mostly in the Walmart bin or Dollar Tree.

Really hope this is a bad rasslin' joke and not anything that's actually rumored. If there's anything to it, the main actor is an idiot, because he will never, ever in his life get anything as good as this again. The few moments we've seen him without the helmet have all been very impactful. Less is more. If he's sore about being overshadowed by Baby Yoda, well, that's life.

They are fucking with Lee (or the fans) at this point.

This isn't going away... Andrew Yang On How A Joe Biden And Kamala Harris Win Could Help WWE Wrestlers

I read that years ago and remember it being fun and pretty much what you’re looking for. But just to be sure, see if you can find sample pages from the book or a YouTube video of someone flipping through it.

I thought Lawler was doing a podcast with Sean Reedy? I could be wrong and thinking of some other Memphis wrestler. Reedy also did a podcast with Jerry Jarrett until 2019 (or at least that's all iTunes has) and is very good and underrated. I've listened to his Jarrett podcast but not his second one with Lawler or whoever I'm thinking of. Either way, if Conrad did one with Lawler, you know 90% of it would be Attitude Era because Conrad has shown very little interest, knowledge, or aptitude for anything he didn't grow up on. Now, maybe I'm wrong and Conrad was somehow a diehard Memphis fan as a kid, but I kinda doubt it. Conrad is good, but he definitely has a wheelhouse that he sticks to. And Foley strongly opposed the recent WWE rule change about outside projects (along with politician Andrew Yang, actress Lea Thompson, and Batista).

I kinda liked The Librarians...

You're defending Russo-style promos in 2020. You realize that, right?

Punk answered a bunch of questions on Twitter. This response... Oof! More here: https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2020/09/cm-punk-talks-current-wwe-standout-674645/

Mike "I.R.S." Rotunda is officially gone now. He was originally furloughed on April 15th, which is tax day in America. Guess they don't care about keeping Bray and Bo happy. (Is Bo even still with the company???)

The fact that I couldn't finish it really says a lot, because I have a high tolerance - I got through the Mayor Kane book and I'm powering through one of Jesse Ventura's political books (it was briefly free on Kindle, so I grabbed it for the hell of it), even though I don't align with the politics of either. Jesse does have some good ideas and points, but then goes off the rails in other areas. But has he? The tweets we're all talking about are days old. With that said, I know nothing else about the guy other than this recent gaffe and his book, so I have no opinion of him personally.

Gerald Brisco has been released after 36 years of service. This company really has no shame.

I don't remember other ex-WWE wrestlers in AEW cutting a LOLTNA promo like that. Podcasts don't count. I'm talking about TV. (Edit: I missed the Zack Ryder debut promo, but it sounds equally as terrible - and he already has below zero buzz, so it's not like that worked well.) As for Miro coming in as a best man for a wedding: While the whole cuck dynamic with Sabian, Ford, and Janela does nothing for me, Miro obviously came in this way by design to poke fun at his last notoriously bad WWE angle - which was a terrible wedding and cuck angle involving Lana and Lashley. Reminds me of Bret Hart coming as a referee in WCW because he was screwed by one in the WWF. It's not great.

Abysmal shit. I'm in disbelief that they didn't learn from LOLTNA's mistakes when it comes to this stuff. It's especially disappointing because AEW has had the good sense not to fall into that trap for the most part.

If I were Uncle Dave, I'd contact the local PD wherever Roidback lives and get him thrown in jail.