C.S.

Drew Gulak is back. He's listed as a Smackdown wrestler again on WWE.com.

Plexiglas is a smart idea, but are the "audience members" really six feet apart?

Speaking of which, I wonder if Taker has some sort of sponsorship deal with this company - because every shirt he's worn in this documentary is from them (with the exception of that amazing yellow Japanese Andre shirt).

I realize you're being facetious and asking a rhetorical question, but I obviously don't have the answer.

It's not black and white with Dustin, based on what I've seen on Facebook. He's a "good ol' boy" in some respects, but also has no patience for transphobia because one of his kids is trans. Edit:

No, I know what Blue Lives Matter is - and I agree with everything you said - I'm just wondering which shirts are actually Blue Lives Matter shirts. Because unless you know what to look for, they appear to be cheap, tacky American flag shirts you'd find at a gas station or a convenience store. (Again, a complete lack of honesty and integrity from the MAGA, alt-right, Blue Lives Matter, etc. cult - everything is "coded" and nothing is straightforward.)

I'm not sure what took me so long to start The Undertaker: The Last Ride, but I went through the first two episodes last night and will be watching the third tonight. As everyone else has already said, this is extremely well done and a compelling look at The Undertaker out of character. While he has "broken character" in the past, it was only for tiny clips on his wife's Instagram or whatever - never nearly as in-depth as this. All of the little backstage moments are cool as hell to see. I was surprised by the strength of the friendship between Vince McMahon and The Undertaker. It's one thing to hear about it and quite another thing to see Vince getting emotional and Taker admitting Vince is someone he'd take a bullet for. Michelle McCool also comes across really well as Undertaker's wife and the rock in his life, not to mention still being a stunning beauty. Some questions: - Was the Undertaker/Vince conversation about ending the streak shown or mentioned here? I kept looking for it, but I don't remember seeing/hearing it. I read about it on one of the newz sites and assumed it was from a recap of this show, but maybe it was from a separate interview he did? - What is the big hullabaloo about the shirts? Is there more than meets the eye to that black American flag shirt, for example? Not to sound naive - I am genuinely wondering - I know the MAGA alt-right operates in "coded" messages because they don't have the honesty and integrity to put anything out there in a straightforward manner. But...Pro Wrestling Only, so I'll leave it at that. (I love the hell out of that yellow Japanese Andre shirt though and want one ASAP!) - Was the Undertaker/Roman match really as bad as he thought? I remember it being a bit long and plodding at times, but more or less fine overall. Not a classic by any means, but not necessarily embarrassing either. He seemed really shaken by it though, comparing himself to Fat Elvis. As much as I want to see Undertaker for many more years, part of me think it's a shame he didn't retire on that note with leaving his hat and boots in the ring, because it was so perfect. Why? All of the ones I've watched on the Network have been excellent (Mark Henry, etc.). Some of the older DVD docs definitely smacked of WWE bubble ass-kissing and revisionist history though. Even the recent "Ruthless Aggression" doc had a bit of that (particularly the creative revisionism about changing WWF to WWE and "getting the F out" ). But the majority of the Network-era docs are actually fantastic - particularly the ones where someone dies and they have less than a week to put something together (like that Dusty doc). It shows you how good their video team is, because the quality is on par with anything from ESPN or HBO.

Elvis being racist was thoroughly debunked though. Chuck D passing along urban legends as facts doesn't make it so. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/shine-my-shoes/

You're not wrong.

WWE is clearly not all-in on Shayna to begin with though. As for Rhea, I don't buy for a second that she was ever winning that match. If Asuka couldn't even beat Charlotte to keep her winning streak, there's no way Rhea from developmental was winning. Having the match at midnight is what killed it dead with the crowd. Can't blame Charlotte for that. The fans were rabidly booing her during the build. I don't necessarily think she should have been there, but that doesn't mean we ignore the few positives she did bring just to accentuate her negatives.

Even though I hated the move at the time, if the original plan was Charlotte vs. Ronda, it does feel sort of unfair to screw her out of that. Plus, as much as a 1-on-1 match and feud between Becky and Ronda would've been more straightforward and less of a clusterfuck in terms of storytelling, some good did come out of Charlotte's inclusion - she added tons of heat to the match and Becky 2 Belts did feel special.

With the Lio Rush incident and now this, has Mark Henry gone off the deep end? To be fair, the full quote: “I was doing extra work for WWE in 2014 as a Rosebud, my costume of choice when we went to the costume section was Elvis. Backstage, Mark Henry sees me. He quoted an Elvis song and he said to me, “You know what that song’s about? Race. Because Elvis was an effing racist!” and like squares up to me. So I confidently looked him in the face and said, oh, I’m not Elvis… I’m the Honkey Tonk Man! He gives me a high five and an embrace and was like, I like that kid. I thought Mark Henry was the coolest guy ever after that, he was sound.”

Yeah, you should stop, because your name-calling makes you look like an immature child. You can get your bathing suit in a bunch all you want because I said Shad may not have had the luxury of swimming at an early age that you did, but that doesn't make my point any less valid. I also said that I learned to swim in the ocean at an early age too, so I have no idea why you took that, of all things, as an insult. I don't consider myself an ocean expert though. Avoidable accident? This isn't the Owen Hart situation, dude. Unless you were there, you have no way of knowing for sure. He had to make a heart-wrenching, split-second, life or death decision, and he chose to save his son. That's all you know. Nothing else. I don't care how much of an "expert" you are - you can't account for every variable when we're talking about something as unpredictable as a giant body of water, and you certainly can't speak authoritatively about a specific situation you didn't witness firsthand and don't have all the facts on. But hey, you do you, man, and keep throwing out words like "asshole" and "pally" unironically. I'll leave you to your gimmick. Have a nice day!

No worries. I'm on a cousins' group chat that's 1000x more savage than anything on this board. As for Lio Rush, I think he comes across as far more intelligent and, well, stable than Jim Cornette. I also think he comes across as the better of the two in his war of words with Mark Henry. The World's Strongest Man has now resorted to threatening a lawsuit after telling Lio he should've carried people's bags because that's what "paying your dues" is all about...or something. I love Henry too, and I hope they mend fences, but I'm siding with Lio here. I will agree with this. Even though I am a stickler for good spelling and grammar, some of the most intelligent people I know are absolutely atrocious when it comes to that.

Won't respond to your series of increasingly embarrassing posts in this thread or interject in your heated squabble with El-P, but thanks for explaining the origin of my frequent nosebleeds. Anyway... Can you link? I'm on Rush's Twitter and can't find the post(s).

Fourthed. As I was reading those posts, I felt super embarrassed for the people who wrote them.

It's mind-boggling what an awful, arrogant take this is.

Well, Matt Morgan was monumentally misused in WWE.

Re-posting this from the other thread because it really tells you what kind of man Shad Gaspard was. https://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/29194379/wwe-shad-gaspard-man-supposed-be Yet another pointless WWE breakup that went absolutely nowhere. Big E even said as much about WWE breakups (not this one). The company never handles them well, not everyone involved benefits from them (he used Rusev and Aiden English as an example), etc. That's why he's fought so hard to keep New Day together.

If there is pressure on Bret in that direction, I don't see him succumbing to it. This is a guy who gives no fucks and randomly shows up on an AEW show to present their belt, then back to WWE for the HOF and whatever else.

Seth Rollins on Jim Cornette: Not sure where the transcript is from - my friend sent it to me - but I assume PWInsider, which I avoid like the plague because the site used to contain massive adware/spyware. Maybe still does? I dunno... Update: Actually, it's from WWE Sheet.

Kevin Dunn was trending on Twitter.

Shad Gaspard's body was found this morning.