C.S.

Oh, King...

Serious Seth is somehow the goofiest version of Seth.

Uh oh... The R-word was mentioned. R meaning Ronda. Guess that is a work after all, to no one's surprise. (Even Nia Jax isn't dumb enough to legitimately say she'd sacrifice her job to pop Rousey "for real.")

The MitB qualifying matches are all predictable slogs with the same formula - one featured star vs. a total jabroni, and the result never in doubt. But Apollo Crews vs. MVP is a genuine surprise - I'll give them that.

Asuka is the best mic worker in the company.

I was PWO's biggest Asuka critic, but damn, Bubba, she has won me over 100%.

Drew McIntyre thanks you for the honor.

Yeah, no, Bubba - this is madness. I liked Bad News Brown as much as the next guy, but he didn't have a fraction of the talent, mic skills, and charisma that Austin possessed. That's okay though, because very few did or do.

Is it just me or was the Ric Flair episode of Broken Skull Sessions the weakest yet? Flair seemed to mumble throughout it (but he was still sharp as a tack, if that makes any sense), and nothing really new was revealed. Too much time was spent on his self-confidence issues, which was a drag, to say the least.

I have never believed that, not for a single solitary second. It doesn't pass the smell test for me. Burying them is yanking them off TV, period (which is exactly what happened this time). Putting them in "comedy" segments that resemble hundreds of other "comedy" segments WWE has run over the years, well, that's just par for the course. The Usos fared no better in those segments, and I'd argue ended up looking a whole lot worse than The Revival, as they succumbed to the common WWE trope of being faces who act like shitbag heels but everyone pretends they're virtuous anyway.

As terrible as those segments were, there was tons of similar segments in the Attitude Era. That's Vince humor, for better or worse, and he probably sees that stuff as a plus and a push. We'll see what The Revival can do elsewhere. AEW desperately needs them for their massively overrated tag team division, that's for sure.

The Vince airplane story and John DuPont ("Foxcatcher") stuff is notable, but I don't remember it being a great book in general.

They sound like a couple of generic late-'80s WWF Superstars jobbers. Absolutely brutal. I really hope Tony Khan puts his foot down and says "nope - we're not going with those jabroni names." But he won't. I wouldn't mind the '80s throwback names if they were actually, ya know, good. But they're jobber names you'd expect to hear along with Duane Gill and Barry Hardy on Saturday mornings. BTW, they were the first (and still only?) team to hold the Raw, Smackdown, and NXT Championships. Granted, that trifecta was never promoted, but it also lends credence to what I said about them not being used terribly, just not awesomely.

I was quoting Russo. Cornette's word doesn't mean much to me though. He's a known carny prone to massive exaggeration, and one of many in the biz who defends bullying or looks the other way. Plus, JBL could still very well bully writers, referees, commentators, and others perceived as "lower on the totem pole." Look at Orton, earlier in his career, whipping out his dick for a writer to "handshake."

Which is pretty much everything that's wrong with WWE then and now. As misguided as Brawl for All was, Bart winning was a genuine shocker and I was very interested to see what they'd do next with him - which ended up being a big fat nothing. A million people got hurt, and this company was still too petty and shortsighted to capitalize on making the new star handed to them in their laps. I'm not saying Bart would have become the next ace of the company or anything like that, but they could've gotten a lot more mileage out of him. I can't really blame J.R. for being salty. It was such a shitty idea, and it effectively ended Steve Williams' WWE career. J.R. had to feel for his friend under those circumstances. That's why it kind of sucked when Williams showed up in WCW with Oklahoma character mocking J.R. Business is business and all that, but I'd personally value loyalty over business, especially when it's shitty business like that.

Finally caught up on the New Jack and Russo/Cornette Brawl for All episodes. My thoughts: New Jack Gotta give Jerome Young this: if nothing else (and there really is nothing else), he is one charismatic motherfucker. Even when he does the most detestable things, you somehow want to like him. Sandman bleeding like a pig in the next match "to take the heat off New Jack" after the Mass Transit incident encapsulates everything that's wrong with him, New Jack, ECW, and pro wrestling. It was sad seeing New Jack (legit?) stabbing people in indie matches in front of no audience, with absolutely no "buzz" whatsoever generated by his criminal actions. Not from the documentary, but some other related thoughts: Bob Ryder, Mike Johnson, and those types will never have any credibility with me because they bent over backward to defend ECW after the Mass Transit incident. Remember the scene in "Beyond the Mat" when New Jack tried to become an actor and the gay agent in the audition said he saw New Jack as the best friend type instead of the star? I always wondered what an alternate universe with Jerome Young as a Hollywood heavy or buddy in action or rom-com movies would look like. I was there for the infamous New Jack-Grimes match in ECW - in nosebleed seats, which made the rest of the show terrible but gave me a perfect view of the scaffold. The fall really was as nasty as it looked, and what you probably didn't see on TV was Tommy Dreamer coming out from the back to check on them - not at all shocking based on what we know now of his behind-the-scenes role throughout ECW's short history, but definitely eyebrow-raising and eye-opening at the time. Russo-Cornette Brawl for All The Russo-Cornette bullshit was definitely much more balanced - and more relevant - in this episode than in the Montreal Screwjob episode from last season. Neither Russo or Cornette came off exactly great, but they didn't come off as badly as I expected either. I understand Russo thinking Cornette threatening violence over "just wrestling" is insane, but I also understand Corny being offended because wrestling is literally his entire life. With that said, violence is never the solution and printing out Russo's restraining order and selling it on t-shirts is the ultimate "rasslin' bubble" oblivion to the real world around him. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Russo > Cornette. Bart Gunn looks like a serial killer now. No judgment, just sayin'... I love The Godfather! Such a happy-go-lucky fun dude. If Russo wanted to humble the cocky bullying Bradshaw, just put him in a "Brawl for All" type of match against Dan Severn instead of designing an entire terrible tournament. There - problem solved! I'll be the Dr. Death Defense Force. He still mattered to me - remember, this was only a few years removed from his absolute powerhouse run with Terry Gordy in WCW - and I was very much looking forward seeing Doc mix it up and eventually face the other Steve Williams (Austin). Whether WWE lost five million on the deal is highly debatable and suspect, but they certainly didn't gain a damn thing from what did happen. Even if Williams wouldn't have been a main event star for years to come, I could easily envision a good 2-3-year run - like Ken Shamrock. In the "After Dark" extra on the Roku app, Russo blamed himself 100% for not knowing how to use Bart Gunn after the Brawl for All and apologized for his own shortcomings. Russo rarely admits wrongdoing, so I thought that was notable. I guess this squelches the "J.R. was mad his boy lost" theory...or maybe not? I do find it suspicious that the rules and glove size changed to favor Butterbean at WM15.

How is wrestling classified as "essential media"?

Abysmal names, but to be fair, Wheeler and Harwood are apparently their legit last names. They should've just gone the one name route if Cash and Dax were the best they could come up with... Oof!

I assume you mean re-signs. I agree with that. People like Mike Kannellis need to STFU. I never said WWE was the "land of opportunity" and I'm fully aware that the "brass ring" stuff is all BS. I'm just saying The Revival was used reasonably well - multiple title reigns, storylines, etc. - all things considered. I hope they're happier and used even better in AEW, but I can't say I care about AEW's tag division at all right now. Maybe these guys will be the game-changers in regards to that, maybe not. Japan was always an option though. Whether it was a realistic option based on NJPW's hiring practices, I can't say, but if CJ Parker can get hired and pushed after being an NXT jobber, I have to think The Revival wouldn't have had a problem getting their foot in the door.

Except they were used far from terribly. Were they used awesomely? No. But the same can be said for 99% of the roster. They were given multiple title reigns, used in storylines, etc. That's the best a tag team can realistically expect in WWE - unless the entire business is hot ('87 with the Bulldogs and Hart Foundation, '97 with the TLC crew). Which is a fair point about WWE and tag wrestling, but decades of history told The Revival what they were in for. AEW does put more of an emphasis on tag wrestling, but I personally find their tag and women's divisions massively overrated - especially the women's. With that said, AEW can build and improve upon all of its divisions - and The Revival would definitely be a nice piece of that puzzle for the tag scene.

They'll end up being just as unhappy in AEW. They seem like malcontents to me. You can certainly make a case for them not being used nearly as well as they should have been in WWE - but that applies to every tag team there, and really every wrestler there. The reality is, they were used about as well as tag teams usually are in non-peak eras - not great but not horribly either.

Jeanine Clarke's book might have a little bit about it, but probably not too much. I seem to remember more of a focus on World Class and USWA, but she was in WCW briefly. Wish I could remember more clearly what she talked about, but the book was very depressing and makes Austin look like a monster (even more than what we already know). https://smile.amazon.com/Through-Shattered-Glass-Jeanie-Clarke-ebook/dp/B01FFXV686/ She has since changed the name and cover of the book, so who knows what else was changed. I wonder if Austin lawyered up and got some of the more unsavory aspects of the book removed? That's just speculation on my part though - I have no idea if anything else actually changed other than the title and cover. Update: I actually posted about the book in detail. Hopefully it will help you...

Gargano and Ciampa are getting the whole hour? I'm a huge fan of their feud, and even that seems excessive to me.

Sure, if the episode was supposed about Russo and Cornette. Unfortunately for them, it was about the Montreal Screwjob. Yet, their unwelcome and mostly unrelated pissing contest took up the last 20 minutes of the broadcast.

And that is probably how they do see it. Plus, Heavy Machinery has a future as a pushed version of The Bushwackers with a few title reigns. It's a nice spot overall for Otis.