C.S.

I can't stand his mugging, but I do enjoy wild brawls and Finlay.

I watched the second episode of The Wrestlers last night, comparing a wrestler at the end of his career (MVP) to wrestlers now starting out (Sami Callihan, even though he's been around a while, and Shane Strickland). Damian does a really great job as a narrator and observer. In this case, it helps that he and MVP are actually friends. MVP has a similar story to Booker T (who also appears in this episode and was a mentor to MVP), and we get to see where MVP grew up. It's really compelling stuff. It also goes into the "generation gap" of wrestling, with old-school wrestlers and fans decrying the new style of Callihan, Strickland, and others - much like a typical PWO thread. (I thought Callihan was the drizzling shits when I saw him in NXT as Solomon Crowe, but I probably need to sample a larger body of his work - even though his facials and persona still remind me of a cross of '99 mugging Jericho and The Blue Meanie.) I disagree with the poster who says this isn't as good as Dark Side of the Ring. To me, it's much, much better. While Dark Side was hit-or-miss from one episode to the next, this has been consistently strong so far. The next episode is about Japanese women's wrestling, so that should be good too.

LOL. Well, I associate BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs together in my mind because of their famous cage match.

Or maybe the Crown Prince only wanted blonde women.

I started watching The Wrestlers last night. I am hesitant to compare it to Dark Side of the Ring too much, because it really is apples and oranges. I've only seen the first episode so far - Gabe Sapolsky and EVOLVE - and it's a fun look at some up-and-coming young talent like Darby Allin, Austin Theory, Fred Yehi, and Ethan Page. Drew McIntyre and I think Keith Lee were in the background for some of it. A.R. Fox was also featured as a trainer. Whether these wrestlers are as good, "groundbreaking," "revolutionary," blah blah as the documentary paints them to be, I can't say, but it was still a fun sneak peak into their characters, methods, and lives. The show almost lost me with a couple of big whoppers at the beginning. I only remember one of them: referring to EVOLVE as the #1 independent wrestling organization. If they're not counting TNA, ROH, and even the NWA as indies (and I do consider them indies), then yeah, maybe. Otherwise, no. That aside, I thought it was an enjoyable hour. The fan narrator actually does a pretty good job. (If he's supposed to be someone famous, I have no idea who the hell he is. But he looks like the average wrestling fan, so I doubt it. Either way, I like him - at least so far.)

Has anyone been watching The Wrestlers on VICELAND? Compared to Dark Side of the Ring, it has zero buzz. I bought the season when it was 99 cents on Amazon but I haven't watched it yet.

It's been weeks of these gibberish Black promos. If this is the first one you've seen, then yeah, maybe I could see how you might dig it. I must be old though, because I have no idea what "stan" means in this context, but I assume it has nothing to do with Lane or Hansen.

Befuddling nonsense. Lars Sullivan, on the other hand, is a surprisingly decent promo. Most beautiful woman in all of WWE, and it's not even close.

Even more bad pub for the trashy Ring of Honor. It's a huge thread, so click on the tweet for more from her.

WWE's lifeless programming has managed to make me not give a shit about Ricochet-Cesaro matches. Think about that for a minute.

Damn it, you saw and responded to my post before I edited Cena to Mysterio. Anyway, yes, this Bully incident is yet another disgraceful black mark against ROH. Even though I suspect everyone involved was in the wrong - Bully, the fan, the other wrestlers, arena security, ROH, Sinclair, etc. - I still hope the fan sues the hell out of Sinclair and makes out like a bandit.

They were more than just a sing along introduction. They were both great promos, especially during the break-up (which never should've happened). Fair enough point on drawing a dime, as barely anyone in WWE does anymore. Supposedly 205 ratings were up under Enzo, but that might be something I imagined or some bullshit he made up. Either way, John Cena Rey Mysterio (may as well use an example of a wrestler who is actually under 205 pounds) wouldn't be able to save that dead-ass boring shit show, much less Enzo. As for MSG, "with NJ" and "when Omega & the Bucks were still working ROH" are your key phrases there. Another promotion entirely, and wrestlers no longer with ROH, are literally what drew that house and made that happen.

That someone was me, and I stand by it. It's still the most exciting and talked about development that's happened in ROH all year (not counting this Bully Ray nonsense, which wasn't part of the show). Nothing ROH is doing seems to working, having any kind of impact, moving the needle anymore. Almost everyone there (with a few exceptions, like PCO and Silas Young) are second-rate geeks. Enzo and Cass can't teach any of the geeks how to wrestle, but it wouldn't hurt ROH one bit if some of their knowledge about character development, cutting promos, drawing money, etc. rubbed off on the rest of the roster. Instead, we're getting some garbage with Enzo and Cass challenging Jake and Logan Paul, who are spoiled, obnoxious, useless YouTube "celebrity" brats. Not my thing at all, but it will probably get publicity and be seen as a smart business move in retrospect. (Again, just to be clear, I can't stand the idea of it.) You're all living in a magical land where we're still in the glory days of Samoa Joe, Bryan Danielson, Jimmy Jacobs, BJ Whitmer, etc. That's long gone.

Debunked rumor.

I wonder if Seth refused to go to Saudi and they're covering it up with an injury angle?

The Corbin feud is for the dead end bloody money PPV, so it barely counts. Being Brock's chew toy builds up a future match, so it's fine - even if it's a match no one is particularly excited to see yet again.

Seth tries to cut "fiery babyface promos" but he just sounds like he's whining because of his nasally voice.

Alexa Bliss's new shirt is the best wrestling shirt I've ever seen, or at least the best shirt since the Attitude Era. Unlike most of WWE's merch, it isn't badly designed and embarrassing to wear.

I wonder if that's why Velvet never got serious consideration from WWE.

Speaking of verbiage, WWE quietly fired one of its all-time great voices. Okay, it was Peter Rosenberg. But still, I liked him better than Sam "I look like a bunch of rats shit in my bird's nest of a head" Roberts.

Even if the fan is 100% wrong, I would not lose a second of sleep if he brought down the insidious Sinclair Broadcasting or at least cost them a hefty chunk of change. Because fuck Sinclair. Hopefully AEW is paying attention to this kind of stuff and knows what to avoid. There's a reason ROH never became a major league organization and never will.

According to a CagesideSeats.com reader comment, "Something worth noting from Reddit Multiple fans in attendance said he was being obnoxious and doing jerk off motions to the women’s match, with uh… a lot of detail." I'm not one to defend Bully Ray, as I think he's a thin-skinned baby who can dish it out but can't take it, but I am not quite ready to blindly believe this fan either. With that said, while I don't feel like combing through 900+ Reddit comments to verify the accuracy of the above Cageside reader comment, I did find this: "He had a Twitter interaction with Velvet that she took personally back in March. I think they knew who he was and targeted him." So, who knows... Edit: Security taking the fan backstage to be confronted by Bully is ridiculous, out of line, and unethical. I hope the fan sues Sinclair and gets a hefty payday. Bully pretending to be a tough guy is hilarious from the outside looking in, but I can see how that fan would be intimidated. It's an uncomfortable situation at best.

I am not a sports guy, so I don't know how the teams are doing. I am sad that Blake Bortles is no longer with the Jacksonville Jaguars, simply because of the running joke on The Good Place. I am hoping for some good AEW jokes in future seasons. (There have been many great wrestling references already.)

Another lengthy Mox interview: https://25yearslatersite.com/2019/06/01/jon-moxley-has-a-lot-to-say-on-wwe-aew-japan-the-indys-more/

Tony Khan being dismissed as a "trust fund kid" is really lazy criticism IMO. He owns or co-owns two major sports teams. And he's a lifelong passionate fan of pro wrestling. Guess what: that's what you need to succeed in a wrestling landscape dominated by WWE - wrestling knowledge and money. Khan has both. So, what's the problem? This is clearly not a Dixie Carter situation.