C.S.

Which is ironic when night 1 was better in every possible way.

Not sure if Brother @Dav'oh is responding to my post specifically or in general. I get where you're coming from. But the issue is that Hulk Hogan and Terry Bollea were not separate entities at the end. For example, which one humped for Trump? Was it Hogan, Bollea, or both? So, how exactly do you separate the art from the artist in this case, when the artist stopped doing that himself long ago? P.S. Not important, but Gene, not Jean.

I initially thought you had linked to this embarrassing article by Ringmaster author Josephine Riesman, and I was ready to rant on it. https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/hulk-hogan-dead-anti-eulogy-josephine-riesman Full disclosure: I stopped reading Riesman's article almost immediately. Why? Because it describes Hogan as a "pot-bellied non-athlete with a handlebar mustache." There's a ton you can say about Hogan - all pretty well covered in this thread already - but "pot-bellied non-athlete" isn't one of them, lol. If you're going to get something so basic so wrong, I assume everything else is wrong too, and I'm not going to waste a single second of my time reading another word of something I assume is lazy and poorly researched. This now has me questioning what Riesman might have gotten wrong in Ringmaster. But I'm posting it the article here in case anyone else wants to waste their time.

You seem to be under the very misguided impression that I'm referring to the Tyrus/Thom Latimer version of the NWA. No, I'm talking about when it was cooking with Nick Aldis, Tim Storm, Kamille, Austin Idol, Eddie Kingston, etc. Lots of interesting workers and personalities to learn from at that time.

Everything you described is hearsay though, reported third-hand from dirt sheet carnies with an agenda. I don't take wrestling "journalists" seriously. TMZ and The National Enquirer have more credible reporting at this point. (They're sleazy U.S. tabloids, in case my meaning isn't clear.) The reality is: They don't know what actually happened between Ricky Starks and AEW, and neither do we. You're not wrong. But I remember getting lambasted on PWO for suggesting that he would've been better off staying in the NWA a while longer and getting more experience and seasoning. To be clear, I said this when the NWA was still viable. In retrospect, he wouldn't have wanted to be stuck there for several more years or anything like that, but I think another year or so would've done wonders for him. The pandemic fucked everything up though, so it is what it is.

What choice? AEW wasn't using him. Staying there and continuing to ride the bench wasn't a viable option, other than monetarily, and that was only a short-term gain.

Billy Bitchcakes has only himself to blame for burning the AEW bridge by calling it "too cheesy."

Bitchcakes Bill bitched up a storm to toady Ariel Helwani about how WWE handled his retirement. He also buried GUNTHER'S chops. Just total entitled asshole behavior. The only thing I agree with Goldberg on is what a joke it was that his speech was cut for a million ads. Either don't air it or make it a Peacock/Netflix/YouTube special after the show like the dumb "press" conferences are.

This show is probably fine, but four wrestling PPVs/PLEs in two days (with three of the shows being WWE) isn't it. Neither company understands the meaning of pacing anymore.

This is Goldberg's best match in years. Certainly his best WWE match ever.

The match stopped for a good minute and then Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaax Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu Priiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii won out of the blue when I don't think he would have otherwise. I fear it's a legit injury. Poor Seth. Rotten luck, right in the middle of his biggest push in ages.

A triple-header by the generous and benevolent WWE as they provide exciting wrestling action for all the poors who can't afford to drop $50 on AEW's offering. I figure one thread for all three shows is fine. I'm honestly not watching NXT - I couldn't even tell you what's on the card - but I'm curious about GUNTHER vs. Goldberg, and I'll check out Evolution in the hopes that it overachieves. I remember the first one being one of the best PPVs in years at the time, but that was during the dark senile Vince days.

Davey Boy Smith is the obvious answer since the Warrior trapdoor debacle ultimately got him hooked on the painkillers that cost him his life. The reverse of this question: Terry Taylor never should have left the NWA/WCW, and Owen Hart jumping to WCW when Bret, Bulldog, and Anvil did would have saved his life.

Ladies and gentlemen... TALLA TONGA (As generic as it is, I honestly like it more than the unpronounceable hard to spell Hikuleo.)

You're French, bro. You can't get over, bro. Neither can your temperature scale, bro. - Vince Russo, probably

I really want Miz to interfere and cost Punk the match, but that will never happen. Triple Big Nose clearly doesn't see the value in Miz that Vince did. Oh well...

I'm not exactly excited for the match, but my standards are much lower for something main eventing a regular TV show. Not like this is a major PPV PLE. I mean this is the same show where we got Hulk Hogan vs. The Genius.

I can handle GUNTHER vs. Goldberg as a throwaway main event for Saturday Night's Main Event as long as GUNTHER wins and Goldberg retires on a good note. I see no harm in it. Anything more than that, though...

I hope it's on purpose so Asuka can claim she pinned Jade (with the way Jade positioned the pin, Asuka's feet were on Jade's chest) and the match at SummerSlam becomes a three-way, which would only help its quality.

Yeah, so much for that...

Awesome Glacier-like entrance for Jade though. But I hope Asuka wins. Asuka vs. Iyo is a much more interesting match.

Dental pain is no joke! I hope you can get to Britt Baker or one of her assistants soon, @Dav'oh.

I thought Zayn vs. Kross was fun. Kross is more interesting with his character work and facial expressions now than he ever was in NXT as a Temu Goldberg-Orton hybrid - AND he took flat back bumps (so much for that dumb rumor).

I thought it was just me, maybe I'm tired, but I guess not. Very, shall we say, "methodical" match.