Rah

Bucks are pretty en vogue with their fashion sense. I don't get the argument that they aren't. Fashion these days is really rather meta/ironic. There's a pretty heavily pushed Netflix drama at the moment with the lead character sporting what looks like a helmet haircut (bowl cuts are in fashion, too!). Just pop into a Zara and check out their catalogue pictures. Louis Vuitton is embracing geek culture in a massive way, too.

Did some digging on the Internet Archive and found a post: Slaughter, Warrior, Hebner brothers, Marty and HBK. I get "frat party humor" but how is any of this funny?

The Rockers - like, Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty? What the fuck.

You can still be outraged by something that you fully expect to happen. Besides, I think the issue of "it's been a thing forever, why no scorn back then?" sweeps these issues under the rug. It's whataboutism under a different guise. Perhaps people have matured since, perhaps people haven't but this show has given a platform for people to collectively unite against a very real problem in wrestling. Before, it was a subset of fans within a niche hobby reacting to yet another Flair story (or a couple posters replying to the latest update in a PWO thread [example]). The impact had no importance in the grander scheme because the majority discourse was still "Ric Flair GOAT". We now have a collective platform to rewrite that discourse and I'm happy for it. Terri Runnels saying that these things were normal and she was told to "no sell it" is heartbreaking. We can't change 2002, but if we can stop that in 2021 great! Is it decades too late? Absolutely. Do I care it didn't happen before? Yes, of course, but I'm so glad it's finally happening and I hope this keeps the ball rolling for all the other perpetrators in the industry. Fuck Flair. Fuck Lawler. Fuck [insert name here].

Rising: Meiko Satomura Stupendously great wrestler. Out of this world good across two decades and gets massive points for being a "plug-and-play" wrestler in that her story arcs are encapsulated within her matches (so you don't need to have "been there for it" to get them) and you can pretty much slap on one of her matches and find an at least good performance. Falling: Kawada Blaming this one on @elliott. He made a point regarding Kawada's selling being illogical and I just can't unsee it now - no matter how many matches I view. I do think he does a lot of things that make him great but his KO spot feels like doing cool shit for the sake of cool shit over functional narrative. The American indy guys get a lot of flak for "King's Road cosplay" but Kawada doesn't feel much different in that department. When you're looking at the upper echelon even the smallest quibbles make landslide differences. I don't think this is a small quibble, either.

Are you sure about that? I haven't seen him wrestling in donkey's years (because that guy can't wrestle for shit) but I vividly recall him standing next to Mike Tyson and being taller than him. He also had a time pre-big body around 2010ish tagging with LA Knight and he was around the same height (billed 6'1").

I want to say there was a post by @rovert that was all "hush hush wink wink nudge nudge" about there being a lot more to the story (difficult to work with?) but that might've been about another wrestler.

I'd imagine it's the optics of actively scouting and hiring someone they know is a racist. That was her last bit of "fame" in the press. Hogan and Warrior should never have been given what they were in the past decade but they're much bigger names in terms of their wrestling than what they've done/said. That is the sad reality. Lars was already employed when all that stuff was discovered, right? So there it's more an "aww shit, you know contracts and stuff, what we gonna do, brother?". It's the Chyna/Google test. "If someone sees we did X and Googles then what are they going to see in the first results?" There's nothing negative on Hogan nor Warrior (Warrior pulls up a "tragic death" headline for sympathy) whereas Tessa's first page is solely about her career faux-pas. The fact that the Usos are still a thing and their DUIs are used as jokes in programming is despicable. I'd imagine a lot of people who would jump on the "WWE hiring a racist" bandwagon don't even bat an eye to the Usos so WWE know they can get away with murder here. WWE has no moral high ground, it's money above all. Vince probably sees her as a possible star but the risks don't equate to the possible rewards.

Still better looking than someone walking out in their underwear to cut a promo. I've said it before, but the most refreshing thing about AEW to me is that these guys look and act like PEOPLE. Though it could just be that I'm from Africa and have done a lot of business with Congolese so I'm just used to Les Sapeurs.

Queen/Charles of wrestling indeed.

Throwing some more coal into the gossip train:

To be fair, I haven't seen AAA in a long while so it's both refreshing and unbelievably surprising that Konan has progressed away from that. I was fully imagining Bryan being part of this year's El Consejo/La Comision and having unending swerves with Dorian Trolldan and getting deathkissed by Pimpi.

AEW needs to better present the talent they have in their women's division before they bring in CHHHarlotte to run roughshod. I love Andrade but let's just send them to AAA and keep everyone happy.

If rumours are true, how is Adam Cole "no big loss" if Vince is shoving a million dollars at him to be a MANAGER?

Thinking logically, I believe: 1) Bryan is too expensive for indy bookings - but this is where we're going to get him delivering what we want 2) CMLL either don't know who he is or would book his tour in random trios matches before losing a hair match against Casas (not the worst but we want more singles) 3) AAA books him and he's in garbage match trios with tons of interference and it's a waste of everyone's time. 4) Tony being the world's best internet forum dork flies in these luchadores for nobody other than a small handful of fans' enjoyment. @Phil Schneider has his number, yeah? Let's do it.

Bryan idolises Blue Panther. I don't see this not happening.

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Please. For the love of God, please. I'm tired of having to trawl through that company hoping to find his matches. I'm happy people got their Punk, Danielson and Cole fix but this is my guy. I think he recently resigned until 2024/2025, though.

I get you can only do so many acrobatic flips, but I haven't seen any love for Reggie here in ages. Did he get lost in the shuffle already?

Try his match in Bloodsport. It's a doozy.

It feels like writers get the idea of what "the chase" is all wrong. It isn't having the eventual winner failing at every step before the villain gets their come-uppance. It's the bad guy reigning supreme before someone new knocks them off their throne. Dragon Ball Z is the world's worst example of the Invincible Hero but even that show had Frieza run through geeks before we got the showdown with Goku.

Fully agreed with @MoS I love stiff, uncooperative looking wrestling. Whether that's their angle or they had legit issues, this didn't come across as a stiff shoot. It felt like two far below average workers having a hissy fit and exposing that wrestling is fake (no it's not "still real to me, dammit"). The "scuffle" reminded me of that pathetic Hero/Kingston kindergarten-level pull apart on a PWG show many years back. They don't feel believable, they just seem like a couple of dorks who can't fight getting into it. We don't even need to go back to AJW, Meiko Satomura is on their payroll. Go watch her if you're wanting "stiff".

Both Cassandro (earlier this week) and Rush (last night) are in hospital - Rush having been admitted into emergency surgery. Not much is known at the moment but the family will hold a press conference Thursday. I hope this is nothing because I was looking forward to the real Ingobernables again.

The only thing we ever got was a 5 minute torneo in 2012. Never happened. Sorry