...TG

The guy is trying to be a media personality and was/is doing some pro wrestling training. It's not like he's Art Donovan.

Can't believe no one mentioned Jeff Jarrett's jacket, which looks as if Karen spilled bleach on it and it was too late for Jeff to find a replacement.

Where did this Shoemaker guy emerge from? I know he's been around for years now but it seems like he had a few years of relevance in like 2013 then faded away again. He started writing wrestling columns for Deadspin under a pseudonym, and Simmons hired him to write for Grantland. Since then he's become one of Bill's guys - Shoemaker works for Simmons' site The Ringer as an editor of some kind in addition to his writing. It's a shame he's so ignorant of non-WWE approved history as (IMO, of course) he's a very good writer.

Really, really indirectly. Sinclair has been an overtly right wing company for like, ever and has owned ROH since 2011. I mean, *Dalton Castle* is their champ now - Sinclair's politics certainly don't seem to be seeping into ROH's product. If Jay Lethal starts giving MAGA editorials instead of the knee brace ads, maybe there's a wrestling story here, but I doubt it.

Well, to be fair I see just as many folks dismissing old stuff simply because it's old.

To me, it all hinges on whether or not he's actually Japanese. If he's a fraud then obviously he should be banned. If he's not, we generally see Japanese wrestling (and lucha) from a foreigner/outsider's perspective - I'm very curious to hear how the actual audience views this stuff. I suppose he did get his back up rather quickly when challenged, but some of the challenges were rather intemperate too.

Bryan gives a great cool dad "I'm not angry, I'm disappointed" speech. And some great fire on his comeback. (I really should have went to Smackdown after the Bryan news broke.)

Given she was front and center during the Moolah tribute piece talking about how Moolah "empowered women", this seems unlikely.

Nice promo by AJ to start the show and an even better one by Big E, sandwiched with a good match. Hard to beat this first half hour.

Well, Mae was arrested at least once in the late '40s for beating up and robbing a guy she picked up. That's obviously nowhere near what Moolah did, but she's not some peaceful violet herself. (And if I'm being honest, it's kind of awesome, but still something we should at least frown upon.)

I'll second this. The first few episodes especially are great, with a bunch of rare audio of '70s Memphis. I'll also recommend #11, with a wheels-off interview of Nate the Rat.

The finish was silly (Cena getting superkicked into the ropes, bouncing off into Ziggler especially so) but I love the finishers all in a row spot they do in these multi-mans.

Shane is looking rather in shape tonight so it's probable he's doing something physical at Mania.

Great crowd so far tonight. They're even hot (ish) for this, which isn't all that bad, just boring.

Tonight's card: WWE Championship Six-Pack Challenge AJ Styles vs. John Cena vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin SmackDown Women’s Championship Match Charlotte Flair vs. Ruby Riott United States Championship Match Bobby Roode vs. Randy Orton SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match The Usos vs. The New Day Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Rusev Becky Lynch & Naomi vs. Natalya & Carmella Despite the terrible TV, the show will probably end up being good: WWE multi-mans are usually very well booked and Uso-New Day has been great in the past. Everything else is at least inoffensive, and maybe Nakamura gets motivated against Rusev? Plus, WWE production adds the "car zooming past" sound effect to all the graphics, which is a hoot.

Jim has been a weekend host quite a while on SiriusXM's "Outlaw Country" channel. His show is pretty good.

If you're going for sheer weight of numbers, when Stone Cold's music hit at WM 32 at Cowboys Stadium is certainly up there.

The R&R HOF is pretty dumb, but it seems to be based on a legitimate voting process - there's a committee that comes up with the nominations and then "Ballots are then sent to more than 900 historians, members of the music industry and artists..." It's more akin to the WON HOF than anything else.

Someone in the crowd has a "Kurt Angle looks like a hot dog" sign. I don't know if that's an original observation, but it is a very accurate one.

The second part seems to cancel out the possibility of the first.

Judging by this news I can only assume that Vince is dead and Hunter & Steph are Weekend at Bernie's-ing him.

That was a helluva promo by Roman.

It should be noted that she didn't have Moolah specifically written on her arm, just Chyna, Sherri, and Luna. Cole mentioned Moolah, which caused my confusion.

3-4 nights in a row in the same building might be a mistake. This crowd is way burned out.

I have been wondering all night what they would do musically if she showed. It was the right choice. They shelled out for a real song, that's quite something. This is real.