NotJayTabb

Here's a write up of it. Spoiler - it won't make you think "Maybe he's got a point here" https://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/joey-ryan-addresses-speaking-out-allegations-denies-video/#.XxPcivfTWDY

Chris Ridgeway, Dave Mastiff, Eddie Dennis, Grizzled Young Veterans, Kip Sabian, Drew Parker, Noam Dar, Rampage Brown...plus loads of guys who aren't as known internationally. Even in NXT UK, you're looking at Devlin, Banks, Ligero and Coffey who've been explicitly caught out, rumours about Seven and Wolfgang, and the rest (so far) seem to be clean. Which is still dreadful, don't get me wrong, but there's still plenty of names who aren't seemingly dreadful.

This has been cleared up as an innocent misunderstanding, where members of the UK PC were playing board games, one of which was Secret Hitler, sounds like mainly crossed wires

Yeah, Bryan runs away with this one pretty easily i think. He's a serious GOAT contender, and his career fits perfectly into the past 20 years - none of his best matches fall outside that time frame and he's been active for all of it, bar the injury and temporary retirement.

Cena donated $1m to the Black Lives Matter Foundation this week, so that makes it even less likely he's pro-Trump

I love that Escobar gave the impression following Drake's promo that he only spoke broken English before cutting his mini promo, thought that just added to the con. Hope this leads to Mendoza getting more ring time and kudos, he always comes off as a really solid worker in the 205 Live matches of his I've seen

I'd agree he's behind Jericho, Cody and Ambrose, but he's comfortably ahead of Brodie Lee

I'd be shocked if Adam Cole left for AEW. There's people who'll have been looking over to greener pastures because they think they've been misused, but Adam Cole should not be one of those people. He's the longest reigning NXT champion in history, must be getting healthy merch cheques for all the UE shirts they seem to sell, seems to be beloved by both HHH and Michaels, and has basically had an entire brand built around him for the past few years. As much as I'd personally be happy for him to leave NXT, as I think the combo of him, Gargano and Ciampa are the worst things about the show, he's surely going nowhere.

Jericho dropped an #AllLivesMatter on Instagram today, which is pretty disappointing. Especially after Randy Orton, of all people, came out on Twitter with a spot on rebuttal to the phrase

I think the only way you could get away with it is by booking an actual MOTYC as the preceding match so the audience doesn't feel let down by watching the show. Not sure what that match would be (some combination of Bryan/Gulak/Cesaro/Nakamura maybe?), but i think the troll move would work in that context.

This whole story is unbelievably tragic, just a really sad freak accident. It's been interesting to learn what kind of man Shad Gaspard was in life, as every Twitter post from people who knew the man is absolutely flowing with love for him as a person. Add that to finding out about him preventing an armed robbery in 2016 and of course the heroic nature of his death, and you get the picture of a friendly, kind, brave family man. A real tragedy.

Yeah, when you listen to Cornette actually break down a wrestling match, you can see his value far exceeds that of Vince Russo. For starters, Cornette hasn't managed to get a show kicked off a network with his mere presence like Russo does. But also, when you listen to him break down the psychology of tag team wrestling in his review of Omega/Hardy vs LAX, you can see his mind for wrestling. I thought him breaking down how a hot tag works, with how much offence the FIP should get before making the tag to maximise the drama, was genuinely fascinating stuff.

Corny also needs to accept that there's a difference between opinions and facts, especially when it comes to modern wrestling, which isn't his wheelhouse. Describing the 4-way tag at MITB as "John Morrison and 7 underneath guys" shows that Corny might be the only person in the world who thinks JoMo is a bigger star than Kofi Kingston or the Miz, and he really seemed to underestimate the popularity of the New Day as a whole. As I said, I do on the whole like listening to Cornette, but man my heart sank when this weeks Drive Thru included a MITB (though listening to someone who'd never seen a Tamina match have to review one of her matches was quite fun)

While working from home, I've been listening to a lot more podcasts, and for the most part, Cornette's Drive Thru is really good listening. As people have said before, when it comes to wrestling history or stories from the old days of wrestling, Cornette is hard to beat, and I've really enjoyed listening to him. When it comes to other matters though, you really wish he'd not be so quick to give his opinion. For example, his views on Becky Lynch being pregnant: “You can’t always be on top of the wrestling business in a $1 million a year spot or more, but you can [have a baby] — what is she? Can she be 30? Well, still she’s got many more years before the f*cking Easy Bake Oven gets shut off. She can have all those problems like a descended stomach and stretch marks and hemorrhoids and hormones problems and mood swings and all those other joys of motherhood later on WHEN SHE AIN’T MAKING A MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR!!! She’s got plenty of time left. What would you do if your wife came home and said instead of making a million dollars next year I’m gonna basically just be a raging bitch for the next nine months and then give you more shit to worry about around the house?!” I know this pales in comparison to other things Jim has said in the past, but man he comes across as an ignorant arsehole here.

Rhea tweeted a photo of herself in 2015 wearing a lower-budget version of her Mania outfit for a match, and openly stated it was Vegeta cosplay, so that seems intentional

They had a Poundland version of Su Yung on Dark this week facing Shida, the real thing would be a big upgrade

I've seen Stunt work heel before, and it was the only time I've ever found him tolerable. Stunt as a sneaky undersized prick, especially if they pair him with some bigger workers to hide behind, feels like it should be his long term direction.

Smart Mark tweeted last night that only Prestige, ICW NHB and Beyond are streaming on IWTV, which is a shame compared to last year's line up. The Collective isn't really good value for me at £130-odd, especially as I'll be spending most of Saturday at the football, so I'll probably just watch the 3 IWTV streams and use the rest of the weekend to catch up on other recent shows

I meant primarily in terms of laying out matches, but yeah, I guess the big difference is Omega worked DDT and Cole worked ROH.

Thinking about NXT last night, I'm wondering why it is that Cornette gives Adam Cole such high marks. Cole is every bit as dreadful a wrestler as a Kenny Omega, for example, making his matches needlessly long, always "getting all his shit in", throwing a leaping destroyer in as a standard 2 count move - all stuff Cornette professes to hate. Plus, considering Cornette rails often about wrestlers looking like they could kick your arse, Cole's build makes Kip Sabian look like Rob Terry.

This weeks show was down 100k viewers, which seems odd given the near universal approval that met last weeks show. Was there some big must-see TV on in America on Wednesday, or are AEW always going to have a fluctuating viewership for the time being?

I assume you're referring to Travis Banks? If so, that's actually a fern, which is the national symbol of New Zealand.

I do wonder how much better NXT UK would be if ICW's hot spell hadn't convinced Triple H that building the title scene extensively around Scottish wrestlers was a good idea, and instead had concentrated on the Welsh scene instead. I've definitely seen Big Grizzly have a better match with Walter than Joe Coffey did at the weekend.

In more great news for AEW, they can pick up the Ascension now too as they've just been released

At the moment... Roman Reigns - The Big Dog! Consistently the best member of the Shield for the past 4 years, he now feels very much back in the groove after his return earlier in the year. He seems relaxed, the crowds are finally on his side, his on-screen friendship with Ali and Shorty G has felt very natural and Keith Lee got more out of a competitive showing with Roman than he did by pinning Rollins moments before. A reliably entertaining presence. Mike Quackenbush - This is mainly because I saw him last week have one of the best matches I've ever seen live against Tyler Bate. This wasn't fun, exhibition submission Quack, it was "I'm totally going to fuck up your leg with a range of nasty holds" Quack, and it was excellent. Whenever Quack shows up nowadays, it feels like an event, and he's still incredibly fun to watch - the Thomas Santell match, based almost exclusively around knucklelocks ruled. Mike Bailey - I've seen Mike Bailey a lot in the UK this year, and he's always tremendous. He was the standout in a really great Moonlight Express vs Lucha Brothers match in Fight Club: Pro last week, just 5 days after an equally entertaining, yet totally different tag with the Anti-Fun Police at GOOD Wrestling. He's the epitome of a guy who's name you see on a card and you know he's not going to phone it in. The Bird & The Bee (Solo Darling & Willow Nightingale) - Maybe the best pure babyface team in the US today. Absolutely loved their title win against FIST last month in CHIKARA, it was a perfect storm of long term personal issues, an heroic comeback (after Willow broke her neck earlier this year), proper dickhead heels and a huge pop after a deserved face team victory. Just incredibly easy to cheer for, both really excellent at building sympathy and making hot comebacks, just a great team.