Reel

I haven't seen it in years, but doesn't he kind of hold together his match at Survivor Series '87?

He and Mayweather sold a million ppvs on showtime, its not like they got the hair club for men guy.

I assume Logan is either cheaper or the one willing to do it, I don't think it's a binary choice between Logan or Jake. Say whatever you want about them, but they're better heels than anyone in wrestling, and they seem to understand that. And it's not like he's taking a spot on the card from anyone, if anything he's getting Dom on the card.

Logan 'fought' Mayweather

I thought the Edge promo dragged a bit, but otherwise, this Raw has been good. Bruce is on a heater lately.

not my nom, but the dates on two of those matches mentioned above vs Walter 1/14/21 vs Ilja Dragunov 4/30/20

Watching it back, it seems like he started bumping mainly on the one shoulder at one point, I'd assume because the other one was injured. It's almost like they're building to the main event of the biggest show of the year.

Very good main event. Brock rules.

Austin Theory disproving the Dylan Hales Theory for Beating Brock Lesnar.

Mad Cap Moss is tough as hell

It's almost like they've been building to Bianca/Becky since SummerSlam.

Roman/Goldberg. Decidedly fine.

Hoping the Karate guy from the last Saudi show wins the chamber.

The 'Austin level' thing is Meltzer's, so it doesn't have anything to do with Vince, plus it was a hypothetical.

I thought it was supposed to be a surprise on the same level as Austin, not the same level of star. That was my read on it, so my thought is that it's somebody from another company you wouldn't expect to show up. Not saying this is at all going to happen, but if Tanahashi showed up, that would be an 'Austin level surprise.'

I don't think calling yourself 'the other African virus' was ever appropriate

The last few weeks, I've been jumping around watching random shows from an old hard drive, and Orihara is maybe the wrestler that stood out the most. I think he might be the best loser in Shoot Style history. In Kingdom, he makes everybody look like a killer. He's good in trios matches on the Mobius, his promotion I think, against all sorts of people, and he's good in this duster 6-man I'm watching right now from a RJPW show.

hasn't that been his gimmick for years?

Creed Brothers by KO (Gutwrench through the ring, boards and all)

The issue with these 'gig economy' companies, is that their status as 'hiring agents' is in question. So sure, you provide your own car, but you don't exactly choose your own hours, because if you choose to work at a particular time, those companies can direct business to you or not, and on the basis of certain performance thresholds they track, which is why some states want to classify them as hiring agents and then that creates an issue of employee vs independent contractor. Again, these companies have largely won that fight by dumping a ton of money into ads against ballot initiatives, but it is certainly a debate.

They are classified as such, but people have fought against that distinction, claiming that they need the same benefits as employees, pretty much the same exact case people made for wrestlers. So far, status quo on that front. There was the whole deal with the California ballot initiative where Uber and Lyft spent a ton of cash campaigning and won. https://fortune.com/2021/12/28/gig-economy-uber-lyft-doordash-independent-contractors-nlrb-review/

I agree that by the letter of the law, WWE wrestlers are not independent contractors, but neither are Uber Drivers, or FedEx drivers, are plenty of other independent contractors who work for giant corporations, and when those people have challenged that statute in court, they have lost. So I agree, they don't meet the guidelines, but no one seems interested in enforcing those guidelines other than John Oliver. Any other examples other than Brock, almost 20 years ago, where he had to sit out of wrestling for over a year?

I haven't seen those, I'd be interested in seeing that. Either way, I would say the 'see you in 2 1/2 years' tweets mean they aren't easily voided in court.

I'm very skeptical that this is actually the case. I'm not a lawyer, I've never seen the contract, but this running assumption that these contracts are illegal and won't hold up in court comes from where exactly? Is it that people don't really understand what an independent contractor is and think it means you can do whatever you want or is it a Bix article or something? The idea that a billion dollar, publicly-traded company has every one of its wrestlers, the key drivers of their business, signed to illegal contracts that won't stand up in court for a second, I don't know, it just doesn't seem all that likely to me.

Gable is the MVP for TV Wrestling this year, was always a very good wrestler, but has become a great Angle-type comedy character with this gimmick.