strobogo

Kimberly in the period with Johnny B. Badd might be a top ten all time most annoying humans on a wrestling program I've ever seen.

I think you can be pretty certain that "We gotta keep the Bellas happy" does not factor into any potential WWE/NJ relationship

Yeah super important to keep two retired women who are not employees and have no power within the company happy by....letting Daniel Bryan work New Japan?

It being 2021 and athletic commissions enforcing gimmick match stipulations for real lmao

Yeah this is how I feel, too. Plus so many of the big names in AEW were already in NJ against all of those same guys, or currently working with NJ anyway. There are only a handful of AEW guys that I'm interested in seeing in NJ (and it's really mostly just Rusev). Whereas with WWE, there are a whole gamut of potential matches up that could be great for everyone involved. Of course, I wouldn't expect said relationship to last very long before being completely blown up.

That's how he acts in 1995/1996 at Savage and Sting just saying they want to be WCW Champion, not even asking or demanding a title shot from Hogan. Just that they want to be champion. And Hogan's reaction is like it's some ultimate betrayal. And then when either of them actually receive title shots, he does everything he can do to tell them how unfair it is that he's not the one getting the title shot (even though he DID get a title shot during this time and didn't win the belt back). Crowds are booing him, his friends are calling him out for his behavior, but the announcers still act like he's the most heroic dude in history and it is so incongruent with everything he's doing on screen.

It's really astounding how unlikable and terrible Hogan is in late 1995/early 1996. There's all this great stuff with Sting/Lex/Savage and then Hogan is just this supremely whiny asshole always bitching about his friends' success and title opportunities even though he also gets a title shot immediately after a suspension which happened because he flipped out and attacked Giant/Nick Patrick/Doug Dillinger with a chair because Flair/Giant got title shots while being on probation like him. I've never seen another time where the other top faces repeatedly verbally put the actual top super face in his place for being a shithead. There's two incidents that particularly stand out: Hogan basically calls Macho a schemester bullshitter who stole HIS title shot for HIS title that still has HIS name on it, despite being a fucking loser who just lost to Lex for the 4th time. Macho's reaction is more or less "hey we've been through this shit over and over, get fucked, I got the title shot and I'm going to win it" and walks off and Hogan is going "HEY GET BACK HERE, YOU'RE MY FRIEND" like an absolute insane person in context of the shit he just said to his friend. Then the week Macho DOES win back the title like he said, Hulk immediately comes out celebrating like he won, which Savage directly calls him out for and completely puts him in his place, Hulk basically threatens him again, then YOU'RE MY FRIEND, BROTHER. The way this all is going really feels like Hogan is about to turn heel during this period, because there's really no other excuse or explanation for his behavior other than he's about to turn on Savage (and Sting, to some degree) over the title. Although it is in the nature of the Hogan character going back to the start of WWF Hulkamania to be a garbage friend intensely jealous of any of his friend's success who then sabotages them and for some reason the friend is always the heel in the feud that Hogan wins and moves on. But at this point, not only is Hogan immensely unlikable as the character in the storyline with other faces, but most crowds around the country are booing him anyway. Was there talk about turning Hogan around this time that he got cold feet about? He's actually way more heel acting and a real fucko than he was during the Darkside Hogan period shortly before.

What stand out matches does he have before 2000? Dude straight fucking sucked for his first 5 years in WWF.

HHH is a guy I think should be on the list easy. I think his reign of terror is actually very underrated and he had a lot of very good to great stuff during that period. I even like the HHH vs Nash feud for whatever reason. Shao Khan HHH having a ROH match with Bryan at WM was pretty awesome. And there's a lot of really good stuff in between there. But then I start to break down what he did and I'm thinking....well, he didn't do Harley as good as Harley. He didn't do Flair as good as Flair. He didn't do HBK as good as HBK. He thought he was doing it better than all of them, but he certainly wasn't.

I don't want Joe to go back to TNA ever again. It doesn't matter if there's been multiple regime changes since then. Those last couple of years of his TNA run were so depressing. I don't want him to have to return to the scene of that crime. However I'm also not really interested in him popping up in AEW, either.

Bro fuck Gedo, he's been the most boring booker in the world for 6-7 years now

I'm currently doing a book club deal rewatching and rating segments on early Nitro and PPVs (personally I'll probably stop at the end of 1997 but maybe push through 1998 if Thunders are up by the time we get to it) and I'd say his ring work was actually very good during the time as well. His body looks like absolutely dog shit, though. I didn't remember him looking that bad physically until 1997 after the shoulder surgery. However he's going 100%, maybe 110% every time he's on screen no matter the person on the other side of the ring, or what or who the promo is about. He's pulling out every trick he has every time he's on screen and is wildly entertaining.

I feel like NJ having 1-2 match cards and the rest being filler holding pattern bullshit + Bullet Club nonsense going on years and years past expiration point have been the main knocks on NJ for like....idk 5-6 years. Also the let someone cook, get them as hot as possible, then cool them off for a year and put the belt on them a year after people stopped caring.

That seems like an issue to take up with the Japanese government, not NJPW. But didn't Ospreay move to Japan full time 2-3 years ago? And also Dave is always wrong about NJ scoopz anyway.

Demi Lovato is publicly very religious and was taking trips to Israel to get baptized in the same river as Jesus like in the last year. The D-O-Double-G must not actually know what the fuck secular means.

Cass' body is not a steroid body. He just cut out booze and got his diet in check and has a bad spray tan. That's a 100% naturally attainable body.

Velveteen Dream is finally booted, too

The storming off during the meeting was actually about HHH mentioning all religions are welcome, apparently

Jessamyn Duke isn't a surprise at all, she didn't work at all last year and had moved on to doing web stuff for WWE. The one time Marina Shafir has turned up since 2019 she had a different partner.

Flair in 1995 is more unhinged and absolutely batshit insane than the actual "Flair is in an insane asylum" period.

What system carries TBS but not TNT?

Rey the GAWD, raising Eddie's son as his own and trying to get him over in WWE

Tony's genuine excitement and enjoyment of his job is actually my favorite thing about AEW. Legitimately. Not enough to watch either Dark show, but when I do watch AEW Tony is my favorite part.

So you mean...as if he were Cody Rhodes then

Oh shit I forgot a TV Championship and a dog collar match lmao