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"I could go by Cody Rhodes, I just don't want to because I'm my own man and don't live off my father's reputation. It's not a trademark thing, I swear." Goes on to be announced as Cody (with Brandi) Rhodes for a couple of years until he can secure the Cody Rhodes trademark, immediately uses it as soon as he can after swearing he wouldn't. Gets a wrestling show on Turner. Said promotion hires Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Dean Malenko, Arn and Tully, The Giant, Sting, Dustin Rhodes, multiple appearances from DDP, multiple appearances from Eric Bischoff, an appearance from the Rock N' Roll Express, Jake Roberts, multiple production people from the Nitro era. Within 3 months of the promotion being active they're running a "Bash at the Beach" event (in January for some reason) They announce their own War Games within 6 months of the promotion being active but end up having to postpone it due to a pandemic breaking out And now he's going by The American Dream for a weird xenophobic love it or leave it angle in 2021 Lol

I think his promos suck in the sense that 9 times out of 10 he comes off as much bigger asshole than the heel the promo is about and his go to is to shit on them in ways that just make them look second rate and there's nothing they can do to overcome the guy everyone knows is the boss saying guys are shitty mid carders no one likes. He also goes very heavy on self indulgent nonsense which makes him seem like an egomaniac if he's a face.

Cody online arguing with people on Twitter that "actually some people say it was the greatest promo of the modern era" without a hint of irony lmao

Jericho vs Cody vs Punk in a feud to see who can make the most lame pot shots at WWE/HHH

Quoting scripture at the president usually isn't a good sign

Well there's only one who is off by himself not involved with the others on screen in anyway for many months now

Ya boi is back Daniel Austin Healy on Twitter: "There’s a better, simpler rule: Don’t ever trust or listen to big pharma owned msm, politicians, scientists or doctors when it comes to my health. This charade is the most blatant and disgusting physiological operation of our time. Us tin foil hats prove prophetic yet again..." / Twitter Daniel Austin Healy on Twitter: "I seriously can’t comprehend what the fuck has happened to our civilization this past year. The amount of fear mongering trauma and brainwashing that has occurred has left a drove of people literally scared stupid...all while being convinced they’re the smart, virtuous ones." / Twitter Daniel Austin Healy on Twitter: "Just admit it, many of you won’t, don’t, or can’t think for yourself. You were never taught how to because the system never wanted you to. They’ve outsourced free thought, just like every other basic human survival tool, to make sure you remain completely dependent on them." / Twitter

It's actually exactly the kind of tone deafness I'd expect from a guy who started AEW by breaking HHH's throne with a sledgehammer and then getting an American flag version of his logo as a neck tattoo.

That's not been his gimmick in AEW at all. It kind of sort of was up to the point AEW started, but he's very much been corporate suit guy on screen in AEW imo.

I can't imagine anyone in any demo really wanting to also have to hear about political divide, broken system, racism, xenophobia stuff on a wrestling show in 2021. Not that wrestling has ever really avoided such things that were big in the culture discussion at any given time, but all those discussions usually weren't also in every other aspect of culture and entertainment as well. If you're a person who thinks "wokeism" is ruining America, do you really want to hear that promo on your wrestling show? If you're a politically active person who is involved in those discussions in all your other aspects of life, do you really want to hear that promo on your wrestling show? If you're a person who tries to avoid the discussion from either direction all together, do you really want to hear that promo on your wrestling show? There's zero way to have that promo on your show in 2021 and not make people mad or tune out regardless of what angle they view life from. It was just dumb from the start. Entirely tone deaf and not thought out from the jump. And all a just a hack way to have Cody have a reason to use the American Dream moniker...something I'm pretty sure he said he'd never do, but he's also doing it in a way that's 100% going to end up with the crowd chanting USA USA USA at the bad brown foreigner.

I think Kanyon might get my 100 spot

Bock Terry Funk Ric Flair Jumbo Tsuruta Are definitely on my top 10. I don't know where, nor do I know the rest. I need to dig into more 90s AJPW before I can accurately know where to put the Pillars as I've actually not seen very much AJPW between 1993-1999 that didn't involve Vader.

I'm sure they could cut him for any reason or no reason at all. Either they don't want to because higher ups agree with what he agrees with, they don't care, or they're worried it will draw more attention by firing him than just having him be a crazy guy but keeping their eye on him. Considering the NXT Champion and his significant other are also big on antivax, anti mask, Q related stuff, along with a top producer who works closely with both HHH and Vince, and numerous other talents have signaled their support for Q and Q adjacent stuff publicly online, I think it's more a mix of 1 and 2 than anything else.

Further catch up Ospreay vs ZSJ NJ Cup: I'm really amazed Ospreay didn't end 2020 with one or both knees exploded as his bulk did not appear to be a safe, slow bulk and he's still doing a ton of jumping/flipping/both while landing on the floor feet first, etc. It seemed to take him a bit to fully adapt to a heavyweight style and I see this match as more of a prelude to what heavyweight Ospreay could be more than anything else. Tanahashi vs White-O NJ Cup: Love Jay's shit talk of Tana's body but tbh I'd be much happier with Tana leaning into becoming a fat NJ dad type or later stages of Mutoh type than hobbling through his old spots. I don't think he's true NJ dad tier yet, but he's pretty close and has been needing to change his style to extend his career for at least 4-5 years. They've been kind of half heartedly doing the "Tana is old and busted" story off and on when it serves them for a few years now, but now he's at the point where he actually IS old and busted so they need to shit or get off the pot in regards to that type of story and booking, imo. Grabbing his saggy belly skin during an abdominal stretch on a dude known for his physique for so many years might be the most disrespectful heel work I've seen in years. I liked this more than Shingo/Tana but I don't know how much longer you can put Tana in these kind of matches. Then again I've been thinking that for years and is Tana even as bad as Mutoh seemed before the Shining Wizard phase added an extra what, decade of mostly very strong work? I also don't know how much more Tana could possibly put Jay White over. KENTA vs Shingo NJ Cup: This was fine I guess. The full speed murderous Pumping Bomber really should finish matches from time to time. The DDT no sell into a northern lights was something I'm not sure I've ever seen before and not sure if I really hated it or really liked it. Shingo vs Ospreay NJ Cup final: Some great stuff in this. The 450 through the table was nuts. I don't think it really came together as a whole match, though. Ospreay vs Ibushi: I feel pretty much the same way about this. Some great stuff but as a whole it didn't really flow well to me. I guess I'm wondering why Ospreay isn't just doing the heavy death strikes as his main offense as those are the things that 1. Look the best but 2. also are most effective for him throughout the match. I'm definitely done waiting for EVIL or Sanada to show out. Instant skips going forward regardless of opponents.

Drake is really a perfect candidate to fall for this type of shit and go off the deep end. Former hardcore junkie who went extreme the other direction into evangelism and himself in a business rife with debauchery and criminality that he can conveniently ignore and project on to this made up storyline. Essentially another worker who has worked himself into a shoot, brother.

This sucks. This show has sucked.

Yes. One of them does it well and the other is a cosplayer.

It's amazing how much better Nick is than Matt at what the Bucks characters in 2021 are trying to portray ONE OF THE GREATEST TEAMS OF ALL TIME IS NO MORE....so immediately throw it to the back and see a DIFFERENT team react and not even show SCU wave goodbye. Lol.

Lmaooooooooooooooooooo Cody really got a whole TV segment to announce he'd be going by the American Dream for the PPV

I'm proud to be an American promo in 2021 what in the world. No one wants to confront any of this stuff on a wrestling show and all that's going to happen is the audience is going to boo the other guy not because he's been beating up Cody but because he's trashing America.

The one where they literally did every spot from Onita/Funk including the post match. And now he's using the dude's entrance them, too?

The nerve of this fuck to come out to Wild Thing after the barbed wire match

Using the lost day from Pfizer shot 2 to catch up on some NJ matches as I haven't seen anything since WK Didn't even finish Tana vs Shingo. I do not enjoy seeing Tana hobble around like Terry Funk, nor do I like seeing him continue to do the HFF to the floor. I got probably 3/4ths of the way through and just was not enjoying it at all. Sho vs Takahashi: No idea why this needed to be a 35 minute EPIC junior heavyweight match where 80% of the match was throwing elbows like it was Shibata vs Ishii or something. Longest jr title match of all time and for what? Match barely went anywhere and easily could have been 15-20 and gotten the exact same thing across and been less of a drag. Ishii vs White-O Castle Attack: White has been the pandemic MVP for NJPW in my eyes, coming from a dude who didn't see shit in him for the past couple of years. Dude has really come into his own in such a crazy way. Real strong match, feel like you don't see a lot of matches in NJ built around mid section attacks. Real tired of Gedo bullshit, though. Naito vs Ibushi Castle Attack: Nice to see them structure a match around something other than trying to paralyze each other at least at first, but lol at Naito not knowing how to properly put on a figure four. The bloom has been off the Naito rose for me since probably 2018. Gedo's shitty booking made me lose all investment and interest in him. In general, I thought his technique was real loose and sloppy all match. Even his normal spots he'll do literally every match he seemed to be getting hung up on for some reason. Did like the finish of Ibushi just fish flopping into a pin, but otherwise boy do I never need to see them try to break each other's necks ever again. Ibushi vs Desperado Anniversary Show: This was pretty good. Never give Despy any time at all but this was actually a better story and better worked match than Ibushi vs Naito, imo. All the near falls and near tap outs actually felt more hype and realistic than anything in the Naito match, which is lol because obviously El Desperado was not going to become the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion under any circumstances here. I also thought this match did much, much more for the junior division than the 35 minute Time Bomb/Sho main event. KENTA vs Juice NJ Cup: Desperately hoping either guy gains back the momentum they once had. This was pretty good. Don't know why Gedo spent 3 years giving Juice this story of slowly rising up the ranks just to start him back at stage one all over again right as he was peaking and had the most crowd support he'd ever have. Okada vs Shingo NJ Cup: This was so much better than the match with Tana. I feel like I haven't seen Okada get fucking REKT like that since the Shibata match. This was really awesome, highly benefiting from not having 20 minutes of fluff in big Okada matches. Suzuki vs KENTA NJ Cup: I think it had been some 15 years since their one and only singles match, and they're both much different wrestlers. Suzuki for the better, imo, KENTA not so much but he was having an astounding run around that time that no one would be able to physically keep up with for another 15 years. I never would have imagined a news paper would be a focal point in a MiSu/KENTA match but it's been a weird couple of years for all of us. I just want to see KENTA mature into a new age lumpy grumpy Tenryu and it just doesn't seem like that is in the cards. Once in a while you still get flashes of the old KENTA, but rarely these days. Goto vs Shingo NJ Cup: Can't bullshit here, by the time I had watched this, I had taken a shot about the size of 1/3rd the bottle of nyquil 70% into KENTA/MiSu so I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention. It seemed like Goto probably had one of his couple of matches a year where he rises to the occasion but also seemed like he was kicking out of the same stuff that Okada was kicking out of and that seemed odd to me.

It briefly worked in his first WCW run. He also had a really good run as an earnest Southern white meat babyface late into his TNA run.

That's not really on him. He was performing to the best of his abilities of the garbage they gave him and was one of the very few things in WCW still getting reactions every week all the way to the end. Crazy house Ric Flair really isn't much crazier than regular Ric Flair by that point anyway. He had been acting like a lunatic on TV for most of the prior 10 years, and especially the 4-5 up to that point.