MLB

Would you say that Punk's become a slave to the Judas in his mind?

Smackdown season premiere next week...officially clobberin' time? Do they announce Punk before Survivor Series?

Dragon Lee with Cameron Grimes seems lazy but Lee can't talk, I guess.

Funny the crowd was 80/20 for Lashley against Rey after the bell rang.

Awesome show that really inspired me to get back to my stuff. Very sober presentation of Flair to this point, much closer to his earlier persona. It's a striking contrast with how I'm booking Landel as a Nature Boy parody. Pillman is getting the rocket push regardless of who is in charge. We're all huge "Loose Cannon" fans here and this project allows us to imagine how things might've gone differently with hindsight 20/20. Martel getting a main event spot here was unexpected. The last time I recall seeing Martel wrestle was against Booker T in WCW, I don't remember much after his run as the Model. Seeing him booked here makes me think he could've had more to offer in the late 90s. I had the Harris Bros. on my draft broad, so definitely into them as a team and they have history with W*ING and Smoky on their resumes. Windham/Gordy and Dr. Death/Taz were both stellar choices, dream matches for sure. Interesting use of Storm as a Hart disciple around '96.

One could argue that AEW was stable during Punk and the Elite's suspensions...but the fallout was the talk of the wrestling world and there was still anticipation of Punk's return with the title that ended abruptly. In between, you had Ethan Page and Tanahashi challenging MJF for the AEW championship.

Give it time...I have a feeling Copeland is going to side with Cage rather than vice versa. The only direction to go now is a transitional heel title reign for Copeland into Cole, OC or Darby winning it.

AEW is still running shows based on ticket sales from when Punk was there, it's difficult to gauge how bad it could've been without the Copeland signing. Maybe it wasn't a boost to AEW but TK had to do something fast to stay above water. I feel like Copeland is a bigger name than people are giving credit, Cardi B knows Edge. You can't be a national company promoting a part-time Danielson as your top guy with Cody and Punk out of the picture. We've already had title runs with Moxley, Jericho and Omega. MJF and maybe Cole are the only ones that stepped up. People aren't paying to see Wardlow. I asked who should take the belt off MJF and nobody here really gave me a solid answer.

Great promo from Copeland, I thought. Adam's bringing very positive vibes and Tony must be happy as a consolation for the Punk fiasco. Copeland raises up the promotion by being there, I can't see why any AEW fan would bristle about him coming in (who are these people?). With Punk and Jade leaving and Dragon cutting back, Copeland is the knight in shining armor AEW needed.

I think the ordeal with Lesnar inspired Mox to focus more on MMA after WWE, and he's tried to add that dimension to somewhat mixed results. According to Jon, VKM told him recently that WWE took him for granted.

I didn't know AJ pushed for that, interesting. Clearly, Ricochet is important to WWE and HHH seems willing to die on that hill. Ricochet is somebody Ospreay has already worked with and established chemistry. For casual fans like Maria Menounos, that will likely be their first exposure to Ospreay and it will fully showcase his skills and make a mark. A lot of potential blockbuster matches for Will in WWE, too many to list.

Body breaking down = cash in now with WWE. Ricochet/Ospreay is kinda like Styles/Nakamura, WWE wants it on their big stage.

Yeah, it's obviously a forged announcement but the buzz is starting.

That's four months away, champ...Mania is in April. I was forecasting Rumble/Mania 2024. Connect the dots here.

So the pitch for NXT to USA executives is, "Look, NXT draws ratings when Becky Lynch and John Cena appear on it!" I hope USA sees through the charade and doesn't renew it.

I want to circle back to this even though nobody commented on it. As over as Max is, he's still something of a jacked up manager. He doesn't want to bump, doesn't want to fight. Max has said it a hundred times he wants to cherry pick when he wrestles. We got a mysterious layoff after his big semi-shoot where MJF went on "auditions" (ie, got on the gas). The reason we got BTYBB is because Max wanted to be in a tag team and mitigate the bumps. Fine, but give the world title to somebody that wants to wrestle and isn't consistently coming up with excuses to work around it (fake dives, bodyslams, double clotheslines and peacocking). Fortunately, it's over with the audience, to his credit he has pulled it off. However, if MJF leaves it will look stupid in hindsight as they've basically buried the world championship for a year with him. Is there another wrestler that actively avoided wrestling like MJF? Sid? Warrior?

If MJF is gonna insist on working a lighter schedule at this stage of his career than Brock Lesnar, then I'm letting him walk away. You got Mox, Cassidy and Jericho at 52 grinding but MJF works 10 singles matches a year.

Gunther and Ciampa ought to seriously bang, Ciampa is one the most underrated wrestlers in WWE and he will bring the fight to Gunther.

Damn I completely spaced on that...2012?!

I'm not sure if it's a case of VKM losing his touch or it is him being generous and cutting the guy a little bit of slack that left on great terms with a highly decorated career. Copeland's going into the WWE HoF at some point and it's wise business to keep it amicable.

I understand they're both from Washington and experienced loss earlier in life than most, but I'm not into Darby as a mentor to Nick Wayne and it seems weird. I would've opted for the Hardys with Nick, who I think very highly of.

Darby already had that moment, I wouldn't be shocked if they swerve for maximum heat with Christian retaining and then do a send 'em home happy dark match for the live crowd. Then again, I'm probably overthinking and Darby will go over. They already alienated Chicago to some degree and they probably shouldn't fuck around with Seattle like that.

Pure speculation...Ospreay's deal runs out in February.

I like Jay, but I thought he needed to bring a little more spice to that exchange and it didn't seem like he had been there before.

Yeah there's a lot of variables with Orton coming back, potentially Punk returning, and Rock gearing up for Roman by the Rumble. I could see Cena and Knight against Waller and Theory. My guesses: if Punk is coming back it will be a program with Rollins off the bat. I think Cody will likely be Orton's first opponent after returning to a huge pop and turning heel immediately. Gunther goes over Brock around RR/Mania. Cena will likely face Logan Paul at Mania. Ospreay debuts against Ricochet, Jade wins the women's title.