Embrodak

Yeah I was thinking this was probably not a point in their favor. The Confederate flag is always a racist symbol, but based on the rainbow coalition of wrestlers singing Jay’s praises, I think they’re maybe the rare breed that truly bought into the “heritage not hate” propaganda.

Also Drew rehabilitated himself without AEW, not his fault his coronation happened at the weirdest and most non-canonical time in wrestling history.

The Usos honestly feel closer to Sami than to Reigns at this point. Sami facing the Usos as currently constituted just feels so wrong as a denouement of the story. Plus I’m kinda tired of the schizophrenia of the forever tag champs being so skilled in matches yet so easily dispatched when acting as Roman’s goons.

Here’s an interesting question - who would Reigns have a better match with, Sami or Cody?

Honestly, I suspect the WWE audience that would turn on Cody like the audience turned on Batista probably doesn’t watch WWE much anymore. AEW is basically “Yes Movement: The Company” in terms of its demographic and product appeal. WWE has been doing a 22 year long winnowing of audiences that don’t go along with their booking plans. And let’s be real, Cody has done everything right in WWE that he did wrong in AEW; the highly imperfect WWE creative filter is perfect for canceling out Cody’s worst instincts. I also disagree that the Sami/Bloodline stuff has been perfect. I think some cracks started to show in the last week as it’s starting to feel rushed with Mania approaching. The Sami trial came somewhat outta nowhere, like a chapter or two was skipped, and doing Sami’s turn so soon after that somewhat blunts the sense that Reigns was narcissistically paranoid to have questioned Sami’s loyalty. Jimmy jumping right to violence while Jey was genuinely hurt and just had to duck out was a great touch, though.

I think Cody has a lot more good will than people are giving him credit for. That HIAC match was legendary. Edit: Maybe do Sami/JEY versus Jimmy and Solo? That’s a fucking twist!

Roman ain’t gonna job two days in a row. They ain’t giving Sami Zayn the “beat Roman’s streak” rub, no matter how over he is. I don’t think even Tony Khan would do that, tbh.

I’m honestly unsure at this point, the Usos are more connected to Sami than they are to Roman at this point. I can almost see an Usos face turn easier than I can see a Sami v Usos feud. Brock on SD tonight is the first time I’ve ever noticed him showing some age.

I think at this point, after all the packages, if Cody doesn’t win the Rumble, he’s kinda cooked. If you’re not gonna do Roman wresting both nights, I think you gotta do Sami screwing Roman out of one of the titles at Elimination Chamber so Cody still has a world title to chase.

Probably a no brainer business decision, but very very nice that WWE allowed Adam Pearce to be on the stage on Dynamite and record interviews for the RoH tribute video.

Moxley was clearly the most important wrestler to a promotion this year, but I just don’t think his wrestling is very good. In terms of who had the best matches, overall, I might have to say Dax Harwood. Dude had both the best tag matches of the last decade this year and a bevy of well-regarded singles matches. Gunther had a fantastic last half of the year, following his move to the main roster. He turned the IC title into a legit title for the first time in a while, and was big enough by the end of the year to be credible as an opponent for Brock, if rumors are to be believed.

Rock got injured the last time he wrestled, why the hell would he put his film career on hold, potentially for much longer than the time required for training for one match if history repeats itself, to go roll around with Cousin Joe? I’d say he’s cooked as a movie star at this point, the dude has *never* had his Rambo or Terminator role and is getting up there, but there’s always a lag between a new paradigm manifesting and on-the-ground reality comporting.

I think where they’ve kinda fucked themselves is Sami is now so closely identified with the Usos that them turning on him for a Sami/KO versus Usos match just doesn’t make sense. Jey fucking hated him and is now his biggest defender! Maybe they could do a thing where Roman defends each belt on each night? Defend against Sami the first night, have him win dirty but have the Usos finally break with Roman and save Sami from a post-match beatdown, then Cody comes in the next night and, Roman being Uso-less, finally loses one of his belts to Cody. Then you could have Sami win the other belt at the next PLE, cap that storyline without giving Sami the “beat the streak” rub, and finally give Roman a break to go away, do some movies or whatever, so he can come back and do something new for once.

A racist, a sexual assailant, and a rapist walk into a Raw taping….. Seriously! All things considered, I can aaaaaalmost grok inviting Lawler because the accusation against him is a lot murkier and less publicized, maybe it’s a flimsier charge than we on the internet know (has it been studied by an investigative journalist? Serious question), but Hulk Hogan is literally on tape, in a moment of post-nut clarity, saying the man his daughter is dating is an n-word and that her dating him is galling to him, and Ric Flair is just a total degenerate, in the non-reactionary sense of the word. We don’t need to see these tanner’s shop mummies putzing around and doing Vegas impersonator versions of the shit they did 40 years ago.

Looking back, I think “Fight on the Farm” has to be said to be the best “cinematic match”. Over the top, yes, but not goofy, no teleportation, no ice machines.

You know the main problem right now is they don’t really have a heel tag team with any juice that can get the titles off The Acclaimed. It’s not pressing, they can prob keep them on The Acclaimed until the summer and do these mini Jarrett/Lethal type feuds because they’re still way over, but Top Flight and Jungle Hook don’t necessarily have anywhere to go for now.

I think Jungle Hook is a great way to get Hook over and get him more experience in the ring without exposing his green-ness too much. Hookhausen was over, but let’s be real, Hook is not the kind of talent that you let pal around with the comedy goof on Rampage or Dark for a long time. He’s not experienced enough to be the “real worker” who leads the match and sets up the circumstances for the comedy guy to get his schtick in, and given he has genuine potential, it’s a lot more important to get him doing straightforward matches that will really build the muscle memory and intuition he needs to be a singles guy.

Yeah it was a touching tribute. Hearing how happy Jay and Mark were to get to work a match with their dad and how it was hot enough to break through the eye rolls of the smart NYC fans was nice. Got choked up a bit when Last pointed out that if the Briscoes hadn’t been kept off television, there’s no guarantee they would have even been in town at that time and place. Laughed at Corny telling the world to leak to him who the WBD executive who nixed Jay being on TV, even for a tribute, so he can use his platform to do targeted harassment, get sued, and tell them to their face that they can go fuck themselves.

Yeah but you hardly had to be understood as gay to be insulted and denigrated for perceived effeminacy in the South at that time, or almost anywhere in America outside certain neighborhoods in a few big cities.

Sure, but Shad can’t buy Tony a time machine. But maybe…. He can buy him a Big Red Machine.

Eh, Dynamite has been somewhat better recently, and maybe a heel Kingston can get some of his juice back.

You know it’s interesting how you can watch something as old as this and see things that, if you were wrestling, you might try to bring back for at least some matches. Drama over keeping both shoulders from touching the mat would be nice to see sometimes, if only to break up the monotony of the 2.9 count. Plus you could get a lot of fuck finishes out of that.

Looking at the intersection where it supposedly happened, it looks pretty country. Wouldn’t surprise me if the combined speed was like 120 mph or more.

In “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism”, Shoshanna Zuboff says Google exploded the use of split voting power stock offerings, which were comparatively rare before the 2000s, when they did their IPO, as the original founders wanted to remain in control of realizing their “vision”.

Seat belts becoming a weird culture war thing is a huge human tragedy. Honestly, fuck WBD if they put a kibosh on a proper tribute show. The man is fucking dead, his daughters are in the hospital, I have to imagine it would have meant something for them and for all of his friends in the locker room to get to celebrate him on the national stage he never got to perform on in life. Especially considering what we now know in the wake of the Me Too movement, god only knows how many predatory reprobates appear on that channel on a regular basis. They make a shit ton of money airing Seinfeld reruns, when he was dating a fucking high school student during a large portion of the making of that show, ffs.