Embrodak

I like Darby a lot, but I find myself genuinely uncomfortable watching him hurl himself onto a steel chair on the floor from the ring in a fucking Rampage match against Jeff Hardy like a week after he was an inch away from snapping his neck on the bottom rope because two big lugs rag doll tossed him eight feet in the air. Would Darby be any less beloved if he saved the big bumps for matches where they might actually get some heat, be memorable, and draw some money by the possibility of them happening? Is Tony insensate to how silly it is, even just from a purely financial perspective, to let one of your top babyfaces literally risk his neck in inconsequential television matches?

So actually reading through the complaint from start to finish, the case against Vince, Laurinaitis, and Brock is likely airtight, but I would need to know more about the relevant laws to determine the complicity of the remainder of the WWE. Based on what is alleged and included, it can be reasonably surmised that the executives knew that Vince had a sexual relationship with this woman and that he was getting her bullshit jobs in the company on that basis, the legality of which I know nothing about and which may be wildly illegal and categorized as a form of sex trafficking all on its own (again, not a lawyer), but there is nothing included that substantiates the claim that they knew that any aspect of this relationship was involuntary on her part, or systematically exploitative and abusive on Vince’s part. The point that they probably should have known or suspected due to this being a recurrent pattern in Vince’s life certainly holds some weight, but sugar babies are a thing, *especially* in circles where that much power and that much money are commonplace (I had a friend that tried getting into that, there are a lot of wealthy executive types with stupid amounts of disposable cash that get off on having someone in their life that is understood as purely transactionally connected to them), and depending on what people said in texts, emails, etc (which would come out in discovery, if the case moves that far), it seems like WWE could mount a plausible defense that there was no basis for anyone in a position of authority to suspect the darker and more fucked-up aspects of this (gang rapes, scat threesomes, trafficking her) were a part of this arrangement. That said, it would be entirely *unsurprising* to discover that the heinous shit was something of an open secret, but the lawsuit filing doesn’t really substantively demonstrate that the way it demonstrates and suggests possession of incontrovertible evidence proving that Vince, Laurinaitis, and Brock are sick, sick puppies.

The excuse right now is the investigation was conducted by a third party, but I gotta say, if I’m the board and I get a report where the NDA signer was not interviewed, I maybe send them back in the trenches before I accept it. Edit: This thing is such a shit show that I’m genuinely not comfortable assuming anything about who knew what and when until some actual investigative journalism and/or corporate insider leaks happen. Stephanie McMahon leaving the company reads as extremely sinister in retrospect in light of all this, but there was a whole lot of other creepy and abusive sexual misconduct that Vince was accused of that would have been more than enough to precipitate such a falling out, remember. The stuff described in this suit is illegal and heinous to a degree far beyond anything else Vince has ever been accused of, I would have to imagine that even exhibitionist, power-tripping douches like Vince and Johnny Ace would have kept certain aspects of it close to the chest out of sheer self-preservation instinct. Idk, just a terrible mess, I hope this woman gets the recompense she deserves.

Darby doesn’t need to slow down, he needs to stop taking wildly unsafe bumps in heatless matches. Dude almost broke his neck a few weeks ago in a nothing tag match.

Effect on the victim, yes. Potential implications for the rest of the company? Different ball game.

I will say that a lawsuit filing is by definition tailored to make all named parties look as much at fault as possible, so while the text messages are basically irrefutable if they are demonstrated to have come from Vince, claims of others in the company “knowing” may be overstated unless evidence in discovery demonstrates otherwise. Vince showing people naked pictures of someone understood as his mistress and getting “Yeah, she’s hot, way to go Vince” would not be tantamount to knowledgeable complicity in gang rape and sex trafficking but could be represented in a lawsuit filing as such. What a sick fuck, though. Does every billionaire want to be Jeffrey Epstein?

One thing I’ll say is it wouldn’t surprise me if Vince was lying when he texted her about the production people hooting and agreeing with him that they’d gang rape her. Any kind of investigation will have to deal with disentangling facts from Vince’s mind palace. Unless it was just like Kevin Dunn and Bruce Pritchard he’s referring to, that I would believe.

Goddamn, this is truly disgusting and heinous stuff. A concerted investigation into who knew what and when seems warranted.

I know nobody is going to watch Collision over *this* Rumble except the extreme diehards, but Bryan vs a 55 year old Nagata seems especially self-indulgent as counter-programming even with that context.

The Bucks are pretty bad at promos and acting. Also, that Hook segment was just so amateurishly done. Dude comes out in fucking sweats, sounds unconvincing and unconvincingly tough cutting the shortest promo possible, then Joe calls security and the three fakest looking security guys in a while come in the ring to get suplexed. Setting aside that they blew their wad on attacking security guards on a goofy comedy angle with Wardlow a while back, since when does the champ have the right to call in security guards to clear the ring? Why would a supposed babyface (even a badass, dark and brooding Sasuke-style babyface) attack three guys just doing their job when they barely did anything to provoke him? Is there no ambition amongst the young guys and backstage producers to try and make Tony’s half-baked deployment of wrestling tropes come across as somewhat credible? (Also the Hook signal is kinda lame, why does the camera pan up and zoom in on it every time?)

WWE really has had an amazing turnaround, it must be said. It still kinda sucks because of how homogenized and pasteurized it is, but it sucks the least I can imagine it sucking given the constraints it’s operating within. Re: the nepokids, they’re all pretty good at what they do. Rock’s daughter is still green as shit, but Dempsey is good, Cody is killing it, Orton got memed into being cool again and is still as solid and reliable as ever, Dominik is like the only actual heel in the whole damn business, Charlotte can go even though she’s overexposed, Pillman looks better in NXT than he ever did in AEW, etc.

I mean the dude has his choice of where to sign. If he thinks NXT is some kind of joke that’s beneath him, he’s free to sign with AEW, which is probably going to pay him more, anyway.

WWE style of working is very different than NJPW, not just in terms of the types of bumps that are kosher but in terms of timing, playing to the camera and audience, more defined babyface/heel dichotomy, etc. They’d potentially be setting him up for failure if they made a big deal out of him right away without first acclimating him to their way of doing things.

Suzuki is just so slow and lacks oomph, these days. I can’t really get excited for him.

Jacob Fatu as the outcast family member coming to get revenge would be so fucking good, dude. The Bloodline has had far more mileage than I think anyone would expect, but that would be a fantastic third act when they were getting ready to wrap it up.

The one thing I’ll say about Okada going to AEW is AEW is not that good at the pageantry aspect of wrestling, which I think is necessary for a guy like Okada. WWE wouldn’t assume that fans are already familiar with him and coast on his prior reputation, so they would work harder to make him look and feel like a big deal instead of assuming he already is one.

MJF’s reign just got completely derailed by the Adam Cole/fake babyface/Devil bullshit, to the point where they frankly could not have gotten the title off of him fast enough. I don’t care how much distaste one has for MJF’s edgelord stuff, it was infinitely better than bad indie wrestling comedy skits (no matter how over it was with the crowd; sometimes you legit just have to say no, you are wrong if you think you want this) and Black Scorpion Redux. The nice thing about Joe is he’s an actual tweener. He can tangle with either babyfaces or heels and it makes sense for him. I do not at all understand the notion that wrestling has transcended the need for babyfaces and heels or that AEW is doing some sort of fourth dimensional booking that obviates such distinctions, but if it were an industry of Joes, I might get it.

I quite like Aldis as the authority figure, him eventually getting into the ring to tussle with some mouthy whelp will be very satisfying.

Does Okada speak a respectable English? If he doesn’t, then realistically speaking, the Nakamura spot is prob the best he can hope for, unless WWE wanted to go all in on him and actually give the badass foreign heel a mouthpiece. AEW would push Okada to the moon regardless, and also let him fuck around wherever else he wanted to go.

Joe is also consistently moving the ratings upward in a way nobody has in months, which is genuinely heartwarming for some reason.

Hook is quite talented, but idk how AEW can ever make green talent non-green running the schedule they do if they’re not going to require them to work at least some indie shows on their off days.

Bryan Alvarez said he had multiple wrestlers contacting him and saying they find it embarrassing, which doesn’t surprise me.

Just watched Midnight Express vs Rock n Roll Express from May 1984, and what really stuck out to me is how much is lost in an era where the referees don’t strongly enforce the rules and keep on the wrestlers to adhere to them. I don’t think anybody’s clamoring for a return to announcers pontificating about whether a fist was closed or not, but it would be nice to have more procedural details and limits to get invested in like are present here.

Even if you like the Bucks, them as Sting’s final opponents just seems wrong on its face. If they’re not just gonna do Sting vs Darby because Sting can’t hack a singles match, FTR are the obvious choice for a tag team match.

To be clear, I wasn’t saying that shitposting will destroy AEW, so much as pointing out that the guy having a hissy fit about worked win-loss records and taking the time to toss off lame clap backs at cable network Twitter account shitposts is in charge of everything else, too. Also, whether it portends badly or not, Tony is pretty bad at posting, I’ve gotta say.