Embrodak

This is absolutely true, but it’s part of what makes him so compelling, to me.

Tony is a skinny, silver spoon motherfucker who has assuredly never had a fight in his life. “Feared for my life” is hyperbolic nonsense that I assume was to get Chicago to pipe down, but I’m sure he was genuinely scared that he was gonna get his ass beat. Shame we’ll never get a Re-up on the Punk/MJF feud, that was good shit pal.

Look if the more sensational reports are true, Punk pretty much had to be fired, but I’m not going to pretend his “toxicity” (another one of those horrible modern buzzwords) would make me not want to watch his, to me, obviously-superior-to-all-other-contenders vision of pro wrestling. Klaus Kinski was a raging psychopath and narcissist, but his performances for Werner Herzog are amongst the best in film history. Phil is over the hill athletically, but in terms of in-ring psychology and storytelling in and out of the ring, Danielson is the only real competition he had in the modern era, but Danielson is much less discerning in terms of what he’ll take part in.

I think he had visions of riding in and steering the product toward his vision of wrestling by sheer reputation and force of personality, and when he not only couldn’t do that but found that large swaths of the talent didn’t look at him the way he looked at Eddie Guerrero or Tracy Smothers, he just got progressively more pissed and despondent. I get that some people are tired of the bullshit, but even Punk’s pissy, persecution complex backstage persona is compelling to me.

It was in the Observer in 2020, so I guess not actually on the record, I misremembered the details. Anyway, guess I’ll just go back to watching old shit and catching YouTube clips from the Fed. Hasta la vista, Punk, you got me to watch a thing I wasn’t otherwise especially interested in. Re: “with cause”, Punk pulled this shit in gorilla, no? With Tony Khan right there? Punk would have to make a pretty strong fucking case for a hostile work environment degrading his mental state, and given his history of hotheadedness, I don’t think he would be successful.

Vince is back in charge, and he’s on record as saying Punk is someone he can’t work with. I don’t see it happening. Also NJPW can’t really pick him up if they’re going to keep having an ongoing relationship with AEW, can they? He’s pretty fucked, unless he wants to go to Impact or MLW and try to build them up as serious competitors just out of spite.

This pretty much kills whatever flagging interest I still had in AEW, as I really do not like any of the creative other than what they’ve been doing with Punk, but when I read that Punk had chewed Tony out and picked a big fight with him, I figured this was inevitable, if not now then later. There’s really no company remotely suited to Punk other than WWE, who I assume do not want anything to do with him, so this pretty much has to be it for him, no? One of the oddest codas in wrestling history, for sure.

My understanding was that Jacob had a criminal background that made the WWE not consider him. Was that bullshit?

What crime did Jacob Fatu actually commit that he’s persona non grata?

Adam Page wore butterfly pants. Every one of these companies needs a menswear expert on staff.

I think Gunther is going for a sort of generalized “Prussian martial virtues” vibe that unfortunately reads as Nazish in 2023. But it’s better than him being some kind of fat comedy scat-monger or whatever he’d be doing if he hadn’t gotten jacked.

MJF’s title run is a better title run, but Hangman was on top during a hotter and better period. Hard to say. I liked MJF vs Danielson more than either Hangman/Danielson match, personally.

MJF saying he’s fine with not main eventing because he doesn’t want to roll around in Moxley’s blood is pretty funny. Overall, seems like the company is kinda low on juice right now, despite All In selling great and the new TV deal. WWE has the hot hand, even with Vince being back, however reduced his involvement in the day-to-day.

Why is Bron staying in NXT? Seems like he was a natural for a call-up after Wrestlemania. Needs the seasoning experience of working as a heel, or is he too necessary for the ratings?

If CM Punk has contract leverage that allows him to go to bat for his friend, there’s no real reason for him not to use it. He bought Luke Gallows’ house for him, he’s ride or die for people that he considers friends at a given moment (had to phrase that very particularly to capture the frequent fallouts, lol). If TK is dumb enough to sign a contract that allows one of his talents to threaten a major new TV property, he gets what he gets. Spend your whole life geeking out about wrestling and running an e-fed and learn nothing from the long history of what happens when you give those kinds of concessions, just unbelievable that anybody ever considered him a great wrestling mind.

WWE entering the Byzantium era.

Yeah I really don’t think there is any evidence to substantiate the notion that Starks would be being used better if he were staying. I haven’t heard any chatter about Hobbs wanting to leave, and it’s been like pulling teeth to get him anything even approaching a decent push, even as part of a tag team, for years now, despite him being a significantly more complete worker than Wardlow (also not making noise about leaving, also booked poorly and inconsistently). If you’re not a top guy or Elite friend and not in Tony Khan’s immediate sphere of awareness and intentionality, you’re going to be featured inconsistently, period.

I just want the deets!

She says one is planned, that the reason it ended where it did is because the publisher gave her a word limit. I honestly think Vince slowly spiraling into mustache-culminating insanity and becoming an active and ongoing menace to the very empire that he built, and its employees, is as important to his story as the well-worn story of how he built it, and I’d love an oral history of Linda McMahon’s failed electoral bids, which I imagine would take the place of the childhood sleuthing in this one.

It really is amazing. Has there ever been a “top guy” that it’s less advantageous and more derailing to work with than Chris Jericho? At least the Codyverse was wacky and unpredictable.

Vince McMahon was the first and most successful Silicon Valley guy, in that he built his business by just racking up a lot of debt and hoping it would make money eventually.

I personally like “Voodoo Chile” best for Hogan. There’s something about themes where the tempo and timbre of the beat unintentionally matches the wrestler’s walking tempo and bearing perfectly, and that theme for Hogan was one of the best for that, at least in my memory. Plus the lyrics, very fitting for Hogan’s character in the later stages of his career. (Rusev’s theme was another one like that.) Also, Bray Wyatt blows chunks in the clear light of history, but his initial theme music was absolutely perfect.

Vince McMahon said the N-word on live television and made his top black wrestler stand there and say his catchphrase in response. I’m pretty sure it would not be hard to prove a hostile work environment, and I’m frankly surprised they haven’t been sued more often for that kinda bullshit.

He was apparently hanging out with Miz lol Is he still friends with Kofi?

Mental health needs to be destigmatized (though also demedicalized, tbh) but the fact that people have not clued into the clout-chasing aspect of major influencers and content creators being “open and vulnerable” about their mental health is odd to me.