Embrodak

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.

Cena was obviously a better “Top Guy”, but Bret is very obviously the better wrestler and performer. He didn’t have Cena’s gift of gab, but his promos have actually aged much better and are a lot more credible than most of Cena’s.

I think Jericho at his peak was a much better, smoother, more athletic worker than Punk at his best, without question. Cornette described young Jericho as being like a gazelle, and that’s accurate. Even at his best, Punk has always been sloppy and awkward, because he’s an athlete by necessity, not by nature. Punk is a better psychologist and has a much stronger persona, as shown by the fact that his “reinvention” is basically just him modulating various characteristics that are present at all times in every incarnation. He made it look somewhat credible-ish that he was fighting pre-Beast Brock despite having one of the worst physiques in wrestling; he had one of the better Streak matches against Undertaker; he was one of Cena’s best opponents; he had the best feud in AEW history, and the matches did deliver, even if they weren’t top-shelf. He hasn’t needed gratuitous props like jackets or The List or fireballs, hasn’t needed to dress in goofy outfits, hasn’t needed a thousand nicknames, hasn’t needed clout vampirism, and hasn’t claimed to have been abducted by aliens to throw his wife off the scent of obvious infidelity. Jericho’s promos haven’t aged as well, either. Yeah, Punk has an all-time cringe line with “Phil Brooks talking to Paul Levesque”, but Jericho’s got way more low-level cringe, on the whole.

Conversely, I strongly dislike “Carry On My Wayward Son” for The Elite. It has nothing to do with them! An underrated theme is Jake Roberts’s heel theme “Trust Me”, a piece of music just dripping in atmosphere.

If Sammy isn’t doing coke he’s even more of an idiot for the dangerous shit he does in the ring. I can almost forgive it all as the excesses of a nose candy habit.

Redoing Ali vs Inoki, but so nobody gets hurt.

I think Punk is gonna be in the Punk-verse and won’t sniff the top title again. He doesn’t need it, and it creates way too much bad blood. Featured headliner on the secondary weekend show is perfect for him.

I think there will be smartly deployed crossover.