PeteF3

Sting having to leave for rehab/personal issues came at the end of '98, when Bret Hart takes him out at Havoc. This departure was caused by WCW using up all (almost all) of the contracted dates for the year--I'm not sure when Sting signed his contract but it was doubtless before Nitro was a thing, and they didn't anticipate using him as much as they did when they agreed on that limit. The initial plan was only to get through the end of '96 but then it obviously just kept going.

May be a false alarm.

What is the Super J-Cast and would they know about this?

Creating "buzz" might work for a weekly show (wrestling or otherwise), but I don't know how a live incident that many people wouldn't and didn't see until after the fact is supposed to juice TV ratings. People thought Steve Harvey reading the wrong beauty contestant name was a work too--that was a big story for like a week and by next year's pageant it was forgotten about.

Ratings and PPV buys were in the tank when DX was running roughshod over television. It was Tyson and Austin who turned that around, not DX.

Just updating Matt Sydal specifically, he dislocated his knee a few weeks back so he's out for a bit (no ligament tears, fortunately).

It would behoove MJF to have Wardlow win the title, though. He still owns his contract and I don't see him just letting him out of it.

I didn't think it was a great show, but it mostly flew by. Wardlow's promo was a highlight. Britt's was a lowlight--just an absolutely awful reaction to the cage match stip, and a rehash of her promo from a few weeks ago.

As someone who's barely ever watched ROH I figured it out after Excalibur explained it. And I knew Punk was "going back to his roots" going by his promo a few weeks ago where he went back into the "I'm straight edge, which means I'm better than you" bit. If a Luddite like me who abhors hearing, "Well, it makes sense if you watch BTE" can get it, anyone can.

Callis showing up on the Buy-In had me thinking otherwise, though. Even his repeated denials that Omega was in the building seemed like a tease of the opposite happening.

There hasn't been an "...is #AllElite" graphic for Redbeard yet so, yeah, it seems like he's only in because they were expecting Fenix to be back and he isn't ready yet.

Now Dave has dropped the "plans changed" bomb. Apparently creative was told last night of a "definite change in Cody/WWE status." That's suitably vague as Dave does so well, but apparently on The Board he clarified that as of now, there's uncertainty that he's coming in.

RedLetterMedia sums up Edge's range (starting at 8:36 if it doesn't link properly).

I'm sad this thread didn't get bumped for his Oscar-worthy performance in Money Plane.

Tony Anthony was also a legit plumber.

Tony Khan is clearly deathly afraid of this promotion, hence his re-upping of Brian Cage for another year.

What was the giveaway that that was Matthews?

One of those things that they just didn't know about until they were out of theory and into practice. I believe they made a talking point early on that every decision made would be a unanimous one by all the EVPs--that lasted for about as long as you'd expect. If every decision had to be unanimous, nothing ever would have gotten done.

I know this may as well have been 500 years ago and not 34, but Dave wrote in the 1988 WONs that you shouldn't expect Arn & Tully to be buried or given wacky gimmick makeovers when they jumped to the WWF in 1988, because that would have killed the WWF's chances of grabbing Ric Flair. And as it turned out, other than maybe a wacky gimmick tag name, Arn and Tully were mostly left alone. So I don't really see Cody jobbing to Grayson Waller on NXT--they have to do right by him if they want to get any other major AEW talent to jump.

Yeah, I'm just not sure why they shouldn't be classified as such. They set their own hours, provide their own car, and aren't under a written contract.

Uber Drivers aren't independent contractors? Could you expand on that?

Sean Ross Sapp apparently said that yes, she is MJF's shoot girlfriend.

Is Punk really lifting entire sequences? It seems like he's more lifting the basic beats--plus he does it so organically that I tend not to notice until after the fact or if someone points it out to me. The Punk-Darby match aping specific parts of Bret vs. 1-2-3 Kid was a little more blatant, but that match is also a deeper cut that fewer people outside of our circle are all that familiar with.

MJF is definitely more loathsome than Dr. Baker, just for his conduct with Pillman's family.