Robert S

Plus Titan Towers seems to have to slowest elevators in the world. Also were the "thrown off the building" spots even supposed to be that? The helicopter shots they showed, for example immediately after the spots, clearly showed the ring 20 m or whatever away from the edge on each side. And what the fuck was with the hand puppets appearing around the ring in the Bray Wyatt match? This was "Warrior appearing in the mirror in Hogan's mind" levels of stupid.

I just watched the pre-match stuff and it sounds like (I am 90% sure) the crowd did not learn in 37 years (okay 30 years after it became official) to not sing the "Deutschland, Deutschlan über alles" verse of the German anthem (which was identified with the Nazi regime and therefore the anthem switched to using the third stanza). At least by 89 (for the Vader match), they knew that singing "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" was a bad idea.

I just flew a bit over the Strangler Lewis bio from Steve Yohe and yes, that is how it reads. I always thought that this was a bit hyperbole and there was a gradual transition without a hard trigger, but in the years after that debacle, Lewis actively began working as a heel (or at least put himself in situations where he was considered to be one). For example, about a 1920 match between Stecher and Lewis, Yohe writes: It might have just been a first step and much bigger steps were taken over the next 20 years, but there was definitely a radical change in those couple of years, at least on top of the wrestling world.

I would have said the MSG match, as I am not sure that without that match, the New Japan matches would have gone around as "viral" as they did in the early tape trading (and aspiring wrestlers) scene.

And there are also guys like Bruiser Bedlam. But these are more cases of horrible people who somehow are pro wrestlers. This show in most cases was about horrible stuff that happened within the pro wrestling world (with Dino Bravo being the only exception so far - even in Gino's case, his downfall was while he was an active wrestler and had lots of people of the pro wrestling world still around him).

I am not saying that I understand super-rich people, but why would someone in his mid 70ies sell the company that both of his kids and his son-in-law work for, with his daughter and his son-in-law being in high-level executive positions, just to have a 10-digit bank account (and not just a 10-digit portfolio)?

That whole "2:55 hour match" story always seemed weird to me: (1) The show itself would have gone at least five hours (considering that on the 3 h tape, they cut the Samoa Joe vs. Trent Acid match down to 1 minute and basically cut out all entrances, plus there was also an intermission). I don't know when the show started, but considering that it was on a Saturday, I am sure that they did not start before 7:30 PM or so. So did they plan the show to go past midnight? As the whole idea seems to be one that they came up relatively shortly before the show, they also did not adjust the start time of the show accordingly. (2) I did not feel like they were losing the crowd during the first fall. The crowd was into the match 35 minutes in like they were 5 minutes in. They were losing the crowd in the second fall, however (but at that point the decision to go home much earlier was obviously already taken). Regarding the down-time spot in the second fall: while it definitely killed the flow to some degree, the spot looked horrific enough, that you could easily believe AD to be legitimately being knocked out (at least if Gabe would not shouted "dangerous").

For a certain generation of wrestlers I can understand why they wanted wrestlers breaking in to be legit. There were people shooting in world title matches as late as the 1930ies, with Stanislaus Zbyszko beating Wayne Munn being the most famous one. And I would not be surprised if smaller scale shoots were still not uncommon up to the early days of the NWA. So people who broke in back then or at least got taught by people who had their heyday in the 20ies or whatever, I can see why they thought that a wrestler had to be able to handle himself in the ring. Later on, there was of course still the point that it would break kayfabe, if a wrestler got beaten up in a barfight (therefore the famous Bill Watts statement about who if you get into a barfight, you better win it).

Stu Hart is the guy famous for it, but I am pretty sure that beating up / stretching rookies was (maybe still is) standard in the wrestling business. Hogan cannot be the only one, who got injured on one of his first days of training. There are also more than enough TV squashes that are uncomfortable to watch regarding taken liberties, if you turn on your brain for a second.

To be fair, even scientists were (or still might be) going back-and-forth regarding the benefits of wearing masks (versus reduced awareness of keeping your distance, hand washing etc. because people might think they are safe just because they are wearing masks).

I don't know how the program in the UK is exactly, but a couple of European countries have programs where they support reduced hour programs. For example in Austria, companies can reduce people down to 10 % and the government pays the rest for a couple of months. Obviously, it depends a lot on the contract details as well. For example, if WWE declared NXT UK roster members as independent contractors, that kind of programs wouldn't apply.

It's possible that the reason that no NXT UK people have been released yet is just that it is not business hours in Europe currently and tomorrow morning (Europe time) people will get released.

I once went Go Kart racing and could barely move for one week after that. Also, for example during Formula One races, the racers lose I don't know how many liters of water in sweat (and not just due to heat).

Regarding Flair vs. Fliehr in the 30 for 30 documentary: his first wife (Leslie) more or less states that she married Richard Fliehr and over time he became more and more Ric Flair. There was no accusations from her or anything (anymore), just plain acceptance on her side that the man she first fell in love with and married does not exist anymore.

The sad thing is that Russo was the only one talking sense when speaking about Dr. Death. He was a broken down guy at the tail end of his career (without a big name on the national stage) who would at best have been a one-off opponent for Austin and a lot of other guys would have drawn the same in his place (and would have profited from it in the long run). I don't know in which universe that knockout cost WWF 5 million bucks (or whatever number Cornette was using).

How has no one pointed out so far the the Firefly Funhouse match was just an "Edge & Christian Show That Totally Reeks of Awesomeness" episode with higher production values? Any how did they not have Cena say "there are no Hulkamaniacs (or I suppose Chain-Gang?) here" at the beginning?

Kevin Owens apparently was watching the Dark Side of the Ring stuff recently, first he took what looked like an unprotected shot to the head (the stairs; his hands were done and stairs looked to be high enough to at least hit his head somewhat) and then did a balcony dive.

At least that match had the same heat as it would have had in front of a full stadium.

Commercial breaks are one way to fill four hours. Is it just me, or were there some really bad edits in that tag team match?

The sound mixing of the entrance is also completely different.

That smile though, god, that smile.

Give me Corey & Rosenberg back, if that gets Steph away from my screen.

I did not realize until now that AJ Styles is starting to look like Chris Jericho (while Chris Jericho is starting to look like Greg Valentine).

Same for me, on PS4 the "Continue Watching" bar is also gone (I can still access it via my profile, but still). That pre-show has being going on for 25 minutes and I already feel like I have been watching a 4 hour show.

Jeremy Borash being in WWE is what gives people hope that those two matches might be on the plus side.