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Maybe people will actually walk out during the Mania main event. Not that it would be a first for Roman Reigns.

Heyman knew nothing at all. Sure. The guy closest to Lesnar for years. A pathological liar if there was ever one too. The timing of Foley ending his podcast surely is interesting too. Maybe he thought it was time to wrap-up the days of telling good ol' stories about the Attitude Era. Of course, Bruce Prichard chooses now to go into surgery. I wonder if his podcast is gonna go dark too. Then you get stuff like Torrie Wilson saying how mortifying all those bikini contest were, how she saw one performer almost in tears at a house show. And how Vince wanted her to do the Sable "paint job" spots and a special PPV after the Playboy shoot. I sure hope the floodgates are gonna be washed away. Janel Grant's attorney talking about being flooded with people coming forward attesting the "culture of corruption" that is Vince's McMahon's WWE. We're way past the point of "cognitive dissonance requested".

This. SO this. And yeah, Cody and his idiotic #FinishTheStory stuff not happening again is legit funny as fuck.

Cheh ! As we say in France.

They had relationship dating back to the NJPW days. So yeah, blame the Young Bucks. Which you would do anyway. Numbers went back to normal after Omega was not around anymore, basically. So yeah, it was a short term boost, it did not sustain. There was quite a bit more interest again last year for Bound for Glory too, whether that was Trinity or the entire promotion getting a bit of traction. Actually I do totally agree with this. I loved Lucha Underground for this very reason, it was very different in term of presentation, although obviously it was not a documentary style show. Lot of people did not like the supernatural, comic-book aspect of it, but to me that was what made it so different. It was not a pro-wrestling promotion, it was a TV show based on pro-wrestling, basically. You could picture some other pro-wrestling show with different kind of approach and presentation (documentary, comics, whatever). At one point IMPACT did kinda went into that direction during the pandemic, with the Wrestlers House (or something, don't remember the exact name). Actually, I really liked the pandemic days of pro-wrestling because it allowed it to experiment with different kind of format and new ideas. Not everything would work, but plenty gave it a different feel. I think the moment I kinda got detached from AEW as a promotion, is when I realized that, oh well, as great as it is/was/(is?) it's just another pro-wrestling promotion.

And to rebound on what's been said, RVD reacted on his podcast, pretty bewildered. And really, I doubt RVD was ever close to Vince McMahon, so there goes your kind of people I would totally believe had no idea. However, one thing pretty interesting that he said apparently : "That's about Vince. I can't say anyone else mentioned would surprise me quite as much.". Says a whole lot about Laurinaitis, Lesnar, and those "unnamed office people" that are being pretty obvious to some people.

I'm not saying everybody knew, and especially everybody knew all the details of course. But for instance, when the Dominique Strauss-Khan scandal happened, it was already established publicly that he was, at the very least, a sex-addict who would go after women. Basically, a sex-predator. But it was way before #MeToo, and this kind of things was the butt of jokes in the medias (many of them making women kinda responsible of such behaviour, like "Hey, don't wear a skirt tomorrow, DSK is coming for an interview, lol", which is another layer of rape culture). So there was always *something* in the air about him. But the culture was what it was, just like "boys will be boys, ya know." Plus, there's no worse blind than the one who doesn't want to see. I'm sure not everybody knew and Vince, like every predator, was probably doing exactly what you describe in term of manipulation and isolating circles from one another. But still. I'm sure many, many, MANY people were at least aware of noises about this kind of stuff. Especially at the offices.

Yeah, it's infuriating. Sadly it's really not a pro-wrestling thing. it's the same discourse everywhere. And people wonders why victims don't talk.

They are not even Satanists, really. Not too sure what they are supposed to be either, really. Malakai Black listens to post-metal, that I know from his music theme. But that's about it. They look as much as Satanists as people who flood the Hellfest every year. Julia Hart looks like every witchy influencer on TikTok.

The French movie industry knew about Gerard Depardieu. Hollywood knew about Harvey Weinstein. There's no reason to think that the knowledge about Vince's crimes, to some extent (not every awful details), weren't pretty much known on some sort of broad level. And there's also this thing called rape culture, which is everywhere in society. People just don't talk because it's not seen as such big deals. And you see comments like this everywhere. "Oh but she got paid". "Oh but she had to enjoy it to some extent" (yeah, go fuck yourself Jim Cornette, you piece of shit). "Oh but why didn't she talked about it sooner". And the usual shit of the same ilk. So yes, it's a giant stain on not only on the WWE, but the pro-wrestling landscape (which always sucked, let's be real) as a whole. Which is why people need to speak the fuck up. if this just goes on the way of "Well, Vince isn't there anyway, lawsuit gets settled, everything fine now", then the entire thing is just rotting from the inside.

Wow indeed. This entire place needs to be nuked.

Yup. This entire segment was the closest to making me feel good about pro-wrestling these last few days. The joy of Danielson working with Nagata was also very much evident. Gotta love that during his last year an a full-time wrestler, Danielson's main program thus far has been Eddie Kingston. Gotta get him at Arena Mexico for that Blue Panther match.

The "this is something we don't stand for or condone" phrasing is awkward as fuck, but there you go. I just remembered that Laurinaitis actually married the Bella twins mother. Jeeez. Poor women.

Sure... sure...

He's a terrific machine in the ring, but he showcases the personality of a dead oyster.

bUt mELtzEr iS LyInG. DiRtSheEt BAd ! All joking aside, yeah, this is ridiculous. Just push Brody if they think they can keep him, but the other two can do jobs for Top Flight and such. What has Malakai done that justify the fact he's so fucking protected ? The guy is full of shit too about wanting to leave. He asked for his release, actually said goodbye in the ring, then was denied his release and said he wasn't saying goodbye but see ya later. Jeeez. He's been pushed and cuddled since day one, and unlike with Andrade, they made a great job with his presentation from the very start. If he can't do a fucking job properly and they have to change a big match's stip (to make it worse BTW, nothing is worse than idiotic WWE style escape rules) only because he's a diva, add in the fact he's a surefire goner as soon as his contract ends, stop pushing the mofo. There is way too much great talent in this company to waste your precious TV time with a guy who won't do business and doesn't even want to be there.

There is none to be talked about thus far, apart from TNA being on Endeavor's streaming service. Endeavor is not WWE. The fact that have a decent relationship doesn't mean they are partners, like TNA is with AAA of NJPW. .... They sent their World champion and biggest star at the time (during the most successful years before Punk's debut) to work their TV tapings and special shows. That gave TNA their biggest ratings and PPV buy in years. So yeah, it did good for TNA. Then Christian Cage got the title, and things went back to normal (so, no, he did not make any difference at all). What did AEW got that add so much good to their own product ? The Good Brothers. Such winners indeed. So as a matter of fact the relationship helped TNA quite a bit while Omega was there. Those are numbers BTW, not opinions. They did Mickie James good after she got thrown out like thrash. That was nice. And they did Jordynne good too, maybe as a gesture toward Naomi. Good. Now will they send Becky Lynch to work TNA tapings and a few special shows ? Probably not. Scott D'Amore has obviously establish a good rapport with WWE, but unless TNA gets some significant talent to work their tapings and some actual plugs on WWE shows, nah. I've watch his entire TV career. He's not good at wrestling, he never cut a good promo, he never got over. So, TNA is missing nothing. A documentary is not a pro-wrestling show. He's not a big fish in a small pond. He's a jobber in a small pond. Calling a small-time (hey, here we go again with the patronizing and dismissive tone toward TNA, so there) rasslin' promoter "too fucking dumb" for not taking advantage of Mahabali fucking Sheera is amazingly ironic.

I'm getting no joy at the news of CM Punk getting injured. Quite frankly, at this time I get no joy out of anything pro-wrestling related. The only "joy" I'd get right now, is if all this awful criminals that are still working in WWE would get exposed and punished and that entire rotten system would be burned down to the ground. And even then, "joy" would be a big word considering all of victims over the years and what they have endured. Satisfaction for some kind, any kind of justice, would be better phrased. But about CM Punk, I'm amazed at anyone who did not see this coming. The guy was falling apart in AEW already. Reports of his house-show matches in WWE painted a pretty dim picture of a guy completely out of in-ring shape. So yeah, I'm gonna be sarcastic as fuck about CM Punk getting injured *again*, while it was the most predictable thing possibly this year (that was gonna be either injury or melt-down). Gotta say though, Andrade getting crickets for a comeback reaction, coming off him looking better than ever in the Continental Classic, after he spent half his AEW stint wanting to get out, that is indeed pretty amusing, if we're gonna seek some kind of schadenfreude.

Funny. Since I don't watch WWE, Micheal Cole's name totally eluded my thoughts. But yeah. He's been the #1 announcing guy for ever now, and has been around since the late 90's. Michaels was a creep in the 90's. Hell, he was partner with Marty Jannetty, and you just have to listen to old RF Videos shoot interview to get some horrors stories that were "funny" back in the days, about dropping drugs in "rat's" drink and dispose of them. MAGATaker. Who are we kidding. One of the closest guy to McMahon, who loved when men were real gun-carrying men and who's years as "respected locker room leader" role were the years of wrestling court, Randy Orton harassing divas and JBL and Benoit hazing people left and right. There's no way you can think about WWE's history outside of this entire prism right now of who were involved, who knew and covered, who vaguely knew, and who were too far and removed from the bullshit to know about it.

I am shocked. Baffled. How could anyone even think this would have happened after his last year in AEW, where he only got injured badly twice in two big matches, being out of actions for only a few months at the time. Really, I'm totally flabbergasted. Plus the report of his house-show matches had been so awesome, with Punk displaying insane cardio and looking younger than ever, a feature that was obvious to anyone watching the Rumble. Really. I have no words, I'm just shocked this happened. Wow. Totally incredible. Wow. Did not see this coming for one second. Wow.

Yes. And I have a very hard time believing it, much like Lesveque is lying his ass off when he says he hasn't red the lawsuit. What I want is Dark Side of the Ring stop making episodes about Brutus Beefcake and investigate on the years where Laurinaitis was made head of talent relation, years where WWE recruited young swimsuit models to be talent, and even made it part of their TV content. The subtext is horrifying, especially when you think about Ashley Massaro. What happened to her during the Tributes to the Troops event that led to her taking her own life at 39 ? Why was Jerry Lawler, who's been involved with accusation of rape on underage girls, the star color guy for years ? What did JR knew ? Speak the fuck up, people.

Yup. This one really came back in a vivid way too. EVERYTHING looks worse. The entire WWE history, which wasn't exactly stellar anyway, is completely stained. It's rotten to the core, and it always was, it's now very well established. More questions : what did Ari Emmanuel know exactly when he got Vince back on the board and put him back in charge ? What does Bruce Pritchard knows about the last 40 years ? Will he keep on delivering the fun facts and impersonations on his shitty podcast after this ? Are we gonna get any reactions from people who worked with Vince closely for years or is everybody a spineless piece of shit coward ? Austin ? Foley ? Bret ? Anyone ? Hello ?

Except you're missing the point entirely. Which is that WWE trying to establish a monopoly is completely ass-backward for their own sake. The fact Cody was very instrumental in the development and birth of AEW is an obvious fact, it's not even a point that is being debated. So yeah, there's indeed no point arguing about an obvious fact. (as far as "there's no AEW without Cody", well, that is very much debatable. There's no AEW without Matt Jackson and Omega vs Jericho at the Tokyo Dome, for sure, if we keep it strictly on the pro-wrestler side of it. But it is neither here nor there and quite frankly completely irrelevant to the conversation)

Paul Lesveque really wants people to believe that he did not read the lawsuit ? And he actually said at one point "This has been a great week for the company." ? He has completely disgraced himself.

That wasn't hard. It was still bad. And Triple H's answer was basic corporate bullshit, weighing positive and negative, as if people's lives are numbers. No word for the victim. No empathy. No condemnation. Nothing. Fuck these people. Fuck this company. And yeah. The amazing "Star making machine", uh ? Their hottest star is Cody Rhodes. And without AEW, they don't get that Cody Rhodes. The other one ? CM Punk. And without AEW, they certainly don't fucking get CM Punk back, ever. (as far as him looking old and tired, this is on par with the report of his house-show stuff) And then what's the event of the women's Rumble. Jade Cargill. Without AEW, they don't get Jade Cargill, not that Jade Cargill (by that I mean, already made and known to the audience). WWE wants to be the big bad wolf and kill everyone, but the reality is that they always profit from the fact they get a healthy competition. Nothing outside of WWE exists or matters, but Jordynne Grace and Naomi hugging then facing off, as they did in TNA, got a bigger pop than a shitload of nothing happening in the match. One year after being organically the hottest star in the business, Sami Zayn is fan service. But it doesn't really matter. It's all pretty irrelevant. Because like Triple H said "We gotta focus on the positive". The positive ? You mean the money you get to sport-wash the Saudi regime, or some other positive ? The fact no one's asking you if you knew about your father in law being a rapist and sexual criminal maybe. Maybe that's a positive, because the answer may be ugly.