El-P

Damn. If this was AEW he would get booed out of the building for this. My booking prediction for Cody for the next year : _comes back at the Rumble and cries. _win the Rumble and cries. _point at Mania Sign tm and cries _makes his entrance at Mania and cries _cries again, but whether it's because he win or loses to Reigns is still Vince's decision, so that's on the morning of the show. He will cry though.

Is he crying again ?

That's how you define a torn pec ? How cruel.

I know. Which made it even funnier. Cody Rhodes fully morphing into Mick Foley certainly wasn't on anyone's radar 5 years ago.

Not between the big companies, no. It happened with indies in the early 00's though, I remember a show with ARSION and Battlarts working together for instance (it was actually an intergender tournament). And of course FMW had a women division of its own, which was the exception to the rules. But yeah, NJPW & Stardom doing a joint show is pretty big news. Quite interested in what this means for the future, if anything. They have tested the water at WK for the last two (I think) years. Could that mean some major Stardom matches on major NJPW shows in the future ? Would be a big shift in japanese pro-wrestling if that happened. In other news, Tanahashi just invited CM Punk to take part in Wrestling Kingdom. Oh boy, what could it be if nothing goes wrong...

"Fire me you fucking mark !" Sorry, wrong thread.

Case in point : Cody Rhodes receives most of the praise for working with a bad injury. Meanwhile, Seth Rollins who most probably hold the thing together and took care of his injured opponent gets what kind of credit for being a pro ? Everything is about Cody, despite having done something that he should not have done. Yeah, this is all screwed up.

Not in this way, no. The entire mythification through working through a very visible, grotesque and obviously very painfull injury to this extent has no equivalent that I can remember. Again, the main issue here is not "working injured", it's the glorification of working injured, pushed through absolute extremes because of the visual. That glorification in a very blatant meta-narrative (people did not feel sympathy for Cody because of his pro-wrestling selling but because of his actual pain because of a very visible and graphic injury) is what is the problem with this stuff, and what sends a terrible message.

He has lived with it for a while now, to the point he could not lay straight on his back without seeing the room circling around, as he has told in an interview a while ago now. Very clearly it did not affect his work, as showed by the way he would perform, as he found ways to counterbalance it. But still, pretty much a mindfuck.

No one said it was about martyring himself "for the boys". Of course it's all about business and marketing himself. When I talk martyrology, I'm speaking purely about the spectacle of a grotesque looking injury and the narrative of being able to endure the legit pain as a way to get himself over. He's absolutely making it worse for people coming after him with this display. Just like Foley in 98. I do think the guy has also issues in term of wanting to show his toughness though, or what he perceives to be toughness in a very old-school, toxic, mentality.

So Matt Cardona was supposed to face Nick Aldis next Sunday for the NWA Title but he's injured with a torn bicep. He should 100% do a mock version of the Cody Rhodes show now.

I had the exact same thought. Fuck Cody and his martyr syndrome. This is not about being concerned for Cody's own health. I'm telling you honestly, I couldn't give a flying fuck, I've been a pro-wrestling fan for far too long to ignore I'm watching people destroying their bodies for my enjoyment (which in itself, asks a whole lot of questions). I obviously don't want anyone to get injured, including Cody Rhodes, but I laughed my ass off watching his stupid ass take a bump onto fire because he was desperate for cheers. The issue here is the martyrology. Onita was working on the same vibe, with the cries, the blood and the entire presentation. But he was a cult hero on a sleazy Japanese indie with no-TV, not the guy showcased by the n°1 wrestling promotion in the world shooting for the Mania main event. Let's be real, if not for the visual injury, both guys would probably have had a great match no one would talk about two weeks later.

At least the booking is easy now. He goes away. Comes back to win the Rumble, beats Roman Reigns at Mania. Oh wait...

This is completely different. Omega never told anyone he had vertigo until he stopped working. People wearing straps is usual in sports, sadly, people work injured. This is not good, but this was another thing entirely : this is Cody entering the match with a severe injury and *making a spectacle* out of *his real pain*, and being glorified for it. Glorified for enduring the pain, glorified for working injured not only as part of the story of the match but *being the integral story of the match*. This sends an absolutely toxic message. The fact he worked hurt is one thing, and one thing that is done all the time and is problematic for sure, but this is not what this is all about. This is all about the absolute glorification of working hurt and the spectacle of sustaining the real pain of a real injury as the story of a pro-wrestling match. This is making things worse for everybody on a different level. The fact so many pro-wrestlers have tweeted their admiration shows how fucked up the mentality still is. I'm sure some think it's bullshit, but I bet they would never go public with this kind of opinion, because they would get murdered on social media for it... Can't wait 'till he comes back after the magic John Cena cure too...

It's easy to make an audience "feel", whatever that means, when you're actually in tremendous pain. Even Onita's stuff looked more painfull than it probably was. Gotta invent a new term for this. Pain-porn wrestling. "Look at me, I'm working injured, look at my grotesque looking body, I'm suffering for real ! I'm suffering for your ! Please glorify me !". Yuck. Someone pointed out that it was also on a C-level PPV with no hype going on, against a guy he already had beat, so it's not like the overall picture is fantastic. So he had to suffer that much to beat a guy he already beat twice in a row ? What a dumb fuck kayfabe-wise, so unnecessary.

Women's side is obviously WWE by a ridiculous margin, of course.

Poor child. And of course, pro-wrestlers loved that Cody did it. It's argue to garner sympathy for them after that point, really. This, the reactions, everything is so off-putting to me. Positive thinking and survivor bias bullshit galore.

Not to mention self-imposed pressure. Of course all the old-school carnies will go "Great work kid !", but if I was a worker today, I would be *pissed*, not admirative. I was wondering before the show what stupid shit Cody would do, jokingly saying he was probably thinking about doing even worse than the fire spot, and there you go. Honestly, there's something almost disturbing going on with him if you put everything on perspective. Like the crowd turning on him in AEW kinda fucked his brain and he will do anything to get the love and validation he so badly wants from the pro-wrestling audience. I dunno. I'm really kinda grossed out by the entire thing. And BTW, I would say the very exact same words if this had happened in AEW (I would hope TK would not have let him work in this shape).

Gross and incredibly stupid (who knows what this actually will do to his injury in the days to come ?). Sets a bad precedent and bad message for everyone too aka "Working way injured is how you get yourself over, kids". Worst of old-school mentality pushed to the worst extreme. There was signs in late AEW that Cody was crazy desperate for attention (the fire spot being the most obvious), but this is just *bad*. How is someone with a lesser injury gonna argue against the company that he/she shouldn't work now ? In term of setting a worse precedent in a HITC match, this is probably even worse than Foley's stunt (which was also a terrible precedent to set, but limited to the use of the gimmick). Also : Yeah, no shit. Really, this is amazingly stupid on all accounts. No idea how anyone could praise this simply for the message it sends to other workers. May have been awe-inspiring (although honestly, the whole morbid aspect of "OMG this is REAL PAIN" is extremely questionnable, what's the difference between this is some gory GCW deathmatches in term of dealing with actual self-imposed physical torture ?), but really, Cody... I also wonder. If the MJF drama doesn't happen last week, does Vince allows Cody to work ? Also, blood & guts (aka, blading) is gory self-mutilation. This on the other hand, is ok. Point taken.

AEW.

I was wondering if Cody would go all blood & guts, which would have been hilarious for obvious reasons, or if he would have taken a stupid bump (after all the ridiculous things he did the last 6 months of his AEW stint, including getting himself on fire), but with such an injury, if he's able to work the match at all it will be an accomplishement.

Dropping like flies, insane.

Sure, a bunch of chops...

*facepalm* Seriously. Regal. First topic, birth of AEW. Second topic, a ridiculous failed gimmick in WWF. It couldn't be like "Debuting in WCW", of course not, why would it be ? Or "Training at the Snake Pit". Who would think of that ?

Which doesn't make sense. If you cheat and you're DQed, you should lose your title. If you run out of the ring and don't return, you should lose your title. Which is the case in Japan and I believe also in Mexico (although titles are less important there). The title changing hands only by pinfall or submission has been a cop out for shitty finishes in US pro-wrestling for ever and honestly, I would gladly do away with it. There's an innovation AEW could have gone with at the beginning, which would have made a statement. The Japanese way of "If you can't defend the title, you're stripped of it" is the most basic way actually. No bullshit. Of course that has other effects on the booking.