Matt D

Paige’s brother.

I'm not watching. What's the crowd situation like?

Angle sucks.

I’ll introduce you to his Journey into Mystery later.

Gillen’s X-Men > Morrison’s X-Men

A mega star is someone that transcends wrestling and goes into pop culture, someone my wife or parents may have heard of. I assure you my wife has never heard of Christian. She may know "that guy from Vikings," though. She definitely knows Drax. Christian is, in ring, my favorite "ace" in WWE history. His year on top in WWECW basically helped me get back into wrestling after I dropped off in 07. I think he's the absolute master of learned psychology in week-to-week TV matches and an evolution of Bret in switching around set moves and spots to create unique narratives that build upon one another. In listening to the Edge and Christian podcast and the questions he'd ask other wrestlers or the conversations he'd have with a guy like Randy Orton, it's obvious that while Edge was far, far more worldly and better read and had broad tastes, that Christian was a wrestling genius savant and the far superior wrestling mind. Basically, we get what you're saying. We understand the argument you're making. You don't seem to be understanding what we're saying. Instead, you're going out of your way to be flabbergasted. I hope you're right. I'd love to see Christian get a great paycheck, have some matches against fresh opponents where he's treated with respect and given time, maybe spread some knowledge in a quasi-agent role and help the AEW guys put together interesting matches. That still doesn't mean he's a megastar. Or even a big star.

Marty wants to rave about a show and we're all talking about whether or not Christian (as much as we love him) is a major star. Rey and Psicosis are off having a great match and everyone's babbling about Brian Adams joining the NWO out of nowhere. Monday night wars.

So... what's Nikki Bella up to?

The funny thing about that is that there have only been like... four active major, huge, huge stars in the world of wrestling in the last ten years.

I know you were in single digits back then, but this is pretty much what the Monday Night Wars was like on the internet. Just with worse spelling.

I'm going to watch a bunch of Kandori at least?

It’s Mistico’s time to shine.

Have you heard about Steven’s zine?

Christian would be a let down to most wrestling fans, no question, but he’s one of the only people that would get me excited to watch.

Are you implying it’s Swoggle?

If it was Cena, they’d be doing more to hype it. Angle level seems right even though I don’t know what he could really offer them. Maybe Tony gave a ton to Hijo del Santo’s patreon.

Tony should make a deal to send talent in exchange for new Dynamic Duo matches and we can all talk about whether Gino or Tully was better in them.

Who on the roster wanted to work his style? Should Sting get more credit for willing to take his stuff?

This is a solid effort so far. You're being very honest with yourself which can be difficult and gives you a good foundation for 2026.

Best make that your signature, friend.

And the "bench" are guys who have already been on TV in NXT for years, who have already gone through character arcs which can't be repeated with at least a portion of the audience and that almost almost can't simply be repackaged due to the familiarity.

I'll wholly admit to not understanding Discord well. In my mind, watch sessions are important and create a sort of input, but the output to that input is a pinned down reference for people not there in the moment to be able to find even months or years later. I'm still making use of the GWE specific wrestler posts and the alphabetical list with links if I come across someone I'm not super familiar with in a match completely unrelated to any sort of GWE project. It's a great resource.

The most interesting part of Arn’s podcast is when he talks about Cena, including that he occasionally did what he felt like he had to.

First, I'm glad you're bringing in things we don't know about, because I did not know a ton about this. I guess I know something similar from a few years ago where someone would use simple voiced-over animations, as opposed to motion tracking, to chronicle their lives, because again, the teenager watched some. I'd never really heard about this as it is. I think it's definitely a thing that teens are more in tune with tiktok/meme culture/short disposable pieces of media/in-the-moment twitch style streaming than delving into more long-form content. I'm not sure I am with you that vtubing is the new kayfabe/gimmick art that replaced a wrestling boom. I can see how in the 00s, MMA stole that boom, sure, because there are just more parallels, an itch that was scratched. I'm not entirely seeing that same itch here or even a different itch. I guess I'm trying to say that I'm doubtful that the people into watching vtubers talk about their life would have ever gotten into wrestling in the first place. The topic/tone/style is just too different.

I think he could have worked as a Marcus Alexander Bagwell partner (Scorpio/Patriot/Riggs). That's about his level.