Matt D

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.

Tag teams can be 2031.

I haven't seen this yet but it could be fairly interesting:

The comic parallels are interesting and I think a lot of it is about canon and the barriers, but I'm not sure how. I know when I got into comics, I loved the idea that there was this whole universe I could learn about of all these stories that mattered and counted. I know when I got into wrestling, it was first with WWF but I got a bunch of the 1990 WCW trading cards and it was this whole new world I didn't know about and it was exciting to me and i wanted to know everything about it. I don't see that so much anymore, maybe because there's just so much available now that you can dip into a lot about a lot of things instead of everything about one thing? I know what my 19 year old does and how he absorbs things. He'll watch two dozen youtube videos on people explaining some old aspect of Marvel comics or who Adam Warlock is and why he might show up in the next Guardians of the Galaxy movie but he wouldn't go back and read the comics. And he'll dive right into something else. A lot of what he spent his time on in the last decade was something like Minecraft or other games he plays with people where they can play the same game year in and year out, or a bunch of different anime where he either goes through one series and then moves right to a different one that's completely unconnected, or he rewatches/rereads the same things over and over again because they're familiar and comfortable and he doesn't need new content. Kids today have infinite content. They don't have to be beggars. They are choosers and more than that, so much of what they have are not the actual content itself but more personal remixed versions where they can interface with someone playing/watching/discussing it instead of doing it themselves.

Brody is by far my least favorite Bock opponent and Bock basically shit talked him as terrible to work with. Those matches are not very good at all. The Hansen matches aren’t my favorite by any means but I do think they show a standing tall side to babyface Bock that helps to round out his case.

It’s like anything else. It’s all about what people (or big media companies) will pay for it.

People making guides early in the process matters, I think. OJ ranked European workers and that impacted who people spent time watching, to a degree. A lot of the podcasts/final write-ups were a little late, since they were all talking about individual lists that were already made or justifying a #1. I know I made my Bock case too late, and even lamented it at the time, though I'm not sure it would have mattered much one way or the other.

The only uncomfortable bits of that to me is that Ric did just raise certain elements very publicly and that Arn, for as much as I like the guy as a personality, is sort of cashing in, to a degree, on telling Flair stories. In general, I agree with you though.

I participated quite a bit with a few people, and I would not say they created groupthink. There was a good amount of "hey, did you see that moment?" and "Do you think that was a good thing or a bad thing in the match?" that kind of thing, but it was more fun and free flowing and there weren't really big rounding off discussions in the end. It was more about bringing specific moments to people's attentions and talking about them in real time as the match was going on and a little a bit of he associated joy or frustration that comes with that. I will say that these were almost entirely chat based and I think it might have been different if they were vocal. My experience in listening to people's watch parties for the AWA or lucha sets feels a little different, with more people getting swept along and maybe more groupthink. I know the technical advancements in things like discord have more easily allowed for everyone to be on mics, but I'd note that it would be much easier for me to participate in chat-only settings as I'll be almost constantly multitasking to at least a small degree given real life pressures. I don't know where everyone else would fall on that though. I imagine the opposite. I also imagine there'd be a lot of opportunities for a lot of modalities.