Matt D

He just have just punched Rollins in the face and left.

This is a ring of hell:

Re: Dusty: He was exceptionally good at keeping himself fresh through branding. He'd take a whole summer and say that it was part of the Stardust 83 Tour or whatever, or would find ways to liken himself to whatever was going on in pop culture. He had an ear to the ground and even though he was basically doing the same thing, he was trying to sell it to the fans as something different, each and every year. There was some element of that to Hogan too. One year he wore the the Fist Helmet. He went from being the Incredible Hulk Hogan to the Immortal Hulk Hogan. He went super patriot in 91, etc. With more modern guys, some of it ends up driven by merchandise. With Austin, you needed new shirts, so you'd get stuff like the bionic redneck, etc. Unless I'm mistaken, Reigns is pretty much exactly the same as he he was three years ago. I couldn't tell you one different bit of his act, in ring or out. Does he have a new nickname? There was maybe a hint of it when he beat Taker and said it was his yard now, but he didn't exactly run with that.

There was definitely a sense of Thesz "shooting" and Bock working in that one and while I always like what the latter does, there was a visceral drop in excitement when they made the first switch.

Sure, because an annoying crowd trying to get itself over is worse than a mostly dead crowd that was really into the Undertaker.

The trick to watching modern WWE is to do it on your terms, not theirs.

Ultimately, you're 100% right on a scale of degrees, but it's also an expectation gap. I don't hold WWE to any meaningful standards because it's forever disappointing. Now, someone who's otherwise earned some respect? That's different.

Pompeo's going to be there next week. It's a shame he couldn't sync it up and hang out with the guys in the front row all night.

I don't want to armchair this too much, but I think there are things he could have done other than demand to wear the new jacket out there, some of which I'd bet would have worked. EDIT: At the very least, he knew this show was coming. He could have debuted the new gear at Backlash and dodged a lot of this. It'd have slightly less of an effect but everything gets drowned out at Mania anyway.

Not every wrestler made himself a symbol. The Moolah stuff was comparable. What really rankled wasnt necessarily the company lionizing her as much as them having all of the current talent, who tend to stand for something very much the opposite, do it. But again, do you blame the girls for that, or do you blame the company for making them do it? Like, honestly I think regardless of what those individual women know or think about Moolah, those interviews are happening either way. They don't get to have opinions when they go against WWE. Same deal here. Any of those guys from Sami on down can have their own thoughts about Saudi Arabia and the political issues, and I'm sure they do. None of those opinions are ever going to make it to air or in public on the record. We get propaganda videos. We get company line. I certainly blame Bayley or Sasha more than I do a Liv Morgan, because the former represent something and have sort of made their career as doing as such and influence a relatively young fanbase as such. They also probably have a little more stroke. At some point you have to decide what you stand for and what you want to want to promote and to have your voice used to validate. I do too. You do too. We just have a lot less of a reach. No one HAS to be a hero, but you can't be one on day A and not on day B (especially when day B is undeniably harder) without it affecting your reputation and legacy. You can't have it both ways. That's not how life works.

Not every wrestler made himself a symbol. The Moolah stuff was comparable. What really rankled wasnt necessarily the company lionizing her as much as them having all of the current talent, who tend to stand for something very much the opposite, do it.

re: Finn: I don't know. If you're going to take a stand, stand up for what you believe in, even when it's hard. He got a ton of deserved credit for what he did at Mania. I don't know if the guy gets to keep it if he just rolls over the second it's no longer convenient and when it might actually cost him something. It's easy to be inclusive when there's no cost involved.

I really wanted Hunter of Arabia

The greatest Survivor Series?

Ok Im good. I found the gif of Titus slipping. https://twitter.com/peliquesadillas/status/989965256393969667?s=21

I have no idea whats happening but I do want to remind everyone of the random sumo guy 40 minutes ago.

Ok, Karl Anderson coming out is a great moment for me to go home. enjoy guys.

Oh man, the cut to the crowd looking bewildered as Big E went "OHHHHHH JEDDDAAAAHHH"

They need to clear the ring a bit. Wait, how long has Mojo been wearing the goofy ass Maryland gear?

Bryan seems sort of blown up to me, which isn't surprising, but...

Well, if anyone ever wanted Drew Gulak to interact with Daniel Bryan, here's your chance.

You have to figure Bryan's been looking forward to work with Dash. The people on the hard cam knew who Kurt was for sure.

That was a pretty good use of Viktor.

They can't be so confident in Bryan yet that they'd let him go the whole time. He probably lobbied to go first to get to interact with as many guys as possible.

I love that Cole had no idea what to even call the green belt. "This.. award." They should just call it the "25 Million Dollars a Year" belt.