sek69

If the playing field was anywhere close to equal, I'd agree, but it isn't so it's really not fair to judge her or any woman by the men's standard they haven't been allowed to reach until recently.

I wonder what Shibata's actual condition is. It seems that New Japan just has an abundance of caution (understandably since the dude had a brain bleed on his watch), and as long as he works smart he should be fine doing a match or two.

I always wondered if that "Vince brought wrestling out of smoky halls" was intended to include all those MSG sellouts Bruno/Backlund/Graham had or not. It would be funny if it all came from Vince Jr being mad they taped TV from the Ag Hall.

It's also a pretty unfair comparison considering AJW was pushing women wrestlers as idols while Wendi Richter got fired despite being a big part of Rock n Wrestling for not signing a contract put in her face while she was on her way to the ring. Women's wrestling wasn't taken serious in the US until the NXT women got too good to ignore and started stealing the show nearly every time. Even then main roster WWE had to be dragged kicking and screaming to go along with it (and only then if it could be retconned as Steph Invented Feminism). So yeah, Becky Lynch didn't reach the heights of the Crush Gals, no shit. She got super over only after an extremely questionable heel turn attempt and Nia Jax being a sloppy piece of shit. She took the lemons WWE was trying to give her and made lemonade like no woman in WWE had before.

Women sports (which we will include pro wrestling in for this argument) tends to get significantly less media exposure than their male counterparts regardless of their ability, which allows the "well they just aren't at the level of the men" argument to get a foothold. Then you get cases like the UMass women's college basketball teams and the US Women's soccer teams which go on impressive if not historic runs only to get the "yeah, but it's *women's* sports though" as if that is a disqualifying factor. In pro wrestling, women's matches were largely seen as either just eye candy or the sideshow to the sideshow like midget matches. The oddity on an otherwise "normal" card. So there is going to be an inherent issue judging women's wrestling historically since it really has only been taken seriously outside of Japan for less than two decades. Having someone like Becky Lynch potentially fall off the ballot when she was clearly the #1 draw of the #1 company would be an amazing slap in the face to the whole idea of women's wrestling. Even getting to the point where she did is practically HOF worthy itself considering the way women in wrestling historically have been treated.

I would think the locker room would probably be more open to Jarrett than Punk, since Jeff has shown he's willing to listen to the youngin's and not just be like "if you don't do it the way I say you're stupid".

So it looks like TK hired Jarrett to do what he was doing in WWE, arranging live events (on top of whatever on camera stuff he ends up doing). So if nothing else it appears Tony is starting to realize letting other people handle shit is a good thing.

We can all laugh but I saw several AEW folks on Twitter being all "that one is for the boys" so it looks like this was a make good to the locker room for the whole Punk fiasco.

Also I need skits of Schiavone partying with Rick Ross

I can't wait for all the nerds to complain they don't know who Rick Ross is as if it wasn't a self own.

Colt visibly trying not to burst into tears at the Welcome Back chants was a nice moment.

HAHAHA COLT CABANA

Does that one Ass Boy really have a tattoo in his armpit?

They work with AAA, it's theoretically possible Konnan could show up, but he's not physically able to do anything anymore.

LOL Jeff Jarrett all time carny legend. GOAT stuff.

IMO they should have had Jericho go through a bunch of other former ROH champs and have Bryan as the final boss in the old Obi-Wan wizard robe with Final Countdown playing while the fans slammed the metal on the barricades.

Baltimore was ROH's headquarters so it would be a good place to announce whatever it is Tony's been working on TV deal wise.

Dynamite will probably be fun, but the more important news is I got a job offer today for a higher paying position than the one I got laid off from last month.

He's not a Rock or Austin, but he's been around long enough at or near the top that if anyone at WB had a casual knowledge of wrestling they'd recognize him. IIRC him and JR were what convinced the suits that it wasn't just a group full of people who have never done this before.

I got the impression there was more than meets the eye when I saw his half in character/half out tweet about getting cut and feeling embarrassed.

It's okay to not like Jericho,but considering signing him was a big part in getting a TV deal at the start (and may be a part of getting the next one), saying he's the most negative influence is frankly ridiculous hyperbole.

Not surprisingly, Ava Raine seems to be good at promos right out of the gate.

not sure why the NXT tag champs are out here starting shit with the NXT and NA champs, but Truth's shirt reminded me that the 24/7 title is apparently still a thing.

Yeah I don't think I'd ever be interested in going on one of those Saudi trips if I was in WWE on a good day, I certainly wouldn't be now.

On one hand it seems like he really hasn't been progressing much and has been spinning his wheels for a while, but they *just* started that angle with Duke (and boy does that poor guy seem to have terrible luck) so this is a head scratcher.