sek69

I was wondering this too. I'm guessing its either a "wrestling flies under the radar and no one notices what they do" thing, or they have some type of limited trademark to use it for wrestling purposes only.

"Young powerful wrestlers trembling at the sight of elderly boss" is the WWE trope that keeps on giving.

I bet this week will actually get a decent rating from people tuning in to see what it looks like. Not saying it will last or anything, but I would think everyone wants to at least take a look at this thing. The amusing thing to me is they *just* started an angle with an don't-call-it-Antifa group destroying and defacing the PC, so they go ahead and move the show to a whole ass arena decked out like an electronics trade show. If we're keeping kayfabe, Retribution should destroy all those screens in the first 10 minutes of Smackdown.

WWE did a test run of the THUNDERDOME today, and pics of it hit Twitter tonight. Looks like the setup the NBA has but instead of just pre-recorded video loops it appears to be live Zoom feeds of fans. It wasn't too bad, just being in an actual arena again with real fans (kinda) was an improvement over being in the PC. One thing I saw from folks who were involved is that the fans weren't reacting like a live crowd but just as if they were watching at home (which of course they are). I wonder if they'll be like WCW when they were doing the Disney tapings and get direction on how to react when things go live tomorrow.

You think WWE is at all aware that while Pat McAfee has been good in his role, they're doing it at the expense of making the guy who's been NXT champ forever look like a total J-brone?

Yeah I would assume the plan is to have the fans sit in the upper areas to fill in the gaps and make Daily's Place look less empty since they have to compete with the THUNDERDOME now. Plus they were inviting people to sit in the upper bowl recently, which I assume now was a test run for doing this.

Yeah that ended what was a pretty decent show on a flat note. I really like the Keith Lee/Kross build but it feels like they're doing this match too soon, since neither one really should be losing now and a non finish would be lame.

Pat McAfee is already the best heel in the WWE Universe after like 2 weeks.

When word came out something happened, I assumed one of the ladders fell and bonked him on the head. I wasn't expecting some quality 90s All Japan head dropping action.

Seems like his whole career was several cases of bad timing. Was part of the era of ROH right before they hit it big as the premiere super indy where far less people paid attention. Was (according to Dave at least) was on the short list of several WWE front office employees to be offered a deal, but the timing was never right and eventually the people championing for him moved on to other companies. Saw that MMA would be a big deal when it got legalized in NY and started training for it, only for it to get delayed and delayed and by the time it did finally pass he was too old to really make a go of it. Was set to be on the Future vs Present show ROH was going to do before everything got cancelled due to covid. I won't pretend I was following ROH in the very early days, but it seems like Xavier was well thought of by everyone who was there at the time. I was always surprised that he never got a shot at least in TNA at some point.

Jesus, what happened in his life to turn him into such a miserable crank these days? Also I would never think Canadians have no charisma, we have a statue of Mario Lemieux in this town, We properly respect our Canadians here.

All that is true, but a lot of companies are using covid as an excuse to not hire and/or lowball people right now so even if she knows her worth (and I definitely get the impression she does), it's not the best time to be hitting the free agent market.

True, but it's looking like college football won't happen and with Uncle Jerry promising to have fans at Cowboys games I don't expect the NFL to last too long.

Renee absolutely deserves to get a full time real sports gig on ESPN or something on that level, but I wonder how much hiring they would be doing right now since sports are hanging by the slimmest of threads right now due to covid.

"We take it seriously, but not seriously enough to actually talk to accusers so we'd really appreciate if you all would stop talking about it please and thank you" - Hunter talking about pedophilia accusations. I suppose it's consistent with how the company has historically approached such things so I guess you can give him that.

It really is amazing that the one US company doing the best effort in all this is the one owned by a media empire that probably still thinks covid is a hoax. I was listening to Dave talk about it on the WON show, talking about how they are not only having guys get tested multiple times they are quarantining everyone at a hotel beforehand and taping 2 months of TV to get the most they can out of it. Basically they want to copy what UFC does for their shows as much as their budget will allow. Also in other news, Delirious is back booking as Marty is officially "on leave" while his #SpeakingOut allegations are being looked into. Word is they want to have a more serious sports presentation when they get back up and running.

It was certainly less of a direct kick like most of his punts are, but it's not like Shawn just didn't do the death sell that others have done. He was pulling himself back up in the corner literally seconds later as if he was mildly stunned rather than hit by the move that was put over as instant murderdeath by everyone else. To be fair I'm not suggesting he went in to business for himself or anything, I'm sure that was exactly how the segment was supposed to go down. Which is kind of WWE in a nutshell Funny thing, I thought the show was pretty good otherwise. MVP continues to be awesome trying to recruit Cedric, they furthered the deal with the Street Profits/Bianca and Zelina and her crew, Sasha and Bayley were awesome as usual, and we had Shayna and the Horsewomen doing a run in on Underground. Even the Drew/Orton stuff was pretty good despite them seeming to take every opportunity to undercut it. Not only the Shawn stuff, but using Drew's very good opening promo as a backdrop for more Retribution horseshit.

I thought for sure a Superkick to Drew was coming, just for no other reason than it would be such a Shawn thing to do.

Man, WWE needs to ban the rollup finish for anything not involving the 24/7 title. Laziest finish in history and it is used way too much.

That SummerSlam's Hottest Moments graphic made me realize how much long hair/no beard Hunter looks like a jacked Greg Valentine.

Yeah Shawn probably towers over Adam Cole too, tbh. Drew is like a legit 6'5, hes a tall-ass dude.

OH SHIT Horsewomen in the building

I'm not sure I'll ever be fully accustomed to "grizzled dad" Shawn Michaels.It always surprises me every time he appears.

Nor did he deserve to have his promo ruined by this stupid RETRIBUTION IS MESSING WITH THE TV SIGNAL angle.

The NBA (and also the NHL) has done amazing work trying to salvage what they can out of the season/playoffs and end up having exciting games because of it. Plus their bubble setup has kept covid at bay and shows the rest of the US we could have been past all this shit by now if we acted like adults and followed instructions for a few months.