sek69

Not trying to call you out specifically, but this comment just reminded me of how being a monopoly for a generation has really solidified in the public conscious that pro wrestling = WWE. I mean, it was always Vince's goal but when I hear anyone (either online or IRL) say pro wrestling is embarrassing and/or awful it's 99.999% some stupid shit WWE did. Even when I was a kid, if someone was trying to give me shit about liking wrestling it was *always* about some cartoon gimmick in the WWF. No one ever teased me for liking the Horsemen or the Midnights. There is plenty of great wrestling out there (well maybe not now, but pre-pandemic) if WWE isn't your bag. AAA shows on Twitch were a blast to watch, CMLL Friday shows are like the wrestling version of going to church in a famous cathedral. Impact has made strides to dig themselves out of the hole Dixie left them. New Japan has been consistently the best wrestling in the world for years. All companies are taking their lumps with the pandemic, as we've seen New Japan and AEW's women's division suffer because key folks are not able to travel and the little or no fans shows are weird to get used to and not everyone can get into them. Personally I think AEW has done the best job adapting as Daily Plaza is at least a unique looking environment, and their shows are the most "normal" looking ones in the US at the moment. It was hard to watch the Impact PPV with no fans after adjusting to the "crowds" in WWE/AEW, so I get the folks who just can't watch in this new weird world. But wrestling is not awful or embarrassing.

The problem with Raw Underground (well, one of them anyway) is no matter how well done it is, it's the type of thing Vince will get bored of quickly. WWE overall is at a place where they need to put all their effort in to long term building and planning to try to improve business overall, while being led by a guy who has all the attention span of a toddler with ADHD. He can't give guys more than 3 weeks without giving up on them, shows get rewritten at the drop of a hat, and then they're left puzzled why no one wants to spend three goddamn hours watching the mess that is left behind.

She started basically a fan group for women called AEW Heels with the stated goal of being a place for women to talk about wresting and be inclusive and whatnot, which is cool but they were charging $50 for it and that rubbed people the wrong way. I suppose she got so much criticism over it she shut her Twitter down.

Hulk's main income was Japan, so I could see an alternate universe where he becomes like Stan Hansen where he's a big star in Japan and occasionally comes to the US for short trips between tours.

WWE Revisionist History *really* wants people to forget that Hogan was a huge star in the AWA and from Rocky III before his big run. You can make the argument that Vince has never been able to build a major star, and it took people having the highest levels of undeniable star power (Austin/Rock/Cena) to overcome it.

Yeah the NHL and NBA are running a tight ship and anyone in a risk group competing there is going to be way safer than anyone in the Covid Pit.

I must say it's more than a little disconcerting to see Kyle O'Reilly back in action since to the best of my knowledge neither COVID or Diabetes have been cured yet.

Cole still doesn't deserved to be geeked out because his bosses are horny for mainstream acceptance.

Say what you will about Adam Cole, but even he doesn't deserve to be laid out like a geek by a retired punter.

Eric Bischoff looks like a guy you would cast to play the President in a made for TV movie.

Interesting no Excalibur again (just started watching now so if something changes I guess I look silly).

So WWE hired the guy who brokered their TV deal to be the new Chief Financial Officer, which seems like a pretty strong move.

Amazing that he could make a post with such blatant homophobia and racism, but somehow mentioning that part would be burying the lede in a big way.

I don't want to speak for everyone here but I would wager that was more due to people tiring of Brock (or wanting someone other than Roman beating him) than anything Seth brought to the table. I've been pretty vocal in my opinion that Seth is a great tag wrestler miscast as a top singles guy. The structure of most WWE tag matches means he has to tone down his bullshit enough to have good performances.

It would also make WWE sense that a guy who was featured prominently on NXT would join a group of people looking to wreak CHAOS on the main roster, because reasons.

So in a hilarious turn, the RightToCensor.com site, which was a real thing WWF did in the 90s, now redirects to AEW's website which is funny since it's shown in the chyron for the people in that stable on RAWs of the day. So old Raw eps on the network are shadow advertising for AEW in 2020.

Well yea, that that was the implication since Wellness failures of non-top guys get broadcast from the mountaintop.

Bray at least has a cool mask (I am an unabashed Tom Savini mark and will hear no argument on this), Seth has no redeeming qualities whatsover. Also per Dave it looks like Austin Theory has been on some kind of top secret suspension.

Also I completely believe this is something Shane would want to do IRL.

Everyone counting the camera cuts during the Underground segments made me realize Kevin Dunn must sound like a god damn auctioneer calling out all the directions over the headset.

So with Vickie full time and Shaul coming in for this I wonder if we'll see husband Aiden English (or whatever his non WWE name is) come in at some point. I'm expecting AEW to ramp up on bringing people in again since Cody indicated the second show will be starting soon* and they want it to focus on people not regularly on Dynamite. *all the clickbait sites were reporting it as Dynamite going to 3 hours but Cody was clear it's a separate third weekly hour, not an extension on the existing show.

The funny part is it actually does apply to Randy since all evidence points to him being a irresponsible little shit who lived a life of never having to face consequences who did get breaks because of who his dad was. It seems he may have matured/gained responsibility later in life, but Young Randall was the actual epitome of every "you got all the breaks because of your family" promo. Really makes it a shame they drove it into the ground using it so often, since it would have made more of an impact when it's based in reality.

So there's ex CHIKARA folks on Twitter stating the whole Underground idea was copied wholesale from an idea on a pilot episode they filmed when WWE was going to air indy TV shows on the Network. That never happened, the show never aired, and now that CHIKARA blew up post #SpeakingOut WWE is presenting it as their own idea.

It helped that all the Underground segments had either dudes with legit backgrounds (Lashley, Shelton, and yes even Dolph) or big impressive dudes like Babatunde killing geeks to get it over.

Steph's matches were 100x better than Shane's without a doubt.