sek69

I get Taker, apparently his deal expired and Vince just assumed he would never do any non WWE events. Angle, on the other hand I don't understand what Conrad was thinking. Did he think the retirement match at Mania was a shoot and Kurt no longer had a contract with WWE?

Imagine someone thinking the point of doing a Piper's Pit clone is to only get the guests over. What to people remember Piper's Pit for? The Snuka coconut incident, Piper clowning Frankie Williams, and giving a midget a mohawk.

Never stopped to think how a change of scenery could benefit Roman. Of course being able to punch out Vince is always a solid babyface move as well.

Apparently a big part of the Von Erichs doc is that Kevin is finally letting his guard down and doing a kayfabe-free interview for the first time ever.

I would argue the only time there was any crowd investment in a Seth match was against Brock, and that was because WWE was largely successful at getting fans to buy Brock was holding the title hostage.

She showed more in her brief NXT appearances than Peyton has ever shown there or on the main roster.

The Bray skit was a great WTF moment, but I can't shake the feeling that it's all a set up for him ending up the same character as before. As cool as I thought it was, I just don't see "creepy kid show host" sticking around long in a company with toy companies as their largest sponsor. Also maybe it's just me, but between the new buff physique and him talking in a somewhat normal voice for a change (normal for him at least) he really looked like Bo Dallas on HGH and acid.

Well at least they figured a way to get people to quickly forget they put Robert Fucking Roode over Ricochet in 2019.

To be fair, the only people ever to be able to rock a stache like that were Rick Rude and Dan Severn.

The Last Real Man, Robert Roode.

Roode would be fine in NXT as an experienced guy the newbies can work with, there's pretty much no point for him on the main roster.

I know we're in an era where everyone has to be a top notch worker, but I kind of dig the IIconics as the bumbling heel team.

Yeah it's nothing new, but sometimes it just hits you in the face how little effort is being put in to things.

Everyone just coming out one by one to set up a match we already know was set, such lazy writing to get from point A to B.

I must have missed when they were planning to start an upstart football league. That was the joke. They name people after NFL teams when they (well Vince technically) is going to go against them.

Yes, but that's begging for a Cease and Desist from the NFL.

Word is at least part of the reasoning was they realized the optics would be bad to have a show named Backlash a week after having another show in Parts Unknown.

I would assume if Punk ever did anything else wrestling related, this would be how he does it. All the pieces seem to fit, especially since Ace Steel was involved. The down side is now we probably have to deal with all the newz sites posting "PUNK TO AEW???" clickbait stories.

I wouldn't say "worked" as much as "got angry at people who connected the obvious dots and assumed he was going to AEW".

Following up on this, after watching a few episodes he's in (previously I've only been aware of him via magazines) I wonder if Dustin Rhodes pays him royalties since Goldust is basically this gimmick + movie references. I've heard people say it before, but watching it in action it's apparent as hell.

I wonder at what point did WWE forget what made a good heelish commentator? Jesse and Bobby rooted for the heels and pointed out the double standard when Vince (or Gorilla) would condone a face cheating, but they would never flat out shit on someone while on commentary. Now it seems like the only direction anyone gets on the main roster when they want a heel announcer is "be the biggest asshole possible".

So Sam Roberts went weirdly heel on Dana Brooke during Main Event, so I guess his gimmick now is heel announcer who randomly goes off on women wrestlers?

Fantasma left AAA since he was part of the Lucha Underground lawsuit, and since AAA and LU are (were?) sister companies, it turned into a "AJ Lee working for WWE while Punk was in a lawsuit with them" level of awkwardness. His dad is the Lucha commissioner for Mexico City still, so it might help out if NJPW wants to do any Mexico based shows to have a guy who can grease the wheels if need be.

Fascinating how this show was pretty much the same format as most Mid South TV. I wonder how hands on McGuirk was at this point since it seems like Watts was steering the ship.

I think that is where the disconnect is. I'm thinking (and I could be wrong here) that Herodes was referring to the response on the general Internet Wrestling Universe rather than this specific board. I think we've shown that this place has a higher level of discourse than angry neckbeards yelling at people on Twitter.