sek69

and they didn't even make a big deal of their sexuality either, just basically "here's a couple of dope ass wrestlers we signed" and left it at that. I'll cop not being too familar with either of their work (I peaced out on LU long before Sonny Kiss showed up) but what I managed to look up seemed pretty awesome.

That was the first thing I saw, but Nyla Rose's Twitter mentions quickly turned into a dumpster fire of "Well Actually"s stating on how being trans is a mental illness or what have you. Even that girl who got lambasted on Twitter had a legion of white knights leaping to defend her honor, which....she ain't going to have sex with you for defending her right to be trash so you're just making yourself look bad.

Also it seems to have upset certain people that AEW signed a couple of folks, one who is openly gay and another who is openly transgender. It's always been interesting to me how some fans are okay with gay characters/gimmicks when it's known the person portraying them is hetero, but an actual gay person doing a stereotypical gay gimmick is somehow unacceptable.

I think it's funny that from day one Kenny/Cody/The Bucks said all four would be taking the next step together, yet some people are surprised that's what ended up happening. I suppose the thinking was it was just a given that WWE would back the truck up for at least Kenny if for no other reason to put a crimp on AEW, but it started to sound like Laker or Yankee fans who just assume all the hot free agents want to come play for them.

That might be part of whatever deal they cut to get the Lucha Brothers.

I honestly think rovert doesn't realize everyone isn't as Extremely Online as he is. He seems to be active on social media almost 24/7 and I guess I can see how anything less can be baffling when that's your normal.

I'm willing to admit I'm missing something, but Jimmy Havoc seems like the typical "deathmatch guy trying to make his way in a world where deathmatch style is no longer en vogue".

That it came down to the AWA and Mid South to be on ESPN and they picked the AWA because they recognized Slaughter and no one in Mid South? I believe it. An exec from ESPN in the mid 80s would have certainly been familiar with Sarge from his WWF run, and would not have known anyone from Mid South unless they read the Apter mags or subbed to the Observer. Plus it's been almost entirely forgotten Sarge was popular from his run as a character on GI Joe at the time too.

I'd like to think Mene Gene is somewhere smiling proudly knowing the legacy of the WCW Hotline lives on.

Ryan Satin made some kind of offhand comment about how Randy to AEW would be their "Hall shows up on Nitro" moment and all the cut n' paste sites went all "ORTON TO AEW? IT COULD HAPPEN" when no one said any such thing.

Yeah I can see that, especially since on paper Stephanie was the babyface in the sense of protecting Becky from herself (since the story is she's more hurt than she's letting on) and got beat up in the process. However Charlotte is so over the top smarmy heel and Ronda is so naturally unlikeable, it almost doesn't even matter. *edit to add* They really should emphasize the point that Becky doesn't trust the WWE doctors to not bench her for poltical reasons, rather than her being the stereotypical alpha (fe)male who doesn't want medical help.

They seem to be telegraphing the women's tag title match pretty hard by having Sasha/Bayley, Nia/Tamina, and a bunch of jobber teams. It makes it seem like maybe they launched this division too soon if that was the best they could do in terms of who they could put in the match.

Kind of, in NXT they would say he comes from a wealthy family and most of their fanbase knew what it meant. Obviously that won't translate to the main roster so it's going to be interesting how they explain it now.

To be fair (kinda) to WWE, they've long viewed relationships based on each person's status on the card rather than attractiveness. Like, they probably didn't like a guy they saw as midcard at best was with someone they thought could be a star. The old "why would Baby Doll be with Sam Houston when she could get with a star like me" mentality.

Yeah basically the company viewed them getting married while split up on TV as them saying "fuck you" to the attempts to split them up (and to be fair it sure seemed like that was the intent in how they announced it via social media). Since the company is run by a 70+ year old stuck in a high school mentality, they've gone out of their way to make sure Rusev never gets above a certain level since.

Tamina out there looking like a disappointed auntie while Nia speaks.

Thank god Double J isn't in his 90s gear again.

Nikki and Alica as Team Crazy People works for me.

Otis is an actual cartoon come to life, it's amazing.

Well that went better than expected. I guess now Charlotte gets put in the match as the "replacement".

I would assume it's pretty much a given Rusev's leaving when his deal is up, if not for AEW for anywhere else but WWE at this point. He tries to be upbeat on social media but you can see his frustration leaking through there as well. The cynical side of me thinks Vince is still mad his attempt to break him and Lana up didn't work (plus they had the nerve to get married IRL when they were split on TV).

The Shield is a prime example of what I was talking about. It was always designed as a vehicle to get Roman (and Seth to a lesser degree) over as singles stars. One could argue the intial breakup was done too soon in terms of what more could have been done with them as a unit, but again Vince just saw a tag team as a means to an end.

So among other things, one of WWE's rumored responses to AEW is to put more focus on the tag team divison since AEW made it clear that it will be one of their main points of emphasis. Like a lot of Vince/WWE ideas, it's one of those things that sound good on paper but will fizzle out at best, or at worst turn into some monstrosity no one wanted for one simple reason: Vince has never been a fan of tag teams. I can hear everyone now slamming their keys "what about the 80s when the Bulldogs/Harts/Islanders/Demos/ et al were all around?", and yes, that would absolutely be the high water point for tag teams in the WWF/E. It also was the time the company was running multiple touring circuits and needed bodies to fill all those cards. Not to mention they had an excess of riches with a lot of good tag teams happening to all be in the same time and place under their umbrella. Even then, it was never the focus of any show. The tag titles didn't even get showcased on the biggest show of that era (WM 3), with the Harts and Bulldogs getting put in a six man tag mainly as a blowoff to the Danny Davis: Heel Ref angle. Even in the 2000s when they had the Dudleys/Hardys/E&C it was less tag team wrestling than guys having increasingly more death defying plunder matches. What seems to be the biggest roadblock IMO is Vince's determination that tag teams only exist to break up. A lot of us old farts can recall the days when being a "tag team specialist" was a thing. Yeah, you might see Hawk or Ricky Morton get a singles match once in a while, but most tag teams stayed tag teams unless there was a legit falling out or someone quit/got fired. You had the Rock n Rolls, the Midnights, the Fantastics, Road Warriors, and many others who not only stayed together but managed to get over in different areas. Then you had guys like the Barbarian who wasn't lighting the world on fire as a single, but ended up with a solid career as a tag team guy first with with the Warlord and then with Meng (we don't talk about that stint where he was a bootleg Headshrinker). Tag teams will never get to that level in a place where Vince gets final say because the moment a team gets hot, he wants to break them up so he can push the "Shawn" of the team as a single. More often than not that ends up being the guy who checks Vince's boxes instead of the guy who has the tools to be better suited for the push and they end up submarining a tag team act to make too low quality single ones. For fuck's sake he tried to make Bobby Roode a singles star before realizing something even TNA at their TNA-est figured out, he's better in tags. I hope to be proven wrong and we're ushered into a new era where tag teams get their due and main event shows like it's JCP in the 80s, but Vince is like the scorpion in that fable. You knew what he was, why be surprised when he stings you?

TBF I don't think anyone's jealous here. You do seem to have a habit of frequently mentioning how connected you are, and some folks might be tired of hearing it. It keeps becoming a point of discussion because you keep inserting it into conversations and are continually surprised when people have the same response to it.

That just reminded me that since "Steph takes a bump every year at Mania to prove she shows ass sometimes" is a thing now, this probably is setting up this year's spot.