sek69

The most mindblowing part of the Ole tidbit is that he was only 48 in 1990. He looked like he was in his mid 50s for the prior 15 years.

Just the fact that so much of WWE's roster are guys who wouldn't have got a second look (if even a first) shows Bryan's historical importance. You could argue Punk played a role too, but him being Punk could have easily soured WWE on guys like him. Bryan proved that fans will accept a smaller guy as a star even if the company does literally everything in their power to undermine him. It really stands out on a show like All In, where a guy like Billy Gunn (who was never seen as a "big guy" in WWE) looked like the Big Show in the battle royal. People who never thought they had a chance to make it in WWE are now able to take their shot, and it really is because of Bryan.

Anyone else catch Cole going into Dad Voice admonishing Renee for popping during the finish of one of the matches? "NO CHEERING!"

Foley switching to the serious Cactus voice is my favorite thing in wrestling. It was always so underrated how each of his characters had a completely different promo style.

The thing with the Fox deal is since they lost UFC they have large gaps on the FS1/FS2 schedule to fill, so the worst thing that could happen if Smackdown bombs is they get moved from the main Fox network to FS1. That would be a step down, but not a giant one. It's being put on Friday nights, which isn't a high ratings night so there won't be nearly as much pressure on them.

Coach needs to be as far away as possible. His brand of smugness combined with acting like he was still hosting SportsCenter, all while getting clowned by Graves and Cole for being a dipshit was getting very old.

Yeah, since WWE is financially set for the next several years at least there's no motivation for them to try anything new or creative. Their best times came when they were motivated to take over the territories and then when they were getting their asses kicked in the Monday Night War. Now there's really no more mountains to climb, and all they can do is throw their weight around to keep anyone else from getting a foothold anywhere as a strong #2 promotion. They could always take the view of since they don't have to worry about money it's the best time to take risks since an idea failing won't sink them, but it seldom works that way. No one wants to be the one to take the blame if something goes sideways and pisses off a sponsor, or Fox, or the Saudis (although it seems like the only way that happens is if they see a woman wrestler in their gear). What I do see happening is a change in the mindset that WWE is always the end goal for all wrestlers. Even if they back up the money truck for Cody and the Bucks, most will still get developmental offers below indy value. Women will continue to get embarrassinly low offers (I suppose they might be willing to pay someone like Tessa, but she might still have the "bad attitude" tag). Plus the trend will likely continue that anyone who shows potential in NXT will end up getting wasted on the main roster. Combined with the overscripting and lack of creative freedom, I wouldn't be surprised if folks start weighing the ability to have more freedom in their work/better travel schedule and decide maybe WWE isn't the be-all-end-all anymore. As far as criticizing them about it, I'm at a place now that I just accept that this is how WWE is doing buisness now. I don't get upset about it, hell it even can be funny when stuff like Becky's heel turn goes completely backwards on them. WWE is basically the Wal-Mart of wrestling now: they're the largest, they tend to not treat the people who work for them very well, and they try to run anyone who competes with them out of business.

Jesus, that's brutal even for 80s Dave. If you aren't aware the jet reference was about this plane getting shot down a month prior, killing a US congressman and being one of the biggest escalations during the Cold War.

I kind of would be. Bryan apparently was lobbying hard to have a match with him and he said no, you'd think that would have been the better itch-causer than some NXT guys.

Dave mentioned in the obit of South Korean wrestler Lee Wang Pyo that Korean legend Kim Il (aka Kintaro Oki) tried to steal the NWA title from Lou Thesz by hitting him with a shoot headbutt, but Thesz saw it coming and ended up knocking him out.

Jarrett pretty much had heat with everyone when he was battling his demons. He pissed off damn near the entire promotion in AAA when he showed up to TripleMania last year in no condition to perform.

Reminds me of a bit that Gabriel Iglesias did where his agent told him a Saudi Prince wanted him to do a show. He told his agent to ask for a ridiculous amount of money thinking the Prince would never agree to it, only for his agent to come back saying "ridiculous just showed up". They made a push to get Shawn for the last show, I'd almost guarantee that MBS or whoever probably just said "how much would it take" and then ridiculous showed up for HBK too.

So has anyone ever figured out what the fuck Samuel Shaw was doing in Aldis's corner? I'll cop to not keeping up with the stuff the NWA does on YouTube but it seemed like the people who did were just as puzzled as I was.

Yeah, basically Eric got salty as fuck over not getting much action at the autograph signing and went into Trump mode on Twitter over it. The funny thing is, of literally anything you can try to accuse Dave of, steroids are one thing that shouldn't be even thought of. He's always been vocally anti-steroid, his work during the WWF drug trials were legendary, and just because he kept up his workout routine and maintains his guns people are all LOL DAVE USES ROIDS,

Always reminding people he main evented Wrestlemania was the best heel mannerism he could have had since 1: It was techincally true, and heels are always best when they are right and 2: It was always great heat since it would irritate everyone who knew he was just a body thrown in the middle of the Cena/Rock build. It kept Miz on everyone's radar even when he didn't have any direction, and being pared up with Maryse just put him over the top.

Not gonna lie, I would pop for Road Dogg as an on screen character following Hunter around calling him Mister LA-VECK .

Everyone seems to just assume that Cody/Omega/Bucks going to WWE is just a thing that's destined to happen but I just don't see it. At least not this time around. Kenny's the top foreginer in NJPW and the guy they want to build their world expansion around. The Bucks can make as much money they probably would on an NXT deal and work half the time (both also have young kids they probably don't want to spend less time around), and Cody is able to do more than he would if he spend a hundred years in WWE. All of them stated they value the creative freedom their current situation allows, and even though WWE has the budget to throw "fuck you" money at anyone I don't see them wanting to throw their pay structure out of whack just to get the All In crew. I'm sure they all would want to do a WWE run at some point as the victory lap in the later stages of their career, but if anything this show was solid proof that they don't need WWE to succeed.

I get it, dude's gotta eat and it would be stupid of him to mess up what's the only thing the business has that's equivalent to a retirement plan. Still, it's funny that the DX of 1997-1999 are now the Stooges in 2018.

As much as we'd all like it to be otherwise, there's nothing to indicate the fans getting behind Becky post heel turn won't be yet another thing that gets squashed because The Wrong Thing Got Over. Considering Road Dogg on Twitter calling everyone dummies for not going along with what the company wanted, I'm sure they will just book Becky to lose until people stop seeing anything special about her anymore.

This. It's like the modern fan version of the "It's still real to me" guy. I've enjoyed seeing Bryan back, and most of his matches have been good to great (basically all of them that didn't involve Cass), but it's clear that WWE is not going to put him at the level the fans want him to be at.

I would be fine with everyone being banned from doing those, it's been watered down to being a meaningless spot and it's one of those things that if it goes bad it can be REAL bad.

The whole show is a handwave designed to distract from the fact the next Saudi show is a few days later, so it's not a surprise there doesn't seem to be any though being put in to the matches.

She was a Bayley superfan who was front row at the NXT tapings and became known to the point she was used in angles (notably when Sasha mocked her when she beat Bayley). Yes, it was one of my co workers who got the call and I was able to figure out from context clues that it was one of our regulars who is permanently about 12 years old mentally due to a traumatic brain injury (not being snarky either, he tells the story of how it happened all the time). Of course he's a wrestling fan, and will talk your ear off forever if you let him.

Yes, he was sleeping in his car and when the cops showed up they found he has a warrant outstanding from Florida. He was supposed to run the pre show and be in the gorilla position so I would assume part of his responsiblities to time out the show.

I think the Barely Legal comparisons are the most accurate one, historic in the sense that it's a show no one thought would happen, but not an all time great in ring show. It was nice to see a show where the company wasn't actively fighting their fans at every turn, and people who followed the storylines got rewarded instead of being made to feel stupid.