sek69

Mentioning that he was brought back years ago with no fuss outside the hardcore bubble ignores the fact that the retrial attempts got a lot of attention the last year or so. More people are aware of it now than back then, and it was noticeable when they cut back to the crowd after showing the video and there was a palpable sense of uneasiness. Half the crowd was standing and cheering and half had a look of "uhhh, did they really just do that". On top of all the did--he-or-didn't-he stuff, the final photo from Tamina's Twitter of her holding her presumably deceased father's hand struck me as something entirely too personal to be something added to a video meant for public consumption.

Dave said on last night's show that it looks like they're going to be on the network, At least now the reported lowball contracts offered to guys in the UK tournament kind of make sense if they can still work in ICW.

The opening RIP screen was fine since it had to be acknowledged, but man was that extended tribute video to Snuka was uncomfortable.

Jesus. I never expected to live in a time where Big Show was rocking a six pack. Unless it was like, a literal six pack.

Watching matches for the sole purpose of assigning the proper fractional amount of flakes never made much sense IMO.

Randos on Twitter seem so confident they know more about the wrestling business than the guy who's spent decades talking to people inside the company.

Is Thunderkitty that bad normally or was she deliberately playing the role of uncoordinated JCP jobber?

Suda51 is a guy, he mentioned there's going to be a new No More Heroes game (or at least a game with the main character from it) on the Switch.

I don't doubt there's a lot of wrestlers who would have *tried* MMA had it been an option for them, but I would expect the vast majority still would have ended up in pro wrestling anyway. I don't think anyone other than a Kurt Angle type would have had much success at it.

Yeah in a world where Bruno and Warrior mended fences to the point of a HOF induction, it seems silly to suggest Punk will never ever be back. However it does need pointed out that the first two were Hunter smoothing things out with guys who had issues with Vince, and in Punk's case Hunter seems to be the guy he hates.

Did they ever appear on any show besides Shotgun? I seem to remember them being only on that show and it coming off as a tryhard attempt of being edgy.

I never really understood the appeal of Tommy Rich in the early 80s since it was just before my time as a fan, but it makes sense now after watching GCW tv from 1982. His babyface promos were perfect, apologizing to the fans for losing the National title and thanking Gordon Solie for his time after the interview. Also this is probably peak coked-out Roddy Piper as he is basically Tazmanian Devil in a suit any time he gets worked up.

The bubble is strong ITT

Yeah, I'd wager WWE was far more concerned with them getting major TV clearance than the actual wrestling content. Same as when they decided to go after ROH when they got on Destination America. If a backyard wrestling fed somehow got a TV deal, we'd probably see the First Annual Backyard Classic Special on the network .

He's deserving by WWE HOF standards, but considering their insistence on using WWF names it's going to be weird seeing the video package on the former NWA Florida champ Irwin R. Schyster.

Also are you trying to make the argument that Monday's Raw didn't warrant complaints and rebooking?

Then your post should say "people who complain about Raw" instead of "people who complain about WWE" then.

Kind of a broad brush when Smackdown has been one of the best TV shows week after week and Raw has been a slog. If someone's bashing both shows you may have a point, but I don't see much of that. Honestly, it seems like 3 hour Raws are taking their toll creatively just like they did on WCW when they had those historically awful 3 hour Nitros. The difference is WCW did it as a dick waving move and had the ability to pull back when it was obvious the toll it was taking. WWE is stuck with it since TV money is the lifeblood of the company now.

Raw was so schizophrenic, since when does the Commissioner have the power to evaluate (and potentially fire) the GM of a brand? Steph and Foley for weeks were portrayed as if not equals, at least close enough on the chain of command to back up each other's decisions. Now suddenly Mick's being talked to like an intern who fucked up for the last time. The line about Smackdown beating Raw in the ratings made no sense from a kayfabe standpoint, since what is Foley supposed to do about John Cena returning? That's not even mention pretending Foley was unsure about Taker showing up when it was advertised several times last week on TV. The segment with the women was so self defeating. If you want to have the usual Steph as Alpha segment, fine. I mean, it's not fine, but it seems like it's something they have to do. There was no reason to have her tell Sasha that she is the real legit boss. Going to the extent of trying to kill someone's gimmick is impressive by the usual browbeating segment standards.

This is hardly the first generation of wrestlers that grew up reading the Observer. It is the first to grow up in an era of social media to be able to tell everyone about it though.

I'm just glad someone clued in Volador Jr that the bodysuit look wasn't very flattering for him/looks odd sans mask.

I know most of you guys hate Alvarez, but he just did an interview with Magnum TA which was really good. It was really refreshing to hear the guy who probably has the most legit reasons to be a bitter old timer actually give props to current stars and talk about still getting excited to watch wrestling. Also he talked about the accident and said the main reason he got hurt so bad was being a big guy in a small car. He had less than an inch of head room in the Porsche, and the force of the impact lifted him up out of his seat and his head hit the roof. He said if he would have been in a pickup truck he probably wouldn't have been hurt nearly as bad.

It's going to be on NJPW World too. Their site says it won't be available to anyone outside of Japan though.

Even New Japan thinks that card is awesome, as they are going to air it with Japanese commentary on NJPW World on Sunday.

I think it's both honestly. Clearly there's an obvious Southeastern influence on the show, but the way things flow week to week is what made NXT the new hotness when Ward was writing there.