Coffey

I was born in 1981. Hulk Hogan was the reason why I got into professional wrestling as a child & he made me a fan of the business for life. Growing up, I always heard the "I was never a Hogan fan anyway" or "I liked Macho Man better" or "I liked Ric Flair better" stuff but, not me, WWF reeled me in exactly as intended with their charismatic, giant poster boy. I was the perfect age & perfect mark. He turned out to be an awful man outside of the ring, but as a little boy, I didn't know that & couldn't see the future - obviously. Although as an adult looking back, there were always some signs & stories from others. Jesse Ventura talking about the union busting comes to mind, or what happened with Bret Hart at WrestleMania 9. Nowadays, when everyone has done a shoot interview or a podcast, you can hear everything & just have to decide which person telling which story to believe... but we all heard with our own ears the awful things Terry said both after his son's car crash & while cheating with Bubba the Love Sponge's wife, about black people. Unforgiveable, inexcusable, awful things that truly tanked everyone's opinion of Terry Bollea & rightfully killed all his respect. That's putting it mildly. More personally & accurately, I not only stopped being a fan of Hogan when those audio tapes leaked but to me, that was when he died. I can still watch Hulk Hogan. If I put on an old WrestleMania, I still get drawn into his promos. I want to be able to separate the performer from the man because he was such a monumental figure in my life, honestly. There's just no way the shit doesn't float to the forefront of your mind though. You look at him differently. The first WWF show I remember watching was probably an old WWF Superstars because I remember seeing the Macho Man Vs. Hulk Hogan stuff after the Mega Powers exploded during Saturday Night's Main event. There's no way that I was still awake to actually watch SNME then though, so that's why I think it was probably a replay on the Saturday morning show. I also remember, at least a couple of years, WWF Survivor Series was actually on Thanksgiving Day & my family ordered the Pay-Per-View as a way to placate one family member that was a fan, but also as a way to give the children something to do to keep them out of the hair of the adults. I sat & watched with my brother & my cousin. As a kid, I just loved the babyfaces like I was supposed to. The Ultimate Warrior, Jake 'The Snake' Roberts & of course, Hulk Hogan. I was drawn into the show like I would be a cartoon like He-Man & the Masters of the Universe, or like a comic book. I reckon that was the whole point. Hogan & Warrior both had crazy tirades & Jake smoked crack. Who was picking the babyfaces for WWF!? ...oh, right. I didn't remember the campaign encouraging it until seeing it again years later, but I remembered writing in a "get well soon, Hulkster" letter after The Earthquake squashed him on The Brother Love Show & he did a stretcher job. That was in 1990 so I was 8-9. I took a break from wrestling sometime around the steroid trial era but Hogan being a bad guy when I was a rebellious teenager is what brought me back to wrestling. The nWo started in 1996, when I would have been 15 & ran at least until I was 17 or 18. I graduated high school in 2000. Then Hogan going back to WWF for the nostalgia run, I was right there. I actually got tears in my eyes during Hogan's "Hulking up" comeback against The Rock at WrestleMania because the wave of nostalgia hit me so hard. Including the same sign in the crowd of Hogan's face that was at the Skydome during Hogan/Warrior. Something interesting that I thought about is how despite the creative control, being the top babyface, "Hogan's gotta pose" & all that... the most memorable moments I have of Hulk Hogan's wrestling career were actually his losses. Which maybe meant more because they didn't happen as often. I remember Hogan losing to Warrior at WrestleMania 6. Losing to The Undertaker with the Tombstone on the chair. I remember Hogan losing to Luger on Nitro & washing the nWo spray paint off of the title. Goldberg in Atlanta. I remember Hogan losing to The Rock at WrestleMania 18. Losing to Brock Lesnar where he was bleeding during a bearhug. Losing to Sting at Starrcade. If you look at a lot of them though, now, several of even those have stories that go with them. We all know about the drama surrounding Sting & the finish at Starrcade. We've all heard the "Ahh, you got me brother!" soundbite from The Undertaker about the Tombstone. Or the rumors of dropping the title to Luger was to deflate some of the air out of the ball for when he had to drop the title to Sting. His popping up & making it all about himself after losing to Warrior at the 3-count. There was always something with that dude, brother. One of, if not the biggest name in professional wrestling & it was all marred & thrown away by his out of ring bullshit. He went from being the top guy, the main event & the world champion, to being a punchline. A racist. The last things people will remember him for (other than his racial tirade) are his shitty reality TV show, doing shit like The Celebrity Roast of David Hasselhoff & trying to come back to shill shitty beer or that dumb ass amateur wrestling idea. He died as a has-been, even after being on top of the world. Dude made his own bed & I don't pity him but it sucks that my horse was connected to his wagon, even just as a fan/viewer, for so long when he showed his true colors.

I still use pro wrestling as escapism from real life. I still frequent PWO because I feel like I've been attached to wrestling forums, in one fashion or another, for over 25-years now & it's hard to give up. I still enjoy talking about wrestling & WWE, but coming on here anymore, is just kind of depressing. I don't know what I get from here anymore other than guilt from being a fan. I don't need to constantly be reminded of how billion dollar companies are full of real life pieces of shit. So is Walmart. So is Amazon. So is Apple. So is Chic-fil-A. Like, I get it. I can't abstain & boycott every company in the United States. I didn't vote for Donald Trump. I didn't vote for a single Republican. It's not my fault WWE sucks or our country is going to shit. It doesn't need to be said in every reply in every thread. I would rather just go on Threads or Bluesky & actually talk about the shows with people that want to talk about the shows. Not constantly be beaten over the head with how the sky is falling & I'm a terrible person if I watch the Royal Rumble, like I some how condone that awful shit that goes down outside of the TV show. There's not even a lot of active people here anymore, so blocking one of the few remaining people gets me nowhere. I work a lot. My body hurts a lot. I'm surrounded by people in all walks of life that are the living embodiment of doom-scrolling. I don't need more of that shit during my leisure time.

When I used to watch MLW every week, there were two guys that stood head & shoulders above everyone else: Jacob Fatu & Alex Hammerstone. Both moved on from MLW. I'm surprised that Dario Cueto & Salina de la Renta never went to a bigger promotion in the U.S. but talent wise, MLW leaves a lot to be desired. Like Mads Krugger isn't selling tickets. Sometimes a big fish in a small pond is still a big fish when you put him in a big ass lake. Sometimes they get too big (physically) & just don't seem to be super interesting anymore. We've kind of seen both sides of that with Fatu & Hammerstone. Jeff Cobb is 42-years-old now & wrestles in New Japan. Not doing too much, really. That Lucha Underground run was back in 2014-15ish. I'm sad that I won't get to see him tag with or wrestle against Chad Gable as I feel like that would be a certified banger. Seems like they would mesh really well with their styles.

I genuinely don't get how Jey Uso is so over. Just from the stupid "YEET!" shit, I guess? There's not a ton of appeal to Gunther Vs. Jey to me but Saturday Night's Main Event is looking pretty good on paper. Sheamus Vs. Bron Breakker is going to be nuts!

I’m not a fan of the RAW announcer.

Admittedly don’t love the ad breaks but the show has been great otherwise.

It's actually pretty crazy how WWE have managed to get the briefcase & the cash-ins so over. To the point where other companies even started having their own briefcases & cash-ins. It has made for some crazy pops in the past too. Like when Dolph came out. I went from being annoyed by it to genuinely enjoying the ride of where the story is going. Tiffany was no exception. They did a good job with the Nia story imo.

I've already watched this video three times! I'm so monumentally pumped for the show tonight. My wife & I will both be watching live. We'll both be home from work & we're making an evening of it. Probably order pizza & not have to leave (the weather outside here in Michigan is terribly cold but so far all the snow/ice has missed us). I expected Cena, I expect The Rock. I wouldn't be surprised to see Charlotte Flair return & maybe someone else like The Undertaker to make an appearance. I'm most intrigued by what the closing angle will be, as I'm sure it'll involve The Bloodline. There's going to be so many new eyes on the show tonight & I fully expect WWE to go all-out in a way that they haven't even done for PLE's lately. It's going to be a big, huge show. I'm really excited. Most excited I have been for a show since maybe the AEW debut of Punk? Everything is going to feel so new & different being off USA & the new ring with ads & everything. Let's go!

I think my favorite thing about the show was that matches... just ended. It wasn't a lot of false finishes, or 2-count kickouts. It was... hit my move & go home. We you don't get that for so long, you forget what it's like! Drew hit the Claymore & the match was just over. Clean in the middle. I was like "what!?" It was great!

Man, the future of women’s wrestling in WWE, judging by NXT, looks really bright. Sol Ruca impressed the hell out of me in Deadline. I know Giulia & Vaquer have a lot of hype coming in too but I’m unfamiliar with them.

Ain't Bully Ray the one that took a fan backstage at an ROH show to try to intimate him for booing/heckling at a show too? Dude is soft as fuckin' Charmin.

Also a very true and valid point. At least in the States.

I know & you’re right but my wife wanted to watch it and I’m curious about the Bloodline match. Also, just to add onto my misogynistic-sounding comment earlier & attempt to better explain myself: I have seen great women’s wrestling. WWE themselves currently have some really good female talent and have in the past but for whatever reason, their revisionist bullshit wants us to pretend that Trish & Lita were great & nowadays if it’s not Alexa Bliss it’s Liv Morgan… the same kind of shit. Bianca is great. Rhea is great. Iyo is great. They could have a great division but they never want that & it’s like you’re not allowed to be critical about it online when it’s not any good. Same with AEW. How long did people pretend Britt Baker was great?

They have no reason to improve. This match has been the drizzling shits, full of botches, terrible psychology, awful plunder… but they do a couple high spots and get two “this is awesome” chants, so what are you gonna do? The bar is so fucking low.

This is one of the worst matches that I have ever tried to sit through live. I feel like if I can’t fast forward I have to stop doing this to myself. I know that there’s this big trend now of everyone pretending like all the women are great, but half of these women can’t work at all. AT ALL. How the fuck is Liv Morgan the champion? Why is Raquel back at all? Why are we trying to push Nia again? Where did all of Bayley’s athleticism go? Just a terrible both fest.