NintendoLogic

Interesting factoid in the latest Observer. Thanks to the settlement, MLW turned a bigger profit last year than any non-WWE promotion in history other than WCW in 1997 and 1998. That has to be my all-time favorite piece of wrestling trivia.

It was a lot easier to engage in blatant copyright infringement when pro wrestling was considered unworthy of acknowledgment by much of the media and corporate world even when it was bigger in some ways than it is today. That goes for other crimes as well. Look at how long Vince McMahon was able to hide in plain sight due to being viewed as just a rasslin' promoter despite being the CEO of a billion-dollar publicly traded corporation.

The CMLL front office has apparently been a clown show ever since Paco Alonso died, so this story doesn't really come as a surprise. Also, I can see how they wouldn't be too keen on their talent taking better-paying and higher-profile bookings in the States and thus wouldn't go out of their way to facilitate that.

Okada might be indirectly responsible in that Gedo drew the wrong lessons from his booking. Most bookers probably would have panicked and shifted gears after the debut of the Rainmaker was a disaster, but Gedo stayed the course and it ended up paying major dividends. The experience seems to have taught him to trust his gut above all else and not be discouraged by real-time feedback, which might explain why he continues to push EVIL and the House of Torture seemingly beyond all reason.

The Rock has said he considers Haku his uncle, so Tama is as much Rock's cousin as Roman is (Peter Maivia and Afa and Sika's father became "brothers" through a blood oath, which is not how brotherhood works biologically or legally). And of course, Paul Heyman isn't even Polynesian.

Tama Tonga, welcome to the Bloodline.

It is rather striking how much more rapidly wrestlers aged in the territory days. Virtually everyone who was a star in the 60s and 70s looked ancient by the time the 80s rolled around.

Ricky Morton announced Ole's passing on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/C31FoQvJptD/?igsh=NXR2Y2ZsNmhmOGt2 He was 81. Say what you want about the guy, but anyone who hated Vince McMahon as much as he did had to have something going for him.

Imagine being told after seeing JBL is Poopy that one day John Cena would lend his voice and likeness to a Mortal Kombat game.

When it first got TV in the early 70s, New Japan aired on Fridays in prime time. In October of 1986, it got to moved to Monday evenings. It bounced back and forth between Monday and Tuesday until being moved to Saturday afternoons in April of 1988. I doubt the UWF style being too technical for casuals was the sole or even primary cause of the ratings decline, but I wouldn't dismiss it as a contributing factor.

I actually think HOOK's selling is quite good, but I agree that he needs to go somewhere where he can get more ring time and develop as a worker. He seems like an obvious candidate for a New Japan excursion. Maybe they think they can't afford to let him go because of how over he is, but Jade Cargill showed that overness based on aura only lasts so long if you don't significantly progress in the ring.

Akira Taue came from sumo as well. Baba and Tenryu both seemed to have a soft spot for the sport because lots of guys in All Japan and WAR had sumo backgrounds.

I recall hearing somewhere that That Guy (TAFKA Brock Lesnar Guy) comes from a wealthy family, but I can't find any more information on that. For what it's worth, he has claimed that he works at Whole Foods.

I guess no one stayed up to create a thread for this (myself included). I checked out the women's title match after the fact, and it was probably as good as a Nia Jax match can possibly be. Also, Seth/Drew and Rhea/Becky are now official for Wrestlemania. And Cody challenged Rock to a one-on-one match. So there you go.

"Shit hits the fan" was an especially poor choice of words on his part.

That Rock promo was indeed tremendous. Versace vest Rock is so far above Roman (and everyone else, to be fair) in terms of presence and star power it's not even funny. The 600 inbred grandchildren line had me rolling. They didn't really explain why he pivoted from wanting to sit at the head of the table to happily serving as Roman's lackey, but they have a few more weeks to work that out.

Rita Chatterton was a guest timekeeper for one of the matches on that show, which makes it even more egregious.

I've said in the past that some of the details of Massaro's allegations seemed superficially implausible enough that a degree of skepticism was warranted. But that's no excuse for not conducting a legitimate investigation. The fact that WWE immediately went into cover-up mode is the most damning aspect of all. It's not that they doubted her story, it's that they thought it had to be swept under the rug regardless of whether or not it was true.

Danielson vs. Yoshinari Ogawa is a low-key dream match I never realized I wanted to see until now.

Dave clarified that non-CMLL Mexican wrestlers can't wrestle on the same show as CMLL wrestlers, which appears to be true. The original report was sloppy wording on his part, which is a recurring issue for him. Another example is the HOF voting criteria. He uses "historical significance" and "historical influence" interchangeably, but the latter is a much higher standard. You think he would know better given the army of losers who seem to have nothing better to do than to pick apart his every word for inaccuracies both real and imagined, but I guess not.

Cool, thanks for the heads-up. I checked, and it is indeed available on Prime Video for that price. I got a $25 Amazon gift card for secret Santa at work, so I might as well use it on this.

Romero's primary role in the office was as a foreign talent liaison, and as we've previously noted, that's not really an area New Japan can currently compete in. So it's not that big a loss substantively although it obviously can't help in the perception game.

If nothing else, there's a surefire way for WWE to tap into the zeitgeist.

Looks like we can safely say that Taylor Swift did not, in fact, curse the Chiefs.

The thing is, Hogan was a lot less reliant on athleticism during his prime than Rock was. So when he was old and broken down, he could get by without doing much more than wagging his finger and lifting his foot up for his opponent to run into. Old broken-down Rock is liable to tear a pec while attempting a Rock Bottom.