NintendoLogic

On the plus side, Seth's latest Twitter meltdown did lead to the following riposte:

So much for the brand split.

BJ Whitmer. I didn't think it was possible, but I'm firmly on management's side here. Even if WWE agreed to release him for some unfathomable reason, who the hell would want to take in a guy who walked away from a newly signed deal after going through company-funded rehab because he didn't like how he was being booked?

I don't know how much faith we should have in Corgan's business acumen. He was out-carnied by Dixie Carter, after all.

What's there to flesh out? She's a dentist. That's it. That's her character. And it's a lousy one because like I said earlier in the thread, who actually likes dentists? And if her commentary during the Riho/Nyla match is any indication, she's a total black hole of charisma.

So KOPW is very much up in the air due to the typhoon. It'll be gone by the time the show is supposed to start, but there's a chance structural damage and lack of power will cause the show to be postponed. Too bad, because I was really looking forward to Liger/Suzuki.

The big difference is that comic book companies are mainly IP farms for movie studios these days and any comics they sell are a bonus. WWE still has to sell its product to someone to be successful, even if that someone happens to be TV networks.

It reminds me of the story of why Giant Baba stopped working with WCW. At Clash 5, Tenryu and the Road Warriors were scheduled to defend the NWA six-man titles against a team led by Sting in a match that was going to be taped for Japanese TV. TBS executives were afraid of Sting being booed on live TV, so they booked an angle where Kevin Sullivan locked his team in the dressing room so the Varsity Club could take their place. Baba had always tried to maintain a veneer of serious sports credibility, and there was no way he could explain a title match not taking place because a door was locked. A major stipulation match ending in a no-contest because one of the competitors was dragged under the ring is like that times a hundred. With all the money Fox is giving WWE, you'd think they'd have a degree of veto power.

AEW killing WWE among younger viewers has to be the biggest cause for concern. Even during the low points of WWE's popularity, they were able to set themselves up for the future by establishing brand loyalty among young viewers. They're receiving millions of dollars from a Saudi prince who wanted to see Yokozuna, for Christ's sake. If they become firmly established as the uncool brand for old people, they're going to be in trouble down the road.

The overall reception for the first episode of Power and the first two episodes of Dynamite has been overwhelmingly enthusiastically positive. Combine that with Impact and Lucha Underground sinking into irrelevance and it seems clear that even among modern fans, the audience for straightforward traditional pro wrestling is far larger than the one for postmodern supernatural comic book wrestling.

I'm probably opening up a can of worms, but I think Nyla looks more feminine than Chyna did pre-plastic surgery. And she's really not that big. She only seems monstrously huge because she's been working mainly with tiny joshi wrestlers. She's actually quite a bit smaller than Nia Jax. Much better in the ring, too.

Big Cass couldn't even have good matches with Daniel Bryan, so I guess Corbin deserves a modicum of credit for being able to clear the "not dragging down an insanely talented smaller worker too much" hurdle.

MAMMA MIA! SUPERM MAY BE JOPPING ON THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW, BUT NEITHER ROMAN REIGNS NOR SETH ROLLINS WILL BE JOBBING ON SMACKDOWN TONIGHT!

Finn Balor going back to NXT will only make things worse. He didn't exactly set the world on fire on the main roster, so it comes across like he's being demoted because he couldn't cut it in the big leagues, which adds to the perception of NXT as a loser brand.

She literally tweeted this while the Saudi press conference was ongoing. Seeing such blatant shamelessness while the NBA is being ripped to shreds for far less is both hilarious and depressing. By the way, Brock vs. Cain and Braun vs. Tyson Fury are both official for Crown Jewel. Are you excited yet?

Speaking as someone who didn't grow up watching studio wrestling and has no nostalgic attachment to it, I really enjoyed the first episode. The show never dragged and nothing insulted my intelligence, which are the main things I seek from a wrestling show. The presentation was definitely retro, but there were enough modern elements so that it wasn't just a time warp. With that said, I don't want to use the C-word, but Nick Aldis as NWA champion comes across to me as an actor playing a role written for someone else. There's a fine line between nostalgia and anachronism, and a cocky champion who spends the match stooging and showing ass before escaping by the skin of his teeth feels like a relic of a bygone era.

It's worth noting that Kenny Omega was mostly a non-factor the first two weeks. In the first episode, he ran in for the save after the women's title match and got taken out almost immediately in the main event. In the second, he was part of a post-match angle in the middle of the show. It's kind of striking how there's an inverse relationship between Omega's involvement and the quality of the show.

Drafts are an annual occurrence in each of the big four American sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL). It's the main way teams acquire young players since they don't operate youth academies.

You know, saying that Jesus Christ can't get anything out of a Jewish wrestler is pretty problematic.

Oh, come on. Cornette drew boatloads of money working against Ricky Morton, who checks exactly zero of those boxes. He may think that Stunt is too small to be physically threatening, but that doesn't mean he's Vince McMahon.

A babyface wrestling dentist strikes me as ill-conceived. Don't most people hate dentists?

The baseball games are on TBS. But if the first game is still going on when the second one begins, the ongoing game gets bumped to TNT and AEW gets bumped to TruTV.

Yeah, so...I don't think we need to worry about Braves/Cardinals going long. If anything, they might invoke the mercy rule and call it early.

Even if Braves/Cardinals doesn't go long, the Dodgers in a do-or-die playoff game is going to do a number on viewership for both AEW and NXT.

Darby Allin is the best possible modern small flippy guy. He comes across as a lunatic who uses his body as a weapon to overcome his size disadvantage rather than someone trying to show off his acrobatic ability. Plus, he does a good job of setting up his topes so that his opponent has little or no time to react. Wrestlers diving at opponents who see them coming from a mile away is one of the most inexcusable aspects of modern wrestling.