NintendoLogic

It's always great when journalists who cover other forms of sports and entertainment talk to WWE wrestlers and are incredulous as to how they're treated. "What do you mean you guys have to drive yourselves from town to town? You're superstars, shouldn't you have drivers? Why isn't that covered in your CBA? You guys have a CBA, right?"

The new shirt for the Kabuki Warriors is much cooler. It looks like it could be for a female Japanese rock band. Always remember that the key to a good wrestling shirt is that it not look like a wrestling shirt.

You guys know how Dave likes to claim that no one during wrestling's heyday thought it was real and cites as evidence a poll conducted in the 80s by the Charlotte Observer that found that only 1 percent of the audience thought it was real? Well, I went into the Charlotte Observer archives, and the real story is quite a bit different. First off, the poll was conducted in 1990. More importantly, while only 1 percent of respondents thought wrestling was "very real," 21 percent thought it was "somewhat real." 72 percent said it was "not at all real" while 6 percent had no answer. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus four points, so that means that even as late as 1990, roughly a quarter of the population of the wrestling hotbed of North Carolina had yet to be smartened up. That's obviously nowhere close to a majority, but I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of ticket sales came from that sliver of the population. To me, that's pretty clear evidence despite all the protestations to the contrary that wrestling's appeal has historically been rooted in the perception of realism.

So the strongest argument for the librarians is that they're not quite shitty enough to drive away viewers en masse. Duly noted.

I saw a comment on Reddit that nearly 5000 people left the Fyter Fest Youtube stream during the librarian segment and the live view count never recovered. Doubling down on an act that actively drives viewers away for the sake of getting some meta humor over doesn't strike me as a particularly sound business strategy.

New #1 for 2008. I also revised my top three for 1984 and 2019.

Or maybe it's more likely than not that Heyman and Bischoff will book complete dogshit of their own accord. It's seriously insane that people are looking at Eric Bischoff as a potential savior.

Also consider that the non-compete clauses in WWE contracts have no conceivable relationship to protecting WWE trade secrets or critical business interests and thus are almost certainly not enforceable. Maybe Impact felt like going YOLO and calling WWE's bluff.

Keep in mind that Janela had challenged Enzo to a shoot fight a few months ago. I can't take either guy's side here because they both come across as massive dorks.

Was last week's Raw really that much better than usual? The impression I had was that it was basically the same shit but with more explosions and cursing.

To top it all off, Alexander got pinned clean and needed Roman to rescue him from a post-match beatdown. They managed to completely botch a timeless wrestling trope (babyface wears a disguise to get one over on the heels) in both conception and execution. I genuinely wonder if this company is capable of doing anything right.

Count me in. I'm tanned, rested, and ready with plenty of matches to recommend.

Taker reforming the Corporate Ministry with Corbin/Lashley/McIntyre as his acolytes is either the best or the worst thing WWE could possibly do.

https://shop.wwe.com/seth-rollins-the-mans-man-authentic-t-shirt/1551846F7B.html?dwvar_1551846F7B_color=Black#start=1 WWE merchandise has been pretty uninspired in recent years, but this is especially awful. Rollins is one of the few guys willing to embarrass himself sticking up for the company on social media and this is how they repay him.

Damien Sandow is making his return to the squared circle this coming weekend. His new gimmick: THE MILLENNIAL SLAYER. Are you excited yet?

He probably doesn't get enough credit for all the fans drawn to CMLL events under his leadership. I know plenty have argued that the way CMLL is structured makes it impossible for them to lose money, but it's not like there haven't been plenty of promoters who had a good thing going and killed the golden goose by fucking with the formula. If nothing else, he deserves to be recognized for being able to stay out of his own way. Also, being the only business partner New Japan is actually loyal to has to count for something.

The biggest problem was the lack of crowd heat. I suspect that they didn't want to boo either guy, so KENTA working heel deflated them. They also probably expected more high flying from KENTA, even though he doesn't really work that style anymore.

Ospreay/Archer was dope. EVIL/Fale was not. If Fale isn't the worst wrestler with a significant push in a major promotion, he's not too far off.

It was one of the matches in the 5-on-5 gauntlet on 4/19/84. It's available for download on Ditch's website.

I checked out the June 17 CHAOS vs. Suzuki-gun elimination tag on a whim, and it turned out to be a bona fide MOTYC. It was the show where they announced the G1 participants, so everybody had their working boots on. There was the obligatory crappy crowd brawling and other Suzuki-gun smoke and mirrors, but other than that, this had everything you want from this kind of match. They went at it for 30-plus minutes with hardly any letdown, everybody got a chance to shine while maintaining a clear sense of hierarchy (Lance Archer in particular looked like a beast), the eliminations were clever without being too cute, and there was plenty of drama in the closing minutes. It's not on par with 80s classics, but it's still well worth going out of your way to see.

Dillinger was a guy who got over in NXT with a silly catchphrase and whose in-ring career peaked with pretty good match against Bobby Roode at that one Takeover. None of that exactly screams "diamond in the rough." The star-making system in WWE may be broken, but looking at "misused" talent given the chance to spread their wings and show what they're capable of, there have been far more Aron Rexes than Jon Moxleys. Also, there wouldn't be nearly as much hate if Spears had simply jumped Cody after the Allin match and laid him out. I'd very much prefer no chairs to the head under any circumstances, but at the very least they need to be limited to super-hot main event angles for major shows. So either AEW is rocketing a WWE prelim guy to a main event position or they used an unprotected chairshot to heat up a midcard angle.

From the latest Observer: This got me thinking about John Cena's impact. He drew in a ton of mostly younger fans, but he drove away a lot of older fans in the process. It seems that the fans he drew in didn't end up sticking around while the ones he drove away never came back. He could very well end up with a legacy like the NWO: turning business around in the short term but hurting the company over the long run.

Match of the Year: Cody vs. Dustin Best Major Wrestling Show: Double or Nothing Best Promotion: AEW needs to run more shows to quality, so I'll default to New Japan Best on Interviews: Daniel Bryan Feud of the Year: Vince McMahon vs. dementia Most Improved: I want to say Cody, but he needs more matches, so I'll go with Taichi Wrestler of the Year: Daniel Bryan

You guys are being ridiculous. "How DARE you refer to Shawn Spears by his slave name!" Tye Dillinger is by far the name he's best known as, and the onus is on him to accomplish something of note to escape that shadow. If Jon Moxley had done fuck-all since leaving WWE except appear in a geek battle royal, he'd still be known mainly as Dean Ambrose.

She and Andrade have been on hiatus since his mother died a few weeks ago. EDIT: Andrade was apparently on the show tonight, so never mind.