NintendoLogic

New Japan had previously shied away from using Riddle due to his fondness for the Devil's lettuce, so they must be pretty desperate. Or maybe Tanahashi is more open-minded about that sort of thing. Giving him the "who are ya" treatment is a bit puzzling, though.

I'll admit I chuckled when he superkicked the zombie's head off.

Is Ibushi the only wrestler in history to go straight from fresh-faced up-and-comer to completely washed up without an intermediary veteran gatekeeper period?

It was previously reported that the Australian tourist board had asked about Rock's availability for Elimination Chamber. And the UFL kicks off the week before Mania, so his availability might be limited once the season is underway. I wouldn't bet the farm on Rock/Roman going down at EC, but it can't be ruled out either.

In fairness, the question originally posed wasn't so much about WWE itself as Vince's involvement with it. He no longer makes the key decisions for the company and Shane and Stephanie are out entirely, so it can be said that the McMahon family wrestling empire is no more.

AEW PPVs and behind-the-scenes drama the day of: name a more iconic duo.

The court ruled in 2020 that he was incompetent to stand trial because he was unable to understand the proceedings and charges against him and contribute to his defense. Since dementia is a progressive condition, he was likely suffering from it to a degree when he assaulted his girlfriend, although there's no way of knowing if he was still able to tell right from wrong at that point.

What's HHH cooking?

I doubt the current fanbase has more than a vague recollection of Dillinger and his gimmick. He's been gone too long to be fresh in people's minds but not long enough to get a nostalgia pop. Regardless, there's always room for midcard goofs in the Rumble. Even the 1992 edition had the likes of Repo Man and Skinner.

Good Lord, this is Young Rock tier.

Just asking questions. Raw this week was a best-of and Smackdown will be as well, so feel free to talk about whatever.

Is WWE allowing him to use the Mustafa Ali name? If not, there's probably a cease and desist letter in his future. It's not his real name and he didn't use it prior to WWE (he did use the name Prince Mustafa Ali, but it looks like he's dropped the Prince part), so I don't know what grounds he would have to claim ownership of the trademark.

The honest truth is that the relationship is primarily for AEW's benefit and any benefit to New Japan is basically a favor to them from AEW. But like I said previously, New Japan is simply isn't in AEW's league financially and thus has no leverage to dictate terms. If they don't like what AEW is offering them, they can end the partnership and then AEW will just take whatever they want from them and give them nothing in return.

Get ready for Triple Crown Champion Lexis King! In all seriousness, "submission assassin" and "killer catch style" would indicate that they're sending Drew Gulak.

This issue has come up before on this board, but non-Americans often forget that Puerto Rico is a US territory. That means Americans can travel there and work there without a visa and vice versa. That's a big part of why Puerto Rican wrestling is more connected to mainland US wrestling culture than that of Latin America.

Antonio Pena was heavily influenced by Titanes en el Ring, so there is a connection. Regardless, treating the British, French, and German wrestling cultures as completely distinct while lumping all of Latin America together is pretty silly.

I'm sure the idea is to start out with Ridge being remorseful to build to him snapping and becoming a guy who injures people and doesn't care like with Billy Kidman a couple of decades ago. SSPing Paul London while he was tied down on a stretcher is by far the coolest thing Kidman has ever done with the possible exception of landing Torrie Wilson. Even so, doing it with a guy who was getting death threats over injuring Big E is pretty gross.

Seth already directly referenced Punk's issues with Cabana in an interview, so it doesn't seem like anything's off the table. On the other hand, the crowd mostly reacted with confused silence when Punk alluded to Brawl Out on Smackdown, so they run the risk of going over the audience's heads if they get too inside.

It would actually be pretty hilarious if all of Punk's opponents took shots at him that made the Hangman comments that set him off seem like a love letter.

Holy cow, that Hercules Cortez fella was an absolute unit.

Like many of the sillier rules in American wrestling, the "no title change on countout or DQ" rule was originally intended to protect the champion from double-crosses. It dates back to when Henri Deglane stole the world championship from Strangler Lewis by feigning being bitten, which led to Lewis being disqualified by a referee who was in on the plot. Over the years, it came to be justified in kayfabe by having a wrestler who got counted out or DQed forfeit his share of the purse. That way, a champion who continually took the coward's way out would never make any money even if he retained his belt.

I looked it up, and the exact quote was "I'm not about to wear fishnet booty buttcheek shorts because we had a two-hour meeting about how to dress like Mandy Rose." For context, the company at that time was holding "fashion consulting" meetings where it was never overtly stated but strongly implied that they wanted the women to dress sexier. So yeah, the issue wasn't with wearing skimpy clothing but being compelled to do so by management. She also said she didn't want to dress that way because she catered to children. That presumably isn't an issue now since nobody watches ROH, let alone children.

Jinder was positively grotesque during his time as champion. Between the bacne, the gyno, the traps, and the extreme vascularity, I'm pretty sure he displayed literally every single telltale sign of steroid abuse.

I've never been involved in an e-fed, but I'm sure I could find a way for it to keep my interest if I was receiving hundreds of millions of dollars to run it. On the boredom/distraction front, though, I've actually been thinking recently about whether any of AEW's issues can be tied to the recent success of the Jaguars. The team was terrible in 2019, 2020, and 2021, but they won their division last year and will probably win it again this year. If you're involved with an NFL team but have outside business interests, a title contender will surely demand more of your attention than a cellar-dweller.