NintendoLogic

@Tim Evans Bull Blitzer is Steve Wright, father of Alex.

LOL @ thinking Ronda will be putting over anyone but Charlotte on the way out. If the Fox deal really was predicated on Ronda being part of the package, then either WWE fraudulently misrepresented her contract status during negotiations or Fox gave away a billion dollars without conducting due diligence. I'm not sure which would be more insane.

I don't know if you guys noticed, but theditch dot com is no more. It seems that Ditch sold the domain and moved all the NOAH content to theditch dot biz. But hey, it's good to know that he's still alive.

This presumes that everyone actually is making more money because of Ronda. I don't see why they'd care about the TV deal she helped get them if it just means more money Vince can funnel into the XFL.

I can keep offering up matches no problem, but it might take me a while to catch up with the matches assigned to me. I say we give it one more week and then maybe go on hiatus for a bit.

I'm sure Rush will have a difficult time keeping up with the workrate of Dalton Castle and Cheeseburger.

I'm sure you all were dying to hear Jordan Peterson's thoughts on Bret Hart, so here you go.

@Jetlag

Cody's not entirely wrong. A union wouldn't make sense for the vast majority of promotions because it wouldn't be economically viable for them to hire wrestlers as employees. WWE is obviously a different story. Also, it should be pointed out that even if Cody wanted a union, he would be prohibited by law from helping to make it happen.

Temporary roadblocks can be incredibly expensive to litigate, especially when the other side has unlimited resources and is willing to drag things out as long as possible. I'm certain WWE will try to make examples out of any talent that tries to leave.

So Mike came in with a painkiller addiction and went to rehab on WWE's dime. Then Maria got pregnant and went on WWE-funded maternity leave. And now they want out. They've managed to out-carny WWE, which is quite a feat.

Aren't like 80% of WWE's Youtube views from India?

It has to be ROH. They just signed him to an exclusive deal.

OK. So if you were the head of talent relations for AEW, who would you try to sign?

Is there enough freely available talent to build a division around? I suppose they could establish a working relationship with Stardom or the like.

Rush has signed with ROH. I don't see any way MLW doesn't end up as the big loser in the current wrestling arms race. As WWE, AEW, and ROH all scramble to lock up talent, MLW is going to get strip-mined.

Oh, the irony.

Also, TBS was WCW's main home pre-Nitro, so there's the tradition returning aspect.

Roids aren't just for cosmetic purposes. They also help speed up recovery from injuries, which might be relevant in a promotion where most of the wrestlers work a high-risk style.

Equal pay is a meaningless concept in an industry with zero transparency in the pay structure. And again, what facts we do have actually point in the other direction. AEW playing up this issue is a way for them to appear progressive without incurring any real costs. In other words, standard corporate feminism.

Calling 10-15 minute matches long seems absurdly generous. Hell, Shane McMahon works longer than that. Has Braun ever worked a 20-plus minute straight singles match with no gimmicks? WWE produces so much content that a main eventer who can't do that on a regular basis is of limited value unless they can help the bottom line in some other way like Ronda helping with their TV deals. If the workaround for that is to stick him in gimmick matches every time out, his body's going to fall apart even faster.

Let's be honest, Braun has cooled off because he's been exposed. He can't cut long promos or work long singles matches, so there was always a limit to what could be done with him. Getting as hot as he did led to him being put in a position he wasn't ready for and made his limitations all the more apparent. And he can't do the strongman spots that got him over because he's been constantly injured. Pretty much every freakishly large guy's body turns on him eventually, and Braun being in so many gimmick matches has probably accelerated that process.

The old Ninja Gaiden arcade game has bosses that are palette swaps of the Road Warriors. Just so there can be absolutely no confusion, their boss battle music is a barely disguised ripoff of Iron Man.

Yeah, I'm going to take my leave from this conversation.

I don't really know of women being underpaid relative to their position on the card. The issue is more that the women have been booked like shit.