NintendoLogic

All the stuff with Savage and Elizabeth doesn't hold up nearly as well now that we all know what an abusive psychopath Savage was. My favorite example of melodrama in wrestling is Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee for the Taker/HHH HIAC match at WM28. I watched that Mania at a bar, and the other patrons were literally laughing at Shawn's attempts to act dramatic and conflicted. So yeah, I only go for pro wrestling melodrama when it crosses the line into unintentional comedy. If wrestlers could act, they'd be in Hollywood. Leave the acting to the professionals.

He worked two GCW shows Mania weekend.

I remember reading once that the Mantaur gimmick was intended as a rib on Jim Cornette. Regardless, RIP.

Lemme talk to ya...about the best way to save money on groceries.

For better or worse, AEW is largely a sink-or-swim environment. If you're not one of the company's pet projects, you're pretty much on your own when it comes to getting yourself over. That can be great for those who are exceptionally creative or driven, but it isn't nearly as great for those who would benefit from a more structured setting. Another downside is that it incentivizes doing whatever you can to get over even it comes at the expense of your opponent or the bigger picture, which in several cases has led to legitimate bad blood.

Strongbow was part of the 1978 MSG League (the predecessor to the G1), so that story can't be true. As an aside, my favorite semi-apocryphal Strongbow story involves him telling Owen Hart to knock it off with the high flying because none of that stuff would work in a real fight. Owen replied that if it was a real fight, he'd do a war dance. A couple more examples: Okada in CMLL and Iron Sheik in UWFi.

There's a chance last week's Smackdown will have been the top-rated program on network TV for the week, which would be the first time in history a wrestling program achieved that feat. Those of us who thought the Bloodline storyline would run out of steam after Roman vanquished Sami and Cody were clearly mistaken. I suppose the case could be made that things would be at least as hot right now with Cody as champion, but counterfactuals are inherently unknowable. Then again, the family conflict aspect of the story does not appeal to me on any level, so that's probably a blind spot on my part.

Chieflation is out of control.

That was Bow Wow. However, Soulja Boy did have that hilarious Twitter beef with Randy Orton a couple of years ago. Also hilarious: Flo Rida getting eviscerated by Bo Dallas in a rap battle. Rappers as a whole tend to have questionable role models (see also, Tony Montana).

Surely there's a way for Joe to cost Punk the match without making Starks an afterthought. Like, say, Joe causes Punk to get DQed by attacking Starks and then chokes Punk out, but then Starks recovers and chases Joe off. Then again, this company does tend to book matches between babyfaces without a clear exit strategy, so who knows.

I was mildly surprised Punk didn't do the Bret Hart counter to the coquina clutch.

Is this the first time rap and pro wrestling intersected? Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything prior to this. Pretty crazy that it came from the AWA of all places. Almost as surprising is the fact that Nick Bockwinkel actually had a pretty good flow.

Ronda produced bangers with Nia Jax, Alexa Bliss, and the Bella Twins during her first run, so it can't simply be laid at the feet of her opponents.

Do they really have a better understanding of match structure or are they just executing what's been laid out for them? Ronda Rousey looked like a prodigy when all of her matches were extensively rehearsed, but her work fell off a cliff when she had to do it night-in night-out without benefit of pre-planning.

WWE's overseas PLEs have mostly been subsidized by the governments or tourism boards of the countries they were run in. It seems unlikely that running Mania at Wembley would be more profitable than running it at a US stadium unless London was willing to pay up. WWE is a publicly traded company that has shareholders to answer to, so they're not in a position to put bragging rights ahead of making money.

Hey now, Stu Hart and Roddy Piper were both born in Saskatoon. And Brock Lesnar lives in Maryfield.

TV ratings are as important to AEW's business as PPV buys, if not more so. They need to feature marquee matchups on Collision to prevent it from becoming an afterthought like Rampage.

Eddie Gilbert was in the WWF in the early 80s as Bob Backlund's protege. He was part of an angle where Masked Superstar broke his neck with a swinging neckbreaker to set Superstar up as a challenger for Backlund.

The six-man at WK9 is Jeff Jarrett's only match in New Japan, which came as a bit of a surprise to me. I figured he would have had a couple when they were working with TNA.

Each of the pillars had one-offs in outside promotions (Misawa in the AWA, Kawada in UWFi, Kobashi in FMW, Taue in DDT). The match with Tenryu against Demolition at WM7 is Koji Kitao's only WWE match. He also had a one-off in AAA. He wrestled Masaaki Mochizuki, who worked the match under the name Hideo No More. I have never seen that match and almost certainly never will (the show wasn't taped and there's no handheld footage as far as I know), but I give it five stars on that basis alone.

Katsuyori Shibata and Koji Kanemoto in AJW. Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards in NXT.

I was in the nosebleeds for WM23. It obviously doesn't compare to being near ringside, but I had no trouble viewing any of the in-ring action. From what I hear, all the seats at Wembley have great views. Whether it's worth it I guess depends on where in the UK you are. 27 quid a head seems like a steal for an event of that magnitude, but I know Europeans tend to have a narrower view of what constitutes reasonable travel distance than Americans.

In a major buzzkill, the latest Observer reported that AEW only acquired the rights to The Final Countdown for Forbidden Door as it remains absurdly expensive to license. TK said using it at FD was as expensive as a wrestler contract.

You obviously can't expect talent to improve at things without putting them in a position to do them, but that doesn't mean throwing them out there without a net and expecting them to sink or swim. If they had Perry cut his first heel promo on TV without any coaching or a rough script, they were setting him up for failure. Delivery is something that will hopefully improve as he becomes more comfortable talking, but the content was questionable as well. Calling his own girlfriend a bitch is something that should have been left on the cutting room floor for sure.

I'll pop if Jack Perry starts coming out to an evil remix of Tarzan Boy.