NintendoLogic

Simon & Schuster distributed a New Day graphic novel just last year. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/WWE-The-New-Day-Power-of-Positivity/Evan-Narcisse/WWE/9781684156368 They also published the most important literary work of this century. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Journey-Into-Darkness/Michael-Chiappetta/WWE/9781476738895

I'm surprised they didn't announce Alexander had to vacate because he was trapped in the Undead Realm. Isn't that how they usually write people out on Impact?

More importantly, who would be Apollo Creed? Whoever it is, the mental image of Punk running on the beach in slow motion is cracking me up.

Mad Maxine wrote a semi-autobiographical novel.

For what it's worth, the current Observer completely no‐sells the above IG story. However, it does mention a different Punk story. In it, Punk talked about reading Steve Keirn's book and being fascinated by the story of Keirn and Koko having a fight in the locker room. The next day, Lawler dragged them both into the office and they squashed it. Dave has made it abundantly clear that he would like to see Punk back in AEW, so the idea that he's part of a conspiracy to force Punk out is pretty daft.

For further context, that's apparently a response to the following post: That's a pretty big bombshell to deliver in a random message board post.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery, and not wanting to broadcast one's medical history to the world is certainly understandable. The fact that she went out of her way to deny being on hiatus at all is what made it bizarre.

He should've known better than to get on the Birdman's bad side.

When you consider what absolute slogs the last few one-night Manias were, two nights is easily the lesser of two evils.

Okada ain't doing any jobs as long as he's doing a full-blown Inoki tribute gimmick.

He was VP of operations (the #2 guy on the corporate side) during the expansion era and one of VKM's closest friends. His tenure with the company ended after he picked a fight with Koko B. Ware during a European tour and got his ass kicked. The company fired Ware over the incident, but Troy either was fired himself or resigned after an investigation determined he was the instigator.

Which is funny because Vince the Elder turned Kaufman down when he suggested his intergender champion gimmick to the WWF.

Apparently, documents from his divorce proceedings contain allegations of cocaine abuse and domestic violence. His MMA fetish is well-known, but emulating Jon Jones is taking it too far.

The preliminary estimate in the latest Observer is around 133k buys. Pretty impressive number all things considered, especially with the handicap of being the day after the Jon Jones fight. It also reflects well on MJF as champion as it was basically a one-match card and I don't think too many people expected a title change going in.

It should've been Taya getting squashed to set up Nicole's debut. Re: MJF, who last night was saying he couldn't wrestle? They said he continually took shortcuts and got rewarded for it while the rest of them had to bust their asses to get where they are. They were questioning his character, not his ability. Ideally, the payoff would be him being dethroned by someone who does things the right way, but I have no idea if that's in the cards.

I'll admit that Knight largely won me over with his commitment to getting the Mountain Dew match gimmick over. My broader point is that his character has elements of absurdity and theatricality that lend themselves to a feud with Bray and that guys like Lesnar and Lashley lack.

Bray would be fine if he inhabited a self-contained universe and feuded exclusively with cornballs like LA Knight and Karrion Kross. Like Jimmy Valiant vs. Paul Jones' Army, but with Lore. Under no circumstances should he ever he pitted against guys billed as no-nonsense serious fighters. Either they look like goofs selling for the puppets and Uncle Howdy or they no-sell it and kill his supernatural aura.

Matthews would be a good pickup for AEW if her legal issues have been resolved. She got busted September 2018 for booking indie dates with a travel visa rather than a work visa, which normally carries an automatic five-year ban from entering the US. But she appeared at a Defy show a few days ago, so someone must have pulled some strings to get the ban lifted early. As for Taya, she said in an interview that she'll be at home in California on Wednesday. She never explicitly denied showing up in Winnipeg, though. Not that it would mean anything if she had, of course.

Meltzer said on WOR that Bray's absence wasn't due to creative issues and the Mania match is still on. Sorry about your damn luck, Bobbo. Then again, maybe he made a deal with the Devil that has allowed him to look exactly the same for the past two decades and now the bill is coming due.

Someone hacked Dave's Twitter account to promote NFTs. Doesn't get much more 2023 than that.

Nikki and Brie giving Daniel lessons on how to be a sports entertainer would be dimes. I'm tempted to say nothing the Bellas would do in AEW could possibly as bad as the horseshit with the spray paint, but I never thought Saraya would have come up with something that terrible either. Maybe WWE creative really was filtering the Divas' worst ideas and there's no telling what depths they could sink to when left to their own devices.

Australia managed to poach Rose of Blackpink from New Zealand, so that's a pretty big get.

Real talk, this Bray run was some GOAT-tier carny shit. Getting paid millions to do fuck-all except expand his web of lore and wrestle a single five-minute match before taking his ball and going home.

Ryan Frederick said on the F4W board that Bray is out indefinitely and off the Mania card due to creative issues. Looks like Lashley dodged a major bullet.

Ric Flair vs. David Flair, although only Ric's hair and career were on the line. If Kurt Angle vs. Baron Corbin showed anything, it's that having a beloved legend lose a retirement match to a heel the fans don't see as anywhere near his level doesn't increase the heel's heat. It just makes people depressed.