NintendoLogic

Hopefully this means the MAGICAL GIRL will be returning Stateside. A 12 noon start time on a Friday is a bit of an odd choice, though. They must think their US fanbase is comprised mostly of NEETs.

Semi-serious question: should Mercedes Martinez change her ring name? Over the past few weeks, there have been several instances where I saw people talking about a female wrestler named Mercedes without initially realizing they were referring to Sasha.

At least they're treating this storyline with the seriousness it deserves.

How appropriate that Karen wants to speak to the manager.

Has Jericho ever been on Fox News? Imagine the promos he and Tyrus could cut on each other on Gutfeld. Speaking of Jericho: Nice of him to provide us with something we can both laugh at and applaud.

So, um...yeah.

We already know what Bryan can do with Morrissey. The answer: not much. I'm actually not that big a fan of Danielson as a babyface against bigger guys. As a general rule, I think technicians work best as heels against powerhouses. I have a theory about the RPS of wrestling styles that's been rattling around in my head for a while now. Maybe I'll share it today.

Look at what AEW's other Seattle wrestlers are doing on the show. Darby is facing Joe in a title match that's been built up over the past month. And Swerve is facing AR Fox, who he has history with going back to Lucha Underground. There's no reason the biggest star from the area by far has to be in a match with no build against a guy no one cares about. The only way I can rationalize it is if the plan is for MJF to get heat on Danielson to further their program and they don't want to confuse the issue.

He simps for Chinese military aggression against Taiwan, so fuck him.

Dave also wrote that there's no such thing as forever in wrestling and Punk at least appears to be willing to play ball. He did say that an apology from Punk would probably be necessary to smooth things over, but he doesn't know how likely that is. In the end, the chances of Punk returning will probably depend on how things are business-wise when Punk is physically ready to return. If business is struggling when they're in the middle of negotiations for a new TV deal, the odds are much better than if business is strong and they look to be getting a major rights increase.

THIS is what Danielson is doing for AEW's Seattle debut?!? He can't work Wrestle Kingdom because he has to be in Seattle to wrestle TONY NESE. Fucking hell.

I'm afraid not. The issue that reported it said it was for some unknown reason and that Hokuto and Kandori hadn't seen each other since teaming up at Queendom. I haven't been able to find any additional information in subsequent issues.

The irony is that Ronda is one of the main reasons WWE got a billion-dollar deal from Fox in the first place. Be careful what you wish for, I guess. As for Charlotte's next opponent, Asuka's been hinting at a character retooling on social media so maybe they'll move her over. One of the Smackdown highlight videos on WWE's YouTube channel is titled "Uncle Howdy attacks Bray Wyatt." Fuck off.

I always liked the guy. His enthusiasm was just so infectious. On top of that, he was a legitimately great salesman. He apparently single-handedly made TNA house shows profitable with his hawking of merchandise. Rest in power.

WWE would certainly care if the shoe were on the other foot and, say, Karl Anderson were booked to drop the NEVER Openweight Championship to someone who had signed with AEW.

The latest Observer has a bit more on the Sammy/Tay situation. AAA had made the decision to take their belts off AEW wrestlers (except for Omega, who can be Mega Champion whenever he wants) due to the difficulty in getting dates on them. Sammy and Tay were scheduled to lose the mixed tag titles at a taping earlier in the month, but visa issues prevented that from happening. Then TK pulled Tay from Noche de Campeones because he needed her on Dynamite to get the angle she was involved in back on track. By the way, he knew Dragon Lee was WWE-bound and not only OKed the tag title change but didn't even insist that Dralistico be the one to score the winning pin. Kind of a rookie move on his part.

Yeah, the bowl games meant the sports competition was probably four times as large as a typical Wednesday. All things considered, it's a disappointing number but not a catastrophic one.

The Observer reported at the time that Kandori sucker-punched Hokuto backstage at Big Egg Universe and tried to convince Eagle Sawai to shoot on her in their tournament match. Needless to say, that put an an end to any business dealings for a good while.

Cool. I'm sure he won't suffer the same fate as literally every other non-fluent English speaker to sign with WWE. By the way, Lee and Dralistico beat FTR for the AAA tag titles at Noche de Campeones, which means a WWE guy beat an AEW team. TK needs to learn how the game is played.

The kayfabe explanation is that Sammy and Tay made too many demands. It could just be that AAA decided it wasn't worth the expense to keep flying in foreigners for belts no one cares about.

The general public doesn't buy into wackadoodle conspiracy theories about voter fraud and groomers and the like, though. If the midterms demonstrated anything, it's that normies are far more terrified of the terminally online right. If the House of Black wants to tap into the zeitgeist, they should become a stable of QAnon shamans.

I've made this point before, but KENTA deserves to be recognized as one of the most influential wrestlers of the past 20 years. Virtually every modern junior heavyweight cribs from him to a degree. Hell, Punk and Bryan were practically KENTA cosplayers in WWE.

This tweet has been making the rounds. Be sure to make a note of the context provided by readers at the bottom of the tweet. Also note that the list doesn't come from a piece in the actual magazine but rather an article by a "guest contributor" (read: a glorified blog post by some rando). Still, this confirms my suspicion that the Brothers of Destruction are two of the ten most controversial individuals to have ever lived. Speaking of spooky wrestlers, Bray Wyatt made his long-awaited (?) return to the ring at last night's MSG show. The bad news is that it was against Jinder Mahal. The good news is that he paid tribute to Brodie Lee on the second anniversary of his passing. Last night's Raw was a best-of show, but JOHN CENA will be in action on Smackdown. About time that show had some star power.

It might be a better idea to make sure they have the basics down before sending them out there to reenact Jackie Chan fight scenes. The dojo model of having trainees drill endlessly in the fundamentals and not letting them do anything fancy until they've had a bit of seasoning has a good track record of producing top-tier workers. At the very least, it's more likely to produce workers who don't turn into deer in the headlights when a spot doesn't go according to plan. Am I saying that Level Up should consist entirely of matches were rookies in black trunks and boots do nothing but basic chain wrestling and maybe a dropkick before one of them submits to a Boston crab? Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying.

Looks like Ruca is a graduate of the Dean Malenko school of kicking out of your own pin attempt. Dope finisher, though. Dope name too. I approve.