NintendoLogic

You would have hoped that headlining an event in a bar with an Uncle Kracker cover band after being unceremoniously dumped in a cost-cutting measure would have taught him some humility, but I guess not.

I didn't realize FTR against Great-O-Khan was something I needed in my life until I found out it happened. Not really a fan of Dax doing fighting spirit brick wall no-selling against these guys, though.

The standard in the past was "positive historical influence" or "positive historical importance" (defined as "in the sense the entire narrative history of the business would change without this person"). Dave should clarify if "historical significance" is a genuine shift or just careless wording on his part. If it's the former, that lowers the bar significantly in my view.

Is this true? Did they really get 47 five stars?

I never imagined that you of all people would be taking food off the Tribal Chief's table. Kevin Owens as well.

According to the Observer announcing the inaugural HOF class, "her reputation has it that she was legitimately the best of the women wrestlers during the period it was in its heyday in the United States." How she truly stacked up against her peers or the top men of her era can never truly be known, but for the Gordy List question "Was she ever the best worker in her class (sex or weight)? Was she ever one of the top workers in her class?" the answer seems to be clearly yes. My broader point is that comparing Lynch to Burke and the Crush Gals as draws isn't a fair comparison because they were inducted not just on the basis of drawing power but in-ring ability as well. The official standard is "positive historical influence on the business," which is not the same as historical significance. Being the first woman with a legitimate claim to being the top star in North America is an incredible accomplishment, but if it doesn't lead to broader changes in the business, it's not historically influential because it didn't influence anything.

Burke was unquestionably in the elite among the women. The fact that she was able to get over as a serious wrestler when women's wrestling was mostly a T&A sideshow says it all. If she wasn't held in the same regard as her male peers, I suspect that can largely be attributed to chauvinism. Look at how joshi carried the stigma well into the 80s of being something only teenage girls would be into even when the AJW women were on the cutting edge of workrate. From what little footage we have of Burke, she looks like the real deal. Lynch's true historical significance remains to be seen. You can't compare someone still active and in her prime to wrestlers who have been retired/dead for decades. Dave himself has said that longevity is more important than short-term peak unless it's someone like Sayama who completely changed the game. It's too early determine if Lynch is a game-changer or a flash in the pan. Also, she was mainly a beneficiary of the trail blazed by Ronda Rousey rather than a catalyst of change on her own. Remove Becky from the equation and women still main event WWE PPVs. There's no way that happens without Ronda, at least not anytime soon.

The big difference is that Tribute to the Troops and the like were at least partially motivated by sincere patriotic (or jingoistic if you prefer) sentiment. The Saudi shows are pure money grabs.

Back in the Nitro era, Bischoff called it the Duggan Effect. Hacksaw always got a huge pop when he showed up on TV, but he never meant a thing for ratings or attendance.

Remember former Young Lion Masakazu Fukuda, who suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in 1999. After brain surgery, he underwent a battery of neurological tests and was given the green light to return to the ring. In a match against, ironically enough, Shibata, he suffered another cerebral hemorrhage and died. So I don't blame New Japan for being gun-shy given that history.

Mildred Burke and the Crush Gals weren't just strong draws. They were also considered elite workers, and I don't know of anyone who considers Lynch on that level. To my mind, if drawing power is the primary basis for someone's candidacy, their case should be absolutely bulletproof to the point where it would be ridiculous to consider not voting for them. I don't think 14 months as a ratings mover quite qualifies, especially when someone like Mistico is still on the outside looking in.

I'm cautiously optimistic about Jarrett in AEW. Tony's obviously out of his mind if he pushes Double J as a main event heel, but if he mainly works backstage and teaches the younger guys how to draw heat without killing themselves in the ring, I'm all for it. Plus, he apparently played a role in turning around WWE's house show business, so maybe he can do something similar for AEW's ticket sales. As for Shibata, the fact that he's been on ice since WK is pretty conclusive evidence that he really did go into business for himself when he changed the rules of his match and people freaking out backstage wasn't an attempt to work the boys.

Jericho was a featured star during wrestling's last period of mainstream popularity, so it stands to reason that plenty of folks outside the wrestling bubble would have at least heard of him. Recall the famous story of how the AWA beat out Mid-South for a deal with ESPN because Sgt. Slaughter was the only guy from either company TV execs knew.

About the only way you could make a movie about the Von Erichs fun without taking significant artistic liberties would be to end the story on May 6, 1984.

The Rock was literally the second person on Earth to break the news of the death of bin Laden, so clearly there are members of the WWE Universe in the intel community.

Iran vs. Saudi Arabia is a heel vs. heel feud if there ever was one. But maybe Karl Anderson will be able to work the New Japan show after all now.

So last night's big reveal was that Miz was paying Dexter Lumis to stalk him the whole time. The detail of Miz paying Lumis to cost him the match against Lashley because he knew he had no chance doesn't really make sense since he had the match won when Lumis got involved, but never mind that. Apparently Dexter agreed to do this because he had fallen on hard times after losing his job earlier this year. Crown Jewel is on Saturday, so using real-life budget cuts as part of a storyline won't even be the most disgusting thing WWE does this week. But still.

Speaking of comebacks, the XFL is back and better than ever. It might be a bit fishy if the Brahmas win the XFL Bowl or whatever the fuck their championship game is called.

It was reported at the time that Undertaker had told Punk he should dress in a manner more befitting of a world champion since he was representing the company. Punk replied with something to the effect of "What about John Cena?" When word of this exchange got to the office, the decision was made to take Punk down a peg. This sentence from the Observer is quite ironic in retrospect: "One person who was in the middle of the creative issues since Punk came in described it as a generational and cultural gap between Punk and the older talent, that Punk is perceived as cocky (I’ve had people who are not the jealous types knock him to me and my thought always is that what they describe as far as being confident is what every top guy has, and I think the problem is he has it but even though he’s over, is the champ, and did a good job with the being champ, a lot of wrestlers with more tenure aren’t willing to concede him being at that top level)."

The match will almost certainly be unwatchable. Still, whoa.

Did Swerve cut Billy's fingers off? What is this trash?

Is that Barry Windham? Or just someone pretending to be him? I really hope it's the latter because he doesn't deserve to be sucked into this nonsense.

Like I said, some people will view any reporting that portrays Punk as anything other than completely justified in every way as Elite propaganda. The name of the company notwithstanding, the reality is that Tony Khan is the sole owner. He hired the Elite and could fire them if he so chose (indeed, he already let one member leave). Being part of the founding means nothing, as Jeff Jarrett showed when he was forced out of power in TNA over his issues with Kurt Angle. Punk also meant more to the company's bottom line, so you have to think he would have received the benefit of the doubt had there been any ambiguity in the findings.

This is quite the understatement given Jericho is reported to have called Punk a locker room cancer to his face.

The latest Observer notes that Bray has become the company's top merch seller. It also notes that he has leapfrogged Drew to become the top babyface on Smackdown in the company's internal depth chart. Looks like we can expect plenty of LORE in the coming weeks.