NintendoLogic

Looks like CM Punk is the true head of the table. Acknowledge him.

Steve Austin is your best friend?

Was she sipping on a little bit of the bubbly?

It feels like the TNT title was created mainly to give Cody something to do after he could no longer challenge for the world title. But he seemed to lose interest in it after dropping it to Darby, so now it occupies a kind of weird upper-midcard limbo while Cody has become preoccupied with the Codyverse.

Also, look how well Korean cultural products are doing internationally (different country obviously, but still within the East Asian cultural sphere). BTS is the biggest boy band in the world, Squid Game is the most watched show in Netflix history, and Parasite became the first foreign-language film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. It should be noted that New Japan has a long history of failing to capitalize on overseas popularity. They were once so big in Italy that Tatsumi Fujinami came in third in a newspaper poll for most popular athlete in the country. But they were doing such strong business in Japan that they never considered expanding. However, an indie promoter ran a show in Italy with Inoki as the main draw and drew 15000.

The Andrade/PAC match that was taped for next week's Rampage has been getting rave reviews with people calling it the greatest or second-greatest match in Rampage history. It'll obviously be a great thing for both Andrade and AEW if he can get his mojo back. It'll also hopefully put an end to the baseless slanders PAC has been subjected to on this board. By the way, the "travel issue" that kept PAC off All Out was apparently a concussion.

I'm sure a big part of it is wanting to avoid the optics of Punk showing up and cutting to the front of the line ahead of the guys who've been there the whole time when that was one of his main complaints about WWE in the Colt podcast.

It's worth remembering that Roman is currently feuding with Brock Lesnar, who no one in their right mind thinks he could take in a real fight.

Here's what Dave once said: My two favorite Kevin Nash stories were the time on live TV that he was doing a promo with Terry Funk, where he was the heel and Funk was the face. They had worked the promo out, then Nash totally went against the script, double-crossed Funk, Funk looked bad and then went to the back bragging about how he upstaged and left Terry Funk in the dust. The second was for years he would brag in the WCW locker room about how given a chance, he'd do the same to The Rock. He said it so often, Rock knew the story. Then they actually did the promo, and Rock veered from the script and totally buried him.

Birds of a feather...

Are you telling me that Randy Hogan is #AllElite?

I thought it was more Punk needing to use the anaconda vice because he couldn't properly execute the GTS due to the damage to his leg, but that interpretation works too.

Wrestlers taking turns inviting their opponent to hit them will never appeal to me on any level. It has nothing to do with wrestling or even brawling. It's a form of bizarre sadomasochistic performance art. In fairness, things improved immensely once they got that nonsense out of the way and decided to have an actual wrestling match.

Well, this match sure got stupid in a hurry.

Obviously this is mainly just him being a company man, but he seems to really have it out for Punk. It's like the comments on Colt's podcast about wanting Chris Hero in the Shield and "make Roman look strong" left him eternally gotten to.

Knowing what he became, it's pretty staggering how bad Hogan was at promos before going to the AWA. There's a reason why in his first WWF run, he did little more than stand there and flex while Freddie Blassie did all the talking. Even in the AWA, the difference between a 1982 Hogan promo and a 1983 one is like night and day.

That tweet confuses me. Aren't Vans and Asics sneakers? Also:

Yeah, he's turning heel.

I will say that my view of the claw is colored somewhat by the fact that I simply can't stand the Von Erichs. They were dumb jocks, spoiled rich kids, Bible-thumpers, druggies, haters of cats-in short, they possessed every single quality in a human being I find repugnant. Taker used it during his days as Mean Mark Callous. He'd resurrect it on occasion in WWE, perhaps most notably at One Night Only when he used it to attack Bret Hart's chest after Bret did his sternum-first bump into an exposed turnbuckle.

I have no problem buying a man the size of Fritz Von Erich squeezing someone's temples as a legitimate match ender. My issue with it is that it's hard to build a compelling match around because it's so simple to apply. At least make it so it only works with a loaded glove or something.

It makes sense he'd be watching WWE since he fits the demographic profile of a typical viewer.

Matt's wife posted and then deleted a tweet accusing him of abandoning his family. Recall he once "joked" that he smokes weed to prevent him from beating his children. Let's hope this clown never ends up in AEW. He and WWE deserve each other. Also, Raw is tonight. They're running some tournaments or something. Watch, if you must.

Dax Harwood recently said that American Alpha was the best team he ever faced. It's a shame they never made it to AEW.

Probably the biggest thing that prevented Angle from becoming a bigger star was the sharks (or should I say sHHHarks?) outmaneuvering him politically in the early years of his career, the love triangle storyline being the most notable example. He was also involved in far too much comedy to be effective as a top star. By the time he had smartened up to the political aspects of the business, the damage was done. Foley showed that a top guy can do comedy and still draw, but only after they've been established as a killer. They went in the opposite direction with Angle, and it didn't work nearly as well. Steveson has Heyman watching his back, so hopefully that won't be an issue for him.