NintendoLogic

@Phil Lions posted an interesting factoid on Twitter yesterday (apologies if this has already been brought up, but I've only been somewhat keeping up with this thread). L'Ange Blanc's TV debut in 1959 aired live on Friday night at 10:05 PM. Andre's world title win in 1968 aired on tape delay on Saturday night at 11:30 PM. It could be a situation similar to what befell Japanese promotions where they simply didn't have the TV exposure to create new stars.

Word is WWE wants to establish relationships with promotions in Mexico and Puerto Rico similar to the ones they have with TNA, NOAH, and Marigold. CMLL and AAA are both working with AEW, so what does that leave as far as Mexican promotions? Is IWRG still a thing? Speaking of NOAH, AJ Styles will be facing Naomichi Marufuji at their Budokan event next month. That match obviously won't be nearly as bonkers as it would have been 20 years ago, but it should still be a fun one.

This week's offering from the WAR Random Match Generator: Between this and the Christian Father's Day special, Collision is looking like a must-see.

TNA did us all a favor and posted the full segment to YouTube. Sorry, I can't bring myself to watch 13 minutes of this. All I know is that Alisha Edwards gets beheaded by a guillotine at one point.

Looks like NXT Japan's back on the menu, boys.

Oh hell yeah.

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/40290412/wwe-nhl-stanley-cup-final-championship-belt-edmonton-oilers-florida-panthers They actually referenced The Goon in this article, which popped me.

As with Japan, it might be a currency issue. The Canadian dollar is weak against the US dollar, which makes booking American talent more expensive. That could be a dealbreaker for a company like Anthem that likes to pinch pennies.

With all the recent layoffs, TNA currently has no marketing or live events team. They also have no events scheduled after the first week of August. Between that and the recent work with NXT, there's been increasing speculation about the possibility of sale to WWE.

It's hard to dispute this when just about every metric related to fans spending money on the product is setting records. Cody also has the advantage of not being turned on by a significant percentage of the fanbase. It remains to be seen whether he has the longevity, but his success in the short term can't be denied.

It was pretty hilarious when he first appeared in AEW and the crowd went crazy and chanted "we the people" like it was a major star jumping over during the Attitude Era.

Jake Hager and AEW mutually agreed to part ways after his contract expired. We all know what that means...

This doesn't necessarily mean criminal charges are imminent, but it's obviously a huge development.

The Danielson retirement tour is pretty self-indulgent, but it can't really be described as selfish. The difference between the two is that the latter involves the pursuit of self-interest or personal gratification at the expense of the bigger picture. I don't think you can argue that AEW is being harmed by Danielson putting people over or his opponents are being harmed by beating him. It's also simply inaccurate to say he loses every time he steps in the ring. He's won 72 percent of his matches this year according to Cagematch and his only singles losses were to Okada, Sabre, Kingston, and Ospreay. He still keeps himself strong enough that beating him means something.

Dude just about took TJ McConnell's head off.

I think I found brother @KawadaSmile's Twitter account.

Der Ringkönig has a nice ring to it.

The only Duggan story I saw on the sleaze thread (or at least the compilation on Angelfire) is an incident with him and Balls Mahoney. They were working a match and there was supposed to be a spot where Mahoney blew fire and Duggan ducked it, but Duggan blew the spot by knocking the lighter out of Mahoney's hand. Mahoney was pissed and went to the back to retrieve a knife, but Duggan left before things got out of hand. Not really much of a story.

Meltzer confirmed the cut was from the chair shot. It looked to me like Jade got her right hand up a tad too late, which led to the chair coming down sideways and hitting her in the neck and side of the head. I still wouldn't trust Nia with any spots that involve swinging a chair at someone even though it wasn't really her fault in this particular instance. By the way, yelling "Your mom sucks" at Jade's daughter is by far the coolest thing Nia has never done.

The BOSJ final will main event Dominion ahead of the IWGP title match. I guess that's the company's way of acknowledging the EVIL main event push has been a failure. Better late than never.

The Saudis might as well just buy WWE outright at this point.

Doesn't WWE conduct social media classes? Whoever runs them needs to be fired because seemingly everyone in the company is terrible at it.

The first time I watched it, I didn't think it was that bad. Not good by any means, but not all-time terrible. Then I watched it again and yes, it really was that bad. And it was a pre-taped promo! "We did 20 takes and that was the best one." In much more auspicious news: Now we're talking.

Gunther/Sheamus was pretty great, probably the best match from an American promotion so far this year. I liked how Gunther would repeatedly go for headlocks in the early going as a subtle indicator that Sheamus was giving him more than he could handle in the striking department. The chop to the back of the neck was classic pro wrestling smoke and mirrors as it looked and sounded devastating but was actually directed at Sheamus's upper back. They did meander a bit during the initial Sheamus comeback, but they got things back on track after the leg injury spot. Gunther's leg work was solid and Sheamus's selling was borderline brilliant, particularly his inability to execute proper covers due to the damage to his leg. Popping up after the German suplex wasn't ideal, but the way Sheamus collapsed after hitting the brogue kick made it clear that it was a temporary burst of adrenaline and not a no-sell of everything that had preceded it. Some unintentional comedy at the end as Pat McAfee (who earlier in the match helpfully informed us that Ringgeneral is German for ring general) tried to say "How much does the King of the Ring mean to Sheamus?" only to be interrupted mid-sentence by Sheamus tapping out.

PWInsider is reporting the new Wyatt Family will consist of Bo Dallas, Nikki Cross, Dexter Lumis, Joe Gacy, and Erick Rowan. We're well into Ship of Theseus territory here.