NintendoLogic

Suzuki wrestled the Mecha Mummy. He'd adapt to WWE just fine.

In this case, it's the athletic commissions and not CMLL that are preventing Andrade from going back to the La Sombra mask. I believe the official rule is that a wrestler who loses his mask in an apuestas match (which he did in 2015) can never wrestle under that mask again and has to wait five years before assuming another masked identity. Rey Mysterio was able to get around that because they ruled he didn't lose the mask in a traditional apuestas match. Andrade is probably better known maskless at this point and is a good-looking guy to boot, so there's no real reason for him to go back to wearing a mask.

I'm afraid it's no longer up, which is just as well. I couldn't even bring myself to listen to it afterward because I sounded nervous as hell the whole time. The one time I tried, I lasted about ten seconds before the cringe overwhelmed me. Also, it was recorded back in 2013 when I was a relative greenhorn, so I'm sure I offered some takes I either wouldn't stand by today or didn't flesh out as well as I could have.

1991 G1 vs. Mutoh, Starrcade 1992 vs. Sting, 1998 RWTL final with Hansen vs. Burning.

First of all, Cena didn't misstate Taiwan's status. Taiwan is a country to everyone except the PRC government, which is probably the most horrific regime on Earth. Second, being defended by a Fox News sex pest probably isn't helping matters.

When I did the Bret Hart podcast with Loss and goodhelmet, I remember being laughed at for predicting that Bret's work would resonate with future generations more than Flair's. I have no problem with taking L's when it's warranted, but I'm also not above taking a victory lap when I feel vindicated, and I think I nailed that one.

If you look at the video of the incident, Maeda does put his hand on Choshu's back before throwing the kick, but it looks like he's doing it to steady himself rather than to give Choshu a heads-up. The kick is certainly way too quick for Choshu to have a realistic chance to protect himself. As for why he did it, I've read that it was largely fueled by resentment over Choshu leapfrogging him in the company hierarchy after returning from All Japan. Meltzer has said that going to a double countout against Kerry Von Erich at Korakuen also played a part. Supposely, he had to do something to redeem himself in the eyes of the hardcore fans since a DCOR with a fake American wrestler at the UWF's home base made him look like a sellout. But according to Cagematch, that match took place in May of 1986, a year and a half before the Choshu incident, so the timeline doesn't add up.

Cena wouldn't have apologized in Mandarin on a Chinese social media platform if it was simply a case of misstating the movie's release schedule. China is well-known for losing its shit over the slightest suggestion that Taiwan is anything but a renegade province. There was a similar incident a few years ago involving Tzuyu, a Taiwanese member of the Korean girl group Twice. She had to issue a public apology after Chinese netizens accused her of being an independence activist when she held a Taiwanese flag on a Korean variety show. The incident led to a backlash in Taiwan that resulted in the pro-independence candidate winning the presidential election by a larger-than-expected margin. As a fan of both pro wrestling and kpop, I get a kick out of when the two worlds intersect.

Zero fucks Punk is pretty great.

On the other hand, Adamle was likely in the beginning stages of CTE during his time in WWE, so if anything, he's even less responsible for his performance.

Speaking of Khan, heads continue to roll behind the scenes. More evidence that he was brought in to improve the bottom line in preparation for a sale.

He was legitimately terrible, though. Whenever I watched clips of Raw on YouTube, Corey Graves had to handle the bulk of play-by-play duties because Virk had nothing to say.

Look who's become a CCP bootlicker. Looks like the Cena Sucks crowd was right all along.

I mean, he did legally change his name to Warrior.

I was pretty disappointed to see no pushback on Bischoff's assertion that Rikidozan was killed because he was Korean. That may be what North Korean propaganda says, but it's bullshit. Hardly anybody in Japan knew about his ethnicity until well after his death.

Rooting for the flag-waving American vs. rooting for the flag-waving Brit has to be Sophie's choice for an Indian fan.

Rumors are swirling that the Ospreay situation is a lost his smile/took his ball and went home scenario. Dave seemingly lent credence to the rumors on WOR when he said that Ospreay dropping the title due to a neck injury isn't the whole story and there are a lot of issues behind the scenes. He even likened it to 90s HBK. I seem to recall that Harold Meij got the ax largely because the foreign wrestlers hated him. Well, relations now seem more strained than ever. New Japan post-Meij is starting to remind me of CMLL post-Paco Alonso.

He's training at the PC, so that's a pretty big if.

Ol' Davey was quite the whipping boy on PWO and DVDVR back in the day. Say what you want about the guy, but he should have become a much bigger star. Early 2010s Davey would be a main eventer in any promotion in the world today. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to you. And as far as I know, he's not a sex pest or a COVID denier, which practically qualifies him for sainthood by pro wrestling standards. What better place for him to make his return than the island of misfit toys?

Very cool. I'll have to pick this up. You might have some trouble reaching the beach reading crowd with that cover, though.

Okada's back is still shot, so I doubt it. If there ever was a time to give Suzuki a cup of coffee with the belt as a lifetime achievement award, it's now. Let him join Mutoh and Akiyama in the grandpa champions club.

When it rains, it pours. As for Umino, Rev Pro put out a hype video for him, so it looks like he'll be getting a pretty big push there when they start back up.

I suppose you can say that. Pro wrestling is back on the muthaship, daddy. They'll also have quarterly specials on TNT. This is a great move for AEW since TBS is in more homes and they'll no longer have to worry about being preempted by NBA games. Also, having TNT specials to build toward in between the PPVs will hopefully lead to more focused booking.

The kick from Kofi looked really bad, but he didn't get concussed. In fact, he wrestled twice the next day (the Main Event taping and the Smackdown taping). He did suffer a concussion during the main event of WM27. I bet it sucks for him to not be able to remember the biggest moment of his career.