NintendoLogic

When Stephanie was pregnant for the first time, Vince wanted to do an angle where he would be revealed as the father. She of course rejected it out of hand, so he suggested that Shane could be the father instead.

There definitely is too much romanticizing of the past. Wrestling could get away with being simple because most entertainment in general was simple. Wrestling was never high art, but the contrast between it and everything else on TV wasn't as stark. These days, there's more prestige programming than you can shake a stick at, and traditional pro wrestling storytelling can't help but look like the dumbest and most low-rent shit imaginable by comparison. There's only one thing pro wrestling does better than any other medium, and that's provide entertaining wrestling matches. And that's what it really comes down to. Most complaints about storytelling are really complaints about the in-ring style. If you think most modern matches are hollow exhibitions, building them up by having someone get hit over the head with a coconut or whatever isn't going to change that. Look, every generation has fans who think the wrestling they grew up on is best and today's wrestlers don't know how to work. If that describes you, might as well own up to it. There's no shame in moving on from something you enjoyed as a kid as it changes to appeal to new generations. But don't elide the real issue.

Rikidozan was a former sumo who had shot on and knocked out legendary judoka Masahiko Kimura, so the fans bought into him as a skilled fighter even if his matches were fixed. That's largely the case in general. The public as a whole may not have thought pro wrestling was on the level (although a surprising number did-again, there wouldn't have been so many attempted shootings and stabbings of heels if no one thought it was real), but they thought the wrestlers themselves were legitimate tough guys. When Dick Shikat double-crossed Danno O'Mahony and exposed him as purely a creation of promoters, it killed wrestling in New York for over a decade.

Awesome. Thank you for sharing this. It's always great to hear from someone with inside info. Regarding Kansai, my best guess (and this is pure speculation on my part) is that AJW had been struggling at the box office with Hokuto's retirement and the end of interpromotional matches, so they reached out to JWP for a lifeline. JWP agreed to lend them Kansai in return for giving her a run as WWWA champion. In turn, this necessitated making Aja a transitional champion for the reasons you mentioned. Toyota's first title win seemingly being a last-minute decision adds a new wrinkle to the story. It seems like there was a lot of panic booking in AJW in 1995.

The librarians and Nakazawa have been banished to Dark/Elevation, so AEW evidently agrees with those who thought having them on the Buy-In shows was driving away fans. In fact, that's probably the best thing about AEW. If something clearly isn't working, they try to figure out why and course correct instead of doubling down and trying to beat the audience into submission.

Actually, the Bellas were responsible for a significant increase in female viewers for WWE at a time when the male audience was collapsing. It should be noted that the decline in WWE's female audience was matched by an even bigger decline in viewership for Total Divas and Total Bellas.

Khali's a worthy candidate in the sense that it's a fake hall of fame with no real criteria beyond "not currently suing the company" and "wouldn't create a PR nightmare." But even from a WWE-centric standpoint, there have to be dozens, if not hundreds, of wrestlers worthier than him. Really though, Vince and the WWE HOF can fuck off forever for not inducting Vader while he was still alive knowing how much it meant to him.

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure there was a strong societal norm against the use of blackface back in 1998 when DX did the Nation parody.

I can't say I'm entirely comfortable with WALTER facing a guy whose neck is held together by duct tape and twine.

They also had a disclaimer for exceptionally bloody/violent content like ECW and the original WarGames matches. Really, though, editing out objectionable content is a chickenshit move. If it's worth paying a billion dollars for, it's worth preserving in its entirety. They knew what they were getting into when they gave Vince McMahon all that money. They need to own it.

HOF induction probably means a lot to the talent because it comes with a WWE Legends deal and all that entails. In fact, that's why HTM has turned them down. He can make more hustling on his own and still own the rights to his character. By the way, let's not jump the gun on Khali. The only source for him being one of the inductees is a since-deleted announcement from WWE India.

By Khali, you mean Kane, right?

Doug Furnas once said that in All Japan, you'd go out with a general idea of how long to go but went for however long it took to hit the crowd peak. In the WWF, on the other hand, all they cared about was hitting the time cues. Of course, a big part of that is the difference between an arena product and a live TV/PPV product. Recall that All In nearly ended in disaster because Okada's match went way over the allotted time. They had to drastically cut the main event as a result and still came dangerously close to going off the air with the match still in progress.

You know, Stardom might be on to something. They more than doubled their revenue last year, and their recent Budokan show outdrew New Japan's. And that was in the wake of both the pandemic (and restrictions in Japan are far more onerous than in the US) and the death of the woman who was poised to be their breakout star. They're not exactly short on workrate, but the booking is mainly faction and storyline oriented. Maybe it really is just as simple as presenting well-booked programs and having a charismatic star (Giulia) to build around. It reminds me of when WWE's PPV buyrates were in the toilet pre-Network and the typical excuse offered was that PPV was dead. The past few years, UFC and now AEW have emphatically shown that such is not the case. Just because WWE can't do it doesn't mean it can't be done.

Sports-based means wins and losses mattering for rankings and title shots. Cody said from the very beginning that the in-ring aspect would be a buffet. If you thought AEW was going to be The Young Bucks Present UWFi 2.0, that's on you.

Rush just re-signed with ROH last month, so if he is stuck there, it's because he chooses to be. What it comes down to, I think, is that he and his family are a package deal and AEW surely isn't desperate or stupid enough to give Bestia del Ring a job. Also, some folks in AEW apparently aren't high on Dragon Lee because he broke Hiromu Takahashi's neck a few years ago.

Today in r/thatHappened: What a coincidence. I just left a hipster coffee shop, and all the liberals were whispering amongst themselves about how Bad Bunny was killing it as 24/7 champion.

The comics industry is still on its ass in terms of actual comic book sales. If anything, it's worse off now in that regard than it was in the 90s. Marvel and DC have managed to thrive by becoming IP farms for movie studios. That's basically what WWE is doing now. They're more profitable than ever because they're in the business of selling content to networks rather than tickets and PPVs to wrestling fans.

Man, Gedo really has lost the plot if he's recycling 2005 Randy Orton angles.

big if true

I'm sure financial necessity played a part as well. Vince and WWF were up to their eyeballs in debt by the end of 1984 from buying TV time in so many markets, and they needed a big score to stave off bankruptcy.

On Thanksgiving Day 1984, JCP (Starrcade), WCCW (Star Wars), and the AWA all drew in excess of 15k and Mid-South (Superdome Extravaganza) drew 14k. The WWF drew 22k at MSG four days later. Thanksgiving was the traditional biggest day of the year in a lot of territories, so it wouldn't surprise me if something similar had happened in previous years.

Can't believe people are still falling for the "Charlotte is a great worker" meme.

If there are way more four-star matches taking place now (by his standards) than in the past, shouldn't he recognize that? Why should there be an arbitrary cap on the number of ****+ ratings awarded in a year?