DMJ

The rumor mill is churning with news that CM Punk is in negotiations for an in-ring return, specifically for AEW. I'm wondering if maybe this news leak is a negotiating tactic for WWE to produce a higher offer or what. I also read some hubbub that Punk reached out to the WWE for a return last year but they shot him down, which I find hard to believe. McMahon's booking MO for the past 10 years has been nostalgia-heavy and if you're looking at the biggest stars of yesteryear, Punk is right up there. Maybe Punk was asking for "Lesnar Money" and Vince didn't want to cough it up...but then again, with Punk, I'm guessing you'd get considerably more dates and what I assume would amount to be serious $$$ in terms of merchandise (unless, again, Punk wanted a larger share of that too). I know CM Punk is not everyone's favorite anything these days, but I'm hoping he does opt to go to AEW and do think that he'd be a good signing just because of the name value. He's someone like a Jeff Hardy or RVD where he undeniably made a connection with lots of fans and those fans are loyal to him. A big comeback match with the right opponent is going to draw a house and probably bump a buyrate at least a little bit. Keep in mind, his UFC debut did above projections (to the tune of something like 500k-600k buys?) so its not totally unreasonable to think he could help AEW score an additional 50k+ more buyers than usual, maybe even more?

Just watched this and had a few thoughts to add... * In response to what was known/unknown at the time. I was 15 and very much frequented LordsofPain and RSPW at the time and can attest to the fact that it was well known, among those that followed rumor sites in 1999, that Austin was taking time off after this show or soon after. There were also rumors that Austin didn't want to drop the title - which, in a weird way, makes sense because he never really dropped his IC Title when he was out in 97'. I think it'd be interesting to ask Austin now what was going on in his mind, but I suspect he thought he'd be back sooner than later and was in full worker mode and didn't want to lose his spot (which is ridiculous to think from the outside, but top guys do tend to get super suspicious and nervous even when its laughable to think Stone Cold Steve Austin feared losing his spot to someone like Triple H, like Hogan fearing a Paul Orndorff). Whether Austin didn't want to do the job to Triple H because he thought he "wasn't there yet" or because he thought it'd hurt his own credibility or because he felt like he could remain champion without having to actually work a match for 6 weeks, according to Bruce Prichard, it was ultimately Vince's call to not have Austin put Triple H over. * But enough about Austin...let's talk Triple H and Foley teaming up momentarily in the match for a moment. I know I'm nitpicking here because we see this spot in pretty much every triple threat, but it does strike me as another example of just how clusterfucky and kitchen-sinky this match is, the competitors themselves opting to just throw in every idea they might have instead of actually laying out a match with some semblance of internal logic. My gripe is that Austin is the Rattlesnake and Foley, at this point, was the purest white meat babyface in the company, a fan surrogate almost, a guy who was often fighting for acceptance more than championships (this dates back even to his heel days, when Mankind was presented as damaged, not necessarily evil). So, Mankind and Triple H, even briefly working together to beat down on Austin, gets a negative reaction but also maybe is partially why Mankind's victory doesn't feel like a victory. He's wrestling as a guy driven to win the World Championship, which is just inconsistent with his character's motivations (even in the feud with The Rock, which was more about Mankind trying to get revenge for being back-stabbed by Vince, who had become a bizarre father figure). And this bothers me partially because the solution is right there: have Triple H and Austin team up and beat up Foley and then have Austin do his usual double-bird when Triple H goes for a high-five! Its consistent with Austin's character, it makes Triple H look foolish, and it helps push the idea of Foley being the underdog. * What also doesn't help is that moment when Triple H clearly wins the match (via chairshots) and Ventura doesn't make the count or disqualify him. That sequence bothered me on rewatch. Triple Threat Title Matches can be no DQ or they can be fought under normal rules - but it has to be consistent for me. This was inconsistent because, near the start of the match, Chyna is banned from ringside for interfering (which would usually be a DQ). So, interference is illegal but chairs are legal but pinfalls after chairshots are not counted? In the words of Marge Simpson, "Whatever!" * Rewatching this whole show for my blog, its kinda funny to think about how, despite The Undertaker, Foley, Triple H, Austin, The Rock, Kane, and Big Show all being featured in the top 3 matches of the card, SummerSlam 99' is shockingly alarming as a signpost of the WWE's impending decline, and that, even at age 15, watching in real time, I felt it. The arrival of Angle, the Radicalz, and Jericho (along with Edge & Christian, The Hardyz, and The Dudleys making the tag scene great fun to watch) definitely made 2000 an improvement on 1999, but this show still reveals just how thin the top of the card was. I mean, at this time, the company was hoping Billy Gunn could be a top guy if that tells you anything. It also helps explain why 97' and 98' are remembered so much more fondly as even though the top of the roster was even thinner, Austin had viable opponents in Kane, Foley, Taker, The Rock, and McMahon himself. In 1999, having exhausted those feuds (and having buried Big Show on his first real night in the company), the WWE was basically left with only Triple H as a fresh feud for Austin and those two just never had the chemistry needed to carry a lengthy rivalry.

I thought the rumor was Lesnar/Lashley at SummerSlam? Doesn't Brock have a similar contract with a set number of matches per year? Or is that contract done? And I know there are folks who are sick of Brock too, but at 44, he's actually younger than Lashley and The Rock (also rumored for a brief return, but at least that could make for a good storyline and he's the fucking Rock), the same age as Cena, and a decade younger than the guy who is supposedly returning Monday. Plus, while Brock's matches have been hit-or-miss (to put it kindly) over the years, it wasn't all that long ago he had pretty good outings with Daniel Bryan, Finn Balor, and AJ Styles. Its just the matches that came after that were mostly booked terribly - putting over Rollins twice, burying Kofi - or had terrible underlying conditions (it's hard to question Lesnar's lack of motivation at WrestleMania and desire to just go home in the onset of a global pandemic that shut most of the world down for 18 months). But that Royal Rumble performance? Where he was just tossing nerds? That was dope. Lesnar brings Big Fight Feel and still ostensibly could tear the house down when motivated and given an opponent who he has chemistry with. But Lashley's rumored challenger? Just no.

Just watched this today as AXS aired Bound for Glory 2016 on TV (with commercials, but still in its entirety, I think) and I DVR'd it. I liked the match, maybe even more than the poster above, but found its most glaring flaw to be something kinda out of the combatants control: the crowd. I'm not sure if the finish was a foregone conclusion as I'm not a regular Impact viewer and certainly wasn't following the company in 2016, but they don't really pop for any of the nearfalls - even the ones that, to me, felt like they could've legit finished the match (Lashley hitting a big spear after EC3 missed a splash in the corner, Lashley's sidewalk slam-into-a-choke thing, when EC3 hit the TK3). I'd also say that being unfamiliar with Lashley's output prior to his WWE return, he is more than solid here. He doesn't do anything particularly freakish, but what he does do - the spears, the power moves, the spinebuster on the ramp, the spear before he's even announced - is all great. Did I say his spears look good? The one he hits to end the match is particularly strong and feels like it could legit finish anyone off. Its funny to me that the poster above was wondering if EC3 could "carry" Lashley when, in my eyes, Lashley is kinda the one doing the heavy lifting and driving this bout (and doing a terrific job). I wouldn't consider this a "must watch" or "should watch," but its not far off from it and maybe, with a hotter crowd, would be.

In most the interviews/podcasts I've heard with her, I've never gotten the impression that Sasha was particularly well-spoken or well-educated. Someone once said that CM Punk struck them as a guy who probably didn't like school because he thought he was "smarter than the teachers" and I really love that description - maybe not of CM Punk, but of a specific type of person who really does hold that attitude. Sasha Banks is pretty open about going to middle school and high school online and caring more about wrestling than academics, which tells me all I need to know about her book smarts. Maybe in other states, online schools in the 00s were great, but in Ohio, at that time and up through today, these online charter schools are notorious for defrauding the state and taxpayers in typically poor areas by falsifying enrollment and student engagement. At least in Ohio, student performance in online schools has also been found to be lower than students receiving instruction in-person. At best, Banks has the education of maybe a 9th grader if she really did start online school at 12. Now, that's not to say I don't respect what she does, the years of hard work and dedication, the many obstacles she's overcome, and obviously all the knowledge gained through experiences that I will never experience..but she does strike me as the type who probably did need someone to explain to her why saying "all lives matter" is controversial.

Good on Nikki Cross for having an idea, pitching it, and seeing it through. But I do think there's a quality control issue here too. Unfortunately, the idea of a superhero wrestler has already been done in the WWE and wrestling fans have long memories, which is why when Hurricane Helms comes out every now and again, he still gets a reaction. Plus, as we saw with Hurricane Helms, the superhero wrestler gimmick has a low ceiling. If this gets Nikki on TV, that's fine. As a fan of hers, I'd like to see her stay in the picture. But also as a fan of hers, this is the least interesting thing that she's done in her time with the WWE/NXT. She was the bright spot of SaNity and it wasn't even close. Her segments with Regal showed that she could hang with "authority figures" in a way reminiscent of Foley at his goofiest (pairing her with Corbin, for example, during his atrocious run as an Authority might've at least been a cherry on a shit sundae). The tag team with Alexa Bliss was, to me, really good for what it was as they had natural chemistry and, in a fantasy world where the Women's Tag Titles mean something, could have continuously been grounded in that division. Hell, I'm not even sure they got everything out of the Nikki/Bliss split considering Nikki once had a gimmick of being crazy and then was somewhat de-programmed by Bliss. It would've been fun to see them work the opposite roles. This gimmick just seems so one-note when the thing I've liked most about Nikki Cross is that, for awhile there, she was continuously revealing layers to her character, personality, and in-ring style that made me take notice. I'd never rank her as a particularly great worker or anything but as a character? When it comes to having unique presence? I think she's easily in the top 8-10 of the entire roster. On some days, if I was playing fantasy GM and I had 5 picks from the whole women's division, I might take her over Rhea Ripley.

Just a note - if you're looking for this week's episode, its actually available for viewing under the name "Vice Versa: Chyna." The episode wasn't recorded on my DVR but I downloaded the Vice TV app on my Roku and it is listed there. You can read more about it here: https://www.yahoo.com/now/vice-tv-gm-why-chyna-160000125.html Any which way, I just turned it on. There's no Jericho narration and much more footage of Chyna telling her own story so it definitely is noticeably different than your typical DSOTR episode.

I'm curious what others' opinion of Samoa Joe coming in and putting Adam Cole to sleep on NXT is. I'm kinda split. On one hand, I don't think Adam Cole should be a main event fixture, a multi-time NXT Champion and never have. I just don't "get" what about him makes him a top guy. I understand how Gargano earned his way there: great tag run with #DIY + major storyline with Ciampa resulting in being positioned as a capable singles guy + awesome underdog performance against Andrade = believable underdog part-time main eventer. But Cole? I think you can pretty much mark the decline of NXT as when he started getting pushed stronger and stronger as a "main eventer." Say what one may about Bobby Roode or Drew McIntyre, but at least Roode had achieved some level of main event status in Impact and McIntyre has size. Cole looks like a high schooler. So seeing him getting choked out doesn't really bother me because, personally, I've never found him to be the least bit intimidating and I'm not a fan. But on the other hand, if Samoa Joe isn't cleared to wrestle, him choking out main eventers (even coming from behind to do it) is something that seems like a creative dead-end and, along with Cole only barely beating the untrained Pat McAfee, further solidifies the idea that Cole is a 200-pound high schooler that we're inexplicably meant to believe is also some great top-level talent. Ultimately, I came away from watching those segments wanting to see Samoa Joe kick people's asses and, if that was the goal, that seems counterproductive.

The cringe level here is staggering, especially Triple H's comment. Truthfully, its never been cool to be a wrestling fan in the true sense of cool - I'm talking James Dean cool, or Bob Dylan circa 1966 with the long hair and shades cool. That level of cool is impossible for any wrestler to attain because wrestling is, even at its most grotesque and violent, still always a bit camp. But, that being said, Triple H is still wrong. Current wrestling is still uncool. Having a nostalgic appreciation of older wrestling is, comparatively, "cooler" because there's automatic detachment (and detachment is a critical part of coolness). So, wearing a true vintage Von Erichs tee-shirt to a BBQ? Kinda cool. Wearing an Adam Cole Bay-Bay shirt? Not cool now and I'm going to go ahead and say it won't be cool in 30 years either.

^ I agree. I'd also just throw out there that I think Vince has, since its inception, been more hands-off about SmackDown. He views RAW as the flagship (as do many fans) and is seemingly way more scrupulous with that program. So, by the time it gets to be Thursday night or Friday morning, and he's reviewing the script for SmackDown, his mind already is partially thinking, "Fine, do whatever, but what do we have ready for Monday?" Whereas, on Sunday night or Monday morning, I doubt even a single brain cell of his mind is thinking about what they have planned for Friday's show. So maybe the SmackDown show is a better representation of what the writing team is pitching, while Raw is famously being torn up and rewritten by Vince every week.

When asked about sending wrestlers to represent the WWE to the NWA Women's show, he also said something along the lines of, "We have our talent under contract because we want them to work here." This makes some sense to me...but its still shitty and counter-productive and not even 100% factually accurate. Especially for NXT talent, who have competed on EVOLVE shows semi-recently and, if you look back 5-6 years ago, were competing in places like Chikara and PROGRESS. And there's also those pesky Mae Young Classic that featured if not completely "signed" talent, at least a couple women who were heavily featured in other companies (Princesa Sugehit comes to mind immediately and I'm thinking was at least on some sort of long-term handshake deal with CMLL?). The decision also strikes me as another example of even Triple H, NXT's "proud father," not knowing or not being able to accurately define what NXT is. Or maybe just being afraid to admit what it is. In this same press conference, he was once again asked if NXT is still a "developmental league" or an actual brand. He can eyeroll all he wants when he gets that question, but the audience doesn't know the answer. Its stories are self-contained. It is barely promoted on RAW, SD, or on Peacock (where ads for Hell in a Cell play before and during shows). While SD and RAW titles are defended on big "PPVs," NXT titles never are. It definitely isn't an equal brand to RAW or SD. But developmental means lesser and Triple H won't call it that either. Its different. But what is it? And here, with the NWA Women's show, is a small opportunity to maybe help define what NXT is - the WWE's version of an indie fed, a legitimate brand unto itself that caters to fans of "indie" wrestling, a brand that is first and foremost about great wrestling not "the corporate machine" - and Triple H smirks and laughs off the idea of letting NXT women compete elsewhere. Its a tone deaf response that will allow Impact and/or AEW to score easy points if/when they let any of their talent compete. Instead of being willing to cross-promote, clearly very much the "cool" thing to do in the eyes of fans in 2021, Triple H scoffs. Granted, this may have been the edict passed down by Vince so I'm not laying all the blame at Triple H's feet but, yeah, no matter who is saying it, its still the wrong decision. Once again, instead of positioning NXT as the "in-store alternative," the company has made it clear that NXT is just the WWE's little developmental holding cell, a place for talent to "compete" but not really (because the titles don't mean anything), to learn to be big main roster stars but not really, a promotion where its been a long, long time since anyone got a real promotion (Kevin Owens, Asuka, and Bianca Belair are basically it). Meanwhile, outside of the WWE bubble, wrestlers continue to prove the WWE's model obsolete, building their brands and telling stories across multiple promotions and platforms. So why not let some of the NXT women get some "indie cred"? What's the worst that happens? It can't purely be the freak occurrence that an NXT talent would get injured? Having two NXT women compete against eachother on an NWA show also eliminates any idea of having an NXT talent put over an unsigned talent. Its such an easy way to curry support from the "smart" audience, the audience that 100% chose AEW over NXT because, well, one company feels like an authentic alternative and one still feels like the minor leagues.

Ahh. Do you remember if that was like the "day of" or the previous night? I vaguely remember they did a show before WrestleMania VIII that featured a sitdown with Hogan but I swear it aired the night before (or maybe even a week before).

Question - I was rewatching Survivor Series 91' this morning while I was exercising, and wanted to know, is Tunney's announcement that Roberts and Savage are off the card something that was announced before the show - like on Superstars - or was it really a true bait-and-switch where fans who ordered the pay-per-vew the night of the show or purchased tickets the day of the event were expecting Roberts and Savage to appear? I mean, yes, pulling them from the show even a week before the show itself is still a weaselly, bullshit move in an era when people would presumably buy tickets based on what had been advertised for months prior (for example, the Ultimate Warrior was featured in the local promotion for SummerSlam 96'), but I was just curious what the timeline was. Was Tunney's announcement aired on the Superstars (or whatever show) before Survivor Series? Or was it aired for the first time that night?

Was watching an old PPV on the Network yesterday and noticed that they're advertising Hell in a Cell but not In Your House. I know its not a big shocker to anyone how little promotion actually goes towards NXT, but one would think they (the WWE, NBC/Universal) would at least run an ad or two on the Network itself. If it wasn't for this forum and r/sc, I wouldn't even know there was an NXT show this weekend.

Its damn near impossible for me to reason why anyone of sound mind would willfully compete in these type of matches, period. It makes even less sense when you've already proven yourself capable of making the same amount of money wrestling a standard match and doing all your low-risk signature spots. For Moxley or a Cactus Jack or whatever, I guess I can understand that there's a "return to my roots" thing, that they came up and built their name on hardcore matches and thus will always want to prove they still have the guts to wrestle gory matches. For Arquette, I think it really came down to him being an adrenaline-seeking, attention-seeking addict with a history of doing reckless and self-destructive things (I'm not sure if he's sober now, but he's been open about his drug addiction and alcoholism in the past). I could be ignorant about it, but I was not aware that Cardona has a history of these type of matches. It seems like a silly idea for him to "go against character" and prove his toughness for no real reason. I mean, are there indy feds out there that aren't hiring Cardona because he won't stick himself like a pig and bump on thumbtacks? Does he reason that this will make him more marketable somehow?

Same feeling. I've tended to like the McIntyre/Lashley matches from this year, but Lashley's wins at Mania and Backlash felt decisive enough for me not to be invested in Drew's chase anymore. So what happens at HIAC? Does McIntyre win and then have to defend against Lashley again and this just goes back and forth forever? Or does Lashley win and McIntyre is now "buried"? After Mania, McIntyre needed to be put into some major storyline not involving the title that would've kept him from that scene until SummerSlam (where he could have presumably challenged again). I'm not sure what storyline would've been - maybe Aleister Black or Keith Lee attacking him, maybe getting drafted to SmackDown, maybe (puking in my mouth a little) something to do with the Fiend - anything just to keep him from looking like The Guy Who Lost At Mania.

I think what's interesting and maybe getting lost a little bit is that this is just the most recent example of AEW doing something very different than the WWE has ever done and actively hyping a signing of someone to a non-kayfabe backstage position to generate buzz and goodwill for the company. Only Vince Russo (and Ed Ferrara) getting signed to WCW to take over creative comes to mind in the 90s and that was almost immediately criticized by some early online writers/critics/RSPW posters. And there was obviously some WWE promoting and tweeting about when Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman were hired to steer RAW and SD a couple years ago, though its not like their signings were hyped on screen. With NXT, they've been more open about who the producers/trainers are, but that's also because that brand has always been promoted as "developmental" where having agents and coaches and trainers is built-in to the premise of the show. On SmackDown or RAW, though, it is far, far more likely to see someone like Baron Corbin assume the role of a 100% kayfabe authority than it would be to see Bruce Prichard show up on screen and start booking matches. But with Big Show and some other names in the past - Jake Roberts, Arn Anderson, Dean Malenko - it does seem like Tony Khan is trying something a bit outside of the box and not only pulling back the curtain and saying, "Yes, I'm hiring all your former favorites as agents and scouts and coaches because that's how the business works and we're not hiding it." Again, compare that to, say, how Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson were described as Vince's "stooges" (not as producers) whenever they were on-screen. It's a clever marketing move too because wrestling fans have long memories and love nostalgia, two things that a 3-year-old company can't necessarily provide. So, instead, with some key hires, they've now not only built up that connection to NWA/WCW but also the late 90s and early 00s. And they've done it by hiring guys and gals (Serena Deeb comes to mind too) that fans see as true wrestling fans and true wrestling personalities, rather than, y'know, bringing in a Freddie Prinze Jr. or an ESPN reject.

Fuck it. I still think calling Randy Orton the best wrestler in the world is ridiculous in 2020/2021. Like, sure, I can understand a hypothetical situation where a motivated Randy Orton had a series of great matches against a variety of guys over the past 18 months. But that's not what happened. He had some good-to-very good matches with McIntyre (but nothing MOTY level), a very, very poorly-received falls count anywhere with Edge at Mania last year (though I did think their Backlash match was much better), and a series of WrestleCrap-worthy matches and segments with Bray and Alexa. If you're not going to acknowledge the Tribal Chief, at least acknowledge Daniel Bryan, who, in that same stretch of time, absolutely OWNED the Thunderdome with just great match after great match. To me, if you're speaking strictly in the US, Bryan is still at the top and then there might be arguments for 2 involving Omega, Reigns, Moxley, yadda, yadda...but Randy Orton? C'mon. You might as well fucking say Goldberg.

Ordered! So excited to read this! Congrats!

I really do appreciate and respect others having more tolerance for people like Drake Weurtz and hoping that he gets the help he needs. But, personally, its very hard for me to have sympathy for him. Its kind of a chicken-or-the-egg thing. Was Drake brainwashed/radicalized? Yea. But he then devoted his time and energy to brainwash and radicalize others, spreading ridiculous conspiracy theories on top of (according to the report) spewing thinly-veiled racist comments at colleagues, causing conflicts over vaccinations and flu shots, and parroting the nonsense that contends that anyone who voted for Biden (and Biden himself) is a child sex trafficker. So, yeah, he needs help. So do all the other QAnon idiots. But they don't want help. They think help is the "liberal agenda." They are anti-science, anti-doctors, anti-medicine. I know its a cliche, but, yeah, this is Idiocracy shit. The more these views are tolerated/respected, they more they are welcomed into the mainstream, and that is a bad thing. There are some views and there is some rhetoric that should be mocked and ridiculed for being backwards and dumb and the people who espouse these belief should be marginalized by shame. I'm not against free speech. Neo-Nazis should be allowed free speech. But I have no problem with them being as close to universally hated as possible and mocked and ridiculed like they were for decades and decades. These Qanon morons deserve the same disrespect. You can have your ideas. You can share them. But being a racist conspiracy theorist nutjob comes with consequences, including getting fired from your job (and, to be fair, dude deserved to be fired months ago based on the report). Fuck this dude. There's thousands of people still dying of Covid every day around the world (India right now is going through hell) and this fucking idiot thinks its all a government hoax to kidnap children? Fuck him.

Ahh, I did not think that one all the way through then. I'm not going to consult Crazy Like A Fox or anything, but I guess I also thought that Brian was like Jericho in the sense that he believed WWE to be a better long-term possibility for singles success (seeing as the cruiser division had surpassed anything he could do physically and there was almost zero chance of him going up against Hogan, Savage, etc). Meanwhile, you look over at WWE around the time, Pillman vs. Michaels is much more within the realm of likelihood.

After watching the doc, I'm willing to say - with some confidence - that if the accident doesn't happen, Pillman thrives in 98' the way Foley did as I think, as much of a partier as he was prior to the injury, it clearly added a ton of gas to that fire. Austin needed challengers and Pillman, even if he had had to adapt his style to just brawling, makes a ton of sense to have been in that mix. There's easy gold to mine in Vince having to find a way to trust Pillman to take care of Austin, but not being 100% able to.

Someone in the RAW thread mentioned that it looks like Shelton Benjamin will be used as a jobber/Main Event talent despite solid work with the Hurt Business and it got me thinking about the inevitable Shelton Benjamin Hall of Fame induction. Now, I'm not talking about whether he deserves to be in there or even if he'll be inducted one day - I'm pre-supposing that, some day, whether its 2025 or 2030 or even sooner, the WWE will have inducted so many of their "A" talents that Shelton Benjamin will be inducted as well. But what would that video package even be like? The awkwardness is almost fun to envision. On one hand, you'd have all sorts of guys, maybe even Lesnar and Angle, talking up Shelton's amazing physical gifts and athleticism, maybe you'd have Kofi mention how funny he was with his Momma or how innovative he was with his acts of balance and agility, I can see Cedric and Lashley talking about having him as a teammate, etc. Its not like its hard to find nice things to say about Shelton Benjamin and this is before anyone talks about any out-of-the-ring things. At the same time, that highlight reel would still feel pretty thin. While Shelton did some cool feats back in the day (springboarding from the ropes onto a ladder, for example), his innovations are kinda footnotes to what Kofi Kingston perfected - a bit like how Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain dunked years before Dr. J, but Dr. J is still credited as the man who brought it to another level. Shelton has a ton of title reigns under his belt but titles have never meant less and didn't mean all that much when he had them*. The Shelton's Momma angle was...well...let's just say it wasn't the worst angle the WWE ran in the mid-90s, but how memorable was it really? Benjamin's gimmick has mostly been based on him being a good wrestler, period, but he didn't even get a run with Heyman or a McMahon at his side, something that other "bland shooter types" have had (Benoit and Curtis Axel come to mind). I'm not sure what my point is, really, aside from just to say that Benjamin seems like both an underachiever and an overachiever at the same time. I'm not sure he was ever going to be a top, top guy - he just wasn't a big enough personality to reach that level and the 2000s was famously a time where the glass ceiling didn't budge and didn't change much at all between roughly 02' and 09' - but he also kind of should have a longer resume of memorable angles, segments, and matches considering his tenure and talent. Like, there's an alternate universe where Shelton did get a great manager or he linked up with MVP much earlier or the WGTT existed at the same time as the New Day and Usos...

I don't think I've seen a single full episode since the first season, but the few times he was on Total Divas, Mark Carrano gave off dipshit vibes. And that was him presumably on his best behavior on-camera in set-up scenarios designed to make the company not look too bad. However, in the WWE's defense, I've also never met a Human Resources head that didn't give off dipshit vibes.

Again, its all relative, but just as points of comparison using football and baseball, the average ticket for a Super Bowl is $4000+ (biggest game of the year), while the average price to see a regular season game is still going to be over $50 (think a RAW taping). In major league baseball, which may be a better comparison because teams play so many games, a single ticket to a World Series game is still in that $1000-2000 range, while you can actually go see a regular season game for $40 (think a TV taping or house show). Of course, there are far more nosebleed seats than great, lower level seats, so these baselines are a bit low if we're talking about great views and proximity to the ring. Also, one reason its cheaper to see the Indians or any other team play is because they're not going anywhere. If you miss seeing the Indians in April or May, you can see them in June, July, August, or September. This year, next year, 5 years from now. So, if one is to believe even a fraction of the hype that WrestleMania isn't just your average house show or TV episode and factor in that WrestleMania is the biggest show of the year and it happens only once a year (if not a once-in-a-decade or once-in-a-lifetime opportunity) there should be considerably more urgency from fans to want to attend even during a pandemic.