C.S.

What's the story there? I call Cornette irrelevant because he hasn't shown any ability to successfully book a wrestling promotion since 1994 or whenever Smokey Mountain Wrestling ended, and yet he acts like his word is gospel when it comes to a modern presentation. (Someone will mention ROH, but Cornette was opposed to Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, who - for better or worse - became major stars for ROH and are still stars now. Doesn't sound to me like someone who has his finger on the pulse.) The guy was fired in favor of Vince Russo twice - Vince Russo - so what does that tell you? That doesn't mean he's 100% wrong, or anywhere near that. He does make good points, and some of what he says is worth listening to and applying to a modern day promotion. But is clearly stuck in the past in many other ways too. Contrast that with Jerry Jarrett, who is perfectly content to talk about what worked in Memphis Wrestling without acting like he's an all-knowing guru when it comes to what would work now. Of course, a lot of his approach and philosophy would indeed work now - and should still be used a guide - but he doesn't beat people over the head with his knowledge. He simply passes it on an informative, insightful, and entertaining manner without resorting to a grating "look at me" approach. To be honest, I am tired of Cornette's general personality, shtick, and obnoxious feuds with Russo, Prichard, Bischoff, and whoever else (not that I'm excusing any of them either). But hey, if people are buying the bullshit Corny's selling (and clearly many are, as demonstrated by the stats you dropped), more power to him. I have no problem with that. As for what you said about Corny's commentary vs. Callihan not being a big part of MLW, when you put it that way, I see what you mean. MLW is lucky that they're not big enough to be harmed by any of Cornette's various controversies (Sonny Kiss, Islamophobia, dumb feuds, etc.).

More Warrior insanity:

I dunno. I felt nWo Nash was looser, more witty, etc. than Diesel, who was kind of stiff. Ditto for Hall, who no longer had to pretend to be Al Pacino in Scarface (an amazing gimmick, but not quite the same as nWo Hall).

From SEScoops (I'm not overly familiar with the site, so I'm not sure how reliable it is), "A fan on Twitter accused Bauer of 'ditching' Callihan to appease Jim Cornette, MLW’s outspoken commentator." If there's any truth to that, bad move IMO. I'm not a Sami fan, but even I would take him over the embarrassing and irrelevant in 2019 Jim Cornette. At least Sami's recent buzz has been mostly positive, unlike Cornette's. Bauer denies that it has anything to do with Cornette though. Damaging a venue seems like a weird reason. Work?

Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw to Blackjack Bradshaw (hey, I loved that gimmick) and later APA Bradshaw. APA Bradshaw with a shave and haircut that no longer fit the character to JBL. Kama to The Godfather Mark Henry to Sexual Chocolate Sexual Chocolate to Hall of Pain Rocker Shawn Michaels to HBK Hunter Hearst Helmsley to Triple H Mean Mark Callous to The Undertaker Oz/Vinnie Vegas to Diesel Diesel to Kevin Nash Scott Hall to Diamond Studd Diamond Studd to Razor Ramon Razor Ramon to Scott Hall

I'm not sure which wwe.com article you're referring to, but the Dana picture originated with this tweet: Maybe Dana is sincere in her feelings about the LGBTQ+ community - I will give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she is - but she's wearing the facepaint of a man who hurled vile homophobic comments at the same community for years. It's tone deaf.

The match was restarted. Maybe there's still hope...

If WWE wanted to do something genuinely interesting for once, Bryan would win the title here. Edit: Well, so much for that. This company, I swear! Fucking hell...

Imagine intergender matches between The Iiconics and Enzo & Cass. Just putting that thought out into the universe.

Man, even that match doesn't sound interesting, which you acknowledge. Yes, something needs to happen, but even the scenarios you outlined all feel tired, which is a criticism of the product itself and not your thought process. This is years of WWE shooting itself in the foot by not going with hot acts when they got over organically - Rusev Day, Fashion Police, Miz, NXT call-ups with fan goodwill, etc. Yes, they went with Becky and Kofi at WrestleMania - and overproduced both to the point of oblivion. Their post-Mania trajectories have all been uninteresting as hell (although I kinda like the Dolph "it should have been me" storyline, but not enough to get 2-3 matches out of it). A radical shift needs to happen, and that doesn't mean hotshotting one hot act into the main event. It means changing an absolutely abysmal product from top to bottom. It means revamping the stale format and presentation that has barely changed since 1999. It means doing many little things right again that they've seemingly forgotten how to do.

The Ultimate Warrior Is Not A Gay Pride Mascot Good piece by @Bix, who posts here, so I kinda wish he'd plug his own stuff more. Instead, I found this randomly on Reddit. I do seem to recall Dana saying once that Warrior changed toward the end of his life. Maybe after he had kids? I can't really remember her reasoning. Unfortunately, we only have her word to go on. Either way, very tone deaf by Dana Warrior and WWE.

Talk about a massive wasted opportunity by ROH. Even when they're handed major signings and cool developments, they have no idea what to do with them.

Ouch! That is definitely some real-life sleaze thread stuff. :\

What does this have to do with Ashley Massaro's death? Am I missing something, or did you accidentally post this in the wrong thread?

Episode 4 of The Wrestlers was a pretty compelling defense of the infamous "Deathmatch." Terry Funk is cited as the father of deathmatch wrestling. Whether that's true or not, he obviously played a major part in it. The show does a good job of covering the style all around the world, interviewing Atsushi Onita, Danny Havoc, and others. They talk about how good deathmatch wrestlers are good wrestlers at their core and still know the fundamentals of wrestling. Sami Callihan and Shane Strickland have "cameos" - with Strickland even saying he's wrestling a deathmatch because his generation can do any kind of match and he's doing it because no one would expect him to, and Sami saying there's no CZW without Danny Havoc (at least I think that was Sami). Even the fans, which are usually the worst part of any wrestling documentary (like that weirdo Moolah fan on Dark Side of the Ring), are interesting here - because it makes sense for Damian to find out what kind of people are drawn to Deathmatches and why. I will say I walked away with a newfound respect for Deathmatch wrestling. Danny Havoc created architectural designs and storyboards for his "Viking Funeral" match, which is a lot more depth than I was expecting. While this isn't my favored style, I now wouldn't mind seeing a Deathmatch live, or even checking out some CZW or old Onita matches on YouTube. P.S. I've finally figured out who Damian Abraham reminds me of - Toby from This Is Us (a show that, no doubt, absolutely no one on a wrestling forum is going to be familiar with).

I think Punishment Martinez is a badass name and Damien Priest is generic CAW 101. I kinda like Tommy End too, but I can see why others wouldn't. With that said, some of the NXT/WWE names have definitely been better than the originals. As mentioned: Finn Balor > Prince Devitt Hideo Itami > KENTA It's weird how they go back and forth on whether to use original names or rebranded names.

Steph actually did one of those shows. It was a P.R. puff piece, of course, but still entertaining for what it was.

I forgot about this part. Right after that, they cut away to the replay. I was wondering why Gable never said anything after the replay. I didn't notice the ref telling him no.

Maybe, but there's no reason Vince can't have ten more "Enzos" to repopulate the CW division with. He could, but no one is booked to matter anymore. I also preferred the singlet and long hair. Not sure what to believe with the finish. On the other hand, it was so much more creative and impactful than WWE's usual finishes, so it almost has to be a botch, right? Then again, the finish in the main event was also something we haven't seen in a while, or at least done effectively like it was there.

People criticized the Enzo reign, but it got more eyeballs on the Cruiserweights (good luck if you think Tony Nese will ever do that), and more importantly, Vince actually gave a shit about the division when Enzo was champ.

I came here to post about 205 Live, so I'm glad to see everyone else is talking about it already. Chad Gable vs. Jack Gallagher was quite an awesome match. Everyone is always singing the praises of Gable (including me), but I agree with all of you that Gallagher shouldn't be slept on either - he has always been one of my favorites. With that said, 205 Live may as well be Jakked or Metal for how much it matters, and that's sad. But don't take my word for it... (BTW, since it seems no one realizes this: Both 205 Live and NXT - yes, even TakeOver - is on Hulu. That's how I was able to watch it without a current Network subscription. You just can't watch it live on Hulu.)

Yeah, it worked 20 years ago with Vince. No one else is Vince. The formula has had diminishing returns with lesser performers ever since. Shane is good in his own way. Being a Vince Redux isn't one of those ways.

Yeah, I don't get it. Even when Miz and/or Roman do win, it won't do anything for them, because of course they won against Shane. This formula works with full-time wrestlers, not the part-time owner's kid.

The Miz and Roman vs. Shane, McIntyre, and Elias feud would be good if Shane weren't involved. I actually like Shane as a face and don't buy him as a heel at all (even a "chickenshit" heel).

Not to defend Sullivan or Mansoor, who both seem absolutely useless in every way, but what about those stories you hear of hardened tattooed Neo-Nazis, Klan members, racist gang members, etc. - presumably much more extreme cases - changing their ways? It's not unheard of. But yeah, when it comes to the entertainment industry - and wrestling, in particular - it definitely reeks of "cover my ass" bullshit. BTW, this is the first I've heard of Mansoor being an antisemite. Did he grow up in Saudi Arabia? Well, that whole country and culture unfortunately seems fucked. I mean, I hesitate to paint the people with the same brush as the politicians, royal family, and/or whoever else makes murderous decisions, but there are obviously some deep-rooted issues there. Edit: One site referred to Mansoor as a "Californian." So, he's an American citizen, I guess? I literally know nothing about him other than what's posted here and the few stories/clips I've seen. Found this that's supposedly from him: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D8fiwI7WwAYoatT.png:large