C.S.

The old stage was so much better. I can't stand the new one.

If it's a joke, neither of them are funny. Ariel is being rightly called out for his lack of journalistic ethics, but TK's response is so clumsy and hamfisted that he has once again made himself the story in the worst and most counterproductive way. For all their faults, Vince and Trips would never fall into this trap.

Maybe, maybe not. Ariel was massively critical of Tony after the interview they did a while back. “He didn’t want to answer anything. You’re going to come on and promote X, Y, and Z, great. And I’ll play that dance with you. I did, at the beginning. But you got to give us something, to not even tell me how you were feeling. I’m not asking for specifics, alright fine I am, but is Punk going to wrestle for you, is he coming back, you don’t want to get into it, fine. But tell me how you were feeling. Give me something.”

Nose Khandy strikes again. In response to Ariel Helwani appearing on Smackdown, which - yeah, I agree - as a "legitimate journalist" he should not be doing. But I can't begrudge him for being a fan and wanting to be there to support his fellow Montreal guy Sami.

Don't know. Ask Trips (or the Crown Prince when WWE is sold). I wouldn't mind it being GUNTHER (imagine if he breaks HTM's IC record, Roman reigns for another year, and they meet in a Champion vs. Champion match at the next Mania) or Bron Breakker. Truthfully, it should've been Sami. They have the hot hand in him. Fans like Cody too, but they have a special affinity for the Honorary Uce.

IMO, Cody isn't beating Roman at WM either.

Sad news. One of the best and most influential bookers/promoters ever. And I loved Jerry Jarrett's podcast with Sean Reedy (who I believe still has an account here).

WWE has always been incompetent, so let's continue to give their incompetence a free pass is not exactly a compelling argument. GUNTHER'S reign being a big deal, which it definitely is, has nothing to do with why Rey losing this match (or being stuck in a go-nowhere program with a go-nowhere geek like Kross) is a bad idea. If Rey had won the match and then lost to GUNTHER, I'd be a little more okay with that, because 1. it's a compelling as fuck combination, 2. GUNTHER is a big deal, as you said. Ultimately though, it would've been better for Rey not to be in this match at all. Yes, Rey is old, but he's still a big star and major attraction. He should be treated as such, so that when he does lose, it actually means something. Having him drop throwaway matches to disposable talent like Kross and Moss is a terrible way to use him. Hey, that rhymes! Make Kross and Moss a team. Why not? Can't be any worse than anything they're doing now.

No argument here. But having a guy Trips clearly has no plans for - and never did, even in NXT - beat an all-time legend like Rey is a complete waste of time. Rey should lose sparingly, and it should mean something when he does.

You say this like it's a bad thing. Nia Jax was useless.

Or losing to lifetime jabroni Madcap Moss. If anyone in WWE still saw anything in Moss, the Madcap name would've been dropped by now.

Rey's misuse should be a considered a crime punishable by law.

I assume this is a transitional reign to get them on FTR, but still.

I wonder if Creative put the kibosh on reuniting her with Wyatt?

I even liked the accent. I think he was emulating family members. It never seemed overly exaggerated or silly for the sake of it, like most fake wrestling accents are (Kofi, anyone?).

Release him. Guy doesn't have "it." I actually preferred him as a Nigerian Prince. At least he had a character and personality then. Everything he did looked weak as shit + I could smell the turn a mile away and Apollo looked like an idiot for embracing that cheesy hug. Just have Commander squash Apollo and send him packing to ROH or Impact.

Jake was gone from the company by then, no? So they probably didn't care and probably was happy to see a jabroni like Koko was at the time "devalue" Jake's big finisher. It wasn't either of these, because Bevs/Genius won and Genius's acrobatic moves dominated the replay highlights after the match. I think it probably aired on Superstars or Challenge.

I don't think that's the match I saw, because I'm assuming there's no way in hell LOD and Ellering would lose to Bevs and Genius, and I clearly remember the latter winning the match and Genius being highlighted in every replay. I always thought putting Bevs and Genius together as a team was strange to run on TV, so maybe the purpose was to heat them up for the LOD/Ellering match you mentioned?

Okay, okay, I'll concede this round. You're the genius (I'm being sincere). Can you recite a poem for me? Since you brought up the Rougeaus, I will admit I always wondered if The Mountie and Jimmy Hart were supposed to be more than just friends. "I'm handsome. I'm brave. I'm strong. The Mountie always gets his man!" Anyway, getting this back to Poffo, anyone remember an six-man tag in the early-'90s with The Genius and The Bevs against...I don't remember, but probably jobbers? Poffo busted out some amazing acrobatics for the era, especially for WWE at the time, and got highlighted in all of the replays instead of his team. That always stuck with me. It made me realize, hey, Poffo was damn good, and why aren't they using him as a wrestler?

The Funk anecdote doesn't apply to anything I said though, because that was in Texas. I wasn't commenting on anything he did there, because I didn't see it. If you were a 15-year-old watching Texas wrestling, fine, you win - I can't argue with your perception in that case because you saw it and I didn't. Just to be clear, I was referring strictly to his WWE gimmick(s). The Hulk bit is more damning, I'll admit, but that's still one faint example. Lanny wasn't in a position to turn down the #1 wrestler and draw in the entire industry at that time. If Hulk Hogan in that era tells you to do something, you're going to do it. Lanny got a tremendous rub being in the same ring, which is something he admitted and was repeatedly thankful and grateful for his entire life. I personally think Lanny underrated himself, but that's neither here nor there. I still wish we had gotten to him do the Gorgeous George shtick in WCW. That company really deserved to go out of business, paying him for five years to sit at home. Nice work if you can get it, but I'm sure he was frustrated from a professional standpoint. Still waiting for you to list all the tag teams that did "homophobic" gestures like putting their head near a partner's crotch - I'm genuinely curious, because if Hogan can tell Lanny to "f-slur it up like Jim Barnett," I'm willing to concede tag teams might have done the same. I mean, okay, I'll defer to your expertise on this one, I guess. I won't sit here and claim I'm an expert when it comes to *cough* cowboy gear.

What was homophobic about it? That he was intelligent, a good writer, and did flashy high-flying moves long before it was the norm in WWE? You've completely lost me here. Which heel teams are you referring to? As for Demolition, okay, but we all thought it was a "tough guy" Mad Max deal. Sometimes shit like that doesn't age well and appears to be something else decades later. Your metric is THE thing. Seriously though, Shawn Michaels wore assless chaps, cried, lost his smile. In no way was that the rugged wrestling definition of "masculine." ASSLESS CHAPS But, sure, okay, Lanny Poffo was the one saddled with a gay stereotype - even though, as @ohtani's jacket helpfully pointed out, most of this was Lanny's own doing. I'm not arguing that Shawn was a gay stereotype, BTW, but if you're making that argument for Lanny Poffo, you better make it for Shawn.

Then Jim Cornette was and is an even bigger embarrassment, if we're going by that metric. Edit: I still can't get over what utter hogwash @El-P posted, probably influenced by Meltzer's backwash. This is WWE we're talking about. What you're describing would be very subtle. WWE has never done subtle, especially back then. If a wrestler was effeminate and/or a homosexual, WWE made that pretty clear. There was never any secret about it. Goldust, anyone? By your metric, Shawn Michaels was way more "effeminate."

This one hurts. What?! Why? How? No more "embarrassing" than being a plumber, race car driver, etc., and I'd say significantly less so. Childhood me always thought it was a cool gimmick having a wrestler who was a good writer (something I enjoyed doing too), was intelligent and articulate, and didn't sound like a good ol' boy whose mouth was filled with marbles or grits.

Speaking of the WWE HOF, Bob Ritchie (AKA Kid Rock) is a certified piece of shit. https://www.indiewire.com/2023/01/pamela-anderson-kid-rock-flipped-out-over-borat-cameo-1234805650/

Rhea being not the captain but the fourth wheel in the NXT WarGames match (or some other multi-woman stipulation match - I can't remember exactly what now) tells you how damaged she was just a few short months after the Charlotte reign of terror. If I recall correctly, Shotzi was the captain.