C.S.

When I saw this thread bumped, I thought for sure it would be about this:

Pat Laprade's Sisterhood of the Squared Circle is $2.99 on Kindle. I got it when it was free too, but holy shit, you weren't kidding about the poor structure. It reads like an ADHD fever dream. I had to eventually give up on it.

Corbin qualifying, winning, and having to sell his briefcase and title shot for money would be a great addition to this storyline.

The Bertrand Hébert-Pat Laprade book about Andre, The Eighth Wonder of the World: The True Story of André the Giant, is back down to $4.99 on Kindle.

One of the staples of my childhood. https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/patriot-del-wilkes-passes-away-age-59

Drake Wuertz is at it again...

You mean Kane isn't smart just because he was seen with a book once?

Not that I'm here to defend Sasha's intelligence, but didn't she do that to take care of her disabled brother?

The booking is a confusing mess, because Charlotte certainly isn't a face herself. I'm cool with heel vs. heel, if that's what it is, but the direction is far from clear. Not sure why Rhea isn't just a face, as that seemed to be working well enough for her before. Come to think of it, it might be mine too. Certainly the best ladder match in years.

The fact that some of you are actively wanting more Bobby vs. Drew means this must've been a success somewhere to someone. It was good while it lasted, but I'm personally sick of the pairing and more than ready to move on. I know it's fashionable to blame Charlotte, and I'm not discounting how stale and overexposed she is (I'm sick of her too), but when fans come back, I think it's going to be exposed very quickly that Rhea isn't over at all. Completely ice cold, has no discernible character to speak of ("punk girl" or whatever the fuck her look is supposed to be isn't a character), and they've either fired (Ruby Riott) or under-utilize (Nikki Cross) people who have similar personality traits but do it much better. I think Rhea does have potential and upside - she'll probably be fine in the long run - but for everyone who ever bitched about Roman Reigns' early face push, well, Rhea's feels even more inorganic (on a smaller scale). After losing to Charlotte at WrestleMania, Rhea spent the rest of the year treading water in NXT. Then she lost the Royal Rumble (which was the right call) and was subsequently rushed into a push and title that felt forced the entire time. Yeah, a lot of that is WWE's incompetence sabotaging her (being cast aside in NXT) and bad luck ruining a great arc with Charlotte from one WrestleMania to the next (because of Charlotte's Covid - or whatever it was that took her out of the match), but she has hardly hit a home run the way Bianca has with similarly middling material to work with.

Alex Riley goes after Cena and Rock about unionization https://411mania.com/wrestling/alex-riley-shots-john-cena-rock-wwe-sports-entertainment-union-match/ He's the worst kind of advocate. Someone who may have a valid point or two but expresses it in the most counterproductive, ass-backward, damaging way possible and comes across sounding like an unhinged idiot.

Was hoping Jinder or someone else would cost Drew the match.

The matches that should have had the Cell - Seth vs. Cesaro and KO vs. Sami - didn't. Boggles my mind. I'm sure the actual wrestling is fun, but I'm officially checked out. It's on mute and subtitles are on. There are no stakes here. Absolutely nothing matters. They could've rolled dice to book the winners and it wouldn't make a difference. Feels like such a holding pattern show before crowds come back.

For a show with a later start time, the last thing we need is seemingly 20 minutes of video packages.

The first 10 minutes of the preshow on Peacock had a CDN error with a cute cat. Fortunately (or unfortunately?), it's working now. I am honestly not very hyped for Hell in a Cell. Not a single match on it has earned the Cell stipulation, but that's far from a new issue with this show. Giving away Roman vs. Rey on Smackdown was a real-scratcher - foregone conclusion or not. In the old days, they would've given Rey the feel-good win on SD and had Roman regain it two days later at HIAC. While I'm generally not a fan of such hotshot title changes, WWE really could do with something unpredictable right about now.

Disco has been one of the the most obnoxious wrestlers on Twitter for a while now. Smug as fuck despite always sounding dumb as fuck. Just a total chud.

What is the link? I wouldn't mind following it.

So, what would stop her from using Dewdrop (correct spelling) in AEW/TNA/the indies? (Besides it being a fucking awful name, of course.)

Samoa Joe is back in NXT (in a non-wrestling role as GM Regal's enforcer). No idea why he was ever let go in the first place.

Man, this really is the best bang for the buck ever... In addition to the book itself, there's a podcast and now links to all of the matches. I'm looking forward to diving in.

I'll honestly admit I was distracted during the last two matches. I probably missed a good one between Raquel Gonzales and Ember Moon, but what flashes I saw of the main event did little to reel me in. I was going to post exactly this, so thanks for doing it for me.

Match wasn't pretty, but it sure was fun. Wrong guy won IMO.

This post-match segment is the shits - it died an instant death with Mercedes' obvious height advantage and cheesy screams.

That feels like it ended just as it was getting started. Poor Mercedes Martinez.

MSK does nothing for me. Is it just me? I mean, their ringwork is fine, but I have no idea who the fuck they are as characters or why I should care about them. (Not a problem unique to them in NXT/WWE, but still...)