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They seem to be popping for Sasha's comebacks, so maybe they just laid out the match wrong for the crowd. It's also hard to build up an athletic endurance contest right after a HIAC match. That's somewhat backwards booking.

I hate it when refs stop someone from winning a match but then the match continues. Also, is Sasha going to have a "can she continue?" spot in every big match?

I find it amusing when joshi promotions announce matches as 6-man tags.

Well, that was pretty cool.

Rollins was a better babyface, both in and out of the ring, when he was a heel. I don't really understand why.

Aren't you supposed to book these sort of matches so that the babyface just barely survives at the bell? Also Mick being involved just killed anything this match had going for it.

Who dressed Mick for this?

I was like "nah that's not possible, the Cruiserweight Title isn't being defended tonight". Then I looked at the card again. You're right, damnit.

Followed by the New Day intro. How fitting.

If he agreed with the definition of "reasonable creative control" proposed here, he could have sued for breach of contract. I'm not sure what damages he would have been able to collect if the unseen contract had no penalty for a breach.

Did Bret ever say himself why he didn't sue, even just to extract a token settlement? The somewhat obvious reason everyone always mentions is that Bret attacked Vince afterwards, so he was afraid of the countersuit.

Reasonable was defined as Bret and Vince agree. This has always been the accepted definition of reasonable creative control -- mutual agreement as to creative and finishes. All talent will politic and may balk at their creative direction, but this truly requires the performer's consent and thus permits someone to balk at booking without being in breach. Accepted by whom? Has such a clause ever been tested in court?

It sounds like Dylan Hales is going to be shilling for them on podcasts soon, so we'll probably find out more then: https://twitter.com/DylanWaco/status/804421432872550400

Has Bret's contract ever actually been published in any lawsuit? The most common formulation I see quoted is that Bret had "reasonable creative control" over his character for the last 30 days prior to any early termination of his contract, which certainly wouldn't give him veto power over anything. If that's the case, there's a pretty obvious counterargument. He refused to lose in Canada, but the only PPV during the last 30 days of his contract was in Canada, so he was effectively refusing to lose on PPV. Given the way title changes happened in the WWF at that time, it's easy to see that as an unreasonable request.

She did a shoot for Stardom World and they are posting a new segment of the interview every week or so. The first episode was about her relationship to Japan, and the second is about her life before wrestling. I don't know how much further than her AJW stint they're going to go.

I don't really have any horse in this race, but if RINGS was the minor league to PRIDE then why do you think it should count the same for a hall of fame? If anything, shouldn't that answer the question as to why they are treated differently?

It's pretty great that she went back to selling the fake injury at the end.

In the past year they lost more than 4 million subscribers. If they lose 3 million per year then by 2021 they'll only be breaking even on their broadcasting rights fees.

Sami Zayn is apparently pretty neurotic in real life, and he channeled that really well in the segment with Mick.

How did we miss this?

The face turn writes itself though.

Sadly, I think the chances of a Scott Steiner vs. Samoa Joe match in NXT are slim.

Kevin Owens as champion looks like a fan in the stands with a replica belt, so it's not a surprise that a literal list is more over than him during his title reign. Terrible gear and terrible beard. I've quoted this before in other discussions, but Phil Schneider gave the best possible description of Owens as an "ethnic babyface for Internet nerds". His run in NXT was more hype than actual matches, although I'm not sure it was his fault. They built up the feud with Sami with the matches aborted due to brutality, and then they never delivered on the payoff. When Joe came in they started a feud, but it never actually happened. Owens was on the main roster for his two big matches with Balor, and they felt like faits accomplis. He does chinlocks in his matches with the intent of trolling the fans for a brief moment, but then just goes right back to the same highspot excess and kickout spam that they eat right up. He's definitely athletic for his size, but he gets gassed near the end of matches and often just stands in place waiting for the next spot.

Asuka vs. Ember Moon on a house show and DIY vs. TM61 to a hometownish audience sound pretty fun.

From Chris Harrington's data it looks like his contract expired early in 2000, because even though it's a fractional year he doesn't have as large of a fraction of his previous years than other wrestlers under longterm contracts.