Jim Cornette wrapped up everything wrong with the gimmick really succinctly. It’s the wrong type of heat for wrestling. The heel is either too cheap and it becomes offensive or the heel makes good points and it stops being light entertainment.

I think the whole terrorist bit was Vince thinking.

"And then at GAB one of the masked men can RKO the Undertaker and he'll take off his mask and be RANDYYYY ORTONNN"

since he was returning at the time (I believe).

Going to Raw later this month in Detroit.

Have a good time. Hopefully Raw isn’t cancelled by the time you get to go.

Not sure how many people watch EVOLVE, but Jackson Drake was also on NXT this past week. That guy is REALLY talented. He’s like a good Zack Sabre, Jr. He actually does the little things a lot of pushed wrestlers outside the WWE neglect. I loved the spot where he played possum against Ricky Saints, and Saints couldn’t see it, but if you were paying attention to Drake, you could see him setting it up.

And Corey Graves misses the multiple meanings, but I think calling himself the Carolina Reaper is supposed to play off where he’s from and the pepper (he’s hot), but also the Grim Reaper and “sucking souls” playing into the playboy gimmick. One of the best nicknames in wrestling. He’s generally good at naming things. His knee is called “The Unaliving,” which is his Gen Z/reaper gimmick smashed again. On the indies he does an F5 called “The Crown of Dirt,” which is just an appropriate visual. Plus, dirt…he’s the hottest pepper in the garden. And he’s part of the dirty party animals.

Sounds like this should be in the NXT thread.

Is Gen Z really a gimmick when it's just... being in your 20s

lol Jelly Roll

I imagine a future where WWE has very few actual wrestlers and it’s just a rotating cast of celebs. Like a modern day Celebrity Deathmatch.

The Jelly Roll stuff was done beautifully on SmackDown. One of the best things on the show.

Naomi really impressed me on Raw.

Watching some classic TNA. Modern wrestling makes me appreciate what I slept on more.

TNA Turning Point 2009 is on the agenda right now. Only just started.Good opening match between Amazing Red and Homicide. Don West was a gem. The Beautiful People faced ODB, Sarita & Taylor Wilde in a six-woman tag. The Lacey Von Erich version of The Beautiful People. She wasn’t horrible here. Don’t like all the belts being on the line in one match, but the match itself was good. Desmond Wolfe cuts a forced promo with good content and now we’re onto Motor City Machine Guns and Beer Money challenging The British Invasion.

Good show so far.

Watched Angle vs. Joe from Genesis ‘06 before. Great match. The booking of it felt rushed at the time, but in retrospect it is classic storytelling.

WWE ran an angle on Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote SummerSlam.

Saw a few seconds of that, Logan went through a table.

Slammiversary has got me pretty intrigued. AJ Styles is going to be involved. Enzo Amore has been recording some interesting Fourth Rope promos too. I guess they’re a hip hop/wrestling indy thing that seems to be working with TNA. Enzo alluded to Zilla Fatu and The Good Brothers showing up with him. He seemed to take aim at Joe Hendry and Tony D’Angelo of all people lol. He also seemed to reference CM Punk.

Steve Maclin also issued a challenge of sorts. Tom Hannifan said he was looking for a fight at Slammiversary. Maclin seemed to imply it should come from an international promotion.

In other TNA news, Carlos Silva did an interview with Ariel Helwani.

* They’ve been working on a new TV deal since about the start of the year.

* It’s accelerated in the past 60 days. Should be ready to announce something in a 60-90 day window.

* It’d be for the end of the year with plans to go live every week eventually. That seems to be the desire of the entities making offers.

* TNA+ is like their WWE Network and TNA is open to integrating it with the streaming services of potential partners.

* They’re looking for about $10 million a year and expect about 250k-500k viewership wifh a broader platform.

Good for them. :y:

The Good Brothers are wrestling in a free outdoor show in my city down the street from my house for Maple Leaf Wrestling next weekend

Cool. Are you going to go?

Slammiversary a good show. I get a kick out of AJ Francis these days. Enzo’s promo on the countdown was good.

I’ve been trying to go back and watch some Ruthless Aggression era shows. The cynical mark in me didn’t appreciate them at the time. I wonder how they age? Because I’m getting old I forget how long ago they actually were lol. I watched Judgment Day ‘05 today. That was 20 years ago. Damn.

What a great show. Things that stand out:

* It’s eerie how similar WWE is now and then. It feels like such a better product because Trips took over, but they still hold the same things sacrosanct.

* The crowd is hot for some bizarre acts. Hardcore Holly and Charlie Haas get some good pops. Heidenreich is over with the crowd.

* This is the Kurt Angle/Booker T/Sharmell stuff. It’s outrageous what they tried to get away with. Angle and Sharmell’s performances are incredible though. Heiden rich is somehow just as unsettling.

* The work is just so much better than what you see from a lot of current guys. The focus has just shifted to become way more dull and repetitive.

* I used to be a big Paul London mark, but his selling was a bit hammy.

* JBL’s promos were insanely good. He does a pre-match promo with Josh Mathews that is just mint. JBL bends over backwards to make Cena. The amount of blood in “old” WWE is jarring. I can’t remember this being labelled as particularly gruesome at the time. I remember it being lauded as good and better than Mania.

* Matt Morgan impressed me here. Carlito too. Worked great as a chickenshit against Big Show.

Was this Stuttering Matt Morgan or normal bland Matt Morgan?

Yeah ill probably walk down for a bit. Ill know a bunch of people there, so I'll go by and catch up with some people. D'Amore did this a couple years ago and it was a good time.

D'Amore's family construction business is currently tearing up the road in front of my house

Is he as rich/influential in the area as people say?

Started watching SummerSlam 2018. I don’t think I watched the whole thing live at the time. If I did, I didn’t pay much attention.

I was a bit cold on the whole product, but this show has been pretty damn good. Weird coincidence that Seth and Dolph opened the show and did a reverse superplex spot after I just saw Iyo and Stephanie Vaquer do one on Raw lol.

The product hasn’t changed that much from the vibe of this show. AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe is the reason I chose this one. I’m on a bit of a TNA kick. Great match between them, and the story of Joe getting Styles off his game by putting the smack on his family is great. Can Joe just please get out of AEW already?

Haha his family gets all the city construction jobs

that dastardly son of a bitch

Maybe they'll fire him abruptly too

If Joe could have kept himself uninjured, it would have been "sweet" for him to come in when the Bloodline stuff was going strong. Push how he was Samoan but not from that tribe, he's his own Tribal Chief.

And it ends with him marrying Nia Jax and they all become fast friends :)

I’ll still take him now. He would make a great opponent for Solo Sikoa. Hell, throw everything out the window and just have him be the guy who beats Cena. Do Joe vs. Jacob Fatu at Mania after Jacob wins the Rumble.

The guy who tracked the lineal Custody of Dominick back to the original ladder match has announced that the project can finally end.

On July 26th, 2025 at the Supershow Mexico, nearly 20 years after his custody was put on the line - Dominik Mysterio beat El Grande Americano and current custodian Ron Killings in a triple threat match, becoming the 225th custodian of Dominik and finally earning his lineal freedom.

Went to Raw last night. Was very fun.

Nice, is the Yeeting as wild in person as it looks on TV?

Awesome

Watched a few episodes of WWE Unreal. You obviously can’t watch it for documentary purposes. But it is interesting to see what sort of messages they want to put out to frame talent.

I don't really watch current WWE much but I was shocked at how fucking over Jey Uso and Rhea Ripley are

You can feel that through the TV. CM Punk also gets massive star reactions.

Rhea Ripley hot braud

A Gertner 6 though

That's fair

It used to be a "meme" here about how one of the Usos sucked but the other was good.... I forget which one was which though.

"Jey's ok" sounds familiar....

I always wanted to like Jey more, but Jimmy always struck me as better. He’s married to Naomi, so he got to get mad when Miz hit on her and stuff. Always seemed to get more of a chance to show more.

Only time I remember Jey doing anything on his own is when he stepped out against Roman when Jimmy was hurt to kick off this Bloodline stuff.