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Gavok posted:Last night AEW had perhaps the greatest payoff. Big Boss Man says this poo poo is weak.
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Aug 24, 2023 22:58
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I just love /r/ObscureMedia/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9JfhANM9B0
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Aug 24, 2023 23:18
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Before Sting was a The Crow knockoff he had an Ultimate Warrior look. That's because he debuted alongside Warrior as his tag team partner in nineteen eighty-fuckin-five.
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Aug 24, 2023 23:31
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sufer sting was a better wrestler but crow sting has the better gimmick
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Aug 24, 2023 23:38
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https://twitter.com/TripleH/status/...rotunda-tragedy
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Aug 24, 2023 23:57
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Uhh what the gently caress? Dude was only 36. 
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Aug 25, 2023 00:05
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I found out on the Trump thread of all places. Just....gently caress...
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Aug 25, 2023 00:07
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Jesus
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Aug 25, 2023 00:08
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SirPhoebos posted:I found out on the Trump thread of all places. That's where I saw it too, I checked a couple of news sites to confirm and saw the HHH tweet. 36 is way too young. I wasn't always on board with everything he'd done but I do remember really liking the "Wyatt Family" gimmick with the lanterns and everything. It was so unlike any other wrestling entrance at the time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nQuETm4gYY
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Aug 25, 2023 00:14
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wtf
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Aug 25, 2023 00:18
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vince killed him
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Aug 25, 2023 00:18
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he died slightly younger than me, and probably in much better shape. this is heartbreaking and baffling
SatansOnion fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Aug 25, 2023 |
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Aug 25, 2023 00:21
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what a cursed business
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Aug 25, 2023 00:25
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What in the freaking gently caress? He had been off TV due to a 'health issue', I can only wonder just what that issue was. Or if he had some sort of issue like what happened with Eddie Guerrero...who was around the same age. drat it all. Joseph Ruud (Erick Rowan/Redbeard) better go get a thorough physical, there might be a curse running through that group.
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Aug 25, 2023 00:26
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vince is absolutely going to keep usng the fiend character and will work wyatts real life death into the storyline... eddiesploitation all over again
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Aug 25, 2023 00:32
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why is always the guys who were well loved irl that die why can't kane loving kick the bucket instead
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Aug 25, 2023 01:19
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https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1694865077621359086
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Aug 25, 2023 01:21
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I had a feeling it would be something like that.
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Aug 25, 2023 01:41
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r.i.p.
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Aug 25, 2023 02:02
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This Sunday is All In, AEW's next big PPV and really their biggest show ever. 80,000+ people in Wembley, meaning that the thing will be playing through the afternoon in the States. Despite being such a huge event, the crazy part is that it's only part one as NEXT Sunday is All Out. All Out only has two matches announced (neither a main event) so they basically have to do All In and treat the weekly shows as fallout while doing last-minute build-up to All Out. Here's what's going on: MJF (C) VS. ADAM COLE AEW World Championship Maxwell Jacob Friedman has been champion for the better part of a year and through his defenses, there has been an underlying thread that despite being a greedy and selfish rear end in a top hat obsessed with holding onto the belt, there is part of him that hates what he sees in the mirror. He has to hurt others and be a piece of poo poo because he can’t risk being hurt first. MJF was challenged by Adam Cole, someone he admitted to being an old hero of his. The two had a non-title match that Cole almost won, but it hit the time limit and MJF refused to go another few minutes. When Cole confronted MJF about a rematch, the two were told that AEW was doing a tag tournament made of randomized tag teams with the winners getting a tag title shot. More importantly, one of the teams was MJF and Cole. The two intended to turn on each other at the first opportunity, but then something shocking happened. MJF and Cole seemed to genuinely hit it off. Through various pre-taped segments, the two would go to the gym together, go to restaurants, play video games, and so on. They celebrated Cole’s birthday in the ring after one of their tournament matches. They got matching gear. Their themes were mashed up. They even had their own tag finisher with a simple double clothesline that they were way too excited about. Better Than You Bay Bay ended up winning the whole tournament. In a moment of vulnerability, MJF said that win or lose the tag titles, he wanted to offer Cole a shot at the AEW World Championship. Unfortunately, they did not defeat FTR for the tag titles. FTR was about to grab Cole for the Shatter Machine, only for MJF to shove him out of the way and ultimately get rolled up for a pin. Afterwards, MJF looked distraught and overly emotional while a dejected Cole handed him the AEW World Championship belt. MJF worked himself up to attack Cole while Cole stood with his back turned, accepting what was about to happen. Instead, MJF threw the belt down and the two embraced. The two remained best friends. While still a scumbag, MJF finally accepted the crowd’s adoration of him and came clean about his own mental health issues. MJF still wanted to give Cole a title shot, but he wanted it to be THE title shot. The two would face off in the main event of the biggest wrestling show, All In. All the while, Cole’s buddy Roderick Strong has felt neglected. Wearing a neck brace and looking like a sad puppy dog, Strong has been looking increasingly pathetic when showing his disdain for Better Than You Bay Bay. The tag team the Kingdom (Matt Taven and Mike Bennett) have appeared to offer him support. AUSSIE OPEN (C) VS. MJF AND ADAM COLE ROH Tag Team Championship Cole wants to make All In even more special than it already is. On the pre-show, he and MJF will compete for the one Ring of Honor championship that has eluded Cole. They will face Aussie Open for the ROH tag titles, adding an extra question mark to how their main event title match will go. To train for the match, the two ate at Outback Steakhouse. MJF has been studying kangaroo fights and intends to use a kangaroo kick to help win them the titles. CM PUNK (C) VS. SAMOA JOE “Real” World Championship As CM Punk never lost the AEW Championship when he vanished last year, he has been carrying his belt around in a bag upon his return. Eventually, he revealed it and made it his own by spray-painting a big X over the E in “AEW.” As far as he’s concerned, he’s the Real World Champion and MJF is a pretender. Recently, Punk took part in the Owen Hart Memorial Tournament. He lost the finals, but during the tournament, he took on his old ROH rival Samoa Joe. In past encounters, Punk could never defeat Joe, but this time he made it due to a flash roll-up pin. Joe angrily beat him up after the match. Since then, Joe has been obsessed and has demanded a shot for Punk’s X belt. At first, Punk ignored him. Then during a match where Punk and FTR were challenging for the Trios Championship, Joe appeared from the audience, grabbed Punk, and choked him out. A week later, Joe had a match against masked luchador Golden Vampire, who immediately took it to Joe and knocked him out with a Go to Sleep before unmasking and revealing himself to be CM Punk. He accepted the challenge. HIKARU SHIDA (C) VS. TONI STORM VS. SARAYA VS. DR. BRITT BAKER DMD AEW Women’s Championship When it comes to the women's division, much of the last year has been dedicated to the Outcasts (Saraya, Toni Storm, and Ruby Soho) running roughshod over the women’s division, usually taking on Britt Baker, Hikaru Shida, and Jamie Hayter. Unfortunately, Hayter is injured at the moment. Shida was able to work her way back up the ladder and defeat Toni Storm for her AEW Women’s Championship despite all the interference and cheating. Ever since then, Toni has lost her mind and adopted the personality of a has-been 1940s movie starlet. It’s kind of awesome. A mini-tournament was put together to figure out a four-way match at All In. And here we are. FTR (C) VS. THE YOUNG BUCKS AEW Tag Team Championship There really isn’t too much to this one other than it being a big time match for a big time show. Years ago, when the Revival were having awesome tag matches on NXT, the Young Bucks would joke about eventually facing them on YouTube, saying stuff like, “gently caress the Revival.” As the Revival made it to the main WWE roster and saw firsthand how Vince treats NXT favorites and tag teams, they eventually left the company and came to AEW to set up the dream match. Referencing “gently caress the Revival” by calling themselves FTR (standing for everything from Fear the Revolution to Follow the Rules to gently caress the Rest), they built up their rivalry with the Elite. Over the years, the two teams have faced off twice with each side getting a win. As FTR are the current tag champs, they laid out the challenge to prove themselves the true champions of tag team wrestling. HOUSE OF BLACK (C) VS. BILLY GUNN AND THE ACCLAIMED AEW Trios Championship The House of Black have been pretty dominant for the last year or so, especially after winning the titles. They have been offering shots against whichever teams of three come at them, which has led to two matches against the Acclaimed and their mentor Billy Gunn. Both times, House of Black won. The second match ended with Malakai Black taking out Billy Gunn and pinning him. Afterwards, a distraught Billy removed his boots and left them into the ring before walking to the back by himself. The Acclaimed were bummed, but accepted his retirement. The House of Black ended up jumping the Acclaimed and stole Billy’s boots. They then filmed a promo where they threw the boots into a trash compactor. This angered Billy enough to decide that he wasn’t quite done yet and he and his team will try for the belts one more time. JACK PERRY (C) VS. HOOK FTW Championship The FTW Championship was something Taz created as a renegade title in the days of ECW. He brought it back years ago in AEW to give to his client Brian Cage. Over time, it moved into the hands of Ricky Starks and later Taz’s quiet son Hook. For a time, Hook’s buddy was “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry and they worked together as Jungle Hook. Jungle Boy insisted that he would soon get his own singles title. He tried for the AEW Championship, but failed. At Forbidden Door, he tried for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, but failed. While walking up the ramp with Hook and playing to the crowd, he attacked Hook and decided to target the FTW Championship. Jack Perry dropped the Jungle Boy gimmick and became a stuck-up Hollywood snob. For weeks, Hook would ambush him and send him off running. Finally, they had a singles match for the FTW Championship and Jack eked out a win via cheating. It was Hook’s very first loss. As FTW Champion, Jack still feels let down. He does not consider it a real title, so the success is hollow. After defeating Rob Van Dam, he decided that he was going to retire the FTW Championship. That is supposed to take part on Saturday’s Collision, but considering the Hook vs. Jack Perry rematch has been accidentally announced by Tony Khan, I guess stuff’s going to happen! DARBY ALLIN AND STING VS. SWERVE STRICKLAND AND CHRISTIAN CAGE Tag Team Coffin Match Darby Allin has had a lot going on in AEW. As part of his occasional teaming up with Orange Cassidy, he suggested Orange face Darby’s friend AR Fox. Orange won and Fox responded by attacking him post-match. Darby confronted him about it and Fox dismissed him. Later that night, Fox joined forces with Swerve Strickland. Speaking of Darby’s friends, his protégé Nick Wayne had just turned 18 and was allowed to wrestle in AEW. His first opponent was his indies rival Swerve. Swerve ended up winning. That wasn’t enough, though. Swerve and AR Fox decided to barge into Wayne’s training grounds and brutally leave him in a pile of his own blood. You know, just for kicks. Darby has chosen to get his revenge by calling in his mentor Sting. Sting, a bit more unhinged than usual, laid out the challenge for a Coffin Match at All In. In the lead-up, Darby and Nick Wayne had a tag match against Swerve and Fox. Darby and Wayne won, causing Swerve to angrily fire Fox. He chose to replace him with Christian Cage. With All Out a week later, Darby is set to face TNT Champion Luchasaurus, but despite Luchasaurus being the actual champion, his boss Christian keeps referring to himself as the champion and carries the belt around. Luchasaurus just lets him do this and does the dirty work. KENNY OMEGA, HANGMAN PAGE, AND KOTA IBUSHI VS. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA, JUICE ROBINSON, AND JAY WHITE The match is centered around the rivalry between Kenny Omega and Konosuke Takeshita, or more specifically, the rivalry between Kenny Omega and Takeshita’s manager Don Callis. Callis was a lifelong mentor to Kenny and represented him during the entirety of his heel champion run in AEW. Callis seemed to have his back when Kenny returned from injury, but went out of his way to dissuade Kenny from teaming with the Young Bucks and reigniting his old friendship with Hangman Page. Callis only wanted Kenny to focus on his solo run with no distractions. Callis turned on Kenny by running in during a Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley cage match and stabbing Kenny in the head with a screwdriver. In the weeks leading up to this, Callis had been taking promising young talent Konosuke Takeshita under his wing and corrupting him. Takeshita had been regularly targeting Kenny, including aligning himself with the Blackpool Combat Club during the big Blood and Guts cage match. Kenny teamed up with his Elite buddies the Young Bucks and Hangman Page, but to fill out the team, he brought back his old NJPW partner, best friend, and possibly lover Kota Ibushi. The Golden Elite defeated the BCC, which included Callis having Takeshita leave the arena rather than help his outmatched teammates. When being interviewed about his plans for All In, Kenny was ambushed by not only Takeshita, but Bullet Club Gold members Juice Robinson and Jay White. Bullet Club Gold feels threatened by their fellow Bullet Club offshoot and want to prove themselves superior to the Elite. EDDIE KINGSTON, ORANGE CASSIDY, CHUCK TAYLOR, TRENT BERETTA, AND PENTA EL ZERO MIEDO VS. JON MOXLEY, CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI, WHEELER YUTA, SANTANA, AND ORTIZ Stadium Stampede To fill out the Blackpool Combat Club’s team in Blood and Guts, they brought in Pac of Death Triangle, as he had a long history against Kenny Omega. It did not work out, as Pac and Claudio Castagnoli had various disagreements during the match, leading to Pac walking out. Days later, Claudio defended his Ring of Honor World Championship against Pac and retained. During this ROH event, various incidents led to a three-way war between BCC, Death Triangle, and Best Friends. This war spilled onto Dynamite. Sadly, Pac was too injured to be cleared, so his partners Penta and Fenix had to fight without a third man. While everyone got their licks in through the various matches, the most dominant party in this feud was BCC, especially after the violent way they defeated Best Friends in a Parking Lot Brawl (Best Friends’ specialty). The same match had them destroy Trent’s mother Sue’s minivan, which is just unforgivable. It reached the point where Best Friends and the Lucha Brothers decided that they all hated BCC enough to put their differences aside. Then Eddie Kingston – a man who hates Claudio more than anything and considers Penta his best friend – returned from an excursion to Japan. The six of them sent BCC packing and Eddie announced that they would be facing them at All In in a Stadium Stampede. It’s a ridiculous multi-man brawl we haven’t seen in several years, but they just released it as a special piece of DLC for the Fight Forever game, so makes sense to bring it back. Moxley defeated Rey Fenix in a singles match and after the match, he and the BCC kept the beating going by smashing him with a crowbar. When Eddie ran out, he was met with the return of Santana and Ortiz (Proud ‘n’ Powerful), a tag team he had a major falling out with a long time ago. Though the BCC and PnP were eventually chased off, Fenix had to be wheeled out on a gurney and was deemed unable to compete at All In. It will instead be 5-on-5. WILL OSPREAY VS. CHRIS JERICHO Chris Jericho had his own faction called the Jericho Appreciation Society, made of various proteges who worshiped him. Jericho started to question himself and decided that he needed to hit that next level so he could once again challenge for the world title. Enter old friend Don Callis, who started to wine and dine Jericho, suggesting that they join forces. Jericho could join the Callis Family and reach new heights. Jericho seemed interested. His JAS members seemed betrayed. One by one, they all shared their grievances and left him behind. Jericho made a big deal about giving Callis his answer a week later. Callis saw the writing on the wall and made some preparations. To Callis’ surprise, Jericho wanted to join the Callis Family. Callis was happy about this, but reluctant to answer Jericho’s curiosity as to why there was a frame on an easel with a black curtain over it in the ring. Jericho finally pulled the curtain to reveal a beautiful painting of Callis holding Jericho’s decapitated head. Callis really thought Jericho was going to turn him down, so he put together an ambush in response. As Jericho got angry about this planned betrayal, Callis called in the ambush anyway. Takeshita and Will Ospreay beat Jericho down and smashed the painting over his head. Ospreay was not officially one of Callis’ clients, but the two did work together when Ospreay defeated Kenny Omega at Forbidden Door. Now he’s willing to repay the favor by making an example of Jericho. Gavok fucked around with this message at 16:02 on Aug 27, 2023 |
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Aug 26, 2023 06:15
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Seth Pecksniff posted:Jesus Since coming to AEW, Sting has done some of the best and most fun work of his career. He rules.
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Aug 26, 2023 08:56
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I think Sting is going to have All In as possibly his last thing. He mentioned "the show is going to end" a few months back.
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Aug 26, 2023 09:19
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Note the coffin match is Swerve and Christian. Not AR Fox. (Sadly)
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Aug 27, 2023 15:36
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Jonny Nox posted:Note the coffin match is Swerve and Christian. Whoops. My mistake.
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Aug 27, 2023 16:03
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Gavok posted:Whoops. My mistake. Amazing writeup, by the way. I wish I had the technology to show MJF showing the Kangaroo kick to Cole. edit: wait. I might be in luck! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukWjq30GTfo&t=5830s Jonny Nox fucked around with this message at 16:38 on Aug 27, 2023 |
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Aug 27, 2023 16:34
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I've got one more story in me. The Short-Lived Career of Palmer Cannon I previously talked about Muhammad Hassan and how his legs were cut out from under him. To recap: WWE created a magical terrorist character, and aired him doing a magical terrorism the same day there was a real-life terrorism. People at UPN (the network this was aired on, at the time) demanded the character go away, and WWE super-complied by completely dropping Marc Copani, who played Hassan. No shift over to the Raw roster/different network, no rebranding, no back to developmentals for a bit until things cool off. Just threw him under the bus and kicked him out the door.  He's a school principal now. Vince was resentful of UPN telling him what to do (Maybe that's why he went above-and-beyond what was necessary, in order to exert some of his own power of the situation), so in retaliation, he pulled up Brian Mailhot from Deep South Wrestling and put him on Smackdown as Palmer Cannon.  aka "P.C." Palmer Cannon was a representative of "The Network." Teddy Long was General Manager of Smackdown at the time, so Palmer's role was to undermine Teddy's control of the show and make decisions of his own because he thought would be better for ratings. Since he was from "The Network," he had more authority than Long, so nothing could be done about the changes he'd make. And since he's supposed to be a mockery of UPN, all the changes he'd make were supposed to be bad and stupid. This is obviously a very fine line to walk. You have a character who is deliberately awful at their job actively making decisions that are supposed to make the show bad, but you have to do it in a way that doesn't make your show actually bad. To do this, they had Palmer be antagonizing, controlling, and clueless, and then also introduce some ideas that only seemed bad because he was the one doing them. Without that context, there's no real reason that WWE wouldn't have done these things anyway. Case in point; The Boogeyman.  He's comin' to GETCHA! Marty Wright had initially been a finalist for the one of the later Tough Enough seasons, but WWE found out that he was lying about his age and removed him (He was 40 at the time, claiming to be 30). However, people still seemed to see potential in him, and he was given a developmental deal and went to Ohio Valley Wrestling. There, a character was created for him called The Boogeyman, which would continue to develop and then eventually be planned for a debut... on Raw. They had already started airing vignettes for him there, before Wright suffered a minor injury that sidelined him for a few months. Once he was recovered, the decision was made to put him on Smackdown instead, as one of Palmer's "crazy" ideas. The story was that The Boogeyman was a show "The Network" was making, but had to cease production, with the implication being that the actor playing The Boogeyman was getting too into the character. Stuck with contract obligations, Palmer decided to use the actor as a wrestler on Smackdown instead. I don't recall Wright have any real noteworthy in-ring presence, with the character basically being carried by its inexplicable visuals. Wright would convulse, smash clocks on his head, eat fistfuls of live worms and do other gross-out acts, and scare people backstage by being weird and gross.  Speaking of weird and gross. Possibly on the same night, a couple of generic meatheads would show up to attack the winners of a 4-way tag team match. John Toland and Charles Wicks had been in OVW, teamed up as Tank and Chad Toland and were being called up to serve as henchmen for Simon Dean, who was playing a motivational fitness instructor at the time. They were supposed to be setting up a presence for themselves by laying out tag teams, but Tank Toland made the fatal mistake of ripping his shirt off during one of these, which inspired Vince McMahon to make them into a pair of Chippendale-esque characters that would strip down and oil themselves up.  A gimmick that would be perfected a couple years later. The "henchmen for Simon Dean" plan would then be passed to twin brothers Mike and Todd Shane, who would eventually debut as Gymini a couple months later. Toland and Wicks would now be James and Chad Dick, and be revealed to be another one of Palmer Cannon's creations. The Dicks would go on to have a very brief feud with the new incarnation of The Legion of Doom (an out-of-shape Road Warrior Animal and Heidenreich, a character that needs their own talk-about one day), but would be released just 4 months after debuting. Their stint was so unremarkable, short, and bad, that WWE has a video of them on their official YouTube channel, titled Boring Tag Teams: The Dicks  My brother in christ, that's your fault. But then Palmer would start working on a BIG change for Smackdown, by hiring and creating a whole new division to be part of the show. I briefly talked about this previously in another story, but the Juniors Division would end up being a group of little people wrestlers. I initially gave WWE far too much credit when I last brought this up. I misremembered it as being something somewhat legitimate, as opposed to being a huge joke idea presented by a joke character created out of Vince's petty spitefulness. When people say Vince is a carnie, this is a great example of why.  There has never been a more perfect shot in all of WWE history. Right off the bat, the whole thing is presented as a living cartoon. These people were terrorizing WWE like a bunch of gremlins, and their "matches" are almost purely comical. The majority, if not all, of these talents had a wrestling background and could probably put on a genuine match, but that's not what they were hired for; apparently, the whole thing was the result of John Laurinaitis (VP of Talent Relations) sabotaging plans by other WWE creatives to revitalize the Cruiserweight division with a bunch of new talent, which would be rebranded as the Juniors Division. Instead of reaching out to and hiring any of the people that were on the list, Laurinaitis went out of his way to hire a bunch of little people. Now with a bunch of talent signed that nobody knew what to do with or even wanted to do anything with, the whole thing was rolled into another one of Palmer Cannon's ridiculous ideas. It's kinda funny how all these things presented by Cannon as "dumb ideas by a network executive" were all just actual dumb poo poo WWE was doing normally, and then just handed off to this character like a scapegoat. It's pretty drat perfect, actually. Every time there's a bad idea or something the audience doesn't like? Palmer Cannon did it! What a great way to cover your own rear end and build up a hell as totally insufferable, and it's hilarious that in creating a character that was supposed to be a jab at UPN, they instead created a character that was a mockery of Vince.  The Juniors Division only lasted about 5 months (they outlasted The Dicks!), but we'll always have Super Porky and his ham. One of the last changes attributed to the Palmer Cannon character would be when William Regal and Paul Burchill decided they didn't want to be a tag team anymore, and Burchill revealed that he had pirate ancestors. This led to Burchill debuting a gimmick inspired by the currently-trendy Pirates of the Caribbean movies.  Sure, you can copy my homework. Just don't make it too obvious, OK? It wasn't a completely awful idea. One of Regal's greatest strengths as a performer was his versatility. He generally had a "dignified Englishman" persona that contrasted well with his brutal ring work, but it also worked as playing the role of the "straight man" in comedy pairings. Past partners included Taijiri, a Japanese wrestler who spoke no english and spit green mist at people (very good), and Eugene, a mentally disabled wrestling savant (very bad). Meanwhile, Burchill was still a relatively new hire for WWE, and hadn't had much going for him beyond being "William Regal Lite." So split the two up, give Burchill a silly character, and give them a program where they play off each other.  Everybody wins. Burchill would swing in on a rope, throw jewelry into the crowd, spit (presumably) rum into the eyes of his opponents, and threaten people with a cutlass when they mocked him. The fans were liking it, but as the story goes, Vince saw this going on and had no idea why a pirate was showing up on his wrestling show, so he took Burchill off TV.  Paul would eventually return with a sister in tow named Katie Lea, with the implication they were loving. If nobody has done so, I would like to coin the term "Vincest." That's a lot of "stuff" happening in just the span of half-a-year, so you'd have to be thinking that this whole thing would be burning out real fast, real soon. And that was the plan, actually. Cannon's character was supposed to lose his position with "The Network" because of all his bad ideas, and have to become an actual WWE wrestler, as part of a feud with a debuting Mike "The Miz" Mizanin (TV executive vs TV bad boy, as it were). But before that could happen, Brian Mailhot would abruptly quit. So what happened?  These two assholes. It really can't be mentioned enough how lovely some of the top people in WWE were (and probably are). It's been talked about before how there is a culture of hazing and the whole "wrestler's court" bullshit that they pull. Now, at the time this all happened, the story I heard is that JBL molested Brian in the showers, but all I can find now is Edge talking about when JBL did it to him, so who knows. There's also a report that it went further, with Benoit and JBL binding Mailhot with duct tape in the showers and threatening to rape him. The tamest of reports is that, at the start of a tour through Europe, Benoit and JBL tormented the absolute poo poo out of the guy for hours, even bringing up Mailhot's dead brother. Whatever happened (could be all of those things actually happened, honestly), this being the very first-day of a week-long tour, Mailhot decided that one day was more than enough. He laid out his wrestling gear on the hotel bed and flew himself home. After all is said and done, there were a few people who came through unscathed. While Miz's debut would be delayed, he'd eventually show up and seems to have had a decent career since. As previously mentioned, Juniors talent Dylan Postl would stick around and find some success in WWE as Hornswoggle, the Feral Wrestling Leprechaun. And Boogeyman, of all people, would stick around far longer than anyone could have thought (himself included, I'm sure), to the point that he is now signed to a Legends contract.  And he got new teeth!
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Aug 29, 2023 00:48
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I am absolutely jumping on that John Heidenreich write-up. In the meantime, AEW's All In was yesterday. It was a fantastic show with a great main event of MJF vs. Adam Cole. Unfortunately, much like last year's All Out, it's being somewhat overshadowed by a backstage situation. When last year's Brawl Out incident happened, there was the hope that everyone involved could simply move on over time. CM Punk was seen showing up backstage at a WWE show to make peace with some people he had issues with, so maybe there was some hope for the future. Around that time, it was announced that AEW would have a second two-hour show called Collision airing on Saturdays and Punk would be the central wrestler. The Young Bucks have a tendency to hold a grudge. There's a whole thing where Jim Cornette spent so much time and energy making GBS threads on the Young Bucks where it did not seem to be a bit by any means. Then he suggested they work together in the indies and they told him to gently caress off because of all the poo poo he said about them. That stuff was genuinely hurtful to them and they didn't want to reward him for it. Similarly, lawyers were involved in the aftermath of Brawl Out and the Bucks did not want to forgive Punk and they especially did not want to do a program with him. Briefly, people figured that Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks vs. CM Punk and FTR would be the main event of All In, but that idea was quickly squashed. While there was no specific roster split for Dynamite and Collision, there is a virtual one as Collision seems to have its own set of regulars. Kind of like Punk and his circle. You aren't going to see the Elite pop up on that show and you very rarely will see Punk show up on Dynamite. When Punk made his return on the first episode of Collision, he cut a promo where he used the term "Counterfeit Bucks." Obviously a way to call out the Young Bucks to stir the pot and hopefully push towards getting that match he wanted. It was also not approved and Punk's really not supposed to be talking about them at all, legally. The Bucks made a good natured reference to it on Twitter, saying how years ago they would already have Counterfeit Bucks t-shirts on sale after five minutes. Ryan Nemeth, on the other hand, simply tweeted without context, "Literally the softest man alive." "Who is Ryan Nemeth?" you might be asking. The brother of Dolph Ziggler is an AEW jobber who appears regularly on the Bucks' YouTube series Being the Elite. A nobody in the grand scheme of things, entertaining as he is. So of course Punk confronted him backstage over his tweet. Despite Punk's remarks about the Young Bucks, he took exception to what Nemeth said. Nemeth, knowing his place, knew it was best to keep his head down after that. After an episode of Collision aired, Punk saw a Hangman Page sign in the crowd and decided to talk poo poo about him. This got a pretty positive response from the crowd. Punk was actually hoping to piss off the crowd with this (he had been getting a lot of boos lately stemming from Brawl Out, so he was hoping for some heat from the line), but it backfired. Upon going backstage, he immediately texted Hangman an apology. Punk knew that this was not going to make him look good. It also did not look good that Hangman was supposed to film a promo at that show, but they had him do it outside of the arena. When reports of that came out, on the surface, it looked like more of Punk's meddling. It was for a completely different reason, which made everything seem overblown. Except... Punk actually did have people sent home. Ryan Nemeth was supposed to have a match at the show, but was told to go home because he wasn't welcome. Christopher Daniels, the Head of Talent Relations, was also told to go home. Punk was bitter because even though he was able to get his buddy Ace Steel rehired as a producer with back pay, Ace was not allowed to physically be at the shows. You know, because he loving chomped a man. Punk did not like that the Bucks' not-hungry friend was allowed to be at shows. There was another incident where Jack Perry (formerly Jungle Boy) was going to be filming a segment backstage that would have involved him being smashed into glass. Jack disagreed with officials and wanted it to be real glass, not sugar glass. This led to a confrontation with Punk where, fair enough, Punk told him to cut that out. Though Punk's camp claims Jack was doing this so he could get a week or so off, which is funny when you realize how hard-working Jack normally is and how Punk outright hosed up his body in WWE so he could take time off. Jack was sent home. At the All In pre-show, Jack Perry faced Hook. Jack ended up getting suplexed into a limo's windshield. Afterwards, he went to the camera and said, "It's real glass. Cry me a river." After the match, as Punk vs. Samoa Joe was supposed to start the main show, Punk and Jack crossed paths. The two had words and shoved each other before Punk put Jack in a chokehold. Jack was told to leave the arena and Punk did the same after his match was over. During the post-show scrum, Tony Khan admitted to there being an incident, but refused to comment as it was being investigated. Now it looks like the two of them are suspended for the time being. Days before the big Chicago PPV, where Punk is a celebrated hero. Amazing.
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Aug 29, 2023 03:11
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Jesus I remember the Boogeyman! It was such a weird gimmick and I never knew the backstory to it
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Aug 29, 2023 04:06
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When I got to the end of the Ultimate Warrior write-up, I talked about how in the mid-00s, WWE was overflowing with giant muscle guys who were generic at best in the ring. Forgettable guys who had a hard time sticking out because when everyone is a large dude, nobody is a large dude. It’s like how nobody truly realized how gigantic Billy Gunn is until he started hanging out with the AEW roster. One man who had a cup of coffee in the bigtime was Jon Heidenreich. Like many wrestlers in his position, he was a football player who was using wrestling to fall back on. He was tall, built, intense, and had a great look to him. He was essentially Sycho Sid 2.0.  One WWE writer saw him and thought the best course of action would be to make him an unfrozen Nazi super soldier. This guy suggested this in a meeting, goose-stepping around the room to prove his point and even suggesting that Paul Heyman (the Jewish son of a Holocaust survivor) be his manager. In a moment where we can all understand where Vince McMahon was coming from, he quietly stood up and left the room. That writer did not last much longer. That’s not to say that Heidenreich’s limited time in WWE was lacking in bizarre and even problematic gimmicks. Heidenreich made his TV debut in late 2003. Raw had a storyline where Steve Austin and Eric Bischoff were at war over who was truly running the show. Bischoff suspended Austin for a week and decided to book a main event of Jonathan Coachman vs. Jim Ross. All Austin could do was stew outside, unable to help his friend. Heidenreich walked up to him, excited, but seemingly normal. He introduced himself as a guy who has been wanting to be a WWE wrestler for 10 years and bought a ticket for himself and someone named Little Johnny. Austin endured meeting this star-struck fan, but the moment a ticket was mentioned, a lightbulb went off. Austin walked away with Heidenreich. The implication was that Austin got to use Heidenreich’s ticket to get into the arena and in return, he helped Heidenreich get a spot on the roster. For the next three months, Heidenreich was a minor part of the Raw roster, just as often showing up on Sunday Night Heat. The one notable thing about this time was his constant mentioning of “Little Johnny.” He would bring him up all the time, but whoever it was, we never got to see him. I think one person found out what it was (possibly Trish Stratus), but did not elaborate in any way. After jobbing out to Rico a couple times, which is just bizarre booking, Heidenreich was taken off TV for about six months. He would later explain in interviews that “Little Johnny” was intended to be his inner child, which would occasionally appear as a separate personality. He came back mid-2004, joining the SmackDown roster, repackaged as a crazed heel with Paul Heyman as his manager. They immediately threw in the idea that he was gunning for the Undertaker. Now Heidenreich was made to look like a giant, blond Ken Shamrock with the trunks and MMA gloves. Heidenreich was portrayed as a dangerous loose cannon, who at times needed to be brought out in a straitjacket. The most infamous part of this run was how he took a deranged interest in Michael Cole and angrily stalked him. Eventually, he grabbed Cole and kidnapped him, bringing him somewhere private backstage. Here, Heidenreich made it seem like he was raping Michael Cole, before revealing he was just shoving him into the wall so that Cole could listen to Heidenreich’s poetry. Yes, Heidenreich was a psychotic poet who demanded people listen to his disasterpieces. God help you if you didn’t like his poetry. After attacking Undertaker when Undertaker was challenging for the title, Heidenreich was finally going to get his big match against the Dead Man at Survivor Series 2004. Backstage, Heyman hyped him up before leaving to go get the straitjacket. Left alone, Heidenreich then came across another deranged giant... Here’s where I might as well discuss Gene Snitsky, as he isn’t worth an entire effortpost on his own. Once upon a time, WWE did a storyline on Raw where Kane forced Lita to gently caress him, else he’d keep brutalizing Matt Hardy week after week. This led to Lita being pregnant and being forced to marry Kane. Matt was fired shortly after because in real life, he found out that Lita (who was his actual girlfriend at the time) was cheating on him with Edge and Matt’s reaction to it was unprofessional enough for WWE to cut ties. Of course, fan reaction to Lita after this was... not good, to say the least. Kane was going to face large newcomer and complete unknown Gene Snitsky. Lita was in the ring and as Snitsky smashed Kane with a chair from behind, Kane collapsed onto the pregnant Lita. Then they lost the baby. Snitsky kept yelling, “IT WASN’T MY FAULT!” and became the catalyst for Kane to turn face, because you can apparently just do that after forcing a woman to have your child and marry you. Snitsky was completely over-the-top in the aftermath of this incident, at one point bringing a fake baby to the ring and punting it into the crowd. It was phenomenal. So at Survivor Series, SmackDown’s Heidenreich and Raw’s Snitsky ran into each other and had a face-to-face filled with lots of heavy breathing. "Heidenreich..." "Snitsky..." “I like your poetry!” “You do...? I like what you do to babies.” “I’ll see YOU... later.” “I’ll see you... SOON!” Yep! Anyway, Heidenreich vs. Undertaker happened. What’s unfortunate here is that Heidenreich wasn’t the absolute worst wrestler, but he was in no way ready for this match. The match went 16 minutes and the guy just did not have the experience to stretch it out that long. You can’t put a green guy with only squashes and short matches to his name and expect anything good by putting him in the ring with the Undertaker for 16 minutes. It’s an awkward match to watch because he simply runs out of stuff to do and finds himself doing the same punch combination over and over again. If it was half as long, it would have been fine. Undertaker won the match, but the feud continued for another several months. Heidenreich would keep interfering in Undertaker’s matches. Undertaker would keep beating Heidenreich, whether it was through count-out or a handicap match where Undertaker would pin Paul Heyman, thereby writing him out of the story. Finally, things came to a close with a Casket Match at Royal Rumble 2005. Heidenreich had an intense fear of caskets, which really made the whole thing feel like it was over before it could happen. It was during a backstage freakout over the casket at the PPV that Heidenreich once again met with Gene Snitsky. Once again, we got an intense staredown with heavy breathing. “I hear you don’t like caskets.” “Like? I don’t like caskets. I HATE them!” “I know. I know you hate caskets. I don’t like them either. But I do like you, Jon.” “Well, I like you too, Gene. But I still hate caskets!” “I know. I know, Jon. But I have an idea.” “You do?” “Yeah.” “Okay. That... that sounds good.” Snitsky’s idea was to do a run-in during the match. Since Snitsky’s rival was Undertaker’s brother, that just meant that Kane would show up to fight him off. Undertaker won the match. The original plan was to do Undertaker and Kane vs. Heidenreich and Snitsky at WrestleMania, but they put the kibosh on that and instead did Undertaker vs. Randy Orton. That was a rather important match as it’s the first time they treated the Streak as a thing. The tag match instead just happened at a couple house shows and that was that. Heidenreich moved on to feuding with Booker T, which he then lost. It didn’t even make it to PPV, as the blow-off match was on a random SmackDown. Shortly after, Heidenreich confronted Booker T and Sharmell backstage and read them a poem. It was actually a poem that complimented Booker, showing that Heidenreich had turned face. When Booker said he approved and walked off, Heidenreich happily noted that he just made two friends. From there, Heidenreich became this big, friendly dope. He’d go out there and read more positive poetry. He would ask, “Who wants to be Heidenreich’s friend?!” and then pick a kid out of the crowd to be in his corner during a squash match. It was kind of fun, honestly. When it came time for WrestleMania 22, Heidenreich was part of the pre-show battle royal (which you could only see in person or by getting the DVD back then). Despite being such a nothing match, Heidenreich was strangely the highlight. His childlike charisma really seemed to carry it up until he was eliminated. Booker T ended up winning the whole thing, which just shows how far his star had fallen at that point when he wasn’t even on the main WrestleMania show. Heidenreich’s search for friendship took him to a SmackDown show in Hershey, PA where he walked out with a gigantic, partially eaten Hershey bar with chocolate smudged all over his insane face. Various women on the roster came out to be his friend and hopefully get some of that chocolate, which annoyed the egotistical model tag team MNM, made up of Joey Mercury, Johnny Nitro, and their valet Melina. They were also the SmackDown tag champs. Week after week, MNM would attack Heidenreich for the sake of bullying. Heidenreich tried facing them with various tag partners, but kept losing. That is, until Road Warrior Animal showed up to even the odds. This time, the two were able to beat MNM and win the titles. Animal announced that their win was dedicated to Hawk, who had died a couple years earlier. Shortly after becoming champs, Animal decided that Heidenreich was worthy to become a Road Warrior himself. The two become known as the new Legion of Doom, including a new look for Heidenreich with the shoulder pads and badass skull facepaint. The two held onto the titles for almost four months before dropping them back to MNM in a four-way match. From there, the two remained on the roster as a tag team for a bit until just fading away. They spent their final months failing to recapture the gold in house shows, feuding with the Dicks, and having their last TV appearance beating the Full-Blooded Italians on an episode of Velocity. Heidenreich was released in January 2006. He had since wrestled a lot in the indies and never had a role in any major promotion. Gene Snitsky had a face run for a while where he hung out with Goldust and had a very pronounced foot fetish. He was later repackaged as a generic heel monster with disgusting teeth. That led nowhere and he was released in December 2008. As for Animal, other than turning heel and becoming “The Road Warrior,” he had nothing going on for the rest of his WWE run. Well, except for the pre-show battle royal at WrestleMania 22. The show was in Chicago, his hometown, so obviously he was going to win. Unfortunately, he accidentally fell out of the ring at the end, causing a final two of a confused Snitsky and Viscera (both heels) trying to improvise a new ending. Viscera ended up winning. Animal was let go the following June.
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Aug 30, 2023 17:44
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That Star Trek clip, one of the things that really makes me happy about that franchise is how the double-handed hammer is always presented as a brutal move. Goddamn I love this. Can somebody explain the purple space Jews? 
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Sep 2, 2023 02:50
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I get weirdly Arrested Development vibes from that.
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Sep 2, 2023 04:11
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He's the leader of Dark Order.
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Sep 2, 2023 16:30
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Kennel posted:He's the leader of Dark Order. So am I but you don't hear me bragging about it
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Sep 2, 2023 17:04
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-1 grew up quick.
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Sep 2, 2023 17:25
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This guy wrote Lucha Underground.
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Sep 2, 2023 18:17
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CM Punk got fired lol
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Sep 2, 2023 21:54
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Well, the CM certainly doesn't stand for Counselling and Mediation
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Sep 2, 2023 21:56
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Kennel posted:CM Punk got fired lol owned lol
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Sep 2, 2023 21:56
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he has to go back to ufc and get his rear end kicked by a rookie again theres nowhere else for him
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Sep 2, 2023 21:57
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16-bit Butt-Head posted:he has to go back to ufc and get his rear end kicked by a rookie again theres nowhere else for him Isn't UFC merged with WWE now? Maybe he gets to get his skinny fat rear end kicked by Loser Paul. Battle of the failures.
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Sep 2, 2023 21:59
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