d-d-d-dAz

Possibly, but given the increasing us vs them divide on this forum, I'm willing to join your team. What a spot.

Oh shit, I hadn't even considered he was supposed to hit it. They covered it well.

Dunno. Maybe. Honestly, I'm choosing not to get to into it. It's awful and depressing and I hope the truth is discovered and anyone culpable held responsible. Beyond that, I haven't got the emotional energy to give it. If I was a better person, I'm sure I'd give up wrestling altogether (which, to my shame, I initially said I would), but it's about the only entertainment I have left that I actually enjoy and takes my mind off work. So yeah, all shit. Wish I'd found a better hobby when I was a kid.

This is probably true. By conflating a person with a company he's probably weighted it just right to be outside of any legal repercussion. They'll just book Rock v Austin on a special Wednesday Night Rawdown next time Tony has a big announcement, one would imagine.

I should stick to my own words about staying away as this thread has become exactly what it was always going to, but... On the defamation piece, I'd still err on the side of caution. In the past 24/48 hours Vince has apparently produced written evidence from the complainant, at the end of their entanglement (refuse to say relationship as sounds gross in the context of the allegations) where she professes her love for him and how much she'll miss him etc I don't know the validity of that evidence, or the effect it'll have on the case. There's no reason it couldnt both exist and be completely consistent with the allegations. That said, it probably does increase the likelihood that the case ends either with a settlement and a mutually agreed finding of no wrongdoing, or there's even a small chance that it all ends with no settlement and the complaint is not upheld and is found to be substantively untrue or unlikely to be true. If that happens, it'll be up to the discretion of the WWE/TKO legal teams as to how they handle anyone (with big or small platforms) that made any suggestions at any time that the company was involved in crimes of this nature. So, yeah. Neck brace? What a silly wally.

I mean, it doesn't look great but its a fairly self explanatory sequence, they both think their opponent is there for the springboard attack and had the same idea. He went for his cutter and Carmelo wasn't there for it. It was probably a better idea on paper than in execution. But people not taking risks and trying new things is how you get that awful WWE house show style from the mid-2000's that slowly made its way to TV and stunk up all of wrestling and we equally moan about. Think about all the shitty, unkind takes from 'AEW BOTCH' accounts when good wrestlers do things that don't come across perfectly on TV. 99% of the time that's because the guys had an idea and were trusted to execute. Is what it is. Keep trying new things I say.

AJ Styles is great. The fact that people used to say he'd never go to WWE, or that he'd never got on there if he did, or that he'd have to go to NXT for a bit, and we've ended up with him being one of their most trusted, loyal hands is fascinating to me. What a run. Cody's eyes looked absolutely shattered in the opening promo. Black bags and lines like Gordon Ramsay's forehead under both his eyes. He needs to do less kissing babies or officiating weddings or whatever it is he does, and just go to sleep.

Yeah, absolute shite. Mad how they picked LA Knight and the Bloodline in round 3, and then Corey pointed out how shit being picked in round 3 was. Complete waste of time.

I hate wrestling. Going to take a few days off whilst some people argue that it's fine because CM Punk said something once, others argue that it's the Bucks fault, and then the cycle repeats when WWE inevitably clap back. Make it end. Shitheads, the lot of them.

I don't know that I agree, and that may be in part because of my own bias because of when I'd have watched them (I think I watched 8 broadly in the same era when it came out, but 10 I may have come back to in 97ish), but I'd say Hogan v Sid Mania was still that late 80s/early 90s WWE aesthetic, whereas by Wrestlemania X it felt like (with the benefit of hindsight) that they were starting to lay the foundations of the Attitude Era. Black became the primary colour, there was more natural light, they started to pack the crowd's in a bit more (probably the MSG effect, like you say). Wrestlemania 9 is still the maddest show. Fucking Roman cosplay in a car park. Love it.

These are the matches I reflexively think of whenever asked something like 'why do you like wrestling?' Bret Hart v Roddy Piper Flair v Macho Man Both from Wrestlemania VIII, the first show I have any real recollection of watching and even as a wee whippersnapper would watch these matches on repeat. I think for much of my childhood these four would be my favourite wrestlers, and the 'type' of wrestler they represent probably still is. Shawn Michaels v Razor Ramon The ladder match from Wrestlemania X. I could have picked Bret v Owen, to be fair, but another show I had on constant rotation and this match in particular stuck out as being so new and fresh. I don't think there is a bigger modernisation or jump in production values/style than between Wrestlemania 9 and 10, its like decades passed between them. Rob Van Dam v Jerry Lynn Living Dangerously 1999. The first match that showed me a world beyond WWE/WCW. I remember being completely enthralled, and would probably say that the matches listed before this got me into WWF wrestling, this match got me into wrestling. Triple H v Rikishi From January 6, 2000 on Smackdown. This was either the first Smackdown ever broadcast in the UK, the first Smackdown broadcast on a Saturday morning in the UK or just the first Smackdown broadcast in the UK that I'd seen. Not sure which. I'd have been 12, waiting to watch ByteSize or some rubbish on a Saturday morning round my mates house who had Sky, and then FUCKING SMACKDOWN CAME ON. This was the first shared experience I'd had watching wrestling, which in itself was special. We were going absolutely mad for Rikishi, bouncing around the room, screaming and chanting. Just a really formative memory for me. Honorable mentions to Undertaker v Mankind in HIAC, and the Samoa Joe v Kenta Kobashi chopfest in ROH. Out of respect for the format of the thread, I wont go into detail but bangers.

I doubt they'd do that, but I could see a world where they split the nights. Sort of like a 2024 version of when they did a Wrestlemania from multiple venues on the same night.

It was Freddie Prinze Jr's big idea, during his brief stint as a writer, and if I remember rightly at the same time they put Hade on ice they took Freddie out back and shot him. Seems like FPJ came in, they were starstruck so gave him everything he wanted... then realised that actually he wasn't what they wanted so threw the baby out with the bathwater.

One of the things UK people miss when they get all wound up about US non-competes, is that they're essentially notice periods or gardening leave, which we don't bat an eyelid at. The US get so wound up about them because they don't really do notice periods (when I worked in the States, my notice period was 'at will' but the courteous thing to do was offer a week or two), so these 'non competes' fill that gap in industries where talent poaching is common. But you get paid, and they very rarely lost longer than 90 Days unless you're a mega-baller. The UK style non-competes are far more pernicious, where you have an unpaid non-compete that lasts far longer than your paid notice. That's proper bullshit.