I tried to get into New Japan. It wasn’t all bad, but overall the product lacks oomph. I had to switch Zack Sabre Jr vs. Hirooki Goto off. It was so boring. I generally like Goto and I’ve tried to give ZSJ another chance. It was just so boring. They were working like they would have a hot crowd too. Maybe things picked up towards the end? I won’t know.

TNA has been cooking though.

Where the fuck is Paul Titan?

Paul Titan for WWE ID.

It looks like Jeff Cobb might have signed with WWE. Smart guy. He was one of the clear standouts trialling New Japan. He was probably the best gaijin next to David Finlay — who I imagine will be going in 2026.

Thought I’d give TNA Sacrifice a go. So far so good. The guy who plays the Personal Concierge of Ash & Heather cracked me up. Tom Hannifan is great on commentary.

Really solid pro-wrestling show to this point. I haven’t seen the main event yet. Mustafa Ali seems like a guy who is probably going to get picked up by WWE again soon.

TNA and NXT have done a good job of making me care about The Hardys again.

EVOLVE has been a really easy watch. I’m surprised how many stories it has developing. The show only being an hour helps tremendously.

Luca Crusafino is quite the talent.

You know who ruled: Mike Enos.

I wish he had an ounce of personality.

He'd also be over way more nowadays.

WCW Vault has a Thunder marathon on right meow and Enos somehow wrestled a squash match and looked amazing.

The world has Enos Envy.

Modern wrestling makes stuff that used to get scoffed at look amazing. Give me a squash with guys who know how to work over a 20 min hand-holding routine any day.

I was thinking the other day that Thunder might even age well because it had less storyline-specific context than shows with serialized relevance at the time. Hell, it’d be new to most fans.

It’s similar to how the WWF UK PPVs used to be glorified house shows in many ways. But Rebellion 2001 is a hidden gem based on that.

Dude there's FAR too many Brian Adams and Bulldog/Neidhart matches for that to be true lol.

Especially when those two awful entities faced each other.

Bulldog fell off faster than any wrestler I've ever seen, and I've always maintained that Adams is the worst pushed wrestler in history.

Bulldog is a sad story. I actually used to hate him, just because my first introduction to him was jean shorts, awful music Bulldog. That was a steep drop indeed.

Lol, I actually came in here to say how positive I’ve felt about wrestling lately. WWE has been the most consistently good it’s been in…a really long time. I’ve been enjoying TNA too. I’ve got too many things I’ve started watching and haven’t finished lol. I’m watching Unbreakable ‘05 from TNA bits at a time. I gave that promotion such a hard time, but man has this show had some good wrestling.

I’m at risk of falling down a Memphis rabbit hole too. I got the urge to watch Jerry Lawler and Ric Flair again, and that just whets the appetite too much.

The modern New Japan product didn’t do it for me. There’s some good guys out there, but it all feels pretty dry, but I’m going to try and watch some Shinsuke Nakamura stuff before I completely give up the whole thing, because the recent rumor he was getting shit-canned annoyed me because he’s such an awesome wrestler.

Lol, Kronik in the WWF in 2001. Memories.

Random thought: I’m a little surprised to find myself enjoying Penta in the WWE. I’ve noticed he’s cut down on his taunt and only does it when appropriate now. He reminds me a little of La Parka when he’s making his entrance. La Parka vibes are always welcome.

He doesn't do his taunt after every move anymore?

Nope. Hated that in AEW.

EVOLVE was really good this week. Show seems to be finding a groove.

It was indeed excessive

I was calling him Pantogon for a while.

One thing WWE has going on that is just better than AEW, is that they have it set that their wrestlers are trying to win matches. So when you flash your taunt in someone’s face, you’re going to get swiped at. When Penta did it in the Rumble against Jacob Fatu, he got stopped part-way through because Jacob was have none of it.

It’s all about context. I’ve got no problem with Penta letting the world know his philosophy is to suppress fear or whatever. Just don’t have everyone he’s wrestling stand around like dorks.

https://i.imgur.com/aI8LPSX.jpeg

Referee Jessika Carr made her debut at WWE Evolve as "Kalyx"

She set up her own wrestling ring apart from the main one and would only wrestle people who entered that ring

I remember people being mad when WWE trademarked that name thinking they were going to rename Jordynne Grace :rofl:

EVOLVE has featured some really good storytelling. They’re building Luca Crusafino, Harlem Lewis and Keanu Carver as the top male stars there in short order. I guess you can add Sean Legacy to that list too.

Kali Armstrong, Dani Palmer and Brinley Reece are like that with the women too, and then you’ve got Kylie Rae, Wendy Choo and Zara Zakher doing their thing under that.

You’ve also got teams building with lots of the wrestlers having their established allies/partners and then they either get along or don’t. Kalyx has got ample reason to be annoyed with Haze Jameson after this week, for example.

It’s simple storytelling and it works.

SmackDown was alright this week. It’s a long show. The tag division took a step backwards after this week and some of their women are just not over. They had some funny digs at AEW this week.

SmackDown inspired me to go back and watch WrestleMania 13 properly. I think I’ve always seen clips or fallen asleep when watching it through on the Network.

For one of the most poorly received Manias ever, this show isn’t as bad as I was expecting. So far.

Lol at Vince suggesting the hypothetical that Jerry Lawler snaps and goes into the ring and beats up everyone in the four-way tag opener.

The shoutout to Jim Cornette on SmackDown was sweet too. I get the impression Punk really appreciated there being a respected voice out there trying to cut through the bullshit as some tried to ruin his career.

Reddit mad Jey Uso is not in the main event at WM. But the Punk/Rollins storyline I feel has been the best build of the year.

Mid Card Gunther really dragging Main Event Jey Uso down

Gunther’s a fucking beast. I think Jey not closing the show will become part of his eventual story. Punk, Rollins & Reigns has had all its beats hit in main event segments. It was pretty clearly going to go this way.

I’m again intrigued by Jimmy Uso. I thought they missed a trick by not having return with a new gimmick around Bad Blood. Here he is out again.

I’m very disappointed Chad Gable won’t be wrestling in Minneapolis.

This is a great TPWW reference :lol:

Caught clips of the Char/Tiffy feud. Damn Char promos looking rough.

What is this about Pat McAfee/Mary Kate Cornett?

all the articles I'm reading won't say what he said.

That she banged her boyfriends dad on Parent weekend lol

That could very easily be a misunderstanding of the rules.

Very underwhelmed by this year's Wrestlemania card. Feels like there is nothing really "big" or "cool" happening.

Jey/Gunther - In theory Main Event Jey Uso finally getting the shine and spotlight is great... but in practice, he's been bumped from the Main Event, and him winning just doesn't feel like a "big moment" because it very much feels like a midcard title held by a midcard guy.

Roman/Seth/CM Punk - I dunno. I feel like a one on one combination of any of the three could have been "good", but the three feels like it is just "here you go guys, you're important"

Charlotte/Tiffy - Yeah, I don't think I need to even explain why my hype is low for this one.

Rhea/Bianca/Iyo - Probably one of the biggest letdowns. Shot their load prematurely on "the big moment" of Rhea winning the belt back from Liv on the first Netflix show. Only to have Rhea randomly lose it to Iyo Sky who hasn't even been in the conversation. Feel really bad for Liv Morgan... sure she a tag champ and is making the card in a tag team title match... but being woman's tag champ is quite a lowly insignificant thing after she put in all that great work year round.

Cody/Cena - Still a bit put off by Cena's heel turn, and still very much not in agreement with it. Just think this whole thing would have been much better face vs face and could have actually felt like a "moment". Now it is just like "meh". In any case, a big step down from the excitement of seeing if Roman Reigns would finally lose.

McIntyre should have been included in the Roman/Seth/Punk match. Instead they made the central storyline about Paul Heyman. I get they wanted to pay off Damien vs Drew, but that just doesn't seem like a spot worthy for McIntyre at Wrestlemania.

Kevin Owens getting hurt has Orton in limbo, but it seems he will have a match against somebody, maybe a returning superstar. Also not sure if K.O.'s injury is keeping Zayn off the show, but it certainly felt like Sami would have been involved as well.

It seems weird that Strowman and Sikoa are not in the U.S. Title match.

Not sure what they are doing with Kross. They spent months having him vaguely stir shit up, then finally seemed to start paying it off with him wanting to make sure AJ Styles doesn't lose to an outsider like Logan Paul, but then they had Kross help Paul try to beat up AJ, so I don't know.

Austin Theory not being on the card considering his last 3 Manias seems like a lack of focus.

Alexa Bliss had probably the biggest reaction at the Royal Rumble, and they have done nothing with her since.

Chelsea Green has been a top highlight for months, it is criminal she isn't on Mania.

Nia Jax being out of the mix is also weird, not that I am complaining about it, but just weird.

Smackdown's tag division is much deeper than Raw's, so it is also strange they have nothing for the Street Profits, DIY, Motor City Machine Guns, Melo/Miz, Pretty Deadly, or Legado Del Fantasma, but managed to throw a Raw tag title match on the card.

Bayley and Lyra were thrown together last week just to get Bayley on the show. It's fine, but a very pointless match that already seems like a downgrade for Liv, and there is virtually no way Bayley/Lyra are going to win.

Cody vs Cena was probably the biggest match they could make on paper, but it just doesn't feel as big as it would have if they just kept Cena a babyface going for 17. The heel turn was great, but it has fizzled out with Cena not being there enough.

I was hyped about this year’s Mania, but then I found out Chad Gable wasn’t wrestling.

The card’s had a great “soft” build. No one is hitting anyone with cars or anything ridiculous. But everything has got a story to it. I like that not everything has months and months of “I’m going to kill you at Mania!”

The Cody Rhodes booing has begun lol.

6 diff people...same surgeon

Looking forward to Worlds Collide in June.

Raw was good, but they need to stop their faces acting like they’ve never watched wrestling before and turning into blubbering messes when things don’t go their way. People want to live vicariously through the heroes. Just kick some ass.

Is Gunther really going to be fighting Pat McAfee?

Well if Cena wants to ruin wrestling a boring match with Orton should help.

Cena/Orton was pretty good actually.... like 1000x better than Cena/Cody at Mania was

Didn't you say it was overbooked? Or was that Smeat?

Smeat did.

Tired of wrestling youtube count down shows telling me that:

Kofi missed his punt spot with Orton
Brock calling Hogan grandpa was unscripted
Mickie James got yelled at for groping Trish stratus

R.I.P. Sabu.

Dude actually had a residence in my hometown, and anecdotally, my late mother was friends with a woman who is part of the Farhat family, albeit someone who never had anything to do with pro wrestling.

Lol, Smeat. Is that dude still a Dave Meltzer acolyte?

Add Ken Kennedy/Orton to this list.

Another TPWW alumni making their televised wrestling debut.

Not wrestling but I really wish Jon Jones would stop pissing away his legacy and drop the belt.

Jon Jones is a duckling

EVOLVE is starting to cook. I liked it better than SmackDown this week.

14th & 1 is the name of Vince McMahon’s new company. It takes its name from the address of the old Capitol Wrestling Federation headquarters. They are aiming to specialize in majority buyouts, making exceptions for strategic minority investments.

Good Raw. CM Punk and AJ Styles wrestling each other was pretty surreal. The only thing that would have made it better is if Chad Gable was there too.

I’m excited for Worlds Collide.

I am also excited for Worlds Collide. But I am also worried for AAA. They called in Savior Vega, and the have another Puerto Rican producer if I'm not mistaken. I'm worried that WWE will attempt to change the culture, I don't understand Lucha, I don't think that Triple H does either. I am excited for the ride though.

Have you guys been watching Maven on YouTube? He's exposing the business! Good stuff, check out his video where he sneaks backstage to AEW.

His videos went from being charming to super weird. The Saturn video, the Justin Credible video. He seems to have run out of things to talk about.

I liked the Against All Odds show. It’s so weird to say that TNA might be my favorite show right now. I do like NXT. Smackers has been a major chore lately. I don’t think it’s just the 3hrs. The direction is grating on me. Lots of “losers” on the show. Starting off with Seth Rollins talking should probably be outlawed for shows with that long to go.

I saw Mavens video with Mick Foley, first one I have ever watched. It was ok.

The most hilarious thing about Maven's video's are the way he transitions into the ad reads.

Like in a video about backstage heat he just randomly started telling an unrelated story about how someone walked up to his house with a gun one day and now he's happy he doesn't have to worry about it because of SimpliSafe.

If Goldberg lives to be 90, that means Bret Hart will live until at least 100. I think Bret is going to will himself to outlive Goldberg so he can go to his funeral and trash him one last time.

I dunno bret looks old and shriveled. Goldberg looks jacked and ready to fuck

If Goldberg wins the World Title in Atlanta, would he be the only person to win the belt in 4 different decades?

Just saw the video of Cena's pipe bomb referencing promo on SD.... pretty good...

That was great. People have been chasing the pipebomb for 14 years and ironically the only guy who could deliver was the guy it was initially cut on. Poetry.

Something something long term story telling

The table was sponsored by Slim Jim

Cena made me want to see Claudio, Cardona & Nemeth back in WWE. Good job. Ryan Nemeth has been a gem on TNA. The Nemeths vs. Punk would be awesome stuff.

That segment also tips off how far WWE thinks about things in advance these days. They lined this up for a slam dunk almost perfectly. They knew they were going this route a long time ago — when the dirt sheets were speculating about whether or not Punk was even going to Saudi Arabia.

The segments involving R-Truth also lend credence to the idea that WWE knew he would be there.

It’s not that hard to deliver things like this if you know where you’re going. You can give hints and build ideas in people’s minds.

Decent Raw. Gunther has become a great promo. I liked how Cody and Jey both tried to use their rivals’ signature holds. Needed more Chad Gable.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">CM Punk is currently being evaluated by the WWE medical team, as there is a major fear he has &quot;completely lost his backbone&quot;.<br><br>(via <a href="https://twitter.com/FrightfulSelect?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FrightfulSelect</a>) <a href="https://t.co/I7YDf8reTP">pic.twitter.com/I7YDf8reTP</a></p>&mdash; WrestleOops (@WrestleOops__) <a href="https://twitter.com/WrestleOops__/status/1938641192620609752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 27, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It kind of takes balls to travel to Saudi Arabia after even tangentially insulting the regime.

SmackDown was ok. Glad it’s going down to 2 hrs. CM Punk and John Cena are just on a different level. DIY actually got good reactions, and I have to say that match was bangin’. Andrade is so good in the ring. The Saudis are a pretty smarky crowd. They seemed down on Jade Cargill and The Wyatt Sicks. Can’t say I blame them.

NOC had some good wrestling. I’m not that into Jade or Cody right now. CM Punk and Cena energize every show they’re on.

I noticed they changed their tone on Goldberg. That’s interesting.

Karrion Kross has done a Rusev and an LA Knight for me. I’ve become a fan.

Finished the Wrestling Observer 1984 yearbook. Its a collection of all his 1984 Newsletters. So good.

Probably the nerdiest thing I ever posted. Brought this book to Cuba when I first bought it lol

Dave’s antics over the past 6 years or so have to call into question the credibility of his entire body of work. I think social media, age and competition in the space have been influencing factors. But at his core there is a speculative mark who clearly doesn’t have a problem making things up. A lot of “smart fan lore” has to be revisited.

He's just going where the money is, it's not like he has ever been a real journalist. The people who are likely to pay money to subscribe are pro AEW online hard-core fans.

That might be the intention, but is that really where the money is? He had to up his subscription price recently. I guess if your audience is going to decline anyway, might as well preach to the especially gullible.

I think some wrestlers give him kickbacks every now and then, and that “unofficially” buys them good coverage. You’ll never see a critical word written about certain people (and that’s always been the case). Jericho comes to mind as an example going back to around 1998. I think a lot of those wrestlers are currently in AEW and don’t want Dave blowing up their spot with honest AEW coverage, because they’re worried Tony will bail.

Plus they can write it in their own books if they don’t blurt everything to Dave.

As you said, it is a declining audience. The money became anything anti-WWE, which is why AEW got such a big push out of the gate. When TNA started the money was still WWE so it didn't get as big of a push. It is still a declining audience, but he's been able to extend his shelf-life by leaning hard in that direction. Now he has to justify the camp he is in to try to retain what subs and audience he has.. Pretty much Fox News, he'll bend the truth, he'll use whatever language he needs... he is just going to push the point as long as he can and as long as his audience lasts.

Your sources dry up when you spend so many years trashing a place too.

Again, not like it is anything like real journalism anyways... so F having sources, can literally just make things up or speculate. Wrestling sometimes real predictable too, so you can guess and be right a lot of the time.

Or just be wrong and say plans changed.

Dave Meltzer

It's very difficult to read Dave since AEW launched. I rarely read his work, definitely not paying for his thoughts ever again. He upped the price? Well that's kind of in line with everything else I'm this country right now.

WWE title picture is actually pretty good for each belt right now. The main titles are hot as ever.

Glad that Judgement Day won the tag titles on Raw because that scene is very slow right now.

I wasn't as impressed with Cena's pipebomb as I was CM punk's pipebomb years ago but it was a good promo. I wouldn't mind if Punk was the last opponent for Cena this December. They are a classic rivalry.

If you are looking for more wrestling, and if you enjoy current TNA (really fun promotion currently) I'd recommend you try a Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling show. It's Scott D'more's fed, and it's probably the highest quality indie product I've ever seen. Check it out, they run small arenas but they are actual arenas and they fill them. Looks like at least 1500-2k in attendance for their shows. The Indy wrestling is obviously there but they have a lot of really good unsigned stars too. Great for a random watch.

Precisely. There are no consequences.

I’ve never paid for him, so I’m just going by what others are saying there. I don’t think it was natural inflation when he raised the price. More like “there’s way fewer of you and I need to pay the divorce lawyers” style gouging.

More and more people have walked away from him, but it is really annoying how often you have to knock back Observer rumors and remind people it’s propaganda at this point. It’s done a lot of damage to wrestling too.

Punk and Cena have great chemistry. I liked how they tied the future main event scene to their Night of Champions match. Gave a few guys the blessing in there.

I was surprised how into the Judgment Day/New Day match the Pittsburgh crowd was. Great match too. I love me some John Dorian McDonagh. Good title change. There are fewer teams on Raw, but this felt bigger than the sum of its parts.

They make a big deal out of the SmackDown tag scene, but I actually feel that it the one connecting least. NXT has Hank & Tank and Briggs & Inamura. SmackDown feels very AEW. They need some star teams in there. Andrade & Fenix are a good start. The Motor City Machine Guns could use a move to Raw. Working with the heels there, including Theory & Waller for the moment, would help them out a lot.

My pipe-dream is for Carlito to return with Eddie and Orlando Colon too and add them to the mix. The Nemeths from TNA too. That’d be some pretty good stuff.

Cena/Cody is going to have Orton drama. I’m low-key hoping Jacob Fatu kind of says nuts to fighting his family and moves against Cena. I don’t feel strongly about Cena’s last opponent, but I would throw Fatu’s name out there. He’s got all the tools, they just need to pull the trigger.

Haha I can't wait for him to put out his 85 collection

How is this cesspool surviving?

:heart:

Saw a live Cholitas Wrestling show in La Paz, Bolivia... was very entertaining.... the damn male ref was the biggest heel of the night.

Hope you’re having a good time in Bolivia.

Had a good feeling about Yoshiki Inamura beating Oba Femi at The Great American Bash. This week’s NXT reinforced that for me. I’m really rooting for the guy. Got no clue why the crowd boos Briggs lol.

I think we might get some call-ups soon. Oba Femi is a guy I can see them putting in the deeper waters. He really seems to get it.

Watching a video on Muhammad Hassan as we just passed the 20 year anniversary of the airing of the Undertaker angle that pretty much got his character cancelled.

That the 7/7 London bombings happened on the day of the airing obviously made the optics worse (though WWE seemed to follow the "controversy creates cash" and instead of using this as a chance to revise the tape delay, they just slapped a content warning on it). I don't think they expected the sheer level of blowback they got, including UPN basically threatening to cancel the contract.

Kinda think there would've been at least some blowback even if 7/7 hadn't happened and if it had been on Raw/Spike TV instead. There's a reason they didn't attempt to just take him off TV for a few months and try again on Raw.

The facial expressions of the crowd during that SmackDown say a lot. It's a taped show so of course boos are piped in. But you really don't see anyone booing, either out of genuine anger/hatred or "booing because it's wrestling and it's fun to play along and boo the baddies" spirit.

You do see a lot of people looking totally stone faced and uncomfortable. You don't see too many crowds get to that degree.

A shame all told. Hassan was an awesome promo. And the character had a lot of nuance. The whole point of him is he's an Arab-American angry at the discrimination he's facing with people assuming that he must be a terrorist because he's Arab. They know the jingoistic crowds are gonna boo him and of course Hassan can shit on them for it. But there's a layer there where the crowd's just willfully ignoring their biases.

Instead they stripped any nuance away when he got to SmackDown and decided, yeah, let's make him an actual terrorist now.