So I get to meet Ricky Steamboat and Rey Mysterio Jr in October when they come to my city for an indie show.

I can't wait to tell Steamboat that he was a shitty draw

Brian is wearing thin on me. His podcast is great, but man can he ever be obnoxious. I don't listen as much as I used to.

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Good to see Seth in here and that he's doing stuff. Awesome.

I've never really gotten into the Superpodcast, but I do love me some Brian Last on Cornette's podcast. During the Russo stuff, I heard some moments where he was dropping the logic bombs that even Cornette wasn't touching.

This brand split has been a disaster. My interest in the overall product has never been lower. They try to make SmackDown unique, but it always comes at the expense of RAW. They've just got too much for anyone to really be a consumer of it all, and that's going to have some long-term negatives.

205 live in a chicken suit

Will be interesting to see what happens

Who said that?

Also what was up with Balor wearing that athletic tape on his shoulders or whatever that stuff is called? Guy seems more injury-prone than Kennedy... Kennedy. I don't see him having a very long WWE tenure to be honest.

Wish they would rebrand Owens as Captain Fat

hmm

Apparently this site:
http://wrestling-edge.com/aj-styles-...-battleground/

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Pro Wrestling Times is saying that a warrant is out for Paige.

Loved Roy's interview he posted with The Juice.

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Was watching some old PPV from the "Commissioner Slaughter" era where he fought Triple H (IIRC) in a Boot Camp match, and entered to it.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Imagine explaining this to a time traveler from 2014. <a href="https://t.co/jfrbu4eKnz">pic.twitter.com/jfrbu4eKnz</a></p>&mdash; Nelson (@wiretap804) <a href="https://twitter.com/wiretap804/status/890023385689972736">July 26, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Anybody that has watched more than a week knows Boring Corbin interfering.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Report : CM Punk reportedly in contact with WWE officials, to tell them he still hates them. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BroKnows?src=hash">#BroKnows</a> <a href="https://t.co/fUFyqNUTsh">pic.twitter.com/fUFyqNUTsh</a></p>&mdash; BRØ (@ProWrestlingBro) <a href="https://twitter.com/ProWrestlingBro/status/889568276593901569">July 24, 2017</a></blockquote>
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While Hunter has been instrumental in bringing back "talent" that had parted ways with the company on a bad note, I don't think he'd be interested in bringing back Punk with respect to the dirty laundry he aired on his ex best friend's podcast.

Is he no longer friends with Colt?

There was a rumor on the internet that Colt was backstage at WWE in fall, last year. Punk thought it would compromise their ongoing legal issues with the doc. They don't follow each other on Twitter anymore.

:lol:


Colt debunked it a few months later so either they reconciled or don't talk to each other in social media because of legal reasons due to Punk's on-going lawsuit. Think the rumor would have had more weight if Colt got removed from the lawsuit like people speculated he was trying to do when he showed up backstage at RAW one time.

Yeah! Just read the article on /r/SquaredCircle

<div class="reddit-embed" data-embed-media="www.redditmedia.com" data-embed-parent="false" data-embed-live="false" data-embed-uuid="8d1d3241-705d-4547-b2bb-523b5bbfb3b7" data-embed-created="2017-07-26T19:55:47.457Z"><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/61zx9d/are_colt_cabana_and_cm_punk_friends_still/dfipwp4/">Comment</a> from discussion <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/61zx9d/are_colt_cabana_and_cm_punk_friends_still/">Are Colt Cabana and CM Punk friends still?</a>.</div><script async src="https://www.redditstatic.com/comment-embed.js"></script>

I am more excited for the WWE's Q2 Financial Report than I have been for anything they've put on television for a long time. I'm curious to see how this turns out. They always seem to come up profitable and pull a rabbit out of the hat and play the expanding game to keep shareholders happy, but everything has seemed a lot more...delicate lately. The television has been finding it harder and harder to retain its position in the ratings, which means advertisers aren't going to pay as much for the slots, which means that the USA Network is going to stop paying WWE so much, which means that these expensive expansions are going to put them into the red. Maybe.

It's frustrating, because you can see why they are doing shit. I've always thought that the WWE would try and set up a "WWE India" brand by buying out Khali's promotion or something. It wouldn't surprise me if the only reason they put the belt on Mahal was to send him there so that they have "Former WWE Champion Jinder Mahal" even if no one gives a fuck about him. Like, not so much as bring viewers in to SmackDown (that has been a colossal failure), but as a way of getting a television deal in India and supplementing themselves.

It's just...fuck me, you can see why the product is struggling. It's the actual wrestling stuff. It's the three-hour RAW and the commitment they ask of people for a stale product and wrestling that is, frankly, bland. You know the solution is to create real stars with charisma that draw people in so the product gets hot, more people watch, and there is a higher demand for what RAW (and SmackDown) bring to the table. You know that a three-hour RAW isn't worth the extra money, because fewer people are watching. You know that pushing mid-carders and jobbers into the main event is disengaging viewers further. But it's like the WWE isn't a wrestling promotion anymore. It is more important to get Nikki Bella out there so that they can get drumming about Total Bellas so that they can take the money for that and keep funding this expansion -- rather than focusing on the domestic front.

It's like the WWE isn't a wrestling promotion anymore.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">WOOOOOO!!! It's official… Our <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/30for30?src=hash">#30for30</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NatureBoy?src=hash">#NatureBoy</a>, on <a href="https://twitter.com/RicFlairNatrBoy">@RicFlairNatrBoy</a> will debut November 7th on ESPN.<br><br>Details: <a href="https://t.co/xRepS0jTGC">https://t.co/xRepS0jTGC</a> <a href="https://t.co/Pua4OZcdK3">pic.twitter.com/Pua4OZcdK3</a></p>&mdash; ESPN Films 30 for 30 (@30for30) <a href="https://twitter.com/30for30/status/890331404352970753">July 26, 2017</a></blockquote>
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I listen to snippets of The Bryan and Vinny Show, but I'm listening to their entire one on Battleground, because it's funny to hear them rant. God dammit does this show sound horrible outside The New Day vs. The Usos -- which even so felt like it had some bad shit at the start.

Was Corbin vs. Nakamura really that bad?

I liked it. Thought that their Smackdown match was better, though.

Usos vs The New Day was pretty fantastic. So was there match at Money In THe Bank.

Black Friday this week

But almost everything else is.

I've been expecting this for a while. They could probably use a clean up, to be honest. Obviously I feel bad about the human beings losing their jobs, but wrestling benefits from having more guys out there in other places. Almost everyone in the company -- even the guys on the lower-end of the talent or profile spectrum -- would be able to add something in another promotion, or could definitely use the development to either get better or even just freshen themselves up.

Emma was directly named in the speculative post I saw. She sounds like she wants out. I'm sure there are quite a few people in the company whose morale is not quite as high as some of the other guys who seem to be having the time of their lives. I can see some "shockers" in there.

Thursday, March 30th come to @WrestlePro at the Hyatt at 8:30 pm to see Ryback vs @ColtCabana in a CM Punk action figure on a pole match!

Yeah Emma's definitely a goner. Just going through the roster with who I think could be cut:

Main roster:

Alicia Fox: As much as I like Alicia Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks, they don't really do anything with her other than placing her in dating storylines which invariably result in her going batshit crazy. Then the storyline ends and she's left with nothing again. She's been on the main roster for 9 years at this point and hasn't done much save for a quick Divas Title run and that 5 star classic with Melina.

The Colons: Another tag team bites the dust. The only reason this might not happen is because Primo's out with a knee injury and firing him while hurt may be viewed as a dick move, but them setting up a store on Pro Wrestling Tees seemed telling.

Dolph Ziggler: This might be viewed as "the big one" but I don't think it'd be any real surprise. He's been creatively frustrated for years and even after a much-needed heel turn hasn't done much of importance. Nakamura even said on Talking Smack (RIP) that Dolph wanted to go to Japan. He'll be in Bullet Club before the end of the year.

Luke Harper: I'm torn - I want to be wrong with this one because I think WWE are missing the boat on him big time. But at the same time they've squandered so many chances to get Harper over. Are they really gonna just start teaming him with Rowan again as Breezango's attackers or move him to Raw to make him a Wyatt for the 12th time? He could be doing so much more and at 37 with 15 years of wrestling under his belt maybe it's best to set him free while he's still got some gas in the tank.

Mickie James: They don't seem compelled to use her so she might just be on the way out. This most recent run will get conveniently swept under the rug in a few years when she goes into the Hall of Fame.

Rhyno: He's 41 years old and just a comedy act at this point, mostly just eating in the background. Cutting Rhyno will break up yet another team but to be honest Heath Slater is wonderful and probably better off on his own.

Sin Cara: This one's been a long time coming. The dude is 39, has fought with half the roster backstage, and doesn't ever get used on TV. That seems like a recipe for an easy cut. For what it's worth, WWE keep trying to find "the next Rey Mysterio" but then rarely use any of their masked dudes. Kalisto's getting jobbed out and Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado don't even appear on 205 Live. Sin Cara's still the easiest cut of the group but any of them going wouldn't shock me.

Tony Nese: Nese has a great look but he's probably the most likely guy from 205 Live to get sent packing if they don't cut Dorado or Metalik. He's just sorta there. Could see him doing really well for himself back on the indies.

Unofficial cuts - Kane and Mark Henry. Neither will be released per se but I think they're both done as in-ring performers. Henry's transitioning to a backstage role and Kane will probably do the same if he doesn't win the mayoral election.


NXT:

Aliyah: Pretty sure she's pissed off a lot of people in charge as is and there are plenty of more women that will be debuting on NXT over the coming months.

Buddy Murphy: The fact that he's engaged to Alexa Bliss might be the only reason he hasn't been cut yet. I'd probably just re-form Blake and Murphy and have them be Alexa's personal bodyguards/bitches. Stand in between her and the other female wrestlers in a confrontation, hold the doors open for her, carry her to the ring, etc. And it'd be an easy way to get a new team on the roster. Failing that I see no future use.

Roderick Strong: Strong is an entertaining in-ring performer but personality wise he's bland as bland can be. They've just brought in a new batch of former ROH guys and Strong seems redundant at this point. His meal ticket to the main roster may have been Aries sticking around for a tag team run and that's now gone.

Sawyer Fulton: Nothing against the dude. But he had multiple failed gimmicks, finally seemed to get something good in Sanity, and then got hurt and was replaced. I just don't think they're gonna use him much.

Wesley Blake: See Buddy Murphy, except he doesn't have the luxury of getting to fuck Alexa Bliss in real life.

Feel like if Ryback held out a few more months he would have stuck with the company in the long run.

Story about Braun Strowman and Karen Jarrett from Wrestling Observer Newsletter