Pro Wrestling thread

[Thrashwolf]

Didn't see a thread dedicated to it so I thought why not make one seeing there are plenty of white athletes

 

[Leonardfan]

Didn't see a thread dedicated to it so I thought why not make one seeing there are plenty of white athletes

I grew up during the attitude Era - Stone Cold, DX, Mankind - those were fun times to be a wrestling fan!

 

[Freethinker]

I grew up during the attitude Era - Stone Cold, DX, Mankind - those were fun times to be a wrestling fan!

Agreed.

WWE went down the toilet when they went into the “PG Era”. No more cussin’, blood or racy sex stuff. The goal became to make family friendly entertainment that appeals to everyone, likely to make more and more money. With this came the pushing of women’s wrestling, which can be fine but not at the expense of the male talent. Also, they artificially starting pushing certain “marketing characters” to widen interest and make money. For example, they took Indian (dot not feather) wrestler Jinder Mahal, who’s terrible in the ring, bad on the microphone and had zero traction with fans, and made him champion. This was purely to try to gets more people in India to watch. More globalism at its finest.

As a result of all this, I probably tuned out for a decade. About 2 or 3 years ago, I got the wrasslin’ itch and started watching again. Guys like Bray Wyatt, Braun Stroman and Drew McIntyre gave me some reason to watch but overall, it was worse then ever. Fan-less arenas with Covid1984 contributed. My interest in WWE went to nearly zero again which thankfully was relieved by the formation of All Elite Wrestling (AEW). I’ll talk about them shortly, but I want to round out my disgust with WWE first. Recently I noticed them going “all in on diversity”. In recent months they’ve made nearly every champion non-White. They’ve also been making a lot of “budget related” cuts and they’ve been nearly all White. Average fans have been perplexed why they’d let go popular guys, who sell merch, like Wyatt, Stroman, Alister Black and Daniel Bryan but they of course don’t see the bigger picture. WWE had sold out, like every other mega corporation, and White people just aren’t going to be a part of that future anymore. Screw them.

Now thankfully AEW has been a breath of fresh air. Despite being owned by Tony Khan (half Paki and half White), who is the rich son of the Jacksonville Jaguars owner, the company is driven by White talent. Nearly every main event guy is White, which is actually merited based on talent and fan appeal. They brought in alot of popular guys from the independent circuit (Kenny Omega, Darby Allin, Young Bucks) and some veterans like Chris Jericho, Cody & Dustin Rhodes and Sting to give the promotion instant credibility. The product is 10x better as they give guys creative freedom in the ring and with their characters, unlike WWE which micromanages everything. There’s also some cussin’ and blood, not to an excessive amount but enough to know it’s not a “kids show”. Recently the shows have been getting even better as they’ve built the roster with some of the WWE cuts and caught the “big free agent fish” CM Punk (who left wrestling for 7 years after being soured to it all by his WWE time).

If I could make a final recommendation to any of you guys, give AEW a shot. They’re doing things right and appear to be the first company since the defunct WCW to try to break the WWE monopoly, which is desperately needed as I outlined.

 

[Tannehill17]

Tony Khan is an SJW to the nth degree. I'm not watching his horsesh*t product until he lifts his ban on Hulk Hogan. His reasoning for banning the Hulkster was due to his ex-wife Linda truthfully telling it like it is about BLM protesters on Twitter. She mentioned that all of the rioters are black and referred to them as uncivilized. That and Hulk's usage of the 'N' word (in a PRIVATE conversation mind you) some 15 years ago have led to the Hogans being barred from AEW events. Hogan is the biggest star in the history of the sport. The fact that they have publicly "banned" him kills whatever credibility they have.

 

[Freethinker]

Tony Khan is an SJW to the nth degree. I'm not watching his horsesh*t product until he lifts his ban on Hulk Hogan. His reasoning for banning the Hulkster was due to his ex-wife Linda truthfully telling it like it is about BLM protesters on Twitter. She mentioned that all of the rioters are black and referred to them as uncivilized. That and Hulk's usage of the 'N' word (in a PRIVATE conversation mind you) some 15 years ago have led to the Hogans being barred from AEW events. Hogan is the biggest star in the history of the sport. The fact that they have publicly "banned" him kills whatever credibility they have.

Thanks for that information which I did not know. That certainly takes some shine off. In June, AEW was promoting “pride merch” pretty heavily. So I’m under no illusions that this is a rightwing outfit.

I do however stand by the product and the roster they are building compared to WWE. AEW just got two more big names in Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan). Meanwhile the WWE’s big signing is the negro wrestler who won gold in Tokyo. Lol, they act like anyone cares as this past Olympics was the least watched.

 

[Phall]

Agreed.

WWE went down the toilet when they went into the “PG Era”. No more cussin’, blood or racy sex stuff. The goal became to make family friendly entertainment that appeals to everyone, likely to make more and more money. With this came the pushing of women’s wrestling, which can be fine but not at the expense of the male talent. Also, they artificially starting pushing certain “marketing characters” to widen interest and make money. For example, they took Indian (dot not feather) wrestler Jinder Mahal, who’s terrible in the ring, bad on the microphone and had zero traction with fans, and made him champion. This was purely to try to gets more people in India to watch. More globalism at its finest.

As a result of all this, I probably tuned out for a decade. About 2 or 3 years ago, I got the wrasslin’ itch and started watching again. Guys like Bray Wyatt, Braun Stroman and Drew McIntyre gave me some reason to watch but overall, it was worse then ever. Fan-less arenas with Covid1984 contributed. My interest in WWE went to nearly zero again which thankfully was relieved by the formation of All Elite Wrestling (AEW). I’ll talk about them shortly, but I want to round out my disgust with WWE first. Recently I noticed them going “all in on diversity”. In recent months they’ve made nearly every champion non-White. They’ve also been making a lot of “budget related” cuts and they’ve been nearly all White. Average fans have been perplexed why they’d let go popular guys, who sell merch, like Wyatt, Stroman, Alister Black and Daniel Bryan but they of course don’t see the bigger picture. WWE had sold out, like every other mega corporation, and White people just aren’t going to be a part of that future anymore. Screw them.

Now thankfully AEW has been a breath of fresh air. Despite being owned by Tony Khan (half Paki and half White), who is the rich son of the Jacksonville Jaguars owner, the company is driven by White talent. Nearly every main event guy is White, which is actually merited based on talent and fan appeal. They brought in alot of popular guys from the independent circuit (Kenny Omega, Darby Allin, Young Bucks) and some veterans like Chris Jericho, Cody & Dustin Rhodes and Sting to give the promotion instant credibility. The product is 10x better as they give guys creative freedom in the ring and with their characters, unlike WWE which micromanages everything. There’s also some cussin’ and blood, not to an excessive amount but enough to know it’s not a “kids show”. Recently the shows have been getting even better as they’ve built the roster with some of the WWE cuts and caught the “big free agent fish” CM Punk (who left wrestling for 7 years after being soured to it all by his WWE time).

If I could make a final recommendation to any of you guys, give AEW a shot. They’re doing things right and appear to be the first company since the defunct WCW to try to break the WWE monopoly, which is desperately needed as I outlined.

Excellent breakdown! You spelled out just about every point I planned on making here, and I share exactly the same attitude. Before we talk about how fun AEW has been, we must talk about how much WWE absolutely sucks. Their current "PG Era" stands for pure globohomo. I started noticing this maybe circa 2013-14, when the weekly RAW episodes seemed like 50% live action and 50% replays with voiceovers from the cheesy announcer / hype man Michael Cole encouraging the audience to tweet about what they just saw to get it trending. Zack Ryder (Matt Cardona) gets himself over by growing his own Youtube audience, and WWE takes that from him, makes their own channel, buries him, then releases him. We've had about a decade of Roman Reigns being forcememed as the big off-white main event champion. Scripts are produced by a team of fifty Stanford MBAs who never watched wrestling but know how to tap into the teenage female audience. Reality shows and spin-offs of reality shows. Since the dawn of time, female wrestlers were brought on tour to give the boys something to do backstage. Suddenly, the women's power movement (proudly authored by Stephanie McMahon) turned half the show into "bathroom break" women's matches. They put girls in the main event of Wrestlemania, an irredeemable transgression. A growing number make no attempt to be sexually appealing, even striving for the opposite. Slowly but surely, the non-white wrestlers ascend to the tops of the card and acquire the title belts. They put the World Heavyweight Championship on Kofi Kingston, for crying out loud! Put that guy in a sweatsuit and you would walk right past him without looking twice. The end goal seems to have been to saturate every market and medium while toning down the extremes to create a product that appeals to everyone. Well, not only does no one love it anymore, no one even likes it. The Y2Jericho promo from 2000 rings truer today than ever: "Television ratings - downward spiral, PPV buyrates - plummeting, mainstream acceptance - nonexistant. And reactions from the live crowds - complete and utter silence!" The WWE constantly squanders both new and existing talent, squashing the new faces from its 'minor league' brand NXT, practicing "50/50 booking" to keep wrestlers from dominating feuds, and resorting to yesteryear's part-timers and retirees (Cena, Rock, Goldberg, Lesnar, even Undertaker every so often) to carry their biggest events.

AEW has somehow managed to be the polar opposite of the exact same product. It is the only sport I watch regularly (including conventional sports) and I rarely miss an episode - I torrent the ones I can't catch to stay up to speed. More than that, they're just entertaining in an honest and unpredictable way. Tony Khan, despite being a whimpering simp and a simpering wimp (and also an SJW extraordinaire), has spent his sheikh father's money with my personal entertainment in mind. The Pareto Principle brings up the 80/20 proportion as a sort of Golden Rule. AEW has women's matches, but only about 20%. Their women wrestlers have some gross freaks (and a big fat tranny man, lol), but 80% of them I would want to have sex with. They have stock minorities, but their diversity includes Japanese wrestlers and Mexican luchadores, not just token pushes for blacks. And roughly 80% of the talent still happens to be conspicuously white. All their biggest talent acquisitions and champions have been palefaces, including Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley (Dean Ambrose), Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks, Jake Hager (Jack Swagger), Hangman Page, the late Brodie Lee, Matt Hardy, Lance Archer, Sting, Miro (Rusev), and now CM Punk, Adam Cole, and Bryan Danielson. The announcing teams are all white males because they are great at their jobs. Plenty of "homegrown" stars are also not cut out from consideration for being white, which would certainly not be the case in WWE. Jungle Boy (actor Luke Perry's son), Darby Allin (a skinny twink), Sammy Guevara, Ricky Starks, Orange Cassidy, MJF, Wardlow, and others all have a future shot at carrying main events down the road. With the impending arrivals of Bray Wyatt in November and Kevin Owens in January, and the promotion crossovers with Impact Wrestling and NJPW, there are more dream matchups and feuds than you can book in two years' time. Compare that to WWE, where every PPV matchup happens for the 10th time because no one ever elevates up or down on the card. And even if Khan, CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, and Hangman Page are enormous SJW queers IRL, they have managed to keep that completely out of the playbill.

Tony Khan is an SJW to the nth degree. I'm not watching his horsesh*t product until he lifts his ban on Hulk Hogan. His reasoning for banning the Hulkster was due to his ex-wife Linda truthfully telling it like it is about BLM protesters on Twitter. She mentioned that all of the rioters are black and referred to them as uncivilized. That and Hulk's usage of the 'N' word (in a PRIVATE conversation mind you) some 15 years ago have led to the Hogans being barred from AEW events. Hogan is the biggest star in the history of the sport. The fact that they have publicly "banned" him kills whatever credibility they have.

I saw this too and rolled my eyes, but it's of no consequence. Tony needs to preen for the twitter echo chamber every so often and flex his woke cred. Hogan is a legend and should be revered by all in the business, but he doesn't belong anywhere near AEW. No one with discretionary income cares about his spycam n-word anymore - his Florida restaurant is always packed.

An aside, and another anecdote of Tony Khan being a fairy: he allegedly suspended Max Caster, a black wrestler whose gimmick is edgy freestyle raps on his walk to the ring, for going off script and including Simone Biles quitting, the Duke lacrosse rape hoax, and fake PCR tests in one of his ditties. Completely overblown, but Caster is back now and working that kayfabe into his gimmick.

Here's the Adam Cole / Bryan Danielson debut segment, an exhausting 7 minutes of crowd frenzy. (this might not embed or stay up long)

 

[Freethinker]

Excellent breakdown! You spelled out just about every point I planned on making here, and I share exactly the same attitude. Before we talk about how fun AEW has been, we must talk about how much WWE absolutely sucks. Their current "PG Era" stands for pure globohomo. I started noticing this maybe circa 2013-14, when the weekly RAW episodes seemed like 50% live action and 50% replays with voiceovers from the cheesy announcer / hype man Michael Cole encouraging the audience to tweet about what they just saw to get it trending. Zack Ryder (Matt Cardona) gets himself over by growing his own Youtube audience, and WWE takes that from him, makes their own channel, buries him, then releases him. We've had about a decade of Roman Reigns being forcememed as the big off-white main event champion. Scripts are produced by a team of fifty Stanford MBAs who never watched wrestling but know how to tap into the teenage female audience. Reality shows and spin-offs of reality shows. Since the dawn of time, female wrestlers were brought on tour to give the boys something to do backstage. Suddenly, the women's power movement (proudly authored by Stephanie McMahon) turned half the show into "bathroom break" women's matches. They put girls in the main event of Wrestlemania, an irredeemable transgression. A growing number make no attempt to be sexually appealing, even striving for the opposite. Slowly but surely, the non-white wrestlers ascend to the tops of the card and acquire the title belts. They put the World Heavyweight Championship on Kofi Kingston, for crying out loud! Put that guy in a sweatsuit and you would walk right past him without looking twice. The end goal seems to have been to saturate every market and medium while toning down the extremes to create a product that appeals to everyone. Well, not only does no one love it anymore, no one even likes it. The Y2Jericho promo from 2000 rings truer today than ever: "Television ratings - downward spiral, PPV buyrates - plummeting, mainstream acceptance - nonexistant. And reactions from the live crowds - complete and utter silence!" The WWE constantly squanders both new and existing talent, squashing the new faces from its 'minor league' brand NXT, practicing "50/50 booking" to keep wrestlers from dominating feuds, and resorting to yesteryear's part-timers and retirees (Cena, Rock, Goldberg, Lesnar, even Undertaker every so often) to carry their biggest events.

AEW has somehow managed to be the polar opposite of the exact same product. It is the only sport I watch regularly (including conventional sports) and I rarely miss an episode - I torrent the ones I can't catch to stay up to speed. More than that, they're just entertaining in an honest and unpredictable way. Tony Khan, despite being a whimpering simp and a simpering wimp (and also an SJW extraordinaire), has spent his sheikh father's money with my personal entertainment in mind. The Pareto Principle brings up the 80/20 proportion as a sort of Golden Rule. AEW has women's matches, but only about 20%. Their women wrestlers have some gross freaks (and a big fat tranny man, lol), but 80% of them I would want to have sex with. They have stock minorities, but their diversity includes Japanese wrestlers and Mexican luchadores, not just token pushes for blacks. And roughly 80% of the talent still happens to be conspicuously white. All their biggest talent acquisitions and champions have been palefaces, including Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley (Dean Ambrose), Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks, Jake Hager (Jack Swagger), Hangman Page, the late Brodie Lee, Matt Hardy, Lance Archer, Sting, Miro (Rusev), and now CM Punk, Adam Cole, and Bryan Danielson. The announcing teams are all white males because they are great at their jobs. Plenty of "homegrown" stars are also not cut out from consideration for being white, which would certainly not be the case in WWE. Jungle Boy (actor Luke Perry's son), Darby Allin (a skinny twink), Sammy Guevara, Ricky Starks, Orange Cassidy, MJF, Wardlow, and others all have a future shot at carrying main events down the road. With the impending arrivals of Bray Wyatt in November and Kevin Owens in January, and the promotion crossovers with Impact Wrestling and NJPW, there are more dream matchups and feuds than you can book in two years' time. Compare that to WWE, where every PPV matchup happens for the 10th time because no one ever elevates up or down on the card. And even if Khan, CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, and Hangman Page are enormous SJW queers IRL, they have managed to keep that completely out of the playbill.



I saw this too and rolled my eyes, but it's of no consequence. Tony needs to preen for the twitter echo chamber every so often and flex his woke cred. Hogan is a legend and should be revered by all in the business, but he doesn't belong anywhere near AEW. No one with discretionary income cares about his spycam n-word anymore - his Florida restaurant is always packed.

An aside, and another anecdote of Tony Khan being a fairy: he allegedly suspended Max Caster, a black wrestler whose gimmick is edgy freestyle raps on his walk to the ring, for going off script and including Simone Biles quitting, the Duke lacrosse rape hoax, and fake PCR tests in one of his ditties. Completely overblown, but Caster is back now and working that kayfabe into his gimmick.

Here's the Adam Cole / Bryan Danielson debut segment, an exhausting 7 minutes of crowd frenzy. (this might not embed or stay up long)

Man, you took my effort post and blew it out of the water! Fantastic and I can’t disagree with anything.

It’s funny that you mention the Caster rap, as that was another misstep that AEW didn’t need to make. The overwhelmingly majority of wrestling fans had no issue with what Caster said and many probably agreed. AEW should have ignored the shrill SJW types and bolstered their position as the edgy alternative to gay and PC WWE. Instead they folded. Caster, despite being black, made the cardinal sin of questing The Left’s CoVid religion as well as making fun of one of their “victim heroes” in Biles.

 

[Booth]

I don't watch much wrestling anymore since all my favorites have either passed away or got to old to wrestle. I did watch Braun Strowman for a while. His father was Rick Scherr the world record holder in home runs in slow-pitch softball. I don't know the exact number but it is well over 1100. He played for Howards Furniture out of Denver, N.C.

 

[icsept]

Wrestlemania 38 in Arlington. I don’t care, but my son and I went in 2016 and had a great time. What’s interesting about the pregame and all the hype, it’s no different than Super Bowl coverage. It’s all “sports entertainment.”

 

[Phall]

Good thread bump. I also could care less about tuning into this one, but I was happy to see that Rick Boogs (real name Eric Bugenhagen) got onto the card. This guy is quite a success story; he got "famous" doing weird powerlifts in his basement and headbanging to thrash metal to get himself fired up. The WWE goes out of its way to deconstruct its new athletes and package them in a 'company image.' Boogs is the sort of guy they have historically signed and buried. He has willed himself into the spotlight with positive energy just a few years removed from being broke and unemployed.

 

[Justin Eric]

Good thread bump. I also could care less about tuning into this one, but I was happy to see that Rick Boogs (real name Eric Bugenhagen) got onto the card. This guy is quite a success story; he got "famous" doing weird powerlifts in his basement and headbanging to thrash metal to get himself fired up. The WWE goes out of its way to deconstruct its new athletes and package them in a 'company image.' Boogs is the sort of guy they have historically signed and buried. He has willed himself into the spotlight with positive energy just a few years removed from being broke and unemployed.

Die hard wrestling fan since I was 5. I’m a huge fan of this guy. Hope he comes back soon. It’s nice to watch something that doesn’t put down white athletes nowadays. Brock Lesnar is loved and in “ Real Sports” the media wouldn’t give him any credit. Even AEW has a white champion Adam Page and nobody complains about it. Love Wrestling!!!

 

[Phall]

AEW has really taken a **** lately, and it's shown in the ratings. It's almost as if they were cursed by signing Daniel Bryan and CM Punk. They created this weird limbo for themselves where nothing else mattered until they made their two top guys champions.

Last night, CM Punk came out in "casual garb" to commentate on the champ Hangman Page's match against some huge Japanese kid that I don't know by name (and won't again). C_M Punk was wearing jeans and a t-shirt that said "Abortion Rights Are Human Rights." His opponent, the very lame Adam Page, who himself is also a magnificently-demonstrative sh*t-lib, seemed to "turn heel" last week just with one lame solo promo (since fans will boo him anyway). Terrible booking for his championship run, although I have no sympathy because I don't like him and will always consider him a jobber henchman to Marty Scurrl (who should come back!).

Jericho might actually rescue Bryan and Moxley's lame stable with his talking alone. He's certainly not a great wrestler at this point, but absolutely the best talker of the decade (and maybe ever). Remember: Bryan debuted as a face, kinda became a heel as he kicked jobbers in the head after matches, then became a face again by uniting with Moxley. That's two face/heel turns in a row without a title reign in eight months.

There are high points, still. Those 2.0 guys with Jericho on the mic are brilliant. Wardlow is certainly no Scott Steiner, but I do want to see him beat the scrawny jew MFJ. Adam Cole's entrance is better than his wrestling (and definitely better than his physique), but there's a story still to be told with him, O'Reilly, and Fish fighting the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega for final supremacy. Before that though, we are going to get the Bucks vs Hardy's feud, which will definitely be fun and full of spots. Matt (Hardy) cuts a great promo. You might think that because I'm such a mark for size, that I'd dislike the Bucks... they're just so fun! (but only as heels)

 

[Justin Eric]

AEW has really taken a **** lately, and it's shown in the ratings. It's almost as if they were cursed by signing Daniel Bryan and CM Punk. They created this weird limbo for themselves where nothing else mattered until they made their two top guys champions.

Last night, CM Punk came out in "casual garb" to commentate on the champ Hangman Page's match against some huge Japanese kid that I don't know by name (and won't again). C_M Punk was wearing jeans and a t-shirt that said "Abortion Rights Are Human Rights." His opponent, the very lame Adam Page, who himself is also a magnificently-demonstrative sh*t-lib, seemed to "turn heel" last week just with one lame solo promo (since fans will boo him anyway). Terrible booking for his championship run, although I have no sympathy because I don't like him and will always consider him a jobber henchman to Marty Scurrl (who should come back!).

Jericho might actually rescue Bryan and Moxley's lame stable with his talking alone. He's certainly not a great wrestler at this point, but absolutely the best talker of the decade (and maybe ever). Remember: Bryan debuted as a face, kinda became a heel as he kicked jobbers in the head after matches, then became a face again by uniting with Moxley. That's two face/heel turns in a row without a title reign in eight months.

There are high points, still. Those 2.0 guys with Jericho on the mic are brilliant. Wardlow is certainly no Scott Steiner, but I do want to see him beat the scrawny jew MFJ. Adam Cole's entrance is better than his wrestling (and definitely better than his physique), but there's a story still to be told with him, O'Reilly, and Fish fighting the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega for final supremacy. Before that though, we are going to get the Bucks vs Hardy's feud, which will definitely be fun and full of spots. Matt (Hardy) cuts a great promo. You might think that because I'm such a mark for size, that I'd dislike the Bucks... they're just so fun! (but only as heels)

I agree!!! Double or nothing is Sunday and could be a great show!!! I hope Hangman Page keeps the belt somehow but CM punk will probably win it. Wardlow is upcoming huge star. MJF great character but not great ring skills Hardy’s and Bucks could be a great match.

 

[freedom1]

I had not heard that Gene LeBell died

https://deadline.com/2022/08/gene-lebell-dead-stuntman-actor-wrestling-legend-1235089232/

 

[Phall]

Bray Wyatt died suddenly of a "massive heart attack" yesterday at age 36.

 

[Freethinker]

Bray Wyatt died suddenly of a "massive heart attack" yesterday at age 36.

RIP to Rotunda and Terry Funk too. Rough week for pro wrestling.

 

[Justin Eric]

Very rough sad week. I’m going to watch road house and Terry funk matches this week.

 

[Phall]

CM Punk was fired from AEW for starting yet another fight backstage.

That guy broached my kayfabe bent where I hate him for the IRL stuff he supports.

He went out smiling next to a "trans rights" banner. OK, bitch! Tomorrow's PPV will be worth watching!

 

[Freethinker]

CM Punk was fired from AEW for starting yet another fight backstage.

That guy broached my kayfabe bent where I hate him for the IRL stuff he supports.

He went out smiling next to a "trans rights" banner. OK, bitch! Tomorrow's PPV will be worth watching!

I’m conflicted. While I agree that I hate the IRL Phil Brooks, I enjoyed the wrestler CM Punk. I also prefer the type of wrestling that he apparently does, as Collision which is the show they created for him and I assume he had great creative influence, felt entirely different from Dynamite (Elite’s playground). Collision felt like a more serious program with some of the matches of the year (FTR vs Juice Robinson and Jay White was a classic), while Dynamite is cartoonish at times with a lot of “choreographed gymnastics” wrestling. I’m afraid that with Punk gone, Collision will feel like a carbon copy of Dynamite which would be disappointing.

And while I’m ranting about AEW (at least there is stuff to critic vs the formulaic and sterile WWE), what is the obsession with bringing over Japanese “legends” who almost all look broken down and highly unimpressive in the ring? I get it that a certain segment of their fanbase are marks for NJPW but to the casual American audience these guys are unknowns who come in with hype, get tossed into big matches and look like sh1t. Probably too much Omega influence.

To end on a positive note, Christian Cage is putting in some of the finest work of his long, illustrious career during his latest heel run. The man just cuts a great heel promo, which is sorely needed with MJF pivoted to “getting in touch with my feelings” baby face right now. I’d love to see Edge join the company for one last run now that his WWE contract expired. I don’t think it’s likely as Edge has always been a loyal company man, but how fun would it be to get one more run of Edge and Christian together? Either as a tag team or as adversaries would be a great way for either to end a great career.

 

[NEP01]

CM Punk is a perfect caricature of a far left white man. He comes from a broken family, covered in tatoos and piercings, proudly married to a Puerto Rican, has no children, treating his dog "Larry" as a child instead. Rejecting traditional religion, he worships blacks, homosexuals, and transvestites instead. Shockingly, he's ended up angry and miserable despite huge professional success.

Amusingly, CM Punk's failed comeback reminds me of the failed comebacks of the right wing Ultimate Warrior in 1996 and 1998. Like Warrior, Punk had left wrestling at the peak of his career due to disinterest and disenchantment, only to be lured back years later with huge money. In Punk's defense, he worked hard and performed well in AEW, but no longer had the passion to compete and endure in such a tough industry.

 

[Leonardfan]

CM Punk is a perfect caricature of a far left white man. He comes from a broken family, covered in tatoos and piercings, proudly married to a Puerto Rican, has no children, treating his dog "Larry" as a child instead. Rejecting traditional religion, he worships blacks, homosexuals, and transvestites instead. Shockingly, he's ended up angry and miserable despite huge professional success.

Amusingly, CM Punk's failed comeback reminds me of the failed comebacks of the right wing Ultimate Warrior in 1996 and 1998. Like Warrior, Punk had left wrestling at the peak of his career due to disinterest and disenchantment, only to be lured back years later with huge money. In Punk's defense, he worked hard and performed well in AEW, but no longer had the passion to compete and endure in such a tough industry.

Nice summation of CM Punk. After the late 90s/early 2000s I would periodically watch RAW but never got as into it as I was during the Attitude Era. I would remember seeing Punk from time to time and was surprised he was the big name for a time in the WWE. He didn't seem remarkable or charismatic in any way but perhaps that was what they were going for at the time? When I look at most of the WWE roster it's uninspiring. It's crazy to look back at how deep and talented the attitude era was. Pretty much every wrestler got a "pop" from the crowd. It seems like the WWE today is full of what would have been mid-tier talent back then. Not to mention the writing, storylines and crazy **** the WWE pulled.

@Freethinker nice to hear hear Christian is still performing at a high level and successful. Edge/Christian vs the Hardy Boyz were always insane and entertaining tag team matches.