The doc goes into this a bit but I’m not sure the reasoning makes much sense. They said Vince was moving into a more character based era of wrestling. But that isn’t true. In fact they were doing the opposite and they even played the Vince clip where he tells the audience that he won’t insult the intelligence of its audience moving forward. They do speak about creative not having any ideas what to do with Owen and that creative eventually landed on going back to that character because the program was more character based vs in ring action. Jericho at the end made a really interesting point that a year later Owen likely would’ve been pushed to the top of the card because WWE was moving away from this era and guys like Guerrero, Edge, Christian, Jericho and Benoit were taking center stage and he could’ve worked with them.
They are free on Vice network. Both seasons are On Demand. If you don’t have vice on your cable or sat most if not all of them can be found on the YouTube
The Road Warriors episode was decent as well. Again felt rushed. But I had no idea how early Hawks issues started and that he basically took the gimmick to japan and went into business by himself. The Droz storyline I had forgot about but when they went into it that all came flashing back.
Lex would be a good episode. Him and miss Elizabeth cheating together. Wrestling affairs addiction death Lex in a wheelchair and found the Lord.
fwiw I enjoyed the Blue Blazer stuff, was obviously meant to be something that didn't take itself seriously
During an appearance on the Ring The Belle podcast, former WWE/NXT star Taynara Conti commented on using the phrase “Are you crazy?!” until she was told to stop saying it: “I always tried to put that in my matches, like I need to find a moment to do it. One day, I had a match on TV. Someone from WWE told me, ‘Hey, Tay, we cannot say ‘crazy’ on TV anymore.’ I was like, ‘Oh no, that’s kind of my thing now.’ They were like, ‘Yeah, sorry, don’t say it.’”
I didn't get the over the Edge ppv but was listening love as it was scrambled on the tv. No internet then...never made sense to me
They should do an episode on the King of the Death Matches tournament and what those guys put themselves through or FMW in general. Maybe on Hayabusa breaking his neck?
I’m amazed the police department didn’t shut the show down the minute they found out Owen had fallen. I’m dumbfounded that they didn’t shut the show down the second they got word he passed away. Vince not being able to make an adult decision is one thing. How people above him didn’t make it for him... shocking
It was a different time. I mean dale sr didn’t die at Daytona for another couple years I think and NASCAR didn’t do much better than Vince A carny is gonna carny
The Athletic also had a story yesterday about how Vince has people on the payroll still and that they might be trying to buy the XFL out of bankruptcy to solider on for another season.
Forgive me as I’m not a nascar die hard and it’s been some time but didn’t Dale Sr crash at the end of the race/ final lap stuff?
Yeah, Earnhardt died with like a 1/3 left on the final lap and it didn't even look like that bad of a crash (for NASCAR) at first glance. He wasn't announced dead until about 2 hours after the the crash/race.
AEW does a great job with Cassidy in timing between his shtick and actually going in the ring, and he can go. With fans before COVID, he was arguably the most over wrestler in WWE/AEW, and they're still slowly building him. Not strapping a rocket ship to him to the main event quickly.
Yeah it was on the last lap but they didn’t really come out and say anything about his condition until later that night. they still went on with all the post race victory lane celebration and interviews with the winner. It’s especially sad because the winner was his best friend and he was the owner of his race team and the whole time was like “where is dale?”, expecting him to come running up to celebrate. From what some of the first people at the crash have said, they knew he was already dead right away. like I’m not saying they did anything wrong or bad or even that Vince did. More just making the point that they were both criticized for a situation that you can never really plan for. There was no right way to handle that
Vince handled it by far worse. Even the night after, he sent the other wrestlers out on Raw because he'd refuse to do some replay/highlight version of Raw.
These dark side episodes show how fucked up the industry is. I've for the most part liked them. I was excited to finally see the Road Warriors one today because I was a huge fan of theirs as a kid, thought that episode was very uneventful. Most are centered around some controversy, that one was basically just about Hawk liking to party. Didn't get very in depth into anything. Didn't really feel like I learned anything coming out of that one.
Looked like AEW had a rough night in terms of safety and health. Sucks right before a ppv. Luckily it seems Fenix and Orange Casidy are ok after these two spots But it sounds like Nick Jackson may have broke a rib and Britt Baker may have fucked up her knee.
was surprised they showed footage of Hawk doing a line of coke. Probably the first time I’ve ever seen that for anyone. Normally they speak on “demons” I’ve never seen them air footage of it actually taking place. For some of these docs I think they need more then the 40 minutes a week to tell the story. Owen should’ve been two episodes, road warriors could’ve easily been two hours. These are mega names in the business. Something like the Montreal Screw Job or a lesser known talent one episode is fine.
NXT cratered this week in the ratings. AEW came in 7th in the key demographic with 700k and NXT had 590k and was 53rd. Charlotte has been ratings poison. I can't imagine why they thought it was a good idea to take the least popular of the four horsewomen (maybe third ahead of Bayley with the casuals) and try and prop up NXT. The better choice would have been AJ Styles, who has never been in NXT and would have generated big buzz. Then again, Finn Balor going back didn't do much either.
Outside of some major former superstar nobody is going to bring in a number. People have tuned out of wrestling. AEW is hovering between 600k and 700k. They lost 40% of there viewers. Charlotte is on all brands because they are short on established talent and they just lost Becky unexpectedly.
I think AEW has a more hardcore base so it doesn't surprise their ratings don't drop as much as wwe in bad times, but i don't think they would rise as much in good times though. WWE booking decisions are killing them too. The obvious of putting people like Goldberg, Lesnar and Taker over younger guys has got to the point where there those guys aren't around and it doesn't feel like anyone on the roster are stars. It goes beyond that too. Look at the women's division. WWE has trained their audience for years now the only women worth a darn on the main roster are the horse women and Ronda. Ronda and Becky are now gone, Charlotte has been pushed to the point where fans are sick of her and tune out over her being a draw. Bayley isn't talented enough to be the women they want her to be and Sasha hasn't clicked on main roster and has been booked horribly. So now what was their hottest division just over a year ago has some major issues. On the men's side, outside of putting over older acts, they've built Roman as the man and superior to everyone else on the roster. Now he is off TV too. WWE may have some trouble getting out of this slump because of their booking. They have all the talent in the world, but have basically made no one who is actively on their roster feel like a star. It's either people who wwe have programmed us to believe aren't as good as the old timers, or people who have been overhyped and overpushed to the point of wearing out fans of them. Sorry this post was kind of long /rant
Fenix vs Cassidy match was awesome. On the fence about buying double or nothing this weekend even though it’s a really good card
Fuck Baker looked like she was in a ton of pain. Nyla Rose landed directly on her leg. Have they said how bad it is?
fuck that would be awful. For all the injuries that could come from that spot, torn ACL is pretty far down the list
If watching grown men fake fight isn’t responsible, I don’t know what is? Spoiler or just pirate it like the rest of us
She had the full weight of another person thrown on her knee which she had bended upwards. Don't know if timing was wrong or if she was supposed to keep her legs down, but that is asking for a serious knee injury
I’d like to see Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross defend the tag titles on NXT. Either against Dakota and Raquel or Team Ninja