I can't believe somebody that had already been arrested 6 times prior for DUI would end up killing someone in an accident.
WWE is Tapping a Pipeline of College Talent For a handful of college athletes, life is about to get a lot more… colorful. Instead of studying urban design, they’ll be headed to “Suplex City” (courtesy of former University of Minnesota D1 wrestling champ Brock Lesnar). Starved for talent, World Wrestling Entertainment is turning to US college campuses to recruit would-be superstars from the 500,000 NCAA student-athletes, now free to profit off their name and likeness after a rule change last year. Majored in Economics With a Minor in Elbow Drops Professional wrestling matches are fake, but the talent and athleticism required to leap off the top rope of a ring or take a folding chair to the head is very real. While many WWE superstars are former NCAA athletes, until recently college athletes couldn't pursue a pro wrestling career until they stopped playing college sports. But last fall, the National Collegiate Athletic Association lifted its ban on athletes profiting off their names, images, and likenesses. That changed an important piece of the supply equation for the business of WWE, a publicly-traded company. Last year, the company broke $1 billion in revenue for the first time, but, after a year of Covid-related event cancellations and with competition from rivals like All Elite Wrestling, shares are down 37% from a 2019 peak. In order to compete, the WWE needs a pipeline of stars, and the NCAA is suddenly a very promising option: • This past weekend, the WWE held a tryout for 50 college athletes during WrestleMania 38. In December, the WWE signed 15 NCAA athletes to a program that will train them to one day be pro wrestlers. University of Minnesota wrestler Gable Steveson, who won a freestyle wrestling gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, and Lexi Gordon, a member of Duke’s women's basketball team, headlined the group. • The WWE has about 90 athletes in its development program, but wants to boost that number to 130, according to Bloomberg, and pool from NCAA talent to get there. Now Streaming: The WWE is growing in more ways than one. On Friday, the entertainment company announced a planned expansion into wrestling-centric scripted sitcoms and dramas. That’s right. Real fictional shows about a fictional real sport.
God damnit I love it, Jay Lethal finally getting unleashed after spending three months largely on the sidelines.
Put the AEW tag belts on FTR. Send them to Japan and get them the NJPW tag belts. Time for some belt collecting
The recent FTR face turn was smooth as hell, not forced, just flowed into this awesomeness naturally.
Heel Lethal vs Samoa Joe feud is going to be providing some top notch programming here soon. Inject it straight into my veins.
FTR is on another level. Two of the best tag matches I’ve seen in the span of a just a few days. They actually made me like a Bucks match which I didn’t think could be a thing.
That crowd felt like a day after WrestleMania crowd. They seemed hot. Watching Joe soak in the admiration was very cool FTR is so good
Apparently Mox vs Yuta (Rampage) was an absolute classic and is getting insane reviews all over the place.
Having FTR and the Bucks feuding over the ROH titles on an AEW show makes the AEW tag titles seem minor league. The dragons vs dinosaur line last night was cringe.
I agree I thought it was strange that JR kept referring to FTR and the Bucks as the two best tag teams in the world. kinda burying your own champs, at least give them a mention. I thought one of the other commentators might jump in and say something like Jurassic Express might have something to say about that, but they never did. take nothing away from FTR and the Bucks though that match was great.
they tried with Jurassic express, and it’s not like they are bad, they just don’t have it. Really wish they’d bring the Briscoes in. They’re the last great tag team that hasn’t hit the mainstream
They have good matches, but Jungle Boy is horrible on the mic and I just cannot take a guy dressed as a dinosaur seriously, and I've tried.
There are too many elite tag teams in AEW to keep the belts on them. I’m guessing they drop them to ReDragon Friday.
I think Jurassic Express needs to be feuding with The Acclaimed. Just thinking of the 90210 gems Max Caster could mine in pre match raps
I don't care who they feud with but Cole and ReDRagon need to get the hell away from them. They are dragging them down badly.
They’re perfect for The Acclaimed because it elevates the Acclaimed, which they should do because they fucking rule.
I second this. Jurassic Express vs. Acclaimed would be fun because if nothing else that's a lot of potential rap content for Max to work with. Plus you know 4 good wrestlers.
Need reDRagon to take the belts off Jurrassic Express then then FTR take it off them. Money printer going to go wild.
Also, if this Moxley vs. Yuta match is as good as the early reports are saying, TK just booked three match of the year quality matches in the span of six days. Cocaine is one hell of a drug
BTW, that ladder match last night was an abomination. None of the rules made any sense and the fact that Jeff (who was eliminated) won the match for his team was just awful.
Yes the rules were very dumb. I was also confused as to why an eliminated person was allowed to still wrestle. Imagine the madness the Royal Rumble would be if everyone that got eliminated could still go in the ring and compete.
The rules were correct I think, it was just executed very poorly and coms didn't help it much. I went back and watched the Hardy/Dudley one from 2000 and it was same rules. JR and King did a better job explaining too. I think last night if you want to do the Jeff spot, Matt needs to be eliminated so Jeff is still the legal one and then it'd be fine. Also I'm just not feeling the Hardy run. The tornado tag was dope a couple weeks back but all these guys need to get away from each other.
I've been over the Hardys for the last 10 years, especially Matt. Jeff doesn't bring anything to the table in this environment either because everyone does the same stuff he does now and you can only watch a broken down 40 something crash through a table every week before it loses its value pretty quickly.
I don't mind them doing their stuff for a short run but having them do huge table/ladder spots every week is gonna get old fast. Matt is so hilariously stiff it's hard to take him seriously.