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Yeah, I think he read "the 'mics" (which I'm sure is something some comic book reader once said ), it said so in his very readable, but not extremely memorable book. It does contain some Claudio jokes though, and it makes Mr.Moxley look like a somewhat goofy, but very lovely man. So basically no news really.He's super. Which is one of the reasons I don't want him to dress up as a comicbook figure in public.

Anway, since I'm kinda back into the NJPW for a quick dip, I'm watching Wrestle Kingdom 12 again; the best Wrestle Kingdom, mostly because I think it was the first one I watched, and it was back when NJPW was really, really hot. It's got one of my favourite matches evar on it, the 4-way between Ospreay, Scurll, Takahashi (Hiromu, that is) and KUSHIDA. It's quick, it's fun, it's insane.

At least with AEW, we can reasonably assume Mox’s superhero gimmick was at least his own idea!

Oh yes. I mean this is concerning his New Japan entrance, but with that I'm sure we can assume it was his idea as well. Or somebody he likes talked him into it.

Usually I really, really don't care about online things, but the whole Tony Khan tweet stuff which now puts JINDER MAHAL into the limelight as a total babyface and Hook being dragged into this whole mess is amusing. That Tony Khan. Sometimes it feels like this would be happening a lot if I was put in the captain's seat of a big on-TV wrestling promotion (I'd be a worse booker though. Say what you will, he's not a bad booker. Not the best, but certainly not the worst.).

By accident I saw a bit of RAW last night on the television set; the bit where a former WWE champ is announced and Jinder comes out. I felt bad for Jinder, but also good, because he does what he does well. It's not an easy role, but he's doing fine I think. All the best to him. And Hook. And WWE. And AEW. And you.

All Elite Wrestling becoming All Mustache Wrestling. Nick Jackson: Good. Matt Jackson: bad. Roddy Strong: the good kind of bad, but unnecessary, especially now. Hangman Page: S tier.

As if we needed even more reasons to find Hangman Page great.




edit: Holy moly. Okada actually left NJPW. To me he was locked in to be the next (and for decades to come) Ace of New Japan. Never thought we'd see the day. Okada is amazing of cours, and he did well in earlier AEW matches, but I'm not sure if he'll be an appropriately big deal in AEW. I Mean it probably will coincide with Danielson retiring, and Okada could fill that spot nicely.

It's been a long time but Butch is now...

 Ghaz wrote:
It's been a long time but Butch is now...

Spoiler:

... Pete Dunne again (what did you expect ).

About time.

Why they ever decided to call him Butch I'll never know.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 Ghaz wrote:
It's been a long time but Butch is now...

Spoiler:

... Pete Dunne again (what did you expect ).

About time.

Why they ever decided to call him Butch I'll never know.

They explained it when they first changed it to Butch that it was the nickname that his mates Sheamus and Ridge had given him (but apparently they didn’t have nicknames of their own for some reason).

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 Ghaz wrote:
It's been a long time but Butch is now...

Spoiler:

... Pete Dunne again (what did you expect ).

About time.

Why they ever decided to call him Butch I'll never know.

Hear, hear. And is Tyler Bate on the main roster now? Is he still a hippy? (I'm woefully behind on WWE weeklies)

Holy moly, I completely missed that Tama Tonga is leaving New Japan as well?

Let's see, Ospreay is out now, OKADA is out, Kushida is out, Tama Tonga is out... that's almost all my favourites out of New Japan. Only Hirooki Goto is left now. :/ Tama Tonga will be a great get for any company though. Where ever he goes, he won't be a huge deal (as in NJPW), but an incredibly reliable wrestler who works as a heel as much as a babyface. I hold Tama Tonga in very, very high regards.

Not a fan of Minoru Suzuki or Tomohiro Ishii?

Actually, Murder Grandpa vs. Edge on Dynamite this week has the potential to be a fun match.

 Dysartes wrote:
Not a fan of Minoru Suzuki or Tomohiro Ishii?

Actually, Murder Grandpa vs. Edge on Dynamite this week has the potential to be a fun match.

Oh, how can one not love Minoru Suzuki! I'll Kaze ni Nare at the drop of a hat. But isn't he also semi-retired at this point? He does seem to have a ton of fun at these overseas tours. Feels like he spent since the end of the pandemic in the US, clobbering people or doing funny poses with Jericho. Oh, just the other day I watched a match of his with Maki Itoh. She's a brave lady (on every level). And it showed that Suzuki doesn't seem to be a big fan of idol wrestling or Itoh's super-powered head. Either way, Suzuki - Edge sounds like a good time. Certainly hope for Suzuki to win.

With Ishii (whom I appreciate greatly of course) I think I missed out on his glory days. He does seem to age gracefully though, still showing these young'uns what's what in 8-man tags and so on. I'll have to check out his earlier stuff I think.

So….RAW is coming to Netflix in 2025. And those of us outside the US will seemingly also get PPV.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-68070411

I…may be returning as a Netflix customer, I guess.

Ugh. I hate Netflix. This feels like a terrible decision.

I way prefer it over the Amazon or the D+ options which were in talks recently. Netflix is about as crap as other internet platforms (and produce a looooooooooooot of crap), but at least there isn't an even larger uncool company attached to it.

For us outside of the US this might be huge. Apparently outside the US they not only move RAW to Netflix, but if they actually also carry Smackdown, NXT, PPVs, documentaries and so on (hoping for the full library of course, including WCW and ECW)... that's bombastic. Of course the death of the WWE Network.



The thing about the Rock a.) becoming member of the board of TKO and b.) attaining FULL RIGHTS for the name "the rock" and all that's part of that is also massive. Wow.

Potential downside to RAW on Netflix? No need to cap it at three hours...

Big win for us in the UK?

No delay between weekly RAW and PPV.

Smackdown is still gonna be a month behind, but I’ll take what I can get.

Charlie Dempsey's father showed up on NXT tonight...

 Dysartes wrote:
Potential downside to RAW on Netflix? No need to cap it at three hours...

Good point. Maybe they'll start experimenting heavily with the format in general. A rather insane approach (but maybe Netflix metrics friendly?) would be doing one hour on monday, tuesday, wednesday each or something like that. :O

Vince has quit. Again.

Yes it’s the same reason. Again.

But with more grissly details!

Throws an annoying shade over the most fun PPV weekend in the WWE calendar. Remember when Kevin Owens power-bombed Machinegun Kelley? I want the Kevin Owens match on this card to be that bit, just with Logan Paul. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Then Paul can win with some stupid stunt for all I care and carry the US title on to Wrestlemania.

Four-Way Match: Roman Wins lol. Looking forward to that one though because it will break the mold of the Roman matches we saw the past 2 years (and which for the first 10 months or so really grew to like, but it's gotten old.). Who takes the pin though? I'd almost be inclined to have Roman pin AJ Styles and then have them have a little program? And have Orton and L.A. Knight have a feud.

Rumbles!
Women's: No idea. Somehow I think that maybe this finally is Bayley's year? I'd rather love that, because Bayley is tippedytop. IF Mercedes Moné returns (recent rumours make that sounds very unlikely, which to the wrestling fan's mind makes it SUPER-LIKELY ) she might take the thing, but it would be rather lame. I just watched the 2015 and 2016 Royal Rumbles back to back the other day and Sasha had her debut at Royal Rumble 2016 I think, so it might be slightly fitting? Oh well. I expect Liv Morgan to make a welcome return as well. Bianca Belair will do really well (she's fine again, right?). Will we see Camille and/or Jade Cargill? No idea. Both, especially combined, will be a great addition to the roster either way.
Men's: Loads of good candidates there, it's just very hard to see how they'd turn that into a 'mania match. Seth is out for Wrestlemania, right? Roman is paired with The Rock. Even with him doing double duty on both days it's hard to tell who should challenge him. Will we see Andrade? Pretty likely. Hope he'll do well in WWE now.

Looking forward to all the Vince stuff being sorted out and behind us at some point. My heart goes out to his family and victims.

No idea what the Rumble outcomes will be. Unfortunately my family has tickets to see the Dancing With the Stars tour tonight, so we have to try to avoid spoilers and catch it tomorrow.

Cody/Punk/Rock make the most sense for men's winner.

No idea what the women's outcome will be.

We hope Kofi can break his streak of bad luck and add to his highlight reel.

Glad LA Knight has another title shot, but I can't get excited for any Roman match anymore.

I'd like to see LA Knight take down Logan Paul at WM for the US title. That would be a nice moment.

 bbb wrote:
...
No idea what the Rumble outcomes will be. Unfortunately my family has tickets to see the Dancing With the Stars tour tonight, so we have to try to avoid spoilers and catch it tomorrow.

...

you do live the good life, it seems.


Royal Rumble!


Good show, I very much enjoyed it. I mean how can one not enjoy a rumble.



Good fun.

As for the Dancing With the Stars show, I lucked out and my sister-in-law took my ticket, so I drove them all up and just sat in the car playing Zelda Breath of the Wild during the show. I'm late the party, but it's a fun game.

Well, that was a short return for CM Punk. Rumors are saying that he suffered a torn triceps (the same injury he suffered against Jon Moxley at All Out 2022) during the Royal Rumble and will miss WrestleMania.

The only person to get a singles match with Punk during his WWE return... Dirty Dom. Two non televised matches.

Hopefully they can do something with Punk beyond what they've already done. Maybe have him in Cody's corner for the main event?

Aye, that sucks. He's out of Wrestlemania now. :/

Put him on commentary, and have him deck a samoan with a chair to help save Cody from Bloodline interference.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Put him on commentary, and have him deck a samoan with a chair to help save Cody from Bloodline interference.

Sounds like a plan!!!

Yup, I wouldn't be opposed to that either. Book it!