Wrestling: The Baron Corbin Era

[Huxleys Babkins]

Yet.

[up_the_hampipe]

I don't really see a problem with them acknowledging the relationship, as long as they're both okay with it. There's been plenty of real life couples on TV before. Might be nice to have a WWE power couple that represent their respective divisions.

[Ja'moke]

Live sex celebration on Raw tonight?

[An Actual Propeller]

Live sex celebration on Raw tonight?

Rollins dives into bed, and because it's a dive, Raw goes to a commercial and misses the good bits.

[Delete Delete Delete]

Becky Orgasms in a Roll Up for a quick 1,2,3.

[An Actual Propeller]

Rollins can't orgasm due to being distracted by another wrestler's theme music interrupting just before the money shot.

[up_the_hampipe]

Live sex crossfit celebration on Raw tonight?

[Deanjam]

Rollins can't orgasm due to being distracted by another wrestler's theme music interrupting just before the money shot.

Val Venis will be there?

[An Actual Propeller]

It's not a "sex celebration" dammit, it's an "intercourse commemoration".

[greenman]

PRIDE is the ultimate of MMA. Perfect presentation, some real hero shit. The rise of Sakuraba is a tear-jerking phenomenon, this 180lb guy marmalising legends who outweigh him. I don't care if it was a work (I don't think it was).

Also old joshi just rules. For a while I think the women were ahead of the men, or at least at the end of the 80s and start of the 90s were exchanging #1 in hottest promotion stakes. Jushin Liger gets a lot of credit for being innovative but it should be shared with Manami Toyota and Kyoko Inoue and Lioness Asuka. They really self-owned by forcing retirements on anyone who turned 25 because they had about 10 world-level stars working in AJW.

In retrospect I think Pride represented the highpoint of the larger weightclasses in MMA, Heavyweight and Light heavyweight(or middleweight in Pride) seemed to reach their peaks in the mid 00's in terms of depth of talent. Partly I suspect due to Pride(and RINGS) being very proactive in going out and signing talent direct from other sports(Fedor, Crocop, Hunt, etc) and partly the talent base not being US focused were sports like the NFL and NBA naturally draw larger men away from fightsport.

I tend to view Joshi from the 90's as the near perfect mix between the high flying style of someone like Liger and the more characterful fueds of US wrestling or All Japan. New Japan Jnr's could be just as technical but there was for me often a certain dryness to it where as the woman brought a good deal more personality and I think AJW around 92-96 probably has a good case as the best org in wrestling history(although my cutoff for knowing much of that is the late 00's).

You could probably argue both ways in terms of enforced retirements, it arguably hurt them a bit in the 80's with someone like Jaguar Yokota retiring when having a strong case for being the best wrestler the world but it did also mean there was more room for new talent to come though. The highpoint of the 90's was arguably the result of the Crush Gal's being so popular in the 80's AJW had literally thousands of girls after a handful of training spots(Yokota retiring also meant she was involved there and the likes of Toyota obviously show her style strongly) and got to pick out the best of them.

The last time I thought Joshi was really towards the top of the sport was Arison in the late 90's, you could be critical of it being more obvious sexualised I spose but again it seemed like the same kind of trick AJW had done bringing character to Lucha/Jnrs style wrestling but instead with RINGS(before it went legit MMA) like shoot style. Seemed like a style that could have kept things interesting but didn't fully take off long term.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xn49mr

[sevendaughters]

Arison and the shoot-wave of LLPW is great.

[Deanjam]

via the Observer


Seth Rollins responds to Jon Moxley's post-WWE comments
By Joseph Currier | @josephcurrier | Jun 25, 2019 11:37 am

Quotes via Sports Illustrated

During an appearance on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast with Jimmy Traina, Seth Rollins responded to comments that Jon Moxley has made since leaving WWE.

"Ambrose can do what he wants. He's a big boy. He's got his big boy pants on, he can go out there and say whatever he wants, but the bottom line is not everyone is equipped to handle the riggers of the WWE and the schedule and how it affects you mentally and emotionally," Rollins told Sports Illustrated when asked if Moxley's interview with Chris Jericho put Rollins in an awkward position.

"Ambrose gave everything he had to the company for the entire time he was here. He put his heart and soul into the travel and the schedule and the injuries and the work in the ring and all that stuff, but at the end of the day, he took his ball and he went home, or he went elsewhere, at least.

"I think it's a little presumptuous of him to get on a podcast and talk down about the company that gave him such opportunities, and he referenced some of those, he did talk about how he was thankful for the time he spent here and the fact that he was able to learn, meet his wife, and all that good stuff. Like I said, I love the guy. I love him, I'll always love him, but at the end of the day, we share differing perspectives about what we want out of life and where we're at in our own lives. I hope he does well, I've kept enough tabs on him to know he's doing super well for himself right now and I'm happy for that, but I don't think there's any reason to hop on a soapbox and complain after the fact. You need to take the first step and that's looking in the mirror and asking yourself, did you do every single thing you possibly could to make yourself and your situation what you want it to be. If the answer is yes you did, then you can go elsewhere and complain, and if you feel good about it, if that's where he's at mentally, then go right ahead, but if he hasn't done that and looked in the mirror and made that decision, maybe he should think about that, and that goes for any other disgruntled talent, past or present."

Rollins said he hasn't spoken with Moxley about his comments and doesn't feel that he needs to. Rollins added that there's nothing but mutual love and respect between him and Moxley and said that Moxley is one of his favorite people in the entire world.

Rollins told Sports Illustrated that he feels extremely comfortable with the amount of input he gets in his matches, promos, stories, and schedule in WWE. He said he does things he doesn't want to do at points, but sometimes that stuff works. Rollins noted that he can't see things perfectly every time and doesn't have the perspective others around him have.

The Sports Illustrated podcast with Rollins was recorded prior to yesterday's episode of Raw. Rollins tweeted on Saturday that WWE is the "Best pro wrestling on the planet. Period." He's continued to stick up for the company in tweets since then. In the Sports Illustrated interview, Rollins said that he hopes he speaks for the other talent in WWE.

[Spode]

I only really started watching wrestling again in the build up to WM30 so Rollins was pretty much the first wrestler that really caught my eye. Loved his run with the authority and that period where he was feuding with Cena. Stood out from the pack and never seemed to produce a bad match.

Don't know where it changed but I've been thoroughly bored of him for longer than I can remember now. I can't remember a decent feud he's been in recently and didn't even bother watching his match with Styles. I'd put it down to bad booking and endless re-matches but if he's genuine in his defence of the company maybe he's just completely lost any spark he had.

And this is nothing to do with him criticising Ambrose because I've never really seen him out of WWE either and was probably more bored with his character there than at any point with Rollins.

[sevendaughters]

Embarrassing scenes from Rollins, crawling right up Vince's anal cavity right at the moment when it needs a boot inserting.

[BeardFaceMan]

"Took his ball and went home" is the phrase WWE have used about people who leave and/or criticise the company ever since they got the Rock to say it about Austin, it doesn't even make sense in  this context, Rollins had to correct it a bit. Theres no way this was a shoot by Rollins, this is WWE sending him out to do damage control. And, as usual, failing spectacularly and making one of their guys look like an idiot. Its like Vince said to HHH after the Curtain Call, you'll be eating a lot of shit so get used to the taste. Some guys, like HHH, do indeed get used to the taste and end up loving it. Be a shame if Rollins is going the same way.

[Mobius]

https://twitter.com/WWERollins/status/1143375109157081088

Rollins really looking like a tit on twitter this week. When Ospreay is making you look stupid on social media you're doing something wrong.

Haven't ever been his biggest fan, find him quite boring and lacking intensity. He's interminably dull as a face. This Becky shit they're doing with him now is awful.

[Spode]

https://twitter.com/WWERollins/status/1143375109157081088

Rollins really looking like a tit on twitter this week. When Ospreay is making you look stupid on social media you're doing something wrong.

Haven't ever been his biggest fan, find him quite boring and lacking intensity. He's interminably dull as a face. This Becky shit they're doing with him now is awful.

The pair of them on tele as a couple will bury them beyond repair.  Not helped by being in the worst feuds possible at the same time either. Dreadful stuff

[up_the_hampipe]

I don't want to see a friendship legitimately ruined or anything, but I'm kind of hoping Moxley lights up Rollins in his next promo.

[Ja'moke]

Wasn't Ambrose always closer with Reigns out of the Shield lads anyway? Sure I've read that a few times. That Ambrose and Rollins didn't really hang out much in the real world, whereas Ambrose and Reigns were close at work and in their personal lives.

[up_the_hampipe]

Maybe. Always seemed like they were all very close. But it sounds like Rollins and Moxley haven't really hung out or even spoken since he left WWE, or at least since he went on the podcast circuit.

[Deanjam]

Wasn't Ambrose always closer with Reigns out of the Shield lads anyway? Sure I've read that a few times. That Ambrose and Rollins didn't really hang out much in the real world, whereas Ambrose and Reigns were close at work and in their personal lives.

Ambrose and Reigns carried on riding together between towns when the Shield split, without Rollins (for obvious reasons).

[hummingofevil]

Most importantly, where is Timothy? Hope you good dude if you lurcking.

I called it weeks ago that I always felt Seth was a dick. I think the two of them as an on screen couple is a huge backfire as any underdog charm they had separately now comes across as smug-self-satisfaction.

I'm on holiday and got no wi-fi so my plan to sit and watch wrestling drinking uma bica duplas for a week is screwed. Bah!

Anyone take any interest in Eve? I'm not subscribed and was planning to binge watch one month when NJPW was quiet but this weekend looks ace..

[sevendaughters]

lol @ Smackdown going HAM with 2/3 falls matches

[Ja'moke]

WWE Network will be live streaming Evolve's 10th Anniversary show: https://www.wwe.com/article/evolve-10th-anniversary-special-to-stream-live-on-wwe-network?sf214900004=1

This of course has absolutely nothing to do with AEW's Fight for the Fallen event taking place that same night at the same time.

Kenny Omega's thoughts:

If lining your pockets with blood money is okay, then what's wrong with trying to undermine a charity show for victims of gun violence? I hear that healthy competition is supposed to be a good thing and yet I can't help but feel like I'm gonna be sick.

[sevendaughters]

bit extreme a reaction for an event that will draw zero eyes away from AEW

[Deanjam]

Already deleted it.

[up_the_hampipe]

Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff are becoming Executive Directors for WWE. Heyman will be running Raw, Bischoff will be running Smackdown. 

https://www.si.com/wrestling/2019/06/27/wwe-paul-heyman-monday-night-raw-eric-bischoff-smackdown-live-vince-mcmahon

[BeardFaceMan]

Looks like they still have to report to Vince so I can't see there being any drastic change in the product, that awful internal creative structure they have will still be there. But between this, Seth Rollins' ridiculous and childish tweets and the podcast he did about Moxley, and them running a free PPV the same day as AEW, I don't think there's any doubt that AEW are on WWE's radar and WWE are taking notice. Exciting times, to be sure.

[Deanjam]

I don't like being so cynical, but I feel sorry for the people reacting to this news with excitement that things might change for the better. The only news that matters is when Vince is no longer running WWE.

[hummingofevil]

There is a possibility that they might get better TV out of these changes, especially as we know how busy Vince is going to be with XFL. USA and FOX are already known to be very unhappy with ratings and the investors can't be far behind and if it takes something radical to change them at least the people who should have been asking questions for years are now doing so.

Personally, I think WWE has totally jumped the shark and needs a complete reboot. Aesthetically, commercially and from a booking point of view and agree with you that I would be amazed if Vince let's it happen. Moreover, just look at the absolute garbage they are serving up since their "you are in control" speech in January and in typing this out I think you are right. Ha ha.

—-

In other niche Japanese wrestling news this Sendai Girls vs DDT looked a whole lot of fun.