Category: Wrestling Musings

All posts related to pro rasslin’ that isn’t covering specific shows or events.

Kevin Dunn Leaving WWE…

Source: https://www.f4wonline.com/news/wwe/kevin-dunn-reportedly-leaving-wwe

Well, it truly is the end of an era now that the old “Bucky Beaver Mother Fucker” himself, WWE executive producer Kevin Dunn, is parting ways with the company that has employed his services for close to four decades. Regardless of what you thought of the man or how he produced television, he was always a major part of that WWE machine and there’s no doubt that there will be some huge shoes to fill. Hopefully, ol’ KD will enjoy the fruits of his labor… or maybe he’ll start a podcast… or maybe he’ll be the next AEW signee to fill the void left by Andrade.

Either way, we wish Kevin Dunn the best in all of his future endeavors.

Outside The All-Elite Bubble

For anyone curious, I have not watched AEW’s Double Or Nothing PPV from last month (or was it the month before?) I did watch the Forbidden Door PPV… or rather the replay of Forbidden Door. And only because I was told that Tony Khan actually got the rights to Final Countdown for Bryan Danielson to come out to in his match with Okada. I’ll have full thoughts on the show… eventually, but I thought it was just fine.

I’m sure someone is reading this and having a conniption fit over my not glorifying this show as the greatest thing ever… but anyone who knows me knows that I don’t watch New Japan and thus do not have the New Japan hard on that certain folks in the wrestling bubble would have. And also, I have not been keeping up with as much AEW as I would like… life stuff and all that jazz.

I have also not watched a single lick of the new Saturday Night Collision show, thus killing Punk’s brilliant theory on how I’m watching no matter what and I didn’t. I’ve heard good things about the show, but when I heard Collision was only going to be on the TSN streaming app, I said, “Fuck it.” Because the last time I tried the TSN streaming app, it was a total clusterfuck of an app and I gave up on. Now apparently, I’ve heard that TSN did air replays at midnight, but you know what? I ain’t watching shit at midnight on a Saturday night and I haven’t DVR’ed a single episode of the show either, if that’s the case. That’s why I don’t talk about Rampage or those Battle Of The Belt shows; cuz it’s only on the app and that app is fucking horrible.

Even Dynamite… I haven’t been keeping up with all that much. Just didn’t have the time and you know the funny thing, the more time passes, the less inclined you are to go back to something… I’ve been dealing with some family stuff, some personal stuff, and like I said, there are also technical bits I needed to work on. I just didn’t have the time, so Forbidden Door ended up being the first proper AEW show that I’ve seen in a while. Why that show? Because I wanted to give Tony Khan a couple bucks and help him pay Europe for the use of Final Countdown… that was it, really. As soon as I heard he actually got the rights to Final Countdown, I’m like, “Yeah, I gotta get this show.” So, there you go.

I have yet to play the Fight Forever video game… reviews have been generally positive, but I’m debating whether I’m gonna go for the Switch version or go full-blown PC version… also I’m debating going all in now or waiting for a price drop… we’ll see. WWE front… tonight’s Money In The Bank. We’ll see if I can catch, but if not… oh well.

About Roman’s New Belt

So now that my two month wrestling embargo and subsequent one week hiatus has come to a close, I can finally talk about this “new” undisputed WWE title that Roman Reigns was gifted for reaching a thousand days, which I assume was the whole point of this deal. As you could probably tell, it’s just the usual belt buckle design, except now the center plate has a yellowish/gold backdrop and it says Undisputed Champion.

Much ado about nothing, I suppose. But at least Roman has a shiny new belt to carry around.

This also presumably means that the original WWE Championship that has been a thing since the inception of the promotion itself back in 1966 – the one held by Bruno, Hogan, Bret, Shawn, Austin, Rock, Cena, and others – has been put to rest so that focus can be put on both Roman’s one new belt and the fake World title that Seth is carrying around.

History is apparently nothing more than a number to surpass and flaunt on social media these days.

Oh well… at least GUNTHER is still IC champion. That’s the only reign I give two shits about these days.

It’s Okay To Like A Franchise And Not Like Everything In It

You’re a big fan of a franchise. You like the movies they put out. Some of the TV shows were pretty good. You’ve even dabbled in some of the official novels and comic books.

But then something comes along and it isn’t quite as good… and much to your dismay, you discover that you not only don’t like this new thing, but you might actually hate it. You consider this an affront to the franchise you’ve grown to love over the years.

It doesn’t end there. Something else comes along and it’s even worse than the other thing. You come to realize that these new things are lesser products devised to set aside all the things you loved about that franchise in favor of trying to appeal that wider, casual audience… otherwise known as the “lowest common denominator.”

All of a sudden, the thing you loved ever since you were a young kid is slowly but surely becoming a thing that you don’t like. You get to that point where you’re becoming the old timer who shouts at the clouds about how everything was better back in the day when the franchise was in its infancy and now everything is just crap or worse.

Does that make you less of a fan?

Of course it fucking doesn’t.

Kids… it’s okay to be a fan of something and not like everything that comes out of it. I have enjoyed many franchises over the years – some of which have been a substantial part of my life in some form or fashion – and I can freely admit that some of the stuff coming from those franchises lately have been… let’s just say “less than stellar.” Does that make me less of a fan of this thing or worse, a “fake fan?”

Of course it fucking doesn’t.

First of all, someone not enjoying the thing you enjoy should not prevent you from enjoying the thing you enjoy. Some things I enjoy are not enjoyed by other people. That does not hamper my enjoyment of these things that some people don’t enjoy as much as I do, if at all. Your enjoyment of something should not be gauged by how many other people are or are not enjoying that something. If you like something that everybody else hates, then more power to you. On the other hand, if you don’t like something that is beloved by many others, that doesn’t make you less of a fan and if anyone else tries to convince you otherwise in a non-joking manner, that’s their problem, not yours.

Like what you like and be done with it. If you like the old stuff, just watch the old stuff. If you like the new stuff, watch the new stuff. If you like everything, then have at it. And if you’d rather spent your time doing something else, then that’s cool too.

I’d tell you not to be a dick, but it seems like every time I hear someone tell people not to be a dick, they eventually become one themselves.

I don’t know what compelled me to type out this piece of business, but hey, it’s something, I suppose.

No More Wrestling For Me… For Now, At Least

Yeah, so the header pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?

Let’s get something out of the way right off the bat; I enjoyed Wrestlemania for the most part. I thought that Saturday had the far stronger showing and the right main event with the right ending to provide a satisfying pay off to something that has been built up for a long while. However, while Night 1 showed that WWE was more than capable of paying off their storylines in satisfying fashion, Night 2 seemed to confirm that no matter how much of a good thing they got going, they are invariably going to find a way to fuck it up. I’m reserving any further thoughts for this Friday’s Ramblemania 39 musings and you’d better believe that I have quite a bit to say, especially in regards to the main events of both nights.

Beyond that, however, I’m taking a break from watching wrestling.

Listen, I’ll be honest. I haven’t been feeling it as of yet. The AEW side of things has been somewhat stagnant, no mater how many “important announcements” Tony Khan pulls out of his ass to announce the latest WWE job guy that he signed to a new deal, will push for a couple weeks on Dynamite before being relegated to Dark or Elevation at best and sitting at home at most. Dude, unless your important announcement is the return of MIRO and having him kill MJF for the World title, anything you say is blowing smoke out of your ass. At this point, you’re starting to sound like Dixie Carter, who had the habit of hyping every announcement as something that could change the face of wrestling forever, only to learn that they painted the walls of the washrooms in the Impact Zone.

And then there’s this Endeavor deal to acquire WWE and merge it with UFC to become this super duper combat sports entertainment super giant. When the best thing you can say about the deal is that “it’s better than the Saudis buying it…” I don’t know; maybe this’ll be a good thing, maybe it won’t. All I know is that regardless of who’s owning it or who’s running the creative, the same old creaky habits are still prevalent in the creative process and I’m just about done give them umpteenth chances. It’s been a fun ride, but I’m getting off and I don’t know when I’ll be back.

So here’s the deal; I’ve got one PPV musings this coming Wednesday, then the Ramblemania. And then we forgo any and all wrestling talk for the next couple months unless something significant happens. I have no problem filling the void with something else in the interim.

Later.

Case Closed On Jeff Hardy’s Latest Drunk Driving Offense

Source: https://www.f4wonline.com/news/aew/jeff-hardys-license-suspended-for-10-years-dui-case-closed

So once upon a time, there was a guy named Jeff Hardy. He did rasslin’ things. He also did drug things. He apparently got off the drug things… or so his family says. But then he caught drunk driving. And so he was doing the court thing for quite a while until recently, when Jeff pleaded no contest and the case was closed.

Jeff Hardy’s full sentence is as follows (copied and pasted from the F4WOnline article linked above):

– A 38-day county jail sentence with 38 days credit for time served
– Two years probation
– $4586 in fines and court fees
– A 10-year suspension of his license
– Two years with an interlock device and 90-day vehicle impoundment
– Court-mandated DUI school or drug rehab program
– Community service

So now that the case is closed, cue the folks wondering when Jeff Hardy is going to get back to the rasslin’ thing. And if there is any good sense in the world… not for a very long time.

Will get back to this soon…

Random Thoughts On… Jay Briscoe, PPV Musings, And The WWE Sale

First off, my thoughts and prayers to the family and friends of ROH wrestler Jay Briscoe, who passed away last night in a horrific car accident. Jay, along with his brother Mark, are best known for their run in Ring Of Honor, where they held the tag titles thirteen times. Jay himself is a former two-time ROH World Champion. I was never familiar with the Briscoes beyond word of mouth; they were a name I always hear mentioned, but nobody I’ve watched beyond that one Tony Khan ROH PPV last year, so… yeah, what do you say other than… Godspeed, Jay.

For anyone wondering when the PPV Musings are coming back, well, you’re going to be waiting a while because the first show I intend to muse would be the Rumble in a couple weeks, which is coincidentally when there’s going to be a new edition of the DTM-Cast. As to what we’ll be looking at afterwards… well, you’re going to have to wait a while to find out.

Regarding recent developments in WWE involving Vince coming back, people freaking out over rumored Saudi sales that were proven false, Stephanie resigning and what have you… well, things continue to develop and at this point, trying to add my five cents to a growing pile of junk only to get lost in the shuffle of continually falling spare change is destined to be nothing short of a fruitless endeavor… I have no idea what that means, but the point is that there’s no point in gathering any thoughts and we might as well let it play out and see where it goes… you know, like the usual WWE storyline bullshit that goes nowhere fast.

That’s pretty much all I’ve got for now.

Later.