After Jake Hager f/k/a Jack Swagger left the WWE, I heard an interview with him where he aired his frustration with the fact that WWE kind of gave up on him despite the fact that he had the whole crowd doing the "we the people" thing.

Ever since, I've been left to wonder whether he was being dishonest or just stupid. "Getting a catchphrase over" in the WWE in modern times is the same thing as "being given a catchphrase." These ****ing rubes started chanting "$9.99" when the WWE Network came out FFS. They're desperate to sing along with literally anything. Their entire existence revolves around being a Pavlovian test subject.

I think I sort of prefer a world in which Hager actually is just dumb and believes he had a point worth taking seriously.

Look: I really appreciate the sentiment in CM Punk adopting the flying elbow as a Randy Savage tribute after Savage's death. At the same time, I lack appreciation for his lack of self-awareness, and for everyone in his life who didn't stage an intervention to tell him, "Uhh, dude, that elbow sucks. It's not successfully honoring Randy Savage. You need to stop."

Undertaker matches sure did persistently devolve into one of the worst parts of every WrestleMania.

But at least they spawned a moment where, around the time that he was 18-0, Michael Cole made just about the dumbest proclamation in human history by saying, "That's like winning 18 straight Super Bowls!" There should be a page dedicated to that proclamation in the program at Michael Cole's funeral.

It's so weird to go back just eight years to WrestleMania 29 and have a random Trump appearance as part of that year's Hall of Fame lineup. We were so young and innocent then.

The fans at MetLife stadium boo the **** out of the babyface handshake between Rock and Cena at the end of the main event. These are my people.

I was there because I went to see Bruno get honored for my late super Bruno-mark grandmother.

Trump had massive heel heat at that show. The boos wouldn’t stop.

Nothing brings me more joy when other commentators break kayfabe by acknowledging how garbage a line/joke is from Cole or Lawler. The deafening silence followed by "oh God Jerry" from Vic Joseph after that Olympic Sex joke at 2019 TLC was incredible

So it's one of two times a year I shill for a month of WWE network, any original shows worth watching? The old stuff doesn't appeal to me too much (UK so no peacock too!).

The special they recently did on Yokozuna was good. Steve Austin Broken Skull Sessions are good.

That's amazing

This thing where I was doing a chronological watch of 1986 and got near the end of the year has left me aimless for what to do with Peacock. I did jump ahead and start watching Starrcade '87, but I feel like I should depart this era entirely and then go ahead and back-fill that material once they get their stuff moved over.

They dropped 10 new Superstars episodes from 1994 today (that weren't on the WWE Network before), but unfortunately, like with the new episodes of WCW Saturday Night, the ones that were previously on the Network weren't uploaded with them.

Maybe I'll jump to 2001 and start watching after WrestleMania XVII.

Steve Blackman was one of the strangest fits with the WWF during the Attitude Era. I thought that having a personality was a fairly mandatory thing then, but it's like they included Steve Blackman as a diversity hire so that he could represent boring people everywhere.

Maybe not tall enough, but feel like he would've made a good silent-but-deadly heavy for a smaller/cockier wrestler with a personality

Yeah, the one thing he had going for him was that he was believable as legitimately tough (I don't even know whether he was legitimately tough, but I believed it either way). However, he definitely fell short of looking outright intimidating, and just didn't have the size of a bodyguard.

Honestly, I'm surprised he lasted beyond the whole Head Cheese thing with Al Snow. Once Vince starts to turn a wrestler into a joke (in this case a joke specifically aimed at his lack of personality), that's usually just about the final chapter.

And yet...2/3 of 3MB eventually became world champions.

Oh wow. I forgot Drew was in 3mb. I had to look it up because I thought "Theres no way Heath Slater was world champ, right?"

And yet some small part of you had to believe that it was possible.

Damn them for destroying these wonderful titles.

Until February 14, 1999, almost every IC Champ was a plausible future world title contender, or at least someone who could be expected to carry the upper midcard. It made a meaningful statement that the new champion was someone important. And then, on that date, Val Venis wins the title and thereby destroys it. It was on Road Dogg a month later. It was on The Godfather a month after that. Dead.

The title threatens to rise from the grave in 2000, when Jericho, Benoit, and Angle hold the belt. Benoit drops it to Rikishi, which honestly isn't that unreasonable either. And then, on June 20, 2000, who comes along? VAL VENIS AGAIN. He wins the belt for a second time, and in doing so again declares to the world, "Don't you DARE take this title seriously ever again."

If anyone is interested I'm interviewing Hiro Matsuda's daughter tonight at 8:30pm EST.

https://www.youtube.com/c/WrestlingBookmarks

Dean Douglas and Marty Jannetty would beg to differ

I was careful to include "almost." But honestly, Shane Douglas had plenty of potential if he wasn't so hated by Shawn and company. I wouldn't have really blinked an eye at the notion of choosing him, even though he held the belt for less than 20 minutes. I don't really even get what they were doing there by giving him the belt without an in-ring win, only to lose it in the very next match. Marty Jannetty was a pretty weak choice, but it never struck me like he was devaluing the IC Title; he was a good worker with a big cocaine problem.

I would group those guys with Marc Mero, who was another that I feel was a reasonable choice even though he ended up fizzling out hard.

Honestly, the one that gave me the most pause when I wrote that sentence was Honky Tonk Man, despite the fact that his title run was a fun part of wrestling history. Obviously that ****ing guy wasn't ever going to seriously contend for the big belt, and he also wasn't going to put up great matches or even be likely to ever be portrayed as someone who deserved the title he did have.

I mean, I always liked the dude and his character, but Rick Martel has to be high on the list too.

...I'm pretty sure he has to not be on the list at all.

Fuuuuuck


For some reason I thought I remembered Razor winning it from him.

Damn it