NotJayTabb

Makabe/Thatcher is my working MOTY so far, and he's a guy I've never been disappointed by when I watch his matches. Whether there's enough meat on the bone to justify a top 100 spot is tricky, but he's very much on my "IWTV Search Bar" list of guys I'll be dipping into shows to watch more of for this project.

Even Gunther, though he won the belt in the Vince era, still feels like a HHH guy. He definitely wasn't breaking Honky Tonk's record under Vince.

The good news for Cody is that 3 lengthy title reigns finished this weekend, and I can't imagine Zayn and Priest holding their belts for the next year, so a year long reign for Cody wouldn't feel too repetitive.

Just a tremendous show from top to bottom. I pegged Slim J/Priest as a low-level MOTYC when it happened, and then it ended up only being the third best match on the show. The last two matches were among the best one-two punch finales I've seen on an indy show, and both in a completely different style. You absolutely did Dean proud.

Sorry, I was referring to when the incident apparently happened, which Ronda says was 2022.

I've been disappointed enough by wrestlers I like in the past to assume this is probably true, in which case Gulak must be some kind of moron. Just 2 years on from Speaking Out, as one of the lowest of the lower card guys, and you try this with probably the biggest name star in the women's division*, in front of people, and someone who could probably kick the shit out of you? Thick as mince. * For clarity, I'm absolutely not suggesting it would be ok if the power dynamic was reversed, but at least it I could comprehend how it happened.

Slim J's post-release tweets are especially disheartening, particularly when he says he was hoping having a contract would enable him to be able to look after his family better, but instead he was working a second job to pay the bills. It also suggests he was working for a pittance, so it's not even like this will help the AEW bottom line that much.

What I'm enjoying about this is that you aren't trying to improve a bad product, you've set yourself the challenge of trying to improve one of the best years of TV for any US promotion, which adding a prime Bret Hart definitely helps with. Really good stuff.

Nia has had good matches this year with Becky and Rhea, and more than held up her ends of the bargain, with the results being her best matches since Bayley in London. I think it helps that she's come back in better shape than when she left, but you can see she's moving better and is bumping more, she's definitely much improved.

Shawn Spears is exactly the kind of guy they should have in NXT all the time - a solid pro/veteran to work with your roster of mainly in-house trained wrestlers so they've got someone to work with to help them improve on the job. Kind of like how Man Utd have 36yr old Tom Huddlestone playing with their academy team as a veteran to lead the youth players in the right direction.

Saw this last night as it's finally hit UK cinemas, and thought it was excellent. The in ring scenes are really well done, and I thought Holt McCallany did an incredible impression of Fritz's in-ring movements. One thing I think the film did really well was get across Mike's story, and how his arc was probably the most tragic of the brothers (bar Jack Jr). The scene at his gig, with the brothers all happy and Mike taking the spotlight on stage, is really tragic when you know what is coming up.

At least Booker sounds excited, something about Kevin Patrick made everything sound artificial and devoid of emotion. Apparently the Smackdown commentary team is going to be Corey Graves and Wade Barrett, which is a pairing of two colour commentators. No idea how that'll work, assume Graves takes the lead.

For a guy who finished #153 last time, I'm surprised there's been no Smothers discussion since GWE26 started. He made my top 60 last time and while likely to fall a bit, I still think he's a strong top 100 contender. Very versatile wrestler, good as a babyface tag worker in WCW, good as a comedic heel in ECW, always enjoyable on the indies in the 2000s. Maybe not a guy with a litany of big match performances, but someone who knew how to perform for the spot he was in and knew how to adapt to his audience.

Shera signed to WWE for a bit, but never made it past the NXT house show loop to the TV shows. I think he's just not a good enough wrestler for anything more.

Makes sense, both of them have a wife/fiance in the WWE, and Black was always well-pushed in NXT, so he's got to feel confident of being well-used second time around. Murphy was just a guy in both promotions, so you may as well be just a guy who gets to see more of his partner.