The Unknown Poster

Score one for big Dave. Tonight on SD... that’s gotta be...that’s gotta be...CAIN!

Trumps real life makes House of Cards seem like The west Wing.

Plan the parade!

No but four straight maybe. They won’t but....

Yikes. Well we know the jets will be Winnipeg next week. But will Maurice?

How do you even argue with this level of stupid

I agree. I think they will eventually have numerous articles of impeachment. He will certainly be impeached. And then the Senate can decide if they are serving the nation or serving their master.

I dont think Pelosi will call a House impeachment vote now just because Trump is withholding documents. I think the House will simply use it as another charge (obstruction). The Congress is a check on the President and this is their job. Senate wont have a choice in the matter, if the House approves articles of impeachment, the President is impeached and the Senate *must* have a hearing. They can't decline. The Senate, in that case, is just the jury. The House is the prosecutor and the Chief Justice is the Judge. Mitch can't stonewall an impeachment trial. And they will have to vote. And I think the Dems are okay with losing, to have every Republican on record as supporting Trump's criminal acts (assuming public opinion continues to sway against Trump...you never know). GOP is thinking back to Clinton's impeachment and how the public wasn't interested. But very, very different circumstances. In the case of Nixon, which is very similar to Trump, public turned on the President (it was a lot more bipartisan though). Nixon said "If the President does it, it is not illegal.". He was proven wrong. Trump is doing the exact same thing. Its remarkable.

Based on one game (which is never a good idea), the good news could be, if Helle plays better, Jets win every game 6-3.

Really? I have a brand new box, just got it this summer. Showed MLS soccer...hmmmm

The problem is, right now Senate is not going to remove Trump. *Maybe* that changes with more evidence and public opinion turning. (In fact, Trump's strategy to withhold evidence demanding a full impeachment vote now is to ram it through to the Senate knowing they want to get it over with and will acquit him). But if they impeach Pence as well, there is no way under any circumstances that the Senate is elevating Pelosi to the White House. I dont think if there was video of Trump and Pence gang raping someone, would they remove them both. No matter what. So the Dems might have to let Pence stand as an option for GOP Senators to remove Trump cause arguably Pence is even more alt right then Trump and far less of an idiot. Dems get Trump removed, let Pence be elevated. The new VP would surely be mostly agreeable to both sides because, with an election looming, GOP Senators wont want a contentious confirmation process. It would be interesting who Pence would choose so close to an election, presumably whomever he'd want as his running mate. I wonder if he could wait to nominate a VP and take his chances (chances being, if anything happened to him, Pelosi becomes Pres.) Then with a disgraced Trump and an implicated Pence running, the Dem nominee wins the White House and Pence can take his chances with a criminal investigation (as Trump will also). Man...would Pence gamble on Ivanka to try and get the Trump-base and contrast a more female-friendly Dem nominee? Ugh

Sure seems like it since he was here skating, had the meeting with Chevy and then went home. And certainly did screw the jets but ensuring they couldnt be in on any free agent d-men and have to keep space for him. Of course, the Jets could also force the issue if they wanted and it seems clear they are willing to give Buff time which makes me think he's coming back, but late (like Scott N). For whats it worth Bobby Mac said on 1290 this morning he thinks Buff is *not* coming back but said he has no inside knowledge, just his feeling. I was at a hockey pool party this week and there were three different rumours for Buff's leaving and all three were backed by "my source knows directly". lol

Its really quite shocking what Republican congress is willing to let Trump get away with. Word is privately they mostly hate him. But they are totally abdicating their oath and responsibility and allowing Trump to make the President far more powerful than ever before (and ever intended). It makes no sense. Most of these guys are wealthy but they put winning ahead of everything. I get their motivations....breaking with Trump wont help them win over Democrat voters but will cost them the Trump base. They're relying on that minority of white nationalist voters. They might lose anyway but they lose for sure if they thumb their nose at Trump. So they prop him up and sell their souls (and the future of Congress and the US). If critical mass reaches a certain point, it might all change though. Plus, with Pence getting roped into this, the only thing worse for GOP Senate than Trump being removed is Trump & Pence being removed and elevating President Pelosi. Trump throwing Pence under the bus is a bad move because it provides leverage. If it gets bad enough Republicans can make a deal with Democrats - remove trump but leave Pence alone and confirm a new VP that is agreeable to both sides.

I highly recommend subbing to Dave Meltzer. I could go on a rant about guys *in* the business who dont...ugh anyway...some notes: - Interesting, AEW hurt NXT but not by much. AEW's audience was a lot of "new" fans, especially young fans. It didnt draw a lof of nostalgia viewers (old Nitro fans) as it didnt skew old (like WWE does). It skewed young and whooped NXT in the key demo (in fact, RAW & SD too). AEW will surely decline next week and the key is, if they can keep those younger viewers to any degree because they dont have the 50+ crowd. - AEW started with 1.6 million. - As noted, AEW did 109,000 in Canada and was 6th for the night. Wrestling is rarely top ten. RAW, with Hogan & Flair did what was described as a "monster" rating of 227,000. So normally they do not do that. - Dave was a bit cool on Jake Hager feeling they have to be careful with anyone perceived as a WWE failure. - Finn Balor was the NXT surprise and shows WWE's inherent strength in having an huge roster of "stars" to cycle in and out. - Dave was also super negative on Mox attacking Kenny and it not being a DQ. I think thats over-thinking it but I'd have had the announcers say something like "the official is being incredibly lenient here but he doesnt want the debut main event ending in a DQ", which is similar phrasing to what I'd have done in the women's world title match in terms of risk of c/o and dq since no one believes that will happen but its still teased. - AEW had a strict "no anti-WWE" signs for their audience (as well as no profanity and politics). One sign (Vince fears ratings) slipped through and was confiscated. - Dave thought Kenny saving Riho was was odd since AEW has no plans for intergender. But its exactly what I would have done (and thus, Kenny would do) in that it adds realism. Riho is his protege and partner and everyone knows he scouts/books the women. So it adds realism and gives Riho the rub. The only other thing would have been to have the next contender attack but you dont want too many attacks like that and they saved it for the main. By the way, Luchasaurus is going to be huge. - Big story on CMLL, too big to fully detail. But their top guys Rush & brother Dragon Lee were fired. Lots of politics as they are top guys in ROH who have a relationship with CMLL (and New Japan). So pressure could be coming. Both are highly sought after by WWE and AEW. - The Punk/Cabana lawsuit (they sued each other) was settled out of court. Doesnt sound overly amicable as Punk buried him online. - Punk tried out for a WWE sportscentre-like show on FS1, produced by FOX. WWE has little to do with it to the extent, Jim Ross was offered a spot on the show. FOX wants it to be like the UFC show they did which talked honestly (and negatively) about newsworthy UFC topics. WWE will hate that. Punk still says he has no interest in wrestling. He is (or was) close friends with one of the Bucks but was publicly negative on AEW. Vince would take him back but others (likely Hunter) hate his guts. - Cain Velasquez met with WWE and was close to a deal. The Brock segment on RAW was Heyman's way of building to something with Cain. Apparently it hit a snag though. Cain loves Lucha and wants to be a masked superhero. WWE wants him for the UFC story of Cain vs Brock. AEW also wants Cain and would let him do more of what he wants to do. - Dave has a nice bio of Rick Bognar (fake Razor) who passed away at 49 and was well known in Canada (worked with Jericho, Storm, Callis etc, was hired by WWE at Bret Hart's recommendation). - ROH signed Matt Taven to a big deal. Marty Scurll is the next guy up with a deal expiring in Nov. They want him to stay. AEW would want him as well. - AEW signed a deal with Hot Topic to carry merchandise at every store in North America. - WWE working hard on NXT Japan - Goldberg got $2 million for his match with Undertaker - Some reports that Austin is open to one more match (possibly Saudi Arabia due to the money) - WWE accidentally billed Flair as a 17-time World Champion when they always bill him as a 16-time World Champion. The real number is more like 20-22 - Edge is also considering wrestling again. He was cleared for some contact (the spear) but nothing else and quite possibly never would be. Apparently, he negotiated both sides (I assume that means AEW?) and got a great deal from WWE to do some work for them. - Stephanie told FOX her eldest daughter (Aurora, 13) is already training to wrestle. - Strowman signed a 4 year deal at $1.2 million per year. Anderson & Gallows signed 5 year deals at $750,000 per after turning down $500,000 per and were going to leave. Styles got well over $1 million per year. AEW has been very good to WWE wrestlers.

Really impressive especially considering the show didnt even appear in the guide and I saw a lot of confusion online about that (buddy told me it did appear on MTS guides on Wednesday morning but never did appear on SHAW guides). For those that subscribe to Wrestling Observer, Dave Meltzer did a deep deep dive on the business aspects. Ill post some notes a bit later.

Yeah Dixie carter used to always trumpet the +3 & +7 numbers (days after live viewing people watched on pvr). What makes wrestling valuable to stations right now is the believe it’s sports like presentation makes it less likely to be PVR’ed. It’s not really true. But if we assume many people did pvr the shows last night the numbers are all the more impressive. I read the AEW demos actually beat most RAW’s. That’s....remarkable. Ofcourse it’s likely ratings cool off and in a few weeks we’ll know the base numbers. And you hope to build from there. TNT said they’d be happy with 500,000. So they are ecstatic today.

AEW: 1.4 million NXT: 891, 000 More impressively (and importantly for AEW finances): Among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic, Dynamite scored 878,000 viewers to NXTs 414,000 (up 1% from its week-ago broadcast).

Wwe released this statement "Congratulations to AEW on a successful premiere. The real winners of last night's head-to-head telecasts of NXT on USA and AEW on TNT are the fans, who can expect Wednesday nights to be a competitive and wild ride as this is a marathon, not a one-night sprint.

Full ratings not in yet but some of the major markets are reporting numbers for AEW and they are...surprising. As in big. If they hold its well over a million. Some markets skew really high (Charlotte for example) so it might not be a true trend. But if it’s anything close, it’s remarkable. Also raw had had a good rating but was carried by Flair & Hogan. Which is more proof that wwe’s Biggest issue is they cannot create stars.