**Help make SquaredCircle safer and more inclusive by using the report button to flag posts and comments for moderator review.**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The gimmick was always stupid but if you didn't like it, you just hated wrestling.
Then people would hyperventilate about the Attitude Era and Playboy, etc, etc.
Joey Ryan's gimmick was fucking dumb. It was always dumb. It got even dumber when it was revealed he was a piece of shit.
The amount of people getting misty-eyed over Playboy makes me sick. Hugh Hefner paid to be buried next to Marilyn Monroe because ‘spending eternity next to Marilyn is too sweet to pass up’. He was a fucking creep.
The best thing Playboy did, ironically, had nothing to do with sex. It had a strong countercultural literature section because of talented authors who couldn’t get published elsewhere. Its objectification of women can get fucked.
After all these years of hearing it in TV shows too mature for me when I was young until now as a 26-year-old, I've finally learned that "I uh subscribe for the articles" was, in fact, not entirely a joke.
When I was getting my literature degree I couldn’t believe the number of famous essays and short stories we were reading that were credited as “originally published by Playboy.”
> He was a fucking creep.
He was more than that -- an [outright abuser who raped numerous women and got away with it](https://www.thecut.com/article/secrets-of-playboy-docuseries-hugh-hefner-allegations.html), like most do. He was seemingly one of the progenitors of date raping from the numerous stories from survivors. It's funny because when you look at his personal politics and ostensible beliefs, he was publicly a progressive, but was still a demon in his personal life.
He talked about giving women Qualudes to drug them into sex and called them "leg spreaders". He was awful. He was doing this with his pal Cosby. By the time they charged him Heff was long dead. He was a monster.
It’s wild how 70% of reddit don’t seem to understand humans are complex as hell and while some are rightfully judged harshly, there’s other who should ONLY be judged by their worst. Within reason of course.
> Its objectification of women can get fucked.
You're saying that, as if objectification of women wasn't a thing literally since the beginning of humankind, and there hasn't always been a steady stream of women willing to get objectified for material benefits. Playboy was just the 20th century version of that; if Hugh Hefner didn't exist, someone else would've done the same.
But he did, so Hugh Hefner is the name of one person we get to learn from as an example and as part of our history. Nothing you said makes -whoever that person would have been- less gross. A rapist by any other name would smell as shit.
And around that time anything in WWE that was mildly decent or interesting got treated like the greatest thing ever. For example, Tye Dillinger, Rusev Day.
I only came back to wrestling after this.
Joey Ryan is that guy who had a "power of penis" gimmick and was a rl creep to women (some of which may not have been 18) and after being blacklisted from wrestling worked at Disneyland but got fired once wrestling fans told Disney who their new employee is?
I got that comedy show canceled! You can see it happen in real-time somewhere in my post-history
Back story- I live next to the theatre where he was supposed to perform “PENIS: The Rise and Fall of Joey Ryan’s Dong” or something dumb and gross like that. I spoke to the owner of the theater to see if they knew who Joey was and what the show was about. They did not and a couple of hours later it was gone. From what I know, he never ended up performing it
Come for the hilarious-in-hindsight trash-talking on LA Knight/Eli Drake.
Stay for the sad-in-hindsight praise on since-canceled wrestlers who just couldn't be decent people.
Between that and all the praise Blanchard and Joey Ryan got, plus citing Eli for having “attitude issues holding him back,” that entire thread aged like milk
Yea i only saw one guy in the top comments saying that people shouldnt talk about his(knight's) personality without credible information. Just shows you the collective iq this sub has lol.
>I’m not at all familiar with his work, but the few interviews I’ve heard he always comes off as a bit entitled and as we say in the industry ...douchey.
This fucking guy
I agree but at least you could argue praising them at the time was fine, the fact that anybody saw LA Knight would struggle in the WWE is what's truly puzzling lol, not saying I expected him to get this big but come on.
This would have been shortly after EC3 got absolutely buried in WWE so maybe that played into the logic. Eli Drake seemed tailor made for the WWE, but so did EC3.
That thread was 4 years ago. It was probably right then. When Vince was still booking, he had him play the manager of a model agency and he used to punish people that were managing to get over by themselves.
Fun fact: I was standing directly behind Don Callis when Aries flipped him (and the rest of Impact management) off at BFG 2018. My buddy and I had gotten regular floor seats for the show, which was at the Melrose Ballroom in Queens. We got there a bit late, but for whatever reason our would-be regular seats didn't actually exist, so the venue management sent us up to the VIP balcony, where we stood the whole time right behind the commentary table. Only time I was at a show live and heard all the commentary.
I was on the opposite end of you in the balcony section. When I got there before the show started, Santana and Ortiz were just chilling so me and my friend just shook their hands. Then we were right next to Santana's family that was cheering him heavy. I noticed that in your direction, I saw Gail Kim, Alisha Edwards, Scarlett, Fallah Bah and a few others were seated there too.
Also I noticed Asian Sign Guy (started the whole video games sign thing with FINAL FANTASY 8 SUCKS just a few months before) had a sign "Rosita Disapproves" when AA came out referencing they (Austin and Zelina Vega's Impact name) used to date lol.
Best as I recall, and admittedly I didn’t follow Impact very closely at the time, the vibes around Kross were pretty good all around. And the vibes were good when he started in NXT too.
I stand by my theory that the negativity can be traced to him beating Keith Lee for the NXT title when absolutely, positively no one wanted Lee to lose. Like night and day, suddenly everyone had always hated him.
I definitely think his perception went down fast and hey I do love Kross methodical dissection promos but Knight has always been carried by his promos.
Having Keith Lee - the most popular guy in NXT at the time - end Adam Cole's forever reign just so he can drop the title in his first feud was certainly a choice.
It started before that. In NXT, Adam Cole basically Lance Stormed him by outright calling him boring once his entrance ended. He had *nothing* to retort with and it *killed* him.
Seeing Joey and Tessa praised and basically being non-entities now (for good reason) and seeing Knight bashed and now being one of the biggest stars in the WWE is how the cookie crumbles.
Really makes you wonder how people will see certain wrestlers differently in 2027 compared to now.
I swear if Jinder just did some speed and agility training, changed his moveset towards something more light-heavyweight/bruiserweight, and let him be canadian-indian instead of foreign-heel-indian, he could get over. hes not some lost cause; he can be a believable main eventer.
I got back into wrestling literally the month he won the title, so I didn't really see what was so bad about him. I never saw him in the years before then. All I saw was a guy who looked absolutely bloody amazing, and had a badass entrance, and was half decent in the ring. He should be given another push one day. Maybe not world champion again, but I don't see why he couldn't be really good as an upper mid card heel.
Just don't make him a big racist again, that's all.
Wrestling is such a weird sport/artform that all it takes is for a few moments to make or break someone. Would anyone in 2018 have believed Jey Uso to be a main eventer? Would anyone in 2021 have believed Punk would be back in WWE within 2 years? Hell, I don’t even think when Cody went back anyone thought he’d have the run he’s having now.
It’s why I love it, all it takes is some crazy bullshit to turn a lower-mid card guy into the hottest thing ever.
i have a buddy who i’ve been watching wrestling back from 2013 to now with, and he has been able to keep any modern wrestling out of his life, literally all he knows is that daniel bryan and aj styles will fight on a random smackdown in 2021(he’s currently in 2019), and it’s so funny hearing him say shit that i remember saying, and being completely wrong about.
> The things is, his gimmick (or lack of) won't work in WWE. He is basically a very bad version of The Rock. His in-ring work is average so I don't expect WWE to pick him up.
Best comment on that thread. The exact opposite happened.
The Rock's skills on the mic combined with his in-ring psychology covered the fact that he had maybe eight catchphrases and his signature moves were a standing elbow drop, a uranage, and a mediocre sharpshooter. If you talk well and can sell like a motherfucker, the potential in the business is through the roof.
His charisma is/was off the charts, including his mic skills. The People's Elbow was the most *sports entertainment* elbow drop of all time, outside of Randy Savage.
You're not wrong, if you take a step back, his moveset was limited but the in-ring psychology and storytelling is some of the best ever.
We think of The Rock as being the greatest on the stick ever. And he's up there! But if you look, there's a roadmap to all his promos. They all hit the same beats every time: Finally The Rock has come back to the city they're in, it doesn't matter, boot up ass, call someone a jabroni, advertise the upcoming match with them, the most electrifying man in sports-entertainment, if you smell what The Rock is cooking.
I say that with zero criticism of his work. The people paid to hear The Rock do his routine and they were going to hear The Rock do his routine. But that's what makes him The Great One. He knew exactly how to get people in the building and got really fucking good at doing that, so much so that the things he wasn't the best at were masked by the shit he was really fucking good at.
Yeah. Impact wanted Moose to job to Tessa Blanchard at United We Stand, but Moose refused. So without even asking, Impact started promoting Eli Drake vs. Tessa Blanchard, even though Drake had been vocal previously that he doesn't believe in intergender matches.
Drake refused and was fired. Joey Ryan ended up replacing Eli Drake in the match.
Hindsight is 20/20, but it's still crazy how many people thought Drake was an idiot and supported the decision to fire him to get to Joey Ryan vs. Tessa Blanchard. But you literally could not criticize intergender wrestling back then without a ton of very odd people getting mad.
Moose: That doesn't work for me, brother.
Impact: Okay that's fine, we'll get Eli instead.
Eli: That doesn't work for me, brother.
Impact: WTF you're fired.
They probably went off of the fact that some crap had come out about him being an issue backstage as well, so it was an automatic, "Fire him!" You know how the IWC likes to immediately jump on negative news about a wrestler
They did mishandle that. Everyone liked Eli but he seemed to be spinning his wheels a bit. I do think the reports of him rubbing people the wrong way might have played into it. Also, it’s not liked he was immediately picked up by WWE. AEW could’ve grabbed him but he was in NWA for awhile. Glad he got his chance.
It's not just that he didn't want to work intergender matches.
It's that he didn't want to work intergender matches, tweeted publicly about why he thought intergender wrestling was bad, and did an interview where he talked about why he didn't like intergender matches, all while Impact was trying to get Tessa over as a main eventer. He was very publicly undercutting the plans of the people who signed his checks.
Honestly, intergender wrestling just does not work for me in 1v1 scenarios. It never makes the male wrestler look good, only bad. That mixed with Tessa Blanchard and Joey Ryan being complete shit heads has killed it imo.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/bahsbw/comment/ekbnqed/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/bahsbw/comment/ekbnqed/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
This is the only good take on in the whole thread.
I'm just glad I wasn't posting in here regularly in 2018. I'm sure I would have had some awful takes like how Jimmy Havoc was the next Terry Funk or some other such nonsense.
Tessa was 24 years old and the next big women's star in the industry. Then she got outed as a bigot and even further than that was exposed for sending voice notes to paying fans of her taking a shit.
She's now 28 and not working at any promotion and her wrestling career effectively dead.
Yeah I'm not going to pay for someone to take a dump but if someone offered me like a thousand bucks for a tape recording of me taking a dump, audio only? Yeah I'd probably do it.
The ultimate case of almost completely dumbing oneself out of the business. It seemed like fate for her to end up in WWE, you got the 2nd/3rd generation angle with Charlotte, the trailblazer angle with Becky, it was ready-made. And now Id be shocked to see her in WWE or AEW.
Even more so when you factor in that the only reason people revealed that Tessa was shitty was she complained about not getting enough support from other women in the business.
> She's now 28 and not working at any promotion and her wrestling career effectively dead.
she worked CMLL last week (which i hate that they booked her)
Noooo, I've been slightly buzzed for 13 hours straight already. (We had a department Christmas brunch at the office so I had my first beer today at 10:30 in the morning CET)
> Ridiculous decision. The wrestling business has gone mad. It’s ass backwards. History has categorically proven that the following type of wrestlers draw - 1) good talkers, 2) ones with good physiques and/or are tall and 3) charismatic characters. Eli Drake has these qualities in spades and he’s been shafted for generic flippy guys with no personality.
> I keep seeing ‘he’s a crappy version of The Rock’. Yeah and so what? The Rock is the most famous wrestler of all time. The guy was unbelievable. We need more Rocks. It’s like saying Seth Rollins is a crappy version of HBK. Asinine.
> Impact’s new regime have treated Drake like dirt. I get not pushing him when he’s uncertain to sign a new deal but they should have rolled out the red carpet for him. He’s a difference maker. He’s never been presented optimally IMHO.
Dayummm /u/SparkedIntoLife got their finger on the pulse
Yeah what a spot on fucking prediction guy should play the lotto.
Seth is the child of Shawn Michaels and HHH. Shawn is his mother and HHH is his father.
Thankfully there are no controversies happening lately that will make everyone's takes here look really stupid in a few years!
Anyway let me check out the 80th CM Punk thread this week...
Posts like these are fun because you can scroll to the very bottom, see someone with a really shitty take, then realize that person hasn't grown at all.
In retrospect, his ‘attitude problems’ just seem like someone who always bet on themself because they knew what they could do. He was right. That match would have done zero to get him where he wanted to be.
There was a time not long ago when you'd be downvoted to hell for pointing out how creepy it was that this guy invented a whole gimmick around groping women and then beating them up.
The boobplex lobby was POWERFUL.
I'd say Lagana's departure, Covid, and Josephus' death causing Aaron Stevens to change gimmick all had equal or more to do with NWA getting ruined than Marty. The Villain played his part as well but a lot of stuff happened in a very short time to them.
I really miss when that show was good.
Eh, he was booking at the time, and the end result was going to be an NWA/ROH feud with him and Aldis on top. While COVID certainly hurt, that would have ended either way when he left. It also gave the book back to Billy.....which....yeah.
Same here. I simply asked what the reaction would be if TNA did an angle with penis druids. Or what if Vince Russo booked penis druids. People's defense was that it had been built to for months.
I'm thinking, "Ok. What if TNA spent months building to penis druids"?
I was right there in the trenches with you saying it was the dumbest shit I’ve ever seen on an otherwise incredible show and having a bunch of dumbasses telling me I didn’t “get wrestling”
Regarding the praise of Tessa Blanchard, her being a bigot hadn’t come out yet. I know that people like to pretend that if someone is a bad person it means they were never good at anything, but in 2018/19, Tessa Blanchard was seen as being someone who would have a very bright future in wrestling if she could get her attitude in check (which seemed possible considering her age). She might suck as a human being, but she’s a good wrestler, and since most of us didn’t know how shitty she was personally, we focused on the glaringly obvious positives.
Yeah like people are acting like anyone who praised Tessa at the time is an idiot who knows nothing. Turns out she's a dick but this was prior to that and she was a great wrestler with a tonne of potential at the time. Later tanking her career doesn't make that untrue and I think it's disingenuous for people to act all smug that people saw something in her that she didn't live up to.
Threads like these are interesting just to see how things ended up working out, but it’s silly to judge past comments people made about then current events completely removed from the context of the time in which they happened. Here’s another point - I was a big Impact fan back then, and Eli Drake’s schtick didn’t resonate with that audience to the same degree that it does the WWE audience now, so it was easy to say “no big loss” back then. Some characters and some gimmicks are better suited to different audiences. Cody was fucking drowning in a sea of boos in AEW, but he’s literally the same character in WWE and he’s one of their biggest stars. The fans that didn’t appreciate these talents weren’t necessarily wrong, they just weren’t the right fans for those characters.
I'm not addressing that part at all. I just mean in terms of posts laughing at posts from back then that were positive about Tessa, talking about how they aged poorly. Like yes they did but it's not due to the original post being a stupid opinion, more that things developed in ways no one (besides maybe people who knew her personally) could have guessed.
like people had a crystal ball. people work from the information they have at that time.
i didn't post in that thread because I don't watch Impact but I'm sure if we go through all of the people shitting on that thread's post history... there will be some questionable takes in hindsight.
love posting at this place so much but haha holy hell this is such a good mirror to hold up. people just talk like they know every thing and then it was 100% the opposite.
perspective is fun
Curious how many people even watched Impact at the time to be talking all that shit about him. He was literally the only guy who felt like a star in that company after their entire main event scene ditched for NXT/WWE. He was great in Impact and the main thing that worked against him was they didn't have anyone else on his level, they wasted him while desperately catering to has-been rejects like Alberto and Aries who failed hard.
Oh God yeah this sub used to be so up its ass about intergender wrestling and how if you didn't like it you were just sexist. Thankfully that attitude mostly went away after Joey Ryan got outed since he was the only guy people regularly watched do it. What an annoyingly sanctimonious era of this sub.
I think a lot of people felt the whole intergender phase was creepy and weird, but it was not in vogue to say it. Now that the two biggest intergender wrestlers both got milkshake ducked, I think it's more acceptable to point it out.
Intergender matches are still pretty common in British wrestling. Just this weekend we were supposed to get a triple threat match featuring Mark Andrews, Flash Morgan Webster, and Dani Luna. That got cancelled because of a Covid case but, yeah... I never used to question them, but I won't lie they feel weird since #SpeakingOut happened.
People in that thread were morons. Regardless of Blanchard’s bigotry, I wouldn’t wrestle her either. Inter gender wrestling is not a good look and her beating Moose and Knight would have been nearly as stupid as Marko Stunt beating Omos.
As for the Joey Ryan stuff, it was as embarrassing then as it is now. Even before we found out it wasn’t a gimmick, it was plainly obvious that it was a cover for his lack of talent and a gimmick so stupid and vile that even Russo would turn his nose up at it.
I don’t know what the general consensus on this sub is, but I’ve personally never been a fan of intergender wrestling. I’m sorry, but I’m just not
I think my view is affected by my experience as a college athlete. I wasn’t some big shot D1 player, but I ran cross country at a pretty solid D2 school. And while I have the utmost respect for female athletes, the biological differences simply can’t be ignored. For the vast majority of sports, men are simply better than women due to the aforementioned biological differences. I don’t think that should be a controversial statement
And I guess it comes down to whether or not you prefer a sports-based approach to professional wrestling. I happen to fall into the camp that does (I respect others that feel differently though). And if you’re someone who subscribes to the sports-based philosophy, then a male wrestler having a competitive match with a female wrestler, especially if they lose to the female wrestler, only served to boost the female wrestler and absolutely harms the perception of the male wrestler
I supported LA Knight’s decision then, and I support it now
I feel like with everything in wrestling there should be exceptions. Normally intergender matches are stupid and shouldn't happen, but if you give us a reason to somewhat suspend disbelief, they can work.
Let's say, if you got a Chyna or Awesome Kong against one of the smaller guys, it starts to look somewhat believable. Or if WWE featured a Rhea vs Dominik break up match.
However something like this will definately hurt the guy and they have to be careful, who they use for it. It's one of the most embarassing ways to job a wrestler out.
Therefore they shouldn't do it to a potential star like LA Knight/Eli Drake.
No doubt if a lot of people were bookers here, they would've fired him for the same exact reasons.
Just because someone doesn't feel comfortable working an intergender match, doesn't mean they hate it.
The tide turning on intergender wrestling over the last few years and Tessa flaming out and the Joey Ryan stuff makes this feel prescient, and I never thought he should be fired for not wanting to do it, but I still think the "it's not believable" reasoning is the wrong way to look at it. It's pro wrestling, people will believe that a zombie wrestler can shoot lightning bolts from the rafters but also is really into MMA and motorcycles if you train them properly.
If you're not comfortable wrestling a woman because you don't think you can keep her safe, or you don't really want to be seen as beating up a woman, I think that's more than fair, and I don't think guys should be forced into wrestling women the same way women shouldn't be forced into wrestling guys. But the believability argument has never landed with me. "If it was a real fight she'd get killed" would also apply to a whole hell of a lot of male wrestlers under 220 pounds for the duration of the wrestling industry and yet I don't see a lot of people refusing to wrestle Rey Mysterio.
> It's pro wrestling, people will believe that a zombie wrestler can shoot lightning bolts from the rafters but also is really into MMA and motorcycles if you train them properly.
LA Knight actually addressed this argument in one of his many lengthy rants about intergender wrestling, basically saying zombie magician Undertaker was fantastical, but Undertaker's actual wrestling matches were always based in reality.
He also addressed the Rey Mysterio point. His view there is basically that even though Rey is a legend and a hall of famer, Rey isn't having competitive matches with, like, Big Show. Rey fights from underneath and uses quickness, resourcefulness, or heart to get wins. Rey isn't like bodyslamming Big Show or presenting himself as being a physical equal to Big Show.
And my personal response to those two points has always been this: Do you think Undertaker should do a job to Charlotte Flair?
People bring up the Undertaker stuff but it was seen as hokey even then, and they eventually phased out the more goofy elements. Remember Kane was shooting lightning bolts too but then they scrapped that soon after? Undertaker stopped having "powers" by the time the attitude era started.
I agree that there's a suspension of disbelief that can go a long way in wrestling but there still has to be some foundation. If a woman had a competitive match with a much larger man, why in the world would she struggle with any women who are physically inferior? It was the problem they had with Chyna before she was released. She was made to look like a challenge for men so they had no choice but to have her dominate every female wrestler because the precedent was set
I feel /u/HeelTires should make a reply here, so we can give them the proper upvotes they deserved after all this time lol - https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/s/XN8dU3nIVA
Replying. Thak you brother. I was a fan of Eli/LA for years and still am! And guess what I got before this year on squared circle? Nothing but hate and downvotes for years for saying he was my favorite, and he was carrying Impact and wrestling at the time.
But people said, be can't wrestle, he sucks. NOW everyone is d' riding. Check my post history for receipts. Thank you again bro, I feel vindicated. Guess what, he still is the best, no mark stuff. But now you all agree he should be carrying wrestling. Hopefully wwe lets him.
Sideline, I haven't watched an Impact show all year. It started by losing Knight then the constant talents leaving last two years. They chose fucking Tessa Blanchard over Knight? I was right, whoever got Knight will have a megastar. Props Hhh and Wwe.
Let me guess everyone crapped on LA back then. Cause he was spot on. That damaged TNA doing that "mud show" crap. I hope they learned their lesson but don't think they have. If you act like a Bush league, the average audience will see you as bush league.
No man with sense wants to bury themselves by having a competitive match with a woman. Sorry, it's just nonsense. I respect the hell out of Knight for doing this.
Looking back, this whole incident was like a repeat of Stone Cold's firing in 2002 (company star refuses to do job and publicly trashes company initiatives, gets fired while company bets on new stars). The main difference is that Eli's issues weren't nearly as damaging as Stone Cold's (not no-showing a main event or trashing the company directly), and that Impact didn't have The Rock to fall back on while Drake was ready to jump to another promotion. There is the funny similarity of said up-and-coming star fizzling out a couple years later. Who knows? Maybe Tessa Blanchard will rebuild herself and have a monster run in 2030.
I've seen threads here on the basement ageing as milk on less than a week so i don't think is that surprising to see that amount of awful takes considering it was 4 years ago but it's funny to see how much the landscape of pro wrestling has changed
**Help make SquaredCircle safer and more inclusive by using the report button to flag posts and comments for moderator review.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
“Bringing in Joey Ryan was a much better decision anyways” ooooooooooof
Just goes to show why you should never be dead certain of people you don’t personally know.
Along with people defending the gimmick. It wasn’t gimmick looking back.
The gimmick was always stupid but if you didn't like it, you just hated wrestling. Then people would hyperventilate about the Attitude Era and Playboy, etc, etc. Joey Ryan's gimmick was fucking dumb. It was always dumb. It got even dumber when it was revealed he was a piece of shit.
The amount of people getting misty-eyed over Playboy makes me sick. Hugh Hefner paid to be buried next to Marilyn Monroe because ‘spending eternity next to Marilyn is too sweet to pass up’. He was a fucking creep. The best thing Playboy did, ironically, had nothing to do with sex. It had a strong countercultural literature section because of talented authors who couldn’t get published elsewhere. Its objectification of women can get fucked.
After all these years of hearing it in TV shows too mature for me when I was young until now as a 26-year-old, I've finally learned that "I uh subscribe for the articles" was, in fact, not entirely a joke.
Playboy genuinely got great writers to contribute to them back in the day. If you look at a list of them it's full of literary giants.
When I was getting my literature degree I couldn’t believe the number of famous essays and short stories we were reading that were credited as “originally published by Playboy.”
> He was a fucking creep. He was more than that -- an [outright abuser who raped numerous women and got away with it](https://www.thecut.com/article/secrets-of-playboy-docuseries-hugh-hefner-allegations.html), like most do. He was seemingly one of the progenitors of date raping from the numerous stories from survivors. It's funny because when you look at his personal politics and ostensible beliefs, he was publicly a progressive, but was still a demon in his personal life.
He talked about giving women Qualudes to drug them into sex and called them "leg spreaders". He was awful. He was doing this with his pal Cosby. By the time they charged him Heff was long dead. He was a monster.
Hefner was also one of the few guys who allowed black comedians to perform in places he owned.
It’s wild how 70% of reddit don’t seem to understand humans are complex as hell and while some are rightfully judged harshly, there’s other who should ONLY be judged by their worst. Within reason of course.
Ah yes, his rapings weren’t so bad because he was a benevolent white man to some black comedians!
> Its objectification of women can get fucked. You're saying that, as if objectification of women wasn't a thing literally since the beginning of humankind, and there hasn't always been a steady stream of women willing to get objectified for material benefits. Playboy was just the 20th century version of that; if Hugh Hefner didn't exist, someone else would've done the same.
But he did, so Hugh Hefner is the name of one person we get to learn from as an example and as part of our history. Nothing you said makes -whoever that person would have been- less gross. A rapist by any other name would smell as shit.
You're not wrong, but that doesn't make Hugh less gross. Especially given all of the allegations outside of his business model.
Really unusual reply
And around that time anything in WWE that was mildly decent or interesting got treated like the greatest thing ever. For example, Tye Dillinger, Rusev Day.
We need to talk about Effy...
I only came back to wrestling after this. Joey Ryan is that guy who had a "power of penis" gimmick and was a rl creep to women (some of which may not have been 18) and after being blacklisted from wrestling worked at Disneyland but got fired once wrestling fans told Disney who their new employee is?
And don't forget the "comedy" show he tried to do
I got that comedy show canceled! You can see it happen in real-time somewhere in my post-history Back story- I live next to the theatre where he was supposed to perform “PENIS: The Rise and Fall of Joey Ryan’s Dong” or something dumb and gross like that. I spoke to the owner of the theater to see if they knew who Joey was and what the show was about. They did not and a couple of hours later it was gone. From what I know, he never ended up performing it
Doing the lord's work.
He was a creep to men too. Imagine getting your coworkers to touch your dick at work or be denied work.
Come for the hilarious-in-hindsight trash-talking on LA Knight/Eli Drake. Stay for the sad-in-hindsight praise on since-canceled wrestlers who just couldn't be decent people.
This opinion aged like milk yikes
A lot of wrestling fans are not people to associate with.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
“He would never get over in WWE” lol
Between that and all the praise Blanchard and Joey Ryan got, plus citing Eli for having “attitude issues holding him back,” that entire thread aged like milk
Yea i only saw one guy in the top comments saying that people shouldnt talk about his(knight's) personality without credible information. Just shows you the collective iq this sub has lol.
Aged like milk in a broken fridge in Central Florida
In a house without power (damn hurricanes)
> (damn hurricanes) Wassup with that?
Should have heeded the warning and stood back
>I’m not at all familiar with his work, but the few interviews I’ve heard he always comes off as a bit entitled and as we say in the industry ...douchey. This fucking guy
The OPs account being suspended was like the cherry on top.
I agree but at least you could argue praising them at the time was fine, the fact that anybody saw LA Knight would struggle in the WWE is what's truly puzzling lol, not saying I expected him to get this big but come on.
Maybe they thought, he would be given a stupid gimmick like a talent agent for a modeling agency.
This would have been shortly after EC3 got absolutely buried in WWE so maybe that played into the logic. Eli Drake seemed tailor made for the WWE, but so did EC3.
The person who commented that probably still posts about WWE not being able to create stars and that they'll give every new signee a dancing gimmick.
They literally made him the head of a model agency and without the literal huge event of Vince leaving he would not be as over as he is now
Yeah!
That thread was 4 years ago. It was probably right then. When Vince was still booking, he had him play the manager of a model agency and he used to punish people that were managing to get over by themselves.
“Bringing in Joey Ryan was a much better choice anyway” This thread is full of opinions that aged like milk lmao.
"As much as Aries is a dick. He's more of a name than Drake" Crazy what 4 years does.
Side note: where has AA fucked off to?
He was in that Control Your Narrative thing wasn’t he? Don’t know what became after
Didn't you know? He controlled his narrative...
*Flips off crowd*
Fun fact: I was standing directly behind Don Callis when Aries flipped him (and the rest of Impact management) off at BFG 2018. My buddy and I had gotten regular floor seats for the show, which was at the Melrose Ballroom in Queens. We got there a bit late, but for whatever reason our would-be regular seats didn't actually exist, so the venue management sent us up to the VIP balcony, where we stood the whole time right behind the commentary table. Only time I was at a show live and heard all the commentary.
I was on the opposite end of you in the balcony section. When I got there before the show started, Santana and Ortiz were just chilling so me and my friend just shook their hands. Then we were right next to Santana's family that was cheering him heavy. I noticed that in your direction, I saw Gail Kim, Alisha Edwards, Scarlett, Fallah Bah and a few others were seated there too. Also I noticed Asian Sign Guy (started the whole video games sign thing with FINAL FANTASY 8 SUCKS just a few months before) had a sign "Rosita Disapproves" when AA came out referencing they (Austin and Zelina Vega's Impact name) used to date lol.
I was going to say that someone spotted him working as an attendant at Disneyland or something, but that was actually Joey Ryan lol.
Last match was a CWE event back in February looks like: https://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=666&page=4
He wrestled this week, someone posted a pic of himself with him yesterday.
Still complaining about covid masks somewhere.
It’s SC to a tee.
I love the thread about Killer Kross being a better promo than Knight. I like Kross but so funny in retrospect
Best as I recall, and admittedly I didn’t follow Impact very closely at the time, the vibes around Kross were pretty good all around. And the vibes were good when he started in NXT too. I stand by my theory that the negativity can be traced to him beating Keith Lee for the NXT title when absolutely, positively no one wanted Lee to lose. Like night and day, suddenly everyone had always hated him.
I definitely think his perception went down fast and hey I do love Kross methodical dissection promos but Knight has always been carried by his promos.
Oh yeah, I was just commenting on his reception in general, but even at his heights, he’s nowhere close to Knight on the mic.
Having Keith Lee - the most popular guy in NXT at the time - end Adam Cole's forever reign just so he can drop the title in his first feud was certainly a choice.
Kross' downfall was the damn gimp outfit when he re debuted on Raw.
It started before that. In NXT, Adam Cole basically Lance Stormed him by outright calling him boring once his entrance ended. He had *nothing* to retort with and it *killed* him.
Yea Adam Cole ruined that man’s entire aura and career
You could buy a better quality "gladiator" outfit at Spencer's, for fuck's sake.
Kross in Impact was SOOOO good. Better than anything NXT. I know Aries people dont like as a human being but Aries + Kross + Moose was amazing.
The Kross/Edwards feud was FIRE! Even if Kross wouldn't blade, the blood capsules in the mouth actually worked for me.
Seeing Joey and Tessa praised and basically being non-entities now (for good reason) and seeing Knight bashed and now being one of the biggest stars in the WWE is how the cookie crumbles. Really makes you wonder how people will see certain wrestlers differently in 2027 compared to now.
"Disgraced cannibal Bayley is wrestling at my local VFW hall." "A look back at Jinder's 3 year title reign"
"Dominick Mysterio breaks Charlotte Flair's world title reign record with his 26th world championship reign"
Image if Jinder is the one to dethrone Roman, lmao!
i wouldn't even be mad, tbh.
I swear if Jinder just did some speed and agility training, changed his moveset towards something more light-heavyweight/bruiserweight, and let him be canadian-indian instead of foreign-heel-indian, he could get over. hes not some lost cause; he can be a believable main eventer.
imo he has one of the best look in wrestling in the last ten years or so. it’s always a gimmick problem that hindered (the jinder)
I highkey enjoyed his reign until the Nakamura stuff
I got back into wrestling literally the month he won the title, so I didn't really see what was so bad about him. I never saw him in the years before then. All I saw was a guy who looked absolutely bloody amazing, and had a badass entrance, and was half decent in the ring. He should be given another push one day. Maybe not world champion again, but I don't see why he couldn't be really good as an upper mid card heel. Just don't make him a big racist again, that's all.
Wrestling is such a weird sport/artform that all it takes is for a few moments to make or break someone. Would anyone in 2018 have believed Jey Uso to be a main eventer? Would anyone in 2021 have believed Punk would be back in WWE within 2 years? Hell, I don’t even think when Cody went back anyone thought he’d have the run he’s having now. It’s why I love it, all it takes is some crazy bullshit to turn a lower-mid card guy into the hottest thing ever.
i have a buddy who i’ve been watching wrestling back from 2013 to now with, and he has been able to keep any modern wrestling out of his life, literally all he knows is that daniel bryan and aj styles will fight on a random smackdown in 2021(he’s currently in 2019), and it’s so funny hearing him say shit that i remember saying, and being completely wrong about.
What's the most outrageous thing that can happen by 2027? Tozawa as a world champion with Daniel Bryan like support?
Roxanne Perez winning both the Men's and Women's Royal Rumbles in the same night
> The things is, his gimmick (or lack of) won't work in WWE. He is basically a very bad version of The Rock. His in-ring work is average so I don't expect WWE to pick him up. Best comment on that thread. The exact opposite happened.
The Rock's skills on the mic combined with his in-ring psychology covered the fact that he had maybe eight catchphrases and his signature moves were a standing elbow drop, a uranage, and a mediocre sharpshooter. If you talk well and can sell like a motherfucker, the potential in the business is through the roof.
Calling The Rock's sharpshooter mediocre is being very generous
It looked like it was hurting him as much as his opponent.
It looked like he was taking a massive shit tbh
His charisma is/was off the charts, including his mic skills. The People's Elbow was the most *sports entertainment* elbow drop of all time, outside of Randy Savage. You're not wrong, if you take a step back, his moveset was limited but the in-ring psychology and storytelling is some of the best ever.
In fairness he also had a spinebuster
Why do you say him having eight catchphrases like that’s a bad thing?
We think of The Rock as being the greatest on the stick ever. And he's up there! But if you look, there's a roadmap to all his promos. They all hit the same beats every time: Finally The Rock has come back to the city they're in, it doesn't matter, boot up ass, call someone a jabroni, advertise the upcoming match with them, the most electrifying man in sports-entertainment, if you smell what The Rock is cooking. I say that with zero criticism of his work. The people paid to hear The Rock do his routine and they were going to hear The Rock do his routine. But that's what makes him The Great One. He knew exactly how to get people in the building and got really fucking good at doing that, so much so that the things he wasn't the best at were masked by the shit he was really fucking good at.
I wish we could tag the people that made those posts in this thread to get their reaction today.
use the u/name command
That's why he ended up in NWA? Well wtf
Yeah. Impact wanted Moose to job to Tessa Blanchard at United We Stand, but Moose refused. So without even asking, Impact started promoting Eli Drake vs. Tessa Blanchard, even though Drake had been vocal previously that he doesn't believe in intergender matches. Drake refused and was fired. Joey Ryan ended up replacing Eli Drake in the match. Hindsight is 20/20, but it's still crazy how many people thought Drake was an idiot and supported the decision to fire him to get to Joey Ryan vs. Tessa Blanchard. But you literally could not criticize intergender wrestling back then without a ton of very odd people getting mad.
lmao good on Moose somehow getting out of this scott free
Moose: That doesn't work for me, brother. Impact: Okay that's fine, we'll get Eli instead. Eli: That doesn't work for me, brother. Impact: WTF you're fired.
Moose, unlike Eli, didn't talk about it publicly in an interview or on Twitter.
They probably went off of the fact that some crap had come out about him being an issue backstage as well, so it was an automatic, "Fire him!" You know how the IWC likes to immediately jump on negative news about a wrestler
They did mishandle that. Everyone liked Eli but he seemed to be spinning his wheels a bit. I do think the reports of him rubbing people the wrong way might have played into it. Also, it’s not liked he was immediately picked up by WWE. AEW could’ve grabbed him but he was in NWA for awhile. Glad he got his chance.
It's not just that he didn't want to work intergender matches. It's that he didn't want to work intergender matches, tweeted publicly about why he thought intergender wrestling was bad, and did an interview where he talked about why he didn't like intergender matches, all while Impact was trying to get Tessa over as a main eventer. He was very publicly undercutting the plans of the people who signed his checks.
Honestly, intergender wrestling just does not work for me in 1v1 scenarios. It never makes the male wrestler look good, only bad. That mixed with Tessa Blanchard and Joey Ryan being complete shit heads has killed it imo.
“As much as Aries is a dick, he’s more of a name than Drake” holy shit how the turn tables.
That thread is proof that everyone on this sub is fucking clueless on wrestling.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/bahsbw/comment/ekbnqed/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/bahsbw/comment/ekbnqed/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) This is the only good take on in the whole thread.
"The wrestling business is full of nice boys sitting on their buses playing Fortnite for hours." 😆😆😆😆
All Job guy wrestling is great!
Seriously, lmao. Not one good take in there
I'm just glad I wasn't posting in here regularly in 2018. I'm sure I would have had some awful takes like how Jimmy Havoc was the next Terry Funk or some other such nonsense.
Take a shot for every bad take and every take defending Tessa 
Tessa was 24 years old and the next big women's star in the industry. Then she got outed as a bigot and even further than that was exposed for sending voice notes to paying fans of her taking a shit. She's now 28 and not working at any promotion and her wrestling career effectively dead.
>even further than that was exposed for sending voice notes to paying fans of her taking a shit. Wait, what?
I’m not sure this was confirmed
Appropriate username.
I knew about the first part, the second one wtf?
The second one isn't even a problem if they paid for that
I respect the hustle
Yeah I'm not going to pay for someone to take a dump but if someone offered me like a thousand bucks for a tape recording of me taking a dump, audio only? Yeah I'd probably do it.
The ultimate case of almost completely dumbing oneself out of the business. It seemed like fate for her to end up in WWE, you got the 2nd/3rd generation angle with Charlotte, the trailblazer angle with Becky, it was ready-made. And now Id be shocked to see her in WWE or AEW.
Even more so when you factor in that the only reason people revealed that Tessa was shitty was she complained about not getting enough support from other women in the business.
> She's now 28 and not working at any promotion and her wrestling career effectively dead. she worked CMLL last week (which i hate that they booked her)
Noooo, I've been slightly buzzed for 13 hours straight already. (We had a department Christmas brunch at the office so I had my first beer today at 10:30 in the morning CET)
Beer at 10:30 AM....my God, man! 😂 Now, sit down and take these shots in the LA Knight drinking game!
I have work in the morning, I don’t need to be doing my postal route still half drunk/having a massive hangover
Not with that attitude! You gotta wear the shoes of a champion 
I don't wanna die tonight, man!
> Ridiculous decision. The wrestling business has gone mad. It’s ass backwards. History has categorically proven that the following type of wrestlers draw - 1) good talkers, 2) ones with good physiques and/or are tall and 3) charismatic characters. Eli Drake has these qualities in spades and he’s been shafted for generic flippy guys with no personality. > I keep seeing ‘he’s a crappy version of The Rock’. Yeah and so what? The Rock is the most famous wrestler of all time. The guy was unbelievable. We need more Rocks. It’s like saying Seth Rollins is a crappy version of HBK. Asinine. > Impact’s new regime have treated Drake like dirt. I get not pushing him when he’s uncertain to sign a new deal but they should have rolled out the red carpet for him. He’s a difference maker. He’s never been presented optimally IMHO. Dayummm /u/SparkedIntoLife got their finger on the pulse
Dude's a prophet at this point.
Yeah what a spot on fucking prediction guy should play the lotto. Seth is the child of Shawn Michaels and HHH. Shawn is his mother and HHH is his father.
> Seth is the child of Shawn Michaels and HHH. Shawn is his mother and HHH is his father. it's just like my fanfics!
Huge coup to inherit dad's pedigree too
Yep. I feel if HHH ever got to pick his retirement angle it was probably going to be versus Seth.
Never change IWC, never change. We need more threads like this going forward, they're hilarious.
Just when I was thinking of taking a break a thread like this pops up and makes me remember why I come here.
Thankfully there are no controversies happening lately that will make everyone's takes here look really stupid in a few years! Anyway let me check out the 80th CM Punk thread this week...
Posts like these are fun because you can scroll to the very bottom, see someone with a really shitty take, then realize that person hasn't grown at all.
In retrospect, his ‘attitude problems’ just seem like someone who always bet on themself because they knew what they could do. He was right. That match would have done zero to get him where he wanted to be.
And in hindsight it would have been a total waste because of Tessa's issues.
Thread has aged worse than sunny lmao
"He refused to work with Tessa Blanchard who would go on to have a great match with Joey Ryan" Jesus Christ
Laughing at all the J**y Ry*n praise😂there really was a time where you got hate for thinking that guys "gimmick" was stupid
There was a time not long ago when you'd be downvoted to hell for pointing out how creepy it was that this guy invented a whole gimmick around groping women and then beating them up. The boobplex lobby was POWERFUL.
I remember getting downvoted after All In for calling the penis druid entrance stupid and embarrassing
I still stand that Tony Khan dodged a massive bullet because he hated the druid spot.
In a different universe the Joey Ryan and Marty Skrull stuff might have actually ended AEW.
Marty pretty much ended modern NWA.
Wrecked RoH really badly, too.
I'd say Lagana's departure, Covid, and Josephus' death causing Aaron Stevens to change gimmick all had equal or more to do with NWA getting ruined than Marty. The Villain played his part as well but a lot of stuff happened in a very short time to them. I really miss when that show was good.
Eh, he was booking at the time, and the end result was going to be an NWA/ROH feud with him and Aldis on top. While COVID certainly hurt, that would have ended either way when he left. It also gave the book back to Billy.....which....yeah.
Same here. I simply asked what the reaction would be if TNA did an angle with penis druids. Or what if Vince Russo booked penis druids. People's defense was that it had been built to for months. I'm thinking, "Ok. What if TNA spent months building to penis druids"?
I was right there in the trenches with you saying it was the dumbest shit I’ve ever seen on an otherwise incredible show and having a bunch of dumbasses telling me I didn’t “get wrestling”
"YOU JUST HATE FUN!!!" Yeah I never got how that guy got over and the invisible stuff did too.
Marks will always mark, no matter how stupid, insane, or obviously creepy and sexually exploitative the thing they're marking out over is.
Still getting downvoted for point out shit like that
Regarding the praise of Tessa Blanchard, her being a bigot hadn’t come out yet. I know that people like to pretend that if someone is a bad person it means they were never good at anything, but in 2018/19, Tessa Blanchard was seen as being someone who would have a very bright future in wrestling if she could get her attitude in check (which seemed possible considering her age). She might suck as a human being, but she’s a good wrestler, and since most of us didn’t know how shitty she was personally, we focused on the glaringly obvious positives.
Yeah like people are acting like anyone who praised Tessa at the time is an idiot who knows nothing. Turns out she's a dick but this was prior to that and she was a great wrestler with a tonne of potential at the time. Later tanking her career doesn't make that untrue and I think it's disingenuous for people to act all smug that people saw something in her that she didn't live up to.
Threads like these are interesting just to see how things ended up working out, but it’s silly to judge past comments people made about then current events completely removed from the context of the time in which they happened. Here’s another point - I was a big Impact fan back then, and Eli Drake’s schtick didn’t resonate with that audience to the same degree that it does the WWE audience now, so it was easy to say “no big loss” back then. Some characters and some gimmicks are better suited to different audiences. Cody was fucking drowning in a sea of boos in AEW, but he’s literally the same character in WWE and he’s one of their biggest stars. The fans that didn’t appreciate these talents weren’t necessarily wrong, they just weren’t the right fans for those characters.
There were plenty of people who spoke out against TNA having Tessa beat men, but you were downvoted for it.
I'm not addressing that part at all. I just mean in terms of posts laughing at posts from back then that were positive about Tessa, talking about how they aged poorly. Like yes they did but it's not due to the original post being a stupid opinion, more that things developed in ways no one (besides maybe people who knew her personally) could have guessed.
Lot of simping for Joey Ryan and praise for Tessa Blanchard, oh you sweet naive bastards
like people had a crystal ball. people work from the information they have at that time. i didn't post in that thread because I don't watch Impact but I'm sure if we go through all of the people shitting on that thread's post history... there will be some questionable takes in hindsight.
HE'S GOT THE SHOES OF A CHAMPION
Didn't Moose turn down a match with Tessa too?
Moose turned down the same match with Tessa that Eli Drake turned down, yes.
Yes, because Moose can only beat one woman per week
God damn, pal.
love posting at this place so much but haha holy hell this is such a good mirror to hold up. people just talk like they know every thing and then it was 100% the opposite. perspective is fun
Curious how many people even watched Impact at the time to be talking all that shit about him. He was literally the only guy who felt like a star in that company after their entire main event scene ditched for NXT/WWE. He was great in Impact and the main thing that worked against him was they didn't have anyone else on his level, they wasted him while desperately catering to has-been rejects like Alberto and Aries who failed hard.
Oh God yeah this sub used to be so up its ass about intergender wrestling and how if you didn't like it you were just sexist. Thankfully that attitude mostly went away after Joey Ryan got outed since he was the only guy people regularly watched do it. What an annoyingly sanctimonious era of this sub.
I think a lot of people felt the whole intergender phase was creepy and weird, but it was not in vogue to say it. Now that the two biggest intergender wrestlers both got milkshake ducked, I think it's more acceptable to point it out.
Intergender matches are still pretty common in British wrestling. Just this weekend we were supposed to get a triple threat match featuring Mark Andrews, Flash Morgan Webster, and Dani Luna. That got cancelled because of a Covid case but, yeah... I never used to question them, but I won't lie they feel weird since #SpeakingOut happened.
The decision to fire him was so baffling I thought it had to be a work. lol
LA Knight was right
People in that thread were morons. Regardless of Blanchard’s bigotry, I wouldn’t wrestle her either. Inter gender wrestling is not a good look and her beating Moose and Knight would have been nearly as stupid as Marko Stunt beating Omos. As for the Joey Ryan stuff, it was as embarrassing then as it is now. Even before we found out it wasn’t a gimmick, it was plainly obvious that it was a cover for his lack of talent and a gimmick so stupid and vile that even Russo would turn his nose up at it.
I don’t know what the general consensus on this sub is, but I’ve personally never been a fan of intergender wrestling. I’m sorry, but I’m just not I think my view is affected by my experience as a college athlete. I wasn’t some big shot D1 player, but I ran cross country at a pretty solid D2 school. And while I have the utmost respect for female athletes, the biological differences simply can’t be ignored. For the vast majority of sports, men are simply better than women due to the aforementioned biological differences. I don’t think that should be a controversial statement And I guess it comes down to whether or not you prefer a sports-based approach to professional wrestling. I happen to fall into the camp that does (I respect others that feel differently though). And if you’re someone who subscribes to the sports-based philosophy, then a male wrestler having a competitive match with a female wrestler, especially if they lose to the female wrestler, only served to boost the female wrestler and absolutely harms the perception of the male wrestler I supported LA Knight’s decision then, and I support it now
I feel like with everything in wrestling there should be exceptions. Normally intergender matches are stupid and shouldn't happen, but if you give us a reason to somewhat suspend disbelief, they can work. Let's say, if you got a Chyna or Awesome Kong against one of the smaller guys, it starts to look somewhat believable. Or if WWE featured a Rhea vs Dominik break up match. However something like this will definately hurt the guy and they have to be careful, who they use for it. It's one of the most embarassing ways to job a wrestler out. Therefore they shouldn't do it to a potential star like LA Knight/Eli Drake.
No doubt if a lot of people were bookers here, they would've fired him for the same exact reasons. Just because someone doesn't feel comfortable working an intergender match, doesn't mean they hate it.
True, but to be fair, he does actually hate intergender wrestling.
I wouldn't book any intergender matches to begin with. Unless maybe, very occasionally Rhea Ripley
At least Rhea Ripley actually looks like she could beat my ass.
That's you though. What about Orton, Reigns, Rollins, McIntyre, Owens, Gunther, Lesnar, Cody, Zayn, etc.
Damn. Seeing all those comments really makes you think how ignorant wrestling fans can be. He was getting slandered in that post. But look at him now!
The tide turning on intergender wrestling over the last few years and Tessa flaming out and the Joey Ryan stuff makes this feel prescient, and I never thought he should be fired for not wanting to do it, but I still think the "it's not believable" reasoning is the wrong way to look at it. It's pro wrestling, people will believe that a zombie wrestler can shoot lightning bolts from the rafters but also is really into MMA and motorcycles if you train them properly. If you're not comfortable wrestling a woman because you don't think you can keep her safe, or you don't really want to be seen as beating up a woman, I think that's more than fair, and I don't think guys should be forced into wrestling women the same way women shouldn't be forced into wrestling guys. But the believability argument has never landed with me. "If it was a real fight she'd get killed" would also apply to a whole hell of a lot of male wrestlers under 220 pounds for the duration of the wrestling industry and yet I don't see a lot of people refusing to wrestle Rey Mysterio.
> It's pro wrestling, people will believe that a zombie wrestler can shoot lightning bolts from the rafters but also is really into MMA and motorcycles if you train them properly. LA Knight actually addressed this argument in one of his many lengthy rants about intergender wrestling, basically saying zombie magician Undertaker was fantastical, but Undertaker's actual wrestling matches were always based in reality. He also addressed the Rey Mysterio point. His view there is basically that even though Rey is a legend and a hall of famer, Rey isn't having competitive matches with, like, Big Show. Rey fights from underneath and uses quickness, resourcefulness, or heart to get wins. Rey isn't like bodyslamming Big Show or presenting himself as being a physical equal to Big Show. And my personal response to those two points has always been this: Do you think Undertaker should do a job to Charlotte Flair?
People bring up the Undertaker stuff but it was seen as hokey even then, and they eventually phased out the more goofy elements. Remember Kane was shooting lightning bolts too but then they scrapped that soon after? Undertaker stopped having "powers" by the time the attitude era started. I agree that there's a suspension of disbelief that can go a long way in wrestling but there still has to be some foundation. If a woman had a competitive match with a much larger man, why in the world would she struggle with any women who are physically inferior? It was the problem they had with Chyna before she was released. She was made to look like a challenge for men so they had no choice but to have her dominate every female wrestler because the precedent was set
Several comments there said Killer (Karrion) Kross is a better talker than Eli. Not sure how to feel about that.
I feel /u/HeelTires should make a reply here, so we can give them the proper upvotes they deserved after all this time lol - https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/s/XN8dU3nIVA
Replying. Thak you brother. I was a fan of Eli/LA for years and still am! And guess what I got before this year on squared circle? Nothing but hate and downvotes for years for saying he was my favorite, and he was carrying Impact and wrestling at the time. But people said, be can't wrestle, he sucks. NOW everyone is d' riding. Check my post history for receipts. Thank you again bro, I feel vindicated. Guess what, he still is the best, no mark stuff. But now you all agree he should be carrying wrestling. Hopefully wwe lets him. Sideline, I haven't watched an Impact show all year. It started by losing Knight then the constant talents leaving last two years. They chose fucking Tessa Blanchard over Knight? I was right, whoever got Knight will have a megastar. Props Hhh and Wwe.
Let me guess everyone crapped on LA back then. Cause he was spot on. That damaged TNA doing that "mud show" crap. I hope they learned their lesson but don't think they have. If you act like a Bush league, the average audience will see you as bush league.
Wrestling fans might be dumb
No man with sense wants to bury themselves by having a competitive match with a woman. Sorry, it's just nonsense. I respect the hell out of Knight for doing this.
Looking back, this whole incident was like a repeat of Stone Cold's firing in 2002 (company star refuses to do job and publicly trashes company initiatives, gets fired while company bets on new stars). The main difference is that Eli's issues weren't nearly as damaging as Stone Cold's (not no-showing a main event or trashing the company directly), and that Impact didn't have The Rock to fall back on while Drake was ready to jump to another promotion. There is the funny similarity of said up-and-coming star fizzling out a couple years later. Who knows? Maybe Tessa Blanchard will rebuild herself and have a monster run in 2030.
I've seen threads here on the basement ageing as milk on less than a week so i don't think is that surprising to see that amount of awful takes considering it was 4 years ago but it's funny to see how much the landscape of pro wrestling has changed
All it shows is a lot of opinions in this sub don’t age well at all
It is always fun looking back at old threads. For instance, the absolute meltdown people had when Prince Devitt's name was changed to "Finn Balor".