This latest Saudi Arabia trip is an even bigger disaster than first reported:

WWE Superstars were not permitted to leave Saudi Arabia as planned after Crown Jewel. Many of them feel as though they were used in a “power play.”

The story of Superstars pulling their resources and getting a charter flight out of the country was “bullsh*t.” WWE paid for that flight, but it didn’t get them back in time for SmackDown.

Dave Meltzer further explained during Wrestling Observer Radio that this entire situation has caused WWE Superstars to not only say they’re not going back to Saudi Arabia, but they are also wanting to leave WWE all together.

https://www.ringsidenews.com/2019/11/03/wwe-superstars-cant-wait-to-get-out-of-the-company-after-saudi-arabia-issues/

Not surprised one bit. I have absolutely zero respect for Saudi Arabia and I stopped watching WWE's main roster a few months back for bullshit like this. No respect, no desire to make a good product, and Saudi blood money. fuck WWE. AEW is where it's at.

I do most my wrestling talk on Facebook but I have to say that Smackdown was awesome! I assume they were saving the NXT invasion for later but had no choice but to do it now. Either way, it was great. And the main roster could say "Our big guns were still overseas. When they get home, it's war!"
In any case, I'm super hyped for NXT and I imagine the ratings are gonna get a big jump, too.

Smackdown was quite good, but IMO it felt like a bit of a taste of what NXT does nearly every single week.

Anyway, on that Saudi Arabia trip, I think it's only a matter of time when that event is held with the same notoriety as the flight from hell, the Montreal screwjob, and the steroid scandal. This is something WWE is going to desperately try to cover-up (maybe not cover-up so much as minimalize the significance), particularly due to their involvement with the Saudi Vision 2030 propaganda campaign. I don't see the WWE being very successful in this because WWE superstars are going to be more vocal in the future about not wanting to go.

When Vince McMahon challenged God.

People deny climate change and yet it's snowing in hell:

The difference that 15 years can make on one's personality =P

(Tommaso comes out a little after 2:30)

So, the past few weeks on AEW, we've seen the arrival of "The Alien" Kris Statlander. After being impressed with her few matches in AEW, and watching some of her indie work on Youtube, she is by far one of the greatest female wrestlers that i've ever seen. The best that AEW currently has as well, imo.

So, the Royal Rumble is getting some excellent reviews. I can’t say I share the feeling.

While the women’s RR match was quite good, we got to see some interactions and such that would have never happened, I didn’t get the same feeling with the men’s match. Wrestlers like Keith Lee, Ricochet, and Matt Riddle felt wasted. Not to mention a bunch of others who barely got 20 seconds in with virtually no signature moves. I didn’t enjoy the men’s royal rumble match one bit.

Asuka vs. Becky, I felt could have been a little more spectacular, but it had a great ending. Best ending of the night.

Some people have judged the entire women’s match bad because Charlotte Flair won, yet say nothing about another big slow vanilla wrestler winning the men’s match. Charlotte Flair actually has a lot of talent and has put on some stellar matches in the past. Although, I wasn’t too thrilled about the end of the women’s match, but it was because it had that “OK, lets eliminate everyone quickly, TIME people!” and felt it should have had 5-6 more minutes for some better quality and more dramatic finishes.

Edge returning was a huge highlight of the show, Edge and Christian were my favourite tag team of all time all the way up to #DIY. They’re still number 2 on my list. Although, Edge’s singles career is a little less known to me since it fell mostly in a long period where I wasn’t watching WWE due to life being too busy (kids and work balance and all) and also the Benoit situation absolutely disgusting me - I felt really weird about pro-wrestling for a long time after that. But anyway, I’m rambling.

Bottom line, I think most people will like the show, some are saying it’s the best in a decade. Myself, I don’t think it was a terrible show, but I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as 2018 or 2019. Most of the excuses I hear is “they did something different, finally someone unexpected won, and I liked that” which fundamentally translates to “I don’t like Royal Rumble matches as I don’t care about seeing 30 wrestlers show off their move sets and interact with other wrestlers in ways that would not happen at most other points in the year. Also, I choose to ignore Shinsuke Nakamura.”

In the end, not only was I not to thrilled about the matches, I am also not excited for Wrestlemania. Becky vs. Charlotte doesn’t interest me... maybe there’ll be a swerve and it will be Charlotte vs. Rhea Ripley which would get me VERY interested.  Vanilla Roman (Drew) vs Brock has me no more interested than a Roman vs Brock match would; maybe less so. I don’t care about seeing either of these guys in a match and I don’t care about seeing either of these guys win.

Don't feel too bad, I absolutely hated the Men's Royal Rumble match. absolutely loathed it. I hate Brock Lesnar, I hate how little work he does while also getting the most pay and respect. yeah it's backstage stuff, but I find all of his matches boring as hell to watch. The entire first half of the rumble (A pretty long time, I must say) was absolute dumpster fire trash that disrespected literally everyone except Brock. The second half was good, maybe even great...but that first half absolutely ruined it. 

I loved seeing Bianca Belair and Shayna Baszler wreck shop in the Women's rumble. that made me happy. charlotte winning was okay but nothing special. 

6/10 event. Not bad, but not great either.