The Unknown Poster

Not irrelevant when lawyers are involved. The belief is that AJ, Anderson and Gallows did meet with Dixie (TNA) and might have verbally agreed but did not sign the contract. WWE heard they were talking to TNA and made them a better offer. As far as TNA's motivation to drop this on a Friday I think it's pretty clear that they are sour on losing out and hoping to "chill" WWE from making AJ debut this weekend. TNA probably think WWE might not have time to confer with lawyers before Sunday. Pretty low of TNA. In their statement they talk about how much AJ meant to TNA for ten years. And this is his thanks. TNA is a joke. I hope WWE is angry and decides to give a receipt in some way.

Not a chance.

TNA is claiming AJ Styles and the other two Bullet Club guys met with Dixie at her home in December and signed a deal to return to TNA. And then backed out.

Yeah you're certainly right. I think in the past, because it was just one or two guys booking the entire show, they took more pride in making sure they "touched" every segment and had something for every guy, sometimes too much in fact. Now they do so much start and stop booking. I would segment my writing team and put someone in charge of specific angles/wrestlers so they are focused on writing for them and not feeling like everyone is being pulled to write for the top of the card. I'd also change the first hour of RAW and de-emphasize it a bit. Its killing the third hour which is where you naturally climax the big angles. I'd start the second hour with a "big" segment, like they seem to do in Hour One with the weekly Authority promo and let the first hour be different. Let it be under-utilized guys. almost like how Nitro had the cruiserweights.

I guess it depends on the deal and the content. A Star Wars live action film might be more geared towards the teen/adult crowd. The original premise was taking place prior to ANH. Thats a good time to set it really and could be about Vader's hunt for the Jedi (although isnt that the plot of one of the cartoons, which I dont watch?). Disney owns Marvel and makes deals with Netflix and their own network. Diversifying isnt a bad idea. And Netflix is a great partner. Im not sure I buy the idea a TV show would hurt the films. Its a bit different than Star Trek where Trek is really built for TV and the films might not deliver the true content that Trek fans want. I think a GOOD Wars TV show would enhance it. But if they are being cautious about over saturation then good for them!

A live-action STAR WARS television show has been both rumored and in development for a long time now. Back in the mid-2000s, George Lucas himself was working to bring STAR WARS: UNDERWORLD to the small screen. It's a project that never came to fruition, though that didn't stop animated fare like STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS and STAR WARS REBELS from coming out. All the same, we'd be lying if we said we weren't intrigued by the idea of a live-action STAR WARS show. Some time ago, there was talk of Disney re-using the sets for their feature films for the TV series, but given how infrequently the STAR WARS universe seems to revisit locations, it seemed unlikely to work out in the long run. Plus, after the acquisition of the property, Disney decided to divert its resources on one thing. “They are focused on their movies,” network president Paul Lee told TVLine, “so we don’t have any plans at the moment.” And regarding the TV front, a Lucasfilm rep said their "current focus for TV is on animation [STAR WARS REBELS, etc.].” Nothing against animation, but wouldn't a live-action STAR WARS series be the next logical step for the franchise? And what about Netflix? Marvel is having great success with their Netflix series DAREDEVIL and JESSICA JONES, and if the same careful attention was given to a galaxy far, far away, couldn't it work? Perhaps. But an anonymous industry insider seems to thinks it's "smart brand management" not to do a live-action TV show. The anonymous insider went on to speculate behind the reasoning behind this move. “I imagine they’re looking to avoid the Marvel-ization of the franchise," they told TVLine. That part of the statement has me scratching my head a bit. Marvel is currently one of the most lucrative brands out there, and given that Disney is the owner of both Marvel and Lucasfilm, it seems like a no-brainer to develop a TV show. Maybe Disney doesn't want to be lazy in the way it handles its properties. I can certainly appreciate a company trying to change up their strategies for fear of oversaturating the market. I say that...and yet I don't think that can be it. STAR WARS is a property that spans movies, comics, books, video games, and animated TV shows. Why would they be that precious about this one aspect? It's possible that in limiting the live-action fare, they've ultimately limited the number of people who will get tired of the films. The plan going forward is to release a film every year, and if in addition to this, they have an ongoing STAR WARS TV series, there could potentially be a large portion of moviegoers who would skip the movie experience since they've already had their live-action STAR WARS fix on the small screen. In addition to this, as successful as the Marvel TV front has been, there has been an increasing disconnect between Marvel Studios and Marvel TV. By not creating a live-action TV show to begin with, Disney is eliminating that problem at the root. What do you think? Is it a smart move on Disney and Lucasfilm's part to avoid a TV show? ! Read more at: https://tr.im/XBuub

Im not familiar with Pirri but that sounds like a big over-payment. He's an RFA after this season.

Well I assume Obi Wan told Organa to send for him if he was in dire need. And he thought the Death Star was a "dire need" scenario. Perhaps Rogue One will tease some of this. I assume the old guy from the beginning of TFA will be a character in Rogue One. Lars San Tekka or whatever his name was.

Thats a good point. I assumed at the time that she had kept secret that it was twins. Ofcourse the whole hiding them from vader is weird too. Luke lives on Anakin's home planet. As a Skywalker. That should raise suspicions. Lucas just wrote awful films and then tried to shoehorn in some semblance of connection to the originals.

Montreal isnt trading for Ladd as a result of missing the playoffs unless they get to speak to him first about a contract extension. One media (maybe Gary) reported he was hearing the possibility the Jets would let teams speak with Ladd and Buff before making a trade offer...

Social Outcasts are done. Putting them together was never going to work but having Big Show squash them a week later was the end. WWE has an enormous number of "jobbers" and low card guys with little hope of getting over. They cant be screwing up their own developmental guys like Tyler Breeze who is everything they want in a wrestler. They desperately need to book AJ Styles the right way.

I think they see Bray as a solid upper mid-card heel at a time when they are hurting for heels. So they figured he's an easy guy to put with Roman. They want Roman to be cheered, not boo'ed. Against some heels, Roman is going to get boo'ed. They cooled Bray off enough, made him less cool so that he wouldnt get cheered. I know that sounds nuts. But WWE is a weird culture. You should hear the stories of what they did when they bought WCW and how they treated guys. Just look at Sting. nearly 15 years after buying WCW, they still had to show everyone that "WWE was better". Just goofy. They do really goofy things. The way they've treated Breeze is nuts. The DIVAS Revolution was nuts. The pushing of Roman ahead of everyone else who was more over. Just nuts.

Im wondering something though...is this a switch from Ladd to Buff because Ladd negotiations arent going well? Or have they essentially nailed down what it ake to keep Ladd and are now seeing what it would take to keep Buff to either potentially keep both or then decide which one to sign. Its possible they chipped away at Ladd enough to generate a few extra bucks for Buff. In theory I like the idea of keeping both guys. But what is best for this team for the next 10-15 years? Im not sure signing them rather then trading them for key pieces is the right thing for the future. You essentially risk taking a bottom 3 team this year and icing the exact same team next year except now its really close to being a cap team.

Those are good points. Look at the Wheeler contract. Seemed fair at the time but arguably he's underpaid. That's the risk/reward factor with long term deals. Players sign them for the safety they provide and teams like them because it provided long term cost certainty. I remember having this discussion many times before the Jets came back with the naysayers saying Winnipeg could never afford "todays" salaries. The counter argument was, its not the salaries its the uncertainty. And a Cap provides certainty even if its a high cap. Anyway, digressing... the risk with Buff is that his weight ballooned that one year. So its not unfair for GM's to be cautious about that happening again. And even if it doesnt, a player of his size could easily;y develop knee/back issues. We might choke on $7.5M of a couple of years but assuming Buff continues to be a top tier talent for most of the contract, the $7.5 might look like a deal in year 3-5.

Can you imagine if the Oilers landed 1st overall again? Or even top 3? Like how many top picks can you get before you start improving? At what point does the League say 'listen, you cant keep hiding behind management incompetence. Manage your team better!' Buffalo also stands to benefit again this year. In 5 years it could be the Oilers, Sabers and Jets as the best teams in the league!

Then other thing about Bray was that his promos made him unique initially and he a lot more leeway in scripting his promos than most guys but then they became really repetitive and it became him rambling on about something nonsensical. Which happens if you have little direction from Creative. Even his feud with Roman...he has a feud with him but they've never explained why, never explained his motivation. Bray keeps saying "Anyone but you"...okay, what does that mean? Why? When Jake Roberts turned heel on Ultimate Warrior, it was virtually for no reason...except, Jake summed it up with "Never trust a snake". He did it because he's evil. It was a simple explanation but something fans can buy into. With Bray, they hint at some motivation but never really tell us.

All speculation when it comes to the EU especially and even non-"on screen" developments. The filmmakers have the ability to change whatever they want. Why I like the Plageius idea is that it immediately speaks to the power of Snoke, as assuming Palpatine thinks he killed him, it would mean Snoke WAS able to cheat death and laid low all this time for some reason (presumably a nefarious reason). It also brings the Prequels into the story more. As it stands the prequels really have little to no bearing on the saga. You dont have to see them to watch and appreciate the saga. As much as they sucked, I think it's important to include them. Snoke said he had seen the rise and fall of the empire. So regardless of who he was, he was around during the time of the Prequels. We can assume (until its confirmed or denied) that he IS a Sith as he referred to completing Kylo's training. They might try to say he's just a Dark Side user or a Dark Jedi but I think that muddies the waters unnecessarily. The saga story is basically a simple good vs evil story of fall and redemption. Jedi vs Sith. Im not sure I'd try to muddy that. Unless their idea to make it make sense that the Saga continued is that the Sith WERE destroyed but there is this new evil that the Skywalker's must eradicate before the saga truly ends...

Here's a story that impacts two popular threads! Making A Murderer Subject’s Brother Abandon’s WWE Hopes ProWrestlingSheet.com has an update on Making A Murderer subject Brendan Dassey’s brother Brad’s ambitions to get a former WWE star to meet him in prison. Apparently the very public request somehow resulted in Brendan being moved to an even more high security prison facility. Former WWE Superstar Sean “X-Pac” Waltman had actually stepped up and offered to visit Dassey in prison himself. Since the request seems to have created even more troubles for Brendan and the Dassey family Brad is abandoning his efforts to get Waltman, or any other WWE Superstar, to meet Brendan in prison.

Id be fine if Snoke was Plaguies but I think the similar musical score was a red herring.

Is this part of Chevy's master plan to get the 14th overall pick?

I think he lied about learning to prevent death. That was one of Lucas' simplistic ideas to show "evil". Anakin turned to save Padme and the moment he did, he declared his loyalty to Palpatine and said "Ill do whatever you ask. Just save her" (or something like that), to which Palpatine replied "Im sure if we combine our knowledge we will learn how to save her" (or something like that). But the implication, to me, was that Palpatine learned to manipulate the force to creative Anakin but never bothered to learn how to prevent death. On the other hand, if the story is true that Plageuis DID learn both of these powers and Palpatine learned one, it stands to reason he likely learned the other too. So its possible he did know how to "prevent" death but lied to Anakin. One interesting thing is how similar the Sith and Jedi were portrayed. They both needed Anakin to lose Padme. Palpatine needed her to die so even if he could save her, he never would have. In fact, the goofy death of Padme might be more than it seems. She was perfectly fine but "lost the will to live". Which didnt make sense especially as she implored Obi Wan that there was good in Anakin. If she had given up hope of Anakin's redemption, then sure, die. But if she really believed he was good, why would she "lose the will to live"? It made little sense. If she had given up all hope, it would further have made Luke's redemption of Anakin all the more emotional. As an aside, regarding the Padme death scene, wasnt it odd how they introduced the twins? If I recall Luke was born first and she touched his cheek. Leia was then born and she didnt touch her at all. I always figured they'd reverse that and use that to explain why Leia could remember her mother. Perhaps they thought the touch was Padme giving Luke the touch of Force or something...I dont know. Weird. Im hoping they delve more into the Prequels next Episode and help make them make more sense.

Your point about Cena is far too simplistic. If he got his superpush last year and the fans turned on him, maybe you'd have a point. Cena's push began in 2003. So he has been presented as the top guy essentially since that time. Which is nearly 13 straight years. Hulk Hogan burst into WWE in January 1984 and they were trying to replace him in 1990. But let's use 1993 as the end of his run (he was being phased out in 92 admist the steroid scandal, brought back in 93 but business tanked). That's 9 years. We can trace the beginnings of Steve Austin's explosion to June 1996. They still booked him as a heel until the following WrestleMania (they would never have the patience to do that now). He was done as a top guy by 2002. Six years. Even Hunter didnt have Cena' level longevity. 1999 to about 2009. And while his relationship with Steph isnt why he made it (he's very talented), its probably why he had so many chances and the power to stay on top. That's ten years. But the thing they all have in common is that fans began tiring of them. Hogan reinvented himself in WCW. Austin did a heel turn that flopped. Hunter was thought of as a guy holding people down. When WCW raided WWE in the 90s, it forced them to develop new stars. Cena's stint on top has made WWE very reluctant to do that same thing. Whenever they try to move away from him, business doesnt respond and they go back to him. I dont dislike the Wyatts. But they came in with a bang. they were then De-emphasized for no reason other than thats what WWE does. Brought back, then Bray was split off from the other two. Then flopped. then put back together. Its not that they have been buried per se, but booked so inconsistently that they arent credible to the fans. You need to go back and watch what made WWE successful and see how they booked during their more stable times to understand what Im talking about. There were always guys at every level being groomed. Tag Team...split...feud...win the IC title...get over at that level...dabble at the top....win the big strap. Another version is come in and feud with the champ, lose the feud, move down to IC title, develop the next generation of top guys. They dont do that anymore. Look at RAW this past monday. What the hell was that entire third hour? An 8 man tag that BOMBED in the ratings and why anyone though it would be any different is mind blogging. Chris Jericho back for two weeks, not remotely a ratings draw. No one is over. It is WWE's job to get people over through booking and marketing. They are great at marketing. They are lousy at booking. Listen to Road Dogg discuss this on the JBL Legends series... Dogg is on the creative team. He talks about how in the Attitude Era, the creative freedom of the boys was more important to their getting over than the general circumstances that the booker (Russo) wrote for them. And then shrugs off the fact that is no longer the case by saying "Hey, we're a TV show and TV shows have scripts." That's the biggest issue with WWE, Vince & Steph decided one day back in 2000-ish that WWE was no longer a wrestling promotion and was something akin to Disney and they needed scripts and script writers and started ignoring the "rules" of wrestling that existed for 100 years. They've deluded themselves into thinking the fans dont matter, the fans dont know better and that this is how "TV" is run. And thats why no one is over but the brand and the family.

Unfortunately this is another example of Lucas' poor writing (and his willingness to let the EU do whatever they wanted). I didnt interpret that scene the way you did. I took it as Palpatine conceived Anakin using the Dark Force. His story about Plagueis was a bit of a red herring and Im not even sure if Lucas intended it to be truthful. If we take it at face value, Palpatine meant that Plagueis learned how to control life using the Force and taught it to him (Palpatine). We could make the leap that once he had that knowledge, that is what prompted Palpatine to kill Plagueis (which was a weak idea...killed in his sleep). The midichlorian thing is just bad on many levels. Its too much of a reach to say they refused to create a dark lord so created Anakin instead...who then does exactly what Palpatine intended him to do. The whole "Balance of the Force" and prophecy thing really bogged down the original story. In a way it changed the story from a son redeeming the father to the idea that it was all destined to unfold that way. And the idea that all this killing and slaughtering happened was the will of the force to restore balance...just seems goofy to me. It's a simpler story if Palpatine does what he intended, influences the force to conceive Anakin but the fact Anakin becomes a powerful Jedi isnt "pre-destined", its manipulated by Palpatine. So at any point, Anakin could have been stopped/saved but it was the arrogance of the Jedi that let Palpatine influence events the way he wanted. In fact, it really comes down to a failure on the part of Obi Wan. It was weird when Yoda and Mace were both concerned about Anakin, flat out saying he is too dangerous. Then why the **** train him? Especially by your most recent "graduate"? The whole virgin birth thing is a bit tough to swallow too. Anakin never seems to show where his anger and hatred came from. It seemed to always be there. Well his mom wasnt shown to be bitter at all. Sure, perhaps Anakin was bitter about his lot in life but they never really showed that in the film. I suppose the anger could come from the influence of the dark side inherent in his genetic make up. Which isnt a terrible concept. Because Anakin and Luke had a lot in common. And there was similarities with Kylo too. So where does this anger and passion inherent in the Skywalker family (the men anyways) come from? Are they vessels for the "balance", ie. both sides of the Force? Assuming we have to accept that premise of "Balance", that idea of the Darkl & Light existing in the Skywalker's in a way it doesnt in anyone else is more interesting then anything actually shows in the prequels.

The last thing I would want is fans voting in board members every year. Its not a perfect system but if you have people that care about the team and have experience in running various businesses, that *should* be a positive. I know Asper gets a lot of heat but that guy bleeds blue & gold. And I think he did learn to temper his "enthusiasm" a bit as the years went on. And regardless of the Stadium issues, he spearheaded the campaign that resulted in IGF existing. And has been said, the BOD hires the President. And there you have it. If they make a mistake there, sure, thats a problem. But if the coach is a bad hire or the GM brings in less than stellar players, Im not sure I can get on board with replacing the BOD, especially with a group elected by fans.

Sully. Go get Stone Cold Auston Matthews!