Thread by @GlobalForceGold

Hello! WrestleMania Weekend is over & no one could have predicted the insane way it unfolded. The past few days have been wild but how did we get to this point?

WELCOME TO WRESTLE WIPE 2020! FEBRUARY!

Rounding up all the news, shenanigans & drama of February 2020.

Read on...

Before we get started, you may want to have a stroll through the January 2020 Wrestle Wipe thread, which you find HERE ----> shorturl.at/hrst7

You can also checkout WrestleWipe.com for the bumper illustrated version.

Right, no fucking around, let's get to it:

- The main event of the February 1st Smackdown is a 6-man tag match where the loser has to eat dog food. This match also involves Baron Corbin, because of course it does.

- WWE hold meetings with NXT talent about the importance of not spilling the beans about any issue, small or large, to the wrestling media. They're really trying hard to cover that stink.

- New Japan remind us what professional wrestling is over the course of their New Beginning tour with Jon Moxley vs Minoru Suzuki, Hiromu Takahashi vs Ryu Lee and Zack Sabre J vs Will Ospreay. All incredible matches, all completely different from each other.

- In what may be the peak of gross deathmatch wrestling, Orin Veidt slams Masashi Takeda onto a board of kitchen knives and the match is immediately stopped due to the aftermath. Takeda needed 50 stitches on his back and arms.

- Tim Thatcher is snatched away by WWE & appears in photos at the PC. We mourn the loss of another pillar of the BritWres/EuroGraps scene. We're happy that Tim is getting paid, but we aren't happy at WWE hoarding talent in a bloated roster they clearly have no intention of using.

- Killer Kross also reports to the WWE Performance Centre and we're mostly cool with that one as Kross had been hammering away at Impact for ages. It also means that we might get that Batista match that he asked for.

- Both the Kross and Thatcher signings are reported by Ryan Satin on WWE Backstage, where Satin refers to Thatcher as being an "original member of Imperium".

Oh fuck off.

- Jazzy Gabert opens up about asking for her WWE release. Her reasoning? In an interview with Wrestling Inc she said that the sacrifice she was putting into NXT UK was not worth it to jeopardise her health & the low pay she received solidified her belief that it wasn't worth it.

- WWE file a trademark for the recently released Viktor of the Ascension, likely so he can't use it on the indies. I'm sure he's heartbroken.

- Mustafa Ali, once a really promising figure on 205 Live and Smackdown, tweets out "12.13.19", which just so happens to be the last time he was used on TV. As of this thread, he still hasn't been used on TV and his last match was a dark match on 7th Feb.

- Dave Meltzer confirms that Vince McMahon sees Matt Riddle as an "outside guy" who doesn't "respect the hierarchy". Brock is in tight with Vince too, so Riddle's reputation amongst the WWE's elite is already a little tarnished.

- Jim Cornette burns one the only bridges he has left when he has a MASSIVE falling out Dave Meltzer over trivial opinions such as Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks and Orange Cassidy. Cornette's massively obsessed fans don't help matters with the constant snitch tagging.

- After firing their most important executives & the stock plummeting into the ground, WWE's conference call went as well as you'd imagine. Vince gave no real insight, talked about having broad shoulders, brushed off his XFL involvement & the status of the WWE Network is unclear.

- The WWE 10-K SEC filings reveal that WWE has 300 talents attached to a contract, which is double the amount from 2015.

- Throughout Feb, Marty Scurll won over many ex-ROH fans through some clever ideas for future shows including a Past vs Present show, a Women Of Honor reboot & the return of the Pure title in a stacked tournament. Whether this actually pulls ROH from the brink remains to be seen.

- Former WWF wrestler Emmett Bryan Clark Jr. (Adam Bomb) was arrested and faces various narcotics charges. His partner in crime? Dennis Miccolis, the original keyboardist for the band, The Buckinghams ('King Of A Drag'?...anyone? No?).

- The Revival requested their release yet again. Despite a bigger 5- year deal being on the table, The Revival turned it down. They still haven't been released.

- The WWE name-change machine is brought out again and Buddy Murphy is shoved into the entrance pipe, tag team championship belt and all, and is spat out as just 'Murphy'.

- During a Team Vision DOJO show (Yep, the Chasyn 'Kids' Rance wrestling school), Teddy Hart babbles on the mic about how Chasyn "beat the system". Fucking hell.

- Cody Hall makes some ill-advised comment about yellow fever in reply to a photo of Chis Dickinson hanging out in Japan. DDT then put out a statement saying that they've now cut all ties with Cody Hall, who he was on tour with at the time.

- KUSHIDA spends most of his month working NXT house shows, dark matches and getting dumped into a bin by the Undisputed Era. Don't worry though, he got to lose a 13 minute non-title match to Adam Cole as a thank you.

- In an interview, Minoru Suzuki takes a well deserved shot at WWE piling up on everybody they can & attempting to buy their way into other promotion's territories. Suzuki says that Japan should be safe due to their strong sense of wrestling culture. I hope you're right, Suzuki.

- Suzuki also takes down WWE's way of creating generic create-a-wrestlers and watering down established names to conform with their bland standards. God bless Suzuki; he's the hero we don't deserve.

- New Japan announced they would be moving World Pro Wrestling Returns (a program similar to the AXS show airing older matches) to a prime time spot on BS Asahi. They'll still have World Pro Wrestling too, which airs current matches, on Saturdays at 2am.

- Viktor (sorry WWE, I mean Victor), fresh off his release from WWE, takes the time to let us know how disappointed he is in WWE 2K20; "Ok now I’m going to actually say this looks like shit. I’m a gamer and a fan of certain things. This sucks".

- Beyond Wrestling promote this weird concept show where they're filming a pilot for a TV network & all the "TV execs" are making demands, changes & booking unappealing matches. No one knows what to make of it, but the feeling is that these concept shows are scraping the barrel.

- PJ Hawx, the son of Florida-based wrestler Luke Hawx, proves that he's all ready 100 times better than his dad by leaping off the first floor of a shopping centre into the ring. The width and height make this a spectacular highspot, and gained 8 millions views on Twitter alone.

- Brandi Rhodes go on Observer Live to chat about AEW and blames the terrible Nightmare Collective stuff on someone else's "creative direction" and says she never wanted to do that infamous commentary segment. The plug is quickly pulled on the angle (thank God).

- During a Toru Sugiura vs KTB match, GCW commentator Kevin Gill starts reading off Toru's stats. Well, he tried to at least, as eagle eared viewers realised that he was actually reading out the Wiki of Takashi Sugiura instead.

- Scottish Wrestling Twitter explodes as they find out that they're the only ones who think the sun shines out of Joe Coffey's arse.

- Irish Wrestling Twitter decides to have a go as well, as the positivity police attack anyone who is critical of the up-coming OTT shows. The anti-critical thinking brigade were real bad across the board in general.

Just enjoy it.

- Joey Ryan appears at a set of Impact tapings with a new gimmick that harps on about Cancel Culture. Yes, you read that right; Impact Wrestling. Impact fucking Wrestling. Home of Tessa, Moose, Elgin. Fucking Joey Ryan. Cancel Culture. Impact. Ryan. Cancel. Impact.

- We are all reminded of how small the wrestling bubble truly is when WWE's financial woes are but a mere "cat stuck in a tree" footnote in a Forbes report about Amazon; "...In lighter news, Amazon may be going to the mat for WWE pay-per-view rights. Yup, WWE is still a thing".

- Winding out the last weeks of his WWE contract, Matt Hardy has a RAW segment with Randy Orton where he passionately defends the guy who cucked him back in 2005.

- Shayna Baslzer attacks Becky Lynch and bites the back of her neck, leaving a huge blood stain around her mouth. Remember, AEW HAS NOT CHANGED WWE's content, they're still PG and they have no need for an edgier product or blood'n'guts.

- Jim Cornette decides that the best way to tackle his doubters (in this case, David Bixenspan) is to post photos of him, mock him for his looks and encourage his followers to do the same. What an abrasive little shit heap he is.

- GIF extradition MrLariato has his account deleted thanks to several copyright claims from Fite.TV due to NJPW GIFs. A dick move by Fite, as Lariato has been responsible for giving a lot of promotions & wrestlers vital exposure. Its saying no to free advertising.

- The job spec for the position of WWE’s Vice President of Operations hits the jobsites. You must have a degree in business admin, discretion, excellent leadership, grace under pressure, & 24/7 availability. When you're done choking, remember; who wouldn't want to work for WWE?

- The Daily Mail (an unreliable, shit excuse for a newspaper) publishes a cringey, lazy article about Stardom ("the little sister of the men's New Japan"), where the the competitors "compete in 'puroresu'" at Korakuen Hall ("known as the Madison Square Garden of wrestling").

- Tripe H chimes in on the Riddle/Brock/Vince heat. He says he's heard all the rumours, Vince hasn't disapproved a Brock vs Riddle match, and the convo at the Royal Rumble is simply between Riddle and Brock. He finishes with the classic "it is what it is" WWE nomenclature.

- Pretty Deadly, a newly established tag team on the UK scene who were beginning to make some waves, sign NXT-UK contracts and are rapidly pulled from an upcoming OTT show on a day's notice.

- Stardom cancel a slew of up-coming shows due to Coronavirus, and some are reworked as shows featuring no fans in attendance (also known as the 'NXT-UK TV Tapings' method).

- Cathy Kelly releases a statement saying that she'll be leaving NXT the Sunday following NXT Takeover: Portland. She describes leaving as a "difficult decision" and is very thankful for a her position.

- NXT Takeover:Portland is somehow simultaneously good and exhaustingly bad. Lee/Dijak, Broserweights/UE and Nox/Dakota were good-great, but then everything else was either overly long, dull, excessive or all three ( looking at you Ciampa vs Cole).

- In the middle of Black History Month, and wearing spectacular ring gear that celebrated her heritage AND with her parents sat in the front row, Bianca Belair is defeated by Rhea Rhipley in an NXT championship match.

- Rickey Shane Page defeats beloved hero Nick Gage to retain the GCW strap & it results in the outraged fans bottling the baddies & the ringside area in scenes reminiscent of Hogan turning on WCW at Bash At The Beach '96. Take note WWE/Corbin; THAT IS WHAT HEAT LOOKS LIKE.

- NXT-UK Takeover: Dublin (that name…Christ) is announced, and will be on the same weekend as an OTT show. What a massive coincidence, just like them going head-to-head with New Japan as well as head-to-head with their three best mates; PROGRESS, ICW and WXW. What a coincidence!

- Due to NXT-UK Takeover: Dublin (never gets any easier to say), PROGRESS (who are best mates with WWE, don't you know) have to move their Electric Ballroom show.

- NXT-UK smashes into their BT Sport timeslot with the same old boring, drawn-out shows filled with squash matches and dull, lifeless stories. It does nothing to shake off the popular opinion that NXT-UK is just generic placeholder wrestling.

- MLW alleges that WWE have tampered with their own contracted talents for usage in potential WWE projects.

- Jeff Cobb makes a surprise debut on Dynamite. He's a free agent there for a cup of coffee and short program with Jon Moxley, and it's interesting that AEW used a guy still connected to ROH.

- New Japan announce a show set for Madison Square Garden called Wrestle Dynasty. It will go head-to-head with NXT Takeover: Boston, which is all fair in love and war, I guess. Still a shitty move by the New Japan office in my opinion but it's probably just a coincidence...

- Val Venis logs on to have a transphobic rant about Nyla Rose being the AEW women's champ, saying "it isn't fair (to the men)". Wrestling is a work, you melt. He doubles down in other posts, calling Nyla a man & how he could identify as a dog to win the Westminster Dog show.

- WWE's revisionist history tactics come into play during their Relentless Aggression Era documentary. Did you know that Vince McMahon changed the name from WWF to WWE because he felt the company needed to push a new creative direction and absolutely nothing else?

Also revealed on the documentary is Vince doubling down on his booking logic to have Lesnar defeat Austin on TV by declaring that no one would remember it when they promote a big money PPV match between the pair down the line. His opinion of his own audience is astounding.

- NXT hits a creative brick wall when they decide to reboot the Gargano/Ciampa feud. As I stated in last year's Wrestle Wipe, this feud should've ended in April 2018. This also means that we're going to be treated to loads more of NXT's patented over-acting bollocks.

- Cedric Alexander, who got "Please sign Cedric chants!" during his Cruiserweight Classic debut, and Akira Tozawa, one of the most popular Japanese imports in recent memory, face off during a Main Event taping where the fans chant for the ref during their match.

- Maria Manic reveals that Teddy Hart was arrested for possession of weed and steroids in Virginia, thus she has nowhere to stay and still has to take care of Teddy's cats. The whole situation is really bad and someone needs to step in.

- The legendary Wrestle Kingdom battles of Hiroshi Tanahasi and Kazuchika Okada were heavily referenced on ABC's sitcom, Black-ish.

- Jim Ross becomes a real life Ron Burgundy when he reads out the points of ellipsis on his script during AEW Dynamite.

- Remember when Baron Corbin complained about AEW & called AEW fans neckbeards? Well he had a go at Meltzer this time & said "(Meltzer) inspires hatred to anything & everything he doesn't like or agree with", & said that he himself does the opposite. Of course you do, sugar plum.

- Like clockwork this ignites a massive dumpster fire of discourse about who can & who cannot critique wrestling, & it made me want to fuck this dumb hobby off. "Wrestling fans have a responsibility to support the scene & stay positive!" was the general output of shite.

- During Tiger Hittori's retirement ceremony, Colt Cabana joins some of the wrestlers heading out to the ring to pay their respects but realises that no one else but CHAOS was out there, thus accidentally joining CHAOS for a night.

- Real heavy rumours of WWE opening a WWE performance centre in Japan begin to circulate. It appears Trips isn't taking no for an answer and doesn't want his totalitarianism vision of "global localisation" to fail.

- Effy sends out an in-character video about beating up fans who shout abusive/homophobic/racist/sexist language at his Big Gay WrestleMania show. This angers the very nice, very progressive, very good boy Brad Sheppard who moans about being beaten up for saying such things.

- After an incredible return to form at High Stakes that saw Will Ospreay defeat Zack Sabre Jr in a brilliant bout and the roster given a new boost of life , Rev Pro's on-demand service gets a kicking when it turns they used several potatoes to film the show.

- Shinsuke Nakamura splits the back of head open when Braun Strowman slams him onto a grand piano. Jesus fucking Christ mate, I hope the surfing is worth killing yourself for.

- Sky Deutschland drops WWE from their programming (including TV content and PPVs) and replaces it with AEW PPVs instead. A welcome upgrade.

- Chris Jericho has "truther" David Weiss on his podcast to have a chat Coronavirus being a satanic conspiracy, mind control and other "supposed" pandemics.

Oh boy.

- Samoa Joe is injured filming an advert & is out of action. This follows disputed reports earlier in the month that Joe was out due to a wellness violation. WWE then announce that Joe is suspended due to a wellness violation. This had the anti-dirtsheets reply guys going insane.

- OTT's bad luck with NXT-UK talents continues when Tyler Bate, their tag champion, is pulled 3 days prior to a show. That's 5 times in two years for Bate. As of that cancellation, his last appearance for OTT was July, 2019. Fucking state of it.

- Chris Brookes becomes the first DDT Universal champion.

- Vicky Guerrero makes a cameo on AEW DARK and pops along to Chris Jericho's cruise ship for a bit, so WWE bans WWE Superstars from appearing on her podcast.

- Some stranger knocks on Arn Anderson's door, wakes him up and gets him to sign to some replica championship belt. Wrestling fans continue to be the worse.

- Tommaso Ciampa, Keith Lee and Rhea Ripley get top billing on an EVOLVE poster for an upcoming show. Well, until you look at the small print and realise they were there for a meet'n'greet only, making the actual EVOLVE roster look like a bunch of nerds.

- Ryan Smile makes a surprise return to wrestling after going dark for a few years when Lucha Forever went under and people never got refunds for tickets. This isn't a very popular appearance but he still gets advertised for a few shows in the coming weeks.

- WWE tweets out a video of Brock Lesnar F5-ing Steve Austin in 2004, and they blur out Austin's "FUCK FEAR DRINK BEER" t-shirt. Remember what the MPAA says; "Horrific, deplorable violence is okay, as long as people don't say any naughty words!".

- New Japan feel the power of the Coronavirus as they cancel two weeks worth of March shows including the anniversary show and eight New Japan Cup shows. DDT, Big Japan and NOAH also cancel up-coming shows.

- Charlotte batters Bianca Belair post match with chair and a Figure 8, all the while Rhea Ripley tries to make the save but she can't due to the extremely WWE micro-managing habit of doing her full contrived entrance first.

- AEW continues their hot streak of some of the most consistent wrestling telly in ages with their shows on the way to Revolution, and they punctuated it with a giant exclamation point, with the PAC vs Omega Iron Man match being one of the best free TV matches in 15 years.

- Nyla Rose is the guest on Chris Jericho's podcast which causes a load of very normal boys to get in his mentions about gender. "Go study the transgender process and get back to me junior" - Jericho to comments that disregard Nyla's gender.

- NXT announce a "fan appreciate night" for the March 11th episode of NXT, where it'll be live from the performance centre. Y'know, with moves like that and them not running other venues/arenas, it makes the rumours of USA paying next to nothing for the show seem almost valid...

- At the Saudi Shite Show, Brock Lesnar pinned Ricochet in seconds, with Rick not even getting in a single offensive manoeuvre. Also, 'Taker showed up & pinned AJ Styles without taking his entrance garb off, & WWE nerds explode when Goldberg defeats The Fiend for the WWE strap.

- Despite being destroyed by Brock, and the opening video package saying he had no chance to win, Ricochet still feels the need post about how thankful he is and how he is still living the dream. That is clearly a cry for help.

- Wrestle-1 announces that they'll be closing up shop, with a final show scheduled for April 1st. Somewhere, on a throne made of used kickpads, Triple H laughs manically.

- Kenny Omega & Adam Page vs The Young Bucks becomes an instant classic at AEW Revolution. The match turns heads and sparks debate across the wrestling sphere, but for me it was the prefect marriage of great storytelling, great action and was very rewarding for long-term fans.

- Downstait absolutely fucking murder Cody Rhode's entrance song during his entrance at Revolution. This was embarrassingly bad, and not the way to kick off the heavily hyped MJF vs Cody match. Stick to being a studio band, lads.

- Not be outdone by Jack Gallagher's awful tattoo of a giant ship on his chest, Cody reveals that he has new ink too in the form a garish logo on his neck.

- Rush reclaims the ROH World Championship at Gateway To Honor 2020. Despite ROH's moves to make their product more accessible and less shit, they still have terrible optics by booking large venues that have mountains of visible empty seats.

- At the end of February, AEW leads the Wednesday Night Wars, with the standings at 17-3-1.

That's it for February! Fucking hell, that's a lot. If you've made it all the way here then let me say thank you & I hope you enjoyed the ride! Look out for the bumper illustrated version hitting WrestleWipe.com at the end of week.

Please RT, share & all that good stuff!