#Kevin Kelly

[elitehanitje]

"DILF of The Year 2023." - Nigel McGuinness

[jasvvy]

[hanitje]

I think a lot of people misinterpreted Nigel McGuinness' role as a commentator, thinking that he was only somebody who made bad jokes and comments stuff.

No. He's a HEEL commentator. His role is to make people want to strangle him whenever he opens his mouth. His delulu commentary is about elevating heel wrestlers, so he will always say something controversial. He will never get embarrassed or ashamed of what he's saying, just like Christian Cage never gets embarrassed or morally ashamed of what he's doing.

Nigel is a walking (sitting?) red flag, just like other heel commentators such as Jerry 'The King' Lawler or even Taz. He will bait other commentators and even the audience with his remarks. Just like Christian, people shouldn't feel entertained by him. When Christian mocked dead fathers, people were aghast and horrified. When Nigel mocked women and good wrestlers, people were ready to punch him.

But their roles are basically villains, like in movies and TV shows. It doesn't mean that they are like that IRL and I feel bad for people who still think that their persona is their real personality. They make bad jokes, even teetering around to the contentious opinions.

Based on what I read and limited knowledge, Nigel is actually a sweet nerdy magician dude who likes to spend some time with his Bebe and his girlfriend.

The only person who can keep up with Nigel is Ian Riccaboni. And if you notice, Ian is the only one who can make him embarrassed. Nigel is an insecure heel retired wrestler/commentator who mocks people but when others say something outside his comfort zone, he becomes a blubbering mess.

Ian said that he'd scissored his wife during The Acclaimed entrance, and Nigel was aghast that Ian actually shared that information. He yelled, "My children are watching this!" (Nigel only has one child), which Ian answered, unbothered, "So are mine." When Nigel gave a standing ovation to Christian, Ian was the one who told him to shut up and sit his ass down.

I think it has something to do with their age. Nigel and Ian have good chemistry together and they won't bother to think about anyone's feelings, unlike Nigel's commentator partners such as JR, Kevin Kelley, and Tony Schiavone who are much older than him. (I also find it funny that Nigel is actually very respectful to his colleagues in real life and even one time tried to protect JR from a brawl).

Adding a female commentator, for example, won't change a thing about the way he talks - he is supposed to be a pig who likes talking dirty but immediately fret when others are dirtier than him, such as Jon Moxley and Zack Sabre Jr.

When Moxley talked about Bryan Danielson's kinky sex, Nigel coldly (and uncomfortably) told him that he didn't need to hear about his personal sex life, which Moxley just laughed off. (IRL Nigel borrowed Bryan's tantric sex book 😂)

Nigel is playing it like a loudmouth conservative British bloke who keeps a high regard for patriarchy and husband rights and Father of The Year from the most despicable wrestlers. He shook hands with Christian Cage, Jeff Jarrett, Ricky Starks, and many more - just because they are heels.

I do find Nigel very entertaining because of his delusional grandeur attitude. He will say anything to defend his favorite heel wrestlers, especially Christian Cage, who is the King of Heels. He's in love with Christian and despises Bryan Danielson with a thousand suns. Which is kinda ironic because back when he was a wrestler, he was the sluttiest wrestler and probably in love with Bryan so much.

[blueonwrestling]

The lawsuit in which Kevin Kelly and the Boys/Tate Twins are shouting at AEW atm is fucking so funny and bad, yet because it's done by Jim Cornette's lawyer people are taking it seriously.

This is the level of crying, shitting and pissing his pants that Kevin Kelly is doing over AEW, he's crying about not being asked to call Sting's last match.

Embarassing!

[imvgeswrestling]

》》》

[wrestlingisfake]

For the Sickos

I shouldn't let this bug me, but it's sticking in my craw. Kevin Kelly did an interview with Eric Bischoff this week, and had this to say:

"His vision of what wrestling is, for me, works best on a small scale. People always wonder why did PWG stay small? Well they knew, I think, they knew that if they went big that it would go stale fast, and they had to stay small to keep it special, to keep it niche. He wants to appeal to a niche audience with his vision of wrestling. He thinks he can convince the people to watch on a grand scale."

I'm no insider, but it seems to me that Pro Wrestling Guerilla stays small because it costs a lot of money to go big. They had a formula that was sustainable at a small level, and they didn't mind staying at that small level, so it wasn't worth taking a huge financial risk to try to expand.

Here's another way to look at it: PWG has been on hiatus since August 2023, because Super Dragon is focusing on his girlfriend's cancer treatment. Again, I'm no insider, but I suspect that if he wanted to, he could get some people to run shows while he's busy. But that would cost money, which would increase the promotion's budget, and it would alter the promotion's style, which would increase the financial risk. So instead PWG went on hiatus--not to avoid going stale, or to "keep it niche," but because Super Dragon is unwilling to incur the added costs/risks that would come with a different solution.

Super Dragon makes the right choices for himself and his promotion. But the fact he won't gamble big money on upscaling PWG doesn't mean the gamble could never pay off. The fact nobody will take that bet except Tony Khan doesn't prove it can't work. All we've established here is that a billionaire's son can afford to take chances that an indy wrestling promoter wouldn't, which is self-evident.

But here's what really bugs me about the PWG comparison: Tony Khan doesn't need to "convince the people to watch on a grand scale" because they've been watching for 246 weeks and counting. Granted, TV viewers and ticket sales are down from their peak. But ten years ago there were plenty of naysayers who would insist that a PWG clone would be "too niche" to draw 2,500 butts in seats and over 500k watching at home on a weekly basis. Even if AEW shuts down tomorrow, it's proven there's a much higher ceiling for that kind of wrestling than Reseda.

The only open question, then, is whether Tony Khan is leaving money on the table by booking "for the sickos," instead of doing whatever Kevin Kelly or Eric Bischoff or Jim Cornette or CM Punk would have him do. But this is basically the same question of expansion that we examined with PWG. Changing AEW's style to draw more "casual fans" would only introduce new risk. And it'd be a fairly big risk, since "casual fans" already have plenty of WWE to watch. As long as AEW is financially stable (and we probably won't know that until the new TV deal comes through), then TK doesn't really need to take that risk unless he wants to. Judging by AEW's new "FOR THE SICKOS" shirt, I'd say he's comfortable standing pat.

[photomatt]

One of my playa gifts this year has been giving out copies of Kevin Kelly's awesome book, which I was able to meet him on-playa to sign. The other book I'm gifting is a pre-signed copy of Annaka Harris' Conscious.

[joearlikelikeswrestling]

[dk-thrive]

The consistency of your endeavors (exercise, companionship, work) is more important than the quantity. Nothing beats small things done every day, which is way more important than what you do occasionally.

— Kevin Kelly, Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier (Viking, May 2, 2023) (via A Layman's Blog)

[elitehoe]

Kevin Kelly doing the bare minimum of using the proper pronouns for Abadon and me crying happy tears about it

[debbiechanclub]

Please enjoy Kevin Kelly and Kyle Fletcher performing a duet to Tetsuya Naito's entrance music.

[elitehanitje]

Bryan Keith is All Elite

[westofessos]

We need to have wrestlers on commentary more often because between ZSJ, Mox, and Eddie commentary has been a RIOT this past week

Not that it isn’t all the time, I do love the Excalibur, Taz, Tony trio. Their dynamic is fantastic. I also love Nigel and Kevin together. And unpopular opinion, I know, because he sucks as a person, but Jericho really makes me laugh when he’s on commentary on Rampage

Anyway. More wrestlers on commentary please.

[hanitje]

[blueonwrestling]

Remember that insane Kevin Kelly and Boys lawsuit against AEW? Yeah that shit failed LMAO.

[unlikelywrestlingfan]

"Because, when Don Callis says something, my first instinct is to consider it a lie." That's so valid, Kevin