Category: auto racing

By David G. Firestone

So, as I sit here, unable to do YouTube work, I’ve been thinking about Mopar and NASCAR. It has been announced that Dodge wants their RAM brand to return to the Craftsman Truck Series, and may do so as early as 2026. This may open up opportunities for eventual opportunities to return to the Xfinity Series, or even the Cup Series. But here’s my question: Does NASCAR really need Mopar in 2026?

When Dodge returned to NASCAR in 2001, the landscape was much different. Chevy was the dominant brand, Ford was in second place, but it was Pontiac that was the issue. By 2001, Pontiac was all but a spent force. Granted they had just won the 2000 Cup Series Championship with Joe Gibbs and Bobby Labonte. At that point, Pontiac, not just the racing program but the brand itself was on life support. While the brand would last until 2010, the NASCAR program died in 2003. Their final victory was at the 2003 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400.

Dodge’s return was needed, as a fourth manufacturer was clearly needed at that point. But that was back in 2001, this is 2025. It does not appear that Chevy, Ford, or Toyota, is on the way out of existence. But is there a need for another manufacturer program? Do they know something we don’t?

I bring this up because over in the NHRA, Toyota announced at the beginning of the season that 2025 would be the last year they would be involved in the NHRA. This led to a number of statements from teams and drivers, but nothing from the NHRA. Toyota has a lot of success in the NHRA, so the timing is odd.

In the words of Paul Doleshal, group manager, motorsports, Toyota Motor North America: “Our NHRA Drag Racing involvement has brought much success and pride across our entire organization. Our NHRA drivers and teams have truly become part of our Toyota family. We look forward to competing for more wins and championships with our supported teams in the upcoming season, and we will work diligently along the way to make sure each team and driver have the tools necessary to compete at the highest level for the years to come.”

Now, this may not be the last year, as both Ford and Chevy have returned after exiting the NHRA in years prior. But, in years past, manufacturers left racing because of lack of on-track success. You really can’t argue that here. Toyota has been very successful. To quote autoweek.com:

“Toyota Motor North America first entered NHRA Drag Racing competition in 2002 and won for the first time at the Winternationals in March of 2004. Toyota has more than 200 race wins, 12 world championships—including back-to-back titles in Top Fuel with Kalitta and Brown.”

Why now? Well, politics may have a hand in this, as certain mindsets in the current administration might hinder Toyota’s ability to perform, both in racing and in business. Could this be another issue for the current administration? Well, it’s not out of the question. Given all of the other bullshit we’ve had to deal with, I wouldn’t be shocked, given that Toyota is a Japanese company.

I’m not trying to stir the pot, just trying to understand this whole situation. I wish Toyota well. I wish Dodge well. I want them to succeed.

Sources Cited:

By David G. Firestone

I’ve discussed the idea of rank on my former podcast and The Driver Suit Blog before. Sometimes you don’t get a higher rank because you don’t deserve it. Sometimes you are not the right person for the job. Life is unfair, and you aren’t special. Well it appears that wrestler Ryan Nemeth didn’t get the memo on that.

From 2023 to 2024, Ryan Nemeth was contracted to AEW on a per-date basis, meaning he would be paid when he was used. In wrestling, Ryan Nemeth is what is known as a “jobber,” which means he loses, or “does jobs” to more established wrestlers. Jobbers are typically on the bottom end of the hirearchy in wrestlers. In his AEW career, Nemeth has wrestled a total of 83 times between 2021 and 2024. He has only won 10 of these matches, all of them for AEW’s YouTube programs. In addition, his only championships in the US were tag team champions, and his only singles title is a few minutes with the DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Championship, which is impossible to take seriously.

Yet, according to Ryan Nemeth, AEW, and CM Punk were on a campaign to ruin Ryan’s career. After leaving AEW on bad terms, Nemeth has filed a lawsuit agains AEW and CM Punk. Apparently, even though he brought nothing to AEW, Tony Khan and CM Punk have been trying to ruin Nemeth’s career. The legal filings are hysterical.

One part of this really stands out. “In early 2023, Brooks assaulted and battered two fellow wrestlers known by the stage names Matt and Nick Jackson. Brooks is known to have an uncontrollable temper and often lashes out in violent tirades against others. Thus, Defendants were on notice regarding Brooks’ violent proclivities.”

Well, that is technically true. Punk did batter Nick and Matt Jackson…AFTER they burst into his locker room looking for a fight after his rant at the AEW All-Out press scrum. That’s something that is present quite a bit in this filing. Some of it is so laughable, I’m stunned it would be filed in a lawsuit.

But we now get to the meat of the matter, and why I had to discuss this. This is from the filing in question:

“On November 25, 2024 Brooks left AEW to wrestle for the organizations main competitor, WWE.

Khan was heartbroken by the departure of Brooks, his idol and that he adored in every way.

Khan was furious with Nemeth. Khan believes that Brooks left AEW because of Nemeth.

The Defendants have embarked upon a campaign to “blackball” Nemeth from

professional wrestling. Specifically, Tony Khan blames Nemeth for Brooks leaving AEW and has used his significant resources to make sure that Nemeth can never again make a living in wrestling.”

I’ve discussed both the incidents at All-In and All-Out. The fact of the matter is that no matter how you slice it, Ryan Nemeth had NOTHING to do with the fact that CM Punk left. The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho, and Jack Perry were the ones who forced Punk’s hand. All Ryan Nemeth did was to post something on Twitter that got Punk’s attention, and Punk responded. I’m willing to wager a lot of money that Nemeth was just a drop in that cesspool. Yet this low-ranking jobber thinks that he is the reason Punk left.

If Ryan Nemeth really thinks that he is the reason Punk left, he’s delusional. It’s much more likely that he’s trying to get a quick buck from a billionaire, after his run in AEW didn’t pan out. Oh, and the blackball efforts were so successful that Ryan is currently wrestling for TNA and had a WWE NXT Tag-Team Championship match on national TV. So that argument isn’t exactly water-tight.

The facts are that Ryan Nemeth was at the bottom, CM Punk was at the top, Ryan shot his mouth off, and Punk had to put him in his place. Nemeth thinks he’s more important to wrestling that he ever really will be, and he wants money as a result. Tony may settle, Punk probably won’t, and I’ll be interested to see how this plays out.

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By David G. Firestone

We need to talk about AEW. I’ve talked about them before, but every time I think they’ve hit rock bottom, Tony Khan buys a much more powerful jackhammer. I seriously don’t get how and why they do the stuff they do. While I’m used to most of AEW’s baffling moves, I have to talk about two recent events.

Let’s start with AEW Grand Slam Australia. AEW fucked this event up so many different ways, that it was almost impossible for fans, both in the arena, and watching on television, to take it seriously. How have AEW failed thee, let me count the ways.

Let’s start with the venue:

-February 15, 2025-Grand Slam Australia is announced. Tickets were on sale, with Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Queensland, with a listed capacity of over 52,500, listed as the venue.

-November 25, 2025-Due to “low ticket sales,” Grand Slam Australia is moved to Brisbane Entertainment Centre, with a listed capacity of 13,500.

Making things even more confusing is the nature of the telecast. Was the event a pay-per-view, or was it a special episode of Collision? AEW never made this clear during the announcement. Then it was announced that this was an episode of Collision, aired on tape delay. Once it was clear that this was just another episode of Collision, fans weren’t happy. When asking Tony Khan about this, he said that since the live event would have aired at 3:30 AM ET in the US, most fans might not have bought the event, which, to be fair, isn’t unreasonable.

Then it was announced that the event would air after the NBA All-Stars Skill Competition on TNT. This was met with aggravation from fans, but there was a silver lining to this. WWE NXT held their annual NXT Vengeance Day event, which was much better than Grand Slam Australia. If Grand Slam Australia had aired at its normal time, it would have done a horrific TV rating. History has shown that when Collision goes up against WWE it loses a LOT of viewers. It still didn’t do great, but it was better.

The fan experience apparently left a lot to be desired. Apparently, there was only one merchandise stand and it sold out very quickly, as they didn’t bring near enough merchandise for all of the fans. How this mistake could happen is anybody’s guess, but it’s clear they wanted to keep transportation costs down. That’s clear because of the big controversy that came out of the event.

Where both fans and wrestlers were both upset was the ring they used. For a company that spends money like water, they couldn’t be bothered to bring their own ring, so they rented a ring for the event. AEW uses 20 foot by 20 foot square rings, and this one was either 16 feet by 16 feet, or 18 feet by 18 feet, depending on who you ask. This was not a good ring either. The ring aprons AEW brought didn’t fit, and the posts were bent. To top that off, this ring was really bouncy, and apparently didn’t have enough padding. Buddy Matthews rolled his ankle during his entrance.

Now, with all of these issues, fans would have been forgiving if the matches were good. This is AEW, so that didn’t happen. Here are the results for the event. Wrestlers who are either from Australia or New Zealand will be marked with a “+”

1-Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega defeated Don Callis Family (Kyle Fletcher+ and Konosuke Takeshita) (with Mark Davis) by pinfall.

2-Mercedes Moné (c) defeated Harley Cameron+ by pinfall-Singles match for the AEW TBS Championship

3-Death Riders (Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli) (with Marina Shafir) defeated Cope and Jay White+ by technical submission-Brisbane Brawl

4-Kazuchika Okada (c) defeated Buddy Matthews+ by pinfall-Singles match for the AEW Continental Championship

5-“Timeless” Toni Storm (with Luther) defeated Mariah May (c) by pinfall-Singles match for the AEW Women’s World Championship

Notice a pattern? Yup, every match had at one wrestler from either New Zealand or Australia, and four out of five lost their match. The worst was Mercedes Moné and Harley Cameron. The lead up to this was great as Harley Cameron is a talented singer and ventriloquist, and made a puppet out of Mercedes Moné, who was more entertaining than the real Mercedes Moné. However Harley never stood a chance, as Mercedes Moné is a spoiled, selfish, egotistical bitch who doesn’t care about anyone but herself. We heard stories about her when she was Sasha Banks in WWE.

All in all, Grand Slam Australia had a lot of potential, but was driven into the ground by bad matches, and bad logistics. Australian AEW fans felt cheated, and I don’t blame them. Now, you would think going back to normal operations would at least help, but, being AEW, they couldn’t help fucking things up even more.

At the upcoming AEW Revolution pay-per-view, there is a scheduled match for the AEW International Championship, AKA the AEW All-Atlantic Championship, AKA the AEW Who Gives A Shit Championship. On the February 19 episode of AEW Dynamite, there was a Number One Contenders match for the International Championship between Orange Cassidy and Roderick Strong. This sets up the championship match between Cassidy and Konosuke Takeshita for the International Championship the February 26 episode of AEW Dynamite. Since Konosuke Takeshita won that match, he goes on to face Kenny Omega at Revolution.

If this series of events doesn’t make sense to you, don’t feel bad. Nobody else can figure it out either. Rather than have Kenny Omega face Orange Cassidy on February 26, with the winner facing Konosuke Takeshita at Revolution, there are two championship matches, one setting up the other. Why? What sense does this make? Please, explain this to me! Are matches that determine the top condenser for a pay-per-view match really so out of vogue? It just makes no sense, but it is AEW after all.

Next Week, I discuss an AEW lawsuit.