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@Gordi the former AEW fan I don’t want to take him away from you in Japan but I dream of AEW getting Jeff Cobb and reviving United Empire with Ospreay and Aussie Open.

He looks like 1960s Peter abit.

Bron drafted to where the WHC is on. Hmmm. Are they gonna tie that weird communication error in the Cody vs Melo match for Cody vs AJ?

I just saw an ad on SD for that stupid show where do an American Pickers rip off that I've never seen. This one apparently is Miz "trying to buy" Flair's shit and Miz is roasting him about how much money Flair spent on shit. So I'll be watching that.

Oh OK. I thought I was being invoked to weigh in on some aspect of current AEW. (Sadly, in most cases my take is "I just don't care any more"). - Nope. - Nope - Nope - Nope. Definitely appreciate that you asked about "fun" matches. That's 100% my thing! I am honestly sick to death of darned near every wrestler constantly and self-consciously striving to work "great" matches. Could not possibly agree more with John E's excellent take on that subject above. The non-stop overkill and unnecessary risk taking has burned me right out. The last, camel's back breaking, straw was that ridiculous debacle of a "cage" match in Osaka. When Ospreay and company kept doing high risk moves on a bunch of exposed, uneven two by fours, something broke inside me. Haven't 100% been able to enjoy any pro wrestling since then. Don't want to leave it on that note, so: How about that run of singles matches Bryan has been on since December?!?! That whole Continental Classic run, putting Kingston over in the semi-final, Okada at WK, Nagata, HECHICERO, ZSJ in Osaka (the most beautiful professional wrestling, unfortunately followed up by the most stupid and ugly pro wrestling), Akiyama, Kingston again at Revolution, Shane Taylor, Shibata, Archer, Blue Panther in Arena Mexico (which I ain't seen yet), and Ospreay (which, I get why other people loved that, at least). Absurd. Insane. As great a run as any wrestler has ever had. And Eddie Kingston is still real, to me. And presumably Hayter is returning eventually. And I'm curious what Forbidden Door will bring, this year. Hopefully Jeff Cobb! And drinking with Cooger is still the best.

Three down

This made me double check if Tengu Kaiser/KAMIKAZE is still wrestling on the weekends. He is. EDIT: whoa, that was not supposed to be a parallel post w/ Steph

The other day I was wondering if Shinsuke Z Yamagasa was still wrestling. He is not. I was sad.

That early Zero One roster was the most ragtag group of motherfuckers you could ever conjure up. PRIDE era Hirotaka Yokoi and Kintaro Kanemura. Same roster. I loved it. Bonus:

I was thinking brat would actually be awesome but again, India and Pakistan are not the same place.

And Tony Khan started the Sleaze Thread! FINISH THE STORY COMPLETE THE CIRCLE, TONY, IT IS YOUR DESTINY

I think this was one of the tamer mentions in the Sleaze Thread?? Maybe it came out of the same Spanky(?)-in-Japan shoot interview that gave us the Wacky Dominatrix Story but left out the alleged pregnancy scare?? I can't believe I've retained this information.

I vaguely recall him describing when he was out in Japan, how he went bowling with the rest of the Zero One crew, and Ohtani gave a trainee a DDT on one of the lanes. Or it could be a Mandela effect?

Jesus, I honestly forgot the Dolphins don't have a 3 this year because of the Tom Brady/Sean Payton tampering crap.

Waaaaah?

i think doing Top Lists and star ratings and stuff like that exists to fill a need to quantify our enjoyment of pro wrestling. Like, we feel like we can't just like stuff or dislike stuff, we have to rank it and rate it with real, hard numbers so our opinions can feel like real, hard facts. More and more I'm starting to think that this is a fallacy, so I guess I'm doing this pretentious, let's-be-honest-judgemental thing where I'm not trying to rank or rate anything. It's starting to tie in to the way I think about Meltzerism and the Olympic Figure Skatingization of pro wrestling. The preferred form of pro wrestling in this post-post-kayfabe era is becoming this thing that's judged on Degree of Difficulty and Cleanliness of Execution and How Many Things Can Happen in a Set Amount of Time and I think that's appealing to the young male masses the same way Eddie Van Halen playing the most notes the fastest made him the young male's fave guitarist decades ago. "If I'm going to make my enjoyment of [entertainment thing] part of my identity, I want to quantifiably argue why it is The Best Thing." A very teenage boy way of thinking. Not to say Eddie can't play great licks or that Ospreay can't have great moments. But the things they do, it's talent show, a guy doing the fastest moves and the fastest flips is a lot less abstract then the guy doing the most "feeling". And mainstream entertainment is so, so Not Abstract. Everything is so literal now. Maybe it's because the stories are FAKE and the athleticism is REAL and the modern fan is too ashamed to prioritize the FAKE artistic over the REAL athletic, and that this is a deeper symptom of post-kayfabe than we realize. Still, it's all a way to make the intangible tangible. Turning English into Math and all that. I've been writing up wrestling matches in a waaay more casual space than this one and three best ones out of the thirty or so I've posted before are Chigusa / Dump - Hair vs. Hair (the first one, the immoral manipulation of the audience one, the better one), the CMLL Torneo Cibernetico (the one you think), and JYD & Slaughter vs. Iron Sheik & Volkoff (again, the first one). So those are the recent classics that have brought me the most joy, although I'm sure I could argue that 6/9/95 is better or whatever. The Hair Match is the peak of audience manipulation. I've never seen anyone do that to a crowd, ever. I don't know if it's possible, I don't think you can get a crowd like late-80's Japanese Schoolgirls who can't Google the word "kayfabe" on their phones anymore. It speaks to a deeply jealous part of my theater kid self. I would kill to have that kind of power over an audience. It's perverse. The Cibernetico speaks to my love of long-form buffets. I'm not a horror movie buff, but I am VERY much an anthology horror movie buff. It's probably my favorite format for any kind of film. One out of every ten major releases should be an anthology. An hour plus of a bunch of thematically connected dope things happening in parallel. Even if it's the obvious choice the Felino Cibernetico is the best example of it I've seen. Helps that the framing device is Santo vs. Casas. My Dream AEW Match is making an entire episode of Rampage a Cibernetico with every luchador and ex-CHIKARA guy they have. The Big Philly Tag Match is perfect broad-stroke babyface vs. heel, a perfect New York brawl, it's the best glimpse of JYD's potential as a top babyface in the Fed if he hadn't been as troubled as he was, I actually posted it pre-Mania as a study in how smart and loud Philly crowds have always been. Something's always happening and everybody cares, every kid has a sign, nobody's cheering the heels even though you can tell the crowd is far more educated than others of the time. It's just neat.

Little chance of that happening. I find Will Ospreay overrated. One of those heavily hyped things you find yourself in the minority on. Fair enough to those who do like him. Only things going for him with me is Elevated and the Hidden Blade.

I wonder if someone can get him to tell the story about Shinjiro Ohtani DDTing a trainee at a bowling alley again.

It was an open secret for decades that Weinstein was not just being a “casting couch” sex pest but was sexually assaulting women, and also sexually trafficking some women in the same way Vince has been accused of. Vince’s casting couch/sexual assault and harassment dates back decades and he also helped cover up a lot of sexual harassment and assault from upper level employees for decades. It’s actually a very apt comparison.

Twisted Metal is filming in Canada and I think they're either about to start, or have started so out favorite Joe of Somoa is likely being greasy and sweaty with a clown mask on.

First look at Doctor Octopus in Ultimate Spider-Man #5: https://comicbookmovie.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=cover,width=670,quality=75/https://i.ibb.co/bm9dJNN/Ultimate-SM5-Teaser.jpg

Satnam?

Samoa Joe is pretty sweet. I wonder what he’s up to.

I didn’t start this, but it’s your world.

Seeing @Dolfan in NYC reminds me of when my brothers were fighting and I see my dad appear.