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Someone in the WWE News thread mentioning working stiff not being a Dave thing in the 80s unless it was in Japan made me realize that Ronnie Garvin never worked Japan post-1971. Has it come up in any interview with Ron Garvin about why he never showed up there? Guessing it was about the travel or maybe a lack of mutual interest because Ron Garvin probably matches up well with some 1980s Japanese wrestlers

Shouldn’t they have made a golf cart look like a safari vehicle for Kamala? (assuming that they couldn’t just easily get one of those in 1985) or would Kamala, in character, be scared of those vehicles Ivan probably pretty far up the ladder for people at Bash 85 who had to avoid being stabbed by angry fans in the past. So he probably had some guidance for Nikita in handling fans.

Lashley looks like he's having a ball. And, for the record, he let by choice. If he really wanted to be there he would be.

I thought they did! Remember Rush's "Handsome Mexicans" speech?

Those are not the apex of someone diving off of Dario's office. This is.

Last week I got a lightly-skunked case of Sierra Nevada Tropical ale for under $10 and it was totally acceptable, even in its diminished state. This week I got Founder's Rubaeus, which is brewed with raspberries and is one of my favorite fruit beers. I've had the nitro version on tap and it is incredibly creamy and delicious.

My review is in the other thread (WWE News). I have NO idea what they were doing with that tag title finish, hell they apparently didn't either. They could have made a funny skit about Kamala not understanding the golf cart. Also funny is how with the fan attack, they pretty much ate what a wrestler would if they jumped the ring with the same results, guys just getting tossed out of the ring easily. It's like they were plants, but there's no way in that day and age they would do that and actively encourage real fan assaults.

Nikita was handling it well. One fan attacked him during the match, police stormed the ring and Nikita kept on going lol

Dog Collar Match is short but fun and bloody as you'd expect. Tag titles had potential but I didn't love the finish. Magnum TA and Kamala was fun for two reasons. One, Kamala coming out on a golf cart was a hilarious visual to me. Two, Magnum is so fucking over....

Lashley and Shelton both had interviews recently where they were discussing how great it is that AEW exists and Shelton especially was thankful to be having this run after being shelved for years. I don't want to say Alvarez is full of shit but he might be.

Season 1, Show 11: “Last Luchador Standing,” or Knockout King Recap: Big Ryck lost his money in a ladder match, then failed to win the Lucha Underground Championship the next week in the Aztec Warfare Match, mostly due to bad flunkies who suck at flunkying. Elsewhere, Pentagon Jr. is getting nothing from his partnership with Chavo Guerrero Jr., and King Cuerno has chosen some dangerous prey in Drago considering that deer and even bears don’t splatter you with table dives like Drago does! Matt Striker and Vampiro let us know that King Cuerno and Drago are going to finally settle their business with a Last Luchador Standing Match this week, but before then: Bael and Cisco face Pimpinela Escarlata and Mascarita Sagrada. Cisco demands that Melissa Santos introduce him as MISTER Cisco, but no you don’t get an honorific until you win a match, you punk flunky bitch. I’d like Striker to be fired. Now. Yo, shut the fuck up, Matt Striker: In response to Vampiro referring to the “gangbangers” Cisco and Bael," Striker asks, "Could you not use the term ‘gangbang’ when Pimpinela’s in the ring?” Who is Striker supposed to be, Jerry Lawler during the Attitude Era? Vampiro asking, “Can you prove to the viewers that you don’t have any discrimination?” a few seconds after that remark like an apt question, but first, Vampiro should ask him if he can prove to the viewers that he doesn’t absolutely suck at providing commentary outside of naming the moves. My guess is no! I digress. Big Ryck walks onto the steps to survey his overpaid flunkies as they survive an initial wave of offense from Pimpi and make him the FIP. Cortez comes out here to help trap Pimpi in the corner by standing on the floor and grabbing his ankle, but Pimpi manages to ass butt his way out of trouble when Cisco charges and then tag in his mini partner, who gets two on a diving rana and a tilt-a-whirl DDT before dodging a Cisco elbowdrop. The heels finally double up on Sagrada when Bael drops him with a big boot, but Sagrada takes out Cortez at ringside with a dive after being shot into the ropes. Pimpi comes back in, smooches Bael on the lips, and then dives onto everyone from the top. Unfortunately for him. Sagrada is still the legal man, and he falls to a team Codebreaker back in the ring for three immediately after that dive. Ryck enters the ring and stands in front of his charges, then has Bael hold his lit cigar while he speaks. Ryck says that he’s kicking the asses of anyone who stands in his way of the LU Championship, pointedly looking at his flunkies as a way to include themin that "anyone" remark, so his flunkies decide to attack him first. I suppose that’s a good plan in kayfabe, but narratively, he should have gotten rid of them for sucking ass at their jobs before they got to this point. Anyway, they hit him with a kendo stick and then Bael sears Ryck's eye with his own cigar. Interestingly, the flunkies might have just left this job with Ryck for higher pay with another employer, as they all file into Dario Cueto’s office after serving their notice. Seedy backstage interstitial: I suppose that Dario Cueto didn’t like Big Ryck holding him up for that cash bonus a few weeks ago (S1, Show 6) because Cueto intones that “Big Ryck had a hard time seeing how valuable we could be to one another. Now, it’ll be hard for him to see anything.” Rude. Dario pays the men for their attack, but demands total fealty and a response of “yes, sir” to all of his commands. The things you have to do to make a living, huh? It's time to formalize a name for what I assume will be a recurring segment: Adventures in Interviewing with Vampiro. This week, Vampiro interviews Brian Cage and informs Cage that he’s got a lot of heat in the locker room. Cage unconvincingly replies by saying this isn’t high school and that they don’t give titles to people who are the most liked. Vampiro wants to know why Cage thinks he’s hot shit and suggests that it’s harder to win and defend the title than it is to backjump the champion and talk shit about him. Actually, I kind of enjoy Vampiro’s Mike Tenay circa-2000 impression here, as he entertainingly says that Cage is just “big arms and a big ego” before begging off when Cage challenges him to a fight. I think Vampiro came out of this interview better than the dull Cage, a guy who sounds like he was kinda nervous to cut this interview before he did it. Maybe he should just beat the shit out of people without talking. I actually laugh when Vampiro ends this interview by giving Cage “much respect” and calling him a future champion. God help me, I think Vampiro’s chaotic neutral interviewing style is growing on me. Back to the matches! Maybe Pentagon Jr., much like the flunkies earlier in the night, will actually get a win on LU television for once! Penta and his opponent Super Fly trade kicks, and as I watch Penta and Fly have a weird exchange in which Fly backflips off the ropes for no reason in kayfabe, but so he can position himself for a Penta lungblower as part of this too-obvious performance, I think to myself that Penta’s on my shortlist of guys with the best look and demeanor, but the least enjoyable wrestling matches. He’s got a good bit of that whole “unsettling and dangerous facepainted wrestling savant” aura going that the Great Muta had, but of course, Muta was actually a fun worker and Penta is still Penta once the bell rings. I like it when he open-hand slaps the shit out of his opponent’s chest, though. The hitwoman is glaring at the action from the stands in a quick, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it spot that the commentators don’t mention, and then we go back to the match and an exchange ending in a somersault plancha that Fly successfully scores before the match heads back to the ring and dropkicks Fly out of another backflip off the ropes for 2.8. Maybe Fly should stop it with those backflips from a kayfabe strategy standpoint! Fly does get a near fall with a victory roll, but Pental scores two on a flying clothesline, then rings Fly up with a package piledriver for three. After the match, Penta grabs a mic and runs down Chavo Jr. for being a very unhelpful partner. However, he has someone else in mind to be his next partner, and also, he has cero miedo, that last part of which you knew. Sexy Star stands in the ring when we come back; El Mariachi Loco makes it to the ring as her opponent. Mariachi gets in the ring and pantomimes to Star that he would like to maybe hit it after the match. Matt Striker goes all WWE and asks where Sexy Star ranks with the great female wrestlers like Trish Stratus, Lita, and the Fabulous Moolah. In what is a funny response, Vampiro scoffs at Star being compared to trash like Stratus or Lita, but concedes that Moolah is a worthy point of comparison. Of course, Trish Stratus was a better worker than Star was, and Lita, while sloppy and dangerous, was way more fun to watch, too. Moolah was never that good, though, was she? I don’t know; I’ve only seen her wrestle when she was well past prime. Anyway, Striker failing to throw even one token woman who worked for All Japan in the ‘80s or ‘90s into his list of great lady wrestlers probably agitated the hell out of the viewers at home. I just found it funny, though whether this whole deal was intentionally or unintentionally funny, I can’t quite tell. Anyway, Mariachi doesn’t take Star seriously and lasciviously swivels his hips when she’s got him in a go-behind. Star responds by kicking the shit out of this dude, and it rules. I mean literally, she boots him right in the mush, and it looks rad. Mariachi trips her, yanks her hair, and then chops the hell out of her. I think all these matches could use more strikes because that’s my favorite thing about the action tonight. Mariachi shoots Star in, but Star stops herself and then uses Mariachi’s horniness against him by blowing him an air kiss and beckoning him over, then pulling down the bottom rope so that he tumbles to the floor when he does. Star follows up with a successful dive and then goes back to throwing as many kicks as possible. Star should have a kick-based offense, IMO. More kicks! Back in the ring, Star kills a corner charge from Mariachi with a big boot, then scores a diving arm drag from the top before running the ropes and getting her momentum killed with a Hot Shot. Mariachi takes a long time to capitalize with a dive; Star moves, Mariachi misses, and Star quickly small packages Mariachi for three to escape with a victory. Fun match! How I wish Star had at least Trish Stratus’s talent level to match the quality of her push! Alright, let’s have our main event: King Cuerno meets Drago in a Last Luchador Standing Match. Striker sells Drago diving off the top of Dario’s office as something that we’ll remember for a long time since it was so unique, but Mundo and Fenix have already dove off that thing, and that’s just off the top of my head, and we’re only eleven episodes in, so, uh, about the uniqueness of that spot… Drago immediately gets on his bike, dropkicks Cuerno to the floor, and hits what I think is a plancha. Planchas include flips, right? Anyway, he dove. I can say that much happened. Cuerno is already down for a seven count on the floor, but he manages to wobble into the ring, where Drago meets him with a pair of kicks and a hanging DDT. I really like that Drago is swinging for the fences early on. Cuerno rolls to the floor at the count of six as Vampiro posits that Cuerno was knocked loopy when he fell backwards after taking that plancha and is in trouble early, then praises Cuerno for having the strategic mind to still escape to the floor rather than simply getting to his feet in the ring and being open for more immediate Drago offense. Good commentatin' on Vampiro's part there. In fact, Drago tries to follow Cuerno outside with a running senton off the apron, but Cuerno catches him and powerbombs him on the floor. I really like this match so far. It’s a nasty, brutish thing that feels like both men just want to kill each other off as early as possible and get the fuck outta here. I also like that Cuerno sees Drago starting to stir, so rather than letting him beat the count, he hits a running kick instead. Back in the ring, Cuerno hits two rolling Germans and a brainbuster. That ruled. Cuerno backs into the corner and surveys his downed prey, landing another soccer kick to Drago’s dome when Drago flips onto his stomach and starts to raise himself. Cuerno lands a huge chop, solidifying my belief that more chops and punches are a great idea in these matches. However, Cuerno shoots Drago in and is punished for letting Drago run because Drago lands a flipping neckbreaker. Cuerno tries to stop the onslaught by throwing the ref down in front of him, but Drago just runs and springboards off the ref to keep up the offense, culminating in a rana to the floor. Cuerno staggers to his feet outside and re-enters the ring as Drago gets up; Cuerno meets Drago with another kick, and then drops a leg on the back of Drago’s neck for good measure. Annoyed that Drago is still moving, Cuerno stomps him out, then once again makes the mistake of shooting Drago in, though he manages to dropkick Drago to the floor and hit his suicide dive – the Arrow from Hell, which is a great name. A table comes into play once more as Cuerno sets it up outside the ring; Drago tries to fight back, so Cuerno savagely batters Drago’s head into the ringpost once, twice, thrice, and finally a fourth time. Cuerno having these frenzied moments of violence is very cool and contrasts nicely with his patient hunter demeanor that he usually has. Unfortunately, I think Drago is up from the table to stop Drago from diving onto him too quickly after that vicious looking ringpost battering. In any case, Cuerno is able to block Drago’s punches on the apron and hoist him into fireman’s carry position, then drills a Thrill of the Hunt off the apron and through the table in a spot that should end the match and…does not. I am fine with this not finishing the match in this specific case for two reasons: One, Drago really hates this dude Cuerno and I believe he’d will himself up from this move just to spite the guy. Two, Cuerno’s disbelieving reaction when Drago flips to his belly and gets to his knees at eight is excellent. I could feel his frustration. Cuerno gets Drago back in the ring and dropkicks Drago into the corner, then gets some nice air on a running dropkick to a seated Drago. Cuerno gets a rope and tells the ref to back off before tying Drago to the corner with rope, kicking Drago in the head as Drago can’t protect himself, and fucking choking Drago out with the rope while the referee counts. That finish was great, as was this match. This was the first truly great match (and great feud) of LU’s run, in fact. It’s better if you watch their whole series, of course, but it stands alone as maybe the best LMS match that I’ve ever seen. I’ll have to ponder further, but man, did I love this. Two guys throwing bombs and trying to hurt one another badly, Drago never giving up even as Cuerno rocked him, Drago’s hatred for Cuerno driving him to get to his feet after that Thrill of the Hunt through the table, and finally Cuerno saying FUCK THIS and using rope to both tie Drago down so that he couldn’t stand and choke the shit out of him at the same time were all amazing things. Somehow, this match finish (and the whole feud itself) made both guys look great: Cuerno looks brutal and cunning (even if a bit cheap in his methods) and Drago looks like the best never-say-die babyface around. One of these two guys should be the LU Champ, dammit! That last match carried this show and made me think Cuerno and Drago should be topline stars, and the rest of the show was pretty fun, too, up to and including Vampiro’s interviewing style. Other than some minor issues with commentary and not enough movement on some storylines (explain what the hitwoman is doing here already, dammit!), it was an immaculate watch. 4.75 LU-CHA chants out of 5.

So that's my giant review of the show. Gives you a good grasp of what a JCP card was back then and it would have been a blast to go to.

I started doing Muay Thai last year and I've been following it ever since then.

He might be the Mike Enos to Max Caster's Wayne Bloom.

Having wrestlers in street clothes trying to make the save postmatch after a fan stormed the ring was a decision. Maybe that’s why non-wrestling wrestlers stay in their gear after their matches

I saw that. MVP openly talks about how much he doesn't want to be in WWE. Shelty and Lasher look like they're having a ball. The Hurt Syndicate are booked how they are because they're terrifying-looking athletes who come off as legitimate and talented.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QUKhSNr7_tM&t=44s Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind. WWF In Your House 10: Mind Games. A ***** match and my 1996 MOTY over Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin at WWF Survivor Series. *****. Which do you prefer?

That's really awesome! A friend of mine is on the Korean team, so I'm super excited for her. Hopefully Greece does well too!

Yeah, one of the most insidious aspects of Vince having a monopoly for so long is that it permanently ingrained the idea that tag teams should only exist to break up and set one of the two up for a singles push.

TJPW https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YO9NxWhauN4

Now it's obvious you're saying dumb shit just to say shit. Back to ignore, you're insufferable.

The only way that Hurt Syndicate losing the tag titles without being pinned would work would be if MJF fucks something up trying to help them. Like, not even on purpose. He's just been so selfish his whole career that legitimately trying to help someone else win is an almost incomprehensible concept. Then you can start ratcheting up the tension between Lasher and MJeff. Ideally you want Bobby in line as a challenger for Hangman after All In, so that gets you set up for that, too.

Yeah, this is silly. MVP's out doing press seemingly alluding to Helmsley being racist any chance he gets, so not sure how that makes any sense. For him at least. And when was the last time Benjamin was in a position of this importance? When was he even able to wrestle substantial matches? Obviously, there's more to being a content or happy employee, but I sense he's enjoying himself. Lashley is a question mark, but not sure I buy his wanting to go back. Alvarez has a ridiculous tendency to overlook the booker in these scenarios. Bailey/Knight and the teams who came and went before them looking like 'geeks' is all on the man with the pencil. Tony isn't the only one of us who was clamouring for a dominant 2025 Roadies style team. It's been discussed on these boards since the beginning. I don't blame the try, I appreciate it even, but it's a good time to change it up. Whatever the case booking your Tag Champions to defend once a month or so is the bigger problem.

I never got why AEW never put Rush & Andrade together as a tag team, aside from the rumors Andrade was a pain to deal with.

WCW Great American Bash 1989 NWA TV Title Match: Sting (C) vs. Great Muta https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb4WKxiiWwY