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I ended up with some pretty choice assignments anyway. Also had one of my solves broadcast over the stream, which is pretty cool. The competition was amazing, with one dramatic moment after another in the Finals of different events. 3x3 Finals was amazing, coming down to the last solve before being won with an average time of 4.23. The crowd exploded for it, 5000 people going nuts. Awesome. And a friend of mine, who I've been watching compete for 7 years, successfully defended his world title, competing in his hometown. Being the first to tell his parents he'd won (it's tough to follow from the audience if you're not tracking the times online, which they weren't) and hugging them was awesome. They are just about the nicest people ever. So, yeah, great stuff.

Agreed.

Same.

Also, GnR did play It's Alright. What a weird set of four Sabs songs from them.

The build to this show annoys me as the card is actually pretty solid and should deliver, but its also clear the only match they likely had planned prior was the IC title match and NXT women's title match. The rest feels thrown together. I'm curious how much Liv's injury threw things off. Seems clear the plan was for her and Raquel to defend against the Bellas, but I kind of suspect that was also supposed to intersect with other stories going on.

I was waiting for the new topic to be made but I think it's time we acknowledge that somehow Karrion Kross is one of the hatter acts in the company and I never expected having to type that? Like sorry for linking to reddit but listen to the response he's getting for this promo, guy may have timed his contract expiring better than anyone else in recent times. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/1lucpjq/wwe_raw_spoilers_karrion_kross_promo/

Opening with Seth and company was a good setup for tonight's story of them trying to get all of the group's enemies out of the way before SNME. Loved Bron's taking the mic to talk shit about Sami. Seth and Heyman's reactions were perfect. Kairi/Roxanne had some roughness early on but built into a solid match with some decent interest from the crowd by the end. Was pleased to see Kairi get the win and the post match beating lead to an Asuka save. Its good to see Kabuki Warriors back officially. Sami/Bron was more an angle than match given the pre-match attack by Kross. Honestly all of i and the earlier interview of Sami all came together quite well for a good moment story wise. Becky's segment with Lyra & Bayley ended on a mostly solid note with Lyra coming out on top. I do like how Lyra has been winning the respect of the crowd more and more throughout this story. Don't see Lyra ever hitting Becky or Bayley levels of overness/success, but it does feel like she is in a better spot now than she was as IC champ prior to this feud. Jey/Bronson was another more angle than match situation. Not quite as good as earlier but still solid. EGA/Dragon was a bit rough in early on but good overall. Digging Kaiser in the mask. He wrestles so differently from his norm and Gable's. Will be fun when they have him interact with American Made properly. The hype vids for Nikki Bella, Stephanie Vaquer, and Io/Rhea were all nice. Seth/Penta was good though I was a bit annoyed Seth kicked out of Penta's finish. I get that he has more than one but still. Dug the finish with Seth doing that cheap headbutt o the groin. Reminds me of Roman's cheating where it was so simple yet odd how few have gone for it in the past 3 decades or so. Post match strike from Knight was a nice final bit of build for SNME. Generally not fond of only getting 3 real matches, but I dug the story being told over the night the bs ones and the 3 real matches were all worth catching. Honestly this was a pretty solid episode as a whole.

Issues of promotion or lack thereof, Evolution has a nice lineup, even though it was slow on the draw. I'm hoping this is where Jordynne Grace finally wins the title. That said, I'm a bit disappointed it's not Becky Lynch vs. Bayley one-on-one, but maybe they can still do that at SummerSlam.

Except for Milwaukee having a $22 million dollar dead cap hit for five years, when they likely will desperately need every penny of space they can find to keep a functional team around Giannis.

I CANNOT BELIEVE Christopher Daniels worked us with that gross-looking eye injury for a YEAR AND A HALF. That's some next-level shit. Kudos.

The Dame thing makes sense for everyone involved. His family kinda fell apart based on the trade. His wife filed for divorce and asked for sole custody of the kids because he couldn't be a parent from Milwaukee. If he didn't get injured he probably would have asked for a trade. The Bucks need flexibility more than an injured Dame Lillard. They don't have any picks, so they might as well get him off of their books so they have money to sign free agents. Dame gets to go home and be a dad, the Bucks get to try to build around Giannis. No one loses in this situation.

Insert Night at the Opera Croterion laserdisc joke

Hey now, Orca is brutal and gross, so it has that going for it.

The Suns are reportedly working on trying to come to a buyout with Bradley Beal so they can then waive and stretch him. Right now, they can't use that stretch provision because it would exceed the maximum allowed, 15% of the cap (they have a couple small dead cap hits already.) But they need Beal to accept giving up $13.8 million of the $110.8 million he has left over the next two years. Then they could stretch it over 5 years at $19.4 million. I kinda get why the Bucks did this with Dame (I do not think it was a good idea, but I get it) but I have no earthly idea why Phoenix would do this. They aren't going to be good next year and probably not the year after, why blow a hole in your cap the three years after that when you might potentially be able to rebuild.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FqyB5edf38 Dick Cavett's Criterion Closet. Yep. I thought the man was dead. Like seriously, I thought he died a couple years back. Blows me away. He's still the funniest person in the room, and his sign-off is awesome.

When you wrote about the Keep the other day, I initially thought it was the Deep and was going to make the Jacki zbissett joke then. gun Crazy is probably best known for those long cuts you mentioned. That and having a strong female protagonist.

Christ, the Robert Shaw "Going Out On Open Water Sucks" trilogy is diminishing returns with each film. Am I to assume you will complete the trifecta with Orca? James

Movies today... The Deep (Criterion Channel, leaving on 7/31) - 2/5 stars Gun Crazy (Criterion Channel, leaving on 7/31) - 5/5 stars Bernice Bobs Her Hair (Criterion Channel, leaving on 7/31) - 4/5 stars

I kind of wrote two reviews of FTR vs Outrunners. http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2025/07/aew-five-fingers-of-death-and-friends.html

The good thing is that my timeline is curated to not have much current wrestling talk. So,unless I see someone’s name is trending, I can go spoiler free until I seek out the results here.

I'm usually going to watch a PPV live if I can. If i don't, I'll be spoiled on socials at some point.

Having see both, I’d say the wire is better. But I’d also say Deadwood is better than both.

I’d be curious if younger fans actually view wrestling as sports and need to be watched live or just see it as entertainment and can catch up on stream whenever. Certainly Netflix and wwe and probably tony and WB hope it’s the former, given the money invested.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c68aQwkmzAI Bryan Danielson vs. Swerve Strickland. AEW All In 2024. *****.