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Re: Dax vs. Billington The crowd's silence and/or booing for Billington's entrance was very telling (and appropriate!) I'm not sure who decided to promote him using the DK name/lineage, but they made a huge mistake. If he wants to have any future in the business I'd highly suggest distancing himself from that name.

The Vancouver crowd was tremendous, ending AEW's Canada run on a much-needed high note. It didn't hurt that they gave them some damn good matches. The pacific northwest seems to be a really solid market for them overall.

Got the Platinum for Stellar Blade. I think that it was the most fun I've had playing a non-SRW game in a long time.

Really good crowd early, for the Collision/ Rampage show. Obviously they burnt out as the night went on, but a few of the wrestlers in the later matches found interesting ways of bringing them back. Top Flight changing their gear from mostly Black to mostly Green is a choice. Looked a bit military, and there's already a tag team doing a military gimmick over there. Good match though. It's pretty mindblowing how, if you didn't know Dante had broken his leg really badly just over a year ago, you'd never be able to tell. The miracles of youth and modern medicine working well. Not sure why Claudio does the Naruto run before the double stomp, he can't be stealing a Kidd Bandit spot, can he? Dante seemed to not know what to do with his hands during the Giant Swing, he went from covering up to limp hanging and back a couple of times. Danielson started cutting an in-ring promo about the match we cannot initialise (because Anarchy in the Arena is not the 'Am I The Asshole?' match) and Claudio walked out, but then they addressed it later in the show. He's not mad, just disappointed. Running a show simultaneously with an NJPW USA PPV, when Mox and Kingston are both booked on the NJPW show, it really makes you realise exactly how stacked the AEW roster is. Because two (or more) of the biggest stars in the company weren't there, and you'd never know from watching the show. Will Ospreay vs Lee Moriarty, that was a good match. Roddy Strong's whole "Yelling the first name" thing didn't come up as much on commentary, because he only does it when directly addressing someone, not talking about them. We could have had him going "Wristlock applied by LEE! but WILL! is able to flip away from the pressure". Lee Moriarty continues to use the Border City Stretch, despite the fact that the MCMG are apparently on their way in. Perhaps we'll get a continuation of the Moriarty vs Shelley rivalry/friendship in AEW though. If it drives people to watching thier 2019 matches, that could boost Lee in a few people's eyes. Mercedes Mone capable of throwing a ball, CONFIRMED! Yeah, I'm never going to understand the Baseball thing. I admire Toa Liona's commitment to having a classic "Samoan Wrestler" look. All of those Bloodline guys with their slender abdomens, running around looking like underwear models. AFA AND SIKA AIN'T DO NO SIT-UPS! Despite them having easily despatched of the Tik Tok Twins and Not Tom Lawler, Swerve Strickland then proved that his former muscle weren't very good muscle by beating the three of them up singlehandedly. Toa Liona ran into the cinderblock shot so fast that it gashed the hell out of his arm. Dax Harwood vs Dynamite Kid Tommy Billington, in a match that was clearly an example of Dax living out his early 90s Hart Family feud aspirations. Young Tommy, despite his extreme youth (Cagematch says he's 23, but he was 15 when he showed up in Defiant Wrestling 5 years ago), does nothing in the ring that's really post- Bret vs Owen. It would be quite interesting to see Billington vs Nick Wayne or someone like that, who is so modern in his in-ring stuff. He might not have earned himself an "IS ALL ELITE" banner based on this one performance, but he's certainly earned a second look at least. It was a pleasant surprise that the match went 12 minutes and was back and forth; Dax could have squashed him in 3 if he'd wanted. Most unsigned guys don't go over 10 minutes on their company debut. But Dax's throwback spots, his "let's do this thing from this one specific Bret match" made it pretty clear why it went that long. The fans were super-hot for the Adam Copeland vs Kyle O'Reilly match. Cope got a big babyface reaction coming out, but he was definitely the heel in the match. Like he got booed for using a rope break to escape a submission hold. Nigel quoting the Stone Roses on commentary, and Tony Schiavone clearly had no idea what he was talking about. The fans really elevated this match; The actual television build to it made it feel somewhat like just another match, but the live crowd being so into it conferred a Big Fight Feeling upon it anyway. Nigel calling the Les Kellet Lariat as the Les Kellett Lariat was good. So much better than the Rebound Lariat (surely that's all of them? What is running the ropes, if not rebounding?), or the Wackyline. Dalton Castle vs Trent had a much lesser reaction, but quite possibly they were exhausted. Disappointing lack of heel heat for Trent's control segments, but they came alive for Dalton's suplexes out of the control segment. Dalton does have really good timing on them, to be fair. Bryan Keith vs JD Drake had a near-silent crowd too, but then JD actually made the most of it with a fucking LOUD chop in the corner. And then they basically sprinted to the finish from there, which kept the fans into it for the whole closing stretch. Now Lady Frost vs Deonna Purrazzo, that's clearly intended as a Purrazzo showcase because she's the one getting the push and so on, but she really didn't do anything memorable. Sometimes it feels like her "Great technical wrestler" thing is more that she's a regular wrestler doing a "Great technician" gimmick, rather than being an actual technique specialist. Whereas Lady Frost, being the super agile ex-gymnast, almost everything she does looks spectacular. She's very precise in her athletic execution, but she makes the actual wrestling move she's flipping into look devastating and painful too. The "Murder Gymnastics" stylistic tag that initially confused Tony is paid off by the way she wrestles. Also I saw her on twitter talking about how she loves all of the support that fans are showing towards male wrestlers who can keep getting it done over the age of 40, and hopes that they'll extend the same support to women wrestlers who are in their 40s too. So I looked up her age, and she's 39. I would have guessed she was in her early 30s tops, but apparently she was already out of her 20s when she had her first match (on WWE Raw, before she actually started training to wrestle). Thunder Rosa brought a lot of intensity with her run-in. Surprising though, that AEW security attempted a pull apart and actually kept the wrestlers apart the whole time. Usually they break free periodically. This was the first ever Johnny TV vs Pac match in history. Somehow they managed to miss one another on their WWE runs (meaning they were almost never in the company at the same time), and nobody ever booked it on the indies either. Nigel discussing how Johnny has great genetics, then segues into speculating what it would be like if he and Taya had a child (implying that said child would be a highly evolved athletic wunderkind), and Tony misses his point and thinks he's doing a "Snobby heel, disgusted at the thought of sexual reproduction" routine. Everyone assumed that Johnny TV's AEW name was Johnny TV because he's Johnny Television, but what if we've all got it wrong? Perhaps he's actually Johnny Taya Valkyrie? The show ended, not with a victory celebration, but with the winner pissed off in the ring because the final segment was a backstage promo cut upon him. That's pretty Sports Entertainment, that. Going off the air on a down note... even though it was less like Rampage was the Third Hour of Nitro (when the NWO show up), and more like it was the Collision after-party.

Also read "The Wedding of Tony Stark and Emma Frost", and it was REALLY good. Loved the twists and turns. Made me want to keep up with this iteration of the Iron Man comic.

On that:

Steve Albini on why he hates Steely Dan (nme.com)

Motörhead (Live at Hollywood Palladium, Oct 1984) (youtube.com)

I was listening to Brian R. Solomons's podcast a while back and he suggested that if Vince has never gone national then perhaps we would have had two or three national promotions , which is kinda where we are not with TNA, AEW, NJPW along with WWE

I actually like it visually, have a bunch of people behind whoever's doing a promo. It'd be killer with buildings which were full to the rafters. Why not just do it in the ring then? I want Deeb to be a bigger deal than she's been too, shame I never saw the Collision promo.

Does Deonna have any other mannerisms other then that hand wave, or any personality at all? No? Okay then. At least we were spared Rosa yelling about being held down again. I'm really intrigued by the Claudio walk-out. I HOPE it's just that Claudio still doesn't trust Eddie, and not that they're thinking of possibly breaking up the BCC.

He's kinda doing an influencer gimmick before influencers where really a thing. Not sure how that was supposed to draw money but an interesting concpet

A Gordy match should be fun, the Dark Side episode made me want to watch some of his stuff (moreso his AJPW run, but yeah). Duggan/Sawyer in a chain match sounds nice and brutal and bloody, yes please. I’m gonna watch these this week. To be clear, are these my picks for May or just for fun? If they are, I’ll get you something soon.

Good first day of action, if you ask me. Then again, over the last couple of years BOSJ has been pretty much my pro-wrestling sweet spot and yearly highlight, so don't expect too much negativity from me in this thread. Kosei Fujita had a good first showing. Interested to see him throughout the rest of the tournament. My personal match of the night was actually DOUKI/Ishimori. I've never been super interested in Taiji despite his obvious skill, but those two were on the same page tonight and put on a great match. Some super slick sequences and transitions in that one would make it worth seeking out. In other news: despite a scary moment in KUSHIDA/Hiromu, those two don't have a bad match in them. Always a treat to watch. TJP/Kevin Knight and the main event of Desperado/Titan were also quite entertaining, I thought. One last takeaway: I didn't know Blake Christian turned heel. So now between him, Drilla/Connors, SHO, Kanemaru, and maybe Hayata (I'm not so familiar but it seems he leans heel), we may be in for more shenanigans this year than last year.

Man, Doctor Who has really dropped for me after Peter Capaldi/Steven Moffat left. Jodie Whittaker/Chris Chibnall was terrible. Ncuti Gatwa/Russell T Davies isn't doing it for me either.

It's going to be a boring final day with relegation already decided and I can't see Manchester City dropping the points that Arsenal need to win the Premier League. It's going to be four in a row for Manchester City. Feel for Arsenal this year and Liverpool x2 under Jurgen Klopp as any other points total would have won those years.

Finished Bad Batch last week. Started Tales of the Empire last week and finished just now with my brother.

I enjoyed Space Babies though it was also really dumb. Dug the third episode a lot more.

https://youtu.be/Dz7RGARtAgc?si=1-VOYxgi2uo66543 Danzig and The Temptations - Mother Was a Rolling Stone This has absolutely no business whatsoever being this fucking great.

Fire Suplex https://youtu.be/bq_rWXAEDNA?si=pIABCdWuZ64PYkDr

Movies today... Deception (Mubi, leaving next week) Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (saw in the theater) Evil Does Not Exist (saw in the theater) Hotel Artemis (Max, leaving this month)

https://youtu.be/kYBeBvcAjGs Mississippi Championship Wrestling tv EPISODE 4 FINAL AIRED EPISODE So if rumors are true this episode got not only MCW canceled from Fox 40 but also got MCW a nice letter from either ESPN or WWE ,depending on who is telling ya the story. Full hour this time Air date is march 19th 2011 YOu got all kinds of stolen footage. AWA on ESPN CLASSIC airing of Brickhouse Brown vs Iceman King Parsons. Powerslam Productions,MS Indie back then,footage of Monty Warbucks vs Joe Kane. And Memphis Music video of Pork Chop Cash during his Bruise Brothers days. Oh and the same Cassidy Riley is coming to MCW promo airs 3 times.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C62fl1BuKn0/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=413fb265-9094-40b2-ae38-014c128f7cec&ig_mid=9C8F8771-978D-4756-B9C4-1EF3561E2C15 Mateusz Rębecki is a mess.