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Your wife is giving you a pass, man. TAKE IT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!

Me, earlier this week: “Hey, Mariah May is supposedly going to leave for WWE” My wife, massive Timeless Toni Storm mark: “Good. Fuck her”

That might have been the best Dynamite ever. No hyperbole. Holy shit.

WWE - Don’t work with awful people challenge - difficulty level: impossible McAfee promoted anti-trans rhetoric during the Olympics. He’s a meathead piece of shit. This company, helmed by a rapist and human trafficker for damn near half a century, gives no fucks what anyone thinks. But go ahead and keep giving them your money.

The late great DEAN deserves his own thread than the monthly one: "AEW is co-producing two tribute shows starting next month. On the Way of the Blade podcast, Tony Khan & podcast host Phil Schneider announced that AEW would co-produce two tribute shows in honor of Dean Rasmussen from the DVDVR website, who passed away in 2023. AEW talent will work both shows, and according to Khan, the plan is to stream the shows on ROH’s YouTube channel. DEAN~! 2 will be held on May 24, one night before AEW’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view and will be a free outdoor show outside Scottsdale Arena. DEAN~! 3 will take place in September and will be affiliated with the ROH Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view, which was announced for September 5. Talent announced for the upcoming shows include Gringo Loco and Mad Dog Connelly, who took part in the first event. ACTION DEAN~! was the first tribute show that took place in April of 2024, with Daniel Makabe defeating Timothy Thatcher in the main event. Other talent that appeared on the show include Violence is Forever, One Called Manders, Tom Lawlor, Warhorse, Slim J, and Timothy Thatcher. https://www.f4wonline.com/news/aew/aew-to-co-produce-two-dean-rasmussen-tribute-shows/" Thank you to all involved!

One time I was at the gas station, topping off my tank. Walking past me was Eddie Murphy. I kinda yelled to him as he walked by "Eddie, I loved 'Coming to America'". Eddie turned to look at me, with a perplexed expression on his face, and said "Listen to me you racist motherfucker! Not all black people look alike!". I laughed and gave him a wink, and shouted back "Man, that is just like you Eddie Murphy - always joking around!"

Absolutely mainlining AEW on Max so I can catch up for the next Baltimore show. November to Today is my monthy goal and it's going great. If I was still good at posting about pro wrestling I'd have a whole big list of takes and talking points, but in lieu of that, here's this - Mark Brisoe is at worst a Top 5 guy in this promotion. Mark Briscoe can do pure doomed JttS babyface better than anyone on the roster - Mortos is very good at the heel version, I should mention. He's the best ring general in tag team matches. His performance in the last Blood & Guts was the undeniable centerpiece of the match due to this. He doesn't just promo well, he promos in under a minute purely to get a crowd revved up in a way that is such a lost art. He bleeds good. I know what his character is, and he wrestles like it. And when called upon to deliver a big ol' kickouty epic, he finds ways to implement the face/heel dynamic and proper timing in ways that most are too eager to even consider. It's like there are two wrestling geniuses inhabiting his one body. I think he's the truest Five Tool Player in the entire business.

Bill Mercer was a man that I was proud to call friend. I met him in a nursing home by accident a couple years ago as I was visiting one of our senior church members. I can attest that until the end he was a gentleman…he was lucid, quick witted and could easily recall EVERYTHING about the JFK assassination. He was truly touched when I recognized him, “You’re BILL MERCER!” We discussed all things Von Erich as well. To his credit, he still kept kayfabe about the Freebirds and Kerry’s drugs at the airport!

I'm tempted to save this for tomorrow but hey why not do a "Just got home and I'm kind of tired but kind of not" road report? As soon as I clocked out I hauled ass to a place my friend told me about that I always wanted to try. With it only being a few miles from the arena while a bunch of poor schmucks were eating concessions I was having what could be IMO the best cheesesteak in Maryland at Cheesesteak and Co. Holy bats it was so good! I prefer a toastier bread like Angelo's in Philly but they got me with the steak. So, so fucking good. And since I got it so quick I had time for Heavy Seas after all. I realized how much I missed going there and wish I took more advantage of it while I living in Baltimore. One pint of a lovely lager to drown the sorrows of the O's losing today and I was off to the show. Without realizing I got the same section/row that I got last time I went to the show. Which is great as with a wall behind me I could have stood the whole time if I wanted to. My biggest pet peeve with the Baltimore shows is that unless you're one of the first in line you're guaranteed to miss out the local shirt they were selling. This one had an Orioles vibe and I wanted it to bad but all they had was Large. And that sold out quickly as well. Why would you have such a limited amount of shirts and not at least advertise "Hey, get in line early to get one of these shirts!" It's so fucking dumb and I'm bummed they would leave money on the table by not making more. ROH: Dynamite time! The first half was so my shit. Shibata vs Mox might have had a weak sauce ending (Shibata should not be losing to a choke. Beatdown and Paradigm Shift sure, whatever) But it was still really fucking cool that I was getting this live. Bucks were whatever and Kenny's promo was fine for what it was. But when he gets in then you get Rainmaker and Swerve I pretty much lost my fucking mind. Make no mistake about it, Baltimore fucking LOVED Swerve. From where I was I didn't bother to do the dance but got an incredible video of everybody losing their minds. The match was fun though it really sucked about Pac. Hope he's okay but it was immediately apparent it was a match-ender when he went outside. Then we get my favorite MOTN in the 8-man tag. I had no idea it was coming but when they showed the graphic I was just delighted. They all come out and seeing all 8 made me go "Yeah, this is why I love AEW so fucking much." You had Ospreay, Knight and Ricochet in there, gnarly meaty men like Mortos and for good measure you had Briscoe and Cru who all had deep ties with Maryland. And yeah Speedball was great too but I wanted Briscoe to get the hot tag. But I get they held off as the point was to make Knight look good which he did, especially with that finish. Oh, and remember what I said about Swerve? Well the same can be said about Hurt Syndicate. They were over as a motherfucker and again the video of the crowd freaking out was aces. I hope it sounded good on TV because the crowd was hot live. I walked around for the Learning Tree stuff because fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck that noise. I did peek in though and saw the TV get smashed so that was fun. As for the main it was good but I was already getting ready for hopefully ROH stuff after Dynamite. The match ends, Joe's hanging around and Caster comes out doing his schtick. Joe basically headbutts him, does a muscle buster and after the "One more time!" chant does one more. I'm getting ready for some ROH goodness when Roberts essentially says "Thanks for coming out! Good night!" I was pretty disappointed yet with Rampage not being a thing can see why they would end it around 10:15. But still, I wanted more ROH and I am cool with Massachusetts yet am not driving all that way for a show. All in all I had a blast with the ROH stuff and first half being the best. If it felt flat to TV viewers I won't argue but it was really fun and there's something about the view I had seeing damn near the whole crowd flip out over certain things.

An international wrestling promotion recognizing and paying tribute to the leader of an obscure message board is the most mind blowing, amazing thing. TK is a good one and AEW is a good company, fuiud.

I thought Saraya brought something unique in her active last year or so. She was willing to stooge and look the fool like almost no other heel on the roster (Taya will do it too). She was basically the only heel that wrestled like a heel and she was pretty important in getting Harley over. The bit where Harley shouted from the outside to hit her with the RamPaige and then Saraya started arguing back that her move hadn't been called that for years was legitimately hilarious. I honestly think she's a bit of a loss since there were ~3 feuds left on the table (full Timeless Toni for the Outcasts stuff as we just got a hint of it as she was changing into a babyface, Mercedes for the injury, and Harley considering their connection). But at the same time, she's not someone I'm going to go out of my way to defend for personal reasons. But I think people really overlook what she still had to bring to the table in 2025.

It's well known that Aubrey lurks r/SquaredCircle and (probably r/AEWOfficial too) to check for fan feedback and leaks (famously the Brodie situation), so I wouldn't be shocked at all if it turns out TK is still lurking here, or Chis Hero. I'm sure there are others, this place is definitely an institution among internet wrestling nerds. I'm still shocked at how many Redditors know of this board whenever it gets brought up. I don't feel this way too often anymore about AEW, but it's been creeping back lately and stuff like this really makes me think AEW is a different kind of promotion and I love that. With that said.... AEW RULES THE FUCKING WORLD. That's for you, Dean.

The well isn't running dry! **fast forwards to the 2028 season, episode 1 of Dark Side of the Ring: The DVDVR Sleaze Thread** Chris Jericho: And then someone replied about Jimmy Valiant and a glass table. **insert reenactment here**

I was going to say…maybe more people are watching on Max. With cable ratings becoming more irrelevant, Dave has no idea what to do with himself. I think I said it before, but I’d love for all wrestling to move to purely streaming, and for streaming numbers to remain an inscrutable black box, so we as fans can move on from late 90s ratingz discourse.

I never had much in the way of personal interaction with Dean, but I always looked forward to his posts and reading his excitement about wrestling and AEW in particular. This feels so right on so many levels and as i live about 30 mins from the Arena, I fully plan on being there for Dean 3/ROH. A real classy and noble gesture from TK and AEW and i'll echo something ive been saying, I honestly don't and cant comprehend how people dislike Tony Khan. He might fly off the handle like a kid sometimes, but i think that's just from a fervent excitement for not only his product and wrestling in general. Wrestling was better with Dean around and wrestling is better with TK and AEW around. Just a wholesome moment.

Pro Wrestling fucking rules.

I didn't know where else to post this, but I had some of Goldberg's cousins on one of my tours today (I'm a tour guide at the Boeing factory in Everett, WA). It was funny because one of them said they were from Calgary and I said "ah, the home of my favorite wrestler ever" which made them go "uh oh, Goldberg is our cousin!" I was floored, especially when they said the kid with them was originally supposed to be celebrating his birthday at Goldberg's house but was there instead. They were super cool people and it took all the effort in the world to not ignore everyone else and just pepper them with questions. I can claim outdrawing Goldberg with his own family now, proud of that.

I'm really curious as to what assets AAA actually had, for WWE to purchase. AAA themselves only actually run about 25-40 shows a year - which are their TV tapings. They will milk most tapings for two weeks worth of shows, and big events like a Triplemania, three sometimes. The non-taping events that AAA runs are generally spot shows, run by a local promiter that books talent thru AAA. AAA has very little talent under an actual contract. Vikingo is one, but most of the top tier talent are freelance, and they just take dates from AAA. For instance, Psycho Clown, who is AAA's top star, is widely believed to not be under contract, because he takes a ton of bookings outside of AAA, and only appears on their biggest events. A lot of the freelance AAA talent that was working AEW (Mortos specifically) stopped taking dates with AAA already, and are under contract to AEW. So, WWE isn't getting a big talent roster... what they a getting are a bunch of mid-carders that are expecting AAA to book them out on local shows so they can pay their bills. AAA doesn't own any arenas or venues, like CMLL does. They almost always work with local promoters, and either use their arenas, or rent a local venue. AAA has no exclusive contracts with venues like Auditorio Tijuana, Arena Ciudad Mexico City, etc. They do not have their own training center - a number of AAA stars have their own gyms (and even run Indy shows for that talent), so there is no talent pipeline that WWE is getting here. AAA does have an extensive tape library, going all the way back to 1992. AAA has been airing a lot of this footage on a loop on the AAA Pluto channel for over a year now, so I imagine WWE now owns this library. But, with the "Network" going away for the most part, I don't see this being uploaded anywhere for WWE to monetize, like they did with WCW/ECW/territory footage in the past. AAA currently has a TV contract with Space in Mexico, but they had actually lost this deal earlier in the year, and speculation is they have been purchasing the time (or at least not getting a rights fee). So WWE isn't getting a strong TV outlet that has a lot of value to them. Keep in mind, AAA was having a lot of financial issues. They never recovered from Covid they way a lot of other promotions did, and they relied heavily on outside foreign talent for major shows. Dorian Roldan invested millions of USD into "Luchatitlan" - which was essentially a "dinner theatre" type of tourist attraction in Cancun. Think of it as a Vegas residency type of set up, where they had a permanent "cast" that did multiple shows everyday. This venture failed miserably, and it crippled AAA financially. I think if anything, what WWE is getting here is a "middle man" that will help them promote big events in Mexico. But like I said earlier, AAA themselves used local promoters for this themselves. What I honestly see here is TKO as a typical predatory investor that is going to strip all of the assets and value out of AAA and then put a bullet in the other parts they don't want. Some guys like Konnan and Dorian Roldan will make out until they cross the wrong person, and then they will be on the outside looking in.

I want you to know before I say this that you're legitimately my favorite poster here, and someone I consider a friend. Having said that, this really disappoints me. CM Punk has made his entire career on being "the voice of the voiceless." An advocate for the unseen and unheard. And now that he has no choice but to tow the line, he's turned into a corporate bootlicker. "They don't want us to get political." So? For his entire career, Phil was the guy who knew what they didn't want him to do and did it anyway. I don't begrudge the guy for wanting to not get fired. Eggs are 8.50 a dozen. Do what you have to do. Just don't pretend to be the rebel when you're a taxpayer in your mid-40's. My absolute least favorite thing on the planet are phonies. I think that's why I despise the Jacksons so much. These two upper-class homeschoolers pretending to be tough guys because they can't seem to admit to themselves what they are. CM Punk now falls squarely into that category too: a guy who made his name being anti establishment. A self proclaimed "punk rock kid." A guy who wasn't afraid to call out MJF for teasing leaving for WWE is now "main-eventing" night one of a "buy one get one free extravaganza." CM Punk is selling off his integrity a piece at a time. He's already fallen in line with Triple H, a guy he once claimed to despise and would never work with again (until Triple H was the only guy who could pay him what he needs to make his mortgage payment). I can't wait to see Phil make the media rounds in Dubai leading up to "Saudi B L O O D $ 2; Electric Boogaloo." I already know what Casey is gonna say: "Touch grass." Ok. Maybe I should. There's not enough in front of my townhouse. But Punk has become who he is because his persona is that of a rebel. Someone who speaks out no matter what. And now he gets squeamish because his boss is a MAGA diehard? Fuck that noise. And fuck Phil. He's a pretender. A corporate bootlicking sellout. He used to be Black Flag. Now he's Good Charlotte.

I made a decision a while back to make sure I never gave that company a dime of my money ever again, or even views on YouTube, nothing. Feeling pretty good about that decision lately.

Just wanted to echo the sentiments about how incredible l thought last night show was. Tremendous in ring. Fantastic crowd. And the venue...wow. After seeing pro wrestling in virtually identical setups for years, it's so cool to see AEW presented in all these different, fresh environments. ️️️️️

Move over car door scene, there’s a new contender in town for the most brutal thing Kingpin has ever done. Oh you need an army, Matt? Come on Feige, he literally has a two walking tanks and a guy with a magical fist as friends. GIVE ME WHAT I WANT.

“My team with Rosa is Thunder Tits. If I teamed with Kris Statlander, we’d be Thunder Thighs. If I teamed with Mr. Schiavone, we’d just be Tits.” Tremendous

Dolfan, we only know so much of either other and there's no way anybody would have known. But using "Hotel California" for a week where I'm going to Dynamite feels oddly fitting. It was my father-in-law's favorite song and still makes us pause when we hear it. You didn't know yet thanks anyway. I have a good feeling about the show. Got a fairly decent seat at a good price, there's some killer cheesesteak place I can't wait to get to and I took a half day tomorrow to sleep in a little. So I'm more than ready for some AEW and ROH goodness.

I need to see The Outrunners coaching Orange through physical therapy. Leg warmers, Jane Fonda workout on VHS, the whole thing. Truth can go into his fanny pack for “some special supplements that helped the boys a lot back in the day” and Orange would turn them down.

So, Here's the update on my right knee. The x-rays showed I didn't do any damage. I just banged it really, really hard. My knee is wrapped up and I was given prescriptions for Ibuprofen, a muscle relaxer (Methocarbamol), and a topical gel.

Book number 2! AEW Way of the Blade is now available for pre-order. It has sick art and writing like the original, but I also did a ton of great interviews, Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson, Eddie Kingston, MJF and more. There are some special copies autographed by Eddie Kingston which are going fast! https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/way-of-the-blade#/

On Wednesday after his match with Takeshita, I posted on Bluesky that Briscoe is probably the most valuable worker in AEW. He always has a solid match, he can wrestle a number of different styles, and he always makes his opponents look good. He is a great promo, with a massive personality that can get just about anything over. You can send him out to get squashed and he will still be over. You can have him win a championship in the main event, and the crowd will pop. He does everything and does it well. There isn't a match you can announce with Briscoe that does sound like a good time. Briscoe vs Mox? Yup! Briscoe vs Okada? Yes please! Briscoe vs Orange? Fuck yes.

Norm McDonald was conservative and he understood comedy better than anyone. Actually, he said stand-up was a craft, not an art, because art is subjective, whereas the goal of stand-up is not subjectively, but to get everyone in a group to react in unison. One thing Norm criticized, which is a problem with most modern liberal comics, is the tendency to chase applause rather than laughter. Laughter should always be the goal of the comedian, not ,"cheer me because you agree with my politics." Checking this WWE roast, it is pretty bad. Not because it's offensive: that's what roasts are. They're "refuge in audacity" humor, as TV Tropes calls it. It's "I can't believe they went there!" humor. The problem with this one was two-fold. One, good roasts limit themselves to participants. By signing up for a roast, you're agreeing to take as well as give. This roast mocked a lot of non-participants. Two, it just wasn't funny. It was a bunch of cheap-ass grade school-level jokes. Certainly no one with the chops of a Girardo or Gottfried.

Going to try to make sense here so bear with me.. Mongo in WCW was akin to my grandmother's cooking. Younger me back then maybe didn't appreciate either of those as much as I should have. But the older I get the more I can look back on both and be thankful they were part of my life. Was Mongo the best worker or promo in the world? Hell no, not even remotely close. Could I get a better meal at Ruth's Chris compared to her house? 100%. But, dammit, both of those things now make me feel happy and warm inside. He was a bigger piece of WCW than anyone ever gave him credit for back then and it's an absolute shame he had to suffer the past few years the way he did. I'm ecstatic he's pain-free now.

Already posted in the AEW folder but I now live about 2 miles from 2300 Arena and am super stoked to be able to take transit and walk to DEAN~! 3 so I can get properly tanked in honor of my friend. I mentioned Athena in that folder, since DEAN~! was a huge fan of her work and women/joshi wrestling. But any chance we can get Daniel Makabe out of retirement for this? Maybe against a hometown guy like, say, Wheeler Yuta, a Danielson protege?

This was the best post-Mania Raw I can think of in a long time, probably because it fell on Rusev Day.

Haven’t finished Collision but I thought Archer (who I generally don’t care for) was perfect as the monster heel base for high flyer babyface Kevin Knight. Knight is in an interesting situation because he has a lot of impressive stuff but is in a company with amazing high flyers and athletes. His top rope rana where he jumps from the mat is impressive, and he does have very good body control while in the air. The clothesline finisher isn’t great, and it looks more like a punch or a clobbering. Needs something different. on other topics: Gish is almost a lost Zeppelin album. Siamese Dream is more melodic and shoegazy. After that, I barely paid attention. Saw Pumpkins twice back in the day, both shows were great and both ended with Billy having a meltdown. The transition from Pretty Hate Machine to The Downward Spiral was basically the end of the old industrial music sound to the new one. Downward Spiral is so fucking raw, I gave it 5 stars when I reviewed it for the UT newspaper. Earlier this week, my wife literally said “Eddie Murphy tapping head.gif”, she had no idea that wasn’t him until I told her and showed her an article.

not going to get into the CM Punk discourse, but goddamn that is a sick burn.

Holy fucking shit. The Daredevil and Frank team-up scene needed the Doom music. And my biggest complaint isn't even a fair one - it's that these stupid as fuck rules about Kingpin being allowed on TV but not in movies and Spider-Man being allowed in movies and not on TV is going to deprive us of at least one, maybe two episodes with Spider-Man in it. Or Brand New Day with Kingpin in it. Aside from that, this season was hard as fuck. Holy shit. Disney and Feige are all like, sure, you can let Frank put three bullets through a cops head at point blank range. Fuck the police. Thank you to everyone who made this show for giving me my fantasy of corrupt as hell cops getting what they fucking deserve.

Athena/Mercedes was everything I needed expected. Great work from both women. Match could have gone either way so I was legit surprised. And the Toni tease was great. I'm really hoping Hayter ends up winning this as her character is probably the one that would benefit most.

*looks at prior posts* Uh, well. Difference of opinion.

"Hacksaw Jim Duggan here 'HHHHOOOOOOOOO'!!! Welcome to my home! Let's see...*digging through boxes in his attic*...I know I've got it in here somewhere...ah, here it is! The 'ol Dildo Blender! Let's see if this baby will still fire up!"

I actually got a bigger kick out of Mark asking the team what they'd spend their share of the 400K on and Speedball excitedly shouts, "SHOES"

I'll add Perry Saturn to the convo, he had a great top-rope elbow as well.

I mean, I work for a government where my governor is actively trying to dismantle trans rights, so I guess I'm just a big ol' pick-me hypocrite doing Simone Biles-level flips, huh. It's easy to make judgments when you're not trying to figure out where your next paycheck's going to come from if you walk out of your job. At least I can do something where I am. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism, just make the most thoughtful, respectful choice that you can and try to be good to others. Or bash strangers on the internet. I guess.

Sadly, the internet is too fucking dumb to put it to rest. The DVDVR is the only place worth discussing wrestling.

I've seen one too many Shen Yun commercials. Changing my BlueSky display name:

Body dysmorphia is one of the worst mental disorders someone can have, because it's so difficult to get people to understand that it doesn't matter how they see you, it's how you see you, and far too many unscrupulous surgeons and marketers are willing to cash in on people who genuinely need help that can't be sold with a scalpel or a photo filter.

supremebve presents an in-depth study: "Basic Bitches and the Simps Who Love Them"

Let me put this... Succinctly... There must be another way to describe Ms. Shirakawa.