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whoooaaa, that's ruthless.

StevieNippz, Shartnado and now Fartsauce??? Folks, I think we have a new King of Trios entrant.

That's the thing. None of the promotions are clean. WWE/NXT have Riddle and Dream. ROH has Scrull. Some are trying to ignore Ospreay enabling his friend. AEW has Roberts and Havoc. Even Guevara being back feels scummy. Legally, WWE clearly thinks Dream isn't going to be arrested and charged. I can't imagine they'd bring him back if there was any chance of that happening. That doesn't mean he or the others are innocent. They should not be on TV at all until all the issues are completely resolved and the investigation being transparent for fans. It's the greatest disappointment to know how many found the courage to come forward during Speaking Out, and we're back to the same mindset a few weeks later. I'm not surprised. But disappointed for sure.

That is a bad take, dawg.

Evolve is still around. It’s on Wednesday nights on USA. The production has gone to shits, though.

Jericho/OC was a really interesting story of two matches. The first half of the match, while not explicitly stated, was clearly worked around the story that Jericho had spent the past week playing rock shows and partying like an idiot instead of preparing for the match, leading to OC kicking his ass quite thoroughly. And that was pretty awesome. But then the reality of Jericho spending the past week playing rock shows and partying like an idiot instead of preparing for the match took over. And then it kind of sucked.

I don't care about the minor detractions, this show is the most entertaining two hours of the week, and the thing I look forward to the most.

So, whoever had Mia Yim on the "What current WWE Wrestlers lurk the board" sweepstakes is a winner. (Her new submission finish is the Leg Nelson that @Matt D has been pimping for weeks).

By the way, did anyone catch that Ricky was wearing a WCW York Foundation t-shirt last night. I guess we know where all that dead stock went.

*Makes notes to understand Elsa's reference points when not on work computer*

I encourage any wrestling company filming without fans to set their ring up in the weirdest locations possible. A beach is good, the forest, an abandoned factory, temporarily closed water park, etc.

Except they don't. Part of the point of the indies is to be counter-major promotions. Just as much as some promotions have ignored victims, you have plenty of promotions who haven't . Also many of those promotions were ignoring this shit long before WWE did in terms of the accusations. I get you hate WWE, but quit tying them to literally everything wrong with the business and grasp that there is way more beyond it. This shit was happening before WWE and likely will happen even after its gone. Some people in power will always look for a loophole or way to ignore a bad situation if they feel it will lose them money. Whether or not a bigger company is cleaning up doesn't mean shit to them as much as their own personal fortunes do. If you equate not being able to clean up the business completely in a few months as a failure then nearly every movement in history has failed in your eyes.

Since everyone's already covered JR, I'll shift my focus elsewhere: That wind-up on Scorpio Sky's name was unbearable. Shoot Justin Roberts into the fucking sun.

JR seems to have quite a few catchphrases he's been working on that he's trying to get over, or thinks the polite laughter from Tony and Taz means it is over. I was waiting and waiting for him to say "don't call me dick grayson", and for a little while i thought he might've actually dropped it. But no, he said it. Jericho had an off night, but we can forgive him one here and there, can't we? I know we're all mad at him for the concert but up until now he's been gold pretty consistently. Tully cut a promo that snapped me out of the tag-team circle-jerk and made me feel like something important is about to go down. This Arn/Tully/Cody/FTR/Hangman/Bucks thing is all intertwined and I don't know where its going, but i'm along for the ride, BAH-GAHD!

Good news, helmet and car retrieved.

I raise you.

I enjoyed most of the show, can’t wait until Excalibur is back announcing. Jericho has always done the funky sell of the dragon screw (I remember it in his match with rookie Bryan in NXT). The other sloppiness, not so much excuse for, but I wouldn’t haul him over the coals for his occasionally bad physical performance. He does deserve it for the other stuff this week which was already well covered. I’m surprised there’s no comment on Scorpio doing the Davey Richards Special magic superplex revival pop-up in the Cody match. I agree he should (i) had a video package highlighting his achievements on Dark and then (ii) earning a steady string of 3-4 wins on Dynamite before the Cody challenge. MJF shoot-tastic comments are a turn off, there’s a way to do it in the confines of the crafted wrestling reality but some of his lines just lazily cross into Russo Wrestlecrap. He should really look at Moxley’s body of believable promos in AEW, always making sense even when alluding to his previous frustrations etc.

Okay, the Darksaber episode of Rebels was so fucking good

Tarantino is going to watch this and say "Jesus, that white guy is saying the N-word a lot!"

Your screen name tells a different story..

Picking stuff that hasn’t been chosen yet: Canadian Stampede 10 man Macho/Warrior Shield/Wyatts Cena/Umaga

My main takeaway from this is that they really need to stop having their main events start with under 15 minutes to go. The TV time remaining thing is fine, but they should at least try and maintain the illusion that they begin each show intending for the main to get up to 20 minutes. As it is, they keep hyping me up for a match one week, and lowering my expectations for anything better than a solid TV match by the time it finally starts.

MJFs promo itself was good I just really don't like the politics angle. I watch wrestling to get away from hearing about US politics 24/7, I'm not even an American, leave me the fuck alone already

I think one of AEW's COVID strategies is to keep a certain percentage of talent, including pushed talent, off the show every week, just in case there's an outbreak, so they can keep going what with they have left. You'd probably see Ricky and Jungle Boy go 20-30 if Jericho infected the roster last night. And that's the reason folks are so mad as Jericho- they feel he endangered the promotion with the Sturgis stuff- it's a legit reason to be mad.

That dude's family must have SUCKED.

He's calling him "Richard" because he thinks it's a cute way of saying he's a dick. You know, the kind of thing you realize isn't clever after maybe 8th grade.

Uncle Goldberg is retired. My interest in wrestling is cratered and I don’t want to continue on with glorifying even the silly parts of it.

All of these companies have harbored domestic/sexual abusers after they were accused. It checks out. WWE knows, they just don’t give a fuck.

Rayven Clay is five today. When we brought Rayven home, we found out she was born on the 13th of August 2015. We couldn't believe it because Tess Clay, our first family dog passed away on the 13th of August 2015 three days after turning 13.

You have an empty arena with limited fans back... and you stick them all in a big clump? Why? Opener was a very good old-school formatted with new-school moves tag match. The kind with which you'd want to open tag team appreciation night. I don't think we need another one of these MJF segments but I did enjoy the Joker reference on the guy who imitates Ledger's Joker. Nice touch. I need MJF out there with the neck brace for weeks, VKM vs. the feds style. TK getting bug eyed when he saw himself on the monitor tho. ? Hangmin's reaction to Kenny naming the Bucks as the best tag team was top notch. Cody/Scorp was, predictably, super smooth technically. It's time for the switch here though. Something with Page/Omega and Cody has got to give. I'm guessing it all comes to a head at All Out. Both Omega and Cody have been hinting heel (though, and I like Marko, the dragon suplex on Marko is a face move. Marko's babyface interference is the shits and has been since day 1. Super greedy boy.). Page's affinity for FTR is there too but it'd be throwing away money turning him heel instead of letting him run solo as a babyface. Anyway, the tag title match was kind of lacking a super finishing stretch which is weird for an Omega match because he's the best in the business at that shit. Tully is the man. Thank you for interrupting the mutual blowjob society bit. Get him away from that dork and get him with FTR right fucking now. Sue's van on a pole match is going to be the match with the best build at All Out. Main event was good but yeah, Jericho was clearly not at his best as everybody has mentioned. He didn't look too bad aesthetically but did drag down the finishing stretch. We did not need referee bullshit in the end of this match. Jericho turned the mouse trap into a cobra twist. I remember really liking Taz on commentary during the SmackDown days. He's doing yeoman's work out there trying to piece together the team's strings. I like his attention to detail, breaking down move techniques and storylines. Taz providing colour, Tony being the awe shucks, happy to be there lapsed fan guy, and Excalibur calling the action is probably the best three man booth they can manage right now. Maybe in the future that's the team. I don't know if Tony's up to being a colour guy on his own for the big show. On AEW Dork™ it works just fine because the matches don't have much gravitas. When you're trying to sell big matches and PPVs, less so. He's great at his role though. Chioda is one of the best. I really like the ref team but they've been done kinda dirty so far. Hopefully Chioda can bring some legitimacy and the entire company can move their treatments of refs away from joshi uselessness to something more traditional for American TV. The ringside people did not sound like they were into it tonight compared to other nights and it really does put a damper on the match quality and buy-in. OR, likely, the taped shows have some canned audio going on and it helps a lot.

Jericho is old and fat, possibly drunk, can’t bump for shit. The finish was flat because he took it completely the wrong way. Maybe less pretending to be a rock star in front of middle managers and meth heads and more time in the fucking gym. For fuck’s sake, have a modicum of pride in your craft.

Credit to Orange, credit to Tazz. Seriously, the work Tazz is doing to cover for botches, ambiguous storytelling, and JR's grumpouts is on pace for sainthood. And he's doing it as a heel announcer.

Welcome back, Mike Chioda. Bullshit WWE let people go during the global pandemic.

Even though I mentioned the Benoit murders earlier, there is no way that the actions of the weekend of June 24, 2007 will ever not cloud his career. Especially.... Alright, Chris Benoit enters #1 at the Royal Rumble and lasts over an hour to win a shot at the championship. Also, on that show was the supposed culmination of the HBK-HHH feud with a Last Man Standing match... but the problem there was the match (which was great) ended in a dreaded draw (a finish that really needs to get used again here and there). Benoit chooses HHH to fight at WrestleMania, who is like "lol u r smol". Shawn for his part is freaking out and demands another shot at the title, and while he has a semi-legit claim that he wasn't beaten -- he's the challenger, and he didn't win either. So, Shawn basically weasels his way into the championship match and for the first time at WrestleMania, the main event will be a Triple Threat. On a personal note, I will say, the crowd was amped for this. Absolutely everyone was convinced, this was going to be Benoit's crowning moment in a long, arduous career... Or that HHH would retain through some kind of nefarious plot, since everyone in the world bought the whole "HHH has too much influence backstage" legend. (Although... that Booker T match last year...) Also, in my 25 years of being in this town, I've been to plenty of MSG shows, Shawn Michaels has never, ever been cheered for. I'm not even sure of the exact reason other than "fuck Shawn Michaels"... which quite frankly is justifiable. All three guys have their working boots on tonight and Hunter in particular is in full "EVERYTHING MUST BE SOLD" mode. And that's frankly my biggest takeaway from this rewatch. The vast majority of this match is HHH selling either HBK or Benoit's (or both's) offense. It's an interesting dynamic because as a heel, he's typically leading the offense... but frankly, Shawn is in there and New York fucking hates him anyway, so why not. So yeah, this is very much an HBK vs. Chris Benoit match with Hunter occasionally making a cameo to get kicked or thrown through a table. The other thing is, there really were no true near falls until almost the end. I think all of the two counts and submission holds were clearly not the finish or going to be broken up, respectively. Ugh... there's that flying headbutt that makes me cringe. The famous finish comes as Hunter and Benoit are down and Shawn has the both ripe for the kicking (pun!)... Benoit's up first, so Shawn tries Sweet Chin Music and gets thrown out of the ring for his troubles. HHH is waiting for Benoit though like a wounded wolf... kick, wham, Pedigree.... is reversed into the Crippler Crossface. HHH is making this thing look like he's getting his head ripped off his body. The crowd is about 50% on their feet because this is the first really, REALLY good chance for Benoit to end it. HHH reaches for the ropes and looks like he's going to make it, but just can't quite get there, so, he goes for his last best chance to escape.... breaking it by flipping towards Chris. Benoit though has the counter well scouted, and holds onto the CC. This brings the rest of the crowd to their feet. Hunter's now in blinding agonizing pain, now meters away from the ropes.... no escape.... no more tricks to pull out. Hunter taps out. MSG goes crazy in the loudest pop I've ever been a part of. Chris Benoit is holding his first and only WWE world championship and is ugly crying tears of joy. This brings out WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero and they share a hug and celebrate the biggest accomplishments of their career. End of show. (Live, Eddie exited when the cameras turned off and Benoit celebrated for a few more minutes with the crowd.) --- So, that was my first WrestleMania, live and in person. Having lived here for so long, I was happy that I'd completed my own Big 4 PPV attendance grand slam and felt at the time that this show was the best WrestleMania ever. Well, re-watching it has certainly tamped down that fire. The show was very good, but this isn't anywhere near as good as X-Seven or even XIX were. The majority of matches delivered as two eventual Hall of Famers got their first big wins here (I'll save Dave's "first big win" for next year because the Evo match was clearly to get Randy over). The show gave career defining wins to the two world champs, and should have launched them both to main event status. Of course, life has a way of writing its own story. Eddie lost the title a few months later after cracking under the pressure of being champ. Benoit never really gained traction as champion and his title run ended when he got RKO'ed in August. The horror of what happened a few years later, of course, undeniably looms large over everything Chris Benoit did here. More than a few times, I'd hear JR put over how much pain Chris was putting his opponent in, and I'd want to crawl out of my skin. Fuck, man. I wonder sometimes, if Chris had been killed protecting his family from home invaders or just committed suicide, how much would that have changed our opinions on him. Even with all the other insane shit we learned he did before killing his wife and kid. But he didn't. God damn it, Chris. End of Day 62.

Is falling on your ass all night a COVID symptom?

Terry Funk did use a chainsaw though.

Jericho has donated $5000 to help with the funeral costs for Kamala. He does these kinds of things all the time too, good on him.

I think one of the most uncomfortable moments of my teenage years was watching Francine and Dawn Marie have a catfight while my mom looked on disapprovingly. I wanted to shrink into a corn cob and begone.

Andre's inactivity was for filming The Princess Bride and back surgery, IIRC.

These are available on Etsy. You're welcome.

It also felt that the crowd was less interested in the show if you judge by the noise. I wonder if the "fans" near ringside thought that since we have crowds even small ones we don't have to be as worked up as possible. but given that it seems that the real crowd was a good 20 feet away from ring that doesn't work.

“There they laugh: they do not understand me; I am not the mouth for these ears.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra "Whooooo mercy baby, my mama was a Gibson, my daddy was a Fender, you know Handsome Jimmy gonna be your mindbender! Lancer my brain has been gone, it’s been gone 5 or 6 weeks, it’s back it flew in special delivery, my brain and my body is back, Jack" — Handsome Jimmy Valiant you will learn (daddy), RAF

Fuck it, I like the silver TNT title better.