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So, I had a pretty big hearing, first time in a long time with actually having to show up to court, witnesses etc. Prosecutor was asking a question that was pretty clearly asking for hearsay, so I jump up to object and say "ALEXA!" Nobody says or does anything so I say "Objection! Calls for hearsay!" Judge sustains the objection, we move on. No one even acknowledged that I had said "Alexa" instead of objection. My co-counsel didn't even catch it. I'm going to have to order the transcript.

Gotta throw this in here too. Super good dude. Always stoked when good things happen to good people in this business.

I'm pissed AEW Revolution went from a Saturday to a Sunday. Here's my Saturday-Monday: 6th March is my 36th Birthday. I'll be spending it with my Mum, Dad and Sister as I always do. My best friend who is more like my brother was hoping last year that things would be better by now so he'd come up but it's not to be. We're both gutted. First time in many years won't be able to have pints at the pub either. Health of the nation and it's people are more important though. I've lost two people to the coronavirus, one was my cousin. Fuck it. AEW and UFC do Saturday PPVs which work out better for the UK as its the early hours of Sunday morning and as its a Sunday, go back to bed. This Saturday is UFC 259 and it's only the 7th time in UFC's history that a show has three championship fights on. It's also why AEW Revolution moved from Saturday to Sunday. I'm more excited for the AEW card. WWE PPVs are Sunday meaning Monday midnight morning UK time. 7th March. The main UFC 259 card starts at 3am on Sunday morning but I'll be watching earlier for the 1am prelims. Main card usually goes three hours depending on how long fights go for. You could be looking at three 25 minute championship fights though that's unlikely. I'll be trying to catch up on losing a night's sleep afterwards. 8th March. AEW Revolution 1am Monday morning UK time for a few hours. Hopefully I'll be awake to see it go out and then talk about it here with y'all. I'll be wearing my AEW Logo Premium Varsity Zip Hoodie I've got for my birthday at 50% off from my parents/little sister. Timed getting that right as originally I was going to get one a few days earlier. I'd have been so pissed for my parents/little sister if we had.

The stuff of nightmares:

The Hurt Business saved everyone in it and gave each member a needed direction and purpose. One of the only worthwhile things on WWE RAW. The teased break up was fucking stupid. Keep them together for a long time.

I'm really, really excited for Revolution. Initially, I was mad it was on a Sunday, but I said screw it... booked a vacation day for next Monday, and already bought my mojito materials. Week can't go by fast enough.

Bret Hart wearing very special ring attire, pink and black with orange vs. Steve Austin at the 1996 Survivor Series 1996 in a ***** match. Bret Hart also did a top rope elbow rather than the traditional middle rope one he used.

Them getting it right shouldn't feel like such a foreign concept for Raw. But while I'm sure they'll fuck things up I'm glad to see Lashley win it.

They moved the match back a week, to tonight, so nobody would get upset at Lashley losing clean to Miz during Black History Month (USA).

Inca Peruano vs Guy Mercier Peruano remains maybe the single most imaginative and talented guy we've seen in this footage. Here's a crazy "rule of 3" sequence with his mare/headscissors takedown combo and a really unique way to block it And I didn't capture the straightjacket reversal here, so we come in with Mercier having already switched it around and Peruano trying to escape. You're looking for the downright magic bump into the rope tie-up at the end though:

That's some prime real estate.

A @NoFistsJustFlips post in the AEW thread reminded me of one of my favorites: wrestlers trash-talking into the camera on the way to the ring. I don't even need to be able to hear what they're saying. They don't even need to be speaking a language I understand. I just like the vibe.

New York City went on lockdown on the weekend of March 13th. Things were getting crazy. Hundreds and then thousands of people were being infected by the novel coronavirus. A friend of mine had travelled to Brazil in early March and because of getting infected and hospitalized, didn't come back to New York until May. Some other people I knew weren't so lucky. There's this bar I frequent called Rockbar. It's a small space (because every bar in New York is) where guys go and see friends, drink a lot for a cheap price, and have a very sleazy good time. About a dozen people I knew were infected by the coronavirus because they went to the bar that weekend. Four of them passed away in the following month. People became terrified of their own shadows. Mask wearing became common, and New Yorkers would actively shame others for not wearing a mask. Social distancing pushed everyone away from each other. By the time summer came around, though cases started to go down, I knew 6 people who'd lost their lives. Of course, when the virus went down here and in LA, they started to go up in other places, like Florida and Texas. The first wave never really ended, people just decided to live with the risk of the virus - or worse, decided since they hadn't seen any one get sick, it wasn't a threat. But, unfortunately, I knew just how real it was. One of my closest friends was intubated in March. He miraculously survived the intubation and was discharged from the hospital in May. I speak with him almost daily, and he still suffers with long term effects of the illness, but thankfully has mostly returned to his normal life. (Personally, I can't wait to give him a gigantic hug.) By the time 2020 ended, 3 more people I knew passed away. Thankfully, my senior citizen parents both began their vaccination in December, and finished in January. In mid-January. I became eligible for the vaccine in New York and got my first shot. Then Covid came for the rest of my family... My uncle, aunt, and 5 cousins and spouses all tested positive early in February. I lost my uncle Marcos to the virus 3 weeks ago. Thankfully, they rest of the family survived. The morning of February 20th, I saw Drew McIntyre kick out of 3 F5's. I saw him Claymore Brock Lesnar into oblivion and win the WWE Championship. Drew McIntyre fulfilled his dreams that day last year. I got my second shot later on that cold February afternoon. When I started this thing last year, I honestly thought this was something that would be done by the summer. I can tell you, I didn't know if I'd actually finish it. And I honestly didn't know if my $125 bike would actually survive somewhat daily usage for the better part of a year. 1900 miles later, Drew McIntyre held the WWE Championship above his head. I write now, vaccinated and feeling accomplished. Feeling mournful for the 11 family and friends I have personally lost in the last year. But, feeling hopeful for the future. For those of you who have come with me on this voyage, I am grateful. We'll see what comes next, but I have an idea or two. In the meantime, this is your humbled writer, simply saying: Thank you. Stay strong. Wear a mask. When its your turn to get vaccinated, please get your shot. We will get through this, together. -Kelvin

Yeah, that'll do.

9 PM came, and Miz ducked it. I got pissed. 10 PM came, Miz ran out of the ring, I got even more pissed. It started feeling like Vince and the rest of creative was going to fuck this up. 10:54 PM came and then I started feeling like it was going to happen. 3 minutes later and Lashley is champion. I can't really say enough positive things about this. Lashley got fucked over right from the jump with terrible feuds. And then slowly and without anyone noticing, he got protected. Then they put him with the Hurt Business and kept the Hurt Business going. Throughout all that time they kept protecting Lashley while he turned into one of the most over acts on the show. The Hurt Business was one of the few bright spots during what is probably one of the worst periods for Raw. And now Lashley is champion. That's just fucking cool.

LASHLEY!!!!!!!!! finally WWE does it right

Hell yeah! This was the time to make the switch and WWE got it right for once.

Lashley! The Hurt Business! The best thing on a bad show for so long. So deserved. Pumped for that dude.

I've been, all told, "lucky" in the pandemic. A few family members have gotten symptomatic Covid, and a few friends tested positive without symptoms, but nobody I know was hospitalized or died. I'm an "essential" worker so I didn't lose my job, and though my hours got real short during the brief period the country really took everything seriously, the expanded unemployment benefits were a lifesaver. I miss hanging out with my friends. It was WrestleMania last year that I first really felt that, not going to Travis's house to drink and watch Mania the way we do nearly every year for over a decade. I miss simple things like being able to go to a store in the middle of the night when nobody is there. But I've been lucky, and now I'm just desperately hoping that can hold up for however much longer this nightmare continues.

AJPW Killer Khan vs Riki Choshu Death Match

...but not this: ;).

NJPW 1994 at the Budokan

The RIPPA knows that this horseshit is finished

Somewhere, Chris Masters weeps tears of joy.

To be fair - Lawful has had much bigger issues to deal with the last month

Watching Summerslam 89 over the weekend and I had completely forgotten about how fuckin' hard Dusty's WWF theme went:

That game in general was just absurd The Rockets lost by... umm carry the one... 49! (133-84) Why, one may ask? Well one reason was Houston was 4 for 45 on threes FOUR FOR FORTY FIVE!!!!!

When we were doing GWE back in 2016 (and with 2026 ahead of us), one of the things I loved to examine was what a wrestler did facing certain limitations. There are a ton of fascinating matches to think about along those lines, be it bloodless WWE cage matches or the weird constraints on Luger vs Windham in GAB 91 (also a cage match), or what I just saw the other night in Tenryu vs Onita (also a cage match) where they had to sort of hug the center of the ring to start a match, or a scaffold match, or a prince of darkness match, or a "punches not allowed" match or a match with someone in a cast, or a match in Sturgis in front of a hostile, unaware crowd, or basically whatever, and the no-crowd situation is a HUGE limitation. I've seen matches where people do exactly what they would have if there was a crowd, the same taunts, the same canned spots that almost 100% rely upon a crowd, and those aren't bad spots to do in general, but they make zero sense right now. Crowd interaction is so much of what wrestling is about and is built into the DNA of the "why" of so many things that are done that are just taken for granted. So people who have found ways to be creative and imaginative and use this to their advantage, or that have just found ways to survive it without being diminished should be rewarded here too.

Luke Gallows dropped some weight...

Definitely an STO.

"Stay tuned fans as we'll learn if Manami Toyota can successfully murder herself. We'll see after the break!" (Poor Toshiyo Yamada took that monitor right to the eye and nose. That HAD to suck.)

In Soviet Russia, Wrestlemania sign points at you!

Piggybacking on the tag team trope - I hate it when the face is beat down, staggers to his corner, gets the hot tag... and then two moves later is tagged back in. Come on, man. This happens in modern wrestling, old wrestling, big time PPVs, Dark matches... if the FIP comes back in and gets his ass beat again, it makes him and his teammate look dumb; if he comes back in and is fine and dandy, it makes the match look dumb.

In the year of our lord 2021, the WWE Championship changes hands with a full Nelson. And it was ALMIGHTY!

Holy Shit WWE did something right!

To me, getting Deford to write something in the 90 yearbook is one of the biggest deals in observer history. yes, he was Daves boss at the time, but still a coup/.

At least the PPV being the same time as NBA all star weekend means that I won't actually have to pay for the Shaq match

Oh, right, that whole thing with them pushing back dates. As much as I want to grumble about UFC (I know it's not entirely their fault) as long as it's a one-time thing then it's not the worst thing in the world. And considering two of my friends recently recovered from COVID maybe it wouldn't be wise to hang with them just yet so it's likely a blessing in disguise.

I'm still pissed about the show being on Sunday. Unlike WWE shows my wife absolutely wants to see this but has to get up at 4am Monday for work. I might watch it all anyway but might be tempted to just watch whatever and pick up the rest Monday. It also really screws up plans to have people over considering most of the people work Monday as well. I never did see why but did they ever state if this is a one-time deal or is this how it's going to be going forward.

I'd be curious what peopled might have for Wrestler who Best Adapted to Not Having Crowds I don't have a good answer. I just haven't seen enough. Bryan got away with some mat-heavy stuff vs Gulak in spring that he wouldn't have been able to do so easily in front of a crowd.

I need interpromotional trios put together for the sole sake of having dumb names. I need Hangman, Wardlow, and Danshoku Dieno tagging as "Rum, Sodomy & the Lash".