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*stares at the purchased ticket for the show* Excuse me: HOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLYYYYY SHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm losing my goddamn mind over here.

You can't have a candelabra and not have it be a Liberace Gimmick. Sister Abigail becomes Brother George. Everytime this new Max Cady/Liberace character does the move he looks at camera and says "I wish my brother George was here!" James

A storm is brewing.

The color guy clearly chucks his headset near the end of this clip and I can't stop giggling

So let me get this straight. They bring Zelina back and she assumes she'll be with Aleister. To which they soon after cut him and they're on different shows. On top of that she keeps losing matches since her return and now she didn't wrestle in front of her home town the night before 9/11? The same day that her dad lost his life there 20 years ago? Look, I've tried not to say that line myself much but if there's ever a reason to say fuck WWE then this is it. So yeah, fuck WWE. Sorry, I might be a bit salty but this is just plain awful. At least they didn't try and keep her from attending the ceremony to read the names and talk about her dad. So I guess there's that.

USC’s kicker got ejected for targeting on the first play of the game Us old folks can also be entertained because his name is Parker Lewis

Chuck's conundrum

Capitalizing on 9/11 having the show in NYC is sketchy sure. Having the show in NYC and not having Zelina on the show is absolutely fucking disgusting and why? Do we need the bloodline taking up 45 mins of a 2 hr show? Zelina's IG posts all throughout the week were positive. She had gear made, she was with family whom she rarely sees and all were looking forward to her having a match where she would look out and see where her and her dad sat decades earlier. But WWE had to WWE and fuck it up. Now I am sure someone will pipe in with "well it's a business" Yeah it is a fucking business but Vince will be the first to show Thea reading the names on Sept 11 since it benefits him. Fuck this company I hope AEW wipes them off the planet

Is there a reason why? Don’t DZ me here.

It’ll be a candelabra, and he’s dressed like a flamboyant Dracula when the lights come on.

I assume Trick Williams' gimmick will be "Mirror dimension Treat Williams." He better have an evil goatee.

This is the first full episode of Rampage I am watching. Am I nuts in liking this more than Dynamite in terms of how the show is formatted and works? The Pac/Andrade match was awesome. Both of those guys don’t just have crazy moves, but they know how to make them look like they hurt. That dive Andrade took when he did the 180 spin — that extra spin looked like it added some more impact to it. Same with Pac’s split-legged moonsault. I loved the heel distraction ending. Not sure of any of the backstory but seems like a good place for me to step in. This is also my first time seeing Darby and Sting. I like Darby coming out to some Misfits tribute band song. I had no idea why he dressed like that, but being a Horror Punk skater kid makes a lot of sense to me. Tully outsmarting Sting-ah (“You need to be more aware!”) allowing Spears to sucker Darby was classic. Great to see Sting having his strengths as a mentor to another darkened face paint wearing soul but still getting conned like California Sting all of those dozens of times. That should always be the case. Really cool that each of the Trios came out to one singular theme song as opposed to everyone getting their own entrances. Cuts down on time and such a pet peeve of mine in WWE, and also subtly puts the emphasis on the main feud. Big ups to Best Friends also coming out with Statlander. Very cool to connect that relationship. I liked that match — really quick sprint with all of the faces getting their shine, and without Britt taking the fall to keep up with the match. The Cole and Danielson little promo was a good side-by-side and makes me think they are going to toss Cole in BD’s way before he gets to Omega. Also, they are very clearly going to at some point do an Adam Cole/Omega power struggle angle. “I trust them with my life!” I like Henry hosting this side-by-side segment. This is my first time even hearing of Castor and Bowen’s. They did the same thing that other heels did on Dynamite where they mugged too much, this time during Pillman’s promo. Camera either should have just focused on Pillman or they needed to tone it down by 75 percent because it was distracting from what Pillman was saying. Heels ripping on a hometown for Heat is so stupid at this point, but it actually makes sense from an insult rapper. Pillman coming our house on fire and not even getting out of his vest with his mullet flowing is such a great 1980s babyface touch. Something really unsettling about Bowens shirtless at ringside — I love the obnoxiousness of some jacked dude going throughout his whole life shirtless and daring retail establishments to not serve him. Pillman is doing a really good “inspired by his hometown” baby face act. Good little match with the baby face overcoming the sneaky heeling. Mox making the save for the hometown kid also ruled. Really good hour of professional wrestling.

Plan accordingly

Today, the roll of the Atlanta Falcons will be played by the San Francisco 49ers.

Tommy Dreamer has joined Bills Mafia.

Jacksonville does not look good. Trevor's WR are not helping at all. 54 yards for the Steelers in the first half. oy. And remember, you can always find LOL in Lions. (you just have to take the L twice, which Detroit is used to)

Why can' these guys just be respectable like Robert Loggia and shill for Orange Juice? James

Meanwhile everything at FedEx Field is fine

Sorry but seeing a linebacker with the number 8 is weird as fuck

I'm with Brady on the numbers. My old man brain just can't cope and I don't know who anyone is or where they should be. *shakes fist at cloud*

If they were turning Lucha Brothers, they wouldn't have won the tag titles. There's no way now. Pac maybe. He's in an awkward spot either way. He's got a heel persona but he's too fucking good to be booed. So they've been having him be a jerk babyface and it's been pretty good.

Im so confused. How did the NFL save America when the WWE did?

He DID lose!!!!

For reasons I STILL don’t know, I decided this was the week I’d start doing some sports betting on college football. Guess who’s up $120 after taking Michigan -6, the under on Air Force/Navy, and Temple -6.5, plus a parlay of the first two? In between that, JSU LITERALLY planting a flag on the FSU logo, and THIS shit from Arkansas social media… I like college football now?!

FSU loses to a current FCS school for the first time since 1959 on a walk-off 59-yard TD pass from Jacksonville State. Amazing.

Trick Williams better have a riverboat gambler gimmick.

Tony D’Angelo is way to normal sounding for the WWE, Gunnar Harland sounds like the name of a NHL lottery pick, Persia Pirotta is totally a 90’s porn star name, Trick Williams sounds like the name of someone who ran a kickoff back for a TD in the Gator Bowl, and Dante Chen is the most WWE sounding name of the lot.

Good show again this week. Other than the 4-man booth, I like what they're doing with Rampage. Pac/Andrade delivered as expected. Didn't see the turn on Chavo coming, but I'll be pretty happy if that's his write-off. He's one of those guys that seems like a genuinely great dude in real life, but I have no desire to see on tv. The 6-woman was a nice continuation of the angle on Dynamite. They did double up on Soho and Hayter this week, but those two are hot right now, and I don't mind Ruby winning a bunch because, outside of Punk, she has the best theme in the company. I like the little split screen pre-match interview before the main. Pillman/Caster was exactly what it needed to be. Good exposure for the young guys, and JR's line about two young lions who need a win a national tv was spot on. Pillman can't credibly go into a big match with MJF only winning on Dark. Both guys hit their stuff well and didn't try to do too much.

Personally i want-1 and hangman to fix the dark order with the power of friendship in route to hangman dethroning kenny.

But could bring us Doink Finn

This doesn't erase your point here, but you can't just show up at an indy on a standard AEW contract. It has to be approved. AEW generally has approved all requests so far I think. And there are special circumstances like Andrade & Moxley where they are free to take any date that doesn't conflict with AEW by the nature of the deals they signed. But the standard contracts, you need permission. So it's not like Brian Cage could show up at GCW because he's mad at his spot on the card right now in AEW as a FU to Tony Kahn. Your point still stands, but there's just the extra step. And in the case of dudes no being used, I can't see why they would turn down a request. From what I gather TK is very pro workers and wants to do as much as he can to make as many of them happy. And if working indy shots makes a dude happy, he seems cool with that.

Robert Parker and his legendary big cock.

Nice to see Andrade silence a few critics with that fantastic performance alongside Pac's. Not unlike Miro and Brodie Lee before him he just needed a little time to settle in. I love Mark Henry. That big warm smile announcing 'the Main Event' is a weekly highlight. He's got a good voice for commentary, anything he lacks is due largely to experience. They oughtta give him some more reps on one of the Dark shows.

I wouldn't wish that evil on anyone.

Thread:

Shawn Michaels copycat. More than happy to win a belt in the ring, but as soon as it's time to drop it, oh boy...

Steelers beat the Bills. I do not hate football this week.

Going .500 in a season with an odd number of games would be a very Bengals thing.

Football Is A Work

I hope y’all are sitting down - Jared Goff just threw a pick six

I know why they cast him... But he was 19ish when he originated the role. 8 years is a long time, and he's not someone that looks young for his age. Giving him the role just because of that is crazy.

Cleveland has also become the first team to be no hit three times in a single season. Re: seven inning no hitters, I’ll get back to you in a few minutes about Keegan Akin... Update: Vladdy singles on first pitch of the seventh. Then Bo homers. Thank god, that was depressing

That studio set up looks pretty cool. I'm fan of a dark set up visually, I liked when in the 90's ECW,WCW and even WWF darkened the color and used grey canvases and black ring ropes. I feel it puts the attention on the wrestlers like going to a theatre where the stage is black. By contrast the Thunderdome is an eyesore

Jimmy Jacobs needs to be on that card.

So I watched this, not out of curiosity about the product in general or for clinical reasons so I could talk intelligently if I had to, or to see a specific wrestler or hear a specific announcer like Wight and check in on how he was doing, but because I sort of just wanted to see it. I wanted to see if Andrade could pull it together finally. I wanted to see if they were setting up Flair coming in maybe. I wanted to see what they had Danielson say. I wanted to see how Soho meshed in the division. I wanted to see what kind of pop Pillman got both out the gate and the win and how Caster was playing up getting taken off TV. I wanted to see the tenor of the Sting/Tully stuff. There didn't seem to be anything on there that was going to really annoy me. I just wanted to see the show for the show. And I didn't really spoil myself first when I could have, but that's a mixed bag too. I wasn't deeply hungry to know like in years' past. I think I cared less what happened and more wanted to see it. And for the most part I liked it. I thought Andrade based well for Pac and Pac put in enough struggle to make Andrade's stuff (even the illogical stuff) look good. Starting it out with both of them in the ring was actually quite striking. The ending was fine because it was a very traditional one and because they inverted it. The Sting/Tully interaction worked though they don't REALLY have that much history (they were only positioned to work against each other for a year and more like five months in 88). Sting getting someone else caught by surprise is funny. There were things I liked about the women's match and things I didn't. I like Baker's reactions in general. I liked Hayter's power but thought the Riho/Hayter hot tag moment felt way off. There's a lot of hesitation and physical unsureness with a lot of people on the roster and it's hard not to notice it. I think Soho needs some other hook to the start of her song, or they need to figure out a slightly different point in the song to start it or something. It rolls in a little too slowly. Even a "If you smell what the rock is cooking..." or glass breaking or something, but for her. The face to face was good but Henry needs more reps. He'll get there. I think I like watching Griff more than Pillman but Pillman works interestingly for a young guy. You expect Dustin and Christian (working as an Ace, at least) to work in the ten count punches and the claps and the working from underneath on chinlocks but it's neat to see a young guy doing those things. I didn't love how he reached out of the ring (first time I thought it was to his family but later on, you saw it wasn't) and maybe that was the fault of the camera angles. I did like the story of the match with the Acclaimed using outside distraction or interference at every point. I know that Miz vs Pillman Jr would be a really good house show match but I'm not sure about MJF. Look, I'm not going to say this will be appointment viewing for me every week or that I'm enthused to watch a bunch of Dynamite and deal with the Elite, but it feels like the first time since Bayley and Asuka were in NXT that I kind of want to see a weekly show.

I remember everything because it happened two days before I got married. One of my groomsmen was an Air Force pilot and before we knew it, he was running supply drops over Kabul. We left an empty place at the head table in his honor. My dad got to walk two bridesmaids down the aisle, so that was fun. Just as I have every year for the last ten or so (COVID cancellations not withstanding), I will watch the reading of the names of the departed during the memorial and down a shot of Jamaican rum when they announce the name of Bernard Mascarenhas, the late father of former prominent DVDVR contributor and kickass Toronto based lawyer badass, Sven Mascarenhas.

To me, Andrade feels like someone that's been forgotten about. It was like he was signed to a decent amount of buzz, and then it came out that Punk and Bryan were going to be available, and suddenly he wasn't as special anymore. He and Pac put on a total banger last night, and hopefully there's more to come from both of them. I know everyone expects the Lucha Bros to turn and join Andrade, but I'm really hoping that Death Triangle stays together, and that Andrade can get a couple of guys from AAA (Averno~!) to pop over and back him up.

When the weakest season of Justified was the one with Crow family well you still have a pretty great goddam series! "Dug coal together" was the only line that show could end on James

First French gifs in a while. Mantopolous (who might be the best compact, Dean Malenko style wrestler ever) vs Rouxel (who is a jerk blowhard). Got to love bumps into older women in the crowd. You'll have to trust me that Mantopolous is awesome in this one because I'm going to just show you him getting ragdolled around with cool cobra clutch stuff by Rouxel instead: Minor thing, but more people really need to use that hip style takeover. It'd seem so fresh now.