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My wife has been watching wrestling for less than a year and I came home from work to this last night: I think they turned out pretty darn well for her first time. Next week she wants to try Darby Allin's tree facepaint.

Before all this CYN shit, I actually had a pretty positive opinion of EC3. I only knew of him what I'd seen on tv, and I thought he was a guy that WWE really missed the boat on. He is CLEARLY trying to promote to hateful people. I'm sure he and others involved with this promotion saw that there's a market for that, because, sadly, there is. They've thrown dog whistle after dog whistle into everything about this. Just because you don't know the connotation behind all of those things, it doesn't mean it's not there. The whole point of dog whistles is that they're easily deniable. "Oh, no. I was just making an 'ok' sign." "Oh, no, 88 was just a random number I picked." There is no doubt in my mind that he's trying to appeal to that audience. This is 100% NOT a witch hunt. Like I said, as far as I know, EC3 didn't have an Aries or Low Ki-like reputation before all of this. I know my opinion of CYN is based solely on what I've seen of it.

Your willingness to always give potential bad actors the benefit of the doubt and take them at their word offers cover to real bad actors. People who are playing his dumb game know better than to admit what they're doing. At a minimum, he's an edgelord who understands what he's courting.

Hey! Lance Archer got his hair fixed to commemorate his escape from Dark/Elevation. Of course, Dustin Rhodes is motherfucking awesome. He takes an assbeating and makes a few comebacks and then REALLY leans into an assbeating. THEN the build to the finish! And all the BLOOD! THROUGH A TABLE! I could get into this feud. Fuego del Sol dies so the House of Black can feud with the Dark Order? I back his play one hundred percent. Bobby Fish is so good in the ring. Hey, 10 borrowed Bhupinder Gujjar's finisher by hitting a shoulder block out of the corner from the second rope. He watches BTI on YouTube. Who knew? Alan Angels is over in Austin. ReDragon hits Total Elimination. It was an ode to IMPACT!/ECW match! Ultimate Elite being the Horsemen flaunting all the belts even though they are all stolen is pretty old school- like Memphis territory old school. Man, Ricky Starks and Swerve Strickland had a very fancy wrestling match. I could watch them wrestle several more times. Good use of the high school football banner. I was hoping for a Keith Lee beel. AEW RULES!

It's all about the game, and how you play it.

Run this shirt back.

There are countless wrestlers with better and worse careers, but I don't know how many people have had more interesting careers than HHH. By interesting, I'm not taking about any of the stuff that happens onscreen, but all the conversations that we've had about everything outside of the ring. Whether he was unfairly punished for the curtain call, or his behind the scenes politicking, or turning NXT into something that made us had hope for the future of WWE, he's been fascinating to talk about for 25 years.

I'm pretty stoked Nyla is next in line to face Rosa. I've been waiting to see them do more with her for a while now. I know she's supposed to be the "monster" of the women's division but if they ever turn her face and let her show some of the personality she shows on twitter, she's gonna become their most popular female performer pretty quickly. Also fuck anyone who hates on trans people. They're humans too.

I think the CYN thing is tricky, because if you are an Extremely Online person then it's really clear that they are running the exact same rhetorical playbook as various shitty far-right internet chud groups. It's all the same phrases and winks and nods and not saying exactly what you mean. But I can also see it just scanning as eccentric weirdness if you're not already familiar with that milieu.

Hey everyone. Time for an update. I liked my neurologist more this time round and she thought I should go back on the antidepressant I was taken off. I started taking them again on the 10th of March. I noticed a difference particularly week one. I'm getting out more and sleeping less during the day. This Thursday was the start of my third week on them. My Dad, Sister, and my Doctor, Dr Jundi who I spoke to on Wednesday noticed change in me. My whole body does ache though from being more active and how my health has declined since the middle of 2020. I had a blood test which found I'm really low on Vitamin D so I've been given some tablets. Started those on Thursday. Sunday is Mother's Day in the UK. Special occasions are particularly difficult for the meaning of them but it's all the time loving and missing my Mum. I don't think I deal well with adversity so I'm nervous when that comes knocking again. My Dad's got a big health check this coming Monday, a prostrate exam. Me and my Sister have kept telling our Dad to get checked out and he's relented. My Wellbeing is a farce getting rung on my mobile phone with a withheld number so you can't ring back and not giving you a set time. My Wellbeing rang at the library, dentists and doctors so I was unable to take it. Like me, my Dad and my Sister say, you've things to do and can't be sat round a telephone all day. In closing I want to give thanks to posters who have given me messages of support and keeping things I've disclosed to here including posters who are Facebook friends as well. It's appreciated as mental health issues suck. Love, Paul xxx.

Insider newz: The "two high profile people" were Cody and Pharoah.

OK. Lets see if I can explain this. Meat in Japanese is "niku." The numbers 2 and nine are " ni" and "kyu" more or less. So the 29th is meat day, and to celebrate Mos Burger in Japan is offering special Okada Kazuchika collaboration burgers on April May and June 29th. If I manage to get one, I'll let you know about it. Maybe in the merch or food threads.

Let's finish this. Edge had made his shocking return in 2020's Rumble. He proceeded to have the "greatest match in WrestleMania history" which was rich because it wasn't even in the top half of the matches on that show. Then he was going to challenge for the title and got injured. I've grown weary of this guy's schtick and am not thrilled he's now taken the 'special attraction' role that Cena & Rock had been filling in years past. But anyway, he won the '21 Rumble so he gets to go to the Mania main event. Daniel Bryan is basically done. He'd been hinting at retirement for months leading up to this and all but said this was going to be his last WrestleMania ever. In doing so, he also said he wanted to be in the main event. But, as a Smackdown member, that spot was filled by the Rumble winner and the champ. So, he got to be in an Elimination Chamber match for an *immediate title shot* at the champ. That didn't go great. He then got another shot at Payback, which again... didn't go his way. Well, he's now without a dance partner for his final WrestleMania and well, the fans want him in the title hunt and this worked before so... And now the champion... Roman Reigns. Having returned to action the previous summer after time away - depending on who you believe he refused to work with the pandemic raging out of control or he was given time off or some variation thereof - he beat the unholy fuck out of Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman and took back the title he'd never lost. He made it abundantly clear he was now the alpha dog by beating the shit out of his cousin, Jey Uso, and adopted his new "Head of the Table" title in what has to date been easily the best move of his career. Well, it's Mania time, Edge wants his shot and the fans want Daniel Bryan to get his last shot, so we get a triple threat. It's so much fun when you get to see the man behind the mask, and Bryan lets his mask slip as he enters. This is going to be his last Mania, possibly ever, and he is clearly brimming with emotion. Counterpoint is Roman, coming out looking like the unnerving soulless killer that he's needed to be his entire career, his little toady cousin Jey, is in tow. Also Edge is there. What follows is a masterclass in putting over a monster heel champ. Edge and Bryan can't get on the same page long enough when Roman just starts plowing through them. Whenever they get some offense in, Jey sticks his weasely nose in and breaks it up. Edge finally has enough and gets Jey out of the way by planting him face first into the stairs outside sending him off to the back on a stretcher. Bryan and Edge go at it for a while, knocking down Reigns occasionally, but never focusing on him. Edge thinks Bryan stole his spot, Bryan thinks Edge is an unlikeable ass. (Hey they're both right!) So, their reward for not putting down the champ was his return to beating them both down. Roman and Bryan are the ones mostly in control in the 2nd act of this match. With Roman spearing Edge and Bryan sort of accidentally hitting Knee Plus on Edge. Eventually though the bigger and stronger Reigns takes full control and unmercifully beats up Bryan, culminating with a nasty powerbomb to the announce table. Edge finally is back with a surprise spear to Reigns and eventually Bryan and he are trading submission spots on Reigns. And in an absolutely badass moment, Edge has a chair-assisted crossface on WHILE Bryan applies the Yes Lock. They eventually headbutt each other back to a stalemate. That spot is notable in that it looked super cool, and Reigns looks like even MORE of a badass as he didn't tap to EITHER guy's submission finisher. Edge finally knocks Bryan out, hits a spear on Reigns and --- Bryan pulls out the ref on a 2 count. He's now clearly furious and desperate as he goes for a chair or three and waylays everything that's moving. He gets them ready for his super finisher the Conchairto and delivers to Bryan. BUT.... Jey Uso makes a surprise return and distracts Edge long enough for Roman to recover. He spears the FUCK out Edge, does his own Conchairto to Edge, and drags Edge's limp corpse onto the equally dead Daniel Bryan. Pack em. Stack em. Rack em. Reigns pins both men simultaneously to retain the Universal Championship. He celebrates as Edge and Bryan disappear into the ether. --- Boy did that last match save night 2. That final spot I'll all but guarantee came from DB's brain, as he knew he was on the way out. What "surprised" people though was that after he lost his retirement match in April, he'd go on to totally re-invent himself as, um, Bryan Danielson in AEW. The good thing though, was he shed the WWE aspects of his character and while not really modifying his appearance, he changed the way he acts, wrestles, and interacts with the crowd. Notably killing off the Yes movement. As of now, he's in a tag with Jon Moxley and they're probably going to skin the current champs, Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus, alive when they get them in a match. Edge finally decided to go back to his boilerplate "Psycho Heel" character, which is reminding me more and more that the dude has two modes. Intense face and intense heel, and that's all he's good for any more. And see that's the difference between Edge and Danielson. Because I have zero doubt that if he'd have jumped to AEW as was rumored back in 2020, he would have essentially been doing his exact same WWE stuff, just under a new name. Hopefully his WWE future involves him bringing up younger talent and putting them over. (Calling AJ Styles a 'millenial' recently makes me cringe though.) And Roman... well, I think it's safe to say he's in the prime of his career. He's definitely, 100%, the man right now. Like, there's no one on his level, which is a slight problem because they're about to unify the championships, and if he wins at this year's Mania (WHICH HE SHOULD), there's no one around to stop him. He's about 3 months away from passing Backlund (depending on how you cut there), and more than halfway to Pedro Morales. But literally, short of Okada defecting to WWE, there's no one employed by WWE worthy of stopping him on his road to being the 6th member of the 1000 Day Reign club. --- The rest of the show is fascinating, simply because of how different a position we are today. A solid 1/3 of the roster that appeared on this show now work for other promotions or are gone from wrestling completely. In the context of the world too, we're rapidly approaching 1,000,000 lives lost due to the horrifyingly stubborn nature of the people who refuse to get vaccinated and/or take basic precautions. It's weird, there's so much reason to despair, and yet, there's so much reason to hope. We'll see if this extends into a yearly thing. But one thing I do know is this, I do appreciate all of you continuing this journey with me. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have and I hope you all stay safe. Hopefully someday soon, we'll get to a new normal. Whatever that may be. End of Day 134. ?

While they shouldn't have made any explicit reference to Sammy's line from Wednesday, Dan Lambert should have come out with his TNT title belt wrapped in clear plastic.

Quite frankly, we call them "Championships", Pal.

I don't think anything I said was directed at your character, so I'm sorry you took it as such. But I'm definitely responding to a pattern of behaviour where you express a willingness to let guys off the hook for speech that ranges from questionable to vile and present people unwilling to be so forgiving as unreasonable. As an example: Your frequent insistence that people should be over Jay Briscoe's vile and violent talk in the past (note: Please do not take this as an invitation to re-litigate Briscoe shit, because I'm not interested in engaging; I only bring it up to demonstrate a pattern of behaviour). Your willingness to take people at their word and offer the benefit of the doubt in situations such as these is clear and consistent. That it offers cover for real bad actors isn't something I think you actively wish to bring about, so don't take it as me accusing you of trying to offer cover. But functionally, it's an inevitable end result of letting people's bullshit slide so easily. Do with that what you will. As for analysis of the situation, here's a video timestamped to just before the relevant "joke": So the joke that he thinks people might take out of context is that he has a My Pillow promo code for 88% off. But he claims not to know what 88 might mean in some circles. So he expects people to believe he came to this conversation, knowing what he's accused of, and made a promo code joke where he came up with 88 as a number cold off the dome. 88 specifically. As a discount that makes sense in a promo code, he just made that up cold? When there's 25% or 50% or a bunch of other numbers that would make more sense for a person speaking extemporaneously to reach for, he chose 88 and doesn't know what he's winking at? I don't believe him (and am insulted on behalf of everyone he thinks is that stupid). And that's without touching on his shit-eating "whoops, had no idea, wink" energy. Having established that I don't believe that he doesn't know what 88 is winking at, why lie? I could see a person making that shitty joke and nobody taking it to mean they're a Nazi. Isn't the joke that you're getting 88% off because people think Lindell is a Nazi? There's a way to try to carry this horseshit off without feigning ignorance. So why lie? I see two possible explanations. 1) He secretly harbours some really shitty beliefs, has learned to shield them by denying any knowledge of those things, and the denial of Hitler stuff is a kneejerk instinct. That's deeply uncharitable and I don't know enough about Michael Hutter to say one way or the other, so I'm not going to. That leaves us with 2) He's trying to wind people up by being edgy and then denying he knows what this stuff is like so many others. "What do you mean that's a white power symbol? You people are crazy!" That is being an edgelord and it's more than fair to call it such. And it's the most charitable reading I can give to the situation because I don't know enough to hang the first possibility on him. Given how many vile and dangerous beliefs that have been mainstreamed in recent years by people fucking around and being edgy online, I'm not sure how easily people should let this stuff pass. You'll make your own judgements on that. But there's your analysis.

At this rate, "we fucked on it" should just be an AEW running gag. Fuego showing off his nice, newer car? Tay and Sammy slide in to casually mention that they christened the backseat an hour ago. Excalibur promoting AEW's first show in a new arena? Tay and Sammy interrupt him to explain how they did the deed in the bleachers there last week. Jade shows up and is proudly showing off her new cape? Tay and Sammy exchange knowing glances and slyly point out conspicuous wet spot on the back of it. And so on.

It just doesn't make you very likeable when you tell people of how you have sex. Seriously, if you're at your friend's house, and you comment on their new kitchen table, and they respond with, "yeah, we've fucked on it," you'd be a little weirded out by it right? That's what they did, and it just seems unnecessary. Nobody likes that couple.

I find myself tempted to eulogize Hunter already. It's such an interesting arc. The designated driver for the clique who found his way into production meetings, married the boss' daughter, watched all of his peers eclipse him in mainstream fame, ended up with a gift basket from the audience that had reviled him, and finally fell in just about every way possible.

If Cash ever has to miss time due to an injury or something I think Dax would make a great TNT champ. Would be reminiscent of Arn holding the TV title

Scary stuff for Hunter there. Can only imagine what his daughters went through. Just awful. Definitely sounds like it's maybe time to enjoy his money and retirement even from the corporate setting. Also, c'mon with the steroid jokes. We all know what the business was in the 2000s. We gonna start making jokes about Eddy next?

I legit thought they were having the Mascots ump the games and I was like "That is a much better solution than robo umps"

Presentation was a good 50% of what turned people against Cody.

You have to Inception it into his head. "He's (Cody) like this because of your influence, you made him into this. Now you can show it off under your control". Man, now I want a WWE style Inception movie, going into Vince's dreams to like, save Wrestlemania. It'd be like A Serbian Film but with fart jokes.

maybe it was a normal sized wrench but Leyla is so tiny? Anyway I really didn't have a problem with Sammy bragging about having sex with his girlfriend however I could do with out "Lucha Whore-us" comment" Lambert and Jericho have used this slut/whore/stripper insults recently and I wish they would knock it off. AEW seems to have a decent fanbase of pre-teen girls. I follow Thonder Rosa on FB and she's always post pictures of her with young fans. Enough with the Misogynistic crap

Dustin Rhodes vs. Lance Archer Two big tough Texas lads fighting in Texas! I'd be stoked for this TNT title tournament re-match anywhere in the world. But the Texas angle is a fun one. Like, Eddie Kingston vs Homicide would be great anywhere, but it would add a little extra frisson if they were fighting in Yonkers. Alan “5” Angels & 10 vs. reDRagon Would "Five and Dime" be a good tag team name for this Dark Order duo? I really like Kyle O'Reily and here's why: Back when I was living in Canada and working as the director of a children's summer camp, I brought a group of staff and volunteers to see an ECCW show in Vancouver. Bryan Danielson was on the card, and I told my staff that this was an opportunity to see the guy I considered to be the best pro wrestler in the world. it ended up being a pretty good-sized group that decided to go. My buddy Verne set us up with great seats and a lot of the wrestlers played directly to us. They definitely created some new big fans of pro wrestling that night! After the show I was hanging out and catching up and I noticed O'Reily chatting with a couple of female volunteers from the camp. I made my way over there and discreetly let him know that "These girls are not rats." He reacted immediately with genuine shock and told me he's "not like that." I can still remember his tone of voice and facial expression. 100 percent sincere. He was impressed that these were good people who chose to spend their summer volunteering at a kid's camp. I have always liked him since then, and I have watched his developing career with a real sense of happiness. Nyla Rose In Action vs Madi Wrenkowski, the protege of Thunder Rosa! This will be pretty great. Plus, apparently it will upset some hateful bigots just by taking place at all which is another mark in its favour. QT Marshall Certificate of Accomplishment to Hook Gee whiz, @JLowe, sorry you had to sit through this live. ? I hope we get a few crisp Hook suplexes here. I wonder if cutie will be able to get him to speak. I wonder if chips will be eaten. FTW Championship Match: Ricky Starks (c) vs. Swerve Strickland The answer to "Whose house?" is " Swerve's house." The answer to "who's House" is "House comprises Chris Bronson, Chris Adams, Pete Bainbridge, LA Taylor, and Kneecapper Murphy." I had to use Cagematch to make that joke. I'll be very impressed indeed if anyone immediately gets it. I don't think that's the same Chris Adams. Kneecapper Murphy is a great name! Also: The FTW Title match is likely to be fast-paced and exciting. Some people hate that. Also someone is likely to complain that whoever takes the loss here is no longer relevant. That's OK. Discussion is fun!

That was pretty fun. Dustin looks like he's slowing down in his old age but he took some ill-advised bumps and him and Archer matched up just fine (plus he not only bled from the head but from the EAR which I joked in the Discord that Schneider put him up to). 10 looked like a beast and they stole the mask turnaround spot from Spoiler vs. Wahoo McDaniel so you can't toss shit at that. I will say less about a Shane Strickland match but you probably guessed that anyway. They were super over though still, and that crowd in Austin, woof. Take in mind they'd already sat through wrestling around three hours plus by then and THAT's the reaction they got? Yeah, you might wanna tie your wagon to those dudes.

It's reductive, but "second banana positioned constantly as a top banana" really describes the bulk of HHH's career. Popular, sure, but not as popular as X (where "X" is Rock, Austin, Cena, etc.). Decent worker when he would work to his strengths, but never the best worker (his '00 is both his best year and IMO quite heavily overrated, and I'd like to talk about whether he had a top-ten '00 worldwide, even) and rarely worked to his strengths. Made a babyface territory into a heel-dominated one and since he wasn't a touring champ, it sort of killed the company in ways that it still hasn't come back from. He has a peak as an executive that holds up artistically('14 - '16 NXT) much more than whatever you'd argue his in-ring peak was. I think his best analog in-ring is Edge. Decent enough, but not particularly good unless there's a bunch of plundah in the ring with him.

Word. The guy literally said "I'll give you 88% off a MyPillow," which is two far right dogwhistles in one. He knows exactly what he's doing. He also whiffed when asked if he understood the underlying theme of Fight Club. ?

100%. We don't have to give the benefit of the doubt to people who do not earn it. The game stops working when we stop playing along with it. None of these people have any ability to not tell on themselves if you ask them a single follow up question. It's all bullshit and you don't have to tolerate it.

I would like an exception for Paige VanZant's husband.

And the Steiner genetic freaks have a 133 1/3% chance.

That's a good case for keeping it. Vince is probably surprised to learn people have strong feelings about Cody Rhodes of all people.

I'm going to nominate Mike Awesome allowing Masato Tanaka, who is barely taller than the top rope, to powerbomb him over the top rope.

NAYLOR~!

I would like this MUCH more without the bloody fist. I'd probably buy a straight logo design. Can't quite see myself wearing this one.

When I took my non-fan friend to Dynamite a few weeks ago Silver was definitely his favorite out of the bunch. The crowd was going banana for him. Funnily enough he also loved Luther, couldn't get enough of his schtick with Serpentico.

I read about the Sammy line before I actually watched it and thought it was gonna come off as this lowbrow cringe thing... god damnit, I hate myself for taking this position, but it got a pop. Sammy has this issue with conviction in his promos. When he's being anything other than cocky, it doesn't really feel like he means it. That line felt like he meant it. Lambert's reaction was great through the whole segment. And the crowd, who didn't see it *ahem* coming, reacted well to that brazen, cocky conviction. Furthermore, I'd be willing to bet a lot of the audience who responded to the line positively in the moment, later went online and trashed it once there were usernames involved. It's still going to be a path to heeldom, how couldn't it?, but when Sammy said the icky words the crowd went yay. This is pro wrestling, something gets a pop and you run with it.

Triple H only retired because Cody is coming back and he doesn't want any of the Thronebreaker!

i'd be interested in the discussions about this. Jeez, with this guy's career, you could almost go year-by-year and have huge shifts almost every time.

It's a wrestling tradition. Like how Eddie Gilbert was the protege of Bob Backlund, so they could repeatedly run the angle where the next main event heel could get a psychological edge on Backlund by injuring Gilbert.

Will Vince's ego let that happen? We know how much he hates someone else's ideas getting over in his company.

Blackwell/Hickerson is the dream fat guy tag team I never knew I wanted until now! James

No one cries poor more than ultra rich folks.

Speaking of finishers that don't or do look good, i ALWAYS worry that Hangman is gonna stumble and fall on his face doing the Buckshot during a big climatic finishing sequence and look like an idiot. But he keeps surprising me every time and always hits all his cowboy shit clean af.