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Happy birthday to a heck of a wrestler, a great technician in the ring, and a jam up guy: Alexander Otsuka! He's one of the best ever to do it. Probably all-time top 20 for me,in terms of how much I enjoy his matches. Maybe celebrate by watching this:

There's some weirdly misogynistic undertones in discussing Sasha's worth/right to expect 30k for her time. She's worth as much as someone is prepared to pay her. By the sounds of things, promoters are prepared to pay it. Nor does it play into any attempt to spin some diva narrative about it either. The "just asking questions" route while choosing to avoid critically analysing whether the other men are worth the price tags mentioned is a bit of a red flag in that context for where this discussion is coming from. Beyond that, why does anyone care what she makes?

I believe Arabic fake Mean Gene went on to become a government minister in Lebanon

LOL.

I just assume everyone disparaging the web shows live deeply unsatisfying lives.

AEW Dark taping spoiler:

Let Tony Schiavone do it. He’s very good at conveying excitement through short sentences that start with the word “It’s”.

I really hope the Moriarty/Dante match ends with both of them turning on Sydal and joining Stokely. The Lio/Dante team was too good for this world, but I'd definitely take this as a consolation. I'd love to see them heel their way up the ladder until Keith Lee pounces Dante into a parallel universe.

Respect!

MAX LARD!

Yeah, that explains why the staff in the drug store were following me around the health and supplements section. They assume all big bald Canadians are out to steal their protein powder now. At least Jeff Cobb got a laugh out of it.

See, my issue is what if Japanese fitness shop and gym and drugstore etc employees start assuming that all big bald Canadians are petty protein thieves? That will screw my life up! Also, and it's related, anyone who enjoys schadenfreude should watch this Jeff Cobb press conference.

Statlander and Athena beat up a couple of jobbers. Then another jobber. Then the heels run out for the save, womp them and send them packing. Unless you're doing the double turn, it made the faces look like losers. Don't feel as though they progressed the interim-baddy angle as much as they could have here. Main event finish was also pretty lame. Heels run in behind the refs back and succeed in interfering, only for it to be no-sold and the faces win anyway. Private Party look like losers for not being able to capitalize. Rush and Andrade look like losers for not being able to execute a run-in properly. Not even sure the Lucha Bros look great going 50/50 with Private Party either. Sort of early 2010s John Cena overcoming the impossible odds on a throwaway Raw main event type finish. I liked the tag opener - I think they've done a great job of building up to the House of Black vs Sting and Darby program, and I'm really looking forward to it. So much more left to do with it. Gresham's Octopus persona I think needs to go with the heel turn. It's a cool idea that's terribly executed - as much ridicule as Randy Orton gets for the Viper mannerisms, he lives the character, his mannerisms leak into his in-ring movements, his entrance, it makes a casual viewer understand why they call him the Viper (and of course Michael Cole mentions it a million times). Gresham wearing the mask and stomp-marching down the ramp looks like a cross between Pugsley Addams and Louise Belcher as rascal upstart kid up to no good about to star in a straight to DVD Daddy Day Care sequel doesn't lean into the idea that this guy is going to stretch you and you be all over you the minute the bell sounds. I think leaning into the Tully influence is a welcome improvement, as the sleazy little guy working underneath that never seems to be working from a disadvantage. Still think he's a dork though and needs to go away with Matt Sydal somewhere and never return. I want more Lee Moriarty. That guy has potential, speaking of guys who work from underneath - he has that Bret like quality of taking a beating and you buy in to watching him be able to make his comeback.

just got back from this movie. loved every bit of it. i'd say a step down from Ragnarok, but that movie was crazy awesome so i'm not surprised. i'm a big GNR fan so i dug the music being so featured. was hoping for more from the GOTG, but i can't be too upset since they have both a holuday special and vol. 3 upcoming. Gorr was an amazing villain. Bale did a fantastic job. the screaming goats were hilarious. re: Axl / Astrid, i didn't pick up on it being a trans naming issue. if that's the case then great, but as someone who has legally changed my name, it was reminiscent of numerous conversations i've had. i would imagine it was left ambiguous on purpose. YMMV.

Gary Hart brings out the cast of Cats to get his revenge on the Von Erichs, leading to Kerry and Kevin facing Rum Tum Tugger and Bustopher Jones at the Cotton Bowl

Randy Savage/Ultimate Warrior/Ric Flair/Hulk Hogan

It might be time for TK to pull the trigger on bringing in Kamille. She is achieving the level of AWESOME as of late. Watch her carry Gigi Rey to a good match in Rey's TWENTY FOURTH match, give or take a few. Kamille sells a giant wad of offense but has such a dominant power offense that you never really think she is in danger. Kamille should join Deeb's Dojo. ====================== How long has Shun Skyywalker been a complete dick? Because I LOVE IT. ======================= Riley Shepherd is nice. Becca is a JERK! Can they just get along? The Good Sisters are ACTUALLY the Blair sisters- Lizzy and Payton. They are fun if not too precise.

No wait, you were completely right. Interesting notes here. I would never put Reynolds in front of Grayson, but I very much respect that opinion. I like Reynolds, but I'm wondering if he and every member of the Dark Order doesn't need to run as fast they can away from this stable. I appreciate the scouting report on Leila Grey. She presents well and I'm hoping for the best. Yes, let's all WILL Dragon Lee vs Rey Fenix. You're always on the money with Gresham. I'm truly pleased by this heel transition. Loved that bout. I think I agree on the Baddies beatdown making Stat and Athena look weak, but I'm also not against Jade being that unstoppable. 100% agree on that Main Event finish. Seems like some mistakes were made outside of what it was supposed to be. You're comparing a seasoned veteran successful Main Event heel, Randy Orton, to a week old heel run from, a clearly still developing, Jonathan Gresham. I am with you on that silly halloween costume he wears to the ring. He needs a polyester jacket like Tully's. I expect in the not so distant future he'll be nicely slotted in the mid-card battling around the Pure Title. And gatekeeping the emerging stars. All the while teaching new and current talent excellent grappling techniques.

Got a “prestigious” award last night from a regional business group, so clearly standards in my chosen profession have sunk so low that you can get recognized if you have opposable thumbs and can put on a suit without cutting yourself on something sharp. Jokes aside, it was a great evening. More of my friends and family put on ties and bought overpriced steak then I expected. I had to give a talk. Before I got called up to speak, my wife told me to ditch whatever speech I had prepared and just talk. Apparently, I sound like a tax attorney when I give speeches. Apparently, that is not a compliment. So I just talked about whatever came to mind. Started out talking about the challenges of growing a business during the pandemic and everything else going on, and how hard it’s been to pivot from the private sector to government contracts. Then I unexpectedly started confessing how hard it to run a large business that looks really strong on paper but constantly has cash flow worries because we have huge upfront costs every time we start a new project, and the government is generally slow to pay and does so only after we jump through hoops. And how I wake up in the middle of the night most nights worrying because I do genuinely love my job and the people I work with and for. And how I am generally a helpless babe in the woods without my much smarter spouse; my wonderful, excellent staff; and devoted friends, neighbors and relatives. Most of my allotted time was spent thanking people for keeping me sane and not looking like an idiot. I figured I overshared and colleagues would wonder how much I had to drink. I was a little embarrassed afterwards, but don’t seem to have any reason to be. Everyone seemed to love my candor. One person told me they have a higher opinion of me because I am “well -spoken.” They seemed surprised, so I probably don’t want to think too hard about that one. My administrative assistant was touched. She said nice things afterwards that mean a lot to me. She’s been with the company for almost 40 years and is near retirement age. Most of the guys who did my job before me treated her like a secretary or bitched when she offered an opinion or whined about her lack of computer skills I try hard not to be those guys. lol, I even told the most embarrassing story of my life and laughed it off. Eight years ago, I had a chance meeting with an exec from a large firm and showed some interest in working for his company. That led to a lunch with a couple other execs from the same firm. About halfway through lunch, I handed them my resume and discovered that they had me confused with my brother (same profession, same city, similar job titles, look a bit like, etc.). I.. tried to get out of that one gracefully and didn’t quite manage it. It’s been a good decade since then. Probably better then the ten years before it and those years weren’t awful. Career has gone well, wife is still around, family and friends mostly still around, kids somehow have grown up to be successful, responsible people (they were teenage hellions, wife deserves 90 percent of credit for getting them to turn out properly)

In their ten years of existence, PRIDE was known for their underhanded tactics when it came to matchmaking. Japanese natives (usually smaller pro wrestlers) and those who were not represented by top, well known handlers and agents got the short end of the stick. PRIDE made their bones on mismatches and telling the A side fighter about a fight they were going to make weeks before the B side fighter would know. Yes, it (along with the unregulated use of PEDs) made for some great highlight reels and helped some people get over as destroyers. However, that was unsustainable on top of being messed up ethically. I liked PRIDE and do miss it somewhat, but people got deluded into what MMA really was/is. It's been gone for 15 years now, and the one part I actually don't miss is the element certain people loved.

2002 stages. Miss when stages stood out.

If the rumor of you hitting the convention circuit has turned into a multi-day discussion of the interest level and real/perceived value, I’m going to make the assumption that the interest level is pretty high.

Look, you’ve had a good run Gordlow… Rough delivery but a great gag from Cobb Sure takes a long time to get a flight out of Tokyo these days. Good luck with the ‘re-evaluating my life’s path’ for a few weeks before re-surfacing on some Canadian shit shows

I took forever to watch the ECW shows at my video store because I refused to take seriously a promotion that was headlined by Headshrinker Sabu

Re: Sasha Another thing to consider is that she's a woman. A lot of dudes out there probably would pay >$300 for 2 minutes of her time, a handshake or a really uncomfortable (for her) hug and a picture. How much were her Cameos?

Really loaded week this week was. AEW was on fire with the awesome Thunder/Miyu match on Dark, Moxley/Konosuke being obviously killer, and the triple threat tag being real 'edge of your seat' stuff with an amazing moment. With the top two getting the deserved votes, I'll bring the weekly Impact love and vote for Mickie/Chelsea. Really loved this match, excellent back and forth and came off like a proper blowoff to a feud that started 4 months ago. Great work.

Wild night of fights with all sorts of different kinds of finishes, very enjoyable show overall. Penne/Ducote was awesome as a big fan of both. Ducote got to look killer in a victorious debut while Penne still came off super tough for lasting to the end and still looking good. Look forward to more from both. Thought Stoltzfus and Algeo both looked good and stood out in their post-fight interviews. Awesome running spinebuster from Stoltzfus and a similar one later from Simon. Impressive finishes from Ricky Simon & Soriano. Great performance from Lauren Murphy, another fighter I've always liked since her Invicta days. She was on a run before her title fight and looked strong here, I'm down with her making her way back to the title fight. Schnell/Muderaji was insane. Epic KO from Jingliang. Tough losses for Waterson and especially Ortega in the main.

I think most people had a long list of things that would ultimately end Michael Elgin career. Stealing protein powder in Japan was not one of them I bet. ?

Had a Dr. appt. on Tues for my sus left shoulder. Shoulder doesn't hurt anymore and I weighed in at 178 lbs(in 5/12 I weighed in at 364 lbs) so the visit went pretty well.

SATURDAY REFLECTIONS: I like the John Silver and Brodie King section of the opener. I like that it leads up to Alex Reynolds fighting for his AEW career, taking an assbeating like a CHAMP. Reynolds is better than Stu Grayson and Alan Angels, though he isn't as flashy as they are. He is like Malakai Black- always in the right place and can really work. I love the preposterously elaborate set-up to Reynolds getting slaughtered by Brodie's Lariat and the EVEN MORE ELABORATE set-up to get up Brodie getting German Suplexed With A Bridge to set up the Van Daminator by Malakai Black. I wonder who is planning out these straight up lucha situations for this match. Dean Malenko? Maybe Andrade is coaching them. Maybe it's John Silver since they always have something elaborate when he is in a match. Either way, it's cool. Awww, Jonathan Gresham's last title match. The beginning of Lee Moriarty becoming a desperate wrestler is fun. I await Moriarty's reaction to Matt Sydel turning on him. Gresham needs to be the next in a long line of wrestler's that take after the Spoiler/Super Destroyer Don Jardine. Don't cheat, just be a complete dick and make the crowd hate you because you are so good and YOU know you are so good. I love that this match is the Friday night match they set up on TV the previous Saturday afternoon. I love the territory feel of the ROH stuff so far. I guess they are going to be pieces of the PURE Division after Claudio takes the title. That was some workrate technical wrestling. Very much like World of Sport in speed. Tully is great using the term "scientific" to describe Gresham. If they want to go completely territorial, they could have Gresham steal a pin by CHEATING via Tully Blanchard and have Claudio actually chase the belt. That would be fun. But Claudio is definitely winning first time out. No doubt about it. HEY! I think that was Ashley D'Ambroise in the back of the Baddies Section. Man, Charlette or Robin Renegade took the O Face like a KING. Every week, I watch OVW wrestling when I feel like fast forwarding A LOT and I watch the ladies matches. Leila Grey, who is the OVW champion as of the last episode they showed on NXT LVL network, is either not very good in the ring or she is just in with gals who are really uncarryable. I'm glad she's getting her shot- which I'm thinking is based on making me feel really really old than how good she is in the ring. We'll see. Maybe if you put her in the ring with Toni Storm, she'll rise to the occassion. Hopefully. I just realized that Isiah Kassidy did a regular Tope while MArq Quen hits the Tope Con Hilo- as Isiah didn't actually want to try to match the crazy athleticism of Quen. The crowd gets WAY into PENTA getting giant wads of heat beaten on him while YOU had to watch picture in picture. The Lucha Brothers are over in Savannah- because Savannah is the greatest wrestling town in the South. Marq Quen is great beating the fuck out of PENTA. Isiah is good gathering up the heel heat needed to get the crowd behind our babyface comeback. Man, I wish they would bring in Dragon Lee already so we can experience Dragon Lee vs Rey Fenix. This match is super old school Southern as they have a second heat segment on Rey. PENTA screwing up the hot tag kill some of the momentum of the match but the Canadian Destroyer counter to whatever Quen was attempting set up the first Steiner Squaredriver I've seen in prolly ten years. That was a good episode. Poor Jonathan Gresham....

Home from my latest night out in years, a post wedding drinks do. First I've seen Joanne, the bride since January 2012. Same for Joanne's Mum called Marge and Kirsty. Joanne invited me because at school it was me, Lisa/GG, Joanne, Kirsty and Rachael. I went with Alyson, Lisa's Mum, her husband called Dave and her son called David. Lovely having a great time with those dear to me. Pints were drunk along the way.

Just caught up and watched the ABC card...man Schnell vs. Su Mudaerji was bananas. The flyweight division needs more fights like that. I don't like Miesha Tate talking about a title shot against Valentina when she hadn't accomplished anything at 125. She comes in and has basically nothing for Lauren Murphy. Like nothing at all. She got busted up bad too. That's not a good omen for what you can do at 125. Jingliang Li is the keeper of all the gates at 170. I've been waiting for Salikhov to run into someone who would finally just get in his face and be very aggressive. Salikhov fights at such a measured pace that it's hard for him to get out of first gear, thus, making some his fights tough to watch. Li was having none of that today. Poor Herbert Burns. His cardio is just...subpar. And it's not like the pace was insane or he was clearly overexerting himself. Credit to Algeo for taking advantage of it though. I like Amanda Lemos and her ability to adjust to any situation. I think the Andrade fight was a little bit too much this early in her career. This was good bounce back win over someone durable. Nice, slick submission too. Sucks the main event had to end the way it did (it's bittersweet cause it ended right before DVR cut off...show ran long I guess). It was shaping up to be a very fun fight too. Hopefully, Ortega can get back healthy soon and they can fight again down the line. I would also like to see Yair fight more so it would make sense for him to fight sometime in October/November.

It's a matter of degrees. For instance, I think they should have let Claudio coming out sink in for another 30-45 seconds last night. It doesn't need to be much but just a little more even if that means they can do one less backstage interview or video package sometimes. But, of course, then we want more video packages to put over what happens on Dark or introducing Japanese guys or whatever. So there's no right answer, except for maybe the World Title match for the upcoming PPV is a little more important than some other things, right?

When you mentally long-term plot 8D chess to kick Tam out of her own faction in 2023

I thought Nova already invented those moves.

I don't watch enough shows to vote in the poll, but Orange Cassidy vs Wardlow gets my vote for "AEW Match of the Week Excluding Rampage Which I Haven't Watched Yet".

Can he do a Shooting Star Press?

Fell asleep before I could watch anything else but disappointed Orange vs. Wardlaw was not on this because that match was perfect for what it was trying to do.

This is such a tired argument. You're brain is just too stuck on current day WWE content churn to wrap your head around any other booking philosophy. Leave them wanting more. WWE in the 80s boom used this booking philosophy. Peak Nitro WCW used this booking philosophy. It's valid and useful. You don't burn the audience out on people the way AEW books. They are excited to see them vs feeling like just a guy. Like we're 3 years in to Dynamite. Darby still feels fresh to me. Hangman still feels fresh to me. Mox still feels fresh to me. Jungle Boy still feels fresh to me. These are all guys that have been featured for the whole 3 years. And none of them are stale. They have a ton of people signed but it's so you don't Dolph Ziggler your roster. Dolph has been around for 20 years and is stale as fuck. But I'd argue dude felt stale 3 years into the Dolph run. It isn't his fault. He wasn't fresh because WWE burn guys out. They run them into the ground and they don't feel special when you see them wrestle 52 TV matches a year. Miro, Andrade, & Malachi are all still fresh and people want to see more of them. You don't get that desire to see them if they're on TV every single week. You need to stop looking at it from a 'omg they are bloated because Darby doesn't wrestle more than 2 times a month on tv' POV. Because it's a purposeful 'well hey when Darby has matches on TV people are excited to see him and not burnt our by seeing him do all his signature moves every single week like WWE' style of booking.

Completely random, but I really never saw Dan Spivey ever on television but remembered his name from the magazines and those silly elementary school book fair wrestling books. That said, when Gary Spivey debuted with Paul Orndorff in WCW, I thought they were the same person and was completely confused.

Oh no, a person who's arguably never commanded more attention than at this very moment is asking for a reasonable price to appear at events! What a normal thing to be mad about!

Alex Reynolds is great, but I think it's pretty clear that if/when Dark Order split up he's not gonna survive as single. I hate to use the phrase, but Reynolds is definitely the Marty Jannetty of his tag team.

Championship Wrestling From Hollywood has completely morphed into AEW DARK EXTENSION 1. First you have an LA Dojo match between Kevin Knight and Karl Frederick and then you have Marina Shafir going up against Alex Gracia in a really good wad of wrestling. AND THEN Pretty Peter Avalon wrestles! All you need is Anthony Ogogo to come out and squash Brock Anderson. PPA looks great against the Primo dude that Ray Rosas wrestled last week. This Primo dude is good. It's weird to see Peter Avalon wrestling as a babyface, but he has BABYFACE FIRE! It's Jack Banning! He was the best Security guy to get mauled by Wardlow when they were in California. Banning is heading up the latest incarnation of the Raven's Nest. Honest John is your Billy Kidman. I can't remember the other guys' names but one of them is Van Hammer and one of them is Sickboy! The Institution attacks Ju Diss! Actually, Honest John reminds me of a young Jimmy Jacobs. I await his emo ballad to a lady. Invictus Khash was at the Dark taping yesterday! Here, he wrestles Koto Hiro! For a minute and half. According to cagematch.net, Invictus Khash is TWENTY TWO YEARS OLD? No way! He looks like he's forty. That can't be right. He was trained by Buddy Wayne who passed away in 2017, and Khash has been wrestling since at least 2015. Unless he started at 15. Weird. For the main event, CWFH morphs from AEW DARK to NWA USA, as Chris Adonis takes on our United World Champion, the Goldenboy, Jordan Clearwater! Who both wrestle in the NWA, so they could RUN THIS BACK on a slightly larger platform. Clearwater is on the periphery of New Japan Strong but he such a great Memphis heel, as he sells Adonis power offense like a sniveling weasel. So douchy! So punchable! Clearwater is a great champion for this pseudo-territory. Clearwater openly gouges the eyes of Adonis- because he is the champion! Disqualfiy him! He doesn't care!- and we get to the heat segment on our face, Chris Adonis. Clearwater applying the Figure Four is a little on the nose for a territorial champion, but I dig his sense of history. Adonis goes on offense and he looks good. Clearwater cuts him off with a DDT and Adonis hits his finisher, THE ADONIS LOCK! NEW CHAMPION! NO! PRINCE NANA? Prince Nana distracts the ref and Invictus Khash hits Adonis with THE STRAP~! Clearwater is a member of the Embassy! We are now in TOTAL Memphis mode and I back their play one hundred percent.

Maybe someone can help me out here. I was checking out CC on WWE2K22 and I ran across a whole bunch of Memphis stuff. Hickerson, Tojo, best version of the Fabs that I've run across etc. Now I have multiple Microsoft accounts to get past the limit and to separate everything into different feds. So I log out and go into the account dedicated to AWA/Memphis and less then two minutes later, no matter what search terms I try, none of those can be found. Not the first time it's happened. Is there some kind of search hack that I'm unaware of?

Given that Rust Cohle is my spirit animal - him or Walter Sobchak - that just sounds like "Tuesday".