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Matt Hardy taking lessons from the Michael Rappaport School of Old Dudes Who Think They Have a Permanent Pass Because They Like New Jack Swing and A Tribe Called Quest. It’s a long name for a school but trying telling that to Rappaport.

Snuka jumping off the cage being a huge moment for Foley could have connections to being thrown off the Cell. @SirSmellingtonofCascadia, good shout out with HBK. Both being small and even just the amount of super kicks we see. A lot of the NXT guys like Adam Cole (I believe on the AEW podcast) cite him for molding their ring psychology. I would say that the Danielson specifically inspired a lot of the youngsters. Off the top of my head Alan Angels and Daniel Garcia have him as their favorites. Pro or Con towards how we look at wrestling today or even then, I’ll say I have a big soft spot for this period of Danielson and the interesting field of top level American Independent workers (Super Dragon, Necro Butcher, Chris Hero, Punk, Joe, Mike Quackenbush, Low Ki). But I’m going on a tangent and my ramble has lost its point, if I ever was even making on. To be cute, I’d say the ROH style of long, hard hitting bouts that make in-ring references to previous encounters (Joe vs Punk, Danielson vs McGuiness) was inspired by 90’s All Japan. Mentioning All Japan, Kingston has his own identity and charismatic swagger but often wrestles like his name is Toshiaki Kobashi with how much he honors them both. I know that can turn a lot of you off but it makes me smile. But my smile isn’t as wide when the Young Bucks play Shawn Michaels? Hmm, Maybe I’m a chop mark? LATE NIGHT RAMBLING CONTINUES Baby is asleep. I’m tired but not sleepy. I’m thinking about Cheese-Its and beer. Wife and I had a good needed conversation about life and getting things off our chests. Both tired and exhausted and life is good but at times when you’re keeping your heads above water you need to vent. So it was good and I’m glad we did. We order delivery, I had a Philly Cheesesteak and she got a burrito. Little Octopus was climbing around and as smiley as ever. I had 2 beers. Thinking about a third, but I also don’t want to get up. I am hungry though. I’ll just keep thinking about wrestling. Octopus Predicts Who Inspires The Youth (or OPWITY for short) - not saying they’re my favorites, but just people that I could see connecting with future wrestlers (or NSTMFBJPTICSCWFW for short) Nick Gage - He really does connect with his passionate fan base on a personal level. I could see a lot of future deathmatch workers with sadly an ounce of his charisma citing him as what got them to fall in love with wrestling. Bray Wyatt - Think of the gothic world creating storytellers we could see in the future! We’ve seen this before with Matt Hardy creating his own cinematic universe and the Codyverse had Verse in the title, but Bray is really hitting his reinventing but still continuous lore onto a very grand and consistently talked about level. Say what you will about the wrestling and even the booking, the segments alone have surely captured the imagination of some kids jotting down goblins and mind control in their journals just waiting to unleash their freak flag on the squared circle. Cinematic Matches - We can point to examples before the pandemic (Lucha Underground, Hollywood Backlot Brawl, Delete Stuff, Bray stuff?) but hot dang some of them during lockdown was fun during a dark time. I loved the Stadium Stampede. I could see a streaming service take a chase and tape several matches that are overly scripted and highly glamorized both in and out of the ring. Mix in sexy actors that can deliver monologues while doing a sunset flip. Tony Khan - I predict we will see the sons and daughters of more professional sports teams will start a wrestling company. Maybe Minnesota Timberwolves Jr can snag CM Punk when he’s out of his contract? Kenny Omega leaves to sign with lil Toronto Bluejays’ new promotion. Andrade will love working for Buffalo Sabers the Second. We’ll take a break from OPWITY; NSTMFBJPTICSCWFW for a message from our sponsors: Are you tired of not knowing the future of wrestling styles and booking theories. Do you want to know the results of PPVs that haven’t even been booked yet? Want the hot new Tenryu review from Matt D before he gets a chance to get on the treadmill? Wait no longer! Call Nostra-Rob-Van-Dam-us! This high flying, spandex wearing stoner will let you know all your wrestling future based questions. Call 1-800-RVD-WEED and he’ll cough his way to telling you the future. Welcome back to OPWITY; NSTMFBJPTICSCWFW: Marko Stunt - Shit. Everyone just gets smaller. Why not? BTE - Maybe you could credit this to Matt Cardona already, but the vlog world has already cultivated a wrestling audience. This is assuming that the internet video is a viable future in media, but it’s safe to say the people that are successful with it have risen their profile through it. Also, with podcasts being pretty crowded with well known stars and legends, the wrestlers who can take the time to be seen and connect with their audience can get Patreon subscribers who will pay to just be a member of their club. That’s on top of actual merchandise. I’ll include Twitch in this. I love Adam Cole not because of his wrestling but because he’s a kind man that plays video games. The UUDD belt feud wear Tyler Breeze was murdering all challengers was the best title run that year. For anyone who doubts that, watch him roast the Miz in the most hilarious clip that I choked from laughing so hard. If the world of social media doesn’t drastically change, we could see a world of more Sammy Guevara types that can get a loyal fan base while traveling the Indies. Swerve or Darby - I don’t know which or maybe both, but these dudes just move different. Physically, just how their bodies act within the ring. Both have such a cool factor, but I could see people mimicking how they take Irish Whips. Smooth or smoothly chaotic. I don’t want to stop writing. Why do I fear sleep? Maybe it’s the unconsciousness? Maybe a lack of control? Maybe it’s being mentally alone, not willing to reply to my internal ramble. But I must.

The Excellence of Execution is the most apt wrestling nickname. When I think of storytelling and delivery of moves, it's Bret Hart. Nobody does the Sharpshooter better than Bret. When I think of the Russian Legsweep, Elbow from the middle rope, Piledriver, European Uppercut, Suplex, Superplex and punches, it's Bret Hart. My top 15 Bret Hart matches: 15. Bret Hart vs. Ricky Steamboat. 8th March 1986. 14. Bret Hart vs. Diesel. Royal Rumble 1995. 13. Bret Hart vs. The Undertaker. One Night Only 1997. 12. Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect. SummerSlam 1991. 11. Bret Hart vs. British Bulldog. SummerSlam 1992. 10. Bret Hart vs. 123 Kid. RAW, 11th July 1994. 9. Bret Hart vs. The Undertaker vs. Steve Austin vs. Vader. In Your House 13: Final Four. 8. Bret Hart/Owen Hart/British Bulldog/Jim Neidhart/Brian Pillman vs. Steve Austin/Legion of Doom/Goldust/Ken Shamrock. In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede. 7. Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect. King of the Ring 1993. 6. Bret Hart vs. Diesel. Survivor Series 1995. 5. Bret Hart vs. British Bulldog. In Your House 5: Season's Beatings. 4. Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart. SummerSlam 1994. *****. 3. Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin. Survivor Series 1996. *****. 2. Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart. WrestleMania X. *****. 1. Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin. WrestleMania 13. *****. The greatest match in wrestling history. --- Fucking love Bret Hart.

Someone said Nyla / Jade is heel vs heel, to me it's more face vs face. Both getting more positive reactions nowadays. Be interesting to see where it goes. And on Tuesday we get, the Silly Goose vs the Power Peacock~! And I am overjoyed.

I like that not every feud needs to be good vs evil. Sometimes life can have a prick fight a jerk. Variety of morality depth in storytelling conflicts makes for great television.

By the same token, I think it's great that pretty much all the slightly bigger rangy dudes- Priest, Sheamus, Drew all clearly look to Scott Hall for inspiration, rather than say Triple H, Austin or Rock. The impact moveset that transitions across face or heel, the selling that doesn't look inauthentic. Much better than just what would amount to spamming the same 3 moves in on loop.

Like most people I stopped watching ROH around... 2010ish, so I've only recently discovered Dalton Castle. Holy Shit, this dude rocks. Why don't we have more 70s era, Charles Nelson Reilly-esque queens in pro wrestling?

I had to watch that Dalton Castle challenge for the title three times this morning. So fucking GREAT.

"We've secretly replaced Buffalo's red zone offense with Chicago's. Let's see if anyone notices."

MATT HARDY IS ABOUT THAT LIFE

Long matches are in wrestling are like music going from Vinyl to digital. Two sides of Vinyl is about 40 minutes, better give em your best stuff. Sure occasionally you would get a Physical Graffiti but for the most part you have Long Live Rock n Roll short all killer no filler. Then we get CD about 70 minutes so its cool that you get Number of The Beast with Total Eclipse added back in. Now we have digital which is the equivalent of 40+ Adam Cole ROH title matches, every one wants to do these 100 minute albums just for the fuck of it RVD v Jerry Lynn inspired a LOT of copycatism in the post ECW early 2000's indy scene, particularly that counter-counter-counter karate stance spots that was cool when he first saw it and then got done to death On the first point you can kinda tell who was watching what when they when 15ish. Vets in their late 30's/40's (FTR/Punk) idolize Bret Hart People in their earlier 30's or late 20s like Sasha or Britt Baker grew up on post attitude era / ruthless aggression era. they look up to Jericho and Eddie (and probably Benoit pre tragedy but nobody says that out loud) And yes The American Dragon is the Hero of the Zoomers! As for Cinematic matches. With the death of the house show business I wonder if we don't go back to studio wrestling in some format? Instead of NWA taping in converted casino ballrooms (or what ever they do) I'm waiting for one of these media companies with a streaming service to start a new Lucha Underground (I watches LU on Netflix & Tubi not on first run) build a set that looks decent on a soundstage you all ready own or a warehouse somewhere on the east side of LA and just run tapings.

All told, I think today lived up to it's "cancel all plans and live in front of the TV" hype.

The beauty of this Jade v Nyla feud is that it’s adding a layer of depth and character acting opportunities for them both. Jade, the confident unbeatable champ with a calm charismatic swag is now the determined tough force looking for revenge, without having to have actually been beaten. Nyla, the monster who is feared and wrecks havoc in her path is now the charming villainous trickster. Plus, this aspect of her character is going to work wonderfully with Vicky. I love watching this build and I’m excited to see where their journey leads. Potential for some really great moments. —- I love hour long wrestling shows. Fun action!

Hi friends! I haven’t been around in a while so I figured I’d check in. I’ve had some struggles recently and I pretty much had to check out from online activity. Long story short, I had a really bad breakup with my now ex-girlfriend, then in the middle of all that I got Covid. My mental state wasn’t great after the breakup so I’ve been to therapy and now ended up moving in with a friend up near Cleveland. I’m doing a bit better now that I have a nice support system between my friend/roommate and continuing video chats with my therapist. I celebrated by birthday back on September 2nd as well and my friend/roommate took me out on a little trip to Pittsburgh and we just spent time enjoying the city that weekend. I’ll be around here and there and will pop in with comments occasionally. Hope everyone is doing well! I sure missed all of you!

I'm always gonna remember an ROH show I attended where Castle started off a face promo by sternly chiding the whole crowd for being out late on a school night.

I sought this show out for Josh Alexander v Eddie Edwards – which did not disappoint, but man, the Jordynne Grace v Masha Slamovich bout seems to be thus far totally overlooked by the MOTYC seekers. I suspect a bidding war for Slamovich in the near future. Grace really oughta see what kind of money she can get too. I also really enjoyed the Kingdom v Guns and Kazarian v Bailey. I don’t quite get that booking on the title switch. Is Bailey’s contract up? If yes or when, I wonder where he lands. And, uh, I guess it might be interesting to see if Alexander is good enough to carry Bubba Dudley to a good match. Tho, I'm not so sure I’ll seek that one out.

Good interviewers get people to talk. They draw things out of them. Too many journalists now (in all forms, not just sports) expect to have a press release read back to them. They’ll literally start interviews with “talk about….” That’s not a question. If Helwani wanted a good interview out of TK, he should have been a better interviewer.

Ice Cold has a cool ass Moonsault. I LOVED the Spinning Headbutts spot by the Heavy Metal Sisters. How have I never seen that before in the 12 million trios matches I've seen in my life? Fury is my early favorite of this incarnation of WOW The Bully Busters are the most wholesome babyfaces in WOW. Vivian Rivera seems like she is grizzled veteran that I haven't seen before. Lana Star is great at ringside. Penelope Pink is the best in-ring wrestler in WOW. Leia Mokoa is good. PENELOPE PINK WAS ROBBED! WOW is so charming.

Jon Moxley: Achievement unlocked: Initiation Complete. Cesaro was so tough finishing that match, he and Sheamus vs. Dean Ambrose/Seth Rollins at No Mercy 2017.

Alexa: Midlife crisis.

Dalton Castle was a consistent highlight for me during 2016-2019 ROH, in a sea of Adam Coles and Matt Tavens he really stood out. Glad he's getting a spotlight. I just wish he hadn't fucked his back up so badly. Sassy queen who is also a technical marvel was such a good character but at least he is still able get by with The Boys and his character work. That promo was some of his best work too. Really looking forward to the match with Jericho

I think, like Shawn Michaels, Curt Hennig influenced the "super-workers should take wild bumps" trend most exemplified by Dolph Ziggler doing somersaults off of the basic offense of other midcarders instead of in big spots. It's especially egregious to me because Hennig IMO was incredibly thoughtful about when he took big bumps. As a heel, in a big match against a face opponent, he tended to wrestle with more despair the deeper he got into a big match. If he couldn't put away his opponent, he would start making mistakes - and he'd tire so visibly that when he took a huge bump off a punch or a snapmare or whatever, it was a signal that the tank was on E, and it was about time for his opponent to go for the win. His bumping in the Bret Hart matches (SS '91, KotR '93) in particular, I'd point to. He'd bump bigger and bigger as the match went on and he wore down, and it all crescendoed in a notable bump that would pop the crowd because they understood what it meant. Take someone like Ziggler as an example, and he tended to bump for whatever, whenever. The bump is about him being athletic and showy, not about how it serves the match. (I think Ziggler was influenced more by Michaels, who I think started out pretty thoughtful about big bumping, but ended up not nearly as thoughtful as Hennig about his bumping at some point in the mid-'90s, but my comparison is to illustrate my point.)

Carolina lardilization?

Also a brief recap of the Dalton Castle promo. First a bit of 80's Hogan goodness with some stuff about Lighting in his veins powering the building and then he told Jericho

I miss New Jack Swing and A Tribe Called Quest. That was my jam in 1991.

@NikoBaltimore.

Too true but since Stokely's main points of reference are Fox TV shows from that exact same era, dude is unwittingly giving Matt more legitimacy than most would ?

BRING ON WARDLOW!

This aged well.

I'm going solo with this one.

I went with PAC Vs Orange Cassidy in the end but Brandon Cutler Vs Serpentico and Action Andretti Vs QT Marshall could of easily won. It was definitely an AEW week this week.

Great seeing Holidead again. Another case of the show making me root for a heel after hearing their backstory. Definitely wanted to see Ice Cold pick up the win. The Heavy Metal Sisters rule. Another really good Main. Penelope and Leia really laid into one another. I could definitely go for a rematch.

Three barn burners with CFP implications. COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS THE SPORT OF KINGS. ALSO JUST LOOK AT THIS

Lack of sleep is thee best cheap hallucinogen there is, brother. Your dreams will be quite intense as well. Wakefulness =/= mindfulness, hypnagogia for thee long haul, REM is for suckers.

Always good to see Holidead back in the mix. Miami Sweet Heat looked great as a team here, loved their tag taunts/poses in the entrance. Slightly surprised by the result but MSH came off like a solid oldschool babyface team here with lots of nice double teams. Good competitive tag. Dug the production on the Ice Cold vignette, did not expect that to lead to her working as a heel and losing. Interesting mix of styles with Kandi Krush made for a fun little match while it lasted. The Heavy Metal Sisters are the best. My favorite overall act in the company. "Bang your head, raise the dead, party all night, always ready to fight". Fun trios tag though the ending seemed to turn in to a giant cluster, but a solid bounce back from being eliminated from the tag tournament early on. Pretty good main event between Leia and Penelope. Looked like Penelope kicked out in the end. Surprised to see Leia back in title contention talks after being pretty much wiped out last week by Reina. Good overall show flew by quick.

Sure, I would agree that some of those matches were good (usually involving Danielson). Goodness or badness doesn't really apply to my argument, though. I'm blaming RoH as a turning point in American wrestling culture that has led to countless long matches that seem to be for the sake of being long. That trend has been bad for pro wrestling, IMO, even if some of the stuff that started it was good. I think it was even more influential on the way modern indie workers approach matches than HHH trying to work like an NWA touring champ on a national weekly show. It's sort of like ECW having some genuinely entertaining stuff as a part of its legacy, but being a bad influence on modern pro wrestling (again IMO). Most obviously, ECW influencing American wrestling to make the vast majority of brawls wandering and plunder-filled, but in other aspects as well. Or like all the people influenced by Mick Foley or Shawn Michaels who don't really understand what Mick Foley and Shawn Michaels were trying to do and come off as facsimiles of the originals. You can substitute Chris Benoit (and by proxy, Dynamite) into that sentence if you want. Many of the modern wrestlers who are influenced by Benoit are a facsimile of a facsimile at this point. I will argue forever that Kurt Angle would have been better off being influenced by watching a bunch of early-'80s Orndorff rather than by Shawn Michaels and Chris Benoit, but I digress. Sure, I won't argue with anyone who would point to ECW as the entity that negatively influenced modern wrestling more than ECW. That's a fair position to take, and ultimately, I think I agree with it.

Those matches were good, though. Dragon's ROH reign was full of long matches that were all wrestled very differently. If you wanted to throw out, say, Punk/Hero, I don't think anyone would argue with that.

My wife became an instant fan of Dalton after that challenge, she had never heard of him before it.

What a great unexpected perk of the job. Once, I was announcing a match with the Kings of Wrestling, and me, Kingdom James, and Joe Dombrowski got to play with the CZW and Chikara tag belts.

the armdrags make me realize that Scorpio and Ricky Steamboat would have made for a really fun tag team the only matches with Scorpio and Steamboat teaming were... The Hollywood Blonds and Rick Rude vs Sting, Scorpio, and Steamboat at a House Show in at a high school in Terre Haute and Regal, Maxx Payne, and Paul Orndorff vs Steamboat, Scorpio, and Bagwell from a WCW Saturday Night

Igor Strogoff with the Tiger Driver 78: While I'm at it, here's Jean Menard with the Doctor Bomb '78: