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*technically*, OC is from "wherever", which is pretty consistent with the AA title.

So there's this today: https://www.f4wonline.com/news/aew/tony-khan-well-have-great-news-soon-about-weekly-roh-shows Basically, Tony Khan says that there will be another ROH PPV this year (assuming it'll be Final Battle?) and a weekly ROH show to air in 2023.

MJF, like the Joker, has a different version of his villain origin story for every feud he’s in. You wanna know how I got this scarf?

It should have been DEAN that became the wrestling taste maker think of how much more positive wrestling discourse online would be. God I can’t believe I use to read Scott Keith’s drivel

Wrestling tastemakers should use more tildebangs, yes. I feel like DVDVR gets credit for the backlash to Shawn Michaels more than any one thing. Though even people who don't know of DVDVR and can't pinpoint where it started will bring up the Mark Henry > Shawn Michaels argument sometimes (and in varying contexts/for varying reasons). DVDVR is the best tastemaker anyway IMO. I have vastly grown my sphere of wrestling enjoyment since I started lurking here in the mid-aughts. I got into wrestlers from Steve Grey to Vordell Walker just reading here. I had a lot of curiosity about wrestling that I'd never seen, but the nice thing about this community (and I'm sure the same can be said of PWO) is that it helped me to focus my curiosity. DVDVR + YouTube is a powerful equation.

One more from Thursday night

Plus he's taking on extra responsibilities like with Moxleys extension. Love the investment they're making with leadership roles backstage

I mean I bitch at times about some of the over-indulgent segments but he's had a career year in-ring at a time when they needed him to be a top star, and he's also getting very good on the commentary team.

Then AEW waits. There is no scenario, whatsoever, in any plain of existence we know, where preempting an extra-innings elimination playoff baseball game for fucking Sammy Guevara to tell us how big his dick is, is a good decision.

Rewatching this, what gets me most is how clean this spot is. Lesnar's taking the table bump goes from crouched over to flat back in like a tenth of a second. Bobby, who clearly has Lesnar's full trust, has to pick up a 300 lb dude from an awkward position and pushes him just enough so Brock isn't taking a monitor to the small of the back. I don't even see the usual back pat "I'm ready" signal. Just two very good pros, doing what they're very good at. Things are so beautiful when they're done well.

It's important to keep in mind that the way we view wrestlers through a body of work didn't exist when they were actually wrestling. Outside of very small circles, there was no wrestling criticism. It would be inconceivable to 1987 Ric Flair that his matches would be collected and debated. From that perspective, why shouldn't Flair go to the same well over and over again if that's what works from a drawing/engagement perspective? What else matters to 1987 Ric Flair? Which brings us to Bret. Bret was at least a generation ahead of his time. He was the outlier. When you start comparing other wrestlers to Bret just about everyone looks bad.

What about the years of build to pay off that failed top rope spot?

? Dalton's entrance needed fans throwing streamers when he hit his pose. Otherwise, that was perfect. A great effort and spectacle/showcase in the biggest match of his life for a guy who may be called on should that ROH show actually materialize. Hope it leads to a resurgence to prominence for Castle. Jericho continues to more than hold his own and make these guys look like huge deals. I was beaming. Up to that point, this had been a very fun and eventful night. Like everyone, hoping for a full and speedy recovery for Hangman.

Sorry I'm late! So much wrestling tonight! No wrestling tomorrow! It's the AEW Trios championship! Rey Fenix is suddenly overlooked as a spectacular highflier with Komander and Vikingo and Laredo Kid and Dante Martin and Dragon Lee, but he is spectacular. The Triple Tope Con Hilos is so fucking beautiful. While we are reveling in picture in picture they OPT to do a three tiered Powerbomb spot that looked tiny in the tiny screen. Rey Fenix takes a DDT in a not 2022 way. I await PAC to take one at some point. GREAT nearfall on the STRONG ZERO! REY FENIX FUCKING KILLS TRENT WITH THE GNARLIEST K-DRILLER OF 2022! That was fun. Rey Fenix stays a babyface and PAC is still a heel! I hope they keep it that way. Hikaru Shida and Tony Storm go at it! HIP ATTACK THROUGH THE ROPES! That would be a MODIFIED Wrecked Em! In picture in picture, Storm channels the Fabulous Moolah with Hair Beels! THEN! A Bow and Arrow! Both of these wrestlers are good sympathetic babyfaces but they aren;t doing a US Pro Style match. They are kinda going Strong Style- which is cool. WRECKED EM Normal! Some fun nearfalls! STORM ZERO FOR THE WIN! POSTMATCH IS INSANE! EVERY WOMAN ON THE ROSTER- except a couple- RUNS IN! IT'S RIHO! Oh that was fun. FTR vs Swerve In Our Glory in NORFOLK! AWESOME! Jay Lethal is full blown heel again. MJF and William Regal go for the EMMY! That was dramatic. Regal is so fucking awesome. MJF is also fucking awesome. The Acclaimed should lose to the Varsity Athletes and let Nese and Woods carry on the scissoring tradition and they should have a copywrite for on a pole match. Oh sorry, I was taken over by the Spirit of Vince Russo for a minute. Yuta gives Danielson the business! LET'S GO BREAK SOME HEARTS! SO MANY ADDITIONAL BOYS! AWESOME! Oh man, I was wondering earlier today if Jericho could take the bumps of a Dalton Castle match since Castle is basically a Steiner with a flamboyant streak. I note that Jericho celebrates his extension to AEW by taking Castle's Suplexes like total MULKY. Jake Hager is our RUDO BASE as several Boys land on him! The Jericho Appreciation Society is making the Dalton Castle entire experience look like a million bucks. EVEN in picture in picture, Jericho is bumping all over the ring for Castle. Castle does GREAT Ray Stevens bump over the toprope to the floor. Hagar is the SECRET SUPERSTAR of the match! EVEREST GERMAN SUPLEX after taking the Walls of Jericho! BANG-A-RANG! FOR TWO! Jericho crushes Castle's skull with an Elbow Urican! Jericho is motherfucking awesome. Dalton Castle looked motherfucking GREAT because Jericho took the bumps to make him look great. That was fucking GREAT. Jake Hagar is ALSO great! MOX versus Hangman! Hell yeah! Okay, this match is TOTALLY Mid-South. Oh man, this is like straight out of the Superdome. MOX is BLEEDING in picture in picture! MOX is achieving a true CRIMSON MASK! Hangman has to bleed too. SUPERPLEX! The third most hated move to take per Jordynn Grace! DEAD EYE ON THE APRON! SUBMISSION THROUGH FEAR or STEP OVER TOEHOLD CROSSFACE in picture in picture! BATTLE OF LARIATS! Match stoppage. MJF turns completely face! AEW RULES THE FUCKING WORLD! EDIT: Let me edit out my speculation to not look like an asshole.

BTW - Every game should start at 4 pm and end before 7:30

With the promotion of Jericho and Moxley to these expanded backstage roles, it makes me wonder if this is part of Tony moving away from the Young Bucks and Kenny. And if the rumor of Punk having a backstage role is true too, then him as well.

women and booze.

Storm vs Shida is going to be really, really good.

...as opposed to the gamut and repertoire of moves that Earthquake and Damien Demento were giving folks.

@NikoBaltimore: So chuffed you and your wife had a great time, my friend. Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin from WrestleMania 13 would be my answer as well. *****. Thank you for bringing me up thanking Bret Hart for the Cameo. That Cameo is one of the nicest things someone has ever done for me. Thanks again to you, @Craig H, @Sammo~! and all contributors. Love, Paul xxx. @Log: Surreal, mate. Cheers.

Not commenting on anything else anyone's saying, but I'll say this. I was wrong. I though they were going to go a completely generic Marvel route with this character. I thought we'd have a regular big bad, a regular plot, which would lead to yet another movie. I've never been happier to say that I was wrong about all of that. I'll admit, I wasn't familiar with the She-Hulk character, but they managed to make it (no pun intended) broadly written enough so that someone like me can enjoy the character. Everyone looked like they were having a blast at kicking around at the standard Marvel cliches. The worst part, far and away, is the CGI... which they all but acknowledge. Doesn't excuse how capital R, Rough it was, but that's on the producers of the show, not the VFX team. I'm glad I went through this, and wouldn't mind seeing it come back again in a year or two as like, clean up for the movies. Or just onesie, twosie episodes here and there. But if that's it for She-Hulk, that was solid.

Okay, so I think now's a good time to bring this up since work has settled down and conveniently there's Bret discussion. Yesterday was Celebfest 5 and while it's not wise to book it the same day as the Ravens game there was still a good turnout. Now for some rapid fire stuff. Orange and Danhausen were awesome to meet, Abadon was super sweet and has quite the lovely Southern accent, we thanked Miro for being fucking awesome and living the dream, Bryce had to separate us, Hangman is a wonderfully handsome gentleman, Ricky Starks is fun to talk to, Colt's doing okay and the mental break last month helped, Nyla made a run-in (covered in the AEW thread) and my wife of all people spent $100 for a Takahashi because she loves the guy and especially Daryl. The photos we took are here and I may prune it a bit since there's a lot of repeats. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1c-63uiMOHm2eD3sshu-0jIQ1cAm9NEuf?usp=sharing BUT the main reason for bringing this us is to discuss one Bret Hart. I met him twice before and both times fanboyed so much I could barely say anything. Heck, I don't know if I said anything that made sense but that's nerves for ya. This time I put it in my head to be as chill as can be and freak out later. Thankfully I managed that and had what almost feels like a dream. As he was signing the shades I had to ask him if he knew at the time that he had the intention to have matches that stood the test of time. He said when the camera was on he strived every night to accomplish that and wanted to make sure that there were holes in his game that people could pick apart. He took a lot of pride in that and was happy to know people still discuss his work every day. He also asked what my favorite match was. While it almost felt like cheating I said the submission match against Stone Cold. But I made sure to point out what I loved so much about it and he beamed as he said that's his favorite too. Lastly I thanked him for the Cameo last year for @The Natural and how much that meant to him. He smiled and said that he was glad to do it and wanted to make sure people knew he was genuine when doing those. So the tl;dr I guess is Celebfest was fun and on top of that I managed to not freak out talking to my hero. He was so incredibly nice and as soon as I got up I kept telling my wife I needed a minute. I go to the side and after a few minutes of shaking out the nerves it dawned on me that that happened and I finally got my signed shades. Yeah, it was $200 but fuck it that shit was so incredibly worth it.

Castle/Jericho was a hell of a match. Incredible intro for Dalton, good ga-ga on the outside with the Boys and Mr. "I LOVE THIS HAT!", a perfect finish. Let's not let whatever happens here take that away from them.

I don't want to assume the worst but it's hard not to feel uneasy about the Hangman injury. It at first seemed like a normal move and bump but I don't want to see anything past what I saw live. All I can say is if people want to lean into the "It's a work" side then I will immediately ignore you if I haven't done so already. The rest of the show was pretty great and everything worked incredibly well. I was excited to talk about things such as the MJF/Regal segment but I just can't. Hopefully they were being too cautious and Hangman will eventually be fine but until then that's where my mind is at right now.

Really hope that Hangman is okay. As soon as the ref called for medical and they cut away from everything, I had a feeling it was bad. Like...real bad. Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed the show tonight. I hopped up and down (literally because I only have one leg) in excitement when Final Battle was announced. My roommate looked at me like I was crazy.

Amazing episode overall with a real excitement to it. Feel terrible for Hangman and hope all goes well. My first thought was how Adam Cole's been out. Thought the match before then was excellent, really epic with a big fight feel. Loved Hangman rushing the crowd entrance to start the fight right away. Both guys were killing it, looked great. Crazy anything can happen vibe ending the show like this. Hope to see an even greater rematch one day. the MJF/Regal segment was super long, wasn't feeling it at first but by the end I was digging it. Liked how after MJF spoke, he had this huge face pop and Regal was getting booed when he started talking but then Regal absolutely brought the FIRE and was fully cheered again by the end. Fun trios opener. Shida/Storm was awesome with some great near falls, only wished it was longer still. Marked out for the return of RIHO! Jericho/Castle ruled. Excited by the announcement of Final Battle. Popped for former ROH Champ Jerry Lynn getting involved.

Hangman Page is legit hurt. Please try not speculate but whatever it was, it didn't look good.

There are people on Twitter shitting on this match (or rather, clips of this match) because they are concerned that Athena was somehow laying it into Jody Threat as punishment for blowing a spot, which seems completely insane to me and a total misreading of the match. Jody Threat looked good, got a great ovation and Athena looked like an absolute killer (she really may be the best wrestler in the company). It made me want to see face Toni Storm against heel Athena (or hell, vice versa, honestly) really badly. If hard-hitting competitive squashes are wrong, I don't wanna be right.

Scott Keith is as much to blame for the era of meaningless flips and Johnny Kickpads as anybody. Dude ruined a generation of fans and future performers by shitting on Sid and Mark Henry while hyping drizzling shit white meat technical matches or whatever. The world would be a much happier place if instead of that clown it was a reviewer that grew up on Memphis and Mid South that rose to prominence as a taste creator in the early internet.

Don't worry. I'm sure Tony's already made the payoff to Stokely and if that game is still going at 8pm Eastern, W Morrissey will storm right field and take out Judge. #BigMeatyMenSlappingMeat

Mid day AEW! Hell yeah! Rhea Ripley is wrestling again for the first time in forever tonight but that's something to talk about waaaay later. WRESTLING AND THEN LUNCH! Dasha sounds like she is say PEEKABOO SHEEDA! Vanessa Kraven I've never seen before. She is like 9 feet tall. SHE HAS THE POWER ADVANTAGE! They should sign any woman over 6'3" so Jade Cargill can build an army. This match is fun. Kraven is lumbering and difficult to get up for the Falcon Arrow! Katana for the win! FUN! Evil Uno is OVER in Canada, obviously. Jose The Assistant IS Jim Cornette! Evil Uno is the least in-ring guy in AEW but he is lovable. Hey! It's Eddie Kingston! He's kinda waiting around for something to do currently. DECAPITATION! FOR TWO! Ortiz with a nice Fisherman Buster. It seems that it's harder to get Canadian Enhancement up for stuff. JANE! Kobe Durst looks like he is ten years old. ARE THERE NO LABOUR LAWS IN CANADA? HE'S A CHILD! Chuck Taylor hits a Pirouette! They should move DARK to lunch time every week. Cassidy PUNCHES A CHILD! Awesome! BRANDON CUTLER! Ari Daivari should make this good. Cutler is so fucking good. AIRPLANE SP- ah Ari, you ruin EVERYTHING! Sonny Kiss CHEATS with a big kick to the head. Sonny Kiss should be in the Blackpool Combat Club. Cutler is the Barry Windham of the Elite. FINALLY! AIRPLANE SPIN! Ari RECHEATS with the CHEATING Cutler was going to use! NICE Lariat by Ari! BRANDON CUTLER RULES THE WORLD! Oh man, I might have to pause this and eat like A HOG! HUNGER! I'll watch Willow Nightingale first. Selexziya Sparx has an inexplicable name. She gets some stuff in! Willow is telling a story! SWEET SPINEBUSTER BY WILLOW! SWEET NORTHERN LIGHTS SUPLEX BY SPARX! Willow is battling it out with Athena for who gets the local gal over the most. Athena wins THAT but this was really fucking good. DOCTOR BOMB FOR THE WIN! Ah main event! I'll watch this and then fill my LUNCH HOLE! MID DAY DARK! MID DAY DARK! MID DAY DARK! QT Marshall is a HEAT MACHINE! Dante Martin is progressing well. The Toronto crowd is awesome. QT ON THE STICK IS SOLID GOLD! Marshall is so awesome GATHERING THE HEAT! Who is the KING of AEW YouTube? QT, Brandon Cutler, Fuego del Sol, Emi Sakura or SERP? Dante Martin is awesome these days- HOLY SHIT! MARTIN IS SPECTACULAR! So many fun nearfalls! FUN FINISH! That was great! AEW! AEW! AEW! LUNCH! LUNCH! LUNCH! LUNCH!

This is an important point. I'd put it this way. As a community, we're not necessarily looking for some sort of objective truth about who was the greatest champion in-ring. That's unknowable. All we can do is judge based on footage along the lens of which wrestler has the matches that appeal to us the most as viewers. Which trends do we find most enjoyable as we consume this material. That should be the goal we're seeking for the most part, because this is knowable and it's a worthwhile exercise relative to just batting our heads against people talking about reps or whatever. There's also the notion that wrestling has advanced so much that we're going to be drawn to a certain style or overlook certain things, but that's ridiculous. It's like saying that we can't read Dumas or Dickens and find things to enjoy in them for their own sake AND in understanding what's come after because The Di Vinci Code or Ready Player One or The Luminaries or Watchmen or whatever exists. Or watch Citizen Kane or The Third Man or Maltese Falcon because we've seen Fast and Furious 6 or Moonlight or something. Context is important and worth understanding but the text is the text and we can judge texts.

KO returns to NXT tonight!

He is not wrong but Hoo Boy is the irony delicious

Fortunately the Broncos won’t be on prime time again until Week 14 and if there is a God, that game will be flexed out of Sunday Night

Don’t know what this talk is about hoping the Yankees wrap up the win, but that could be a pretty great lead-in.

Random thought: TBS aired reruns of the awful Dwayne Wade game show The Cube during the Yankees rain delay earlier tonight - if I'm TK, I'm on the phone with TBS offering up a Best of AEW compilation for the next time they have time to fill, and making sure that the production team has one of those in the chamber ready to go at all times, with updated lower third crawls for upcoming events, and maybe some fresh studio wrap-arounds with Tony Schiavone and Dasha or something. Also, I hesitate to even put this out into the multiverse, but said Yankee game got moved to tomorrow at 4:08, so let's all hope they wrap up the win in 9 innings

FLAIR E COYOTE, SUPER GENIUS

Trios match was a little messy especially early. Can I just have a Rey Fenix solo run? Maybe he can feud with OC for the belt? Storm-Shida was great as was the aftermath. Castle-Jericho was better than I expected and I thought it would be a fun match. Jericho was out-Sports Entertained in the spectacle sense, to the point he forgot to systematically cheat. I was convinced for a few minutes that the extra two Boys were Parker and Menard. Hager’s “I LIKE this hat” was the first time I’ve ever popped for anything he has done. All the angles and backstage stuff...well I expressed my opinion already on MJF-Regal. Jericho continuing his assault on Honor was good. FTR-SIOG has me excited. Yuta and Danielson’s storyline is advancing well, as is BCC. Jade threatening to take over Rampage is not a way to win ratings. Main event was excellent until that unfortunate ending. I thought Mox knocked him cold at first, but things kept getting serious and Taz’s reaction right away and during the sell for next week made it clear. The recovery with Mox and MJF worked pretty well. Still don’t know what they’re going for with MJF. Hope Page’s injury isn’t serious and he recovers quickly!!

No, I have one: It leads to Bob Costas punching Sammy in the locker room.

BONUS REVIEW : NOSFERATU: A SYMPHONY OF HORROR (Murnau, 1922) IMDB ROTTEN TOMATOES REVIEWED BY @Curt McGirt Well this was a big one. It's played in Champaign probably every year I've been living here, so going on 20, and despite being the biggest horror fan ever I've never went to it. Roger Ebert was born here and has a bronze statue of him outside the Virginia Theatre sitting on a park bench, so even though my beloved Art was closed down we still get revival showings and, let's say, preferential treatment as far as movies go around here. Despite my going to that place for years and years I'd never been to the Virginia, and it was a trip. Anything you've ever thought about a capital M, capital H Movie House? This is that. Giant red velvet curtain covering a stage and screen. Stained glass and gold everywhere. Seats that squeeze your ass like a vice. It's absurdly classy, and the organist in his introduction says something to the extent of "this is not just a national treasure, this place is a worldwide treasure" and you believe him because he says he just came over from Bulgaria so, he'd probably know. But just like all those foggy nights at the Art Theater, this was once again a bunch of stoned college kids and old folks laughing at a horror movie. I saw Nosferatu years ago and it creeped me out, but the humor of it definitely came out with a crowd. I suppose it was the silent movie facial expressions and makeup, but there was a lot more laughter than I expected or appreciated, though I joined in sometimes myself. As far as a Dracula ripoff goes it harkens pretty close to the story with few changes. The vampire women are gone, everyone has different names, and neither Lucy nor Van Helsing have a big part in the story, but everything else is there. Count Orlok to me is still the creepiest looking vampire ever besides Reggie Nalder in Salem's Lot. Thankfully the big moments like him emerging from the hold of the ship or walking through the door and filling the entire passageway with his unexpected height were met with an awed silence. Speaking of the age of the Virginia, Mr. Organist was playing through an organ that had no speakers and was wired INTO THE WALLS in some elaborate fashion and he came up with all kinds of bizarre noises, including drums for the part when a drummer walks down the street announcing that nobody is to leave their homes due to plague... which also hit everyone harder than it would have before Covid, obviously. If you haven't seen the movie yet don't skip on it, I know it's one of those classics that everyone has to see at least the once, but it is really worth it. Smoke some pot, put on some Paul Chain and press play. EDITOR'S NOTE Obviously, Curt got to see it in the Theater but you can easily find the full movie on Youtube

I went to the University of Illinois and had some film classes. In 2000, for the second Roger Ebert Film Festival, he had American Movie (and Coven!) on the schedule. One of my professors was tight with Ebert, so we got a few of the directors and stars of some of the movies to come speak to our class. One day, we had Mark Borchardt and the directors of American Movie as our guests. I hadn't seen the movie yet, and wondered who the weird dude sitting in the back of the class was. It was Schank, of course. When I finally saw the movie, it was like, "Oh! That's the guy!" As an aside, we also got to hear from Michael Caton. I had no idea who he was, but there happened to be an Australian guy in our class, and he was flipping out.

Tuesday Dynamite Tuesday

And Octopus don't even know it.

I liked the psychology of the top rope spot. Flair as a character was megalomaniacal enough that he would believably keep attempting to come off the top because he beat Race for the title doing it, and why wouldn’t it work again? He’s Ric Flair. That’s me doing a lot of headcanon though.