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Tower of Doom at Wrestlemania, brother. Stone Cold and Pat McAfee vs Meng, The Barbarian, Austin Theory, Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley, Braun Strowman, Kevin Sullivan, and Ric Flair

A friend of mine's brother teaches high school in Downer's Grove, IL. They have this up at school today:

Cagematch shows one match in the US, and it's a real corker: Jun Akiyama, Misterioso Jr. & Ultimo Dragon defeat The Border Patrol (Colt Stevens & JR Kratos) & Vinny Massaro PWR The Calm Before The Storm - Pay Per View @ John O'Connor High School in San Francisco, California, USA Which is not quite bringing Hashimoto over to work Gary Steele but it's still not great.

Oh man. I blinked fot a second and saw this weird scenario where Sasha ends the streak and wins the AEW TBS Championship and the entire reigns is carried by a "The Banks Statement" pun. All other TBS Champions must play into the acronym. Abadon being nicknamed "The Big Spooky". Toni By-Gawd Storm. Matt Riddle in drag as "Thunder Bro-Sa". I can see for miles.

Honored to say I share a birthday with the Macho Man and Judge Wapner.

Every one of those matches should be straight up excellent! And, uh... I don't mind hearing from Mox and Joe!

Big Bucks McBoobooface

Mercedes Moné is the only one that actually sounds like a name. The rest seem like terrible puns that are third grader would think are beneath them intellectually.

It's the go home show for the PPV, so I guess they see that as a necessary evil. They have various set up things: The singles match between guys in the Tag Title match. A shine-up match for Storm since Hayter got hers last week. The tag between the faces and the heels in the 4 way ROH title match. A trios showcase match for the champs so that the Elite can come back to challenge afterwards. A tournament semifinal. I'm curious if they can salvage Saraya at this point, but it feels a little hopeless. It'll be kind of funny (but an absolute disaster) after All Out/Grand Slam if the two biggest babyfaces at Full Gear are MJF and Britt Baker. Anyway, the biggest question for this show is whether or not Bunny pops a rating in her return.

IMO DDP fits that celebrity guest tag partner role better than Goldberg. Goldberg's character didn't really fit hanging out with Karl Malone or Jay Leno. Also, part of the reason DDP was there is to work the lion's share of those matches. I mean it's the same reason they would insert Savage or DiBiase in the Hogan vs. Zeus program coming off No Holds Barred. But yeah, DDP is my pick to stop the streak just cause he was the next guy up. I think some of his momentum from 97 got lost along the way in his forever feud with Raven and the Flock. Tagging with Malone kinda got it back, but boy it didn't seem like he was as hot as he was in 1997 feuding with Savage. Hell, maybe they could have use that to get a face vs. face feud with Goldberg going. The guy who was going to be the next big WCW star vs. the actual guy who became WCW's big star. My little booking scenario is you let Hogan and Nash continue to fight it out over NWO, and you can have Nash win WW3. However, I would make Starrcade basically be a repeat of WrestleMania X. Goldberg vs. DDP at Havoc ends as a schmoz thus justifying a rematch. Nash demands a title shot at Starrcade. You have it where Goldberg has to defend it first against Nash and the winner meets DDP in the main event later on in the show. Goldberg beats Nash after Hogan distracts Nash thus setting up Hogan vs. Nash legit at SuperBrawl where they do a best of 3 or 5 team series (Luger and Sting in seperate matches vs. NWO B&W members...maybe Giant and Scott Steiner) for the rights to the NWO. Then, in the main event of Starrcade, you have Goldberg dominate a good portion of the match and then DDP makes a comeback. DDP misses a spot and then Goldberg catches him with a spear. Crowd goes nuts. Goldberg takes up him for the Jackhammer. DDP reverses in mid air -> Diamond Cutter. 1.2.3. New WCW World Heavyweight champion. You can close out the trilogy at Souled Out or make SuperBrawl even bigger. However, you have something to look forward to at the beginning of 1999.

Finally getting around to watching UHF for the very first time. Wish I'd seen it sooner, because it's pretty damned good.

All I see is a picture of MJF.

If he can get Puddy to accompany him to ringside it’s a win for all.

I want Dave The Clown Komander having an army of trained clowns at his disposal like the armies of Hobos and cats

The fact that it's taken a year and a half for Justin Field's coaches to look at that massive man who runs that fast to say, "maybe we should let him run," is a fucking travesty. The average football coach is fucking terrible at his job.

watching a 1997 Hardcore TV immediately after a 1995 Hardcore TV makes me think that they invested in light bulbs at the ECW Arena as they found more success EDIT: when did Lance Storm clip off his atrocious looking blonde rat tail? he has a haircut that 3rd graders thought was cool back in the mid-90s

This absolutely could have been a good story to tell. But WCW was both unwilling and completely unable to pull it off.

Oh, it's time for my yearly "the Diamond Cutter was so over as a flash killer that Goldberg losing to it would have served him better than all the taser crap" post. You can get rematches out of whether or not the relatively inexperienced Goldberg can avoid the Diamond Cutter, too. That move was built up as instadeath at that point.

So Starks is having 2 matches on Rampage? Because the other 1st round match between Starks/Archer still hasn't happened and the winner still has to face Brian Cage after that. Looking forward to the return of Top Flight and AR Fox getting a shot. Fox is already on part 3 of the Willow Nightingale process of getting a contract. Part 1: impress on Dark/Elevation. Part 2: Finally win a match on Dark/Elevation. Part 3: Make the main shows. Part 4 is getting a win on Dynamite or Rampage and getting the contract. It doesn't hurt when the fans get behind you during this process lol.

I finally got to caught up to episode 10 and I would run through a goddamned brick wall for Andy Serkis.

Famous alcoholic and shirtless comedian Burnt Chrysler?

The longer I look at the promo poster for Full Gear, the more convinced I am MJF is wrestling comedian Bert Kreischer James

Kaito Kitamiya vs Timothy Thatcher. November 10, 2022 https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV15d4y1k71Q/?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click

I support them adopting the name PARTY HARDY~! for their team.

I'd argue that Khan cares more about Gordi's needs right now than Gordi cares about Khan's needs. Which is kind of funny when you think about it. Right now, Khan's needs are 1.) getting a TV show for ROH and 2) getting WBD to give him a big boost for AEW's new contract. Accomplishing both things gives him the room to be a little weirder. That said, I think a lot of why AEW's suffered over the last nine months, past the injuries which I've documented elsewhere, is that they did push into a slightly more traditional space (and this is likely due to the injuries as much as anything else! and also maybe not all that much as it hasn't been THAT long since Forbidden Door and the ROH stuff is not what I'd consider 'traditional space' even if some of the execution might be).... is that Vince got the boot and WWE got less terrible. There was much more value in edging into WWE's space with competence and great matches and not punishing wrestlers and fans nine months ago than there is now. I think Khan's still playing damage control after All Out (and again injuries!) as he precariously walks the tightrope towards a new contract. Personally, I'm ok so long as the wrestling is good. But then again, I'm the guy here who thinks Takeshita is pretty terrible, so what are you even going to do with me?

DDP should have definitely gotten a reign as a babyface even if it was 1-3 months. As far as ending the streak, he and Bret are my only real choices as people who I wanted to end the streak. DDP should have at least gotten a singles PPV main event against Hollywood Hogan. People always talk about WCW not pushing the younger talent but I feel like they left so much money on the table with their established talent in 98. Sting/Goldberg should have been a PPV match instead of a match thrown out on Nitro with Hogan getting involved. When they finally had their PPV match in 1999, it was after WCW lost its momentum. Hogan and Nash definitely should have had a match in 1998 when the nWo split up. Of course Hogan and Bret was probably the biggest missed opportunity. Even a Sting/Nash match, which ended up as 2 Nitro main events with no finish, should have been an obvious PPV match

Eric Bischoff and Vince McMahon should be tarred and feathered for making the "loud executive shows up on camera multiple times a show to be obnoxious" trope a thing. It's a bottom-three wrestling trope ever. EDIT: Maybe we can scrape some of the tar for this purpose off Mick Foley's head.

i am about 45 minutes into the first TNA episode of 2003. sweet baby jesus, i am fucking sick of Vince Russo. it is completely unacceptable how much tv time was wasted on this absolute dogshit character. he actively makes every segment that he's in worse. so of course, he's already shown up 3 times

Much hyped ️

I'm late! Suck it! It's Skye Blue! It's Paris Van Dale. I thought she was Von Dale yesterday on Elevation. I may be crazy. That kick thing Skye Blue does from the mat is starting to not look horrible. Van Dale is fun as a 1970s heel. Skye kicks her a bunch until hitting a Flatliner that she needs a bit of work. She should switch to a Piledriver. It's the Iron Savages! JT Davidson is annoying. Is Boulder losing weight too? Is AEW introducing junior heavyweight tag team titles? They beat the crap out of two dudes. Kiera Hogan takes on Kennedi Copeland, who I've seen a couple times on YouTube in the indies. I remember she was good. Hogan wrestles a lot like Skye Blue with lots of kicks. Copeland looked good in the wee bit of offense she got in. Zack Clayton takes on IMPACT! contender, Frankie Kazarian! This should be interesting, since there is an outside chance Clayton could win this! Just to fuck with IMPACT! Clayton looks good in this. There is some awkwardness and Kaz OPTS to start laying it in. Kaz wins with the Chicken Face Cross Wing! IMPACT! is SAVED! It's Cole Karter! He was almost a Best Friend on Rampage last week! It's Teddy Goodz again! He still owns a toy store with his brother! Man Scout sounds like a walking sex crime. QT Marshall is the biggest HEAT MACHINE in AEW, though Sammy is edging him out lately. Big Shotty is way better as a heel. He should join the Gunns as contenders for the trios title. QT CHEATS early! The crowd gets behind Jack Thomas' STRUGGLE and he makes the hot tag to Teddy Goodz! Teddy thrills the crowd until the Factory hits a very elaborate 3-D/Diamond Cutter combination for the win! ATHENA! ATHENA! ATHENA! Little Mean Kathleen! LMK is as New England as clam chowder! I assume Athena will beat the hell out of her. Athena makes LMK look great. LMK is so fun before Athena beats her to death. Athena doesn't beat the fuck out of her like she has been doing to folks. LMK is awesome. The Dark Order beats three dudes. The three dudes are good heels, beating HEAT on Evil Uno! ATHENA MENACES LEXY! Daniel Garcia takes on Brock Anderson for the ROH Pure Title! Will Garcia go all Volk Han? Yes, he does! Brock Anderson is good selling the mangled knee. Brock is great powering out of Garcia's Guillotine. Good nearfall on the DDT. I don't remember Volk Han hitting a Lawler Piledriver, but it was fucking NASTY. That was good.

Yeah, here's the tweet. Feels like he's leaning into having to win 3 matches in 4 days, etc.

Count me in the "MJF losing is the better choice" group. I feel like they really screwed the pooch the first time he lost to Mox. That should've been a huge growth moment for his character, and I feel like they let it get away. Part of me thinks the better story would be to have MJF come up short again, even after cheating, and go "find himself" as a character, with the payoff being that deep down he's still a piece of shit. We'd all be awaiting the big moment and instead it turns into a "tiger never changes his stripes" moment. I think you're again also faced with the issue of how strongly you've booked Moxley. It felt bogus when Punk beat Mox and I'm not sure there's any way to present MJF as victorious over Mox (short of The Firm hitting him with a semi) that feels earned. So little of MJF's character growth happens in the ring that I don't feel any sense that he's credible against a guy like Mox. On the other hand, Mox never got his vacay. You could have the Firm screw him, The BCC be strife with infighting, and have Mox come back in 8 weeks or so like Michael Myers and just mow through the Firm in his way to a rematch. MJF tries to make him do the "task list" to earn his rematch and Mox is the only guy not to go for it. "No, I don't think I'm gonna do any of that shit. I think I'm just gonna show up here and kick your ass every week until I get my rematch." And he does. Getting the title on MJF also means you can elevate guys like Starkman Jones and Jungle Boy as challengers. So there's that, too.

Is Starks vs Archer not announced? Don't they need to have it tonight so the winner can face Cage on Rampage before the PPV?

There are probably 10,000 quarterback coaches who think they can "fix" Justin Fields because of things like this: (For the record, that's an insane stat.) Also, I will bet a shiny nickel or even two, that the Bears will not hire the guy that 'fixes' him.

This is great!

I want Jamie to win but there's a small part that wants Toni to keep it until she can beat Thunder Rosa so Jamie's first title win is for the real championship.

There are a few of us. It's lonely and enthusiasm isn't terribly high. The bandwagon isn't moving very fast, so there's still time to jump off safely.

Saturn/Raven v Benoit/Malenko v Rey/Kidman after that it probably something on nitro v Benoit/Martel/Finley/Booker he might have had a solid match or two against DDP

My favorite is probably Raven/Saturn vs Benoit/Malenko from Spring Stampede 99.

I hope they don't do away with the elimination matches as those were always a favorite of mine. Renting the older SS events that featured several of them on a card was always cool seeing the random combinations of guys who were feuding put together or just other various pairings. Is Sheamus legit injured or was that just an angle? If he's out then I could see Drew, Dunne, and Ridge teaming up with New Day as they just had their rivalry with the Usos renewed last week. Otherwise it's a tossup as to who they slot in.

Nah. This nonsense that they become more racist and fascist because everyone else forces them do it is pathetic abuser ideology. They can come into the house when they stop rolling around the backyard in their own shit.