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Could you imagine, if the pec injury left a hideous blotch on his torso?

The goon sessions where every piece of news means that they’re going under goes in the finance thread.

Aubrey's reaction is mine and @JLowe's seeing Jeff fucking Jarrett.

Yes, they are going to give a man rapidly approaching mid 50s creative control and the World Title. He is 2002 Hulk Hogan, who was 49 compared to Jericho who is already 52. If WWE gives Chris Jericho a world title, they are the goddamn Titanic.

Liked the opener a lot, Carter might have a future, but Darby sure did a lot (probably too much) to make him look good. I think Darby’s so used to wrestling as the scrappy underdog who has to throw all caution to the wind to win, that he’s not able to conceive of a match where he’s the dominant wrestler over an inferior opponent. Athena is awesome. Not sure she can actually be a heel being this level of asskicker except when she threatens Aubrey. Couldn’t get into the tag match, so choke on that, slappy. I think Matt or Gord pointed out that the main was a good match but wasn’t as fun a match as it should have been. Just not enough shenanigans. Feels like they ended up booking a lot of the Austin show for me. Acclaimed-FTR! Darby-Joe! Claudio and Yuta vs Garcia and Hat! Skye Blue! Bunny! A 15-minute bathroom break for MJF talking! Now I just need Takeshita.

It's because Ohio State played in the real B1GTen Championship game last week. The B1GTen West is like the nWo B-team. Hogan(Ohio State), Nash(Michigan), and Hall(Penn State) are in the east, and they play Buff Bagwell to decide the nWo champion.

If she wants to be Holy Shida, then bygawd she's Holy Shida!

Darby vs Cole was pretty good. Cole had a couple of literal bombs (and I don't love anyone doing the turnbuckle bomb) but a lot of his offense was staying on the back. I'll have to give this another look for Monday. In general, they gave him a lot, probably too much, and it should have been more of Darby killing him and him fighting for his life. The opening moment of Darby throwing himself at him was good along those lines though. I get given the structuring of the show that Comoroto couldn't do more to help him (You need to save that for the main), and I can't say he didn't come out of this somewhat elevated, but given this moment in time and where Darby has to go, he should be taking a little more of these matches. He can survive against the monsters of the world with the big hulk up, but he should be mowing through other guys. Maybe they really see something in Karter though. He's young and maybe in a year or so he's one of those guys we're looking at like we look at Moriarty, Garcia, and Yuta now? Athena's charging forearm to start matches is the best thing in wrestling right now. I'll stop repeating it soon but it kills me that this was lurking underneath for years and no one unleashed it. She's 1980 heel Dynamite Kid level chip on her shoulder intensity. Her pushing back the ref was so good. Her teasing another shot on Edwards was even better. Total killer. I feel bad for Mercedes because she did everything right this year except for getting hurt (which wasn't her fault), but Athena needs to mow her down and take the belt. There were things I liked about Private Party vs Jarrett/Lethal. There's value in Satnam teaming with Jarrett to learn from him, I think. He should be the attraction for now, not Jarrett, I guess. Sonjay dancing to Private Party's music was tremendous. It's all a pretty good act. It's obvious Jarrett can't feed for the level of offense that Private Party is used to, but they were still able to create a lot of the motion for him and he was able to make up the rest with a good punch and great timing. They did a good job of moving the ref around. I'm sure Kassidy loved playing face-in-peril for both Jarrett and Lethal. That double team Stroke/Lethal Injection is a solid idea but they probably need to drill the timing a few hundred more times. So I wasn't very familiar with Shane Taylor and I went back to watch his Bryan Keith and Low Ki matches and uh, Shane Taylor in 2022 is pretty freaking good, huh? They're on youtube and people should watch them. @DEAN, back me up here. To me, the main was more good than fun. QT wrestled an excellent match. He hit things crisp and cleanly. There was a strong narrative. There were some exciting nearfalls. Worked the crowd well. Cassidy had a lot of fire from underneath. Just a very good pro wrestling match. I kind of wanted more ridiculous bullshit though. There was a little bit with Page and Hardy on the outside and the randomness of Kevin Thorn and super rah rah babyface Nate Webb and Serpentico trying to get between the Factory and Best Friends, but in general, I wanted a lot more goofiness and QT went out there trying to prove something. I get that AEW has a credible mid card heel problem, but I felt it a year ago and I feel it now. QT needs to stop trying to prove things and work scummier and more like Honky Tonk Man. Here there needed more foolishness, but it was a very good match. No one can deny it. This show set up a lot of stuff. Very chaotic feel in a good way. AEW from two weeks ago to now has gone to feeling like a lot of things are happening at once. I know people said Juice Robinson was a better babyface for a heel so he'll be in that de facto spot against Joe. Darby vs Joe sounds awesome! FTR vs Acclaimed is really exciting even if it'll likely end in BS. And good for them to just give the fans it. Acclaimed gets a lot of credibility by acting that way. Again, Shane Taylor seems like a good pick up and that should be a fun PPV match. Shida vs Bunny for the belt makes sense. I really wish she'd understand the proper use of Holy Shida though. She's not Holy Shida. Holy Shida is something said when she does something impressive or if people are shocked and awed at her arrival. Someone should explain this to her. Kip targeting Cassidy with Ford was an interesting moment. I loved Cassidy flying right at him but then getting beaten down since he'd just gone through a match. Interesting that they're going with Hogan on the babyface side immediately. That means the Bow Wow stuff is not leading to her. Just a lot going on as they're going into Texas and then all of those new markets.

The amount of “pretty” on screen during the Nay/Saraya interview was stunning. I’m throwing my cards in on a solid Saraya comeback. I’d really like to see her turn the bullshit in her life into something positive. But I think on an artistic level it might’ve been more prudent to put Britt over at the PPV. The character stuff Saraya could do digging her self out of the grave like The Bride in Kill Bill would be compelling stuff. Maybe they’ll still get around to it. Sanjay was on fucking fire. The cutaway to him dancing to Private Party’s theme popped me big, brother. Confession time. I’m enjoying hating Jeff Jarrett. I’m also other people hating JJ. I want nothing more from him than boatloads of stomp punch stomp punch Memphis tomfoolery. And an occasional Codysault off the top of the cage. When you have a chance to be a Terry Funk crazy old man gig. You do that shit. If we’ve learned nothing else about this totally unique phenomenon that is Orange Cassidy. It’s that you can plug that dude into any position on the card and it’ll work. This should play a lot cornier than it does. Yet they manage to make it cool. Holy shit. Nate Webb was out there. I haven’t seen that dude since that ROH Cage of Death vs. CZW.

TK better run Saraya & Toni Storm vs Britt Baker & Jamie Hayter in London. Do the damn thing, man.

Notes from the 4/14/1975 Madison Square Garden Show Tony Altomare vs Mike Paidousis: Poor Mike had his last name misspelled on the graphics. Paidousis looks like a gym teacher. Altomare is a heel because he's fussy, he cheats, and he yells at random people. Contrary to what Jayce Naccarato said on the McAdam podcast about a 1973 MSG show, I think this NYSAC ref looks more like the owner of a car repair shop than a school custodian. "Normal video" cuts out a few times because let's face it, it's an MSG opening match. Paidousis wins after Altomare’s feet leave the mat on a missed move and then Paidousis pins him by cradling his shoulders to the mat (like if he had powerbombed him and then cradled him, only without the powerbomb) El Olympico vs Greg Valentine: Greg Valentine is making his debut at Madison Square Garden. El Olympico is still not allowed to wear a full mask so he looks like a Hungarian Water Polo player wearing a mask with his face visible. Greg Valentine is leaning hard into looking like his dad, like Hank Williams Jr before he fell of a mountain and got his own look. Johnny Valentine was still working at this time (this is 5 months before the plane crash). Greg does his best at hitting Olympico hard enough that it's picked up on the mics. Olympico does some hitting back which looked good. Valentine had some good old time arm work of putting one foot on Olympico's wrist and stomping his shoulder (he mixed it up by also stepping on the wrist and punching Olympico's shoulder). Valentine wins with an elbow drop after he elbowsmashed Olympico down to the mat. We got some instant replay in 1975, folks. Vince has a budget. Waldo Von Erich vs Chief Jay Strongbow: You see, you can tell that Waldo is a Nazi because he repurposed a biker helmet to look like a stormtrooper helmet. Waldo Von Erich is the champion of all Germany, which is pretty impressive when you consider he probably couldn't work his gimmick in East Germany. Waldo wins in 39 seconds by whipping Strongbow over the top turnbuckle to the floor in the greatest Jay Strongbow match i've ever seen. People at ringside are pissed off at what happened. Little Tokyo and Lord Littlebrook vs Little Louie and Sonny Boy Hayes: People are pissed, bring out the midgets. Louie and Hayes are apparently the Midget Tag Team champions but this is a non-title 2 out of 3 falls match. I didn't pay a lot of attention to this match but you gotta love serious sportscaster Vince calling midget spots. First fall goes to the rudos after some undetected cheating. The tag rope looks very long for this match. The ref spanks Little Tokyo during the second fall. Tecnicos win the second fall after heel miscommunication. Why the fuck is this 2 out of 3 falls. They do midget/ref spots in every fucking fall. People were really a lot more easily entertained back in the 1970s when lead was in everything. The heels win the 3rd and final fall. Considering the WWWF's fan engagement approach, it's surprising they couldn't find a midget to call "Little Italy". This match lasted almost 19 minutes. Spiros Arion vs Bruno Sammartino: This is a Greek Death Match. So the only way to win this one is by submission (no time limit! no pinfalls! no Coke! only Pepsi!). As you'd expect, the crowd is ready for this one. I'd say that Spiros Arion facially/hair-wise looks like Greek Don Muraco (this isn't a body comp). Freddie Blassie shows up, gets booed and departs because WWWF Managers had a great gig at live events of not getting stabbed at ringside. From what I recall reading, this feud might not have fostered understanding between NYC Italians and Greeks. There's some good ol fashioned punching to start this one off as this is worked in the style of dudes fighting in an alley. Arion breaks the bearhug by just low-blowing Bruno (off camera), which seems like a good way to break up a bearhug in a no DQ match. You see, the tag rope for the midget match was really long because it was used in a spot for this match. After 13ish minutes of interethnic street violence, Arion missed a top rope move and Bruno beat him with a half crab. After the win, there was some extra shitkicking followed by Bruno doing a cage match mercy spot by not curbstomping Arion into the apron. You see, sometimes you gotta work the match like the competitors bribed an offduty police officer to allow them to fight each other in a garage. Edouard Carpentier vs Big Joe Nova: Big Joe Nova is built like a guy who was kicked off his high school football team in a move that decimated their offensive line. On checking, this was Carpentier's first MSG match since 1968 and his last MSG match. He's 48 at this time and doing his flip spots in-between moves. By this point in his career, Carpentier works like he's selling a workout plan for middle-aged people. Nova does a flip into the corner so it's always impressive to get a fat boy's feet off the canvas in 1975. Carpentier cannonballs Nova a few times for the win before going off to be the Montreal distributor of Jack LaLanne products. Big Bob Duncum vs Victor Rivera: We got a Grand Wizard sighting. It's one fall or to curfew. Duncum is knocked over some dudes at ringside. Hidden foreign object shots. Maybe we need the return of "the heel is hitting the face with an object out of the view of the ref" spots. The ref in this match (who was also in the Bruno match) looks like someone who yells at high school students who were skipping class to smoke. We got a draw due to the curfew, as they avoid paying the union members overtime once again. Although to be fair, it took 16 minutes to reach the curfew so it was a bit of a mercy killing. There was a Valiants vs Manuel Soto & Pete Sanchez match that wasn't included in this Old School episode.

Well shit, guess I’m buying a ticket now.

Rampage is at it's best when it's 1998 Thunder.

Darby, Athena, and Orange all had foregone conclusion matches that were fun to watch in different ways. Cole Karter has good smarmy heel charisma and Darby sold a ton for him, Athena got to do her new "unprofessional" gimmick on Rampage, and Orange vs QT made fun use of the lumberjack stipulation. Juice vs Orange. OK. I kinda hope Juice sticks around so he can team with Orange and they "Arnie in the sky" it by calling them "Cassidy and Robinson." Shida gonna defend the WAVE title in AEW! Yeah! Uh. I guess I liked Satnam's suit. Heck of a job by his tailor.

Conversely, the first company to actually electrocute Drew Brees will have my unending consumer loyalty.

It’ll be called All-Atlantic Wrestling

Oh, I'm in.

Ethan Page and Matt Hardy provide a nice bit of sports entertainment there. Loved that. '99 Hardy sure, but let's have a look and see what this battleworn heavy footed old cuss might still have left in the gas tank. I do have a small fear that Page's nasty looking version of the Razor's Edge might break his body. I sometimes wonder if Athena isn't the most thrilling performer in the company right now!? She's found her path. Yeah, Taylor v Keith Lee is a fresh and exciting Battle, but Taylor mentioned the named JD Griffey, and it made me wonder if he was indicating a tag match. That whole situation could have (maybe I missed it) used a clarifyier from Excalibur. I don't know Griffey, but I'm game for a Swerve/Big Keith bout with Taylor and a pal. One thing on Taylor... I'm wondering if there isn't a better, more flattering attire for the big man? Big ol wide-legged loose fitting black cargos tucked into the boots perhaps. He might only be a couple of strong aesthetic choices away from being a considerable threat and potential player.

Read this as 'We'll have a Tito's" and thought: hope they have room for a poor Yankee Edit @Cobra CommanderI'd wager were going to see a more pure babyface Danielson from here out - making the save for Regal twice kind of makes me think that may be the direction. Side note: I thought him being in the trainers room and running out w one boot on was SUCH a nice touch.

Who are you to question the holiness of Shida?

Oh, Shane Taylor is motherfucking AWESOME. They should have gone straight to Taylor versus Joe. Watch THIS:

So my brother is really into AEW and his favorite wrestler is Fenix. So for Christmas he wanted a wallet that Republic of Lucha sold that was personally painted by Fenix. Its stupid expensive but he has expensive tastes. Anyway I got it in today and while it still feels expensive, it has the original "Coach" price tag in it and its a $150 wallet even not painted by Fenix (on sale various places for like $65 of course). So that made me feel a little better that its not a $10 walmart wallet. But its kinda silly.

Oh, and did anyone else catch Kofi trash talking Imperium ? He was doing the Alex Wright dance, and said " Y'all remember Alex Wright? Y'all look like a buncha Alex Wrongs!"

Yes please.

Jayzeus! There are 19 matches on the CUT LIST. That means that if you are retired and can watch all the free matches on TV and streaming on the internet, there were FIFTY-NINE matches worth watching last week. I had to pick between Pig Destroyer and the Pigs versus Los Brazos and Pig Destroyer and the Pigs versus the Big Strippers. The Big Strippers are also fat boys and it was longer and had super lunatic fat boy high spots. The best Lucha match was prolly the Atlantis Jr vs Volador Jr match. New Japan churned out giant wads of watchable wrestling almost every day, the best being the Ospreay/Naito for the US title on AXS. GLEAT had some good stuff this week- especially the Irie/T-Hawk tag match. The best WWE match was prolly Ricochet vs Santo Escobar, but that might be recency bias because there were lots of good stuff- Perez/Hartwell; Street Profits vs Alpha Academy; The OC vs Judgement Day and JD McDonagh vs Julius Creed. AEW had fuckin Bryan Danielson vs Dax Harwood, which I will end up voting for, and match 3 of the best of 7. Your fringe match of the week was a battle between the awesome match between El Bandido and Alex Hammerstone in MLW and the miracle match between Alan Angels vs Danny Limelight in CWFH. Your dark horse fringe match of the week was the Matt Cardona vs Rolando Freeman match. Man, what a week! CUT LIST: Jack Evans vs El Bendito- BIG LUCHA; Invictus Khash vs Ray Jaz- CWFH; Dexter Lumis vs The Miz- RAW; Fallon Henley vs Kianna James- NXT; Cezar Bononi/ Pretty Peter Avalon/ Ryan Nemeth vs Matt Hardy/ Isiah Cassidy/ Marq Quen- AEW Dark; Athena vs Dani Mo- RAMPAGE; BUSHI/ Titan vs KUSHIDA/ Kevin Knight- New Japan World; Oskar Leube/ Yuto Nakashima vs Mikey Nicholls/ Shane Haste- New Japan World; Brooke Valentine vs Missa Kate- Women's Wrestling Army; Octagon Jr vs Villano III Jr vs Abismo Negro Jr- AAA; Mylo vs Vipress- CWFH; Lady Flammer vs Lady Shani vs La Hiedra vs Reina Dorada- MLW; Moose vs Bhupinder Gujjar- IMPACT!; Master Wato/ Jado/ Clark Connors/ Ryusuke Taguchi vs Gedo/ Ace Austin/ Chris Bey/ Taiji Ishimori- New Japan World; Hell Boy/ Kauris vs Noisy Boy/ Spider Fly- IWRG; Toru Yano/ Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Alex Coughlin/ Gabriel Kidd- New Japan World; Natalia Markova vs Ella Envy- NWA USA; Pig Decapitador/ Pig Desenterrador/ Pig Destroyer/ Pig Destructor vs Los Brazos- IWRG; Yoshinobu Kanemaru/ DOUKI vs KUSHIDA/ Kevin Knight- New Japan World

The only way it changes names is if their is an animal preservation company with the same initials.

If Impact! - fucking IMPACT! - is still alive in some form, AEW will have to die a spectacular death before I believe any rumors of its demise.

I'd like to jump into this. And I'm not setting parameters on what I receive.

@DEAN Hey, DEAN! I am peer pressuring you! EDIT: might as well get this out of the way now: NO "GREAT" MATCHES FOR ME, PLEASE! No ***** Meltzer/Keith-style epics that go long, have tons of (empty) flash and multiple finisher kick-outs. I have seen too much of that. I am here for interesting/weird matches. I love Kenny. I love Okada. I loved Kenny vs Okada at Dominion. I DO NOT WANNA WATCH THAT KIND OF MATCH HERE. I wanna watch Kenny vs Little Girl. Gimme weird. Gimme crazy. Gimme violent. Please don't gimme self-consciously epic and flashy. Also do not give me Sports Entertainment. No WWE. WWWF is fine, if it's weird and/or involves Andre. Also, unless you specifically ask, I won't be giving out great matches, but rather weird or interesting or nostalgic ones.

Are we sure Dave actually knows Regal's status? This week, according to Dave he had a 1 year contract, then a 3 year contract, and then a verbal deal that ended when Hunter controls WWE. Color me skeptical until I actually see Regal on television again lol

And this is obviously missing the context that AEW put their World Title on him when Chris was by far their biggest non-organic star when they first started doing TV. Why would they (WWE) put a guy who isn't even in the running for the main World title in AEW when they won't even put guys way younger than him by 10-15 years over Roman Reigns? Unless Paul starts huffing paint, Chris Jericho ain't winning no world title. As for like a HOF spot, what the fuck does that mean? Jericho isn't that much of a mark for himself. They put like a bajillion people in every year and they're running out people alive and dead to put in. That's always going to be something he can get. He can work for AEW and get put in the WWE HOF. That means jackshit.

Michaels/Mankind was also a ride although the finish probably hurts

See, they're clearly setting her up to be God's champion in His feud with Miro. It's long-term booking!

One of the biggest talking points in internet fandom is the Brock Lesnar part time champion stuff. They are purposely trying to book MJF to get heat in this way. It's 2022. Wrestling is a work and there isn't a soul that's planning on "paying to see him get his ass kicked" for "hurting" Regal. Maybe there are some people mad enough that he's a part time champ that they will pay to boo him in person. There's still viable ways to get heat these days. But they're different than they were 30 years ago. Not for nothing, but you seem pretty mad about this development. So in a sense you're getting worked and adding heat to MJF. If it's working on you maybe it's working on others?

I like Dynamite, but Rampage is my jam. I’d prefer a tiny bit more storyline progression for the main storylines, but it’s a dope show for the tag and b-titles. An hour of wrestling just hits my sweet spot.

Well add me also as a poor dude from Tennessee who is not running the #2 wrestling promotion in North America and we have a Trio.

Consider me a part of this one, the last one was a blast.

Best match in ROH history. Love that match. *****.

I watched a lot of these shows for our old podcast Titans Of Wrestling, and they're great. Waldo Von Erich is the best. Most evil Germans were Counts, Barons, or something more WW1. They were trying to hide their true feelings behind aristocracy. Not Waldo. Waldo was the Fraz Leibklin of the WWWF. One of my favorite matches is Bruno vs. Waldo. It's a fucking brawl where Bruno beats the shit out of Waldo, Waldo bloodies Bruno with a foreign object, which just enrages Bruno. Bloody Bruno then defeats fascism by beating the living shit out of a nazi.

Cody Rhodes isn't fat until he starts finishing matches with an awesome looking elbowdrop

Yeah, it's definitely a problem, (and where did Scorpio Sky disappear to after losing the TNT title), but Swerve may be closer to that level than most people realise. I mean, if they wanted to do it. Over all, yes, they need to improve this. But who is available that could potentially reach that level soon, that they don't already have on the roster?

ATHENA! ATHENA! ATHENA!

AWESOME! He's going to be 700 pounds by next July.

Enjoyed the Darby and Athena matches, Nate Webb and Kevin Thorn were fun easter eggs, and they got me to bite on a QT nearfall. A worthwhile Rampage imo. I'm much more excited about Joe vs. Darby than I am about Joe vs. Juice.

Already looking forward to next week's AEW Dynamite.

IT'S RAMPAGE! Darby Allin takes on Cole Karter! Karter could be the new Buff Bagwell. JESUS! Allin hits craziest fucking TOPES on earth. Man, Karter is taking an assbeating. Karter crushes Allin's testicles on the toprope! We now move to the part of the match where Allin makes his opponent look like a total murderer. And he does. Allin is a budding Chris Jericho in that category. Karter is good at getting the crowd behind Darby Allin's STRUGGLE to escape the low-grade heel beating applied by Cole Karter. Karter needs to channel his inner douche more to become a TRUE HEAT MACHINE. Allin makes his comeback and hits a CODE RED! KARTER HITS A TOPROPE FALCON ARROW! So Cole Karter has the possibility of ruling soon. Karter misses on a 450. I'm digging Karter. Scorpion Deathdrop and Coffin Drop for the win. That was good. COLE KARTER! HOLY FUCK! SHANE TAYLOR! FUCK YEAH! Holy FUCK, Shane Taylor versus Keith Lee? Okay, now I gotta get this fucking PPV. The Acclaimed vs FTR would be good. The Bunny versus Hikaru Shida for the Pro Wrestling WAVE title? Sure. The Bunny is ratings, DADDY! It would be completely AWESOME if the Bunny becomes the WAVE champion. That would be a weird twist to this truly weird feud. Isiah Cassidy screams like a little girl! Jarrett and Lethal are a good old school heel tagteam, UNBELIEVABLY! Cassidy is our sympathetic babyface! Jarrett and Lethal are they new Hardliners. Marq Quen is the most SPECTACULAR Robert Gibson ever! Jarrett and Lethal do a very awkward finisher! That was fine. ATHENA! ATHENA! ATHENA! Will she beat the shit out of someone? One can only hope. Hey! It's Dani Mo! She's awesome. HOLY SHIT! ATHENA! ATHENA! ATHENA! Athena is approaching a GUNTHER/IKEDA level of ass stomper. ATHENA! ATHENA! ATHENA! So FUCKING AWESOME! HIT HER! HIT AUBREY! HIT EVERYBODY! ATHENA! ATHENA! ATHENA! Athena as the ROH champion and the Bunny as the WAVE champion is a future I want for AEW. Samoa Joe takes on Mr. Toni Storm! At Final Battle! Oh MAN! Darby Allin versus Samoa Joe? Jesus, that should be an assbeating. QT Marshall is a HEAT MACHINE! Orange Cassidy has taken the All-Atlantic Championship to a new, lunatic level. QT is backbreaker CRAZY! Ethan Page has a little subplot to the match, yelling at Matt Hardy! I wish it was 1999 so Matt Hardy could physically have a great match with Ethan Page. While we revel in picture in picture, the midcard and Dark Elevation all stars beat on Orange Cassidy, and Cassidy sells the back like a TOTAL champ. Hey! Brandon Cutler makes a cameo! Kip Sabian and Penelope Ford show up and causes a nearfall on a Diamond Cutter! Orange Punch to win! THE HOUSE OF BLACK! That was the greatest episode of Elevation EVER. AEW RULES THE MOTHERFUCKING WORLD!

kayfabe just doesn't exist anymore in sports gambling ads

Only if we can fit Darby in to the bazooka.