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I have zero problem with Wardlow losing this match. Wardlow doesn’t need more wins. He’s gotten almost nothing but wins for the past year, and none of them have helped him get any more over since May. What Wardlow NEEDS, and what he hasn’t had since MJF, is a worthy nemesis that can give people a REASON to get behind him. That’s what Joe is doing right now. And I think there’s a lot of juice left to squeeze out of Wardlow chasing him. And just as a cherry on top, Joe brings immense credibility to everything he’s involved with, and that now includes the TNT title.

I should mention how much I despise passive aggressiveness. And regardless of whether or not he's paintedbynumbers (he is -- both had Pittsburgh area IP's).... whether or not the NFL is rigged or not (it's not, cf. Occam's Razor, Hanlon's Razor).... whether or not, well, a lot of stuff... This just isn't a good fit. This was gonna happen sooner or later. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

UNCUT… UNCENSORED….. NEVER BEFORE SEEN… THE NIGHT DADDI DOOM DANCED ATOP DAILY’S PLACE ARENA.

I'd like The King of Television to have a interview segment where he acts like he's Jack Parr or Johnny Carson

I'll need to watch Danielson vs Page again without PiP. The big takeaway were the strength spots, how Page went back to the well but then doubled down and went back again and almost made it work. That's what made him standout as an opponent. It's not an accident he uses the Ego's Edge since he has that sort of Hall place on the roster where he's not a giant but he's still a big, strong dude. I'm not sure if he has that sort of physical charisma to match though. This was very much AEW house style where they circled the landing a few times before starting the heat. I really like seeing Danielson interact with Stokely. He's never had a Heenan. I did go back and see the Top Flight/BCC tag without PiP this morning even though I caught it last night. Given that it was face vs face even if one side was underdogs, I liked the structure, with Top Flight's early ambush failing, Claudio (and Mox with his beard attack) getting some heat on Darius, a big comeback and Top Flight controlling on Moxley's knee during the break, and then everything breaking down for Claudio destroying everyone and a finishing stretch with a lot of excitement. I sort of felt like Moxley made Danielson a little less interesting when they were tagging since instead of being many things like Danielson tends to be, being with Moxley just made him one thing (out of many, that he often brought otherwise), but it doesn't really have that effect on Claudio. Vicious Claudio is something we don't necessarily see outside his teaming with Moxley in 2022 so it's something different. I loved the dropkick after the running corner shots which felt very "Jumbo-y" to me. I guess this all had a feeling like the 90 AJPW I've been watching lately. I bought the kickout on the neutralizer since Claudio seemed to barely get him up. The sequence that ended with the kickoff DDT was amazing; Claudio is one of the best bases ever, bar none. Speaking of puns, there's dad joke, multi-lingual, admirable athlete Claudio, but when he brings the intensity that he managed on that last uppercut, well, that's your main event star right there. More of that in 2023. Match 7 of 9: Nick Bockwinkel vs Jumbo Tsuruta (c) AJPW 2/26/84 This was a couple of nights later and was Jumbo defending. I have to look at where this is on the tour actually. Let me see. There were a couple of nights left but this was the last really big match for Jumbo on it. I imagine the Japanese fans having seen what happened with Baba a few years earlier and certain other things, half expected Bockwinkel to win it back, that Jumbo would just get a win but not get to hold it through the end of the tour. That, combined with the fact that Bockwinkel took so much of this, gave things a real sense of drama. This was certainly better than the title change and it might be my most favorite match of the series so far, even though I don't necessarily think it was the best. Bockwinkel controlled for the first eight minutes or so with headlocks and front face locks. He had more history as a title match wrestler and they were great headlocks. Watching this, you wanted Jumbo to try to toss him off just to see Bockwinkel grind down and sink to his knees. Really top notch stuff. He hit a pile driver between the headlock and the front facelock exchanges, but ultimately lost things by trying to go for a butterfly suplex. He needed Jumbo into the corner but lost the offense. He'd take back over quickly enough but then hit a clumsy but cool cross body off the top and Jumbo would take over after that. Bock was going out of his comfort zone with both moves, externally calm but internally roiling over having lost the title and he was paying for it. Jumbo would hit an errant pile driver here and go for a sleeper only to get driven into the corner (more there later). This led to the bit we were missing from the last match as Bockwinkel locked on a cobra twist only for Funk to somehow go sailing out of the ring, followed by him getting strung up in some rope running. Good. If you're going to have Funk, use him. It was right in the middle of the match, between chapters, like a palette cleaner. Jumbo would go for the butterfly, but get jammed, allowing Bock to get a crab attempt. Jumbo would toss him out with sheer strength and, after some back and forth, go for a sleeper again, only for Bock to chuck him out, starting the real King of the Mountain stuff. Two points here; one, when Bock was getting in a cheapshot from underneath, he'd follow it up (while being admonished by Funk) by selling his whole body as only he could really putting over what Jumbo had just done to him and the weight of the match and how desperate he'd been to get out of that spot; second, he used King of the Mountain in almost all of his matches and it was often used to cut off a hot babyface and keep control, but he used it at different points and in different ways. It always fit the match. Anyway, the King of the Mountain was really good here, with Bock continuing to go for it, suplexing Jumbo in once right on his head, and having Jumbo fire back into the ring another time. Before the last one, they both hit heads and then did a double punch which shifted gears towards more of a finishing stretch. The last KOTM had Jumbo get his leg stuck in the ropes and Bockwinkel just unload on it. This led to a figure four and both guys hitting the floor. Bockwinkel had clear control as the count was on, but at the very last second, as Bock was about to roll back in and win, Jumbo grabbed him so he couldn't make it in. It was a very dramatic, New Japan style finish that kept Jumbo the belt as they were both counted out. Very much a Bock match with Jumbo just needing to show fire and having the crowd behind him. Good stuff. Very excited for Hook eventually suplexing Big Bill. Women's match was best when it was focused on the characters at play though Willow has the ability to be anything needed at any moment. She's very credible. Ruby's timing remains excellent on things like ducked punches or the corner move. It's not like TayJay were bad in this either. I just liked it best when it was the characters front and center. I know they're a bit busy with Rayne and Skye but I'd like to see Willow/Ruby vs Bunny/Penelope too. Main event was good stuff and I thought Wardlow worked well in a vulnerable spot. It made him more interesting certainly and all of his offense felt earned and believable. Joe as the King (of television) Shark who constantly went after the leg, smug and dangerous, was great. I love that he's getting this late run when it seemed like it was all over for him. There was a wedge here to give this substance (like the wedge to help lift in Darby vs Joe is the size difference). Good show overall.

Nice how Claudio now has two moves that were a standard "Part of my moveset that I do in my matches" type of move for years, that are now finishing moves he has won matches with.

Tony needs to spring for "The Champ is Here" & get it for the one true King of Television. Just for the nostalgia and it would be such great dick move for this version of Joe.

Anyone who knows Rippa knows, he hates the Giants the most.

Mox/Claudio vs. Top Flight is the best Claudio has ever looked in AEW and it was totally dope and had a bunch of good ideas that worked. MotN by leaps n bounds on a show with a lot of good stuff. Less Claudio vs. Ex-WWE heels, more Claudio bullying young indy flippers. why do you think we liked him in the first place?

Max Caster, finding himself the most over member of the most over tag team, in a tag team focused company, has responded by working on his craft and improving his skills. A lot of wrestlers reach that level of over-ness and decide that they can coast on it. Your Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash types and that.

Current CMLL you can’t beat right now. It’s the best it’s ever been booked since the early 00’s. But a lot of people haven’t picked up on it because of the way the shows have been distributed, but people should give it a shot. They have quite a collection of future stars on their roster right now. Highlighted by a once in a generation lucha talent. I can’t recommend them enough if you need a weekly lucha fix.

Willow's got a lot more value to AEW in the short and long-term than Ruby does. Ruby's solid, but Willow can be something really special- I can see her being a future ace.

We're a great wrestling crowd out here in CO. We had a great time. My nephew hasn't seen much AEW and his new favorite team is Top Flight. We left after Dynamite and skipped Rampage as there's a blizzard. It took us over an hour to get home and normally it'd be 20 minutes.

I, for one, welcome this Tony Nese match. He can go. Danielson wants to press hard against wrestlers who can go.

As y'all know, I have seven kids, ranging from 28 years old to 16 months. Well, I have news. I now have a grandson! Felix Donovan was born yesterday in Florida. Can't wait to meet him! I'm a Grandpa! And my baby is now an Aunt! What a world.

Has to be Manhattan Center Hammerstein Ballroom had WWE, ECW, NWA and ROH world title changes, Grand Ballroom had ROH, TNA and MLW world title changes Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia had WWE title changes, plus WCW's title changing hands in 2001 (under WWE) and ECW's title changing hands in 2006 (under WWE)

Oh. My. God. First, this rematch is going to fucking rule. Second, I hope Darby spends the next seven days settling his affairs and saying his goodbyes.

i made some charts of AEW Dynamite and Rampage ratings (what can i say, i'm bored at work!). the pics aren't embedding, so i'm going to have to link them. numbers were taken from this site: https://www.itnwwe.com/wrestling/aew-ratings-viewership/ Dynamite: Rampage: what i'm taking from this is that overall, 2022 ratings are up. 2021 was much more chaotic, while 2022 has very much leveled a lot of those highs/lows. for better or for worse.

Malik Willis was on the phone with his agent, but he fumbled.

Caster spit hot fucking fire this week. Best his flow has ever been.

As a Bradley alumni, I insist they can have that Bloomington as well. Jackie Gleason or Uncle Miltie would work too. He has to have a smoking jacket somewhere...

She also isn't very good.

All the matches were great (excluding the squash), even if the Wardlow angle is totally weird. Really enjoy the ongoing elevations of Top Flight and Willow Nightengale. BCC-Top Flight was my MOTN, great to see the Martins go toe-to-toe and blow for blow in addition to their high flying offense. Meanwhile Mox and Claudio sell like champs while inflicting glorious wrestling violence. Claudio’s last uppercut was gnarly! Page and Bryan was solid, Page took a beating and Bryan gladly delivered. I hate the MJF in the skybox thing but it wasn’t nearly as bad as during the Mox buildup. The Regal Stretch (which I don’t think the announcers called) was a nice touch. One of these days Ruby will get some measure of revenge, right? I too assume this will setup another unsanctioned battle like last year, but with TayJay as the heels this time around. Hook and Jungle Jack are very popular with the fans, not so much with me. Main was a lot of BMMSM with a couple of big moves from Wardlow, well fought and laid out but the aftermath doesn’t make sense. Lastly, another classic Acclaimed music video, not only was Caster’s flow the best I’ve heard yet but it was a total ether job on Jarrett without one single falsehood.

Winning a round against Vince isn’t “beating” Vince. Vince beat Eric. WWF beat WCW, and it was all because of Starrcade. I know I know alot of other dumb stuff happened but they were just nails in the coffin. The coffin was Starrcade. I don’t even buy the “yeah but” concerning Sting being out of shape. Was Hogan in shape? Was ANY WCW champion since a young STING ever in shape? I wish Sting would have challenged Hogan to a lap around the building. It might have killed Hogan. I think I said that in the other 25 years thread. Heck not long after this the criteria for being champion was to be out of shape as Dean Malenko pointed out lol! So seriously, fuck Hogan. He ruined it. He ruined it all. It was the best build up to a match ever. Better than Hogan/Andre, better than Austin/HBK, and better than everything else. Hogan wussed out of doing business because he’s a chickenshit and a liar. And that’s really all there is to it.

They should do a beard v beard aspuetas match

Danielson requesting a match with Nese makes complete sense, since Nese says Danielson wanted to work with a lot of the 205 guys in WWE. He should be requesting all the fun lower-card guys he wants. TK will get him back around to the big matches when the moment calls (like, say, vs MJF at Revolution), meanwhile Danielson is partaking in something he finds rewarding. Edit: Tony, offer Danielson a match with Mascara Dorada for his birthday.

I first saw these two dudes live on the same night. CZW Cage of Death 6, I talk about it a lot but it was a formative show for me. Steen tagged with Generico vs. Excalibur & Super Dragon in the consensus match of the night (I mighta went Dutt vs. M-Dogg but what do I know) which was the follow-up to IWS's breakout summer in the states. Those were good times... Claudio was still Chris Hero's young boy and had showed up to help set up the ring. It was then I realized how BIG he was, and I hoped he was gonna wrestle that night. He totally didn't, it was a bummer. This match is a weird one! For the first ten minutes this winds up being an indieriffic silly one-cum-studio TV brawl where the meat of the match is Steen jawjacking with a hot, chirpy, drunk crowd + mid-match microphone work (from Claudio??). Eventually they have to start providing the wrestling match that everybody paid for, and y'know they're pretty really good at that and have a bit of chemistry. This is singles match #3 between the two, out of 19. In case you're counting. Seriously, this crowd is so drunk. An entire row of Labatt-soaked twentysomething CAW editors stand up and chant "FULL STEEN AHEAD" like it's clever. But they're the back row, and they aren't blocking anyone's view, so it's OK - so very Canadian. This match really really bodes well for these two guys' careers as Sports Entertainers because they coulda played this straight and went boomboomworkrate but they read the room and lead with their personalities instead of their moves. This is wishful thinking, but I hope the kids really do subscribe to Honor Club when ROH does their streaming TV thing and dabble in this universe. I hope Gen Z smart marks get around to their critical reassessment of 00's indie wrestling sooner than later, starting off with known quantities like Steen and Claudio and ending up in the weeds watching a bunch of Emil Sitoci and Chris Bosh and Jigsaw. We can only hope. Also, this venue gets run all the time, right? This is where Chikara used to run, where Chuck Taylor and Archibald Peck goofed on the big-ass paintings on the wall? Love this venue. Pops up on YouTube a lot and it's always a good sign.

Soooo, if there really is a chance that Punk returns, it has to be in LA to cost The Elite of their trios titles. That’s a license to print money if everyone will play nice.

Okay, found one: Joe Louis Arena NWA (via JCP) - Ron Garvin b Ric Flair 9/25/1987 WWF - The Undertaker b Hulk Hogan 11/27/1991 WCW - The Giant b Hulk Hogan (by DQ, retroactively) 10/29/1995

You'll never get past character creation in Code Vein and you'll still consider it money well spent

As far as non-Punk tidbits from Dax's podcast: He's been trying get Tony to book a singles match between himself and Moxley.

Well again - it is always about eyeballs on TV screens Dallas will always get the max number of Prime Time games allowed. They could go 0-17 and the next season still have max Prime Time games Last year - was I believe the first year in my life (or at least that I remember) that the Giants had no scheduled prime time games (outside of the required Thursday night game) I am biased since the team I love and the team I hate are both in the NFC East but I would rather watch them then the parade of AFC South games you frequently have to suffer through

At least to me it seems like they’re setting up some sort of hair vs title gimmick match for Wardlow and Samoa Joe or something like that. Darby/Joe 2 is just a stop gap since they’re in Seattle next week and that’s where Darby is from.

In the early 90's, when I was obsessed with this wrestling RPG I made, the Holiday PPV's were XMas Smash and New Year's Explosion, so I find the name of this show funny in that regard. Bryan vs Ethan was very good. The BCC vs Top Flight got very exciting by the end. I'm shocked that we're getting a seventh match in a best of seven series, but PAC got extremely close to making that not happen. All of the matches have been very different, but it is definitely time to get some other teams involved in the trios title picture. Tay Jay AS stole the win, but honestly, Aubrey should have just let Anna hit Willow with the chair and DQ her Jay-A-S-S. Grabbing the chair ended up being pretty bad officiating on her part. Jesus, OC's even handing out title shots to his friends now, he just doesn't care! Man, what a fighting champion! The idea of Jungle Boy and Hook teaming up is tickling! When they get done with the firm, they could add Action Andretti and go for the trios titles, too! Joe with a huge win. Will Wardlow be going with a more Goldbergian/Rybackish-look from now on? I would have kept the Roman Reigns-esque longer hair look, but I'm sure there's a section of fans that holds that against him. I guess Joe was amongst them, too? Darby needs to remember what went wrong the last time and not make those same mistakes with Joe this time around. Oh, and the normal commercial breaks were back for the intl feed, so that gift didn't keep on giving. Well, nice while it lasted.

That whole MJF in the sky box thing was kinda weird. Didn't go anywhere and he had a random woman with him who wasn't named or really acknowledged, are they trying to do a Flair gimmick with him? Women and expensive champagne?

Just in case you were wondering.. Ringside News on Instagram: “#MJF's mystery woman is Daddi Doom #aewdynamite”

Considering I was getting crap for being too negative here, I thought tonight's show was very good. I think everything really worked and ran smoothly tonight from a booking and in-ring standpoint. Loved that The Acclaimed had a new insult rap video. I think making Joe assaulting Wardlow the running storyline throughout the show was a good choice. Like it felt they were actually building the main event throughout the whole show. Tonight's show just felt like a more cohesive wrestling show if that makes any sense. Everyone seemed to maximize their air time. Moxley and Claudio vs. Top Flight was a lot of fun, and Claudio is really good and connected with the fans. Danielson vs. Ethan Page was also a great match. Like a good show up and down tonight. Personally, I wouldn't have Wardlow lose to Joe like this at this point in his career. But at least they made it more of a circumstance of Joe sneak attacking Wardlow and softening him up earlier in the night, and Wardlow playing the valiant, yet stupid, babyface role by going forth with the match anyway despite the attack ala Sting vs. Rick Rude at Clash of the Champions. I'm concerned if they can rebuild Wardlow after this, but we shall see. I like Joe and everything, but if you are sacrificing Wardlow at the cost of simply building up Joe more, it's not a price that I think is worth it. But we'll see how it plays out.

Great show! RIP Wardlow's man bun and Darius Martin's shoulder. Good to see that the booking is nearly back to form following all of the drama. I was surprised that Ruby ate the pin in the women's tag. I am happy to see that Willow Nightingale is not just the worker that jobs anymore. There needs to be satisfying revenge, tho, preferably in a weapons match with No DQ. Joe's reign as King of Television must last for the next three to four hundred days at the bare minimum. I am happy that the Trios journey through pain and madness will go to a seventh and decisive match, but can Death Triangle kill The Elite already? Jungle Jack Perry and Hook are mad over. Can we get some tag matches now, please? Any card where Ethan Page is comatose on the mat blowing bubbles out of his mouth is alright by me.

This uppercut.

I just wanted to point out how much fun that episode was with such a hot crowd. They were into everything. Dueling Danielson / Ethan Page chants. Losing it during Top Flight vs Combat Club. Loud Ruby chants. Loving the Trios Match. More audiences like this please.

Samoa Joe, King of Wrestling. Samoa Joe rejuvenating both the TNT Championship and the ROH World Television Championship.

VPW2 has the best flow for tag team matches. You can do an hour broadway and not be pulling punches on the CPU to get them to cooperate. You can manually do doomsday device double teams. The dives are awesome and you can go diagonally. Submissions off. They always suck. Me and Tenryu went through everybody on that game. Fucking great game. ASPW III has the best looking blood. Weird grappling system. Never could get the Tiger suplex from the ramp to the floor to work. My only real gripe with KOC II is the limited and overall shitty head choices. You also have to really pinch the tip to get a solid match from the CPU. The striking is just as exploitable as FPW. Also, there's only one arena that doesn't have slowdown on tag matches. Me and Jun Akiyama still have legendary beef. Multiple appearances, multiple movesets: any game still do that? I could have my main look, then me in Hart Foundation gear with 5MOD and Bulldog stalling suplex, then my faux Super Junior version from SFPWX PREMIUM in 2003. HCTP had insanely robust wrestler appearance options. I remember many moons ago printing out big 5 page detailed coordinates for a Big Boss Man and when I was done it looked fucking amazing. It wasn't ultra limited to keep you from making naked people and other babyproofing bullshit. I played WWF 2022 and the create a wrestler was a sucky ballache. It didn't even let me pick my moves. Gameplay was feeling like a bag o' assholes. A bag of assholes that had gone bad. Like, I'm googling "WWE 2K22 how do i get up". NOT OK. HCTP had Poetry in Motion too. Problem was everybody got so gotdamn good at the reversals that head to head matches was just dudes spinning around 'til one guy lost concentration. I also remember there being a Y2J kick that had high cheese factor. Shit sucks. I ain't wanted to make funny CAWs like Vigo and Brock Sampson in over 15 years. Shit used to be great and you'd be doing 4 player 100 man royal rumbles on No Mercy and some dude's dad would run out and he had legit "AW SHIT" credibility where you don't know what you did but he was really hard to beat. On Fire Pro World I really hate how you have to fuck around manually placing any downloaded wrestlers. Also seems like most shit nowadays requires you to have a bunch of mods first. I don't want to fuck around with it even if it's easy. Just don't care. FP2 on GBA is still the greatest one they did.

Max Caster said that the line "Worst Jeffrey since Dahmer" was changed. Originally it mentioned a different Jeffrey.

Some of the best on the scene right now. Check out the video clip in this tweet for some highlights of their stuff, especially Komander. The First Ave crowd should love what they do.

I’m not saying she’s the GOAT, my vote is Hokuto, I just disagree with your reasons for disqualifying her. Wrestling is a silly thing to get into fights about, so I’m willing to leave it there, as a difference in opinion

Sting's entrance at WCW Starrcade 1997 is one of the best in wrestling history. I really liked that bodysuit, Sting wore it for another month then replaced it with the long singlet attire he's sported since February 1998 with a few exceptions.