Leaderboard

Listen, there's no way this company is ever going to get any better. It's downhill from here and I don't see how this isn't a ship worth abandoning. The chase with Kawada was acceptable, I guess. From the unmasking, to the Tag League win, to the failed challenges and everything else, it made enough sense. But now you've had Kawada bury your top gaijin just so his title reign can be part of the same chase they've been running since 1989 at least, and here he is trying to get his heat back after dropping the fall to Misawa like an absolute idiot in front of a crowd that frankly deserved better. I don't care if he gets the pin in this big tag match coming up. It's more proof that Inoki is the only person that understands this market (well, Inoki and me) and if AJPW thinks they can make a killing out of filling up Sumo Hall with the same old marks every month I'll eat my fiddle. But I think I'll be playing it while the company burns. There's also NO reason to assume that Tsuruta is ever going to rise up the card again. He's slumming it with Momota and Eigen and I have to wonder if there isn't some underlying health or political factor that no-talent Giant Baba jerk is keeping from us. Speaking of which! I'm not a doctor but I was able to call the death of my grandmother to the week and I'm pretty sure ol' Shohei and his stupid-looking gigantism isn't making it out of the decade. And what will happen to the company then? Nothing good. Nothing that the real power-brokers - the TV company - wants to deal with. Just abandon ship now. It's a pathetic farce. The gaijin will stop signing up once Motoko runs out of geisha makeup to put on for them. Taue isn't a star no matter how hard this stupid company keeps trying. They'll never make me or anyone else care about any junior heavyweight. God forbid they ever try to book a shooter. I guarantee they'll try to run the Tokyo Dome in the next few years and never follow up on it. It is June 1995 and I am the stupidest asshole in the world and I'm going to call this post out for false equivalency when the real intent is pointing out how miserable doomsaying is and how great pro-wrestling can persist beyond problems big or small. So you should all just stop watching this and pretty much everything else right now. Not me, though, I gotta keep hating or I'd be out of a hobby.

We know we’re getting Forbidden Door 2 eventually. We know the video game is getting released soon enough. We didn’t know we were getting this. I like this announcement more.

The AEW Cycle 1. AEW puts on a long streak of very good Dynamite episodes and/or PPVs. 2. One bad episode of Dynamite happens 3. The entire world thinks that AEW is and always has been horrible and will be dead in months 4. AEW puts on a great Dynamite or PPV, repeat Step One. Pretty much everything clicked for me. Excellent, excellent crowd. Opener ruled, was CHIKARA as fuck and told an entire, proper three-act story. The Acclaimed have lost zero heat. Jericho seemed as locked-in on his promo as I've seen him in awhile and the pen pop was lovely. Saraya actually looked fine and none of the work or story stuff was janky when I was certain it would be. AEW battle royals hit me in the half-modern half-territorial funny bone and I am all about the Bree Woo Order, assuming JJ didn't tear a hamstring. I'll gripe about the MJF promo later but heat is heat. And as somebody who's been watching Uno do his thing since the IWS days, man I love seeing supporting dudes like him get their Big Featured Episode. Dread, pathos, also EWW. You get the idea that the locker room was taking things to heart tonight and everybody looked like they were busting their ass. Hope the crowd wasn't burned out for Rampage.

AEW is coming back to Austin on May 17th, this time at a new venue. The Moody Center is right in the middle of Austin, on the edge of the UT campus; school will be out which means easier parking but less potential for student sales. I just saw Springsteen there and the beer prices are much higher than the Cedar Park Center, BUT I won't have to drive 25 miles and spend $20 in tolls to get there in time for the Dark taping.

FUCKING AWESOME!

JANE! YUTA! Well, THIS is awesome. I LOVE the Lucha mat work. Claudio comes out and presses Wheeler Yuta's DICK button! Cassidy is so fucking awesome- showing the wrestling world how to take an ass beating. Cassidy makes a comeback by be-pocketing his hands. Yuta is AEWSOME beating on OC to counter his mindgames. SWEET BRAINBUSTER! Deuling German Suplexes! MOUSE TRAP! SPITTING! ROARING ELBOWS! This match is fucking great! Diving DDT to the floor! Another DDT! YUTA WITH A LAWLER PILEDRIVER! Fun nearfalls! GREAT FINISH! Man! That was fucking GREAT. Claudio is FUCKING AWESOME squelching the postmatch indie hug! Evil Uno is suddenly compelling. Ricky Starks is over Chris Jericho! CHRIS JERICHO! Jericho vs Starks will be good. Lee Moriarty and Big Bill! The Acclaimed are OVER in PHOENIX! Max with the Yo Momma joke! Big Bill and Moriarty are a bowling ball of knives in picture in picture. Max is our face in peril and Lee and Bill are fun heels. BILL HAS AN EROTIC MOMENT! Anthiny Bowen is AWESOME after the hot tag. THE ASS BOYS! BEATING ON THEIR OLD MAN! RUNNING AROUND! BIG BILL GETS POSTED! BOWEN AND MORIARTY TAKE IT TO THE MAT! ELBOW FROM THE TOP BY CASTER! THE CROWD FREAKS OUT! They go all Bill Watts with Christian Cage. Saraya is limited but they make up for it by having Toni Storm demolish Skye Blue on the floor. Skye Blue looks good in this. Cool submission by Saraya. Jamie Hayter and Britt Baker turn babyface! Ruby Soho stays a tweener- not that kind of tweener, but a between TEAM HAYTER and TEAM SARAYA, wanting a match with Hayter! Bryan Danielson is OVER in Phoenix. Phoenix is the wrestling capital of the world. MJF does the Flair versus Family Man Ricky Steamboat! DRAGON! Well, THAT was intense. OH GEEZ! A battle Royal! CAMEO BY MARK BRISCOE! YAY! MORE MARK VERSUS JOSH WOODS! Johnny Hungee does a Stalling Vertical Suplex during picture in picture! Awww, Aussie Open is eliminated. I hope they have a match with Top Flight before they head back to wherever they are going. OH MAN, AUSSIE OPEN vs THE YOUNG BUCKS should be good! Jay LEthal and Double J have a quick clinic on who throws the best punches. THE FINISH! PEE! GORDLOW! PEE! PEE! GORDLOW! PEE! So fucking Memphis. I love that they are setting up a non-workrate, old school heat tagteam four way. Daddy Magic and Cool Hand Ange have to win next week. I assume there will be a lot of blood in this MOX/ Evil Uno match. EVIL UNO is FUCKING AWESOME in this! This is like the Emi Sakura vs Jamie Hayter. GREAT PILEDRIVER! GREAT PILEDRIVER! EVIL UNO IS ALSO BLEEDING LIKE A STUCK PIG! This match is fucking GREAT. EVIL UNO IS AWESOME! POSTMATCH! HANGMAN! MOX BLEEDS! FUCKING AWESOME! JESUS CHRIST! AEW RULES THE ENTIRE MOTHERFUCKING WORLD! JESUS!

"Hey, do we know anybody who could host our All-Access show?"

Really liked tonight's show! OC and Yuta had a really fun opener. Platinum Max dropped some bars tonight! Thought Jericho did a great job with his promo and the PEN CLICK Battle Royale was pretty good. Great to see Aussie Open back! And don't kill me but I'm a fan of Double J in AEW Mox and Uno served its purpose quite well. Uno gamely hung with Mox. Loved the hot ending to the show. Another super fun 2 hours of pro wres!

Oh shit, can we get 15 minutes a week on All Access of Takeshita assimilating to life in the US and eating crazy shit? Because I’m big time game for that. Lots of possibilities with this. Give me crazy shit like a Powerhouse Hobbs / Austin Gunn buddy cop storyline.

How is anyone at this point still arguing against Roman Reigns being anything but an absolutely elite performer? Like what Phil Schneider wrote for The Ringer -- he has some of the best timing in wrestling history. He's so good at knowing when to cut off the heel, how to build momentum, when to trash talk, etc. And man his "YES! YES! NO! NO! NO!" kickouts are a work of art. I loved that dude from the first time The Shield wrecked Ryback and made him their chew-toy. I never understood the "ROMAN SUCKS HE IS GETTING PUSHED DOWN OUR THROATZ" stuff because he was the definition of getting over organically when he was in The Shield. People were bugging for him that one year in the Rumble when he was tossing dudes. Roman started out as really friggin' good and is incredible. Sami and Jey deserve every last second of credit they have been getting for this masterpiece. But man Roman is just the ultimate villain with his bullying and gaslighting and dickishness. Phil wrote this in the article but I thought it was so true - Roman telling another man's wife "I wanted to provide for your family" while beating up her husband right in front of her eyes is so fucking evil.

On MJF - I don't like it. The suicide stuff has no place in a form of entertainment that's otherwise so escapist, and in one that has had so many tragedies of a similar nature. Significant portions of that locker room were and still are affected by Sweeney, Daffney, Hana, Kanyon, Benoit, etc. Being the embodiment of every Type B Personality Disorder is not the edgy, modern gimmick the world needs. Histrionic narcissism and violent, rejection-based dysphoria are fun when used in very broad strokes to define a heel, but this isn't that. I haven't felt comfortable sharing this theory in public, but if this is the way they want to present this than I feel better about wondering it aloud - Given the "realness" of MJF's ADD stories and promo against William Regal, I think MJF's no-show / tanking of the Wardlow match could have been a legitimate mental health incident that the company covered for / kayfabed. I think the awkward amount of time between the stretcher job and the devil mask comeback could have been to make time for a mental health break. I take no joy in speculating on this, I just see patterns. I understand you're supposed to use your personal experiences to cut better promos but a lot of people don't realize theater isn't therapy. It's not mentally healthy for the performer to have their struggles applauded for being a viable storytelling device. I'd like to be wrong about this and feel icky for sharing my thoughts, but they're running this stuff on TV.

He's Abdullah by now. Just accept it. #itrules

FUCKIN PILEDRIVERS!

That was a very fun episode, and I was glad to spend it with the homeys on the Discord. Evil Uno is welcome to spill his blood in the tradition of los Brazos cause it's worthy of a fellow fatboy with a mask, especially when he has such a great piledriver. You can replay Yuter vs. Orange ALL the time, EVERY time. We also need Jarrett/Sonjay/Satnam vs. Dalton/Orange/...it could be one of the Boys but I wanna say Trent? That would be dope as hell. Really you could post in anyone. Pick a Dark Order guy or one of the Boys, give them some time. Taz: "The positioning of the body" hahaha. Also he called Danhausen "Danstein", because of course he did because it's Taz. The battle royale with tag team rules was perfectly stupid but still ended up great because of dumb-ass shenanigans, Sonjay being completely insane the entire time, Satnam being an awesome giant, and Jarrett (am I saying this?!) being a great heel. There you go; my giving-up of Lent for this year.

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/aew-unscripted-series-all-access-tbs-1235532290/ Um, it does?

Pretty much everything was good to great. Battle royal dragged in the middle, but the finishing stretch was fantastic. Satnam continues to look like the coolest motherfucker around and showed an impressive motor getting from one side of the ring to the other to save both Lethal and Jarrett. Loving bully Saraya. I spent the last 3 days watching H2O and ICW cards and I don't think anyone hit as good a gusher as Uno did tonight. Cole's hair was majestic. Less good was the MJF-Danielson segment, this whole feud has been pretty bad....but I literally just forgot about that whole segment until now, so great show!

Scans were encouraging. Spots on my lungs are slightly smaller. No growth or new spots/tumors/nodules. No further spread. Chemo is over, I’ve going to go in once every three weeks for the next two years for Immunotherapy. Only takes 30-40 minutes, but the oncologist is in another state two hours away. My choice. We live in a college town with a well-respected cancer center as part of the university hospital, but when I was first diagnosed nine years ago, we decided to go out of state. Local docs wanted to simply remove my right lung. Doc we went with removed 2 lobes of right lung, but saved part of it. It’s much easier to live a mostly normal life with 1.5 lungs than it is with 1.0. Fun fact: the surgery to remove an entire lung is fairly straightforward compared to the surgery to cut out part of a lung. Removing the lung would have taken two hours. Removing half my lung took almost 14 hours. And then I started chemo. Anyway, situation looks to be improving, I’m not expecting too much from the future, so we’ll see where this goes.

Calling him out on Twitter was stupid, cringey, immature, childish, and makes him look thin-skinned. Tony Khan has way more important things to worry about than Ariel Helwani's perceived journalistic integrity.

Not much crossover appeal this week. I was really disappointed by the Danielson/Uno match in the build up to the Page matches a year+ ago. Uno is a goof but the character and the man both have something to prove. Hopefully he takes Mox to the limit and then Mox takes him to the limit and pushes him way, way past it in the most bloody, horrific way possible. This shouldn't just be a twelve minute, "get some stuff in" match. Cassidy vs Yuta came up too abruptly and I think the real story was always Trent vs Yuta, but at the same time, there's not a real story because it was all subtext and little comments. If you pay attention and care about that stuff, you get a lot out of AEW. Other than BTE, I do, so this one matters. My gut says that Yuta will get too cute with it instead of elbow Cassidy in the skull repeatedly, but we'll see. Ideally, Cassidy just uses sunglasses judo and turns all of Yuta's anger against him. Saraya vs Skye is not nearly as interesting as Hayter or Storm vs Skye. My master plan had Rayne turning on Skye but I don't think they do it so close to the PPV. I honestly don't think Saraya wants to get as hard as Skye often does so we'll see what we get here. Battle Royal is interesting to see who RUSH and Jarrett brush up against. Maybe each other! It's a rare chance to see Vance against Reynolds/Silver (as that was never paid off). Aussie Open is something different at least. Acclaimed vs Moriarty/Bill is one of those matches where you can shut your eyes and basically lay the whole thing out yourself, but I bet Moriarty/Bowens will match up really well together.

Eh, Skye did all the work

Stupid embedding not working.

Dude ... scroll up the fucking page, for God's sake.

Also, props to Yuta for getting the gum to stick to OC's forehead. On Ash Wednesday, no less.

Uno spotlight was everything I hoped it would be. Battle royale was real bad even by battle royale standards but at least Aussie Open got dumped quick. Feel kinda like Jarrett and Lethal has no business winning since we've already seen them against the Acclaimed a bunch. I absolutely loved Orange vs Wheeler. They should do it again at the ppv with Yuta going over. This is the kind of program I wish they did more of where it's two relatively young guys with not much WWE or NJPW connection working their asses off. It's not the "homegrown" aspect for me, it's the "I don't watch PWG so this is essentially news to me" aspect. I have complained multiple times about how as much as I love Danielson I don't see him (on paper) as an exciting ppv opponent for MJF but the promos and pull apart tonight were great and got me into this feud. Very good long build with this one. Ricky Starks tricking a heel he's already pinned clean once into agreeing to wrestle him again is a weird move for a babyface. Hopefully Jericho isn't "getting his win back" at the ppv. Eddie beating Jericho at the ppv last year then losing to him in the barbed wire match really took the steam out of Eddie's push, and you definitely don't want to hurt Starks when he's this hot and for all intents and purposes one of the very very few guys they should be considering putting the belt on after MJF. I thought tonight's show was great. Putting a lot of the big names in talking segments instead of matches probably hurt ratings but it meant I got to see some fresher matches, and now that they're running house shows it probably doesn't hurt to have underlings like Yuta, Moriarty and Uno get featured more on Dynamite since they're more likely to be on house show cards than a lot of the top guys.

I forget how good Saraya is at playing a hateful heel. And Toni does a great job hanging with her.

That is a FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC final shot. Mox is gonna want that as the photocap of his entire career. I of course have no problem with multiple people blading during the show, but my argument is that is was necessary in ever single place, yet didn't go far enough for Jack. Maybe you could have held off on it instead, but if it's gonna be big make it big. The cool thing is that they almost turned him heel and managed to turn the heat back to Christian.

Young Bucks vs. Aussie Open on AEW Rampage!

I give Evil Uno a .89 Ruby.

The strutting and stroking will continue until morale improves!

I did like the crowd reaction to MJF. He's tried to pull the sob story a few times and it did get people on his side for a minute (these were masterful when he was feuding with Punk) but he's officially in boy who cried wolf territory and the crowd just wasn't having it. Someone's gonna get their fucking head kicked in. Hell of a gusher from Uno there..... Stoked for House of Black/Elite but felt like they were going toward Kingston and Malakai for a minute there. Match should be a banger though... AS WILL BUCKS/AUSSIE OPEN This Ruby/Jamie/Britt/Saraya drama is totally the best storytelling this women's division ever had.

Yeah I think the secret is just making the guys crowds aren't digging heels, and the ones they are faces. Roman's heel character work is great, but his match formula is a bit tiresome. The Sami match was the exact same as the Logan Paul match, which wasn't any different than his matches with KO 2 years ago. I think my favorite Roman match from his title run was the LMS with Brock, because both of their gravitational match formulas were so strong they both warped into doing something a little different. I think what was really missing from the Sami match was a complete Jey turn. It would've been predictable, but with enough teasing, it could've been a sufficient gut punch that doesn't derail plans and keeps the story hot. KO/Sami get their moment by taking the belts off the Usos in the Night 1 main, then you can go any number of directions with Roman/Cody in Night 2, but everyone is mostly satisfied in that scenario.

People were hating on the push he was going to get while he was injured and not even getting it yet. Some of his return was silly with the writing for him but I think the “Roman Sucks” thing he was getting while he was on the shelf was so phony from a segment of the audience that wants to shit on everything even if it’s stuff they liked six months earlier. Thank god the WWE audience changed. I am not sure how (maybe the cool kids moved to AEW) but people are reacting to what they see now. Dom Guerrero is getting actual heel heat and is being received well for being such a cowardly slimeball.

Tony's purchased WWE, simulcast with Vince and Bruce at a steakhouse. Can't be anything else.

Saraya/Skye storywise has some potential depending on where they really want to go with all this. Like, if Saraya and Storm do a beatdown and try to paint an L on Skye, do Hayter and Baker save her as an AEW original, or ignore her because she's still low-card? Ruby and Skye have a little history as a tag-team, so what if it's Ruby who comes out to save her and then points out that Hayter and Britt left her cold? I think there is a lot of story potential with Ruby, Willow, Skye, and some others saying "hey, Britt and Jayme, it wasn't that long ago that you were cheating and double-teaming us and now you want us on your side? Screw all y'all"

Has there ever been a better wrestling match, where one competitor was 28 years older than the other? I can't think of one.

currently watching the 2/19/1988 Prime Time Wrestling where they air the Main Event Hogan/Andre match, with my cousin becoming distraught that Hogan lost, Hogan launching Earl Hebner into the aisle in an insane spot, Hogan's postmatch promo that's like an crazy person calling a sports talk radio station after their team lost a big game, and the original WMIV brackets (where Dibiase/Duggan are in the same quad as Bam Bam/One Man Gang) Also the less remembered Dibiase promo where he accused Hogan of paying off a fake Dave Hebner to sow confusion. The first match of this show? Barry Horowitz and Steve Lombardi take on Scott Casey and Lanny Poffo. An amazing jobbermania matchup. Edit: huge upset finish because (1) Casey/Poffo lost, (2) Poffo didn't take the fall, (3) Steve Lombardi pinned Scott Casey. Edit2: Omar Atlas and Brady Boone vs The Conquistadors! Man, they're unleashing all the huge matches for this episode. GORILLA: "We're going to the Chicken capital of the United States right now, what am I referring to?" BOBBY: "Hogan's home town?"

So this happened. (spoiler pic from Quantumania) [I am Katie Beazler in case you weren't keep track.]

Don’t know why you decided to share a classic babyface promo with me, but I appreciate it.

“I’m not a wrestling journalist.” One month earlier… In fairness, “Nick Khan’s mouthpiece” is probably a more accurate description of his role as it pertains to WWE.

This is great. Claudio was the superstar of the evening.

When Mox bleeds.

"FIND your inner DICK!"

Oh yeah! We also talked about how cool the women's division would be if Rosa wasn't stuck on commentary and Statlander wasn't out injured, and I brought out how Saraya is now Cibernetico. My non-apologies for the latter. Still, they have a super division now, except the lack of one Allie Catch...

Chris Jericho bringing back the pen click from the List of Jericho!

I would say that the first Shield/Wyatts match was my all-time favorite match until Sami/Roman. It's been a minute since I watched The Rhodes Family versus The Shield (it was Roman/Rollins) but I remember raving about that at the time. I actually liked Cody in this role a lot (and as "Dashing" Cody Rhodes) and if I am remembering his pre-match promo correctly it was probably the template for who he is now. I am going to write those matches up if I have time.

Does that include, as The Shield? Because I mean we all like what we like, but to me Shield/Wyatts and Shield/Rhodes’s are pretty ubiquitously awesome. This is opposed to the singles stuff from any of the three, of which I can poke holes in all at some point.

Negro Casas is 28 years older than RUSH.

Billie is going to be a great addition to ROH. We all know it’s coming when they announce the roster finally. She pulled out of indie dates this weekend to be at the first taping.

Mutoh's doctors at the Mayo Clinic should be in all the wrestling halls of fame.

Haven’t been on the site for a couple months, so probably a good time for an update. Still have stage 4 lung cancer. Finished my fourth round of chemo on Jan 31. On Tuesday, I go in for a scan then meet with my oncologist. If the scans look good, I am done with chemo for the time being and will continue on with immunotherapy (Keytruda) every three weeks. If something alarming shows up on the scan, we will continue with chemotherapy. Scans I had done six weeks ago looked encouraging, so my oncologist isn’t expecting to order more chemo for me, but it all depends on how Tuesday morning goes. I’ll probably end up going in every three weeks for Keytruda for the next two years, but Keytruda doesn’t have the severe side effects chemo does. Survived four rounds of chemo so far. First two rounds were tolerable and I was able to keep going to my office and doing a little bit around the house. I was zonked out for a couple days but bounced back reasonably well. Third and fourth rounds just kicked my ass. Not only tired, but fatigued. Deep, all-consuming fatigue. Driving tired me out. Standing tired me out. I stayed home and slept more. I’ve been constantly tired the past few months, which I can handle, but the fatigue is something else. Even thinking about doing something takes so much effort. Nausea hasn’t been too bad. They have decent drugs for that now. I’ve lost very little weight. Had some bad go-rounds with muscle aches, but those bouts were few and far-between. Hicupped for almost two days straight at the beginning. Side effect of the steroid I am on for my immune system. Had to take something for that too. Family and friends have been great. People constantly offer to do things for me, give me rides, bring me food. I turned everyone down almost every single time. I have done tons of stuff I had no energy for but did it anyway. Drove myself to work, went to birthday parties, did chores around the house. People keep asking me if I’m up to this stuff and I want to scream at them “are you insane? I may collapse with one more step.”. I can understand why people stay in and curl up and wait for chemo to be over, but it’s not me. There will be plenty of time later for friends and family to figure out what life looks like without me around. No one needs a preview now. I am determined to hobble through this best I can. I am very much my father’s son, lol. Stayed caught up at work better than I hoped. I have good people who rose to the occasion and covered my slack. I don’t have the sort of job where I can just take time off or get a replacement. And…. We all care about the company. Obviously, I don’t have a lot of young people working for me, lol. Made partner. We’ve been talking about that for while with very little being done, but either someone finally lit a partner under the partnership's collective ass or, more likely, they.’re trying to see to it that my wife is comfortable financially after….. I have that taken care of, I think, but I appreciate the gesture. Also, we are very profitable these days. I’m hoping we grow large enough to attract the attention of one of the mega corps in our field snd they buy us up and make most everyone in the place damn wealthy. That.’s my goal from here on in: get us bought out before something happens to me. I’ve always been goal-oriented, so trying to race ahead of deadlines is old hat to me. Ok, enough for now. Getting tired and wife wants to watch a movie.