Leaderboard

It's a little known fact that pumpkins ripen from the bottom up. Shida's mistake was that she hit the pumpkin too high. Shida! Shida! Next time hit the... gourd low.

AEW is returning to Minneapolis (quake-less…) and I’ve waited to buy tickets. So far they’ve drop enough I’m saving 30 bucks or so.

Punk is the extra MJF Devil. Everything has been a work.

Along with an audio team... And I'll do the favors this time GODDAMMIT GORDI!!!

I’m kind of tired of the McMahonization of play by play. You know, where actually calling moves is too “pro rasslin’.” Instead, the impact of a move is called. Like it’s not a brain buster. It’s “Kenny got dropped right on his head.” Excalibur used to call actual moves most of the time. Now it’s 50/50 and I assume he learned that from working with JR. This is a Kayfabe sport and the moves being done matter. Imagine boxing where every strike is just called a “punch.” No hooks or uppercuts, just punches or “X got hit with that one!” Imagine football where the QB lines up in shotgun and it’s called as “the thrower is a few feet behind the guy who hikes it!” Fuck all that. Anyway, that shit was so glaring during the main event. Hell no. I want nerds out there calling actual moves by their names. All that said, I don’t think Schiavone is guilty of this. I legit think he can’t remember the names of moves. He’s so much better as a color commentator old head who is just delighted with the current state of wrestling. He didn’t call the Made in Japan despite being in the booth on Dynamite for Penta doing it and Excalibur calling it in every match. He said it was “like a Blue Thunder Bomb!” I’m just saying this shit matters. Calling actual wrestling moves means something. One more thing. I did legit lol when crusty old JR went dead silent with disapproval when MJF hit the kangaroo kick, to the point where one of the other announcers called him out. What a joyless old schmuck he is.

I went to the live Suspiria scoring a few years ago and it was awesome. That’s a fun movie to watch in a drunk crowd

It might be alright for world's end because its after christmas and tickets to a PPV are an easy christmas/other holiday gift. Also "Take the kids out saturday night so Grandma looks after the kids for New Years Eve"

How has nobody mentioned Shida's Ada Wong dress? Am I the only Resident Evil nerd around here?

I think it's the evolution of being able to see wrestling where I lived when it was such a scarce commodity forever. Going to my first local show at the Essendon Ukranian Club in 1999 to interview one of the headliners for a wrestling newz website, who told me and my friend flat out that he'd never go to the Big 3 because he saw it as selling out. He later ended up wrestling on a WWA PPV and feeling lied to but also not convinced he ever got paid. Anyway, it was a terrible show from top to bottom. Then we got an overseas show at Rod Laver Arena. The original Superstars of Wrestling PPV (Rodman/Hennig) and it was probably better than it had any right to be. Then we got WCW Thunder - again, a really good show that had no right to be that good, even if the main event is just a tribute act to the 94 Rumble. Fun times. Then WWE finally toured in 2002. I remember covering the press conference to announce the show - Vince, Mark Henry and Stacy Keibler were there. I opened a door for Vince and got a "thanks, pal" and I've never forgot it. The night before the show I did a 10 hour shift packing gift bags to get a free ticket to the VIP function before the show. I gave it to my uncle as a birthday present, which he then used the opportunity to pick a fight with Rikishi for a wet fish handshake and get asked to leave after making inappropriate comments to Torrie Wilson. Good choice by me. Show was....so/so. Had a good opener (Rey/Kidman vs WGTT) and Edge/Jericho was fun. The main event was something to see. Then getting to go to the US in 2017 for Wrestlemania weekend. Still remember the thousands of people meeting in downtown Orlando, and walking to the stadium in the stinking hot weather. I remember the 20 odd beers completely being sweat out in the two mile walk. I remember going to Hogan's Beach House for karaoke, getting drunk, and deciding I was going to slam his 900 pound sign on the side of the freeway, not being able to dislodge it from the concrete and tearing every muscle in my back, before the sign died a few days later. I remember Swerve Strickland before he was Swerve at a CZW show. I remember having a conversation with two old guys in the lobby at intermission.....and not even realising it was the remains of Kevin Sullivan and Shane Douglas. I remember Brandi Rhodes having a death match with....I think Ryback and it was really good? I remember Zack Sabre Jr and Quackenbush having an absolute epic match unannounced at Chikara and it being the best match I've ever seen live.

I caught Claudio Simonetti's Goblin doing a live score with a screening of Lamberto Bava's DEMONS (1985) and if you are remotely a fan of either that movie or Goblin's classic soundtracks, definitely try to get out to any of the remaining tour dates if they are near you. He has surrounded himself with incredible musicians in this current incarnation of the group, and on top of that, DEMONS is just a great old time to see with a live audience anyway. A couple of interesting live composition substitutions too for the actual heavy metal songs on the soundtrack, including subbing out Accept's "Fast as A Shark" for an incredibly killer live instrumental cover of Iron Maiden's "Flash of the Blade" (a fun easter egg for fans of Dario Argento's PHENOMENA) with keyboards taking the place of Bruce Dickinson's vocals.

I love Wiki editors:

The Dallas/LA Rams game ended in Scorigami 43-20

Well, I already did this once about 2 minutes ago, and then fat-fingered the list away. That's what I get for insisting on italicizing things. Should be quick, though. No particular order: Seven Samurai Ikiru Pulp Fiction The Big Lebowski The Piano Do the Right Thing Videodrome Amelie Children of Men Pan's Labyrinth Blade Runner Alien Insomnia (1997) Godzilla (1954) Lawrence of Arabia In the Mood for Love Being There Citizen Kane 8 1/2 Secrets & Lies More than a little front-loaded on modern stuff, probably super obvious and crusty, more than a few honorable mentions to what I have seen out of Ozu and Scorsese and Villeneuve, but yeah. Bolded the ones I have talked about. I also have massive, John Ford- and Bergman-sized holes in my viewing. The latter is particularly bad since I still have the Criterion box set sitting here unopened. First ones out if I changed it would probably be, I dunno, Blade Runner, since there have been 80 different versions and I don't even entirely like the choices made in the Final Cut, and Insomnia. I could just as easily flip them for Late Spring or The Lighthouse or Drive My Car.

He was one of DA BALDIES

Wasn't he in the F.B.I.?

There is not a defensive back on earth who has a chance against AJ Brown.

All true, but Wrestling requires a bit of open mindedness at the best of times. Omega v MJF was easily both coherent/resonant and physically exciting/compelling. It was a beautifully worked match showcasing a pair of hard working and wide ranging skillsets. The idea that this wasn't on a scale of 'really good to special' feels incredibly narrow-minded, and best saved for those with delusional personal hate for one or both of the performers. Er, oh, right. But, of course, all this chatter sets up your opportunity to explain. Tho, that would require you to actually watch the match you're making a pretty lame stand against.

The Shadow knows!

Sounds awesome! I was at a Simonetti's Goblin gig a few years ago (livescoring an extended cut of DAWN OF THE DEAD) but I missed them a year or two later when they came back to do SUSPIRIA. The only downer for me is that Simonetti had assured me (on the first gig's Facebook page IIRC) that they'd play the title track to DEMONS and they didn't, so your experience - especially lifting Flash of the Blade for inclusion - beats mine.

You know you’re a smark when you’re complaining about spots involving a pumpkin that breaks the immersion of a Halloween match that featured a female zombie taking a bump onto pieces of candy. Also Toni Storm is, and has been, the best thing about their women’s division since she debuted. Well, maybe a close second to Hayter before she was injured. But those two run the division workrate wise. And now Toni has an actual character, so she’s got both. Sorry, Shida. Three time champ incoming. Omega/MJF was good, which is no surprise, but given that nobody at all bought into the possibility that Omega would actually win the title… it’s just a good match for the sake of having a good, marquee match on a Saturday night wrestling show. Which I know is TK’s modus operandi, but it was particularly noticeable for this match. I have a feeling Wardlow is going to play a role in the Full Gear match with Jay White, since every other challenger for MJF’s title was featured tonight except him (unless I missed another video package).

Between shitty exploding barbed wire, poorly concealed collapsing ramps, or un-gimmicked pumpkins, AEW is definitely the fed that needs some sort of prop manager or FX guy.

Quake by the Lake was probably the best show I’ve been to. It was a crazy stacked show. The very long Walls of Jericho on Mox was a pretty big moment that slowly you felt the entire building getting more and more excited as it continued. Rush & Andrade vs the Lucha Bros was maybe my favorite match seeing live. The F1rst Wrestling (local company) shows are fun. Early on they were smaller but I got to see Quackenbush vs Claudio when I really loved Quackenbush. I was very much looking forward to this match. Before that in one of the very early shows there was an entire event hyping Sandman. The show was even called Enter Sandman. Greatest entrance ever. Everyone was singing and he was smashing beer cans in his head. Then the match started and Sandman was so clearly drunk and already blown up. Horace the Psychopath had to basically Regal his Goldberg. A nerdy ref came out to try and enforce rules and the cooler ref through him out of the ring to yell, “no, this is ECW style!” Everyone was sad. Same show we got to see Jerry Lynn vs Arik Canon which was sweet. Now the F1rst shows are like parties, especially the Wrestlepalooza events. They have a band or mc and also burlesque dancers. I saw Komander doing his rope running before he showed up on Dynamite and a very good Joey Janela vs Brian Kieth match. One of the Wrestlepalooza shows had The Great Sasuke vs Shane Strickland. Sasuke couldn’t really do anything but neat mystical type force pushes that made Strickland sell gut pain. Sadly most people didn’t know what was going on but it was cool seeing a legend. Same show had Colt Cabana vs Kikutaro and Proud and Powerful vs The Rascalz. RoH came to St Paul and I got to see Morishima vs Austin Aries. The 2.9 kick out when Aries did the same combination he put Samoa Joe down with was absolutely wild. Roderick Strong & Christopher Daniels had a great match. I saw WWE Judgement Day that had Cena vs JBL, a house show where Ric Flair had a long promo about hating the Minnesota Vikings, and a different (or maybe the same?) house show or probably Smackdown (?) where after the show a bunch of people were leaving and Rey Mysterio’s music hit and we ran down the rail side and Rey gave someone (I don’t remember) a 619 and everyone was high-fiving. That 619 was maybe my fav moment. I don’t remember it fully and have no pictures, but it was amazing.

Welp, in addition to not being in the house, my better half has just informed me that it would bum/stress her out too badly to watch the show live tonight while our car situation is ongoing. I'm pretty sure I can parlay this into some crazy sex and getting Spider-Man 2 if I play my cards right, but I'm not gonna be around again til Tuesday probably so I don't get spoiled. Have a great rest of your weekend all

I've always considered myself extremely blessed to have seen so much quality wrestling from all over the world, despite living in the UK. The first show I went to see was WWE, May 2004, at the Birmingham NEC. First match I saw was Edge vs Batista, but the card also had HBK vs Flair on it, which totally stole the show, and the main event was HHH vs Benoit. Later that year, I got to see the first Raw and Smackdown tapings in the UK, which had an amazing crowd for the Regal/Eugene Dusty Finish title switch, and the next night a hardcore match with Hardcore Holly walloping JBL with a cricket bat. Then in 2005, I got to see The Wrestling Channel International Showdown at Coventry, including Misawa wrestling, Joe vs Punk, and Styles vs Daniels in the main event. The sequel to this, Universal Uproar, also at Coventry was in November, and included Cabana vs McGuiness, a rare Foley match as part of an 8 man tag, Low ki vs Homicide, and the main event was Doug Williams and Jun Akiyama vs Go Shiozaki and Kenta Kobashi! In 2006 I saw a couple of the early 1PW shows at Doncaster, No Turning Back, which had Sabu, Abyss, Jeff Jarrett and Masato Tanaka amongst many others on there Also ROH's debut tour of the UK in 2006, the second night, which had Roderick Strong vs Bryan Danielson and an absolute sprint of a match with Sydal and Richards vs the Briscoes, and Danielson wrestled again against SUWA! And in October 2006, an IPW show at Broxbourne with Pac vs El Generico. Then in 2008, we got to see the NOAH UK debut, with Zack Sabre Junior in the dark match, a brilliant KENTA & Taiji Ishimori vs Bryan Danielson & Eddie Edwards and main event of Mitsuharu Misawa & Naomichi Marufuji vs Go Shiozaki & Kenta Kobashi. From 2009-11 I managed to get to several of the Dragon Gate UK shows at Broxbourne, which were all immense! Also managed to see El Generico again at a random indy show in 2011 in Wales, and Ultimo Dragon of all people, at a show in Penzance in 2016! When NXT and NXT started touring, it was brilliant to see at the Plymouth Pavilions, The Revival against American Alpha, Asuka vs Nia Jax, and main event was Finn Balor and Shinsuke Nakamura vs Austin Aries and Samoa Joe. In 2019 at the same venue, got to see Kasius Ohno vs Ilia Dragunov which was just epic. And then finally this year, we got to see Shingo vs Will Ospreay and the Jericho run in at Rev Pro at the Copper Box, and All In at Wembley Stadium the next day. Enough said! Looking back at it all, I'm so lucky to have had so many awesome memories and experiences, particularly experiencing them with my Dad when I was younger and now my own boys these days. Couldn't ask for a better selection, although I'd certainly be up for going to see Wrestlemania if they ever bring that over here! Thanks everyone for posting your own memories, it's been good to see them all and spark my own!

Re: Dynamite I like that AEW tries different openings. I especially liked this MJF promo to open. I favour the Kingdom and Roddy far better outside the skits. They pulled a solid ECW style connecting series of events - from the solid MJF v Juice opener to the run-in/saves, and onto the terrific Omega confrontation. Wardlow promo was fine. RVD/Hook v DOs was fun. With such a huge chunk of Television to produce each week - I’m alright when the nostalgia works like this. Further, the Sting/Darby/Flair/Christian segment was somewhat unexpected. And excellent, but as is anything Christian does in 2023. The Chris Jericho sitdown was good. Stronger than Jericho's regular babyface fare. Curious to see sonofabitch Paul Wight in there. I need to take another look at Bucks/Page v Hardys/Zay. I didn’t pay it much attention early, but I liked the strong closing stretch. And Zay was going hard. I skipped passed the Swerve invasion. I’m curious, but not a fan of the AEW ‘comedy’ sketches. I liked the Sting/Adam Copeland confrontation. I skimmed the Ruby v Shida bout. I very much like Luther as the butler. I liked MJF/Samoa Joe promo. Okada/OC v Danielson/Claudio was so fun. Okada playing the hits worked just fine around a lot of stellar action. All 'Professionals!' A well sculpted TV main event. Re: Rampage Ortiz v Santana was rip roaring fun. Both guys made the most of their minutes. I hope more ppl see this match. Very solid MJF-Omega etc. video package. Nice build on short notice. Dug the Stat/Willow/Skye promo. It helped put the story out there. Something that needs to happen more within the division and elsewhere. Kip/Penelope promo didn’t quite help them make the most of their minutes. Very happy to see the Mark Briscoe return. Loved the Callis/JAS promo. Happy to see Daddy Magic getting a well deserved weekly promo spot. This is perfect Rampage stuff. Intrigued by the Ange/Ruby story. I only skimmed Abadon v Willow v Anna Jay v Skye Blue. Anna is slowly becoming a real star. Abadon is always great to see. Wishing her a healthy journey ahead. Willowmania continues to peak up from underneath. Fletcher v Takeshita was a wonderful piece of business. Heavy on the offense, but beautifully executed. Don Callis has a lot of neat stories circulating around him. I used FFWD where necessary and saw the full matches, and this felt like a top 5 Rampage.

Bo Schembechler, as a studio analyst, before a Michigan game once said, "if they don't outscore their opponent, they're not going to win." Thanks, Coach.

Or how about a tag team battle pitting FTR v Mean Mike Enos and Wayne the Train Bloom aka the Destruction Crew? Bad Company v the Young Bucks!? Rose and Sommers v The Outrunners!? Commentary by Larry Nelson, Verne Gagne, Greg Gagne and Daddy Magic Matt Menard.

I'd like to have a look at Stan Hansen v Rush. I'm also compelled by what MJF and 'Living Legend' Larry Zbyszko might have in store. Or how about 'Cool' Curt Henning v Bryan Danielson?

The narrative of Easy Lover gives the woman in question too much power and agency for Ric’s liking.

Graham Gano - who has been great as a Giant - now needs to be cut

Giants have -8 team passing yards today. Yes they are still winning. I can't stop watching this game, its riveting.

When the two of them both get rolling in the same game, especially with Swift and the the threat of Hurts running, I really don't know how you defend the Eagles.

Ok, that was a bizarre sequence. 4th and half a yard, the Colts try to draw them off side and take a delay of game penalty for a slightly longer FG, the Saints commit a penalty on the FG attempt, and the Colts then go for it on 4th and inches again and score a TD.

Yeah, it was one of those sub outs where their live version of "Flash" was so awesome that I absolutely did not mind at all.

Kerry Von Erich being the new Ultimate Warrior is a thing that managed to spread to a bunch of school buses before the internet

HOLY SHIT. "Fast as a Shark" in Demons was a seminal moment for me but THAT sounds AWESOME.

A switch in those first two matches, as Yuu Hanaya has withdrawn. She's been getting more acting gigs recently and has been the most quiet of the Challengers, so I wouldn't be surprised if she's done. 1) Yuko Sakurai vs. Mayuki Koike 2) Miyako Matsumoto & Saran vs. Syaa & chou・chou chou・chou is from Hot Shushu. She's very much a rookie. I suspect there will be a lot of Miyacoco antics. The H!Fly produced show on 11/5 had it's lineup announced as well. 1) SAKI, Rina Amikura, and Yuko Sakurai vs. Misa Kagura, Sumika Yanagawa, and Saran 2) Hamuko Hoshi & Asuka Fujitaki vs. YuuRI & Mifu Ashida 3) Chiitan vs. Ribbonne 4) Ibuki Hoshi & Arisa Shinose vs. Kaho Matsushita & Yuuki Minami Ribbonne is the Ice Ribbon mascot and is usually represented as a plush doll. Chiitan is a rogue mascot that has appeared in Ice Ribbon before at one of the Princess Party shows, most notably attacking Kaho Matsushita. If you see that tweet and go "hey, that mascot looks familiar", and you're a regular John Oliver watcher... yes. It's THIS Chiitan.

Who says they're going to do anything with the gold? We the audience assumed that the gold would satisfy the revenants because reasons and it did not as you saw at the end of the movie. To put it mildly, the priest's apology on behalf of his ancestor was not accepted. And the end of the movie also kinda answers your second question. We the audience assume that six people will satisfy the revenge because we like closure. Ghosts are assholes and they don't take betrayal very well. Nothing says that they won't keep coming back to murder the descendants of the conspirators until the family bloodlines are completely cut off. I will probably die on the worst hill ever defending the silliness of The Keep, but the most intriguing story in this movie really isn't about Nazis or immortal good vs infernal evil, is it? It is all about the good Dr. Cuza making a deal with implacable malevolence and honestly believing that being Jewish does not make him complicit in the possible doom of the world. That the injustice and genocide suffered by his people somehow gives him a pass to sign the world's death warrant if only to destroy Hitler. I mean, they're Nazi's right? They kinda have it coming. But it is too late to be all WHAT HAVE i DONE~? when it dawns on you that Berlin is only the first stop on the world damnation tour and that you were instrumental in creating Hell on Earth. The Keep has a very odd parallel to Oppenheimer, doesn't it. Oppenheimer is perfectly fine dropping the bomb on Nazis, even if there is a small percentage of a chance that the thermonuclear reaction will incinerate the atmosphere and kill all life on earth. You have to believe that for many of the Jewish scientists working on the bomb, turning Berlin into a glowing crater isn't just about winning the war. It's revenge. This is your chance to destroy the architects of The Holocaust with a tool of your own design.. And if you prove that you are smarter and more resourceful than the Nazi scientists working for Hitler by beating them to the bomb, even better. Oppenheimer doesn't really find his conscience until after Germany is defeated by conventional means and his bomb will be used to destroy not-Nazis, despite the very real notion that best way to win the war is to break the fighting spirit of the Japanese army and that a ground invasion will be an absolute bloodbath for all parties involved. That's the problem with Faustian bargains, isn't it? The part where everyone but you holds up your end of the deal?

Chile's version of Titanes

I was actually fine with not knowing that. It looks like he lives very frugally and spends all his non-essential income on wrestling, and that is enough of an answer for me.

ROW have put up the full Axiom vs. Charlie Dempsey match:

Just watched the Vladimir docu and it's nice that it escaped whatever purgatory it was in for like 2 years or so. Vladimir being Haitian and not Russian is one of those "a-ha" sort of things which does make sense with the variety of footage of him where he really clearly looks more Haitian than Russian (his surname might have taken a bit of a journey to reach Haiti). But I guess there was a period of time before people found out how many non-Russians ended up named Ivan or Vladimir (like notable baseball players). But yeah I suspect a certain amount of the first half-ish was pre-2020, and then yeah, Covid/2020 really swung things. There were several wrestlers at WM37 who have departed the WWE since then. But seeing Scott Hall there was also interesting since I had read about how 2020 had caused him to relapse and messed up his health. So yeah the whole thing really hit some people hard. A few extra things 1) Frank the Clown catching a random stray 2) Jeff Jarrett is pretty prominent and that's a guy who wasn't just raised in the business but in a territory with weekly shows in the same towns, so there's probably several fans he would encounter every week for years around there and having someone like that in WWF was probably pretty fun too 3) The phrase "sports entertainment fan" was a bit cringey but that phrase didn't appear after the first little bit. Vladimir was most assuredly saying wrestling over and over no matter what. 4) I'm gonna pretend that it took 2 years to release because they were working to blur the WWF logo in his Wrestlemania X shirt that he was wearing in some scenes 5) I've mentioned the whole "fans on the hard cam who seem like they're being held hostage" aesthetic i've seen on some shows, which is a promotion problem not a fan problem. But the fans who care are always fun and we need more of them compared to snarky smarks. I had half-season tickets for the Royals for 7 years in the last decade with a gap between end of 2019 and opening day 2021 where for obvious reasons I didn't attend live baseball games and being able to go see that, even for 40ish games a year, was a lot more fun than not doing much of anything for a year. And that's from someone who has made nowhere near as much of a commitment as he has, so it's cool that this whole thing had an upbeat sort of ending with how bad the middle portion had been for him.

honestly Cody as champion would get me to watch WWE again on a weekly basis. Which is weird for me to say, as someone who isn’t that interested in WWE and hated Cody in AEW (but I always felt his presentation there was better suited for WWE). That, and if Punk actually shows up at Survivor Series. But at this point I expect to see that dude in TNA or something. Which I wouldn’t hate, actually.

Oh please can we let this silly stereotype of Vince being so out of touch go? Bon Scott died in 1980. Vince's pop culture knowledge is up to 1990 at least.

Collision was neat

As a Michigan fan, I think this is hilarious.

Oh holy fuck if I hear “title opportunity” one more time I’m watching this shit on mute.