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I did NOT expect the show to start out with Max vs Garcia! Figured that meant a big MJF angle to close the show. Friedman opening and closing shows works pretty well. Max did the dance better than Garcia, in my opinion. Body part psychology! These young guys have learned from fighting Bryan Danielson. That old footage of Jay White! OUTRUNNERS! Great squash. Luther looks great in black and white. I LOVED Timeless calling Shida "Hick-ah-roo" Nana added a spin to his dance! 91-55 record for Penta. According to the chyron. Penta's gear looked great. Probably not his intention, but BC Lions colours. Go Lions! Penta and Swerve tried to legit kill each other and I was entertained. GOLDEN JETS vs YOUNG BUCKS!! I am excited about that, and also amused because I know people (on these very boards) who are the opposite of excited (either bummed out or angry) about it. It will be crazy. Also the video game street fight. EXACT same notes for that one. The Portland crowd absolutely RULED during the Limitless vs Joe Match. "MEAT!" " Holy Meat! " Meat Forever! " and "Slap That Meat!" chants. Nice work there, Portland crowd. Also, Gordlow agrees with you in all four cases. Why. Joe. Serious-ah??? (That one's for you, Natur-Paul). Serious Orange, too. Orange you glad he didn't say Cabana? BOLLYWOOD BOYS! Damn. They drove all the way to Portland for THAT. Hope it was a decent pay day, at least. The gurv of some people. Harv you ever seen such a thing? HAT vs CAKE! Then the ex-alien/spooky witch/nice colour/tree bird standoff. All good. As was Switchblade vs Kung Foo Chicken. I am getting tired of thumb-typing on my cheap tablet. Are you getting tired of reading? FTR vs VIKINGO & KOMANDER!!! I LOVE RAMPAGE!!! I LOVE AWESOME RANDOM MATCH-UPS!!!! MOX & YUTA vs ORANGE & HOOK next week. Yowza.

The Toni Storm/new woman angle is a reference to All About Eve, which is one of the best movies ever made. It stars Bette Davis as Margo Channing. The plot is about a big star sort of approaching the downward slope of her career who is approached by a giant fan (Eve Harrington) who works her way into her life as her assistant and then manipulated her way to replacing her as the next big star. Bette Davis gives an all-time great performance and the movie has one really famous line: “Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy night.” The RJ City intro to her I believe is a direct reference. I only saw All About Eve once. It’s FANTASTIC. Timeless Toni Storm is Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard, which is my favorite movie. Norma Desmond is a faded silent move star who preys upon a struggling young writer to return her to glory as she descends further and further into madness. Toni’s “I’m ready for my closeup!” line before she does her rubbing hip smash in the corner and the “We had FACES” she said before introducing the silent films for the first time and now the obedient butler are all directly taken from Sunset Boulevard, along with Timeless Toni’s overacting and pathos. I have been doing an e-fed character the past two years based off Norma Desmond but as a manager. I love Timeless Toni so much. My comment before about All About Eve — they have not really established Timeless Toni yet. We know the backstory and saw the transformation and it is awesome. But she has not been established (once again) as the best in the division with this new character or the like. For them to do All About Eve properly, they need to do this a few months into Timeless Toni’s reign and then have their Eve Harrington enter the picture before Toni loses the title and then sees her understudy steal her glory by winning the title back. Fun fact about both films: They are both probably the two best movies ever made about Hollywood, and especially how a starlet deals with losing their fame and adulation. Bette Davis and Gloria Swanson (who plays Norma Desmond and really was a silent movie star) give two of the best performances ever captured in film. They both came out in 1950 and they were both up for Best Picture and Best Actress (two nominees for All About Eve between Bette Davis and the woman who played her understudy) and etc. All About Eve won Best Picture, Best Director (Joseph Mankiewicz), Best Supporting Actor and Best Story (Adapted Screenplay.) But the actress in a movie called Born Yesterday (which I have never seen) won Best Actress. Sunset Boulevard only won Best Original Screenplay. Sunset Boulevard holds up a lot better than All About Eve. I am not the movie nerd I used to be but I think it’s the best movie ever made and Billy Wilder is hands down the best director of all-time.

Unless they go all out and reveal that it was actually Keith Lee, Samoa Joe, Satnam Singh, and Marko Stunt. I'd accept that.

“Damn it, I should have sold foam Claw Hands in 83” said Fritz Von Erich in-between getting stabbed by a dude in a devil suit

IMO Jack Perry as the Devil would be a monstrous let-down that would destroy the hottest angle they have going. On-screen, last we saw him was losing to Hook at Zero Hour All-In. And enough people also know that he got his ass beat by CM Punk afterwards and suspended from the company.

there wasn't enough random posing by the masked dudes, so it's probably not the Outrunners in disguise

That was the Mexican one. In the US, he's Mysterio, Jr.

I miss Ian Riccaboni/Nigel McGuinness on AEW Collison commentary.

You know, it's very sad that Mox had to leave WWE because he hated all the paperwork associated with being US Champ, only to walk into AEW and have to go through all that again.

Are you secretly the Houston wrestling library tapes?

The Oregon Athletic Commission is gonna be pissed that their office was vandalized and they’re gonna send collection agents after the Acclaimed.

No, he turned out to be just another tech dude who had an axe to grind with Stark Industries, and he used drone illusions to appear like he was from another universe. Gee, it seems kind of dumb now that I’m typing it out.

White versus Briscoe was the shit. Joe versus Lee was the shit. MAN was White versus Briscoe the shit. In a very rough week for me, that was a rare pleasure.

The tapes are upstairs and Matt is outside with the boombox, In Your Eyes cued up and ready.

They really need to have one of the ninjas wearing a neck brace.

They did (against The Boys).

MJF/Garcia was a solid opener. Shorter than I expected, but I liked the somewhat sudden, out of nowhere finish as I wasn't expecting the tap at that point but the transition in to the Salt of the Earth was cool. Pentagon/Swerve ruled. the Bucks being whiny at Omega is amusing. Bucks vs Golden Jets sounds potentially great for sure. Liked Kenny bringing up his past successes against the Bucks. Love the SEGA tie in officially making the match a "Like a Dragon Gaiden Street Fight!" Joe vs Keith was awesome, but I hate Joe just vacating the title abruptly just like that, lame ending to a record setting run. Made no sense to vacate the title to go after the AEW Title considering he just challenged MJF for the title while TV champ still. Made me wish they just had put Keith over in some way. Initially, I thought for sure that Shane Taylor would get involved to cost Keith. That said, I am loving the angle with MJF trying to avoid picking Joe as his partner at Full Gear while Joe keeps popping up on him and even Cole's telling him to do it. Loved the return of Red Velvet, thought she looked great. Popped for the surprise debut of "The Glamour" Mariah May, wasn't expecting her to just suddenly appear but definitely looking forward to her being part of the roster and as a Timeless superfan! Great main event and closing angle. Good show, felt like everything delivered.

Matt out here with flowers and a box of candy looking for the tapes.

So are we not doing individual threads? Did today/tomorrow get forgotten? Just got back from The Marvels.

I like Danny G's sports entertainer bullshit costing him the match. Nice bit of story progression there One of the better Penta matches in AEW If The Jackson's treat their friends like this (going back to hangman) then who needs enemy's

Hell yes to that spoiler review. Kamala is my favorite superhero so that’s got me stoked. And as for the spoiler within the spoiler…

Though I've made a couple posts now arguing in JB's favor, the overarching point I wanted to make is that there *are* ways to make it less anticlimactic if that's the chosen path, but it would be a lot of moving parts and a lot of things would have to go exactly right. So all things considered, even though I've been saying the opposite all morning, I really don't necessarily disagree here - i'll fully admit it's probably much simpler and cleaner to tell a fresh story with, idk, Mustafa Ali or whoever debuting, or a shock Hook turn or something super left-field like that.

I really hope Jack Perry isn't the Devil. Anticlimactic as fuck.

Yeah, the last we saw Jungle Jack was as a smarmy cowardly heel running away from Hook. He was fine at that and getting better but trying to explain that into “Mastermind wearing a devil’s mask swaying four dudes to wear masks and do his bidding” is a big stretch. The only way you can maybe explain it is if Jungle Jack used his inheritance to pay them off but then afterwards how these guys would stay in line in following the orders of a total dweeb would be so stupid.

If they put the World title on Samoa Joe before Swerve, then they just don’t know what they’re doing. Also if Jack Perry is the Devil then I might check out for a minute. Talk about a massive disappointment.

Man, that was a fine episode! Opener was good, glad to see that Salt of the Earth hasn't been totally forgotten. Everyone seems to be giving Garcia props. Jericho, Callis now even MJF. Sting and Darby destroyed The Outrunners, I wish I could have heard their entrance theme at least. Swerve vs Penta was one of the best Penta singles matches I think I have ever seen. Swerve focusing on the fingers was a dick-move that took away like half of everything Penta does during a match. Getting hooked on the ropes with the soles of his feet so Swerve could double stomp him was pretty swank! A lot of other good stuff in there as well! Hangman destroying Swerve after the match could lead to a Texas Death Match, yet! Main event was also really good. Both guys were on fire! The attack on The Assclaimed makes me look at Roddy suspiciously again! He said he would show everyone who he really is and then, nothing. It's just that he has an apparent alibi for the previous attack. This should prove that the guy in the devil mask isn't MJF, though. I was shocked that Joe beat Lee that decisively and even more shocked that he gave up the ROH TV title. He better become the World champion at some point after that one!

I don't mind the Joe thing in a vacuum but it does feel like another in a long line of people that TK loved to book like monsters but couldn't stick the landing on their angle (Cargill, Wardlow, Hobbs like 3 times now). Putting the title on Mark Briscoe at the PPV was the move and he pooched it.

I am fine with Joe vacating the title because AEW needs about 75 percent less titles. It’s the prestige sub-division TV title — who cares? Do they still have the pure title? There is though a 95 percent chance this leads to a tournament of some kind. And on a funny note a friend of mine pointed out: What were they using the office Max got tossed into for? Like did Bowens need a notary or something and they stumbled down there and the Devil’s dudes were there? I like the intrigue of who it could be. It will be hilarious if it is Jungle Jack because that dude would be so so so bad at the evil mastermind role. Swerve/Penta ruled so much. It has so many great weird Swerve spots. That dude is a perfect combination of being insanely athletic but he knows how to fill in the gaps by moving slow and calculating (reminds me a lot of Randy Orton) and making things like his stomp off the apron look so so so nasty. That dude rules. OC’s promo was a banger.

Sarah Stock/Dark Angel was on Unrestricted this week. One interesting thing that came out of it was that she agents a lot of the more lucha-oriented men's matches because out of the agents, only she and Jon Cruz/Serpentico speak Spanish.

A fun reveal would be FTR, Wardlow and Spears as the ninjas. But none of those are a big enough headliner to be the devil.

Wasn't that a rule in WWE? Warrior vacated the IC title after winning the world title from Hogan and Mr. Perfect won the tournament for the title by defeating Chico Santana.

Going deep into the Peacock for some wrestling from this month 40 years ago and it's... World Class Championship Wrestling (11/12/1983) We're gonna take a look at the split between Jimmy Garvin and Sunshine! We got a main event of Freebirds vs Von Erichs in a Country Whipping Match! Match 1: Super Destroyer #2 (w/ Super Destroyer #1 and Skandor Akbar) vs Mike Reed. The Super D's are the new American Tag Team Champions too. I've probably typed this before but Mike Reed is up there for Uncle Rico looking wrestlers. For those unsure, SD #1 is Bill Irwin and SD #2 is Scott Irwin. I think that Super D big boot/kick was technically botched since he landed on top of Reed after booting him. Super D wins with the Superplex. "I've seen some suplexes but that is a suplexer" - okay Bill. "There's some new developments in the Jimmy Garvin situation, the camp is asunder" - we see Jimmy Garvin losing the TV title to Johnny Mantell. For those who haven't seen the turn, Garvin thrown to the floor, Precious grabs Mantell's leg as he suplexes Garvin into the ring, Garvin lands on top of Mantell but Mantell flipped over for the pin anyways. Then Precious blames it on Sunshine and they fight it out only for Jimmy to take Precious' side in the dispute. Sunshine does get a shot in on Garvin before being fired. "And then Sunshine, to get even, had a press conference, she had a lot to say, and we were there" - If you're unfamiliar, this is a promo that has been mentioned as a great promo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7g3dxSB2Uk Bill Mercer has managed to locate Jimmy Garvin's house and he's knocking on the door. Precious slams the door but Jimmy Garvin makes it to the door. This is probably the closest that wrestling TV has come to the aesthetic of investigative reporters confronting insurance fraudsters on the news. Bill Mercer is a real journalist afterall. Anyways, Precious doesn't technically have a name yet and it's a messy breakup of a wrestler firing his cousin to side with his wife (none of this being mentioned on TV) Match 2: Tonga John vs Iceman King Parsons. Tonga John is from Samoa, because he wouldn't be called Tonga John if he was living in Tonga. This is an amazing hair matchup as the Tonga John (the future Barbarian) has a fro and Iceman has a few rows of hair. Tonga John sounds like the name of a restaurant that's engaged in a feud with the nearest Hawaiian restaurant in the area. Headlocks! Bearhugs! Iceman hits Tonga John hard with some chops if you wanna see the Barbarian do wobbly-leg selling. Iceman wins with the Buttbutt. I've read some stuff online about Iceman's chest tattoo. I'm not sure why he has a very Star of David tattoo but he does. This apparently came up in a story about World Class being in Beirut in the mid-80s, which feels like total bullshit unless World Class was holding sold-shows for the South Lebanon Army or something. Fritz joins Bill Mercer for a chat. Fritz has a tape of Michael Hayes and Kerry Von Erich and Mike Von Erich. Michael Hayes shows up to distract people from Mike Von Erich's interview. Hayes rips up the beautiful ring jacket and that starts a Mike vs Michael fight. Kerry shows up to fight Hayes too. A Bald Buddy Roberts shows up and Mike Von Erich throws him to the floor. We go back to Fritz who assures us that he's been watching World Class TV post-retirement. The upcoming Kerry vs Michael Hayes match is "Loser leaves Texas for a year". Fritz will be at the upcoming card because Mike is debuting (in a match i've seen recently) and he's not gonna miss a chance to make money off of his kids. Match 3: Hayes and Gordy vs Kerry and Kevin in a Country Whippin Match. The competitors will get leather straps which means it's time to pop the crowd as the faces strap the heels. David Manning gets a mic to try and restore some order here in this match where the competitors are supposed to hit each other with straps and occasionally wrestle. Bill Mercer welcomes Chicago and Minneapolis to World Class Wrestling as we see scenes of the competitors hitting each other on the back with straps. A hot tag to a double-strapped Kerry! The match ends with a DQ because in a match with endless strapping, it's still a DQ to toss someone over the top rope, there are rules here, this isn't Nam. This was more fun than most strap matches which usually end up going to the same spots and there's not many ways for a "touch all four corners" strap match to end. So a match where people just recklessly hit each other with belts is a lot more fun and wild than normal strap matches. Especially since the Von Erichs always worked in a way where they were hitting dudes had without having belts. Let's give these people that hate each other the means to inflict damage on each other is a solid premise for a stip match. This was 1983, they probably still let school principals hit kids with belts in elementary school in Texas. So here's a match where the hottest feud in the territory will have some strapation dudes. Bullshit finish, but it's a TV match that isn't from Reunion or a stadium, so. And why yes, World Class was in the club of territories airing their TV on the turf of other territories before Hulk Hogan went to the WWF. Because there was a ton of that going on before 1984. So if this seemed like a sweeps week sort of show, well, this was a "hello new markets, we're here" show.

It’s good, watch it!

Lots of really good in ring stuff tonight. Title matches delivered, but where does the ROH TV title go next? Always a treat to see Sting on TV. Swerve is so freaking good. Really looking forward to him and Hangman with the ratcheted up level of aggression and violence. Mark Briscoe is someone I could watch every week. Will Mariah May be Mickie James to Toni Storm's Trish? Really really interested to see where they go with The Devil. 2 pretty great hours of pro wres! And we're getting FTR vs Kommander and Vikingo on Rampage! Colour me EXCITED.

I actually like GB2. Never really got the same mailed in feel others seem to have. I thought Afterlife was solid and enjoyable as a tribute to Egon.

Imagine the product placement opportunities!

Things I remembered from watching the 1987 Survivor Series: Since i've been watching pre-Starrcade 87 JCP and i've never seen Survivor Series 87, time to watch the show that bumped Starrcade off of various cable systems. The crowd is jazzed, the Richfield Coliseum looks like a place that hosted hockey at a time. Ricky Steamboat and Harley had some fun exchanges. Duggan/Harley eliminate themselves to continue that feud. In theory if Danny Davis was more formidable, he could have used his knowledge of refereeing to know the ways to distract refs. Someone had to take a fall on the face team and it was Brutus. Hercules seems to be in pretty good form. At one time Steamboat and Savage worked together pretty seamlessly with Steamboat slamming Herc and tagging Savage to hit the elbow. Honky ends up 3 on 1 vs 3 faces that he had wronged in 1987 and bails out instead of fully eating shit. The "Andre actually beat Hogan at Wrestlemania" heels sound a bit election denialist but it's fun banter in this setting. Not sure what part of the women's elimination match surprised me the most between babyface Fabulous Moolah, Moolah getting pinned relatively early, or Velvet McIntyre pinning Sherri. Not sure how many of those one-footed dropkicks were intentional. Velvet getting finished with a slingshot electric chair was fun looking (drop her chest first on the rope and then fall back to drop her on her back). Basically the build was to Glamour Girls and Bomb Angels. The Bomb Angels ruled, of course. The crowd really didn't wake up for this one until Jimmy Hart ate a dropkick just before the finish. Gotta love that we saw Jimmy Hart changing jackets during the heel interview for the tag team match. The tag team elimination match was a spectacle in records to what it looks like to have 18 wrestlers on the apron. Also every heel team had a different manager. That forced them to change camera angles to an overhead cam a few times. I wonder how a lumberjack match with the lumberjacks on the apron would look (like a mess probably!). Surprising how early Strike Force lost. The Bulldogs are out relatively early. They sure did spend a lot of time having the Bulldogs headbutt Haku. It took awhile but eventually a wrestler got knocked off the apron by an Irish Whip (Greg Valentine when Bret Hart whipped someone off the ropes) The final sprint involves Brunzell being in peril while on the side with a numerical advantage. The Bees and the Stallions of all teams are the Survivors after the Bees do the mask gimmick. So far we've had 3 matches and the faces won all 3 times with a numerical advantage. The formula to create drama in these matches isn't quite there yet. We get to see what Ted DiBiase has been doing lately as it feels like they're doing an intermission before the main event. The Honky Tonk Man does a victory interview to fill some time which was an amazing display in heel delusion. The Main Event started red hot. Faces get another numerical advantage for a few moments after Butch Reed departs until it turns into 3 on 2 with Muraco/Patera/Orndorff exiting. Hogan and Muraco worked well together for a moment too. Somehow Honky Tonk Man had the best Atomic Drop sell on a card where Rick Rude ate an Atomic Drop too. After one tease, we get Hogan and Andre for a few moments. Hogan then gets counted out and cries about it. We get actual drama as Bam Bam beats Bundy and Gang and then Andre beats him with his shitty suplex. Then our hero Hulk Hogan runs in to attack Andre with the title belt. Of course Jesse is completely right criticizing Hogan as a sore loser. Hogan does a bunch of posing to end the show. Bobby Heenan and Andre get an interview to interrupt the televised posing. Jesse lets loose on Cleveland some during the posedown. Earlier in the show, he's told that they're in Richfield, and he says "even worse" that it's a Cleveland suburb. So Jesse and Gorilla are in good form. At one point in the show, Jesse namedrops Dibiase in regards to "even Dave Hebner might have a price" (welll...). The show didn't really lull outside of the women's match because this was a multi-woman elimination match in 1987. For what was pretty much a gimmick show, they didn't make us sick of the format by the end of the show.

the TayJay v. Bunny/Penelope was one of the greatest spectacles in AEW history. All 4 should've been set for good after that, one of my favorite matches, so its sad to see The Bunny go. embed fuck but insert bloody pic here. Classic.

Won't speak for anyone else but myself here but when I was musing about JB being a part of this he was never Devil mask guy in what I was picturing. Just another guy in the group. Cole has got to be Devil mask (unless they have a super creative swerve that people will love). I just figure this is a good spot to incorporate JB back into the show. Cole is the leader of The Kingdom. And The Kingdom is Cole, Roddy, Taven, Bennett, & Jack Perry. A way to do a surprise reveal that ends up being a fake out. I doubt we get the reveal as soon as Full Gear. Especially if Cole is involved. I just hope the 5th dude is Kyle O'Riley. I like O'Riley and think he has a higher ceiling as a baby coming back from such a rough injury.

C’mon people, the devil is Roddy or Cole. Jay White has been a tremendous shithead heel champ without being the actual champ. The angle just works. Put the tag titles back on The Gunns including the 50 cent theme.

Going back 30 years to the WWF's other weekly show WWF Superstars (11/13/1993) We're in Burlington, Vermont this week. Vince and Jerry are totally not in front of a green screen. Randy Savage has been barred from the broadcast booth by Jack Tunney. Could Macho Man replace Tatanka at the Survivor Series? Speaking of being barred, we're only about 2 weeks away from Lawler being disappeared for a few months. We open with Men on a Mission rapping to the very white residents of Vermont. Men on a Mission are taking on Iron Mike Sharpe and Chuck Greenman. Iron Mike appears to be in fine form for being very verbal. Lex Luger will be facing Pierre on Raw this week. Nice running hand attack by Mabel to knock down Greenman. Mo pins Greenman with a running elbow drop. Face to Face with Joe Fowler! The Survivor Series is the only Thanksgiving Eve Tradition worth waiting for. Wednesday Night, November 24th! Bret Hart and his brothers takes on Jerry Lawler and his unknown knights. Jerry Lawler and Bret Hart join us in a split-screen. Bret said the hardest part of this was picking 3 brothers (I'm guessing they weren't gonna let Smith Hart work in the WWF in 1993). Jerry Lawler responds with a Family Feud survey joke. So much build for a match that's about to get changed. Bret Hart! I R S! Next week on WWF Superstars. That's a match that they're putting on TV and hyping with a Lord Alfred Hayes narration. Guess we'll get a promo about Bret Hart abusing family tax credits from IRS. Next up it's Ludvig Borga taking on Dan Dubiel. Jim Cornette has a split-screen promo that doesn't show Jim on-screen but shows Yokozuna and the Quebecers (TV magic!). This Burlington Arena is a nice looking building (Wikipedia says it's been deemed unsafe since 2016), similiar to the arena in Lowell, MA. Ludvig Borga gets the win with the Torture Rack. Let's go to IRS playing the WWF Royal Rumble video game! The All-Americans (Lex Luger and the Steiner Brothers) have arrived in the arena to announce the replacement for Tatanka. Howard Finkel is interviewing them, which doesn't feel like something Howard Finkel did too often. Tatanka will be at the Survivor Series in spirit (did he die, Lex?). The new 4th man in the All-Americans is the American Hero, the Undertaker! The crowd goes wild! The Undertaker is standing with these All-Americans because they're standing up for America. The Undertaker has a flag sowed into his coat! And it's not the Gadsden flag! (it's a Betsy Ross flag). The Foreign Fanatics have shown up to look angry at these developments! Well, they're amping up this main event with a few weeks left. We come back to see Bastion Booger walking but Doink shows up on TV monitors to taunt him. Bastion eventually makes it to the ring for this Bastion Booger vs Joe Brenan match. Booger wins quick with his crotch drop. Then Booger eats some stuff. We can only guess what Mike Shaw did during his interview for this company. Hey it's J-e-double f, J-a-double r-e-double t rolling through the streets of Nashville. The Ryman is run down with graffiti on it! Country Music is corrupt! Conway Twitty is dead! (topical!) George Jones' career is dead! The Undertaker is dead! When he's done, they're gonna rename the WWF to Global Force Wrestling (oh, they'll call it the Double J F). Don't worry, they got 2 years out of this gimmick, and then brought it back for a few minutes later! Our main event this week is for the Intercontinental Title, Razor Ramon defends against Rick Martel. This is a rematch from the match where Ramon won the title. Burlington's not far from Quebec. Rick Martel jumps Razor when he's hanging off his chains. Welcome to life as a babyface, Razor. The Ref stops Martel from using a chair for a second but Martel jams the chair into Razor's knee behind the ref's back. Rick Martel working the leg to prepare for his finish, which works the lower back. Rick Martel uses the spinning toe hold! Harvey Wippleman wanders out for some reason! We go to a commercial break! We resume with both guys back in the ring. This Burlington Arena really has the feel of "let's find larger versions of the Manhattan Center". Harvey distracts Razor from using the Razor's Edge and Martel takes back over. An Atomic Drop on the floor to knock the heels into each other, don't see that often anymore! That leads to a countout victory for Razor. And on checking how much time is left in the episode, this isn't the last match of the show. Rick Martel and Harvey Wippleman come to blows outside the ring and Adam Bomb comes out to defend Harvey. Then Diesel comes out to intervene. Followed by IRS. What a weird heel team. Eventually Rick Martel calms down and the heels are happy again. Survivor Series Report with Todd Pettengill! Man that file photo of Keith Hart is amazing looking. Bret Hart makes a Family Feud Survey reference in his promo. We get a rundown of the Survivor Series card. Jim Cornette gets a brief promo for the Smoky Mountain Tag Team title match. Lord Alfred Hayes narrates another promo for an upcoming Bret Hart match has he will be facing Yokozuna on November 21st on the Survivor Series Showdown. Diesel is in action against Chaz Ware. Diesel wins quick with a right hand. Kevin Nash just wandering on his own because Shawn Michaels is gone for 2 months. Joe Fowler again! this company has such a void with Mean Gene gone. Johnny Polo and Jim Cornette do a tandem promo and we get to see Jim Cornette as the more restrained dresser in a promo for once. Joe Fowler has the look a guy who got bounced from his last news anchor job and is looking to make ends meet. Lex Luger vs Pierre, this Monday on Raw! Promotional Consideration paid for by the WWF's video game! Bret Hart vs IRS next week! Bam Bam is in action! We get promos from IRS and Bret Hart. IRS doesn't make any tax references! Bret Hart gets a third promo in an hour-long show! Jerry Lawler points out that Bret is doing a bunch of stuff before he faces Lawler and his knights and that he'll make mincemeat out of Bret (unless something happens before then!) Well, the late 1993 WWF B-Show show is an experience. And they have a 1992-1997 run of Superstars if you want to see some squash matches and things that didn't happen on Raw.

I'll give you that. He was rough early on, man. Like the one that will always stick with me is him being confused by the big Best Friends hug thing - he must've called dozens of their matches in NJPW, how had he not remembered that? It's nit-picky, I know, but still... I also think another part of it might be that, because Excalibur usually does such a nice job with the callbacks and historical stuff on Dynamite/Rampage, it's making Kelly sound kinda unfamiliarized and thus bush in comparison.

I'm not a fan of Kelly but I do think he's improved immensely from the first month or so he was doing Collision. I think all the praise Ian got may have lit a fire under him. Ian/Nigel/Schiavone would be a great combo. If only Riccaboni didn't love his family...

I understand your POV entirely, but I think this is one of the (VERY!) few instances where the dressing room bullshit could posssssssibly work to their advantage - I think having Perry make veiled references to having been driven insane by 'certain veterans holding (him) back and treating (him) like the devil' could both provide the necessary motivation from a character standpoint, and also sort of heat it up from an audience perspective by virtue of the fact that mostly everyone kinda knows what happened at Wembley even though it was never directly addressed on TV - basically, the mission would be to try to redirect any heat on Punk/the company for the whole situation over to Perry by osmosis. The only caveat is you gotta do it carefully, lest the people think a Punk comeback is in the works.

I was coming here to post that. I don’t think that was the original plan but Cole’s extended IL trip would facilitate an audible. I think the worst possible outcome (but maybe also the funniest?) would be the members of Retribution that aren’t under contract anymore. Ali, Shane Thorne, tafka Mace, & MMart…

One of the ninjas is noticeably bigger than the others, could easily be Wardlow.

Stuff. Things. Movies. Aftersun - Whooooof. I don't know that this is particularly worth reviewing in a traditional sense. It's one of those films that's either going to bounce right off you or hit you where it hurts. For me, it nearly did both, since the first 15 minutes are sloooooooooooow. But, if slow cinema is your thing, and all the unspoken pieces of this are experiences you can empathize with, it settles in and really connects. The look and feel of the movie are rather nice, too, but it makes you wonder if Charlotte Wells has anything in the tank for an encore. Time will tell. Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri - Jesus, if there's a more misunderstood movie in the last 20 years...I think this will probably settle in right next to American Beauty as a film people put out of their minds because it hits too goddamn close to home, if anything. I know people like this. I grew up around people like this. And no, contrary to what some might say, the lesson of the story isn't "white supremacists are people, too"; it's a shitload twistier than that. The film starts with an act of dehumanization that is almost too awful to talk about until someone *does* talk about it, and the town's response? To...dehumanize the person who speaks out. And that act spins out into more awful treatment, and that awful treatment spins out into more, and more. And *THAT* is the motherfucking point of the movie: once you've started Othering and Us-versus-Themming and escalating, where does it stop? How do you stop wallowing - drowning, even - in your own grief and rage and impotency long enough that you see those "Others" are often suffering in similar ways - that maybe they don't feel *your* pain, per se, but that their pain defines them as much as yours defines you? How do you de-escalate and see the humanity in someone else, even if their actions have only served to aggravate you? So no, the way this ends isn't a "redemption arc"; it's a big, long, murky, snowy path 'forward' where the right way isn't always obvious and sure as shit isn't easy. When someone's "redemption arc" involves suggesting a cross-country trip to murder a dude, there's not a lot of "redeeming" going on. It's just...trying to put one foot in the right place, one time, and then trying to do it again. Maybe this isn't a review so much as it's a response to the vitriol the movie has garnered, but damn, a lot of people whiffed on this. Not sure it was the best movie of 2017, but for my money, I would have handed it Best Picture over The Shape of Water. Werewolves Within - OK, let's face it, you and I only watched this because Milana Vayntrub (Lily from the AT&T commercials) is adorable in it. That's fine. But hey, it's full of other faces you'll recognize from the last 5 or so years of every TV show and indie movie you've seen, too, perhaps most recognizably Glenn Fleshler of True Detective fame. It's...just OK sometimes, but it feels like it's trying to do too many things at once. Hey! Here's a little Edgar Wright! Hey! Here's some Clue! Hey! Here's a Thing reference! But it never feels enough like itself. Gotta say, though, that one line about "Werewolves are real," etc. was some cold-blooded shit to say. Hope Milana gets more starring roles. Streetwalkin' - OK, the Girldads who aren't fond of grimy 80s B-movies can click the Back button. This is...actually kind of all right? But it's strange. Why did I even watch this, you ask? Well, I clicked through Roger Corman's production credits, thinking I was looking at what he directed, and I thought to myself, "He directed a movie about hookers?" He didn't, but then I saw MELISSA FUCKING LEO as the main character and I had to watch. This is like a Sleazeball Funhouse Mirror version of The Man in the Moon here, where she's out-acting everyone just like Reese Witherspoon did in her movie. No huge surprise there. But there are a few others from the period who do pretty well with the material, like Khandi Alexander and Julie Newmar, of all people. Dale Midkiff is sort of the Big Bad here, but he's not as consistent, though still miles better than I'd seen him in anything else. What's maybe a little disappointing about it is that the plot is just on rails. The opening scene is as fucked-up and disturbing as anything in the movie, because you know what's coming down the pipe as a result, but then the film just...hops forward, and there are no really gross, morally bankrupt bits where we see the downward spiral begin. A movie like Lovelace, with Amanda Seyfried, didn't shy away from that stuff like this does. I mean granted, you don't *really* want to watch that kind of thing, but it's also the part of the story that would arguably be most compelling, and we get none of that. Still, though, Melissa Leo is the best. Fast & Furious - A...a what? A movie in this franchise that isn't awful? Then again, I'm essentially bored to tears by what this franchise stands for: convincing an entire generation of dumbasses that these movies are something to live up to (or worse yet, treating them like they're documentaries), rather than just being an overpriced car commercial. I live near at least one goddamn waste of skin who acts like he wants to be an extra in one of these movies, and frankly I'd love it if he got blown up in some drug tunnels. But back on track, I gotta say I kinda like it when a plot gets grumpy and dark and testy and people's minds go to bad places, even if it's Vin Diesel trying to do the heavy lifting. And for once, the Paul Walker Memorial Terrible Fucking Actor in the F&F Franchise Award doesn't go to a main character (Walker/Gibson/Buck for the first 3, for the record): it goes to Gal fucking Gadot, who is a really special kind of awful here. Hasn't even figured out how to deliver lines that you can hear or understand. When she and Diesel get a scene together, it's sad to watch Vin act circles around her (then again, he can act circles around people: just watch Multi-Facial sometime, the more pressing question is often, 'Why not do it consistently?'). Best line in the movie: "Don't shoot the boss, idiots!" 3 minutes later: 'Well, T-boning the boss into a multi-flip rollover can't be that bad...'

Can’t believe they are doing All About Eve already…

there's huge stakes in a Jericho/Omega vs Bucks match because if either of them win the Tag Team titles, they can't appear on Dynamite anymore

Things I remember from this week's edition of AEW Dynamite: Roddy threatens to do something other than yell "ADAM" MJF beats Daniel Garcia after a neat match The Outrunners get squashed by Sting and Darby Toni Storm and Tony and Shida talk in black and white Penta and Swerve have a fun one. Then Hangman shows up to kill Swerve. Nice of him to wait until the match ended to attack Swerve. Swerve's a good wrestler with the angles of a 2010s WWE dude. There's tension in the Elite. I guess it's efficient to merge Jericho Island with the Elite stuff. Did you think that Keith Lee would win the title on his birthday to free up Samoa Joe to go for the world title? LOL NOPE. Also Samoa Joe tossed down the ROH TV title and we'll see if it just went to the land inhabited by the WCW Light Heavyweight Title, the WCW World Six Man Tag Team Titles and the SMW Beat the Champ TV title. The Gunn Boys win a squash! Samoa Joe sneaks up on MJF backstage! The women's match goes on at it's usual time slot. Julia Hart wins and then Skye Blue comes out. Jay White and Mark Briscoe have a fun match which i'm not sure why the title match was on the line but it was. The Ninjas are back and they've attacked the Acclaimed and threw one of them through glass. So Jack Perry is Satan? (I mean, by now, if the masked goons aren't Roddy's friends, there's a bit of a logic hole in play here)