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I'm a Dad! My girlfriend is a fucking superhero. Her waters broke at 4:30 yesterday morning, about seven weeks early, the plan had been a Caesarean in mid January but she had to do it the hard way without any painkillers stronger than gas and air as she's had a blood clotting issue. Robin, my son (fuck it feels surreal to type that) is doing really well in the premature baby unit, his Mum insisted I go home for the night as I'm a terrible sleeper and I was never going to get any at the hospital, but going back to see them in a couple of hours. Having had maybe three and a half hours sleep, but hey, owt is better than nowt, as I think they say up North. Just thought I'd let my internet home know, this definitely qualifies as really swell. Between my lifelong obsession with wrestling and my girlfriend becoming an AEW and New Japan and Stardom maniac since meeting me a week before the great 2020 pandemic lockdown fast tracked everything, I am hopeful that this little guy will also love big, meaty men and insane, bendy women performing absurd acts of semi-scripted violence for his entertainment. But if he's just into Tik Toks and Blippi and haircuts, we'll love him anyway. FATHERHOOD~!!!

gonna be wild next week when Fritz Von Erich is unveiled as the devil despite being dead for 26 years

What the fuck do people have against Riho? Seriously.

She's bisexual, and there's plenty of Ls and Gs and Bs who are unchecked transphobes. I remain exhausted.

FTR/Briscoe vs BCC at the PPV.

Don’t know why this just occurred to me, but we’ll be getting Brody vs Danielson soon. Shit. That’s gonna rule.

The difference between the ex-WWEers that come to AEW is that they are signing with them because they have something to prove. The ones that signed with TNA wanted an easy paycheck.

My wife fell back in January, breaking her knee and rupturing a tendon in her knee. So with that, two leg surgeries, and some other related health problems I've basically been doing caretaking all year since she's been laid up. Needless to say it's been a stressful as all hell. But! My wife is finally recovered enough that I get to take lil' road trip on my own this weekend to go watch some wrasslin. I get to see Masaaki Mochizuki and then starfish myself in the middle of a king sized hotel bed and I cannot fuckin' wait.

St Louis, at least until Muchnick retired, was stacked most weeks and often featured guys from all over the country being featured. Ron Fuller has some great early to mid 70s stories about being booked in StL and the hassle sometime of commuting back and forth while working in Florida or later in Knoxville and Memphis.

I liked this opener a lot. RUSH and Mox are two dudes who don't mind laying it the fuck in, and boy did they. I know I talk a lot about shit I don't like, but this was extremely my shit. Looking forward to Mox/Swerve next week. Renee told a funny story a year or so ago about how much Mox marked out when he found out Swerve was Killshot in LU, so it wouldn't shock me to see Swerve go over. I'd be more convinced Hangman was gonna screw Swerve if outside interference meant you forfeit the tournament. I thought the backstage thing with MJF and Page was a bit too much, and it felt like MJF fell back into some bad habits. I'll probably get some things out of order, but who gives a shit? That intro from the TCM guy was perfection. You could tell he understood the assignment. Also, I was not sold on the "deranged starlet" thing at first, but Toni has committed completely and it's working. Skye Blue has come a million miles. She's a talented young lady. Excited to see Riho. Swerve/Briscoe was another banger. Mark makes you believe. It never feels like he's out of a fight. Great stuff. Same for Switchblade/Lethal. I liked that they brought up the history the two have. I feel like we as wrestling fans have been so conditioned to be beaten over the head with what are supposed to be subtle story beats that in some ways this didn't feel like enough, but it worked. Switchblade should've probably been in the other bracket, bc it's hard to imagine one of Mox/Swerve being out. The Devil thing is getting a bit tedious for me. I think it's shelf life is about up. Let's move on to the next phase after World's End. Also, this Rod Strong/Kingdom thing is not my cup of tea. I have no sentimental attachment to anything from ROH in their era, so I don't feel any kind of way about them being on tv now. Strong yelling everyone's first name is funny, though. The main event cooked. I feel like AEW takes some unmerited criticism for bringing in ex WWE guys. I mean yeah, they bring in ex-WWE guys, but how can you watch this and not think that's a good idea? It would be one thing if they did the TNA thing and just shoved every ex Fed guy to the top of the card, but that isn't what's happening. Christian Cage is probably doing better TV work than any American wrestler this year, and I only issue that caveat because I don't speak Japanese. I wouldn't know if someone is torching their opponents verbally over there. Anyway, Nick Wayne's Mom (has got it going on) did the thing we all thought, but that doesn't make it dumb. TAFKA Edge con-chair-to'd her son. The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if this is a way to bring Beth in for a one-off, but I have no idea if Nick Wayne's Mom (has got it going on) is trained or whatever. She certainly appears to fit the archetype of a female wrestler from yesteryear. If Nick Wayne's Mom (has got it going on) isn't trained, just switch out Taya Valkyrie when no one's looking. I guarantee no one can tell the difference. Good shit this week. I'm a little pissed I didn't get to see Samoa Joe stomp fools into the crust of the earth, but you can't have everything, I guess.

I watched most of the show tonight. Missed Moxley vs. Rush, but saw everything else. Really good show as usual. I liked the attack on MJF which was a good way to keep him from wrestling since he's injured. I really hope the devil story does come to an end at the ppv. It's either going to be something great or a monumental bust. Swerve vs. Mark was a good match. I was sad that Briscoe lost though. I figured he would get at least three points at some point. But they are setting up for a hell of a Swerve vs. Moxley match next week. Jay vs. Jay was good. I liked how into it the crowd got with the dueling Jay chants. Poor Lethal couldn't even get a point tonight. Toni vs. Blue was all right. I loved the TCM Introduction for Toni. See that's corporate synergy I can get behind. I think Skye Blue needs a new finisher. It's always hit or miss with that Code Blue. But this set up Toni vs. RIHO!!! I'm so excited that she's back. Christian vs. Adam Copeland was a good match. Christian is so on point with everything he does. Wasn't thrilled about the ending with Nick's mom interfering, but it was a good match none the less. I'm interested to see where this goes and if this means she's joining the group. Overall a good show as usual.

This isn't in reference to this board, but i feel like more wrestling fans need to take this mentality. Not everything is for your taste, just the way something you love might not be for anyone else.

Mike just got REALLY into Christopher Cross. Don’t judge.

Infantry reminds me of a WCW Saturday Night level team from the 90s.

That write-up was beautiful and has me wanting to watch it again ASAP. The Continental Classic has been so fun to watch it has me getting back into Fire Pro to simulate this a few times. With it being obvious Danielson would rule and expected to have Mox/Swerve kicking ass on their end the standout aside from them is definitely Brody. The guy is straight violence and if there's a just AEW they'll have him going for a singles title after the CC ends. EDIT: Well, first go-round it had Mark Briscoe and Andrade in the finals with Mark winning the whole thing. I try to get edits from those who know what they're doing with match logic and stats but depending on the maker results may vary. It would have been nice to see that actually happen as the matches on average had high rankings and they've been at least really fucking great IRL. I'll likely do this a couple more times but it was interesting to see how what I had in Fire Pro played out.

*Ridley Scott mode on * IT'S A FUCKING HORROR MOVIE, THEY AREN'T SUPPOSED TO BE SMART. THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS, YOU COMPLAINING FUCKS. *Ridley Scott mode off * Given his recently public commentary in interviews I'm 99.9% sure that's what he would say, including the cursing.

I have to also get behind all the love for the main event. You'd have to be nuts to compare that to TNA - no one there during its 'ex-WWE-pushing-peak' was ever as seemingly motivated as E&C were here (save for maybe Christian himself). I thought that was really smartly worked. @Logsaid it best: I went from having very little interest, to getting sucked right in and doing my best Excalibur impression on the couch giving the backstory: "CHRISTIANLOSTTHECRUISERWEIGHTTITLETHENTHENEWBROODFOUGHTTHEOLDBROODINALADDERMATCHATNOMERCY'99ANDTHEN..."

She’s the daughter of a wrestler and widow of another. She can probably get by doing a “valet” match and would maybe have Beth carrying her.

Nah, that sounds like bullshit. Kidding. I'm trying very hard not to bitch as much about stuff I don't like.

Florida wrestling. Take your pick between 1) Ric Flair showing amateur wrestling skills during a public workout before asking Barry Windham to join him in the ring. naturally this being territorial wrestling, the exact same angle was run with Flair and Piper in Mid-Atlantic Or.. 2) Video proof of Gentleman Jim Holliday. An interview with Holliday, Hector Guerrero and Barbara Clary. https://youtu.be/HkvKlL79vjY Why yes, Hector was the Guerrero brother closest to Eddie in age (13 year age difference though). Watch as Hector and Barbara converse in Spanish! Ponder as to why Jim Holliday has a job! Actually the whole reason for Holliday was something I probably typed about on here but JJ Dillon signed an “exclusive” deal to only manage Ron Bass. Therefore the heels who would have been managed by Dillon ended up being managed by Holliday, with the implication that Holliday was just a front for Dillon.

Man, that was good! It seemed like RUSH wasn't wrestling with the urgency that it takes to beat Mox and it ended up biting him in the ass. Ok, so Adam Page is now a suspect, but that was very red herringy shit that made MJF look more guilty than Page, here. Roddy WAS using the wheelchair as a crutch, I knew it! Also, I kept yelling to myself RENEEE! before he actually said it and still almost spat my coffee out when he did! Swerve vs Briscoe was a hell of a match by the end, and it definitely looks like the real league finals with Mox and Swerve next week. A draw there would give White a shot at winning, with his win over Lethal tonight. Fans were having a blast with the Jay chants during their match. Shit like that couldn't happen in WWE, but that's not actually the fans' fault. Great introduction for Timeless Toni and a really good showing by Skye Blue, except for the Code Blue, once again. It has looked more like a twisting sunset flip recently, with a decided lack of "bomb" impact on it. I wonder if May will take on Riho in her in-ring debut? Yeah, the tag match didn't happen, but this made MJF look guilty as shit, but there's no way Roddy can be right about this, right? Also, Roddy vs Hangman next week is so random that it can't be random at all. The main event ended up being really good. The spear on spear spot was terrific. I expected Nick Wayne's Mom to choose her son, no matter the cost, so yeah, that made sense, even though she probably felt sick doing it. Bryan having 3 matches in 7 days is just begging for a disaster at this point, but it weaves an interesting story, no doubt!

Overall, a solid show. I can't blame Nick Wayne's mom for turning on Adam Copeland. The man scrambled her son's brains in front of her. That's still her son at the end of the day. Not exactly what the internet is calling a "Russo swerve" because it actually made sense. Swerve is another step closer to winning the tournament and becoming world champion. Once he wins the tournament and world title, he will be a quadruple champion. The only bad feeling I have from the show is Tony Khan isn't going to figure out how to pay off the devil reveal. These long-term mystery angles almost never work or have a good payoff. Who drove the Hummer? Who ran over Steve Austin? The Black Scorpion. Who killed Vince McMahon? The Anonymous Raw GM. The Black Scorpion again.

Gonna be wild when AEW goes full bore on getting a letter writing campaign going for Toni Storm to be cast as the lead in John Ford's new motion picture when John Ford has been literally dead for 50 years. I so want this to happen.

True Grit is on right now.

The Over/Under for the Stillers & Pats is 30, the lowest since Boxing Day 1993 when 3 games were pegged at 28 or 29 most likely due to weather.

Same here. I was very much on the straight douchebag train about Punk, and while I still would rather watch paint dry than him wrestle(for the most part), im happy for his fans who get to see him in WWE.

If you're an ad blocker kind of person, YouTube just tried to get around ad blockers and made them far more effective as a result Also highly recommend checking out the Mind Games match too when you can

I too loved the match, but was expecting I would. I thought the build was excellent - in particular Copeland’s Savage-like collision promo, the terrific video packages and everything Christian has done. Shayna Wayne’s involvement was certainly goofy but welcomed. Too much logic and reason and quality execution to be foolishly labelled TNA or WWE. Further, I’m ready for more.

It took about 4 and a half months but I'm finally fully caught up with ROH. I had to unfortunately put that on the back burner as there was massive wads of wrestling to catch up on elsewhere. So it was hard to check this thread without spoiling anything. But I will say for the ups and downs it's had ROH is really, really fucking great. I love the fusion of Dark and ROH that they're doing and there's been some very fun things happening over there. Ian and Caprice are also my favorite commentary team by a mile as you can tell they're great friends who have a good time calling matches. And some of angles they've had were really great to see unfold. Of course my favorite was Athena having MIT and I'm almost sad seeing this end with the title match. But there was something about Athena laughing after Billie went nuts that has me feeling this was the final test. So while it could mean the whole thing is done with win or lose I think Billie's going to pass and get Athena's respect. It would make a really satisfying conclusion unless they go blood feud from this which I would rather they not do.

That's a pretty loaded card. As someone who is a bit more familiar with the deep South territories and not so much St. Louis, was this just a supercard and atypical or was this just the norm? I watched the Missouri state title match and also Flair vs. Brody from this card earlier this year, which is why I am asking.

That’s what happens when you use real glass. Punk tried to warn ‘em!

CHAIN MATCH: Bull Nakano vs Shinobu Kandori It’s age restricted because of the blood and how violent it is. So you’ll probably need an account to watch it on YouTube? But it’s worth it. Not really talked about all that much amongst Bull’s classics with Aja Kong or Akira Hokuto or the like, maybe because it wasn’t on one of those big AJW supershows. For my money, it’s one of the more violent Bull matches. I really wish a deathmatch against Megumi Kudo or Shark Tsuchiya existed, but, alas. Anyway. It doesn’t have any blood drinking like Hangman/Swerve, or glass, or anything. But in a lot of ways it’s more visceral and brutal. You should also know that this is basically just a falls count anywhere/No DQ match that happens to involve a chain. No touching the ring posts or anything. EDIT: I’m also going to watch your match tonight (I haven’t seen it! Shocker, right?) but I’ll do so on Peacock since YouTube is OBNOXIOUS with mid-video ads these days. But I’ll get to it tonight!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FsxQAFJYI6g Lex Luger on his greatest moments.

Sorry for the depression delay. I'll turn to the Bull Nakano fan for Bull Nakano recommendations please. Finding a WWF match from that timeframe without Bret Hart was indeed the gravest challenge. Deliberate foreboding for my pick for you, The Undertaker vs. Mankind at In Your House 11: Buried Alive 1996. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rT7eElns0c8&pp=ygUVdW5kZXJ0YWtlciB2cyBtYW5raW5k

The Brothers Sun NSFW trailer due to language and a little bit of blood They had me at Michelle Yeoh is head of the Triad

Since you were talking about Kyrie - I read this sentence literally

Handling the Undead (listed on IMDB as Håndtering av udøde) It is based on the book by John Ajvide Lindqvist. Lindqvist is who wrote Let The Right One In

I thought Christian/Copeland was way better than I thought it would be. The ending was ok, but I really had no interest in that match, and they drew me in.

embed fuck. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbOrfIZpgvA that time he got Brian Cage's wife with a bottle. I could see it still, but then again if there was 'real glass' involved...!

Sting versus Darby in a cinematic match on Mount Everest when

Glad to see Rey Fury is getting morre eyes on him. Dude has been working all over MS and the south since 2015ish. Saw him last Friday at a LAW show,asked when his NWA match was airing. Then a pile of us were joking about Jey Uso stealing Rey's Yeet Yeet catchphrase. Not knowing what was gonna happen on Raw Monday then Rey's match airing this week. He does the froggy elbow cause his two favorite wrestlers growing up were Macho Man and Eddy Guerrerro. I will dig it up later. But on my channel got Rey Fury,back when he was dark Fury, VS Vordell Walker in an old Church Gym in Byram MS. Was at most 20 people in the crowd and 25 people vending or selling food.

That was a super good show, very low on bullshit. MJF/Hangman and Swerve/Mox backstage segments were near-perfect in length, tone, and angle progression. I'll take 1000 more of these over in-ring promos any day of the week. This episode had a real winning formula IMO: killer matches, and concise, effective promos and packages. A few notable faces were missing, but the main event was good enough with enough star power from those guys that it more than made up for those who didn't make the trip (even if it did have a flashing neon 'screwy finish' sign above it since it was announced).

next week on Dynamite, the Black Scorpion breaks a bunch of glass in an effort to prevent Kevin Von Erich from running through it to make a save for MJF

Jon Moxley's BattlARTS shirt.

Spoiler alert "Juan Soto is on the IL"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2gkx6p9-cc NWA POWERRR! Episode 136: Blood Is Thicker Than Gold 12/5/23 @ Nashville, TN Slime Ballz vs Country Gentlemen The Cazana boys enter with their father Joe. I guess they're celebrating their new partnership, with Joe Cazana's promotion being the second affiliate league. i enjoyed this WAY more than i expected. the Cazana brothers make for a more interesting team than the previous Country Gentlemen IMO. KC uses a handful of high flying moves that look good for his size, and they complement AJ's size and power very well. The Slime Ballz seem pretty good in the ring as well, which i am happy to say after being down on their promos the last couple weeks. Samantha Starr will now only be referred to as "Miss Starr". She introduces her new assistant, the woman Starr assaulted in the ring 2 weeks ago. Chelsea seems extremely apprehensive about this new role. Starr is fairly wooden in her delivery, but she's trying, so it's not terrible. Women's TV Title: Max the Impaler (c) vs Chelsea yes, the same Chelsea from the last segment. Miss Starr granted her this title opportunity. If Chelsea looked apprehensive in that promo segment, she looks downright frightened here to start. The first minute is just Chelsea literally running scared from Max. This wouldn't rate on Dave's star scale, but i found it compelling, like watching the teenagers about to be murdered in '80s slasher flicks. Just a palpable atmosphere you don't get (or want to) see every week, but it was perfect here. A+ Outrunners vs New Spectaculars 2.0 (Rush Freeman & Slade) Match was fine. Double Interview with Colby Corino and Pretty Empowered. Colby looks befuddled by Pretty Empowered's antics. They talk some smack. He cuts a promo that is rather forgettable. He gets asked about PE's dominance, gives a pretty "let's move along" answer, and PE get riled up. Joe Alonzo vs Rey Fury vs "Certified" Luke Kurtis Crowd chants "certified loser" at Kurtis. Rey Fury lands a nice looking Froggy 'Bow, which i didn't know anybody except Mark Briscoe. Rey Fury kinda of steals the match here, but the story they tell early is Alonzo and Kurtis working together. Until it breaks down, of course. above average match. National Title: Devan Dixon vs Silas Mason (c) the announcers make fun of Dixon's hair, which looks very much like Brian Knobbs'. They tell a decent story that mostly works. Mason brought in Dixon since they were running buddies, but Mason just takes it to him and lays down a beating. Certainly a way of showing that former friends are former for a reason, and that it's all about the Southern 6 now. Post-match S6 beatdown on Dixon is interrupted by EC3 and Jax Dane, who are all buddy-buddy now. In the last 30 seconds we get Dane and EC3 facing off, but then they shake hands and leave amicably. This is the worst build to a title match i have literally ever seen. There's no animosity, no disrespect, no misunderstandings, and really even no 'mutual admiration'. The interaction has been practically nonexistent. i don't get what they're going for here at all.

Huge problem for a lot of guys of the era, actually

A field goal and 4 holding penalties in the end zone by Pittsburgh.