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There is a reason they are the hits. I can't wait. I will admit to being a little biased sitting here in my King Suzuki shirt

So Claudio took Eddie's legs and put the rope between them, and yanked with all of his superhuman might. It was as if Godzilla paid a visit to Yambag City.

I assumed Flair taking the majority of the match, Bruno comes back, gets the bear hug on and the lights go out to signal NYC curfew time, with only a few resulting deaths from the ensuing riot.

How about Truth AND Consequences?

I just got a ticket so looks like I'll be seeing you crazy folks there.

Ken Patera vs Bruno Sammartino Boston Garden, Boston, Massachusetts

/me looks at the topic Well, time makes ex-AEW folks feel like they've got something real, but you and me, we know we've got nothin' but time...

Hop on board the bandwagon, everyone. There's plenty of room and we're happy to have you! You get a vegemite sandwich with a side of rotten lemon, pal.

Like every other recent Suzuki match? Love the guy but he's just been playing the hits for a long time now.

Shot of The Sheik's Big Time Wrestling at Cobo Hall

I got within a few miles of Truth or Consequences, NM when I was on a work trip to El Paso but couldn't talk my coworker into stopping. Very disappointing.

Has anyone ever been to obscure yet pro wres identifiable town before? I once was in Bucksnort, Tennessee.

TNA Impact 1/18/24 Trying this again we shall see how far I get this year. The venue looks absolutely incredible. I like wrestling presented in theaters like this. I also think it’s cool that the commentators are up in the balcony. The Hammerstein Ballroom is my favorite wrestling venue and this place kinda reminds me of the Hammerstein. So it has that going for it. What a collection of talent in the opening 6 way. Trey Miguel, Kushida, Laredo Kid, Mike Bailey, El Hijo Del Vikingo & Jake Something. There was an outside dive and TNA chant moments into this. I agree with @DreamBroken this was a classic TNA 5 minute X Division sprint, in the best way possible. Everybody got their shit in without it feeling like everybody trying to get their shit in. And Jake Something looked like an absolute beast he had the size and power over everyone in that match. Just running roughshod over the other competitors. They gotta put him against Moose and let them have a hoss fight. Something’s Into The Void is the Blackhole Slam and I got to say it fits the man. Backstage interview with Will Ospreay, he calls Alexander a “cheeky little slag”. Language! Will is a man possessed he wants Josh to step up and put down the best professional in the world today. Short but sweet. The Ash by Elegance vignette is what I think the WWE wanted to do with Emmalina but couldn’t quite articulate. Dana seems to know what she’s going for. Next we get the closing stretch of the Knockouts Ultimate X with Gisselle Shaw winning. This leads to Shaw cutting a promo with the X. Gail Kim shows up, implies Shaw doesn’t need her hanger-one. Shaw walks off. They might be planting the seeds for Shaw dropping the dead weight. Tasha Steelz vs Xia Brookside I thought was really. Good I like the versatility of the TNA roster here as we go from a 5 minute sprint to a wrestling match. We got the veteran roster member trying to make an example of the new coming and the new coming never giving up and ultimately getting the victory. The end there Xia looked pleased and pleasantly surprised by her victory which I think was a nice touch. Brookeside is Robbie Brooksides daughter. I must admit what I know about Robbie isn’t much it’s mostly from Jericho’s first book, the Breaking Ground docuseries and the WCW C Show matches I’ve seen on YouTube. Is he still working for WWE? If he isn’t maybe he can show up in TNA at his daughter’s side being like an onscreen coach for her and maybe doing some agenting for TNA. So now we get a clip from Hard to Kill of Joe Hendry and AJ Francis’ meeting. That music video is pretty funny. If these two don’t have a match for the Cheez-It Championship I’m gonna be pissed. I was wondering what Whoo Kid was doing there but somebody had to use the laptop. Francis might not be able to hit a topé but he can sure hit a chokeslam. This leads to Hendry cutting a promo backstage on Francis. I love wrestling heels, Hendry brought this all on himself with the music video and is playing the victim. Taking no accountability for his actions. We get mention of the Cheez-It Championship which makes me think they are gonna have a match with that title on the line. Plus the segment ends with Whoo Kid in a trash can. Hendry better hope Whoo Kid doesn’t place a call to 50 Cent cuz you don’t want that guy on your bad side that’s for sure. Though if we could get Hendry and Ja Rule vs Francis and 50 Cent I wouldn’t complain. There’s a 5,600 seat arena in Queens, New York. I think 50 and Ja on opposite sides of a wrestling ring could fill it. Make it happen TNA. I found footage of 50 Cent meeting Randy Savage so maybe there’s a chance this can happen. I’ve heard of The Grizzled Young Vets but I’ve never seen them wrestle before. I don’t follow NXT. This is my first time seeing the Vets in action and I have to say I like this team. They are gonna be a welcomed addition to the TNA tag scene. I didn’t know that Kazarian and Young were a tag team. Last I saw Kaz he was teaming with his wife Traci against Eddie and Alisha Edwards. And I think Eric Young was still a heel in the main event scene I really can’t remember. The cool thing about having the Insiders tier on YouTube is I gotta see this match in full I got full screen and commentary during the Picture in Picture portion of the matche. 6 dollars well spent. I liked this match a lot. I thought I was a great showcase for the newly arrived Grizzled Young Vets. They spent the majority of the match keeping Kaz isolated in their corner. Young comes in like a man on fire cleaning house only to get hit with friendly fire or not so friendly fire with the post match fallout leading to the Vets picking up the win. After the match Kaz blames Young totally ignoring the fact that he blasted Young with a right. I guess it’s Eric’s fault that your fist hit his face huh Kaz? Then Kaz blasts Young again, much to the crowds dismay. This gets a loud “asshole” chant. Kaz continues the assault as the crowd becomes more displeased by his actions. A “You Suck” chant starts. The crowd is fully behind Eric Young in this one. “Fuck You Frankie” erupts from the crowd as Kaz slowly walks away. The System are all sitting around a table eating ribs celebrating Moose’s world title win. I can get behind this faction. My only question is are we gonna get the Moose-Okada rematch the world has been clamoring for over the past 6 years. The Former Dolph Ziggler, Nic Nemeth makes his way to the ring to a loud ovation. This crowd has been loud all night they seem to be enjoying themselves but it’s been a fun show so far who could they not be. Nic has the mic, and he pretty much says he’s ready for the next chapter of his career. Quite frankly I am too, I can’t wait to see what he does outside of WWE. The man has all the tools to be a superstar and TNA might be the best place for him right now. They both have something to prove in 2024 and let’s see if the man and the promotion have in store for us this year. Out comes Steve Macklin, he doesn’t look too happy. Macklin says he felt the same way 3 years ago. He calls Nic a phony. This is all to set up Nemeth’s first program in TNA and This two will have a killer match together I’m looking forward to it. Macklin cut an impassioned promo. There’s a “Shut Up Nemeth” chant so the crowds behind Macklin and how could they not be he’s been busting his ass in Impact now TNA over the last 3 years. New Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace is backstage, Trinity shows up which sets up the rematch from Hard To Kill for Next Week! “Let’s run it back, sis” Jai Videl is in the ring. He cuts a promo knocking the city of Las Vegas. PCO makes a grand entrance in black and white in a stretcher, is revived like Frankenstein’s Monster and we get a match. What an entrance. TNA didn’t upload the match on YouTube but it’s pretty short and almost all PCO the crowd didn’t seem to mind. PCO wins after a moonsault. The man or monster is 56 years old and is still hitting moonsault. The Motor City Machine Guns cut a promo for their 6 man match teaming with Okada against Moose Eddie Edwards and Brian Myers. Okada shows up at the end wearing an MCMG baseball jersey. Pretty swank looking Jersey I might add. Alexander vs Ospreay 2 is every bit as great as everyone is saying it is go out of your way to watch it. TNA uploaded it to YouTube and I’ve posted the match in my review here. I have yet to see the first encounter between these two men but you best believe after watching this match I will be watching that match. Bravo to both men in this one they left everything on the mat. Balls to the walls is the best way to describe this. I’m not gonna attempt to do a move by move recap of this cuz there were way too many moves but not movez. I felt like they really let shit build and nothing was rushed. Ospreay hit Alexander with everything and Alexander just wouldn’t die. Epic in every sense. Ospreay hit a wicked tornado DDT off the ring steps on the outside which was sick as fuck. Ospreay went of an Os Cutter and Alexander punched him square in the face. Alexander caught an Os Cutter on the ramp and hit a Tombstone Piledriver. I always get a kick out of his over tables are in pro wrestling. Ospreay setting up the table got a huge pop and when he hit a Tiger Driver on Alexander through it the place went unglued. This match is really fucking good. Alexander won with what does he call it the C4 Explosion? After the match Scott D’Amore comes out and puts both men over, the match over, the roster over, the company over and the crowd over. He also got shots in on Bruce Pritchard. Scott D’Amore is almost Paul Heyman without the shady business practices. He really bleeds TNA and seems really proud of where this company is now and he really should be he almost did the impossible. He turned this company around with sheer will and determination. This was a really good two hours of pro wrestling. A hot crowd and great wrestling what else could you ask for.

Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in. I appreciated the change from TNA to Impact Wrestling in attempt to distance itself from some things they had a hard time moving past. But along the way I just stopped watching and had no reason why other than I guess time. It's almost ironic to me that changing it back to TNA and having the presentation I remember is what got me to check it again. But here I am and 15 minutes in I'm already loving it.

And might please some other fans.

Bruno's hairpiece does the heavy lifting there! James

See I look at that and all I can think of is "I wonder how much of that match was spent in bear hugs"

What exactly is MyFaction, anyway? All I know about it is that it's way too hard to exit if you accidentally click into it. (I accidentally did just that a few days ago and was befuddled not to find a way to return to the main menu. So I figured fine, I'll make whatever initial selections I need then exit. After several minutes of making contextless choices I didn't understand, I said "fuck it" and restarted the game.)

We have a podcast crossover with McAdam on Between the Sheets today talking 1993. Next week BTS goes directly to hell. They’re covering the week that CM Punk walked out of the WWE in 2014.

Don't forget about Joe Burrow.

Pegula having a daughter playing tennis who doesn't actually win any major tournaments is weirdly on-brand

I will say it looks like a game that is just using basic assets. I played it for about three hours last night and its incredibly bland looking, I've read reviews that said (in so many words) that Game Freak should feel bad they are making the games they are once they look at Palworld and that's insane to me. Its entire look is barebones. There isn't even any ambient sound, its just dead silent while you walk around a basic looking world. The fact it has so many good reviews from major publications and getting press from others is.... suspicious, there is nothing special about this game. The Steam reviews sound like AI generated them. Anyway, I do not recommend.

I'm for the Lions from here on out. They gifted the Raiders a defeat that caused McDaniels to be fired, so I owe them that

Not having watched much Sammartino, even though he said he didn't like Flair "working the same match", what about him? What was so different about his defenses? I get the feeling this is a typical champion bitch, that the other guy is samey and boring unlike them; when really they all have a formula that they just tweak for different opponents.

Tony Romo using the phrase "to be the man, you have to beat the man" just imagining Romo commentating Flair matches and predicting all the parts of the Flair formula moments before they happen

To be fair, I would say unfortunately "we" were all a part of that segment. We will never escape the trauma.

I'll say this, I'm far more likely to set aside time to watch live than I would have otherwise because I know it's happening because of the sheer novelty of the match. Advertising novelties is a bigger thing than trying to do a shock factor of surprises every show because - as ECW found out - eventually if the fans expect a surprise every show, it's not a surprise, and they'll be disappointed if they don't get a surprise.

At least the name made sense then, because the match featured one team associated with tables, one with ladders, and one with chairs. Then for a few years "TLC match" meant a multi-team ladder match, which sort of worked. Then the Edge/Cena TLC match happened in 2006, and for the last decade and change WWE has been pretending a "TLC match" and a "ladder match" are two different match types. (Yes, the linguistic absurdity bugs me more than the overuse of ladder matches. But that bugs me too.)

Not much to add, another solid night of wrestling action and FIGHTS~!! Not that he has many singles matches, but apparently I had totally missed that Matthews had been coming out to "Eyes Adjust" by Twitching Tongues. Cool cool cool. For the uninitiated, TT's singer is Colin Young, who's also the drummer/main songwriter for God's Hate. Colin has also helped put together themes for Julia Hart and Kings of The Black Throne, and was a part of that wonderful Ass Boys theme a lil while back. Dynamite looks stacked, this has been a damn fine run for AEW since we got past the MJF/Devil nonsense.

My favorite gimmick match to announce is an Iron Man match because it has a scoreboard and clock like other sports, leading to lots of great psychology and strategy. I announced Punk vs. Daniels for IWC, but the audio got messed up. I was happy when I was asked to announce the whole thing again! Best one I ever called was Danielson vs. Doug Williams in the main event of Scramble Madness.

When WWF was part of the NWA and therefore Flair was above Backlund

The Pac vs Kenny Omega 30 minute Iron Man match was really good.

How have we not had a Bunkhouse Stampede featuring all the hosses on the AEW roster only for it to be won by Orange Cassidy dressed as Woody from Toy Story?

WCW in 1992 kicked WWF's ass in terms of overall match quality, but due to a variety of factors, it might as well have happened on Neptune. None of that equated to success.

I think the way I've always personally looked at things (and I've probably expressed this a lot so if this is rehash, well, skip on by) is that I don't like looking at things in a vacuum. Whether it's simplistic work like two people hiding a gimmick for 45 minutes, as Technico refers to them, or action-packed stunt shows, as Matt refers to them, if I don't have a reason to care about the participants and they're just interchangeable parts to get me to whatever comes next, then I don't really enjoy that. I can watch highlights and gifs and whatever for that. Like Kris Statlander. Loved her as alien Kris Statlander, thought she was great. Since coming back from injury, she's been regular old Kris Statlander from Long Island and, I dunno, it just hasn't connected the same. I guess because now there's no hook and she's just another interchangeable part, which stinks. Looking at the mechanics of what she's doing isn't different, but the hook isn't there for me anymore, and I can tell you exactly what the dividing line was and what changed for me. And it seems like every time I bring this up, someone goes "well you just want 2000s WWE with constant sports entertainment and no wrestling", and that's not what I want at all! I need something to care about other than "these people are having a match, and they want to win, and wow [can they do lots of moves/hide the gimmick]". But for some reason it seems like we can't have it all, so instead we attack each other by reducing our arguments to their most base components and call each other stupidheads.

They are starting a new series with the new game Its why they keep saying they have a time crunch to finish the current one

Teasing a tombstone and hitting a shoulderbreaker would be an interesting idea in the same spirit of Bret Hart teasing a ballstomp before stomping the chest

https://youtu.be/f7kG714usJc?si=deVpArw6WUqp_XyO The Gulf Coast Wrestling Cold Blooded Wess Warren vs Braxton Hunter in a NO DQ match. Jan 20th 2024 Bay St Louis Mississippi TGCW is a Bay St Louis MS based fed. Been running the same venue once or twice a month for a year now. Their venue is an old county bar that they have converted into a wrestling venue/school.

Football fans are an emotional bunch, its just part of the fandom, but the Bills main problems weren't coaching or Josh Allen. I've never been a fan of "in hindsight" critiques, the final drive had issues once they got in FG range but they also connected on a 4th down and the offense put up 368 yards total. Josh Allen had 3 TDs and the Bills scored on four of their first five drives. If fans could look more big picture, the big issue that hurt the Bills tonight and most of the season is their defensive line rushing the QB. The Bills have poured A LOT of money and draft capital in the defensive line. They drafted Oliver, Groot, and Boogie in the first two rounds (different years of course). They signed Miller. They signed Floyd. They've neglected other positions to get a strong line for one reason - to pressure elite QBs without crazy blitzing. And they just haven't been. They get their sack counts up against bad teams/iffy QBs but when it really matters, they don't get it done. The Bills defense just needed that one big sack, sack/fumble, etc. but there was little sustained pressure from their front line and it just allowed the Chiefs to score too consistently, putting more pressure on the Bills offense to score every time. I don't know what the solution is at this point. Oliver is good but Von Miller looks washed, Floyd faded and Groot only plays well if someone else is dominating the other side. Injuries of course hurt tonight, missing White, Milano, Benford, and Bernard hurt. But unless they figure out how to get more pressure its going to be hard to consistently beat teams with eilte QBs when it really matters, unless the offensive puts up 40+ or the other team just has a bad/sloppy day on their own.

I’d love to see them expand Shane Taylor Promotions a bit. What’s Big Shotty up to? Mike Santana? Is Ogogo still under contact? His boxing background could be a natural fit.

This is how I know I go to a "serious man's gym" I haven't seen any kids trying to lift with Crocs on. That's insane to me. Tony Atlas' photographer? Also, I am disappointed they didn't have Juice's pic on a cardboard box for the obvious Juice Box joke.

I really didn't know! They came up here in conversation the other day and I thought "boy I liked them, wonder where they went to".

Correction: Quake hunted an animal for food. What was he going to do, make his Quakeburgers out of ground beef that was easily bought at a supermarket? The man was hungry! Starving, even!

To jump back to the Metroid talk really quickly, I found a used copy of Metroid: Samus Returns for 3DS in a video game store today. I'm excited about that, particularly as Dread is my favorite Metroid game and Mercury Steam developed both it and SR. I actually like OG Metroid 2 for what it's worth, but it's obviously very limited by the platform it was on, so I'm into this re-imagining of that game.

I don't know how many of you give a crap, and I generally am not an industry head by any means, but one guy on Youtube has been around for about a year and has released some of the most well-researched and compelling comics video essays I've seen. Hell, just some of the best video essays period. Here's his latest. If you haven't seen some of his stuff before, have fun losing the rest of the afternoon. He seems to put out maybe one a month and they're all interesting stories, spending as much time digging into long past artists as modern things. And unlike some jackholes on YT, he actually credits his sources.

Gotch showed up in TNA once before

Hangman has still not overcome the stink of the CM Punk drama. He was never the same after losing the title.

I’ll be so happy when this TNA PPV is over so I’ll stop getting the Triller banner that looks like Alex Shelly is wearing a party hat.

Ah, Rose Tattoo isn't that far off. THIS is your Fear-being-far-off. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z7aV7JNRaw&ab_channel=LeeVing-Topic Fuck Merry Christmas