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LOL

Being there to witness this live with my daughter, which it was her very first live wrestling experience was surreal. I honestly didn't think anything would top seeing Kingston/Akiyama live on Zero Hour before Full Gear 2022, but I can confidently say that seeing Sting's send-off live with my kiddo and two of my best friends in the world is hands down the best live wrestling experience I've ever had in my life.

Hardcore wrestling fan brain almost took over last night at work. A cute server who only watches WWE heard me listening to a podcast and started talking about wrestling. I mentioned I watch mostly things outside WWE and she asked me to show her something. I'm seconds away from saying "Just look at how Necro's head smacks the floor after Joe suplexes him" before I think better and show her some Ospreay highlights.

So, I saw a tweet earlier today, saying 7000 tickets have been sold, all in the lower bowl, and all that is left are $50+. Ticketmaster is now showing $26 tix available in the upper deck. AEW is looking at a $500K house based on a few dollar signs on a graphic (Bo$$ton). Not bad for a T-shirt company on the verge of bankruptcy.

I noticed that Sting's run in AEW has led to a lot of people who didn't consider him great to re-evaluate their stance. I feel like the blame people would often place on Sting about how he wasn't a draw is finally being rightly placed on the incompetence in WCW (ex. Mike Sempervive on F4W and Kris Zellner on the Between The Sheets podcast both talking about how WCW's issues with attracting fans wasn't any fault of Sting's). Sting and Bret Hart were my all-time favorites and I'm happy that Sting was not only able to get a retirement on a grand stage but also get what I felt was universal praise from the fans and people in the wrestling industry. It's great that he had a promoter who was willing to allow him to go out on his own terms (I know there was talk that he wanted to lose the last match, but thankfully he was talked out of it). He could have retired when he got injured by Seth, but I'm glad that an injury didn't dictate the ending of his career like it did with Bret. He could have retired in 2009 when he put over AJ Styles at Bound For Glory or back in 2001 when WCW went under but his retirement and his career wouldn't received the recognition that it deserved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq7FKO5DlV0 In case you youngin's aren't familiar

Absolutely. Older people who got too much shit done earlier in life look like they’re auditioning for the Land of Confusion video.

I don't see Yano on this list. I need some epic bullshit encounter.

Hail Satan!

Mercedes will not be as big a deal as she could be as long as AEW sticks to its "one women's match per show" mandate. i hope this is the incentive they need to get rid of the rigidity and be able to mix things up.

Those are Punk and Miro problems, not AEW problems. You can’t cherry pick two malcontents as your examples of AEW poorly booking former WWE talent.

Mercedes already has a built-in feud with Willow they can start with.

IMHO Rampage was a solid B-show last night. B-shows can be good too, and we need B-shows. I hope they continue going somewhere with Saraya and Ruby Soho's feud. Saraya's segment was one of her more effective heel promos, and I got a kick out of setting her feral brother on hapless bystanders. I also had a drink going up my nostrils moment when Ruby said, "You and your inbred family are going to get what's coming to you!" Ideally, this should lead to some sort of mixed tag match with Saraya and Zak Knight vs. Ruby and Ang on PPV or some such.

We will see how Mercedes does in AEW. The key is not the debut. The key is the follow-up. Tony Khan got way too comfortable signing as many former WWE guys as he could so he could say, "Look who we have now!" Only to promptly forget about them or stop booking them for weeks if not months, or guys will fuck off to ROH after a notable win or loss. Not bringing in any of the guys cut by WWE last year was smart, even though the rumor was that people were pushing for AEW to sign Nic Nemeth. Nic Nemeth brings nothing of actual value to AEW right now that they don't have with a dozen other people. Not to mention he's 43. Meanwhile, Nemeth is someone New Japan and TNA can actually use at the moment. Same with Mustafa Ali. AEW's roster is bloated enough as it is and could stand to lose more guys.

DOWN! (let's see who remembers that)

I can't get over Saraya's brother looking like the lost child of Colt Cabana and Brody King.

Yes, Mr. Midlife Crisis who has sleeves for no reason is making fun of someone's appearance.

BRB gonna sacrifice a fatted calf to see if it helps

You can’t spell apartment without Apter, so I’m convinced.

He should wear matching gear with the Bucks, for the heel heat.

Oh Im sure they will be taking second billing to puppet shows any minute now

SD was fucking fun tonight! I know a lot of you don't notice or care, but holy shit. There's been so many changes in the presentation, almost all for the better, that it's nirvana for me. The announcing alone on WWE has gotten so much better now that an insane rapist isn't screaming at them. Cole and Graves have both recently said, in a political, safe way that no one is "producing" them anymore.

Just another patriot taken down by the deep state

The rainmaker is a great move to end a long battle of attrition it’s not great as a move to keep someone down after one hit, there’s a reason it was kicked out of so much. The landslide or tombstone would be better for angle situations

Yes, they are. They are still very conservative in their presentation and how matches are worked. But CMLL business really went in the shitter during the no-fans covid era, and a number of their top guys (Rush, Dragon Lee, Dinimatas, etc) left the company. CMLL was forced to push their younger talent, and with a recent change in their "programming department", that decision is just paying off in a big way. AAA is the exact opposite... theyve really focused on "guest wrestlers" rather than their full-time talent. They do the wild brawls and cartoonish attitude era presentation. And they're struggling outside of their big Triplemania shows.

Most of CMLL's current stuff is behind a paywall. The easiest way to catch up on things would be to go back to the 2023 Gran Prix, and watch the Friday shows from there. To do that you may need to find a fan of the Cubs, and see if they have any of that saved anywhere in a publicly accessible shared drive. *Nudgenudgewinkwink* A quick (very quick) primer... Mistico is the top draw, and Volador Jr is the ace of the company. Both are tecnicos by default, but Volador will work rudo opposite Mistico or when needed. Mascara Dorada 2, Soberano Jr, and Atlantis Jr are being positioned to be the cornerstones of the promotion in the near future. Ultimo Guerrero is the former ace of the company that is starting to slow down a bit, but he is consistently positioned as the top rudo in the company. A lot of things revolve around him. His brother Gran Guerrero is nowhere near as good, but gets a huge push by proxy. Niebla Roja & Angel del Oro, the Chavez Bros, are the CMLL tag champs, and dominate that division. There are a ton of great workers in the upper midcard, like Stuka Jr, Templario, Valiente, Barbaro Cabernario, Titan, Neon, Futuro, Averno, Mephesto, Blue Panther's kids, Guerrero Maya Jr, Rey Cometa... these guys are the life blood of the promotion because they just get thrown out there to have matches. Probably the biggest "angle" over the past couple years has been Rocky Romero periodically showing up to start shit and stir things up. Awhile back he beat Volador for the NWA Middleweight Title, and then Volador took his hair. Over the past year, CMLL has really out a focus on women... in fact they ran an all-women's show last night. A lot of the veteran women are oft injured, so they've really been giving young girls an opportunity. Many are green as grass, but the level of work has stepped up quite a bit. Steph Vaquer is probably the cream of these new girls, but Jarochita and Lady Isis are pretty good too. When Amapola and some of the veteran luchadors can and want to go, they can have some real good matches.

Toriyama is probably one of the best and most influential creators of the last 50 years. Returned to Dragon Ball long after it was finished and I think told even better stories for the franchise. And he was still working constantly until the end when he could've easily coasted and rested on his past success.

I'm sure one of those "ASMR artists" has recorded a version of "Relax" so that lonely men could jerk it to a Frankie Goes To Hollywood song in a different fashion than usual

That match would be fine for Zero Hour before a ppv.

I get a Killer Kross vibe from Saraya's brother.

I think that with the proper promotion and support, Mercedes could be a phenomenal asset for AEW, moreso than alot of/most of the former WWE talent they have signed. I'm really looking forward to seeing if they can capitalize on her fully.

You can say product now. And apparently there are a total of FOUR different videos for Relax. Todd is the Shadows did it for One Hit Wonderland the other week.

Oof. Pretty sure I saw the world premier of that one. Back when the world premier of a video was something anybody even noticed. Still remember the premier of Hot For Teacher. Everybody at CD Fulkes Middle School - home of the fighting lizards - couldn’t wait for that one.

Much more disciplined eating this week (calories below 2000, protein 160-190g, no uncounted food at night), somehow lost 4lb! Probably half water but I’ll take it. Decent job of alternating weights and cardio all week, but just a walk yesterday (4 miles) because I was sore and not in a running mood). Saturday cheat day let’s go!

Hey I was at this show. I have no memory of this, I assume because the minute I heard Black Veil Brides get announced I booked it to the bar for a refill of boozy beverages. A very surreal night. It was the day Jeff Hanneman of Slayer passed away. Metallica was also the headliner and it became apparent as the night went on that a large part of the crowd were "Metallica fans" but not necessarily "METAL fans". Two moments really hit home that dissonance: 1. The show started with an announcement and moment of silence for Jeff Hanneman. A dude in a Metallica t-shirt unironically asked me "Who's Jeff Hanneman?" 2. Watching everyone in Metallica shirts get alienated and pissed off as Dillinger Escape Plan's set started and continued: https://youtu.be/NgGZiQOOhAA?si=TtpAVZKpZjQZiO2a

If they go "Bloodline Rules" I can see the main event essentially becoming the final battle of Avengers Endgame. Which I'm kind of down for. Seth's face during the "crossdresser" line was gold. I was more confused by the line than anything. Clown emoji? Sure I get it. But he wears suits. Just really garish suits. I don't recall many dresses. Roman came off more like a Biff Tannen "That's as funny as a screen door on a battle ship" kinda guy here. I think Rock really crushed it with the "mistake" line and showing his work. Like your sister was a success. Your brother is a hall of famer. What did they need you for? Great job of saying something gross while making Cody even more relatable. However! My 9 year old said "Cody is definitely winning now." after Rock said that Rhodes will never be able to challenge for the title again. Sometimes you can raise the stakes too high.

Getting all that work done on your face in your late 30s and 40s do way more damage than good and make you age worse as you get older. Missy , Vince and Flair are the worst examples. Makes me wonder how my generation will be with the BBLs. It’s just not attractive. Missy would look so much better with out any work as she was so pretty in her younger years

As promised: 10. Mercedes Mone vs. KAIRI. NJPW Battle in the Valley, 18th February 2023. 9. Sasha Banks vs. Asuka. WWE RAW, 29th January 2018. 8. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair. NXT TakeOver: Rival. 7. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch. WWE Hell in a Cell 2019. 6. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley. WWE Hell in a Cell 2020. 5. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch. NXT TakeOver: Unstoppable. 4. Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte Flair. WWE RAW, 28th November 2016. 3. Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair. WWE WrestleMania XXXVII. 2. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley. NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn. *****. 1. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley. NXT TakeOver: Respect. *****. I honestly think Bayley, Bianca Belair, Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch had their best match ever with Sasha Banks. I've always preferred Banks/Bayley Iron Woman to the Brooklyn match. If you can only watch four of my ten, the top four. Niners Fan in CT is one to ask for best Sasha Banks matches as he's a big fan. Hope this helps!

Easy, easy, I said I agree with you. I'm also not suggesting anything wasn't done 'correctly'. I was offering my personal unfamiliarity with 'Sasha Banks' or 'Mercedes Mone' to say it's quite possible I missed something blatant.

I look at Sasha the same way I look at the Youg bucks(up until this heel run). I enjoy her matches, but outside of it, she doesn't really do anything for me one way or other. That being said, I'm definitely excited to see her go up against Hayter/Rosa/Stalander/Riho/Shida/Purazzo/Abadon/Hart/Skye Blue. I think her matching up with almost anyone in AEW's women division is exciting. Hayter v Banks though, that's where my top tier interest is. How far away is Hayter from returning? I feel like she's been out a long time. Same with Britt Baker

I keep a spreadsheet of all of the major promotions with the wrestlers' hometowns, weights, and signature maneuvers. I shared it with the new announcer for New Japan (Walker Stewart). We gotta help each other out!

So you're equating your own personal unfamiliarity with somebody, to a whole company not advertising them correctly? I can assure you, anybody who's been aware of the former Sasha Banks - which is a very large portion of the US wrestling viewing population - can see the extremely obvious branding for what it is.

I love Rebirth so much. Right now I’m in Junon. I 100%’d the Grasslands and when the next area was end tunnels, which reminded me of some of the parts of Remake that were a drag, I got pretty bummed thinking Grasslands was going to be the only open world, find all of this stuff, do things in whatever order you want place in the game. And then I got to Junon and was pretty happy that the open world stuff returned there. Raziel’s words about combat should help because I was getting a little overwhelmed at all of the combat options and not really understanding them or finding a groove like I did in Remake. The other part that I feel is lacking is, well, the lack of Queen’s Blood opponents. I was probably hoping for too much that Queen’s Blood would be as big and as important here as Gwent was in the Witcher 3, even though I didn’t play any Gwent. I just remember there being a ton of Gwent opponents and high level quests revolving around that game. The one thing I need to do is break myself away from Tifa and Aerith. They and Cloud were my go to companions in Remake and other than when I was forced to not use any of them, I have only used them. I guess the good thing is that I have yet to cast Prayer once whereas I cast it often in Remake. Aerith also isn’t even a glass cannon. She’s just a glass, uh, nerf gun. I’ve seen others successful dominate fights with her by teleporting all over the place, but I don’t know how that works and her ranged attacks not only hit so softly, but she pulls aggro way more than Cloud or Tifa. I switch over to Aerith to get in a couple shots just to pump up her ATB meter so I can cast a spell. I fire off one shot with her and immediately all enemies stop what they’re doing and swarm on her. But if I don’t do that, then she just sits there basically does fuck all except for casting Cure once every few fights and that’s with having Auto Cast materia on her. One last random thing, I’m almost surprised that no one has knocked the game for not changing practically anything with summons especially after they were a high point with 16. At the same time, I appreciate them not really changing things that much because it keeps a sort of gameplay continuity with Remake. It gives me hope that since they basically have a winning formula that we won’t need to wait nearly as long for part 3 as we did for part 2. I still have no clue how big this game is or where it’s going to end, if that end will mirror a part of the original which I think it will, if it will go in a totally new direction, or really where things are headed. I do feel based on cutscenes I’ve experienced and conversations that the characters have had with each other that there really is some kind of Crisis on Infinite FF7s going on here. I hope this isn’t spoiling much, but outside of the start of the game, for saying that fate and destiny are basically thrown out the window after the end of Remake, this game so far has been almost one for one with the original. More than Remake was. With a lot of games I have a decent idea for where things are going. With this, I really don’t know where it’s going and I like that. For now…

State of NJPW right now, NJPW needs wrestlers from AEW more than ever. Be interesting to see what we get at Forbidden Door especially and WrestleDream.

They’re gonna let him book his entire block in the G1, aren’t they?

Warrior is definitely so bad its good territory

Averno can still go, especially when basing for high flyers, but Mephesto is starting to show his age... not sure I would bring them in. If it was still 2015, sure. Maybe if they get a match against a couple small guys they can toss around, but probably not anyone that would want to do complicated spots. Atlantis Sr. just cannot go anymore, and I don't think he would translate well to US television because of that. Lucha fans have reverence for legends, and he can hide out in a tag match where he doesn't have to take any bumps, and can get pops for his classic spots. I don't see that working out in AEW, where the fans generally won't know his repertoire, and he will just look like a slow old man. THE tag team to bring in would be the current CMLL Tag Champs, the Chavez brothers (Angel del Oro & Niebla Rojo). They're a blend between a classic basing rudo team (Like Averno & Mephesto back in their heyday) and a pretty boy shitheel like Hector Garza. They'd be like two smaller Claudios with nice hair, lol

"Keep Damien 666 in your prayers" is the height of unintentional comedy today.

Owen was kind of the perfect middle ground; he was a family man whose only road vice was deviously elaborate pranks. No prankster who also parties hard on the road is going to have the discipline or energy to fill their boss’s office with livestock.

Chase Owens defeating Ishii is the new worst thing Gedo has ever done.