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Here's something that I'm sure didn't come through on the stream, and probably only the people sitting around me noticed. The person right next to me brought their daughter to the show, who I'm gonna say was around 4 years old, and during the main event she was on her mom's phone, on TikTok or something. So for some of us, for about 30 seconds, the very intense Makabe-Thatcher matwork was accompanied by the sounds of Scatman's World (possibly sped up a little). When it stopped, somebody was like "No, keep playing it!" Pro wrestling, as we all know, is weird and dumb and wonderful.

This happened tonight! DG is super cool.

Oh god fuck this guy. Some real boomer-ass “I work 18 hour days and never see my kids” grindcore bullshit. This is up there with Undertaker’s “today’s locker room is soft” comments. “I made every town, slept 5 to a room, held Shawn’s hair when he puked, drove cars for addicts because I was sober, jobbed like crazy, etc, and you don’t belong here if you can’t work that hard.” I swear wrestling will never get better until we’re at least a generation or two removed from these old school carny fucks.

I just got home and am having a Steel Reserve in Dean's honor. The show was a fucking success in every way and I can't say enough how happy and even proud I am to be part of this board. I love you all (except for the ones I ignore including one I met today) and hope we can do this again. If you saw it you know the show ruled but if not I really hope you check it out in some way. I'll have more say but I'll save that for the daytime when I'm more awake. But I will say one thing that's been said already: DEAN~! RULES THE MOTHERFUCKING WORLD~!

Man, Roman's schedule would put the average NWA champ to shame. All the grind and no time off.

I don't mean this as a slight to anyone who went on before intermission, but everything after intermission was incredible. Slim J vs Adam Priest was my MOTN but you could pick from lots of others and I wouldn't argue with you. Also this was my first live show since pre-pandemic, and I got to say hi to quite a few people that I haven't seen in person in literally years. Flew in just for this show and I'm very happy I did.

Honestly this really showed that Thatcher is one of the best in the world. Dude worked an absolute belter at Bloodsport, drove from Philly to NJ, minimum 90 minutes, shows up with welts from the former match still visible, and absolutely knocks it out with another incredible match in which he looked as if he was totally fresh. Just unreal stuff.

We love and miss you, DEAN xxx.

from the reaction in the chat, I will be picking this one up when my disability check comes in next week. Pro Wrestling, Motherfuckers. #1 and the best. Simultaneously art and brutality

That show couldn't have gone any better. DEAN RULES THE MOTHERFUCKING WORLD!

And then things began to evolve...

It's throwing shade at themselves if anything. They literally put a guy in one of the biggest main events of the year who ain't been a full time wrestler in over twenty years. If you were born 21 years ago, you don't remember Dwayne Johnson as a full time wrestler. You can say he earned it, but WrestleMania weekend is also where you have men and women literally wrestling up to 2-3 times a day over the course of 3-4 days. There are folks on the WWE roster who probably average 2-3 matches A MONTH if that. The fuck is he going on about.

Such a wholesome way to pay tribute to the late great DEAN. Shows how loved the man is. This is the best message board I've ever been part of and this reaffirms that feeling. I love you all, Paul xxx.

Met Johnny, Nick, Pete, Ray, and Bix at Palermo's before the show. Lovely people. Truly outstanding show. Was especially impressed by Krule and Warhorse, who had to follow an incredible Cerebro-Gringo Loco match and still tore the house down. Ending a Dean tribute with a Battlarts-style match was a thing of beauty. The floor in front of me was covered in Connelly and Demus' blood, and each man managed to graze me with the trash can they threw at each other...

Up and down,one of the best independent wrestling shows I've ever seen. Loved every match. Thank you to everyone in the Discord for watching this with me. Thank you to everyone who made this show happen. Thank you to this board. Thank you DEAN. Pro wrestling motherfuckers.

ACTION DEAN RULES THE MOTHERFUCKING WORLD~!!!

My cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing for 3+ hours straight. Also had a near-miss with the trash can during Demus/Connelly, so I guess I was somewhere near @The Comedian. It was the beer and blood section for the remainder of the show. My brother and I were happy to get to see Colby wrestle 25 years after we watched his dad tear down an armory with Devon Storm at one of our first indie shows. The experience of the dog collar match followed by everyone then somehow being more horrified by the gnarly stuff in Thatcher/Makabe was a thing of beauty. Krule is an absolute unit, and I was about as freaked out by him making eye contact with me tonight as I would’ve been if I’d had a face-to-face with Kane as a child (Mag Dog Connelly is still somehow more terrifying.) I’m intrigued by what the Gresham match will look like. I kind of regret not picking up a signed White Mike glossy 8x10. It was a lovely event with a hot crowd full of great energy. To the extent that I knew his tastes, to me the entire card screamed Dean.

A MILLION STARS~!

Why would you willingly wade through BS though? If you see a river of bullshit by the side of the road, do you think "Well, I'd better stop the car and get out to wade through that, there might be a good point somewhere in there"?. Nah. You keep driving, and hope to outdistance the aroma ASAP.

Hopefully all of the wrestlers who are travelling in from other shows that just ended an hour ago aren't going to have any trouble getting to the building. Can we get this image on the front page of the website or something?

I know you know this because you were there, but in case it didn't come through on the stream - Priest was taking verbal shots at Slim J through the whole match. That's a big part of the reason why it was my MOTN. I was invested in supporting Slim, a lot of the crowd was, and Priest used that to his advantage. "You people didn't care about him until now," "Maybe Tony was right to fire you," "I'm better than you because I didn't lose my job," etc. So Priest had me actually mad about what he was saying. (Then he started wrestling and all I can do is think "fuck, he's so good".) edit to add: Slim J, for his part, came off as extremely motivated and obviously great too. I know it's happened so many other times with so many other people for whatever reason, but it's crazy that someone as good as he is right now doesn't at LEAST have a secure spot in a major company.

I had an absolute blast last night. Pro wrestling live is always fun. And some of Dean’s best stuff came from his road reports, where it just made me wish I lived in Richmond so I could have a 40 and watch some indie sleaze. This show was really in that spirit. It had a lot for everyone. I know nothing about indie wrestling anymore. The only guy on the show I knew was Timothy Thatcher. But I was really impressed by as someone said earlier the curation of the show — some really good goofball stuff to brawls and etc. The post-intermission stuff was a little more “serious” but the matches were really great. Some of the highlights: The tag match with Wasted Youth was a really great 2000 indie juniors tag team match. And you know what? People shit on that stuff now (9/11 changed everything) but we all loved it back then. It had what those matches should have: Long haired babyfaces who have emo theme music and an insane name, cocksure jock arrogant heels who talk shit, and just the basic tag structure match but in the style where the ref at the end just stops enforcing the five count and let’s double teams happen and they all break out moves that were so completely new. It felt very OMEGA or that indie in Delaware that did the Super 8. My only notes are that I do not believe any of the participants had the first name of “Shayne” or any of the other derivatives of that name so common to indie wrestlers born in the late 70s. (I believe Dean made this commentary at one point.) The double dog collar match was so great. Usually that’s a stipulation to end a blood feud and I could easily see some dork complaining about a dog collar match with some random pairing of dudes who never met before being an awful booking decision. But fuck that noise. Dean was a huge fan of the absurdity of wrestling and “yeah, sure, I will fly in from Mexico to get in a dog collar match against a guy who was apparently decreed by a royal authority as the King of the Dog Collar Match” is hilariously absurd. And Dean also loved blood and gore. One of the best Dean reviews was on the Dump Matsumoto hair versus hair match where she did something despicable to win and shaved the beloved babyface’s hair — writing about it being representative of the darker nature of life, and the fears of the innocent have about being corrupted into darkness. This match obviously was not part of a broader angle that was the Hulk/Andre of Japanese women’s wrestling, But any kind of match like this, where a guy from Mexico is willing to fly to the fringe of the South Jersey suburbs to get the fuck whipped out of him with a chain and to bleed, is always representative of mankind’s darker natures. We all have a dark side. But almost all of us abide by a social code where we will not give into the demon’s we all carry. A match like this — chaotic, brutal, ugly, bloody and for no real reason than to just be chaotic, brutal, ugly and bloody — always feels somehow cathartic to me. There’s a part of me (and I assume all of us) that would like to drown in chaos of my own making. (Also, that match was fun as fuck.) (Also, I have no idea how to do footnotes, or else I would in homage to the DVDVR’s usage of footnotes, which I believe was a Ganc trademark.) The main event blew me away. Timothy Thatcher was the one guy I knew, and that was only because he was on AEW for a minute. But this was pro wrestling as art. “Telling a story in the ring” is the wrestling snob’s cliche. But so often, the wrestlers might think they are telling a story but it’s really hard for the audience to see the story — especially live and without announcers. They told a great story. The Wrestling Genius believes in sportsmanship. Thatcher did not cheat, but he was uncomfortably ruthless and dickish in a lot of his actions (all expressed with his facial expressions.) Thatcher targeted Macabee’s left hand succesfully. Macabre went after the ankle but was never able to fully hook his submission. Instead, he had to win by another method — And that was three punches from his right hand. (I don’t remember ever seeing a punch ending a match unless it was a guy’s finisher or involved a roll of coins. But when you think about it — it’s the best finisher. Punches end fights, even when thrown in real life by people who have never thrown a fist.) But what was best about this was the crowd’s reaction. It was silent for a lot of the beginning — but because we were all focused on the intensity and wizardry and seeing their strategies unfold. Then we got louder as the match progressed, with everyone acting it was like a horror movie because someone twisted an elbow in a funky way or bent a wrist back. We all know what it’s like to roll an ankle or jam a finger, and seeing that in an exaggerated visual form 10 feet in front of you really makes you conjure up those memories. And I’m sure the knot tying joint work hurts, but it’s also not going to hurt or cause the damage of blading or back bumps. (I assume.) But one thing I noticed (and I am sure everyone did) was that they did not talk at all during the match. We all know the tricks of when a spot is being called (even when we can’t hear it.) I talked with Macabee after the show and asked about it and how they didn’t seem to talk or call things. He said they didn’t. They had a few matches against each other before and wrestled a simulated “real wrestling match.” I am so blown away by that. As you guys probably know, I was a comedian for about 15 years. Comedy and wrestling are both live performance art. One of the many things in common is that you have to learn to feel or hear a crowd. But, most importantly, you have to recognize what the crowd is telling you — when to pick up the pace or when to heighten your act/work to a spot that will pop the crowd or when to slow things back down and start to build to your next punchline/spot or then how to build to the big finish. I usually don’t care how wrestlers build their stories when Bret Hart or whoever brag about not needing to plan out a match or call a spot. The final performance is all that matters. But watching it in an intimate setting, it really just blew me away that they were able to dance like that. Amazing time. DEAN~ FOREVER!

One of the best shows I’ve ever been to and an absolute blast. Nice to put some faces to usernames. It’s not everyday you catch a suicide dive from a luchador.

Missed the first match and a half thanks to traffic, but had a blast. It’s only the second indie show I’ve ever seen and I’m certain that won’t be topped. Going in, I only knew a few of the workers but everyone was fantastic. Demus-Mad Dog was just ridiculously stiff in addition to the plunder and blood. Filthy Tom got dropkicked in a chair right in front of me. Was super impressed with Warhorse, and Krule was fucking scary. The main had super nasty limb work, a lot of us were visibly and audibly cringing. It was great to meet and hang out with Gregg, and I got to meet Phil Schneider and Johnny Sorrow. Was a little overwhelmed and tired so not as outgoing as I thought I would be, and sad I didn’t try and meet/introduce myself to more of y’all.

The VoD is up on IWTV, as of five hours ago.

I don't think I realized how much I needed the simple joy of that DEAN show. Just a bunch of good fucking pro wrestling with good people. Soul food.

I know a lot of work went into DEAN! And it was meant as a one off but the show was a ton of fun is there any chance of another DVDVR show down the line?

The show was incredible. It was so great to hang with Pete and Ray again after all these years, and to get to meet in person so many cool folks from the board/ internet. Makabe was a guest on one of my podcasts a few years ago, and getting to talk and hang with him a bit was a blast. The entire night was amazing.

I unfortunately missed that first hour, but jumped in right at 9 (10 Eastern) as Gringo was entering the ring. Will watch the rest and comment later on today, for now here's what my viewing brought.

I'd love to see Cornette's timestamps 00:00 - 00:05 - intro and discussion of fast food 00:05 - 21:02 - casual racism 21:02 - 45:30 - Anti AEW rant to play to my base (NOTE: includes casual racism, misogyny, and homophobia) 45:30 - 52:10 - political discourse where I swear I'm left-leaning despite 45 minutes of casual racism, misogyny, and homophobia 52:10 - 55:40 - Russo death threat of the week 55:40 - 60:00 - more food talk mixed with casual racism and possibly classism if discussing fast food employees. Also faux outrage because that's my gimmick

Planning to post a longer write up later, but I flew up from St. Louis for this show and it was worth every single penny I paid for the flight and ticket. I’m attending Dynasty in a couple weeks and I find it very very unlikely it will be a better show. The first half of the show was great, but that 2nd half man. It’s a damn small list of shows who can have 3 matches like Priest-Slim J, Mad Dog-Demus, and Daniel-Thatcher on one card.

Great show from last night. Loved every minute of it. Demus vs Connelly has to be one of the most insane matches I’ve ever seen. Slim J vs Adam Priest was incredible. As I said on Twitter, the whole show was a celebration and appreciation of the many types of styles of pro wrestling that Dean influenced and introduced many too. Any other show this weekend is gonna have a hard time topping it.

That's totally on the table. The one thing that you could count on is the WWF prop department nailing that. They also had enough folks in the inner circle like Cornette who knew how to work fake dishwashing soap so you can throw liquid in someone's eyes safely and folks at ringside be able to get a whiff of something that smells remotely like a dishwashing soap. That is how insanely carny pro wrestling is.

The Irish Bodydonna, David "Fit" Finley

Well, I guess if they had to get someone for a Ben Franklin movie, Michael Douglas is probably the right call, since he knows the travails of STDs as well as anyone.

Absolutely loved the show especially the 2nd half. The atmosphere was great for almost everything that night. Even if you are just a regular at H2o shows, it should have just satisfied you. Only negative (well beside Google Map driving my ass through every residential street in Gloucester trying to get there ) was that Tank was definitely not a fan of DEAN beer choices.

I caught the first half of the show live. Thought it was awesome I had to do some other things after intermission but I plan on watching it. That was my second time seeing Warhorse and a lot has changed in 4 years. And like I had previously said Gringo vs Cerebro was really good.

That was a fun show. Congrats to all involved on getting it together and pulling it off.

Can't imagine there's gonna be a better wrestling show this year. Not just for the peaks, though there were plenty of extremely impressive ones, but also for the sheer variety and range. Nearly every match was totally different from the ones around it and there was a real variety of wrestling styles and genres represented. Last couple matches just absolutely tore it down as well. Fantastic stuff. A real fitting tribute. Loved it.

Bloodsport ruled. They probably should have stopped after Shayna/Masha because that really felt like the main event in every way, but you know. Nic Nemeth doing a Greco Roman bit was so fun and a good contrast to Speedball. Baby Regal looked great. Thatcher and Axel had a heater while the Astronauts and MiSu had a lot of fun with a casual night. Just a real fun, breezy show.

at least Gen Z is rejecting the grind till you die life style like Millennials rejected everyone having to have two and a half kids and a white picket fence. Good for them i say

I don’t know if it was visible on the stream, but before the bell Connelly tugged on the chain and it stiffed Demus in the nose. After that it felt like Demus knew what was up and he was ready to go to hell with Mad Dog.

That was probably mixed in with the casual racism.

It's funny because he's trying to qualify it by saying "early in your career," making sure to only criticize non-veterans and non-legends. But at face value, he's still just telling younger wrestlers "don't come here if you don't want us working you like a dog." Like killing yourself for a job is commendable.

Watching FITE this afternoon, he wrestled in the Progress opener at 3 pm and hauled ass to the Wrestling Revolver show like 90 minutes later. So he's already worked at least 5 matches in the last 24 hours, and I'm sure there has to be another show he snuck in. This motherfucker is EVERYWHERE, and more power to him.

I was super into Priest heeling it up as well, just classic total dickhead stuff, wasn’t trying to be cool or hip. And like Gregg mentioned with Thatcher, he was never truly cheating but he added a taste of dickishness to everything he did.

Adam Priest is built like a brick shithouse. I totally see the Noble/Dynamite Kid comparisons, but he also had an old school southern heel FTR thing going on. Thatcher was also in incredible shape. To quote 30 Rock, his back is like a barrel of snakes.

Yeah, he wasn't really a Basketballer. It's just, when he was training to wrestle, he was short on finance and couldn't afford to go to the barbershop, so his afro grew out really big. So they gave him an ABA gimmick because he looked the part.

Gringo Loco wrestled Kenta earlier this afternoon then went out and had THAT match with Cerebro.