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I harp on this every time she's on, so I'm sorry to everyone reading this for the millionth time, but Lady Frost has the potential to be a money-printing machine based on gimmick and presence alone. It's almost driving me insane that she doesn't have an action figure in every Target in America. The fact that she's outshone nearly everyone she's been in with (besides maybe Athena?) is just the icing on the cake.

Regarding good overbooked matches, Raven vs. Saturn at Fall Brawl '98 doesn't get really good until the overbooking. It depends on well-executed overbooking to go from "solid match" to "great match." Then again, if something has a lot of ga-ga, but the ga-ga enhances the match, then it isn't really overbooked. It's well-booked. I submit that we change the term overbooked match to the term gagaful match. Or jibberjabberful match, I'm not picky.

I'm glad they changed her residence to "Imperial Iceland." They legit used to bill her as just being "from someplace cold" and it drove me up a wall how low effort that was.

I watched it with my wife this weekend. She had the same reaction and I was like, oh, it’s actually worse than how it’s told in the movie. There’s another son that also meets a tragic end and Fritz was probably a bigger piece of shit than this portrayal.

I've known Brittany(SHOOT NAME, BROTHA~!) since she was a server at the Pittsburgh bar/restaurant I was a regular at back in the late 2000's-early 2010's so I'm obviously biased here but it's SO cool watching her improve a ton in the ring over the past 5 years and legitimately make a name for herself in the business. The sky truly is the limit for her.

This is wonderful but I'm glad she didn't come in a second earlier when they were chanting for Athena.

...bad?

Tito's Flying Forearm was a thing of beauty. He hit it fast and clean that it was credible as a finisher and would be today! James

I'm on an airplane! The KOTR and QOTR tournament continue! Notably, Kofi Kingston defeated Rey Mysterio over the weekend, so he will move on. His prize is death by GUNTHER tonight. Please enjoy!

Honesty, just have Lady Frost watch Batman & Robin on loop until she develops a skill for cold-related puns and it's a license to print money. WHAT KILLED DE DINO-SAWAHS? DE ICE AGE! AH AH HA HA HA HA

I haven't quite ventured into shows yet - I tend not to watch shows because binge watching it or watching a season altogether is opposite of what was intended. It's already nerve wracking enough to try to watch 30+ movies in a month! Maybe I can approach The Curse as a long movie versus a TV series.

I almost hit you with a gorilla monsoon ish WILL YOU STOP but remembered that was Ventura, not heenan

"Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat." - Ancient Klingon Proverb

I'm not quite so sure. He managed to move into digital realms with all the CGI monster movies and stay just as cheap, sleazy, and lowest-common-denominator. If it had his name, it was an extension, and if someone is putting out 1000 Gigantic Killer Spidersharks or whatever then there is still a derivative of Roger Corman floating around out there. Hell, if there is EXPLOITATION as CINEMA there will always be Roger Corman. He is the Big Bang for all of it, alongside William Castle, and probably going back a little further the Poverty Row films. You can't bury his influence. I love Roger, so much. Not just the directorial successes, whether I've seen them or not, like The Intruders or The Trip which I've still never watched. All the Poe films, especially The Masque of the Red Death (Fall and Pit were two of the first VHS tapes I ever owned). The Wild Angels, which I own the vinyl of the soundtrack to. The St. Valentine's Day Massacre. And his productions? Death Race 2000. Humanoids from the Deep, which my parents took off my Xmas list and bought for me at the age of ten! Carnosaur, which I used my VHS copy of to allow a sampling of for a band's record one time. It's endless. He was the master.

Man, Shane got rocked on that spear.

I have a feeling the whole thing is a work. "2024 being Danielson's last year as an in-ring competitor" is a long-term angle. We're starting to see where it is going; Claudio cut that backstage promo on Collision where be basically said that he will always have Danielson's back, but that he will not help him cripple himself. Every time Danielson has one of these "Dream Matches" they talk about the physical toll it is taking on him. The match with Ospreay and the worked injury from the Tiger Driver... This is all going somewhere and building to something, and I don't think it is a Sting-like send off.

Nothing should surprise people in the wrestling business.

If Buzz Sawyer was a cat

Would the Savage/Warrior match with all the Liz/Sherri stuff be considered overbooked? There was a lot going on there with the finish and the post-match stuff, but it’s very well-liked.

Really good crowd early, for the Collision/ Rampage show. Obviously they burnt out as the night went on, but a few of the wrestlers in the later matches found interesting ways of bringing them back. Top Flight changing their gear from mostly Black to mostly Green is a choice. Looked a bit military, and there's already a tag team doing a military gimmick over there. Good match though. It's pretty mindblowing how, if you didn't know Dante had broken his leg really badly just over a year ago, you'd never be able to tell. The miracles of youth and modern medicine working well. Not sure why Claudio does the Naruto run before the double stomp, he can't be stealing a Kidd Bandit spot, can he? Dante seemed to not know what to do with his hands during the Giant Swing, he went from covering up to limp hanging and back a couple of times. Danielson started cutting an in-ring promo about the match we cannot initialise (because Anarchy in the Arena is not the 'Am I The Asshole?' match) and Claudio walked out, but then they addressed it later in the show. He's not mad, just disappointed. Running a show simultaneously with an NJPW USA PPV, when Mox and Kingston are both booked on the NJPW show, it really makes you realise exactly how stacked the AEW roster is. Because two (or more) of the biggest stars in the company weren't there, and you'd never know from watching the show. Will Ospreay vs Lee Moriarty, that was a good match. Roddy Strong's whole "Yelling the first name" thing didn't come up as much on commentary, because he only does it when directly addressing someone, not talking about them. We could have had him going "Wristlock applied by LEE! but WILL! is able to flip away from the pressure". Lee Moriarty continues to use the Border City Stretch, despite the fact that the MCMG are apparently on their way in. Perhaps we'll get a continuation of the Moriarty vs Shelley rivalry/friendship in AEW though. If it drives people to watching thier 2019 matches, that could boost Lee in a few people's eyes. Mercedes Mone capable of throwing a ball, CONFIRMED! Yeah, I'm never going to understand the Baseball thing. I admire Toa Liona's commitment to having a classic "Samoan Wrestler" look. All of those Bloodline guys with their slender abdomens, running around looking like underwear models. AFA AND SIKA AIN'T DO NO SIT-UPS! Despite them having easily despatched of the Tik Tok Twins and Not Tom Lawler, Swerve Strickland then proved that his former muscle weren't very good muscle by beating the three of them up singlehandedly. Toa Liona ran into the cinderblock shot so fast that it gashed the hell out of his arm. Dax Harwood vs Dynamite Kid Tommy Billington, in a match that was clearly an example of Dax living out his early 90s Hart Family feud aspirations. Young Tommy, despite his extreme youth (Cagematch says he's 23, but he was 15 when he showed up in Defiant Wrestling 5 years ago), does nothing in the ring that's really post- Bret vs Owen. It would be quite interesting to see Billington vs Nick Wayne or someone like that, who is so modern in his in-ring stuff. He might not have earned himself an "IS ALL ELITE" banner based on this one performance, but he's certainly earned a second look at least. It was a pleasant surprise that the match went 12 minutes and was back and forth; Dax could have squashed him in 3 if he'd wanted. Most unsigned guys don't go over 10 minutes on their company debut. But Dax's throwback spots, his "let's do this thing from this one specific Bret match" made it pretty clear why it went that long. The fans were super-hot for the Adam Copeland vs Kyle O'Reilly match. Cope got a big babyface reaction coming out, but he was definitely the heel in the match. Like he got booed for using a rope break to escape a submission hold. Nigel quoting the Stone Roses on commentary, and Tony Schiavone clearly had no idea what he was talking about. The fans really elevated this match; The actual television build to it made it feel somewhat like just another match, but the live crowd being so into it conferred a Big Fight Feeling upon it anyway. Nigel calling the Les Kellet Lariat as the Les Kellett Lariat was good. So much better than the Rebound Lariat (surely that's all of them? What is running the ropes, if not rebounding?), or the Wackyline. Dalton Castle vs Trent had a much lesser reaction, but quite possibly they were exhausted. Disappointing lack of heel heat for Trent's control segments, but they came alive for Dalton's suplexes out of the control segment. Dalton does have really good timing on them, to be fair. Bryan Keith vs JD Drake had a near-silent crowd too, but then JD actually made the most of it with a fucking LOUD chop in the corner. And then they basically sprinted to the finish from there, which kept the fans into it for the whole closing stretch. Now Lady Frost vs Deonna Purrazzo, that's clearly intended as a Purrazzo showcase because she's the one getting the push and so on, but she really didn't do anything memorable. Sometimes it feels like her "Great technical wrestler" thing is more that she's a regular wrestler doing a "Great technician" gimmick, rather than being an actual technique specialist. Whereas Lady Frost, being the super agile ex-gymnast, almost everything she does looks spectacular. She's very precise in her athletic execution, but she makes the actual wrestling move she's flipping into look devastating and painful too. The "Murder Gymnastics" stylistic tag that initially confused Tony is paid off by the way she wrestles. Also I saw her on twitter talking about how she loves all of the support that fans are showing towards male wrestlers who can keep getting it done over the age of 40, and hopes that they'll extend the same support to women wrestlers who are in their 40s too. So I looked up her age, and she's 39. I would have guessed she was in her early 30s tops, but apparently she was already out of her 20s when she had her first match (on WWE Raw, before she actually started training to wrestle). Thunder Rosa brought a lot of intensity with her run-in. Surprising though, that AEW security attempted a pull apart and actually kept the wrestlers apart the whole time. Usually they break free periodically. This was the first ever Johnny TV vs Pac match in history. Somehow they managed to miss one another on their WWE runs (meaning they were almost never in the company at the same time), and nobody ever booked it on the indies either. Nigel discussing how Johnny has great genetics, then segues into speculating what it would be like if he and Taya had a child (implying that said child would be a highly evolved athletic wunderkind), and Tony misses his point and thinks he's doing a "Snobby heel, disgusted at the thought of sexual reproduction" routine. Everyone assumed that Johnny TV's AEW name was Johnny TV because he's Johnny Television, but what if we've all got it wrong? Perhaps he's actually Johnny Taya Valkyrie? The show ended, not with a victory celebration, but with the winner pissed off in the ring because the final segment was a backstage promo cut upon him. That's pretty Sports Entertainment, that. Going off the air on a down note... even though it was less like Rampage was the Third Hour of Nitro (when the NWO show up), and more like it was the Collision after-party.

Does Deonna have any other mannerisms other then that hand wave, or any personality at all? No? Okay then. At least we were spared Rosa yelling about being held down again. I'm really intrigued by the Claudio walk-out. I HOPE it's just that Claudio still doesn't trust Eddie, and not that they're thinking of possibly breaking up the BCC.

I would agree with that from what was said in the 30 for 30 docu (and with what I remember from the Highspots shoot interview). I am not sure which effect the child trafficking had on Ric but one thing that is sure is that Ric had lots of issues with his adoptive father. I think Ric wanted nothing more than approval from him but their personalities were way too different. His adoptive father was a doctor and wanted Ric to have a "proper" job, Ric was into sports and dropped out of college. The other thing that stuck into my brain was what Ric's first wife Leslie (the mother of Megan and David) said in the 30 for 30 docu. I think the summary of what she said was that she married Richard Fliehr, at a certain point Richard Fliehr changed into Ric Flair and Ric did not like being Richard Fliehr so basically the Richard Fliehr part of his persona "died". But being Ric Flair only works when you are in the spotlight. Also you hurt your loved ones and (in the long term) yourself. I suppose Ric is struggling for the last, I don't know maybe even 25 years or more (when he got pushed away from a featured position in WCW), trying to come to terms with having to be Richard Fliehr again. Obviously, also just a cold reading, but I guess any psychologist worth his title would have a field day with Ric and could write at least a paper if not a book on him (like people did with Bobby Fischer).

Asa a long time member (late 90's) but rare poster I always looked forward to the wit and wisdom Dean brought to these forums as we talked about the best thing in the world. The world is a little darker place without Dean in it. May he rest in peace.

Been thinking about DEAN on his one year anniversary today. Scary it's a year. I don't have the way with words. Just wanted to say I love and miss you, fella from Paul xxx.

It's been a year today. Not a day goes by where I don't miss the big guy and his presence. I don't watch a new match without wondering what his one line thought on it in a massive stream of consciousness paragraph would have been (though, I can imagine it at least because you learned to anticipate the patterns, which is its own sort of blessing). I should have my review of the Action show going up tonight on SC. I talked to my parents this morning. Took the 6 year old to swim lesson. Am reaching out to you guys now. Nothing is assured in this life. Go say hi to your loved ones today.

C&P from f4wonline.com: Here is the updated lineup for Dominion, June 9th: IWGP World Heavyweight title: Jon Moxley defends against EVIL NEVER Openweight title: Shingo Takagi defends against Henare KOPW 2024: Yuya Uemura defends against Great-O-Khan NJPW World Television title: Jeff Cobb defends against Tomohiro Ishii Four-way tornado elimination match for IWGP & NJPW Strong Tag Team titles: ELP & Hikuelo (NJPW Strong Tag Team Champions) vs. KENTA & Chase Owens (IWGP Tag Team Champions) vs. TMDK (Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls) vs. Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) Best of the Super Juniors 31 final.

https://youtu.be/qgbtOay_58s?si=THZ-SHItjcDzlS3n Jerell The Beast Maxwell vs The Puerto Rican Juggernaught Angel Camacho Maxwell is a MS/AL coast guy that hass been around close to 10 years. Angel is a DFW based guy that is branching out into LA/Ar/MS. He's appeared on Impact and supposedly booked for the upcomign NWA tapings in TX soon.

I've been screaming this since... geez, not that long actually. It was the CMLL Women's Gran Prix from a year or two ago and she looked like a megastar.

Their only match from Smackdown a 2 years ago was great.

After MOX gets the three count on SHOTA most of the audience bolts for the exits and misses John's post match promo and HOT post match attack and spray painting of the belt (I agree with @The Natural about how horrible it looks) to set up this match

@Andrew POE!, if/when you get around to watching The Curse, please check in with us when you've finished episode 9 and have not watched 10 yet. I would just love to see your predictions for what you think will happen in 10.

NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 5 4 2024 IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Jon Moxley (C) vs Ren Narita https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8xzswq There is more current NJPW on Dailymotion, but not a lot.

Starrcade ’98 notes: I can scarcely believe that I’ve nearly made it through another full year of WCW television. I can see a light at the end of this tunnel. Oops, the light is blocked now. Hey, wait, is that a train called 1999 WCW coming toward me? Are you ready for some pro wrestling? Or instead, are you ready for Bret Hart, Scott Steiner, and Chris Jericho shilling a live QVC show for later in the week? I sure hope you answered that second one. I forgot to mention that the desk has reported that the Four Horsemen are banned from the arena aside from Ric Flair. Gene Okerlund and Bob Ryder have some further SCOOPZ~ if you ae so inclined to shell out some cash. *shhh* Hush, everyone. We’ve caught a sight of a truly rare beast – a hot opening Cruiserweight match on a WCW show! No, no, hold your voice down. You might scare it away if we’re not careful. Rey Misterio Jr. gets his own entrance theme tonight as he prepares to face Juvi Guerrera and Billy Kidman. Juvi is a dick to the babyfaces, so Kidman goes over to Rey and is like, Let’s fuck this dude up. They proceed to fuck Juvi up, until the point at which Rey mistimes a forearm and he and Kidman throw blows. That loudmouth Juvi gets right in front of them and cheers them on, so they punch him. Heh, that was a pretty good spot! Otherwise, I am not inclined to call this sometimes wild series of spots. Some cool stuff happens, but I’ll save my words for only the coolest of stuff. Some of these spots are contrived, but I’ll do my best to ignore those. Juvi is really funny tonight; he is able to counter an exchange by double bulldogging his opponents, then wearily crawls over to the corner and speaks to the camera: “[in pain, sucking in some air] Whooooo [catches breath, winks]. Don’t worry, I got this. I got it.” I think I’m rooting for Juvi now? I really am a boilerplate normie American pro wrestling fan. The guy with enough charisma to make me laugh is the one whom I want to win. They work this match in a way that there’s not too much laying around for one person while the other two have a one-on-one match. It’s better structured like the early ECW triple threats where it’s worked like a perpetually shifting handicap match. I do wonder why they don’t have more elimination triple threats, which the early ECW ones did IIRC. That’s a better structure for this type of match than a straight first-pinfall-takes-all structure. Triple threats aren’t my favorite match type, to say the least, but this is a good one of those types of match. The crowd digs the athletic high spots, contrived-looking or not. They don’t cheer wildly, but there are a lot of OHHHHs and even a couple of OOH-WAHHHs. Then, here comes Eddy Guerrero. No, please, can we get a clean fucking finish, please? Pretty please? Charles Robinson leaves the ring to remonstrate with Eddy and misses a Kidman pinfall attempt on Juvi. Eddy takes off, slides into the ring, and reverses the pinning leverage with a lariat. Rey runs in and reverses that with a missile dropkick, then sells his knee being injured due to the dropkick, which allows Kidman to win. I can’t express to you how much that finish sucked. Terrible. After the match, Eddy verbally abuses Rey and Juvi alike. Juvi tries to remonstrate with Eddy, but Eddy shoves him down. Why do they always make Juvi look like a punk-ass bitch in these angles? Eddy challenges Kidman to a title match, and Kidman comes back out to the ring and says they can have one right now. Eddy begs off because he’s not in his gear, but Kidman’s like, You’re talking so big, fight me right now, you bum. But I wrote it better than he said it. So here we go, we have match number two of the night. Eddy jumps on Kidman and tries to kill him off quickly. Juvi and Rey are still at ringside, and Juvi tries to help Eddy get leverage on an abdominal stretch, but Rey puts a stop to that. Eddy gets distracted by Rey being so unhelpful to him that he goes outside and confronts him, then barks at Juvi some more. In the ring, Kidman makes a comeback and is only stopped when Juvi distracts him and Eddy hits a chop block. Eddy takes back over and commences on a methodical beatdown. Kidman makes one more comeback with a bulldog counter. He tries a sleeper, but Eddy jawbreakers his way out of it immediately. Eddy unties his boot so that he can slip it off after a Kidman flurry and clock Kidman with it as Kidman charges in. He pretends that it accidentally came off, calls for a time out to put it back on, and fires it at a protesting Rey. That takes a lot of time, so by the time he finally covers, he only gets two. Eddy hits a brainbuster, but gets caught going up for a Frog Splash and can’t fight off a Kidman superplex. Kidman can’t do much to follow up and ends up in a leg bar near the ropes, but Rey uses that boot that Eddy fired at him to swing at Eddy and break the hold. I’m somewhat impressed that Eddy’s working this match in jeans and a single boot and still doing athletic spots. Kidman counters an Eddy powerbomb attempt – of course – and comes back yet again. Heenan is generous enough to compare Kidman’s determination to keep fighting to DDP’s. A Kidman guillotine legdrop gets two, but Eddy blocks a top-rope Frankensteiner. Spyder runs out and distracts the ref as Kidman pushes Eddy away from a superplex attempt so that Juvi can crotch Kidman. That’s good for Eddy! What’s bad for Eddy is that Rey shoves Eddy off the ropes when Eddy tries to follow up, and Kidman lands an SSP for the win. I suppose I can’t complain about them putting a new babyface over so strongly even if it is bland-ass Kidman, but man, this lWo angle is a total drag, and it’s dragging down these Cruiserweight title matches. You don’t need to play a hype video for Kevin Nash versus Goldberg right now. We’re already hyped! We purchased the PPV! Norman Smiley on Starrcade. Ah, the world just feels right sometimes, doesn’t it? He faces Prince Iaukea again in a filler match that is acceptable. The fans love the hell out of the Big Wiggle, though. Tony S., in a low voice after seeing the Big Wiggle: “That’s kind of obscene, really.” I mean, while he does that dance, Smiley hits his O-face (not Athena’s diving stunner, an actual O-face), so yeah, it is kind of obscene. The crowd digs this guy because he’s charismatic as fuck and does a lot of dancing, some of it admittedly obscene. Smiley does some more mat stuff, but people want to see the Wiggle and Smiley’s creepy O-face, dammit! The late ‘90s and pre-9/11 early aughts really had the right idea about hitting the nexus between “dumb” and “fun.” The story of this match is that Norman dominates, but he’s too busy smacking that imaginary ass to just stay in control and beat Iaukea, so Iaukea makes comebacks on the regular. Iaukea blocks a Norman Conquest attempt once, but not the second time, and Smiley is able to lock his fingers and score a tap-out victory. This is such a weird show! It’s the grand finale for the year’s storylines, but we are an hour through and have had three matches, one including Norman Smiley working a filler ten-minute match, and we end that first hour of the show on Scott Hall coming down and talking to the crowd about the poor choices that he’s made in 1998, both shoot and work. He’s also notably wearing an Outsiders t-shirt. Hmm… Hall cuts a wandering promo in which he promises to do better in 1999. If only! I’m baffled by the fact that we’re getting Nitro-style feud recaps on this PPV. Now we get a Nash/Bam Bam/Goldberg package that’s played on free television. I just don’t get the point of this except as a time filler. Which, come to think of it, we need for a nearly three-hour show that has so few matches promoted for it. Ernest Miller (w/Sonny Onoo) challenges a fan to a fight on his way to the ring. Said fan is a woman who looks to be over sixty. I acknowledge that this is boilerplate heeling, but Miller clearly has some charisma that he’s trying to unlock in whatever way he can. There are pro-Cat signs in the crowd, and when he says he’s the greatest, a few scattered cheers break through the boos. Saturn comes down, refuses to leave when the Cat gives him a five count, and in fact takes that five seconds to wind up a punch. Saturn drills the Cat, who makes to leave himself. Saturn turns to talk to Mickey Jay, and Miller runs back and slides into the ring to attack…but Saturn turns around as Miller slides right up to Saturn’s boots and then freezes with an AW, SHIT look on his face. The crowd laughs because it was a really funny spot! Miller tries every heel trick he can think of and pretty much eats boots and fists for them until he can get an eye poke in and start choking his opponent. Miller isn’t, like, the greatest (ha!) wrestler or anything, but I remembered him having a lot of use in late-era WCW as a midcard talent and authority figure, and this match is strangely sort of his coming out party in that regard. This is a classic heel performance in which the heel is quite unserious, but still dangerous: Lots of stalling, lots of cheating, lots of misdirection, and the occasional spot that shows that he actually does have a little bit of moxie, as when he steps back on a Saturn double-axe attempt and lands a side kick. Saturn basically dominates, but the Cat gets a little control and, rather than pressing his advantage properly, calls Onoo into the ring to kick Saturn. Miller holds Saturn, but not securely enough. Saturn moves, Onoo kicks Saturn, Miller kicks Onoo, and Saturn DVDs Miller for the victory. I’m going to plant this sucker squarely on the Charming Uniquity list. Ric Flair hits the aisle to chat with Gene Okerlund. Flair basically issues some somewhat graphic threats of violence toward Eric Bischoff. That Bischoff video from the start of the previous Nitro plays again. Weird show, like I said. It doesn’t feel like a Starrcade. Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell bust in on Konnan back in the locker room and threaten him. Lex Luger comes in wearing a fucking FUBU baseball jersey, hahahahaha, and tries to calm Konnan down. That is the first and last time that we see Lex Luger, Scott Steiner, or Buff Bagwell on this show, by the way. Crush and Scott Norton (w/Vincent) face, um, hold up, Finlay and Jerry Flynn? In a tag match? What the actual fuck?! Jerry Flynn got onto a Starrcade? I am baffled. How did the booking committee manage to book this show, with all the talent they have, like this? You can’t give me that Oh well, Bret and Rick Steiner got injured and Sting and Savage are out stuff. They have a deep well of talent. The match is fine, but it’s a fucking Thunder match on Starrcade. And why is Bret still the U.S. Champion? That’s a title match that we’re not having on this show for no discernible reason other than that the bookers just needed to shepherd the belt back onto an injured wrestler who can't work a match. This tag match involves Crush, so obviously, I’m not going to give you a whole detailed recap. Suffice it to say that Scott Norton pins Jerry Flynn with the powerbomb. “Rockhouse” plays as Scott Norton, Crush, and Vincent stand in the ring. In other news, “Rockhouse” is an anti-hype theme now. There are only seventy minutes left in this show somehow. They play Eric Bischoff’s music, and I think, alright, sure, let’s have this match. But no, Gene Okerlund is just going to interview him. Can you believe that they let Bischoff stay in charge of creative for nine more months? He cuts a bad promo that just eats up time. He also gets to mention the Clintons since we’re in D.C., which he thinks is the equivalent of a clever political reference because he’s kind of a dolt. Bischoff is a great salesperson, but he’s all artifice. He managed quite the career out of it, though! Bischoff cuts a promo that is basically that one Grantland article about how broke Flair actually is IRL. It finally, mercifully ends. We get a short reminder of Jericho acting like a dick toward Konnan through the magic of video before Jericho (w/Ralphus, Konnan’s TV Championship belt) comes to the ring to try and win the gold for real and for true. Jericho does some mic work to burn off time. He proclaims not to understand Konnan’s catchphrase roulette, which makes sense because he’s some dork from Manitoba who listens to Cheap fucking Trick like a complete cornball. Just as a true future Florida man would, he also tells Konnan to pull up his pants. I see Jericho’s getting a head start on cutting “dirty, disgusting, filthy, etc., etc., trashbag ho” style promos, and let me be the first to say NO THANK YOU. Then again, Konnan comes down and hits his Catchphrase Roulette, and it does suck. Konnan tries to run with Jericho to start, and I think that maybe they should both slow it down because they’re not exactly what I would call elite athletes. They do after a couple of minutes. We get a Jericho headlock. This match really comes off like a Nitro match more than anything. They try a little bit; Jericho eats some stairs that he set up for a move, for example. But the match goes by oddly quickly for a show with so much filler. Konnan blocks a Jericho Walls attempt, but he doesn’t duck a belt shot that only gets 2.9. That's about it for Jericho's chances; Konnan lands a back kick, a sit-out facebuster, and a Tequila Sunrise in short order for the win in a match that I can report did, in fact, happen. Lee Marshall interviews, and partially bigs up, the Giant on an interview backstage, but the Giant doesn’t like computer geeks (his words!), so it goes poorly for Marshall. Finally, they play ersatz “Iron Man” one more time so that we can get this Flair/Bischoff thing the hell out of the way. The right way to book this match is that Flair murders him in an eight-minute match, no interference, and Bischoff bleeds buckets. Instead, Bischoff gets an offensive move in that Flair sells by falling to the floor. NOPE. Why in the fuck is this even a remotely competitive match? Flair selling for Bischoff offense at all is bad, but Flair BLADING after Bischoff crashes Flair's head into the railing is ALL WRONG. I f I had to, I'd blame Flair for that spot. Knowing him, he probably insisted on blading because he has a strange understanding of pro wrestling sometimes. Flair summarily comes back, but this is just not the match that it should be. Oh look, we get a ref bump because Flair elbows the ref away while punching Bisch. How necessary. It feels like it is all too common for WCW matches to have ref bumps in them at this point. Flair must have Luger-type metal plates in his elbow because Charles Robinson has been out forever. He’s been out so long, in fact, that, get this – GET THIS – Curt Hennig’s worthless ass has plenty of time to run down and hand Bischoff some knucks while Bisch is in the Figure Four. Bischoff loads his fist and punches Flair, then squeaks out a pinfall victory when Robinson finally comes back to consciousness. MINUS FIVE STARS Also, please, somebody, anybody, Schiller, you dumb bastard, please fire Eric Bischoff already. I’m pleading with you. Ahem, no no, I’m totally composed, why are you asking? We get a Giant/DDP feud recap followed by their match. I have confidence that this match will be solid. Page isn’t a small guy, so he finds a way to backdrop Giant to the floor. The Giant is a hell of an athlete, man, especially when he’s trimmed down. The Giant tries to punch Page, but Page blocks it with a trash can that is, um, sitting in the middle of the front row? OK, sure. Page’s dodging, ducking, dipping, diving, and dodging doesn’t keep him from eventually getting caught, nor does it keep the Giant from trying to destroy Page’s knee. Because the Giant is so big, whenever he drops a limb across the knee, it just hits different than if other people do it. The Giant drops another elbow across Page’s knee and grapevines the leg. This is a solid match. It’s not amazing, but it’s decent. Page basically tries to fire up and gets crunched back to the mat by the Giant. It’s an obvious, but effective philosophy for this thing. I do think it was a mistake not to have Page’s opening run of offense go on a bit longer, though. The Giant does a boring bearhug that Page tries to make interesting by selling it even if Giant doesn’t bother to really work it. We get some more Giant control, and when Page slips out and tries to hit a Diamond Cutter, Giant pushes Page away and hits an absolute BEAUTY of a powerslam when Page comes back to him on the rebound. What a sick move that was. The Giant covers, but pulls Page up at two. Did this man learn nothing from fucking around at Starrcade two years ago and giving Luger the space and time to beat him? The Giant needs to drop the bearhug from his arsenal. He has all this dynamic looking offense, and then also this shitty bearhug. Page bites his way out of the bearhug, but tries a sunset flip that gets stuffed…and the Giant lifts Page up and hits a choke backbreaker. Sweet fuck, man, what a move! The Giant is my favorite MOVEZ~ guy ever, maybe. In his WCW era run, he consistently did these insane-looking power moves, a lot of which were visually creative. Giant casually goes to work on Page, but DDP hits a DDT out of a beal toss attempt. Page covers, but the Giant presses Page out of the pinfall and onto the ref. Bret Hart hobbles down and tries to hit Page with a chair shot while the ref is out, but Page dodges and the Giant takes a gross chair shot to the head, unprotected. No need to take that shot, especially on a show this poor. Even that chair shot only gets two, but Page lands a couple of top rope lariats and then calls for the Diamond Cutter. Page goes up top one more time and dives, but he dives right into a Giant goozle. The Giant manages to ignore Page desperately kicking him in the junk and hoists Page up top for a Super Chokeslam. You know what comes next – I’ve been waiting this whole feud for this to happen – as Page reverses the Super Chokeslam attempt into a falling Diamond Cutter and scores a victory. This was easily the best match on this show so far, and I’m not sure that it was remotely close. I suppose that Eddy/Kidman is a distant second, though I do have an affinity for Saturn/Cat. They re-run the same Nash/Goldberg promo from earlier before the main event. Yes, this would be a more appropriate place to run it, but you only need to run it once. That is, unless you’ve made a hash of booking this show and need to fill time. Michael Buffer brings Kevin Nash and Goldberg out for the main event. Buffer declares that though Nash is originally from Detroit, he’s got so many accolades and accomplishments, he is a CITIZEN OF THE WORLD. Why that is funny to me, I’m not sure, but it made me laugh. Maybe the disconnection between being a wrestling champ and a true citizen of the world? Maybe the seriousness with which Buffer said it? Who knows. Goldberg comes out, and the crowd prefers him to Nash based on their pre-match preening to the crowd. The aggrieved Nash fans do get a faint GOLDBERG SUCKS chant going. Goldberg fights out of a headlock by back suplexing Nash, so Nash takes a walk. The Goldberg fans start a louder NASH SUCKS chant. This is a plodding match that doesn’t feel like a big match, even with the hyped crowd. Maybe because I know there are a bunch of run-ins on the way, that’s dampened my own feelings toward this thing. There are a couple cool spots, though! Nash does his boot choke spot in the corner, and Goldberg just powers out of it by shoving Nash backward. They fight over submissions on the mat before we go back to some decent clubbering that isn’t the top-shelf stuff that I enjoy so much. Goldberg hits a spear about five minutes in and signals for the Jackhammer. Nash hits a desperation low blow while Goldberg tries to hoist him up. Nash hits a side slam and, man, this just isn’t doing it for me. I would have preferred a Page rematch that Page wins, I think. I have time to ponder this because we’re just marking time when Goldberg isn’t doing explosive offense. Nash lands a nice short-arm clothesline as I say that, so I should give him a little more credit. They trade two counts before Goldberg hits a superkick that looked pretty stiff, as Goldberg’s superkicks often are, or so I have learned. Goldberg gets another two count, lands a wheel kick, and here comes the bullshit gaga. First, Disco Inferno runs down and eats a spear to give Nash time to breathe. This match is apparently no DQ according to Heenan. Um, did they say that on television? Did I miss something? Bam Bam runs out next and attacks Goldberg. Goldberg handles him, but as the ref and security are focused on getting Bam Bam out of there, Scott Hall runs down dressed like security, tases Goldberg, and leaves Goldberg ripe for a Jackknife that ends both his title reign and his winning streak. Let’s just say that I am underwhelmed. That did not feel like the main event of your biggest show at all. The big question after this show: Will there ever be a good WCW PPV again? If so, when? I’m not asking for a great show, though that’d be nice! I’m just asking for a good one.

Jeff Cobb on Dynamite next week teaming with Kyle Fletcher. My dream of an AEW United Empire is one step closer!

Presumably, in 2024, it would no longer be The Flying Burrito.

Good shout, mate. The 5 too rope elbow drops, Savage kicking out of the big splash and the aftermath you detail.

Thunder Interlude – show number forty-four – 17 December 1998 "The WCW Gang gets some early practice in on stinking it up in 1999” It’s the last Thunder of 1998…I’ll go to bat for 1998 Thunder being a consistently solid show after this rewatch… Brady Boone, AKA, Battle Kat, passed away in a car accident and is given an in memoriam before the start of the show… The desk pushes the Flair/Bischoff feud stuff…The Flair family is going to show up on Thunder tonight according to Tony S., and let me tell you, I am not excited for more Flairs on my television… We recap Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell recruiting Lex Luger into nWo Hollywood…Luger is facing Scott Hall tonight in a match that is storyline centered on nWo Hollywood membership…Yuck…The match should be decent [Editor's note: Not really], but will it even have a finish?... Konnan defends his Television title against Kenny Kaos…Kaos has defeated Chris Jericho and Dean Malenko in recent weeks to earn this title shot been off either of the two major shows lately…Wait, hold on, Kaos comes out here with one of the tag titles…Is he still a tag champ?...I thought Judy Bagwell was the latest co-champ…This company, ten years earlier, ran multiple dope tag feuds over TWO sets of tag titles…But here in 1998, Rick Steiner won both titles by himself and then hands out one of them to whomever the fuck he pleases, including Buff Bagwell’s mom… Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell walk out here and crash the desk…Scotty’s out here mad about the Luger/Hall match…He promises to interfere on behalf of Luger…There’s a match going on in the ring, and we see snippets of it while they talk at the desk…I’ve pretty much checked out on this match, which is too bad because Kenny Kaos is trying hard…Tony S. Remembers a Random ‘90s Athlete: Scotty was wearing a Kerry Collins Panthers jersey. I forgot that guy existed and that he played for the Panthers, who drafted him. I remember him as a Giant. Meanwhile, Konnan hits a sitout facebuster and locks on a Tequila Sunrise for the win…Robbie Rage comes out wearing a brace on his arm…Do you love tag teams breaking up for no fucking reason?...I SAID, DO YOU LOVE TAG TEAMS BREAKING UP FOR NO FUCKING REASON?!?!...Rage and Kaos have an off-mic argument about Kaos not even calling Rage before agreeing to tag with Rick Steiner while the bored Charlotte crowd chants WE WANT FLAIR… Oh, Thunder…It’s so appropriate that you are being terrible to close out 1998 because you’re just getting in a groove of terribleness for 1999…The Flairs get out of a limo and wander around before we go to break…Oh, Thunder… Here’s some Nitro Flair/Bischoff recap stuff…Oh man, do I hate this feud… We missed out on Mike Enos, TV Champ, folks…We really did…His opponent, Fit Finlay, got the interstitial TV title reign earlier this year that should have gone to Enos, in my opinion…I love Finlay, but not really until he hits about forty and shows up in WWE…These guys just beat the hell out of one another…It rules…Finlay steamrolls the guy for a big chunk of this match…Enos finally gets some control after hitting a juji gatame (is that the right judo term?) out of a Finlay sleeper…Some dolts in the crowd chant BORING because they have shitty taste in pro wrestling, IMH-fucking-O…Enos lands a sweet fisherman’s shoulderbreaker…The desk agrees that Enos should have gone for a cover after hitting a second-rope powerslam instead of going back to work on Finlay…They’re right, as Finlay started out in total control, but has to sneak an inside cradle to get away with a victory…Enos chokes the fuck out of Finlay in a rage…They brawl in the aisle while I think to myself, yeah, Mike Enos should have been a consistent midcard fixture in WCW until the whole thing went belly up… There’s an outro with Bischoff feigning remorse w/r/t Flair…Can we get outros with Goldberg headbutting lockers and Nash issuing threats to Goldberg instead?... Scott Hall rolls out wearing street clothes…He takes a little mic time for himself to hype the Luger match later tonight…Scott Hall’s 1998 has been a clusterfuck of booking failures…Hall bemoans his messed-up kayfabe life and also his messed-up shoot life…Hall hits a Razor Ramon callback by saying that he wants “the world and everything in it”…Or is it Hall hitting a Razor Ramon callback that is actually a Tony Montana callback, technically speaking?... Tony S. announces that Billy Kidman will defend his Cruiserweight title at Starrcade in a triple threat match against Rey Misterio Jr. and Juventud Guerrera…Sure, why not, that should be a decent car crash…After Heenan gets done doing some annoying fake laughter, here comes a recap video for this whole-ass feud… Well, that was long…Rey Misterio Jr.’s up next on the show…I’m into seeing Rey wrestle Prince Iaukea, but here comes the entire lWo…Eddy Guerrero seems to misunderstand that Polynesians are not necessarily Latin or native Spanish speakers…Eventually, Eddy gets around to threatening Iaukea in English to keep Iaukea from going to the ring…Iaukea, who is annoyed by Juvi Guerrera grabbing his pecs, isn’t so annoyed that he’s not willing to take the night off…Eddy sends Juvi down to face Rey instead…Oh WCW Matchmaking Committee, whither art thou?...I’ll let it go…We’re headed into 1999, where logic has no place in developing angles… The match is fine, but the issue with this lWo angle is that all of this stuff means nothing because there’s going to be some kind of a screwy finish…WCW doesn’t have the ability to do satisfying screwy finishes like, say, same-era WWF or early-‘80s Mid-South…Mostly because their screwy finishes are a) pretty much all the same thing and b) usually result in the heels standing tall…On cue, here comes Eddy Guerrero as the match goes to break… We come back to a bunch of counters and two counts…Rey’s counter dropkick on a diving Juvi signals that we’re headed toward the end of this bout…Juvi blocks a Rey rana attempt by powerbombing him, then goes up for the 450…Rey manages to crotch Juvi, but Juvi engages the ref and Eddy lands a Frog Splash on Rey…That scores three for Juvi, but Iaukea runs out and pulls a Konnan, that punk-ass narc…Look, I appreciate Charles Robinson’s kayfabe ref work over the past few weeks, but reversing a decision based on someone else’s word instead of what you actually saw is terrible reffing…That’s a Scott Dickinson-level decision…The lWo runs down, but fails to beat down either Iaukea or Rey, who both escape…The lWo is really bad at beatdowns…They should ask the B-Teamers for tips, maybe a seminar… A camera follows Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell around backstage…They bust in on Lex Luger’s locker room and try to pitch him on the black-and-white again…Hey, Konnan busts in and runs them out of there, then checks to make sure Luger isn’t thinking of switching teams…He notes that they already talked about this issue off-screen, which I was sure as heck wondering about since no one from the Wolfpac has yet responded to Steiner and Bagwell on camera…Luger reassures Konnan and Konnan leaves…We hear Konnan go AUGH and a huge smack, and Luger runs out with the camera following him to see Konnan laid out and Scott Hall standing over him…Hall and Luger threaten one another instead of, like, communicating with words about who knocked Konnan out… DDP was able to recover from THA CHOAKSLAM enough to go read Christmas books to kids with Kimberly…Did Mick Foley, the self-proclaimed King of Christmas do this?...Uh, I’m trying to do a data-based comparison to see who really is the King of Christmas… Shiima Nobunaga has dope goggles on…He’s facing Disco Inferno…Disco wears a Wolfpac t-shirt…I know they eventually let him in because he’s in the Wolfpac in the WCW Mayhem game, as I mentioned in an earlier review…Does this lead to an internal Disco/Konnan feud and the OIL OF OLAY, ALL DAY, EVERY DAY song that absolutely fucking killed me?...I sure hope so!...They work a pacey match…Disco is an underrated base for smaller wrestlers…I stand by my belief that Disco Inferno is a better professional wrestler than Cody Rhodes…I bet I can make the case…Nobunaga gets control and tries to drop a Frog Splash, but he’s not a master of the move as is Eddy Guerrero or Rob Van Dam or even D’Lo Brown, so he misses…Disco quickly capitalizes with a Chartbuster for three… One thing going right in WCW: Norman Smiley is getting a mini-push…He’s a babyface tonight, I guess…He’s slapping hands and facing Jerry Flynn…OK, let me give Flynn credit…He feigns to lock up, but hits a throat thrust and then laughs evilly…That was a pretty good spot…Smiley takes over with a stalling slam and dances…Smiley blocks a sunset flip, but dances instead of countering and gets rolled up…I think this match drifts into potential Charming Uniquity status after Flynn catches a Smiley kick and transitions into an ankle lock…I can’t tell you that this match is, like, good, but it’s definitely entertaining…Flynn is having an oddly fun night in the ring…Smiley eventually goes up top, is caught by Flynn, but uses an eye rake to escape…Smiley leaps down and locks on the Norman Conquest for the win…What a weird little match that was, in a good way… More Eric Bischoff outro interview bullshit…Would you believe that Tony S. is kayfabe suckered in by Bischoff’s whole contriteness act?...Poor Tony S. was the dumbest bastard to ever sit at a commentary table in late ‘90s WCW… Chris Jericho and Ralphus come out onto the ramp, point at one another, and shake hands…I don’t know why it’s so funny to me, but man, it got a huge laugh…Jericho/Saturn seems like it could be good…They have a nice opening with a number of counters and a lovely short-arm clothesline from Jericho…Jericho celebrates, which pisses Saturn off…Saturn hits Jericho with a torrent of offense while Jericho screams HELP ME…Jericho struggles to keep control…He’s able to duck a Saturn diving lariat that nails Charles Robinson instead…Saturn locks on a Rings of Saturn, but is diverted by a Ernest Miller run in…Saturn handles both guys for awhile, but eventually eats a Feliner…Jericho locks on a Lion Tamer just in time for Charles Robinson to come to, check on an out-cold Saturn, and lift the arm three times…Jericho wins…Though with that bloody eye he’s got, he doesn’t exactly look like a winner… Finally, after one more Bischoff outro, we get Tony S. in the ring to introduce the Flair brood…Well, three-fifths of the Flair brood…Conrad’s spouse and the former WWE Women’s Champion in the family aren’t here…They walk down the ramp and, uh, the segment ends?... After a break, Thunder resumes with Tony back at the desk to introduce a video package of all the Hitman/Giant/Page stuff from the past few weeks…Maybe these long recaps would be more appropriate for WCWSN or Worldwide, perhaps?... They paid Michael Buffer to ring announce for this Scott Hall/Lex Luger match?...Bischoff always complains about getting his budget cut in 1998…Maybe he contracted Buffer for [x] amount of appearances before the budget cut, because otherwise, uh, maybe spend that money elsewhere…This isn’t even much of a match…Disco Inferno comes out to cheer Luger on before he locks up…Hall takes over with a headlock, but now here come Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell…Hall locks on a surfboard…Luger makes a comeback shortly after this and hits the metal forearm…He signals for the Torture Rack, but Scotty and Buff jump in and stomp out Hall…Konnan runs down, apparently just now revived, and tells Luger that Scotty and Buff were the ones who hit him…Konnan and Luger clear the ring, even though some B-Teamers make a half-attempt at turning the tide…That was not a good match for either aesthetic or angle purposes to say the least… Tony S. brings David and Reid Flair into the ring to ask about their pops…Here comes Eric Bischoff…Bisch does a whole apology thing before finally fucking swerving and insulting Ric…Then, as is his function in life, David gets beaten up to act as motivation for Ric…Crush comes down and grabs Reid while Barry Windham stomps out David…This angle suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks…Keep Flair’s family at home, please…I know you won’t, WCW, but I ask you anyway…Bisch forcibly kisses Beth and WOOOOs to cap what was a pointless and shitty waste of a main event angle. I enjoyed some of the wrestling, but the angles are so bad, folks, so awful that I’m just going to give this Thunder a grade that it’ll almost surely see a lot of going forward…OWWW…

Thinking same thing.

That Robinson backbreaker/kneedrop combo later on in the video is pretty swank, too.

Terrific reviews. Curious to revisit Uncut Gems. I saw it twice in the theater, and was lucky enough to catch the Toronto Premiere with the Safdies and stars of the film Q&A. Sandler is so much funnier shooting from the hip than reciting jokes. Case in point this movie. Big laughs for the forced track suit change during the high school play. More big laughs for Sandler being thrown in the drink and returning to the office completely drenched. Endless love for this movie and the Safdies. You've seen Good Time, yeah!? The Curse!? (deeper cut: the excellent documentary Lenny Cooke). St. Vincent is a quirk and an edge away from what my mother describes as a Hallmark Channel movie. A true studio 'Indie'. Very strange seeing Naomi Watts work with that thick Russian accent. I love her dearly, but it was completely distracting. On this very rare occasion, Bill Murray is completely forgettable. Seems kinda remarkable to make such a movie. The highlight is Melissa McCarthy. She so completely rises above the material in a way that makes me want to recommend the movie. Some Kind of Heaven is a sensational piece of film and photography. I just now looked up director Lance Oppenheim. Spermworld was released in March. Very much looking forward to it.

I was 3rd wheel on a date with a couple to see Happiness and boy howdy she did not enjoy that at all. And it wasn't really a weird choice but taking my girlfriend to see Message in a Bottle prevented me from losing my virginity in high school.

There are so many things to say about this on so many levels, but I think I shall just keep my mouth shut about this one. Hits home in more than few ways, to say the least.

This weekend, at my 28th cubing competition, I set a senior (50+) North American record for single solve in 4x4 becoming the first North American senior to get an official solve under 1 minute (59.79 seconds). This kinda came out of nowhere and is my first record. To say I'm stoked about it would be a big understatement.

Gotta say, this commercial for the NBA app with Lil Rey Howery (is that who that is?) jerking off his phone screen is really creepy. Especially in the 15-second version that cuts from a little old lady using binoculars and then "spotting" him.

Here's my write up of the show: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2024/05/dean.html

The Panthers are weird

HE WORE A NECKBRACE.

aGAINst

The Summerslam though. The Summerslam.