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Something I’ve been meaning to talk about is the brilliance of Caster’s rap. I’ve seen people say it was bad and he must have messed up because he just kept ending every line with “bitch”. I thought it was totally obvious that the point of the rap was to call out Okada’s use/reliance of that as his catchphrase. Like “see, I can do it too, and more creatively”

This will not end well.

FTFY ;).

When I was younger, just a bad little kid, my mama noticed funny things I did.... Well, the Forbidden Door is once again closed. No one from Japan or Mexico (who's not under AEW contract) exists any more! So forget about all that! We've got an Owen Hart Cup to decide! Two actually! That's when my mama said... "My boy, I think someday, you'll find a way, to make your natural tendencies pay!" The winner of the Cups get a date with Swerve and Toni in August at Wembley. And say what you will, but Jay White won't stand a chance against Timeless Toni. But hey, who am I kidding, we all came to see one person. You'll be a dentist. You have a talent for causin' things pain! Son, be a dentist... People will pay you to be inhumane! Well, well, well... look who's back. That's right, Britt's back to put the D M D in Damn Mercedes is Dreadful. Or whatever you people argue about in these threads. Happy Independence/Election Day! --- (NOTE -- I can neither confirm, nor deny this thread was made in response to an unnamed member who hates musicals and thinks Bryan Danielson is the wrestler of the year so far.)

Watched Danielson/Shingo last night. If people hadn’t have been talking about it here, I wouldn’t have noticed the neck thing. Seemed like a very normal part of the match. He comes in with his neck all taped up, gets dropped on his head and sells it. Announcers didn’t sell it as anything more than a big move on the outside and Danielson didn’t twitch or convulse or anything. I don’t see the problem.

I'd be pissed off being behind that guy. He doesn't sit the fuck down.

Sleaze Thread 2!

I played Seymour in high school. Good times.

I love it when it backfires on him, like trying to call Juice Robinson a taint. BCG responded in the funniest fucking way possible in the moment and in my mind it completely killed Friedman's promo.

He has terrible instincts with regard to promos. I’ve said it before, but for every one good one, he has many more where it’s just cheap heat, burying his opponent, etc.

You know who is willing to find out? Jon Moxley.

Imagine dropping a popsicle under the couch and putting it back in your mouth

who do we blame for every schoolbus having a kid that insisted the Ultimate Warrior died?

Arnold Skaaland throwing in the towel when Backlund was in the Sheik's camel clutch was a screwjob

I met Larry Fishburne at the record shop I worked at. He was buying a Mel Torme CD to which I remarked ‘somebody’s looking to party!’ Larry gave me a fist bump and a laugh. Seemed like a really nice guy.

Yes, exactly. Great point. Was that the same promo where he talked about looking up to Punk, having his picture taken with him, etc.? That was just masterful. But that's what makes him so frustrating. It's a shame that for every one of those great promos, we need to sit through "herp derp I can't understand the Mexican!" or MJF saying a "clever" line and then mugging for a response like he's Pete Rose cutting a promo on Boston, "HOW BOOOUUUTTT IIIIIIT?"

The misogyny the most.

I am still midway through the show. Was surprised how much I liked the Jericho trios though. Triple heat with fairly clever transitions.

Speaking of Bloodsport Bob Backlund is still alive right?

"I'll be damned, I guess I CAN bleed out, then?" *dies*

Jaida/Mia meandered a pinch during the PIP action but was generally good otherwise. Dislike Yim losing here with Jaida still being so green, but it wasn't unexpected with Jaida on the rise and likely to be the next challenger for the WNA title. NCR vs. Hank & Tank was good, maybe the latter's best showing so far. Thinking we might see them at least challenge for the belts before the year out if they can keep this up. Izzi/Brinley was decent while it lasted. By the end it was more about Tatum's strange interest in Izzi than anything else. The Roxanne/Lola segment was not especially good. Roxanne did well, but Lola seemed to break down early when trying to tell her story and it came off more messy than intended. Still, it never lost the crowd so it at least served it's purpose in pushing Lola as a face here. Oro/Myles had some nice stuff but it never fully came together for something worthwhile. Choo/Bright was alright though I'm still not sure where they are going with Wendy's current nightmare change. Karmen/Nyx was better than expected with the two working surprisingly well together. Could be something good here in the future after both get another year or more of experience on them. I did enjoy the backstage segments building to this match and for Heatwave's countdown show. Glad Grace is getting on the show in some form. I am curious to see if this is the beginning of a face turn for her or just something temporary for Heatwave. The contract signing for the NXT title match had the usual expected feel of people just yapping at each other, but it did allow for some decent moments for Trick and Evans to shine. Match wise not a great show. Nothing really stood out well after the first two though those were worthwhile in NCR vs. Hank/Tak & Mia/Jaida. Segment wise this was a little better in terms of building up Heatwave and other feuds though I think it also had the lowest point with the Lola/Roxanne segment. Decent enough show, but they have definitely had better.

I can't recall a shittier sell for a PPV opponent than MJF's 'a poorly drawn comic book character'. I also can't recall anybody calling their win over said PPV opponent 'an easy dub...' Is Friedman on his way to a heel turn or just a plain old shithead? The Mad Scientist is incredible and deserved better than this poorly promoted TV showcase. I need to see that Sabre bout to wash away this foul smell.

I just rewatched Bram Stoker's Dracula and that might be one of the horniest movies ever made. A stone cold classic

Now that was two hours of pro wrestling. Best Dynamite I can remember in a long time start-to-finish. If they can keep this up the rebound might be real and the doldrums are truly over.

It's all about attention to detail for me. They started setting up the ring with celebratory bullshit while Dr. Britt was STILL in the ring.. some real disrespectful shit there. Both her and Mercedes go their lines in. Dr. Britt had some great lines about Mercedes being broken down at 'ALL IN' and Mercedes' facial expressions and palming Britt's face... really good heel shit. MJF.. awesome beat down. But again what made it great was the attention to detail. He yelled some shit about "Restoring the feeling" which you know is him going at Ospreay but then Ospreay comes limping out mind you and MJF powders into the crowd where he went full Piper or Dudley Boyz with the fans riling them up even more. I loved all of this.

Second straight Dynamite, for me, that was beginning to end just amazing.

Best Dynamite in a long time. Everything was CLICKING... ALL IN Season is going to be wild. Clap for them. Mercedes and MJF both as heels is great..

I'd love to hear some actual, not made up wrestling conspiracy theories, like "Hall and Nash were sent to WCW to destroy it from within." As a believer in Hanlon's razor (never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by neglect, ignorance or incompetence), I don't go for that one.

Another excellent line-up. A truly great episode awaits the questions of ‘timing’ and ‘execution’.

Maybe she'd fare better if she stopped trying to do this in her sleep Edited to add: I know I've made that joke before, but having someone who never wins have a theme song where the only intelligible words are "I can do this in my sleep" is just completely insane

The review from Siskel & Ebert surprised me as neither of them liked it. Gene felt the story was all over the place and fizzled at the end. I think King of New York ends up being liked because the performances are just too strong. I mean Caruso gives us the seeds of John Kelly in here, to the point that on re-watch you half expect Dennis Franz to show up. James

I don't disagree - it's a weird thing, because if you recall the talk during the lead up to "the bidding war of '24" it was all about how he shouldn't go to WWE because they would neuter him in a scripted environment - but I think a lot of people kinda forgot that he actually really excels doing the melodramatic stuff. We were in the house for the promo with where he talks about people throwing change at him for being a Jew, and Punk came out with the "Max, is it true?!" - that dude had the whole building eating out of his hand. That could have come off SUPER offensive in less capable hands. Or how about Le Dinner Debonaire with Jericho back during COVID? It wasn't necessarily my cup of tea, but it was an early example of how well MJF actually thrives doing those sorts of things, but will also turn around and, as you guys allude to, go back to the well on the cheap stuff. He's the rare guy that I think might actually benefit from having a couple bullet points handed down to him

It's the cheap heat that annoys me the most.

NOTE -- made me legitimately smile. Cheers, Kelvin xxx. Looking forward to this AEW Dynamite Beach Break from top to bottom. We have: Owen Hart Cup: Bryan Danielson vs. PAC. Owen Hart Cup: Jeff Jarrett vs. Wild Card. Owen Hart Cup: Willow Nightingale vs. Kris Statlander. AEW International Championship: Will Ospreay vs. Daniel Garcia. Mercedes Mone Double Championship Celebration. We'll hear from Britt Baker DMD.

My pals at BOOM Pro Wrestling held a memorial show for Big Cat Scott Henson last Friday and put the whole show up on YouTube.

Driller Killer is kinda boring and the definition of an arthouse horror flick, at least from that era. King of New York is the best crime film maybe ever. NOBODY RIDES FOR FREE, MOTHERFUCKA.

Dollar Store Wyatt Family Wyatt 6 run in, murders Gable again, Mox walks off from embarrassment.

In kayfabe, these guys are awesome athletes who dig deep and find another gear when fighting for the world title. Like maybe when you're in a prelim match or maybe just going for the TNT title, you're like "fuck it, my head hurts and I'm tired of fighting." But when the biggest championship in your company is on the line, you fight a bit harder. You find the will to kick out of a finisher. Maybe a few times, even. That's the beauty of fake fighting, you can come up with logic for this goofiness.

I do not shill for Ospreay, but. His willingness to sell his completely busted ability to use the Hidden Blade and have his head patted by the man about to murder him belied an understanding of how to put the champ over. And neither hammed too hard on it - "too" being a funny word in 2024 PPV main event wrestling criticism, but imagine the same spot happening in Shawn's NXT. IMAGINE IT.

Man... That match is why we watch wrestling.

Yeah, I meant for this to be silly and weird, but if y'all wanna do real ones, I'm certainly game. I 100% believe Daniel Bryan could've dome back from his first long-term injury much sooner than he did, but Vince wouldn't let WWE doctors clear him because he was more over than Roman. I also believe Dean Ambrose's shitty booking was an attempt to undercut him because he was more over than Roman.

It would be more far-fetched if Tony Khan wasn’t experiencing buyer’s remorse over Saraya’s signing. I doubt CM Punk is a hardcore conservative (and I’m not sure we would want him), but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn’t lean more to the right or maybe gave up the straightedge thing. I know a lot of people who were extremely liberal and idealistic in their teens and 20’s but grew more conservative as they got older, had kids, got established in their careers, etc. Honestly, I’d probably find it odd if the (almost) middle-aged millionaire was still the edgy counterculture firebrand he was 20 years ago, Very few of us are the same people we were when we were young. And the ones that are probably need therapy.

Cross that one off, then.

i'm gonna pretend they had the scaffold match at GAB91 to drain the energy out of angry Flair fans early

Up until issue 200 maybe. Certainly the first 3 or 4 phone books (church and state, high society)

For as much as AEW loves tournaments, they should do a U25 one. Mainly because I'm interested to see Hook pair off with Nick Wayne.

Won't see this but has me wanting to dig out my DVD of Series 7: The Contenders, since it's not streaming anywhere. I also think I'm like 1 of the 100 people who actually saw that movie.

Loved the show, thought everything was at least solid-good. Favorite matches probably Swerve/Ospreay and ZSJ/Orange. I watched it on a delay as that's my prerogative but it was an easy watch for such a long show, pre-show included. MJF/Hechicero was a fun opener. I was thinking to myself MJF has opened a lot of PPVs. Him and Darby, him and Tanahashi at the first forbidden door, probably some others. Speaking of Tanahashi they did as good a job as possible working around him. It's tough to see how he moves, but at the same time he still manages to do some fun stuff and be over. For a show like this it's fine. Okada was mega over. Caster had his best rap in a while. I don't know if he said bitch a bunch at the end because it's PPV or because he got lost but it made me laugh Danielson/Shingo was really good but like everyone else I hate AD faking the neck injury. I hope Martin was selling in the ladder match because that scared the shit out of me. I was worried Takeshita was hurt once too. Work was good in this one, Lio did some fun stuff, ELP was over, Takeshita was super over, and it was actually kind of safe all things considered. I'm just always scared for the dudes as I'm watching these matches. Toni as Lady Liberty was fantastic. Fun match, happy family at the end, I was entertained. Crowd was good I thought, no clue what people are talking about there. They popped big for lots of stuff, were still hot for the main event, were really into ZSJ/Orange, I can't think of anything they were totally dead for and when they were losing interest they'd at least start some shit. Hook wasn't over on his entrance but got some pops in the match. It got quiet at times during Mone/Vaquer but they were definitely into SV, then started getting pissed when it looked like Mone would win and turned on her, they were definitely invested. I'm looking back at the results and those are the only two matches where the crowd was a bit quiet at times, and they also came in the middle of the show sandwiching the ladder match. It was a long show, not 5+ hours of sustained heat but the crowd was up for a lot of it. I just watched the entire thing with headphones on and never once thought it was a bad crowd so that's nuts to me. Anyway, thumbs up show, lots of good wrestling, good drama as the two world title matches genuinely could have gone either way, AEW rules!

edit: nah

The NBA: Nepotism Before Ability.