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8 days removed and it feels surreal to me that all this happened. A show that was in some way run by and mainly for a bunch of folks on a message board and it just happened to have some really fucking incredible stuff going on. Like I've been trying to comment on this throughout the week and stopped because it was hard to wrap my head around it all. Yet when watching it back I realize two things. One, my fat ass was on the screen way more than I intended (I thought chilling in the corner would get me out of hard cam view) and two it did happen and it was fucking awesome. I can't say enough how great it was to finally meet @Rev Ray, @Pete, @Phil Schneiderand @Johnny Sorrowto thank them for all the years of awesomeness. And it was great to meet @S.K.o.S.and @Danwho was near me the whole time yet I didn't know until he mentioned in the Discord chat. I was a bit shy for a bit and wish I met more people but I felt a comfort in knowing whoever was there was taking in a wild show and it was for Dean. I also experienced a first in that for the first time ever a hardcore tag match got me oddly emotional. But when Tank and Manders are battling on chairs in front of Dean's chair and the crowd chanting his name how the hell can you not be? As for the show itself I have seen a couple folks when watching random indy stuff but the only one I saw before this was Slim J. So it made me compare this to a concert. There's many a concert where I would go to let's say Metallica and you know what you're getting. But then there's random concerts that sound neat that all goes well end up fucking incredible. This was an instance of the latter for me and I became a fan that night of folks like Krule and of all teams the Ugly Sucklings. I definitely need to keep an eye out for them. And I sure as hell didn't expect Violence if Forever to show up but holy bats there they were so that's cool to say I finally saw them live. If I thought about this more maybe I could have tried a road report like I've been reading all these years. But I wouldn't do it justice so hopefully the truncated version of everything works. Anyway it was a fucking great time and I'll be looking forward to the DVD.

Jesus Christ shut the fuck up.

That's a different RF brother

Oklahoma is a fucking joke. Fuck their governor. Keep fucking censuring lawmakers and give half hearted “it’s a tragedy” statements to fucking teens that die that don’t share your lifestyles, you dishonest whores of Babylon

You'll get the same strawman arguments when these knuckleheads argue about "protecting women's sports", like they aren't mocking that nobody cares about women's sports or shuffling money around to only give scholarships to football and men's basketball programs. Pablo Torre did an episode of his podcast to interview the single varsity sports player in the entire state of Ohio. For all the ignorant bleating about the subject and its supposed epidemic status, there is literally one trans girl playing in the entire state. She is the backup catcher on the softball team. She just wants to play with her friends. Imagine that. THE HORROR!!! Here's the episode: https://youtu.be/nJc4hxxdCJ8?si=OLne9uJDChk6TvDE How dare us terrible transes try to be part of society.

It's almost like, when you get right down to it, it's all just bullshit.

Ladies and gentlemen, wrestling is back

My dude, they don't care. I'm not saying this to aim at you or anything, but there are people going "don't they know it's not a real sport?!", and it ignores the simple fact that they don't want LGBTQ folks (and ESPECIALLY trans folks) to be involved in any aspect of life whatsoever. Real sports, fake sports, teaching in schools, working in a job - literally any job - they don't care. I can go into dozens upon dozens of explanations as to why the physiological arguments don't line up and they'll just go "hurr durr durr chromosomes" or "hurr durr durr protect women" because they don't care about any of it. It's buzz word salad because they want us gone. And it doesn't stop at Nyla Rose. Booking another trans person against Nyla and going "ha! Take that!" doesn't solve the problem because that's one of their weasel arguments; that trans people should just compete against each other, knowing full well there aren't enough of us in most situations to do that. The fact that there actually are enough trans wrestlers do to that means the goalposts will then move, and it'll just become WELL THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!! I have a friend who's a librarian, who spoke out about the protests against drag queen story hours. Someone said "why not get a cop or fire fighter to read to the kids" and she said "I tried, they don't show up, drag queens do", and guess what... they would rather have literally nobody read to a kid than a drag queen read to a kid because heaven forbid people have to have a conversation with their child that might make the parent mildly uncomfortable, like being a parent doesn't involve being mildly uncomfortable 95% of the time. Anyway, to make this about wrestling because I'm breaking all kinds of board rules, the Oklahoma State Athletic Commission can go suck a fuck and people should go about their business. If they want to fine AEW for putting a trans wrestler on the show, TK should pay it. And I got news for him, they'll start fining you for having gay wrestlers next because that's the slope we're heading down unless you put a stop to it like right the fuck now.

Riley Gaines is such a hateful pathetic grifter who wasn’t even close the best woman on her team. Fuck her and the career she’s making out of being a hateful piece of shit. I deal with enough of this trans panic crap daily I don’t need it coming into my fake figuring and yet here we are (Note for those who don’t know: I’m trans af)

He's gonna be like $80 million short of affording the golden ticket to the rich assholes secret volcano witness protection hideout and then he'll remember Linda's Senate campaign and weep of exhaustion.

Dynamite is Triple H led Raw with more workrate. Collision is Smackdown Six era Smackdown. Rampage is Heat. ROH is FCW/OVW/Deep South.

Hey everyone So.............I will have a ton more notes. But I wanted to announce that DEAN~!!! will be released on DVD/Blu Ray through Smart Mark Video. We are working on it now, and the cover art is absolutely incredible. I have tons more thoughts and pictures to share, I'm still humbled by it all Anyone who does pick up IWTV, just a reminder for promo code "ACTION" Appreciate you tons. I think Dean Rasmussen would've given this show 5 BILLIONSTARSSSSS~!!!!!!!

Don’t tread on Nyla, you corrupt bigoted fucks. Stay out of wrestling. Grow a heart, you 2056 shamed and regretful mother fuckers. May the non-binary Holy Spirit rightfully tie you to the spokes of eternal torment as your ancestors denounce you.

Ric "LOL I'll pretend you said 18 (or 21 depending on State laws)" Flair?

https://twitter.com/AEW/status/1339254795350265862/photo/1 Eddie Kingston addresses his enemies is probably my favorite alternative title to promo segment. Also that last sentence is triggering for someone who is using his lunch break to get away from the corporate world.

I got an e mail yesterday announcing that AEW is running Dynamite on my birthday 6/5 in Loveland, CO. Pre sale was today so I grabbed tix for me and my bud. To be honest, my interest in AEW is at a low point but live TV wrestling 40 minutes away on my birthday? Shit, I'm down.

Gimmick? His party has been shoot Russian sympathizers for a few years now.

In a mild defense of Tony. He watched Punk lose his shit and go after Jack Perry, of all people. Then Punk goes towards Tony, still losing his shit, and two guys have to hold him back. So in that chaotic moment, it's not unreasonable to be scared, perhaps even afraid for your life. When violence happens you don't really know when it's going to stop. As outsiders we can say that might be an over reaction. And we can certainly say he was being a little melodramatic by repeating those feelings to a live audience after time to reflect. But I'm sure in that moment he felt scared and I don't blame him.

MON DIEU! La WWE arrive en France! C'est la merde? Une façon de le savoir! LA PROGAMMATION~! POUR LE CHAMPIONNAT INCONTESTÉ - Le Chauchemar Américain Cody Rhodes (c) contre Les Phénoménal AJ Styles OU LA Chevalier POUR LE CHAMPIONNAT DU MOND - Damien Prêtre (c) contre Événement Principal Jey Uso

Moxley challenging Hobbs in Jacksonville is a cool callback to the early days/covid days of AEW when Hobbs first hit the scene and looked to be aligning himself with Moxley.

Aaron Rodgers opened his mouth again. It's about HIV/AIDS and Dr. Fauci and "plandemics" and FUCK him.

The Sami entrance from him at the front of the building until the commercial break was one of the best 90 seconds in Raw history. Such a beautiful shot that really captured why we are wrestling fans — the utter joy that comes from watching someone like Sami. There’s at least one kid who saw that tonight and is now a lifelong rasslin’ fan. Hot damn that was just something else.

Live, the Collision main was amazing. So was Athena/Red. Also think Shibata/Moriarty is worth checking out. Some great mat work in that one. Really good crowd last night. We were really into everything except Rosa’s rambling promo. She got a nice pop when she came out, but that died off as she just kept going and going.

please tell me Steve Harvey got a braid whip

Well, me and the little dude will be there at Collision tonight. Should be really close to the stage for entrances but off the floor. Grabbed some cheap tickets that just opened up. Looking forward to it!

Hits keep coming:

Still hilarious to me that hhh complains about "the grind" and cushy schedules when his champion wrestled 15 times last year lol

Gonna be honest, I saw a couple of people online asking where they can go that’s not the Twitter/Reddit/normal websites and I didn’t share our fortune.

Yeah I was mid-tangent and my wording went all to heck so thank you for saying this, I meant that if Oklahoma was going to fine Nyla, TK should pay it, but I'm very much in favor of not paying it whatsoever because it's a bullshit sanction for a bullshit rule from a bullshit commission full of bullshit grifters. State commissions don't do a damn thing for wrestlers aside from take their fees each month and a cut of each show's gate. If all they're there for is to collect a cut and do nothing else, get rid of them, especially when they're doing nonsense like this.

Daniels and Sydal were two of the first people out for the CMLL invasion so I think they're just canonically about that life.

Hook was dressed like a recent HS grad who is working at a garage and insisting he'll go to a 4 year university after spending time at a JC that he isn't enrolled at what i'm trying to say is that Hook looked very Italian tonight

I'm inviting you to join my wrestling-themed Def Poetry Jam circle. If you accept, there will be two of us in the group.

Need to make a list of all the dumb terms they've used to try to disguise "hey it's a promo seg." How they haven't gotten to "scrum" yet is anyone's guess. Honestly, Chris' next reinvention should be a middle manager type who talks in business buzzwords. He should tell Hook that they'll take this offline and circle back to touch base on their action items so they can strategize once they've gotten a 10,000 foot view and buy-in from the leadership.

One key thing that’s probably getting overlooked with the way the weekly TV is being shot is that it’s a lot easier to do interesting and/or complex shot setups when the showrunner isn’t constantly rewriting the show up until showtime (and sometimes while the show is in progress). Past a certain threshold, all you can do is static setups and use a lot of editing (and other tricks) to cover up for the lack of dynamic shots because you just don’t have time. Knowing what you’re shooting with ample production time helps talented people use their talents!

Gable was a great doofus heel in his early days of NXT when they were starting up American Alpha. He’s been a heel on the big roster, too, and good. The Academy were fun borderline delusional heels until they built Gable up for the awesome Gunther saga that led to the awesome Sami stuff. Also: You put Gable in the Twin Cities against Sami, you can get the inverse from last night in terms of reaction. What a great storyline. They did such an awesome job weaving all of this together — Gable wanting a shot at Gunther, Sami showing doubt in the stands touching on his Roman match (and subtly building up in the audience’s mind to last night by mentioning Montreal), the Gauntlet Match where Sami won (and a pro-Gable backlash) and then the past few weeks. As people pointed out elsewhere: Was there some disingenuousness with Gable wanting Sami to win because he thought Sami an easier target? But, best of all, Gable didn’t do a poor sportsmanship turn right after he lost. He snapped when he saw Sami hugging his wife, because he remembered the heartbreak of losing to Gunther as his family watched. He literally snatched the moment away from Sami by pulling him from his wife into a German Suplex right in front of her. So nasty. We all saw it coming, but understanding and seeing Gable get to this breaking point over the months is a great story. He gave into his jealousy, and we know why. That is why it is so effective and villainous. Another great moment of genius between Sami and Gable last night was how they got to the awesome visual at the ending. It is so organic. Gable rams Sami headfirst while they are both on the apron and Sami falls so naturally between the turnbuckles for Gable to to hit the ankle lock, which could have looked so convoluted in the hands of people who aren’t two of the most gifted storytellers in wrestling. Also: I think it’s really likely Rhea’s arm was messed up somewhere else and they pulled the trigger on the Liv attack last week to put the heat on Morgan, since she’s been heelish in the few weeks before WM (with a pretty great segment against Becky) knowing Rhea was having surgery. I rewatched the Liv attacking Rhea spot from last week and while it looks snug, there doesn’t look like anything so nasty it would mess up Rhea’s slinged arm. Plus, that was also their bit of tracking shot wizardry last week (Rhea and Dom do a Sorkin walk-and-talk to set up him versus Andrade before the attack) and then Dom reappears and tells the camera to get out of here, and it goes to an extended crowd shot. It’s so well blocked that they had to have rehearsed it a bunch of times and probably kept it pretty safe for Rhea. Man, I just can’t get over the type of stuff we are talking about now with the WWE’s production. It’s been a bunch of really fun small changes (the quick backstage interviews, a lot more pre-taped stuff like Sami in the crowd or the KCs partying) but now it’s so remarkably different. I think they are smart enough to just do one tracking segment a show (at most) because you want those for special moments and since they’re really hard to pull off live, you really need your most talented people to do those because you need to hit certain marks and timing. (Jey has to get to Sami pretty quickly and literally shoves a fan to make it happen, then Sami has to get to the right section to walk down to and they have to time all that with the music cue.) I am such a fanboy for production stuff. I was a TV Production major in college. I had absolutely no interest in doing that professionally but I always liked seeing how it was put together.

While the trope of an outside attack will probably never die, I'd like to point out what an incredibly pleasant surprise it was for Jey to find Sami outside. I was 100% convinced he was going to walk out to a thumb to the throat and a Tama Tonga beatdown. And as Gregg put it, there's definitely a few boys and girls in the crowd that will love this thing forever. Hell, I fully expect 10-15 years from now hearing some new wrestler say how they were there when Sami came through the crowd. Triple H Forever!

Awesome

Strong is a guy I don’t look forward to watching or actively seek out, but then when I do see him wrestle, I always remember that he’s really fucking good at it.

I guess I'm in the minority that is actually looking forward to seeing Strong/O'Reilly. Always enjoyed Strong in-ring, less so outside of it, but O'Reilly has always been a fun watch, though i really miss denim vest sporting NXT O'Reilly. His match v Balor is still one of my favorite NXT matches of all time.

https://www.voicesofwrestling.com/2024/04/14/voices-of-wrestlings-top-10-matches-top-3-shows-of-wrestlemania-weekend-2024/#google_vignette

Turns out I have the last year of every AEW show recorded on my Hulu account. So I just watched this. Great time. Thanks. Sonjay pouncing Buddy Matthews off the stage was probably the last thing I expected out of this match.

…and when’s the release on twice-taped over VHS? Instead of $10, can we send in a copy of the 1995 Dallas Cowboy Super Bowl Champions VHS?

I've had enough of the weirdo online posters. I've basically unsubscribed from all the FB wrestling groups I had joined. The DVDVR is the only group of online wrestling weirdos I need.

We weren't supposed to?

The zinger was much appreciated. And I got two seats in the exact section I wanted for $36 each before fees. I’m very happy.

The connection has always been there. Rock has a story about how he calls Haku "Uncle" and how Haku lent him his gear for Rock's original tryout match. Years later as a thank you, Rock bought Haku his dream truck. Tama's Bloodline, but will be loyal to The Rock.

don't click if you don't want a result from Windy City Riot spoiled