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it's been like 15 years since I posted on this board OR went to a wrestling show (that's what moving to a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean will do to you) but you know, everything is cyclical so let's do a Big Post on ACTION DEAN~! Right off the bat explaining to my wife what I needed to fly to the East Coast to do was a little complicated but I just bought the ticket first and let the rest work itself out. We've been in pretty severe crisis mode for the last few years (like... everybody else on Earth) and my whole resolution for 2-0-2-4 was to pull out of the nosedive and be a Human Man, with Human Interests once more. So we used some miles and I hooked up a place to stay with an old friend in NYC and made it a reality. I took the train from NYC to Philly and then a bus and then another bus to the closest hotel to the venue (the Plum Tree Inn), a place so sketchy my bank automatically pinged a fraud alarm the instant I checked in. After taking a shower I walked the 3 miles to the H20 Wrestling Center, located like all good things in the middle of a mixed use office park. It actually turned out to be a little bit longer because I was listening to a podcast my wife sent me to help her with a job interview so I missed the turn but after walking through a charming suburban neighborhood where it doesn't appear that people just walk through I found first the Wawa and then the venue. As I walked up all the workers were around the front side of the building and I overheard somebody say "big clothesline WHOOSH" before I found the real door. Nobody like checked my ticket or anything but you know how it goes. I have not been Deep Into wrestling for some time so a lot of these guys I have barely seen in passing or at all but I did not Complain on the Internet or even Do My Own Research about it. Colby Corino becomes the first challenger for a title I've ever seen warn the crowd that he's very tired, and justifiably so! Both him and Alex Kane have huge and very different charisma and this was definitely fun, the right amount of length and shenanigans without burning anything out. This show was LONG but for the most part the pacing was very smart (we'll get to the Most Part later). The Good Hand get the "early NWO heel stable" combination of a good talker, a laconic big man and a little fucking asshole piece of shit that everybody wants to see die rolling early and their match with Amboss / O'Shea Edwards was fun, especially because Kevin Ryan is a very good little fucking asshole piece of shit that everybody wants to see die. Suge D's failed armdrag bit with the enormous Edwards was also very charming and the moonsault at the end was a Big Fella Flying. Ugly Sucklings vs. Violence Is Forever was a quick little sprint packed with grisly offense from both sides. I liked the pace of this a lot and everything looked good. Here's White Mike taking a little breather in the empty chair next to me, a chair that would get a significant amount of use throughout the evening. https://shortandhappy.com/images/dean-mike.jpg The first appearance of the Nasty Ring Mat heralded the crowd popping for Gypsy Joe Rules despite having no idea what they were. Tom Lawlor coming into the match dressed like he just finished up his shift at Best Buy was the little touch of surrealism that made this magical. A lot of it happened outside the ring on the other side from where I was sitting but watching Tank blade was hilarious, he worked his forehead with the frenetic zeal of a squirrel trying to open a Brazil nut. 3 Flippy Guys vs. 3 Strong Motherfuckers was exactly what it said on the tin. Danny Demanto's plaintive request for a single door was deeply touching, and then he set the door up against the ropes right in front of me so I figured I just wouldn't see anything. Then somebody got flung into it and a tuft of his hair was sticking out of the door the entire match, which was pretty gross. Most of this match was Bobby Flaco just getting the living shit kicked out of him. "Unkillable" Brayden Toon is the weirdest wrestling name I've heard in a while. Is he a living cartoon? Is his signature match a scaffold match over a vat of Dip? https://shortandhappy.com/images/dean-flaco.jpg I liked the work in Gringo Loco vs. Dr. Cerebro a lot but the actual match was a little off-feeling, with the inexplicable DQ for a chairshot on the arm? followed by a match restart and the chair just lying there? Everything they did looked great though and it was fun as fuck and Cerebro has Veteran Presence. https://shortandhappy.com/images/dean-cerebro.jpg Krule and Warhorse worked hard but this match was incredibly long-feeling. Krule's Hello Kitty lighter fell out of his pocket onto the mat right in front of me like three minutes into the thing. Mr. Horse has a lovely top rope elbow and they did a lot of careening into chairs but there was also Jumping Nothings into Goozles and other unsatisfactory things. I could have used five minutes less on this. Put that five minutes into Makowski vs Arez which was billed as a clash of styles but everything these guys did looked perfect, smooth and hard-hitting and great. Arez's toe-tap moonsault off the ropes is devastatingly beautiful. This seemed like it was just shifting into another gear when it ended but I definitely wanted more. Adam Priest is a guy I've been hearing a lot of praise for and while "Any Style" is a completely doofus nickname he really came out and delivered the most Professional Wrestling match of the night, talking multitudes of shit towards the recently unemployed Slim J throughout the match and making everything he did look great. This was worked precisely like it should be, nothing out of place and nothing unnecessary, just two great performers locking in on it. The rope neck snap to get out of the sleeper was disgusting even if I could barely see it. So gross! I wasn't as into Sinner & Saint vs. Youth and Mathers as some others seem to be. I started to drift out of wrestling as that super indie style was coming to prominence, and by this point I'd seen so many Guys doing so much Stuff that a match like this, which was full of Guys and Stuff, was gilding the proverbial lily. Nothing essentially wrong with this and it all looked good, just not for me. These guys are all babies so hopefully they'll grow into being a little bit lazier, like a man does. https://shortandhappy.com/images/dean-sinner.jpg What can you even say anymore about Demus vs. Mad Dog Connelly? Demus is a foulmouthed short king but the instant Connelly stepped out and started whipping that chain around this felt DANGEROUS in a "somebody in the crowd is going to lose a tooth" way. These guys just wailed the shit out of each other in a ton of intense and great-looking ways. I got the same garbage can thrown at me twice, and it was most certainly full of garbage. This match was the kind of thing that's impossible to explain to somebody who doesn't already Get It, but if you Get It than the Getting's Good. https://shortandhappy.com/images/dean-demus.jpg Main event was incredible. Being able to watch these two guys work each other over from the front row, see the struggle and shift and work, was truly special. Both Makabe and Thatcher are masters of this kind of close work, and everything here felt earned and tense and logical, right down to the three nasty punches they closed with. When my daughter was looking through my photos she stopped at this one and said "that looks like it REALLY hurts." That's how you know you're doing it right. https://shortandhappy.com/images/dean-makabe.jpg But most importantly? At one point during the match, quietly under-the-breath whispered from Thatcher to Makabe, "you OK?" just long enough to connect and affirm the trust and closeness necessary to work this violently with each other. Not intentional, not meant to be heard, but living proof that pro wrestling is love is pro wrestling is love. My most cherished memory of DEAN~ is when I met him and a bunch of the other guys for the first time at the 2000 ECWA Super 8 (aka "The One Before The Good One"). I had made my way to Wilmington, Delaware in the way I did in my 20s, ramshackle and improvised, and when the show let out Dean asked me where I was staying and I just pointed off into the woods, an act which he'd bring up to me several times in the next decade or so. RIP big man, you made this Internet a place for me to share something special and learn from the best. Might not post here for another 15 years, but who knows? Lot of stuff on this board doesn't seem to be working if you want me to look at the code.

Holy shit I just realized that Roderick Strong is that goofy math teacher looking dude in the hardcore band that if he’s there means you’re going to die in the pit

Slightly off topic, but I happened to catch Impact from the first week of April on the YTTV channel, and they're pretty quietly building kind of a cool roster - like, I definitely didn't have Mustafa Ali vs Rhyno or Ziggler vs Alexander on my bingo card this year (at the f'n ECW Arena, no less). Don't get me wrong: I'm always down for more fresh faces in AEW, but dare I say it, I'm beginning to think TNA is no longer quite the death sentence it once was post-Hogan & Friends

Sheamus/Drew is sort of like Sami/KO. It’s never a wrong answer. I think Drew might be a the peak of his powers more than any other wrestler in the game right now. I didn’t have a clue that his all around ceiling was this high.

Honestly, 2 of WWE's top guys right now are people that were floundering with no direction, got released, and reinvented themselves on the indies/TNA/AEW and came back and got red hot. Leaving isn't the worst thing in the world, especially with the amount of promotions around looking for another spark. It's good for guys to have options again to try a different territory.

Our friend Dylan Hales tweeted the cover art:

https://smartmarkvideo.com/dvd/action-wrestling-blu-ray-april-4-2024-dean-williamstown-nj#intro Hey everyone! DEAN~!!! is now out on Blu Ray over at Smart Mark!

Grimes crypto-millionaire gimmick was basically the first time WWE has ever been up on a current events gimmick rather than months...years....behind. The fact that it somehow lead to him being one of the most over faces on the NXT roster was a testament to Grimes' personality. His main roster run was sabotaged by coming up when Vince was in charge and didn't get/didn't care about him or his gimmick, so by the time he was out Grimes was already basically seen as a JTTS and probably too late/too small to rehab his image. I still kinda think he has "it" to some degree and could be a big player for someone down the line: AEW, TNA or I could even see him being a good fit in Japan.

I'd guess he's a surefire pickup for AEW or TNA. I put slightly better odds on TNA but I hope it's AEW, as I've missed the Carolina Caveman.

My take on the big match: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2024/04/aew-five-fingers-of-death-415-421.html?m=1

I've known Anthony/Santino casually for about 15 years. I remember joking with him about how much better a Russian he was that Nikita Koloff. Dude is a legit judoka (he actually trained a friend's daughter to multiple championships) and I'm so glad for him to get this booking against a legend like Sakuraba. Edit: i bet he must be once again be training like a real aminal for this match lol

I'll say this: since Danielson/Omega, I think Danielson/Ospreay is the only other match I've seen in recent memory that got a "holy shit!" before they even locked up. I thought that was kind of an interesting parallel when we were watching Edit: I went back and read @Matt Ds post (excellent as always) and given his take on the crowd I guess this post became slightly prescient

It's been really good for a few years now. The roster is, like you said, really interesting and they cycle people through quite a bit, so no one gets too stale.

I'm having difficulty where Bryan Danielson vs. Will Ospreay from AEW Dynasty 2024 places in my Best AEW Matches Ever list. https://deathvalleydriver.com/forum/index.php?/topic/9128-best-aew-matches-ever/page/5/#comments I still rate Bryan Danielson vs. Zack Sabre Jr from AEW WrestleDream 2023 as the best AEW match ever. It's a toss up between Bryan Danielson vs. Kenny Omega from AEW Grand Slam Dynamite 2021 and Bryan Danielson vs. Will Ospreay at AEW Dynasty 2024 for second and third place. What's yours?

Dude, you win Gold Prize for making your way up, not even being stateside. That's awesome. And also, I think your comments about Cerebro/Loco being somehow off and Makowski/Arez needing more time are on the mark. Both were still killer of course. And those photos are so good that I'm sure the participants are gonna want to see them, and maybe even end up in the DVD. I still haven't went back and watched the pre-Cerebro matches. At this point I'll just wait for the DVD/VHS/whatever.

Interesting and I enjoy meditating on the crowd response. A match like this I’ll need to watch again to give actual thoughts outside of gut feelings. Maybe in a month or so when it is on a sneaky peaky upload. During it, I very much felt that the immense pandemonium improved my experience. I don’t think the attack off the apron was missed as much as it was like when I’m doing “THE CLAW” with lil Octopus and he is uncontrollably squeamishly giggling because of all the fun surrounding “THE CLAW” which include powerbombs on the couch and piggyback rides. You very well might be onto something, but what you were talking about as a negative I very much resonated. Great comparison to RVD vs Benoit. That made me appreciate this match more and if I got what I thought would be nice on paper, maybe would have been less happy. This match was maybe the best possible outcome of the two being opponents. If it was more ~Ospreay~ then I’d likely be less thrilled, if it was more then it would have had less exciting for the fan of the modern style. This match was a very tasty Arnold Palmer.

I liked the main event quite a bit. One of my favorite Swerve matches ever. It was ok that he took so much of it because it was due to him capitalizing on opportunities (some of which he was able to create) and because you want your new chant to win definitively. It wasn't enough for him to win; he had to Beat Joe and he did.

My wife told me this was coming a while back and we wondered what it meant for wrestlers. I figured it meant nothing because wrestling exists in a pocket universe where laws and rules don't apply. Wasn't it Alberto Del Rio who took WWE to court over the no compete clause and won? And that didn't change anything.

Tomorrow! Mina returning to the USA quickly. Feels like she only arrived back in Japan a few days ago.

I’d guess the Chamber of Commerce represents businesses and their interests in this late stage capitalism hellhole. I’m frankly surprised any agency tried to pass a ruling that might harm The Job Creators (hallowed be thy names). Go after wrestling’s BS independent contractor shit next please and thank you.

I don't think you understand the hardships Fisher has had in his life. The way he pulled himself up by the bootstraps is so inspiring. It's so horrible the way the greedy cities, players, and other team personnel abuse him. He oughta have a statue.

Copied from some page that showed up in my feed on Facebook that I don't even subscribe to, so, ya know, grains of salt and all. Somebody else verify.

As Peck said in the main thread and my dumb ass posted in the wrong thread, the FTC just banned non-competes with that nullifying all prior ones. The US Chamber of Commerce is gonna sue though for a reason someone will have to explain to me (probably just your typical deregulation bullshit) so there'll be a fight. Anyway that has better placement on this thread than the main one.

Put the TNA world belt on him immediately.

So I ended up watching this again. But in order to take out the crowd's part in the way Matt mentioned I decided to watch it on mute. It goes against what the point of wrestling is meant to do but I didn't want the crowd to influence my view of the match. On rewatch yeah it really fucking rules. The story beats worked with Danielson knowing early he was in for a rough ride so he had to dominate. Then when the top rope Tiger was done it almost snapped Will out of it and he rose to the occasion. From there it led to a wild third act and it came crashing down with the worked injury. It almost reminded me of The Beatles "I want you (she's so heavy)" in that it would build up and up and up then it suddenly got silent and it felt jarring. First time hearing that song I was not prepared but have grown to love it. The ending of this match was essentially it getting suddenly silent and I was in all kinds of "Wait, what?" mode. So yeah with Danielson's history of real and fake injuries no thank you. But watching the match back I realized I was so caught up in the moment that I didn't pay attention to 1. The Storm Driver being done as safe as possible and 2. The gravity of the situation in Will's reaction. He had that post-match as well as in the media scrum and with that context this is one time where the fake injury works. I just hope Danielson never goes fake injury route again. As for ranking the matches Natural mentioned I don't know. Daneielson/Omega was loved by me for emotional reasons and Danielson/Sabre was a technical dream match that I ate up with a giant spoon. This one was a mix of everything and it all just worked so beautifully. I think it's a bit soon for me to say where it compares to the other two. The shock of the end has worn off a good bit but I also want to see how this is followed up on Dynamite and a couple shows after. I feel if the fake injury was concerning for some it might be worth a rewatch.

I could see Trev salvaging the Matt Hardy signing if they book it right.

Off the top of my head and in the deep void of my gut, I’ll say 1. Bryan Danielson vs ZSJ 2. MJF vs Bryan Danielson 3. Young Bucks vs Omega & Hangman Each of those are in my [rough draft] top 50 All Time favorites.

Gotta say Omega/Ospreay at Forbidden Door 23. Two guys that know how to do a proper 40-minute King's Road style match with a little infusion of sports entertainment with Don Callis' excellent desperation character work throughout. MJF/Punk dog collar is probably number 2, but MJF/Danielson iron man, Hangman/Swerve TDM, and FTR/Briscoes 2/3 falls (assuming we count nu-ROH) would all be strong contenders.

Danielson/Omega remains my favorite AEW match ever. Maybe that'd change with another viewing of Danielson/Ospreay but I don't think it will.

It's this one for me - but I acknowledge the bias I have from being in the house, and that whole show overall being probably the literal peak of my 30 year fandom. If I lived in St. Louis you might get a totally different answer.

The Priest/Jey segment was alright. I liked mostly for the nding and the general build towards a Judgement Day implosion its continuing. Awesome Truth vs. DIY was good. Curious to see where things go as the post match showed Ciampa overly frustrated with the loss. The Gunther promo was solid. As the New Day vs. Imperium match it led to. Not sure how I feel about the post match with poor Vinci getting beaten and ousted by Kaiser. Mostly I just think Vinci is the better wrestler of the team with Kaiser so I hope this doesn't mean he is gone from WWE though I also don't see him doing much on his own. Hopefully we get a Wolfe return or maybe another Ringkampf member joins Imperium. That Drew/Sheamus segment was good. The digs were perfect, and I liked Sheamus's reactions. Sheamus/Nakamura right after was another solid match. That Gable promo was cold. Hopefully Gable can keep that up as the heel turn continues. Still, I really want him to switch out Otis, Tozawa, and Maxxine for the Creeds. Just feels like a perfect heel stable. Ivy can stay with Maxxine as a face. Andrade/Ricochet vs. Santos/JD built into something good. JD and Santos were a far better team than expected. The Priest attack post match and trash talk to Dom and JD was neat. Dug the backstage segment with all the women that led into the battle royal. Was a nice face moment for Becky and solid build to giving Maxxine a chance to impress in the match. The match itself was pretty solid. I dug a lot of eliminations and thought they did a good job showcasing most of the women involved at some point. The finale with Liv, Becky, and Nia was expected but done well enough. I do wish Liv won, but I assume much of this is to set up a full heel turn for Liv when she finally does take the belt. Right now she doesn't quote have the reasons or ammo for it. Beating Becky down bad for the title will give it to her. I have to admit I would have rather seen Liv win straight up here, but I do think there is a noticeable drop off in how the crowd views the women after Rhea and Becky. This is probably necessary to help Liv step to the next level. No stand out match, but everything here was pretty solid and enjoyable. weakest segment was probably the opening, but everything else did well. Solid show overall though it still suffers from the usual long Raw length.

Liv is the one who injured Rhea. It would have made sense to give Liv the title and have her talking shit. But instead, another Becky Lynch run. No thank you.

Mone's entrance got exposed by nobody keeping up with the "CEO" chant in the crowd after it stopped, which exposed it being incredibly cloying (even moreso) and super heelish. Kind of... hmmm. Ah, I got it, like this.

Bobby Shane had Miss Sherri in the early-1970s as well.

So when is Christian feuding with Angelo Parker? Before or after the baby is born??

Need to compile a lit of shared universes that worked and were profitable vs all the attempted shared universes that shit the bed. All these bean counters and C-suite failing upwards fuckwads see is Marvel and Star Wars branching out with all kinds of content and making money (and, to be fair, those universes have had their share of crap) and they just direct their creatives to "go make that!," like it's that simple, with zero concept of how much real time and effort went into doing it in a way that created good films and shows that built a universe, engaged people, and made them want to buy in to those universes. Like how the DC universe skipped from step 2 to step 5 with nothing in between and then the studio lamented that nobody cared about the Justice League. These guys are just mining for expansive IP they can whore out with no concept of how to take your time and make it good. It's no wonder they think AI is the future of film; they have no concept of the creative process and likely have contempt for those pesky writers, directors, actors, etc.

I'll take that list as the gospel one then. They go back pre-Dracula too, which makes sense as Phantom and Hunchback are cornerstones. Google and Wiki tell me the MCU has 33 films, fwiw.

Trevor Lee was in Impact for a couple years he could always go back.

Fisher already has a team in San Jose that that got it's new stadium and still doesn't draw fans because he's still the same cheap-ass that blows up teams as soon as they develop. The malaise stems from ownership, not the city, stadium, or fanbase. Same as every other team in this position in every other US sport

Kay (yeah yeah, I know) broke it down that as far as anyone knows there is no such rule, that's a personal thing for Wendelstedt about "if I can't figure it out, toss the Manager". There was no warning to shut down anyone else on the bench. Shit, Wendelstedt has tossed players and bench coaches from the dugout himself. Wendelstedt also hadn't seen teh video yet, but it's clear as day he tossed Boone after the fan barked. A lot of it has to do with how much Boone gets tossed and that umps go in looking for excuses to toss Boone. That's one thing. The bigger issue is how fucking thin-skinned Umps (and a lot of other officials) are and how quick to pull the trigger, and that THERES NO RECOURSE FROM TEAMS for bad calls and no accountability for Umps or most other sports officials for making bad calls. This is all over NY sports, but what recourse is there for the Yankees? Call Manfred? He's not going to do anything, nor is the Umpire union. Shit, Wendelstedt RUNS AN UMP SCHOOL. Hernendez has the most inconsistant strike zone in Baseball and he's beloved in the Union so they're not going to toss him. We're probably in for a couple weeks of people getting seats above the team they don't link's Dugout and barking trying to get people tossed.

The battle royal was probably one of the better ones they've done. Lots of nice spots, especially Chelsea's initial fake out lol Becky winning was no surprise, but why do I have this vision of Liv eventually beating her, aligning with Dom, and then having to deal with a returning face Rhea? lol

I agree with the Brody part minus the steamrolling.

Obviously, there was stuff here that I really, really liked, and stuff I didn't. PAC/Okada was The. Shit. Hard hitting. Snug. State of the Art. I could watch a best of 37 series between these two. Rosa/Storm was pretty great. This was the best Rosa has looked in a long time. Toni Storm is doing absolutely generational character work right now. Fantastic. Strong/KOR is just VERY not for me. Nobody in this UK group/angle is better off than they were 6 months ago, except maybe Adam Cole, because people have forgotten how not good he is. I'll have more later. I thought this was really a great show, and another show that AEW really needed to have.

Rate their fits: Bunkhouse match edition Danielson: gets massive points for the classic “blue jeans with knee pads on the outside” look. Really, the only acceptable bunkhouse/street fight attire. Loses points for wearing his own merch instead of a gimme shirt from the local radio station. Claudio: black jeans and knee pads on the inside. Real fashion faux pas. Shirt came off and he ended up looking like a member of Too Sexy: A Loving Tribute to Right Said Fred. Takeshita: stereotypical gear made him look like a guy you’d dispose of in the first level of Kung Fu. I guess he didn’t want to straight up dress like a Yakuza since he does have to go home sometime. Fletcher: remember when MC Hammer dropped the “MC” and tried to make a comeback with some fake thug 3rd rate West Coast style shit? Fletcher looked like a 90s boy band member trying to get back on track with the same tactic with his yee yee ass haircut and bobo Tims.

I just stumbled upon what appears to be an episode of ICW TV with the directors' and producers' instructions. Fascinating stuff. https://youtu.be/toA6LCNIm_8

Vince turning into this was not on my bingo card

Maybe they can also pick up Jaylon Smith or Jaylon Johnson to add another spelling to the team? They've already got Jalen Ramsey.