Greggulator

I know nothing about 80s joshi beyond watching a bunch of Dump and Crush Gals and the big moments. First episode of Queen of Villains is really really fun. The wide-eyed innocence and pain of young Dump Matsumoto is really great soap opera. I hope this catches on because it’s really good.

I have an outsized love for the Wyatts vs. American Made match. Awesome plunder brawl that really told a great story throughout. It wasn’t just some random ECW-influenced chaos, this built and had some awesome things like Rowan getting buried under everything to lead to his comeback (and Rowan has been incredible) and all the wild stuff with Nikki. Big props to Chad Gable for being kingsized throughout this whole angle, too. That match was a lot of fun and put together really well. A+. Gunther telling Bret Hart (in Calgary) that his favorite wrestler is Bill Goldberg is one of the all-time great heel lines. I was laughing so hard. It really looked like all three of those guys were doing everything they could to not turf out during the segment. It was really clear Jey Uso was going to get the title shot for a few weeks now. But the pop he got to close the show was something else. Yet somehow Bronson Reed was the guy who got the most from the match. Great stuff.

Swerve/Page last night reminded me a lot of the Jackass guys, and I mean that as a compliment. There are so many things in the Jackass movies that can go absolutely wrong and/or are beyond fucked up to try: Like letting scorpions attack your nipples or shit like that. Or taking a spine bump on a cinder block. One of my favorite matches of all time is Born To Be Wired. Sabu might be my all-time favorite wrestler. I saw The Murder Junkies live. (Post-GG, but still.) I am a family man with a master’s degree and a lot of positivity in my life. But there is a part of me that wants to live I. some nihilistic, crazed world where I could let a venomous snake bite an organ for laughs or burn down an enemy’s house or to hate someone so much I will get up from having my spine dropped across building materials so I can torture him. I am willing to admit that this chaotic darkness is something I find attractive. Stuff like last night’s cage match or the Hated documentary or other things like that are as far as I am willing to go into that dark corner. That’s why I love a good death match or bloodbath.

That main event was jarring and disturbing. I loved it. The needle into the cheek doesn’t sound as bad on paper but the history of wrestling promotions suggests those guys were not concerned at all about infection control before the match. Hangman getting the shit scraped out of his back was so fucking gnarly. Loved that they went into the “stapling family photos onto each others flesh” at the same point of the indie match where they do all the roll-ups like Eddie/Dean. A+. Only thing this needed was for someone’s arm to somehow get sliced up accidentally so Nana could glue the wound close.

That Poison Rana or whatever it’s called from PAC to Will was nasty and awesome. Mariah May rules. Mox’s new thing is really intriguing. Danielson’s going to get the win over Jungle Boy but he’s going to go all out in making Perry’s career. Either Perry hits it out of the park as a scumbag opportunist in this match or he doesn’t and ends up as a mid-carder. Fun show

Hell yeah to Rosemary getting some NXT time. The only TNA I have ever watched has been her form of evil and chaos. Great performer in terms of her commitment to the bit.

NCAA Women’s Volleyball starts today! Fantastic watch when one of the games is held at a volleyball school — Nebraska, Wisconsin, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Texas, etc. But Nebraska is at another level of fandom. Bucket list for me is a trip to Lincoln to see the Huskers.

Major props to Chad Gable. The guy is hitting it out of the park with all of his character work with The Wyatts. He does such a great job of being an overconfident jock but the second something doesn’t go right — the crowd chanting “You Suck” to something in the ring — he makes some really fun facial expressions and changes his posture a bit to reveal just how insecure he really is. He’s an amazing storyteller. Bronson/Braun was something Dean (and really anyone) would have loved. Great stuff. I thought the Miz/Woods/Bruiserweight three-way was put together really well with Miz and even X doing some sneaky stuff to try and steal the win, only for Dunne to do it best.

I remember the more hood kids I grew up with fist bumping back then but there’s a good chance they started doing it because of Sid.

The Scissors incident with Arn was one of the first “kayfabe stuff makes it out online”’thing I can remember. But The Squegee Incident is forever the best.

I believe the rumor at the time was that they brought Sid in and Sid started demanding to have the book and they just sent him on his way.

Whether Sid was good or not in the ring (he wasn’t) is besides the point. He was as pro wrestling as pro wrestling gets. Stuff like Cheatum The Midget or all kinds of WrestleCrap he was mixed up in are just as entertaining and as important as some five star classic. I really can’t imagine what pro wrestling fandom for me would be without the master and ruler of the world bumping fists and wrecking dudes with powerbombs and having things like his ridiculous stumble on the mic against Nash.

Sid needs his own separate thread befitting the master and ruler of the world.

Fyre/Dawn/Davenport vs. Jade/Bianca/Naomi was so good. Fyre and Dawn have really come into their own lately. Good heel tag team and I love their mannerisms. Goth teens in the mall food court making fun of norms is a really fun archetype. Jade is a fantastic hot tag. Naomi also did Naomi things and showed proper babyface fire. I somehow think Bianca is underrated as big of a star as she is. She really held the match together for the faces with being an awesome Ricky Morton and looking desperate to make the tag and her crazy dives and the way she connects with the crowd. Just a fantastic performer.

Not sure what I want more: KO to revert to the darkside or for KO and Cody to have their own Piper/Bret or Sami/Neville where he does the right thing and doesn’t cheat in taking the loss. We are so lucky to have KO and Sami as the anchors on each show — neither is the absolute top guy, but they both are so important at telling stories or having a sense of humor and getting everything over while also having high-end matches. KO interacting with the most pure babyface in Cody is such a great idea to see where it heads.

All-time great basketball weekend. Gabby Williams doing a Kevin Durant impersonation at the end was a brutal way to lose. But man, that game delivered and then some. Great for the sport.

Absolutely incredible couple of days of basketball. Steph Curry had the absolute craziest hot stretch of his career and his whole career has been one hot stretch. Embiid is such trash. Hahaha

https://youtu.be/paG1FsOZUGs?si=Of6kmTXAz95T6232

Dragon vs. JJ in a Tupelo Concession Stand Brawl cosplay act is everything I wanted. I know Danielson is pretty much the original indie darling, but he’s at heart the biggest wrestling nerd of us all. JJ does all the bells and whistles for heat. Was it DEAN~ who described Memphis psychology as “I am punching you now?” This is that and I love every second. For some reason Ricky Steamboat is here? This is in North Carolina? This is peak AEW — give me all the weirdness and stuff I grew up watching on late night cable as an insomniac. A figure four and Dragon breaking out of it with a chair? Man, this is the shit. Crazy blood from JJ at the end. Modern day JJ is in three of my top AEW matches — this, vs OC and with Lethal against The Acclaimed. How great would Dragon vs. Lawler or Dragon vs. Terry Funk have been? And Swerve (another weirdo) comes out at the end to steal the thunder? I hope Swerve tortures Yuta and Bryan throws in the towel. This was Perfect pro wrestling. OC/FTR vs. Rush/Roddy/Mortos is also another great AEW fever dream. Dax said on his podcast he was a huge OC fan and drinking buddy. I have been waiting for some kind of pairing with them. Fun match with everything breaking down in full nonsense. AEW rules the mktherfucking world.

Man, that was an absolutely fantastic three hours of professional wrestling. Big ups to Baltimore for being an excellent crowd. Gunther looked so fucking right as the champion. I did not know I wanted to see him vs. Randy Orton but I really do. Man, Damian Priest as a fired up babyface is a revelation. I have always liked him since he came into my life as Punishment Martinez but I thought he would max out as solid muscle guy for a heel stable. He was fired up like early 90s Sting. Rhea is on the short list of biggest stars in the WWE and her and Liv are going to tear the house down now that there’s this clear demarcation line between hero and villain. Their SummerSlam match was really good but served the story with Dirty Dom showing his true colors and now they can actually have their match. All the Judgment Night stuff was so good tonight. A+. Bronson Reed just wrecking Rollins was so good. They have been waiting to pull the trigger on him for a while and now it’s here. Great way to separate Seth from Punk/Drew for a little bit, too. The Wyatt Sicks stuff was so great. The presentation rules. I got a little teary when they came out and when Rowan did the Brodie tribute. Also: Chad Gable should get the biggest flowers possible for his work in their introduction. He and The Creeds — American Made is such a great dopey dickwad name for them — are going to be fine. Gable did yeoman’s work as the lead villain in bringing in a completely new stable. Great Monday.

“I don’t care about your Sabu pants.”

Hoping we get something as good as JJ vs. OC during Orange’s epic run last year with Danielson. No knock on Dragon of course but OC and Jarrett knocked it out of the park with a Memphis brawl in the crowd.

Blood and Guts ruled. It had everything I could want in some chaotic garbage ghoul match — blood, reckless neck bumps, falls from the cage to ladders, unprotected head shots (that really hushed the crowd), the torture of a man with staple guns and it ends with threatened arson resulting in a future shot at the promotions third highest ranking title. Wrestling is the greatest. One million billion stars. AEW rules the motherfucking world.

1) Remember when they had the Blood and Guts match with the Inner Circle and The Pinnacle like three weeks after their feud started? Dax on his podcast dished why — the network was pressuring them to pop a big rating and that was what resulted. Me thinks they want to pop another big rating since they are negotiating and this is what they came up with. 2) I’m excited for this — can’t wait to see Page and Swerve go literal vampire on each other, Darby to further eradicate his future quality of life, The Bucks cowardly avoiding getting their faces raked against the cage before it finally happens, whatever Okada does and Briscoe doing something insane that is impossible to even predict. All In, as they say!

I was sick as hell Monday so did not watch a lot. But I love the whole Sami/Jey pairing and entrance. It serves two really important purposes: 1) It makes Raw look like the most fun thing you could go to live or watch on TV. That’s the whole point. The Attitude Era is awful in terms of degrading content. But the secret behind Raw back then and Nitro was that the shows were fun to go to live and to watch. It wasn’t Sable stripping that made people watch. It was the fun. 2) Pretty sure they’re building to Bloodline vs. Bloodline at War Games, and this is a perfect way to start reminding the audience of the complications between Jey and Sami in The Bloodline because the whole arc is going to be about the challenges of putting the band back together and Sami and Jey trusting Roman and Jimmy before they go after those punks led by Solo. So well done. Also: I’m pretty sure the Liv/Rhea/Dom love triangle stuff is going to end with Finn and Liv being in cahoots this whole time due to Finn’s jealousy of Damien and it’s going to lead to a similar “split of The Judgement Day” war. I can get behind that since The Judgment Day have been the heart and soul of Raw for like two years now. They are kind of like The New Day in how DOA they were when they arrived (even though Rhea is can’t miss no matter what) and now how important they have become. Finn wasn’t doing anything until he schemed his way into taking Edge out. Dom went from being Rey’s scrubby son into one of the best characters around. Damien Priest is the world champ. Rhea is the best. They have also managed to make JD McDonough, R-Truth, Carlito and Liv Morgan important and key players. Great stable that came out of nowhere.