JLowe

if this is elsewhere, forgive me, but according to a bunch of tweets "for me" 25 years ago today, on WCW Monday Nitro, Goldberg defeated Hulk Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight title (in what I recall was probably Goldberg's best match). 25 years ago today, on WWFE Monday Night Raw, DX appeared in blackface in a parody promo skit against the Nation of Domination.

Salem (which is basically Roanoke). My dad and Nanay live there, which is how I remember that AEW did a house show there.

Probably will end up like the recent movies where they give up as interest wanes for each movie after the first.

Back in like 98 I ran into him and his partner (then, not sure if still) Katzen. We were in the Sanrio Store at the mall, and they were getting a lot of looks but were very nice.

Wasn't one of the minis (possibly Max Mini) Mascarita Sagrada, who at that time was not only a top mini but possibly one of the top luchadors in Mexico?

Imagine being worse than Parker Boudreax.

Hahaha, It was more quality than content, although I'm sure there is a kink for humiliation via terribly written and imagined smut.

Considering that previous franchise led to 50 Shades, this terrifies me.

Thoughts from my first exposure to Collision. I liked the short match promo bits to start before the opening theme. Just enough of Sir Elton, worked well. Where the hell did THAT Ethan Page come from? Amazing promo, although out of the blue given the slow semi-face turn that’s been building. Very old school match, excellent leg work by MJF and selling by Page. Very enjoyable. Kelly and Nigel feel a lot more like a WWE announce team being fed lines and hyper focusing on character details that they explain like they are talking to a kindergarten class. On the other hand, having lots of space to just hear the sounds of the action was nice. In general the show feels very different from Dynamite and Rampage and more of a WWE feel and that’s ok. Hobbs-Dustin was a good BMMSM match with a lot of power moves in the final run. I wish the announcers had talked more about Dustin kicking out at 1 because of Hobbs’ arrogant cover, I think that was the story Dustin was trying to sell and how it fired him up. Way too much QT, they need to get Will away from him and soon. Gunns make a lot of sense for BCG, and they have the same goofy obnoxious energy of Juice (and Austin has a similar voice). Jay’s mic work started strong and fell apart as it went on and on. Starks-Juice had the issue with it being a rematch of a relatively recent match, so there wasn’t much we hadn’t just seen. I lost a lot of focus during PiP. Perfectly fine match, just felt like a foregone conclusion while also not being a fresh matchup. One thing I did like was Starks not being passive while Juice was working on the knee. Ricky kept reaching for Juice’s head, trying to get a grip or a strike, but also not doing the obvious hair pull or eye gouge because he is a face now. Announcers with more history of his character might have talked about that aspect. Enjoyed the run ins and saves without the entrance themes. Miro with a competitive squash against Anthony Henry, who bumped like a freak. I like Miro, there isn’t really anyone else quite like him in AEW, but he also just seems like a guy much better suited for WWE. Stat is still working off some rust. Interesting that they talked about Lady Frost having a grandfather who was in the business rather than the usual background they give on ROH. Not a bad match but I found it hard to be invested with the prolonged PiP and them skipping way ahead coming back from commercial. The plus with Stat is that she is more vulnerable, between the injuries and having actually lost before. The minus is that they’re still struggling to build the women’s division with more credible mid-card challengers, and also there is no benefit right now moving Athena from ROH unless she is going to win. After building to Punk on commentary as “you never know what he’s going to say”, it ended up being just excellent color work, putting over both guys, his own history with each, and the influence they all had on the current wrestling style. Match itself was great, excellent pacing, Strong slowly getting in shots and trying to stay out of Joe’s reach building to Strong having worn Joe down to the point to hit some huge impact moves. The submission out of nowhere was well done. Aftermath seemed a bit unnecessary, didn’t really add anything extra to the excitement or potential of Joe-Punk IV.

https://youtu.be/AfxtuZ6v9m8

25 years ago you could make a lot of money in Mexico with Claudio as your monster gringo rudo basing for the flashy young flyers. I love when he steps away from BCC and has matches like these. Komander hit so many ridiculous moves, not just the spectacular high flying stuff but the wacky lucha arm drag and wrap around the body sequences. Sure, there were a couple of times where Claudio had to stand around waiting for a spot, but the last 5 minutes was so fluid. Probable free TV match of the week. Spears-Blade was perfectly generic and forgettable, could’ve watched on 2x and not missed anything. I can’t imagine having to sit through that QTV entrance live. If AEW is convinced they have something with Harley Cameron, they’re sure not doing a good job of giving her something compelling. The match itself was fine, Johnny TV has some twisty movez that he hits at about 95% accuracy, QT is who he is, a perfectly cromulent wrestler and heat magnet (even if it’s mostly the go away kind). Hardy can’t fully bend his knees and moves at half speed but this was one of his better recent showings. Isiah has a ton of potential but not sure they have anything real for him in AEW. Did I enjoy this? No. Did I hate it? No. Shida-Taya was way better than I was expecting. I’m mostly with Gordlow on Taya but she did a good job working the leg, especially during PiP, and in general she was fine as a cocky monster heel and took some bumps. Shida’s corner punches are bad but the rest of her strikes were good. Finish worked to give Shida a win without burying Taya.

Based on their Wikipedia dates, both Skye Blue and Julia Hart started training while either 17 or barely 18. More Wiki suggests that Dante Martin was 15 when he had his first match and Darius was 17.

Not sure if he was too far away or Vikingo came up short but Lee barely even broke Vikingo's fall and he almost landed on his head and neck.

Look, all I'm saying is when you eventually end O.C.'s singles title run, give these guys a Dungeon and Dragons campaign theme team name, a trios title shot and see what weird shit they can come up with.

Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland, and Darby and O.C.

That was just a wild weird episode with a lot more blood than the PPV. Opener was just brutal, think Mox got busted open hardway in three different parts of his face, and the first Death Rider was a scary headdrop on Ishii. The Claudio-Kingston stare down through the match was just great stuff. As much as I hate MJF’s meandering promos, I like most of his backstage skit-type stuff. He and Cole definitely have a weird chemistry. the Mox-Kingston backstage with Renee in the middle was awesome. Only things wrong with the first trios was that 2.0 was horribly rusty and out of sync, and Vikingo didn’t do a moonsault off of Keith Lee’s chest. They did get really close to a press vault onto the top turnbuckle from the floor, though. Also, the set-up was gold. The Dark Order-Elite match set up was great payoff to long-term storytelling, and the match was good stuff too. I too almost bit on Silver getting a shock pin off their crazy combo move series. And then the aftermath with Page gushing blood, Soup beating up Bucks, and Claudio’s torture of Eddie was obviously a set up to Blood and Guts and I.AM.HERE.FOR.IT. Poor Yuta is going to die for Claudio’s sins though. Perry doing a mix of Christian and Raven has some potential although he’s never going to be much on the mic, but the question becomes can he wrestle like a heel? The Ruby squash was a good short notice pivot, and her post-match promo deserved more from a disinterested crowd. Other than the main event, Friday looks weak but Collision is loaded with something for everyone (and I WILL set my DVR). My wife was mocking Jericho’s Painmaker look, as was I. It is, as the youth say, cringe. Match itself was a good brawl that will always be remembered for a 62-year-old Sting nearly Leslie-ing his face on a table doing a ladder spot from the ring and at distance that would’ve been tough for Darby to nail. Before the spot, when they cut to that guy in the crowd with his mouth agape and eyes wide in worry/fear, I was making that very same face at home. I think Darby’s adjustment of the broken rear table leg made it extra sturdy accidentally. Hope everyone is ok, Sammy definitely took a lot more weight and a worse bump than he was expecting too. I like the finish fine, people want to see Sting win with a Scorpion Deathlock.

His fucking face bounced off the edge of the table, it was nuts!

I need to watch some Chikara, but I would also need about 4 more hours in my days

Heel Jack Perry channeling Jean-Ralphio would be funny as hell

I need to find time to catch up on some of this. Reading the Athena-RUSH comparison was one of those eye-opening "that's so obvious how did I not think of that" things. But I did enjoy the shotgun dropkick exchange between Athena and Billie because that move isn't done enough in AEW. I also am trying to remember if that's where Billie might have gotten broken ribs.

First picture I can see Angelico(?), Eddie, Juice, OC, and Tony S. Am I missing anyone I should have recognized? And who is under the hood being hidden?

I saw Renfeld over the weekend and was glad that it was mostly a vehicle for Nicholas Hoult with just the right amount of Nic Cage being Nic Cage. Nice balance of light comedy and over the top violence, with Cage you are going to get camp but it wasn't overload.

With Zero Hour, this was 5 hours and I was pretty tired and burned out by the end. I enjoyed most all of it, but I wasn't completely blown away by some things that I expected to be, many of which have been mentioned. Quick match notes. -Chaos vs. Mogul Embassy. Swerve has superstar potential. Trent is great. Desperado didn't fit. -Athena v Billie Starkz. Fun match! Billie took a beating and took a nasty top rope to apron bump (self-inflicted) and a nasty powerbomb bump. Got a nice rub though and looking forward to lots more from her. Athena continues to kick ass and they should feed Jade to her as an apology. -Stu v Phantasmo. I don't like the Righteous and I think Stu is extremely fungible. Spot fest. -United Empire vs LiJ. Love Jeff Cobb. Like Kyle Fletcher and think he has top card potential. Not really familiar with anyone else (I watched some NJPW 5 or so years ago but only LiJ I remember is Naito). I remember liking this match. - MJF v Tanahashi. As others have said, MJF's pacing and stooging helped a lot because Tanahashi looked really rough and almost as hobbled as Matt Hardy. - Punk v Kojima. Liked this one a lot, stiff and fun and Punk really leaned into heeling. I imagine Punk had an icebag on his yambag area for a couple of hours afterwards. - International Title 4-way. My MOTN (and I don't like multi-man matches that much), a perfect blend of action, comedy, stooging, movez, storytelling, character work, selling. Everyone came out looking like a winner, and OC added another layer to his character. Yes, some stuff was contrived, that's how 2023 wrestling is sometimes, especially in a match with a fair amount of comedy. More ZSJ please. - Perry v Sanada. Perfectly ok match that will be remembered for the post-match turn which somehow managed to be a shock while having been obviously built to for weeks. I don't think it's going to make me care about Perry much more. - 10 man. Honestly a mess and a bit of a let-down as a brawl but with some incredible moments. Takeshita looked like a star. I loved the 3-minute Mox-Kingston chop exchange with everyone else brawling around them. I like Page a ton but I'm over the Bucks now, speaking of contrived bullshit spots. Yuta continually being the job boy is bullshit and needs a payoff. I liked Shooter. Ishii is Ishii, he really put over Lard Lad. I'm not a vampire but this needed some blood. - Storm v Willow. Speaking of people who did the job to Jade who deserve a payback, future superstar Willow fucking Nightengale. Great match, but spoiled by yet another crap ending. Once again, why are Skye Blue (Willow's BFF screen-wise and also close friends IRL) and Britt "top babyface/ruler of the roost" Baker watching while Outcasts interfere. Also, they had a terrible camera angle on the Pounce. - Omega vs Ospreay. In the moment, I loved this and I was marking out a lot for the big moves, the kickouts, the blood, Ospreay's hate and Kenny's desperation. I was mad about them letting Callis back, made no sense at all. Reading through the comments here, I can see why some people hated it. Finishers in 2023 are weird, and I liked the idea that Ospreay had to hit so many killer moves to finally put Omega down. - Trios match. Worst I've seen Sting look. Darby disappeared. Love Murder Grandpa. The Jericho-Sammy storyline took a step back in this match. Sammy should join Rush in LFI and be a pretty boy tweener. Big letdown overall. - Main event. Started with a really hot crowd which gave it a great feel. I thought it was an excellent pace, hard-hitting, lots of moves and counters and reversals and waiting for someone to finally get that BIG shot in. When Brian stopped using his right arm, I figured he was hurt but was open to him just deciding to do an all-time sell job to put over him being the best wrestler alive with how he adapted his submission technique. Instead, he actually did that for real just amazing. That said, I hated the seizure spot as someone who has been through that with a loved one but also as someone worried about "the boy who cried wolf". Wish they had come up with a better way to get Brian checked out and work out the finishing run. I don't regret getting this, but I wasn't nearly as blown away as I was expecting.

Yaz is so perfect as Vince Clarke's transition project between Depeche Mode and Erasure. He gets to be as cheesy as he wants with his synths because he has this incredible alto northern soul frontwoman just bringing it on vocals. "Only You" is such a lovely ballad. Honestly, there is some comparison to The Eurythmics, similar vocal presence and range. Here Comes the Rain Again is criminally underrated, there is such a mood and tension throughout.

I agree, fantastic blend of comedy, storytelling, spotz, grappling, and a bit of a shock ending.