JLowe

The Discontinued Foods account on Twitter and Bluesky is a wrestling fan, especially 80s and 90s WWF.

Bucks have been faces but with mixed crowd response at best. They got a lot of boos in Philly, but, you know, Philly...

I listen to a classic R&B and soul station in Philly and 60% of the ads are for ambulance chaser lawyers and all I can think of is Fonzie doing that and then saying “Call Top Dog Law”!

I guess Daddy Magic being from French Canadia is why he didn’t recognize the Canadian radio legend. A few years ago, The Evaporators were playing at South by Southwest and I went to one of their daytime shows. I was dancing so hard that eventually Nardwuar called me out and made me get up front and dance with/by them.

Also, Claudio’s “When you’re good, you tell everyone. When you’re great, everyone tells you” was a killer line.

Didn’t expect much from Rampage and so even though it wasn’t great it overdelivered, especially the random ass promos. Sammy-Hardy was reckless and sloppy, but I will say that the botched SSP was a little more complicated than just a blown regular spot. That said, if all Jeff got was a broken nose that’s good because it looked like he had a broken cheekbone and I was worried it could even be an orbital. They really didn’t need to have that GTH after that. I hadn’t even put together the history behind a Rhodes-Von Erich team up. Dustin did all the work, and I suspect the jobbers are students of his. I’ll never complain about seeing Dustin Rhodes wrestle. Aminata-Anna was MOTN. Anna has improved, Aminata has been doing pretty well on her run and I did like that this one wasn’t a foregone conclusion. They maybe could have leaned more into the Queenslayer against an opponent named Queen Aminata. We need an Aminata-Emi Sakura match now. Also loved how the crowd popped huge for Aminata’s big win. Main was chaotic in a not good way. I will say the Gunns have improved a lot over the last 12 months. Having an Acclaimed match without showing Caster’s rap is silly. I’m also now on board the “Acclaimed is stale” wagon. Just casually dropping Danielson-Jun Akiyama at the very end of the show is hilarious. I literally had to rewind as I had stopped paying attention and thought I was hearing things.

I missed that, what did he say?

The fucked up blowoff to the MJF storyline killed him dead. His ultimate babyface revenge moment turned into MJF being the main character instead, and a crowd feeling sympathetic for MJF taking so many power bombs and getting stretchered out...only for MJF to show up a day later on TV perfectly fine and “shooting” on the company.

That was really good stuff other than the unnecessary Wardlow squash. I guess Toni has moved on to talkies now. Deonna’s response was great. Willow-Skye was fun, really nice Code Blue and who woulda thunk they would protect Skye Blue with a phantom pin and Stokely interference. Dax-Mox was a fine stiff brawl. The serious beat down on FTR after was unexpected. Garcia-Cope was excellent and the run-in/throw the match out was a shock since it’s so rarely used in AEW. Cope taking a conchairto, guess they’re not gonna have that at the PPV. Cope should be pissed at Darby for not saving him. Bucks-Top Flight was relatively grounded given their past matches. Yambag Yahtzee for a win, and then getting mega heel heat by laying hands on Schiavone! Bang Bang Scissor Gang was a waste of time but boy was Renee making me feel really funny tonight... Wasn’t sure what to expect from the main event, didn’t seem like the stakes had built to a Texas Death Match but they really went for it after a pretty straightforward start. Botched table spot had me thinking OC was hardway, but couldn’t really figure how that would’ve worked. Lots of thumbtacks in body parts. The Valentine heart boxes was a nice touch.

Looked it up, it was January 2023 on Dynamite after Elite won Trios.

So Punk has seen Cannonball Run but not Rocky? Weird.

I forgot about that! I know the co-executive producer of Superstore Owen Ellickson is a wrestling fan and was at least a DVDVR lurker at one point.

Is this The Bucks getting their win back against Top Flight or did that already happen? Supposedly this is at least 85% sold and Austin is usually a hot crowd so hopefully that all happens.

I can’t stand sports talk and shit like Bayless and the need to be a heel/Devil’s advocate/hot take artist is probably the number 1 reason.

What’s Sandman up to?

Other than the Hook and Cage 1v2 squashes this was a good week of wrestling. Lots of showcasing of the women. Lots of showcasing of the CMLL crew with good opponents (it dawned on me they probably can’t fight the other luchadores because they’re AAA associated). Some stiff matches with hardway blood, and Briscoe tapping a gusher after a spike attack. Adam Copeland-Eddie Kingston is a match I didn’t know I wanted but I think could be a great one. Copeland-Garcia will be a good one too, and one that I think is not a foregone conclusion. Having Ruby walk out on Saraya right when it looks like they’re building to a women’s tag tourney or belt is a little weird. I guess you can have Ruby Solo and Saraya-Harley as a tag team (a rough one...) Theyve built a good PPV on top of the marquee event.

When the first few minutes of Hangman-Swerve consisted largely of collar and elbow tie-ups (which Taz did a fantastic job of putting over), I said to myself “oh shit, are they going Broadway”? Hell of a match, and the double turn was perfectly executed. They’re putting Hechicero over like he’s El Santo. That trios wasn’t quite as great as I was expecting but it was still fun. Dorado seems to still be figuring out what he’s capable of pulling off. Toni needs to add a hair mare to her old-school arsenal. Jericho is losing my last bits of goodwill from his 2022 run. Takeshita should be going over clean. He also should get away from Callis. Are they teasing a Best Friends turn on OC? Hmmmm... Sting is crazy. I’m glad they won. I’ve seen people saying Starks deserves to be the guy to pin Sting, but you can’t have a guy who seems to have an eye on WWE and hasn’t re-signed claiming that prize. Also, are his sons trained? They were like clones. White suits for the EVPs was a nice touch.

Could be fun to have Toni and Mariah as well

https://www.vice.com/en/article/88x7ex/ashley-massaro-vince-mcmahon-john-laurinaitis-rape-cover-up-wwe Shit is getting very serious, Laurinitis goes on the record about the Ashley Massaro situation.

Between actual baseball and weather, could you run Fenway in April?

Just so it doesn’t seem like I’m singling out Baker, I think a lot of the same applies to one Jack Perry.

I started watching in early fall of 2021 so I missed the start of AEW and the pandemic Daily’s Place years. Baker has a lot of charisma and is a solid mic worker, and has a slightly above average in-ring ceiling (using a sling blade almost as shitty as Penta’s as a finisher setup doesn’t help). This also isn’t helped by her seemingly having kind of a shitty attitude (that “kayfabe” answer to that question comes off so real because it matches things said elsewhere about her), doesn’t do a ton to get her opponents over, and half-asses when she’s booked to lose. That reality show (which was a HUGE mistake all around) where Schiavone chews her out backstage and tells her to get over herself was revealing. Meanwhile, AEW has brought in a number of very talented wormen, with experience around the world, mostly good talkers and charismatic, most are conventionally attractive, all are native English speakers (which is still pretty important when it comes to a company mainly broadcasting to an American audience). They’ve also been able to bring in and build up some talented indie workers (Skye Blue and Willow Nightengale immediately spring to mind) and hit on one of their in-house products (Julia Hart). It’s a tough business and I don’t blame her for trying to protect her spot. But it’s also a business where you can easily be passed up.

The Boston show was spoiled by a ticket sale announcement. I would like Sting and Darby to win, but not wild about that meaning they put over The Bucks at the PPV and Bucks are champs again. Maybe they can do like Muta/Mutoh and have Sting and Darby beat the Bucks, and then follow with an impromptu singles match where Sting puts over Darby. Should be a night of good matches and, as Technico noted, very few foregone conclusions. As for titles/tournaments, I’m betting next up is women’s tag titles with that being featured on Collision (given that they’ve started running two women’s matches there). They’ve already been selling a Julia Hart-Skye Blue shirt. Also gives Britt something to do.

She was and then she came back and looked awful and was getting go away heat.

Finally caught up. I thought the 8-man on Rampage was a little underwhelming and didn’t really showcase the CMLL crew other than Mascara Dorado. Willow-Aminata was maybe the best match of the night. I didn’t really care for the Top Flight-Private Party match, basically too similar, Private Party is trying to be cool heels so the traditional tag structure didn’t happen and the match felt lifeless. Ricky-Bill versus DO was fine but again such a foregone conclusion. Kingston-Keith was amazing, Eddie gave him so much that I wouldn’t have been surprised with a shocking upset. Congrats to Bryan Keith for signing, I’ve seen people online fantasy book a trio/faction with Hangman Adam Page, Bandido, and Bounty Hunter Bryan Keith. Danielson-Hechicero kicked ass, like others have said it really had the sense of Bryan being in over his head and hanging on for dear life. I think Nigel said “Bryan Danielson escapes with the win” and that was a good way to describe it. I want Claudio basing for Mistico and Dorado! The Hook-Outrunners thing was dumb, just because Hook popped a rating is not reason to give him some Superman push where he goes over two guys, even if they are comedy jobbers. Aminata continues to be the new Skye Blue, and soon she is going to get that big win. I like Deeb more so far this time around. And then Red Velvet vs. Texas indie star Vertvixen was a nice squash to heat Red up for Toni’s public workout. FTRCia-Patriarchy was excellent, Nick Wayne looked the best I’ve seen so far (and appears to have added a little mass), Daniel Garcia is becoming a superstar. Also the only match without a foregone conclusion. The Briscoe promo was so great, and then the HoB part stunk up the joint.