hobo joe

That’s the whole point of Steel Reserve

I guess Sting wants to do one more singles match and they figure if Jarrett can carry a half dead Ric Flair he can sure as hell can make Sting look like a million bucks. OC vs Shibata is reminding me of OC vs Ospreay in that I know the match will be good (and OC/Ospreay was the best match at Forbidden Door by a wide margin) but the back of my head is still saying "Why Orange Cassidy?" I mean, obviously I want to see Danielson vs. Shibata, but I know that's a bad idea because, while they're both perfectly capable of putting on a five star match without hitting each other in the head, I know they'll be throwing shoot headbutts fifteen minutes in.

They gotta get Luchasaurus a flag. Where's he billed from? Pangea? The don't got a graphics guy who can whip up a Pangea flag?

I don’t know why they hired her in a coaching capacity because I don’t recall anyone ever talking about her being a great worker, and she’s sure had some stinkers on TV recently. Didn’t see any of her TNA run, did she have any great matches I’ve never heard of? Also, full disclosure, I had a match with her 2008ish and she forearmed me in the shoulder so hard and so often I had a giant bruise for weeks.

Page's promo was definitely weird and bad and the reaction to it was 'wtf is he talking about?' and 'where the fuck are they going with this?', but the reason no one remembered it was because it was three months later and everyone except Punk moved the fuck on. You don't call a dude out, unscripted, on live TV, when you know he's not gonna come out just to make him look like a bitch. That's not equivalent to a bad, vaguely shooty promo. Fuck Punk.

I'm sure this was discussed to death like twenty pages back, but Everything, Everywhere, All at Once is the greatest movie ever made.

Castle's definitely channeling Paul Lynde, which is probably 90% of the reason I'm such a huge fan. Unrelated but... where the fuck is Miro?

Dalton Castle rocks. MORE SASSY QUEENS IN WRESTLING. Regal's getting in MJF's head to protect Mox. He thought MJF was gonna cash in after the main event and wanted to put doubt into his mind so he's hold off til Mox was fresh. OR Regal just wants everyone, regardless of alignment, to be the best wrestler they can be and is legit trying to help MJF reach his potential. EITHER WAY I'm intrigued. Will MJF beat Mox clean? Will he cheat to such an egregious degree he becomes a mega heel? Can he do the former without turning face? I doubt they'd do all this face turn teasing without a plan, and when you remember that this was initially supposed to be a Punk feud, I wonder if the plan was originally an MJF face turn followed by an "I'm a snake" heel reveal like Punk's ROH title win in 05.

Like most people I stopped watching ROH around... 2010ish, so I've only recently discovered Dalton Castle. Holy Shit, this dude rocks. Why don't we have more 70s era, Charles Nelson Reilly-esque queens in pro wrestling?

No more Wardlow squashes. Let him have matches like this every two weeks, mostly with big dudes, but throw in a Dante Martin every now and then to mix it up. Women's match was a huge course correction after last week. Everyone looked great and the win really elevated Willow. Maybe she'll beat Jade? I have to believe we're getting Paige v Britt or why hire Paige? If they can build to that while elevating Willow, Ford, Hayter, etc, Great!

People talking about an admittedly bad Paige promo being an all-time worst segment like Brandi Rhodes never happened.

Following the precedent set by Adam Cole and Britt Baker, Hobbs losing a Lights Out match means he's got a World title shot coming up.

If I thought there was a chance he could be professional and not start shit I would love to see him back as a heel. But that ain't gonna happen. Dude needs therapy. I'm actually reminded of a conversation I had back in my wrestling days. A worker backstage was talking about Punk (he was friends with him, I'm not gonna name names but it wasn't Cabana) and mentioned how miserable he was in WWE. I was surprised because he was getting a decent push at the time (don't remember exactly when, but it was probably either around the time he was ECW champ or first Money in the Bank win). I said "He's not happy?" and the dude basically told me Punk is incapable of being happy. Punk's probably my #3 all-time behind Danielson and Foley. His ROH run is what got me back into indy wrestling, and his work with MJF earlier this year was masterful, the best feud I've seen in my 25ish years of being a wrestling fan. But mother fucker is toxic.

I never want to see Punk again.

In high school we had a backyard fed and one of the dude's characters was "Chef Boy R Deanlist" (long story) and he would wrestle with a Chef's hat on and come out to 'That's Amore' and the point of this rant is that I want more Luigi Primo.

Should've put the belt on Page just to spite Punk. I really hope Punk doesn't come back, and I say that as a guy who was a big Punk fan until about, oh, four weeks ago. I'm glad he came back, the MJF feud was masterful, but he's overstayed his welcome at this point and the detriments far outweigh the benefits even if he could remain healthy, which he can't. That said, I fully expect him to come back in May, talk shit on the Elite, win the title at Double or Nothing, get hurt, and go away for nine months again.

Fuck Punk, more importantly that was a great fucking tag match.

Mark

I will add, if the plan is just to have Punk win the belt back at All Out, I have no fucking idea why they did this, and if the plan is anything else, I have no fucking idea why they did this.

That six-man was INSANE live. Everything after Ospreay blocked the Black Arrow had the crowd losing it for every nearfall. Shit deflated a bit for the Sabian stuff, but it still worked, the "hostage" under the box was a good misdirect. Punk got the Cody reaction, not sure if that came across on TV. Crowd was into the short match and dominant Mox win probably due to the novelty, Mox being super over, and Punk getting mixed reactions. Knew something was gonna happen when they announced the Trios match as the main. Dax vs. Lethal fucking ruled. Dax is the king of chops. Again, FTR should've won the tag belts at Double or Nothing, but if you're insistent on never doing that for whatever reason, put the belts on the fucking Acclaimed. Everyone loves the Acclaimed. Emi Sakura and Shida had a great match on Elevation that's worth going out of your way to check out. I wonder if Rosa's really hurt or if she "lost her smile" Meltz says Storm was supposed to win at All Out, but I think the right call is putting the belt back on Britt Baker. Have her steal a pin from Hayter, turn Hayter face and have her chase. Rampage:

Yeah, Cleveland don't claim Cincy. Cincy is pretty much Kentucky. But Cleveland does claim "Wild Thing" so we'll take Mox as a hometown boy.

Fuck, that's a great game. My roommate in college bought that on a whim being completely unfamiliar with the cartoon, while I loved the show and had no idea there was a game. We didn't fuck with Smackdown vs Raw much after that.

Wait... Regal has a son in NXT?

Yeah, those minigames look like shit. If that's your bag, cool. But I hope that's optional and not part of the story mode. I'm all for an arcade style, I just have low expectations. I certainly won't be buying this full price right out the gate. I don't drop 60 bucks on games without GTA or Red Dead in the title, hopefully it'll pop up on GamePass eventually. I'm dying for a new wrestling game though, I still play No Mercy and Revenge when I get the urge, and UFC 4, but that ain't wrestling.

So... Hangman's gotta beat Punk's ass backstage, right? That's how these things usually play out? If I'm Hangman, I'm waiting backstage for him next week and clocking his ass on sight. If this is a shoot, I'm 50/50 on that. Maybe 40/60.