Kyle Casey

Sooo...Do I start Brady week 1, or do I stick with Big Ben?

Wrestlemania II (4/7/86 @ New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles) Still in its growing phases, WWF decided to follow-up Wrestlemania with one that took place in three separate locations. Let's see how this turns out. New York segment, commentary team is Vince McMahon and Susan St. James (Don't even remember why she's famous, but whatever) Paul Orndorff vs. Magnificent Muraco From the Main Event to the opening match in one year. Huh. Anyway, this is a basic power vs. power match, and is what you'd expect. Basically oscillating between brawling, punchy-kicky stuff and restholds and stuff like that. Match ends in a double countout, leading to a "Bullshit" chant from the crowd. Not a particularly good start. Randy Savage vs. George "The Animal" Steele (IC Title match) This was the culmination of the whole "George is in love with Elizabeth" angle. Savage is initially stymied by the Animal's power and unorthodox style, but uses sneaky heel-ish tactics to get around that. Of course, Steele keeps getting distracted by Elizabeth (Not by anything she's doing, though, because while Savage was a heel, Liz was not. I kind of liked that dynamic.), which proves to be his undoing. Savage ultimately wins with his feet on the ropes. Good cat-and-mouse type match. Jake "The Snake" Roberts vs. George Wells This is early on into Jake's WWF career, as he's hailed by Vince as being undefeated at the time. By the way, can I just add how awful Susan St. James was on commentary during this? Holy crap, I'll never complain about Mark Madden again...Okay, I will, but at least he's not as bad as Susan St. James was here. This was a jobber match, and that's all I have to say about that. Mr. T vs. Roddy Piper (Boxing match) Hoo boy. It's clear from the start that T and Piper have legit heat, as has been extensively talked about over the years. This made for a very awkward match, where it was clear that T was meant to go over somehow, but Piper wasn't having it, going so far as to fling his corner stool at T out of frustration because he was so terrible. Then there was the infamous phantom punch T threw which missed my a good foot, but Piper still sold. T finally wins by DQ when Piper body slams him in the 4th round. This was a mess of a spectacle, but oddly compelling as well. Chicago segment, on commentary is Gorilla Monsoon, "Mean" Gene Okerlund, and Cathy Lee Crosby (Again, who?) Fabulous Moolah vs. Velvet McIntyre (Women's Title match) Nothing match. Moolah wins after Velvet misses a second rope splash. Match lasted a little more than a minute. Maybe. Cpl. Kirschner vs. Nikolai Volkoff (Flag match) Short match, more of a brawl, really, than an actual match. Kirschner busted open after taking a ringpost shot on the outside, which I thought was interesting for the time. Kirschner wins when he intercepts Freddie Blassie's cane and blasts Nikolai with it. So, not-Sgt. Slaughter vanquishes the evil Russkie and ges to fly the American flag. Woo. 20 Man WWF/NFL Battle Royal Uhm...It's a battle royal, what do you want? Its billed as the main event of the Chicago segment, even though the Tag Title match is going on last *shrug*. Anyway, There were some fun bits in there, like seeing Bruno have such a strong showing after all these years. The highlight, though, was Big John Studd eliminating William "The Refrigerator" Perry, which leads to Perry going to shake Studds' hand, then pulls Studd out of the ring, eliminating him. Andre wins the thing, lastly eliminating the Hart Foundation. Dream Team vs. British Bulldogs (Tag Team title match) Bulldogs have Ozzy Ozzborne in their corner, so I guess we know who supplied all their cocaine for the evening. Didn't Dynamite have serious heat with Brutus Beefcake? I seem to remember reading that in Dynamite's autobiography. Anyway, this was a good match, when Brutus wasn't involved. Weird finish, where Davey rams Valentine's head into Dynamite's, which sends Dynamite crashing to the floor, but it gets the Bulldogs the win and the Tag Titles. Still not sure what that finish was about. Los Angeles segment, commentary team is Jesse Ventura, Lord Alfred Hayes, and Elvira (Oh, god...) Hercules vs. Ricky Steamboat Lee Marshall is the ring announcer for the L.A. segment. Lee goddamn Marshall. Fucking weird. Anyway, this was a classic power vs. speed/technique type match, with a lot of good back-and-forth. Steamboat wins with a high cross body. Good match, but I'm biased because it was Ricky Steamboat that got me into wrestling to begin with. Adrian Adonis vs. Uncle Elmer Oh, goody. This is, I assume, the early stages of the "Adorable Adrian" gimmick, and he's up against one of the 629 hillbillies Vince had on the roster at the time. Such a weird dichotomy of interests Vince has. Big, burly, bodybuilder-type guys....and hillbillies *shrug*. Anyway, the match wasn't much of anything, and centered around spots meant to humiliate Adrian. The Adorable One wins with a weird top rope splash/diving headbutt thing. Couldn't tell which of the two he was going for. Terry Funk and Dory "Hoss" Funk Jr. vs. Tito Santana and Junkyard Dog Okay "Hoss" Funk? Really? Silliness of that aside, I was looking forward to this being a fun match, and it didn't disappoint. Terry was doing his "middle-aged and crazy"thing, with Jimmy Hart and Dory trying to reign him in. Terry was feuding with JYD at the time, if I remember correctly. Tito had an extended face-in-peril segment, which was good, even had Jimmy getting a shot or two in. Funks win when Terry blasts JYD with the megaphone while the ref is distracted with Tito. Close call between this and the tag title match as MotN. Hulk Hogan vs. King Kong Bundy (World Title match, inside the steel cage) This is "escape the cage" style cage match. Once again, say what you will about Hogan's insane, coke-fueled promos and his limited ability in the ring, but the dude was a master of connecting with the audience and telling a story in the ring. This time around, the story is "Did Hulk return too soon?", due to his injured ribs, which of course Bundy goes right after. Bundy busted open after a cage shot. Anyway, we all know the drill. Hulk-up after Bundy hits the Avalanche, powerslam on Bundy, legdrop, wins the race to escape the cage to retain. Post-match, Hulk beats up Bobby Heenan, which is always fun as well. This one has a well-deserved reputation as being one of the worst Wrestlemanias. There were technical issues, a lot of the matches were too short and/or not good, and the three city thing didn't work (although, I do think it could work if they tried it today, as production values are much higher today). That said, the main event, while again not being technically "good", delivered on the drama, and that's pretty much what sold it back then. Top 3 matches of the night: 1) Dream Team vs. British Bulldogs 2) Funk Bros. vs. Tito Santana & Junkyard Dog 3) Ricky Steamboat vs. Hercules Worst match: Mr. T vs. Roddy Piper, though Moolah vs. Velvet was a close second in this category Next up, the first "big one", Wrestlemania III

Oh, really? Would not have guessed that. Wrestlemania 2 coming up shortly, folks!

Hi ho! So, I just got the bug to watch all the Wrestlemanias in a month, and I figured why not post my thoughts on here for posterity So, without further ado, let's start at the beginning: Wrestlemania (3/15/85 @ MSG) Tito Santana vs. The Executioner Should I know who The Executioner is? I wanna say Johnny Valiant, but I really don't know. Anyway, this was basically a JTTS match, with Tito winning with the Flying Jalepeno, followed by a Figure-4 Leglock. Commentary spent the time talking about the feud between Tito and Greg Valentine, who had beaten Tito for the Intercontinental title. King Kong Bundy vs. SD Jones This is the infamous "9 second" match. Nothing else to add, really, except to note that I had no idea Jimmy Hart had been Bundy's manager before Heenan. Ricky Steamboat vs. Matt Borne Seems like the story for this match was that each of them was looking to make a name for themselves, and Borne claims that Steamboat isn't "mean enough" for this business. This was a good, short technical match. Would've been better if they'd given them like an extra 5 minutes, but what can you do? The Dragon wins with a high cross body. Based on the card, as I remember it, I'm thinking this will be MOTN. David Sammartino vs. Brutus Beefcake Oh, god, here we go. Big stall-job to start, which may have been the best part of the match. Both guys looked awkward in the ring, and were slow and plodding. Match got thrown out when Bruno and Johnny Valiant got involved. The less said about this, the better. Greg Valentine vs. Junkyard Dog (Intercontinental title match) JYD is the first of the night to come out to music. This is a decent back-and-forth match, with Valentine picking his spots and going after JYD's legs and JYD using his bulk and brawling tactics. End comes when Valentine pins JYD with his feet on the 2nd rope. Tito Santana comes out and argues with the referee, who restarts the match. t this point, Valentine takes the countout loss to keep his title. Decent match that was lessened somewhat by the odd finish. Barry Windham & Mike Rotundo vs. Iron Shiek & Nikolai Volkoff (Tag Team title match) I must say I was pleasantly surprised by this match. I thought I remembered Volkoff being pretty much a load, but he was all right here. Shieky moved very well, and Rotundo makes a good face-in-peril. Windham gets the hot tag, and things break down, allowing Freddie Blassie to sneak his cane in to Shiek, who blasts Windham with it, allowing Volkoff to pin him for the win and the titles. Not as goot as Steamboat/Bourne, but quite good. Andre the Giant vs. Big John Studd ($15,000 vs. Career Body Slam Match) Pretty straightforward. If Andre can't slam Studd within the time limit, he must retire. If he does, he wins $15,000. It's pretty much what you'd expect from an Andre vs. Big John Studd match. Andre wins, but Heenan, in a classic Bobby Heenan moment, buggers off with the cash. Leilani Kai vs. Wendi Richter (Women's title match) Moolah is in Kai's corner, Cyndi Lauper is in Wendi's. Wendi gets the biggest pop of the night up to this point. Decent match, with a lot of cat-and-mouse type action. Leilani Kai works on the arm to mitigate Wendi's power game, while Wendi powers through all of Kai's tactics.In the end, Richter wins by reversing a high-cross body by Kai. A lot better than I remembered. Hulk Hogan & Mr. T vs. Roddy Piper & Paul Orndorff Crowd was on fire for this match, which certainly helped. It was a lot better than one would think it'd be. At least, it was decent whenever Mr. T wasn't involved. Say what you want about Hogan's ring skills, but he's quite good at telling a story in that ring. Hogan and T win after some botched interference by Bob Orton Jr. Overall, the one that started it all is certainly not one of the greatest Wrestlemanias ever. However, you can't say it didn't accomplish what it needed to: Put Hulk Hogan and WWF on the map. The wrestling was, more or less, par for the time. Nothing really standout, but nothing awful either. Except Sammartino/Beefcake. Fuck that match. Top 3 matches of the night: 1) Ricky Steamboat vs. Matt Bourne 2) Barry Windham & Mike Rotundo vs. Iron Shiek & Nikolai Volkoff 3) Leilani Kai vs. Wendi Richter Worst match: David Sammartino vs. Brutus Beefcake Doesn't look too good for any of these matches surviving to make the top 20 of all time list at the end. Wrestlemania 2 to come later tonight.

Bill Alfonso approves

Per Stardom's official Facebook page: Kris Wolf got concussed in her match with Io Shirai on Sunday, so she's on the shelf for at least a week. Also, apparently Stardom's USA Commissioner is...Madusa o_O

I always thought Rollins was the Authority's only logical choice of the three Shield members. Dean is too unstable and unpredictable, and Roman is too headstrong to fall in line once the Authority inevitably goes against his interests. So, if only by process of elimination, they had to take Rollins. But how to control/manipulate the Architect of the Shield, presumably the smartest of the three? By playing to his ego, of course, which Rollins has in spades. Fantasy booking dictates a Shield reunion after HHH kicks Rollins to the curb, but I don't really have any faith they'd execute it all that well.

Yeah, when Liger's music hit, and it was just this generic music that kinda-sorta (not really) sounds like Ikari no Jushin, I was just like "Aw, that's bullshit!" Loved everything about this card. Except Corey Graves, whose heel schtick was kinda nonsensical at points, particularly during the Tag Title match and Bayley/Sasha. Seeing Liger in a WWE ring was surreal to me, Joe being Joe was awesome. I marked out, more out of surprise than anything, at seeing Kana at ringside, and then thought "Aw, man, why'd they have to put her next to Flair?" Both main events...Holy shit...Nothing else to say about them that hasn't been said already. Main roster has some serious work ahead of them tonight.

So, Mayumi Ozaki beat Command Bolshoi to win the JWP Openweight Title. Oddly enough, this is Ozaki's first reign with JWP's top title. Huh.

I really think that this should be the essence of heel Miz. Just a guy who gets off stirring shit up.

Hitter of my favorite World Series home run ever. 1984 vs San Diego - you thought I was referring to something else? "He don't wanna walk you!" I'm not a huge hockey fan, but I fucking hate Sydney Crosby.

Shit, that's what I do. More because I can't be arsed to sit through most live tv anymore, but that's beside the point.

Yes, yes. My point is that 2nd (and 3rd) generation American joshi wrestlers is a thing. Not so sure about in Japan, which is why I asked. Come to think of it 2nd generation wrestlers in general are hard to come by in Japan. I remember, in the Life in Japan thread, how Gordi said that one of Jumbo Tsuruta's kids liked watching wrestling, but wasn't interested in becoming a wrestler himself, and his other siblings weren't interested in wrestling at all. Wonder how common that is?

Is this going to become a heads on pikes situation with the Royals? I know the commissioner's hands are somewhat tied by the CBA, but I can see him making a call to the Royals, saying something along the lines of "Sort this out, or I will if this happens again." Or maybe that's me projecting, but whatever. At least Eric Hosmer is being an adult about the situation: https://twitter.com/DannyLawhon/status/591461801922985984/photo/1

Damn. I think that may be the best shape Shimoda's ever been in. I mean, she's always been in good shape, but I don't remember her being ripped like that before. And has there ever been an instance of 2nd generation joshi wrestlers? From Japan, I mean; I know Luna Vachon and Tamina Snuka and Nattie Neidhart are all 2nd gen.

Man, I loved the crazy, pyro version of Mikey being led by James Mitchell! Mitchell is one of the most underrated managers of all time, IMO.

Sorry to necro this thread, but I realized I hadn't re-posted the fish and sausage stew recipe that Super Ape requested. A thousand apologies, and here it is: Tomato Fish and Sausage Stew 3 or 4 fish filets (I used cod, but I figure any kind of fish like that will work) 3 to 5 sausages (I used chorizo, but again any type of sausage will do) 1 28 oz. can tomato sauce 1 14 oz. (?) can diced tomatoes 1 medium-to-large yellow onion, chopped 1 pepper (any color), diced 1 celery stalk, diced 4 garlic cloves, minced (set 1 aside) Bunch of leafy greens (I used red swiss chard, but any hearty leafy green should work) 3 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning (If you don't want to do the blend thing, I'd say 2 teaspoons of basil and oregano, and a teaspoon each of parsley, thyme, and marjoram) A pinch of crushed red pepper Salt and pepper to taste First, brown the sausages on all sides, then set aside. Then, in the same pan, sautee the greens in the butter with a clove of garlic and some salt, set that aside once the greens have wilted a bit. Then heat a couple tablespoons of oil in a pot and sweat all of the aromatics. Once they're all translucent, add the tomatoes, both diced and sauce, then the seasonings. Stir to combine, then bring to a simmer. Once that's simmering, add the filets (which have been seasoned with salt and pepper), reduce the heat to low, cover the pot, and let it cook for about an hour. When there's about 10 minutes left, stir in the sliced sausage and the greens. Serve with rice.

Something like that, as she's posted pics of her taking in the Rays game on Opening Day.

I could've sworn this was for their Roos commercial, which would make it even funnier. It is. That's what Hawk's saying in that last gif, "Roos"

I've long thought the first day of the baseball season should be a national holiday.

So, some college baseball meathead calls Mo'ne Davis a "slut" on Twitter, then quickly realizes there's consequences to what you say online. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/college-player-dismissed-from-team-following-offensive-mo-ne-davis-tweet-173843460.html

So now that the new MtG set has been completely spoiled, I think we need to come up with a viable dragon-centric deck. The only question is the color combination. I think a RW dragons-auras deck that uses Brood Keeper and Heliod's Pilgrim might be doable. I also think Naya (RGW) or Bant (UWG) could work. Thoughts?

I just saw that April 11 is International Table Top Day. Check it out and see if there's any events happening near you. http://tabletopday.com/

Her ultimate is insane, too. No more noncreature spells for you opponent. I mean, uhhh...whut? o_O

Aw, man! I just stumbled on this thread, where the fuck have I been??? Anyway, I too have been using TableTop as a jumping on point for getting back into board gaming. No bullshit, the first thing I bought for myself in my new job was Lords of Waterdeep. I love it, though I think I may find it a bit difficult to find people to play it with. I also picked up Star Fluxx and Iota. Iota is a lot of fun, almost like a card game version of Qwirkle. Plus, in keeping with the motif, the cards are tiny, so that's cute. Like Rippa, I have a looooong wishlist based on TableTop. Has anybody checked out the Dice Tower channel on YouTube? I'd like to hear some other opinions about them so I can see if my impression of them is accurate. EDIT: Also, is this the thread I might post stuff about Magic: the Gathering in, or should I start a new thread for that?