Zimbra

Chavo Guerrero vs Kengo Kimura This was super-fun. They keep it mostly on the mat early and Chavo has all these cool ways of working holds where he'll hook his leg around the body, or torque his body to increase the pressure. The highlight might be him doing a bow and arrow/surfboard combo where he's just driving his heels into Kimura's shoulders while yanking back on his arms. He's also really great at breaking holds by just slamming Kimura with straight and ax kicks. It's let down a little by the finish but the journey there is worth it. It also has a great wraparound intro/outro from Paul Boesch explaining to Houston TV viewers that they're going to see Japanese wrestling with Japanese commentary, and how the trappings of the match may change, the wrestling and the intensity of the fans are universal. Good shit. E: I actually forgot about my favorite spot on the match: Chavo flips out of a Kimura headscissors but instead of it being a reset Kimura immediately follows him and grabs an ankle pick from behind.

I think it depends somewhat on who does it, but I would generally call it a slam whereas the Fire Thunder Driver would be the piledriver version, same relationship as the Falcon Arrow to the Steiner Screwdriver.

As always, you are a scholar and a gentleman. Gonna watch when I get home from work Thank you!

And the aftermath:

Did Martinez turn heel? I don't keep up with the youtube shows so I missed out on the justification for her teaming with Deeb.

God, he would have been 19 when this picture was taken and he already looks like a guy who has been a longshoreman for 20 years.

I never traded but I did buy some comp tapes from @Tabeand some DVDs from Goodhelmet. I also bought a good chunk of somebody's Joshi tapes when they switched over to DVD, but I can't for the life of me remember who. I still have most of them in a bin under our guest bed. I also still have the bootleg copies of some of the DVDVR best of the 80s sets that I torrented (Sorry, Will!). Also if you aren't down with KrisPLettuce yet, you really should be. IYKYK

The same, but extremely disrespectfully.

Man, Shafir vs Storm was good as hell. The quasi-Battlarts opening ruled, as did them just throwing nasty push kicks into each other's chests. Pairing her with Nyla, who has charisma to spare, is a really good choice. They could run this back a few more times (or give us Shafir vs Hayter) and I'd be thrilled.

Pat Connaughton is exercising his $5.7M player option for next year. A little surprising since he probably could get more in free agency.

Alabama Doink vs Heidenreich Falls Count Anywhere in a Golden Corral parking lot is REAL PRO WRESTLING

John Wall is opting in on his $47M for next year. Sounds like the Rockets might finally be planning to waive or trade him.

Nikolai Zouev, a Russian mixed martial artist and wrestler best known for feuding with Volk Han in Rings, passed away last month at age 64.

Negro Casas and Volador Jr both got pulled from the card due to "lucha politics" so boo to that. Dralistico and Dragon Lee will be replacing them.