Teflon Turtle

...and now Hirooki Goto is out of this year's G1 Climax entirely. https://www.njpw1972.com/585056 Teflon Turtle's Multiple Personality A: "What did we ever do to deserve this?!" Teflon Turtle's Multiple Personality B: *looks around at previous 90 years of human history* "Oh. Right."

A few things not mentioned yet, as I concur with a lot of the matches listed: - While the relationships between promotions hasn't always been perfect, AEW showing that cross-promotion is possible after decades of WWE isolationism/buying out competition. WCW would bring in luchadors and folks from New Japan, but that was going on 30 years ago. For that matter, AEW strove to do more in acknowledging that other promotions/wrestling history exists beyond their promotional bubble. I appreciate that and prefer it to how WWE handles business. - Orange Cassidy getting a chance to show that he's world-class. I was familiar with him only through a few YouTube videos before AEW. He has evolved that character over the years, in a way that really wouldn't have been possible without AEW in my opinion. It has given us a lot of fun moments: "He's gonna try," the troll-face in the match with PAC that added a new wrinkle to what his "lazy" offense is trying to accomplish, that debate with Jericho where he was shockingly well-prepared to discuss environmental issues, the never-ending All-Atlantic/International champion runs with a surreal amount of defenses. Consistently good-to-great matches that make sense, see OC wrestle to his character brilliantly, and build off previous matches with a variety of wrestlers; it's amazing that the guy can make it all work. It helps that AEW can provide the platform that it does. EDIT: a lot of the more general ideas about what OC has done also apply to Timeless Toni Storm, now that I think of it. She would have never, ever been given that sort of freedom to do that gimmick in...well...what...just about any other promotion in the world except for maybe DDT? AEW has trusted her to run with that for years now, and it has been great.

After having a look at the match, it's effectively a "smother choke." Basically (assuming she's actually trying to tap the person and not in a pro-wrestling match where submissions aren't actually "finished" and therefore the technique is kinda loose) Shafir is hugging the opponent's head tightly to her chest and using her shoulders/biceps to stop them from turning their head side to side. This gives the opponent no real choice but to try to take air in "through" Shafir's body...which of course, they can't. Can't breathe, have to tap. Kinda like those scenes in movies where people are killed by someone smooshing a pillow over their face - they have no room to take in air because the pillow takes up all of the space. Probably doesn't feel great on the opponent's neck either, depending on how much the attacker is squeezing/if they're digging their forearm bone in. But, it's most likely the smothering action creating the tap here. Technique breakdown here: https://youtu.be/2uAzRUGtnkA?si=boBvr8OEwC4jsrBL I didn't know this was actually called the "Mother's Milk," but I guess the term has been around for a while, per the video. Not-so-fun-fact: if you go to a no-gi BJJ class and the guy you're rolling against is wearing a cotton t-shirt instead of a rashguard, you just know you're probably gonna have to deal with this move to some degree, assuming you get mounted. A sweat-drenched t-shirt being smashed over your face...may as well waterboard somebody.

Happy to oblige. It was a pretty straightforward incident. So, I have a pretty long walking route through my city. It usually includes roughly a half-mile stretch through our downtown area, essentially "Main St." though it isn't actually called Main St. I had just started down that stretch when a group of a few kids, probably Jr. High schoolers or maybe freshmen in high school at the oldest, approached from the other direction. This isn't uncommon, esp. during summer months, so I thought nothing of it. One of them had a Styrofoam cup in his left hand, which would've been the side closest to me. So as they get closer, one of the other kids starts (seemingly) shit-talking his friend. I don't believe it was directed at me, but I can't say for sure. Can't imagine why it would've been; I'd clocked their presence but otherwise did nothing to engage them. So, he then goes to knock the cup out of his friend's hand. But rather than bat it downwards as one would usually do when looking to knock something out of someone's hand, he waited until I got close to them and struck the cup from the bottom, in sort of a 3/4 uppercut motion. This, of course, sent the cup and its contents flying right at me. Bullseye! The group laughs, one of them issues the obligatory "DAYUUUM!" The reaction plus the fact that he hadn't knocked the cup out of his friend's hand at any other point of the walk felt rather intentional to me. Could've been done at any point when another person wasn't approaching. Thankfully, pro wrestling has taught me a thing or two about no-selling.

I haven't heard "welcome in" anywhere that I can remember. But at least for me, it's calling to mind the shift from simply saying "thank you," to "thank you so much!" I hate it. It somehow manages to sound more phony than the shorter "thank you" despite adding words to it. I can't figure out why people adopt a slightly whiny tone or raised inflection when saying it. I especially cannot stand the folks who add anywhere between seven and twenty-one extra "u's" to "much" to close out the show. Perhaps it's also the dichotomy between words and body language. How many people say "thank you so much" without so much as looking up from their phone to make eye contact with the person they're saying it to? I don't know where or when it started, but it has taken over. The indignant part of me wants answers, but the more nihilistic part understands that no explanation will give me any satisfaction or make it get on my nerves any less. Like...let me put this in perspective for you. Some random teenage kids knocked a full cup of ice water on me while I was out for a walk yesterday. Seemed pretty intentional, but for no reason other than they were being stupid children. I calmly walked away, didn't even acknowledge them. Part of the reason was it was just water, another was that there is no win for me in confronting people younger and smaller than me, yet another part was that it was warm out and it actually felt kinda good. I was pretty zen about it. I am getting more wound up even thinking about "thank you so much" than I was about the water incident.

So I had a pretty rare run the last week or so: three shows over eight days. Didn't have to travel out of state for any of them, which was pretty cool. Show 1: Vincent Neil Emerson. Country - if you like Waylon Jennings, Sturgill Simpson's first album type of country, then this guy is for you. Plenty of good Telecaster playing to be seen here, too. The only trouble was, I think, out of the band's hands. While the pedal steel player was good, it was too high up in the mix. I think it overwhelmed the other instruments to an extent. I was not the only audience member who noticed this, seemingly. Part of it is also what your brain expects and makes you see or hear things that aren't there: I have been watching a lot of Marty Stuart videos lately (more on him later). His Telecaster is the one originally owned by Clarence White that has the first stringbender on it, to make the guitar able to produce pedal steel-ish sounds. So I was watching the Telecasters be played at this show, and I got confused because the guitarists' hands weren't matching up with the sounds I was hearing...which was the pedal steel itself being too high in the mix. It was disorienting, as none of the Teles being played onstage had a stringbending device in them as far as I could see. Show 2: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. In my personal "Holy Trinity" of bands/artists at this point. Cave never, ever disappoints. Hypnotic performer. I was about 3-4 rows of humans deep in the GA pit. As a result, I got to see Cave sing "Bright Horses" within arm's reach of me, which was absolutely a bucket list item I had. The audience (me included) sung along with "Into My Arms" to close the show - Cave performed solo at the piano and encouraged us to join in. It is rare for me to ever feel like I fit in anywhere. Most of the time I feel like I'm observing life on earth through some kind of membrane. Like the film Annihilation, sort of. What's on my side of it isn't the same as what's on the other side, where everybody else is. But: singing along with Cave during "Into My Arms" was one of those rare "I am in tune with and going along with the flow of the universe" sorts of moments where I had no doubt I was in the right place, at the right time, doing what I was supposed to be doing. Those moments are valuable, fleeting, and I am grateful for them when they happen. Show 3: Marty Stuart and The Fabulous Superlatives. If you like country music or excellent guitar playing and you haven't seen these guys yet, you absolutely need to. Musicianship is off the charts with these guys. Kenny Vaughan was introduced as "the best guitar player in the world" at this show, and I'm hard pressed to disagree. Marty himself is absolutely no slouch on his Telecaster, and he's a great mandolin player as well. Even crazier: each member of the band played at least two different instruments throughout the show, and every band member sang lead on at least two songs each. They also all harmonize like nobody else. I don't want to make it seem like I'm selling the rhythm section short. Chris Scruggs and Harry Stinson are beasts on their respective instruments and are great singers in their own right. In fact...I think I've seen interviews where either Kenny or Marty (the guitar players onstage) have said that the best guitar player in their band is Scruggs...who is the band's bass player. He just doesn't usually get a chance to show it off. Crazy if true.

Running the Naito article from April 1 through an online translator yields results that are tough to understand. As far as I could make out, the article says it was Naito's preference to work a full schedule. This isn't really news in the sense that Naito has said this before - he prefers to stay busy and didn't like to take full tours off. However, the article also says Naito felt that the disparity between people like him who work every tour and the guys who get tours off is too great; the folks who take tours off also have the opportunity to heal from injuries and pursue other activities to prepare them for retirement from wrestling. Seems like a contradiction to me, but it's hard to say for sure since I'm not doing the translation myself/am certainly not a native Japanese speaker. Anyway, it's a bummer. I had taken a break from following puroresu during the first MMA boom of the late aughts. What got me back for a little while was seeing the Okada/Naito NJPW 40th anniversary match. After that, I fell off again and mostly only followed what Nakamura was doing in big matches. What got me back in to NJPW full-time was seeing what Naito was doing with LIJ. He shot up close to the top of my all-time favorite wrestlers list by 2018 and, like Bret Hart, now occupies a seat that can't be taken away. Dude's got tenure with me, personally. That said, even as a massive fan of his, I hope he calls it a day. He sort of occupied the same spot in New Japan that Chono did for quite a while; I've seen that comparison a lot over the years. Chono never really got a proper retirement send-off - it wasn't official until Muto's retirement show. We've all seen what has gone on with Naito physically over the last year. Now that New Japan has reached the "rip the band-aid off" point without any doubt (I probably have a whole other post in me about that), I'd sort of like to see Naito do the same. Don't drag it out while his health gets worse. I feel like the landscape has shifted in wrestling enough that many wrestlers are learning not to stick around too long, but we'll see.

Without getting into results, Despe/Connors was the match of the weekend, for me. I've recently been giving the tip of the "best in the world" cap to ZSJ on in-ring alone, mostly...but really....I think Desperado has a case. He can and does wrestle absolutely any style without any fear, and he can do so very well. Despite wearing a mask that sometimes obscures even his mouth, you can always tell what he/the character is thinking or feeling based on body language alone. If he's wearing a version of the mask that's more open, all the better. He's also got a good sense for comedy, and if the subtitles are any indication, he's an engaging promo. He can do it all.

I don't know anything for sure, but thinking back to some of Juice Robinson's NJPW promos, it wouldn't shock me if he and Toni come up with a lot of stuff on their own just joking around with each other. Her promos/videos she's done on her own for social media and/or in Japan aren't really toned down or different in any way, and I can't imagine she had an AEW writer for those (the Stan Hansen promo comes to mind, for those who haven't seen it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RdP8MM7mlU). Heck, I wonder if it's just her. She's clearly got the comedic timing on her own. That she has seemingly gotten free rein (or as close to it as is possible with network censors) with this gimmick has made for a lot of fun, I think.

Margo Price feat. Billy Strings - Too Stoned to Cry This is a cover: the original was written by Andrew Combs. I think both versions are great, but it’s hard to beat Margo’s voice. Original in spoilers, if you’re interested in that one too.

I'm back to reading a bit more lately. The public library in my city was closed for a few months due to a move/remodel. The stupid thing is, I have a backlog of books at home that I've bought that is going to take me years to get through, and I barely made a dent in it. ADD, ADD, ADD. Anyway, while the library was closed I tried using their eLibrary service to get through as much of the original Hellblazer series as I could. I made it about 50 issues, and I'm torn on whether I want to try and continue. Once I was able to get physical books from the library again (much more to my preference, by the way. I prefer physical media for everything, reading material very much included), here's what I've been working on: Down with the System by Serj Tankian. I am not the biggest SOAD fan in the world, though I do like their music. If you'd have asked me five years ago if I'd have been interested in reading a book by Serj Tankian, I'd have said "eh, maybe? or not?" But, I recently saw him on a few Youtube interview shows and found out he was a really thoughtful, interesting dude (previously, my only real non-musical exposure to him was on an episode of Parts Unknown). The book is a rather quick read, and well-balanced in the sense that it doesn't really function as a day-to-day-diary of SOAD tour minutiae or anything like that. Rather, Serj gives you a brief history of the Armenian Genocide so you understand his background. Some time is spent on his early life, but not much. Ultimately, the book is about how the legacy of the genocide informed Serj's path through music/art and how it intertwined with his work in activism. You do learn a little bit about the inner workings of SOAD and those parts are interesting. However, it becomes clear that Serj is one of those artists who both does art for its own sake and does it to communicate a message. While he admits it's great that he has been able to make money off of artistic ventures, he's pretty forthcoming about how much of what he's done post-System hasn't been as lucrative, but has been equally if not more meaningful to him. Music is History by Questlove. Questlove is another guy who I have a lot of respect for musically, but didn't know much about him personally. There's a Parts Unknown connection again, too. The book has been on my list for a few years now, and I decided to go for it. It is formatted in a year-by-year concept going in order from the year Questlove was born (1971). Each chapter begins by outlining some major events that happened that year, then adds a song that was either released in that corresponding year and/or that he discovered in that year (if he stumbled on it a while after release), and then ties it to either current events of the era - musical or otherwise - or a more general concept about history. This entails the "doing" of history: who gets remembered, what gets remembered, how we go about remembering it. His sense of humor comes across pretty well, I think, and the book feels pretty conversational as a result. But, you also get the feeling that the dude has so much musical knowledge in his head that all wants to come out at once, that some chapters are unfocused or hard to follow even though they're quite brief. I'll admit that I'm reading this one mostly on lunch breaks, so the problem could just as well be with my focus level as it is with that of the book. One of the things that really geeked me out is that there is a decent amount of time spent talking about Bill Withers' Live at Carnegie Hall album in the chapter dealing with 1973. I snagged a copy a while back and it blew me away to the point that I now have to restrain myself from just talking about the album unprompted to anybody within earshot. Music is History helped ease that tension for me a bit.

Former craft beer nerd here. I will still have some beer on occasion, but not every weekend or even every month(or every day, as it was at my worst). To answer this question first: virtually Stone Brewing's entire catalog. They're the brewery that got me in to craft beer, by and large, and had a diverse range of styles when I first started exploring beer. Then for whatever reason, they discontinued many of their beers, and changed up the recipe of others. For instance: their yearly imperial stout release. The original was great. They retired it, and a while later put out a modified recipe under a different name. It was just...OK. Whole thing was a cynical metaphor for life. Things change, frequently not for the better, not a whole lot we can do to stop it. To me, the most conflicting thing about it is the business was eventually sold to Sapporo. So Stone is longer independent...but the new ownership then started to bring back some of the older recipes and discontinued beers. It took the sale and exit of one of the founders for the brewery to finally listen to what their consumers were saying: we want the old stuff back. To address some questions at the start of the thread: darker beers seem to sit best with me. Stouts, imperial stouts, porters. I used to be quite into IPAs, but the shift in trends and the development of some GI issues as I aged made those harder to tolerate. I also quite enjoy many Belgian ales: Orval probably being my favorite, but Saison Dupont running a close second. I should clarify when I say "imperial stouts," I do not mean anything part of the "pastry stout" trend from a while ago. Fewer adjuncts the better. A straight imperial stout or a barrel-aged imperial stout for me. I'll close the post with a short story and recommendation rolled into one. Many years ago, I got a friend of mine into Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout. It's brewed by North Coast Brewery out of California, but is available pretty much everywhere in the US, I think. At the time, I had learned more about beer than he had. He wasn't aware that some of the darker and heavier beers aren't best when consumed ice cold. So I told him about all of this, and it opened up the beer world for him (we were in our early 20s at the time, just starting out). As a sort of eventual "thank you" for that original recommendation, this friend bought an extra four-pack of Old Rasputin one day and stored the bottles in his basement for me, letting the beer age. Every couple of years he'd give me one. If you have the patience for it: for a readily-available and relatively cheap imperial stout, this beer ages wonderfully. Some of the best stuff I've tasted.

I was a slightly reluctant "no." I don't watch full AEW broadcasts week to week, but I'll catch what I can on Youtube. Loved the first Death Riders promo. In general, Mox doesn't have any problems with that in terms of delivery or intensity, as has been mentioned. If there was a clearer direction sooner in the development of the whole thing, I could've been more on board. There's also the subtle, or sometimes as has been pointed out, not-so-subtle far right aspects to what he's saying. Like a good many of you whose comments I've read on the board, I'm not terribly comfortable with that either so it contributes to the "no." Though it's kinda funny...I found it hard to take some of it seriously. I can't remember if Mox quoted it verbatim, but the whole "blood alone moves the wheels of history" thing was prominently featured in an episode of The Office. So I'm then sitting there connoting Mox, who's supposed to be in a scary new heel persona with...Dwight Schrute being conned into quoting Mussolini. My overthinking mind runs with it and can't help but wonder if someone handed Mox the line and he didn't catch it either. Another reason I'm not a fan of it: I think AEW needs to stop telling me its programming sucks. Acknowledgement of the whole "restore the feeling" thing (wherever that came from), "epic" matches being put on to lesser and lesser crowd reactions, then Mox starts this angle where he straight up derides the entire locker room: citing egos, complaining that they have no killer instinct, that the promotion has lost its edge, and so on. At least for me, it called to mind a lot of the Domino's Pizza commercials where the general tone was "hey, we sucked in the past but we're getting better!" Stop bashing me over the head with the idea that you aren't any good. It's not going to make me want to spend money on your business, whether it's pizza, wrestling, or anything else. OK, great: you're acknowledging feedback from the fanbase as a company. But if nothing changes - the stable runs roughshod over everyone/commits assault with a deadly weapon not usually used in wrestling as the announcers screech about how heinous it is to end the fifth consecutive pay per view - then all you've really done is just push the negative to the forefront, I feel. It has been said time and again that the best heels truly believe that they're in the right. To me, the danger in having a heel talk about tearing the promotion down or taking it over because it isn't worth keeping alive in its current state acknowledges too closely that many fans might be going "Hmm...I agree with him" and have stopped watching. (And one last thing...I thought Mox hated the whole low-budget Bane stuff he was doing before leaving WWE. So why do many of these promos feel similar to some of what the Bane character was saying in The Dark Knight Rises? An attempt to try and do it right, maybe?)

Night 1 Thoughts:

I don’t think Marty Stuart has been brought up in the thread. Here’s a legendary performance he and his band gave on Letterman years ago. Some of the best Telecaster playing I’ve seen.

This is pretty minor, but I'll get to why I posted it in a minute. Josh Barnett returned to Japan to train some of the Young Lions in New Japan's Noge dojo. https://news.njpw1972.com/josh-barnett-tests-noge-dojos-catch-mettle-6942b1eecb73 I'm posting mostly because the article claims that Barnett rolled with Boltin Oleg, and I felt compelled to put it out into the universe that I really hope footage of that exists. It wasn't until I read that article that I determined I really wanted to see a no-gi match between those two. Barnett's submission grappling experience is far more extensive, but it would be intriguing to see how he deals with someone that strong. Anyway, this is pretty much the only place I could express that where people would know what on earth I'm talking about, so there you go.

The "headbutts in pro wrestling" thing has been baffling to me for a while. I get that people want to stand out and do something that looks different. But honestly, while I haven't seen a ton of his matches, whenever I see Kento Miyahara I wonder why more wrestlers aren't doing headbutts like him. His headbutts are worked, he's pretty clearly just grabbing the other wrestler's head and headbutting his own hands...and it looks fine. No thigh slap needed, it's clear as day what's happening, anybody who has ever conked heads with another human being knows it hurts (and it doesn't make a "thigh slap" sound...), and is no danger to the wrestlers in the match. Never mind the whole "there are a thousand ways to legitimately hurt someone in a real fight that aren't as dangerous to your own self as a headbutt" thing. Yet pro wrestlers insist on throwing crappy looking headbutts, or worse, shoot headbutts. Because "legitimacy." Maybe there's some sort of lethwei connection to pro-wrestling that I've missed out on all this time.

Did somebody say “bluegrass cover versions?!” Technically might not be since Bruce Hornsby plays on it here, but I completely and unironically love this.

I know folks around here aren't high on SANADA, for very valid reasons. But, he and ZSJ have some of the best in-ring chemistry in wrestling. They've had multiple singles matches against each other over the years, and all of them have been a joy to watch. It was kinda crazy to see their match be the 2nd tournament match of the night on the last show given how good it was, though understandable as the stakes were low.

Y'all have some excellent lists, in total agreement. I will add some additional tally marks to a few things specifically. Going in to this G1, if I was looking for match recommendations and someone would've written: "pick pretty much any Yuya Uemura match," I would've thought they either confused him with Yota or were under the influence (...why not both?). But, dude has really showed up for this tournament. Next, don't sleep on any of the Goto matches. Another "if you would've told me:" I did not have Finlay/Goto as an anticipated match in their block, nor did I think that would main event anything. But it was the main, and it was very, very good. I actually fell asleep during my first watch of SANADA/Shingo. Don't let that influence whether you watch the match - when I tried a second viewing, I thought it was great. If they wanted to run with either of those guys as IWGP Heavyweight champion again, putting the other in a Wrestle Kingdom main event opposite the champ would not be out of the question, I felt. They worked really well together. I've already said "Gabe Kidd rules" in this thread and he has done nothing that would alter my opinion for the worse even a little bit. His match with ZSJ from the most recent show (day 13) is must-watch, I think. Finally: shoutout to Chris Charlton on commentary for throwing out Flaming Lips and Simpsons references on day 13, also. He has made Simpsons references before but his commentary last night had "one of us" all over it.

Some thoughts on the first few nights:

So there has been some "Shota Umino in the G1" speculation over on the New Japan subreddit that is both piping hot and baffling in equal measure: Earlier today, the NJPW Global X account posted a video of Shota announcing he will be returning in time for the G1. Teflon's thoughts, not Reddit's: in the video, Shota looks like the people on the other side of the camera might be terrorists and his lines are being fed to him to convince everyone he's OK. But, I seemingly am not the only one to draw such a conclusion, because folks online are wondering whether he is really cleared to return and/or whether he has been pressured into coming back so soon. There are also plenty who are asking whether his injuries are legitimate in the first place. Apparently the stories out there don't really line up, and also a podcast aired a rumor that the real reason for Shota being out was that he was on the losing end of a (legit) backstage scrap with Gabe Kidd; injury stories were just a cover, as internet doctors maintain that it will not be possible to wrestle with a fractured hip + back injury a month after sustaining such injuries. I guess the logic there is that if he is participating at all, then he wasn't really injured in the first place. I didn't listen to the podcast, so for all I know it's amateur sleuths running with something that was intended to be taken as a joke. I don't know what to think: possibly a situation like what happened in BOSJ where Francesco Akira developed a knee issue, and he worked a limited match that "exacerbated" the injury - Umino will wrestle at least one match, but perhaps they run an injury angle. So Shota will be in the G1...or will he?

I'd say the vast majority of famous or semi-famous folks that I've met occurred at the same Wizard World comic con I went to with my dad when I was younger. Really haven't occasioned upon many more that I've been aware of, even when traveling. At the comic con: Jason Mewes of Jay & Silent Bob fame walked right by me at the con. I recognized him, but said nothing. Dude looked pissed. Funnily enough, I also met Ray Park at that con. This would've been shortly after The Phantom Menace came out, so a lot of people suddenly knew his name. He was doing a Q&A. Knowing that he was a martial artist (I was too), I asked a question about how involved he was in choreographing the lightsaber fight scenes in the film. When I got his autograph later on, I'm fairly certain he remembered who I was. Nice guy in the brief interactions I had with him. My favorite parts were meeting the comic creators, though. I had read that if you bring a sketch pad to signings instead of a small autograph book, many comic artists will be happy to do a quick sketch for you, vs. just giving you their signature (obviously, they'd charge for more detailed stuff, though). I got two sketches. The first was a quick Batman sketch and autograph from Tim Sale. I loved The Long Halloween, so having him do that one was a treat. The one that blew my mind was from Stan Sakai: creator, writer, artist of Usagi Yojimbo. He was doing a signing but had a pretty short line. I was flabbergasted; even as a teenager I had read some of the series, knew who he was, and recognized his talent. So, I jumped in line. When I got to the front, I reached out with my sketchbook. Without a word, he gives me a small smile and takes it from me. He proceeds to draw, without any pause for thought of composition, a full-page sketch of Usagi running through a field, sword drawn. Whole thing probably took less than 60 seconds - the art just came right out of him. He finished it with his signature. When I got a good look at it, I didn't know what to say. I'm sure I thanked him, but my social anxiety was so bad then, I don't think I was able to express much more than that. Honestly...when I was watching him draw, I got that reality-altering "time stopped" sensation. I knew the line was short, but I had no assumptions towards getting something that cool from him. Anyway - that's also why my profile pic on this forum is what it is. I'm still grateful to him for showing my awkward teenage ass that kindness. The sketch is still proudly framed and displayed in my home as an adult.