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Gordi the former AEW fan

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Everything posted by Gordi the former AEW fan

  1. When Edge eventually retires you can kind of repeat this joke, and the subtitle can be, "Oh! Not you, too!"o
  2. I'm just as pleased as can be that Makabe showed his Best of Asian Cooger tape there. I'll try to remember to show that to him next time we go drinking. Edit: I sent him the twitter link with a brief explanation in my bad Japanese. If Cooger replies, and it's at all interesting, I'll edit his reply into this post. EDIT TWO: OK, So Cooger is just delighted by this, and it's turned into a whole conversation about Makabe and DEAN~! and etc. So hopefully @Phil Schneider or @Jacey or someone can let Makabe know that Asian Cooger saw that video and it made his day!
  3. Rampage is less than 90 minutes away! According to the Fyte app: The Young Bucks return to action following their attack on Sting & Darby Allin - I bet I will enjoy this more than Drew does! I hope they wear their blood-soaked white suits to the ring! Matt Sydal vs CMLL's Mistico - This is simultaneously the MOST "I didn't realise I wanted this" and "a few years ago this would have been a dream match" AND "I will DEFINITELY enjoy this more than Matt" match of the week. Kris Statlander & Willow Nightingale vs The Outcasts' Saraya & Ruby Soho - Saraya is right up there among my "There's too much WWE stink on this person, I wish AEW had never brought them in" list, and I feel much the same about the entire Outcasts deal. On the other hand, I LOVE watching Stat fight, Willow ALWAYS sparks joy, and I was excited when Ruby came in to AEW. Sometimes I think "too much WWE stink" sometimes I think "good for them getting away from WWE" There was a time when I'd make a self-deprecating joke about my irrational hatred of WWE in order to avoid offending some of the more thin-skinned members of the E Universe on these boards but I suppose that hatred seems pretty darned rational now. Not that any of THAT is in ANY way Saraya's fault... but I'd just as soon not be reminded in ANY way of that cesspool of straight up evil while I am trying to enjoy my pro wrestling. Orange Cassidy, Trent Beretta, & Rocky Romero face Undisputed Kingdom - I am SO stoked for Orange vs Ishii tomorrow. Except for the announce team overpronouncing the second "i" in Stone Pitbull's name. That drives me NUTS. I will definitely enjoy that match more than Casey. Sadly, Roddy Strong yelling people's names has already worn completely thin on me. It's up there with "Scissor me Daddy Ass" in terms of "Oh well, I guess some people still enjoy it." It's another way AEW COULD distinguish itself from Cesspool Sports Entertainment: Quit running bits into the ground! That's a fair bit of complaining but in fact I am stoked. Think I'll walk over to the convenience store and get some popcorn. They have a season-limited sour plum flavour right now that I just love. EDIT: I got what I was asking for! Speaking of: They ANNOUNCED two women's matches for Collision this week! Maybe AEW is still ignoring their fanbase w/r/t the catastrophic way they are adding new content to the Pay Forever game, but they really seem to once again be listening when it comes to how they book the shows. And it's certainly the latter that's more important.
  4. I think this is a MASSIVE misconception. America is absolutely where AEW runs the vast majority of their shows, but in terms of broadcasting, they are huge in the two other countries where they have run shows, Canada and Britain, and in terms of international reach it's easier just to cut and paste the Wikipedia, which I will do below. This all connects with (among other things) how bizarre I find it that anyone gives any real weight to discussion of same-day US-only TV ratings as an important metric in debating the success of a wrestling company. Even here, on a board filled with wrestling FANATICS,there are plenty of times when more of us watch a show (particularly Rampage) on tape delay. So same-day ratings are pretty empty and meaningless in terms of how many people are actually watching. Then, take a look at the list below! It's INSANE to suggest that America comprises the lion's share of AEW's viewing audience. (Obviously, though, the US TV/Broadcasting deal is hugely important to AEW, I happily concede that point. And TV ratings presumably have some relevance there). But we've got folks from Canada, Britain, Oceania, Finland, Japan, etc etc posting here every week. It's clear that AEW's audience is truly international, not just American. The Wiki: On October 22, 2019, TNT Serie announced a deal to air Dynamite on Friday nights in Germany.[53][54] On October 24, 2019, Toonami announced a deal to air Dynamite on Tuesday nights in France.[55][56] On July 21, 2020, Sky Sport and AEW announced a deal to air Dynamite on Friday nights in Italy, replacing WWE programming.[57][58] AEW also aired on Sport Extra in Romania from 2020 until 2022.[59] Dynamite aired in Poland from March 5[60] until August 27, 2022[61] on Warner TV. In Spain, AEW announced that was going to air Dynamite on TNT starting on June 17, 2022, and later live from June 19, 2022.[62] As of 2023, in some European markets (including countries like Portugal, Sweden, Poland, Turkey, Romania and Czech Republic), Dynamite (and other AEW events such as PPVs, Rampage, Dark, Elevation and Battle of the Belts) are available on DAZN.[63] Latin America edit On October 22, 2020, AEW reached an agreement with the digital platform with Pluto TV broadcasting its repeat events (including past pay-per-view) with commentators in Spanish from Latin America.[64] On November 22, 2020, Dynamite began airing on Space, a WarnerMedia International channel in Brazil and on Space's Spanish feed, available throughout Latin America on Sundays.[65][66] On September 30, 2022, it was announced that AEW would stop airing on Space in Latin America on October 1, with Brazil following on December 30.[67][68] Currently, AEW Dynamite (alongside the rest of AEW programming) is aired by Televisa-Univision, on TUDN in Mexico and on ViX streaming Platform in the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean. Africa edit Dynamite began airing on TNT Africa on February 5, 2021, in English-speaking countries of Sub-Saharan Africa.[69][70] The show airs every Sunday morning at 10 AM CAT, four days after the U.S. broadcast.[71] Asia edit In India, AEW is announced to be airing Dynamite on Eurosport starting on August 15, 2021, and later live from August 19, 2021, every Thursday on 5:30am IST.[72] Dynamite began airing on Premier Sports in the Philippines on September 25, 2021.[73] On April 8, 2022, it was announced that as part of the AEW and NJPW working relationship that Dynamite would air in Japan on NJPW World.[74][75] Oceania edit Dynamite started airing on ESPN2 from 16 February 2023 in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Niue, Nauru, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Northern Marianas, Tokelau, Tahiti, Tuvalu, New Caledonia, American Samoa, Marshall Islands, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, and Wallis and Futuna.[76]
  5. Man, Bryan vs Hechicero was beautiful pro wrestling. Too bad the ref almost screwed up the finish as that *briefly* took me out of the trance I was in, but the match itself was *so* cool. Nice creative variations and counters and even some nifty stuff I have never seen before! Just the pure joy of "pro wrestling as an art." The whole first hour just flew by! A 90's Japan style slugfest, a technical masterpiece, then a fun Outrunners match! My cheeks hurt from smiling so much. Then we got TWO women's matches! It seems like the new AEW singles TV match template is that the winner is a foregone conclusion but the wrestler who is going over is going to bump and sell so hard for their opponent that there's going to be some moments where we almost believe it's going to be an upset. I am fine with that. It leads to some pretty entertaining matches. And it looks like Matt is going to get Christian vs Garcia! The rest of us are going to get that, too, but Matt specifically asked for it. Speaking of getting what we ask for: Congratulations, Bounty Hunter!
  6. Kaito Kiyomiya. I have two more, absolutely Oscar-worthy. If I can find the clips, I'll add them to this post. And to be fair to John Cena, Peacemaker was great and he was great in it. 1) "Looks like you lost your edge,lad!" Seems to be some kind of server issue with YouTube right now, but the entire 2009 Kurt Angle starring vehicle Endgame is up on YouTube.I cannot recommend it enough for anyone who is a fan of wooden acting and atrocious dialogue. It MST 3000-worthy! Edit: Here you go!
  7. Luchasaurus vs Cash? Hells yeaah! But seriously folks. That looks incredible. That special mix of excellence and goofiness that AEW can dish out better than any promotion anywhere anytime ever. And, really, bring on Luchasauris vs Cash, too. Plus: Dragon vs Hechicero. Which is a mix of excellence with (a different kind of) excellence. AND; AEW Continental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston faces Bounty Hunter Bryan Keith! SLUGFEST! Yeahhh BABY! I JUST got done calling Hulk Hogan a racist. So. Uh. Is it racist for me to suggest that Bounty Hunter and Willie Mack should maybe form a tag team? I like the idea of two under six foot beefy dudes where the heavier one is also the high flyer of the team and the lighter one is more of a brawler. PLUS: In just over an hour we are getting: AEW Tag Team Champs Ricky Starks & Big Bill vs. THE #2 RANKED TAG TEAM CONTENDERS The Dark Order. - YES! Rankings paying off IMMEDIATELY in the most amusing way possible. Queen Aminata vs Willow Nightingale. - WILLOW! Plus: Love Queen getting ALL the reps lately. Is she the next Skye Blue? CMLL stars Mistico, Mascara Dorada, Hechicero, & Volador Jr battle Christopher Daniels, Matt Sydal, Cool Hand Ang & Daddy Magic. I love how t he FITE app (where I got this info) has to pount out that they are CMLL stars. I bet every website giving this info uses that exact language. This could literally be too much fun. Maybe we'll get a BCC run-in, too! To set up tomorrow. Top Flight vs Private Party. - NO WAY this is less than super-fun. Edit: Just checked. Sure enough, in the Collision preview Bryan is facing "CMLL star Hechicero." EDIT: Definitely a very fun show. Top to bottom. I have been pretty busy the last couple of weeks. Glad I had some free time today! Tomorrow too! Kind of sad that the reason I have free time is that a lot of people are down with the flu this weekend... but I'll take whatever good news I can get out of that situation. The crowd was having fun, cheering for Private Party and Ricky Billy even though those teams were working Bad Guy Style. Willow's charisma won them back over to the Good Guy Side, though. The main was exactly what it needed to be. Let everyone show a bit of what they can do, let the CMLL guts bump and sell during picture in picture, put over Hechicero before his huge match with Dragon tomorrow. I am stoked for Collision! Any time you give me Eddie and Bryan I am going to get stoked. And if you give them each an interesting opponent,then even more so
  8. And that jUST had the super famous racist Hulk Hogan hosting a "Premium Live Event"
  9. I quite like it. Particularly the ersatz PWI-ish nature of the presentation, including the couple of "Wait! What? Really?" rankings. Hopefully it generates some enjoyably spirited discussion. Hopefully the rankings don't lead to wrestlers and fans caring overmuch about wins and losses. Looking forward to someone completely losing their shit because (for example) Dragon isn't ranked as a male singles wrestler. Curious how the usual doomsayers will parse this to continue forecasting doom for the promotion. A lot to like here. An interesting condiment on the buffet table that is AEW.
  10. I actually had a positive thought the other day! It's quite possible that Okada will wind up in AEW alongside Ospreay, whom we definitely know is coming. If so, then basically every week is gonna be Forbidden Door. Which is really all I want out of pro wrestling right now. Even if The Rainmaker ends up on Netflix Pro, it'll be interesting to see if WWE can do a better job running back the 2014 MOTY (Okada vs Shinsuke) than they did with the 2026 (NJPW) MOTY (Shinsuke vs Styles). It would be a fun referendum on how much things have really improved since Mania 34. So, ether way: Neato.
  11. FU*CK! is 100% still active! They've moved away from death match style but still run shows in basements in front of, like, 30 people. Current Far East Asian Champion is Lucha Master Takemaru, whom I am sure I have met, but I can't find a picture of us together. I found a picture with Moriya, who is a current FU*CK! mainstay, and with Fuke, who worked for them back in the day. Fuke is a Fujiwara guy, and Moriya was trained by Kurisu! I am connected to current FU*CK! through my close friend Kuuga/Cooger/Asian Cooger (in fact I am probably going drinking with Cooger and Moriya again soon) so, SINCERE OFFER HERE: If the fine folks promoting this show ever manage to raise enough sponsorship dough to fly some wrestlers in from Japan I would be quite happy to liaise the Osaka Indie scene for y'all. How about Bodyguard singing his entrance theme on the way to the ring? DEAN loved that. I am SURE I could convince some good people to go if it were at all financially viable. This year, or at any time in the future.
  12. Sorry for the delay in responding. I have been trying to come up with a story worth telling that won't make anyone look or feel too bad if it gets back to them. The first piece of writing I ever sold was a story on Big John Tenta. The second was an interview with Tim. Both of them were really generous with their time, at least partly because I had connections at Wrestling's Main Event magazine and it sure wasn't going to hurt their careers any to get their story and picture into one of the New York rags. But also they were both, in my opinion, genuinely decent human beings. Both were LEGIT tough guys, too. But they expressed it differently. John was very quiet and laid back in real life. Tim Flowers was larger than life. Like a John Wayne or Clint Eastwood character. More than once, I heard him say, "As long as you don't mess with me, my family, my house, my dog, or my car, we're not going to have any problem." And as much as anyone I have ever met, I got the distinct sense that you'd really have to be some kind of idiot to mess with Tim. He absolutely had everyone's respect. Here's the story: I was one of a big group of wrestlers, etc, invited to Tim's home for the goodbye party before he left to work in Calgary. (Which in the end didn't work out for him). Here he was, talking openly in front of a group of wrestlers about how Stu had said the only two "worth a shit" in Vancouver were him and Tenta. And NOBODY was offended. We could all see that they were on a different level. But to me, THAT is respect. I definitely respected him. Learned a fair bit from him in the short time I knew him. i do remember being bummed out when he started promoting shows in Vancouver after the collapse of All Star, and declared that anyone who wanted to work for him wasn't allowed to work for any other promoter in the area. I worked for Rocky DellaSera, and was on friendly terms with Michelle Starr and Mike Roselli, so that was that. Last I heard, he was still living in BC and working the occasional show. He'd have to be in his early 60s by now. I assume it would still be a bad idea to mess with him.
  13. At first it felt like having the Continental Crown defence as the opener and a Dark Order trios match as the main was kind of backward? But. I ended up REALLY enjoying that main event. It was 100% a return to the goofy indie AEW that I am so painfully nostalgic for. LOVED the (thikk gold) chain wrestling! LOVED the return of TRADITIONAL HAT-BASED PSYCHOLOGY!!! Really LOVED Cool Hand coming out all mopey with the cake residue still all over his face. I think he should ALWAYS come out like that now, like when guys get their head shaved once and their hair never grows back. PERFECT use of Negative 1. My second favourite thing on the show was Mark Briscoe's facial expressions in the bit with the Hardyz. Which is really saying something because it means Eddie Kingston's SUBLIME selling was only my third-favourite thing on Rampage today. Number four was the other announcers completely no-selling JR's constant American Football references. Speaking of unfortunate JR-isms: After he referred to Swerve (but not Sydal) as an athlete in their match, I wondered how long it would take for him to refer to Queen (but not Shida) as an athlete as well. Sure enough, about ten or fifteen seconds in... I kind of have to assume that, even if someone were to take JR aside and politely but clearly explain what the issue is there, he wouldn't be able to help himself. It's just how football-obsessed guys in his generation think and speak. It's ingrained. Sidetrack #1: AEW Pay Forever The Storm is Coming Downloadable Content Pack has dropped. For "only" $12 US, or 1430 Japanese yen, you get Outcasts-version Toni Storm plus 10 music tracks. So, only three major issues that I can see here. First: You have to be kidding with that price. Second: For an out of date character model, and no way to even make Timeless Toni. and Third: If you don't want to wildly overpay for an out of date character, there is no way to add the new music. Just like you HAVE TO purchase the Acclaimed to get the crap version of the new Dynamite arena. And that is a shame, because the pack includes such timely, in-demand themes as the one Men of the Year used. That was All Ego and Scorp, right? It is, sincerely, as if they are DESPERATE to make everyone who paid full price for the game FURIOUS with AEW. related Sidetrack #2 So the game stuff seems to have affected the way I look at AEW as a whole. I REALLY noticed it watching that excellent video on YouTube about great moments at Daily's Place. At the time, my point of view was as a fan who had been DREAMING of a big fun fan-friendly goofy awesome indie/Japan/Mexico non-corporate pro wrestling TV show and my tendency was to look for the good in everything AEW presented. Now, through more jaded eyes: there really always has been some ridiculous-in-a-bad-way/annoying/outright awful stuff mixed in with all of the entertaining and spectacular awesomeness and nice/genuinely moving stuff. It's really interesting! To me, anyway. Totally Unrelated Side-Track #3: AJPW MANIAx had a match where the Japanese-American ex-sumo Saito Brothers faced off. It was PURE BMMSM. Just two massive dudes laying it in until one of them couldn't get back up any more. LOVED that match. It's about 1:08 into the video. What I loved the most about it was that there was close to zero fancy Dan bullshit in the match. That being said, I also enjoyed Ospreay vs Nick Wayne (both AEW-related!) from GCW even though it's about 96% fancy Dan bullshit. Matt, I think you should watch this one! Every move will make you grind your teeth, but there is 100% a classic "touring dominant star faces plucky local underdog favourite" story being told here, and I sincerely believe it gives the match something approaching a clear and comprehensible structure (!) Plus the fan response is *chef's kiss* in this one. Maybe that match gives us some insight into what Ospreay in AEW will be like. Spots plus story plus structure? Could be fun! The main event of that AJPW show is NASTY. (Nakajimmy vs Kento 2). Fuminori Abe, El Lindaman, Minoru Suzuki, and Tatsumi Fujinami are all on the show, as well. Anyway, hope at least a few other people here enjoyed the main as much as I did. I'll assume that almost everyone also liked Kingston vs Yuta. Because: Obviously. Why wouldn't you?
  14. My immediate thoughts: Lance Archer, Powerhouse Hobbs, Jeff Cobb, Brody King, Jacob Fatu, Keith Lee, Toa Liona, JD Drake, Bear Boulder, Jonah... That's 10. Gimme a sec. I'll come up with a few more, make a top 20 or something WALTER. Him and Archer would be my top 2. Also Dutch, Nicky Boy, Hikuleo. Trying to think of dudes who could legit make Hogan sympathetic but also as Zimbra says, bump like maniacs for the big comeback. Oh! Otis! If we can also bring opponents from the past then Don Leo Jonathan Hama. Still need 3 more. Back to the past! Strong Man. Bruiser Brody. (Sorry, Matt) and CRUSHER BLACKWELL EDIT: I can see Technico's point (below) that a lot of those guys aren't tall by 80s standards, but: Orndorff and Sheiky Baby were only 6'0" , Piper 6'2"
  15. Well, we need to take this seriously, because Raz has a PERFECT record when it comes to predicting doom for AEW.
  16. YES!!!! YES!!! YES!!! YESSS!!!! Guess who's going to be there live and in person to see Bryan vs ZSJ II. My buddy from Tokyo is making the trip so we can watch it together. Dragon vs the 7-time Bryan Danielson Award winner volume one made both of our top 3 matches lists last year. We are SO stoked to get to see the re-match live. Plus,Ospreay's last match as a full time NJ wrestler before joining the AEW roster (which will be a 10-man steel cage UE vs BCWD match)! And the other two matches that have been announced are also at least AEW-adjacent. Hikuleo (who had a US title match with Lance Archer on AEW TV) is in a tag title match vs KENTA (who attacked Mox on AEW TV) and all three of the current NJ trios champs (Okada, Tanahashi, & Ishii) have fought in AEW as well. Okada in another of my 2023 MOTYs and Ishii in one of my 2022 MOTYCs! Plus Hikuleo's partner, El Phantasmo, is a guy whom I have seen dive from a balcony through a table that I was standing next to, in a tiny hall in Vancouver. So that's cool, to see him in a big title match in a large arena in Japan all these years later. But. Dude. BRYAN VS ZSJ!!! I am SO HAPPY!
  17. I have been lucky enough to meet literally dozens of pro wrestlers over here in Japan. Without exception, the interactions have ranged from pleasant to unbelievably wonderful. They have also ranged from quick chats to hanging out to going for dinner to getting drunk together. I was also lucky enough to work with guys like John Tenta, Raven, Tim Flowers, Mauro Ranallo, Buddy Wayne, etc etc in Vancouver All Star in the 1980s, and through the friendships and connections I made then I got to meet people like Asian Cooger and Bryan Danielson, who worked in the Vancouver indies in the 2000s, plus guys like Bad News Allen and Matt Borne when they were brought in as special attractions. And now I am more or less a part of the Osaka indie wrestling scene, warmly greeted by name at shows and parties. It seems odd to me that people would be shy to speak to wrestlers or think it's weird or creepy to want to do so, but at the same time: I get it. There's an EXTREMELY creepy aspect to certain elements of Joshi fandom over here, and I can sadly imagine that every famous person has had to deal with some kind of creeper at some point. Also, I can totally respect the people who bumped into wrestlers but wanted to respect their privacy. My experiences interacting with wrestlers have almost all been along the lines of Zakk's awesome Hobbs and Kiss stories. Really positive interactions with people who legitimately seemed just as happy to meet me as I was them. A very partial list of well-known wrestlers who have been particularly friendly or kind would include John Tenta, Bad News Allen, Superstar Billy Graham, Bryan Danielson, CIMA, TAKA, Dick Togo, Hokuto, Jaguar, Atsushi Onita, Bob Sapp, Fujiwara, Otsuka, Chono, Devitt, Ricky Marvin, Super Crazy, Tajiri, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Suwama, Joe Doering, Abdullah, and... You get the idea. The worst interaction I ever had with a wrestler was The British Bulldogs. They ere DICKS! They cursed out a little kid right in front of me. I have lived kind of a charmed pro wrestling fan life. Some of it is that I am friendly with a lot of pro wrestling "insiders" and if you are introduced by someone inside the circle that gives you a huge amount of benefit of the doubt. Part of it is I am a guy who obviously trains hard but I am generally easy-going and friendly and not aggressive or hostile in the least. For guys like Zeus and Bodyguard and Bob Sapp, even though I am not on their level, being really into training gives us something in common. My big open friendly face probably helps with everyone. Some of it is just that I am lucky. BUT: Here's a story. My wife and I once drove down to Seattle for a vacation. Roddy Piper was performing his one man show at a theatre in a small city in Washington. I got invited to the after-party. At the after-party, Mean Gene Okerund was absolutely besieged by autograph seekers WHILE HE WAS TRYING TO EAT HIS DINNER. He politely but firmly refused. I waited until he was done, then approached and asked if we could take a picture together. He was more than happy to do so. Afterward, a group of people who had been rebuffed approached me ANGRILY. Literally, one of them asked, "What's so fucking special about you?" It absolutely did not seem to occur to any of them that the man might just want to eat his dinner in peace after a hard day's work. Anyway, I think those of you who didn't speak to wrestlers out of basic human consideration were probably correct in so doing, and it was probably appreciated as well. I don't have pics with, for example, Mutoh or Akebono because when we were in the same room together there was never an obvious opportune moment to approach then. Mean Gene came over to shake my hand before he left. Piper, sadly, never showed. In terms of AEW wrestlers, Eddie Kingston and Fire Ant both came over for a Chikara tour of Osaka Pro, but I can't find my pictures from those shows. I also have met Luther, who is friends with my good friend Verne, and through him I once met Jericho, in Calgary. I have pics with a guy who once fought Kingston on AEW TV, a guy from Washington state who is a pretty big name in AEW now, and a pic with Emi Sakura, who looked very different when I met her.
  18. OK. This is completely amazing. I actually know the back-story to this match! But first: I don't have a computer, I just use tablets. So for me the only option is to use Firefox to post videos and/or pictures. (I am on Firefox now, and I am going to post a TON of pictures to explain why this match is such an AMAZING pick for me. Then I will have to switch to Chrome to write it up, because I can't do paragraph breaks on Firefox). w/r/t embedding: Apparently on a PC you can take the "s" out of "https" and posting works fine. So, on Firefox, or if you can change it to http, you just need to copy and paste the video link to embed. Second thing: Don't know if you're aware of my posting history here and elsewhere but I was a regular at Osaka Pro shows, events, and parties from 2009-2012 and still take part in various Osaka indie wrestling events, barbecues, and parties when time permits. Billyken and Spider are guys I have known for years. Both of them have gone out of their way to invite me to events, make me feel welcome, engage me in conversation etc etc since the days when I first moved to Japan, even when I could barely form a sentence in Japanese and being friendly toward me involved real effort. They are great guys. Could not be nicer. I really like both of them and it always makes me happy to see them again. Here are a handful of pictures of us, over the last FIFTEEN years: Third thing: I KNOW THE BACKSTORY! This was probably from 2019, (maybe February?) the first anniversary of Bistro de Ramekin, which I have been told is a nice place to go for lunch, a few minutes walk from Namba Station in Osaka. If I understand correctly, Spider's brother has connections to the restaurant. The card was: My good drinking buddy Osamu vs freelance joshi wrestler Itsuki Aoki (If you are reading this, Stefanie, I am 99% sure Aoki also works for Ice Ribbon) Then the Billyken (not Billy Ken. Billyken, after the Billiken good luck charm statue in the Tsutenkaku tower which is an Osaka landmark) vs Ultimate Spider Junior match that you gave me. Then they had a battle royal! I would LOVE to see how they made a 4-person battle royal work in that space! And that is just CLASSIC small-show booking! Last thing: All of it on tiny shiny elementary school PE class gym mats. In a space even more enclosed than Gatoh Move's Ichigaya Chocolate Square. If you look at that picture (from Billyken's blog) and watch the video (which everyone reading this REALLY should) you get a very clear picture of how tiny the space is. And Billy and USJ work a pretty stiff and competitive match in there! So obviously the challenge is how do you work in such a limited space? Particularly considering both of these guys are known for their speed in the ring and there's no easy way to use that here. The answer at first seems to be mat work and chop exchanges. But eventully they throw caution to the wind and bust out some rapidfire exchanges and a couple of big moves! It's too much fun. I was literally laughing in delight. But also with the entire audience so close to the action, you can't let any light show, so they are working really tight. So I was both delighted and impressed. Going to a ChocoPro show is 100% on my bucket list. I think I am going to have to try and finagle an invitation to a show where Billyken breaks out his gym mats as well. Thank you so much for this! Really, everyone should watch this match. It's well under ten minutes and it's really very interesting and clever how they work around the limitations of the tiny space. PLEASE BE PATIENT WHILE I JUMP BETWEEN BROWSERS AND FINISH THIS!
  19. You could have been there live for the GARCIA VS NANA DANCE-OFF?!?!?! Dang. I sincerely hope you can find a better way to spend the $60 you saved by skipping that. Or found some cheap tix somewhere.
  20. Seemingly random, eh? All right, I think I can help you there. From what you've posted so far, it looks like we have got pretty similar tastes (i.e. we both dig the weird/amusing stuff) so I don't think I need to request "NO WWE OR NXT FOR OLD GORDLOW PLEASE!" but I will anyway. I'm gonna try to give you THREE choices. Possibly, one of the doors will have a tiger behind it. While I was tickled when Casey reviewed two of the Bull title matches I gave him and overjoyed when Matt just reviewed ALL of the matches I handed him, I want to make it clear that IT'S PERFECTLY FINE TO JUST CHOOSE ONE. The CAPS are more for my internet buddy porksweats than for you, HeadCheese. I worry that the reason I haven't seen a review of one of the before they were stars ROH matches I gave him is that maybe porky thinks I expect him to do multiple reviews and that is proving daunting. Also, getting matched up with porksweats and HeadCheese makes me smile. I need to switch browsers to post videos, and scroll through my YT history to find my random pairings matches. Please be patient as I append three videos to this post. Also: No need to post my match three times. Once will be fine Also: Allow me to encourage anyone participating or lurking to dish out the likes and HaHas and Thank You Trophies to anyone doing a decent review longer than a paragraph in this thread. Probably doesn't matter to most of the participants, but: There's some good stuff here! It deserves all the love. Also: My Panamanian wrestling write up from last week getting ZERO love bummed me out and it feels discouraging. Look at John E's review above. It's amusing AND insightful. If you don't give that a like there's something wrong with you. If you are reluctant to give out likes because you are trying to "win the day" THINK ABOUT YOUR LIFE CHOICES. Spreading joy is better than winning. And apparently the key to "winning the day" is just to spam every thread, so why would anyone take pride or joy in that anyway? SPREAD THE JOY AND APPRECIATION! Anyway: not really random, but certainly weird and enjoyable: Mutoh and a Mutoh impersonator vs Tenzan and a Chono impersonator: Random, random, random.... How about Sabu, Kasai... and my boy Kikutaro? Or... Suzuki and Nakazawa? In a match that I am CERTAIN helped to inspire Stadium Stampede No tigers, but... two non-gory Kasai matches
  21. So true! And I have some time to kill right now (my family is busy flying kites at grandma's house in Wakayama, where they didn't even feel the earthquake. Meanwhile, I was in the gym here when it hit. Thankfully myself and the only other guy there were both between sets when it hit. Whole building was SHAKING. Could have been seriously injured if either of us was under a heavy load. By coincidence, his family lives in Niigata, near the epicentre. He called them and they were all OK in the immediate aftermath. I am afraid to look online and read about tsunami damage). Let's talk about the game! That'll be a fine distraction. I am going to go through the whole roster, looking at their status w/r/t Fight Forever. Also commenting on how fun it is to play with their character in game. Which will totally reveal my biases, none of which should be surprising. As massively, wholeheartedly disappointed I am in how AEW/Yukes/Whomever is handling adding new content to Pay Forever I still enjoy the game a lot in terms of just playing matches to kill time on the train or whatever. MJF: NOT on the roster page! In the game. VERY fun to play with due to unique beg-off and ring-punch animations. Samoa Joe: World Champion. NOT in the game. BUT they did add two-colour shorts to the game! So it may be possible to make a Joe CAW that slightly resembles him if you squint, now. Sadly, I suspect the reason that the CAW suite is completely ass is that they want to force people to buy their downloadable characters. Which is too "Late Stage Capitalism" for this particular grandpa, and a big part of why I changed my user name here. Toni Storm: Woman's World Champion. Looks like you'll be able to pay extra to download her soon. Also looks a LOT like the paid downloadable Toni Storm will NOT be Timeless Toni Storm but will be at least a year out of date. Julia Hart: TBS champion. NOT in the game. Big Bill: Tag Champ. NOT in the game. Ricky Starks: Tag Champ. Actually in the game! Social media in-game is @starkmanjones, which tickles me. Orange Cassidy: International Champ. One of the best things about the game due to unique "sloth style" animations which you can also use for CAWs by earning points in Story Mode. Which is fun, to have, say, Misawa do hands in pockets stuff. Christian: TNT Champ. Actually in the game. No turtleneck, though The Acclaimed: Trios Champs. You have to pay extra to download them. Also, if you pay for them you get a (pretty bad) version of the new Dynamite arena. If you only paid full price for Fight Forever, you don't get the new arena. Count me among the people who like AEW way less because of that bullshit move. Daddy Ass: Trios Champ. NOT in the game. Eddie Kingston: Triple Crown Champion. My favourite guy to play as. Second wrestler and first guy I completed the "defeat 50 COM opponents" challenge with. You get 10,000 "AEW cash" for beating that challenge! I now have, quite literally, over 7,000,000 AEW cash in the game with literally NOTHING left to spend it on. That's not a joke. Which is, figuratively, a fucking joke. Also none of his three belts are available in the game. Backfist is his only finisher in the game, sadly. He also only gets one special move. Kind of underpowered. Hook: FTW Champ. You have to pay extra to download him. I imagine he'd be really fun to play as. Word is, you don't get his actual theme. I might be tempted to buy the Hookhausen pack if you did. Aaron Solo, Action Andretti: Not in the game. Adam Cole: In the game. Has a unique entrance. Fun to play against. Edge: Not in the game. Fine by me. Adam Page: In the game. It's fun to try and hit the Buckshot. Alex Reynolds: Not in the game. (Henceforth: NITG or nitg) Andrade: In the game! Not even the most ironic one, by far. Angelico, Cool Hand, Ogogo, AR Fox, Ari, Austin Gunn, Bandido, Kaun, Cutler: NITG Brian Cage: Fun to play as. Fun to play against. Brody King is NOT in the game. Dammit. Neither is Buddy Matthews. Bryan Danielson: EXTREMELY fun to play as. Also one of the best things about the game. There's a secret challenge where if you wen the men's world title 20 times with a wrestler you unlock nifty gold attire. So I did 40 title matches alternating Bryan/Kingston wins and unlocked it for both of them. Then Dustin/Sting Orange/Darby Archer/Hobbs... Then I did it with Shida/Stat and the woman's title but that didn't unlock anything. So I did another series with them alternating men's title wins. Then Yukes or someone screwed up the implementation of that secret challenge so they just unlocked gold attires for everyone. Which maybe should have been frustrating but it was a fun way to kill time on the train so no big deal. FTR: Have to pay extra. Jericho: Fun to play as. Got some new attires for free! It's pretty obviously pre-strict-diet Jericho, which is kind of amusing. Fallen Angel, Colt, Colten, Claudio: NITG. I made a half-decent Claudio CAW. He's fun to play as. Best Friends: Fun to play as, though the tag AI is total ass. Trent got a free haircut update! He's, I think, the ONLY character with more than one haircut option. More of that, please! Abadon could really use a hairdo update, for example. Danhausen: See: Hook. Daniel Garcia is NOT in the game. Dammit. Top Flight: NITG Darby: In the game. Great fun to play as. Skateboard stuff is really amusing. Also one of the true highlights of playing this game. Dralistico: NITG Dustin: Tremendously fun to play as Dustin. Righteous, All Ego, Griff, Private Party: NITG EVIL UNO IS NOT IN THE GAME EVEN THOUGH HE HELPED CREATE AND PROMOTE IT Jack Perry: Jungle Boy is in the game. Out of date, but fun to play as. JE have a great tag team entrance animation. Hager, Lethal, Switchblade Jarrett, Johnny TV: NITG Hardyz: Jeff is free, you have to pay extra for Matt. And the game CONSTANTLY gives you challenges where you have to play as Matt. I John Silver: VERY fun to play as. You can unlock Brodie Lee. I made a DO team and gave them the JE entrance with Silver riding in on Brodie's shoulders. It makes me smile every time, which is not often because the tag AI is, sadly, total ass. Oh yeah: JADE CARGILL IS IN THE GAME She is fun to play as, AWESOME to play against. Still not the most ironic one. CODY AND PUNK ARE BOTH IN THE GAME!! Those are the most ironic ones. Both of them get special entrance animations. I used Cody's for my Rey Rey CAW. Who's that slowly rising from the stage? It's likely I am a shitty person, because I LOVE playing against Punk in Lights Out and Exploding Barbed Wire matches and making him bleed buckets. Possibly that's the very best thing about the game, in my book. And, yes, the game still challenges you to win matches as Punk or Jade. Regularly. If I remember correctly, you also have to unlock Cody. Which was one of the first things I did after getting the game. You can also unlock Owen, which is pretty great. His character is a BLAST to play as. Violent Dustin vs Cody blood matches are also as fun as you'd expect (if you expect they'd be very fun). Mox: Cool special entrance, which my Claudio CAW also uses. Fun to play as or against. Jose, Woods, Juice, Shibata: NITG Kenny: AWESOME to play as. Has a ton of finishers and special moves. Spamming Snap Dragons is an easy way to rack up high scores. Big contrast between overpowered Kenny and underpowered Kingston, but both are great to play as. You have to pay extra for Limitless, dammit. I made a decent CAW for him. SUCK IT, PAY FOREVER! For WHATEVER reason he is bundled in a download with The Bunny. Killswitch: Luchasaurus is in the game. And we got a FREE black outfit for him. Kip, Komander, Konosuke, Kota, KO'R, Aussie Open: NITG. I made an EXCELLENT Ibushi CAW. There are a handful of guys where obviously they don't mind if you want to make a CAW of them. Ibushi is one of those guys. You can even put kinesio tape on his shoulder! Incredibly fun to play as Ibushi. Made a Golden Lovers team. Too bad about the AI. Archer: Great fun to play as. Big Shotty, Tiga Style, Luther: NITG. It might tempt me if we got Luther in the Toni Storm pack, but as I said it does not look like we are getting Timeless Toni. Malakai: In the game. Fun to beat up on. His theme music rules! Mark Briscoe is NITG, dammit! Neither is Mark Sterling. Young Bucks: Very Fun. I think I have already covered the tag AI issues. Their double team moves look amazing when you manage to hit one. Daddy Magic, Kingdom, Sydal, Nakazawa, Santana,Ortiz: NITG Miro: Fun to play as or against. Seems shorter, in the game. Looks great in the gold gear. Brodie Lee: Unlockable. Makes me happy and sad at the same time, to play as him. Negative One and Nicky Boy are NITG, dammit! PAC is fun to play as or against. Parker Boudreaux is NITG. HUGE dealbreaker for a lot of people, obviously. The Big Paul is unlockable and it's hard to unlock him and satisfying when you do. Too much fun to play as him in Casino Battle Royale mode. Lucha Bros: See: Young Bucks. Fenix in ladder matches is too much fun. Unfortunately, tag ladder matches aren't possible PRETTY PETER IS NITG! WTF, AEW & YUKES! DO YOU HATE MONEY?!?! Hobbs is underpowered but awesome to play as, like Kingston. Looks amazing in the gold gear. Still has the Team Tazz look in the game. I made a good Preston Vance CAW. You can find CAW formulae online. Most of them are at least OK. Neither Swerve nor Nana are in the game. QT, Roddy: NITG. QT is still on the roster page. Roosh: NITG. Dammit. Sammy is in the game but he has a RIDICULOUS haircut. It's bad enough that I almost never use him. Satnam, Serp, Sonjay, The Captain, Stoke, Stu, Butcher, Blade, Toa, Nese: NITG Scorp is fun. I got my first seven-star match in a Lights Out match with him. Sting is awesome! Wardlow has lots of singlet options. Not sure why, but he isn't that fun to play as. He's challenging to play against, as are many big meaty men because of the Unyielding Poise skill which makes them impervious to strikes until you wear them down. It's one of the best skills to give your CAWs! Wardy still has the man-bun in-game Yuta and Ospreay are NITG. Yet. Abadon is one of my favourite wrestlers to play as. They could use an image update, in the game. Still have red hair here. ANNA! is in the game. Dark Order colours. You can unlock Aubrey as a wrestler and she's also a ref. I think you can make her ref her own match, but I don't want to check now. Rick Knox is the other ref. Athena and Emi are NITG, dammit! Britt has some of the best attires in the game. Winning with the lockjaw is satisfying. Diamante, Harley: NITG Shida is the first wrestler I beat the 50-win challenge with. Unfortunately, her Katana finisher is hopelessly glitched. They said they patched it, but it still doesn't land on Switch. Still has her FAR superior old entrance theme here. HAYTER IS NITG, DAMMIT! Neither is Kierra. Stat is GREAT to play as. Still an alien, too! And she does the nose boop! Neither Leyla nor Leila is in the game. Hirsch's excellent theme music is, though. Madison, Maria, Mercedes, Marina: NITG Nyla is really fun to play as. Hitting the draping diving knee drop is satisfying. PVZ: NITG Penelope, Rebel, Velvet: NITG Riho and Ruby are both fun enough to play as or against. Saraya, Serena, Skye: NITG Tay is VERY fun to play against. Taya & Saraya: NITG. Fine by me. Rosa is fun to play as or against. Violent blood matches between her and Britt are fun. WILLOW IS NOT IN THE GAME!!! DAMMIT!!! Magical Girl is BY FAR the most fun wrestler to play as! THE best thing about the game. The other at-least OK CAWS I have been able to make: Eddie Guerrero, Naito, Shinsuke, Okada, Jeff Cobb, WALTER, Sheamus, Abdullah, Hansen, Brody, MVC, Bulldogs, Harts, ZSJ, Ospreay, and Morishima. I also made deliberately weak CAWS of Hogan, HHH, HBK, and Orton to beat up on when there's a hard difficulty challenge, or just for shadenfreude and giggles. Lights Out matches are the easiest way to crank out high scores. Particularly if you use the thumbtacks.
  22. It sure has been one hell of a year for great matches! I think my top 3 are Kenny vs Ospreay 1 @ WK, Bryan vs ZSJ @ WD, Bryan vs Okada @ FD; and Kento vs Nakajimmy 1 is probably up there too (it was NASTY) but there's a massive logjam after my obvious (to me) top 3. Male Wrestlers of the Year are probably Eddie Kingston, Bryan, Ospreay, Orange, and Speedball. Best match I saw live was probably Ospreay vs Shota. Best time I had was karaoke at Bodybar and hanging out with friends at Ranmaru Fest and the Osaka Castle Park O-Pro free show, and partying with Cooger and our many drinking buddies. I have a great bunch of wrestling pals I chat online with during Dynamite and big AEW or NJPW shows and they know how much I appreciate them. I also wanted to express my appreciation for everyone who has contributed to the discussion, on this thread in particular. Andy from Kansas and Matt from Segunda gave me a genuine bit of insight into my own character on this thread recently. Pro Wrestling is almost entirely a communal thing for me. Going to pandemic shows here in Japan was deeply unsatisfying for me, for example. Not just because it was weird to be quiet while Abdullah Kobayashi got thrown from a ladder onto thumbtacks, but mainly because we couldn't chat and share drinks and snacks... Even watching alone on my tablet I prefer to chat with my pals and have a drink and a snack and to know what they are eating and drinking... That's how this "former" AEW fan rolls! Anyway, I genuinely and sincerely appreciate everyone who wants to talk wrestling with me. I don't appreciate the dickheads who just constantly complain about the same things to the exclusion of all else and in denial of all evidence to the contrary and I kind of wish folks here would stop engaging with those pricks like there's any point in trying to argue rationally with flat-out trolls. But the appreciation outweighs that by a HUGE margin. It's probably a mistake to name names because I am sure to forget someone OBVIOUS (and also likely to include someone who hasn't actually engaged in discussion with me recently). I apologise if you have argued with me, agreed with me, supported me, challenged me, laughed at my dad jokes, made me laugh, or whatever, and your name slipped my mind. But, more or less off the top of my head I want to thank Matt, Andy/John, Paul, Octo, Baltimore, Zen, Log, Infinit, twiz, Whatever Colletti's name used to be, Sharty, Dyno, Samm, Hamm, Bacon, Casey, Drew, Marcel, Stephanie, Tech, HAG, Zakk, Dream, Drew, Axe, Eivion, John, Porky, Smelly, Sturm, Craig, Dolph, Loco, Nice, etc etc etc (edit: Gorman, Kevin, Turtle, Lost, hobo, t... I almost forgot CURT, who INSPIRED THIS THREAD! I might keep adding names as they occur to me, or I might just leave it at this. You get the idea, probably) ...for the discussion. It adds a little to the overall quality of my life. It made this year better than it would have been without you all. That's a hell of a list of people to discuss wrestling with. Cheers! *pours one out for DEAN*
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