Gordi the former AEW fan

And I heard that he's kicked GofD out of BC. Maybe to make room for another tag team? Bucks back to BC? Redragon?? Butcher and Blade??? FTR?!?!! It's actually not easy to think of guys from AEW who are unaffiliated heels who might fit in to New Japan and suit the BC cheat to win style. I'd love to see Miro in the G1, but I don't think he needs Gedo interfering in his matches, for example. Dang, pro wrestling is exciting right now. Anything seems possible.

So, like, you just can't get enough? Are they, like, your own personal Jesus or something? Hey. People are people. Like what you like, or enjoy the silence if you prefer.

I know so little about this period of New Japan. One thing that strikes me is that Maeda is probably my least favourite of all the obviously Great pro wrestlers. It's not even like with Bockwinkle where what I've seen is obviously great but I am not very hyped to watch a lot more or like Lawler where I get what other people see in him but it just doesn't work for me. (Similar to how I feel about, let's say, King Crimson and Bruce Springsteen, respectively, music-wise). I actively dislike Maeda. Certainly, a lot of that is based on the infamous Andre incident. And also that Maeda got famous for shoot-kicking a guy who.wasn't expecting it. In general, the vibe I get with him is that he takes himself very very seriously indeed, in an off-putting way. Similar to Inoki's maximum mark-for-himselfism. (Which I can forgive in Bret because of my specific nostalgia of also taking Bret very seriously as he was climbing the ladder). But Inoki never tried to shoot on Andre (as far as I'm aware) and I think that Inoki would have had the intestinal fortitude to stand toe to toe with Choshu rather than blindsiding him and running away. So my dislike is maybe based on what I think about Maeda as a dude (puffed up coward) rather than as a wrestler or important innovator or whatever. Maeda = Ike Turner. I wonder what my music equivalent for Choshu would be. He has flat-out great matches in New Japan and All Japan, revolutionised pro wrestling, is adored by a lot of my Japanese friends who love wrestling, and will never ever make my top 20 because there are just too many wrestlers I love more than him. Dylan, maybe? Oh! Skynyard! Choshu is my Skynard. Maybe Fujinami is my Dylan. Alexander Otsuka is my Dinosaur Jr. I know he's not big-g Great like Choshu or Maeda or Lawler... But I am always in the mood to watch him, and he makes my personal top 20 over them, regardless. 80s AJPW is endlessly fascinating ground for me. The Beatles, Who, Zep, Floyd... w/r/t 80s NJPW I'm interested in learning more about the background of those famous epic multi-man matches and learning more about the background players and so on, but it's much less my bag than the history of Jumbo, Tenryu, and company (all of whom I respect unequivocally). I'm glad you've undertaken this project. It's the best possible way for me to fill in these gaps.

It was cool to see Skye Blue and Fuego get wins. On the other hand, both of those matches seemed to have a few minor issues with timing and spacing in a way that I associate more with lower card rookie matches on a small local indie than with AEW YouTube matches. I'm inclined to assume that maybe David Ali and Ruthie Jay need a little more seasoning (although Ali's had more than a few YouTube matches for AEW)... but who knows? It was cool to see some more big young guys working on Dark: Karam, Lamar Diggs, Ben Bishop. None of them are at that Toa Liona level where I am really hoping they'll show up again and again, but (for example) Nick Comoroto's power moves look even more impressive when he's executing them on a dude the size of Diggs. Nice to see matches being worked at a variety of paces, as well. Julia Hart's subtle-by-wrestling standards character work continues to be very well done and entertaining. @Zakk_Sabbath covered Luther pretty well. I agree wholeheartedly. Here's something I'm wondering about: I don't dislike Taz on commentary. The singing and the "____ Jones" stuff are consistently amusing and he sometimes comes up with a funny bit or some good insight... But I find that I greatly prefer the gentle dad humour and warm camaraderie of Mark Henry and Big Paul. Taz comes across as a little tetchy and caustic at times, which I personally don't enjoy so much. I get that Taz is a heel. He's probably not supposed to come across as likeable. Also, I am not really nostalgic for ECW or the Attitude Era. AEW gets nostagia pops outa me for Arn and Tully, but I'm sure they get them from other fans for Matt Hardy and Christian, and Taz being all New York tough guy on the mic. I'm in no way advocating for Taz to be taken off commentary. He's good! I figure this is a "me" thing, enjoying Mark and Paul quite a bit more... but I am curious how other people feel. Specifically about the YouTube commentary. Lets not get into discussion of JR or Jericho on commentary here in this thread, please. Also: Tony and Ex are consistently excellent, in my opinion.

If you can't enjoy watching Brock Anderson give a dude a spinebuster, and are sitting there thinking "he only gets to be on TV because his dad is Arn" like that's a bad thing... I kind of feel sorry for you. I think that watching young wrestlers develop and lower-card wrestlers climb the proverbial ladder adds a great deal of fun to AEW. (And I think I have made my feelings very very very crystal clear w/r/t why I think it's great that the people entertaining us every week get to have fun at work with their friends and family). I sincerely enjoy AEW more because of people like Brock Anderson, Dr. Luther, Brandon Cutler, and so on. Feel free, obviously, to dislike whatever you wanna dislike. I'll be over here enjoying Serpentico battling Fuego and The Wingmen teaming with Chaos Project and hoping that AEW always has stuff like that going on in the margins.

Oh, baby! You give me Lance Archer, Legit Leyla, and JD Drake wearing trunks as The Good Lord (Steven Regal) intended? I'm a happy man! Plus, three different kinda weird ten-man tag team matches. I'm delighted for the people whose hobby is complaining about AEW, since I am sure that in their opinions three kinda weird ten-man tag team matches is at least two kinda weird ten-man tag team matches too many but in my opinion it was precisely the right number of kinda weird ten-man tag team matches... so everyone can be happy. First Match: (26-11) Anna Jay, (53-9) Taynara Conti, (43-21) Red Velvet vs. (0-8) Angelica Risk, (0-1) Arie Alexander, (0-2) Freya States In A 6-Man Tag Team Match (Yes, the Wrestling Headlines site called this a six-man tag team match. I'm still gonna c&p their match listings because it's fun that they list the records (and also they call Tay: Taynara). I really enjoyed how they used Freya States The Giant here. Apparently she has had two matches in AEW already? you'd think I'd remember her. Maybe she wasn't used so memorably in the previous matches? Is she Freya the Slaya? She's probably Freya the Slaya, isn't she? If only there were some way to look that stuff up. Second Match: (16-14) Daniel Garcia, (15-9), 2.0, (14-11) The Gunn Club w/Billy Gunn vs. (0-2) Ariel Levy, (0-1) Chico Adams, (0-29) Dean Alexander, (0-0) Dominic Garrini, (0-0) Kevin Ku In A 10-Man Tag Team Match Apparently Garrini and Ku were a popular tag team in MLW. Violence is Forever vs 2.0 on a future YouTube show, please! Adams tapped out before Garcia started cranking on the Sharpshooter. Third Match: (31-20) The Bunny vs. (0-0) Kaitland Alexis Settle down, Gordlow. Just a quick squash, with Bunny doing a cool thing where she flirts with the camera before snapping her teeth like the goat on that Pearl Jam album cover. I flinched both times. Fourth Match: (10-4) Andrade El Idolo, (35-18) The Butcher, (43-27) The Blade, (37-36) Private Party w/Jose The Assistant vs. (6-41) Shawn Dean, (0-47) Baron Black, (0-20) Carlie Bravo, (0-10) Chandler Hopkins, (0-5) Jameson Ryan In A 10-Man Tag Team Match Oh me, oh my! Andrade tagging in Kassidy and letting him make the pinfall is such good, thoughtful, long-term storytelling after Matt would always steal the pinfall in their matches. I marked right out for that! Mark Henry was really funny here, as well, he and The Big Paul throwing around gentle dad jokes is just so charming. Speaking of World's Strongest Men: Evan "T-REX" Singleton is apparently a legit contender to earn that title in 2022. Commentary mentions his "time in WWE" where my "research" indicates he was known as "Adam Mercer" in FCW and NXT. Anyone remember him? Fifth Match: (15-4) Ruby Soho vs. (0-0) Haley J Another quick squash. Sixth Match: (45-10) Lance Archer vs. (0-0) Joey O’Reilly And another. Archer's squash was the nastiest of the three, unsurprisingly. That's kind of his deal. I agree with the complainy types that Ruby Soho could use a more impactful-looking or otherwise convincing finisher. Not saying a choke slam or a power bomb, though. Maybe a submission? OR: Bring back the Togo senton! Seventh Match: (58-23) Nyla Rose, (30-12) Leyla Hirsch, (22-16) Emi Sakura w/Vickie Guerrero vs. (0-1) AQA, (5-4) Kiera Hogan, (6-14) Skye Blue In A 6-Man Tag Team Match Also a six-man. OK, Wrestling Headlines. Is this a deliberate thing? A new kind of gender-neutral language? It was just one of the first sites that popped up when I did a search so I could c&p matches (cause I didn't wanna type out all the ten-person and six-person tags and couldn't remember all the names even if I'd wanted to). This match was very much my jam. Maybe the three most stand-out female enhancement talents in AEW. I could see any or all of AQA, Kiera Hogan, or Skye Blue working their way up the card in the future. You can kick Leyla in the face six or seven times and she'll keep going. She only needs to knee you in the head once. I love how she can't seem to get along with anybody. Eight Match: (5-2) Jay Lethal, (35-30) Matt Sydal, (62-29) Frankie Kazarian, (23-43) Lee Johnson, (10-7) Brock Anderson w/Arn Anderson vs. (3-24) Chaos Project & (0-2) The Wingmen (Peter Avalon, Cezar Bononi and JD Drake) w/Ryan Nemeth In A 10-Man Tag Team Match Matt Sydal in peril and fired-up Frankie were both really good here. Loved the spinebuster. But really, you had me at JD Drake wearing trunks again.

Gun and Knife had a pretty good G1 match there! I liked the counter at the end. i'm enjoying how monster dudes yeeting flippy dudes has become a thing leading into the All the Big Men Ladder Match.

Beretta vs Switchblade!! Serena Deeb 5-minute challenge!! Bay Bay vs 10 of the Dark Order. Powerhouse vs, I think, Dante in the "If you win you get to fight in a ladder match at the PPV or something like that" challenge dealie!! I don't want to start taking stuff like Trent? vs Jay White for granted. It's amazing, from say a 2018 perspective, to think we can get a match like that on TV with, like, Ex and JR Taz ? calling it. I like to remind myself how lucky we are right now as pro wrestling fans... I would rather go on about that too much than risk losing my sense of gratitude and joy. We were wondering if we would get to see Bryan and Mox side by side while also kind of thinking "I'd like to see those guys fight" and now maybe we'll get both! I like that! I like having a cake and eating it too! I prefer that to being teased with the possibility of delicious cake and then having the same old shit sandwich forced down my throat! I like how young guys like Hobbs and Martin have developed to where we all know what kind of action to expect, and that we can count on these guys to deliver. The Deeb challenge is great, too! I can't wait to see who they eventually put over with this gimmick. Hurricane vs the Rock mini-feud and Angle vs <redacted due to anti-Semitism> 5-minute challenge remain some of my favourite relatively modern WWE TV memories. They could do something similar here, putting over a young challenger just by having her come close to holding her own vs Deeb. Rampage is always a fun hour that just flies by. This week sure looks like it's going to deliver that. EDIT: DON'T FORGET RAMPAGE STARTS THREE HOURS EARLIER THAN USUAL THIS WEEK!!

Phrasing.

Cody with black hair.

Yep. This is a straight up mean thing to say, and I legitimately hope Cody gets paid well and used well if he jumps to WWE, but... There is definitely an element of this that feels like somebody getting back together with a life partner who was unkind or neglectful in the past (but promises that they have changed and things will be different this time), in order to spite the perfectly nice new life partner who didn't buy you all the expensive baubles you'd asked for. It's unlikely to end well, and there are likely to be some regrets, is what I'm trying to say.

You say you want a Revolution? Well. All right: How does Dragon vs Mox, Painmaker vs Mad King, Hangm'n vs Bay Bay, Punk vs MJF dog collar chain match sound? Maybe Bux vs Redragon (or a 3-way for the tag titles)? Sammy Darby Sting vs Andrade Matt and X? Britt and Hayter vs German Car and Stormy Weather? Geez, I dunno. Any of that sound good to you? Too many awesome things this week. A partial list: If you were in the live crowd, you got Punk promo -> Bryan match -> Mox promo. How much fun would that be? Makes sense that they kept brining up Piper now. @Ryan Faulconer called it! That crowd was pretty f'n great all show long. Bryan and Moriarty both definitely own BattleArts tapes. Nice Tiger Mask Sayama shout-out by Ex, too! Dog collar chain match!! Powerbomb Symphony, that's life yeah... Spears being oblivious to Wardlow's growing fury is pretty damned funny Cobra Kai, Bay Bay! Tony get the hell out of my ring ? The other Adam! Ooooohhhhh!! KOR sighting! 10 on a Rampage! Jericho, Santana, and Hager all looking like they are on the Gordlow Diet! Announcer shouted out Jericho (Skee-a-vone) and Sanatana (Good ole) but ignored the hawtness of lean Hager. That cannonball counter into the tamer!! Then later that tope -> cutter counter!! Oh, you had a baby...? Which way are you gonna go, Cole? ? That Kill Bill gear! ? Not be distasteful, but legit athletic ladies are way sexier than fancy diva ladies, in my opinion. That scream in the crowd on the Rosa vs Mercedes finish was straight outa Fire Pro!! That fucking elbow drop straight to the face! Yikes! And that spider German! ? Speaking of ?: Some of Darby's bumps were sick even by "some of Darby's bumps" standards. Sammy limping into the finish almost made up for the interference. It would almost be easier to list the things that were not awesome... I think I've already made myself abundantly clear w/r/t how I feel about professional wrestling. Moreso every week.

A pig. In a cage. On antibiotics.

No one cared who I was... Until I put on the mask. Theatricality and deception are powerful agents to the uninitiated. Oh, but we are initiated, aren't we, mr @The Natural? It doesn't matter who we are. What matters is our plan.

Fuck Wade Keller. That piece of shit lost all credibility when he allowed baseless speculation about John Huber's death to get posted on his site. Why would anybody ever care what that douche has to say about anything?

Finally! Dynamite! Comes back! To Nashville! TNT TITLE MATCH: Sammy Guevara(c) vs. Darby Allin Oh hell yeah! Yes, please. If you aren't looking forward to this, maybe modern pro wrestling just isn't for you. Hot damn, what a great match-up. Hopefully they won't get too much into the AHFO and Inner Circle stuff during the match itself, and just let these two young studs go. FACE OF THE REVOLUTION QUALIFYING MATCH: Wardlow vs. Max Caster POWERBOMB PARTAAAYYY!!! Also probably some MJF-related angle advancement. Perhaps, also, since it's MJF-related: PUNK CALLING HIS SHOT. ONE-ON-ONE: “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson vs. "Taiga Style" Lee Moriarty Oh hell yeah! Yes, please. If you aren't looking forward to this, maybe modern pro wrestling just isn't for you. Hot damn, what a great match-up. I absolutely don't care that Bryan winning is a foregone conclusion, I can't wait to watch this. NO DISQUALIFICATION: Mercedes Martinez vs. Thunder Rosa Oh hell yeah etc. etc. Dang. There is shaping up to be a lot of very good pro wrestling going on here. Gonna be some stiff shots thrown here, in particular, in this match. Hopefully everyone is motivated to try and steal the show. THE INNER CIRCLE IMPLODES: Chris Jericho & Jake Hager vs. Santana & Ortiz They are gonna put the TNT Title match on last, right? This'll be good. I'm not hating... but Sammy vs Darby, Dragon vs Taiga, and Thunder vs Precision-Engineered Luxury are all going to be very tough to top. Have I mentioned that I love pro wrestling? Cuz: I do.

I'm still making progress despite not, technically, dieting any more. Much appreciation to everyone who has encouraged me along the way, particularly @Shartnado. I'm holding steady around 97 kilos after carrying around 110+ for years and years. My knees and feet and back don't really hurt any more. My blood test numbers are across-the-board excellent now. My strength in the gym is getting back up to where it was before the diet. Can't speak for anyone else but for me it was actually counting calories (using MyFatSecret) and eating mostly "clean" that did the trick. Seafood, chicken, eggs, vegetables, fruit, yogurt, fermented foods like miso and kimchi, oatmeal, soups and salads. Lots of water and green tea... Workouts recently have been full-body calisthenics 2 or 3 times a week (push-ups, fat-boy pull-ups, squats, step-ups, hanging knee raises, bridges...) plus some fat boy yoga, and kettlebells (TGUs, swings, cleans & presses, snatches) once a week. Lots of long walks out in the cold, while listening to music. Body feels really good. Everything seems to be working pretty well. Life is good! EDIT: I'm kinda jealous of all you guys putting up powerlifting PRs, but my 56-year-old joints and tendons needed a break.

During the first couple of matches on Elevation yesterday, I took extra care in paying attention to what the "enhancement talent" were doing. Kind of like ignoring what the magician is doing with the wand to try and catch what's really going on. And I noticed some stuff! Hyper-specifically: You can pretty clearly see Kevin Matthews adjusting his feet and body to re-position himself to catch Dante Martin on both the springboard cross-body to the outside and the nose dive. You can pretty clearly see Riley Shepard tensing up to properly take the double footstomp from Thunder Rosa. I do not mean that as a criticism of Matthews or Shepard. All of those moves, particularly the foot stomp, looked great. It sure as hell isn't the case that I didn't want Matthews to do a good job of "catching" Dante! What it made me think of, however, is just how amazing the acting and split-second timing of more experienced wrestlers must be. Surely, making adjustments when you are basing for a high flyer and tensing your body to take a high-impact mover are things that happen all the time in pro wrestling... but how often do we notice it? Watch that gif that @DEAN posted of Nyla catching Tay!! It's partly the camera angle... but good Lord that looks like two people crashing and burning, rather than one person scrambling to catch another. Pro wrestling at that level is, in my opinion, extremely impressive. Half an inch and a split second away from disaster but presumably safe as houses.

Do it. Hell, take a week or two off from watching wrestling entirely. I think one of the reasons I still love pro wrestling after all of these years is that I take breaks every now and again. I take breaks from watching current wrestling. I take breaks from watching any wrestling at all. I take breaks from reading and posting about wrestling. Same reason, I think, that I still love going to the gym in my mid-50s, 40 years after I started training. I'm never afraid to take a week off if I feel burned out. Sure, you'll miss out on some good matches or and/or some good discussion... but there will always be more. It's an endless fountain. My take is that a hobby should never feel like a chore.

If Cody really is leaving, it's probably best for everyone concerned. Hopefully he gets a big contract and a decent push from Vince. I think it might be a good thing for pro wrestling as a whole if guys like Cody and (let's say) Jericho or MJF jumped back and forth between AEW and WWE every once in a while. I could easily see Cody going the WWE, being used near the top for a while, drifting in 50/50 purgatory until his contract expires, then being welcomed back to All Elite with open arms. If this is a big swing at a Brian Pillman style "swerve everyone" storyline, I think it's doomed to fail catastrophically. Fairly or not, the lion's share of the AEW fan base has turned against Cody. Even if he came back as a full-on heel, I think he'd end up getting more "fuck off" heat than heel heat right now. If he actually joins WWE then quits and returns to AEW before his contract expires and that leads to the Khans having a team of lawyers on retainer to take on WWE in court w/r/t the whole "independent contractor" thing... and it turns out that was the plan all along... that would be mind-blowing. I honestly think, though, that he's really moving on and as I said that feels like the best thing for everyone right now. Cody's got a legacy of getting the whole ball rolling, having truly great matches against his brother, Mr. Brodie Lee, Sammy, etc etc (plus the NWA Title match at All In 2018 that ties back in to getting the ball rolling), he's a genuinely big name now with appeal outside of the pro wrestling world... He's gonna be fine. Plus he might actually benefit from having someone else script his promos and character for a while. AEW's roster is stacked, the Codyverse stuff wasn't really fitting in any more, and this genuinely seems like a fairly amicable split. It's not like they are going to struggle to put on great pro wrestling shows without Cody and Brandy around. Really, Cody jumping to WWE seems like a rare genuine win/win situation. Edit: It was cool to wake up to this, also. A really interesting and unexpected bit of news, and several pages of varied and interesting takes to read.

I'll see that... ...and raise you one Akira Taue in the tub: