Gordi the BJW fan

You guys are totally right, you have convinced me: Jerry Lawler vs Matt Borne is now the match I am most looking forward to at Worlds End 2024.

It's the 26th here so I didn't have to ignore my family on Christmas to watch this one live. That was about as good as a pro wrestling TV show can possibly get. GREAT to have Taz(z) back on commentary! TK's recent obsession with making the absolute crowd-pleasing *****+ match the opener and ending the big show with a heel or heels standing tall is kind of baffling to me. As always, I vastly prefer how the "old" AEW would strive to send the fans home happy. Nonetheless, LOVED Christmas Dynamite and Ospreay Brody is YET ANOTHER legit MOTYC on free TV. Excellent tournament setting up an intriguing semifinal. That crowd was great! They REALLY hated Ricochet, Claudio, and Moxley! Oh no! The Ballroom crowd HATES bald guys with beards. Guess I'm never going there. Also, check out the people in the crowd wearing Santa hats! To a wrestling show! Who does that? Merry Christmas, all y'all!

The TNT YouTube channel is streaming Hangman burning Swerve's childhood home down, as a Yule log, on a loop

For Christmas I asked to be Andre the Giant sized for one day and my daughters asked for lots of sour Japanese gummy candies and our dog wanted a little doggy cake Basically everyone got what they wanted. Thanks for all of the discussion this year, and I wish almost all of you a very happy 2025

I was thinking, what they should have done was have Mercedes befriend Stat last week then... BLAMMO! Outa nowhere Mercedes turns on her this week! NOBODY would have seen that coming! Plus, get this, the match would then be (if you follow my line of thinking) PERSONAL. AEW just doesn't do nearly enough betrayal storylines, in my opinion.

Lemme tellya something, brother! Nobody is interested in The Moxter vs just one man! If you want to make it seem fair, Moxter needs to destroy at least three of the best wrestlers on the roster, brother!

Thanks, Ace! I *LOVE* posting stories about my life as a pro wrestling fan in Japan and I love that there are people here on DVDVR who maybe find it interesting to hear about meeting Abdullah Kobayashi or whatever (That's him having a smoke outside in the picture where I'm wearing the Santa hat. He's actually a very sweet and very shy guy. I had never been able to make eye contact with him before to ask for a picture, but my friend Yoshiki explained that he's just bashful and I should definitely say hello. Then when we arrived at the show he was enjoying a ciggy with some people who remember me from Osaka Pro so it ended up being, like, it would be impolite NOT to talk to him). Anyway, I love telling those stories but I'm aso always hoping that it doesn't come across as bragging (and if I'm being brutally honest, it kind of *is* bragging but I hope and intend it way more as "sharing the joy" of this kind of crazy lucky life I find myself living here). And I ALWAYS leave stuff out because the full truth will sound not just like I am bragging but like I am completely full of shit. Here are three things from the after-party, for example, that I can barely believe myself. 1) the 65 year old "master" of the izakaya where we had our post-show party was celebrating his 40th year of serving food and drinks, and it turned out he and I have a mutual friend, and he made my favourite food for our table even though it's not on the menu and then he made a little calligraphy card as a present for me. 2) Somebody asked me about my plans for New Year's Eve and I said that depending on health issues with my wife and mother-in-law (who are both going through things currently but will definitely be fine soonish) I will either celebrate with my family, or my wife and daughters and dog might go to grandma's house in Wakayama. Or my wife might have to work the night shift at the Hospital in which case our children will go to Wakayama. You marry a Hospital nurse, you get used to "plans" being up in the air sometimes. There was a brief discussion and then I was invited to spend New Year with some of my new friends if my family left me on my own on the 31st. That's roughly equivalent to being invited to stay over for Christmas. It more or less means "Consider yourself part of the family" 3) After the after-party I went with my old friend Yoshiki and his old friend and my new friend Yamamoto to a tiny tachinomi (a stand-up bar, an izakaya with a counter and a couple of tall tables but basically no chairs so you stand up and mingle) and the place was jammed with wrestling "insiders" like photographers and ring crew and crazy superfans all convening after the various Sunday wrestling shows, and everyone knew Yoshiki and Yamamoto but also damn near everyone also knew me, by name, and we were warmly greeted like three Norms walking into Cheers. The history of the O-Khan Taichi feud was playing on a TV on the far wall. The veteran joshi pro wrestler Drake came in, and then another loca! wrestler... I only stuck around for a couple of drinks (umeshu on the rocks) because I had to go catch a train home but when I went to pay both bargirls yelled "It's priceless!" And I didn't understand so they repeated "It's priceless!" and laughed and waved me off and it dawned on me that they meant it like "Your money is no good here, Gordi" so that's literally three times I was very nearly moved to tears today, because of kindness and generosity, because people in the Osaka wrestling scene are just so fond of this big bald old wrestling fan from Canada and delighted that I also want to be part of their scene, or possibly because my Matrix is just totally glitched in the direction of "too nice and too happy all the time" The pics in the post above: With Abdullah The muscular young guy in the middle will be making his debut next year! Flanked by Kamitani and Sekifuda Jacob Crane helping, I believe, Ryuji Ito, crotch one of the Brahmans Cyrus the Destroyer, who seemed genuinely moved when I told him his ring style reminds me of my old friend John Tenta. He's a big man who works like a big man. Nakanoue, my friend Yuki's favorite wrestler. He's also really shy. Sou Daimonji, another fantastic guy, who trained in Florida but also does catch wrestling. I'll post afterparty pictures below Edit: and I'm wearing my original 2019 logo AEW hoodie in the pic with Daimonji (*high fives Natural*) so that makes it thread-appropriate

Since nobody complained last time, I am just going to post my big Japan pics here We just finished tear-down. I'm already part of the furniture here. Everyone is so nice, everyone already remembers who I am and treats me like I belong here. Which was amazing at a local indie like Osaka Pro but flat out baffling at a touring national promotion. I still maintain that a sense of community is the BEST thing any entertainment enterprise big or small can give their fans Anyway: They did a little year end recap slide show at the end, and some people were wiping tears...

I believe it's "my telephones are made of macarons"

Hey, Moxter. We've got a C2 match tonight that has got to be one of the most anticipated fights of the year, and it's obviously going to tear the f'n house down. Darby's going to almost kill himself again, and there will be a bunch of crazy only-these-guys-could-do-this reversals and the crowd is going to completely buy every near fall and be completely losing their minds by the end... We were thinking, maybe, since you are in a six-man tag with a bummer ending, that could be the semi-main-event tonight and Darby vs Ospreay could go on last? LEMME TELLYA SOMETHING BROTHER! THAT DOESN'T WORK FOR ME, BROTHER! Why send the people home ecstatic and joyful when you can send them home miserable? The only way to get those young boys over is to open and close the show on The Moxter, brother. In fact, whenever The Moxter isn't on screen, all the other wrestlers should be asking, "Where's The Moxter?" What the world needs now more than ever is to see that good people cannot possibly get along because the only thing that matters to them is who gets to punch The Moxter. You can't put a face vs face match on last. The people won't know who to cheer for. And to my little Moxters, keep saying your swears and eating those potato chip sandwiches!

Lemme tellya somethin' Mean Tony! The Moxter has a great idea for getting all the young wrestlers in AEW over, BROTHER! Yeah! Get 'em all over like Grover driving a Range Rover through a field of sweet clover, Mean Tony! First, see, you strap up the Moxter, put that title right around my waist. Then me and Brother Claudi, see, we murder the most talented and beloved wrestler on the roster, right in the middle of the ring. Because this right here is the future of wrestling! You can call this The Mox World Order! Then The Moxter gets his win back from that jabroni Orange Cassidy. Yeah. This is where the power lies! Meanwhile, up and down the card, have bad guys constantly cheating to win, and any good guy who gets a win gets beaten down immediately. And EVERY tag team starts to develop trust issues and everyone who has a friend betrays them. Week in and week out for months! Because that's what the world NEEDS right now, BROTHER! More of that bullshit Vince McMahon/Ayn Rand "Strong Men Stand Alone and True Friendship Doesn't Exist" storytelling, BROTHER! Positivity and Moxamania, two things that don't go together, BROTHER! That's how you set it up. Then, BOOM! Fast forward 30 years later to Double Or Nothing in the Silverdome! Whatcha gonna do? And to all my little Moxamaniacs out there: Keep saying your curse words and eating your potato chip sandwiches!

Is it all right with everyone if I turn this into the AEW Overthinking And Also Big Japan Thread? Something really extremely neato happened today. In a Secret Santo in 2022, @John E. Dynamite gave me a match from an IWA East Coast card at Pumpkin Park in West Virginia where Yuko Miyamoto and Mad Man Pondo fought for the BJW Death Match Heavyweight Title. With Terry Funk as the guest referee. And it was glorious. The neato thing that happened today was that I got to chat about that match with Madman Motherfucking Pondo. I'll edit this post tomorrow to elaborate and tie it in to AEW. But I really wanted to post that pic and tell that story before collapsing in bed and passing out. Because there are a couple of people here who will absolutely get just how neato that is. Goodnight for now. Enjoy the Premium Live Event tomorrow! EDIT ONE: Yeah, Pondo is 200% a likable dude. You can legitimately feel the humanity and warmth radiating from him. His partner in 'Bakka Gaijin" (the current Big Japan Tag Champs) is also a very friendly person. Dale Patricks (the guy bleeding in the pic). They were both just LOVING being in Japan and touring around having crazy fights. The guy in the red Big Japan jersey is Jacob Crane, from Poland. He easily switched back and forth between English and Japanese chatting with me and my friend Michi. Obviously a very clever young man and also obviously living his dream fighting in Japan That giant light tube anime sword made such an insane IMax level sound when Yuko shattered it over Abby's head. And the shower of glass was damn near beautiful. There was so much joy and connection in Sumiyoshi yesterday. It was all about the love of wrestling. My friend Bodyguard was on the show, and we did a little fist bump and pointing bit and we got my whole section chanting for him... But (and I don't want to make too big a point of it but) my friend Yuki and I did a little bit with Fuminori Abe during his match, and I got to the point where I used to expect that at Osaka Pro shows back when I was going almost every week, but I was VERY tickled that I already have a little special fan/wrestler connection with a guy in a national touring company. It's really a small thing but it means the world to me. And I had a whole bunch of ways to connect that to AEW Mainly that there was a time when AEW managed to thread the needle of being a massive company that gave the fans a similar sense of joy and connection (and that's why the shift to being polished and professional and bringing in wrestlers with "star power" just about killed me) and also how Pondo vs Yuko in WV was "face vs face" but somehow the crowd was still able to get REALLY into it (and how the shift in AEW into almost every match needing to be obviously "face vs heel" is just killing me and also almost never works as intended) BUT: I somehow woke up early today after the 10+ hour wrestling/yakitori/karaoke party yesterday and I caught the Zero Hour and... I did NOT expect to be saying this, BUT: That Jersey YouTuber match was all about Joy and Connection! There is nothing more joyful in wrestling than a sincere You Still Got It! chant And I am 59. The whole idea of YouTubers confuses and frightens me. But that guy was doing little bits with the crowd! I assume that, in person, you could literally feel the love of pro wrestling radiating out of him. Hey AEW! YOU STILL GOT IT (It being the ability to thread the needle w/r/t joy and connection). More of that please! Perhaps in exchange for a little less Betrayal And Death.

Look, I know I said I was stepping away from this discussion, but COME ON! They are hitting some VERY specific nWo beats VERY hard. The obvious example: I was joking with a couple of my wrestling nerd friends about how my predictions for the next few weeks were 1) Claudio lawn darting a luchadore through the side of a truck and 2) Darby descending from the rafters during a mWo post-match beat-down... I was JOKING. Like, haha, as if AEW would rip off those obvious nWo beats that blatantly But both the guys I was joking about that with messaged me to let me know that they ACTUALLY, LITERALLY had Darby descending from the rafters during an mWo post-match beat down on Dynamite. So, please. Kiss the baby on this take. I mean, if you want to argue that it's GOOD that AEW is hammering on nWo nostalgia beats then go right ahead. Obviously, from this thread, there are people who were DELIGHTED to see Darby doing the Sting thing. It's not for me, at all, but I don't begrudge anybody else really enjoying it. I appreciate the value of nostalgia in pro wrestling. I marked out HARD to see Tatsumi Fujinami live and in person a little while ago, for example. But, really, come on, please. You cannot possibly try to argue that there isn't an obvious connection between Darby and Sting. You cannot possibly try to argue that Sting coming down from the rafters, etc etc, is NOT a clear and OBVIOUS nWo beat. Unless both of my friends (and the people who posted about it in this thread) were elaborately swerving me about Darby on Dynamite, there's no reasonable way to pretend that was anything but nWo-era-WCW nostalgia booking.

I appreciate you trying to engage in discussion, but at the moment I can not work up any enthusiasm to get into it. My basic take remains unchanged. I loved what AEW used to be. The current form (SESE, or Some Elite Sports Entertainment) is just not for me. More details, spoilered because It's just me repeating myself: One, and only one specific recent example: That Kyle Fletcher promo left me zero percent more excited for the Fletcher vs Ospreay match. A simple graphic would have had me 100% stoked. I just don't need the guys to pretend like "This time, it's personal!" Adds nothing, from my perspective. Anyway, I think we'll all be happier if I just sit out the next little while while the MWO storyline plays itself out. I don't think I will have anything positive to contribute to the discussion, and I really don't want to piss on the parade of people who are happy and excited about Kyle being good on the stick now, or whatever. To be honest, it was EVIL vs Tana as the first WK match announced for this year that was the straw that broke the back.of the proverbial camel that represents me paying close attention to any big time pro wrestling company for the near future. If what i want from my wrestling is goofy weird indie stuff and a sense of community... Well, that's easy enough to find in my neck.of the woods. I'll likely drop in to do Road Reports on, like, Big Japan shows and Cooger's Year End Party... But otherwise, barring something unforseen, I am gonna take a bit of a break until the New Year. Cheers to all y'all for the enjoyable discussion this year!

Fuck. it's not "Stop the Moxunaga" It's "Mox World Order" Gonna start every show with a recap of what the MWO did last week. Gonna end every show with the MWO running in and standing tall.

GLOW

I'll say this nicely, the first time: Shut up and fuck off, you stupid hateful douchebag.

So, EVERY AEW champion is a heel now, and the vast majority are involved in "shocking betrayal" storylines in one way or another. This post-2004 WWE/NWO era of WCW type of storytelling is not for me, personally. But it's clear a lot of my friends here and elsewhere are really enjoying it. The upside is it sets up lots of interesting chases. I won't bother belabouring my take on the downsides. You can probably guess my take on how the PPV ended. It's pretty likely the "all the good guys band together" part of the story will win me back. I'm not quite ready to give up on AEW just yet. And it's certainly cool in my book to see Okada and Takeshita holding gold in AEW. Who could have predicted that, back in 2019?

I would keep all current belts and add: AEW Women's Tag Titles AEW, ROH, AEW Women's, and ROH Women's Quatros Titles AEW Battle Royal Champion AEW Women's Battle Royal Champion AEW Tournament Champion AEW and ROH Men's and Women's Battle Royale Tournament Champion Men's TBS Champ Women's TNT Champ Whatever Streaming Service Title Cruiserweight Tag and Trios Champs BMMSM Title BMMSM Tag Titles BMWSM Belt First Blood Brass Knux Title UWF Style Match Champions Belt 24/7 Title, which is defended 24 hours per week, seven months a year and AEW Osaka Championship Belt which has to be defended in Osaka, Kyoto, or Nara once a month.

My actual birthday is not until October 7th, but Dragon/Rainmaker Bruv/Ricochet DMD/Deeb and Hangman/Juice sure feels like the best present I'm likely to get this year. Unless maybe one of my daughters or one of my students gets me my favourite pickled plum flavoured gummy candies (Otoko Ume). Then Dynamite will maybe be #2. And... AEW don't even realise they are giving it to me! Either way, best present or second-best present, I'm gonna go WAY out on a limb and predict we get some good pro wrestling tomorrow. Claudio has new entrance music! His old theme was based on Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and the new one mixes in Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Which makes it more minor key and dark. Which is suitable for his new character, which is "Swiss muscleman who approves of murdering your friends with plastic bags." To be honest, I have always felt that Claudio should use Hocus Pocus by Focus as his theme music: (Insert video here) The lyrics are: Yodeadodoyodeadodoyodeadodoyodeadodo yodeadodoyodeadodoyo-bab-baaaaa Ahhhhhh-aaahhhh-aaaaaa-aaaaAAA! Ohhhhhh-ooohhh-oooooo-oooOOO! Yodeadodoyodeadodoyodeadodoyodeadodo yodeadodoyodeadodoyo-bab-baaaaa Ahhhhhh-aaahhhh-aaaaaa-aaaaAAA! Ohhhhhh-ooohhh-oooooo-oooOOO! umdub-adaoh-segel-ungucur-ungetu-hungetur-hupreyu undubea-unpedurl-humpelilly-luptodoro-licktetor-ulumpadero umbader-lickatine-lupator-lackatera batickatheplalera theblumpalumpadera ho? ho ho ha haaaa! Yodeadodoyodeadodoyodeadodoyodeadodo yodeadodoyodeadodoyo-bab-baaaaa Ahhhhhh-aaahhhh-aaaaaa-aaaaAAA! Ohhhhhh-ooohhh-oooooo-oooOOO! Bom bom bom bom Bom bom bom Bom bom bom bom bom bom bom Bom bom bom Bom bom bom Bom bom bom bom bom bom Bac bac bac bac bac backaaaaa! Yeeeeha! ba um um um um um ba um um um um um ba oooohhboooobooboboboooo! Yodeadodoyodeadodoyodeadodoyodeadodo yodeadodoyodeadodoyo-bab-baaaaa Ahhhhhh-aaahhhh-aaaaaa-aaaaAAA! Ohhhhhh-ooohhh-oooooo-oooOOO! Yeaah! Whoooo! So you can see why I think it would be a good fit for him.

I am going to go ahead an assume that Bryan vs Okada is intended specifically as a birthday present for me. And, for the record, I appreciate it.

In a recent Ranmaru Fest show, there was a spot where they used a weapon in what struck me as a near-perfect way. (Also, arguably, the best turn-things-around punch since Sangre Chicana vs MS-1). Keep in mind: This is coming from a guy who is on record as having been put off by the plastic bag/cinder block/hypodermic needle stuff... I'll put it in spoiler tags for those who are at work, or sensitive to ultraviolence: Hopefully we can all agree that clip points the way forward for AEW. Also, seriously: AEW should DEFINITELY bring Irie in for a run. I'll edit in my brief Collision thoughts: The BEST POSSIBLE GUY answered Jungle Full Grown Man's open challenge! The finish was lame. The post-match was PERFECT. Nice job using the strap match to set up Juice vs (literal) Hangman without being too obvious about it! Rick-a-boney spending MINUTES of commentary time trying to get the rest of the team to agree with him that Sammy needs to use his speed because Okada is not used to fighting high-flying wrestler (like, say, I dunno, oh, how about... Omega, Ospreay, Ibushi...) was INSANE. Then he absolutely capped it off perfectly by using Tanahashi as an example of the kind of grounded power wrestler that Okada is used to fighting. It must have been awkward a.f. for Tony and Daddy Magic because obviously the unwritten rule is you should always agree with and support your fellow commentators. Yet another in a long string of overall enjoyable shows... including at least one thing I can enjoy bitching about.

Bryan vs Nigel was great. Beautiful pro wrestling. Everything I love about AEW. The rest of the show had some spectacular wrestling. Darby winning the Rumble to get a shot at Bryan only to drop that shot to Jon "Cena" Moxley is the worst sort of bullshit. Seriously bums me out. Hurt Business coming in is exciting and will lead to a lot of good matches. It also means the upper card is going to be clogged up even further, making it that much harder for home grown talent and indie wrestlers to climb the ladder. The rise of Orange, of Darby, of Hayter, of Swerve... To me, the MOST compelling thing about AEW... Hopefully Swerve won't be the last one we see make it to the top of the ladder without having previously been a "big name" in WWE or NJPW. I'm still excited for "Stop the Moxunaga" though. Maybe slightly less so, but still... Hopefully he doesn't "That doesn't work for me, brother" his way out of putting someone deserving over at the end of the story. Darby, for example. That would be a pretty sweet pay-off.