Gordi the recovering AEW f

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.

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.

How about Truth AND Consequences?

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.

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.

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?

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"

Rakes. My old arch-enemy.

Well, we need to take this seriously, because Raz has a PERFECT record when it comes to predicting doom for AEW.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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*

Surely using a hockey stick to win the FTW championship should have resulted in a Hooking penalty. They should bring in either Hurricane Helms or Tyler Breeze to team with Cody's big brother: Dustin the Wind (Seriously, though, I will never complain about an unexpected Dustin match). Hey Abadon! What kind of witch is Julia Hart? A sand witch! *bites her" Post-match: Well, Abadon, you lost to Julia Hart. You bitter? Yep! Once on each arm and then on the forehead. Seriously, though: LOVED the "This is spooky!" chant. I kind of wonder if CJ Perry will be able to go back to the "I am pretending not to like my husband so I can cost you this match with zero actual stakes" well again. That was a perfectly booked tournament and the final was really great. Word is Tony K felt it was a huge success and wants to do more stuff like that in AEW BUT word is also that he feels the same way about the Devil storyline. Joe as AEW champ could be pretty great

You're so vain, you probably think this post is about you. Don't you? DON'T YOU??

When Jericho came out to start the show with a blahblahblah segment, I was a bit "uh-oh" but it turned out to be a nice heartwarming reunion for les sex gawds. Hat tip to, I think, Ex for "smitten" and "chagrin" I always enjoy a Pure Rules match, and Sydal was an interesting choice for Yuta's warm-up match before fighting Hook tomorrow. Chaos vs Top Flight action was exactly what I hope for in a Rampage main event. There's lots of things that I hope for, I guess, and a fast and fun little bit random trios match is absolutely among them. I don't think this show got me MORE excited for tomorrow's PPV, but I am excited enough already.

THAT'S your take-away!!?!? Why? Friedman doesn't even MENTION "the bidding war of 2024" in that article. (Edit: you still get a thank you trophy for posting the article, though). It's a superb article. I am astonished after reading it that I either 100% agreed with or completely understood why he was making EVERY SINGLE POINT that he made. It legit seems to be coming straight from the heart. I like MJF quite a bit more, having read thst. It's a long article, but it is an EXCELLENT read and Friedman makes a TON of excellent points. The one that REALLY got me thinking was the bit near the end about "MJF fatigue." Can't speak for anyone else but for me it's certainly not about "the Jewish stuff." (Big hint: take a good look at my face. The nose in particular). I was adopted as an infant by Sotttish-Canadian Presbyterians, so I wasn't raised Jewish. But I met my biological mother when I was in my 30s (she and her family had spent years searching for me) and was warmly welcomed into her big, warm-hearted, eccentric Calgary Jewish family. Still close with them. Only my mother is left from the family that raised me. (And some uncles and cousins in Scotland). And my (adoptive) mom has dementia pretty bad now. So the Calgary Jews are a big part of the family I have left back in Canada. And, yeah, they had ties to the Hart family back in the day. Too bad they didn't find me when I was still a prize fighter! I might have been given an opportunity to become well known. Or, maybe I'm lucky in the sense I am alive and not an addict and my body functions really well for a 58 year old with a very high BMI. Anyway, I DO have a bit of MJF fatigue. But it isn't the Jew stuff. And that article took a hell of a lot of the edge off that fatigue... i think it's two things: 1) MJF is GREAT on the mic when he's being vulnerable. Like, say, that promo where he told Punk how it broke his heart when Punk retired. He's maybe the third best guy in AEW at speaking "from the heart" either honestly or in character. (Bryan and Eddie are better, but it's pretty close). And he is clever and witty enough to sometimes make me laugh right out loud or, even better, make me think, "damn, that's a good one" because I am too impressed by the cleverness to laugh. However, in my opinion, he's the absolute dirt worst when he tries to be edgy. Particularly when he talks about, let's say, getting BJs while driving. 2) I tend to get REALLY tired REALLY quickly when dudes are in a position to book themselves, and they choose to book themselves like peak Stone Cold. Hence, my intractable dislike of Jeff Jarrett, who pulled that shit when his daddy had the book. Riding an ambulance back to the arena to heroically overcome impossible odds is not a way to impress this old half-a-Jew. (My biological father was an extra-goyish English poet and a straight up egomaniac. I only met him once. It was once too often). Booking yourself like Stone Cold is, I'm afraid, a way to make me feel a little bit sad and disappointed. So, for what it's worth, that's MY take-away from the genuinely excellent article. And I am super-stoked to see how the PPV Main Event plays out now. And also I think it's very likely to be a great fight, too. Between this and Eddie Kingston Has No Business Being Here (or whatever it was called) The Athletic is THE go-to for top shelf AEW articles. Dang.

I'm pretty sure this rant still takes the "most delusional" cake: (Edit: Just realised, while enjoying that video, that it was after All Out 2022. Yikes. Doesn't feel like it was that long ago).

DO NOT READ THIS YET! (OK, you can read it now ) I (had) to post this in stages. Type it up on Chrome, so I can have paragraph breaks. Post videos on Firefox. It's gonna take a moment to finish anyway. First I'll type up my general thoughts on Sandokan. Then the matches I picked for you. Then FINALLY specific thoughts on the two matches. ALWAYS a real pleasure to be matched up with you MattD, and a challenge. A late Christmas gift, if you will. My goal this time is to find something nifty you have never seen. I have been tucking stuff away. In particular, matches featuring wrestlers you like in unusual place and/or vs unexpected opponents. Plus one more weirdly-Japanese-sexualized match that can ONLY be appreciated by keeping a VERY open mind (in the tradition of Kana/Fujiwara potatoing each other or Alexander Otsuka's sex addict comedy gimmick Otokosakari). The particular Stardom match I will provide as a last-ditch option if you've seen everything else I found, seems to be entirely structured around boobs-based psychology. It's an extremely weird match which has the form of an offensive attitude era ladies match but not, in my opinion, the substance of one. I found an Onita & Murdoch vs Kurisu & Leduc match and thought "That will be PERFECT for Matt! Then I saw that it was you who posted it. General thoughts on Sandokan My first exposure was a match DEAN wrote up on a previous Santo, that ended in an absolute riot. I think Curt posted a bloody singles match (maybe vs LA PARK?) in the bloody matches thread. Then you gave me a match with Sandokan and friend vs Giant Tataki where the good guys absolutely cheated to win and the crowd went crazy with joy when they did so. And there was also that Argentinean (?) match where the shepherd gave his sheep to the mummy and they hugged. Which was the greatest thing ever. Which was also the first time I really felt that "looking through your neighbour's window" feeling. My thoughts on Sandokan at the time: I haven't seen a ton of Panamanian wrestling (maybe ONE other match also connected to Secret Santo and/or Matt or Segunda) but it LITERALLY seems like someone explained it to Sandokan and he kind of got it and explained it fairly well to some other Panamanian dudes and they kind of tried to work it out as they went along. This as opposed to what happened in Japan where dudes like Blassie were present and involved and therefore the pacing and storytelling in Rikidozan matches are miles better than in Sandokan matches. So, that. Plus, the somewhat disturbing similarities to what I have seen of Sandokan so far to that era of Hulkamania where Hogan essentially WAS America and so anyone going against Hogan was by definition in the wrong, regardless of their motivation, and anything Hogan did to an enemy was automatically justified and cheered even if he was straight-up cheating to win. So I am stoked to see more Sandokan! And surprised to read that he got to the point of being legitimately good! Sandokan vs LA Park trios match: Good Lord! The pacing, timing, and structure here are so much better than the Panamanian matches I have seen before! It's night and day. It occurs to me how lucky the Panamanian fans of this era were as contrasted with, let's say, Argentinean fans who were stuck with Kardagian, or maybe central European fans of the Otto Wanz era (or, according to Jericho's book, the late-era Rene Lesartasse), or in particular British fans when Big Daddy ruled the roost. In the sense that Sandokan was fit and athletic, but moreso in the sense that he was willing and able to learn and grow, and also willing to bump and sell and put other wrestlers over at his own expense. I was NOT expecting him to eat two falls here. And one relatively cleanly, even! I have to assume it was the visiting Mexican heels who taught him the art of psychology at such a high level. Possibly the future LA Park, in particular. Park vs Sandokan is by far the best thing in all three falls as far as wrestling, "per se" goes. And unfortunately a lot of Sandokan vs Park takes place on the floor while the camera is focused on the lesser wrestlers fighting in the ring. In particular: Sandokan's partner in the blue gear seems pretty limited athletically,while Idolo really seems to lack intensity and fire, here. The other two wrestlers in the match are pretty good, though. Between the second and third falls, there is a long dramatic sequence where Sandokan takes a harrowing beat-down, and... I honestly wonder if maybe Hangman and Swerve might have watched and been inspired by this match? It's certainly cool to see how awesomely creative Park was this early in his career. Hats off to Sandokan for recognising that and putting the young man over so strongly here. There's a cool bit in the third fall when the camera shifts to show Sandokan and Future Park brawling on the floor and you can clearly see that the arena is also used for basketball. There's a legitimately funny bit where the ref starts to count three on Sandokan while he is lying bloody on the mat with nobody covering him and Park flies in knees first to make the cover. An insane riot (once again) erupts after this one! I was there live when Mox and O-Khan brawled into the crowd at Edion Arena and it was wildly exciting... But there was nothing like the sense of danger that we get here. The crowd seems perpetually on the verge of erupting into chaos and anarchy here, and it is not the least bit surprising when that's how the video finishes. Keep an eye on the (I'm assuming security staff) in the yellow t-shirt. Yikes! also I am going to pretend his name is Sand O-Khan and he's Great O-Khan's father. This was really excellent and I enjoyed it so much. There is a real evolution going on here. What a treat to be able to bear witnesses to it! Idolo turns face! Oh, this was tremendous fun! I think that this structure, this particular story being told, at this level, is damned near unique. As Matt says, it's basically just heel miscommunication leading to a face turn. But it's a near-perfect version of that. They run through so many "malfunction at the junction" spots and Exterminador 1 goes from being apologetic to begging off to trying to make up for it, while Idolo goes from being forgiving to being totally fed up. Eventually Idolo will no longer take the bait when his partner sets a good guy up for a double team. Nor will he cheat to even the odds when the good guys regain the advantage. So then SOME OTHER GUY in a zip hoodie comes in to help Exterminador cheat and that leads to Idolo finally turning on his partner to re-embrace the Light Side of the Panamanian Force. So then the tag match just kind of ends with the good guys victorious, and we transition into a long back and forth brawl between Idolo and his former partner in crime. And that REALLY riles up the crowd. The crowd gets entirely out of control again but more in a "rushing the field after a victory to tear down the goal posts" way than in a "riot" way. And the absolute climax is Idolo and Sandokan embracing in the ring while the fans go into joyous rapture. THIS is pro wrestling at its very finest. Damn! TO BE CONTINUED Matches I hope Matt hasn't seen yet: JARRETT in WWC ANDRE! MY MIND IS BOGGLED THAT THIS MATCH EVEN EXISTS! And I don't remember it being covered in your 80s AJPW/NJPW thread. As a last resort: BEWBS! ALTERNATIVELY: One I imagine you must have seen, but I would like your opinion on it:

"All will kneel trembling before me, and obey my brutal command. End communication."

It's because Garcia kept struggling to hit the Backdrop Driver on King. It's one of Morishima's finishing moves. They were talking about if a guy half Morishima's size could hit that move on a guy the size of King. Size/strength vs leverage. That kind of thing. I thought it was excellent commentary. Added to the match, for me. Made it even more impressive when Garcia finally hit it. Also "Vanilla Gorilla" is pretty common football/gym slang for a beefy/powerful white guy with no back-down in his character. That made perfect sense to me as a nickname for Brian Cage

Literally EVERY SINGLE MATCH in the tournament is well worth watching. Not a single dud among them. Jay Lethal was the dude I was personally least stoked to watch, but he worked his ass off and everyone he fought looked great against him. My least favourite match was Switchblade vs Swerve (a bit go-go-go, move-move-move for my tastes) and it was still REALLY good. If that's too much... Every Blue League match, maybe? That's too much? Probably goes without saying but EVERY Dragon and EVERY Mad King match is must-see. No fooling, my friend. You can't make a bad choice and ZERO matches were straight-up skippable. Andrade vs Bryan was brutal. It's possible you might not enjoy it because you'll be too worried about Bryan. Have to respectfully disagree with you on the time limits. It gave the matches greater urgency and prevented any sense of G1-type burnout. I wouldn't change a single thing about the C2 so far.