ExcellenceofAirPollution

well, it's good to know we're all in the same boat at least

I'm having a problem with this now, got a new computer and I'm on a different version of Firefox than I was. I'm on page 4 of this thread, can't click on 1, 2 or 3 or use the previous button I thought exempting deathvalleydriver.com from Firefox's automatic https protocol would work, but it hasn't. Do I need to fuck with certificates/permissions? Exempt in ABP? I can't remember what I did before, but this was happening a while back and I fixed it

y'all gonna wish you had physical media when the EMP blast takes down the grid I'm investing in books and musical instruments

To be fair, Baker definitely had her moments as a character. I liked Baker, Hayter and Reba/Rebel as an act quite a bit (Reba/Rebel was so underrated in that role). They had something, and it developed into a vehicle for Hayter who got really over while fans were waiting for her to turn. Baker was good in that bitchy Queen B heel role, but like others have said it was time and place and the talent roster is a lot deeper now. I also think I'm one of the only people who liked the match in the dentist's office with her and Swole. Strong Japanese DDT/BJPW indy sleaze vibes

nm

She can get work as a dentist and will get paid to sit out her contract. Good for her. Was never much of a fan.

They had started pushing Cage of Agony. Bishop Khaun (pretty sure I spelled this wrong but they aren't around enough to remember) had a good singles match with Hangman on Dynamite which felt like the start of something but never got followed up on. Hechicero briefly joined them at one point Yeah, that team clearly has something, are being wasted (ROH is being wasted at this point), and should leave and go literally anywhere else. And AEW has clearly shit the bed when it came to booking a tag division....to where if they just start pushing these teams out of nowhere (like Private Party) nobody gives a shit

Is there anything else even remotely like it?

I went through a Doobie Brothers phase when I was 20. It lasted exactly one year.

Do you like wrestling? Have I got the show for you! Damn good Collision this week. Lots of good rasslin top to bottom. I thought the Cope-Big Bill opener was really, really good, and it's probably time to do more with Bill. I've been enjoying Cope since his return. He didn't need to leap off the post to the floor in his first match back to get my approval (in fact I thought it was completely insane), but the fact he's out there working his ass off like this for the love of the game is pretty damn great and I'm gonna enjoy it for however long it lasts. Whatever happens with HoB they need to keep Brody and Julia together. The beauty and the beast thing with them just works. Good video packages on the show too....a big one hyping Wednesday's Dynamite, the Christopher Daniels one.... I thought the crowd was pretty good too all things considered. Crowds were mostly good the last couple months of 2024. I haven't looked at the upcoming taping locations but I think the promotion has decent momentum right now and hopefully they can build on it. Meltzer/Alvarez think MAX is actually getting a lot of new eyes on the product

I want Diesel-Backlund at MSG in 10 seconds Hell, it's 2025, let's just redo 1995 in AEW. Mr. Moxley vs. The Copeman Adam Copeland in a submission match. Caster and Bowens turn heel on Billy "Mo" Gunn, King Caster wins a tournament despite all logic and main events All In Texas vs. "Big Daddy Cool" Will Hobbs. Buddy Matthews needs a new gimmick? He would make a killer Rad Radford. Excalibur can dial it up a notch and do his best Todd Pettengil impression...

The singles titles aren't a problem to me, I think 4 is just about right for the size roster they have. TNT title is TV title level now, which is fine. Keep it on Garcia and have him wrestle in the midcard as a fighting champion. Continental is associated with the tournament and clearly a top title, well established now after two years, also fine. International is a little wonky as it's undergone name changes and moved up and down in importance at times, but it's on Takeshita now who's a true international champion wrestling in NJPW and DDT and carrying the NEVER Openweight as well. So as things currently stand that belt is in a GREAT spot. I think you keep the belts on Takeshita and Okada for the forseeable future, like next 6 months at least. The Mox thing will be whatever it is, I honestly have no idea where they're going and that's a good thing. The TNT title should be defended and trading hands fairly often IMO. It was kind of like that when Cody had it, he'd lose it and win it back. Do that with Garcia for a bit. Having him lose in a hard fought 20 minute TV match and win a rematch for the belt a couple weeks later could do a lot for him and fits his gimmick. Tag Title and the whole division needs an overhaul. I've always been a supporter of the trios titles and it's fine on Claudio/Pac/Wheeler, but they need to defend more. Those 3 should be rebuilding the belts by having killer matches, but I guess it doesn't fit the current angle? These divisions mostly come down to bad booking IMO. They've had the talent and had more than enough TV time.

"WALTZING MATILDA....WALTZING MATLIDA.....YOU'LL GO WALTZING MATILDA WITH ME"

I refuse this binary choice

That was also the beginning of the end of the trios titles as anything meaningful I've got mixed feelings on Black. He was definitely intriguing on the indies with his look and style, looked like a future star. NXT run was good. Wasted on the main roster like most people were in that time period. AEW run is red-hot at the start with Cody. I thought they messed up early on not putting the TNT title on him. Eventually we get to HoB, it's an over act, the goth thing always gets over with a segment of fans plus it's over with hardcore fans and literal hardcore fans. And AEW never really used them correctly. They over did the spooky aspect. I think I made a post a couple years ago about how these should just be "dark" dudes who are into black magic and the esoteric, in addition to playing up the hardcore aspect of their lifestyle, but they're not actually supernatural or any of that shit....or maybe you just blur the lines a little that black magic is real and you don't go full Papa Shango. They just never delivered it in a way that fully clicked with me. Then you get to the fact that dude is almost 40 now and his back is clearly fucked up. I've had back problems. It's really noticeable in other people, especially athletes, when you've dealt with it yourself. His back looks stiff as shit and I'm sure he has to go through hours of stretching and therapy just to go out and work a trios match, and I'm sure it takes him days to recover. I'll hold off on anything declarative until we actually know what's going on, but his whole career feels like a series of "what if" right now

This is usually the time of night late Friday/early Sat I remember to watch Rampage..... This isn't Rampage baby

Yeah, it's like people forget that he was already super banged up before the divirticulitis. And one of the reasons he didn't get it checked out before he did was that he'd had the abdominal surgery and was used to being in pain and thought it was just that It's why I think people saying "STRAP OMEGA" after the match with Kidd are kinda nuts. There's no guarantee he can stay healthy, and he definitely won't if he's wrestling like that all the time. Nobody knows what to expect with Kenny, I think taking it kinda slow at first is the best bet. They've also basically booked him and Okada for the Continental at All In already. My only real complaint about his return is the location (oh well, it was already booked and it was time to bring him back) and the music. I hated it at the Dome but I thought it was special for that because he's done that before. I NEVER thought he'd bring it to AEW. If BATTLE CRY had hit the crowd would have given him the reaction he deserved and it comes off much bigger on TV. Nobody knows this shitty song. And it sucks.

@Phantom Lord they showed clips of Omega's return match and post-match promo early in the show. There was a whole highlight package for Wrestle Dynasty I fucking hate Omega's new music and I don't see it growing on me. Not the most exciting return to AEW tbh Thought this was one of the weaker gauntlet matches but was happy with the Hobbs win. Glad he's getting a second chance at the Mox match and mixing it up with the top guys. Which reminds me, Mark Davis was last seen teaming with Hobbs a couple weeks ago and seems to have vanished MJF should be a top of the card superstar and he's been working with Cole and Jarrett. Not my company. Private Party looked like such geeks again. Hurt Business win the tag belts then what? What's Keith Lee up to? I'm guessing they're holding the Swerve rematch off til Texas. That's Tony putting a lot of faith in Lashley. Ospreay/Matthews was a hot opener. It took me a long time to stop calling him Murphy and it's already fucked up in my head again, way to go Will!

THEY SAY DYNAMITES A CAROUSEL IN RING'S FAST YOU GOT TO WATCH IT WELL CASINO IS FULL OF MELVINS AND KINGS WHO FEED YOUR SIGNS AND RULE THE RING IT'S TAVEN ANGELICO FUCK YEAH GORDI!!!!

HEAVEN AND HELL - BLACK SABBATH I got nothing, my mind is dull. Loaded show though, psyched. Let's get back into the groove of Dynamite being must see TV that you need to tune in live for

I used to watch with Japanese commentary when I was following NJPW and watching a lot of shows. As someone who's now popping in once a year for Jan 4/5 the English commentary is very helpful!

I watched Collision a couple days ago now. Not much to say about it but a good show. The 100k 4-way out of nowhere was fun even if it made no sense. The show ending was wacky too. Felt like they were going for an old Crockett/NWA tv finish. That's two angles now with FTR where we don't actually see them interact with the Death Riders....

I thought the English NJPW commentary was supposed to be more insider and shooty, at least it always feels that way when I watch it, like with Gino Gambino and random people sitting in. Thought that was them knowing their audience. I don't know, I enjoy Charlton and think he's good at his job.....but he needs to be more self-aware and keep "money mark" in his quill, especially after what happened with GCW. That's the shit you get approved beforehand. Would you take shots at Vince on commentary on a co-promoted show without getting it approved? You're playing with fire. He was trying to play into the story and get heat, but even Rocky was like, "woah, slow down buddy". I don't really have an opinion on his suspension. He went too far and people were upset, NJPW felt like they had to do it, seems cut and dry. It sounds like some wrestlers were upset too, about the line about leaving and taking money to do nothing. Probably a case of there not being enough communication beforehand and Charlton getting too into playing his role. Vile One dropping in here to take yet another shot at TK is funny though, that's usually half his posting in the AEW sub I watched most of both shows. I haven't watched Takeshita/Ishii or Sabre/Rico from night two yet because of all the matches those are the ones I feel like I can already visualize in my mind and I've seen a ton of all 4 guys. I hadn't seen a lot of the current NJPW crew lately as other than results/some clips I haven't watched any shows since last year's Tokyo Dome, so I was more interested in night one and seeing the NJPW I don't regularly see more than the AEW crossover My biggest takeaway was I was really impressed by Dave Finlay. I thought he carried the match with Tsuji, and they went pretty long, but he was the star of that match IMO. Good match with Brody as well, but as an AEW fan I hate seeing Brody doing so many jobs. I was high on Tsuji and Uemura from that Young Lion group, but tbh I havent been that impressed by Tsuji when I've seen him this past year (this and his AEW appearances). Maybe I'm just catching him on bad nights, but it's super high profile stuff and I've been disappointed. Finlay on the other hand I was kind of blown away by his ring presence and his power spots, pleasant surprise. Seems like he's improved a lot from the triple threat at last year's Dome where I felt he was a third wheel who didn't really belong in there with Ospreay and Mox. Way too many nicknames though. Didn't write them down, but there were like 4 different ones flashing on his (admittedly cool) entrance. I was enjoying AZM vs. Iwatami but it was way too short. AZM is great, reminds me of Iyo Sky. Douki and Desperado was one of the top matches I was looking forward to and that injury fucking sucked. They were already doing crazy stuff (like the spot he got hurt on). I liked Sabre and Shota a lot, and I find Shota's story compelling, but I'm very much watching from afar on this. It seems like they're setting him up for the Naito deal, but if he's as popular with a segment of the audience as they announcers were saying maybe they can go the Cena route? I like him as a wrestler. And on Naito, he had no business going over Hiromu BUT I felt all the commentary saying "one time only!" was kinda telegraphing that this is happening again, right? If not it's stupid. Hiromu is more of a heavyweight at this point and while Naito was my favorite in NJPW......fuck a long time ago now, time flies....dude is pretty shot Kenny and Gabe Kidd was incredible. I was impressed by Kidd when he was over to work in AEW (maybe where his shot at Dayton came from, he might have been booked there) and he was awesome here. His emotion just on the ring entrance had me fired up, and I was worried I might get emotional for Kenny's entrance (thankfully he used some lame as fuck song and it killed the mood for me). I don't have the words for Kenny's performance. Tanahashi crying afterwards summed it up. Epic, awesome stuff from a guy who just beat a killer injury/illness probably some more thoughts, but that's already way more than I planned on typing. If the goal of co-promoting with AEW is to bring back American fans I'd say it was at least partially successful as I find myself invested in Bullet Club War Dogs now, but not much else

Where do I go to talk about the Rumble being in Saudi Arabia next year?

I was impressed by this one back in August, done live no less. I just rewatched it and content wise given what happened in the C2 it totally holds up too I'm sure it was memorized, but his English isn't too bad and he should talk more