Swiftian

It's only been in the past couple years that I've noticed wrestlers looking at the ref's count so they can kick out at 2.5, but there's HHH doing it ten years ago above. Was it widespread even then and I just never noticed? Certainly takes some of the fun out of near falls once you're aware of it.

Was at the Smackdown house show here in Calgary last night. Daniel Bryan was having fun bringing the heeling - teasing the Yes chant, calling the city a dump, calling the people idiots. He ripped up a kid's sign in the front row. Kind of a weird sign (I LOVE BEEF! YES! YES! YES!) so it may have been a plant, but also people here are proud of their beef, so maybe not. He gets back on the mic "Calgary is stupid! You people are stupid! And beef is stupid!" Some guy is riled up and tries to jump the barricade. Security get to him first. "Sit down you idiot! Go have another drink! No man in this town could ever beat me in a fight" Good old school heeling. He was facing Miz and I was wondering how they were gonna change the face/heel dynamic, but Miz interrupted the ring announcer during his introduction to have him say "Currently residing in Calgary... The Calgary Kid!" which got big pops. Miz was clearly the face after that with the crowd behind him the whole way. He thanked the crowd after the match "I never get cheered like that" Fun show as usual, but unfortunately no Becky, AJ or Mysterio. New Day were there but no Xavier Woods. Also no Randy Orton but who cares. New Day vs The Bar (fun comedy opener with lots of pancake throwing) Charlotte vs Asuka Anderson & Gallows & Shelton Benjamin vs Colons & Almas Samoa Joe vs Jeff Hardy (match was scheduled earlier but Joe beat up Hardy during his entrance. During the match, Joe took out a six pack from under the ring and teased pouring it on Hardy. Took a sip and then did the Stone Cold Stunner bit spewing it all over the ring when Hardy did whatever his stunner type move is called for the finish) Rusev vs Nakamura Lana vs IIconics in two quick matches. About as sloppy as you'd imagine. Bryan vs Miz

Without wanting this to turn into a sleaze thread, what are the arguments against Dynamite Kid as a person? I know I've always been aware of his surly reputation, but I'm not sure I've ever known why he is disliked so much. Was it just cruel ribs like Fuji? Or was he a racist old shit?

What was Special Delivery Jones' gimmick?

Yep, it's on AMC this weekend. Based on a Le Carre novel. Excited for that too.

Had no real interest in that Paige film, but just saw that Florence Pugh is the lead. She was great in Lady Macbeth

I might be missing something here but is there a particular reason why just went super swerve tonight? Did Styles have some kind of wellness violation? He's not even on the Survivor Series card now, right? It's been a really strange few weeks since Reigns announced he had leukemia and relinquished the title, then the Ambrose heel turn, the will they/won't they of flying to Saudi Arabia, Cena and Bryan dropping out, putting the title on Lesnar, and now tonight's show. Lots of seemingly on the fly booking.

Undertaker looked really over the hill here. That's not that surprising, but it kinda shocked me to see how lost he looked out there, like he needed his hand held at times. The double Irish whip looked to be his fault, he (and Kane) were well out of place on the moonsault and at one point HHH did the kick to the gut to setup the pedigree but Undertaker failed to bend over leading to HHH having to grab him by the head to put him in position. No big fan of them but props to DX for working so hard to make that somewhat entertaining, especially given the injury.

Better than being buried in a consulate's garden in Istanbul though.

You guys should see if your library offers the Kanopy app. Plenty of world cinema and Criterion releases on there and it's completely free.

A Hall of Famer said this? Gotta be Donald Trump.

I look at wrestling more as live (athletic) theatre rather than a TV show. In that sense, you can imagine a lead actor saying after a performance "I won't be continuing in the role of Hamlet in the future as I have to take some time off"

Next week they need to be in that friends remediation course. Seems to have worked wonders for Sasha and Bayley.

Really weird show. I personally didn't think it was the right night for the Ambrose turn, but it's wrestling and there's always been an element of exploitation there. The crowd reaction to it was stunning and probably justified them doing it now to be honest. They likely wouldn't have got a better reaction at any other point down the line.

As a kid, I think the first guy I ever saw with that look was Rip Rogers. Man, I thought he was weird.