porksweats

First off DEAN, glad you liked my pick for you! I know from your AEW/ROH summaries that you really got into Athena and I tried my best to deliver something good! (I watched the match for the first time before I sent it over) But now onto Secret Santo Week 2 Review~!~! I've watched my share of BattlARTS but Otsuka is more my speed. I haven't seen this match but I have seen some of Ikeda and Yuki so it isn't fully blind. We start and Ishikawa is confident! Getting down on the mat and begging for Ikeda to make a move but Ikeda backs into the corner unsure. Yuki gives some space and they lock up after a failed Ikeda kick and GODDAMN that headbutt from Ishikawa to Ikeda made full skull to skull contact, insane. For the next minute it's a ground battle but Ishikawa shakes him. Ishikawa goes for a takedown and tries to reach out and choke him but it gets quickly turned into a cross armbreaker but Ikeda can't lock it in. Ikeda's got some deadly kicks as he finally gets the better of Ishikawa breaking him down and popping him right in the face. The ref starts counting but he's back on his feet. Another little exchange and we're back in the corner. Ikeda essentially mule kicks Ishikawa in the jaw and he does the slow fade against the ropes but fighting spirit prevails! Some grappling on the ground and a rope break, I'm liking Ishikawa's ability to keep Ikeda down but he's not making the most of it here. I take it back, he locks the legs in a scissor around Ikeda's body and sits up, shifting the weight toward his neck. Ikeda tries to rotate out of it but gets further ensnared. REVERSAL OF FORTUNE as he gets his own ankle grapevined! There's a rope break but now Ikeda's on his feet and its his time to shine. A trade of abdominal stretches gets it twisted back to him and he's butterfly suplexed. Trades of holds on the ground eventually leaves Ishikawa outside. He's almost suplexed back into the ring but breaks it and snags Ikeda's arm, doing more damage bringing it over his shoulder. Now it's Ikeda catching his breath, which is a bad move by Ishikawa as Ikeda's whipping out kicks and suplexes like they're going out of style. At 14:23, he hits one of the hardest sounding clotheslines, definitely ringing a bell. He's punchdrunk and just getting his ass kicked but Ishikawa is a tough son of a bitch. He lasts through it all, getting lucky when Ikeda goes off the ropes and right into Yuki's fist. You'd think after that and a sick enziguri that he'd be done for but no, he powers through another abdominal stretch collapsing into a rope break and gives another barrage of kicks. Ishikawa can't stand another kick and thankfully snags the leg for another grapevine. If he can just chop him down he'll win! But alas, we've reached the end for poor Ishikawa getting a clothesline that puts him down to a 8 count, only to get up one final time to accept the foot directly in the mush and to the side of the head. How do you spell win here? KO that's how. Thoughts on the match: Ishikawa is one tough son of a bitch isn't he? He can definitely take a beating but he needed to be more aggressive. Ikeda's kicks are things of beauty, really walking away impressed here. The match didn't feel as long as it actually was which was nice but the ground control segments just weren't my speed despite that. I needed some more big suplexes personally but that isn't a knock against the match by any means. DEAN! Thank you for this BattlARTS match, it was greatly appreciated.

From Xplosion!

@DEAN Hey! You're my week two secret santo partner! What do you show the man who watches everything? Something hopefully he hasn't seen! Keeping the A-Pre-W theme rolling into this week!

I'm still thinking about Top Flight/The Kingdom a week later so it's an easy vote for them.

They are likely overpaying Matt Riddle.

It doesn't sound like he's saying that is right and she should, but if it is, then she is right. No data to prove here.

Dave was a little more blunt on the Observer’s F4WOnline message board. There Meltzer said the plans pitched to Miro were “better than what Ethan Page got” (which was a winning streak so Ricky Starks’ wins over him in the World Title Eliminator Tournament final and Dynamite Diamond Battle Royal would theoretically be more meaningful). Dave claimed it wasn’t a case of Page being given the exact storyline Miro turned down, “but the difference is Ethan Page was seemingly onboard with being the guy who wins a bunch, talks a bunch, and sets up the guy getting the title shot in the end. And that’s why he was all over TV.” From this Cageside Seats article. https://www.cagesideseats.com/aew/2022/12/9/23501764/miro-turned-down-aew-creative-plans-competing-rumors

The people heard that Ruby Soho was back and tuned in en masse

Deppen was a part of ROH pre-Khan so it'd be great to see him in the fold over there (or AEW too, that'd be fine)

Can't seem to embed but I lined up this episode of Dark where Action had a great match against QT Marshall for you.

It was essentially a glorified clip show from the previous info about Vince from the other Dark Sides, with some new talking heads and an intro about Vince's life and an epilogue about him leaving. It wasn't bad but nothing new if you're a regular watcher of Dark Side.

You know I think she'd fit in with ROH honestly, you need at least one worker with the against the grain of the house style and it isn't that she can't go either.

Vile, while it's clear you don't think it's been a good play to buy ROH and incorporate it in with AEW, has there been any aspect of ROH that you have enjoyed? Or just in general someway it's improved anything?

Any bets on who Jericho is wrestling this week?

I'm assuming this is a clear separation of ROH as well. Dynamite is the Elite Brand, Punk gets Rampage. When it comes to title belts, there'd be no brand exclusive title except for the respective Network titles. Jade Cargill is on Dynamite, and Samoa Joe would be on Rampage. Dynamite Commentary: Excalibur, Taz, Paul Wight / Refs: Rick Knox, Paul Turner, Aubrey Edwards Rampage Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Mark Henry, Rotating Third Seat / Refs: Bryce Remsburg, Mike Posey For the actual splitting of the rosters, besides The Elite on Dynamite, I'd also have Jon Moxley separate himself from the rest of BCC and Punk by remaining on Dynamite. I'd send Chuck Taylor over on a solo run as well. Groupwise I'd keep Death Triangle on Dynamite, I'd also elevate The Trustbusters for more TV time on a split roster Dynamite. The JAS would be scattered to the wind. Sammy and Tay would stay, Garcia would too. 2.0, Jericho and Hager though would be sent over to Rampage. Rampage would also be the home of Yuta and Danielson. I'd keep House of Black on Rampage along with Andrade when he returns from injury. Kyle O'Reilly would also be a when returning from injury roster spot. To build the lower card, I'd ship The Factory over to Dynamite. Graduating from Dark duty would be Sonny Kiss, The Iron Savages and Serpentico. It's a bit harder to split the women's side but it'd be more of the Southern Heel Classic Americana Wrestling all-stars while Rampage would be a bit more eye popping

Secret Santo Winter 22 Review #1! First off Gordlow, you hit the right spot throwing me some WCW Regal, always happy to see the Good Lord in action. We open with a Colonel Parker promo, followed by a suited up Steamboat promo about his match coming up against Flair where Parker comes back out and interrupts saying Austin's got the match against Flair. Some facts before the match starts that I learned by looking up on Cagematch, this is the first televised time Steamboat and Arn ever teamed up, they apparently had a house show match against the Nasty Boys a week earlier than this. They'd team up only two more televised times so this is a unique pairing. Likewise the Austin/Regal pairing is novel, however they had previously teamed up for Regal subbing Pillman at Clash of the Champions #24, where the rag-tag combo lost the tag titles to Flair and Roma, so we've got some real heat brewing between the Horsemen and Austin at very least. Austin and Regal would team a few more times in 94 before also going their separate ways. But enough talk, it's time for the Main Event! Steamboat and Regal start this off, and it turns out that Regal's bigger than Steamboat? I don't think I expected that. Regal's got the initial advantage but Steamboat overcomes to take the lead here. Some back and forth til Arn gets tagged in. Arn's working the hell outta that headlock. Regal breaks free and goes for the tag to Austin who walks away! He comes back and finally gets in and now it's Arn/Austin. Austin's got some real stooge sells from Arn's punches and now we've got Steamboat back in. Austin works from underneath but isnt really given much, gets pushed back into the corner where Regal's back in. Regal's off the ropes and Steamboat jumps high to dodge but Regal holds tight and catches Ricky to flip for a Blackpool Crab but the Dragon holds strong, giving Regal a taste of his own medicine. Ref gets distracted, Austin comes in and they stomp out Steam. Austin tags in real quick, Steamboats getting beat down, Regal's back in, laying in some forearms. Irish whip to the corner and Steamboat goes to leap over but Regal snags him and throws him flat to the mat. Steamboat is dazed and falls out of the ring partially leaving him wide open to a shot from Squire William's umbrella and some more Austin stomps. Extended beatdown here with a glimmer of hope from Regal getting dropped but before Arn can tag back in, Stunning Steve's dumping Steamboat with a backdrop and mocking Steamboat to Arn. Beautiful cheating here with Regal adding leverage to Austin's Abdominal Stretch. He breaks again but goes to the wrong corner and there's Austin right on top, hitting a helluva spinebuster himself. Even more Steamboat beatings! The heels are just flagrantly breaking the rules doubleteaming Steamboat and Arn's had enough and pandemonium breaks out. Squire William tries for another umbrella shot to Steamboat who ducks and gives a hellacious chop of his own, putting down Dundee. Austin and Regal whip Arn to the ropes and Arn counters when he's on the bounceback, going for a sunset flip on Regal. Austin reaches out and holds Regal's hand to try to prevent it but from up high the Dragon soars with a crossbody to Austin, Steamboat still being the legal man and gets the win! Thoughts: The Arn/Steamboat team didn't really do too much in terms of tandem offense but Regal/Austin definitely were more in step with each other. It was great once Arn finally made a stand at the end, even if he wasn't tagged in. The MVP of the match is Regal for sure but for all the names involved, it kind of underwhelmed me but 94 WCW is a weird place for all of those guys in their careers. If you were to mix up the teams here, I really wonder how a Regal/Arn pairing would've been.

You know we all built the TV deal up to be a much bigger deal than it turned out to be, but we should've tempered our expectations as we look back this article from after Death Before Dishonor https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/roh-announces-updated-card-death-dishonor-ppv-expanded-ppv-purchase-options-and-new-honorclub

Weekly TV for 9.99, clear separation of ROH on AEW TV it sounds like.

For @Gordlow my dear sweet Secret Santo Week 1 buddy, going through your posts I saw that you really liked Joe/Darby and you were hyped for Jeff Cobb appearing on today's ROH show so why not mash the two together? (A)PreW Darby vs Cobb up in Maine for Limitless Wrestling!

I decided to vote for the FTR/Acclaimed match because it's the best tag match of the week. The rest of you can decide the best singles (too hard to pick, coin flips wouldn't do justice)

That kickout at barely one from Takeshita toward the end of the match is what dreams are made out of.

The Kingdom vs Top Flight and Willow vs Trish are both fantastic Zero Hour matches and I hope they deliver on how good they sound.

Lean full into the true reality... Britt Baker and Adam Cole. They did appear on Anthony Bourdain's show when he did Pittsburgh.

That's on me for not paying attention to recent Darks, I'm playing catch-up still with my From Day 1 rewatch (just at the first Dark after Full Gear 2020). Love to see the progression of the Syndication.