twiztor

yeah, Minus One is really fucking good. they did an excellent job with emotional character beats. of the ~12 Godzilla movies i've seen, this was by far the best. and it's not even close. sadly, the original is not one of those 12.

i find it fun to look at records when Smelly calls them out (particularly for TV title shots), so let's take a deep dive for the last few weeks: Hoo boy, where to start? Since returning to WCW after the Montreal Screwjob, Neidhart has a 7-5-4 record. In singles, he is 4-3. at least it's a winning record i guess. thankfully, i have no memory of a Hennig/Neidhart feud. Worldwide 5/9 vs Buddy Lee Parker (W) Saturday Night 5/2 vs Curt Hennig (L) Saturday Night 4/11 vs Curt Hennig (DQ W) Nitro 4/6 Neidhart & Bulldog vs Hennig & Crush (L) Nitro 3/30 vs Curt Hennig (DQ W) Thunder 3/26 Neidhart & Bulldog vs Hennig & Crush (Double DQ) Nitro 3/16 Neidhart & Bulldog vs Destruction Crew (W) Saturday Night 3/14 Neidhart & Bulldog vs Hennig & Crush (L) Thunder 3/5 vs Curt Hennig (L) Saturday Night 2/28 Neidhart & Bulldog vs Public Enemy (W) Nitro 2/19 Neidhart & Bulldog vs Hennig & Crush (Double Count Out) Saturday Night 2/14 Neidhart & Bulldog vs Dave Taylor & Doc Dean (W) Thunder 2/12 vs Mongo McMichael (Double Count Out) Nitro 2/2 vs Scott Hall (L) Nitro 1/26 vs Wayne Bloom (W) Nitro 1/12 vs Ric Flair (No Contest) oh, Mike Enos. thought this would be uglier than it was. Record of 5-6 overall, 1-1 in singles. definitely TV Title worthy. Worldwide 5/23 Destruction Crew vs Public Enemy (L) Worldwide 4/25 Destruction Crew vs High Voltage (L) Thunder 4/22 vs Goldberg (L) Nitro 3/30 Destruction Crew vs High Voltage (W) Nitro 3/16 Destruction Crew vs Neidhart & Bulldog (L) Saturday Night 3/14 Destruction Crew vs Raven & Saturn (L) Worldwide 3/7 Destruction Crew vs Inner Aggression (Bill Payne & Butch Long) (W) Saturday Night 2/21 Destruction Crew vs Benoit & Malenko (L) Thunder 2/19 Destruction Crew vs Outsiders (DQ W) Nitro 2/16 vs Barry Horowitz (W) Saturday Night 1/31 Destruction Crew vs Disorderly Conduct (W) King of the Ring '98? nah man, i'd skip that one. i don't think anything memorable is going to happen there. the only thing i ever remember about Scott Putski is him blowing his knee out vs. Brian Christopher, so Eddy's dropkick to the knee seals the deal for me. well, Smiley has a 2 match winning streak on Pro anyway. You know, his record in WCW is actually pretty poor up until this point. 5-6. spoiler alert, he won't get his first win on Nitro or Thunder until September. but maybe that will kick off a streak? Pro 6/7 vs Mike Tolbert (W) Pro 5/24 vs Robbie Brookside (W) Worldwide 5/23 vs British Bulldog (L) Nitro 4/6 vs Konnan (L) Nitro 2/9 vs Konnan (L) Worldwide 1/17 vs Manny Fernandez [not that one] (W) Saturday Night 1/3 vs Konnan (L) Pro 12/28/97 vs Johnny Swinger (result unknown. i've seen this written on match lists, but is not on the episode of the show i have seen) Saturday Night 11/29 Smiley & Chris Adams vs. Regal & Dave Taylor (W) Worldwide 11/22 vs Dean Malenko (L) Saturday Night 11/22 vs Dave Taylor (L) Saturday Night 11/15 vs Lenny Lane (W) well hot damn. you have a much more positive view of 1998 WCW than i did on my rewatch, so seeing a score this low makes me understand how truly bad this had to be.

whatever the last film, Star Wars or Marvel, was that came out. they are pretty much the only current films that i make any effort to watch. i've never had an issue going to movies solo, but i have been moving further and further into my antisocial habits as the years go by. my social circle continues to dwindle- whether that is a cause or effect (or coincidence) is anyone's guess. but i would much rather just watch from my couch.

World War II was an early stoppage compared to that fight

HOLY SHIT! did not see that coming! edit: this has been an all timer of a card.

well i bet you enjoyed Turner's!!

sorry, i'm not in the arena, it showed through on camera. what's funny is that i changed what i typed once before i hit 'post' because i thought it made me sound like i was live in person. guess i didn't do a very good job of revision. i don't know if that song normally makes air (my attention is usually diverted and/or i'm too drunk by the main card start to pay attention) but i popped. dear AI overlords....

While DC, Bisping, and the lead announcer are doing their start of the show talk, they're playing the old UFC theme "face the pain" in the arena. that song brings back the memories of UFC Unleashed.

2 slam KOs in a row?!?

Drakkar Klose says "hold my beer" and gets a slam KO in the first. amazing prelims so far tonight.

missed the first fight, but the next two prelim fights were pretty rad. definitely worth your time to check out.

yeah it's funny w/r/t Sid because on the week's Worldwide episode, they announced that Sid would not be advancing in the arm wrestling tournament (due to an onscreen attack from the Colossal Kongs) but mentioned he would still be part of BattleBowl (which makes no fucking sense but whatever). i didn't realize this was the stabbing incident until after watching the event. different side note, a week or two back, Jesse Ventura was asked by Schiavone to predict a BB winner, and his only selection was "well i don't think it will be Sid. and it won't be Arn Anderson" which stood out to me as odd, but makes a hell of a lot more sense in retrospect.

yeah no surprise that Flair/Austin could work in a heatless format (also Scorpio is over with the crowd, which helps a bunch). the Austin-Flair interactions were among the best stuff on the card. i like Tex/Shanghai, but they hadn't been on tv in months and there was no investment

i got very worried on where this was going when i was reading this one-two punch of comments.

i watched WCW Battlebowl '93 today. wow, that was a mistake. what a dud of a PPV overall. almost all of the random draw tag matches went around 15:00 minutes, which was WAY too long for a show with no storyline emotional beats to hit. the battle royal at the end was decent enough, but definitely nothing special. I did like how they ended up "eliminating" Flair from the final 4 due to injury on the rampway. then again, i just really like sets that use a ramp all the way to the ring apron, so maybe it's preference bias.

in that case, i probably make a similar remark each year but never made a connection. don't know if i'll be home to watch tomorrow night, but i guess we'll see.

i kind of disagree. there's only so many of those "big fish" out there. TNA is trying to make a big splash and be a major player again, for the first time in a decade. definitely keep shooting for those stars, as the right player with the right rep could absolutely put them back in that echelon. but continuing to build with the "medium sized fish" of the indies is equally important. "come for Ospreay, stay for Bailey. and Alexander. and Shelley." kind of mentality.

that is a pretty great card for a Fight Night.

a friend's son lost his battle with cancer a few years ago, and his last wish was to be able to go and watch the Sonic movie. they got to go to an advanced special screening just for the family. he loved it and it brightened some of his final days. when the parents came back to town, a big group of friends all watched Sonic in theater together. the movie will always hold a special place for me. i don't have the same kind of story associated with Sonic 2. started watching it and immediately regretted paying money for this. but after maybe 30 or 45 minutes, i thought it turned around and became a decent enough flick.

re: AEW's Triple Crown i like that it is made up of titles from three companies (albeit two of those owned by the same man), but i kinda wish they could have appropriated a belt from AAA or CMLL to make it from the big three wrestling countries as well (sorry Canada).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCLZPJktCpg NWA POWERRR! Episode 135: Old Friends & Silver Bells 11/28/23 @ Nashville, TN TV Title: Carson Drake vs. Mims (c) Carson drake is apparently playing an '80s preppy (preppie? i don't know if that's a -y or -ie) gimmick. is he related to Jackson Drake from last week? i popped for Mims' X-Men inspired gear. short showcase match. Mims' physical charisma was really the only thing happening here. Not much here, but not bad. Thrillbilly Silas Mason introduces his buddy Devan Dixon. Dixon has NO charisma and can't talk for shit. Plus, he's wearing a Hooters NASCAR-like jacket. And he has a mullet mohawk. Mason offers Dixon a National Championship match (this was spoiled earlier in the show where this match was announced for next week). Bryan Idol & Natalia Markova vs. Thom Latimer & Kamille they hype this as the battle of the power couples. But i don't think Idol has ever been on TV before, so were we supposed to know this? Idol is "the cousin of Mercurio" according to Danny Dealz (in reality, Idol IS Mercurio). No mention of if he is also related to Austin Idol. the whole point was to show off Thom and Kamille's new heel personas. Match itself was kind of not good. Idol blew the timing on the finish, leading to Kamille waiting around for him. pass. interview with Joe Alonzo. He talks about a future match with Alex Misery. i don't know who that is or where it's coming from. The graphic at the bottom of the screen shows that Alonzo is part of a triple threat match next week with two other people we've never seen before. What is going on here? ANOTHER segment on the search for a new Spectacular. i skipped this, to save my sanity. This is the first segment i've skipped on NWA Power in the 6+ months i've been watching. Tiffany Nieves vs. Ruthie Jay this is a match that existed. i wouldn't say it was bad, but i wouldn't say it was good either. Nieves has something, but she really needs to work on her timing. another interview with the Slime Ballz. more of what we saw last week, which further cements that i don't think i'm going to like these guys. Kenzie Paige with Kyle Davis. She refuses to refer to Samatha Starr as a "Starr", so she calls her Sammy instead. Kenzie cuts a fun promo and riles the crowd all the way up. Jax Dane & Tim Storm vs. Trevor Murdoch & Burchill no mention as to why Murdoch is no longer tagging with Mike Knox. Also no mention of Jax Dane's title shot vs. EC3. this match was, to steal a JR-ism, a slobberknocker. Burchill and Storm trade European uppercuts and spend their segment brawling. More of the same when Jax Dane tags in. This was fun. seriously, what is with the seemingly complete turnover of the roster? Almost every match for the last 3 weeks has contained somebody brand new to the company.

interesting question, and good callout of Evan Tanner. That dude was the only self-trained UFC champion and just seemed like a motivated, interesting dude all around. gone too soon. But to answer your question, my list: Bas Rutten Ken Shamrock Kazushi Sakuraba Jiri Prochazka Chris Leben

those are both pretty great fights and get my official *twiztor seal of approval

i don't know if anybody else cares about this, but i was watching an old episode of TNA Impact this morning and who do i see? future UFC champ Daniel Cormier. They brought out a couple people from the 2004 Olympic wrestling team. No promo or anything like that (or even a chyron), but i bet DC got a big kick out of it since he was a big pro wrestling fan. https://youtu.be/8XvOs6sCLgU

i looked into buying this the other day. still no Samoa Joe? still no cage match? your reference to the Continental Classic/Fight Forever crossover is scathing and a HUGE oversight. i mean, i guess this is the ultimate outcome of Tony's "new toy" mentality, but big OOOOF. my wait continues.