twiztor

is this the HOT TAKES~! thread? because as much as i like Kanyon (i'm literally wearing my Mortis Kombat shirt right now) and appreciate Wrath and Vandenburg, that angle sucked ass.

wait, why can't they do Sears Centre/NOW Arena again?

i always really liked the beach sets. something about the surfboard racks and lifeguard posts really kind of set the event apart. also when WCW did their Spring Break-Out! at Club La Vela

not much for name recognition on this card, but i see some potentially fun matchups. most excited for Miesha Tate's return!

i missed the on-sale for All Out and tickets sold out fast. oh well.

Jim Breaks vs. Vic Faulkner, 7/16/77 i have only seen maybe two WoS matches that were posted here, so i am for all intents and purposes a complete novice here. I did some quick reading up on the rules so that i wasn't completely lost. I knew about the rounds system (that's not unusual to me due to boxing and MMA familiarity) but that's about it. Anyway, both men connected with the crowd well. Breaks is obviously the heel, complaining to the ref about every possible rule infraction (even when there is none, as the announcer points out) but taking every advantage (legal or not) that he can. He's pretty over the top, and i can see why he's remembered fondly. He's also got some keen armlocks, bending Faulkner's wrist at an odd angle, then following through with the elbow and/or shoulder and then capping it all off with a keen stomp, or twist, or what-have-you, depending on which position they're in. Faulkner, for his part, plays the bland babyface well. The crowd certainly loves him, and he shows some flashes of personality but is more the focused do-gooder. He mocks Breaks' complaints at one point by throwing himself on the mat and throwing a tantrum of his own. It was muted, but the crowd really enjoyed it. this match is JIP, starting with round 4. The score is tied, 0-0. Round 4 contains the best of the limbwork. Round 5 contains a bit more action. Round 6 sees both men score pinfalls (and both are completely pitiful pinfalls), ending the match in a draw. I gotta be honest. This was OK as a novelty, but it didn't really grab me overall. Maybe it's that i'm not familiar enough with the rules and presentation. Maybe it's just too old for my tastes (anything pre-1980 gets iffy). Maybe my expectations were just in the wrong place (the limbwork is always played up when talking about WoS. This had some of that, but there was little long-term selling, and no real payoff to it overall). I didn't dislike it, but it doesn't drive me to check out anything further from the participants or the promotion in the future.

@SirSmellingtonofCascadia i'm ignoring that last comment, as it really makes me want to find the best Houston 2/3 Falls match and give to you, but i don't have the time. Maybe your next partner can take up the challenge. I present to you, Vader vs. Inoki, 1/4/96. I think the earliest Nitros are still promoting Vader as being part of the WarGames match, but he leaves shortly thereafter (although maybe all the Vader hype is pre-Nitro?). So, in tribute to your Nitro thread, i submit Vader's only (!) match after leaving WCW but before joining WWF. And it's close in timeframe to the Nitros you're watching now, not that there's any relation between the two. https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1dx411i7t4/ Sorry for no YouTube link, but this was the only vid i could find. But it's free and good quality.

@SirSmellingtonofCascadiai have limited internet access/time this weekend, but i will get you something good as soon as i can

while the potential to go off the rails and be absolutely terrible is very high, i think this could be a fun angle.

this hits way too close to home. i have two mohawks (think Road Warrior Hawk) and they get a little further back each time i look. I'm hoping I can live with them until i hit 40 (16 months.....which also doesn't seem real). After that, who knows?

freshly aqueezed?

haven't read this thread yet, so some of this is probably repeats. but here's my thoughts: Cody/QT was a very by-the-books strap match. I like Cody. He is a solid pro wrestler. But he rarely has a match that i would consider "GREAT". And of course, he won. I thought this angle was going to put over some of the younger guys? This match was slow and felt like it never got out of first gear. JR saying "excuse me Marc" to Excalibur literally took me out of the match. It shouldn't have been a big deal, but for the first time i wondered what X's real name was. So i looked it up on Wikipedia. thanks, JR. that Omega-Hangman standoff was aces. that match is gonna do a huge number. i'm pumped. Inner Circle/Pinnacle was good, but i was hoping for more between FTR and P&P. i look forward to the inevitable tag match. Jericho/MJF segment was bleh. i'm real sick of these things. this one in particular was just painful. Britt Baker dropping a "blood money" immediately followed by a Saudi Arabia reference? harsh, but awesome. This is my first time seeing Andrade wrestle. he's got a star aura. the match was a little more back-and-forth than i would have preferred, but Andrade's cavalier attitude about the match made up for that. very enjoyable and i look forward to more. They mentioned he was a third generation wrestler, i had to look up his ancestry. this is also my first time seeing Malakai Black. good debut. crowd went banana. loved them chanting "TOMMY" mixed tag was weird. i'm a fan of all 4 participants, but this just existed. the crowd only cared about Orange, and it showed. Even Statlander didn't get the reactions i expected. that promo from Dan Lambert was AWESOME. legit my favorite moment of the night. Bucks tag match hooked me late. fun if overbooked finishing stretch. obvious outcome was obvious.

right angle, right event, wrong match. Chavo faced Stevie Ray as a warm-up to his match vs. Eddie. He tapped out to a handshake.

i am far from the majority, but i watch Dynamite and BTE. Never made time for Dark or Dark Elevation. except for the Cutler/Avalon feud. I looked forward to each match they had.

yes. well, not really how you mean it, but theoretically in a "best case scenario" kinda way, if this practice keeps up for 5+ years and all of those companies continue to grow and eat away at market share, it's possible. Not likely, but possible. This round of cuts won't do it, and no single signing by any of those companies will do it. But, a few years down the road, if AEW or whoever can continue to build momentum and insert itself into the mainstream consciousness, it's possible. i certainly wouldn't hold my breath. WWE's had a stranglehold on the title of "pro wrestling" (even if Vince won't use that word) for over 20 years, and for all but 3-4 years of the last 40. That's not something that goes away easily.

Steel Cage Match: Masakatsu Funaki vs Minoru Suzuki, AJPW 3/21/2010: recommended by @Gordberg. and what a recommendation it is. This match is Inoki's wet dream. It is the closest to an MMA fight i have ever seen in a pro wrestling ring, and whatever is second place isn't even close. I was going to try to do a play by play review, but got too wrapped up in the match. instead, i'll point out some of my favorite moments (and try to limit them to a reasonable amount). I like how it started slow, with both men wary of their opponent's legendary technical proficiency. This is the realest grappling i've ever seen in a pro wrestling match. they're really cinching the holds in and using actual escapes and transitions. Funaki lands a gnarly knee to the head when Suzuki rushes in for a takedown, leading to some ground and pound fists and headbutts that busts Suzuki open hardway. Suzuki returns the favor and sacrifices Funaki's forehead to the blood gods by repeatedly ramming him into the cage and scraping his face against it. Lots of really great stuff here, and they really nail the little things. Funaki delivers two belly-to-back suplexes and is setting up for the third, but Suzuki crashes to the mat, so Funaki reacts, pivots, and locks on a sleeper/rear naked choke. they get into a "kick to the face" battle, and then a slapping battle. i would say these guys are really laying it in, but that would totally be a disservice to just how f'ing hard they're hitting each other. The fighting spirit trade off leads to a double knockdown. They both get back up, only to get into an even harder hitting fighting spirit trade off. holy shit. in the end, one man's spirit perseveres but his body gives out. i won't even spoil the ending, because anybody that hasn't seen this absolutely needs to check it out. A+ recommendation, @Gordberg!

thanks for sharing this, @The Natural. i messaged it to my UFC watching buddy that is both a huge Conor fan and a mark for THE MAN. He must've watched it 100 times already because he won't stop texting me about it.

@Gordberg this falls just inside your 20 minute time limit, but it's 2/3 Falls, so you've got built in breaks if you need them. But i found this riveting, and i have a short attention span as well, so i hope you do too. It's about as far away from AEW's Young Bucks style as possible. Great punches. From 1969, here's "Wild" Bull Curry vs. Johnny Valentine Funaki vs Suzuki in a cage? Yes please!

re: UFC 132 being 10 years ago oh man, i marked out huge for Leben/Wanderlei

i haven't listened to the Bully Ray bit, mo i may be off here, but the guy who got over via ECW promos where he talked racist and sexist shit to the crowd should probably not be telling anyone else not to "drop down to the lowest rung"

Mighty Crusaders: The Shield #1 this issue, when it is remembered, will be known for the drama involving Rob Liefield, rather than its contents. After Liefield left the planned miniseries, Archie Comics downgraded it to a one-shot. Unfortunately, it feels like they didn't change the story at all. It reads like it's setting up a grand mystery involving multiple timelines or universes, because it is pulling inspiration from the numerous relaunches of the Crusaders/Red Circle/Dark Circle line. It's titular hero is represented by three incarnations, so it's supposed to be tough to tell which would have been the long-term protagonist. In actuality, it's not. It's Joe Higgins, the original and most famous Shield. The rest of the Crusaders team gets a brief introductory blip and cameo. Liefield's art is exactly what you would expect. How you like the art here is exactly how you feel about any of his projects over the last 30 years. Personally, i'm fine with it. A bit static for my tastes, but it was perfectly serviceable. I wasn't specifically looking for them, but i didn't notice any pouches. There's a multi-page fight scene between Shield (Joe Higgins) and some bad guy commandos, including taking down a helicopter, but none of it has any gravitas. Liefield's writing is very basic. It's done twofold, with Shield (Joe Higgins) monologuing the majority of the issue, but Shield (Victoria Adams, leader of the Crusaders) narrating the other bits as a presentation to her team. It doesn't engross you and there's not really enough there for you to get to know any of the characters, with the exception of the Shield (Joe Higgins). The big secret twist that Liefield quit over seems incredibly obvious (it's not revealed in this issue, but is likely that Shield (William Higgins. i think this is a new character? he's only seen in the very first panel of the comic) is attacking Shield (Joe Higgins). Knowing how these Archie reboots go, i'm not expecting a follow-up to this story, although i would check it out. YMMV if you're not familiar with the characters.

whoa, ECW is touring again? looking forward to Raven vs. Dreamer and Cactus vs. Sabu. ? right there with you on Thunder Rosa vs. Britt Baker DMD being my #1 MOTY.

sad news. The Patriot was definitely one of my low-key favorites during his brief WWF run. I think maybe it was his upset of Bret Hart that made me think he was gonna be a huge star so he caught my attention. I didn't know he had already been in WCW and had a big run in Japan. The documentary that was put out on him a few years ago was pretty good.