twiztor

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.

i've never done one of these before, but count me in. i love all sorts of wrestling. serious stuff, funny stuff, high flying stuff, technical stuff, bloody brawling stuff, you name it, i will watch it. I grew up a WWF kid in the 80s and the Monday Night Wars are my favorite period of wrestling, but i've seen all of that stuff to death. That said, i have a ton of blind spots. Lucha, Puro, 2000s-current indy stuff, to name a few. Fair warning, I'm not opposed to foreign language stuff, but i tend to not appreciate it as much as others.

Happy Bobby Bonilla Day!

why was Jack Victory employed by ECW? barely talks, never wrestles, not a former star. i don't get it whatsoever.

during the Attitude era, was there EVER a main event match announced? it seemed like every week, the opening promo led to a challenge for "RIGHT HERE TONIGHT" and the match was made. Like, if that segment never happened, what was the planned way to close out the show? I liked to imagine that Crash Holly or someone was in the back like "alright, tonight's my night. main event" when Vince came back "sorry kid, we had to bump you. We're going with Rock vs HHH instead because i just found out they're upset at each other".

tough to say, my mind isn't really processing too many individual stories when i'm doing a big read like this. the Death of Gwen Stacy is easily in my top 2 or 3. i just read a fun one where Jonah is out to prove he still has reporter chops and goes out, with Spidey tagging behind and saving him along the way. not an all-time great, but stood out to me as being different and fun. anything with Dr. Octopus has been great. My favorite one, and I forget the story specifically, but Spidey chases Ock to his underwater hideout and is trapped beneath a bunch of rubble and almost gives up, but thinks of the people counting on him and saves the day. a lot of recency bias in this one, but the Owl/Octopus story i mentioned would probably rank up there. Ock is such a compelling villain when he's not being written as generic. The history with Ock/May was great. ditto with Green Goblin. while he could sometimes get too megalomaniac, anytime they focused on the personal relationship with Peter/Norman/Harry it was a treat. the interactions with Cloak and Dagger have been interesting, if not particularly awesome. They play off each other well. on the other hand, i groan anytime the Punisher is involved. no interest whatsoever.

sorry to hijack your Spider thread, Natural, but i figure this is the best place to post updates on my Spidey read. ASM #211-251 / PPSSM #51-89 / Secret Wars the first half of this chunk was pretty by-the-numbers stuff. lots of "one and done" "villain of the week" stories that didn't really do much to progress the story. Not that it was bad or anything, but just felt very much like more of the same, but without the charm. That all changed in early '83. Over in Spectacular, Bill Mantlo came on as writer and really delivered big time. There was a fantastic multi-arc of the Owl battling the Kingpin for control of the crime in NYC. This also heavily featured the Black Cat, and the story was just compelling as all get out. It lasted for 8 issues or so, but the repercussions (Black Cat was shot! Pete confesses his love to her!) were felt for some time. We are now solidly in the "Black Cat loves Spider-Man, but not Peter" phase. He's revealed his secret identity, and she's not having it. In Amazing, around the same time or slightly before, Roger Stern became the writer and John Romita Jr. was just killing it on art. Stern played up some Brand Corporation stuff which, while not fantastic, was definitely a step up from what was happening before. He also introduces the Hobgoblin, who is a major threat for a good chunk of time before being eliminated right at #250 (funny how that works!). I really like everything happening with the Hobgoblin. His ID hasn't been revealed yet. Really great stuff. In both books we get a lot of Peter Parker's life and friends. Pete quits his TA job and then quits grad school. i gotta say, i didn't see that coming. MJ's back, leading to awkwardness when all of their friends try to set up Peter and MJ. Secret Wars introduces the new black costume. i'm sure that is a minor development and will in no way play out in the future. notable stories: The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man (ASM #248, Roger Stern & JRJR)). it has a well deserved place on Natural's list in the first post. I dunno about #4, but it is damn good. It's only a half issue, but it packs a lot of emotion in. Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut! (ASM #229-230, Roger Stern & JRJR). very good story but didn't stick out to me as an all time great, likely due to me reading through these books like a bulldozer. but it was fun and showed off the characters of both Spidey and Cain pretty well. Madame Web too, but she doesn't really add much to Spidey's world IMO.

i'm not trying to single you out, @Peck but your post seemed the best jumping off point. Rock Stars are notorious for sleeping with groupies. Lots of rock stars are married. sometimes they marry a woman who WAS a groupie. how does that work? the wife HAS to know what's happening out on the road. she either ignores it or gets swallowed by it. i suspect the same "agreement" must be in place for some of these wrestlers' wives. especially pre 2000 where the travel was even more grueling. this is not to excuse any behavior, and i agree with @Eoaethat you shouldn't be in a marriage and actively harm it or your spouse/family. i dunno, i've always been curious on how someone could marry a person notorious for infidelity. just seems like a recipe for disaster.

is firing someone with a new kid/kid on the way shitty? yes. but it's not the company's job to fire you at the best time *for you*. alternately, it's not like these guys have (theoretically) legally-binding contracts for a specific amount of time or anything....

two issues a month is perfect IMO. i don't follow many books, so the extra cost is negligible. but it really keeps me invested and makes the story feel like it's moving at a quicker pace than most other books. i'll give it a month or two and see how i'm liking it and then maybe jump on.

i'm trying to imagine the fan reaction if Ben Reilly & Mary Jane get together. i would consider picking this up, but ASM will be published three times a month, which is just way too much for me to jump into. Very interested tho.

i read that as 'little c' cage so i thought AEW had a steel cage match on dark and i was taken aback.

easily makes my Top 10 favorite matches ever.

this is, without a doubt, the highlight of the pre-nWo Monday Nitros. I can't believe that in the 25 years since, i haven't seen that angle recycled somewhere. Maybe i just missed it, or maybe it only works for e'er-do-well Sting, or maybe it's too long-term for most promotions. I don't know. But wrestling would be better with more of this and less of this:

my answer to every question so far is "Macho Man" Randy Savage. my first favorite wrestler and still my #1 of all time. Ultimate Warrior when he came around joined him at the top of the list. Clearly i have an affinity for the OTT characters. Savage was my first wrestling fig. don't know which line, but he was big and unposeable. My action figures were a motley crew of wrestlers, superheroes, gi joes, TMNT, and whatever other rando characters showed up. But Savage was King of them all. Savage getting bit by the cobra scared the shit out of young me. like whoever said it earlier, i was certain that he was a dead man. i didn't see the earthquake/damian bit until a few years after it happened, but it was the talk of recess and was also terrifying. the only other thing that comes close is the Warrior/Papa Shango bit where black goo oozes out of Warrior's head.

finally got to watch Rizin 28. @Jijiis right. fun card and all of the top fights delivered. i always try to avoid spoilers on these Japanese events, as i never know when i'll get to watch them, and i'm generally glad i do. the fights and atmosphere are so much more exciting than the results would lead one to believe.

did you beat the NES games? if so, much props. i was working on NG1 last year but never was able to overcome it.