southofheavy

I was a bit checked out over the weekend, but I managed to catch up on Collision over Monday and Tuesday. Eddie vs King was quite good, and I'm gonna rewatch it having read Matt D's write up of it. I had a feeling Brody was gonna go over and it feels like the right call. Got a feeling the meet again in the group finals. We'll see. Garcia vs Claudio was solid. Very, very excited for Switch vs Swerve tonight and Eddie vs Bryan this weekend.

Agreed, though I don't know what. As it stands, this team is built for a different era, it seems. With Bogey gone, they have exactly one player that the league respects and that's Cade. He's not the most efficient shooter, but he's the best one we have. Alec Burks seems to be a lot more streaky this season. Jaden Ivey can get there, I think. I know the philosophy going into the rebuild was to get back to that classic Pistons defense-first mentality, but the game is soooo different now. Defend all you want; if you can't shoot, you're going to get run out of the gym. All that said, Ausar Thompson is a goddamn marvel.

I ate three quarters of a cherry pie so Eddie didn't have to. That match with Brody is going to be a WAR. As for Wednesday's matches, I dug Swerve vs Lethal the most, which I wasn't expecting. Seeing Mark in there with Mox was cool, and I think the finish to White vs Rush is foreshadowing how White's matches are gonna go.

Where the beer gives you gas and Eddie Kingston kicks ass, AT THE NUDIE BARRRRRRR

CAN I GET A WOAH, BUNDY?

Five bucks says Danielson wanted to be in the same block as Brody, utter masochist that he is. Didn't even think of that, either. Thank you, sir.

GODDAMN, that lineup. TK ain't playin'. This is gonna be GREAT. I am especially stoked for Brody/Garcia and Mox/Mark. Those are two matches I hadn't even considered. Eddie/Brody is going to rule ass.

I feel you on all of that, plus AEW doesn't need another belt AND the name kinda honks. Still, though, a round-robin tournament on U.S. TV with at least two of my favorite wrestlers and who knows who else is gonna be awesome to watch just for the matches alone. That's good enough for me.

The CC starts tomorrow night! The rest of the participants will be announced on the CC Selection Special, streaming some time tomorrow. So far, we have Mark Briscoe, Andrade el Idolo, Bryan Danielson and Eddie Kingston. Who else would you book for this? Who would you book to win? Why? Who gets the least amount of points? Why?!?!?! Which youngster takes the worst beating? What's the biggest upset???? Who would you elevate the most through this tournament??? WHO? WHAT?!?!?! WHY?!?!?!?!?!~~~!!! Answer none or all or some of these questions. More importantly, HAVE FUN. Here's my remaining eight: Dustin Rhodes Nick Wayne Powerhouse Hobbs Brody King Takeshita ROOSH!!! Miro Darby (were he not training to do a Coffin Drop offa Mount Everest.) In his stead, Daniel Garcia. BUT. Maybe Adam Copeland? Hook? Mox? Ricky Starks? Bandido? Penta? Jeff Jarrett? One or both of FTR? Malakai Black? The possibilities are nearly endless, folks. That's why the more I think about this tournament, the more excited I get. I'll pick my winner: EDDIE KINGSTON. Because DUH. Eddie deserves all that is good in life and is my stock answer for every positive question that one could be asked. That said, if the gods forsake us, Brody King shall suffice. HAVE AT IT.

Just saw this on Netflix. Goddamn, what a blast that was. Not even concerned with Part 3, 'cuz I gotta watch this at least two more times; One for posterity's sake and two on shrooms.

Switch vs Mark? Damn. Stoked for that. Really excited for Garcia vs MJF, especially since I haven't seen much of Garcia lately.

Every show that Ring of Honor ran at the Joe Dumars Fieldhouse in Detroit from 2005-2009. I could've walked to every single one of those shows. Dragon Kid's Dragonrana is a whole other thing when you see it live. So's Jimmy Jacobs and BJ Whitmer falling off the top of a cage.

I'ma watch Loki, but yeah. The new Guardians has been up on D+ for a minute and I haven't even bothered. Frankly, I want the X-Men. I want the Fantastic Four. I want Dr. Doom.

Tying a couple of other posts together without quoting, Battlarts Claudio needs to be more of a thing, and frankly, Battlarts Darby should be, too. Bryan and ZSJ showed that matwork and grappling based matches can get over like crazy. They are definitely the two best in the world at it, but Claudio and Darby are no slouches, either. As Darby is one of the best in the company at wrestling how they should behave, it would enable him to calm down on the bumps and sell the matwork like death. Yeah, it's murder on the joints, but it's trading in murder on the neck and spine. Also, good call on those noting Julia Hart's growth. She has really come along in the last year and is so young still. The sky is the limit. Honestly, I'd like to see more of her and Brody on their own away from Malakai and Buddy, or at the very least, more spotlight put on them within the House of Black. A Brody main event or International title run with him destroying the holy hell out of everyone and Julia cutting promos for the two of them would do wonders for the both of them, I think.

Matwork/Grappling Danielson is my favorite Danielson. I feel like we haven't really gotten that since that Drew Gulak match on PPV a few years ago. There are very, very few people in wrestling that can go on the mat at Danielson's level and ZSJ is obviously one of them. I spent the bulk of this match with a big ol' grin on my face, because it was exactly what I wanted and was expecting, but it was almost entirely unpredictable. Like, I knew the Romero Special was coming, I knew the standing neck twist with the feet was coming, etc, but how they got to each of their spots was a marvel to watch. This is one match that is going to get better with age and rewatches, because it is so, so dense. Run this back, Tony.

Butchered At Bloom.

Right on, good sir. Right on. (I was juuuuust thinking about Bad Dudes the other day for some odd reason.)

One of my earliest memories is being at my Aunt Judy's house and my cousin Steve had a WWF show on. This was in 1986, I think. I was five. Hoss Funk was applying a Boston Crab on some poor soul and Terry Funk came down with a knee onto his back. Later in the program, Hulk Hogan cut a promo. I've been hooked ever since.

Legit shocked about Ziggler getting released. I figured he had a job for life. Wouldn't mind seeing him getting a run in AEW, to be honest, so long as he switches up his gimmick/presentation. They need to scoop up Ali, for sure.

Speaking of grindcore, Gridlink's new album, Coronet Juniper, came out last Fridee. It rules, of course, but damn, this record is DENSE. I'm a few listens in and I'm still processing it. I got tickets to see them at St. Vitus in NYC next month. I had to bail on the shows they did earlier this year because I lost my job, BUT I REFUSE TO BE DENIED THIS TIME. IT IS FUCKING HAPPENING.

Propagandhi rules. I was stuck on Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes for a while a few months ago. MAN, the title track kicks so much ass.

Now I wanna see Sting/Darby vs Sommers and Buddy Rose.

Fuck a FTR match, I want Sting/Darby vs Edge and Christian. (I was just teasin' about the FTR match, I wanna see that, too.)

I'm sure there's going to be more fallout (specifically, Punk's response), but I'm glad it's over. This whole thing has been a black cloud and an albatross for more than a year. Even though Collision rocked and there's been good matches/shows, it's really taken a lot of the shine off of AEW for me. I'm ready to be fucking stoked again.

More than being the best to ever do it, Terry is the embodiment of professional wrestling and the model of how one should conduct their career. Rest well, champ. You've earned it.