NikoBaltimore

NGL I bought this with money my aunt gave me for Christmas. I don't regret buying it but only needed one play to realize I'm good and kept it around somewhere.

Well, you're certainly not wrong. I just thought it was interesting that there was collab merch between the game and AEW/Ospreay.

The preorder ends today apparently but I like the Ospreay x Assassin's Creed Shadows collab they had going on. https://www.shopaew.com/official-apparel/sweatshirts-jackets/limited-edition-will-ospreay-assassin-s-creed-shadows-x-aew-lightweight-jacket-double-sided-pre-orders-end-april-10th.html

I'm tempted to save this for tomorrow but hey why not do a "Just got home and I'm kind of tired but kind of not" road report? As soon as I clocked out I hauled ass to a place my friend told me about that I always wanted to try. With it only being a few miles from the arena while a bunch of poor schmucks were eating concessions I was having what could be IMO the best cheesesteak in Maryland at Cheesesteak and Co. Holy bats it was so good! I prefer a toastier bread like Angelo's in Philly but they got me with the steak. So, so fucking good. And since I got it so quick I had time for Heavy Seas after all. I realized how much I missed going there and wish I took more advantage of it while I living in Baltimore. One pint of a lovely lager to drown the sorrows of the O's losing today and I was off to the show. Without realizing I got the same section/row that I got last time I went to the show. Which is great as with a wall behind me I could have stood the whole time if I wanted to. My biggest pet peeve with the Baltimore shows is that unless you're one of the first in line you're guaranteed to miss out the local shirt they were selling. This one had an Orioles vibe and I wanted it to bad but all they had was Large. And that sold out quickly as well. Why would you have such a limited amount of shirts and not at least advertise "Hey, get in line early to get one of these shirts!" It's so fucking dumb and I'm bummed they would leave money on the table by not making more. ROH: Dynamite time! The first half was so my shit. Shibata vs Mox might have had a weak sauce ending (Shibata should not be losing to a choke. Beatdown and Paradigm Shift sure, whatever) But it was still really fucking cool that I was getting this live. Bucks were whatever and Kenny's promo was fine for what it was. But when he gets in then you get Rainmaker and Swerve I pretty much lost my fucking mind. Make no mistake about it, Baltimore fucking LOVED Swerve. From where I was I didn't bother to do the dance but got an incredible video of everybody losing their minds. The match was fun though it really sucked about Pac. Hope he's okay but it was immediately apparent it was a match-ender when he went outside. Then we get my favorite MOTN in the 8-man tag. I had no idea it was coming but when they showed the graphic I was just delighted. They all come out and seeing all 8 made me go "Yeah, this is why I love AEW so fucking much." You had Ospreay, Knight and Ricochet in there, gnarly meaty men like Mortos and for good measure you had Briscoe and Cru who all had deep ties with Maryland. And yeah Speedball was great too but I wanted Briscoe to get the hot tag. But I get they held off as the point was to make Knight look good which he did, especially with that finish. Oh, and remember what I said about Swerve? Well the same can be said about Hurt Syndicate. They were over as a motherfucker and again the video of the crowd freaking out was aces. I hope it sounded good on TV because the crowd was hot live. I walked around for the Learning Tree stuff because fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck that noise. I did peek in though and saw the TV get smashed so that was fun. As for the main it was good but I was already getting ready for hopefully ROH stuff after Dynamite. The match ends, Joe's hanging around and Caster comes out doing his schtick. Joe basically headbutts him, does a muscle buster and after the "One more time!" chant does one more. I'm getting ready for some ROH goodness when Roberts essentially says "Thanks for coming out! Good night!" I was pretty disappointed yet with Rampage not being a thing can see why they would end it around 10:15. But still, I wanted more ROH and I am cool with Massachusetts yet am not driving all that way for a show. All in all I had a blast with the ROH stuff and first half being the best. If it felt flat to TV viewers I won't argue but it was really fun and there's something about the view I had seeing damn near the whole crowd flip out over certain things.

If you want an example of how these close-up videos are effective look no further than this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_-Rsp0aKbY Right, broken board means broken link so this is Kevin Knight sitting down with Renee after his Dynasty match. I didn't know much about him aside from being a fun wrestler who was in New Japan. But he's tons, tons more than that and this piece made me appreciate him a lot more. I'm curious how he'll be used in AEW but he seems pretty damn great to me.

Bowens on the press conference made it pretty clear he's done with Caster and is moving on. I can see Max having a crisis as the post-show YT exclusives had him barely hanging on after most losses. Who knows what comes out of it though. Also, fuck yeah for Bowens coming back. The guy is incredible and with how he is with the media my hope is the further he's pushed the more visible he becomes. Him at the conference showed it. Also on the conference TK explaining the main was some serious EWR shit. I kind of loved it to be honest.

I am happy to get Dynamite but am begging for a Collision on Saturday. I could have my wife and friends join, there's pre-gaming at Heavy Seas time permitting and we don't have to worry about work. I'm fine with going alone tonight but come on, TK! If I do get anything of note I'll let you know. If they're on the east coast already I'm hoping some of them show up.

Dolfan, we only know so much of either other and there's no way anybody would have known. But using "Hotel California" for a week where I'm going to Dynamite feels oddly fitting. It was my father-in-law's favorite song and still makes us pause when we hear it. You didn't know yet thanks anyway. I have a good feeling about the show. Got a fairly decent seat at a good price, there's some killer cheesesteak place I can't wait to get to and I took a half day tomorrow to sleep in a little. So I'm more than ready for some AEW and ROH goodness.

It's wild seeing the game fully stop like this. Even wilder the reception he's getting on an away game. You'd think it was all Caps fans. I like Ovi a lot and the Caps are pretty much the home team. So really happy to see him break the record.

Aw, man that sucks. I think the world of the guy and when thinking AEW he's one of the top names that comes to mind. It's a torn pec but hopefully he's not out too long.

This Wednesday coming up.

After thinking about it I'm passing on going to this and will do the Baltimore show instead. The card looks good but it doesn't have that exciting part to make me want to pay more than I should on tickets, merch and everything else. I know next week's Dynamite will be the after-effects of Dynasty but I'm sure we'll get Owen matches and it'll be tons cheaper. I'm good for now but hope they do another PPV relatively nearby in the future. Oh, and yes I'll have Dynasty on on Discord for those who want to hop in.

Despite my misgivings about WWE I have a soft spot for NXT. The crowd has its own identity which I love and will continue to love. They kind of remind me of TNA crowds from the first however many years when they would go nuts for damn near everything. But they rarely if ever become obnoxious to me as their excitement adds a lot to the presentation. Also, as an AEW die-hard I have been frustrated by a lack of Ricky for a long time and like Drew felt he deserved more. So I'm happy for him and and while it kind of stings in this case I can get on board with the "Tony fumbled" chant. That said to Gorman's point I wonder if they realize how nobody is being fooled by what WWE is trying to do here. It's gross and considering it's attacking a company that they feel is "beneath them" there's just no point to it all. I'm not implying that AEW is the little company that could or anything but regardless of who it's being done to I don't care for petty bullshit. Switching gears to that LFG show I found those online and kind of like it. They have some people I think will be bona fide stars though they're all green as a motherfucker. And yes Gunther shitting on 'Taker gave me a good chuckle as did seeing Bully's team having no points until this week.

I enjoyed the Mark Davis episode. Dude is very chill and up for anything RJ had in mind. https://youtu.be/y5FOuMpLfnc?feature=shared

I know I said some time ago I wouldn't speak about Saraya again for justified reasons but I just read the article. There's been things known by many (sex tape, bad choice in boyfriends) but that was all I knew about. The article was an eye opener on things I didn't know about. While I hope she doesn't have trash opinions and it was mainly guilty by association (don't want to touch on that here if possible) I feel good about her getting a fresh start. She's had to overcome a lot of demons so all things considered I wish her well.

I couldn't back this fast enough. The book's more than enough for me but it's hard to pass up on the Kingston auto so had to get that one.

I have no opinion of the guy one way or another and I it's different time and everything. But imagine Speedball as Glacier and the gimmick had a chance without the nWo stuff mucking things up. Better yet, all that plus have Glacier debut two or three years earlier. It might have been crazy enough to work.

Catching up it's cool seeing the love for Mark. If he retired after Jay passed I wouldn't blame him but it's almost like he uses that as fuel to keep going on the best he can. Speedball is somebody that showed up 3 decades too late. If he wrestled in the 90s he'd be a big hit with the kids as a midcard act. Heck, I know I would have been super into him especially since I would mix in Van Damme movies along with everything else. But while he's going to still be a hit with kids it's hard to imagine his AEW career taking off like it in theory should. Hope to be proven wrong.

That Toni segment was damn near perfection. It had doubt, championship integrity, challengers looking strong and some damn good camera work that felt inspired. Penelope kicking into frame should be used in every highlight package for her going forward. What's great about AEW is when things are going great it's wonderful and when things aren't as great in certain elements it's worth riding it out and things works itself out. Happy to see people liking what AEW's doing again and both shows were hits for me.

As a teen renting KOTR while in a down point in my middle/high school years this had a huge impact the likes of which I couldn't possibly convey. For about a decade and a half it was all I could associate with the match was how it made me feel. It was was epic, it was awe-inspiring, all that stuff. But when all the talks about CTE came up more often I thought about the match some more and the realities became much more apparent. Mick Foley is a very, very nice guy and I hope he's doing okay for as long as possible. But without him meaning to he is also a tiny, tiny bit of a shitty person for putting his family though this. He felt he had to take these risks yet I wonder how Colette is still with him. I think he realizes now it was not worth it but even saying it was late 90s WWF it's no excuse for somebody not realizing they should think about his it's affecting their family. Also, I know it's late 90s WWF but Vince and company were highly negligent. Not just for allowing the match to continue but also allowing Mick to keep trying to one-up himself by taking these risks for so long. I get they were playing fast and loose back then but again there's no excuse. If god forbid something really serious happened to Mick to end his career and endanger his life Colette could have quite easily and rightfully sued them and put the company in huge trouble. Watching the doc one thing that jumped out was how completely unnecessary the chokeslam was. I didn't realize it then but looking back as a teen the chokeslam did nothing for me, all that mattered was he got up the first time. Looking at it now it was clear he got the desired reaction and didn't need to go back up. So in the end for as smart as Mick can be he was really fucking stupid for wanting to go back up top. It did nothing for the match and only served to further injure him. I have chosen to not watch HITC again. Last time I did in full was maybe 12 years ago and that's enough for me. What's weird is I was trying to see how this justified being a Dark Side episode considering how nice Mick is. But an episode highlighting the need to get noticed by punishing ones body plus the trauma it did to his family justified it after all.

Great show though I want to focus on two promo segments. One segment was a complete waste of time and the other turned out to be pretty darn great. Imagine my surprise to say the waste of time was not related to Mox or the Death Riders. It's been alluded to earlier that while Bill has gotten his life together unless something changed his views are opposite of MVP's. It is what it is but it shouldn't get in the way of being professional. Watching the segment back while I like MVP a lot the first half of the segment felt very personal and unprofessional. It set a tone that made me want to go "I don't want to see this match or these guys on the same screen" Now if all it had was what Bill said after HB got out of the ring then it wouldn't be an issue. But I have to fault MVP on this one though Bill didn't do himself any favors initially. As for the other promo Swerve was saying the right things to sell the match but it lacked the intensity and believability to make it work for me. Then Mox spoke and when Swerve spoke again he had all that and then some. It was a helluva segment and made me want to see to match even if it feels like a foregone conclusion. I also like how it built from Rated FTR banding together with Willow stepping in to now her being there to back up Swerve. She's there for these two title matches and when Mox does get beat odds are she'll be there to see it. Say what you will about DR but Willow being the common thread through all this should up her value all goes well. The rest of show was fucking great. I was amused by how much Callis was there for his men's matches but I can't say I was sick of him. I was also amused by the Callis cosplayer who it appears the cameramen loved as they made sure to get him in the same shot as Don when possible. And if I heard correctly for once the crowd did Caster's chant which was great and also a shame he wasn't in the ring when it happened.

Speaking as somebody who was asked by my wife to make a "Remaster Sonic Adventure 2!" sign I feel...mildly-but-not-really perturbed by this statement. I do think it's better than the Busted Open fatheads. And yes, it was to get my fat ass on Botchamania which mission accomplished thank you very much. I've seen every episode and we watch/love them but there are valid points about what's shown.

You're right, I forgot about the opening match. I saw a rainbow font for Finn but didn't see the stuff on the stage too well. It wasn't until after we left I saw what he did. But yeah that was the best part.

I caught night one of Collision but before this thread closes just had to post this. The Alt Text version of this is it's a video showcasing Megan Bayne then Toni Storm's response. Why am I posting it? Because the combination of Megan being Greek plus Toni going all ancient mythology speaks to me on such an intense level. I'll have to tag Nice Guy Eddie later on mobile but this is the only match I'm looking forward to at Dynasty.