Cobra Commander

feels like a personal foul against a linebacker is gonna come up when Norvell essentially says "the refs screwed us and didn't let us play football" in the postgame

Rams running a pro-style defense. That pro-style being the bounty-era New Orleans Saints.

Rams have a kicker older than the average NFL player

Jay Norvell did some work to help this weekend’s slate of games

probably could have used a better word than "inherited" because I meant "it's a Peacock thing" too Network needs a Walker Texas Ranger lever to just watch the most random stuff at any moment

somebody is gonna figure how to use the NIL money to get the 19 year olds who can kick footballs to go to the big schools

Okay, cool, I found a station on RadioGarden that's streaming Alabama/USF. I had to pull myself away from an Alabama oldies AM station that's playing Big Band era music right now. Not sure how much of the CFB radio culture still exists since they actually started airing games on TV.

also Iowa State loses to Ohio, doesn't feel like it's gonna be a good season for the Clones

flashback to the end of Mizzou/K-State: timeout to ice the kicker, I wonder "why would you need to ice a guy trying to kick a 61 yard field goal"... then he makes the kick easily there was one miss in Dawgs/Cocks (Georgia/SC) that was one of those "hey why do top programs still struggle with field goal kicking" moments. Yeah there's a few solid theories in play

I wasn't watching a lot of pandemic-era WWE (as i've certainly typed before) but i'm guessing NXT UK might be the most 'normal' looking empty arena shows that the WWE did, at least if you compare a dark studio to the lit up thunderdome shows. But before that, there's no shortage of WWE shows that the boss really wasn't paying attention to for guys to try developing characters. A lot of that is probably on the network too. Also as noted before, I didn't have the network until Peacock, so I can't hate it in comparison to the Network since I didn't use the network, but the things I notice that they could fix (but likely won't) are that (a) the season formatting, which they inherited, isn't great for the annual events and (b) the sorting of various events in the ALL page is inconsistent. Some events will be under the promotion name and others aren't. But if they're not really inclined to fix that after 2 years, then. Probably for the best to not make them think "hey, how many people are watching wXw on this thing anyways"

At least the sequence of events with backstage footage at Wembley means that there’s a logical reason to air future backstage segments from “backstage security cameras” which will explain why there’s a camera catching that’s happening

Also, would it be accurate to guess that the WWE announcers have moved away from talking about how Noam Dar is driven by his fandom of Oasis in the 7 years post-CWC? I know that Dar is still around. But yeah, Daniel Bryan was excellent in his role of "recently retired player who does color commentary for his former team"

and let's watch some more wrestling, from a place that has a lot less flying than the CWC.. it's late 1983 Mid-South Mid-South Wrestling (10/29/1983) Boyd Pierce gets a long introduction this week. Bill Watts has returned from a meeting of the "Mid-South Board of Directors" in Tampa, Florida. There's shocking news and a landmark decision. Two weeks ago, we had a runoff election between Doogan and the Dog to decide who would wrestle Butch Reed and the Dog won. But Butch Reed wanted to wrestle Magnum TA instead. JYD looks gigantic in that refs shirt (he's bulking up to face those heels) and JYD sacrificed himself to protect TA. JYD popped Butch Reed and TA wins the North American Title. Last week, Nicolai Volkoff challenged Magnum TA and said if he didn't win the North American title, he's leave America, but TA didn't have the authority to make this match. So we're now in part two of this lesson on the power of sanctioning bodies. Volkoff beat TA for the North American title in New Orleans last week. But before finally hear about the decision, here's Nicolai Volkoff's victory interview. Note that it's Nicolai according to the graphics. The decision: Champions can't make their own matches because that would be absurd and we can't have absurdity in this sport. Second, the fans picked the Dog. Volkoff has been stripped of the North American Title. TA's title win is also annuled. So Butch Reed gets the title back, and he's gonna wrestle JYD. With a special troubleshooting referee. Sure are placing a lot of authority in a verbal fan vote, aren't we. Anyways, that's 12 minutes of a 42 minute show right there. Did you take notes about the lessons about sanctioning bodies and picking opponents and the oral contract of the fans who picked the Junkyard Dog over 3 other contenders. There'll be an exam later. So we're gonna get Butch Reed vs Junk Yard Dog right now. At least that was 12 minutes well spent. We have two referees in the ring but there'll be a third very special referee and it's Dusty Rhodes who just strolls in quietly in a hat and jacket. Dusty is wearing jeans and a DUSTY t-shirt for the occasion. JYD looks pretty well put together when he's next to Dusty in a white shirt. Apparently this title can change hands by DQ so Butch doesn't have incentive to get disqualified. So many chin locks so far. Dusty and JYD collide as Dusty comes off the ropes and Dusty bumps out to the floor. Butch goes to the top rope because the ref is out but gets slammed. There's Jim Neidhart but Dusty gets back into the ring, Neidhart is dispatched. JYD slams Butch Reed, Dusty gets impressive hangtime jumping to get in position for the pin and JYD is the North American champion. Next up, Max The Missing Link vs Magnum TA: Apparently The Missing Link's first name went missing over the years. Link doing some non-headbutt moves. Watts talking about the freestyle/greco-roman credentials of the Belly to Belly Suplex. The Missing Link goes to the top rope but TA catches him with an unusually gentle belly to belly variant as he's coming down and gets the win. Nicolai Volkoff vs Jerry Oates: Nicolai has a bag of American wheat which is current for the time. Jerry Oates has a stellar head of hair. Nicolai is so mad over being stripped of the North American title that he has a bag of wheat. It's a symbolic protest and it's more tasteful than having a toy airplane with KAL-OO7 on it. Nicolai Volkoff wins after slamming Oates like a bag of wheat. Wheat. Surely that won't lead to any heat angles soon. Tom Stanton vs The Iceman King Parsons: Tom Stanton looks like a guy who is running a scam to get women to pose nude for his modelling company. Of all the companies, this is the one that wants to make sure you remember that his first name is King. He's called the Iceman because he worked with Ice to put himself through college (Lincoln, which is in the same conference as the school I graduated from, until 2024 when they'll leave again). It looks like Iceman barely has enough hair to put in braids. The unnamed Butt Butt wins the match and Boyd Pierce is there to explain it even if Bill doesn't know what the move is called. Jim Neidhart and Bobby Duncum vs Marty Oates and Mike Bond: Not sure if Neidhart looks more or less deranged with more hair. Jim Neidhart looks a little like Tank Abbott around this time. Apparently Jim Neidhart is disparaging how Jim Duggan dresses and acts which is certainly an angle. Neidhart pins Bond with a nice looking Samoan Drop. Doug Vines vs King Cobra: We got multiple Kings on this show this week. Next week it's Dusty and Doogan vs Reed and Neidhart for the Mid-South Tag Team Titles. Cobra pins Vines with a flying headscissors where he hooked the leg. Which is creative-looking. I know the side headscissors have pretty much been a dead art due to ranas but that looks like something that could still be used by someone instead of the usual sunset flip/sunset flip reversal pinning combinations. So, I can see how the takeaway from watching this promotion is that they lacked guys that women would want to fuck (The exact phrase being "Where are the blowjobs"). There's a lot of beef on this roster in late 1983. Maybe leaning a bit hard on the bosses favorite kind of wrestler.

Looking at Wikipedia and yeah, ZSJ didn't debut in New Japan until post-CWC so his biggest non-UK fed would be NOAH post-Misawa. Probably possible that CMLL moved ahead of AAA for quality/visibility at times too after AAA's early surge. The whole thing sorta worked out to be Kota Ibushi's Summer Vacation, didn't it?

In my Cruiserweight Classic stream of thoughts, I mentioned the idea of hitting backfists instead of chops. It appears I accidentally lifted an idea from Redneck Kung Fu no idea if Redneck Great Muta could spit tobacco like a deadly mist

hopefully somebody is able to tell us that they're having the best day of their life during the Memphis Collison

hopefully none of the talent is late on arriving to the FedExForum due to a faulty weather forecast by Dave Brown The Weather Clown (yes, I know that Dave retired from the TV news)

if Kevin Dunn didn't bail out with a giant bag of money like the other execs did this week, then nothings gonna make him quit and I gotta figure he's reasonably protected compared to the normal WWE FO person since his main patron is on the board. Dunn might be way more invested in his fiefdom than some of the other execs are. Sorta like how some execs who grew up poor operate differently from execs who've always been rich.

I'm guessing the "we're still paying (X) to be part of the staff/employees" people did not fare well during the Murders and Executions process of the WWE/UFC merger

Might as well charge to the finish line for this before I forget WWE Cruiserweight Classic, Week 8 The quarterfinals begin tonight. Mauro and Bryan really working this tournament like your local sports team announcers. Which is a compliment. This week has Tozawa/Metalik and Ibushi/Kendrick. Akira Tozawa vs Gran Metalik: An early reminder that this tournament is taking place in it's own universe with a mention of CMLL as "the oldest professional wrestling promotion on the planet". These two gel really well, nice matwork. Loved the dropkick hitting Tozawa as he hit the ropes. Awesome suicide dive by Metalik. Metalik doing a non-spinning toe hold figure four that it takes a moment to get called. Tozawa dropkicks Metalik in the back on a handspring which rules. Tozawa with a suicide dive. This match rules. Tozawa with another suicide dive. The "you hit me, I hit you" exchange makes me wonder how many people are insane enough to do backfists instead of chops. Kinda wild that a casual standing shooting star press can exist and make sense but it does. Nice big dive by Metalik. Nice rana off of the ropes by Metalik. The setup for Tozawa's deadlift German makes me think at least one of those dudes doing a Camel Clutch in 2023 should use their Camel Clutch setup for a German Suplex. Metalik wins with the Screw Driver. This match ruled. This match ruled. I'm not keeping track of how good I really think the matches are but this might be the best match i've seen from the CWC so far. If not, it's close. Brian Kendrick vs Kota Ibushi: Kendrick starts this match by acting like a shithead, which fits him. Kendrick eats an Ibushi moonsault to the outside quickly. Kendrick keeps acting like a shit by trying to trap Ibushi's foot in the rail. Kendrick working this match like a baseball pitcher using an emery board out in the open. A neckbreaker over the turnbuckle is creative. Brian Kendrick working this like a sleazy dude who ended up in the Bloodsport tournament. Nice kick to the face and Sliced Bread by Kendrick. That German Suplex over the ropes was fucking insane looking. Ibushi escapes that crossface and kicks out of a burning hammer. Yeah boys, we just did a burning hammer in a WWE Network exclusive quarterfinal match. Now it's time for Ibushi to hit some bombs. Ibushi misses a splash, gets in the crossface, counters, and Ibushi wins it with a powerbomb. This was also good. A bit grittier than the first match. Kendrick worked the match like he bet the money allocated for his child's medical treatments on beating Kota Ibushi. A handshake and a hug at the end because in this tournament, there aren't faces and heels, just dudes and a few random punchable dudes doing hot movez. Brian Kendrick gets his chant and Daniel Bryan walks down to hug him. WWE Cruiserweight Classic, Week 9 This week, we got ZSJ/Noam Dar and Rich Swann/TJP. Good luck to those 4 after Week 8. Zack Sabre Jr vs Noam Dar: ZSJ had a very jolly red nose for a moment during the prematch hype packages. The early-on in this match is kinda like Zack Sabre Jr vs Zack Sabre Jr's little brother. Interesting limb work, like ZSJ is the world's gawkiest Anderson family member working the arm. Nice half nelson suplex counter to Dar's taunt. Nice backslide counter to a ZSJ uppercut by Dar. Some real neat counters in this match. Double stomps off the top always kinda look lame but doing a double stomp to the leg looks a lot more dangerous. Some authentic drama with ZSJ since he looks like a guy who might get hurt because he's not wearing knee/elbow pads in a WWE ring. ZSJ wins with a Rings of Saturn variation that looked killer. I could see some people not digging this because it sorta went through the weeds in the styles of choice but this was pretty cool and Noam looked much better here than in his first two matches. ZSJ still looks punchable. Rich Swann vs TJ Perkins: I don't remember Raw being the exclusive home of the Cruiserweights but that'll be the case as of September 19th. I'm guessing it didn't really last long in any serious form or fashion because this was mid-2010s WWE. Having Rich Swann be miffed at someone showboating back to him is sorta relatable real sports stuff. Like a pitcher getting miffed at batflips while also celebrating every strikeout. Started a little slow and sped up. Nice flip to the floor that caught nothing followed by a sliding kick. All four of these quarterfinal matches have worked within their own ecosystems. This one seems a little more methodical than the others. But if you actually do legwork that they're selling, the match will be slower. Using a top rope rana to advance the knee work is creative. Well, hopping around is one way to lead into a kneebar neartap spot (do they have a word for nearfall submission spots?). Neat Tiger Driver with a jackknife cover. You could cite the legwork to note all sorts of things here like the height of Swann's jumps. Perkins wins with another kneebar. If this wasn't the 4th match of an impressive run, maybe I like it more. I liked the first 3 matches of the quarterfinal more than this match. But this was a pretty peril-heavy sort of match. Having Swann sell his leg to the point of not hitting the ropes was good. Nothing wrong with this match but the main foundation of the match kinda kept this velocity of this one down compared to the other matches. Kinda goes against type for all the cruiserweight wrestling that got big here in the 90s to have kneebar finishes. It makes sense but it's the mixed martial arts version of cruiserweight wrestling, if that phrasing makes any sense. One more to go WWE Cruiserweight Classic, Week 10 They have a big trophy for this one, which is better than giving the winner a Mid-South Television Title medallion. Holy hell, just realized this is double the length of the other episodes. Well, it is the final week, so. The Semifinals are Metalik vs ZSJ and Ibushi vs TJP. Or as Mauro calls them "The Fantastic Four" (is that riskier than calling them the Final Four?) Gran Metalik vs Zack Sabre Jr: Meanwhile in the outside world, Kevin Owens has thrown his support behind Zack Sabre Jr. Slight difference in styles between Owens and ZSJ. Quicckk start by Metalik to get this going. Hey there's at least two ZSJ Mexico matches which both happened after this tournament. ZSJ vs Negro Navarro and ZSJ vs Daga both in 2017. I get the sense that ZSJ could be a menacing octopus compared to a lot of guys working in Mexico. Some of these Dragon Sleeper setups we've seen in the tournament have been a little "slip on this banana peel and fall backwards into a dragon sleeper". Easily reversible corner charges, we got easily reversible corner charges. Got some "I hit you, you hit me" with both of them on their knees on multiple occasions. Nice rana off of the ropes. Metalik springboards into a triangle and flips out of it. Metalik beats Sabre with the Screw Driver to advance to the finals. This match wasn't quite as good as their quarterfinals matches (high standard) and it probably could have been longer. But it was reasonably good and I was surprised by the Metalik win. William Regal shows up to give Metalik a medal. I swear I did not expect that when I made the Mid-South TV Title Medallion joke. "Cruiserweights arrive on Raw this Monday" - yeah, this didn't last long, did it? Kota Ibushi vs TJ Perkins: Probably a good idea to keep the trophy out of the range of the ring so that nobody dives into it. Ibushi escaping an early attempted kneebar and looking disappointed in TJ for trying that. That was a dangerous-looking presumably safe bump by Ibushi getting kicked on the ass to reverse a moonsault to the outside and falling to the floor. Nice rana counter by Ibushi. Nice moonsault dive. Neartap situation with a TJP kneebar (moonsault countered with a knee before the kneebar). That German Suplex over the ropes spot looks more bonkers facing the hard cam than it looked with Kendrick/Ibushi on the other side of the ring. Perkins hitting some real bombs to get nearfalls. Moonsault kick countered into a kneebar. Ibushi looks agonized about the idea of tapping but he gets out of it. The inner Gorilla Monsoon in all of us would comment about leaving the shoulders untouched by the cover in that Ubushi powerbomb. That missed Phoenix Splash looked nifty. Lots of big movez. Kneebar into a crossface and Ibushi taps to send TJ Perkins to the finals. That was a little more epic than Metalik/ZSJ. So the two finalists both happen to be either on their way to the WWE or about to be there very soon post-tournament. Guessing that Ibushi doesn't use the Dan Severn "i'll job to people with shoot creds" approach to determine who he jobs to in this tournament (TJ being a New Japan Dojo guy in his teens and all). Mauro and Bryan consider this a huge upset, I'd argue that Metalik over ZSJ was a big upset too. TJ Perkins also gets a medal from William Regal. You can tell that this is in a different universe since Gran Metalik is watching a TV monitor like a normal person. Oh yes, we got a Noam Dar and Cedric Alexander vs DIY match on this show too. Man, that Noam Dar Scottish Israeli accent is something. Noted big wrestling show watcher Sasha Banks is here! Kalisto is here! Rich Swann is here! Jack Gallagher is taking time off of sexpestery! Bayley is here! It's like Starrcade 1997 in a way. Noam Dar and Cedric Alexander vs DIY: I believe this is the unofficial "let the finalists catch their breath" match. But it should still be an NXT style battle so my expectations for movez are high. I didn't have WWE Network until sometime around when they gave all the Xfinity people Peacock in 2021, so a lot of DIY stuff that only aired on the Network is new to me. Nice dive by Alexander. Nice baseball slide counter to a handspring elbow. My display driver stopped displaying for a moment because I used the same descriptor one too many times. Well, Noam's trying at least but some of this stuff isn't quite hitting. Love that forearm/clothesline by Alexander. Okay, Noam's doing better in a strikes exchange. Noam trapped Ciampa in the corner for a like a minute and then we get some fun between Cedric and Ciampa. DIY hitting some NXT Strong Style. Nice lawn dart into a turnbuckle and Ciampa pins Dar for the win. I guess having Noam Dar in this match so he can eat the fall makes sense. Story Time, coming in November! (of 2016). Also Holy Foley! Hey, while you're watching this, watch other stuff too! Over 6000 Hours of Classics, which is only 250 days if you watch it all in order. William Regal comes into the booth to talk about the tournament and he towers over the rest of the booth and you don't usually think of William Regal as being a massive but here he is. Corey Graves has escaped the Events Center and he's gonna talk a little bit too as we stall for time before the tournament finals. Also we get a flashback to earlier in this episode. TJ Perkins vs Gran Metalik for All The Cruiserweight Classic Glory: But before these guuys actually wrestle, here's Papa Triple H to make an entrance to give us a pep talk. Also the winner of this match will be the new WWE Cruiserweight Champion and there's a belt to prove it. Man, that trophy just got Wally Pipped. This match starts off with some headscissors action. The pendulum would be a fun spot for a world where we didn't know that it was bad to repeatedly bang your head against the mat. Nice suicide dive by Metalik. That ringwalk springboard senton was neat. That Perkins rana from the ring to the floor was cool. Another cool dive by Metalik. That springboard elbow looks pretty good. We get another missed splash/submission move sequence. You'd think by now they'd know to avoid missing splashes. Not sure if Metalik got dropkicked in the knee or he flipped to avoid it because it didn't look like that came close to making contact. Both of these guys have firemans carry setups to their big moves so watch out. Convenient that TJ can just go to a kneebar if he doesn't get the pin with his big stomachbuster move. Metalik escapes the submission moves and gets a nearfall. Screwdriver but his knee hurt so that's a kickout by TJ. In a way, makes a lot of sense to have a cruiserweight title tournament with lots of legwork when you consider all the highflyers who had their knees get fucked over time. So many kicks while on the turnbuckle or near the ropes. TJ avoids a Superscrewdriver and locks in another kneebar. Metalik taps and TJ Perkins is the new WWE Cruiserweight Champion, a championship that is now lineally held by Dominik Mysterio provided you ignore the vacancies over time. We got 7 minutes from the finish to the end of this episode. Assuming that they don't have a standby match ready like it's Shreveport in 1983. Triple H puts the belt on TJ Perkins, The trophy feels lonely and unloved. Handshakes with Metalik. A 31 match tournament with sportsmanship and clean finishes and no chicanery or nonsense and lots of kneebars. And in the fine mid-2010s WWE tradition, it doesn't really lead to anything except memories. Man, TJ got marked up a bit during all this. So, that was a fun 10 episodes of action. I'd imagine it was well received at the time and he probably aged pretty well all things considered.

turns out that game was also one of the worst UmpScorecards ever with Home Plate Ump Angel Hernandez missing a lot of ball/strike calls

If "Christian insults dead fathers" was booked by either Vince, wouldn't it end up with the reveal that Christian's father was dead and him being unable to handle the barbz or something goofy like that

nice to see Braun Strowman's dad is still working

Is that the wrestling shirt most likely to be sold at a Spencer’s?

If major wrestling promotions actually did trades with each other, then Wardlow getting traded to the WWE to fill roles like “guy replacing Braun Strowman in the Braun/Ricochet team”. Although being billed at 6’3” in AEW is perceived as taller than being billed at 6’3” in WWE. He might be hit with a case of Mike Awesomeitis in the WWE. I don’t really watch NXT but when there’s a guy like Wardlow who has been working for nearly a decade, would putting him in NXT be more about figuring out what he brings before you put him on a bigger show or improving specific things to get him on other shows? I’d think he would seem like a monster compared to some of the NXT roster. As long as he doesn’t get tethered to the Miz because that might be too familiar of a spot for a few reasons