Cobra Commander

Some games, the Chiefs defense has a way of disappearing until the other team reaches the red zone. It's possible some of the Chiefs defensive strength involves other teams offensive flaws in the red zone The Lions fake punt probably set the expectations too high so where going for a fake punt deep on the wrong side of the field and punting at any other team doesn't make sense. Same sort of thing went on with Andy kicking field goals and then going for it on 4th and 25 Before tonight, the only times the Chiefs lost starting Mahomes in a game where they gave up 21 or less were two games vs the Colts. The Colts weren't good in either of those years (2019 or 2022). Fortunately for the Chiefs, they don't play the Colts this year

Tonight wasn't great for the "Chris Jones is holding out waiting to get paid because of how the Chiefs defense plays without him" strategy since.. well... the Chiefs defense gave up 14 points tonight after a 2022 where they gave up 22 a game.. but I figure the two sides aren't gonna bend after one game Chiefs lost because they had no playmakers for Mahomes to throw to and a coach who was mortally scared to go for it in short yardage. At least one of those things will likely correct itself before the year is over because the offense is Mahomes to Kelce and every other receiver is just a side condiment that you go to when Kelce isn't a realistic target Andy has always been a little too conservative and tonight he didn't trust Mahomes to make something of the 7 dwarves that were receivers tonight So a championship hangover being what it is. The Chiefs will probably win like 12 instead of 15 with a 6-0 record vs the AFC West. As for the Lions.. well, they're slightly better than a Chiefs team that didn't have Kelce.. so that's... a 10-7 team? I don't know. Will Dan Campbell punt in almost every short yardage spot for 17 games?

I'm sure there were some children who thought that Neidhart and Pillman were Canadians in 1997 (or Phil Furnas during the period of time when Furnas/LaFon where aligned with the Harts)

how long has Power been back on YouTube? (knowing how little I pay attention, there's probably like 2 years of it back on YouTube or something) Also... while I'm not asking for it to be as good as the late 2019/early 2020 run.. is Power at least somewhat worthwhile to watch now or does the promotion still kinda comparatively stink? The Outrunners are a good team to have around for the purposes of having something entertaining on the show so..

There aren't any day baseball games today despite it being a Thursday, which is an abomination. So let's get to work on... WWE Cruiserweight Classic, Week 5 Welcome to Round 2. Gonna be interesting to see how much filler are in episodes that go 50ish minutes with 2 matches. Maybe the stated time limits will factor into some drama for a match. During the first round, it was 20 minutes and nobody really threatened to use all 20 minutes. Anyways, we start with some words from Gran Metalik and Tajiri. Gran Metalik vs Tajiri: Man, Tajiri's just having fun having someone to do lucha matwork with in 2016. Nice somersault by Metalik to the outside. Is there a huge cache of quality Veteran Presence Tajiri matches from Japan that we're not watching? Metalik gets to do his stuff and Tajiri finds the openings for his favorite spots. Metalik beats Tajiri with the (Googles) Metalik Screw Driver. I'm sure Tajiri enjoyed spending his 40s working around Japan but he really should have worked even more with these guys. I mean, I know why he would prefer living in Japan over being the oldest guy on 205 Live, but Tajiri would have good matches with at least 25 of the 31 other competitors in this tournament and we only get to see him face two guys. Meanwhile in the outside world: Balor vs Rollins at Summerslam Got the prematch words from Cedric Alexander and Kota Ibushi. Kota Ibushi vs Cedric Alexander: Time to see what happens in the next installment of Kota Ibushi's Summer Vacation. This match is fun as one would expect. Wow, that dive sequence with the miss by Ibushi and the hit by Alexander. Love the Ibushi flip sell for that flying clothesline. For as much as the WWE probably used this tournament as trials for some non-WWE guys, some of the WWE employed guys in this tournament really show that they would be very good if they went to Japan (upon checking Wikipedia, I find that this tournament got Cedric signed with the WWE so, um... nevermind the preceding). We got a reminder of the time limit for the first time in the tournament. Awesome Ibushi dive. Alexander countering the top rope rana and powerbomb and gettong some frantic near falls on Ibushi. Didn't know they hadn't yet banned the Brainbuster by 2016. Ibushi hits a German Suplex and wins with the Powerbomb in a pretty cool match. Once again the NCAA Tournament committee with some questionable seeding to have this match go so early. Cedric Alexander is still around the WWE and he made it through the cutback times. But if he ever needed to make money in Japan, he would be able to make it. Week 5 is Tozawa vs Gallagher, Noam Dar vs Hoho Lun and Kendrick vs Nese. Probably a good idea to put 3 matches on that show instead of two matches. Ian Rotten Our buddy Hunter walks out to congratulate Cedric Alexander as he approaches the entrance. Onward.. WWE Cruiserweight Classic, Week 6 Let's get some words from Jack Gallagher and Akira Tozawa. Akira Tozawa vs Jack Gallagher: A shame that pasty dork was also a sex pest. But what's life without having the occasional internet favorites end up being awful people. Hey, here's some British wrestling schtick and some actual cool looking things too. Even without the 'problems' with Gallagher, he does work a style where it would make sense for his opponents to get irritated and want to smack his chest until it was bright red (hey there's a five way with Gallagher and Walter that happened once). Tozawa wins with a very dramatic German Suplex in an ending that probably wasn't popular then. But hey, trust the process. Meanwhile in the outside world: Brock Lesnar! Randy Orton! Summerslam is this Sunday! Noam Dar and Hoho Lun with some comments. Noam Dar vs Hoho Lun: Well, the expectations aren't high for this pairing after their first round matches. How unimpressed must you be with your upper body (or how impressed must the WWE be) to be working in a t-shirt in this tournament. Got some neat enough looking moves with the dragon screw and the kicks. Watching 1982 Mid-Atlantic last night put me in the mood to want these 2016 Cruiserweights to randomly unleash shinbreakers during their legwork. That half crab with a head-step looks mean. Nice Michinoku Driver from Hoho followed by a Fisherman's Suplex. Noam Dar wins with a knee bar. Well, that was better than their first round matches, maybe the other guy was the problems early. Or Daniel Bryan's story about jetlag (that he only uses for the guys from Hong Kong and not Ibushi) was actually true for Hoho. Alright... I can maybe watch Rugby World Cup on Peacock Do you want comments from Brian Kendrick and Tony Nese? well tough because you're gonna get comments. Brian Kendrick vs Tony Nese: Brian Kendrick looks the most like a pirate of anybody in this tournament. Cool looking somersault evasion by Nese on the apron. Hey these two noticed how large the turnbuckle pads were and decided to do a "hand is stuck in the turnbuckle" spot. Once again, another flub by the NCAA to have these two go so early because this is an awesome pairing. Nice Matrix avoidance by Nese. Nese looks kinda scuzzy but he looks normal next to Kendrick. This is the closest thing this tournament will get to a brawl between two local Ecstasy dealers. Cool counter with Kendrick hitting knees trying to block a suplex. Nice counter of Kendrick's choke into a cradle by Nese. Yeah Kendrick seems like he would headbutt a dude in a fight. Nese misses the 450, Kendrick picks him in the crossface and gets the win. An old woman in the crowd is impressed by the action she didn't know she was getting into by attending this taping. Kendrick looks like Justin Timberlake if Justin made a few different decisions in life. Oh yeah, we're getting Kendrick and Ibushi in a few episodes which should be really fun How about another one? WWE Cruiserweight Classic, Week 7 The line up for this one, Lince Dorado/Swann, ZSJ/Gulak, Gargano/Perkins Lince Dorado and Rich Swann say things Rich Swann vs Lince Dorado: Oh yeah, Lince Dorado is the wrestler who had a feud with Izzy's dad. Rejecting tests to strength to do a dance taunt, followed by getting dropkicked out of the ring and taunted. Nice dive. Pretty good back and forth but they were doing these camera angle changes on strike exchanges as early as 2016? Dorado misses a Shooting Star Press and Swann wins with the Phoenix Splash. Meanwhile in the outside world: The Revival beat Gargano and Ciampa at NXT Takeover. How will this result impact the result a match taped a month before Takeover? We will see! Prematch video package of Drew Gulak and Zack Sabre Jr Zack Sabre Jr vs Drew Gulak: No handshake from Drew Gulak, that's minus 10 Code of Honor points. For how some thought ZSJ didn't look threatening enough in 2016, he made up for it by stepping on hands in a move or two. Love the taunt after a slap that got him hit in the face. Gnarly looking Gory Special. Makes me wonder if Rick Bolton ever brought his trick shoulder to Texas to take the Gory Special. This is a matchup for arms being twisted in unnatural ways. Neat complex pinning combo by ZSJ. Palm strike exchanges aren't any more goofy than all the other strike exchanges that get done constantly. ZSJ avoids the Dragon Sleeper and wins with an elaborate pinning move. Hey ZSJ vs Noam Dar in a few. Okay. Drew Gulak is still angry and does the bare minimum handshake. ZSJ is pretty good at being a heel who acts like he's not a complete dickhead. Like if ZSJ was an American, he would be the captain of the football team (then again, maybe they have captains of football teams in British High Schools too) TJ Perkins and Johnny Gargano appear in their video packages. 24 matches into this, I think I can tell you that I don't actually listen to what's being said in the video packages. If they actually show what they say in matches, I might notice. If they don't, I won't. I'm flying blind in a lot of these matches, like how I went to an NXT show in April 2017 without actually watching NXT. Johnny Gargano vs TJ Perkins: I think Johnny Gargano is a pretty good approximation of what would happen if you combined Ashton Kutcher and Sean William Scott. Nice spear through the ropes from Gargano. Gum spit after a kick. Powerbomb that turns into a double pin. This is NXT Strong Style. Gargano flips directly into the timekeepers table(?) that is very close to the ring. Time for TJ Perkins to hit some bombs. Gargano's crossface has a real "Hey Buddy" placement of his opponent's left arm behind Gargano's head. I guess the turnbuckles have to be large to deal with all the offense that involves throwing dudes directly into turnbuckle pads. Gargano gets caught in a knee bar, fights for a little and then taps out and TJ Perkins advances. The final 8 matchups are.. Tozawa vs Gran Metalik Noam Dar vs Zack Sabre Jr Kota Ibushi vs Brian Kendrick TJ Perkins vs Rich Swann If I had to guess, I'd guess that the final four is Tozawa/ZSJ/Ibushi/Perkins. But this tournament has had a certain degree of unpredictability that goes beyond me not knowing who was getting pushed in 2016. Like I was expecting Gargano to beat Perkins and possibly win the tournament but then he loses to Perkins. So, I guess i'll find out if they put together this whole tournament to put two non-WWE guys in the finals, or which combo of WWE vs non-WWE is the finals matchup. Don't tell me what's gonna happen, I have 3 weeks left. I'll get back to this later.

Luke Harper and Mike Shaw have to be up there for guys who could pass as Southerners (looks-wise) who were practically Canadians (Harper from Rochester and Mike Shaw from the Upper Peninsula) Ronnie Garvin would be the king of "Guys who could pass as Southerners but were actually Canadians" list

Yeah that makes sense too. It could serve two purposes with one of them involving getting guys enough TV time to be confident enough to be able to do local market promos in the future For some very obvious reasons, you can kinda see a lot of the 1985/86 JCP WCW episodes from how these JCP Mid-Atlantic episodes were put together a few years earlier. Like the whole "everybody cuts promos on the main storylines" thing that was all over 1985/86 wasn't just a Dusty thing?

Brief notes on Mid-Atlantic Wrestling (9/11/1982) Jos LeDuc and Bad Bad Leroy Brown destroy Jimmy Vailiant's cassette player to kick off the show. It's personal now. Valiant beats Juan Reynosa in a squash. He's also in his FM 100 tights. Jos LeDuc and Leroy Brown take on Mike Rotundo and Kelly Kiniski. Humperdink spends his time talking about what could happen if Mike Rotundo joined the House of Humperdink. LeDuc pins Kiniski with a nice looking side backbreaker. Jim Dalton and Ben Alexander get promo time and Jim Dalton talks about how all the babyfaces are loses who don't work as hard as him and that they're losers. Jim Dalton looks like a country singer who openly hates John Denver while John Denver has no idea who he is. Greg Valentine and Paul Jones vs Wahoo McDaniel and Jack Brisco! Wahoo and Valentine hitting each other is a good test of the studio mics. This was a pretty good match with some fun spots that descended into a schmozz. Brisco sitting up while applying the figure four to avoid Valentine's elbow drop was neat. You see both versions of how to apply the Figure Four between Valentine and Brisco. If you wanna see these four beating each other to a conclusion, you gotta buy a ticket. Got a line of babyface interviews with Jimmy Valiant, Ricky Steamboat, Jack Brisco, and Wahoo McDaniel. Why yes there are matches with the tag team of Jimmy Valiant and Ricky Steamboat around this time. Ricky Steamboat takes on The Gladiator. "I don't go anywhere without some big meat around me" - Oliver Humperdink without context. Steamboat unmasks the Gladiator midmatch and pins him. Ken Timbs is the Gladiator here for the record. King Parsons and Keith Larson get interview time. Keith Larson tests the limits of letting literally anybody on the show get interview time (I can see the reason why they'd put almost anybody on TV to do interviews because how would you know which people are good at interviews if not). Parsons is very disappointed in Leroy Brown and he's better on the mic than Keith Larson. Gene Anderson takes on Keith Larson. Okay, Jim Dalton isn't the oldest looking wrestler on a show where Gene Anderson is still working. Gotta love when running a dude chest-first into the ropes was a setup to a neckbreaker finish. I think Humperdink is managing every heel in this promotion right now. So he gets more mic time with Greg Valentine, Paul Jones, and Gene Anderson. Paul Jones claims the Indian Deathlock was invented by a white man from Texas to beat Indians. He's a heel and heels do lie after all. Well, that was an hour of 80s wrestling TV

reading posts saying that Adnan Al-Kaissie passed away

and to change things up a little from Europeans beating the hell out of each other in the BT Sports studios The WWE Cruiserweight Classic, Week 1 We get a video package to explain a little bit about why this is going on, narrated by former WCW Cruiserweight Triple H Our commentators are Daniel Bryan (whatever happened to him) and Mauro Ranallo. It's possible Vince has never seen any of these episodes so this is like a radio station owned by a soulless corporation with enough of a staff to do uncorporate things on Sunday evenings. Corey Graves is also here to explain the concept of what's gonna go on. Gotta love the graphics packages utilized here. We get some comments from Gran Metalik and Alejandro Saez. Gran Metalik vs Alejandro Saez: Saez has the ring style of "striking", like this is early UFC and there's a few random dudes who showed up to compete. Not sure if anybody will show up representing "Pit Fighting". Saez is also the larger of the two. Nice counter to the flip by Saez. Charles Robinson is refereeing this match. Saez has a tic of looking around at nothing in particular like he thinks the NWO is about to run in and ruin the match or he's a cat. Metalik with a nice dive. Nice shooting star press off the apron by Saez. Metalik spikes Saez with a fireman's carry into a Michinoku driver for the win. Some words from Ariya Daivari and Hoho Lun. Hoho Lun vs Ariya Daivari: The font used here doesn't really do the 5'7" guys any favors with how the 7s look like 1s. They use the actual Iranian flag (there are reasons why Iranian-Americans don't use that flag). Is the WWE Network or Peacock allowed in Iran anyways? Daivari is noticeably larger and he has a nice running kneelift. You can tell that this exists in it's own universe since Mauro is namedropping Japanese wrestlers. Nice kicks from both guys. Rolling Elbow by Daivari leads to a missed Frog Splash. Hoho Lun wins with a German Suplex July 19th! The Draft! Smackdown moves to Tuesday Nights! (in case you need a context clue for when this happened. We're in 2016) Got some words from Clement Petiot and Cedric Alexander Clement Petiot vs Cedric Alexander: As you might be able to figure out from the name, Clement Petiot is a French fellow. Cedric Alexander's entrance gets some of the fans off of their feet. Some nice wrestling early. I liked the gutwrench suplex and the the shoulderblock into the corner by Petiot. Nice springboard forearm/clothesline by Alexander. Nice flip from Alexander taking a clothesline. Alexander wins with a gnarly back suplex into a backbreaker. A few words from Kota Ibushi (hey i've heard of that guy) and Sean Maluta Kota Ibushi vs Sean Maluta: Ibushi with a kick to the ass to start this off. Nice missile dropkick from Ibushi. The Exploder looks good. Ibushi selling that knee to the face off the ropes by flipping onto his head. Interesting dive by Maluta. Good neckbreaker by Maluta as it's his time to show some stuff. But it's Ibushi time to show some kicks and a standing moonsault. Pretty cool nearfall to tease Maluta winning. Maluta does some kicks but that just opens the door to Ibushi to finish off the match which he does with a powerbomb. It's been 7 years and Maluta hasn't worked in Japan, clearly because Japan's scared of him (or the stars just haven't aligned with Maluta working mostly in Pennsylvania and Florida these days) And that's week 1. How about.. The WWE Cruiserweight Classic, Week 2 People on Twitter noticed week 1 back in 2016 and some of them got their Tweets on the air. Tajiri vs Damien Slater: Nice counter off the ropes by Slater. Nice corkscrew dive by Slater. Slater gets most of the offense because Tajiri doesn't need to get a bunch of moves in order to Play The Hits (like the Tarantula). Tajiri makes his comeback, hits the elbow, and wins with the Buzzsaw. Tajiri gets to face Gran Metalik in the second round. A few words from TJ Perkins and Da Mack TJ Perkins vs Da Mack: Da Mack would have a few dollars doing a Michael Jackson act with his trainer Dick Beyer in the mid-1980s. Imagine all the shitty moonwalk attempts people could try in an attempt to taunt Da Mack. And then TJ Perkins does a dab on a pin attempt. Those slow-mo twirling chops from Da Mack were a choice. This match is a fun one. Perkins wins with the Kneebar. CageMatch doesn't have any Da Mack matches since 2020 and this was his only US match according to CageMatch. It's been 7 years, bring Da Mack back (hopefully there's no Googleable reasons why Da Mack went away in 2020) Battleground! This Sunday! Remember Dean Ambrose? Some words from Mustafa Ali and Lince Dorado Mustafa Ali vs Lince Dorado: I think these two are pretty familiar off of their last 7 years of work. Ali more than Dorado. Cool springboard reverse rana by Dorado which pops Daniel Bryan. Flipping Rock Bottom off the top by Ali also pops Bryan. Ali misses a big splash and Dorado hits him with the Shooting Star Press for the win. This match did a good job at getting a lot of action into a few minutes. Words from Akira Tozawa and Kenneth Johnson Akira Tozawa vs Kenneth Johnson: This tournament doesn't necessarily have good guys and bad guys but i'm treating Kenneth Johnson as the good guy for his backstory knowing he's probably losing this one. Lots of twists. Kenneth Johnson is built like a 5'11" Karl Malone. Tozawa countering chops by just punching Johnson in the face is brilliant in simplicity. Really neat back and forth here. Tozawa responds to Johnson's German Suplex by spiking him with a German and beating him with a bridging German Suplex. (On checking CageMatch, there's basically no Kenneth Johnson matches after this match, which is unfortunate) Okay... let's stick with this.. The WWE Cruiserweight Classic, Week 3 Zack Sabre Jr and Tyson Dux talk about themselves Zack Sabre Jr vs Tyson Dux: This really is the "get some footage of awesome non-WWE dudes on the network" tournament, isn't it? Sabre is juusuut a clean looking upstanding young man back in 2016. Daniel Bryan is so happy to be doing commentary for this match. Sabre doing lots of neat looking arm work. Sabre making sure to facially sell the Fisherman's Buster on camera. ZSJ lools like Mike D from the Beastie Boys at times. Sabre differs a little from the other people in this tournament in that he's a really good wrestler and you also wanna punch him in the face. Let's hear from Drew Gulak and Harv Sihra Summerslam! August 21st! Drew Gulak vs Harv Sihra: Sihra has appeared in music videos AND movies. Nice springboard moonsault dive by Sihra. Maybe a little more styles clashy than some of the tournament matches. Sihra falls backwards into a Dragon Sleeper and Gulak wins with that move. Guessing Gulak vs ZSJ will be a little better. Tony Nese and Anthony Bennett get some time to talk. Anthony Bennett vs Tony Nese: Anthony Bennett's hair is memorable. You could imagine all the ideas in the heads of racist old white promoters for head-based offense with that hair. Both of these competitors represent the United States, so the crowd will have to pick sides here. Bennett should be the de facto good guy because of the hair. This tournament is neat for the fact that it's working against the 'type' where people think that cruiserweight means flying spot fests. There's a lot of "dudes who spent time watching Dean Malenko" in this tournament field. Also doesn't hurt to have one of the more influential people in the WWE sphere be Regal. Some nice jumping forearm energy from Bennett. A slight pause after a Nese powerslam and this being wrestling, he tells the ref that he's fine and Nese hits him with the 450 Splash for the victory. The Wait is Over! They're selling merch for NXT guuys now Let's hear from Raul Mendoza and Brian Kendrick. Nothing from Brian about the Lizard People but my TV volume isn't all the way up Raul Mendoza vs Brian Kendrick: Brian Kendrick's hair was immaculate. Around the summer of 2016, he looked like a grunge rocker who almost had a top 40 hit in 1993. There is a little bit of a "hey remember the 2000s" energy with Kendrick and Tajiri getting to work this tournament. Mendoza with a nice cloverleaf swing. Kendrick just looks scuzzier and scuzzier as he grows up. Nice corkscrew plancha by Mendoza. Awesome coast to coast kick by Mendoza to a prone Kendrick (in a tree of woe). Near fall on neat backbreaker variant. Kendrick makes a comeback by knocking Mendoza's throat off the rope and beating him with a choke/crossface. That's 3 down, what about... The WWE Cruiserweight Classic, Week 4 Let's knock out the entire first round in one go-around Some comments from Rich Swann and Jason Lee Jason Lee vs Rich Swann: Jason Lee has nunchuks, just in case he has to defend himself against any ninjas. Lee had a few good strikes. Rich Swann had a pretty good "now i'm mad" comeback face. Bryan is impressed by Lee's speed. That standing 450 splash was awesome. Gurv Sihra and Noam Dar have something to say Noam Dar vs Gurv Sihra: Ring announcer says Dar is representing "Scotland via Israel". WWE Network, now available in India! This had a little sloppiness in regards to spots. Perhaps after seeing a bunch of these matches, the people who aren't on the same level as the best competitors really stick out. Sihra rolls film and misses an elbow. Dar does a Fisherman's Buster and then goes into a kneebar for the finish How about a word or two from Fabian Archer and Jack Gallagher? Dean Ambrose is on the Stone Cold Podcast this Monday. Remember when Austin's podcast was really hot? Jack Gallagher vs Fabian Aichner: Aichner is a German representing Italy. The font used for names makes it look like his name is Richner. In retrospect, maybe we should have suspected something about Gallagher. But he kinda looked like Conan O'Brien and that was enough. Lots of British wrestling spots for this one since Aichner was trained by Steve Wright. Aichner kinda fucked up a springboard move but did his best to cover it up. Aichner with a neat double jump springboard moonsault. If you looked at these two, you'd think Aichner was more of the WWE's type than Gallagher (after looking at CageMatch... and as it turns out). Nice powerbomb too. Gallagher wins with the running kick into the corner. There's a certain amount of Retrospect being used here with Gallagher but that's a total "irony-based" thing, wasn't it? At least Velveteen isn't in this tournament. Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa talk for a bit Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa: Well, they did a pretty good job at figuring out which match to put 16th in a stretch of 16 tournament matches. Guessing the NCAA basketball tournament committee set these brackets. There's a pretty deep history with these two on shows that I wasn't watching but they're much more familar with each other than some of the other pairings. So if they're playing the hits, they're playing some pretty good hits. You know it's rough when Daniel Bryan is concerned about how much head trauma they're taking. This is basically the late-2010s NXT Main Event style where they're hitting each other with bombs and kicking out over and over and then one of them wins with a Crucifix. In this case Johnny Gargano wins to advance. Johnny offers a handshake postmatch and Tommaso walks off for a moment and returns to embrace Johnny. Whatever happened to the 32 Cruiserweight Classic competitors? Okay, that'll be enough for now. I can handle the other 6 episodes later. For the record: Week 5 is Tajiri vs Gran Metalik and Cedric Alexander vs Kota Ibushi

I wasn't actually watching much pandemic-era wrestling as it happened. But in the process of thinking of something to watch. I thought "what about something related to Gunther" since he won the Raw main event tonight. I considered NXT UK Takeover Cardiff (Walter vs Bate) but that's 3 hours and I wanna get into bed a little earlier than that. So I might watch that later. I thought "what about wXw stuff" which requires looking at the top rated Walter matches on Cagematch to make heads or tails and then you end up with stuff that isn't on the network or stuff with alleged sex pests (David Starr), and yeah, maybe not that right now. I did watch wXw once on the Peacock, I think it was the Toronto show. So I decided to go into the world of 2020 Wrestling for the #1 Walter/Gunther match according to the nerds of Cagematch. NXT UK (10/29/2020) Tonight, Walter takes on Ilja Dragunov in a big match. Let's start off with Aoife Valkyrie vs Dani Luna: thanks for the graphic, I would not have guessed Aoife based off that pronunciation. Oh yeah, they're doing zoom screens at the tron to make this look less normal. I'm working under the premise that Luna is good and Valkyrie is evil here because this is a UK promotion and Valkyrie is Irish. A bit of a back and forth that is done well enough. Nice missed enzuigiri into a German Suplex by Luna. Valkyrie flips out of a German Suplex and hits a heel kick. Valkyrie wins with a jumping ax kick off the top to the back of the head. A postmatch handshake which insures that the code of honor is adhered to. Ilja and Walter are working out to prepare for their match. We have the Heritage Cup Tournament going on too. That will be decided... next week? Undertaker 30 commercial. Got some Progress and ICW Fight Club footage showing us some Rampage Brown. Boy is that ring tiny. Rampage Brown is incoming. Got a flash back to "earlier this year".. and then to "3 weeks ago" Flash Morgan Webster and Mark Andrews are in the ring. Hey, they both got attacked in that footage. Always good to have something to bond over. Eddie interrupts them. Eddie is pretty sure that the attack happened to keep their team together. Eddie is backed up by two guys with long hair. Webster and Andrews are backed up by two guys, who immediately turn heel on them. That's what happens when you don't properly vet your backup. Cool double team move to finish up the beatdown. Gotta love the shock of announcers with British accents reacting to this. (I Googled and found out that "The Hunt" were the ones who attacked Andrews/Webster, while Eddie is named Eddie Dennis and he's backed up by Pretty Deadly) Jordan Devlin returns to action, tonight! Pretty Deadly is asked for comments by a very British looking backstage interviewer. Then a dude with a front mohawk shows up and he seems displeased with things. Then the NXT UK Tag Team champs show up to talk. Once again, i'm kinda flying blind on most of these guys. Next up... Jordan Devlin vs Levi Muir: Jordan Devlin is the Irish Ace and the NXT Cruiserweight Champion. I can believe one of the champions in a promotion was absent for a time in 2020. Devlin is apparently angry and probably evil. You can tell this show is autonomous in relation to the rest of the WWE because they use the phrase "Irish Wrestling" in relation to Devlin. Nice standing moonsault. Nice counter to a rollup. Nice crucifix counter to a press slam. Devlin wins with a Texas Cloverleaf looking move. Devlin has a few comments post match. Next week, Gallus vs Sam Gradwell, Lewis Howley and Sam Stoker in a six man tag. Next week, Noam Dar vs A Kid Walter just towers over Dragunov in the prematch hype piece. It's time for the main event: Dragunov vs WALTER: Dragunov is more visibly angry than Walter during the intros as you can tell from him trying to ambush Walter and taking some shots. Walter counters Dragunov's finish with a sleeper and a suplex. Time for them to just beat the shit out of each other for awhile. That throw into the ropes looked nasty. Walter would make so much money if he could time travel and beat the fuck out of Wahoo McDaniel and Antonio Inoki. This match is being worked like two dudes beating each other viciously over a personal dispute. Even the test of strength is intense between these two. Ultimately I don't think the name change really mattered much in regards to Walter (but sometimes we like to focus on things like that). Walter is built more like a bear than Gunther but doing nutrition hasn't really watered Gunther down and if it means he can work shirtless in Vinceland, it's all working out well. Hey, there's a counter to the "slap you on the chest while you're on the ring apron" move. Can you imagine how absurdly violent a Gunther strap match would be (please don't tell me if said match exists). More assbeating and suplexes. Gotta love the dedication of both guys to backhand their opponent directly in the jaw. The Sleeper has been sort of as dead move in this country for decades but i'm sure Walter could make it terrifying again if they tried. Walter just slaps Dragunov out of the air to counter a move. This is likely better without fans chanting or being cute while witnessing an assbeating. You don't need dorks who paid to get on the hard cam distracting you from two guys fighting like someone owes money to the local Mafia. Lariat and a Powerbomb but Dragunov kicks out. Just slapping a dude right in the neck is something. Got more sleeper action going into the ropes. The neck chops are done like he's trying to sever some important artery by chopping it. Walter/Gunther would be a pretty amazing Big Van Vader if that was the sort of thing that a major promotion wanted from their top heel (yes I know about one of Walter's previous ring names). This is done in a way where it's almost an accomplishment for Dragunov to hit a move on Walter or to not die in the process of being mauled. Sleeper suplex on the floor looks pretty hard too. Walter working outside the ring like a pure killer. Like you're almost safer in the ring than giving this giant Austrian asskicker things to throw you off of. Walter with a splash that looks pretty effective despite a lack of hangtime because bears don't jump high. I wonder if Walter could do a moonsault like Bigelow, Vader, and the Giant. Walter retains by putting Dragunov in the rear sleeper and making him bleed from the mouth as the ref decides to not let Dragunov die in an empty studio. Dragunov looking a bit rough after that's all said and done but at least he doesn't have Walter's handprint stamped all over his back so it could be worse. Walter works like a guy who would have been blamed for kids killing each other with wrestling moves in 1998. Like he went to a military academy that focused on training assbeaters. Walter is the contract killer who insists that he can murder people without using weapons. (Edit: and in the interest of equal time, i'll say that Dragunov works like someone who thinks he can fight much larger men despite all good logic, which is a good trait to have working against WALTER. Dragunov has the fire of a guy who might have been stabbed by a bottle in the process of fighting in an alley) The best part is that it's my understanding that these crazy European fuckers have a few other matches in the same realm. So those matches are probably pretty fun too. Congrats to all the NXT UK people who made it through 2020-21 staying so under the radar that the WWE didn't fire them and they got to go to Florida to keep working for the company. I don't do match ratings. I don't paid to do that. Walter vs Dragunov lived up to the acclaim I had read about it. No disrespect to the Honky Tonk Man, but I think Gunther hits people harder in one night than Honky ever did in his entire career. They both figured out their best ways to make money. The life of beating ass isn't for everybody and if you can make it without slapping dudes in the neck, that's cool too.

imagine the match in 25 years between Chad Gable's crying daughter and Gunther's 6'3" unstoppable amazon daughter

Babyfaces who bring their families to ringside are batting .000 in recent WWE big matches, aren't they? (edit: unless we count the Rey family at Mania only being there for Rey when they're related to both competitors)

I swear I didn't mean to play "99 Red Balloons" by Goldfinger during the end of the main event

Less successful gimmick matches: A Brick Wall Match. A match where the ring was surrounded by brick walls. A number of problems arose. One: it took a long time to assemble the brick walls around the ring. Two: the fans couldn't see what was going on in the ring. Three: A door wasn't built and the competitors were stuck in there until the cage was disassembled.

bro bro bro... what if this diva wins matches by spanking her opponents until they give up

the Harris Brothers would be good fits for that unfrozen Nazi gimmick which was pitched once

no no... Jackyl had long hair and Don Callis doesn't have any hair... Recon and Sniper as the Discipline Committee is probably a better idea than exhuming the Harris Brothers for that gimmick

then about 18 months later, they had Sable in the front row at a Nitro but that really didn't cause much of a ripple

The Discipline Committee.... hey are there any people in the promotion who were in the Truth Commission 25 years ago

unless it's already the name of a porn site (see: Submission Sorority)

I just listened to the Cornette/Tim Hornbaker story that included a recounting of the time that they almost put Ric Flair on a WWE PPV with Reid and I thought up an idea of the WWE saying "there's a former champion in the audience tonight" then cut to Punk, and then move the camera over to AJ Lee and introduce her to the audience.

suing the WWE actually sped up your return to the WWE in some years but when you consider the WWE is about to finalize their buyout soonish.. they're probably not taking on Punk the one recurring rule of any "guy is suddenly available" wrestling story is that it doesn't align with the timing in the other promotion. Bret in 1997 as Starrcade approached. WCW being bought just before Wrestlemania.

The AEW Discipline Committee: The Butcher The Blade Sonny Ono under a worked name Dr. Britt Baker. D! D! S! Chris Jericho wearing a nail jacket and facepaint Jeff Hardy somehow Miro

they're getting mainstream media coverage out of this in a sense