Firebreaker Chip

The ability to set 5 sigs and finishers (with optional 3-finisher deathmoves) in 2k24 has me downloading loads of 90s Japanese wrestlers and arenas and trying to basically turn it into a ASPW3 or KOC2 rerun this year. I've done a lot of compulsive tweaking of movesets to try and optimise the finisher and sigs slots to give as broad a range as possible, but with only being able to have max two in each grapple position it gets tough with guys like Akiyama and Kobashi who have lots of gnarly front grapple rarities. And you have to use best-fit proxies for stuff like Black Crush and Diamond Head because 2k are way less enthusiastic than Yukes were about putting indy and old Japanese moves in the games, in favour of Stupid NXT Neckbreaker Variant #753 The strike exchanges are quite fun, had an AI simmed one where Vader taunted Kobashi to hit him harder and promptly got wiped out with a backfist, then a second match where the climactic backfist sent Vader staggering across the ring, only for Kobashi to sprint after him and decapitate him with the Burning Lariat for the pinfall

Hate these random no-context crossover matches, Tony should have done some vignettes to build up Ollie Watkins and explain who he is and why people should be afraid of him P sure Swerve was off camera to the right and they just didn't know who he was to include him in the shot, even though the TV commentary shouted him out

The early 80s mid South women's matches are pretty surreal - months of nothing, several weeks of trailing that the Popular Girl Wrestlers will be appearing, Wendi Richter/Princess Victoria/Velvet McIntyre turn up and have a completely serious athletic contest, in the middle the wrestlers fall on top of the ref and they do a chauvinist comedy spot where they roll around and the ref gets embarrassed/horny, then the finish is something completely standard for the promotion. Like Watts' stern wrestling values and hatred of gaga led to him presenting women's wrestling more seriously than most other promotions did for decades I thought Roop was absolutely dishwater when I started watching Mid South, but there was a great guest commentary week in 82 where he was lobbying for Ted Dibiase to get fined for interfering in a match, and Boyd Pierce hulks up and cuts an angry (for Boyd) promo on him telling him he's there to commentate not advance his own agenda; Roop spends the whole thing doing this magnificent shocked/embarrassed/bug-eyed look and then spends the rest of the show doing the most exaggerated best-behaviour "these sure are two fine athletes" babyface commentary possible. So they did sort of have an onscreen reason for him to commentate so neutrally going forward. I guess he was very well cast as a creepy political manipulator who was always complaining about something

MJF tapped Danielson with the Lebell lock last year. Jericho was a big finisher stealer, didn't he finish the Rock with the Rock Bottom at one point? Of course, Rock himself also disgracefully beat Booker T with the Book End at Summerslam 2001

AEW's PIP breaks are super regimented in that the heel's control segment is often the exact length of the commercial break and you can guarantee the face will regain control within seconds of Excalibur speaking. He's even lampshaded it a couple of times recently like "ah and as soon as I say the heel was in control..." as if it doesn't happen really often All of the YOU WON'T MISS A SECIND!! stuff is kind of tiring sometimes! I like getting long PPV matches that can have a totally different structure

It sucks for people to lose their job but with some of these NXT people I almost guiltily feel relief that they won't have to work under those stupid fucking names any more Like I'm sure if Gable Steveson does get released he'll be more than happy to just be able to be known by his real name, [glances at Wikipedia] oh dear god

I'm mostly through the Steve Keirn book and it's a pretty good, easy read. His early life with his father being a POW is very interesting, and he gives a pretty good account of drifting into the business in Florida. It's fairly low on sleaze (financial impropriety/stretching marks aside) but high on ribs and tall tales. If he is to be believed, this man has done stupid things with possums, one unbelievably stupid thing with an armadillo, and did probably the single stupidest thing someone doing a tour for New Japan could ever do (short of anything involving Yakuza) .

I won't be anywhere with good enough WiFi to watch All Out for a while so I haven't actually seen the match, but if Danielson's possibly had the best strap match ever in the same year as having had the best 60 minute Iron Man match ever, after breaking an arm in between, that's pretty impressive going Likewise Khan managing to do 81k at Wembley, rave reviews for All Out, strong buyrates for the both shows, and threading the needle of moving on from Punk without pissing Chicago off too much...tough gig for Bischoff and C*rnette this week

Mystery Collision GM booking the show via text message Adam Page booked to cut constant promos saying "I am soft"

They should sign Mysterio's kid for the switch role on account of him being a Dom who's a sub I'm sorry

He really did have a hell of an in-ring run there, and with stuff like the short Kingston feud/match and the post-return promos there was some real heat and a sense of unpredictability and danger that you weren't really getting elsewhere in the company But idk doing this old school throwback thing, if the manly fights you're starting backstage are over things that seem insanely petty in 2023 like Luke Perry's son making a pass-agg remark or whatever, it just seems kind of lame and deluded. I guess he was just on whatever level trying to get fired. I wonder if he was banking on negotiating a sweeter exit than this though

I wouldn't be surprised if nobody senior at WWE wants to work with him or give him the satisfaction of negotiating a comeback, but they could probably do a more Goldberg-y schedule where he comes in to work with someone he can get on with, every single aspect of the feud is carefully agreed on and signed off in advance, and he gets delivered directly to Gorilla position in a Hannibal Lecter cage gurney thing and then shoved out to ringside

I guess he probably can't say anything about the All Out 22 stuff but if they just straight up fired him this time he can go off on the recent stuff as far as his confidence in his lawyers will go?

Do they have to have a tournament to decide who the real world champion is now? Maybe Adam Cole could win it