John E. Dynamite

Just now realizing that Joanna got her nails did for the fight. Or was that just Penne's blood?

This is just Joshi stereotyping.

I have no beef with Fujita/Suwama in front of a hundred people at Kouraken.

Nothing original? TNA found a way to rip off three-years-beforehand RoH way before NXT did.

Oh my god, where was this filmed? Was this filmed in the Northeast or Mid Atlantic? Shinskee's hair is clearly getting hit by the same humidity that mine has been decimated by. I can hear his nearly-silent prayer whispered on the wind - "Why can't I get more than an hour of decency after I blow dry?". Can somebody recommend the two of us some PRODUCT? We are DUMB MEN and we are CONFUSED.

My biggest issue with the I Quit wasn't the fact that the wrong guy went over or that the ol' SuperCena shtick keeps rolling on. It's more to do with how transparently obvious the finish was. Remove the weeks of Lana dissension spelling out the ending for you, watch it in a bubble and it almost makes it to the top tier in my book.

WWE doesn't have the best history. I'm not going to go crazy about it but I'd rather not see it. Add this to the fact that the New Day gimmick has always been uncomfortable for carrying on "they're black, so they're friends!" tag team logic and that they ran it in Baltimore. It's not condemnable or anything but it is a little bit dodgy. If Lana jabs a broken hunk of wood in Cena's eye instead of throwing in the towel it's MOTY. Oh well. A thousand blessings upon my hometown for being a great crowd.

Last night I dreamt of "The Bloody Hand Match", AJW Kong/Hotta 1/24/94. I hadn't seen it in at least five years, but I dreamt that I was attending a reception for a local film awards show (that IRL I failed to attend) and I was talking to my director/friend about the shared themes between modern feminist cinema and violent Joshi. Long story short, I watched the match again and it still stands as one of my favorites ever. One of the most unique and gruesome uses of body part psychology ever laid to tape. A cornerstone in the study of dramatic form in wrestling matches! This is some highbrow shit!

Cavernario is in Best of the Super Juniors? Cavernario is in Best of the Super Juniors!

The daughter of the guy who killed Rikidozan was a pro wrestler for a minute, does that count? If the sons of Hokuto/Power Warrior aren't awesome wrestlers, it won't be their parents fault. I'm having trouble thinking of any 2nd generation Japanese wrestlers period, men or women. I would be a terrible fanboy if I didn't mention Katsuyori Shibata. His father was a JPWA midcarder.

Not the first time he's written songs on the subject. There used to be a full Mountain Goats show on youtube where Josh dropped some of his usual A+ stage banter before playing this. He quoted an old Ox promo quite well.

Fantasy booking is a very necessary mental exercise. I always wanted V1 Matt Hardy to change his name to V8 Matt Vegetables. His theme song would remain unchanged except for the lyrics, which would begin instead with "I can eat a tomato / I like carrots and peas". He would be skinny and this would anger his brother, who would get really fat and change his name to Jeff Boy-Hardee.

How could an album about pro wrestling still surprise me? He namedrops Al Mardril. AOTY.

Uhh.

Special Attraction is Most Famous Wrestler and Most Famous Fighter. So it works fine.

I am incredibly Sports Entertained.

Hey speaking of which... ESPN: The Worldwide Leader In Shoddy, Sensationalized, Lowest Common Denominator Sports Reporting Same thing on the front page of CNN.

Perros del Mal had just started up when I was getting into lucha. Perrito was definitely a formative influence for me. This one hurts. This is a picture of Rey's dropkick moments before the accident. It looks like it landed squarely on Perrito's shoulder - nothing morbid about the image (spoilered, regardless). It must have been the way he hit the middle rope. There's nobody to blame this on. It had nothing to do with a medical condition preexisting injury, or highspot gone wrong. Just a one-in-a-billion freak occurrence...

There is absolutely no need to watch that video. It looks exactly like you think it would.

The Hardest Working Man In Wrestling vs. the opposite of that. Honma makes the viewer care more about who wins and loses than anyone. Isn't that the most powerful thing a wrestler can do?

This. This is why I like Ronda Rousey. Your job is to be locked in a cage and attempt to murder a person who is doing the same to you (until you are told not to). Respecting people, liking people, feigning any sort of politeness are not means to attaining those ends. We know that being a self-aware sociopath is a valid super-athlete archetype; can you imagine what Michael Jordan's legacy would have been if his job was to rip arms off shoulders instead of putting a ball through a basket? Yet we all know that he was at best an asshole and at worst evil. That's how it goes when you've got to be that much better than everyone else at that thing you do.

Shoot, Seth Rollins should only be so mad. That picture was significantly more flattering than Verlander.

Dude sees a few episodes of "Top Chef" and all of a sudden I have to watch a decade of Ryusuke Taguchi title matches. That's fair grounds for discontent.

What store do you work at? I live right by Canton Wine and Spirits that does growlers and it's just sublime. And much love for the Union love. Haven't tried that one from them, but Duckpin is really good. About to do a Heavy Seas brewery tour Saturday, followed by more beer and more beer. I really should not drink that Rebel IPA in the fridge tonight, but you know...football. And Untappd is a tremendous app. The checkins are nice, love the badges you get. The recommendations are a bit out of my range mostly, as lots of them are beers that don't have distribution to MD. But it's overall a great app to use. Replying to this half a year late. It's Pinehurst Wine Shoppe, tippy-top of the Baltimore border. Sierra Nevada tasting this Saturday! We're also morphing into more and more of a bottle shop. The guys at Canton Crossing do a great job - I remember having a long conversation with them on the subject of running a growler station before they even opened their doors. I'd say they're doing just about everything right and that I'm a mite jealous of their professionalism.

BEGIN Japanology is a wonderful series. I'm currently an (admittedly older) Theatre major - wrestling the primary influence on my Shakespeare chops - and these guys helped me ace my report on Bunraku puppet theatre. Big ups to them! Watch all their stuff.