Uncle Coaster

I don’t ask this to be argumentative, I ask as someone who turned off AEW half way into week two but really wants to get into it...in what ways has AEW been able to surprise you?

For the life of me I do not remember Rip Taylor having a run with the WWF.

No joke I was going to come out of lurking just to post the exact same thing (except I’m not a potty mouth).

I'm a fan of the Iron Sheik documentary on Netflix. Once I got past the uncomfortabilty of watching the producers take advantage of him I really found myself rooting for him.

According to their 9/30/16 financials live events make up 19.8% of their revenues ytd. Television is 32.4% and the network accounts for 25.7%.

This was the first time I've watched Impact since attending the Bethlehem tapings back in January. Watching Matt's promo from the top of the staircase all I could think was that his Mark Guleen impression was spot on. #obscurememphisreference

Sad to hear of his passing, glad to see others with fun memories of him. I have one memory that sticks out. He worked an Indy at a local fair in 1990. I forget who he was wrestling but he was the heel and I, in the front row, was probably the only person rooting for him. He was getting the crowd riled up. I forget exactly what I said but I shouted something in favor of him and he yelled back, "yeah, listen to this kid!"

I'm not going to defend TNA's booking of their World Title this week, but seeing Matt and Reby walk out from behind the big screen tonight followed a few steps behind by Tyrus carrying their son *almost* made up for it. I'm hoping they discussed EC3 on commentary throughout the night because him not appearing in front of the crowd was a big letdown. There were several chants for him and he was nowhere to be found. I want to presume he's being held off to sell injuries from the Last Man Standing match and then he can return to reclaim what is rightfully his and emphasize the fact that he still has never been pinned.

They just taped the Last Man Standing match. Matt wins the title with the help of Tyrus in a double turn. I should add: I think they were going for the double turn. Hardy definitely went heel with a post match promo. I'm assuming EC3 turns by default. He tried to get a face reaction as he left the ring.

They announced to the live crowd that they'd be taping the EC3/Hardy Last Man Standing match tonight (Friday). For some reason they taped a match between the two of them for the One Night Only:Rivals ppv instead this night.

The Rockstar Spud tag was taped with an Xplosion background and likely will not air on Impact. DJ Z turned on Jesse in their tag match. The Anderson talk show segment was called Huh? and was a clear attempt to start their own What chants. In fact he explained to the crowd that every time he said Huh he wanted them to yell Huh back at him. I don't watch TNA so I don't know if this has been part of his gimmick but it came across poorly. It was not a good segment. At one point during their segment, Jeff Hardy presented EC3 with a piece of paper which turned out to be his Dr's clearance to wrestle. It is hard not to root for Kurt Angle. He came across as a genuine guy and made sure he shook hands with everybody around the rails and stopped to ensure he particularly got to every kid that wanted a high five. Jeff Hardy was he same way. For Kurt, as he reached the top of the ramp following his match he looked off to the side at someone not visible and just looked like he had this huge combination of smile and sigh of relief. I like Kurt. I consider him one of my all time favorites and part of me would love to see him get a last run with WWE, but I couldn't help watching his match worried that each bump could be his last. It's not that he looked bad but it was always in the back of my mind.

That was a Ribera jacket he was wearing as well.

I'm standing outside the venue to get into the impact tapings and two things come to mind. First, there are more people here than I expected. They might be able to have crowd lights up. Second, I hate wrestling fans (generally speaking).

Yes, they've done two sets of multi-day tapings at the Sands in the past. I went to both nights of the first set and enjoyed myself. They raised prices for the second set and there was no way I was going to get that much enjoyment out of it so I didn't bother. This time around, prices have dropped to $25 and $10. Will probably go to a couple since I don't get POP TV.

I just received an email from the venue announcing that TNA will be running the Sands Event Center in Bethlehem, PA for the live debut on POP. They will be taping other Impact episodes all that week (Tuesday through Thursday), then more tapings on Friday and Saturday for international tv and One Night Only pay-per-views.

I love that this episode had so many women's segments and they all served a purpose and were good or better. NXT may not have as talented of a female crew as they did before the "revolution" but they have better stories and that helps to make up for it. I know several people who say "verse" instead of "versus" and it is a pet peeve. I asked one guy about it and he said that verse was when it is a one-on-one encounter and versus is only supposed to be used when it is team versus team. Ugh.

The idea that it's been a longer period of time since Austin retired than the amount of time from Undertaker's WWE debut to Austin's retirement made me feel really old. Also, I never heard the WrestleMania 25 story before about Undertaker asking Michael Hayes where they were in the lineup. That makes the match that much better to me.

The drunk probably wouldn't have recognized him.

Then he'll be out another 4 months when he tears a muscle reaching into the tumbler.

Snuka was back in court for his formal arraignment today. According to local tv station WFMZ, he "appeared to have difficulty answering some basic questions".

Any chance the guy wearing the black t-shirt in the crowd clapping for Sasha in that gif posts on this board? No need to identify yourself if you do, but please don't stand up in the middle of a match when nobody in the rows in front of you is standing...and then just read from your phone. That was pretty rude. Otherwise, you seemed like a good guy.

I've been paying less and less attention to Raw lately, but this show has me invested again. Sometimes, I forget that when things aren't overbooked there is just some really good wrestling going on in the WWE. I loved Cesaro, Roman, Bray, Brock, Nikki and Neville last night and am interested in everything they seem to have set up suddenly. I'm not a huge Del Rio fan personally, but I am a Zeb fan so will gladly watch where things go from here. I really hope the show-ending Wyatt angle leads to the obvious Survivor Series match.

I do not hide my wrestling fandom from anyone. At one point, my company was in talks with our biggest client about merging companies. This client was such a big deal that the first time he visited our office the one boss (who earlier in the day told me I was taking the meeting too seriously) showed up with a paint can and brush and said "I'm just going to touch up these walls a bit". Anyway, the client knew I was a wrestling fan and he had been back in his day, too, so I tried to bring it up whenever he came to visit. The day of our biggest meeting we started with five of us from our company and him in our conference room before breaking off into 1-on-1 meetings. The boss welcomed him and the client said, "Before we get started, I just wanted to offer my condolences to Jeff (me) on the passing of Captain Lou Albano yesterday." I lowered my sleeve to show him I was wearing a rubber band around my wrist in memory of the good Captain and he pointed at it saying, "That is the greatest thing I've ever seen". We got the deal.

I was watching an episode of To Tell The Truth this morning, probably from around 1961. For those not familiar, it was a game show where three contestants all claimed to be the same person and a celebrity panel had a certain amount of time to ask them questions and figure out which one was the real person. In this case it was Richard Smith, who was both a hairdresser and a professional wrestler. Johnny Carson was the first to ask a question..."What is a rat?" I laughed way harder than I should have. Apparently, he was referring to something that was used to enhance hairpieces or something.

Snuka appeared in court today, where the judge waived the preliminary hearing. Both the prosecution and defense were in favor of the ruling. Snuka's attorney said on local tv that Snuka wants the case to go in front of a jury quickly so that he can pass on knowing that he was cleared of the charges. Snuka looked fairly good, fwiw. http://www.wfmz.com/news/news-regional-lehighvalley/jimmy-superfly-snuka-trial-moving-ahead-without-preliminary-hearing/35701750