AxB

Nephew. Dynamite's son Marek never wrestled (one of his daughters did, briefly). But Dynamite's younger brother Mark Billington had two sons, Mark and Thomas. They broke in to wrestling in England when they were 15 and 16, moved to Canada for an MLW run, and now the younger brother is making his AEW debut. On Collision. He's the Dynamite Kid, not the Collision Kid, but whatever.

Rest in Peace to UFC legend Art "One Glove" Jimmerson.

Hopefully AEW is calling Daniel Makabe today.

PAC’s Geordie accent isn’t even that strong. Cheryl off Girls Aloud’s is much stronger. At one point she was in an advertisement for hair dye, and had to say a nightmare phrase for geordies: No Ammonia. When she said it, it sounded like “Nyer Amuernya”.

WWE being sued in Canada, over historical allegations relating to Pat Patterson: https://www.newsbreak.com/news/3427997420100-wwe-facing-new-lawsuit-this-time-relating-to-pat-patterson

The "This is Cinema" style became popular; It was always going to bleed into the indies.

That was far from the craziest match he's ever had in ICW NHB, so... yeah, probably. Like most people who do the Sasuke "put a metal trashcan over my head & upper torso and jump off the top rope" spot nowadays, they dive onto a bunch of guys who'll catch them. Redacted will do it from the top chain platform to the arena floor, aiming at one guy on a table, and they'll move. Shit, he missed one off the top a cage once.

Rest in Peace Bernard Hill. Best known in the UK for playing Yosser Hughes in Boys from the Blackstuff, which chronicled the urban deprivation of Thatcher's Britain. Best known internationally for playing either the Captain in Titanic, or King Theoden in Lord of the Rings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIkvroTVKmg Naomichi Marufuji vs AKIRA MAEDA (Yes, really)

Double or Nothing should be moved to Minneapolis then. AEW loves them some Chicagoland shows, they should try to build some brand loyalty in the other NFC North cities.

Great photo from last night's GCW.

A trailer for Season Four of The Boys, ALL FOR YOU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzFXDvC-EwM

Some AJW from December 1978: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeaHw_3IVmM Beauty Pair vs Queen Angels

Drew Gulak released by WWE, apparently. Also these NXT people: Darrell Mason Vlad Pavlenko Ezekiel Balogun Kiyah Saint Emma Diaz Valentina Feroz Keyshawn Leflore Trey Bearhill Julian Baldi

27 years of working standing up, moving around, and I never really get hurt. Three weeks of doing a "Sitting at a computer desk" type of job and I've probably got Carpal tunnel syndrome. My right hand, it's fine, there's a spot on the fingertip of my little finger that's numb, or sometimes merely dull. Now my left hand, the index finger and middle finger are fine. But the ring finger is numb at the fingertip and tingly beneath that. But my left little finger has no sensation at all. I could dip it in boiling water and not feel anything. That side of the palm too. Oh, and I'm left handed. My handwriting has slowed down and gone clumsier. My grip strength in the hand has declined noticeably, because I can't control muscles I can't feel. I hope my forearms don't atrophy. I've got a Doctor's appointment though, it's in three weeks because our government (and opposition) are in the pockets of Private Healthcare and are trying to kill the NHS.

Really, they should have filmed her getting cut free for socials. Get her to cut a promo in the medical room or something... although that only really works if she's swearing vengeance, and I think this match is supposed where the feud ends. Julia Hart being off injured for the forseeable, if they aren't going to have Skye take her spot in the House of Black, there's not really much to do with her right now. Perhaps the angle is that with Julia not around, her evil side starts to recede and she returns to her natural babyface act. And then when Julia is ready to come back, she can start haunting Skye's nightmares and tempting her back to the darkness once again. More wrestlers should do deathmatches, lose, and then do post-match promos where they go "What was I thinking? I am an idiot! None of this was worth it, I'm never going to this extreme again!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDwO5XydxHw YouTube version of Skye vs Willow. So just the final few minutes... meaning the bit that your DVR didn't record.

So last night was our only AEW TV of the week, yeah? We had Rampage already, and Collision is pre-empted. That's a shame. Opening the show by having the Bucks tease that Kenny is going to be the title challenger, only to have it be Christian instead, that was a good bit of heeling. And no doubt the next month of TV angles of having Christian mess with Swerve is going to be lots of fun too. I'm assuming that they mostly pre-cut the dreadlock they ripped off, because hair usually doesn't tear that easily (or painlessly). Are they going to make it a hair vs hair match for the title? Be a real treat, having a hair vs hair match when neither guy is actually balding. And the keep the Canadian-ness flowing by having home country babyface Adam Copeland come out next. I thought there was a fan in the front row dressed as Suicide from TNA, but he was just pairing a Danhausen mask with a red hoodie. And then the match went over 20 minutes, and was surprisingly based around Buddy being hurt, rather than Adam. I would expect that since the angle here is that Copeland is running the HoB gauntlet, it would be the other two breaking him down for Malakai to pick his bones, but they went another way. The angle with Malakai telling Adam to hit the Concerto (because Con-chair-to is the WWE spelling, innit?), that implies thay we're more doing psychological fuckery, rather than simply physical damage. But no doubt Brody will knock seven bells out of him next week anyway. Considering they did the disappearing act, they were very kind to not steal the TNT title belt while he was still unsighted. Using a bag of Hockey Pucks as a weapon is a low-key genius play. Both because it's a troll move to tease that it's a bag of thumbtacks or glass, and because to the fans in the building, it's the national sport, they know exactly what a hockey puck feels like. They probably know how much it hurts to be hit by one. So it's an ideal pro-wrestling weapon to those fans in the building. Not to me though, I've never touched a Hockey Puck in my life. For all I know, they're soft and rubbery. Halfway through Jericho vs Shibata, and both men have acquired winestain birthmarks across their whole entire chests. If chops causing muscle atrophication are the reason for Jericho's gappy pecs, then this match alone will have exposed a couple more inches of ribcage down the middle there. The trashcan spot, it reminded me of something. Arn Anderson. Arn presented himself as a "Wrestling is a Serious Business" wrestler. A no nonsense, serious, straight ahead asskicking Wrestler. He would sometimes get booked against comedy wrestlers, and he would just act so outraged and offended at being put in these humourous situations. "All of these shenanigans are making a mockery of the business" was his demeanor. And some fans got sucked into that, and started thinking he was the embodiment of that philosophy. He wasn't. It was a work. He actually loved the comedy, he just realised that his best role within the comedy was as the outraged straight man, so that's what he did. And I think there's a possibility that Shibata might be a man after his whole heart. The fact that, on his big comeback, the one person he wanted to work with was Orange Cassidy, that implies that his ambitions for his wrestling went beyond his Straight Shooter Inokiism routine. And ultimately, if you're going to have your no DQ match be a WWE comedy hardcore style match (and considering what was planned for later in the night, this really should have been that style), breaking out some new funny spots, instead of the hackneyed old used-to-be-funny spots, that's a good thing. Mariah May is underrated as a technical wrestler, she had no problem keeping up with Serena Deeb here. Considering she's a wrestler who absolutely could just be coasting on her looks and natural charisma, but she doesn't half bust a gut to have a good match. Speaking of busting a gut, here's Kenny Omega... Kenny is an underrated promo. Perhaps because he's not very WWE-ish in his delivery, he feels like a more natural talker. Like he's a guy who's good at talking from the heart, rather than being a guy who is good at delivering a scripted promo. Although arguably he's one of the best talkers in the business, because he can cut a good promo in English or in Japanese. Hardly anyone is a good promo in more than one language. (Are they doing Omega vs Okada IV at Wembley? He said Give me a couple of months, and then got storyline re-injured... so that could extend his injury to August) The Hammerlock into a Clothesline is now known as "The Hammerlock into a Clothesline" in AEW, rather than the Pepsi Twist. Even though AEW is the Pepsi of wrestling. We're spoiled with Dante Martin. Dante Martin having a generic Dante Martin match, it's mindblowing to fresh eyes, because his off the chart athleticism allows him to hit moves and do feats of movement that are unbelievable. But because he's on TV a lot, and does a lot of his spots in every match, they become less spectacular and more routine. It was a good match, between himself and Jay White. Not sure why the Bang Bang Gang have kept the Pink scissor Acclaimed belts for the AEW Six-man titles, instead of the old trios belts that The Elite and House of Black used. But keeping both sets of straps as two different sets of straps, that's a better look than unifying the titles to have them be represented by a single set. Speaking of being a good promo in multiple languages, RUSH does a good promo in English and Spanish. Did RUSH vs Kenny ever happen? They should do that, as and when they can. It would probably be really good. Rocky Romero made a tactical miscalculation, he targetted Kylo's healthy left arm, and not his withered right one. He is unfortunately Orndorff'ed out there now. Perhaps it will grow back in time. And then Skye Blue and Willow Nightingale had a banger of a match to send us home happy (and revive a crowd that had to have been pretty burned out). Skye's bladejobs continue to be more crimson trickle than crimson mask, but better to bleed too little than too much. If she keeps wrestling in this style from time to time, she'll get the hang of it. If this was her last time going to this extreme, at least she's going out on a high note (other than losing, obviously. The tacks bump looked gnarlier on Willow than it did on Skye. And Fite cut the ending off because the overruns confused them. Skye put the Barbed Wire Board on the table, and the show ended. Thank fuck AEW put the finish on YouTube.

“Aside from my actions, what have I done to deserve this?” - Stokely Hathaway, 2024.

From DEFY Wrestling's first show ever, the most presciently booked indie match possible right now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xZViGEimVc Cody Rhodes vs Swerve Strickland!

Don't buy that, buy this:

That Natalya Niedhart vs Lola Vice NXT Underground match was bloody terrible. Firstly, the work itself was showing a lot of holes. Lots of times, someone would be wide open for a strike, and their opponent would just stand there, or do a big wind-up for one, despite that not being what shootstyle is. What shootstyle is, is bringing pro-wrestling down to it's essence as a fake fight. So you take away all of the unrealistic things that make pro-wrestling look unlike a real fight. This attempted that, but they could resist from adding a lot of the extra bullshit sprinkles back in. Like. take down the ring ropes and don't have any inorganic running or jumping moves, that's a great idea in principle. Only they did put a bunch of inorganic running and jumping in, they just did it diving from the ring to the floor. But table spots? Ringpost spots? A run-in? A distraction finish? That's the kind of bullshit that shootstyle is supposed to eliminate. But of course, these indoctrinated, McMahon-brained minds can't envision a bullshit free version of what they do, because it's all founded on bullshit. It has a fundament of nonsense. Here's these two professional combat sports athletes, they hate each other, they're going to try to beat one another's brains out, but if something dramatic happens away from the ring, by golly they'll abandon a fully applied submission hold to go and take care of it. It's bollocks. Khabib didn't jump out of the cage to attack Dillon Danis until after the referee had stopped the Conor fight. But of course, they weren't trying to be "WWE does Bloodsport". They were doing BloodSports Entertainment. It's like having the X Factor winner do a cover of a great song; The Simon Cowell production values kill the authenticity of the song, reduce it to a dull, formulaic puddle of nothing, and then Simon Cowell himself sits there smugly congratulating himself on how he's actually improved Hallelujah, and Alexandra Burke's version is better than Jeff Buckley's (because it sold more).

Evolve, 2nd of April 2016. https://twitter.com/GIFSkullX/status/1785714284787368163 RICOCHET vs WILL OSPREAY