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I'm listening to season 3 of the "Motive" podcast from WBEZ and the main character is a ridiculously close voice match to Randy Orton. So much so that it's become hard for me not to visualize him saying everything at this point.

I liked everything on the show, including the Dinner Debonaire (which was weird fun in that intentionally campy kind of way), but part of me wonders who is in the AEW audience with me. There was a reference to Bill Belichick and a Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra song on the same show, which seems to cast a wide net at least.

After that opening promo, it seems that even the most dastardly of heels can't resist the temptation of getting a few yuks out of a "hilarious" photoshop.

That gif of Rollins and Bugenhagen is them reenacting that scene from Midnight Express, right?

It's a good idea to have wrestlers in the audience to make noise. And because it's indoors, it seems like a good idea to have the barriers up to potentially avoid spread. But it felt like the barriers kind of muted the sound the wrestlers made. Their two good ideas might be working against each other.

It's a shame they weren't sledgehammering concepts to the audience back then, a la "the risk is worth the reward". Having too much rigging apparel could have been the Blue Blazer's "brand". Thinking about it now, The Overly Cautious Superhero may have actually gotten a few laughs out of me. But Scorsese Jr. there wanted his pratfall and he wants it NOW, pal!

I've never been in a writer's room before, but if the whole idea that they need a quick release to avoid wasting TV time, couldn't they have written around it? Would it have been that hard to think of something? Cut to the announcers or throw it to a video package. Bryan Alvarez brought it up the other day, if you want to up the parody aspect of it, give him even more carabiners to release and lean into the over the top absurdity of it. But Vince had to have his way and get in a meaningless jab at WCW. I remember somebody putting it this way: Owen Hart was a casualty of the Monday Night Wars.

I've clearly watched too much WWE TV. Since something nice actually happened, I wondered what heel was going to barge in and get heat during the interview segment where everyone was congratulating Becky.

Since there have been more than a few homages to Memphis wrestling, I was wondering if that cart spot was a one to Eddie Gilbert hitting Lawler with the car back in the day.

I'm wondering why was this even brought up at all? Was it just an attempt to latch on to the whole "WWF as part of the cultural zeitgeist" that was going on at the time? Was this the lead story on 20/20 that night? I can't imagine 60 Minutes or whatever the NBC News magazine show was (First Camera, I think?) doing something like this, but then again, I may not have had a good read on investigative journalism back then since I was 5 and probably watching cartoons.

Hopefully there's going to be a time when the complete silences when everyone stops talking/bumping/stomping around isn't completely jarring.

I'm sure Jericho will be good, Dutch was also good, but I think Foley was the best of the narrators.

The main was good, but I had it in my head that Moxley was winning because of the previous two matches. Ending a PPV with 3 straight heel wins seems like a sharp turn in tone from which they usually go.

Just got a note saying that their caterer won't be there tonight. My first thought: NJPW has a caterer?

I forgot how quickly they rushed all the dignitaries away from the front row after that match was over. One thing I did remember from when I watched it was the WCW lack of creativity in naming wrestlers. Bobby Heenan yells "That man has butchered a friendship!" then Tony later yells "This place is coming down like an avalanche!" Then Beefcake was called The Butcher and Tenta was called Avalanche on Saturday Night the weekend after.

Having gone to White Sox games in April for a few years in a row before getting sick at the last one and realizing how dumb of an idea it was, you're very much right about Chicago.

I was introduced to Lance and Dave later on than most by watching USWA wrestling in the mid 90s on WJYS (yes) in Chicago. Even though it was on at 5AM during the school week, I still got up to watch it. Lance as the exasperated parental figure, but at the same time being a fan just like us was such a wonderful thing to watch. I think this clip is a pitch perfect example of it: irritation over dealing with the First Family, disappointment over the mess Lawler was making, but also sneaking in a "WAS kind of funny..." with a snicker at the end of the segment to sell the heel's comeuppance. So good! RIP Lance Russell.

WCW should have had him do more of these type of ad reads.

I had actually thought they were going with the Owen/Bret style "We talked it out over the holidays and things are fine now." type of red herring from Owen's heel turn in '94 for Cass and Enzo. They should do that more.

Tossed in a random videotape to kill some time yesterday and it was FMW from 1998. Anyone know why Kanemura's hockey sweater of choice for a little while was the Peoria Rivermen? I had no idea what it was before, but recognized it after I've been living in central Illinois for the past couple of years.

I may have read his lips wrong, but when Vince was distracting the ref, it looked like he said something like "Now, question number 2..." which makes me want to hear what the actual conversation with the ref was like. "Come here young man, I have a battery of questions I have to ask you...."

Watching old USWA I recorded on WJYS (yes) back in the day. I'm sure anyone who's watched any Memphis has heard the announcement at the very end of the show about the announcers being paid for by the promotion and not the TV station. Anyone know the reason why they had to say that? It may be something about TV rules and regulations, of which I know very little about.. Or could it be to enhance the "sports" presentation possibly? In a similar vein, I vaguely remember Gorilla Monsoon doing the "strictly prohibited" spiel about the imposition of a charge, like they did during baseball games.

Found an interesting hidden gem, a short film called "Every Saturday Night" from the old WTTW show, Image Union, in Chicago. It features some passionate business defending from a young Dusty Rhodes, among others. It's the first one in the show. The whole film is interesting window to a much different time. (Looks like I can't post it, go to mediaburn.org and put in "Every Saturday Night" in the search bar...) RIP Dusty

While watching the Pacquiao vs. Mayweather fight last night, I was thinking "Floyd is totally taking the ball to right field.", referencing that Cactus Jack ECW promo about he would do things his way and not dance around and be safe to get to 30 without being in a wheelchair. I'm sure if I said that to anyone, they wouldn't know what I was talking about.

Quite the heel ending. Let's hope they're good about pulling the trigger at right time for the heels to get their comeuppance and the babyfaces getting to stand tall... They'll stretch it out over 9 or 10 shows in a row, won't they?