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I remember when I was a kid seeing WM V and Martel walking out on Santana and it was SUCH a big deal. And as I was playing catch-up (I wasn't allowed to watch wrestling until I was about 10 so, this being pre-internet, the only way to catch up on what I had missed was to rent the videos the video stores had available and try to piece it all together), I thought Strike Force must have been this long-running, super-succesful team. But I was surprised to find years later that they teamed for less than two years, with Martel taking 6 months off during that less than two year run!

That story Jericho told in his book about how they told him to work her like any other opponent and he caught her with a shot and asked how she was and she said fine, then immediately went to Triple H to complain about it leading to a meeting with Vince culminating in Vince shouting something along the lines of "How could you? She's a WOMAN!" read like some bizarro episode of The Office. It's actually amazing Jericho came out of WWE as well as he did when you read all the stuff that went on that first half a year or so, from DX doing a promo where they pointed at a homeless guy and said he was "probably a better worker than Jericho" on TV even though they weren't in any sort of feud at the time to Vince comparing Jericho's wrestling to that of King Kong Bundy (Bundy's stuff looked like shit and really hurt).

There were at least two clotheslines where Dralistico bumped before Hobbs hit him and he missed one of his own kicks by about two feet. Also that sequence where Harleygram gyrated while Mortos stood there with his hands on his head was reminiscent of WWE Attitude-era shenanigans.

Every time I see (saw?) the latter, I always thought of that one promo I saw for a local radio station promoting a house show, clearly written by someone who had no wrestling knowledge who had him listed as "Seth 'Franklin' Rollins". "So his name is Seth Rollins, but his nickname is "Franklin"?" "I guess, print it."

Recently I've watched the first 8-9 Royal Rumbles and now I'm watching the first Nitro and a question struck me: Who is a better wrestling play-by-play guy: Eric Bschoff or Vince McMahon? Bischoff is dreadful as a play-by-play guy, yelling as loud as he can to try to get over how close a fall is but seemingly unable to call almost any move by name unless it's martial arts-based. But he might be better than Vince whose over-reliance on "1...2...it's over...no it isn't" or "1...2...and he wins it...no he doesn't" is pretty much the worst thing ever. Now when they both become wrestler characters, Vince leaves Bischoff in the dust as evil owner vs evil president. But straight play-by-play, I MIGHT lean Bischoff.

Last week when Yuta nailed her with the knee and the crowd all reacted with a somber "Ohhhhh" and Copeland stared on, slightly upset, and White pointed and laughed like Nelson Muntz, and I thought it was a great touch.

It's too hard to go back and like all the posts, but I have to say I greatly enjoyed the back-and-forth about the multitudes of Damien Steeles and Justin Sanes. I wonder what the most common indy name actually is?! At the opposite end, there was a guy who worked up here in BC named Count Baron Von Hugenstein and I have to say I doubt that unique combination of names is unlikely to be repeated. Maybe Count Von Hugenstein? Maybe Baron Von Hugenstein? But put them both together? Unlikely, I say!

Am I crazy or did the ring announcer also say "To face Tiffany Stratton or Iyo Sky" before the chamber. I spent 5 minutes looking it up because I thought I'd missed a title change.

I remember at the time being mesmerised by how many outlets (magazines,TV shows, fans, even Beyond the Mat IIRC) could not figure out the name and frequently listed him as "Justin Incredible". Legacy of being a wrestling fan, now suspecting that parent who names their kid "Justin" is doing it secretly as a joke when combined with their last name..."Hmm, that goalie is named Justen Close..."Just in close"? That kind of makes sense..."

Yeah that is kinda U G L Y I mean I know Santana had to consent to it but it just feel like real bad taste.

Boy, his post-wrestling career goes from "That's nice!" to "That's bad! to "That's sad." in a real hurry. "After leaving wrestling, Droese earned a master's degree from the University of Miami.[15] He began working as a special education teacher at Centertown Elementary School in McMinnville, Tennessee[1] where he has also been a strength coach.[15] On September 13, 2013, Droese was indicted for three counts of delivery of a controlled substance, having sold oxycodone and buprenorphine to an undercover police informant in July 2013.[1] He was given a three-year sentence, with 30 days to be served in prison, and fined $2,000. He since resigned from his teaching position.[16] Droese's left foot was amputated due to a staphylococcal infection.[17]"

It's kinda fascinating how the Royal Rumble rules change from year-to-year. In 1989, Andre the Giant climbs over the ropes and out, eliminating himself, to get away from Jake the Snake's snake. In 1992 (I believe), Randy Savage is so consumed with beating up Jake the Snake, he dives over the ropes onto Roberts and beats him up, only for him to be ruled back in the match because he wasn't "propelled over" by an opponent. In the 1993 Royal Rumble, Giant Gonzales comes out and destroys the Undertaker, eliminating him despite not being in the match. In 1996, after being eliminated Vader comes back in and throws Shawn Michaels, Triple H and someone else out, but because Vader was no longer in the match, the eliminations don't count! Also, has Vince McMahon ever loved anyone as much as loved 96-97 Shawn Michaels?!

Has anyone watched LFG? I honestly didn't even know it was a thing til I saw it on my TV guide. It kinda seems like early NXT with all sorts of things about respecting the vets (They hype a future episode where a woman comes up to Undertaker and asks if she can use the Hellsgate submission and he goes "You've been in this business for two minutes and you ask to use my move?!") and that weird mixed-kayfabe vibe where they're trying to pass it off as Ultimate Fighter while also sort of acknowledging that it's fake. I did not stick with it.

During the 95 Rumble Lawler was talking about how smart HBK is and "Who could be smarter than him?" and Vince said "Duke the Dumpster Droese?" and Lawler went "What?!" And I can't figure out if Vince was trying to slyly slam HBK (Unlikely, since he is in love with him) or if he was trying to insinuate another aspect of the Dumpster character being some sort of secret genius.

I'm just shortly into 1996 and I don't know if anything is going to top during Goldust's entrance to face Razor Ramon (If you'd forgotten, Goldust repeatedly hit on Razor with gifs of flowers (And, amazingly, a centerfold of himself!) and Vince McMahon says "And you've got to wonder what Razor Ramon is thinking seeing this!" to which Mr Perfect responds[in a bad Razor imitation] "Let's ooze it together, chico!" and a very annoyed-sounding Vince going "That's not what he's saying at all!"

I'm watching the 1995 Royal Rumble and...woof...what a dreadful Rumble it is. There are maybe 3 genuine stars in the match with a chance to wing (Shawn Michaels, Lex Luger and, being genrous, British Bulldog(, a handful of upper/mid-carders that have no chance (Bret Hart attacks both Owen Hart and Bob Backlund prior to their entries so they're both quick outs), SO many tag teams (Headshrinkers, MOM, Well Dunn, Smoking Gunns, Bushwackers, Blu Brothers) and a big pile of jobbers (Mantaur, Aldo Montoya, Duke Droese, Kwang, Dick Murdoch (I mean he's 49 at this point and actually only lived another year!). The two big guys who are "favorites" (King Kong Bundy and Mabel) both go out rather easy. Even though there are piles of tag teams, they rarely end up in the ring together so there's no storylines there. There's a distinct lack of star power with Hart, Diesel, Jeff Jarrett, Razor Ramon, and Undertaker all involved with matches and not in the Rumble. The camera doesn't seem to be close to the entrance, so they are constantly missing who's coming out so you hear ad nauseum "Who is it?" "It's...uh" [low groan from the audience] "It's Timothy Well!". So really, aside from Pamela Anderson at ringside, there's really no intriguing story save Michaels and Bulldog going from 1/2 to the end. It's actually shockingly dreadful. It might be worse than the 1988 Rumble which was just kind of a house show attraction.I mean, Crush and Henry Godwinn are in the Final 5!

Man...I watched this whole show (That's a lie...I have no idea what happened in the Death Riders match, got completely distracted after Edge jumped off the balcony-ish and then looked up and saw it was over) and I never ONCE noticed that the ring was smaller than usual.

I believe this was the talking point about the NXT women/horsewomen. In particular, I remember a lot of "Sasha Banks/Charlotte Flair won't be able to have good matches on the main roster when they aren't able to rehearse their matches for weeks at a time". And it was wrong, and it's still pretty much wrong.

That song is still amazing. So I read this as as "Tony came out dressed in a DIAPER" and went "No, I don't know wanna know where this is going".

Picturing Mojo Rawley sprinting into an office in a suit (probably with the sleeves torn off) and racing around the room screaming "Stay hype!"

Read this as "my Meng Haiku thing" and thought we were about to be treated to some violent poetry!

I thought it was hilarious that Alexa Bliss came out to an ENORMOUS reaction then Charlotte came out to a big reaction and the announcers had to fall all over themselves to talk about Charlotte's pop that was not near as big as the Alexa one. Women's Rumble was all right. I thought the first half was interesting but the second half sacrificed all the interesting stories (Liv being a sneaky heel, the NXT girls stepping up, Iyo's iron woman run, Bayley trying to go b2b) in order to give Nia more eliminations was dull. Thought the men's Rumble was terrific. Bron picking up and throwing Fatu out when he did was really brilliant because it was such an impressive power move that the crowd, whom had gotten super into Fatu, popped so big for the move that they didn't even really boo it and prevented then from hijacking the star-studded end run. I just wish they'd handled Dominik's entrance a little different because it was really funny to interrupt the mega-star run with him but I don't think they played it up enough, should have had a bigger delay, maybe even lights out before his entrance. I also think he would've been perfect here for getting destroyed, then hiding under the ring and coming back right in the middle of the end run. In short, I think they underused Dominik, haha

A few years back, I think it was even pre-WWE, I saw an interview with Ricochet and at that point knowing a bit of his ringwork and style was surprised that he talked about how growing up he just idolized The Rock, figuring he'd be namedropping Mysterio, Benoit, Liger etc. etc. like most of the indy/Japan guys would. But you can see him leaning way into his Rock fandom with this turn (Even with his People's...Moonsault? last night) and it's made him way more interesting.

I Saw the TV Glow: I tried to watch this once and couldn't get into it, gave it another chance because people loved it so much. I can't say I completely get it, or even really love it, but I do have to give it credit for being so thoroughly single-minded confident in its singular vision. Two teens bond over a youth-oriented TV show only for one of them to disappear. And then thing get REALLY out there. Quite beautiful and eerie and sometimes downright disturbing. So I LIKED it but not completely in love with it. I may watch t one more time as it's fairly short. Dirty Dingus Magee: I HATED this. I know it's the 70s and I'm fairly forgiving about blatant racism in other eras (I LOVE 'Holiday Inn' and as bad as the blackface is, the discussion on the blu-ray where a critic say, "You can't really FORGIVE the blackface because it should have always been bad, but Bing likely saw it as a tribute to minstrel shows which Crosby always raved about and not an attempt to make fun") but I could not get past Magee's love interest being a Native American, played by a white girl in a miniskirt whom repeatedly said "Din-GOOSE, we make bam bam now?" Anyways, it's one of those wacky old Westerns with repeated double-crosses and sex jokes and I friggin' detested it. Woman on the Run: This was another one I got 30ish minutes into and got bored and turned off, then gave it another shot when it turned up on TCM Noir Alley. And, actually, it's pretty great. Ann Sheridan plays a woman whose husband witnesses a murder and goes on the lam, and she's aided in trying to track him down by a reporter (Dennis O'Keefe). The duo trade some barbs, get into various mishaps while trying to stay ahead of the police and the murderer. There's some questionable plot points, but the last series set in the carnival with a roller coaster ride from hell is pretty great. Kill the irishman: I liked this, especially Ray Stevenson's performance, but I think it could've been better (I'd like to read the book!). Stevenson plays an irishman (but not THE Irishman!) who rises up from the docks to become a major figure in the Cleveland organized crime scene. I felt there were too many characters gven major importance who disappear offscreen for long periods then suddenly reappear (Usually to get killed and give the movie more...weight?). It's funny cuz when Stevenson and Linda Cardellini first get together, I went "There is WAY too big of an age gap here and it's throwing me off" and then I looked it up and they're only about 10ish years apart and that's a tribute to Stevenson looking way older than his age and Cardellini looking way younger than her age! The Marvels: I read a review of this that said the first 45 minutes or so is basically people explaining things to each other without ever really explaining anything which is pretty spot-on, really. I did greatly enjoy the half-assed explanation for folks who haven't watched the Marvel TV shows about how Maria/Monica Rambeau (I can't remember which Rambeau is which) got her powers "I walked through a witch's hex." It's right up there with Halloween 3 when the big bad is talking about how they stole a one of the Stonehenge stones and explain it by saying "I can't even begin to explain how difficult it was to get it here!" and that's the end of the explanation. Anyways, it was short, it looked cheap (One sequence where Captain Marvel flies into the back of flying ship does not in any way, shape or form looks like anything other than an old video game), the big bad was mediocre.

Watching the 1988 Royal Rumble and the Dino Bravo tries to set a weightlifting record is INTERMINABLE. This is clearly such a Vince segement! The crowd doesn't care but they keep slowly increasing the weight amount and Mean Gene marvels at how much Bravo is lifting, gets into little verbal spats with Frenchy Martin, Jesse argues with Vince, and the crowd continues to boo him and there is no payoff. Okerlund: "You could be eye witnessing history in the making!" Crowd: "Boo!" It is in the neighbour of 16-17 minutes and the entire point is that Dino and Jesse Ventura cheat (?!) to break the record. No one comes out and goes "Hey he cheated!" Vince just says it over commentary. Truly remarkable un-entertainment.