DEAN~!!

[The Natural]

Meltzer:

- Voices of Wrestling had a poll where the Action Dean show was listed as the best show of Mania weekend in Philadelphia. Night two of Mania tied with ROH Supercard of Honor for third place. The top five bouts were voted as Demus vs. Mad Dog Connelly dog collar at Action Wrestling Dean, Mark Briscoe vs. Eddie Kingston, Kyle Fletcher vs. Lee Johnson was third, Daniel Makabe vs. Timothy Thatcher at Action Wrestling Dean was fourth and Adam Priest vs. Slim J from Action Wrestling Dean was fifth. The highest WWE bouts with Gunther vs. Zayn at No. 7 and Rhodes vs. Reigns at No. 10.

[Jacey]

4 hours ago, The Natural said:

Meltzer:

- Voices of Wrestling had a poll where the Action Dean show was listed as the best show of Mania weekend in Philadelphia. Night two of Mania tied with ROH Supercard of Honor for third place. The top five bouts were voted as Demus vs. Mad Dog Connelly dog collar at Action Wrestling Dean, Mark Briscoe vs. Eddie Kingston, Kyle Fletcher vs. Lee Johnson was third, Daniel Makabe vs. Timothy Thatcher at Action Wrestling Dean was fourth and Adam Priest vs. Slim J from Action Wrestling Dean was fifth. The highest WWE bouts with Gunther vs. Zayn at No. 7 and Rhodes vs. Reigns at No. 10.

Where was that printed?

(never mind, found it!)

Edited April 15 by Jacey

[The Natural]

1 hour ago, Jacey said:

Where was that printed?

(never mind, found it!)

Forgot to post the link:

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/daily-updates/daily-update-ufc-300-fallout-tony-jones-rossy-ogawa

[Brian Fowler]

I think I'm more partial to Makabe/Thatcher than the Dog Collar Match personally, but that's more stylistic preference than a comment on match quality. That was a top two matches for the ages, on top of a great card all the way down. 

Been a long time since I bought wrestling on physical media but hell yes.

[Death From Above]

I mentioned this in the big indie thread but for those who don't check there as often, if you enjoyed Makabe vs Thatcher check out the latest Prestige show on the same streaming service for Makabe vs Sabre Jr. it's pretty fucking great too.

[Brian Fowler]

18 hours ago, Death From Above said:

I mentioned this in the big indie thread but for those who don't check there as often, if you enjoyed Makabe vs Thatcher check out the latest Prestige show on the same streaming service for Makabe vs Sabre Jr. it's pretty fucking great too.

Indeed it was. 

[kthorjensen]

it's been like 15 years since I posted on this board OR went to a wrestling show (that's what moving to a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean will do to you) but you know, everything is cyclical so let's do a Big Post on ACTION DEAN~!

Right off the bat explaining to my wife what I needed to fly to the East Coast to do was a little complicated but I just bought the ticket first and let the rest work itself out. We've been in pretty severe crisis mode for the last few years (like... everybody else on Earth) and my whole resolution for 2-0-2-4 was to pull out of the nosedive and be a Human Man, with Human Interests once more. So we used some miles and I hooked up a place to stay with an old friend in NYC and made it a reality.

I took the train from NYC to Philly and then a bus and then another bus to the closest hotel to the venue (the Plum Tree Inn), a place so sketchy my bank automatically pinged a fraud alarm the instant I checked in. After taking a shower I walked the 3 miles to the H20 Wrestling Center, located like all good things in the middle of a mixed use office park.

It actually turned out to be a little bit longer because I was listening to a podcast my wife sent me to help her with a job interview so I missed the turn but after walking through a charming suburban neighborhood where it doesn't appear that people just walk through I found first the Wawa and then the venue. As I walked up all the workers were around the front side of the building and I overheard somebody say "big clothesline WHOOSH" before I found the real door. Nobody like checked my ticket or anything but you know how it goes.

I have not been Deep Into wrestling for some time so a lot of these guys I have barely seen in passing or at all but I did not Complain on the Internet or even Do My Own Research about it.

Colby Corino becomes the first challenger for a title I've ever seen warn the crowd that he's very tired, and justifiably so! Both him and Alex Kane have huge and very different charisma and this was definitely fun, the right amount of length and shenanigans without burning anything out. This show was LONG but for the most part the pacing was very smart (we'll get to the Most Part later).

The Good Hand get the "early NWO heel stable" combination of a good talker, a laconic big man and a little fucking asshole piece of shit that everybody wants to see die rolling early and their match with Amboss / O'Shea Edwards was fun, especially because Kevin Ryan is a very good  little fucking asshole piece of shit that everybody wants to see die. Suge D's failed armdrag bit with the enormous Edwards was also very charming and the moonsault at the end was a Big Fella Flying.

Ugly Sucklings vs. Violence Is Forever was a quick little sprint packed with grisly offense from both sides. I liked the pace of this a lot and everything looked good. Here's White Mike taking a little breather in the empty chair next to me, a chair that would get a significant amount of use throughout the evening.

https://shortandhappy.com/images/dean-mike.jpg

The first appearance of the Nasty Ring Mat heralded the crowd popping for Gypsy Joe Rules despite having no idea what they were. Tom Lawlor coming into the match dressed like he just finished up his shift at Best Buy was the little touch of surrealism that made this magical. A lot of it happened outside the ring on the other side from where I was sitting but watching Tank blade was hilarious, he worked his forehead with the frenetic zeal of a squirrel trying to open a Brazil nut. 

3 Flippy Guys vs. 3 Strong Motherfuckers was exactly what it said on the tin. Danny Demanto's plaintive request for a single door was deeply touching, and then he set the door up against the ropes right in front of me so I figured I just wouldn't see anything. Then somebody got flung into it and a tuft of his hair was sticking out of the door the entire match, which was pretty gross. Most of this match was Bobby Flaco just getting the living shit kicked out of him. "Unkillable" Brayden Toon is the weirdest wrestling name I've heard in a while. Is he a living cartoon? Is his signature match a scaffold match over a vat of Dip?

https://shortandhappy.com/images/dean-flaco.jpg

I liked the work in Gringo Loco vs. Dr. Cerebro a lot but the actual match was a little off-feeling, with the inexplicable DQ for a chairshot on the arm? followed by a match restart and the chair just lying there? Everything they did looked great though and it was fun as fuck and Cerebro has Veteran Presence.

https://shortandhappy.com/images/dean-cerebro.jpg

Krule and Warhorse worked hard but this match was incredibly long-feeling. Krule's Hello Kitty lighter fell out of his pocket onto the mat right in front of me like three minutes into the thing. Mr. Horse has a lovely top rope elbow and they did a lot of careening into chairs but there was also Jumping Nothings into Goozles and other unsatisfactory things. I could have used five minutes less on this.

Put that five minutes into Makowski vs Arez which was billed as a clash of styles but everything these guys did looked perfect, smooth and hard-hitting and great. Arez's toe-tap moonsault off the ropes is devastatingly beautiful. This seemed like it was just shifting into another gear when it ended but I definitely wanted more.

Adam Priest is a guy I've been hearing a lot of praise for and while "Any Style" is a completely doofus nickname he really came out and delivered the most Professional Wrestling match of the night, talking multitudes of shit towards the recently unemployed Slim J throughout the match and making everything he did look great. This was worked precisely like it should be, nothing out of place and nothing unnecessary, just two great performers locking in on it. The rope neck snap to get out of the sleeper was disgusting even if I could barely see it. So gross!

I wasn't as into Sinner & Saint vs. Youth and Mathers as some others seem to be. I started to drift out of wrestling as that super indie style was coming to prominence, and by this point I'd seen so many Guys doing so much Stuff that a match like this, which was full of Guys and Stuff, was gilding the proverbial lily. Nothing essentially wrong with this and it all looked good, just not for me. These guys are all babies so hopefully they'll grow into being a little bit lazier, like a man does.

https://shortandhappy.com/images/dean-sinner.jpg

What can you even say anymore about Demus vs. Mad Dog Connelly? Demus is a foulmouthed short king but the instant Connelly stepped out and started whipping that chain around this felt DANGEROUS in a "somebody in the crowd is going to lose a tooth" way. These guys just wailed the shit out of each other in a ton of intense and great-looking ways. I got the same garbage can thrown at me twice, and it was most certainly full of garbage. This match was the kind of thing that's impossible to explain to somebody who doesn't already Get It, but if you Get It than the Getting's Good.

https://shortandhappy.com/images/dean-demus.jpg

Main event was incredible. Being able to watch these two guys work each other over from the front row, see the struggle and shift and work, was truly special. Both Makabe and Thatcher are masters of this kind of close work, and everything here felt earned and tense and logical, right down to the three nasty punches they closed with. When my daughter was looking through my photos she stopped at this one and said "that looks like it REALLY hurts." That's how you know you're doing it right.

https://shortandhappy.com/images/dean-makabe.jpg

But most importantly? At one point during the match, quietly under-the-breath whispered from Thatcher to Makabe, "you OK?" just long enough to connect and affirm the trust and closeness necessary to work this violently with each other. Not intentional, not meant to be heard, but living proof that pro wrestling is love is pro wrestling is love.

My most cherished memory of DEAN~ is when I met him and a bunch of the other guys for the first time at the 2000 ECWA Super 8 (aka "The One Before The Good One"). I had made my way to Wilmington, Delaware in the way I did in my 20s, ramshackle and improvised, and when the show let out Dean asked me where I was staying and I just pointed off into the woods, an act which he'd bring up to me several times in the next decade or so. RIP big man, you made this Internet a place for me to share something special and learn from the best.

Might not post here for another 15 years, but who knows? Lot of stuff on this board doesn't seem to be working if you want me to look at the code.

 

 

 

 

[Curt McGirt]

Dude, you win Gold Prize for making your way up, not even being stateside. That's awesome. And also, I think your comments about Cerebro/Loco being somehow off and Makowski/Arez needing more time are on the mark. Both were still killer of course. And those photos are so good that I'm sure the participants are gonna want to see them, and maybe even end up in the DVD.

I still haven't went back and watched the pre-Cerebro matches. At this point I'll just wait for the DVD/VHS/whatever. 

[Curt McGirt]

Also, god yes man, stick around and fix the board. I can't even tag that to you. There is probably a full laundry list on the main page. 

[Jacey]

https://smartmarkvideo.com/dvd/action-wrestling-blu-ray-april-4-2024-dean-williamstown-nj#intro

 

Hey everyone!  DEAN~!!! is now out on Blu Ray over at Smart Mark!

[Death From Above]

I didn't need that money anyway

[AxB]

Our friend Dylan Hales tweeted the cover art:

Edited April 23 by AxB

[TimLivingston]

Glorious doesn’t begin to describe it. Purchased it so fast my head spun. 

Edited April 23 by TimLivingston

[Curt McGirt]

EDIT: My moaning about postage I bought it. Of course I was gonna, and besides Action deserves a ton of dinero for everything they do. BUY IT. 

Edited April 24 by Curt McGirt

[Pete]

2 hours ago, AxB said:

Our friend Dylan Hales tweeted the cover art:

That cover photo goes sooooooooooo fucking hard.

[JLowe]

16 hours ago, Jacey said:

https://smartmarkvideo.com/dvd/action-wrestling-blu-ray-april-4-2024-dean-williamstown-nj#intro

 

Hey everyone!  DEAN~!!! is now out on Blu Ray over at Smart Mark!

Woke up, opened board, saw this, ordered.

[Jacey]

Eventually I'll do a "tell all" post with input from Phil & Eric about what went into this and other things

[Curt McGirt]

Bonus points for the almost Away-from-Voivod-esque handwriting on the spine.

[twiztor]

ORDERED! Thank You!!

[Lee B.]

Ordered!  Can't wait to watch this with my neighbor who went to the show with me, and my neighbors who didn't go.

[Curt McGirt]

...and now I gotta buy a new Blu Ray player cause mine is shot  At least I found out!

[Jacey]

If anyone is so inclined, tomorrow night on IWTV we have a show at 730pm EST called ACTION Forever.  It's our 6th Anniversary show and I'm pretty happy with the line up we have

[JLowe]

Got mine today (being in Philly meant quick delivery). Love the packaging. Looking forward to reliving it, seeing myself mark out, and hopefully convincing my wife to check out some of the Action.

[Jacey]

Wow that was quick!

[NikoBaltimore]

Just got paid and one of the first things I did was order it.  Can't wait to get this and man that cover is incredible.

Edited April 26 by NikoBaltimore