All Activity

Lee Elia has passed away at 87. Here's to one of the greatest manager rants ever:

I need to read that. Thanks for the reminder.

I'm partial to Superman For All Seasons personally.

Jalen Williams extends with the Thunder 5/287 (it's a rookie extension, so it could reach that with incentives)

Another booking idea: Mistico milks the crowd singing his Mexican slow jam so long we get 10 more entrances and the match ends before he can get in the ring.

I picked up a physical copy of Clair Obscur due to Gamestop having staggered rollouts of PS5 stock. Probably only going to play this on easy mode since I can't stand parry systems (although I got pretty good at it on Ghost of Tsushima). Worst case is that I toss it on eBay if I end up finding it frustrating.

Astro Bot did the thing! In other news, I need to get back to finishing Astro Bot. https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2025/07/astro-bot-has-added-its-most-wanted-cameo-in-huge-ps5-update

I thought moose knuckle was just a really big camel toe.

Season 1, Show 18: “No Escape,” or Club Murder We shall lucha once more today. Recap: Pentagón Jr.’s snappin’ arms for evil, Ivelisse is stumpin’ for title shots, and King Cuerno’s huntin’ annoying flippy babyface prey. Let’s start our show in the best possible way: with Pentagón Jr. breaking some shlub’s arm! Matt Striker sells damaging arm injuries for Penta’s past opponents, which is odd since last week, Dario offered up two of them (Famous B. and Ricky Mandel) as opponents for Alberto El Patrón even though they must have been unable to compete in kayfabe. Or maybe Dario offered them up as a stealth insult to Alberto, a silent declaration that he thinks that Alberto could only beat guys hampered by injury. Argenis represents an upgrade in opponent for Penta, who in fact gets his ass whipped early on by the bouncy Argenis, culminating in a springboard moonsault that Penta has to stand there like a doofus waiting for Argenis to launch so that he can catch it. Penta just can’t seem to catch a break – he has to kick out at a well-timed 2.9 after taking damage from a top-rope rana – before he finally dropkicks a flipping Argenis in the gut. We get a shot of A.C. Green, who looks roughly the same age that he was in 1996 when Booker T. shit-talked him on a Phoenix Nitro episode, exhorting Argenis to arise. Meanwhile, Penta hits a dope spot where he presses Argenis and then tosses him upside-down into the corner. Penta appears to have things under control, landing a dropkick after hanging Argenis in the corner, then scoring a superkick and a lariat that knocks Argenis to the floor. Penta follows with a somersault plancha shortly after. Penta continues to roll, scores a package piledriver, and then locks on an armbar for a submission before deciding to snap Argenis’s arm as yet another demonstration of pure evil to his dark master, who I’m sure thought that spot ruled as much as I did. Penta gets a mic and assures his dark master that he is unstoppable. Seedy backstage interstitial: Catrina tells Fenix that Mil Muertes will keep coming and never stop unless Fenix “bur[ies] him.” It’s a trap, stupid! I don’t care that she is the best looking wrestling lady in the history of pro wrestling itself! Don’t let your T-levels get you into trouble! Cryptic video: Konnan is a blacksmith now, I guess, and he’s tempering iron to use as a weapon, which I think is both literal (as he’s made himself an iron cane with which to beat down a few nameless mooks in this package) and figurative (being tempered in the flames of defeat as Puma was against Cage a couple of weeks ago should make him stronger, theoretically). Seedy highway interstitial: King Cuerno pulls up to the Temple in his custom truck. I sure hope that he wins his cage match with Mundo, but I doubt that he will. Next up: Angelico faces Ivelisse Velez with that doofus Son of Havoc as the special guest referee. In a nice touch, Striker and Vampiro have gotten word that there’s a special guest ref for this match, but they can’t see the seedy backstage interstitials that we can and thus don't know what we know from last week about the ref. They are suitably curious to find out who it is. Unfortunately, Striker keeps repeating that “beat you over the head" line because he’s a dolt. Son of Havoc has gotten over as a loveable loser in the Temple (especially because his actual work is perfect for what this live audience likes). This match isn’t good, but there’s an interesting angle attached to it, so I’m fine with it. Ivelisse is also over in the Temple. It might be a mistake to break her and Havoc up. Anyway, after a rana that sends Angelico to the floor (and a high-five from the very impartial ref, heh heh heh), Ivelisse takes a bump right onto her neck while whiffing on a running attack. Angelico tries to capitalize, but Havoc positions himself in front of Ivelisse so that he can’t easily follow up. They do some flash pinfall attempts that Angelico uses to purposely pull Ivelisse into *ahem* compromising positions, which distracts Havoc from counting when she’s on top. It is what it is, I guess. Ivelisse smacks Angelico and demands that he hit her back. He loads up to give her a chop, but Havoc blocks him. Angelico next tries a stalling vertical, but he gets cocky about it, and she leverages back down and into a front facelock that Angelico breaks by, uh, slowly and lasciviously caressing her lower back. So Angelico is the heel, right? He refuses to take Ivelisse seriously and also gets all grabby with her to try and piss off the special ref, yeah? Angelico finally kicks Ivelisse in the head on a strike exchange, looking regretful as he does it, then sets up for a running Razor’s Edge that Havoc pulls Ivelisse out of, saving her. Angelico argues with Havoc about his interference, then does a good shoot job of launching himself over on an Ivelisse rana, but a bad kayfabe job of it because you can see he and Ivelisse stopping for a bit and prepping his big flip into a pinning position. Again, the match fucking sucks, but I want to see where this storyline goes. I roll my eyes when Striker half-mockingly exclaims “Shades of Rey Misterio and Psicosis there” on that last spot. Ivelisse gets up and slaps Havoc for only counting to two on that rana before Angelico kicked out. Angelico tries to kick Havoc, but kicks Ivelisse when Havoc moves. OK, why is Angelico feigning upset about kicking Ivelisse? He should be trying to win. To top his babyface performance off, Angelico lasciviously bends Ivelisse in half to pin her, and Havoc quickly counts to three to get him off her. So, I come out of this having sympathy for Havoc and wanting Angelico to get his arm snapped by Penta (and thinking that Ivelisse should be nicer to her boyfriend, but that she's justifiably irritated at Angelico not taking her seriously at all). Is that what I’m supposed to be feeling after seeing this match? I’m not sure, but I really don’t see how they can push Angelico as a babyface or even a tweener based on this whole feud. He just seems like a massive dickhead. Seedy backstage interstitial: Mil Muertes adjusts his mask in a dirty mirror while having some sort of PTSD flashback or maybe just being visited by a teleporting Catrina with her dark magicks. Catrina teleports in, maybe, or maybe her image is merely psychically conjured up by the stressed out Muertes. Catrina (???) intimates that she has known him since he was a child who had just survived a massive earthquake when she was, like, maybe an adult? I am gathering that Catrina might be hundreds or even thousands of years old and has used some of her dread spells to give some semblance of immortality to Muertes. The idea of an adult Catrina preying on this helpless kid whose family all just died in a quake is supremely creepy. I love that Catrina is such a squick-y valet. If a viewer takes her as simply eye candy like one might have done with valets of the past, she’ll quickly say or do something that totally turns them off (or turns them on even more if they're total sickos, no judgment meant). Anyway, Catrina tells Muertes that Fenix is going to finish him off in a Casket Match next week, which I think is rad. I unironically love Casket Matches. Now, the real question here is about what we actually just witnessed. Was Catrina actually in the room with him or, as the glitchy editing of the interstitial might suggest, was Mil just having a psychological breakdown? I’d say it was the latter except that after Catrina disappears, Muertes turns around to find laid behind him the mystical stone that Catrina uses to control him. Suffice it to say that I loved the hell out of this interstitial. Lucha Underground is going to give about thirteen to fifteen minutes to tonight’s main event cage match, which unfortunately means that I’m going to be stuck watching Johnny Mundo wrestle a singles match for that amount of time. Vampiro smartly asks whether or not Mundo’s offense will be hampered by not being able to use the apron or outside of the ring to do flippy parkour bullshit, and fairly enough comments, “I take back what I said” the second that Mundo bounces off the cage to perform an overelaborate kick to King Cuerno's dome. I refuse to spend a ton of time calling a Johnny Mundo match, at least as long for as this guy is a babyface. I’ll tell you if any cool spots are in this match (and, of course, the ending). I’m sorry to be negative about something else entirely, but this match can be won by climbing over the cage. If LU is really so concerned about differentiating itself from WWE, then maybe they should ditch that "escape the cage" nonsense and only have pinfalls and submissions be winning conditions. Striker is being suboptimal on commentary, but at least Vampiro is kinda no-selling his comments sometimes. I love Cuerno using the cage as a weapon as much as possible, and so does the crowd, which starts chanting Cuerno’s name. Correct, crowd. Cuerno is awesome. At least pinfalls and submissions do still count in the LU cage. It’d be much worse if you could only escape to win like in WWE. As an aside, yesterday I saw a Botchamania clip in which Jesse Ventura railed while being a commentator on WWE television (!!!) about someone winning a cage match by walking out of the door, saying that they should have had to climb over the top to win. Aside from the fact that a flustered Michael Cole was trying to point out that the guy walked out of the door to show his dominance and disregard for the opponent he had just destroyed, my memory is that you could escape the cage door back in the WWF of the ‘80s just like you can in the WWE of today. Am I wrong about this? I feel like you could even escape the door in the big blue cage they used to have. Maybe I’m somehow misremembering something about an era that I grew up watching. It wouldn’t be the first time. Oh yeah, about this match that I am not really feeling even though Cuerno always maximizes the stips or setting of whatever match he’s in: Cuerno almost escapes, is held from dropping to the floor by his mask, and you know what, just imagine a ton of strike exchanges that the crowd can chant YEAH/BOO on and a bunch of WWE-style near-escapes leading up to the end. Oh, and the babyface having a chance to escape, but instead choosing to do a high spot from the top of the cage. That too. Mundo hits a Sky Twisting Moonsault from the top for three. Bummer. I am dreading the eventual Johnny Mundo title run, whether as a rudo or técnico. Everything leading up to the main event was pretty fun, though I find the character approach to Angelico/Ivelisse/Havoc a bit unclear. I didn’t like the main event, especially not the choice to put Mundo over, but that is what it is. This show was also a bit weaker for not picking up enough of its hot (to me) storylines. Let’s get back to Lotus and Matanza and get more Sexy Star and Big Ryck forming what I assume will be an uneasy short-term alliance. All that aside, Catrina and Mil Muertes continue to be my favorite characters on this show and made this episode better simply by being a part of it. 3 LU-CHA chants out of 5.

Interesting bit of news here:

RIP James Cathcart (aka Jimmy Zoppi). Voice of Meowth, Prof. Oak, Team Rocket's James, and many others. He was 71.

i originally subbed him for the TNA Xplosion episodes he was uploading, but there's been SO much good stuff!

Road winning streak ended last night for the Fish. Also... All hail, King Booker, indeed.

I'd venture a guess that him being fired (through whatever means that takes) would trigger some kind of payment clause where they have to pay out his contract and if he resigns they keep that money. So... yeah. Fire me, I'm already fired.

I think it was Meltzer a couple of weeks ago that was trying to speculate that if AEWs recent turnaround was while Mox was champion. That maybe you keep it that way to keep things chugging along. I don’t really see much of what Mox specifically is offering as champion that has fed this turnaround. I’m not as down on the D Riders as some. But business guys that think money over everything demands they keep those Ds Riding. To me it seems like on a narrative level that the set up is for Hanger to win at the big blowoff show. At this point serving the story (in my view) is a better route to go to spend on all the investment in Mox to pass the baton and mix in Swerve and Osprey and others into the Main Event scene.

Except, he got the job in a secret vote put forth by one player in a super secret vetting process that probably didn't exist. That player was then given a job high in the union that has never existed before it was bestowed upon him. It's a union filled with too many players, most of whom can't give up the time and money it will take to actually fight against any of this shit. It's amazing that something like this hasn't happened before, it's a union that is extremely necessary, but the people inside of the union are split between people who can't afford to fight and people who make enough money that they don't have any reason to fight. I don't remember what radio show it was, but I remember someone calling Gene Upshaw a pawn when he stepped down. The guest he was talking to said something to the effect of, if you knew all of the fires he put out over the years, you wouldn't say that. I'm interested in the DeMaurice Smith book that is coming out, because I have a feeling that he has all the stories.

That might be my favorite channel on YouTube, just for the sheer amount of stuff I've either never heard of or only heard of in the results pages of magazines/newsletters.

meanwhile Bryan Turner uploads for complete lunatics with lots of time "GWF Light Heavyweight Championship 1991 Tournament - 7 HOUR MIXTAPE" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYQpM6YVfk0

AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley vs. Hangman Adam Page. AEW Women's World Championship: Timeless Toni Storm vs. Mercedes Mone. AEW Unified Championship: Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada. AEW TNT Championship: Adam Cole vs. Kyle Fletcher. AEW World Tag Team Championship: The Hurt Syndicate vs. Jet Speed vs. The Patriarchy. The Young Bucks vs. Will Ospreay/Swerve Strickland. Men's Casino Gauntlet match: Ricochet Women's Gauntlet match: Statlander or maybe Bayne

Certainly there are some reasons to question it, but I love the Casino Gauntlet. The 'lying around while somebody gets their stuff in' shit hasn't been as bad as any of the multi-man ladder matches. The fact that it isn't a ladder match nor a battle royal is just a huge sigh of relief. I also feel relieved that the match doesn't feature 4 new entrants representing a card suit at the buzzer. Lastly, as a way to get ppl on the card, it sure beats a forgettable 8 plus man tag or (the absolute worst) a fucking 'scramble'.

Honestly, Jun Kasai is a bit of a marvel -still wrestling at 50, despite decades of death match wrestling -still putting on quality performances, even in singles matches -still wrestling death matches in front of like 400 people

This is probably all over the place but the Players Tribune and AEW created a mini documentary about the Briscoe family. It is more about Mark Briscoe and how his family are then a brief look at their career. But very awesome to watch. And I am convinced that at least 2 or 3 of those kids are going to be in the business. And not just the boys either https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAOE_DYMRD4

i thought Canadian bacon was known as "back bacon" up there.

It's peameal bacon, dang it!

i'm glad you did! i saw the original "Age of Revelation" tease a week or two back when it came out, and i just assumed it was the latest crossover. Since i'm not currently reading X-Men comics, i promptly ignored it. But if we're talking alternate timelines/possible futures/etc., then my interest is piqued! P.S. can i get i that "Radioactive Spider-Man" book to somehow star Ben Reilly? Do me this favor, Brevoort!