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I know you're NOT talking about me but you are absolutly describing me.

I appreciate you reading. I appreciate the question. I have a lot of plates in the air this morning but let me run through some of this stuff quickly to the best of my ability. On a second read, I realize that this has as much to do with them as it does with me. I really wasn't familiar with them so I wasn't sure what we'd be getting here but this does spell it out pretty well. The way I initially read the question (and there's still some of it in there) was a bit of bothsidesism. Let me try to cover some of this ground though. It should probably be more of a gazing thing but I'm not cross-linking right now. Me: If you asked me ten years ago what was most important, I'd say narrative/storytelling and I'd lean hard on selling and things having meaning through the match. Excitement/execution were secondary to this. Second-level even. You couldn't even consider them if the first level wasn't met. I think I have developed in that time to have a bit more of a balance but that balance leans hard towards.. Commitment/immersion: this is what I balance the coherency/consistency of the narrative with primarily. How deeply is a wrestler submerging themselves into what they're doing. How well can they use that to pull the fans in. It means that I give more credit to someone like Sabu that I might have previously because they're so thoroughly and consistently in the moment. A lot of times this is where I struggle with Omega because he feels like a director carefully staging every shot wanting perfection as opposed to an actor in the moment who has given in to the moment. I struggle a little with Dax now too primarily because I listened to too much of his podcast and get more how his mind works and how he puts together matches. It means that I can appreciate it on a different level but it's not exactly the level I enjoy wrestling on normally and it chafes. This does make me kind of want to revisit TNA Angle at some point, after he'd completely gone off the rails and see if there's something Sabu-ish to like there. But not enough to actually do it. Implicit storytelling: Through watching all of that Hansen and AJPW, I am higher than I used to be on people who are so thoroughly their character and that eat up so much air in the room that they sort of force a logical, path of least resistance sort of storytelling onto a match. I do see huge differences between Tenryu and Hansen when it comes to the former finding ways to outwardly highlight the strengths of his opponent (even without it seeming like he's doing so) vs the latter who forces his opponents to find ways to be strong on their own in order to stay with him. When the second happens, you get amazing matches, maybe even more so than what Tenryu was generally doing, but Tenryu's method and skill and consideration creates a far stronger baseline. Individual attributes for wrestlers I may not overall rank: This is something we're bad at as a community. We don't give credit for small things because we're always focused on the big picture. I give the example of John Studd. Terrible offense. Miserable control. Often just lays in holds. But he was a wonderful early match stooge who used his size as a point of dissonance by stalling and complaining and refusing to engage. I really enjoy those 2-3 minutes of his matches. Recently, I think Kyle Fletcher has some great instincts when it comes to working with the crowd and doing some of the in between stuff, especially during AEW mandated commercial break heeling pauses. If you just have him react and be a jerk, he's going to do ok with it. It doesn't mean I even liked his ospreay match and i was just ok with the Lee Johnson one but he seems like a guy who would pop a beach ball very well and he should watch old Gino Hernandez matches if he's going to stay a heel. Likewise, I do respect Omega's ability to devise complex stories in his matches. I just can't help but see the strings, which ironically at this point of my watching life, more or less invalidates the positives in the same way immersion without story might have ten years ago for me. I absolutely respect his ambition. I just find myself not enjoying the actual results. Tag wrestling: This is pertinent. The thing I dislike the most about modern tag wrestling is that the matches break down too soon. They jettison so many of the narrative opportunities to get heat and build anticipation for a hot tag and a comeback that makes tag team wrestling so special in order to get to the complex spots and quick in and out action too soon. They miss the forest for the trees and boy do they ever love trees. The one team, strangely enough, that somehow figures out a way to structure it to make it work for me is Silver/Reynolds. They're like idiot savants in structuring "everything breaking down too early" in a compelling way that still feels like it has meaningful momentum shifts and build and payoff. Overall: I do still lean towards minimalism. I love the manipulation/working aspect of pro wrestling, the idea that by putting the smallest finger on the pulse, you can completely move a crowd this way or that. I do feel like people do more and more with less and less result, or that it's become much more of an explicit collaboration with the crowd now where there's mutual feeding and pandering and basically surrendering to the will of the crowd instead of the sort of one-directional manipulation and the a skilled response to the crowd's reaction to that manipulation. I heard Mansury on the AEW podcast gloat about how yes they do rehearse everything, and that's well and good, but it's much more compelling when there's a bit of flex in the moment. I thought the Bunkhouse match was pretty fun along those lines, especially Claudio.

Schiavone said at the end that the correct answer is 21 (Casino Gauntlet).

Props to Tony, that was a slick trade back in the first round and still getting his guy. His best booking of the week, obviously distracting him from Dynamite. The Bucks needed to pile drive some sense into him.

Movies seen yesterday.... Undercurrent (Criterion, leaving next week) Superbad (Peacock, leaving next week) Challengers (saw at the theater)

https://cdn4.whatculture.com/images//2024/04/e54ea7b3d656cc582866f536fac664db.png Another picture of Tony Khan with a neck brace.

For some reason this reminded me of one of my best friends, back when we were kids in the 1980s. His parents got excited about modern living and went out and bought a Betamax VCR and a Commodore VIC-20. I think he still harbours some sort of psychological grievance to this day.

I guess this and the Cosby reversal show the difficulty in prosecuting some of these decades old crimes

Seems there's a lot of horror movies being released in The spring this year, LNWTD, The First Omen, Immaculate, Abigail.

"I have more Cocaine than Jackie Crockett and damn I'm gonna use it" papa Shad should bring in Jinder to go after The Dastardly Elite! I'd also like for Jericho to rename the FTW title then "Stu Hart International Title"

I'm reminded of something Jani Lane I think said on Celebrity fit club "some people just don't have the motherhood gene"

I remember thinking when all his shit came out and he quite that maybe Ole Lars wasn't mentally cut out for the pressure cooker world of Pro wrestling and that maybe he would be better served somewhere else but he seems to be an un repentant asshole

The Sherri episode might have been even more depressing than I expected.

You've the reverse Midas touch ;).

That's a smart play on Bucks' part. Hook Cole up with a sweet podcast gig, so he will be preoccupied for the time being, while The Elite take the spot recently deceased Tony K was probably saving for Undisputed Kingdom in hopes that they would actually get over as heels for what they did to MJF. Storyline-wise, Cole and The Elite should at least acknowlegde the situation and promise to stay out of each others' business, for now, until the AEW World Title comes into play in one way or another.

He’s busy with the new company gaming podcast.

You know who is probably not taking this The Elite main event takeover too well? Adam Cole. He's still looking from the sidelines as somebody's disputing his kingdom! Oh, well you know the old saying Mone just talks and Adam Cole barely even walks, so what's he gonna do about it? Him turning on The Young Bucks a couple of years back sure bit him in the ass now, huh?

The actual plot points or how they did them?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUgLzTg2BpA Man, this duo of Roddy Piper and Gino Hernandez was putting Pablo Escobar's kids through school

The first workout back went well enough. I tried on a bunch of stuff but kept the weights moderate to say the least. Like I said, resistance band and light dumbells, EZ bar, all the fun to do stuff. I did feel like my endurance isn't quite back yet, but it was alright. At the end, I did a decent amount of ab work and for the first time ever, I was able to do a few reps with the ab wheel with my toes on the floor instead of knees elevated off the floor, like usual. That means my lower back and core are now stronger than they have been up to this point. On the way back home, I felt like I could breathe through my nose again for the first time in a week, so I made a point to ONLY breathe through my nose for at least the last 20 minutes of the ride. Really concentrating on getting my lungs filled with air through the nose and then pushing the lungs empty through the mouth kept me from blowing up during the ride and I made good time, not really slowing down or even shifting to a lower gear while going uphill. I need to remember this once I start running again, in about a week.

I beat Rebirth. I’m so fucking confused. And this is coming from someone who has a pretty good understanding of the movie Primer. I really don’t know if it was massively poor writing or what, but I’m towards poor writing.

I think that's legitimate concerns about his ability to operate on schedule in the pocket, but, in draft terminology, the upside is tremendous. At least you didn't draft a QB who is going to turn 24 in a week and a half and you seem to be planning to have sit his first two years.

Especially given one of the things announcers haven't been able to STFU about for every Lakers game all season is how the Lakers get to the line more than anyone else. Welp!

free idea for AEW: have a giant get well card for Tony signed by all the various AEW wrestlers, only for the Elite to show up and smash up the card (can't be a conventional card unless you want them to just rip a giant card into pieces)

Our tastes may differ quite drastically, but I find them very solid and entertaining tag team that hasn't really gotten the opportunities that they deserve. Put them in the ring with any team with a modicum of talent and at the very least you'll have a solid tag team wrestling outing. Any company would be lucky to add them to the roster.