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For all the talk about invasions and brand wars (and honestly it would be a disappointment to most if there wasn’t some degree of that), it wouldn’t surprise me if this ultimately boils down to a story about an evil promoter who got in a star’s head, manipulated him and turned him against his friends, for his own personal gain. That’s a tale as old as time in sports and entertainment. Would it really be a surprise to anybody if it was revealed that Callis was the guy in Kenny’s ear all along, telling him he’s the best wrestler in the world and he shouldn’t be wasting his time in a team with Hangman?

NY Times culture critic and Pulitzer Prize winner Wesley Morris has declared MJF’s Le Dinner Debonair performance one of the best of 2020:

The Natural is clearly this board's top babyface, I think it's time we pulled the trigger and put the strap on him.

(and the follow up)

The Darby clip is actually on TLC's YouTube channel.

@Six String Orchestra provided me with this All Japan tag from 2017: I wasn't familiar with any of the participants going in, though did recognize the names Zeus and Jake Lee. Ended up watching it three times before writing about it, and weirdly enough I feel like I'm in three minds about it (if that's even a thing): I think there is a bunch of back story that might inform the match, it felt very much like a car with square wheels, and I ended up liking it more than maybe it deserved given its warts. Given some of the interactions, especially a couple of "I'm taking this opportunity to blast the non-legal opponent on the ring apron" spots, I wonder if everyone was building on either previous singles action or failed title challenges. There might have been more story culminating here than I have to work with. I didn't do any research, though I might later. Let's get those warts (at least as I perceive them) out of the way... I did not care at all for the first two strike exchanges, and blame them for the feeling of disjunction that stuck with me for a lot of the match. They just didn't come across as a replacement for something like an old-fashioned test of strength at the start or some submission reversals mid-match. I kind of wish that workers would come up with something new for that 'tension-building-contest' building block for matches because unless its done by folks like Suzuki, grumpy Nagata, or Ishii with the right opponent its just not grabbing me these days. Some of the timing seemed to be off, though some of that might have been the lingering effect of watching guys stand there waiting to receive chops early on - I think it made me hyper-sensitive to what may have been otherwise ignorable pauses. The match just didn't flow all that well for me, hence the square-wheeled car analogy. Lastly I got a really strong Bill Kazmaier vibes off The Bodyguard. I'm afraid my initial perception of him was heavily colored by the shortcomings of someone that I observed decades before he even got in the ring, and I feel a little bad about that. All of that being said I'm glad that I got to watch this, as even though there are nits (of varying sizes) to pick I ended up enjoying it. They got the crowd into it the match a good number of times which I first noticed when Nomura takes liberties during a very early rope break. For all that I didn't like the first two strike exchanges there was a third one that lead to the finishing stretch that I thought was really good - mostly because it was better timed and didn't have that 'stand there waiting' quality that afflicted the others. Lastly, and I was really surprised by how much I liked this spot in my final viewing, Jake Lee did what I thought was a great bit of delayed, dramatic selling in the closing stretch: Early in the match Lee gets one of his legs savaged - which is sold to varying degrees throughout the match, from 'over-' to 'no-.' With Nomura and The Bodyguard the legal men Lee enters the ring to remove Zeus from the equation. Lee almost reflexively uses a couple of beautiful knee lifts at the end of the sequence to put Zeus down... then makes it immediately obvious that this was a mistake and that while he was successful he's aggravated the damage to his own leg, and while Zeus has been neutralized Lee has done so at the cost of his own further effectiveness. It was a little thing that made me wish there were more things like it throughout the match, but rather than making me sour on the match for the lost opportunity it fit blinders to my head about other shortcomings. So that was neat. Thumbs up from me. Not everything is going to be an all-timer, and this was (im)perfectly acceptable pro wrestling. I will definitely be checking out more modern All Japan. Thanks! (here endeth my very first wrestling review on DVDVR, I feel like a giddy schoolgirl)

So when Kenny and Hangman lost the belts to FTR, and Kenny stormed out (trying to get the Bucks to come with him) before getting in a black car and speeding off? It was the same car he got in on Wednesday. Someone checked the numberplate and everything.

Imagine that! I get a strong sense that a lot of the posts in this thread are the result of years of being traumatized by WWE “storytelling.”

The Natural is a great guy, always takes me down memory lane with his posts in comic book movies forum, touching on anniversaries of series and movies, highlights the various costumes designs, even the sneak peak at upcoming projects I've been using the movie anniversaries posts to revisit some of those movies with my family, zoom viewing parties and reminiscing on our first impressions of some movies and TV shows, the theories we remembered about casting choices or easter egg cameos With the pandemic forcing us to stay in, revisiting the mcu and dcu with my family has been a blast over the last couple months (plus a good way to try and stay mentally sane) and legit if it weren't for Naturals movie anniversaries posts we probably wouldn't have remembered half of them and missed out on some fun viewing parties. I have strong opinions about former grandslam Champion Terry Bollea, not to be confused with terry crews or terri runnels, who i legit idolized as kid, which is ironic like a tonic, and you should PM me about my upcoming newsletter Hulkster and Me: How the childhood hero became a zero. But I wanted to express them here too (sweet!) because I can't help myself when it comes crashing down and it hurts inside, i'd love for the Sheik to break his back and make him humble

1. We finished S1 and the 8 year old was so matter-of-fact about the Darksaber. LIke a "Duh dad, of course it's the Darksaber. What else would it be?" reaction, which again shows how different her Star Wars experience is to anyone born in the 80s. 2. Let me try to make another analogy, because I was thinking about the Thrawn reveal and how it completely took me by surprise even though it absolutely shouldn't have. It was the only answer that made any logical sense knowing what you did about Ahsoka, but it felt like a complete surprise. I'd liken it to Daniel Bryan winning at WMXXX (or probably even to a greater degree, Benoit winning at XX, because Bryan was just so, so over). On some level, because of the nature of the fandom, it's not just about the babyface triumphing over the heel, but to some degree, the fans triumphing over the conservative and mainstream bent of the company. I think in wrestling that "Fans vs company" mentality has more or less destroyed how basic things operate. The only heel that anyone cares to see triumphed over anymore is Vince and Kevin Dunn, basically. That the smart fans are right and that they're wrong. But the first time a guy like Benoit or Eddy, someone who is supposed to be too small or too "pro wrestling", breaks through somehow and even as you're watching and you know it's logical for them to go over, you still doubt because it's not the way it's supposed to work. It's not supposed to be possible. It's against the usual rules. That's stuff like Ahsoka and Thrawn in live action, mainstream, front and center Star Wars.

From the latest Observer: And re: Sting:

Yes, Pearce was the head booker for 2009. It was a drastic change when he stepped in for Gabe. I know Gabe is very disliked online, but he did a fantastic job with 2002-2008 ROH. Despite being on a very tight budget, he was able to work wonders with it.

Does Cornette know about this? Im sure he’s gonna scream about it being in the art section and not the sport section. “Wrestling isn’t a performance it’s goddamn real mother fuckerrrr”

It's not every page and it's not every book, but it can pop up at any moment. Case in point, this week's X-Factor. Nominally, X-Factor is about a team (Polaris, Northstar, Eye-Boy, Rachel Summers, Daken, and Prodigy, if I'm not forgetting anyone) and their adventures around the resurrection protocols. Because of that, we see a decent amount of the Five that bring mutants back (Elixir, Proteus, Hope, Goldballs/Egg, Tempus), but in the issue, there was a page that was randomly just Emma and Dani Moonstar talking about the kids that they taught and that they keep losing and why Emma gets hurt again and again. You almost couldn't write that page at any other point of Emma's development in her 40 years of being a character. That Dani's the one who's talking to her feels poignant for about three different reasons (She's a valkyrie, she was antagonized by Emma as a kid and knew the original Hellions well, she taught the kids during the New Mutants v2/Academy X days), but again, I don't know if it would be possible at almost any other point. It's not at all the sort of thing Morrison would have written as he just picked and chose what he wanted to focus on, and that it was possible in the middle of this comic which isn't really about these characters, but it also felt perfectly natural, but most people reading probably wouldn't have been able to understand exactly why Dani was the one to talk to her like that as opposed to Kitty or Storm or Scott... etc. That's just where we are now with this run. Every era. Everything counts. It tries to synthesize it all, often in the smallest ways.

The idea that everything after the match was improvised by evil mastermind Callis to take advantage of a disoriented Kenny and score a coup for Impact has definitely crossed my mind.

Aw yissss.... Obi Wan grabs two Dunks and hops on the T to watch the Sox!

Someone had to:

I particularly enjoy the good guy's entrance music in the AJPW one and the commentators having difficulty keeping up at points in the other three (and apparently totally lost throughout the AWA one).

Studio Battlarts.

This is already better than the WWE/WCW Invasion for several reasons. 1. AEW and iMPACT are actually separate promotions. Nobody cares about WWE Owned WCW/ECW. 2. Kenny Omega is actually real life friends going back decades with Callis and his family (and potentially Gallows/Anderson if they want it). It's not Steve Austin turning on WWE for "reasons" Omega actually has a lot of legit reasons why he may have did this. 3. No McMahon family drama. That's always a plus in any story. 4. iMPACT doesn't have many stars in the men's division but if they do want to use them they can. WWE could never use Sting, Goldberg, Flair, Steiner, etc.

@Zimbra I want you to seriously think about this for a second. Do you want a bag... that hangs around your crotch.... that says: CREAM CITY

I'm obviously biased, but...

My best friend has sons that he’s made into real wrestling fans, they are 8 & 6. They mostly love NXT & AEW. He put on an old school Jericho in WCW match and they could not believe it was the same dude. My wife, who’s been with me since 2002, came in when I was watching AEW & could not believe that was Jericho as she hadn’t seen him since his short hair VH1 talking head phase. He just looks all kinds of horrible now. It’s obvious he still works out but also obvious from how he talks about it on his podcast, the sound of his voice and his face, how much he fucking drinks. I get he wanted to finally be a heavyweight but instead he’s just rocking the Jeri-Gut. It’s really sad as I’ve been a fan since his WCW debut. I’m not saying at 50 he should be in cruiserweight shape but maybe clean up the diet and put the vodka down once and awhile? Do some cardio? Because his work is definitely starting to suffer now.

My Series X survived the reboot after the update and I have downloaded my profile to the new console. The new era has begun.

Hey, @OctopusHere's the match review. I have seen very little of Soberano, Jr when I had CMLL on Comcast. I liked some of his moves but never really paid much attention to what he could actually. As for Titan I did see him when he was in ROH and once or twice in CMLL. But it's been quite a while. So I consider myself in the "Not too familiar" camp with either. But I am curious to see what this match brings. First thing that sticks out is unless you're actually looking for people in the crowd the horns/crowd noise through the speakers aren't that far off from what I remember. It's at least much better than WWE's canned noise. The only dead giveaway there's a pandemic is the ref with the mask on. So as far as presentation during these times it could be a whole lot worse. And I can tell that this will go a bit as while I'm used to them flying around a lot they started off nice and slow before gradually ramping up. All I can tell so far is it's for a title and it seems Titan is the rudo in this. Which works as he's very skilled but just can't help but be a dick. And Soberano is good at trying to overcome Titan's nefarious methods which complements the deliberate yet engaging style they're doing. Overall I liked the match. I can't say it made me want to get back into lucha but when it's something meaningful done well it's nice to check out once in awhile. Thanks for this.

Terribly excited for the upcoming weeks of Don Callis/Kenny Omega promos.

I like Britt. You can see the improvement of her gimmick and her ring skills as time has gone by. She has gone from charisma vacuum to one of the best heat machines in AEW and she's slowly putting the spots and psychology together. The Lockjaw finisher is a good finisher for her because it keeps thing simple. There's really no set-up for a mandible claw, so she doesn't have to devote a lot of moves to the psychology of softening up an opponent for the kill. She can just beat someone up to the point of exasperation and then use the Lockjaw as a mercy kill finish. Conversely, Britt is not the biggest or strongest woman in the division, so she can't always depend on brawling and striking spots to wear down an opponent so that she can employ the Lockjaw. Eventually she's going to have to take on a stronger worker like Abadon or Diamante or a superior striker like Hikaru Shida or Thunder Rosa so there needs to be some evil mat psychology in her arsenal to allow her to counter her opponent's power or striking advantage. Britt is obviously putting in a lot of hard work, so I am sure she will have it figured out. She doesn't need the women's title to be over, but I hope they eventually put the title around her waist.

I wasn't so sure about Baker especially during her face run. But I think it was that one promo where she mentioned Whataburger that I immediately turned the corner. Her wrestling has gotten much better but her heel work is some really incredible stuff. I know she frequently mentions bouncing ideas off of Jericho and say what you will about him but a lot of what she does works quite well. I'm at this time not a big fan of her talk show-type segment on Dark but I'm hoping it won't be long before I come around to it. But overall I like her. EDIT: Didn't see your Jericho post until now. The Inner Circle potential breakup with MJF and Wardlow being the Yoko Ono in this situation is way too soon. I could have seen maybe another solid year without those two in the group if done right. And as much as I want to say "But wait..." I can't help but agree with Jericho slipping more than others being on his level. Part of me think he knows his time's done soon and he's just having various people work with him for the sake of experience.

Cash Wheeler, AKA the one with hair Cash (aka Dash Wilder) has stepped up his game since coming to AEW. Dax was the one who popped off the page for me in WWE/NXT but now they feel more equal in AEW. He's no longer working with WWE guys so he feels much bigger and more like an ass kicker than an opportunist spark plug. His powerslam is super good and is something he should work in with greater frequency. He should actually work in more stuff individually that is his alone so he isn't so set in needing Dax to be there. I think FTR dips too much into the nostalgia spots on occasion and can get too deep in hitting Power Plexes and Decapitations rather than doing good tag team work. I fell in love with FTR because of their cut off spots and heat segments and the return to tag team fundamentals rather than spots from the 80's. I'm sure working with the AEW roster makes this even harder as the other teams have a very go-go-go style of getting their shit in as opposed to even Enzo and Cass who knew that Enzo getting his ass kicked to set up the hot tag was the only thing they could actually do. So they built matches around that rather than trying to wrangle Private Party into a non spot match. FTR is trying to fit in more when I feel they should be making other people work their style of match. This is to fit into my personal preference because I am self centered. Booking wise is a mixed bag of muddied waters. The angle with Kenny and Page was just an absolute mess of mixed motivations and sloppy storytelling. The whole Buck-FTR build was fucked and the pay off of the Bucks winning came too fast. There was money in the chase despite that being a cliché that gets over used. But as of now, the babyfaces beat the heels and the feud is kind of dead as The Bucks wrestle teams that have no booking chance of going over them and FTR are on the sidelines when they should be being reheated. I liked the addition to FTR being pick up truck driving beer drinkers but it clashes with the neo-Horseman bit they have with Tully. They should clarify which is what they are trying to present and stick to that.

Revoke his Pulitzer.

AEW trying to pivot from Kylie Rae quitting by making Baker the top babyface/standardbearer of the division was a gross misstep, and their decision to reverse course showed how different this company is -- they're not afraid to stop something that's not working. I think those kind of things really have built goodwill. This is a company that genuinely wants to put out an entertaining product instead of worrying about egos and how this guy or that guy might feel about ideas being squashed. * Baker also has to really be commended for solid work during the pandemic and for coming back from her injury much better as a worker. *For the most part, anyway. You can't convince me that every single thing Cody does isn't solely to feed his ego.

Dr. Britt Baker, She's a Dentist Baker actually is a pretty good example of a wresting gimmick that works in that 1) most people don't care for Dentists and 2) she wrestles like you would imagine a dentist would. The work she's done to focus a lot of her offense on the jaw has been effective and her wrestling in general has improved as she's learned to be more aggressive. The slingblade still sucks and really, there aren't a lot of people who should be using that move at all. But the fisherman's neckbreaker has ton of torque to it and the lockjaw is an effective take on the mandible claw. I think the Seth Rollins stomp is an effective addition to her move set as well. She's got a good act going personally. I think Reba/Rebel is a bit of an odd addition really. Are we supposed to feel bad for her because she's being abused by Baker or are is she supposed to be getting heat as a flunky? It's a bit murky and could be a little more clear for the audience. Britt herself has her gimmick more locked in as a pompous blowhard and looks like she's got a lot more upward mobility than she did a year ago. She's made lots of positive choices. I'm glad the Big Swole feud is over as I don't think Swole is any good. The whole match in a dentist's office wasn't a very good idea even if we are in Covids time and the period of cinematic matches. The Thunder Rosa feud should be better and Baker is going to have to step up again to keep up. I could see Baker stepping up in the championship picture in the coming year and stepping into the championship role. As it stands, she's one of the women who are actually watchable and draws heat.

FYI

I believe that's the "Disco Star Wars" song by Meco that was a hit song in the late 70s.

As a fan of the Knockouts, I can only imagine how beneficial this would be to the women's division. Very optimistic

Like many others, I have no use for Sami Callihan. The only times Sami really "entertained" me was when the CZW fans would air horn his promos. He had a surprisingly good match vs Davey Richards in AAW many moons ago. And I was invested in any matches against Penta because Penta is one of my favorites. The last thing Tony Khan needs is for either Dark or Dynamite to turn into the Sami and Friends Show. Jessica Havoc has regressed in the last 5 years. I have even less use for OINK/OIFK.

Y'all suggesting... @The Naturalis the third man?!

I like @The Natural and think he is a nice guy, but I also get what @Zartanmeans as it can get tiresome seeing him post in every thread his opinion on Hogan and I don't think it would have offended him or anyone else if you would have asked in a nicer way maybe. Also, keep in mind there's a block button. You can simply block someone if their posts bother you. 2020 sucks enough already, let's try and live in peace on here as this is one of the few places some of us can use an escape from the real world for a while.

There is potential with tag and women's crossover with Impact. I'm not sold on the men's division. The Mooses, Eddie Edwardes and Sami Callihans of the world don't really inspire any interest from me.

You are saying that like I have not already thought extensively about it. Anyway: Yes.

Anyone who has a problem with the Natural needs to take a long hard look in the mirror. Such a genuine sweetheart of a man, quality individual. Also the only person I legit became friends with off a message board and added on Facebook.

I also think that there is a story that could (and should) have played out with Otis/Tucker. Tag guy wins it. Partner expects to get a tag title shot. Winner isn't sure. Can go multiple ways - Winner makes good on the friendship and they win the tag belts as a team. Winner turns heel and greedily keeps the case. Partner turns heel saying winner is no good on his own and would be wasting the shot. Build up the underdog. Winner takes the singles shot and fails. Leads to team breaking up. With the right team this could be pretty emotional IMO. WWEcould never pull it off but the disappointed partner walking away from the best friend who took his shot, only to return when one of them is most in need... It's powerful stuff. I'd use this for the eventual Street Profits break up and Montez Ford singles push.

I'll never understand watching and analyzing stuff you don't enjoy. I really disliked Sons Of Anarchy despite the idea of a biker gang crime drama sounding neat and actors I was otherwise a fan of. I didn't break down why I disliked it so much, especially to people who for whatever reason dug it. I simply stopped watching it. Is that weird, or something?

The driver was wearing an AEW mask to sell the ruse? Based on Kenny's demeanor and body language, disoriented or not, I feel he was aware and totally complicit in this outcome. I think having the NWA/UWN women on the show, like Thunder Rosa, has already been beneficial for AEW, so I think potential crossover with some of the women of the Knockouts division can only make things better. But if some of those women ever get offered AEW/TNT contracts, I hope there are no hurt feelings.

We'll take anything we can get right now.

I like Le Batard, but it's Papi I'll actually miss.

This is a blast. Chakukiri is a kickboxing gym that's spread branches all over the world. Their branches in Japan put together mixed combat sports shows. This is a pro-wrestling match from one of their shows. Takatoshi Matsumoto is a legit BJJ brown belt who fought MMA for a while in Pancrase. He only has a handful of pro-wrestling matches, but given his experience he was able to transition to pro-wrestling. Fujiwara is 70 years old in this and still rules. There isn't much strikes thrown in this as it mostly revolves around some tight and gritty grappling. For the most part the strikes that are thrown come from Fujiwara and they are vintage brutal body shots and Matsumoto trying to headbutt Fujiwara, but of course you know that's not going to be efficient. Matsumoto wrestles in his gi, but it's not of much help as Fujiwara being a former judoka knows how to use that to his advantage and in a moment catches Matsumoto in a gi choke. There's a ton of cool stuff here including Matsumoto getting frustrated and taking off his belt while in a heel hold and trying to choke Fujiwara with it, but it back fires on him shortly as Fujiwara uses his own belt to choke him in the ropes. There's also a cool transition where Fujiwara catches Matsumoto in a Fujiwara armbar and Matsumoto escapes and catches Fujiwara in a gator role and a choke.

Not particularly interested in Impact crossover stuff overall, but it is nice to hear the casual references to them, Okada and Suzuki, like AEW is comfortable and even proud to be part of a larger, thriving industry, as opposed to WWE constantly screaming WE ARE THE ONLY SHOW IN TOWN, DO NOT UNSUBSCRIBE FROM OUR NETWORK as they melt into irrelevance I liked Hirsch/Baker, it was a little tentative in places but I was into Hirsch being so committed to the armbar gameplan, and Britt's leg lace omoplata setup for her finish is stylish. I like that it has a built-in visual cue that once she gets her hand in there and starts yankin' molars it's the point of no return, like Kurt grapevining the legs Darby is superficially Sting but at the same time, in a much more profound sense, Hangman is Sting - like one of the big moments they have to nail in the next year is Hangman finally being sick of everyone's bullshit and being ready to whip all their asses, a la Sting finally battering the nwo and pointing the bat at Hogan at Uncensored I'm fairly OK with an on-screen GM as long as it's Regal-style "two minute cameo to irritably dispense booking justice after the lunatics take over the asylum" and not like, 20 minute promos where you humiliate the people who can actually wrestle