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Nice!

Nyla Rose's Twitter is one to look out for.

Adam Page's Twitter is one of the best.

Or is he

Go to 9:40, if you want to know what his DVDVR name was. Except, we already knew.

Cody is very persuasive. I extend him trust that I generally wouldn't give to others. I know he won't let me down. Cody goals:

I really couldn't agree with you more. Part of me is even thinking back and wondering "was Brit's in ring bad in IWC because of the caliber of opponents she had" but then I thought back and she was in there with Ray Lynn who is really good and deserves to be signed, Katie Arquette who yes she was also very green at the time too, and Marti Belle who is also should be in AEW. Something that isn't well known (and one of the reason's I soured on Brit) is that she was originally going to face Lufisto in a cage match. This could have been a chance to face a star and try a whole different style of wrestling. She refused to do it and Katie Arquette took the match (and one of an ass kicking) Katie earned my respect huge that night while I lost a lot for Britt. If any of you are familiar with Ziggy Haim she also was supposed to be facing Britt, Britt refused to work with her and made up a bullshit story and the match never happened. Ziggy left the promotion soon after. I will say this though. Britt's attitude has changed for the better. She did the match with Thunder that was easily the best women's match this year. That hardcore style match is something she never would have done 3-4 yrs ago and it makes me wonder just how great that match with Lufisto would have been. I think Britt will have a great 2022 and hope that Deeb or Rosa get the TBS belt as well. Rosa and Deeb can have a great match and can also carry anyone.

That's a hell of a trailer.

New Way of the Blade this week with Will Helmick aka Goodhelmet discussing Buzz Sawyer vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan https://redcircle.com/shows/be34c05b-8483-4797-af55-5ec4bd254611/episodes/c83fd1d7-2d83-454a-a8d4-4ac82ea1b040

Chess, not checkers. https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/cody-rhodes-being-booed-i-feel-woody-toy-story?amp&__twitter_impression=true

But people keep asking for relatable characters!

He reminds me a lot of Paul E with ECW. They've both positioned themselves as an alternative to what many perceive to be a "stale" wrestling landscape. Except with Paul, he portrayed himself and ECW as underdogs. Coach Tony doesn't really have to do that. His way of being the alternative is just giving fans exactly what they want.

Brilliant.

https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/32395472/former-ufc-star-junior-dos-santos-set-pro-wrestling-debut-planning-boxing-match-next

Britt is not as horribly green as Jade is, and Britt often rises to the caliber of the person she's in the ring against. Problem is that she can't be in the ring with Thunder Rosa every night. Even Shida and Tay Conti have their moments of awkwardness in matches that make me think that extended programs with Britt might not be a good idea. That's why I think another women's singles title is a horrible idea. Tag belts would be better so that then you could tie a rocket to Jade and Nyla and cover up Jade's weaknesses by giving her a partner. Personally, I'd put the belt on either Ruby, Rosa, or Serena Deeb next.

Baby Dragon vs The King of the Wind in 2004.

Since everyone fell off the Earth and didn't mention it yesterday, there was an entire category about Pro Wrestling Terminology on Jeopardy last night with mentions including tag team, bear hug, kayfabe, jabroni and Lucha Libre.

Beyond Good and Evil, innit? The owners of Arthur Ashe stadium took out a full page ad in the Sports Business Journal. So presumably, they really want AEW back (or WWE to come in).

My feelings on Cody are weird. On the one hand, I haven't actually enjoyed anything he's done in quite a while. On the other, I actually really appreciate that he seems to really want to do something different. It's cool that he thinks like that, but he just hasn't pulled it off yet.

If Lufisto came back, I would just want her to go to Impact for the Team PAWG reunion with Jordynn Grace.

And thank god for that, because that shit is tiresome. I read a recap of this weekend's GCW show and Lauderdale came out and cut at least one, maybe two promos about how NOBODY BELIEVED IN US~! and then they also ran a promo package for the Hammerstein show essentially saying that everyone thinks all their wrestlers are shit for one reason or another BUT WE MADE IT TO THE HAMMERSTEIN~! Like at some point you need to tell me why your company is worthwhile instead of telling me that you're all a bunch of losers like me and that if I give you my money we can fight the man together.

My hope is that he's just still pushing the gimmick he was doing before with Impact, but now with WWE. If that's the case, then it may be more fun that way just to see what Vince does in response. Best and most hilarious case scenario, he fires Nick Khan thinking that Nick is Tony or related to Tony.

They should bring in Lufisto to challenge Britt again, saying she chickened out the first time.

And the games in Illinois, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, etc., etc. I think I worked it out and he'd be eligible to play in about 25 games. I honestly feel bad for KD who left a good situation to join up with this flat-earth believing sociopath. But, you lie down with dog, you get fleas. ??

Halloween Kills hits the 'Cock tomorrow. I'm planning on a Halloween refresher course before I dive into it. Thursday Night: Halloween '78 Friday morning/afternoon: Halloween '18 Friday Night: Halloween Kills

Bill King and Ray Fosse in a press box holding microphones to their lips to welcome the audience to A's baseball is just about my first memory of baseball itself. He had been conspicuously absent in the second half of the season and it's hard to describe just how different the A's sounded without him. As close to an institution as any mortal man could ever possibly be. Rest in Power, Mr. Fosse, thank you for teaching me to enjoy baseball. ?

Well, I have been accused of being elitist and arrogant for my open disdain of casuals who only follow US pro wrestling. I have argued that it is probably easier these days with YouTube and Dailymotion to keep yourself up on who's who, but that falls on deaf ears. It's not like it was back in the day when I was jumping on bulletin boards to tape trade or heading over to Dean's crib and exchanging pizza for an afternoon's sitdown and review of the latest and greatest. You don't just go over to a man's house and not bring food.

The Washington Costanzas

Amazing tribute to Swinger's Palace, what a ride it has been, RIP! Hell of a night for Sabin starting with Swinger's Palace seg, good stuff with him and Bey then following that up with a long run in the battle royal which was fun. Solid matches earlier in the night and build to BFG. Minoru Suzuki is coming to IMPACT! I love it. Results:

Cody’s big angle is so nuanced that, to the untrained eye, it looks like it hasn’t gone anywhere in a year and a half. I’m joking around but seriously, if they’re doing the Rocky 3 gimmick where Arn is fed up with Cody’s extracurricular bullshit and he’s lost the Eye of the Tiger, that’s literally where they were starting to go during Cody’s first TNT title run and then they abandoned it. My big takeaway from the angle so far is that the Cody character hangs around the house after dark dressed to the nines like a real douchebag.

I suspect in another two months, Cody will be saying they packed 40,000 into Arthur Ashe.

"God Dammit! You won too much! Get the fuck out!"

Tony is a pretty online guy, he probably sees all the endless argy bargy between the rival fanbases, figures it's good publicity and plays into it. It's almost as if the fans were all marks, and the rivalry between the companies was a money angle he was disengenuously working.

This is what we need today: Brock Lesnar VS Roman Reigns beating the piss out of each other for two hours on an uninhabited island.

Ugh, word is it's going to be nearly three hours long. Why are the Venon: Let There Be Carnage people the only ones who understand the problem? ?

I start from the kayfabe perspective that this is a sport, but that a promotion is run by a promoter looking for attractions that will draw money. Showboating, signature moves, and catchphrases are a way for a wrestler to get the attention of the crowd to elicit a response, thus encouraging the promoter to move the wrestler up the card. The wrestler can then make more money in higher profile matches and potentially capture titles. They’re just like real prize fighters who have to work their audience to ascend faster in MMA and Boxing. The trick is that “great wrestlers” can balance the performative aspects that are required of them while still focusing on winning. It’s one of the reasons commentators regularly call attention to young wrestlers showing off excessively instead of staying on top of their opponent or going for a pin. Bryan in both kayfabe and reality is one of the greatest ever bell to bell, but he knew that wasn’t enough to prove he’s the best in WWE. And because he’s one of the best at his craft, he figured out how to get the audience in the palm of his hand and force the promoters to give him the opportunities he wanted. In this case, he’s a competitor. He wants Omega to prove he’s the best, and even though he hasn’t really said it he knows that taking the world title would mean he is the best. But his competitive nature means he doesn’t have the patience to tear through a bunch of younger talent haphazardly like Punk. If he’s going to need to rack up wins to get what he wants he's going to kill two birds with one stone by getting TK to throw dream opponents at him. Enter The King, who’s on a tour of the US and has matches we can see online on a weekly basis where young indy guys throw themselves into the wood chipper to prove themselves to him and the larger wrestling community. Suzuki loves caving in the chests of guys half his age and stretching them without breaking a sweat, but he’s a fierce competitor at heart too. He’s going to take shots at the gaijin who dare put themselves in his league like Mox and Bryan.

Man, I like JB Smoove, but the sheer amount of times I've seen him in a commercial for the last month or two is just insufferable. This had better not become a thing.

I really just wanted to spring board off some of the prior Danielson-Suzuki discussion regarding character goals and the meta narrative. The two goals I wanted to talk about were "I want a match with you because you're only here a short time" and "I want to have a good match". I feel as though the first goal makes sense but the second does not unless you put a whole lot of qualifiers on top of it. Granted the details are what make a story actually worth watching and no story is on its face good or bad just from a conceptual level. The first motivation makes sense especially if your character making the challenge is portrayed as hyper competitive and wanting to challenge themselves. I think it also helps if they develop a sense of exclusivity to the challenge and demonstrate that not everyone is getting a chance to have the match in question. Ideally our outsider would overcome some of the challengers in order to show exactly why people are lining up to knock them off. I feel as though this would both harken back to the old touring model which really only AEW can do right now with their working relationships and would be used best for someone with either a high physical presence (like WALTER who obviously wouldn't be available) or a unique set of physical skills like a Zack Sabre Jr. But I think it would require some promotion to make work correctly with the hype before the arrival being something that includes the fact that this person is going to be on a set amount of shows. I think this works into the meta as beating the outsider becomes an achievement someone can reach for and you could eventually turn it on its face if one of the homegrown people knocks off the invaders multiple times and people come in just to get at the homesteader. The I want to have a good match motivation is harder to work with as it normally runs into an issue with the competitive meta of the matchup. For example, if your build is to having a good match and one of the wrestlers knocks the other one out in the opening moments, has the competitor who won actually failed in their mission? I'm perfectly okay with someone like RVD or Omega trying to put on the best show possible because they are so arrogant and it becomes a fault of theirs for storytelling, but that's really got limited utility. I don't think you can have more than one of them in a promotion and I think you need to agent them very particularly manner and control the number of victory attempts they make. They can't do covers after a shoulder block for example.

So, Shudder has added some tasteless classics from the 70's and 80's, so it seems a perfect time to revisit Control's sleazy horror movie challenge. This afternoon while I am putting together bookshelves for my mom, I will be watching. Directed by Charles Kaufman, the brother of Troma Film's co-founder, Lloyd Kaufman (who has an Associate Producer credit!). I know it has been at least ten years since I watched this movie, so I am going in practically blind.

There's a reason she won this award earlier in the year.

I mean, the last several years of Kyrie's career have lead to this, tbh.

Watching World Class TV from 1985 and the episode is from the 1985 Cotton Bowl Show. Holy hell, how much did those high/far-back upper deck seats go for? Also, Killer Tim Brooks certainly has a look. The same weekend was Mid-Atlantic where Tony Schiavone looks like an investigative reporter at a local news station talking about getting footage from the NWA Offices in Kansas City of Dusty getting carried out after the ankle breaking. Also, Big Mamma/Mama's top was not meant to be seen in high definition. Or was it?

I got my first AEW All Elite Crate today, contents below:

Ivy Nile looked pretty good for a first match.

Someone with better photoshop skills than me needs to put Sid's face here: