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The boys here right before we left for the show. We had a blast.

It's Yokozuna and he'll join the Hart Foundation.

Man, Celebfest yesterday was absolutely awesome to go to. I feel like I blew my whole paycheck but it was so worth it. There were a mix of young and older talents but our focus was strictly on AEW wrestlers (though my wife did meet Taya and Ember who were great to say the least) Instead of a photo dump I'll just give quick little bits from the interactions. And aside from MJF everybody was an absolute pleasure to talk to. I think the only one I missed out on was Santana and Ortiz but at least my friend did the photo op while I talked to Ortiz for a bit. Really cool guy and I could tell he legit doesn't know what's going to happen with their part on Dynamite. -2.0 were absolutely hilarious and even when nobody was near them they were still cracking jokes. I couldn't stop laughing talking to them but did ask about their own coffee. They said it's in the works which is great because I've been pretty tired lately and could use whatever they're having. Daniel Garcia was also there and he's humble yet really chill and thankful for where he's at. We also talked about Buffalo Bills and how much I love the team and their fans. Too bad they lost in the playoffs. We also saw Preston and Alan Angels who were so down-to-earth and so incredibly happy. They definitely loved their time on the vlogs they're on and with how far Dark Order has come. -For Ethan Page we randomly talked Sega Genesis and Sonic games. He got a kick out of the sign I had and its appearance on Botchamania. Though I couldn't help but notice his sign got defaced by one MJF. Speaking of while none of us met him while in line for photo op tickets we were witnesses to him charging a good chunk of change and heeling it up every second he was out there. He got into it with a couple kids which made for a humorous scene. -Nick Comoroto was there and according to a friend of mine him and his fiancee know them. Well I don't know if he was tired or what but he couldn't remember/recall anything even after showing pictures. He was still fine to talk to and I hope down the line to see him at a party where he'll go "Shit, sorry about that". And that can happen since his fiancee lives not far from me. We also met Adam Cole who is the nicest dude around. I know I talked before about how much I like him and it was great to see my wife and friend see it for themselves. Of course they were crushing hard for him afterwards which was expected. I did kindly suggest that Britt needs a ring on her finger to which he said he's working on it. So that was cool to hear. -There were two more people that really are the ones I think the fondest of from the whole thing. Once we saw Nyla was going to be there without hesitation my wife said she had to go meet her. I can go on and on about how much she loves her but let's just say she was nervous and incredibly overjoyed to meet her. Because of Nyla she got the Hyrule Crest tattooed on her arm and it was great to see them share that bond while also talking Pokemon and other nerdy things. To say the least this meant the world to her and I'm glad this happened. -As for me I was over the moon to find out that Serena Deeb was there. I somehow missed her in the advertisement so I was kind of in shock at first to see her there. But I made sure to mention she's the Bret Hart of AEW and I hope she joins Danielson's crew as that'd be an unstoppable group of badasses. She's been getting that recently but really loved the idea. And I can safely say that Serena is by far the nicest and sweetest women's wrestler I ever met. She has that yoga chill going on and I could tell she genuinely appreciated what I said. I just think she's the best and I couldn't have been happier to see her. Anyway sorry for the wall of text but I tried to not go too crazy with it all. I can say the biggest takeaway from yesterday was it was really cool to go up to people I really admire and just chill out with them. Through them all we talked Pokemon, Zelda, D&D, Buc-ees, the Bills and all kinds of other stuff. And you can really tell they were not only great people but they have so much love in their hearts for AEW. It surely helped reinforce my admiration for them and also for AEW to do right by them.

I have a new weekly feature at The Ringer https://www.theringer.com/2022/2/7/22921511/cm-punk-mjf-rey-mysterio-aj-styles-psycho-clown-gringo-loco-best-matches Where I am going to be writing up the best matches from AEW, WWE and everywhere else. I figure this thread could be folks commenting and giving me suggestions!

I want TK to come right out and say Batista is showing up. Then, Wednesday, a Starbucks employee is there instead, making coffee for all the wrestlers, and Tony blames the whole misunderstanding on a typo since T is next to R on the keyboard.

Tonya Harding has spoken!

I've been watching Full Gear 2021 in portions and the overall quality is just nuts. It's a bit much for one go, but watched over 3 or 4 days, it gives you 2-3 classic matches at one go and lets you appreciate them more. Ok, so it cost about two months of Network subscription, but nonetheless, this is like an extended Super-Takeover! So this is what it's like when you put some effort into your PPV product?

Lawful Jr. and I watched Flair v Funk I Quit from the Clash of the Champions (which he loved), Bret v. Benoit Owen tribute match (which he really didn’t feel while recognizing the greatness of Bret) and RVD v. Jerry Lynn from Living Dangerously 99 (which is his new favorite match). a good tour. Bye WWE network.

This really doesn't tell the complete story. Some weeks it was Hunter and Shawn shitting down Cody and Ted's throats.

And what do I see on my Twitter first thing this morning:

Elevation 2/7/22 Fish vs Anthony: I'm vaguely thinking of how to cherry pick for a potential weekly SC thing. I don't really feel like I have time now but one idea would be to take an 80s-90s enhancement match and compare/contrast with something on these shows every week. Seems like too much work though. We'll see. Anyway, this would have been a great example for that. Fish gave Anthony a ton to the point where the announcers were creatively covering, talking about how Fish might have been using this as sort of a controlled environment sparring session to try new things and test himself. Anthony always looks good and the delayed vertical suplex stood out. Diamante/Bunny/Emi vs Skye/Reckless/Aminata: Something to get Skye on the card, though being paired with a couple of named and known enhancement figures really does her no favors, especially given the finish (more on that in a second). I love the unity in the heel women's locker. Singing along for Emi, the triple submission with Bunny dancing about, and then the finish where all three hit their reverse headlock variation moves in tandem. Just oozing character and personality. Skye looked pretty good in there against Diamante and I'd like a Dark program of those two for a few weeks. Aminata got a little bit of shine but Reckless basically ran right into the heels' offense. Scorpio Sky vs Wolf: Sky based for Wolf really well for his one bit of shine at the end (the walk up armdrag) and that looked great. Otherwise, he just crushed him as Page talked over it on commentary. I like the booth here but I'm still missing Kingston's edge. Julia Hart vs Arie Alexander: Nice showing by Hart here. It's one thing to portray a character or a changed character, but she really walked the line, going from waving to looking annoyed and frustrated with everything on a dime. And the most important thing is to actually play it into what you do in the ring and it really showed in her aggression and the chip on her shoulder. Maybe she ends up heel, maybe not, but I think they should try her against Ford/Bunny for a mini program first. Dante vs Solo: Solo doesn't deserve the "w". He's fine, perfectly fine. Where he should be. When he should be. Tries to interface with the crowd. Guy has to take a long look in the mirror and figure out how to get to the next level. I don't have an answer for him. The best stuff here was the tease of Comoroto vs Dante. Dante had some good mannerisms, capped off with staring Comoroto down on the finish. Acclaimed/Gunns vs Brock/Lee/Lee/Sydal: Moriarty definitely works best in tags right now. He does his stuff and gets out and it never wears out its welcome. We talk up Bowens, and for good reason, but he still struggled on basing for some of Sydal's lightnng fast stuff, which is ok, but he's not all there yet and we shouldn't feel that he is. Brock looks better every week, though keep in mind he started from "brand new." The interaction between the Gunns and the Acclaimed remains very good, both the animosity and the camaraderie. Finish had a lot of moving parts but basically worked. Colton doing snow angles on the ramp after the match was maybe the best thing I've ever seen him do but it's more of an Austin thing and he should define himself differently. Best Friends vs Chaos Project: I didn't love the shine here but it's because I was waiting for the antics. Once they started, everything was great. Taylor it running through both guys with a clothesline in the same direction after the hot tag was a fun spot I don't remember seeing before. The Chaos Project hug was a highlight. Luther is used pretty effectively in matches like this and Serpentico might be my favorite guy in the company. Usually with these shows they're building towards Dynamite or Rampage by heating someone up and there wasn't much of that here. Wonder if that had something to do with the snowstorm or just that Dynamite seems underbooked so far.

Off topic but if anyone has not seen the episode of Ethan Page's vlog where he forces Ruby Soho to accompany him to Buc-ees in a full beaver costume because she lost a bet I highly recommend it. Her reactions to everything are hilarious.

Al Isaacs will go to his grave still catching shit about this, which is as it should be.

Most folks think it is nothing more than "Hey Tampa needs a QB and I want to play there" (and a splash of Kliff Kingsbury could bounce at any moment)

Watch some current NWA and that will put some perspective on how horrible commentating can be. Austin Idol makes anybody in the AEW booth look like 1976 Gordon Solie. AND THIS!

That's the one where they had Punk go over the Shield but told him to keep Roman strong and he argued back then let Roman pin me and they refused but restated that they needed to keep Roman strong. That company took so long to get Roman over the hump due to their own incompetency. Cena/Orton should be any logic have had a long rivalry that was remembered fondly but WWE just ran it into the ground once it started, it seems like they burned through a bunch of big matches between them in the span of a few months or something and it became worn out and tired fast. This is a reason it's nice that AEW tends to build to one big match then the participants drift apart for a while with some exceptions like Jericho & Inner Circle/MJF& Pinnacle. WWE's obsession with having non-Wreslting people in the writers room (and Vince's desire to be more than wrestling) has lead to the company forgetting how to book compelling wrestling, which is it's own art form that needs to be primarily created by people with a deep understanding of it. WWE has slowly drifted away with the retirements of all of Vince's trusted wrestling minds, Patterson, Brisco, Garea, etc. I thnk Vince doesn't see the generations that came after the guys he rose with as being as capable as the ones he was built the company with.

No the whole thing is designed as Flair showcase since he didn't get to do his long NWA title defense type matches in WWF. So if Sid or Hogan wins its a viewed as a good match with a bad finish

Hologram Lou Thesz it is.

And tell him to be less charismatic? "You told me to hire a less charismatic Mike Knox, so I hired Mike Knox." "You did what? Damn it, what part of less charismatic didn't you understand? What are we going to do now?" "Um, tell him to be less charismatic?" "Oh, shut the fuck up!"

Two really good matches on Dark- Lee Moriarty versus Anthony Henry and Wheeler Yuta versus Aaron Solo. And actually Fuego Del Sol and Serpentico was really good too. YAY! AEW!

No big deal for Phil - just NOAH tweeting him directly

I wanted Minoru Suzuki to sign AEW full time since he showed up in September.

Maybe somebody here knows for sure: Is the WWE not running as many house shows as pre-pandemic? I'm guessing the answer is they are not. Seems to me like the notion of two very separate rosters is no longer necessary when you aren't necessarily running multiple towns across the country from each other on the same night. I know USA and FOX both want to have the "dominant" roster, but really, having one major champion who appears both shows isn't that crazy. The travel would be tough, obviously, but when has that ever stopped Vince from making similar decisions? Theoretically, you've got multiple other championships, main event male stars beyond Roman and Brock (Rollins, Owens, McIntyre, Orton, Lashley), main event female stars beyond Charlotte, Becky, and Rousey (Sasha, Bayley, Alexa Bliss, Belair, but don't forget what Rhea Ripley and Shayna Baszler were supposed to be), and plenty of other uppercard folk that can be used to establish the next batch of main eventers, from AJ and Sheamus and Cesaro to Riddle and Omos and Priest. I mean, if you can't book 2 shows using those building blocks with a common cornerstone in Reigns/Rousey/Brock that would presumably appear on both shows regularly, well, you're just doing a bad job maximizing the potential of your roster. Which is I guess what I'm saying here. The WWE has done a terrible job of maximizing the potential of its roster.

Rippa never lets me have fun. ?

All you need to know about Cena/Orton is they feuded so long they wore out their welcome to the point where the feud culminated in the match where they swore it would be their final match. It doesn't help that Cena and Orton somehow embody both the apex and the nadir of the WWE style. I don't know who Andreas Hale is but I admire his sweet naivete. This is some real "giving a scorpion a ride on your back" shit, expecting WWE to do right by Big E when they don't do right by anyone except maybe a few.

So happy to see Chaos Project back together.

Hi Mr. Laurinaitis. ?

That would have been like The Greatest Royal Rumble, not the greatest Royal Rumble!

The voice of Hologram Lou Thesz? You guessed it: computer collated archival recordings of Mark Hamill.

I remember watching that one at a friend's house who ordered the PPV (Pretty much the only time I ever did this before my 20s) and it was so exciting that the winner was going to be World Champ because that belt didn't change hands all that often. I was secretly rooting for Flair and so bummed when he came out at 3, but didn't let on, then was excited when he won as everyone else was mad about Hulk getting knocked out and I pretended I was mad, too.

All I know is that it looks like the Rockets traded Harden at the right time

Alright, here we go. I don't think we need a lot of rationale for why 1986. I had to get my bearings somewhere with NJPW, wanting to do a chronological look over a set period of time instead of cherry picking the 80s set. I was thinking 86 or 87 and the advice I was given was to go with 86 as that was a beginning while 87 was a continuation. Thanks to Loss getting me up to speed, I have the general idea of it, why Choshu and the UWF guys left due to Inoki scandal, Fujinami staying, Brody coming in to give them a boost in 85 and then leaving right at the end of the year, Fujinami going over Inoki as a make good because of it, UWF folding and that group coming back in. I don't think I'll have every bit of TV here but I have around 20 matches for January 86, I think, and even if not all encompassing, that feels like a good number. 1/3/86: Mad Maxx/Super Maxx vs Fujinami/Kimura: Fun fact, I still struggle to tell Fujinami and Kimura apart on a tiny screen in 86. I'll get there. I spent a bunch of this match thinking one was the other until Kimura hit his jumping kick to the chest and I realized I had it backwards. Pro wrestling expert I am. The bigger surprise is that the Maxx team was actually pretty decent. They controlled the ring well and about 65% of their offense was credible. Lots of slams and clubbering and double clotheslines but it worked. Lots of one guy coming in to stop Fujinami and Kimura from making a comeback. There was one really ridiculous elbow drop off the top to a guy being held in the ropes where the elbow just slid down him that was laugh out loud funny. Otherwise, generally ok. Fujinami and Kimura got ambushed at the start and they spent most of the match, save a few comebacks and a couple of holds on the defensive. Maybe not the most educational match for me, but it was perfectly fine. Finish was wonky as the heel manager came in to interfere while his team was in control. It did let them hit a Hart Attack off the top so I guess maybe it was about doing the damage and not going to the pay window? Who knows. 1/3/86: Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs Inoki: I was very excited that the first match i was going to see in my grand NJPW journey had Hacksaw. This was dynamic heel Hacksaw too. I haven't seen a ton of post-turn heel Hacksaw (see: "post-turn" for why). We got some footage of him in 82 which wasn't necessarily great, but was fascinating to watch. He really caught the eye with his big energy and big bumping and general enthusiasm. Game if not great. Here he was a few more years in and more seasoned and he made a great foil for Inoki here, charging in with a huge shoulder tackle at the start and just having a lot of really big stuff. Inoki came back by schooling him on the mat or with superior chain wrestling. They ran out of TV time around 6-7 minutes in so who knows how it went in the end (I think we all know how it went) but it was fun while it lasted.

On interviews, he seems like a really nice and intelligent guy, but every time I've seen him on TV I can't stop thinking that this guy is such an edgelord dork. He is some 14 year old's CAW brought to life. The only time I thought he could really work out was on the WWE main roster since Kross is so presentation heavy. And even then Vince of all people was like, naw, fuck this guy, let's fuck with his gimmick until we cut him.

Well, I guess I should finally watch Power of the Dog at some point here soon.

They changed it after the '08 awards because people were upset that the movies that got nominated the year before were movies "no one had seen." So they expanded it to be "up to 10" in 2009. This is code for "Dark Knight should have been nominated" and the Academy saying "lol no, but here are some crumbs to get you to continue to watch". Then they nominated Avatar, The Blind Side, and District 9 the next year. ?

Bane

Holy shit, I think that the content creators that came up with Fire Arrows and the Bow of Shadows were tired of getting their asses beat by the Ice Troll on the road to High Hrothgar. I'm 13th level and I remember getting wrecked by the Ice Troll back in the day at this level, but bow sniping with fire arrows put that asshole down for the count rather quickly. My only other encounters were with an ice wolf and an Ice wraith. I am glad there wasn't a snowy sabre cat on the path like the last time I played. I think the gamer gods were taking pity on an old man because I nearly died fighting a stupid bear right outside of Ivarstead. I hate getting Light Armor skill raises the hard way. That fucking saber cat nearly made me rage quit the entire game. I could not get past that bitch. It could nearly kill me in one pounce. Naturally I remember to brew two Cure Disease potions for the trip this time and nothing happened. If I hadn't, I'd have gotten Rockjoint for sure from fighting wolves. I remembered to read all of the emblems on the way up. VOICE OF THE SKY~!! FUCK YEAH~!!!

That doesn't make sense. The guy has a match on Dynamite.

God I wish. Fuck Bud Adams enjoy hell motherfucker

Yeah it does kind of suck at how much of the alternate armors are heavy based. The Silver Hand Armor has an awesome wolf helmet that is off course to heavy for my character to wear.

Oddly enough, we also had GAB 1990 at our video store. One of the very few I was able to see. Halloween Havoc 90, GAB 90, and then a few years later Starrcade 89 and Best of Starrcade. I went to my grandma's once and walked to a video store and went apeshit when I saw Starrcade 90 and Super Brawl 91. I bought Chi Town Rumble from a store in Erie Pa at a young age. Also bought Halloween Havoc 89 when I saw it for sale.

We’ve been speculating about who Kassidy’s opponent will be for pages now and I completely forgot I’m going to be there live. I’ve got to lay off the pipe.

It would be kind of amazing if it was Cody tbh