Leaderboard

I can’t wait for more of the developing Statlander-Hirsch blood feud. “Boop. Your birth parents didn’t love you. I’m an alien.”

EDIT: Oh shit EDIT II: Oh, FFS...

I think it is quite clear Luchasaurus has an arc and it ends on Impact at best.

Jericho on commentary reminded me a lot of David Lynch. I respect him a lot, love a lot of his work, he spoke very loudly, but I’m not sure if any of it made sense.

Not even gonna lie I really want a Billy Gunn / Christian “two old dudes settling shit behind Bass Pro” match right now

Oh indeed. That match was Southern Tag as hell. The Ass Boys play to the crowd probably more than any other act in AEW. '80s Sean Penn is still murking folks and it should not stop. That T-Bone was dangerous, sure, but this is wrestling and thus cooperative. I hope. What really popped me was him doing what looked like an arm-trap cravate? Didn't even know what to call that along with another hold he had Mulkey #3 on the mat for. I missed most of this (once again), but that means I get to plow through both of this and Dynamite in full on my day off tomorrow.

'Nuff said.

Fixed to reflect Kris after last night's promo on Leyla Hirsch

Martinez vs Hayter is going to kick SO MUCH ASS. I dig those Renegade Twins. They totally got a flea market nunchuks vibe to 'em. The Ass Boys rule. Austin, especially. I love the fact that with them and 2.0, AEW has a couple teams that could easily fit right in on Memphis TV.

Kris Statlander stands in direct opposition to any chill. That is the heelest heel promo ever cut in AEW.

Goodness

He could cut a promo about how he gets knocked down, but he gets up again.

I used to live in a suburb near Newark and I would take the bus there then take the train to New Brunswick when I was at Rutgers. The area outside isn't... the worst (other parts of Newark are certainly worse). I knew to stay inside though, preferably around the main concourse. Anyway so one semester I developed god awful anxiety attacks and there were days my step dad would drop me off at the train station since he worked nearby. So one day I'm not feeling 100% and try to tough it out but I'm waiting for my train and my anxiety just goes into overdrive, I call him up saying "I can't do this today, please come pick me up." So I run outside to get some air to calm down and someone notices I'm clearly in awful shape. So he talks me down for a minute then says I swear to whatever God you believe in he says to me.... "Yeah I can see you're not doing that great, well allow me introduce myself, my name is Biscuit, I'm a hustler, I got what you need" and the offered to sell me crack.

Follow up: I listened to all of Goo at home and about half of Dirty in the car so far. Dig both of them, Goo maybe a bit more. Dirty does feel like a more conventional record but it's still got all the guitar spuzz you know and love. Anyway, wrestling haha

The Schiavone one is the best

Yeah, Statlander didn't F around there! But she probably knows that life in general is awful in Russia, if you add to your parents misery by attacking them with chairs and trying to break their arms at every turn, it's off to the orphanage or to the salt mines with you, what did she expect?

Dory Funk Jr vs Gene Kiniski for the NWA World Title from 1969. 1969 Gordon Solie is the Gordonest Solie.

Goddamit, GIVE THE ASS BOYS THE BELTS! That match was great. The Gunn Clubb are so just touching on the depths of their douchiness. They were FTR Lite tonight. Gordlow, don't worry, Robin Renegade didn't actually lick anybody's butts despite what we were promised. That match was good though. I assume Baker is channeling Adam Cole and trying to have good matches with anybody put in front of her. I am soooo excited about Mercedes Martinez versus Jamie Hayter. That is going to rock. Trent Berretta is once again the best wrestler in AEW, and he didn't even throw any awesome elbows tonight. I loved his repertoire of 90's New Japan Junior moves. JAY WHITE vs TRENT BERRETTA IS GOING TO ROCK! HOOK! YAY! AEW RULES~!

it's another way in which the void left by The Fink has never truly been filled. He was great at committing to those little details in an introduction, putting the right emphasis on "Making his winter residence in ____" trusting the audience's cultural context to infer what it needs to know about the character without A) spelling it out B) wasting time and energy by spelling it out unnecessarily. If you just periodically change the home town over the course of the year, nobody gets the gag/character note by just coming to that show. But you clearly pronounce a winter/summer/etc. residence, in contrast with the "normal" way you announce everyone else's hometown, you paint the portrait that much more clearly, even for a one time/first time viewer. "Winter residence? Oh, yeah, a rich fucker like him would have multiple homes." "Bang the lamp" details the WWE figured out a long time ago that they didn't "need" to attend to, and thus stopped attending to.

Elevation is more of a combination of developmental reps in front of a live crowd and also giving the crowd a chance to see some of the over acts (John Silver, Ruby Soho, Thunder Rosa, Acclaimed, Santana/Ortiz, Kingston, considering that if you combine Dynamite and Rampage, you probably only get 10 matches tops. It's also a way to make sure that the local guys on the roster get to be there, like when they did Reynolds vs Nese in Long Island or used Skye Blue in Chicago.

No, he was that over in the building. The crowd was a lot better all night than it was at the Dynamite/Rampage I went to in Philly. TK was out three separate times on mic to keep the crowd hyped, and a couple of times he stuck his head out from the curtains and waved his arms like Kermit the Frog to pump up reactions.

Finally caught up. Gunn Club vs JE: For those who were expecting big, distracting Ass Boys chants to be a big story of the match, you'll be glad to know that happened in the PiP, which, like usual had the heat, which, generally went well. Couple of very smart moments in this one, both the fakeout hot tag where they took out Luchasaurus on the apron and the belt shot which was complex in set up but felt more or less organic. Jungle Boy seems to kick out of one thing that he shouldn't ever match but I'm ultimately okay with that because it's a long term investment about his toughness. That's going to get him over in the end. Granted, everyone on the roster kicks out of one thing they shouldn't ever match, but it seems to resonate more with him for some reason. The first time you see Luchasaurus crash through everyone, miss the last charge, hit the double clothesline, you're impressed by the spot. The second time in two matches you see it, you get annoyed because it's a once-in-a-while snack, not an everyday one. Anything that involves your opponent to do something specific shouldn't necessarily happen every match. Ultimately, it was a good showing for the Gunn Club and speaks well to how they might be utilized in six months. Blake Li vs Hook: Favorite moment here was Li missing the move off the ropes and Hook sort of shrugging to the crowd. Very natural reaction which wasn't about playing to the crowd and just about him reacting to what was happening around him. Obviously the t-bone was nasty. He has a great visual with his hair whenever he does a headbutt. Obviously he shouldn't be doing twenty a match but it's something he can do once a match to great effect. Britt Baker vs Robyn Renegade: Felt a little weird Charlotte wasn't out there but it would have been extra info in a word problem. No reason to blur the lines. I've liked what I've seen out of the Renegades on Dark as heels, especially in studio when they play with the crowd. This was really just meant to be a dominant Britt performance, and that's good. She doesn't get the enhancement matches and they've been having Jade go up against people like Skye Blue or Julia more to build her on the big stage, so it's nice to see Baker just crush someone once in a while. This particular Rosa push doesn't feel like THE push that dethrones Britt though. Maybe after Wednesday. It was fun to see her run through Rebel. Danielson promo was almost too cute but it was the best Moriarty's done promo-wise so far. Simple, straight to the point, and Danielson's response was very good. Roppong... oh hey, wait, so we're watching Snowpiercer now and made it through S1 and S2 streaming but S3 is happening now and it's on TNT, so this it the first thing I've watched with my wife on TNT or TBS in ages. On streaming, you just get one commercial per break and it's always a TNT show commercial, so a lot of Claws and the Shaq show. No Rampage/Dynamite but every episode has a Rhodes to the Top and the wife thinks it looks like the stupidest thing ever: "A Wrestling Baby Reality show" and i was trying to explain Dusty Rhodes in the length of time of the one commercial break before the show came back, and she was exasperated by the idea that there was this folk hero from the 80s to the point that I just gave up and said that everyone thinks that Cody's neck tattoo is dumb too.

I am not one who gets offended easily. And, in my wrestling tastes, I usually enjoy offensiveness. But I have an adopted son. In fact, today is the two-year anniversary of when our family was officially made complete. The Leyla/Stat stuff is beyond fucked up. The "no wonder your parents gave you up" stuff is the type of bullying adopted kids have to deal with growing up. Hopefully my son will never have to deal with that. But there's a good chance he will. Like... it really makes me want to punch Tony Kahn in his awful face.

AEW rules. The Ass Boys should go on an indy excursion, collect a whole bunch of wins and belts. I don't think they would have Cardona-levels of heat but they'd come close.

As much as this Sonya storyline has seemed to go on forever, it has really revitalized Naomi and cemented her as a top baby face on Smackdown. If I had faith in this company, I would think this would lead to another run for her.

We suffered through years and years of awful AWFUL Alexa Bliss matches while people claimed Naomi wasn't good enough and again she proved everyone wrong. I can't stand Vince or Bruce.

They really missed out on having this not be Val Venis' hometown

Justin Roberts' book is really interesting in that you see just how little value WWE sees in those types of details. He'd try to add little things in or emphasize things and he'd get yelled at. Of course, they would also yell at him whenever he did things exactly the way they wanted as well. WWE is not a place I could work in as I just don't think I could put up with the constant belittling. He comes across as kind of a whiner at times in his book but most of the times his gripes are completely justified IMO.

When my dad passed 5 years ago, my sister and I bought a pack of 150 name tags for people to wear at the Celebration of Life (dad didn't want a somber funeral, he wanted people drinking tequila and telling stories about how awesome he was), thinking that would be more than enough. We were wrong. Almost 200 people. Much like you guys, it gave me some perspective on how everyone else saw him instead of me looking at him through the lens of a child who loves their parent very much.

Hey, aliens routinely abduct and probe folks just for lulz and mutilate cattle in order to see what they look like turned inside-out. I think it's a pretty safe bet that Statlander's childhood wasn't exactly picnic, either. She could have witnessed some messed up stuff, as well! It also seems that inadvertently, Sting (the singer one) finally got his answer to wheter "Russians love their children, too?" Shit, probably not the answer he was hoping for, all this time!

There are actually a ton of these, here is the Twitter account of the artist you can find a bunch of AEW valentines on their page: https://twitter.com/MelColemanArt

Those "most game seven losses in NBA history" and "most blown 3-1 leads in NBA history" things really ding his legacy a lot. They win that game 7 in 2010, though, things look a lot different.

I'd argue that he's a Dragon. Or... Is he maybe both? Some kind of unholy Dragon/GOAT hybrid?!?!?

(First Sequence)

I hope the “no water in the pool” spot during the Hook match is a hint of a potential match for Hook down the line.

I think this might be how Kylie Rae hurt her neck.

I will watch his death with a gleeful look on my face, much like the one Bryan Danielson himself will be sporting I imagine.

Covid and some other things have got in the way of regular training, will probably write a bit more about that in time. I did actually hit a Bench PR though. Heading to the gym shortly, here's a meme!

Venis being from Intercourse would be too much. What I always appreciated about him was the subtlety of the gimmick.

In what world am I looking forward to Trent? vs. Knife Pervert more than a Danielson match? One of the two probably starts the level for STIFF and the next one tries to top it. Red and purple chests all around!

When Tony Khan inevitably has his first title match in two years he should be billed “from the green board…”

After months of unemployment I finally got a job, which is nice. What was extra nice was getting a voicemail from my future boss telling me that she was very happy and excited that I accepted and that she was looking forward to working with me.

Jesus, in one single Tweet Tony Khan managed to: 1. Vehemently deny a rumor. 2. Put over one of his announcers. 3. Took a jab at his top heel. 4. Flexed his wrestling nerd muscles. The dude accomplished more in a single Tweet than any 10+ minute opening segment of Raw in the last seven years.