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The Harvard Step Test made famous by Mr. Bob Backlund made me drop a significant amount of weight: 4 stone = 56 pounds!

I really enjoyed this show. I liked every match, I liked every angle, I liked the modern sports presentation, I liked the announcing. Add it all up and I kinda loved this episode? Two hours where I liked everything and it all made sense is what I want. And I want that Jacob Fatu shirt, too.

I think it's no coincidence that Mox now comes out to his New Japan "Death Rider" theme. I see this particular character as the now-fully realized version of the Death Rider. Mox and Hangman becoming two legitimately unsettling killer-type heels in only the past few months is a very promising development.

I want to zig from defending the Bucks (which I won't do, I personally don't care for their matches but you do you) to defend Mox for a bit as a bunch of people seem down on him if only because of the specifics of this current match-up and match-making. Watching him on Wednesday and he is one of the very few wrestlers in AEW (and in truth current wrestling) who carries himself and works like a top guy. He stalked Darby, played with him, gave him some but never made it seem like they were on the same level and that last bit is what AEW desperately needs. Ospreay could end up working a ROH guy and play rank by taking a full 60% of the match instead of his usual 50% while bumping big for all their moves and giving them a few convincing nearfalls. Mox, particularly what we've seen of this version of Mox, would just kill that guy instead and big picture that works better. A million people give lower ranked opponents a ton, when Mox did it he made Yuta a star. It is a shame we may not be getting the Darby/Danielson match (blame Nigel or Tony if you want) but you'd have to be nuts to not push this version of Mox about as hard as you can.

These dudes should have unionized years ago. I blame Hogan.

As I see more and more discussion about how AEW draws, juxtaposed with the inevitable TV deal being announced, I think the promotion is eating itself trying to serve two masters. I think they are running big arenas so they can have high production values and elaborate sets that please their tv partners, while at the same time trying to have an in-ring product that would work better in an ECW Arena-like venue. Clearly the promotion is going to be kept alive (and profitable!) by their tv deal, so they are going to cater to that. And if you watch the show in a vacuum and have no idea what the attendance is, it appears to be a great crowd, which apparently is what WBD and Fox want. I dunno, I'm kinda rambling, but I think we need to re-think the idea that on the business end of things AEW is dependent on ticket sales or weekly ratings. The things that appear to be important to them are PPV buys, and broadcast rights. And if an entity is going to pay for their product, then they are going to provide it, even if it stretches them thin or hurts the creative.

Bryan vs Nigel http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2024/09/aew-five-fingers-of-death-923-929-part-1.html

Fancy Ryan Clancy getting TV time is good. Fancy Ryan Clancy knowing how to maximise his exposure by using his one offensive move to hit his fucking incredible Dropkick is better. Now on the other hand, him teaming with The Silver Sniper TJ Crawford is less good, because they've been feuding with each other on the indies for over a year.

To add to what I said above about The Acclaimed, “Nut Up or Shut Up” is flopping, as it should. I know it’s got to be hard when you’ve been moving merch and making $$$$ for two years now but they need a hard reboot.

So, Rampage was pretty good. It seems they’re already abandoning the ill-advised Top Flight rebrand. Wearing “bombardier” jackets instead of the commercial pilots uniforms. Andretti and Rush squabbling (I’m team Lio here, I think he’s loads more interesting than Andretti although I don’t want either as a part of Top Flight). Perfectly fine match with a couple of spots that took too long to develop. Anna Jay is back! She forgets to shout out Dark Order, those guys get no respect! What did she learn in Japan? To fight a little more stiff it seems, and a Gory Bomb finisher. Maybe the shotgun dropkick although I think she was already using it. Her intro music has a hyper pop beat now. Robyn Renegade has basically been on AEW since her actual in-ring debut and has gotten markedly better. I know they give her a lot more on ROH, and they’ve let her have more offense on AEW TV, but would like to see her have a little push. Its Takeshita! Tony has to explain why he’s getting cheers because he’s still ostensibly a heel. It’s Angelico, who the crowd is clearly supposed to know his history and that he is a name talent who will be competitive. Anyway, this should’ve been a 3-4 minute squash. The crowd was very into Takeshita, clapping to build his comebacks, popping for his moves. I think they need to break up the Callis family and let these guys develop real personality. It’s The Acclaimed! Max makes a very predictable rap. Wrong Springfield, bro. Fancy Clancy looks and carries himself like a young William Regal and I kind of want them to bring him back and lean into that. Acclaimed wrestle a little more aggressively, less pandering (no Scissor me Timbers), and I think that’s good if they’re going to turn them heel (which they should). After, they let Max call MxM “pansies” even though it’s not a live mic which is pretty shitty even if it’s meant to be a heel move. I hope Bowens slapped the shit out of him backstage. MxM are the clear faces here. Main event time, and Willow is incredibly over! Good lord do I hate Taya’s intro music. Best match of the night, lots of back and forth, both get to show their strength, Taya shows ring veteran savvy, Willow shows her fire.

So, Swerve went on a popular podcast for Sneaker Heads, and confirmed AEW to Fox. "We're about to move. We're about to get on Fox. SmackDown is leaving Fox. We're taking Fox. TNT, TBS, and Fox. We got all three of them things. Tony Khan lets me do whatever the fuck I want. He owns the Jacksonville Jaguars."

On the latest WOR Meltzer mentions that household income is up for both the AEW and WWE audiences, "way up" for WWE. Apparently AEW had been slightly below the national average and WWE moreso. He's talking like it's a change in audiences and WWE attracting a more affluent audience. That could be a small part of it, but I'm thinking it has to be the result of minimum wage increases around the country, right?

I would hate that! I don't think that they shouldn't do it though; it just wouldn't be for me. I think Nitro did more damage to lucha libre than good in a very big way.

Flair being a stairmaster guy doesn't surprise me given he was trained by Verne and I can easily see Verne having his trainees running up and down stairs for hours as part of their conditioning. James

I have strong opinions about former WWF/WCW/WWE Champion Terry Bollea which you should PM me about. But I wanted to express them here too because I can't help myself @The Natural

You also have to wonder if the general public would be skeptical of UFC being a shoot if Shane owned them.

And MxM working the word “wet” into WrestleDream promos, of course. This is probably a good place to mention that I really enjoy MxM. Dave is a massive detractor, saying it’s even worse than their WWE gimmick. I never saw it there but I imagine the difference is “laughing at” vs “laughing with,” and Vince’s idea of what makes a male model gimmick funny (HA HA LOOK AT THESE FAGS PAL) vs two young, smart, funny guys’ idea of what makes it funny (double entendres and dick jokes as far as the eye can see ). Like these two guys are in on the joke, so they are more empowered, as opposed acting out an old white guy’s ideas of why this is funny. I hope that makes sense. Anyway, check out their interview on Hey Ew. It was great. Sometimes Dave comes off like he thinks AEW should be mid 90s All Japan.

Thoughts from Episode 1... Hogan combing his "hair" in the first 5 seconds has me hooked already. Seriously, has anyone been publicly bald longer than Hulk Hogan who is more insecure about being bald? I really can't believe that someone who has done as much heinous shit as Vince would ever do something like this. Seriously, this is the epitome of a self-inflicted wound. Ironically based on their politics, Linda looks more like Hilary Clinton than she does Linda McMahon. Tony Atlas being the voice of reason in any situation is fucking wild. Vince killing it on Letterman is great, because Vince has no idea why he is funny, but he absolutely will take advantage once he realizes you think he's funny. Mr. T. is one of the five or so celebrities from my childhood who literally could not be famous at any other point in history. Number one on this list, The California Raisins.

The amazing thing is the police there IN THE BUILDING did not declare a crime scene and stop the show, taking it out of Vinces hands.

If you're not on UFO 50 right now my heart cries for you. I don't know how it's mathematically possible for anything else to be GotY.

In this instance, the obsessive fan and the official account are on the same page, as the Sesame Street YouTube channel has the same clip listed as his first appearance.

it is important for the historical context here to interject this segment from WCW Saturday Night (19 February 2000): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96YOsBoj9yY i just read or watched something talking about how Norman Smiley had all these matches in '98-'00 WCW. They framed it as a way to say "look, when THIS GUY is having such bad matches, maybe give him opponents who aren't total fucking ass". Norman Smiley is a charismatic guy. He has technical wrestling skills. He can play a goofy guy. GIVE HIM SOMETHING! this popped me. and just think. He hasn't even actually appeared on screen yet! i thought of this during my rewatch a few months after he debuted his 'new look" in '97 or '98 WWF. But by that time, it was too late. Wish i would've thought to mention it here, but alas. Again, too late.

Look forward to your review of both. Cheers.

Cheers. Legit LOL.

I don’t just want them to get rid of the trios titles, I want them to cut back on the trios matches period. More traditional tag teams.

Yeah well he's got a dumb looking haircut.

Bill Simmons said on his podcast that a whole very good segment on the Evel Knievel jump was cut due to time and not really fitting with the story being told.

Amok (or Down, either or) is my favorite Sentenced album and The War Ain't Over and Dance on My Grave (Lil Sistah) are undoubtedly my two all time favorite Sentenced tracks. I happened to be in the army at the time when I was first listening to (parts of) this album on a cassette.

Episode 3 thoughts As someone who knows a few people who have beat some charges in court, there is a large gap between not guilty and innocent. Vince is the type of person who gets found not guilty and expects everyone to ignore the gaping crevice in the earth and call him innocent. Vince goes on and on about how he is going to destroy his competition and it's the law of the jungle and I don't fight fair. Ted Turner pays his employees more and Vince starts acting the bitch. When they call him on it, he just starts talking in circles until he thinks he convinced himself that he's made a point. He's so used to people buying his bullshit, that he says anything and expects people to believe it. Vince is such a piece of shit. They specifically asked to do the curtain call, he said, "OK." Then he punishes HHH for it anyway. I have to say, the Hogan heel turn is fucking perfect. There are great moments in wrestling, but that is probably the #1 most perfect moment ever. How many times do you think Ted Turner has even thought the name VInce McMahon? 10-15? I'm willing to bet that Ted Turner has never given a single solitary fuck about Vince. Vince trying to act like he walked up to Bret with his hands down to give Bret a free shot is another example of lying when the truth will do.

California has enacted a law - effective 2025 - banning retailers from saying consumers are "buying" digital products if they can be revoked: https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/new-california-law-inspired-by-ubisoft-and-sony-requires-retailers-to-warn-consumers-that-the-digital-games-they-buy-can-be-taken-away-at-any-time/

Congratulations Detroit. And just remember, the White Sox (Congratulations to them too!) decided hiring Tony LaRussa was a better idea than AJ Hinch

You miss the low hanging fruit about CM Punk also already being in a cult too. Look into his eyes and what do you see?

I'll keep you posted on how it's going but a few weeks ago I discovered the drawbacks of overtraining. I'd been doing six days per week, an hour and 15 to an hour and a half of weights and the same amount of cardio alternating, for a long time. One night I was like, "fuck, why am I just dog-tired and ravenously hungry?" I decided to cut it to 45 minutes (ish) of each instead. I'll let you know the impact on my weight but god damn, I feel much better. There's no point in working out like crazy if it makes you eat like shit when, if you're trying to lose weight, 80% of that happens in the kitchen, not the gym. But anyway, it rained a lot, so this week was: Sunday: Back, biceps, some legs Monday: Chest. shoulders, triceps Tuesday: Run 4.3 miles Wednesday: Legs Thursday: Back and Biceps Friday: Chest, shoulders, triceps Tomorrow: sweet, sweet day off

I hope this is HHH's version of competition instead of "Billionaire Shad" skits

Even in Lucha, where trios matches are king, trios titles are not terribly prestigious. AEW is trying to book them like regular tag titles, and that is the problem. The trios titles should be clear prelim titles, with seemingly random teams, and frequent title changes. Like, The Conglomeration™ is the perfect stable for this. Have Kyle/Orange/Brisco win them, and lose them to like Top Flight, who lose them to Rocky/Kyle/Ishii, who lose them to Private Party and Komander, who lose them Kyle/Brisco/Willow... Or something like that. I threw Willow in there because... Make them intergender!

He probably thinks he's still somewhat untouchable

i've been really curious about what a Shane McMahon-owned UFC looked like ever since i first heard that rumor way back when. IIRC this is after MMA was legalized and regulated, but before it was profitable. Monthly PPVs were the be-all, end-all, as there was no TV deal. Does Shane create his own version of The Ultimate Fighter? it's possible, since WWE had already been doing Tough Enough. Do we see an influx of "characters" over "martial artists"? Or does the pendulum swing hard to the other end, and we focus solely on accomplishments? Is there a public backlash for a McMahon trying to promote a 'real' fight and/or cloudy the waters since the family is already involved in 'that fake stuff'? Assuming PRIDE still goes down due to Yakuza involvement, does it just cease to exist? Personally, i think a Shane McMahon-owned UFC never hits the highs that it ultimately does under Zuffa. I think it has a decent existence, but competitors in the vein of Strikeforce or EliteXC are able to capture more of the public zeitgeist, leading to a much more even playing field. I expect we'd probably see a few more short-lived promotions that pop up and disappear just as quickly too. Interesting thought experiment.

Apparently the NXT archives/next day episodes are leaving Peacock on Monday night and moving to The CW app. I remain in the small minority that keeps looking for news on Main Event and Level Up with the Hulu deal being gone.

One of the biggest Bryan Danielson matches I haven't seen mainly because I can't get past Austin Aries as a bridge burning arsehole. The time may come I do because of my love for Bryan Danielson. Still angry at what Austin Aries did to Christy Hemme.

i remember when the Network launched, and WWE put out this "Legends House" show where a bunch of WWF old timers all lived in a house together. One episode had Pat "come out" publicly and they acted like it was some huge revelation.

They spend the entire time talking about how brutal the schedule was and how they were wrestling pretty much every day. Then they bring up Andre and how he was so injured he could barely move and then say, "but it was up to him whether or not he would put Hogan over." So you were going to let the guy who could not move be your world champion and wrestle 300+ dates a year, based on nothing but his mood that day. Its the most unnecessary lie from two of the most unnecessary ass liars in history.

They sell the Andre line like if he didn't lay down for the whole three, he would have won the match

What amuses me about the whole "he came up from nothing" talking point is, yeah, he was dirt poor, but then he walked right into what will be generational wealth. Sure it's a family business but it's more Rockefeller than Dave's Hardware if you know what I mean. I keep remembering crazy shit. Undertaker being all "YOU CAN'T TAKE AWAY CHAIRSHOTS DURR HURR HURR". Dude, just put your hands up and it's OKAY. You can still do literally anything else aside from take a nude blast to the noggin. And then they show him get concussed and forget an entire 30 minute match. At least he admits it... unlike what comes out of Vince's mouth.

The first scene of Part 6 where he talks about his multiple brains and one is thinking about sex... that's so fucking chilling. His absolute lack of empathy about the multiple wrestlers who died early and refusal to take accountability is fucked. While it's good they're taking concussions and addiction seriously, Vince flat out says it's all because it's good for business. I mean, he's not wrong... but you should be doing this for the well-being of your performers before anything else. The stuff about Taker and Lesnar is so fucked. Even though we know almost all of this stuff already, seeing Vince and etc. comment on what they participated in is something else. The thing that comes through all of this is that Vince is a very disturbed and damaged human being. He went from having a horribly abusive childhood to becoming involved with his father's business, which is built around gigantic personalities and kayfabe and backstabbing and lawless. When you have that type of lifelong desire to win, and you do win, and you're now the master of a universe you created that also somehow falls under the radar, and you managed to even beat the feds in a trial... you're just going to think that accountability isn't even a thing. That's going to lead to absolutely disgusting behavior, like what's in the lawsuit.

Just finished it. There’s a very telling part at the beginning of the final episode. It’s Vince saying he has 2 or sometimes 3 computers in his brain running him and they often run into each other. That’s the clearest reveal ever that not only does he have ADHD, but also PTSD, CPTSD, depression, and any other number of mental issues that he has medicated through chemicals, work, and exercise. Sorry for pathologizing him. I know you shouldn’t do that, but in some instances it’s hard to not do that. By the end of episode 6 it’s clear they really should have pivoted and gone the Last Dance route. 10 episodes instead of 6 and where the backdrop to the Last Dance was the Bulls final championship, disbanding of the team, and where everyone was at, the backdrop to this series should have been the last two years. In essence, you use the interviews from when this started in 2021 and get new interviews from people starting in 2023 and even around the first of this year. The throughline for everything is the sale of a company no one thought would be sold and the downfall of a man that no one thought would leave. They’re trying to condense 40 years of business history into 6 episodes and it isn’t feasible and major, major, major events get maybe 5 minutes of time dedicated to them. I understand the difficulties they had in creating a final product, but even without the scandal, it’s 6 episodes of basically rushed material. If you go the Last Dance route and do this over 10 episodes, then you can finish off many of the episodes of painting the picture of Vince’s psyche and juxtapose that with current events and leave it there for the next episode and let it all build into the utter tornado that has been the last two years. I think the fairest grade I could give this is a C. There were some real moments that left me teary eyed, like with Shane. I think through therapy that guy would find out that none of this was his fault and he’s better off not being a part of WWE. The shit this guy has had to do over the years just to get a fucking hug and some love from his dad. I mean, that’s the realest Succession shit of all minus Shane having a moment where he’s screaming I’M THE ELDEST BOY and wanting to walk out onto a frozen river. I noticed it in season 1 of Succession and this documentary really cemented it for me - Succession is more about WWE than Fox and the Murdoch family and the producers of Succession had no idea. Aside from that, to tackle the question of why all of these people think the way they do about Vince, it’s really simple and you only need to go back to the Punk and Colt podcast to understand - Vince groomed all of these people. He brainwashed them. You already have to be a certain level of crazy to be a wrestler, but Vince is the ultimate master manipulator and trafficker even if it wasn’t always for sex. I empathize with all of them for seeing him as a father figure because they were groomed and brainwashed and for all we might say about Punk being an asshole, you have to have that element he has of being able to see through the bullshit to finally have had enough. So many of these people have zero ability to say fuck this old man and if they did, Vince stripped it from them long ago. He’s not a boss, he’s a pimp, slave owner, trafficker, manipulator, and serial abuser. And he was allowed to get away with it for decades.

The producers took one look at his work space and decided to rent a WeWork office down the street, I bet.

Maybe Dave’s wife got all the clutter in the divorce?

Just finished episode 3, or 4, whichever is the screw job episode. None of this is particularly new so far, but if you know nothing about Vince or WWE and you watch this, you’re going to think Vince is a huuuuuuuuge piece of shit. My wife is eager to watch this and I know exactly what she’s going to think. So for documentary watchers unfamiliar with wrestling, yeah, this doesn’t paint Vince in a very good light. For wrestling fans, I think it’s interesting seeing Hulk be actually honest, or as honest as he could be, and I think Vince speaking on a lot of this for the first time shows a massive disconnect with reality, which isn’t exactly new or anything. It’s more or less confirmation that, yes, this man is disconnected from reality. All in all I’m not really impressed so far. We’re all wrestling nerds. Some more than others. Nothing here is contradictory to anything that Dave has reported on for decades, so right there you can tell Bruce to shove his rumors and innuendo up his fat fuckin ass. What is most interesting is that the soundtrack for this is the soundtrack for the Last Dance and it makes you think, ooh, we’re going to get a really open view into shit we didn’t know. That couldn’t be further from the truth. This is the weakest sauce version of the Last Dance. Not enough from Vince, not enough that no one would have known about, too much talking from everyone else, and it is just covering ground just has been covered and recovered and reheated and so on about a million times over.

Yeah the only reason you would even think of saying that "even if it was rape" is that you know there was nothing that could get him punished. As of at least episode 3, this is probably the most honest Hulk has even been which is an extremely low bar to begin with but it is a start The idea that the "Billionaire Ted" skit just being for fun is kind of a joke because maybe it was in the beginning but it got extremely personal and very mean. No idea that they were planning a version with Razor and Diesel that they turned down. I don't know if they rejected the idea because they were going to WCW but more they thought it was dumb as fuck Also loved the "openly gay Pat Patterson" line from Bruce Pritchard. While there was hundreds of jokes about Pat in his career they never flat out told people he was gay. And they can say they didn't do because of gay panic but I think the panic was from them thinking that the media would pile it on a lot more The funniest part of it is so far is Vince having this touching moment about his father loving him as he was dying and Tony Atlas almost immediately saying that he didn't think Vince liked his father After watching episode and Vince trying to explain badly why what he did in the territories was completely different than Ted Turner did in WCW during 1995-1996 and realize that holy shit JD Vance and Vince have the same fucked up mentality. By the way we talk about Linda and the work being done, it is a fucking creepy what Vince looks like when he even tries to smile. When he starts to talk about Dr Jerry Graham he gives the ultimate Joker smile that will give you nightmares

I love how EVERY SINGLE COMMENT to that trailer says "bring back Mindhunter"