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I remember many years ago, we had a tournament on here to determine the best short-term tag team. I think the winner may have been Manny Fernandez and Rick Rude. My vote went to Mikey Whipwreck and Tajiri.

Chuck: "Who's in more trouble, my Sixers or my Suns?" Ernie: "Yes."

Speaking of Rude, I know that a lot of folks around here have Manny Fernandez and Rick Rude as their favorite/the greatest short-term tag team. Personally, I had Brad Armstrong and Brickhouse Brown as my favorite (if not the greatest by amount of production) over the past couple years. However, I now feel like my hot (lukewarm?) take is that Rey Misterio Jr. and Billy Kidman are the greatest short-term tag team. They didn't get to a full year of tagging regularly together, so I think they should count. What an incredible undersized babyface tag team. If you plunked them back in the 1980s, they draw money in every territory they go to. I just wrote this take down elsewhere, but I thought I'd throw it out here. I'm not sure who is beating those two as a great short-term tag team.

Can we all just admit we'd be willing to forgive all the really shitty things WWE has done if only they'd bring back those amazing goddamned ice cream bars?????

"odd couple" tag teams that look like they should be the "teammates who hate each other" team but actually get along fine and have great team chemistry is one of my favorite tag team setups and Whipwreck/Tajiri are definitely among my favorite iterations thereof.

I love the Unholy Alliance. One of my favourite ever tag teams. Great entrance theme too: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ivdhOTU73F8&pp=ygUTRWN3IHVuaGlreSBhbGxpYW5jZQ%3D%3D

The weirdest part of the story is that the belt was created when they wanted to give Rude the NWA championship, but didn't actually give him the belt that ended up being the continuation of the NWA championship. To quote Kris Zellner, "WCW, everybody."

Yeah, I feel like the term "world champion" means a completely different thing depending on the person talking about it. I think of Rude as a world champion, but I didn't watch much WCW at the time, because I primarily lived in a place without cable access. When I was 12, my age when all of this took place, my WCW knowledge was based on whatever was in whatever random wrestling mag I looked through at the mall that week. So, my memory is based on seeing him with that belt all the time and the mags treating him like a big deal. Rick Rude was also one of my favorites from his WWF run, so I see one of my favorites with a belt that looks like what I recognize as the world championship, and without any ability to actually know how it was being presented...so, he's been a world champion ever since in my personal record book.

Rude's a bit tricker because he was also the First World Class World Champ after Fritz withdrew from NWA after Crockett said he wasn't putting the belt on anyone not signed to Mid-Atlantic anymore. We can debate if WCCW was worth a World Title, but it was, at least for another year, #4 in the US after AWA.

OK, the Rick Rude one is a little trickier than that. The International championship only existed because the NWA objected to Flair dropping the NWA title to Rude. The booking eventually turned into a different secondary championship, but it started by them wanting to put the world title on Rick Rude. This is also the event that was the start of the snowball that eventually grew into ECW being the 3rd biggest company in the states. When WCW withdrew from the NWA, the NWA made Eastern Championship Wrestling the promotion that booked the NWA world champion. I'm not saying that this is or isn't a legitimate world championship, but if this isn't a real world championship how do we feel about the 45 different versions of the WWE world championship, the World Championship, the Universal Championship, etc? Scott Hall wasn't much of a world title challenger, but he was absolutely a gatekeeper to the top of the card. Hall is kind of a unique case, because the reason he wasn't a world champion is because he couldn't be trusted. You can't put someone in a world championship program if he can't be trusted to show up sober. I believe that he would have absolutely been elevated by his upper midcard work if it wasn't for his demons, but those demons kind of put him in the gatekeeper position. I honestly don't know if there is a better not a world champion, but gave credibility to world champions than Scott Hall.

Stumbling on? He started it.

I think the Suns if only because they owe Bradley Beal another 110 million with a no trade clause.

Jokic has still never played with a teammate who in that season made an all-star team, all-defensive team, or received a single vote for even All-NBA third team. The fact that he has a ring is jaw dropping.

There's definitely a time and place to blow a team up, but the NBA is full of teams that either refuse to tear it down for years when they obviously should, or blow up teams that probably just need tweaked, or get impatient with a slow and steady build and mortgage their future on an aging star. But enough about the Phoenix Suns.

The icing on the cake would be getting Coach Tony K himself to discuss the sleaze thread.

Harley's being incredible again https://www.instagram.com/aew/reel/DIRioihJtcg/

2025 dressing like an old man is different from 40 years ago. Now what if someone started coming to the ring dressed like Mr. Wrestling II? Tighty whities pulled all the way up and barrel chested looking like you just escaped the local insane asylum.

The well isn't running dry! **fast forwards to the 2028 season, episode 1 of Dark Side of the Ring: The DVDVR Sleaze Thread** Chris Jericho: And then someone replied about Jimmy Valiant and a glass table. **insert reenactment here**

It led to a lot of people switching the channel, but Nitro hadn't won a head to head since October of 98 when they had to air Page/Goldberg because of the Halloween Havoc fuck up, and that was the only time they had won since sometime in the summer. WWF was fully in control of the war by then.

I think Foley is another great contender for this. Without Foley, I don't know if The Rock, HHH, or the Undertaker gets over as a worker as well as a character. He also did really good work with Sting and Vader in WCW.

Everything about that 8-Man from the promos to the match itself was about as Memphis/Mid-South as you can get and it was fucking amazing. Can we get more shit like that on teh regular, please??

Everyone is a fan on the internet now. The IWC is literally everyone that watches wrestling. This isn't 2000 where you have to seek out some niche site like Lords of Pain or The Smart Marks. Social media has integrated everyone into dirtsheet culture and hot takes arms races. Much like everything else sports and entertainment, previously smug and elitist sites like DVDVR have become reasonable safe havens against the broader ills of social media.

I think the NWA Belt was supposed to be a NJPW thing or a Bridge title so they could swap talent without doing something silly like having the actual champs pin each other in different countries (like Fujinami and Flair did in 91). The tag belts was just Watts putting his boy Doc over everyone before Doc fucked back off to AJPW.

This is the exact game that made me make my previous comment

The Undisputed WWE Championship, currently held by Cody, is the belt that goes back to the original WWWF/NWA split in 63. Everyone's going to count what's a world title differently and if you lose the "World" status, but you can directly track all the "active" World Belts back to the NWA belt in some shape or form.

yes. a long, long, world tour.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XbwXcc-Gr1Y WCW YouTube channel has added Lex Luger vs. The Giant vs. Booker T vs. Stevie Ray from WCW Spring Stampede 1997. The show gave us the iconic "Hulk Hogan, we're coming for you..."

If they where inspired by stuff like Slaughter's alley fights not too much contradiction

Morant has replaced pew-pew fingers with a hand to his mouth, a lobbing motion, and covering his ears. From a gun to a grenade. All class. Fucking idiot.

You should make a journal of the things that are different on the overworld map between the two games! I recommend starting at the Lanayru East Gate! Have fun!

Somehow, this reminds me early 2010's when Beavis and Butt-Head had those new episodes on Mtv. The episodes were what they were, but bits where they watched Mtv and commented on the reality TV episodes and such, they actually sounded much more sensible than what was going on the screen. At the time I was thinking "20 years onwards and these guys are now the voice of reason?!?" That was more than a decade ago. I guess this place has become something like that a good while ago, as well?

Johnny TV & MxM trios squash opens this week, followed by Marina's 1 minute killing of Nixi XS. Ishii over Preston Vance was a solid short match. Entertaining squash from Dustin & the Von Erichs, they challenge Johnny TV & MxM for next week. Taya Valkyrie promo sets up her vs. La Catalina next week for a TV title shot which made me realize I forgot Red Velvet had an injury and pretty much disappeared for a couple months now. New champ Bandido headlines with a quick 5 minute win over Jay Lethal, ending this episode at just around 45 minutes.

Alotta fun had this week (watched on delay on a tiny phone screen). The 8 man and promos being the highlight. That or the zoom-in-serious Schiavone promo on FTR. That heel turn was an all timer. Totally enamoured. I also really liked the Hook/Joe-Claudio/Yuta main. Very nicely contested. Claudio-Joe please. Yuta has gotten so good. The MJF/Hurts segments were kinda fun. If I wasn’t aware of the Atout-MJF relationship I might not have found the low toxic diss quite as amusing as I did. Atout really oughtta be number 2 to Renee - she’s excellent and far further along as a broadcaster than Lexi (with her awkward emotional responses). Stat v Rosa was alright, but the quarter hour was magnificent due in large part to the Timeless commentary. Toni may have been the highlight of the show. Everything she does is outstanding. Loved the Callis promo as per usual. Hmm, the Paragon? It’s not not a better name, but seems odd to rebrand. The Jericho segment was interesting - namely the Bill stuff. The tantrum was, uh, a bit weak tho. Mox-Shibata was not what I was hoping for, but a good victory for the Champ. I liked Shibata getting a bit of revenge later. Pac-Swerve was disappointing due to the injury, but I liked how they pivoted. Swerve and Kenny’s mic work was a bit wonky, but fairly amusing. I love Swerve suggesting he’s Buck hunting. I dug the Bucks promo, and love the potential for this story. Hanger-Nana was hammy but kinda awesome. I like Penelope, but Bayne could benefit a Callis er top tier mic worker. This was a really fun reset or newish beginning er chapter. Again, totally with the love for the 8 man. Andretti/Lio are a fun team. Beast made every babyface look great. The Briscoe head slap! Ospreay, Ospreay! Speedball is over for good reason! Him saying he’ll get new shoes was another wonderful highlight! Ricochet has become one of the best heels in wrestling. This was truly Wrestling and Romance!

I think some clothes that were old man clothes in 1984 are now hipster clothes

Toni beating Megan with a package roll-up reminded me of Cena beating Umaga with a school boy in their first match. And based on Dynamite it seems Megan Bayne's title aspirations remain intact. So if this is leading to a Texas Death Match between them at Double or Nothing, I say hell yeah.

I actually got a bigger kick out of Mark asking the team what they'd spend their share of the 400K on and Speedball excitedly shouts, "SHOES"

My wife said that Team Osprey was basically a D&D Group. Osprey was the wizard, Briscoe the bard, Knight the cleric, and Bailey the rogue. Hangman is still a bad friend, but I like that they're slowly showing him being conflicted. Really enjoyed SUPER PISSED OFF Tony. "If we were a team, we'd be called Thunder Thighs" - Toni Storm

They wasted Kamala as a legacy inductee, since he ticks off the boxes for 80s star, minority and deceased wrestler.

I think you are hilariously twisting RVD's message to fit your own narrative. He was talking about AEW fans that hated anyone at all saying anything critical about AEW, not AEW fans that were critical of things AEW did, which is more what happens here. He's talking about the AEW superfans that get mad if people say a single bad word about the promotion, we won't name names here on who that narrative fits better. With occasional exception at DVDVR we don't do as much "WWE fans going into AEW threads to say AEW sucks" or vice versa. He meant AEW fans attacking people critical outwardly, not fans being critical of the promotion itself. Which is just as much a problem with WWE fans as well, a lot of fans on the Internet enjoy attacking fans of the other promotion, just the way it is on social media.

I'm so glad we circled back around to Bullseye as the real endgame of this season, with Vanessa pulling the strings. This episode probably felt the most at home with the original series.

I saw a thing where Chelsea Green was defending trans people and lashing out on a Twitter moron and all I could think of was, “you know who you work for, right?” I’m not even talking about a few degrees’ separation, either. HHH sat behind Linda in the confirmation hearing where she essentially discussed making things harder for trans kids in school. The cognitive dissonance is amazing. Olympic level mental gymnastics.

As someone who got screamed at since little league... "CALL FOR IT." Everytime, no matter what. Getting moved to catcher was fun because then I was the one yelling at the position players.

Ok, let's do some catch up. 8/26/88: Masa Saito vs Billy Gaspar: Saito worked from underneath here. Om commentary they tried to make it seem like this was a long building issue from Gaspar interfering in an Inoki vs Saito match the previous year. Gaspar got the offense early with the sword and Saito worked from underneath until he could finally get the suplex and start firing back as Gaspar stooged (bump in corner, bump over the top). They ended up counted out. This was good but not conclusive by any means. 8/26/88: Choshu/Kobayashi vs Fujiwara/Yamada: Nice pairings here. Let me look up when they lose Fujiwara. Huh. really not til March. That's good. Even though I am watching UWF 2.0 now too. Choshu and Fujiwara were gritty together. Kobayashi tried to put Fujiwara in a crab (you don't powerbomb kidman and...) Then Yamada came in and destroyed him and wanted Choshu which was a great star move right until Choshu thrashed him. Definitely a hierarchy match but very entertaining when Choshu or Fujiwara would have to take over (headbutts) and Kobayashi and Yamada have great fire.Nice finish where Yamada ducks the first lariat but eats the second at high speed. 8/26/88: Fujinami/Koshinaka vs Vader/Black Tiger (Rocco): I actually did a big thread on this on bsky just because I wanted to show people what they were missing on even a throwaway TV match. https://bsky.app/profile/mattd-sc.bsky.social/post/3llzozeqvic2l Anyway, The pairings were interesting here. Black Tiger was back in the first time in a year maybe. He seemed like he missed a step but it was nice to see him with Vader. At one point when Vader was hurt on the outside he went to comfort him. That was nice. He also hit some cool stuff (armless pedigree and scoop tombstone). Vader was scaring people on the way down, also nice. His shots look nastier every week and he's still bumping big. There were some great camera angles (Fujinami getting chucked out of the ring on a pin, Koshinaka running into Vader on the apron); in general Vader killing Koshinaka was as good as you'd expect. And the fans loved his comebacks. Vader got double teamed to get knocked out of the ring and Fujinami hit his finishing sequence on Tiger. Post match Vader and Tiger threw a hissy fit. Check out the thread. 9/5/88 (hh): Fujiwara/Sakaguchi vs Ron Starr/Scott Hall: I went real out of my way to get this HH and some was for this match. Unfortunately, we just get the end of it. Just a bit of Hall doing stuff before Fujiwara comes back. Starr really telegraphs the entry point to the Fujiwara arm bar and then, post match after they lost, does some shtick with the hurt arm as Hall tries to raise it. Fun stuff but I would have liked to see the whole match. 9/5/88 (hh): Takano/Kimura vs Billy and Gary Gaspar: This we get all of and it was ok. I struggle with this incarnation of the Gaspars (Jason the Terrible being the second with Orton) in just telling them apart even in the best of circumstances. I do think it was Jason who did the really fun stooging of crashing into the corner face first, getting kicked up onto the ropes so his belly was hanging down and then ending up crotched, dropkicked, and hitting the post on the way down. The Gaspars controlled this early with the sword shots on the outside but there were some comebacks as noted. Takano wrestles very confidently for a guy lost in the shuffle. Eventually they did isolate him, get Kimura out of the way and win (I think with a pile driver) though. 9/5/88 (hh): Bigelow vs Vader: Another great opening as Vader burst through the smoke. Cool to see it as a HH. Then Vader celebrated with the helmet after clotheslining Bigelow. They had their usual match of crashing into each other and missing charges, with Bigelow clearing the ring but then Vader fighting back on the floor, etc., before it all got thrown out. Bigelow had learned from Hogan however and made sure to come back into the ring post match to do the cartwheel to the fans' delight. I have the August UWF 2.0 show to double back to.

WWE inducting "moments" or matches right now into the Hall of Fame is stupid and makes no sense. They phased out the specific wings and awards of the Hall of Fame a while ago. If they want to do this, they need to roll out proper rules and categories for the Hall of Fame. Instead it feels like they are flying by the seat of their pants with the Hall of Fame. Doing Bret Hart vs. Austin feels wildly redundant.

I want to say the Black Belt Magazine YT channel just airs a either a Jackie Chan movie marathon or a Bruce Lee movie marathon every day. And I found some other channel that will run multiple marathon streams of Speed Racer, various Kamen Rider series and a bunch of other Toku.

BIG JAPAN ROAD REPORT I'll add a ton of pics to this, but I need to change browsers to do so. (Edit: pics added) Today's show was in the Imazato neighbourhood of Osaka, near the wonderful Korea Town of Tsuruhashi. As usual I met friends there before the show and we went shopping for snacks and drinks for ourselves and each other and for "the boys" It's become a lovely tradition, just a very nice part of my life. Likewise the feasting afterward. No pictures of that today, I'm afraid. Food was amazing, though. Sushi and yakitori, mainly, and the beer flowed like wine... Hey! I met Hashimoto and Ohtani today! Daisuke Hashimoto and Joji Ohtani, but still... Very nice guys. And terrific in the ring. Hey Natural! I bought a new zip hoodie! One I can wear with pride (now that AEW has gone mainstream and lowest common denominator) Heath is a Japanese clothing brand. Normally I don't wear clothes with brand logos but it was the only one in my size (Japanese 3L) I bought it from Kamitani. he was really nice, and helpful. As was everyone. I possibly made two new friends today, Rie and Subin (or maybe Soobin). Looking forward to seeing if they light up when they see me at the next show. In May. Assuming we all make it out. In 2012 I took shirtless pics with Quiet Storm. Today we did a new one! That was fun. He's ENOURMOUS now. Damn near Sekimoto size. Legit 50 cm arms. Semi main was an ultimate BMMSM match: ISHIKAWA vs SEKIMOTO!!! They beat the absolute shit out of each other. It was insane. The main was a light tubes tag title death match between Bakka Gaijin and AKIRA & Miyamoto. (GCW/MLW AKIRA, not Nogami...) He really tapped a gusher. At first I thought it was his eye, but in fact it was near his temple. It was bad enough to be legit disturbing. Talking to him afterward, he seemed pretty shook up, in the moment, and I cannot blame him at all. Pondo bled some, too. And hammered spikes into Miyamoto's head. And so on... It was insane that six guys took things that far in the last two matches of a house show that wasn't even being taped! I spent more than half an hour after the show sweeping up broken light tubes and jamming (often blood-soaked) streamers into garbage bags. That was one hell of an interesting experience!! There's glass embedded in the soles of my shoes now That's a unique souvenir! I'm basically part of the furniture there now. Everyone is used to seeing me help out after their Osaka shows. That means a lot to me. Legit warms my heart.

Wow, that's actually pretty cruel thing to say about Not Sasha! ... ... ... What? What do mean talking about the car? ... Oh, yeah. Like Benz and shit? OK, nevermind, then! I'll see myself out.

My feelings on Punk aside, seeing him tear up and seeing it as genuine, you know, I'm happy as hell for him. I don't have to like him to recognie that you're seeing someone finally get something that means something to him in a way most of us won't understand. I'll still whine and complain about it lol, jk, but it was cool to see.