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I used to think "Man, I get Tony, he's from this board. We have similar tastes!" Then I see stuff like Abadon leaving quietly after not being used for a while and their action figure being cancelled and all this shit. I don't get how you can have a FUCKING ZOMBIE on your roster and not do cool shit with a fucking zombie year round. Its like I get that I'm weird about it and am a horror/Halloween 365 kind of person that goes to conventions for stuff like this, but there was so much unused potential there. I get that AEW doesn't have writers doing skits a lot of the time but goddamn dude. I can think of 1000 scenarios where a FUCKING ZOMBIE could do hilarious shit, or scary shit. I've seen more zombie movies than AEW has had fucking shows at this point. Come on. This is coming from me though. I thought Maho Kurone was going to be the future of professional wrestling. I'd be giving weekly or semi weekly shit to Abadon, Stokely, Willie Mack, people with magnetic personalities that would connect with people. They have people that do that now, but also do talking segments and angles and stuff with like, okay, I'm not here to shit on like Kyle O Riley or something, but who would you rather hear talk about anything, him or Willie Mack? Tony hates Toru Yano, I guess we are very different people. I think the match IS important and love the good matches AEW puts on, but I have friends that are new to wrestling and care way more about cool characters and hate whenever it's a bunch of "Regular people" in there. I think wrestling should be fucked up weird people doing fucked up weird shit to each other. Like not in a gross sense or like bad people in real life. You know what I mean.

I find almost everything associated with WWE intolerable in a world where AEW exists, but let's not go saying things we can't take back about Sol Ruca and her spectacular finisher.

Terry Funk, over the course of his career.

At this rate AEW should start floating false booking plans just to fuck with them. “What do you mean AEW is running Collision on an uninhabited island with no infrastructure and it’s going to cost them six billion to do it? Oh well, go ahead and book it for Great Balls of Fire 2: 2Great 2Balls the week before!”

I’ll just reiterate a version of what I said when those rumors first came up: Both sides extracted maximum value from this deal. Mariah took herself from a nobody in the US to a major TV star, and AEW got a an incredible, unique storyline that drove a lot of business for them and made Toni Storm an even bigger star than she already was. This ain’t a Ricky Starks situation where you’re left wondering what if. All the meat was off the bone. So much so, I’m not even sure what an Act 2 for Mariah in AEW would even look like. Even if she could still be useful in some other kind of role, I think it’s probably best for both sides to George Costanza this and move on.

Jesus Christ could the man write a wrestling review:

I wouldn't go as far as to say that this could be my favorite feud ever, but one of my favorite things in wrestling is when someone gets something overtly ridiculous over with the crowd. It's why I love the People's Elbow, Socko, and all that other shit that only works because the person doing it makes it work. A long-running midcard angle with a rich conman, his personal Repo Man, and his corrupt accountant is right up my alley.

I'm not only OK with this rule, I wish it was instituted across all sports. I don't think you should be rewarded for being a loser, but I really don't think you should be rewarded for being a habitual loser. I say this as a Cleveland sports fan.

You don’t like an imploding flip into a cutter while time stands still and the opponent sits and waits for it like a beaten Mortal Kombat opponent waiting for a fatality? It’s like someone saw the dumb setups for the Ozcutter, Lethal Injection, and Cody Cutter and said hold my beer.

If you'd have told me last week that Dynamite would begin and end with talking segments and I'd love the show, I wouldn't have believed you. Only complaint was that I really wish they'd have put the TNT belt on Fletcher. I'm no fan of Cole, but have to admit that the live crowds are into him. I just think the time is right for elevating Fletcher some. Oh, and that match reminded me that the Panama Sunrise is one of the dumbest moves ever. I would say the dumbest, but I saw a clip from (I think) NXT where a girl does a flip off the top rope and her opponent basically dives into a cutter and that was dumber.

Alvarez says Harley got hurt at Double or Nothing and will have to take time off so the blood on Wednesday wasn’t real and was used as an excuse to get her off TV for a bit.

I loved the two big talking segments opening and closing the show. Feeling hyped for the top matches of All In already. I enjoyed Thekla's debut, good way to make a quick impact. Lots of solid action throughout the night and lots of bloodshed.

I think based on his review of the DON main, Sandman seems like a lock for AEW and man how dope would it be to finally get a legit, Enter Sandman run in? Maybe I'm just showing my bias as a millennial that was obsessed with ECW on TNN.

At this point, Adam Cole almost seems like he's on the roster out of pity for "what could've been." Due to his size, Cole was always going to be a hard sell as a main event-level guy for WWE and even for AEW if we're being honest. I feel like he needed everything to go right for him to overcome that and there were certainly times when things were going right. But injuries and that awful Devil storyline have basically eliminated any chance of him being a major player again. He seems like a super nice, hard-working dude, but I just don't see big things in his future. It also doesn't help that he's been doing the same entrance shtick forever and has also been attached-at-the-hip to O'Reilly and Strong to the point that it all feels like a retread of a retread of a retread.

I was pretty harsh on the Two Bland Kyles a while back, but honestly, O'Riley grew on me as the straight man of the Conglomeration. (And Fletcher, of course, has completely shed his blandness since his heel turn.) I'd argue that having a decent number of "regular people" in the mix to play off the weirdos helps. Heck, the only time in his AEW career that Adam Cole has been even remotely interesting was during the bromance angle with MJF, and that was all him being a normal dude introducing the fucked-up MJF to the concept of genuine friendship. But yeah, more characters with crazy gimmicks would be nice. I still love Kris Statlander, but she was more fun when she was an alien. And of course, I still really miss Luchasaurus.

Oh there's a LOT to unpack here.

Running a real Island Death Match as a tribute to Inoki is an interesting choice.

If Cinema Sewer can get nice collected editions (with a few hardcover editions too) there's no reason the DVDVRs and Comix shouldn't be collected. Hell, I'd contribute to a kickstarter or something at this point.

I have been busy and haven't gotten to review the PPV or the last couple Dynamites. I'm not super interested in going all the way back, so let me just say that the term I saw used most often for Mercedes/Hayter is "casual banger" and I thought that was an apt description. DoN didn't have a bad match on it. I loved Dynamite this week, and it's crazy to me how much the overall quality of their television show has improved. My only real complaint is the TNT Title situation, but I'm willing to admit that a lot of that is personal preference. Hopefully Kyle Fletcher remedies that soon enough. Da Meltz talked about both the strong PPV buyrates and the PR missteps WWE has made lately in their dealings with AEW. I want to give some credit to TK here; he is handling WWE counterprogramming him much better than he did a year or so ago with that "not gonna take this shit anymore' rant. Good on him.

*boop* being the generally accepted sound of an erection popping up always killed me

last time the comix were brought up, i remember RIPPA saying that none of them were lost and all were archived. he was coy on if/when/how people could read them again.

the "trial run" for Money Inc was Dibiase and IRS taking turns tagging up with Repo Man in winter of 91, and I've often said Money Inc should've actually been a Freebird Trio with Repo Man as the 3rd. As a trio they'd represent the three fronts of Dibiase's illegal financial empire: Repo Man steals property for Dibiase, who makes major windfall fencing it at face value, and Rotunda launders the transaction through a front company the state/offshore territory with the lowest relevant tax rate. Obviously when Dibiase's injuries catch up with him and he has to wrap up, they lose the belts and Repo Man turns face in the subsequent implosion, turns informant, re-steals the incriminating title deeds from Dibiase's vault, beats him in something like a "evidence on a pole" loser leaves town match, and the "Million Dollar Man" is bankrupted into oblivion as Dibiase retires. Naturally this white-collar malfeasance also costs IRS his government job and you set up a 90 day vacation while you repackage Rotunda into a gimmick where he can wear a proper singlet again instead of a dress shirt that shows off how sweaty he is all the time.

A good chunk of the Southern Alcohol Comix are on the Internet Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20121002123213/http://www.deathvalleydriver.com/soalccomix.html

You can have your Sandman entrance...I just want to see Rhino Gore Lori Fullington thru a table one more time.

OKAY.... TOOOOOO much depressing shit there... Here's Penta with a puppy:

Oh god. I have to share this. I was looking for a Zangief spinning gif and... this was top in the search. NOT SAFE FOR WORK

I think that book would likely, how do I put this,……..RULE THE MOTHERFUCKING THE WORLD!!!!!~

Oh man, hang in there and best of luck, bud. Please keep us posted. PS I am physically unable to restrain myself from telling you YOU’RE GONNA BE OKAY!

In one of his rare instances of doing the right thing, George realized the value of leaving the room on a high note.

They are already doing comedy bits with Roxanne in backstage segments, which have been entertaining no doubt but that's not her bread and butter. They had her wrestling on "Main Event" last week. Giulia is already picking up random pinfall losses in thrown together matches as well. They have no fucking clue how to build an engaging women's roster where everyone comes out of it looking like stars.

Lord, how I wish DEAN~! could've written that up James

It's not the dispensaries: most payment processors won't handle weed payments since it's still illegal federally.

I think this was the last Saturday morning cartoon I watched consistently. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJPkx_ZtTdc

There’s an island where they have no contact with the outside world; some missionary went there and they killed him, and if you try to fly over it they shoot arrows at you. TK needs to float the rumor that they’re doing a residency there.

I'm seeing that Saturday because what don't I see in the movie theater?

Its an odd choice as NXT TV doesn't "travel" well unless its a super show and they are calling up a lot of their current popular wrestlers before then so it will be interesting to see how they sell. I mean they just had to cancel their Tampa TV taping due to low sales. I know 2300 Arena is small and shouldn't be hard to sell out but if there are fans of both promotions that can only afford to go to one show I'd be surprised if NXT is the one they chose. Although if WWE announces Punk or something will show up that would be different.

Good opener this week from La Catalina vs. Trish Adora, both always shine in their outings. Athena returns next week. Diego Hill catches Lance Archer with a kick that busts him open immediately before Archer squashes him in a couple minutes. Interesting submission finish that felt like an on the fly move from the way he caught Diego's moonsault as the blood drips onto his back. we get a replay of Moriarty/Mako for the Pure title and the Cibernetico from DEAN~ 2, very cool to include those. Another Satnam squash, this time of Facade. Fun main event as Rhino & Hologram take out the Frat House.

Right now, there is a pretty positive vibe online and business is improving, so I think he’ll just figure to keep doing what they’re doing, because obviously it’s getting under the Fed’s skin. But TK can be unpredictable, and if WWE does try and grab some of the ECW legends just to fuck AEW’s plans he might have something to say about that. Difference between the companies seems to be that WWE wants to own everything, while AEW knows there’s plenty of room for two or more companies to be successful. Both Mercedes and especially Toni took some swipes at the E during their segment, first time in a while I recall that happening.

Also, wouldn't he need the approval of whoever actually owns the copyrighted work to release it? Just because he has a copy (if he does) that doesn't mean he can just sell it to the highest bidding boutique label and sell it on Blu-ray.

I want everybody to remember this shit when I pushback on Vince being a genius. He caught lightning in a bottle a couple of times, but he has far more dumbass ideas than good ideas, and even fewer great ideas.

I was gonna say that earlier. There has to be the eye-murdering neon green-on-blue-background one of those had. And don't forget the DVDVR Comix! There also should be little asides talking about the lives of the writers during different time periods. The more I think about it this feels like a frickin' coffee table book, but hey. Oh and hey, the crowd at DEAN 2 part 2 needs to be told they can still read the old DVDVRs at the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine. I still have the main page bookmarked myself; Rippa posted it yonks ago: https://web.archive.org/web/20110512203920/http://www.deathvalleydriver.com/dvdvr/recentdvdvr.html

I disagree with this, I thought it was pretty effective considering she doesn't have a lot of name recognition. Quick beatdown of an established name, then a flashy pose that made her look dangerous but also kinda hot and it was so quick and smooth, you can tell she's probably pretty good in the ring which is the biggest sell you need in AEW. Basically came across like a much better version of The Bunny. Excited to see what she can do. The women really stole the show overall. Toni/Mercedes feels big time, and Anna and Harley really don't believe in putting their hands up. With Hangman going over in the Owen being somewhat of a surprise and having no obvious direction for Swerve and Ospreay, I was kind of wondering if they would weasel into a 4-way. It would get around the problem of not having the most compelling guys at the top of the card for the biggest show. If you're not going to put Toni/Mercedes in the main event spot, a 4-way elimination match where Mox goes out first and you have Swerve, Hanger, and Will going nuts for 30 minutes seems like a better fit for the moment. If TK finally has the balls to do a women's main, then this isn't as important and you can run Swerve/Will vs The Bucks or Claudio/Yuta.

Of the 2 Michael J. Fox movies from the summer of 85, I really didn't care fotmr Teen Wolf. I remember seeing it with my Dad and sister and just everything about Fox in it rubs me the wrong way. Now im not going to say the werewolf thing is a metaphor for masturbation but rather about puberty in general. Still, as much as I don't like this, somehow Teen Wolf Too is worse. Probably, in large part to it being an obvious unnecessary cash grab sequel. I'd rather sit through The Legend of Billie Jean again because that at least had "Invincible", a total banger by Pat Benetar going for it. James

Did a re-watch of Okada/Speedball, and it was top-shelf. It had the vibe of a Dean Malenko CW title defense on an NWO-era show. No excessive finishers and kickouts, just a lot of smooth wrestling and counter-wrestling, well-timed high spots, and a perfect tempo to keep the crowd engaged without over-stepping its bounds on the card. Way lower stakes than the main, way less spectacle than AITA, but a perfect fit on the card and a MOTYC in its own right.

For sure a great move because it is feeling like AEW in 2025 is just can't miss. DON felt like a massive shift for the company and with the insidious dogshit that the other company is doing, it's perfect that they're just killing it and have the blinders on. Also, can we please have a Brody King push sire? (Yes, I'm looking at you directly TK)

Are you saying you forgot what Marcellus Wallace looks like? Does he look like a bitch?

The 2000s is still not that far removed from Italians playing Natives. And it was a few years later when you had the Avatar casting controversy. Heck, even in the mid 1980s, Joel Grey got an Oscar nomination for playing an Asian character. of course, in the 2020s, you get protests if you cast an Asian actor to play an Asian character, but they’re not the “correct nationality”, casting a Japanese actor to play a Chinese character and so on.

missed the first 10 minutes of this episode, but watching the part on the Hassan intro vignettes and how he was on TV... it's possible the 2005 WWE ages worse than 1998 WWF did, and not just because one of the wrestlers murdered his family a few years later. Or they had to be told not to call Kenzo Suzuki "Hirohito". Or all the stuff that got Vince to sign NDAs. Even if you ignore the part where Hassan was played by an Italian dude. Would it have been more or less offensive if they just did a John Walker Lindh/Krusher Khrushchev and just had Gomer Pyle from Full Metal Jacket dude doing a convert/revert gimmick. But as someone who remembers post-9/11, the concept was obviously hitting a hot topic. But a certain amount of the heat they mentioned in public could have very much been from people completely unaware of wrestling (aside from the Muslims in a bar(?)/club in Australia that were pissed at them). Do you think they asked actual Arab wrestlers about doing this gimmick and they didn't understand why someone like Sabu wouldn't take the Muhammad Hassan gimmick (yeah I know Sabu was in TNA at that time...)... I could see Vince being really fucking oblivious about how people were feeling at this time and they clearly couldn't write this gimmick in a way that lived up to the vignettes or didn't swing dramatically into being an old school villain oh man, the story with Hassan/Eddie and the camel clutch there's a lot of "This Fuckin Company" to this story... like I forget how much I was really watching this in 2005 and I think I always watched more Raw than Smackdown. Like the stuff with Ivory suggesting that Muhammad Hassan would hijack a plane and shit (oh yeah, it also involved Todd Grisham, whose ex-wife is now more famous than him because she was a White House Press Secretary recently) and as the year goes on, they pivot the character from "Arab who feels persecuted" to "Terrorist".. like this gimmick was gonna get fucked eventually even without 7/7 because 2005 was also a bad year in Iraq, like holy fuck, they put this guy with a bunch of dudes who looked like they were beheading people in Iraq, there wasn't really a way for this to end naturally man, the graphics on the disclaimer were really fucking low-tech but he was a terrorist in a three piece suit, so it's not totally racist, right pal... he's just doing the gimmick of the people that Vince did business with in Saudi Arabia a decade later like holy fucking shit, the dudes in skimasks who were his fucking goons, what the fuck was this company thinking was going to happen some fan really paying attention to the news by referencing Uday/Qusay Hussein two years after they were killed Undertaker killed dudes in back to back years at the Great American Bash after he did Paul Bearer the year before At least post-wrestling Marc Copani got a pretty cool solid job even with the period of depression after his time in the WWE The Camel Clutch has been reused for foreign heels way too much in the last 20 years too. I don't think we're getting a Muhammad Hassan video on the WWE Vault EDIT: watching the first 10 minutes and boy... that OVW footage of them doing the Muhammad Hassan gimmick... Cornette booking Hassan is like if a musician felt their label wanted more guitar solos and they decided to just make an entire album of guitar solos

All forms of pushing the runner forward should be re-included in the assisting the runner penalty. but oh no, gotta increase scoring by all means possible…

This playlist has like ten full episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5d0ZTRX0Z2IIn991wfJfqc2HbZtii7Pm&si=1mluYlyjSX3vSyjq