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Guys. I don't know if you were aware, but Dave is weird.

With the latest Secret Santo coming to a close, I am going to take a couple of months off from posting on the DVDVR boards. I'll likely keep lurking, and I reserve the right to chime in if I feel like it, and I will most likely resume posting around my birthday in early October. Might make that my birthday present to myself. I'd planned to make it to 1000 posts before taking a break. Didn't quite get there. Thought about not making any kind of "see ya" post, because I don't want to make a deal out of it, but I know I sometimes wonder if a regular poster is OK if they don't post for a few days and I (perhaps naively) wouldn't want anyone to worry about me if I just disappeared. I'm more than fine. Getting my second vaccination tomorrow. My wife is very busy (she's a nurse, and often works at vaccination centres on her days off) as are my daughters (who are in prep for another ballet performance while taking care of their pets and working through their massive pile of summer break homework) but we are all happy and healthy and handling the summer heat and humidity just fine so far. I'm really looking forward to enjoying my local izakaya and hanging out with my excellent drinking buddies again. Anyway: It's a great time to be a fan of AEW right now, and it's pretty likely to become an *amazing* time while I'm on hiatus. If the current hot rumours turn out to be true then AEW are heading into crazy dream match territory. Even if Bryan doesn't show up, there's so much to look forward to with a new show and all of the recent additions. I'm so happy that there is a major pro wrestling company, with an international TV deal, owned and operated by people who love wrestling and respect their fans. It's an amazing thing. A dream come true. We are all so lucky to be able to enjoy this right now. It's been fun discussing AEW and other things here. Helped me, in a very real way, to get through some crazy times over the past year. Thanks for that. See ya!

More like the “Queen of Farts”! Hehehehehehehe…

I know Spears is kind of a board whipping boy but, dare I say, he’s been pretty good in The Pinnacle. I mean I’m not getting excited about a Spears match anytime soon, but he’s pretty much the perfect fit for his role. He’s there to be the 5th guy, someone the face can beat early/mid-feud to overcome an obstacle/get one over on The Pinnacle, without sacrificing one of the important guys. He’s unlikely to go out and steal the show, but he’s reliable and just as unlikely to go out and shit the bed. The Chairman thing is a good gimmick in that he can still represent some kind of threat without ever really having to be seen as an equal to Jericho or whoever they’re gonna feud with. And the fact that nobody likes him works perfectly, he’s pretty much guaranteed not to get cheered over the face. No doubt there’s be better workers you could have in that role, but that’s kind of besides the point, I don’t see anyone else in AEW actually working as well in that role.

To me, it looked like a really interesting way of having something that looks dangerous to an excessive degree, whilst not actually being that dangerous. Like as fans, we're programmed to think Turnbuckles = Dangerous, Powerbomb = Dangerous, and Buckle Bombs = Literally life threatening. But in terms of the actual bump, it's a lower elevation drop, onto a surface with some give to it. The main danger would be in hitting the back of the head on the turnbuckle post, and it was nowhere near. And then Orange took his own bump off the top rope, to the apron to the floor (which is a pretty standard thing you see dozens of times in Battle Royals and that). So it was (comparatively) a safe move, but everything about it screamed DANGER PLUS DANGER ON TOP OF EVEN MORE DANGER and so therefore it was an awesome display of staggering genius.

Did they actually acknowledge during the broadcast exactly why Dillashaw hadn't fought in two years? Because I didn't hear it. Did seem odd that they were talking about how he's always had great cardio and never gets tired, when he was doing EPO which gives you great cardio and makes sure you never get tired. I just kind of feel this might end up being a no-contest, somewhere down the line.

Another veteran with great fundamentals to help out. Good stuff. She's not physically in her prime these days (and has been selling a shoulder injury and a bad back) but I imagine she'd be very helpful leading most of their roster. Her tournament matches were damn good. If only they brought Veny in tho.

I knew exactly what the picture was going to be before even coming in here. That's how you know it's a damn good picture. Maybe historic.

From tonight's GCW Homecoming show: The match was an incredible spectacle by the way.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think if Lauderdale said no more throwing stuff in the ring, pretty much all GCW fans would stop. Like, Cardona had to walk THROUGH the crowd to leave, and nothing bad happened. Those fans know where the line is. They're right up on the line, but they know not to cross it. Having said that, they announced Smart Mark Sterling will be addressing the crowd on behalf of Cardona at today's show, and I'm actually kind of worried for him.

After he beats Black. Edit: well, Punk said he'd only come back if there was an interesting story. He's talked about Darby in the past iirc, so I think it'd be Punk vs. Darby and Omega vs. Bryan. Love both of those on paper. I'm interested in seeing how much Bryan changes his style away from the WWE routine.

If you look at the lower right of the picture in Natural's last post, it looks like there's an unopened, presumably full can of PBR. It would suck to get hit by one of those.

Do not make me reason this specific one out and show my work, pal.

I'd accept Walter losing to Ilja if it meant Walter was staying in America.

If Netflix counted individual views, I would never stop playing Masters on repeat just to hydrate myself on incel tears. It's amazing watching such manly men throwing tantrums that'd make most 4 year Olds shake their heads in disgust over a tv show created in the 80's to sell toys.

I wouldn’t mind this Matt Cardona in AEW after last night. Come in on Wednesday to mock people like Gage, Moxley, and Kingston while carrying the top hardcore wrestler prize on the indies.

That WCW Nitro/Thunder set they had around the shows death was pretty bad though.

I bet he's into crystal healing.

They should definitely use this.

Nose biting action

*gets curious and checks Austin Aries' twitter* Oy vey.

FRYIN' PAN-IELSON

Those are the two I go with. Kenny Omega vs. Bryan Danielson is the biggest AEW match there is. A dream match that by all accounts will actually happen. You go all out to sign the Greatest Wrestler of All Time. You still stick to the long term booking of Adam Page beating Omega for the AEW World Championship.

Yeah, but, free beer.

I kind of skimmed this thread, but has no one mentioned the power bomb Cassidy took on the turnbuckle? Yikes! Shawn Spears reminds me of the kid in school who had rich parents but no talent at sports. He’d have all the highest-priced gear and he’d still suck at the sport. Spears has like a million gimmicks and no one gives a shit.

This is the funniest fucking thing to happen in wrestling all year. Cardona is the perfect heel in GCW.

Usually I'm of a belief that stats in fighting do not tell the whole story (never mind the whole sidebar we could go on about exactly what gets counted as a strike in MMA. Do those little pitter-patter shots in the clinch that barely do anything get counted, or...? What strike is truly "significant" and which one is not...and why...and so on). But...the stats for this fight (per UFCstats.com) are pretty interesting and show some razor-thin margins. Significant Strikes - Sandhagen: 128 of 281. Dillashaw: 110 of 268. Total Strikes - Sandhagen: 171 of 331. Dillashaw: 169 of 332. I'd agree that the judges may have overvalued TJ's "cage control" and taking Sandhagen's back. He didn't do much of anything with it, and Sandhagen usually escaped without incident. On the other hand: if you don't need to let your opponent get there, then why let him? The spins - and I felt, Sandhagen looking for something else "highlight reel" at various points in the fight, especially in the earlier rounds - definitely worked to his detriment in this one. Initially I was miffed at this decision, but it's hard to be angry as a fan if it truly was that close.

nb: Cardona wasn't wearing a red/pink shirt when the match started:

It's pretty obvious she's just running away from Lulu Pencil. (bring Mei Suruga on excursion to AEW please and thank you)

Dude that is how to NOT be a heel.

Early SD was about equal to Raw. It was redundant because the roster wasn't huge back then, but all the big names were on the show every week. In AEW's case, they have a big enough roster to basically treat it like a 3 hour show split into 2 shows.

Cardona has also had his pity Dynamite match, so I’m not sure that wins Nick the dick-waving contest. Congrats to Matt for travelling the path less taken and distinguishing himself.

Respect.

That was excellent shit. I was already a fan of Cardona because of his podcast, but I think there's a lot of mileage to be had out of a legit outsider/ex-WWE guy as champion. No offense meant to RSP, but Cardona is on another level as a heel in GCW. Gage will win it back I'm sure, and it'll be a HUGE fucking pop.

AEW grand slam sold out the original capacity, now being expanded to 18,000

This topic is probably not a good direction to go in unless the goal is "give our benevolent mods a massive headache".

Jordynne Grace apparently set state and national powerlifting records at 165 lbs.

Missy Hyatt, sharing a frequent DVDVR thought over the years:

Shawn Michaels looks like shit.

Not meaning to cross post too much from the sports board, but my goodness is the SEC using the 1980’s Vince McMahon playbook in college football right now or what? The parallels between the SEC killing the NCAA and Vince killing the NWA are crazy. Expand beyond your region by signing the best talent/teams in other territories to exclusive contracts, crown your own champion, sign exclusive TV deals … I wouldn’t be surprised if the next move will be to disallow those talent/teams to work for other promotions (play other major teams out of conference). Like, it’s all right there. In 10 years we are going to have Kansas State walking around with the NCAA football title like Nick Aldis.

@EoaeI had no idea you worked for the UWF, very cool!