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Speak for yourself. I have like 70 people on ignore right now.

They came over to my house and interviewed me for three hours. I gave them every detail of that night of FMW in one sitting without notes. It was a lot, mentally fried me the rest of the interview, as it was very detailed. So they had all the information, but time wise cut to the chase. Don't know why they said school yard when I specifically told them a park. I also got them Ricky, Arai's daughter, and Hayabusa's daughter for the show.

Check this picture posted by AEW. Wow.

Further adventures of introducing wrestling to my wife, Malakai Black/Dante Martin edition: "Oh, I really like this. It seems more like what I think of wrestling in my head instead of just one guy doing his moves and waiting for the other guy to do his moves." If I don't screw this up I'm pretty sure I can get my wife to watch Battlarts with me.

So that's why he started the sleaze thread.

Just rewatched the main event and a little detail I liked was right at the beginning when OC went for his hands-in-pockets pose and PAC stopped him. But didn’t act heelish or angry like in the past, he just went like “cmon mate I know you can go, cut the shit, let’s do this” and Orange went with it. Small thing but makes sense given their history and it’s subtle character development for both.

Suzuki/Danielson was fucking motherfucking fucking AWESOME.

You did that TWICE?

I don't mark out much anymore at my ripe old age of 39, but I'll be damned if I didn't mark out like an 8-year-old last night. What a sweetheart.

I didn't finish this episode yet but it's really personal to me. My brother (who used to host the aftershows for DSOTR) is also bipolar and has a HBO special about his mental health issues. It's a fucking nightmare to see the person I'm closest with in the world go through these difficulties and struggles. He's better now, but it's not like it goes away even with a good treatment plan. Bipolar is such a misunderstood disease. I'm also bipolar. There are a few different levels of bipolar. Bipolar 1 is the kind Kanyon had or what you see in TV movies -- the really wild manic swings and lengthy depressive episodes. I'm Bipolar II, which is different. I don't want to say "milder" but it doesn't come with suicide ideation or the manic episodes that last for a few weeks. It's a lot quicker, where I can get depressed for a few weeks at a time (the pandemic rules for that!) or hypomania, which is essentially an elevated mood with a lot of energy and irritability and makes me really hard to deal with. If you see some lengthy screed written on here at like 3 AM EST, that's why. The initial burst of hypomania is actually pretty helpful because I'm really productive and creative but then it becomes completely overwhelming very quickly. Anyways, I am very honest about my struggles with mental health. The stuff with Kanyon was awful because he felt like he had to hide his sexual identity on top of having his mental health issues. I learned going through what I go through that being honest about it helps me. And hopefully being honest and open about it makes the stigma of mental health issues slowly go away and makes it easier for people to get the help they need. If anyone on here needs to talk things through or find ways to get help, do not hesitate to reach out. I completely mean that.

What a long and tiring day going to and from Queens. 4 hour trips each way and on top of that I got home at almost 5am. I'm still exhausted and my car's brakes went on their last legs when pulling into my neighborhood. But you know what? It was all so fucking worth it. So before attempting a nap and looking into brake repairs instead of touching on the whole show I'll just mention the Danielson/Omega match. It took this match to realize why it didn't sink in that the former Daniel Bryan is now with AEW. It's because while the moves are similar they might as well be two different people. There is a chance he'll lighten up some but the way that Danielson went into his approach makes it feel like Daniel Bryan didn't exist. I know that sounds weird but that's my take on it. And because of that it felt almost like he stepped out of a time machine and had a match against arguably the best in the world. And the end result? Just absolute pure fucking magic. It did a pretty admirable job capturing the excitement of the match on TV but live it was next level. I didn't do one "Yes!" chant because I just had to hear how it all sounded. The way it reverberated throughout the stadium was like a sharp punctuation that was shouted by every single person there. It's hard to describe yet it's one of things I'll remember for the rest of my life. Arthur Ashe Stadium is perfect for a wrestling venue and they were smart to put this first with the crowd at their hottest. And as the finish was approaching I just couldn't help but start crying. Sure, I'm a softie but taking everything in it was one of those things where everything just hit like a billion bucks. Heck, even watching it on TV it's hard not to think back to last night and what that meant. I have things to say about the rest of the night but I'm going to try this nap thing people tend to do. All I know is I more than got my money's worth off this match alone and they didn't even get out of second gear. Shit, thinking about the rematch has me excited already. But for this match alone this is hands down the best night of wrestling I ever went to. It's going to take quite a lot to eclipse but I sure hope they keep doing that. Hopefully next time I go that happens so those with me can all take this in.

I didn't get home until 2am. I have a slight hangover. My students will have a free day today. AEW has filled my live wrestling yearly fix with these past 2 shows. Seeing Bryan Danielson live again was great! My first time seeing him in a bingo hall in 2002 I had no idea who he was and he lost a submission match to Low Ki. He got me into ROH and I saw his last match there in 2009 against Nigel McGuinness. I've seen him live in WWE most recently against Kofi at mania. And now seeing him again post WWE, in NYC against Kenny Omega feels like I've seen his career come full circle live. The American Dragon is back is I'm looking forward to this run in AEW more than anything else! Thank you AEW.

I'd like to thank AEW for Tweeting everyone to take mass transit, resulting in absolutely zero traffic. We made it home an hour after the main event, while the estimated train ride was FIVE hours. My voice is gone. I have never experienced live wrestling on that level. I have a ton of scattered thoughts so do bear with me Firstly: Sting. I have been waiting to see Sting since 1996, man. I cannot emphasize how happy I am to have gotten to see him. And not only was the match tremendous, but FTR wearing the NWO parody trunks for this was the icing on the cake. Everything you heard about insane lines for merch and food/drinks is true. It was crazy. At one point the stand near me ran out of beer, and they had to send a guy to another place to get it, but I dipped back to my seat because Punk was coming out. Kyle in sec 127, if you are on this board, my bad dude. Flip side of the coin: my girlfriend said twice she was alone in the ladies room... Something dope is gonna happen on Rampage but I can't figure out the tags right now. I have a lot more thoughts on the show but I absolutely cannot gather them, I'm still fired up. I'm just so incredibly happy AEW exists. Everyone there cared, everyone loves this. Like, I never went to a Raw where I made line friends who wanted to talk about how cool the mechanical doors on WCW SN sounded. And this crowd was again, just on another level. I mean the roar even being in the building was legit near- overwhelming at times. Truly blown away by this evening.

Learning how to shut the fuck up is an underrated skill. How many people fuck up their money, because they just had to say some racist, sexist, and/or homophobic bullshit? Wouldn't happen if they just learned how to shut the fuck up. It's so easy, you don't even have to do anything. Just keep your mouth closed, your fingers off your keyboard, and move on with your motherfucking day. I'm not even asking you to be a better person, just shut the fuck up. The world really would be a better place.

Arn taking Ric's spot. The way it should have been.

Nice!

So. I've just come back from Gay Bowl XXI where I got to ref 11(!) flag football games in a weekend. The weekend brings together members of the LGBT+ community and their allies for a fun and extremely competitive weekend. I'm exhausted, but thrilled I got to referee my first championship game, and see friends I hadn't seen in a couple of years. The reason I mention it here is because the Arizona Cardinals made a $50,000 donation and were largely financially responsible for making it happen. Bill Bidwell himself addressed us during the opening ceremonies at Sun Devil Stadium. So, if you see me wearing a Cardinals hat at some point, you know why. Anyway, Fuck The Jets. Here's week 5.

Reminder to self: add “virtue signaling” to that list, next to “pc” and “sjw,” of terms where, when you see them, it’s a dead giveaway the person using them is straight up garbage.

Also if you were wondering why Jade was flipping off the crowd when she made her entrance: Jade don't take no shit, motherfuckers.

Hearing 20,000 people chant for Homicide made me so happy. Yes, I realize that sentence looks horrible out of context but he deserved every bit of that adulation.

Jonathan Coachman also recently mentioned that Undertaker was directed to shoot rough him up during an in-ring angle because he'd refused to go to a mandatory completely voluntary Tribute to the Troops show. Of course, years later, Taker and the guy who told him to beat up an employee are making a shit ton of money off the KSA. So to reiterate: Skipping out on bullshit post 9/11 performative patriotism: bad Taking money from the country who literally bankrolled 9/11: no problem

Taz had it right during Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki: "If you are not watching this on YouTube you are a dumbass. Sorry. You're as dumb as a box of rocks."

This encouraged me to check and see how many people I have blocked/muted on Twitter, and come to find I'm over 20,000 accounts. This would explain why I never seem to have the issues some of y'all have with social media. If I see somebody say something irredeemable, into the block pile they go. Sure, someone could be all "but why would you want to block out the opinions of others, you're building an echo chamber, blah blah blah", to which I say I only block people for being bigoted or vile, and yet my number is that high. Also, I don't owe bigots my attention.

I don't understand why Baybay thought he should go for a pinfall after a basic simple transition move like the Canadian Destroyer.

The Bucks/Cole kiss on the cheek spot was beautiful comedy. And even moreso beautiful for the way it surely enraged the humorless contingency on DVDVR that feel the need to make it known weekly that they hate said fantastic pro wrestlers Nick Jackson, Matt Jackson and Adam Cole.

LoC’s (Levels of Cody): Level 1: Cody is a good guy. Level 2: Cody is a good guy who’s so obnoxious at being a good guy that he’s actually a bad guy. Level 3: Cody is a good guy and is so obnoxious as a good guy, that you come back around and appreciate his desire to so badly be a good guy even though he has no idea how to actually be one Level 4: Cody is a good guy, is incredibly obnoxious as a good guy, and then realizes that fans interpret this as Level 2 Cody and not his earnest Level 3 Cody, thus actually now trending toward being a bad guy. <— WE ARE HERE

Just one more thing on Omega. People can like what they like and people can certainly not be into the modern style but TONIGHT he was arguably as good or better than a guy that is universally considered an all time great and they beat the ever-loving shit out of each other in a way that you rarely see in mainstream American wrestling. Omega was just other-worldly and to not acknowledge that strikes me as someone in ‘89’ talking about how great Steamboat is while maintaining Flair couldn’t work. To be fair, I imagine Bret Hart would make that argument but nevertheless.

I was really impressed with Bobby Fish. He fucking layed it in, That was a fucking BattlARTS match.

So, like i didn't have enough to mark out about already today... My friend Juan tipped me off about a pop-up puroresu shop that was set up in a local mall this weekend. Something I'd naively hoped would happen all the time over here, but in fact this was the first time I've seen anything like this anywhere outside Tokyo since Mr. Hito's shop closed. Giant Baba's boots: Giant Baba's t-shirt: Tiger Mask's mask: And I'll spoiler the rest, and post the t-shirts I bought in the merch thread:

If you look really carefully, there are also birds, possibly seagulls, in that picture.

I could write a thesis about this. Pro Wrestling is an artform where you can create your own context. Things literally mean what you make them mean. One of my biggest issues with modern wrestling is that the workers have made it so they literally have to almost kill each other to make something feel meaningful. They ignore their ability to create context and try to build matches around in a "realistic" context which is pretty dumb. We get to the point where a top rope head drop is a 2-count in the name of "realism," but some of the most over moves of all time are things like a stunner, sweet chin music, and a fucking leg drop. Those moves meant something, because they were protected. A top rope head drop doesn't really mean anything, because we are all used to seeing them as big spots that get the dramatic 2 count. Making a German Suplex feel like a big spot isn't even hard, it's just a matter of selling it like it is a big spot. One of Darby's biggest attributes is how well he sells big moves. He's a smaller guy, and he uses his lack of size to make his opponent's offense look extremely impactful. He also has great, "I'm on the edge of consciousness" facial expressions. Everyone doesn't have his attributes, but almost everyone can decide to take an extra few seconds to sell a move. Everyone's instincts seem to be to rush to the next spot, when the right thing to do is often to do the exact opposite. Wrestling is like jazz, sometimes the notes that mean the most are the ones you don't play.

Now that's a fucking picture. It's like when the horror villain comes out of nowhere.

Was that the final of that year's King of the Rim?

That shit looks like a bootleg reboot of Aladdin.

What a crowd! That Sting match wildly better than it ever should have been.

I kind of hate that idea, but then, I'm already pretty sick of Bobby Fish. I respect guys who commit to a gimmick. Bobby doesn't wrestle like a fish, so to Hell with him.

There's been a little bit of talk about toxicity in the fan base and it touching our happy little slice of the internet, so I wanted to get overly positive for a minute or two. Not to get too hyperbolic, but intentionally or not Tony Khan has helped save and boost independent wrestling after a very trying time. There's obviously the idea of actually allowing your talent to be independent contractors and wrestle for smaller promotions, which means smaller bookers can have television stars at their shows and draw more tickets. Unintentionally though, and I don't know if anybody could have predicted this, but the brief little war between AEW and NXT forcing a rebrand of the WWE mega indy means there's no longer an arms race to sign every hot up and coming wrestler. Instead you have the bigger promotion going back to its formula of in-house training and bigger, more physically impressive talent. Meanwhile AEW does have unsigned talent come in for Dark and Elevation, which furthers their careers and again brings more attention to their matches at smaller promotions. All in all it makes things all the more exciting to be a wrestling fan again, whether you are watching the world's biggest sports entertainment promotion introducing new stars and taking risks again, or the rapidly rising new kid on the block, while also having a wealth of smaller televised and independent promotions thriving. And the best thing about it is the primary driving force behind the whole thing is a guy from DVDVR