Sammo~!

What do I know about @Gordlow? Doesn't want anything epic Seems to enjoy more lighthearted stuff Might secretly be Kikutaro Anyway, here's some World of Sport. Originally I was gonna give you a Jim Breaks match but decided against it on account of, you know. So instead here's Les Kellett being a lovable goofball.

Some good news today https://www.f4wonline.com/news/other-wrestling/jay-briscoes-daughter-regains-feeling-in-lower-extremities

I went with Darby/Kushida. As good as Bryan and Bandido was, I really enjoyed the story telling of the Darby/Kushida match. Kushida focusing on the shoulder to set up the Hoverboard Lock. Darby's selling was fantastic. The flash pin with the last supper. It was everything I wanted out of a TV main event.

Because Vince sees an ambiguously brown tiny guy and sticks him with all the other brown guys. I know Low Ki is a Puerto Rican guy from NY, that's kind of the joke.

I feel like the only difference between Low Ki in WWE in 2005 vs Low Ki in WWE in 2009 is he joins the Mexicools instead of LayCool

I've added "Ken Shamrock vs Kurt Angle" to the time machine dream match list now

So not even Nitro then. Anyway that Podcast both Jarrett and Jericho expressed that they don't have much interest in working one another and would rather work with younger talent and I also fully support that no matter how much fun TNA vs JAS Anarchy in the Arena would be

Looking at Cagematch and Jericho and Jarrett only ever worked 1 house show loop in WCW and a 2 minute Nitro match? I would have figured they would have had a match in WWF in 99 but I guess Jarrett was Chyna's set-up guy for Jericho. I would love a short feud post-Starks where Jarrett is constantly out Memphising Jericho's sports entertainment nonsense.

Is this because no matter what anyone does you can't ever seem to just uninstall the damn thing?

This was a fun little 8-man tag. I'm pretty familiar with the Japan squad. I think this was right around the time that Zeus was making his run towards the Triple Crown and so he was the big showcase hot tag. Douki takes most of the heat for the Japanese squad. I remember Vinnie Massaro being a competent job guy in Lucha Underground. Jungle Boy was more of a Jungle Toddler here. He got a small amount of offense in and a dive at the end but was largely a non-factor. But even then you can see that he's got that intangible star quality to him (read: he's very attractive) and obviously he's going to go on to bigger things. Things break down in the middle. Eventually Zeus gets the hot tag and runs wild. Jun Akiyama gets tagged in after some more chaos and hits the exploder 1-2-3. Some highlights: Vinnie Massaro's basic fat guy offense and big ol' "VIVA ITALO!" before he drops the elbow. Zeus' hot tag being 4 scoop slams. Eat your heart out CM Punk. When I reviewed the Combat Toyoda/Megumi Kudo match earlier for Secret Santo I wondered why no one does that Argentine Backbreaker like Toyoda any more and then Jungle Boy busted out a totally rad looking single shoulder version of that. Thanks for listening to me 4-years-ago Jack Perry! Does he still do this move at all? But let's talk about what I enjoyed the most about this match: The cinematography. The whole match is shot with one handheld ringside on the apron facing the entrance ramp, but it's not a fancam? Like clearly they could only afford the one camera/camera man. Or maybe this is just the one camera's feed? Anyway. One shot, no cuts, one angle. It's a weird way to do it and I kind of love it? Truly this is the Cinematic Match. When stuff starts to break down or get chaotic the camera man is panning around trying to catch all of the action. He'll pan left and you just see Zeus get sent into the guardrail with no idea of who sent him there. You hear commotion in the ring and the camera pans back to the right, on your way to see what happens mid-pan you spot Jungle Boy going over the top rope and when the camera man finally turns to see what happened, we're just treated to the aftermath, Vinnie Massaro standing over Jun Akiyama and you have no idea how. The entire thing has a wonderful chaos to it. It's almost like Found Footage wrestling. Blair Witch Lucha. I don't know if I'd want to watch a whole show in this style but it was a cool way to view what might have otherwise been a by-the-numbers 8-man. It was fun to see future AEW up-and-comers Jungle Boy and Jun Akiyama work Mexico before either man hit it big. Thanks for sharing this match @porksweats!

I just want to say I adore AprEW as a concept, so here's some right back at you, although I guess these days Lio Rush is ApostEW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgedY3lI4xc

If Sting really is going to retire after this contract then what a run it's been. Just a complete renaissance for the man. His TNA run Joker-Sting onward and his WWE run had me convinced he was washed, but what a pleasant surprise this whole run has been. I'm also ecstatic for Darby Allin that he will be the lasting part of Sting's legacy moving forward. Just incredible for the guy. I wouldn't even mind if Sting's last match in AEW was against Darby. Don't even have to do the turn, just have Sting announce he's retiring this year and say that there is one more guy in AEW he wants to wrestle "AND THAT'S YOU DARBY!" then you have a teacher vs student deal and Darby "graduates" by retiring Sting. It writes itself. Darby already did the Sting chest-beating no sell in the Samoa Joe match, maybe he takes the Death Drop? I dunno. Whatever. That man called Sting will always rule.

Ok but hear me out: The Khans buy WWE and then push Rampage back 2 hours for a special simulcast and Tony shows up at the top of the hour and says that Triple H is "Triple G, Triple O, Triple N, Triple E"

I don't think either of them have the billions of dollars Shad would need.

It's been going on in front of our very eyes for decades. The exploding limo. The collapsing set.

The Algorithm™ served this up to me last night. Gary Albright is a grown-ass man.

A bunch of 80s AJW got uploaded to Youtube in 2022 and I've been slowly working my way through the TV, and so for you I'm gifting something I watched pretty recently. Noriyo Tateno vs Itsuki Yamazaki from 1985. The Jumping Bomb Angels Explode! Match doesn't start until about 4 minutes in, but if you're interested in seeing the Crush Gals do a musical number that's in there for you at the start. I'm a big fan of the "Tag Team has a tournament match against one another" trope in pro wrestling. This match starts off sporting and aggressive and devolves into more of a heated brawl from there, as it should be.

A bit late on 2 reviews due to the holidays but let's go! You have no idea how glad I was when I clicked this link and saw that this was DDP/Jarrett from 1996 and not DDP/Jarrett from 2000. Y2K Nut Slapping Jeff Jarrett is probably my least favorite version of any wrestler, ever. But the man has had way more hits than misses in his career and I generally enjoy this era of Jarrett. DDP is mid transition from bingo millionaire to #2 babyface and it's a weird snapshot of the pupal stage. He's still wearing his sleazy badguy tights but he's got all the mannerisms of 1998 DDP. The fans are starting to get behind him but he still hasn't really done anything valiant to warrant that from them. Bobby Hennan is talking about his lost fortune and Tony Schiavone is talking about what a sleazeball he is. And to be fair to Tony, the dude looks like a maximum sleaze right now. Jeff Jarrett is another kind of maximum sleaze. Him coming out to terrible 90's midi country fiddles and giving a big "AAAWWWW YESSIR!" right as his loud-ass screaming pyro hit was some quality pro wrestling and got a laugh from me. Some highlights for me: Jeff Jarrett beating on DDP in the ropes and the ref counting and Jeff gives him a "I've got til FIVE!" and from now until the day I die I will maintain that Bryan Danielson stole that from Double J, no matter how true it actually is. DDP's punches are really good and the crowd is so ready to get completely behind him. Somehow in a 10 minute TV match Double J finds the time to do the Fargo Strut three times and also point to his temple to indicate how smart he is four times. DDP comes back with his good punches and that sidewalk slam but he gets sent outside and then the Outsiders run out. Nash distracts the ref while Hall hits Jarrett with the Razor's Edge. DDP sneaks in for the win. I was definitely watching WCW at the time, and while I don't remember watching this match specifically I remember the angle vividly. Eventually DDP turns the NWO down, they attack, the feud with Macho Man and we're off to the races. This was a really fun pitstop along the way and everyone played their roles perfectly. Thanks for this Smelly. It was a nice trip down memory lane and a fun low stakes TV match. Jeff Jarrett is pretty good at this pro wrestling thing and DDP is the man. Fuck yes. Right out the gate we come in from commercial. Negro Casas isn't even in the ring yet and Mocho Cota is attacking him. They spill outside and Cota is stomping Casas while the ring announcer is still making introductions and Jock Jams is playing over the loudspeaker. This rules. They brawl outside for a bit. Eventually it gets back in the ring and Cota tries to cheat with a foot on the rope but he's caught. Doesn't matter though. A big slam and 1-2-3. Mocha Cota takes the first fall in the first 2 minutes. The 2nd fall picks right up with Cota choking Casas in the ropes. Eventually Casas regains control with a kick to the dick when the ref wasn't looking. I loved this. The ref turns to the crowd with a big pantomime and asks "Hey, why does it seem as if Mocho Cota's penis is suddenly in incredible pain?" and Negro Casas is trying to say Cota hit him and the crowd is shouting that they didn't see shit. Negro Casas is a jerk, but he's our jerk. Got it. Awesome. Negro Casas is so smooth on offence. His strikes have a lot of anticipation and then he just explodes in motion. It's so great. They brawl in and out of the ring a few times this fall. Mocho Cota takes the most hilarious DDT I've ever seen. Casas hits him with it and Cota takes it then he tries to jump up but he can't quite do it because that DDT knocked him silly, so he stumble-runs about 6 feet towards the crowd, and then faceplants. 10/10. No notes. At some point while they're brawling outside Cota starts bleeding. Casas makes it into the ring and Cota follows him eventually. Immediately Casas jumps on him with a dropkick. Eventually it becomes clear to Casas that he has this fall in the bag so he starts showboating. This guy is being a total prick and playing with his food but the people love him for it. He's doing a little rope-a-dope dance around Mocho Cota while hitting some chops and knees and then La Magistral. 1-2-3 and the ref goes to raise Casas arm but he won't let that filthy ref touch him. Tremendous. The third fall has a completely different emotional tone to it. Cota took a beating in the 2nd fall and is bleeding and trying to regain his composure. He's taking his time stumbling around outside the ring and also letting all the people in the front row see his bloody face. Amazing. He comes to his senses and comes back in the ring for the third fall and starts eating shots from Negro Casas. They start to go back and forth a bit, Mocho Cota is starting to come back, seemingly powered by spite, and drops Negro Casas with a HARD shot to the face. They spill outside and Mocho Cota drives Casas head into the bleachers and now everyone is bleeding. They cut to Casas standing up, blood running down his face, checking to see if it's real. He's got a total never-say-die look on his face. And then at this point it just becomes a fight. Cota is chasing down Casas hammering down blows when he can, Casas is trying to get away, taking opportunistic shots when he can but it's more important to find better ground to fight on. The fight goes in and out of the ring, and in each transition one man finds the most violent way to inflict damage on the other. They get in the ring, Casas kicks the ropes into Cota's knee, potentially injuring it. They spill to the apron, Cota starts bashing Casas head against it. There's a really nasty baseball slide to the back of Casas' head. Everything feels sloppy. Violent. Just get your hands on whatever is closest to you and try your hardest to use it to do the most damage to your foe. There's a fun sequence where a completely spent Negro Casas keeps weakly putting his hand on the ropes to break up a pin. These two men are fighting for their lives at this point. Mocho Cota is trying to break Negro Casas's leg against the ring apron. He's biting Casas forehead. Eventually Casas ends up getting crotched on the ropes and pinned. But Mocho Cota is holding the ropes and the ref didn't see! His plan from the first fall finally worked! This was so good, thanks for sharing Matt. I'm definitely going to track down the hair match that follows this.

Voted for the 2nd Total Nonstop Acclaimed match. I'm still hoarse today from how much I chanted and screamed during that match last night. What a tremendous heel Jeff Jarrett is. What a fun piece of pro wrestling to see live.

One other fun thing. Dasha was vamping to the crowd during commercial breaks. Shouting out signs and chatting with the fans. At one point she got Referee Paul Turner to do a muscle pose. She also tried to shout out VooDoo Donuts and got soundly booed which I found hilarious.

I was genuinely disappointed we didn't get Twin Magic. They've done that on Dark a few times.

Just got back from this. What a fun time. AEW is a total party atmosphere, I love it. I got in a little after 6pm local time, just at the tail end of the first Dark match. Dark Spoilers: Mox/Dragon vs Top Flight was really fun. Super cool seeing those dudes live. Not much to say. Top Flight got more offense than I thought they would. The people seemed to get behind their comebacks. Jamie Hayter is over like rover here. Lots of DMD chants as well. Crowd really wasn't feeling the Renegade Twins comeback and it seemed weird to have them wrestle like the babyfaces but here we are. Preston Vance was there. He got a lot of boos. This was a great piss break opportunity and also gave me time to buy foam scissor fingers. Dunno if it showed up on TV but there was an audible "Fuck Matt Taven" chant in my section during the Rampage main event, well before he even interfered in the match. Darby is a big big star. The dude has an aura live. There was also a much louder "Fuck Jeff Jarrett" chant which Jeff actually sold on the apron. I'm curious if either of those ended up on TV. That Acclaimed Jarrett match was so hot. Wonderfully overbooked. The people love Aubrey. Satnam is HUGE in person. So is Billy Gunn, but I already knew that. I can't believe in the year 2023 I actually lost my voice yelling at a Jeff Fucking Jarrett match. Pro wrestling is great. Not much to say about the Jade match. Red Velvet standing on the ramp the entire match really distracted the crowd and they didn't seem too into the match (also it was late and we were all burned out from the Acclaimed match) but that transition into Jaded was so hype. Main was kind of there. I was pretty wiped out by then. The same group of guys who started the "Fuck Matt Taven" chant were also big fans of Kip Sabian. At one point during a Kip Sabian control segment I yelled "Let's go OC! Send his ass back to Hot Topic" and one of the Kip Sabian fan's girlfriends laughed at that, so if I created a fissure in their relationship then I'll consider that mission accomplished. Danhausen was doing the Pee Wee Herman dance off camera, so that was fun. Afterward Tony Khan came out and thanked everyone, said that AEW would definitely be back to Portland. Then he said to stick around because there would be another hour of Dark tapings. I respectfully declined Tony's offer. AEW is a ton of fun live. Definitely gonna go again next time they swing through the PNW.

I'm afraid not, company bylaws clearly state it must be decided in a traditional 5v5 Survivor Series elimination match.

Gonna be at this one live. Let me tell you, Jeff Jarrett and Kip Sabian both having title matches at the first AEW show I'm attending is some monkey's paw bullshit. But it's impossible not to have fun at live wrestling and hyped to get to see Mox/Dragon and Hayter wrestle even if I'm predicting two squashes.

I'm up for more