Linus

I just finished Howard Brody's book, Swimming With Piranhas, and while it covered a period that few other books do, it was a tough read due to his absolute desperation to be involved in something, anything, to do with the wrestling business. It cost him two marriages (to the same woman) and saw him taken advantage of so many times that you either want to hug or smack him.

The thing that riled me was that he's so deep into the wrestling bubble lately that he didn't even consider that it might have been Zack Ryder claiming it was the greatest day of his life, not Matt Cardona. Heaven forbid a TV character go on TV and say something that fits with that TV show. His - and Alvarez's - whole Lucha Underground thing lately is also a symptom of their inability to divorce TV from reality. Weird.

The qualifiers from PROGRESS's show on April 24th will be announced tonight and tomorrow but the other matches already announced on the show make for interesting deductions. Marty Scurll is defending his title against Tommy End, so he's out (from PROGRESS, at least), while Mark Andrews & el Ligero are in an 8-man tag match. Sabre Jr is already in, Ospreay is ineligible (you'd imagine), so that leaves Mark Haskins as the obvious one to go through. Other than him, you're down to "Flash" Morgan Webster, Paul Robinson (who is good but so not WWE's type), and Bubblegum (ditto). Pete Dunne has appeared for PROGRESS before, as has his "brother" Damian, so you could throw those two in, but I really can't pick a second guy.

Happy birthday to DEAN~!, who gave me the wisest life advice 14 years ago when I was about to get married: "everything changes and nothing changes". Hope the kids keep it down! X

Did you end up watching this?

I am not, sadly. I have this weird thing about not seeing shows in leisure centres because the atmosphere is awful and the empty space distracts me. I got tricked into one last month and it just reinforced everything I'd thought. Shockingly, I know, but you gotta have your thing, right? I'm missing the Sabre Jr vs Angle show, too, but I will be at the Shibata show in July.

Can we please cut it with the "oh, the spoilers are great/bad/puzzling" stuff? Some of try to avoid spoilers and those who don't are a PLAGUE ON OUR HOUSES.

I was there live - Black Flag shirt in the front row! - and it is brutal and heavy and... has some obvious flaws.

Hidden behind a spoiler, because it's long, here are April & May's dates in the UK...

It's like you've never seen 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown...

Rich Swann, Tomasso Ciampa, Akira Tozawa, Zack Sabre Jr, Hong Kong's Ho Ho Lun, and NOAM f'ing DAR seeded into the tournament.

Big Fellas Division groups have been drawn: A - Dave Mastiff, T-Bone, Iestyn Rees & Big Daddy Walter B - Joe Coffey, Big Damo, Rampage Brown & Michael Dante oof!

Well, the first guy to throw his hat in the ring for it is Dave Mastiff, so...

At today's show PROGRESS announced they will be hosting 2 WWE Global Cruiserweight series qualifiers at ch29 on April 24. Also, they've created a title for fellas over 205lbs (!) called the Atlas championship. An 8-man qualifying tournament will take place leading up to the big Brixton show in September.

Big Ryck is (spoilered for non-comic readers)

Without watching it again I can't quite be sure who fucked up that crossbody spot in the Bliss-Dobson match, but it got very fiery after that. Lovely stuff. Also, I like Elias Samson and I think he'll be great. But I think The Drifter is the shits. These are two opinions it is possible to have at the same time.

Oh, that will RULE. I've seen Ospreay 7 times this year already and he never disappoints. He's in a dancing mood lately so you may get that, too!

I went to the show after that one and had a great time. So much that I'm going to their next show, even though it's a 90 mile drive.

I saw Shane Strickland wrestle 3 times this weekend. He was ace. What is it about putting on the Killshot mask that makes him such a channel-turner?

I'm seriously thinking of starting a consultancy to give these guys a clue. So much money left on the table and so many eyes on the product ignored!

Ah! We're still part of Europe. For now.

Who is that for? I can't see him listed on any shows tonight...

Emma and Santana Garrett came out to 2 different versions of the same song. Weird.

Will Ospreay is the newest member of Chaos. He'll debut at Invasion Attack on April 10th against KUSHIDA for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title. He's one of "ours" and I'm MADE UP for him.

So Sabu called Taz a nasty word on Twitter, and then said everyone was racist so it wasn't a big deal. WRESTLING!