Custos

Thanks for the recommendations, man. And keep fighting the good fight for what you love.

Look up the definition of ‘profit extraction’ on Wikipedia and you’ll see a link to this Wrestlemania. Sheesh. With my Leftie snark out of the way, and having only dipped into the ProWres here and there for the past couple of years, mostly with AEW, the end of Night 2 left such a great taste in my mouth that I feel a bit more forgiving about the whole thing (also watching after the fact and being able to FF the TKO bullshit). Punk nearly single-handedly kept me a fan in the mid 2000s so I will always mark out for him painting his canvas on the big stage. Roman massively held up his end too. This Oba Femi guy seems pretty hot, right? I need to check out more of him. Stephanie too. Edit to add: Trick was a big standout for me too in the Sami match

Popped up on my Youtube feed, thought 'that voice sounds familiar'. And sure enough, Eric Young interviewing Dave Mustaine about his favourite albums. Maybe it's a long-time gig but was certainly unexpected for me.

Definitely number 2 is on my list. I forgot to mention in my last post, a massive pleasure in getting reacquainted with AEW has been the revelation of what Timeless Toni Storm has become. And with Mercedes seemingly firing on all cylinders now this should be fantastic.

Those SOBs might have actually pulled me back into the ProWres. I was way into AEW the first couple of years and probably at my most active on this board from DoN 2019 through to the Brodie Lee memorial or soon after but since then, except the odd hyped WWE show, when I want any kind of fisticuffs fix its been pretty much UFC or nowt. But with this show and the build up, I’ve seen enough through odd dips back into wreddit and mates hitting me up about Mark Briscoe and Swerve promos, Hangman getting his early momentum back, plus Omega/Okada. Fuck it I’m in

Came back to the board after God knows how long (oh those halcyon days of 2019/2020 AEW and NJPW) as I was thinking of The Natural as I watched this match, knowing how much we both loved our fellow mouthy Brit in the top spot. It’s bittersweet but you can’t argue that Goto doesn’t deserve it and just listen to the reaction.

Watched my first wrestling show in several months, (and first time back here since DEAN’s sad passing). Coming back fresh I thoroughly enjoyed it, although some parts of the Omega/Will match were a bit too much for me (maybe I need to build up my bloodlust/neck bump tolerance!). Seeing my boy ZSJ mix it up in the big stage and Ishii’s closing showcase in the Bucks match (and that whole match in general) were probably my highlights. I will look forward to digesting this thread and might give a more detailed response afterwards.

RIP DEAN, so sad to read this news, even sadder thinking of those here and in his family who were so much closer to him. Scoping out DVDVR in 2006ish cemented my ‘hardcore’ and undying love for wrestling, simply wouldn’t have fully unlocked this source of joy in my life without DEAN (and of course RIPPA and the other fine folks here), like countless others no doubt.

Fucking get in! I can’t believe he pulled it out in the final minute. Watching dejected waiting for the inevitable ‘and still’ then suddenly Usmans horizontal with his right foot twitching. Amazing, and the raw emotion in the post-fight interview. The kid actually did it

Just wow. The 1-2 punch of the Diner episode and the Death episode, probably the best 2 hours of TV I've watched in 2022. Doubted the show coming in (as one of these people who discovered the comic in his late teens and became obsessed with it) but it has been a joy - not afraid to let things breathe and go at its own pace, for better or worse commercially speaking.

Hope you all didn't suffer too much of a good thing when the heavens opened the other day. I was over visiting family in July and got to experience that 41C day first-hand travelling into London. Although we got up to 48C (or 118 in American) a couple of years ago here in Penrith, I would gladly take that over the humid UK heat coupled with the lack of AC. Feeling for you guys and your sticky nights - surely for not much longer now though.

Come on Rocky, you can do it. Hardy vanquished by GSP. Till stopped by Woodley. Third time's a charm for a Brit facing Welterweight champions. Good short doc here done by BT Sport, who seems to be the only party in the world interested in promoting Leon (including, arguably, himself).

Watched the first WWE tv in goodness knows how long and dug what I saw. Not unrelated, Sami's prominence on the show was a real positive and I echo the love for the Sami/Roman backstage segment. I feel like those are two of the better actors across all of wrestling right now and it's good to see them working off each other like that.

I also think the fact that he's actively relived much of his career between the autobiographies and the stand-up/live shows (including, presumably, trawling through numerous anecdotes in preparation for deciding what would 'make the cut' for the shows) has probably helped in keeping the 'tapestry' and interconnections together in his head, vs say someone asking you to name every single classmate you had when you were 8 (having not tried to recall for 30+ years).

Rey was about Punk’s age when he had that seemingly miraculous fountain-of-youth resurgence in the Royal Rumble, right? I guess stem cells only do the job when you were born with preternatural hops (coincidentally the name of my hipster IPA). I love the guy, he’s nearly all there physically (relative to peak) but the main thing I notice nowadays is by the end of a match he has that half-dead look like he’s just finished back-to-back triathlons. Happy to have him around and as champ though. Can’t deny the passion of the MJF promo and it was hard not to get swept up in the emotion, felt far more Flair than Punk in the cadence and the body language though fewer elbow drops onto inanimate objects. The only jarring shoot comments were the ‘reckless head-drop’ insults, for which you could reach a convoluted kayfabe explanation but felt like a strain. The implications of the face reaction may be a bit overblown - to me there was plenty of antipathy for a lot of it, and the loudest positive pops were around anti-WWE sentiments, and no doubt the West Coast homers, popping their AEW Live Event cherry so to speak, were keen to show their love. As for the wrestling, great tight follow-up to that huge beast of a show at the weekend, with the back-and-forth beating in the women’s tag match being my favourite. And for the non-MJF promos, I will gladly take whatever Miro and Daddy Magic are giving me. Amazing to have God’s once-favourite champ back on the show. Guest commentary for the main was good fun and Regals use of Cockney rhyming slang always gets a pop from me (‘syrup’=‘syrup of figs’=‘wig’ for the uninitiated)