Teflon Turtle

There's an awful lot of good stuff on the Western AF youtube channel, but this may be one of my favorite songs of 2023 in any genre.

Shhh...this is saving me like $100/month on a cable subscription... Therefore related: I took to youtube to watch the Golden Jets/tag champions segment that everyone has been discussing. Yeah, not good. I don't like fully scripted WWE-style promos, but I think this showed that there can be a happy medium. Everybody was stepping all over each other, misspeaking and messing up common turns of phrase, etc. It felt like we were seeing the rough draft of something that needed a lot more workshopping to be considered finished. Also, for all of the credit that Jericho often gets about his ability to reinvent himself, a lot of the misogyny present in his act since the Attitude Era has a way of resurfacing. There was no real reason to bring up Billie Starkz in that segment, but being compared to her isn't an insult. If Ricky had been a little quicker, he could've easily turned that one around on Jericho. Something like: "Hang on, why should I be offended at being compared to a young wrestling prodigy? I'm one of those too." But I guess for Jericho being a young woman is a bad thing. Speaking of Ricky Starks, I hesitate to air this out but I've been feeling it for a while: I think in retrospect breaking up him and Hobbs was one of AEW's more significant non-Punk-related missteps so far. When he and Hobbs were teamed up, Starks really did feel like the next big thing to me. They were a hot act. Ever since that split and Ricky's face turn -> everything since, it feels like he's lost something.

I'm glad to see this was brought up. From what I'd seen, not only is Okada's wife more famous than him, (and maybe it thus goes without saying) she also makes more money than he does. On that topic, the rumors about Okada's salary have usually been that what he makes in New Japan is comparable to what the top wrestlers in WWE make. The icing on the cake that I haven't seen mentioned here yet is that Okada and his wife had a child last year. All told, I don't think he'd have a ton of incentive to move overseas unless he'd be offered a ludicrous amount of money or NJPW absolutely can't afford him any longer. I can only assume a big part of the reason why New Japan hasn't been offering foreign wrestlers contracts is so they can ensure their domestic stars can keep getting paid and won't go elswhere.

This one's a bummer. As a teenager, when I first starting trying to find my own way in developing my personal taste in music vs. just relying on friends to tell me what was good, The Pogues were one of the first bands I explored.

Agreed; had the same thought the other day. Danielson/Okada is probably the co-main, at worst would be third from the top of the card unless New Japan decides the Jr. Heavy and whatever the Ospreay/Mox/Finlay title match is would be more important. I realize that New Japan technically needs AEW more than AEW needs New Japan, but if I'm in charge at NJPW or Bushiroad, I'm at least a little peeved that AEW is potentially jeopardizing a marquee matchup in the biggest puroresu event of the year...that had already been announced. Unless the plan is for Danielson to win the tournament and the "American Triple Crown" and defend it (and probably lose it to) Okada, it doesn't make sense and is a huge gamble. It's almost too ridiculous to even consider.

I like how you put this. At that point, he's got to be aware of how much time that's left in the match, and come to a decision of "...it's worth the risk" without the audience really seeing those gears turning. It's even more impressive when he basically doubles down by doing something similar if not potentially worse by going over the top with that cutter a short while later. Dude was committed if nothing else. And honestly, it's really interesting how much of this match lined up with the video he did with Beau Hightower that was released right before the PPV(already posted by someone else in the monthly thread). In the video he talks about his left knee always giving him problems, and that's the one that got worked over leading to the injury angle. Also in the video, MJF expressed one of his major pet peeves in wrestling being fans thinking they understand the pain wrestlers go through...and then goes and does two spots in the match where he took very obvious hard landings that would lead most anybody to conclude that he'd be in a world of pain the next day (and I'm just now seeing he's apparently legit injured), even if they/we can't truly feel what it's like.

About Jay: I'm a big fan, have been for a long time. My extremely biased hope is that he stays in the main event picture and it's OK that he lost this one because there will be additional opportunities. With all of the shenanigans and him taking the loss, unless MJF is sincere about leaving I got the feeling that part of the reason the match was booked the way it was is that there will eventually be another MJF/Switchblade title match at some point in the future. Possibly not that far off, either. The other really weird thing to me as someone who follows New Japan before anything else is that there is now a high likelihood of an Ospreay/Switchblade singles match for an AEW title looming at some point as well (I am assuming part of the deal with Ospreay coming in would be that he gets to the top of the company sooner rather than later, having never truly gotten a run with the IWGP heavyweight title that wasn't marred by COVID/injury). AEW would be dumb not to do it eventually. NJPW kept those two away from each other and lost their chance to run the match. Thing is, Swerve has also been doing killer work since he's come in. If MJF is going to stay on the face side of things, if Switchblade isn't the heel to take the title away, then I'd like to see Swerve do it. Don't know about drawing power, but maybe there's something in having him be chased for a bit.

In re: Celebrity Jeopardy. I unfortunately have to agree that it wasn't a great performance, but I think the buzzer really did play a significant role. You could see Becky hitting the buzzer numerous times yet not get called for the answer because her timing was off. When she did get in, it was like she wasn't expecting the buzzer to work and then panicked. The buzzer game really is a thing. Don't forget, we live in a universe where Aaron Rodgers defeated person who is a former astronaut and current US Senator in a game of Jeopardy! I know the jokes about the US legislature write themselves, but that's not a thing that should happen if Jeopardy was a straight knowledge test.

As best I can tell, the AXS episodes roughly three weeks to a month behind the date of the event. But, sometimes it's hard to tell when a specific match will be on since they seem to split up the big shows over several weeks/episodes. And yeah, you both have it right with respect to the match itself. As I was watching, I said to myself that it was a comedy match dressed up in no-DQ/falls count anywhere trappings. With bowling. Also, "Moxley bleeds" is a meme at this point. Don't really even mean that in a bad way.

Well, I jinxed something by complaining about snow in the weather thread. I found out I need to get my furnace replaced. I am not very technically-minded, but to my understanding there's good and bad in the situation. The bad...obviously nobody wants to see $5,000+ go out the door on...well...most things, I guess? I don't know, I've never understood people who buy stuff like boats and have guilt-free fun with it. I'm financially OK but have never spent a day in my life with "I can burn money and not notice it's gone" status. The good: this was an old furnace that came with a house I bought two years ago, and I knew I was only gonna get a few winters out of it. I was trying to milk it as long as I could, with my original goal being to recoup/save back most of what I lost on the down payment on the house, hopefully before needing to make any major repairs or upgrades. However...apparently this thing was throwing off pretty high amounts of carbon monoxide. Thankfully everything seemed to be venting appropriately, but I stood there with the tech and watched the screen on the test instrument read something like ten times beyond what's considered a safe amount of carbon monoxide for a furnace to throw off, keep rising, and eventually error out. So...unless the measurement instrument was calibrated to "fraud" levels, I feel like I may have potentially dodged a bit of a bullet here. Weird Monday.

Well...supposedly both El Desperado and Tetsuya Naito are set to have eye surgery in the lead up to Wrestle Kingdom. The only source I've seen for Despe needing this is his WK opponent, Hiromu Takahashi (via NJPW's official website). Naito's has been discussed in various outlets, originally Tokyo Sports. I first saw it via Fightful: https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/tetsuya-naito-undergo-right-eye-surgery-november-7 If the above article and Tokyo Sports are to be believed, this is apparently the last time Naito can get this surgery (he's already had two and I guess people are limited to three for whatever reason I, as a person who isn't a doctor, don't entirely understand). Gotta admit to being a little nervous given that both are maybe my two favorite wrestlers working today. Of course, this has kickstarted a lot of speculation about how much time Naito has left in the ring, too.

Last year on Halloween, I was raking leaves in a t-shirt. After that, I longboarded around in costume for over an hour. This year = I have already spent a good deal of my morning shoveling snow. What the hell?

I like this topic. I have two stories to share. One is not necessarily "best," but it is memorable and I find it funny. "Best" would probably be the first WWF show I ever attended, around age 4 or 5. I've been a lifelong wrestling fan, and my dad took me to most of the WWF shows that came to our area from the time I started watching wrestling up until I turned 14 or 15. My dad went out of his way to make that first show special, so the older I get the more I appreciate it. It was just a house show, but we got second row seats. Given the time period, it would've been near the start of the Undertaker gimmick...seeing him come out live as a young kid was terrifying, especially being so close to the entranceway. My dad also took a bunch of photos at the show, as best he could. To this day I still have photos of Randy Savage running around ringside (he was chasing off Jake Roberts), and a cool one of his hat lying in the middle of the ring. On to "memorable," without further ado: How Teflon Turtle Got Busted Open Hardway at Over the Edge '98 Honestly, I don't remember much of anything about this event itself other than I was very excited to get tickets to a PPV for my birthday. My dad again. Of course the main event was great, rest of the card forgettable in retrospect. The real fun happened as the show ended. As people stood up and were filing out of their seats in our row, a couple of older women badgered past my gangly-preteen self and put a shoulder in to me to get out of there first. One of them hit me hard enough to knock me backwards - my seat, already raised, caught me from falling over entirely. But: it turned out that there was a jagged metal piece on the underside of my seat's hardware, which unbeknownst to me at the time had pierced one of my calves as I lost my balance. I didn't notice it at first due to the impact of being knocked backwards registering more. But, as my dad and I were leaving the arena, I started wondering why my calf felt wet. I looked down and sure enough, my calf was dripping blood and it was flowing down on to my sock. We wound up grabbing a bunch of napkins from a concession stand to soak some of it up/so I could keep pressure on it while we drove the couple of hours home. I wound up not needing stitches, but had nice little scar from it for quite a few years. (He's hardcore! He's hardcore! )

Yeah...a quick Google search has Vince's net worth at somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.6 billion. Unless he loses literally every penny overnight, him being removed from a creative role in WWE remains a "but the bad guy still won" story.

Usman/Chimaev is now apparently official, Dana White announced it on his Instagram. Kind of confusing how he worded it, but it sounds like the fight will still take place at middleweight.

Looking through that article, maybe one of the more noteworthy things discussed here previously is that there is now a launch date for the new/improved NJPWWorld service: November 9.

My hopes are that focusing on one promotion will help Kelly improve in AEW. I thought most of his pre-pandemic work in NJPW was overall good, verging on great when he genuinely got in to a match that he called live and in person. But, it sounded like having to do a lot of remote commentary maybe burned him out. I have no idea if that's anything beyond speculation. Having to do solo commentary on a show that happened three days ago and half a world away seems like a pretty unenviable task if you have to do it for several years running (never mind not wanting to constantly travel abroad while trying to maintain some semblance of a home life). I don't blame him if he couldn't summon the excitement for it any longer.

Disappointingly lazy marketing. When Hogan went in to the restaurant business, they at least tried "Pastamania!" So...no "WeedaMania?" "VapeaMania?" "BongaMania?" "Tokeamania?" Maybe some brand synergy for One Toke Over the Line-a-Mania, Brother?

I had a similar thought in that Danielson kicking ZSJ's legs after targeting the exposed ribs when Sabre was in the Tree of Woe was something I hadn't seen before, but made so much sense in the context of the match. It says a lot about those two that they can show us new things without having to incorporate tables, ladders, fire, a 900 degree rotation, etc. I didn't watch the whole PPV, but Danielson/Sabre is an easy MOTYC for me. Probably in my top three at this moment. Sabre's "we aren't done" after the match gives me high hopes. Honestly, I'd much rather see Danielson/ZSJ II at Wrestle Kingdom this January over Danielson/Okada II. That's not a knock on Okada, but two of the best wrestlers working today lived up to the hype last night and then some. A second match has to happen before Danielson hangs them up, I think.

It did have a bit of "these two need to redeem themselves after that 'MMA' thing with the gi" feel to it, for sure. Meaty men bumped meat, and it was fun. Also, I think it helped contrast a problem I've had with O-Khan since his return from excursion. There is room for comedy and weirdness in NJPW, but I don't think he's the dude that needs to be providing it. A wrestler of his size and look should, in my opinion, be more about the clubbering than anything else. A lot of the goofier stuff he does should be left behind, I think. On top of that: it may be just personal preference, but he'd benefit more by being more straightforward and taking some of the looser-looking stuff out of his offense. Tsuji continues to cement himself above the rest of the "musketeers." I've probably written it before, but I really hope NJPW is listening to the crowd responses he has been getting. The problem I had with the match with Ospreay is that it felt like the second or third match in a series already. I think some of the spots could've been left in reserve for future matches...unless Ospreay really is getting ready to head out. I like the Bishamon team. It always feels good to see Goto and YOSHI-HASHI doing well in the spot they carved out for themselves.

Somebody hurry up and book Eddie to win another championship so he can kinda sorta have his own version of the Triple Crown. Thank you, goodnight.

"Let's have a bunch of wrestlers and sambo guys play basketball, what could possibly go wrong?" I love it. It's like somebody showed these dudes calcio storico/calcio florentino for the first time and they went "Give us five minutes and some booze. We can top that."

1000% this. NJPWWorld is getting an update soon, but people would constantly complain about video resolution. I'm sitting here going "Are you kidding me?! Watching puroresu in low-res is almost the only way it feels right to me. I started off on bootleg VHS tapes. That's my pro-wrestling equivalent of a cozy blanket." There's a part of me that still can't believe it's possible to watch stuff like New Japan in high-res. It still feels like I shouldn't have access to it, if that makes any sense. There's that "generational sea change" concept again.

Eh...barring another pandemic, the last 5-6 years of wrestling history have shown us that a lot of the wrestlers have options. Even if this winds up being the beginning of the end for AEW (I don't really think it will be, but who knows for sure), it's not "WWE or bust" for AEW's biggest names. Honestly, it's probably just as likely that if AEW folds, Kenny and the Bucks call up New Japan and say "Hey guys...remember that U.S. expansion that stalled out when we left and COVID hit? How do you feel about making some money?" Things would just sort of reset to 2017-2018 when Kenny and the Bucks were the biggest names in indy wrestling and worked NJPW, in my opinion. Might be made more difficult by New Japan's lean years during the pandemic, but it's not unimaginable that something could be worked out.

Folks, I think an important thing that may have gone overlooked in all of this chaos is that CM Punk taught us all something. Just in the last week or so, talk around CM Punk has led us to discussions about pegging and dom/sub relationships. CM Punk has - perhaps however indirectly - helped us learn that the DVDVR forums may be the most kink-friendly pro-wrestling community on the internet. And that makes me a little proud. Now if I can be serious for a minute: I have said it before in connection with this issue and I’ll say it again. All Punk wound up doing was prove Hangman right. On the other hand, this has all been wildly entertaining and I want to see this saga take more crazy twists and turns. Punk back to WWE! Maybe this is how we finally get Punk vs. KENTA, but it happens in a New Japan ring and KENTA goes over. If this timeline is going to be borderline intolerable and insanity-inducing, the downward spiral can at least do us the courtesy of entertaining us on the way to the bottom.