Octopus

I’m legit bummed I binged through it instead of spacing them out lol I added a lot to my watch list. Kingston vs Rotten in the cage is beautifully icky. I’m really happy it sounds like it’ll be a long running idea outside of Death Matches too. I’m glad to learn more Death Matches but also excited for when they get to lucha and territory stuff.

Way of the Blade pod has been really fun with their current Canonical project. Starting with different Death Match companies/ areas and it sounds like it’ll go into other forms of wrestling. I listened out of order and still enjoyed it. Highly recommend and it’s my favorite pod to look forward to now.

Sick Nick Mondo vs John Zandig, I love that the famous off the rooftop spot isn’t the finish. Lol awesome.

He never looked at their driver’s license

I guess my comment on JBL’s rebrand wasn’t meant to imply change of character or anything overly positive OR negative. More so he was someone I only read bad things about for decades and now that he is on a show with his friend/ mentor and willing to talk publicly about the industry and opinions, it’s much more mixed and seeing the human behind the stories. Mixed bag, like a lot of wrestlers. Reminds me of stories of Danielson with how big of a teaser he was and loving to get in. The difference being that Danielson being small and Bradshaw being both intimidatingly large and backstage politics of having a roll in things like the wrestler’s court. On the show when he is teasing people, you can tell when the guest bows how to either roll with it and joke back or is uncomfortable and awkward. One guest the author sent his book beforehand and it got lost in the mail or delayed and hasn’t arrived yet, JBL kept bringing it up to joke with the guy and sadly he was too awkward to roll with it and would stammer not knowing how to stop getting his points detained by it. It works when Gerry and John are completely playing dumb while mocking a super pompous guest (I have an episode in mind but for the life of me I cannot remember the legend’s name, he wrote press releases now or something). That’s not to make light of the locker room bullying stories. Him soaping up Edge’s butt in a shower to rub him to see if he jokes back is objectively weird. Also, Blue Meanie didn’t need to be beat up, even if he has said he was wrong afterwards. Still comes across like the dude needed to calm down more. With all the stories in newsletter, JBL loved them because he was a heel and watched the smart fans to hate him even if they were true or false. In conversations, he comes across as a disciple of Vince that tries to ride the line between how great he is and ~if the allegations are true he had no idea and that’s bad, but hot dog what a good guy to me. Also, with him filling in for Bruce I feel Conrad phrases things to get his ideology across. The Trump parade was brought up as the criticisms were against supporting the troops and do you support the troops? Of course you’re going to get a lazy patriotic rant. There is times they are both goofs and I turn it off. The libertarian comments are probably right about him. He gets mad about racism and there are times I’m surprised by him because I had incorrect preconceived notions for years of only reading the bad. Take all that for what it is. I really like his show with Brisco but can produce meh episodes at times.

As an Athenian I am bummed. Toni Storm is still awesome though.

It helps that he’s been on a few times before and is very much a monologue speaker with clear notes on the order he wants to cover and even in order. I like Brisco’s mumbling rambles because he reminds me of a few of the elderly people that were in my life and sadly no longer are. Plus, they often add needed perspective when it isn’t just teasing. But it often is just teasing. Pretty crazy and I knew nothing about it. Especially Rock Hudson’s involvement. It is creepy and interesting especially with the Diddy trial going on. I will say, with it being 4 long parts, they don’t just go over that. Barnett was tied into a lot of businesses and that leads into discussions on different time periods in wrestling. I learned a lot. the JBL rebrand has made this an interesting timeline

They need to pull a WrestleMania 2 and have a bunch of big linebackers in their too. I don’t mind awkward when beefy dudes are having fun.

Fun note that I’m either over-romanticizing or contextualizing: I love how these matches tie together.

Brisco & Bradshaw have a four part interview series with Tony Richards about Jim Barnett and the dealings and scandals around him and it’s absolutely riveting.

Heaven got even more hardcore

*runs, jumps off chair, lands on top rope, wobbles, flies into the crowd Fuck yeah.

Derp. Shameful plug: I’ve started an indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for my next film, THE CONVULSIVE BEAUTY OF DESIRE. Feel free to also give me $325 million.

The new Playboi Carti album is good.

It’s like my grandma always said “You can’t spell ‘Thus … Cantaloupes Riot’ without ‘ @The Natural is … Octopus’

Am I just a Danielson mark? I have this unquenchable thirst for Dragon that has not been met since his retirement. All food tastes like plain oatmeal now. Colors have less vibrancy. Music sounds like a monotone audiobook of an out of date printer. A cool breeze feels like a cavalcade of shirt tags slightly sticking out across my body. Have I said the color thing yet? Like bright yellow is like looking at a picture of Big Bird’s face on the computer with the display settings to the darkest option. I know he's smiling, but the twinkle in his eyes isn’t visible. I just don’t know anymore.

A week late on my end! But I gotta say happy bday to a great person. Love you and hope you’re doing well, friend.

Thanks guys! Got up early to sign Lil Octopus up for preschool for the school year right when registration opened. Got him in! It’s a nicer facility and will surprisingly save us a lot of money too. Win-win! Took the day and tomorrow off because I have vacation time. Going to edit and relax.

I miss Kingston

What’s the over-under for what month the Brock return will be?

I’ve been calling Edge “Cope” since he’s been in AEW. Now that I’m being told to I don’t really want to anymore.

shout out to a kind friend, @Gordi the recovering AEW f. Here’s to another year of navel gazing and great posts.

Dumb and repetitive is my middle name!

Maybe add an Intergalactic Women’s Title

Agreed. I like Penta’s taunting and my best internet friend hates Penta’s taunting. We tease each other about that a lot. My comment was about the general level of hate we see on social media. Less about armbars and more personal about wrestlers and their spouses. We were both passionate and talking about parallel things and I misinterpreted. Thanks for the clarification.