Shartnado

Side note, this was the first five day work week for me in a couple of months now and this afternoon my weight went below 200lbs for the first time this year at 196,5. Abs are slowly making their reappearance.

Jimmy Saville did a shit-load of charity, all his life, for instance. And he did that to "balance the scales of devine judgment" or something similar, by his own admission.

Yeah, when I said I'd wait for more info before resubscribing to WWE Network, this wasn't exactly what I meant, but it will certainly do. So that would be a no, then.

Seal-Row day with some conventional deadlift thrown in this evening. Skipped the light stuff and went to 264 straight after 154. Then 286 and 3 sets of 303. When coming back down, I did a set with 297 and 286, which went surprisingly well after the 303's, which obviously weren't clean. Then one more set with 264, then onto deadlift. Legit off the floor level, I did singles with 330 and 374,5, then 2x440,5, which is a record, I have only got one a couple times before. Then I used half blocks for a single with 484,5 (also a record), then one more 440, 375,5 and 330. So yeah, that was nice. Thursday I basically had zero sleep despite all the trying on a few different occasions. No workout tonight. I did get an extra 15 kilometers on the bike today so there's that. I will do Trapbar on Monday, if I feel recovered enough by then.

All 3 title matches were good. Really impressed with Fletcher once again. Fletcher vs Ethan Page should be really solid. Listen up, Fletcher vs Vikingo in a couple of months, OK? Top Flight looked good against Butcher and The Blade. For the first time, Athena is being put in a position of being an underdog against Nyla. Let's see how she can handle that? Billie wanting so bad to avenge her boss was brave. Stupid, but brave. Lexi was being the voice of reason, once again. So, Abadon. OK, then.

Rough week so far, with 3 workouts in. Started the week on Sunday evening. Did the incline dumbell bench/ hammer curl combo with nothing but 88's. Warm-up was a set of 6 with the seat two notches down, then put it straight up for the next 3. Got 11, 8 and 7 reps. Then, one notch down for two more sets, 9 and 7, I believe. A set of hammer curls after each one as well as a set of resistance band lat pull-downs. Regular bench on Monday evening. 12 sets overall. Starting from 164 to 269 and back down to 154. Did sets of 5 going up and various different number of reps (between3 and 10) on the way down. Did regular dumbell curls and lateral raises to the side between bench sets, along with pushdowns and slow reverse grip curls with EZ Bar. Some ab work for the finish. I knew that tonight had to be leg day or bust, so calf raises and squats on the machine it was. Started with the squats doing 5x139, 5x234, 5x278, 5x372, 6x416, 7x467 and 5x467. The set of 7 with 467 went surprisingly well, the 5 after, didn't. Two sets of calf raises with 467, two with 416 and then one with each of the other weights used with squats. A better ab work session in the end and this is where we are at the moment. Theoretically, two more workouts to go.

Yeah, this interests me as far as the fate of WWE Network is concerned. I guess I need to wait and see about any additional info on the current library. If, for example, the back catalogue of PPV's and old tv episodes doesn't move over to Netflix and WWE Network just stops being a thing in 2025, I may have to binge on whatever I have time for during 2024. But I'll wait for a bit if we can find out more. @Craig H Yup, WWE is cancelled after the end of season 3 (without a proper conclusion), or after 6 seasons if they'll get super lucky.

The first I've heard of it

Spotify has Mariah May theme song up as of now and it's way better than I actually realized during her debut. An interesting mixture of Jamie Hayter's and Deonna Purazzo's themes, at least in vibe. Nice.

Awesome episode! I need to watch the main event all the way through, but so far it rocked all the way! GYV looking great and you guessed it, Frankie Kazarian turned on Young! That was uncalled for! Maclin vs Nemeth should be good! Nic Nemeth had a really good theme song, better than his old one, anyway. Exciting times in Pro Wrestling, overall! Yeah, watched the main event until the end and it was spectacular. D'Amore promo at the end was very inspirational as well! I have a feeling I'll be watching that match again soon!

Very true. I was like "Wouldn't this be exactly the kind of thing they advocate? The hell are they trying to stop this for?"

Holy hell, what a week of wrestling on AEW! Collision was pretty insane! Looks like next week won't be any different! Copeland complained that veterans don't take him up on the challenge and next week he gets Suzuki! Good progression there! Main event and Garcia vs Matthews were the highlights for me, but Sydal being awesome, opener and Copen Challenge were all good stuff! Amanata is really getting some exposure here, too. Match against Rosa was decent enough for sure!

What's with these great Rampage episodes recently? Opener and main event were both thoroughly entertaining and two matches in the middle were worth their time as well. Stokley, Lethal and Ruby all had their ongoing stories slightly advanced, so this was all in all very enjoyable. Mox vs Taylor on Collision? Holy crap! There has been so many interesting "filler" matches recently, and it's really good direction. If you want to feature someone, why not put them in the ring with someone interesting. Hangman vs Workhorseman for last Saturday, as a great example.

Well, it was the particular hill I personally was willing to die on. I looked past Vince's million transgressions before that, but mess with the character of my favorite wrestler, that was the last straw. Of course, if it wasn't for AEW+, I would have let that one slide as well. But seeing as how I had barely time to watch any WWE Network at the time, it was way easier to put my foot down on the matter. As for anyone else, I couldn't say.

If I had more time to watch wrestling, I would be getting the WWE Network back as we speak. I still most likely will, but not right this minute. Still, wonderful news.

Damn, hindsight being 20/20 and all, he probably would have been way better off making a fortune on the patent and then using that to provide universal avenues for easy access to insulin for all who need it. He just thought that practically giving the patent away was the most altruistic way to go about it. Shame how it turned out (in some places).

A lot of really good stuff here! Dustin vs Christian Cage was fantastic. Swerve and Hangman made points. Neither wanted anything to do with one another anymore, but both want the AEW World Title, so there is a dilemma. OC & Barretta tag was exciting, but mostly inconsequential. Six man tag Title match ended up being really good, too, but I was afraid Mogul Embassy was going to drop them here. I guess Jay White needed a title around his waist for real? Anna coming into her match with a taped shoulder was not a good idea against The Virtuosa. Might as well write "please tear here" on it while you are at it! Storm confusing Ian with Tony was awesome, but she should have said something like "You look 5 years younger clean shaven, Tony ", considering Ian and Tony have probably 15-20 year age difference (I assume). Private Party surprisingly (not at all, really) playing the part of Edge and Christian to Top Flight's Hardyz was good. We need this to be a long term program. It got a while to get going, but ended up really good! Marc looking a bit rusty early on played well into the ending, where he also could have slipped and grabbed the rope to balance himself, but decided to hold on for the extra leverage. Main event was exactly what it should have been. HOOK looked strong and determined throughout and did not tap out. Collision and Battle of the Belts also had their moments. The main event trios match on Collision went the way it should have, but FTR and Garcia did get their revenge in the end.

The lat pulldown machine at our work gym is not all that good. Also, it's been a year since the move to the new facility and the damn thing still isn't bolted to the wall/floor, so heavy weights are out of the question. I have solved this by using two strong resistance bands by looping them to the attachments of the squat rack. We have a bench that I can use to get enough of a distance from the rack to make the resistance quite heavy. I also like the slow eccentric part of the move that the bands allow especially well. I credit the resistance band work for the fact that I was able to get some extra thickness on my lower lats that definitely was not there before I started going to town on the resistance bands every week, sometimes on several different days. One part necessity, one part preference, I guess?

Another 4 day work week, so 4 workouts. Monday was incline dumbell bench and hammer curls. Was able to do another set of 10 with the 88's bench straight up, followed by an 8 and a 5. One notch down I did 2 sets 10 and 8 with 88's and 83's respectively. Every set followed by hammer curls and a set of resistance band lat pulldowns. Tuesday I did regular bench and more resistance band lat pulldowns, but this time using a loaded up EZ bar for grip (bar +22lbs and +44 lbs). On bench, I decided to do sets of 5 until I couldn't complete one. So, I got 5 with 164, 208, 230, 252, 263 and 274. Then 3 with 285 and 3 shitty partials with 290,5. On the way down I did one more rep with 274, and 2 with 263, then something, and remember doing 12 reps with 224,5. Around 9 with 208 and 15 with 164 followed by additional 4 with rest-pause. Wednesday was Seal Row. Went up to 297, did one set without Versas and two more with Versas. No clean reps in sight, but quite a few partials. Also did a few sets of skullcrushers on the incline bench, using the EZ Bar from Tuesday (so 64lbs). I decided not to do Seal Row with lighter weights but do deadlift off the small blocks instead. I did singles with 297, 341, 385,5, 429,5, 451,5 and 457. I stood on a small block that was only two or so inches below the blocks that the weights were resting on so these were pretty damn close to actual deadlifts, by the way. Thursday was Trapbar. Started with the deficit lifts (using two blocks) 5x139, 2x249, 1x359 and 1×453,5, then using the higher block 1x475,5, using lower block 1x498, then 542 off the floor. Then off the half blocks 1x636,5, off the 3/4 blocks 2x659,5, off the 4/5 blocks 1x698 and off the full blocks 2x749. Tried 843,5 with shoes on, but nope. Took shoes off and got a F'n 2. Then 1 more after a rest. Shoes back on and 2x754,5, 5x659,5 and 10x554 off the 4/5 blocks. 3 sets of shrugs followed with 453,5, 359 and 249. This was a rough week, I'm ready for some rest now.

That was one HELL of an episode of Rampage! Holy shit! So, Jake Hager is now using the chain as a rebound to the hat that he still obviously loves? OK, Jake, do what you have to do in order to cope, but you do realize that everyone who sees the chain, will automatically think: "Hey, that chain would go so well with the...oh, yeah. Right. Nevermind." Do you really want that, Jake?

Was Snake Eyes just a highly promoted house show, or is it/will it be available to watch somewhere?

Hell, it could Josh Barnett before his Bloodsports endeavour, trying to get his feet wet in the business in his early tweens, then going to MMA when it didn't pan out...yet.

Can we be sure it's actually the same hat, or if they are all just fucking with him now that they know that he's not really over the hat yet, or really ever? They found an obvious weak spot and are cruelly and efficiently exploiting it?

Ok, Vince is basically gone, they have a brand new producer and if Pete Dunne is becoming himself again, then all the things that made me quit the WWE Network are now being remedied. I may have to reconsider picking it back up sometime this year, maybe.

That was the joke, yes.