Shartnado

It's that Disney Russian Immigrant cartoon mouse from the '80s, right? In Japanese.

Just watching the best of Collision ('24) episode from Triller and re-watching Ospreay vs Cage. That's a good appetizer for Omega vs Cage, just to compare how those two matches stack up against each other?

Well, he was wearing the suit... Oh, you probably mean that suit suit, not the hairy bodysuit!

NXT having way more women's matches than men's matches, is some of the more refreshing things in a while, although I have watched TNA, which sometimes seems to have about 50/50 on some weeks.

I'm SO looking forward to the day that the brand new NXT men's champion makes it to the main roster, just so he can team up with Dominic Mysterio. I want to see if they have the balls to name the team "FemiDom"? Still, it's pretty safe to say that most likely "Dirty FemiDom" is off the table in any case.

This evening it was Meadows Row pyramid time. I went from 83,5 to 277,5 to 83,5. The heavy sets were 5+5×230, 5+5×255,5, 5+5×277,5 and 5+5×230 again. Also did 4 sets of regular bench, but that was not good. Tapped out at 3x197 and did 10x154 at the end. I guess I need the kinesio tape for that one, still. Some resistance band chest flies and push downs and reduced ab work at the end. I did record the 3 of the heaviest sets of Meadows Row for future purposes.

Last week, the squat day and Trapbar were way too close to each other so this week, I got the squats out of the way early. The first set that wasn't completely warm-up, was 7x249, then 3x344 with stopping at the bottom. Then 5x388 to the bottom, but without stopping. Then 7x466. These were decent but definitely not to the bottom. Then 2 sets of calf raises with 438 and one each with 388, 344, 249 and 155. Abs and grippers at the end, as well.

Night shift week starts with a pretty regular upper body stuff. One set of hammer curls with 88's and incline dumbell bench with 66's for 20 reps and 75's for 18 reps were the only things that could be considered heavy but I was pretty pumped by the end of it. Plenty of resistance band stuff, some grippers and proper ab stuff in the end. My left arm was at 46 cm and the right one at 44,5 cm, so I got the pump I was hoping for. When I left for the gym, my evening weight was at 208 again, so this pretty much matches the last time I measured my arms but without the pump. I was hoping for 45cm pumped, this met me in the middle.

Watched NXT New Year's Evil on Netflix today. The matches rocked for the most part and production values look amazing these days. Some of the people are indeed new to me, but most I recognise from the last time I watched, from AEW, TNA (when NXT was featured there) and from the main roster before. Then there was that Rock guy as well.

You still got it! *clap clap clapclapclap* You still got it!

"The good guys finally grew some balls and murdered Death Riders in their sleep and their bodies were never found. And there was much rejoicing. The End."

There are good things: Moxley is in wonderful shape, even if his matches aren't as good as when he and Hangman were killing each other. Their music is good and I don't have to hear Wild Thing again. Also, this is the only version of Claudio's classical music intro that doesn't suck ass. This gives PAC something to do. Of course, I'd prefer that doing would be more actual matches, but you know... I voted yes because of the talent involved and I am a total sucker for supergroups, be it heel, face or actual music supergroups. This is with the caveat of eventually, this has to really elevate someone to the point that people are forced to buy tickets and watch the shows en masse and then Mox has to be relegated to the midcard where he belongs and be nowhere near another World title reign, until he leaves AEW. It irks me that the last 3-4 heel supergroups in AEW have completely fizzled out with no endgame or blow-off (and in a short timespan, no less). This time, it has to be different and this has to lead to something. There's still time and there's definitely enough interesting opponents for them. If there was no real endgame planned and they were caught with their pants down due to Bryan's faster than anticipated detoriorating health, then this was not a great move. If the endgame was Darby in the unlikely case that he doesn't die on Mount Everest, then, ok, but you need to start treating him like that sooner that 3 weeks before the supposed title win.

I hope that it at least was for a SHIT load of money. Because of, you know...

Kinda like Cobra Kai.

Not during, but probably before and after. Before, just to make it through filming them and afterwards to wash down the shame.

You can blame those damned Death Riders for that! While it is a bit sad, it makes my job of trying to keep up ever so slightly easier. NXT being on Netflix now threw a curveball I was not prepared for in the slightest. RAW and SD can keep getting fucked, but I'm pretty sure I need to give NXT another go. So, Rampage, thanks for the memories, and more recently making Harley Cameron must see TV again, but I also appreciate the sacrifice of jumping into the void for me, so I can devote that hour of my time for some other wrestling program! Blessed be.

Watched last week's Collision last night and it was a home run. However, starting this week's Dynamite with Ospreay vs Matthews is like specifically catering to me (maybe because I strayed to NJPW for a night or two?). Briscoe vs Lashley seems delightfully random, too. Jay White going through the grueling 3-way to get the no 1 spot just for Hangman lucking out to randomly get the no2 spot in the Gauntlet for the same opportunity is a lot like life. Hah! That was quite the, ahem, swerve by Ricochet! From Psycochet to Dickochet in one week, huh? I guess a trip to Japan can change a man, then? ZSJ did smack the shit out of him, so maybe it did! Hobbs redemption and Jarrett failed attempt at redemption were good stories coming out of this. MJF going against Jarrett is exactly what I wanted for people trying to get to the No 1 contendership. Harley vs Mariah on Collision? Um, yes please! ADAM talks tough and gets jumped by Death Riders. I was asking "Where's PAC" and when he didn't immediately sneak up on ADAM, I was like "No, seriously, where is he?" But yeah, The Bastard did show up, but eventually, so did FTR and Hobbs. The AEW roster is still so deep that you would think there will eventually be a combination that will end up wearing Death Riders as their footwear? Is it these guys? Well, maybe one or two of them will be. The women's 3-way finally having Toni Storm and Statlander in the ring against each other was the dream match I've wanted since '22 or '23. Add more Willow and this was excellent! Lenny is back! After a batshit insane performance at Wrestle Dynasty, but unfortunately he brought the shitty-ass music with him. Not giving Don Callis a chance to run away was showing some real smarts, although getting jumped by 3 guys afterwards kinda didn't. Ospreay still doesn't care for Omega but he hates Callis Family even more. I feel like there is some kind of new urgency to these shows, in order to appeal to the MAX audience. I'll take it.

4 workouts this week with 2 upper body days that were not particularly heavy, just easing back into things. Then 2 leg days (squat machine and Trapbar, respectively). The things worth mentioning were the sets of 5x344 (with 3 pairs of resistance bands) stopping at the very bottom at each rep, then 5x438 that went relatively deep and 5x482 that felt like it was crushing me, but I got through it and the reps were below safety bar, so I'm fine with that. I did calf raises with each of the weights plus one set with 388. The Trapbar day was apparently too soon after the squats, but I was able to do a few things I haven't done before. I noticed that the lower half of the wooden blocks that I use, also fits in the middle of the Trapbar so I have some new deficits to work with. I used the combo of 3 blocks on top of each other, foregoing the padded one, so this was the highest deficit I have ever lifted from. I did a single with 254 to try it out and then one with 397,5. Then 2 of the smaller blocks (that are still higher combined than the previous high deficit) for a single with 503. After that I failed every attempt at deficit lifting 554, until finally getting it up from the floor level. After that I was finally able to do 666 off the actual half blocks, not full blocks with bunch of stuff beneath my feet. Then I failed 774 with everything until I got 2 reps off the full blocks. After that I felt like it was no use to continue and called it a week.

Kenny vs Gabe Kidd, holy shit! I was not expecting that! Wow! Wardogs on the outside were swearing up a storm throughout the match! Takeshita vs Ishii in a Rampage main event but for two belts was very good as expected, but Ishii with a top rope rana?!? Fuck yeah! He was really selling the loss too, after the match! That guy who beat David Finley for the Global title vs Jack Perry was definitely decent enough! Young Bucks win! I was wondering if Cobb and Bucks could carry the rest of those sacks of shit and the answer was resounding yes, as this was all action. Shota vs Claudio was a war and a huge win for Shota. I wonder if he will actually get Moxley one day? I'm missing all of this week's shows because of the length of these two shows, but I brought it on myself, so definitely not complaining!

Ok, let's see: I like David Finley. Both of his matches rocked. Takeshita had hell of a showing. ZSJ vs Shota went on and on. I'm not sure sure if that was necessary, but I guess there was a good reason. Tanahashi vs EVIL was filled with shenanigans but I was OK with the idea of it. The 5 minute exhibition with Shibata sure was a choice, but at least we got to see Tanahashi's chest-sized bruise after the match. I guess Shibata still isn't allowed to have proper matches in New Japan? How does Mina look even better in Japan than he does in AEW? Yeah, so Athena gets pinned for the first time in two years, and it was not in ROH. Well, Willow pinned her the last time and that was not in ROH, either, so I guess it figures. Sons of Texas with two successful title defenses in a relatively short time span, but Sammy went and cut his hair. Boo! Still ways more to go!

Holy shit, dude! That was savage!

Hell yeah, but of course, he was one big boy already at 19 years old. Totally different physique, though, now that he's all grown up.

He sure has blossomed and his hair is amazing!

In the opener, War Dogs were Connors and Driller Moloney. Any relation to Dan Moloney, the 19-year old rookie from NXT UK? Has a similar face, but everything else has changed quite a bit, but it has been quite a few years since then. Is that the same guy, or is the last name just a coincidence?

Cold weather today, but we had a 1 hour 40 minute walk (about 9 kilometers overall) around the frozen beaches close to the city centre. Yesterday, I had a couple of resistance band sessions, now I just came out of sauna and ready to throw in some more calories.