Swift

Shocked by the Kairi release (and saddened too as she was one of my favourites). I was just thinking recently that they could get a huge pop out of re-running the Virgil/DiBiase storyline but guess not.

Much better show tonight. They made the right decision with Oba winning and Lesnar's retirement afterwards was a genuine surprise. I know he has his haters here but I've always been entertained by the guy when he's been on my television so farewell dude. The ladder match was by far one of the better ones of the last few years. JD is crazy. As said, it was nice to see a main event without any ref bumps, run ins or any other shenanigans. Everything else was solid stuff. Enjoyable show.

Yep you're right. Forgot the Americanos (which was also a decent match)

Damn, not sure I've seen Lesnar take a powerbomb before. That was a great moment in front of a really hot crowd. First hour+ of the show flew by with a good women's match and a great lucha sprint, again helped along by the excellent crowd. Things slowed down after that but still a pretty good show overall. Surprised by only 4 matches though and unusually 3 of those were women's.

Crash Holly is billed as being from Ireland and weighing 7.2 stone, which for the uninitiated is about 98 pounds.

Again really enjoyed the chaotic opening to this, hopefully that's something they keep doing every now and then. Here you had the Vision come out, get run off by Rollins and masked men, Heyman getting injured and loaded into an ambulance, Uso arriving for a beatdown, Knight driving the ambulance off, then Gunther coming out for his match only to be ambushed immediately by Dragon Lee and right into a very good match. Loved when Attitude era WWE would just bleed from segment to segment like that. If they do have a mascara contra mascara match (agreed it needs to be in AAA) hopefully it's Gable losing the mask. He kinda sucks in the role, or moreso Ludwig is excellent at it. Love how much Spanish he has (did he learn it for the role or already spoke it?) and even his little English buddies throw in some decent Spanish phrases that they probably picked up in Magaluf or Alicante over the years. Gable on the other hand has never even attempted to play it as an actual lucha character (although I guess that's maybe the joke)

WWF @ Dublin, Ireland – Point Depot – April 21, 1993 (4,000) Virgil defeated Terry Taylor Doink the Clown (Keirn) (sub. for Razor Ramon) defeated Tito Santana Rick & Scott Steiner defeated WWF Tag Team Champions Ted Dibiase & IRS via disqualification The Bushwhackers defeated the Beverly Brothers Tatanka defeated Papa Shango The Undertaker defeated Yokozuna via disqualification Bret Hart defeated Bam Bam Bigelow I was 12 and really only remember seeing Undertaker and Bret Hart to be honest. We were sitting fairly well back in the stands but for every wrestler entrance and exit we'd see hordes of kids run to the aisle to try to get a handslap from a wrestler. We were begging my dad to let us do it but he was (rightfully) not having any of it. Anyway, after Bret's match, excitement got the better of me and I made a run down to ringside, my dad shouting at me in the distance. I make it to ringside as Bret is doing his rounds. I'm jostling with others, arm outstretched and... my fingers just missed Bret's. So disappointed and I got in trouble for it too. Fast forward years later and I live in Calgary so I've stumbled across Bret randomly a couple of times. Once was at a Chapters. As we were walking in we were wondering why the parking lot was so busy only to get inside and see a long lineup of people getting their copies of his autobiography signed by him. I'm not one for chatting to strangers and at this point I was out of wrestling fandom so I didn't bother buying the book and joining the queue. Last time was a couple years ago picking up someone at the airport on a quiet evening. Suddenly I noticed he was just wandering around where I was sitting in arrivals. It was a bit of a sad sight unfortunately. He looked really worn down, physically and mentally. Maybe he'd just gotten off a long flight but he looked very tired and a little bit lost. Noticeable wear and tear on his body by the way he was walking/hobbling. It was really sad seeing a childhood hero appear so beaten down

Forgot to say I dug the Oba Femi beatdown and the opening (despite the sound issues). WWE has become too formulaic and slickly produced in the last few years so I wish they'd do more unexpected bits like those.

WWE has gotta do something about how they're micing things. For the past few weeks, there have been moments where a ringside voice has come through the broadcast but tonight was ridiculous. You have this wild, disorderly moment to open the show and yet you have the cameraman loudly directing Bron - "ok go go go" and "ok now flip the table". Kinda kills the supposed chaotic nature of the moment. There were other moments too with Penta getting a countdown to the commercial break and the ref directing traffic during the women's match. That match had a somewhat bad ending btw with Roxanne Perez doing the overly careful table bump and Raquel Rodriguez doing a roll (?) instead of a back bump on the table. I wasn't too enthused by Roman's Rumble win but after tonight I'm looking forward to more of the two of them facing off on the mic.

I don't pay attention to online wrestling discussion anymore so had no idea about the AJ Styles contract rumour so that ending was genuinely shocking to me. Very well done too. Wasn't the stipulation that he would retire from WWE but not necessarily from wrestling? That would explain him not placing his gloves on the mat. My guess is he goes on one final run in TNA.

Why are people putting the blame on WWE/HHH for the finish? It shouldn't need to be said that that was 100% John Cena's call.

Happened to watch some of the Timothee Chalamet interview on Cody's podcast. I figure there's a high chance he's at least browsed DVDVR at some point right. He refers to Boogeyman as Marty Wright at one point. Like he comes across as super nerdy about that era of WWE. Also, Cody mentions his biggest rival in the company as being someone he genuinely doesn't get along with IRL. Who's he referencing? Reigns? Rollins? He talks about it as if it's common knowledge, but I don't really pay too much attention to IWC gossip these days.

Was very surprised by that Gunther and Solo match. Definitely wasn't expecting such a hot crowd and duelling chants for both of them. That finish between Styles, Lee and Kingston was amazing. Came off perfectly. No idea where they go with Jey Uso from here. Feel like he's already had multiple moments of self doubt in the past year or so.

Got this in my YT recs yesterday. Fascinating watch. One of the comments on the video mentioned that the wrestlers ended up being stiffed by the promoter and brought their story to the newspapers. I found a few stories in the Calgary Herald - https://www.newspapers.com/search/results/?city=Calgary&date=1985&keyword=wrestling&region=ca-ab March 1, 1985 - "Promoters grappling with empty seats" (presumably about this promotion) March 14, 1985 - "Stranded pro wrestlers fighting mad over wages" November 24, 1985 - "Lawsuit's dismissal delights wrestling promoter" (again presumably about this promotion) Does anyone happen to have a newspapers.com account and could share the stories? Kinda don't want to hand over my credit card for the free trial (but might if I have to)

After feeling like a bit of a slog to watch for the past few months, that's been two really entertaining back to back Raw episodes. Helped by hot crowds for sure but all of the Cena stuff has been fun as hell. Loved that six man tag last night. Everyone involved looked like they were having a great time.