twiztor

yeah, Momo is a non-entity in AEW. the match at Revolution has zero intrigue.

this is a good take and i agree. i certainly overstated by referring to Ank as a wrestler. But we do know that he has those skills (at bare minimum moreso than Poatan's other opponents). So i guess we will see if those skills show up, or even if they open up the striking and improve Ank's chances. Kind of a weird place that LHW doesn't have any other highly ranked grapplers.

Mauricio Ruffy with a crazy awesome spinning heel kick KO. must see.

love ya, Gordi. i agree with all of your larger points. I'm still watching Dynamite weekly, and catching PPVs, but my interest has severely dropped for many of the same reasons you mentioned. i loved the pre-pandemic era because i was discovering so many new wrestlers and characters i hadn't been exposed to before. i loved when a Japanese talent or indy star would show up for one-shot or short run. it really gave the feel that "anything could happen". i appreciated the pandemic era, mostly for the ancilliary stuff. the weekly YouTube BTE shows were appointment TV. The core group rallied around each other, and delivered. in retrospect, i really think it helped continue the indie/family vibe longer than it otherwise would have. the next year or so had some amazing stories start to pay off. It capitalized off all of that goodwill from everything that had come before, continued to bring in outside talent, and seemed to really find its footing. Some of the rougher edges were smoothed off, which was a plus for me, but really when you started posting about the company pivoting away from your tastes. i think the massive shift happened with CM Punk coming in. I'm not putting the blame on him, or even his coming in by itself, just using it as a major shift in focus. Dark/Elevation/Rampage were all sacrificed for Collision, which quickly morphed from a quirky alternative to Dynamite 2.0. Punk showed that there was still fan interest in WWE talent, and seemingly Coach Tony went in heavy on the recruitment drive. Mercedes Mone might be the biggest sign that this isn't always the best move. the last year or two have traded fine grit sandpaper for a heavy duty powersander. Everything feels 1000 times more homogenous than it had before. with WWE also getting back on the positive fan reaction side, it leaves AEW feeling like "more of the same" at best, and "lesser than" at worst.

Edge as AEW main eventer is the fucking worst. the last time i actually cared about him was in his initial "Rated R Superstar" run, with the surprise cash-in on John Cena and the whole scenario with Lita. That was 2006......19 goddamn years ago. a 51 year old should fucking never be a regular main eventer, and he should certainly not be the first and only guy that's been able to consistantly get one over on your dominant heel stable. Also, and this is just a personal issue, "Cope" is a dumb name. They should gone with "LEDGEND", like was rumored. still dumb, but at least dumb in the wrestling way. but it 100% is past time for the Death Riders to die. At this point i don't care if they move to an already established star (Ospreay, Omega, Okada, Swerve, Hangman, MJF) or a potential star that they want to elevate (Darby, Switchblade, Takeshita, Orange, Ricochet, Kyle Fletcher). Even Samoa Joe or Eddie Kingston would be good choices. The most important thing is that this angle has sucked for months and has little fan buy-in. It's over. But Edge ain't it. the only worse choice would be Jericho.

If Pereira beats Ankalaev tonight, then it solidifies his place as one of the all-time greats. IMO this win would put him at #2 LHW all time, behind only Jones. Some may argue he's already there, and i absolutely hear that argument, but personally, i need to see him beat a wrestler. And with Ank still having a tenuous claim to the LHW title from a couple years ago (the draw with Jan), and no losses since, this is the final stop for Alex.

started my new job this week. my body is wrecked and my brain is overloaded. while i am feeling it right now, this feels like it will be a fantastic move. Even besides the money, the management culture feels very inclusive and welcoming. The teams i'm leading are all great and have already accepted me as one of their own. The department heads that report to me are all very knowledgable and happy to share that info (they are all nearing retirement age, so no resentment about them not getting my job). things are looking up.

Happy Birthday Natural! full disclosure, i don't know if it's midnight where you are (it is 6pm USA Central time, which is -6:00 GMT so maybe?). But i wanted to bid you welcome to your 40s. sorry i don't have a full party post like i did last year, but the sentiment is the same!

i'm just going to copy and paste the article, because i can't decide which part is the craziest:

finally, we'll find out the truth about the Hogan-Andre match! in all seriousness tho, this lawsuit is obviously being filed by an insane person and has no legal merit.

Swerve the Realest [Strickland] – YOU COULDN’T BE ME 1. Lifeline (4:38) 2. Sight to See (2:16) 3. Grown Man Cry (3:35) 4. Somebody Told A Lie (feat. Benny the Butcher) (4:51) 5. Show Me (3:37) 6. Deep Black (3:23) 7. You Couldn’t Be Me (3:16) 8. 2AM in London (1:43) 9. Work It (2:47) 10. These Dreams (4:21) 11. Pitty Pat (2:46) 12. New Blends (3:15) 13. AK 47 (3:52) 14. However (3:49) https://www.amazon.com/music/player/albums/B0C5NWHN1M https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n3bmkMTkhBJG4aAdKUlaLreCgEomAE8TY Ring Introductions: Released in May 2023, I just found out about this a couple months ago. I’m surprised there wasn’t any sort of mention on AEW TV (even if was just a commentary shoutout), although obviously that was a calculated move. Strickland was (is?) part of a hip-hop collective called “Swerve City”, but I’m having a hard time really finding out much information about the group. The Match: ‘Lifeline’ a very laid back beat on this that draws you in. Swerve’s flow has more of a hard hitting edge, so the discrepancy between those two really works. ‘Sight to See’ the most notable thing about this track, to me, is that Swerve’s rapping partner shouts out that he’s in the recording studio with the Tag Team belt. ‘Grown Man Cry’ has a catchy chorus. It has a smooth, driving beat. I liked this. ‘Somebody Told A Lie’. Benny’s verse stands out to me. It’s a more standard style, rather than the almost-trap scheme that Swerve uses. ‘Show Me’ sees Swerve rapping fast and is sexually explicit. I’d like to hear more of the fast rapping from him. ‘Deep Black’ comes a little bit harder than the previous songs, and the verses all feel more “traditional” than the last few tracks. It works for me. ‘You Couldn’t Be Me’ is a good song, and I enjoyed it, but it sounds similar to a lot of the previous songs, so I don’ have a lot to add here. ‘2AM in London’ is short, under 2 minutes. But it makes good use of this time, with a couple quick verses that hit relatively hard. ‘Work It’ is fully into the trap category, which is not my vibe at all. But it’s not bad. ‘These Dreams’ was a good posse cut, featuring verses from a number of guys in the group. It does what it needs to do. ‘Pitty Pat’ comes on pretty strong. Darker beat, more of a focus on the rap. Definitely jumped out to me while I listened. Would like to hear more like this one. ‘New Blends’ is catchy, with a quick beat that entices you to follow along. This is the closest to what I envisioned this album sounding like overall, and I think it probably should be your first introduction to what Swerve has to offer. ‘AK 47’ another good beat here. Not much else to say. They got this city on lock. ‘However’. This one didn’t draw me in as much, or maybe I’m just feeling fatigue from all these laid back tracks. That’s not to say that it’s bad, just that it didn’t really deviate from what I’ve just been listening to for an hour. The Finish: The production on this whole album is pretty great. Most of the beats are reminiscent of those “LoFi hiphop beats to study to” YouTube videos. The choruses are usually just a short phrase that plays a number of times in a row, usually with some sort of reverb or vocal modification on them. I think that is a bit overused here. Standout Track(s): New Blends Pitty Pat I’m going to rate this one 3 ringbells out of 5. It wasn’t really what I was expecting, but it’s certainly well produced and sounds good. I would have liked to hear Swerve really cut loose, as I feel that the focus was on the beat and production end as opposed to the rapping. But I guess that’s a me issue. Still, I’ll rate this for what it IS rather than what I think it SHOULD be. Note: The above link is to Swerve’s actual YouTube profile page, where he does have more music you can check out. Mostly collab albums.

there was a bit on GTV (?) where either somebody peed on Big Show's leg or he peed on them, all while standing at the urinal. obviously don't remember the specifics

add another fight to the announced list, with zero details: Tony Ferguson (41) vs. Dillon Danis (31) pertinent to note that Danis is currently scheduled to box KSI on 3/29.

went WAY back and started playing Diablo (1) a couple weeks ago. Made it about halfway through the main game plus the Hellfire expansion on my first session. Well, tonight was session #2 and i finished it up. Diablo2 is one of my absolute favorite games. Like, top 2. but i hadn't played through D1 in probably 15 years. so yeah, a pretty good Friday night. i love D1, but D2 improves on every single thing about D1. The one thing i found myself missing the most was a weapon quick change (to switch from melee to ranged). having to open your inventory to swap weapons does not work in the middle of combat. i was playing on PC, but i also have it on PS1. A cool feature the PS1 version adds is the ability to save your character separately from your game. I assume this was for multiplayer, but i used to use it mainly to grind away and be overleveled early. I have a hard time returning to PS1 games now because everything is so dark. I'm assuming it is the switch from CRT to flatscreen TVs, but so many of them are unplayable for this very reason. D1 is a perfect example, as i've booted it up a few times over the years but always quit when i'm constantly attacked from somewhere in the darkness.

i made a fucking doppelganger of myself in one of the PS2 Tony Hawk games (Underground maybe?) It was uncanny. when my now-wife saw it a few years later she legit wondered if i was actually in the game. now i tend to choose a woman if it's a barbarian/brute character just because i think it's fun. past that, i have no real preference.

"hot take" really just means unpopular opinion, stated to generate a response. I don't know the exact origins, but the "hot" part of it is because people get heated from your statement.

a couple weeks ago, GFL announced their first round of fights: Chris Weidman (40) vs. Luke Rockhold (40) II Yoel Romero (47) vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (43) Uriah Hall (40) vs. Douglas Lima (37) Fabricio Werdum (47) vs. Frank Mir (45) - i'm actually surprised this hadn't happened before Urijah Faber (45) vs. Renan Barao (38) III They announced these via Instagram and twitter, and as of today they are still not listed on their website. Neither is the date of a single event, which supposedly still starts in April. Word is Shogun hasn't signed the bout agreement, so GFL announcing that is suspect (although not out of character for them- like announcing Rashad Evans on a roster even though he hadn't signed with them at all)

i was a fan of the 2001 XFL (go Maniax!) and would proudly display a football if i had one. i do have a full DVD set of the season (bootleg of course, saved from somebody's TiVo recordings). The 2020 reboot played a few games before the pandemic shut it down, and it was sold later that year. so the 2023 re-reboot played a full season i believe, before it was merged into the United Football League(?) i think anyway. i can't keep track anymore.

we're finally to the point that Vince could actually take the word "wrestling" out of his company name, and you two miss that opportunity.

i don't have the arms for it. who do you think i am, @AxB?

what is the other 50% comprised of?

Raven – BURN IN HELL 1. Burn in Hell (3:57) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seH03-Rkowc Ring Introductions: released online in 2009 (??), I don’t really remember or know the story behind this. Produced by Violent J of the Insane Clown Posse, this was implied to be the first single off his upcoming album. Said album never materialized. The Match: ‘Burn in Hell’ has a fun rock sound. It feels heavier than it actually is, which is harder to pull off than you might think. Raven is more of a storyteller here and recites his lyrics in a semi-rap, semi-sing, semi-promo style. As a fan of the Raven character, it very much works. The Finish: I like this. It works on all levels- musically, vocally, and character wise. I’ll give this the full 3 ringbells out of 3 on the singles scale, because it does exactly what it sets out to do.

Jesse Ventura – THE BODY RULES / SHOWDOWN WITH MR. V This Side: The Body Rules Other Side: Showdown with Mr. V (4:51) https://www.discogs.com/master/3074933-Jesse-The-Body-Ventura-The-Body-Rules-Showdown-With-Mr-V https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buss4YOc1Cs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMumUd69Mck Ring Introductions: This was released in 1984 by Twin/Tone Records, a company headquartered out of Minnesota. At the time, Ventura’s full time career in the ring was on its way to its conclusion. I would surmise that this is at the tail end of his AWA run, as he namedrops “Wally Carbo”. Maybe due to his jumping to the WWF is why this never got any traction. The Match: ‘The Body Rules’ is the lead song on this single. Jesse “sings” to about the same level that the 1985 Chicago Bears “rapped” on their ‘Superbowl Shuffle’ song. That is to say, badly. But it’s got some killer guitar for this type of tune, so I can’t hate on it too much. Jesse’s lyrics revolve around his braggadocious attitude. ‘Showdown with Mr. V’. The best thing about this song is the photo used for the picture disc. Seriously, take another look at that beauty. He is standing there in his fatigues, bare chest exposed, and armed to the teeth. It’s patently ridiculous and I love it for that. The song itself is pretty similar to the one before, but without the cool guitar. The Finish: Well this isn’t great. The music itself is fairly generic, which is the standard on these type of things, but Jesse’s vocals don’t carry nearly enough to make this worth any sort of replayability [apparently ‘replayability’ isn’t a word?] I’ll rate it 2 ringbells out of 3 on the singles scale. That’s higher than it deserves, but it IS only a single so I’m fine with it.

i feel like a KAYFABE: YAY OR NAY could easily be its own topic. my biggest pet peeve about it is when you have a heel, but then an announcer (looking at you JR) brings up their family life, or a hardship they're going through in their life. Like, don't make me feel sympathy for this evil bastard. i have gotten pretty good about separating the performer from the character, but shit like that does too much about integrating them.

it being an Apocalypse storyline helped too.