SturmCRF

Okay, yep, it rules. Even the lyrics are good, there's a song that starts like a standard breakup song but is actually about the Greek tragedy Medea, great stuff!

They're very good and almost exactly the sort of thing I like, but some of their lyrics are too on the nose for me, and the one time I saw a live recording of them, something about them just rang false. Maybe it's that they clearly and openly admit to liking Korn and now I can't not hear it, even though the massive chugging riffs are not the thing I dislike about Korn. But thanks for reminding me they have a new album out! I will listen to it on the way to the soccerball.

Sorry, should have said, excellent commentators on the PPVs, which are the only ROH I watch. I claim no knowledge of their hijinks on the weekly show. If they're going full 'Lio Rush just loves to have FUN!' I'm sorry for anyone who had to suffer that.

I don't watch ROH on Honor Club, even though I used to religiously watch both versions of Dark every week. I think it's because it just seems like an impoverished version of ROH, whereas those shows seemed like a weekly bonus treat for the AEW sickos, even though the content was near enough the same. Taz and Excalibur in Dark mode are hard to replace, but Ian and Caprice are excellent commentators. Also, to be fair, there didn't used to be Collision.

As I just said to one of my best friends, who shuns most post 90s wrestling but loved The Butcher, what a load of shit this is. Every Time I Die were one of my all time favourite bands, probably top three. People are generally gunshy about crowning bands when they're still current, or recent, but I truly believe they were one of the best musical acts there could possibly ever be. With the proviso that you have to like their sort of thing, but they were phenomenal by their second album and there's a case to be made that they got better with each of the seven after that. Appropriately enough for a band with that dude in it, there will never be another workout band like them. To be a central part of a band as all time brilliant as that, and then also be a kickass pro wrestler who made it to TV in his forties, while also being an incredible human being by all accounts, is one of the best lives I can conceive of anyone having. It absolutely fucking sucks that he didn't get another forty years to enjoy it. RIP Andy Williams.

What's the latest on Max Caster in all this? He's very entertaining and manages to get over whenever he gets mic time, is he just too obnoxious for them to tolerate for long, or do they not thing he's a competent enough wrestler to do much with?

Yes to a tag league, but no more unifications, I declare them banned. They unified the Continental and International for about two weeks with Kenny and Okada, and that was a stupid, confusing load of shit. They have a big enough roster to justify the five singles titles they've gone with, they just need to work harder to define them. World and Continental are fine as is (apart from Continental almost always spoiling at least one finalist in every tournament it's defended in, because they never want to have the champ lose before the last match). National should never have existed, but would be fine if they go back to it being defended around the world in other promotions. TNT should be defended at least once a week on TV, and International I guess is the title for the best wrestlers who they don't trust to do ten minute in ring promos.

If it's possible to actually discuss this topic in good faith, rather than argue about how seriously people take it, it seems pretty obvious that AEW as a whole have massively eased off on their LGBTQ representation, although it was always a fairly minor element. Obviously not minor to the people who wanted to feel represented and embrace the novelty of a major US wrestling company who didn't hate them, but it's not like Kenny being openly bisexual was ever presented on screen as far as I remember. They acknowledged and winked at the Ibushi history when he turned up, but it was barely even an explicit part of his persona in NJPW. Presenting Ospreay kicking out of the OWA as some huge betrayal, or at least the straw that broke the camel's back, seems like a stretch. In kayfabe, the idea that somehow Ibushi kicked out because of the complex, burning passion of his feelings about Kenny, and not because he was an elite athlete desperate to win a match, is a perfectly valid reading of it, but not the only one. If you do want to go with that though, is it some huge blow to portray Will's desire not to let down his wife, child, country and boyhood dreams as equal to those feelings? Plus I'm sure Ospreay mentioned on Twitter once that he was bisexual, so if you're really committed to the idea that the One Winged Angel should be a death move for all completely straight wrestlers, there's still hope. Which doesn't change the fact that AEW appear to have done Nyla Rose dirty, she's not especially good, but that didn't stop them bringing Britt Baker out of Tony's 2020 cupboard.

Well yes, S&M absolutely is the best Metallica album.

9. Metallica 8. Death Magnetic 7. St Anger 6. Kill 'Em All 5. Reload 4. ...And Justice For All 3. Load 2. Ride The Lightning 1. Master Of Puppets There's mine. I just haven't listened to the last two enough to have a fair opinion on them.

I'd laugh, but as a younger man I've earnestly argued that Load is their best album. With the perspective and wisdom of age I'm prepared to concede it's only the third best, although I do still genuinely prefer older Hetfield's voice.

I totally bought into Dante Martin: Future Main Eventer during his singles push, which I always remind myself when I'm tempted to write off the Young Bucks just because they annoy the shit out of me. I might not like their style a lot of the time, but they excel at making average wrestlers look like a million dollars.

That must be either AI or some astoundingly bad writing, between using 'his legal name Adam Copeland' twice or 'Copeland is one of the many names who have over the years, jumped ship between the two promotions plenty of times, to new-found success' being a sentence that now exists. I get a bit exasperated when the Voices Of Wrestling guys bemoan the state of wrestling journalism outside Meltzer, because it seems like such a soft target, but whenever I'm unfortunate enough to encounter any, it makes a bit more sense that they're so disgusted they have to say something.

It was great. I watched the whole G1, this and Tsuji vs Yuto were both very statementy but also phenomenal. I don't think I get many talent spotter points for guessing that ripped Young Lion Yuya and fridge shaped Young Lion Oiwa were probably future Wrestle Kingdom headliners, but I swear I remember some otherwise credible people thinking Ren Narita was the future standout, so I'll at least take some credit over them. I love big, spectacular high spot wrestling when it's done well, so I wouldn't want this headlocks and wristlocks style to become so fashionable that in five years time a bunch of shit, boring wrestlers are aping it, but I'll watch these two guys wrestle this style all day long. Anyway, so glad I never stopped watching New Japan, AEW is the peak of American TV wrestling, but it can't quite match the nutritional value of good Japanese grappling.

The Undertaker, that is. I'm sure Brock Lesnar's politics are exemplary.