SturmCRF

I miss those innocent days when we could safely assume this was just a metaphor.

As long as Oiwa beats Fale to qualify, I'm still provisionally quite excited for G1 season. Other qualifiers are Ishii vs Moloney, Taichi vs Newman, Chase vs Yoshi Hashi. Chase winning would also be bad, but not quite as tear up your NJPW t shirt maddening as a 400 immobile fraudster beating the potential future of the company. I always want to see lots of fun outsiders, but not so keen on having people in the tournament who definitely won't win because they're not New Japan guys. Claudio would be great, but you know he'd go 5-4 and be as protected but unpushed as he is in AEW.

Mariah Martinelli. God, a Mikel Arteta gimmick could be insufferable if done accurately, though it'd kind of just be a better version of Learning Tree Jericho.

I don't know, but then I manage to suspend my disbelief enough to almost never spot wrestlers slapping their legs on superkicks. All of my contempt for silly and illogical wrestling moves goes to the Panama Sunrise and that alone.

I find almost everything associated with WWE intolerable in a world where AEW exists, but let's not go saying things we can't take back about Sol Ruca and her spectacular finisher.

Anyone else reckon maybe they have Briscoe beat Ricochet to heat him up for a Moxley filler feud before All In? It'll be impossible to sell people on Moxley possibly dropping the title in June, may be a good way to kill time with a nice mini blood feud for a few weeks.

https://youtu.be/Ip5gWThSTHQ?si=AGh4451taIXiPpoQ Awesome, current best active band in the world The Armed did a concert film thing there a couple of years ago, looks like a great venue.

I'd love to see more stuff happen on a typical Dynamite, and more women's matches, and more of the roster featured. But the thought of that eight minute Eddie vs Finlay match enrages me. Who doesn't want to see those two have a match twice that long? AEW is about as good as American TV wrestling has ever been at maximizing actual wrestling and minimizing bullshit finishes and in ring talking segments, and it still has too many of those things. I'm not sure what the answer is, but more multi person matches are a great start. Make in ring talky segments, contract signings and such a very scarce occurence, what sport just allocates precious sport time to competitors talking at each other? Do a New Japan, emphasise short post match interviews, don't just tell your paying customers they have to spend 20 minutes watching MJF try to bribe people with sex workers when they could be watching a trios spotfest. Be wrestling for the sickos where only the best wrestle, leave the other guys to waste time and a month of Walter's career on jingoistic podcast bro fuckheads.

Hobbs was TNT Champion! Don't blame you for forgetting as QT Marshall ruined it by attaching himself to him to make sure he didn't get over.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm loving current New Japan. It's like a cup competition where all the favourites go out early and everything's there for the taking. The overall match quality is taking a hit without Okada, Ospreay and Naito when he could still go, but the intrigue is high. Callum Newman is about to challenge for the IWGP Title. Could he win it? Of course not, that would be fucking insane, but I kind of love that it's even a possibility. Gabe Kidd vs Yota Tsuji was one of the best matches I've seen in a long time, and it can't have hurt that they knew there are several gaping voids at the top of the card.

As a fellow Gunther enjoyer, I'm fine with him losing the fake World title and moving on to better things.

I did wonder about that, and I'm an English man who got into American football for a few years about 15 years ago to justify my Sky Sports subscription, but soon stopped following it because it didn't have promotion and relegation.

Thing about Malakai as a character is it does sort of massively undermine him to lose very often, certainly against anyone below the absolute top tier. But of course, he's the guy who came up with the character of 'tatted up, non-theistic diabolical mastermind who anticipates your every move and is an expert kickboxer.' Which is mainly based on who he actually is, to be fair, but still reads a bit too much like a 15 year old's efed creation.

I loved that Steiners theme, I think because it reminds me of sneaking downstairs as a kid to watch Royal Rumble 93, which started with their match vs The Beverly Brothers and was the first time I saw them. I was blown away by the Frankensteiner, and went to school humming their entrance music. It doesn't quite hold up, but I've never forgotten it in over 30 years.

I really like Mike Bailey. I guess he's samey, but he's still really good at wrestling, all told, and I like watching good wrestlers. He was the highlight of Wrestlemania weekend a couple of years ago, I'm glad he's getting signed by a major company and look forward to seeing him against almost everyone on the roster. If he can smuggle Veda Scott into the commentary rotation, even better.