Curt McGirt

Dear Ms.: A Revolution In Print on HBO is extremely good. Not only do you get the full purview of what it was like through the eras they covered but they contact everyone (I guess) that they could, and the way its done with the art and writing from the original issues reprinted and cut up on the screen is super cool, along with live footage from the era. The porn problem is discussed at length and its crazy how far away we are as a culture from that discussion, really interesting historically. But overall, it's REALLY crazy how groundbreaking as a whole the magazine was (when magazines still had national power and prestige) and the conversations it lit a fire under. There's also a clip from Johnny Carson where Oliver Reed (who had to have finished off the bottle of scotch he had on the plane backstage along with probably five or six glasses of wine) opens his drunk mouth about "feminist chauvinism" and a woman just walks up and dumps a glass of water on his head. He sits down and weakly puts up an 'empowerment' fist with his elbow on Johnny's desk. It's great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNh6ZWsBpYs If there's gonna be a Way of the Blade 3, I hearby nominate Tully Blanchard vs. Ronnie Garvin, Taped Fist Match, from this show. Phil, you wanna see this.

HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIIT. The Ron Garvin/Tully Blanchard Taped Fist match from that Bash is one of the best gimmick matches EVER. It's such a cool gimmick, especially for a puncher against a cheater, and to have five rounds, 30 seconds between, must be a winner, corner man for both guys. Wahoo is with Ronnie and of course JJ is with Tully. Garvin immediately has the advantage of course and if I was Tully or anybody else for that matter, I would never want to have that match even once. Ron is barely if at all pulling his punches and Tully is blowing up hardway, just EATING shots. Ron barely goes to the body which I think is a missed opportunity, however. Tully is just dying on his feet, taking huge downs, and firing back as best he can with "accidental" wrestling which the ref immediately yells about, or "mistakes" like Garvin getting flung into the post while in the ring. Garvin eventually takes some downs and it's more even, but Tully is clearly outmatched the whole time, which JJ tries to of course enable him to cheat to avoid. The finish is just perfect. The selling, the hate, the loathing of Tully, the whole gimmick, the blood. It's a four-star match (I don't go any higher). Go watch it ASAP.

Just watched the Manny vs. Baron match because I have seen so little of either, and well, for the obvious reasons. Bull bladed like Abby with the blades on his fingers just whacking away. He takes an ENORMOUS bump into the ropes spilling to the... field? Baron takes off his boot (and probably his belt which I missed), he steps on his pantleg and immediately his pants start falling down which is great. They miss a great opportunity for Baron to blade under the shirt when it's over his head, though. Paul Jones, of course, is dressed like Col. DeBeers because it's 1985.

Men are sick fucks and like to rape women. That's what the deal is. They want power and degradation in their sex.

This cracked me up. I have to agree you wrote probably the harshest takedown of him ever right there. Congrats.

If you read what I just did you wouldn't think that for a second (see weekly thread)

Yeah, if they can do at least two weeks of pimping for a dude everyone knows (Mistico) then they can do one night of it. I actually just read the Way of the Blade 2 chapter on that match and Mox puts it and Hangman over so hard, there is no possible way he is going to let this disappoint in any way. What it sounds like is a top three match of his in his eyes. He is going to want it to stand up to that. I don't even know if he'll want Deathriders interference, honestly. He likes it and Hanger that much.

Guess who's missing from there? EDIT: Oh, and Joey Ryan, for obvious reasons.

One of the things that was really special about LU is that it was just a murderer's row of guys. Ricochet, Aero Star, Santos Escobar, Mesias, Angelico, Texano Jr., Jeff Cobb (who never was better elsewhere), Strickland, the Lucha Bros., Taya, fucking Mascarita Sagrada, DR. WAGNER JR?!, Cheerleader Melissa, Melina, Drago, Hernandez, Paul London, Sammy Guevara, Willie Mack, Sami Callihan, Pimpi, Ricky Marvin, Iyo Skye, Sonny Kiss, Rey Horus, Flamita, Thunder Rosa, P.J. Black/Justin Gabriel, Wes Lee, Daga, Rey Rey, Mayu Iwatani, Kairi Sane, Jack Evans, Super Fly, Australian Suicide, and guys that if you want to put them in that category, Del Rio, Johnny Johnny, Cage, Hager, Matt Cross, Luchasaurus, Karrion Kross, Tommy Dreamer, Wade Barrett, Chavito... I think I got them all, looking at the Wiki. That's INSANE. I don't even know where Marty the Moth is now but that dude had the craziest match they ever did on the very last show.

I've honestly wondered what you did for a living given all of the watching but didn't feel comfortable asking. The Keep on DVD was a gift for last Xmas and I still haven't gotten around to watching it, but I have seen it once on TV (strangely, because it was practically a lost film for decades) and was taken by the visuals and, well, it's a Mann movie.

"El avión, jefe, el avión!"

I fear that if Vince had ever seen DC's Cyborg in a movie or something and heard Zeke's first name he would try and pair the two Back to ICP, I read all the Wiki and boy that's a lot of stupid in one place. Then, I found the Squidbillies ICP episode just to watch their Gathering commercial. "AN ACTUAL MURDERER!" always makes me lose it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlO8GHVRLYg&ab_channel=JuggaloMedia "WRESTLING ON TACKS" also was so on-point as well haha

I absolutely 100% thought he was cashing in on Biggie's death from the very jump, and hated his music, hated Mase, hated his money worship, hated his name, hated his image, hated his personality. Phony fucking capitalist fuck. I frankly think he got Big killed and likely not unintentionally. Suge was probably gunning for him and he was a sacrifice. And of course, guess what happened? In this country, with what, six separate charges of what are IMO crimes against humanity stacked against him? He only eats TWO. Fuck him forever.

I didn't mind Hurt Syndicate squashing (after the match, at least), because they're so damn good at it. Taz pointing out that how rough that bodyslam was was really cool, for example. As long as you show that the opponents have heart (and JetSpeed are pretty big on that) it's alright. Knight was basically like "that hurt, but fuck you, thank you sir may I have another".

I could be in the market for a two-deck cassette player if an adventure with repair doesn't pan out here; my second half finally died/is playing warped. (Yes, I still buy tapes, and yes, they still make them. Vinyl is $30 a pop at least these days, you gotta have another option.) Anyway. As usual I showed up half an hour late and for some reason the commercial is on with no video? Bizarre. Guess what? I liked the Mone match! At least what I saw of it.* I liked the Ibushi match too, he was wrestling within himself (as DEAN might say) and they worked hard at a lesser pace, plus Dirty Rotten Okada actually shows emotion instead of Moneybags Okada. Those punches in the corner were fuckin' nasty. The rest of the show... wasn't for me. If I don't see another four-way I will be happy, especially with WWE ripping them off by doing them now. This was a very AEW/PWG Workrate Wednesday. * I will still never understand why someone would have a person in a Tombstone position, and take a back bump with the person landing on their knees instead of spiking their head into the ground.

...I don't get it. Has the New Japan gone to your brain in a way I'm unaware of? EDIT: Okay I'm totally gonna read into this from your viewings... Maeda is to Akira as Inoki and Choshu would be to Kaneda and Tetsuo. Maeda is the brain in UWF's jar while two other guys fight over what's left behind. *bows*

Heh, apparently Warners lost the rights to make a live-action version.

This is priceless.

They're running through these pretty fast at irregular times. Thankfully it looks like FXX will have them streaming. I just saw the big multi-headed Sentinel battle in "Lifedeath Part 1" where and I'll admit it got real dusty all of the sudden. Heh, actually, my second reation was

I went to see where Big Ryck was, forgetting he was Ezekial Jackson, and he's successfully retired and running a wrestling school. Good on him. Also, his first name is actually Rycklon! Now tell me how stupid it would be not to have that just be your wrestling name...

The Fresero Jr./Pierroth Jr. Super Libre was more fun than serious, not quite heavy enough for an apuestas. There's a rudo ref on Pierroth's side (I don't know which Pierroth this is, but the real one grants out the name to plenty) and they work around that a lot. We do start out positive with Fresero's well-sliced '70s wrestling forehead getting ripped by some beer bottle glass immediately -- and I mean immediately. It kind of wanders the rest of the way. Pierroth talks a lot of shit like his namesake, especially to women in the audience while their white-hair dads amusedly look on. Fresero also has a Hecho en Mexico logo tattoo so I wonder if the whole Puerto Rican thing from Pierroth is something they're working as well. Fresero comes back with big overhand chops and eventually chucks an enormous tub with a drain in the bottom at P, who also gets the bottle treatment to lesser effect. Let's just call this one a house show apuestas in a big tin-roof airplane hanger because that's about the extent of it.

Here's some Roy Lucier finds that Segunda did reviews of Karloff Lagarde Jr/Mr Cóndor/Perro Silva vs Brillante/Diamante/Zafiro (AAA May 21st, 1995) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBz7UUdDfNE&ab_channel=RoyLucierAAALuchaLibre Opens with a textbook, totally one-sided rudo beatdown with the techs getting jumped before the ring entrances. Mr. Condor is wearing the ugliest top and is strangling people from the jump. There are some really reckless powerbombs and the rudos win the fall with a nasty spot where they cross Brilliante (I guess?)'s arms across his neck in opposite directions, and just pull while he's there on his knees, it's simple and brutal. It looks like the rudos are gonna continue to dominate but we get a turnaround despite some mask ripping and Mr. Condor gets posted, he walks off openly blading, and works the rest of the match with those yellow straps and the rest of him soaked in blood. "Muchos sangre por Meester Condor!" as one of the commentators yells -- then the poor dude eats an open kick right in the nuts. Ouch. So much for a tercera! No wonder Condor double-legs the guy who fouled him after he recovers a bit. Antifaz del Norte/Pantera del Ring/Volador/Winners vs Arandú/Jerry Estrada/Misterioso/Psicosis (AAA 5/21/95) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7Qzs9qnsXA&ab_channel=RoyLucierAAALuchaLibre This is just wonderful; it's everything you want from the new AAA gang, and I guess the faces are all Monterrey. It starts out pretty chippy between the rudos and tecnicos, the latter actually seem stand-offish and a little arrogant. Antifaz and Jerry clearly have some beef where on the floor they keep teasing someone stepping to the other, with this hilarious Estrada "move away, buddy" flap of the hand that alllllmost has Antifaz come at him. It's all this neat little tension building until they start with the bumping, Arandu taking some biggies and we get some neat avoidances and hanging-from-the-ropes bumps. But THEN, Jerry pulls out a fork and starts mutilating Antifaz. We don't see a lot of blood at all, but this is a BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS MATCH because Jerry wipes blood all over his face and LICKS AND PUTS THE FORK IN HIS MOUTH. YES. And after everyone brawls and we get a bunch of hyper speedy work (and the rudos almost beating each other up) we end with one of the biggest dive trains ever. Jerry further proves that he is A#1 and The Best by taking a flying bump head-over-heels all the way into the rows of chairs. Great finish too, one of the clearest unmaskings ever. So, not a lot of blood, but shows the importance of doing it right. Oh, and this is 1995 Psicosis. You know what it is.

I don't get that feeling about the interviews but YMMV