NikoBaltimore

I've been watching '94 ECW for the past couple months and am coming up to WWC so I'm looking forward to it. '93 ECW was fun to see how they sort out the NWA with Paul taking more control but '94 is where it's at. With his passing it irritates me how little Heyman thought of/thinks of Sabu considering how incredibly essential he is to ECW's growth in this period of time.

I'll do a road report tomorrow but yeah agreed on all counts.

Holy shit. It's the right call but I didn't expect them to do it so soon.

Fuuuuuuuuck yeeeeeeeesssss. I played the first one so many times be it in Greece or at gym. So bring on round two.

I have full trust in the Philly show being amazing. But goddamn this card is pretty wild so far.

Worth noting it's pretty fucking wild seeing a hype video for Woods/Lawlor on ROH this week (timestamp at 9:45) Matt pointed it out on Bluesky and it's cool hearing Ian mention Dean. https://bsky.app/profile/mattd-sc.bsky.social/post/3lpch2yapvs2m

It always felt out of place to me seeing Sabu in WCW or WWF/E. The bigger the place the weirder it was seeing him in it. Not saying it was a waste of using him, just weird is all.

I just saw the match and yeah it was hard at times to watch. He was going on about something in his entrance for quite a while and the flow was just odd throughout the match. Don't get me wrong, when he wasn't randomly stopping the match or spots it was cool seeing him do Sabu things. But I don't know if I can recommend it. And no, I don't know or care to speculate anything about kratom and how it may or may not have factored into it. Anyway, I definitely heard about Sabu before I had a chance to see him. I can't do justice speaking about the guy but you all nailed it. RIP, Sabu.

I saw that at a store years ago and tried to read the first 10-15 pages. But at the time it wasn't the type of wrestling book I was looking for and it didn't interest me after that. Looking at it now I can say I appreciate the philosophical look at wrestling they're doing and wouldn't mind giving it another try.

We had no intention of getting a Switch 2 for at least a year. But a friend of my wife pre-ordered from a store and also tried Nintendo's site. He got the invite and asked if anybody wanted to order one. We jumped at the chance and I need to make room for when the system comes in. I'm looking forward to it yet I don't play the Switch nearly as much as her. But it'll be fun playing Mario Kart since we got the bundle and I wouldn't mind destroying shit in the Donkey Kong game.

Wasn't that done when him and Ryder won the tag titles at WM? From what I remember it was a good moment but they nothing with them and they were released soon after. Harley though is a good call. The wackier she got the more people wanted to cheer for her. When it was just her after Saraya's absence it got the ball rolling to where she is now without throwing shade at Saraya it was the best thing to happen to her.

I side more with Mystman, AxB and whoever has a similar mindset. At the same time if a wrestler is known for having a knockout blow I'd like to see him challenge for a title and just knock them out withing a minute. If all other matches are going to be competitive and have time if you build up the challenge well enough it would have the shock factor but also not feel Russo-like. I'm not saying do it with the AEW world title but maybe for the TNT/TBS championship depending on the person.

Gotcha. I didn't have caffeine/coffee yet and my tired brain was confused for a bit.

I'm not sure what you're referring to about the "by Willow's standards" line considering she's a great wrestler. But that might have been my favorite match of the night and that's despite the fuck finish. By having Marina interfere it can go one of two ways. Either Stat didn't realize what happened and is so full of guilt she finds a way to help Willow against the Death Riders. Or it's the start of a ruse where it leads to her joining DR. I hope it's not the latter but I just don't want anything to not happen as a result of all this. I might need to re-watch Bailey/Dralistico as in an effort to watch things before Max cut the feed I skipped over chunks of the match. But from what I saw it was pretty darn good. Bailey has been around for a long time yet for some reason since joining I'm becoming a fan of the guy. Also, Toni's promo was a very effective use of the venue. She is so dialed into everything that it's hard to not love her.

He's been doing this ever since he started the open challenge and it's wonderful. He's delusional but once this turns him face it can be spun as him believing in himself despite the losses. Then when he finally wins the people will go nuts and it'll make it all worth it. Plus I'd rather see this from Max than him doing questionable raps that sometimes got him in trouble.

It's too bad the main thing Willow did recently was counter what Marina was trying to do. If Marina was a better wrestler it'd make perfect sense to have a feud between the two. But it feels like they're protecting Marina which isn't doing Willow any favors. EDIT: That felt mean for me to say that about Marina. To clarify she is pretty solid when doing squash matches but when going against a name talent things fall apart. With Death Riders she has a presence to her and does contribute well when called upon. It's just the wrestling that feels lacking to me.

My brain was fried from work and I put down Dru Hill when it should have been Sisqo. Whoops. ANYWAY, McAfee's show was fine as background noise during lunch break. But the more he was on Raw the more insufferable he became. Add to it the Ole Miss situation and it didn't take long for me to sour on him. That said a friend of mine showed me his promo from I guess a week or two ago where he challenged Gunther. If you didn't know much about the guy it's easy to think he's an overly excited yet decent enough guy. I get why they love him. It's just too bad he doesn't know when to shut the fuck up.

The most over part of The Righteous was the finger snapping. Once the bell rang it wasn't that they were bad but there was no reason to care. They had no forward progression even with Jake and honestly Dutch deserved a singles run instead of being saddled with Vincent. I hope in time they bring Dutch back and give him a fighting chance.

I'm thankful for what he contributed to the team but I'm not surprised or sad they cut him.

That's just mean, poor Dru Hill didn't deserve to be compared to WWE like that. Especially since they grew up in Baltimore which I appreciate. At the same time it stings because you're not wrong yet I'm with Eddie on this one.

I'm doing my best to stay out of this one but the line "Repeat the verse, same as the first" will be a thing for some time.

I feel like I want to do Dean. DBD and Collision and drive there each time. I wonder at what point I start losing my mind in the process.

I knew I forgot something. Yeah, what they had on the other side was grand too. Speaking of Kyle, for real that guy is a motherfucking STAR! They absolutely need to get a title on him ASAP. And his entrance gear is awesome too.

I was chatting with somebody from a group I'm part of and mentioned how Luther saluted the Trans flag at the Boston show. She doesn't watch wrestling yet thought it was fucking awesome. I felt a big sense of pride in the whole thing. Fast forward to Wednesday where on top of a really fun show you get this. Had to pause, take it in and just let the warm and fuzzy feelings take over.

I didn't mention HHH because I wanted to focus my point on two people and not risk diluting it. But he fully cemented himself in "Fuck that guy" status late last week. I might have focused on two people but yeah fuck him too. The reason I wanted to see what his response would be was to see how he would try to spin this in an effort to ease the blow. I would like to say he is smart to realize there's no good way out of this but that would imply he did something right.