John E. Dynamite

Shoney's is every single highway exit in the eastern half of Tennessee. I would go so far as to call it oppressive.

I just want to know Collision's DVR numbers. I watch it live *maybe* once a month.

Well then, see you there.

He wasn't ready for Primetime.

Mike Bailey's shoot name is Emile Charles Baillargeon-Laberge. For some reason I find it adds depth to his character when I am cognizant of his overwhelming French Canadian-ness

Here's a very good episode WWE C TV - it's the Velocity before Wrestlemania XX. Outside of my shitty high school's drama program falling apart, it was 2004 Velocity that called me to the backyard oh so long ago... so I had to check if it was still great television and sometimes it really was. The first match on the broadcast is the match in question. and it is Jamie Noble vs. Paul London - Savannah, GA 3/2/04 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wroCYa9p57U Golden Age ROH INVADES~ WWE programming. They're given twice the amount of time you'd figure they'd have and the crowd is full of pre-Mania hype. The whole episode is quite a bit of fun.

Relatively comprehensible Spanish commentary para este gringo. So they clip everything from this match that doesn't involve Chico Flores being the active participant. It's basically a long heat segment on Chico, then the hot tag to Madril that gets clipped 30 seconds in, then the finish of Tolos winning with a knee drop. Issue is as far as I can tell Chicho's the least interesting guy in the match. He's fine enough at taking the heat, and I might be underrating him just because I can't see the actual payoff. This is a chunk of what's clearly a fun tag match, what we might call a WAR tag match which has always been the vibe I've got from the limited amount of NWA Hollywood I've digested. The crossover between Mexican/border town talent + deep cut US guys who didn't get poached nearly to the extent that Southern and Midwestern guys did when Vince Jr. rolled around creates matches that are anything but played-out to my eyes. The tiny bits of Madril's brawling babyface fire seems as good as I remember it, and MAN does Pritchard look young. I'd have loved to see him do anything here but it's all cut. The heels are pretty interesting and Ox is always a plus but it's Gran Goliath who gets the brunt of the time and he clearly knows what he's doing with Flores. I think I know Gran Goliath? I think he did some work in the Vince Sr./NJPW realm?? He's the most interesting rudo here. This is a baffling cut of an under-represented time + place in wrestling that leaves some major unscratched itches. I want to see Madril vs. Gran Goliath, I guess. I want to see the Dos Caras main event they half-announced at the start of the video. This Armstrong Alley YouTube channel is a trip and a half.

uuuhhh there are certain things that get selected a little too often. so, no classic japan. no joshi. no popular american wrestling tv. anything else is groovy.

I am starting this off with the former on account of it featuring ten guys I gotta write about and 36 minutes of action. THIRTY SIX, MY MAN. You're really putting me to WORK! As retribution here's 36 observations about this match, from minute to minute. --- 1. Osamu Kido’s deeply conservative haircut. It looks like he just got back from the war and his wife has asked him to grow out his crew cut and he’s simply *hated* himself once it got over ½ an inch. Osamu Kido never had a natural looking haircut in his life. It was like he was cursed to always look like he was wearing somebody else’s hair as a wig. 2.As though he read every word I just typed and deemed them entirely necessary to one-up Kido across time and space, Kantaro Hoshino still has some foil stuck in his hair from his perm. I’m not making this up. Inoki and Maeda are arguing about who should start the match but I can’t pay attention to it. Did nobody tell him? Is this a rib?? 3. We do get Inoki and Maeda to start, and I love how every bit of Inoki’s body and facial language is saying “alright, make me sell, bitch”. 4. Maybe the reason early-match limbwork became such a tired trend in NJPW is because people watched Yoshiaki Fujiwara dig for armbars like a dirty, dirty dawg and thought they could do it too. They can’t, nobody can. 5. Kids these days don’t know about Kantaro Hoshino. Him being the defacto Ricky Morton in these elimination matches is the best stuff he ever did., apologies to the Liger matches. 6. A young Kazuo Yamazaki is a strange lookin’ specimen. Some men are just B2BB (Born 2 Be Bald). Boy they’re tagging fast in this one. 7. Umannosuke Ueda is clearly part of some Squad Exchange program. It’s like like Tony Iommi doing a one-night only gig with the Rat Pack. He is literally tagged in for one second. 8. We’re beginning to ask the obvious question - does Yamazaki get eliminated first as the lowest guy on the totem pole? Or do we lose Hoshino or Kengo first to create a babyface disadvantage? 9. Kengo Kimura (who is sneaky tall, like Chrisitan or somebody like that) must have said something rude about Takada’s fauncy boots because he is now getting the shit kicked out of him. 10. A proud but stern Maeda decides to show the cubs what a real shit-kicking looks like. And when Yamazaki gets his turn to make aniki proud, he’s promptly backslided. Blackslid. Slidden. There are consequences to your actions, kiddo. 11. Hoshino vs. Kido is the first pairing that the crowd really doesn’t care about. 12. You know who notices? Inoki. 13. Inoki vs. Fujiwara is always a battle between the madness of civilization and the stability of barbarism. If I had any fukken clue what I was talking about I’d say their wrestling plays out like the correspondences between Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. 14. In almost all of his matches, Fujiwara will make a face that I can only refer to as a Luchador’s Grin. I think he would have done a great job emoting while wearing a mask. His eyes do significantly less work than the rest of his face. 15. Kengo and Maeda enter together - they have a chance to do a sequence with Maeda looking for revenge after Yamazaki’s elimination, but Fuijnami just tags in and I’m acting like I’m disappointed by the new pairing. But they don’t commit to that either. 16. Has Japan ever produced a more purely white-meat babyface than Tatsumi Fujinami? It’s not a knock. 17. Hoshino and Fujiwara (who are establishing themselves as the workhorses) do this AWESOME spot where Fujiwara is stacked ass-to-the-heavens on a backslide but still manages to get a shoulder up despite not really “kicking out”. Camera catches it perfectly. 3/4s of the crowd maybe not so much. 18. A tale as old as time - if you’re in an elimination tag and you’re getting a lot of shit in, it’s probably because you’re about to leave the match. Fare thee well, Hoshino. Go find your hair dresser and see who put them up to it. 19. Did Osamu Kido’s backdrop always look that *violent*? It’s like he has a vendetta against terminal velocity, trying to drop his man down as fast as possible. 20. Umannosuke Ueda (who I appreciate more than most) tags in for TWO seconds this time and has still done nothing. He has been downgraded to Geezer Butler at best. 21. I thought eliminations were over-the-top-rope in these 5-on-5’s but Kimura gets eliminated going under the bottom one? Eh? Did I have it wrong? 22. This observation is bathed in the benefit of hindsight, but it’s quite funny how non-shooty Takada’s stuff actually looked. To the untrained eye you wouldn’t think about it for a second, but his offense looks “too good”. I wouldn’t change Takada’s crazy career arc of UWF-> UWFi-> PRIDE-> HUSTLE for the world but I want to watch the alternate history where he’s a straightforward NJPW guy. 23. Ueda is going to get some love if he is *ever* tagged in, but the longer this goes the longer I realize the UWF team is kinda getting chumped and NJPW might not even need him. 24. Fujinami applies a sasori-gatame and gets kicked in the face by Akira Maeda. FORESHADOWING. I really do think the Choshu thing was a semi-honest botch like Maeda claims. 25. Inoki vs. Maeda doesn’t get enough credit as one of the greatest feuds to never happen. For both the assumed match quality + the insane backstage drama that would have doubtlessly unfolded. 26. Fujiwara and Fujinami being the two to announce “ok, the teams are trying to win now” is the correct call. And you can tell because they’re sweaty. 27. Working a minute-long headlock for both guys to go tumbling out is fine by me, brother. But I’m concerned because… 28. The only two NJPW guys left are Inoki and Ueda and whatever story they’ve been telling with Ueda’s forced non-participation hasn’t made any sense yet. And I don’t think the remaining UWF team actually has a chance, which might be dumb of me but there’s a vibe. 29. Like now it’s Inoki vs. Kido and I know how this is gonna go. They aren’t gonna swerve me here. 30. Ueda gets tagged in for a POP. Like, a quick, high, loud POP. This crowd wants Ueda vs. Maeda. They want a BAR FIGHT. 31. Ueda drags Maeda out of the ring for the double elimination and Maeda is PISSED. He hasn’t been this PISSED since his dad took his motocycle keys in high school. FUCK YOU, DAD, I HAVE A MEETING WITH MY DELINQUENT GANG. HOMEWORK IS FOR NERDS. YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND. Maeda’s soul is punching holes in drywall. 32. Look, it’s Inoki standing alone vs. Kido and Takada and that’s FINE, I guess. If you hate where this is going then I question why you’re watching 80’s NJPW at all. But I would much rather watch Maeda lose his shit on Ueda ringside and get the whole match thrown out. 33. Inoki 34. Beats 35. Everybody. 36. At least Inoki took some time to make Takada look like a million yen, if not bucks. And I get another Kido backdrop. That gets kicked out of at one. The issue isn’t a formula Inoki comeback, it’s that it happens directly after the BEST part of the match. It’s nice that both Inoki vs. Takada and Inoki vs. Kido are extended sequences because this match is so frenetic, so driven by its pieces constantly being in motion that there is relief in watching just one guy left on his team having to do his thing for a five-or-so-minute stretch. And you’re just haunted by the specter of great singles matches that never happened during the UWF vs. NJPW stuff, but this is still a consistently engaging 35 minutes of top-shelf work, real stakes and a hot crowd.

I liked the finish because it happened to Adam Copeland. Not just because it's a callback/tribute, but because there's an element of fair play to it. Edge was the one who codified the now-common trope of briefcase cash-ins happening after long matches and beatdowns. So having it happen to him like this is legitimate dramatic irony.

RIP Killer Khan

My primary shit-give will be if Tsuji and Uemura make a real attempt to steal the show.

I was gonna do a 85 AJPW deep-ish cut but it's been written up by segundacaida and Matt in the Treadmill thread and has been posted on this board a couple of times so INSTEAD, here's this freakin' classic that I stumbled across that doesn't even have a single cagematch rating. Javier "Monarca" Cruz vs. Ciclon Ramirez Hair vs. Hair 6/10/1994 Arena Mexico https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_M5iuZXLsI Cruz had been losing his hair about every year-and-a-half, in matches against El Dandy, Emilio Charles Jr., Jerry Estrada and especially Apollo Dantes. Ciclon Ramirez had long been saddled with a weird gimmick and had lost his mask less than a year earlier to El Felino. But this match doesn't require a ton of context outside of two dudes without much to lose and willing to beat the shit out of the other guy to keep their luscious locks intact. Blood. Topes. BLOOD. TOPES.

Yeah, alright, I'll buy. It's also a character-appropriate way to do it that puts over Edge's legacy while slyly admitting that the fanbase doesn't really want to see an Edge reign where he goes over a bunch of homegrowns in singles matches.

I don't mind a portion of the product being dedicated to storylines that are a bit more New Yorkish, but I wonder how much of AEW's perceived "off year" has to do with MJF's title reign. Even the good stuff like when Cole was in one piece. I don't pose the question as a hater, I'm just concerned that there's always gonna be a dissonance between it and the rest of the card, even when it's more "alright" than "awful" like tonight. It'll be interesting to see if there's a vibe shift after he drops the belt.

we can do anything. archive.org, bilibili, rutube, facebook, we can hack the pentagon and watch big show do a moonsault. we can hack the pentagon jr.

Who's letting all these cops onto the board? I have a lot of post-Acclaimed fantasy booking ideas, though. Involving MJF's post championship programs, Jay White getting his win back, Billy's retirement match and a Bowens singles run. Most of it is pretty obvious and I'd like to see some action in that regard first-half 2024.

Japan Shoot Style Bob Backlund is one of my favorite wrestlers of all time and I will never not recommend the entire ouvre to everyone.

We did this in the backyard. A heel who had been getting wins off of flash pinfalls vs. a brawling babyface known for knockouts. It worked pretty well. But I think the rules of a traditional Texas Deathmatch will never click with any major modern fanbase no matter how hard you try and I continue to applaud Tony Khan's bravery in underestimating the intelligence of the American people in this one regard. Nobody ever lost money that way, y'know.

There is real-sport precedent for three-way ties that has made its way into pro wrestling. The 1997 AJPW Champion's Carnival finished with a three-way tie between Misawa, Kawada and Kobashi in a one-block tournament and I'm pretty sure they ran the finals under sumo wrestling playoff rules. Of course this broke in a very non-sumo way where Misawa and Kobashi drew and Kawada beat the both of them afterwards. But the G1, CC, etc. operate on a lot of sumo-derived ceremony, save for occasional and current World Cup dalliance.

https://youtu.be/TyaAkPfH8Pk?si=u687cvky9dpKo6R_

This is Dynamite Kid's TV debut - truth be told I'm not a huge DK fan or anything, always been in the camp that the Tiger Mask series was overrated and as much as I appreciate his tag runs in WWF and AJPW I was always popping harder for Matilda. I'll tell you what I do like - I like psychologically unique matches. And World of Sport is very very good at providing those - when the mid-00's Hero/Cabana/Nigel/Claudio/Danielson/Quackenbush contingent were studying at the altar of Johnny Saint, they weren't just ripping off the wristlock counters, they were also building their midcard matches in Midlothian around weird little ideas like the one seen here. This match is almost entirely built around Dynamite Kid's ability to hit a resorte. There's an obvious flaw to this as the resorte isn't an offensive maneuver and DK doesn't really generate a lot of offense off of it. But Alan Dennsion (who I've always enjoyed) and his short, old strongman gimmick is a great foil for it. He sells the frustration of not being able to take the Kid off his feet without getting too heelish or whiny about it, so when he figured out how to wear down DK enough for him to land flat on his back, or when he figures out he can just whip him into the corner, it feels like a cheerable accomplishment. They do a lot of stuff here that works real well despite the face vs. face dynamic, not just the ratcheting frustration but also the strength vs. speed stuff, Dennison correctly choosing which of the Kid's offense not to sell, and the big injury finish where (through no fault of Dennison's) DK throws himself throat-first into the top rope. This is an effective showcase for a 17 year old Tom Bellington but I'd argue it's a better showcase for the kind of stuff World of Sport TV is uniquely good at. KENT WALTON, first of all, was really on his game at the desk. And you can't help but be jealous of how the crowd is conditioned. They're whip smart when it comes to the technical stuff but they're still along for the ride emotionally. I love how they pop when Dennison reveals the age of his opponent in the post-match promo. Kinda makes you want to see what'll happen the next time this young man is on TV.

Alright, let's get weird. I posted this is in Matches Thread months ago but I was just thinking about it the other day and I've got to properly foist this upon somebody. It's the kind of thing one rarely gets to witness, and certainly a match that helped me understand the artform more. Arena GDL 3rd Anniversary - Kid's Division Exhibition Match https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ca4JyaHcMo

Funny little match. It feels like two singles matches being viewed in parallel instead of one entire handicap match. There's almost no double-team offense, no quick tags, no exploitation of the ruleset or (wo)man advantage as a means to win until the very end. The first sequence with Unagi lasts awhile - for some reason, they go with tentative shoot-style matwork and they keep it realistic. Like one of those old Minoru Suzuki in Pancrase matches where he's toying with somebody to make a show out of it. Like Masakatsu Funaki against some Dutch guy with a bad blonde fade choosing to kneebar him in the ninth minute instead of the third The Oka half is consistent babyface fire bashing itself against Hashimoto's brick wall and it feels a lot more like a proper pro wrestling match. Lotta screaming on Oka's part. Chippy one-counts. Stikes getting no-sold. The good basic stuff you expect to get when you put on a match like this. There's a slow, scream-heavy, fighting spirit attempt at a crucifix pin from Oka to Hashimoto that felt really effective and fresh, and Oka's stockiness in no way gets in the way of her technique. I'm impressed. Unagi's energy picks up once she gets to uncork her more traditional offense of facebusters and legdrops, and is given an adequate amount of time to struggle against an enthusiastically applied wrist-clutch abdominal stretch. But even though Hashimoto is selling for and working with Unagi in a way that paints her well ahead of Oka, there's this undercurrent of bullyish disrespect that Unagi doesn't really have the skills or fire to respond to. This is obvious in some of the transitional groundwork but laid starkly bare in the strike exchanges. So when Oka tags in for her final run and throws a series of dropkicks that slowly get sold more and more (from about 5% to 40%), and when she gets a real nearfall off of a body press, it really feels like something is happening. Like progress is being made. Things break down into the expected two-on-one with mere minutes left to go. Oka gets a steady run of almost-believable rollup nearfalls before getting maimed by a couple of Hashimoto lariats, saved by Unagi when she should have left things well enough alone. So we get one last, badly-needed bit of handicap match madness when Hashimoto takes it home by powerbombing Unagi on top of Oka and pinning them both. Which feels like the kind of finish the match was naturally leading towards. Nobody looked bad in this one, but clearly this would have been better served as a Hashimoto vs. Oka match, or even a full on tag match with Hashimoto's regular Team 200KG partner Yuu. One of the reasons I say this is because this match didn't (or rather hasn't) led to such singles match, which is a shame. But now that I've seen half of that match, I'll keep my eyes open for it if it ever comes to be.

so is foie gras. it's french and expensive and worth it and i shun their haters. Rudy 2023 Highlight Reel of Dudes Going "Actually Nah I Don't Want To Do This" will be the finest thing produced by the league all year.