Casey

Bryan Alvarez is trying to push the theory that Shelton, Bobby and by extension MVP don’t want to lose matches and only look strong because they want to go back to WWE. lol

I bought Anthem on Xbox last year for like $1, so I’m not too upset, but it’s still annoying that they won’t patch it just to be a single player offline game or something.

well it was only a few weeks ago that Swerve explicitly said he doesn’t trust Hangman still, so…

They crossed the 20k mark yesterday. WrestleTix hasn’t updated his Twitter for All In yet, but his Patreon has the count. You’re also comparing the first AEW All In, that was in a starving market, to Texas, which both companies hit frequently.

gotta put those Father/Son tag belts to use. I expect the Women's tag titles to be announced soon, maybe at All In? I could see it being a big announcement the week after maybe.

Are they doing a physical version of Unfinished Business? Or is it strictly digital since it’s a “standalone expansion”?

Truly the Xbox news we all needed this week.

“You guys might hurt people but you’re gonna have to learn how to kill” was pretty dope I’m not even gonna lie

EVP titles versus Swerve/Ospreay can't challenge for the World title for a year I'm riding the Mox train until I'm proven wrong. The news about Darby coming back any day now has solidified my feelings, especially if he returns during the gauntlet match. If he wins, I think it's over for Hangman. The stip doesn't do anything to quell these feelings, since Hangman is 1-0 in Texas Death against Mox.

Did you see the spoon reflection?

You know I was gonna do it lol. And my answer might surprise you maybe. Looking back at this with hindsight, yeah, obviously it is. It lead to a lot of problems, and not to mention Punk doing the stupid stage diving shit and then busting his foot up. TK's decision to keep the title on Punk all summer was dumb but that's another conversation. But in the moment, no, this wasn't the "worst booking decision" in AEW's history. Hangman had a 6 month title reign at that point, and beats the big two debuts that happened at All Out the previous year (Danielson & Cole). Punk was as hot as he had ever been in AEW coming off the MJF feud. If Hangman was cold with audiences at that point, it wasn't because of Punk, I'd hang that on the boring Adam Cole feud. Is Hangman's title run tainted in retrospect? Maybe. I wouldn't say so, he was the first person to beat Bryan Danielson during that run, that's not nothing - he was extremely protected during that period. He beat Adam Cole twice, who had only previously lost ONE singles match (to Orange Cassidy). He was also extremely protected. He was a babyface champion at a time where there was another babyface that was hotter than him. I think the real answer for AEW is Cody losing to Chris Jericho.

I have to imagine ZSJ versus Ospreay is on the table for Forbidden Door.

Danhausen as a comedy jobber in NXT would slot in pretty perfectly. This is the same program that had a character running a university scam backstage and has a mafioso killing people off-screen and currently in a three way struggle for control of a "family" that consists of like three people. Having Danhausen pop up and do his meme shit and then lose to whatever gymnast or college baseball player they hired last week isn't out of the realm of possibility.

What if they do something completely new and have Mox just beat Hangman clean?

I might be confusing it with another Marvel show from that time, but I don't think I am: it's a slight miracle that the OG series even turned out the way it did, because originally the pitch was for Stan Lee to be the narrator and it'd be a self-contained week to week show. I'm also pretty sure that FOX Kids didn't even want to do the series because they believed it would be a bomb since X-Men wasn't a proven commodity outside of the comics, like Batman was. That's also kind of nuts to me, as an adult - a network had a Marvel & DC animated show on their channel at the same time. Maybe I'm bias, but Fox Kids was, in my mind, definitely the "Marvel" channel even though the Batman cartoon was stupidly, massively popular. The coffee table book (Making of the Animated Series) is super interesting for little tidbits like that. Although I'm sure most of the stuff found in it is also in the book Previously on X-Men by Eric Lewald. The coffee table book has art designs and all that cool stuff, though. Which reminds me, I need the '97 version too. No, I'm not a huge fucking nerd for X-Men TAS, why do you ask??

so, WrestlePurists are reporting that AEW believed Darby would be able to do the Owen tournament, but obviously that never happened and that's when he started the Mt. Everest trek. They go on to say that he's come back, unscathed, and could be ready to go right now if they call on him to return. And he's expected back "imminently". Every day we inch closer to All In, I'm becoming more skeptical that the plan is for Hangman to win next Saturday. I still think this story is designed to redeem him in kayfabe, but also give him another character trait of still not being able to move on and let go of the past and that it'll cost him. I can easily see a scenario where Swerve & Ospreay vanquish the Bucks and their EVP titles, and they both come out to counteract the Death Riders but Hangman won't accept Swerve's help and, boom, he loses. Darby returns in the Casino Gauntlet, wins, and thus starts the build to All Out (or Full Gear?) and the overdue payoff for all that from last year. I'm just not convinced, and I won't be until it happens. But if it does, it's not like I'll be mad. I love Hangman too. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't think Ospreay/Mox and Hangman & Swerve versus the Bucks is what they should've went with.

Perfect Dark cancelled, the Initiative studio closed down, new ZeniMax MMO that’s been in development since 2018 is cancelled, layoffs at Raven, nearly 50% of the staff at Turn 10 fired… bad day at Xbox. I’m gutted about Perfect Dark.

Oh the ending to the show fucking SLAPS. I love it, this is definitely one of the better Disney+ shows. also, I really didn’t expect Zelma to show up in this but it makes sense given all the magic stuff + the rumor of the Strange Academy show/movie.

David Dastmalchian is M. Bison, and Cody Rhodes is in talks to be Guile.

If Santino Marella can hold the IC title two times and the Tag & US titles once each, I think Danhausen will be fine.

It would be great if they had Alundra versus Bull from the OsakaMania show but I'm not sure that anything beyond the fancam recording of it exists. I'd love it if they posted any of the Mania shows or matches from Osaka, Sapporo, Nagoya or Yokohama. Not counting her cup of coffee with WWF in the '86, Bull only ever wrestled Heidi Lee Morgan & Alundra Blayze. Two people across a basically one year run with them. That's insane. Not that the women's side was especially deep at that time or anything, but still. She leaves in April, and then they start bringing in all the joshi after that pretty much.

So he fits right in with 95% of people that are going to see Superman

I'm not a fan of the animation tbh, but I'll still watch it because I'm an MCU freak. Plus this has (an) Iron Fist in it, so I'm down.

Next week will be the best birthday week/weekend for me. Day before is Dynamite, turn 36 on Thursday (Collision), I'm off work that weekend and that's when Supercard of Honor, All In, Evolution and SNME happen. Not to mention whatever indies are running shows in the Texas area that weekend that'll be on IWTV or Fite. I'm gonna overdose on cake and wrestling, y'all.

AEW doomsayers are so taxing, man. I especially love the "jacked up ticket pricing" thing, because it's kind of just not true. I could be on TV, opposite hard cam, in the back of that section, for a little over $300. If I wanted that same seat (well, hard-cam side, that seat/section has been sold) for SummerSlam, it would be around $800+. AEW's VIP package is $1k, and the other guys are anywhere from $5k to $2k for the platinum tickets (which isn't even the most expensive). Entry level tickets are around $30. SummerSlam's cheapest ticket is almost $90. Fuck, let's look at All Out. That same seat I mentioned is $540 USD. Cheapest is $38. Fucking TNA is charging almost $800 for second row, opposite hard-cam tickets to Slammiversary. But, yeah, inflating ticket prices to seem more successful or whatever. Sure. Maybe I'm stanning, I don't really give a fuck. If you want good PPV/TV wrestling from a major company, their prices are still the best in the industry. Miss me with this bullshit.