gordi

Just watched that. It's easy to find on YouTube. Yikes, what an insane bloodbath! Exceeded Atlantis vs Vilano III in the visceral gore department. Absolutely astonishing that two guys at that age (they are both in their 50s, right?) could pull off that level of ultra-violence. Right up there with Cody vs Dustin for Blood Bath of the Year, Brawl of the Year, and storyline-culminating Epic of the Year. Might be recency bias considering I just finished watching it... But this definitely belongs in the MOTY conversation.

But somehow you take my comments seriously Although, I guess, to be honest, WWE's open and blatant contempt for their audience does actually kind of bother me. It's pretty much driven me away from watching their shows. I pretty much watch all wrestling in a very similar way to what you do. I mostly read recaps check out stuff that sounds really good on dailymotion or places like that. I have been watching Dynamite and Dark straight through... but it looks like I'll be fast-forwarding through parts of those shows soon, too. I will be watching WK all the way through, this year. Both days.

This week in apparent SmackDown subtext: People who like wrestling are lame and deserving of mockery (per Elias' song about The Revival). Big sweaty guys are gross and disgusting (per Mandy Rose after she hugged Otis). How can you dudes keep giving so much support to a company that so openly despises you (assuming that - with the exception of Stacey - you, like me, are big sweaty guys who love pro wrestling)?

I don't know how or when I will ever find time to check out the stuff you are writing up here (I barely have time to keep up with AEW these days) but I wanted to express my support for you writing this up. Definitely an under-explored corner of the pro wrestling world.

I might actually get out to see New Beginning in Osaka in person this year, so it would suit me just fine if at least one of those guys got a big match on that show.

Just reading about it got a legit lol outa me. I'm hoping it makes me laugh again when I get around to watching Dark later this week.

Jeff Jarrett in the early days of TNA?

That is totally f'n funny, eh?

I feel like Shingo, MiSu and Ishii are all being a little short-changed here. Frankly, I'd be more excited to see any of those three in Jay White's place. Still very much looking forward to WK this year, though. A lot of potentially very good stuff on those cards.

Definitely going to try it out. I will probably stick to the original, though, unless the sequel is spectacular. From what I understand, the sequel is set in modern times. The nostalgia aspect of the 80s and 90s game is a big hook for me. I'm interested to see what the new game is like.

This is the game that Mad Dog tipped me off to and that I'm still playing regularly two full years later: 80s Mania Wrestling Returns. After two years of building up my card collection, I finally booked my first ***** card! And my second one.

Yeah, that's right. Dynamite matches don't overstay their welcome. AEW scratches a lot of my wrestling itches, including the desire for fun 12-ish-minute-long matches. 40-plus minutes is pretty long for a death match, though. I mean, I enjoyed it, but it's not like AEW * never * gets indulgent. Thinking about it, I maybe think that too many matches go long these days because I tend to go out of my way to check out highly recommended matches... and of course those matches tend to go pretty long And I tend to check out big WWE shows during RumbleMania season, which is when they get most over-indulgent... And Dominion and Wrestle Kingdom, which... No wonder I keep getting burned out on wrestling sometimes. It's like an all-you-can eat ice cream sundae buffet.

That's right! Excellent example. I really enjoyed that match, too. Dominion '18 was perhaps the point where I stopped fighting and learned to love Omega, The Young Bucks, and the modern go-go-go style. (And I wouldn't be surprised if the Thread Killer enjoyed that match as well). Not to hijack this thread, but: It's pretty interesting that two of the matches that belong in the general discussion of Best Ever are both 3-falls matches that break the typical mode. I don't think that ever occurred to me until just now. There probably is a 1960s or 70s AJPW GOAT-candidate match (Baba vs Destroyer or vs Race, maybe?) that doesn't have a quick pinfall One more would make it a trifecta. (I think Jumbo vs Funk '76, for example, does in fact have one quick fall... but it's been a couple of years since I last watched it).

^^^ Agreed with everything you said. All respect to Cassidy for making that work.

Gave me an excuse to watch it again, so I am grateful. It's not easy to come up with another example. Maybe something from AJPW in the 70s?

That is seriously impressive. Dallas Cowboys Hall of Famer Larry Allen is the only other person I have ever seen bench for reps like that.

Here you go. It's a pretty good one, too:

Two hours is not too long if the show is well-written, well-paced, and has some flow and some variety. YMMV, but for me that seems pretty rare recently. It's not just the length of the shows, either. So many matches these days seem to be aiming to be 20+ minute Meltzer-pleasing ****+ classics. I'm getting sick and tired of great matches There's a ramen place I go to with my wife and daughters once or twice a month. The ramen is reliably good. Nothing special, but there is a lot of variety. The sides are not bad, either. I particularly like the fried rice. The gyoza are solid, unspectacular, often on sale. They have unlimited free kimchi-style spicy fermented vegetables of some sort, which my wife really likes. The girls get to choose a free toy with their kids meal. They have cheap soft-serve and you can choose matcha, strawberry, or chocolate sauce. I love that place. It's just right for an evening out with my family. I am never not happy when we go there. I'm not always in the mood for gourmet ramen. It's really very nice, once in a while. Sometimes I just want a tasty bowl and some soft serve. I'm not always in the mood for self-consciously great wrestling, but lately that seems to be pretty much all anyone wants to serve me... Sometimes I just want a nice 12-minute back-and-forth match with maybe a nice shine to start, a heat spot in the middle, and big move or two at the end, and perhaps an angle or promo on the side.

I agree. Which is I why I popped over here to ask about it.

Thanks for the write-up. Sounds, as you say, Like a fun show but not one I'd wanna pay 20 bucks to see. Also:

Oh, OK. But now I am going to be disappointed if Finlay doesn't get the gig.

Yeah, the subtext to that Elias/Bailey thing scanned as pretty nasty. Otis really seems to be good at what he does. I will go out of my way to watch Heavy Machinery, Viking Machinery (or whatever), and particularly Keith Lee highlights on youtube or on the recap siates. Those guys are all a lot of fun to watch.

I am (sincerely) glad to hear that it comes across better on TV because, in reading WWE recaps, the last few months of WWE TV (and particularly SD on FOX) come across as brutally terrible. Were the ham and threesome angles anywhere near as bad as they sounded?

11 weeks in, and in a way AEW stands out more for what they are not doing wrong than what they are doing right. I don't watch WWE any more (might tune in for RumbleMania) but I follow along on recaps and read the threads here, because I enjoy that. As I wrote on the WWE thread, it seems that these were all actual storyline reasons for fighting this week: - You gave our manager, who is vegan, a Christmas ham. For that: YOU WILL PAY. - A guy who is supposedly funny and entertaining sang a song about having a threesome with myself and another female wrestler. While singing that song, he mentioned that my haircut makes me look like a dude. You laughed at that. Now, YOU WILL PAY. - Last week, you poured dog food all over me. This week you have tied another wrestler up in chains, and are threatening to pour dog food over him. Here I come to MAKE YOU PAY by pouring dog food on you! With an apparent subtext that we should automatically hate men who don't eat ham and women who don't want to be in our threesome fantasies. FFS As long as that is the bar that AEW has to clear, they will have my viewership. They have succeeded in getting Darby Allin, Riho, Private Party, MJF and others over with me. They have failed in getting Brandi, Baker, Spears and Hangman over with me thus far, among others... Cody, Jericho, and Mox are all legit stars. Omega and the Young Bucks seem to be holding themselves back, trying to get other wrestlers over... I am OK with that right now. The matches are move-tastic and often overlong, but I have come to accept that as the state of pro wrestling at the end of the 2010s. I continue to hold out hope fore more variety. Having Cody, Dustin, and Tully around make me think that there is a chance they will rub off on the younger wrestlers. At least everyone in AEW is generally trying their best to tell a story in there. And there is some variety in the stories they are trying to tell. Mainly, though, they just have to keep * not * being WWE, and I will be happy.