gordi

I have no comment on the podcast... but that picture you are using as your avatar is absolutely one of my all-time favourite PWI covers. Just an iconic image, in my opinion. Nice choice.

Orndorff and Idol are an interesting good guy tag team in that they could easily work just as well as a bad guy pairing. All you need to do to get them over as babyfaces is have them play to the crowd, and put them in there against a couple of true heels. And it works! They should stick together, maybe get a tag team name. I like how Mulligan, Mr. Brad, and the Assassins all cheat to win in different ways.

For me it's absolutely Osaka Pro Wrestling. From roughly 2009-2014 I was a regular attendee of their shows and their drinking parties and other events. I'd just moved here, my Japanese was very poor, and I was absolutely clueless about everything, but the fans and the staff and the wrestlers went out of their way to make me feel welcome. It was such an amazing atmosphere. There were people I met there who were among my first friends in Japan, and my best drinking buddies, and for a couple of years Osaka Pro was pretty much my second family.

I have a little business teaching conversation, travel, and business English to adults (here in Nara City, Japan, where I live) and I run occasional side hustles in event security and personalized tour-guiding. I love my work. I love my life. My wife is a mid-wife at the maternity ward of the local prefectural Hospital. We have two beautiful little girls, four and six years old. Who else has kids here? Who else is married? As for video games, I still love Fire Pro and I play a match on Fire Pro World (the new one) on my PC about 4 times a week. I gave up playing Madden Mobile to free up time for family stuff and Armchair Booking. I like Japanese Strategy Role Playing Games. Disgaea is my favourite. I still bust it out on DS from time to time.

I am excited about Sting vs Bad News. That is an intriguing match-up! What a chaotic scene with Slickster's men putting Bret down hard. I like the touch of having Anvil cover him up to protect him. Really looking forward to Showdown at Shea II. Gonna see some fireworks on the 4th of July! Horsemen in WWF is a resounding success so far.

I am not sure which was the more shocking reveal: that M.S.W. turned out to be Ron Simmons or that R.A.M. was Hulk Hogan alll along, brother. Memorial Day Bash just keeps getting hotter and hotter. Rich vs Gilbert, LLT, absolutely puts it over the top as a must-see event.

DiBiase & Hansen vs Dusty & Duggan is just such a first-rate pure quality pro wrestling match-up. I can only imagine the heat for that one. I love the picture you paint of Armand bravely hanging on Bundy's back while JJ panics about maybe losing the 10 Gs. Awesome image. Greatness is a perfect name for a heel team like Sammartino & Robinson. You don't need any other reason to boo them, that name does the trick.

I have to agree with spaldoni and SirE, with that big title win for Big Dust and that re-lock the cage and re-start the match gimmick, I can only imagine nuclear heat.

Just ask Dynamite Kid what happens when you mess with a Rougeau, lol. Giant Baba appreciates the hat tip at the start of the show.

I am happy to see "Diamond" Timothy Flowers in action in this game. He was absolutely the best guy on the local Vancouver scene for most of the mid 1980s.

I'll bet the TO crowd was hot for Bruiser Brody vs The Botswana Beast. I have to imagine that, in a long match like that, Martel and Adonis bumped and sold a lot for The Hart Brothers before ultimately going over.

Great to see a long title defense on WWF TV in the 80s! In classic style, too, as Flair makes Santana look like a million bucks before barely hanging on to the strap. As always, it's good to see Gantner getting the big spotlight moments he was never accorded in our universe. Interested to see what happens next wit the the Bulldogs and Demolition. Flair is absolutely welcome to come and chase Hogan over here in Japan. Any time!

The mystery partner angle is a great way to hold my interest.

Well, since we've shifted to talking about attractive women in wrestling, I think Syuri is gorgeous and athletic and a nice person: And I will always have a special place i my heart for my old drinking buddy Apple Miyuki:

His '77 run vs Flair, maybe?

Good call, NickH!

Great idea for a topic! Along similar lines, which wrestler had the * shortest * time between two pretty great matches? Examples: Bob Backlund vs Ken Patera (Texas Death Match, 5/19/80) and vs Dusty (5/27/80, in New Japan) - 8 days Jumbo vs Misawa 4/18/91 and Misawa, Kawada, & Kobashi vs Jumbo, Taue, & Fuchi 4/20/91 - 2 days Benoit & Jericho vs Austin & HHH (RAW 5/21/01) and vs E&C, Hardys, Dudleys (SD, 5/24/01) - 3 Days (There is almost certainly an argument to be made for Kong or Hokuto and/or Kansai having done it within a few hours during the Big Egg V*TOP tournament...)

The Big Dan Boot, followed by the Big Dan Leg Drop... hmmm... maybe Real American Machine is Dan Spivey!

I'd love to see Owen vs Kokina in this setting.

Great use of the talent you've got on your roster. You've already got some intrigue set up, making us wonder what might happen next. And the way you have Renner narrating the action gives Big Time a distinct feel. When you get the time, I suggest you read and comment on everyone else's shows as well.

I am not an expert or fanatic for classical music, but I have been to the opera a couple of times and watched some more on TV. Mozart is a guy whose music is sometimes really hard for me to get into. I can see loving his concertos or symphonies and bits of his operas, but whole operas, which is what he is best known for, are for me a torture to get through. I think I would rather sit through a 7 hour Wrestlemania than through a 3+ hours Mozart opera. I was watching Le Nozze di Figaro (live) in school (which almost killed me) and a couple of years ago I tried to watch Die Zauberflöte a couple of years ago on TV (I had to resign half an hour in). Schubert is an interesting case to me. He is best known for his songs, especially his song cycles go into a direction that is not what you would usually think of by the term "classical music". Yeah, to be honest I'm not an opera guy at all. I think of opera as kind of a whole different category. I believe it's meant to be enjoyed live, where there is so much going on with the performances and the costumes and the sets and the music and the singing... with very few exceptions I don't think you can get the same experience just by listening to opera. Oddly enough, the opera I have gotten the most pleasure from is The Magic Flute, which tapped you out in only half an hour. Different strokes, I guess... I particularly love Ingmar Bergman's joyful movie version of the opera (though I think a lot of purists hate it). The Queen of the Night Aria and the Papageno Papagena duet are two of the very few opera excerpts that I enjoy listening to so much that I have them on my mp3 player. But with Mozart, his "pure" music is enough, in my opinion, for a lifetime of study and enjoyment. Even if you just take the obvious masterpieces, there is just so much greatness: Symphonies # 25, 29, 35, and 38 through 41, Piano Concertos # 9 and 19 through 27, Violin Concertos # 3 and 5, Horn Concerto #3, The Flute and Harp Concerto, The String Quintets, The Quintet for Piano and Winds, The Clarinet Quintet, The Quartets dedicated to Haydn, The A major Piano Sonata... And, like with (for example) Kawada or Bryan Danielson, in addition to all the obviously great work even "minor" Mozart is absolutely worth listening to. And even if we just look at the Piano Concertos, there are so many truly great performances to choose from: Casadesus/Szell, Uchida/ECO, Perahia/ECO, Moravec/Marriner, Moravec/Vlach, Bilson/Gardiner, Kempff, Curzon... each of which can teach you something new and help you to hear the work in new ways. So, like I say, a lifetime of study and enjoyment without even getting into the operas. Similarly with Schubert: I agree that the songs are regarded as his great legacy, but most days I'd rather listen to one of my many recordings of the gorgeous Trout Quintet, or the Piano Trios or Symphony #5 or The Unfinished Symphony or The Great C Major Symphony, or the late Piano Sonatas or the late String Quartets, the Arpeggione Sonata, The Octet, The String Quintet... About two years ago, there was a three-month period where basically all I listened to was Schubert's Chamber Music, and I loved every minute of it. There are still pieces and performances by my favourite composers and musicians that I haven't heard yet (just like there are Jumbo and Tenryu matches that I still haven't seen). In wrestling as in classical music: There's too much stuff out there that I absolutely enjoy, so it's hard to find time for slogging through the stuff that is not my cup of tea.

That sounds like a great idea to me.

Check out John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine and Chairman Dances, conducted by Rattle, if you can find it. Morton Feldman's Rothko Chapel is, in my opinion, a masterpiece. Charles Ives' Central Park in the Dark and The Unanswered Question predate minimalism by a generation or so, but you might love those like I do. Bernstein's versions are my favourties. and maybe try Kronos Quartet's version of Steve Reich's Different Trains. Let me know what you think, if you try any of those.

I am an absolute maniac for classical music. I own well over 500 classical CDs and have hundreds and hundreds of classical music files on my hard drive. Handel, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Prokofiev, Ives, and Janacek are among my favourite composers. Walter, Szell, Gergiev, Reiner, Klemperer, Bernstein, Mackerras, Gardiner, and Furtwangler are among my favourite conductors. Richter, Gilels, Rubinstein, Heifetz, Menuhin, Du Pre, Rostropovich, Argerich, Brendel, Kempff, and Oistrakh are among my favourite musicians. I am more than happy to makes lists or recommendations for anyone interested. I am also into jazz, mainly late-50s stuff, Miles, Monk, Mingus, 'Trane... and also Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.

Damn, man. 100 pounds. And you kept it off. That's amazing. Congratulations.