Badlittlekitten

I've always had nuff respect for Hardy. You got to give him credit, the guys been over like rover for years. He has that Twilight thing about him; the mysterious, handsome, goth, oddball outsider. Repulsive to some but fascinating to many others. The chicks dig it. And he's fucking nuts. Only last week against Bully Ray he was taking crazy bumps onto upturned ladders and steel entrance ways. He will burn out very soon and whilst I don't think what he does is wise he does it very well.

Mr Freakin' Anderson. This is what happens when you just don't care any more.

Minoru Suzuki and his wonderfully scary face.

Yeah the ICW crowds are great. They seem like a merry bunch of outcasts, rowdy and pissed up on wit, not like your typical dull 'smart' fans. I've not seen one of their shows live unfortunately, Glasgow's a bit out of range for me atm. They put a weekly show up on youtube which is a bit behind but you get the gist of what's going on. Despite the brutality and the vulgarity, ICW has a real feel good vibe about it. Always brings a smile.

That's great. Do you know anything more about her career ohtani? There's nothing on youtube beyond 1980.

I'm bored, here's my one. Similar to Flik, this is just a list of matches I've watched recently and would put amongst my favourites. It's nothing comprehensive and, as you can tell, I've just been through my 'joshi phrase' (it's all about WOS now.) I will expand the list and add more thoughts some other time. Terry Funk vs. Rick Martel WWC 1986 Ted Debiase vs Roberts mid south 85. Playboy Buddy Rose/Curt Hennig VS Dynamite Kid/Assassin Portland 11/12/83 Chris Renfrew vs. Jimmy Havoc ('Scottish world of sport' match ICW 7/1/12) Mikey Whiplash vs. Jack Jester (ICW 7/1/12) Had to include some Insane Championship Wrestling on my list. It's my favourite wresting promotion in the world. It's not everyone's cup of tea but it has better stories, characters, feuds, crowds, promos, commentators, and humour than anywhere else at the moment. It's a bit like an even more irreverent, Scottish, ECW. In a Scottish world of sports match the two parcipents have to down a shot of double vodka and a TRIPLE Jack Daniels and Coke between each round. What follows is hilarious, brutal, stupid, scary, pissed -up anti-wrestling. One of a kind. The second ICW includes the best wrestler in the UK, the creepy, sadistic, marvellous Mikey Whiplash. He's a cross dressing treasure and this last man standing match is daft, savage and overbooked, just as I like my LMS matches. Young Pair vs The Black Pair AJW (1979) 'Lonesome' Jay Bradley vs Aston Vuitton Pro Wrestling Blitz Nov 2012 Two glorious 'squashes'. OMG. I might have just discovered my favourite wrestler ever. (Or since the last one). Yumi Ikeshita is AMAZING. I'm sure there is better examples of her awesomeness, I've just raided youtube for every piece of footage of her and choose this pretty randomly. It's all great. She's tiny, even for joshi standards, and she has a cool as fuck afro AND SHE WILL KICK YOUR ASS. It takes real smarts to project an aura of toughness with such a small frame and Yumi's a natural, relentlessly stalking around the ring like an apex predator (don't make me laugh, Randy) and dishing out her brilliant offence with all the coldness of a hitman, doing the job, quickly, efficiently. That cigar in the back won't light itself. Every movement of hers drips with cool, calm, violence. You think you can take her out with a chair? She'll just stand there goading you to hit her on the head - unprotected - and continue to kick your head in anyway. When it's time to sell she's pretty damn good at that too. I'm gonna scrape together my pennies for an AJW set I think, almost entirely to see more Ikeshita. There were three other people in this match too, including Jaguar Yokota, and they did stuff. But, yeah, Yumi. . . . The moniker 'lonesome' is a simple but class thing. Bradley is brilliant as the Angry Man, ruthlessly pulling apart the jobber, bad mouthing and spitting (!) at the crowd, retuning post match with a chair just to batter him some more. TNA give further proof they're idiots with this guy stuck in development while fake toughs and scrubs fill up their big faction. Fit Finlay vs Young David 1982 WOS Terry Tayler v Nikitta Koloff chi town I love how Tayler just has to let the ref know that, "I had him, I HAD HIM!" whilst wincing in a armbar. The Russian's playing nice guy and he sells Tayler's arm and legwork like gunshots. His hope spots in particular are great. HUGE pop for the ending. Flair vs Ronnie Garvin ChiTown When you realised that, yeah, he may be a bit of an arse and a braggart, but he's OUR braggart (and arse). And the ways of the world are just not the same without him atop the mountain. Flair vs Morton BAB86 The least Flair like Flair match I've seen. Also my favourite. The Fabulous Rougeau's vs The Rockers (London 1989) Nobody was a good as making themselves look like flashy show-off twats then the Rougeau's. Nobody was as good at mugging you off and making you look like twats then the Rockers. The perfect pair. Willaim Regal vs Dean Ambrose (FCW ) The most beautiful of men do the most terrible, terrible of things. Packs way more punch drama wise than HHH/Taker or whatever. Tajiri v. Ohtani 5/20/97 Sting vs Vader Strap Match Andre the Giant vs The Masked Superstar (78?) Les Kellett vs Leon Arras (WOS 1974) The Fabulous Moolah, Kitty Adams vs Joyce Grable and Vivian St. John (MSG 7/30/79) I love me some fun, dumb comedy stooges me. The women's match is the most fun twenty minutes ever. Moolah and Kitty should have had their own sitcom. I'm pretty certain that whenever I do another list update that it'll be full of WOS stuff. Where has this been all my life? I suppose I've avoided it because of typical Brit self depreciation and Big Daddy. It's the best type of wrestling in the world. And the humour's great, natch. Chigusa Nagayo VS Bull Nakano 1988/4/2 Crush Girls vs Marine Wolves (2/3 Falls 3WA Tag Title Match) Cuty Suzuki vs Mayumi Ozaki (April 1989 Devil Masami Omori Yukari Jaguar Yokota vs. Bull Nakano Leilani Kai Velvet McIntyre Yumiko Hotta vs Combat Toyoda 11/20/94 Bull Nakano vs Kandori Chain Match Bull Nakano vs Aja Kong 11/14/90 Cage My younger brother is now in secondary school and is all into the reactionary " ugh, wrestling's fake and gay" thing that former sorta-casual fans tend to fall into once they discover girls. His attention span could only deal with the odd Rock promo anyway. He was busy shooting stuff on the xbox while I had this match on the laptop. A casual glance to see what this wailing was about then . . he was absorbed. He even dropped that tough exterior for the wonderful "Is this real?" line as Bull was ripping Aja to shreds with some scissors. Bull's spring board karate kick thing was 'sick' apparently. He lost a couple of lives on Call Of Duty as Kyoko and Medusa etc. make havoc on the outside of the ring. I let out a "wooah" as Nakano steadied herself on top of the cage and we both leant up from our seats as she dropped the leg. A wide smile was painted across his face for a little while after. Sometimes I don't feel so old and jaded. I love wrestling sometimes. Terry Funk vs Stan Hansen Chigusa Nagayo vs Dump Matsumoto (Hair vs Hair) - Aug 28, 1985 Both make borderline uncomfortable viewing these two. Although there is some very dark comedy to be found in the Hansen/Funk match. I love the ending when a dazed and brutalised Terry tries to get himself some more and follows Stan back to his dressing room and has to be dragged away. There is nothing, however, funny about the Chigsy/Dump match and post-match. Truly harrowing. Jaguar Yokota vs La Galactica Chigusa Nagayo vs Devil Masami 8/22/85 Love that moment when Devil sets up Chigusa for the surfboard for the REACTION from the crowd is unbelievable. Thousands of pre teens collectively pissing their pants. Also love it when they're getting tired and start throwing desperate lefts and rights. They both have great faces; Masami and her cunning demonic smile, her eyes affirming the devious plots rolling through her head, and Chigusa, who looks pained and tormented, angelic and tough all at once, all the time. Bull Nakano, Akira Hokuto vs. Minami Suzuka, Etsuko Mita 8/18/91 Akira Hokuto/bull nakano vs toshiyo yamada/takako inoue 4/23/93 Akira Hokuto & Shinobu Kandori vs Bull Nakano & Aja Kong 3/27/94 Akira Hokuto, Mima Shimoda, & Etsuko Mita vs Miki Handa, Eagle Sawai, & Harley 1/24/93 Aja doing the Rude hip swivel! God that slap exchange between Kong and Hokuto is delicious. Is there a greater, um, slapper, in the history of wrestling than Hokuto? She delivers it with the fire and the fury of a thousand women scorned. Like she delivers everything then. I remember seeing one match where she delivered a slap FROM THE TOP TURNBUCKLE. Christ, bow down. There's that ridiculous bit where Kandori and Bull go for a jog down the very long entrance ramp. The story of the arch rivals begrudgingly bounding together to overcome the monster enemy is beautifully told. I love this colourful cast too; Aja the scary, overbearing one, Bull, the extraordinary looking beast that's really quite cute and vulnerable underneath, Kandori the cool badass one and Hokuto is . . well, Hokuto can be all those things - and more - at the flick of a switchblade. She's the greatest wrestling performer I've ever seen. But I'll save that for another ramble. She's great at receiving a battering here and really puts over her spirit and stubbornness. I like the part where she gets Irish whipped but can barely keep on her feet. Then THAT ending. I did mark out. The LCO match features the commanding, shit talkin', wisecracking, firebrand Hokuto that I adore. Extra points for the post match where she calls out Kandori and completely mugs off Saito whilst doing it. Also some of them glorious slaps for the LCOers. Akira Hokuto vs Shinobu Kandori Well, duh. KAORU & meiko satomura vs akira hokuto & sonoko kato 4/19/97 KAORU is like so, like, chill. Mayumi Ozaki, KAORU, Akira Hokuto vs. Meiko Satomura, Chikayo Nagashima, Chigusa Nagayo GAEA 6/11/00 The heel team made my computer explode with awesomeness. I'm typing from the library.

I wouldn't go that far but I do find him overrated. When it comes to the scary ass monsters that are on the roster Brock crushes Henry like a grape. But Mark's far better than Kane or Big Show have ever been.

Don't sweat it mate, I'm getting the same. It's just fucking up again. (Unless the negative things I said about Big Show REALLY upset them).

If you don't get the pure electric goodness of Aries then just watch the match against Sting from this week where he stooges and pinballs his his arse off for one of the most enjoyable little Sting matches there's been.

I do think there's a very slight possibility that Brock could be victorious in that match, especially if the stip is Retirement Match.

Don't know why Dylan's getting upset about Punk. Him losing to Kane that way doesn't harm him in the slightest. It set up a nice feel good moment between Kane and Taker which Punk ruined, got his heat back, stole the urn and looked like the biggest prick in the world. In fact, this Raw has got me more interested in Punk/Taker more than I ever imagined. The mid-undercard is a complete shambles though. The Alberto/Swagger feud is a shit boring feud between two shit and boring guys. It still bugs me that two guys that were a complete irrelevance not long ago are getting this kind of attention. Why spend last year building up guys like Sheamus, Ziggler, Ryback, Sandow, Cesaro, Team Hell No etc. only to give them absolutely nothing when it matters?

What nonsense. Aries is one of the most charismatic guys in the US. I wouldn't be surprised if they turn him face again just because of the reaction he gets in arenas. Bobby Roode is one of their own and he's not far removed from the longest world title reign in their history. I'm not trying to defend them though, those really are about the only exceptions. Their inferiority complex is quite pathetic.

I actually thought Wes Brisco looked decent in the Angle match. Shitty finish though but that seemed the story of the night with the women's, tag and main event matches all having weak finishes. The X division match was probably the worst x division match I've seen in the short time I been watching TNA. Sloppy as hell and generally just awful. The tag, Park/Ryan and the lethal lockdown all came across as fun matches on tv. Joseph Parks is just brilliant ain't he? It's hard not to love him. The main event was just weird. Bully should have at least done the 'respectful' babyface thing for a while instead of going straight up baddie from the start. Hardy constantly going for the escape was was proper irritating, for me anyway. Throwing out them two aces and 8s blokes for the sake of SWERVE was a bit daft and the ending fell a bit flat. Bully did look like a proper horrible bastard in the end though so job done I guess. But yeah, very Russo like.

There was that cage match with Andre which was really fun. After that, well . . . brilliant entrance music.

Stooging Panto villains are the very best thing about wrestling. Flair or Bret? It's apples and oranges really. It depends what you want from a wrestler. I want overblown but convincing personalities. Bret was a class wrestler but had all the character of a rusty baked bean tin. 1997 Bret was the best Bret.

A dodgy looking hurricarana was perfect in the little story of Cena desperately throwing shit at the wall to beat his long term adversary and catching Punk off guard in the process. The last WWE piledriver I saw was Christian doing it a few years ago on ECW.

So does anybody think we're gonna get a Ryback turn tonight setting up Jericho/Ryback?

Both Del Rio and Swagger were a complete irrelevance two months ago. They've got their work cut out for them in making ADR vs Swagger into a match people are interested in and (i hope I'm wrong) I can't see the Zeb Colter gimmick ending pretty. WWE should never do grown up people stuff. Really enjoyable show. The only negative that came out of it for me is Swagger getting in the title picture again. Colter or no Colter, the guy is useless. ADR vs Big Show was fine. The botch was pretty bad and Show bumping for the hurricanrana looked ridiculous. Miz vs Cesaro was a top little match, even the ending. Miz has made a great bumbling idiot for the last couple of months but he more than held his own in this match with a decent spunky babyface performance. Cesaro was as solid and as boring as usual. Both guys could have done without a loss here so I'm glad they went with a BS ending that got a laugh - out of me anyway. I'm not someone who usually gets all hot and bothered about Menry but he looked like a fucking STAR in the EC match. The Six man was even better then I hoped. The Shield are my favourite thing in the wwe so, yeah, I marked out a bit with THAT end. Tremendous storytelling in that match. The ending with the tease of the synchronised supermen finishers being cut off with Reign's spear was quality. Rollin's seemed like the weak link in the team before but he seems to be getting it now personality wise. The only thing I didn't like was Ryback taking the pin. He's fucked ain't he? Surely this has to lead to something new with his character - which was hinted at at the end. They didn't bother pushing him as a silent assassin so they might as well flesh him out personality wise. Where do Shield go from here though? Surely EVOLUTION is the only answer? Main was good enough, certainly better then the RR match. They did a much better job of protecting Punk in this match with the visual fall and all that. It makes me think they're gonna end up slotting Punk into the WM main, which I'm apathetic about either way. Heyman was hilarious with the "You got a 1! Yes, now 2 and a half!" nonsense.

The more stuff of The Masked Superstar I see the more I want to add Bill Eadie to my list. He has the stooging heel role down to perfection and there's something so satisfying about them Bret style double stomp strikes. The Mid Atlantic match vs Andre was shaping up to be one of my all time favourites so I'm gutted the end isn't available. I feel I need to rewatch a load of Demolition stuff cos I never took much notice of him before.

Anyone think Shield could cost Punk the title?

Average rumble with a very good ending. Only complaint is Ziggler not eliminating enough people for me. I don't know what the fuck they're gonna do with Ryback now.

Absolutely fascinating podcast. This was my first ep so I look forward to going through previous episodes. Could listen to you guys insights all day, particularly Dylan's. Educational. For me it's Flair > Funk > Lawler though I'm still in that 'Flair the unimpeachable' stage of my life and I'm sure I will change in some way as soon as I grab one of the sets.

Kings of Pro Wrestling was pretty damn good though.

There needs to be a purging of announcers all across the board to make wrestling feel different. Taz, Tenay and Lawler are played out and have been phoning it in for years, Cole has only just reached a semi decent level and needs someone new/decent to work with, even JBl's becoming complacent alongside a useless robot like Josh Mathews. There really needs to be a change up in the commentary to freshen things up a bit but I don't see where its gonna come from. Regal's good on NXT but his soft spoken style and his obscure references to British indie pop bands isn't going to fly on the big shows. The Miz? I wouldn't be surprised if he gets on the big two eventually. Bleak times.

And I don't know who Jon Fitch is. Joseph Park is Abyss, playing the role of Abyss's goofy attorney brother. They introduced him in an angle where Abyss went missing and Joseph sought to find him, but the gimmick got over and now Abyss is pretty much gone and I hope he stays that way. Bray Wyatt is Windham Rotunda (the former Husky Harris) doing the Waylon Mercy gimmick in NXT. Both well deserved. If anyone hasn't seen Bray Wyatt yet check out his debut promo Don't know much about Abyss but he seemed dull as fuck from what I've seen. Joseph Park is a revelation though, he's been incredible in the role of the out of breath and out of shape attorney/fan geek. His OVW 'training' vignettes were class. Look out Danny Davies fans;