Migs

The rumors about Fish and Cole being gone shortly are expected. The rumors about Castle leaving would really bum me out.

I was totally confused by what happened here, with the two white dudes turning on their partners but then the match just sort of continuing. The intensity was good, though, with no time filler, just bumps. Fun enough.

I enjoyed the match - a little more BattlArts-y than is usually my taste, but Ki is great here and Montoya definitely holds his own. You can see where if Ki gets a guy who really embraces this style with him (perhaps a guy working in a mask in Texas at this time?) that there's a lot of potential there. The top rope Ki Krusher in the beatdown was spectacular and fuck Ric Blade for kicking out of it last month.

If you mean Nick Patrick, it's Wrestle War '90, Midnights v. the RnR. Can't think of a Tommy Young one that's extended like that.

On good reffing - in the recent piece on Savage-Steamboat on ESPN, they both put over Dave Hebner's work in their match. Apparently Savage specifically asked for Hebner because he thought he was the right guy for the match.

I do think Cody has evolved his character a bit on the indies to look a bit more "main event." He's carrying himself a bit differently. Maybe being a big fish in a small pond is giving him some confidence. He always read as mid-card to me when he was with WWE.

Loved Da Hit Squad in the early 2000s. Mafia doing the plancha with the steps was fantastic. The Big Unit take a good beating, but are just so damn indy. The first 15 minutes is literally just the two better teams beating on those dudes. This would be great for sympathy, except the crowd hates them. And they don't even get pinned! Awful. The back half of this is the sort of nasty brawl that DHS would become known for. So many unprotected chair shots. This part was pretty fun.

This was fine. Matwork didn't feel like it really went anywhere and in the context, I had a good sense it wasn't leading to the finish, So I found myself bored and waiting for the finishing sequence, which was indeed pretty solid.

Yeah, it's pretty dumb. They don't even put up the shows immediately for the Ringside Members. I guess they feel they get enough buys to justify it, but you'd have to think they'd do well with a proper streaming network deal.

Yes, I think so. You have the natural pairing off which helps a lot. Also, you tend to see 4 ways with tags in and out (like the Heatwave 96 match), which also improves the flow.

I also wonder if the ROH + indy + gimmick table money actually gets in the range of what WWE's offer was. How much was Vince really putting on the table for those two guys to use a gimmick he didn't create, that thrived on them dreaming up absurd things that Vince probably had no interest in putting on his show?

I have no idea what the point of a long-term Bully Ray run would be. It was a fun moment for a pop, but he doesn't really fit the ROH style in any way. The Hardy moment... wow. Much of the crowd stood for the entire match. The match was right before intermission, and it was a mob scene as they went to the gimmick table. A really amazing vibe. This feels like it has the potential to be a real shot in the arm for ROH, because of the energy around them right now and the way they break up the monotony that can set in at an ROH show.

Um, you guys, Hardyz-Young Bucks just broke my brain.

Just playing devil's advocate here: TNA got burned because Drew Galloway got hurt at a WCPW show and they had to re-do Bound for Glory because he couldn't wrestle. If a guy's out for one day, he misses a month's worth of TV. I can see the company wanting some sort of insurance policy. This is one of the many contradictions built into TNA's current business model. Interestingly, ROH has almost the flip business model, with the live shows driving things much more than TV. Seems to be working better (if not great).

One could call it a death spiral, except they've been in one for like 5 years.

Matt had to know that he and his brother were the only thing many people were watching TNA for, though. I'd legit watch an hour show every week that was just based out of the Hardy compound. Very curious to see whether they go for the cash in with WWE or try to do something totally different to monetize this hot streak. I can't see them doing a long ROH run, although I'm way too excited to see them and the Young Bucks.

I'm guessing it's someone who allegedly owns the footage. Looks professional enough.

It took them until late last year to finish Raw. I think it's less about Smackdown's status than their general attitude toward older content.

I think this is likely to lead to increased nichification (that seems like it should be a word). It's been going on forever, but I think of how deep into northeast indies I'd have been in 2002 if I had access to every show online the week after it happened. It's easier than ever to focus on your favorite thing and ignore the rest.

I think the idea was they'd do Disasters v. LOD and Money Inc v. Slaughter/Duggan. When LOD got suspended and Vince wasn't sure he'd have them, they turned the Disasters (likely just to even up the sides) and I guess decided it made more sense to give them the shot to follow up the turn.

I liked this well enough. Some new twists on the match - Guido putting out Tajiri, Guido body slamming Crazy through a table he was standing on, Crazy's low blow on Guido. Otherwise pretty standard. Watching as much Crazy as I have recently - I wonder if there was a ceiling for him, or whether ECW just wasn't creative enough in using him. Was Paul just too lazy to do anything other than matches against Tajiri and Guido? Or did his inability to cut promos leave them with no choice but to put him with guys who could work his style? Could they even have had guys cutting promos on him? There's not exactly a lot of character there, other than being, uh, crazy.

This was like a weird ECW version of the Mega Powers exploding, down to Raven carrying off Francine. At least they get the direction of the turn right - walking away from your partner is the heel's move.

I had blocked out how bad XPW commentary was. I watched some XPW tapes back in the day, but I have no recollection of Damien Steele. Candido is doing a full Terry Funk for some reason. Tammy is in full-on street hooker mode. Funny - XPW always slagged on ECW, but an ECW guy comes in and gets treated immediately like a big star and better than the top XPW guy. I like the setup with the stage. Match was short, spotty, no flow - truly terrible. Steele looked bad but Candido barely seemed to be trying, too. Hey, it's Shane Douglas! One of my all-time favorites. Shane does his greatest hits - boo Dick Flair! Boo old man Hogan! Liberal use of the f-word! Not his best work. This sucked, but XPW was always interesting, even when it was terrible. Somewhat fondly remember the period in 2002 where they were running Philly and Shane was booking.

That sure didn't work if it was the plan. Really big pop for Bray.

This is why I never get the calls to bring War Games back. War Games without blood was terrible.