Rah

’ Fantastic. Source

Rolls out at 10:55 but spends most of the time before that FIP on the mat. Not saying a leopard doesn't change its spots but arriving in no condition is one thing. Sending that leopard out into a match and expecting people to work around it is something else entirely. That's where my blame is lying right now.

Our health minister had to make a public address to ensure the folks here that the vaccine does not, in fact, turn you into a cannibal. Great. Now give these "key demos" reason to stick around. Let's push more women and characters they can relate with. That was the reason for the success of Total Divas and the surge of female viewers in WWE when numbers were collapsing. Women watching for pretty boys is an antiquated idea. AEW has so much potential. I'm really hoping they can put the final pieces together.

Everton, then. I guess that makes NXT:UK Millwall? Small yet rabid support base, morally corrupt people and more a tax-break philanthropy venture by the owner at this point.

Nepotism and age play against her, here. I wonder what her next stop is, though. I don't live in the US so I'm not sure how far she could stretch things, but $100K/year ($500k net-worth) doesn't seem like much to retire on. Could go the Ryback route and become an internet meme, I guess? Dude was front page of Reddit again yesterday.

Not much of a surprise . I wonder when they hit the reset button, again?

It's funny how a lot of spots feel "in the moment" and unplanned in lucha - like novelty additions thought up on the spot. Yet, in reality, they're super common/stock spots from these guys. Just shows how much footage we lack here that we don't realise it. Reminds me of that tumble Virus takes in the '97 title match with Cicloncito. How people said it was an ironic dose of "really slipping up" after working so beautifully. Yet I've seen him bust the exact same thing in 1992 and 1994/5. Always enjoy seeing this thread bumped - and still hoping for Arkangel to click for me. Keep it coming!

Can you point me in the right direction? I seem to have run that well dry and all I'm left with is really bad Astrolux matches.

Coming in as "THAT GUY" ™ I had a problem most with the work within the match. Suzuki delivered an impeccable workover of AJ's arm, and was a brilliant crazy bastard in control throughout. He ripped and teared through AJ's arm and fingers whenever he had the chance, delivering it in varying ways that kept things both fresh and disgusting. What does Styles do, to take control of the match following the interference, though? ELBOW STRIKES. FUCKING ELBOW STRIKES. He shrugs it all off and continues as if things are fine with his arm. This isn't a compressed sprint like Shibata/Honma where you can forgive immediate resurgences following corner dropkicks and clotheslines (as there isn't a lasting damage effect). If AJ was to throw offence, he needs to have emoted his pain better and kept his selling up. It's such a shame, as outside of that latter half and the stupid ref spot, this was trying damn hard to deliver a massive classic. They could have had that, too, and then some. Not quite Wyatt/Shield, but it would have been pretty damn close. Pity that. Thinking I must be crazy, I rewatched it from the interference onward. Normally I'd simply gif the parts I mean, but my internet is deciding to be annoying this morning. Keep in mind, the interference angle is run following two corner elbows that AJ has only sold as hurting his injured arm, after hitting them, via means of simply shaking the arm. Post-offence whiffs is not selling, nor should selling only be used as a spot setting up the finishing run. 13:25 - the two start with some offence exchange in which AJ clocks Suzuki with two or three right arms. No visible selling until he takes a clearly choreographed back bump when Suzuki sells (he bends over, stares at Suzuki for the signal and then falls, for suck sake) . AJ did start with the left arm, and he should have stayed using it. Suzuki hadn't worked on that side as much, only doing so a bit before the interference shtick. 14:15 - after the two rise to their feet, AJ slaps Suzuki off him with the right arm. Doesn't bother selling. 16:15 - a minute or so after AJ gets caught delivering a springboard clothesline, with the bad arm, he's hitting knife edge chops to Suzuki with the bad fucking arm, no selling, and doing a run for a clothesline only to get caught. No selling. Before there's a complaint that I'm being selective, those are the only moments where AJ takes control, again, with his hope spots. That's also the point I stopped rewatching for this post. He emotes well, when Suzuki has him trapped, but he doesn't seemingly bother when he's on offence, outside of selling exhaustion and grasping onto the ropes. Selective selling annoys me, and it negates the work done by the opponent. Okada may still use his injured arm, yet he emotes and sells it as if it hurts him in that moment. He also lets it hang loosely, grasping at it every so often, as if he really has lost a lot of feeling or control over it and all he can do, is try let it lie as painlessly as possible. AJ isn't doing that, he's gesturing and seemingly maintains full movement control. I'm not asking for independent matches to maintain the same level of continuity/selling, as that's ludicrous, but I do expect the selling to match the work done. There was a rather recent TNA performance where AJ's playing babyface, letting his right arm sit loose, and is only using his left, so it isn't as if this concept is new to him. He just wasn't playing ball, here. Equally, I switched off as he's trying to go for his first Styles Clash that he cannot hook properly. Nowhere is he selling it as if his right arm cannot hold Suzuki's weight. His entire body is shutting down as if it's exhausted (as he has been selling it to be). I still enjoyed the match, and I do YES vote it, but that's mostly on Suzuki delivering such a wondrous performance. If I'm holding merit in Tanahashi delivering a performance as he had in Invasion Attack, while equally degrading Nakamura (which I do believe i did worse than in Suzuki/Styles), I cannot look past this. The face/heel incongruity and AJ's performance aside, this had a better workover by Suzuki and felt a much better match in the points it did work. I'm not degrading this as the worst match ever, far from it, as it's currently #11 on my list, but I do have a massive problem with AJ's performance and it is what stops it from reaching the level of quality that it had elements of being. It's in that Kofi/Cesaro or Fuego/Virus lot where the match is really, really good thanks to one man but the other guy fucking sucks. Just, well, AJ wasn't that bad.

Well, people still think Mayweather boxes "on the level" despite this not being true for years. I don't for a second think people wouldn't fall for "Hogan/Tyson who'd win?"

Did they take that picture at the moment they informed him of the name change? Anyway, because it will be better than any of the weekly slog, here's that Walter/Cesaro match~

For anyone trying to find this match, it's Polvora not Hechicero.

This is fantastic! I thought most of this was forever lost. I know I've tried to procure stuff before and not had luck. Here's hoping we get some CWA/Wanz in SA next. Thanks!

Lince paid for everything so daddy could talk it out. I guess he's scared of a legit gold medal jiu jitsu guy? Deleted his whole Twitter to boot.

I wonder what daddy told her about the strings Vince allegedly pulled to get him off the police's radar?

I don't remember any clipping in the match I saw. But I do remember the ending being real flat. I grabbed this as a gif at the time because of how it summed up my thoughts on the match: Like, whenever I see his name that image pops into my head. I don't think of any specific spots or moments throughout his career - just that gif. Sad, really. Arkangel is a guy that should be better than he is. He has the skills and you see a lot of that in almost any random trios but when he's given a moment on his own he doesn't quite reach the peak you're hoping for.

I've watched enough fancams to know a lot of wrestlers have dogged it since at least the 80s if they don't think a camera is on them. Playing to internet fans or DVD buyers isn't a stretch from that ideology, I'd say.

I might be painfully slow on the uptake but it seems XPW is back? They have their first show next weekend. Only sold 17% of tickets which is fitting.

How much of the old RoH footage is even airable in the current climate? There's a boatload of questionable commentary, nevermind chants and promos from wrestlers.

Atsushi Onita

@Phil Schneider

I don't get how this is a debate. Punk values his convictions over his passion for wrestling. That much is obvious. He had strong feelings against part-timers or past stars hogging the limelight of the new crowd. He's in that position now and doesn't wish to be a hypocrite. He's both shaking off the ring rust and proving himself to be worthy of that top place. That's why he doesn't give a damn. This is an internally consistent thing established for over a decade. From TK's perspective, why would he clutter up one place on the card when he can have draws up and down it? Punk can be the biggest star in the world and still just do touring pressers for cash (anybody else remember the millions made by McGregor/Mayweather just yelling 'you won't do nuttin/yeaaahhh' at each other ad nauseum?). We're sitting here arguing a point in kayfabe that doesn't even exist and missing the picture that there's an actually viable promotion with multiple stories on the go that can be heated up and placed up and down the card. People so often point back to the Attitude Era and say 'everyone was over not like today!'. Well we're kinda going back to that at last.

The issue with this "there's no story" nonsense is that there is history. Danielson got absolutely mauled by Suzuki in 2004 and can finally "avenge" himself now that the opportunity arises. It isn't rocket science, it's literally on his Twitter (with the match trending #4 in America when announced - which is crazy, btw). I'd remove "Twitter" from that sentence, personally, but yours still rings true.

Tried sitting through a Joe Gacy promo to see what the (anti)hype was. Dude feels like someone ran Reddit through an AI to produce random text. Awful.

Which one are you looking for? I thiiiink I've got both. I upped the 1976 show so long.