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Insane for sure, and it's amazing how everyone is having fun in their job ("good shit, good shit!"). Check out this comparison between AEW production and WWE. No amount of money is worth that dead-inside feeling. https://streamable.com/2i1spi

Would it not be ill-advised for Cena to tweet that regardless? Ticket-holders could assume he is pulling out, using the Sasha/Belair non-match as evidence, and feel a little cheated. It takes nothing for Cena to thank everyone and add a little tidbit that he'll be there for one final show.

Well, I mean....

Inbetween discussing WWE's terrible booking, please don't forget to pre-order the Sasha/Belair Summerslam match T-shirt for a match that was hyped to the moon but never delivered.

Sure, but as I've said in the original post, this is looking at matches I've bought and not seen online as well as ones that have been online but I don't see any commentary on - hence the "digging through the crates" line. I'm going by DVD so we'll have some overlap, sure. I'll get through the other Dragon matches and check but he was the drizzling shits in that tag match and whiffed almost every dive or (more) complex spot against Satanico. Nevermind him just sitting there while Satanico punches him in the back of the noggin'. I strongly dislike Myztezizzzzzzzzzz/Caristico, or whatever his name is now, but he'd be a much better foil in that spot (as example). Bless the guy for running Luchamania each year but he's crap.

Virus vs Super Nova (05/04/2008 Azteca) One criticism I've seen against Virus is that he doesn't have that "bloodbath" match to his credit. While he's certainly busted up a few opponents in the past few years (cf. vs Demus and vs Fly Star ), he hasn't actually bled for us. Here that changes. Watching him work as a bloodthirsty heel seems so foreign at this point and I wouldn't bet against it being foreign for him, too. Virus is a guy who relies a lot on feeling and intuition for his spots and you could almost see the cogs at work at how he could spin his formula into something more violent. In that sense, this feels like a prototypical take on his title match structure if only the intricately woven matwork was supplanted by gnawing into his opponent's skin. Much the same, Virus is one to "semi-crescendo" his matches by going into hyperdrive with lesser skilled performers so as not to lose the crowd. It probably drives the Arena Mexico abuelos nuts but I don't mind high-flying in my title matches. Super Libres are a little bit of a different story, though. I could really do with less dives and acrobatics in this type of match but you take what you can get with finds like this. What ifs only lead to disappointment. I mean, what if Pirata Morgan beefed with Virus back in 1993 when he was playing his mini? What if they feuded here? Frankly 2008 Pirata is twice the worker Super Nova is but that's besides the point. The kid was along for the ride and nothing more so he did his bit. Unfortunately this is 2008 Virus not 2018 Virus so he's still putting things together as the "older" mini in this part of his career but that's like saying you're driving a 7 series and not a Chiron. Really fun stuff. Último Dragón, Kato Kung Lee & Masao Orihara vs Blue Panther, Emilio Charles Jr & Toshiyu Nakahara (14/02/1992 SWS) 30 years out and Blue Panther's work still looks like magic. It's almost a crime he was saddled with that lump Ultimo for so long - what with every hold or turn ending with Ultimo awkwardly falling over. Kato isn't much better but he's at least got cat-like reflexes and can bounce around with ease which plays out with him as Road Runner to Emilio's Wile E Coyote, much to my amusement. Orihara loves his dropkicks but seems decent enough (with some rather good selling) and can bring some innovative moments of his own. Fantastic little moment as he tagged in on a trapped Ultimo - using Panther's own surfboard hold against him by pressing Ultimo down on his shoulders. As for Nakahara, I'm guessing they got him because Estrada was drunk, again. Certainly a diamond in the rough but this was picking up nicely before the finish where Ultimo dogged it. Run again as a tag and this would have produced. El Satanico vs Último Dragón (18/04/1992 SWS) Weird to rate as this is clearly Satanico doing his damnedest to make this watchable but Último really has the Mierdas Touch. El Dandy vs Último Dragón (??/??/1993 SWS) I've got to give the devil his dues, Último was on point here. There were a lot of similarities in his control segments to the Satanico match but he hit everything clean as a whistle this time. It also really helps when you've got early 90s Dandy holding your hand through 12 minutes of action, too. This was clearly on the card as an Último showcase, so YMMV there, but this was probably as good as that's ever going to get. That said, I probably prefer the Panther (or Casas) singles match in Mexico but not by much. Great match. Just don't tell the "lucha is too cooperative" brigade. Stopping the disc here, I'll continue tomorrow with: 1. ASAI VS. EMILIO CHARLES JR. (10/11/91) 2. ÚLTIMO DRAGÓN (ASAI) VS. JERRY ESTRADA (12/12/91) 3. ÚLTIMO DRAGÓN (ASAI) VS. BESTIA SALVAJE (06/1/92) 6. MASAO ORIHARA VS. ATLANTIS (FAN CAM) 7. MASAO ORIHARA VS. EL DANDY (FAN CAM)

The title is probably a little hyperbolic but "Digging Through The Crates" is already a Segunda Caida staple. In this thread I'm going to go through (mostly) lucha that has either (1) not been online before as its stuff I've bought from guys in Mexico or (2) has been online before but hasn't received any traction in our circles. I won't claim to have found any hidden gems or holy grails (we'll see!) but there is a bucket-load of stuff out there that we haven't got our hands on yet. For instance, I tracked down two guys who have that Shu/Robin Hood match Cubsfan wrote about (one is a luchadore in CMLL and the other is Shu himself). Shu won't sell it. I made progress with the former but shipping to my country is an obvious no-go so all talks subsequently died. If anyone speaks Spanish and lives in a shippable part of the USA I'd gladly pay the money and have it shipped to you if you can convince them. Be warned, though, this is a fancam with no audio (here's 6 seconds of it). There's also a mask match where Super Astro drops his mask to Villano III on tape which Astro has - no dice convincing him, either, but it's there. But back to what we do have! Because this is an unabashedly stolen idea from Segunda Caida I'll also rank all matches in the same order: EPIC, GREAT, FUN and SKIPPABLE. Epic Great Fun Skippable

If we're going off promo then he's definitely someone who injected fuel into feuds as they carried on. Wrestling-wise I'm not sure, and would need to investigate his 2007-2009 work more, but I'd like to say not to the extent other greats would. It's really difficult to layer your matches when you're in the main event and you're expected to put on a particular style, though. Maybe Punk/Cena but that could easily be attributed to Punk if it's a one-off.

That Santo/Andrade trios got a lot of buzz. Were people down on his performance there? I mean, it was a Santo tour match but still.

Speaking of lucha, Pentagon Jr sliced up Arez forehead with a huge knife back in 2014 - he also hammered it into his skin at one point. Graphic but every person who watched that came out thinking "holy fuck, Pentagon is a badass, why can't he be like this in AAA?". That was kinda the match that put him "on the map" as his character, I'd say. With this, we're going to go back to not even knowing/caring who Allie Kat is within a week.

Try out Funk/Race from 1977 or Race/Wahoo from 1978. If you don't like Harley in those then you won't like Harley. The problem is that for every Funk/Race there's an absolute stinker. Harley/Flair was a total bust in Japan - maybe one of the worst spotfests I've seen.

Honestly, it comes across as some bad cosplay of an action movie. She's presenting herself as this vicious knife-wielding psycho only to make sure to lightly slash the guy. That was awful in its execution. Her dropping her selling to pull the knife out of the door for the next spot was also unintentionally hilarious. I don't have a horse in this race and I'm not asking for someone to be maimed/killed (or even be cut up worse than he was), but if you're going to commit to it just do it or gimmick it. Dump came across as a sociopath by stabbing Omori. Allie Kat? Nowhere close.

I'm trying to get my hands on some discs that aren't out there in our circles - a fair bit of which is early 00s Parka. Some of it seems to be workrate/matwork, others are more violent (Wagner/Santo/Perrito). Hopefully it should bolster his case. That and some other gems coming out in fuller/complete matches (Pierroth mask match), too. He's clearly been great since 1991 (with some cool matches as Invasor - here he is kicking Eddie Guerrero's ass for 20 minutes) so it's a pity we don't have much of his 80s run out there.

Do you have any Lucha Azteca shows? I've only got two but he's a mainstay there it seems.

How has Pyscho been, skill-wise? I assume he's been running as ace/semi-ace for a while. I am really pumped for that match as Psycho is great at emotional-investment and "big time" matches. I haven't watched any AAA since his match with Wagner JR (not because of the result) and thought he was great in that spot but not a "great" wrestler, if that makes sense. If he's improved, I see this being a sleeper hit for match of the night.

I'm a member of a relatively popular lucha Facebook group and between the incessant "lucha was better in my day" posts a lot of people are speculating the beginning of the end for CMLL. Before this, it was mostly questioning the booking direction or swearing off their shows but now most members are wondering if the past while is a foreshadowing of the promotion's death. It's no secret that the Lutteroth family have a hatred toward wrestling, with most of them seeing it as an embarrassment. The only one I'd guess left that has any fondness for the sport is Sofia - she seems really passionate about lucha, especially if you look at her Instagram. She is (was?) in a good position as commercial director but she's really young, though, so (a) I'm not sure if her ideas would align with the more 'traditional' principles of CMLL (the women's tournament might be an example here) and (b) if anyone would even give a shit about her ideas full stop. It would be a blow to the employed wrestlers, and the end of a historic era, but the promotion folding doesn't seem like it would lead to any long-term consequences. The scene seemed to be pretty hot before the pandemic so I don't see why it won't continue that way.

AAA seemingly found a workaround by streaming via Tiktok of all things. Card looks astonishing when compared to Triplemania of yesteryear - especially the top half. I'll need to check it out.

NGD released a video thanking CMLL and explaining the departure as that they want to wrestle new places. If we read between the lines, they're saying they want more but are keeping their options open for a CMLL return at a later date. We all know how petty CMLL can be.

A doctor chiropractor with advanced understanding of propagandism and virology, I see. Quite the accomplishment. The line "never meet your heroes" is becoming almost impossible in a social media based world. Time to become a hermit, I guess?

So the reboot is incoming and it's all big men slapping meat. "No more midgets" is quite the phrase. Sourced from here:

Word going around is Adam Cole has been offered $1mil and a main roster spot. I wonder if he'll sign. Out of curiosity, does he move the needle that much to justify such a contract?

Rush/Rey Escorpion/Maximo vs Negro Casas/Terrible/Shocker (CMLL 28/06/2014) - the second greatest 6-man of the last decade (behind only Wyatts/Shield). MotDC if there ever was one.

The only real evidence I've seen is that he helped out a Q-Anon charity for a bit - it seems as a favour to Drake. There's nothing beyond that, so I guess he pulled out as soon as he saw the real implications behind it. Some of the guys were literally advertised for the 205 Live and were there at the Smackdown taping waiting to go out and wrestle. What message does that send regarding job security? EDIT: oh, boy

The allegations against Darby Allin are resurfacing again. https://twitter.com/Hawleeasaur/status/1423664986145034244 What with the rape joke earlier, this might become a bigger issue regardless of Darby's innocence. At this point, I think Tony might need to start looking into his talent a bit more than getting "shown some texts". With that previous part said, and I don't want my position to be misconstrued, I am all for believing the survivor in situations like this.