RocknWrestling

I liked Jesse the Body announcing on SNME for Cody/KO, but I'm not so sure that I want him calling every match. Kinda obvious that he's of a much different mindset regarding how wrestling works than what is prevalent today. He was clearly exasperated at KO's top-rope fisherman's buster only getting a two-count when it would've been a near-crippling finisher in his day. Still thought that it was great how he took KO's side and justified all of his actions in his own Jesse the Body logic that made sense. That's the Jesse that we all know and love on commentary.

They already had a great story in place with Powerhouse Hobbs growing up hard in the streets of Oakland (I thought he was from East Palo Alto, but okay) and writing new chapters in the Book of Hobbs. He was starting to look like a remorseless killer type until getting mixed up with QT Marshall. Hobbs doesn't need to be a lackey for this jabroni. He needs to be using the TNT title to cut a path of destruction through AEW.

I also agree that it'd be nice if AEW made Battle of the Belts a bigger deal. Those shows actually feel like an even lesser deal than Rampage, despite having titles defended in each match. Hobbs and QT Marshall being linked up doesn't make sense to me; it already feels like they've derailed Hobbs' push with this nonsense.

Today is also my birthday and I can tell you from my own standpoint that growing up with April Fools Day as a birthday does kinda suck, heh. I eventually decided that my birthday was a day off from school whether anyone liked it or not. Looking forward to WrestleMania. I always do every year; I consider it the anniversary of my fandom since I don't remember exactly when I started watching. Not sure how much of Day One I'll get to see in real time, but I'm on board regardless!

I haven't watched the ROH supercard and not sure if I'm going to, but I fully agree that booking heels to win all the time is a big problem. People paid big money to see Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, and Steve Austin WIN, not lose. There's the idea that wins and losses don't really matter, but they do if you're a potential top babyface and the perception is that you lose all the damn time. Eddie Kingston is a prime example. He is but one of the guys that I thought would've been a top dog in AEW by now, but he's pretty much portrayed as a bipolar street thug and a loser with a big mouth that will throw down...but ultimately loses the fight anyway. Eddie's gotta win when it counts sometimes; the working class underdog stuff only works if you fight back and WIN.

Apparently both QT Marshall and Samoa Joe did a couple of tweets that referred to Wardlow's car break-in. I'm gonna laugh hella hard if it turns out to be an angle after all.

I would suggest that they ought to make an angle out of it where Hobbs broke into Wardlow's car himself, but that might be a bit much.

San Francisco is pretty crazy for car break-ins. I wonder where Wardlow was and why he left all of his travel stuff in the car. Frankly, I hope Hobbs zings Wardlow about it in a promo tonight. Didn't Jericho drunkenly leave his AEW world title in his car, only to find it stolen a while back?

Not really sure that I have anything to add about Revolution itself that hasn't already been said, but it was interesting to see who was over and who wasn't to the Chase Center crowd. Mark Briscoe and Ricky Starks were actually pretty over in San Francisco. Not sure why that surprised me. Briscoe was the only one the crowd seemed to really want to see in the pre-show six-man tag too. People were digging Brody King as the beast of the match and were actually happy that the Elite lost. Crowd also went mild after Hangman Page choked out Moxley. Nobody seemed to care about Wardlow, although Samoa Joe was definitely over. I don't think the fact that Wardlow looks small standing next to Joe helped. Of course the Acclaimed were very over and I'm sure that Anthony Bowens would have been quite popular at the gay bar of his choice. Everybody also loved chanting ASS BOYS at the Gunns, but I'm not sure if that's an indicator of overness or just the juvenile fun of yelling ASS BOYS really loud, heh. FTR's return got a HUGE pop, probably the second biggest reaction of the night. How many damn water breaks does MJF need to take to get through an hour plus-long match? Great match otherwise, in no small part thanks to Danielson's skill and effort. That kneeling head-to-head thing that they were doing prior to the headbutt and forearm exchange had some of us chuckling and asking if they were about to make out. FIGHT FOREVER chant was a bit ridiculous seeing as they'd been fighting for nearly an hour by that point. I think most of us were anticipating it going to a draw and then sudden death. We were likely expecting MJF to win as well, although Bryan had us thinking otherwise until the bitter end. MJF is still the most over wrestler on AEW's roster though, far and away from everyone else except maybe FTR. Hadn't been to the Chase Center before and don't really want to go there again. We had upper deck seats and the way they're set up is really vertigo-inducing if you're not used to how steep it is to get to where you're sitting. Not sure who they expect to sit in these seats either; you'd have to be Riho's size to fit in them without feeling cramped. I have chronic pain issues, so I spent much of the show aching due to the seating arrangement. Actually missed the women's triple threat because I needed to get up and walk around a bit to ease the pain somewhat. Good show and I'm glad that we were able to go, despite feeling stiff as a board afterwards.

Although the build hasn't exactly been the greatest, it should be fun and I'm looking forward to being there live. I have no idea where our seats are, but hopefully they're decent. Maybe we'll get another chance parking lot interaction with Jim Ross or get hit by Tony Khan's car and sue him for millions! Stay tuned for notes whenever I have a chance to jot them down!

Got an email first thing in the morning saying that our seats had been changed for Rampage, which looked like a slight improvement at least. Wow, it was actually a MAJOR improvement! We were now a level up from floor seats on the other side of the arena facing the ring and the stage. I think we got there during the first set of Dark tapings and missed the first couple matches. Dark is spoiler tagged for the nobody who cares with winners in bold: Nobody cares about Rampage either, but it looked like the live attendance was about equal to Dynamite. Not sure how many people jumped on the deal for tickets to both shows like we did though. Between the three of us, our tickets were less than $40 each! Tony Khan came out before Rampage started to welcome us back to the historical Cow Palace and to wish us a good time. He was maybe a little bit less coked out this time, but still excited. They improved the audio quality this time and we could actually hear what everyone was saying over the microphone. Can't stand these Dork Order guys, so we were pissed when they ran out to attack Claudio & Wheeler before the four-way tag. Dante Martin is amazing. He flies through the air in such a way that he almost looks suspended in motion, if that makes sense. Wheeler proved his worth by stealing the finish, but of course the Dork Order has to be sore losers and attack them after the bell. Got pissed when Riho's music hit and walked out to grab a bite to eat. Cow Palace hot dogs are maybe a half step up from Arco dogs, in case you were wondering. Pretty sure I managed to "miss" Riho's entire match. Of course we gave Powerhouse Hobbs the hero's welcome that he deserved before his quick annihilation of Serpentico. Nice to hear him on the mic too. He deserves a good push. Rampage flies by FAST. Quicker than the actual TV broadcast does, actually. I felt like I'd blinked and suddenly there was Mark Henry up on the video screen yelling "IT'S TIME FOR THE MAIN EVENT!" Goddamn, didn't we just get here to the Cow Palace a minute ago? I kept making cracks about Nazis at Parker Boudreaux's expense throughout the tag team main event; I could hear some of the frat guys sitting in front of us mumble "holy shit, dude..." under their breaths more than once, heh. Well, I was saying things like "Hey Parker, where were you on January 6th, you fascist fuck? Nazi piece of shit!" so I guess I don't blame them, heh. Parker looked lost in the ring too. Although I like Swerve's shitbird heel persona and enjoy watching him on TV, his offense doesn't look that great in person. Holy shit, did Swerve go up in the air for that spinebuster from Keith Lee though! He also scored points using Lee as a springboard for that moonsault to the outside; that was pretty sweet. We popped for Keith Lee scoring the pinfall with that Death Valley Driver/powerslam finish he does; it looked pretty devastating. We also popped for Ricky Starks jumping Chris Jericho at the announcers' table to end Rampage; we were cheering for him to kick Jericho's ass and for the referees to let them fight instead of breaking it up. Once they got Starks and Jericho backstage, I think that is when Tony Khan came back out to thank us for showing up and asked who was planning on going to Revolution as well. He was not particularly subtle in hinting that tickets were still available, heh. Tony also let us know that the night was not over yet, that there were actually more matches to come. That's good, for it was still early and we weren't ready to leave yet. More Dark matches in the spoilers... We were leaving the Cow Palace and going through the parking lot when we noticed a group of guys with rolling suitcases leaving from a side lot that was fenced off and surrounded by security guards. Figuring that was where wrestlers and staff were exiting, we walked over and stood around nearby for a bit to see if anyone would come out. Just when we were about to give up and walk away, one of us turns around and sees none other than good ol' JR in the passenger seat of an SUV leaving! We start cheering and yelling at JR's car; I'm yelling at him to follow us so we can smoke a joint. One of my friends starts following the car on foot, jogging trying to keep up. We're yelling at my friend making fun of him and then notice that the car is stopped in traffic leaving the Cow Palace. My buddy catches up to JR's car and is asking if he can just shake hands with his favorite wrestling announcer. We see the passenger's side window roll down and no shit, good ol' Jim Ross gives my friend a motherfuckin' FIST BUMP! Hell yeah! That was the highlight of the night right there. Apparently JR had a cigarette going in the car and everything when my friend caught up and asked for a handshake. "Thank you, sir. It's truly an honor" said my friend after getting the fist bump. JR grunted something in response like a thank-you and then rolled the window back up. Good times. Jim Ross has been my friend Sean's favorite announcer since he started watching wrestling during the Attitude Era and even more so after being able to go back and watch earlier footage from Mid-South and WCW. Meeting JR was literally one of his wacky unrealistic dreams like "wouldn't it be cool if this happened..." type of shit. Totally stoked for him! Not exactly the greatest event we've ever attended or anything, but we had a good time and loved our improved seats. Our expectations were low and the nights out at the Cow Palace were fun. Looking forward to Revolution on Sunday!

I'll be there!

Not exactly the blow-away show we'd initially hoped for when buying tickets, but being at the Cow Palace for wrestling is always fun. You can feel the spirit of legends like Ray Stevens, Peter Maivia, and Pat Patterson within those walls. Our seats were just out of range for being able to view the video screen, so we missed seeing all the promos and entrance graphics. Audio at the Cow Palace was awful tonight too; you could barely hear anything at all. Got there just in time for the Dark taping. I'll post those results as spoilers with winners in bold: Tony Khan came out after the Dark taping all coked out and stoked to be at the historical Cow Palace in San Francisco, welcoming us to the show and hoped that we'd have a good time...I think. Bad audio and whatnot. Not an Orange Cassidy fan, so I flipped him off and headed over to the merch table for an AEW San Francisco t-shirt and an OOOOOH SCISSOR ME DADDY t-shirt, plus a brat and a bottle of water. Some of the Cow Palace staff look like they've been working there since the Roy Shire days. Nice folks. Apparently I missed Big Bill chokeslam OC through the bell table, which prompted my friend who is not up on the current AEW product to stand up and yell "ISN'T THAT A DISQUALIFICATION?" No, not in AEW. Got back to my seat in time for the finish. Missed all the Danhausen interaction in the process. Didn't get to see Moxley's blood-soaked promo due to where we were seated and could only sorta hear it over the PA. Not a fan of the Elite either, so you can guess that I laughed my ass off when the lights went out and they caught a House of Black beatdown. Friend who is not up on the current AEW product decided that House of Black were his new favorite AEW faction for depriving us of another Elite match, heh. I joked about how Team Satan had just sent the Christians back to Cucamonga, although it's probably not working out in their favor again on Sunday. Samoa Joe looked big pimpin' in that suit carrying both belts. Too much stuff was going on at once to really keep track of the ladder match, but we tried to keep our eyes on our hometown dude Powerhouse Hobbs whenever we could and rooted for him the entire time. Eddie Kingston and Ortiz fought their way up the ramp and vanished. So much for seeing Eddie Kingston do much of anything. Kanosuke Takeshita matched up nicely with Hobbs; I'd like to see a rivalry between those two. Dunno who Kommander is in Mexico, but he really impressed me with his ability to walk the ropes the way he did if nothing else. Too bad we noticed everyone else standing there looking up and waiting to catch him on the way down. How AR Fox is not crippled after taking that Death Valley Driver off the apron across the ladder is beyond me. Action Andretti almost ended his own career on those two ladder stunts. Takeshita's Blue Thunder Bomb on Kommander off the ladder looked like a near-botch from where we were sitting. Sammy Guevara doing a senton off a ladder through another ladder held up by two chairs might be the stupidest thing I've ever seen done in person. Powerhouse Hobbs fucking KILLED the ladder with that running shoulderblock. That was awesome! Then he climbs the damn broken ladder and grabs the Golden Donut to become the Face of the Revolution and write a new chapter in the Book of Hobbs. Fuck yeah. Couldn't see much of Wardlow coming out and destroying the security guards from our vantage point, but at least caught him power bombing the one guy off the stage. Didn't get to see the Best Friends promo. Chris Jericho cut a heat promo on the city of San Francisco that wasn't aired on TV. His match against Peter Avalon was merely a setup for the post-match beatdown that we saw coming from a mile away. Real loud FUCK YOUR HAT chant directed at Jake Hager that you can kinda hear on the broadcast. Jericho, Garcia & Hager all took turns falling down on the ramp as they were walking away for some reason. Didn't get to see Hangman Page's promo, the Jungle Boy video, or the Jamie Hayter/Britt Baker promo. We could barely hear Christian Cage's in-ring interview with Renee Paquette. Hook vs. Matt Hardy was a decent little match. One thing that I noticed about Hardy is that he takes bumps in such a way that they sound so much louder when he hits the mat than virtually everyone else on the AEW roster. I don't know why it was so noticeable. Didn't get to see the House of Black promo. Toni Storm is awesome! She comes off like such a badass. Riho's offense and general ring presence looks sloppy and so much worse in person than on camera. She doesn't even hit the ropes at all. Toni's running ass attack looks devastating. Riho winning via the worst distraction roll-up finish ever was embarrassing. I wanted Toni to drop her like a bad habit and spray-paint the big L on her torso instead. Jamie Hayter sure has her work cut out for her on Sunday having to carry the load for both Saraya and Ruby Soho; their three-way brawl post-match was sloppy as hell. Didn't get to see the Keith Lee/Dustin Rhodes promo. Keith Lee looks like crap now that he's stopped dying his hair. I don't know how many people at the Cow Palace know that the annual battle royal was Roy Shire's biggest draw, but I was down with the tag team battle royal as a small nod to San Francisco rassling history. We were rooting for the Blackpool Combat Club because we're down with Claudio, but Top Flight did some impressive shit in the ring too. We didn't see the Best Friends promo, so we didn't know that Orange Cassidy and Danhausen were coming back for more in the battle royal. No, we were not happy to see them win either. We could see the Team Jarrett guys jogging in from the other side of the arena for the post-match attack; Jarrett's blonde hair and Satnam Singh stood out in the shadows. Everybody was stoked to see the Acclaimed run in for the save. Didn't get to see the MJF/Danielson highlight video. Bryan Danielson actually didn't get that big of a pop upon coming out to the ring, whereas MJF was over like Rover with this crowd. He probably got the biggest reaction of the entire night. Danielson shutting MJF and going on his tirade, making that crack about Max's fiancée leaving him was great. Not sure if no promo at all from MJF was the way to get people more stoked for the Iron Man match on Sunday, but maybe we'll hear from him on Friday. Sounds like Revolution needs all the help it can get drawing a crowd from what I've heard. Got a dark match pitting the Acclaimed against the Workhorsemen. You can guess how that went. I'd say that the Acclaimed was second to MJF for overness with the crowd. Danielson was a distant third and Orange Cassidy was probably fourth behind him. Daddy Ass and the Acclaimed scissored to celebrate after the match followed by "...and if you're not down with that, I got two words for ya!" because why the hell not. I believe Tony Khan came back out to wish us a good night and to get home safely and that was that for this week's edition of AEW Dynamite. Like I said earlier, we weren't blown away by the show or anything, but we always have a fun night out when wrestling is in town anyway. My friends and I don't ask for too much as long as we're entertained. Cow Palace was maybe a little over half-full, which is odd to me because the tickets were actually pretty damn cheap for a Dynamite/Rampage package deal. Wrestling doesn't always do that great in the Bay Area though. There's that story about how No Way Out at the Cow Palace in 2004 was looking to be a disaster until walk-up sales the day of the show proved that Eddie Guerrero was a draw after all. WWE has struggled to fill the SAP Center down the way in San Jose in more recent times too and came nowhere near packing the Oakland Coliseum the last couple times they had house shows there. New Japan's G1 Special drew a pretty good house at the Cow Palace in 2018 though, so I'm not sure what that says about the promotional departments at AEW and WWE compared to NJPW. I will say that Dynamite was paced much better than any of the Raw or Smackdown tapings I've attended in the past, especially when it comes to commercial breaks and downtime in general. We only noticed downtime in two particular spots right before the Toni Storm/Riho match and one of Renee Paquette's in-ring interview segments. Watching the actual televised broadcast via nefarious means after getting home was interesting to see where they inserted commercial breaks and backstage stuff; it's actually a very nicely laid out show in that sense. Good times. Looking forward to Rampage on Friday!

I will be in attendance tonight and will try to post specifics sometime after I get home. Looking forward to the experience of rassling at the Cow Palace and seeing specific wrestlers more than the actual matches, but that's fine. Should be fun regardless! New poster here as well. There's an intro in the intro thread too.

Hey y'all, I'm a longtime lurker and ideally want to try posting more these days, although I can't make any promises. Name's Jake and I prefer they/them pronouns. Born in Pittsburgh in 1978, started watching wrestling when I was six or seven years old and have tried to keep up as best I can ever since. Started with the WWF circa 1984-85 and then got into JCP when it showed up on one of the local affiliate stations. Moved to the Bay Area and have lived in the East Bay since 1988. First live event was a WWF house show at the Oakland Coliseum later that year. Attended WrestleMania IX in Las Vegas and managed to spit on Hulk Hogan right after the cameras went off. Got Sabu to break character in public at an indie show during his comeback tour in 2005. Attended the infamous ROH Chaos at the Cow Palace show in 2007 where I was one of only 300 people taking up the floor seats. Saw Jun Akiyama wrestle in a high school gym in San Francisco a few years ago, which I wouldn't have guessed that I would get a chance to experience until it actually happened. I also wrote the Rock 'n' Wrestling column for PORK magazine, a free quarterly out of Portland that ceased production in 2018. Favorite matches that I've seen in real time: Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13 and Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk at Clash of the Champions IX. I watch Raw and Smackdown on Hulu and catch PLEs via Peacock. AEW Dynamite, Rampage, and all their PPVs are viewed via nefarious means. I don't really keep up with many other promotions because I don't have the time, but I'll check out specific matches here and there. That said, I have seen my fair share of old Japanese footage mostly featuring American wrestlers and am one of the people who will occasionally stand up for Bruiser Brody and the Dynamite Kid/Tiger Mask series. Non-wrestling interests include music (punk/soul/funk/new wave), movies and TV shows, books about the aforementioned subjects, occasionally writing and blogging about the aforementioned subjects, and a bunch of other stuff that shouldn't be mentioned here. Don't wanna be here all day, but I wanted to say hello and hopefully I'll feel compelled to post somewhat regularly here. If not, I at least enjoy reading all the various discussions and GWE topics! I learn new stuff about wrestling all the time that way and enjoy it immensely.