Dav'oh

Here's one of Johnny Gargano slapping his thigh when throwing a chop. I'm unsure of the context, maybe he was taking the piss, maybe it's so ingrained it's reflexive. https://preview.redd.it/cjf4dsjc31i21.gif?format=mp4&s=439963fb0c6349e529bb6f5af35e7ee1ca6ff94b

Cue: WWE tragics on using that final whoopee-cushion explosion as a victory on the "social" media. We'll never hear the end of it.... My own thought on the final christmas cracker explosion was merely, "That's a shame....on several levels". Could've been a fondly-remembered match, for one.

"(the referee) is wearing his referee's uniform under the flame resistant suit". Fucking gold. He probably fucking is.

anticlimax /antɪˈklʌɪmaks/ noun a disappointing end to an exciting or impressive series of events. "the rest of the journey was an anticlimax by comparison"

I don't see why "it's not who you think" CAN'T be deliberate disinformation. It's not like anyone's going to shit on him if it is "who we think".

And sometimes it's to hide your waist, making you look "fuller". Sorta works...

"Shingo understands the importance of pulling his trunks over his belly-button." See? This is why I don't review the pro-wrestling. It's Okada-Shingo, a match I'm pumped for, and that's all I've got. (Good match so far, winner still in doubt, crowd right into it.)

"HoF worthy" obviously rules him out, but if Flair is heartbroken about his relationship with the Horsemen, AEW gives him his best opportunity to reconcile. All his old friends (and Dusty's kids) are in AEW, I wouldn't be surprised if he sees JJ, Arn and Tully doing well and thinks, "hmmmmmmm.....hang with the boys like the good old days, or hang around with two masculine blondes I'm not fucking?" Direct request for Lurking Tony: Mr. Khan, if you're lurking, an Original Horsemen reunion, please.

I mentioned Vitas Gerulaitis in another thread, but the galling realisation hit me that men's tennis, men's fucking tennis from the 1970s, had bigger characters than PRO FUCKING WRESTLING does in 2021. Ille Nastase, "Broadway" Vitas, Superbrat, The Iceborg Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors, Roscoe Tanner and the gang showed more colour and character than most anyone I've seen in a wrestling ring in a while. This is a terrible indictment on current wrestling. Fuck, give me Ivan the Terrible Lendl, Boom Boom Becker, Martina and the Ice Princess Chrissy Evert from the 80s too. I don't even like tennis. I'd just like to iterate that: Tennis 40 years ago had more memorable, natural characters than Pro-Wrestling can manufacture today. Jesus (Castillo) (Jr) wept.

I took notes! Don't think I've done that before. Spoiler: My notes are shit! and contain no insight or analysis. To wit: "Zack ate a sammich! Thank you, Zach - that's all we ever wanted from you." "The strapping on Okada's back gives him the world's worst plumber's crack." "Sho getting into Ibushi negative percent body fat territory." "It would want to be the Left Hand of God seeing as it follows the Right Hands of Piss". "Cobb's lost the puppy-fat. Eased up on the heavy squats, too, so he no longer has an arse like a Kardashian." About all that's worth offering up for discussion was: *Love how Jay White is in Full Wanker mode from the moment he steps through the curtains. Easily wrestling's most wonderful shithead. I could believe that he wakes up a wanker and has breakfast as a wanker and brushes his teeth and walks his dog as a wanker and so on through the whole day. And *I have no idea of what a "Juice Robinson" is. I know the NXT redemption story, of course, but that's background more than character. The Beefcake and Savage tribute trunks and the Leo Sayer / Vitas Gerulaitis hair (that's as 'contemporary' as I can get...fuck I'm old) tell me nothing. (The show gets an easy thumbs-up, for the record.)

I wonder if I hope Shane McMahon has enough daddy issues that he'd make the jump. A huge star, with the qualifier "in the world of wrestling" rules out the Rock, and probably Brock and Cena, too.

There's no dishonesty in doing this: AEW beat WWE's developmental system. It's the attempts to distance WWE from NXT which are dishonest.

Did Vince the elder keep his hand in things to any degree after selling it to his son? (I use the term "selling" cautiously there, given conflicting reports on whether any money changed hands, and between whom.) Or are we to believe the narrative of Vincent J. leaving Vincent K. to sink or swim, and being against expansion and incursion? I lean away from the latter like it was a dog-fart, but I'm not sure how much advice VJM was giving VKM early doors. Or how much he was capable of giving, given his deteriorating health.

Is that a "shits and giggles" game, where the players and fans treat it like a lark, or is there some "heat", for want of a better term?

Inside Wrestling's "One To Watch" for March 2021: "Hearing good things about a hungry up-and-comer in the New York territory. Apparently he's a former Olympian and built like a brick supermarket. Mark Henry is his real name, and he recently had his to say to us: 'I plan on having a match sometime in the next six months. I just want to have one match'. Good luck to the young man. We'll be watching closely." (Full quote courtesy 411 : "During a recent episode of Busted Open Radio, Mark Henry said that he plans to wrestle a match again within the next six months. Henry hasn’t wrestled since the Greatest Royal Rumble in 2018. When the segment of him getting insulted by Randy Orton came up, Henry said: “I’d rather get punked out than get my ass whooped. Randy is not somebody to mess around with if you’re not 100%. Now I’m walking on two feet, I’m 325 pounds. I’m lighter and trimmer than I’ve ever been. I plan on having a match sometime in the next six months. I just want to have one match. And if Randy is the guy, then so be it. Believe me, I’ll be ready and I won’t be on one foot on a push scooter. I got to wrestle in this decade. I’ve got to. Big Show has wrestled in four and I’ve wrestled in three. I can’t let him have that over me.”

Local indie wrestler of mild renown, until he helped put together NJPW's Australian tours (I may be understating his role in bringing them Down Under, he may have been the prime mover, not sure). Somehow he's parlayed that working relationship into the occasional commentary gig. I just like seeing an Aussie on the big stage, even if it is as a wonky third or fourth wheel. I thought we should declare a national holiday when Robbie Eagles beat Jushin Liger....

About what you'd expect from the announced line-up, really. My attention drifted during the main but it was Okada v EVIL by-the-numbers. Possible spoiler: no run-in after the main, so no need to stick around. Weak Bullet Club interference all night. Yoshi-Tanga not horrible, nothing positive to say about Yano-Stevens, Goto (who I like in a low-key way) did the best he could with what he was given, and Jay White is glorious.

Yoshi-hashi's snap German Suplex, where Tanga Loa lands completely on Yoshi-hashi's face, is a thing of beauty. I like hearing Gino on commentary. Not for his qualities, just that it's nice hearing an Aussie voice, and I was at a wrestling trivia night he was at and he seems like a good guy. Ishii v White next. I'm not as high on Ishii as most, but I certainly appreciate what he does well. Jay White is nearly always a joy to watch and I get to mock his accent (or muck hus uksunt, more accurately).

If I'm reading this correctly (and thank-you to everyone who has chimed in): *Greatest in-ring performer, based on available footage* does not equal *Greatest technician / "scientific" wrestler* ? So Dusty can go above Arn (sacrilege, I know), because I think we can't dismiss the purpose of in-ring work, and the effects. Yes, promos helped get fans into the building, but what Dusty did in-ring (shucking, jiving, flippin floppin flyin, bleedin, more bleedin) made them say "yeah, I'll come back next month", no? And more people in more places wanted to come see Dusty in-ring than Arn. I can't separate drawing power (or historical importance) because the in-ring is aimed at future drawing, directly or indirectly. Hogan's in-ring routine made him the biggest name ever - not the promotional machine or Vince or his opponents - because they came to see his in-ring posturing posing and vanquishing. Is a double-arm biceps pose a less valid "in-ring" gesture than Orienteering With Napalm Death? Basically, are we separating "entertainer" from "wrestler"? Is it honest to do so i.e treat wrestling as a legitimate form of competition, so "of course Fujiwara trumps Hogan"? How do we eliminate intangibles like charisma and "actually looks like a wrestler (bye-bye, Verne!) / carries himself like one (hello, Frank Goodish!)"? TL;DR (sorry, sometimes I take the long way round )- Is Greatest Wrestler distinct from Greatest Pro-Wrestler? I'd have two vastly different lists for those two, I reckon.

No wonder so many people had to be committed after the last one. Sounds like a bugger. I got this far: I like PAC. I don't dislike Jumbo. I've seen more PAC, but I've seen some pimped Jumbo. I saw Jumbo well before PAC. Both are proficient at the rudiments, but I find PAC's work crisper, smoother, slicker and more exciting and innovative (by modern standards, which I know to be unfair). I also find PAC can do a lot more, and do it at a very high level. Geordie and Japanese are both foreign languages to me, but I still like PAC's promos. Both can sell well. I don't recall being put off by either PAC or Jumbo's psychology. I've kept this bog-simple for illustrative purposes, but by those metrics, I think PAC is a better wrestler. But there's no way I'm putting PAC above Jumbo in a "Greatest" poll.... What's a boy to do? I'm following the kayfabe in my heart voting Jumbo. Is it this friction between head and heart that caused people grief?

Was there a universally-agreed upon set of criteria for what constitutes the "Greatest Pro-Wrestler"? Or was that entirely open to one's interpretation? Was a 1.Londos 2.Hogan 3.Austin 4.Bruno ballot considered less "valid" than 1.Misawa 2. Volk Han 3. Jumbo 4. Bockwinkel?

Of course, sportsmen have been cattle since sportsmen were invented; you can't tag their ears so it's the next best thing. From the fed's perspective, yes (you could even drop the "new playthings"). From another perspective, it's like the wrestlers are bragging, ""I'm not even Vince's bitch. I'm one of Vince's bitches' bitches." (How long before a signee meets Vince? Could you be signed, then cut a year or two later without ever meeting him?)

This might help, brother El-P. The "Is Teddy Hart in Jail" Twitter account, "keeping you in the loop". I think I found it in my FB feed from a wrestling funnies type of site (unless I saw it here in another forum in which case sorry for reposting). https://twitter.com/isteddyinjail?lang=en

"He's given him one, too." "Yep." "He's done well." Classic commentary after John Bourke assaulted an umpire (no send-off rule!) and then jumped the fence to tolchok a spectator.

Has anyone coined "the WWE dads"? If not, I'm claiming it. NJPW's only got a couple of dads... amateurs. This WWE roster would've had it's own one-off PPV special like Slamboree before Vince decided 50 was the new 30. I do like Seamus, but I've been watching Jeff since he was a teenager and his work hasn't spoken to me in a long, long time.