Dav'oh

If that's You Can't Kill David Arquette, do you agree that he's one of wrestling's best babyfaces? That's what I took out of the film, that and Arquette's undeniable love of this thing of ours. I'd buy a ticket to see David Arquette perform, something I would've slapped myself (or worse) for saying back in the day. He really came across well, for mine.

Feb 26, 1993, AWF, Melbourne: Jushin Liger vs Chris Benoit. I still have never seen crispness like that. Being bookended by Junkyard Dog vs Don Muraco and Jake Roberts vs Jim Neidhart didn't hurt. The Rock vs HHH vs Lesnar from Global Warning 2002 was a hoot live; I just realised I've never watched it on tape so that's something for my watch list. Okada was a huge disappointment, in-ring-wise, on NJPW's 2018 Australian tour (Kenny Omega & Guerrillas of Destiny vs Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii & Rocky Romero). His offence was horribly weak - which, outside of the Rainmaker and his dropkick, I knew coming in - but seeing him go through the house-show motions, I came away realising there's two Okadas, and Big Match Okada is the only Okada worth watching.

Everything old is new again... I often have a 2.5-3hr each-way commute on the public transport (which I enjoy) so I'm going through the Meltzer thread. "at this point the bitching is counter productive and not good for the guy. And as far as I'm concerned, it's getting old. The well of "DID YA HEAR WHAT ANGRY CORNETTE SAID" shit is dried up. You can only run that gimmick so long before you become a parody." Johnny Sorrow, July 3, 2013 "I really felt like Cornette was a man behind the times, and it was sort of sad hearing him talk." Guest Neil Santucci, July 3, 2013 "Cornette is reaching Tom Zenk levels for me now. Repeating the same points over and over. Angry and bitter. He's an all time great and I'm not saying he doesn't have valid arguments but he's really getting tough to listen to." Strummer, July 4 (Happy Belated Birthday, America!), 2013 So now I've got, in my head, a dog chasing its own tail. Or Cornette's critics chasing him around a tree, except Cornette left to bank another cheque and the critics are still chasing air. I do understand the criticism, I just wonder if we haven't been banging our collective heads against a wall for at least seven years. (Off-topic, the horses are racing at Bro Park tonite. I do trust the drug-testing is as stringent at Bro Park as everywhere else, but the Swedes, it turns out, are not big on naming their horses after pro-wrestlers so there's no betting to be had...) *And many thanks to The Thread Killer for the excellent recaps. Cheers mate.

Wouldn't be surprised if Vince shows Bad Luck Fale tapes to Keith Lee to teach him how to work (in a universe where Vince knows who Fale is...). Sad. Not as pumped for tonight, Ishimori is less appealing than Phantasmo, EVIL can suck an egg or a lemon or whatever's considered rude in 2021, but I like genuine shit-heel Jay White so let's rock.

I'd rather Choshu had challenged Ibushi last night than Goldberg challenging Drew.

Karl Gotch and Sachin Tendulkar are the only sporting gods that come to mind, and they weren't self-proclaimed. Seems like a heel move from Kota from afar, but the crowd didn't see it that way so what do I know.

Love "going for a pinfall five minutes after the match has finished". Never seen that one before.

You can't say "I will become God" (and that's "God", not "a God") and then lose, Shirley?

Nifty/nasty Japanese Table Spot, though. Standard Big-Match Okada stuff, otherwise. It's a pretty good standard he sets, for mine, strike-exchanges notwithstanding. I think Ospreay needs the win more than Okada here.

Each time my interest in wrestling waned, for reasons within and without actual wrestling, someone pulled me back. It was Yamada/Liger and Flair 88/89, Bret kept me following from a distance until Austin's KotR speech fully reeled me in. Benoit next, then the tragedy took me out. Bryan and the Shield coincided with my sobriety and proper internet access, then seeing WWE waste Sami and KO and Nak and Bryan (to a large degree) and the WWE product as a whole had me teetering. Hiromu brought me fully back, and AEW keeps me watching between episodes of the Hiromu Show. It's pretty much the highest praise I can give a wrestler - "HE was the reason I watched".

Used the intermission to discover Molly Holly is running in the third at Angle Park dish-lickers (DOUBLE omen bet! Triple if you count WK being on) in fifteen minutes. 13/1. (Feel free to tell me no-one cares about my wrestling-themed gambling and I'll cease and desist. I just find it an amusing diversion, like seeing a wrestler in a TV show. Except they're small horses). Back to the wrestling!

"Everything's coming up Yano!" That's fucking gold, Kevin Kelly. Count me among the Yano fans. I always look forward to his G1 runs, especially.

Ishii's head seems to be shrinking even further into his spine, if that's possible. His shoulders look to be growing straight out of his ears. (edit: it was most pronounced as he walked to the ring.)

Gotta love serendipity. Chase Owens cosplaying AJ Styles is....distracting.

I'm guessing WrestleKingdom is on at an ungodly hour for most of you, it's on at six pm here so I'm settling in for the evening. Giving us Ishii and Suzuki and Nagata early doors predisposes me to enjoy this card, even if two of them deserve better than the Rambo. And here's Goto, who I like too. Don't normally watch pre-shows but I'm glad to check this out.

Bryan's comedy helped a ton, I'd reckon. From his theme music to Mr. Small Package and whatever else he was pulling. Then "Yes! Yes! Yes!" to "No! No! No!" to duelling "Yes! No!" to Team Hell No. It's a miracle he ever got out of the comedy gigs, really. Bret didn't have the, not luxury, of that, he never had the opportunity for that but I can't see him having Bryan's talents if he had been called upon to do comedy. It means Bret had only his work to get over with. He couldn't use laughter to reinforce positive neural pathways connected to our facial-recognition systems, just what he did between the ropes and the (serious) character he worked so hard to project and protect. Bryan shouldn't be marked down for having comedy amongst the many strings to his bow, of course. But I don't think Bret should lose points for never needing to be a comedy character either (not that anyone has mentioned comedy in this thread, I know). *Masked Gladiator (white brindle 2yo) saluted in the 8th at Cannington tonight at 17/1

*Jon Huber was a man, not an "@" sign. *His death is a tragedy, not a hashtag. *His death supersedes Twitter, not the other way around. He should not be reduced to a couple of keyboard shortcuts. If that point of view offends you, it was not my intention. But I will FOH with that (I had to Google that...oh my!) as I seem to have derailed the thread.

Just makes it worse. It impersonalises and trivialises everything. This is a time of genuine grief and their first instinct is to corporatise their condolences. To me, there is a massive difference between: RIP Jon Huber and #RIPJonHuber If some fucker said to me, "I'm sorry to hear about your hashtag mum", I'd have to hashtag slap them.

I'm glad Steph avoided what I fear will be a common occurrence: "Our deepest sympathies to the family of @brodielee" or "shocked to hear @brodielee has passed. Condolences to @manda" or "I remember travelling with @brodielee". Shits me to fucking tears when people are reduced to an "@". (Although she did hashtag her fucking RIP....smh).

I'd wager (the usual amount) that Vince would've given his eye teeth for Roman and Charlotte to be WWE's power-couple, rather than the lesser Seth/Becky union.

How long before Riddle and Hardy are doing "Jeff? Jeff's not here, man" sketches?

"It was all a dream sequence!" - Husky Harris, RAW, tomorrow night.

Looks like they hired Penn & Teller for the finale.

Overkill. It's all overkill in WWE matches. Owens has been powerbombed through this and powerbombed through that and superpunched and speared and everything else on top. Noticed it in Dunne/O'Reilly the other night, too, not that it's anything new. None of it matters. It's like a basketball match that ends 160-159. Yes, there's plenty going on, but only one of those points matter.

I first read that story in an Aussie dirt sheet (actually a very, very good fanzine, called Piledriver) circa 1990. Every news story was cribbed from the Observer, so I'm guessing Meltzer helped propagate those myths?