MikeCampbell

I always figured that the big plan for Trick was a feud with Melo over the U.S. Title, since they've made a point of keeping them away from each other.

The only person who can pin Kazuyuki Fujita in a title match is Kazuyuki Fujita! The only reason I don't see this as being a double cross is that they actually kept him around afterwards (he worked a tag match about a month after this), and even gave him another run with the title (which he lost in a 3 way match without being pinned). Forget Yasuda, Nakamura in 2003, EVIL or even Moxley (which I didn't even mind, but a lot of folks apparently hated) this is the low point of the IWGP Title.

Two weeks into the year and we've already got a viable MOTYC. The main story is MJF working Bandido's arm, with all kids of great heel stuff and being a pick in general (shocking, I know). Bandido sells like a god, even when he makes a comeback and pulls off something that might seem like he's blowing off the arm work, he does something little to show that it's still an issue, like the press slam where he's got to do it with one arm because it's not strong enough, or the superplex complete with him selling the arm while using the other to hook the leg. They even go as far as to make the fact that Bandido's 21-plex finisher can only be done from a specific position into a story, with MJF getting himself into position for it just to bait Bandido in, and when Bandido finally does do it, he's too worn down to cover right away. They had plenty of time to work and they made the most of it. For all the talk about how such and such much made a guy look great in defeat (which this absolutely does for Bandido), it elevates MJF's game too and reminds everyone that he's a lot more than a prick with a big mouth, he shows that he's fully capable of beating someone clean in the ring without low blows and foreign objects.

How do you think the women's title situation plays out? I'm thinking that Fatal Influence helps Jacy retain on the 17th, and Stand and Deliver can be the big Sol/Zaria singles match. Easy enough to switch it after the fact if they do want to send Jacy up to the main roster.

Bloodsport comes to the performance center! This is the exact sort of pro-style/shootstyle hybrid that Thatcher has been having on Bloodsport shows. It's full of insanely stiff strikes and matwork that's somehow both smooth and carny looking. Even the few pro-style stuff they do looks realistic, like Thatcher bouncing Dempsey off the ropes and using the momentum from the rebound to suplex him. If you want realism in wrestling, this is 10 times more effective than any of early to mid 2000's NJPW bullshit with Fujita and the K1 dudes. And one of the funniest things I've heard recently was Robert Stone saying that Thatcher had several broken teeth that he refused to fix because "they were weak for breaking."

Gunther and Dragon Lee put on a hell of a match on Monday night. Gunther won using the tried and true method of unmasking the tecnico to get him distracted. Well, Sean Ross Sapp posted a shot of Dragon Lee's face and social media fucking exploded as a result. There's two schools of thought here: 1. SRS is a prick who doesn't understand and/or respect lucha culture. 2. WWE were the people who decided to have him get unmasked on live TV with a camera front and center, if there's any outrage they're the ones who it should go to. I personally fall more into the second category, since we live in a day and age where a 12 year old could have gotten that exact same shot. I think it was a questionable decision by him to post the photo. But, at the end of the day, he doesn't have any sort of obligation to WWE or Dragon Lee.

The women's tag triple threat from Wednesday night was a lot of fun. The biggest standout for me was honestly Lainey Reid, her crucifix bomb may have been the cleanest one that I've ever seen, and the Blue Thunder she caught Kendal Grey with was every bit as smooth as when Takeshita does it.

After she pretty much got kicked out of the NXT NA Title scene, the initial theory was that Blake Monroe must be getting called up. Now, the word is that there are no plans at this time. I said it as soon as the incident with Thea happened: There may not have been any hard feelings as far as the agents, producers, writers, etc. in NXT, but that it would leave a bad taste in someone's mouth. I can practically hear HHH's response to someone suggesting it: "She couldn't kick out in a match that she was supposed to be winning, and you think she's read for prime time TV?"

I saw a post saying that he was supposed to be part of the whole mixed nuts deal. I can imagine him asking to be let out of it so that he can fly home and spend the holidays with his family. It's not like he was going to make or break that match.

It was a good show, but not a great one. The two C2 semi finals seemed to wear out the crowd, which was a surprise since Chicago is usually such a hot market for AEW. I was really taken aback by the lack of angles or storytelling coming out of the show. There was Okada's method of beating Takeshita and Moxley's promo after the C2. But nothing as far any real return or debut. I guess they'll start laying some groundwork Wednesday night.

Between the Jet Speed vs Sky Team tag match in Arena Mexico a couple of weeks ago, and his C2 run thus far, Kevin Knight is having the run of a lifetime. And on 12/19, Jet Speed go back to CMLL. Knight vs Neon and Speedball vs Mascara Dorada for the NWA Historic Welterweight title.

The only matches that didn't do much for me were the women's 4 way tag, and it was still perfectly fine, and the Young Bucks trios match. It wasn't bad but there's no way they were following Moxley and O'Reilly and then Briscoe and Fletcher. My motn was the tag titles match, with the women's title being just a step behind. I'm definitley OK with Joe as the champ. I do wonder if Hook turning was always the plan, of if they saw that him and Kingston as a team just weren't working out and pulled the plug.

That'd be the All Atlantic Title, which strangely included the flag of Japan on it's design. My original prediction for the first champ was Mascara Dorada, since he's someone AEW clearly likes and he's the sort of dude that could do a defense on a Wednesday night AEW show, and then do another one two days later at Arena Mexico, and then another one on 1/4 in the Tokyo Dome. But, Sky Team defending the trios straps against the Callis Family on the Full Gear pre show seems to have put the kibosh on that.

I'd say that it's almost certain that the National Title winds up with Ricochet.

I had high hopes for that Okada/Dorada match, and.....yeesh. I don't know if it was nerves or the size difference being an issue but they just didn't click together at all. Dorada is lucky he didn't break his neck on that last top rope spot.

A couple of observations from the women's matches last night. 1. Tay beat Taya Valkarie in just over two minutes and layed out everyone in MXM TV. 2. Hyan and Maya got close to 8 minutes with a the much less pushed team of Riho and Windsor, and not only got to show off some of their stuff, but had Jon Moxley putting them over on commentary. I'll grant that it's possible these are both reactions to last week's drama, but it sure looks like they want to get TayJay over as bad asses headed into their tournament match with Marina and Megan. And it also looks like that they're throwing a bone to Hyan and Maya for being good sports last weekend. Given that Miranda and Nixon were first on TV in a backstage segment before being in the ring, is it really a stretch to think that they'd have done the exact same thing as Hyan and Maya, had they not decided that last week's quick match didn't benefit anyone?

You probably won't like hearing this because it's another Vince-ism, but it's the truth. They were given an opportunity. They could have spent those three minutes making Tay and Jay look like killers for their upcoming tournament match, and that leads to more bookings and getting more time to work. Hell, look at how over Max Caster got this year by getting his ass kicked in two minutes or less.

Bruh, if I hadn't seen this post, I wouldn't have even remembered they were on the show last week. And WTF is "their brand" right now? Whatever, enjoy being the top women's team in the NWA.

Oh man, this blew up like crazy on Twitter/X. With folks arguing about whether or the lineage of the National Title ended in 1986 with Nikita merging it with the US Title and that Mondo's belt is a seperate entity that shares a name, or if Mondo's title is the same one since it was an NWA Title. I personally think that, since all the titles that Crockett was using carried over to WCW and then WWF, that the person with the best claim to being the actual National Champion is Ilja Dragunov.

I had to fire this up yesterday after social media blew up over Gail Kim criticising Riho, which turned into Gail Kim vs Dave Meltzer. I never really bothered with TNA during these years outside of reading the TV tapings and ppv reports, so I knew that this feud was highly praised at the time, and yeah, this is pretty fucking great. Whether or not one wants to agree with her over Riho's believability (and for the record, I don't), it's hard to point to something like this as a gotcha to her. Everything they do and the way things pan out makes perfect sense. Gail mostly strikes and tries to work Kong's arm after the missed charge, and whenever she tries to get loftier than that, like her attempt at a rolling cradle, Kong makes her pay. Even Gail's flash cradle pin works because Kong was too busy trying to powerbomb a referee and Gail got her over with the cradle more due to physics than her being super strong.

You can probably blame Mike Tenay for popularizing the phrase on this side of the Rio Grande.

There was a graphic on Raw that advertised El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Chad Gable for the World's Collide show on 6/7, and announced it for the AAA Mega Title. Our friendly neighborhood CubsFan jumped right on it, pointing out that Vikingo isn't the champion, and that he's challenging Alberto for the title on 5/31. And wouldn't you know who won the pony; Vikingo defeated Alberto last night for the title.

And after about a month, I decided to rewatch The Hollywood Ending to see how well it held up. Short version is that it holds up perfectly fine. It may not look like it from a stylistic standpoint, but it's a bit like those 90's All Japan main events, where one can't really fully appreciate everything they're doing if they don't know the whole backstory. And this match does that masterfully. Things like the shoe and champaign bottle and the title being used like a whip are all things that Mariah has used on Toni, and she finally gets a chance to hand it back. The only thing that sort of pushed the envelope was the bit where they both started taping up their fists, and even then Mariah shows that she's following Toni's lead on that one, while Toni looks like she's fully prepared to march right into hell if that's what it takes to get her revenge. There's even a smart bit where Toni surprises her with a German suplex, which looks odd with Toni bleeding so much, and Toni collapses afterwards from the effort of doing the move. It's a brilliant match, and while there's still 3/4 of the year left, I'll be shocked (in a good way) if anything is able to to top this.

I watched the show live with a bunch of friends. We all lost our collective minds during the Hollywood Ending, an absolutely perfect way to blow off a longstanding feud (or as one might say: FINISH. THE. STORY). Then they lost their shit again for Omega/Takeshita, and I was like "It's fine, but I don't think it's all that great." Then they lost their shit again for the cage match and again my response was "Really? I don't see it?" I thought that Toni and Mariah just burned me out, and I coudln't fully appreciate what they were doing. So, after some time to decompress, I fired them both up again last night. Honestly, nothing much changed for me. Both of them had nearly 30 minutes and didn't accomplish what Toni and Mariah did in less than half. Takeshita/Omega was straight out a 00's NOAH main event with Kobashi. The midsection stuff was great, with Kenny taking some truly nasty bumps. But, other than his inability to do the One Winged Angel, it never felt like he was truly inhibited. To the point where Takeshita was hitting elbows right in the ribs and Omega wasn't even registering them. I will give them credit for a smart finish, with Omega escaping the Raging Fire instead of taking it and kicking out, and outwrestling Takeshita to win. But, it just felt too long and drawn out for what all they did. Look up "Overkill" in the dictionary and you'll find a pic of the Osprey/Fletcher cage match. Run ins, buckets of blood, tons of props, at least three different points in the match that should have been an absolute murder death kill sort of finish, only for a regular ass hidden blade to do it,while Fletcher is screaming his head off.

These two have always made great opponents; it's why there was such heavy rumors that WWE was going to sign Averno and bring him in to work with Sin Cara in 2011. And much like Baba did for Kawada in the 1997 Carnival, CMLL gives Averno his first ever win over his longstanding rival in a tournament setting, which can obviously lead to another singles match down the road for Mistico to get his win back. Anyone who's seen any of their previous matches won't see anything new from this go around, outside of the finish. They do their usual sequences, and after Mistico counters La Magistral and does one of his own for a near fall, it looks like the end is coming. But then Averno counters La Mistica and hits the Devil's Wings. And then he does a second one. And then a third one! Averno gets the pinfall, in what had to be considered the biggest upset in Arena Mexico history at that time.