Comments that don't warrant a thread - Part 4

[Rah]

3 hours ago, sek69 said:

Joey has been one of the more vocal people out there pointing out MLW pays their talent peanuts while Court jets around trying to broker deals like he's Vince and not a small time carny ass promoter. 

Also I've never heard anything about Janela hurting anyone, and accusing someone of being drunk on the job is pretty fucked up thing to do.

Not to mention MSL has kind of been a low key douchebag for a long ass time. 

This devolved into Joey apparently DM'ing MSL "threats" (read: "you're in Orlando, watch your back") and MSL responding by screenshotting and tagging TK and TBS with the hopes of Janela getting canned. I'm getting vibes MSL is more than just a petty douchebag.

Also, if Court is styling and profiling while paying $300 per 10-hour production run which span over weeks upon weeks of "TV time" (on the high end contracts) that's really lame.

 

[El-P]

I kinda doubt Janela is getting renewed by AEW anyway so he probably doesn't care. He's very much a cult indy guy who does not translate the best in a large scale. Although I would have loved to see a lot more of him and Sunny Kiss on the main shows. I'm actively looking forward to his match against Cardona (who wants to do a Sandman entrance he has said, this guy had turned around his career like no one else's business).

[sek69]

6 hours ago, Rah said:

This devolved into Joey apparently DM'ing MSL "threats" (read: "you're in Orlando, watch your back") and MSL responding by screenshotting and tagging TK and TBS with the hopes of Janela getting canned. I'm getting vibes MSL is more than just a petty douchebag.

Also, if Court is styling and profiling while paying $300 per 10-hour production run which span over weeks upon weeks of "TV time" (on the high end contracts) that's really lame.

 

If MSL is the one claiming he's getting threats, I wouldn't believe him even if he had receipts. 

Say what you will, one thing about Joey is he's clearly a "zero fucks given" type of guy and won't hesitate to call bullshitters out on their bullshit. 

[Coffey]

I have no loyalty to either side but from reading the tweets, I did find it interesting that MSL said Janela was fired for drinking on the job & Janela said he was never drunk on the job. Didn't refute drinking. 

[sek69]

I don't doubt Joey might have had a beer or two, but MSL is trying to imply a Jeff Hardy level "no condition to perform" type deal which is clearly bullshit.

[Infinit]

Wouldn't the heat be on the company for letting a "clearly inebriated" talent perform? Not sure how smart it is for management to admit that.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Anyone else watching the GCW PPV tonight? 

[KinchStalker]

Are there any living Japanese wrestling journalists/historians besides Fumi Saito who know English? I asked Bix about it, and the only suggestion he had (Shun Yamaguchi, Wally's younger brother and WWE announcer) hasn't gotten back to me yet. Also I @'ed Fumi about the subject, but he's a busy man.

I'm preparing a longform piece on my blog about Kosuke Takeuchi, and am shooting to publish it on the tenth anniversary of his death in May. It's an important story that I really want to do more justice than the 900-word Observer obit that, outside of allusions to him on my history thread, is the only acknowledgment he has in the West. Beyond just his importance to Mil Mascaras' career in Japan or the legacy of Gong, I think the way that he brought fans into journalism is an important one for the Western fandom. That's without getting into his massive importance to puroresu preservation. It's common knowledge among Japanese traders that the 1970s broadcast recordings we have are largely dupes of his tapes, and the film footage that the Maniacs (a fan club he mentored) shot ended up being an important part of the IWE box set that he supervised. And stories such as him using his connections to fan clubs to organize cheer squads for the first Fujinami/Ryuma Go match (to make Go come across as a bigger deal) deserve to be known.

Outside of putting my faith in DeepL to translate inquiries to send to actual ex-Gong people, I have one idea. Could anybody get me in touch with Koji Miyamoto? Steve Yohe probably has a link to him, but he doesn't really hang out here.

I have found enough material online to put something out, between interviews and the blogs and columns of people who worked with Takeuchi. But I want to try to convey what made the actual Gong magazine's articles unique, particularly in the early era, and that requires that I consult someone who actually read the stuff.

[Dav'oh]

43 minutes ago, Johnny Sorrow said:

Anyone else watching the GCW PPV tonight? 

Yeah, this is my introduction to GCW and most of its roster. I'm really liking the innovations and shithead-ery of Blake Christian.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Hahaha, this rules. Cardona's reinvention is great. This is the first time I've ever given a shit about him.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Jeff Jarrett as the Last Outlaw is great. He just grabbed Vlad!

[C.S.]

19 hours ago, Rah said:

Anyone know the story between Janela and MLW/MLW's COO? This isn't a good look for MSL.

Not really a good look for Joey either. It's impossible to take him seriously when he says shit like "You’re a big fat fucking lying loser" like he's auditioning for a 1980s teen comedy.

Sounds like this MSL is as shady as they come, but Joey would really help his case if he'd act like a grown-up about it. 

[sek69]

The GCW show was pretty good. It wasn't anything that will change your mind, if GCW wasn't your cup of tea before nothing here would sway you, but it did give me the same feeling I had when I watched Barely Legal in 1997. Just seeing this company running a whole ass PPV in the Hammerstein seemed so improbable and inevitable at the same time, and the rough spots were more than made up for by things like the lucha trios match and Nick Fuckin Gage in the main event.

Speaking of, they got All In'd and had to cut the main event short due to having a hard 11pm stop time, but  honestly the real main event was Gage's intro and his post match promo. It's easy to see why the GCW fans love him so much, He's a thug who's heart is in the right place, he makes you believe he fuckin' loves his gang and puts his heart on his sleeve. 

[El-P]

I dunno, I thought that it peaked with Cardona vs Janela. Allie Katch vs Ruby Soho wasn't very good (uh oh...) and the fan HATED the fact Soho won, to the point she seemed upset about that reaction. I really enjoyed Effy vs Jarrett though and Jarrett as the Last Outlaw is really pretty cool to see. I really want him at Slammiversary now. Mox vs Homicide was there. Not even as good as the Ethan Page match on Rampage and not very heated either. So of course with no FTR, it was obvious what the main event would be and it was the right choice, but damn that match ended before it even started (unlike Barely Legal, which had the right timing to actually peak for the finish). And for a GCW main event, it was tamer than a random IMPACT or AEW garbage match, not to mention the gory self-mutilation of the Bunny or Thunder Rosa vs Britt Baker. It's a good thing Gage is so over (despite being really, REALLY MOTHERFUCKING AWFUL) because I felt this show was going down the drain with the downer combo of Allie, Effy and Homicide losing back to back to back. So yeah, the real main was his intro I guess, which was fitting because who else to close that show ?

First half was crazy fun though. The ladder match was a hot mess with the expected insane spots from PCO and the regular garbage GCW guys. Jordan Oliver and Tony Deppen shined too. The six-men lucha, despite the botched finish, was insanely fun too, some of those spots were out of this world. Lio Rush vs Blake Cristian was excellent, good replacement for Gresham. And of course, of course Janela vs Cardona was everything you'd want from a GCW Janela match. This is why this guy did not translate to AEW, because what you want from his big matches is shit like Marko Stunt & Swoggle showing up for no reason and a cameo from... well you know if you watched. Cardona & Green's entrance was awesome, worth the price of admission alone. They are clearly living their best lives, good for them. Gotta say I loved Fonzie doing his thing later on too, the guy looks great BTW. And Jarrett vs Effy was a pretty cool match as I said. Interesting how Jarrett is seemingly finding new ideas still, after that cool AAA stint in the 10's, he looked pretty good here too and certainly knows how to work for his age, including character wise. 

The big difference with ECW though, is that there's no way this product translates on weekly TV, which really was the strength of ECW, as honestly the best parts are still the random cameos and oddball matches, as opposed to really strong characters (Gage, Effy and Katch are cult hero though, that's pretty obvious). The landscape is very different obviously too.

[NintendoLogic]

Looking at Cagematch, the longest matches other than Janela/Cardona were the first two (the ladder match and the lucha trios). I'm guessing one or both went over and threw off the timing for the rest of the show. Someone audibly said "guys, you gotta home" during the trios match and they still kept going for like five more minutes. Had to get their shit in, I guess.

[Coffey]

4 hours ago, El-P said:

I really enjoyed Effy vs Jarrett though and Jarrett as the Last Outlaw is really pretty cool to see.

That finish was awesome. Never seen Jarrett do The Stroke with the guitar still on their head! Shit looked devastating. 

[El-P]

7 minutes ago, Coffey said:

That finish was awesome. Never seen Jarrett do The Stroke with the guitar still on their head! Shit looked devastating. 

Yeah, I always thought the Stroke looked bad 90% of the times (only guys like AJ Styles could make it look really good), but this one looked terrific and really brutal. I loved the ominous remix of his classic TNA theme too, really fitting the character.

[sek69]

I  love Jeff Jarrett having a resurgence in 2022, but as someone who remembers watching him as a plucky young rookie god damn did that make me feel old.

[El-P]

This show had Jarrett, PCO, Waltman, all of whom where favorites of mine when I was watching WWF Superstars in 1993, so yeah...

[Migs]

19 hours ago, sek69 said:

Speaking of, they got All In'd and had to cut the main event short due to having a hard 11pm stop time, but  honestly the real main event was Gage's intro and his post match promo. It's easy to see why the GCW fans love him so much, He's a thug who's heart is in the right place, he makes you believe he fuckin' loves his gang and puts his heart on his sleeve. 

Yeah, the sad thing was less the match losing some time and more that Emil Jay couldn't do the entire Gage intro. ("Representing the eastern bloc... representing the H8 Club...)

[Migs]

9 hours ago, NintendoLogic said:

Looking at Cagematch, the longest matches other than Janela/Cardona were the first two (the ladder match and the lucha trios). I'm guessing one or both went over and threw off the timing for the rest of the show. Someone audibly said "guys, you gotta home" during the trios match and they still kept going for like five more minutes. Had to get their shit in, I guess.

Janela-Cardona was great for what it was, but that segment was a full half hour. Wondering if that was mis-timed, because I don't see how they'd have gotten everything into a shorter slot but I also don't know if the intent was for that to be quite so long. 

Was at the show and really enjoyed it. Was great to be back at the Hammerstein for wrestling and the hard PPV time slot in some ways makes for an overall better show than when they can run as long as they want. Nothing felt too flabby. I doubt the main event was meant to be an epic - they already seem to be setting up a rematch, probably in NJ where they can do a deathmatch style. 

[Dav'oh]

Did you know...

One of the world's most-prolific serial killers was a pro-wrestler? A luchadora, in fact.

"Professional Mexican wrestler Juana Barraza was arrested for the murder of an 82-year-old woman on January 25, 2006. She was then linked to as many as 40 murders of elderly women in Mexico City, making her one of the world's worst serial killers.
The arrest came after Barraza was caught fleeing the home of her latest victim. Up until that point, police had believed the serial killer was a transvestite dressing up as a woman to trick the targets. Barraza, who wrestled under the name The Lady of Silence, is now serving a 759-year sentence."

I gotta say, I'm almost proud of her. In that, it's good to see pro-wrestling represented...

[El-P]

Lady of Silence indeed. Holy fuck.

The question is, does anyone has some hidden gems to ponder her case for the GWE. 

[KawadaSmile]

Oh I read about that ages ago, completely forgot about it. Wonder how her peers reacted to her arrest, given that she was even a title holder at some point.

[Sean Reedy]

This is a big question but forgive me. I have this weird thing with WCW where I loved it as a kid but I have never done a rewatch because there's so much i have never seen. So I ended up on an April 89 Saturday Night - it's tremendous. There's chaos at the announce area with JR and Hayes (one of my all time favorite duos in mid south) like Memphis. The crowd is red hot and going nuts for Randy Rose battling for revenge against Jack Victory. Amazing Great Mura squash. So, my question, how long does it stay this good? When it gets bad does it get really bad?

 

Edit: OK I'm going through this emotional thing where I'm remembering how I've never loved a pro wrestling company as much as I loved 1989 NWA when I was 4 and I can say it's not because I was in prime viewing age. Wow, time for an entire year rewatch, just watched the Gilbert-Windham match from the first TV of the year, its like part of me forgot how good this stuff can be.