The Official Professional Wrestling Thread

[Sativa Lung]

Antonio Inoki has passed away. Hard to really put into words how big of a deal this is for Puroresu. Icon doesn't even begin to describe him.

Say what you will about Inoki-ism, but the dude is simply one of the most important pro wrestlers of all time. Inoki and Baba took what Rikidozan started and built it into the promotions that totally changed pro wrestling and had a tremendous influence on what we're watching today.

And he was a fucking badass to boot. You did not fuck with Inoki back in the day.


https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x19xyfr

[Sativa Lung]

Just started reading Jericho's first book. It's been recommended to me a few times and I started it years ago but never got into it. This time I'm 10 pages in and hooked already. It's definitely very much written in his voice and the first few chapters are hilarious.

You can "borrow" the ebook for free for 14 days on archive.org.  There's a few dozen other wrestling related titles I spied on there as well. Between this, the entire re-c-dub project being hosted there, and probably the largest library of vintage porn magazine scans in existence, the internet archive is starting to become one of my most visited sites haha.

Rampage was kinda meh overall but I'll be damned if a women's match didn't steal the show for once. Hayter is over as fuck (deservedly so) and this is the first time I've seen Willow work with someone good and she impressed me too. Not a huge fan of goofy girl whos always smiling gimmick but she can move for a big gurl and when she was layin them I was digging it. Not sure what the hell is going on with Hayters booking though, she came out with Longback and rebel and they're all friends again I guess? Seems really stupid to just drop an angle you spent months building, and a pretty hot one at that. The only thing I can think they're maybe doing is Hayter helping Britt win the belt back so she can win it off her, but even that kind of start stop shit ruins pushes.

And we're finally getting Nyla vs Jade. I know Jade will go over but I hope they at least make her look mortal and somewhat protect Nyla. She's in kind of a special undertaker place where she doesn't have anything to prove and doesn't need a belt or huge wins to be taken seriously so they shouldn't just feed her to Jade. Make it a struggle.

[SHAQUEEFA]

Check out Mark Gonzales YouTube post:



Also, Tales from the Territories premieres tonight on Vice. Just listened to the Talk is Jericho episode with the creators of the show and it is pretty good. This show is gonna be kinda outlandish and light hearted as a contrast to the Dark Side themes which will be fun. Great to see these guys laughing and telling good stories instead of reminiscing on tragedy.

Each episode will focus on one territory, except one episode that exclusively covers the Andy Kaufman / Jerry Lawler angle.

Should be an excellent watch, especially for the old school territory fans.

[Sativa Lung]

Check out Mark Gonzales YouTube post:



Also, Tales from the Territories premieres tonight on Vice. Just listened to the Talk is Jericho episode with the creators of the show and it is pretty good. This show is gonna be kinda outlandish and light hearted as a contrast to the Dark Side themes which will be fun. Great to see these guys laughing and telling good stories instead of reminiscing on tragedy.

Each episode will focus on one territory, except one episode that exclusively covers the Andy Kaufman / Jerry Lawler angle.

Should be an excellent watch, especially for the old school territory fans.

Holy shit I'm so pumped! I'm downloading that episode right now but dunno if I'll have time to listen to it today.

Also, I think they programmed this episode of elevation specifically for me.



Skye Blue, Danhausen, Lance Archer, Lucha Bros, and Dalton & the Boys. In this ultra fucked up world, I find comfort in the little things like Dalton Castle matches.

Abadonkadonk is officially a thing. She's got new Bull Nakano looking gear and holy shit she's got rikishi levels of cheek showing. I think they might be getting ready to push her?

Penta's muta samurai entrance gear is fucking killer too.

[PatrickSkateman]

Expand Quote

Check out Mark Gonzales YouTube post:



Also, Tales from the Territories premieres tonight on Vice. Just listened to the Talk is Jericho episode with the creators of the show and it is pretty good. This show is gonna be kinda outlandish and light hearted as a contrast to the Dark Side themes which will be fun. Great to see these guys laughing and telling good stories instead of reminiscing on tragedy.

Each episode will focus on one territory, except one episode that exclusively covers the Andy Kaufman / Jerry Lawler angle.

Should be an excellent watch, especially for the old school territory fans.

[close]

Holy shit I'm so pumped! I'm downloading that episode right now but dunno if I'll have time to listen to it today.

Also, I think they programmed this episode of elevation specifically for me.



Skye Blue, Danhausen, Lance Archer, Lucha Bros, and Dalton & the Boys. In this ultra fucked up world, I find comfort in the little things like Dalton Castle matches.

Abadonkadonk is officially a thing. She's got new Bull Nakano looking gear and holy shit she's got rikishi levels of cheek showing. I think they might be getting ready to push her?

Penta's muta samurai entrance gear is fucking killer too.

I miss the Lance Archer jobber beatdown entrances from no-crowds era Dark. They should bring those back, they were hilarious.

[Sativa Lung]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Check out Mark Gonzales YouTube post:



Also, Tales from the Territories premieres tonight on Vice. Just listened to the Talk is Jericho episode with the creators of the show and it is pretty good. This show is gonna be kinda outlandish and light hearted as a contrast to the Dark Side themes which will be fun. Great to see these guys laughing and telling good stories instead of reminiscing on tragedy.

Each episode will focus on one territory, except one episode that exclusively covers the Andy Kaufman / Jerry Lawler angle.

Should be an excellent watch, especially for the old school territory fans.

[close]

Holy shit I'm so pumped! I'm downloading that episode right now but dunno if I'll have time to listen to it today.

Also, I think they programmed this episode of elevation specifically for me.



Skye Blue, Danhausen, Lance Archer, Lucha Bros, and Dalton & the Boys. In this ultra fucked up world, I find comfort in the little things like Dalton Castle matches.

Abadonkadonk is officially a thing. She's got new Bull Nakano looking gear and holy shit she's got rikishi levels of cheek showing. I think they might be getting ready to push her?

Penta's muta samurai entrance gear is fucking killer too.

[close]

I miss the Lance Archer jobber beatdown entrances from no-crowds era Dark. They should bring those back, they were hilarious.

Been preaching it for ages now, he's probably the most underrated monster heel in the business. If they don't already have Morrissey working with him they need to ASAP. Even though Archer isn't actually THAT big (I think his shoot height is like 6'6") he works like he's 10 feet tall and I love it. That match against cheeseburger was a pretty decent Archer squash (I popped for the ass wiping spot because deep down I'm still 10) but his NJPW stuff where he's legit chasing fans and announcers around the arena is absolutely awesome. If TK manages to get ROH off the ground before sinking his entire ship I want to see Archer get at least one run with the belt.

I was freaking out because I missed the premiere of Tales from the Territories and for some reason DirecTV logins wouldn't work with the vice site. I managed to catch it on the re-air and holy shit I love it so much. It's basically just legends sitting around telling crazy fucking stories about the old days. It's like a Cornette podcast come to life. If anyone missed it here ya go..

https://m.ok.ru/video/4089074420407


That Mario Galento story is absolutely insane. I've heard it but never that detailed and I've never seen the picture before. I wonder if anyone has video of the fight in the ring. There's another story about Jerry Jarrett and Jackie Fargo holding another wrestler down while Tojo beat him senseless with a wooden shoe. Like a "put him in the hospital and probably gave him brain damage" beating.... I forget the guys name though. Jerry Jarrett is stone fucking cold man. No wonder no promoters except the Poffos were crazy enough to fuck with him.

 As an aside to the Galento story, Jarrett had him blacklisted and he ended up being one of the less often mentioned "exposing the business" incidents. He called in to a Memphis sports show to expose the business and complain about how he was treated. It's a pretty cool little time capsule of a simpler time.



Coincidentally that territorywrestling channel on twitch has been playing 80s Memphis all day and I've been sitting here amazed at how many guys got started there that I forgot/didn't know about. Just today I've seen Downtown Bruno (Harvey Whippleman), Cactus Jack, both Nasty Boys (as singles), Ron & Don Harris (before they got their Nazi tats), Sid Vicious, Scott Hall, the Rockers, fucking Maxx Payne (rofl), Great Kokina (Yokozuna), and my favorite so far has been a baby faced Scott Levy (Raven). It's insane how influential Memphis was.

[Atiba Applebum]

Okay I might have to impress someone soon with some 80s tag team trivia.   Any good names to look into that aren’t the immediate contenders?    Love having you as a resource.    It’s awesome the shit you find and share

[Sativa Lung]

I'm losing patience/interest in AEW. TK needs to hire a fucking booker. He can still contribute ideas but his week to week booking sucks and makes no sense and really hasn't for a while. Ever since they took the belt off Page things have been mostly shit.

Why the fuck do you have MJF working with Wheeler Yuta? It's like putting the Rock in a feud with Crash Holly. You are not elevating the underdog, you're bringing your star down to that level. Go watch Yuta's pathetic attempt at a Fargo strut and tell me with a straight face that he deserves to be in there with MJF. Completely wasting your biggest and best star while you put Guevara in the main event... It's so dumb and I give it a month max before they lose me completely. It's Vince levels of ignoring your audience and trying to force them to like what you want them to like. I don't get it.

Wardlow vs Cage should have been a PPV match. Put some build to it as a beefcake battle and I'd have paid for that for sure. Instead they made it a shitty angle and they're probably going to bury the 2 of them in some 10 man match at the PPV. Can't believe I just saw Wardlow do a step up corkscrew moonsault tho.

Otherwise I thought it kinda sucked. I don't know if it's a symptom of the roster bloat or what but it seems like they just pick names out of a hat to have a match that week. The only people that get to cut promos are whoever the most recent "big surprise" was, but you want to have half a dozen meaningless 15 minute tag/multi matches full of high spots every week. That shit gets old quick.

 

[SHAQUEEFA]

I think you're forgetting that Skye Blue got to cut a promo last night! And there will be a Battle of The Asses against Tay/Jay!

[Sativa Lung]

Okay I might have to impress someone soon with some 80s tag team trivia.   Any good names to look into that aren’t the immediate contenders?    Love having you as a resource.    It’s awesome the shit you find and share

Oh jesus. Do you want good ones or bad ones? Specific territories? The 80s were kind of the hey day of tags in the territories so there's a lot of ways you could go, and you know I could ramble about this shit all day haha. I'll do some "research" next time I'm on the crapper and see if I can find something really obscure but let me think of shit I've seen recently on that territory twitch.

This is actually early 90s so it's kind of cheating, but the last WCW US tag champs were the Barbarian and Dick Slater if I recall. Really odd pairing.

Umm let's see.. AWA had a kind of obscure one, a young Scott Hall and Curt Hennig were actually babyface tag champs at one point. They lost the belts in the shittiest way possible, on a count out because of some fucky rule or contract stipulation. Can't remember the specifics even though I read it like a week ago haha.

The Funks briefly went to work for Vince in the 80s (when Vince insisted on Dory being referred to as "Hoss") and were on one of the early mania cards. Terry left and went home pretty quickly so Vince did Vince shit created a new Funk... Jimmy Jack Funk. Jimmy Jack was a greasy jobber from Florida in a lone ranger mask. He sucked and they lost their push so pretty soon Dory went home and the only "Funk" left in the WWF for the better part of the 80s was a jobber fake.

Umm let's try Memphis. A lot of people know that Sting got his start teaming with the Ultimate Warrior. However, in my experience most people think they started in watts' UWF as the blade runners. They actually started in another Memphis promotion... the CWA as "the Freedom Fighters" Flash and Justice.

Here's another decent Sting one... His first 2 championship runs actually came as a heel and I'm not positive but they might have been the only time in his career he ever won a belt as a heel. These reigns did come as a tag team in the UWF, but not with Warrior surprisingly. Hellwig had quickly decided he knew better than all the dumb hicks in Memphis by this point and gone home to flex and spend way too much time thinking about "queerin" for a supposedly straight dude, so Sting won the tag belts with Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert instead.

Ummm let's see one more... This isnt tag but it's actually kinda interesting. The last AWA champion was Larry Zbyszko, thats a pretty obscure fact on its own... But the last challenger to that title is arguably even more interesting as he went on to become one of the best workers of the next 20 years.. none other than a very young Jerry Lynn. U

If you want something more specific like a particular promotion or wrestler I can check through some of the books and interviews and stuff I have saved.

Always happy to share stuff from one of my long standing nerdy hobbies. Even when I'm not actively watching wrestling I still listen to old wrestling podcasts and read articles from sites like ring the damn bell and wrestlecrap that focus on the old stuff. Actually I should have linked you to rtdb before, it's obviously amateur run but there's years worth of stories and rumors on there. Brian Damage does a really good job with it, the wrestling with sin articles are a great source of wrestling insanity and tragedy and I'm a big fan of all the random trivia articles. Hell even the listicles are pretty good.

https://ringthedamnbell.wordpress.com/

[Billy Bitchcakes]

I'm losing patience/interest in AEW. TK needs to hire a fucking booker. He can still contribute ideas but his week to week booking sucks and makes no sense and really hasn't for a while. Ever since they took the belt off Page things have been mostly shit.

Why the fuck do you have MJF working with Wheeler Yuta? It's like putting the Rock in a feud with Crash Holly. You are not elevating the underdog, you're bringing your star down to that level. Go watch Yuta's pathetic attempt at a Fargo strut and tell me with a straight face that he deserves to be in there with MJF. Completely wasting your biggest and best star while you put Guevara in the main event... It's so dumb and I give it a month max before they lose me completely. It's Vince levels of ignoring your audience and trying to force them to like what you want them to like. I don't get it.

Wardlow vs Cage should have been a PPV match. Put some build to it as a beefcake battle and I'd have paid for that for sure. Instead they made it a shitty angle and they're probably going to bury the 2 of them in some 10 man match at the PPV. Can't believe I just saw Wardlow do a step up corkscrew moonsault tho.

Otherwise I thought it kinda sucked. I don't know if it's a symptom of the roster bloat or what but it seems like they just pick names out of a hat to have a match that week. The only people that get to cut promos are whoever the most recent "big surprise" was, but you want to have half a dozen meaningless 15 minute tag/multi matches full of high spots every week. That shit gets old quick.

I don't know if it's not listening to the fans but TK's persistence to do "long term" booking means he's not very good at pivoting. Say what you want about Vince, he (mostly) knew when to change course, and the benefit of having meaningless stories that don't go anywhere is that it doesn't matter if you drop something without acknowledgement. But yeah he could really use some support. WWE just hired some guy that I think worked on the MCU just keeping track of the relationships between everyone in the universe. Someone doing that sort of thing and someone writing could be real useful. I don't know how TK feels he has time to book the whole show on top of running everything, let alone having like 3 other jobs. No wonder he looks so fried all the time.

[Sativa Lung]

I think you're forgetting that Skye Blue got to cut a promo last night! And there will be a Battle of The Asses against Tay/Jay!

Oh I didn't tell you yet.... She has a patreon that functions as kind of a shitty only fans where she posts bikini pics and shit. The pics are pretty meh (most of them are very fitness model-y) but sweet jesus that girl is probably 6 inches taller sitting down than standing up.

I guess at least she's not doing it on onlyfans. I feel like most wrestlers are pretty deceptive about what they're actually posting there. If you're gonna have an OF either be clear about it being non nude or just be like PvZ and post butthole pics. No middle ground.

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I'm losing patience/interest in AEW. TK needs to hire a fucking booker. He can still contribute ideas but his week to week booking sucks and makes no sense and really hasn't for a while. Ever since they took the belt off Page things have been mostly shit.

Why the fuck do you have MJF working with Wheeler Yuta? It's like putting the Rock in a feud with Crash Holly. You are not elevating the underdog, you're bringing your star down to that level. Go watch Yuta's pathetic attempt at a Fargo strut and tell me with a straight face that he deserves to be in there with MJF. Completely wasting your biggest and best star while you put Guevara in the main event... It's so dumb and I give it a month max before they lose me completely. It's Vince levels of ignoring your audience and trying to force them to like what you want them to like. I don't get it.

Wardlow vs Cage should have been a PPV match. Put some build to it as a beefcake battle and I'd have paid for that for sure. Instead they made it a shitty angle and they're probably going to bury the 2 of them in some 10 man match at the PPV. Can't believe I just saw Wardlow do a step up corkscrew moonsault tho.

Otherwise I thought it kinda sucked. I don't know if it's a symptom of the roster bloat or what but it seems like they just pick names out of a hat to have a match that week. The only people that get to cut promos are whoever the most recent "big surprise" was, but you want to have half a dozen meaningless 15 minute tag/multi matches full of high spots every week. That shit gets old quick.

[close]

I don't know if it's not listening to the fans but TK's persistence to do "long term" booking means he's not very good at pivoting. Say what you want about Vince, he (mostly) knew when to change course, and the benefit of having meaningless stories that don't go anywhere is that it doesn't matter if you drop something without acknowledgement. But yeah he could really use some support. WWE just hired some guy that I think worked on the MCU just keeping track of the relationships between everyone in the universe. Someone doing that sort of thing and someone writing could be real useful. I don't know how TK feels he has time to book the whole show on top of running everything, let alone having like 3 other jobs. No wonder he looks so fried all the time.

Completely agree. And on the rare occasions he does pivot, he just moves a square peg into a round hole or goes back to whoever the last champ was. For all his flaws, Vince knew when he was beaten and also that he couldnt do it alone.

I don't know man, I don't have the answers but I do know that if something doesn't change soon they're going to end up with ratings and ticket sales plummeting even more than they already are. TK has already lost control of his locker room, and the product feels dangerously close to spiralling as well. If they don't hit it the fuck out of the park at the next PPV it might be curtains for me. Last year AEW felt like attitude era WWF. Right now it feels like turn of the millennium WCW.

[LB]

I dont watch wrestling but always read this thread

[Sativa Lung]

I dont watch wrestling but always read this thread

We'll take that as a compliment. Wrestling is so interesting that you're second hand hooked! You should watch Dark Side of the Ring though, it's great even if you're not a fan.

Alright just watched Rampage/botb IV.

This is kind of a weird thing to get super upset about but Dasha Gonzalez is on my shit list now. I'm not sure if I whined about it on here (probably) but a while back on dark she introduced Lee Moriarty as being from Philadelphia. Lee Moriarty is from Pittsburgh. Today I sit down to watch last night's live Rampage and the first match has that fucking dweeb Wheeler Yuta in it and she announces him as being from Pittsburgh. That geek is from Philly. Is this some shitty rib or does someone need to give her a fucking index card with the info on it like the old days?

Pac and Trent put on a fucking crazy good match. Pac pulled double duty, wrestling a 30 minute trios match against Dark Order to close rampage and then the singles against Trent for the all Atlantic belt. There's a piledriver spot that I've never seen before and they pulled it off so well it looks like CGI and an absolutely insane table spot as well. If you only have time to watch one match from both shows, make it this one.

Also Willow vs Jade was pretty killer. Willow can fucking go and they booked Jade to not only look human but look weak for long periods. Willow fucking laid em in, threw her weight around, and even did some lucha shit and Jade was right there with her. For only having like 40 matches Jade is really good. I've watched a lot of those 40 and although most were squashes I don't think I've ever really seen her botch anything. I've definitely seen her use her raw strength to power through spots other girls fucked up though.

[Atiba Applebum]

yeah, i wasn't sure what to think of Jade at first, but she's a real goddamn blue chip find.  great look, fun talker, can hold her own in the ring, and I believe who she is which unfortunately can be rare amongst a lot of women wrestlers who you can tell are playing a part, but not being the heightened version of themselves which is the foundation of a good wrestling gimmick. 

I'm always wary of invincible person booking because it's such an easy thing to get backed into and then have no idea how to get out of (hi Wardlow) and maintain that mystique after you lose.  Jade will do just fine though.  She's only going to get better

[Sativa Lung]

yeah, i wasn't sure what to think of Jade at first, but she's a real goddamn blue chip find.  great look, fun talker, can hold her own in the ring, and I believe who she is which unfortunately can be rare amongst a lot of women wrestlers who you can tell are playing a part, but not being the heightened version of themselves which is the foundation of a good wrestling gimmick. 

I'm always wary of invincible person booking because it's such an easy thing to get backed into and then have no idea how to get out of (hi Wardlow) and maintain that mystique after you lose.  Jade will do just fine though.  She's only going to get better

Yeah I was not on board at first, I usually don't like the whole cocky, shiny gear, "im better than you" persona because it's done to death and very few people do it well but she's won me over by force. She's undeniable. I've heard a lot of people call her "black Chyna" but I think she's already better than Chyna ever was. Her promos are kinda cringe sometimes but I think that's as much an issue with the cheesy AEW backstage interview style and the people she has to work with as anything. When it's just her and she's going off she's definitely believable, so I think that's going to get better as she gets more comfortable too.

Its still kinda weird to me that she's married to Brandon Phillips. For like a decade every time I'd go to see a Pirates game in person it would be against the Reds and fucking Brandon Phillips would hit a huge homer or turn like 20 double plays or find some other way to single handedly beat us.

I didn't watch the PPV but holy fucking shit Bray Wyatt's return was the shiiiiiiiit. The lights, the music, the spotlight gimmick (huskus, mercy, sister Abigail, white rabbit, the fiend, and bray...is that the wyatt 6? ) and holy shit what a fucking pop. Thank God they had enough sense to shut up and not talk over it. I may have to start watching the fed again at least temporarily to see what he's going to do. Can't believe how quickly and thoroughly Triple H has unfucked the last year or two of weird Vinny Mac shit.

[LB]

Yeah buttfart, was a compliment not a sly dig 
Am now a fan of skye blue

[Atiba Applebum]

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yeah, i wasn't sure what to think of Jade at first, but she's a real goddamn blue chip find.  great look, fun talker, can hold her own in the ring, and I believe who she is which unfortunately can be rare amongst a lot of women wrestlers who you can tell are playing a part, but not being the heightened version of themselves which is the foundation of a good wrestling gimmick. 

I'm always wary of invincible person booking because it's such an easy thing to get backed into and then have no idea how to get out of (hi Wardlow) and maintain that mystique after you lose.  Jade will do just fine though.  She's only going to get better

[close]

Yeah I was not on board at first, I usually don't like the whole cocky, shiny gear, "im better than you" persona because it's done to death and very few people do it well but she's won me over by force. She's undeniable. I've heard a lot of people call her "black Chyna" but I think she's already better than Chyna ever was. Her promos are kinda cringe sometimes but I think that's as much an issue with the cheesy AEW backstage interview style and the people she has to work with as anything. When it's just her and she's going off she's definitely believable, so I think that's going to get better as she gets more comfortable too.

Its still kinda weird to me that she's married to Brandon Phillips. For like a decade every time I'd go to see a Pirates game in person it would be against the Reds and fucking Brandon Phillips would hit a huge homer or turn like 20 double plays or find some other way to single handedly beat us.

I didn't watch the PPV but holy fucking shit Bray Wyatt's return was the shiiiiiiiit. The lights, the music, the spotlight gimmick (huskus, mercy, sister Abigail, white rabbit, the fiend, and bray...is that the wyatt 6? ) and holy shit what a fucking pop. Thank God they had enough sense to shut up and not talk over it. I may have to start watching the fed again at least temporarily to see what he's going to do. Can't believe how quickly and thoroughly Triple H has unfucked the last year or two of weird Vinny Mac shit.

its funny - all Triple H did really was hire back all the inexplicable releases.   I remain cautious about Wyatt because he existed as a character, but that shit nose dived HARD whenever he went into the ring.

Do these AEW want-aways not see that there isn't room for them in WWE right now?  Where the fuck would Andrade fit in now that Legado de Fantasma have debuted on the main roster with Zelina?   He couldn't just "Higher Power" it and take over that group.  They have a leader and they have HIS manager.   I love Andrade as a wrestler, but he's going to get quickly replaced by Bandido on the AEW wrestler.

[Sativa Lung]

Yeah buttfart, was a compliment not a sly dig 
Am now a fan of skye blue

Next time I'm on my computer I'll bless this thread with some of her patreon pics. Remind me if I forget.

We're glad to have you, sincerely. It's nerdy but it's a lot of fun and there's an entire history behind it all that I find absolutely fascinating. If you ever have a question about anything just ask, we love chatting about this shit.

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yeah, i wasn't sure what to think of Jade at first, but she's a real goddamn blue chip find.  great look, fun talker, can hold her own in the ring, and I believe who she is which unfortunately can be rare amongst a lot of women wrestlers who you can tell are playing a part, but not being the heightened version of themselves which is the foundation of a good wrestling gimmick. 

I'm always wary of invincible person booking because it's such an easy thing to get backed into and then have no idea how to get out of (hi Wardlow) and maintain that mystique after you lose.  Jade will do just fine though.  She's only going to get better

[close]

Yeah I was not on board at first, I usually don't like the whole cocky, shiny gear, "im better than you" persona because it's done to death and very few people do it well but she's won me over by force. She's undeniable. I've heard a lot of people call her "black Chyna" but I think she's already better than Chyna ever was. Her promos are kinda cringe sometimes but I think that's as much an issue with the cheesy AEW backstage interview style and the people she has to work with as anything. When it's just her and she's going off she's definitely believable, so I think that's going to get better as she gets more comfortable too.

Its still kinda weird to me that she's married to Brandon Phillips. For like a decade every time I'd go to see a Pirates game in person it would be against the Reds and fucking Brandon Phillips would hit a huge homer or turn like 20 double plays or find some other way to single handedly beat us.

I didn't watch the PPV but holy fucking shit Bray Wyatt's return was the shiiiiiiiit. The lights, the music, the spotlight gimmick (huskus, mercy, sister Abigail, white rabbit, the fiend, and bray...is that the wyatt 6? ) and holy shit what a fucking pop. Thank God they had enough sense to shut up and not talk over it. I may have to start watching the fed again at least temporarily to see what he's going to do. Can't believe how quickly and thoroughly Triple H has unfucked the last year or two of weird Vinny Mac shit.

[close]

its funny - all Triple H did really was hire back all the inexplicable releases.   I remain cautious about Wyatt because he existed as a character, but that shit nose dived HARD whenever he went into the ring.

Do these AEW want-aways not see that there isn't room for them in WWE right now?  Where the fuck would Andrade fit in now that Legado de Fantasma have debuted on the main roster with Zelina?   He couldn't just "Higher Power" it and take over that group.  They have a leader and they have HIS manager.   I love Andrade as a wrestler, but he's going to get quickly replaced by Bandido on the AEW wrestler.

I agree about Brays last two runs going to shit in the ring but I think that was at least partially down to the booking and the stupid shit like the red light, not to mention when it all went way off the rails last time with the flaming dummy and ruining Alexa Bliss' career. I'm one of those people who thinks Wyatt family, early fiend, and firefly fun house were all genius, so I have to at least check it out. If they keep it simple and don't get too hokey or spooky like they did in his early days then I have faith it'll be good.

I think Andrade just wants to be with his wife if he's gonna not be featured. And I have to give him kudos for going out by punching Sammy Guevara's little punk ass out. How many people is that he's pissed off backstage now? It would be one thing if Guevara was really good or irreplaceable or something but he's not. Eddie was dead on accurate about him. He's a spot monkey in a company full of spot monkeys. There's half a dozen guys stuck on dark who can do everything he does, and some of them do it better. Tony should have sent both their asses home and made an example of them. Instead he cowered and let Jericho treat him like a bitch yet again. This shits gonna keep happening until he either grows a set or brings in someone who has one and gives control of discipline and talent relations.

[Bobby Peru]

Next time I'm on my computer I'll bless this thread with some of her patreon pics. Remind me if I forget.

Sorry but we have a hard rule about not sharing sexy pics that aren’t made public by the subject and I’d count paid photos as “not public.”

It’s good to finally see some actual effort from WWE, but it’s a bummer to see AEW get so sloppy, though I do think their last handful of shows have been awesome. But I agree the constant heel/face turns and title changes have been very, very bad. Hoping this is a turning point for AEW to trim the fat and/or spread it out with a proper ROH show and focus on good, solid booking.

[WPG]

I'm not super worried about AEW, I have been dissatisfied with some of the booking but I am holding out hope it'll improve when ROH gets a TV deal and The Elite return. I'm still so mad that Kenny wrestle

[Sativa Lung]

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Next time I'm on my computer I'll bless this thread with some of her patreon pics. Remind me if I forget.

[close]

Sorry but we have a hard rule about not sharing sexy pics that aren’t made public by the subject and I’d count paid photos as “not public.”

It’s good to finally see some actual effort from WWE, but it’s a bummer to see AEW get so sloppy, though I do think their last handful of shows have been awesome. But I agree the constant heel/face turns and title changes have been very, very bad. Hoping this is a turning point for AEW to trim the fat and/or spread it out with a proper ROH show and focus on good, solid booking.

She posts the same stuff on her insta too, she just puts different ones from the set on patreon. Actually the ones on her insta are racier than the stuff on patreon, so she's definitely learning the art of being a carny. We're not talking about Pvz putting up a full set of butthole pics to her onlyfans (which she coincidentally did the next day after I joked about it) or Toni doing a full professional on location photo shoot. It's literally just phone pics of her in her ring gear before a match, some candid Facebook-esque pool selfies, and her doing fitness model shit. It seems to be there mostly so people can pay to send her messages and keep up to date on her indy bookings, it's basically a paid blog and the selfies are just an afterthought. I wont post them if it breaks the rules but they aren't hard to find. Don't get your hopes up though because they're pretty tame and non sexual.

AEW is really in the same boat as WCW was towards the end. They have a bunch of super talented in-ring performers (too many really) but the booking and stories are so tired, rushed, and/or just generally shitty that it doesn't matter. They seem to keep oscillating between the Vince strategy of try to force your fans to like what you want them to like by cramming it down their throat and the Bischoff "new story every week" style of shitty booking and can't find a sweet spot in between anymore. Not to mention the locker room and discipline issues... I think Tony needs to bring in a real booker and an experienced and respected TR guy if he doesn't want to end up the same way wcw did. We're over 3 years into this, it's time to stop running it like a giant indy show and start running it like a serious wrestling company.

Dark is my favorite thing about the company right now. Fresh faces, storylines arent important, and they can just focus on in-ring/character work. It's like a really good version of Sunday night heat or wcw Saturday night. This might be sacrilege but I think Taz and Excalibur have passed JR and Lawler for the most entertaining commentary duo I've ever heard. It  definitely doesn't hurt that they're featuring Archer and Dalton Castle again this week either. I think Dalton could be an acclaimed level breakout star if they're smart enough to sign him. He's a ready made credible trios division contender with the boys and as a single you could slot him straight into the ROH title picture as a former champ and eventually move him into the lower end AEW belts. If you book him as a weirdo who can go (kinda like early the Goldust runs in WWF) I think the AEW audience would latch on to him tightly.

I watched the new TFTT last night. It's kind of a continuation of the Memphis episode but focuses specifically on the Andy Kaufman story. It's always cool hearing it from Lawler and Jerry Jarrett, but I've always wanted to hear it from Andy's perspective. It would be cool to have Zmuda on or something to hear what Andy was thinking and doing on his end.

After I watched it I went back and watched a bunch of Kaufman segments from Memphis TV and I was struck by how much influence heel Andy seems to have had on MJF. There's times where they both slip into this unhinged, slightly maniacal promo style that adds an unpredictable and chaotic side to them and there's little subtle stuff that he seems to have gotten straight from Andy. When people say there's no way the MJF stuff has been a work from the beginning I'm always reminded of Kaufman and the fact no one knew for decades, so it would make sense if that's also part of where he gets his utter devotion to kayfabe. I could totally see it being something as simple as needing surgery and knowing he would be out for a few months and deciding to use that to his advantage.

Now if we could get him into a program with someone better than Wheeler Yuta that would be great.

[Bobby Peru]

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Next time I'm on my computer I'll bless this thread with some of her patreon pics. Remind me if I forget.

[close]

Sorry but we have a hard rule about not sharing sexy pics that aren’t made public by the subject and I’d count paid photos as “not public.”

It’s good to finally see some actual effort from WWE, but it’s a bummer to see AEW get so sloppy, though I do think their last handful of shows have been awesome. But I agree the constant heel/face turns and title changes have been very, very bad. Hoping this is a turning point for AEW to trim the fat and/or spread it out with a proper ROH show and focus on good, solid booking.

[close]

She posts the same stuff on her insta too, she just puts different ones from the set on patreon. Actually the ones on her insta are racier than the stuff on patreon, so she's definitely learning the art of being a carny. We're not talking about Pvz putting up a full set of butthole pics to her onlyfans (which she coincidentally did the next day after I joked about it) or Toni doing a full professional on location photo shoot. It's literally just phone pics of her in her ring gear before a match, some candid Facebook-esque pool selfies, and her doing fitness model shit. It seems to be there mostly so people can pay to send her messages and keep up to date on her indy bookings, it's basically a paid blog and the selfies are just an afterthought. I wont post them if it breaks the rules but they aren't hard to find. Don't get your hopes up though because they're pretty tame and non sexual.

Stuff that’s public on IG is chill, stuff hidden behind a paywall is not 👍

[SHAQUEEFA]

ORANGE FUCKING CASSIDY LETS GOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

[Kenny Powers]

[PatrickSkateman]

I just listened to Ravishing Rick Rude’s old WCW entrance theme 5 times in a row on my drive home from work.

[Sativa Lung]

Dynamite yet again reinforced that MJF is the best thing in wrestling. Another promo that left me wanting more, he's just so entertaining. Shit I would gladly pay like $20 a month to have a stream of just him reacting to other people's promos.

Interesting to see where they're gonna go with him now, he added some layers to the character there that could be brought to the forefront for a babyface run. I think they're going to have to turn him eventually because he's so good its hard to dislike him and nearly impossible to not respect him so it'll eventually be like Rocky or Austin where he's going to get cheered no matter what he does. MJF as the conflicted villain could be good shit too, lots of ways you can go from there.

Pretty solid promo from Page too but I don't really like "two brooding baby faces" storylines. It'll be nice to see him featured in the ring again though, if it ends up being Hangman vs MJF for the title it could be really good. Hangman's title chase is the best long term storyline they've done yet and MJF's feud with Punk isn't that far behind, so I'm confident those two could pull off something great.

Theyre trying to turn Hungle Boy into just Jack Perry, but I think it sounds weird. Jack Perry sounds like a salty old territory jobber name. Really good match with Luchasaurus even if it is getting a little tired seeing them wrestle every week. Luchasaurus seems to be getting better and I'm starting to really like him as a monster heel. His selling and body language is just better suited to it and some of those bumps he took were absolutely nasty and made him look like a fucking beast when he got up or kicked out of them. Overall a pretty compelling 15 minute match for a couple of spot monkeys.

Warjoe and FTR feels like a whole lot of spinning wheels. No one gives a shit about Shawn Spears. Joe is the only one who should be involved with ROH at all, but here we are.

Swerve and Billy Gunn was a bit of a style clash but Swerve is so good he made it work.

Bored of Jericho vs Danielson and I'm disappointed we didn't actually get a Daniel Garcia on a pole match. Was Garcia really late on his run in or was it just me? I watched the Fite feed so not sure what was shown on TBS.

Women's division still sucks. Are we really doing a belt thief angle? Is this TNA or something?

Pac and OC had a good one as usual. Nice to see Orange get a belt, I feel like the comedy balance in his act has found a sweet spot lately. He's been portrayed as more serious and less of a comedy act and it works. Yet another Chikara alum making an impact in the modern wrestling world.

[Sativa Lung]

I just listened to Ravishing Rick Rude’s old WCW entrance theme 5 times in a row on my drive home from work.

Its on my "shower" playlist haha...typically comes on while I'm getting dressed, so I legitimately start most days dancing around my bathroom listening to that. I feel like it's been stuck in my head ever since I heard it as a kid.

That video is awesome, I've never seen that one before. Thoroughly enjoyed that.

I have a few other wrestling bangers I regularly listen to as well.

Bonnie Tyler - Ravishing (instrumental version is Hogan's forgotten theme)

Four Horsemen theme

Kaze Ni Nare (Minoru Suzuki theme)

Ikari No Jyushin (Liger theme)

And then Jane is the newest addition. Darkside of TR/midnight express 2nd theme is one of my ringtones as well.

[PatrickSkateman]

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I just listened to Ravishing Rick Rude’s old WCW entrance theme 5 times in a row on my drive home from work.

[close]

Its on my "shower" playlist haha...typically comes on while I'm getting dressed, so I legitimately start most days dancing around my bathroom listening to that. I feel like it's been stuck in my head ever since I heard it as a kid.

That video is awesome, I've never seen that one before. Thoroughly enjoyed that.

I have a few other wrestling bangers I regularly listen to as well.

Bonnie Tyler - Ravishing (instrumental version is Hogan's forgotten theme)

Four Horsemen theme

Kaze Ni Nare (Minoru Suzuki theme)

Ikari No Jyushin (Liger theme)

And then Jane is the newest addition. Darkside of TR/midnight express 2nd theme is one of my ringtones as well.

My list of wrestling themes that stand alone:

That Ravishing Rick Rude song

Nakamura’s NJPW theme

Nakamura’s face and heel wwe themes

Shibata’s theme

Undisputed Era’s theme

Sami Zain’s original theme

Chris Jericho’s Even Flow rip from WCW

Sasha Banks’ theme

Mike Kanellis’ power ballad wwe theme

[Atiba Applebum]

Very cool return on Rampage tonight