Vamp

I was a lapsed fan for quite a few years, so I'm going to go for recent matches that were important to this stage of my fandom. This means the list is going to very EVE heavy. Sorry. 1) Aja Kong vs. Viper - Wrestle Queendom 1 So I fell out of love with wrestling for quite a few years. I think a good chunk of that was depression sucking the joy away from my passions. Not quite sure how I stumbled upon the fact that Aja Kong was going to be wrestling in London but I decided I definitely wanted to see that. The match wasn't my favourite one on the show, but it was the reason I went. And it was good fun. 2) Sammi Jayne vs. Charlie Morgan - Wrestle Queendom 1 I came for Aja Kong but this match reignited my love for pro wrestling. I still remember the passion in the crowd, the insanity of Charlie Morgan diving from a balcony, the moment me and a complete stranger turned to each other and went "what the fuck," and the sheer desperation for a woman I'd never heard of to win the title. I once, very awkwardly, told Charlie Morgan (after her first retirement) that this match helped me reconnect with something that depression had taken away from me. It was the reason I went back to EVE and became a fan. 3) Jetta vs. Kasey - She-1 There's a lot of context to this one. The She-1 was a four show tournament held over 2 days. It was fucking knackering even as a fan. You'd stand up for two days in a sweat box. It felt like a third of the wrestlers who started the tournament didn't finish it due to injury. Jetta was the lovable loser. She'd lost all 3 of her matches at the previous She-1 and had lost 2 of her matches at this She-1. The longer this match went the more desperate people were for the time to run out. They weren't desperate for Jetta to win, that wasn't going to happen, they were desperate for Jetta to just hold onto the time limit. When she finally got over the line and picked up a solitary, meaningless point by getting to the end of the time limit people went bananas. Just a perfect combination of actual long term booking, a unique story to a match, and a seriously, seriously underrated live performer. 4) Sting at Wembley I was a big fan of Sting in my first stage of wrestling fandom. I was largely left cold by AEW at Wembley because, it turns out, stadium wrestling isn't for me. Still, seeing Sting live was special and felt like a weird sort of closure to my first stage of fandom. 5) Stadium Stampede Wembley Bit worried that this might just come off like I'm having a pop at AEW but I am genuine when I say that I think this match was important because I found it a boring and miserable experience. It's nothing to do with the wrestlers involved, or AEW, it's just that sitting in a stadium watching wrestling isn't for me. It made me realise that what I love about live wrestling is its immediacy and a stadium can't do that. I also felt very anxious at this point, because I felt like I had both wasted my money and not spent enough. I feel like I'm lucky to have had that experience in London so that after it was all over I could go home and have a sulk in bed rather than go back to a hotel in the US or something.

Wonder if they'd be tempted to do 2 weekends of WrestleMania. 1 in London, 1 in the US.

Nathan Jones was great. Awful, obviously, but great. Had the look and had a weird sort of charisma to him. I'm not convinced that they couldn't have worked around his shortcomings and still had something if he'd have stuck around. Although he probably wasn't worth the bother. There's a (better) universe out there where he's a special appearance megastar.

On RAW becoming a WCW show, I suppose its possible they could have considered doing it for a couple of weeks as an angle. They take over RAW for a couple of weeks, WWF guys appear anyway to cause trouble, spin it off into Shane moving WCW to Saturday nights as Hot Box or whatever. There's a chance that people are curious about a couple of episodes of WCW Nitro under a WWE banner and it's a good way of hyping up your new Saturday show.

If you look at the CSTs numbers there's undoubtedly a rise in antisemitism that's happened during this period. That's demonstrated in everything from threats and abusive behaviour to damage of property and assault. That rise started after the Hamas attacks but before Israel's response to it. So whether you agree with Israel's response or not (and, as mentioned, there's plenty of Jews who don't) the rise in antisemitism started before it. Even in the cases CST logs about the phrase "Free Palestine" (which obviously isn't antisemitic by itself) it argues that each of the cases it recorded was targeted specifically at a Jewish people or institutions or were part of overtly antisemitic comments. Unfortunately, televised news being what it is, it needs a face for it. Personally, I'd rather it be someone who seeks attention because it probably saves some unsuspecting person from stepping into a shit storm of abuse.

Indeed.

By that logic he should be on The Rock's one match every 8 year schedule by now!

Normally I'm of the opinion that you should cast whoever the best person is for the role, but I'm less sure about James Bond. I think there's absolutely room in the market for action movie franchises with a black lead. But I'd be worried that narrow minded studios would think Bond has already ticked that box if Bond were to do it and I think you could do something far more interesting than "Bond is black now." It feels like whitewashing. If the movies are going to continue to be navel gazing, than it'd be more enjoyable if they leant into the ridiculousness of the white British super spy that critics identified and understood back in the 60s. That joke was in the films from the start. If you're a book fan, part of the joy (at least now) is that they're partly a result of a paranoia about a decline in upper-class British white heteronormative men and their power. That's even funnier now. And perhaps, most importantly, I find the more recent Bond movies more politically troubling than the older ones. The older ones, maybe excluding oddities like License to Kill, were aware that they were a joke. The newer ones are heritage movies and have all the baggage that comes with that. They genuinely feel mournful of the idea that Bond is ridiculous rather than understanding that Bond has always been ridiculous. There's a weird sort of nostalgia about Britishness and white masculinity (I'd argue the two concepts are very intertwined in the Bond movies and books) which makes me uncomfortable with the idea of them now producing Bond movies with a black actor as Bond. They'd either do nothing with it, which feels ignorant, or handle it badly.

Wasn't everyone on here recently clamouring for more fat lads in wrestling? Not that I'm calling Sheamus fat. Besides, he's closer to end the of his career than the prime. They're not pushing him as the sexy face of the company. He's a utility player. Someone old ice hockey teams would hire because they look like they could hit hard and take a beating. Plus they need someone Gunther can stiff every now and then.

Nothing. He said something about freelancers not wanting to put the grind in which could have been about anybody. People seem to want it to be about Ospreay. And I've always got the impression that Ospreay probably isn't the hardest guy to wind up.

To be fair, Jungle Boy could have pointed out that Coca Cola is vastly superior to Pepsi.

Okada is a guy who's excellent in an epic. He's also a guy who's great at doing very basic moves when they matter. NJPW rebuilt themselves around him. I don't think he's actually that easy to book if you're trying to slot him into a different company and expect the same results.

I've no idea why (maybe it's the blurred faces) but it reminded me of the footage that TNA showed of the James Gang showing up at the studio where the WWE were filming a Royal Rumble video. Still, Punk's a prick. Who knew?

I'm not sure you couldn't pick just as many holes in Austin appearing as you could Undertaker. His feud with Rock is years ago. The Rock is the final Boss and Austin has a history of teaming up with bosses at WrestleMania. But, probably more importantly, Undertaker confronting Rock doesn't feel like a tease. Austin confronting The Rock would.

This isn't Jericho himself so much, but I always thought the way he won the title at the start was a bit shit. Just the idea that Kenny and Jericho have a singles match to face the winner of a battle royal to decide the first champion. And then his whole faces of Jericho "I'm like the David Bowie of wrestling" entrance. And his initially shit finisher.