air_raid

It’s the rational, logical approach. Unfortunately tv, cinema, video games, music etc don’t seem to have one critic where an overwhelming majority of the consumers of the entire art form have latched onto their word as gospel. Nor do any of those “normal people” pursuits likely have as much toxic nerdiness going on, by which I mean amounts of passionate energy to argue the toss about something so wholly subjective, even with the industry expert whose opinion apparently matters to them. And I don’t know what’s worse, that people are so invested in these things, that people actually take it up with Dave, or that he so often is willing to engage with them. It’s such a load of nonsense. People will STILL take it up with Dave years later why X match “only” got 4 3/4 and not 5 years later where Dave will point out that 4 3/4 still makes it one of the best matches you’re likely to have seen that year. The historical nitpicking is something I think only wrestling fans would give a shit to keep doing. Or maybe I’m wrong, and people still ask Rolling Stone if they consider re- scoring Baby One More Time (**) because they gave Mutations by Beck **** and it doesn’t sit well with them? I think it’s a symptomatic thing, the wrestling fans seem to have a weird fascination with their opinions of wrestlers, shows or matches being the right ones, and being able to “prove” them right either by popularity or correlation to what Dave thinks. So if Meltzer doesn’t rate a match as highly as one of these weirdos, they take it personally that the revered voice on star ratings suggests they’re “wrong” in their opinion. And sadly whereas if you argue the toss with an average Ian or raid about an opinion on Twatter you’ll get called a moron and blocked, Meltzer actually engages with them. He’s an enabler.

Because Goldberg and Rhino got it over in WCW and ECW respectively, they like to keep using it. Of course, the two things lost in the mists of time is that it was only ever a setup originally for the Jackhammer or Rhino’s piledriver in those places. Blame Edge spearing Jeff Hardy from the heavens at Mania 17 for them thinking it should end a match, probably, around the same time they hired Rhino and he started winning with the Gore because piledrivers were out. Somewhere they forgot they realized the explosive impact move worked great for Goldberg and Rhino because it fit to their intense, explosive personality. There have been plenty of crap ones - Edge AND Christian both using them usually looked rubbish, my personal strongest distaste was Batista doing it when he already had a fine repertoire of signature power moves, but there’s been loads. Charlotte always looks awful doing it, especially. Nobody else should do it while Reigns isn’t retired, he’s been the closest to a good one this century. You’re not wrong on power moves - we need more press slams, powerbombs and stuff Sid would do. Bring back the whirlybird! Leave the memories alone.

This has been on my mind a lot. I will probably do a poll because there are many options - revisit previous ones and refresh to the more detailed format (I.e the bi annual or quarterly ones, do them monthly instead), go back to 84 and the return of Hogan, go back further and see what a Bruno schedule looked like… or do the NWA or WCW. And where’s a good starting point there? Flairs first title reign? 83 to lead to Starrcade? 1990 and the Turner buy out of JCP? It’s definitely more fun to be deeper in the past. I mean, it IS fun to think (example) “I wonder what they’ve done with Cody on the road since he came back?” (Spoiler - Rollins for months, Solo for months, Balor for a bit) But it was more fun spotting jobbers that became stars on old Challenge tapings or counting down until the last time they book Jim Brunzell.

That would be Allentown. https://www.wrestlingdata.com/index.php?befehl=shows&show=483773

Truth. The value therein is only to decide if Dave has a similar taste to your own, then use his ratings as a rough guide to whether or not a match is likely to be to your tastes/worth your while to watch. Not to stat spaff yourself silly over.

I'm sure there are some snide types preparing a joke about "if it had been in the Tokyo Dome".... well, joke's on them, because Okada vs Omega (*******) was in Osaka.

FEBRUARY 2020.... and the rest. Look, the world comes to an end in March, cancelling house shows and the entire concept of "dark match" for the foreseeable future. So.. there's no point in anything BUT condensing the rest of 2020 into one entry. THE MAIN EVENTS 8th-10th in Oakland and Fresno, 15th/16th in Eugene and Kennewick then 23rd in Brandon, there are three rounds on top for Roman Reigns vs King Corbin and Drew McIntyre vs Seth Rollins, which also headlines 01/03 in Salisbury - and the first three shows of Feb also have The Fiend vs Daniel Bryan for the U belt which actually goes on first in Cali. Leap Day in Elmira and 1st March in Syracuse (yes, two shows on one night) Reigns tags with The Usos (Bloodline represent!) to beat Corbin, Sheamus & Robert Roode, 7th in Allentown our last house show for bloody ages still has Fiend vs Bryan without the title, supporting Drew vs Randy Orton. THE CARDS New Day vs The Revival vs The Miz & John Morrison for the SmackDown tag belts repeats in California and again in New York after the switch to MNM2. There are six instances of Bayley vs Lacey Evans for the SmackDown Womens title and four of Becky Lynch vs Charlotte vs Asuka for the big one, Lynch vs Asuka repeats in Kennewick and Brandon. Common to both West Coast shots are Samoa Joe & Kevin Owens vs Authors Of Pain and Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs Viking Raiders, mid month we get AoP & Buddy Murphy going over Ricochet & Street Profits plus Rusev & Liv Morgan vs Bobby Lashley & Lana. In New York there's also twice Shorty G vs Drew Gulak. VARIATIONS In Eugene Big E beats Miz in singles, in Kennewick he knocks off JoMo. Elias vs Cesaro is unique to Eugene. Brandon see Owens, Ricochet & Ivar vs Murphy & AoP, Morgan vs Lana in singles, Alesister Black vs Erick Rowan, R-Truth vs Shelton Benjamin, Street Profits vs Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins and Angel Garza vs Humberto Carrillo. In Elmira Braun Strowman & Elias beat Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro ; in Syracuse its split into Braun retaining the ICT over Cesaro and Nakamura vs Elias (no contest). In Salisbury, Asuka & Kairi Sane drop a DQ to Charlotte & Becky but retain the belts, Andrade retains the UST over Humberto, KO & the Profits beat Murphy & AoP, Morgan beats former buddy Sarah Logan and Shayna Baszler beats Natalya (obviously). Finally in Allentown AoP get an upgrade but with new partner Seth Rollins still lose to Kev/Dawkins/Ford on first, a DQ in Aly vs AJ Styles leads to Black & the Raiders beating the Bullet Club, Ricochet upsets Lashley and Baszler drops Morgan. MAIN EVENTS - NXT 1st in Orlando it's Kushida & Isiah Scott vs Shane Thorne & Kona Reeves vs Tony Nese & Mike Kanellis, then they're off around the country again ; 7th in Phoenix it's Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish vs Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa for the tag belts, next night in Vegas DIY, Pete Dunne and Matt Riddle beat Adam Cole, reDRagon and Roderick Strong, 9th in Riverside the babyfaces are DIY, Keith Lee and Velveteen Dream. Back in Florida, 14th in Tampa Kushida vs Ridge Holland goes on last, next night in Fort Pierce, somehow, it's Joaquin Wilde vs Dexter Lumis. 21st in Milwaukee Cole vs Ciampa for the big belt is the main, next night in Oshkosh Ciampa/Dunne/Riddle beat Cole & reDRagon, 23rd in St Paul it's Ciampa, Dream and "The Broserweights" beating the four-strong Era. 28th in Largo is a dreadfully weak card - Isiah Scott vs Shane Thorne 5th of 8 matches is the strongest sounding, Leap Day in Jacksonville Riddle & Dunne defend their newly won tag belts against Imperium lads Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel. 5th March in Columbus Keith & Ciampa beat Cole & Strong, next night in Cleveland Ciampa vs Austin Theory is an odd choice to go on last, 7th in Detroit the "Sicilian Psychopath" is with Damien Priest. B shows! 21st in Ocala it's Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel vs Tony Nese & Mike Kanellis, next night in Cocoa Nese & Kanellis lose to Lio Rush & Dio Maddin. 6th March in Melbourne Rhea Ripley vs Chelsea Green for the belt in our main, next night in Orlando Kushida vs Bobby Fish was probably very watchable. REPEATS In the deserts we've got Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne vs Austin Theory & Dorian Mak and Angel Garza vs Shane Thorne in Phoenix and Riverside, Rhea Ripley vs Bianca Belair (repeats in Oshkosh) and Candice LeRae & Tegan Nox vs Dakota Kai & Jessi Kamea in Phoenix and Vegas, Jordan Devlin vs Kushida for the CWT in Vegas and Riverside, Damien Priest vs Cameron Grimes happens in Riverside and repeats in both Ohio cities. February week 3 has Belair vs Kayden Carter in both Milwaukee and St Paul and Priest vs Dominik Dijakovic in both Oshkosh and St Paul and Tino Sabbatelli vs Denzel Dejournette in both Cocoa and Largo. Other early March repeats have Adam Cole vs Dio Maddin as an oddball title match in Cleveland and Detroit with a DQ finish that leads to Maddin & Keith Lee beating Cole & Roderick Strong and three nights of Riddle & Dunne vs Shane Thorne & Brendan Vink for the tag belts plus Theory vs Bronson Reed and both Mia Yim, Tegan & Kayden vs Dakota, Raquel Gonzalez & Santana Garrett and Candice vs Aliyah in Cleveland and Detroit. Other repeats see Grimes vs Rik Bugez in Tampa and Milwaukee, Rhea vs Chelsea Green both on St Paul's undercard and on last in Melbourne, and Shotzi Blackheart vs Taynara Conti in Ocala and Melbourne. OTHERS Orlando (1) - Theory vs Dexter Lumis, Garrett vs Indi Hartwell, Reed & Shotzi vs Grimes & Gonzalez and MJ Jenkins & Kamea vs Rita Reis & Briana Brandy. Phoenix - Keith vs Priest for the NAT, Kushida vs Roddy, Grimes vs Babatunde. Vegas - Keith vs Grimes, Priest vs Babatunde, Garza vs Theory. Riverside - Garza vs Thorne, Belair vs Nox, Rhea & Candice vs Kai & Kamea. Tampa - Joaquin Wilde vs Vink, Xia Li vs Garrett, Reed & Thorne vs Pretty Deadly, Aoife Valkyrie vs Aliyah, Killian Dain vs Babatunde. Fort Pierce - Ridge Holland vs Bugez, Carter vs Green, Shotzi vs Marina Shafir, Deadly vs Raul Mendoza & Jorge Bolly (Santos Escobar), Isiah Scott vs Kona Reeves, Yim/Valkyrie/Rita vs Jenkins/Kamea/Conti. Milwaukee is stacked - Riddle & Dunne vs Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish for the tag belts, Keith vs Priest vs Dijakovic for the NAT, Finn Balor vs Kushida (ooosh), Roddy vs Velveteen Dream, Ripley/Yim/Nox vs Kai/Gonzalez/Green. Oshkosh - Keith vs Roderick, Balor vs Bugez, Kushida vs Lumis, Nox/Yim/Carter vs Kai/Gonzalez/Green. St Paul - Lee vs Balor, Kushida vs Grimes, Nox & Yim vs Kai & Gonzalez, Lumis vs Bugez. Ocala - Deadly vs Reed & Thorne, Garrett vs Kamea, Bolly vs Vink and Deonna Purrazzo/Indi/MJ vs Reis, Catalina Garcia and Emily Andzulis (Ivy Nile). Cocoa - Sabbatelli beats Rocky, then Daniel Vidot (Xyon Quinn) before finally falling to Dejournette, plus Mercedes Martinez vs Marina. Largo - Xia vs Indi, Gonzalez vs Kacy Catanzaro, Carter vs Brandy. Jacksonville - Bolly vs Bugez, Yim vs Shafir, Deonna vs Emily, Reis & Blackheart vs Taynara & Aliyah and Thorne & Cal Bloom vs Holland and (last NXT house show) Kassius Ohno. Cleveland - Nox/Yim/Carter vs Kai/Gonzalez/Aliyah, LeRae vs Garrett. Melbourne - Garcia & Reis vs MJ & B-Fab. Finally Orlando (2) - Bugez vs Sabbatelli, Tyler Breeze vs Mak, Chelsea vs Shafir, Hartwell vs Andzulis, Kacy & Shotzi vs Brandy & Jenkins. TVs 3rd Feb Raw in Salt Lake City has - do you remember this? - Ricochet win a top contenders match for the WWE title. Wednesday's NXT has Carter/Hartwell and Thorne/Theory dark matches plus Martinez gets back on TV pinning Catanzaro and Breeze does a job for Devlin. 7th SmackDown has Mustafa Ali vs Gulak and Fiend vs Miz bookend the taping. 10th Raw, Rhea shows up and beats Logan, Akira Tozawa loses to Black and dark Orton beats R-Truth. Two nights later at Full Sail Mansoor vs Artturo Ruas and Mercedes vs Xia are the dark matches. 14th SmackDown in Vancouver there's Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik vs Gulak & Drake Maverick opening, a fun sounding TV main of Reigns & Bryan vs Miz & John Morrison, and for some reason Fiend vs Corbin for the belt as a dark main. Saturday 16th in Portland sees Keith, Rhea and Cole retain their titles at TakeOver but Riddle & Dunne relieve reDRagon of the tag belts. 17th Raw MVP gets a match and loses to Drew like it's 2009 all over again. NXY has dark openers of Priest vs Grimes and Candice & Kacy vs Taynara & Deonna and on the TV proper Kona loses to Keith. 21st SmackDown in suburban Phoenix, Apollo Crews vs Metalik is a dark opener and Reigns vs Corbin goes on last. Monday night in Winnipeg McIntyre vs Rollins (topical) is the dark main, Wednesday night Charlotte shows up in NXT in response to Ripley and beats Belair, Grizzled Young Veterans beat our old friends Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake and dark matches are Shotzi vs Aliyah and the new tag champs vs Mak & Thorne. Thursday (WTF) has a blood money PPV in Riad chock full of happenings, for better or for worse. MNM2 beat New Day for SmackDown's tag belts, Brock Lesnar (remember him?) retains over Ricochet, The Undertaker shows up unexpectedly in his last legitimate in ring action, pinning AJ to win some gauntlet, and with plans off for Fiend vs Reigns, Bray's new character is sacrificied to Bill Goldberg who - earmarked to put over Reigns at Mania - lifts the Universal title for the second time. 28th SmackDown has Reigns vs Corbin after John Cena Appreciation Night which kicks off the build for John's match with The Fiend at Mania. 2nd March Raw at the Barclays (just 9000) the Street Profits win the tag belts from Rollins & Murphy then Drew beats Rowan dark. 4th at Full Sail, Priest vs Liam Gray and Bolly/Mendoza/Wilde vs Kushida/Breeze/Tehuti Miles are the bonus matches - plus both Strong vs Dream and Nox vs Kai are blown off in cage matches for broadcast. 6th at the Coventry SkyDome 700 fans brave the apparent coronavirus dangers for the first night of NXT:UK tapings, and Balor shows up to beat Alexander Wolfe. Next night Toni Storm vs Isla Dawn, Walter vs Ridge Holland and Ilja Dragunov winning a contenders battle royal are the highlights. Same night in Buffalo (a healthy 10,000 - not that they will all have stayed healthy!) SmackDown has a dark Fiend vs Bryan main event. Near 15,000 stupidly turn up for Elimination Chamber where Sami Zayn wins the ICT in a handicap and Shayna whitewashes the Chamber, a win originally meant for Lacey Evans but she's with child. Next night's Raw has no dark matches and that's the last show in front of fans. For some reason 13th SmackDown at the Performance Center has a Team NXT vs Team 205 match which is dark, even though no fans are there, so literally nobody ever saw it - Breeze, Scott, Kushida, Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan go over Brian Kendrick, Nese, Kanellis, Jack Gallagher and Ariya Daivari - the darkest match of all time. Thus ends my interest in TV tapings for the rest of 2020 because, with no fans in attendance, they don't tape any matches that aren't going to air. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten on TV this month : Miz & Morrison (SmackDown Tag Team Champions) by The Usos - just one day after winning them on their first TV after winning them. Fuck. DEPARTURES Losing to Keith is Kona Reeves' last match of any kind, he's eventually released in 2021 and as recently discussed on here, now works as a German Mechanic at Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. These are the last matches for Tino Sabbatelli. He's not been long back from his injury and they tried and tried, especially in his team with Riddick Moss, but some things are not meant to be. Don't feel bad for him, he's with Mandy Rose. Coventry has the last of Kassius Ohno a/k/a Chris Hero in his second go-round with the company ; one might suggest he was lucky to get another turn. Great wrestler, not a fit for WWE in reality. Melbourne is the last match for the lovely Taynara Conti. The pruning for covid budget cuts went deep. Syracuse is the last gig for The Revival. They start the process which will end in them being granted their release by 10th April. Chief among their concerns is that they think they're one of the best tag teams in the world and have essentially not had chance to prove it since leaving NXT and they hold no hope that tag team wrestling will be taken more seriously in WWE. They point to Braun beating the whole division by himself and winning the tag belts with a ten year old and the only tag match at SummerSlam (womens tag title) being on the pre-show as examples. Apparently the final big pitch in a face to face meeting with Vince, on top of pretty good money to stay, was a repackage including (according to leaked concept sketches that the pair have confirmed as what they were shown) bright colors, tassels, glow sticks and lipstick. They've said they weren't sure if this was genuinely an idea with a future in Vince's head, or designed to convince them leaving was right for them, but either way, they turned it down. Words fail me. There are no house shows until July 2021 so effectively that would put us on hiatus - the roster will go through a lot of changes so I've cherry picked a few from the rest of 2020 ; Big Show wrestles his last match for the company on the Mania tapings for airing the Raw after Mania - we've discussed him previously. April 20 covid budget cuts - Primo & Epico, Mike Bennett ("Kanellis"), Maria, No Way Jose, Zack Ryder, Curt Hawkins, Eric Young, Heath Slater, Drake Maverick, Erick Rowan, Sarah Logan, Lio Rush, Aiden English, Curtis Axel, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, Kurt Angle. Except Maverick stays, you may know the story. What can you possibly say about how much they missed the boat on Rusev? That they were idiots to not do more with Rusev Day? That the Lashley/Lana thing was a disaster and should never have been green-lit? Well, the biggest gripe that the man himself had wasn't really creative, but personal ; “After I had my shoulder surgery I heard about, you know, Hunter’s got all his boys and they’re texting every day. They’re best friends and after my shoulder surgery, after I give up my life for this freaking company, like not even one person reached out, you know what I mean. Not Vince, not Hunter, not Carano, nobody was man enough to be like, ‘Hey bud, are you ok? Do you need anything? I know you’re in the hospital, you’re by yourself because your wife is at freaking work.’" June 20 - Mojo Rawley. It was a one note joke at its peak, Hype Bros was as good a chance as he was going to get, I'm stunned he stayed employed so long after they were split up. Those 24/7 title reigns didn't save him. Aug 20 - Sonya Deville takes a leave of absence from WWE after losing her Loser Leaves WWE match to Mandy at SummerSlam - originally scheduled as Hair vs Hair, which she would lose, her lawyers advised against getting her cut ahead of her court appearance regarding her stalker. Which is the reason for her time off. She's back in a non-wrestling authority capacity in January, and excluding brief handicaps and non starts finally returns to full time wrestling in January 22. December 20 - Velveteen Dream wrestles his last match for the company - he'll be released in May. Let's just say, there were accusations about him and it rhymes with brooming underage toys.

The Match That Won Me Back After 30 years as a fan and with my current lifestyle no longer affording me time to actually watch much wrestling, I stopped caring. WWE, the most accessible wrestling available, becoming first a chore to watch then a tedious campaign to somehow wash away years of mistreating Reigns with years of mind-numbing dominance… well, that helped. I needed a hero to save my fandom. (5) Roman Reigns vs Cody Rhodes Saccharine though it may sound. The real story of course started the year before - having played in pain then gone on the D/L but returned to win the Rumble, Cody seem nailed on to go to Mania, win the belt and lift the grey fog from around the main event scene. It didn’t happen. What’s happened in 2024 to move back into that direction and eventually get to Cody on top - the hero we all need - has been written about so much and so recently here it’s not worth recounting, but the investment in the story and actually caring about who wins the match, is something I’d not felt for quite a few years, and more years still in WWE terms. So much of the final weekend of Cody’s journey, I’ve re-watched multiple times since, and that simply isn’t something that had happened for me since… I don’t know, it’s probably Becky rising to the top in 2018 that I probably cared as much about one wrestler winning matches. So given where my fandom is today, I’d be lying to myself if this wasn’t the 5th that has shaped it even if I could list 30 matches that better represented my various tastes and experiences over certainly the last 20 years. TL:DR, I know.

Not to go all On Topic, but shades of Axis The Demolisher.

Have they? Well, good. Get it on the main roster. Get Sting involved too, really piss off some people.

That should be saved for fall. If they’ve exhumed “Halloween Havoc” then “Spin The Wheel Make The Deal” is the way, not Raw Roulette. Coal Miners Glove matches all the way.

The Match Where Context Was Everything I was very tempted to include a different match entirely for the first "indy" match (unless we count mid 90s ECW as indy) that reinforced that I was right to expand my horizons outside the old "Big 3" - that would have been AJ Styles vs Low Ki from ROH Night Of Appreciation, which I got in a tape trading order that also included New Japan and All Japan. However, there's a far better story behind this one ; this is a match that casual WWE fans have watched with me and opened their eyes to the quality that can also be seen in smaller companies, and memorably on one occasional, I asked a flatmate to watch with me when he'd previously only seen WWE (he came to Passport To Pain with us) and he enjoyed it so much he ended up putting his money down to come to shows around the country too, including International Showdown, Noah Limits and Universal Uproar, once I got some of the Wrestling Channel tapes sent up and he started watching Noah with me too. It held sway, clearly, and is still one of my favourites. (4) Samoa Joe vs Austin Aries (Final Battle 2004) The background here is crucial - Joe has been champion since March 2003, and has just come off the back of three famous defences against CM Punk, two of which went to an hour draw and the third under “no time limit” rules, Joe won in about 30 minutes in a match where Punk bled and was unable to push him in the endurance stakes. That being the last show before Final Battle. As a member of the ROH message board at the time I can tell you that nearly as many members that assumed Joe vs Punk IV was happening in 2005 and there was a good chance Punk would finally beat him, were posing that Joe was going to make 2 years with the title. Make no mistake, this wasn’t a Brock Lesnar or Roman Reigns reign of terror ; people loved and respected Joe as champion. He showed up to all the shows. He’d retained in bangers with Paul London and Bryan Danielson, had hard hitters with both Briscoe brothers, a violent series with Homicide, and turned back the challenge of every “flavour of the month” that had come into form and deserved a title shot, on top of the series with Punk which had put ROH “on the map” in a lot of eyes. Meanwhile Austin Aries was one fourth of upstart heel group Generation Next who’d ran roughshod in the short months since their creation under the leadership of Alex Shelley. Aries had earned plaudits for the closing stretch of the “Survival Of The Fittest” eliminator opposite Danielson and in beating the “Dragon” in a 2/3 falls match at Testing The Limit which went 75 minutes. He’d gone on to earn a title shot, IIRC by beating Punk, but as good a wrestler as he was proving to be, nobody gave him a chance of winning. The match begins against the backdrop of change, even on the night - Aries suddenly supplants Shelley as leader and kicks him out of Gen Next by attacking him after a loss to Punk and Steve Corino while tagging with Roderick Strong - who immediately sides with Aries. Then, Aries makes his entrance to a new entrance tune, Marilyn Mansons cover of Personal Jesus which call me crazy, but gave him more presence than Interstellar Overdrive ever did. A note must be added that Gabe Sapolsky, in his “Jimmy Bower” character really adds to the match on commentary with several choice remarks that serve to make sure the viewer is reading the story the wrestlers are telling. In the early minutes he suggests “the bigger question” is if Joe can make that two year mark - as though perhaps the result is a foregone conclusion. It’s not an especially long match, but as it goes on there are one or two moments where Aries seems to have scouted Joe particularly well - he avoids the knee drop of one of Joes usual sequences and an attempt at his signature tope, when Joe dawdles during a series of Olé kicks, Aries avoids and absolutely smashes him with a running dropkick and later he reverses a kick out of an attempted pin into a modified crab in a similar manner to which Joe usually goes into an STF (drawing a bit of an “ooo!” from the crowd). The theme continues that Aries seems to have a counter for every counter when he goes for a rana and Joe catches him in what looks like an attempt at a powerbomb, and Aries snaps off the rana he was looking for initially. Another theme however is that Aries keeps going for the brainbuster but can’t get Joe up - which is going to build masterfully. Similarly he goes back to the knee every time he gets in trouble. A first 450 from Aries for a pretty good nearfall is a clue that Joe might be in jeopardy, and the crowd reacts… almost as if they can hear Gabes little hints that maybe the champions grind has started to catch up with Joe. He comes back with the Island Driver, which has been a move he’s won defences with, and only gets 2 for a good pop. The champs face betrays both disbelief and weariness and after further back and forth, right when he’s looking totally knackered, he goes for the Muscle Buster, which triggers one of my favourite home straights of all time. Aries counters with the crucifix bomb, both get back to their feet but the challenger can’t take Joe down with forearms. He ducks a clothesline and kicks Joe in the knee which drops him to one knee, then boots him flush in the face which Joe sells like it’s nearly knocked him out. Aries picks him up and goes for the brainbuster again, and this time when he gets Joe overhead, the noise the National Guard Armoury makes, while on a smaller scale, reminds me a lot of the Georgia Dome when Goldberg put Hogan up for the Jackhammer. As Aries scales the ropes they’re cheering, yelling, banging on the barriers… the second 450 is almost academic, as he’s going up you already think “There goes the champ” and the three count draws an eruption from the Philly crowd and stunned silence from Jimmy Bower. Thus ends an utter masterpiece in telling the story - the match transforms in progress from what EVERYONE had down as another strong defence from the dominant champion on the way to Joe vs Punk IV and/or making two years with the belt, to a switch that the crowd entertains as possible and ultimately endorses. Aries winning clean is almost a catalyst for turning Gen Next babyface - which eventually happens anyway. Fun fact, I actually found out about the switch the day after via a text that read “It occurs to me I’ve never seen Austin Aries wrestle so I don’t know if I can endorse him as champion” - I was gobsmacked, this must have been how the Hulkamaniacs felt in 88! Different times entirely with no easy downloads and most of us on 56kps dial up, I finally got to see that match when I bought 3 ROH DVDs at International Showdown - Generation Next where the group formed, Testing The Limit and Final Battle. My first ever wrestling DVDs which I had to watch on my PS2. As you can tell, the match left a mark on me. You can watch it in it’s entirety on YouTube, if you like. …. I wonder what happened to Green Lantern Fan anyway…?

Two blokes going for something and missing still looks better than two blokes doing ten counters and counter-counters smooth as silk in about seven seconds where it’s just obvious co-operation and nobody looks like they’re actually trying to hurt each other.

Getting picks to keep people is the biggest waste of time imaginable. Either the “lottery” format, alternating steals they chose, or the wrestlers having to win matches to earn steals for their show are all routes they’ve used before.

AEW actually signed the Weinstein of wrestling though! Whoooooo!

I’ll never forget one of the TNA articles in PS where Fin said “The best he could hope for in WWE would be a feud with Rey Mysterio, which he would lose.” That was in about 2004, mind.

Yes.

Well, sure, YMMV. For me the sweeping change was between Mania X and King of the Ring 94. Having only access to tapes of the teatime repeats of the PPVs with ad breaks inserted (“Atmosfear, the video board game!”) lent to me by a mate from swimming, and no weekly TV, everything seemed to get a new coat of paint overnight. There were spotlight logos everywhere! Diesel was a regular singles wrestler and had managed to already win the Intercontinental belt! The Headshrinkers were goodies! Bret had new music!… actually, that took me a little while to warm to. But the show seemed to be a bit “newer.” Well, Rowdy Roddy Piper was on last, Gorilla was back on commentary and the Anvil turned up, but you know, swings and roundabouts.

I think that's only because IX was in a car park and had the dodgy Roman theme. Ignoring the difference between a stadium and MSG, VIII and X are reasonably similar except for the colour of ring ropes and swapping matadors and voodoo men for clowns and rappers. XI at least is when they start having the extra spotlight effects like flying hearts for Bret or razors for, umm, Razor, A fancy collapsing sugarglass entranceway for Diesel and a slick looking tunnel ; OK, not every show will have Pamela coming out the tunnel but whatever.

Not sure about the maths here. Well, you've got at least three alleged sex criminals even if one was only attempting rape by coercion and never actually achieved it, but then that might the old "Nobel prize for attempted chemistry" situation. Plus, I'm guessing the three that are dead aren't getting invited even if only one of them murdered anyone. Minus one more if we don't count the wheelchair bound, perhaps one more for the dodgy ticker... and that's before we get to Hogan or Shawn. The numbers don't lie. They spell disaster.

Cross ref : Syxx.

I reckon Screaming Lord Sutch of the Monster Raving Loony Party could have done it, but as he’s in a spot of legal trouble we’ll just have to hope his son in law, Triple H pulls it off.

@Jazzy G I imagine Vader, Sting and Arm would be involved in yours.

Didn’t realize they had Forbidden Planet in Wigan in those days!