JLM

Breakfast lunch and dinner for me. Spent many years in different parts of the North west but never adopted “tea” for the evening meal either. Lunch ladies sounds far too American. I guess I square away school dinner/dinner ladies in my head because they serve dinner-esque hot meals despite it being lunch time. Just a grotesquely dull paragraph there. I will add that the under appreciated sitcom Girls5Eva has a male school cafeteria worker who refers to himself as a Lunch Lord and I love that very much.

Was funny going for the low score challenge and being chuffed to see Shevchenko turn up. Haven’t got under 70 yet though.

I’m just worried about the mayor of East Palo Alto. Seeing Royce getting caught up in the game after all these years, it’ll break his heart.

I have a Cineworld unlimited pass and use the app for bookings. They have recently launched a new version of the app and it is utter dogshit. Can no longer search, it crashes during bookings, unlimited members can no longer book tickets on behalf of other members to get tickets next to each other. The website is also knackered and people are seeing other users’ booking histories on their accounts, and in some cases their payment details! Don’t you just love it when the update makes the thing much much much much worse.

Yep Resident Evil is a blast. Tight 90 minutes, spot on pacing, funny, some spectacular set pieces and some brilliantly executed jump scares. Actually got a round of applause at the end which I have never experienced at a cinema screening ever. I didn’t join in because I’m not an American, but it was certainly well received.

Those pesky Power Rangers won’t stand a chance against The Octomber!

@Moo Speech! Speech! Speech! It really is astonishing that this place has endured. I’ve left for periods of months and at times even years but it’s always here when I come back. Very close to 25 years for me as a poster, will be celebrating that milestone in November. Maybe get a new avatar, really puts the boat out. Thanks to our hosting and moderating overlords and for everyone who contributes. Even the turds and the trolls over the years, you have all helped me pass much downtime at work and been an outlet for discussing wrestling on the internet when the wider chatter on the subject is largely unbearable. It’s also really cool to have grown up alongside other enjoyers of this absurd hobby. Some of my friends in real life have dipped in and out of wrestling at various times but they have never gone deep into the subject. It’s comforting and fascinating to hear from others who have a similar experience to my own and grappled with following this endlessly entertaining and frequently utterly appalling shit show over multiple decades. My friends in real life watched the Vince doc but they’ve never been shafted by a BritWres catastrophe or tried to sit through Regal’s podcasts. That’s not even getting into the excellent community of excellent people and some of the finest anecdotes of all time in off topic. Any topic that turns into story time on here has the potential to deliver gold that continues to surprise me long after I thought I’d heard it all. I often struggle with the idea of Britishness/Englishness and cultural identity etc. I am not patriotic, I find flag waving nationalism pretty repellent. However, revelling in the horrors of a disastrous Family Christmas dinner or unpacking the revelation that someone has been pooing wrong their whole life fills me with a deep sense of pride and gratitude , because the British and the Irish are the best in the world at it and this place showcases that in spectacular fashion.

Just had an enormous multipack of fleshlights delivered to my house, along with what can only be described as a keg of lube. Didn’t even know you could bulk buy in such quantities, unclear why the lube is pressurised. Really embarrassed in front of my neighbours because someone got the address totally wrong. I’m number 54 and it was meant to be for 172. They weren’t even close!

Oh god that hadn’t even occurred to me. Toilets at my work are actually pretty clean but still the thought of doing that made me feel a bit ill. Stranger poo particles in the air, on my mind, on my brush.

It is a little bit square and can look slightly too large in proportion to his body. I agree it’s a bit overblown. I think his biggest issue in terms of appearance is that he’s always been directly compared to Finn Ballor, who is a rather beautifully proportioned specimen of a man.

Eve 153: Eve X The World 2 Made by way down to the Big Penny for what has become Eve's "mania weekend" show. Gutted to have missed Mystery Wrestling earlier in the day at the same venue as it had both Dalton Castle and Orange Cassidy on the card. Next time I'm cramming in more shows. Absolutely packed inside the venue for this one, a sold out crowd making the most noise I've heard at an Eve monthly, a fantastic atmosphere and a crowd with very impressive stamina considering how swelteringly hot it was. Eve World Championship: Session Moth Martina vs Kris Statlander Thunderous pop for Martina opening the show. One of the best entrances in wrestling, indy or otherwise. A lot of buzz about who would answer the open challenge this month and we got a surprise worthy of the hype with an unannounced Kris Statlander. Also got special guest referee Aubrey Edwards for this one, entering to a huge reaction as she did last year. Aubrey's great. It's testament to the work that's been done with Martina that Statlander was fully the heel here. The Eve crowd adores Statlander but we love Martina the most. Stat leaned into it immediately which was great to see, flexing and posing and throwing in a bit of trash talk for good measure.. Good stuff here as you'd expect; Statlander dominating with her power advantage, Martina staying alive and finding flurries of faster, high flying offense. Statlander's offense in person is so great to watch; I never get used to just how devastating it all looks and sounds. It's just getting going and then all of a sudden Martina hits La Mistica, holds onto the arm and does a lovely transition straight into the Jaeger Bomb, then the place goes wild because Stat kicks out! That is not something that happens and Martina was fully justified in her Ruby Soho shocked face because half of the audience was doing it too. She recovers, catches a Statlander lariat and goes for it again, Stat powers out into Staturday Night fever, hitting two in a row for good measure and it's over! Martina loses in 10 minutes. Unbelievable gut punch of a result. Can't imagine many scenarios where I'd be unhappy with Stat winning a world title but this was a heartbreaker. What helped it land is that Martina's open challenges have opened the show before, so I didn't smell a rat based on the card placement either. I didn't doubt for a second that Martina would retain until she lost. Fascinated to see what's next. To me it feels early but the Martina story has been so well done so far that I will wait and see what they have in store. Wild opening to the show. I guess they have Elite Encounters Wolverhampton in November to build to, so maybe Martina trying to win it back there is the move? We shall see. Backstage promo from Stat pointing out that whenever she comes to Eve without a title she leaves with one, and that everyone needs to fear Stat Daddy. Amira Blair and Kingsley vs First Class Dolls (Alysha ad Frankie B) Guest ring announcer Abi Cartwright, today going by M.C. Abi. She remains a consistent highlight of every Eve show. Amira has said she would hire Abi as her new assistant if Abi could find a match for her on this show, this is what Abi has delivered. I have never seen Kingsley before and I am now a fan. She sings her own entrance song complete with call and response hook and her excitement levels are about 10 times higher than the crowd's. Similar to B3CCA, I love a heel who thinks they are the biggest deal imaginable regardless of crowd response. She is also doing so much that Amra is obviously going to despise everything about her. Match is called off two minutes in as Ospreay announces an impromptu talent contest. First Class Dolls did a surprisingly good dance routine that was silly but actually had some impressive moves in there. Amira naturally tries to respond with a nose flute Dolly Parton tribute, only for Kinglsey to snatch the mic half way through. One of the most audacious manoeuvres I have ever seen at a wrestling show. Kingsley explains that she is "severely talented" and they do a sort of duet where they are also clearly competing with each other. This whole thing was complete nonsense, I was disappointed that Harley Cameron didn't get involved, but the commitment to the bit and the strengths of the performances made it so much fun to watch inside the venue. Kinglsey is brilliant, Amira and Abi are always brilliant and the First Class Dolls were great value as well, with a slight Iiconics/Inspiration vibe about them. There was also a brief match, a nice little sprint with the Dolls showing some good heel chops and a surprisingly hot hot tag from Amira. Best bit was Amira tagging in Kinglsley and yelling at her to "Get these hoes" and Kingsley yelling "I WILL GET THESE HOES!" as she was mid-flight landing a running double codebreaker. Post-match Amira turns on both Kingsley and Abi, stunnering both and leaving Abi, once again, without a job. Hyperactive, Hollie Barlow and Maya World vs Rhio, Alexxis Falcon and French Art This match annoyed me. When I saw the line ups I was most interested to see how they'd manage Hollie Barlow vs Rhio, but instead the fact that they're currently in a particularly hate-filled feud was almost entirely ignored. I know they were trying to feature a lot of people and that they wanted Maya World to be a focus of the match, but it would have been so easy for the Barlow/Rhio feud to be woven into this. Keep them apart, let them have a few interactions or tease interactions, even have them brawl to the back and leave the match. Instead Barlow's joining in doing multi-person comedy spots. As a standalone match it was fine, it went at a brisk pace, I enjoy everyone involved, Maya World looked very impressive and had a spectacular hot tag. It was OK in a vacuum but I was taken out of it by them treating it as some kind of non-canon exhibition. I did appreciate French Art trying to steal it using the title belts as this has become their favourite way to cheat. Also smart to have Maya World pin Alexxis Falcon. This led to post-match promos where Hyperactive are claiming a tag title shot because they beat the team with French Art on it, but French Art denying them because they weren't involved in the finish. Only time for one Burlesque act on this packed card BUT it warrants a mention because it involved a sexy John Hammond trying to seduce a T. Rex, and eventually succeeding in that endeavour. Tremendous. After this they put an extra promo in from Hollie Barlow backstage about how she wants Rhio dead. Where was that energy during the match?? Pffft. Spirit of Eve Championship: Skye Blue vs Emersyn Jayne vs Lucy Deathmatch Brand new title on the line for this match. I will confess that I didn't realise Lucy Deathmatch is Lucy Sky for way way too long. She has a very different look in this gimmick but I still felt quite stupid when I went to look up Lucy Deathmatch on my phone and realised I already know full well who she is. Skye Blue loves to Deathmatch and had a mad one against Emersyn Jayne a couple of months ago. She said when she came back to Eve she wanted a prize to fight for and the new Spirit of Eve Championship is it. To get straight to it, this match featured an INSANE blade job from Skye Blue. She was bleeding on the last show but this was horror movie-esque, accentuated by the lovely white ring gear she had chosen for the occasion. I've said before that she comes alive in these hardcore matches and this was a shining example, completely in her element soaked in blood and revelling in dishing out and receiving violence. Emersyn Jayne is just as much of a lunatic and Lucy Deathmatch provided a great base and a completely different style of opponent for them to contend with, but this was SkyeB Blu's show. So many great visuals, one great bit where Skye daubed blood all over her Artist of Stardom belt and stood there posing with the biggest grin on her face after wiping the blood from her eyes. A "you sick fuck" chant for that, not triggered by a a particular spot but more as a general descriptor for her. My favourite weapon attack was Skye using the point of the stars on her title belt to cut Jayne's forehead. Made a lot of sense as that belt does look pointy as hell, I only hope Stardom don't mind it being returned with blood stains all over it. Too many gnarly spots to mention, though the darts being jabbed through Emersyn Jayne's face so she looked like a walrus is a visual that will stay with me. Bad arrows. Tacks, tables, chairs etc. etc. What I like about Emersyn Jayne being a deathmatch enthusiast is that she's also a flashy and skilled high flyer. Has that Sabu factor where she delivers dazzling dare devil high spots as well as all the plunder business. Her and Skye Blue bringing that speed and Skye acting as a solid base for them meant that it had engaging action in between the weapon spots and didn't become a plodding bore in between them as these matches can do. This whole thing was a blast from start to finish, with all three working their socks off and Skye Blue becoming some kind of feral blood soaked monster person. The crowd was red hot throughout, they had fun twists and turns and I was genuinely surprised to see Lucy Deathmatch come away with the win. Love that they've found a more consistent role for her as she was a bit lost in the shuffle previously. She's an ideal first champion as she's a heel powerhouse and the perfect obstacle for a smaller daredevil challenger to overcome. Really nice finish for her here too; her frog splash always looks great, so landing it through a table onto tacks looked truly devastating. Great little post-match promo from her explaining the evolution from Lucy Sky to Lucy Deathmatch, very chuffed for her. This has generated the most buzz coming out of the show and I enjoyed it a lot, but it actually wasn't my favourite match on the show. More on that later. AAAW Tag Team Title match: Nyte Skye vs Nightshade and Nyla Rose The AAAW tag titles were the tag belts from GAEA Japan from 1996 until the promotion folded. They've been held by so many legends in the past: The Crush Gals, Aja Kong, Akira Hokuto, Manami Toyota, Meiko Satomura etc. etc. They were dormant from 2005 until Marvelous That's Women Pro Wrestling revived them via the 2022 Reactivation Tag League. Marvelous is run by the legendary Chigusa Nagayo, founder of GAEA and former holder of said tag titles as half of the aforementioned Crush Gals. I love that they've kept the history alive and that Marvelous now sanctions both the world title and tag titles from GAEA, still using both original title belt designs. Always a delight to get Nyla Rose on an Eve show, she is so beloved by the Eve crowd and is such a joy to watch in a small venue as she is naturally hilarious and radiates charisma. I love the idea of her and Nightshade as a foreign powerhouse tag team holding these belts too. This match was solid but nothing too special. The issue with the powerhouse tag team being the babyfaces in this scenario means the dynamic feels a bit off, plus there was a heat section on Nyla Rose that definitely went a bit too long and lost some momentum. Still, the crowd was hot enough for the hot tags and it was fun to see Nyte Skye get blasted with the big power offense. The Baldo Bomb/Swanton team finisher for Rose and Nightshade is lovely too. Post-match a teaser plays for a new cross over show: r Eve X Marvelous in January, with Saree coming over for it. Should be excellent. Skye Smitson accepted a hug from Nightshade after the match, referring back to Nightshade and Martina trying to reconcile with Skye on the last show as a call back to their earlier days as a unit together. This seemed very implausible to me, but I liked that they let it sit for a bit, allowed Nightshade and Nyla to do promos and announce the Marvelous collaboration show, *then* had Nyte Skye come back out and attack them before they left. Made it a bit more believable and made Nightshade seem less naïve. Martina out for the save but Nyte Skye lay her out as well. Still very curious to see what the direction is for Martina as this would be a step down, but I trust that there is a long term plan in place. Marina Shafir vs Chantal Jordan This was BY FAR my favourite thing on the show. I fucking loved everything about this, from the presentation to the match to the post-match to how it played in to the end of the show. Home run stuff. I have been a longstanding defender of Marina Shafir. Even pre-Death Riders I was sure she had something. She doesn't promo well but she has an incredible game face and a completely believable intensity. I also thought that this criticism that she doesn't gel with opponents or looks out of place doing pro wrestling was actually a strength in disguise. For me, she is an example of what I want MMA fighter turned pro wrestler to look like. At its best, her in-ring style looks like a UFC fighter has found themselves in the middle of a pro wrestling ring and nobody is happy about it. The opponent is trying to do wrasslin' but nobody has told Marina, Marina is trying to choke or tap a motherfucker and they're out here doing flying head scissors and suicide dives. She isn't a pro wrestler who does MMA stuff as a nod to her background, she is actually trying to do MMA and Judo in the pro wrestling setting. It can go wrong and if the opponent isn't the right one it can look messy in a bad way, but for me when it works I think it's magic and gives her a truly unique selling point. The signs of it were there in her ROH squash matches. Some of my favourite squashes ever, as these poor jobbers were trying to have a wrestling match nd just got dismantled by this killer who was not interested in that at all. Post Death Riders she has added the other stuff to her game that brings it all together. She has settled on a simple but perfect look, she has got into PHENOMENAL shape, she has stopped trying add things to her game that aren't natural at all and focused in hard on what she does well. It was very notable that my regular Eve buddy who had never seen her before said "she has what the kids call 'aura'" and then by the end of the show "I think she is the coolest fucking person I have ever seen". That fact that I have seen the "you don't know me" promo and STILL felt that way after seeing this performance shows just how far she's come. This match was meant to be Shafir vs Aliss Ink and I would *love* to see that match some day, but sadly it was changed due to Ink suffering a serious injury that has written off her entire summer schedule. Jordan subbed in, and honestly I think this worked out better. Jordan has a very similar style to Aliss Ink but she is younger, less experienced and lower down the pecking order. This meant that we got Shafir in her absolute element, bullying and shit-testing an upstart to see what she's made of. Jordan could not have been more game for it either and I thought she put in the performance of a lifetime despite this only being ten minutes long. The other reason I root for Shafir is that I know how hard she works and how badly she wants to make pro wrestling work. When she went on Saraya's podcast it was awesome to hear how she stayed behind after a talent meeting and basically told Moxley she was at the end of her tether trying to put the pieces together, so he made it his mission to help get her there. He already saw what her strengths were, pitched the Death Riders enforcer role and has become her number one backer, coach and mentor ever since. Imagine my delight then, when the lights went down for Shafir's entrance, the big screen lights up and we see her shadow boxing back stage. She starts to make her walk, high fives from Danny Garcia and Wheeler Yuta and then it's last minute sparring and pep talk from John Moxley! A backstage steel shutter opens and we get the full Death Riders through the crowd entrance in the Big Penny Social. Outstanding. The place went apeshit for this and I did as well, and this meant we had Moxley at ring side for the duration, selling every single move and looking like the proudest coach you've ever seen. The crowd was unglued for the duration of the match after that entrance. Perfect choice to make it 10 minutes long, the whole thing felt exciting and dangerous and like it could end at any moment. I don't think Shafir matches ever need to go longer than this, as again it makes sense with her MMA stylings. Either she chokes them out or knocks them out inside 10 minutes or she loses due to something outside of her remit. In this case it was very straightforward; Shafir doesn't consider Jordan a threat and basically forces her to earn her own loss, to prove that she is worth beating. Toying with her, ragdolling her with judo throws, giving her free shots and, at best, looking mildly irritated when Jordan manages to sneak any offense in. This means that when Chantal DOES manage to rock her with a couple of hits towards the end it feels huge and so well earned. Even though this was almost an extended squash it still did wonders for Jordan and had the crowd getting loud for her despite them being rabidly pro-Shafir from the beginning. Loved the finish, as Shafir took Jordan's best shots, decided she'd done enough to be worthy of a switch to a higher gear, then violently dispatched her with the meanest judo throw of the match and then Mother's Milk for the immediate tap. Post-match she does grant the handshake, but even that is immediately followed up with a pie face. Lovely stuff from start to finish, what an Eve debut for Shafir and I really really want to see that Aliss Ink match down the road. EVE International Championship: Miyu Yamashita vs Kay Lee Ray Ahh this was an unfortunate one. These two are excellent, it's a match everyone was excited to see, worthy of the main event and they delivered a 26 minute epic that clearly sucked every ounce of energy out of both of them. They couldn't have done more, but they were undone by the heat inside the venue, the length of the show and the length of the match. I think, given that this was a bumper show and that they had time to realise how oppressive the heat was inside the Big Penny, that they should have cut ten minutes off this and done the epic another time. I've seen reviews of this saying that they didn't have chemistry but I didn't feel that at all. They had some lovely sequences and specific counters to one another, they played a great game of one upmanship and the story of them being so closely matched that they had to fight until one of them collapsed was very well told. However! The crowd was also ready to collapse. I knew what I was looking at was good but I was almost asleep on my feet at this point in the show. The crowd was not dead for this at all but you could tell it was a real effort for them to stay with this, particularly when the previous match had them at the loudest they'd been all night. So yeah, a high quality match between two excellent competitors, worthy of a title and worthy of a main event, but environmental and timing factors meant that it just wasn't the time and place to go 26 minutes. Would love to see them go again and I am confident the talk of them having no in-ring chemistry wouldn't come up again. Overall I loved this show as a live experience. It wasn't perfect I had some booking frustrations and the heat worked against the main event, but overall it was an electric live experience with some wonderful surprises, a tremendous atmosphere and a couple of particularly memorable matches in the deathmatch and Jordan vs Shafir. EDIT: Forgot to include the chaotic ending to the show: Yamashita poses with her title, Statlander comes out with hers and they tease title vs title. However! Kay Lee Ray returns and slaps Statlander and they get into a fight. They brawl to the back, Yamashita standing tall, then Marina Shafir appears from nowhere and chokes out Yamashita! So looking like Shafir vs Yamashita and Stat vs KLR for Elite Encounters in November.

Yeah I feel the need to highlight the commentary again too; Charlton and Stewart were fantastic for the whole tournament. They’re an outstanding duo and it was very jarring whenever a guest commentator subbed in for Charlton as the quality dipped so severely. The history, the sports style analysis, recapping the tournament stories, telling the stories of the individual matches as they unfolded. Similar to Excalibur, I’d say the only hole in their game is being appalled at bad behaviour in away that sounds convincing. Guess it’s quite telling that only a handful of the best announcers ever have mastered this, it’s very difficult to do. Thankfully for New Japan, particularly with the current direction, their strengths are so well suited to the product that it rarely matters. Most House of Torture shenanigans matches are shit regardless and even prime JR selling the outrage wouldn’t save them.

Ha, yep he still has. The Dog’s Trust will… take care of it… when he has his permanent adopter sorted, but for now he is a little bit randy.

Ha, in my haste to skip the undercard and get to that final, I missed that my favourite Motherfucking Hawaiian Jeff Cobb returned earlier in the show! Fantastic news, need to see that rematch against Boltin Oleg as soon as possible.

New foster dog! Another greyhound, this time a five year old male named Oscar, or OSKAR if you’re a New Japan fan. He did try to mount Sylvie during the meet and greet which was quite poor form, but he accepted his telling off and hasn’t tried again. Took about twenty minutes to coax him out of the car but other than that he is settling in remarkably well. He’s not nearly as scared as Murphy and has claimed a bed, roached out and dozed off within three hours of coming home.