Linus

* Last week I was all, how wasteful is a Sammy Guevara vs Matt Hardy feud, and how little excitement anyone could have for it. Well, COLOUR ME STUPID because this week they made me care, and it took both men pulling out all the stops, including a savage colour job from Matthew. Maybe I should listen to Briley sometimes?

* Still no Excalibur and although the commentary wasn't bad, there's absolutely no way that Tony "I haven't watched wrestling for a while and I'm just happy to see such fun" Schiavone should be leading a commentary team in 2020. JR kinda disappeared for a while, and given how good Tony & Taz were as a duo on Dark, it might not be the worst thing. Hopefully Excalibur will be back next week, though.

* That opening TWELVE man, and the important milestone that is the first victory for NINE. Furthering the storylines for a whole bunch of shit, it was a hot opener that didn't even waste time on ring announcements, and played to the strengths of everyone involved, including the aforementioned Nine. Interestingly, Brodie Lee has 6, 7 & 8 crossed out on his tights so sucks to be those guys. The Dark Order are a highlight of stuff lately, and their BTE skits are awesome. Who knew, eh?

* Matt Cardona is *fine* but he's also incredibly unnecessary, taking time away not only from other people who could fill his spot who are already on the roster, but also leaving us with no open challenge. I mean, I get it, and part of me really likes that they remember who their pals are, but sometimes it's just not needed.

* Jon Moxley's run as champion has been a bit odd because of the whole virus thing, and there have been as many misses as hits, but this week was a great example of someone on the top of his game, with an A+ promo and a great main-event with Darby Allin, who actually looked like he was killing himself at times. As much as I love Mox, though, it's time to pull the trigger on MJeff, surely?

* Sue's car got fucked up BAD.

* The debate was SWEET, and I'm still pinching myself that Orange Cassidy is having a top line run with a TV promotion and loving every minute of it. Jericho has done nothing but make stars from day one in AEW and it's massively refreshing to see an "old timer" do that. OC HAS to win next week, yeah?

* No Underground. Boooo.

I'll definitely ask more questions than usual before buying tickets, but I won't rule it out. There are some promotions who will run easily on 100 fans in a leisure centre, but there are others for whom that will cost-prohibitive or aesthetically bad. If only our weather was more reliable and outdoor shows were a good bet!

Dynamite thoughts:

* It couldn’t hold a candle to last week’s Eddie Kingston match but WARHORSE did great as Cody’s open challenger. Cody gave him his spots, and the announcers made him sound like a big deal, albeit at a lower level than your usual “AEW superstars”, which is to be expected. He hit everything he needed to hit, and then disappeared when WE KNOW WHO THAT IS! turned up.

* Brodie Lee’s papers made their Dynamite debut after some impressive outings on Being The Elite. I liked the way that Lee made Colt Cabana leave before throwing his tantrum (can’t let the new celebrity Scientology, I mean Dark Order, recruits see the weirdness too soon) - I was less happy with Anna Jay wearing a different get-up to the other recruits, that shit can fuck off.

* Everything involving the Inner Circle and Orange Cassidy is a lot of fun, and the debate next week will be very funny, I expect. I feared for OC when he first came in, that he has a limited number of spots, but he’s still killing it and there’s stuff he’s done on the indies that will work here that he still hasn’t used. All eleven men in this match worked really hard, which was great until the finish.

* Hangman Page’s big drink ruled.

* Normal Matt Hardy against Sammy Guevara is a waste of both men and I struggle to care about it and it was a terrible way to end a really fun opener.

* The women’s match was just “there” again, and I know they’re hamstrung in that half their roster are trapped overseas, and a few others are hurt, but it’s just so much ehhhhhh. I think I may be one of the only people in the world willing to give Cameron a Chance, though, so what do I know?

* They’re hotshotting the Team FTW/Mox/Darby thing and it needs far more time to breathe, and the ridiculousness of it was highlighted when they announced that Tony Khan had booked Mox against “number 5 contender” Darby Allin in a title match next week. What about numbers 1 to 4? Ricky Starks is far and away the best half of his team, though, and got a lovely receipt from Allin for the ropes thing last week - his back looked so hurty!

* That they kept Excalibur off TV because of a fifteen-year old slur which he immediately apologised for at the time, and has repeatedly expressed regret for, is dumb and playing to the shiftless trolls who go looking for this stuff. Taz was decent in his place, but JR got cranky and horrible without Excalibur to anchor the team.

* Also, am I the only one who would watch a feeder promotion featuring Shawn Dean, Will Hobbs, Corey Hollis, Griff Garrison, KiLynn King, Anna Jay, 5, 10, Brady Pierce, Pineapple Pete, Serpentico, Robert Anthony, Joe Alonzo, Skyler Moore, Christi Jaynes, Dani Jordan, Faboo Andre, Rache Chanel, and the like? You can even have the AEW mid-carders headlining shows...

A note on WARHORSE: he's a good (not great) worker who has a great grip on his gimmick, a VERY METAL maniac. If Cody leans into the fun, it'll be a cool little match.

I watch AEW every week and enjoy it. I like what’s good and don’t like what’s bad. I don’t really tend to wonder why they do what they do or what they could do better. This doesn’t make me special, or better than anyone else, but it does make me happier.

The end of a volume of sorts, WCBA #5 completes the stories of Fighting Opera HUSTLE and Nick Gage, and also looks at the comic book wrestling career of Crusher Hogan, Southern Culture On The Skids & the history of wrestling bears, and the influence of Mad Max on professional wrestling!

44 pages, black & white, 10pt Trebuchet MS

You can get a copy posted to your house by sending £3.50 (£4.50 for anywhere outside the UK) through PayPal to alan.boon@gmail.com. Please tick the "sending to a friend or family" box and put your address in the notes so I know where to send it to! Alternatively, you can the webstore at wrestlingcanbeanything.bigcartel.com, but it costs an extra 50p! I also do PDF copies for £1 each!

2 hours ago, Sheffbag said:

is that available anywhere on the normal streamin g services? Same with I like to hurt people

Not as far as I know but you can watch it here:

GRUNT! The Wrestling Movie, hands down.

Issue four of the funky wikipedia of wrestling 'zines is out now, and features part four of our five-part look at Fighting Opera HUSTLE, the final chapters of both the Charles Wright & Insane Clown Posse stories, that time the WWWF booked Battman, the story of Steven Universe's Tiger Millionaire, and we finally get to the best pure babyface in modern wrestling, Nick Gage!

40 pages, black & white, 10pt Trebuchet MS

You can get a copy posted to your house by sending £3.50 through PayPal to alan.boon@gmail.com. Please tick the "sending to a friend or family" box and put your address in the notes so I know where to send it to! Alternatively, you can the webstore at wrestlingcanbeanything.bigcartel.com, but it costs an extra 50p!

4 hours ago, King Pitcos said:

A ladder Royal Rumble is one of the stupidest, most Russo/TNA concepts ever. Is there any other match in wrestling with timed entrances where the match could be over before most of the competitors have come to the ring? It’s about on par with TNA’s ladder match for a shot at being fired.

I thought it was because it was a "casino" ladder match, ie it was the luck of the draw what number you got and if you got a high number then sucks to be you, but I might have made that up.

WRESTLING CAN BE ANYTHING is a new 'zine by Alan of the Love The Graps podcast, trying to prove that wrestling can be anything and anything can be wrestling.

3 issues have been published so far:

Issue 1 has the first parts of a history of Fighting Opera HUSTLE and the Insane Clown Posse's wrestling careers, as well as pieces on the 1970s World of Sport wrestler Catweazle, The Mountain Goats' album "Beat The Champ", the real-life superhero Superbarrio, and that time The Thing from the Fantastic Four became a pro-wrestler.

In issue 2, as well as continuing the stories of Fighting Opera HUSTLE and Juggalo Championshit Wrestling, we kick off a three-part look at the weird career of Charles Wright, and take a look at the 70s wrestling sitcom The Losers and shine a light on Danhausen.

Issue 3 continues well the stories of Fighting Opera HUSTLE, Juggalo Championshit Wrestling, and the weird career of Charles Wright, and also features an introduction to CHIKARA's Nouveau Aesthetic, BLANK & Still Life With Apricots And Pears. Rounding out the issue is the deepest dive EVER into Grunt! The Wrestling Movie.

Each issue is at least 40 pages long, A5 in size, and uses the font Trebuchet.

You can get a copy posted to your house by sending £3.50 through PayPal to alan.boon@gmail.com. Please tick the "sending to a friend or family" box and put your address in the notes so I know where to send it to! Alternatively, you can the webstore at wrestlingcanbeanything.bigcartel.com, but it costs an extra 50p!

So there's a young woman on our estate who dresses up as Spider-man to pop the local kids (don't ask) and she posted a picture on the FB group with her honouring the fallen. There was something a bit stiff about the flag so I zoomed in and it was a Union Jack doormat on a broompole.

Is it not about respect? Like, we all know that wrestling isn't totally real but to accuse wrestlers of being fake shows a total lack of respect and deserves contempt? No-one storms into a performance of Cats shouting about how they're not real felines, do they? But wrestling seems to be fair game for people to play the "well, actually..." card and I think a slap is deserved...

I'm probably alone in this, and that's fine, but I've become so used to these shows in front of half a dozen people that it barely registers as being weird any more, and I'm not sure it's affecting my enjoyment one bit. I've especially liked them since they went to QT's school rather than Daily's Place, where it's smaller and darker.

I mean, there's a whole sleaze-ravine between using money donated for political purposes to get your particular company declared "essential" business and taking advantage of that shittiness, and that's before you even get to bankrupting the XFL, firing "essential" employees, and whatever other shit McMahon has been up to this week.

They also factor in who they beat, and Stadtlander's win over Riho gives her more ranking points, I guess. I mean, it's just a bit of fun with a hint of "science" behind it.

As for Matt Hardy, Anthem surrendered all rights to him early in 2018, so he could have done Broken in WWE but Vince doesn't like anyone else's ideas on his show.

Omega's always been a wrestler that is serious one week, comedic the next. He came up through DDT, where that's not seen as a problem. While he's taking a backseat to help others get over as top guys, I guess he's trying to train AEW fans to accept that, too.

And the ratings? I don't wanna sound like an apologist but there's this thing going on called a pandemic which is kinda taking people's attentions away at the moment...

I mean, he should start at the bottom. I actually quite like that he and Brodie Lee haven't come straight in to world title matches. I miss the days when new arrivals would have two months of jobbers on the B shows.

1 hour ago, bAzTNM#1 said:

Yeah, that was Sam Fox, but they did it with someone else a few years after too (Lindsey Dawn McKenzie. Must have been ten years later). Kind of stuff really doesn't age well at all.

I thought so, too, but it Sam Fox was almost 17 when she first posed topless for The Sun. It was a girl called Natalie Banus. Yeah, me either.

John Major was Prime Minister for SEVEN years.

In 1987, the Daily Star ran a week-long tease for a girl turning 16 and getting her tits out.

In 1984, they crashed a train live in TV to prove that nuclear waste wouldn’t spill in an accident.

Meanwhile, 24 hours in the Tory party...

"Tories are cunts"

"But this black woman...!"

The ending was good, after some wonky rushing to get there. All the good people got what they wanted, even Varys in death. And I particularly liked the look on Grey Worm's face as they argued about who was going to be king - like, FUCK ALL THIS SHIT.

17 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

There’s been some excellent tweets about GoT over the last 24 hours but this is my fave (sorry, thought more appropriate than the Twitter thread) one for you @Chest Rockwell

 

And Mac was in the episode too!

My thinking is that it will finish and be replaced in its slot by Batwoman, as a result of what happens during the annual crossover.