On-topic Post of the Year 2024

[Frankie Crisp]

A good recommendation from @air_raid in the post-awards chat, so this is the thread to nominate your wrestling posts of the year.

We’ve had one already nominated in the original thread on the other side of the fence which I’ll add as a second comment for anyone who wants to upvote it.

[Frankie Crisp]

On 2/2/2024 at 7:47 AM, RedRooster said:

It’s more a collection of posts than it is one post in isolation, but @Hernan’s efforts in the ‘What should be entrance music, but isn’t?’ thread are surely worth of recognition; sharing sometimes very obscure examples of when the songs we’ve suggested were used as entrance themes.

You can read one of these posts here - huge credit to Herman for the work that has gone into these.

 

[Keith Houchen]

22 minutes ago, IANdrewDiceClay said:

Sting has my photoshoped piss take of his shitty snow globe on the wall of his dressing room.

 

This is like when it was revealed Bray Wyatt read Astros blogpost about him. 

[HarmonicGenerator]

6 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

This is like when it was revealed Bray Wyatt read Astros blogpost about him. 

Seconded! What a thing it is. Great stuff.

[JLM]

Amazing. Also does anyone have any links for the Bray/Astro Hollywood thing? That sounds excellent. 

[Keith Houchen]

4 minutes ago, JLM said:

Amazing. Also does anyone have any links for the Bray/Astro Hollywood thing? That sounds excellent. 

 

[HarmonicGenerator]

14 minutes ago, Kaz Hayashi said:

It's been years, hello.

I love 93 to 96 WWF. I don't care how shit it was, it was was mint.

No matter how insanely stupid, or how horrendous and deranged it may have been, those 3 years are still my go to on the network. I can't get enough of that time frame, It's an addiction.

I wanted to quickly share a random anecdote of my love for 93. It's on the back of listening to the most recent SCG uploads regarding that time frame, and I sent a similar anecdote to @Liam O'Rourke as it really strengthened the following memory.

I was treated to my first ever WWF event on December 4th, at Whitly Bay Ice Rink (North East, near Newcastle). It was a couple of weeks after my 9 birthday, and my Dad took both me and my younger brother.

The card was a mix of amazing to complete arse, and I've given each match a star rating, because Dave couldn't be arsed for some reason, but i assume he'd have said something like this...

Results

1) Adam Bomb defeated Virgil (1.5 stars, should be 1/2 a star but I loved Adam Bomb and hated Virgil, squash Match, a bit shite)

2)    Tatanka defeated Diesel by countout (1.5 star, Deisel Power was only 3 months in and running on fumes at this point. Titanka kicked his arse all tour, however, Diesel went on a winning streak after this, until he fought & lost to Titanka in Feb, and then Deisel went another big win streak and got his own back again the daft Native American in april 94).

3) Smoking Gunns (Billy Gunn and Bart Gunn) defeated The Red Knight and The Black Knight (1/2 star, fuck off)

4) 1-2-3 Kid defeated Rick Martel (3.75 star, really good match, Kid with his high flying antics, crowd loved him, Martel with his technical prowess and got under criwds skin, spot on).

5) WWF Intercontinental Title Match

Razor Ramon (c) defeated Irwin R. Schyster (2.5 star, crowd were ravenous for Razor and hated IRRRRWIIIIN, which was chanted through this chin lock fest. Razor did his best, but the taxman was very sweaty and performed exactly how you'd expect).

6) Randy Savage defeated Shawn Michaels (4 stars, absolutely incredible. Both were on truly top form, Savage was stupidly over and HBK got heel boos of the night. Shawn went to the guard rails and chased a kid who was honking a horn, took it off him and stamped on it in the ring, which lead to 1000 more horns going fucking mental for the remainder. Shawn went for another horn, but Savage chased him and stopped him destroying more irritating noise vessels, yeah cheers Randy. Lots of top rope to outside axe handles, lots of reversals, back and fourth spots, both were truly brilliant, and deserved a full programme in my opinion).

7) WWF World Heavyweight Title Match

The Undertaker defeated Yokozuna (c) by disqualification (3 star, just for the sheer atmosphere if nothing else. The match was exactly how you'd expect, slow, ploddy, but seeing Yoko as the champ and Takers original lights out entrance, the spectacle was better than the match, but it was fine after having HBK vs Savage and was a great go home vibe).

Notes:

1)1On the way in to the venue, a group were handing out dirtsheets titled "wrestling news". Now, I didn't know what a dirtsheet was, but I ababsolutely wanted one. I also decided I wanted to mimick these cool as fuck wrestling news wizard dorks, so took the sheet home, photocopied 50 sheets of it on my dads fax machine, took them to school and handed them out to my class mates. The teacher confiscated a sheet, and called my dad due to the nature of the content, which covered the Sid/Arn scissor stabbing. Pic of it below, had it for 31 years.

2) before the first match, an announcement came over the tannoy from Fink, apologising (in finks voice) that "Unfortunately, Bret Hart was not able to make the trip, and is back home in Canada, nursing a baaaad cooold, we all wish him a speedy recovery". no mention of which match Bret was due to wrestle in, but one of the cool adult wizard dorks was stood next to my dad and said "Bret was due to wrestle Yoko or Shawn". To which my dad pretended to be interested but gave no fucks. My dad gave no shits about wrestling but popped big for Paul Bearer and did impressions of him for the next 20 years, and joined in with the IIIRRRRWWIIINNN chants. Security confiscated his camera early in to the event, but I got 1 pic of 123 kid battering Martel. I picked up an event program and dome hitman shades, still have both.

3) on way home, my dad decided to pop in to his favourite Chinese takeaway, the good old Red Double Happiness. The owner Ken had a great exchange with my dad in his broken English...

Ken: "Hello Fox family, where you been?"

Dad: "I've just taken the lads to see the American wrestling Ken"

Ken: "HULK HOGAN"

Dad: "He wasn't there"

Ken: "How much for wrestling?"

Dad: "Well with the tickets, sunglasses and program it's come to £100"

Ken: "100 POUNDS... YOU THICK IN HEAD? NO HULK HOGAN???"

and he gave us an extra free bag of prawn crackers because he felt sorry for us.

So there you go, the above is why 1993 WWF is the best and nobody can argue otherwise. 

To make this somewhat worth posting, did any of you go to the 93 UK tour?

Lovely memories by Kaz.

[Keith Houchen]

5 hours ago, Kaz Hayashi said:

It started with the obvious "ohhh yeeees" and "my undertaker" but it evolved in to just randomness to try and cause embarrassment. Once brought a new girlfriend home "ohhhhh, are you going for a meeeaal". My mates fell about laughing. It was like his go to for cheap pops with the kids. Top notch fatha stuff.

From the same wonderful thread. Laughing like a right bollocks over this! (Pappa Kaz started doing Paul Bearer impersonations)

Edited May 14 by Keith Houchen
Gimme Big Mac Gimme Fries To Go

[air_raid]

…… Def Con One by Pop Will Eat Itself?

[Keith Houchen]

30 minutes ago, air_raid said:

…… Def Con One by Pop Will Eat Itself?

[HarmonicGenerator]

JLM’s review of All In was just the thing I’ve been waiting a week of forum downtime for.

3 hours ago, JLM said:

All In 2024

Short review: I cried, I was drunk on THE FEELING for much of the night, I don't know if pro wrestling can ever get as good as this again for me, holy shit. (****3/4)

EXTREMELY LONG REVIEW: 

Pre-show:

The stadium and stage all looked great. It turns out 50,000 people is still a hell of a lot of people. Some of the entrances were brilliant and the atmosphere was incredible for almost the entire show.

The massive roar the first time Jeff Jarrett in his amazing jacket appeared on screen was wonderful.

The Brie interview playing on the screens before any pre-show action kicked off was superb. It did a great job on my casual fan friend as well. He was initially 50/50 on who he wanted to win, but all of the promos and video packages before the main event had him on team Danielson by the time it arrived.

Private Party/Ariya Daivari/Dark Order/Singh/Lethal/Anthony Ogogo vs Kyle Fletcher/Rocky Romero/Top Flight/Andretti/Lio Rush/Tommy Billington/Kip Sabian

Poor Evil Uno had a rough week didn't he? Announced he was in the gauntlet on Wednesday, got assaulted by his old friend and left for dead, miraculously recovered in time to make it to Wembley, but then presumably was the next guy after Luchasaurus in the gauntlet and never made it into the match. Uno vs Danielson dream match denied.  

The big pop for Kip Sabian was lovely stuff. Evil Uno using the papers made me smile. The showdown between Satnam and Lio Rush was tremendous and easily the highlight of the match. My casual fan friend (CFF for the rest of this) had never seen the classic Reynolds/Silver combination sequence and bloody loved it. It is very cool. Fun, breezy opener obviously thrown out to get loads of people on the card.

 

Willow/Ishii vs Stokeley/Statlander

Stokeley's Michael Jackson gear was outstanding, as was his performance in this match. Thoroughly entertaining match, they teased Stokeley vs Ishii well and it was a blast when they finally interacted. Ishii actually getting rocked by one of Statlander's strikes was excellent too. I have already had to make peace with All Out getting the Willow/Stat match I wanted, but this was very enjoyable for what it was and I'm glad they both got a match on the big stage. Stokeley's comedy heel goofball energy is bringing more manic charisma out of Statlander the more they continue to team too, she's way more expressive in this role than she ever was as a babyface.

 

Martha Hart desperately trying to get to the end of her speech was rather awkward.

 

Cage of Agony/Kingdom vs Shibata/Dustin/Von Erichs/Guevara

Sammy/Cage both rocking 90s X-Men/Wolverine gear was crazy. I'd be pissed if I were Brian Cage, it's been his thing for a very long time. I'd also be pissed at him if I were Ricochet for doing a shooting star press from the top rope to the floor on the pre-show. I must say it's disappointing that I've seen Shibata wrestle live twice in the same week and both times it was in nothing matches. Dustin getting good reactions on the big stage was nice, briefly seeing Toa Liona do his thing live was a plus for me personally. Some very rough and sloppy bits in this one too. The Gates of Agony launching power bomb spot on Shibata looked nasty and is not a bump he should be taking. Brian Cage wiping out on his dive was also brutal, and Sammy's Swanton made my entire audience block audibly gasp as he landed back-first onto Cage. Poor Brian had a painful evening. Not great this one, though the Iron Claw-fest and Kevin Von Erich getting the big stadium pop was a nice moment, and that's what this was all for really.

Jamie Fucking Hayter after 15 fucking months

At this point I saw there were ten minutes before the main show and was pondering going to refill my water bottle. Then Saraya's music hit and I SHRIEKED with excitement because I knew it was Jamie Hayter time. I presume the people in my block thought I was just the biggest fan of Saraya and the Knights. I am a Saraya/Harley fan but we're not on shrieking terms. I am so glad I didn't duck out of the arena and miss this! Wonderful moment, positively radiating superstar aura and swagger, and she looked like she was going to explode with how pumped she was to be back. The first of multiple times during the show I had a big old lump in my throat. Magic.

HOB vs BBG vs Patriarchy vs BCC/Pac Ladder Match

Some of the ladders were very small. One of them was very large as well, though. London Ladders are very diverse in that way. Typical batshit clusterfuck ladder match, naturally, with The Patriarchy team adding good heat and some fun comedic/story beats to supplement all the mad high spots. Brilliant reception for Pac and everything he did, and both HOB and The Gunns always excel in this sort of scramble situation. The sequence with Claudio doing all the flying uppercuts ending in the giant swing on Juice was excellent. Definitely an ideal choice to open the show. For all of the craziness in the match, the best two spots for me were Christian running for the hills as his "son" got stomped out by the entire field at the start, and him stopping Killswitch from winning the match because he's such a glory hound. Classic Christian. It wasn't the Death Triangle Wembley win of my dreams but I'm still chuffed for Pac.

Mariah May vs Toni Storm

The last few weeks leading into the PPV this lost a bit of steam, but still, I was so excited to see if they could stick the landing on this one after so much of the groundwork for it has been sensational. They most certainly did that for me. This was brilliant.

This more than delivered in the arena, with great heat and maximum melodrama. I had to watch it back on TV though, as I knew there'd be stuff I couldn't pick up in the live setting. One of the major ones was that Mariah slapped HER OWN MOTHER. Really bloody hard too! I had assumed watching in the crowd that this lady was affiliated with Toni Storm and it still worked as a spot, but man knowing that makes it so much better. Same for Toni's entrance. You could see it on the screens to an extent, but it hit harder watching the whole thing televised; Toni doing her usual schtick with a face suggesting she could burst into tears at any moment. All of this interspersed with shots of Mariah in full colour with a look of pure disdain. Mina Shirakawa looking concerned in the crowd was also a great touch. No need for her to be any more involved, but it still added even more to the drama of this. Mina has to be one of Mariah's first title defenses to show just how far gone she is. Gimmicked champagne bottle over the head. Has to be.

Easily Mariah's best performance to date. Milking everything for maximum heat and just being the WORST for the whole match. Spitting, goading and then assaulting Luther, finally giving Nigel his reward for being her biggest fanboy. Brilliant how the Storm Zero on the steps came after that big flurry of shithousing from Mariah, so Toni had time to recover and land it to get back into the match, Mariah's spiral into evil nearly cost her *and* it felt like instant comeuppance for all of the shit she'd just done. Spot on choice to have Mariah be the one to bleed here as well. Made her seem so much more dangerous and unhinged towards the end.

The whole closing stretch was note perfect. Loved all the stuff with them mirroring each other, classic student overthrowing the master stuff, likewise the master being unable to use the forbidden technique on their own pupil. She has strayed from the path but she is still Toni's child. LOVED the near fall with Mariah using the same jackknife flash pin she used to win her Owen Cup matches, and of course the only natural finish using the Storm Zero. Toni's exit was also amazing.

Loved this.

 

Hook vs Jericho

Went to get a snack during the Fozzy performance. Hook having the Tazz theme heart monitor bit before his entrance was a lovely little touch. The UK Big Bill love-in continuing was also delightful. Taz finally choking a motherfucker out after all this time was the clear highlight and the only possible justification for this being on the card at all. Bloody loved that bit, obviously. I wonder if Bryan Keith being signed and added to The Learning Tree was all done so there was a height appropriate person for Taz to choke out at this stage of his life. Long term booking. But yeah, this is the Taz/Hook/FTW title moment I wanted and it happened on the biggest stage. HAS to be the perfect time to retire the FTW title now. There is nothing better you could possibly do with it than Taz helping his boy win it back as they lock in simultaneous Tazmissions, so after this it's just going to limit Hook.

 

 

FTR vs Bucks vs Acclaimed

 

This was a very good match, but more in a "strong Dynamite match" kind of way than a PPV barn burner. I really liked the bit where Max Caster joined in for the other teams' finishers. I was hoping FTR would liberate the tag titles and get the division going again, so was disappointed with the result. Lost my mind when GYV turned up! Such a big fan of those guys. Instant massive upgrade for the tag division. GYV vs FTR, GYV vs Bucks, GYV vs MXM Collection. Give me all of those please.

 

Casino Gauntlet

Jeeeeeeesus Christ. In the arena watching this live I thought I was going to burst. Holy shit, I was losing my mind nearly continuously for the whole thing. This match type, after only a handful of outings, is easily one of Tony Khan's finest creations. It's so good it should probably only be done once or twice a year, or even tied to a PPV like All In. It has all of the benefits of a Royal Rumble, with the countdowns and the opportunity for surprises, returns, debuts etc. It also has the opportunity for dream pairings and unlikely combinations left and right. However, unlike the Rumble, it allows a debut or a dream face off the chance to work without the restriction of staying in the ring/not being able to go over the top rope. It is the best of all worlds and has not missed so far.

OC's Mr. Bean intro was outstanding. Okada coming in second was an IMMEDIATE holy shit moment. Set the tone for this being full of heavy hitters with no fucking about. Following that up with NIGEL! My god. I'm surprised I could breathe on Monday, let alone speak.

Zack Sabre Jr. was an amazing addition. A good surprise, another British wrestler and also opened up soooo many sicko dream pairings! In the middle of this match it felt like any combination of any two guys in the match was worthy of a "holy shit" chant. My CFF had never seen ZSJ before and is now his biggest fan. He was completely blown away by the counters and crazy pinning combinations, and he's never seen a Meltzer star rating in his life.

So we got this wonderful sicko section of dream pairings and technical wrestling and Holy shit moments for the perverts, THEN we get Redneck Kung Fu and a lovely bit with the Conglomeration Conglomeratin' in full effect, only for that to be ended by Hangman entering the ring playing the role of pure Hatred in human form. This was INCREDIBLE. Completely no-selling his pyro, looking like he was going in their to drink EVERYONE'S blood and annihilating anyone foolish enough to get in his way. Catching the Orange Punch in mid air right into the Dead Eye was a thing of beauty.

Who on Earth is going to stop this monster? THE LAST OUTLAW HIMSELF. Seriously, this thing just kept managing to hit new highs for me. I thought my excitement had peaked but they still had something better in store.

Electric debut for Ricochet. People can quibble whether they could have advertised this debut to promote another show, or if he should be debuting in a match he isn't winning etc. For me, he got to make his arrival on a massive stage to an insane reaction and put on an exhibition of all the  superhero shit he can do against some of the biggest names on the roster. The springboard shooting star was nuts, he lost his balance, regained his balance with pure leg/core strength and then hit the thing flawlessly anyway. There are a lot of flippy high flying guys on the roster but it still boggles the mind what he can do sometimes.

Love that they keep going back to the Hangman/Okada subplot whenever they get a chance. Okada's ultra-casual break up on the pin was amazing. The Jarrett guitar shot on Hangman has to be my favourite Jarrett guitar shot of all time. Take THAT you sonofabitch. OC and Zak Sabre Jr have the BEST chemistry and showed it again here.

The ending will definitely be polarising. I loved the use of the random time intervals aspect of the match. They set it up for this amazing sprint showdown with all the remaining competitors getting big near falls etc. and that heavily implied there was nobody else to come. So the last countdown clock got a massive pop. The announcement of LUCHASAURUS got an even bigger one. Then it was yet more classic Christian shithousery. So our man won and lost the trios titles without getting to carry the belt (much like his TNT reign), he was stopped from retaining his Trios titles this evening and was then blamed for the loss. Christian STILL then convinced him to come out AS LUCHASAURUS to throw people off the scent so he could help this prick win AGAIN? I have to know what he has on this dinosaur man. I have to know. As exciting a prospect as many of the people in this thing vs Danielson would have been, I don't hate Christian winning it honestly. His world title match with Swerve was absolutely brilliant, and the threat of the biggest scumbag on the roster ruining Bryan's dream final run at any time is interesting to me.

 

MJF vs Ospreay

My CFF was pro-MJF at the start of this and a converted Ospreay fan by the end of it. He hadn't seen Ospreay before and was blown away, eventually screaming "DO IIIIIIT!" as he went for the Tiger Driver at the end. Spine tingling heat for this one, phenomenal atmosphere in the stadium for the duration. Belter of a match. Superb shithousery from MJF, fantastic melodramatic in-ring storytelling from both guys, some of the best intensity and physical charisma I've seen from Ospreay and a rabid crowd. The build has been muddled as hell, MJF has been all over the place character/promo-wise, but I thought this delivered on the night as most of us expected it would; these two have superb chemistry together. Properly overbooked towards the end but it felt warranted to me. The whole deal felt huge, the entrances were amazing, the big pyro celebrations, Wembley at fever pitch and Ospreay looking like the most mega of mega stars coming out of it.

Most importantly of all though, I jumped out of my seat for DANNY GARCIA, as this surely means he has re-signed and all of that grim talk of him going to NXT without Daddy Magic can be put to rest.

 

Mercedes Mone vs Britt Baker

Mone's entrance was so obnoxious it made me laugh out loud. Flawless. This was definitely one of the weaker matches on the show and was also most of the crowd's piss break match. It was also in a death spot following Ospreay/MJF, and these two were never going to be able to save that with their in-ring work. The build has also been very by-the-numbers. There were certainly plenty of sloppy and rough looking bits in there too. HOWEVER, this actually had some more ambitious and impressive stuff than I expected. Some nice reversals and counters towards the end, the stomp counter into the powerbomb from Mone was cool and not something I can recall seeing before. The scoop slam off the top, and then later Britt countering a second one into a flying power slam was awesome too, and comfortably the highlight of the match. In a more favourable spot on a less stacked card I don't think it would be receiving the shit it's getting online, but yeah, in this setting it was definitely not up to par and the crowd responded accordingly.

 

 

Jack Perry vs Darby Allin (and then STIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING)

This match being suspiciously high on the card (and as a result, after it had got a bit darker) massively raised my hope that we'd be getting Sting, so I was buzzing with excitement for the duration. I loved that this was almost an extended squash. It was unexpected, quite shocking actually, but it makes a lot of sense to me. Darby has been winning, he has shown himself to be a survivor of vicious beatings and that he's willing to do insane/barbaric shit if provoked. This is all established for Darby. Jack Perry has done some of these things himself but he is not on Darby's level. Him completely annihilating Darby like this massively ups his threat level in my eyes and gives his still relatively new persona a lot more credibility. Darby's head sticking out of the body bag was a bloody brilliant visual. It was somehow both unintentionally hilarious *and* cool at the same time. It was such a great visual that Perry quickly following up with an unceremonious knee and lid slam felt even more shocking. Really good stuff.

The lights going out was one of my biggest cheers of the night. Nearly fried my vocal chords on that one. I said after Revolution I'd lose my mind whenever Sting popped back in for a surprise appearance, feel extremely privileged that I got to witness it live!

 

Danielson vs Swerve

Being inside Wembley Stadium for the last 40 minutes of this show was the best pro wrestling has ever been for me. The highest highs I have ever felt watching it, the most emotionally invested I have ever been, and witnessing one of the career best performances from the greatest pro wrestler of all time. Perfection. That's without even giving Swerve his due. He is performing at such a level right now that in ANY other circumstance I'd want him to remain champion for the next five years.

The Danielson meditation video before he came out was out of this world. Starting off as a love letter to pro wrestling and then overlapping with the montage of his family. An amazing nostalgic career retrospective montage but also perfectly telling the story of a man having to choose between the two biggest loves of his life. The overlapping story of the character and the man have rarely felt more real than that. That's been the key to this whole thing for me. I totally understand the criticism that putting the career on the line telegraphs the finish, but this is one scenario where I could 100% believe he'd do it. He'd retire on the big stage, massively put over Swerve, not push his luck any further with his body and keep his promise to his daughter. Like, probably not because he can't help himself and there are more matches left to do and there's a big Washington show etc. etc I get all of that. But because it's Bryan Danielson, he COULD just call it in service of the big story on the big stage to pass the torch to Swerve, who would be an exceptionally worthy recipient of said torch.

As such, my jaded wrestling fan brain was out the window for this one. I was biting on EVERYTHING. Biting on near falls that were OBVIOUSLY not going to be the real finish BUT WHAT IF THEY WERE? What if it's that moment when Undertaker doesn't kick out against Brock and the collective life is sucked out of an entire stadium of people in unison? I was grateful to see that my entire block was standing for almost the whole match because I found it very very difficult to sit down.

Both entrances were PERFECT. First tear of the evening shed for The Final Countdown chorus in unison. Swerve felt like the biggest deal on this Earth for his. Bun B in the house for a brand new remix of Big Pressure? Outstanding. Swerve wearing the Jimmy Rave robe for his most important matches is the most lovely tribute, but isn't it the happiest coincidence that he looks magnificent in it as well. Then the extended and THUNDEROUS "Who's House?" call and response from Nana. Talk about a big match feel, god damn this was immense. Couldn't see it in the arena, but watching it back that top with the heads of his previous opponents mounted on spikes was the most Swerve thing imaginable too.

Distinctly remember going "oh fuck off!" and trying not to cry again during Roberts' introduction for Danielson and the cut to his family on the big screens.

The nervous tension at the beginning of this was something else. Bryan doing the big sprinboard somersault effectively broke the tension because he had the advantage and looked confident, so it was "safe" to start cheering again. Whenever he wasn't clearly in control he was in danger of losing; that was how it felt for almost the entire thing.

The cycle of Danielson rallying and putting together a big flurry only to be heartbreakingly shut down was done so well, helped by Danielson's look of ever increasing desperation. The big flurry of flying knees in the corner only to be shut down by a flatliner, kicking Swerve's head in into Cattle Mutilation, only to be destroyed with a vertebreaker. Hope into gut punch into hope into gut punch. Loved the contrast between Swerve and Ospreay there too. Ospreay drops Danielson on his head and the sight of the medical staff checking him over makes him question ever using the move again. Swerve drops Danielson on his head and chases the doctors out of the ring so he can follow up with the stomp.

The last of the "big rally into gut punch" heartbreakers was one of the best no-sells of a move I have ever seen. Firstly the new take on the pro wrestling "I'm sorry" was just beautiful. Danielson apologising to his family for refusing to stay down and not fully giving up wrestling for them just yet. Then the best Hulk Up spot, bloodied, manic, staring straight at his family as he powered through Swerve's kicks. Then he hits the Busaiku knee! We all lose our collective minds in the stadium, then the sound of elation turning into shock and then genuine concern that this is it for our hero. I have rewatched that bit so many times already. Similar to Hangman drinking Swerve's blood, it is so striking to hear a massive crowd of people go from cheering to a completely different emotion, in unison, over the space of 1-2 seconds. Flipping magical stuff. One of Swerve's finest supervillain moments to date, if not the best one yet. That near fall on Big Pressure there nearly ended me. I don't even know what noise I made. It was some kind of scream/howl/cheer hybrid. I thought my CFF would be laughing at me but he was right there with me by this point.

I 100% bit on the near fall after Hangman's distraction too. Again in most other scenarios I'd be cynical and suspect a false finish there, but in that moment I wanted it to be the win so badly I was willing to believe it. Then the last 5 minutes all hope of ever regaining my shit was gone. Welled up again after Swerve tapped. Glorious match, haven't felt an atmosphere like it. Ended up staying in the stadium util two thirds of the people had gone because I didn't want it to be over. Thankfully Danielson and family stuck around and the people continued singing and Yes-ing for a good spell after the PPV went off air. The "Yes" chants on the street coming out of the stadium were also tremendous.

Not a perfect show. Some of the undercard "good" rather than great, and Hook/Jericho and Mone/Baker were not All In-worthy matches. The high points were SO BLOODY HIGH though and they were peppered throughout the show (even Hook/Jericho had the Taz spot!), and the last hour I entered some kind of otherworldy pro wrestling nirvana that I will never forget. A Sting appearance followed up with one of the best wrestling matches I've ever seen that made me cry multiple times, ending with the euphoria of the result we all desperately wanted. Hard to beat that.

However, Swerve should have sold the shoulder more consistently in the middle third so I have to give it a rating of outlaw mudshow garbage. 

[HarmonicGenerator]

1 hour ago, wandshogun09 said:

Mean Gene being Mean Gene.

Sid: NOOOOO, SHUT UP YOU FAT, BALD HEADED LITTLE OAF!

Absolutely loved Sid. First and foremost obviously his look was ridiculous. The physique was insane, of course, and he had the height. But that face! People have criticised his bell to bell work a bunch over the years and I’ve heard the likes of Cornette going “well if he’d learned to work/wrestle better”. No. He was a 6’9” monster with a superhero’s build and psychopath’s face. That was the hand he was dealt physically and being a big giant noodle haired nutcase was his job. He shouldn’t have been doing many actual wrestling moves surely? A lot of his stuff wasn’t pretty and he didn’t have a long list of great matches but, for the role he had and the job he had to do, what he did in the ring was pretty much spot on. Nobody needed or wanted to see him doing a fireman’s carry, fancy suplexes or any kind of chain wrestling. He was a big arse kicker. Clubbing strikes, big boot, clothesline, chokeslam, powerbomb was about all you needed. He was ace. 

What set him apart from the vast majority of big men was his charisma. Somewhere along the line I think a lot of wrestling fans decided that ‘charisma’ meant ‘cocky smirking heel’ like a Mr Perfect or early Randy Orton type thing. Sid was never that but, when it came to charisma and whatever that special ‘it factor’ is, he was always dripping in it. Even when you go back and watch his early stuff as a Skyscraper or whatever. He had it. He was always ridiculously cool seemingly without really trying or maybe even realising it. Always been a fan but seeing all the clips of him on Twitter this past week, man, he was so fucking cool. Even more than I remembered. I don’t think there’s many wrestlers who’d have got away with hopping between major promotions as much as Sid did in the 90s, with promoters and with all the stops and starts and switching between heel and babyface. It never seemed to affect Sid much though. He was too big a deal and too over of a name for promoters to pass up or stay mad at for too long and he’d always just waltz back into a promotion as a legit main eventer and the fans would always readily accept him. 

As sad as it is to say, a lot of these wrestling deaths don’t really come as a surprise anymore but I think this one caught everyone off guard. I don’t think anyone in wrestling knew he had cancer. If there were any who knew, they’d kept it quiet and that was obviously the way Sid wanted it. Whenever you’d see a picture of Sid in recent years, he still looked in pretty good health and shape and always just looked so happy and content with his life. I love that for the entirety of his career he was seen as this unhinged lunatic yet pretty much all you’ve heard since he passed has been about how great a guy he was. Just one of many I’ve seen was Rob Van Dam telling a story of when he was starting out, was working as enhancement and got squashed by Sid during the WWF run in 91/92. Back when Sid would crush two jobbers in a handicap match on TV. RVD says Sid came up to him and his partner after the match and gave them both some money and it stuck with him all these years because he was the only guy who ever did that for him. Also hearing a lot about how great a family man he was. The fact that probably the last photo we all saw of him was that one of him smiling with his grandkids on his lap is very fitting. 

 

I love this one. Sid’s reveal and his delivery on that line in particular, with the maniacal laugh, is one of my all time favourites from him. I have really strong vivid memories of watching that episode of Raw. I think it was shown on Friday afternoons here at the time? I just remember it was July, I’d not long got home from school, my birthday was coming up, the 6 week summer holiday was coming up, we’d just got a puppy, the sun was blasting through the living room window and I’d just gone from being disappointed to learn the Ultimate Warrior was gone again to buzzing that Sid was back. I can remember watching that particular episode of Raw crystal clear that day. Life was good.

So much more I could waffle on about. For a guy who didn’t have a whole bunch of amazing matches, there were so many great and memorable moments and as I’ve got older I’ve realised that was as big a part of it as the in ring action for me. Just a few of my favourites off the top of my head…

• The entrance at MSG at Survivor Series 96. 

• That mad Barbershop segment where he sent Beefcake scurrying for his life and stood screaming into the camera with shaving foam all over his gob.

• Casually strolling down the aisle saying “I DON’T KNOW SHIT, CRYBABY” to Bret in 97.

• The stuff with Goldberg and the crushed car (“WHY ME? WHY ME? WHY MEEEEEEE?”).

• Twatting an OAP with a camera, giving him a heart attack and getting cheered for it.

• The return to WCW at Slamboree 93 and the reaction he got before steamrolling Van Hammer.

• Coming back to Raw for that one-off to bulldoze Heath Slater whatever year that was. That was at a time when I wasn’t watching anything wrestling related and I remember seeing that and just grinning from ear to ear. 

• And of course, all those beautiful, beautiful squash matches.

There’s a load more but I’ve gone on long enough. 

RIP big man. There’ll never be another.

Me again. @wandshogun09’s Sid tribute.

[Gus Mears]

Thought this was an excellent post which articulated a lot of my thoughts in a far better manner than I could manage 

12 minutes ago, organizedkaos said:

Exactly. I don't care much to watch family friendly wrestling.  As with every other form of culture there are versions I like and don't like.  The things I like don't need to be enjoyed by all, if anything my tastes run towards the polarising. All I care about is that the people who make the things I like are compensated for it and continue to do it.

If AEW is the second biggest promotion in America great, I get more AEW. This does not subsequently require them to change their product. They're arguably the second biggest promotion in America because they offer an alternative and varation is fun. I like it when there are different things that cater to different tastes.

There's stuff you can take your family to and there's stuff you can't. Turns out some products that cater for an adult audience do quite well. Go check out some of the more popular TV shows and films of the last... however many years since the supreme court overturned the hays code.

If it was doing terribly (and sure you can argue r*tings are down but the deals/PPV buyrates suggest they're doing OK) then sure there's an argument it's worth changing the product as to continue. Obviously within the content there are conversations to be had. I don't want to see needle spots very much ever but within the context of the story being told it worked.

Wrestling fans do have an odd relationship with the concept of wrestling. There's these accepted standards that arguably don't make sense but they're accepted because that's how it was done in a certain era that no longer exists.... Wrestling is s inherantly dangerous and risky (i'd argue it's part of what draws people to it). Now I'm not saying I want shoot headbuts and brain aneurysms, I'm saying the act of wrestling is risky. Probably more risky than sticking a sanitised needle through part of your body where no major veins go. But we accept certain ideas of risks because they exist in a form of wrestling we like. Then we reject other risks because they exist in a form of wrestling we don't like.

It's the same as getting pissed off at no selling staples. Why? The actual human being that is being stapled is able to no sell them. You can say the storytelling is not to your taste but don't act like it's some unrealistic blight on the concept of wrestling. It's literally happening in front of you, in reality. It's no more ridiculous than any other part of wrestling. The only reason you see it as ridiculous is because you have been desensitised to the fact that wrestling is ridiculous*


* And that's why it's bloody great