NintendoLogic

I think it's safe to say that Shawn Spears is not, in fact, a diamond in the rough. It took all the smoke and mirrors in the world to drag that match into three-star territory.

Botching a spot with thumbtacks and duct tape. Joey Janela in a nutshell. On a positive note, Darby Allin might have the best tope in wrestling right now.

Janela's the shits, but he has a pretty kickass theme.

Maybe there's a Kevin Dunn type in AEW who think PAC's accent would drive casual fans away.

That was one hell of a hot tag.

Whoa, the Hogan/Sid finish.

Between Spears christening himself The Chairman and Baker going right after Priestley, you have to give AEW credit for making lemons out of lemonade.

Doesn't making a guy who tried and failed to win the IWGP title the champion make the promotion look kind of second-rate? At least if Page wins, he can claim kayfabe parity with Okada. 7 PM on Youtube and BR Live. I'll be honest, my interest in this show declined precipitously after Moxley pulled out. The only match I have any interest in now is Cody/Spears. I expect Cody's streak of having the best match on the card to continue.

This is like if Bruno Sammartino and Bob Backlund were prominently featured in advertising for Smackdown when it debuted in 1999. The only real star in this commercial who wasn't a star in the 90s is Gordon Ramsay.

The Bully Ray clown show rolls on. When you make a dork like Taven your world champion because you figure he's so mediocre no one will try to poach him, you deserve to have it bite you in the ass. And hey, maybe it'll lead to Taven going to WWE and being revealed as the guy who knocked up Maria.

I guess WWE really is the best pro wrestling on the planet.

One thing that really bothers me about NXT is that nobody ever simply walks to the ring, even if they're cutting a promo in street clothes. Everybody has an elaborate pose on the ramp-pose on the apron-pose on the ring routine in perfect synchronization with their entrance music. They come across more as video game characters than human beings.

It was a separated shoulder, not a broken hand. Still hilarious.

I noticed you described Inoki/Fujinami vs. Choshu/Saito on 5/24/84 as "a good 20 minute match that would have been a great 15 minutes." As it turns out, such a match exists. It's easy to find on Dailymotion if you can bring yourself to step outside the NJPW World cocoon. It even has a clean finish.

Truth be told, I always found Piper annoying, like Robin Williams at his most coked-up. I'd take Orton/Cena at Summerslam 2007 over Piper's entire career. Regardless, it's pretty ridiculous that Orton's been a top guy for nearly two decades without interruption except for injuries and Wellness suspensions. And it's not like he had a slow ascent to the top. He was an undercard guy for a few months after joining the main roster, got injured, and immediately joined Evolution after returning. I can't think of any other wrestler who had as long a run as a main eventer in one company without ever working anywhere else.

I think the opposite is closer to the truth. To reiterate what I said earlier, wrestling-is-art advocates seem to be driven by status anxiety over being interested in something widely seen as sleazy and lowbrow. They're trying to link it with high culture in an attempt to imbue it with intellectual prestige. Wrestling may fall under a broad technical definition of art, but "art" in ordinary usage refers to high art, and nobody can credibly claim that pro wrestling meets that definition. Linking wrestling with art won't elevate the perception of wrestling, it'll degrade the perception of art.

Did she address "each and every one of you"?

https://www.thewrap.com/sasha-banks-return-wwe-raw-vs-natalya-exclusive-video/ Both an official WWE Twitter account and the wwe.com Raw preview are promoting an article from a dirtsheet about how the fictional character portrayed by Mercedes Kaestner-Varnado is being scripted to explain her motivations. Gee, I hope Mercedes doesn't refuse to follow the script. Also, how is Natalya cleared to wrestle? Wasn't her arm in a sling last week?

That looks kind of like CMLL's En Busca de un Idolo.

The recent kerfuffle over Jordynne Grace's tweet that pro wrestling should be considered a performance art and not a sport reminded me of the conversation in this thread. Discussions about whether pro wrestling is art tend to go around in circles, so I'll just say I think El-P hit the nail on the head when he said that attempts to classify it as such are status anxiety-driven attempts to imbue wrestling with the prestige of high culture rather than value-neutral intellectual judgments. But I want to address the other half of the equation. Why shouldn't pro wrestling be considered a sport? Because the outcomes are fixed? Does boxers taking dives make boxing not a sport? To put it another way, which is more of a sport, pro wrestling or chess? To me at least, physical exertion is more of an essential element than lack of predetermined outcomes. If pressed, I'd say that pro wrestling is neither sport nor performance art, but it's far closer to the former than the latter.

I don't know if this match has been in wide circulation before, but it got uploaded to Dailymotion earlier this month, and it's off-the-charts great. If it's not the best New Japan tag of the 80s, it's absolutely in the conversation. The rough uncooperative grappling in the opening minutes sets the tone, as they maintain the intensity throughout and never work like they're going through the motions. I liked how whenever Choshu or Saito got in trouble, they'd bullrush the opponent into their corner to set up their double-teams and cheap shots. It wasn't Southern-style cutting the ring in half, more like 90s All Japan style in embryonic form. Saito's stomps were incredibly vicious, particularly toward the end when it seemed like he was trying to sever Inoki's spine. Fujinami's selling was unfortunately rather spotty, but Inoki's selling down the stretch made up for it. Fantastic finish, as Inoki was clearly on his last legs and his desperation enzuigiris were his only hope.

https://www.dailymotion.com/classicsrevival This channel is a treasure trove of dope 80s Japanese matches, most of which are in glorious 60fps. In particular, there's an Inoki/Fujinami vs. Choshu/Saito match that's an unequivocal must-see.

https://www.f4wonline.com/aew-news/fenix-suffers-leg-injury-big-time-wrestling-show-290811 Man, AEW just can't catch a break (no pun intended). I have to think they're going to start seriously curtailing outside work by wrestlers they have under contract once the show on TNT is up and running.

People are getting hung up on semantics. Popping doesn't mean standing up and cheering. It means any kind of audible reaction. I haven't been to the movies in years, but when I saw X-Men: First Class, the audience popped when Kevin Bacon appeared on the screen for the first time.

Kimber Lee was Abbey Laith in NXT and the Mae Young Classic.