Professional Wrestling

^_^ Just plugging it, but IWC has their 20th anniversary show tonight (the promotion has existed longer, but it used to be under a different name). Tickets are sold out despite PA expanding the number of people who could be in the building, but the iPPV can still be bought.

Also, I had a fun time listening to The Eccentric Section podcast have an interview with the current owner (who's been with the company a little over ten years now) and what's gone into running the promotion, particularly during COVID.

A magnitude 7 earthquake hit Japan, while the New Japan Cup is ongoing. It seems people were safe, though.

Of course Jay and Tanahashi would keep the crowd entertained with heel antics and flexing, respectively.

Edited by wanderlustwarrior on Mar 20th 2021 at 4:49:26 AM

Hah. That's great.

Just watched last weeks AEW Dark Elevation...or rather I jumped straight to the inevitable cuteness deathmatch that was Maki Itoh vs Riho.

I kinda knew I wanted to see these two fight each other the moment I saw Itoh singing while a brawl took place with her tag team, and I was right. I went back and watched her tag match with Britt Baker against Thunder Rosa and Riho and said they have to fight each other. AEW agreed thankfully.

It's Good cute vs Evil cute. It's good shit.

These two apparently haven't fought each other that much, and when they have, Riho's won every time from what little I know.

Hoping to see more matches between them. It's like watching an anime girl brawl in real life.

Andrade got his release from WWE. I wonder what Charlotte (his now-fiance, iirc) is going to do. Presumably stay.

Andrade being free from WWE is a fantastic development. I hope he goes to AEW. Pentagón Jr vs Andrade is a dream match of two of the top Mexican Lucha stars of the past decade that could never happen (they've never been in the same company at the same time. Andrade went from CMLL to WWE. Penta went from AAA-LU-Impact-AEW with a brief passage through CMLL long after Andrade left).

The Lucha Kings of the past decade basically were Andrade, Rush (currently in ROH having a pretty memorable run with his Los Ingobernables), Pentagón Jr and Rey Fenix. Andrade and Rush have locked horns for a long time in CMLL, Penta and Fenix lock horns every now and then. Rush is in ROH so the other dream match (Rush vs Penta and/or Fenix) can't happen, but Andrade is a incredible opportunity.

Best of luck to Andrade, gonna hope for a feud with Penta Jr. on AEW.

As for Charlotte, she's probably gonna stay. Long history with Ric, she's one of the top singles WWE stars, etc.

IWC event Saturday was good. Wardlow and Dr. Brit Baker showed up and announced that Andrew Palace and Cole Karter are going to show up on AEW Dark. Also nice that we got video calls from Elias Samson and Joaquin Wilde (formerly Logan Shulo and Zena Ion in IWC) and a surprise appearance from Chuck Roberts, the former owner as well as a bunch of veterans.

If you thought, like I did, that this would be cringey, you thought wrong.

But still, I really do recommend subscribing to (FKA) Aiden English's youtube channel.

Well, he has two channels, but I don't drink whiskey.

Edited by wanderlustwarrior on Mar 27th 2021 at 11:55:49 AM

Dave Batista making a joke about how some wrestlers can be political opportunists.

What active wrestlers have the worst Wrestlemania records? The answers may surprise you.

Edited by wanderlustwarrior on Apr 4th 2021 at 2:52:20 PM

Ladies and Gentlemen! The stone cold stunner in multiple forms of media (including some dudes in Spiderman costumes which makes sense since he was briefly a wrestler):

Wrestlemania night 1: Hoooooo boy, they did great under the circumstances. And that Sasha vs Bianca main event...

DAMN.

My brother was watching it on his computer. I heard that whip.

I second you're DAMN!

Poor Sasha. She's was probably remembering what happened to Becky in the lead up to this match and dreading it.

So like I said, I didn't really pay much attention to this one, but it sounds like it's been going pretty well so far.

I only watched the Lashley/Drew and Bianca/Sasha matches, and was well entertained. I heard pretty much everything else worked really well, with minor exceptions.

Sasha puts everyone over amazingly. I just hope she can get a dominant win at next year's Wrestlemania. She's now 0-6 at Wrestlemania. I think the longest "unvictorious" streak in Wrestlemania history is starting at 0-7. Big E is also currently at 0-6, and could tie that streak tomorrow, if he loses the... Man, this Apollo Crews thing just disappoints me.

Disappointing in what way, dare I ask?

An unflattering portrayal of Nigeria, and wrestling fans aren't exactly high-brow and accepting to begin with.

Exactly.

They want him to play up his heritage, that's fine.

But to have him go heel while doing it? No. Just no.

It's very unflattering to be honest.

You should understand us, considering all those negative propaganda films about your parents and all.

Edited by HandsomeRob on Apr 11th 2021 at 12:34:19 PM

Aren't they having a "Nigerian Drum Match" (whatever that means) as well?

Edited by Gaon on Apr 11th 2021 at 5:40:00 AM

I mean, from everything I've read, all of the character stuff has been Apollo's idea.

Yeah. I do recall that.

And the match apparently wasn't bad.

I just wonder if they aren't gonna screw it up.

I suppose we'll have to wait and see.

I heard the match was fine.

The problem isn't whether it's a corporate idea, or an Apollo idea, or not. The problem is how it comes across, and how it's received. Also, historically, even if an idea is a wrestler's, it still may not fare well going through WWE creative editing.

For what it's worth, an aide to Nigeria's president did express approval of the gimmick a while back.

Ivelisse released from AEW, claims she was let go for speaking against mistreatment.

Now, it's possible she is telling the truth, but Ivelisse has had backstage heat due alleged unprofessional behavior in WWE (granted, this was also due Bill Demott's time and she claims she was speaking against his abuse, so giving her the benefit of the doubt on this one), Lucha Underground, Impact and now AEW. In AEW she had the embarassing match where she was visibly sandbagging and no-selling for Thunder Rosa for inexplicable reasons. That's four separate companies she has burned briges with and only her as a common denominator and I'm yet to hear a good backstage story about Ivelisse in the rumor mills. Nobody seems to like her.

I don't know what's up with Ivelisse, but I thought she was one of the greatest female talents in North America and it's sad to see her career go down like this amid all these burned briges.

Edited by Gaon on Apr 14th 2021 at 11:27:18 AM

WWE releases Chelsea Green, Kallisto, Wesley Blake, Bo Dallas, Tucker and SAMOA JOE.

Most of those names are understandable but SAMOA JOE is a big fat ??? considering how the crowd loves him be it in the ring or commentary.

Kallisto is kind of sad considering how his old lucha rival Pentagón Jr. became the biggest name in Lucha of the past decade while he completely fizzled out under WWE's iron grip.

EDIT: Peyton Royce as well. What in the shit.

Edited by Gaon on Apr 15th 2021 at 11:50:08 AM

Exactly one year after Black Wednesday, too. Utterly cruel.

Vince is the biggest menace to this industry and he must be stopped.

What's the most tone deaf thing WWE's social media could tweet that doesn't include someone being released?