no one’s answering

If your number is 305 646 xxxx 305 541 xxxx you might want to bother to leave a message next time, ’cause I don’t bother picking up phone calls from people not in my phone book. This goes for all the people who randomlly (or not so randomlly) stumble upon my cell number and are … Continue reading “no one’s answering”

If your number is

305 646 xxxx
305 541 xxxx

you might want to bother to leave a message next time, ’cause I don’t bother picking up phone calls from people not in my phone book. This goes for all the people who randomlly (or not so randomlly) stumble upon my cell number and are dying to talk to me for inexplicable reasons.

Thanks!

Edit: Blocking Caller ID? That’s cool.

oddly, no sign of actor/model family

I’m totally wasting my night catching up on stuff sitting on my TiVo from the past week, instead of being even as slightly productive as I had planned for today. But whatever. The first 15 minutes of any Amazing Race season are the most confusing (even watching it on a TiVo delay). Many many people, … Continue reading “oddly, no sign of actor/model family”

I’m totally wasting my night catching up on stuff sitting on my TiVo from the past week, instead of being even as slightly productive as I had planned for today. But whatever.

The first 15 minutes of any Amazing Race season are the most confusing (even watching it on a TiVo delay). Many many people, lots of switching back and forth, and little time to pigeonhole them into identities, and more so this year because they’re not listing occupation/relationship (allowing you to make snap judgments), just the family name. It takes some getting used to.

I’m also kinda scanning the MLB scores at the same time, which means I look at the screen, look at the monitor, and look back at the screen to see a completely different person in a different car doing something else. Things can catch you by surprise this way.

After checking to see if the Yankees/O’s game finally finished (wow, O’s actually won, shocking), I look at the TV to see this caption

“BLACK FAMILY”

And I check, and I think to myself “Yep, that seems accurate.”

A moment later, I remember that means Black is their last name.

So so wrong.

also helpful for every CSI episode ever

So, I’m watching the premiere of Lost six days later then the rest of humanity, and I got to thinking – Is there a proper name for the Law of Disposable Characters in A Work of Fiction? I’d like to know exactly what I’m supposed to be yelling at the television set when, say, Jack … Continue reading “also helpful for every CSI episode ever”

So, I’m watching the premiere of Lost six days later then the rest of humanity, and I got to thinking –

Is there a proper name for the Law of Disposable Characters in A Work of Fiction? I’d like to know exactly what I’m supposed to be yelling at the television set when, say, Jack roams around the submarine house and what’s going on finally occurs to me: “Oh no, now I get why he had that long random conversation with the fellow with a bad accent – it’s frigging [name here]’s Law in a horribly annoying fashion!”

Also, if things don’t start speeding up a little bit, Lost is going to be like those 12 DBZ episodes taking place during a 5 minute battle. We’ve been on the same day (or at least 24 hours) since the start of the 3 episode finale last year, and we can’t be moving on that much next week. Though, if they want to put a beeping clock on the screen, I guess I can handle it.
AND AND AND if they’re telling me what happened to all the survivors, they better tell me what happened to Rose.

(Stop typing. Watch more off the TiVo.)

Joe on the Big Show

So. Tired, busy, moving slow, no more TPI words for you till at least later today. If you’re here because you heard Joe on Figure Four Daily, thanks for visiting! I hope there’s something here that you enjoy or prompts you respond. If you liked what you heard from Joe, please check out the articles … Continue reading “Joe on the Big Show”

So. Tired, busy, moving slow, no more TPI words for you till at least later today.

If you’re here because you heard Joe on Figure Four Daily, thanks for visiting! I hope there’s something here that you enjoy or prompts you respond. If you liked what you heard from Joe, please check out the articles he’s written for this site, or his blog. There’s plenty of (exceptionally dorky) WWE stuff around here, but we’ve got a lot of old IWA and ROH recaps, if that’s your thing and you’re looking for an opinion on a DVD or an angle. All those recaps have authors names listed; my stuff is boring un-by lined stuff.

Check the side bar; all the stuff under HERE are groups of articles on this site. All the stuff under ELSEWHERE are sites I enjoy and you might as well.

I would say this even if Joe wasn’t on the show, but I don’t know why it’d get to it: Figure Four’s free podcasts are great stuff, and you should go out of your way to listen to them. Just use the iTunes link, let it check for you when new shows are available, and listen to them at your leisure. They’re an easy length (40 minutes) and don’t drag. In fact, they’re good enough I might get around to getting a subscription this week – I’m obsessive and delusional enough to believe 95% of the actual news in newsletters (all newsletters) is stuff I already know, but with the addition of daily audio shows, it’s very tempting. I mean, I seem to find ways not to pay for anything wrestling wise (except for indy tickets – need to try harder!), and I’d actually consider paying for Figure Four.

Anyway, like I said, I don’t have much time to write today, but how about I make it up to you with pictures? I’ve got some images from TPI weekend that turned out semi okay:

Continue reading “Joe on the Big Show”

Heat 09/24 and Velocity 09/25

Velocity and Heat are up. They went out halfway decent, which is about halfway more than you could count on. While we’ve gone from no B-Shows to B-Shows, we’ve also gone from ‘we know when it’s over’ to ‘it’s over which ever week they get annoyed with it.” TNM is right – if they’re going … Continue reading “Heat 09/24 and Velocity 09/25”

Velocity and Heat are up. They went out halfway decent, which is about halfway more than you could count on.

While we’ve gone from no B-Shows to B-Shows, we’ve also gone from ‘we know when it’s over’ to ‘it’s over which ever week they get annoyed with it.” TNM is right – if they’re going to be doing Heat, why not put it USA on instead of AM Raw?

I don’t think Josh knew it wasn’t his last episode of Velocity when he was doing it. At one point, the opening segment (or whichever segment had the booth shot) was the only one personalized for each network/country, so that may have been why the opening match was inside joke filled.

I got nothing and it’s 2 AM and this isn’t the last post, so let me stop staring at Editpad and move on.

TPI Day 2

Sydal. Steak N’ Shake. Rain delay. Super Generico’s brainbuster End of year sale Start of evil Chris Hero bucket hat MISSED SKAYDE/QUACK!!! This was some day – I would go as far as to say Completely Fricking Insane. And now I read I didn’t miss a chance to mourn Heat and Velocity, because they’re kicking … Continue reading “TPI Day 2”

Sydal.
Steak N’ Shake.
Rain delay.
Super Generico’s brainbuster
End of year sale
Start of evil Chris Hero
bucket hat
MISSED SKAYDE/QUACK!!!

This was some day – I would go as far as to say Completely Fricking Insane. And now I read I didn’t miss a chance to mourn Heat and Velocity, because they’re kicking around for a while longer. They can thank me for the idea later.

I assume you’re not waiting for me for the pure results – they gotta be elsewhere by now. I’ll try to pull it together for something actually coherent later today, but sleep now.

Well, sleep as soon as I can get Teenage Dirtbag out of my head.

TPI Day 1

I apologize for bad spelling and general bad writing. Tired, and in a hurry to get in sleep soon, since I’ll have no time tomorrow. At some point, I may go back and add details and actual non-match talking to people stuff, but not now. As you came in, there was a sign saying AJ … Continue reading “TPI Day 1”

I apologize for bad spelling and general bad writing. Tired, and in a hurry to get in sleep soon, since I’ll have no time tomorrow. At some point, I may go back and add details and actual non-match talking to people stuff, but not now.

As you came in, there was a sign saying AJ Styles was off the show; Ian says he has a strep throat, bad enough he scrapped plans for AJ to call in and apologize. He did display AJ’s unused unrefundable $300 plane ticket, as proof that he was supposed to be here. Tank was his replacement.

Tracy Smothers also did not show; Ian said Tracy claimed “personal problems” and explained personal problems could mean the obvious, or it could mean Tracy didn’t feel like making that long of a drive with gas prices this high. Smothers was a replacement for a replacement, and I couldn’t tell you who replaced him without looking at a chart. Too tired for a chart.

1) Kevin Steen [painful looking package piledriver] Nate Webb [TPI 1ST]
Steen got his character over pretty well.

2) Josh Abercrombie b James Gibson Jamie Noble [TPI 1ST]
Noble was wearing the John Deer James Gibson tights, but turned heel with the old name and being announced as from WWE; normal heel Josh was a face by relation. Abercrombie reversed a second attempt at a Tiger Bomb into a ‘rana for the win. Post match, we got the standard “thanks for supporting me, I hope you keep supporting me and these great indy groups as I go back to WWE” speech. Gets old the second time in a month from the same guy, but what can you do?

3) Brad Bradley b Tank
Multiple hard clotheslines for the win. Punishing match.

4) Mike Quackenbush b Reckless Youth Alex Shelly
Alex Shelly wore a Reckless Youth shirt, and – from what I’m told, I didn’t see Youth – came out to Youth’s music, and wore the same basic gear as Youth did. Pretty good match, with Mike doing lucha and Alex responding; both pulled out Rocking Horses at various times. I wrote down “Iron” and I don’t know that’s the finish or I wanted to remind myself to pick up my dry cleaning or what. Crowd was very into this match.

5) Arik Cannon b Joey Ryan
Cannon won with two exploders into the corner (the first one didn’t go right or look impressive, so they changed corners again) and maybe his finisher? I can’t remember now. Crowd had the least interest in this match – suffered for being after the last one and lacking a storyline besides “Cannon drops Ryan on his head a bunch.” Both were presented as heels and neither did anything to clarify the situation.

6) Skayde b Puma
LUCHA! This was great. The crowd wasn’t with it early, but got into it the last half. Crummy finish for a fun match, though – pinning predicament is similar to a German Suplex with both people’s shoulders pinned. Puma’s right shoulder doesn’t stay down, I’m not sure about Skayde, the ref counts three – and awards the match to Skayde, making a lame finish lamer. Puma’s shoulder was very obviously up (I’ve got the photo) and the crowd and the wrestlers tried to get a restart, but nope.

7) Chris Hero b Rainman
To start the show, Ian introduced all the people in the tournament, and when 23 were out there, he went to his big finish – having forgotten about Rainman until someone told him. Ain’t gonna forget him now – he had a great match with Hero, with quite a few near falls where people genuinely believed Rainman could beat Hero. Hero won with two top rope moves – stomps? knees? I didn’t get a good look.

Intermission. I’d been nursing the dying batteries in my camera thru the first half of the show, but they finally died out here. So when I finally post them, that’s why it’s like that. I got more batteries on the way home, so we’ll see if I can work it tomorrow.

8) Tyler Black b Vito Thomaseli (ah, that’s the other replacement)
Lots of Sal interference. Horrible ref bump (telegraphed, bad position, bad sell, oversell of something minor – all the bases covered), but Black won anyway with a fisherman’s buster. Post match, Ian set up a tag title match for tomorrow, and said, for the Midlo show, the Iron Saints would be facing Justin Credible and a ECW partner to be signed (implied to be New Jack.)

9) Chris Sabin b Marek Brave
Good match. Sabin powerbombed Brave into the corner in a cringe spot, and gave him the future shock for the win in about 15 minutes.

10) Matt Sydal b El Generico
Probably match of the night. Outstanding match from start to the finish, with some incredible near falls for the last five minutes. I guess it don’t pay well to be El Generico because that boy is Kate Moss thin; just waiting for one of Sydal’s chops (and there was a great chop battle here – even if I’m convinced Generico is doing something Tajiri-like to amplify them) to break a rib, because they’re so easy to see. After about a half dozen “crowd counts along because they’re sure that’s gotta be three” near falls, Generico teases his super brainbuster all the way to the floor, but Sydal blocks and, while both are standing on the top rope, gives him a belly superplex to win.

11) Delirious b Brandon Thomaseli
Delirious won with the split legged powerbomb dealio, but the story of the match was Delirious biting Brandon’s leg to break a hold, and not play biting – he drew blood. Brandon had a big looking red bruise on the inside of his leg from the bite. Delirious spit (Brandon’s blood?) onto Brandon post match, Brandon spit back at him, and that set off the only post match brawl of the night. Brandon either did a good impression of someone legitimately pissed about the wound in his leg, or, well, you know.

12) Brian Danielson b Claudio
Claudio managed a 42 second vertical suplex, and American Dragon countered with a 21 rotation airplane spin. Match played out like Brian was out of Claudio’s leg and was kinda screwing around with him – Claudio got in shots when he could, but Brian still could end the match when and how he wanted. Plenty of people were comparing Brian to Bob Backlund (and not always in positive fashions), so it’s no wonder he used the cross face chicken wing for the win.

13) Jimmy Jacobs b Colt Cabana [IWA MS HEAVY]
Extended comedy match, which worked well until the finish. Jacobs brought a chair in, the ref threw it out, repeat till Jacobs throws a lot of chairs in the ring, and the referee is so busy cleaning it out, he misses Jacobs using the belt.

Matches for Saturday’s show (announced as starting at 6PM as to get people home before 1AM)
1) Kevin Steen vs Brad Bradley [TPI QTR]
2) Skayde vs Mike Quackenbush [TPI QTR] [!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]
3) Tyler Black vs Matt Sydal [TPI QTR]
4) Josh Abercrombie vs Chris Sabin [TPI QTR]
5) Arik Cannon vs Delirious [TPI QTR]
6) Chris Hero vs American Dragon [TPI QTR] [!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]
7) TPI SEMI 1
8) TPI SEMI 2
9) TPI SEMI 3
10) TPI FINAL
11) Iron Saints vs Rainman & Tank [IWA MS TAG]
12) Joey Ryan, Claudio, Alex Shelly and Super Dragon vs Puma, Brandon Thomaseli, El Generico and Marek Brave
13) Jimmy Jacobs vs Mickie Knuckles [IWA MS HEAVY]

Why I’m going to TPI

* They booked Skayde vs PUMA! LUCHA LIBRE! Sorta. What an awesome matchup though; I don’t think they could’ve matched those guys up any better, and I’m kinda looking forward to it. * Who knows if we’re getting another chance at 24 person 2 day indy tournament. Actually, I’m taking a pretty estimate and saying … Continue reading “Why I’m going to TPI”

* They booked Skayde vs PUMA! LUCHA LIBRE! Sorta. What an awesome matchup though; I don’t think they could’ve matched those guys up any better, and I’m kinda looking forward to it.

* Who knows if we’re getting another chance at 24 person 2 day indy tournament. Actually, I’m taking a pretty estimate and saying we won’t. I don’t know the finances of MS, but even if Ian didn’t make that announcement of financial problems, you can just look at the cards and notice all the out of territory guys that aren’t being brought in anymore.

I’m thrilled IWA-MS brought in the guys no one else in the area were bringing in when they did, and I’m thankful for the good shows they’ve put together. I hope they’re able to keep it going, not just next year, but for a long time to come. I just don’t think anyone should count on that happening. It’s not just them – the people who run quality US indy wrestling and make money doing it over the long run appear to be rare. Everything comes to an end at some point; you’d be dumb not to enjoy it while it’s around.

This may be your last chance for this sort of event. It certainly feels like the end.

* It’s a weird sorta social gathering. It’s good to put faces to names (and try to remember them) and, you know, actually talk to people (in short incoherent bursts but whatever) who have a similar interest to you face to face.

There was a point in life where if you, fake internet person, thought I was an interesting person, there’s no way I’d want to meet you, because it could only go downhill from there. Not that I’ve gathered any self confidence or anything since then, but I figured out along the way, these posts are so completely insane, nothing I can do will wreck your image of me.

* Last year’s show – or at least the three-fourths of a half I went to – was pretty darn cool. Even if I was sure Samoa Joe was going to run me over and kill me at one point. I paid $20whatever, missed the first three matches, tried to fall asleep during an intermission, and still got my money’s worth. I expect no less this time, even though I’ll be trying to both show up on time and stay awake.

I got to see people I’d never seen (like Quackenbush) and ended up digging a lot, and I got to see people I like to see and don’t see much (Dragon.)

I got to see pretty good matches throughout; they had a great selection of wrestlers last year, obviously better than this year, but I think the desire to live up to last year’s standard is going to push them.

* I don’t know how you got interested in IWA-MS. Maybe a tape? A favorable review on a message board?

I got interested by reading Scott’s recaps.

Following a promotion closely and writing about it, you run a risk of becoming some sort shill. That’s was not and never has been the case with Scott; if something sucked, he told you so, and if he thought something was super, he made sure you knew. He was consistent, he was honest, he made you understand why he thought so, and everything held true.

I wouldn’t even be considering going to these shows if it wasn’t for Scott. I dunno how many indy shows at all I’d be going if it wasn’t for Scott – and others like them – convincing me some were worthy my time and money.

They’re no longer worth Scott’s time or money, because, among all things (all valid and fair and nothing really deserving of a week of mocking) is he really doesn’t care about wrestling anymore.

And this is where we get to the true core reason why Scott sucks. Scott loved – or at least liked greatly, I don’t want to put words in his mouth – this promotion, this is their biggest show, and he doesn’t care. He knows WrestleMania’s coming to Chicago this year, something he was going semicrazy about trying to get to for WrestleMania XX and even last year, and I don’t believe he’s going to bother with that either. He’s done.

In isolation, this isn’t weird. People lose interest in hobbies all the time. People always change. But, at least among my circle of people who were hardcore wrestling fans, he’s far from alone. He might be in the majority – people done with it few years ago, people getting bored with it now. Less and less people caring one bit.

They’ve got their reasons. Wrestling is boring now. Wrestling is stupider now. It’s not worth the money. Wrestling isn’t as good as it was and it won’t be any time soon, so why bother. The guys I like are gone, so I’m not staying.

Sometimes, I think about those points, and I don’t think any of them are wrong. These very reasonable and rational people have made a completely sensible case, and I should have an equally compelling case about why you – or at least I – should keep watching wrestling.

And I don’t. Not a shred, not a clue, not a start, not an end, not a single good reason. Either I’m missing the obvious right in front of me, or…

maybe I’ve got a permanent blind spot about wrestling – and who knows where else
or low and bad standards without the ability to fix them
or I’m dumber than I give myself credit for
or the inability to grow up pass a stage where nothing’s cooler than a well done plancha and what does say about me
or I’ve got some horrible mental deficiency that doesn’t allow me to realize what’s obvious to others
or a 100 horrible other concepts

I’m a person very much in love with logic, and honestly, too often affected by other people’s opinions. This is a puzzle driving me insane: reasonable people making a reasonable argument for which I have no counter argument, and yet I continue on the opposite path. It makes no sense and I reach no answer.

That’s the true reason Scott Sucks. Scott’s a reasonable sort, I’m a reasonable sort, Scott loves wrestling, I love wrestling, Scott no longer loves wrestling because it sucks, I still watch wrestling because – well, I can’t say it doesn’t suck, can I? Instead, Scott much suck for making me think about this.

I’m hoping, just a little bit, some of what I see Friday and Saturday will answer my questions and maybe give me the defense I’m looking for.

(and that’s what you get when I’m on three hours sleep)

Related: IWA-MS index – unfinished because someone never sent recaps they promised (ha!)

retaliation?

Even the sorry Cubs manage that one sometimes. oh oh it’s like THAT, huh? So cold. Edit and completely unrelated: I just realized the matchup for Sunday: Carlos Zambrano vs Roger Clemens. !!!!!!!!!!111111

Even the sorry Cubs manage that one sometimes.

oh oh it’s like THAT, huh? So cold.

Edit and completely unrelated: I just realized the matchup for Sunday: Carlos Zambrano vs Roger Clemens.

!!!!!!!!!!111111