The Wrestling Thread

[Raging Justice]

That much blood in a women's match? haven't seen this since ECW. Probably fake blood?!

I'm pretty sure that blood was real. "The Bunny" as she is known was gushing throughout the match. Tay Conti was bleeding too, but it seemed to stop, leaving her with a quite literal "Crimson Mask". The Bunny never seemed to stop bleeding at all though, which made her performance in the match all the more impressive. It made for some great camera shots too as she smiled like a psycho into the camera with her blood drenched face. She looked like something out of a horror movie. There was a hilarious moment when The Bunny's partner noticed how badly she was bleeding and screamed in horror. Then she tried to encourage the Bunny by telling her, "It's okay. You still look beautiful"

It was funny because all four of these girls look like Barbie dolls.

Lot of crazy moments in that match, like a gotch style piledriver off the ring apron through a table, and one girl getting chocked out with barb wire around her neck while BOTH ladies where sitting on a pile of thumbtacks.



These four girls have been feuding for months with Tay Conti and Ana Jay frequently getting smashed in the face with brass knuckles by the other two girls. That's what led to this match.

AEW does occasionally have surprisingly violent matches for a mainstream wrestling company, Chris Jericho had a Death Match with Nick Gage. Insane given the age of both guys. AEW occasionally lets the ladies have crazy matches like this too, particularly in 2021. There was one in early 2021 that was critically acclaimed by many people. It was a "Lights Out" match between Britt Baker and Thunder Rosa and gave us this iconic image:



They even made a toy of her from this match with a bloody face

[RCBH928]

I never assumed women wanted to do a serious fight match because in wrestling history for the most part they are just a fashion show doing gymnastics in the ring for 5 min. Who goes to a wrestling match with full makeup on? Even WWE calls them Divas so that gives you an idea. I don't even recall ECW doing a bloody women fight. But barbwire choke...I am not sure that has been done in history.

As for the blood, my understanding this happens by wresters slitting themselves with a razor and its not an act that is encouraged I am not sure if world famous wrestlers like Bret Hart or The Rock ever did it, so women who care a lot about their out looks I did not imagine are willing to cut them selves.

AEW is making the WWE a joke, of course the WWE is not stupid they know the money is where the kids are so pg-13 all the way for them. WWE will have no issue switching gears if the money source is elsewhere like they did between the new generation era and attitude era. Personally, I look forward to the demise of the WWE I really loathe the current product and their strategies. Its more like satisfy the sponsor than satisfy the customer, they are using the fans as a product to sell to the advertisers.

[Raging Justice]

On the subject of women's wrestling, there's been some great stuff even outside of AEW. I've recently become a fan of Deonna Purrazzo with some of the great matches she has had in 2021 and her overall character and presence.

I don't like NXT 2.0, but there's been some good matches from the women left over from the original black and gold NXT. Dakota Kai always delivers for me. Io Shirai is great too. Sadly, everything from the original NXT is clearly being phased out, particularly with the recent firings. Really feels like Vince is giving his son in law the finger but now I'm getting off topic

I've recently seen some great stuff from Stardom as well. I like their High Speed championship as it seems to be a belt that revolves around matches that literally move at high speed. Seeing these women do basic wrestling moves but doing them at like three times normal speed is awesome. I also like that Stardom is being featured on some NJPW shows, which I think cements them as the top women's wrestling company in Japan. Stardom really has this nice balance of girls who can be eye candy and be very feminine...like this lovely lady:



Along with girls who are just hardened, badass, amazon, warriors. I mean, this company can give us hard hitting matches rivaling anything the men can do, but also have a "Cinderella" Tournament where the winner gets to come out in a pretty dress and a tiara. Just goes to show that you can do feminism while still allowing women to just be women.

Also, one can't mention Stardom or women's wrestling in 2021 without mentioning the epic rivalry between Syuri and Utami Hayashishita. There's been a lot of well deserved praise for Adam Page and Bryan Danielson having some really long and awesome matches in AEW recently, but these two ladies have had some real wars in 2021 that really went the distance in terms of match length

If you're into women's wrestling or Japanese wrestling, and really enjoyed that nearly one hour long match Bryan Danielson had with The Hangman Adam Page in AEW, you need to check out the three matches Utami Hayashishita and Syuri had in Stardom last year. Epic stuff. Technically, they had four matches in 2021, but the first one was kind of forgettable. Things REALLY got interesting though when they had their title match on June 12th at Tokyo Dream Cinderella Special Edition

[marurun]

I mean, this company can give us hard hitting matches rivaling anything the men can do, but also have a "Cinderella" Tournament where the winner gets to come out in a pretty dress and a tiara. Just goes to show that you can do feminism while still allowing women to just be women.

That sounds like sexist objectification to me. “Congrats, you won a staged badass fighting display! Now put on this pretty dress for the male fans to ogle you in!”

But since this is clearly politics and not connected to video games in any way, it’s verboten. So no more making a mockery of feminism in this thread, please.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Big wrestling week for me (randomly). First, I got good deals on both Wrestle War for the Mega Drive and Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 for the N64, two of the last wrestling games I needed for my collection. (If anyone wants to sell me a complete copy of WWF In Your House for the Saturn, let me know…)

Tonight, my brother and I are going to AEW Battle of the Belts. I got him tickets for Christmas since we’d been talking about what a great time we had going to some WWF shows in the ‘90s. I’m hoping tonight’s matchups will be just as fun. I’m most excited for the Britt Baker/Riho matchup since they both appear to be really talented wrestlers. Is there anything else I should be watching out for tonight? I haven’t followed wrestling since I was a teenager, and I don’t really know the stories going into tonight’s show.

[Raging Justice]

I mean, this company can give us hard hitting matches rivaling anything the men can do, but also have a "Cinderella" Tournament where the winner gets to come out in a pretty dress and a tiara. Just goes to show that you can do feminism while still allowing women to just be women.

That sounds like sexist objectification to me. “Congrats, you won a staged badass fighting display! Now put on this pretty dress for the male fans to ogle you in!”

But since this is clearly politics and not connected to video games in any way, it’s verboten. So no more making a mockery of feminism in this thread, please.

Big wrestling week for me (randomly). First, I got good deals on both Wrestle War for the Mega Drive and Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 for the N64, two of the last wrestling games I needed for my collection. (If anyone wants to sell me a complete copy of WWF In Your House for the Saturn, let me know…)

Tonight, my brother and I are going to AEW Battle of the Belts. I got him tickets for Christmas since we’d been talking about what a great time we had going to some WWF shows in the ‘90s. I’m hoping tonight’s matchups will be just as fun. I’m most excited for the Britt Baker/Riho matchup since they both appear to be really talented wrestlers. Is there anything else I should be watching out for tonight? I haven’t followed wrestling since I was a teenager, and I don’t really know the stories going into tonight’s show.

I may be posting this a bit late since the show starts in like three hours I believe, but I'll go ahead and try and help you out. So Ricky Starks is putting his FTW title on the line against Matt Sydal. Ricky Starks is part of this heel group run by Tazz of ECW fame. The FTW title is not really an AEW title, but a sort of unofficial title Taz created back when he was in ECW I think. Tazz's group have been feuding with Dante Martin and Lio Rush. Starks wants to beat Matt Sydal to prove he's better than Dante who had to fight Sydal like three times before beating him. Also, Sydal was mentoring Dante Martin for a while, so I think Starks also wants to hurt Sydal for that reason. On a side note, while Tazz's group are a bunch of heels (you know, bad guys), they have a guy named Hook who has gotten pretty popular and gets a lot of cheers. Mostly, just because he's a total badass and has also been using some of Tazz's old moves in his matches

The TNT tile was recently won by Cody Rhodes. He won it from Sammy Guevara. Sammy was supposed to get a rematch tonight. However, it seems Cody and his family got the covid virus in real life. So the title is sort of up in the air and Cody's brother Dustin (Once known as Gold dust in WWE) will fight Sammy Guevara to see who the TNT champ will be until Cody returns to wrestling I guess. Sammy Guevara and Dustin Rhodes are both popular babyfaces, so the crowd will likely cheer both of them. What's funny though, is that Cody Rhodes is pretty polarizing these days. Some people cheer him, a LOT of people boo him. They still like his brother though

All you really need to know about Riho is that she's the first woman to win the AEW Women's title. She's pretty popular with the crowds and has never been beaten by Britt Baker a.k.a. D.M.D. a.k.a. the current women's champion. DMD is arguably the face of women's wrestling in AEW right now. What's interesting about her is that she is a heel so we're supposed to boo her, but a lot of people like DMD and she often gets a lot of cheers. In fact, when she puts her right hand up, that's usually the crowd's cue to chant, "D...M...D!!!!!!!". So theoretically, the crowd should be behind Riho and against DMD, but I think the crowd might cheer for both of them. DMD always comes to her matches accompanied by Rebel and Jamie Hayter, who more than likely will get involved in the match to help DMD. There's been some tension between DMD and Jamie Hayter though, so it's possibly she may turn on DMD at some point.

Hard to say what the best match will be. Probably Starks and Sydal as they are two young guys who are both very good in the ring. Sydal in particular is super athletic and fast and has some very fancy moves. Dustin and Sammy could be good. Sammy is young and very athletic and fancy, much like Sydal. Dustin is in his 50s, not a spring chicken. He is still a good wrestler though for a guy his age, but he's not gonna be doing anything as fancy or athletic as his opponent and will probably be a tad slower than him. Riho and DMD will probably be a good, but not great match. DMD is a decent wrestler, but AEW has better ones in the women's division. DMD is very popular mostly due to her personality and her promos. She's a damn good talker. Riho is a solid wrestler, but again, there are better ones on the roster (like Thunder Rosa, Sereena Deeb, Hikaru Shida, etc.). So my prediction is:

Best match: Ricky Starks versus Matt Sydal
Good matches: Riho versus DMD and Dustin versus Sammy Ghevara

I'm just guessing though. You never really know who will steal the show at a wrestling event. AEW has a very motivated roster of wrestlers and the company treats them well so when they get out in front of that crowd they legitimately want to give you a good show.

[PretentiousHipster]

Edit: Too off topic and political. Sorry.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Big wrestling week for me (randomly). First, I got good deals on both Wrestle War for the Mega Drive and Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 for the N64, two of the last wrestling games I needed for my collection. (If anyone wants to sell me a complete copy of WWF In Your House for the Saturn, let me know…)

Tonight, my brother and I are going to AEW Battle of the Belts. I got him tickets for Christmas since we’d been talking about what a great time we had going to some WWF shows in the ‘90s. I’m hoping tonight’s matchups will be just as fun. I’m most excited for the Britt Baker/Riho matchup since they both appear to be really talented wrestlers. Is there anything else I should be watching out for tonight? I haven’t followed wrestling since I was a teenager, and I don’t really know the stories going into tonight’s show.

I may be posting this a bit late since the show starts in like three hours I believe, but I'll go ahead and try and help you out. So Ricky Starks is putting his FTW title on the line against Matt Sydal. Ricky Starks is part of this heel group run by Tazz of ECW fame. The FTW title is not really an AEW title, but a sort of unofficial title Taz created back when he was in ECW I think. Tazz's group have been feuding with Dante Martin and Lio Rush. Starks wants to beat Matt Sydal to prove he's better than Dante who had to fight Sydal like three times before beating him. Also, Sydal was mentoring Dante Martin for a while, so I think Starks also wants to hurt Sydal for that reason. On a side note, while Tazz's group are a bunch of heels (you know, bad guys), they have a guy named Hook who has gotten pretty popular and gets a lot of cheers. Mostly, just because he's a total badass and has also been using some of Tazz's old moves in his matches

The TNT tile was recently won by Cody Rhodes. He won it from Sammy Guevara. Sammy was supposed to get a rematch tonight. However, it seems Cody and his family got the covid virus in real life. So the title is sort of up in the air and Cody's brother Dustin (Once known as Gold dust in WWE) will fight Sammy Guevara to see who the TNT champ will be until Cody returns to wrestling I guess. Sammy Guevara and Dustin Rhodes are both popular babyfaces, so the crowd will likely cheer both of them. What's funny though, is that Cody Rhodes is pretty polarizing these days. Some people cheer him, a LOT of people boo him. They still like his brother though

All you really need to know about Riho is that she's the first woman to win the AEW Women's title. She's pretty popular with the crowds and has never been beaten by Britt Baker a.k.a. D.M.D. a.k.a. the current women's champion. DMD is arguably the face of women's wrestling in AEW right now. What's interesting about her is that she is a heel so we're supposed to boo her, but a lot of people like DMD and she often gets a lot of cheers. In fact, when she puts her right hand up, that's usually the crowd's cue to chant, "D...M...D!!!!!!!". So theoretically, the crowd should be behind Riho and against DMD, but I think the crowd might cheer for both of them. DMD always comes to her matches accompanied by Rebel and Jamie Hayter, who more than likely will get involved in the match to help DMD. There's been some tension between DMD and Jamie Hayter though, so it's possibly she may turn on DMD at some point.

Hard to say what the best match will be. Probably Starks and Sydal as they are two young guys who are both very good in the ring. Sydal in particular is super athletic and fast and has some very fancy moves. Dustin and Sammy could be good. Sammy is young and very athletic and fancy, much like Sydal. Dustin is in his 50s, not a spring chicken. He is still a good wrestler though for a guy his age, but he's not gonna be doing anything as fancy or athletic as his opponent and will probably be a tad slower than him. Riho and DMD will probably be a good, but not great match. DMD is a decent wrestler, but AEW has better ones in the women's division. DMD is very popular mostly due to her personality and her promos. She's a damn good talker. Riho is a solid wrestler, but again, there are better ones on the roster (like Thunder Rosa, Sereena Deeb, Hikaru Shida, etc.). So my prediction is:

Best match: Ricky Starks versus Matt Sydal
Good matches: Riho versus DMD and Dustin versus Sammy Ghevara

I'm just guessing though. You never really know who will steal the show at a wrestling event. AEW has a very motivated roster of wrestlers and the company treats them well so when they get out in front of that crowd they legitimately want to give you a good show.

Awesome. Just read this in the parking lot. Super helpful. Thank you!

[prfsnl_gmr]

Last night’s show was great, and my brother and I had a fantastic time.

Dustin Rhodes vs. Sammy Guevara was just a spectacular match, until the end. Dustin executing a “Canadian Destroyer” through a folding table was amazing, and Sammy can sell an injury like no one else. I was genuinely worried he was seriously injured at several points in the match. Just really great wrestling. Unfortunately, the ending was a bit weak, with Sammy Guevara winning for obvious narrative purposes despite Dustin dominating the match and connecting with such brutal throws.

The evening’s highlight, however, was the women’s title match between Britt Baker and Riho. Both of them are just extraordinary athletes, and the match was thrilling from start to finish. The crowd went absolutely nuts when Britt Baker entered the ring, and I never thought I’d see, in my lifetime, a women’s title match as the main event on the inaugural broadcast of a major wrestling promotion. With wrestling that good, however, the choice to save it for the end was obvious, and I am happy to see how far women’s wrestl8ng has come in recent years.

The house show was also really solid, and despite the broadcast lasting only an hour, we got nearly three and a half hours or wrestling. A lot of that was AEW trotting out a popular wrestler to dominate some poor jobber for five minutes, but a few of the “dark” matches were a lot of fun. My favorites were the tag-team champions, Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus, who bring a lot of goofy fun to the ring (kind of like the Bushwhackers many years ago). I also really enjoyed the match with “Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy. He’s basically a gimmick wrestler, and his match played out like something you’d see in a Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd film. Just a lot of really fun mugging and physical comedy. I don’t think he’ll ever contend for the title, but if he can keep his act fresh, I think he can go a long way with it.

[Raging Justice]

Last night’s show was great, and my brother and I had a fantastic time.

Dustin Rhodes vs. Sammy Guevara was just a spectacular match, until the end. Dustin executing a “Canadian Destroyer” through a folding table was amazing, and Sammy can sell an injury like no one else. I was genuinely worried he was seriously injured at several points in the match. Just really great wrestling. Unfortunately, the ending was a bit weak, with Sammy Guevara winning for obvious narrative purposes despite Dustin dominating the match and connecting with such brutal throws.

The evening’s highlight, however, was the women’s title match between Britt Baker and Riho. Both of them are just extraordinary athletes, and the match was thrilling from start to finish. The crowd went absolutely nuts when Britt Baker entered the ring, and I never thought I’d see, in my lifetime, a women’s title match as the main event on the inaugural broadcast of a major wrestling promotion. With wrestling that good, however, the choice to save it for the end was obvious, and I am happy to see how far women’s wrestl8ng has come in recent years.

The house show was also really solid, and despite the broadcast lasting only an hour, we got nearly three and a half hours or wrestling. A lot of that was AEW trotting out a popular wrestler to dominate some poor jobber for five minutes, but a few of the “dark” matches were a lot of fun. My favorites were the tag-team champions, Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus, who bring a lot of goofy fun to the ring (kind of like the Bushwhackers many years ago). I also really enjoyed the match with “Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy. He’s basically a gimmick wrestler, and his match played out like something you’d see in a Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd film. Just a lot of really fun mugging and physical comedy. I don’t think he’ll ever contend for the title, but if he can keep his act fresh, I think he can go a long way with it.

It's funny, I read something from a wrestling journalist recently referring to AEW as "sexist" and "misogynist" and I just shook my head. You just can't please some people. Women's Wrestling has made HUGE strides in recent years (and not just in AEW), yet some people still complain. I believe the first time the women main evented an AEW show was a "Lights Out" match between Britt Baker and Thunder Rosa. If was after this match that Baker, and Rosa as well, began to get really popular and many hope to see this rivalry revisited at some point during Baker's reign as champ. If you haven't see it, you can see some highlights here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLgz8YsO9LI

Fun fact: Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus just won those titles, so you may have seen their first match as champions

Orange Cassidy HAS contended for the title, but failed to win it. He was in a threeway with Kenny Omega (the champion at the time) and Pac, one of the best wrestlers in AEW. Cassidy actually had Omega down for the 3 count if I recall, but some cheating by Omega's friends kept him from losing. Cassidy also has two victories over Chris Jericho. Cassidy is something of a joke character, but AEW does present him as a guy who is capable of getting serious when necessary and it's rare to see him lose a match these days. He also has a lot of wrestlers connected to him like Kris Statlander, The Best Friends group, Wheeler Yuta, and the Chaos faction/stable from New Japan Pro Wrestling (and the leader of Chaos is the NJPW World Champion no less)

I look forward to seeing those extra matches you mentioned. I think they will air on youtube next week. AEW usually does youtube shows on Mondays and Tuesdays where we usually get to see "dark" matches.