Tony Khan was born in Illinois. His co-owner dad while born in Pakistan is also an an American citizen.

Watched most of Dynamite this morning and it was great to see back. Was a nice swerve with his news as well that got me pretty fired up.

Dunno what happened with (women's match spoiler)
Someone definitely fucked up somewhere during the build to tease it.

Diluted Dante wrote:

Seems pretty simple to me

Spoiler:

She hasn't signed a contract with them, but they started booking the match anyway.

Yeah I assume something fell through but it really doesn't look good teasing something before it's confirmed. They've really dropped the ball with the Sayraya/Page return. Should have been impossible to fuck up but it's just been weird and confusing, they're even making Toni Storm look like a prick by association.

Its a good thing Jamie Hayter rules as much as she does.

apologies if this has already been posted in here, but this popped on twitter and i'd never seen this incident before

https://twitter.com/nodqdotcom/status/1612272142296416256?s=20

fan jumps the ring when stone cold v HHH and goes for stone cold, HHH drops character and beats the shit out of the fan, ref joins in too!

Dynamite has been on a roll for about a month now. Feels like they’ve cleaned up the mess from over the summer and it’s back on track. Most stuff on the show is great or at least intriguing.

Think I would like AEW more if it was maybe an hour after ads being skipped. Cant make it through the full show. 

Still at least I give it a go. Wont even try WWE stuff. Headache inducing camera and the lighting of the audience is enough to put me off.

What's your favourite era of wrestling Dave?

I'd have to throw a shout out to 2011-2015 BritWres, if it hadn't turned out that almost everyone involved was some shade of cunt. Leave the memories alone indeed.

That came just after the 2009-2011 period where I was watching Raw, Smackdown, Superstars, Impact, and Ring of Honor Wrestling. And genuinely, Superstars was the best one.

I've had a good think about this...

I've two favourite eras of wrestling. I've huge love for the mid 80s presentation of WWF. Yes, its over the top and many of the matches arent great but it did feel like a hyper version of a sports promotion which is always something I like. Its a big problem with the current WWE - I cannot tell you why these people are there. Only certain people seem bothered about being the champ and wins and losses dont really matter. Compare that to earlier WWF and sure, there were feuds about other things than the titles but you got the concept that everyone was there to try and get to the top. Jessie Ventura was amazing at being not just a heel commentator but adding realistic sports concepts (losing means you get less of the purse for example) 

From this generation I've 2 big favourites. The first is Bret Hart from the Hart Foundation. I loved his image and style of wrestling, I dont think many guys did "babyface in peril" as well as Bret could. At the top level, I've become a huge fan of Randy Savages work. Absolutely OTT but you believe that he believes it and that drags you in. His matches are filled with lots of nice touches that make the matches more believable and if Shawn Michaels is Mr Wrestlemania, I think Savage is his closest challenger. Mania 3 is the Steamboat classic, 4 is maybe not great but he carries a shit tournament and becomes the only top face that could have been bigger than Hogan. 5 is one of Hogans best matches, 6 he takes a bit of a break and then comes back with absolute classics in 7 and 8 against Warrior (career best) and Flair (who hadnt really had many top matches in WWF at that point) 

Like a lot of people my age I think, I moved away from wrestling in general around Mania 7. Outgrew it as a kid and to be honest it was getting a bit long in the tooth. Looking back, I dont think I missed much. Harts Champ run has some good matches but its a while before the overall product heats back up. And it does around Mania 13 which is when a College mate showed me Austin v Bret at Mania 13 and I was back in. And its from around here to I think Mania 18 that Wrestling hits my golden age. Not everything in the attitude era was brilliant but Dx, Austin, HBK, Mankind, the Rock and Evil Vince was just a fantastic concoction of characters and they all seemed to be putting their all into it. For all that Vince Russo gets shit on, this version of his crash TV concept was so engaging and 2 hours of Raw a week was the right dosage for me. Then things got better as better wrestlers came in to the mix. Jericho, Benoit, Guerrero and the rise of Edge, Christian and the Hardys was all brilliant. I did feel as more PPVs and more Shows (smackdown and heat) came along the product began to fill diluted so I kinda switched off on the TV product. The same friend who got me back in though stuck with it so I kinda tagged along through the post Rock and Austin era. It was still fun to watch the big ppvs and my mate currated me with top matches from the lesser shows. Oddly, I still enjoyed reading about wrestling through Powerslam so even when I wasnt watching, I was in the loop and I think this has conitnued today with much of my wrestling consumed through Podcast. 

As to modern wrestling - hard to say where I stand with it. I really enjoyed TNA in bits during the pre-hogan period (I watched it more on than off for about 2 years I think and loved the range of up and comers they had) but Hogan and Bischoff destroyed that brand. I feel AEW is very similar to TNA of that era with the exception that the shows are better produced, the crowds are better and there is less silliness. But it is guilty of the same TNA approach of going too heavy on gimmicks and blood. I dont mind these things but too much lessons the impact. WWF was guilty of this towards the end of the Attitude era as well. Blood lost its impact unless it was an insane gusher and TLC became just another thing. 

For the big 2 in the modern era, as much as AEW has things that I dont like and will likely never appeal to me, it is far and away the better 2 promotions. The promos dont feel nearly as directed and while I'm sure that can lead to the odd poor one, I think most of their crew have shown themselves to be decent at this with MJF being the obvious top tier. What I dont like? The shows are too packed, so sometimes impressive stuff gets lost in the shuffle. Some of the crew I just dont like (not to be mixed up with rate). Kenny Omega is a great athlete but I just dont like the matches he does. His ott mannerisms arent great either. Young Bucks are even worse. I dont think they are anything more than spot monkeys, they hit huge moves and get up and there is no real tempo to their matches. Jericho is past his best and I think he could still be an asset but he is getting as much time, if not more as anyone and I think this aint great. There's a few other guys who I think are over rated as Wrestlers because they can work a move heavy style that goes on for ages (not a fan of long matches) I think becasue they put so much into their shows sometimes, it takes away from it. Like having rich cake for breakfast, dinner and supper. I also find their silly stuff really takes from the better stuff and some of their top level guys. I'm also not a fan of the out of character press conference stuff Tony does after the PPV. There's nothing wrong with doing non-kayfabe stuff but it feels in the wrong place. Easy to avoid though.

I'm also a bit sore about the Punk stuff. Both sides acted like Kids but I thinks Punks run was the high point of AEW for me so I was miffed that all of them couldnt put the pettiness aside. Punk MJF was a steller piece of work from all involved.

But all that said at the moment, I cant stand the production of WWE. From the over slick, hyper camera presentation to the ridiculous scripting of wrestlers, its absolutely awful. AEW has some things I dont like but I feel its easy enough to skip over those parts of the show but the awful style of Vince TV runs right through the WWE stuff. I dont even bother with the big shows. 3 hour Raws did me in years ago and I think back then they had a better product. If I have a chocie of watching a bit of AEW or WWE there is no contest (unless its Roman Reigns and Heyman but there's only so long that can go)

In terms of going to a show, I'm not so critical. I've been to various Wrestling shows over the years and I have genuinely enjoyed them all. I'm the type who will cheer along and get involved, I'm not too critical of the style in those cases. I took my wife to a WWE show in Dublin a few years back (she got into it through the Total Bela show) and enjoyed it despite it being pretty basic. I was only miffed that while they gave the wrestlers promo time for a house show (thumbs up for that) the one wrestler I wanted to hear from was Becky Lynch who was just coming off winning the World title and was red hot. Still, the match between her and charlotte in the main event was excellent. Just amazed she of all people wasnt given the mic in Dublin. I've sat through a terrible World Champion Benoit promo once where all he could link to Ireland was Guinness for christ sake.

Just a point on Moxley - I dont mind the guy but I think he is over rated. I dont feel his style is good for a main event because he focuses on the garbage/ brawling stuff too much and his homage walk style to bruiser brody doesnt suit a guy his size. His visual presentation doesnt appeal (its lazy NWO just wear jeans) But I've seen him do good matches and he can do great promos as well. Just not my cup of tea. Austin was the peak brawler style and Mox does not have his intentsity in his brawling style. 

So thats my world of wrestling. I probably complain more than I should - Wrestling has given me some fantastic entertainment over the years and its stupid to think that it would always cater to me and my preferences.

He was in a car crash.

I'll wait for your nod on it, might just end up watching Naito's match.

I think I've figured out how to embed a short, so here (maybe) is a video I made of every Royal Rumble winner:



Edit  na doesn't like it

Wait it does if I refresh the page. Can anyone else see it?

Diluted Dante wrote:

I'll wait for your nod on it, might just end up watching Naito's match. I think I've figured out how to embed a short, so here (maybe) is a video I made of every Royal Rumble winner: Edit  na doesn't like it Wait it does if I refresh the page. Can anyone else see it?

Naito match was fine, the Shingo v Nakajima match was fucking excellent. However the best bit of the show came earlier in the night, in what I think is an angle, but got a little bit hostile, take a gleg at this. Genuinely never seen Okada this angry:

https://twitter.com/JustAlyxCentral/status/1616825762627158018

Like, I think this was supposed to happen in a way, but the GHC doesn't like his kicks being no sold?
https://twitter.com/JustAlyxCentral/status/1616825762627158018?s=20&t=SoHzqMwXsI57yUCHhSOwgA
https://twitter.com/JustAlyxCentral/status/1616825762627158018?s=20&t=SoHzqMwXsI57yUCHhSOwgA

This is just so sad.

I'm staying up to watch it, as I always do with this and WM. Looking forward to Wyatt v LA Confidential

I'm watching it tomorrow. It should be impossible to fuck up this year so I'm actually looking forward to it.

I would like a last 4 of Cody, Gunther, Brock, and Stone Cold. Cody wins after eliminating Gunther. Dom Mysterio to get the most eliminations thanks to Damien Priest before getting accidentally eliminated by Rey.

All speculation, nothing concrete. Because he did the WM match last year and has been posting workout videos people have been joining the dots with wishful thinking.