RAW (Nov. 21st, 2022) – Michin. It’s Bitchin.

So apparently, they resigned Mia Yim a week or so ago and then changed her name to Michin, which is apparently Korean for “crazy.” The only good thing about this name is the header I used for this RAW Bytes post. Other than that, I’ve heard worse.
For some reason, I watched a bit of RAW. Opened with Kevin Owens cutting a promo on Roman Reigns, reminding us that he used to challenge for the title and if not for the Bloodline, this history making title run would’ve ended sooner. Then the Bruting Brawls shows up and talks for a bit, then the Judgment Day geeks showed up and weesa haz a match.
So in the six-man tag match thing, Sheamus pinned Dom Mysterio and the place popped, because nobody likes Dom for leaching off the Mysterio name. After all, we all know he’s Eddie’s kid. This is followed by Johnny Gargano against Miz, except not really because Miz hurt his arm and so he sends the big dude, Omos, to replace him. Gargano gets his ass kicked faster than Kevin Nash can scarf down a piece of ravioli.
And then giggling idiot Seth Rollins showed up on my TV and I turn the show off.
I didn’t even get to see Michin. Not so bitchin.

Mixed Emotions

I was never the biggest JDF fan in the world. His online antics over the past few years had soured me on him and as a result, I have said some unkind things about him in the past. There was even a tag that denoted how I felt about him for a while; a tag that smacked of outright immaturity on my part. But the truth is that while his public persona had always rubbed me, I have never hated the man himself nor thought any less of him as a human being. The man had accomplished quite a bit over the course of his life, made a name for himself, had a loyal following, and was responsible for the popularity of one of the biggest media franchises in the world. While I’d frown on whatever stupid stunt he would pull for attention, I’d never wished ill towards the man.
So to hear that this past weekend, he had taken his own life… I don’t know what to say.
I’ve been thinking about a way to pay some tribute… but right now, I’m still trying to process the whole thing. For now, I can only offer my condolences and prayers to his family and friends.

Elon Musk Buying Twitter Could Mean The End Of The Twitter And I'm All For It

So, for those who haven’t heard, some rich dude named Elon Musk bought Twitter and is in the process of implementing changes. One such change being a monthly subscription for a blue checkmark as opposed to the spotty approval process for said checkmark. People are already jumping off the platform as a result and some are even signaling the end of Twitter, either as they know it or as a whole.

Let me tell you something. I am all in on the fall of Twitter.
There is not a single cesspole of online garbage and depravity than Twitter. It is truly the nadir of human civilization where supposedly “grown adults” can go online and spew garbage or follow trends for the sake of likes and follows. It has the ability to turn causes – however noble or otherwise – into giant flame wars and insult bombing that turns said cause into a toxic subject. When the platform becomes the means to “support the current thing” and then act complete retards in the process – and that’s being kind – then it’s either time to clean it up or shut it down.
The day Twitter comes to an end and dies will be a day that most people will mourning.
The day Twitter ends is the day I will do a dance.
But only for my super duper followers.
Fortunately, I don’t have Twitter.
So thank you, Elon Musk, for buying Twitter. I’d buy you a round, but you can afford twenty, so I won’t bother. How about a slot on the list if Twitter dies, eh?

Servers Dressed As Power Rangers Save Woman From Getting Choked By Man… No, Really

Even Lord Zedd frowns at this.

Source: https://abc7.com/power-rangers-save-woman-ranger-servers-noka-ramen-oakland/12338959/

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/19/power-rangers-ramen-oakland-restaurant/

Imagine a themed day at your new restaurant where you’re all dressed as superheroes and suddenly, you actually have to play the parts and keep some dude from choking one of your customers… all I will say is that I hope that those Rangers got some mighty big tips because they earned it after that showing. Kudos to Noka Ramen; you may have gotten a honorable mention on the Winners List of 2022.

Honestly, this is more newsworthy than what I usually watch on Wednesday nights these days.

TNA Sacrifice 2007

(2023 Update: Hey, kids. This was uploaded last year and published in a brutally incomplete format. Sorry, my bad. So I went back and fleshed this out to feel more “complete.”)

TNA Sacrifice 2007 is a rather interesting show with some bit of backstory and in order to understand the significance of this show as well as my wanting to check it out, we need to bring up a bit of history beforehand.

The company known today as Impact Wrestling began life in 2002 as NWA-TNA and it was, at the time, the flagship promotion of the then-fledging National Wrestling Alliance. Once the major name in professional wrestling, it was relegated to an afterthought once World Championship Wrestling (formerly Jim Crockett Promotions before being bought out by Turner) seceded the NWA in 93 and pretty much buried after Shane Douglas tossed his newly won NWA title to the ground in ’94. And while it got some exposure on WWF television and especially on some UFC shows with Dan Severn as NWA champion, the brand pretty much floundered.

The Jarretts – Jeff and Jerry – were looking to start a new promotion and decided to pursue a partnership with the NWA that would feature the World and Tag-team titles on their new program. So from its conception in 2002, TNA was a member – perhaps its most notable member – of the National Wrestling Alliance before parting ways in 2004. Despite no longer being a member, TNA were still able to use the NWA titles for a couple more years.

In 2007, on the morning of the day in which TNA would air their Sacrifice PPV, then-NWA president (I Don’t Remember And Really, It Doesn’t Matter) decided to sever all ties with TNA, citing TNA’s refusal to have the NWA World and Tag-team champions defend the titles in other NWA promotions… which is funny because TNA was the only thing that gave NWA any semblance of national exposure and nobody cared about them in any event. And as a result, NWA had stripped reigning World champion Christian Cage and reigning Tag champions the Dudley Boyz of their titles, with the World title being the contested in a multi-person tournament called Reclaiming The Gold, which included a number of notable independent stars including Bryan Danielson, and the man who would eventually win the title, future WWE General Manager “Scrap Iron” Adam Pearce.

Meanwhile, TNA was business as usual; as far as they were concerned, Christian Cage was still the World Champion and the Dudleyz (now Team 3D) were still the tag champs. They just weren’t going to use the NWA branding, even though they still possessed the physical NWA belts. However, a couple nights later, TNA would subsequent introduce new TNA championship belts and we proceed to go along on our merry way.

Well, sort of…

Continue reading “TNA Sacrifice 2007”

WWF Survivor Series 1997 (25th Anniversary Re-Post)

The Montreal Screwjob celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary… how does that work, exactly?

Your guess is as good as mine.
I wrote a PPV Musings on this show five years ago to celebrate the event’s twentieth anniversary and while I was tempted to go back and watch this show to celebrate the occasion, it occurred to me that I’d have nothing to add to the proceedings in the five years since I mused on this particular event. And so I’m going to do something wholly unprecedented and I’m going to repost this musings, even though you can look up the original 2017 post, which is the exact same thing as this… except for this intro… and maybe a couple other things.
For those who want a full recounting of the events leading up to the 1997 Survivor Series event and the aforementioned Screwjob (or as WWE calls it, the “incident”), the Wrestling Observer recently posted an article called “Reliving The Montreal Screwjob 25 Years Later“, which is basically a repost of some of Dave Meltzer’s coverage of said events from back in the day, considered to be the most accurate account of said events. And of course, there is Paul Jay’s brilliant Hitman Hart: Wrestling With Shadows documentary film, which you can watch for free on Youtube.

But if you’d rather read my ramblings on the event – for whatever reason – continue onwards after the break.

Continue reading “WWF Survivor Series 1997 (25th Anniversary Re-Post)”

WWE Armageddon 2004

Long story short, I found a DVD-R recording of this show and, needing some background noise while I did other stuff, popped it in. And yes, it’s a Smackdown PPV in late-2004, which means this is smack dab in the middle of the John Bradshaw Layfield WWE Championship reign. And he’s defending the title in a four-way against Booker T, Undertaker, and Eddie Guerrero. Well, I can’t imagine reacting positively to this back in the day, but it’s been close to a couple decades. Maybe I mellowed out a bit.

Continue reading “WWE Armageddon 2004”

AEW Dynamite (Nov. 2nd, 2022): Global Force Gold Invades All Elite Wrestling

Good lord… where to begin?
Darby gets tricked by a guy in a Sting mask, who reveals himself to be… some guy. Nobody gives a shit, nor should they.
Then Sting’s music hit and out comes… Jeff Jarrett, who smashes poor Darby with a guitar. Is Global Force Gold making a comeback in AEW?
Mox beats up some dude, but then the Karate Man shows up and beats up Mox to challenge for a Title Eliminator or whatever the fuck they call it.
Chris Jericho retains the ROH title over the returning Colt Cabana… so I guess Punk isn’t coming back.
Jade Cargill and that Marina person had a thing that happened… that’s as diplomatic as I’m going to get.
And our main event is Samoa Joe retaining his ROH Television title over some guy, only to get beat up and saved by Wardlow, who gets beat up by Powerhouse Hobbs, who wants Wardlow’s TNT title. Hey, at least the show ended with an AEW guy closing the show.
This Dynamite sure fizzled. Wake me up when something interesting happens.
I might not even bother with the PPV this month.
On the bright side, I finally got a Sega Genesis mini 2… Sonic CD runs like ass, though.

State Of The Blog – November 2022

Not a huge update this month. More reviews and stuff, I guess.

Random Update Bits
October didn’t quite go as planned, but at the very least, the stuff I wanted to get out for at least a year finally saw the light of day. The Bloodstained review will probably be up this coming Friday if all goes well. Sadly, I’m dealing with some ‘rona issues at the moment that’s slowing me down somewhat.

Episode 225 of the DTM-Cast will up Saturday night and will be an extra long episode covering a number of topics as well as an extended Q&A segment. I’m also putting together a couple Sunday Gimmick Tables, hoping to hit the big two-five before year’s end. A couple of these are a doozy and one of them is something I said I would never get, but did because it was dirt cheap and that’s all I ever needed.

For those wanting a little more variety, be patient. I’ve been putting together some stuff on the side that’s being held off for the next year when I could start putting these out on a semi-regular basis. Some of it is reviving old ideas while others are somewhat new concepts. It’s going to be a fun time, I assure you.

Phantom Posts: The AEW Canada Shows
I did a quick write-up on the AEW Dynamite show from Toronto and forgot to ever publish it… or maybe it’s because I forgot to add a banner. And so it’s up now with the date of when it was written. Little bird told me that TSN was actually airing Rampage and I gave that a sample, but when it came to sitting down and actually writing something, it ended up turning into something asking why anyone should care about this ROH thing that is detracting from the AEW product. So, if you want to read that as well, it’s there. But links are provided below.

AEW Dynamite (Oct. 12, 2022): Unlike The Leafs Or Jays, This Show Didn’t Choke
AEW Rampage (Oct. 14, 2022): This Show, However, Did Choke

I also slipped some thoughts on the recent Director’s Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture that was redone for the Paramount+ streaming gimmick for those who want to check that out.

Random Thoughts On Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition (2022 Release)

That’s about it. I’ll update the index pages in a week or so.

Later.