I remembered a lot of the Brian Pillman "Loose Cannon" saga but I forgot that he refused to break character when a hostage situation happened in his hotel.

My Patreon Year In Review series is back and we're covering 1995. Hulk Hogan has a mid-life crisis. Shawn Michaels is up to everything. Nitro kicks off the Monday Night Wars. Gene Okerlund gets sleazy...er. All this and way, way more. www.patreon.com/posts/ingred...

It's darkly funny to me to see some sites going deeper into the SEO game as Google's awful move to default to AI answers for searches is going to cannibalize a ton of the clicks from people searching for "Did Jordynne Grace earn her pilot’s license?"

MJF defeated Darby but his battle to keep his hair continues. Godspeed, we're all in the trenches with you, with our shampoos and special topicals.

Can't call a PPV that had Darby/MJF, Takeshita/Okada, and Ospreay/Joe anything but great, even if I have slight Stampede-fatigue. Louie Armstrong is an all-time venue for AEW. Gotta save it for something special.

I have obtained exclusive video of Darby Allin from after Double or Nothing went off the air:

Weirdos lose again. I could've told you that earlier. Saved you four hours.

SOMEONE GIVE DARBY A VITA COCO, IT HAS 3.5 TIMES THE ELECTROLYTES OF THE LEADING SPORTS DRINK

That might be the scariest bump I've ever seen Darby take, and that's a long fucking list.

I don't know if anyone noticed this but when Jack Perry and Andrade faced off the ghost of Jerry Jarrett appeared and he shouted "GIVE THE WOMEN THEIR CANDY" before evaporating.

Swerve/Bandido has the rare match layout of "Hey, why don't we wait until everyone is looking at their phones and then do like four of the most insane moves of the year."

Can't handle Kyle Fletcher's lack of socks.

Maybe the best Okada match in AEW? Definitely his most high-octane performance.

Double or Nothing 2026. The night everyone took a move to the balls. The ultimate double.

Louis Armstrong Stadium might have the best combination of appearance and acoustics of any building AEW has ever run.

Takeshita looking at Omega up in some kind of askew heaven.

A Cope match with a flaming table. Entire show should be booked to relive moments from Foley's life as Tony does his best Chris Farley Show in gorilla and says "Remember that? Huh? Huh?"

If this was late stage WCW the I Quit match would end when Cope threatened to force Dax to drink a Viva Coco as he shouts "VILE SWILL, OH GOD I THINK SOME TOUCHED MY LIPS, THROW UP AN X."

Ok, the crowd just started chanting "We want tables" minutes into the opener. I changed my mind. Never give New York a show again.

Honestly, maybe you reward New York with All In 2027. Especially if you run Ospreay/Kenny in Wembley, you can comfort MJF with the promiise of a (the?) top match in his home state the next year.

Don't know if you could've taken a more unflattering photo of Kyle, to the point where 15% of me thinks it's a rib.

Normally I don't like PPV main eventers coming out before their main event but thought the whole Darby/MJF/Mick thing was a good, pretty hot little "Buy this PPV" last minute sell job of an angle, the likes of which AEW doesn't often do.

Mick simultaneously starting his "Darby you're something special" promo while still selling that his balls are in pain is the kind of complex character work he is known for.

Mick going to have to adjust his cheap pop references, the crowd just booed the Rock out of the metaphorical building.

Attack the Vita Coco man Eddie, do it.

Mick Foley is so earnest. Too earnest. I don't watch wrestling to feel real feelings, I watch to hide from them. START PLUGGING A CELL PHONE CARRIER OR SOMETHING.

Yes. 19 people in 1995 were like "Say what you will about ol' Kim, he knew how to put butts in seats. By military force. You can't deny the houses."

In this image, two insane dictators who tightly controlled media coverage of their activities and also Kim Jong Il.

I was not prepared to see this when I looked at the runners-up for the Wrestling Observer's 1995 "Promoter of the Year" award voting:

ICYMI: I posted the latest in my Year in Review series this week with 1994. Hogan jumps to WCW. The first major ladder match. Plus a ton more.

I've seen german superplexes before. They're usually release germans, so the person taking it can do a full rotation and take a safe "missed moonsault" bump. The fact Darby took the traditional german bump, and Takeshita never let go to give him total control, is insane.

ICYMI Last night: A BIG BIG BIG time ThROH The Years dropped! One of ROH's most critically acclaimed PPVs ever!

A huge ThROH The Years as we cover Man Up! With the legendary Briscoes vs. Steen and Generico ladder match, the Bryan/Morisima rewatch, say farewell to Matt Sydal, and I talk about my behavior post-coitus. redcircle.com/shows/throh-...

Insomniacs, early risers, and world travelers, my year-in-review series continues with 1994. A lot of stuff happened! Book sized, so pack a lunch. And as usual, it's free. www.patreon.com/posts/151729...

On Observer Radio Dave says he was told Asuka is "semi-retired". He doesn't know what that means, if she'll do stuff occasionally, go to Japan, etc, but people were saying goodbye to her backstage.

Cena hyping his tournament as a place where NXT talent vs. WWE talent feels oddly timed when WWE just decimated NXT's roster with call-ups. MASON ROOK TO THE MOON

WWE finally achieving their end goal with a tournament and title where wins and losses literally don't matter.

Main event of Backlash is Cena giving a 17-minute in-ring PowerPoint presentation about customer reward points, and it's sponsored by Cotton MANdy, the world's first whipped sugar with 14g of protein per serving.

I have fought (And voted) for Ted for years. He got 55.5% of the vote last year and you need 60% to get in. If he gets a death bump, 2026 is his year. You heard it here first, 2026 is a great year for Ted Turner.

Apart from Vince McMahon, Ted Turner is the most influential figure of the last 50 years of wrestling. He was Vince's opposite, chaotic good to his chaotic evil: Southern, liberal, Incredibly successful at a million ventures outside of wrestling. No wonder Vince hated him.

Fans today: How dare anyone try to investigate any details of a wrestler's contract. That is a holy covenant. Wrestlers 30 years ago, barely prompted: Yeah, here is every payday I've ever had in my entire life.

My entire life as a Vancouver Canucks fan: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP6h...

I think starting as a wrestling scoopster you'd have the weirdest unbalanced conversations. Folks telling you about about the political machinations of Roman Reigns and you're going "Well, Jessica in accounting didn't invite Sasha to her baby shower, so my world is also crazy."

The thing about TKO asking talent to renegotiate is almost everyone is on a deal that can be cut at any time, so leverage doesn't exist. This isn't 92 where Brian Pillman had a guaranteed contract so he could tell Bill Watts to go fuck himself when he asked him to take a pay cut.

If people just asked themselves, "Do I honestly believe this thing I'm hearing is true or do I just wish it was?" the world would be 70% better, but if I take a Vicodin, my world is 100% better, so congratulations medical science, you've done it again and trumped media literacy.

TKO will push the WWE further down the UFC path, where the gap between the tip-top stars and everyone else gets bigger. A few difference makers on top and then an ever-changing large blob of names below them that are seen to be (And booked as) easily replaceable. 99 vs 1%

That said, it's kind of crazy how much sand they've dumped in fans' ointment recently. High ticket prices to the point where they made it part of a storyline, Ad-Mania, McAfee/Celeb Saturation, AI usage, the latest round of cuts, and now this. In the span of a month.

I feel like people who are surprised by WWE's recent moves didn't follow the UFC when TKO bought them. They're cutthroat and worry far less about (certain) optics than the past regime.

Nielsen has flicked the ratings switch back to "Kill wrestling" from "Save wrestling". Looking forward to three months from now when they change methodology again and all of a sudden Impact is doing 2.0s off of huge numbers in the 5-9 year old demographic.