Beyond Wrestling has produced some awesome wrestlers over the years and placed a spotlight on guys that other promotions may have seasoned but who haven't yet broken out. Pinkie Sanchez and Biff Busick are two of those competitors. While Sanchez may be best known for the places where he flamed out of than his successes, he's still one of the wildest and most recognizable guys to come out of the fight club. Busick, however, in a short time has risen to heights of CZW World Champion. Sanchez represents the first wave, and Busick the most recent one to crest, so in a way, this match is a generational battle. Weird to say about a promotion that is still pretty fresh, but hey, the facts are the facts.

He wasn't called the Excellence of Execution for nothing Photo Credit: WWE.com

I have a massive library of wrestling on my computer. It's not anything to be ashamed of; rather, I'm proud of it. And in the course of one day reviewing what I have I came to a sort of conclusion about the sort of wrestling I like. It's not the mindless WWE Main Event style, and it's not the head-droppy OMG MOVEZ~! stuff that passes for main event work in Ring of Honor currently. What do I enjoy at its core? Technical wrestling. and the high-end stuff. Curious as to what I like and how you could find some of it for yourself? Follow me.

First off, technical wrestling takes a variety of forms depending on who personifies that specific aesthetic for you. If, like me, you grew up in the United States with the WWF, WCW, and (to a far lesser extent) ECW on your televisions, then guys like this were the guys you were into.

Nick Bockwinkel


The real interesting thing about Bockwinkel is that, in a lot of ways, his best work was happening when the fewest amount of people were seeing it. By the time that the AWA got its TV deal with ESPN, Bockwinkel was in his late-40's. Did that matter? Not even a little bit. He was still as sharp as he had ever been.

Ric Flair


 Now I know what you're thinking, and yes it's true. Ric Flair was known for his flossiness, the fact that he seemed to be incapable of rolling anywhere without 10 to 20 ladies, a suit that cost more than your paycheck, and his boys the Four Horsemen. But make no mistake, when the "Nature Boy" got in the ring, he could go. He wrestled that 70's style where every hold was treated as though it was death, and the biggest strike that you were going to see was some blistering chops. And when I say blistering, I mean BLISTERING. Add to his technical skill his almost-superhuman cardio and the fact that most of his best work happened in the NWA during the 1980's and you had one of the coolest wrestlers ever.

Bret Hart


 And the last man on our list. If you were a kid in the WWF enclave of the Northeast during the 80's and 90's and didn't have fond memories of Gorilla Monsoon telling you how Bret Hart was the excellence of execution, and that every single manuever he did was applied to absolute perfection, you must have been watching different wrestling than I was as a kid. Bret Hart was always presented to younger fan of the WWF (sorry WWE, but you were the WWF at this specific point in my childhood) as a master, the guy every other wrestler knew could not just beat them but hurt them badly. And the chief tool in his toolbox? The Sharpshooter.


Again this was portrayed as the be all and end all. And if, as a kid, you didn't try and put the sharpshooter on your friends or your family, you were either not a big wrestling fan or liked different wrestlers than I did.

In closing, this is only the beginning. As time goes on, I'll introduce you to guys you may have not seen yet, and masters from far-off lands. Thank you for reading.

Dare I say Nikki Bella's... cromulent? Photo Credit: WWE.com

Pro Tip #1: Do not watch NXT before watching Superstars. It is a delightful reminder of what could be, and a sobering reminder that given the opportunity, you would spend obscene amounts of money on Sasha Bank’s bitchin’ ring jacket.

Pro Tip #2: Do watch Superstars before heading out for a long, delightful day of wrestling with Chikara. Trying to watch it afterwards will be impossible.

Pro Tip #3: Watch Superstars on Thursday night, because if you put it off until Friday afternoon, you’ll end up going to the Squared Circle for delicious pizza, a wide selection of beer, a fundraiser for a great cause, and having a joy heart attack when the Estonian Thunder Frog walks in the door.

Let’s grab some coffee and get into this, shall we?

Our first match was Nikki Bella vs. Alicia Fox.

The commentators started the match out solid. They brought up that Fox was part of that handicap match where Bella had the hell beaten out of her few weeks back. Any time we’ve got some continuity, I’m a happy camper. That being said, they didn’t pay attention after that. They talked about pretty much anything but the goings on in the ring.

Both women were very engaged in the match. Fox’s been fun to watch. I don’t care what anyone says, Bella’s really improved over the last year. It was a fun match, but cut down one of the fifty thousand recaps and let them go a little longer. After losing the match to Nikki’s backbreaker rack, Alicia started pelting her with her ring boots. Her socks were mismatched, which really added that special sauce to her brand of crazy. Loved it, and I interested to see where they take her character.

After one thousand years of recaps, which I’ll get into below, we got our second match with Jack Swagger and Rob van Dam.

Before the match started, we get a segment with Swagger and Zeb Colter backstage. They talk about deporting RVD before demanding a ‘We the People’ from everyone. They should do more of these on Superstars. It adds a little something to the show, and makes Superstars feel like more than an afterthought.

The match had some highlights. I especially liked the Rolling Thunder countered into the Patriot Lock. It was a very smart move from Swagger, and I really like the idea of him being able to grab your ankle from any move and rip it off. Despite the good stuff, RVD looked winded as hell five minutes into the match. I legit got worried about him. He looked like he was gonna go down halfway through the match. I’m also of the mind that Swagger should not be losing to Van Dam, but whatevs. This is a third tier show that doesn’t seem to play into the storylines WWE has going.

Fear and Loathing in Las Recaps

I still maintain that these recaps are excessive and largely pointless. I had a thought about that this week. Does creative know that their show is kind of terrible, and people flip to other channels, or just don’t watch at all? I’m of the mind that if you aren’t watching Raw, then you aren’t watching Superstars. However, if you feel that you have to excessively recap events on your show because people aren’t paying attention to Raw, shouldn’t you write Raw that encourages people to stay tuned in? This week’s Raw screamed of no effort. I know that the head writer was fired, but come on, guys. Step it up.

Also, doesn’t the Authority realize that Cena cannot be stopped at this point? If you don’t want him to be Champ, then don’t put him in the damn match. Just say you’re banned. Got a problem with that? Too fucking bad. But logic and strategic planning have no place here in the WWE. So instead, they stick him in a match against Captain Ineffectual. The announcers get all concerned, like holy crap, Cena’s gonna die. This is dumb. The announcers are dumb. The Authority is dumb. I am dumb for watching this.

That opening segment of Raw was recapped twice. Either that, or I just had a stroke. I didn’t watch the stretcher match on Raw, and I definitely didn’t watch it here. Stretcher matches are wicked stupid, especially on Raw with that yellow taped line across the stage. Your match is bad, and you should feel bad.

Random Thoughts

-If I ever tried that sliding thing that Nikki Bella did to get in the ring, I would destroy myself. Every bone would be broken.

-Sign for Dr. Shelby in the audience. GIVE THE AUDIENCE WHAT THEY WANT!

-Cesaro should have gotten the Real Americans theme. Especially after the Raw after WrestleMania.

-Who you got in the Money in the Bank title match? While I’d love to see one of the newer guys get win, I’m 99% sure it’s going to be Cena. Thoughts?

GET 'ER PAIGE Photo Credit: WWE.com

Welcome to a feature I like to call "Best in the World" rankings. They're not traditional power rankings per se, but they're rankings to see who is really the best in the world, a term bandied about like it's bottled water or something else really common. They're rankings decided by me, and don't you dare call them arbitrary lest I smack the taste out of your mouth. Without further ado, here's this week's list:

1. Paige (Last Week: 2) - She hit Cameron so hard last week on RAW that she broke up the Funkadactyls! Okay, maybe not yet, but it's coming!

2. Alicia Fox (Last Week: 4) - Seriously, she beat Nikki Bella with a shoe. A SHOE. Okay, it was a wrestling boot, but still.

3. Cedric Alexander (Last Week: Not Ranked) - Alexander not only was announced to be on the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla Battle of Los Angeles Tournament, but he made a play to get the Ziggler/Rollins Scale named after him.

4. Fractured Prune Skylar (Last Week: Not Ranked)OFFICIAL HOLZERMAN HUNGERS SPONSORED ENTRY - I was down the Jersey Shore the whole weekend, so I had to get to the Fractured Prune to get the bacon-chocolate donut. YES it was superb.

5. Vickie Guerrero (Last Week: Not Ranked) - Don't be fooled; she orchestrated that whole thing last week. Only a true trooper would allow herself to be puked upon for the good of the plot.

6. Mark Henry (Last Week: 1) - I assume he got to Curt Hawkins, because the man had to change his name to avoid Henry. Or was it because of copyright? Eh, I'll believe the former.

7. The Fudgy Wudgy Man (Last Week: Not Ranked) - First, his name is the Fudgy Wudgy Man. Second, he walks up and down the beach selling ice cream. HE'S A TRUE HERO!

8. Daniel Bryan (Last Week: 5) - Bryan's spent his time tending to his kale garden now that he's injured. OR not. I don't know anymore.

9. Clint Dempsey (Last Week: Not Ranked) - He scored a goal with his dick Sunday. No, that statement is not euphemism. He hit a soccer ball with his groin area and put it past the Portuguese goalie. HOW WAS THAT SHOT NOT WORTH TWO GOALS? INVESTIGATE FIFA.

10. Sara del Rey (Last Week: 10) - SARA DEL REY FACT: Lana del Rey's album Ultraviolence was a tribute to the wrestler, mainly because she was tired of people comparing her unfavorably.

Gonna miss you, Vickie Photo Credit: WWE.com

I don't know Vickie Lynn Guerrero personally. I can't tell you how good a person she is, or how she deserves or didn't deserve to have her character suffer the slings and arrows of setback after setback with no hope of giving back those who'd bring her down, whether John Cena, Edge, or even the McMahon-Helmsley Regime v. 2.0. I won't glow about how she's a shining rose in a mire of feces and misogyny, because she, like everyone else in WWE, is more than likely one of the carniest carnies ever to live. She knew her role and seemed to play it without the ego. Sure, she had her job "only" because Vince McMahon may have felt guilty for her husband's death, and with that in mind, I wouldn't be surprised if WWE wrote stories for her in predatory fashion. But she got her paycheck. She's known around the world. I mean, I'm not saying I would let people humiliate me in a stage performance with this weird carnival code of pretending it was real for money, but I'm also not saying I wouldn't let that situation unfold either. It would depend on the amount of zeroes on the paycheck each week, I guess.

Still, even though she did pack her lunchpail and went to work every Monday and Tuesday and sometimes Sunday, I couldn't help but feel bad for her, at least the character. Everyone in the company at some point gets to have their moment in the Sun. Even Barry Horowitz won a match once. But Guerrero was always the punchline, never the puncher. Sure, every scripted drama has its eternal punching bag, but every time Guerrero was used as mean-spirited, flesh-and-bone comic relief, a little part of me cringed. John Cena set up hidden cameras in her office just so he could point and laugh at how gross Big Show was for wanting to touch her. Edge basically turned face by doing everything short of calling her a "cunt." She's had liquids poured on her, bodily functions spewed at her, and not once during the whole fray did she ever get a chance at a happy ending until one foot was out the door.

Maybe the crowd, which at times showed how awful at worst and Pavlovian at best could act tonight, finally reached its breaking point for Guerrero. If any situation would occur where cult-favorite Stephanie McMahon could break through and get a crowd behind her, it would have been berating Guerrero, whom said crowds over the year have been conditioned to believe was a dirty pig who only had a job because her husband died. But being Eddie Guerrero's widow only holds a benefit for your character when you're allowed to invoke him positively. The restraint by WWE in not allowing the synapse to fire on Guerrero's marital connections felt cruel at times.

But when Vickie Guerrero was finally allowed to memorialize her husband once again, not even the sly delivery of McMahon, who has morphed into one of the finest antagonists in post-Attitude WWE could win the crowd over. No character in WWE right now deserved the catharsis Guerrero was able to receive on the show tonight, and in a company where you show your entire ass on the way out the door, Guerrero was allowed to boot McMahon (and Layla and Alicia Fox and Rosa Mendes) in hers as a sendoff. That payoff hearkened back to a far more sexist day, when WWE only allowed women to compete seriously if some kind of liquid foodstuff (or in this case, natural human food byproduct) was involved, which made it gross and uncomfortable to watch. But watching McMahon flail in the pool for minutes rather than seconds while Guerrero did her late husband's shimmy up the ramp out of the company and into something new, something presumably better, felt like enough to wipe the slate clean.

Then again, maybe Guerrero had to leave covered in something to get her just leave out of WWE. She'd spent the last several years of her career getting people to hate her, to want her to be covered in everything from literal shit to liquid water, to leave the company clean as a whistle. WWE seems to love trolling its fans as much as its employees who aren't white males, so when the crowd finally ached to see her win, she had to fall in the pit before she could toss McMahon into it. Then again, the beauty in Guerrero's character was always that she made being hated sympathetic. She always had a pathos behind her eyes, because she knew that her evil plots would always end up being ineffectual anyways, and I will always love her for it.

Again, Vickie Lynn Guerrero the person is not someone I purport to know or speak for. But I found catharsis that she, the character, got to go out on a high note. Maybe dumping Stephanie McMahon in what I was supposed to believe was literal shit didn't make up for the years of figurative shit heaped upon her, but then again, in wrestling, perception is everything. A woman who usually got amplified hatred dumped upon her for saying two simple words was able to blow the roof off the arena with love and support in one fleeting moment. For a true doll of a performer to finally get the curtain call for her efforts instead of jeers is heartwarming no matter the context. I'm going to miss Vickie Guerrero, but I'm glad her last appearance on RAW was a big deal for her and not the person demeaning her out the door. No character in the history of the company deserved that curtain call as much as she did.

Rare that WWE posts pictures without context to its site, but I found this shot of Erick Rowan's sheep mask in the match pictures for his contest against Jey Uso. I know it has the art school feeling, but I think it's at least magical coincidence that WWE ran this photo on the site AND debuted a sparse, out-of-tune rendition of "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" on the concertina for Rowan and Luke Harper in the same night. For a company that ran a literal dog shit in a pool match for two women and continues to follow the same tired booking patterns elsewhere on the card, WWE really flirts with pure and true art with the Wyatt Family sometimes, doesn't it?

Maybe when the based god stated that three was a magic number, maybe It was trying to answer one of life's most persistent and vaporous questions.

Namely "how many chances should somebody get to prove they're not a self-centered worthless meatsack before kicking them in the face is not only allowed, but encouraged?"

Given a third opportunity to hold Full Sail gold, Tyson Kidd failed yet again.  Worst of all, since Nattie got him the run against the Ascension for the tag belts alongside Sami Zayn after some pre-match fluffery about hitting the reset button as a way for he and the Syrian-Canadian to avenge their Takeover losses he left him to get beaten up by the Champs under the auspices that Zayn was hogging the match even though Sami was desperate for a tag out the moment he put any air betwixt him and Konor or Victor.  You might as well have given a Rembrandt to a Pomeranian.  Sure, it was obvious from Zimtok-5 what Kidd was going to do and even more so considering by the time the main event rolled around that it was going to get under six minutes.  But still, this was a necessary step on the road of changing alignments. It has now gone from feeling inadequate inside to using a referee as a scapegoat to passively-aggressively snarking at the more accomplished wife to dragging innocents into this one-man war; hopefully Tyson makes acquaintances with a Helluva Kick at some point in his near future for his fecklessness here.

Should the Ascension be looking for more victims, let's use the bullied pulpit of BCB to nominate the Vaudevillians formally.  Said team is the official pairing of Aiden English and the quite manly Simon Gotch, even if the only thing they've done evilly is monopolize the hearts of all those who never knew until this episode that they wanted to party like it's 1899 with two guys out a Mack Sennett opus replete with silent-film-styled black and white film that skips when they're not wrestling, Gotch helpfully holding up a microphone to English's megaphone while he makes their formal introductions.  This is even putting aside their old-timey piano music theme, the fact that Gotch's immediate desire to engage in fisticuffs cued up a Put Up Your Dukes chant, or that they have a couple bits of tandem offense already.  When you can get a crowd clapping and kids dancing in under 300 seconds maybe the boasts about being the best at sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment are rather closer to backing it up than being cocky.

Cocky and Tyler Breeze, of course, go together like a warm summer day and ignoring the outside world so you can watch seven episodes of your favorite show in a row from the couch.  But in his victory over Kalisto he showed over the course of two segments that he was just more than the face that launched a thousand selfies.  How many years have we heard announcers state up, down, and sideways that an opponent against a high flyer or luchadore need to find a way to ground them?  Okay: how many times have you seen that person actually do it?  Agreed this was one of those season to own personal taste things, and the crowd was sarcastically chanting headlock on a few occasions by the end as Tyler sucked Kalisto's energy meter into the bright orange by grounding him with a series of side headlocks and front chanceries that showed him using his rare size advantage to wrestle the smartest match this side of Randy Orton in the endgame against Cena at NWO '08.  Perhaps the crowd was turning surly because no matter how many times they rallied for Kalisto and popped for the small spurts of lu-cha lu-cha they clearly were desperate for, Tyler simply found a way to get his hands on the newcomer and take him down to the mat before finally uncorking a textbook Beauty Shot as another feather in his #1 contendership cap.

With the tease of the return of the Little Gambino Mr. Amore and Rob Van Dam coming to Full Sail next week to get Red Arrowed, besides the Mojo Rawley Match You've Already Seen A Few Times Even If You Haven't Actually the last takeaway to snatch up from this episode was the continuing slow-motion silo collapse that is the Biffles, now so in disarray that Alexa Bliss was able to get a surprise rollup off a distraction FTW.  Poor Sasha.  It was supposed to be more about her when she got to be evil, wasn't it? Yet she spent the bulk of the match beating up on everybody's favorite Pixie-Disney character hybrid but when Summer and Charlotte couldn't -- well, anybody who's heard the word Frozen in the last few months knows where that's going -- all of a sudden she's falling victim to Wrestling 101 business over a woman who'll look 21 when she turns 63.  Seriously, she went from Regal complimenting her evil ways over getting to apply a surfbort surfbort and a crackerjack tilt-a-whirl backbreaker counter to losing to a white anime character.  Absolutely embarrassing.

Then again, even if they weren't there for her, they bothered showing up, you know?  Not to invoke some vintage gangsta rap lyrics in a family-friendly locale, but Tyson proved why his last name isn't Mann or why he's the one hitting a double bicep pose whilst stating "MANLY!" to the crowd's support.

In 2014, you can, without too much effort, find top-notch technical wrestling. Drew Gulak, just as an example, is doing the type of British wrestling more in the vein of rough guys like Billy Robinson or Terry Rudge as opposed to the classic lightweight guys like Johnny Saint, Johnny Kidd, or Rollerball Rocco that everyone knows. The fact that I can refer to Robinson and Rudge without having to make too much in the way of explanation is a wonderful development. The world has opened up to people willing to learn. But this was not always the case. World-class "pure" wrestling, not the stuff ROH tried to sell you with their Pure Wrestling division, was not always as easy to find as it is now. And for a lot of us who really enjoyed mat wrestling there was one place where you knew you could get spectacular technical wrestling. They're not around now, but they were one of the most influential "short-run" promotions that exist. Ladies and gentlemen, the Toryumon 2000 Project.

They started out in much the same way that CHikara started over here in the states, as a vehicle for students to get a chance to compete in front of live crowds. Those classes, and this is pretty clear once you hear the names, are a who's-who of junior heavyweight pro wrestling. Names like CIMA, Milano Collection AT, Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino, Dragon Kid, and Ryo Saito started as Toryumon students.

And all of those guys I mentioned, every single one of them, were trained by two of the best and smoothest wrestlers of recent vintage. Ultimo Dragon and Skayde trained them both. Watch prime Ultimo Dragon sometime. (For purposes of this article, assume prime Ultimo Dragon to be his New Japan run as well as his early WCW stuff.) Watch how graceful he is, how nothing looks wasted.

And when the Toryumon 2000 Project, or T2P for short, started, it started with the idea that being technically proficient, being able to create wacky submissions, could be all you needed to be the ace of a promotion. Want proof? Watch Milano Collection AT from that time period. Watch this match specifically.


You just didn't see stuff like that before. Quite frankly, you don't see stuff like that now. That's why I'm said that they're gone, even though so many of those guys moved on to Dragon Gate. I just wish they had lasted.

This post was written by Okori Wadsworth, but a snafu in publishing caused me to publish under my own byline.

You know it, Cena victorious would be best for everyone Photo Credit: WWE.com

For the past few years, it has become en vogue to hate on John Cena. Despite his numerous charitable endeavors and his seeming willingness to do whatever is truly best for the entire WWE company, the jorts-wearing superman is seen as the epitome of the glass ceiling - no matter how popular someone else may get, no one is allowed to surpass Cena. Ever.

And with Money in the Bank coming up this Sunday, Cena is one of eight competitors with a chance to win the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Ask a certain sect of the hardcore fan community who should come out of the match with the gold, and the answer will generally be Roman Reigns, or Cesaro, or Bray Wyatt. The so-called "smarks" are looking to the future, and what better chance to move ahead than by crowning a champion who has their best days ahead of them?

Well, what if looking to the future means John Cena really is the best option? BETCHA DIDN'T THINK OF THAT.

It's true, folks; to maximize long-term booking potential, John Cena needs to win the championship for the 15th time. Sure, guys like Reigns, Cesaro, and Wyatt are potentially megastars for the next several years. But Cena has the experience necessary to be a great champion now while other guys are built up.

Look at the ladder match lineup for MITB: Cena, Sheamus, Randy Orton, Kane, and Alberto del Rio are former world champs, and Reigns, Cesaro, and Wyatt are most likely future world champs. What kind of story would it be if someone who has never been champ before wins a ladder match over five former champs? It's not a definitive win for those guys - no pinfall or submission? Pssh, weak.

A ladder match victory only proves you can climb a ladder. Nothing more, nothing less. Hell, I'm a fat white guy, and I can climb a ladder pretty damn well. Put me in the match!

So do you really think it will help either Reigns, Cesaro, or Wyatt in the long-term to win a match where you have to be lucky rather than good? No way, those guys need to win their first championship via pinfall or submission to prove it. So they're out for Sunday.

Any one of the former world champs would be okay with winning a lame ladder match for the title. Since they've all held the belts before, lucking into them again is no big deal. But Sheamus is out - he's the US Champion, so unless we've figured out a way for one guy to wear three belts without looking ridiculous there's no way he'll climb the ladder on Sunday.

Alberto del Rio is the dark horse here, but come on, he's fallen into the midcard abyss. Not that it's a bad place to be, but his time at the top of the card (literally the top, since his matches for the World Heavyweight Championship always seemed to open the show) is over. Have fun with a million more matched with Kofi Kingston and Dolph Ziggler, 'Berto. And Randy Orton can't win - he needs to be freed up for Roman Reigns, to finally put an end to that Former Shield-Former Evolution beef. And Kane? Well, unless Daniel Bryan is healed up enough to come back and immediately take the championship back from "the monster who put him on the shelf," a Kane championship victory makes about as much sense as using a flamethrower to light the candles on a birthday cake - it might seem badass at the time, but you're really just making a mess of everything.

And then there was one - Mr. Cena. It's so painfully obvious here, in light of all these other circumstances, that he's truly the only logical option for champ. Besides, it's only for like six weeks - my man Brock Lesnar is coming back to take the title from him.

And don't you want to see Cena knocked out of his jorts from an F-5? Seriously, if he needs to win the title for that to happen, I'll set up the ladder for the guy.

Roderick Strong is one of the most polarizing at best (and unpopular at worst) wrestlers on the indies today, but man, does he throw a mean strike. The Sick Kick combines the pro wrestling bona fides of a dropkick with the kung fu genre panache of the flying karate kick. I dig it.

Dasher Hatfield's chest after running afoul of Gary Jay. OUCH. Photo via Anthony RH Hauser

‘Who Are These Guys?’

‘The guy in the ring? That’s deviANT. The guy coming to the ring is Worker Ant, formerly assailANT. They used to be tag partners, but Worker had a change of heart, and now he’s a good guy.’

‘Alright, cool. And they’re ants?’

‘Yes, they’re ants.’

The bell rang, and the wrestlers fought on the outside of the ring, culminating with Worker ripping off one of DeviANT’s antennae. My dear friend, Eric, who had never been to a Chikara show, turned back to me with a huge smile on his face. ‘I’m all about this', he said. And I cannot tell you how pleased I was.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been able to introduce a friend of yours to something you love, but it is the greatest thing ever when they end up wanting to jump all in on it. Once the Spectral Envoy came out, he wanted to know all about it. Nothing feels better than that.

The Hubs, Eric, and I climbed the stairs into the Logan Square Auditorium, showed our IDs, had our tickets ripped by Leonard F Chikarason, and danced a bit with the Latvian Proud Oak before heading to the bar for a tepid Pabst Blue Ribbon. We chose our seats and settled in for a long, glorious day of wrestling.

The first show, Quantum of Solace, was outstanding top to bottom. There were a few bits that slowed things down, but otherwise I had a blast. Between a few of the matches, Gavin Loudspeaker, Chikara’s ring announcer, would bring out some of the tecnicos to take selfies with the fans or to play this game where five people had to untie themselves from a knot formed with their arms. We had fun with it, though I didn’t grab any selfies. I hate selfies. I hate typing the word, but that’s just my damage. I’m also incapable of approaching a wrestler and asking for a photo. I feel like I’m bothering them. Weird quirk of mine, but what are you gonna do? The card was switched up a bit from what was advertised, but nothing too drastic.

The show started with The Throwbacks, Dasher Hatfield and Mr. Touchdown, defeating Submission Squad members Pistol Danger Evan Gelistico and Gary the Barn Owl. There’s no way Hatfield isn’t feeling the chest chops Gary was throwing. Those were LOUD. (Ed. note: look at the pic above. HE FELT IT ALRIGHT)

Ophidian and Heidi Lovelace were up next. I haven’t seen enough of Lovelace, and I need to track down more of her stuff. She’s a lot of fun to watch. From what I understand, she’s from the Midwest, and the fans loved her. Ophidian fell into the heel role, but he still got a lot of cheers. Eric got a kick out of the fans hissing for Ophidian. Lovelace started the match trying to shake her opponent’s hand, but Ophidian had none of it. They told a great story during the match with her trying to fight back as he destroyed her leg. After he got the pin, Ophidian helped her up and shook her hand. Lovelace was all about selling that leg too. The Hubs saw her at the later show, and she was still limping around. Mike Quackenbush came out to address the crowd. He thanked us all for our continued support. He didn’t come out at the later show, which I thought was a bit weird.

After Quack left, we got another chapter in the continuing saga of the Baltic Siege and the Bloc Party. The Lithuanian Snow Troll and the Latvian Proud Oak beat Mr. Azerbaijan and new member Prakash Sabar, who looks exactly like X-Pac. The Proletariat Boar of Moldova came out to wail on the Siege after his mates lost. The Estonian Thunder Frog came out to check on his team after the beating was done. He would be facing off against the Boar later in the show.

Next, we had two former partners collide in Worker Ant and deviANT. They brawled on the outside with Worker breaking up the 20 count a few times so he could dole out more punishment to his former fellow Gekido member. They ended up back in the ring where they brawled until Worker Ant hit a pumphandle slam with a knee to deviANT’s face. Love Worker’s new gear. The construction helmet was a great touch.

Pieces of Hate were out next. Jigsaw’s new mask is great. He’s changed the eyes so they have a slight curve to them, which just screams ‘I’m evil’. The Shard is a little powerhouse. They’re really enjoyable to watch. They fought Arik Cannon and Darin Corbin. This was my vote for favorite match of the day. Team AC/DC had new, matching ring gear in pink, white and black, and it looked awesome. There was a lot of love on our end for the slow motion segment. It’s a great way in inject a little comedy into an otherwise serious match. Pieces of Hate came away with the win after hitting the Jig ‘n’ Tonic on Corbin.

We got more Baltic Siege on Bloc Party action with the Thunder Frog wrestling the Proletariat Boar. The rest of the Siege was in the back recovering from their post-match beat down, but the other members of the Bloc Party were at ringside. The Boar won the match with a spear, and the entire Bloc Party trio beat up on the Thunder Frog until his partners came out to make the save. Solid match, with the highlight being an appearance from the Hammer of Peace. Fun stuff.

Our main even for the afternoon show was the Spectral Envoy against Sidney Bakabella’s Wrecking Crew, comprised of Blaster McMassive, Jaka, and Oleg the Usurper. Oleg is one of my favorite gimmicks going right now. When he slayed Dragon Dragon last year, I was all in. The match started with the rudos attacking the Envoy when their backs were turned. Tons of over the top rope flippies, culminating with McMassive diving over the top rope. That was BANANAS. I’ve seen him do it before (pretty sure he did it at the Chikara WrestleCon show last year), but seeing it live is a whole 'nother ball game. Oleg tried to hit Ultramantis with his war helmet at the end of the match, but Blind Rage showed up and took the weapon from him. Mantis trapped Oleg in the Chikara Special, winning the match for the Envoy.

Look for this show on Smart Mark Video. I’d definitely recommend checking it out if you weren’t there live.

We didn’t have tickets to the Expansion Pack event between shows, so we headed out to grab some grub before Diamonds are Forever started. I’d worn my Cesaro King of Swing shirt to the event, which Dasher Hatfield saw on my way out. He was not pleased, even after I tried to tell him I considered him the original Olde Timey King of Swing. He was having none of it, so to even out the karma, I bought one of his shirts later that night. It’s a copy of Cesaro’s International Superpower shirt. It’s glorious. We’re cool now too, and sealed our truce with a hug. (Dasher is awesome.) After thanking the other wrestlers on the way out and getting a hug from the Thunder Frog, we headed into the muggy Chicago afternoon for some chicken wings.

The evening show, Diamonds are Forever, wasn’t as good as the afternoon one. The first half was really uneven, with three of the four matches being over in what felt like under five minutes. I was also sitting next to a group of guys who talked through the entire show about early '90s hardcore wrestling and complaining about how there was too much comedy during the show. They were kind of terrible.

We started the show with Old Fashioned, Jervis Cottonbelly and Marion Fontaine, defeating Los Ice Creams, El Hijo de Ice Cream and Ice Cream Jr. Great opening bout. Plenty of comedy and some solid action to warm the crowd up. Each team pulled a kid in from the crowd to start the match for them, which got a ‘King of Trios’ chant from the crowd. Old Fashioned used their kid to distract Los Ice Creams, before pinning them with double backslides. Their awesome music kicked in, and they brought both kids back into the ring to shake hands with the wrestlers and each other. Next we got the three crazy short matches.

First up was Max Smashmaster, accompanied by Blaster McMassive, destroying JoJo Bravo. Smashmaster looks great. He’s dropped a bunch of weight, but is still ENORMOUS. I legit thought Bravo’s rib cage was destroyed when Smashmaster hit his running senton. One of the highlights of the night was Smashmaster ascending the ropes and hitting Bravo with a moonsault for the win. Seeing a GIANT man flip through the air like that will never not impress me. Bryce Remsburg, senior referee of Chikara, put a shirt over Bravo’s face and carried his limp body to the back.

The next crazy short bout was Blind Rage defeated Mat Fitchett. All I remember about this match is this lady in the crowd’s face when she got a look at Blind Rage’s face. It was hilarious.

Third under-five minute match was The Odditorium, Oliver Grimsly and Qefka the Quiet, winning via disqualification against the Batiri, Obariyon and Kodama. The Batiri were disqualified because of excessive violence. This was bad at the time, but it ended up making sense by the end of the night. Seemed like a waste of time in the moment. I get that they are building a story across the whole year and that this wasn’t the culmination of the feud, but it was still disappointing.

After only about fifty minutes, we went to intermission. We thought this was crazy weird or that something was wrong with the ring, but no biggie. There was a lot of hope that the second half of the show would deliver. Fun little story. We had gone up to merch tables before the show started, and I picked up my Dasher Hatfield shirt. The Hubs has wanted a Morton Salt shirt (because he is a weirdo), so I suggested getting an UltraMantis Black shirt. He waffled a bit, so we went back to our seats. Completely oblivious, I mentioned that most wrestlers make the majority of their money on merchandise sales. Apparently, this made my husband feel like a giant piece of shit, so he back to the table to pick up a shirt. We were out of cash at that point, so he tried to use a credit card. Mantis razzed him for trying to do so in his typical jovial manner, so the Hubs ended up buying two shirts.

In summary, you’re welcome UltraMantis.

The second half of the show was light years ahead of the first. We got started with Juan Francisco de Coronado defeating Billy Roc. JDFC is usually very entertaining, but I couldn’t get into this match. He ended up winning in a manner than escapes me.

Things picked up with The Colony, Fire Ant and Silver Ant (formerly Green Ant) defeating their knockoff rivals in the Colony Xtreme Force, Orbit Adventure Ant and Missile Assault Ant. I loved this match. It held very high energy and was engaging. Orbit Adventure Ant’s space helmet is one of the best things ever conceived on planet Earth. These teams gel really well, and put on one of the more exciting matches of the night. The Colony got the win when Silver Ant made Orbit Adventure Ant tap out to the Chikara Special.

Jimmy Jacobs against Eddie Kingston was up next. I was really looking forward to this one, but Jacobs came out dressed in street clothes. He grabbed a mic and asked Kingston to join the Flood. He laid out that no one in Chikara cares about him. No one likes him. Kingston attacked, but then Jacobs brought up ‘her’, and how he could help Kingston get ‘her’ back. Kingston broke down and Jacobs beat him with a spear. Not sure if Kingston is joining the Flood, or is just going to be chaotic neutral for the rest of the season. I’m all about story progression, but the folks sitting next to me weren’t having any of it. They got vocal about it, which was super annoying. I’m pretty sure that the ‘her’ Jacobs was referring to is the Chikara Grand Championship, since Kingston called it ‘her’ during the Ashes video series. I’m very interested to see where this goes.

The final match of the evening was 3peck0, Archibald Peck, Shane Mattews, and Scott Parker, against Die Bruderschaft des Kreuzes, Tursas, Ares, and Nøkken, accompanied by Milo Schnitzler. This match looked like it was going to end prematurely too when the Odditorium interfered, but the Batiri came down to make the save. Archie got on the mic, and challenged the Flood to a ten man tag match. Bryce made the match official, and we were off to the races. The tecnicos fought to drag the Flood back to the ring. Things got nuts when Archie went to the top rope and flattened everyone with a dive over the ring post. Match was absolute madness. At one point, Tursas was teetering on the ring apron as 3.0 tried to knock him off. Parker took a dive at him, sending the MASSIVE Tursas onto his teammates on the floor. You could feel the impact through the floor. Somehow, Oliver Grimsly ended up back in the ring, got caught by the Batiri in the Go to Hell, and was pinned. Crowd went crazy and Scott Parker got on the mic to thank us all for coming out.

Too long, didn’t read version - Chikara is glorious, and if you aren’t paying attention, you’re missing out on a great product.

Let the Thunder Frog and Chikara into your heart, America Photo Credit: TH

It's hump day, so here are some links to get you through the rest of the week:

Wrestling Links:

- How I set to write a review to a Chikara show and wrote an invitation instead [With Leather]

- The Soap Box: Advice from a wrestler to fans [Ring Belles]

- In This Very Ring: Ladies' Night [Deadshirt]

- I will never take a bump in any sided wrestling ring [Wrestling Is Fun]

- The Best and Worst of RAW: We Lie, We Cheat, We Feels [With Leather]

- The Mandible Claw Podcast Episode 22B: Brandon and Danielle's Excellent International Adventure Part 2 [the Mandible Claw]

- WWE legend Ricky Steamboat once lost his pet iguana in the Philadelphia Spectrum [The 700 Level]

- TNA Impact Results and Review (June 19) [Voices of Wrestling]

- The Best and Worst of Impact Wrestling: Right in the Dreamers [With Leather]

Non-Wrestling Links:

- You shouldn't bite people [SB Nation]

- Mario Balotelli leaps over a guy, knees him in the head in the process [Screamer]

- Watch Jon Stewart mock Texas Republicans' attempt to cure gayness [UPROXX]

- Every FCC viewer complaint about Michael Sam kissing his boyfriend [Deadspin]

- The quintessential Washington Redskins trademark explainer [Sports on Earth]

- A lunchpail odyssey: PFT Commenter's evening with Terry Bradshaw [SB Nation]

- Casting the roles of a college football lifetime [Every Day Should Be Saturday]

- Rejected Princesses: the weird tales Disney will never do [Observation Deck]

- Should all women become lesbians? [Gawker]

- A handy guide to keeping sexism out of women's tennis coverage [Sports on Earth]

- For your cringing pleasure, Texts from Straight White Boys [Jezebel]

- Mormon church excommunicates woman fighting for female priesthood [Gawker]

- Is staying thin hard? It doesn't matter [Powder Room]

- LeBron James is perfect, whether you love him or hate him [Hardwood Paroxysm]

- Which teams should really consider signing LeBron James? [Deadspin]

- Johnny Manziel drafted by the Harlem Globetrotters [Good Bull Hunting]

- Ten Star Wars characters who won't be in the new Star Wars [Gamma Squad]

- Unfairly slimed? It's time to forgive Ghostbusters 2 [The Concourse]

- 31 science fiction terms and where they came from [io9]

- The ten best American Dad! episodes (of the Fox era) [Warming Glow]

- Science may know what's wrong with Hodor [Kotaku]

- This Week in F**k You: Sprint [Kissing Suzy Kolber]

- Alternate Monopoly cards [Screenburn]

- Cookin' ATVS Style: My First Attempt at Ribs [And the Valley Shook]

- Taco Bell Quesarito: A fast food love affair gone awry [The Concourse]

- Dude in a suit of Mentos getting dropped into a vat of Diet Coke [Warming Glow]

- Ten moves you should never teach your Pokemon [Kotaku]

When a wrestling company presents their product to a prospective audience through a new outlet, as Ring of Honor did the past Sunday with their first live pay-per-view event offered through cable and satellite providers, it can go over one of two ways. Either they can add as many big names as possible and try to appeal to people outside of their core audience (much like TNA's ill-fated decision to let Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff lead their move to Monday nights) or present the best that their product already has to offer and stay true to what they have done. With "Best in the World", ROH gave the audience a typical ROH show, warts and all, and it was damn good.

ROH, to use a baseball analogy, has always been a company that either hits it out of the park or strikes out, in my humble opinion. Best in the World was another example of this idea as each match (and interview segment) had phenomenal moments interspersed with sloppy exchanges. Because of this dichotomy of quality, I have provided what I thought were the most noticeable pros and cons aspects of each match.

6-Man Mayhem - ACH vs. Takaaki Watanabe vs. Caprice Coleman vs. Tommaso Ciampo vs. BJ Whitmer vs. Tadarius Thomas

Pros: There were copious amounts of spots in this match and that really jolted the crowd and got them hyped up for the rest of the card. Each man (except for one, whom I'll get to later) provided what they do best to the match and it all worked well. I enjoyed Whitmer denying ACH from diving to the outside on two separate occasions, Coleman hitting two Northern Lights suplexes with a backflip into a double Northern Lights suplex pinning combination and especially the high-angle senton bomb to the outside that ACH hit. He jumped with one foot off of the second rope into the maneuver with incredible height. It was easily the most impressive part of the match and ACH was worthy of the victory that he obtained.

Cons: Watanabe is new to ROH, so that may have attributed to his lackluster performance in the match, but he was noticeably atrocious. He seemed a step slow compared to his opponents. He busted open Ciampa with some standing elbows, and the rest of his offense that didn't hit too close looked labored. I'm sure as he spends more time in ROH (if he spends more time in the United States) then his chemistry with the other wrestlers will improve, but Watanabe's performance was subpar at Best in the World.

ROH TV Title Match - Jay Lethal vs. Matt Taven

Pros: Well... the handcuffing of Truth Martini was funny. Martini and Seleziya Sparx provided some comic relief as he tried to run away from being locked to the ring post and ended up being carried back by Sparx. Taven getting a nice sequence of a front handspring off the ropes into a jumping enzugiri followed by a Brainbuster by Taven on Lethal was the only other bright spot.

Cons: Despite having wrestled each other multiple times, there were many maneuvers that did not appear to land properly. It made for a disjointed match that never engaged the crowd. Also, Taven never got his hands on Martini, and with Lethal getting the pin after hitting the Lethal Injection, this only means that the rivalry will continue. I, for one, am not looking forward to that.

Submission Match - Cedric Alexander vs. Roderick Strong

Pros: That back body drop from the outside onto the apron was absolutely brutal! Strong launched Alexander over his head and onto the apron in a sickening manner, and it looked fantastic. Alexander also hit a turnbuckle backbreaker on Strong that looked excruciating. Hell, everything else these men did to each other looked stiff. These two men have pushed each other every time they squared off in the ring, and it has lifted this feud to relevance despite its mid-card standing. The finish of Alexander putting Strong in the Stronghold and getting the decision was well-deserved.

Cons: But for real, that back body drop was so dangerous! Why would you ever try that spot?! Who decided on that spot?! Who ordered that code red?! How old is that movie reference?! Sorry, that move was incredibly unnecessary, and I hate myself for loving it.

The Briscoes vs. Matt Hardy and Michael Bennett

Pros: The two table spots in the match were absolutely pretty. Mark Briscoe hit the Froggybow from the top rope onto Bennett, and Jay Briscoe superplexed Hardy through a table in the ring from the top of a ladder. Afterward, Jay Briscoe hit Hardy with the Jay Driller and got the pinfall. That superplex in particular was about as safe as you can make it and well done by both men. I can not believe that Hardy is still taking those bumps and still looks good doing it.

Cons: The aforementioned tables were not a part of the build up to this tag team match. Only when Bennett hit Jay Briscoe over the head with the "Iconic" title belt did Nigel McGuinness see to it that the match would become a No Disqualification match. The easier and much more appealing move would have been to make it a No DQ match before the event. I don't understand why you wouldn't want to add that stipulation to a match when you are trying to sell a Pay Per View.

At this point in the show, Larry Mercer and Mandy Leon interviewed Moose, a wrestler from their Ring of Honor Dojo. Veda Scott and Ramon then interrupted them and asked Moose if he would like Scott's services as a manager. He stated that he just wanted to focus on the matches going on at the event and to not talk about business affairs.

The bit itself was mediocre due to Moose's stilted delivery on the microphone. He is good in the ring from what I have seen, but his microphone skills need work (I feel like that is a recurring theme in this company). The only good thing about this interview? Scott appeared on my television screen! I love that woman's character and she is a stunning beauty. I guess I'm only talking about this segment to publicly state that I have a crush on her. Hopefully soon it will be reciprocated.

Kevin Steen vs. Silas Young

Pros: These two men hit their spots properly and efficiently. The match itself contained everything that you expect from a Steen match and Young kept up with him. After the match (which Steen won via a Package Piledriver), Steen spoke to Young and called him an "exceptional professional wrestler" and the two exchanged a handshake. Young then walked out of the ring only to run back in and attack Steen. It was well done and allows for the feud to continue.

Cons: Young is a very good wrestler, but he is not a dynamic character. There is not much to this storyline and I am conflicted about watching Steen finish off this ROH run with a feud that is mostly insignificant. Hopefully these two men are able to provide some content that will engender more of an investment from the crowd.

ROH Tag Team Championship - reDRagon vs. Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian

Pros: I am an admitted mark for the tag team formerly known as "Bad Influence," and they performed well for two guys who had either not wrestled in ROH for a long time. My favorite spots involved Kazarian hitting a sick looking T-bone suplex off of the top rope on Kyle O'Reilly and Daniels attempting three separate moonsaults but landing on his feet as his target rolled away. His agility is so impressive.

Cons: The lack of ring time that these two teams have with each other did rear its ugly head at times. There were moments of confusion between the teams and it caused for some messy sequences. After a few more matches as a team in ROH, Daniels and Kazarian will clean that up and provide some fantastic moments with reDRagon and other tag teams in the company.

ROH World Championship - Adam Cole vs. Michael Elgin

Pros: There was never a doubt that Hardy, Bennett, and even Maria Kanellis would show up and interfere with this match in order to help Cole, but all of the interference happened in an efficient middle portion of the match and did not linger. Bringing out the tag team War Machine to clear out Bennett and Hardy was a nice callback to ROH TV. Then MsChif, Elgin's wife and fellow wrestler, coming out and spwed Green Mist into Kanellis's face, which really popped on the screen. Elgin then hit Cole with a Buckle Bomb and an Elgin Bomb and only got a two count. The crowd thought it was a three count and began throwing streamers into the ring, but when they realized their mistake the crowd followed that with a "We Fucked Up" chant. All of this made for an exciting match and finish when Elgin Power Bombed Cole three consecutive times to finally finish the match and become ROH World Champion.
Cons: Is this result surprising? Absolutely not. Anyone who had kept up with this story and saw that these two were wrestling at ROH's first traditional live PPV could see this was coming. Elgin is a deserving Champion, but he is incredibly average on the microphone, and his in-ring offense is monotonous. He's is not as dynamic a performer as Cole, and it is a bit worrisome to think about the immediate future of the ROH World Championship. I'm wearily intrigued to see what happens next with Elgin, but for now, it is time to give credit where it is due and congratulate him on finally obtaining the ROH World Title.

Overall, ROH gave the paying audience a show that I feel was worthy of the money spent. This event reminded me of ECW's first PPV Barely Legal in its ability to entertain despite some clunky production or match issues. For everything that was good or bad, Best in the World"was definitively a ROH show in production and execution and it is always a good thing when your wrestling company can provide a distinct point of view. This show is definitely something that the company can be built upon.

Honor Connor the Crusher's memory. Donate today. Photo Credit: WPIX/Pittsburgh

Via WWE.com

The Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh has created Connor's Cure, a foundation to help research treatments and help find a cure for forms of pediatric brain and spinal cord cancers in addition to giving aid to families of the afflicted. The foundation was announced with personal funding from both Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in memory of Connor Michalek, aka the Stone Crusher or Connor the Crusher. Daniel Bryan's #1 fan succumbed to a rare form of brain and spine cancer earlier this year, although not after being able to see his favorite wrestler win the day at WrestleMania XXX.

While most prospective donors cannot possibly fund the charity in the way that the Levesque/McMahon family has, every donation, no matter how large or small, helps. You can give money directly through the hospital's page. Cancer is an awful blight on humanity when it takes an adult (RIP Tony Gwynn), but it's a real dickbag when it takes the life of a child. Donate what you can to help fight this especially lethal form of pediatric cancer.

"Dean couldn't go back to the greasers, the best he could do was pickup the pieces..." Photo Credit: WWE.com

Money in the Bank was established as its own pay-per-view on the promise of having two big ladder matches for two separate briefcases. Wrestling logic dictates that you can't have too much of a good thing, even if the original briefcase concept had a certain measure of intrigue as to which title the holder would target in his quest for eternal, sneaky glory. Then again, back when only one briefcase existed, the Big Gold Belt was on the same level as John Cena's Spinner. Remember the halcyon days of Jeff Hardy and a pre-pipebomb CM Punk headlining SummerSlam? Thems was the days, I says. A funny thing happened on the way to 2014's event, however, well, two funny things if you want to be anal about it. The first major elemental change to the show happened back in December, when Randy Orton unified the top titles and created one, wholly undisputed WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Gone would be the double-barreled display of ladder related carnage, and the drama of when that briefcase would be cashed in would be halved. Of course, I don't find that prospect to be bad. Two briefcases always meant that one cash-in would happen nearly immediately and the other would be stretched out to time enough after anyone might have expected it in an attempt to create a moment.

Then, the other funny thing that really wasn't funny at all happened. Daniel Bryan, who spent a good eight months scratching and climbing to get to the highest perch in the company, hurt his neck and anticlimactically had to give up his WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The twofold top hardware in the company will be on the line in the main event, which means at least in 2014, the Money in the Bank special event will have two multi-person car crash ladder matches to hold intrigue, and lo and behold, the same stratification exists as it did before. Main event guys in one match, up-and-comers in the other. This year, however, with the title involved in the big match, chances for a true elevation from the other match are back to levels not seen since Jack Swagger had SO MUCH TROUBLE taking the briefcase off the hook at the final WrestleMania Money match. Today, I will take a look at who may or may not have the best odds of walking out of Boston with a golden opportunity to become an instant Champion. Spoiler alert, the odds are not one-in-seven for everyone, no matter how much Michael Cole insists otherwise.

Kofi Kingston1000-1 - Kofi Kingston is in the Money in the Bank ladder match for the same reason he's in the Royal Rumble every year, and why whenever a battle royale happens, he's there in the fray. He's nimble, knows how to produce something memorable that doesn't involve him winning, and has no fear of dying from a huge bump. The best time to pull the trigger on him came and went with a Randy Orton tantrum in early 2010. Ghana has a better chance of advancing to the knockout round and making the World Cup semifinals than Kingston does of sniffing that briefcase.

Bad News Barrett100-1 - Barrett got hurt at the Smackdown tapings last night thanks to Jack Swagger. A separated shoulder in the grand scheme of things isn't that bad, but it could be enough to keep Barrett out of the ladder match. He's supposedly listed as day-to-day right now. Either way, I can't confidently put him where I wanted to put him because of that injury. Healthy, he would have been the smart pick to win. He's obviously the hottest wrestler in the match, and with the two favorites in Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins embroiled in a DEATH FEUD with each other, he might have been the guy to sneak in and take the briefcase while they were skirmishing.

The biggest shame out of all of this is how snakebitten Barrett has been since the last time he was in a WWE Championship match. I blame Matt Striker for gleefully proclaiming JOHN CENA WAS FREE at Survivor Series '10. The man has had chairs dropped on him for no reason other than WWE bookers are idiots. He was saddled with the worst stable since the Union. WWE gave him a sustained singles push, but his best chance for a breakout ended up going to Daniel Bryan in 2011. He won the Intercontinental Championship and became the template for Creative's shitty plan for secondary titleholders. It took the fucking JBL and Cole Show to get him a character idea to finally catch on for him, and now, he gets hurt at the one time where he would have been the smartest choice to in the briefcase. The man just cannot win.

Jack Swagger75-1 - Last year, Swagger concussed Dolph Ziggler right when he was about to embark upon a World Heavyweight Championship reign that could have defined him. This year, he separated Barrett's shoulder by being just a little too rough with him at the guardrail. Wrestling injuries far too often are laid to blame solely at the guy giving out the moves, but at the same time, Swagger hasn't done himself any favors, especially since the Ziggler injury really couldn't be blamed on the guy taking the kick to the head. Swagger's ship has sailed. I can see him with better odds of winning than, say, Kingston, but everything else equal, his WWE career may just see him as a hard-working if somewhat sloppy jobber to the stars.

RED BELLY'S potential replacement50-1 - The 50-1 odds seem in aggregate of the menagerie of wrestlers who might replace Barrett. Guys like El Torito, Sin Cara, or Heath Slater could get the nod just to take huge bumps and titillate the crowd in a similar manner as Kingston might. Bo Dallas, Alexander Rusev, or Big E Langston could be last-minute additions who would be immediate dark horses to win the match. The A-bomb scenario, however, would put Brock Lesnar in the match to annihilate everyone, snag the briefcase, and use it as his in for his elusive shot at the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Either way, since I have no idea who might replace Barrett (if he needs to be replaced at all, mind you), I can't in good faith give it better odds than these, but hey, the options are as limitless as they are interesting.

Rob van Dam20-1 - RVD winning is my personal nightmare scenario, but with Barrett out and the fabulous feuding Shield Bros. always with the chance to knock each other out of the match, what other great option does WWE have at this point? I know management can't be dumb enough to position RVD's busted ass as a challenger, no matter how much of a nostalgia pop he gets, but I will never not be surprised at how regressive the company can get in pushing geezers regardless of talent level.

Dolph Ziggler18-1 - The biggest benefactor of Barrett potentially being out, however, could be Ziggler. Like Barrett, he's got fan support out the wazoo and is still young enough that he'd be able to carry a WWE Championship reign. He's also got a ready-made "Reality Era" story with Triple H brewing. I've read a lot of rumors, however, that Ziggler has fallen out of favor because of his injury history, but rumors are just that at this point. He always busts his ass in the ring, even to the point of bumping like a madman in C and D level shows, and he's got so much fire on promos that WWE just doesn't let him show on a regular basis. Past history dictates that his odds can't be much better than the 18-1 I'm giving him right now, but he's still the best combination of talent and health to win this match right now outside of...

Dean Ambrose
Seth Rollins1-3 - Sometimes, WWE telegraphs something so hard that it has no option BUT to follow through. WrestleMania was a sterling example of them building so hard to a Bryan triumph that I was almost certain the result would be some kind of shenanigan. The closest WWE came to a schmozz was having Bryan getting loaded onto the stretcher; the finish was never in doubt. Bryan was meant to destroy Evolution and take home the titles from the moment he was screwed out of the belts at Elimination Chamber. Right now, WWE is not giving any semblance of a chance to any of the other five competitors in the match. The briefcase and the shot at the eventual next WWE World Heavyweight Champion is a physical manifestation of what's at stake between Rollins and Ambrose here. It's a proxy for a simple singles match if you will. Even before Barrett got hurt, I would have bet the farm that one of these men would walk out with the golden briefcase. Now that Bad News got some bad news, I'm almost certain one of them will get the nod.

But which one will get that shot at the title? I guess this match needs some intrigue going into it. Rollins winning would put more heat on The Authority and continue to build them as a group. Ambrose winning would help him build his psychopathic fan-favorite antihero persona exponentially. Either one's a great choice, and at this point, I can't think which result is more likely.

It's the Main Event before the biggest Network Special since WrestleMania XXX, where the main event was an interview and the more interesting things that stand to affect the narrative happened for real in the subsequent Smackdown tapings.  If you were hoping this was full of MOTY candidates and no recaps, I'm afraid just like the injury report that I've got some Bad News.  Hell, one of the matches wasn't even a match, as Fandango fell victim to girl troubles and walked into a BoDog as a result.  However, with Roman dispatching of Kane with a clothesline after a Triple H special guest appearance on the Tron, we might as well get to the two matches that constituted the meat of the show.

It started off as An Inspirational Moment with Dolph Ziggler.  (Obviously, this was just subtle foreshadowing of the Inspirational Boment that would come later in the show.)  If you just wandered in - and since this is pro graps, there's always new footprints inside the tents - there was no person better than the Showoff to get over the importance of the MITB contendership match.  It was hokey, to be sure; he literally was climbing the ladder to deliver his speech before pausing within reaching range of the object of desire.  Yet it all seemed heartfelt and genuine as he loaded the Somewhat Wayback to the previous two years of briefcase obtainment and the cash-in that vaulted him into the World Heavyweight Championship the night after last year's WrestleMania.  After all, if you could relive the best moment of your life, why the hell wouldn't you?

Not the best moment of his life would ensue, as he teamed with Kofi Kingston and Rob Van Dam against Seth Rollins, Jack Swagger and a pre-injured Bad News Barrett.  Like an episode of Jeopardy, you know the answer to this match was going to be the Curb Stomp; the question was "Who'd be victimized by it?" Everybody who guessed Kofi Kingston, congratulations on your pulse.  Almost literally it seemed like he was collapsing under the weight of his first offense since the winter and SPLUT he went.  There were some post-match shenanigans with Barrett clearing the ring of both face and heel with and without a ladder BECAUSE THERE ARE NO FRIENDS IN A MONEY IN THE BANK MATCH BULLHAMMAH THIS SUNDAY MAGGLE and so forth.  Trust me, if you're such an addict you're watching Main Event, you know this trope better than you know 98.9% of your family.

RyBaxel beat Certainly Not Truth and Consequences to set up a match against the Dust Brothers on Sunday.  The Big Guy's "painted up hermaphrodites" slur post-match would've been better off not said but of course it would've gotten a more virulent reaction if he didn't look like the third Lout brother suddenly given a pulse and a tag partner.  What're you going to do besides point out the problematic, why it is, and move on?  Truth be told that throwaway one-liner gave more to mine than the segment of Perfectly Cromulent Wrestling that preceded it.

Yeah, it was that kind of show.  If for whatever daft reason you wanted to look it up, check under "Skippable", modifier "Eminently".

Cabana went too far, but he sparked needed talk Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein

It only takes a few dumbasses to ruin everything for everyone. Beyond Wrestling has gone from obscure fight club-style wrestling outfit that worked mostly in wrestling schools and with other companies to a major player on the indie scene, and its shows come with critical acclaim from nearly everyone who observes them. However, with great fame comes scrutiny, even if it's the root of a few dumbasses who ruin it for everyone. The cretins in question reacted to a spot at Uncomfortable on Sunday done by Officer Colt Cabana, the law enforcement alter ego of the world's most famous indie wrestler that is usually confined to Juggalo Championship Wrestling. Cabana got behind Dan Barry and dry-humped him. A certain portion of the crowd in response chanted "Rape! Rape! Rape!" lighting the fuse on a powder keg of awfulness and embarrassment.

The chant in question was in reference to a very specific kind of rape, the kind that happens in prisons and that is thought of to happen by men on other men. The spot that brought the chants on is something that is part of Cabana's routine whenever he's in front of a Juggalo crowd for comedy. Rape is never funny, but you don't need me to tell you that. Maybe you think it's not okay to joke about when it happens to women, and you'd be absolutely correct. But prison rape is just as grotesque, and in a way, it's treated a lot less seriously than the epidemic levels of sexual assault perpetrated mostly by men on women in civilian society because convicts already are erroneously believed to have no rights. It also happens in all situations, by guards on inmates or by inmates on other inmates, same sex or heterosexually. It's a problem, one that shouldn't be made light of.

So why does Cabana still make light of prison rape to get a chuckle and a rise out of the crowd? He claims to love wrestling, but yet this spot seems to me to appeal to the worst kind of wrestling fan, the one that gives everyone a bad name. Sure, one can blame the fans for taking that next step, but at the same time, to discount the stimulus and blame only the reaction is extremely one-sided and shortsighted. If the gross thing didn't happen at the show, then how would those gross fans react? You can't say that they would have found something else to be awful about, because human behavior is complex and can't be judged in arbitrary vacuums. I can only judge what I am given to judge, not what I can imagine.

Some fans/commentators have taken to placing blame on other sources, like Barry, Bill Carr, and Supercop Dick Justice for participating in the match with Cabana and Beyond Wrestling for promoting the match. Honestly, I can at least provide character testimony for Barry and head booker Denver Colorado (the man, not the place), enough to fill up three posts even. They're good guys, but as the smoke clears, none of what I say matters. They have to get out in front of what happened, and to their credit, both guys are answering questions and engaging critics on Twitter. I also recognize that engaging in conversation over what happened is the least any decent human being should do. Yet, the frequency at which people engage in conversation, which requires both talking AND listening, seems dishearteningly low. The tendency to throw out absolutes and throw people under the bus, especially by those in a position of power against the oppressed who don't have the kind of stroke in society, makes me sick in the extreme cases.

Of course, in this case, I do feel it safe to make two absolute statements. One, if you are the kind of person who would chant something gross and vile at a wrestling show like "Rape!", then you should probably sit in a corner and think about what makes your behavior abhorrent and disgusting. Don't go back to a wrestling show until you realize that chanting that not only trivializes prison rape, but also could be a trigger warning to victims of that heinous crime, no matter what the context. Second, the one person who absolutely has to answer questions here is Cabana. This incident isn't the first time I've seen him work shtick that I thought on the wrong side of the edge. His act can run pretty homophobic at times. Still, regardless of whether his resume before Sunday was pristine or not, it still baffles me as to why anyone would think an issue as sensitive as rape should be handled by the wrestling equivalent of a Borscht belt comic.

Then again, modern comedians struggle with the issue. The number of comics and comedy fans who choose the hill of Rape Joke to die on is both staggering and disappointing. If comedy, a generally progressive artform among the critical elite, can have people within it struggle with discussion of rape without getting snippy, then why should anyone be surprised that trying to discuss it in wrestling is even more difficult? Still, if the principals at the heart of this discussion open up to listen to each other and especially to those who may be upset by the material in question, then nothing is impossible.

Conversation means not trying to accuse others of having an agenda. It means not distorting an issue to frame a mostly progressive and welcoming company as a place where women now feel unsafe. It's not being reflexively defensive of an artist's right to free speech as if free speech was the issue here. And it certainly doesn't mean saying "Welp, that's what wrestling is!" and ignoring it like change can't be enacted from the ground up.

Beyond Wrestling is in a unique spot because a lot of what Colorado does influences the rest of the scene, but he's close enough to the fans to listen to what they have to say. I hope that everyone, from Colorado to the fans to the wrestlers to Cabana himself can engage in conversation, listen to what rape survivors, prison or otherwise, and women in general have to say about experiencing the kinds of horrors that the dumbasses who ruin it for everyone celebrate, mindlessly or not. Beyond can be edgy and hip and the next best thing in wrestling, but it won't matter if anyone is made to feel unsafe or if they feel as if their discomfort level is too much.

And even if that discomfort level comes from the dumbasses who ruin it for everyone, then they need to be talked to at least. Maybe it's up to the decent folk in the crowd to speak up and stop gross chants as they're happening. I don't know what the exact solution is, but I do know wrestling fans should not be allowed to be stuck in the dark ages and thus shut out entire demographics. And something as heinous as rape probably shouldn't be used as fodder for a comedic spot in a match until society gets how badly the act is ignored and underprosecuted, both in and out of jail. If that time is "never," then yeah, I'd be oddly okay with it.

ZACK SABRE, JR. IS COMING TO RESEDA! Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein

The first eight names Pro Wrestling Guerrilla announced for its annual Battle of Los Angeles tournament, a three-day, 24-competitor affair, were impressive. One could say they were even stellar. Well, shortly after those names were announced, eight more wrestlers were unveiled for the tournament, and in aggregate, the wow factor held serve at the very least.

Kyle O'Reilly - O'Reilly's entry into the tournament is a little strange to me given his status as Champion. Will he defend the title throughout, or is his hardware safe? Either way, he'll be a focal point throughout. I expect him to make a deep run.

Brian Cage - Cage is another PWG regular in the tourney. He was actually favored to make a deep run in the tourney the last two years, and this year shouldn't be any different. While his tag run with Michael Elgin has been solid and possessing staying power, if PWG holds back on him too much more, he may be in danger of becoming Brandon Gatson'd/Willie Mack'd.

ACH - ACH's PWG debut was at the tournament last year. In that calendar frame, he's ingratiated himself to the Reseda crowd like I knew he would. This year, I'm interested to see against whom he's pitted. I'm all in on ACH/Matt Sydal happening at some point, whether as part of the tournament or as a non-tourney match later on.

Zack Sabre, Jr. - HOLY SHIT! I've only seen Sabre once live at King of Trios in '11. He came in for one Rey de Voladores eliminator but lost in the match that ultimately sent El Generico to the final. However, since that time, he's blown up both in England and Japan. I remember enjoying him a lot in limited exposure, and I'm totally hype to see him again in an extended setting after getting some more seasoning.

Rich Swann - While his tag team partner Ricochet, aka the hottest gaijin in Japan right now, will more than likely be in Japan working Dragon Gate, Swann will make the tournament. This weekend would be the perfect opportunity for him to break out as a singles performer.

Trent? - Trent? is what Brian Myers will hope to become on the indies in his post-WWE career. He already co-won a PWG tournament this year along with Chuck Taylor. I'm not sure he'll make it two-for-two, but at least he'll rock the house in his first round match. I don't foresee him going to far, if only because the Best Friends have some taggin' to do on night three most likely.

Cedric Alexander - Alexander's making a splash in PWG along with his North Carolina brother Trevor Lee. Lee seems to be taking a firmer hold, but Alexander is already a bona fide main event guy in his home state and is really establishing himself in Ring of Honor. If I were to peg an "unlikely" semifinalist or finalist, I'd go with him. Plus, he's really goddamn good and would have excellent matches with literally everyone announced so far.

AJ Styles - Styles is perhaps the biggest name announced for the tournament so far, apologies to Sydal. His run on the American indies has actually been well-received (most of the malaise has come from New Japan deciding to put the IWGP Title on him to be honest), so I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do here.

I gotta say, the ZSJ announcement alone is titillating enough for me. Eight names are left, and several "regulars" still have yet to have their cards punched. I get the feeling, however, that name #24 will be yet another mind-blower. Regardless, the field already is stacked, and it's going to make the end of summer heat up to heretofore unknown levels of scorching fire. And to think, three weeks later, Chikara is going to do the three-day tourney thing all over again with King of Trios. Ladies and germs, it is truly a wonderful time to be a wresting fan.

*sniffle* Missin' u, Hounds of Justice Photo Credit: WWE.com

It's Twitter Request Line time, everyone! I take to Twitter to get questions about issues in wrestling, past and present, and answer them on here because 140 characters can't restrain me, fool! If you don't know already, follow me @tholzerman, and wait for the call on Wednesday to ask your questions. Hash-tag your questions #TweetBag, and look for the bag to drop Thursday morning. Without further ado, here are your questions and my answers!

@tholzerman I can't get over the Shield break-up and it's poisoned my joie de vivre. Help please.
— Carrie Dunn (@carriesparkle) June 25, 2014

Not your joie de vivre! In all seriousness, I was pretty bummed when the move happened initially, and I still feel the void in my life where the Hounds of Justice used to be. I know nothing good can stay, especially when it comes to factions within WWE, but that move just felt too abrupt. However, I've found a few silver linings. First, Seth Rollins actually sounds like an effective orator now! Second, how can anyone not love Troubled Teen Dean Ambrose? (Credit: Tom Blackett) The briefcase Money in the Bank match has an interesting story, and Rollins and Ambrose look like they can feud until WrestleMania and not lose steam. None of the above is taking into account Roman Reigns' raw charisma. And if all else fails, other acts can start to fill the void. The Usos are still an incredible, self-made success story. The Wyatt Family is as close to art as WWE is producing. Brock Lesnar is nigh! Antonio Cesaro is going to get elevated!

I know, I know, these examples are all stopgaps. Nothing is going to replace The Shield in the short term, but hey, sometimes, being a fan of anything is looking for ways to make up for the disappointments, right?

@tholzerman What's your issue with JR (asked respectfully). Also congrats on the new baby! #tweetbag
— Ultimo Mateo (@TheUltimateMatt) June 25, 2014

I first started losing respect for him when I used to follow him on Twitter and he'd just snipe at fans that he thought asked dumb questions or weren't respectful enough. It's one thing to beef with your peers, but when you start picking on people who would be anonymous to your followers if not for you pointing out how they're stupid, you start to come off as cruel. Then I remember the horror stories from when he worked for WWE, when he'd borderline sexually harass women or how he tried to rig the Brawl for All to get Steve Williams to win, and when he didn't, he pitched a massive hissy-fit. And then the actual meat of his "analysis" either was saying he didn't know in the bitchiest way possible or chiding fans who actually had the gall to complain about things he didn't think they should have complained about. Basically, Jim Ross is a bitter old man, and I'd rather listen to someone like Vince Russo who may have philosophies that are wildly divergent to what I think is good wrestling thought, but who seems enthusiastic, friendly, engaging, and amusing.

@tholzerman#tweetbag Congrats on the new baby. Also, favorite wacky submission hold?
— Okori Wadsworth (@OkoriWadsworth) June 25, 2014

Is the Stump Puller wacky enough for you? Or the nose hook? I actually love arcane, illegal hooks and gouges. The fishhook, the nose hook, the individual finger bend-back, the mandible claw... anything that involves a wrestler gouging at soft tissue with appendages is okay with me. In fact, the next wrestler who breaks out a move that digs at the taint will get my undying love and affection.

@tholzerman which current wrestling couple will birth a wwe champion? #TweetBag
— Medium Talent (@rancho_king33) June 25, 2014

The answer is most obviously Joey Ryan and Candice LeRae. They're both beautiful, fit people with seemingly great genetics. They love wrestling enough to tour the country doing indie dates for peanuts. Both have understated charisma that complements each other; where Ryan has faults in his character, he's completed by LeRae and vice versa. If any wrestling progeny has a chance for success based on things that probably don't even figure in genetics or what have you, I would say their prospective future kid would be it.

@tholzerman Who do you want to replace Barrett and who actually will? #TweetBag
— Drizzy Kong (@jmesquire) June 25, 2014

For whom I want to replace RED BELLY, fuck it, gimme Sami Zayn. I know debuting a guy in a Money in the Bank scenario could seem dicey if he's not going to win, but for a kinetic and fearless performer like Zayn, no better scenario fits his strengths than a multi-man ladder match.

As for who will replace Barrett, well, I'm not entirely sure he'll miss the match. WWE seems to think he's day-to-day. My gut tells me Barrett will make the match.

@tholzerman Who'd be the first 5 or 10 peeps you'd sign to the not yet announced ,but totally should happen, American BatBat promotion?
— Sammy D (@concrete1992) June 25, 2014

Real talk, I've never watched BattlArts, so I'm not the best guy to judge who'd excel in that style. So, with that in mind, I would probably sign Chael Sonnen, Low Ki, Drew Gulak, Timothy Thatcher, and Bob Sapp, I guess. I feel like I'm copping out your question because the shoot-style stuff doesn't seem to appeal to me. Maybe I'd change my mind if I watched some of it though, but I'm afraid it'd be too much like MMA, which I find dreadfully boring.

@tholzerman Which is your favorite face of Foley? And of other multi-gimmick guys, what tends to click most for you?
— Lee (@el_spriggs) June 25, 2014

Early Mankind gets the nod. He was such a weird and innovative character for WWE at the time. The company had just come out of its neon spandex-festooned cartoon dark ages, and while the Mankind character on the surface seemed like a grittier continuation, the way Foley played it was far more nuanced and psychological than any gimmicked character WWE had produced up to that point. As for the multiple-personality guys today, I tend to stick with the wrestlers who are one character elsewhere and a completely different one in Chikara. I dug Dalton Castle before in places like 2CW and CZW, but he's absolutely wonderful as "Smooth Sailing" Ashley Remington in Chikara so far.

@tholzerman To keep up my wrestling meets baseball theme from last wk: Who on the WWE roster do you think could throw the hardest fastball?
— Sarah (@MrsKillerRoo) June 25, 2014

It would have to be someone with excellent upper body torque and control over rotation, right? The strength doesn't necessarily come from the arm as much as it does from the momentum and the torsion that accompanies from the body. Or I could be speaking out my ass here. Anyway, I would probably peg someone like Dolph Ziggler or Seth Rollins. But again, I could be full of shit here.

@tholzerman On a scale of 1-10, how pumped are you for this year's BOLA? I'm at about 90. #TweetBag
— Andrew Smith (@OMGitsOFS) June 25, 2014

I'm going to wait until the brackets are released to get a full chub on, but as it stands right now, with 16 names announced, I'm at a 9.8 at the very least. I would be over 10 if I could find a way to get out there to watch all three nights live, but hey, I'm a family man who lives on the East Coast. I'll have to do like all the other uncool kids who can't make it out to SoCal and watch that shit on DVD.

@tholzerman Mailbag: Which is wrestling's The Room -- Fuji Vice, or Hogan in the Dungeon of Doom?
— Marty G (@ThisPhillyFan) June 25, 2014

You shut your mouth about Fuji Vice. It's Hogan in the Dungeon by a landslide.

@tholzerman Do you like the MITB switch to June from July? Appreciate the extra space pre-SummerSlam? #TweetBag
— Star of Savage (@StarOfSavage) June 25, 2014

I do appreciate the spacer. Money in the Bank has taken on a life of its own, and having it ram up against SummerSlam makes it feel too jumbled in the schedule. Battleground is a nice palate cleanser, one that can give MitB its own identity and be an outlet for the fallout.

@tholzerman If you had to dump one WWE "gimmick" PPV and replace it with another gimmick PPV, which would you lose and what would you add?
— Ryan Foster (@FosterVsWorld) June 25, 2014

Hell in a Cell would be off the schedule quicker than you could say Tekno Team 2000. The cell should only be used for blood feuds. The special event mandating at least one if not two matches per card has watered the gimmick down. I generally like both Ryback and CM Punk as performers, but the fact that they've wrestled in two cell matches against each other is fucking absurd. As for what I'd replace it with, I've kicked around a few ideas. WWE has the roster to build an event around a torneo cibernetico, but would it have the agents able to give the match the proper respect it deserves? Then I thought maybe WWE could bring back King of the Ring as a one-night tournament concept, but for whatever reason, the show has always been snakebitten. A World Cup tournament partnering up with Japanese, Mexican, and European promotions would be cool, but then WWE would have to put other companies over. That idea's out.

So, what kind of gimmick show would work for a company that seems to change direction every other week, has a huge unwieldy roster, and an audience that is conditioned to expect surprises? LETHAL LOTTERY! Dedicate an entire show to random pairings, with the winners getting a guaranteed shot at the WWE Tag Team Championships. It would combine shoving random dudes together into teams along with a ready-made story of a team coalescing in one night against all odds. The only reason WWE hasn't tried it yet is probably because WCW tried it first.

@tholzerman How many times a day do you think about wrestling, and what is the wrestling organization that you think of the most?
— Shanna H. (@AbsoluteSmark) June 25, 2014

I couldn't tell you how many times I think about wrestling in a given day, but it's a lot. A WHOLE LOT. I write about it, I talk about it on Twitter, and I watch a lot of it. As for what company I think about most, I would say it's WWE, just out of sheer force of its market share. Chikara, Beyond, and PWG give WWE a run for its money here and there, but the sheer amount of programming WWE puts out a week makes it hard for a fan of the company to think about anything else more.

@tholzerman Used to be an online spot that had every wrestling event listed by date (WWE/Indy). Is there a site of event listings? #TweetBag
— Joe (@jkearns4949) June 25, 2014

That spot was Devin Cutting's site, Pro Wrestling Events. I guess he just got too busy to aggregate all the events. I know Nate Stein sends out e-mail lists of shows, but those lists are hardly complete. What I'm trying to say is nothing close to a complete database exists anymore. Sorry.

@tholzerman Who is the Nick Punto of wrestling?
— Ian G. (@Doc_Ruiz2012) June 25, 2014

Does Nick Punto have a famous dad? Because if so, then Jeff Jarrett fits his profile to a tee.

Private Twitter user @brianbrown25:

@tholzerman Who would you consider Mr. Summerslam? #tweetbag

I've had discussions with people about this before, and Bret Hart's name always seems to come up. In 1990, he was involved in a best two-of-three falls match with Jim Neidhart against Demolition. In '91, he had the classic against Mr. Perfect and the next year, he headlined the show against Davey Boy Smith. In 1994, he and Owen Hart had one of the finest cage matches in WWE history, and in '97, he and Undertaker had a memorable encounter to say the least. Then again, in '93 and '95, he was involved in stinkers (whether his fault or the fault of the booking), and he sat out '96.

The Rock also has a strong resume, as he has the '98 ladder match vs. Triple H, the memorable-if-overbooked triple threat against Trips and Kurt Angle, the hot WCW Championship match against Booker T in '01, and the match against Brock Lesnar in '02. John Cena and Rey Mysterio might factor in as well, but I'd need to do more research. Using my gut, I'd still go with Bret Hart.

@brianbrown25@tholzerman I will piggyback off of this and ask who would you consider Mr. Bound For Glory? #tweetbag
— Steve Hummer (@HummerX) June 25, 2014

My guess for this would be uneducated on par with my picks for American BattlArts, but on gut instinct alone, it would have to come down to Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, Christian Cage, or Sting, right? I guess I'd go with Styles, but when I tell you I know barely anything about pre-2009 TNA, I mean it.

@tholzerman where does MITB rank amongst the annual PPVs now? It's gotta be pretty high up on the list, right?
— rowdy ryan petzar (@petzrawr) June 25, 2014

I think the hype for the event might overshadow its actual place, to be honest. I wrote about it earlier this year, how the importance of the briefcase is overstated in how important the wrestlers who utilize it turn out. The fun derived from watching it rank it high on the list, of course, but I don't think one can discount how successful the titular MacGuffin is as a story device or even financials in terms of its importance. To be clear, WrestleMania is the clear-cut #1. The Royal Rumble is #2. SummerSlam is probably still third on the list. Then, you have Survivor Series, Elimination Chamber, Extreme Rules, and Money in the Bank in that third tier. I'd probably rank them in descending order Elimination Chamber, Money in the Bank, Survivor Series, then Extreme Rules. But then again, now that everything is on The Network, the pecking order of WrestleMania #1 with an 11-way tie for #2 gets reinforced.

@tholzerman Trying to figure out what to have for 4th of July Gastronomicon. What are you eating this year? #TweetBag
— Beer Baron (@BeerBaron4life) June 25, 2014

I honestly don't know what our family is doing for the holiday this year. My wife is sick to death of cookout food, and I'm always looking for something different to try. Neither one of us wants to host another cookout at our house (Memorial Day was a lot of work and was like two weeks ago), yet if we go to my parents' house, they'll more than likely will be celebrating with burgers, hot dogs, and the rest of the cookout lineup. I know that information is of no help to you, unless you want to jazz up the usual menu. If that's the case, then I would suggest making your own burgers and getting something a bit fancier than hot dogs. For the burgers, go to your butcher and have them grind the beef from whole cuts rather than getting the 80/20 chuck. I haven't been able to do this yet, but when I do, I am going to go for something like a pound of shortrib for every two pounds of sirloin. But again, the whole cow is your friend, and getting that perfect ratio of fat and meat is key. For preparation purposes, you can go traditional or you can also do them up Jucy Lucy style. Now, I HAVE made Jucy Lucy before. They're fantastic. Do 'em up.

As for the sausage, hot dogs are good and fine and all-American, but if you want to get fancy, you're gonna have to embrace America's melting pot status and go international. Bratwursts are cool. Kielbasa is even cooler. Italian sausage is the coolest. Nearly every culture has its own take on sausage, and all of them are worth eating. Chorizo from Mexico! Linguica from Portugal! Hungarian bratwurst from... Hungary! Don't just do the hot dog dance.

Now, for sides, I would just look up recipes on traditional favorites and pair them with grilled vegetables. Potato salad, pasta salad, deviled eggs, and the like are all pretty standard, but again, you can jazz them up and make 'em all artisanal 'n shit. But the wild card will be the vegetables done on the grill. I vote for asparagus and zucchini. Corn on the cob is a must too, but I would boil that. Less of a margin for error, y'know?

@tholzerman Which ppvs have you found yourself watching randomly via WWE Network? #TweetBag
— Time Limit Draw (@TheTLDPodcast) June 25, 2014

Whenever I get the chance to put The Network on, I actually gravitate towards old WCW events, both pay-per-view and Clash of the Champions. I feel as if the other company down South is still a huge blind spot, and I need to rectify that over time more than I need to go back and rewatch old WWE stuff that I more than likely watched already. Besides, it's neat seeing guys I know so well in other roles like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Razor Ramon/nWo Scott Hall as Stunning Steve Austin and the Diamond Stud.

@tholzerman Curt Hawkins said that Zack Ryder's depush hurt the locker room. We aren't there, but is it possible? Could it affect others?
— Brian Coulter (@PhilaBCoulter) June 25, 2014

I'm not sure whether Hawkins is telling the truth or is just dealing sour grapes, but I can totally see the Ryder depush affecting morale. Ryder was as close to a grassroots success story in WWE as you could get. He got no TV time, and yet he built an ARMY of fans based off social media and a YouTube show. Then, when he reached the apogee of his success, WWE inexplicably cut his wings off and buried him off television. If I were backstage, that message would be loud and clear; you're only allowed to succeed if you do it on the office's terms, not on your own. The revival of Tough Enough was famous because Steve Austin famously told those cats that you had to get yourself over, but the Ryder example spits in the face of that message. Now, Ryder is only one example, and the Usos actually worked hard and got themselves over through excellent wrestling and engaging the crowd. But still, people can get in bad spirits over small sample sizes. But the main takeaway is that the only people who do know the tenor of the locker room are the people in it, and even so, the number of points of view in any given locker room is equal to the amount of people who occupy it.

@tholzerman The Muppets come back as guest hosts for Monday Night Raw. What's one new/different interaction you'd like to see?
— Jeff S (@DexDynamo) June 26, 2014

Two answers. First, I want Statler and Waldorf to replace the RAW booth and call at least one match. Sure, they're cranky and sardonic, but at least they wouldn't be misogynist, misinformed, or plain old annoying. Second, I want, nay, THE WORLD NEEDS to see a meeting between Sweetums and The Great Khali. I am not sure I have to explain this.

@tholzerman When's CM Punk coming back? Just kidding. If you had it your way, who's entering WrestleMania 31 as WWE Champion?
— Brandon? (@brandonspears) June 26, 2014

The smart money has it draped around the waist of Brock Lesnar. I get the desire, but he's got limited dates, and unless you're all willing to have a nWo Hulk Hogan-in-WCW-style Champion being absentee for most of the PPVs between SummerSlam and Mania (I oddly wouldn't be opposed to it, for the record), then Lesnar can't really win the belt and hold it for that long. That being said, I would actually want Batista to win the title and be Roman Reigns' sacrificial lamb for his big Mania moment. The two have big history. Reigns was the last person eliminated by Batista in the Rumble this year, and they've spent months feuding in the wake of Mania as parts of their respective groups. The smart money has Batista coming back babyface, but at the same time, with Evolution AND The Shield dissolved, who's to say Batista won't come back wrapped in the SPAHTLITE in full douchebag mode going title or bust?

@tholzerman Your thoughts on the split-up Shield trio so far as solo wrestlers?
— Marc Van Plain (@DasNordlicht91) June 26, 2014

I think it's too early to tell for all of them. I'm most confident about Dean Ambrose's ability to put a whole package together, but can he sustain past the whole "running in, chaotic neutral" phase he's in right now? Seth Rollins' promos have improved, and he's been the best in singles matches out of the group before the breakup, but it's hard to gauge how well he can work heel. Roman Reigns has the biggest immediate dividends coming to him, but he's also the biggest question mark going forward. He hasn't wrestled a lot in singles matches, and his promos have been the most limited. But still, all three have positives enough for me to be excited, even if the sample sizes are small so far.

@tholzerman How many of the 8 first round matches at King of Trios do you think will be Chikara vs. Flood matches? #Tweetbag
— Mike Pankowski (@mikepankowski) June 26, 2014

The maximum amount will probably top out at all eight, actually, as I can count eight potential trios out of that pool: The BDK, Colony XTreme Force, Odditorium, Deucalion/Soldier Ant/Delirious, the Wrecking Crew, Gekido (17 and Pieces of Hate), Dr. Cube and minions, and Jimmy Jacobs and minions. I don't necessarily think all eight of those trios will get in, however. While Chikara has placed an intensive focus on the internal roster, I have a hard time believing King of Trios will be presented without some semblance of guests. Besides, the company right now is split between two continuities. ON one side is the battle for the soul of Chikara between the regulars and the Flood, and on the other is the "fun" roster which includes Chuck Taylor, Old Fashioned, Los Ice Creams, Juan Francisco de Coronado, the Baltic Siege, the Bloc Party, and of course, "Smooth Sailing" Ashley Remington. I expect both to be represented. So I would guess that five Flood trios get in (BDK, CXF, Odditorium, Wrecking Crew, Deucalion/Soldier/Delirious), and I also have the sneaking suspicion that Director of Fun Mike Quackenbush will pit two Flood trios against each other.

@tholzerman WHEN IS SOMEONE GOING TO RESCUE BRAD MADDOX FROM THAT CAVE? I'm actually deeply concerned about this #tweetbag
— KMB (@KMB2476) June 26, 2014

I don't mean to sound crass, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was all part of a reality show or something. I doubt Maddox would be able to send a transmission from a cave if he was really lost. But if he is lost and in trouble, then holy shit, man. Holy shit.

@tholzerman could Ben Revere successfully transition to the X-Division?
— Nick Menta (@cnmenta) June 26, 2014

Nope. He doesn't hit hard enough to keep up with the Davey Richardses and Low Kis of the world.

@tholzerman I somehow gave you Exum and Embiid when predicting the draft on my Tumblr. How do you feel about those picks for 76ers?
— craigmaloof (@craigmaloof) June 26, 2014

I like Dante Exum, but only if he's not on the same team as Michael Carter-Williams. I love MCW, don't get me wrong, and I'd be devastated for a hot second if the Sixers traded him. However, Exum at worst is lateral movement, and I could think of worse players to take at the third slot. Joel Embiid, however, scares me because he's got foot injuries, which for a big man feel like a death sentence. The team just took a big man with wheel problems last year in Nerlens Noel, and if the team drafts a big this year with the 10 spot (or higher, depending on if they trade MCW to move up from that slot), I'd rather it be Noah Vonleh.

Of course, the dream scenario would be getting Andrew Wiggins at ALL COSTS, but this draft is pretty deep. I trust Sam Hinkie.

@tholzerman What's a comparative wrestling accomplishment to a no-hitter? -Rich
— Voices of Wrestling (@voiceswrestling) June 26, 2014

Depends on how you'd view a no-hitter, whether as one of the highest accomplishments anyone could achieve in a certain sport/artform, or as an ultimate feat of one-sidedness. If the former, I would say it's a high-end match that's better than normal but not at the pinnacle, much like a no-hitter is good, but not as good as a perfect game. If you're talking a laugher of a contest, then I'm not sure how to frame the comparison. Squash matches are too common an occurrence to compare to the relatively rare no-hitter, and they're too methodical to be compared to a violent shoot double-cross. It just goes to show how tricky it can be to compare a sport to art, even if that art is framed in the style of a sporting contest.

@tholzerman Where do you see Cesaro in the aftermath of Money In The Bank?
— Blasé Ya Dead Homie (@NielJacoby) June 26, 2014

I think he has an outside chance of winning the Championship, especially if the plan is for Paul Heyman to turn on him and set up Cesaro/Lesnar at SummerSlam. However, I get the feeling the main event will feature a rematch of Lesnar against John Cena. So where does that leave Cesaro? My guess is he'll keep performing random feats of strength and probably engage in a series of HOSS FIGHTS against Sheamus. WWE secretly reads TWB, and it too is interested in shipping the Celtic Warrior and the King of Swing. Lacy is influential!

@tholzerman Best Muppet movie?
— bd (@IHatebd) June 26, 2014

I'm partial to Muppets Take Manhattan, although the more I see Jason Segel's The Muppets, the more I dig that one. But hey, The Muppets are The Muppets, and they bring a smile to my face regardless of the movie they're in.

Like Drew Gulak? Then check out Billy Robinson and Jim Breaks Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein

If you're a fan of wrestling beyond the big box WWE model, you've either already heard, or are soon to hear, about Drew Gulak. He's going to be making his debut for perhaps the final level for indie guys, PWG. He's already done a great job through the Northeast rotating scenes of CZW, Beyond Wrestling, and the Chikara/Wrestling Is.... universe. Those 3 feds I mentioned? In no way similar. At all. And yet, Gulak is the highlight of pretty much every card he's on.

But as I watched him, I noticed something. And it's something you can notice about every top non-big box wrestler, although there are some wrestlers in those formats who you can see this with as well. You can see their influences, what type of wrestling and what style spoke to them enough that they added little bits and pieces of it to their style as they went along. (E.G. Davey Richards is doing Dynamite Kid cosplay to an almost uncomfortable degree, as the American Wolves are doing on a lesser scale with the British Bulldogs.)

The good wrestlers, though, show you those influences without beating you over the head with them. And the top-level guys, the creme de la creme as it were, show you those influences and make you want to run to your computer to see what they saw. Drew Gulak is exactly that guy. But before I link you to some of those matches I am talking about, allow me the chance to explain something about British wrestling.

Everyone knows about Johnny Saint. Some of this is because he appeared on one of the most acclaimed shows ever, the Michinoku Pro card These Days where he wrestled against Naohiro Hoshikawa. Some of this also probably comes because he's competed in America on multiple occasions, and is what people have come to think of when they think of British wrestling.

But what no one understands is that World of Sport is more than just Saint. That style lasted for so long because there were more guys in it than Saint, brilliant though he happens to be. And if you're watching Drew Gulak, and you want to see hints of what he does so well in other places, here's where you start.

Firstly, there's Billy Robinson. In the long history of Pro Wrestling, ever since it was first done in carnivals, there has always been a place in it for hard men. From Lou Thesz to Fit Finlay, with stops off in between, there has always been a spot for the guys who were supposed to make sure that everyone played by the code, understood the code, and didn't dare think about breaking the code. And of those hard men, I find it difficult to believe that there are very many who were harder and tougher than Billy Robinson. But he wasn't just a shooter. In a lot of ways, he is a wrestler's wrestler. He's the guy you watch and see so many little things, so many refined fundamentals, that watching him is addicting. I included one of my favorite matches of his, against another guy who (spoiler alert) you will be seeing again in another edition of this feature.


The second guy I want to talk to you about is perhaps, judging for era and whatnot, the greatest non-southern heel of the 70's and early 80's. (Keep in mind when I say this that southern heels were so utterly reviled that riots routinely occurred. Not Twitter riots, either. Actual, people throwing bodily fluids and rushing the ring riots. God, I wish we had that level of heat now.) He also developed, and patented, one of the coolest submissions ever seen.

Jim Breaks is more than just "the guy who got crazy heat", though. He's also one of the best British wrestlers ever. It's not his fault that he just has a real punchable face. He was as good an example of that champion who always finds a way to win and keep his title.


So there you have it. if you enjoy Drew Gulak, watch some Jim Breaks and Billy Robinson. it will make your wrestling world a better place.