AEW All Out 2021 Preview & Predictions

This Sunday it's the most anticipated AEW PPV of to date - get ready for the third edition of All Out!

Man, is this show stacked.  Sadly one of the matches I was most excited about, Pac vs. Andrade, is off the show due to "travel issues," but that doesn't change the fact that All Out 2021 has PPV of the Year potential.  Omega vs. Christian, while far from the biggest AEW Title match we've seen, should be fantastic.  Bucks vs. Lucha Bros in the cage should be absolutely blowaway amazing (though I'm sad Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus didn't get this spot; I was hoping for them to win the straps because I really like those two).  Chris Jericho vs. MJF in the final blowoff to their months-long feud should be great, dramatic, character-driven storytelling.  And of course, CM Punk.  I realize I haven't said much about one of the most long-awaited returns in wrestling history.  I've been a CM Punk fan since 2003 when I went to see a local Ring of Honor show and watched this loudmouthed young upstart and Raven beat the shit out of each other in a Raven's Rules match.  Immediately the guy grabbed my attention with his unique look and very obvious gift for cutting a promo.  Along with Samoa Joe, AJ Styles and Bryan Danielson, CM Punk was one of that generation's elite indie stars, who got themselves over without any marketing machine behind them.  He got over because he knew how to connect with the fans, and that gift followed him to WWE, where despite the already out-of-touch Vince McMahon not seeing dollar signs in the scruffy, tattooed star, Punk became the hottest commodity in the industry for a while.  It's been a full decade since his legendary "pipe bomb" promo, but watching his return on the August 20th Rampage you'd think no time had passed at all.  Punk's hometown crowd was absolutely explosive for his return, greeting their hero with one of the most nuclear pops I've ever seen.  Working off the cuff (what a refreshing concept), Punk did not disappoint, cutting an all-time great, heartfelt promo that almost served as the flipside of his infamous WWE pipe bomb.  Instead of a disgruntled, fed up, underappreciated workhorse whose company had all but thrown him overboard, we saw an emotionally fulfilled, returning icon, genuinely grateful for a chance at rebirth, in a company where his prodigious talents will be treasured instead of overlooked.  To say this moment was satisfying isn't doing it justice.  This promo felt like a vindication for every CM Punk fan WWE failed for so many years.  More than that, for every wrestler and wrestling fan WWE attempted to program into thinking there's only one way to make a superstar.  AEW has made it clear they value heart, work ethic, and love for the business over a bodybuilder's physique.  And that's what pro wrestling should always be about.

Okay, enough blathering.  Let's pick some winners....

Pre-Show Ten-Man Tag: Jurassic Express & Best Friends vs. Matt Hardy, Private Party & TH2

This should be a fun clusterfuck.  I'm glad to see Jungle Boy, Luchasaurus and Orange Cassidy getting something to do on this show, even if it's not on the PPV proper.  I was fully convinced AEW had set up the Tag Team Eliminator for a steel cage match as a way to give JE another shot at the Bucks, since they had the titles won if not for Elite interference.  It just seemed like the right time to pull the trigger on Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus; they're a mega-over babyface tag team.  I get putting Lucha Bros in there instead, as the match will be unbelievable, but Fenix and Penta have something else going on with Andrade, and don't have the underdog babyface appeal like JE.  Maybe the company has something bigger planned for JE or whomever finally dethrones Matt and Nick.  Anyway, this match should be fun.  That's all I'm trying to say.

Pick: I'll go with the good guys to win here

Women's Casino Battle Royale

This was meant for the pre-show originally but with Pac-Andrade off the card it's been moved to the main card.  This has to be the most stacked women's battle royal in company history thus far, with two (so far) former champions and numerous up-and-comers.  We have two TBD slots thus far, one of which could be Riho and the other I'm banking on being the former Ruby Riott.  I don't think either of them wins here but you never know.  The 19 announced names are Nyla Rose, Thunder Rosa, The Bunny, Big Swole, Julia Hart, Tay Conti, Diamante, Penelope Ford, Red Velvet, Hikaru Shida, Emi Sakura, Jade Cargill, Kiera Hogan, Abadon (YES!), Leyla Hirsch, KiLynn King, Rebel, Jamie Hayter, and the returning Anna Jay.  Solid lineup there.  If you narrow it down to realistic winners I'd go with Nyla, Thunder, Shida, Sakura, Jade, one of Britt's friends, or a TBD.  I'd say of those options Thunder Rosa is the most likely since the company obviously needs to follow up on their stellar hardcore match from a few months back.  Then again, you probably want to save Baker-Rosa II for Full Gear.  So maybe Riho ends up being one of the TBDs, wins this and gets a TV match.  I guess I'll go with Riho if she's there, Rosa if she's not.

***UPDATE: Riho was just announced as one of the two TBDs, so she's my pick.***

Pick: Riho

NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam at MetLife Dome Preview & Predictions

NJPW is back with another stadium show that in the time of COVID can't possibly sell out, Wrestle Grand Slam!

This weekend it's back-to-back nights at the MetLife Dome in Tokozawa, and we've got a slew of title matches on tap.  Night 1 especially looks very promising, with the long-awaited return of Kota Ibushi in the main event, plus a big first-time collision of former RPG3K members Sho and Yoh.  Night 2 on the other hand has Hiromu Takahashi returning to try and reclaim the belt he never lost.  Both nights will feature a Stardom exhibition match on the pre-show, which should be fun.  I've never actually seen a Stardom match but I've been meaning to.  Regardless both shows feature some potential classics.  Let's take a look.....

Night 1

Flying Tiger vs. Hiromu Takahashi & Bushi

The warmup tag match will see Takahashi getting his feet wet before his big title match on Night 2.  I don't expect this to go very long and I think Tiger Mask IV is there to eat the pin.

Pick: LIJ

Sho vs. Yoh

This should be pretty great.  Sho in particular is awesome and I'm excited to see what he can do as a new heel.  It's almost a Shawn vs. Marty dynamic.  I see some singles championships in Sho's future and maybe Yoh's as well.

Pick: Sho needs to win the first contest

Awesomely Shitty Movies: Empire Records

Welcome to another edition of Awesomely Shitty Movies here at Enuffa.com, where I take a closer look at either a flawed old favorite, a lofty disappointment, or a cult flop.  Today's subject is the latter.  It's the 1995 box office bomb Empire Records, a film that was little more than a thin excuse to sell a soundtrack album, but with a surprisingly accomplished cast and a heart that's actually in the right place.

Empire Records is yet another 90s slacker comedy that takes place in one day, centered around a group of teens working in a music store.  The assistant manager learns at the outset that the store's owner is getting ready to sell this Delaware fixture to a retail chain, and takes drastic measures to try and prevent this tragedy.  The rest of the story sort of hinges on this moment, but each character has his or her own personal arc, and for a critical and commercial bomb the screenwriters juggled all these threads somewhat admirably.  But yeah, this movie absolutely TANKED at the box office and didn't gain any real recognition until its home video release, where it became a cult favorite.

Side note, Regency Enterprises executive Michael Nathanson greenlit this film, and was approached two days later with the script for a little movie called Clueless, which he promptly turned down because he was already making a teen movie.  Clueless of course went on to make a huge profit for Paramount.  Goddamn, that's gotta sting.

So let's settle into this record store groove and separate the hit songs from the stinkers....



The Awesome


Cast/Characters

For a teen comedy that flopped with both audiences and critics, this movie has a helluva lot of acting talent and future-star power.  Two-time Oscar winner Renée Zellweger, Liv Tyler, Anthony LaPaglia, Debi Mazar, Robin Tunney, Maxwell Caulfield, and a few future character actors in Ethan Randall, Rory Cochrane, Johnny Whitworth and Brendan Sexton.  That's a pretty deep cast, and their respective characters supply many of the film's charms.  Pretty much every character is likable/relatable in some way.  Joe is the reluctant father-figure who'd do anything for his staff, Corey is the anxious overachiever, Gina is the loose girl with a heart of gold, AJ is the likable art student who's heartsick for Corey, Lucas is the lovable scamp who wants to save the store from becoming a stuffy corporate retailer.  This cast and their performances elevate the trite script above its station.

I like this group of crazy kids....

Capturing the 90s

90s nostalgia is big these days, and Empire Records has a ton of it.  Thus for us sad old adults, watching it now is like being transported back to those carefree college days of short skirts, Doc Martens, mom jeans, flannel shirts, front-curtained men's hairstyles (think 90s Johnny Depp), and post-grunge alternative.  Which brings us to the soundtrack, really the driving force of the film.  Empire Records was reviewed at the time as "a soundtrack in search of a movie," and I can't really argue much.  This movie feels like it was made just to sell records, thus the CD is loaded with transitory 90s artists like Gin Blossoms, Edwyn Collins, The Cranberries, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and Better Than Ezra, while the film also includes Sponge, Dishwalla, Ass Ponys, etc.  Empire Records is exploding with 90s pop culture and it's hard now not to get swept up in all of it, particularly as someone who lived through that (glorious, GLORIOUS I tell you) era.

Short-ass skirt? Check. Bare midruff? Check. Sad clown hair? Check.

Top Ten Things: Must-See Samoa Joe Matches

Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Things here at Enuffa.com, where I count down the ten best or worst of whatever's on my mind.  Today it's the mighty Samoa Joe, and his fantastic career.

I first became aware of Joe in 2003 when I attended a live ROH event, and upon hearing his name thought he'd be some kind of lame cartoon character.  When he appeared from behind the curtain I still wasn't convinced, based on his unconventional physique.  And then I saw him wrestle.  Folks, from 2003-2009 Samoa Joe was as good as anyone in the entire world at professional wrestling.  Unfortunately by '09 TNA had already spent about three years either underutilizing or completely wasting Joe's immense skillset, and he became rather unmotivated as a result, failing to build on his already stellar body of work.

Joe's NXT run from 2015-2017 was quite dominant and included two NXT Title reigns (I got to witness his first championship win over Finn Balor in person), and he eventually made it to the main roster for a while, where he had noteworthy scuffles with Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman, as well as a lengthy feud with old rival AJ Styles.  An injury sidelined him for over a year and he spent some time as a color commentator before being released and re-hired to NXT, becoming the brand's first three-time champion.

Anyway, here's a look at Joe's pre-WWE classics.....

10. Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk - ROH: Joe vs. Punk II - 10/16/04

Largely credited with putting both Punk and Joe on the Indy wrestling map, the second match of their much-heralded trilogy is widely considered to be the best.  Punk and Joe went a full hour for the second time, wrestling to a draw, in a match that pulled out all the stops and earned the elusive "five-star" rating from the Wrestling Observer.  I don't love it as much as others do, but it is quite an accomplishment from two of the best workers of the past two decades.

9. Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe - TNA: Final Resolution - 1/14/07

Joe and Angle fought several times on TNA PPV, and this was the third in an early trilogy that began with Angle's TNA debut.  TNA rather squandered the hugeness of the Joe-Angle feud, hotshotting this match immediately upon Angle's arrival.  However the matches speak for themselves, and their first encounter still stands as TNA's biggest PPV buyrate.  Anyway, the Final Resolution match was 30-minute Iron Man match full of drama and gutsy action.  It was evenly contested until the 25-minute mark when Angle pulled ahead 3-2, and Joe just barely failed to tie it up.

The History of NXT TakeOver: 36

What may have been the final NXT TakeOver as we know the concept was a smashing success.  The 36th Network special from WWE's only consistently good brand featured nary a bad match, boasting two bouts that easily cruised into ****+ territory, and three others that were solid ***1/2 fare.

The show's unexpected hit opened things, as LA Knight defended the Million Dollar Belt against Cameron Grimes in a bout I had no interest in, but one that delivered in spades.  These two worked a blistering match with loads of high-impact offense including Grimes hitting his backflip powerslam after skinning the cat back into the ring and Knight hitting a top rope German suplex.  Knight tried to use the Million Dollar belt but Ted Dibiase took it away, tossed it into the ring to distract the referee, and locked Knight in the Million Dollar Dream.  He threw Knight back into the ring and Grimes put him away with his Cave-In double stomp to win back the title.  A very good opener that I enjoyed much more than I expected to.  ***1/2

Next up was the Women's title as former best friends Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai faced off in an intensely personal contest, a la Diesel vs. Shawn in 1995.  Dakota used her speed and flexibility to keep Raquel off-balance for the bout's first act.  Raquel seemed to take a little while to find her rhythm in this match but by the second half everything looked really good.  Kai at one point hit her Kai-ropractor, a Canadian Destroyer-like back-cracker that looks super cool.  She tried to finish Raquel with a Balor-esque top rope stomp but Raquel kicked out.  They fought on the top rope and Raquel withstood a yakuza kick and got off her Chignona Bomb from the second rope to retain.  Another very good match from a young champion solidifying herself as the division's leader.  ***3/4

Top Ten Things: CM Punk Matches

Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com! 

Today I'll be counting down the ten greatest matches of one of the most controversial figures in wrestling history, CM Punk. 

As he did a decade ago, CM Punk just became the most talked-about star in professional wrestling, having made his long-awaited return to the business on August 21st on AEW Rampage.  One of the most gifted talkers in wrestling history, Punk gave a heartfelt speech in front of one of the most molten live crowds I've ever seen, and laid the groundwork for a whole new lease on his career.  Now freed of WWE's creative shackles, Punk will be able to fully craft his own promos and matches, and lend his considerable artistic acumen to helping build a better future for both AEW and the wrestling industry at large.  I have no doubt he will leave AEW better than he found it, and in a few years I'll need to make amendments to this list, but regardless, Punk has undoubtedly cemented a legacy as one of the most fascinating and unconventional top wrestling stars of the last twenty years.  Here now are the ten best matches in the remarkable roller coaster career of CM Punk.

10. John Morrison vs. CM Punk - ECW TV 9.4.07

In 2007 Punk was a member of WWE's third brand, the revived (and horribly watered down) ECW.  Punk was handpicked by Paul Heyman to be the show's hot new star, and despite tepid feedback from the head office, became a major cult favorite.  After over a year of flirting with the ECW Championship and being passed over in favor of seemingly less appropriate candidates (Bobby Lashley anyone?), Punk would get his one last shot at then-Champion John Morrison (a great athlete but another odd choice to represent the "hardcore" brand).  Their hand somewhat forced by Morrison's suspension for a Wellness Policy violation, WWE finally gave Punk his first taste of gold on a weekly ECW episode.  After a fantastic back-and-forth match, Punk triumphed and began a short run with the ECW Title.

9. Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk - Joe vs. Punk II 10.16.04

Largely credited with putting both Punk and Joe on the Indy wrestling map, the second match of their much-heralded trilogy is widely considered to be the best.  Punk and Joe went a full hour for the second time, wrestling to a draw, in a match that pulled out all the stops and earned the elusive "five-star" rating from the Wrestling Observer.  I don't love it as much as others do, but it is quite an accomplishment from two of the best workers of the past decade.

WWE SummerSlam 2021: Becky Returns and Then Pisses People Off

Well, as expected WWE's SummerSlam 2021 was yet another mixed bag of a show.  A few of the matches were very good, a few of the matches were utterly pointless, and God forbid we have a WWE PPV without a moment that flat-out pisses people off.  SummerSlam had all of these things.  Vince McMahon once again proved he could fuck up a bag of Doritos.

The PPV kicked off with the RAW Tag Championship, as AJ Styles and Omos defended against RKBro in a short but energetic bout that brought to mind old school PPVs where the opening match was just an easily digestible warmup.  AJ did almost all the work for his team and meshed well with both opponents, there were some fun spots later in the match as Matt Riddle took an Omos apron slam and an AJ moonsault DDT on the floor, perfectly executed.  It boiled down to AJ and Orton, who missed his first RKO attempt but scored on the second, pinning AJ to win the straps.  The crowd loved this title change and Riddle was ecstatic, and even Orton looked happy.  Decent little opener.  ***

Immediately the streak of good matches ended as Alexa Bliss faced Eva Marie in a useless regular match that didn't belong anywhere near a PPV.  There was no supernatural bullshit, which was good, but we were subjected to an Eva Marie match, which was bad.  Bliss hit Twisted Bliss off the top, followed by a DDT for the win.  I can guarantee this match did not garner a single ticket purchase or Peacock subscription.  Why was this on this show?  *

WWE SummerSlam 2019 Preview & Predictions

I hope you've enjoyed our look back at SummerSlam's 30+ year history, because now it's time to predict this year's edition.  And it looks......kinda boring.  

Thanks to Vince McMahon's gnat-like attention span, this year's lineup comes off as one of the most disorganized in recent memory, if not ever.  There are some good on-paper matchups, but most of the rumored bouts I was excited for either got tossed off on free television the past two weeks, or in the case of Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan, Vince couldn't figure out how to get from Point A to B to C, in time for the third-biggest show of the year.  I'd like to repeat that.  Vince McMahon, who's been doing this job since 1983, couldn't move a feud between two of the company's biggest stars along fast enough to get the resulting match on his third-biggest PPV.  For one thing, this "career-altering announcement" Daniel Bryan teased three weeks ago simply got thrown out.  No payoff at all.  Because apparently no one watches these stupid shows week to week.  Attention religious WWE viewers: Vince McMahon thinks you're stupid.  Always has.  So Vince decided to nix that whole angle and instead positioned Bryan as the guy who's been mysteriously attacking Roman backstage, but waited so long that he only had 12 days to put the match together in time.  Still this could've happened, had he written the reveal to be on this week's RAW.  But no, he instead saved the Erick Rowan reveal for the last five minutes of the go-home Smackdown, so Bryan still hasn't even been established as the guy behind it all.  Fuck's sake.

Aside from Roman-Bryan, we're also not getting Nakamura-Ali (they booked Ali to beat Nak in a non-title match and then had him lose to someone else a week later, so the I-C Champ now has no feud), Aleister Black vs. Sami Zayn (given away for free), the RAW Tag Title match (Anderson & Gallows won it on RAW), the Women's Tag Title match (gave it away on RAW and had the wrong fucking team win - Asuka and Kairi need to get out of WWE, pronto).

But don't worry, this lineup is chock full of part-timers and old-timers.  Brock, Orton, Shane, Trish, and for fuck's sake, Goldberg, the guy whose match with the Undertaker is sure to win Worst Match of the Year honors.  No wonder young people don't watch this shit anymore, the two big title matches involve OVW Class of 2002 stars, Shane and Goldberg are 50, and Trish, god love her, hasn't been relevant since the Dubya administration.  You couldn't find room for Reigns, Bryan, Nakamura, Joe, Rey, Andrade, Black or Zayn on a SummerSlam card??  This is like the SummerSlams from 10-12 years ago where they just left off half the big stars for no reason.

Fuck it, let's get this over with....

Cruiserweight Championship: Drew Gulak vs. Oney Lorcan

Oh good, they found room on the show for 205 Live.  Look, I'm not pickin' on the cruiserweights, they're all very talented and their matches are basically always good.  But 205's viewership is simply not strong enough to justify this title getting represented on every PPV (or pre-show) when the Intercontinental and every set of Tag belts can't even make it on.  Seriously, why did they bother creating a Women's Tag Title and then do absolutely nothing with it?  Fuck.  Anyway, this'll be fine and will probably happen on the pre-show.  Gulak just won the belt last month, so he'll keep it.

Pick: Drew Gulak

WWE SummerSlam 2021 Preview & Predictions

This Sunday, no wait, SATURDAY is SummerSlam 2021, and we've got ten matches of varying quality to preview!

Welp, after two years we'll finally get to see a SummerSlam take place in front of a live crowd, at a 70,000-seat stadium no less.  About half the show looks intriguing, about one quarter of the show looks pretty dull, and the remaining quarter looks like the drizzling shits.  Once again WWE has left some great talent on the shelf for the third-biggest show of the year while granting spots to numerous people who don't deserve them.  But we'll get to that, don't you worry.

Let's pick some winners....

Alexa Bliss vs. Eva Marie

What in the name of all things holy, THE FUCK, is this piece of shit match doing on a SummerSlam card?  Asuka doesn't have a match but these two zeroes do?  Don't get me wrong, Alexa can wrestle, but not as this dumbass Fiend continuation.  Fuck this storyline, fuck this gimmick, it's pure drivel and I can't believe anyone with a say in this company thinks it's quality television.  Hell, I can't believe these two women think it's quality television.  I dearly hope this gets bumped to the pre-show.

Pick: Alexa wins because we need to continue having her defecate all over the women's division with hypnotism and scary dolls.

Drew McIntyre vs. Jinder Mahal

Another piece of shit match.  Jinder Mahal has a spot on this show but Cesaro, Nakamura and Owens don't.  Let that sink in.  How the mighty McIntyre has fallen.  Dude went from the WWE Title picture for the better part of 18 months to trying to get a good match out of maybe the worst WWE Champion ever.  This is gonna suck.  Can we at least add Heath Slater so it's a 3MB Triple Threat?

Pick: Drew

NXT TakeOver 36 Preview & Predictions

Welcome to the predictions for possibly the final good NXT TakeOver special before Vince totally ruins the brand.  It's TakeOver 36!

Yup, the decree has come down from on high.  NXT will no longer be a viable brand in its own right with accomplished workhorses and an eclectic collection of up and coming stars.  Nope, we'll be going back to the 2005-2013 era where developmental is just a place to try and teach wrestling skills to a bunch of uncoordinated bodybuilders who all look and wrestle the same.  Imagine how out of touch a wrestling promoter has to be in 2021 to think the key to success is for every new star to look like Batista.  Hey Vince, NO ONE GIVES A FUCK WHAT THE GUY LOOKS LIKE ANYMORE.  We want to see wrestlers who can wrestle and connect with us.  The concept of a guy having THE LOOK went out the window a long fucking time ago.  Either let this shit go or step down.

Words cannot express how depressing NXT is about to become....

Anyway here's the lineup for Sunday.

Million Dollar Championship: LA Knight vs. Cameron Grimes

I didn't give a sloppy deuce about the Million Dollar title back in the day and I certainly don't now, thirty years on.  Why they brought back this gimmick I'm sure I don't know.  Neither of these guys does all that much for me either, so I don't expect much of this match.  I do expect both of these guys to get called up in the somewhat near future and not used.  Because that's what NXT is going back to.

Pick: I guess Cameron wins the belt?

AEW Fight for the Fallen 2021 Preview & Predictions

Welcome to another round of AEW Dynamite predictions here at Enuffa.com!  Well, the upstart promotion is continuing a slew of loaded, themed Dynamite episodes this week, with a stacked Fight for the Fallen!

After two successful Fyter Fest shows, both of which drew well over a million viewers, AEW will go for the hat trick with Fight for the Fallen.  They may have an uphill battle going up against the 2020 Olympics, but maybe the strength of this lineup will make up the difference.  Regardless, there are some very exciting bouts on tap for this show, particularly a first-time tag team war and a huge 10-man elimination tag with championship ramifications.  Let's take a look....

JUST ADDED: Thunder Rosa vs. Julia Hart

Thunder Rosa just signed officially with the company so this is obviously a showcase match for her.  And hopefully we'll see a Rosa-Baker rematch sometime soon.  This will be short and sweet.

Pick: Thunder Rosa

Christian Cage & Jurassic Express vs. Angelico & Private Party

Christian and Jurassic Express continue their feud with Matt Hardy's stable in this six-man match.  Lots of athleticism on display here, so this should be a very fun match.  I'm not sure what the endgame is for this feud, since Christian has already defeated Matt, but I can't see Team Christian losing here.  Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus for my money are a great choice to eventually dethrone the Bucks, so I feel like they have to come out of this feud strong.

Pick: Cage and the Dinosaurs

Santana & Ortiz vs. FTR

This match could very easily steal the show.  FTR are great, Santana & Ortiz are on the cusp of tag team stardom.  This will be a pretty spectacular tag match.  I feel like this is the one match where I'm really not sure of the outcome.  Santana & Ortiz could really use a high-profile win, but at the same time I have babyfaces winning every other bout on this show.  Might be a little much to have the good guys sweep, so maybe FTR wins this one.

Pick: FTR

AEW Fyter Fest 2021 Night 2 Preview & Predictions

Fyter Fest 2021 Night 1 is in the books and it was a rousing success, propelling AEW Dynamite back over the one-million mark for the first time in two months (Thanks partly to the show being banished to Friday and Saturday for five weeks).  Now it's time to take a look at Night 2, coming this Wednesday!

This lineup isn't quite as strong on paper as the first night, with two title matches and the first of Chris Jericho's Pinnacle gauntlet, but a couple of lesser undercard bouts.  Still this should be another fun night of wrestling with some potentially good matches, one in particular that I'm looking forward to.  Let's get to it...

Frankie Kazarian vs. Doc Gallows

It's the Elite Hunter vs. one of the Elite, as Kazarian targets the heel faction's largest member.  I'm not expecting a five-star classic and this is likely to be full of run-in nonsense.  I wonder if Kazarian will be tapped to join Hangman's five-man team in that elimination match Kenny challenged him to.  I think the numbers game likely proves too much for Frankie, and Doc steals a win here.

Pick: Gallows

JUST ADDED: Darby Allin vs. Wheeler Yuta

Just like last week they added a short squash match featuring Mr. Yuta.  Kinda strange.  He's got potential, but he's not beating Darby, that's for goddamn sure.

Pick: Yuta, get me two!  Losses in a row that is....

Orange Cassidy vs. The Blade

This is just a mini-feud to keep Cassidy occupied while they figure out his next major program.  Both these guys can go, so this should be enjoyable.  I don't see Blade beating one of the company's most popular guys.

Pick: Orange

NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam at Tokyo Dome Preview & Predictions

At long last NJPW's Wrestle Grand Slam at the Tokyo Dome is taking place.  Originally scheduled for May 29th, the event was postponed due to COVID and is nigh upon us this coming Sunday.

I deeply question the wisdom of booking a mid-year show at the Dome, given the continuing COVID issues Japan is facing, as well as the box office issues New Japan is facing, but the lineup looks pretty freakin' strong, abbreviated though it may be.  We have four big title matches, a special singles match and a pre-show Rumble.  Let's get to it...

Pre-show Ranbo for the KOPW Championship: Toru Yano vs. TBA

The Rumbles in New Japan are always pretty silly and this should be no exception.  I don't like the KOPW Title at all as it's only a few steps above WWE's 24/7 Championship.  Toru Yano is New Japan's R-Truth essentially; this comedy title doesn't really work for anyone but him.  To that end I expect he'll retain here.

Pick: Toru retains

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero

I like the championship combination of Ishimori/ELP and think they should keep these belts in a stranglehold for the better part of the next year.  They can both challenge for the singles Jr. Title during that time as well, but let's give these Jr. Tag belts some credibility again by having a really strong tandem keep them.  Meanwhile, let's try and rebuild the division for Chrissake.  Anyway, this match should be a lot of fun, as Taguchi and Romero are quite capable workers but can also bring a light comedic element.  In the end though, this match is about making the champs look good.

Pick: Bullet Club retains

WWE Money in the Bank 2021 Preview & Predictions

WWE is finally back on the road in front of live audiences!  What's great about this is we no longer have to pretend the ThunderDome audience enjoys the drivel they're being fed.  You're on notice Vince, this Alexa Bliss bullcrap is about to backfire spectacularly when real fans reject the shit out of it.

This Sunday is Money in the Bank, the first WWE PPV held before a live crowd since Elimination Chamber 2020.  For that reason alone this show should be a fun watch.  Pro wrestling in front of no audience is a tough sell at best, but a hot crowd that's happy to be in the building can make a mediocre show soar.  On top of that, this card looks to be pretty solid.  It's unfortunate the Bianca-Bayley match is off, thanks to a training injury that put Bayley on the shelf (The fuck kinda training were they making her do?), but there are numerous other potentially good bouts lined up.  Let's take a look.

RAW Tag Team Championship: AJ Styles & Omos vs. Viking Raiders

Man, where have the Raiders been?  I feel like they were off TV the entire pandemic.  Good to see them being used again.  I don't think I see them winning the straps here since AJ and Omos have barely done anything since winning them, but stranger things have happened.  Should be a solid piece of business regardless.

Pick: AJ & Omos retain for now

AEW Fyter Fest Night 1 Preview & Predictions

It's that time again, when AEW does a slew of special Dynamite episodes with sorta loaded lineups to tide us over until All Out.  This Wednesday it's Night 1 of Fyter Fest 2021!

This lineup is pretty strong overall.  No AEW Titles up for grabs, but we do have an IWGP Championship on the line, plus the imaginary FTW Title, and a first-time gimmick match for the company.  Let's take a look...

Penelope Ford vs. Yuka Sakazaki

Not much of a marquee match here, but Sakazaki is making her first Dynamite appearance since pre-COVID.  I'm guessing this is a showcase match for her and she'll thus end up winning it.  Should be ok.

Pick: Sakazaki

JUST ADDED: Sammy Guevara vs. Wheeler Yuta

This match was just announced today.  No idea who Wheeler Yuta is but I hope his brother Johnny Yuta gets me two.  Yeah, that's right, I dropped in a Point Break reference to celebrate its 30th birthday.  Sammy is obviously winning this quick squash showcase.

Pick: Sammy

Christian Cage vs. Matt Hardy

Well that's weird.  Two Attitude Era WWF guys fighting each other in 2021 on a non-WWE show.  I'm glad this isn't a PPV match, as two 45-plussers from twenty years ago wrestling each other on a PPV is Vince's bag.  They'll both be motivated to prove they can still go, but I have a feeling this will be rife with interference from Matt's stable.  I think Christian pulls out a win anyway though, probably on his way to a Dynamite or Rampage match against Kenny Omega sometime in the next few months.

Pick: Christian 

The History of NWA/WCW Great American Bash (1991)

Alright, time to hold my nose as I review this stinker.....

Legend vs. Legacy - Baltimore Arena - 7.14.91

Oh wait, scratch that.  Change of plans....

Luger vs. Windham - 7.14.91

In a scant two years the NWA (morphing into WCW) went from being at the top of its game to being in absolute creative shambles.  Nowhere is this more evident than at their 1991 summer spectacular.  Ric Flair, the NWA's top star for the past decade, had reached a contractual impasse with the new management (led by the cosmically inept Jim Herd) and was forced out of the company while still in possession of its top championship.  His scheduled match with Lex Luger was thus off, and WCW's scrambling to plug this roster hole seemed to have a domino effect on the rest of this PPV.  Once again they shoehorned eleven matches onto a three-hour broadcast, and once again most of the matches belonged in a wrestling dump heap.

Case in fucking point: Steve Austin & Terrence Taylor vs. Bobby Eaton & PN News in a Capture the Flag Scaffold Match.  Sweet merciful Christ, what the hell was this?  Scaffold matches in general are terrible, but this achieved new levels of putrid.  The scaffold itself looked so rickety and unsafe I don't know how these four guys were even coaxed up there.  Once on the platform they did basically nothing for the better part of ten minutes, aside from trying to not die.  After several agonizing minutes of a match three of these four guys should've been mortified to have on their resumes (I'll let you guess which three), Bobby Eaton captured the other team's flag to euthanize this shitshow.

Absolute drivel

Next up was one of several not-ready-for-PPV bouts: Tom Zenk vs. Diamond Stud, a forgettable free TV match featuring an enormously jacked Scott Hall a year before he jumped to the WWF and mainstream success.  Stud won after some interference from DDP.  Moving on....

We go from the future Razor Ramon to the future Diesel, as Ron Simmons faced Oz.  Apparently every match on this show featured a future WWF talent from 1996.  This also belonged nowhere near a PPV.  A portly Kevin Nash looked lost for most of this, yet somehow got to dominate the match.  Eventually Ron Simmons woke everyone up with a clothesline that sent Oz over the ropes, but Oz soon took over again.  Simmons eventually won with a powerslam.

Simmons' reaction upon learning he'd be working with Oz: ".....DAMN!"

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The History of NWA/WCW Great American Bash (1990)

The New Revolution - Baltimore Arena - 7.7.90

1989 to 1990 was quite a dropoff in quality for the NWA, and the Great American Bash PPV falls right in line with that.  The long-awaited Ric Flair vs. Sting showdown had been in the works for months, and was originally booked for WrestleWar that February.  But a knee injury sidelined Sting for four months and Lex Luger took his spot, turning babyface and feuding with Flair until Sting was ready.  While this was certainly a huge marquee match, I wasn't a Sting fan at the time and therefore wasn't particularly excited about his inevitable Title win.  I was also pissed that the company reverted just about all the top stars to where they were in 1988.  Flair and the Horsemen were the top heels, Luger was a babyface again.  It all felt like a retread.

As for this show, once again they crammed way too many matches in, and this time it was an astonishing eleven bouts, nearly half of which had no business on a PPV.

First up was Brian Pillman vs. Buddy Landell.  This was a decent enough opener, as Pillman was obviously quite accomplished and Landell was a solid hand.  I'm not sure what the purpose was though.  They weren't feuding and Pillman had come off of a really strong US Title program with Lex Luger, followed by a US Tag Title run.  Why was he being wasted in a throwaway showcase match?

Next was Mike Rotunda vs. The Iron Sheik.  Seeing mid-80s WWF guys like Sheik, Orndorff, Bob Orton, and Junkyard Dog show up in the NWA in 1990 was so strange.  I guess they just wanted recognizable names to help put over the younger NWA stars at this point.  Rotunda had given up his Varsity Club gimmick in favor of a sailor persona, which was beyond stupid.  Rotunda didn't have babyface charisma at all and the Captain Mike thing reeked of 80s jobber.  Mike won a brief match that was out of my head the moment it ended.

The third consecutive throwaway match on this show, Dutch Mantell vs. Doug Furnas was designed to showcase newcomer Furnas, but the match went on far longer than it needed to, and again, I'm not sure why this was included on a PPV.  Furnas won with an impressive belly-to-belly suplex after eleven ponderous minutes.

The oddly pleasant surprise of the night was Harley Race vs. Tommy Rich, in an incredibly physical match given Race's age (He was 47 but looked 60), that proved Race could still turn it up when he needed to.  Contrary to expectations, Race did most of the crazy bumping, including his usual back somersault over the ropes ending with his head hitting the ring apron.  This match had historical value since nine years earlier Rich upset Race for the NWA Title, but otherwise this was a superfluous match that was better than it had any right to be.

How'd Eaton not suffer massive spinal compression?

The proper PPV began with the Midnight Express vs. Southern Boys, another classic effort by Eaton and Lane.  In the tradition of MX's battles against The Rock n' Roll Express and The Fantastics, this match began with babyface team dominance as The Southern Boys stayed one step ahead of the Champs for the better part of ten minutes.  Eaton and Lane eventually took control after some heel tactics, and the match built to a melee with multiple finishers before Eaton rolled up Tracy Smothers in a small package for the win.  The Midnights were in peak form in 1990 and this was one of the highlights of their year.

Killer's Kiss (1955) - Revisiting Stanley Kubrick's Second Film

Stanley Kubrick pulled his first feature, Fear and Desire, from distribution after deciding it wasn't up to the standard he wanted to set, so as far as official Kubrick lore is concerned the subject of this review was his true feature-length debut...

Released in 1955, Killer's Kiss is a visually elegant, if narratively clunky, New York City film noir about a boxer, a girl and a gangster.  The girl works for the gangster, and the gangster is in love with the girl, but the girl falls in love with the boxer, and there's your central conflict.  Nothing frightfully original there, but that's okay.  Co-written with Kubrick by playwright Howard Sackler, Killer's Kiss is one of the few Stanley Kubrick films not based on established material, and its barebones story made a good fit for a novice filmmaker working from a shoestring budget and establishing his own personal stamp.  Three main characters, a few supporting characters, and the most famous city in the world providing the backdrop.  What Kubrick lacked in experience and scope, he made up for with a prodigious ability to create haunting shot compositions and gritty, Gotham-immersed underworldly atmosphere.  

The plot as I said is clumsily handled at times, with hackneyed film noir narration and flashbacks within flashbacks; we open on the boxer Davey Gordon waiting at Penn Station, his bags at his side, smoking a cigarette and lost in thought.  Davey's voiceover talks about how he'd unexpectedly gotten himself into a mess, just before his latest fight three days earlier.  We go back three days, as Davey spends his free time in a shabby studio apartment awaiting a call about his next fight and pining for the lovely young woman named Gloria across the courtyard in a similar box of a room.  It's established that they're aware of each other but have never really spoken, and that she's sort of attached to her boss Vincent, for whom she works as a taxi dancer.

Kubrick's ability to draw the viewer's eyes from one point to another is uncanny.

Top Ten Things: Anthrax Songs (10-1)

Alright, we've reached the pinnacle of Anthrax Mountain.  The Top 10.  The songs that make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.  Here are my picks for Anthrax's ten greatest tunes....

Click for Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3...

10. Potters Field

I mentioned while discussing "Only" what a radical change Sound of White Noise was for Anthrax fans, with its grungy, midrange-saturated guitars and dearth of thrashy palm muted attack, but what softened the transition for me at least was the album opener "Potters Field."  Beginning with the literal sound of white noise and a strange little voiceover intro ("This is a journey into sound...") and building to a full-on explosion of metal pummeling, "Potters Field" blasts out of the speakers with the synchronized rat-a-tat of Charlie's snare and Scott's guitar before settling into a sinister midtempo groove.  By the time John Bush's sandpapery vocals kick in with a resentful invective from the point of view of a damaged adult wishing his parents had aborted him, we're fully prepared that this will still be a brutal metal record, just from a different angle than we're used to.  "Potters Field" is an absolutely killer opening track from a reinvented Anthrax, still delivering that signature driving double-time beat.  

9. Armed and Dangerous

Anthrax's first foray into kinda/sorta power ballad territory was this early tune which they released twice - once for the hastily released Armed and Dangerous EP (put out to showcase their new singer Joey Belladonna) and again for their second full-length record Spreading the Disease.  "Armed and Dangerous" begins with a crystalline, shimmery acoustic guitar riff, over which Joey demonstrates his powerful clean vocal style, intoning sorrowfully about being trapped in a cage (metaphorically speaking).  Halfway through though, the crunchy metal guitars kick in and the song moves into its heavy phase, building to a monstrous, thrashy triplet feel, and the lyrics take on a defiant, vengeful bent - "We'll take on the world with rebellion/We're dangerous down to the last."  Already on their second album Anthrax was demonstrating their aptitude for writing powerful metal anthems.