fullMETAL

I fell off on MLW, ROH, and Championship Wrestling From Hollywood/Arizona some months ago, along with IHW in Canada, Elev8 Pro, and BackBreakers Training School, but hopefully I should be able to catch up with those soon. (MLW (and Brian Zane) is the reason I'm predicting Swerve will win a ton of belts in WWE within the next 3 or so years.) Recently got started with AEW Dark, considering doing back-to-backs of it with NWA Powerrr since I actually have a bit of personal investment in the proximity of NWA and since Dark and Powerrr only just launched so they don't have a huge backlog to catch up on.

I'll point out additionally that SmackDown reran on Fox proper on Sunday afternoon, but with absolutely zero advertising to that fact, I had no idea it was on and missed all but the last half hour. Also, I have no idea whether television ratings for Sunday afternoons are collected and published, so I couldn't tell you how it did.

I would posit that Tim Storm puts his best matches on with somebody of a completely different style to him. If you've seen any of his matches against Peter Avalon (but really, you should see all of them, as opposed to just one, in order and with the pre-match promos attached like on Championship Wrestling From Hollywood), Peter's weaselly win-at-all-costs style meshed really well with Storm's old-school power/grapple type. The Storm/Avalon feud has been done in such a way over the past few years that you only wind up rooting for one of them over the other, with no middle ground whatsoever, and good face/heel feuds should all strive to achieve that result.

<p>Royce Isaacs has been one of my "power players" ever since I first saw him last year in Championship Wrestling From Hollywood.</p><p> </p><p> Guy's an absolute star, and he makes it feel like he's been that way from Day 1.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> Once the brass reactivate the Junior Heavyweight Championship, my top pick for the belt is a wrestler named Chris Bey (aka "The Ultimate Finesser"), who recently made appearances in ROH (Future Of Honor match and Death Before Dishonor Fallout match), WWE (205 Live vs. Ariya Daivari), and Impact (vs. Jake Crist).</p><p> </p><p> <img alt="EHGDr8pU8AUpsOZ.jpg" data-src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EHGDr8pU8AUpsOZ.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> <img alt="EHVjOtBWoAESfvO.jpg" data-src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EHVjOtBWoAESfvO.jpg" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p>

Evil Uno. But the fact that Uno's the only not-built-like-a-brickhouse large guy on the roster is a bit...I would say "under-representative" of that particular facet of the independent wrestling scene in 2019?

<p>Going back to Undisputed Era for a second:</p><p> </p><p> Adam Cole - I get, and see, that he's very good in the ring, and great at being an asshole, but I've never seen anything that makes him <em>special</em>, or at least, I don't seem to see what others are seeing.</p><p> I've always wondered why Adam Cole, out of other Create-A-Wrestler Templates, has been considered a standout guy when, again, he just comes off like a Create-A-Wrestler Template (number 2 or 3, depending on the game).</p><p> </p><p> Roderick Strong - I've always likened him to a modern-era Dean Malenko, and can also see that he has SOME charisma, but I agree with people's sentiment about him needing a <em>character</em> and not just being "Messiah of the Backbreaker".</p><p> </p><p> Fish & O'Reilly - They feel like "the overachieving frat boys who annoyingly excel at things and are good at martial arts and wrestling" and I think they should lean more into the frat-boy dudebro aspect of that (I get that feeling purely from the "Kyle playing his belt like a guitar" championship entrance) in terms of character work.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> WWE already has enough generically cocky heels, the Undisputed Era need to be CHARACTER heels more. At least, just in my opinion.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> For comparison, Ciampa's got the character-heel thing down pretty much PERFECTLY. Pretty much.</p>

Speaking of Janelababy, anybody else think his running looks absolutely goofy?

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Jaysin" data-cite="Jaysin" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="46898" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I just wish the tag titles and national title weren’t so hideous.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I agree 100% with you, but according to Dan (of Belts By Dan, who made the belts), Corgan & Lagana were VERY specific about what they wanted with them, in that they wanted the classic Tags (which got made using the original Mulkavich molds) for the tags, and they wanted the National belt to look like the old US belt (this one was acid-etched as a standard-style belt, presumably because Dan didn't have access to the old mold for the original), right down to the <em>material and shaping</em> of the leather.</p><p> </p><p> They did the same with the new version of the NWA Women's belt that they just presented to Women's Champion Sienna/Allysin Kay, making it look like almost exactly like the original Mildred Burke belt.</p><p> </p><p> Personally, I would've preferred they went with other designs in Dan's portfolio (many of which were done by yours truly), but given the history behind all 3 of those styles, I won't begrudge them their choices.</p><p> </p><p> Right now, I'm trying to pitch a couple concepts to one of their go-betweens to update the North American and Junior Heavyweight belts with (both concepts being inspired by classic designs, to stick with their "what's old is new again" motif), once they turn their attention over to <em>those</em>, and I'm hoping they end up getting the okay so that Dan can start on those for them.</p>

And people (usually old people) whose TVs/cable boxes are automatically set to Channel 2 (well, at least here in New York, CBS is on 2) on startup and are either physically unable to change the channel or are just too lazy to do it. How else do you account for the ungodly numbers Big Bang Theory got during ITS run?

With less than 10 minutes left in "regulation", I figured they weren't gonna give us a long competitive match, but I was legit surprised they went with the Diesel Finish. I'm not super in favor of HOW Kofi lost the belt, especially with that squash, but AS LONG AS THEY BOOK THE BROCK/CAIN STORYLINE RIGHT, I'll be at least okay with Brock being Champion again, for a little while. The problem from here on will be, what happens if Cain WINS the belt from Brock? What kind of message does THAT send, especially concerning the on-the-books roster as opposed to the special attractions? We're gonna be on a pretty narrow road for the foreseeable future concerning the WWE Championship, and it'll take some really smart booking to keep it from turning into a traffic accident, which I don't trust them to do without some SERIOUS oversight from not-Vince. Bischoff and the team COULD make this work with enough planning ahead, but again, we'll need to have Vince NOT changing things up or throwing road spikes down on the pavement. Cain got the pop he wanted, the pop Vince wanted, the pop Bischoff and the writers wanted, now we just need to see how much he'll be able to back it up in actual matches with hopefully as few botches as possible. AAA was the practice test for him, WWE is now the one that counts.

Keanu Reeves on 3 and Jay-Z on 5? Also, this render looks really close to Tessa Blanchard! Good job!

I always wait for the Deep Discount on the WWE 2k full-package version to get it for roughly $25-30 at around March of the next year. That way, not only will the game be out long enough to patch out most of the bugs, but the majority of modding for that version will have been optimized enough by that point to also have less bugs than at launch. As well as having WAY more CAWs, Arenas, and Belts available on CC than at launch.

I gotta say, with Strong winning the NA Championship, I'm super glad he finally crossed the goal line with his big chance to prove he could win a singles belt.

<p>So, quick speculation question: once Dustin Rhodes <em>officially</em> retires as a wrestler, will he be transitioned into a Coach role?</p><p> </p><p> Speaking of, the Cody/Spears match got me thinking, what if the Coaches were officially each in charge of their own "teams" in a fashion similar to the Stable System in NJPW, and some sort of, oh, I dunno, <em>DRAFT</em> was held at some point in the future?</p><p> </p><p> Though, instead of groups being broken up, they'd get drafted into a team together (like, SCU and Jurassic Express wouldn't be broken up during said draft, they'd just be drafted all together as solid trios...though breaking teams up between coaches sometime WAY down the line COULD lead to some neat angles where the former teammates would be super hesitant about facing each other and stuff).</p><p> And teammates generally wouldn't face each other except in tournaments/leagues, and if more than one member qualifies for a Title Contendership match and stuff.</p>

<p>Watched the Buy In for All Out last night, and my thoughts:</p><p> </p><p> - Justin Roberts is good, but why was his volume so low when he was introducing the rest of the participants in the Casino Battle Royale?</p><p> </p><p> - So many instant angles came out of the Royale, and I can't wait to see them play out on AEW TV. <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/biggrin.png.929299b4c121f473b0026f3d6e74d189.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> (Also, I wouldn't put it past them to do a strange-bedfellows tag match with Nyla & Allie versus Brandi & Kong anytime soon)</p><p> </p><p> - Private Party are genuine mint, and if they were in WWE or ROH, they'd be RUINED. (They'd be fine in Impact though)</p><p> AEW is the PERFECT place for them, and that crowd LOVED them, and so did I.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> And on a related but separate note, Peter Avalon (The Librarian) is taking on Nick Aldis at AZ150 in Championship Wrestling From Arizona for the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship.</p><p> </p><div class="ipsEmbeddedOther"> <iframe data-embedid="5511be284ffcc092c402c33a9c8cfd38" allowfullscreen="" data-embed-src="<___base_url___>/index.php?app=core&module=system&controller=embed&url=https://twitter.com/PAvalon/status/1171854973073670145"></iframe> </div><p> </p><p> Now...I KNOW Avalon WON'T win (he's lost every NWA Title match he's had so far), but holy crap, what if he DOES??</p><p> And what if somebody in AEW HELPS him do it???</p><p> (Hell, let's go all the way here: WHAT IF <em>JERICHO</em> HELPS HIM WIN IT?????)</p><p> (Yes, that's just fantasy booking, but Jericho versus Aldis on AEW TV or at NWA Anniversary would be EPIC)</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> (adding edit rather than a new post)</p><p> Finally got around to watching All Out main show! Here are my thoughts.</p><p> </p><p> - Luchasaurus is a g-d STAR.</p><p> - Omega passing out to the Brutalizer rather than tapping was probably the best Kenny-losing solution that could've been made, given the circumstances. Pac also looked like an absolute star in that match, and WWE really screwed the pooch on that one.</p><p> - Joey Janela has probably the goofiest-looking running animation (lol) in the entirety of pro wrestling. XD Also, Darby Allin is absolutely going to be AEW Champion by the end of next year, I'm calling it now. I'm also gonna call the eventual official team-up of Janela & Havoc to go after the Tag belts.</p><p> - Stu Grayson was awesome in the tag match, and Orange Cassidy in the post-match was amazing. Also, I chuckle every time the Best Friends Hug gets the Rainmaker Camera Zoom.</p><p> - I thought Riho earned her win, and the Riho/Nyla rematch is a ready-made story, but I think Shida probably <em>should've</em> won this one, just a feeling I had.</p><p> - JEEZUS that Cody/Spears match. WWE absolutely slept on Spears. I thought the post-match MJF thing could've been tweaked a bit, with him maybe asking Cody if he should hit Spears with the chair, THEN throwing it away cuz Cody goes "nah". The "MJF betrays Cody" teasing probably wasn't necessary at that particular moment, given how well I thought that they semi-subtly handled it during the match itself.</p><p> - Man, Nick & Matt went through some shizz in that ladder match. For a ladder match, I thought it was pretty good, but I thought their Double Or Nothing match was better.</p><p> - Page should've sold the leg injury a bit more during that final Buckshot attempt at the end of the match, but other than that, I thought it went really well! <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/smile.png.142cfa0a1cd2925c0463c1d00f499df2.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /> Jericho as the inaugural champion will definitely lead to better starting storylines with the potential challengers, but there could've been some plusses having Page be the first champ instead (especially if his first title defense feud was with either MJF or Pac).</p><p> </p><p> All in all (lol), I thought it was a good show all-around, the highs were really high, and the lows were sporadic enough and not severe enough to hamper the rest of the show.</p><p> </p><p> Also, wow, the way they handled the "Pharaoh getting spooked by the pyro" part was really...just...wow. Definitely not a good look for Cody and the Nightmare Family on that one.</p>

Finally got around to watching Fight For The Fallen main show last night, and I thought it went pretty well for the most part (except for Brandi/Allie and SCU/Luchas, any botches I saw were minor enough that I barely even noticed them). I thought the Triple Tag and the 6-Tag were REALLY fun matches to watch -- Luchasaurus, Darby Allin, and Jimmy Havoc were absolutely my non-Bucks/Rhodes MVPs of the show. Omega and CIMA dueling with the Perfect Driver early in their match made me think of this line to commentate: "CIMA may have pioneered the Perfect Driver, but Omega may have PERFECTED it--pun intended--and CIMA wants to prove HE'S still the MASTER of it!" (And by "think of", I mean "I said it out loud over the actual commentary" ) The Double Or Nothing match finally made me a fan of the Young Bucks, and their match against the Rhodes Brothers only cemented WHY I'm now a fan of them -- they managed to work a drama-filled match with 2 of the absolute best dramatic wrestlers of yesteryear AND today that would've fit right in in the classic days, and everything they did made sense in the progression of the match. That match to me was a perfect example of how to run a simple match with a simple story, except that half of the "old-school" moves that would've been used back then were replaced by more flippy and high-flying moves of today. I would say that 2019 is the year the Young Bucks officially went from a "spot-festy pop-the-boys-and-piss-off-Cornette" tag team to "actually legitimately in the running for the actual top tag team in the entire world". I'm all-aboard the Buxpress now, CHOO-CHOO. I popped huge for the Rhodes Brothers doing the tag-team Cross Rhodes, Stereo Shattered Dreams, and the Stereo Curtain Call and Stereo Cross Rhodes. Also, is it just me, or did anybody else here REALLY want to hear the rest of the Bucks' post-match promo about how good the Rhodes Brothers were that got cut off for time by the check presentation? Man, I can't wait to get around to watching All Out.

AEW's twitter just posted that Jericho will be defending the belt against Cody at Full Gear. Probably the first question that would be asked as a result is: will Cody ACTUALLY book himself to win it, or will he pick the better business option and have Jericho successfully defend?

If Tony Schiavone joins the commentary booth and replaces Alex Marvez, I think we're going to end up seeing the rise of Excalibur of all people possibly becoming the actually objectively best commentator OF ALL TIME. WHY? (slaps head, then arms, then snaps fingers) HERE'S WHY: (raunchy guitar riff) So, according to his wiki entry (I've actually never watched PWG, so bear with me there), when Ex retired in '07, he became a commentator full-time. Nothing new, nothing special, right? Wrestlers become commentators all the time, with varying results. So then apparently he winds up good enough (again, since I've never watched PWG, I wouldn't have first-hand knowledge of how good he was at the table there) that he gets tapped to man the booth at All In with Don Callis, as well as working with Sean Mooney, both seasoned vets with lots of experience and highly-regarded talking skill, and lots of wisdom and knowledge to pass down. (I DID see All In, and happened to agree with the majority consensus that Excalibur was quite awesome at commentary.) So then he calls Double Or Nothing, with none other than Jim Ross, one of, if not THE, greatest storytelling commentator in the HISTORY of professional wrestling. And surprise of surprises, you could've knocked me over with a feather (/s), Excalibur not only held his own, but excelled. I mentioned over on a Discord chat the following scenario with Schiavone at the table: Btw, in this particular context, I refer to Matt Striker as actually quite knowledgeable (I'm one of those people who thinks Striker is in fact quite good), and when he's not trying to read from a script, he can actually keep up and hold his own when calling a match. I thought the earlier days of his WWE commentary were better than the end of his run there because at the end it felt like he was doing the "getting told in his ear what to say" thing (but that's just me). So, now that Tony Schiavone's in AEW, that means Excalibur, who's already quite good himself at commentary after more than a decade doing it, has another very experienced, very competent voice of wrestling to work with regularly and learn from. Basically, the TL;DR of what I'm saying is that the biggest beneficiary of Tony Schiavone signing to AEW is/will be Excalibur, because working with JR AND Tony will only IMPROVE Excalibur's already excellent booth-work to the point where he can elevate basically anybody else just by being next to them...and that even INCLUDES...Alex Marvez. Tony Schiavone just might be the missing piece of the puzzle that can actually make Alex Marvez into a better, more confident commentator, if only just by secondhand osmosis through Tony working with Excalibur, let alone firsthand help directly FROM Tony.

Anybody ELSE think SummerSlam was a stealth TEW event?

<p>What about Riki Choshu's Scorpion Lock?</p><p> </p><p> Or D'Lo Brown and Hiroshi Tanahashi's Elevated Cloverleaf?</p><p> </p><p> How about Ric Flair's Figure 4 versus Keiji Mutoh's?</p>

<p>This was an old tutorial I adapted from Photoshop to Fireworks to make belts in Payne's old style: </p><div class="ipsEmbeddedVideo"><div><iframe width="200" height="150" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/jTLNr8Cs8fk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" title="Make a TEW belt like Payne in Fireworks!"></iframe></div></div><p> For Payne's original version: </p><div class="ipsEmbeddedVideo"><div><iframe width="200" height="150" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/MzCB7cqVYTU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" title="TEW Title tutorial Part 1"></iframe></div></div><p> </p><p> Even though I adapted it from Photoshop to Fireworks, a bunch of the steps are basically the same between both programs.</p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Here are some additional resources to help you on your own TEW belt journey!</span></p><p> Full-length Straps made by me - <a href="https://imgur.com/a/FIFZbgW" rel="external nofollow">https://imgur.com/a/FIFZbgW</a></p><p> Plate-area leather Strap Sections also made by me - <a href="https://imgur.com/a/BIrDz" rel="external nofollow">https://imgur.com/a/BIrDz</a></p><p> Leather textures for your own custom strap shapes - <a href="https://imgur.com/a/74BwU" rel="external nofollow">https://imgur.com/a/74BwU</a></p><p> ReapeR's Sampler Pack - <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?lm857h477k28iu2" rel="external nofollow">http://www.mediafire.com/?lm857h477k28iu2</a></p><p> </p><p> And if you find yourself lost on what the plates themselves could look like, just check out various existing belts from pretty much any maker and see if any of those make you go "oh, my belt could look like THIS one".</p><p> </p><p> Parks-Millican-Mann - <a href="http://www.davemillicanbelts.com/" rel="external nofollow">http://www.davemillicanbelts.com/</a></p><p> Top Rope Belts - <a href="http://topropebelts.com/" rel="external nofollow">http://topropebelts.com/</a></p><p> Wildcat Belts - <a href="https://www.wildcatbelts.com/" rel="external nofollow">https://www.wildcatbelts.com/</a></p><p> Replica Title Belts - <a href="http://replicatitlebelts.com/" rel="external nofollow">http://replicatitlebelts.com/</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/replicatitle.belts/?ref=br_rs" rel="external nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/replicatitle.belts/?ref=br_rs</a></p><p> ProAm Belts - <a href="http://proambelts.com/" rel="external nofollow">http://proambelts.com/</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ProAmBelts/?ref=br_rs" rel="external nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/ProAmBelts/?ref=br_rs</a></p><p> ZBros Championship Belts - <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zbroschampionship.belts/" rel="external nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/zbroschampionship.belts/</a></p><p> Main Event Belts - <a href="http://maineventbelts.com/" rel="external nofollow">http://maineventbelts.com/</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/GavMainEventBelts/?ref=br_rs" rel="external nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/GavMainEventBelts/?ref=br_rs</a></p><p> Legacy Championship Belts - <a href="https://www.facebook.com/legacybelts/?ref=br_rs" rel="external nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/legacybelts/?ref=br_rs</a></p><p> Leather Rebels - <a href="http://leatherrebelsbelts.com/" rel="external nofollow">http://leatherrebelsbelts.com/</a> (it might trigger an Adult Content filter if you're using a public connection) and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/leatherrebels/?ref=br_rs" rel="external nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/leatherrebels/?ref=br_rs</a></p><p> JP Belts - <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jesse.ellis/photos_albums?sk=wall&lst=1185141659%3A100007203601285%3A1565644418" rel="external nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/jesse.ellis/photos_albums?sk=wall&lst=1185141659%3A100007203601285%3A1565644418</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jesse.ellis/media_set?set=a.1375975265985914&type=3" rel="external nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/jesse.ellis/media_set?set=a.1375975265985914&type=3</a></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> Practice makes perfect with the belt designing! <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/smile.png.142cfa0a1cd2925c0463c1d00f499df2.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p>

<p>Trell has a render tutorial in the older section: <a href="http://greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=144099" rel="external nofollow">http://greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=144099</a></p><p> </p><p> You can do tons of tweaking to the settings he uses in order to find things that work best for you.</p>

<p>I'm genuinely curious to know: what would have you connect lower attendances specifically with Matt Taven being ROH Champion?</p><p> Weren't crowds already getting smaller BEFORE he won the belt?</p>

On a personal level, I'm hoping Corgan decides to go for a new belt for the Women's Title, because I want so badly to do a new design for it. I'm also hoping he decides to do new belts for the North American and Jr. Heavyweight Titles (instead of keeping the Leather Rebels ones or going back to the JP ones like with the Women's Title), so I can try my hand at those too.

FINALLY, after much procrastination, the official announcement of my FullMETAL Championship (Rules are in the pic, Announcement in the linked Video) -