in Uncategorized, Wrestling

The Pipe Bomb: Blood and Guts, Athena vs. Willow Nightingale and MJF Dance-Offs

blood and guts

Welcome to The Pipe Bomb, where we discuss the latest news and events from the world of wrestling, both inside and outside the ring.

 

 

 

Blood & Guts

Wednesday night’s Dynamite was the culmination of a long feud between The Elite and the Blackpool Combat Club. Blood and Guts. A match that is hyped up for its brutality. Just the name Blood and Guts makes you feel like carnage is on the way.

For months, the Blackpool Combat Club had started to establish themselves as like, a hardcore version of the NWO just attacking guys at random and leaving them bloody. Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson and Claudio were carrying themselves as the gatekeepers of real wrestling. Wheeler Yuta was with them too, I guess, looking like the meanest flight attendant you’ve ever seen. He’ll shush the hell out of you at the local library.

Their clash with The Elite made all the sense in the world. Danielson and Moxley believe Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks have ruined wrestling with their flips and acrobatics and overall nerd shit. BCC vs. The Elite represented years of annoying online wrestling discourse.

Old bookers like Jim Cornette or Vince Russo have built massive podcast audiences off the strength of their hatred for Kenny Omega and his style of wrestling. When they were in WWE, professional wrestling was all about the storylines and wet t-shirt contests and Stone Cold stunning everyone. Kenny Omega represents everything those guys hate: actual wrestling.

Jim Cornette, specifically, built an audience off racism, xenophobia, misogyny and all of the easy ways to get young men on the internet to give you their money.

In a world where young men are at their loneliness, guys like Jim Cornette have almost preyed on their isolation and re-trained their brains into becoming hateful losers who need their opinions spoofed to them by a man who hasn’t been in the wrestling industry since we were choosing our Top 8 friends on Myspace.

Negativity sells.

Blackpool Combat Club almost became avatars for these narrow-minded ghouls who believe the only things that should exist are the things they specifically like.

This Blood and Guts match meant more than just 10 guys slamming screwdrivers into each other’s foreheads. It was a battle to determine the direction of professional wrestling going forward.

Or at least, that’s the gravity I put on the match.

Perhaps that’s why I was disappointed with the final product.

And there were easily avoidable problems.

It is impossible to watch an AEW match without large chunks happening in the corner of the screen during a Snickers commercial or some shit. AEW stuffs matches with these picture-in-picture ad breaks that completely take you out of the action. They’re full length commercials while the match continues with no audio and if you squint, you might be able to catch a dropkick or something.

It also doesn’t help that after almost 4 years of being on TV, AEW still hasn’t figured out which cameras to cut to and when.

There are 10 men in a ring all doing unique moves to each other and there are constant camera cuts to the crowd reacting or a cut to a guy who is laying on the ground while Omega is hitting a big V-trigger we don’t see.

Or perhaps my disappointment came from the in-ring performances.

I don’t watch New Japan Pro Wrestling. There is a ceiling to how much of a geek I am. So I have no relationship with Kota Ibushi but from everything I’ve seen and read, he is an incredible athlete and performer.

In Blood and Guts, Ibushi looked like he was forced to be there. It felt like I was watching a guy going through the motions until the payment went into his checking account. I understand he hasn’t wrestled in awhile and perhaps he was rusty but he probably shouldn’t have been in the match if he wasn’t physically ready for the magnitude of what this match represents.

This match was meant to happen from day one.

I loved watching the first episode of Dynamite and seeing Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega setting the tone day one by throwing each other through a glass table.


Those two men established what the company is and what their relationship would be.

Then Moxley and Hangman Page had their bloody war against each other ending in a Texas Death Match.

This Blood and Guts match had the potential to be so personal and blow off steam from years of conflict and instead, guys like Kota Ibushi and PAC were shoved into the middle for no rhyme or reason.

Although I will say this PAC stomp through the table was FIRE.

I guess this match was just too much traffic and congestion inside of a cage that made it extra hard to see what was even happening. I’ve made it clear in the past I don’t like tag team matches so maybe it’s my fault for having high expectations for a 10-man tag.

Maybe this match would’ve been legendary if Bryan Danielson didn’t break his arm at Forbidden Door last month.

My biggest takeaway is that Kenny Omega is the greatest wrestler of our generation.

Earlier in the week, Kenny had a perfect match with El Hijo del Vikingo—a wrestler many consider to be the next great one coming up—in Mexico, and a few days later he’s getting drop-kicked into a bed of nails.

Just this year alone, Omega has had two unbelievable matches with Will Ospreay that an entire generation of kids will remember as a pair of the greatest matches they’ve ever seen.

We are so lucky to be alive during the era of Kenny Omega and we need to give him his flowers every opportunity we get because there is a physical finish line to what he’s doing and I wouldn’t be shocked if we’re dangerously close to the end of a fantastic career.

MJF vs. Adam Cole

I mostly wanted to write about Blood and Guts but I haven’t said anything about this MJF/Adam Cole storyline yet so let’s briefly get into it.

I never watched NXT because, again, I’ve already reached my geek threshold. I never watched Adam Cole and The Undisputed Era.

His success always confused me. He looks like a Shawn Michaels action figure.

He never came off as cool or interesting to me. He looks like he wears those headphones with the little cat ears attached.

So when he came to the ring to cut a promo on MJF to set himself up as the next contender for the AEW title, my eyes rolled out of my head.

But this MJF/Adam Cole team-up has shown the genius of MJF.

It’s as if his obsession with Cole has made us look at Cole through MJF’s perspective.

By MJF telling us every week how cool he thinks Cole is, he’s liked, Inceptioned my brain into thinking the same thing.

I think I’m just easily influenced by marketing. If I see a Frosted Flakes commercial, there’s a 90% chance there’s a box of Frosted Flakes in my shopping cart next time I go to Stop N Shop.

MJF has artificially manufactured my interest in Adam Cole as a main eventer.

Prior to their alliance, I would’ve rather seen Daddy Ass, Billy Gunn, wrestle MJF for the AEW Title. I would’ve rather seen Mark Henry bring back the Hall of Pain at age 52 than little Adam Cole doing super kicks and shit.

But this tag team tournament has forced me to see Adam Cole as a top guy and an equal to MJF.

I don’t know how or when their tag team will end and it doesn’t matter.

This whole storyline has been Adam Cole career rehab. No matter how this ends, Cole should constantly be paying for all of their dinners as a thank you to MJF for making him important for the first time in a long time.

Athena vs. Willow Nightingale

I wasn’t supposed to write about the Ring of Honor pay-per-view Friday night but I was also supposed to post this article Thursday afternoon and I’m currently writing this on a Saturday morning but it all worked out because our generation’s Stone Cold vs. The Rock just happened and it’s the only thing on my mind today.

Athena has spent this year establishing herself as the hardest-hitting woman in America. At one point, she went viral from people thinking she was hitting too hard and stiffing her opponents to which she expertly explained the double standard where guys like Kota Ibushi are praised for their stiff hits but when a woman does it, suddenly they’re dangerous and reckless.

She has one of the best looks in wrestling right now. She looks like a gladiator who would for sure beat me within an inch of my life and the only thing that would stop her from sending me to the lord is her own vision being blurred by my splattered blood in her eyes.

Meanwhile, Willow Nightingale has been positioned as one of the biggest bay faces in the world with massive accomplishments this year including becoming the first-ever New Japan Pro Wrestling Women’s Strong Champion.

Last week, she won the Woman’s Owen Hart Cup.

Willow Nightingale has quickly become one of the biggest draws in women’s wrestling. She never has a bad match. She manages to balance on this tightrope of being a babyface with a power moveset that most monster heels have.

She has truly benefitted the most from the creation of AEW. The WWE would never give a woman with Willow’s body type an opportunity to perform this way. She’d be a comedy act in 90-second backstage segments to kill time on Monday Night Raw.

I should also mention I’m a stan for anyone from Long Island. Deadseriousness is a Willow Nightingale fan account now.

But on Friday night’s Death Before Dishonor, Athena and Willow Nightingale not only headlined the show but they put on a straight-up classic.

And I am a sucker for matches ending in KOs. It guarantees a rematch one of these days.

Their styles blend perfectly.

Athena can believably inflict damage on Nightingale without it feeling like Willow is overselling for a tiny opponent while Willow’s gimmick of always smiling and all that positivity clashes perfectly against Athena who seems like she was born without the muscles that allow her to smile.

We are on the precipice of a legendary feud between two women are the peak of their powers. OH, and they’re black women at that?? TURN THIS SHIT ALLLL THE WAY UP

 

 

 

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Written by thelesterlee

Creator of Deadseriousness. Diehard Knicks, Yankees and Giants fan who wants to create a sports and pop culture space that isn't the same copy and pasted AI content you see everywhere else.

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