#Soon it's going to be crabs vs cats...

[mortifying-macaroni]

By Caine! It's happening again! The Crabening!! The birth of Crabkind!

just remember, one day you're going to open tumblr and the crabs will be raving like they never have before

[ryin-silverfish]

Lotus Lantern: The Summaries, Part 3

Part 1

Part 2

Xinke Baolian Deng Jiumu Quanzhuan(or, "Lotus Lantern 1.0") 

-This one follows the same story beat as the previous two, so I'll just list the differences + expansions.

-After the Third Lady of Mt. Hua saw Liu Junchun's poem, she went to what was presumably the local dragon king to borrow some shrimp and crab soldiers and chase the cheeky bastard down.

-Qiu'er still took the fall, but unlike in the Epic of Prince Chenxiang, here, his mom didn't even object to it. Chenxiang's dad also got in trouble for his crime, and had to be rescued later.

-Chenxiang's master was the Thunderclap Immortal, who taught him 72 axe moves and 73 transformations. No divine power-ups were involved.

-After learning all these cool skills, Chenxiang immediately went to save his dad, Qiu'er, and Qiu'er's mom, whisking them off to the safety of a temple.

-Erlang actually lost the shapeshifter duel, and had to go to FFM to ask Sun Wukong for help. The plan Wukong came up with? 

1. Transform into fake Chenxiang

2. Pretend to rescue the Third Lady

3. Stuff her into a stone chest

4. Throw the chest into a well

5. Lure Chenxiang into the well

6. Cover the well with a stone slab, then set it on fire

-Yeesh. 

-So the rematch became Chenxiang vs. Erlang + Wukong instead, and because this version's Chenxiang was OP as hell, Wukong was forced to flee back to his cave, while Erlang got tied up by a red sash that, despite the uncanny resemblance, wasn't Nezha's signature weapon.

-Chenxiang was ready to axe his uncle after freeing his mom, but the Thunderclap Immortal persuaded him to spare Erlang.

Xinbian Baolian Deng Huashan Jiumu Quanzhuan (Or, “Lotus Lantern 2.0”) 

-This version is probably the closest to modern Lotus Lantern adaptations. First, Erlang's own mom-saving story is canon in this universe, and the story kinda started with a summarized version of the Precious Scroll of Erlang.  

-After Liu Xi proclaimed his crush on the Third Mother, her attendants were pissed off on her behalf, and summoned a giant serpent to scare the mortal to death. On her way back, the Third Mother came across the half-dead scholar, and saved him with some magical elixirs.

-Thus began the start of her own crush on Liu Xi. After returning to her temple, she was quite mad at the attendant who summoned the demonic serpent, and was ready to execute him for his transgressions, before she was interrupted by the Old Man Under the Moon and Gold Star of Venus with a message that Your Relationship Is Divinely Ordained, and maybe spare the guy too.

-It wasn't the Peach Festival she couldn't go to because of her pregnancy, but Erlang's birthday. Sun Wukong arrived fashionably late to the party, and suggested a self-penalty of three cups of wine.

-Erlang was like "Dude, how can you still be late with your cloud somersaults? Three cups' too easy on you, how about a whole jar!"

-He'd deeply regret those words in about five minutes, for SWK got instantly drunk and started rolling around the bed, asking "Hey, y'all have some fine Birthday Wines, can I get more at the wedding tomorrow?"

"...Whose wedding?"

"Your sister's, of course!"

-Annnnd the cat's out of the bag. Erlang stormed out of Guankou and headed straight for his sister, who fled towards the Celestial Realm, hoping to seek shelter from their divine parents.

-When Erlang caught up to her, she used the titular Lotus Lantern to shield herself from the blows; however, it could not protect her against the Immortal-binding Rope, and soon, she was captured.

-Interestingly, the Third Mother did tell him the marriage was divinely ordained, to which he responded with "If it wasn't, you'd be dead, and even so, the Yang family code would not permit it!"

-Thus the Lotus Lantern was taken, and the Third Mother, thrown into a cave under the mountain and watched by the local Tudi god.

-Said Tudi god was not unreasonable, tho, and agreed to take baby Chenxiang to his dad. Soon, the kid grew old enough to attend the local school, where his schoolmates bullied him for not having a mom, with some even calling him a demon's child. 

-Tearfully, Chenxiang demanded an answer from his dad, and when his dad finally yielded and told him the truth, he decided to sneak away to find his imprisoned mom.

-The same Tudi led the kid to her after he cried long enough under Mt. Hua; mother and son had a heart wrenching conversation through the rock gaps, until they were interrupted by someone's arrival.

-That someone was not Erlang, as they feared, but the Thunderclap Immortal, taking a leisurely stroll in the mountains. He took Chenxiang in as a disciple, and told him a way to free his mom: the same magical axe Erlang used to cleave open their grandma's mountain prison way back when, now stored in the Guankou temple.

-Then Chenxiang just...walked up to the temple gate while Erlang was out hunting, and asked one of the Seven Sages of Plum Mountain if he could borrow the axe.

-Funnily enough, the Sage in question was Yuan Hong, yes, the exact same as that white ape demon Yang Jian killed in FSYY, and he was like "Nope".

-So Chenxiang decided to take the sneaky route, transforming himself into four immortal maidens delivering peaches and wine into the temple, got Yuan Hong drunk, then turned into a butterfly and entered the inner sanctum. Just as he was fumbling with the locks, Erlang returned from his hunting trip, forcing him to flee.

-After questioning Yuan Hong, he decided to err on the side of caution and add eight more celestial soldiers to guard the temple. Chenxiang bypassed that security measure by turning into a little insect and crawling inside, but the axe was nowhere to be found.

-Suddenly, a flash of red light flew into the room and led him to a single chest, where the axe was stored. However, there was a new problem; the door was still locked, and Chenxiang couldn't take it outside, so he came up with another plan; transform into a rat and lure the guards into opening the door for some pest extermination.

-The guards inform Erlang, who saw right through it. He told them to keep the door shut, then transformed into a cat and entered the room, forcing Chenxiang to flee again.

-So Chenxiang was pretty disheartened, until he thought of a third idea: transform into his own divine grandparents, Yang Tianyou and Princess Cloud-Terrace, and call Erlang out on his bullshit.

-That filial piety card worked wonderfully. Erlang had no choice but to take out the axe and free his sister, at which point Chenxiang transformed back into himself and battled with his uncle.

-As the Third Mother watched anxiously from the side, who should show up but the Gold Star of Venus, delivering Jade Emperor's divine cease-fire order?

-Happy ending, yay. Sidenote, Erlang actually sighed after seeing the order, acknowledged Chenxiang as a formidable member of the younger generation, and picked him up and called him a good kid/baby ("乖乖!" "宝宝!" 叫个欢).

[sithwitch13]

AEW Dynamite 8/3/24

Watching about 20 minutes delayed on account of getting delicious tortas for dinner with my parents

MJF: *villainous singing*

Danny is being extra bratty tonight, huh

Garcia wants to be Swerve when he grows up

I honestly dig stories that are like "I'm saving you by putting you out of comission." Hope they do jt well.

CONGLOMERATION TIME

KYLE OMG

I think I can only really understand half of what Mark Briscoe says but his vibes are impeccable

OKADA VS KYLE FLETCHER YES

Don Callis I am going to throw you in a washing machine and turn it on the heavy duty cycle

ORANGE VS BRYAN KEITH AND LANCE ARCHER VS MARK BRISCOE ON FRIDAT AAAA

Kyle getting the Rainmaker zoomout lol

Dang, that was great

TAKESHITA

Aaaaa Takeshita vs Mortos on Friday!

I was so happy for Swerve buying that house and now I'm so worried lol

JAIME HAYTER!!!

Yay Robyn Renegade getting TV time!

MARINA AND MOX

Lol Mox thinks Jack is a sweet kid (and he's right)

Oooh the old (like five year old lol) Death Rider tron and music are back

Well, at least Renee, Big Bill, and Bryan Keith are on my TV.

Ortiz flailing around un the "orange juice" still lives rent free in my mind

"Tell Chris Jericho" LOL HE'S RIGHT THERE

NYLA VS MARIAH TIME

I love the faces Mariah is making during this. She's sadistic and that sheer delight is making me so happy.

Her shrieks when she hits Nyla are reminding me of my patrents' chihuahua though

Deonna vs Shida on Friday aaaaaa

Love Mercedes' makeup here

The Holy Shida chant, my heart 💜

"Sayonara, bitch." Shida, I will love you forever

Ooh, Jack Perry has words. I love how confident he's grown.

Happy Dragon!

I love everyone this match so much

I know Bastard Combat Club is gonna win and I'm good with that, but aaaa Ospreay palling around with the Conglomeration is adorable

PAC NEEDS TO DO THE HAPPY CRAB DANCE, I DEMAND IT

Aaaaaa Orange and Yuta meeting up again I'm gonna die

Pac and Ospreay!!! I need to see them do more together IMMEDIATELY

Lol Orange climbing down the ropes

Ayyy Chikara shout out

Excalibur and Bryan talk about economics together, good to know

Orange and Pac again!

I just need Pac against all three of these guys

Actually any configuration of Bastard Combat Club vs any of the Conglomeration + Ospreay is needed

CLAUDIO BE CAREFUL WITH ORANGE PLEASE

Lol Claudio trying to knock Kyle off like my little sister when our cat latched onto her shoulder when we were kids

...I'm gonna need Yuta vs Jack soon

BRYAN SAID FUCK!!!!

Oooh backstage shenanigans

HANGMAN VS SWERVE CONTRACT TIME

Ooooh Hangman isn't coming out...

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH

Hangman smiling for the first time in months (because of arson)

[bleuflowerfields]

sskk could go either way with who throws who's plushie lmfao they are POSSESSIVE

personally think they both own plushies (atsu obv has a white tiger, prob new while aku owns a black cat plushie which has def seen better days) but like. the moment both of them realize the other had a plushie they rush to see who threw the other's plushie out the window at top speed first out of spite and also jealousy towards said plushies getting more attention then well. them.

nobody won lmao (they ended up flinging them out at the same time and sskk ends up cuddling each other. the end)

kunichuuzai i can see all three of them owning plushies (kuni has this really cute bear thing, and yk that dazai would have his crab and chuuya his little snail). just that they hide it at all costs solely because all of them are emotionally constipated and think that they'll never hear the end of it

so it's like this very shaky truce ig?? or like I could see dazai putting kunichuu's plushies (this is in case they DO find out) on the floor as soon as they sleep so he can sandwich himself between his boyfriends instead. which sounds like a win to me.

ranpoe have karl but I swear that if poe hasn't gotten jealous of karl warming up to ranpo more yet I need to give him an award. like he considers just locking him in a closet right b4 his boyfriend comes over because he's getting to his thirteenth reason why because of the damn raccoon

alright few other personal ships I'm adding here let's go

with sigzai I think dazai would just watch sigma cuddle his little cookie plush for a while b4 sleeping. (that he bought fir sigma as a surprise gift after he let slip that he REALLY liked cookies. not even to eat, he likes how they look too) like, he finds it super cute.

however he'd rather die than admit that he's actually a softie for plushies AND that he owns one. he keeps it hidden under his blanket

ranzai... I remember seeing an rb under this post about ranpo throwing all of dazai's plushies in a closet and I absolutely agree that the cheeky bastard would do that

or he hides them throughout the house for the hell of it and somehow dazai doesn't question why one of his plushies that he lost months ago turned up in his freezer of all places. frozen. or why one of them turned into a total mess in the microwave. he's getting too comfortable LOL

chuuran would essentially just be ranpo trying to steal chuuya's little snail plush in his sleep because that man has an absolute vice grip on it when he sleeps. somehow has it on him at all times so it's ranpo proof. essentially it's just a try not to evoke Chuuya's Wrath challenge LMFAO

so just. ranpo resigns to just sleeping on top of it to get his cuddles though he def has a vendetta against it and wants to fucking send it to kingdom come asap. it's like a hydrogen bomb vs a coughing baby except the plush is the bomb. weird vision but you get what I mean.

ok I think I went off there but yknow what it was worth it

im about to go to sleep so i ask who sleeps with a stuffed animal and who gets jealous and throws it off the bed

for

sskk

kunichuuzai

ranpoe

or whatever other ship exists in ur pretty heads

[hazyheel]

NXT UK 4/3/19

Another go home show before the NXT TakeOver: New York, and this one started out with Marsel Barthel and Fabian Aichner against the fun loving duo of Kenny Williams and Amir Jordan. This is a feud that I would love to see, especially the way the heels reacted everytime Jordan acted a bit goofy. The heels beat him down throughout the match with heavy strikes and double team moves. When Williams finally got the hot tag, he hit a lot of his high flying offense, even hitting like 3 springboard moves to take down Aichner on the outside. However, Barthel took out Williams with a dropkick while Jordan tried to skin the cat, and Aichner caught Jordan out of a top rope crossbody before smacking him into the apron. The heels hit an awesome spine buster and pique kick combo, but when they were about to win, Williams got the rollup for an upset win.

Grade: B. Big fan of this. The European Union is an awesome team, and Williams and Jordan are another great underdog team to take them on. They had a lot of chemistry together, and I hope they do this match again.

Piper Niven was then announced for an in-ring debut next week. I definitely know her from the Mae Young Classic, and vaguely from her work on the British Indie scene. She was known as Viper in other promotions, and she has won championships all over the world. I look forward to her debut. Backstage, Johnny Saint and Sid Scala we’re discussing the takeover show, when Jordan Devlin confronted the about why WALTER gets a match on the show and he doesn’t. They simply said that the contract had already been signed, which Devlin actually accepted, but he continued to try to intimidate Scala, before saying that he will be watching the match, and he will win the belt. Nice of him to not press the bosses too much.

Into the women’s division, Isla Dawn took on Kay Lee Ray. The two went hold for hold in the beginning of the match, exchanging takedowns and roll ups, and it was all pretty exciting. Eventually, Ray decided to mix in her striking with the submissions, taking Dawn offguard and giving Ray the advantage. Ray then landed a huge chop, superkick and a backpack slam (idk what the move was) for the win.

Grade: B+. Loved this match. Either of these women could challenge Toni Storm for her championship, and I would be happy. This was British wrestling at its finest, and it was exciting and fast paced and awesome. Hope to see these two again soon.

Backstage, Toni Storm was interviewed about her match with Jinny for the NXT UK women’s championship next week, when Jinny attacked. The two brawled, but Jinny got the better of it. Basic stuff. Then there was a promo from Travis Banks calling out Kassius Ohno, looking like there will be a match between the two soon.

Then there was a promo from the Grizzled Young Vets, talking about the challengers to their championships. Zack Gibson had mega heat from the crowd, but he claimed to be nursing an ear injury. He cut a heel promo just saying that everyone is underestimating them. He talked about how everyone worships the wrong talent in the business, people like high fliers and hardcore guys. He then took shots at Williams and Jordan, saying that they do not deserve a title shot after just one lucky win. Pretty simple stuff at the end of the day.

Grade: B+. Really good. Gibson didn’t say much of consequence, but he got a shit ton of heat from doing it, and it was super awesome to see. He is just dripping with charisma, and I look forward to seeing who they end up feuding with down the line. If it is Williams and Jordan, that could be fun, but I was hoping for some more serious challengers. Still, I bet it’ll be a great match.

In the main event, Trent Seven took on Joe Coffey. The two big guys hit each other incredible speeds, and were super stiff in their match. Coffey even taunted the crowd by putting Seven in a submission on the barricade, stretching his neck out. He worked over the neck and lower back of Seven throughout the match. Coffey was really brutalizing Seven throughout the match, to the point where even when Seven had the advantage, every move was a struggle. He did hit a great looking suicide dive though, which is not a sentence I am used to saying. The crowd was firmly behind Seven, loudly cheering for him throughout the match. At one point, Coffey went for a powerbomb on the apron, but Seven countered with a back body drop right off the apron. The two then exchanged strikes in the middle of the ring, each hitting bigger and better moves. Seven nailed his seven star lariat for a near fall. Coffey fought back into the match, eventually locking in a Boston crab for the win.

Grade: A-. Great match. They pulled out all the stops here, had high impact offense, and really destroyed themselves and each other for the sake of the match. It had awesome, sickening spots, great false finishes, and a submission sequence that, while it didn’t involve a finisher, made a lot of sense. I love finishes like that, and I love the feud between British Strong Style and Gallus. Just awesome stuff.

Overall Grade: B+.

Pros: opening tag; Dawn vs Ray; Grizzled Young Vets promo; main event

Cons: Zack Gibson made fun of Vic Joseph, I like him!

[gamerssphere]

The last stop before Wrestlemania is here and you can check out what happened during this event below. This is WWE Fastlane.

Kickoff Show

New Day vs SHinsuke Nakamura and Rusev is a match that makes absolutely no sense. We do get to see this match during the kickoff show and it feels to be a match to fill some time on screen.

Interestingly enough, by the time this match takes place, the crowd is already in the arena so it doesn’t feel like a match with no crowd at all. Of course, the WWE feels like this is a worthless match too, because they keep interrupting with backstage videos and conversations.

This match simply reminds me of the good old times when Nakamura was in NXT. I want those times to be back. Please don’t mess with Aleister Black and Ricochet too…Of course, in the end, we see The New Day defeating Rusev. Let’s just keep burying him.

Main Show

SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match

I just can’t get used to a babyface Miz. We need Miz to have his heel-turn sooner rather than later.

This match focused on attacking Shane. The Usos started failing and getting hit all the time, but as soon as they hit one punch, everything changed. We saw them making their great twin-combinations during this match.

At one point, Miz gets a double super kick and Shane saves him, but he remains inside the ring fighting until he gets taken out. At this point the referee paid attention to Shane while Miz hit his finisher and started the count, but the referee took a couple of seconds to start that count.

Will we see The Miz turning on Shane later on?

Right after this, Miz was going to be hit, but Shane saved him with a Coast to Coast against a flying Uso, hitting him mid-air and turning this into an amazing match. Now Miz tries to hit a Frog Splash but the Usos defend against it and pin him.

Of course, in the end Shane turns on Miz attacking him and his father. This is awesome!

SmackDown Women’s Championship Match

Mandy Rose comes with her friend Sonya Deville to the match, but will this be enough to beat Asuka? We certainly don’t think so.

Mandy has come up a lot since moving to the main roster. Her wrestling skill has improved significantly during this time. This doesn’t mean she is ready to take on Asuka. The entire match feels like Asuka just playing cat vs mouse and playing with her food.

Asuka wins after Mandy slips on the mat because of Sonya’s mistake.

WWE Championship Match

We see The New Day asking Vince McMahon to add Kofi to the WWE Championship match. He agrees and sends Kofi Kingston to the match.

At the time Kofi is in the ring, they announce the WWE Championship match will take place later on. Now we have a Handicap Match for Kofi against The Bar.

Handicap Match

How will Kofi do it? This is a handicap against The Bar, both at the same time, not a 1 vs tag, a 1 vs 2. The Bar is brutalizing Kofi. I can’t even understand why Kofi didn’t just tap out early in the match. He won’t be in shape for the title match.

In the end, it was obvious that he wasn’t going to win. But not only did Kofi get destroyed, his friends tried to help him and also got attacked by their opponents from the Kickoff show. The New Day was destroyed.

RAW Tag Team Triple Threat Championship Match

Let’s be clear here. Ricochet and Aleister have two of the best entrances in WWE. On the other side, Chad Gable doesn’t fit in that “Glorious” persona. The Revival is the only real team here.

This match was everything we’d expect from a triple threat tag team match. Dynamic, everyone having their moment. In the end, the champions retained, but got hit by Roode, Aleister and Ricochet. I don’t understand why this happened, because even the music at the end wasn’t Revival’s, it was Aleister’s.

Fatal Four Way US Championship Match

This is a great match. To some extent, we may believe it is an easy one for Samoa; however, the agility and speed of his opponents is going to be key to get that title.

We see a super fast match with everyone going with everything they have. Joe seems to be slower than everyone else, but that’s something we’d expect to happen. Keep an eye on Rey Mysterio. He is, after all, a wrestling legend, and he is ready to prove why.

We see a super hurracarrana being hit to Andrade. Zelina and Carmella get into a fight ringside. In the end, Rey hits a 619 on Samoa Joe, but Joe ends up putting Rey to sleep to retain the belt.

Women’s Tag Team Championship Match

The first title defense for the inaugural champions. They will fight against Nia Jax and Tamina.

Let’s be honest here. I got bored of this event after Kofi’s handicap match. The US Championship match was good, though, but overall, the event has been rather sleep-inducing.

We see Nia and Tamina hitting the champs with everything, and Bayley defending the belts with her life. Tamina was one of the powerhouses from SmackDown; however, I see a really weak version herself now. Easy to take down, easy to get her to miss. Not only is Tamina really bad as compared to her former self, Nia wasn’t even able to stand still when Tamina threw Sasha’s body to her for a Samoan Drop.

Then, it was Tamina’s time. Sasha threw herself from the corner to ringside, Nia was standing and holding her, but Tamina fell to the ground. This is disappointing from the challengers. Bayley ends up pinning Nia Jax to retain and this is the first time in which the challengers actually fight. This is boring!

Now that they are finally fighting, Beth Phoenix gets in there to defend Bayley. She hits Tamina and gets destroyed by the team. Natalya comes in to help but is annihilated as well. This is the birth of a new tag team for the division. Interesting how the most entertaining piece of this match was after it was over.

WWE Championship Part 2

We still have a triple threat match. First one coming to the ring has the best intro music of them: Kevin Owens. We truly missed him these months he was away. Second one is, interestingly enough, the champion, Daniel Bryan. What an awful belt!

The last entry in the match: Mustafa Ali! This is awesome!

The crowd is yelling to get Kofi Kingston. “We want Kofi!”. We do. I’m glad Mustafa Ali is here, though. I hate Daniel Bryan. This “Champion of the World” persona is stupid. Erick Rowan is being masterfully misused here as well.

The match itself is interesting. Kevin Owens brings some spice to the match. Mustafa brings amazing speed and Bryan is the perfect heel. All three of them have their moments in the match, unfortunately, the way Mustafa was introduced made the crowd not like him. People wanted Kofi. This is unfair hate against Ali.

I love how Kevin Owens brought the Stone Cold Stunner back. We see a fighting Ali, an interference by Erick Rowan, and Daniel Bryan retaining. No surprise here, besides Mustafa’s return.

Charlotte Flair vs Becky Lynch

We know how this all came to be. Lana was injured during the Royal Rumble match of her husband. She couldn’t enter the Women’s Royal Rumble and Becky took her place. Becky defeated Charlotte to earn a championship match at Wrestlemania either against Asuka or Ronda Rousey. Becky chose Ronda. She got suspended and the opportunity was handed to Charlotte. Now, Becky must re-earn her Wrestlemania match, but as a third entry there, turning it into a Triple Threat match.

Do you see why this is unfair?

The match starts with so much trash talk that it hurts. It doesn’t look like Becky will be able to win this time. She needs to pin or get Charlotte to tap out, it isn’t as easy as throwing her out of the ring.

Charlotte puts Becky in a half-crab position and for some odd reason, it doesn’t seem as if it hurt that much. You’d expect different signs of suffering when someone is hurting your injured knee. Is this injury real?

We see Charlotte dominating by inflicting damage to Becky’s knee. But when the figure 4 is ready, Ronda Rousey comes in, attacks Becky and gets her to Wrestlemania. Thank you Ronda!

This is the face of someone who accomplished what they wanted.

This isn’t.

Intermediate-ish

Elias plays a song. Lacey Evans appears, Randy Orton RKO’s Elias, AJ Styles hits the Phenomenal Forearm on Randy. The most enjoyable pieces of Fastlane have been outside matches. Interesting.

.@RandyOrton and @AJStylesOrg have appeared from out of nowhere caused MAYHEM at #WWEFastlane! pic.twitter.com/SxjAmenf26

— WWE (@WWE) March 11, 2019

Main Event: One Last Time

The Shield’s last run is here. The crowd went crazy when they came back together to the ring. I wish this match was a tornado tag instead of a normal teams match. Still, this is rather good, and even against their differences, The Shield is working like the first day they were together. Flawlessly.

This wasn’t supposed to be easy. Drew McIntyre was able to stop Seth Rollins, and following him, his team was able to decimate The Shield. We almost saw a defeat for the faces, but Dean Ambrose was able to evade getting counted out and pinned.

We see action everywhere, this is crazy! Ringside we have Dean and Seth against Drew and Bobby Lashley, in the ring we have Roman against Baron Corbin. This is exactly what we were expecting.

The match went out of control and the referee isn’t even counting anything anymore. This is sports entertainment for sure. Seth hit the curb-stomp on one of the announcement tables, roman a spear ringside, then the triple bomb to Drew through the announce table.

In the end, Roman Reigns pins Baron Corbin and The Shield says goodbye with a victory.

This was a good run for The Shield. I know I won’t be the only one missing them as a team. Many people have been hating on Roman Reigns and The Shield for a long time, but tonight, everyone in the arena cheered for them. That’s not a reaction you get for anyone. This was great and we now have to wait and see whenever a new dominating stable appears to feel this way again.

Now on to the “Greatest Stage of them All”, Wrestlemania!

#WWEFastlane 2019: One Step Away from #Wrestlemania The last stop before Wrestlemania is here and you can check out what happened during this event below. 1,955 more words

[iamchikara]

Season Nineteen comes to a close with Let’s Get Invisible. Results under the cut.

Match #1: Singles Contest Green Ant (1 point) vs. Juan Francisco de Coronado (1 point) Dasher Hatfield joined Scott Holladay on commentary for this one, and, interestingly enough, took offense to Scott calling him the interim champ. Hmm! Green Ant fought hard, but unfortunately made the mistake of going for a high risk move. As a result, he was caught in the Coronado Clutch and forced to tap out. WINNER: Juan Francisco de Coronado (2 points), Green Ant is out of the standings Match #2: Four Corner Elimination Tag Icarus and Tony Deppen (1 point) vs. Cornelius Crummels and Sonny DeFarge (1 point) vs. Jeremy Leary and Blanche Babish vs. Los Ice Creams Deppen attempted to flirt with Blanche at the start, asking her out to Olive Garden. Unfortunately for him, this only got him attacked by her. The Ice Creams were eliminated first as Crummels rolled up Hijo for the pin. This resulted in the F.I.S.T. duo going on the figurative warpath against the legitimate businessmen, breaking up their pins to try to keep them from getting more points. This singlemindedness regarding points left them open to Leary and Blanche, as Deppen was soon made to tap out to the Soda Jerk. A high/low lariat/chop block combination soon dropped Leary, ending the match and sending Crummels and DeFarge on to a shot at whoever captures the CdP later on. Let’s hope they don’t lose it again in some bullcrap way! WINNERS: Cornelius Crummels and Sonny DeFarge (3 points), Icarus and Tony Deppen are out of the standings Match #3: Singles Contest Penelope Ford vs. BLANK Hopefully no corny joke about Ford from commentary this time. Ford didn’t fare too well in this go-round, as her more showier offense eventually led to BLANK countering a back handspring with an elbow straight to the back of her head, KOing her for the win. He then posed her and had Still Life take a picture of her, calling it “A Lily In Place Of A Rose”. WINNER: BLANK (1 point) Match #4: 4-on-3 Street Fight The Proteus Wheel vs. Axel Ford, Lucas Calhoun, and Missile Assault Man Ford, Calhoun, and MAM did the smart thing to begin the match: they tried to isolate Professor Nicodemus. All three got maced for their troubles as Nicodemus fled to the floor. Lots of weaponry for everyone in this match, as the Wheel had brought a trash can full of stuff. There was even a fishing rod involved at one point. The match eventually came full circle when Nicodemus was isolated from his experiments again, and MAM hit him with a Scorpion Death Drop for the win. WINNERS: Axel Ford, Lucas Calhoun, and Missile Assault Man INTERMISSION Match #5: Singles Contest Boomer Hatfield vs. Hallowicked In what I’m sure is becoming a bit depressing for him, Boomer came up on the short end of things fairly quickly. Three Nightmares in a row got Hallowicked the win. Kid just can’t catch a break, really. WINNER: Hallowicked (1 point) Match #6: Atomicos Contest The Creatures of the Deep vs. Fire Ant, Thief Ant, Razerhawk, and Danjerhawk With Oceanea firmly in charge, the Creatures returned to form as the dominant group that they should be, with even Hermit Crab and Cajun Crawdad (who’ve been rather depressing as a tag team, though it should be pointed out that both have had their fair share of success in the singles ranks, with Crawdad in particular holding two points) pulling their own weight. Two attempts at the Tidal Wave were countered/prevented, with the third eventually putting Razer away to end the match. Lots of offense from both teams throughout. WINNERS: The Creatures of the Deep Match #6: Singles Contest Solo Darling (2 points) vs. Travis Huckabee (1 point) Taking a page from Huckabee’s playbook, Solo ran out to jump him before the match even started, causing him to try to hide. The two played a little cat and mouse as the match started, and Huckabee pulled out every dirty trick he could to attempt to get the upper hand. Multiple piledrivers couldn’t get the job done this time, so he soon attempted Solo’s own SharpStinger, only for her to get to the ropes and outside the ring. Giving in to frustration, Huckabee attacked three students on the outside before pulling up a protective mat and attempting a third piledriver on the bare floor, but Solo fortunately countered out of it. Getting back in the ring, Huckabee attempted to placate Solo with apologies, even doing their old handshake before attempting the sneaky rollup. Solo kicked out, then locked Huckabee in his own Golden Dream submission, tapping him out. WINNER: Solo Darling (3 points), Travis Huckabee is out of the standings Match #7: Campeonatos de Parejas Defense #4 The Closers vs. The Whisper and Princess Kimberlee Streamers and a “Happy birthday” chant for Whisper, though it apparently wasn’t actually his birthday. Guess people wanted to honor it while they could! Commentary was thoroughly confused by the whole thing. The Closers scored the first fall fairly quickly, with Sloan Caprice rolling up Kimberlee and getting a little extra leverage via a handful of trunks. The challengers soon evened up the odds, with Kimberlee pinning Rick Roland after he missed a moonsault and knocked himself a little goofy. The challengers, refusing to tag each other in, utilized the Lucha tag rule to make their tags throughout. When Whisper was about to fall prey to the same thing that scored the Closers the first fall, Kimberlee (apparently forgetting that she hates her partner for a bit) hopped in to break that up. Whisper than gave her a hug in gratitude, annoying her into German suplexing him...straight into Caprice, resulting in the unlikely duo become the unlikely Campeones de Parejas. Seeing how she’d accidentally thwarted her own attempt at getting away from her somewhat-erstwhile tormentor, Kimberlee stormed off, leaving Whisper with both titles. WINNERS and NEW CAMPEONES: The Whisper and Princess Kimberlee INTERMISSION #2 Match #8: Grand Championship Defense #4 Dasher Hatfield vs. Ophidian Ophidian amped up the aggression quickly in this, even attempting to upset Dasher before the match by saying that he was ready to “actually earn” the title and even pulling out one of the 17 Forgotten Holds during it. Both men eventually began to favor a body part, Dasher his arm due to the aforementioned Forgotten Hold and Ophidian his knee after bashing it into the ring while attempting to hit Dasher on the outside. Ophidian was unfortunately left wanting again, as his powerbomb/Egyptian Destroyer setup resulted in Dasher popping up from the latter and nailing him with a Roaring Elbow, ending the match in the interim champ’s favor... ...and leaving Ophidian knocked out afterward. An interesting note was that this was the same elbow pad that Mark Angelosetti gifted Dasher during the Challenge of the Immortals, the one that was later revealed to be loaded. And apparently it’s still loaded. WINNER: Dasher Hatfield After the match, Boomer came out to celebrate, as did Touchdown, who had an announcement for everyone: as of the 10th, he is cleared to return to the ring and can defend the Grand Championship himself. There was just one problem with that gameplan: Dasher’s had a taste of the gold and he’s not quite willing to give that up yet. After Touchdown was handed the title by Bryce Remsburg, Dasher yanked it back and nailed Touchdown with an elbow, laying him out as well before leaving with the title. Boomer lingered to check on Touchdown, but was quickly ordered out by his father.

[1soos]

Works in Progress Tag

I was tagged by @wenotes Ren, you’re my favorite Sailor Scout. 

It took me so long to do this.

I’ve only done 6 wips here because it got too long and some of my other wips are too embarrassing to expose rn.

Series

Magnets: untitled chapter 2 – jikook – mechanic!jungkook, dance major!jimin…sort of

Rated: M

a/n: the first chapter was for a fic exchange on ao3 and this chapter is because I found I had more to say. I literally just started writing this the other day. I’ll post this one on ao3 once it’s done.

Dating is a concept with which Jungkook is wholly unfamiliar. He’d dated briefly in high school, but that had been more camouflage and self-preservation than an actual relationship. He has no first-hand experience, no idea how things like this are supposed to progress. Of course, he’d seen fictional relationships play out on television, but right now they seem thoroughly unhelpful. Jungkook wasn’t an assassin who vowed to protect Jimin from a contract killing or a supernatural being who learns what it means to be human through Jimin’s attention. He’s utterly himself.

 Just Jungkook. Who avoids all conversations that revolved around colleges or a future that he can’t afford; who works as an apprentice mechanic in a family friend’s garage most of the week and paints houses with his dad during the days left over and danced or drew at night; who is so painfully shy and in his own head that he would have never talked to the boy he’d wanted from afar for so long if he hadn’t spoken to Jungkook first.

 He feels horribly inadequate beside this boy that people wanted to be around; who goes to college; who is in an actual dance troupe; who has a future outside of this city; who managed to make himself so precious to Jungkook in so short a time.

 Jungkook is terrified that it’s only a matter of time before Jimin realizes how much he’s lacking. He’s been trying to prove his worth from the moment Jimin woke up with a raging hangover the morning after their impromptu field trip.

  Tentative title: A Fish Tale – mermaid!yoongi part 1 – Yoongi x reader

Rated: PG-13

a/n: I’ve been working on this since June (?) and I keep getting stuck. Tbh looking at it now, this will probably turn out to be more of an info sheet for me to use while writing the actual thing.

Watching Jungkook had always been your job; to make sure he was safe while he discovered the outside world. Had been your job since he was a baby just learning to splash in the little pools of ocean water, learning to love the water and the life in it’s great blue depths from the relative safety of the tide pools. It was necessary for the young to be assigned protectors. To make sure that he stayed in your sight always, too many children had wondered too far out and been lost forever to those who loved them on land. Elders in the community, not wanting everyone to be afraid of the water that surrounded them on all sides and brought them joy as well as despair, tell stories of a race of liminal creatures that would find the lost children and raise them as their own. A fish tale, really, that no one believed past their tenth year.

You are well past your tenth year and so is Jungkook, but the watching had become a habit. After all, death by drowning didn’t only happen to children and just moments ago, he’d dived under the crystal waves to scavenge who knows what. And though you trust him to resurface, flipping his hair back, gulping air like his lungs were going to burst if he’d stayed under a moment longer, you still hold your breath with heart beating fast. It’s better than when you counted the seconds, though; every mounting moment an illustrated and numbered anxiety.

You don’t go in the water. You won’t. That’s why Jungkook started scavenging in the first place, to bring the ocean to you, he’d said. They were always beautiful, always the best of what the ocean had to offer. It’s a rule of the island that you aren’t allowed to fish individually, for food, but especially not for sport. It is a rule that you and Jungkook know all too well with a council member for a mother and a fisher for a father. So, when the thing is living, Jungkook won’t leave the water with it and you must get as close to the water line as you dare to view whatever miraculous creature he’d discovered that day.

You’re thinking of a particular day when Jungkook was young and brought back a horseshoe crab. You called it ugly and he scolded you, saying that he was sure that to other horseshoe crabs it was very appealing. You’d smiled and agreed and Jungkook set it free, giggling as it scuttled away.

 Prequel: The Wrong Girl – vigilante!au – Hoseok x OFC

Rated: M for thematic elements, action, cursing, and future smut

a/n: so this is kind of a cheat. I’ve posted this elsewhere, and I haven’t touched it to work on it in 7 (!!!) months, but I suddenly got inspired to re-write some of it and continue to write in this au, so I’ll probably start posting these soon. Here’s a bit of the prologue.

“You’ve got the wrong girl.”

“Oh, I don’t think so. I think you’re exactly who I want.”

“You don’t want to do this.”

“I really, really do though.” He steps toward her with his hands out, ready to grab at whatever part of her body he can reach. “You thought you could take what’s mine and I would just let you? Is that what you thought?”

She doesn’t say anything; she just lifts up her hands in front of her, palms facing the thickly muscled man approaching her.

“Oh sweetheart,” he says, voice dripping with condescension, “are you going to beg now?” A terrifying toothy grin spreads its way across the man’s face and he takes another step toward her. “If you give back what you took, I promise you’ll make it out of here alive.”

She makes her eyes go wide and her mouth tremble and pout. “You promise?”

He smiles like he knows he’s got her. He raises his right hand and looks skyward and says, “I promise.”

She swallows, but she sets her jaw and her eyes narrow. “Bullshit. I’m not telling you where they are. They’re people, not objects. And even if I did, there’s no way you’d let me live. You’re gonna have to kill me.”

“Baby, baby, baby—“he accents every ‘baby’ with a shake of his head—“I’m not going to kill you. First, I’m going to make you tell me where they are—“he laughs wickedly, eyes still running over her slowly—“oh, it’s going to be so painful, I honestly don’t think you’ll last very long, and then I’m going to add you to the squirming pile of peddled flesh before I send it to my buyer.”

She wants to vomit. Why did he have to be one of those grossly verbose bad guys? She wished he’d hurry up and make his move, mostly so this cliché exchange could end. She was getting tired of waiting. She can’t attack, not when she’s so much smaller than him. She needs to wait, keep surprise on her side and then use his own momentum and weight against him.

His steps forward are slow, like he’s trying to lull her into a false sense of security. He wants her to stay where she is so when he decides to grab her she won’t be quick enough to get away, but that’s exactly what she wants. She wants him close.

God, I almost wish I believed in guns. This shit would be over so much faster.

Suddenly, he’s so close to her she could probably see her reflection in his enormous white teeth if such a thing were possible. Her heart speeds up and she can feel the adrenaline pumping through her veins. She’s careful not to tense too soon; she doesn’t want to telegraph her moves, but it’s a delicate balance. If she waits too long, he’ll be on her and then there’s not much she can do.

Then she sees the look in his eye. From the very beginning of their encounter, he’d been carefully controlling his face and eyes, it was almost terrifying how calm and affable he’d been about the whole thing (the ‘whole thing’ being a random woman showing up and freeing 20 people from a metal shipping container and a life of sex slavery and then leading him on a merry chase at the shipyard where shit like this always seems to take place). Now, she catches a glimpse of the evil bubbling underneath and for the first time that night, she is truly afraid. He comes for her and she hesitates.

A shot rings out and the man crumples into a pile before her.

 Power!au – EXO – Yixing x Reader

Rated: M for thematic elements, action, cursing, and eventual smut

a/n: I’m going to be really honest and say that I don’t really like this. I’ve re-written it 3 times and I can’t manage to get it the way I want it and it’s super frustrating. This is from the first draft, because I tried to switch it from ‘reader’ to first person limited and wow, I suck at that.

When your friends told you they were planning a trip to the mountains and asked you to come along, you were hesitant. You got that feeling in the pit of your stomach. They called you afraid and scared-y cat and chicken shit, but that’s not it. Not all of it.

How do you explain that you know something bad is going to happen, that you have always known when something bad is going to happen? It was like an extra sense or a heightened Fight or Flight response or something.

But then your brother was going and there was no way you were letting him go without you.

“You never do anything fun,” he’d said. You’d argued and begged him not to go, but he’s one of those people that you don’t want to say no to. He’s always chasing the next rush and you are almost always beside him when he does it, just in case.

  Series? One-shot? Who knows??

 Ghost!au – BTS all members vs. a ghost investigation team

Rated: ??? probably PG-13 unless something happens and I change the way this is going before I get too far.

a/n: I started this while I was sick and all I wanted was to watch Most Haunted and sleep. I have another ghost!au idea that’s totally different and will be with a different group, but I haven’t written anything down about it other than notes, so. Also, this is literally everything I’ve written for this one.

“Hello? Is there anybody here that would like to talk to us? One for yes and two for no.” The woman tells the people around her to stop talking as she cocks her head to one side to listen for an answer.

Several knocks are heard from several areas in the room, but the woman hardly bats an eye, other members of her team are not so composed, before saying, “One at a time, please. Can one of you tap out how many people are in this room?” She tucks her hair behind her ear and assumes a look of intense concentration as the rest of the crew tense up to count.

The scene is almost comical, five grown adults standing in a loose circle, looking everywhere but at each other, all mouthing along to a barely audible tattoo. It’s the kind of atmosphere that breeds the nervous laughter that is usually found at funerals and weddings and other functions where you are expected to observe a level of reflective decorum, if only the tension would break.

But it only builds alongside the ascending number of knocks.

The woman finally lets out a breath and looks to another woman beside her. “Twelve. I heard twelve.”

The other woman, with wide eyes and hand gripping a chunky metal cross around her neck, agrees.

A man with a camera speaks for the first time since entering the room. “Including us?”

One knock.

“Oh jesus, okay, so seven.” He wipes the sweat that’s gathered on his forehead and giggles along with his camera carrying companions.

It’s infectious and soon everyone is snickering and poking at their neighbor, each telling another that they should have seen the look on their face.

Finally, the woman in charge says, “Seven is a lot, especially for a house that isn’t very large or even very old, but we can work with it.” She rubs her hands together, more warmth than anything else before she asks the most important question: “Do any of you want to cause any of us harm?”

The knocks that had been so forthcoming previously were eerily absent. The group waits, but after a few minutes of silence, they decide that the whoever was there before must have moved on to different rooms.

However, the air of indecision presses down on them, like the spirits might hurt them if they felt like it. That feeling has the woman shaking in her boots, not that she’d let them see that, not yet anyway, when there hasn’t been any action beyond basic communication, but if they started throwing shit, showing poltergeist activity, then she’d be perfectly willing to lose her shit in front of everyone, she’s not about to open the door to real harm.

  Drabbles

 Vampire!jinyoung 4 – Jinyoung x Reader sort of.

Rated: R for cursing and thematic elements

a/n: so I’ve only posted one of my vampire!jinyoung drabbles, but I have a few planned out and there are 2 between this one and the first one where I know what I want to happen, I just haven’t written them yet.

 You were lying lazily across your sofa. The book you’d initially been so excited to read, had suddenly lost your interest and you are moments away from slipping quietly into sleep.

The next time you open your eyes, you’re in total darkness. You groan as you stretch. That was definitely more of a sleep than a nap.

You get up and stumble your way to the light switch, putting your hand over your eyes before flicking upward and bathing the room in sharp, white light. You slowly move you hand away from your eyes, letting it reach you in manageable bits.

Blinking and squinting rapidly, you barely register the top of a dark head of hair peeking over the top of your favorite chair, but then that head moves and you let out an undignified shriek.

He turns and looks at you quizzically while you rub your hand over your heart.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” In the dark…with me? You add in your head.

“Were you watching me sleep? That’s…actually really creepy, Jinyoung. Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“The thought did occur to me.” And that’s all he says on the subject. You know because you wait for him to give you some kind of explanation or even a half-assed apology, but he remains silent.

You rub your hands over your eyes trying to rid them of residual sleep. “Whatever. Why are you here? I didn’t think you’d come back after last time.”

“Why would I not come back? I like our talks.”

“Really?” he could have fooled you. When he wasn’t talking down to you or sneering at humanity in general, he was standoffish or at best indifferent. He never asked you questions about yourself which hadn’t bothered you at first because you were so caught up in unravelling the mystery of the vampire, but now you’re getting pretty tired of how one sided whatever this is, is.

“Of course. It’s the highlight of my existence.” You can’t tell if he’s being sarcastic or not and to be honest, you’re kind of fed up with the whole thing.

“Did you need something, Jinyoung?”

 Honorable Mentions aka stories that I know I’m going to write, but haven’t started yet:

 70s New York City power outage!au – crossover fic – will be told from several perspectives

 A slice of life, domestic!jennie one shot for my girl, Lex. I have a ton of notes for this fic, I honestly don’t know why I haven’t started writing it?

 Ghost!jongin – Jongin x Reader – reader is a single mom and Jongin protects them from evil spirts in their home.

I’m sorry, I know I said that I would do this yesterday and I totally planned on it, but I forgot my laptop at home. 

Anyway, I tag: @boymeetsweevil, @jeonalis, @94hixtape, @sugasweetsubs, @denouemin, @hobijoon, @lilyjhs, @minmelly

[pwchronicle]

Chikara “Young Lions Cup XV, 1st Stage/ 2nd Stage” Live Show Reports March 16th in Philadelphia, PA

Chikara came back to the Wrestle Factory for the first time this year with two full shows over a Saturday, both to decide the next Young Lions Cup Champion and to attempt to sort out the ugly situation surrounding the Grand Championship.

The 1st Stage in the afternoon started with all of the entrants in this year’s tournament coming out to the ring for a group photo. Blanche Babish was unable to take part for some reason, so new ring announcer Mark Adam Haggerty helped Bryce Remsburg draw a new name, albeit a little haphazardly. Sonny Defarge was already scheduled to wrestle later, and Roman Reigns was unavailable (not sure either one would qualify as a Young Lion), so the vacant spot went to Lady Frost, a wrestler I was cheated out of seeing in person at Beyond’s last trip here. Sixteen entrants, with all of the first round matches were all 4-way elimination matches.

1. Young Lions Cup 1st Round: Boomer Hatfield won over Lady Frost, Jay Sorbet, and Lee Moriarty. Sorbet (pronounced like the frozen dessert) was one of two visiting Australians in the tournament, calling himself the the Australian Scooperman and doing a lot of ice cream wordplay; he would get along swimmingly with Los Ice Creams. Frost (a convenient opponent) used a lot of flashy offense that could double as dancing. Moriarty, out of the Pittsburgh area, was another late replacement and assumed the rudo role here, mocking Boomer’s height. Moriarty eliminated Sorbet first after high knee and a leaping flatliner, then right afterward rolled up Frost to eliminate her. The crowd favorite Boomer was able to pin Moriarty after spiking him with a basement rana. He had a post-match interview with Scott Holladay, but Dasher Hatfield intervened immediately, congratulating his son (“This is the boy’s moment!”) and talked about how both will be champions by the end of the day.

2. The Regime (Juan Francisco de Coronado, Sloan Caprice, and Rick Roland) vs. three enhancement talents went to a No Contest. This presumed squash match never got going, as Caprice wanted to speak to Juan. He said Juan hasn’t been paying him and Roland, that they’re not his friends, and when people don’t pay them, those people get “whacked.” The two Closers proceeded to beat up Juan, and their three opponents and the ref chose to leave. Roland finished off Juan with a sit-out tree slam, but the fans chanted for one more time, so they returned and hit him with the Deal Breaker (Hart Attack power bomb). They then tossed their bowtie armbands and Ecuadorian gauntlets to the mat and left. Pretty heelish actions that the crowd loved. Juan eventually got up and retrieved the bowties.

3. Young Lions Cup 1st Round: Jaden Newman won over Thief Ant, Frantik, and Air Wolf. Newman was the big unknown of these four, coming from Tennessee and having a gimmick of calling himself Number One. He established himself as a heel, leading to the crowd chanting Number 2 at him. Air Wolf returned after being in last year’s Young Lions Cup tournament and winning the Rey de Voladores tournament over King of Trios weekend last year. Frantik was the first one gone when Thief Ant pinned him with an O’Connor Roll. Newman used a finisher where he hit a sliding forearm to the back of a seated Air Wolf to eliminate him, and soon afterward did the same to Thief Ant to win. I thought Newman assessed himself well.

4. Missile Assault Man beat Rory Gulak with an inverted DDT. Gulak had fun with his “Amazing” catchphrase early on and tried to let Missile do the same, then they began grappling. Solid work, ending shortly after Gulak went for a splash off the top but ate Missile’s knees.

- They went to an intermission and said the next match would be an Unsanctioned Chain Match. Haggerty warned fans that this match would be more violent than usual Chikara matches and advised parental discretion.

5. Lucas Calhoun beat Volgar in an Unsanctioned Chain Match. There was no ref for this match. The two of them were supposed to be attached to each other by a long chain, though Calhoun actually just held onto to it. This was unsanctioned anyway, so I’ll give them leeway. This followed Last Man Standing rules, with Calhoun asking the fans to count when one of them was down. This was not a smooth process as it took a while for counting fans to get coordinated, but it got into a pattern of us counting slowly when Calhoun was down, counting normally when Volgar was down, and not counting at all when one was about to do a move to another. They brawled in and out of the ring, and I thought they used the chain well. Calhoun was slammed onto two steel chairs at ringside that he himself set up. The ending sequence saw Volgar dish out excessive punishment, hitting two top rope splashes, followed by a senton off the top. He went up a fourth time, but Calhoun crotched him on the top rope by yanking the chain, then he grabbed a glass bottle from a planted fan and smashed it over Volgar’s head. Calhoun then hit Volgar with a Samoan Drop off the top, and this was good enough to keep Volgar down for a regular ten-count, giving Calhoun the hard-fought victory. Not perfect, but a very effective brawl and potential feud-ender by the end of it. They took another, shorter intermission to clean up the ring.

6. Young Lions Cup 1st Round: Still Life With Apricots and Pears won over Cam Carter, DL Hurst, and Davienne. The returning Carter and the debuting Davienne, who wrestles in Beyond and elsewhere in the New England area, were the stars of this match, with Carter using a lot of his agility and Davienne throwing guys around with suplexes. She was the first one gone, however, when Hurst made her submit to the Rings of Saturn. Carter eliminated Hurst with a standing Spanish Fly out of nowhere. Still Life, looking considerably messier today, largely stayed out of the action, but immediately got involved when it was down to them (Still Life uses they/them pronouns now) and Carter. After some back and forth, Carter went to hit his running 450 Splash from the entry ramp, but Still Life moved out of the way of it and rolled up Carter with a La Magistral Cradle to win. In a post-match interview, Holladay asked Still Life about the whereabouts of BLANK. Still Life had no comment.

7. Young Lions Cup 1st Round: Ricky South won over Green Ant, Allie Kat, and Brayden Lee. The very popular Green Ant was matched up against three newcomers that did very well for themselves. I’ve seen Allie Kat before, and the gist is she thinks she’s a cat and I think it’s an infectious act. “Tuff Stuff” Ricky South is another wrestler all the way from Australia; he acts a bit androgynous with his lipstick and flashy gear, but showed off a lot of power and solid wrestling. Brayden Lee came all the way from Indiana with his chiseled abs and lunch carrier containing his carb-free diet. I thought this was the most fun of a series of fun first round matches. Kat plowed through her opponents after getting her belly scratched, but she was the first one eliminated after Green Ant pinned her with a springboard cross body. Lee upped the ante (sorry) when he eliminated Green Ant with a Shooting Star Press off the top. South was able to score the win after hitting Lee with a piledriver off the top.

8. Mr. Touchdown beat Chris Dickinson with the Flea Flicker. Strong main event of the first stage that told a story of Touchdown fighting from behind. Dickinson alluded to Mr. Touchdown’s injury at King of Trios throughout the match worked over Touchdown’s knee while bullying him verbally. He also got on ref (and Director of Fun) Bryce Remsburg’s last nerves. This was Touchdown’s second straight win since coming back and picking up a victory at National Pro Wrestling Day.

- Afterward, Dasher and Boomer Hatfield came out. Boomer attended to Touchdown while Dasher commended him for beating “the Hatfield family’s Kryptonite.” He said if Touchdown wanted to earn the Grand Champion back, he had one more opponent for him waiting in the dugout later in the night. Remsburg said Dasher doesn’t make the matches around here, but Dasher appealed to Touchdown’s fighting spirit as Touchdown got to his feet and requested the match Dasher had for him.

- About ninety minutes later, the Second Stage of Young Lions Cup XV began.

1. Young Lions Cup Semifinals: Boomer Hatfield advanced over Jaden Newman with a huricanrana. Boomer gave Newman multiple sliding baseball kicks to the outside, but Newman stopped him by pulling up the ring apron. Newman took a lot of the match and hit his sliding forearm that helped him in the first round, but Boomer was able to survive it by maneuvering towards the ropes.

2. Young Lions Cup Semifinals: Still Life With Apricots and Pears advanced over Ricky South when he countered South’s top rope piledriver into a roll-up. A good mix of personalities here. South received a “Please Come Back” chant afterward.

3. Air Wolf beat Cam Carter with a delayed butterfly suplex. A very fun, fast-paced match. This was also a Magic Move Match, meaning if a specific move was hit during the match, everyone in attendance would receive a prize. The magic move was a 450 Splash, of which Carter hit of the springboard variety late in the match for a nearfall, and the prize was a new poster with the spring event schedule on it. After this 450 Splash didn’t work, Carter went for his running 450, but Air Wolf caught him to lead to the finish. Holliday interviewed him afterward about his scheduled match on the next Chikara event - April 5 in Jersey City, NJ - against A-Kid, the Spanish wrestler from Whitewolf Wrestling making waves. Air Wolf gave A-Kid credit for how well he’s done, but he has beaten A-Kid previously to win the Rey de Voladores tournament. He said this next encounter wouldn’t be a match, but a hunt.

4. The Colony (Fire Ant, Thief Ant, and Worker Ant) beat The Creatures of the Deep (Merlok, Hermit Crab, and Cajun Crawdad) when Fire Ant pinned Crawdad following a Beach Break. Originally announced as just a tag match, Thief Ant was added after being eliminated from the Young Lions Cup tournament, and Merlok joined his crustacean comrades to turn this into a trios match, Chikara’s calling card. Worker Ant, recently returning to the ring, held his own, and had a brief hoss battle with Merlok late in the match where Worker was able to take him off his feet. Thief Ant employed some thievery, giving Crawdad his own Gator Roll and putting Hermit Crab in the Boston Crab after they had just done the moves themselves (counter-clockwise on the N64 control stick). At one point, Crawdad was looking to dive from the top rope from the floor, but Fire Ant tried to prevent it. Crawdad grabbed onto the ceiling of the Wrestle Factory (the framing in between the tiles), kicked Fire Ant away, and briefly swung from the ceiling to pull off his dive to the floor. A wild spot pulled off perfectly. The two trios wound up having a showdown in the middle of the ring, ending with Worker Ant and Thief Ant doing suicide dives to Hermit Crab and Merlok on the floor, while Fire Ant delivered a kick to Crawdad to set up the finish. I had so much fun watching this.

- Intermission, as Hermit Crab and Merlok tried to help Crawdad to the back.

5. FIST (Travis Huckabee & Tony Deppen) beat Cornelius Crummels & Sonny Defarge when Huckabee had Crummels in a horse collar to allow Deppen to hit him with a double stomp off the top. Fun rudo vs. rudo tag team match that started with some underhanded tactics from both teams, including fish hooking and face gouging each other in a circle. Deppen is really channeling Beavis for me, when I think he’s supposed to be the obnoxious member of the FIST trio that Chuck Taylor was. Crummels was worked over a lot, being able to make a tag after sneezing on Deppen. This win gave Huckabee and Deppen their third point for a shot at Los Campeonatos de Parejas.

6. Dasher Hatfield beat Solo Darling to retain the Chikara Grand Championship with a powerslam into the corner. Strong match with Darling the clear favorite. Hatfield was able to escape the Sharp Stinger. He hit a Jackhammer late into the match, but Darling kicked out at 1. Darling was able to string together a DDT on the edge of the ring and a bulldog on the floor, but Dasher came back with a powerbomb on the edge of the ring.

7. Young Lions Cup Finals: Still Life With Apricots and Pears beat Boomer Hatfield to win the Young Lions Cup when they made Boomer pass out to a grapevine leg lock. The big story to this match was Still Life working over Boomer’s knee, to the point where Boomer tried for his corner charge (which he used in his previous matches during the day), his knee gave out. A big moment later saw Still Life go after Boomer’s mask while both were on the top, but Boomer knocked Still Life off and delivered a Meteora to them. Shortly afterward, Still Life twisted around Boomer’s mask and went in for the kill on his knee, clinching the Cup. As Still Life was just starting a post-match interview, BLANK emerged and interjected himself. He seemed happy for Still Life at first, but he then yelled how Still Life is no longer his magnum opus. He said Still Life was destroyed by Penelope Ford at National Pro Wrestling Day, and that the splash of gold from the Young Lions Cup won’t help it. Where this relationship between art and artist goes, I have no clue.

- They announced via a video that this year’s King of Trios will take place in Reading, PA, October 4, 5, and 6 (away from what has become a crowded Labor Day Weekend in recent years for wrestling). They’re tying it into the video game they still hope to release. Their ticket site says that King of Trios will be held at The Goodwill Beneficial Association in Reading, which they have run before for other shows.

8. Mr. Touchdown beat Icarus with a cradle pin. Mr. Touchdown was still selling the wear on his body from his match with Chris Dickinson earlier, and Icarus took advantage of it. Touchdown still fought back, and went for a superplex, but Icarus slammed his face on the top of the ring post. Icarus was able to hit a Pedigree, but only for a nearfall. A second Pedigree attempt was countered by Touchdown for the win. Solid main event with a strong technico and rudo at the center of it.

- Boomer ran out afterward to check on Touchdown, followed by Dasher coming out and telling Icarus he failed at his job. Icarus proceeded to hit a Blu Ray on Touchdown into the corner. Dasher said Touchdown’s three victories won’t earn him the championship back, and he told an incensed Remsburg (who officiated this main event) that he can’t take the Grand Championship from him. He ran down all of the challengers he’s turned away, up to and including Solo Darling, and claimed he is the real Grand Champion now. Touchdown got up and said that he earned the title back, that they’re family, and was looking for a hug, but Dasher still clocked him with the title. Remsburg finally had enough, and said that he even though he can’t physically take the title away from Dasher, he came up with a solution. In what he said was his final act as Director of Fun (news that took everyone by surprise), he announced Dasher Hatfield vs. Mr. Touchdown for April 5 in Jersey City in a Ladder Match, to decide the undisputed Grand Champion. Dasher stormed out and called Boomer (who was trying to tend to a downed Touchdown this whole time) to his side, while Fire Ant, Air Wolf, and the other refs came out to make sure Touchdown could get up and leave on his own power, which he did.

A heck of a double-header from Chikara, two full shows with sixteen (technically fifteen matches between them, setting the stage for April 5 and future shows. Lots of quality matches, and I thought all of the new and returning guests did well for themselves, so the independent scene continues to thrive. I intend to be at that April 5 event, along with a number of other events happening in Jersey City (and one in Rahway… and one in Manhattan, my first time in Madison Square Garden!). I definitely can not promise rundowns like this for all of those shows (even this weekend, fatigue set in, which is why this was posted now and not late last night), but I do hope to write up some general articles about what I will have witnessed over Wrestling Week.

[anonymun-jay]

Shiny vs. Shadow

Prompted by @beevesj​

“How about Jay meeting Tamatoa?c:”

Guest appearances: Tamatoa from Moana

Jay held her backpack strap tightly as she looked around at the various portals that had opened up in front of her. The Anon had been feeling the itch to explore some new places lately and she was practically buzzing with excitement as she glanced through the possible locations.

“Where to go, where to go...” she muttered to herself as she flipped through the portals. “Been there... Done that... Seen that... Got the T-shirt... Ooooooooh~”

The portal she landed on depicted a massive mountain spire that seemed to emerge straight out of a shimmering ocean. It seemed pretty barren at first glance, but closer inspection revealed an ornate face carved into the rock at the peak. Jay poked the portal, and a few bits of information appeared around the image.

“Lalotai...” she read aloud. “Disney universe... Underneath the ocean... Realm of Monsters!?” Her face lit up and she squealed. “YES DEFINITELY ABSOLUTELY SIGN ME THE HELL UP!”

She immediately dove in. Magic swirled around her body as the portal disappeared with an audible pop, and within seconds she was where she wanted to be... Or rather, 150 feet ABOVE where she wanted to be. The Anon had accidentally teleported herself high in the sky, and as soon as the magical inertia wore off she dropped like an anchor.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not too surprisingly for anyone who knew her, Jay seemed unfazed. If anything the drop was making her more excited, and she adopted a sort of superhero pose as she dove down towards the stone face. If she timed it right she could have it open or move out of the way just in time to avoid-

CRASH

Well... Guess not.

The gate cracked and crumbled on impact, sending boulders tumbling down into the swirling vortex below. Jay, unhurt, whooped and hollered as she continued falling, bouncing from rock to rock without a single care in the world. Even as the ground grew ever closer, the Anon wasn’t worried.

“INCOMING!” she shouted, hoping to warn any creatures that might be underneath the portal, but thankfully the clearing below seemed to be empty save for vibrantly colored plant-life. The boulders crashed into the sand, sending up clouds of dust and debris.

Jay tucked herself into a ball so she could roll herself to a stop... but the dust made her miscalculate. She slammed into the ground and bounced a good 20-30 feet into the air, and to top off the silliness, she had somehow transformed into a cat. After a second or two of hang-time, she came down again, crashing in a similar undignified manner and transforming into an octopus in sunglasses. This pattern continued, bouncing off of rocks, plants, unfortunate monsters and even a cliff, a new animal at every landing, until Jay finally crashed at the bottom as a minke whale.

“Oof...” she groaned as she rubbed her flipper over the side of her face. “Not one of my more graceful landings, I’ll admit... At least I stopped.”

“Oh, what is it now?”

Jay raised her eyebrows. Had she just heard something? Her flipper fell from her face and came to rest on the ground... though... it didn’t feel like ground... It was hard and smooth, like bone or fingernails, with long, thin crevices that felt like seams in a suit of armor. The Anon craned her neck around, trying to get a good look at what she landed on, but whales aren’t exactly know for having flexible necks. The problem was soon corrected, however, as something massive grabbed her around her tail and lifted her into the air.

She blinked. “Well there’s somethin’ you don’t see every day...”

She was face-to-face with a giant crab... genuinely giant. If he had been standing upright he would’ve easily been fifty feet tall, but instead he seemed to be stuck on his back, having sunken in to the soft sand underneath him... or maybe that was from the force of Jay landing on him... A few shimmering trinkets and shells were scattered around him, and Jay could see a few plastered to his purple shoulders and legs. His dark-colored eyes quietly studied her, and she couldn’t help but notice his pupils were different sizes... and that whoever this crab was, he looked hungry.

The crab smiled, revealing his slightly crooked, barnacle-encrusted teeth. “Whale, whale, whale... what have we here?” he chuckled at his own unoriginal pun as he examined the small Anon trapped in his claw.

“Wow...” she deadpanned. “That pun is just ‘krilling’ me...”

He ignored her. Quite a few animals could talk down here in Lalotai, so a talking whale wasn’t too out-of-place. Just another potential prey.

“Well, no ‘porpoise’ in letting a meal go to waste~” he commented cheerfully as he pulled her forward.

“May I stop you right there?” Jay held up her fin. “I mean, I haven’t even introduced myself yet!” She suddenly poofed into a cloud of smoke, returning to her default, humanoid form as the last wisps faded away. “Baboom! Name’s Jay. Being of chaos. Hi, how ya doin’?”

The crab blinked in confusion and disappointment as his whale dinner disappeared into something much less appetizing. “What the- Ugh...” His expression turned into an annoyed scowl. “Another human?” he groaned, letting his head sink back onto the sand. “Haven’t your kind bothered me enough already?”

“Well, actually no.” The crab glared at her, so she quickly corrected herself. “About me being human, I mean... not bothering you... I didn’t even know you had someone botherin’ ya...”

'Wonder what happened...’ Jay thought to herself as she curled up into a sitting position in his claw. “I may look like a human, but humans don’t typically have gray skin... or a lack of eyes.” She removed her sunglasses briefly so he could see her face, then replaced them with a shrug. “I’m more of a shadow of humanity... a sort of shape-shifter.”

That last word just seemed to anger him even more. His head snapped back up and he tightened his grip around Jay’s waist. “I’m not the biggest fan of shape-shifters either, babe,” he growled, bringing the Anon closer to his face.

“Hey! Whoa! First off, buddy... breath mint!” Jay tried to wave away the fishy stench of crab breath out of her face, but being this close, it was sort of unavoidable. “Secondly, don’t call me ‘babe’. I don’t like it... and finally? I haven’t done anything to ya! I just got here... so whatcha getting mad at me for?”

“Oh, I haven’t done anything yet!” he mocked, raising his pitch to match Jay’s before scoffing. “I’ve been stuck on my back for the past two weeks because of a human and a shapeshifter! And nobody out there even bothered to lift a finger to help!”

“Wait... you can see them too?” Jay leaned closer, but shook her head and leaned away from his teeth again. “Look, nevermind... Sorry you had to go through all that but it wasn’t me that did it, so you can... ya know... let me go now.”

“And why would I do that, babe?”

Again with the ‘babe’ thing... She opened her mouth to protest, but before she could respond, the crab continued.

“I’ve never been one to pass up on free food. ‘S nothin’ personal, babe. Tamatoa’s gotta eat.”

He suddenly let go, and Jay was once again falling... though this time towards an open maw. Just like before, however, Jay didn’t seem to be freaking out at all... though the frown on her face was an obvious sign she wasn’t happy. Thankfully, she was much better at the timing this time, and before the crab’s jaws could shut behind her, she vanished in another billowing cloud of smoke.

Tamatoa hacked, rocking violently in both surprise and disgust as he tried to cough out the taste of ash from his throat. “Where’d you go!?” he sputtered, his eyestalks swiveling around to try and find his missing prey. “Come back here!”

“Goodness, you’re a ‘shellfish’ fellow...”

The crab froze and looked forward. Jay had perched herself right between his eyes and crossed her arms disapprovingly.

“I swear, I’ve never come across someone quite so ‘crabby’...” She tutted and shook her hand. “You must put the ‘crust’ in ‘crustacean.’”

“Wha- Get off of me!”

Tamatoa’s claw swung up to grab her, but Jay simply jumped backward to avoid the swipe. Using one of the crab’s antennae, she slid back down into the sand, somersaulting before sticking the landing like a professional gymnast.

“Hah!” she grinned smugly as Tamatoa’s claws flailed uselessly to catch her. “See, if ya’d just let me go in the first place, I could’ve flipped ya over by now... but since you tried to eat me, I’m not so sure now,” she teased.

He exhaled sharply as he tried to roll himself over again. “Feh... You expect me to believe a funny little thing like you could manage that?”

She lowered her sunglasses slightly. “Is that a challenge?” Jay paused, resting her chin on her hand as she mulled it over. “... You know what? I’m just gonna chalk up you being rude to the fact you’ve been stuck like this for a while. Hold still and I’ll flip you over in a jif.”

Tamatoa rolled his eyes. Of course something less than one twentieth of his size wouldn’t be able to make him budge, especially in soft sand. Maybe he’d be able to catch her again when she got close...

Another cloud of smoke, and something loud and obnoxious rang out behind the massive crab. He swiveled his eyes around again to find a towering sheet of metal behind him, with some sort of strange metal machine behind it. It belched smoke from one of its pipes, and the loud beeping and revving was nearly deafening. Tamatoa had never seen anything like it before in his centuries of living in Lalotai.

“WHAT IN THE- !?!?”

The metal pushed against the back of his shell, and he retracted his neck as much as he could as it moved him forward. He could feel the sand and fallen treasures piling up behind him, aiding in the push, and it wasn’t long until he was very nearly upright. Unfortunately with the shock of what was going on, Tamatoa didn’t exactly steady himself, and he fell forward on his face with a tremendous THUD.

The dust settled, and the crab groaned as he tried to right himself. His legs felt weak, both from hunger and the simple fact he hadn’t used them in weeks, but he slowly managed to get back onto his feet while Jay poofed back to her normal form behind him.

“See?” she commented brightly. “Told ya I could do it!”

For once, Tamatoa was speechless... or maybe just out of breath. Either way, Jay kept going.

“This all your treasure scattered around here? Lemme help with that too while I’m at it.”

With a snap of her fingers, the various shells, pearls, shields, decorated bones and all matter of shiny things wormed their way out of the sand. Anything that had been shattered or broken magically knitted itself back together, and everything gathered into a large pile in front of the massive shell-shaped cave that Jay assumed was Tamatoa’s home.

“Now, I’m not gonna risk putting it on ya, cuz you look like the kind of guy that wants all his treasures in a row, am I right? I’ll let ya do it how ya want. You’ve got good taste though.”

More shocked silence.

Jay smiled and started to hover in place. “Well, if you’ve got nothin’ more to say, looks like my work is done then. I’ve got more explorin’ to do!” She readjusted her backpack and floated up to Tamatoa’s face. “Don’t you go off falling over again, alright? And maybe next time you’ll learn to accept peoples’ help!” She laughed, gently patting the crab’s cheek.

“Um...” he recoiled slightly at her touch. “S-sure, ba-... um... Jay.”

The Anon beamed. “Try to get some food in ya, okay? And take it easy! I’ll stop by to check on you again on my way back up.”

One more pat on the cheek and she flew off, leaving the mildly terrified and VERY confused crab to himself.

[thomasroach]

You Vs Wild Choices And Consequences Guide

You Vs Wild is a new Netflix show that you can make choices in. If you make the wrong choices, you will lose and have to start over. Check out this You Vs Wild choices and consequences guide to find out what path you want to take.

Operation Jungle Rescue Pt1

Grapple Hook Or Slingshot

Grapple Hook This can be used to escape tricky spots or to get to higher group. There is a choice later to cross over a a ravine. If you bring the grapple hook, Bear will fall down and use the grapple to get out.

Slingshot Use to shoot and scare predators or catch small game. If you take the river path, you can use it to scare away to crocodile in the water. You can also shoot the monkey off of the backpack.

Bushwhack Or Follower River

Bushwhack You send Bear to cut his way through the jungle. While he is cutting his way through he will hear a hiss. He will also run into a recent campsite, which he will assume is the doctors. No bug eating on this route.

Follow River This path is quicker but more dangerous due to crocodiles. You will run into a croc on the river and a second choice will open up. If you have the slingshot you can try to scare the croc away. You get to see him eat bugs if you choose this route.

Monkey Sounds Or Climb Tree

Monkey Sounds Do not make this pick without the Slingshot. Bear likes this idea, he thinks the monkeys are making that noise because of the doctor. You will learn about Howler monkeys if you make this choice and even see a couple. There is a monkey on a back pack in the jungle. The monkeys get away if you don’t have the slingshot and you lose.

Climb Tree Bear will climb up the tree using his rope. As he starts climbing up the tree is will begin to downpour rain. He won’t be able to make it to the top, but he will see some smoke in the distance.

Sneak Or Scare

Sneak Bear will make an attempt to swim past the crocodile. He uses a reed to make a makeshift snorkel so he can swim underwater. Bear will get caught and actually wrestle with the croc, the baby croc. Pretty cool to watch. He also mentions that all the noise might have alerted other crocodiles. This does send Bear back towards the ocean though.

Scare Bear will try to scare the crocodile in the water. It works and the croc will swim away, allowing Bear to keep going up river. You save time this way but, eventually you do have to Bushwhack. You get to see Bear eat bugs if you take this route.

Into Current Or Along Shore

Into The Current Bear will attempt to swim back to shore this way, but he won’t make it. Never try to fight the current. You lose if you choose this option.

Along Shore This is the right choice, Bear can get to land this way. He takes the jungle path from the start now.

Termites Or Grub

Termites Bear will eat termites off a stick, not nearly as nasty as the Grub.

Grub Bear will eat the grub and you get to watch, kind of nasty.

Cross Log Or Swing Vine

Cross Log Bear will say that the log looks sturdy enough to cross. The log will snap and Bear will fall into the crevice below. If you have the grapple hook, he will use it now to climb back out. If you don’t have the grapple hook, you have to start over.

Swing Vine Bear will find a vine and try to cross. He will make it across with no trouble, but I also didn’t have the grapple hook this time.

Operation Jungle Rescue Pt2

Rope Or Rappel

Rope Bear will shimmy over the rope slowly and almost falls. He does end up losing his machete like this, not a good thing. Eventually he makes it across and keeps moving. You do however, get to see the poison dart frogs along this route.

Rappel Bear says that this is the safe thing to do. He makes it to the bottom with no problems doing this. This does take you off the cold chain route however.

Frog Spawn Or Spear Fish

Frog Spawn You will fail eventually for choosing this one. Bear does not seem to like this one at all. If you like to see him eat nasty stuff, this is the choice for you. This will also make Bear sick later while he is trying to make his camp.

Spearfish Bear is happy to hear that. He makes a spear with four points and starts going after the fish. He jumps in after a catfish and comes out with something completely different, but he gets to eat. He will eat it raw as well.

Sawgrass Or Mangrove Swamp

Sawgrass Bear has a couple of ideas to help deal with the Sawgrass. He uses a stick to push the grass back so he doesn’t get cut up. This route leads to some cat fur. Bear assumes that this means Jaguar.

Mangrove Swamp You lose with this choice. Bear can make it through the swamp before the tide comes in. You get to see these bright crabs if you pick this route.

Mud Or Branches

Mud Bear will cover himself in mud to cover his scent. After he is covered up, he crawls through the jungle hoping to avoid the big cat. Luckily for us though, we get to see the Jaguar on this route, even if it doesn’t find Bear.

Branches Bear will make a sort of makeshift gillie suit with this choice. You don’t get to see a Jaguar this way but another, smaller, jungle cat.

Cave Or Tree

Cave Bear says that a fire should be able to scare of beasts inside the cave. He also mentions that the jungle comes to life at night, and the trees are busy. The medicine survives and you survive the night.

Tree You lose if you make this choice. He says that this is probably a good idea. First though you need to put the medicine in a cool place. It is much cooler beneath the soil, so he puts the meds there. Bear makes a bed in the tree and isn’t disturbed in the evening. The medicine however has been ransacked and you get to see a large snake.

Rope Or Rock

Rope Bear likes the rope idea better then the rock one. It is slow going, but Bear makes it to the top with the medicine. He will bring it to the village and this episode is finished.

Rock Bear is iffy about this one, but he gives it a shot anyways. The rocks are slippery and Bear falls almost right away. He doesn’t notice that the medicine is going down river while he is climbing. This will result in failure

Title

jQuery(document).ready(function() { jQuery('div.sc_accordion').accordion({ header: "h5", collapsible: true, heightStyle: "content", active: 0 }); });

We are updating this as we go so check back soon for more.

The post You Vs Wild Choices And Consequences Guide appeared first on GamersHeroes.

You Vs Wild Choices And Consequences Guide published first on https://juanaframi.tumblr.com/

[randomconnections]

Kayaking on Bellingham Bay

It’s been over a month since I’ve had a boat in the water and things just didn’t seem…right. On the trek across country I had two kayaks on top of the car and we crossed many bodies of water that looked ripe for paddling. However, the rest of my paddling gear was in a shipping box making its own way across country. Plus, we had two cats with us and were on a time crunch, so stopping to paddle wasn’t an option. Finally everything aligned – the paddling gear had arrived, the weather was good, tides were favorable, and we weren’t having major appliances or septic systems installed. It was time to paddle.

Even though we now live on an island and can see the Puget Sound from our living room window, access for paddling can be problematic. It’s hard to haul a boat down the cliff in front of the house. There’s a better public access on the northwest end of the island with a paved path, but it’s still a steep walk with heavy gear. Duff has a small beach cabin on the northeast end of the island with easy access to the water and he has said I could use it any time. I plan to take advantage of that access, but the tides have to be just right. We got stuck slogging through mud flats on one trip when the tide went out as we were kayaking.

I was really impressed with the boat launch up at Larrabee State Park in the Chuckanut area. The area is rocky rather than muddy, and looked like it would be a good place to paddle even if the tides were lower. It’s only about a 30 minute drive from the house, so that’s where I decided to go.

Saturday morning was clear and beautiful, but the smoke from the western fires was returning. Everything looked hazy and foggy. While waiting for the tides to reach the best level I listened to a bit of the ill-fated Furman vs NC State football game and tried to organize my paddling gear. At about 11:30 the I could see that the tides were starting to come in, so I decided to head out.

As I drove along Chuckanut Drive I got concerned about crowds. There were cars parked everywhere – along roads, in any turnout, etc. I knew there were some trailheads and some paths leading down to the water, but it made me worry about what I’d find at the park. When I arrived at the ramp it was, indeed, busy, but there were still a few parking spaces.

I chatted with several other paddlers as I got ready for launch. They confirmed what I’d heard when I came by here last Monday. I should paddle north for the best scenery. I headed in that direction.

The rock formations were striking. There were a few isolated rocks/small islands occupied mainly by seagulls. I looked to see if any seals were in residence, but kept my distance since I was unfamiliar with other submerged rocks or hazards.

Around the point from the launch was the most amazing house. It was a modern design with a flat roof right out over the water. There were windows everywhere, as there should be in a place like this. Below the house were more amazing limestone formations carved by the wind and waves.

Across the bay I saw Lummi peak, as well as our own island in the distance.

The cove around from the mansion was free from houses. The limestone walls continued with spectacularly carved shapes. I had to resist taking photos every few seconds.

After a couple of miles I came to a point where the water opened up to the right. I had reached Chuckanut Bay, a smaller section of the larger Bellingham Bay. Houses lined the shore, and I could see more houses on a ridge over what I presumed to be the Fairhaven area.

To the right were more limestone rocks. Off to my left I saw the head of a seal. He/she started swimming toward me. I decided I didn’t need a potentially aggressive or even just curious animal bumping my boat, so I paddled way. I knew it could outrun me, but I kept going.

I circled around the smaller bay.

There was a small island connected to the shore with a footbridge. A large motorboat was whipping by. I decided I could escape it and the wake it generated by paddling between the islands. It worked.

The weather was perfect and the bay was completely calm. There were several other kayaking groups out and about. Even though I was paddling solo I didn’t really feel like I was by myself. I felt like I could keep going, but I knew that the afternoon was slipping away.

I spotted another small island a short paddle away. Later I would learn that this was Chuckanut Island. I figured that paddling around it then back would be a good endpoint for the this trip. As I headed toward the island several other motor boats came by, and a couple more seals popped their heads up, but the water remained still apart from boat wakes.

Chuckanut Island is uninhabited. The summit of the island is covered with the largest stand of madrona trees I’ve seen. I remember on my first trip out here nearly thirty years ago that the orange-barked trees really made an impression on me. Now on Samish Island they seem hard to find.

I circumnavigated the island and began the trek back toward Larrabee. Not knowing what to expect as far as weather and temps, I had dressed in layers. I had my paddling jacket and a fleece in the dry well, but opted for just a 3/4 sleeve synthetic shirt. I was starting to get hot. The other issue was that I was starting to get a serious sinus headache. As I looked at the remote islands I could see a weird inversion layer, where a haze descended almost, but not all the way down to the water. I later learned that this was more of the smoke from the fires near Mount Ranier. The smoke was causing more than visibility problems, at least as far as I was concerned.

I continued on my way, once again marveling at the rock formations. They seemed to take on new shapes depending on point of view. Other paddlers had pulled onto small rocky beaches in shallow coves to explore the rocks. These beaches would soon be covered with the incoming tide.

When I made it back to Larrabee the place was hopping. There were lots of paddle craft out and about, including canoes and stand-up paddleboards in addition to kayaks. There were several small motor boats out crabbing, and a couple of sailboats. The small beach area was crowded; folks were out on the rocky outcrops sunning themselves. I decided to paddle past the Larrabee cove and see what was further south. I found a group getting ready to do some rock climbing along one of the outcrop faces, then decided it was time to head back.

After dodging the paddleboards and other boats in the cove I had to wait my turn to land. There was lots of traffic at the ramp.

It had been a great inaugural trip. I paddled 6.21 miles under perfect conditions. I would have loved to have stayed out longer and paddled more, but this was enough for a first time in Washington waters with my own boat.

It was also the inaugural trip for my new GoPro Hero 5. I really like that small camera for more than just kayak photography. I keep it in my pocket most of the time. This was its first “wet” trip. Instead of shooting video plus stills like I normally do, I set it for 10 second time lapse. I thought this might save battery life, as I was also geotagging as I went. I used two batteries during the course of this trip. I may have to get a couple more to have on hand for longer trips.

I took the images from the GoPro and made a time-lapse video of the trip. Click on the image below to view the video.

from WordPress http://ift.tt/2hbrFAo via IFTTT

[placetobenation]

September 10th, 16:00 from Azuma Sports Park, Fukushima

The first of three Destruction shows sees Minoru Suzuki defend his NEVER title against Michael Elgin in a lumberjack match, with the six-man and heavyweight tag titles also on the line. Let’s get to it.

And we’re back! It’s been three weeks since the G1 final and I don’t know about you, but for me it was a welcome break. There’s only so much good wrestling I can take. But seriously, the downtime is smart for wrestlers and viewers alike, and I’m looking forward to these shows over the coming weeks.

With October’s King of Pro-Wrestling already shaping up, it would fair to describe the trio of Destructions as B Shows. They’re effectively one excellent card split into three. That’s not to say they won’t be decent and, in fact, the benefit of this method is that we get to see the likes of Michael Elgin, Zack Sabre Jr. and Juice Robinson in main event spots, titles (every one of which is being defended at least once) are given a brighter spotlight, and young talent is more heavily featured. That said, there is unquestionable some filler here, and with that in mind…

Here we go…

Hirai Kawato & Yuji Nagata vs. Shota Umino & Manabu Nakanishi

Umino looks noticeably bigger than he did during the G1 tour. Perhaps he’s been at Kitamura’s protein shakes. In any case, the veterans briefly went at it before tagging in their young partners, with the slightly more senior Kawato maintaining control while Nagata kept the referee occupied.  A dropkick from Umino enabled the return of a surly Nakanishi, who blocked an Exploder to slap legal man Nagata to the mat. A clothesline earned two, but Kawato flattened him with a springboard dropkick, then Umino returned only to be hit with an Exploder. Nagata cinched in the Nagata Lock II and Umino tapped straight away. Nakanishi can barely move, but Nagata winding him up raised a smile. *1/2

Monster Rage (Katsuya Kitamura & Tomoyuki Oka) vs. CHAOS (YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto)

I’m very pleased that Kitamura’s fanged gumshield has been retained. He started well against Yoshi, flooring him with a shoulder block and hitting a deadlift gutwrench suplex for two, but the CHAOS boys were soon in control, tagging back-and-forth, with Yoshi’s rope-hung dropkick and a double shoulder block getting two-counts. Kitamura powered Goto into a suplex, however, and Oka was tagged in, with a run of offence culminating in Kitamura’s spear and Oka’s elbow drop. Goto hit back with a clothesline, then applied a Boston Crab, but Oka was able to crawl to the ropes. Goto nailed his praying chest kick immediately after, though, and that was plenty for the three-count. Honestly, if this was your first time watching you’d think Kitamura and Oka were the established stars. **

CHAOS (Beretta & Jado) vs. Bullet Club (Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi)

Jado and Owens had an amusing little sequence before Jado landed the chops. He caught a boot to the face from a middle-rope whatever, and a much-delayed Flair Flop was followed by some mocking chops from Owens. A rebound clothesline allowed tags to be made, with Beretta brushing off both opponents before landing a tope con hilo to the floor! Back in, Yujiro crotched him on top and faceplanted him for a two-count, but a desperation tornado DDT brought Jado back in, and a bunch of kicks and a clothesline got two. Yujiro avoided the rope-hung DDT, took care of Beretta, then a fisherman buster followed by the Pimp Juice DDT earned the win. In this week’s Korakuen Hall shows, Yujiro had taken exception to Beretta’s heavyweight ambitions, but you wouldn’t have known it from this match. Another match than simply existed. **

David Finlay & Juice Robinson vs. Bullet Club (Leo Tonga & Bad Luck Fale)

Kenny Omega was supposed to appear here, but he’s taken a few weeks off to let a knee injury heal. He’s still due to defend his US title against Juice in two weeks’ time. In his place is Leo Tonga, the huge son of Haku and brother of the Guerrillas of Destiny. He debuted in Korakuen Hall this past Thursday.

Juice and Fale started off, but the former was caught by his dreads, allowing the big boys of Bullet Club to pummel him and Finlay, and it was quite sweet to watch Fale mentor his monster protege. Juice punched his way free of Tonga, then Fale took an accidental boot to the face and Juice and Finlay clotheslined him to the floor, where Finlay nailed him with a plancha. In the ring, Juice was rescued from Tonga’s chokeslam and Pulp Friction landed to put the giant youngster down for the three-count. You guessed it, this was: just a match. *1/2

Taguchi Japan (Ricochet, Ryusuke Taguchi, KUSHIDA, Togi Makabe & Hiroshi Tanahashi) vs. Suzuki-gun (Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, El Desperado, TAKA Michinoku & Takashi Iizuka)  

Tanahashi’s short hair is still weird, but Taguchi Japan is a stable that accepts any and all perversions. Suzuki-gun attacked as Taguchi was giving a team talk, but Iizuka was isolated and hit with a continuous train of offence from everyone apart from Taguchi himself, who kept getting kicked in the face. Iizuka then bit Taguchi’s derrière to enable his teammates’ return, and Kushida soon faced-off with El Desperado (next week’s challenger to his title) only to be locked in the Stretch Muffler. Kushida was able to make the tag to Ricochet, who ran wild on everyone with crisp offence, nailing Taka with a standing SSP and Taichi with a 619 and springboard clothesline. Tanahashi was in next, but he was tripped on the apron, and a distraction allowed Taichi to nail him with the ringbell hammer. Iizuka ripped off the taping on his arm and bit his still-injured bicep (psychology!), but Tanahashi hit back with a middle-rope crossbody and made the hot tag to Makabe. A powerslam to Kanemaru was followed by mounted punches to Iizuka, and a clothesline earned two. Taguchi was tagged, and he hit one hip attack before missing a protracted second, then the match broke down, but Taguchi used Taka’s finger poke against him and rolled him up for the win! This was fun, heated and a significant step up from the previous four matches (thankfully). ***

***INTERMISSION***

IWGP Tag Team Championship

War Machine (Hanson & Raymond Rowe) (c) vs. Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) vs. Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer)

Killer Elite Squad (part of Suzuki-gun) returned at the G1 final show, with Archer now recovered from back surgery and sporting some horrible cornrows. Tanga Loa is also wearing some horrible gear today, but presumably he’s just returned from his Sunday cycling club.

War Machine and KES traded shoulder blocks and slams in the opening exchange, then GOD interjected only for Loa to be hit with the Hart Attack and the fight spilled to the floor. Back in, Hanson was able to score some running clotheslines, but KES double-teamed him to take control and Davey Jr. nailed some kicks, a big boot and a leg drop for two. Hanson eventually fired back with a handspring elbow and seated senton out of the corner and the hot tag was made to Rowe, who exchanged Exploder suplexes with Loa. The Guerrillas took control with some sloppy offence and a double-team Tongan Twist set up the Guerrilla Warfare, but Davey Jr. interrupted and KES hit their Killer Bomb on Loa. Hanson then took them out with a rolling senton from the top-rope and War Machine planted Loa with Fallout to retain the titles.

Six foreigners just doing stuff with little purpose and no flow. At least previous examples of this match type had native teams for the crowd to get invested in. This was rubbish – irritatingly so. *

CHAOS (Will Ospreay & Tomohiro Ishii) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japón (Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito)

Naito and Ishii will face each other at King of Pro-Wrestling with Naito’s Wrestle Kingdom title shot on the line. On Twitter, Hiromu said Ospreay was a cat, which the latter initially denied, but like yesterday’s Korakuen Hall show he is wearing rudimentary cat facepaint. Curious.

Ospreay and Hiromu went at it with vigour, with the former taking out both opponents with a springboard dropkick. Ishii was tagged and went straight for Naito, whipping him into the guardrail outside before returning to the ring to take care Hiromu. He became distracted, however, and Hiromu and Naito took advantage by targeting his taped-up right leg. They brushed off strikes and scored a double-team seated dropkick, but the Stone Pitbull scored a delayed vertical suplex to enable the hot tag. Ospreay ran wild, nailing a corner dropkick and standing SSP to Hiromu, but was caught with a belly-to-belly into the turnbuckle and more tags were made. A pissed off Ishii fired away with chops and a powerslam, but Naito hit back with the slingshot corner dropkick and returned to the right leg. A low dropkick and spitwad further pissed off Ishii, and he turned Naito inside-out with a lariat, but the follow-up powerbomb was blocked by Hiromu. Ospreay flew in with a springboard clothesline to Naito and the rebound C4 for a two-count, then the OsCutter missed and Hiromu was back in for a super kick. Ospreay initially blocked Destino, but Hiromu distracted the referee and a low blow from Naito allowed it to connect at the second time of asking for the three-count.

A lively match and a good effort from all four men. The Naito/Ishii and Hiromu/Ospreay interactions were most enjoyable. ***

NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship

Los Ingobernables de Japón (SANADA, EVIL & BUSHI) (c) vs. CHAOS (Rocky Romero, Toru Yano & Kazuchika Okada)

The main issue here is between Okada and Evil, who face off at King of Pro-Wrestling for the IWGP title – a shot earned by Evil’s surprise win in the G1, but Okada also has the opportunity here to win his first-ever non-IWGP title.

CHAOS attacked before the bell, but Romero soon found himself in trouble after LIJ turned the tide effectively. Bushi choked Romero with his t-shirt and Evil’s senton earned a two-count, then Romero managed a jumping knee and flipped out of Evil’s fisherman buster to make the tag to Okada. The champ nailed Evil with a flapjack and locked in Red Ink, but Bushi broke it up and Evil utilised Sanada’s distraction to hit a sidewalk slam. A discus lariat and fisherman buster got two, Sanada was tagged, and Okada blocked his springboard dropkick and countered to a reverse neckbreaker. In came Yano, but Sanada caught him in a rolling cradle! One, two, no. Yano avoided the Paradise Lock, then they exchanged hairpulls before Sanada flattened him with a dropkick. Bushi followed with a missile dropkick, but Yano freed himself to bring in Romero. Bushi pushed him outside and nailed a suicide dive, but back in, Romero connected with Forever Clotheslines and, after the match momentarily broke down, hit Slice Bread #2 for a near-fall. LIJ swarmed and Bushi scored a Codebreaker and the MX only for Okada to break up the count, then Bushi was crotched on the top-rope by Yano, who in turn was tied him up in the ropes with the Paradise Lock. Evil ducked the Rainmaker and hit the STO, then Sanada used the Dragon Sleeper on Romero to set up Bushi’s top-rope MX! One, two, three and the champions retain.

Post-match, Gedo was brought into the ring and put in the Paradise Lock next to the prone Okada. Another good tag match here with plenty of intensity and chemistry between the teams. ***1/4

NEVER Openweight Championship Lumberjack Match

Minoru Suzuki (c) vs. Michael Elgin

This became a lumberjack match on Thursday, because Suzuki said it was and I’m guessing no-one wanted to disagree. And, as Nagata said on commentary, Suzuki-gun would’ve run-in anyway, but now it’s been made official. Suzuki was backed by Kanemaru, Taka, El Desperado and Taichi. Elgin was backed by Tanahashi, Ricochet, Taguchi and Kushida.

Surprisingly, both men decided to wrestling to get us started, with Elgin’s shoulder block sending Suzuki outside and his seconds sending Suzuki straight back in. Suzuki then gave us a demonstration of his own team’s seconding skills, and I think we’re all now familiar with the rules. They exchanged chops, then Elgin’s elbow strikes set up a slingshot splash for two. Elgin delivered a delayed vertical suplex, giving Suzuki-gun the middle finger as he did so, so Suzuki retreated to the floor and the lumberjacks faced off. Back in then back out again, and Suzuki took Elgin into the crowd while the lumberjacks brawled, then cracked him with elbows when they returned to the ring. Elgin was caught in the tarantula armbar, then sent to the floor, where Suzuki’s crew pounced.

Back in, Elgin and Suzuki traded elbow strikes, with Elgin demanding more until he was floored for a two-count. Suzuki smacked Elgin with a chair while the referee was distracted, but Elgin fired up and refused to use the chair, instead making the comeback with a running elbow and slingshot neckbreaker to a rope-hung Suzuki. Deadlift German suplex – two-count only. Front-and-back clotheslines from Elgin connected, but Suzuki blocked a lariat and nailed slaps and a Penalty Kick for two. They slapped and elbowed each other then, and once again a referee distraction brought in the lumberjacks. This time Elgin took care of them, then he planted Suzuki with a Falcon Arrow for a near-fall. Suzuki shielded himself with the referee to bring in Suzuki-gun again, but this time Elgin’s boys actually helped him out, culminating in Elgin tossing Taka onto everyone outside and Ricochet scoring a Sasuke Special. In the ring, Elgin hit a buckle bomb and the Elgin Bomb, but Taichi dragged out the referee and here were Killer Elite Squad followed by War Machine. Once they’d dealt with each other, Iizuka was in to stab Elgin in the throat with his metal mitten and Suzuki spiked Elgin with the Gotch-Style Piledriver! One, two, three.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many run-ins and shenanigans in a match, even with the lumberjack stipulations. The crowd seemed to be into so there’s that. It was a decent enough brawl otherwise, though far from great. I guess I’ll go: ***

Post-match promo from Suzuki and we’re out.

Final thoughts: The weakest New Japan show of the year. The main event was fine (YMMV) and there were three other pretty good matches, but frankly this was a slog and the tag title match was as poor a title match as I can recall seeing. There’s nothing here you need to go out of your way to see. Thankfully, next weekend’s show looks much, much better on paper, so let’s hope this was an aberration.

I’ll be back next Saturday for the unfortunately named Destruction in Hiroshima, which is headlined by Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. and KUSHIDA vs. El Desperado. See you then.

[icekish90]

Australia 2017 - Western Australia

WEEK 2

01.02.2017 – Day 8

The beautiful sun is back in Perth, woohoo! An early start at 6:00am as Claire and Katrin (friends from the hostel) had booked tickets for the 3 of us to visit Rottnest Island. Rottnest Island is Western Australia's very own Island getaway, featuring a casual atmosphere, picturesque scenery and some of the world's finest beaches and bays, is located just 19 kilometres off the coast of Fremantle (extracted from the official website). Our journey started on William Street, around the corner of the hostel, where we were picked up from the Rottnest Fast Ferries (the company we booked under). The driver picked up other passengers along the way, before getting on the motorway to drive towards Hillary’s Boat Harbour. This is where we would get our Ferry to Rottnest Island, which was a 45-minute journey. Before boarding we received a bike and snorkelling gear, which were within our package. The total cost for the day trip was $100 each. The island consists of 3 bike ride routes to ride around the island, snorkelling points, the Wadjemup Lighthouse for a 360 Degree view around the island and a small airport. It was my first-time snorkelling, however I did well for my initial swim around Little Salmon Bay, Unfortunately, I did not get to see much on this attempt, however I managed to catch some fish on Parakeet Bay (caught on my GoPro). I also caught many pictures with the famous Quokka’s that live on the island. These little animals are part of the Kangaroo and Wallabies family, and are the size of a domestic cat. They are a member of the genus Setonix and are herbivores. I also caught a glimpse of some lizards, however non-of the venomous snakes that were warmed throughout the island signs. The roads were challenging to ride around, nevertheless is was a lovely day out, especially getting to relax on the beaches and cooling down in the sea.

 02.02.2017 – Day 9

It had been over a week and I had not started to write my daily blog I aimed to complete for the trip. A late start to the morning due to a late night of partying with my friends from the hostel. I started the day writing up what I had been doing for the week, and summarising the highlights so far. As I had not planned much for the day, I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Northbridge (the area which I was staying in), taking in the sights of the wall art found around almost every corner. I also discovered that the area was full of quirky restaurants and a green area which contained a large screen displaying cartoon films for the public. After finally uploading some pictures to Facebook and posting my blog on Tumblr, I had finished for the day.

 03.02.2017 – Day 10

Today’s plans were initially to travel to Fremantle to visit/ stay at Smita and Krish’s house, who are Hemant’s sister and brother-in-law living out here. Plans changed slightly and instead I had organised to stay in Perth City for a couple more days. As my booking ran out at the initial hostel, I moved onto another hostel nearby. A little quieter, but it was only going to be for a couple of nights. After checking-in in the morning and sorting my bag out, I headed out for a walk towards Elizabeth Quay. For lunch, I had a lovely Peri-Peri Chicken Sandwich from a café called LeVietnam (worth a visit if your planning to come to Perth). During my walk, I took in the sights of the large high rise buildings, the London Court Street, Perth Town Hall, Supreme Court, the beautiful Stirling Garden and Supreme Court Garden, before arriving and admiring the famous Bell Tower. The weather was hot with a cool breeze as I sat on a bench looking out towards Swan River, a relaxing time spent indeed. Whilst walking back to the hostel, I seem to have walked into a crowd of sports fans. Little did I know there was a basketball match on between Perth Wildcats vs Brisbane Bullets at Perth Arena. Unfortunately, I had arrived when the match was starting so I didn’t end up buying a ticket. Hopefully catch a match when I’m on the East Coast.

 04.02.2017 – Day 11

An early start today by getting ready and heading downstairs to the kitchen for the free breakfast included for my stay at the hostel. Not as much choice as expected…. Corn Flakes with 2 Toasts… Still better than nothing. After finishing, I headed out to walk towards Kings Park, 4.06-square-kilometre park located on the western edge of the central business district in Perth. Here I captured amazing views of the city (North and South) and Swan River whilst climbing up Mt Eliza. Whilst walking around there are information boards telling the historic stories of the discovery of the park, including the arrival of the Dutch, French and British. The Botanic Garden interprets Western Australia’s flora, and replicates around 3,000 native species. It was an awesome experience to capture the beauty of WA through this wonderful garden. I also climbed up ‘the DNA Stairs’ which is 101 steps high, leading to a 360-degree view of the surrounding area. In the evening, I headed over to the nib stadium where Perth Glory football club played their football in the A-League. A match was on at 7:00pm and I managed to get into the ground for free courtesy of a fan having a spare ticket available (I was at the right place at the right timeJ). The match was played between Perth Glory and Newcastle Jets. It wasn’t an amazing game of football, but it was an experience to watch it, especially next to the hardcore fans chanting songs throughout the match, and the celebration songs that were played every time the home team scored. The final score finished 3-2 to Perth Glory, a happy evening for the locals.

 05.02.2017 – Day 12

Day 12 was ‘how to be a game console historian.’ This was a quote shown at The Nostalgia Box – A Video Game Console Museum in Northbridge, Perth. I felt like I was in gaming geek heaven, where those wonderful childhood memories had been recaptured. It was cool to learn about the early stages of gaming, the development of the industry, the competitiveness of the companies involved, the simplicity of the games all the way to the power and performance of the today’s games consoles. My history highlight was the learning the development of one of the best games ever PAC-MAN. Did you know that the character of Pac Man is a Pizza with a slice taken out of it? Yes, this indeed was the creation of the character itself. Of course, the main highlight was to play on the many different consoles available… I mainly stuck with the PlayStation and Super Nintendo (the two of which I played with growing up). The PlayStation had none other than Crash Bandicoot, I could have played this for hours upon end. The Super Nintendo had the legendary Street Fighter II cartridge. I started of rusty, but soon brought out the skills of a true STREET FIGHTER gamer. An awesome experience even for a non-gamer, highly recommended to visit!

 06.02.2017 – Day 13

It was time to head on over to Fremantle where I would be catching up/ staying with Smita, Krish and Little Druv (Hemant’s Sister, Brother-in-Law and Nephew) for the next week. Before heading over via train, I spent the late morning and early afternoon at Elizabeth Quay and had some lunch at a fantastic restaurant called Annalakshmi. This was a South Indian Vegetarian Fine Dining restaurant on the swan river and had working volunteers who were brought together by Swami Shantanand Saraswathi (Swamiji). Annalakshmi prepares free food and allows those who visit/ eat to ‘pay as you feel’ once finished. It was an enjoyable and relaxing experience and the food was delicious. A great place to visit whether it is on your own, as a group, or to feed another person! After a 10-minute walk to the train station and a 30-minute ride on the train, I arrived in Fremantle where I was picked up by Smita and Druv. It was great to catch up with Smita and to see little Druv for the first time, who was looking at me and trying to figure out who I was. At this moment in time I was known as Kishkaka (KishUncle). As the weather was beautiful, I decided to take a walk into the city centre to the visitor’s centre, along with a stroll around the area. I was a little peckish and decided to treat myself to some Waffles and Gelato on the Cappuccino Strip. A filling dessert indeed, however I still had dinner to look forward to back at the house.

 07.02.2017 – Day 14

I had heard that Fremantle had the best restaurant selling Fish and Chips close to the Harbour at a place called Cicerello’s. This started my day as I had woken up a little later than planned. Cicerello’s is a unique eating experience in the heart of Fremantle’s Fishing Boat Harbour. They are known to sell the best fish and chips with freshly caught seafood including oysters, mussels, crabs and crayfish. It was a slightly windy day as I devoured through my lunch overlooking the fishing boat harbour, with seagulls flying/ walking by. To burn off the food I decided to walk around the area, until turning up at the WA Maritime Museum, a symbol of Fremantle’s past, present and future as a coastal city and port. It was wonderful to encounter the unique galleries, the leisure boats and handcrafted sailing boats to commercial pearl lugers, and learn the history of the importance of the Indian Ocean for the Travellers and Traders. The museum contained so much information, I needed to rush near the end due to the building closing. I also climbed up to see the Round House, a permanent building built in the Swan River Colony and the oldest building still standing in Western Australia. Unfortunately, I was not able to go inside the building as it was closed, however I admired the architectural works of the building whilst the Indian Ocean created a beautiful scenery in the background. In the evening, Krish had invited me to play Squash with him at his local club as it was social night. I can’t remember the last time I played the sport, but I gave it a go. I didn’t win a single match, even though I played the beginners. It was fun to play, meet the locals, and I managed to get a good workout from it.

[placetobenation]

July 21st, 18:30 from Korakuen Hall, Tokyo

We’re back for a second day at Korakuen Hall and it’s A Block’s second show, which is headlined by Kota Ibushi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. and YOSHI-HASHI vs. Tetsuya Naito. Let’s get to it.

The story so far…

Primer

Day 1

Day 2

Here we go…

Hiromu Takahashi & EVIL defeated David Finlay & Juice Robinson ***1/2

Minoru Suzuki & Taichi defeated BUSHI & SANADA ***1/4

Kenny Omega & Yujiro Takahashi defeated Chase Owens & Tama Tonga **3/4

Michael Elgin, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Gedo, Kazuchika Okada & Toru Yano **3/4

A Block – Round Two

Yuji Nagata vs. Hirooki Goto

A slap from Goto set Nagata off and he targeted his opponent’s right arm with kicks until Goto was able to turn the tide with a clothesline. After beating on Nagata outside, Goto maintained control in the ring until, once again, he slapped Nagata on the head. Nagata was rightly furious and threw a knee to Goto’s gut before hammering him with kicks. They threw elbows, Nagata’s hit hardest, and he landed an Exploder after a couple of kicks for two. Goto freed himself to hit a spinning heel kick and backdrop for a two-count of his own, then nailed the Ushigoroshi for another two. Nagata blocked the follow-up, transitioning to the Shiromu armbar, but Goto got a foot on the ropes. An arm breaker and the Justice Knee led to the Drive Screw, then a spinning brainbuster connected. Two-count only! A backdrop dumped Goto on his head, but again he kicked out, and he was able to use a bulldog to stop the onslaught. Elbows, then an exchange of lariats and kicks, until a discus lariat took Nagata down, but he popped back up with a spinning back kick! Goto grabbed a sleeper to block the backdrop, however, then a headbutt set up the GTR for the three-count.��Some quality hard-hitting pro wrestling here. Funny to see Goto play the disrespectful youngster, but it worked. Great to see that Nagata, like Kojima, still has plenty left to give. ****

Togi Makabe vs. Tomohiro Ishii

They locked-up to start, but soon were into a back-and-forth of shoulder blocks and elbows, before Makabe floored Ishii, sent him off the apron and whipped him into the guardrail. Ishii replied in kind with a series of four whips and Makabe looked in pain as he returned to the ring, which Ishii seemed to enjoy. Makabe fought back to land a powerslam and mounted punches in the corner, which Ishii brushed off, but Makabe stayed on top with a clothesline and Northern Lights suplex for two. Ishii fired up and nailed a German suplex to put both men down, then, Ishii put his opponent up to and the superplex connected for a two-count. Makabe clubbed his way back into the match, getting back up even after a backdrop, and a lariat flattened Ishii, with the follow-up kneeling powerbomb getting two. Now Ishii wouldn’t die, but a couple of lariats were only got enough for a two-count. Makabe set up the Spider German up top, but instead, after some resistance, hit a super belly-to-belly. The King Kong Knee Drop missed the mark, then even after five double clotheslines neither man would fall! Lariat from Ishii – one-count only! Sliding lariat for two. Makabe blocked the brainbuster, and landed karate chops and a German suplex pin for two. Ishii fired up and nailed a huge lariat for a near-fall! Brainbuster from Ishii for the win! Nothing we haven’t seen before, true, but they played well off their familiarity with one another and the result was a pleasant surprise. ***3/4

Kota Ibushi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

Sabre easily grounded Ibushi in the opening moments, with Ibushi scrambling not to get caught in a heel hook. Once back to their feet, though, Ibushi floored Sabre with slap, then they exchanged snapmares until Sabre torqued Ibushi’s neck between his feet! Sabre then focused on the neck, standing on it while applying a single-leg crab and wrenching a surfboard, easily dealing with Ibushi’s attempted reversals. A straitjacket chinlock kept him in control, but eventually Ibushi found an opening for a high kick. He peppered Sabre with elbows and a strike flurry, but the standing moonsault was countered to a triangle choke and Ibushi dived for the ropes.

A quick counter German wasn’t enough to deter Sabre, whose lightning quick counter almost led to a three-count off a European Clutch, but Ibushi broke out of the Octopus Hold and landed a brutal double stomp. Ibushi nailed a couple of kicks, but again Sabre was quick enough to land a Penalty Kick. They fought up from the mat, Ibushi meeting Sabre’s uppercuts with elbows, then Sabre caught the overhead kick attempt and locked in a modified STF! Dragon suplex hold – two-count only! After a moment’s respite, Ibushi scored a big lariat and reversed a backslide into a knee strike. Sabre blocked the powerbomb and countered into a triangle choke, but Ibushi lifted him, initially looking for the Phoenix-Plex but settling for the sit-out Last Ride! One, two, three.

Just brilliantly done. They never left the ring and only once did Ibushi leave his feet. I was excited to see how Sabre Jr. would match-up with his opponents during the tournament and so far it’s been a joy to watch. Proof, as if it were needed, that Ibushi is capable of far more than high-risk spots and angering Jim Cornette. A tremendous match. ****1/2

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Bad Luck Fale

Tanahashi immediately went for a victory roll, getting a two-count, then used an eye poke(!) to gain an advantage. Fale swatted him away, and Tanahashi’s several dropkicks only rattle the big man, before a small package got another two-count. Fale then drew Tanahashi into an armbreaker over top-rope and continued to work the right arm(!) by twice ramming it into the guardrail. Back in, he stepped on the arm and used Vader-like forearms in the corner, but Tanahashi ducked a clothesline and landed a German suplex! An attempted slam was countered by Fale, and although he missed the follow-up splash, he reversed a sunset flip for a two-count. The splash connected second time round, earning two, but the Grenade was countered to a spinning neckbreaker. Tanahashi awkwardly skinned the cat (due to his arm), and Fale capitalised with a spear. Bad Luck Fall… countered to a Sling Blade! With Fale outside, Tanahashi scaled to the top-rope and connected with a High Fly Flow crossbody to the floor! As they got onto the apron, Tanahashi nailed a Sling Blade, sending Fale back to the floor, and the 20-count gave Tanahashi the win!

Fale working a body part? Truly these are the end times. This was another good match, among the most enjoyable of their encounters, with a different and unusual dynamic helping give a tried-and-tested formula some new life. Really liked the finish too. ***1/2

YOSHI-HASHI vs. Tetsuya Naito

Yoshi started well, using a couple of shoulder blocks, a scoop slam and chops, but Naito’s pace allowed him to score a low dropkick and the rope-hung over-the-knee drop. After a brief trip to the floor, Naito continued to target Yoshi’s neck with back elbows and a neckbreaker, but his cockiness eventually allowed an opening for Yoshi to land a running blockbuster. The ‘rana connected, and Yoshi fired up to hit a rope-hung dropkick for two, although Naito cut him off with another over-the-knee drop and the reverse version of the slingshot dropkick. Naito’s tornado DDT was blocked, as was Yoshi’s neckbreaker, but the latter scored a double stomp instead. Shoulderbreaker and a pinning powerbomb for two. Naito again used his pace to block the follow-up and hit a German suplex, but was unable to land Gloria.

Yoshi’s mule kick led to the suplex-neckbreaker and he headed up top, only to get cut off, with Naito scoring a super frankensteiner. Gloria – two-count only! Yoshi countered Destino into a face-first slam and both men were down. Once up, they pummelled each other with elbows and strikes, Naito was wobbled by Yoshi’s kicks, and Yoshi followed a counter-Codebreaker with the Butterfly Lock. Naito powered up, so Yoshi hit a backstabber then landed the swanton! Two-count only. Back to the Butterfly Lock, with Naito twice pulled to the middle of the ring, and just when he looked to be fading he dragged himself to the ropes. Naito desperately blocked Karma, and hit a Koppu kick, but was turned inside-out with a lariat for a near-fall! Karma was countered mid-air into Destino – two-count only! Destino! One, two, three!

The crowd reaction – with the Korakuen crowd firmly in favour of Naito, cheering him as though he were the underdog – made for an interesting dynamic for a YOSHI-HASHI match. I thought this was very good. The build was steady, but eventually, somehow, they had the crowd believing that Naito would have to escape with the win. Which he did. ****

Post-match promo from Naito and crew, and we’re out.

A Block standings after Round Two

Goto – 4

Naito – 4

Fale – 2

Ibushi – 2

Ishii – 2

Sabre Jr. – 2

Tanahashi – 2

YOSHI-HASHI – 2

Makabe – 0

Nagata – 0

Final thoughts: One of the most consistently enjoyable shows I’ve watched this year, as much for variety as quality. From the undercard tag matches to the main event, nearly everything felt fresh. The G1 matches themselves were top notch – every one of them was good to great – with Ibushi vs. Sabre Jr. to pick of a very strong bunch. Just watch the whole thing.

I’m back again tomorrow for B Block’s second show. See you then. 

Three down, sixteen to go.