Hello folks, this is Grit and Glitter, a weekly podcast dedicated to the power of women's wrestling. This is our Season 13 premiere. This is Fall 2024. My name is Harley Vasquez, and it's also the five year anniversary of Grit and Glitter this week. Five whole years as of this week, what a milestone, what a time it has been. In that vein, we thought, "What a better way to celebrate than by adding two new members to our team of correspondents known as the Glitter Roddy." It's been a while, it's been a year and a half since we've added anybody new to the team. So, we are going to install into Year 5, adding two people. Here with me, in the boardroom at Grit and Glitter headquarters here in North America, is one of those new members, Lance. Hi, hi, hi. I've just signed that fancy paper using an executive fountain pin that is worth more than my car. And I am glad to be here. Yes, welcome back to the show. Welcome to the team. Very exciting times here having you join us. I'll admit, you're on a list for a while. You ever watched Lost? It was one of those lists. It was like Jacob's list. Yeah, where I was like, "Laz would be a great member of the team." But I already got Dawn. I don't know if this team gets two Pittsburgh. I can't blame you for that. You get too many tensors together and then people just start singing the Pittsburgh polka. Or here we go, Steelers, or Renegade. It's just a thing that happens. Yeah, I've seen the enjoy, obviously. I know what happens when you get too many Pittsburghers together. So I held off. But then I thought, you know what, if we add a new member at the same time, the very first international member of the Glitterati, very first member of the Glitterati ever, who lives outside of North America, maybe it bounces out, maybe it's okay. And for that purpose, my co-host Empher is not here with us in the headquarters this week. We sent her an assignment to the UK. She's opening the brand new Gritten Glitter headquarters in Cardiff. Because she is joined by the other news member of the team, Welsh correspondent, Meg James. Hello listeners. Welcome back. Happy Tuesday. It's Gritten Glitter. We are talking about some Patreon and correspondent chosen matches this week. I know that you are also going to be listening to Harley in last, but on this side of the recording. Unfortunately, it's kind of like a girls against boys set up this week, which, you know, is always a little fun. But this week, it's me, Empher. And I am joined to talk about these matches with Meg James. Hello. Hello. Thanks for having me again. Yes. Oh, my gosh. Welcome back. I've been loving the WWE recordings that you and Harley have been doing since you have taken over in the CoA spot. It's been so much fun to like listen to this history from just a peer listener perspective. So amazing work there, Meg. And it's so nice to get to talk to you again. Yeah, it's been really good. Well, I say good fun. It's been a bit of a miserable time for the women's division individually in 1995, but there we are. So I feel a little guilty, but I was like, well, you're going to get into some really good stuff. So there's lots of like shining lights ahead, but I do feel a little guilty about being like, Oh, hey, while we're in the middle of this real down period, I'm going to piece. But at the right time, it's real dog shit at the minute. I'm not going to lie. But we've just got to the part where monster ripper is debuted and it's amazing. And everyone's super excited. And then she comes out with both of the eight and everyone's like, what is happening? And we're about to get into the complicated legacy of Sunny. So yeah, that is over on Patreon. If anyone wants to go and check that out. These do that is on our great and glitter patreon that is women's wrestling entertainment. It is being, I think you guys are on a good schedule of, I think, at least one episode a month now. So if you're not a subscriber to our patreon, hop on over there. It's five bucks a month. It's a fantastic, super well researched podcast that hardly does amazing work, getting all the information on and it's no matter what the period is and what's going on or lack there of. And it's always an interesting lesson. And it gives you a lot of good perspective into things now too. Very useful in that way. The more things change, the more they stay the same in some senses. So yeah, it is really good fun and really good to deep dive into history as well. Yay. So that's it. That's our new team members. Very exciting. Of course, all your old favorites are still not here this week, but they're still here. They're still around. Made is still around. Don, Jackie, Val Pancakes, Lindsay, they're all still here. They're ready to party. As I said, a five year anniversary of great and glitter. And I don't know. I want to do this for another five years. Laz, I think your contract says you're obligated for another five years. So no, I have a three year with a two year extension. Just like on the sitcoms, you're going to pull a showy long and ditches at the end of season five. Yeah. I mean, unless you want to make me an executive producer, but, you know, that's up to the creators. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] All right. So this is great and glitter. We are kicking off a brand new season here as we head to the fall. And we thought, what better way than to kick things off to the listener's choice special. We have done this. I'm so proud of us when we hit like we're 260 episodes in and we still think of new ideas that we've never done before. It's not easy. So listeners' choice special, we have four matches on the docket that people have chosen for us to watch and discuss. Our very first match on the list comes to us from one of our patrons, patreon.com/gritglitterpod. You can go there. You can support us. Get all sorts of perks and benefits. That's what Chad Boykin of Jabra House Press does. He supports us on Patreon and he requested that we watch "Lordy Mateo vs. Jordan Grace" from Poise and Eve "Wrestle Kingdom 2" in the summer of 2019. I don't know about you Meg, but this "Wrestle Kingdom 2" was the time I got into Eve. This was the show that got me in the door. Yeah, I was into it a little bit before this just because the idea of this kind of rebellious women-only promotion from my home country of the UK was super, super exciting to me. So I was already kind of into Eve's stuff and kind of really enjoying what they were doing. And again, I think when the pandemic hit a year later, because this was a pre-pandemic world as well in 2019, I think a lot of people, including Chad Boykin who recommended this match to us over on Patreon, what kind of picked up Eve during the pandemic and we're looking at their back catalogue and seeing this incredible home-grown UK promotion. Yeah, I want to read Chad's comments about this. I'm going to guess that Harley might do the same on his end, but Chad recommended to us saying "Discovering Eve during the pandemic, including the back catalogue, was what brought me back to wrestling." This "Wrestle Kingdom" match stood out with D Matteo as a modern-day breadheart. Totally agree. Totally agree. We got to talk about that. 100%. It was the promotion itself, though, as a punk feminist indie with Workers Union that felt like a collective instead of a traditional, sleazy business. You could tell the wrestlers wanted to be there and it looked like the most fun anyone was having in wrestling. It was like discovering wrestling for the first time again. Oh, just got Goosebumps, Chad. So well put. I think definitely, like, if I can... Eve is a promotion I talk about to my friends that don't watch wrestling, because they might not be into wrestling, but they will be into the idea of, like, punk feminism, workers' rights, and just a complete departure from what you would traditionally think of as a wrestling promotion. So it is when I think that people in your life who may not watch wrestling might be able to get into through just how they completely subvert what people probably think about of wrestling promotions. Yes, absolutely. And I think because I was, by summer of 2019, I was in, like, a full year plus of my, like, full blown wrestling fandom. And finding Eve or coming into Eve, finally getting into pro wrestling, even what they had, was like finding the thing I'd been missing in wrestling for, like, the year plus that I had been following it. Like, I failed my favorite promotions, was following lots of wrestlers, was dabbling in a lot of independent stuff, but Eve was definitely a promotion that, like, gave me that little extra bump of the things that I was still searching for in what I was watching. I wanted that feminist punk vibe. I wanted, I wanted more representation of, like, of wrestlers, and not just, like, you know, women wrestlers, but queer wrestlers, non-binary wrestlers, like, just wrestlers of every stripe that I wasn't seeing regularly featured in when I was already watching. And so, when Wrestle Kingdom 2 came out, I just, I had seen a clip or two, or had seen a couple mentions of it, and I was like, all right, you got my money, let me, let me, I want to know everything about this. And it very quickly became, especially Wrestle Kingdom 2, that became the thing I wanted to show non-fans, friends of mine, who I was like, you don't particularly care about wrestling, but I think you're going to really dig what this promotion is doing specifically. Les, have you watched a lot of Eve? I have not watched as much Eve as I would like. It's one of those things I've subscribed to their YouTube channel, it comes up for me, and then I end up watching something else. And I keep, every time it happens, I kick myself, and I'm like, I know there's going to be a bunch of good matches, and I'm going to see a bunch of new people, I should really watch this, but, and then I don't. And I feel really bad about it, and especially after watching this match, I was like, why am I not watching this all the time? This is better than a lot of the other stuff I watch, by quite a bit. In the early days of Grays & Glitter, we covered Eve a fair amount, mostly because former Glitter party members, Charlotte and Andy were huge, because they were the only promotion they watched regularly, and former Glitter party member JR was also a big E fan. So they were really keeping us up to date on things, and we had like, whole episodes, we recovered their entire She-One tournament. I've just fallen off the last couple years, but yeah, watching this match, as soon as it came on and the arena and the lights lit up, and I saw the graphics and everything, I was like, what's going on? And I was like, wait, I forgot how fucking cool yours and Eve is. They're the best women's wrestling company, outside of Japan, and they just, and they have great stuff, and they're like a modern day shimmer, where you go back and watch like a show from five years ago, and it's filled with the stars of today. Yeah, after watching this match, I was like, huh, Laura D. Mateo, I don't know enough about her. Then I started doing a bunch of, you know, googling and looking her up on Wikipedia and stuff. One of the things I want to talk about with this match actually is obviously this was 2019, we're here now recording in 2024. Jordan Grace in this match, obviously Jordan Grace's trajectory since 2019, you know, now she's working in TNA, she's also done some stuff with WA and NXT. And obviously those promotions are very like high production value, which Eve is not, and that's not a bad thing. I actually think that's a very good thing, because again, Eve by definition is just such a departure from what we're used to with wrestling. And with Jordan Grace now, she's such a spectacle, you know, so to see her in this more kind of gritty, grungy environment, compared to kind of the big lights she's under now, was really fun. And I really enjoyed kind of seeing her in a very different environment where it's still her, but she's kind of adapting to her surroundings. Absolutely. And I think that was what I was more used to with Jordan when I was watching her on the independence primarily and seeing her in places like beyond wrestling and other places that like where it felt like maybe not in the same Eve way, but it definitely felt like on a lower scale, it felt more like intimate, it felt like smaller houses and grittier. But I've gotten so used to seeing her in a much more in a bigger, more like prominent spot in like lossier surroundings with, you know, surrounded by other like TV ready wrestlers, that it was really cool to throw back to this era of Jordan Grace and see how much has, like how much has changed about her presentation, and yet how little has changed about like just the dominant way that she wrestles. It's very funny because this is like watching baby Jordan Grace. I mean, it was only like what five years ago, and it's she has, she has, she is like improved exponentially. That's really hard to do because watching this match, she was already really damn good. And like Laura D Mateo was amazing in this match as well. I really enjoyed that like I enjoyed this so much. Like, and it kills me because I was like, I wasn't watching anything in 2019. And I'm now like, oh, I missed all of this. And I'm like, again, like I was saying, I now want to go back and start watching all the pro wrestling eve shows that are there that I just haven't, or at the very least start paying attention to what they're doing now. But oh, so good. Laura's from Rome Italy, which is so cool too, because I don't know that many wrestlers from Italy. No, always hear about UK. You hear a decent amount from like Ireland and even a handful from France, but Italy is kind of a quiet place and I'm always fascinated. I always want, we don't have enough time in the year to do all the episodes I want to do, but I always want to be like, let's do a whole deep dive into the wrestling scene in Italy, the wrestling scene in Sweden. Who's out there? What are they doing? Because it seems like there's always one person who like breaks out of like a country into the mainstream because there's like, like, Laura D Matteo from Italy. There's Killer Kelly from Portugal. There's a what's her name from Brazil. Timel? Yeah, Timel from Brazil. Yeah. But that means like you don't start and just go, Oh, yeah, I'm the only person. So yes, of course I've moved over. No, there's there's scenes there and I want to know more about them, especially since there are enough women to that they break out and get to the big promotions in the US. I really want to find out more. If you knew nothing about this match going into it, you would be able to tell that it is a grudge match. Like on the YouTube link, it says grudge match. Even if it didn't say that, you would know from the way both Jordan and Laura fight in this match. Like Jordan does some of her really kind of big powerful offense. Like she does that kind of like delayed suplex. She kind of does a lot of offense like on the apron and things like that. And like Laura does some incredible stuff as well. There's a bit where Laura is kind of walking along the guardrail kicking Jordan in the head as she goes along. Like you can just tell that it is a grudge match. If you only watch this belt about, you would still know that it was a grudge match. Yes, absolutely. The YouTube video link does include like promo packages to start with that allow us to get a context for where this where this grudge came from. But you don't, you don't need them to understand that just like you said make like you don't need those packages. You don't even really need commentary to sell it. It's always, it's always going to be telling that something that a matches are based off a very, very strong feud when it starts off with one of the wrestlers like attacking the other wrestler before they've even had a chance to get the ring because this match starts before Jordan Grace is even able to get in the ring. Laura D Mateo is flinging herself out and tackling her to the ground. So like that tell that opening move like that that's going to tell you everything you need to know. This match was great though like it's 10 minutes but it's just fast paced from the start. They commentary does a great job of filming you and me in who aren't watching all these shows in real time with like all they faced before and Grace is looking for her first win over D Mateo is just high speed action from the start and high impact moves like Grace is doing the juggernaut driver and D Mateo hits with a tombstone all those things right from the start and you might, I kind of thought going in that Yeah, Grace would win to tie up their series or to get her win back. But no, D Mateo gets her on the ground to octopus stretch and just kind of batters her in the head with her leg until Grace tops out which is crazy because I can't, it has been a long time since I have seen Jordan Grace lose and lose to a submission. I want to say the last time she lost to submission was probably Deanna. The world is such a different place five years ago. Laura's use of submissions in this match was also really interesting like I can definitely see the kind of bright heart comparison that Chad was talking about in his recommendation like seeing those submissions be applied and you know you've got you've got Laura's submissions then you've got Jordan's kind of power and kind of seeing that kind of like tug of war going on between them over the course of the match as well Yeah, absolutely. So, and from there it just basically just doesn't stop. Like there's no, there's no breathtaking in this match No, there's no, no rest holds. There's no like downtime. Like it clocks in I think under 10 minutes like I didn't check exactly but I think it clocks in under 10 minutes so it's a really compact match but what they get into it in terms of both offense and like the emotion behind it is insane and it just goes to show that you don't need to have like an hour long match just to sell a story. That's not shade at anybody by the way but you know it just you know it just goes to show that you can have a compact match and still have that feeling there Yeah, absolutely. And I think that that brings us to Chad's comment about Demon Teo being this modern day Brett Hart where the style that she is working is very comparable, very very comparable to comparable it was comparable to Brett Hart's style but it's also it's very compatible. That was the word I was trying to reach for. It's incredibly compatible and built a lot of great chemistry with with Jordan Grace's style We've got through power versus like just a very workman like speed combo of speed agility and just general endurance. And you can tell as well that and the other way that Laura reminded me about on this match is like she was pissed off the whole time. Like you could tell that she was the feeling there is like this ends here You know like I say it is a grudge match and the match tells you that but I feel like that kind of intensity that she had is another way that she was kind of reminiscent of Brett Hart another kind of like 90s baby faces in this match Yes absolutely. And I like that this one I mean and I might not have been paying super close attention to the shit talking that was done in the promos and everything but like I like that this grudge match seems very personal like it's built as a very personal thing and it's not painting either one is a villain necessarily just one is maybe more of an antagonist than the other Yeah and you know there's no title involved either and I think I think you know the kind of measure of a match is sometimes told in how little there is on the line in terms of championships and gold like some of the greatest rivalries of all time Some of my favorite rivalries of all time are nothing to do with titles and it is just straight up personal and again this is a really good showing of that particular wrestling trope as well It's kind of what everybody likes in wrestling you know what I mean like we all have different tastes we all have you know different preferences when it comes to spots and whatever but I think this is one of those ones which is kind of like universally just I think a lot of people would like this for a lot of different reasons Match number two on our watch this this week comes to us courtesy of the host of our sister podcast LGBT in the ring Brian Bell requested that we watch Kofi Christ versus Justine Cannonball Ward The promotion is Kaizen Pro wrestling over the Maritimes here in Canada the show was called Writings on the Wall from May 2022 Brian says the match speaks for itself but I will say that both Kofi and Justine should be booked in more places and to keep in mind that this match took place during Justine's rookie year and Kofi was their trainer I was really blown away by it I do really like the trope of kind of like slaying the dragon almost like the kind of you know going up against your trainer going up against the person who made you or whatever it is a trope I really like so it was obvious that I was going to really enjoy this one and yeah it made even more Because I actually I watched the match and then I read Brian's comment afterwards and to see that Justine was in their rookie year I was like holy shit like I yeah I thought it was fantastic I really really was glued to this one I know very little about the Canadian wrestling scene like I know the promotions in Toronto because I live here and know a handful in Vancouver because Vancouver is like the big city here and a couple of months ago I don't know anything about what's happening in the Maritimes That's a foreign man for me Nova Scotia that's out there you have to take a boat to get there That's all I remember about my one trip to Nova Scotia when I was a kid This one was a this one was a little hard to watch Did you watch with the sound? I did and it worked in the sense of like I was so sick of Kofi I was like stop talking get to the match and then the match started I'm like oh my god he's still talking In it worked he got me So if you're not one who loves a long build up to a match to an actual match happening this one might rush you just to begin with because we get I think like 10 solid minutes of Kofi in the ring just talking about his accomplishment About the accomplishments and how they're you know looking for an actual real challenge and back and forth stuff with the crowd and etc etc so like if that's not your thing I understand and you don't really need to watch all of it It's useful in that it builds especially for me since I wasn't familiar with Kofi it built an understanding of like the part that they're playing in this but eventually Justine comes out to challenge And Justine is there like I don't know if it's mentioned right off the bat but like Justine is a trainee of Kofi's so like there's something to prove there and that's the niche that's a match niche that I love. I love the sub genre of trainer versus trainee. I don't know why maybe it's that classic like the student and the teacher like learning about two wrestlers based on the dynamic that they have knowing that they have worked very intimately with one another behind the scenes. There's some energy always in those matches that I'm always very curious to see how it plays out in the actual match style. Not all those matches are that like that worthwhile to watch. But I'm always very curious about it because sometimes they really really are and that mentor mentee relationship dynamic plays out in a really curious and fun way when you get to see a match and in this match. Oh boy, I thought it was great. The match itself was really good. I, it was a especially compared to like the first match. It was a more slow match and there I think it had a lot more to do with. Especially if it's justine words like first year. There was a lot of I hit you and you sell and I'm going to slowly pull you up and then hit you with another big move and you sell and slow get a lot of that. But there's that there was a hint of this is the start. You could see that justine has potential and I and this is two years ago. So I'd love to see something more recent to see the improvement because I think it's there. And it was I've seen a lot of this is a, you know, somebody taking on their trainer matches lately. You know, that could be because I keep going to shows that are based in schools. You know that so that's a thing and like sometimes it is really obvious that the trainer is kind of spoon feeding it to the to the to the trainee. But I don't think that's that's how this was there. There wasn't a lot of I am telling you what's going to happen next. You're going to react in this way. There wasn't a lot of that it was a it all flowed like justine word really kind of knew what was expected of her. Just the nature of the the moves and what was happening. But yes. Kovey needed to not talk as much. I thought Kovey was amazing. But you know what really made this match for me was the venue because you could do every single thing that crowd was saying like crystal clear you can hear people yelling for both of them like saying things like clear as day. And I think it was obviously there's no commentary in this match either. So you kind of have nothing in the background to kind of I guess sell the match beyond what you see in front of you. So for it to be in and I don't know what the venue was but for it to be in a venue so intimate that you can literally hear every word the crowd is saying really added to it for me and really kind of had me written for justine. Yes, I mean without a doubt right like they they work this dynamic so well that there's absolutely no doubt that the crowd is good at the crowd and at the audience and those watching from home we're all going to be behind justine and it was not going to work for justine. Like Kovey's just been up there for 10 minutes to talking we're just exhausted hearing him at this point. We want to see this like plucky youngster like go get go get theirs and like totally like totally behind justine in this whole thing. And this match does a really nice job of like playing out that dynamic in a very like in a slow build because Kovey takes over this match pretty quickly and it takes a while for justine to get any kind of upper hand in the situation as the fitting of their status as you know rookie and veteran. But, or at least better but like established person. And I think it works out really nicely because we get to see justine take a lot of punishment in a in a very credible way and it doesn't feel like Kovey's pulling any shots and like there's multiple moments of like shit talking throughout it and Kovey's like very antagonistic to justine throughout it. It works it like it works really well because there's never this sense of justine going to like quit will justine in this match likely not I feel like in the back of my head. I just understood that but there wasn't this like there was there was this wonderful feeling of like I'm going to see this person fight. I'm going to see this person like fight with every like element of their being you know always get that with rookies like sometimes rookies can come off kind of tentative and justine was coming off the exact opposite. I think that really adds to the match as well personally like the fact that I was the same I was like I my money is not on justine for this but I know I'm going to see them fight. And sometimes in wrestling that is enough I think you know if you watch sort of like mainstream promotions you will kind of can kind of get a bit hang up on wins and losses. And I know sometimes you know stories are told alongside what's happening in the ring instead of like being in the ring and you know there's a place for everything in wrestling. But I think with this one the fact I was still happy to sit there and watch this match and see how it was going to play out even though I was like 99% sure that justine was going to lose. And I think that kind of says something about how this match was set up in terms of story of the trainer versus trainee and again that isn't a trope we see a lot on our deliveries and our aws you know like it's not something we might see like a sort of veteran versus rookie thing but for that kind of more intimate relationship of trainer versus trainee we kind of don't really see it so this was kind of a breath of fresh air really in a lot of ways for me. This is something funny about the fact that like this was the most indie of the four shows we watched. You know one of them was the other three shows we'll get to them. Proasting Eve, TNA and AJW. This one this match was twice as long as all those other matches. They were all like 9 to 11 minutes this one was 21 minutes. Yeah. But that's very like clearly if you were attending Kai's and Pro's shows I mean I'm assuming just based on what we saw in this video. Kobe's like the top champ it seems like probably the top heel in promotion. So having him go out there and do like a 20 minute match against an up and comer. You know again like the match is probably more for the Kai's and Pro audience than it is for like random people on YouTube who haven't seen the promotion before. Yeah I mean that was also obvious like I don't know if you stopped watching at the end. Because I almost did because the sound cut out entirely for like around the pinfall. I don't know if that was just my internet being my internet or it just didn't record or whatever. And then there was a whole lot of other stuff that happened after that. And I like there were a bunch of people who came in and defended just just seen and there were a bunch of people who came in and joined. Kobe beating up Justine and then there was a video package of somebody and I was like oh I don't know what any of this is and I want to care but it's also two years old so I'm not going to follow up on this. But I do kind of want to go to one of their shows now like but that that's my toxic trait I see a wrestling show and I go oh that's only a six hour drive. I should do that and then I go no no no you don't drive an hour out of the city to go see a wrestling show you're not going to drive six hours or to another country. To watch I mean if I could do I'm going to come up and crash on your couch. Okay but it's still a couple of days still a couple days from here to there. And I liked how long this match went to it gave it a lot of breathing room this was a pretty long match I think that they were about 20 minutes. And I think that kind of adds to the rooting for Justin as well like I could see like on again on the YouTube bar how long the match was so it was like I knew what we were going into. But seeing someone go for that long again I think just adds to that kind of like rooting for the rookie and wanting them to do well. But at the end you know Justin win or lose they've still had this like 20 minute match which for a rookie you know which is what they are being presented as in this match even though they were fantastic. You know I think a rookie having a match like that under they belt is also kind of sells that story too. And so if he wins this one but there's a lovely post match segment and bring where like Justin gets to like share like you know the importance of this and that you know they're less than years worth of training. And Kobe gets to give Justin props for for working so hard, but in just a call back to what you mentioned because I feel like I glossed over but it's a really good point. The engagement in this match is stellar and constant and there's one specific voice of a person who just will not stop the entire. Yeah. And it's like a little annoying at certain points but it's like also like you can tell these are people who like are regularly there they're following they're like they have developed a relationship with the promotion. That's something that you don't get when you're watching the major, when you're watching major promotions, you do miss that crowd interaction you do miss that acknowledgement of the fact of the fact that these fans are usually the ones who are there every show they they know the wrestlers they follow the wrestlers they they have developed these like you know crowd antagonistic relationships with these wrestlers and hopefully do so in like a respectful way. And when when you get like when you don't watch enough independence ever you go through a period where you're not watching these more intimate shows or these smaller shows, you can lose, you can lose sense of that and I, it's always it's nice. I go to local shows and I'm part of that environment but to watch it on streaming to watch these matches at home. It's just a nice reminder of like oh yeah that's what that dynamic is like that's what it feels like. It's much different than watching say like an AWW like dynamite or like a WWE pay-per-view. Yeah definitely like I actually haven't been to an indie show yet this year. My first one is tomorrow the only wrestling show I've been to this year is a w dynamite in Cardiff. So it's my first like indie show of the year tomorrow attack for wrestling year in Cardiff. And yeah again it's just kind of I feel like sometimes when you don't go to a show for a little while or again you're at home watching your wre or a w. Whatever you do kind of lose sight of those moments you can only get in kind of an intimate indie show like this you know. Last thing I'll say about this match was Kovey standing on the second turn buckle had ward in a sort of like torture rack and then did like a centon like a forward flipping centon. I've never seen that before that was with the price of admission. I've been to Nova Scotia once and I've actually like have a friend who's from there and like I can I was like kind of picking out the accent before they mentioned Nova Scotia so. Yeah. So we're going to jump into our third match and we're going to like completely switch gears essentially because we're going from you know probably a house of like a couple of hundred in Nova Scotia to a TNA pay-per-view. Match number three on our list I thought you know what since since they're new here since it is their first week ease them in you know do the hot tub before you get in the swimming pool. We'll let last and make both pick a match as well that they want us to watch. Laz you went with TNA hard to kill January 2022 the very first women's knockouts number one can ultimate X match which also happen to be a number one contender match. Rosemary Alisha Edwards Jordan Grace Lady Frost Tasha steals and Chelsea green why did you pick this one. Two reasons one because I wanted to watch the Deonna versus Jordan match from hard to kill 2023 but that was not available as just a match and I wasn't going to give out my TNA plus information to everybody. I mean I guess we could do a watch party or something I don't know I don't. And then second I really love this match because for two reasons one is just about everybody in that match is like has gone on to amazing things like Chelsea green is having the run of her life in WWE. Jordan Grace is one of the top four women in the world right now. Rosemary is you know doing the whole thing with NXT and it seems like they're leading to something with Wendy Chu right now. That's great talks just deals has had the world title at one point or another and has got and is kind of become like one of the gatekeepers to the world title in TNA. And this is one of those things. This match is the one that started me to change my mind about Alisha Edwards before this match. I really disliked her. I was like that is a wasted spot. I want somebody else there. And this is the match where she started to show that she had more than what I had seen previously in TNA. And since then she's gotten a lot better and I think right now her teaming with. Masha Slamovich is probably my favorite version of Alicia Edwards that I've seen yet she's becoming like one of the more vocal members of the system. And it's one of those things I think that TNA does and this is a great example. Of the TNA has a way of making you care about everyone. And this match really did that. Everybody got their spots and everybody had something to show. They even brought in two additional people that did a little bit. And like Lady Frost had a she was the first person I saw to get like an overlay on the screen for her entrance when she did that like frost pattern thing. Like a little green card. Yeah, it's funny like because now it's become more of a thing and it's like PCO gets stuff like that and like changing things to black and white PCO Tony storm. You know, it's not as unique, but when this happened. I was like, Oh my God, that's great. And it is one of those matches that kind of thought I am such a TNA mark. And I also think this is one of the best time periods for the knockouts division. Right now they are real low on numbers and they need to hire a bunch of people, but that's why I chose this match. This is the first ever women's ultimate X match. Big historic moment. Obviously, the ultimate X matches like something for TNA slash impact. It's like one of their like Eastern matches. It's like a ladder match without a ladder with a big hanging X that you got to go get. I love when a gimmick is so well established that it no longer feels silly. It's just like, yeah, there's a big excitement over the ring. What do you want? Yeah, I mean, say what you will about TNA and people do. But like I, you know, I think way TNA has kind of historically excelled is in their absolute ridiculousness. Like, you know, I actually spent a good part of this year watching some old TNA for, you know, for a laugh. And I think that is kind of where they've, for better or worse, is where they've made their mark. And yeah, I love, you know, like Giselle Shaw won a, I think, last year or this year and she's walking around with a big old X and it's just the most ridiculous thing. But I think it's great. Yes, absolutely. I, you know, it's just, it is. It's the, it's the ultimate X match. You have to go get the X like explaining it to someone who's watching you for the first time. They might think of it as ridiculous, but it's like, it's just, it's just so known in the brand. It doesn't, doesn't even register anymore until like you show it to somebody else and they're like, wait, so they have to get a big X. Yeah, yeah, but the X means something, that's the thing. I think so. Well, last we're going to show Mayday and M were criticizing NXT because they feel like, you know, everybody wrestles the same style. The names are just totally like word, word salad. They just, they don't mean anything and they just, they don't tell you anything but the individuals behind the names. This is like, you know, the perfect example of the opposite of that. We have six women in this match and all the names are like Lady Frost, Tasha Steels, Rosemary. All those names are like memorable. Everybody in this match has like a distinctive look. Even if they don't have like a super strong gimmick. Lady Frost, Rosemary, yes, strong gimmicks. Tasha Steels, Chelsea Green, you know, not like, not like mid 90s. It's not like one of them is a plumber and the other is like a hog farmer. But they've got like strong looks and personalities and aesthetics to them. And everybody stands out and everybody has their own motifs and stuff. And it just makes for such a colorful and such a memorable division. And then two minutes in the match, Savannah Evans and Jessica Havoc show up and it's like, oh, here's two more. Here's like eight great women in one match and they're all memorable and I'd say six out of the eight are doing big stuff still today in three different companies. And that's amazing. And it's one of those things because of a match like this and because TNA puts in the work and lets the people really develop on their own. I still care about what Lady Frost is doing. And she hasn't, I think this was one of her last matches in TNA. Like, I still pay attention when she shows up on our own age. I still watch for like, if I hear there's going to be a Chelsea Green Piper Niven match on WWE, I look for it and I see what's going on. And that's the thing that's great about TNA is it makes you a fan. God, I mean, look at it. I went on for what two minutes about Alicia Edwards. It works. She's not even my favorite person in this match. That would be Rosemary. I love Rosemary. She's probably one of my top five wrestlers all time. And the funny thing is this has a ton of women in it. This is a historic moment. And I probably have the least to say about this match only in that, like, this is kind of your typical six way in that a lot is happening. And because it's an ultimate X match, there's, you know, no countouts and no DQs. So everybody's in the pool, essentially. I mean, we've got havoc showing up for Rosemary. I've been showing up for Tasha steals. I forget if there's anyone for the other people, but like, we've got, you know, we've got non match contenders in the match just to help their, their, their people. So it's just, yeah, it spins off from there. There's a lot of like fun spots. It is a really fun thing to go back to 2022. Not that long ago, obviously, but like, to go back to 2022 and realize, like, just kind of noting where they're at in the women's division right now. How different that was even just two years ago. Like, we're talking some pretty heavy hitters in this match. We've got like Jordan Grace and Chelsea Green and Alicia Edwards are like, and, and Rosemary, we've got like, like known established TNA talent, like big deal, like they are like key stones of the knockouts division. Tasha steals who at that point had been doing some good time with TNA and like, was absolutely building her name there. And then you've got Lady Frost, who was like, only briefly in the promotion. And during this time, very quickly ascended into like, into matches like this one. And they make mention of that in the commentary in a fun way. And I think it was worth mentioning of like, this was kind of the window for Lady Frost and TNA. Literally the one takeaway I had from this match and like apologies because it's kind of not really about the match. But I was watching this and I was thinking, I don't think TNA could do this now. Like, this was only two years ago and I don't think they could do this now because like, they, as you say, there's some really heavy hitters and they lost quite a few of them. Like Chelsea Green's back in WWE now. They lost Deanna, they lost Trinity. And then recently, you know, Giselle shows us for a release at a time of recording, Killer Kelly this week has announced that she's pregnant. So like, she may come back, but it won't be for a little while. And even if they could do a ladder match like this, or an ultimate ex match like this, with their partnership with NXT now, I feel like it would be more like, oh yeah, you can have a couple of people in, a viewer people in a ladder match with our girls. Do you know what I mean? And so I was kind of like, they're in a bit of a weird period at the minute, the little ochos division, where I feel like they're kind of having to rebuild a bit after kind of a few people kind of leaving and, you know, there's been big changes in TNA this year. So yeah, I was kind of watching this like, I don't know if they could do one of these now. Yeah, I don't know either. I don't know who they would be able to feature that would have. So the nice thing about like this match is you're watching, you make a great point, Meg. You're watching division members competing in a like seminal TNA event. Like you are, you were seeing them in a match that is like, you're seeing TNA roster competing in a very TNA specific match. And at this point, if you were going to do the same thing, you might not pack the same power because you might have a fair, if you were to fill out six people in this match, who would you even use? Yeah, and even Jordan Grace now is, you know, this week there was news that apparently she is going to sign with, with WWE and be in NXT or be in WWE. So again, like that's, that's your knockout champion. I know they have like signed a couple of people this week or like they've had people make appearances this week. But yeah, I just, I don't think they could do a match like this. And I think if they did with their little partnership with NXT at the minute, I think it would be an NXT ladder match with a couple of people from TNA in it, you know? And like you look at the competitors in this match and they are, you know, you've got Jordan Grace, you've got Chelsea Green, you've got Rosemary, Real like TNA strongholds, like TNA legends almost. And then, you know, you've got Tasha and Alicia and, you know, Lady Frost, kind of people who are new, kind of newer people coming in. I think that's kind of like a really good formula for a multi-person match like this. Whereas now they kind of, the only real kind of cornerstone they've got is Jordan Grace and she might be on the way out. Giselle Shaw would have been one, but she's asked for a release. You know, like MK Ultra, one half of them is pregnant and I don't know where Masha is, you know what I mean? So it just, yeah, that was the kind of thing that was my main takeaway from this match. That and the fact it was a bit short. I was like, I feel like a large match needs a bit longer than that. And I'll tell you that X match here. Strangely short, for six women in an ultimate X match and that making so much out of the fact that this is a really big moment, I was a little surprised at how, how fairly brief it was, I think it was, I mean, was it even ten minutes? It was nine minutes exactly according to Wikipedia. Yeah, okay, so, so precisely, not, not exactly what I would have expected as far as like with the build and with like, when would the talent that they had in this ring? I mean, any number of these women easily, all of these women, even like Alicia Edwards, like any number of these women could easily go ten plus minutes in a, in a multi-person match. So not knocking the match itself, it just kind of surprised by, you know, generally the limits, the limit that was put on it. Yeah, and I think that's kind of, yeah, I thought that as well. It's not a knock against them because they did, and I feel like I am so sick of saying this from over on women's wrestling entertainment, they did the best with what they had. And what they had was nine minutes for this supposed landmark match. I thought they were incredible. I really, really did. I think they could have had another maybe six minutes on this and it would have been a real cornerstone moment. But that's TNA's fault, not the, not the knockouts fault. And I think what they did doing this match was, was really, really good. And I, I love multi-person matches like this one. So, you know, for me, this was kind of a fun little afternoon. Yeah, absolutely. Like, for a match like this, like come, come for the chaos, come for the fun, come for the, you know, all the, you know, run-ins and, you know, creative ways of getting people up and down and off the, like, out of the ring and up to the X and just have a, I love this finish. I think the finish is really fun for this one with Chelsea and, and Tasha, like, in this just like near missed moment of like Chelsea's almost got it. And then Tasha just like scoops the X away and, and, you know, lands with it. And that's, that's your match. And I think it was a really nice moment for Tasha Steels, too, because Lady Frost aside of the other women in this match, she's the one who's still in that like growing period, growing her presence within TNA. So, at this moment in 2022, this was a really great point for Tasha Steels to establish herself as a genuine threat. Yeah, I think if you're kind of like, if you've been under the radar a little bit, if you're maybe a bit new, I think winning a match like this is a really great way to like shoot yourself to people's attention. The one I always think of is FKA Zack Ryder, now known as Matt Cardona, winning the Intercontinental Championship ladder match at WrestleMania 32. Nobody was expecting that. Like, everybody loves Zack Ryder, but nobody was expecting him to win that match. And then he did. And it was just this absolutely euphoric moment. And like, yes, he's gone on to, you know, become even bigger than anything he could have been in WWE now. But that moment is what I think a lot of people will kind of remember him for in WWE. So again, I think for Tasha, having a win in a big kind of landmark match like this really kind of set her on a good course. Our last match on the list this week was Meg's Choice. Meg did not go from actual 2019 to 2022, like anybody else, went for a far deeper cut back when I was but an infant. It was the summer of 1985 in Japan, AJW Cheguisa Nagayo versus dump Matsumoto, hair versus hair. We have talked about some stellar breakout independent moments. We have talked about a historic moment in a larger promotion. And now we are going to talk about the true. This is like our heavyweight match, right? Yeah, I think so, yeah. I love how Harley. So just a peek behind the scenes, Harley organized our document for this. So Harley put this one last rightfully so because this is like your main event is, do you want to, how about you enter this one, Meg, because this is your pick. This was my pick. I picked this match because I feel like this is a match that everybody should see. Whether it's you were kind of thing or not is for you to decide. But I feel like if you, if you like wrestling, and particularly if you like women's wrestling, this is a match you really, really must see. Chuck of like, you know, Golden Age, AJW as another thing, which I hope I live long enough to do, like to become an expert on because there's so much there to mine. It's just Treasure 12 and I have not, I don't have the time or the resources. Really, but like you watch a match like this and you're just like, Oh my God, the app. When in the last 35 years, have you seen this kind of energy for women's match? I didn't even see this type of energy for most men's matches, like, Oh my God, the audience. Wow, this, the match we saw was not dubbed. It was a direct recording. It was in Japanese. I didn't know who anybody was at all, except for the two main wrestlers who I could say were wrestling is who I figured out was who. And I went, Oh, is that I have no idea. Is that Paul Nakano in the back there? Maybe I don't know. It's possible. I think. But, oh, man, that audience, it's, it sounded huge. It sounded engaged. They went nuts for this match, not knowing anything about it. Walking in, I would say that this must have been at the end of like a three or four year feud that was just back and forth and like the biggest thing in the world. Like, I, I, it's the type of wrestling match that we just don't get in this day and age. Like, I don't know if you could get an audience to invest that heavily anymore. Oh, man, it was so good. It hands down. It was the best match of all the ones that we saw today. And it was purely based on the, the ring psychology of the, of the two wrestlers and the audience and, dear God, did the audience make it. If you want to understand women's wrestling in, in, in any format, if you want to understand the history of women's wrestling, if you want to understand, you know, if you want like a comparison point or perspective point for women's wrestling now, if you just want to see an amazing wrestling match, let's take women's wrestling out of it. Incredible wrestling match and the epitome of brutal no holds fire, just everything on the table. This is the match that you need to reach for. This is often, this hair versus hair match is often cited as one of the like the best matches of this period of all Japan women's. And rightfully so, because this match, it gives you, gives you two people in like a prime of their career. It gives you a perfect dynamic between like, you know, punk, scary, top, and there's just like, you know, like clean cut athletic. She goes, you've got, you've got blood, you've got. Oh my God, what? I mean, there's like everything. It's got everything, basically. And, you know, I, the other reason I picked this match, Dump Matsumoto is kind of fresh in my mind at the minute. I mentioned her in the last issue of my zine when I was talking about kind of bigger bodies in wrestling and how, you know, the relationship between power and vulnerability and things like that. Also, Queen of Villains is out on Netflix this month as well, I believe. So yeah, Dump Matsumoto has kind of been on my mind a bit recently. But this is another kind of one of those matches that I would show to someone who had never watched wrestling before, because I often think about what matches I would show to people who don't watch wrestling. And I find myself going for ones which are kind of like not your typical wrestling match, just because I feel like people know, people have an idea in their head of what wrestling is, and I would want to show them what wrestling can be. And again, people probably have an image in their head when it comes to women's wrestling. And so I think 80s old Japan women is kind of like a perfect thing to show them in terms of like what women's wrestling also is, and particularly this match, because it is so violent. It is so brutal. And believe it or not, I am someone who like quite often says that I don't really like death matches just because I feel like no matter how brutal it is or how violent it is. If the story is there, I kind of can't really get into it. And I find that that is sometimes the case, but then you have, there are a few for me anyway, picture perfect death matches throughout history. And this is one of them. Like it is so emotionally charged. It's so chaotic. And as you say, it kind of really obviously shows the kind of face and heel dynamic. Like dumb matzomoto just hates everything nice and everything good. And then you've got kind of like fresh face to goosa. And it's just this meeting of two complete opposites in this really brutal match. It's a classic monster versus baby face. You have dumped with her bright orange hair. Her makeup, my wife was in the room at the time just walking by and it was like that makeup is crazy. And then she goes to just like classic baby face, you know, just kind of like plain gear, like just like nice normal, normal human hair. And dump is just like ragdolls for most of the match. Honestly, like you, if you're conditioned to maybe like the Hulk Hogan formula, the WWE F formula, you're expecting to use it to eventually like overcome the odds and slay the monster and stand tall in the end. But it doesn't, it doesn't bring up that way. No, it's just dumb at all. Dump chokes are with the chain. They fight over a pair of scissors and dump ends up getting ahold of them and just stabbing shoes in the forehead a bunch of times. There was a fork. There was a couple fork spots and treating each other with the microphone. She goes to grabs like a metal box at ringside. I don't know if it was, I'm thinking it was maybe like to put the hair in after the hair got cut. But she takes like this metal like Kleenex box and just bashes dump over the head over and over. Yeah. Oh, man. And then when they brought the, the table in, I would, Oh, dear God, that's not like a modern table. That's not like particle board. That's not plastic. Oh, dear God, that is solid wood. Oh, somebody's going to die. And then the, they'd never use the table, which was kind of disappointing, but also kind of, thank God, because they would have killed somebody. Nobody goes through the table. Instead, dump just kind of like uses it like a fly swatter and just smacks your weapon. It was like, I did not know what to expect going into this match. The very little I know about a dump is that she is getting a movie on Netflix that I am now really invested in. I really want to see Queen of villains now watching this on like this is going to be a big. I think I want to see the Netflix series. Maybe. Oh, is it? Yeah, I think it's like a TV series. And if so, I'm like, this is going to be like the, this is going to be like one episode. Like I've watched plenty of death matches with, you know, like blood and watch sort of exploding barbed wire death matches, et cetera. But like, I feel like the power of the story in here lends to the brutality in a really specific way that makes the match all the more like just all the more impactful to watch. It makes the violence count in a way that sometimes death match just doesn't count as much. Yeah, like the I think that the kind of the bit where Chigusa is just like covered in blood and she's just kind of like climbs into the crowd and just starts like screaming into a mic and there's just fans around her in in tears, you know what I mean? It's just, it is really kind of like, it's really jarring, it's really brutal. Like, I know we kind of see fan reactions of things with people looking pissed off at things. But people hate did dump Matamoto and so they should because she worked very, very hard to make them absolutely hate her. But yeah, there's just so many incredible visuals in this match. Like this week, the Hot Topic in wrestling has been spoilers for Dynamite. And Hangman Page burning down swiveth Strickland's childhood home. And that image of Hangman sat out in the garden with a whiskey while the house is on fire in the background. And deniably an incredible wrestling image and we kind of have these generational images which kind of define a certain rivalry. And I think you could really take a screenshot from any moment in this match and it would kind of do that for these two. 100%. And I feel like, I feel like before I even saw this match before I even watched this match, I knew images from this match. And sometimes to a confusing degree where like I'll watch other matches that I'm like expecting that image, I'm expecting that moment and that moment isn't in that. This is an iconic, like very few matches reach like iconic status, but this is one of them. And as like anyone who's a fan of pro wrestling in any kind of extensive format, if you're just beyond a casual viewer, this is the type of match that you're going to watch sooner or later. It feels like to me, sometimes you'll hear a song on the radio or on TV or on social media and you'll know what a little bit of that song sounds like. But then you go out of your way to listen to it of your own volition and you hear the lyrics for the first time and you hear the song in its entirety for the first time and you kind of see it in a different light. I think this matches that for a lot of people. I think a lot of people have viewed, you know, tales, it's not like an urban legend this match like people talk about it like, like it's like Mothman or something, but it is real, it does exist. But like, I feel like so many people have viewed of this match and like again, probably seeing images of it like, you know, of scissors and stuff. But when you sit down and watch it and you see it from start to finish for what it is, you just see it in a whole new light like however brutal you think it's going to be, it's going to be way more brutal than that. And as we said, like in the end, Shagusa doesn't overcome the odds, dump hits with the table after battering her at the ring mic many times, cracks a folding chair over her head, and the referee just counts Shagusa down and referee counts to ten, Shagusa can't get to her feet, and that's it, dump wins. And the crowd, just teenage girls, grown women everywhere, bawling their eyes out, sobbing. Oh my god. And the horror that the audience has, well, dump is shaving Shagusa's hair. Oh, man, they kept cutting away and showing people just watching like it, like they were sitting on the side of a road and there's a six car pile up, they just can't take their eyes off of, and they're just so upset and horrified. Oh, god, you don't get the audience like that anymore. Like that's the one problem with kayfabe being dead. Like, oof, oof. Yeah, I really tried to think, I was like, we've seen like, we've definitely seen like really emotional audiences, like when punk returned, or when Danielson had to retire, emotionally invested audiences in that respect. But when was the last time we saw like a large audience, like emotionally devastated by the outcome of a match? Maybe it's just because it was trending this weekend. Last time I can think of his Kofi getting squashed by lastener. Yes, see, I don't know if people were crying, maybe kids might have been crying, but yeah. Yeah. I, the only thing I can think of is like how angry everybody was watching WrestleMania where Roman beat Cody. We were all like, there were like six of us there. We were all so unbelievably angry. And even then, we weren't up. We weren't crying. We weren't upset. We were just angry. And like, I think that's kind of what it is now with with. We all know so much about the industry now that we aren't going to get sad. We're going to get like, well, that was a dumb move. Why would they do that and get angry about it instead of like living in the moment of. This is real. I am sad for what is happening. Oh, God, I would have loved to see there. Because it's a hair versus hair match, and it is already a brutal match. You know that the like post match, like hair part of the deal is going to be just as brutal and like. Like if you've ever seen a hair versus hair match and you watch the like finish of it, the like post match finish of like someone cutting someone else's hair, but you've never seen this one or a few other ones that are like, or from the same period of all Japan women's were like, it's one thing that snip off someone's ponytail. And it's another thing to just like, scalp a woman. And it's like, that's what the feeling is like in this. Yeah, and you almost forget that it's here versus here through like through the match because this just you just think it's just this brutal match that's going on. This like, you think, Oh, it's a death match or whatever. And then you get to the end and you're like, Oh, God, it was Hey, versus Hey, wasn't it? I felt like that kind of detail kind of falls by the wayside just because there's so much other stuff going on in the actual match. And then again, I won't go into too much detail about it in case anybody wants to go watch this match for the first time and kind of experience it for the first time themselves. But yeah, that kind of post match ceremony, if you can call it that kind of like hammers home, the whole match really. Yeah, absolutely. It's one. It is the like scare after the scare. Like, you know, if you were watching a scary movie and the, you know, they seemingly have gotten rid of the threat and the killer is gone and then like, Oh, no, there's still more. That is this match because if you were tapped out when it came to brutality from the match itself, if you are watching all through this like hair versus hair point, like you're, you're getting more of it and you're getting it in a, in a much more intense and vicious fashion because you've got Nagayo kind of struggling and fighting against it. You've got like, you've got a still a ton of blood and now blood in scissors and and razors and just like off. It's it's like as brutal as the match itself in a in a different way. Yeah, definitely. I definitely feel that whole like scare after the scare thing, like just when you thought it was safe, you know what I mean? Like the match is over there. It's all good. And then actually no, it was a hair versus hair in case you forgot. Yeah, it's just, it is again, the imagery is just unbelievably brutal. It may, it may not be for you. Okay, you may watch this match and be like, this is a bit much for me. I feel like it's a bit much for me in all honesty, but I just felt like it was such an iconic women's match, you know, that I, I just really wanted us to talk about it. Yeah. Queen of villains is out soon. So a lot of people may be becoming more familiar with Demptomoto and her story. And yeah, I think I love the fact as well. It wasn't Paul Nakano involved in this match as well. Like on the outside, we've not even mentioned it. Do you know what I mean? Oh, I mean, and probably like a fair amount of other like very important notables. Yeah, like in this, like, yeah, we've not even mentioned that the like the Joshi Hall of Fame on the outside of the ring during this match. Because basically by the time when you get to the hair versus hair, everyone's in the match. So for everyone's in the ring, so there's just anywhere you look as this melee is happening as this chaos is happening is someone like of like legendary wrestling status. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's it. It's like they play, they play quite a small role in this match, which is crazy. But yeah, that's why I picked this match because I think it is kind of required viewing in a lot of ways. Like, do you want your own person, but I think everybody should watch this match at least once. Yeah, if you can't stomach watching through the hair, the actual like haircutting part, I understand. I get it. It's not. There's a lot of crying Japanese women. Yeah. Yeah, it's very, it's very emotional. And again, like talking about fan reactions, like we were talking about, like, just in world, this is Kobe Christ, like really, you know, the crowd in this is, is really, really vocal, you know what I mean, which is just a testament to, I think, how much people here did. Yeah. And the fact that this is just a, this is like one of its peak of its powers and wall to wall sound like it's an absolutely stacked house. It's a completely full house. It's a completely into it house. There's no, there's no break in sound from the crowd during this entire thing. And that includes the post the post match stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Like God, imagine what it must have been like to watch this life, like to watch an absolute brutality unfold. And then to then have to like sit through the actual hair removal bit as well. Like it must have been just like an absolute experience to be there live. Absolutely. Like the predominantly women audience of AJW too, right? Like we don't see that anymore. Like we, no matter what company I watch, you rarely see like a large section of teenage girls. You might see one or two here and there with like their dad or with like their friend or something, but you're not seeing large turnouts. If we could convert all the, all the modern K-pop stands into like Joshi stands instead, what a world we'd be living. Oh, that's the utopia. And those are our matches. What I like fun, smorgasbord of, what, what a fun array of flavors of matches, what a fun variety of wrestlers and wrestling contacts. I think really something I enjoyed most about doing these four random matches is like the context of each match, each match, you know, from TNA, pay-per-view to all Japan women's at the height of its powers to, you know, to like, you know, smaller scale independence. But one of whom was running a major show, like we're getting band experiences and dynamics in every form that you would get with wrestling. And I just, I love the reminder, as simple as it is, I love the reminder that there is just so many different ways to enjoy pro wrestling, so many different environments to enjoy it with. And so thank you so much Meg for coming along this journey with me. This was super fun to talk about. Thank you so much for having me and thank you for letting me pick a match and possibly traumatizing some people with them to go to synagogue versus don't mat smoto. But yeah, it's been really, really fun to talk about such a variety of matches to see some stuff that I hadn't seen before. And again, to kind of look at different divisions, different promotions and, you know, just how the many forms wrestling takes. So thank you for having me on. It's been a pleasure. That is our show. As always, you can find us on Twitter or Instagram at greeklitterpod. If you support us on patreon at patreon.com/greeklitterpod. You get a weekly newsletter written by us, your friends. You get bonus podcasts, me and makeup one where we're watching and tracing the history of women in WWF up to 1995. Please check out our patreon. Subscribe so you at least subscribe for a mother to so you can listen to the backlog of women's wrestling entertainment. We also release old episodes or good and good around there as well as special content on occasion, but you don't want to miss the work that Harley and Meg are doing with women's wrestling entertainment. So please subscribe to our patreon and you will get all of that directly to you. And occasionally we get to ask you stuff like, hey, tell us a match to watch and you get to do it and then we watch it and we talk about it. All sorts of perks. Laz, thank you for being here and joining the team, Meg. Thank you for doing what you do over there. Safe travels home. Thanks for listening. Next week on this year's program, it is the return of G&G Film Club. We are watching a film I've never seen before. I never even heard of it until recently. It's from 1980. It's called Below the Belt. It's about a waitress who turns to professional wrestling. It sounds great. It's coming out on Blu-ray soon with a commentary track from Dave Meltzer. So we thought we'd get ahead and watch that before the Blu-ray drops. You can stream Below the Belt on Amazon Prime in America or on YouTube in like less good quality elsewhere in the world. Next week, Em and I will be joined by a special guest to discuss Below the Belt.
