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[366] people sinning just for fun, they will never see the sun
And we're back to the grind, after a very excellently exhausting couple of days to cap off my set off. My stress in actually getting to Calgary was well-documented on Mastodon, but the short version is that the bus broke down, we had to wait five hours for them to send a new bus up from Edmonton to then take us to Edmonton in the first place, and I only barely managed to get the last shuttle of the day out to Calgary after further delays all down the line.
STILL BETTER THAN FLYING, THOUGH.
And then I was in Calgary! I stayed in some nice lady's guest house about an hour away from downtown, but managed to navigate the public transportation well enough to get where I needed to go for a reasonable price. I did (unsurprisingly) end up bailing on my early-morning aspirations for the Stampede and decided a few extra hours of sleep was worth 25 bucks in admission fees, hopped off the C-train amidst a flurry of cowfolk, met up with a couple of guys from Medicine Hat, and then spent several hours going on rides in the broiling summer sun. Even some of the scary upside-down rides, SO THERE. Saw Dante Martin, Darius Martin, Action Andretti, Nick Wayne, and Isaiah Kassidy (all the wrestle youths, basically) also wandering around and going on rides, which was neat. I stayed decently hydrated and only burned badly a little bit on one side of the back of my neck, though I am, in general, a series of very different colours than I was when I left.
THEN IT WAS DYNAMITE TIME.
First of all, a hearty congratulations to Calgary for being the sloppiest, drunkest AEW crowd I have been in two years running! You earned it, Cowtown!
Bryan Danielson vs. Hangman Adam Page in the Owen Hart Foundation 2024 Men's Tournament Final Match: HOO BOY. Crazy fucking match. Crazy way to start the night. Crazy thing to just get to be there for. Probably the best match I've seen in person this year? Almost certainly the best match I've seen in person this year. Massive buzzkill of a finish, made that much worse by the fact that it's not a buzzkill for a whole lot of people. And I get it, I certainly can't be mad about Danielson getting to main event All In on his way into retirement, it's wholly deserved, I'm just 8000 times less interested in seeing him fight Swerve than I am in seeing Hangman finally get a win in the hottest feud in wrestling that isn't just a really violent take on All About Eve. And I DO get it, I can certainly see the vision, using Blood and Guts to keep Swerve/Hangman hot for All Out the week after All In, since that one's the more gritty, homegrown show vs. the flashy dream match feel of All In, but STILL. Still.
Brilliant match, and I was lucky to get to witness it. Great start to what I guess was basically the season finale of the last few months of shows I've attended? And of course, since everyone expected it to be the main event, opening with it instead made the rest of the night much more unpredictable. I guess the Jericho/Joe match will be the main event, then?
Chris Jericho vs. Samoa Joe in a Stampede Street Fight: NOPE. IT'S JUST SOME SILLY BULLSHIT TO WRITE JOE OUT SO HE CAN GO FILM SEASON 2 OF TWISTED METAL. There's no way the four-way main events, is there?
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Kyle Fletcher vs. PAC vs. Tomohori Ishii in a AEW International Title #1 Contendership Global Glory Four Way Match: Of course not! It's a classic fun bullshit four-way, everyone beat the shit out of Kyle, just a genuine delight of a match to get everyone in the mood for some more serious graps to end the night. Loved PAC getting to cut a proper promo afterward, love Claudio just leaning into being a big weird nerd, so hyped about the announcement that Ishii not being in the G1 means he'll just be hanging out in AEW for the next few months instead. Hot stone pitbull summer!!!!!
And then Mercedes and Britt do their thing (it is the biggest possible deal of a feud that I could not care less about unless it leads to Jamie coming back at All In) and then they wheel out the Owen Cup and belt again, and the time means that it has to actually be a four-match card, so maybe it'll just be one of those situations where the women technically get to main event the show, but then the actual ending is a long, rambling speech from Martha Hart or some sort of crazy drama kicking off with the guys?
NOPE, TURNS OUT IT'S JUST EVIL LESBIAN* HOURS FROM HERE ON OUT AND IT FUCKING RULES.
*both Toni and Mariah are bi IRL, it's just so much easier to refer to queer stories involving only women with the L word, but I also do not want to erase anything here ftr
Willow Nightingale vs. Mariah May in the Owen Hart Foundation 2024 Women's Tournament Final Match: Not Willow's or Mariah's best match this year, but that's mostly just a testament to how fucking good they both are, since it was still really great. I was rooting for Mariah, but I will never boo you, Willow!! Also the interference angle with Kris and Stokely was very smoothly executed, more so than all the stuff with Jeff in the men's match. Willow's Owen tribute gear was badass, and Mariah is Wrestle Barbie already, so obviously she looked amazing in the hot pink take on Toni's old gear, and the shows of respect between them, both before and after, made what happened afterward all the more effective. This isn't your typical boring heel turn where she's just mean now, the end, this is fucking personal, Toni. Willow may have been the reigning cup holder now dethroned, but it's your spot she's really after. IT'S MARIAH'S TURN, NOW.
I need to go back and rewatch ALL of Toni's stuff from the last year to really get the full picture, but I think the shift in her relationship with Mariah happened somewhere around March? That was around when she let her guard down and really let her into her heart, even as Mariah was clearly just biding her time for something, as she has been all along. Luther continually twigged to how sus she was, but that was where Toni really started actively turning a blind eye to it, culminating last month when Mariah got everything her heart could have possibly desired with the dream threesome conclusion to the Mina feud! Except, of course, for the thing she was always latching onto Toni for. Toni!! Who spent an entire year telling people to watch for the shoe, all while missing the heel right next to her!!! SHE DID HER IN WITH A LITERAL HEEL IN THE END I CAN'T!!!!! SEE YOU IN WEMBLEY, MA'AM, IT'S TIME FOR A NEW STAR TO RISE.
But seriously, Mariah standing bloody and triumphant over the weeping mess of her "mentor" was an instantly iconic Dynamite ending for the ages, I truly got to be present for Hollywood history in the making. I'm so glad that my excitement over her being quietly scooped up by AEW in the shadow of Mercedes' debut has been justified so thoroughly.
And then they taped Collision, and it was fine (the Takeshita/Billington match and the main event were standouts), but the crowd was so fucking dead after... ALL THAT, it was much more of a subdued affair. Just basking in the glory. They should have the Owen finals at Stampede every year forever, I know you love your little traditions, TK!!
And then I wandered out in a daze, found a Metric concert happening, watched that until fireworks started going off, and then went on more rides until past midnight, clambering back on board the C-train with possibly the worst headache of my life. I do not understand how there are people who go to the Stampede day after day after day, just one almost killed me!!
Bussed it back home yesterday, and after a very close call due to my own boneheadedness in leaving in the morning, it went much smoother than the ride down! There was a twenty-minute stretch of VERY apocalyptic wildfire smoke that we drove through, about twenty minutes outside of town, and it was truly wild how sharply demarcated the limits of it were. And then I slept in my own bed and now I'm back at work, but only for five days, which isn't so bad! VACATIONS OVER! At least for the time being. AEW doesn't have any more Canadian dates announced, and I need time for my bank accounts to recover. It's been a SLICE.
Wikipedia Sez: Fulfillingness' First Finale is the seventeenth studio album by American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer Stevie Wonder, released on July 22, 1974 by Tamla, a subsidiary of Motown Records. It is the fourth of five albums from what is considered Wonder's "classic period".
Genre: R&B
Styles: Funk, Soul, Smooth Soul
Release Date: June 22nd, 1974
Prior Familiarity: Pretty low!
What I Did While Listening: Took da bus home!!!
Verdict: Honestly, I don't get it. It's definitely good music, but gospel is a tough sell for me at the best of times, and whenever it veers in that direction, it's just kinda... goofy? Goofy. Heaven is 10 Zillion Light Years of Goofy. And very little of the other stuff left a big impression on me. Innervisions clears.
Favourite Song: They Won't Go Where I Go, a genuinely haunting ray of darkness in the midst of... the rest.
Leshia's Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
STILL BETTER THAN FLYING, THOUGH.
And then I was in Calgary! I stayed in some nice lady's guest house about an hour away from downtown, but managed to navigate the public transportation well enough to get where I needed to go for a reasonable price. I did (unsurprisingly) end up bailing on my early-morning aspirations for the Stampede and decided a few extra hours of sleep was worth 25 bucks in admission fees, hopped off the C-train amidst a flurry of cowfolk, met up with a couple of guys from Medicine Hat, and then spent several hours going on rides in the broiling summer sun. Even some of the scary upside-down rides, SO THERE. Saw Dante Martin, Darius Martin, Action Andretti, Nick Wayne, and Isaiah Kassidy (all the wrestle youths, basically) also wandering around and going on rides, which was neat. I stayed decently hydrated and only burned badly a little bit on one side of the back of my neck, though I am, in general, a series of very different colours than I was when I left.
THEN IT WAS DYNAMITE TIME.
First of all, a hearty congratulations to Calgary for being the sloppiest, drunkest AEW crowd I have been in two years running! You earned it, Cowtown!
Bryan Danielson vs. Hangman Adam Page in the Owen Hart Foundation 2024 Men's Tournament Final Match: HOO BOY. Crazy fucking match. Crazy way to start the night. Crazy thing to just get to be there for. Probably the best match I've seen in person this year? Almost certainly the best match I've seen in person this year. Massive buzzkill of a finish, made that much worse by the fact that it's not a buzzkill for a whole lot of people. And I get it, I certainly can't be mad about Danielson getting to main event All In on his way into retirement, it's wholly deserved, I'm just 8000 times less interested in seeing him fight Swerve than I am in seeing Hangman finally get a win in the hottest feud in wrestling that isn't just a really violent take on All About Eve. And I DO get it, I can certainly see the vision, using Blood and Guts to keep Swerve/Hangman hot for All Out the week after All In, since that one's the more gritty, homegrown show vs. the flashy dream match feel of All In, but STILL. Still.
Brilliant match, and I was lucky to get to witness it. Great start to what I guess was basically the season finale of the last few months of shows I've attended? And of course, since everyone expected it to be the main event, opening with it instead made the rest of the night much more unpredictable. I guess the Jericho/Joe match will be the main event, then?
Chris Jericho vs. Samoa Joe in a Stampede Street Fight: NOPE. IT'S JUST SOME SILLY BULLSHIT TO WRITE JOE OUT SO HE CAN GO FILM SEASON 2 OF TWISTED METAL. There's no way the four-way main events, is there?
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Kyle Fletcher vs. PAC vs. Tomohori Ishii in a AEW International Title #1 Contendership Global Glory Four Way Match: Of course not! It's a classic fun bullshit four-way, everyone beat the shit out of Kyle, just a genuine delight of a match to get everyone in the mood for some more serious graps to end the night. Loved PAC getting to cut a proper promo afterward, love Claudio just leaning into being a big weird nerd, so hyped about the announcement that Ishii not being in the G1 means he'll just be hanging out in AEW for the next few months instead. Hot stone pitbull summer!!!!!
And then Mercedes and Britt do their thing (it is the biggest possible deal of a feud that I could not care less about unless it leads to Jamie coming back at All In) and then they wheel out the Owen Cup and belt again, and the time means that it has to actually be a four-match card, so maybe it'll just be one of those situations where the women technically get to main event the show, but then the actual ending is a long, rambling speech from Martha Hart or some sort of crazy drama kicking off with the guys?
NOPE, TURNS OUT IT'S JUST EVIL LESBIAN* HOURS FROM HERE ON OUT AND IT FUCKING RULES.
*both Toni and Mariah are bi IRL, it's just so much easier to refer to queer stories involving only women with the L word, but I also do not want to erase anything here ftr
Willow Nightingale vs. Mariah May in the Owen Hart Foundation 2024 Women's Tournament Final Match: Not Willow's or Mariah's best match this year, but that's mostly just a testament to how fucking good they both are, since it was still really great. I was rooting for Mariah, but I will never boo you, Willow!! Also the interference angle with Kris and Stokely was very smoothly executed, more so than all the stuff with Jeff in the men's match. Willow's Owen tribute gear was badass, and Mariah is Wrestle Barbie already, so obviously she looked amazing in the hot pink take on Toni's old gear, and the shows of respect between them, both before and after, made what happened afterward all the more effective. This isn't your typical boring heel turn where she's just mean now, the end, this is fucking personal, Toni. Willow may have been the reigning cup holder now dethroned, but it's your spot she's really after. IT'S MARIAH'S TURN, NOW.
I need to go back and rewatch ALL of Toni's stuff from the last year to really get the full picture, but I think the shift in her relationship with Mariah happened somewhere around March? That was around when she let her guard down and really let her into her heart, even as Mariah was clearly just biding her time for something, as she has been all along. Luther continually twigged to how sus she was, but that was where Toni really started actively turning a blind eye to it, culminating last month when Mariah got everything her heart could have possibly desired with the dream threesome conclusion to the Mina feud! Except, of course, for the thing she was always latching onto Toni for. Toni!! Who spent an entire year telling people to watch for the shoe, all while missing the heel right next to her!!! SHE DID HER IN WITH A LITERAL HEEL IN THE END I CAN'T!!!!! SEE YOU IN WEMBLEY, MA'AM, IT'S TIME FOR A NEW STAR TO RISE.
But seriously, Mariah standing bloody and triumphant over the weeping mess of her "mentor" was an instantly iconic Dynamite ending for the ages, I truly got to be present for Hollywood history in the making. I'm so glad that my excitement over her being quietly scooped up by AEW in the shadow of Mercedes' debut has been justified so thoroughly.
And then they taped Collision, and it was fine (the Takeshita/Billington match and the main event were standouts), but the crowd was so fucking dead after... ALL THAT, it was much more of a subdued affair. Just basking in the glory. They should have the Owen finals at Stampede every year forever, I know you love your little traditions, TK!!
And then I wandered out in a daze, found a Metric concert happening, watched that until fireworks started going off, and then went on more rides until past midnight, clambering back on board the C-train with possibly the worst headache of my life. I do not understand how there are people who go to the Stampede day after day after day, just one almost killed me!!
Bussed it back home yesterday, and after a very close call due to my own boneheadedness in leaving in the morning, it went much smoother than the ride down! There was a twenty-minute stretch of VERY apocalyptic wildfire smoke that we drove through, about twenty minutes outside of town, and it was truly wild how sharply demarcated the limits of it were. And then I slept in my own bed and now I'm back at work, but only for five days, which isn't so bad! VACATIONS OVER! At least for the time being. AEW doesn't have any more Canadian dates announced, and I need time for my bank accounts to recover. It's been a SLICE.
Wikipedia Sez: Fulfillingness' First Finale is the seventeenth studio album by American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer Stevie Wonder, released on July 22, 1974 by Tamla, a subsidiary of Motown Records. It is the fourth of five albums from what is considered Wonder's "classic period".
Genre: R&B
Styles: Funk, Soul, Smooth Soul
Release Date: June 22nd, 1974
Prior Familiarity: Pretty low!
What I Did While Listening: Took da bus home!!!
Verdict: Honestly, I don't get it. It's definitely good music, but gospel is a tough sell for me at the best of times, and whenever it veers in that direction, it's just kinda... goofy? Goofy. Heaven is 10 Zillion Light Years of Goofy. And very little of the other stuff left a big impression on me. Innervisions clears.
Favourite Song: They Won't Go Where I Go, a genuinely haunting ray of darkness in the midst of... the rest.
Leshia's Rating: ⭐⭐⭐