#not the Finlay Friday I wanted to post

[jencsi]

Finlay Friday

[julie-finlay]

Finlay Friday

13x08: "CSI on Fire", script extracts. Pt. 1/4(?)

[gdwessel]

G1 Climax 31 Night 4 - 9/24/2021; Government Looking To Lift State Of Emergency At End Of Month; Suzuki v. Homicide (and Ishimori v. Deppen) in GCW, Suzuki/Archer v. Mox/Kingston in AEW Both Air Last Night; ELP Returns To Impact to Assist Bey & Hikuleo

Well I DID say my time was short yesterday in the last post...

G1 Climax 31 continued on Friday, in a show you can see now on NJPWWorld. B Block matches continued on this particular show. Only 816 persons at this one. Not good.

- 9/24/2021, Tokyo Ota Ward Gymnasium

G1 Climax 31 B Block: Hiroshi Tanahashi d. Hirooki Goto [CHAOS] (Small Package, 14:10)

G1 Climax 31 B Block: Tama Tonga [Bullet Club] d. Chase Owens [Bullet Club] (Gunstun, 12:59)

G1 Climax 31 B Block: Jeff Cobb [United Empire] d. YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] (Tour Of The Islands, 13:21)

G1 Climax 31 B Block: Taichi [SZKG] d. SANADA [Los Ingobernables] (Black Mephisto, 25:15) 

G1 Climax 31 B Block: Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS] d. EVIL [Bullet Club] (Rainmaker, 21:46)

Okada naturally declared he would win G1 once again, same as last time. Taichi and Cobb look like the next likely runners-up this time around. 

Current B Block standings:

Cobb - 4pts (2W 0D 0L) Okada - 4pts (2W 0D 0L) Taichi - 4pts (2W 0D 0L) EVIL - 2pts (1W 0D 1L) SANADA - 2pts (1W 0D 1L) Tanahashi - 2pts (1W 0D 1L) Tonga - 2pts (1W 0D 1L) Goto - 0pts (0W 0D 2L) Owens - 0pts (0W 0D 2L) YOSHI-HASHI - 0pts (0W 0D 2L)

I mentioned last post that I had some things to talk about but didn’t have the time. That would be the reports that the government may be lifting the state of emergency at the end of September, owing to lowering rates of infection since they peaked in August. What with the coincidental timing of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party holding leadership elections soon, and a general election due to happen before 11/24/2021, it is entirely possible this is a political move rather than one based in science or statistics. Certainly Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga would like to step down on a good note. 

With the state of emergency going away (if it does), this would certainly allow for bigger crowds at events, including, hey, pro wrestling. Attendances being down is not something that is only affecting NJPW -- Big Japan, for example, has been drawing pretty low (less than 100) crowds themselves recently. One thing that has been mentioned was lowering the requirement of government-decreed quarantine sites for travelers into Japan; travelers WOULD still be required to quarantine on their own, however. (There are also reports that the USA will be lessening restritctions for UK/EU travelers as well, so maybe we WILL get Shooter in the USA soon?) We won’t know anything for certain until the orders come down.

Last night was a real treat for Minoru Suzuki fans, what with two matches in NYC being shown on various networks, and there wasn’t even any real overlap so you could potentially have seen both.

First off, Suzuki once again main evented a GCW event, beating indie icon Homicide at Get Lost A Lot from the Melrose Ballroom in Queens. Both men looked like they were having the time of their lives in the match. Afterwards, Suzuki got the mic, and said “I speak little English. Thank you New York City, and thank you fucking Homicide!” The match was a banger, in a night that had several bangers, not least of which was Bone Soldier, Taiji Ishimori, defeating Tony Deppen in a thriller. Seriously, spend the $15 on FITE TV (or $20 if you want to bundle it with Thursday’s GCW show Emo Fight, also from the same venue). 

Later on in the night, TNT aired the episode of AEW Rampage taped Wednesday night following Dynamite at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, main evented by the Lights Out match between Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston v. Suzuki & Lance Archer. This was a wild hardcore match that did see the babyfaces win, but post-match, Suzuki-gun laid out Eddie Kingston, duct-taped Mox’s hands behind his back, and began WHIPPING Mox until Homicide (who has teamed with both Mox and Kingston in the past) made the save. Nice little bit of continuity there even if the timing was a bit off due to the vagaries of tape delayed wrestling. Overall this show was very good too, so hope you were able to catch it.

Suzuki’s American adventures continue this weekend at the Autumn Attack NJPW Strong tapings in Garland, TX, which I’ll talk about a bit below at the end.

Meanwhile in Impact, El Phantasmo has returned, helping out Chris Bey and Hikuleo in beating down FinJuice in the aftermath of David Finlay Jr.’s victory over Hikuleo. Good timng, what with the Impact X Division title being vacated by NJPW Strong guest Josh Alexander recently, so expect ELP to get involved with that tournament. This episode also saw the shock return of Christopher Daniels, late of AEW, in his first Impact appearance since Impact were TNA back in 2014.

The tour resumes tomorrow with A Block matches. Tonight, however, is the first night of Autumn Attack. I’ll be listing the cards, but I will not be listing the spoiler results, as I’d like to have something to write about when the relevant NJPW Strong episodes air. These shows will not be streamed live, but the second episode from tje Fighting Spirit Unleashed tapings will be aired tonight at 8pm EDT / 7pm CDT on NJPWWorld.

- 9/26/2021, Hyogo Kobe World Memorial Hall

Master Wato v. Kosei Fujita

Yuji Nagata v. Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables]

G1 Climax 31 A Block: Great O-Khan [United Empire] v. Yujiro Takahashi [Bullet Club]

G1 Climax 31 A Block: Toru Yano [CHAOS] v. Tanga Loa [Bullet Club]

G1 Climax 31 A Block: Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS] v. KENTA [Bullet Club]

G1 Climax 31 A Block: Kota Ibushi v. Zack Sabre Jr. [SZKG]

Autumn Attack (NJPW Strong Taping) - 9/25/2021, Curtis Culwell Center, Garland, TX

Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero [CHAOS] v. Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs [Team Filthy]

Ren Narita v. “Filthy” Tom Lawlor [Team Filthy]

Juice Robinson, Lio Rush [FREE], Clark Connors & TJP [FREE] v. Taiji Ishimori, El Phantasmo, Chris Bey & Hikuleo [Bullet Club]

Karl Fredericks v. Will Ospreay [United Empire]

Fred Rosser v. Minoru Suzuki [SZKG]

More TBA?

[avecorviidae]

Fic: nor any more youth or age than there is now

Fandom: The Magnus Archives Rating: T Relationship(s): Martin Blackwood/Jonathan Sims Word Count: 6512

Ao3 Link

The rumour started with Mary Fleming, who volunteered with her son’s Primary five class every Tuesday, and who had become close enough with most of the P5 teachers that she was considered a mostly reputable source, as far as these things were concerned. She had mentioned it to Katy Hooper over tea, who had texted it to her playdate group, who had repeated it in scandalized whispers and concerned murmurings and oh-have-you-heard phone calls until the news had thoroughly saturated the entire village:

Mrs. Cunningham, the stern older woman who had taught Primary two for as long as most people could remember, had quite suddenly and without warning or reason, retired and left town. Being the only Primary two teacher at the school, this was something of a concern.

For a few days, the Primary two class was shuffled awkwardly between other classrooms, taken largely by whoever had enough empty chairs or floorspace to accommodate them. On Wednesday, they sat cross-legged on the colourful carpet of the nursery room, the sudden shock of being absent a teacher and the abounding well-my-maw-said rumours being quite enough to keep them occupied and mostly out of trouble.  By Thursday, the children had realized that they were free of the bounds of formal education, and attempted to turn poor Mr. Bone’s Primary one classroom into a Lord of the Flies recreation, leading to a few pupils being sent home early with a stern warning. On Friday, they were firmly instructed to sit quietly with the Primary sevens, who were watching a documentary that day. During said documentary, a wolf killed and ate a deer, causing Molly Brown to become inconsolably upset.

The situation was clearly becoming desperate.

In this part of the country, formally trained teachers were in short supply, and for the most part, it was a life term. A post was vacated when the individual retired, or, well, retired.

On Monday morning, the parents of the Primary two class were invited with a strained enthusiasm to join their pupils in the classroom to meet Mr. Sims, who had apparently agreed to take the job on extremely short notice, and who would be teaching the P2s for the rest of the year, or until the school could track down a more suitable, more permanent replacement.

Mr. Sims, perched delicately on an office chair at the front of the classroom, put one to mind of a particularly bedraggled crow. Small frame, narrow face, narrow shoulders, scar-riddled skin, and he peered at the gaggle of children in front of him with flat black eyes, long fingers fretting at a crease in his trousers. His hair, dark as the rest of him, hung in a limp ponytail at his neck, and was streaked through with grey that didn’t quite match the cowed, nervous youth of his face. There was a trepidation to the way he was braced, to the way he glanced, quick and furtive around the room, and it was reflected back in the way the parents watched him carefully, fingers twitching, ready to snatch away their offspring at the first sign of trouble from the odd, scarred little man. The children were immediately fascinated, to the point of being entirely enamoured, having never seen a grown-up quite so openly strange.

The head mistress was stood at his side, waiting with a mild impatience for the chatter to settle. The crease of concern on her forehead had, sometime over the weekend, started to become a permanent wrinkle.

She made brusque introductions, stiffly thanked Mr. Sims for stepping into the role, made some half-hearted assurances to the parents about an environment of stability, an attempt to smooth over the frazzled discontent that hummed through the room.

Mr. Sims coughed, blinked in surprise when he seemed to realise that the head mistress was done with platitudes, that he was, presumably, expected to speak for himself.

“Ah, right,” he mumbled, and pushed his glasses up his nose with two fingers. He cleared his throat, addressed the room at large, though his eyes were skittish, seemed to avoid lingering in one place for long. “As Mrs. McMillan said, my name is Jonathan Sims – though, I suppose Mr. Sims will do, for the classroom. My training is primarily based in academic research, not, ah, education, and while I will be unable to provide the proper curriculum and teaching that experience and time would have afforded my predecessor, I can assure you that I will attempt to fill this role to the best of my ability, and would welcome any input you may have over the rest of the year.”

Mr. Sims turned his attention to the circle of cross-legged little gawkers at his feet, then, and his voice gentled a touch when he addressed them, a rueful smile on his face.

“I know it must be strange to have a new teacher so suddenly, in the middle of the year. And I may not be very good at this. So I do hope you’ll all tell me if I do anything wrong.”

Directly under his nose, Finlay Robinson’s hand shot up into the air.

Mr. Sims blinked. “Yes?”

“Do you know the Queen?”

Another blink. “I- No?”

Finlay’s hand remained up. Mr. Sims nodded for him to continue. “Then why do you sound so posh?”

In one of the chairs at the back of the room, Mrs. Robinson went rather red. Mr. Sims just laughed quietly to himself, however, and replied, “Ah, I suppose that would be because of my grandmother.”

Molly Brown’s hand went tentatively upwards.

Mr. Sims looked at her with a slight apprehension. “Yes?”

“Is your Gran the Queen?”

<0>

Heather tended to get nervous, at the end of the day.

The playground was just – big. Not big the way it was during break, when her and Molly would chase each other laughing and squealing across the pavement like little wild things, but big in a way where the iron bars of the fence around the school loomed horribly, and as her class was slowly picked up by their mums and dads and teachers stalked around like wolves looking for straying soft things to hunt, Heather always became certain that she had to stand very—

very—

still.

Or else it would see her. And if it saw her, it would get her.

Last year, Mr. Bone had held her hand, at the end of every day, had let her stand close to his comforting largeness until Dad waved at her from the gates, and she could run the short and awful distance to his arms. Mr. Bone was bald, and very tall, and outdoors his head always looked very shiny, and she had been sure that as long as she was stood beside him, his big fingers tight around hers, it wouldn’t be able to see her.

Mrs. Cunningham had been smaller, hunched and unassuming, but Heather had thought that it might not be able to see through the drab brown folds of her skirts. But Mrs. Cunningham had told her not to be silly, to go and play with the rest of the class until she was picked up, to grow up and behave like a big girl. And the Primary ones got out an hour before the Primary twos, so she couldn’t hide at the side of Mr. Bone anymore, so it was going to see her. So she had gotten very good at walking to a spot beside the bins, trying to keep her footsteps soft, quiet, and holding herself in their shallow shadows, and keeping very, very still.

Mr. Sims was not too much like Mrs. Cunningham. He did not snap at them for talking a little during individual work time, and hadn’t even told off Logan for getting up to sharpen his pencil, even though he hadn’t raised his hand to ask, and didn’t hold a ruler to his open palm like a threat, like he was looking for any excuse to use it. But when he’d read them a story, Heather had watched him frown, mutter to himself that Bea and Arthur were silly for going exploring without telling their parents, and by the time the last bell rang, Heather was quite sure that if she asked to hold Mr. Sims’ hand, he would frown at her, and think she was being silly, and tell her that she was too big to need to hold hands in the playground.

The class lined up at the big front doors to go outside, and Heather stood at the very back. If everyone else went outside first, it would watch them, and might not notice her as she went to her spot by the bins.

Mr. Sims was waiting for her when she finally reached the doorway. She had been thinking about how she was going to walk, looking at her feet and practicing making them be quiet, so she almost bumped right into his legs. He was frowning, and she felt her lip wobble, a little. She didn’t want to cry, even if he called her silly. She was too grown-up for that.

“Miss Lewis?” he said. It was odd, to be called that. Last year, there had been another Heather in her P1 class, so she had been Heather L, and the other one had been Heather M, but Miss Lewis made her feel grown up, and she smoothed her palms down the front of her pinafore, suddenly embarrassed of the holes in the knees of her tights and the scuffs on the toes of her shoes.

She looked up at him. He wasn’t as tall as Mr. Bone, and he was leaning down towards her, peering at her over his thin glasses. She didn’t want to start crying. She didn’t want him to think she was silly.

“May I ask who’s coming to pick you up?” Mr. Sims asked softly, just like how the pupils were supposed to ask, like Miss may I go to the bathroom—

“My dad,” she said, softly, back. Out in the playground, she heard someone squeal. She didn’t look over Mr. Sims’ shoulder, sure she’d see it looking for her, even though she’d never seen it before. Mr. Sims wasn’t as big as Mr. Bone, no, but his jacket was big and thick and rough, with soft leather patches at the elbows, and all of him looked there enough that she thought it might not be able to see her hiding behind him.

“Your dad,” he said, and it sounded different the way he said it, fancy. Like the Queen. “Well, Miss Lewis. Would you—do you need to—Damn, how to… Would you prefer to wait with me outside, until your dad gets here?”

Heather realised quite suddenly that Mr. Sims knew about it too. Knew that it was going to get her, that it couldn’t see her when he was there. She nodded, and gripped the leg of his trousers as tight as she could, and felt all shaky in the knees with fear and relief as she walked outside with Mr. Sims, his hand near her shoulder, not quite brushing her jumper.

She looked up at him, and he was watching the playground, frowning, but not angry. Not afraid, either. So she copied him a little, since it couldn’t see her if she looked for it now, and looked around at the big game of tig that always went running around at the end of the day, and at Stuart and Duncan wrestling by the big wall, even though Mrs. Cunningham used to shout at them for getting their uniforms dirty, and at Molly, who was skipping at her mum’s side, skirt and pigtails bouncing, and at Tom Mackenzie, who was picking grass out of where it sometimes grew up from between cracks in the pavement, looking up now and again at the big front doors, waiting for the S3 class to be let out so his older sister could walk him home. And it—

wasn’t—

there?

She looked up at Mr. Sims, suddenly, not sure why. He looked back down at her, and smiled, then. “Better to be a watcher, than the watched, I suppose,” he said, very quietly, and she wasn’t sure he was speaking to her, not like he was when he then told her, very firmly—

“It doesn’t like to be seen. And I can see it. You’re safe, while I’m here, Miss Lewis.”

And she had the funniest feeling that she’d known that was true, even before he said it.

She felt his hand nudge her shoulder lightly, and he nodded towards the gate. “I believe that’s your father, now.”

Dad was there, smiling broadly and waving like he did every day, and she smiled back at him, even though she was still feeling a little wobbly, because otherwise he’d worry, and think she’d had a bad day, and try to take her for ice cream, and she would feel bad, because she’d had a good day, she was just scared. He held out his arms, open and waiting for her, because she always ran right into him, running quick enough until she was safe with him, until it couldn’t get her anymore. But if Mr. Sims was watching—

She let go of Mr. Sims’ trousers, and took two careful, tentative steps forward. Still, it wasn’t there. She looked back over her shoulder at Mr. Sims’, and he was still watching her, still there. “Have a good afternoon, Miss Lewis,” he said, mildly, but he was smiling a little, still, and she smiled back, and turned around and skipped into Dad’s arms.

<0>

Underneath the desk, Robbie pressed his knee to Emma’s. He felt her press back, and she smiled at him, but it was strained, nervous.

“It’ll be fine,” he told her, with a confidence he wasn’t sure he felt. “Your wee brother has Sims, right?”

Emma shrugged, nodded. “Yeah, likes him well enough. Better than that hag Cunningham, anyways. But that doesn’t mean he’s—”

Sims shouldered into the room just then, arms full, and Emma’s mouth snapped shut. He was smaller than Robbie expected, honestly. Then again, he’d only really seen him in the hallways, trailed by twenty tiny wee five-year-olds, so he had probably looked tall just by comparison. Between the tweed and the glasses and the greyish hair, he had a bit of a librarian vibe, but up close, he could see all of the scars that Emma’s mum had been talking about, after all the P2 parents got to sit in and meet him. You could just about write off all the pockmarks on his face and arms as some properly rough acne, if you were ignoring how big they were, but one of his hands was a shiny pink mess of skin, like one big blister scar.

He was probably in a nasty accident a long time ago, Mrs. Mackenzie had said to Tom during tea, after the third or fourth question about his new teacher. It’s not polite to stare at that sort of thing. Just you act like he looks completely normal, alright?

Emma’s mum was a practical lady, and Robbie quite liked her. It was good advice, and he should probably take it to heart. Or at the very least, he wasn’t planning on being too obvious about trying to get a better look at Sims’ hand.

Sims tossed a glance at the room as he set his things down on the desk. “Sorry, everyone,” he said, with a tight smile. “Short notice, I know, but apparently Mrs. Sinclair has come down with something, and my class is on a field trip, so I was the only one available. I have some, er, notes for your class – apparently you’re working on a midterm project?”

The class made some unenthusiastic assenting sounds, which Sims took as confirmation. “Well, very good. I’ll just leave you to work on that, then, once I’ve taken attendance.”

Robbie felt Emma go stiff at his side. He hated this, properly hated this, the resigned dread on her face as she prepared herself to be embarrassed. He remembered how often she’d looked like that last year, when they were still sneaking around with it, him helping her change into a pinafore in the toilets in the mornings, trying to ignore it when her dad and Mrs. Sinclair and that fucking hag Cunningham had tried to suggest that she get a haircut, the way she winced every time someone called her the wrong name.

Sims went down the attendance sheet with clipped professionalism, quick and brusque, and Robbie was so nervous on Emma’s behalf that he almost forgot to say anything when his name was called. They got to the Ms, and Robbie found Emma’s hand under the desk. Her palm was a little sweaty, and so was his, but she grabbed on tight and squeezed, and Robbie wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to that, to her soft fingers between his.

It was Andrew Macintyre right before her on the sheet. Sims nodded at him when he called out a here, looked back down. “Ti—Hm.” Robbie watched Sims frown, cut himself off. Robbie wasn’t exactly sure what happened, what changed about Sims’ expression, except that his eyes seemed to go a little unfocused for a few seconds, before he blinked, in a properly weird way. “No, I don’t believe that’s correct.” He looked up and around the class. “Miss Mackenzie?”

Emma went a little pale, her fingers flexing in Robbie’s, but after a few seconds, she quietly said, “Here, Mr. Sims.”

Sims looked over at her, nodded, businesslike. “Right. And your name was…?”

“Emma,” she answered faintly. Sims just nodded again, checked her off on the sheet, moved on with the list, calling out for Toby MacLeod.

It felt like him and Emma must’ve let out a breath at the same time, slumping back into their chairs, her hand still in his. All that worry for a few seconds’ worth of talking. What a nightmare.

“Tom must’ve told him,” Robbie whispered to her. “Mentioned that he had a big sister, or something.”

“Don’t know why he would’ve,” Emma whispered back, but she was smiling, all faint giddy relief. “I don’t really care, yeah?”

Robbie smiled, squeezed her hand, smiled some more when she squeezed back. “Yeah. Miss Mackenzie.”

“Oh, shut up, Rob.”

<0>

Jen always went to the Co-op after Molly’s swimming lessons on Saturday, even though it was always pushing seven by the time they finally got home and started making tea. Easier to take care of the shopping while they were already out, rather than make another trip into town.

Molly had wandered off to pick her crisps for next week’s lunch, so Jen was alone when she saw the man by the dairy, squinting at a tub of butter, and it took her a moment to place him as Molly’s new teacher. She didn’t think she could be blamed for not recognising him at first; whenever she picked Molly up from school, he always looked much the same as he had during the parent meeting, put-together and buttoned up. He clearly hadn’t put quite as much effort into dressing to go to the shops, his hair pulled up in an untidy bun, neat jacket replaced with a faded sweatshirt that seemed to be about five sizes too big for him.

Ah, she thought, a moment later. Of course. The true owner of the sweatshirt seemed to have made an appearance in the form of a blond man, taller and more broadly built than Molly’s teacher, walking up behind him and pressing himself close against his side, poking at the butter in his hands. It looked rather a lot like a golden retriever bothering a magpie.

Jen had been ready to leave well enough alone, but that was the moment that Molly came skipping up behind her, already calling out. “Mr. Sims!”

Both men startled, but the teacher – Mr. Sims – seemed to recover quickly when he caught sight of Molly, bending down a little towards her. “Ah, hello Miss Brown. How are you?”

Molly beamed. “Good! We just went swimming at the baths. I’m doing back stroke now, and the teacher says I’m pretty fast.”

Mr. Sims nodded along well enough, seemed genuinely interested in Molly’s little story, but Jen noticed he was shooting quick, nervous looks between the three of them, seemed caught between stepping closer to the man standing beside him, or pulling away.

It was a fair enough worry, and maybe ten, even five years ago, he would have been right to have it. The village had been a different place, back then. But these days, just about everyone knew that Helen and Mary up the road had been waiting out their husbands so that they could spend their widowed years together, and Jen had her suspicions about Hugh from the corner store, and frankly after everything with the Mackenzies’ oldest, everyone had become a good deal more comfortable with quite a lot, lately.

So Jen put a hand on Molly’s shoulder, held the other one out to him, smiled warmly. “Mr. Sims, right? Jennifer Brown, I’m Molly’s mum.”

Sims took her hand firmly, handshake as brief and professional as his strained smile. The feeling of it lingered on Jen’s palm, though, the slick-smooth of scar tissue, and the distinct impression that her fingers had slid into the grooves of his marred hand perfectly, like a key slotting into a lock.

“Jon, please,” he said, “at least outside of the classroom. Good to properly meet you, Ms. Brown. We won’t keep the two of you, though. It is rather getting on.” It was a clear dismissal, as bluntly polite as the English ever managed to be, and Jen didn’t take particular offence to it. It was, after all, getting on, and chatting with her daughter’s primary teacher and his mystery man in a Co-op was not her idea of an ideal Saturday night.

“Of course. Goodnight, Jon,” she said, hand on Molly’s shoulder already gently nudging her towards the tills. “Come on, Molls.”

“Good evening, ladies,” Sims said, and nodded primly down at Molly. “See you on Monday, Miss Brown.”

Jen supposed she understood, now, why the class was so taken with the man. She had no fondness for poshness and stuffiness, but Sims wasn’t necessarily posh in that way that demanded poshness in return, and sniffed up its nose at you if you dared not to have an Oxbridge degree and speak in perfect RP. It was more a quiet, self-imposed dignity that reminded Jen of her own grandmother, like the way that he held himself, conducted himself, was important to him, and it made you think just a bit about how you were holding yourself, made you want to rise to meet it. Molly’s shoulders straightened a little under Mr. Sims’ attention, and she walked to the tills with a look on her face like she felt like a well-mannered wee lass, like a proper Miss Brown, and Jen snorted to herself quietly, glanced over her shoulder at the man himself.

His boy was saying something close to his ear, smiling, and he was softer-spoken than Jen might’ve expected for being the size he was, just the sound of his voice carrying a bit, a hint of a tease in his tone.

Sims’ laugh carried far more, deep and full, and he pushed the man’s shoulder gently, a gentleness that kept in his voice when he said, “Oh hush, Martin.”

“Mum,” Molly said, tugging at the trolley insistently. The limits of her put-upon properness had apparently been pushed by her appetite, and she kicked her heels and whinged. “Come on. What’s for dinner?”

<0>

Contrary to what some of his mates might have attested after seeing him a few pints in down at the local, Colin did, in fact, possess a sense of shame. So it was red-faced and sheepishly that he ducked back into the Primary two classroom after his fourth or fifth failed attempt at putting Ally down for a nap.

Maybe it had been overambitious of him and Vera, to assume they’d be able to both go to the kids’ sports day, hand off the babe and the nappy bag throughout the day depending on whether it was Cath with the P7s or Stuart with the P2s who had a race next, no need to pay one of the neighborhood girls to nanny, with the added bonus of getting wee Ally used to being around a lot of strange people. Not that Ally was a pet that needed to be socialized; Vera liked to tease him for that, the way he sometimes talked about her like she was a feral kitten that needed accustomed to handling. But the point still stood.

After Stuart’s class had finished with their last egg and spoon race, the teacher – Sims? – had herded them all, sweaty and exhausted, back into the classroom, and they were all sat around chattering and playing in informal groups, working their way through the impressive pile of snacks that the volunteer parents had brought in. He’d told them to do as they liked when one of them asked if they had to still sit in their usual seats, so a few of them were in wee clusters on the floor, half-watching the film that one of the other parents had managed to set up on the old projector. Colin appreciated Sims’ attitude, overall. Not that a good work ethic and a bit of discipline weren’t a good thing to have, but kids that age weren’t really made for sitting still and working quietly, he didn’t think, and the wee ones seemed quite happy amongst themselves. Unfortunately, it meant that they were making far too much noise for him to be able to get Ally to sleep.

Fool that he was, he’d sent Vera off to Cath’s relay race alone, having thought that when the afternoon rolled around and Ally started to yawn and scrub at her eyes with chubby wee fists, Colin would be able to give her a naptime bottle, bounce her on his shoulder for a bit, and she’d drop off straight away, just like at home. Instead, she had gurned and whined around her bottle, cried and wriggled when he tried to rock her down, and for the last hour, she’d quite solidly refused to close her eyes for longer than it took her to blink, and she seemed properly angry about needing to do even that much. It seemed like every time he got her to relax for a few minutes, someone in the class laughed a bit too loudly, made her startle and blink and try to wriggle out of his lap to go see what all the fuss was about. So he’d kept trying to bring her outside and walk her up and down the hallway where it was quieter, but it was chillier out there, and his footsteps echoed strangely, so she hadn’t much liked that either.

Sims glanced up at him as the door clicked shut behind him, and Colin gave him an apologetic grimace. Sims hadn’t complained or shot him any dirty looks yet, but Colin couldn’t imagine that anyone much enjoyed having a fussy baby in their room.

To his surprise, Sims stood from his desk, shooting him a sympathetic smile. “Want to hand her off for a bit?” he offered quietly, nodding to where Ally was still squirming, propped on his hip. “She might need a change of pace, to help settle her down.”

Colin wasn’t the sort to hand his baby off to just anyone, really, he wasn’t, but Ally was exhausted, and it was making him exhausted, which she was feeding off of, and all in all, he was desperate enough that he all but dumped her into Sims’ arms.

He took hold of her a little awkwardly, jostling and shifting her with the bewildered caution of a man clearly unfamiliar with the weight of a moving, heavy baby, and Colin hovered anxiously, waiting to catch her if Sims—dropped her? Turned her upside down? He wasn’t sure what his worry was, exactly, just that he was worried.

Sims got her settled eventually, though, one hand propped under her bum and the other resting on her back, and he murmured, “All right, hello, little one. Let’s see if we can’t give Dad a break, hm?”

Sims lowered himself carefully into his desk chair, shifting Ally on his lap, and she stared at him, momentarily distracted from her awful mood by the new man with the funny voice. Sims kept a steadying hand on her wee back as he leaned forward, fussing with some of the papers on his desk. Colin watched as he nudged aside a stack of worksheets covered in scrawling crayon, and plucked out a manila folder, stuffed with papers and pockmarked along the top with paperclips and binder clips. “I think this one is relatively tame,” he said, rather matter-of-factly, presumably to Ally. Ally, by all appearances, was listening to him very intently.

Ally only started to fuss a bit when Sims leaned back in his office chair, the open folder propped up on his knee in one hand, and Ally shifting to tuck close against his chest under the other. She made a small, angry noise as he tried to coax her to lie down, and he tutted, said with a stern, gentle firmness, “Yes, I’m aware I won’t be quite as comfortable as Mum, but do try to sit still. I prefer not to be interrupted, once I’ve got going, and it doesn’t take kindly to interference after the introduction.”

To Colin’s great and unending shock, Ally settled with a little huff, her cheek resting on Sims’ brown jumper, one little fist coming up to clutch at the collar of his shirt, poking out from the neck of it. Sims patted her back primly, said, “There we go, thank you.”

Colin was always one to admit when he was outclassed, and was quite willing to go find himself a seat and defer to Sims’ apparent magic touch with the wee ones, but then Sims cleared his throat, and began to speak.

“Statement of Callum Thompson, regarding an uninvited party guest. Original statement given February twenty-first, 2001. Record recalled by Jonathan Sims, the Archivist, retired. Statement begins:

I didn’t invite her. I’m sure of that. I know my mates, and I know my mates’ mates, and all their birds and sisters and that, and I didn’t know this bird, so she weren’t invited, right?”

Sims… told a story. Colin didn’t really know how else to describe it. Put on a proper voice and all, this Callum character speaking high and thready, Sims’ crisp, proper public-school accent giving way to something a lot harsher, more “street”.

It was about some girl that showed up to the kid’s house party uninvited, acted a little strangely while she was there, and for all that he talked about her, the odd twist of her joints, the stare that set his teeth on-edge, he never seemed to actually getting around to describing what she looked like. It was like, anything properly tangible about her, her hair, her eyes, her clothes, just slipped off the mind, oil-on-water. It gave Colin the proper shivers, the way a good Steven King used to when he was younger, and he blinked himself out of a daze when Sims stopped, coughed lightly, said, “Statement ends.”

Ally was fast asleep against his chest, and Sims had one hand stroking absently down her back, eyes still skimming the folder in front of him. “Poor girl,” he murmured into Ally’s wispy hair. She didn’t stir from her doze. “She must have been quite lonely. Still, no harm done to anyone, it seems, and nearly two decades on and outside the purview of the Institute’s resources, there’s not much to be done, hm?”

Quite suddenly, and all at once, Sims seemed to remember that the rest of the world existed, and he blinked owlishly up at Colin. “Ah, seems as though she finally wore herself out. Did you want to-?”

Colin couldn’t help it—he laughed, just a bit, at how sheepish the guy had gone, now that he’d snapped out of his wee trance, and that he was trying to hand off the little one, even as he was still patting her back, curled around her protectively, sitting carefully still so as not to jostle her.

“Nah, she’s all yours, pal,” Colin said, grinning. “Just you get comfortable, and I’ll come save you when she starts crying, alright?”

Sims sighed, smiling back. “Doesn’t seem that I have much choice in the matter. Do try and make sure the class doesn’t stage a mutiny while I’m incapacitated, Mr. Ferguson?”

“Deal, Sims.”

<0>

Jon didn’t take nicely to Walt Whitman, liked to say that if Martin was going to subject him to the nineteenth century Americans, he could at least have the decency to make it Dickinson. Martin would then usually make a case for Emerson, which would make Jon recoil in only partially-feigned offence, and in the ensuing rant about the damned transcendentalists, the argument would usually be dropped.

Privately, though, despite the somewhat overenthusiastic patriotism of the man, Martin had a soft spot for Whitman, for the loping rhythm of his words, for the way he talked about people, about love, almost as a thing that he was, rather than just a thing that he felt. And it was always Whitman he thought about when he saw Jon, these days, Whitman’s insistent and unapologetic love springing to mind when he caught sight of him amongst the sea of bright blue uniforms as Martin slipped into the playground. He was stood by the school doors as he usually was, Heather Lewis tucked close to his side, holding his hand. It was Whitman that best put words to this nurturing thing that had taken root in Jon, turned him soft and watchful over his little brood, and Martin smiled softly to himself, heard the quiet click of a tape recorder in the back of his mind. Maybe he would remember to write that down, but no harm done if he didn’t. It was enough to watch, he rather thought.

He remembered, all of a sudden, one of the first times he’d ever properly seen Jon, storming through the research bullpen in the Institute, crisp white shirtsleeves rolled up to his elbows, showing off the sharp lines of his forearms, his wrists. His hair had been shorter, then, slicked back away from his forehead, tucked no-nonsense behind his ears. He’d been all angles and scowls, the kind of look that had barely brokered a friendly tap on the shoulder from a colleague, let alone any kind of gentleness towards a child.

Here, though—

Well, Jon had changed, had let himself be changed. Everything about him was soft-touch, these days, the gentle maroon of the cashmere jumper, and the loose hairs that strayed from his braid and fell around his face, and the easy delight of his smile as he caught sight of Martin. So much about him was gentled, yielding to the herd of little ones that tended to crowd around his legs, yielding to Martin as he stepped into Jon’s space, head tilted back to kiss him with a murmured, “Oh, hello, you.”

“Hello, yourself,” Martin said, pulling back just enough to take hold of Jon’s other hand, the one not already occupied with Heather.

“Hello, Mr. Blackwood,” she said, quite politely, considering she’d just had to watch her teacher snogging someone, and he smiled, inclined his head to her. Jon had been grumbling the other night about the trials of persuading the little ones to zip up properly when they went out to the playground, but Heather, at least, was quite solidly bundled up, wearing a puffy anorak over her uniform and wool tights underneath it, topped off with a cozy hat that had a rather silly pompom on the top. It had been getting chillier, Martin supposed, though he was less inclined to notice the cold until his fingertips went numb, so he had just taken to keeping his hands in his pockets – or Jon’s, as it were.

Jon, too, was bundling up a little more, and he grinned when he saw that he was wearing the scarf Martin had finished knitting last month. It was an awful, hideous thing, knobbly garter with more than a few holes where Martin had dropped a stitch or two, only actually making it to completion under the careful eye of Mrs. Robinson, who had sewn in all his ends and frogged back a few of his particularly egregious mistakes. Nonetheless, Jon had it wrapped snugly into the collar of his peacoat, mouth and windburnt pink nose tucked into the chunky wool, away from the worst of the wind. Mrs. Robinson had given him a pattern for some matching fingerless gloves, and judging by his progress so far, they would be equally as ugly, and Jon would quite as equally insist on wearing them.

Jon’s class drifted off piecemeal, calling out to him as they went. There was a steady stream of, “Bye, Mr. Sims,” “See you tomorrow, Mr. Sims,” as they trailed off out of the front gates, holding hands with parents and grandparents and each other, rucksacks and lunchboxes swinging, and Jon called back to them, wished them a good night, reminded them about spelling lists and worksheets and whatever whatnots they had been working on that day. As the older forms were released, one of Jon’s went off swinging between two of the older teenagers, and all three of them cheerfully and dutifully chorused, “Good afternoon, Mr. Sims,” as they wandered by.

“Robert, Emma, Tom,” Jon recited, nodding to the three of them. Heather went next, skipping off towards her father, waving at Jon and Martin from the gate, and Jon waved back, with a smile that was all fondness.

Mrs. Robinson had been… unsubtle, with her knitting lessons. He always seemed to find himself with skeins of big, chunky, soft wool, and when she went digging in her folders upon folders of ancient, yellowed patterns, the ones that found themselves spread on the coffee table for Martin’s perusal had a bit of a theme. Garter stitch booties, baubled newborn hats, lap blankets.

Urge and urge and urge, he thought, a touch wistfully. Always the procreant urge of the world. Maybe Whitman had had a point.

Still, it wasn’t a question he’d asked, yet. Not a question he knew how to ask, of himself, really, let alone of Jon. For now, he rather thought he was content to wait. Content to be content, to help watch over Jon’s little flock until they were bundled up and sent home safe, and after, to find their own way up the winding road home.

[the-beastslayers-queen]

Battered and Broken

Had to write out my feelings over what happened to Seth on Raw this week. What happened to him was too hard to just keep it in. Tagging: @queenofthearchitect @biforbecky2belts @writtingrose @mrsambroserollinsacklesmgk @mondaynightrollynch @theworldofotps

You were backstage, Seth didn’t want you to come out with him when he went out to confront Corbin in the ring. Seth had been on edge for weeks since Lesnar won the Money in the Bank briefcase and with somewhat good reason. Seth had been cashed in on back in 2016 by Dean when he won the WWE championship back from Roman when he came back from his knee injury.

But now, you were helplessly watching as Lesnar brutalized your boyfriend in the ring with a chair. Each shot felt like he was stabbing your heart. The low blow he planted on Seth made your stomach turn and the F5 outside the ring made your heart drop into your stomach.

When Lesnar left the ring, Seth was lying in a heap in the middle of the ring. Since you were a trainer for the WWE, you took off running through the curtain and slid into the ring to check on Seth. You crawled over to him and took his face in your hands, checking to make sure that when he took the F5 outside the ring he didn’t get concussed as his face hit the floor.

“Hey I got you okay, babe,” you cooed quietly to him as you worked with the rest of the medical team along with Finlay and Jamie Noble, “We’re going to get you out of here okay.”

I dug into my pants pocket and slipping my gloves before I moved to check on the cuts on his back. I had to make sure they weren’t too deep before we moved him. The medics slid in the board for the stretcher so we could strap him down. Based on what I had seen, there was no way Seth was going to be able to walk out of here.

Once I was done checking his back, finding the cuts weren’t deep enough for him to need stitches, I got to work on securing the neck brace on Seth. He was groaning out in pain as we worked to stabilize him for his trip out of the arena and to the hospital to make sure he wasn’t seriously injure. Seth had been having problems with his back that he feared would cut his career short. He had neck surgery long before he joined WWE and knew that any further damage to his back could end his career prematurely.

“Alright we’re ready to get him on the board,” one of the medics said as he got the board closer to Seth. I stayed back as the two of them slid him onto the board, eliciting a loud groan to come from Seth. I helped strap him down before I got out of the ring.

It was as Seth was put on the stretcher that I noticed how quiet the arena had gotten. I glanced over to Renee and it looked like she was fighting tears as she strained to keep her composure. I knew she was hurting for us, fearing that Seth was in very bad shape. She was texting on her phone, no doubt telling Dean what was happening to Seth. He might not be in the WWE, but he was still good friends with all of us and would want to know if his is going to be okay or not.

When we got Seth backstage, we were greeted by every member of the locker room except for Lesnar and Heyman. They all stood off to the side, glum looks on their faces as they worried about Seth’s well-being. I shot a glare at Vince as he looked depressed.

“Vince he went into business for himself,” I shouted at him in passing, “I hope he gets punished for this.”

We didn’t stop for a moment as we finally made it to the ambulance to get Seth out to the arena. Hunter came over as the medics, Finlay, and Jamie worked on getting Seth loading into the back of the vehicle.

“You should go with him,” Hunter told me, “The other trainers can handle the rest of the work load tonight. Seth needs you more than they do. Keep me posted on his condition, okay.”

“Thanks Hunter,” I replied before I hugged him, “You’ll be the first to know of any updates once I get them.”

I climbed into the back of ambulance and we were off with the sirens blaring to the hospital. Seth stirred a little against the straps holding him down. I grabbed hold of his right hand, letting my tear finally fall now that there were no cameras on us.

“It hurts,” he groaned in just nothing but sheer pain.

“I know,” I spoke just above a whisper, my voice cracking from my tears, “This shouldn’t have happened tonight. Lesnar attacked with a shot loaded in the chamber. He did this on purpose. I’m going to help you get better, I promise.”

“Like last time,” he groaned out, struggling to breathe due to the pain in his back.

“Yeah, just like last time,” I reassured him, “When your knee was re-injured I made a promise to always be here to help you heal. And I don’t plan on breaking that promise anytime soon, babe.”

I leaned over and I placed a tender kiss onto his forehead before I began to stroke his hair, trying to get his mind off the pain he was feeling. His eyes were brimming in tears, sure from the pain but also from the embarrassment that the fighting Universal champion had to be wheeled out on a stretcher after being brutally attacked out of nowhere.

“I take it I’m missing Jeddah,” he asked.

“It’s hard to say,” I replied to him, “We won’t know until we get to the hospital and the doctors run tests on your back. My money is on you not being cleared to compete on Friday, but we will see soon enough.”

[therightnewsnetwork]

Arrested for Committing Hate Speech Against Himself

  This past Saturday an American Patriot…my friend Bill Finlay…aka Wild Bill for America…was arrested in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for ‘supposed’ hate speech on his iPad. Bill was an invited guest asked to speak at the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam.

It all started with this comment and the poster he put on his Facebook page: “Heading out to Calgary, Alberta, Canada to speak at the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam! Have info that the govt is busing in agitators to make things difficult for us. So please put me and the others on your prayer lists as we take a stand against the most dangerous false religion on earth……and the flaming liberals who love it.”

When I heard from Bill a few hours after his arrest at the Calgary airport this is what he told me, “Canada just decided to kick me out so I’m on my way home but it’s not over yet. In addition to the unlawful detention, they seized my laptop to send to Ottawa for a ‘forensic investigation,’ they are determined to get me on something. Plus they are bringing in their tax authority to determine the tariff to slap on the smuggled contraband (my personal notes to myself on Islam’s abuse of women and children). And my speech was about the importance of open and honest discussion without fear of the government dragging us away.” 

And then in typical Wild Bill humorous fashion Bill said to me that “the notes written to myself that no one could see means I must have committed a hate crime against myself!” All I could say at that point was that Canada has some serious issues…guess Prime Minister Trudeau is an Angela Merkel clone.

Here now is the very speech Wild Bill was to give in Canada…a speech he gave a few weeks ago in Jacksonville, FL. The cops after confiscating his iPad having read the script immediately arrested him for hate speech. Watch the video and you decide if this is hate speech…I sure do NOT think it is…I think it is truth…a truth that must be told:.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZUmYQYDaw8&feature=youtu.be

Seriously folks…what happened to Bill in Canada can (and sadly most likely will) happen here in our own country if we do NOT put an end to this political correctness nonsense concerning a certain group of people…as in muslims…and their liberal Democrat kumbaya protectors…all of whom do not like us very much.Thankfully, Bill is now safely home in Florida and is OK…mad but OK…and last night “foreign national” Bill put up this video on his Facebook page where in his own words he tells his story of Canadian border police out of control:

I spoke to Bill by phone last night and he will be on Craig and my RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS radio show on American Political Radio this Friday, June 30th from 7 to 9pm EST to tell his story and hopefully wake some people up to the dangers ‘We the People’ face regarding our First Amendment rights and freedoms.

Hope you can tune in at: https://tunein.americanpoliticalradio.com/platinum-plus-player/ because this is one show you do not want to miss. Remember, what happened to Bill in Canada can happen to any one of us…as political correctness and the stifling of free speech, if not stopped, will indeed be the death of us all.

Copyright © 2017 Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor

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[patriotnewsblogger-blog]

Arrested for Committing Hate Speech Against Himself

New Post has been published on http://www.therightnewsnetwork.com/arrested-for-committing-hate-speech-against-himself/

Arrested for Committing Hate Speech Against Himself

  This past Saturday an American Patriot…my friend Bill Finlay…aka Wild Bill for America…was arrested in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for ‘supposed’ hate speech on his iPad. Bill was an invited guest asked to speak at the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam.

It all started with this comment and the poster he put on his Facebook page: “Heading out to Calgary, Alberta, Canada to speak at the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam! Have info that the govt is busing in agitators to make things difficult for us. So please put me and the others on your prayer lists as we take a stand against the most dangerous false religion on earth……and the flaming liberals who love it.”

When I heard from Bill a few hours after his arrest at the Calgary airport this is what he told me, “Canada just decided to kick me out so I’m on my way home but it’s not over yet. In addition to the unlawful detention, they seized my laptop to send to Ottawa for a ‘forensic investigation,’ they are determined to get me on something. Plus they are bringing in their tax authority to determine the tariff to slap on the smuggled contraband (my personal notes to myself on Islam’s abuse of women and children). And my speech was about the importance of open and honest discussion without fear of the government dragging us away.” 

And then in typical Wild Bill humorous fashion Bill said to me that “the notes written to myself that no one could see means I must have committed a hate crime against myself!” All I could say at that point was that Canada has some serious issues…guess Prime Minister Trudeau is an Angela Merkel clone.

Here now is the very speech Wild Bill was to give in Canada…a speech he gave a few weeks ago in Jacksonville, FL. The cops after confiscating his iPad having read the script immediately arrested him for hate speech. Watch the video and you decide if this is hate speech…I sure do NOT think it is…I think it is truth…a truth that must be told:.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZUmYQYDaw8&feature=youtu.be

Seriously folks…what happened to Bill in Canada can (and sadly most likely will) happen here in our own country if we do NOT put an end to this political correctness nonsense concerning a certain group of people…as in muslims…and their liberal Democrat kumbaya protectors…all of whom do not like us very much.Thankfully, Bill is now safely home in Florida and is OK…mad but OK…and last night “foreign national” Bill put up this video on his Facebook page where in his own words he tells his story of Canadian border police out of control:

I spoke to Bill by phone last night and he will be on Craig and my RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS radio show on American Political Radio this Friday, June 30th from 7 to 9pm EST to tell his story and hopefully wake some people up to the dangers ‘We the People’ face regarding our First Amendment rights and freedoms.

Hope you can tune in at: https://tunein.americanpoliticalradio.com/platinum-plus-player/ because this is one show you do not want to miss. Remember, what happened to Bill in Canada can happen to any one of us…as political correctness and the stifling of free speech, if not stopped, will indeed be the death of us all.

Copyright © 2017 Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor

The post Arrested for Committing Hate Speech Against Himself appeared first on Tea Party Tribune.

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http://www.therightnewsnetwork.com/arrested-for-committing-hate-speech-against-himself/ %cats%

[julie-finlay]

Finlay Friday

13x01: "Karma to Burn", script extracts. Pt. 2/3.

[julie-finlay]

[julie-finlay]

Finlay Friday

13x19: “Backfire", script extracts. Meta under the cut.

I really want to meta on why it’s Nick that DB opens up to in this episode and not Finn. But I can’t do it very WELL because I don’t KNOW. There are a few options I’ve tossed around:

Does he hold back because if Katie still isn’t okay then maybe Finn isn’t either, and he’s not going to add to that with guilt? Maybe. (Katie and Molly aren’t the only ones “Trying not to show it. Trying to be strong.”)

I’m discounting anything to do with blame for losing her. At least directly  - perhaps only in the sense that part of Finn might still blame herself, in which case, circle back to point one re: guilt.

IS IT JUST TO DO WITH THE PACING OF THE EPISODE AND WHO IS WHERE IN ANY GIVEN SCENE? No, because then you don’t even need to include the initial deflection. [Although there’s definitely an element of writing for the audience rather than the characters. Might the audience need a reminder that Maya is Russell’s daughter? Perhaps. Does he need to describe her to Finn as “my daughter Maya”? lmao obviously not.]

Is it just wrapped up in how well they know each other? In the sense that he can admit to Nick that things aren’t okay, and Nick is a good guy who’s shaken by this case too, so they can share a supportive moment and get back to work - because they’re colleagues and it’s contained. (At least Russell thinks it is. Clearly the moment his back is turned, Nick is offscreen worrying to Finn that the bossman isn’t okay.) But if he admits to Finn that things aren’t okay, then she knows him, in a way that runs deep, and she’s going to worry about him in a way that lingers and shifts the balance between them, just a fraction? I guess this is as close to happy as I can get with it… but I don’t know.

There’s just a weird on-and-off between them post “Karma to Burn”, where in “Code Blue Plate Special”, Russell insists that everything is okay, a couple of episodes later in “It Was a Very Good Year” he admits that Barbara is still spending weekends in Seattle, but now another half a season down the line, he’s back to deflecting. AND I DON’T KNOW WHY, and in case you can’t tell I’m not super chill about it.

If there’s an obvious interpretation I haven’t considered eg. “if you look at scene D in episode X…” or “Melissa no one is supposed to care this much” then please, I am very open to it.

[gdwessel]

NJPW Strong Episode 3 - 8/21/2020: New Japan Cup USA Winner Crowned, Jay White, Hikuleo Return, Fighting Spirit Unleashed 2020 Teased

The first-ever New Japan Cup USA winner has been crowned, on this week’s episode of NJPW Strong, that you can see now on NJPWWorld in Japanese and English. Or on FITE TV, if you want, but I’m not advising it.

Rocky Romero [CHAOS] & Adrian Quest d. Danny Limelight & The DKC (Romero > DKC, Shiranui, 9:57)

Flip Gordon & Brody King [ROH] d. Jay White & Chase Owens [Bullet Club] (King > Owens, Gonzo Bomb, 8:44)

New Japan Cup USA Final: KENTA [Bullet Club] d. David Finlay, Jr. (Go2Sleep, 13:35) - KENTA wins the New Japan Cup USA 2020

KENTA wins, and there was no real surprise there. KENTA will now be able to challenge for the IWGP US Heavyweight title, assuming they ever figure out the whole Jon Moxley thing. That being said, for right now, they are going to do a similar briefcase gimmick as they do with winning G1 Climax, so this can change hands, theoretically. KENTA called out Mox by name, before being attacked by Jeff Cobb, who got hosed out of the win on last week’s episode. Looks like NJPW is still figuring out how to get Mox v. KENTA to happen, somehow, depending on how the winds blow with AEW.

Jay White made his first in-ring appearance since the Manabu Nakanishi Retirement show on 2/22/2020, in a losing effort against Villain Enterprises, whom if you recall that far back, were feuding with Jay and Bullet Club before not only COVID-19 wrecked Wrestlemania Weekend (and the world in general), but credible allegations against Marty Scurll that has now apparently seen Scurll removed as booker of Ring of Honor for now. Anyway. Jay tried to hit a Blade Runner on Herb Gordon post-match, but Brody King interrupted, before being beaten down by Hikuleo, who it seems is now back from his time in the UK in RevPro (makes me wonder what Shota Umino is doing)(and where’s Ren Narita for that matter??)

Rocky Romero finally gets a win on these Friday night shows, and Adrian Quest, not bad!

Next week’s episode is advertised as the “Road to Fighting Spirit Unleashed” tour, which, that word, tour.... I dunno. Nothing on the website yet. We’ll see as ever...

[gdwessel]

NJPW Strong Episode 65 - 11/6/2021; Okada v. Buddy Matthews Set For Battle In The Valley, Full Updated Card; Romero v. Danielson on AEW Dynamite this Wednesday

The latest edition of NJPW Strong began the cycle of matches taped in Philadelphia at the 2300 Arena back in October, under the New Japan Showdown banner.

JR Kratos, Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs [Team Filthy] d. David Finlay Jr., Yuya Uemura & Alex Coughlin (Isaacs > Uemura, ?, 10:28)

Juice Robinson d. El Phantasmo [Bullet Club] (H-H Buster, 13:51)

Ren Narita & Clark Connors d. Will Ospreay & TJP [United Empire] (Narita > TJP, Narita Special #4, 13:26)

The LA Dojo get a win over the Empire, as Ren Narita told Ospreay he doesn’t want his “phony” title, he just wants to beat him. Juice wins this round vs. the Bullet Club, as Coughlin and Kratos got into it post-match, with a “Fuck you Kratos” chant breaking out. Ah, Philadelphia.

The pair have been calling each other out, and now the match is official - Kazuchika Okada will take on Buddy Matthews (the former Buddy Murphy in WWE) in the latter’s NJPW debut at Battle In The Valley next week. The upshot of this is Okada will not be on the first couple of World Tag League + Best Of The Super Juniors 28 shows at least. Which may not be the worst idea, honestly. (Neither will Tomohiro Ishii nor Jeff Cobb, for that matter.) I don’t think Matthews is going to win here -- Okada is main eventing WK16, it seems unlikely. Could he put on a good showing? Sure, why not.

With that in mind, here is the official card for Battle In The Valley, due to start at 10pm EST (we are back on Standard Time in the USA now) on Saturday 11/13/2021. As noted, this will run right up against AEW’s Full Gear PPV; as also noted, NJPW booked this show prior to AEW moving Full Gear from 11/6 so as not to compete with a UFC PPV. So not their fault. This will be shown live on NJPWWorld, or on FITE TV for $20.

Full card:

Battle In The Valley - 11/13/2021, San Jose Civic, San Jose, CA (NJPWWorld, FITE TV)

Yuya Uemura v. Josh Alexander [Impact]

Brody King & Chris Dickinson [VLNCE UNLTD] v. Bateman & Misterioso [Stray Dog Army]

Fred Rosser, David Finlay Jr., Rocky Romero [CHAOS], Alex Coughlin & Alex Zayne v. “Filthy” Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos, Danny Limelight, Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs [Team Filthy]

Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors v. Jeff Cobb & TJP [United Empire]

Ren Narita v. Will Ospreay [United Empire]

Juice Robinson v. Moose [Impact]

Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS] v. Buddy Matthews

NEVER Openweight Championship: Jay White [Bullet Club] (c) v. Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS] - If Ishii loses he can never challenge for NEVER Openweight belt again

On a related note, it was announced on Friday’s AEW Rampage that Bryan Danielson will have one last warm-up match before his World Title Eliminator final match v. Miro at Full Gear. On Wednesday’s edition of Dynamite, Danielson will go up against Rocky Romero, with Orange Cassidy as his cornerman, seeing as Romero is an auxiliary member of Best Friends and all. Should be a fun match. That’s at 8[m EST / 7pm CST on TNT this Wednesday.

There are no WTL/BOSJ28 lineups announced yet. That’s going to suck for our podcast tomorrow if they don’t announce them tomorrow! Here’s hoping!

[gdwessel]

NJPW Formally Announces IWGP World Heavyweight Championship; Final IWGP Heavyweight + Intercontinental Defenses at 49th Anniversary Show March 4; New Japan Cup 2021 Brackets, Cards Announced; New Japan Cup USA 2021 Also Coming Soon

As reported yesterday by Tokyo Sports, the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships are being retired, with their lineages merged per NJPW Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi, and in its place will be the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. In a press conference yesterday, Sugabasyahi confirmed the reports, and stated that Kota Ibushi would be the first-ever IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. However, Ibushi threw a slight curveball with that, stating he wanted to honor the challenge of new IWGP Juniorheavyweight champion (and current IWGP Juniorheavyweight Tag Team co-champion) El Desperado, made at the end of Castle Attack yesterday in Osaka. Therefore, the main event of the 49th Anniversary show this Thursday, March 4, 2021 from Tokyo Nippon Budokan will be Ibushi v. Despy, in the final matches for both the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental titles in their current form. The winner of this match will be the first-ever IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. The new title belt has not yet been revealed; this will likely happen on Thursday. In his speech, Ibushi spoke of wanting to "protect both of these titles and legacies. I want them both to remain, I want neither to disappear." I'm not sure that parses with unifying the titles, but I don't run a pro wrestling company either. There are quite a number of fans online who are not happy with this situation, claiming that if NJPW wanted to reduce the number of titles, then get rid of the likes of the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Comedy Tag Team titles, or do away with the Toru Yano-centric KOPW trophy. Which is fair criticism. And I certainly understand wanting to keep the lineage and legacy of the IWGP Heavyweight title. Consider, however, the other belt in this equation, the IWGP Intercontinental title. There have been some great matches through the years for this belt. It is also less than 10 years old in its current incarnation. Furthermore, half of its legacy will be defined as "The belt Kazuchika Okada and Tetsuya Naito hated because it deprived them of the main event at Wrestle Kingdom 8." Naito went so far as to utterly destroy one version of the belt. The other half of its legacy is that it's "the Shinsuke Nakamura title," so defined after Nakamura elevated the title to the point where it could main event a Wrestle Kingdom, but also out of deference to the fact that due to the rise of both Kazuchika Okada, and later AJ Styles, that Nakamura would never get a fourth IWGP Heavyweight title reign. I am not being facetious when I ask, whether or not there were these types of discussions and criticisms about title legacies in 1987, when the IWGP Heavyweight title overtook the NWF Heavyweight title, a belt that had been inactive since 1981 when Antonio Inoki vacated it. Yesterday I used the analogy of a new Triple Crown title belt being used in All Japan Pro Wrestling since October 2013, with the original belts being returned to Motoko Baba. The analogy I should have used was whether the lineages of the PWF World Heavyweight Championship, the NWA United National Championship and NWA International Heavyweight Championship were upheld when they became the Triple Crown on 4/18/1989, when Jumbo Tsuruta defeated Stan Hansen to unify the titles. We talk of the Triple Crown in awed reverence; the individual titles, at this stage, not so much. Sure, we will miss the IWGP Heavyweight title as it is. The Intercontinental, I'm not so sure we will, in the long rung. There is always the possibility they will return, of course -- WWE has retired and unretired titles numerous times; Ring of Honor recently resurrected the Pure Championship. Even the NWF Heavyweight Title had a brief resurrection, with Yoshihiro Takayama and Shinsuke Nakamura both holding it in 2003-2004. Times change, things change. Right now, this is one of those changes.

In addition to the last IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental defenses happening on Thursday, we will also get the start of the New Japan Cup 2021, with two first-round matches. The tour proper begins on Friday 3/5/2021. You can see this year's bracket above. There are some pretty enticing first-round matches, which can lead to some other enticing second-round matches. KENTA returns from his American adventure, whilst Juice Robinson and David Finlay Jr. also return after their recent stint in Impact. Others returning to the lineups include Bad Luck Fale, Ryusuke Taguchi and Toa Henare. EVIL and Hiroshi Tanahashi get a bye into the second-round, as EVIL was last year's Cup winner, and Tanahashi is the current NEVER Openweight Champion. The winner of this year's Cup will be the first-ever challenger for the IWGP World Heavyweight title at Sakura Genesis on 4/4/2021. I'll list the cards in the forthcoming Upcoming NJPW Events post either tomorrow or Wednesday. @damascenocs​ and I will talk all of this later tonight when we record the next episode of the Podcast, which should also be up on Tuesday.

Whilst the New Japan Cup 2021 is gearing up, it would appear New Japan of America is readying the same for the New Japan Cup USA 2021, qualifiers for which will start on NJPW Strong this coming Friday. The winner of this Cup will get the chance to challenge Jon Moxley for the IWGP US Heavyweight title that he recently, finally, defended against the 2020 winner, KENTA. I will warn, however, that we are probably into the tapings that Marty Scurll recently was backstage, and took part in an angle with Rocky Romero, who has a qualifying match on Friday's episode. So if you are looking to avoid seeing Scurll, there's a good chance you might want to skip these episodes, as they give no previews of what's to come as far as angles are concerned.

[gdwessel]

World Tag League 2019 Night 1 - 11/16/2019; NJPW Wrestlers At Destroyer Memorial Show 11/15/2019; Tiger Hattori, Kawato At Arena Mexico Last Night; Tonight’s NJPW on AXS

Possibly the least consequential and least engaging tour of the year, the World Tag League has begun, and you can see it now on NJPWWorld. Sixteen whole teams competing in this year’s edition in a single block, and not every team is at every date, as netiher the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team champions Guerrillas of Destiny, nor the 2-time defending Tag League winners EVIL & SANADA were on this show today.

World Tag League 2019 - 11/16/2019, Kanagawa Chichibunomiya Memorial Gymnasium (NJPWWorld)

World Tag League 2019: Juice Robinson & David Finlay Jr. d. Hirooki Goto [CHAOS] & Karl Fredericks (Finlay > Fredericks, Acid Drop, 11:18)

World Tag League 2019: Jeff Cobb [ROH] & Mikey Nicholls [CHAOS] d. Toru Yano [CHAOS] & Colt Cabana [FREE] (Cobb > Yano, Tour Of The Islands, 8:22)

World Tag League 2019: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima d. Shingo Takagi & Terrible [Los Ingobernables] (Kojima > Terrible, Lariat, 10:16)

World Tag League 2019: KENTA & Yujiro Takahashi [Bullet Club] d. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi (Yujiro > Nakanishi, Pimp Juice, 10:41)

World Tag League 2019: Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer [SZKG] d. Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens [Bullet Club] (Archer > Owens, EBD Claw, 9:03)

Jay White & Gedo [Bullet Club] d. Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] (Gedo > BUSHI, pinfall, 10:21)

World Tag League 2019: Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toa Henare d. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma (Tanahashi > Honma, High Fly Flow, 12:01)

World Tag League 2019: Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] d. Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi [SZKG] (Ishii > Taichi, Vertical Drop Brainbuster, 11:48)

YOSHI-HASHI cut a post-match promo saying he and Ishii will in it all, naturally. Thankfully it doesn’t look as if any matches went on too long for this, a good quick streamed house show. Current standings:

Cobb/Nicholls: 2pts (1W 0D 0L) FinJuice: 2pts (1W 0D 0L) Ishii/YOSHI-HASHI: 2pts (1W 0D 0L) KENTA/Yujiro: 2pts (1W 0D 0L) Suzuki/Archer: 2pts (1W 0D 0L) TanaHenare: 2pts (1W 0D 0L) TenKoji: 2pts (1W 0D 0L) EVIL/SANADA: 0pts (0W 0D 0L) GOD: 0pts (0W 0D 0L) Fale/Owens: 0pts (0W 0D 1L) GBH: 0pts (0W 0D 1L) Goto/Fredericks: 0pts (0W 0D 1L) Nagata/Nakanishi: 0pts (0W 0D 1L) Sabre/Taichi: 0pts (0W 0D 1L) Shingo/Terrible: 0pts (0W 0D 1L) Yano/Cabana: 0pts (0W 0D 1L)

Several NJPW wrestlers took part in the Destroyer Memorial Night yesterday, a tribute to the late Destroyer, Dick Beyer. If you want to know more about The Destroyer, I highly recommend a podcast posted on the Pro Wrestling Only Podcast Network about the man, and his life and career, featuring indie sensation Daniel Makabe.

In the main event of the evening, Jushin Thunder Liger teamed with AJPW Triple Crown champion Kento Miyahara & the GOD, Keiji Muto, against three of Muto’s former proteges: SANADA, BUSHI & KAI. Muto got the win, submitting KAI with a Figure 4 Leglock.

Elsewhere, Minoru Suzuki’s team with Taiyo Kea fell to the team of AJPW’s Suwama & Wrestle-1′s Shuji Kondo, with Suwama pinning Kea. Suzuki-gun’s Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat the AJPW brothers of Yuma & Atsushi Aoyagi, Kanemaru submitting Atsushi with a high-angle Boston Crab. Taichi & Yuma Aoyagi have history with one another, going all the way back to Super J-Cup 2016. Also, a TEAM2000/nWo Japan reunion of Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Hiro Saito lost against Tatsumi Fujinami, AJPW’s Jun Akiyama & Shiro Koshinaka, Fujinami submitting Saito with a Figure 4 Leglock of his own. That move was a staple of the Destroyer’s, so makes sense for it to be so prevalent.

The show will not be broadcast in Japan until 11/27/2019, so stay tuned for it to make the rounds after that.

Meanwhile in Arena Mexico, Hirai Kawato made his return to the Friday night Viernes Espectacular, winning in his match teaming with Hechicero & Shigeo Okumura against Atlantis Jr., Dulce Gardenia & Audaz. Kawato’s team won falls 1 and 3. After that match, CMLL held a brief appreciation ceremony for retiring NJPW referee Tiger Hattori, who really never worked in CMLL, but has been one of the liaisons between NJPW and CMLL over the years. They awarded him a nice little plaque in appreciation. Very nice.

In other Young Lion news, I MIGHT yet make that Black Label Pro show with Ren Narita later today. We’ll see. If you can’t make it, IWTV.com will have it live starting at 4:30pm CST.

Tonight’s NJPW on AXS returns to Power Struggle, on 11/3/2019 from Osaka EDION Arena. Advertised matches are Roppongi 3K v. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru, in the Super Jr. Tag League Final, as well as Will Ospreay defending the IWGP Juniorheavyweight title against BUSHI. We all know what THAT means: the return of Hiromu Takahashi being shown on American TV. Get down get funky. Show starts at the usual time.

The World Tag League continues tomorrow, live on NJPWWorld:

- 11/17/2019, Tokyo Korakuen Hall (NJPWWorld)

World Tag League 2019: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima v. Juice Robinson & David Finlay Jr.

World Tag League 2019: Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma v. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi

World Tag League 2019: Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toa Henare v. Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens [Bullet Club]

World Tag League 2019: Hirooki Goto [CHAOS] & Toa Henare v. KENTA & Yujiro Takahashi [Bullet Club]

World Tag League 2019: Toru Yano [CHAOS] & Colt Cabana [FREE] v. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa [Bullet Club]

World Tag League 2019: Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] v. Jeff Cobb [ROH] & Mikey Nicholls [CHAOS]

World Tag League 2019: Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer [SZKG] v. Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi [SZKG]

World Tag League 2019: EVIL & SANADA [Los Ingobernables] v. Shingo Takagi & Terrible [Los Ingobernables]

Strong Style Story Podcast Episode 59 on Pro Wrestling Only

[gdwessel]

New Japan Road - Ganbarou! Uonuma 2018 - 10/6/2018; Lion’s Break: Project 1 Wrestlers, Feature Matches Announced; Finlay in CMLL Gran Prix 10/5/2018

Today was the now-annual Ganbarou! Uonuma show in Niigata Uonuma, which started with an opening ceremony with the mayor of Uonuma, in which KUSHIDA vowed to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title on Monday at King of Pro Wrestling. Sadly this show did not make tape. Results:

New Japan Road - Ganbarou! Uonuma 2018 - 10/6/2018, Niigata Uonuma Horinouchi Gymnasium

Toa Henare d. Yota Tsuji (Toa Bottom, 8:10)

Yuji Nagata d. Ren Narita (Nagata Lock II, 7:26)

Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado [SZKG] d. Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask IV & Shota Umino (Taichi > Umino, Tenshojojihou, 9:09)

Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Ryusuke Taguchi d. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Manabu Nakanishi (Makabe > Nakanishi, King Kong Knee Drop, 9:59)

Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto [CHAOS] d. Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka [SZKG] (Goto > Iizuka, Shoryukekkai, 12:12)

Jay White & Gedo [New Era] d. Hiroshi Tanahashi  & KUSHIDA (White > KUSHIDA, Blade Runner, 10:14)

Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] d. Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano, SHO & YOH [CHAOS] (Naito > YOH, Destino, 12:34)

Naito confirmed a new pareja on Monday. Jay declared that Tanahashi “was over.” Despy unmasked Tiger Mask, and Liger angrily declared they would win the junior tag titles on Monday.

Earlier in the week, NJPW announced the wrestlers participating at the two-day Lion’s Break: Project 1 event on 11/10 and 11/11/2018 in Anaheim, CA. These shows are part of CharaExpo, Bushiroad’s own convention, and will take place at the Anaheim Convention Center along with CharaExpo. These shows are going to only have 3-4 matches per night, which, you know, I’m pretty OK with honestly. After Fighting Spirit Unleashed, I’m more about the limited scope for these shows. As far as ticketing, you will need to purchase tickets for seats, but standing-room tickets are free; the catch is, you will need a CharaExpo ticket to attend these shows either way.

The participating wrestlers announced are: David Finlay Jr., Jushin Thunder Liger, Ryusuke Taguchi, ACH, Hirooki Goto, Rocky Romero, Kenny Omega, Jeff Cobb, Clark Connors, and Alex Coughlin. Kind of odd that only 3 Japanese wrestlers are taking part in this, however Connors and Coughlin are Young Lions in the LA Dojo, and were the same ones who wrestled a dark match before FSU.

Only two matches announced so far: on Night 1, Hirooki Goto will have a singles rematch with Jeff Cobb, after the two looked to continue their feud during FSU. Which is cool, I like this. On Night 2, IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega will take on David Finlay Jr., in what looks to be a non-title match, but you know how these things go. 

No idea if these shows will be on NJPWWorld or AXS or what. We’ll keep you posted.

Speaking of Finlay, he took part in last night’s CMLL Gran Prix iPPV, participating in the main event, 7 v. 7 elimination match, with the usual Mexico v. Rest of the World format, with Finlay representing Germany. This match also featured the Briscoes, as well as Michael Elgin winning the whole thing, so I don’t want to spend too much time on it. However, I can say Finlay got no elimiations, and was taken out at the 29:40 mark by Caristico, submitting to a Caristica. Ergo, Herb Flip Gordon lasted longer than Finlay. 

If you want to know more, TheCubsFan has full details. Finlay is booked for next Friday’s Arena Mexico show as well (He’s not booked for KOPW, so...), in the 4th match, teaming with Atlantis & Hijo de LA Park v. Hechicero, Rey Bucanero & Shocker, so that’s a match that really can go either way. Elgin will be in the main event of that show as well, in a singles match v. Ultimo Guerrero, so word of warning there.

The next show is on Monday, and it is King of Pro Wrestling, the last supercard of the year, from Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan. We’ll know the Wrestle Kingdom main event, for sure, after this (and let’s face it we already know what it’ll be). There are also the junior tag belts up for grabs, and we will have a new IWGP junior champion too. AND, AND, the 6th member of LIJ. This will be live on NJPWWorld.

King of Pro Wrestling - 10/8/2018, Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan (NJPWWorld)

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado [SZKG] © v. Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask IV

Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma v. Juice Robinson & Toa Henare

Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, Adam Page & Chase Owens [Bullet Club Elite] v. Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Taiji Ishimori [BCOGs]

Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto & Will Ospreay [CHAOS] v. Minoru Suzuki, Taichi & Takashi Iizuka [SZKG]

Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano, SHO & YOH [CHAOS] v. Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, BUSHI & X [Los Ingobernables]

EVIL [Los Ingobernables] v. Zack Sabre Jr. [SZKG]

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Tournament Final: KUSHIDA v. Marty Scurll [Bullet Club Elite]

Tokyo Dome Challenge Rights: Hiroshi Tanahashi v. Jay White [New Era]

IWGP Heavyweight Championship 3-Way Match: Kenny Omega [Bullet Club Elite] © v. Kota Ibushi [FREE] v. Cody Rhodes [Bullet Club Elite]