I like books. I like wrestling. I like video games. I like writing about those things. Let’s just get into it.
Wrestling – Hangman’s Back, Moxley’s There, Redemption Soon
It was announced late that Hangman Page was going to return on AEW Collision, much to the excitement of multiple group chats I’m in. I wasn’t sure what to expect when he returned or what he’d say, but I thought he did a great job of setting up his character arc for the foreseeable future. He made it clear that the stipulation he’d never challenge for the World Title was an oath he swore on a handshake deal only, meaning that the only person holding him to it right now is himself. He makes an impassioned speech about his journey, continuing to go after the other singles championships. All that sounds tantalizing for match-ups, but we’re all in agreement he’s a big fat liar who is big fat lying to himself. I don’t know which of these belts he’s going to win, if any, but the Hangman is going to find it unsatisfying. The question is what it will take for him to break the promise, when it will happen, and whether it’ll be as a face or a heel. I think people who assumed it was going to be a heel turn weren’t paying attention to the audience when he said he wouldn’t break the stipulation; they were not happy. Hangman’s character has always had a connection to the crowds, so will Hangman finally snap on a babyface and break the stipulation, or will a threat of a heel world champion on the rampage convince Hangman that breaking his word will be for the greater good? It’s going to be fun to see.
I’m going to try to keep this short because it’s easy to be negative, and it’s easy to nitpick wrestling storytelling, but I am so tired of Jon Moxley and the Death Rider’s storytelling. Let me be clear, Jon Moxley has been one of my favorite wrestlers for most of AEW’s history and a lot of times as Dean Ambrose in WWE, but this shit sucks. It’s nonsense, and it’s boring, and it has made me uninterested in Will Ospreay as a world champion. If Jon Moxley is just going to win every match, there has to be a good story to go with it. Jon Moxley used to give promos straight to the point that he was the toughest motherfucker in the room, and it was going to take everything you had to beat him. Now, he cuts promos like he’s second billing in Léon: The Professional when he’s actually coming off as second billing to Gerard Butler in Gamer. It doesn’t help that ninety percent of tweeners in wrestling have 1. not worked, 2. sucked, and 3. never helped anyone involved get over. Every time the Death Riders come out during a Will Ospreay segment, I find myself groaning. Dynamite was the worst of it because they had just come out to jump Cope and Christian (babyfaces), and now they’ve come out to fend off the Don Callis Family (heels) for Kenny Omega and Ospreay. You can deep dive into what you think Moxley is doing beyond the bounds of babyface and heel with the Death Riders, but that doesn’t make it interesting.
I’ve seen some people who are fans defend the Death Riders in 2026, and it feels like what they’re describing and what is on screen do not match up. How exactly has the Death Riders formation helped any of the members since their formation, and what does Jon Moxley beating everyone and offering a handshake do for his opponents? The most exciting the Death Riders have ever been was the lead-up to Moxley’s match against babyface Hangman Adam Page at All In. The group was spinning their wheels with the AEW World Championship before then, and then had a disappointing feud with Darby Allin that did not help Darby get over at all. Now, since the C2 Jon Moxley as a tweener has found a way to not get anyone over. Not the Death Riders, not his opponents, and not Will Ospreay leading up to what is supposed to be his biggest moment after a severe neck injury. Now here come the Elite, specifically the Young Bucks, to inject some life into this storyline once again, just as they did after Dynasty 2025. Pick a lane, Jon, so the Young Bucks don’t have to keep saving your storylines for you, and kill the Josh Barnett groundwork, Jon, this isn’t MMA, and you’re not Bryan Danielson.
Phew, got that off my chest. That being said, the card for AEW Redemption actually looks sick as hell. I would have preferred a big defense for Kenny Omega at Redemption, considering all signs showed that was originally going to be the MJF match, which was moved up for whatever reason, but Kevin Knight versus Kenny Omega is going to be awesome, and it’s going to be something to look back on when Knight reaches the top guy level sooner rather than later. I’ve loved Thekla as AEW Women’s World Champion despite beating one of my favorites, Kris Statlander, but it’s Willow’s time now, and I’m hoping for her to go all the way, beating both Thekla and Mercedes at All In to crown her as the top babyface of the women’s division. Kyle Fletcher vs. Bandido might steal the show, but I’m not looking forward to Bandido losing on pay-per-view again (see also: complaints about Jon Moxley’s current run). I thought Ciampa vs. Jericho on Beach Break was Jericho’s best match since his return, and the two of them seem to have great chemistry, so I can’t believe it, but I actually might be looking forward to Painmaker Jericho vs. Ciampa’s No Holds Barred match. I do remain a little skeptical that they can do better and may, in fact, do too much. Young Bucks on PPV are going to Young Bucks on PPV despite my misgivings about Mox and Ospreay’s story. Mark Davis vs. Andrade will be good. Claudio, Christian, and PAC will do their best to make Copeland look good. I hope Maya World beats Hikaru Shida for the TBS title because, unfortunately, Shida has gotten really slow and messy in her matches, which makes me sad as she used to be the highlight of the women’s division.
Books – Hodgepodge
This section is going to be rather short because I’m just like, unfocused, in my reading right now. I’m all over the place. I started reading Gareth Hanrahan’s The Dungeon Book, which seems like just the right kind of fun fantasy book I could use right now. Reading those special edition hardcovers of the Green Bone Saga for the podcast has me wanting to reread The Bloodsworn Saga by John Gwynne, which I bought some fancy hardcover for that series as well. A.K Larkwood’s The Serpent Gates duology is also calling to me, as it’s world buidling is not weird but unusual enough that it feels refreshing.
Games – The Mermaid Mask, Control, Vampire Crawlers.
I think it was February 2021 before most people, including me, got the vaccine, and because of the pandemic, the release of new games was, to put it lightly, in fucking chaos. I asked on Twitter if anyone had any game recommendations because my backlog was so much smaller back then, and a fellow Josh in the GeeklyInc community recommended Tangle Tower to me on the Nintendo Switch.
I fell in love with it almost instantly. Grimoire and Sally have a fun dynamic as a duo that balances each other out between being funny and effective detectives. The art style is tremendous, with stand-out character design and animation that make the cast’s personalities clear to the player. Except for one or two, the puzzles are fairly easy. The mystery itself is so intriguing, with an ending that left me just slightly deflated, but overall, I loved Tangle Tower.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1696770/The_Mermaid_Mask (You should buy it.)
I’ve been following The Mermaid Mask closely since it was announced, waiting and waiting and waiting for more information, and now, finally, it has been released. I devoured this game with all the free time I could muster. Everything I loved about Tangle Tower feels leveled up in The Mermaid Mask, with an ending that had me glued to my Steam Deck. This cast of characters is all in this cramped submarine with a murdered captain and an open cauldron that had previously never been opened before. Everything that was in Tangle Tower is here, but the animation and voice cast have been especially upgraded. I generally read much faster than most voice actors read the lines, and sometimes I can be impatient, skipping over dialogue before the voiceover is finished, but not with The Mermaid Mask. I would listen closely to each character describing who they are, why they are on the submarine, the murder, and their thoughts on the clues Grimoire and Sally discover closely, and watch the animation of the characters, so beautifully done. I struggled with some of the puzzles, in a good way, that I generally didn’t with Tangle Tower. From what I’ve gathered from social media, this game wasn’t easy to make but I would generally buy one of these Grimoire games every year, and as long as SFB Games keeps making them, I will buy them for the rest of my life.
With Control Resonant coming out, I reinstalled Control because I never finished. Last time I played it was in 2021, when it fried my coolant system for my CPU and killed my computer for like a month before I had a friend come over and help me install a new cooling system and redo the thermal paste because I did a terrible job. So I never played it after that on that computer out of a suspicious fear it would do it again. Now my latest computer laughs at the requirement for Control, so I decided to restart it from the beginning, only to encounter a game-breaking glitch in the year 2026 for a seven-year-old game that kept me from progressing. Luckily, Control has Mission Select, so I can technically go back to where I left off in 2021, but that isn’t what I wanted to do. I’m going to try to restart it again to see if I can get the mission I need to work on, and if not, I might just put Control away once again.
Speaking of that old computer, I’ve been using it as a home for a lot of smaller, less graphic powerhouse games that I connect to via Steam Link on my Retroid Pocket 4 when I’m outside or away from home, and the game I’ve invested the most time into that way is this year’s Vampire Crawlers. That game is just fun as hell, and it’s so satisfying following the combo patterns of picking the 0 mana card, then 1, then 2, and so on. I’ve been using my Retroid Pocket 4 a lot more since I came up with this idea, and I preordered the Retroid Pocket Nova, which comes out fairly soon. That’s all for now, until next time.
FourofFiveWits 