Road to Summer Slam 2017- Part 2

Part I was here.

Here’s what we’ve got already:

WWF Title: AJ Styles v. Samoa Joe 

The Shield (Ambrose/Black) v. Shinsuke Nakamura/Prince Devitt

Loser Leaves Town: Kevin Steen (w/Generico) v. Neville (w/Claudio)

Claudio Castagnoli v. Akira Tozawa

And here’s what’s left:

No DQ: IC: Brock Lesnar (w/Heyman) v. Braun Strowman

Tags: Broken Hardys v. Usos (Jimmy/Jey)

Langston (w/New Day) v. Roman Reigns-Uso

Rusev (w/Lana) v. Mike Mizanin

No DQ: Full Circle (Orton/Cena) v. Bray Wyatt/Taylor Rotunda

Strowman’s been mashing dudes the entire calendar year; it started with Mizanin, Strowman was one of the men who gave up a pinfall during the Miz’s time as The Cuck, that seemed to shake the monster out of him.  After destroying Mizanin he was confronted by Sheamus (The Cuck’s main antagonist, Mizanin earned Sheamus’s respect at the conclusion of their program) Strowman was angered at the temerity of a guy who was once called the Clique Killer dressing him down for excessive violence against the Miz.  That anger led Strowman to go on a jihad against the entire previous generation of Underground (Strowman came up, like Sheamus, through developmental).  Curtis/Slater/Ryder all got squashed in the build to Mania – and at Mania, Strowman squashed the former IC Champ Sheamus.

The first half of the summer is a build to Strowman/Nemeth – Nemeths the Triple Crown winning Underground golden boy; he remains Underground’s only WWF Champion and once Strowman even draws Curt Hawkins back to the WWF to get manhandled and threatens Regal that he shouldn’t get in his way – Nemeth has to stand up for his Underground cohort.

Strowman squashes him too – a devastating destruction of a legitimate star. Postmatch, barely sweating, he’s interviewed on the ramp by Renee, Strowman says he’s the man and he wants the belt.  Renee asks if that means he is challenging the winner of AJ/Joe?  Strowman says no –he wants the Real Worlds Champion – he wants Lesnar.

Brock won the IC at the Rumble, Heyman immediately began pumping up Lesnar as the Real World’s Champion (Lesnar is prohibited from earning another WWF Title shot due to a career ending attack on longtime WWF announcer Joey Styles) and that drumbeat has continued throughout the year.  A week later, Strowman is a guest on Heyman’s Hustle – Heyman tells him he’s impressed with the violence, but that he’s too green and not in Lesnar’s league.  Strowman tells Heyman Lesnar’s scared - Heyman says Braun misunderstands – Lesnar accepts the challenge – at Summer Slam it is Strowman taking on Lesnar for the Real World’s Championship – but the fact is Strowman’s too green and not in Lesnar’s league and you don’t need to believe Heyman – you can hear it right from the horse’s mouth.

Surprise appearance by Lesnar, his music plays, he appears on the ramp.

Strowman doesn’t wait – he exits the ring – he walks right up to Lesnar, they go nose to nose – they start jawing at each other – security swarms and separates them.

Strowman keeps working in the build, squashing whomever they put in front of him – making the sign for the belt postmatch.  Strowman’s an unstoppable machine and he wants Lesnar.  Heyman appears regularly to cut promos establishing that Lesnar is the Real World’s Champ, he’ll roll over Strowman, he’ll roll over his Survivor Series opponent, he’ll roll over his Royal Rumble opponent, he’ll roll until the moment he decides to stop rolling and not a moment before.

We also see Lesnar a few times in the back half of the build; he does a couple of vignettes where he’s working out with Kurt Angle.

Lesnar was Angle’s protégé, he turned on him as one does, and they met for the WWF Title almost 15 years ago at WM19.  Life took them in different directions, and the two men had not spoken (they wrestled in Japan a decade ago) until the main event segment the night after RAW, which was a celebration for Angle (who returned to the WWF for the first time in a decade as a special guest referee at Mania).

The host for that segment is Regal, who was Angle’s best friend, the Enforcer in Team Angle, and he and Kurt had not spoken since Angle left the promotion.  Regal introduces Angle as the greatest WWF Champion of the modern era, and Kurt appears on RAW for the first time in over a decade.

He comes out in the mirrored sunglasses, which was the heel Angle trademark look, but as the crowd cheers (the IRL comp is Hogan’s first return from WCW) it breaks him down, the glasses come off, he and Regal hug.  Angle talks to the crowd, says he’s glad to be home.

Regal says there are some people who want to say hello to him.

The first wave are the guys who are still with the promotion from Kurt’s time – PAUL, Kane, Mark Henry and with them a special appearance by the Undertaker. 

Regal says that like Angle, he has had some terrible enemies in the ring over the years, but the years soften even the hardest hearts.  And with that – Regal introduces Angle’s longtime rivals, the Clique. 

Edge – Christian – Shawn Michaels – HHH-M – Brian Kendrick – and, if we can get him, Paul London come down the ramp.  Team Angle had a long, vicious feud against the Clique, but now all the men shake hands and hug – Angle clearly moved by the sentiment.

Regal says and finally, your friends – and then we see Shelton Benjamin and (if we can get him) Charlie Haas.  Benjamin and Haas, like Lesnar, were Angle protégés, Benajmin was really Angle’s last remaining friend in the WWF, as his behavior drove away everyone who once was close to him.  Benjamin defeated Angle in his final WWF match and then went on himself to become WWF Champion and this is his first appearance in the WWF after several years away.

Regal gives some concluding comments – which are interrupted by a surprise appearance from Lesnar.

And this becomes the big moment of the night – it is the first meeting of Lesnar and Angle in over a decade.  The look warily at each other – and then Brock extends his hand. Angle accepts – the two men shake hands as the crowd cheers and RAW ends.

So – as we return to the build to Summer Slam, in the back half of the summer we have 2-3 vignettes of Brock and Angle at a gym, sort of lightly working out, really just talking, Angle gets excited talking about watching Brock in UFC, Brock says he might have seen Angle fight in TNA a couple of times too.  Just really them reconnecting.  One thing that’s established is Angle asking about Brock’s arm – Jericho clearly worked an injured Lesnar elbow during their Mania match, Brock says he’s fine. 

Brock appears on live WWF TV one more time – he has a match just a couple of weeks out of Summer Slam, squashes someone, it doesn’t matter.  Strowman appears on the ramp – this time it’s Lesnar who exits the ring to meet him – security again comes, but the two men stare the entire squad down – neither says a word – eventually Strowman moves aside and Lesnar exits. 

The Broken Hardys will spend even less time in the WWF arenas over the summer than Lesnar; they’ll do, I’d guess you’d call them short films, to establish the Broken Universe for the WWF audience.  There’s not really any limit – if Matt wants to do one a week all summer, that’s fine.  The only thing we’re holding back is any appearance by old wrestlers like the Rock N Roll Express.  The Hardys do their rap about gold that they did IRL in the stretch prior to coming back to the promotion; they are collecting all the gold and now they hold the most precious gold of all, the WWF Tag Titles.

They’re challenged by the Usos, who turned heel in the build to Mania, they spend the summer establishing the same cocky heel voice they found IRL.  Not turning heel is Roman; Jimmy and Jey do a Luger/Sting thing here, they’re heels on their own, but pretend to be faces when Roman is looking. They spend the summer in a 6 man feud with The New Day, now pure babyfaces.  They work in all the various combinations, leading to the Roman/Langston Summer Slam match. 

The Hardys make their first live appearance in a RAW arena about 2/3 of the way through the summer, it’s a heavily promoted episode of Heyman’s Hustle.  That interview will be interrupted by the Usos – who say they don’t care about Senor Benjamin or King Maxel or Super Tampax for Active Lifestyles or whatever Matt calls his kid – at Summer Slam, they’re whipping some old Hardy ass and taking their belts back.  Broken Matt appreciates the wordplay and says the Usos will be deleted at Summer Fest .

The previously mentioned Mizanin is working Summer Slam against the former IC Champ Rusev.  GHB is now gone, there’s no more talk about contemporary American politics, the Russian flag is gone, Lana and Rusev are still Russian heels, but we’ve moved on from their antagonistic relationship to Vince and Linda. 

Finally – Cena and Orton were tag champs over a decade ago, they’ve made their way back to each other and are called Full Circle; their program against Bray and Harper didn’t end at Mania, it continues throughout the first half of the summer, both in singles and in tags, building to a blowoff match where Full Circle injures Harper and really lays into Bray – like maybe he’s handcuffed to some structure and they’re beating him with sticks – it’s a “someone needs to stop this” angle. 

Who stops it is Taylor Rotunda; Rotunda is enhancement talent, for years the only role in which we’ve seen him is putting guys over – here he sacrifices his body to save Bray.  Rotunda then becomes Bray’s latest acolyte, he’s watched the Wyatt Family and now that Harper is out indefinitely he sees that Bray is all alone – and, for some reason he can’t really explain, he’s drawn to Bray.  He wants to walk in Bray’s light. 

Bray and Rotunda will team up and look for some revenge against Full Circle at Summer Slam.

What’s left is Dark Ride.  So – the rules of the Dark Ride Title is only wrestlers who haven’t worked WWF PPV in a year are eligible; and if they sign for a PPV, they must relinquish the belt. 

That’s Joe – and so, he comes to the house he built, Dark Ride Wrestling, to give up the Title.

The summer is then the build for Dark Ride Warfare, a 20 man Battle Royal that includes both pinfalls and over the top eliminations, the winner gets the belt.

There are some matches to qualify for the big match, there are a lot of promos to build to the big match – I won’t go through the actual order/eliminations (I save that for main roster battle royals). 

Here’s who is in the match:

Aleister Black – I’d rather call him Tommy End, it’s a way, way better name and I already have Tyler Black.  But – he’s coming up through Underground and those guys change their names. 

Cedric Alexander – babyface, he’s going to come out of this feuding with Black, he’s unaffiliated

Johnny Gargano – Gargano is Trash-adjacent, devotee of the philosophy of Neville, which is a home for disaffected babyfaces.  We put in so many years for you people and this is what you give us?  We see than continued disenchantment for Gargano.

Roderick Strong – Strong and Gargano are going to come out of this feuding, Strong’s spending most of the summer on the main roster with the Horsemen. 

Mascara Dorada – unaffiliated  babyface who will be feuding with…

Lio Rush – Rush, like Black, is with Underground.

Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate - the two British guys will be feuding

Brian Kendrick – he and Mizanin are the last two surviving members of the Clique

Rich Swann– he puts Kendrick over until he leaves 

Eric Young – he debuts in this run and will be feuding with..

Jack Gallagher.

Drew Gulak/Mustafa Ali – they feud against each other

Dustin Rhodes/Primo Colon – two main roster guys who haven’t been in a PPV in a year

Velveteen Dream – a young boy, he’s putting everyone over

3 left – and they will be the final 3 guys in the match.

Sombra/Kenta/Chris Hero

-Zelina Vega joins Sombra’s act during this stretch, Sombra has been held down, he was turned on by Devitt when they were both Paul Heyman Guys and subsequently has largely been lost.  Now Vega becomes his mouthpiece vowing that he will become the next Dark Ride Champion.

-Kenta was also once a Paul Heyman Guy and defeated Bryan Danielson in the main event at Wrestlemania in Dragon’s last match.  But injuries derailed him and now he returns, vowing that he will become the next Dark Ride Champion.

-Hero only appears via vignettes, his first appearance on Dark Ride will be in this match; we establish that he’s returning to the WWF, he’s not coming back to join Claudio in Trash, he and Claudio haven’t spoken in awhile, both of them have had a change of heart.  Hero, who was a heel in his first WWF run, is now an older, wiser babyface, knowing that this is probably his last opportunity to reach a big stage.  He says he isn’t coming back to be in GDI – “GDI is dead” Hero says. 

The three men have an extended sequence at the end of the match, Hero eliminates Sombra and Kenta wins the Dark Ride Wrestling Championship by eliminating Hero.  Sombra and Hero both stay in the ring, shaking Kenta’s hand postmatch.

Then there’s a never before brand new variation of the GDI theme music.

And coming from the back, all making their WWF debuts – Kyle O’Reilly, Adam Cole, Bobby Fish.  

They’re all wearing new GDI shirts.  They slowly make their way to the ring – ignoring the three men at mid ring – they climb the buckles – they are going to get cheered – they point to their shirts – they are GDI – GDI is not dead – GDI lives – and it’s O’Reilly, Cole, and Fish.

That kicks off a program with those 6 guys, Kenta/Sombra/Hero against GDI.

The other Dark Ride note is Asuka's unbeaten streak continues - she's getting the IRL Goldberg treatment, she has a full cheerleader in Graves who otherwise is considered a heel announcer, Graves suggests she should be in that Dark Ride Warfare match, for example.  Signs go up in the arena giving her current win total, there's a social media campaign...maybe at every 25 wins people get a burrito or whatever the tie in might be.  Asuka is essentially a co-headliner with whatever the top men's match is at that moment.  

And that’s it. 

Here’s your card for Summer Slam 30.

WWF Title: AJ Styles v. Samoa Joe

The Shield (Ambrose/Black) v. Shinsuke Nakamura/Prince Devitt

No DQ: IC: Brock Lesnar (w/Heyman) v. Braun Strowman

Tags: Broken Hardys v. Usos (Jimmy/Jey)

Loser Leaves Town: Kevin Steen v. Prince Devitt

Claudio Castagnoli v. Akira Tozawa

Langston v. Roman Reigns-Uso

Rusev v. Mike Mizanin

No DQ: Full Circle (Orton/Cena) v. Bray Wyatt/Taylor Rotunda

Add in the Women’s Title contract signing and we’ve got the hottest card of 2017

Road to Summer Slam 2017 - Part 1

Wrestlemania 33 is here.

Summer Slam 2017 will come to you in August from Brooklyn.  It is the 30th Summer Slam.

RAW the night after Wrestlemania opens with the Bullet Club coming to the ring.

The build for Mania included a fractured Bullet Club – there was an evident grumbling with AJ’s leadership or lack thereof;  Becky Lynch joined the faction without AJ’s knowledge, Nakamura has largely been gone for months, focusing on his Dark Ride Wrestling feud with Joe.  But AJ promised they would be united at Mania – they were united at Mania – and the Bullet Club swept the board.

Which is the subject of AJ’s promo here.  He told you so.  AJ Styles, the best wrestler in the world, is still the WWF Champion – the longest reigning WWF Champion since Bryan Danielson.  Becky Lynch is the WWF Women’s Champion.  Anderson and Gallows whipped American Alpha – and Shinsuke Nakamura is the most proficient bodyguard in WWF history (which, if it sounds like damning with faint praise, probably is).

AJ says this Bullet Club, in the ring right now, not only is the best Bullet Club there has ever been (which is a not so subtle shot at Devitt, and gives enough grist for the mill that it can be used by the Bullet Club which still exists in NJPW and ROH, and anything that can give the appearance of a rivalry between promotions is a rising tide that lifts all boats) but also the best squad in wrestling history.  It’s not the Clique, the Hart Foundation, GDI or Underground.  It’s right here – it’s the Bullet Club.

And then – coming down the aisle – wearing a tailored pants suit - is Charlotte Flair.

Charlotte walks up to each man in the ring, before stopping at Lynch, staring her dead in the eye – and holding up four fingers.

She’s then followed by Roode and Strong, Roode in a suit, Strong in a sportscoat and slacks, they enter the ring, walk up to Anderson and Gallows, and hold up 4 fingers.

Then the Four Horsemen music hits – the same music used in the NWA and in WWF for each of the modern versions of the group, and a man not wearing a suit – a man dressed to fight – comes to the ring.

It’s Samoa Joe.

This is Joe’s first ever appearance on RAW – his devotion to staying away from WWF TV, away from competing on PPVs, led to the creation of Dark Ride Wrestling and the commission of a Dark Ride Wrestling Championship, a belt that he currently holds – he has refused at every turn to move from that initial position – refused every entreaty to join any faction at all – but here, he hits the ring, he walks up to AJ Styles – and he holds up 4 fingers.

As has been discussed previously for those unaware of TNA canon – Roode and Joe were the cornerstone figures in the TNA version of the Four Horsemen; their longest standing feud was with AJ Styles, and Joe and Styles competed in what probably were the signature matches in promotion history – and when AJ came to the WWF, the Bullet Club attacked Joe and Austin Aries (who just lost in his bid for redemption in the main event at Wrestlemania).

Joe grabs AJ – and shoot headbutts him – dropping him to the canvas – and the brawl is on, with the Four Horsemen – Joe/Roode/Strong/Charlotte Flair, cleaning house.

WWF Title: AJ Styles v. Samoa Joe

The WWF Title match is set (which will have Dark Ride implications that are covered later)  and the first half of the summer builds to that match with this newly created version of the Horsemen wearing the Bullet Club out.  The Bullet Club is constantly on their heels – either in direct matches (there is no physicality between Joe and AJ) or with the Horsemen doing run ins or sneak attacks, really establishing themselves as willing to use any tactic to go after the Bullet Club.  We get mixed tag matches in this run, where Charlotte continually kicks her old stablemate Lynch’s ass.

This stretch is about half the summer – there’s a date established early on where there will be a contract signing at mid summer and then both Joe and AJ wil leave to go train.

None of the rest of the Bullet Club comes to the contract signing, the losing throughout the summer causes AJ to cut promos on each member of the squad, they are letting him down, they are putting the title in jeopardy, and the Bullet Club looks to be on the verge of collapse as we get to the contract signing.

All of the Horsemen are in the ring with Joe.

Also in the ring is WWF Commissioner Bryan Danielson.  A staple of AJ promos throughout the summer is that Danielson needs to admit that AJ is better than he ever was.  Prior to Mania, both Regal and Nigel (color analysts for WWF TV) gave that admission.  Aries wouldn’t – and he wound up buried under the Bullet Club flag and sent out of the promotion.

AJ says at Summer Slam, when he beats Joe – he will surpass Danielson’s longest WWF title run and be the longest reigning champion since Jericho.  And when that happens, Danielson must admit that AJ is better than he ever was.

At the contract signing, with AJ on one side, the Horsemen on the other and Danielson in the middle – it’s announced that Danielson will be at ringside at Summer Slam to present the Champion with the belt postmatch – and AJ starts to cut his promo on Danielson and Joe cuts him off, “boy, don’t talk to that man, the Dragon is washed (which causes Danielson to cock his head at Joe in a way that isn’t acknowledged by anyone) you talk to me, you look at me, AJ, you look at a man who is going to hurt you, you look at a man who is going to take what you got”

We will later see the Horsemen go with Joe to the tarmac where he boards the private plane which will take him to his training camp, and we see AJ, alone, getting in the car which will take him away.

In the back half of the summer, there are video packages of WWF wrestlers talking about watching AJ/Joe matches in TNA (ideally, we have clips of those matches as well) the general sentiment is that this was state of the art stuff – that every wrestler was glued to those matches to see what those guys would do to each other.  One package includes a Danielson interview, he says the night of Survivor Series ’06, when Punk won the WWF Title, there were a lot of phone calls back and forth with a lot of the old ROH guys – and two of the guys he talked to were AJ and Joe, and we all had a lot of confidence and had a lot of good matches, but somehow, none of us could really believe that it had actually happened, that one of our guys was WWF Champion.

It’s wistful Danielson, establishing that longtime relationship with both guys.  Unsaid is that Danielson is retired now due to injury and unable to wrestle either AJ or Joe in WWF, but we all understand.

The RAW after AJ leaves the remaining members of the Bullet Club all come to ring – we learn there’s been a meeting called, but no one has any idea who called it.

And then the Bullet Club music plays – and, for the first time since Summer Slam the prior year – we see Prince Devitt.

Devitt had his labrum torn and skull fractured by Lesnar nearly a year prior and totally disappeared without a single appearance on any WWF platform.  But he returns here – and he is smiling.

The mood of the Bullet Club instantly picks up – and Devitt cuts a “we need to get back to having some fun around here” promo – AJ’s name is never mentioned, but Devitt makes clear that he’s back, he’s in charge, he’s the real leader of the Bullet Club and things are going to improve.

He also breaks some news, revealing that he, in fact, brought his protégé Lynch in to join the Bullet Club – and that he has secured clearance for Nakamura to begin wrestling on WWF PPV – and that will start at Summer Slam.

Devitt says someone else will be wrestling at Summer Slam – Prince Devitt.

In fact, Devitt says – they’re going to be wrestling together – a super team, Prince Devitt and Shinsuke Nakamura.

Devitt says this is an historic team, two of the greatest wrestlers in the world teaming together.  And it requires they face an historic opponent.

And that’s when Devitt challenges The Shield.

Devitt says he wants Ambrose, he wants Black – he wants the greatest tag team of all time – that at Summer Slam, Devitt and Nakamura want to face The Shield.

The Shield (Ambrose/Black) v. Shinsuke Nakamura/Prince Devitt

At Wrestlemania, Ambrose beat Black, the two shook hands post match, ending their feud.  They’ve been apart in the first half of the summer, each wrestling as babyface singles.  The week after this challenge they come to the ring, separately, with their singles music and gear and entrances, to respond.

They accept the challenge.  They make it clear they won’t be coming as Ambrose and Black, they’ll be coming as The Shield.  And there won’t be much left of the Bullet Club after Summer Slam. Black, of course, lost to Ambrose at Mania, and he maybe has seemed a little diminished in the aftermath – but for the rest of the summer he is particularly enthusiastic, The Shield is back together again, the Shield is an unstoppable force.

Ambrose and Black don’t tag together at all in the build, but they cut multiple promos together, and once they show up after some multi-man Bullet Club match to confront Devitt and Nakamura – the four men going nose to nose (to nose to nose).

The Bullet Club losing run ends as soon as Devitt arrives, they establish a foothold again, and have good momentum going into Summer Slam. Becky and Charlotte won’t be working Summer Slam (nor the other members of both factions) but a contract signing will take place between the two women at Summer Slam for a title match at Survivor Series.

There’s another big match at Summer Slam…

Loser Leaves Town: Kevin Steen v. Neville

We don’t see either Trash or Steen and Generico for the first couple of weeks after Mania; they are all called to the ring on a RAW near the end of April by Danielson (this is Danielson’s first post Mania appearance also, to give some gravity to this segment) Danielson thanks all four men – says it was a great feud, and at Wrestlemania they had what he believes is the greatest tag team match in the history of the WWF.  And now it’s over – these four nearly killed each other – he’s got lots of ideas for all four men – and it’s time to move on.

Neville walks up to Steen and says it will never be over.  He will fight these men forever.

The four men brawl – Danielson is clearly exasperated.

Next week we hear about a Danielson verdict, there is to be no more physicality among these four men; there’s a match with Steen and Generico taking on someone; let’s say it’s Roode and Strong, but there’s no finish, Trash attacks – and it’s a particularly violent brawl, the announce goes off the air, the brawl continues even as the show is out of time, there’s more blood than you’d normally see outside of PPV.

Another couple of weeks pass, we’re told all four men are barred from the buildings.  There’s another in  ring meeting with Danielson and all four men.  This time he’s stern – he does not want to be this person who puts his foot down, he wants to rip off his skin when he thinks about being that person (the wear of the job appears on Danielson’s face) but he just has to be.  He wants a commitment, right now, from all four men that this is over – or he will have to take a drastic, irrevocable option.

Steen walks up to Neville.  Tells him he will fight him forever.

The four men converge – Danielson jumps in between them, yelling at them to stop – no more, no more.

Danielson says at Summer Slam, a man from each team will face off in a Loser Leaves Town match.

If they won’t stop on their own – he’s stopping it.

Over the next couple of weeks we get vignettes to see how each side decides who will be in the match – Steen immediately decides; says he’s going in.  Generico protests – Steen won’t have it.  Steen says he’s already been WWF Champion and Generico’s never had a chance.  Steen says if one of them has to leave – it should be him.  It’s nice.  Steen also says Generico owes him one.

Trash finds it harder to decide.  They’re heels after all. They bring in Gargano – who should it be, Johnny? Who, Johnny?

Gargano doesn’t want to be in this position – they tell him to man up. He’s been watching everything they’ve done for months.  He’s in the best spot to decide.  One of us goes in.  Who will it be?
Gargano says Neville.  Gargano says Claudio is an all time great – but Neville is on fire right now, on
the best roll of his career, just fueled by  an incomprehensible amount of rage – and he has the best chance of taking out Steen.

Claudio is also working a match at Summer Slam..

Claudio Castagnoli v. Akira Tozawa

There’s no angle here; it’s strictly a workrate match.  Generico is not on the card, focusing entirely on seconding Steen that night.

That’s four matches and we still have two title matches to go.  Here they are:

IC: Brock Lesnar (w/Heyman) v. Braun Strowman
Tags: Broken Hardys v. Usos (Jimmy/Jey)

We’ll divide this build into two parts and talk about those two matches, the 3 remaining matches, and Dark Ride in a couple of weeks. If this seems like a hot show, yeah, it looks that way from here too. Part 2 is here.