Song of the Day - Witches

Blackbird Raum - Witches from Swidden (2008)

Blackbird Raum are an anarchopunk band with acoustic instruments ranging from accordions and banjos to washboards and singing saws.

Blackbird Raum will be playing a really sweet show this Friday with equally unique folk punk acts, Speaker for the Dead and Portland, Maine's finest, Butcher Boy at The Oak & The Ax in Biddeford!

It'll be something special for sure!

Blackbird Raum also have a new album called, False Weavers out now! You can stream it on Spotify if you're into that sort of thing.

Last.fm

Match of the Day - X-Punk whips Shane-O-Mac and HHH & Chyna join the dark side at WM15

X-Pac vs. Shane McMahon - European title match - WrestleMania XV (1999)

As a much younger, full time mark, I had a special best of WrestleMania DVD (one of the first DVDs I ever owned) that chronicled some of the best matches and events at the grandest stage of them all from WMI to WMXV. Whether it was the fact that my attention spend gave out right before the end of the video and I was getting antsy or that this particular WrestleMania was just the most exciting to my young brain, I remember always getting really amped up when this match was being recapped! 

And then there's the swerve: As X-Pac laid out Shane McMahon via the X-Factor and was about to cover him for the won, Triple H and Chyna come down to ringside and pulled Test out of the ring. Then Chyna distracted the ref while Triple H climbed into the ring and does the unthinkable. Triple H pedigrees X-Pac and drapes Shane-O-Mac over his unconscious friend, signifying that Triple H and Chyna had turned on their own team/stable and gone to the dark side: The Corporation.

Just one year before this, Triple H introduced the returning X-Pac as the new member of D-Generation X on Raw the night after WMXIV!

Theme results:

WrestleMania: WMXV

Match of the Day - Cactus Jack & Chainsaw Charlie take out the trash at WM14!

Here's another great gimmick match from 90's era WrestleMania:

Cactus Jack & Chainsaw Charlie vs. The New Age Outlaws (Billy Gunn & Road Dogg) - first ever Dumpster match for the WWF tag team championship - WrestleMania XIV (1998)

Oh yes, the dumpster match!

After Chainsaw Charlie AKA 53 year old Terry Funk and his tag team partner, Cactus Jack were sent for a ride in a dumpster courtesy of the New Age Outlaws on Raw, the hardcore legends were certainly looking for revenge. So, what better way to get their revenge than by taking on the two young punks, Billy Gunn and Road Dogg, in a special match featuring the very same type of trash container that Foley and Funk almost had their careers come to a crashing end in when they were pushed off the ramp on Raw 2 months prier. Despite the titles being on the line in this match, this wasn't about winning the gold for the hardcore legends. No, it was all about punishing Gunn and Road Dogg and then taking out the trash...

The result: Chainsaw Charlie and Cactus Jack do end up taking out the trash big time with the help of the trusty forklift! But because they used a dumpster in the backstage area rather than the designated one for the match, the New Age Outlaws lobbied for the titles to be dropped. So, the next night on Raw the titles were contested in a cage match with the two teams from the dumpster match facing off one last time. The match ended with the New Age Outlaws getting their titles back thanks to the help of their new brotherhood: D-Generation X!

And yes, Mick Foley does take a huge bump, this time in the form of a ladder spot into the dumpster. There was no need for the ladder in this match other than for Foley to take a nasty bump from a high place once again.

Theme results:

WrestleMania: WMXIV

Song of the Day - Kowboyz&Indians

Gonjasufi - Kowboyz&Indians from A Sufi And A Killer (2010)

Heard this song for the first time today and thought it was pretty interesting. Reminds me of David Liebe Hart for some reason. Maybe if he (DLH) was really into dub and yoga...

Last.fm

Match of the Day - The WM7 Blindfold Match

"We always do it better in the dark" - Jake Roberts

Jake "The Snake" Roberts vs. "The Model" Rick Martel - Blindfold match - WrestleMania VII (1991)

Many consider this little gimmick match at the All-American/Undertaker streak debut WrestleMania to be a pretty crappy match. Yes, it does feature two athletes who could wrestle the hell out of each other with bags over their heads, but that's looking at the whole scheme of things out of context. Without the knowledge of the feud these two had between each other in 1991 and the back story, a back story literally built months in advance, one should not assume this match was picked from a raw roulette wheel in the back featuring two guys Vinny Mac forgot to put on the card that year. 

Okay then... the back story: 

Some time after "The Model" Rick Martel introduced his very own line of cologne - properly named: "Arrogance", which was kept in a large atomizer, Martel began using it arrogantly on his opponents by spraying it into their eyes. One night during The Brother Love show with special guest, Jake Roberts, Martel sneaked up behind Roberts while he was dropping a stunning promo about love or something and sprayed his pet snake, Damien with the perfume. Before Roberts could retaliate he was sprayed directly into his eyes, blinding him! Eventually Roberts appeared to be healed, but only to reveal that he had snake eyes! Dun dun dun. Roberts and Martel would feud with one another all throughout 1991, including facing off at Survivor Series with their own respective teams (Robert's team was called The Vapors and Martel's team was called The Visionaries, a rib on Roberts and his blindness). Eventually, the two would settle their differences once and for all at the WM in a match right up Roberts alley. Seeing as Roberts now had an extra sense because he was some sort of blind snake metaphor, it was only fitting that he challenge Martel in a blindfold match where The Model would have to experience the darkness that Roberts was living in for months. 

Now don't get me wrong, this is a silly match for WrestleMania. If you look at the events leading up to this match, however, it really does make sense. Hell, I think it would have been even more interesting if the whole arena was pitch black so everyone could see what it was like to be blind. Image that: a blindfold lights out match. Genius! 

Theme results:

WreslteMania: WM IV

Match of the Day - The match that really started it all!

Tito Santana vs. The Executioner - WrestleMania I (1985)

What better way to open WrassleMania week than with the match that started it all. I'm not talking that Hulk Hogan and Mr. T/Rowdy Roddy piper and "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff match - uh uh -I'm talking Chico Santana versus The Executioner! The first ever WrestleMania match!

Any smart mark will tell you that this bout between the masked and very unknown Executioner (not to be confused with Terry Gordy's Executioner) and Tito Santana was really what started "the Grandest Stage of Them All", making it more than just "the Okay Stage for Some".

Don't believe me? Just listen to comments that these two athletes were echoing through Madison Square Garden at each other that night! 

Tito Santana would go on to wrestle in the next seven WM's until WM IX when he competed in the dark match before the show.

Theme results:

Wrestlemania: WMI

Theme of the Week - RassleMania!

In honor of WrestleMania week/weekend, this weeks "theme" will be WrestleMania matches. Pretty self explanatory...

This week each year will now be reserved for WrestleMania matches and WrestleMania matches only. No other week will feature WrestleMania matches anymore, I promise.

Enjoy.