Mad Dog

I think it's an interesting mix of talent but I'm wondering where they'll find main event talent. I guess Styles and ADR are possibilities due to their working relationships. Rey Mysterio would be interesting but does anyone really want to see him wrestle anymore?

Some guy in the autograph seeker community got busted for faking having a kid with cancer a few years ago. So I think scumbags like that are everywhere.

Green Lantern Fan booing that guy doing a tribute to his dead friend at a Chikara show. The Chris Candido funeral was also pretty disgusting.

Moose can work their shows if he doesn't appear on TV or PPV. I'm guessing he's going to get a nice paycheck from whoever locks him down in June.

I usually skip the tournament but it looks really interesting this year.

Seiya Sanada was also announced.

This came out on the Global Force site today. globalforcewrestling.com/reveal

How does that upscale?

We should do a drinking game at the New Japan shows. Take a shot every time Corino mentions Tanahashi getting stabbed by his girlfriend.

BikerTaker showed it could always be worse...

Motivational speaker DDP. This was an obvious attempt to bury him but he embraced the gimmick and had some really funny segments with it.

They've been on borrowed time for 5 years.

Kobashi was barely on the roster: he was making a comeback that year, and as I said never worked a singles match that year before going out for the year on the same card where Sasaki won the belt. So if we take Misawa as the only star on the roster. He's the one who put Morishima over. He'd tried to get other people over in the past in NOAH, each of whom also put Morishima over in either the chase or after he got the belt. NOAH was fucked. It really wasn't Misawa's fault that none of the fans bought anyone as being an Ace other than he and Kobashi. He kept trying from 1998 on to get someone else over as the Ace in both All Japan and NOAH. They all failed, except for Kobashi's one period of being healthy in NOAH. I agree. You could see the promotion losing steam as Misawa's reign progressed. Looking back it was a slow down hill slide from Misawa/Kawada at the Dome in 2005. Also, what was the time frame of Kobashi's cancer absence.

My memories are really fuzzy about this specific era but it felt like Misawa and Kobashi were the only stars on the roster by that point.

No good challengers until Sasaki and then he lost that match. I don't think he was a total failure like Rikio and Marufuji were. It just felt like he never beat anyone important minus the Misawa win.

I was never a big fan of him but NOAH missed the boat on him big time.

I'm not super excited for that card other than Briscoes vs. Okada/Nakamura.

I think Kane vs. A-Train is a good example of two guys just clicking and having an unexpected good match.

We didn't even bring up all the times HHH went over Orton at key moments in his career. EDIT: Never mind, I missed it in the sea of HHH examples.

No, because even a guy like Hogan was justified in not putting people over for a vast majority of his career. HHH was protected like a top guy while never producing like a top guy. That makes him worse.

To add to Nash/Goldberg. Nash also went over Wrath in the build up to that match.

Molly Holly always did a nice arm wringer.

Fully Loaded 2000. HHH beat Jericho and Taker beat Angle. I think Taker beating Angle was completely illogical. It wouldn't have hurt Taker one bit to lose that match and it would have been a huge win for Angle at the time. Jeff Jarrett beating Raven in 2003. They really managed to build a lot of interest in the match and then sent a lot of first time viewers away disappointed. There wasn't a match and that was the problem with Test and HHH. HHH stole his girlfriend and he never got a shot at revenge in the ring. I think there was some throwaway match a year later which HHH obviously won. Keiji Mutoh beating Seiya Sanada in Wrestle-1. Take your up and coming future of the company and don't put him over the aging legend. Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard beating the Road Warriors at Starcade.

I hate this and the opposite of it. That's when the guys work an uncharacteristically slow match and you know they're just stretching it out to go long.

I think as far as Warrior/Savage goes. You can't have a match that good and it be a carry job. I also think Warrior had been in enough good matches around that time period that you can probably say that he wasn't totally carried. I tend to think of it as a carry job if that match stands out as good in a complete sea of shit from a particular worker. Or if it's a veteran getting a really good match out of a very young and green talent. Say something like Flair/Sting from the first Clash of the Champions would be an example of a veteran carrying a young guy.