Mad Dog

So... are there any indy feds even worth investing in right now? I've looked at Chikara several times but the price of the DVDs just turn me off and what I've seen on Youtube just makes it look to spotty and flip flop for my tastes. Most of my wrestling budget goes towards buying Mid-South DVDs and keeping up with New Japan and Dragon's Gate. Is it even worth skipping a few Mid-South DVDs to try Chikara or a couple of other indy promotions?

Yeah, Len Denton would be it. I even said that at one point and then thought I was mistaken. Thanks for the help.

I figure you guys have the answer to this. I was having a discussion at work today and we were talking about a wrestler used a loaded boot and claimed to need a lift because one leg was shorter than the other. I can almost picture the guy in my head but for the life of me can't remember his name.

I think through August New Japan is still my promotion of the year. They're just had spectacular booking this year. The IWGP Title scene has been interesting all year and the title defenses have all been built up well and they've stopped hot shotting. They've also finally started moving the promotion forward and are making Yuji Nagata, Togi Makabe, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Shinsuke Nakamure the focus of the shows instead of guys like Chono.

Nah, he'll just show up in OVW again minus the bulk and suddenly be big again for television.

Just an FYI, Meltzer is on the newest Bill Simmons podcast. The first portion is about Benoit but then they go into just wrestling and why it's down right now. Simmons is actually a wrestling fan so it's not your typical wrestling topic on a sports show.

Hopefully the physical belt ends up back with NJPW. That belt is one of my favorite title belts as far as appearance goes.

I'd argue against that. I think the WWE struggles so much because they've made wins and losses so meaningless that people won't let them get themselves invested in anyone. It also doesn't help that they job anyone out who gets over when they don't want them to.

Nice little surprise on Primetime this week as the Crush Gals make an appearance.

Yeah, the other one is called MECHA Mummy Lite or something like that. I can't think of the last time I heard about them though. My guess is that they're still doing some shows but probably for some really small promotion.

I think they use him as a way to lure in bigger stars with the idea of a match where they don't have to bump. Most of his moves include doing a rope walk where they just kind of walk around the ring with him and then fling him when he goes for a move and the other one is he tries chopping them in the corner until he wears himself out and has no effect.

I was looking through some of the Differ Arena shows to get an idea of attendance figures and there was a show earlier this month with most of the native talents they're using. It drew 380 fans. And that's probably the bullshit figure the promotion throws out there too.

Strike that. It's the night after Misawa defending the GHC against Taue.

I think the Tokyo show is going to bomb horribly. It's coming just a couple of days after Misawa defending the title against Taue in NOAH's biggest show of the year. It's also only going to be like a week and a half after Nagata making an IWGP defense against Makabe. I don't see how they expect to draw anyone in with the card they threw out there. Most of their roster will be virtual unknowns to most Japanese wrestling fans. Are they just hoping that American wrestling is a big enough draw on it's own?

He was ok working with Jim Cornette but now that he has to carry the show it's awful.

I couldn't tell you. I gave up on OVW for good last summer when it turned into a total shithole worker wise. Real shame too as it was a really good promotion when Cornette was booking even when the workers were sub-par. It really makes the WWE future seem bleak when all their projects are completely awful.

I like him in the six man tags quite a bit but I'm fairly indifferent towards him as a singles. Though I like a lot of other guys more than him as far as Dragon's Gate goes.

I watched the 3/25 Dragon's Gate show last night. Nothing really blew me away on the show but DG is usually fun either way. Liger beat Fuji in the main event to win the Open the Dream Gate belt in a pretty solid match. The highlight of the night was probably Jun Akiyama beating the hell out of Stalker Ichikawa Z who's fucking hilarious in the ring. His role in the company is to basically get the shit kicked out of him by big name talent from other promotions.

I imagine they'll just hold back on MNW for a few weeks and not edit him out. They could only get away with it for so long before he was too important a part of the shows. I have no problem with them yanking his DVD and never selling it again though.

Not really. I haven't come across anything with Benoit in it yet though. So I guess we'll find out then. I made peace with the fact that my hobby is scummy and carny a long time ago.

Just a side note I guess. 24/7 has deleted all of the programs that have Benoit on it. So Monday Night Wars and Wrestlemania 23 got axed. Should be interesting to see when they update the MNW show and if Benoit will be on it or edited out.

You can order issues as singles. I've never heard a fan who's met him say anything nice about him or it being a pleasant meeting.

The coverage doesn't really surprise me. This is par for the course of how right they get the facts in just about everything. My friend got brutally attacked a few years ago and the paper ran an article. I believe the only fact they got right was the weapon he was attacked with.

The guy who does the Raw recaps is standable more often than not.

I also wanted to throw out there that New Japan really deserves a little more credit for this year. They're booking has been the best it's been since possibly the late 90s. They aren't doing anything counter-productive, they rebuilt Yuji Nagata into a credible champion, etc. It seems they finally have their shit together and have for awhile now.