Mad Dog

I find with Cornette that he's just completely out of touch with modern wrestling. The guys he really likes and speaks highly of have bombed like Seth Rollins and the guys that he hates are the guys that are draws.

Can he even get down to his knees to make a count at this point? I guess he can be like Mongo in TNA and do a standing count. I think he'll be used like he was before in 2015 as a talking head, maybe hosting a network special or something, and coming out for special appearances. I don't recall him doing a lot physically in 2014/15 other than taking a bump off of X-Pac during the Sting/HHH match. That match he had with Sting in TNA was pretty amazing considering he really couldn't bump anymore.

I find Cornette to be interesting because of his almost obsessive need to write things down. So with Cornette, he has his obvious biases but you also tend to get the clearest picture when he's being honest because he has it written down somewhere.

I haven't enjoyed the product as much or liked some of the choices they've made this year. But New Japan has always kind of been that way for me and sometimes I'm just wrong. I highly disliked the first time they put the belt on Okada and I was dead wrong there. I also find that New Japan just has some dead patches even in the hot times. September to December was filler until a couple of years ago. The good times have to end sometime. It's not like it's 2002-2005 again.

It's really interesting to see Jericho basically becoming a Japanese style freelancer in America.

Random talking head on various Network specials who you trot out once or twice a year for big events?

People should just scroll past his posts. That's what I do. Even if I try to read one it's gibberish like the one he just did in the TNA thread. I should have followed my own advice on that one.

My problem is he'll whip it out in a match where it feels out of place. One of the AJ matches over the summer comes to mind. He pulled it out in the worst place possible. But I agree, he's usually talking trash and he's usually doing it to piss off the crowd. I like that Owens isn't afraid to be hated.

I think Owens is an easy answer. The things that make him great also become lazy and awful crutches when he's phoning it in. Chinlock city can be brilliant in one match and eye rolling in another one.

I know right? Like Castle vs. Scurll is your top program still and they went 4ish episodes with no mention of it or any interaction between them.

I feel like his WWE work has been mostly mediocre but his NXT run was top tier.

He barely did anything in that Summerslam 4 way too. That was all Braun being awesome.

They also run an annual crossover event with New Japan.

I find him to be mostly obnoxious. I would rather listen to Cornette or even Kevin Nash when it comes to history than Bruce Pritchard. I do find it's pretty easy to tell when he's lying or telling the truth. My issues with him are similar to my issues with Al Snow.

I know when I turn on RoH programming that I'm just dying for long winded Bubba Dudley promos.

Hey remember when no one wanted to see Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy a decade ago?

It's really ridiculous that it takes a month for RoH TV to reflect any fallout from their big TV shows. I don't even remember what happened at Supercard of Honor by this point.

Yeah. I'm with you on Gargano/Ciampa. They aren't going to top their match so it feels pointless.

I thought you were going in a totally different direction with that destroyer of.

One of my favorite parts of New Japan the last couple of years has been watching Nagata, Tenzan and Kojima working Young Lions on the undercards. I'll always check out a house show if they're on it. There's something really cool watching Nagata work with a guy that's had a handful of matches.

I really kind of wish they would leave Full Sail on a regular basis to get some different crowds. The Full Sail crowd feels really burnt out.

I don't know if it was this decade but Ibushi got an almost *** match out of a blowup doll in DDT. I could see an easy argument for him being worker of the decade when all is said and done.

I feel like all Kona Reeves needs is a stuffed cat and he's Hiromi Takahashi.

I've said it before. It's really a shame that Pete Dunne wasn't around in the mid 2000s and in that RoH/IWA:MS/JAPW ecosystem having great matches.

I think my votes would be WWE, New Japan and CMLL. You can talk all you want about creative and match output. But I think survival and continued relevance counts for a lot.