Loss

I would say that's a valid complaint about this match. The main reason I included it was to show the atmosphere of 80s AJW, and how it really tops anything any other promotion has ever done as far as creating life-or-death drama and evoking emotion from an audience. Fans crying in the audience at wrestling matches has happened in other cases, but never anything like this. Chigusa Nagayo is my favorite female wrestler ever. She was over at a level no one has ever been over in wrestling. Ever. You can talk about Hogan and the Rock in the US, or even Inoki in Japan. Chigusa was Madonna. She didn't have to work as hard as she did. She could have coasted. But she didn't. Just six days before this, she had an incredible match against Devil Masami (look for it soon), who you see here as one of the many trying to save her. I really want someone to do a Chigusa Nagayo comp at some point, especially focusing on her 1980s career.

I have only seen this match once, and it was way before I actually put it on the DVD. I don't recall who the captain was, only that poor Fuerza Guerrera kept pinning the wrong guy. If memory serves me correctly, Fuerza pinned Azteca and Texano, but not Dandy. So I think yes, Dandy was the captain. I need to rewatch this. I included this because I thought it was a good introduction to a lot of people in lucha that get discussed quite a bit. I think what I remember impressing me most about this was that there was no Kevin Nash tore his quad-style freakout after Pierroth hurt himself.

Cena finds a way to win. He's not really a champ who easily dominates his opponents. If people aren't buying that the guy across the ring can beat him, in the case of Cena, I really think that's a reflection on the booking not doing an adequate job creating doubt. In a typical case like this, a wrestler does shoulder some of the blame, but I've never gotten the impression from any Cena match that he isn't taking the other guy seriously or thinks he's somehow above him. I do agree that WWE hasn't done the best of jobs creating real threats for Cena at times. Of everyone he's been programmed against lately, only Michaels was a guy that really seemed to stand a chance of winning. The Umaga match is a tad overrated and felt more like a movie fight scene to me than a wrestling match, but it was still a terrific performance from Cena and a very good match. The RAW match with Michaels is really the best match I've seen Michaels have since coming back in 2002, and is also my pick for best Cena match and performance ever. Rock outclasses Cena as an interview. Rock outclasses all but a very small handful of guys in history as an interview. But I still think the comparison of the two at respective stages of their careers is valid. I think you could argue HHH in 2000 being better than Michaels in 2007 -- a stronger heel, a better wrestler with more to offer ... just all around better in every way I can think of. And yet, I still don't think that the Rock/HHH Ironman, while it was impressive, was as good as Michaels/Cena from TV.

I would normally agree about Matt being solid but never being spectacular, but I think he's closer to greatness these days than he's ever been. Matches with Joey Mercury, Mr. Kennedy, MVP, Miz, Finlay, Regal, Booker T, MNM and Cade/Murdoch have all been pretty good. He's probably more consistent than anyone in 2007 WWE aside from maybe Cena. I think Matt said recently in an interview that he thinks he has a long way to go as a character before he becomes a main event guy, but thinks he's there in the ring. I'd agree with that.

Oh, and re: Miz, I agree with tomk from a few months back that he needs to get Coral to come in as his valet. Coral being herself in the context of wrestling would be amazing.

Considering he worked right after Eddy Guerrero, Brian Pillman, Owen Hart and other people close to him have died, I suspect there's more to it.

So, according to the WON, Matt and Jeff Hardy are both about to get pretty big singles pushes. Jeff will most likely be given kind of a prankster gimmick in a way of working him into the Jackass angle for Summerslam. Matt is going to continue going over midcarders on Smackdown, and holding his own with main eventers while ultimately losing in the end but staying protected. The Matt Hardy thing doesn't sound like a major push on paper, but he's good enough in the ring to make the most of it. He's been on quite the roll this year, and I'm glad WWE has noticed. Both are guys that WWE has had to change long-term plans for many times in the past because they end up getting more over than expected, so things could always change. But I think both of these pushes are overdue. Both have always been over. Jeff's comeback has been better than expected, and Matt seems to have redeemed himself with WWE after the whole Edge thing.

I don't think there's anything wrong with liking good offense in wrestling, and I don't think that was being implied either. I think the point is that if you just look at one aspect of what Cena can do, you're missing out on some really good match layouts, some really good selling performances, and some surprisingly good matches against a pretty diverse group of opponents. RVD, HHH, Umaga, JBL, Great Khali and Shawn Michaels are not really the same type of wrestler, and I really felt like all the matches were something different. I agree that Cena's biggest weakness at this point is still his execution. 100%, wholeheartedly agree. That said, it's one of many things that make a wrestler talented. There are nights when you see Cena looking really good as far as his execution, and there are nights where you see he is struggling a little bit. He's not a natural. But he has such a good mind for wrestling and is such a great sympathy seller and has had so many good matches that I still think he should be classified as a good worker, in spite of his weaknesses. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. If anything, it reminds me of The Rock around 2000. You could tell his mind was in the right place and he was having good matches, but physically, he was a bit awkward at times and it took him a little longer to get past that. But he did get past it, and Cena will too. And as much as Rock improved in 2001 (and in his limited number of matches after that), I wouldn't write off everything he did prior that either. We haven't seen John Cena hit his peak yet, and considering what he's already accomplished, it's hard to argue that as anything but impressive. Still, he's pretty good, because he understands the big picture so well. And what I like about him is that he has the mind of a veteran in the ring, in that if the crowd completely flips out and does something unexpected, he handles it well and keeps his cool under pressure. I think that's actually his strong point.

The thing is, Benoit has a really strong track record of being a professional. Can anyone really imagine Benoit missing a show for a no good reason? Seriously? Also, I think I should change the name of this thread.

Settings have been updated where you can now include up to 200 (!) quote tags in a post. This opens the door for lots of line-by-line arguing, and I personally can't wait.

The crowd was chanting "We want Benoit" during a match where he was supposed to show up and didn't. Remember that next time some idiot states Benoit isn't over. You don't find fans chanting for people who aren't at shows very often in WWE.

I can understand where you're coming from to an extent, but I would also argue that while the initial mixed reaction was not something the company created or wanted, it is a reaction WWE has since found desirable. They now purposely book in a way to get that mixed reaction because it increases Cena's appeal -- both as a babyface and a heel.

Oh my GOD. Was the Torch always a subtle version of "Sean Waltman Does The News" and we didn't notice it until Jericho jumped, or was that the beginning of Wade losing his mind and thus taking his sources at face value? To answer this question, I think this was really the point when Keller started to crumble. Most of the stuff I've found Googling prior to Jericho jumping has been well-written and pretty reasonable. I think Keller was pretty good at what he does at one time.

Whatever the emergency for Benoit was must have been pretty serious, considering that it would take a lot for someone like him to miss a scheduled match on pay-per-view. Meltzer later added that Rick Martel is at the show for the same reasons Race and Magnum are.

Tenay was a color guy in WCW, so his role was much different. That's obviously what he's suited for, not whatever it is he's doing now.

That was the first time I've ever watched UFC. I obviously don't know shit about it, but the whole athletic commission thing really felt like worked wrestling. Gray Maynard's reaction also seemed like acting. I couldn't really get into the show, but I didn't actively hate it either. I was just more confused by the whole thing than anything.