Loss

That was really weird, yes.

And if it does do well, we won't know if it's just hot town for WWE and "the brand".

Announcement of a house show match on TV!

I was already to go over the moon for this based on how it built in the opening 10-15 minutes. That was some great matwork, and the intensity and frustration on both sides was palpable. But overall, they took a few detours that took this down a few pegs for me. I'm not a fan of yay-boo strike exchanges at all, which was a lot of the final stretch. I'm also not a fan of the adrenaline rush where wrestlers are impervious to suplexes, and there was a lot of that. It's a shame, because they were building a classic in many ways, and it was cool to see both guys in with someone at their level. This came together as a great match at the end but it was building into something a lot more special than that, and that never quite came to pass. Sometimes I think matches that hover around this level are good matches that overachieve, but this was a would-be classic that fell short. ****

I don't know if I agree, but I think it's awesome that he said it.

Not many, and that's my point. I can't see a reason to do a dangerous spot that doesn't get a reaction and that won't be part of any highlight reels. All risk, no reward.

Why do a move like that that doesn't even get a pop?

I don't like how Mauro sees calling matches as a knowledge dump first and foremost. His voice is also too stuffy. My husband can't bring himself to watch anything when Mauro is announcing because his voice is so grating.

I love his character work right now and thought he did more to get the right reaction against Roman Reigns than anyone has been able to do in a very long time, although it was admittedly something that couldn't sustain. Still, that's an accomplishment in the current climate. I also noticed how he didn't do very much at all and was incorporating lots of schtick, at least by his usual standards of action. It may be bullshit, but Jericho would probably say he doesn't want to have a great match right now because fans appreciate great matches now and he doesn't want to be appreciated.

I figured as much. What I don't get is why they didn't target it until the last two minutes, or that it didn't seem to shape the match in any way until then. It worked the way they did it, it just felt tacked on was all. It's definitely a mild issue at best, but it was one thing that brought an otherwise really great match down slightly down for me.

Mentioning that he was significantly smaller is kind of the point. It's such an obvious visual that didn't seem to be played up nearly enough. I've seen Ogawa work other guys much bigger than him and he usually does an awesome long stretch of desperate offense where he's cutting a fast pace and trying every single legal and illegal tactic at his disposal in rapid fire succession. The comparison was not intended to Flair specifically -- I was thinking of matches with big size differences and which matches got that over the most convincingly where the smaller guy was the heel, and that was the one I came up with. Chalk it up to my expectations -- I was thinking we were going to see a more epic version of Akiyama-Ogawa from '98.

Well this blew me away. This came across like something completely from the future, and the crowd didn't quite know what to make of it at first, which was pretty amusing. Danielson and Ki worked about as close to a RINGS match as we're probably going to get stateside and looked great doing it. Ki was incredibly giving, perhaps because Danielson was more of an unknown with this crowd and they needed to establish him, not to mention that Ki was going over anyway. It seemed like Danielson had Ki's number every step of the way, both in ground game and when the striking started. Unbelievable in some ways because of its context -- it's not like these two were working a style that was suddenly en vogue or that anyone else was doing anything like this. In that sense, it felt incredibly daring. Danielson's mat game is just phenomenal and he still wasn't as good as he'd become. The "tap out" stip really aided them here -- they worked the entire match in extremely close proximity, which added even more to the intensity. I'll be shocked if I see anything in 2002 that I think is as good as this, but I just might. We'll see. ****3/4

I liked this, but not at the level I wanted to like it or that I expected to like it. I enjoyed Ogawa ambushing Kobashi before the bell but the stuff working over his knee bugged me -- not because he was doing it, but because he wasn't cheating nearly enough to have such an advantage. As most people who have talked wrestling with me for any length of time know, I'm not someone who thinks small guys shouldn't be competitive with big guys, but I do think the size difference should be part of the story. I think about something like Flair-Giant from 3/96 on Nitro where Flair exaggerated the size difference and made Giant look like a million bucks. That wasn't in the same league of this match, and Kobashi isn't exactly a giant, so I don't think they needed to go to that extreme. But it seemed like they missed something that was right there. Yes, Ogawa had a track record of being competitive with heavies, but I didn't like that that part of the match had them working each other like they were the same size. It was a distraction. At times, this felt more like a collection of great ideas than a cohesive great match -- lots of cool moments but the connecting thread was a little weak at times. Key moments, specifically in Ogawa positioning the ref to his advantage (a heel's lost art!), were done exceptionally well. I also liked Ogawa bleeding and paying for his earlier sins. But some of the extended runs of offense -- from both guys -- were on the bland side, and even Ogawa's moment of truth didn't have quite the level of drama I hoped for. When I did my GWE list I remember debating Yoshinari Ogawa or El Samurai in the #100 spot. Watching this match tells me I made the right decision in going with Samurai. I love Ogawa, I really do, but Samurai worked a very similar match against Jushin Liger in 1992 that was so much tighter and crisper, without the moments where it seemed like not much was happening. I give them huge credit for doing something different and for working a style near and dear to my heart. I enjoyed the hell out of it as a novelty. But it didn't strike me as an all-time classic. ***3/4

Consider this my first shot of adrenaline. I feel like with the daily grind, my love of wrestling has taken a hit in recent months and I asked around for some suggestions to pump some life back into me. This absolutely did the trick. The best tag team match I've seen since I can even remember. I liked all the neat little heel tricks we got from the beginning, but also that them working this style doesn't feel like a cutesy in-joke about an era gone by -- the stuff they wanted to get certain reactions got the desired reactions, and with a smart crowd at that. The leg stuff at the end felt a little tacked on when it wasn't really part of the match up until that point at all, but I don't see that as a huge negative, or maybe not even a negative at all. Doing it the way they did felt like it had contextual meaning that probably went over my head. I'm also not really a fan of babyfaces submitting. But I loved everything else about this -- the match was made by Dash and Dawson pulling some stuff out of mothballs that hasn't been done for years, making it fresh again. They served many masters by doing all the nearfalls that are sort of a requisite for a big WWE match but also building drama from the opening bell to the bitter end and not compromising their tag team vision in the slightest. Great match. ****1/4

I don't like Stephanie being portrayed the way she is either, but I also think calling her a bad performer is harsh. She's developed into a very good TV performer with experience -- great facial expressions and easy to dislike. She's miles ahead of Shane, but then again, I think she always has been.

I remember in the early 2000s that Dave would write about how right or wrong, for people who saw wrestling as escapist, they didn't like seeing a woman with so much power in storylines. So whether it's the predominant factor or not (and I don't think it is at this point), it's there.

jdw, I think the argument is that we've shifted from smarky crowds as occasional anomalies to smarky crowds as the general norm.

The issue with that is that songs don't usually have previous released songs or poems or books written before hand that make that song either worse or better. It's the job of the review to point those things out where they happen. Lots of music is greatly enhanced by understanding the political climate in which it was produced or the artist's personal history, so I think it works.

No, we're never moving away from the music comparisons. And all are under the auspices of the promotion's banner, so to me, it's the exact same thing. WWE is the band and Summerslam was the album featuring band members AJ Styles, Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, John Cena and Brock Lesnar, among others.

I look at a card as being like an album and a match as being like a track. Most album reviews don't walk through each track, so I don't think most show reviews need to walk through each individual match. Of course, if a match warrants the review, that's fine.

Miz-Nakamura has potential to be an incredible program.

I want to clarify something. For me, it's not about a right or wrong approach. It's about each of us really defining and fleshing out our own approaches. My personal pie in the sky that will never happen is that one day I can say, "In my opinion, here are the 5000 greatest matches in the history of recorded and available pro wrestling footage", only needing to revise it as new matches happen or old matches are uncovered. That doesn't mean everyone's mission needs to match mine. It's a bit frightening, so I sort of hope I'm on an island. But if I wasn't fueled by that pursuit, I would have stopped watching a long, long time ago.

I see it as an end. I think we've finally nailed down the key difference. Productive!

Yes. However, I believe all criteria used to critique a medium should be universal. If you can't figure out the intent behind every match ever, you should ignore the intent even when you are able to figure it out. Because for me, comparison is the ultimate goal of all of it. And maybe that's where we differ.

Your mileage may vary on whether or not it was significant, but Miz & Mizdow clicked. It wasn't high card stuff, but the two of them got it over very well.