gordi

A stupidly large number of "newz" sites were reporting that Kairi Sane is now married to EVIL

What kind of amazes me about this show is that both Cobb and Wardlow lost clean but I don't feel at all like either of them were buried. I mean, both of them looked like powerful bad-asses and I think they both kept that aura even while taking clean pinfalls in a "henchman softens up the hero for his boss" type of role. AEW somehow seems to have a knack for getting guys over without always needing to have them go over. Darby Allin is probably the best example of this. I'm not sure what it is, but I am really impressed by it... [Jesse voice] and I don't impress easy. [/Jesse voice]

Fun project so far. I'm abstaining a fair bit, which I hope is OK, either because I don't like a wrestler enough to give them a vote or because I don't feel like I have seen enough to judge. With 2048 wrestlers, some are going to fall into one or the other of those categories in the first couple of rounds. On the other hand, there have already been a couple of tough calls. It's going to be insane once we get into the later rounds.

I'll be sad when this is finished. It's fun to have something like this to read every day. With the matches I'm familiar with, I enjoy comparing your opinions to mine (often very similar, but even when I disagree I can see where you are coming from). And then there are all the matches I am less familiar with. El Hijo del Santo/Scorpio Jr./Bestia Salvaje vs. Negro Casas/El Dandy/Hector Garza (CMLL, 11/29/96) for example. I'm sure I must have seen it before. I had one of those poor-video-quality "Santo Heel Turn" comps back in the day. But, now I want to watch it again and see if I like it as much as you do, see if I can find the same stuff in it that you do. That's fun, for me. I'm still slowly making my way through a list of matches that got nominated during the GME project... between that, and this, and all of OJ's obscure wrestling threads (50s wrestling, 70s NJPW, French catch, Mile Zrno...) I feel like I will literally never run out of new-to-me and interesting pro wrestling to watch. I'll also never drink every wine, every sake... or listen to every great jazz record or classical recording, or see every great film or fun popcorn flick... That's a good thing, in my book. It's nice to always have something to look forward to.

I've got nothing to contribute, discussion-wise, but I wanted to say how much I'm enjoying this, the French catch thread, and the 70s NJPW thread. It's fascinating to read and learn about so much stuff that I have never seen. I appreciate you taking the time to write all this up.

Seriously. If I had paid to watch this, I'd have felt like it was well worth it.

I made it out to the Doutonbori Pro Wrestling Shinnenkai (first party of the year) at Kemura & Flower, a Chinese restaurant and bar in Minami a/k/a Namba a/k/a Naniwa, the entertainment district of Osaka. It was all you can drink for three hours, with the staff bringing plate after plate of food to the tables, as usual. Kuuga and Kazuaki Mihara (a/k/a Shiro Kuma, the erstwhile tag team partner of Shigehiro Irie and the current Doutonbori Pro Tag Champ alongside Katumi Oribe and also the current Kyushu Pro Wrestling tag champ alongside Naoki Sakurajima a/k/a Setoguchi) were there, along with MMA fighter and promoter Testuo Kondo. We took up the whole restaurant, there were old friends at every table, and I ate and drank so much that I thought I was going to rupture my stomach. I spent the whole train-ride back to Nara sweating uncontrollably. I'm OK now, though. I'll post some pictures up on DVDVR. I can cross-post them here if anybody would like that, it's just a little easier to get them up on that site first.

Season debut of Survivor, maybe?

After a so-so run of shows in December 2019, AEW has been hitting it out of the park so far in 2020. They've put on a string of really solid shows with at least one must-see match or segment every week, they are building up to the PPV in interesting and logical ways, they have found the right balance of humorous/entertaining and serious/dramatic, former weak points like Brit Baker, Hangman Page, and PAC's promos are gradually turning into strengths, Wrestlers like Cody Jericho Darby MJF Sammy and Fenix are all on fire right now, there's a lot of fun speculation about who might be coming in, and they are making the switch from "I'll catch up with that later" to appointment viewing. Next week they'll have: - The Cody v Wardlow steel cage match, which if you are a wrestling fan at all you have to be chomping at the bit to watch after how they set it up last week. - Omega and Pageg v Lucha Bros. for the belts, which will have tons of action and ongoing story-lines. - A tag team battle royal that they set up nicely this week. - Mox vs Cobb, which could be really good and which was also set up nicely this week. They really seem to be in a hell of a good groove right now. I am loving it.

One nice thing about the cheap seats, you really get to enjoy the light show.

I am really glad I got to see that live. I arrived a little early and my friend was slightly delayed, so I spent the better part of half an hour making Naito's round-eye taunt at anyone wearing Tranquilo or LIJ gear. There was a steady stream of people wearing Tranquilo or LIJ gear, between Osaka Jo station and Osaka Jo Hall. Almost everyone smiled and returned the gesture. Manabu got a great send-off. I was pleased to be one of the thousands chanting for him. After that, you could genuinely feel the crowd holding back during the rest of the undercard, it was like we all knew we had to save our energy and our voices for the last three matches. Veteran crowd. A lot of serious wrestling fans. It was particularly noticeable during the Sanada vs White match. Then, from Hiromu's entrance onward the crowd let go, and kept getting more and more and more into it. We were flat-out rabid during the main event. I really hope that came across watching on TV or the internet or whatever. I totally, unreservedly, utterly enjoyed each of the last three matches. It's very difficult to pick a favourite. Hiromu vs Lee had the rake-gag version of the Kobashi vs Kensuke/Tenryu vs Hashimoto chop overkill - which was insanely fun to watch live. My whole section (I Block) was rolling with laughter as it just kept going and going... and even up in the nose-bleeds, some of those chops sounded sick. I mean, it was loud up there. And then came the insane highspots section, and the thud on some of those bumps was truly scary. You could feel the whole crowd catch their breath whenever they teased the Phoenixplex. My heart was in my throat a couple of times. Hiromu has crazy charisma in person. Again, you could clearly feel it even all the way up in row 15 of I Block. MiSu and Mox also have that crazy charisma. I was planning to cheer exclusively for MiSu, but I found myself chanting Mox's name when he was fighting from underneath. A nice 15-minute serio-comic exploration of the concept of manly toughness, with both guys earning shocked laughter from the crowd with their psychotic smiles, and with the obvious joy they took in both dishing out and taking violence and pain. Maybe not the all-time classic I was hoping for, but so much fun live. I was marking out non-stop. And finally, my first in-person post-modern epic half-hour NJPW title match (the last NJPW title match I saw live was, I believe, Nakanishi vs Tanahashi in 2009 which I also really enjoyed). It was a very, very pro-Naito crowd overall, but KENTA had a surprisingly large number of little pockets of support. People were chanting his name throughout the arena... but even more so everyone else was going nuts for Naito and booing KENTA like crazy. It was so much fun to be a part of that. I love, love, loved the 5-minute opening stooge fest. They took us up, brought us down, then blew the roof off the place. Naito's crimson mask was clearly visible in the cheap seats. KENTA kind of reminded me of SUWA in their classic match-up from 2005. Just heeling it up like a madman. The eruption when Naito won, and the huge reaction to the roll call and the confetti cannon were the best thing about the show. I got actual goosebumps. I can easily imagine that all three matches had stuff that I would nit-pick if I were watching them at home after the fact. I don't necessarily think that any of them will make a ton of noise in the 2020 MOTY discussions... but I had the time of my life in Osaka Jo Hall tonight.

In an hour, I'll be on the train to Osaka. I am very stoked for this show. Every match has something I can hang my hat on: - The opener is Manabu Nakanishi's last match in Osaka. I've always loved Nakanishi. I am proud to say that I got to see him wrestle in Osaka, where he is hugely popular, when he was IWGP champ. I bet he will get an emotional goodbye from the Osaka Jo crowd today. - The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match... is a championship match. - The Eight-man tag team match is a chance to see Tanahashi live again. Plus it has the mystery element of whether Ibushi has sufficiently recovered from Mallory-Weiss Syndrome to participate in the match. Plus story-line stuff about the tag championship. - Chaos vs. Suzuki-gun is a chance to see Okada live again, as well as a chance to see a bit of a re-run of Ospreay vs ZSJ. - Jay White vs Sanada is likely to be pretty good, and it's a chance to see an upper-card singles match outside of the G1 or the New Japan Cup. Booking wise, it could go either way. - Hiromu vs Lee has show-stealing potential, and it will be my first time seeing a big Hiromu singles match live and in person. - Mox vs MiSu could be great. One of those matches where, years down the road, I will be ale to say, "I was there live for that one" and people will be all, "Lucky you!" At the very least, some ass is going to get kicked. - And, I get to see Naito's first-ever defense of the double titles. Lucky me!

We'll find out soon enough, I suppose. An upper-card PPV grudge match against a white-hot Cody Rhodes is about as good an opportunity for a breakthrough showcase match as any pro wrestler could hope for these days. MJF will either hold up his end... or prove that he just hasn't got what it takes to be a top guy in the ring. If the match flops there will still be a role for him, just not as a big match guy. I've been pleasantly surprised by AEW often enough that I am cautiously optimistic.

absolutely.