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I am afraid that I still don't really understand *why* WWE wold be disinclined to let Finlay be the one to induct Batista. Finaly is great. He's widely respected in the pro wrestling world, he can tell a tale, he's been an important contributor to WWE for years... Is it because Batista gives them an opportunity to shoehorn in a non-wrestling Hollywood celebrity type? Is it that obvious that WWE would prefer that to David F'N Finlay?!!? I am a very casual follower of WWE. Mostly read recaps and follow the various threads here. Generally tune in during RumbleMania season. I am a little baffled by the idea that Finlay wouldn't be "good enough" to appear on the HoF show. Have things gone that far off the rails? Really?

I don't watch WWE any more, but I still follow along by reading recaps. Normally I just stay quiet... but... speaking of bad writing: It seems that, this week, all of the following were used as reasons for a fight on SD: - You gave our manager, who is vegan, a Christmas ham. For that: YOU WILL PAY. - A guy who is supposedly funny and entertaining sang a song about having a threesome with myself and another female wrestler. While singing that song, he mentioned that my haircut makes me look like a dude. You laughed at that. Now, YOU WILL PAY. - Last week, you poured dog food all over me. This week you have tied another wrestler up in chains, and are threatening to pour dog food over him. Here I come to MAKE YOU PAY by pouring dog food on you! Yikes. Hopefully some of this came across better on TV than it did in recap form. I always read these threads and it sounds like people really enjoyed it when The Big Dog came out to beat everyone up after the Main Event was tossed out and turned into a tag match that ended in DQ. Was that in spite of or because of the dog food angle? I have to imagine, though, that some of it came off even worse than it reads. Was I misreading things, or was this show really based around "don't give a vegan a ham" "don't laugh when other people make fun of my hair" and "don't pour dog food on me" angles? And, the apparent subtext!! Are we suppose to hate Sammy because he doesn't eat ham like a normal person? Are we supposed to boo Bailey because she doesn't take the threesome stuff in good humour? If you think about it at all it becomes a million times worse.

Jmare and Clayton, thank you both very much.

Oh, OK. I thought that maybe there was some news I'd missed or something. I'd love it if Finlay got fired, moved to AEW as an agent, and taught all of their younger wrestlers how to throw strikes and make a pro wrestling match look more like a fight. (Off topic, but even without Finlay... maybe Dustin and Mox could teach some of the other AEW wrestlers those lessons).

Forgive my ignorance, but why is it unlikely that they'd let Finlay induct Batista? Did he piss someone off? Is he not a big enough star? Is it because he worked for Tajiri in Japan? I'd be interested in hearing Finlay talk about Batista, it might even get me to seek out that segment on Dailymotion or something like that. I enjoyed Vader's introduction for Stan Hansen last year or two years ago or whenever that was.

Intriguing hypothetical, there. It seems to me that Naito's character has been getting darker. I think he'd still get the cheers in Osaka... but in Tokyo I could see the crowd going Ibushi's way. I think Naito gets cheered over Okada regardless of location. I defer to El-P's apt Kawada analogy by way of explanation there.

Don't wanna hijack this thread so I'll just say a quick thanks. Much appreciated!

It strikes me as genuinely weird that a company as openly concerned with inclusiveness as AEW wouldn't have official subtitles on their youtube channel!

I like the use of the action figures, and I like the idea of using a poll to determine the winners. I'd guess that, for the most part, old school teams will be at an advantage here at PWO. You might get totally different results if you posted this elsewhere.

I haven't had time to watch much AJPW this year. If they had any really good matches involving my boys Zeus and The Bodyguard, please let me know about them so I can seek them out. I also wish I had some idea which Harada and Tadasuke NOAH matches were worth going out of my way to see. It's cool to see my old Osaka Pro drinking buddies doing well in national promotions, but 2019 has probably been the year when I have had the least time to watch pro wrestling because of work and family stuff. Though, really, I still get a kick out of seeing any of those guys in pretty much any context. Tigers Mask working sub-ten-minute lower-card matches for All Japan under his real name is one of my favourite things this year.

For me, AEW's "everybody gets an opportunity" booking is way preferable to WWE's "This handful of guys is who we are pushing as stars right now and nobody else matters" booking. I also think I prefer "we are booking everyone so that they get time off to rest up and heal or go perform elsewhere as the case may be" to "we are going to push these wrestlers down your throat until you absolutely hate them." Also the "not everyone is on TV every week" booking style fits pretty well with the "Take huge risks and big bumps" in-ring style, if you think about it. I believe that they know what they are doing. I think it's a feature, not a bug. It is them living up to what they have been promising to do. It's an area where AEW clearly stands out to me as being different from WWE. In my opinion, it's an area where AEW clearly stands out to me as being better than WWE. It makes perfect sense, though, if it is going to take some time to get used to that. It really does give a different week-to-week feeling and flow compared to what a lot of pro wrestling fans have grown used to. I like it. I prefer it. I hope they don't move away from what they are doing. I agree, though, that they could be doing a lot more with video clips and vignettes and so forth, on the actual TV show, to get the various characters over to more casual viewers (i.e. people who don't watch every episode of Dark, BTE, and Wrestlers on the Road Getting Room Service. They do make all of those supplementary materials available free and easy on YouTube, though. I strongly recommend Wrestlers on the Road Getting Room Service to anyone who would like to get to know some of the wrestlers better. I think watching those has made me a much bigger AEW fan than I might be otherwise,

So did I. Nice one, C.S.

Ohtani would have been pretty great, too. I don't think that this is what will happen, but my dream scenario would be for Tanahashi to go over Jericho at WK, then come over to challenge for the AEW title at AEW's next PPV.

I was really pleased to see that Liger will be teaming with Naoki Sano in his last match. There is something kind of poetic about that, for me. I'm really looking forward to Archer vs Mox. I wish Ishii was being used better here. I am curious, out of: White vs Ibushi White vs Okada Naito vs Okada Naito vs Ibushi Which pairing do people most (and least?) want to see fighting for the Double Championship. If I'm being honest, I'd most like to see Naito go over Okada in the main event on the 5th.

Assuming there is still enough interest to have a separate thread for this, here is the full card for both nights, in order (per With Spandex): January 4: Jushin Thunder Liger Retirement Match I: Tiger Mask, The Great Sasuke, Tatsumi Fujinami, and Jushin Thunder Liger (with El Samurai) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Shinjiro Otani, and Naoki Sano (with Kuniaki Kobayashi) Los Ingobernables de Japon (Bushi, Shingo Takagi, Evil, and Sanada) vs. Suzukigun (El Desperado, Taichi, Minoru Suzuki, and Zack Saber Jr.) Chaos (Yoshi-Hashi, Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii, and Hirooki Goto) vs. Bullet Club (Chase Owens, Yujiro Takahashi, Bad Luck Fale, and Kenta) IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match: The Guerillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) (c) vs. FinJuice (Juice Robinson and David Finlay) Texas Deathmatch for the IWGP United States Championship: Lance Archer (c) vs. Jon Moxley IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match: Will Ospreay (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi IWGP Intercontinental Championship match: Jay White (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito IWGP Heavyweight Championship match: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Kota Ibushi January 5: Jushin Thunder Liger Retirement Match II: Jushin Thunder Liger and Naoki Sano vs. Hiromu Takahashi and Ryu Lee IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match: El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori (c) vs. Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh) RPW British Heavyweight Championship match: Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Sanada IWGP United States Championship match: Juice Robinson vs. winner of Jan. 4 U.S. title match NEVER Openweight Championship match: Kenta (c) vs. Hirooki Goto Match between the losers of the Intercontinental and Heavyweight Championship matches on Jan. 4 Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Chris Jericho IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Double Championship match: competitors TBD on Jan. 4

So, reportedly, for Liger's Retirement Match on night 2 of WK, he's going to face Hiromu Takahashi & Ryu Lee and his partner is going to be... ... ...Naoki Sano! That's kind of beautiful, in my opinion.

Archer vs Ospreay March 14th (which I was pleased to see made Tenese's list) was the best match I saw live this year. Darby vs Mox AEW week 8 is by far the match that I have most enjoyed watching on my computer this year. Mox vs Ishii from the G1 (also on Tenese's list) was probably my #2 I am tempted to nominate The Rough Riders vs Bill Ding, Jim Nasium, Tim Burr, & Ray Strack from the IPWF one-off Impact comedy/nostalgia show.

Somehow, simultaneously, I wish you would stop doing this to yourself and I am so glad that you keep doing this.

"In cahoots" is such a perfect pro wrestling turn of phrase.

That's true, but: It was a main event spot in the same way that Koko B Ware main evented the first ever RAW (vs Yokozuna). It was the last match on the show, but nobody in their right mind expected Janela or Koko to go over.

That is very well put, Laz. Really sums it up nicely.

I think that AEW is using Janela pretty well. He's more or less a JTTS for them. He's a guy who bumps well, can take a nasty beating, and is willing to risk his neck for a big spot. He seems to be getting used as a big-heart underdog who takes a beating, bumps all over, and gets a couple of big crazy spots in. He's not as good in that role as Darby Allin, but I think there is a role for a guy like him in most promotions and AEW in particular seems to like underdog babyfaces who bump like crazy. I've enjoyed Janela quite a bit so far, to be honest, but it could be a glass-half-full/glass half empty situation. He certainly works hard to put the other guy over. That's a quality I appreciate, and another point in his favor as a (very) poor man's Foley. That being said, his "high roundhouse kick" in the Mox match was truly dire. There are a few guys on the AEW roster who could stand to improve their striking. And Dustin Rhodes is right there. He should hold a clinic or something. Private Party could sit in the front row, beside Janela.

Harper/Lee vs Zeus, vs. Joe Doering, vs. Suama, Ishikawa, Okabayashi... Yes, please.

Agreed. I would very much like to see a Darby Allin vs Lance Archer David vs Goliath match.

Mox vs Archer? Oh hell yeah!