gordi

Ringmaster to Stone Cold.

https://sports.theonion.com/saudi-arabia-feeling-skittish-about-doing-business-with-1835327983

It would be easier and faster to list the match-ups that are not interesting to me. (Basically any combination of Juice, Jay, or Taichi... and maybe EVIL vs Fale). Every other potential match-up looks at least good to me. Here are three sleepers that I am psyched for: I loved Archer vs Ospreay in the New Japan Cup so I am looking forward to their rematch. Ishii vs Mox could be ultra-violent. Shingo vs Naito could be some crazy LIJ on LIJ violence as well.

I LOVED Man on the Train and The Hairdresser's Wife.

Match by match thoughts; 1 Jon Moxley vs. Shota Umino: A perfectly cromulent squash. Highlights: Mox declaring for G1 and helping the kid to the back. 2 Satoshi Kojima vs. Shingo Takagi: Not, perhaps, the best match of the night, but definitely my favouritE. Nice and stiff. Told a story. Didn't overstay its welcome. Highlights: Them getting so caught up in whaling on one another outside that they almost got counted out. That Cozy Lariat near the end. Shingo declaring for the G1. 3 Jyushin Thunder Liger and Yoshi-Hashi vs. Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki and Zack Sabre Jr.): Didn't exactly change my mind w/r/t Yoshi-Hashi. Highlight: Liger getting frustrated with his partner and trying to wake him up. 4 Taguchi Japan (Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson and Ryusuke Taguchi) vs. Bullet Club (Jay White, Chase Owens and Taiji Ishimori): Pointless. Lowlight: Tana's new DDT-esque move looked like crap. 5 Taichi (c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii for the NEVER Openweight Championship: About as 'meh' as it's possible for something involving the always-awesome Ishii to be. Highlight: Right guy won. 6 Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) (c) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Evil and Sanada) for the IWGP Tag Team Championship: Man this was really just kind of 'There" wasn't it? Way too much of the wrong kind of bullshit. Highlight: Shibata bringing KENTA out afterward, to declare for the G1. 7 Dragon Lee (c) vs. Will Ospreay for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Very exciting match. Well worth a watch. Highlight: Loved that Suicide Dive. 8 Kota Ibushi (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Borderline unwatchable, for me. Lowlight: The horrific German off the apron. 9 Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Chris Jericho for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship: I am a fan of both guys. I've always enjoyed Jericho, and Okada has completely won me over. This was pretty rough though. By no means terrible, just sloppy and disappointing. Lowlight: I guess Jericho is Triple H now, in that he has to be protected from taking a proper loss to a finishing move - even if that means robbing the fans of a satisfying finish to what is ostensibly the second biggest show of the year.

Also, Ibushi's hair made me think of Andy Samberg's Booty Call character from SNL:

Couldn't agree more. Some straight-up foolish risk-taking going on there. Overall, I think the card matched my fairly low expectations. I found the ending to the main event kind of baffling. Normally I am a big fan of bullshit in pro wrestling, but there was way to much of it up and down the card for what is ostensibly one of the biggest shows of the year, and a lot of it was the wrong kind of bullshit. Dominion was a pretty damned good advertisement for the G-1, though! My favourite match was actually Shingo vs Kojima. Nice and stiff, told a good story, no idiotically high-risk spots. And, as much as I sometimes hate to see these guys (literally) risking their necks... I totally popped for Dragon Lee's insane Suicide Dive into the precariously-seated Ospreay. Do I contradict myself? Fine, then I contradict myself.

1 Jon Moxley vs. Shota Umino 2 Satoshi Kojima vs. Shingo Takagi 3 Jyushin Thunder Liger and Yoshi-Hashi vs. Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki and Zack Sabre Jr.) 4 Taguchi Japan (Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson and Ryusuke Taguchi) vs. Bullet Club (Jay White, Chase Owens and Taiji Ishimori) 5 Taichi (c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii for the NEVER Openweight Championship 6 Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) (c) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Evil and Sanada) for the IWGP Tag Team Championship 7 Dragon Lee (c) vs. Will Ospreay for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship 8 Kota Ibushi (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship 9 Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Chris Jericho for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship Almost all of the commentary I have seen online has been people raving about this being a stacked card, but I don't know... I'm feeling slightly underwhelmed considering it is supposed to be NJPW's #2 show of the year. Maybe I'm not as big on Yoshi-Hashi, Taichi, and Jay White as I should be (at the moment, not much interested in watching any of that trio)... maybe it's just sour grapes because I couldn't get tickets (they sold out VERY quickly). It doesn't feel like an absolute must-see the way WK or DoN did. Still, going over to my friend's place to watch it as it happens on his TV. I always enjoy the shows more that way. About half the card has the potential to be killer, and only match #4 has nothing in particular for me to hang my hat on (and even with that one, who knows... maybe Tana and Tai-chan will do something fun). Expect me back here in a few hours, ranting and raving about how awesome it was.

Dominion has already sold out. Good for New Japan, but bad news for me.

Even though I am on Japan Time, I am usually working when the matches are on. I had to take the night off to go to the show on Thursday. Luckily, my boss understood that this was important to me EL-P, I'll try to remember to spoiler tag anything that requires it in this thread... though, most likely, I will hardly be able to see anything worth spoiler-tagging anyway. Also, reportedly, the Ospreay vs Archer match does in fact come across well on video!

Absolutely gutted by this news. I often dress up as Destroyer for Halloween or for fun and it always gets a huge reaction from some old guy or other at the bar. People love him over here.

I was a night 6, since Nara Centennial Hall is about a four-minute walk from my place. It is a great building to watch wrestling in. It was the first time NJPW has been to Nara in 15 years. I hope they come back soon. It was pretty nice to be able to walk to a show. Ospreay vs Archer was a GREAT big man vs little man match. I really hope it comes across on video. They had the crowd in the palm of their hands and told a great story in there. Best Archer performance I have seen. Ospreay's selling and story-telling have come a long way in the past couple of years. Loved it. They had me legit marking out at some of the near-falls. It was a fun show overall with a great crowd. Lots of little kids who were super into everything, A handful of other gaijin in the crowd, too. People screaming out taunts for Nakanishi and Kojima in the early matches... Just a good time. Really glad I was able to be there.

Hilarious ending to the Main Event with the bad guy's chicanery backfiring on them. The fans cheering Colon and showering garbage on the heels is every bit as iconic as Hogan doing his posing routine.

I hear you, and I get whar you are saying and it is true... but I just heard that Jim Neidhardt died, in the wake of so many other recent deaths... being a pro wrestling fan is making me sad right now. It is strange timing reading your thread title today.

...and Rayo de Jalisco, too. edit: and Nikolai Volkoff. Damn it...

Damn it... They are just dropping like flies recently. Neidhardt is definitely a guy who entertained the hell out of me (and so many other fans) in his day.

Ha! Thanks! I sometimes do a similar thing, booking a match or spot or whatever in hopes that one of you guys in particular ill get a kick out of it. Speaking of which, JJ wiping the sweat of Tony's face with a towel is a nice specific touch. Polynesian Power vs. The Assassins is a nice keep-the-feud-going match with a good hot tag. I like how The Assassins can't pull off a win without The Assassin's help, but they manage to keep from losing by taking the fight outside. In contrast, Crews has Riddle in his corner and as a result he is able to hang on to his strap. Orndorff loses by DQ but comes out a winner in the fan's eyes.

Big win for Muta, I'll bet the moonsault popped the crowd. Dream & Boogie vs Botswana & Kamala will not be a match that earns a ton of stars... but it will be damned entertaining, I am sure. I imagine Funk vs Adonis had some crazy bumping and violence. Funk vs Dr. D could be even more violent. It would be tough to book Road Warriors vs Hansen & Brody as anything other than a DDQ or DCO. I'll bet the crowd was hot for that, and I'll alos bet they went home happy after seeing Kerry beat Hoss.

What a great main event, with a really satisfying finish and a nice win for Cooley. Iron Mike Sharpe going for the TV Title in the semi-main was pretty cool, too.

I agree that it's great to see DiBiase and Orndorff getting a real run as top guys, and I also think it's great how many really good, underrated pro wrestlers are getting a solid run in MACW in this project: Kernodle, Gama, Cooley, Fernandez, Oliver... it's kind of heart-warming to see all those guys being used so well here.

BattleBowl Sure, why not? Very interested to see what you do with that. I am loving Tatsutoshi Goto, master of the Backdrop Suplex. He's such a good midcard heel for you, that really makes me happy. I also like the touch of you advertising "JWA Trios Champion" Lance Von Erich. Very observant of you! I think Matt Bourne is really being elevated by getting so much attention from various heels. He's another guy I really like, and I'm glad to see him in a big role here.

I'm always up for a "mystery partner" angle, and Harley Race is a great pay-off. Nice return for Scott Hall, too. I like how you use singles matches to set up tag and six-man matches down the line. Simple but effective booking. You also managed to refresh the Guerreros as six man contenders.

What tremendous booking to keep Savage vs Windham fresh. I always dig the "mystery partner" angle. Really looking forward to that Forum show. Even with such a stacked card Muta could end up stealing the show.

I love the team of Bam Bam and Benoit. That would have been pretty exciting to see. I like how Benoit and 3 show mutual respect but Bigelow and Ayala just eye each other. You've really kept the heat up between Owen and Ricky Santana. What a great feud for both guys! Seeing the two Abdullahs team up is also pretty cool. You just know that chaos will be the outcome there. The Starrs are just the ultimate heels. Always super entertaining.

I'd like to see the Dog back in the WWF, I liked him as a fun babyface there... but him getting involved in the war against Akbar's legion is pretty exciting, too. Speaking of which: Bundy, Konga, and Haku give Akbar a pretty terrifying trio to work with. Doc and Doom vs those three could be a great match. I wonder if Bundy is going to get involved with the Road Warriors feud, too. The Fabs, Doom, the Road Warriors, and Devastation Inc make for a heck of a tag team division, with a ton of potentially exciting match-ups.