gordi

Not even close. I wish he would "out-Japan" me. I'm trying to help him improve his gimmick.

Couldn't agree more. I don't want to steer too far away from the Japanese wrestling tradition, but I want my bad guys to be every bit as good at heeling it up as the bad guys in Texas, Carolina, and San Juan. I'm glad to hear that. I get too sensitive about this stuff sometimes. I appreciate your comments, as always. Replying to both you and Gene: I also learn a lot about wrestling from your write-ups. I used to be able to watch AWA, JCP, and some UWF on TV in Canada but anything from Texas or Memphis was third-generation copies of VHS tapes back in those days. Guys like Tim Horner, Eric Embry, Ron Wright, and The Nightmares flew under my radar back then and I get a huge kick out of learning about them now.

It really is the worst part of his gimmick. The guy has done some minimal research and discovered that the Japanese writing system does not use capitalization or spacing. That is basically correct, but he has extrapolated from that, that a Japanese person writing English would really struggle with capital letters, spacing, and layout. That is not an unreasonable extrapolation, but it is completely incorrect. As I have said before, I have lived and worked in Japan for over eight years. I have a Japanese wife, two beautiful half-Japanese daughters, an extended Japanese family, and many Japanese training friends, drinking friends, music friends, students, ex-students, and so on. I teach private English conversation lessons and business English lessons.Once a year I do a special course teaching new Panasonic employees how to write presentations in English. I have a service where I proof-read Japanese people's English-language correspondence. I helped to develop a method for use in an after-school English conversation club that has since spread to a few different high schools and junior high schools in my home town. I have, therefore. checked hundreds and hundreds of examples of English written by Japanese people. I have never, ever - not even once in more than eight years of this - seen a single example of a Japanese person writing or typing like shodate. Sure, sometimes you'l see a mis-used uppercase letter, but it always makes some kind of sense. Completely random capitalization of English words is simply not a thing over here. The lion's share of the English writing I see over here is formatted beautifully. Without exception, Japanese people writing in English understand how to put a single space between words. Other than very young children, Japanese people more or less universally understand how to coherently organize their thoughts into sentences and paragraphs. What shodate does here is embarrassing and kind of racist. I agree with Bologna, it can be exhausting. Now, clearly the dude has some kind of emotional issue where he needs to pretend to be someone he is not. I think it is reasonable if we, as a generally nice group of people, take Bologna's suggestion and agree to just go along with it. I also think it would be reasonable for shodate to also take Bologna's suggestion, drop the worst part of his gimmick, and just type like a normal human being, the way actual Japanese human beings do. In kayfabe terms, we could all pretend that the massive amount of typing practice he's getting here has paid off and he's better at it now. tl/dr: I totally agree with Bologna here.

I agree with all of the comments so far. Martel,and Lawler is an all-time superstar team-up. Embry continues to be a highlight of your TV shows and it was nice to see his plan work out for once (assuming that was his plan). Adding the Freebirds to the existing touring champs (Martel, Flair, Road Warriors! Jaques...) really highlights how rich the NWA talent pool is. True stars and gepreat champs. I bet that match will have a big effect on the next WWC show, too. I don't mean it as a complaint, but I wish we could have read more about the action in the Jacques vs Kamala and Studd vs Lawler matches. Those both sound like a lot of fun. No worries, though. We all get busy from time to time.

Ross is shit lol I love how the "Japanese" guy has these really strong negative opinions about Jim Ross and Bill Apter.

lol. Yeah, i meant March. As long as I'm going way off topic: How's the new place?

I like what you are doing with Polynesian Power here. I hope we are heading for Backlund & Duggan vs The Iron Sheik & Alexis Smirnoff. To me, that's the essence of pro wrestling in America in the 80s. Count me in among those excited to see the Road Warriors with the tag straps. With Martel as World Champ, Flair as US Champ, and the Roadies as Tag Champs, the NWA is well-represented anywhere and everywhere they go!

I'm having a blast with this too. Of course everybody has busy times and quiet times in life. I try to leave comment every time someone post a show... but it isn't always possible. Sometimes I read a show, mean to post, get distracted, then forget. Sometimes I'm not on the internet for a couple of days. WrestleMania, however, II deserves all the feedback. So did my April 24th show, but that's life

That was pretty entertaining for a show with no matches. It will be interesting to see what's next for the former members of the Heenan Family. Fabs vs Harts in a cage sounds good to me! Looking forward to Andre's arrival!

Yeah, getting feedback sure is nice. It would stink to put in the effort of writing up a major show and then have two of the guys iinvolved in this project not bother to leave a comment.

Shinpei Nogami just constantly talks about teriyaki sauce and the judo team at his former University. Shinji Yoshino doesn't know the names of any moves, he just shouts out "What a maneuver!" when something big happens in the ring. Both of them keep saying "Will you stop!" to Milano Collection A.T. and talking about how the wrestler hurt his external occipital protuberance... It's a nightmare.

Nice to see Velvet McIntyre in action. How the hell did you get Mascaras to agree to do the job for a rookie?

I love how you are building up Tiger Jeet Singh. It's hard to think of a better way to use that guy. Nice to see Hot Property keep climbing the ladder. As always, you do a very good job of using "enhancement talent" to get your main roster guys' personalities and abilities over.

Huge win for OMG but Bull Ganter comes out of the battle royal as a rising star as well. That should be an entertaining feud! Big win for the Future Perfect, as well. No small feat, going over Rude on a big show like this. Also: some signs of trouble in the Heenan Family... Classic Malfunction at the Junction finish to a fun six-man. Greg Valentine is just the man to pull a good match out of mid-80s Dino Bravo. I bet the bloody ending got some heat out of the Chicago crowd. Billy Jack Slamming Bundy must have been an amazing visual. Also: more signs of trouble for Heenan & co... I love the Hart Foundation as WWF Tag Team Champions. I just feels right. They got some revenge on Jimmy Hart as well. Andre vs Hansen was the awesome spectacle it needed to be, with both men donning the crimson mask. The one-handed slam got a pop out of me. And more blood in the IC title match! Is this WWF or WWC? I'm loving it. An epic match with a great finish. Heenan breaking down in tears was awesome. He's got his problems, but he's managing a champion. After those two matches, most crowds would be burned out... good idea bringing out the star power of 1986 Fridge Perry to help counter that. This was so much better than the WM II we got in "real life"

Wow. I am glad I asked this question. Big moments at the ECW Arena, WrestleMania, Supercard of Honor, Bailey in NXT... Some amazing stuff listed here. No wonder you all are crazy about pro wrestling after an experience like that. I think Ricky Jackson's experience has to be my #1 dream crowd I wish I could have been a part of. IYH Canadian Stampede! I get goosebumps just watching that on tape.

Oh, man. For some reason I have no problem believing that a fired-up Kentucky crowd could really blow the roof off of a building.

The guy on the left of the picture (i.e. on my right) is the one who trained with Katsuya Kitamura

I get what Matt D is saying about the crowd sometimes seeming to force it. That's what really struck me about Nakanishi in Osaka: It felt totally organic. The crowd just loves the guy. It might help that he's from Kyoto, in the same region as Osaka... but there is more to it than that, I think. Particularly at Dominion '09 when he was defending the IWGP strap against Tanahashi and I expected the crowd to be split but it was a very heated 90 percent pro-Nakanishi crowd and it was just an amazing thing to get caught up in that live and in person. Biggest pop I ever heard live here in Japan was when Kobashi made his first appearance after his comeback from (I think it was emergency surgery and I wanna say it was at Great Voyage in Osaka in March '09, in the same building - the Furitsutakukaikan - where Nakanishi made his title defense). The pop was astounding. I got goose bumps. Pop and crowd connection are two different things, in my opinion. Best crowd connection I ever saw in Canada was definitely Benoit in Calgary and Edmonton, particularly Backlash '04 and the subsequent RAW. Loudest pop I ever heard in Canada was, believe it or not, watching WrestleMania III on closed circuit in the Pacific Colosseum, when Steamboat rolled Savage u for the pin. The crowd just LOST IT. How about you? Loudest pop you've been a part of? Best crowd connection you've experienced?

Branched off from yesdanielbryan's thread to avod a hijacking. I think it's got the potential to be an interesting topic. I was saying how I saw Benoit wrestle in Calgary and in Edmonton and the connection between he and the crowd in those buildings at that time was truly incredible. Also, how the closest I have experienced in a big venue here in Japan was Manabu Nakanishi in the Osaka Furitsutaiikukaikan a few years back. The crowd just lived and died with every move and gesture the big lug made in the ring. and that I saw Misawa in the Budokan twice, and I have to say that Nakanishi and the Furitsu crowd had an even more intense connection. Matt D had what I though was a very interesting response: I'm trying to think what was comparable that I've experienced. I was at Royal Rumble 03, but to me (for Angle vs Benoit), that felt like the crowd forcing it, like the crowd wanting to have that connection so badly that they were almost able to will it into being. If you looked too closely, you saw the strings. Likewise Daniel Bryan at the Rumble in 2015 where it was a year too late and everyone wanted to recapture that moment while we could but we were sort of living in the memory of it. Likewise 1998 in Boston with the first Nitro after Flair returned. He was over but we couldn't have what they had a week before in Greenville. I missed out on Foley's first title win, which was on me. I've been to a bunch of indy shows (some major level like ROH, some local stuff like Chaotic or NECW, and some weird spot shows for certain names like seeing Eddy in 02 ten feet away from me work some schlubs), but nothing with that level of connection. Taz in NYC at MSG in 2003 coming out to destroy John Cena when he was doing an anti-Yankees rant is probably one of the top three pops I've ever experienced which is funny to say. Certain the heat Reigns and Rock got after the 2015 Rumble. That was real and visceral even if it was sort of winking. The crowd was really into Monsoon threatening Heenan at the 1993 Survivor Series? Sorry, that was a digression, but it made me think. I wanted to reply (without hijacking the other thread), so I started this one.

Could be, actually... either way, it's an amazing thing to experience. Interestingly (to me anyway) the closest I have experienced in a big venue here in Japan was Manabu Nakanishi in the Osaka Furitsutaiikukaikan a few years back. The crowd just lived and died with every move and gesture the big lug made in the ring. I saw Misawa in the Budokan twice, and I have to say that Nakanishi and the Furitsu crowd had an even more intense connection.

I've only ever seen Benoit live in Calgary and Edmonton, so the idea that he doesn't connect with the crowd seems absolutely insane to me. He had near Bruno-in-MSG levels of connection with the crowds in Alberta.

Fire Pro has been my #1 pro wrestling video game for years and years. The grapple system and timing take some getting used to but it's so worth the learning curve.The customization options are close to infinite, which is how I can run simulations of JWA cards with all those crazy match-ups. I literally have over 1000 wrestlers in my game. A third-generation video of Tiger Mask vs Dynamite Kid was my introduction to Japanese wrestling, in 1984 or '95. He'll always be one of my favourites. Rainmaker is booking him in the AWA as a kind of ersatz Hogan... and that version of Spivey is a great fit in Japan. It's a real pleasure for me to give those young gaijin hosses some experience in Japan. That kind of wrestler will always have a place over here. You've been so completely generous in sending me wrestler that I an have fun booking over here. I'm glad you enjoy reading about thier Japanese exploits. I absolutely believe that Shaw/Bigelow/Hickerson would have been over like Grover in Japan in 1986 if they'd come over as a team. Baba in the 70s was a mat wrestling wizard. I'd imagine that he and Fujiwara would have been able to do some good stuff together in the mid-80s. Part of the fun of armchair booing is making stuff like that happen. Part of the fun of armchair booing is making stuff like that happen. Hopefully they will meet again more than once as Bigelow continues to grow as a wrestler. Dos Caras and El Canek are two guys whose work in Japan I really enjoy. I'm getting a huge kick out of having them as a team on my dream roster. with guys like Misawa, Kawada, Hase, Hashimoto, Yamada, Mutoh, Funaki, and Takada all on the roster, the future is looking pretty bright for the JWA. Agreed. It looks like guys like Bigelow and Spivey are going to reach new levels in this world. It's fun but also challenging to book all of those young future superstars of puroresu. I'm enjoying all the young boys from America and Canada getting big early-career pushes and coming over here to fight... but in the JWA we build our young boys up a lot more slowly. I'm looking forward to doing some cross-promotion with the UWF and WCCW a little later in the year! So many hosses on your rosters. That's a big part of the fun of booking future legends... you're kind of building a history for them. I'm always thinking about the Japanese crowds when I do my armchair booking. It feels like all of the promotions in this project understand who they are booking for and what they want to see. It makes reading all those write-ups every week interesting for me. If those guys stay in Japan, they could have a pretty big future here. Maybe they'll become JWA's version of the MVC. I always want to book the freelancers to look as strong as possible. Abdullah, Brody, Hansen, and Mascaras have a legendary aura in Japan. (Inoki and Maeda, too. It could be huge when I eventually bring them back to Japan) I'm glad you approve of my bad guys "borrowing" a tactic from your bad guys. Very Tall Machine is strong... but also Blackwell is agile and a true professional I always figure it would be a badge of honour to have been busted open by Abdullah the Butcher.

I guess it makes me a terrible person, but I am kinda sad we didn't get to "see" JJ getting beat up. Your tag division is on fire right now with the Fantastics vs Midnight Express lined up and ready to go, and with The Road Warriors, Doc & Barbarian, Texas Tornadoes, and The Andersons all ready to mix it up.

Jacques flying back from San Juan to face MS-Uno in Toronto! That should be a great match.

Oh man! Owen vs Jacques in San Juan! I have just started reading and I am already totally hyped up. And the match lives up to it while also building the story-line between Ricky Santana and Owen. Gama on the Sports shop, Ricky Santana and the RPMs working their way up the ladder, cleanly, a lot to enjoy there. Not sure if you meant to have Assassin 1 & 3 pulling double duty... Looking forward to Tommy Lane vs Kobayashi.