gordi

With the way things are shaping up, I am getting worried that they are planning to give us a Jay vs EVIL, Gedo vs Togo, all interference all the time, Bullet Club Explodes final. Personally, I am still hoping that Naito wins it all and chooses Hiromu as his challenger.

Not to mention that (for me, at least) having something like AEW (and recently the G1) to look forward to has made getting through"these difficult times" so much easier and more fun. Week after week, they give us something to smile about.

The young lions match was excellent tonight. Cobb v Stone Pitbull was exactly the kind of match I love. Stiff strikes. Big bombs. Power v toughness, but Cobb is also pretty tough and Ishii is also pretty powerful. Loved this match. It might just be the best of Cobb's career so far. I mean, he's had a ton of matches I haven't seen, but this one won't be easy to top. Tokyo Pimp Without Pieter v Jay was a lot of fun. A really good idea very well executed. Most I have ever enjoyed a Jay White match, and that's a shoot, brother! Long term story telling. Good Lord this show has been my cup of tea thus far! I get the feeling that two of the last three matches are going to go over 20 minutes, though. That could be good or bad. So, maybe I'm just in a good mood... because I enjoyed every minute of Ospreay v Taichi Without Miho Abe and I don't generally enjoy Taichi Without Abe. I think this was the most I have ever enjoyed him... so, yeah, good mood. Probably also good wrestling, too. And now they are playing "Kaze Ni Nare" so it's not like I won't enjoy what's coming next. Man, autocorrect really didn't want to help me write Kaze Ni Nare. And apparently now Ibushi can credibly go toe-to-toe with both Ishii and MiSu. Pretty tough choice between the more concise Cobb v Ishii and the more epic MiSu v Ibushi for MOTN so far. Shingo and Okada definitely put in the work to try and top everything that came before their match tonight. I imagine the Meltzers and Kellers of the world will rank it #1. I have it in 3rd place because of the finish (you'll understand when you see it) but the match was a strong conclusion to a really excellent night of pro wrestling. I genuinely enjoyed every match on the card. The Osaka crowd was white hot all night, and well-miked as well. Best night of the tournament so far, for me.

Finished work in time to catch Cobb v White, switched over to AJPW TV, marked out like a little kid watching the CC final, then switched back just in time to catch the start of Ospreay v Ibushi. Pretty good time to finish work early-ish then be stuck at home in front of the computer screen!! Both G1 matches were very enjoyable. As for the CC: Baba, Abdullah, Jumbo, Hansen, Kawada, Misawa, Taue, Vader, Kobashi, Tenryu, Mutoh, Kensuke, Suwama, MiSu, Akiyama, Sekimoto, Ishikawa...

Another enjoyable night of pro wrestling. I though everything was at least good, but nothing on the card was excellent. I'm happy to see the young boys continue to put on solid showings. I wasn't paying close attention during Tokyo pimp without Pieter vs Taichi without Miho Abe because on paper that was the match I had the least interest in in this G1. #s 2 and 3 on that list were Yoshi-Hashi vs EVIL and Yoshi-Hashi v Juice. And now all of those matches have come and gone, and all were cromulent enough. I don't think any of those guys stink, it's just that none of them have ever really grabbed my interest... yet. I surprised myself by enjoying Ishii v Ibushi more than MiSu v Cobb. I think Ishii set the bar of my expectations for a "2020 G1 Minoru Suzuki match" way too high. I thought Cobb showed too much light a couple of times. That being said, his rolling deadlift gutwrench suplexes are very impressive indeed. I enjoyed the finish to their match. Ishii v Ibsushi was probably my personal MOTN. I liked the tidy little story they told of how Ibushi was able to hang with Ishii when they were trading strikes, but how Ishii just couldn't keep up with all of Ibushi's fancy Dan stuff. If anyone had told me, as recently as three or four years ago, that Ibushi would one day be able to believably go toe to toe with the toughest guy in New Japan in the G1... I would have thought they were insane. Yet, here we are. Hats off to pretty boy, he can go. Also, if you'd told me a few years ago that Shingo v Ospreay would be a viable NJPW heavyweight G1 battle, I doubt I'd have believed you. And if you'd told me that Ospreay would damn near out-muscle Shingo in 2020... .... ....but here we are. I wanna like Jay White more than I do, but I find a lot of his matches to be very formulaic: He begs off and bails out like a coward to start things off, works the crowd in an ironic fashion as soon as he gets the advantage, Gedo interferes... I absolutely do not hate the guy's work, and it's not like Ric Flair and Bret Hart didn't have a formula, but I am certainly not aboard the Jay-1 hype train... yet. Okada's been on an underwhelming run so far. Such are the burdens of high expectations. It was a good match. I hated the ending.

I'd honestly prefer it if they went back to sub-15-minute main events, too.

I didn't enjoy Night 2 as much as I enjoyed Night 1, and Misu v Ishii is still my favourite match of the tournament by a wide margin (and to be honest it will be very very tough to top)... but there was still a lot to like. I loved Liger on commentary, "boo-humming" (hum-booing??) and getting very into everything. I loved that Osaka crowd, doing the very best they could under the circumstances. There were some really surprising finishes as well as quite a few near-falls and false finishes that I bought into, which is something i always enjoy. Tana's high fly flow to the floor was a truly spectacular spot. It's pretty tough to "wow" me these days, but that totally did it. I sincerely enjoyed the finishes to Yano v SANADA and EVIL v ZSJ. I have a few "Old Man Yells at Cloud" opinions about Night 2, though: Did Juice and SANADA have a backstage bet about who could put on the stupidest ring entrance outfits? It's a pretty tough choice, there. It was very cool that Juice got the Osaka crowd into it... and I'm hoping that some day he'll be able to get me into one of his matches, too. I like his left hand punches, but everything else he does in there seems to ripped off directly from a "Best of the SmackDown 6" comp tape. Can somebody maybe send him a "Barry Windham in the 4 Horsemen" comp or something? I'd like to see him do a few basic wrestling moves or holds. (Like I said: "Old Man Yells at Cloud")... KENTA v Goto just went on and on, from where I was sitting. I've liked both guys a lot at various times (like, for example, Goto's amazing WK 12 match v MiSu) but I just couldn't get into what they were doing tonight. They looked a little rusty, to be honest. I liked the "technique v power" story that EVIL and Zach told in there. I wish they had teased out the "unprotected turnbuckle" spot a little, but otherwise it was a fine match. If we are definitely going to have interference in every BC match... I guess I slightly prefer Dick Togo interfering to Gedo interfering. I could see people who are really into "Epic" matches preferring tonight's main event to Suzuki v Ishii. I'd have to imagine that Naito v Tana is Meltzer's match of the tournament so far, for example. It's still not close, though, for me. I guess I'm really into the whole brevity thing these days. Obviously, the main event went really long... and it's not like those guys aren't great at "Epic." The match had enough drama and excitement to pretty much fill all that time. It was nice to see Tana not looking all banged up in there, too. I just hope that Naito doesn't try to do this every night that he's working in this tournament... but I am kind of afraid that he will.

Very very good first night of action. Spoiler-free thoughts: Young Boys match was perfectly cromulent. I'm looking forward to seeing more out o these guys as the tournament goes on. Ospreay has obviously added a LOT of muscle to his frame, but he can still fly. Jeff Cobb has a very weird-looking body, like he's made of stuck-together parts of different action figures. He hit some very impressive-looking power moves in his match with Taichi. MiSu v Ishii was everything i hoped it wold be. They just beat the living shit out of each other. It was glorious. Easily MOTN I am one of the very last people to jump on the Jay White hype train and I have been disappointed by his performance fairly often in the past, but I really liked his match v Shingo. It suffered a little by going for "hard-hitting" in the wake of Suzuki v Ishii, but they both looked pretty damned good in there anyway. I was sure that Okada v Ibushi was going to be a "NJPW Epic Match Spectacular" and I literally made some (microwave) popcorn and settled in to watch it. To my surprise, the match felt succinct (and suitably violent) to me. Looking at the clock I'd say they went about 20 minutes but it felt shorter than that to me. The finish felt abrupt, in a good way. I was really pleased that they didn't go in for finisher overkill. Not a big fan of Okada going for the Cobra Clutch so often, but I still enjoyed this match a lot and it didn't overstay its welcome. Great start to the tournament.

yeah, that was stiff enough to make Shinobu Kandori puke.

Regardless of outcomes, I'm pretty damned excited for tonight. Okada v Ibushi! Shingo v Jay! MISU v ISHII!!!!!

Mutoh did it in '95 and Kensuke did it in 2000. I'd love for Naito to be the third champ to pull off a tournament win. Presumably for the same reason that you would: Naito's managed to pull of the feat of seeming like he's a bit of a hard-luck underdog even when he's holding the top two singles belts in the company. New Beginning in Osaka was the last show I went to before the plague times, and the reaction and support for Naito were out of this world. As I said, I know it's unlikely, but I think it would go over like Grover and I can't be the only one still hoping for a huge Naito v Hiromu showdown.

I know it's unlikely, but what my heart most wants to see and what I am pulling for is for Naito to tear through B Block, get past Okada (or Ibushi, or Jay, or MiSu, or Ospreay...) in the finals, and then choose as his opponent... ...Hiromu!

The last line of this (classic) sketch damn near made my head explode. To any and all fans of the great Mick McManus: please enjoy!

Nice work, Robert S!

Maybe? Seems like a strong possibility.I'd also nominate the move where he balances Misawa on his head then bridges over backward into a pin (kind of a Northern Lights variation) as a dark horse candidate... I'm aware of it more as a thing that got discussed in wrestling game threads than as a thing that happened in the ring, if you get my meaning. I don't think I have ever seen it, just read about it. Maybe Smile has seen it. Hey, Smile, have you seen it? If so, what did it look like?

If I recall correctly, the story is that it was only done once, by Jinsei Shinzaki on Mitsuharu Misawa. It made its way onto No Mercy and VPW2, and became kind of "a thing" for deep-cut pro wrestling video game nerds.

I want to toss Dick Togo's name out there. I'm definitely in the "Danielson is obviously #1" camp, but I think the 12 or so years of Togo we got might be good enough for a top 10 spot on the list.

If it turns out to be 35 mins edited down to 20 or so, that could actually be kind of fascinating because it would give us some insight into what Vince considers "Great."

Quick poll: which pro wrestling match do you think is likely to be better, DB vs AJ for the IC on tonight's SDL or the upcoming Greatest Pro Wrestling Match of All Time at Backlash?

Excellent topic idea! Hopefully I'll learn something here. My vote for best goes to Brazos vs Infernales from, I believe 1991. Sorry I can't be more specific off the top of my head. Hopefully the match is well known enough... (Edit: Pretty sure it's the one that was taped Nov. 22nd and aired Nov. 24th) My vote for favourite probably goes to another Brazos match, against Eddie, Chavo, and Mando. I'd like to see that one again! It's fun us for who is in it, but I remember it being pretty damned good as well. (2nd Edit:)

There are so many good wrestlers in WWE. I was just given an NXT match from 5 years ago on the Secret Santo thread over n DVDVR and the in ring stuff was absolutely first rate. The actual wrestling and the wrestlers were certainly not the problem. But I could not fully get into the match. All of the stuff around the match kept pulling me out. The unnecessarily frenetic and hyperkinetic camera work. Just let me watch the match! The commentary. When they were reacting to the stuff that was happening in the ring they were very good. But, there were so many points where they were obviously reciting prefabricated talking points with zero sincerity or enthusiasm. It was sometimes painful to listen to. The backstory to the match. They used to be friends! Then one of them turned heel on the other! This is personal! The fans. Can nobody cheer for the face and boo the heel? Chants can be okay in the right context, but can't we time them to match what's going on in the ring. Like, maybe, save "This is awe-some" for after an awesome thing has occurred? And so on. It was Sasha vs Becky. Tremendous heel performance from Sasha but the crowd barely reacted to it. The crowd wanted to get their shit in. All of that stuff kept pulling me out of it, and I truly wanted to just get into it and enjoy it. Then whenever I try to watch or even read about the current product there is just so much going on that keeps me from getting back into WWE. Never mind the F you booking. I'm talking about insane creative bankruptcy like having an interview followed by another interview followed by a run in to set up a main event tag week after week after week.having "the challenger has pinned the champion!!" happen again and again and again and again. It's obviously not the wrestlers that are the problem. The roster is stacked with talent. But it's like WWE is a big machine doing everything in their power to keep me and countless other pro wrestling fans from being able to just enjoy watching all those great wrestlers wrestle. But, they are still the biggest wrestling company in the world. I sincerely don't get it.

I've only seen the Stampede match. Twice. Loved it both times. It was like an early Zucker Abrahams Zucker production. So many creative ideas coming at you so quickly. Everyone showed some ass and everyone got to look cool. Such an entertaining break from grim reality.

So, kind of like this classic episode of Newhart:

I started shaving my head so long ago that my pro wrestling friends made jokes about me being a Russian. Then I moved away to Europe and when I came back to Canada in 2001 I got all the Goldberg/Austin/Howard Finkel comparisons. Now in Japan people sometimes call me White Mutoh (and sometimes also Stone Cold).

MattD just reviewed the Inoki vs Saito Island Death Match in the DVDVR Secret Santo thread. That brought his to mind: Both island death matches took place on Ganryujima. Ganryujima is apparently a bit of a tourist attraction. It's a small boat-shaped island between two of the main islands of the Japanese archipelago. We went to Shimonoseki once, to eat fugu. You can take a little ferry out to the island It was the site of a very famous Samurai duel, between the great swordsman Musashi and Some Other Guy (who was the head of the Ganryu school of swordsmanship, hence why the name of the island was changed from literally "boat island" (probably Funashima) to Ganryujima, as a memorial).. The story of the fight is that Musashi carved a wooden sword out of a boat oar, showed up 2 hours late for the fight, and brained Some Other Guy with a single swing of his wooden sword. You can see how Inoki, the greatest warrior of his generation, felt he should have a match there. There is a statue commemorating the samurai battle (which would be the monument that Hase was paying respects to). Apparently the draw for tourists is to stand on the island and imagine the fight. There are no restaurants or souvenir shops or anything. There is a storage facility for he Shimonoseki dry docks. According to Wikipedia there is also a walking trail. Anyway, we opted not to go. At the time, I didn't make the connection with the Island Death Match.