gordi

Agreed. A place where you can have an actual discussion about a topic you enjoy is just so rare and valuable these days. Glad this place exists.

https://twitter.com/briantheguppie/status/942054673451835392 Thanks. I was expecting something worse. I mean, it's not my preferred form of wrestling, but Japanese indy sleaze feds have been doing stuff like this for a long time. I don't see how people like things like grocery store death matches, Minoru Suzuki vs MECHA Mummy, and Saitama Pro, but don't like this. It's not too far of a reach. Is it really that different than a criss-cross sequence where the babyface simply steps out of it and the heel runs without realizing the babyface is no longer there? Or the back-turned arm wringer spot? If I had to guess, the people that like or don't mind Japanese indy sleaze/fuckery/comedy don't have much of an issue with The Young Bucks. Not necessarily. There are, maybe, seven people who love Osaka Pro more than me, but the Young Bucks are not at all my cup of tea. I don't hate them. Just not into them. Like everyone else here, my basic take is: more power to them for finding a way to succeed, but it's just not something I'm going to go out of my way to watch. I don't get the perception that they are widely hated. Pretty much the worst I have ever seen is more or less what I just wrote above. That might be because I stay away from other pro wrestling websites and from Twitter in general.

Yeah, they took the 3rd off; Gifu was the 4th. (I'm using real scheduling as much as possible) Interesting! That is a whale of a road-trip.

Oita to Gifu is, at minimum, a ten-hour drive. That is some crazy scheduling.

Ken Johnson? Look, I will admit: He's clean and he's mean and his pocket's full of green, but... not to put too fine a point on it, in my opinion he's a jive soul bro, a jive soul bro, and he'll never get nothing in the end.

And ICOPRO. And The World. Now that would be a WWE Universe. YOU GOTTA WANNIT!!

He should bring back the World Bodybuilding Federation while he's at it.

Man, that Hart Foundation vs Islanders Spectrum match really hit a sweet spot with me. Anvil was such an effective heel in this one, stooging and stalling and backing off only to immediately start strutting around the moment the Foundation re-gained the advantage. It's what I often feel is missing when I watch more recent, highly-pimped matches. I love when bad guys do bad guy things and faces get to shine... these teams do that stuff so well. Also, is it my imagination or do the announcers mix up Haku and Tama throughout this thing?

I just watched the IYH Canadian Stampede Team Bret vs Team Austin Main Event. It's absolutely one of my favourite matches of all time. It has an incredibly hot crowd that responds passionately to everything that happens in the ring. It tells a great story, and it is pretty much the perfect match for the story that they want to tell. The finish? A simple roll-up off of a distraction. And I wonder: Would they even be allowed to do something like this match as the main event of a PPV in this day and age? There is a kind of perfection in everyone laying their role well, in good guys doing good guy things and bad guys doing bad guy things and it's in service of telling a story rather than popping the crowd... but the crowd is going CRAZY. Throughout the match, they use finishers very effectively. Owen takes a huge bump off of a Doomsday Device (in what is probably the biggest high-risk spot of the entire match) but he is saved when (IIRC) Anvil breaks the pin. Later, Bret gets the Sharpshooter on Austin.. but Animal makes the save. The Austin gets the Sharpshooter on Bret, but Owen limps back to the ring to make the save to a HUGE pop from the Saddledome crowd. Dang... there you have all of those tropes that have become so tiresome, including finisher theft, being used to perfection. So, it's not the tropes... it's how you use them, I guess.

I wouldn't mind a Terry Funk vs Kerry Von Erich final.

I mean this as a compliment: You have a large number of wrestlers on your roster who don't ring a ton to the table in terms of in-ring talent, but I think I'd have watched the hell out of this show back int he 80s. Week after week you make chicken salad out of the likes of Hillbilly Jim, Lord Humongous, and Ivan Putski by keeping the story-lines interesting and by carefully considering the match-ups. It's impressive.

Wow. Dusty coming in, Steamboat and Bock chasing Orndorff's title, Nord and Jake teaming up with Foley in their corner... ...definitely not my father's AWA!

I think focusing your write-us on the interaction between Hugo and Rickin is a great decision. It allows you to explain more and build the readers' familiarity with what might for some (like me) be a lesser-known roster, particularly your undercard and midcard guys. The infusion of talent from Mexico is really going to give you more to work with going forward. Pirata Morgan & MS-1 as heel champs is going to be great.

Way to jump right in at the deep end. I'm looking forward to reading more build-up for Starrcade.

That structure of building up to a big SNME is working like a charm for you. Gives everything meaning.

Loved the write-up of Piper in Texas, and also love how Bad News cleaned up the ring but didn't help Piper out.

Really liked the way you wrote up JYD vs Mr. W II, just the perfect ending. There's obviously still lots of stories to tell here in the aftermath of this card, hopefully you'll find time to continue this.

Getting Brazo de Plata was a huge highlight of the draft for me. Osaka Pro is, of course, known for its comedy style matches... and I feel like having Brazo, Owen, Hoshino, and Baby Togo on my roster gives me a chance to add elements of that into Gli-San Pro. Those are four of my favourite wrestlers, and four guys I feel can work silly, work deep, and work a whole range of styles in between. I am really enjoying being able to match those four guys up in various combos. Thanks! I am looking forward to writing that one up. I hope I can do it justice. As it happens, the match will be presented right here ** for free ** some time between now and the end of the year.

Just for information purposes: Strong Machine #2 was a Korean wrestler named Yang Seung-Hi who had a long career starting with the IWE in the 1970s. I believe he is currently the promoter of NKPW (New Korea Pro Wrestling). Strong Machine #3 was Yasu Fuji, who stared his career in the late 1960s and also worked in Stampede as Dr. Hiro Ota. Cagematch has nothing listed for him after 1985. Neither of them are famous enough to have a wikipedia page.

As far as I can recall, neither of them ever did much under their other names... so you are probably safe just listing them as SM II and SM III

Osaka Bonenkai Show Lead-in Show I like to think of the lead-in show as “The Giant” because it is the big show before the big show, if you get my meaning… Dos Caras, Gran Hamada, and The Man Who Will Be Togo vs El Samurai, TMIII, and Kantaro Hoshino Your basic all-action card-opening match. The trick is to let the popular veterans do their stuff and pop the crowd without burying the young guys in the process. So, Gantetsu and Kanemoto get to show off their stuff as well, before getting killed. Samurai ends things with a Neckscissors Chickenwing Lock on Sakigake Gantetsu after about 16 minutes of fast-paced exchanges and quick tags. El Bazo de Plata vs Owen Hart There’s about ten minutes of the pure joy of pro wrestling to start out, as these two athletic goofballs try to one-up each other in the ring. We are forced to interrupt that to build up for the Bonenkai show, though, as The Can-Am Express come down to ringside in order to interfere on Owen’s behalf, only to get run off by Baba and Jumbo. We then ge two more minutes of pure joy, ending when Owen rolls out of the way of a Senton then heads up top for a Big Splash to finish things. Super Strong Machine vs Shinya Hashimoto (#1 Contender Match) Back and forth fairly stiff action, with an intense struggle to be the first to hit a clean DDT providing the spine for the match. Hash wins the struggle, and the title shot. Terry Funk comes down to ringside to make it official, and he congratulates “the kid” on his big win and wishes him the best of luck. Hashimoto takes Funk’s encouragement as a sign of condescension, and responds with a furious attack on the champ. Jumbo, Kobashi, and Misawa vs Rusher Kimura, Ashura Hara, and Isamu Teranishi Just some straight-up, high-level clubbering. Misawa gets to play FIP, and Kobashi gets a big win with a Lariat on Teranishi after Teranishi and Hara have a Malfunction at the Junction. ***BREAK*** Hello Oz, Hello Kudo, and Hello Spider vs Kansai Kitty, Tokyo Sweetheart, and Bolshoi Kitty The stip in this match is that the loser has to have their ears and whiskers cut off. The basic storyline is that Kansai Kitty is the “big sister” protecting Tokyo Sweetheart and Bolshoi Kitty from the bullies. The finish is Ozaki just kicking Bolshoi in the head and pinning her. The aftermath is kind of a poor man’s (Poor schoolgirl’s?) version of the Dump vs Chiggy hair match, with absolute mayhem in the Sanrio Superfan section as Bolshoi Kitty gets mutilated. ***BREAK*** Terry Funk, Giant Baba, and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs Terry Gordy, Bam Bam Bigelow, and Big John Nord A showcase for Kikuchi’s bumping and selling, of course. Bam Bam Bam Bam get built up as monsters… but the good guys get the win when Baba nails Nord with a big boot and then Funk puts him away with a Sleeper Hold. After the match, Hashimoto runs in to continue his attack on Funk, and the Can-Ams approach the ring in menacing fashion, forcing Misawa and Kobashi to come down to even the odds. Card for the Gli-San Pro Osaka Bonenkai Show: Terry Funk vs Shinya Hashimoto - GASP Title Match Misawa and Kobashi vs Bam Bam Bam Bam - GASP Tag Title Match Baba, Jumbo, and Kikuchi vs The Can Am Express and Owen Hart - GASP 6-Man Title Match *** BREAK *** Rusher Kimura vs Big John Nord - #1 Contender Match Hello Spider, Hello Kudo, and Gantetsu vs Tokyo Sweetheart, Bolshoi Kitty, and TMIII Dos Caras and Gran Hamada vs Super Strong Machine and El Samurai Hara and Oz vs Teranishi and Kansai el Brazo de Plata vs Kantaro Hoshino

MemTreal

I downloaded this one this week. I read your Filsinger Booking thread on the Armchair Booking forums and that led me here... and that led to the download. It's a perfectly cromulent time-killer that I am having a lot of fun playing... but it also feels like the developers have some very unusual ideas about how pro wrestling works. (For example: Profits are based on match rating, rather than crowd size). I wonder if anyone else is playing or has played 80s Wrestling Mania.

Brady Boone vs Steve Keirn would be a pretty good sleeper match between two underrated wrestlers. BattleKat vs Skinner on The Moon... could be a MOOT (match of all time) contender.

I'm hoping we get some behind-the-scenes stories about touring behind the iron curtain.