gordi

I've also become way less interested in watching "great" matches the last few years. In particular, the common deal recently where the people in the ring are obviously trying to "work a great match" rather than "tell a story in the ring" just puts me off entirely these days. Hopefully that's clear enough and I don't have to explain it further. I find myself getting a lot more pleasure, most of the time, out of a simple "three star" match where everyone is working safely and within their own reasonable limits and everyone has a clear role and character and the good guy is doing good guy things and the bad guy is doing bad guy things... I prefer being honestly and simply entertained for ten or twelve minutes to watching guys risk their health to try and blow my mind for half an hour. Hope that makes sense.

Since moving to Japan, I have come to enjoy going to live events with my drinking/wrestling friends so much that - even with the huge amount of wrestling footage available now - I only watch a tiny handful of matches on my computer in a given month. I just enjoy it so much more as a social thing.

I'm not trying to be funny but, I mean... Watts had to sell the UWF to Crockett because he lost so much money trying to go national in 1986.

To me, it's clearly Giant Baba. AJPW was consistently great from the mid-70s through the mid-90s. The wrestlers, the matches, and the long-term storytelling from his peak period as booker are all still at or near the top of every reasonable discussion of the best ever in pro wrestling. He managed to raise two successive generations of great stars and great performers (the Jumbo/Tsuruta generation, and the Misawa/Kawada/Kobashi/Taue generation). He never booked an embarrassing or stupid angle or ruined a potentially great worker by sticking him with a terrible gimmick. He phased himself out of the top spot and allowed others to shine. Although he was independently wealthy thanks to good real estate investments he traveled on the same bus and stayed in the same hotels with "the boys" until the end. He is almost universally beloved by everyone who ever worked for him or knew him, which is pretty rare among wrestling promoters. Ultimately, it's his amazing body of work that makes the case for him. Two solid decades of booking a promotion that provided some of the very best wrestlers, the very best matches, and the most compelling storylines in the entire world of professional wrestling... with no glaring mis-steps along the way... and leaving an unimpeachable legacy.

Booby Roode and Ricky Seamboat! Together at last! They should run a house show in Minnesota in April and call it WrestleRock, one in May in Texas and call it The Parade of Champions... I'm sure you could make it a monthly event. Best thing would be seeing which old stars they could bring in for it, and how they would mis-spell their names on the poster.

Gorilla Monsoon: "The Texas Tornado could sustain permanent brain damage if it's kept on for much longer." Bobby Heenan: "Then again it could increase his IQ by 9 points. That would make an even 10."

I'll definitely still be around from time to time. Thanks.

Thanks for understanding

I am genuinely sorry, lads... But I am done with this project, at least for now. I am enjoying taking a somewhat larger role in the lives of my daughters, and I need to make some sacrifices to keep that going. I enjoyed participating a lot. Thank you all, very much. Hopefully someone else can take over booking Japan, whether they keep the insane JWA roster or go back to something more traditional.

Man... that brings back a bizarrely specific memory: One of my wrestling fiends had a collection of Colosseum Home Videos. There was a match, and I am 90 per cent sure it was Steamboat vs Orton, that was on two different volumes of The Best of the WWF. I remember we were discussing if maybe it was an example of a "formula match" where two guys work basically the same match around the circuit... but then we cued them up and watched them back to back and it quickly became apparent that it was in fact the exact same match in the same building with the same fans... That stands out in my memory more than the match itself, though I am sure it's a good one. I'm assuming it's the same on you mean. I wonder how many other matches made more than one Colosseum tape.

Huge win, indeed! But of course Dream is gonna get the PWI cover, with the new champion maybe getting a tiny insert picture in the corner, if that. No wonder those guys are angry.

waiting for King Slender to put in an appearance next... or maybe Jailbreaker Bullnoi

4 Corner Elimination Match between Ted Dibiase, Steve “Dr. Death” Williams, Dusty Rhodes and Hacksaw Duggan sounds like Mid-South heaven to me.

Great way to use him!

That's a really solid roster you have developed there. A nice mix of veterans and young boys. Makes for compelling matches up and down the card. That show on August 13th is booked so well. Not a bad match on the card. Love to see that.

Once SSM brings that title over here, it will be here to stay. You will never bring it back to Canada * evil laugh *

Is Vlad the Russian Hammer John Nord?

I always love tournaments Fun to write up and fun to read

I am looking forward to Tito vs Savage, and to Nikita vs Andre. Can the Russian slam the Giant?

Love how you are using Bam Bam, Jumbo, and Tenryu here. Heatwave Tour is more than living up to the name.

That was a pretty good worked shoot. Could have been a bit stiffer for my tastes. That was reminiscent of early Pancrase, with Mayweather carrying Conner for a few rounds to keep it entertaining for the fans. I enjoyed it a lot more than the Pacquiao fight, anyway.

Su-per Nin-ja! (Clap, clap, clapclapclap) Su-per Nin-ja! (Clap, clap, clapclapclap)

Nice show! Really well booked. SSM and Jaques walking out of there with title belts, and the Vachons with a title shot. Fans really got their money's worth.

Yep, that's a great Main Event for that town. I like the "turn about is fair play" finish, too. Classic.

I just played British Bulldogs vs Moondogs on Fire Pro Wrestling World (out now on Steam Early Release). What a coincidence! Nagasaki, Kabuki, and Khan are a perfect 80s foreign heel stable.