gordi

It's already quite possibly the best pro wrestling video game of all time, and it s technically still in development. (I'd be willing to listen to arguments in favour of No Mercy or KOC II). The gameplay is just so fun, and the CAW edit mode is absolutely mind-blowing. If the story mode is any good at all, that will definitely put FPWW at the top of the list.

Whats WWE's obsession with India? I mean they have a tour but that doesnt warrant to giving a Indian star the WWE Title. It's just so very very dumb to assume that WWE fans in India need to see an Indian wrestler on top in order to be interested. It's like NJPW thinking that putting Billy Gun on their card will draw more American eyeballs. Nope! That's not what the vast majority of American NJPW fans want to see. NJPW fans want to see NJPW wrestlers fighting the NJPW style. WWE fans want to see WWE wrestlers, plain and simple. They would draw huge crowds in India with or without Jinder, or any Indo-Canadians, on the card, believe me. No idea why so many promoters struggle with that basic concept.

Wow! Bam Bam staying strong!

Thank you, gentlemen!

They need to go back and study that classic Billy Robinson vs Dory Funk Jr. Punjabi Prison match from the 1970s. Those guys knew how to tell a good Punjabi Prison story.

Hahaha! It's funny because it's true.

You took a bite from the forbidden fruit of The Tree of the Knowledge of Ken the Box

I've seen far worse. This isn't good but something like Starcade 99 was worse by a mile. Okay how about WWE PPVs? Assuming the Main Event doesn't save things... Maybe this is the worst they have done since Royal Rumble and/or Survivor Series 2015?

In which case, who is currently winning? It's really too close to call, isn't it? Maybe actually getting a boring match out of AJ Styles gives Owens the edge.

Here's what I figure: Before the show, Shinsuke, KO, Russev, and a few others each put 500 bucks into a pool, and whoever works the laziest, least motivated match of the night (without actually getting fired) gets to keep it all.

This is super high stakes, you guys (and Stacey) I can't imagine anything worse than a Bulgarian guy being allowed to wave his flag.

August 20th through 25th is The WWF in Japan Tour and August 26th through September 1st is the JWA in America Tour, both co-promoted with LowBlowPodcast and the World Wrestling Federation. A lot of that has already been laid out, but it's now up to LowBlow if he wants to follow through on it or not. I certainly would not blame him if he just decides to drop it. These were the plans for Setember: September 7th through 27th: JWA Revival – Third Chapter. Tour with three big cards: In Fukuoka on the 9th, in Saitama on the 16th, and in Osaka on the 27th. We’d like to bring in gaijin challengers for all of our belts on this tour. Confirmed Participants: Butch Reed, Terry Gordy, Steve Williams, Sept. 9th Butch Reed, The Road Warriors, Sept 16th Butch Reed, Stan Hansen, The British Bulldogs, Sept. 27th. The idea was to build Butch Reed up to be Fujinami's first challenger for the JWA Japanese Title. ​Gordy and Williams would have been on opposite sides of a huge six-man tag on the 9th. The Roadies would have crushed a mid-card team then made a threat to come and take Inoki and Sakaguchi's belts in the future. The Osaka card would have been huge, with Fujinami vs Reed for the JWA Title, The Bulldogs vs Inoki and Sakaguchi for the Tag Belts, and Hansen vs Tenryu for the JWA title. Anyway, I guess anyone scheduled to be over in Japan is now free to be used, also feel free to book any of my guys from now through October. If someone else wants to take over booking Japan, you are free to use my plans or to drop them.

August 8th through 15th was going to be the Super Juniors Tournament Quarter Finals would have been: Owen Hart vs Black Tiger Wild Pegasus vs Tiger Mask Sayama El Hijo del Santo vs The Cobra El Dandy vs Masa Fuchi Semi Finals would have been: El Dandy vs Sayama El Hijo del Santo vs Black Tiger and Sayama over El Hijo del Santo in the finals. ​That would set up a monster Sayama vs Dos Caras Middleweight Title match. Also, there would be some shenanigans/questions surrounding the Mexican vistor's losses, so they would stick around for September and both challenge Dos Caras for the belt and team with him in six-man tag matches.

So, some stuff has come up and I am going to be unable to give this project the attention it deserves until, probably, October. If someone emerges before October who would like to take over "Japan" by all means feel free to let them. I'll try to drop in and comment from time to time. Here's how the tournament was set to end: July 25th, Nagoya: Kawada and Fuyuki vs Hashimoto and Sting: Sting makes a Kobashi-like self-sacrifice to save Hashimoto, then gets pinned by Fuyuki Faction Wars III: Baba, Tenryu, Yatsu, Hara, and Ishikawa vs. Choshu, Adonis, Rusher, Teranishi and Anjo: finishes in a tie and a brawl. Nothing gets resolved just yet. break Fujinami vs Fujiwara: Intense and bloody. Epic. Tatsumi Fujinami wins. Brody vs. Jumbo: Surprisingly technical at first, with lots of headlocks and wristlocks. Eventually Brody goads Jumbo into brawling with him, and therefore Brody wins. July 28th, Yokohama: Funaki vs Kido: Shoot Style action Hamada, Yamada, and Kosugi vs Kawada, Fuyuki, and Ogawa: Kawada kills Kosugi Mutoh and Chono vs Atisanoe and Afi: Young Lions look good, but Pacific Islanders go over. Sayama, Misawa, and Fuchi vs Cobra, Kobayashi, and Sano: Action and violence Dos Caras vs Takada: successful title defense break Baba Tsuruta and Tenryu vs Inoki Sakaguchi and Fujiwara: Epic battle almost overshadows the Main Event Bruiser Brody vs Tatsumi Fujinami: A bloodied and hurt Fujinami manages to hold on for the victory. He is crowned JWA Japanese Champion. Eventually, this will become the #2 belt in the promotion.

What an introduction for Los Infernales! I did not see that coming. Awesome stuff.

The match the whole world, Jupiter, Saturn , Venus... or anywhere else is waiting for.

I think you are doing a good job of that. I mean, I'm a Canadian who lives in Japan, so it's not like I'm an expert in Southern US culture... but to me the cards in Texas feel different from the cards in Alabama which feel different from thee Florida cards... I think you do a great job of tailoring the upper card and main event matches for the local crowds. I think that is a quality that helps give this project a real 80s territory feel, overall.

What a main event for my old home town of Burnaby!

I wonder who is responsible for putting the price on JYD's head. There are a lot of ways you can go with an angle like that. Nice job building up to the show at the Mid-South Coliseum.

It's probably going to sound ridiculous (or maybe you will understand exactly what I mean) but Choshu surprised me by being willing to put Jumbo over in the quarter-finals. I had this whole tournament planned out a couple of months ago... but then some of the matches ended up going differently from how I'd imagined them. I love it when that happens, even if it sounds a little nuts. The original plan was to have Choshu vs Fujinami and Jumbo vs Brody be the Semi-final match-ups. But, then Sayama surprised me by steamrolling Fuyuki in their match, and that led to a different set of dominoes falling into place... All bets will be refunded, plus an extra 50%

JWA Japanese Championship Tournament Round 3 July 17, Okayama Budokan. Aired live on Asahi TV as a special presentation of JWA World Pro Wrestling Keiichi Yamada vs Naoki Sano Yet again, something tells me that these guys might put on a really good match together some day, after they have had the chance to develop and grow a little more… It’s just so tempting to match up guys that I know will burn the house down in the future (I know, because I time-travelled here from 1995). In terms of “This match is: Naoki Sano vs Jushin Liger” this match was… well, I wouldn’t call it disappointing, but they are not “there” just yet. On the other hand, in terms of “This match is: Two guys who were literally still in the dojo last year” it was pretty damned good and you could easily see plenty of evidence that they are going to get “there” some day in the not too distant future. Hashimoto, Mutoh, and Chono vs Ishikawa, Takada, and Fuchi Ishikawa and Chono recently returned from a tour overseas where they worked as a tag team, developing excellent ring chemistry which they put to good use here, as opponents. We also got Hashimoto and Takada stiffing each other with hard kicks, and Fuchi’s grumpiness as a counter to Mutoh’s flash. We only gave them twelve minutes, but they could easily have gone twenty. Inoki, Sakaguchi, The Cobra, and Kawada vs Ueda, Atisanoe, Afi, and Goto The heel team clubbered, cheated, and drew heat. Kawada sold a ton. The Cobra sold some, too. Inoki and Sakaguchi got the hot tags and looked like super-heroes. Then, Ueda and Atisanoe used dirty tactics to get the momentum (and the heat) back on their side. We ran through that cycle a few times, and then Sakaguchi put Goto down with a Choke Bomb and finished him off with the Stomach Claw. Tenryu, Yatsu, and Hara vs Kengo Kimura, Sting, and Kido Tenryu vs Kimura was the marquee match-up in this six man, and everyone was excited to see how the young American would fare against this level of competition… but in fact it was Yatsu and Kido who stole the show. The Olympian and the Karl Gotch protégé mixed technical grappling, stiff striking, and creative transitions in a twelve-minute display that drew a big reaction from the fans in Okayama. Eventually, the bigger, stronger Yatsu took Kido down with a nasty-looking Bulldog and tagged in the JWA champion. Tenryu waited until Kido got back to his feet, and then took his head off with a Running Lariat for the finish. ***BREAK*** JWA Tournament Match: Fujinami vs Adonis So the first part of the match was a twelve-minute all-action sprint leading to Adonis nailing the Flying Elbow Drop, but Fujinami kicking out at 2.99. Then we had a nasty brawl where an enraged Adonis tried to stomp Fujinami’s head like a grape, but Fujinami managed to keep his cool and take advantage of the New Yorker’s aggression. That part of the match ended when Fujinami hit a Flying Knee Drop, but Adonis got his foot up on the ropes to break the count. Finally, the two men stood toe to toe in the middle of the ring exchanging punches and chops. Adonis seemed to be gaining a clear advantage… but Fujinami ducked a big haymaker and Adonis spun half-way around, out of control. Seeing his opportunity, Fujinami locked the big American up and finished him with a Dragon Suplex in the middle of the ring. JWA Tournament Match: Fujiwara vs Maeda So, part of the reason that we changed the quarter-final match-ups around is that these two shoot style pioneers have been asking for the chance to face each other in the JWA ring. There has been quite a bit of discussion recently about maybe putting on a shoot style tournament or even adding a shoot style title, with matches determined by KO or submission only. So, this match was kind of a test run. We didn’t officially announce it as being contested under shoot style rules or anything; we just let them go at it. It was a stiff, violent, realistic match that popped about 80 percent of the crowd and seemed to kind of baffle or frighten the remaining 20 percent. Originally, the plan had been for Maeda to advance to the semi-finals. However, the big Korean suffered a deep bone bruise to his right tibia in the match with Osamu Kido and so the decision was made to put Fujiwara over. Despite his obvious physical discomfort, Maeda gave it his all in the match and helped Fujiwara to look like a million bucks in the process. After a solid 15 minutes of action, Fujiwara ducked under a Maeda high kick, took him to the ground, and forced him to submit with his signature Arm Bar. JWA Tournament Match: Brody vs Tiger Mask Sayama The other, more important reason that we decided to change the match-ups is that Baba and Shinma were not satisfied with Sayama’s explanation for why he had treated Fuyuki like a glorified jobber in their second-round match. There was some concern that Sayama might try and go into business for himself. Riki Choshu is a legitimately tough guy, but the feeling is that he would not be the best guy to keep a handle on things if Sayama went for a double-cross. Both Maeda and Fujiwara expressed willingness (almost eagerness) to face Sayama, but Baba was concerned that those match-ups might just devolve into in-ring shoots. The hope was that Sayama would be very unlikely to try it on with Brody, given the American’s 12-inch height advantage, 80-pound weight advantage, and fearsome reputation. Tiger Mask came right at Brody from the opening bell, throwing stiff kicks and using his speed and agility to frustrate the big man… but he didn’t cross any lines and when the time came for the momentum to shift Sayama did the job, bouncing and selling for the big man and struggling to fight back from underneath. It was a very good David vs Goliath match, which Brody won by Count Out at the 19 minute mark. JWA Tournament Match: Choshu vs Tsuruta Much like Choshu vs Inoki in the second round, this match could easily have been booked as the Tournament Final. And, not unlike Inoki vs Choshu, there was pressure to put on a sufficiently epic match to meet the expectations that were generated by seeing those two names together on the card. Unlike that second-round epic, outside interference would play no role in determining the outcome of this match. Baba negotiated a huge deal with Sony Electronics and Asahi TV to release recordings of the complete quarter-final, semi-final, and final matches exclusively on Sony’s new SuperBetamax tapes. Baba had therefore requested that I book every remaining tournament match with a relatively clean finish so that we could use the tape sets – which are expected to be big sellers – as a way of promoting JWA as a new style of pro wrestling. So, basically, either Choshu or Tsuruta was going to have to do a clean job in the middle of the ring. To their credit, both men were willing. Choshu even argued persuasively that getting a clean victory over Inoki earlier in the tournament would balance his taking a loss here. He went so far as to say that he would be proud to put Jumbo over as “The man to beat the man who beat Inoki.” I thought that was a very nice turn of phrase. So, they went back and forth for almost 30 minutes, with Choshu looking strong, busting Jumbo open, and getting near-falls off of Lariats, a DDT, and a Piledriver. Around the 25-minute mark, Choshu trapped Jumbo in the Sharpshooter and there was a long struggle during which Jumbo very nearly tapped out before reaching the ropes. As Jumbo tried to get back to his feet, Choshu charged at him… only to be caught by a surprise Dropkick. Bloodied but determined, Jumbo hit Choshu with a Gutwrench Suplex and a Double Underhook Suplex, caught him with a nasty Lariat of his own, and then finished him with a Powerbomb. Semi-final Match-ups: Bruiser Brody vs Jumbo Tsuruta Tatsumi Fujinami vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Valiant hitting almost every cliche cheap pop talking point and the walking off to "light applause" is just about perfect. You are absolutely hitting the target of GLOW-style 80s "zany" characters and promos. It's genuinely a joy to read this.

I'm glad that footage of Bam Bam Bigelow in Japan arrived in time for you to use it on your program. I'm really looking forward to reading about Bam Bam in CCW. It should be great for his development.

I was thinking of using names like Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, Osamu Matsuda, Masanori Murakawa, Sione Vailahi, and Allen Jones as kind of a sly inside joke... but I rarely write up house shows and so I almost never use the enhancement talent I have. Anyone who gets the "joke" here is welcome to use that idea.

Brito and Mascaras going to a time limit draw and Martel beating Flair by CO are the best, most realistic, crowd-pleasing finishes for the Montreal show. Nice booking!