gordi

Top to bottom this was superior to the original in every way. Right of the bat, The Fantastics vs The Hart Foundation is probably a better match on paper than anything on the the first WrestleMania card. Blackjack Mulligan vs Ron Bass is a better brawl than anything on the first WrestleMania card. David Sammartino w/ Bruno Sammartino vs Larry Zbyszko is at least a better attempt than David vs Beefcake. Tito Santana vs Greg Valentine, even without a clean finish, sounds better than either the Santana vs JYD or the Tito vs Buddy Rose under a mask matches that we got. The British Bulldogs © vs The Dynamic Duo sounds better than the original tag title match (Volkoff and Sheik vs US Express) although I have to admit that match had some good heat to it. Antonio Inoki vs King Kong Bundy: Nothing against SD Jones, but who would you rather see, him or Inoki? Dino Bravo & Tony Atlas vs The Russians: Better than any power vs power match on the original card. Andre the Giant vs “King” Harley Race: Waaaaay better use of Andre than the bodyslam challenge. Randy Savage © w/ Elizabeth vs Jake Roberts: It's a better card with these two on it, and this is a better IC Title match than Valentine vs Tito was. The Machines vs The Faces of Fear w/ Bobby Heenan is a better popcorn match than Richter vs Kai, but give WWF some points for having a women's title match. As for the Main Event, I'd rather see a title defense than a gimmick match with a cool celebrity in that position. So: top to bottom, simply much much better.

JWA would like to add Abdullah, Hansen, Brody, and Mascaras for the 15th, 17th, and 19th.

Matt and trees: Completely agree with what you have to say. stro: understand and basically agree with what you have to say. How weird is is that on a board of crazy wrestling fans, not one person so far has posted that they are excited about WM33? I imagine some people here must be planning on going live. Maybe they are excited? Or... I dunno... maybe even the people going live are more excited about ROH, Janela, Evolve, Chikara, and Kaiju Big Battel?

I am definitely more pumped for this version of WrestleMania than I am for the "real life" WrestleMania 33.

Doing the predictions contest, I was able to see an argument for how almost every match could go either way. To me, that is a sign that it's a really well-booked. card.

Those upcoming cards look tremendous.

I wonder if Hillbilly Jim will have any kind of role to play at Mania.

Agreed. Looking at that card, I can imagine that a lot of those matches will involve (as you say) self-conciously striving to create those big moments instead of just working a good solid match. And that is just not my thing. I like a three star match that knows it's a three star match and just tries to be the best three star match it can be. I can't bear a whole series of three-star matches all striving desperately to be immortal six-star classics.

Obligation is right. It's like "well, it's Mania, I kinda "need" to watch it". When in fact, I really don't. I'm perfectly happy going through TNA 2006 now D'Amore is still booking so it's quite the fine product. Until VR gets hired in the Fall or something. I look forward Destination X 2006 myself. And the next basho. That Kisenosato win this month was fucking legendary. Perfect booking. Obligation is right. It's like "well, it's Mania, I kinda "need" to watch it". When in fact, I really don't. I'm perfectly happy going through TNA 2006 now D'Amore is still booking so it's quite the fine product. Until VR gets hired in the Fall or something. I look forward Destination X 2006 myself. And the next basho. That Kisenosato win this month was fucking legendary. Perfect booking. That injury angle was amazing. And, yeah, I have lots of nice things in my life without WrestleMania... But it would be nice to have that as well.

So: You take two big, strong, legitimately tough guys and put them in the ring and let them throw bombs at each other. Is it a fail-safe formula for an entertaining match? No, sadly, it is not. Not in this case, anyway. Magnum Milano's story is way more entertaining than this match.

Seemed like a pretty decent match, but it was just there as background colour for the Sisyphean task of trying to get Terri over.

This is really enjoyable. The pace is incredible, everything Dick Togo does in there looks great, the supersonic sequence between Black Buffalo and Delphin near the end was gorgeous, I enjoyed having a look at the beginnings of the Ebessan character, and the finish was killer.

I think that if your goal is to build a guy up as an unstoppable Undertaker-type monster, maybe a white dress shirt, necktie,and frosted tips is not the most frightening look to go with.

Yeah, I didn't want to go so far as to say this, but I agree that WresleMania feels like a chore or at least an obligation rather than a treat or an anticipated event these days. I'm sincerely curious how many people here feel the same and how many feel totally different. I'm assuming someone here must be all excited about it. I wish I was. It's nice to have things to look forward to.

So... is anyone EXCITED for WrestleMania this year? I mean, I have a tiny bit of curiosity about how they'll book Lesnar vs Goldberg and I hope Owens and Jericho will have a fun match and it will be neat to see Strowman tossing people out in the Battle Royal... but I am really having to talk myself into sitting trough the whole thing and I don't think I'm going to be able to do it. There is just so much on the card that I can not bring myself to care abort at all. But maybe it's just me. I'm definitely a fair weather WWE fan. I tend to get pulled in by specific narratives like the rise of Bret, the rise of Benoit and Eddie, the rise of Bryan... if there isn't something like that going on, I tend to lose interest and become a casual follower. For me, right now, WM33 is really looking blah. Is it just me? Anyone all hyped up and waiting on tenterhooks? Anyone wanna try and talk me into it?

JWA Jobbers: Shinichi Nakano, Shunji Takano, Tatsutoshi Goto, Akira Nogami, Shunji Kosugi, Hirokazu Hata. Protected: Baba, Jumbo, Tenryu, Fujinami, Fujiwara, Traded at this time: Super Strong Machine, Rusher Kimura, Kawada, Fuyuki, Ogawa. Group 1: Inoki, Maeda, Choshu, Sayama, Sakaguchi, Kengo Kimura Group 2: Anjo, Kido, Yatsu, Hara, Ueda, Teranishi Group 3: Ishikawa, Hashimoto, Mutoh, Chono, The Cobra, Koshinaka Group 4: Hoshino, Hamada, Takada, Yamazaki, Hamaguchi, Kobayashi Group 5: Fuchi, Inoue, Yamada, Funaki, Misawa, Sano Group 6: Black Tiger, Adonis, Dos Caras, Atisnaoe, Afi, Bigelow Dice roll: 6,6,5,1,1,2 Kimura, Teranishi, The Cobra, Hoshino, Fuchi, Adrian Adonis Dice roll: 4, 5 JWA Injury Report: Kantaro Hoshino out from April 6 to August 6, 1985 (Fractured Tibula)

Me, too! I'm also digging how you are building to DiBiase vs Duggan and Sheiks vs MVC. And that tournament is going to be hot. A lot to like, here.

OK. So Anjo is gonna be fine, then?

I got Yoji Anjo out for four months starting in June.

Crazy idea. Count me in.

I think it's arguable that Ueda vs Rusher Kimura was the first real native vs native feud. They had a match for the IWA World Heavyweight Title, which Ueda won, in June of '76. After that the feuds kind of overlap through '77 and we had a few tag matches with Ueda and Singh vs Inoki and Strong Kobayashi or Sakaguchi and Kobayashi. Then the Ueda vs Inoki feud really seemed to take off starting in February 1978 with a "Nail Floor Death Match."

Rikidozan vs. Masahiko Kimura for the Japanese Heavyweight Title in December 1954 might have been the first major Native vs Native Main Event in Japanese Pro Wrestling history. (if you don't count Rikidozan being Korean, which you shouldn't). There probably weren't a whole lot more big native vs native matches for a while after that one, though. Inoki vs Strong Kobayashi in March 1974, Inoki vs Sakaguchi from April 1974, and Baba vs Jumbo in December 1975 were all pretty big deals. Edit: NintendoLogic beat me to it. Building on what he said: Jumbo and Rusher Kimura fought in '75, '76, and '77. Their biggest match was probably the 2 out of 3 falls match for the NWA United National Title in 1976.

Nicely put. It's one of the many things I really enjoy about this project: the way people write up their promotions gives each one a distinct feel and reading that feels similar to how watching different wrestling shows felt to me in the early to mid 1980s. I definitely agree that Boon has already given Smoky Mountain a distinct feel and style.

Did Hogan ever host SNL in real life? I don't remember. Rock and Cena both have done really well in that role recently. Edit; Wow. Found these witha quick search: http://thecomeback.com/theapparty/2015-articles/the-shared-history-of-snl-and-professional-wrestling.html http://uproxx.com/sports/saturday-night-live-snl-wrestling-boxing/3/

Yeah! Please give us a huge SNME go-home show before WrestleMania. That sound like a lot of fun.