Dylan Waco

Since Kris said it first I will say that the Scherer/ECW to Meltzer/NJPW comp is far more accurate than it should be given gap in integrity, decency, journalistic talents, and historical knowledge between those two. And this is coming from someone who is very high on this years G1 as a whole.

I don't believe that for a second. This is a guy who says Tanahashi is the biggest draw in New Japan "by leaps and bounds" citing no evidence at all, when he has heavily scrutinized the drawing power of people like Punk and Bryan vis a vis John Cena (and others) for the last several years. Same guy went on Observer radio today and claimed American are incapable of having four star matches that are ten minutes or less, and also said (rough paraphrase here) there isn't a single guy in the WWE who could do what the tenth best guy in the G1 has done so far. Also said the five best shows of the year are from the G1, but more than that two of them (IIRC) were among the five best shows he's ever seen in his life. When Dave watches New Japan he watches it as a fan first and an analyst/historian second - if at all.

If the WWE ran a tournament with this kind of parity booking it would be viciously attacked by Meltzer. I don't even think that's an arguable point

I'm not saying it doesn't work well enough, but the level of outrage we would hear if the WWE booked a tournament like this would be otherworldly

No one has watched and reviewed complete G1's, carnivals, real world tag leagues, et. in real time like this until last couple of years. I have really enjoyed this years G1, but I hate comments like those from Dave because there is no interest in comparing anything or thinking in terms of perspective. It's just argument by assertion and if you question it you are a joyless dick. It's made even worse because of the fact that Dave doesn't see any value in watching old footage so if someone were to go back and watch one of those tournies, praising it at a high level, he'd likely dismiss it.

Austin also likes the modern wrestling business and seems to genuinely enjoy the people he has on.

He's still really good now. His tag team with Zack Sabre Jr. is the best thing about modern NOAH

Also notable that I lay down an open challenge to any supporter/advocate of Sting for the WON HoF to come on the show and debate me.

Night 6 and 7 were on opposite poles. I thought Night 6 was a legitimately bad show up until the last two matches. The only match on the undercard I would call above average is Kojima v. Shibata and that was a heavily flawed match that was trending toward pissing me off when it ended. I was all set to bury the show wholesale when AJ came out and had a borderline great match with Tenzan of all people. I also like Tanahashi v. Ishii, though I thought it really illustrated the flaws of Tanahashi as a worker more than any other match in the tourney. Still it was not a good show. Night 7 on the other hand was an awesome show, likely my pick for best of the tournament and best of the year from anywhere. What I liked about it beyond the quality of the matches was that it had a real variety show feel, with a wide disparity in terms of what sort of matches you were getting. The Korakuen Hall crow really added to the show too as they were red hot for everything. The only match I didn't care for was Anderson v. Yujiro, but that was kept short, and was more than made up for by the rest of the show. I thought the Yano match was really fun. Honma v. Fale was a really great and perfectly excited underdog v. monster match. Makabe v. Naito was probably my favorite of the more typical New Japanish main event style matches in the tourney. Gallows v. Davey Boy Smith was really fun and felt like something those two would do on an indie show which I consider a plus. Kojima v. Shelton was JIP, but short and fine. The best four matches on the show ranged from great-to-MOTY level. Nagata v. Shibata was way better than I was expected based on reviews, especially because I don't like Nagata at all. Tenzan v. Goto I thought was an incredible match that would have been the MOTN on most shows in the tourney so far. Nak v. Ishii started off slow, and I could see why some wouldn't like it, but I absolutely loved it based on the second half which I thought was tremendous. And then there was Suzuki v. Styles which was an amazing match that managed to combine the more sports entertainmeny aspects of this years New Japan, with the shooter routine of Suzuki and the flashy stuff of Styles perfectly. The fact that they worked a match with run-in's and a ref bump, where finger manipulation was pivotal to the story of the match, and there was an ankle lock reversal sequence and it some how all worked is pretty incredible. Suzuki gave us his once a year reminder that he's tremendous when he wants to be, an Styles is slowly rising up the charts as both a Wrestler of the Year and Most Outstanding Wrestler contender. Serious MOTYC. Really a great show.

I don't think that roll works as well when the guy in question is a heel

TNA was good this week now that it doesn't matter. http://www.voicesofwrestling.com/2014/07/31/tna-impact-july-31-review/

Don't worry, you are going to get it

One thing I will say for Ross is that I think he's probably still the most valuable free agent in wrestling in the sense that I know a lot of casual fan friends and acquaintances who cite his departure as the reason they don't watch any more. For better or worse JR is a guy people identify as a big time announcer who makes shows and big moments what they are. Having said that Lance is the easy pick. I discuss why on a recent edition of Titans Extra, but I think he had a very hard job, was incredible at it, and had unbelievable value to his promotion.

If I were Del Rio and Rybaxel I would be really worried.

I have never listened to one of these shows. I tried to listen to the Sting one this morning at work and gave up after about five minutes of the interview. Literally the worst podcast I've ever heard by a massive margin

High Point: Many of the things I would have picked for highs have already been mentioned (Aries title run, Joes initial run, AMW's best run, et.) so I'll go with the the single biggest thing that kept me watching even long after the product seemed to be beyond salvation - Don West. To me Don West was absolutely awesome both as the crazy guy in the booth marking out for Amazing Red, who you responds and reacts like he thinks wrestling is real and as the heel who buried the truly awful Mike Tenay, did the heel color schtick better than anyone had done in years, and literally saved horrid angles and shows with his talking. In thirty years as a fan the ONLY wrestling show I've ever watched solely for the announcing was heel Don West era TNA, as the promotion was the absolute shits then, but he was so entertaining in the booth I would watch every week anyhow. When they dumped him I quit watching immediately and didn't start back up with consistency until Voices of Wrestling roped me into doing Impact reviews for their site this year. Low Point: Besides the first Impact I reviewed for VOW which may have been the worst t.v. show (of any kind) that I've ever seen, I'd have to say it was when they let their biggest home grown star and champion leave the company because they didn't want/couldn't afford to pay him. Despite the fact that TNA house shows were not drawing particularly well with him, AJ Styles went on to draw record setting crowds for indies all over the U.S., including topping several shows that did well over 1,000 paid, something TNA almost never does anymore. Notably none of these indies have any sort of T.V. presence, unlike TNA.

I think it was Sierra. Funny but Kelly makes the same point about Cousin Luke/Gene Lewis on an upcoming episode

They were talking about Cesaro v. Ambrose from SD which Bryan was pushing as something Dave needed to see.

Actually that's not true. The match in question was on Smackdown

Just finished Night 5 which I worked my way through rather slowly. Honestly I thought it was at about the same level as Night 4. 4 had the best match, and the better main event (easily), but I think Night 5 MIGHT have had a better mean for what that's worth. Night 5 had the best opening match of the tourney with Ishii v. Gallows, the two biggest miracle matches of the tourney with Shibata v. Shelton and Tanahashi v. Fale both being in the very good-to-great range (I thought Tanahashi was rock solid as the guy getting mauled v. Fale, among the best performances I've ever seen from him really), and a Honma v. Nakamura match that was one really ill timed blown spot away from being a Japanese MOTYC. AJ v. Goto was also way better than I expected, I thought Tenzan put in his most complete match of the tourney and while Naito/Okada was sort of a "preach to the choir" NJPW main event on speed it did deliver on a big moment at the end. Really good show

I thought the whole thing was funny to the point where I was literally laughing out loud listening to it at work this morning. The best part was Alvarez was taken aback the same way many fans of stuff like DragonGate are when I start shitting on the things I hate about those matches. Another great moment was when he said it wasn't believable, as if something like Elgin v. Richards which he loved, or other more "well executed" are more believable than two big guys flying at each other sloppily. I think I understood his point, but that's an awful word to use as a weapon to beat that match with, particularly if you are a guy falling over yourself with praise for T-Hawk matches. Also got a good chuckle over Meltzer talking about WWE matches like they are jokes compared to the G1. Granted I wasn't nearly as high on Ambrose v. Cesaro as Bryan, but the idea that the Christ like New Japan can not be compared to the heathen others milling about in the WWE made me laugh. And this is coming from someone who is really high on this years G-1 and New Japan in general right now

Thanks for the kind comments Boricua. We will be discussing WWC in 81 and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on that

Basically there are TNA fans and people in and around the business who are running with the idea that Court made up and/or exaggerated the "Spike dropped TNA" story. I can't and won't go into too many details there, but I have a feeling this story is going to get really ugly in the coming days

I have never gotten texts, emails, messages, et. like I have today as a result of this story with the exception of the Benoit murders. It's insane

Newest theory floating around is that Court Bauer made up and/or inflated this entire story. I love it.