sek69

Nothing makes me feel more "get off my lawn"-ish than seeing people absolutely lose their shit that someone rated a match they liked 1/4th less of a star than they did. It's like there's no allowance for differing personal tastes, and if someone doesn't share the same opinion you do then that person is either a shill for another company and/or mentally deficient in some way. There's little room for debate or nuance, but I guess that's just par for the course in the social media world we live in now. In all the fuss about Dave giving the Dome match six stars, one point that gets lost is now people see anything less than five stars as a sign of low quality instead of the near-classic a four plus rating was intended to be. I don't know if this is just a wrestling equivalent to a culture that is based on rating apps where anything less than the maximum is seen as garbage or what, but it's been fascinating to see people @'ing Dave asking what was wrong with a match he "only" gave ****1/4 to.

I thought the Tanahashi/Naito match was the best on the card in terms of being the overall package of good wrestling/telling a great story. I just hope Tanahashi takes the time to get his arm fixed properly, he deserves better than to become Japanese Paul Orndorff just because of the silly "never take time even if your arm is hanging off" mindset.

The "you never wrestled, you can't criticize" mentality which to be fair seems to be a thing among all strains of athlete.

Hope they move Lars to being a single soon before they end up making him look like a goof who keeps losing matches because he teams up with hapless geeks.

You're possibly thinking of their title win over Regal & Garvin that was, for years, thought to be a phantom change. It was listed as being something like 57 minutes long or something. But a few years ago proof of the card and change were turned up (don't ask me what the proof was - KHawk would remember). There's a thread about it on the old KM board. I don't remember all the details but evidence was presented that it was an actual match in Alberquerque, NM. ​ Funny, my brain probably mashed several swaps together, since Garvin and Regal beating the RWs was a shocking moment, and the count out change was so puzzling to me how the AWA was all "well of course that's always been a thing we do it just never happened before".

To be honest, I'm kind of impressed Corny keeps up with current wrestling enough to even notice. I'd think the holder of the IWGP title would be the furthest thing from his mind.

The idea of Randy Orton being someone's handler is hilarious but I suppose he's got experience with that particular job.

I've been surprised how much Bruno has done with WWE since returning to the fold. I figured he'd do the HOF and a DVD or two and disappear.

Wasn't it Scott Hall and Curt Hennig who won the AWA tag titles via countout? Apparently all these years later it was a phantom change to cover for someone leaving the promotion but I remember even the Apter Mags at the time going "uhhh, okay" at that one.

It's nice to see them put some variety in to the Ladder Match collection, there were some different matches put in and not another rehash of the same old lists they used to always use for these things. Some of the old standbys were still there of course, but it was good to see some new stuff.

Seth might not be the worst choice, I wouldn't want to see someone fresh to the main event mix like Joe or Finn to get a one and done program with Brock (since the plan seems to be to go right back to Braun when he returns). Those guys, especially Joe, deserve better than that.

Not to be Well Actually Guy, but wasn't Vince doing proto Mr. McMahon in the USWA years before Eric?

Even at his most ridiculous, it was still better than anyone else who's done it since. ETA: Him coming out and taking bumps and pratfalls for Roman at an advanced age did more to get him over in one night than years of him facing off against the unbeatable Authority.

Also we're set to get a mega dump of new collections on Monday, not the least of which being one dedicated to Bruno.

Mr. McMahon is probably the best heel character in wrestling history. Vince was willing to do whatever it took to get the babyface over, which is most of the reason why it doesn't work when anyone else tries to copy it. They get the asshole boss part down pat, but forget the part where you stooge all over the place to make the babyface strong. No one else does that part, due to the usual fragile wrestler ego syndrome, where Vince didn't have to worry about that since he owned the company and didn't care if he looked like a goofball.

For some reason Volador doesn't seem to translate well to NJPW. His CMLL work is (usually) far better, and it's not like he's being matched with guys in this tournament who can't work his style.

Cornette doesn't have a rep for destroying every company he touches like Vinny Ru does either. It's not just the bullshit with him, it's the bullshit plus the inability to admit (20 goddamn years later) that maybe some of his ideas were less than great, and the gross racism and misogyny that pervades everything he's involved in.

I have to say, I've finally punted on TNA, I've been watching more or less consistently since the Fox Sports days, and when I thought they were finally going to get past the mass incompetence of the Dixie Era it ends up turning into Global Force cosplaying as TNA.

I've long suspected that WWE (or whatever company works on their behalf) has a list of terms they search for that tend to be trigger words.

With Flair gone, Dusty probably stays, which might not sound like the greatest result but perhaps without the ongoing power struggles more guys end up getting elevated without being turned into potential political pawns. What's really interesting is with Flair leaving on less harsh terms there wouldn't be the backlash from him getting fired in 1991, which would make WCW not in a position to want to bring in Hogan when they did to turn things around. Say what you will on what killed WCW, but IMO the ball was set rolling by bringing in Hogan and catering to his every whim past the point where it made sense to do so. So with a potentially more stable environment, maybe Bischoff doesn't end up in charge to plant the seeds of the downfall. Of course the flaw in that scenario is that Flair wasn't really a fit for WWF at that time when he did go, so I don't know if arriving a few years earlier would have made too much of a difference. If he leaves for a year or two and goes back to WCW, then history probably plays out like it did only with things happening a little sooner.

In 1988 JCP was still a very big part of TBS's audience at the time. There was really nothing much on the channel at that time other than Braves and Hawks games. Most of the other programming was cartoons and syndicated shows from the 60s and 70s.

Yeah when you can get WWE for $10, NJPW World for about $8 (pending on exchange rates), and now NWA on demand for $6, who's going to jump to spend $30 for poorly shot indy feds and PPV live feeds that seem to have issues often.

Yeah but the thing is no one ever discounted him because of race, it's because the company portrayed him as a jobber forever and suddenly thrust him into the main event when they realized there's a billion people in India. If he was ranting at the company for being possibly racist the gimmick would probably have a better chance, but to go after the fans makes no sense. I would expect the fans in India to see that too.

It seems like their coverage of things like the NCAA tournament didn't go all that well either so pro wrestling fans might be the only ones sticking around in any number.

Would Cena want to go toil on the indies to hopefully get a second chance? Or would he be one of those guys who figured they had their shot in the bigs and went on to something else?