NintendoLogic

New top three picks for 2010, 2011, and 2019.

WWE is impossible to defend on the merits these days, so the only thing left for the apologists is to go after straw men.

I have no idea why anyone would pay to see an ROH show in 2019. Who is their target audience supposed to be? Are they trying to be a super indy? An incubator and launching pad for the stars of the future? WWE/TNA lite? They need to make up their minds, because they can't be all three.

Look, there have to be repercussions when someone announces they're going to do something and then doesn't do it. That undercuts WWE's legendary commitment to delivering what it advertises.

The fact that Bubba told the guy not to say anything he wouldn't say to his mom leads me to believe he was going well beyond simply booing the heels and cheering the faces. Even so, this is incredibly bush-league. Getting into an altercation with a fan is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Have him kicked out if he's that out of line.

No-nonsense tag sprint featuring four guys who aren't afraid to take or dish out boatloads of punishment. The match is centered around Meiyu Tag working over Honma, and his selling is off the charts. In particular, he sells a sucker punch from Shibata like a blow from a baseball bat. I also loved Shibata setting up the PK only to boot Nagata off the apron, followed by Nagata kicking the guardrail in frustration. Honma reversing the shouten into a small package was a great nearfall late in the match. They keep the fighting spirit nonsense to a minimum and deliver 11 minutes of hard-hitting action without overstaying their welcome. If New Japan has produced a better tag match this decade, I haven't seen it.

I think this comfortably smokes the 4/2/93 WAR tag, which is honestly pretty dull before Choshu gets posted. Hell of a gutsy performance from Ohara as he absorbs an unreal amount of punishment but keeps firing back. Plenty of highlights packed into a relatively short time frame, including Ishikawa contemptuously stomping Ohara after a double clothesline, Hashimoto breaking up a pin and trying to drag Ohara to his corner only for Tenryu to drag him right back, and the monster match-ending chokeslam. There are a couple of blatant restholds, but that's the only real problem with this match.

What would Gargano do on the main roster? He has no ready-made feuds, and all the singles champions are babyfaces. He'd be just another midcard geek lost in the shuffle.

Why did Gargano try to pin Cole while the referee was out? I mean, he's the one who took out the referee. Is he an idiot?

Is there a worse move in wrestling than the Panama Sunrise? It's like someone dared Cole to make the Canadian Destroyer even stupider and he did it by adding a bunny hop beforehand.

Please tell me this match isn't going an hour.

I'm a Shayna fan, but every single one of her feuds ending with her choking out her opponent is a total buzzkill.

One great thing about Baszler is that you never hear dueling chants during her matches. EDIT: Never mind, looks like I spoke too soon.

Velveteen Dream is what Sonny Kiss should be.

A lot of hardway blood in this match.

Why the hell would you do a tope into a ladder?

I can't remember the last Takeover with this little buzz. Maybe it's the lack of a main roster PPV to piggyback off of. Maybe the plight of the most recent call-ups has made people wary of getting too invested in NXT. Or maybe WWE has been so godawful this year that everything associated with the company has been tainted. Probably a combination of the three. Anyway, the top two matches are Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole for the NXT Championship and Shayna Baszler vs. Io Shirai for the NXT Women's Championship. I can't imagine anyone being interested in seeing Cole face Gargano again after they spent nearly 40 minutes kicking out of every move ever invented in New York. What more can they do to each other? And Shirai had a pretty great match with a much greener Baszler in Stardom a couple of years ago, but there will most likely be some nonsense with Duke and Shafir to prevent this match from reaching that level. Discuss. Or not, it's a free county.

The Cole comparison may not be particularly apt, but I was trying to think of an undersized indy guy who isn't particularly flippy and he's the first one who came to mind. My overall point is that there's nothing major league about Joey Ryan. The Rick Rude knockoff act is already bush league as hell, and it's not like he has size or ability going for him. He's indy for life, and the easiest way to get over on the indies is through shitty meme comedy.

In other news, here's what awaits us on Raw. The Brock boombox stuff was entertaining and got over, so of course they have to find a way to attach a McMahon to it.

Completely disagree. The dick stuff is the only reason people care about him. Without it, he's just a dollar store Adam Cole.

There's a world of difference between being merely effeminate (like, say, Velveteen Dream) and getting off on forcing your opponent's face into your ass. If a male wrestler did that to a woman, it would be regarded as sexual assault. Having a flamboyantly gay wrestler do it only serves to validate the most pernicious anti-gay stereotypes.

The thing is, extremely online types tend to vastly overestimate the wokeness of the public at large. Wrestling Twitter is not the real world. If you don't think an effeminate man who wears makeup and performs ass-based comedy spots is going to repel a lot more viewers than he attracts, I don't know what to tell you. Speaking of Twitter, Joey Ryan tweeted that Cornette needs to be cancelled for being homophobic, which led to Brian Last posting screenshots of past Ryan tweets making jokes about rape and pedophilia. It just goes to show that most performative outrage is complete horseshit.

Virus is facing Metalico in a hair match tonight with the added stipulation that the loser must retire. That's one hell of a stip to announce out of the blue. In other news, Wagner has gotten hair extensions to prepare for his match with Blue Demon Jr. at Triplemania. I guess that pretty much gives away the result.

It seems that Shawn Michaels never contacted Flair in the hospital and Ric is none too pleased. Also, he doesn't sound like he's all that committed to cleaning up his act. I guess he's just too set in his ways. Or maybe he figures his days are numbered regardless and is willing to sacrifice some longevity for happiness in the time he does have.

But Cody did plenty of things (stalling, an arrogant cartwheel, valet interference) that had nothing to do with settling a score and were solely for cheap heat. I guess can't really complain too much about the post-match since it clearly worked for the audience, but I definitely felt a disconnect between it and the way the match was worked.