NintendoLogic

Each of the pillars had one-offs in outside promotions (Misawa in the AWA, Kawada in UWFi, Kobashi in FMW, Taue in DDT). The match with Tenryu against Demolition at WM7 is Koji Kitao's only WWE match. He also had a one-off in AAA. He wrestled Masaaki Mochizuki, who worked the match under the name Hideo No More. I have never seen that match and almost certainly never will (the show wasn't taped and there's no handheld footage as far as I know), but I give it five stars on that basis alone.

Katsuyori Shibata and Koji Kanemoto in AJW. Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards in NXT.

I was in the nosebleeds for WM23. It obviously doesn't compare to being near ringside, but I had no trouble viewing any of the in-ring action. From what I hear, all the seats at Wembley have great views. Whether it's worth it I guess depends on where in the UK you are. 27 quid a head seems like a steal for an event of that magnitude, but I know Europeans tend to have a narrower view of what constitutes reasonable travel distance than Americans.

In a major buzzkill, the latest Observer reported that AEW only acquired the rights to The Final Countdown for Forbidden Door as it remains absurdly expensive to license. TK said using it at FD was as expensive as a wrestler contract.

You obviously can't expect talent to improve at things without putting them in a position to do them, but that doesn't mean throwing them out there without a net and expecting them to sink or swim. If they had Perry cut his first heel promo on TV without any coaching or a rough script, they were setting him up for failure. Delivery is something that will hopefully improve as he becomes more comfortable talking, but the content was questionable as well. Calling his own girlfriend a bitch is something that should have been left on the cutting room floor for sure.

I'll pop if Jack Perry starts coming out to an evil remix of Tarzan Boy.

Not a Simpsons fan, I take it. The whole point of the joke is that arguing that attempting to commit a crime should not be punishable if the attempt was unsuccessful is transparently absurd.

If they do run it back, Bryan cutting promos about how he tapped out Okada with a broken arm will be solid gold.

I call it the Sideshow Bob Rule. You can't win a Nobel Prize for attempted chemistry and you can't be DQed for attempted use of a foreign object.

New Japan wrestlers are mostly free to work wherever they want outside Japan in between tours. Regal was the one who made the call to bring Liger in since the two have been friends for decades.

The first mention of Danielson in the Observer is in reference to an article the local newspaper in San Antonio did on students at Shawn Michaels' wrestling school. In the article, he bragged about how he had already suffered three concussions three months into his career. Self-preservation has never been his strong suit.

I had been staying out of this thread until I had a chance to watch the main event to avoid spoilers, but when I logged on this morning and saw the notification that I had been tagged in a post, I knew exactly what had happened. Okada/Danielson had the same problem a lot of dream matches have. For the most part, it felt like both guys were just going through their greatest hits with a lot of inorganic-feeling transitions to put the other guy in position for his opponent's moves. As terrible as the seizure spot was, Okada kicking the doctor out of the ring so he could go for a rainmaker was pretty lol. Also, I'll cut them some slack if they were trying to cover for Danielson's broken arm. The finish was certainly ballsy both in being a total shock and in Danielson gutting it out.

How often has brother vs. brother even been attempted historically? Back when promotions were more committed to maintaining kayfabe, a violent feud between family members would have been considered business-exposing. There's a reason the Klitschkos never fought each other.

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/primary-wave-acquires-portion-of-the-final-countdown-singer-songwriter-joey-tempests-publishing-catalog/ The rights to much of Europe's back catalog, including The Final Countdown, have been sold to a music publisher, which presumably wants to make money with the songs they've acquired and thus wouldn't charge an arm and a leg for use. Imagine if Danielson came out to TFC at Forbidden Door.

I'm sorry you're having trouble coping with the fact that MJF has been more successful as world champion than The Miz ever was, but seething over it every week can't be healthy. In that case, he should rock one of these: https://www.prowrestlingtees.com/wrestler-t-shirts/acesteel.html

Punk himself has said he doesn't know if was representatives of the Elite or a third party who told him not to attempt to contact them, so he apparently hasn't tried to contact them directly. Also, the Observer reported a couple of weeks ago that AEW has been more aggressive recently in trying to sign Omega and the Bucks to new deals and Dave tweeted that it was a TK call not to bring them to Chicago. Given all that, my guess is the company is trying to keep Punk and the Elite as far apart as possible until the latter are locked in contractually in order to minimize the chances of a blow-up that jeopardizes negotiations.

If you say you don't get LA Knight but think Ricky Starks is a potential breakout superstar, you've got some explaining to do. I saw someone on Reddit refer to Starks as Ricky Maivia and it pretty much ruined him forever for me.

I asked an AI art generator to create a picture of CM Punk on a penny-farthing and this is what it gave me.

Shawn was the one who produced the matches in NXT where Cole worked parity exchanges with much larger opponents. It's the same reason he produces matches with millions of superkicks even though he heavily protected his own when he wrestled. He's putting together the matches he thinks modern audiences want to see.

It's been long established that championship belts are the intellectual property of the promotion. What possible legal issues could there be with having an AEW belt on AEW TV? Also, Shawn Michaels carried around the old Intercontinental belt during the buildup to the WM10 ladder match. In fact, maybe what's this is all about. Punk has gotten tired of doing Bret tributes, so he's decided to do Shawn tributes for a while.

Since the Punk interview turned out to be completely anodyne, the story going around now is that there was a lot said that was left out of the printed version of the interview and quotes from the complete interview somehow made their way to the locker room and had them up in arms but no one can say what those quotes were. Which, come the fuck on. I don't know if it's the Elite, but it does seem like someone in AEW has it out for Punk and is trying to poison the well.

How convenient that this comes out the day after AEW airs a promotional video where Punk talks about how he has a lot to get off his chest. If he said things in a pre-taped interview that would legitimately cause problems in the company, it most likely would never see the light of day.

MJF looking like he wants to audition for a remake of Soul Man.

There's a lot of dummies out there who are lost in the sauce when it comes to LA Knight, so lemme talk to ya. On the surface, he appears to be another example (as were Road Dogg and Ken Kennedy before him) of how repeating a handful of catchphrases over and over is just about the easiest way to fool wrestling fans into thinking you have charisma. However, he managed to come out of a feud with Bray Wyatt relatively unscathed, so there's clearly something to him beyond that. I'd take him over Ricky Starks even factoring in the age difference. And that's not an insult, that is just a fact of life. YEAH!