NintendoLogic

I'm not aware of hardcore fans traveling to rural shows ever being a thing. On the contrary, those shows primarily drew older and more traditional fans. Meltzer once wrote that even in the 90s, the main draw for All Japan's spot shows in the countryside was Giant Baba. You also have to remember that Japan is far more densely populated than the US, so there's far less need to travel great distances to attend a sports or entertainment event. It's kind of like asking if someone living in NYC would travel to a WWE house show in, say, Utica.

I'm all for turning Sammy and Tay heel, but I really hope they don't do it with a WWE-style "YOU PEOPLE" promo. That's just about the laziest storytelling device imaginable.

It might have been a brilliant old-school carny move back in the day, but these days it's more likely that he played himself. Last I heard, the Mexican wrestling scene is still reeling from COVID, so most of the top guys are trying to get as much work in the US as possible. And no respectable American promotion will touch him with a ten-foot pole after the stunt he pulled. He's also imparting the wrong lessons to his sons about how to do business, so they'll probably be SOL once they're no longer able to ride his coattails.

First top three for 2022.

Park has a long history of clashing with promoters and getting fired by/walking out of promotions, but I'm not aware of him ever being unprofessional with opponents.

The best option for Sunny should be the last thing on anyone's minds right now. An innocent person is dead because of her after six previous DUI arrests. Lock her up and throw away the key.

If there is, I doubt they'd touch this one. They seem to want the episodes with the darkest subject matter (Benoit, Pillman, Grizzly Smith) to have at least somewhat hopeful endings, and I don't know how you can do that with her story.

He's a "preferred walk-on," which is college football carny for "he's not actually good enough to make the team but we're giving him a roster spot in hopes his family will give the school a ton of money."

Honestly, I'd be perfectly happy with all crying and hugging being permanently exiled from pro wrestling. You want to express emotion, express the emotion of being mad at someone and wanting to hurt them.

I tried watching Briscoes/FTR, but I ended up completely losing interest and turning it off about fifteen minutes in. It could simply be a case of me going in with unrealistic expectations and/or being grumpy from work, so I'll give it another shot soon. By the way, someone needs to tell FTR Bald how Bret feels about chops.

I honestly expected a much bigger reaction, especially from a post-Mania Raw crowd. That doesn't bode well for his future booking. Also, I know that being a huge dork is basically Dominik's thing, but tapping out during a post-match beatdown is a chump move even by his standards.

How exactly did having the consensus best match at Mania (I personally had it #2 behind Lynch/Belair, but it's the highest-rated WM38 match on Cagematch) undo Cody's momentum?

Will Veer be the one to dethrone Roman? Veer Two Belts is the key to WWE overtaking cricket in popularity in India and ushering in a new boom period.

NXT's real creative peak was when Dusty was in charge. After Dusty passed, it became more of an indy dream match promotion. Having an unlimited budget to sign the top indy talent and letting them do whatever they want in the ring is the equivalent of Mr. Burns telling Darryl Strawberry to hit a home run. Like 90s All Japan, the NXT workrate style ended up largely collapsing under the weight of its own excess due to the lack of compelling storytelling to give the matchups added weight.

Considering all the psychos out there who try to create scandals by twisting his words or quoting him out of context, I don't blame him for taking a victory lap when it's warranted.

Acknowledge deez nuts, bubba.

It's probably true that his legacy is largely positive if you subtract the reign of terror. Yet it's the first thing people think of whenever he's mentioned and is enough to move his overall legacy to the negative side of the ledger in a lot of people's minds. That's how bad it was. He also played a key role in the Montreal Screwjob, so fuck him for that as well.

Seth/Cody actually ended up being really good. Probably my second-favorite Seth match behind the Lesnar match at Summerslam 2019. He must have just discovered 90s All Japan, because he did a rolling elbow, Kawada-style kicks to the face, and Kobashi's running with his opponent before whipping them into the ropes and then kneeing them in the gut on the rebound. "Welcome back to the big leagues, bitch" also got a chuckle out of me. Bianca/Becky and Seth/Cody are enough to make this Mania an easy thumbs up for me. I don't know if I'll watch all of night two live, but I'll definitely check out Edge/AJ and Brock/Roman after the fact if I don't.

I tried to watch as much as I could have live last night, but exhaustion got the better of me and I ended up tapping out when the Miz match started. Lynch/Belair has been getting a lot of buzz, so I went back and watched it. It deserves all the praise it's gotten and then some. I don't want to jump the gun, but my gut tells me it's the greatest women's match in WWE history. Becky's ring attire and makeup kind of reminded me of Akira Hokuto, and she turned in a performance worthy of the Dangerous Queen. I'm amazed that kick to the face didn't knock Bianca out legit. About to watch Seth/Cody. Seth "Freakin" Rollins is his actual ring name? Fuck off.

If Seth's opponent isn't Cody, they should have Veer come out and squash Seth like a bug. The guy's basically a meme, and his only real shot at being something is to hope WWE fans meme him into stardom the way AEW fans did with HOOK.

I don't see why he wouldn't. After all, the NWA TV champion is a Fox News sex pest. And isn't Corgan himself kind of a kook?

Coach Tony K said that she show went from 250 tickets sold to over 2000 after FTR/Briscoes was announced. Looks like the Top Guys are legit draws.

I've always heard Andre didn't like Sheik because of the latter's tendency to take liberties with enhancement talent.

Kenny Omega held the AAA mega championship for over two years and only defended it five times, and two of those defenses were in AEW. Granted, that was partially due to COVID, but hair/mask matches are a much bigger deal than titles in lucha. Even when Omega was mega champion with the idea of bringing in the best wrestler in the world to have classic title matches, he was never in the main event. She was crying at the end of her WWE run as well, so there's symmetry there.

The last few years of New Japan booking have me fearful that if ZSJ does get elevated, it'll be a monkey's paw scenario where he becomes part of a new Bullet Club faction and all his matches have a million run-ins and end with Dick Togo choking someone with a wire. By the way, Dangerous Tekkers have been my favorite tag team in the world the past few years. They even managed to have a good match with SANADA.