WingedEagle

Looking forward to cherry picking some matches from these shows this week. Last year's were fun and breezy. Nothing blowaway but a really enjoyable way to mix up the styles.

I wonder if the "don't subscribe because of lack of TV access" is getting no love on PWO because its a community of people who will seek out wrestling wherever they can get their hands on it and aren't going to be swayed by big screen vs. small screen. Which I find entirely possible. If you're WWE you have to hope more people become friendly to purchasing & viewing content in that manner as they become more comfortable with it because otherwise this thing is going to be facing a pretty strong headwind.

I might've loved it if I watched it in or close to '87. By the time I was old enough to appreciate good wrestling, which was years after having this touted as a GOAT, it seemed like a good match. Say about 3-3.25 stars? I wonder if its similar to Michaels-Razor at Mania 10 in that it felt state of the art when it took place but following years filled with matches that met or exceeded the original, which loses much of its luster when looked back upon.

9 of the 10 best ever from the last 18 months? All 10 from the last 2 years?

Not sure Angle/Benoit makes my top 10 all time matches from the promotion, but very possibly my favorite from at post-Mania 17 until maybe Cena/Umaga, if not later. Speaking of Mania 17, Rock/Austin is definitely on that list for me.

I've been PS3 from day one and if I didn't have that I'm not sure I would. I don't mind watching wrestling from Japan on the computer since there's really no way for me to get it on the big screen, but if I didn't have a way to blast the network on the TV I doubt I'd be willing to pay for it.

Google translate doesn't seem to be picking up exactly what he's going for. What are the ratings / categories?

I know its been asked over and over for nearly a year now, but why are they still not promoting the network? The sell thus far has been a price shill and a middle finger to those who buy PPV. Presumably everyone who deems it cheap enough has come aboard, why not go after those who have no clue what's there besides the PPVs and the price? That spot for the Savage feature that aired just before Raw went off the air was great. How can they still not have a regular weekly lineup with programming (mostly old to keep costs down with some new things like this and the countdown features mixed in) that are pushed as hard as Raw and Smackdown? 60 second live or pre-taped cut-ins from Stamford, backstage at TV, the road, wherever giving a quick hit on the show that just aired or is about to air? I'm basically a subscriber for life at this or any slightly higher price point. I'm not the guy they need to talk to. Why won't they try something different when pitching this thing?

Thanks. Looke like a *very* limited list of wrestling items. If anyone local wants to do some shopping for me, let me know

Does Shosen Grande sell anything online? Is there any way I can get any merch from them if I'm not going there?

I've enjoyed Rollins as a heel. I think he's done a pretty great job in that character and held his own on the mic. Certainly some guilt by association as far as being dragged down by some poor storylines involving HHH/Steph, but he hasn't devolved into the self-parody that their recent promos have become. His in-ring is probably a better fit as a babyface, but he's integrating J&J, Show and other shortcuts pretty well at this point. If the goal is headlining with the title heel, I don't think he's at all there yet as the presentation is still too dependent on these other characters. At this point I think they've done more to solidly establish him as a singles act than either Reigns or Ambrose. I know, you can argue that's a backhanded compliment and not a high standard, but its definitely a statement I didn't expect to be making heading into Mania.

A couple questions: 1) Ignoring the obvious answer suggested by crowd reactions, does any segment of the audience like the Reigns' mic work thus far? Kids? Women? Is it getting over anywhere that isn't represented here? 2) The focus in Heyman's promo on the Taker match (ignoring for the moment they were in New Orleans) -- any chance they're going with Taker getting his win back this year and switching to Cena/Reigns for the title?

Got it, thanks.

In NY? Those are already on sale?

Its some pretty big hyperbole, but I think its great and am really happy that the guy can find that kind of passion for anything in wrestling no matter how over the top it may be. The thousands of hours he's spent watching, thinking, reading and writing about wrestling -- good and bad -- would sap the enthusiasm for many.

Somehow I've read through your thoughts on everything in the yearbook threads and still can't help but read through all of these when they go up. Fortunately I don't get sucked into the time warp of clicking through to the videos, but this is a great way to kill as much or little of the day as one can spare.

Not if mediocrity means he doesn't get opportunities to be great.

Wow, that is crazy. This feud rules. Sucks it ended when it did.

This was definitely an arguable point while Reigns was featured in six-mans and tags. Not sure how you can make the case based upon his singles' work.

I don't know what "so hot" means. They just hit a 14 year high in attendance, and the complaint is that it only grew 1000 tickets. In August, they drew the fourth biggest house in the world, a house that would have qualified as the biggest house WWE drew all year with the exception of WrestleMania, and there are people (you among them) who considered that a failure. I don't think anybody is comparing this run to the glory days of Japan or to the Attitude Era...except for the people who are constantly holding it to those standards as the comparison point and downplaying how well they're doing. They are "hot" when you look at where they were four years ago. To deny that seems strange. The fact that the in ring has been so widely praised contributes to this, too. On a much, much smaller scale, a promotion like PWS would be getting incredible amounts of hype if the shows weren't terrible. They're arguably the most successful indie in the U.S., and get very little credit for it because the shows stink. Hot shows help perception. So hot is when you make an argument that a weird booking decision (like Tanahashi beating Styles for the title) is justified because they may sell out the Tokyo Dome. Look, NJPW is doing better. It's a solid #2 promotion in the world. It's not a promotion that is so hot that their top star is a slam dunk hall of famer. I know you like to bring up the August house as proof of their awesomeness, but they still only filled half of the building. No matter how you want to spin it (18k is a lot of people), it is still only half the building filled. If WrestleMania 30 drew 38k, that would be a big house. However, it would be a failure because they only filled half the building and they would be mocked for it. Half house or full house, what kind of profit did running the show turn? If they netted out a nice chunk of change I'd be hard pressed to call it a failure just because they took it home in a bigger bag than was necessary.

This is actually my snap answer as well. Curious what I'll think when going back and rewatching some eventually, but '07 was great.

Huge pop for Funk's entrance and Onita's with "Wild Thing" is always good. We get our first explosion a few minutes in with Funk sending Onita into the bombs with a punch. Another explosion for Onita and his arm is cut up in the barbed wire. Now Funk's turn to bump for an explosion and blade. Onita seems to wins with a DDT with just a few minutes to go until the big explosion? Onita eventually covers Funk as all the fireworks go off and delivers what looks like a good promo afterwards. This was a fun spectacle, but not much more. **1/4 for special effects

Nice opening attack by FMW. Maybe I'm crazy, but the proximity of the cameras and mics to the ring here made Toyota's screaming especially insufferable here. Toyota's bridging up on pinfalls also feels very out of place in this setting. Cool spot with Toyota dropkicking Kudo right into a Yamada German for a near fall. Stiff double powerbomb on Combat, who after a Kudo save returns the favor with a powerbomb to Toyota. Yamada accidentally nails Toyota with her jumping spin kick, then Kudo with a nice jumping kneedrop to Toyota. Toyota absolutely wipes out on a moonsault and doesn't seem to hit either FMWer. I couldn't explain how this is sold, but certainly not that way. Gross double bomb spot on Kudo, then double flying headbutts for near fall. Kudo rolls away from a Toyota moonsault for big pop. Combat turns Toyota inside out with a lariat, then again on an awesome looking Doomsday Device. Kudo near fall for some kind of powerbomb variation, and finally wins with tiger suplex. Aja Kong is in after to confront Combat and shake hands with Kudo. This reads a lot better after the fact than I thought of it while watching. I can't put my finger on whether it was the screaming and Toyota's pacing that brought it down, but the whole fell short of the sum of its parts here. ***1/2