WingedEagle

Looking forward to that match list if you get the chance to post it. I think I've seen most of the highly touted NJ matches, but haven't seen much of his AJ and definitely want to see what else is out there.

I was going to add the same thought -- my recollection was Sheamus was HHH's training partner and was always a personal project.

Completely agree about Pillman as an awkward flyer. The difference I find with a guy like Samurai, who I agree looked reckless at times, was that he would FLY. Pillman didn't get much air or lift compared with true flyers and seemed to be squeezing that stuff into his arsenal because he was booked that way rather than because he was particularly adept at it.

Thanks, definitely interesting.

Not exactly current NJ, but a general Japan question. How come English is so prevalent? Certain wrestlers like Yosshi-Hashi, KENTA and others will have their names spelled out in English as opposed to Japanese. Going back further, young boys would often wear gym jackets with their names written in English on the back. Is English that common over there? You never see the same here so I'm curious if this is found throughout the culture over there or something relating to wrestling.

That's what I recall reading as well. Was Steiner ever the "plan" or anything more than a hotshot option to punish Flair?

I used to be able to list off the IC / World Title histories from memory because changes were so rare. My ability to do so with the IC title definitely ended in the 98/99 era where it became a regular prop in 3/4 way matches with the hardcore title and seemingly changed hands regularly.

Really well said Beat me to it. I love what Tanahashi has done the past few years. Maybe unrealistically so, maybe not. But this is the fairest criticism I've seen of him.

Subscriber since day 1. Will continue to be so through at least a $14.95 price point. I'd previously be good for at least 1 PPV a year and could talk myself into 2, so this is beyond an easy buy.

I want to say 04-06 or so, basically the years I was in law school as most of that time was a blur but I was all about ROH at that time. Hopped aboard the Joe bandwagon as soon as I found about it, went crazy for Joe/Kobashi and then petered out a bit as he slowly became a TNA exclusive. Punk was interesting for a bit on his way out, but Danielson was the glue that kept me staying current and going to shows after Joe's run. I lost a lot of interest when he took a long break after dropping the title to Homicide -- even though that night was awesome -- and then fell off pretty heavily as things moved into Age of the Fall, Tyler Black and that new era. Just didn't click for me.

Sometimes bulls charge into each other. They are bulls. That is perfectly rational and beautifully rhythmic. Not that these are by any stretch high end choices, but still.

I won't ever turn down Tanahashi/Okada, and didn't think they'd trust AJ to main event the Dome, but was still hoping for something a little fresher on top there. In hindsight it makes even less sense to hotshot Okada/Nakamura at the Seibu Dome rather than save it for WK with a longer build.

With asbestos. Lots of it.

I love that this thread is inching towards a Raw audience reaction to Cena.

I don't think there is a #2 promotion. There's WWE and there are indys. Some may be profitable and some may not.

Cena's someone who will likely end up deceptively good under this evaluation. If breaking down wrestlers, I don't know what you would say he excels at. Other than having a long, long, long list of great matches. No getting around that.

Just want to add that SenorLARIATO is great for gifs and teasers on the big NJ shows. Always nice to have someone whet your appetite before you get a chance to check out the show.

The thing that struck me about the Okada series, is how different each match was. You had the shocking Okada win in the first match, you had the match where Tanahashi worked over the arm trying to take away the Rainmaker (this was Invasion Attack if memory serves, which I went ***** on), the knee injury bluff Alan mentioned, the G1 30-minute draw, etc. Tanahashi demonstrated this ability again with the recent series of matches vs Nakamura, which again were all very distinct in structure & layout, even more so than the Okada matches. You both hit then nail on the head here. I haven't found any of his main events unnecessarily long but rather consistently building to hot finishing stretches with different focuses, be they the arm the Okada arm or G1 draw matches, the arm vs leg limb war vs. Suzuki or the Nakamura series this year.

Usos and Bryan definitely the 2 most impressive showings on those lists from my reading.

Is there footage of that angle and the split?

I can understand it to an extent. I wanted to grab a Daniel Bryan shirt when wweshop had a big sale going. But at that time he had the goat face line. I wouldn't even want to wear that in the house, much less going downstairs to get the mail. But I grabbed one when they had the YES! in large block letters.

I wonder how much actual merchandise positioning has to do with it. Safe to say Cena merch is featured prominently at all stands but I believe it'd be selling leaps and bounds more than others no matter what. Is Reigns getting significantly more and better window space than others? The Usos stood out to me on that list as I wouldn't suspect their gear is promoted as much as top singles act so something is definitely connecting there.

There are definitely facts in the drawing debate. A million dollar gate is a million dollar gate. But then you get into who is responsible for that gate which is not always that clear. That's why I've found the Murdoch HOF discussion so interesting.

I might enjoy Choshu more in tags than singles and play to his strengths of coming in and going hard and fast for spurts. The series with Jumbo/Tenryu were my favorites on the AJ 80s set. The WAR tags & multi-mans in the 90s are all spectacular.

Speaking of organized -- it might be helpful if there were a thread for mod-only posting that collected all the various match lists that people are including in the wrestler threads. Looking at those for Misterio, Flair, Danielson, etc. I would hate for those resources to get lost in the shuffle.