WingedEagle

This Rumble is challenging the notion that its usually interesting even when not particularly good. The entire match has felt like PIP material thus far.

Why put Sasha at 1 if she's being tossed that quickly? I realize there is no sense in asking such questions of this company at this point, but here we are.

Brock and Rousey sure feel like favorites and likely directions given this company's booking in recent years. The Brock side of that seems particularly unnecessary but he's still one of the few guys on the roster I love watching and find special so I can't complain too much if that's where things go, even if it means passing on yet another opportunity to actually try and elevate someone fresh. Putting it on a Saturday means I won't order an especially unhealthy meal but the Rumble's almost can't help but be a fun watch even if disappointing. Hopefully a decent crowd here as well.

Apologies if I wasn't clear -- my post above was a reference to calendar 2021 and Loss's discussion about his view of Danielson in the current scene. I still rank his work last year behind only Shingo for that 365 day period. For all time purposes Danielson remains #1 today as he did in my mind on 1/1/2021.

Shingo did enough in the first half of the year that I still had him as WOTY, but would've certainly had Danielson 1 if his first 8 months looked at all like his last 4.

Night 1 was a solid show with a great main event that still felt underwhelming by WK standards. Shingo and Okada have had a few great outings before this year but this match didn't feel at all on the level of Okada's WK outings with Tanahashi, Omega, Naito II or even Ospreay last year or this year. The undercard was also underwhelming although generally inoffensive. Generally, because Ishii/Evil was a colossal and insulting waste of a talent. I don't need Ishii booked in a featured role but he's one of the best wrestlers in the world over the last decade. If you're going to give him a singles title match on a big show, don't ruin it with the booking that's plagued the company over the last year and a half. Perhaps that's asking too much but it seemed like a kick in the nuts on this show. Night 2 was a lot better as I thought Okada/Ospreay was better than the night 1 main event and enjoyed Naito/Cobb more than anything else on either undercard.

This is the last yearbbook appearance for Albright in '96 and by July he was tagging with Kobashi. Was there ever a payoff from this finish?

Thanks!

Is this available online?

Traffic may not be quite at peak levels but this is still a place I visit every day and I'm a lot more of a wrestling fan because of this site than I'd be without it.

Is it even possible for anyone to rise above "flop" given how the company books everyone who's there week in and week out?

Most chatter seemed to suggest that Gargano was leaving with the expiration of his contract this month. If that's the case, it seems awfully odd to see the company promoting tonight's show all around his expected departure. Has there been any suggestion he's reconsidered?

When I saw Brock/Roman for the 1/1 show that actually didn't even occur to me but I suppose its possible. My gut was that this somehow ends up with Brock/Roman at Mania, but seeing as how Roman/Drew with a sword feels like a forgettable B show PPV, it makes all the sense in the world that they'd go there for Mania at this point. Fingers crossed.

I watched Despy/Hiromu as there seemed to be a lot of talk about it online relative to the rest of the tour. It was fine but wouldn't say remotely necessary unless you're looking to hit everything or are a huge of both/either wrestlers. Little buzz elsewhere across either tourney so I'm essentially treating this as a break until the Korakuens before WK and whatever fun may be planned following that.

Shingo, Dragon and Omega on my ballot with pretty big gaps between each.

I almost thought about going as well. Would be livid if I had to get home this late for the show.

That crowd pop for Big E suggests they're as pleased as I am about the main event starting after 11.

Its yours! One less thing for us to be ashamed of.

That's a shoot, brother. Fun while it lasted but you know the booker won't give us a proper rematch.

Did they actually lock in Rock for the upcoming Mania, or is the heavy promotion part of a deal for Mania 2023 or just a Netflix payday?

Talent signed these contracts that apparently gave the company the right to cut them with 30 days severance for those in NXT and 90 days on the main roster. There should and hopefully will be consequences for the company's ability to recruit and sign talent from this approach, as El-P touched on above, because why would anyone want to do business with people who operate like that unless there are no other options? But when you put your name to paper and give a counterparty the right to do something you can only express so much outrage when they exercise their right to do just that thing.

Anything worth checking out on today's BOSJ show?

The Texas 80s set didn't rate as highly for me as the others for that very reason. It was clear they were a huge deal and incredible stars to their audience but it simply didn't translate all these years later. I wonder how much of that is due to music and production making them seem like even bigger stars at the time while we've now had decades of that being done across the board, so when you strip that away there's not much left except on those special nights when they'd really connect with the right opponent.

Apparently its widespread. New day vs. Lashley/AJ/Omos is a solid addition, but gives me great concern that they're pushing this past the 3 hour mark. What do folks think is the over/under for when it ends?