WingedEagle

I've talked about Tanahashi's offense in detail before and can't imagine how anyone could think it was good. The fact that a lot of the same people who slam Cena for his offense, praise Tanahashi is even more befuddling. I'm not a fan of the long chop exchanges either, to the point where I was often viciously smeared by puroholic's in the mid-00's because I dared question the sanctity of those exchanges. Having said that I am a bit miffed about how what Sasaki was doing is all that different from what someone like Ishii does. I like Ishii better and think he's a much stronger worker on the margins, but I also assume if someone liked a ton of the G1, they probably really liked something like Ishii v. Makabe (which I liked a good bit) and I don't see how that was all that different from a high end freelance era Sasaki match. I'm a bit confused. You love Cena. I've got no problem with that, but what part of Tanahashi's offense is so terrible vis a vis Cena's? The fact that his strikes don't look like they'll concuss his opponent? You also recently touted the slapfest in Cena/Bryan at Summerslam as a highlight. I agree that that spot can be overdone, and personally found it crossed the threshold of ridiculous in Ishii/Shibata, but outside of Kojima matches where its one of his signature spots (which the crowd goes wild for and thus more than justifies it for me, especially given its hardly a high risk spot), where is it overdone these days? Otherwise, I'm not sure where that kind of contempt comes from. On the recent WC pod, you mentioned you haven't exactly followed NJ that closely. Unless you're simply opposed to someone who's not throwing faux-MMA strikes, maybe go back and rewatch some of this stuff. If you want Frye/Takayama from your strikers, then you're probably going to dislike most pro wrestling these days. With good reason. I've got nothing against Sasaki. He's a guy who's produced some very good matches over his career but otherwise hasn't exactly stood out much over his career as an exception career. Hell, your nemesis Tanahashi may have produced more classics in the last 2 years on his own. He just hasn't rattled many brains.

This afternoon I watched the LA Park vs. Dr. Wagner Jr brawl from the May TXT. Initially it feels like a top 5 MOTYC but I'll know that for sure once I look back on some of NJ's best with a fresh perspective. I'm not comfortable putting it above either main event from Summerslam, but I'll be damned if this wasn't a sick, violent spectacular brawl. I'd encourage anyone who hasn't checked it out to do so. I don't keep up with lucha regularly, basically catching some of the more highly touted matches as they pop up, and can confidently say that you can go into this one cold and it shouldn't impact your ability to enjoy it at all. Beyond that, I need a little help from folks on the finish -- Black Terry clearly awared the third fall and match to Park, even after counting him down. What's the story here? Is it building to something with Terry/Wagner? A tag with Terry/Park vs. Wagner/Santo or something similar? I recall talk about a mask vs. mask match at one of the big bullring stadiums, but haven't checked back in the WON yet to see where that stands. Either way, KrisZ or somebody, hook me up -- I need to get involved in anything else going on with this!

Make that 4 PPVs -- I also got Starrcade, but almost immediately wished I didn't. Apparently tried to block it out of memory as well.

I ordered 3 PPV's that year -- Barely Legal, Summerslam and Survivor Series. I know the WWF was on fire post-Mania but still remember the build for this show over the summer and especially following the Stampede with just about every match having such a tremendous focus heading into the show. The HF matches underneath plus the main event which utilized the guest ref stip in the build, match and fallout about as well as you can. Still probably have the show on VHS. Loved it.

This definitely could've been a lot more. You had the crowd going one way and the match going another. Would've been quite the scene if they worked what was given to them.

Wow. This year's G1 alone had more very good to great matches than I can recall over the course of Sasaki's career.

Haha fair enough. Would it kill him to hang out with some peers?

Still no comments on Jerry's wingman there? Or are we just that desensitized to it?

Nice, really looking forward to this.

Political reasons were the Sonny Onoo / Hardbody Harrison suits at the time.

Is this basically taking the place of PWO Radio?

Wow that great? Hoping its in the mailbox when I get back from vacation and don't have to wait until Tuesday.

I don't really see why there's some special case for Brody to be honest. Fans were hot for the Road Warriors. Fans were hot for Ultimate Warrior. Fans were hot for Sid. Fans were hot for George Steele. Fans were hot for Brutus Beefcake. Fans were hot for Ice Train. What's the big difference with Brody? Only one as far as I can see: he had a lot of influential friends, backstage pull and Meltzer was high on him back in the day. 5) A whole generation of fans basically only heard of him instead of seeing him I think this, plus bonus points from the Apter mags, is the key point. People who regularly watched domestic wrestling during this era simply didn't see him. Now that people who care are getting to go back and get the chance to see what was there its simply not that impressive. That's really the difference for Brody vs. the Warriors or Warrior. They had national forums where people were able to compare what they heard versus the actual meat.

Mission accomplished. Only question for me is when. Thought the podcast did a great job setting the table for the lucha set.

Can't it be both ways? Flair/Jumbo from '83 was a classic to my eyes when I first saw it a year ago. On the other hand, just about everything I saw of Brody on the set was garbage, but I can accept that people then were hot for it. Doesn't the same type of argument hold for Dynamite/Tiger Mask nowadays? I'm well past the point on Brody -- everything I've seen tells me he was trash, but some crowds were definitely hot for him, if not for his abilities.

El-P, I feel like I owe you a hug. We all do. Get some coffee and a long nap after this bender.

This is exactly the point. If you have no basis for comparison you've got zero ability to distinguish between what you hate, dislike, like and love. If you go through life only watching ***** matches, soon enough you're probably going to think some of those really aren't that special. The whole point isn't to fall in love with what's merely mediocre, but to identify for yourself why some matches blow those others out of the water. I love nothing more than a great steak, but for a number of reasons including cost, health and how it leaves me feeling afterwards, I simply won't have it that often. Not every night can or needs to be 6/9/95.

Seconding that request -- would be great to combine those resources.

Exactly. I think Maron is thoughtfully and necessarily engaging with the type of guests he has and type of product he is looking to put out there. Its probably safe to say that Austin's show isn't reaching quite the same broad demographics, so whether its a conscientious decision or not (and I don't believe that it is the case but simply a question of who and what he is), providing a forum for wrestling guests to freely speak at length is absolutely what his audience is looking for.

I was 12 or so when I first subscribed to the Observer, and within a year picked up a couple Japanese tapes to see what all the fuss was about. At that point the commentary was a *huge* issue for me and kind of tough to overcome. When I was a bit older I began rewatching everything and after a while you very clearly pick up the calls for many moves and the roles of the parties involved. It doesn't bother me in the slightest anymore.

I don't get the uproar. Haven't Britney & others been pulling their own version of this nonsense for almost 15 years now? The kiss with Madonna at the VMA's, the Justin/Janet super bowl, Aguilera's Dirrty video, Paris Hilton / Kardashian sex tapes, etc. What's so special about Miley today?

Not to speak for anyone, but to use your analogy, I think Johnny was getting at the idea that Matt simply wants to analyze the Spurs and not bother watching the games. Which is a whole other thing. Of course, I could be dead wrong in which case let's pretend this never happened and I'll withdraw my application to be a UN translator.

I was going to add the exact same thing as JDW -- the yearbook threads are a hell of a resource for someone who's watched much of what's on the sets, so I would think they should be beyond invaluable for someone going into the material fresh. That's the case for me with a lot of the NJ and some of the joshi, as I'm already familiar with most AJ. The threads in there should provide you with a great sense of the micro and macro context for much of it. John, are your DVDVR pimping posts that Childs mentioned above still available?

I need to arrange a deal where I "buy" a company using that same company's future revenue as the source of payment. Pretty sweet deal! If that future revenue is no lock and entirely contingent upon how you grow it, its not that hot a deal. Just an opportunity for you to either capitalize on or piss away.