WingedEagle

That was an awesome episode of Smackdown. New Day 6 man is among the best TV matches all year and helped by genuine emotion and a moment that can't be manufactured but all too often can be spoiled or entirely denied. Roman/Braun was also surprisingly strong given how long they went. It furthered Roman as a heel and effectively built the PPV match. You know its a good night when the latest Sasha/Bayley segment isn't the highlight. A truly fun and satisfying show that you can plow through in under half a Raw if you want.

I have absolutely no idea what is going down on Sunday. Did not see Ibushi coming out of the A block under any circumstances after toiling in the tag division all year without even a tease of something more. Naito/Ibushi for the big show? Sure, why not. Presumably they'll run the Dome although who knows how that works with COVID and the expenses associated with running the building given limited capacity. Just please, please keep Evil and Sanada away from the briefcase. I can live with anything else!

Why can't Moxley work here like he did against Chris Dickinson at the Bloodsport show?

So I was prepping a longer recap of the show but my man here basically hit the nail on the head. Ishii brought us the best match of Cobb's career other than maybe Ospreay at MSG. Ibushi and Suzuki gave us the best of Suzuki vs. Ishii or Nagata but with better pacing and more dynamic offense from a fresh opponent. The main event finally unveiled *basically* vintage Kazu with the tape on his back coming off, the fire, Euros, Tombstones and execution coming back, while also holding back a few tropes like vintage Rainmaker counter action and the flying elbow drop. Shingo's presence and offense belong in the mix at the top of the card and hopefully he gets the chance to dip in there after the G1. An outstanding G1 show that would rank with the best nights in any year.

Today's show was a really pleasant surprise that generally overdelivered. Getting the drivel out of the way first -- Sanada continues to deliver the most bland performances of anyone with a semblance of a push. Talk about him winning the tourney is scary as hell but I just can't see it. Okada regularly works miracles with him, but when else does this guy really shine? Yoshi-Hashi continues to be the most pleasant surprise in the entire field. He's the underdog basically every time out and works well paced matches every night to overcome that while his opponents put him over with credible selling and near falls before prevailing. Today's outing with Goto was the latter's best of the tourney and built really well without overstaying its welcome. Naito/Juice started out slow but built incredibly well with Juice looking like a real threat to the IWGP champion down the stretch even if in the back of your head you knew there was no way this would be revisited as a title match before Wrestle Kingdom. This also benefitted by audibling from the template we've seen in the tourney thus far where one clean finisher ends the match.

Its been fine. But given the standard that he and the others at the top of the card have set over the last decade its been a disappointment thus far.

I actually preferred the Tanahashi match a couple days ago, but had the same general thought. Simple layouts for all of his block matches but he and his opponents have made the most of them. Crazy to think that at the halfway point you can easily argue Y-H has had a better G1 than Okada, but here we are.

With Ospreay and Shingo graduating to HW I'm curious how they'll round out the top of the BOSJ field beyond Hiromu.

A couple small details about Evil's presentation have really stood out to me. As a now former IWGP champion, his block matches are always well positioned on the card. They'll typically be behind a Naito match as he's the current champion, or a marquee affair like Tana/KENTA today, but will generally be high on the card because of that status. Similarly, when firing up the NJPW app on Firestick, he's now in the opening graphic along with Okada, Naito, Tana, Ibushi and White. I wasn't a fan of his brief run with the belt this summer and am not sure it'll result in him becoming a meaningful part of the top of the card rotation, but you have to admire their effort to position him that way even after dropping the belt.

It probably was the single best Finals game since Lebron dropped 51 and still lost game 1 in 2018.

It appears as though talent can continue to Twitch using their own names. That doesn't rebuild the audiences they've built overnight, but the company is certainly within its rights to participate to the extent that the wrestlers are using company IP, i.e. their ring names. Curious how this would affect someone like Samoa Joe where the company doesn't own the name.

When did Vince retire?

Good to know. A lot of the audio does look interesting but I'm having a tough enough time as it is staying current on podcasts.

Is this online anywhere?

This might work if Kawhi had PG's resume, but the man still has a pair of rings and Finals MVP's. Maybe Cena's Mania run the last couple years with the Taker & Bray "matches"? Or better yet post-2015 Brock! That's my call for now.

It feels like Okada's to win. He's been treading water since WK and I just can't see that being the case for a full year. Sanada is just about the only name I've seen mentioned that looks like a disaster.

Apparently Penelope Ford and Tony Khan do as well, so you're not entirely alone.

Of course. My mom always made a point to remind me those two boys were not kosher.

I just realized that Tex Slazenger & Shanghai Pierce were the Godwins. No clue how this escaped me for over 25 years.

I found it poorly written and edited with less depth & detail than you'd find in the WON on a given subject matter. Very disappointing after seeing such praise for it.

Anyone watching the IWGP Jr. Tag Title tourney? It feels like everyone involved is going through the motions with nothing all that interesting even at the top of the card. The Chaos undercard matches and Tanabushi/SZKG tags have been better watches.

Agreed. I'm not going to doubt the man until he has a run where he looks clearly shot, and his recent G1 and big show outings have yet to make that case. Its been a few years since the Naito feud so that and the KENTA pairing look the best on paper, but there's only so much intrigue with him against the rest of the block. I'm sure the G1 plans were ironed out months ago but Tana as the final boss for the A block winner, or even winning the briefcase but losing it before WK if you want to get really aggressive, sound promising.

Correct. I just don't see it in either of them yet.

Me either. Very much NXT's MJF as far as I'm concerned. Certainly a confident performer when the camera's on.