WingedEagle

Last night and the PPV started giving me WCW feels about the current state of the company. Perhaps that's way off base or perhaps it should've occurred to me earlier, but between the tag title nonsense both nights, main event segments built around multiple performers who can't/won't/shouldn't work and all of the bad comedy/skits its almost as if they're actively trying to run off the audience.

Amen! The fact this thread is at 25 pages because someone has a hate porn podcast about wrestling is just incredible to me. Kudos to him for finding his niche. It works in sports, news and all other aspects of pop culture so why not wrestling? Its just not for me.

From everything I've read/heard he stopped being a fan of professional wrestling quite a long time ago. He may have his fans but I'd contend their interest in him has nothing to do with wrestling. He's undoubtedly relevant to them. But that's the extent of his relevance.

Doesn't touch Charlotte/Ripley for me, but I wouldn't argue with someone who viewed it that way.

Cosign. Not even troubled by the production. That may change when it affects every match on every card, but as a one off, much like AJ/Taker, I'm in.

I'm sure they have no idea, but in theory this is a straight wrestling match. Which presumably means limited dastardliness.

Blood!

Edge looks incredibly spry early on here. Impressive to see him show up in this kind of shape and apparently with a chip on his shoulder after the Mania debacle.

Okay those intros were terrific. Edge looks much better and younger with a shave.

Montez Ford singing cracked me up. New Japan returns tomorrow!

The man experienced his greatest professional success and arguable peak over 30 years ago. He hasn't been remotely relevant in 25. And he's somehow become an apparently professional troll. Amazing.

I've enjoyed her tremendously in the role. Never imagined she'd be such a natural heel but between her antics and the way she carries herself to her mic work she's made herself the absolute alpha heel in the Sasha partnership for the eventual split. One of the few bright spots of empty arena WWE.

I have no idea how their presentation of empty arena shows will compare to what we've seen from other companies, but after nearly 4 months off I'm beyond stoked to see them back in action. Hopefully the Osaka shows are home runs and they're able to continue with limited capacity outings.

My gut says Bryan but I wouldn't want to close the door on Tanahashi prematurely. I haven't seen as much of him from the first decade as I have of Bryan, but its possible he's got more than enough there to make a case.

Couldn't agree more. Thought this struck a great balance between squash and competitive affair by giving Ciampa a meaningful comeback before Kross decisively put him down. Arguably that both are more interesting coming out of the match as it was structured.

Watching this I couldn't help but think its a match that would play much better in person than on tape. Oddly I think that holds for small gyms like this as well as for Domes, whereas arena matches can go either away but often benefit from being there live. The nuances from seeing both men's facials and the timing of their bumps while taking in the full presentation would play a lot better from a few rows out when that's the intended audience. I'm not sure why that's what struck me here but it did. Leaving that aside, they worked a fun match that built well utilizing a strong babyface/heel dynamic and the ability of both to punch and respectively sell/stooge.

Liger seems to be a heel throughout the year. But Kanemoto is usually on the other side of Otani & Takaiwa from what I've seen. Is there anything threading these feuds/teams or is there no logic to it?

I was wrong. This was a glorious night in Korakuen Hall with four juniors bringing hatred, bombs, escalation and just enough textbook tag structure to tie it all together. Incredibly fun match and one of the highlights of the year for NJPW thus far. ****

Let's get this out of the way. I'm not defending WWE. At all. But they did have contracts signed by each of the released talents. Those contracts gave the company the right to terminate employment subject to certain terms (notice, non-compete, termination pay, etc.). The timing and circumstances of the releases are awful. But what makes these terminations any worse than any terminations or furloughs by other companies? Perhaps some top of the card talent have guaranteed contracts without an out for the company. Are those all deals negotiated by Barry Bloom and similar reps? Do most talent negotiate and review contracts themselves? Or do all contracts come with an out for the company? If so, has any talent tried to negotiate away such provisions? I just don't quite understand the outrage here relative to any other employee let go elsewhere given that their employment contracts specifically allow for such terminations.

Michael Jordan is the greatest man who ever lived. That's assuming he's human rather than deity.

Tough to argue that Mongo was a good professional wrestler. But he was rarely, if ever, put in situations that would rank him among the worst. Most of his matches weren't incredibly long singles affairs so as much as they show someone who wasn't all that strong in most aspects of the job, he was never around or exposed for so long that it was excruciating to watch. A bad 6-8 minute match never makes me hate what I'm watching the way poor 15+ minute matches do.

Thanks for that. Summerslam commentary suggested the Baron was debuting, but I couldn't recall seeing him on TV at all so wasn't sure it lasted but knew he was gone by Survivor Series. I definitely remember Humperdink as Bigelow's mouthpiece for a bit. Never mind the character, but the look of the Hump next to this fire-scalped bad ass who could fly around the ring didn't make much sense, even to an 8 year old.

I'm watching Summerslam '88 and was surprised to see Baron Von Raschke managing the Power of Pain. How long was he in for? I had zero recollection of him being in the promotion and thought the PoP were operating on their own until the angle with Fuji at Survivor Series.

Does that mean he's okay with discriminating against people unless they're in his family or house? Legitimate question.