WingedEagle

And this main event direction is why I'm out on Raw tomorrow as soon as Ricochet/AJ wraps up.

Those last 3 matches are what I was afraid of on this show. On the bright side, the pre-show and first ~90 minutes were really good, and it looks like they may wrap up early, which would earn major points on my card.

Bayley/Bliss and now Roman/Drew have really taken the wind out of this show.

Has McIntyre had a *single* great match since returning to the company? Edited to insert the highlighted word.

Who would've thought Joe/Ricochet would be the match that brings this show to a screeching halt?

Hopefully you have your share of drinks and women after raking some eyes behind the ref's back. So I'm now watching the show. For now. Why? While changing a full, stinky diaper I realized that I expected this show to be an all time dumpster fire. When that happens you're almost always pleasantly surprised. Its not like this is the Herb Abrams UWF or something without even the possibility of delivering. Thus far my ass backwards logic has been rewarded as I thought the 205 opener was a top 5 main roster match of the year, Becky/Lacey overdelivered and the just concluded New Day vs. KO/Sami was surprisingly clean and free of over-agenting. Just when I thought I was out!

Note to WWE HQ: when the guy who's bedridden can't be bothered to watch the PPV, you're in trouble. Thread Killer, here's hoping you're on the the road to a full recovery. Your work on Super Showdown (I haven't seen any of the Saudi shows although taking place during the work day didn't allow me the good fortunate to actively skip them, though I never went back to rewatch them) made it a fun read here. Perhaps I'll keep the PPV up and mute don the laptop and check in for Ricochet/Joe or something along those lines, although at this point I don't even know why I'd expect that match to be given time or capitalize on however minutes out of 240 they're allotted. It really can't be understated how much the Baron Corbin era has done to drive me away from TV. I've barely watched the last two weeks after being a nearly religious viewer for what seems like decades.

Can anyone give me reasons not to skip this show? I've got no plans tonight and yet this is still looking like the first Network PPV I'll proactively skip.

Agree that Naito is the logical pick based on how the blocks were constructed, but I'd think they want an IC Title match as either a semi underneath the IWGP Title or to headline night 2 at the Dome. It'd seem odd and unlike NJPW to tie up both belts in one match, especially given next year's WK plans.

What do people think about Ibushi & Okada being in the same block? Losing the IC Title to Naito at Dominion seemed to make Ibushi a favorite to win this, but I'm not quite sure how you build him vs. Okada for WK after going at it on the final night of block competition. Sure, you could have Ibushi go undefeated, lose to Okada that night and still win in the finals, but but I'd think you want to have something truly fresh for Wrestle Kingdom. The additions of Shingo and Ospreay are huge, while KENTA and Cobb add some legit intrigue as well. Very curious to see if KENTA has anything left.

Is this available online?

Are these easily accessible online? I haven't checked NJ World or other places that might have them, but curious how much digging is involved. Sounds like a fun little rabbit hole.

I actually thought 2018 was up there as one of the best years ever for pure in-ring.

Terrific!

I am all about the Brock Party. Why is he still there? Ricochet/Cesaro was a really good TV match and a lot better than last week. I'm enjoying the Lynch/Cross pairing. Hopefully we get that title match on a PPV.

Perhaps this is the wrong thread for it, but did anyone watch or attend any of the Starrcast panels? Anything worthwhile there?

Buy-In Preshow: This sounded like amateur hour from the indyrific participants in the battle royal to the way entrances were handled. I'm not sure why you'd go this route to set up half of your first world title match. Page winning makes sense on paper, but again, it seems like an odd path to get there. Perhaps others who watched it can let me know if I'm missing anything here. Stronghearts vs. SCU -- This was a terrific opener that stopped short of stealing the show in a fashion that everything else on the card would pale in comparison Scorpio Sky and Lindaman were the standouts here, particularly Sky's flying. Oddly enough the finish was the worst looking spot of the match, but not to the extent that it hurt things. This was brisk without being rushed or feeling like a mind-numbing spotfest. Curious to see what, if any, kind of spotlight the OWE crew get in the future as there would seem like an opportunity for them to shine if they're at all committed to working here regularly. ***3/4 Britt Baker vs. Kylie Rae vs. Nyla Rose vs. Awesome Kong -- This was a solid match held together by Rae and especially Baker. Kong had a great presence and didn't feel at all out of place even if she wasn't featured much beyond the surprise appearance. Nyla Rose did nothing for me and seemed off in her timing and very unnatural in her movements. Just didn't add anything for me. Would love to see any of the other 3 paired up with Aja Kong, in particular, or almost any of the women in the josihi 6 woman tag down the road. *** Best Friends vs. Angelico & Jack Evans -- Perfectly solid tag with some fun spots from Trent & Chuck that didn't quite take full advantage of their opponents' strengths but featured strong action throughout. I liked the Rainmaker zoom out when the Best Friends hugged. It was the kind of character focus that was generally lacking elsewhere on the show. While there's no need to approach the mad libs nature that's pervasive on WWE TV, that kind of touch highlighting personalities and characters was generally absent on this show. ***1/4 Aja Kong & Emi Sakura& Yuka Sakazaki vs. Hikaru Shida & Riho & Ryo Mizunami -- Kong was the star and Shida the featured attraction, but everyone looked good. Props to the ref for not being remotely flustered by the timekeeper's error and keeping things rolling. I know Shida's in full time but it'd be great if she's not the only one and they can somehow incorporate the Japanese women as part of the division. ***1/2 Cody vs. Dustin: So this exceeded expectations a bit, didn't it? It looked like everyone has noted why this was so great so no need to rehash that, but did want to note just how amazing Cody's promo calling back to Dusty in 1994 was. I would have never guessed he'd become an ace promo but here we are. Question: how much does blood -- and thus a match like this -- get over because its been banned on a major league level for so long? I'm not suggesting any answer but am curious if this works as match in a wrestling world where its not such a rarity. Hopefully Dustin stays at least semi-regular once TV gets going as he clearly brings a ton to the table, but I'm definitely looking forward to Rhodes Boys vs. Bucks. ****1/4 Young Bucks vs. Lucha Bros: Pentagon & Fenix can pull off a ton of great looking offense but their matches almost always leave me cold and underwhelmed. Little to no selling or coherent storytelling, its simply spot to spot to spot. Given that it was no surprise I liked this less than most seemed to. The Bucks did a lot better than most to make me care about this match, as there were a lot of neat callbacks to prior feuds/eras as well as some really original spots. I generally enjoy the Bucks working underneath selling and building to a comeback, but they seemed to be working more as heels here, if ever so slightly. I'm not sure what teams in or on their way in would make for a good babyface pairing we'll see what they can put together. ***3/4 Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho: This was a terrific main event, possibly even better than their Wrestle Kingdom match from last year. Tremendous pacing that featured strong looking offense with the key spots given more than enough time to register with the audience. What's holding this back from being a low end MOTYC is that the finish felt very much out of nowhere without any proper stretch run, and the Jericho back elbow just didn't feel like a big time finish. But if you're going to try and get it over as a killer move than this is how you do it. Really surprised how great this was. **** Moxley: Props to them for pulling this off to generate a massive pop and set up big matches with both Omega and Jericho. I'm not sure how they plan to keep things fresh and in front of fans' eyes until TV starts but am curious to see what they're thinking outside of the summer shows that seem like one offs. Production / Commentary: - I thought the commentary was a huge home run. Marvez didn't seem to add a thing but he generally stayed quiet enough to as to not hurt the presentation at all. We got the best possible version of Excalibur -- comedy/character bits turned off, great familiarity with wrestlers and moves, never talking over the action. I don't know if the plan is for him or Ross to be the lead on TV but he was great here. Jim Ross was phenomenal. Literally great. I thought he was an embarrassing disaster every time he called NJPW but he was engaged, motivated and did a terrific job of rising with the action, particularly on Cody vs. Dustin. This was the one her I thought was a surefire mistake but for at least one night I was dead wrong. - Perhaps it was the building or the general color scheme of the ropes/ring and arena, but it looked like a WCW production. Not a bad thing in that manner. Entrances and camera work (other than not featuring nearly as many cuts) felt way too similar to WWE and I'd hope in time they find their own voice on this front. - The show's pacing was great. The last things this needed was Pac/Page or another match either extending the night or cutting into anything already on the card. Nothing felt rushed or overstayed its welcome. The show was easy to make it through in a single sitting and they didn't waste time with filler in between matches. Video packages were quick and to the point. Someone in the thread mentioned they had to rush to squeeze in a bathroom break. Unless you're in the building, that's great! Have some respect for and don't waste the audience's time. - In general they presented matches without much of a babyface/heel dichotomy or any attempt at developing characters or feuds. Hopefully that'll change. There's no need to artificially manufacture things for every match and segment like WWE, but establishing personalities, motivations and feuds beyond simply presenting "good wrestling" will go a long way come TV time. Hard to call a show like this anything other than a home run at this stage. Fun, easy to watch, quality wrestling up and down the card. Will see what they build from here.

I couldn't believe it when this popped up in my feed a little while ago. There is absolutely nothing WWE could do -- or probably would permit, for that matter -- to organically grab this kind of attention. I've got one match last on Double or Nothing and will add my likely incredibly redundant thoughts (haven't checked the thread yet) once I get there and back from dinner.

I'll definitely catch the show at some point but short of Jon Jones fighting at HW i'm not dropping $50 on a PPV any time soon. Actually, given the headache that ordering a UFC show is now that's likely never happening again. More than anything else I'm excited to see the OWE crew. With the right match and spotlight El Lindaman should stand out from the pack but we'll see how timing and layout impact things. That and the joshi tag are easily the two matches that have the most interest for me. Curious to see what the TNT/Bleacher Report deal means for Omega/Jericho. Any reason they'd shy away from plunder and gimmicks there to keep things TV-PGish or will they have free reign to work as needed to get the match over?

Has there been any word on whether this show is officially done or will return at some point?

Trouble with CIMA & co., Japanese women?

Didn't Foley also mention some nonsense about the 3rd hour of Raw?

Jesus that crowd just about skipped past apathy and into contempt for the new title.