WingedEagle

This thread is fascinating to read with the benefit of looking back at his work over the last few years.

Training techniques, diet, science and technology have changed how athletes and performers develop so much its almost impossible to compare at any baseline. No one today is training like Flair & Steamboat, or Jumbo & Brisco did. Today's athletes have an edge because of so many advancements. If you could strip all of that away there might be some means of comparison, but even cardio training is very different now than in previous generations. Is there any sense whether today's wrestlers come to the industry from more diverse, perhaps non-athletic/sport backgrounds than in prior generations?

If you were a diehard Evolve fan and would grab every show than this is a steal. They just don't present a product at this time that merits that type of investment on my end.

Yeah, that's the other problem. Doesn't pass my value test either, but hopefully it does for enough others.

For another perspective, I like JVK. I enjoy his takes on wrestling and frankly don't find his tone all that inciting or offensive. I also don't always agree with him, but get turned off of discussions when the tone or arguments become particularly hostile and vitriolic. It does seem a little simplistic to single out one individual for this type of environment, but perhaps I'm misreading things.

Not knowing much beyond the surface - that WWE is an investor in Floslam - absolutely nothing that takes place should be upsetting or surprising to those associated with the latter. WWE's priority should be its Network. I can't imagine for a minute that anyone associated with Floslam wouldn't expect WWE to utilize every possible opportunity to maximize the value of its network.

That was definitely the weakest Smackdown in quite some time. Not a bad show as it flowed pretty well for 2 hours, A/Miz was cut short too quickly to develop in to something special, while the rest of the show was a ton of video packages and 2 matches that weren't particularly heated and didn't offer much for the live or TV audiences to get behind. Oh well, not every week can be a home run.

Chihiro/Aja was definitely interesting. The early work wasn't particularly interesting, but necessary for where they took things later. Once they got off the mat and started trading bombs it was exactly what you'd want from them. The escalation was spot on with very good selling down the stretch. Hashimoto is understandably limited at this stage of her career but is generally put in positions that accentuate her strengths and hide her weaknesses -- namely delivering & selling big, impressive offense while staying away from the mat and selling for extended stretches. She has a really bright future when considering that potential along with her already unique skills and presence. Very surprised by the finish and am interested to see what direction they go with Hashimoto and the title. Hopefully Aja is still going strong when Hash is more refined on the mat and able to make this match something even more special.

Not suggesting anything because there's zero reason to think they're calling an audible here and have obviously already started teasing it, but Hunter vs. Rollins feels like the one match they should go out of their way to scrap. Rollins is fairly cold as a babyface and it just doesn't feel like the program has any real heat behind it. Would think they could find better directions for both.

He has an entrance that stands out and certainly a personality and charisma that is very unique for ROH, where characters and acts often seem more muted. Between the ropes, aside from a sneaky athleticism that shows up at times I haven't seen anything that has the look of a top act. When controlling his offense doesn't look particularly dangerous or have any unique flow or timing, while his selling doesn't seem to bring things to a new gear either. He very much comes across as the kind of role player that is important to a show because of his contrast with the roster, but I've yet to see anything suggesting any promise as a top act.

Not to derail things, but it seems like this transitioning from important matches to great matches. Perhaps I have a rather high bar and only a few matches seems truly important, whether for their impact on the business or having an enduring legacy -- two admittedly very distinct conclusions.

Commentary was absolutely tremendous. Not that the words coming from his mouth didn't merit worst announcer votes all those years in the Observer awards, but Michael Cole calling wrestling rather than what's fed through his earpiece is terrific. Nigel was also phenomenal and hopefully there's a permanent spot in his future on NXT or Smackdown.

Assume you mean Shibata vs Goto here? Correct, will edit that now. Shibata/Goto! One of my favorite Goto matches.

Main Event may have set a rating, but beyond Mania 4 it didn't have many legs from a historical basis. Not even relevant from WWE's historical perspective.

Stardom's service is impressively accessible for Western fans. The site & interface is designed for those who speak English and the subtitles they include on all promos in post-production make the shows a very fun and easy watch. If you enjoy or are open to the style, this is one effort to expand the company's reach I'd reward.

I believe Meltzer pointed to a match where El Santo suffered a heart attack in the ring again Los Misioneros de la Muerte as the point when trios matches became a headline act and titles followed around that time as well. Not sure about the debut, but my recollection was that they had occurred previously but became a headline act after that.

Really looking forward to this show getting posted, although Mayu missing it is disappointing. Looked like another solid effort from the results & photos. Very curious to see what Io was able to do with Viper.

No on Kushida/Takahashi. Fun match with some psychotic spots & bumps, but there was too much slop and way too disjointed to belong in a MOTY discussion on my end.

Seconding the praise for this match as a really fun start to the year for Stardom. It was fast moving show with different looks up and down the card. Its not a stretch to say that Io Shirai is one of the 10 best wrestlers on the planet. Great offense & presence along with timing that forces everything to be sold in her matches. Here, she & HZK work so well as heels getting heat on Hojo & Bito. I was also very impressed by HZK and Bito as they more than delivered when in rather than being completely outshone by the Shirai/Ho, which is always a distinct possibility. It builds nicely after the heat to a babyface comeback with solid transitions and great escalation down the stretch before a finishing run that's neatly wrapped up. ***3/4

Yes to Shibata/Goto. See WK11 thread for thoughts. Upped it to ****1/4 on a rewatch today.

I'd easily subscribe if 2-3 smaller companies partnered up. There is zero reason to expect it, but consolidation would force me to come up with reasons not to subscribe whereas now I'd need a really incredible reason to commit to any of them. I wonder if there might be more opportunity for cross-marketing between an American & Japanese company, as that might reduce concerns about stepping on toes in each's local market while offering a way to reach out to a niche in each country. But it might also be a lot more work than the resulting sales would justify.

YES -- Another terrific iteration in the second best tag team feud in recent years. While I haven't been the biggest Sekimoto fan at times because he seems to completely disregard selling, that is absolutely not the case here. Just a tremendous job putting over Ishikawa & Sato's power offense for an extended stretch before the hot tag to Okabayashi, who comes in as fired up as ever. These four pound each other the whole way with brutal chops and strikes that build meaningful near falls. What puts this match -- and, really, all of their counters -- over the top is the terrific pacing that gives everything meaning and impact rather than rushing to the next spot. Add in some opportune blood and select no selling during the finishing run to pop the crowd and you have the early frontrunner for tag team match of the year. **** 1/4 YES -- Tanahashi vs. Naito and Okada vs. Omega. See WK11 thread. NO - Ultimo Guerrero vs Valiente (1/6) and Barbaro Cavernario vs Rey Cometa (1/6) Both matches had shining moments and spots, and the former had strong characters, but after rushing through the first two falls neither match did enough to capitalize on the time afforded them in the third. Barbaro works when he goes the Hiromu Takahashi route and tries to kill himself. There was some of that, but the comedy didn't work for me. The finishes in both matches very much felt out of nowhere rather than a logical followup to anything we saw preceding them.

The name isn't at all familiar. Not sure what a rhythm game is but am pretty confident I've never played one.

Perhaps its a reflection of the radio I listen to, but I've never heard of Lemmy outside of WWE programming.

Seconding Strong BJ vs. Twin Towers from 1/2.