Jmare007

Hell yeah God won! . I feel like the 2036 version of this (whatever it might be) will have vastly different results so I'm happy Funk got 1 and 2 in two different decades. As undeniable as you can get. Very interesting how versatility was such a key factor on this. You read the blurbs on both him and Dragon and a lot of people mention very similar traits for both. I tend to agree with this. But at the same time, I can't help but feel like If he gets like some MOTYCs as a part time veteran/legend in the next 10 years I think his case might get stronger. Specially if he gives a couple of standout performances in the 2030's, that would give him three decades worth of elite showings. I wonder if he becomes the new Flair, in the sense of the older fans wanting to defend his case and having all that footage available to prove their point and other fans just getting sick of reading about him being the best and having all the footage available to prove their point, lol.

That HHH-Danielson match had a lot of stuff that I associate more to Bryan than Hunter (most of the cut offs, the pace, the tiger suplex, the finishing sequence). It's probably why I love that match, lol. If anything, it felt like HHH doing a "I can have a match like this too!". The notion that it had to be a heated brawl or some desperate match escapes me though. I don't think that was ever the expectation going into the match nor something they were building towards to (as in, a brawl). Anyways, still think he's too high and hoping Funk wins but I ain't gonna complain about the best wrestler of the 21st century getting this kind of love.

By 2036 he might be a sleeper pick for people to "discover" and put against modern candidates. It's gonna be interesting to read/follow.

Austin gotta be the highest "peak candidate" to ever place in GWE, right? I'm reading the 06' and 16' polls top 10s and I think Bret in 06' at #8 was the prior highest. Though Misawa has always felt like a "peak" wrestler as well, I'm not sure a 8-12 years isn't considered as longevity, lol.

Yup, I think my fondest memory of the 2016 vote was Misawa ending up higher than Kobashi because I was so certain that wouldn't be the case, lol.

I fell out of the process so early I even forgot about the dates, been binge reading the roll out the past few days and as always, it's always a fun read the reactions (good and bad). Salute to @Grimmas and all the work he put out. I remember people being happy and surprised when Foley made it to 38 in 2016 and now he's in the top 20! I think it's fascinating because he hasn't really had a push from WWE for newer or lapsed fans to revisit his career and I don't think there's been a ton of work from the IWC to revisit or put him in the spotlight (at least to garner this level of attention). So him being so high, meaning he's gotta have a huge % of ballots, kinda says is it all about his power to endure in people's minds as someone worth voting for. ps: I'ma Danielson stan and thought him being 5th last time was too high, him possibly being n°1 feels kinda nuts even though his AEW run was outstanding. I hope Funk wins the whole thing. Also, I'm very interested in how much Flair "falls". What was the level of arguing/discussing his case this time around compared to 2016 (when people OD'd with it, tbf)? He's another guy I feel -admittedly, from the outside looking in- that discourse kinda evaporated. Probably as a mix of people drying the well after 2016 and him becoming the relative you don't really wanna talk about, in the past decade.

Not only that, if I read correctly, Asahi has a stake on CyberAgent and CA has a stake on Asahi, they even share board members.

Night 1 one of Dontaku did similar to last year (500 less people) and Night 2 did 1.8k less. Interestingly enough, they announced a No Vacancy for this year even though it was in the same place as 2025. I guess they set it up smaller and sold those tickets out. Agreed on Uemura being the best choice of this year's G1. The sad thing is the lack of options they have right now though, it's Uemura and basically no one else, unless they wanna keep punting shit and give it to a veteran or to Tsuji (which wont mean a thing, sadly). I honestly have no fucking clue how Gedo is still the booker. He's had the job for 2 decades, what's the harm in trying with someone else at this point?

You are insane El-P. Xavier and Kofi are the easiest layup for a promotion. You just give them time and they'll get over in whatever role you give them, they can work in any position in the card without any drama and they can move merch like crazy. They also have nostalgia going for them AND the novelty of working outside of the WWE bubble after 2 decades. They've also shown they can have dope tag matches in WWE's fucked up tag team context (where they fucking hate to let tags shine, specially in terms of in ring performances) so I'm pretty sure they can do well with AEW's freedom and sick roster. They don't need to be super workers to make shit entertaining for AEW.

I agree with all of this. I do think we gotta stop using "AEW Four Pillars" as a thing though. That promo aged like milk and only MFJ and Darby showed they belonged on a foundational level. I mean, Sammy Guevara being named at the time was laughable in 2022 and nowadays he's in the spot he should be in. And Jungle Boy also found his real place on the card.

Gedo found another gaijin to put the strap on instead of building his japanese roster, year 13 of this lazy fucker doing the same ol' shit.

Another banger of match between KOB and Umino/Uemura. All 4 have been elevating each other and KOB really are gaining momentum as an act. If there's one guy New Japan has to try to keep for a couple of year its Oskar, he's already really good and could be something else as he continues to develop. Man, Yuto was devastated with Hiromu's goodbye. LMAO at Gedo continuing to book HoT bullshit. I hope that segment/match leads to big gimmick match revenge for Wolf because if not, it's again stupid booking for the sake of stupid booking.

It's official, EVIL is gone I'm not gonna miss him but he did do the job and made Wolf look as good as he could. This forces Gedo to put these younger guys in more prominent positions as well, sink or swim time for a lot of them.

Yuto Ice & Oskar vs Oiwa & ZSJ was the best tag title match I've seen in New Japan in forever. Just a great showcase for all three of the young guys, the crowd buying into Oiwa like crazy, Yuto showing he's comfortable as hell in a champion role and Oskar could be something special if he can work with people that can teach him (NJ should keep booking Shuji Ishikawa and should make a call to Sekimoto to take the kid to the next level).

Incredibly happy that Aaron Wolf is for real, they have a guy that's already incredibly over and "gets it". So glad he showed proper fire and knew exactly when to play to the crowd. EVIL did a perfect job in the match as well, when the fans are so into it his shtick works because it feels like it has a bigger purpose than just be annoying. Looking forward to what Tsuji can do with the title. Really good match against Take and the crowd clearly wanted a title change so it was the right call. Feeding him Jake Lee is a tall task when it comes to selling tickets but they at least built him in during the show and he's a serviceable token title defense. I hope Gedo doesn't get other big ideas for Lee though, he's shown in every promotions he's worked in that he's nothing more than a midcard slimeball heel that's at best above average in the ring. Main event was mindblowing. How the fuck did those two pull off that match is beyond me, just so damn good at this prowrestling thing. Okada a perfect heel and Tana somehow finding a way to deliver an epic main event with his broken down body was incredible to watch. The closing ceremony had me in tears a couple of times. When Shibata showed up, when Tana said he finally got to watch a sold out Tokyo Dome and in the end when he thanked that he got to love pro wrestling. Thank YOU, Ace. PS: Fuck WWE for not letting Nakamura show up tonight. It didn't hurt them to let the guy do the tribute at the end like Naito did. Takeshita wearing that tribute in his arm was a cool touch but man, he could've been there.

As a Mox hater, I'm ok with him in this role. I just don't ever want him with the world title and most prominent angle in the promotion so he can do whatever else he wants in my book. Besides, his work from All In to this date has been legit impressive and it's cool how the crowd has completely bought into his character journey the past 6-7 months.

The card is undoubtedly top heavy with a bunch nothing in the undercard but I think you were so upset about it you read it wrong Umino, ZSJ and Uemura were thrown in a Never Openweight 6 man match that pretty much features everyone on the roster. The 4 way is for the Jr. Title Gabe Kidd's try hard ass can stay in nothing matches for all I care tbh. If anything, the women's match will have a big chance of standing out with 70% of the card being bloated filler. Even more pressure for Wolf and huge responsibility on the shoulders of Takeshita and Tsuji. By the time they get to the ring the crowd would've sat through 2 and half hours of bleh with a potentially dope joshi match in between.

Foley made a whole thing about being done with the company for all the blatant Trump supporting they do. Good for him! but did he have a role in the company or something? a legends deal?

Haven't seen much of anything from this retirement tour but it really goes to show you how badly they botched it (and other angles) that the WWE fans went from almost taking pride in reacting the way you are "supposed to" because they loved the product from 2022-2024 to going all meta and reacting against the company and HHH instead of the heel for beating Cena. The fact it was Cena, the poster boy for fans reacting against the company because they didn't like the booking direction is fitting end, I guess?

I've seen a couple of Cena internviews this past week and I'm legit dumbfounded that he went to WWE with a whole ass chart with ideas and pitches for 200+ dates for his last year with the company and they basically told him "keep it, we good". And then they turned him heel out of nowhere as a pivot from Cody saying no to Rock's idea and got into an angle that lead nowhere and was pivoted again to turn him back. WWE is beyond lucky that Cena is such a company guy. Any other top guy would've forced his ideas or just leave (and a couple would've legit worked AEW just out of spite, lmao).

Historians putting Cody ahead of Punk is interesting, even though I can see the argument given the difference he made once went back to WWE and his role in starting AEW. Sabu being ahead of both of them among those voters is also interesting, Punk and Cody still being active has to be a big factor "against" them for historians, I guess.

The very few we got to see Wolf it was not encouraging (I got Gable Stevenson vibes) but it was still just a 30 second spot so who knows. I hope it's a short match and he destroys EVIL and his wack ass stable.

WK 20 officially sold out, they are opening up more seats due to demand still being high. Tana is carrying this company one last time. Let's hope Wolfe, Tsuji and Takeshita come out as big standouts/stars from this show.

Cool to see Hamada finally in.

Women's Blood & Guts had some really high highs, once it was 5v5 it picked up tremendously and it just kept getting better. Absolutely fucking loved the finish, just heels doing heel shit with some awesome pro wres drama *chef kiss* I gotta say though, they have to make the entrances shorter. They could've cut 10 minutes and gone faster to the stuff they all really had in mind once shit got going.