Jmare007

Is Smackdown only gonna win the 5v5 match with Shane being one of the survivors (or maybe the sole survivor)?

Takuya Nomura.

I felt the opposite. Felt like a worse blend of indy style and forced WWE drama/epic than usual. It still had some fun parts though.

The last two big spots were hilarious.

I think that's for the better.

SD is kinda weak on the babyface side. A Rey vs heel Bryan mini feud would be fucking amazing.

I can see Brock wanting an easy win on SS, so they feed him a heel. Or maybe WWE does the typical annoying bullshit of pairing up their heel champ with a McMahon and Shane interferes to cause a DQ and send everyone home angry

Heel champion D-Bry is gonna be fucking awesome. Too bad he's gonna get squashed by Brock

Not even sure what I'm disputing, but today's style is much about theatrics and how it looks on the surface than ever before. Each person can find that better or worse than before, I don't think that matters tbh, it is what it is. But I see today's New Japan or almost any other promotion (besides few matches from each one) style not having a lot to do with realism and logic, at least not compared to the other stuff.

Naito challenged Jericho for WK. So Gedo decided to get creative with all his top guys except the one that's the most over. Every justification for Naito losing in January was proven wrong for the most part.

The weirdest part was him trying to talk about psychology in modern wrestling

I was kinda surprised Bryan wasn't aware of Saudi Arabia and how they operate, but it makes sense. Seems he went "nah, fuck this" after the GRR. Also found interesting how he asked to lose to the Miz at Super Showdown, the quick pin was clearly a middle ground to not blow off the feud as he didn't want it to end yet.

I'm not sure WWE will punish Bryan for not going to Saudi Arabia, I kinda don't think they will. But if he ends up in the doghouse after this, it might just be the thing that would reignite the "Bryan and us vs them" feeling.

Appearently everyone was like me and didn't see AJ vs Bryan had their match on SD. Only was able to see the last 5 minutes after a commercial break and what I sa saw was fucking awesome, the last sequence was insane.

I have no issue with people not watching, trying to boycott or whatever. But as a Chilean whose family suffered the consequences of the fucked up shit the U.S pulled in the region - which pales in comparison of what they've done in other parts of the world -, I found the Tribute to the Troops shows to be as bad as the Saudi propaganda at the Greatest Royal Rumble. The amount of atrocities the U.S and their troops have done in various countries is as horrible as the shit MBS and his predecessors have done too and having a yearly show showing the righteousness of their role was as tone deaf as anything. Anyone can have a different breaking point, and the Khashoggi assassination is as good a reason to stop watching/supporting as any. But it's curious to me that it takes fucked up shit to go public for real outrage, from people who already understand how stuff works, to follow. I get it from a US citizen perspective because it would be weird to get into such an uproar with propaganda about your own military - even though you might know how horrible the whole deal is - but from an "outsider's" perspective, this feels like another stupid decision more than an unforgivable one. I wonder if I'll ever have a breaking point tbh, and that's really fucked up This might not be the time or thread to have this conversation, but what Charless posted is a very interesting line of discussion.

If they keep doing shows next year I fully expect Vince to make someone on the roster dress like Yokozuna to appease MBS.

Hogan doing one of the most Hulk Hogan thing possible http://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/hulk-hogan-saudi-arabia-wwe/#.W9DREeJRfIV

I don't think that's what matters here.

This is crazy and really fucking sad. Hope for the best for him and his family, fuck cancer.

I have no clue what report is true or not but Mike Johnson also reported that Miz was going to win at Super Showdown the night before the event, saying WWE was happy with Daniel Bryan being a "special attraction" so he didn't see him winning.

This was fine. It says a lot that it took 20 minutes for the crowd to give a shit about Takeshita, even though this was a big and unique interpromotional match - and was worked as one - the fans were mostly silent and treating it like it was whatever, which hurt it a lot because atmosphere is key for this type of match, or at least it is to me. CIMA did great as the invader heel, cheating and using every advantage he took to hurt the young Ace, his work on the leg was compelling and his cut offs were nicely done. Konosuke is still just meh in big matches, his selling of the leg was all over the place and it was frustrating because when he did sell it, he did an awesome job, but his comebacks still lack fire and everytime he has control of the action the crowd just doesn't care. This had a some cool moments and it got very good near the end, it could've been REALLY good with a hotter crowd.

That's interesting, I can't remember which interview it was (or if it was him talking about it in his podcast) but months ago he was saying how happy he was of getting a "Brock Lesnar" type deal with New Japan - very good money for "3-4 dates" - while at the same time having a good relationship with WWE, to the point he could still get dates with them. On another interview he also spoke about how much money he got for working the Greatest Royal Rumble while doing basically nothing (he also said he though his match with Taker was given back to Rusev because he was going to continue to work with New Japan).

A little update on CIMA: DDT's Peter Pan show drew 6,259 people at Sumo Hall, claimed as a sellout. Last year they did 5,900 and was also claimed as a sellout and the Sumo Hall show from March did 5,700. Even though the difference is very small, it was very likely that show was going to barely do 5k without the addition of Strong Hearts in the last month.

I had very high hopes for this match, and it delivered in spades. The performance by Togo is fucking incredible, Daisuke plays the role of "unstoppable monster" greatly, as usual, but it's Togo's job as the underdog that makes this match awesome to watch. Don't expect a bomb fest, this was one of those methodical, every move matters, type of Strong BJ match, which I fucking love. The story is as simple as can be: Sekimoto is the big dude that imposes his will and Togo has to scratch and claw to get Daisuke off him. You can feel the struggle in every attempt by Togo to get our of trouble, and the ways he finds to do it are dope to watch - like, everyone goes for a head lock to get out of the Argentine Backbreaker, but the way Togo fights to get that headlock is just on another level - and when he finally gets a chance to breathe, he's too exhausted to capitalize on it because of all the effort it took to get there. When he finally gets on top it makes sense, but it doesn't last long as he takes a risk that doesn't pay off. Once Daisuke sees his chance to get control back, he fucking goes for it, as he realizes what he has to do to finish this off, but Togo will not lay down. Awesome match. ps: there's a little kid that screams SEKIMOTOOOOOOO for 20 minutes that had me laughing at how hard he was rooting for his favorite.

WWE's version of Political Hit Theory will be can't miss fuckery. Would be cool if Dylan gets to show up on the Network special about it.