Jmare007

Not sure I understand the connection, but I see RAW did even worse than last week, which was historically bad.

I mean, so far New Japan has treated their US shows as one would've expected. Their expansion was never about "taking over" and from the get go it was explained as something more similar to a Korakuen show than a big PPV. Having said that, the dates they've picked and the promotion for each show has been getting worse each time they do a new event. The biggest match on the card is a tag match that if it was announced last month - when it was already reported that tickets were selling slowly - it could've gained some momentum and even could've been promoted at All In. It could very well be a MOTYC, specially for the fanbase that could buy a ticket. Announcing it five days before the show makes no damn sense. They trusted Juice vs Cody would be enough to sell more, weird. The Cow Palace show didn't do as well as they want it - for a variety of reasons, the date and promotion being the most important ones, imo - but they were able to save it from total disaster by announcing Cody vs Omega a couple of weeks prior, which boosted tickets sales. And by the way, they have King of Pro Wrestling at Sumo Hall in two weeks and the only match announced is KUSHIDA vs the winner of the Jr tournament for the vacant belt. White vs Tanahashi is a given, but it's still not official. I guess they'll run an angle at Long Beach and reveal the whole card next week, but that leaves just 1 week of promotion for the biggest show they have in Tokyo before January. It feels like a heat check by the company after doing awesome attendance wise this year.

I feel the Ambrose heel turn has been predicted and teased for 4 years now, and every time he stays face. It's gotta happen at some point I guess.

Bryan trains both of them though.

Best thing Gedo has booked in years. And I'm not even that interested in White vs Okada as a match, but it was the right call and opens up a lot of stuff.

Will Kenny go in his first year in?

I hope that's the direction. It gives Okada a real angle and something to do without the belt being involved, besides, CHAOS is almost a decade old and it's time to reshuffle things a bit. And White gets another huge match.

I love how Okami can go from feisty underdogs to bully "veterans" depending on who they are facing. This was similar to last year's RWTL match against Naoya Nomura & Aoyagi, with Daichi and specially Kamitani doing a really good job in control, dominating and beating the fuck out of their smaller opponents. Abe does little cunty things like very few these days, and his flash kicks and reversals are perfect for hope spots and buildups to a hot tag, so of course it works on this match. Nomura, as always, stands out as a no fucks given, gonna kick and slap you to oblivion bad ass that still doesn't quite have enough to dominate. Strike exchanges were dope as hell, specially the kicks between Daichi and Takuya. Shin-Kiba crowd is right there with them too. Strong BJ delivers once again, @superkix I think you are might like this.

The crowd chanting "holy shit" at Brock kicking the door off the hinges but not doing it for Seth and Dolph bump from the cage was sad and funny at the same time.

LMAO Brock is over with the crowd again

All of that fuckery just so they could do the same spot Rollins and Ambrose did years ago? Hey, Brock is here.

Braun and Roman have been dead for how long now?

What the fuck is going on?

Oh man, I've missed the monster truck madness matches these two have.

Mad Ronda is the new Hulking up.

This whole match building up to a Brie Bella hot tag is something else.

Miz and Maryse are fucking gold

He tapped! Nice angle going forward...maybe?

That tag was ridiculous and so much fun to watch. Why the hell can't AJ be the main match from his brand?

They uploaded a video on youtube of the cage I named the Punjabi match because it was also hard to watch what was going on in the ring with the hard camera shot, one would guess they wouldn't try to do that again.

The new HIAC is red, it seems it won't be easy to see what is going on in the ring. Seems they didn't learn much from the Punjabi Prison match.

It would've been a interesting scenario for sure. The Kane feud for Extreme Rules 2014 did hurt Bryan a bit in terms of crowd support, if he doesn't get injured who knows how long that program goes. I do believe Lesnar squashing him at Summerslam would've been the 18 seconds loss to Sheamus at Mania 28, Part II though.

I don't think he can retake that role for the fans, at least not by booking/kayfabe. WWE would have to do something in real life against Bryan that pisses the fandom off to the point they once again believe he's "their champion".

Meiko should have a KO-D Title defense at Evolution

I think that would've been the more interesting/fun scenario to watch, but I don't think Bryan's level of support after his return would've sustained either. I don't believe hardcore fans see him as "their wrestler" anymore, he's a legend/icon now, so there's no "us (with Bryan) vs WWE" feeling. I also don't think they see the company holding him down either - at least not nearly to the level of outrage of 2012 to 2014 - and those were the kind of things that made him teflon to WWE booking. As you said in another thread, he can still be "Shawn Michaels, the icon" level over if pushed right. But for him to transcend that again, he's gonna need a bunch of stuff to happen, and just like 5 years ago, luck is a big part of that. I do think he's gonna get more momentum eventually though, he's still the most popular male on his brand.