Jmare007

Darby and Sting continue to have "wait, this is MOTN?" matches in stacked cards, lol.

WHAT THE FUCK

Regal brought this crowd back from the dead and these dudes are making sure they stay awake.

I was about to write "fuck that finish" and then Regal showed up and everything clicked.

Bullllllllllllllllllllllshiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

If you rewatch you'll see what I mean.

They worked their asses off. A little plodding at times but man, it's hard to imagine them working a better dog collar match than that one. It legit puzzles me that the crowd was so dead for 90% of the match. Put that match in front of an 80's crowd and it's a classic.

Nice callback with the music and his attire. OG Punk.

That's a dope fucking entrance. And Jade, my gawd.

I was scared this match was going to be too long but they nailed the run time. Fun flippy shit that doesn't overstay it's welcome is the flippy shit I can appreciate.

Eddie winning erased my slight complaints about the match being too much late 90's All Japan.

lawd have mercy at some of these bumps Eddie is taking.

Crowd is on fire. I hope they don't burn out before MJF/Punk.

There's no way a "you didn't put me over in Chikara" angle makes it on TV. An unfinished business angle with some wink wink references, sure, but going for a worked shoot would be a horrible idea. Specially because Claudio isn't gonna be able to hang on the mic so it would end up being a very awkward exchange.

https://www.theringer.com/2022/2/25/22951217/bryan-danielson-opens-the-masked-man-forbidden-door Good Danielson interview, he even talks about being interested in the french catch footage.

Shiiit. Even better, Claudio, one of the best (if not THE best) bases wrestling has ever seen working with even crazier highflyers than in the 2000's? My god.

When did Kofi, Xavier and Big E sign their latest deals? I have the impression it wasn't long ago but I could be way off.

Mike Johnson is reporting that Cesaro is gone from WWE as his deal has expired and no deal was made to renew it. Oh boy, if there's one guy that could have a ridiculous run on the level of Danielson and Punk....

I actually think Page and Cole would be hurt if they main event the PPV. By that point of the night the crowd will be tired as fuck no matter who closes the show, there's just a ton of stuff that will give them big moments to pop for. So Hangman having a "cold" main event to close a big PPV would probably do more damage to him than being sooner on the show and getting a big reaction and probably a match that would be better received than if it's the last (even if it's worked the same). I agree that Punk vs MFJ feels like the biggest match on the card, and they have the best chance of bringing the crowd back to life eventually with violence and storytelling. edit: MJF's promo was outstanding. I completely took it as him doing mind games though, like Terry Funk used to do with the audience before turning on them

The matwork we got in Danielson vs Garcia was so fucking gritty, gimme more of that please. That final reversal of the dragon screw to kicking his head in was so damn unique too. Revolution is gonna be a bloodbath with Punk/MJF, Mox/Dragon and it's a real possibility it happens in Jericho/Eddie and Page/Cole too

Danielson vs Garcia booked for tonight. I was actually going to skip this week live but TK didn't let me.

Feel more curiousty about Fujinami and Fujiwara working a six man tag for the anniversary show with Okada and Tanahashi than the 48 man New Japa Cup field. Hopefully Togo actually wrestles a real match and gives us something worth a damn after the last couple of years. CIMA being the only "outsider" in such a huge field is hilarious. It's like NJPW is trolling us or something.

Yeah, kinda surprising so many people didn't translate from one week to the other considering last week was a damn good show and I thought it did a good job at making you want to watch this week. Completely agree. I'm puzzled by wrestlers continuing to go into "work the leg" mode when nowadays is so hard to pull it off in a compelling and satisfying way. There's a lot of body parts to work a match over and most of them are easier to buy into the other person being able to withstand pain and execute a move than the legs (specially on high flyers, were not only the move but also the execution has to look good/"pretty".). I do think it's kinda lazy, in the sense that there's others ways to go around a match if you feel you HAVE to work a body part and make it a relevant factor throughout a match. People working Nakamura's legs in New Japan was the thing that broke me. It was so frustrating to watch awesome wrestlers do awesome shit and at the same time, continue to do the things they knew they wouldn't put much attention to (the consequences of hitting Nak in the legs to make his offense less deadly). Nakamura never sold shit, it was so evident he wasn't going to, and they kept going to the same dwell every time, specially Tanahashi.

Is it fair to say that Stardom has been the most successful Japanese promotion during the pandemic? It kind of feels like it but I don't follow Joshi beyond results/gates so I'm very on the outside looking in. Kairi coming back should be a nice boost for them too.

Dragon working shop for the name of his stable...Danielson Dojo?