Jmare007

I think saving Omega vs Moxley is gonna be better for them in the long run. Show is already sold out and PAC vs Kenny will have the fans going home happy because it's a matchup they will enjoy for sure. I think a lot of us called PAC not having the belt before All Out and freeing him up for AEW bookings too

The fuck???

A motherfucking war this goes for 22 minutes and by the end you feel these two have gone through an hour of devastation. So in the weeks leading up to this match these two had close to 9 tag matches against each other were Okabayashi - the more experienced, and more importantly, way stronger wrestler - pinned or submitted Nomura in the first 6 ones, mostly by using the Argentine Backbreaker. Slowly but surely though, the Young Gawd began to find cracks in the champ, after working the left arm for a bunch of matches, he finally did it, he made Okabayashi tap out. From then on they had more matches were things leveled up, and Nomura got other Ws by doing the same shit: destroy the big man's left arm. So, the title match finally happens and what do we get? Well, exactly what we should get: Okabayashi fending off the young kid by beating the shit out of him and Nomura doing everything in his power to work that damn arm. The match takes it's time, it's not a barn burner from the get go, it builds and it builds just like their tag matches. And boy does it pay off. I think the mics were shitty because you could tell the Osaka crowd was more into it than what it sounded once the 2nd half of the match starts kicking in, but I was fine with it to be honest. Another MOTYC for Yuji, who is having a fucking monster 2019. And Takuya? Well, young gawd is young gawd for a reason.

What was the project Charles was working on?

People really thought Bryan wasn't gonna put Buddy over today? The the perfect match for him to lose and there was no way he wasn't gonna take that fall.

Weeeeeeeeelllll

I'm not sure he ever left that Cokeboy life tbh.

AEW selling out 2 big buildings (7,200 and 10k) in hours is not only really impressive and another sign of how teflon they are right now, but it proves them right in the sense of focusing their efforts to their core fanbase. One thing I don't agree with some folks here complaining about some of the acts and roster is that at this moment, AEW should be doing what they do best: be a super indy and work from there. Their audience is more than willing to spend money for them, and this first 4-5 months of TV will be a honeymoon period were they can throw stuff at the wall until 1 sticks and becomes a big angle, and once that happens the ball can get rolling for a long ass time. Like, I don't believe their product is aimed at me and I'll most likely wont watch much of their stuff unless they surprise the fuck out of me (would be awesome), and I don't find much of what they do or much of their roster interesting at all....but I don't think I matter at all for their success. Right now, the casual fans (or older, more "traditional" fans) shouldn't be their focus at all, worry about that stuff after year 1 when they've established that their loyal fanbase will stay loyal no matter what. I don't buy for a second that gimmicks, feuds and acts on a pre show or the low card that seem to not be working matter at all either. It's fine to not like them and even make an objective criticism about them, but let's not act like it's a big deal at this moment.

KENTA got injured all the time in NOAH, and both knee injuries he had in 09' and 11' pretty much changed his career as he stopped being a legit "best in the world" level worker (the first one came after he had a remarkable stretch but also a very taxing one in terms of dates and high level of matches). So yeah, it's pretty safe to say he was going to get injured again if he stayed in Japan too, dude is just injury prone. I hope New Japan safes him up for the Dome shows and gives him a soft schedule. KENTA might've gotten the Nakajima's spot at the 2016 G-1(Marufuji was a lock in that tourney, he's always getting the interpromotional gigs/spots for NOAH) but after that the New Japan/NOAH relationship went south and we have nothing to base any belief he would've left NOAH for New Japan had he stayed with his home promotion, specially in this scenario were he refused to leave the company in the first place in 2014. Him going to WWE not only "liberated" him from NOAH but opened up New Japan's eyes to him. You gotta realize NJ never made any effort to book KENTA in any of the long list of interpromotional feuds, angles and matches they had over the years. Once he left WWE he got a better offer than he would've ever received had he stayed in Japan AND he didn't have any stain from the fuckery Maru pulled on New Japan in 2016. I'm just going by history man, the large majority of japanese wrestlers that went to work for a extended period of times in the US, regardless of how shitty their role was, came back to either a bigger role in their home promotion, a bigger role in a rival promotion or to have enough pull to create their own promotion and/or become a high level free lance wrestler when needed. I don't believe Gedo or New Japan had any plans for KUSHIDA beyond the Junior division, I think that's one of the reasons he left. Once he comes back he's either gonna get a big push in NJ or he's gonna be able to do whatever the fuck he wants as a free lance (and get a lot more money as one as if he would've stayed in NJPW and eventually left for whatever reason).

He got good money and exposure and now he's back in Japan in a position he wouldn't be if he didn't go to WWE. I've said it before, KUSHIDA will be back to Japan eventually and will be able to profit immensely from doing whatever in NXT/WWE. Even if he was 20 TV matches in total were he's a jobber, he'll get a good position wherever en Japan.

I was gonna say, wasn't it a "big" story last year that Dolph's contract was running out and then he signed long term? I remember D-Bry saying in an interview the company asked not to talk about global warming because it was "too political" or something along those lines. But I'm not sure how Vince put a kibosh on his run as champion considering everyone agreed that Kofi coming out of Mania with the belt was the right call

In the post show promo, Ibushi said he might challenge Okada on night 1 and then (if he wins) the IC champion on night 2. They could run some really interesting shit between Ibushi/Okada/Naito/White (or whoever is feuding and challenging Naito at WK) for those two big show. If Gedo pulls this off it would be the most inventive thing he's done in forever, I would be awesome if works out that way.

Shibata coming back would be huge, and perfect for a massive event like 2 back to back Dome shows. Ibushi was too logical and safe as a pick not to end up winning, not even Gedo could throw a swerve there. Even more so when the other finalist was White. And not that it really matters in the grand scheme of things, but it still interesting that today did a couple of hundred less people than last year's final night.

As good as a Brock formula match as you are gonna get in 2018. I still think the early portion of Lesnar in control is too damn long and dominant, to the point that no comeback is really believable unless you are willing to concede the fact that Lesnar's matches have "different rules" or something. Which is fine, but it kinda sucks too, if you take away 6 minutes of Brock suplexes and stalling and make this a 12 minute sprint of sorts, I think this would've been a classic. Psycho Bryan is gonna be amazing, he's already kicking heads in and had Staples going batshit crazy for the Yes Lock spot. Brock shows up too and bumped like a mad man to make DB look legit, it reminded me of Big Show and Henry in 2012 doing everything in their power to make every second of Bryan on offense look like he was an assassin.

That match wasn't very good imo, but it is true that Brock as put Seth over and bumped for him like he does for people he likes/respect.

Fucking Seth got all the Ws Reigns needed years ago

Hey, they reacted to a fucking waist lock at Mania.

A frong splash, of course.

That spot of Brock catching Seth and throwing him to the ring post would've been fucking awesome if Rollins had actually sold the ribs when he was doing his comeback.

Seems I'll check the main event as there's nothing else going on. Holy shit at the silence for Seth

I don't think Naito had to be an Ace, he just needed to get a legit title run. Not because New Japan needed for it's business, but because it would've freshened up the main event scene and taken advantage of how over he was (and business wise there was nothing to lose), and he could've put someone other than Okada over big. He could still get that run but it's gonna be 3 years later than when it should/could've happened, it's impossible not to criticize Gedo and New Japan for it.

Eh, I think it's fine as long as they make the right call and make Kota win tomorrow. To be honest, a legit feud between Naito and White is the most interesting thing both could do heading into WK 14.

That was awesome, thanks! @FMKK too

I haven't kept up with NXT in a long while, haven't even seen the last 2-3 Takeovers, so this is a legit honest question. What's the main difference between Asuka's reign and Shayna's? Asuka had the belt for almost double the time and she didn't even put anyone over for it, yet I don't remember reading half the complaints about her title run compared to Blazer. Which is saying something because there was a very vocal portion of the fanbase that really didn't like Asuka's last few months as champ. I loved reading this thread's reaction to Gargano/Cole. Bless all y'all putting up with that nonsense, specially because you knew what you knew exactly what kind of nonsense you were gonna get

Dave saying something and then people trying to figure out what the fuck he actually meant? It's year 35 of dude as a professional communicator and we still playing that game