W2BTD

This is spot on. Everybody worked reasonably hard, nothing was sloppy, but aside from the IC match nothing on the show was compelling whatsoever. I felt bad for Big Show & Rowan, slogging around, trying to figure out things to do with ring steps. Absurd match that ended up being predictably terrible. Ambrose taking crazy bumps to tepid reactions. Ryback & Kane with hard chair shots while nobody cared. The show was a fucking chore to watch for the last 2h 30m.

Love this guy. Figured he'd be retired, brain damaged, or both by now, but actually added to his resume significantly this year as one half of the excellent Dangan Yankees tag team. He's a love him or hate him kind of wrestler.

Red Bastien came about four decades too soon. Dean Ambrose would have been a huge territory guy, but it's not like he's having any trouble doing well now. The Fantastics worked a modern indie tag pace in the 80's. Chris Kanyon was about ten years early. Indie crowds would have eaten his style up, and from there maybe his career & his life end up much better. I've always thought Dolph Zigger would have been a workhorse type in JCP, either as a good looking babyface or big bumping heel, or both. I think he would have been a massive star.

Forgotten ROH tag team work with not only AJ Styles, but also the veteran/young boy team with Christopher Daniels. His best run, although hardly featured as a single, may have been Dragon Gate 2006-2007. I'd love to see his OVW stuff. I believe he was champion for a time before the call up.

I've been trying to tell the world about Starks & Dalton for a while now. Starks is the real deal. He totally gets it. You are 100% correct about his facials & mannerisms. He's also the best seller on the indie scene, and in my opinion already elite level in that regard. He's a great Gino Hernandez heel, but he's also a great cocky babyface who is awesome at the fiery babyface comeback or as the hot tag. He's still a kid, but he has a GREAT mind for wrestling and watches tons of tapes from all over the world. He already carries himself like a star, too. Dalton is the son of Frank Dalton, who was an underneath guy in the territory days, and was also the original Kimchee. He's a tremendous southern style heel, but his height and look will never allow him to get past a certain level. That's too bad, because he's very, very good. Dalton & Starks had a match in January for Inspire Pro, it's online and it's pretty damn good. "The one really big black guy" sounds like Keith Lee. Huge m'fer. Great look. Getting better in the ring. Good upside. Mike Dell is so versatile. Good babyface because Texas fans see him as a legend (more the Austin fans than San Antonio), and as you said he's a great heel. Solid worker. Good gatekeeper/legend type for ACW before he had to stop being booked for beating up a bouncer at the venue they run. Picked to be Inspire's first champ to establish the belt. Local guy that everybody respects a ton. Started in New Jersey with the PWS bro crew back in the 90's. NWA BOW is a decent group, the promoter is Jax Dane, he books a lot of favors & former WWE developmental pals like Haas & Yum Yum (Byron Wilcott), but there is usually good young talent to balance it out.

It really doesn't run any deeper than that. There is no super in depth, technical explanation I can give you. I watch the match, I have an idea in my head what a **, ***, **** match "feels" like, and I rate it. If it feels like a ** but maybe a little better, I'll go **1/4 or **1/2, **3/4 if I think it was close to *** but missing something to get it there. Here is my basic guide: * - Not good. ** - Just a match. Nothing wrong with it, nothing special about it. *** - Good. **** - Very good. ****+ - MOTY contender/fringe MOTY contender in a good year ***** - One of the best matches I've ever seen. Below * - Terrible. DUD - Truly an awful piece of shit, overly gimmicky, etc. NR - Too short to rate, silly comedy, etc. So to circle back, I felt like Charlotte/Sasha was almost ****, but not quite. As close as you can be without being there. So, ***3/4. Wouldn't argue with anybody who had it as low as *** or as high as ****1/2. Match ratings are just a guide, and they become more useful if you are familiar with the person who is doing the rating and what they typically like/dislike. There is no science to it, it's just a way to express how much you like or disliked something. Some people don't use them at all.

Didn't quite feel like **** to me, but super close. So, ***3/4.

Nagata as a cocky heel feuding with Stack of Arms and invading All Japan a coupe of years ago is some of his best work that gets no attention due to the state of All Japan at the time.

Tough crowd, but obviously not a PWO friendly style so i'm not surprised. I'll throw some matches out there since Sam asked, and maybe some others need a direction too. The MCMG vs Apollo 55 matches were probably the best tag team matches of 2009 off of the top of my head. I'd rec those strongly, although they may contain too much action for some around here. I don't know. If you need limb work or long control periods in your tag matches, don't bother. They're action junior tags worked at a deliberately fast pace, especially the closing stretches. Three Tanahashi matches, all deliver: 3/3/13 - Right before the BC turn, this was a hot Korakuen Hall main event where Tanahashi went subtle heel, and Devitt showed some edge that was a hint of things to come. Great crowd, great match. 8/4/13 - G1. ****+ 9/29/13 - Lumberjack Death Match. Probably the best lumberjack match I've ever seen (I hate that stip with a passion), with a white hot crowd. This was the peak of the BC before it got cringy & stale. Hot, hot match. 7/5/13 vs Gedo - IWGP Junior Heavyweight title match, and if Devitt wins, he earns a IWGP Heavyweight shot vs Gedo's charge, Okada. Devitt challenged Okada for the IWGP title, so Okada made this stip, to the shock of a reluctant Gedo, who eventually accepted. Another hot Korakuen main event for Devitt, who was money during this period headlining that building. This was one of my favorite matches of 2013, and Gedo was incredible here too. These guys had the fans in the palms of their hands, buying everything. 7/20 vs Kazuchika Okada - SPOILER ALERT, but this is the ensuing title match. ****1/4, ****1/2 range. Tokyo Dome 1/4/14 vs Kota Ibushi 1/4/13 vs Ibushi & Low Ki 1/4/12 Apollo 55 vs No Remorse Corps 1/4/11 vs Ibushi All quality matches, a couple fringe MOTY level Too many high quality 10 minute BotSJ matches over the years to name. Plus singles matches vs Alex Shelley, Low Ki, Kanemoto, and many others. Devitt has a pretty solid resume of high quality stuff in both tags & singles, and peaked from about 2009 until the BC started to jump the shark towards the end of his run. I can't imagine I wouldn't have him somewhere on my list. There weren't many people better in the world from '09-'13.

I didn't mean that *everyone* does it. Obviously that isn't the case. Sometimes I forget that this place is a bit more literal than other places (that's not intended to be a veiled slight). I had it at ***3/4, too. Not so sure about the idea of moving these girls up improving the quality of the main cards. There would still be the issue of time. Paige looked like a world beater in NXT, too. Bad chemistry with AJ and the lack of opportunity to have long matches overall has stopped her from showing it.

Women always get graded on a curve (even though few have the guts to admit it), but I think this match was a bad example to use for that narrative. I thought Charlotte & Banks worked with a ton of intensity, with a lack of the sloppiness or slight awkwardness that comes with even the best women's matches. I thought they knocked it out of the park.

Don't watch Thesz when you're tired.

Have only seen the Steen match since the Rams are playing and I have a crippling addiction to watching the NFL even though I hate it, but the broken nose/blood worked out perfectly for how they are trying to get him across, and was a blessing in disguise in the same way Bad Luck Fale inadvertently breaking Nakamura's face in their first meeting was.

I know exactly what you mean, and it's pretty pathetic that shit like this ever crosses people's minds.

My favorite promotion fluctuates based on whatever I think is the best thing going on at the time. Over the course of my life that's been WWF, JCP, ECW, ROH, NOAH, NJPW, or Dragon Gate at various points. Right now, I like NJPW best. It'll eventually cool down or something else will heat up, and the majority of my attention will go elsewhere. No promotion has my undying loyalty as my "favorite" to the grave. Dragon Gate is probably the only promotion that has never gone through a terrible period where I lost almost all interest.

Chromecast is highly dependent on the strength of your internet and the configuration of your setup. I could not get Chromecast to work anywhere in my home unless the router was literally inches away, which just isn't a long term option with the way my house is set up. A quick google search will show that many people have similar issues, so buyer beware.

The last batch of young lions was Mikami (El Desperado), Watanabe, & Takahahi. Watanabe & Takahashi are currently on excursion. Watanabe is the U.S. and might be coming back in January. Takahashi is doing another year in CMLL after about six months in Europe & 6 months in CMLL this year. Watanabe was told to gain weight & learn English. I've seen him work live several times on this excursion and he is the goods. Not sure about becoming a star, tough to say, but he's going to be a good worker and has developed a decent look. He'll be a heavyweight. The two current young lions Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu are the two most impressive young lions in many, many years. In my opinion, they are the two best workers at this stage of the game since Muto & Chono. They already have a connection with the crowd, which really speaks to their charisma, because it is very, very hard for young lions to do so. These are the two to watch. I think they have more star potential than the last batch. They are on the small side, but could probably fill out as smaller heavies. They have tons of matches on tape if anybody wants to check them out. Word is there is another batch coming in from the open tryouts they recently held. Whoever they sign would join Scott Hall's kid in the dojo. As for the current roster, I wouldn't worry about Okada's drawing power. He has a Sumo Hall sellout under his belt already (vs Ibushi for DDT), and the Back to Yokohama to me can be chalked up to putting too much faith in Styles at that point as a main eventer. The Japanese audience really didn't start reacting to Styles as a star until G1. People seem to view Nakamura as a #3, but that's really not he case. He was their top draw this year in terms of number of sellouts & total big show main events. If you really pay attention to how they promote, the IC title is nearly on par with the IWGP, and Nakamura is sort of teflon in that he decisively lost a feud to Tanahashi & a huge match to Okada, but loses no star or drawing power. I'm not sure you could beat Tanahashi or Okada like that and get the same results. At worst they have a 1a, 1b, 1c. It's hard to call any of those guys #3 with the way they do things.

As someone who probably wouldn't have passed a wellness test when wrestling, do you really think Austin was going to go down that road? Nah but I'm not gonna get all misty cuz Randy Savage's name was brought up instead either. i don't think anyone here got misty eyed about Savage but Austin's reaction was priceless. Anyway what else would you have asked him about? I would have asked for a live comment on the accusation that the concussion tests were a joke, that the medical staff is negligent. Not in those words. Gently, but something that would provoke something more human than the cut and paste style response sent to Yahoo. It's wrestling though so yeah, "good facial expressions." I really doubt Vince would ever touch a question on concussions or the medical staff's failures in any meaningful way. It's begging to get used against him later. That should be of no concern to the interviewer. You cant control the answers, but you are in total control of the questions.

Austin broached all of the correct topics, but his lack of follow ups was a killer, and he never pressed Vince once in a meaningful way. I wasn't expecting him to grill Vince, but you can press the guy without putting his feet to the fire. Austin wasn't great here at all. He let Vince control too much of the interview, and 90% of it was uninteresting recycled stuff that we already knew, or just boring insights that went nowhere. Vince talked a lot but didn't say a ton, but really came off badly and out of touch at points too. He really has his head in the sand with a lot of things. Oh hey, 20 more minutes of tired Mr McMahon vs SCSA talk. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I could watch one of the 19 docs on The Network for that. What a waste of time. If I scored the biggest interview in wrestling and got virtually nothing interesting out of Vince like what happened tonight, i'd be kicking myself. Austin gets a C- at best.

I like Tanahashi because he has great, exciting matches with well executed & constructed stories. The 30-minute G1 draw is a perfect example, imo. The thing about his weak strikes, and this also extends to Cena who gets similar shit for his strikes, is that I honestly couldn't care less. I never noticed Tanahashi's weak offense of Cena's weak punches or whatever until I saw people point them out. Neither of those guys attempt to project themselves as tough street brawlers or hard ass legit fighters, so that's not what i'm looking for in a Tanahashi (or Cena) performance. It's not what they do, so who cares? Tanahashi is a Shawn Michaels style dramatic, "big match" worker. They are very similar, so I can see why you don't like either of them. I can get into a Tanahashi or MIchaels match just as easily as I can get into a Ishii or Sekimoto or Goto style match, or a great flying match, or a short Rusev power sprint. I don't think I have a type of wrestler I like as much as styles of matches that I like.

One of the best matches I've ever seen, and one of the half dozen or so full five stars I've ever doled out. Here is my original review from VoW: 8. Block A: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazachika Okada – These two have had four epic matches over the last two years, so this was one of the most anticipated matches of the tournament. They did some mat work early. Tanahashi was getting the better of the highspot exchanges, and working the arm to negate the Rainmaker, which is a common theme when these two face off. Tanahashi got caught showboating on the top rope, and Okada drop kicked him to the floor. This led to an Okada control period where he worked the neck. Tanahashi eventually regained control and went after Okada’s knee, including a High Fly Flow to the knee and a nice dragon screw. Okada sells damage, particularly leg damage, about a billion times better than Naito. I hate to keep harping on that, but it’s been a theme this entire week. Okada is just way, way better than Naito in every way, despite Naito’s reputation. Anyway, Tanahashi hit a HFF on the outside, then used a Dragon Screw over the middle rope. He then tried a Texas Cloverleaf, but Okada fought it off. Tanahashi was stomping the knee like Ron Garvin, and doing subtle heel mannerisms. He whipped Okada into the ropes, but Okada collapsed on the damaged knee. So good. Strike exchanges, and Okada kept collapsing. I hope Naito was watching. Okada fired himself up, and landed a DDT. Both men were down at this point, and this thing was becoming another classic. Okada did his pose but his Rainmaker attempt was reversed into a German. A hot exchange led to a Okada dropkick being reversed into a dragon screw, into a Texas Cloverleaf. Okada made the ropes. Tanahashi mocked the Rainmaker pose and got booed out of the building. He got tossed out, but skinned the cat and hit the slingblade. Okada rolled out of the way of a HFF, and both men were down. Okada gained control and went into his sequence. Dropkick, set up the Rainmaker, but Tanahashi ducked. A million reversals in about two total seconds, and TANAHASHI landed a Rainmaker. Holy shit this was some match. Two count on a dragon suplex, Styles Clash, Okada gets the knees up on a High Fly Flow. Okada went for one last desperation Rainmaker, and collapsed on his knee. Time ran out. Draw. Another masterpiece. Five stars. ***** ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This was incredible in every way. Perfectly executed, perfectly paced for the 30 minute draw gimmick, and so well worked that in real time I was unable to sniff out the draw, which is incredibly rare because draws are always obvious within minutes which kills the match dead for me. Okada was awesome here, a classic sell job, in what was maybe his best overall performance ever (neck & neck with Invasion Attack 2013, or maybe this year's G1 Final). Tanahashi was great as the subtle heel, working the leg and being a cocky prick. Okada's desperation at the end, going for one last attack but collapsing on the wounded leg as time ran out, was what great wrestling is all about. So much emotion & FIGHT. At the end of the day this will probably be one of my top five matches of the decade, maybe top three.

Which is why it will be great when Reigns beats him at Fast Lane as his "final test" before Lesnar at 31. You're probably right, but at least it won't be Cena. I'd argue that Reigns is an even worse choice. As bad as a loss to Cena would be, he at least has credibility. The entire idea behind protecting a monster heel like Rusev is to give someone credibility, no? Cena doesn't need that win. Reigns is their chosen future stud, he does.

We're talking about a couple of random matches here, I think you're overreacting when you imply he has gaps in his knowledge because of this. Do you honestly expect him to be privy of every match that has ever made tape? With some of these, we're talking relatively obscure matches which in some cases you need to dive pretty deep into the comp/download world to find. I had mentioned that the lost July 2012 PPV is available on NJW on Twitter last night, and I got some responses that the key matches aired in clipped form on NJPW TV. I never knew that and I follow New Japan as closely as anybody. I know Alan has never seen those matches either. Some of this stuff is not easy to find, even for super nerds like us.

Regarding phones & the Japanese culture, they spent a ton of time during the presser with Tanahashi accessing everything on his phone. Togi Makabe was there, playing the role of "old guy who isn't computer savvy at all showing that even HE can find his matches on NJW". As a side note, Kazuchika Okada looked like he wanted to be anywhere but the presser.

Just like the WWE Network, the live shows for the low price is what will drive this from a business perspective. The archive footage is great for hardcores, but as we saw with WWE, casuals lose interest in that fast once the novelty wears off. This offers far more in the way of live shows. All PPV's/major shows, all Korakuen Hall shows, and many house show stops from the bigger buildings are all airing live, at least through January. Kidani's stated goal is 100k subs. We know the bigger PPV's were doing around that number, so they're goal is to essentially hook everybody who buys WK to stay on each month. I guess that's where they budget the losses they'll take from the WK hit back in. My guess is like WWE, they will come up short. I think over the top is clearly where the future lies, but we aren't there yet in terms of these two companies being able to meet their stated goals.