Migs

I liked the booking and structure of it, but the action was pretty disjointed and there wasn't a lot that worked between the spots. Still, I liked a lot of the way they flipped normal War Games tropes and tried different things. Better then just running back the traditional match structure that we've seen a dozen times and would pale in comparison to the best versions of it. Also, love that they're bringing back Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal for the October show.

"Punk, you'll never main event Wrestlemania... but how about 5 million to main event the Greatest Wrestlemania?"

Yeah, those two just can't seem to have a great match with each other, and you might have hit the nail on the head about why. I get the sense they're really struggling with how fast to do the Okada "comeback" from losing the title. They burned through so many of his in the reign. So to not feel like a retread, the most reasonable scenarios for the Dome are something like Okada-White or Okada-Jericho. That would let him move down a bit while still using the fact that he's a top guy in his prime for a big match. The Dome show feels very open this year, maybe because I still have trouble believing they are going to do Omega-Tanahashi as the main event.

I'm about 150 pages into Guy's book and it's pretty good so far. Some really interesting stuff on things going on with the higher ups. No really big revelations on the stuff closer to the wrestling show if you've followed other things, but some interesting tidbits there. I will also say - I was next to Guy for a day on Podcast Row at Starrcast, and he (and Neil Pruitt) are super nice, smart dudes. Pleasure to talk with them for my podcast, and Guy is going to be a guest on my live wrestling comedy show on October 25.

I believe the special occasion was Kojima's return (from what I'm not sure). The show this morning was solid. Taichi's thing is so dumb that I kind of love it (I also enjoy karaoke and have a dad bod but maybe still think I'm cool, so maybe I just relate to him). Naito-Suzuki was sort of like a 1992 Randy Savage match if you sub Destino for the Big Elbow, but it was enjoyable enough. Very interested in where they're going with all the CHAOS stuff and White.

It also became another in a weirdly long series of moments where Roman Reigns lays there for minutes during a title match. I guess it's probably just that they use that trope now more and he's been in the main events in that time, but damn it feels like that dude is always on his back during his own matches.

Are they actually selling 80k tickets for this?

If he turned on the Shield and then dominated Rollins and Ambrose, he'd probably get heat. Like, just dominated the main events and didn't give the heat back. Sacrifice Ambrose and Rollins (who they seem to feel are upper mid-carders at best anyway) and let the crowd boo Roman. More and more, I feel like the comparison to Cena isn't the best with Roman - he's more like Orton. Initial excitement, but proficient in the ring, some strong moments, but otherwise steady and just sort of there a lot of the time. Unlike Cena, neither Orton nor Reigns have proved to really be a draw in a traditional sense, but they work as front men of a brand that's pulling in people on its strength rather than on more traditional drawing cards. And both have moved merch without being the juggernaut that Cena is (Roman sells plenty, but there aren't crowds of children dressed like him from head to toe, and he has basically no iconic merch).

Omega's definitely the best at finding interesting ways to interact with different guys. Thought this was a surprisingly great tag match, and Ospreay seemed really comfortable in there with Omega and Ibushi. Based on the next night as well, they seem to be moving toward Ospreay-Ibushi, and I'd be very excited for that match.

I'm proud to announce I'll be doing the first ever live taping of Jerking the Curtain, a pro wrestling comedy show - basically the pro wrestling meeting the Tonight Show. I'll have video content to post, but you can be there live in NYC! September 19th at 8pm at the People's Improv Theater (24th between Park and Lex). Guests for the first show are rising NY wrestler J George Estrella and promoter Jac Sabboth, who's Impact Championship Wrestling has been running in New York for close to 20 years. https://thepit-nyc.com/events/jerking-the-curtain-a-pro-wrestling-variety-show/

And it feels like they are setting up the dominos for him to be involved in the title picture in the not too distant future. I think there was a lot of treading water in part because WWE books big show to big show now, so they needed to kill time to get to Bryan-Mix at Summerslam to kick that off. (The initial slow play also probably let them feel more comfortable that Bryan's body could hold up, as others have noted.)

I also think it's getting hard to critique WWE in a straightforward way because it's so incredibly easy to just watch the parts you like and skip the rest. The TV shows have been reduced to video packages for those of us who just watch the big shows. If you don't want to watch the whole PPV, you can cherry pick that, too! Things matter to the extent they give you enough to keep people subscribing and enough people watching, but the incentives to create a compelling product as a whole is probably gone. And that means the value in critiquing is finding the things that are worth watching and blasting those out.

Semantics, maybe, but it was the 12th match on a 15 match show. To the comment above, I'd totally believe Tony was a little burnt by that point.

I do believe that was close to the main event of a live show that produced 4 or 5 TV episodes. It was also Lawlor's second match of the night, which is sort of crazy.

I'm not sure I ever heard the details on this - what caused the late rush?

That was also by the far best ZSJ match I've seen. If he can work like that regularly, he's very interesting to me as a top guy.

I think ultimately, they think Omega is more valuable as a gateway guy into the US. And thus, they needed to pull the trigger on him now and make Naito wait.

I'm not sure about that. I would wager something like Wrestlemania I had a lot of scalpers, at least for the time (the ease of acquisition and sale has certainly made them a bigger issue over the last 30+ years).

What is this I'm hearing about the Briscoes in WWC? They feel like they might be a perfect fit. Is there any footage out there?

I'm also fairly low on Tana-Okada. This one felt real slow until the finishing stretch, although the drama kept things pretty engaging. Loved the palm strike counter to the Rainmaker. Tanahashi going through makes me feel like Naito is definitely the least likely option. Tanahashi-Omega would be relatively fresh and feels more likely than Ibushi-Tanahashi for some reason. I also wonder if they're setting up Tanahashi getting the title shot but losing it to Okada (who gets a shot at it because of the draw) in the fall.

Not a thing in the US (for the most part). But this is based on an agreement made by Punk and Cabana, in which Punk agreed to pay the costs.

On the business side, New Japan seems set to sell out MS fucking G. Quite impressive.

I will note that we don't know the Omega match yet, and there's some chance for that to be a big deal one. (Pentagon?) But ultimately, you're right. When they sold this out in a half hour, there was no need to burn any big matches or build a feud to this show. I do think the show has some interesting matchups (I like that they're doing Scurll-Okada, which NJPW wouldn't do because Scurll is a junior), but when tickets went on sale, I was thinking this was getting main evented by Bullet Club War Games, and this card does not have anything like that.

The other match I don't think they are doing is Okada-Omega. You don't give that away with a day's notice. But my pick from the start has been Okada-Ibushi. It's a fresh match and either guy seems like a plausible main eventer for Wrestle Kingdom.

They're up to 12 now, so I think this is the drop of wrestler-specific Coliseum Videos we were promised.