bradhindsight

This match - 2+ years later is a bit of a unicorn in that, Jim Ross is actually really good here? And Jericho - 48 years old at the time - is exceptional, felt like this was a better fight than WK12. I liked the early brawl just fine. Even the sloppiness - the repeated spot aside (which they tried to cover for on commentary, but it was def bad) - kind of plays into Jericho's age and exhaustion, plus Kenny had his nose cracked so he was a bit off. A touch long, ok sure, but I never lost interest and the finish was decisive and two years later, exactly what the company needed out of the gate. ****

Ah I figured it out - work laptop has restricted mode permanently on so it filtered them out.

So I went to YouTube, searched for MLW Fusion, checked out MLW's channel, checked out BEIN sports playlists and videos, searching and searching and i couldn't find any TV episodes. That doesn't bode well for casuals finding the show or growing its exposure.

With the show running short of time, they condensed this into an unbelievable 12 minute or so highlight reel. If someone outside wrestling wanted to see what it was all about, i'd absolutely show them this. ****1/2

They clarified this saying it was based on position on the card.

Man Tanahashi was so great here - I think I liked this more than their last Wrestle Kingdom encounter. This didn't hit the NJPW excess that can at times turn me off in a main event. LOVED the tombstone stuff as a career-long callback and Tanahashi eventually grasping for slaps to try to fend off the Rainmaker. ****1/2 +

You're a made show now. Gabe was engaged on the ROH 50 GWE project we ran with VOW also. Respect.

Certainly feels like these two will square off again, and possibly trade the belt a bit like Nak/Joe did. Almas was amazing and the pace was perfect, with the interference spots coming at great times and never making Black look foolish. And the selling was fine as well - if the move barely hit (like the tope con hilo at the end), Almas absolutely should be ready to DDT him when he comes back through the ropes. I thought those little touches were great. Would have bought that as the finish, but going for the cheating one more time only to backfire works to pay off the earlier stuff. This was tremendous ****1/2

I'm with Loss on the psychology - really strong. The end was drawn out a touch much for my taste (although I loved Moon trying different ways to break, and going back to some also), but this was a great way to lay out a match with a badass like Baszler.

For sure - our group that is putting together the roll-out is all volunteer and it's a mix of new voices too, which is a nice compliment to the melting pot of audio we had. Having people passionate about the project reach out to join our team has been the best part of this. We're going to be doing a number of projects like this so if anyone has any constructive critiques, we're all ears to make things better for the next time around. I'm less worried about semi-colon placement and am more focused on global/bigger picture stuff. Doesn't have to be public here, can be DM'd or whatever too. We appreciate everyone's participation.

Send me an email at [email protected] and you can volunteer hours a week of your time like the four guys that have poured over this for the last month + and you can correct all the glaring errors you want. Also, some of the write-ups are tongue in cheek and have neat things like satire and hyperbole. I'm a big proponent of creative freedom when guys are sacrificing their free time because they're passionate about a project. Nothing is a *serious* matter here.

Check back today - that was a weird backoffice glitch where it kept that picture even though we removed it.

I owe this a re-watch as I viewed it in choppy parts, however...I liked Naito's focus on the neck early - the stuff outside and then the constant clubbing. Any time guys just work the neck, I can reconcile the other bumps later and offense as being decent psychology. touchy selling - expected and not egregious for a NJPW main event. There's two interesting wrinkles for Naito on the go-forward: he kept going for Stardust, his super babyface move, and he got a touch cocky with the pickup off the third destino where he got reversed and ended the match. I didn't feel he was as buried as one would have thought he would be if they knew just this result a couple days ago. ****1/4

Yeah the enforcement of the stip was a little wonky and there were other smaller nitpicks for me, BUT, this is as perfect a Jericho performance as you could envision and this far exceeded what I thought coming in. I liked that they went with the lower body injury vs. the knee, as Omega used this to really keep his pace down, which fit the the flow. The brawling was the perfect length with innovative spots. The chair stuff was great - Omega taking them full flush in the corner is ridiculous, but that was his choice ya know? Great layout, and i'd imagine very re-watchable. ****1/4

These two have great chemistry and Ospreay is a *good* seller and when his big matches focus around that, they're quite good. When all the flips and dives don't work, it turns really intense with the strike exchanges. Arm work builds perfectly (KUSHIDA is normally exceptional at this anyway), and when Ospreay won't tap and KUSHIDA goes for BttF, you think that's it, but it's a great swerve with the reversal and then Ospreay really cranks it up, kicking KUSHIDA flush in the face on the top rope. I didn't think they had another step up to go but they got there - top rope BttF and then another finishes. Easy MOTYC ****3/4

My least favorite kind of NJPW match is exactly what WWM outlined above: it's the excess beyond excessive that has no reason to go to those lengths as it just dilutes things. Every awesome V-Trigger is diluted by the next and they eventually lose their impact - despite how crushing they are and how well Naito did sell. And it's hard to be invested in a match layout that forgets incredible sequences 30 seconds later - like that piledriver outside, which was incredible. Omega/Ishii from the US is another example of this type of match, and I don't even want to watch that same dance Kenny did with Elgin in the G1. Still, the effort and execution was tremendous, near perfect. also outlined above - they did build and mix things up, with high impact stuff you don't see (like Naito just taking the turnbuckle bump on his face, and the ring post DDT). I just wish those meant more in the end. ****1/2

Great hook for the console version, can't wait (my laptop is the pits). Is there an estimated release date?

I thought this was great in revisiting almost a year later, and after watching their rematch from May. This is much more storyline driven with the shoulder and both guys work very believable offense. Thought Bate's selling was fine and the build to the finish is paced perfectly. ****1/4 leaning up.

Liked most of this a good bit - Dunne always sprinkled in extra punches, or grabbing the chin on the armbar - or the kicks at Dunne's head after a kickout. Little stuff to mask rest spots. I don't have any false reservations that the joint/hand stuff was meant to go anywhere, and I don't think they focused on it too long to where it stuck out as a whiff later. Biggest issue I have is both guys struggling to get to their feet, pulling up on the ropes, but can then race to the turnbuckle and flip off. I like the aerial stuff fine, but jesus drag a leg or take an extra second to not completely shake the match off. The finish is a good callback to a counter Dunne does earlier in the match, but he again then races back into the ring which stuck out (although I get the idea of urgency/adrenaline here). I'm focusing more on the shortcomings for me and leaving out a ton of great stuff that should very much be watched. Easily one of the best WWE produced matches of the year. ****1/2

The crowd really rallied behind Omega in this also. Listen to them react as he makes his brief comeback. Good stuff building to the dome.

I don't know, the Omega stuff was pretty dramatic - although I wasn't in the camp that predicted a 1/4 title change, I thought both their title matches were filled with drama. Shibata was another good one, but def agree that EVIL wasn't moving the needle.

I'm asking this earnestly - when did this "Brock is shot" narrative start? I thought he was the best performer in the SummerSlam match and he worked his ass off. Then he and Braun had a middling match (one I oddly liked still a good bit) and since he "allegedly" hampered Braun in this match (Braun looked just as gassed), i've seen this line of thinking pushed a lot more. Dylan Waco in the No Mercy thread was acting as though Lesnar was going to die in the middle of the ring vs. Braun due to exhaustion and in the process sabotaged Braun. I get not liking the match and Brock's performance but I thought that was quite an overreaction. I'm not blaming Dylan but I think that's where the narrative shifted from "Brock is lazy" to "Brock is physically done". Having said that and having enjoyed Brock's work vs. Goldberg and some others, I still agree with Boss Rock's point about Brock not being the same since 2012-15 (though I'll say it's more due to offensive laziness than poor conditioning). Offensive laziness is interesting; i do think everyone (Vince, Brock really) has gotten comfortable with how the first part of his matches should go, to the point where it's dull and kills the crowd. I think that's one reason the Joe match stood out, they broke away from the standard Brock match tropes.

I'm asking this earnestly - when did this "Brock is shot" narrative start? I thought he was the best performer in the SummerSlam match and he worked his ass off. Then he and Braun had a middling match (one I oddly liked still a good bit) and since he "allegedly" hampered Braun in this match (Braun looked just as gassed), i've seen this line of thinking pushed a lot more.

Time for a holiday season bump to see what else is out there. Pretty excited for this next Filsinger ROH set - Kenny King singles, Gresham and Flip Gordon announced so far.

Really looking forward to these from the Fan Con.