bradhindsight

Punk got his vote for commentary (I remember the voter left a comment), with Aries i'm assuming for his manager/stable work. I also agree with your last point - Adam Pearce was another booker that made it on just one of the 42 ballots. Cary Silkin probably should have finished higher; he actually was a real late nomination by me. It depended how you approached the poll - a lot of ballots didn't have any office. In the same vein, Joe Koff rescued the company and probably deserved a vote in there.

The results of the Non-Wrestler poll are up! http://placetobenation.com/the-honor-roll-rohs-top-ten-non-wrestlers-poll-results/

I shared this around privately, but it's warranted here as well: I thought this was a perfect finale episode in that it called back to every big topic from the first 76 episodes and nicely put a bow on them as everyone reflected with their final thoughts after the journey. Credit to Kelly for the setlist, which allowed everything to flow organically. And in the meantime, nothing said here closed the door on anything done on '83 + in the future. This wasn't a race to Bob dropping the belt where you blew through 20 episodes in 2 hours. Well done.

If you guys have the time - the top 10 NON-wrestler poll has received about half the ballots the main poll has so far. Which is fine - it's an optional offshoot and just for (more) fun - but if you're passionate about anything there, be sure to send yours in. I've submitted my non-wrestler ballot so I finally checked the results so far - good variety, and a pretty clear winner.

goc and Dylan (on twitter) have had a lot of good points on this. I also side with TNA on the Creative control thing - he didn't have it in his last contract fwiw, and granted the people in charge (Billy, etc) let him do his thing. I don't blame him for asking, but to posture like that's a deal breaker - I'm not buying. Now the 10% kicker thing, I'm curious what it was in his last contract because it isn't new that they control their talents' outside booking. And probably the worst thing TNA did was laugh off them appearing at these tapings. They don't bring other non-contract guys in for per-taping fees? Matt's been out hitting every indie as it was, so he seems to be doing ok $$-wise. I think a short-term, maybe a 10-date deal with ROH as a bridge to WWE works for everyone (if they'd even want it - it's a hypothetical). It's been mentioned plenty of places but Hardy would absolutely draw on the road for ROH, whereas TNA doesn't run shows. If ROH lined him up for their live shows, he would absolutely sell tickets.

Hey dudes, if you nominate anything that doesn't have a dedicated thread in the match archive, please feel free to create one. Appreciate it!

And by all accounts, they won't even let Matt round out the character arc at the next tapings. Amazing quotes in the Wrestling Sheet story from the lawyers for Anthem. The Hardys are a draw and TNA doesn't travel or, you know, run shows you pay to see, so I can see the business side. But imagine pissing them off like this on the way out - and now in addition to Galloway's belt, you have another title that will have to be vacated.

Here's your first confrontation between Omega and Okada post 1/4 and Okada blows him off and wants Cody to start the match. Really weird. This is an all-star game of sorts, although the early portion is the BC working over Ospreay and cutting off his tags. I actually felt that section went on too long. Plenty of shtick from both sides (Okada doing "suck-its!" to the Bucks, etc). Ospreay gets a good bit of the showcase here along with Cody. Ospreay saves Okada from the top rope with Cody as they tease the big suplex to the outside on the group of guys. Cody reverses and hits it on Ospreay to wipe everyone out (similar to a spot they did at Global Wars '15). This finally leaves the ring to Okada and Omega who forearm each other and go at it. More finisher teases from these guys, but nothing hit. Ospreay eventually cuts off Omega (there are no tag rules the second half of this) with a one-man Spanish fly. He and Cody finish things up with teasing around the Cross-Rhodes. Os-cutter is rightfully reversed easily into one and there's your match. This was 20 minutes of fun. ***3/4

Cole is over with the crowd, getting quite a few chants - despite being the heel. The catchphrase is of course over as well, and in a fun bit early, YOSHI-HASHI apes it as his own to really miff Cole. Pretty standard Cole title defense, lot of trading, but Cole does come off like the bigger star. They trade finish kickouts and then move into a sequence with YOSHI-HASHI working the shoulder with a submission and a sleeper, where Cole barely survives. Cole continues to sell on offense, he was fine there. More escalation, layout here is booked well; Cole hits his real crappy looking destroyer and a shining wizard (again) for another two count. That's it though, he pulverizes YOSHI-HASHI and hits another Last Shot to retain. Even with some extra kickouts in the back half, this was easily better than Lethal's ROH title defenses and the crowd was really into it. ***

This was an interesting spot for Martinez - he probably had the most to prove after the cards came out. And honestly, he did really well here - exceeded my expectations. Goto worked most of this match fighting from underneath and honestly didn't get a lot of offense in outside a neckbreaker and the big forearm exchange. The match kept building on Punisher's escalated offense; Goto slips to the outside to avoid a top rope move and Martinez dives over the ropes (6'6" dude) near the turnbuckle in a big spot. They reverse around each other as Punisher tries for his choke slam and finally Goto hits his finish off a slick counter and that is it. Really a plucky one-move-does-it win for Goto and credit his selling (as much as one sells in a NEVER title match) for creating a good atmosphere here. ***1/4

Total hoss tag team battle here. Great strikes and both teams were fantastic. War Machine handling the G.O.D. just as they did the Bucks - impressive strength. Pop-up powerslam was beautiful. There's a part mid-match where Rowe just casually passes Tama Tonga to Hansen like he's a medicine ball. Rowe powers out of the stun gun and dead lifts Tama into position for Fallout to get the win. Crowd chants for War Machine and afterwards on the mic they proclaim they're after the IWGP World Tag Team titles. Crowd pops for this. Huge two nights for these guys. I really dug this. ***3/4

Aries got the nod over Nigel for me because of his noted tag work. He was a real flexible worker/character in his run. He had the extra year also. I think on my final list they are back-to-back (submitting mine shortly) so very close.

The aura of Shibata in this match is something as he's on Cody's "list" and this is their first face to face. They start against each other and it's a pretty tepid feeling out, exchanging some holds and a quick tag out. Lethal also wants Cody and his over-aggressiveness lends to Page getting the best of him. Lethal works in peril and it's fine, I actually think Page had maybe the best performance here. Rocky Romero being surprised at Page doing a shooting star off the apron shows he doesn't watch the ROH shows he's on, which made me laugh. Hot tag Shibata time and after a big missile dropkick by Rhodes, Shibata just sits up and it is ON. Cody isn't too bad with the forearms and then Shibata just smashes him as he is want to do. That's really the payoff here, and they work in a decent ending with Shibata penalty kicking Cody, setting up Lethal to then hit the Lethal Injection on Page. **3/4

I don't if it is because of the break between shows, or that there are a bunch of refreshed faces of the show, or that it's just because the Bullet Club feels new after their hiatus, but these guys were moving way faster (imo) than your standard 4x4 house show tag. This had some spirit to it. The crux here is to pump up YOSHI-HASHI for this ROH title match the next night. One of my favorite multi-mans they've done this year. ***1/4

Kenny's first appearance since 1/4 and the crowd is certainly receptive. A stellar main event with an underlying story of Cole and Omega potentially spitting. But their character work never undermind the Briscoes, who were great as usual. This goes 22 minutes - a very worthy last match to night 1. Two big Omega "wow" moments - the springboard moonsault off the guardrail onto the Briscoes in the crowd and then the big reversal at the end where he powerslams Mark coming off the top as he's on Jay's shoulder for the doomsday device. That was sweet. ****

This absolutely ruled and was before intermission (!) even. Everyone was fired up and refreshed here - light on comedy and big on double team moves and the Bucks getting pulverized. Perfect booking also - this is a must-watch. ****1/4

Talk about it here

Talk about it here

Updated SC link for PWO - this is the mixed down WAV with all tracks. Apologies for those that downloaded previous one: https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/the-puro-pourri-podcast-5-njpw-vs-uwfi-part-2

So Huckabee is the ref turned wrestler who is the scrappy guy who outworks everyone. He's got a 70s throwback type gimmick, from the ring jacket to holding his arm behind his back as he waves to acknowledge the crowd. It's a little Backlund-esque (credit to Chad for this analogy). So I expected this to be a lot of just masturbatory ground grappling exhibition stuff, but this is actually a good little story driven contest. They do mat stuff but Huckabee finds unique ways to reverse or get out of moves, which just pisses Silver Ant off and he starts seemingly shoot-suplexing him around. They play up the time limit remaining stip (for the hour of Power) and Huckabee makes kickout after kickout before Silver Ant has had enough and puts him in one of those Chikara Special submissions and he taps. For a rookie, i thought Huckabee was pretty solid here and this was enjoyable. ***

Often times in booking the best stories leave both guys strong, and I get what they were going for here, but felt this really exposed Max. He's a super heavyweight and this is a pretty long match all things considered. TD is fantastic fighting as the undersized guy, while still slamming Max and getting in other good power moves. Smashmaster has some ok power stuff, a decent punch, and can do the swanton, but he looked wiped out here. And a lot of basic stuff like throwing whiffed clothelines off the rope, or charging at TD outside looked painfully bad. Bakabella works hard here to cover for this, drawing TD away and even getting hit with a nice looking forearm for his trouble. Smashmaster wins with a jumping Tombstone, but I thought Mr. TD was really good here. Smashmaster gets his third singles win to now get a title shot, and has a nice W under his belt even if he really was carried here. **1/2

Apologies - I just realized this didn't have download capability enabled. http://placetobenation.com/well-do-it-live-over-the-top-wrestling/

New logo, thanks to our man Mario, is fantastic.

Up at PTBN as well.

With the last show set to drop, I shared my thoughts on the show and its importance. http://placetobenation.com/remember-the-titans