stomperspc

How is the weekly (is it weekly even?) TV anyway? I hear a lot about big shows, but not much about week-to-week in smaller venues. Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think they have anything in the way of standard, weekly TV currently in Japan. There is the one hour "World Pro Wrestling" show on BS Asahi but that just consists of month old matches from the big shows. They aired some of the small shows as single camera (no announcing) shoots on Nico Nico in 2014 but that has presumably stopped now that they have NJPW World. Otherwise, the rest of the TV is full, live shows from Koraukuen or other mid-sized venues that air on Samurai TV and now (some at least) on NJPW World. I think the booking over the past couple of years has been generally been fine. They made several decisions in 2014 that I thought were smart. Rather than burn through Nakamura-Okada-Tanahashi combinations at the top of cards (with those guys holding both of the top titles) for the entire year to the point of burning the fans out on those guys, they wisely took a step back. Nakamura feuded with a couple of Gracies and then Bad Luke Fale, before dropping the IC title to Fale for a bit. Okada dropped the IWGP title to Styles and feuded with him for a while. Tanahashi sort of wondered around. They focused the spring/summer/early fall on the Bullet Club so the three top guys could take a step back. At the end of the day, business held up just fine and they got through 6 or so months of 2014 without building entirely around the top three. That will ideally payoff in 2015 & later down the road since they theoretically saved up on some bigger matches they might have otherwise run in 2014. I do agree that New Japan has a lack of younger talent with obvious star potential. If they don't develop or acquire a star or two in the next couple of years there might be a problem, but the same could be said for a lot of promotions historically. No promotion has ever had a constant flow of star talent coming through. In the short-term, I think they are okay. Styles is over. Ibushi is over. They still have Styles vs. Nakamura and Styles vs. Ibushi has big programs. They also have potential Ibushi vs. Tanahashi and Ibushi vs. Okada programs. We will see what they do to address the lack of young, quality depth the next year or so, but I don't see that as a major flaw of the booking. The booking is not perfect. Anyone who praises it as all-time great booking is probably going overboard. There have been hiccups (running Okada/Nakamura at the Seibu Dome with no build is an obvious one) and they have an aging roster, but they have also made a lot of smart moves over the past year+.

I agree with this. There is definitely a shift in the curve and that's not just a wrestling star rating related issue. Unless someone truly believes that there is significantly more good wrestling these days than bad, in theory the majority of matches should fall in the "average" range (** - *** range if using star ratings). I feel the vast majority of matches I watch these days leave me thinking "that was fine" which to me is the definition of an average match. There is nothing wrong with those matches and there shouldn't be anything wrong with stating that a match was average. Average is fine. I like average matches. However, there is definitely a school of thought that sees "average" as "bad" (or at least "not good"). So if someone likes a match, they feel the need to label it as something more than average in order to get across that they liked the match or at least thought it was "fine". The obvious analogy would be to school grades where this shift has been going on for a while. A C-grade should mean that te student is average and there shouldn't be anything wrong with that, but average is often seen as bad in that regard. I am very much into current New Japan. I wake up for all the big shows and watch as much of it as I can. At the same time, I only had a pair of 2014 NJPW matches in the **** 1/2 surefire MOTYC range last year (G1 finals and Suzuki/Styles). I did however view a ton of NJPW matches as being in the average to good range (** 1/2 to *** 1/4 or so if we are talking stars). A promotion that has a lot more average-ish or above stuff is still a really great promotion and one I can get invested in. Like Chad, I liked last night's show. I thought the final two matches were upper tier level matches, the tag title match was good, and basically everything was average or better. I just don't necessarily think it was a show with two blow-away (***** range) matches and four others at or around ****.

No idea if they will go in this direction, but I think Suzuki could be built up as Tanahashi's next challenger rather easily. He won a "big" singles match last night and didn't have many losses on his record in the months leading up to the show. Suzuki and Tanahashi haven't wrestled in a very long time either. If Cagematch is correct, they haven't been in the ring together since the 2012 tag league. If they cross path's on tomorrow's Korakuen show in some sort of 6 or 8-man tag wit Suzuki being booked strongly against Tanahashi (or ideally pinning him), a title match in February becomes an easy sell. It also helps that their 2012 title match was very good and can be used to hype a title match. I'd go Tanahashi/Suzuki and Nakamaura/Styles as the two big February matches. They haven't done Nakamura/Styles yet. Styles had a big win last night and with the exception of Tanahashi, has at least won win over everyone he is faced in a singles match in New Japan so it wouldn't be difficult to plug him in as the IC title challenger. I suppose they could also do an Ibushi re-match but only if Ibushi is going to win the title.

In attempting to come up with a "final" MOTY list, I am re-watching some stuff and writing about some matches that I didn't write about during the year. I've done a couple of groups (tags and CMLL) to help organize my thoughts and hope to do a few more in the next few days. For anyone that is interested, here are the two so far: Best Tags of 2014 Best of 2014 CMLL My top two overall are solid, I think (Virus vs. Titan and Suzuki vs. Styles). Everything after that is still a bit up in there air.

I think Triple H had his single best big match ever in 2014. Maybe even his top two. I meant that 1999 Triple is still clearly not very good re-watching 1999 WWF 15 years after the fact. He was considered poor in the ring and heat-less (despite getting a MONSTER push and constantly being put over Rock & Austin) at the time and that holds up looking back. The point was that that some memorable or unmemorable stuff looks better with distance and perspective, but some opinions held at the time don't necessarily change even with the benefit of hindsight. That's all. I was saying 1999 Triple H is "still bad" not that Triple H in 2014 is "still bad". For the record, I fully agree that Triple H's match with Bryan was likely his best match ever and the first Shield trios is way up there for me, too.

Negro Casas · Must See Matches o w/ Shocker vs. Rush & La Sombra (CMLL – 07/18 – Arena Mexico) o vs. Rush, hair vs. hair (CMLL – 08/01 – Arena Mexico) · Great Matches o w/ Dragon Lee & Cavernario vs. Virus, Hechicero & Cachorro (CMLL – 05/23 – Arena Mexico) · Also Check Out o vs. Titan (CMLL – 01/03 – Arena Mexico) o w/ Tiger & Puma vs. Atlantis, Guerrero Maya, Jr. & Delta (CMLL – 01/26 – Arena Mexico) o vs. Volador Jr. (CMLL – 01/10 – Arena Mexico) o vs. Blue Panther (CMLL – 01/21 – Arena Mexico) · The Case For o Casas had a great start to the year with four singles matches in January that I thought were good or better, plus a really strong trios match. o The feud with Rush finally came to a head which meant more of those two beating the crap out of each other in trios and tags. From an in-ring standpoint, Rush/Casas is definitely a contender for feud of the match. o The tag match was amongst the best tag matches of the year. Casas had a standout singles, tag, and trios match in 2014 which very few others can lay claim to. o Arguably the greatest 50+ year old wrestler of all-time. 2014 only strengthened his case for that accolade. · The Case Against o Fizzled after the hot start to the year due to injury, booking, and just overall quality. His list of notable matches gets pretty thin by March, only picking up for a brief period in July for the hair match build. o As mentioned with Rush, the hair match has drawn mixed reviews. · Other Award Consideration o Most Charismatic o Best Technical Wrestler o Feud of the Year (vs. Rush)

Ricochet As an side, I think going purely off of work Ricochet wouldn’t necessarily be in my top 10 for this year. However, he has had a really interesting 2014 and worked in a ton of different places from Dragon Gate to Lucha Underground to US Indies to New Japan so I think he’s an interesting one to take a look at. Also, still haven’t seen the 20-minute draw against A.J. Styles from December. · Must See Matches o N/A · Great Matches o vs. KUSHIDA (NJPW – 06/08 – Tokyo) o Vs. Low Ki (House of Glory – 11/30 – Brooklyn) * This was like a very good ROH heyday (2002 – 2005 or so) match. Great opening five minutes or so with a slow build using the usual cool Ki mat work and standup. Ki looked great and really should be anchoring ROH or something instead of occasionally floundering around in TNA. Ricochet’s flying and ridiculous agility spots meant more in this match as they were used as comebacks and hope spots that for the most part were integrated seamlessly into the rest of the match. Could have done without some of Ricochet’s offense and like every 2014 indie match (and many Japan matches as well) they could have shaved off four or five minutes. However, it was more the middle dragging than the finishing stretch going onto long which I think is the lesser of two evils by far. Worth tracking down.* · Also Check Out o vs. Kota Ibushi – IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship (NJPW – 06/22 – Osaka) * This is a borderline “great” although that probably depends on your stylistic preferences. Two of the more agile and athletic wrestlers going and they give you just what you want from two wrestlers with those skills. Felt like they were holding back just a tad, too, for a re-match. These guys executed a match based around quickness and agility far better than any 2014 Dragon Gate match I saw. o vs. Chris Hero (EVOLVE – 01/10 – Ybor City) o vs. Uhaa Nation – Open the Dream Gate Championship (Dragon Gate – 03/06 – Korakuen Hall) * Considering Uhaa is still pretty green and they went 20+ minutes, this turned out really well. Nice selling from Ricochet and Uhaa’s power offense provided a nice contrast for Ricochet’s stuff. o vs. YAMATO – Open the Dream Gate Championship (Dragon Gate – 05/05 – Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium) * My favorite Ricochet DG match of the year and maybe my favorite DG match from this year. Again, really strong selling by Ricochet. Went too long and did too much at the end, but it wasn’t a deal breaker. o (as Prince Puma) vs. Johnny Mundo (Lucha Underground – 09/06 – Los Angeles) * Just to see him working under the mask in a TV promotion. Could probably pick any of his LU matches to get a sense of Ricochet as Puma. I don’t think he’s been blow-away as Puma or anything but he doesn’t lose any of his connection by putting on the mask, which isn’t always the case. · The Case For o A pair of legit worthwhile matches, a borderline third “great” match (vs. Ibushi), and several other strong matches makes for a deep resume. o Got over (or remained over) in several different stylistic/geographic promotions). There is something to be said for being the most over/pushed DG foreigner, one of the top (or the top) US indie stars, the lead babyface for a national TV promotion, and the BOSJ winner (despite being a NJPW outsider) all in one year. There are other circumstances but his talent certainly played a role in his ability to get pushed and get over in all of those contexts. o In the discussion for best current high flier. o Became far more well rounded in 2014. Adding more kicks to his arsenal has helped bridge the gap between his other stuff, as has the addition of some suplexes and a non-top rope finisher. · The Case Against o He had some stinkers as well, perhaps as much as any of the ten guys I’ve listed. o His matches can still become disjointed from time to time. He’s not a finished product although he is getting there. o Sometimes a little too much attempted comedy and “wink-wink” stuff that hurts the flow/pace of his matches. o His style – even the more well-rounded version of it – might not be for everyone. · Other Award Consideration o Best High Flyer o Most Charismatic

Thanks! I appreciate it.

Wow, this just hit on every point so perfectly. Well said. The distance is something I have decided I need for my fandom. There were even matches that Dave rated as high as ***** in the 1990s that haven't been very remembered, so I don't think it's exclusive to this era. Agreed with everything OJ said, too. Wrestling is so context based and I think it is difficult to fully grasp the context of an era or event until after the era/event is over and there has been some time to fully digest the aftermath as well. I think there has always been a tendency to be very critical and perhaps pessimistic of contemporary wrestling. We endlessly compare ALL current wrestling to selective, cherry picked memories from the past which isn't fair. We also don't know how what is current going on in wrestling will impact the future of wrestling. The impact a style or promotion has or doesn't have says a lot of whether it is ultimately effective. The 1999 yearbook is a great example because with the benefit of time and distance, I have been able to appreciate the heyday of the Attitude Era much, much more. At the time, there was a lot of bellyaching about the brawling intensive style, a lack of "technical wrestling", and shorter matches. There was this perception that the crash booking philosophy was leading wrestling down a bad path that it would have difficulty recovering from. In hindsight, the brawling style was really good when done right by guys like Austin and Rock. Now that we are In an era with very little genuine heat, it sticks out how those guys (and others) were able to get a TON of great heat. We all scoffed at guys like Test in 1999 because he wasn't Chris Benoit or Rey Mysterio, Jr. but re-watching it is clear he was a pretty good worker who got over quickly and perhaps should have been utilized better. We now know that wrestling didn't continue down a path of short matches and vulgarity and in fact, came out of it pretty quickly in 2000 - 2002 which was a very successful period for WWF, The matches and that entire era seem more memorable now because we are able to put them in their full context. Some things don't change. Triple H was still clearly not very good in-ring and had little to no heat despite being booked as strong as you will ever see someone booked form mid-1999 on. But that's the other good thing about watching older wrestling removed from the moment - it can reaffirm opinions. It is difficult to fully appreciate anything in the moment, as it is happening. I think the same goes for wrestling. A lot of things can only be fully appreciated (either positively or negatively) in the proper context and after enough time has passed to properly reflect on them. At the same time, I like watching stuff as it is happening because it gives you a different perspective that you can than utilize when you go back and re-evaluate years later. There is plenty of good wrestling now and like with any era, I think we will find out five years down the line that some stuff wasn't as good as we might have thought while some 2014 stuff was better than we might have initially thought. Lastly, I think heat has a lot to do with the point of view that current matches are less memorable. I think it is fair to say that in general - at least in the US - fans are less invested in the matches and results than any other time in history. That leads to less heated matches and therefore less matches that standout as truly epic and memorable. Wrestlers may or may not be more athletic, soundly trained, or whatever but I am not sure how much that really means when not even the biggest matches are getting the kind of invested fan reaction that matches got 15, 20, or 30 years ago.

Cavernario o Must See Matches o vs. Titan – Mexican National Middleweight Championship (CMLL – 07/28 – Arena Mexico) · Great Matches o w/ Hechicero & Cachorro vs. Negro Casas, Dragon Lee & Cavernario (CMLL – 05/23 – Arena Mexico) o vs. Rey Cometa – Hair vs. Hair (CMLL – 09/19 – Arena Mexico) · Also Check Out o w/ Cachorro, Dragon Lee, Guerrero Negro Jr., Hechicero, Soberano Jr., Star Jr., Súper Halcón Jr. vs Black Panther, Canelo Casas, El Rebelde, Espiritu Negro, Flyer, Herodes Jr., Metálico, Oro Jr. – Cibernetico (CMLL – 03/25 – Arena Mexico) *Probably could have put this up one tier. Really strong cibernetico where everyone got a chance to shine. Cavernario looks good in it, but so does pretty much everyone involved. * o vs. Hechicero – En Busca de Un Idolo (CMLL – 04/08 – Arena Mexico) *Maybe the best of the lightning matches from the tournament. This felt like more of a Hechicero showcase but Cavernario has a great sense of timing, bumps well, and fits his offense in appropriately. * o vs. Cachorro – En Busca de Un Idolo (CMLL – 04/18 – Arena Mexico) * More of a Cavernario offensive showcase than the first Hechicero match. Cavernario takes a back bump off the apron to the floor which is a somewhat insane thing to do in a lightning match. * o vs. Hechicero – En Busca de Un Idolo (CMLL – 05/30 – Arena Mexico) * See above. Liked the first lightning match between these two a bit better, but you can’t go wrong with either one. * o vs. Hechicero – En Busca de Un Idolo Finals (CMLL – 06/20 – Arena Mexico) * I didn’t think this was as good as it could have been, but then again its ceiling was rather high. For someone wrestling his first big, long singles match at age 21, Cavernario looked really, really good. He was very smooth in a way that defies his age. * o w/ Hechicero vs. Delta & Guerrero Maya, Jr. – Arena Coliseo Tag Team Championship (CMLL – 12/16 – Arena Mexico) * Liked this a ton and would consider it borderline great. Both Canverario and Hechicero outclassed Maya and, to an extent, Delta as well. Great double teams from the rudos. The ending was a bit flat but Canverario and Hechicero could be an awesome long-term team. * · The Case For o Deep match resume. There were other En Busca lightning matches with Cavernario that are probably worth watching which shows just how many good or better matches he had. o Nice variety – a good tag match, a very good trios match, a bunch of fun short matches, and a few featured singles matches. o 21 years old or not, Canverario looked extremely polished all the way around the entire year. I am sure he had a shaky or blown spot or two sometime but I can’t recall any. He is a both a strong basic bumper and big bumper when needed. His opening mat work is always solid, he was a great base at times (vs. Titan), and had impressive flying offense of his own (the splash to the floor). o Did a great job blending his offbeat character in with a more serious wrestling style. I never felt in any of this 2014 matches that the gimmick was overshadowing everything else nor did I feel that the gimmick was being downplayed. That’s a hard line to toe, particularly when working a caveman gimmick. · The Case Against o Aside from the Cometa match (and its not like Cometa is a slouch), Cavernario certainly benefited from often being in the ring with high quality opponents. o A lot of his work comes in lightning matches. Opinions on sub-10 minute matches might vary. · Daniel Bryan o Must See Matches § N/A o Great Matches § vs. Bray Wyatt (WWE – 01/26 – Pittsburgh) § vs. Triple H (WWE – 04/06 – New Orleans) o Also Check Out § w/ John Cena & Sheamus vs. Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns (WWE – 01/28 – Cleveland) § vs. Randy Orton (WWE – 02/03 – Omaha) § vs. Cesaro vs. Christian vs. Randy Orton vs. Sheamus vs. John Cena – Elimination Chamber (WWE – 02/23 – Minneapolis) § vs. Bautista vs. Randy Orton – WWE Heavyweight Championship (WWE – 04/06 – New Orleans) o The Case For § Two borderline/just-below MOTYC-level matches. In addition, they came against a wrestler who was/is still trying to find himself in the ring (Wyatt) and a semi-retired Triple H. § Despite missing all but five months of the year due to injury, he still has enough quality matches to stack up against the other candidates. § Did more with less than perhaps any other candidate. Kept himself over despite an aborted Wyatt angle to start the year. Got quality matches out of Wyatt and Orton. Made a match versus Kane that was centered on backstage brawling and forklift driving work to a certain degree with is rather miraculous. o The Case Against § All of that missed time is difficult to ignore. § The Triple H and Bray Wyatt matches are probably lower level MOTYC’s. Lacks a real blow away singles match. o Other Award Consideration § Best Technical Wrestler § Most Charismatic § Best on Interviews

You probably got your answer by now (just saw your post) but it is an indie promotion that runs at/appears to be owned by some sort of Amusement Park in Japan. The amusement park and the promotion share a name. From what I gather, it is a monthly attraction at the Park. The shows are put up on the NicoNico wrestling channel. I watched parts of a couple of shows a while ago and agreed, it was kind of fun to watch. The wrestling wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It wasn't good but it was sort of entertaining.

Shinsuke Nakamura · Must See Matches o vs. Kazuchika Okada – G1 Climax Final (NJPW – 08/10 – Seibu Dome) · Great Matches § vs. Bad Luke Fale – New Japan Cup Finals (NJPW – 03/23 – Amagasaki Memorial Park Gymnasium) § vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi – IWGP Intercontinental Championship (NJPW – 04/06 – Sumo Hall) § vs. Katsuyori Shibata – G1 Climax (NJPW – 07/21 – Hokkaido Sports Center) · Also Check Out § vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (NJPW – 01/04, 02/09, 08/03) – I wouldn’t consider any of thse to be great matches but they are all good. There is something to be said for consistency. If nothing else, these matches show that Nakamura (and Tanahashi) can knock out good/fine NJPW main-event style matches in their sleep. § w/ Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto, Tetsuya Naito & Captain New Japan (NJPW – 01/05 – Korakuen Hall) § vs. Rush (NJPW – 01/18 – Korakuen Hall) § w/ Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto & Tetsuya Naito (NJPW – 02/02 – Korakuen Hall) § vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. (NJPW – 07/23 – Aomori) – loved the mat work and the submission stuff. Nakamura breaking out of the NJPW main event style mold a bit and having a fun mid-card match. § vs. Tomohiro Ishii – G1 Climax (NJPW – 08/01 – Korakuen Hall) – wasn’t as high on this as others but it was well thought of enough and worth checking ouy. o The Case For § A very deep match resume with good or better matches on all big shows (impossible Graces assignments notwithstanding) and Korakuen cards. § A MOTYC-level performance versus Okada in the G1 finals. § Had a strong series against a capable but limited wrestler like Bad Luke Fale. Had a watchable match against Kevin Steen in ROH (which I would personally consider a rather large accomplishment). § Excelled in tag matches, trios, and singles matches against a relatively wide variety of opponents. o The Case Against § Spent much of the spring & pre-G1 summer facing the Graces and Fale. While the Fale matches were all good or at least better than expected, they certainly weren’t blow away memorable matches with the exception of the New Japan Cup finals. Grace matches weren’t very good. § Dome main event versus Tanahashi was disappointing given its place on a big card. § His matches can tend to be feel redundant in terms of pacing and offense. o Other Award Consideration § Pro Wrestler of the Year (his drawing record in 2014 was a big plus) § Best Box Office Draw § Most Charismatic

Virus o Must See Matches o vs. Titan – Mexican National Middleweight Championship (CMLL – 01/28 – Arena Mexico) o Great Matches o w/ Hechicero & Cachorro vs. Negro Casas, Dragon Lee & Cavernario (CMLL – 05/23 – Arena Mexico) o vs. Dragon Lee (CMLL – 12/09 – Arena Mexico) o Also Check Out o w/ Vangelis & Terrible vs. Rush, Titan & La Mascara (CMLL – 01/21 – Arena Mexico) o vs. Fuego – CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship (CMLL – 06/15 – Arena Mexico) – this was fine but a notch below the Titan & Dragon Lee matches. Fuego is more of a warm body compared to the other two. o vs. Dragon Lee – Lightning Match (CMLL – 09/02 – Arena Mexico) o vs. Cachorro – Lightning Match (CMLL – 10/21 – Arena Mexico) – two good lightning matches. o vs. Negro Navarro (11/15 – Arena Olimpico Laguana) – thought this was a ton of fun. They work the usual Negro Navarro type match early on with mat work, reversals, and stand-offs. Virus eventually breaks the rhythm with a closed first and gets hounded on by the crowd for this. I think Virus is more fun when he is in there with a flyer rather than someone like Navarro. This felt a bit by the numbers but was technically really well wrestled and easy to get through. o The Case For o Several high-end matches including two of the better lucha singles matches of 2014 (vs. Titan & vs. Dragon Lee). o Even with the plethora of strong En Busca lightning matches, Virus might have had just as strong of a lightning match year” as anyone based off the relative strengths of the Dragon Lee and Cachorro matches. o Even when Virus is a bit player in trios matches, he often still comes across as the best/most polished wrestler in the match. o The Case Against o Stigma title match was disappointing, although some of that was certainly the fault of Stigma o Somewhat top heavy resume. Four singles title matches in one year plus some lightning matches is more than Virus might often get but it is still less featured matches than gus in other promotions might get in one year. o Other Award Consideration § Best Technical Wrestler § Most Underrated ***************************************** Titan o Must See Matches o vs. Titan – Mexican National Middleweight Championship (CMLL – 01/28 – Arena Mexico) o vs. Cavernario – Mexican National Middleweight Championship (CMLL – 07/28 – Arena Mexico) – Titan’s performance in this was great. His flying was spectacular. For me personally, there is a fine line between cool innovation and “why didn’t they just do X instead?”. Titan stayed on the good side of that line. Without spoiling anything, he pulls out some truly jaw dropping spots that feel progressive without feeling unnecessary (if that makes sense). Cavernario served as a fine base and brought along some of his usual insanity as well. This is a true MOTYC for me. o Great Matches o vs. Polvora – Mexican National Middleweight Championship (CMLL – 11/16 – Arena Mexico) – See above (re: vs. Cavernario) with the caveat that Polvora is nowhere near as good as Canvernario but Titan might have been better here than he was in the Cavernario match. With the downgrade in opponent, Titan is forced to carry more of the load which he does by doubling or tripling the amount of flying he does. The good things is that Titan’s high flying offense is really, really great so this works. o o Also Check Out o vs. Negro Casas – Leyenda de Plata Final (CMLL – 01/03 – Arena Mexico) o w/ Rush & La Mascara vs. Virus, Vangelis & Terrible (CMLL – 01/21 – Arena Mexico) o The Case For o One of the better one-two punches of any of the contenders with the Virus & Cavernario title matches. Both are distinctly different and very good. o Even if it is argued that he was matched up against high quality opponents in the two MOTYC-level matches, his title match versus Polvora was very good largely thanks to Titan. o Solid, although largely unmemorable year in trios matches o The Case Against o His resume is a bit top heavy. Once you get by the top three matches, his match resume thins out quickly. He had a very top-heavy year. Stuck in non-featured trios most of the year and was oddly downplayed during Fantasticamania. o There is an argument to be made that he was the lesser wrestler In both the Virus and Cavenario matches. o Other Award Consideration: o Best High Flyer o Most Underrated (why he is not a regular in NJPW or at least on the Fantasticamania tour is puzzling.)

At the beginning of the year, I decided to watch as much 2014 wrestling as I could and blog about it (here) using a match review format. As you can see, I stopped about mid-way through the year. I fell behind during the summer and eventually threw in the towel in terms of doing reviews. I did keep watching current wrestling at a similar pace, however. As a means of doing something tangible with all that wrestling watching, I wanted to do something at the end of the year to wrap it all up. Hopefully this thread will can serve as a helpful resource in terms of being a look at 2014 in semi-real time. I am going to do this in a couple of parts. First, I want to list out ten wrestlers that I personally feel have a strong case for “Most Outstanding Wrestler” (though on a calendar year rather than the WON Dec. – Nov. year). I am not a big fan of listing things out without providing an explanation, so for each wrestler I am going to recommend some matches that I think support their case (divided into three tiers) along with the argument for and against the wrestler being the best of 2014. I have included some links to reviews by different people (where applicable). These are reviews I thought did a strong job of capturing the positives of those matches. The ten (well, nine for now) wrestlers I am going to cover are: Rush, A.J. Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Virus, Titan, Ricochet, Negro Casas, Tomohiro Ishii and Cavernario. Still deciding on a 10th between a few guys (Hechicero, Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Sami Zayn, Zack Sabre, ect.) I understand that the ten wrestlers I am listing are in no way a consensus top 10 (I am not sure the group even represents my top ten) but I think it provides a strong sample of wrestlers who had very good 2014’s. I also think by looking at these ten, you get a good start on potential top matches/MOTYC's from 2014. There are some wrestlers (Timothy Thatcher, Hechicero, Sami Zayn, Seth Rollins to name a few) who I can certainly see a case for, but someone other than me are probably better off arguing in support of those guys. Please feel free to add anyone you feel deserves to be hyped. “Must See” are matches I consider to be solid MOTYC’s or at least enough others did to warrant inclusion in this top tier. “Great” matches are you lower-level MOTYC’s/borderline candidates/just below MOTY-level matches. “Also Check Out” are all good matches of varying quality that I think give a good glimpse into the wrestler's year. “The Case For” is my take on why the wrestler is a strong candidate for best/most outstanding wrestler of the year. “The Case Against” includes arguments I could see being made against that particular wrestler. “Other Awards” are WON award categories (although again on a calendar year basis) that I think the wrestler could be considered for. For the second part, I plan on listing (in some format) other matches from 2014 that I think are worthy watching for one reason or another that don’t involve any of those ten wrestlers. Since the 2014 sub-forum has seemed to disappear, I thought this might act as a good starting point for 2014 year-end discussion. **************************** Rush o Must See o vs. Negro Casas – Hair vs. Hair (CMLL – 08/01 – Arena Mexico) o Great o vs. Shocker – Hair vs. Hair (CMLL – 03/21 – Arena Mexico) o w/ La Sombra vs. Negro Casas & Shocker – CMLL Tag Team Championship (CMLL – 07/26 – Arena Mexico) – A rare top notch CMLL tag team match. There is a sense of urgency in the match in the way all four guys wrestle and make saves. The match served the dual purpose of building to Rush/Casas and being a great standalone bout as well. o Also Check Out: o vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (NJPW – 01/18 – Korakuen Hall) – A glimpse of Rush in a slightly different context. o w/ Titan & La Mascara vs. Virus, Vangelis & Terrible (CMLL – 01/21 – Arena Mexico) – thought this was amongst the better CMLL trios matches of the year. Nothing mind-blowing but just a solid all-around match. o vs. Vangelis (CMLL – 02/17 – Arena Puebla) – a bit of a throw away match but serves as an example of Rush being able to work a solid, normal singles TV match against an average-ish wrestler. o vs. Ultimo Guerrero (CMLL – 10/31 – Arena Mexico) – they totally break from the usual Ultimo Guerrero formula here. This is right with the Shocker hair match from March in terms of Rush getting a more than “by the numbers” match out of a veteran who rarely strays from his usual formula. o The Case For o Quality – three top level matches o Quantity – until his injury, Rush was a regular presence on CMLL TV and as such, had plenty of average or above matches to show for it. I’d put his volume of good matches against anyone from the year. o Variety – Rush performed well in high-intensity matches that were part of big feuds (everything versus Casas; the Shocker hair match), was involved in an excellent tag match, was a standout more often than not in his trios matches, and had two of CMLL’s better non-title, non-apuesta, non-lightning singles matches (versus Vangelis & UG). He was good or better in a lot of different contexts. o Worked effectively as both a traditional tecnico and in the difficult in-between role that he, La Sombra, and La Mascara were booked into for the latter part of 2014. The second role (a technico that wrestles like a rudo) was particularly difficult to pull off and I thought he did a solid job in making it work and feel somewhat natrual. o The Case Against o The Casas hair match has been a bit divisive. Some see it as the perfect end to the feud while others see it as a bit too disjointed and one-sided to be a true MOTY-level match. o Missed the last couple of months of 2014 with an injury. o Other Awards o Feud of the Year (vs. Negro Casas) o Most Charismatic o Best Gimmick (Los Ingobernables) ********************************* A.J. Styles o Must See Matches o vs. Minoru Suzuki – G1 Climax (NJPW – 08/01 – Korakuen Hall) o Great Matches o vs. Kazuchika Okada – G1 Climax (NJPW – 07/21 - Hokkaido Sports Center) o vs. Tetsuya Naito – G1 Climax (NJPW – 07/26 – Akita Prefectural Gymnasium) o Also Check Out o vs. Cedric Alexander (PWX – 01/19 – Winston Salem, NC) o vs. Chris Hero (ROH – 03/22 – Montgomery County (Dayton) Fairgrounds) o vs. Kyle O’Reilly (ROH – 08/22 – Milwaukee) – I find O’Reilly to be pretty solid with a tendency to do much or get lost in a longer match. I thought they held it together a bit better here and came away with a strong TV match, in large part due to Styles. o vs. Adam Cole (ROH – 09/06 – Toronto) – probably have this behind the Hero match as Styles best non-NJPW match of the year. o vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (NJPW – 10/13 – Sumo Hall) – thought this was better than the two Okada title matches from earlier in the year. o The Case For o Styles wrestled a large variety of opponents in 2014 and usually squeezed out good or at least better-than-expected results. Although not all of them are listed here, I watched nearly all of his US indie matches from the first 8 months of the year. Regardless of opponent (and some were rather low quality), he almost always had at least a watchable match. When he wrestled more high quality opponents on the indies or in New Japan, he was able to work up to that level. o In addition to carrying indie guys, also got a surprisingly strong match out of Lance Archer during the G1. On a similar note, the Elgin ROH matches were much better to your run-of-the-mill Elgin matches (even if they still weren't anything I'd consider worthwhile). o A legit MOTYC versus Suzuki. o As strong of a singles match resume as any contender o The Case Against o None of the indie/ROH matches were “great,” with the possible exception of the Hero ROH Match. o The first two Okada matches were not great by any means and it did seem to take him a few matches to get comfortable with his role in New Japan (although that shouldn’t be unexpected). o Other Award Consideration o Wrestler of the Year o Best Box Office Draw (as an ROH/indies draw)

Virus © vs. Dragon Lee for the CMLL World Super Lightweight Championship (12/09 – CMLL) Virus title matches are one of the few things in 2014 wrestling that I go out my way to see as soon as possible, which meant watching this two Saturdays ago C3’s internet feed. The match didn’t disappoint. I have this match with Dragon Lee below the Titan match from January but comfortably above both the Fuego June title match (which I liked) and the Stigma match from July (which I didn’t think was very good overall) in terms of 2014 Virus title matches. Also thought this was a better match than the lightning match these two had back in September. In a lot of ways, this was fashioned similarly to the Titan match. The first fall was Virus leading Dragon Lee through the mat work portion. Virus mat work is always good – always something different and always incredibly smooth. Dragon Lee appeared a bit tentative at points but was still effective in taking advantage of the openings Virus left him. Dragon Lee took the first fall despite Virus being in control a decent portion of the fall. Virus takes right over again to start the 2nd fall. One of the great things about Virus title matches is the way he paces them. He does the traditional mat work in the first fall and into the 2nd fall. At the same time, he brings the match up at points in the first fall escalating in the finish. He then usually goes back to mat or limb work to the start the second fall but it is more focused and intense. By the end of the 2nd fall, he has dialed this match up a level where they are ready for a dramatic third fall with near falls. The third fall here was great and another example of Virus’ smart pacing of title matches. While many CMLL title matches these days have long, near-fall heavy third falls (after two short falls), the third fall in this match is less wild. It also builds off the first two falls better than other CMLL title matches tend to. There are cool reversals and enough near falls during the third fall, but the match never falls into the big move-near fall-big move-near fall formula of other modern CMLL matches. They really struck out a nice balance. There are some really cool, smooth counters and believable near falls here. The reason I have this below the Titan match is that I thought Titan brought more to this match than Dragon Lee did to his. As far as individual Virus performances go, they are both about the same. Really good match nonetheless and a legit MOTYC.

The December TLC show is always going to be a bit of a placeholder show given where it lands on the calendar. It is also has the handicap of being a themed show. Given both of those things, I thought the show was completely fine and I enjoyed the card as a whole a lot more than I did Survivor Series. I am surprised at how negative some the feedback for the show has been in other places because I personally thought ot was better or at least on par with many of this year's PPVs. I do agree that the promotion as a whole is really stale. The roster itself is incredibly stale.

Yea, I agree. The way the first two Cena/Lesnar matches played out, a third and final match to close it out feels right. The first two matches were both good and the third will almost definitely have good heat, so I don't really see what the issue is. They will have teased the match for several months by the time it happens at the Royal Rumble. It is a rare modern WWE match that feels like the culmination of a long and important issue.

Chikara hasn't interested me much this year but I agree that they have a strong looking card for the finale. Lots of variety and high-stake matches that have been building all year. On paper at least, the card feels like a fun territorial super card with gimmick/high-stakes matches up and down the card. Also like you, I am a big fan of the Devastation Corporation. While they still have a ways to go, they have improved leaps and bounds over the past year or so. They've developed into a nice big man tag team, which is a rarity on the indies. According the Observer, the first one in June did well and exceeded expectations. Going in, ROH considered 10,000 buys to be a definite success and would make for a profitable show. They reportedly surpassed those numbers. Dave also said that they got a good deal from the PPV companies which makes sense because they are looking for content with WWE killing their PPV business. They are only running a few per year and based off of the first show, there might be enough hardcore wrestling fans out there to make them profitable if they keep expenses down. Sinclair Broadcasting runs ROH on a relatively small budget. It is free programming for them and in some markets ROH TV apparently does quite well at least relative to the alternatives. It is basically free programming for their TV stations. The promotion had a spike in attendance at the start of 2014, thanks in some part to A.J. Styles but even non-Styles shows generally showed a bit of an uptick. They did really well on the New Japan shows in May. With few exceptions, they seem to be doing 400+ at most shows which given the budget they run on is probably "good enough" to keep them going. I doubt that the promotion as a whole is making money, but given the free programming benefit they provide for Sinclair, that balances things out. The TV show is actually okay (relatively speaking) in an NXT sort of way where it is a short, easy to watch, tight one hour wrestling program. The wrestling quality isn't very good in general, the talent feels stale, and the booking is so-so but the TV show is non-offensive. In 2014, that's good enough to classify as a good weekly TV wrestling show.

I disagree that he never pressed him in any meaningful way. Austin simply asking many of the questions he asked constitutes "pressing him in a meaningful way". How is point blank asking why Cesaro isn't being pushed not a meaningful question? From my viewpoint, I thought Vince answered that question completely truthfully in the sense that his response (not charismatic enough, lacking a crowd connection) was how Vince views the truth. Even then, Austin still got in a line implying that he thought the booking was partially to blame for Cesaro. I thought the way Austin approached the Punk stuff was very smart. By asking Vince if he wanted to talk about it or not, he put the ball in Vince's court. You can tell Vince went into the interview preparing to make one statement about Punk (the "apology" followed by stating it was a lack of communication) but by approaching it in the way he did and then using his own situation (which Vince would obviously be more comfortable talking about), Austin was able to get more out of Vince about Punk than I think Vince initially wanted to give. Even Austin's stare at Vince after Vince said Savage would go into the HOF without committing to an actual time frame was an example of Austin pushing Vince to commit to his statement more (by repeating it a second and third time). I have found Austin to be a talented interviewer on his podcast and this interview was no exception. Remember that this is the same Vince who has gotten into angry confrontations with interviewers in the past when he has been asked questions he doesn't like. He's not exactly the easiest guy in the world to interview. Vince might have given his version of the truth more often than not during the interview, but it was still a version of the truth. Austin didn't get many corporate speak answers out of him. It was far more candid of an interview than I expected and a lot of that credit belongs to Austin for the way he conducted the interview.

Mentioned this on Twitter, but it looks like the current content is the following: * Full Recent major shows * Archives of the BS Asahi TV show going back to April, 2012 * 67 volumes of their historical match/best of compilations that come with that Burn! magazine they sel (this is where the older matches that are up there are coming from) * All the 1/4 Dome shows going back to 1992.

I browsed through a little this morning and it looks cool. Chrome automatically translates any site that is in a foreign language so that really is not a hindrance. They give you a list of all the tags (matches are tagged by wrestler, year, commentator, venue, and title match. If you click on that and are using Chrome, all the tags are translated so again, there isn't much of an issue from a language standpoint. If you want to use the search bar, you can just type the wrestler's name (or whatever keyword you are using) into google translate, copy/paste the Japanese translation, and search that way but the tags are probably the easiest. Or just stream from your computer to TV with an Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, Roku, Smart TV, ect. I agree with those that would rather watch wrestling on their TV but there is no reason you can't watch everything on TV using one of those devices. It is totally worth it even if you only use it for wrestling. Nothing quite like being able to watch a live CMLL show in perfect HD on a big screen TV. I am not the best person to answer this, but I don't think there is much that hasn't shown up before. Most of what is up there now was already on TV Asahi's On-Demand service. If they get to the rarer stuff, it will be later. The initial hook is the high video quality and getting a handful (give or take) of new live shows every month. I was buying a lot of the current NJPW iPPV's anyway, so at $8.50 a month it is more than worth it for that.

Josh Barnett is wrestling( or perhaps just appearing given his UFC Contract) at the IGF Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye New Year's Eve show. Seems like it would make sense for NJPW to get him to extend his stay in Japan for a few more days to do commentary on the Tokyo Dome show with Ross. Not that they necessarily care, but it would also allow for some synergy between the US PPV and ASX TV show to have Barnett on color for both. Ross gets his MMA color commentator but one that has more familiarity with both New Japan and pro wrestling. I think that could be a decent broadcast team.

Bill Goldberg Microscope thread Match Reviews: vs. DDP (Halloween Havoc '98) vs. Fit Finlay (Thunder, February '98) vs. Hogan (Nitro, July 6, 1998)

Just watched this for the first time and thought it was awesome. The only major drawback to the match for me was the previously mentioned lack of heat. Otherwise, I thought it was a tremendously entertaining match. The match was laid out uniquely, both in terms of the one sided nature of it and the run time (12 1/2 minutes). So many matches feel the same. 30 seconds into this one it felt different and special. They were able to carry that feeling throughout the rest of the match thanks in large part to it being such a one-sided beating. I guess the best contemporary comparison would be the Cena/Lesnar 2014 SummerSlam match. That match worked and was ultimately so memorable because it was one-sided. Not every match can be that way but when it is done with the correct guys and executed well, it really works. Hashimoto was absolutely brutal. The two double stomps were nuts and looked great. All of the strikes looked incredibly painful. Tanaka is at his best taking a beating. He reacted like he was being tortured which he basically was. My favorite part might have been the late attempt at a roaring elbow and the immediate follow up to it. Hashimoto standing up and just shrugging off Tanaka's desperation submission attempt was perfect. Loved how they stayed committed to the one-sided ass kicking story of the match all the way through to the end. If Tanaka had made a sustained comeback at any point, the match would have suffered. They went just the right amount of time as well. Maybe it just stands out to me now in comparison to the rather homogeneous modern day Japanese heavyweight matches but I thought it was a MOTYC for sure.

This is a great explanation, thanks. Doesn't make me like the matches any more but at least I understand the philosophy behind it a little better. It seems to me that CMLL affords its guys less opportunities to put on good matches than any other major promotion, which is frustrating. Yea, I think that might be true, at least relative to the amount of TV they have.