stomperspc

Kamaitachi has been far more impressive in CMLL than Namajague was so it is probably not a perfect comparison. I do think New Japan had big plans for Desperado. In his first 3+ months back in Japan, he got to debut on the Tokyo Dome, received an immediate junior title match, starting teasing a mask match with Liger, and starting teaming with Ibushi. He didn’t do much with the opportunities. Even then they turned him heel, put him with Suzuki-gun, and booked him in junior title matches (tag then singles) in September and October. I think it was less than New Japan didn’t push him and more that he didn’t make much of the opportunity in the ring. Based on their respective CMLL work, I have more confidence in Kamaitachi working out once he returns to Japan. The big thing is I think they should keep him unmasked. New Japan has a poor recent track record of pushing masked wrestlers. They very quickly have gotten lost in the shuffle. I think they run the risk of Kamaitachi being viewed as another middle of the pack masked junior if he comes in masked unless they do something extraordinary with him (like winning Liger’s mask). As for the CMLL style stuff, the dial has been moving in this direction for years now. Far more title matches are worked in a sprint/big spot style than are not. I really don’t agree that stuff like the style of Kamaitaichi/Dragon Lee is “off to the side”. The traditional lucha title match style is the exception now more than the rule. The difference is that Kamaitaichi and Dragon Lee are better at working a fast paced, high octane style than many of their peers. Their spots are as good as anyone’s, they build match to match and within the match, they sell (particularly in this latest one), ect. All else being equal, I prefer the traditional lucha title match style more. I also think there is more than one way to go about things and that guys should work to their strengths. I would much rather see Lee and Kamaitachi wrestle an all-out match that plays to their strengths instead of doing some obligatory and mediocre mat work because they feel they have to. Same goes for their mask match. I’d rather not see them stumble through an okay brawl because they think that is how apuesta matches should go if the alternative is a good high impact match.

Definitely the best match of their series. There was basically no sloppy spots and there was no goofy stuff (like pop ups and one counts) that some of the prior matches had. It is well worth watching all of their matches in order because they do a great job in building spots match from match. Below MOTYC for me but a ton of fun.

I enjoyed the tag title match. The story and general layout were really good, plus I liked the way they built off the captain's fall match from a couple weeks prior. Specifically, Go's general revenge approach to the match and Akiyama/Omori using the strategy of trying to put one opponent away on the outside since that worked well with getting rid of Miyahara in the six-man. The way Akiyama progressively sold Go's chops more and more leading to the finish was really well done. Akiyama overall had a really strong match. Offensively, everyone was fine (Go) or good (the other three). I had two minor complaints which has this below MOTY-level for me on first view. The first is that Go is just not all that compelling. He wrestles with so little emotion and his offense is borderline bad. This match was sort of focused around him and he did very little to pull me in (although he did really lay the chops in hard). The second issue I had was too many pin attempts down the stretch. It was not an issue of kicking out of too many big moves or killing finishers. It was more that they did what seemed like a dozen plus pin attempts in the last few minutes to the point of it being too much. They would hit some mid-level or higher level moves for pin attempts, then another mid-level move (or lower) and I couldn't buy those follow up moves as near falls. There was diminishing returns to the pin attempts by a certain point. Still a good match though.

Totally agree. That match was a lot of fun and different from the Tanaka/Komatsu brand of young lions matches. You are exactly right that like his dad, Finlay doesn't have a lot of non-hold, non-striking offense but seems aware of that and does a lot of little, neat things to fill the time in between. There were some really cool reversals and mat wrestling spots in that match. The ending with Finlay stopping on White's head while he had him wrapped up in the submission hold was great. It felt like something right out of his father's playbook.

The de facto August Match Guide went up last night. This is a special edition focusing on the 2015 G-1 Climax. As a change of pace, the guide looks at each wrestler's tournament on a match by match basis. So instead of 90 match reviews, there are 180 accounts - one for each wrestler in each match of round robin plus a pre-tournament "scouting report". I wrote all of the reviews in real time so there are some foreword looking statements that came true and a whole lot more that didn't. I know people are probably burnt out on the G-1 by now but I think the format provides a new interesting perspective. Plus, Tim way outdid himself this go around in terms of graphics and layout so this is easily the best looking issue we have done so far and worth checking out for that reason alone. You can download in the usual two formats here: http://www.crossarmbreaker.com/2015-match-guides/2015-g-1-climax-special-edition-match-guide/. (Side Note: You might notice that there is not a review of the finals. I have one but it accidentally did not find its way into the issue, so look for it at the end of the year).

This is why it's a silly argument. The wrestlers on the main roster have chances to work on their televised matches as well. They have the house show circuit, they have time before events, time in the back, etc. Wrestling has always been that way, and suddenly holding it against the people in NXT that they practice their matches beforehand strikes me as disingenuous and willfully ignoring wrestling history that is full of great matches that were practiced beforehand. Nikki Bella wrestled Paige at Money in the Bank. During the two weeks in between Elimination Chamber (where she wrestled Paige and Naomi in a triple threat match) and Money in the Bank, she wrestled seven times. One was a 5-minute RAW match with Paige the day after Elimination Chamber and another was a 2 minute RAW match with Summer Rae. The five house shows she worked were three rematches of the triple threat EC match and two tags against Naomi and Tamina. The tags were the weekend of the PPV. So Nikki Bella and Paige wrestled an 11 minute match on PPV after having been in the ring alone once in the prior two weeks and never having a one-on-one match on house shows in the lead up. If you go back further, you find the same thing. Before the 3-way EC match, Nikki worked Tamina and Naomi in singles matches on house shows (not Paige). I don't think it is fair to assume that PPV opponents are working one another every night leading into the PPV match. I didn't find anything misleading about Dave's statement. Bayley and Sasha Banks got to practice their match for two weeks in a controlled environment. The main roster women do not get that advantage and as noted above, they sometimes don't even get the chance to work out their PPV matches on house shows. Maybe all of the NXT women will adapt just fine but until they do, you cannot really compare the two. I think that was the only point Meltzer was making and it seems reasonable to me. I don't care if people practice or don't (as long as, like Loss said, their matches don't look rehearsed) but it is fair to point out that their matches might not be as good as without that advantage.

Not every match needs a rigid heel/face dynamic but every match needs a hook or a selling point. Misawa vs. Kobashi was for a title that was viewed by their audience as being very important. The match also had a back story of Kobashi coming in as the reigning champion but still needing to prove himself against Misawa. UG vs. Atlantis had two veteran masked wrestlers fighting to keep their masks. There were obvious and compelling reasons to invest in those matches so they didn’t need a heel/face structure to be successful. Those matches had genuine stakes that people bought into. The Rollins & Cena feud was built around the idea that Rollins was an unfitting champion and Cena was out to remove him from that position. The WWE title and US title are not over in any meaningful way. What was really at stake was the babyface (Cena) trying to give the heel (Rollins) his comeuppance. While I don’t think Rollins worked totally like a face, he certainly didn’t work like a heel even though the build to the match centered on him being an unlikeable heel. If the WWE title meant something and the story of the feud was a title chase (rather than a good guy-bad guy story) I wouldn’t have had any issues with how Rollins wrestled. It was a match where the build centered on a heel/face story and dynamic. The only other thing at stake was whatever little value the WWE title has. When a match is built up like that, the heel sort of needs to work like a heel to give the match meaning.

Surprisingly good match. Undertaker kicking out of the F-5 the last two times to very little reaction was interesting. The crowd was not buying such a simple ending. Terrible, terrible finish. There were dozens of better ways to set up a third match. If they were going to show that Taker was beat, why not actually beat him leading to a third match at WM where Taker puts his career on the line for one last chance at Brock?

A couple of additional thoughts I had today after re-watching Banks/Bayley and reading some feedback on the show: * Triple H and Stephanie acting as NXT ambassadors on these NXT specials really annoys me. It is not even so much a "stick to one character" thing as it is an issue of there simply being no reason for those segments to exist beyond providing Triple H and Stephanie an opportunity to stroke their own egos. The segments add nothing. I am hard pressed to think of a purpose for their NXT segments other than as a means to pat themselves on the back. They are vanity segments and nothing more. * Granted I've only read the reaction here and on Twitter on Bayley/Banks but 90%+ said it was a "very good" match. You rarely get that sort of consensus opinion. The fact that there are those (I am in this group) who don't quite view it as a MOTYC isn't anything out of the norm. Its fascinating how worked up people are getting over some criticism of the match (not necessarily on this board) when it has received about as much universal praise as a match these days can. * It is less that I saw major issues with the match rather than I don't see the superlative moments that take it from "very good" to easy MOTYC/near 5-star match. It was a super solid match with a good story, a few really cool moments, and some execution issues. Taking a step back, I felt the same about 5-10 other matches this year. Looking back historically, I am not sure I liked it better then matches like (for example) Goldberg/DDP or Rey/Angle from Summer Slam in terms of very good matches that I wouldn't consider MOTYC's or classic matches. Still a great match, there just wasn't anything there that took it from a very good/great match to a surefire MOTYC/MOTY for me. * I didn't care for the post-match hug. Sasha Banks yelled at Bayley throughout the match about her not being any good, not being worthy of the title, ect. and then they hug like nothing is wrong? People have talked about how this match was so great in part because of everything that surrounded it. To me, the post-match was a huge negative in that regard. The build up was about one thing, the match was about that same thing, and the post-match was about something entirely different. Maybe its a face turn for Sasha and that would help a little. Even then, Sasha would come off as two-faced to me. She taunts and humiliates Bayley but then makes nice as soon as she is beat? That's not a babyface to me. Like Will said, I find that stupid even when it happens in shoots. If you are going to talk shit in the build up and during the fight/match, don't do an about face once you lose.

Sasha Banks vs. Bailey was very good. I don't know, it still didn't blow me away to MOTY level or anything. Very good overall though and I liked it more than Banks/Lynch.

Virus vs. Dr. Cerebro and Caifan/Avisman vs. Hechicero/UG are both MOTYC's. Watched the top four matches (those two plus Maya vs. Maya and Blue Panther vs. Trauma II) and those four alone make it one of the best cards of the year anywhere.

I think the ROH card blows away the NXT card in terms of variety and potential quality matches. When it comes to NXT in general, for me it is always a question of “would I have any interest in this match/card if it wasn’t happening in WWE?” More often than not the answer is “no”. That’s the case for most of the matches on this card. If a year and a half ago – before both signed with WWE – some US or European indie ran Steen/Devitt in a ladder match I think I would have been curious as to how that might looked but likely would not have tracked it down. My interest level in that match now is a little higher because I did like their Sumo Hall match. Nothing else on the card interests me much at all. I love Liger but I’ve seen him work his late career touring singles much quite a bit in person and on tape the past few years. I am not sure there is anything he is going to do with Tyler Breeze that he didn’t do with Adam Cole, Tommy End, Jay Lethal, Dalton Castle, KUSHIDA, Robbie Dynamite, ect. over the past two years in singles matches. To be fair, I would probably feel differently if I hadn’t already seen him live a handful of times. I love Joe but 2015 Joe needs a better opponent than Corbin to draw me in. The tag match does nothing for me and the NXT women haven’t hooked me the way they have others. The fact that they are taping television afterwards also wouldn’t appeal to me because that’s a long show. The ROH card has the Time Splitters/Briscoes first time match that has a good deal of potential, a fun high energy eight man, a fun looking heavyweight tag, and one of 2015’s best wrestlers wrestling the IWGP heavyweight champion (among other matches). Goto/Elgin does nothing for me (didn’t care for their G1 match) but the other matches are all interesting to me in one way or another. I am not a huge modern ROH fan and I can envision other scenarios where I would choose an NXT card over an ROH one, but with these cards the choice is easy. Of course, they are both second place to the Rey/Red match happening for Red’s promotion on Friday. That is the one NY area match this weekend that did cause me to give some thought about the making the trip up from Baltimore. I mostly agree with the second, but not with the first. On ROH’s major shows the vast majority of matches have been built to on TV for weeks or sometimes months. House shows (VOD shows) and TV matches might be a little looser but the same could be NXT. In watching TV from both promotions, I actually think they operate very similar in how they build to matches. This particular ROH card does contain a lot of “random” matches, certainly in comparison to the NXT show, but then again we are comparing a big house show wedged in between PPV’s to a major quarterly event that is airing live.

Nakamura/Tanahashi had an interesting lay out and I think it was a very good lay out as well. Hard to tell for sure at 5:30 in the morning. There were the usual tenuous Tanahashi spots. Structurally I thought the match was exactly how it should be and they dealt with the long match time in a very logical, effective manner. A lot of people are going to go ***** on it I'd imagine and at the very least, I can see how they would arrive at that. So I am thinking Nakamura/Goto in October for the IC title coming off of Nakamura beating Goto during the tournament, leading to Nakamura/Styles at the Dome for the IC title?

As Meltzer pointed out, booking Gallows to upset Naito a couple of days ago is a real head scratcher. From a booking standpoint nothing was gained from it. While I appreciate that they don’t have everyone grouped within two wins of one another like in 2012 & 2013, I am not sure why they would pass up the opportunity to add a little more drama to the final day of round robin by keeping Naito in contention. If Naito beat Gallows, he would have advanced to the finals with a win over Tenzan on Friday because he holds the tie breakers versus Tanahashi and Styles. They could have ran Tanahashi-Styles in the semi-main event spot, with the winner of that match looking on at the Naito-Tenzan match. Theoretically, the fans would want Styles or Tanahashi to advance over Naito and would also be pulling for Tenzan to pick up the win big win. That would have been a potentially cool scenario and would have turned a now meaningless match into something potentially memorable. Instead, none the A block undercard matches mean anything tomorrow. Seems like a wasted opportunity.

I wonder if they would have sold as many tickets if the swapped out the NXT show for a main roster show with another “hook”? Like if instead of running an NXT show say they ran a one night tournament with Cena, Orton, Reigns, Owens, Cesaro, ect. to determine who gets to face Rollins the next day, would that sell out? If they did what Loss alluded to and ran a singular main roster event but spread it out over two days (a tournament or just a monster two-night SummerSlam card with 5-6 matches each night) could they sell 13,000 seats for the first night? My gut feeling is that they could but there is no way of knowing until they actually attempt something like that. I am less certain that a show advertised as “Saturday Night RAW” without any big matches would sell as many seats as NXT did, but again, who knows. That doesn’t mean that NXT isn’t a draw or that selling 13,000 seats for an NXT show is not impressive. I would just be curious to see how well some of those alternatives would do by comparison.

July Match Guide is out now! Click here to download. In this month’s issue: How Lethal vs. Strong stacks up against some other 60-minute draws in Ring of Honor history; Great lucha indie matches galore featuring Los Traumas, Black Terry, Satanico, Caifan, Guerrero Mixtico Jr. and more; The legacy of Kaientai; Akito continues his roll as the master of the gimmick match; and Much more from AAA, CMLL, WWE, and New Japan!

I don't think anyone was suggesting that babyfaces only get over by selling. There is more than one type of babyface and one more than one way to get over as a face. Throughout history many have gotten over via selling and ability to draw sympathy. Ricky Morton, Ricky Steamboat, Shawn Michaels, Mikey Whipwreck, Mick Foley, Tomoaki Honma, Dustin Rhodes, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, ect. all come from varied backgrounds and all got over as faces primarily because of their ability to sell and elicit sympathy.

The Shibata/Tanahashi match from this morning is worth watching. The first ten minutes were excellent if you enjoy matches with measured builds. The first half had more of a Muto/Hashimoto era New Japan feel in terms of the pace setting pro-style mat work. The second half was a bit more inconsistent but still generally good. I think its my favorite match of the tournament thus far and would put it about on the same level (give or take) as the Sakuraba/Shibata match from the beginning of July.

It was more like 10 months. They had the match at the January '93 Clash against Steamboat//Douglas for the tag titles after being put together as a team during the first tapings of the new year. The breakup angle aired on the October 30th edition of Saturday night.

From this year, all of these are worth watching. I bolded the matches I thought are very good: * Super Fly, Drago & Carta Brava Jr. vs. Fly Star, Rayo Star & Guerrero Mixtico Jr. (01/01) * Hechicero, Magnifico I & Ultimo Guerrero vs. Negro Navarro, Trauma I & Trauma II (01/31) * La Resistencia (Kilvan, Rey Lobo Jr., Shadow & Yoruba) vs. Los Tortugas Ninja (Leo, Mike, Rafy & Teelo) (03/07) * Eterno, Trauma I & Trauma II vs. La Mascara, La Sombra & Rush (03/29) * Leo vs. Mike vs. Rafy (05/02) * Titan & Volador Jr. vs. Bestia 666 & Flamita (05/30) * Felino vs. Guerrero Mixtico Jr. (07/11) * Hombre Bala Jr. vs. Leo (07/25) * Satanico vs. Blue Panther (07/25) From 2014, the Hechicero/Navarro matches (the tag and singles) from December are pretty good.

That's possible, but if the goal is to continue raising the stature of the IC title than immediately giving having him lose in a IWGP Heavyweight title match seems counterproductive. In a situation where the IC champion challenges for the IWGP heavyweight title and loses, the IC title clearly comes out looking like a secondary title. Given that they've tried to present them as evenly as possible over the past couple of years, I'd be somewhat surprised if they did that but who knows. If title matches had 30-minute time limits I think an October title match that ends in a draw would be a good idea, but I don't think anyone wants to see those two go 60. Personally, I'd hold off until 2016 on the re-match, possibly after Goto has dropped the title to someone else. I think the roster is stale but agree that they are trying. They are doing a pretty good job with what they have in trying to build guys up. In the last year alone, Styles has become a top guy, Ibushi is close, they are rebooting Naito as a heel, and Goto is getting a big push with a ton of big wins recently. That compares favorably to any promotion in the world. What I would really like to see is them do is clear out a lot of the older and/or useless guys lower down the card (Tenzan, Yujiro, Makabe, Taguchi, Captain New Japan, Yano, ect.) and replace them with higher upside wrestlers if any such wrestlers are available. They need to turn the roster over a bit to really freshen it up. In terms of elevating guys on the roster they have, I think they are trying and doing an okay job at it.

Okada and Goto had a very good match. I had convinced myself that they were going to work a 30-minute draw. That probably contributed to my enjoyment since what they actually ended up doing didn't feel as predictable to me as it might have under different circumstances. For two guys who have some issues on offense, most of their stuff was hit crisply. Loved the one near fall reaction they got off of a roll up. They went just about the perfect length. If they weren't going to do a draw, Goto winning makes the most sense as they continue to attempt to raise the status of the IC title. I am not sure what the follow up is though.

I think it is true that some wrestlers with some really bad tendencies like Kurt Angle or Davey Richards were influenced by working with or watching Chris Benoit. I am not sure Benoit should shoulder the blame for those guys being poor/overrated workers, however. Some wrestlers have a tendency to borrow the most easy-to-replicate attributes form wrestlers they like, without fully grasping the big picture. There was more to Benoit than being a big time workrate guy. He was a very good seller pre-WWF. He had an intensity about him. He worked stiff but usually not dangerously so. His sense of timing was very good in terms in terms of when to make a comeback, when to cut his opponent off, ect. He was more than one-dimensional. It just so happens that guys who he influenced or might have influenced copied the workrate and offense aspects and nothing else. That’s not necessarily Benoit’s fault.

Rey/Myzteziz should be awesome since Rey has looked good every single time he has been in a AAA ring this year and Myzteziz Is having a strong year himself. Everything after that is iffy to me. I am not a Cage fan and while his hair match with Alberto should have strong heat, I am not confident the match will be anything good. Everything after that has largely been thrown together seemingly to get certain guys a spot on the card. The 3-way trios title match has the subplot of “allies” Hell Brothers and Pentagon Jr./Texano Jr./Hijo del Fantasma facing each other plus another round of the Texano/Psycho Clown issue but that seems to be more of a pleasant coincidence than anything else. Feels like a match where the bulk will be AAA style brawling but there should hopefully be some good dives once things settle in. The Blue Demon Jr. tag is totally random. Latest WON says it was supposed to be Blue Demon Jr. vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. (which would have made sense as Blue Demon’s anniversary match) but the Wagner deal fell through. Mesias has been great in Lucha Underground this year, but has looked significantly worse in AAA. I have no idea why, but he’s been pretty consistent in that regard. Hopefully we get more of a Mil Muertes-caliber performance from him. Psycho Circus/Villanos makes sense from a booking standpoint since it is one of the most famous trios of all time against AAA’s current most notable trio. I like the Villanos and I like the Psycho Circus, but I am not sure it is a great match particularly when considering that III is in bad shape while IV & V are limited these days. The relevos looks good. I wish it was Aero Star on the tecnico side instead of Drago, but otherwise it looks good. Dinastia & Mini Psycho Clown’s recent title match was very good. Sort of bummed that so many guys I enjoy are left off of the show including Aero Star, Super Fly, Carta Brava Jr., Australian Suicide, Bengala, Mini Abismo Negro, Machine Rocker, Apache, ect. I guess that is the tradeoff of running on PPV and needing to fit everything into a 3 hour time. Still excited for the show though. I’ll be surprised if the opener and main event are not good and there are enough quality wrestlers elsewhere on the card that the show has a decent amount of upside to it.

I thought Tanahashi/Fale and Styles/Naito were good matches. Fale/Tanahashi moved up from okay to good on the strength of the ending. I liked the Bad Luck Fall teases. The way all of that played out and the actual finish was a good way to build off their match from last year's G-1. Naito continues to do a very good job of doing his gimmick justice while still doing enough in the ring to keep things interesting. I think he's already struck a better balance than La Sombra has. I want to watch it again at some point to see if the pace and a few semi-sloppy moments bring it down on replay, but on first view it was a fun main event. Naito's finisher looked much better this go around, largely because of how Styles took it. I am also really enjoying Naito's neck breaker heavy offense.