C.S.

Madusa was fired and the women's division was disbanded because money was supposedly tight.

My thoughts: - Nice opener. I've gotten tired of multi-man ladder matches, but this one had plenty of good creative spots. I had a feeling Adam Cole would win, and he did. I haven't been a fan of "Bay Bay" so far, but this is the best he's looked. - Someone earlier in the thread asked why everyone hates Ember Moon. It's because there's nothing genuine about her. Everything screams "I'm playing a character." Without the eyes, hair, and outfit, she'd be Michaela from the Viola Davis TV show How to Get Away with Murder. On the flipside, Shayna is completely believable in her role. Anyway, the match itself was decent and the right person won. - The Dusty Finals came down to the finish, and wow, I did not see that Roddy Strong heel turn coming. This and Ciampa feel like the first heel turns we've seen in years. It really has become a lost art. - Almas vs. Black started off slow but was very good by the end. I didn't realize they wrestled one year ago at TakeOver in Black's debut. It's incredible how far Almas has come since then. I was rooting for him to win, but Black will be a good champ and this will hopefully lead to Almas and Vega being called up to the main roster. - "HOLY SHIT!" "THIS IS AWESOME!" and "YOU DESERVE IT!" to the main event. I loathe those smark indy-riffic bingo hall phrases, but they all apply here. I thought the 10-minute brawl between them at the CWC was intense, but that was a stroll on the beach compared to what we got tonight. It was amazing to see Ciampa get actual heel heat - something I thought was no longer possible. In many ways, this match felt like something to be endured - and I mean that in a good way. What a brutal war they had, and the ultimate babyface won - as he should have. All is right in the world tonight. "JOHNNY WRESTLING! JOHNNY WRESTLING! JOHNNY WRESTLING!"

Oppor-tu-nity, brother. Jim Ross! Haha.

Poor Hillbilly... He's probably not an internet/smark favorite, but I'd argue that he's deserving. Remember, he did a lot for Coliseum Video after his in-ring career ended. I thought thought his speech was pretty decent, just TOO long!

I like it too, especially this year, but the show is too damn long - something has to give. One less regular inductee? Less Dana Warrior spouting off gibberish? I don't know what the solution is.

I don't think the show needs to be revamped. Take out the celebrity and Warrior stuff (as much as I enjoyed both of those speeches) and the show would be a manageable length again. Of course, that won't happen, because "charity is the new PR" and mainstream celeb attention has always been important, even though there's no proof it has ever meant anything when connected to the HOF.

It was just Heyman doing one of his typical rasslin' promos, which have been stale for two years already - nothing sincere or "real" at all.

My thoughts: - The Dudley Boys was a decent opener. E&C did a decent job inducting them. I laughed when they said everyone hated Bubba. Based on what I've seen on Twitter, he's a thin-skinned bitch. Still, the Dudley Boys are obviously deserving. - Hillbilly Jim was surprisingly well-spoken, if a bit on a long side. Much smarter than his gimmick, that's for sure. His inductor Jimmy Hart was short, sweet, and perfect. - The Legacy Award stuff is nice and classy. - Ivory was weird and wacky, especially with that trippy wedding stuff, but that's what I expected. Was I the only one surprised that no one's ever asked to marry her? Molly did a nice job of inducting her and is long overdue to go in herself. - Kid Rock and the Warrior kid were surprisingly good. It probably helps that I had zero expectations for Kid Rock. Dana Warrior is still a fucking weirdo, lol. - Jeff Jarrett's speech is the only one I wish was longer. What we got was great, but he had so much more to tell. I guess the musical number bit cut into the actual speech time. - Mark Henry was fantastic, and Show introduced him nicely. I wasn't expecting Henry to bring out the salmon coat. I figured his son wearing the same color would be only Easter Egg we'd get there. I loved what he said about Owen. - Paul Heyman did a lousy job inducting Goldberg. Not one honest, genuine, human moment. His shtick is awful now and I can't wait for him to go away for a very long time. I hope he does. Of course, he'll probably end up managing Rousey instead. Goldberg was fine. I kinda get why he was miserable in his 2002 run, but I kinda don't - most people would kill for the year he had. I guess he just hated the work environment at the time, which is fair enough. It was nice to see him at peace. He clearly loves his family, and they love him. Unlike so many others in wrestling, he's a normal human being who was successful and got out relatively unscathed - that's always nice to see and should be celebrated. - Multiple Hogan and Moolah references + Henry name-dropping Owen's widow. I guess people really have no fucks left to give once they're on the HOF stage.

I just watched the first episode last night. Haven't seen it since it aired. Some random thoughts: - Brian Pillman vs. Brad Armstrong was the opener in a surprisingly bad, bland match that didn't really go anywhere until the final few minutes. - Pillman has the unique distinction of being in the first match ever on both WCW Saturday Night and WCW Monday Nitro. - Holy shit, Steve Austin did not look like a star at all. Stupid beach tights, a hook nose, stringy hair, and butt ugly in general. He looked like wrestling's version of the Wicked Witch of the West. It seemed fine at the time, but wow in retrospect. - Heyman hasn't changed much. He looked old even then. - As awesome as the Rude/Steamboat feud seemed on this show, how come I don't remember it at all? But man, Rick Rude really was on top of his game back then. - Even with Ron Simmons saying "you know" 100x in his promo, unscripted promos were still so much better than the canned, mechanical crap we get now. It felt real and had actual fire. - Ditto for the commentary. As much as it was obvious in retrospect that Jesse Ventura was "winging it," I'd still take that over the micro-managed corporate blandness we get today. J.R., of course, was pure perfection - smooth as silk. - But not all of the promos were good. Z-Man was laughably awful, and how in the hell did anyone fear Vader back then? Goofy-ass facial expression, mugging for the camera, everything he said and did was cheesy was fuck. He looked like a fat ham. Literally a thanksgiving ham. Harley Race oozed credibility and toughness in the two seconds he was given. - Austin vs. Z-Man was damn good and fun. As tempting as it is to credit Austin for a carry-job based on hindsight, that would be unfair and untrue - Z-Man worked his ass off too and had fans chanting his name. That would never happen today with some random midcard babyface (unless ironically).

For the record, *I* never said I wanted you banned. I don't. Truthfully, I'm not emotionally invested enough in the posters here to call for anyone's ban. I don't mean that in a bad or dismissive way - I just mean that I come here to have fun, read different viewpoints about wrestling, and post some of my own (which people either agree with or shit on, depending on what it is and/or how mature/rational the other party is). BTW, I've noticed that your typing has improved over the past few days. Whether that's because you're making more of an effort or because you've found that magical keyboard I suggested, I appreciate it.

I would've missed Heyman five years ago, but he's become dull, repetitive, and a shell of his former self.

This is exactly how I feel. If I don't care about the guys in the ring, I'm not going to rate it highly no matter what. Ditto if the match has no real storyline or stakes, or is a spot monkey fest. With that said, I am open to being wowed by a wrestler or wrestlers I've never seen before. NXT is a perfect example of that. The one ROH show I attended (Supercard of Honor II), same thing.

I've seen almost none of EC3, so I can't comment there, but I agree 100% with SomethingSavage when it comes to Adam Cole. "Bay Bay" is the very definition of a bland indy geek to me.

I think I've found a kindred spirit in SomethingSavage. What he posted above is exactly how I feel about wrestling. Edit: This post, not the Andre question.

Yep, but I don't post there nearly as much as here. That may be true, but it's definitely unconscious. People rarely namedrop Dynamite but they all namedrop Michaels. Granted, I'm sure part of that is being a WWE wrestler wanting to go along with the WWE narrative of Michaels as the "GOAT," but still.

My votes there: 1) Mitsuharu Misawa vs Bret Hart: Abstain. Have not seen enough/any Misawa. 2) Eddie Guerrero vs Kurt Angle: This one is too close to call, to the point where I don't even remember who I voted for an hour after the fact (and the dated WC board won't tell me). You could make a really strong case for both. 3) Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat: I went with Flair because he had that extra something Steamboat didn't, but it was close. 4) Jushin Liger vs Chris Benoit: Liger. He was the talk of wrestling the moment he stepped foot in the United States. Benoit never was. 5) Bryan Danielson vs Kenta Kobashi: Abstain. See previous post. Knowing my preferences though, I'd probably go with Bryan. He was and is a once-in-a-lifetime babyface performer who transcended his perceived limitations and built a main event career out of nothing. 6) Curt Hennig vs Chris Jericho: Hennig. Jericho has arguably had a longer, more successful career with many more memorable matches and feuds. Fine, he wins on paper. But Hennig was so smooth and cool. He was...well, perfect. 7) Jumbo Tsuruta vs Nick Bockwinkel: Abstain. Knowing my preferences though, I'd probably end up going with Bock. 8) KENTA/Hideo Itami vs Owen Hart: Owen. See previous post. 9) Samoa Joe vs Shinsuke Nakamura: Nakamura. Joe is one of the most overrated guys ever. 10) Dynamite Kid vs Shawn Michaels: Abstain. Knowing my preferences though, I'd probably end up going with HBK. Dynamite didn't have nearly the career or influence (the latter will be an arguable and debated point, but almost every wrestler cites HBK as an influence - only Benoit and a couple of others have ever said the same about Dynamite).

I don't care if he's Japanese or not, but if he wants to be Japanese, can he magically buy/find an English keyboard so he can fix the annoying formatting in his posts? Pretty, please.

Hulu sucks - or rather, the WWE intern who edits Raw for Hulu sucks. The Hulu version of Raw cut out an entire portion of the supposed MOTY candidate between Seth Rollins and Finn Balor. While I doubt I would have rated it as highly because I don't rate the mechanical, bland Balor very highly, I did like what I saw. On a side note, Miz's commentary - "Balor Club? I'm in the Dad Club" - was amazing.

What he said. It's absolutely fantastic. I don't know where it would rank in my all-time list, but it's easily one of the best wrestling books I've read in years. BTW, it's free with Kindle Unlimited if you subscribe to that. Otherwise, you can buy the paper book on Amazon and get the Kindle version for $1.99 afterward (through Kindle Matchbook - I suggested it on another board and was happy to see the author take me up on it).

My votes: Danielson/Kenta: I abstained because I've not seen enough/any of Kenta Kobashi's work. Bret Hart/Eddy Guerrero: Bret. This was a tough one, but Bret was ultimately on top longer and was in many more meaningful matches and feuds for me than Eddy. AJ Styles/Chris Benoit: AJ. Benoit was good in the ring but brought nothing else to the table. AJ is just as good in the ring + has charisma and the other intangible qualities that Benoit lacked. Weirdly, there's a similar poll on Wrestling Classics, but I think one of the options there is between Daniel Bryan and KENTA (Hideo Itami). Bryan wins that easily, as Itami has been a colossal bust in NXT/WWE and not only because of injuries. Edit: It was actually Owen Hart and Hideo Itami in that poll. Owen wins by a mile. Most everyone is going to beat Itami in any poll I vote in. Whatever he had in Japan disappeared the minute he stepped foot into NXT. Oddly, Daniel Bryan/Kobashi is in both polls. Same OP for both threads?

This is about how I feel. Easily worth $1.99 though.

Sinclair responds, and it's as bad as you'd expect.

I don't want to get political here, but this is news that indirectly pertains to ROH. Sinclair Broadcasting, which owns ROH, has been forcing "local" news anchors to read the same viewpoints from the same script, thereby missing the point of local news entirely and stripping viewers of a truly free and independent press. The video is pretty chilling to watch. Could this stink potentially affect ROH? They're mentioned in the second link. https://www.newsandguts.com/sinclair-broadcasting-clear-present-danger/ https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/how-americas-largest-local-tv-owner-turned-its-news-anc-1824233490

ROH COO Joe Koff says Supercard of Honor XII will be a 6,000-person sellout with Cody vs. Omega as the main event. If that's true and not corporate BS and fudging the numbers, it's impressive. I do think he and Cody are deluded about ROH being "cool" though. It's not IMO. That doesn't mean it isn't good, but "cool" isn't the word I'd use to describe it. https://www.cagesideseats.com/2018/3/30/17182230/ring-of-honor-coo-joe-koff-talks-supercard-sellout-new-japan-relationship-impact-daniel-bryan-more

ROH COO Joe Koff says Supercard of Honor XII will be a 6,000-person sellout with Cody vs. Omega as the main event. If that's true and not corporate BS and fudging the numbers, then I can see All In getting 10 thou. https://www.cagesideseats.com/2018/3/30/17182230/ring-of-honor-coo-joe-koff-talks-supercard-sellout-new-japan-relationship-impact-daniel-bryan-more