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Funny how no one blasting them has actually said they would turn down the $40m if in WWE's shoes. It's one thing to criticize, but entirely different to actually be in the position of getting such an offer. Just about big business out there has blood on their hands in some way, even a lot of small ones as well. It's just a fact of business that you're likely going to find yourself having to go against your principles in the short-term so you can have a hopefully positive impact in the long-term. You could probably lots of questionable things done by Bill Gates, but that doesn't mean he's a horrible guy when he's investing all that wealth to charity. People are looking this in terms of black-and-white of either they are evil for going or they are good if they didn't go. The fact is that 1 night in Saudi Arabia does not negate the other 364 days a year when they are pushing a progressive vision that's the exact opposite of Saudi Arabia's, nor does it negate how they invested that $40m in paying the female performers as if they worked the show and the message that implies.

At the end of the day they're a business and they have families to feed. I doubt very many of the people giving them flack would actually turn down a $40 million payday for one night's work just to make a political statement.

Late 2000s-early 2010s NOAH is probably the worst offender of this for me. At the time, I loved those tropey dick measuring strike exchanges, but now I'm at the point where I'm comfortable never seeing those again. Bit of a minority view, but I don't think 80's Crockett has held up very well. When I first saw it while getting into wrestling, I thought the 7/4/1987 War Games was an easy 5 star match, but when I watched it a few months ago I thought ***1/2 was a very generous rating. Even more of a minority view is lucha matwork. When I was getting into it, it was mind blowing but now it just seems hokey and masturbatory. I've also soured a lot on CMLL's restrictive 2/3 fall formula and only a couple matches I've seen from them lately have held up as classics for me. On a more positive note, Fujiwara/Super Tiger from 9/7/1984 was a match I'd watched several times and thought was very good, but when I saw it yesterday it felt like one of the best matches I'd ever seen.

It's just star ratings, people. If you're going to judge him as journalist, do it based on the 10k words he types every week reporting on the news, not on how many asterisks he types.

Really hope he can get some help for his cancer now. No one should die without even getting proper treatment.

God damn. What an awful way to go.

Pretty much agree with my thoughts from when I watched this a few years ago that it's more a great AJPW 25th anniversary match than it is a great Misawa/Kobashi TC match. Just like you'd expect from these guys, you get lots of cool sequences and the match builds really well to a blazing crescendo. The crowd gets pretty hot for the finish and it's hard not to have a smile on your face watching the reactions of the Kobashi superfan in the front row. The bomb throwing approach worked for what they were going for, but from an artistic perspective I don't think this comes close to touching the depth of what they'd already done on 1/97 or 10/95 (hella underrated match, BTW). I also agree the match was hurt a tad by the fact that you knew they weren't ending it before bringing out all their big moves. There's a spot where Kobashi has Misawa in a rear-naked choke and is basically in the perfect position to kill Misawa if he wanted to, but the crowd is dead the whole time Misawa goes for the rope break as they know there's no way that has a shot at being the finish.

It may be an interesting project to create some sort of psychological profile of the type of fan who spends hours every week watching WWE just to bitch about it online. Definitely a unique case here with how, in an age of so much great wrestling available for free online, WWE has somehow managed to bamboozle a huge number of hardcore fans into paying $9.99 every month to watch a product that they hate.

Of all the questionable things from that period, HHH winning the Rumble after having been on roll the previous year and getting massive reactions for his return is one of the last things I'd go after. Austin was way to banged up to be main eventing Mania at that stage, especially in a match that would have had huge expectations to live up to. If I were in the mood to fantasy book, I'd focus on everything they did after the Rumble win or go further back and look at how they could have stretched the Invasion out to Wrestlemania.

I don't think Lesnar has much of a shot against Cormier. His whole gameplan is built around using his size and wrestling ability to smother a guy on the ground, which is the exact kind of thing Cormier is one of the best at neutralizing. No way WWE would let him keep the title going into a fight where he has a big chance of getting embarrassed.

God damn that was an awesome heel promo from Brock at UFC 226. Something even non-UFC fans can appreciate. Some nice salt in the comments section as a bonus. https://www.mmafighting.com/2018/7/8/17545364/ufc-226-video-brock-lesnar-shoves-daniel-cormier-puts-heavyweight-division-on-blast

I dig it. Very good analysis of the effects of tape trading on wrestling. Unless I'm misunderstanding, I'm not really sure about the idea that tape trading introduced the idea of looking at wrestling as a performance, though. You can find plenty of old timers on Wrestling Classics recounting thinking about wrestling from that perspective, even back in the 60's.

How is the Lawler comparison bizarre? The only difference that's been brought up is that Rance got convicted and paid his debt to society while Lawler somehow got away with it despite even his biggest fans agreeing that he did it.

I actually watched this fight for the first time today. I'd always skipped it before as I'd heard they weren't too exciting together, but I came out thinking it was a great match. This is a good example of what I talked about earlier with Pancrase encouraging guys to take risks as you have Frank repeatedly going for leg locks from Suzuki's guard and escaping from full mount like it's no big deal. You just don't see stuff like that in UFC these days. Frank Shamrock moves like a freak athlete and Suzuki is a great foil for him as the slick grappler who keeps finding ways to through Shamrock's power moves and into submissions of his own. Main reason I'm posting this, though, is the commentary. The guy seems to be an actual fighter and is really good at explaining what's going so even people without much grappling knowledge can learn and follow along. Definitely seems like a channel worth keeping an eye on, assuming he doesn't get a copyright strike.

Really digging the new layout and all the content so far. The layout is great and really gives it a different feel from all those shady news sites. Please don't burn yourself out, though.

I go through periods where I don't watch a single match for months. Then there's other periods where I'm spending almost all my free time watching/reading/writing about wrestling. Just seems natural to me to cycle through your hobbies to keep things fresh so you don't get tired of them.

This dropped a few days ago. Pretty damn cool to get a new Ishikawa match with him working NA indy guys.

I'm a mark for unconventional match structures, so I really loved watching this. They basically take the King's Road formula and fuse it with a PRIDE paint coat. Instead of having long control segments, here it's more back-and-forth with the emphasis being more on momentum rather than individual big moves. This allows them to work in some great failed rallies from both guys. Also, they play even more emphasis on strikes here than usual, throwing all kinds of stiff shots with reckless abandon and even often using them as transition moves. You just know from how it's worked that the finish is going to involve someone getting knocked out by a strike, and that's exactly how it goes. The beginning of the match with Takayama letting Misawa hit him with several hard elbows without flinching is really good at getting over the match's dynamic. Takayama wants everyone to know he's the new sheriff in town, and he's not going to be backing down from a shootout with the old gunslinger. Misawa takes Takayama down, but he gets put into an armbar for his troubles. His next few minutes of trying to work the mat don't prove any more fruitful, and eventually Takayama applies Misawa's own facelock on him. That spot deserved way more of a reaction than it got. From there, they seem to take notice of the dead crowd and start wailing on each other. The story of the early going is all about Takayama having an answer for pretty much everything Misawa tries. There's this great spot where Misawa switches to a kickboxing stance and start throw leg kicks just for Takayama to switch to the same stance and destroy Misawa with kicks. The way that they build to Misawa's comeback is really well-done. When he initially starts stringing together elbows you think the tide might be turning, but he goes for a top rope move just to get kicked off by Takayama and eating a hard bump on the outside. It's creates just a little bit of doubt that maybe Takayama really does have an answer for everything. But it also shows that Takayama really isn't immune to Misawa's elbows and the tide just might turn if he can keep hitting them, which is what eventually happens. Later, there's an amusing spot where Misawa, seeming like he might be a little desperate, pulls out a rear chinlock that Takayama sells like it might be a little too close to the neck, but it's Misawa's company so the ref doesn't care. Another spot I love was when Misawa did a flying elbow to the outside that Takayama sold by arching his back across the guardrail. Made the move look so brutal. Takayama rallies for the finish run and we're treated to all-out brutal strikes from both guys. Takayama sure can throw some hard knees. Such a spectacle to see Takayama beating the hell out of Misawa while the crowd goes nuts chanting Misawa's name. A damn great nearfall happens when Takayama hits two consective Everest Germans, but makes the mistake of being too close to the ropes and Misawa survives by getting his foot on the ropes. Unfortunately, I kind of agree that the match falls off the rails a bit by the end. The finishing stretch just doesn't have the sort of drama or intensity you'd like from a match like this, as it's pretty clear Takayama has nothing left and Misawa isn't too far behind. I'd go ****1/4. Most guys should be proud to have a match that good, but for this I can't help but be a bit disappointed as they clearly had an all-timer in them. The world needed way more PRIDE Takayama vs. old man Misawa.

Fuck yeah, MJH is back. New PWO is already awesome.

Hansen had main event level runs in nearly every major promotion in the world during the 80's-early 90s. NJPW, AJPW, UWA, WWC, WWF, MACW, AWA, WCW, ECW

Yeah, great job putting this together. It's been great in helping me expand my mind while rediscovering classics I haven't seen in a while. I would support the idea of getting a deadline extension to allow further time to view nominations and discover new matches.

AJ Styles in 2006 was a great worker already. I'd call him legit great as early as 2005 at worst. I'd go earlier. The 2003 Paul London ROH match is a top-level contender for best ROH match ever last I saw it. WWE really missed the boat in not picking him up back then.

It took me way too long to check this out. David vs. Goliath sprint is one of my favorite subgenres of wrestling, and this match is one of the greatest examples of it out there. I think complaints about Vader pulling out pro-style moves are misguided. From what I understand, his character in UWFi was basically a worked version of Brock Lesnar's in the UFC, in that he was presented as this pro wrestler invading a roster of "real" fighters relying on his size and strength. Look beyond the suplexes and you'll see this match demonstrates Vader actually had an excellent grasp of shoot-style psychology and how to adapt his style to it. Awesome size vs. technique dynamic at play here. You know Vader is big enough to KO Tamura with his pinky finger, but Tamura fights a smart fight where he focuses on keeping his distance chipping away at the pro wrestler with leg kicks while occasionally going for the finish with a leg submission. There's some tremendous usage of spacing and ring positioning in the early going here, with the corner spots being used to great effect in building excitement without giving away too much. Also a really nice detail how Vader doesn't bother checking the leg kicks until he's visibly hurt and growing in desperation. The takedowns and leg submissions were great, and Vader's selling was absolutely perfect in getting the younger opponent over as a serious threat. For a few moments in this match, I legitimately believed Tamura had a shot at pulling off the upset, which is a huge testament to how good Vader was at getting him over here. LOVED the spot where Vader scored a knockdown on Tamura only to immediately take a knee onto the mat from how fucked his legs were. When he starts busting out the throws there's this great explosiveness in how he picks Tamura up and a sort of uncooperative feel in the throw itself that you just don't see in pro-style matches. I normally hate UWFi's reliance on the point system to dictate match outcomes and drama, but they use it to great effect here to protect Tamura while getting heat on Vader. You just knew Tamura had a little bit of fight left in him, but you can't fault Vader for beating the UWFi guy under his own rules. ****3/8. Also, funny that Loss remarked that Vader/Dustin was those guys trying to have a match like this in WCW, as that was my exact thought as well towards the end of this, though I think it pretty easily smokes the WCW version.

Why are pimped lucha matches always 25-40 minutes long? Even the small-show build-up tags often clock in at 25 minutes, which makes me lose interest fast when I try to watch a lot of matches at once. Even stuff like 90's AJPW and 00's NOAH, where people regularly complain about excessive length, have a fair number of great short matches so you don't have to just watch long match after long match. Would be great if someone could rec me the great matches that are 15 minutes or shorter.