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Navarro's maestro stuff has aged like milk for me. Basically the type of wrestling people (used to?) accuse 90's juniors stuff of being. No struggle getting into holds, no struggle getting out, no narrative besides "watch how great these guys are." Just guys doing laughably convoluted holds and expecting the audience to get off on it. He seems pretty solid as a brawler, though.

Another incredible one-two punch from Rock of the great long-form social media promo + top notch TV segment. What a run he's on right now.

Well said. Count me as another fan of that 2014-2018 run. Sucks that his Tribal Chief run doesn't touch his best from that period, but whatever.

No impressions on Bryan/Akiyama? I thought it was a big step-up from the Kingston/Akiyama cringe, mainly because they actually tried to work a real match instead of a bunch of masturbatory tribute spots. Still, it kind of started off on the wrong foot as far as getting over Akiyama to an unfamiliar audience. Like, there was a pretty big dissonance between hearing Kingston put over Akiyama's amateur wrestling accomplishments on commentary while Danielson just gobbled him up on the mat and ran through his usual stuff without much difficulty. Once they moved past that it become a pretty solid bomb throwing match with minimal fat. I don't care a whole lot about the Bryan/Kingston angle the match seems to have been put together to advance, but I get the feeling they could have a great match if they had a longer rematch on something like a big DDT show.

Do people still regard Dave as a reliable news source? It's well documented how badly he dropped the ball with the big Punk and Rock stories, but I'm also noticing a lot of other bizarre misinformation that gets quickly debunked. Examples from the latest newsletter are him claiming Dreamer is head of TNA creative and that CMLL wrestlers can't appear on the same AEW shows as non-CMLL wrestlers.

Man, we were robbed that we didn't see this version of The Rock stick around a few more years working big matches like this. Dude was the total package with the athleticism, charisma, selling, and crowd connection. Haven't seen this before, but I think I fall firmly with the consensus that Rock and Flair carried this one big with the others just kind of there. Rock and Flair seemed to gel really well mocking each others' characters in the beginning and ending, but the Foley heat segment between that didn't do much for me.

I admit to being a little bummed that Rock/Roman won't be happening soon, if ever, but that press conference was one of the most unique, heated, and interesting angles I've ever seen. So of course WWE fans are gonna say it sucks and nitpick over things that makes that make perfect sense if you give it more than 2 seconds thought.

I think Ace is angling for some kind of plea deal. Corroborate the stories of the victims and help rat out Vince along with other execs in exchange for having some of the more serious charges waved away. Isn't that pretty standard for big cases?

You answered your own question there on why Rock would be an asset on the board. He has a massive brand as the top action star in Hollywood, which he's mostly built from the hard work of him and his team. And no, a single flop in Black Adam doesn't mean his star power has suddenly cratered. He's already on of the top merch sellers in WWE according to recent reports. He also doesn't have much of a history of being a Vince stooge, so having his backing could be pretty important in helping the company weather the storm if the lawsuit ends up as bad as it's looking. There is no "screwing up Mania." It's simple math that having 2 marquee men's matches, one being arguably the biggest in company history and the other helping build credibility for a secondary title, is better than just 1 marquee match while Seth fights some random dude for his "loser's bracket title." Roman doesn't have to lose his title ASAP, particularly when they're still doing massive business and have just managed to bring in a new key player in the storyline. It's ok to have Cody trading Seth's title for a bit to establish some sort of lineage for that belt and let Cody/Roman marinate a while longer.

That reads a lot like Dave getting worked by a source looking to stoke anti-Dwayne sentiment. As bad as the booking can be, I'm pretty sure they'd have went about adding Dwayne to the match in a much less heavy handed way if it was anything but an absolute last minute thing. I'd be fine with Dwayne taking over for H, though. Too much stink on him with the Vince thing and that Rumble press conference response has to be up there for worst crisis management from a top exec.

Rock did nothing wrong. Give me the biggest match in the history of the business any day over a rematch of a match from last year that wasn't even that great.

Yes, even before the swerve tonight I was thinking Rock/Roman just works better for the time/place, and that it would be better for both the prestige of the Raw title and Cody's match-up prospects to slot him into the Seth match. The problem is really the weird flip-floppy booking with going back-and-forth teasing Cody/Roman and Rock/Roman. If Dave isn't BSing when he claimed that Cody/Roman was the plan before the Punk injury and Vince allegations, and the Rock/Roman build wasn't going to get paid off until a possible later date, the company looks incredibly stupid. Just dragging their feet for no reason on doing the biggest match in history while the company is as hot as it's ever been. Leaves the impression that the booking isn't going to get any smarter just because Vince's guys are gone.

I'm all for the Netflix move if it means no more muting the audio when fans chant "holy shit." That sort thing comes off really cringe when I watch clips of segments on Youtube.

If it's commercial free that'd be great for the matches since they'd no longer need to be structured around commercial breaks. Also no more of Dunn's crappy camera cuts. 2025 RAW is gonna be hype.

I've watched a number of underwhelming small show matches involving the top workers from this period of AJPW recently. It even got to the point that I was wondering if I just wasn't in the mood for wrestling, but turns out these guys still could bring the greatness even if they couldn't work like this on every show. I loved this and it seemed like a textbook example of how to do a quality build-up tag. The pairing here feels like a play on the HDA vs. Misawa/less experienced partner concept from years of yore. Shinzaki isn't exactly able to fill the shoes of Kobashi or Akiyama, and the early stuff with him working opposite Taue didn't do much for me, but whenever Misawa was in this was pretty awesome. His facial selling is incredible as always, and he makes sure to work in all kinds of realistic details in how he takes moves that nobody bothers with, like turning his head to partially soften a knee drop. There's also some great strike exchanges with Kawada which felt a clear step above what you'd see in modern puro, not only for the high level of stiffness and selling, but also how they actually use them to tell a story. A great example is one segment where Kawada finds himself suckered into an elbow battle with Misawa, and instead of just going along with it and inevitably losing like usual, he pretty quickly says "fuck this" and unloads on Misawa with slaps and knees. Misawa isn't afraid to take some hard bumps on his neck, but he also gives as good as he gets with making Taue bleed hardway off an elbow suicida. Shinzaki steps it up in the latter half, his performance highlighted by him nailing a nasty flipping knee square on the back of Kawada's head. Kawada might sometimes overuse knockdown spots, but his crumple selling felt completely appropriate there. In between all the brutality were some pretty fun Taue bumps, like him attempting his chokeslam/powerbomb co-op move with Kawada and doing a 360 bump along with Kawada when Misawa does his hurricanrana reversal. There's some great mind games from Misawa here on Kawada, like how he just calmly and slowly walks in the ring at one point when he gets tagged in with Kawada laid out, or how he towards the end eats this nutty looking German suplex which he completely no-sells and tags back in Shinzaki after an elbow. I think that latter spot was even referenced in their title match a week later. Interesting seeing that contrasted with the look of absolute disappointment on his face when Shinzaki gets pinned. Pride before the fall.

Agreed. This thread title didn't age well at all.

I wonder if Kobashi was a fan of her work. Feels like I've seen him do this exact same sell numerous times.

Yes, WWE removing Hidden Gems is total BS. So much great content that'd cost them nothing to leave up.

That does sound a lot like Rock was angling to come back as a major on-screen character but his ideas didn't gel with what WWE wanted to do with the storyline. Hope they can eventually resolve things as there's still a lot more potential there than just showing up for 1 big match and retiring.

The Bucks are far from a slam dunk pick if you're of the opinion they've been a negative stylistic influence on the scene. Ishii getting in is just lol and feels like a Kurt Angle or Ultimo Dragon type pick that's destined to become a joke punchline.

The UFC hosting major events in the UAE and having them start in the afternoon US time is pretty common. They just held one a few weeks ago.

Are you planning on continuing to 2001? I've come around to the unexpected idea that early 2000's AJPW was a better promotion to watch than early 2000's NOAH.

That Andre doc was ridiculously disappointing. If the Vince one is by the same crew (Simmons, etc), I'm pretty meh on whether or not it ever comes out.

It seems like a lot of stuff has come out in recent years about Quack exploiting wrestlers and being a scumbag, but setting that aside it seems like an admirable passion project. Never followed them closely, but I like how he'd book niche workers/styles without having them make compromises. Him booking Johnny Saint introduced him to a lot of people who'd never seen WoS, for example. Him randomly flying in Kana and some Osaka Pro wrestlers for a show in Kingsport, TN also stands as one of my favorite live experiences.

Can't believe the almighty knowledgeable voters still haven't voted Fujiwara in. What a joke.