Fantastic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-VPbJUTxjA For me personally, this was the only segment where Roman Reigns looked like "the star" of The Shield. Other times it alternates between Ambrose and Rollins. I'm leaning on Rollins currently, I think he's got every opportunity to be the top heel in WWE for a long time. That segment was awesome, not just from The Shield. Triple H was on point too, his frustration and desperate attempts to stand in between The Authority and The Shield only to get speared by Reigns was great.

This is making the rounds at the moment, anybody remember this?!

Yeah, I definitely think Okada winning the title from somebody else and then successfully defending against Tanahashi to redeem his loss at WK9 is probably going to happen, I just don't think it should happen at WK10, or if it does, it should not be the headline match. Tanahashi and Okada are incredible and put on amazing matches against each other, but it's getting to the point where NJPW seems to be relying on them, rather than attempting to utilise others. Specifically, I'd like to see Nakamura headline next year's Jan 4th show, I think that Nakamura is by far the best overall wrestler and performer in NJPW and him headlining the Jan 4th show, even if it isn't for any title, would display just how skilled he really is. This is in the sense that I believe he has the ability to make a Dome match feel even more important than having the IWGP heavyweight title (or the IC title in the case of WK8) playing a factor.

Cena pins Rollins to win the title, Brock goes Hulk and destroys Cena. Rollins cashes in and wins the title. Reigns wins the Rumble and meets Rollins at Mania, D Bry is taken out of the Rumble by interference from Lesnar, Bryan meets Lesnar at Mania. Is this WWE's likely compromise?

Does GFW actually exist to anyone other than Jeff Jarrett? Vince: "What's GFW, that some kind of hair mousse?" Getting back on topic, Dave gave Nakamura/Ibushi ***** and Okada/Tanahashi ****3/4. Tana and Naka are honestly like Misawa and Kobashi of this generation, it's just amazing how many frequent top quality matches they are having.

I wonder if they'll do a GFW/NJPW card soon? Can you imagine the main event? Jeff Jarrett vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi?

That doesn't bode well for Sting, given that his tag team partners have a habit of turning on him...

Nagata challenged Nakamura for his title yesterday. Whilst I can see Nakamura moving back into the IWGP Heavyweight title picture, I don't think Nagata being the one to end his IC reign is right. Also betting that Okada is going to go on some sort of a losing streak for a while. It gives them a new developmental angle culminating in some kind of redemption where he gets another shot at the IWGP heavyweight title and wins it.

The crowd interest in a match can hide so many sins of the action itself. That being said, I'm a massive fan of Puro, and as we all know, the crowd never really rises to the level of American crowds. However, the beauty of that is when they do become unhinged, it enhances the phenomenal workrate (commonplace in big Japanese wrestling matches where arbitrary limitations aren't placed on the performers like in WWE). Like, take for instance Nakamura vs. Sakuraba from WK7, the crowd were popping huge everytime Sakuraba caught Nakamura in a submission attempt, in an otherwise bland match that was trying to borrow too much from MMA (which greatly diminished the performance capabilities of Nakamura). On the other side of the World, Joe vs Kobashi was a pretty limited action contest, given that Kobashi was greatly limited in ring at this point. The fact that the audience were so into it and went apeshit every time Kobashi pulled out his chops or a signature move, covered up for the fact that Kobashi wasn't the wrestler he once was and gave him one more ***** calibre match. Oh, and Jericho vs. The Legends. People fucking loved Steamboat, the pops everytime he got a near fall were amazing! It's such a shame that Steamboat suffered that injury (was it a minor stroke or something?). He was in pretty good shape for a man of his age and I'd liked to have seen him wrestle one or two more matches, just purely because of how great he was/is at commanding crowd interest.

I watched the Japanese broadcast of WK9, but I've heard snippets of the English broadcast and I have to say that JR and Striker were pretty good - much better than you'd expect. The absence of a headset with a booming voice directing them may have been the key!

Just going with the idea that Dave has 7 ****+ rated matches. For me, the only ***** match on the card for sure was Nakamura/Ibushi. Okada/Tanahashi was about ****1/4 at best personally, it wasn't my favorite of their encounters.

It's becoming cliche, but really this holds true: "WWE, that is how you do Wrestlemania". As for star ratings, I reckon: ** for the Rumble ***3/4 for the Junior Tag Team match ***1/4 for Bullet Club vs Tencozy and Honma ***1/2 for NOAH vs Suzukigun **** for Suzuki vs Sakuraba ****1/2 for Ishii vs Makabe ****1/4 for Omega vs Taguchi **** for Anderson/Gallows vs Shibata/Goto ****1/2 for Styles vs Naito ***** for Nakamura vs Ibushi ****3/4 for Okada vs Tanahashi

Hiro Saito hitting Sentons on everybody was glorious!

*Bell Rings* Rainmaker attempt - Tanahashi turns it into a Sling Blade - High Fly Flow - 123 Winner: Tanahashi by pinfall in 0.37

Meanwhile, AJPW held their first show of the New Year: - Masanobu Fuchi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Ultimo Dragon def Yohei Nakajima, Naoya Nomura and Yuma Aoyagi (Kanemaru over Aoyagi via Pinfall) - Atsushi Aoki def Soma Takao (Aoki over Takao via Submission) - GOARA TV Title: KENSO © def Ryuji Hijikata (KENSO via Pinfall) - Akebono, Shigehiro Irie and Shuji Ishikawa def Jun Akiyama, Takao Omori and SUSHI (Akebono over Sushi via Pinfall) - Zeus and Shingo Takagi def Suwama and Hikaru Sato (Zeus over Sato via Pinfall) - Asia Tag Titles: Mitsuya Nagai and Takeshi Minamino def Kento Miyahara © and Kotaro Suzuki © (Nagai over Suzuki via Pinfall - new champions) - Triple Crown Heavyweight Title: Go Shiozaki def Joe Doering © (Shiozaki via Pinfall - new champion) Remember when AJPW produced awesome cards that rivalled NJPW's? At least they got the TC off Doering, that was a bizarre decision putting the titles on him. I also think that Shiozaki may still end up in NJPW at some point.

That's cool. I've been watching Puroresu for years with Japanese commentary anyway! The AJPW commentary of the 1990's will always be my favorite, the cries of "LARIATO!!" and the amazing OTT reactions for big moves like the Burning Hammer, Kawada's powerbomb and the Tiger Driver '91 are priceless!

I am curious though, presumably there will be an option to watch with the English commentary?

I'm signing up right now, navigating the Japanese content can be tough, but Chrome is excellent at translating, also here is a user guide for convenience. 999 YEN is peanuts for high quality programming.

Still thinking about the Rumble they are doing. Seriously, it seems pretty likely that Nagata is going to win it. I often wonder how friendly Nagata is with Gedo and Jado. Even if he isn't always prominently featured, he still gets receive strong booking from time to time, including winning the NJPW Cup in 2011 and getting a shot against Hiroshi Tanahashi's title. Hell, they let him go to NOAH last year where he won the Global Tag league, main evented in title matches on tours, and even held the GHC Heavyweight title for nearly five months! It's similar to the kind of booking that Mutoh and Chono have been in reciept of in the later points of their careers, except that I'd argue that Nagata isn't really at their kind of level.

Yeah, it was a bit lazy, but it's clear now they were going for a trilogy and therefore needed something to make Cena seem like he has a chance, especially if they are planning on having him lose again - which is probably the likely scenario at this point.

That's a pretty cool extensive list... But yeah, a bit too much dude! Keep it simple, let everybody have a go. Feel free to use wrestlers more than once if you haven't already. Remember, it's singular opinion based. Here's another: Wrestler: Rick Steiner Greatest Match: Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner © vs. Sting and Lex Luger - WCW Superbrawl I (WCW Tag Team Championship) Greatest Rivalry: Rick Steiner vs. Mike Rotunda (JCP/WCW) and another: Wrestler: Samoa Joe Greatest Match: Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels © vs. AJ Styles - TNA Unbreakable (NWA X Division Championship) Greatest Rivalry: Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk (ROH) I thought the premise of this thread was to try and introduce people to new stuff they may not have seen? Has anyone on here NOT seen that Superbrawl tag? I could say the same for that TNA three way, in that anyone who's paid an interest in the promotion would've watched that. Yeah, I was just starting off with the easy stuff. Besides, not everyone here is familiar with this kind of stuff, believe it or not. Pretty sure some guys won't watch anything past the early 1990's.

Yeah, Lesnar seems to be the one who really brings out the best in John Cena as where Cena's in-ring character is intended. Never has Cena been more of an effective seller than in his matches with Lesnar. Both the matches were good, the NOC match was the better overall, I agree with that, but the Summerslam match was the better Cena performance. Cena made it look like Brock was killing him with each additional German. The selling of the suplexes wasn't overboard or pinball, it was quite AJPW if I'm being honest. Cena reminded me a lot of the way the likes of Misawa and Kawada would sell such moves, eg, completely losing their expression, struggling to even rise from the ground, and continuing to sell fogginess on comebacks. Cena's handful of little comebacks in the match weren't OTT either, he was playing a guy waiting for small opportunities of overconfidence in his opponent to take advantage of.

Shibata vs. Honma from Day 8 of the G1.

Predictions: Nagata wins the Rumble reDRagon © vs. Forever Hooligans vs. Time Splitters vs.The Young Bucks (IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag) Bad Luck Fale, Jeff Jarrett and Yujiro Takahashi vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima and Tomoaki Honma Mikey Nicholls, Naomichi Marufuji, Shane Haste and Toru Yano vs. Davey Boy Smith, Jr., Lance Archer, Shelton X Benjamin and Takashi Iizuka Minoru Suzuki vs. Kazushi Sakuraba Tomohiro Ishii © vs. Togi Makabe (NEVER Openweight) Ryusuke Taguchi © vs. Kenny Omega (IWGP Junior Heavyweight) Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson © vs. Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata A.J. Styles vs. Tetsuya Naito Shinsuke Nakamura © vs. Kota Ibushi (IWGP Intercontinental) Hiroshi Tanahashi © vs. Kazuchika Okada - Naito challenges Tanahashi

Also, just realised they are in Philly for the Rumble. That crowd will shit all over Roman Reigns winning the Rumble.