BillThompson

So we've reached the point where dissenting opinions of NJPW are passive aggressive as opposed to just dissenting opinions?

EVOLVE Wrestling: 31 (08-08-2104) Timothy Thatcher vs. Drew Gulak Reviewed at Blue Thunder Driver.

PREMIER Wrestling: Kratos vs. Dutra (11-22-2014) Joe Graves vs. Timothy Thatcher Reviewed at Blue Thunder Driver. Reviewed at Free Pro Wrestling. World Wrestling Network: A Wrestling Odyssey (04-04-2014) Timothy Thatcher vs. Drew Gulak Reviewed at Blue Thunder Driver.

You are right, sorry. It's the vocal minority. It probably is, and that's why I made sure to say certain fans in my initial comment. Those fans are tiring though, and they give the rest of the fanbase a bad name. Don't you think you've made the odd provocative statement? Not really, just stated my opinion.

I think the main problem between NXT and the main roster is the distinct difference in visions. NXT is preparing talent for the sort of wrestling product Triple H wants. Meanwhile when they get to the main roster that's not the current product and this they begin behind the eight ball so to speak. Outside of retooling NXT, or finally having Vince/Dunn give up the reigns of WWE, I'm not sure there's any way to fix the situation. Not sure where most of the blame should go either. I think it's clear as day that the main roster has become stagnant and is producing lower quality content. By contrast NXT has been generating great buzz, and in the eyes of many a far better product for a while now. Blame probably deserves to go to all parties. Triple H for grooming talent for a product that is not presently in place. Vince/Dunn for not seeing what is going on in NXT and attempting to work with those characters and augment the main roster aesthetics in some way. At the end of the day I love NXT, but I do wonder if they are doing a great disservice to the NXT talent by not having them more prepared for what present day main roster WWE has become.

You are right, sorry. It's the vocal minority. It probably is, and that's why I made sure to say certain fans in my initial comment. Those fans are tiring though, and they give the rest of the fanbase a bad name.

It's hard for me to be serious because as we all know I hate New Japan As I discovered today it's simply not okay to dislike any aspect of NJPW. You do and certain sections of their fanbase jump all over you.

One Direction and Fast & Furious are clearly better at certain aspects of the music & movie business than other, more critically acclaimed acts. Doesn't mean they're good or bad, but they are succeeding on a pretty important level. Without that, work that doesn't appeal far and wide won't have any platform because the business will dry up. You need a mix, and won't always find both in the same offering. If someone who judges art (movies/films/music, etc..) makes a year end top 10 list, the amount of money the art project made is irrelevant. Last I'll say on this, because I've had this argument a bunch and really don't want to drag it out again. I agree with what you're saying, it's the basis by which I view art. I don't make any money off of the art I'm viewing, and I certainly don't gain any enjoyment from the art I am watching making any money. I enjoy art because it is well made art, the money side doesn't matter and unless you are a business man making money off of the art it shouldn't matter to anyone. I go more in depth in issue #3 of The Tag Rope, but I firmly believe that breaking an art down to money and statistics is detrimental to the art, the artists, and the fans.

As someone who has an 8 year old daughter who listens to a lot of One Direction, they're actually pretty good. I agree with your point though, making money does not mean someone is good, it just means they made money. Michael Bay is one of most successful directors ever in terms of money, but he's a hack who hasn't made any movie that's better than time wasting good (The Rock).

A new post about Matt Hardy vs. AJ Styles from NorthEast Wrestling in March 2014.

That's actually one of my favorite things about small level indie wrestling. The camera is usually right up close, and the small crowd can be as hit as they want and I can still hear everything happening in the ring.

Depends on the match for me. I look for different things in a lightning match, an ironman match, a tag match, a match in front of 30 people, a match in front of 5,000 people, a match in Mexico, a match in a dingy North Carolina gym, and so on and so forth.

So, that Kenny Omega, he really is an atrocious pro wrestler.

To be fair a lot of the high end AJPW stuff this year has rivaled, or been better than, NJPW's best stuff. There's not as much of it, and NJPW is still far better overall, but I think AJPW gets sold short on their present day quality.

Atlantis versus Ultimo Guerrero from CMLL's 81st Anniversary. There are still a few more matches I want to watch though.

Depends on who it's supposed to be memorable for? If we're talking big picture I can see the argument that the wrestling of today is not as memorable as the wrestling of the past. That's not really due to quality though, but rather due to availability. Everything is available to us now, and that makes the matches seem a little less special in the long run. There's simply a much larger preponderance of wrestling in the year 2014 than there was in the year 1988, at least in terms of what we can watch on TV or find on the internet. That creates a situation where today's product doesn't seem as memorable because there's too much of it and thus none of it really seems special or unique. Conversely, on a personal level I don't believe that wrestling today is any less memorable than in years past. It may not be as memorable to as broad of a scope of people, but to me it is just as, if not more, memorable. I can seek out matches and events that appeal to me and I can cultivate a library of matches in my mind that stand out for presenting qualities I like. I'm able to form more of a personal relationship with the wrestling I watch, simply because I can seek it out as opposed to feeling like it's the only thing on the TV to watch.

Magazine I write for just released their third issue. I wrote two articles this time out. One is a review of Owen/Shamrock from Fully Loaded '98. The other is a business versus art piece where I question why wrestling fans seem to care so much about drawing power and other business metrics. There's also an interview with Jeff Jarrett, a Wrestle Kingdom 9 preview, and an interview with Danny Havoc, and a piece on British Boot Camp. Lots of pretty pictures and drawings too boot. All in all it's a swell magazine, you can order either a physical or online copy,and it's pretty cheap. Physical Online

Watching wrestling, specifically, --Stay on top of my YouTube and DailyMotion playlists. Last year I let them get out of control, and I want to make sure that I never let them get over more than 50 videos each this year. --Finish my Thatcher project. I've watched pretty much everything I can find, but I know there are still a few out there that did make tape/internet that I need to find. --Keep up with my Network PPV rewatch project. I'm up to 2003, so I'm hoping I can finish that by the end of the year. --Start Raw, Nitro, and Clash rewatch projects. --Get NJ World, and start working through their library. --Catch back up on NXT. --Start my PWG project, and now that I have every show from 2003-2008 I can. --Start my CZW, SHIMMER, and RoH projects, but these are of a lower priority. --Watch the Volk Han set I have, finish the 80s Lucha set, and get a few more sets from Goodhelmet, as well as dive into the Yearbooks. I will accomplish maybe 20% of this, but it's all in service of the GWE, so it's all good on my end.

That would work, makes sense to. They could even go the he's still in the Rumble, but badly injured, and look at all the heart he's showing route, before he's finally eliminated.

You're probably right, but I'm not sure if WWE, specifically Vince, believe that such a backlash will happen.

Does Reigns turn heel in this scenario? I don't think so, if anything I imagine WWE would angle for the babyface rub from Bryan to Reigns when he eliminates him at the Rumble and hope for even more of the same when he beats Cena at Mania. Of course, there's always the chance they could just turn Reigns heel, or that the legion of Bryan fans will turn Reigns heel through no choice of the WWE, but I'm less sure about any heel scenarios.

Was talking about this with KrisZ, on Twitter, but just because Bryan is back doesn't mean he's getting Reigns spot. I'm thinking Cena beats Lesnar at the Rumble, Reigns eliminates Bryan to win the Rumble, and that way we end up with Bryan/Lesnar as the semi-main and Cena/Reigns as the main at Mania, with Reigns coming out champ.

I think he ran an angle down in USWA in the early 90s where he was acknowledged on-air as the WWF owner.

Supreme Pro Wrestling: Unknown Event (09-18-2011) Honor Society (Sir Samurai & Timothy Thatcher) vs. Faction (El Flaco Loco, Paul Isadora, & Sal Thomaselli) This is a Handicap match. Pretty much a nothing match. This exists to get Isadora over as a monster killer. There's one key problem with that, Isadora is not a competent monster. He's wooden, slow, and his every movement is a chore to sit through. Samurai and Thatcher try to put him over big time, but there's only so much they can do with such a stiff. As for Thatcher himself, he has one nice hot tag segment but otherwise he blends into the background for most of the match. It's not really his match so I can't fault him for that, but still, this isn't a feather in his cap or anything.

Supreme Pro Wrestling: Unknown Event (Unknown Date) Timothy Thatcher vs. Drake Younger Younger strikes me as a guy who sees something done in a ring, decides it's cool, and then has to do it in his match. There's no rhyme or reason for most of the stuff he pulls out in this match. Silly Throat Thrusts, sure toss em out in the middle of a running the rope sequence for no discernible reason. Northern Lights Suplex out of nowhere, why not? Better yet, mug to the crowd and lock in a Muta Lock, because that makes the least sense of all. Basically, Younger isn't a good professional wrestler in this match. Maybe he's better at other times, but he's downright awful here. I don't even know why he bothers letting Thatcher do any arm work, because he continually shrugs it off at random so he can do some more yelling and bad pro wrestling. This is very much the Younger show too, as he takes a lot of the match for himself and doesn't really give Thatcher much of anything to work with. Problem is everything Younger does is bad, and thus the match is equally bad.