pol

I find Cole and crew pretty easily ignorable most of the time, I think because the WWE style is such a broad stroke style. Much of what a guy like Thatcher does is happening on such a micro level that I really need to pay attention and it's incredibly distracting when the announcers aren't calling what's actually happening in the ring at all. Especially when all they're doing is discussing the fine details of the promotion's stupid ranking system.

I don't know enough about the issue to say, but any time a white person starts talking dismissively about "the race card" I'm extremely skeptical of whatever argument they're making.

I thought Puma/Fenix was great for what this promotion is trying to be, but it's not my thing at all. Frankly if I factor in how annoying Striker was during that match it's venturing into negative stars territory for me.

It seems like putting the mask on Ricochet and making him mute completely neutered a guy who is normally extremely charismatic. I get that they wanted someone with a mask to be the lead guy, and probably someone they can make lose it later, but putting one on Ricochet was evidently not a good idea. I think the mask itself looks dumb too.

What? He was saying the complete opposite of that if you're talking about the latest radio.

I appreciate EVOLVE for being a super indie that books Busick/Thatcher/Gulak but I have to watch their matches on mute with how obnoxious the commentary is.

Is there anyone doing analysis that can compare to Dave's? I don't care about his opinions on match quality, but find him to be generally on point with the booking and business side of things.

I don't think all of WWE's women fans are that simple-minded.

Is it possible that Reigns will still succeed in spite of how terribly he's being booked? Many accounts seem to suggest that he still gets big reactions at house shows. It's logical and perhaps tempting to believe that what we see as bad booking will lead to his failure as a top guy, but is it possible that we're drawing conclusions based on common sense notions that are no longer relevant? With how little contemporary WWE depends on any individual star's power vs. the power of the brand, is it possible that anyone given the right look and enough of a spotlight can anchor the promotion, even if by our standards the spotlight given to him seems actively detrimental to his character?

I seem to remember Meltzer saying that New Japan's ratings tanked with the change in style initiated by the UWFi invasion, which led to them getting moved to a crappy timeslot. They doubled down because they were doing such great business at the gate anyway. I have no idea if that's accurate, nor any clue why they haven't been moved back since then, though.

I don't begrudge people enjoying something, even if I think the praise borders on the hyperbolic, so long as they're not obnoxious about differing opinions. I've really enjoyed seeing all the people who weren't familiar with the New Japan product check it out and be wowed by it over the past week. I think the positive buzz is good for wrestling as a whole.

On Twitter Meltzer said that Reigns' Smackdown Promo, featuring such gems as "sufferin' succotash" and "donkey dung for brains" was written by Vince himself. Have they ever sabotaged a guy this badly in their attempts to get him over?

Hopefully it leads to a GHC run for him.

I mean, you only have to look at the decision to return the G-1 finals to Sumo Hall this year to see that they saw the Seibu Dome number as a failure. It's actually confusing to me, because doing 18,000 for a main event announced two days prior and with a massive rain storm that killed any chance of walkup business (to the point that even people with tickets stayed home) seems pretty impressive to me.

Looking at Twitter, it looks like NOAH ran an angle today where Suzukigun invaded and Suzuki laid out Marufuji with the Gotch piledriver. I'm all for any opportunities Suzuki gets to have more spotlight singles matches.

Awful.

I loved all the counters in that Thatcher/Graves match. Felt like a US version of maestros lucha at times.

I'm guessing they do an angle to get out of it, but if they actually do Bryan's first match back on Smackdown, is there any argument for that not being really stupid? I know it's Smackdown's first time back on Thursday nights, but still...

I think there's a subsection of fans that have never really been exposed to views on wrestling outside of the typical workrate smark/Meltzer consensus and it leads to the belief that anyone who doesn't share their aesthetic preferences must be objectively wrong. Combine that with being a fan of a niche product that, unlike WWE, doesn't have the benefit of being a hegemonic force that requires no defending, and you're going to get people who act like that. You see the same thing with TNA and TNA doesn't even have the workrate. Of course it's not even close to all fans, but as Grimmas said, they sure are vocal.

Interesting that AJ is the only Bullet Club guy that gets face reactions. He was pretty damn over in Korakuen.

To me, one of the biggest differences between then and now is that now, the heat goes to the decision makers, not the wrestler who did the deed. That's why HHH and Stephanie are so effective in their current roles, even if people aren't happy that they came back. Batista was an exception, but Batista is also a star with a really great smarmy persona and it was the perfect storm. I don't think that type of heat transfers to Seth Rollins no matter how good the booking is, partially because Seth isn't as good of a performer as Batista (that's probably a controversial opinion), but also because I don't think people see Seth as one of the bad guys in the underlying story of WWE that isn't played out explicitly in storylines every week. If they want to get him to the next level, it's about time we get some rumors of him badmouthing Dolph Ziggler to management or sucking up to HHH to keep his spot. I think this is inevitably what happens when you present yourself as a reality show that everyone knows is fake (and such a major part of the fandom is knowing the real story about, rather than the narrative they try to sell us), rather than a self-contained fictional world. It's not like the heat goes onto George R. R. Martin when someone gets killed on Game of Thrones.

Just double checked after reading the Observer and evidently I somehow completed misunderstood what Dave said about expecting a title change. He was referring to the IWGP Heavy match, not the IC match. Which is a much better decision.

Very underwhelming lineups. Cavernario/Cometa should be great. I wonder if either guy will be able to hit their trademark dives right with how close the barricades are to the ring in Korakuen. Atlantis/UG will no doubt be the same match they've been having all year (likely spot-for-spot), but it should be cool to see how a Japanese crowd reacts to it.

Dave says to expect a title change in Nagata/Nakamura. I'm only okay with that if it's just a short reign like Sombra, Tanahashi and Fale had before Nakamura gets it back. That's been Nakamura's belt for the majority of the past three years and putting an end to that dynastic reign to give it to a guy in the tail end of his career is a tremendous waste. Ibushi should be the one to get the rub from that. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure we're going to get Nagata and Marufuji feuding for the belt (since Marufuji ended Nagata's GHC reign), which I'm sure Dylan is thrilled about

I didn't mean to imply anyone was wilfully misinterpreting anything; more that they were reasonably interpreting statements by Dave that perhaps implied things he didn't mean to imply. That excerpt does seem pretty damning, though I do remember him saying somewhere that the building would be set up for less seats than in past years so I wouldn't go so far as to say he meant to imply 52,000. Even if we accept that Dave got worked on the attendance, though, it still doesn't necessarily follow that he got worked because he's a fan of the product (and I'm not saying that it's not true, just that it doesn't necessarily follow). For what it's worth Dave has often been cautiously critical of NJPW business decisions like NJPW World and their overeager attempts at expansion.