pol

i'll take this over yet another guy who gets obnoxiously indignant over defending his boring-ass canonical takes

I thought that match was pretty good, and this is speaking as someone who often struggles with old man maestros stuff due to the slowness among other things. Don't see those mat exchanges as slow at all.

Terry is predominantly a brawler, not a maestro guy.

Wasn't that also Inoki's vision? You know, "Strong Style", "King of Sports", mixed style fights and all that? edit: I see I was beaten to the punch by OJ. Perhaps you could argue that shoot style was a reactionary response to the Choshu-ification of Japanese wrestling, since it resembles the NJPW of the 70s more than anything else, especially in its formative years. Also, and I know almost nothing about martial arts so I might be wrong on this, but isn't the striking in shoot style more informed by Muay Thai than karate?

When's the last time you were in an actual real life fight or a combat competition. Almost all real life fights or combat competitions are horribly boring. Not something to emulate for entertainment purposes. I disagree, and judging by the fact UFC is worth more than the WWE and their public perceptions most people seem to as well. Just to muddy the waters further, I wonder sometimes how much your distinct opinions about "realism" in wrestling have to do with when you were born relative to most of the rest of us. In that you've come into watching wrestling in a world where MMA is a much more fully developed sport. It takes up a cultural space. I've likened it to how learning more about science in the 20s-60s changed Science Fiction and what was accepted and not accepted as tropes. We've learned more about fighting and it seems to color your opinions more than it does a lot of us who have been watching since the 80s or early 90s. I think you see it reflected in the reduction of wrestling's fanbase to a hardcore niche of nerds, and the reduction of the style to a single style that, to those fans, represents "pro wrestling" rather than "pro wrestling" being any and all attempts at fake fighting. I'm not sure it could have gone any other way; maybe the only way to attract a mainstream audience post-MMA is with a very clearly fantastical style that appeals due to its athleticism, drama etc. The shoot style promotions died, and NJPW's revival came under Tanahashi, not Shibata. I'm not entirely convinced that those incidents are more than circumstantial, but it's what happened.

Looked around and was surprised not to see this mentioned anywhere. Really good, super-technical duelling body part work match. Has to be pretty close to the worst possible kind of match to put in front of a 2007 Budokan crowd, who, predictably, couldn't give less of a shit.

Yeah, NOAH really botched the pushes of a lot of those guys. Judging from a business perspective, I'm not sure it was ever a particularly well-booked promotion except when they went back to ol' reliable "give an established star a long run with the belt". Certainly had lots of interesting booking from an aesthetic POV though.

Would like to recommend Akira Taue/Go Shiozaki vs. Katsuyori Shibata/KENTA (09/09/06)

I'll definitely never forget that main event. Loved it as a moment. Booking-wise it may have been incredibly stupid, but judging a moment according to meta-concerns seems rather ass-backwards and joyless to me.

Everyone should watch Kobashi vs. Ogawa.

I can understand the excess accusations, but it sees unfair to make them and not also acknowledge his mid-2000s Chopbashi period where he was more over than ever while doing less than ever. Never seen him credited for how he adapted to his limitations as he got older, something that some people claim to care a lot about.

I think the complete package of Joe is pretty great, but his in-ring has been a little underwhelming in NXT. He's yet to have a great match. Then again he's been stuck working with boring as dirt Finn for much of that time, so.

Smackdown sure felt a lot more like Raw this week. Between that, some somewhat questionable finishes on No Mercy and the news that Vince is back touring full time, I'm a little nervous. Don't like the sound of this Smackdown vs. Raw Survivor Series gimmick either. Not only is it a distraction that will do little to further existing brand-specific storylines, but could even actively detract from them.

One thing about Japanese commentary is that the lead announcer is provided by the TV network, not the promotion. I've wondered exactly how "inside" they were, how much they were involved in helping the promotion get over what they wanted getting over.

I'm extremely done with people declaring how obvious match outcomes were after the fact.

Heath/Miz is the money program.

The male singles babyfaces on Smackdown right now: John Cena Dean Ambrose Randy Orton Kane Apollo Crews Jack Swagger Kalisto (injured) Curt Hawkins? Yeah, it's a problem.

I love Sasha and Charlotte attempting to be the US Dragon Lee/Kamaitachi. The corkscrew moonsault was ridiculous to attempt, but I'm glad she did.

The two weeks of Smackdown prior to this one show that you can have a logically booked show that also has good matches. Ambrose's promo on "Hustle, Loyalty, Respect" was definitely the best one he's cut in quite some time if not ever in the E.

It's not like I'm asking for 20 minute matches between main eventers on free TV. Just a good 10 minute match between two midcarders, or a top guy vs. a midcarder would be fine. For me the show is too long to not have at least one good, decent length match. It helps the show breathe a little too, which I thought the latest episode had a problem with. You pretty much had an hour of storyline housekeeping, which is necessary but not like any of it was super entertaining -> the great Miz/Dolph segment -> more housekeeping -> the main event angle. A good long-ish match breaking up the more utilitarian stuff in that first hour would have helped a lot, I think.

The Miz/Dolph and main event segments were great enough that I have to call it a good show, but Smackdown this week sure felt like they were more concerned with getting through all the stuff they had to get through than anything else. On the one hand I guess I should credit them for actually caring about building to a PPV, but on the other, when you try to cram in build to every match on a 3 hour show in 80 minutes (when accounting for commercials), the wrestling part of the show really suffers. Ideally I'd like to see at least one good 10 minute match per week. To me it feels dated to have a 2 hour show without any good matches.

It is funny that perhaps the biggest Kobashi mark around these parts has barely touched his run as promotional Ace and biggest wrestling star in Japan yet. Looking forward to seeing your thoughts when you do get around to it, Parv.

More importantly, wrestling is a work.

If you watched the CWC it's impossible to argue that those guys can't do anything to distinguish themselves from the smaller heavyweights. The question is whether they will be allowed to work like that on the main roster.

The one match that stands out as missing from that list, by the way, is the Hama match from January.