Shining Wiz

Oh. Well, in that case then....

NOW you're being contrarion.

I enjoy his matches more, so as far as that goes, yes.

Excellent. I still find them annoying spots that hurt my enjoyment of a match.

I didn't know there was a viable #2 currently. While it certainly sucks for guys who lose a paycheque, I'm not going to cry over a company that put out consistently horrendous product over the years. How a company with so much great talent could never do anything with it all, I'll never understand. And any flash of quality they managed to hit upon only served to shed a light on how horrible everything else was. Hopefully whatever replaces them at whatever level will attempt to be different and do better. And hopefully does not involve an authority figure in any way.

Well, if Kobashi and Misawa got caught and slammed off the top 99.9% of the time they ran there, to the point where it became glaringly obvious even given my willing supsension of disbelief that the only possible reason they went up there was to get slammed off, then it would be just as silly for them too.

It's not the repetitiveness of the moves (or set up for moves in Flair's case), it's the repetitiveness of spots I find silly. Just a matter of personal taste. Edit - Reading this back, this is horribly unclear. I have no problems with repetitive moves/taking moves. What I have a problem with are repeated situations which only occur to one particular individual and are clearly sandwiched into whatever match for the sole purpose of them occurrring, so much so that it becomes obvious they only reason they occur is so that they can occur.

Well, let's see. I prefer Steamboat, Funk, Danielson, DiBiase, Eaton, Nakamura, Misawa, Kobashi, Benoit, Malenko, Savage, Roberts......you get the point. And save yourself the time - I freely admit each guy has a spot the reuse endlessly, but none of them bug me like the flop and the slam.

Well, if everyone thinks he's the GOAT, and there are several wrestlers I enjoy more and think are better, then by definition that is enough for me to consider him overrated, yes.

Quote fail Fail fixed

Yes...but they aren't all rated the best of all time and most of them aren't so annoyingly silly. Yeah, but when Ryu does it, it makes sense. Never said anything about him giving the same match, just two really silly moves I don't like. So you fuck off, because the fact he does the flop and gets slammed off the top in almost every match no matter what was my entire point. I say this with all due respect.

Exceptions that prove the rule. I'm not saying I hate Flair by any means, but those two spots always annoyed me and knock me out of my enjoyment of the match for a bit. That being said, the Flair/Steamboat series from 89 are at the top of my desert island matches, flop and all.

Personally, I just find those spots so melodramatic and nonsensical that they boer the shit out of me. I still wonder, when Flair runs up the ropes before getting press slammed off.....what move is he going for? I don't think I have ever seen Flair come off the top and hit something.

Overrated - Flair. Honestly. Try watching three Flair matches in a row. The repetitiveness gets annoying. Isolated, absolutely fantastic. Not isolated, a bit much. And I have always hated the Flair flop and setting himself up for the slam off the top rope. AJ Styles - don't know what he's missing, but whatever it is, it's something I need to enjoy a match. Underrated - Big E - easily top 5 in WWE for me right now, probably top 10ish overall if I cared to think that much about it. Rotten Ron Starr - one of the absolute best heels EVER. At least, so says my childhood.

Have to admit disappointment in Tanahashi/Shibata, but it may have been the match I had the highest expectations for in quite a while. Might require a rewatch. Best night of the tournament so far though, and Ishii/Honma will be hard to top for match of the tournament. If I cared to rank for matches for match of the year, I assume that would e at the top of the list.

Anderson over Okada??? That was....unexpected.

Agreed. It is the nerd wrestling fan choice du jour.

I think this is the best way to view New Japan. If you go in looking at the snowflakes and talk it is very likely you will be disappointed. I've seen this consistently with friends and non-hardcore (at least at our level) fans I know who have given heavily pimped NJPW matches or shows a try and responded with shoulder shrugging or "What the fuck?" reactions. That said they employee some strong talent, put on some good shows, and will occasionally knock a match out of the park. My rule of thumb is to subtract a full star or so from every hardcore NJPW fan rating if you are talking about snowflakes and usually that's closer to where I stand on the matches It makes sense that people who enjoy a promotion and are invested in it are going to think more highly of it than someone who isn't. The same can be said for almost any promotion......or, anything really.

I haven't read a word anyone has written about day 4 yet......just finished Honma/Ishii. If that wasn't the best match on the show, this will be one of my favourite shows of all time. If it was, it may well still be. When Honma finally wins, probably on the last night, the crowd is going to explode.

It just looked like a really lazy, light, sloppy flow roll at an open mat session. And the match I watched had a really weirdly done I hit you, you hit me, I slap you, you slap me, I forearm you, you forearm me sequence. Not my thing, which is a bit odd, since normally I really enjoy guys who work a slower, mat based style, but this just was not doing it for me.

Right, but since he's not a heel why does he do it? Just seems weird. Ummm.....because he IS a heel.

Exactly.

Not if it's done correctly. Having him go over popular babyfaces in drawn out, boring matches where Cena continually slaps on rest holds (see Randy Orton) and simply refrains from any high spots would be a great heat seeker. Anything that would work to make him a heel would make him incredibly popular with all the people who are alreafy booing him. Even that.

I fell woefully short of my goal, but that's ok since ustream fell woefully short of being worth my $25 this morning. On night 2, Nakamura and DBS Jr had what has been my favourite match of the tournament so far. They took the mma references I usually hate in wrestling, made them sensical and had a great match for it.

I just you tubed a Busick/Thatcher match. First time I've seen either. Not all that impressed.....I can see where they might be good at some point though.