Parties

I ask this out of curiosity, not to prove any point: how many of Omega/Okada's detractors saw it after they read or heard about Meltzer’s reaction? I don't like star ratings, but for context, after one and only viewing I'll call it a 4 star match. It’s overkill video game wrestling and the psychology is minimal, or at least something you have to seek to find. Yet it’s also a good, entertaining version of that approach. If you hated this, have you also hated every Wrestlemania match of the last ten years that isn’t Brock-Reigns? (Again, just asking.) If Meltzer - wrestling’s de facto critical authority, for better or worse - tells you that it may literally be the greatest match of all time, you’re bound to be disappointed and look for the flaws, especially if you dislike the style (and I say that as someone who typically dislikes it). I watched it on Wednesday night, having not seen Dave’s assessment or any of the Twitter/Tumblr hype, and was pleasantly surprised that it exceeded my low expectations. I suspect that if I’d known what Dave was putting out there, my first viewing of the match would have been through a much more judgmental, suspicious lens. Rumble: Cheeseburger was the MVP, if only for letting himself be used as a projectile and his big hulk-up at the end. I’d have traded Elgin, Gunn, Tatsu, etc. for more super-old Japanese dudes. TMW-Tiger the Dark: I like Ibushi as aloof rebel who’d rather be a masked hero to kids than sign a WWE contract or work Dome main events. Short but solid in a Shredded Wheat way, akin to undercard matches on the first three Wrestlemanias that are pleasant to have on in the background while cooking. Bucks-Vice: Sloppy on both sides: whiffing moves, no momentum, guys out of position. Bucks were charmless, yet gesticulating as if charisma will save them from actually having to work, a la heroes DX and the NWO, w/ facial reactions out of bad slasher movies. There’s a stretch in the middle where all four guys together botch something like seven highspots in a row, including stuff that’s so dumb in the ways they’re throwing themselves around that it’s not clear who is giving/receiving the move. Mercifully brief, with a lame abrupt ending. LIJ vs. Ricochet/Kojima/Finlay vs. Bullet Club vs. Chaos: These 6-man titles have existed for a year, and have changed hands ten times in twelve months. The division is an excuse to let three rotating guys hold some belts for a few shows apiece in a company that already has too many belts. No one’s in long enough to matter. This was Ricochet and Ospreay at their most indulgent, where they aren’t even trying to make contact with their opponent and refuse to let the match get in the way of their gymnastics routine. Ospreay in particular was ridiculous. Bullet Club felt very NWO B-Team. I like LIJ: they had a great year and this was more of what makes them good, as each guy has a unique approach, with Bushi as the super fun masked mist guy and Sanada coming off as a believable killer in the way his aerial stuff connects. Cody-Juice: I’m a closet Cody fan who’s loved his indie run, but his heeling here was too Stardust. I do like that he’s at least trying to be a villainous heel, and they worked the leg, but there was nothing to this. This whole undercard feels like getting a bunch of guys on the show just for the sake of giving them entrances. Cole-O’Reilly: In some ways this was the worst match yet. Cole sucked here: repeating sequences, looking totally lost at times, trying to trash talk his way through a situation where he's in over his head. They tried to work a story around O’Reilly’s shoulder and it was all dish water dull. I’ve liked at least one O’Reilly match (vs. Kushida), but the dude is a real scrub who was devaluing an already weak ROH title, and Cole here looked like a downgrade even from there. Guerrillas vs. Ishii/Yano vs. Makabe/Honma: An improvement from everything prior. Guerrillas of Destiny is one of those absurd team names that can only happen in New Japan, but Tama and Tanga were pretty badass. I like the concept of Tama as the counter-punching “best defensive wrestler in the game” even that's a stretch. Ishii lariating people is always great, and Honma did all the work for GBH. I’ve come to enjoy Yano over the last year as he’s begun to work like a Masao Inoue mid-2000s NOAH undercarder type. This was the right kind of tornado madness: structurally a mess, but full of hard-hitting action.

Okada/Omega: Note – this match is a rare one where I’d say you’re better off watching it before reading about it, and going in fresh as possible, if only to judge what's likely to be one of the year’s most-discussed matches for yourself. Early on it’s more compelling when Omega’s in control than when Okada is. One or two awkward moments in the early minutes as Okada tried bridges, crossbodies, and rolls that he seems too lanky to pull off. Okada’s build and style tells a nice story early wherein his legs keep catching Omega with far-ranging knees and kicks, while Omega has to use speed and target the back to work Okada down. Okada showing smarter, more expressive selling than usual. Slow, steady pace at the outset: good armdrags, solid transitions (as in the case of Okada’s DDT on the floor). The big missile dropkick and subsequent pin were savage as hell. Common crit of recent NJPW main events is that the striking doesn’t connect, but Omega was stiffing Okada fiercely throughout, even during his grandiose flips. Some impressive bumps from Omega for stuff like the big dropkick that knocked him out of the ring. Shortly thereafter, the best table spot I’ve seen in some time. To their credit – and again in contrast to big match NJPW of recent years – so often here you get teases that create suspense and real payoffs. Omega’s own lower back catching the table feels like incidental poetic justice when you’ve seen him work over Okada’s for this long. The deliberate pace and stiffness make the high spots matter in a way that they haven’t in recent Dome main events. I even liked the 2.9 counts, as each guy proceeded to subsequently work differently with each near pin. It felt like they were shifting into a new gear each time rather than relying on repetitive overkill. You even had Omega subtly busting out things from the arsenals of Styles and Nakamura to create something of an homage at the end. Strong finish. There were times in 2015/2016 when I heavily criticized Omega as perhaps my least favorite wrestler going, finding him to be a terrible over-actor and excessive, silly worker. This was a complete 180 where he looked fantastic. Best performance I’ve ever seen from either guy, on the toughest possible stage. It’s certainly not MOTD or even MOTY, but this would have been one of my top 10-15 matches of last year, and a strong start to this one. I’m truly surprised, as I’ve never been a fan of either guy. It never felt too long, and I happily would have watched another 15 minutes if they’d opted to go an hour. We risk going too far in the direction of deeming the whole style indulgent. In some ways it is, but I can't fault them for trying to leave it all on the ice when they're in the main event of what is essentially Smark Wrestlemania. I disagree with the “more is more” feedback here, and the “50 minute Kevin Owens match” idea even moreso. Owens can be really excessive and/or listless in his layout of matches, but this didn’t feel like his style or tempo at all. “More is more” is a valid crit if a match has no pace, or build, or storytelling. Personally I felt this had all three, and that if you’re ever gonna go for broke to have an “epic”, the Dome main event is the most appropriate place to go for it. I also wouldn’t agree with the idea that nothing of purpose happened for 20 minutes: the middle of the match is Omega targeting Okada’s back and kidneys to set up his finisher, while Okada swats at him to survive and tries to hit knockout strikes to the head in building to the Rainmaker. It’s not Shakespeare and I'm certainly grading on a curve, but they told a story. One question I’d raise is whether the folks who watched this live end up having a different experience that those who watched later on their own time table. In the years where I watched the show live, I always felt like the main event was too long, didn’t build properly, and was draining after so many hours of similar stuff. I’m wondering if perhaps the NJPW style is better in small doses and self-contained matches. Maybe the whole grandiose notion of a Dome main event becomes boring by the time one hits hour five at the crack of dawn.

With apologies for the double-post, one separate question I would ask in the spirit of my favorite year-end superlative: who’s 2016 Wrestling’s Comeback Player of the Year? Matt Hardy (or both Hardys) could be the top candidates. I could see some people saying Kendrick given his story. An argument could be made for Sapolsky, but that’s been going on since maybe 2014. Some people would say Goldberg, but that’s misunderstanding a “comeback”. There’s probably someone obvious who I’m forgetting, but maybe I’m also asking: what in 2016 wrestling constitutes a comeback?

This was the best year for wrestling since 2013 or earlier, and really one of the best since I started reading message boards in 2005. Lots of great matches at a time in which we’re understandably worried about WWE cannibalizing/homogenizing the indies. Lots of new indies springing up on YouTube, asserting that the weird shall remain weird. Styles has a year that seems to verify him as a HOF/All-Time Top 100 worker. Hero is right there with him. Riddle looks like the future of the business and perhaps even a blueprint of a new kind of worker. Tag wrestling was particularly strong this year, as you had the Traumas/Panteras feud, Revival/DIY, the EVOLVE tag tournament, Usos/The Club, and even some of the Smackdown scene (I personally think Orton joining the Wyatts was weird, inspired booking). EVOLVE – despite some cheesy storylines and bad mic work - thrives as a strange, great amalgam of 90s Japan, 2000s ROH, and even some traces of ECW. IWRG returns from the abyss. CMLL has a quiet but solid run with some standout matches, kind of like an NBA team in a rebuilding year establishing their new stars for the future. Japan remains what it’s been since 2010 or so. American indies feel way more vibrant after years of mediocre workers coming up through ROH and the like. (A half-baked theory on this could be that we're seeing the first crop of YouTube generation wrestlers: people who were young enough to see the surge in footage online and get inspired to become workers in part because of it. Whereas the uninspired new indie workers who broke out in 2007-2014 or so may have come of age during the post-WCW/Baba hangover of bad WWE, less access to indies, and a disjointed Japanese scene.) I was surprised at how positive this year was, to be honest. The accessibility of footage has been a big deal for years now, but it was never more apparent this year that there is great stuff out there.

Definitely agree that no topic is off-limits, unless someone’s just totally derailing a thread with petty spite that’s way far afield from the subject at hand. (Of course, it would be rare for someone to be both doing so and be self-aware to realize they were doing it, which is perhaps where an Admin steps in.) As for “Where is the line?”, they call it Moderation for a reason. It’s not the material that should be subdued, but the tenor of the conversation. When we disagree, it can be hard to then not to resist every statement made thereafter by those we’ve deemed our opponent or opposite. If you can disagree with someone and still remain cordial – as well as genuinely strive to listen and hear their perspective - that’s when we’re playing tennis against those who can make us better players. When in doubt, be nicer than you have to be. Two quicker points: 1) I post a lot less than I used to, and it has nothing to do with GWE. There were some rants at journey's end post-GWE that I found a bit condescendingly diva, but they also came from people who'd devoted more time and energy to the project than I did, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt and kept quiet. My wrestling viewing waxes and wanes. This remains the best board. 2) Migs makes a great point that telling newcomers "That topic is old hat / We had this discussion three years ago" is an unnecessary buzzkill, and one I've even been kinda guilty of recently. While I do think it's useful to acknowledge the past history of where these topics have gone, and understand the context of how commonplace beliefs became dogma over the 20+ years or so that these boards have been around, I also want to make room for those coming in for the first time, as we all did at one time or another. I’m willing to read the takes of anyone here, and props to Loss for being so attentive to how the discourse is going. Take into account that even when debating, I’m genuinely pretty calm and try not to take offense when people disagree or mischaracterize what’s being said. When reading anything I write from here on out, one should picture me typing while wearing sunglasses, smoking, giving a thumbs-up, and steering a small motorboat.

Obviously I'm not "blaming Mexican culture for not being cool enough". I'm saying kids on 4Chan tend to dig Japanese culture more than they do Mexican culture, and that there's a shocking amount of anti-Mexican trolling happening online right now, particularly in the last year. (To which some of you will scream, "What does that have to do with lucha?" More on that in a moment.) I personally don't find LU's presentation that cool, but I think I get what you're saying: it's fresh, and it's made to look and sound like a 2016 TV series. I would agree that NJPW is often a bit clinical for my tastes. But I think what Grimmas is saying is: in spite of all that, NJPW still gets a lot more praise/press than lucha does. Lucha Underground's ratings are pretty bad: your average WWE fan doesn't watch it and may not even know it exists. I don't think Lucha Underground is "the wrong kind of lucha" at all. I like the show. It's very hit or miss and there are aspects (the announcers, the booking) that can be outright bad, but Aztec Warfare II was one of my favorite matches of the year and I've praised many of its workers here early and often. If the show inspires new people to check out more lucha, that's cool too. Meltzer's taste in wrestling sometimes aligns with mine and other times doesn't. I'm good either way, and I'm sure not the only person here or elsewhere online who makes tame jokes about his likes/dislikes. It has been a talking point online for years that Dave didn't really understand a lot about lucha, and that he had a limited view of what worked. The DVDVR writers, Bix, etc. could probably speak to where that idea came from better than I can. (In truth I'm pretty pro-Meltzer in general, and an avid subscriber for years.) Me ribbing him a bit about Volador isn't some declaration of "right" and "wrong". As I've said in 9,000 other message board posts: prefacing every subjective statement with "in my opinion" is childish and unnecessary. Of late I've only gotten Dave's opinions about CMLL from the radio shows, and yes: he often praises them as great shows, and that's probably a net positive for lucha on the whole. I’m not accusing anyone on this board or in this conversation of racism, etc. (But hey: I reserve the right to do so in future!) I will without pause say that I’ve read racist stuff about lucha/luchadors on Twitter, in chat rooms, and dumber boards. I’m not blaming PWO or anyone on it for the sins of others, and didn’t in my original post. Rather I mentioned it because Grimmas is looking for pervasive reasons for why lucha doesn’t get more acclaim. Which - as I said earlier - is his question, and not the hill I wanna die on. If someone’s a blowhard with corny opinions about Jumbo Tsuruta, odds are I won’t much enjoy their love letters to Satanico either, even if they “discover” lucha. The people whose thoughts I love reading here and elsewhere tend to have diverse, eclectic tastes. That doesn’t mean that Ric Flair and John Ford aren’t also sincerely great. It means that we’re 20+ years into internet wrestling fandom, and that a lot of us wanna keep searching. Any time xenophobia comes up, there are people who feign dismissive outrage. To even raise the possibility of bigotry is to them shocking and beyond the pale, be it in the classroom or in your tavern of choice. (The line that raised ire here was the first sentence of my post, one that in about six diverging paragraphs tried to delve into how I feel about lucha and how I’ve seen it discussed over the years.) This conversation has been had in the Military-Industrial Suplex thread. Some people think that questions of culture and power are inescapable, and worth examining in almost all art and human behavior. Other people want their hobbies (i.e. wrestling) to be an escape from such questions: “Now wrestling has to be about ____, too? Stop reading _____ into everything!” (I’d call it their desire for a “safe space”, were I gently ribbing what some of them critique about college campuses). And yes Stro, to address one particular question you posed: I do think we all – myself included – live in a world of conscious biases that create unconscious biases. What we call “our own personal taste” is clearly influenced by a hundred different things, some of which are ugly, and some which are largely unknown to us, even when we think we’re forming our own opinion. I’m not saying “You lucha-hating bigots” are the problem: I’m saying that all of us have a responsibility to confront our own prejudices, and that the only way I think we can truly do so is to discuss them more openly than they have been in the past. In all sincerity: thank you for reading what I had to say. To cite Goc: no heel turn intended.

A lot of internet wrestling fans are inclined to find Japanese culture cool, and Mexican culture uncool, due to reasons both aesthetically and culturally ignorant (“Japan = avant-garde and stoic, Mexico = poor and gross”). People who *do* think that way aren’t likely to own up to it, or even consciously recognize it in themselves. The jokes made when lucha comes up on something like 4Chan or Reddit tend to be oblivious at best. There is a big crossover among puro fans (esp. present-day NJ fans) who also like manga/anime/Japanese film and fashion. Nothing wrong with that, but suffice to say the number of Americans and Europeans subtitling El Chavo del Ocho and Xavier Velasco books for each other seems smaller than the number of nerds who think Okada’s frosted tips are badass. Puro’s footage has been better preserved over the decades than lucha’s. Even if YouTube is starting to help people see the matches, we usually lack context of what a match was about and how it fit into a career. OJ nicely explained lucha’s current lack of hyped notoriety, match lists, and legends brought by AJ Classics/BOSJ to the prior generation of internet fans. Follow the money: nations that have more to spend on presenting their culture worldwide are the ones that garner acclaim. Noodles is spot-on in the cinephile comparison. “Whether or not lucha is good” is a tired conversation that’s been beaten to death online for 20 years. The people who actively dislike it tend to be squares with other insular opinions. Almost all intelligent fans would agree that lucha has as much value as any other country’s stuff. The more interesting question – which Cooke and others have touched on – is why it doesn’t get the coverage it deserves, and how that lack of insightful press influences common perception. Again, I would say it’s largely-but-not-exclusively an embrace of Japanese culture, and rejection of Mexican culture by a blinkered group of English-speaking fans. Meltzer and all those dudes who went with him to Japan in the 80s are no longer the arbiters of taste, esp. as more people have gotten into the reporting game this year. I don’t know the answer to this, but would suspect Dave just has better sources for Japan info than he does for Mexico, and perhaps sought them out more because he preferred the style. I heard Meltzer once say on a podcast that he loved going down to Mexico because hotels were affordable and he could eat cheap steak dinners every night, but I don't recall him then specifying what workers he saw. Grimmas’ note that the Purotopia/Smarkschoice crowd isn’t willing to give other styles the same chance that their critics give it has been the case for over a decade. PWO is a Niche within a Niche within a Niche, and as OJ noted, seeking out the new/diverse/original isn’t an exclusionary hipster tactic: it’s the pursuit of broader horizons in a medium you love. There are people who want to try new foods and actively seek out varieties of wrestling, and there are people who say, “I like what I like, everything’s subjective, nothing can touch the majesty of the warrior’s fighting spirit, etc.”, at which point I fall asleep. If you really want lucha to not be “dismissed” by some perceived masses, then be the change you want to see and go preach the gospel. Go do historical research and analyze the new stuff for yourself, rather than waiting for other dudes on a board to explain it to you or tell you who’s good. Week to week, lucha is the most fascinating of all styles, in that it often feels like any given segment could end up being the best match I see all year, or the worst match I see all year. That’s really what you’re getting out of a tag or even a title/apuestas stip in CMLL or IWRG right now: a mammoth crap shoot that can be transcendent or horrendous from match to match, or even fall to fall. Lucha tends to be theatrical in a way that’s kind of like seeing live comedy: when it’s bad, it’s brutal, and when it’s great, there’s truly nothing better. Getting Meltzer to start watching Los Traumas matches isn’t particularly important to me, but more power to you. He actually seemed to see more CMLL this year than he had since probably 06/07, but his chief takeaways were that Cavernario’s going to end up as destroyed as the Dynamite Kid, and to keep praising Volador, Jr. for his own weird Dave reasons of what makes a top worker. Point being that you can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make that horse fully appreciate Virus. Lastly, since this came up like fifteen god-forsaken pages ago: I also do think it’s a fair criticism (esp. because it’s specific and visibly citable) to say that lucha refs often suck, and in most cases would suck less if they weren’t so old and creaky.

Styles as a heel champion who's recognized as the best athlete in the game. Ellsworth as the goof who alternates b/w getting in others' way as well as his own. Two bloodthirsty killers as tag champs. Miz as fashion plate heel, Dean as working class hero, Alexa as wide-eyed loon who can fight. Yes, the southeast territory vibe is real, and it runs laps around the Stamford Cabaret.

Kevin Owens [c] vs. Roman Reigns (Universal Title) Announcers at times seemed baffled at what to call or how to even talk about it for the first half of the match. Owens was so dominant for so long that it started to feel odd. Once Reigns’ comeback started, things improved: both had some good timing and camerawork in their favor. Owens’ top rope scoop suplex, the Superman punches, and the Drive-By all looked solid. I guess the finish was like, fine? If only as a way to weasel out of the show and into the Rumble, which seemed the point of this entire night altogether? I'm someone who's pretty big on ending the calendar year in a crowd-pleasing way, so in some respects two Shield Guys putting a popular comedy team of smarky pseudo-heels through tables is a fitting end to a weird and in many ways trivial year of RAW. Anyway, this was all pretty dumb and will be forgotten by next week, which is the true objective. Still, it really built to nothing beyond more Jericho-Owens teasing and the company entering year #4 of their blue balls for Reigns. At journey’s end, the Road was soundly Blocked, but was the Line properly Ended? Only the planks of semi-flattened table can say for certain.

Sasha Banks [c] vs. Charlotte (30-Minute “Iron Man” Match, Women’s Title) “A person who challenges you more than anyone else.” “Together, Charlotte and I have made history.” “Together, Sasha and I have raised the bar for the women’s division to unprecedented heights.” Come on, that stuff would read as excessively forced in a Steph-written press release about this match. First 5 mins: slow but steady. Charlotte’s heeling is a bit goofy at times, but at least she’s going for it and the thirst for pins is good. 10 mins in: heating up. Well-paced, and the big turning point spot 11 mins in is great. Also liked Sasha’s straitjacket submission. It felt obvious when Banks kicked out after getting essentially KO’ed that this was gonna be a tie game. 20 mins: Crowd has been pathetically dead for this. It’s an arena that has given nothing to matwork and submissions all night, and this match calls for a lot of matwork and submissions. This is way better than the response it’s getting. Some would argue Iron Man is a flawed concept as crowds don’t care until the last 2 minutes, but this deserves better. 25 mins: Charlotte’s throws and suplexes have been surprisingly awesome. Sucks that they botched the 1-1 tie, especially as it came too quick after Charlotte’s first pin. Crowd is still unfairly dead for this. Corey Graves accidentally gets the funniest moment of the night: “This is supposed to be the End of the Line!” Banks is not always a natural babyface (see “Your dad loves me more than he loves you!”), but this was a fantastic performance, blood and all. I really liked this one, but it's still the wrong winner at the wrong time, early response online suggesting that they’ve gone to this well too many times, with a title that feels more like a hot potato than a competitive division. So in that sense, maybe they really are trying to mimic UFC.

Rich Swann [c] vs. T.J. Perkins vs. Brian Kendrick (Cruiserweight Title) It’s as if Aries is accidentally allowed to be the new best announcer in the company, though that can be said of whoever’s newest to the gig and not yet crushed to silt. His Jesse Ventura imitation is pretty good. Kendrick’s goatee and belted tights make him look as old as he is. What was the story being told here? That Perkins is an idiot for not knowing that there are no disqualifications in Triple Threat matches? Is that even a well-established thing in WWE? I really liked him in EVOLVE, but dude is made to look like a real scrub out there. Weird, dull outing illustrating how little the RAW team understands this division - it's as if they told those guys to go out and have a bad match in order to make the post-match more appealing in contrast?

Seth Rollins vs. Chris Jericho Jericho concludes a year of horrible performances with yet another bad match against someone who doesn’t need him. He’s got to be in the running for top of whatever you want to call the metric of Push-Relatively-Opposed-to-Greatness (PROG?) All of his old chestnuts: audibly calling spots, limp restholds, failures of agility, and zero heat despite long control segments and preening to the crowd. Very low energy match, but in fairness, both guys are over enough to keep the crowd in it. Still, is this what even big fans of both guys would want out of a Rollins-Jericho match? Late in it they worked the concept of mutual exhaustion, but the whole thing was so slow you wonder if they’ve somehow been selling fatigue since the bell rang? Complete with WWE’s years-long favorite go-to stupid finish.

Braun Strowman vs. Sami Zayn (10-Minute Time Limit Challenge) This was actually quite good. Zayn’s been booked as an after-thought post-Mania, but this simple and effective. On a personal level, I enjoy that Braun’s look is that of a Bushwick hipster on HGH. Fatigues, shaved sides man-bun, bursting out of a low-cut deep V, complete with Foley coming out looking like an appalled Montessori school math teacher who’s disappointed to find the kids still fighting in the alley. They got over Braun’s hubris and Sami’s heart without having to give either an actual loss, in such a way that makes you want to see the rematch. Booking!

The New Day [c] vs. Cesaro/Sheamus (Tag Titles) Liked Big E’s offense, even as his selling seemed off at times (perhaps due to knowing the finish). Cesaro and Sheamus’ double-team work was awesome: they’re such strong bases that they can really work some crazy throws. Cesaro on his own was likewise good in his tope, Giant Swing, Neutralizer, Give New Day their due: they started the year with a mega-over performance in which they kind of embarrassed the babyface Usos at the Rumble, and were pretty steady all year even as their reign went longer than it might have under different circumstances. Both teams told a solid story in which the challengers were juggernauts, while the face champs worked like borderline heels who had to resort to Xavier interference and sneak attacks just to stay afloat. Owens thinks he’s the Rock when he buries these backstage interviewers, when he’s coming off more like La Resistance.

Pre-Show: Rusev vs. Big Cass Match was just a few minutes, worse than expected: just a way to get Enzo/Cass to do their intro for the crowd. Almost no action. Cass’ rampage was dull, looking like a Dan Spivey for our time. Rusev and Lana’s spirits seem totally broken. Rusev looking like he hasn’t slept in days, Lana going through the motions of her role like an improv beginner wander-mumbling through a scene. Even Renee’s reaction of shrugging after the match felt like a discreet burial of all involved. This Kickoff team is like watching the inmates from Titicut Follies try to sell a streaming network on live TV.

I think I'm just naively hoping that they won't change the women's title for a * sixth * time in eight months. In that promo package I mentioned earlier, it begins with Cole hyping Banks getting her first WWE championship back at the end of July, then moments later hollering about her "third Women's title win" on Nov 28th. It's been excessive even by modern-day standards.

‘Member when Sasha and Bayley were good talkers? Hype packages-on-repeat for Sasha/Charlotte suggest it might close out the show: makes sense if you wanna go with a face win to finish the year. The “rivals who bring out the best in each other / exceptional athletes / for serious, we respect women now” concept is real heavy-handed when the scripted promos are this bad, and they’ve had at least one or two matches too many in such a short span. WWE managed to make the feud suck despite the matches being great.

Kevin Owens [c] vs. Roman Reigns (Universal Title) Sasha Banks [c] vs. Charlotte (30-Minute “Iron Man” Match, Women’s Title) The New Day [c] vs. Cesaro/Sheamus (Tag Titles) Rich Swann [c] vs. TJP vs. Brian Kendrick (Cruiserweight Title) Seth Rollins vs. Chris Jericho Braun Strowman vs. Sami Zayn (10-Minute Time Limit Challenge) Pre-Show: Rusev vs. Big Cass At last, the Road-Endending has arrived. The second not-a-PPV of 2016 to be named “Roadblock” is moments away, and my predictions appear above in bold. The year’s final big-ish show is poised to make Tables, Ladders, and Chairs look like Great American Bash ’89: who ya got?

Togo-Hero: Not the best match of the year, but possibly my "favorite" match of the year. Both fought hard, and while the end result lacked singular "moments" beyond purely good wrestling, they both worked relentlessly and won over the crowd. The company had better matches this year, but Hero really put over Togo in his post-match promo, explaining the whole Vietnam/Bolivia gig and actually vomiting at the end of a match that clearly took it out of him. Two fantastic workers who on the strength of such a night could make my 2026 PWO All-Time 100 ballot.

Tracy/Yehi vs. Ricochet/Kaasa: I love Kaasa, but crowd was getting on him for looking like Scott Steiner, Marty Jannetty, and Barry Horowitz. I'd say in this case he was more like DGUSA's version of a Kikuchi who's bigger than his Kobashi. Some great Ricochet-Yehi exchanges here. This is EVOLVE's aim towards a 90s All Japan/2000s Dragon Gate hybrid, and it does feel fresh and intriguing. Crowd really shat upon Kaasa's look, but he did well here. One thing overall that this match made me wonder about is the ubiquitous influence of WWE on matches like this. Crowd was trying to pop one another even in the best moments of the match, to the point of doing Tye Dillinger chants more than once, and popped loudest for the displays of multiple simultaneous moonsaults. Some of the Ricochet stuff with Williams was choreographed to a fault, but ultimately saved by Kaasa's big suplexes thrown in for good measure. Yehi has the best front facelock in the business, and Williams' big flurry at the end redeemed a meandering performance. Crowd audibly booed the submission: like it or not, Ricochet was much more over than the local heroes.

Riddle-Cobb: And then the best act in wrestling came out. What doesn't get talked enough about in Riddle's work is that he is an amazing seller and a very generous worker to his opponents, the opposite of what ex-MMA guys tend to be. Surprise pin and an unexpectedly short match, but solid work from both, albeit kind of a letdown if you were expecting an epic. It's as if Sapolsky saw Goldberg-Lesnar and said, "Me too, Paul." Thankfully all I missed while peeing was a Stokely promo.

Cody-Page: Ethan Page continues *his* boyhood dream of looking like the Rock, i.e. The poor man's Dusty Rhodes. Match was solid but Cody in the Bullet Club doing meme wrestling is predictably stupid. I wanted him to bring some class to the indies and instead he's shook by the Brooklyn crowd and doing goofball comedy. Also: I hate fun and everyone but me is dumb. Seriously though: entertaining match even if it's the type of stuff that Parv would say kills the business (and he's not wrong). It was immature fuckery, but immature fuckery live looks a lot different than it does on film.

Darby-Cage: Another fantastic outing from Crash, who may be the most over act on the show halfway through. His two big bumps were great and Gabe got to fulfill his boyhood dream of doing a Paul Heyman-style "He's not quite dead" wave-off.

Dickinson-Dustin: Not a fan of either guy, but they worked some good schtick that kept the crowd into it. Taylor has real weak chops that the audience was mocking. Ended kind of abruptly, but props to Dickinson for improving from Generic Dude to Sure Brah.

Gulak-Jaka: one of the best EVOLVE matches I've seen all year. Really stiff strikes, and Gulak really stepped his game up from recent outings where he's felt a bit lacking. This really had everything you could ask for in terms of some flying in and out of the ring, a good pace, violent exchanges, and smart struggles for submissions. This woke up what had been a dead crowd coming in from the cold.