Laz

Caught some Miyahara matches last night just to see if modern AJPW was something I could get into. Given that I loathe Tanahashi, and that Miyahara is basically the store brand Tanahashi, my answer is no. No it is not.

I'll say this: Nick Gage after working for Beyond is lightyears better than Nick Gage as a CZW exclusive, and he's a guy that grows on you for the reasons Sleaze stated. He's authentic in an era where most wrestlers are trying to be outlandish and colorful. Don't just watch one match, watch a few over the last couple of years. Stick to his non-deathmatch stuff, too.

Shlak, allegedly, has ties to Neo-Nazi groups, even though he and most people associated with him have denied it (while outright saying he's an asshole edgelord). He's definitely a scumbag, for sure, but he's been associated positively with too many folks that Neo-Nazis despise for him to actually be one.

If he wanted a spot? He'd get it. Also, I can't lie: I'd mark the fuck out if he randomly showed up for a match and then left.

Ranking from most enjoyed to least... 1) Darby Allin vs. Sammy Guevara, 2) Jon Moxley vs. Chris Jericho, 3)PAC vs. Orange Cassidy, 4) Cody vs. MJF, 5)Omega/Page vs. Young Bucks, 6)Jake Hager vs. Dustin, 7)Nyla Rose vs. Kris Statlander The drop from the first 4 to the bottom 3 is pretty steep for me, too. The tag match had me going more than any Omega match I've ever seen before...until it became every other Omega match and just went full Return of the King for the last 15 minutes.

Solid ME, tipped the show overall into a positive for me. They need to convince the usual suspects that 40 minutes of a Street Fighter match does not make for a great wrestling match, or that Nyla Rose isn't a liability in waiting.

Mox/Jericho could save this show for me. Darby/Sammy, MJF/Cody, and PAC/Orange have all been varying levels of good, with the rest ranging from meh (Hager/Dustin) to infuriating (tag titles) to embarrassing (Nyla/Statlander).

0/2 tonight for title matches that didn't make me wish I was doing something else. I'm glad Page won and was made tonight but it didn't take 15 minutes of nearfalls and garbage MOVEZ~ to get it done. Nyla is fucking dangerous and will hurt somebody soon, Statlander carried her kicking and screaming to a "watchable by 1996 standards" midcard match. Sammy, Darby, and MJF are money.

You're not asking about popularity, you're asking about importance. Goldberg required being booked like an invincible wrecking machine and still only mattered for a year. A. Year. Jericho, meanwhile, served as an entry point for many US fans to discover Japanese wrestling thanks to his performances in the Super J-Cup. He was also one of the first examples of a hot WCW talent jumping ship to the WWF and led the charge for Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko, and Saturn to bail months later. He was part of the workrate boost in the company during the year 2000 and has been a pivotal talent during each subsequent run.

Hart over Rock. The Montreal Screwjob brought back the attention of wrestling fans who'd wandered away, even folks like my parents that stopped watching in the 80s. The Rock benefitted amazingly from the attention and drew more money, sure, but a lot of that money involved Steve Austin...who was 100% legitimized in the WWF via the Hart feud. Liger over Taker. I can't lie, I'm a bigger Taker fan than I am of Liger, but the Junior/Cruiserweight/etc. style of wrestling doesn't look the same without Liger. Jericho over Goldberg. Easy one on every level. He was instrumental in helping cruiser-relegated talent into the ME of the WWF, gave us one of best feuds of the 00s when paired with HBK, and is now reigning as the top guy in the hot new company. Goldberg...had a great run for most of 1998 and never mattered again. Nash over JYD. Not only did Nash take part in the nWo at the start until the end, but he also changed the way the contract situations work in the big leagues. Downside guarantees, diversified jobs meaning diversified pay, reinforcing collective bargaining...Big Kev worked the workers better than anybody. Bryan over Styles. If you asked me a decade ago? My answer would be the opposite. Bryan's rise to the top, forced retirement, run as authority figure, and miraculous return was something that will overshadow everything AJ meant to the 00s scene and a dead(ish) company any day.

Solid show, but I didn't care for the tag title match or the cage match nearly as much as everybody else did. Legit felt that Statlander/Shanna was the MotN, but that might just be my Statlander mark side coming through. AEW needs to better space their segments and format the shows, still. The Nyla promo, especially with Statlander and Swole coming out after, would've been better served later in the night instead of right after the women's match, let the people breathe a bit. We also had two matches in an hour where the story was "hired muscle wears down babyface opponent for heel boss." At least the cage match had a memorable finish and Cody gigging, Cobb/Moxley had an extended chinlock sequence. In 2020. Revolution is shaping up to be a fun show. Next week's main is going to be a snoozer until Page does something to fuck Kenny over.

Decided to try this week's Fusion (Mance/Havoc, no ropes barbed wire) and it will all be worth it, no matter if every match is awful, to hear Kota Brasil say "Cinnabons, that's what you got?" as if it were a good comeback.

Blame nobody but the performer. People can disagree with critics and their reviews, and it happens constantly with other forms of performance. If some schmuck getting into the business thinks carving themselves up is what audiences want to see then let them, if they think gymnastics and lame comedy is the way to go then all the more power to them. Trends come and go.

Even if we're going to argue that Vince's blame is over simplifying things, he literally signed off on everything that made it to TV. Mankind sitting down with JR and telling the story about being Mick Foley, then, was McMahon approved, which means Vince gets the blame and the credit (just how, according to Foley's books, Vince wants it). The popularity of big stunts and violence can be laid at Foley's feet, sure, but those were already gaining steam thanks to ECW and tape traders anyway. Mick didn't invent the deathmatch, after all, he did them because he was good at them and it paid the bills. I don't think you can peg these issues solely on him, though, nor do I think that these are necessarily the "ills" of modern wrestling. I'd be far more willing to blame whatever performer you currently dislike than somebody who retired 20 years ago, at least. Nobody's making Nick Gage jam thumbtacks and broken glass in his back, nobody's putting a gun to Joey Janela's head and saying "dive off the ladder or I squeeze the trigger." These are adults doing what they need/want to do in order to make money in their profession of choice, and you follow the money. The audience existed pre-Foley, he just happened to do it the best.

If we're seriously talking Foley leading to wrestling's detriment for being a major star who a) didn't look like an athlete and b) did stupid violent shit to get over...like, are we going to forget the Sheik? Abdullah the Butcher? Half of the stars of the 50s/60s/70s who look like they have more in common with my uncle's softball league than a professional athlete? As if pro wrestling was ever some sacred artform and not just a way to get people's money by giving them some form of violence. If anything, I'd give Mick credit for proving that you didn't need to use juice in a post-Hulk world to get over. Taking big bumps and doing dangerous shit might have become more commonplace after him, sure, but Onita was doing it to a greater degree before Foley. Mick was deemed an "American Onita," after all. Not much different to me than German punk/metal bands taking cues from American/British ones and upping the ante, as evolution tends to do. Besides, most people wouldn't know what Mick did if not for the WWF. Just like @War is Raw said above: Vince is 99% to blame there. As for selling the idea of the performer over the performance, I'm putting my money on that being a natural evolution of the business. Those interviews with JR happened after the nWo blurred the reality line, and it was going to happen anyway as the internet was on the rise. Just like musicians didn't sell songs anymore but entire packages, selling the lifestyle brand over the quality of product itself, pro wrestling followed suit.

It's okay. You tried. Tyson and JB would be proud of you.

Austin's entire reason for being a beer-swilling, foul-mouthed redneck who wouldn't take shit was directly related to how he was treated in WCW. This was part of his gimmick and selling point, regularly referenced in WWF-approved media. If you want to point the finger? Point it at Vince McMahon. Montreal did more to solidify the themes of "performer behind the gimmick" than Mick Foley did, and that acknowledgment of reality behind the scenes is what turned Vince from about to file bankruptcy into a billionaire.

...didn't WWF run lame comedy segments when Foley was still training? RD Reynolds says yes.

It's an "edgy" dad joke from the guy whose rise to prominence involved pretending to be naked under a trenchcoat while carrying a Super Soaker. It's also similar to a joke from the movie Mafia!, where Christina Applegate is shocked to learn she had a son.

...so I'm really the only one who didn't think the joke was all that bad?

I'm just waiting for Brandi Rhodes Pastamania at this point.

Hangman Page poured a glass of Jack at the bar and then sipped a glass of iced tea on commentary. Some of us can tell the difference by sight and I'm not sure what that says. Either way, I actually dug him in a "frustrated middle manager" sense, and I think he'd be far more over if he actually did some cowboy shit instead of just using it for a t-shirt and trying to spam 2006's "indie wrestler starter pack" moveset. Cody/Darby was awesome and an early MOTYC for me. Dustin/Sammy was insanely fun with the right finish, and Sammy's promo in the crowd leading to Jericho's video promo about the car and then sealing it with Sammy using the cue cards to promo during the PIP commercial break was BEAUTIFUL. That is the kind of shit that makes AEW stand out, far more than any flippity-dippity spotfest could.

Very, very good show. Weakest part was the ME, IMO, but everything else kept my attention and ranged from enjoyable to daaaaaaamn good.

He's within his rights under parody law to profit from those shirts without Corny's permission or approval. If a wrestler with money had done the same then Corny wouldn't have a chance.

It looks like any other undercard "workrate" match between young talent to me. They need to snug it up, sure, but to act like this is an embarrassment when PRINCE KHARIS was a thing that Corny did is fucking asinine.