InYourCase

I have nothing to say other than the fact that I'm really, really enjoying this so far.

Liger making motorboat sounds on commentary was the greatest. Eight-Man Opener: *** Ibushi & Komatsu vs. Naito & Tanaka: ***1/4 Bullet Club B Team vs. TenKoji & Honma: **1/2 RPG Vice vs. reDRagon vs. Young Bucks: ***3/4 Omega vs. Shelley: *** Six-Person Fiasco: DUD Sakuraba, Yano, & Ishii vs. Tanahashi, Shibata, & Makabe: **3/4 Styles & Yujiro vs. Okada & YOSHI-HASHI: **1/4 Nakamura vs. Goto: N/R I have very mixed feelings about this card. The first two matches and the Jr. Tag Title match were all fun. Hell, Nakanishi’s dive was the best thing I’ve seen all year. Four out of the five Bullet Club performances, however, were bad. A Honma win is typically great but being in Fukuoka sucks the life out of anything that should be exciting. Wasn’t feeling the Omega match. I had high expectations going in and this wasn’t what I was hoping for. Take out the trash can spots and I think I would’ve really liked it. On a positive note, I thought Omega’s post-match promo was excellent. Nothing needs to be said about the IG match. “Serious Love Story” made me pop but I absolutely hated this match. The next two multi-man matches were there. For once in my lie I didn’t like something Ishii did. I thought he and Makabe’s felt forced. I liked their match earlier in the week but this wasn’t a good continuation of that. Yano throwing a water bottle at Tanahashi makes me laugh every time. The rest of the act doesn’t. I saw the main event but I don’t remember a thing about it. Will be rewatching it later today. So the undercard, sans Omega/Shelley, over delivered. It was fun to watch at the very least. The second half of the show sucked. Obviously that’s without rating the main event, but the three matches before that were dull and not enjoyable at all. Thumbs in the middle.

Favourite style of wrestling? There's not a lot of wrestling styles a don't like. Enjoy strong style and whatever you would consider Dragon Gate. Typically I just don't care for Lucha or "WWE style" matches filled with headlocks, pointless holds, and finisher spamming kickouts. Favourite way wrestling is presented? I love when wrestling is presented as a legitimate competition (90's All Japan) but I also like some fun mixed into sport. That's what I think of when I think Dragon Gate. World class athletes like Mochizuki, YAMATO, and Tozawa mixed in with some fun undercard matches. I like a variety up and down the card. Favourite type of match? Trios matches. There's so much you can accomplish with trios matches. It's a good way to load up on star power in a match, yet protect those guys by having one of the lesser stars take the fall. There are so many different ways to progress feuds when trios stuff is done right. That's where All Japan thrived, imo. Kawada, especially, had such a knack of staying interesting even when he wasn't the one doing a majority of the action. I love the way he or Misawa or Kobashi would interact with Taue or Jumbo on the apron. It's such an easy way to build up a big match. Trios matches can also just be fun spotfests, which I think are needed in wrestling and I welcome with open arms. It's nearly impossible to duplicate a trios match. Favourite gimmick match? One that I'm sure everyone on the site will disagree with - the Dragon Gate DEAD or ALIVE cage match. I completely understand that it's not for everyone, even some DG fans, but it's a match that is always so wacky and innovative and I absolutely love it. War Games and Dog Collar matches are things I also really enjoy. Favourite wrestler? All-time? Kenta Kobashi, Daniel Bryan, and Masaaki Mochizuki. Currently? Tomohiro Ishii by a mile and a half. Matt Sydal would be second. Favourite match? 12/3/93 HDA vs. Misawa/Kobashi is the first one that comes to mind simply because Kawada's performance absolutely blew me away the first time I saw it. The 6/9/95 and 12/6/96 tags would also be in consideration. Honorable mention to Do Fixer vs. Blood Generation from 7/3/2005. Favourite feud? Danielson vs. Morishima Favourite angle? Jesus Christ I have no clue. Favourite promotion/period of wrestling? All Japan 1990-1995, ROH 2005-2007, and New Japan 2012-now Little things that happen in wrestling that you always love? Minoru Suzuki and Toru Yano facial expressions.

I don't think he's adapted poorly with his injury at all. He still has to get over and as much as I like some of his grappling work, that's not going to get over with the WWE audience. Plus, I think Bryan's a smart enough guy to know what style he can work and what style he can't. The only reason he's out of action currently is because of a concussion, which I believe was at the fault of Sheamus. I actually came to the thread to bring up how Bryan is able to adapt so well. Currently going through his best-of from wXw and it's amazing how he adapts in front of every crowd. I'm probably not as high on his early ROH stuff as most people. Something about him from 2002-2003 just never clicked with me the way it did with others. That said, since then, he's been able to do so many different and great things with his in-ring style and his character. He's an elite brawler (Morishima and Sheamus matches), obviously a tremendous technical wrestler as shown during his entire ROH title run, and his later years on the indies when he adapted more of a shoot-style has been very fun to watch recently. Not to mention the fact that he got over in NOAH during a time when no gaijin were pushed or really over, for that matter, and while much of Europe is a big blank spot for me, he's been over there for what seems like a million tours and his wXw work has been tremendous thus far. Bryan, now that I've been thinking about who the greatest wrestler of all-time is, comes to my mind immediately. Especially because he's worker such a variety of styles better than anyone else that I know of. I don't think you can hold the 2015 run against him. His match quality was still high when he was healthy and I don't doubt that *if* he returns, his matches will continue to be great.

Hey what's up guys? Some of you may know me from Twitter (@_InYourCase) and others may know me from the VOW forum, but if not, I'm Case. Big fan of all Japanese wrestling. 90's All Japan is my bread & butter, early-2000's NOAH is pretty damn great, and I love the current New Japan and Dragon Gate products. I've been a lurker of the forum for quite a longtime as the GWE project really caught my interest. I won't be putting together a list, but I'd love to add my input on a handful of wrestlers. Looking forward to expanding my pro graps knowledge. Thanks~!