Cap

God I hate Money in the Bank. I know it has been said 100 times, but as a gimmick they bust out once in a long while when it fits with what is happening around the main event... I am fine with it. As an annual event... blah. Anyway, I just started the hulu version of raw and I thought KO vs Strowman was really good. I was expecting a squash there and they really delivered a solid little opening match match that got the show (and the qualifiers) kicked of nicely.

This was much better than I expected. It was kept at a pace and organized in a way that would let Cass shine a little. Bryan is Bryan. Dude makes Cass look great. I assumed this would be fine and I found it quite enjoyable. Everyone looks good coming out of this and the in ring work forwards the story they are telling. ***1/2 That all said... I don't want to see these two wrestle much more.

Updated after I started the GME project (starting to dig into some high end 70s and 80s British Wrestling and (re)watching some things people are nominating and recommending) and after 2018 has a hot start.

I am legit looking forward to this. I am not sure what they will do with it, but if they try to go big and long and epic I am sure there will a lot in their to appreciate (even if it isn't necessarily my favorite thing on the whole. Plus, if they go 90-120 and Meltzer gives it 10 stars wrestling twitter will be a raging tire fire for a few days and that is good for a laugh or the security that I am not missing anything important. If they go shorter and just do something different with the 2/3 falls that is probably going to make for a match I like better, so great. These big epic modern New Japan classics aren't necessarily my favorite thing in the world, but I still enjoy both these men all the same.

So I rewatched this the other day and it went down a notch for me. Don't get me wrong. I still think it is a GREAT match, something special, but given that it is getting some "greatest match ever" conversation, even a small downtick feels like a massive decline. As much as anything this match might be the best case study for different tastes, what people prioritize, context vs rewatch value, match rating vs story arch, etc etc etc. To me, his was a lot of fun, great drama, lots of interesting callbacks, but it is an in the moment match and has diminishing returns. For some people that in-the-momentness will be the most important part of wrestling and that is cool. However, when I am rating or thinking about match quality in any way, rewatch value is very important to me and there are at least 2 matches this year alone (maybe 3 or 4) that have more rewatch value, that keep me engaged outside of thier emotional and narrative context. I don't completely disregard context so this is still a real MOTY candidate and I would be shocked if it fell out of my top 5 or 10 for the year, but I am moving away from this as a potential all timer, myself.

To be clear.... I thought Reigns would win and I wanted Reigns to win at Mania I thought Reigns would win and I wanted Reigns to win at GRR I like Reigns and I wish they would have pulled the trigger by now. That said, I just don't think this is some kind of end. WWE is such a short cycle promotion. By November or January we could be talking about how great the last 7-9 moths of build for Reigns were and how they really turned around the main event. Sure, this seems like nonsense booking to us, but I don't feel like the broader audience sees this the same way. If WWE/mainstream wrestling in general functionally operated on long term cycles... yeah, he would be dead. But it doesn't. no one is watching WWE for their long term booking right now. This is esp true on a glorified money mark house show that was more or less a big commercial for SA - for fuck sake HHH v Cena... Rusev v Taker. Honesty, a rich man's child booked a lot of this indirectly by telling his dad what he liked.... right? They fucked up the story and they fucked up the Reigns push... royally, but he isn't' dead and I would be shocked if he is going away. He will likely plug along and put on great matches for the foreseeable future. I don't know how they handle him or how they get him over, but guess is that if they just let him keep being great for a while away from the title people will actually latch on fast.

I feel like he is overrated. I have never really been into him, never got it. To me his matches are actively uninteresting and he drags everything he is in down. But that might be just a matter of taste and not connecting. There are a few exceptions of course, but generally speaking I feel like all (or most of) the praise he gets is is overstated based on my take.

I am sure it has been said 1000 times, but this was the biggest money mark show ever and that was it. There was some fun stuff, bu whatever. I am 99% sure the son of some prince or other influential man in Saudi Arabia indirectly booked the entire thing by telling their dad who they wanted to see and who they wanted to win.

Samurai feels underrated to me, but that might be a pendulum thing or a matter of circles. I feel like he isn't praised all that much anymore, but I love me some Sammy. He feels like a great underdog worker who can get the shit beat out of him and fire back about as well as anyone. A buddy of mine once said he was convinced that Zayn modeled some of his hope spots and comebacks after Samurai. Love him. Speaking of pendulums.... i feel like Dynamite is sort of underrated now. He seems like a case of the hype getting out of hand and people going a bit too far in the opposite direction. I see people more or less dismiss him out of hand now and I still thoroughly enjoy his work from when he was in his prime.

I prefer cagematch on the whole. The interface is just easier for the stuff I am usually looking for. However, Wrestlingdata is where I turn if I can't find something on cagematch. Both are great resources.

Wow... I just checked it for something on Monday. Hopefully that is temporary.

That's funny because I was considering rating Kandori as overrated. But then I stopped myself because she is awesome, has produced a ton of quality work. I basically agree with all of the points made above. But I think the pendulum effect is in full effect with her, in certain circles atleast. The narrative years ago was that she's very limited and Hokuto carried her in Dreamslam (which is obvious bull) but now some people are stating that she actually smokes Hokuto and has always been one of the only worthwhile joshi workers in history. That is interesting. I just got into Joshi about two years ago and in that relatively short time I have always felt like I was the high vote on her in any conversation I was in, including around here. It wasn't that anyone was actually down on her, but the implication was always there that it was the Hokuto show (and to a lesser extent the Devil show, or the Bull show... basically whoever she was facing or teaming with in high profile match), So I just assumed that was the tone on her. I haven't run into people who see her on that top tier. I am not saying they don't exist, of course, just commenting on how a lot of this what circles you are discussing wrestling in. I an definitely see her being "overrated" is people are touting her like you described. Obviously I am somewhere between the two extreme examples given, but she always felt like the stand out performer to me (remember, relatively limited exposure). Now I want to go watch Kandori matches.

Shinobu Kandori would be one of my top picks for "underrated". I know she is praised for some of her high end work and is generally well regarded, but she is my favorite female wrestler ever and I see her as legit in that top tier of joshi workers. I think the balance she was able to strike between legit bad ass to hang with your Ajas and Bulls and the vulnerability she could show because of her stature to sell for anyone when needed was singular really. She can put her foot on the gas and elevate the intensity of a match, she can let others shine, she can be the glue that holds stuff together. I also think she excels at stoic, nuanced selling in a way akin to Misawa at times. That isn't always my thing, but it isn't always her game either.

Man... these two just can't have anything other than a great match. This was a ton of fun. I would say it is just a half notch under their PWG match last year (haven't seen their recent Evolve match). It starts hot with Walter getting aggressive and establishing that we are dealing mauling bear Walter. Sabre fires back with strikes that he knows well and good aren't going to down the big man, but he is trying to piss him off and get him to make a mistake/wear himself out. It establishes the entire tone of the match right off the bat. The match features lots of big strikes and brutality. It also features some really cool counters as Sabre baits Walter into the aforementioned mistakes and really works over the arm. I like that they go back to tease the finish from PWG. This time though Walter is a step ahead and catches Sabre. You can see it in his eyes that Sabre knows he is caught immediately. The timing of the finish was really great stuff. ****1/2 for me right now. I came away thinking this was one of the best two matches I saw live and one of the best three matches of the weekend. Seeing it on tape, it really held up nicely. I think the lack of commentary helped it. You could feel the crowd following this one a little better. I will watch this one again down the road. I don't think it will wind up with top marks from me, but it might bump up

That is really the jist of a lot of this and of course it extends well beyond ol' Dave.

This was a gut punch. I said on twitter that there will never be another Bruno. It isn't really a hot take on this board, but he is a criminally underrated in ring performer, someone who really knew how to make he most of what he could do, and an absolutely larger than life persona. Bruno was as pro wrestling as it gets, man. We lost a true legend.

I actually kind of don't like that match. I think it is good overall, but on personal taste I am not a fan at all. It like the opposite of the classic Favorite/Best delima. I understand that it is a good match and completely get why people like it... but ick.

Between this, people losing their minds over him saying the Miz was a waste of a Bryan feud, and twitter getting in a hissy every time he drops five stars I kind of don't get it anymore. Sure, he could have waited a day or worded this better or whatever, but I honestly don't think it would matter. People love getting riled up for Meltzer and most (not all, most) of the people who get riled up are the ones who say he is full of shit, out of touch, and/or just doesn't have the scoops anymore. I am not trying to say Dave doesn't have clout or influence (quite the opposite), but the logic of how so many people engage that dude and his work is mind blowing. People have made such a villain out of him (and in some ways he has perpetuated that process) that I think a huge section of wrestling fans (at least wrestling twitter) really revels in calling him out and juxtaposing themselves/their takes and knowledge against his in a way that they think makes them look smart or superior. I didn't love the tweet and I think it was perfectly reasonable to not be thrilled about it, but it seems like it took a lot of people's attention away from Bruno and put it on Meltzer or their own self righteous responses to him and that is at least as much their fault as it is Metlzers I think.

I actually just rewatched this today. I thought it was really pretty good and a load of fun. Sawa really came to perform on Mania weekend and cut right to the chase in this one. It was a great combination of tight grappling and some stiff strikes. They flowed into different sections of the match really well and built to the finish in a way that made everything feel that much more meaningful once the bell rang.

I am not the high vote on either one of these guys, but this match blew me away. I just rewatched it last night for the first time since seeing it live and I loved it even more. This is my favorite version of each guy. Ospreay had an all time performance with his selling, his grit, and his comebacks. Riddle should be a big dominant, borderline heel champion like this all the time. The spot off the ropes that brought the refs out looked absolutely brutal. Ospreay's hope spots late in the match were absolutely incredible. They played off Ospreay's match with Scurll (another match that I surprisingly high on) really well and produced the best match I saw live on the weekend and probably the second best match overall. I think this is a legit great match that achieved an emotional high at a time when the room was starting to fade just a bit. ****1/2 (I could see me bumping this down the road - that is how high I am on this).

I am pretty sure my wife heard the chops from this match on Bourbon St. This was a late replacement and they did everything they could to make everyone forget that. it was really awesome stuff. This is more proof that Walter is probably best in the world and Williams is probably undervalued on the whole.

I need to watch it again eventually, but I really didn't like this live. it was great in terms of the action, but it just didn't make much sense to me. Riddle worked like he was a big man against Sekimoto and even though there isn't a huge size difference, the roles just felt like they should be flipped. I would have loved to see Riddle take a bit of a beating and work some firing comebacks. That would have highlighted the strengths of both more. Anyway, I know it isn't fair to judge matches based on what you want rather than what it was, but this just didn't do much for me.

One of the most under the radar matches of the weekend. These two beat the shit out of each other. I think both guys came to try to steal the show and they might have (at least in terms of this show). I loved this one, fantastic... brutal... really engaging.

Judging the match in the context of genre expectations rather than the context of the feud just feels counter-intuitive to me. If they had come in and grappled it would have felt completely disjointed from the heat they had built (not to mention where each character was at that point). Why should the entire feud and the personas involved change direction just because the match is titled a "submission match"? No one has to like a match they don't like, that is just where I feel a disconnect with your take on Austin/Breat

I won't disagree with anyone about the F5 mess. That pulled the match down a good bit. It was inexcusable nonsense.