Cap

That is my guess. Obviously, you have far more insight than I do, so I really hope you are right. Regardless. I am ready to get behind CWF as a company here and support them as they move forward. I expect that roster is ready to show that the company doesn't NEED any one man.

I think opinions on the match vary wildly. When it first hit I heard a lot of podcasters and read a lot of opinion makers share your feelings. I personally never got it. I loved the match and on second and third watch found it even grew on me. That said, I can see why you feel the way you do. I don't think you are at all alone on an island on this one.

https://www.pwtorch.com/site/2018/01/10/mitchell-cwf-mid-atlantic-brad-stutts-split/ For those interested Bruce Mitchell wrote the above article about the situation. The piece is solid. I think it was necessary given the sort of buzz for answers and the increasing circulation of rumors that were unsubstantiated. It sheds some light on the case and more or less confirms at least a vague version of the story that was getting traction. It also positions the issues in a broader context, which I think was helpful. That said, it is rightfully being criticized for making Stutts a peripheral character of sorts. It reads very much like Stutts' version of what happened. Themes such as "Stutts being Stutts" and him being blinded by the money and women sort of place responsibility in the same room with Stutts, but not necessarily with Stutts. I have no personal horse in this race. I don't know anyone involved and I don't know any details for myself, so maybe that is as accurate as it gets with regard to this situation. I really don't know. To be honestly, I hope it is and I hope he can turn things around for his family and be a better person. I will say this. I take my wife to CWF shows. She isn't a huge wrestling fan but she goes because I love it and she likes going with me. She has always felt safe, but I won't (and we wont) be a part of any Stutts second chance tours in the future if that comes to pass. I believe in second chances on the whole, but I also think wrestling on the whole has to do much better and companies have to commit themselves to being better long term, to making decisions for the betterment of wrestling as a whole over buddies and/or short term profit. It isn't just about Stutts, of course. Its about the bigger picture. There is too much wrestling out there for me to put my time, energy, and money into a company that I know would knowingly make any decisions that would compromise fan safety or their experience. I know there are a lot of companies that do worse and I don't know the full story, but I know enough to be happy that CWF did the right thing here. I really hope that they (and other companies involved in this and similar issues around the globe) continue to do the right thing to make sure all fans feel safe and welcome.

No... AJ didn't carry Nak. Nak has been a big match, cruise control guy for a while. Maybe not to this extent, but I don't know if he has had a schedule like this in the past. Nakamura doesn't need to be carried he just needs to be motivated. That is - of course - in itself a problem, but its a different problem.

My Man! I can't wait to dig into some of this! I really enjoyed this, PeteF3. I did a little review on the match page. I am not 100% sure how to judge or rate it on the whole because of just dipping my toes in here, but this feels like an elite match to me. I am looking forward to digging in more on some WOS. Great match! Much appreciated http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/35046-clive-myers-vs-steve-grey-joint-promotions-11221975/?p=5827474

So Secret Santo brings mere here as I was given this match by PeteF3 because I was hoping to finally get into some WOS this year. Damn... what a start. I have caught some WOS sporadically before this, mostly Regal and Finlay stuff from various comps or dives on each guy in the past. This is sort of something else all together. I loved this match. I think WOS - at this point for me - is this sort of beautiful spectacle. I can find myself distracted when watching even the pacy offense-heavy indie stuff from today, and I really enjoy a lot of modern indies. This had me glued to the TV. The way they moved was incredible. They were so fluid and athletic. I loved the dynamic between the heavier, stronger Myers against the smaller, tactical Grey, who has a chip on his shoulders in the match. They dynamic took me a second to get into. I came away appreciating the mix of showboating, feeling out, and bursts of intensity where each sees an opening. Grey frustrating Myers to the point of making mistakes or letting his guard down was great. Myers looking like he was sort of taking things lightly only to get frustrated with Grey in places and come out with a little bit more of an edge after nearly every exchange gave the match a really cool story. The ebbs and flows of intensity are somewhat different than what I am obviously used to coming into this somewhat cold - esp since I was watching PR brawls right before this - but they really tell a compelling story that I think is pretty easy to get into. This feels like some world class stuff to me. I am looking forward to getting more into WOS and then taking another look at this after I start to pick up a more nuanced picture of the style. Fantastic Stuff

Man, I hope that isn't true. Not because I have any affinity for Stutts, I just just hope that wasn't happening. I guess that logic goes for whatever he did. I would be lying if I said I wasn't curious. However, my focus is going to be on supporting CWF here. I am looking forward to seeing what comes next for them.

I wondered when this would pop up over here. CWF is like my home promotion. I am two hours from it and try to make it down as much as I can. I don't know anyone there or know anything about what happened (past what has been circulating on Twitter. Stutts is on the outs with multiple companies and I think - for better or worse - that is going to change the landscape a bit. The one thing that has really taken me about this is how motivated the CWF folk seem by this. I wonder if - aside from what actually caused the firing - they were a little insulted by the idea that one man was the whole reason they were doing well. It seemed like some of them where. They seem to be approaching this as a unified company out to prove they are are going to be just fine and I tend to believe that to be true. I wish I could be down there this weekend to show my support.

My Man! I can't wait to dig into some of this!

They could pretty quickly put the belt on Nia if they wanted. I would much rather see Nia get a long run with the belt, Wrestlemania season has lately been the season of shotgunning the belt around.

I think this is probably true. Still trying to figure out where Angle fits into Wrestlemania. Will they do father vs son? Where are they ultimately going there? I'm also expecting Bray, New Day, Usos, Balor, The Bar, Rollins, Samoa Joe, Miz, and maybe the Bludgeon Brothers to have matches on the show, but I don't know what they'll do or if they can fit them all in without multi-mans. Yeah, it feels like they are setting up a lot of big singles matches and even with a long show they are going to run out of room. There will obviously be a big multi person ladder match somewhere in there. I have a feeling we are getting at least one multi team tag team match, maybe even cross brand. I have been holding out hope that we somehow, some way get The Bar vs The Revival, even if its on the pre show. I can see them wanting the Revival to work Rollins/Jordan though if they keep the belts on them. I really hope Joe gets a good spot on the card. I think he has worked really hard all year, been deceptively good, and helped a lot of other guys shine. As for this Nakamura talk, Wrestlemania hasn't been about who deserves it for a while. Nakamura in a title match (main, co-main, who cares what you call it because it will be advertised heavily) will appeal to some key subsections of fans, particularly international fans. I haven't paid careful attention to raw or sd, but I though Nak was getting decent reactions still. Let him eliminate Jason Jordan at the end of the Rumble or something and everyone will lose their minds for it. Especially if Nakamura can put in even a semi-inspired effort at the Rumble, he will win fans in that setting. I don't worry at all about the buzz surrounding Nakamura vs Styles. I think the match sells itself and I still think it will deliver in the ring.

PeteF3... it looks like you have one to catch up on as is, but I'll add one to your back log for this week. Not sure if you are a CWF fan, but here is a pretty fun one. Trevor Lee vs Brad Attitude for the CWF Mid Atlantic Championship (Champ can lose the belt on a DQ, Challenger can't be DQed) It is the second match on the link, starts around the 26 minute mark If you have seen it let me know and I will shoot something else your way.

If that does happen, I hope he turns it up for the Styles match since I’ll be there. I was really pumped at the thought back when I bought my plane ticket to NOLA but he has been so uninspired. I'll also be there! My gut tells me that Nakamura will show up big for Mania and then more or less ride out his contract and go back to Japan. I feel like he is checking boxes at this point. A mania main event and a title run would more or less put WWE in the bag for him. Nakamura shows up at big shows. Their match in NJPW a couple years back was excellent (IMO).

I'll never be 100% happy with my list. We could do this for a month or 5 years and I would probably feel the same once I submit my list.

I agree. I sort of hate feeling like I HAVE to watch things. At this point (and this very well could change) I don't feel that way about this project because I have a base list already. Sure, I want to rewatch some stuff and I will want to watch new things, but I am not holding myself to watching every hyped match ever. I will get to what I can while watching stuff I enjoy. I could submit a list today that I would feel pretty ok about. The way my list grows is a bonus. Again, this might change as the project evolves and I feel pressure to see things.

I'm changing my Rumble win prediction from Reigns to Nakamura. Nak will need the big rumble win for his tittle match, reigns wont.

yeah... that is my only real legit concern here for myself. But there are worse problems to have than watching too much classic wrestling in a year and some change. I am guessing that my appreciation for matches that AREN'T all time classics will actually grow.

No worries at all. I just wanted to reroute a bit back to the project at hand. I imagine there will be podcasting. Project seems ripe for it.

I hope we don't go too far down a rabbit hole here. That wasn't my intent. GWE was a great project that I think most people found a lot of value in. I have endless appreciation for those who put time and effort into the project and into producing content about the project. Lets not get too caught up on what that project was. GME is up and running. I am really happy with how the nomination process has gone so far. We have had a few small hiccups on our end, but nothing serious. The match list is growing rapidly and there is a ton of diversity there. I am looking forward to digging into some new stuff and seeing what might work its way into my own list and/or shape my tastes a bit.

Agreed... and to be clear for my part. I am extremely grateful for GWE. I got introduced to a ton of good wrestling. I didn't participate, but I followed it closely and came away with zero hard feelings toward anyone individually.

Thats a good one

I don't remember GWE as a dark thing, but I think its clear that the ethos of the board changed going into the homestretch and then coming out of the project. I have said here many times that I completely understand why, but it doesn't change the fact that there was clearly some negative feelings coming out of it. Emotions ran high one time and now everyone is most over it. That is a thing to poke a little fun at from time to time. That's all people are doing. I don't worry about this having the same effect. I think generally people are going to find it easier and less stressful. There will be more nominees but each nominee represents one match. In GWE each nominee represented countless matches, promos, runs, feuds, etc. It was overwhelming and much more unwieldy. Even in the massive age of footage now it felt like accessing everything to catch up on certain people was impossible. With GME you just find the match or ask around. You don't need 30+ hours of footage to keep up with some of our more knowledgeable and dedicated peers to understand a nominee. Sure, context matters, but it is still less of an undertaking to grasp a nominee than GWE demanded, in my opinion. The biggest issue with GWE causing such strife I think was that a lot of people put massive amounts of time and energy into it because it was so unwieldy, took the standards very seriously, and then saw that other people didn't put the same effort into the project specifically, even if they had watch a ton of wrestling and knew what they were talking about. I suspect between GME being at least a little less complicated in terms of variables and how many people learned from GWE that this just wont have he same type of results. That said, I am sure there will be people who passive aggressively dismiss people who don't see wrestling like them or haven't watched as much wrestling or whatever. There will be miscommunications, insults, and people will get upset. Its the internet. I have hope that this can work more as a project to share great matches with one another than anything else. Also, I am sure when HBK vs Taker finishes #1 and #2 I'll be exceedingly bitter and have to eat my words in this post too.

I am already looking for who I will hate for the rest of my life because of this whole thing. Also looking for some people to dismiss out of hand. Can't wait!

Francine from ECW just got on twitter and its sort of hilariously endearing. She is such a mom on witter. For example, I think it was this morning she explained that her kids are home for a snow day so its going to be arts and crafts today at home. An hour later she is like, "i guess people like me so I'll work some shirts and pictures for you all to buy" I don't know why but her twitter growth is entertaining to me.

I am really surprised I didn't hear more hype about this. I loved it. Maybe I am being contrarian, but this was my favorite match between the two in NXT. I thought the early limb work and joint manipulation was fantastic. The pacing was almost WOS-esque (at least a pretty hard nod to the style/era). The counters were great. This had hatred and malice, even for a Dunne match. Bate's ear is bleeding. They pace things out nicely. The reverses and counters all make sense. I really liked a lot of the little things they did. The hand work comes back in key spots, with Bate not being able to keep a grip in a pin or needing to sell it after delivering a massive right hand. My only small thing is that they did go a little heavy on the big moves for my personal taste later in the match. I was enjoying more the gritty close combat stuff, but I thought they set up the logic of their dynamic well in a way that kept everything coherent. Bate is more athletically gifted, but Dunne has his number because he is tactical and takes advantage of Bate's youthful mistakes. They played that up perfectly to the very end. ****1/2