FMKK

He's been 'about to expose them' any minute now for four years haha. If there's anyone on earth that's going to have a strong stance against sex pests it's Donald Trump and a bunch of pro wrestlers.

It was a weird final for me. Like WingedEagle said, I couldn't believe it when I heard the 25 minute call but idk if that's because it didn't feel that long or because they hadn't kicked into the higher gear you'd expect. Again, it's been said elsewhere that the finishing run was very exciting, especially with Ibushi doing the latest kick out of all time. I think it was like **** or maybe ****1/4 which is really good but a bit below what these finals usually are. I thought it was an incredible Kota Ibushi performance and Sanada was Sanada.

I don't hate Sanada by any means but he's had such an underwhelming tournament for someone going to the finals. If Tama Tonga had his tournament and finished on 6 points you'd say he had a nice campaign. But you're meant to be a main event star. Have some energy! I know they want to push the guy and have been elevating him, and that most of this year's top angles have been centred around LIJ so he might be the favourite, but I really hope Ibushi smacks this dork with a hard knee tomorrow and sends him back to the midcard.

Everything is at the same arena in Florida for the foreseeable future anyway so it's not that big a deal if one of them works Monday and the other works Friday, especially if they live within driving distance of the place, which I presume most of them do.

See, I actually think WWE has the opposite problem. It's been a long time since they've had consistently good matches on TV imo and have really moved away from 'workrate' guys, as has the hardcore fanbase to an extent. My problem is that the company seems to have a lot of people who are basically overdramatic theatre geeks 'projecting' characters rather than just being charismatic - e.g. Bray Wyatt, Alexa Bliss, Killer Kross, Johnny Gargano, Tomaso Ciampa, Seth Rollins, Retribution and so on

Jay was ropey at first but he's grown into his role and I definitely agree on the look helping him out. At least in his case, he was a fresh guy being pushed and it was understandable that he might not be entirely ready for the spotlight he was given. With EVIL, we've seen him be mostly mediocre for like 4 years, with the odd good match sprinkled in there. It also felt like his turn and push came from nowhere given where he was positioned on the card for the year or so before it happened.

Who are the characterless workrate robots in current WWE? How frequently does anyone get the opportunity to portray any natural charisma on WWE television? When have Eva Marie ever exhibited a single shred of said charisma?

Fire all the good wrestlers and keep all the failed reality stars. Sounds like a business model and a half.

I was a completionist but these B Block shows are wearing me down. I've definitely cherry picking from them from here on.

They basically reiterate it more clearly here.

I knew I'd only have time to watch one wrestling show today so I had to make a choice. And as much as I like Naito and Juice Robinson, I don't need to see them go 25 minutes. Nor do I need to see an EVIL main event with like 50 Dick Togo run-in spots. So I skipped ahead to today's A Block show. Jeff Cobb vs Tomohiro Ishii - ****1/2 Ishii is God. While Cobb has had some better performances of late in the tournament, it's left up to Big Tom Ishii to have his best match by far once again. To an extent, he just plugged Cobb into the usual Ishii formula but him being able to absolutely ragdoll Ishii like I've never seen before added an exciting new element. Jay White vs Yujiro Takahashi - **1/4 More of an angle than a match as Jay expects his Bullet Club underling to lie down for him and Yujiro isn't sold on playing along. White screaming at Gedo and asking if he knew what was going on, or if EVIL had planned it, clues us in to the bigger picture here. Will Ospreay vs Taichi - ****1/4 Will was being such a condescending prick at the start that I almost felt bad for Taichi. But the master of sleaze was happy enough to play along until her could take Ospreay by surprise with some weapons and then get to work on him. This really came alive in the second half when we got the more serious Taichi of the Ishii match going toe to toe with Ospreay for big moves and exchanges. I particularly enjoyed his twist on the Hidden Blade, though him kind of running into place for an Oscutter was a bit dumb. Minoru Suzuki vs Kota Ibushi - ****1/4 The world's meanest grandad vs the world's toughest pretty boy himbo. They wrestled around on the matt for a while before deciding just to take turns beating the shit out of each other with forearms, slaps, kicks etc. You know what you're getting with Suzuki and it's just a matter of taste but I enjoyed it, especially seeing Ibushi being able to go toe to toe with him. Kazuchika Okada vs Shingo Takagi - ****3/4 The best match of the G1 and the best match of the Covid era (disclaimer: I haven't seen the Champion Carnival final yet). We finally had Big Match Kazu back and he was at about 95% of his final form here, except for one infamous move. He's getting closer and closer to it though. I loved how they build the story playing off previous matches in the tournament, particularly with the moves Okada has worked to establish and the ones he's struggled to use. I'm making this seem like it's all about Okada but Shingo was also fucking incredible here, not just with his explosive offence but particularly with his selling in the closing moments. I'll keep it vague though because everyone should watch this as fresh as possible. Sit back and enjoy two of the best in the world going at it.

Pumped for this chain match. I hope there's blood and bullshit and a valiant Cody victory.

Night 11 - A Block Yujiro Takahashi vs Tomohiro Ishii - ***1/4 Yujiro is definitely trying in this tournament but idk, the guy just has no crispness and no fire so there's a ceiling on everything he does. He jumps Ishii early and works on him loads, complete with dramatic neck and arm selling from Ishii. There's also an incredible headbutt spot. Good enough match but a tournament low for Ishii. Kazuchika Okada vs Jeff Cobb - ***1/4 Again, a nicely worked match without being anything special and again Okada doesn't really get out of second gear. Cobb has some impressive athletic and power spots as always and Okada only going for the Money Clip once is hopefully a sign it'll soon be consigned to the past. Minoru Suzuki vs Will Ospreay - **** I have a feeling that this match might be divisive. Suzuki spent most of the first half basically torturing Will's arm. Some people might not like his selling but he did a good job with it imo and although he still did some moves with the arm, I'm happy to believe that Will Ospreay is dumb enough to go for spots that are bad for his health. And tbf, he didn't get all his shit in or anything. Suzuki was game here and Will stepped it up to match him in the strike battles. Very good match. Jay White vs Taichi - **** This was really fun as two of the sleaziest heel bullshitters tried to out-sleazy heel bullshit each other. Jay pointing Taichi's mic at him and telling him to sing when he was lying dead on the floor was great. As was Taichi putting his bullshit experience to good use to overcome the Gedo run in. Taichi is good when he gets into serious fighting mode as well, with great kicks and lariats. You could tell the clap crowd was into it because they stomped their feet on some near falls. I'd like to see these two work a programme in future. Kota Ibushi vs Shingo Takagi - ****1/4 Shingo is awesome because he can play the bully so well in spite of not actually being that big. He dominated Ibushi for most of the first ten minutes. Then they pretty much went toe to toe for the second half. They slowly built things up til the crowd were again stomping their feet for the nearfalls. The actual finish got as close to a pop as we're going to see right now. There were a couple of moments were Kota was a bit less crisp than usual but they didn't really detract. And it felt like they left some stuff on the table for more matches.

Night 10 - B Block Hirooki Goto vs Toru Yano - no rating This was too short to rate. Goto is obviously hurt and I hope he doesn't have to forfeit but it is kinda refreshing to have super quick matches in New Japan. Sanada vs Zack Sabre Jr. - ***1/2 The usual good technical exchange between these two. I love how Zack is never sitting still in a submission, whether he's applying it or being put in it. He's always looking to improve his position. I also love how his ten second dragon sleeper was better than any from Sanada's career. Sanada's move to set up the finish was pretty cool though. Juice Robinson vs Evil - ***1/4 Juice really ought to buy dinner for the young lion (Gabriel Kidd I think) who kept getting the Queen clapping gimmick started up for him. It really made the crowd seem engaged in his comebacks and goofy facial expressions in a way they haven't so far. Evil, as usual, was an absolute charisma void opposite him. Decent basic match. Yoshi-Hashi vs Tetsuya Naito - ***1/2 Quite a few people were going four stars on this and I think there was that level of match in there if they had trimmed the fat. As it stands, I don't need to see 25 minute Y-H matches. I get the Goto match was super short and they were compensating but still. Plus, the Butterfly Lock submission was such a momentum killer. How is it even supposed to be hurting anyone? This company loves shitty submissions. This was another nice underdog performance by Yoshi-Hashi, this time taking to to the champ. But the long runtime held it back. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kenta - **** Two experienced pros went out there and had a very strong main event. It was a basic enough babyface vs heel match, with Kenta spending most of his time targeting Tana's knee. Tanahashi had his customary vocal selling and fiery comebacks. His hair was something else here. Very good match.

On today's G1 show they announced a joint World Tag League and Best of the Super Juniors tour to come after Power Struggle.