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Meltzee seems to think it's because of the olympic lifts they have the guys doing. That would make sense, I was looking into cross fit, because I couldn't find a reliable exercise partner. It seemed all good, except how many people seem to get injured doing it. Cross fit is basically all Olympic lifts for a crazy number of reps with heavy weights, but they don't really seem to focus on proper form. If that is what they've been doing I can see that. Cross fit gets great results, but those injury risks are real.

What is it with the shoulder injuries this year? Orton, Cena, Cesaro, Zayn, and Itami all basically had the same injury. They need to wonder why torn rotator cuffs is becoming a trend.

I'm not arguing that they needed to work that match to differentiate themselves, I'm arguing they decided to work that match differently. There is a difference. We all know they could have wrestled a traditional match, the fact that they decided that is not what they wanted to do is what made it work for me. The fun of the match is that we know they can do it the traditional way but decided to say, "I bet I'm tougher than you." They no sold the moves, not because they didn't hurt, they didn't sell them because they didn't want to show their opponent how much they hurt. They kicked out at 1, because they didn't want their opponent to feel like they had the upper hand. It was a decision to work a match that was a change of pace, that also fit perfectly with their characters. Their match could have been just as hard hitting and sold everything like it was killing them, but that isn't the story they wanted to tell.

I tend to watch wrestling with an eye towards all of the things mentioned above, but I also try not to be married to any preconceived criteria of what is good and what isn't good. Sure I loved when Bret Hart would sell his opponent's leg work in a pay per view match the next night on Raw, but that is what made Bret special. Kawada's selling is the thing that makes him my favorite of the All Japan guys. I love those things, but I can also appreciate why the lack of selling worked in the Ishii vs. Shibata match. I really believe that it was a great match in its own context. You took the two guys on the roster who believe they are tougher than everyone. You have the context of the great(better) G1 match they had a couple years ago. Then you put them third from the top on the biggest show of the year. They could have tried to work a classic wrestling match, but I don't think we'd(OK, I'd)be talking about it if they did. They were put in a position where they most likely wouldn't be able to top the two top matches on the card by working it that way. What they could do is put on a match that was totally different than everything else on the card. Working the match the way they did put them in the position of putting on a match that I thought was as memorable as the top two matches, because they decided to do something different. If there was another match like this on the card it would have been overkill, but having one match that flies in the face of everything else once in a while is a good thing in my eyes.

I don't think that is unfair, but I also believe that is a extremely narrow way to look at things. I think judging things for what they are is more important than judging them for what I want them to be. The Ishii vs. Shibata match is a match that doesn't fit into any criteria I would use to judge most matches, but it wasn't most matches. I personally think selling is the most important aspect of wrestling, but I can also see the value in this match. It wasn't the best match I've ever seen, or even the best match on the card, but I think they tried to do something a little different and totally succeeded. If I judged it like I would judge a Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat match I wouldn't have enjoyed it, but I also wouldn't be acknowledging that they were trying to have that kind of match. I'm not trying to tell anyone they have to like this match, I'm just saying judging it by some set criteria isn't fair to someone trying to do something outside of that criteria.

So you believe that nothing in this world can be good, unless you personally say it is good? The value of everything in the world is based on your opinion and your opinion alone? It is OK not to like something, I get that. I don't like a lot of things while recognizing their quality and I absolutely love things that are pretty fucking stupid(I've seen every Fast and Furious movie in the theater, I wouldn't describe any of them as good). My opinion of those things is irrelevant when it comes to their value, merit, or quality. My opinion of their worth is only relevant to me, but I can see their value outside of my personal opinion.

This has the potential to be the longest thread ever. Trying to find the scummiest moment in wrestling is like trying to find the smelliest moment in bathrooms. We'll never run out of examples. Didn't Brock Lesnar throw a one-legged man down a flight of stairs? I hate to admit this, but that is one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life. Zach Gowen's short run was incredibly fun.

Bingo. I disagree. Just because something isn't what you like doesn't diminish the quality of it. I don't like country music, but there is good country music. Your tastes don't dictate the value of something. Your tastes only dictate how you receive it. It is fine not to like a match, because it is wrestled in a style you don't like, but that doesn't make it a bad match. Like I said earlier, if you don't like hamburgers it is 100% OK for you not to go to a burger joint. If you find yourself in a good burger joint, you can't(well you can) then shit all over it because you want something else. In my opinion you shouldn't judge the quality of a hamburger joint based on the fact that wish you were at the surf and turf place next door. The hamburger joint is trying to do something completely different and should be judged on whether or not they are good at making burgers. The Ishii/Shibata match was a hell of a match when you understand that they aren't trying to have a traditional wrestling match. Did you honestly expect a different type of match than what you got from those two? As soon as they booked the match, I knew exactly what I was going to get. I knew the match was going to be a contest to see who is tougher, selling everything is against the point. They were going to hit each other as hard as possible, and then no sell it in order to prove they can take more punishment than the other guy. If they sold everything like it hurt they very well could have had a great match, but that would have been a much different match than what the audience would have wanted. This is the type of match the audience expected from these two guys, and honestly I thought it was about as good of a match of this type as possible. Like I said, when you go to a burger joint you should hope they serve good burgers. This is the type of match I was expecting, and it was damn good for what it was.

So, I watched the last three matches of Wrestle Kingdom 10 last night and while I understand some of the criticisms I loved all three of them. Ishii and Shibata worked the exact match their fans wanted them to work. Are there any Ishii and Shibata fans who want them to work a match based on selling and psychology? I guess some people go to a burger joint and complain that they don't have lobster and caviar, when there is absolutely nothing wrong with a good burger. If you don't like hamburgers, that is fine, but don't act like you didn't know you were in a burger joint. AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura put on a great match, and apparently both decided they're done in New Japan. If you are going to have a last hurrah, that match was perfect. Between the two of them, they've been two of the best wrestlers in the world over the last few years and I couldn't possibly be more excited to see them in NXT/WWE. OK, so the criticisms of Okada vs. Tanahashi are all valid, but none of them took me out of this match. This match could have been marginally better if Okada would have sold the leg work, but I think the bigger problem is Tanahashi working over his arm in the first place. I'm sure they discussed how they were going to work this match beforehand, and somehow they decided that Tanahashi is going to work over Okada's leg AND all of Okada's big comebacks are going to be built around dropkicks and top rope moves. Why not work over Okada's arm, so he doesn't have to ignore the leg work to work the match they put together? Okada's arm is vital to his finisher, and it would make sense that he had to hit multiple Rainmakers to put Tanahashi away. With all of that said, it didn't make me like this match any less. This is essentially a Game 7 between the '96 Bulls and the '86 Celtics. These two guys care more about beating the other, than anything else in the world. The IWGP Championship, being the ace of the company, and everything else is secondary to proving once and for all who is the better man. People claiming this is a forced epic don't understand context. This is not HHH vs. Undertaker after a month of buildup, this is the conclusion to an overarching story that has lasted years. Tanahashi and Okada have been fighting to see who will be the Ace of the company since 2012, and Okada finally wrestled the torch away from Tanahashi. As an individual match, this match is still pretty good. As the culmination of the story they've been telling, this was phenomenal. Both guys absolutely had to win this match, and they both wrestled like losing wasn't an option. Tanahashi's time as the Alpha dog had to end at some point, and Okada had to do everything in his power to take that spot. I loved this match flaws and all.

Jake Robert's entire life.

Yeah, I don't know how many viewers a video podcast would get. I could see a 5-10 minute YouTube show, but anything more than that would be kind of overwhelming. Podcasts work, because audio is something you can enjoy while doing anything else, video requires much more attention to fully appreciate. As someone who has done some video editing, I don't see why anyone would want to spend that much time doing something for free. In order to film, edit, and produce a piece of polished video is a huge time sink. The amount of depth the PTBN hosts put into their podcasts would be whittled down to damn near nothing, while doing 10-15x the work. I took a video media class in college where we had to produce three video projects, none of which could be over two minutes. We had to find a subject, film it, interview a couple people and then edit the videos and each video was probably 12 hours or more of work. The thing I realized while doing all that work is that the finished product was only representative of about 10% of the work. You spend a lot of time setting up cameras, shooting footage that has no value(B-roll is like oxygen, you can't breathe all the oxygen in the air, but you can't breathe without it), writing(it saves a lot of time to have a script, because those awkward pauses, umms and uhs are much more noticable when watching someone instead of just hearing them.), and cutting out all of the nonsense(video has to be concise, nothing is less entertaining than meandering, unfocused, video features). A video podcast with any production value at all would take much more time than what the finished product was worth. I like wrestling podcasts, because I can hear different perspectives in a natural, off the cuff conversation. Video doesn't really work like that, those conversations don't get that kind of time, have to be more focused, and take an entire different skillset than it does for audio.

I have so much going on in my life these days I don't know how many of these things I'll be able to do, but here are some things I'd like to do. Watch at write about 3 matches a week. I started a project, was doing pretty well with it, but then started adding matches, and generally overcomplicating the project. I need to follow the initial guidelines I set for the project and stop trying to add things to an already overwhelming project that will probably never end. Watch NXT weekly. It is my favorite wrestling product, yet I find myself skipping weeks for no real reason. I end up behind when the Takeover comes, and then get mad at myself for not knowing the whole story. It is an hour a week, and I always like it, it is truthfully one of the most consistently enjoyable things in my life...but being an idiot I spend that time falling down YouTube rabbit holes or watching some food show I don't even like that much. I'm going to Wrestlemania, and I want to try to not spend the entire weekend eating barbecue, and see more than one wrestling show. I'm going with a couple friends and hopefully we can figure out what all we are going to do soon. Either way, a weekend full of Texas barbecue would be pretty awesome.

Nia Jaxx's debut attire could be on the list. She looked like a Faberge egg. For the most part though, women's attire is generally pretty good. Even the bad looks tend to be bad on purpose, like some of Sensational Sherri's goofier outfits.

I'll never understand how TNA has lasted so long.

I think it was Austin's podcast where Cena told the story of him ordering a bunch of new ring gear in preparation for a proposed heel turn. Apparently it fell through and he basically gave that money to NXT as a way to reward people with new gear for reaching some sort of goal. He said that if he went heel that he'd change his look to more traditional wrestling gear.

Lapsed Vince is the greatest podcast character ever. You can't listen to this podcast if you want everything to be serious, but if you are like me and want your entertainment to be entertaining you may just like it.

I love this era of Flair. I'm someone who grew up in a small town with no access to cable, so I didn't get to see a whole lot of Flair until he got to WWF. I knew who he was, because I was a wrestling fiend, but I really only was able to see him 2-3 times a year when I was somewhere where I had access to cable. So when he came into the WWF and was cutting these incredible promos I was able to enjoy them for what they are instead of comparing them to his other promos. His original WWF run is probably going to be underrated from here on out, but his promo work was just as good as his NWA/WCW stuff it was just way over the top in comparison.

Hogan and Liz were strictly platonic and valued fidelity. Savage was borderline insane and intensely jealous of any wrestler who even made eye contact with her. Hogan always looked for Randy and withou his help Savage would never have become champion. As time went on Hogan had to do right by Liz and the WWF by taking out this woman abusing psychopath. I don't know if any of you guys know Judy Bagwell(If that is your real name) personally, but I wouldn't trust him(or her) around your significant other. Macho Man wasn't jealous, Hogan was pushing up on his girl. Not only was he pushing up on his girl, Hogan left Savage to fight two humongous men, to carry Elizabeth to the back. Anyone with a brain could see that Hogan was trying to use Liz's "injury" to get Macho Man out of the picture so he can steal his girlfriend. First of all, her fall wasn't that bad. Second, there are medical professionals in the arena who are getting paid very well to give Liz the any aid she may need. Third, he knew Savage couldn't possibly overcome a team as large or as vicious as the Twin Towers by himself. He hoped that he could use Liz's minor injury to lead to Savage's major injury. When Savage was fighting for his life, what was Hogan doing? He was sitting by Liz's bed holding her hand so when she woke up he could put the moves on her, have sex, and then go on a racist rant(just saying, based on what we know that is what would have happened.). I can't say for sure that Liz was in on this nefarious scheme, but I wouldn't put it past that mischievous jezebel.

With all the Starrcade events being available in the PPV section, even the ones that predated PPV. I hope to see Crockett Cups and Superstars on the Superstation get added too. I'd like to see the Japan Supershows and Kollision in Korea added as well. And the Turner releases of the Great American Bash show's pre-1988. The Supershows are on NJPW World if you don't mind Japanese commentary. I'd like to see all major pre-PPV shows from NWA/AWA/Mid-South/etc. There is no reason that those shows aren't on the network if they are in their vault. The network should be as much of an archive as it is a network. There are so many wrestling fans from so many generations, all of it has value to somebody.

I couldn't disagree more. Just because you don't like how someone acts doesn't mean that what they did was actually wrong. Sid didn't break a single rule while throwing Hogan out. He can trash talk all he wants, it is frowned upon, but not wrong. What Hogan did was wrong. When you are eliminated from the Royal Rumble it is 100% wrong to eliminate someone from the floor. A grown ass man throwing a temper tantrum is far worse than a dude celebrating an accomplishment. If George Teague didn't want T.O. to pose on the star, maybe he should have tackled him before he got into the end zone and not afterwards. T.O. is celebrating an incredible difficult accomplishment, George Teague is a low-bottom hater. I'm always going to support the person who actually accomplishes something and never support the butt hurt haters who can't deal with another man's success.

Honestly believe that Andre was basically justified in his feud too. AND DiBiase was. I covered this in great detail on a show once. But essentially Tunney screwed him. Orndorff too. When you watch the build to it, Hogan is just a total asshole and Paul comes off as totally right to be pissed at him. Since the Network launched I think the biggest revelation is that Hulk Hogan should have been the heel in almost every feud if we used actual logic and not wrestling logic. Remember he pulled Sid out of the ring when he was eliminated in the '92 Rumble? Sid did absolutely nothing wrong, and Hogan acted like a petulant child when he didn't get his way. He is supposed to be our hero. Flair, who we are supposed to believe was the heel, fought tooth and nail to overcome humongous odds to win the match, and we're supposed to boo him.

Dammit, I should have put something in that above post about how the unified rules made things better too. Having a referee who could stand fighters up, rounds and weight classes made fights more exciting. Yeah, there are times when two fighters styles make a boring fight, but you'll never see another 36 minutes of nothing fight.

Even as a little kid, I thought the Macho Man was in the right when the Mega Powers exploded. Hulk Hogan was a huge asshole their entire partnership, left him to get his ass kicked by the Twin Towers, and then tried to steal his girlfriend. I have questions about anyone who thought Hogan was justified in his actions.

Those original UFCs are so strange in retrospect. Some of those fights were downright irresponsible. I'm going to try to explain how different styles kind of work in MMA, but I'll probably end up typing myself in a corner. So, Brazilian jiu jitsu was the dominant style during the first era of MMA, but a lot of that is because grappling is something that people know or don't know. Even a white belt would tap someone with no experience fairly quickly, because a lot of jiu jitsu is designed to go counter to what people naturally want to do. After jiu jitsu dominated guys like Maurice Smith with kickboxing and Mark Coleman with amateur wrestling figured out ways to make their lives a little more difficult. Kickboxing worked, because it turns out kicking people's legs is one of the most effective ways to sap your opponent of strength to take you down. Wrestling worked, because wrestlers weren't clueless about what to do once a fight went to the ground. They could keep their arms and necks protected while also being big, strong guys who could wreck dudes with ground and pound. The crazy thing that happened is that jiu jitsu, wrestling, and kickboxing/muay thai became a sort of rock paper scissors game within the sport. if a wrestler could get one of those guys to the ground and use their ground and pound they won. If a kickboxer could stay standing, they'd win. If the kickboxer went to the ground he basically automatically lost. if the jiu jitsu guy got a wrestler on his back, the jiu jitsu guy had the huge advantage. Then came guys like Vitor Belfort and Randy Couture. Vitor was a Brazillian jiu jitsu blackbelt except he won all his fights with his crazy hand speed and punching power. Here is a guy that no one wanted to go to the ground with, but it turns out that you don't want to stand with him either. Randy Couture was a highly decorated wrestler who had some experience as a amateur boxer and could compete with anyone striking or grappling. If you wanted to be competitive going forward in the sport you had to be able to be at least competent striking, wrestling, and grappling(I use wrestling as the skill that it takes to get people on the ground and grappling as what happens once you get on the ground. It is an oversimplification of both aspects of MMA, but it makes things a little easier to understand.) After Vitor Belfort and Randy Couture you had guys like Wanderlei Silva and Chuck Liddell as the next big adjustment. The difference between Wanderlei and Chuck and the people who came before them were that they weren't trying to do everything. Randy Couture was a guy who could do almost everything, and tried to incorporate everything into his fights. Chuck and Wandy(MMA fighters seem to be referred to by their first names for some reason) could do almost everything, except they weren't really interested in doing anything other than knocking people out. So Wanderlei, who was a jiu jitsu black belt and Chuck who was an amateur wrestler rarely used those skills offensively. Chuck used his wrestling skills almost exclusively to keep people from taking him down. He made his opponents stand in front of him and deal with his devastating punching power. His entire skillset was designed to make his opponents fight on his terms. Those guys knew what they did better than anyone else and built their other skills around maximizing that aspect of their game. Next up was the BJ Penn/Georges St. Pierre generation. These were guys who could do it all, and were able to pick and choose which skills were more appropriate from fight to fight. BJ Penn was nicknamed the prodigy, because he was essentially a grappling savant. He was as good of a grappler as anyone on the planet, but could also outbox most MMA fighters. Georges St. Pierre was a guy who never wrestled competitively until he started training MMA. He was able to learn how to wrestle with a style that was essentially built for MMA. He wouldn't win a wrestling tournament, but he could outwrestle even the most decorated amateur wrestlers in an MMA context. He also was one of the most varied dynamic strikers that we had ever seen at the time. Both of those guys could decide what kind of fight they wanted to fight, whether or not they wanted to strike or grapple, and adjust mid fight if they had to. In order to beat one of those guys you needed to be able to strike, wrestle, and grapple at an elite level. If there was a weakness in your game, they'd find it and exploit it. That is a simplified version of the history of MMA, but you can kind of track how the sport changed over the years. It was conceived as a competition to see what fighting style was the best, except that was a very short sighted goal. The problem is that a battle of styles doesn't really take into account things like athleticism, coaching, and evolution. If the sport was going to survive they needed to go through all of these changes. Hopefully that was helpful.

Yeah, it is impossible to fight competitively if you only know one style. Everyone kind of has a base and then they add other skills to round out their games. For instance, Anderson Silva who is a world class striker, has questionable wrestling skills so he learns how to be a dangerous submission fighter off of his back. If you are a good wrestler who can't possibly win a stand up fight with Anderson Silva, you can't just take him down and lay on him, because he has the skills to submit you. It went from someone who does karate fighting someone who wrestles to a well rounded fighter who's primary skill set is karate fighting another well rounded fighter who is primarily a wrestler. The karate guy knows how to wrestle, he knows jiu jitsu, and how to use them to maximize their karate skills. Most high level MMA fights are between very well rounded fighters. Some of the undercard fights are between one dimensional fighters, but those guys aren't going to be champions.