joeg

People need to stop saying Omega sold out the Tokyo Dome. Its something that is so easily disproven. In its smallest configuration, the Tokyo Dome holds 55,000. 26,000 is not a sell out. 43,000 with 34,000 paid is not a sell out. 38,500 is not a sell out. Its better than the 18,000 to 23,000 paid they had been doing previous to Okada coming on the scene, but its still less than the 50,000 plus they were doing twice a year in the late 90s/early 2000s or the 65,000 that Noah did twice.

I think bringing in Fury is a bad idea. Fury has the Wilder rematch penciled in for February or March. He can't do a job before then or put anybody over or take a bumb. He can't do anything to jeapordize what will be the biggest PPV event since Kabib vs McGregor. So basically he's there to promote himself at the expense of Braun and by extension WWE.

I enjoyed Power. There wasn't anything on the show that was special or exciting but there wasn't anything on there that would make me embarrassed to say i watched wrestling. Every match was ok to good, most of the promos were good and there wasn't any hokey, corny, bullshit.

Keith Lee has the prototypical size and build of an NFL nosegaurd.... i wish there were more wrestlers who looked like that.

I've said that or something similar about half the guys in AEW. They have a lot of guys who are undersized and don't have an athletic build. Sammy Guevara may be small and look incredibly young, but he does have an athletic build, and he looks like he takes care of himself. I don't think its unreasonable to expect pro wrestlers to look like athletes and look like work out. Its hard to suspend disbelief when watching somebody who looks more like one of the fans then a collegiate wrestler or pro football player.

Agreed!

That was really good

I keep seeing online an argument that CMLL will be fine because their training school is so great that they won't have a difficult time producing new stars. This has me asking which top luchadors actually went through CMLL's school? Most of the guys I can think of went through Negro Navarro's school or were trained by a father or uncle...

Does CMLL own the rights to the names Rush, Dragon Lee, Los Indeseables, Los Ingobernables or Dinastia Munoz?

It kinda boggles my mind that Akiyama hasn't made it in. The guy has been a top 5 worker in the world for the last 20 years AND main evented the Tokyo Dome TWICE back when puroresu was popular enough to sell the Dome out. Is there anybody else who sold out the Tokyo Dome and didn't make it in?

I always just assumed there were ties between the mob and the New York territory in the 60s and 70s. They ran a lot of buildings that were mob controlled. Its well known that its an era where no boxer fought at MSG without doing a favor for Frankie Carbo or got a title opportunity in major US city without doing a favor for Truman Gibson. The Norris family the owned MSG, the Blackhawks, and the Red Wings during that era was also mob connected. So if your running sporting events at MSG and Philly Spectrum, those are the sort characters you are going to have to deal with. I'd be more shocked if in the 60s and 70s in New York Vince Sr. managed to run a professional sports entity without having any mob ties.

I checked Baltimore on Wednesday, its not even close to sold out. I'd chalk that up in part to running Baltimore a month after selling out 15,000 seats in DC and two weeks after selling out 10,000 seats in Philly. It would be tough to then sell out 14,000 seats in a market 45 minutes away from one city and and an hour 15 from the other. I also think the bloom is off the rose a little bit. If we are being honest, through four shows AEW has put out just as much unwatchable nonsense as they have great wrestling. So it wouldn't surprise me if some people are hesitant to buy tickets without full cards announced.

This was a pretty much the perfect big monster heel vs small underdog baby face title match. I can't think of another match with those dynamics that was done better.

Speaking of bad, I'm watching Friday's show right now, I'm watching Big Daddy Yum Yum and I think ya know for a guy just starting out he's not half bad, he has some potential with good size and nice athleticism, then I remember that he's been around for 15 years, done two tours of Japan, a year in Germany, and a year in developmental and wonder how on Earth he could possibly still be so bad. Its mind boggling really.

I don't think its matter of CMLL thinking Ciber vs UG would suck (they've shown that they don't care if their main events suck) as much CMLL worrying that Ciber vs UG alone wouldn't draw as much as a cage. All CMLL cage matches suck pretty much, but they usually draw.

Yeah, "solid" and "serviceable" are the perfect adjectives to describe him.

Trying to explain to non fans that indie companies and NJPW have been selling out major arenas in the past two years in the US. They have no concept of how popular wrestling is right now because its still a very niche thing and not really covered in the mainstream. I get a lot of "last time i was at a show it was WWE and the place was half full, you can't be telling me some Japanese company is really going to be able to run Madison Square Garden?" "There's no way tickets are selling out for that shit at Capitol One Arena, if you really want to go, we'll get a group together and just buy tickets at the door when we get there"

I think Taven would be fine in the WWE. He's got the right size and athleticism to be a lower midcard guy for them. He's not big enough, or a good enough worker, or charismatic enough to be a top guy carrying a company but at like a Zach Ryder, Bob Holly, Al Snow, Lance Storm kinda level I think he'd be fine.

wait the card game was never on TV? I could have sworn ive seen it

To answer your question- Cibernetico was never a good worker but he wasn't as actively bad as he's been during this CMLL run. There was a rumor 15 to 20 years ago that his main event push in the mid to late 90s was a result of a romantic relationship with Antonio Pena.

I was going to watch just one match before I went to bed, three hours later I've watched every Road Warriors squash match on youtube and don't regret it...

Harlem Heat as a pair of prisoners won in a card game by Col. Rob Parker was probably the worst thing I saw on television as a child. So that has to be included on this list.

How much money do these shows need to generate to finish in the black? Hypothetically, it just seems like the international travel cost for 10 to 15 members of the roster plus another 4 or 5 members of the staff would be greater than $30,000. I don't see how two or three shows that draw less than 500 people could make up that money and cover venue rentals, insurance, etc,etc.... SPS said a money mark or a sponsor, so some mark is eating the the losses?

Elgin vs Sekimoto was really good.