joeg

Naoya Ogawa is a good one. I'm a big Ogawa fan but I once had a guy on another board try and convince me that he was the greatest rookie of all time. He went as far as to say Ogawa was a more natural talent than Kobashi or Nakamura, and he was being dead serious.

Ranking these 4- 90s All Japan > 80s NWA > 10s NJPW > 00s ROH

Was thinking about the main event of the show. It can't be a singles match. There are so many intersecting angles and feuds with loose ends that need to be tied up that it feels like they're building to a 5 on 5 match or 4 on 4 match of some sort. I'm thinking either an elimination tag or Wargames style cage match that wraps up all the ongoing Bullet Club melodrama. Or a multiman match that has some sort of big betrayal that can extend one or two of the feuds for another 6 monthes while wrapping up other feuds.

Without working holds a match would consists of running the ropes, a wrestler taking a bump, getting right to his feet unimpeded, running the ropes again and bumping again. Without headlocks and armlocks, matches would look like fire pro.

I wouldn't go by crowd reactions by who the bigger star was. With Bryan Im struggling to think of 10 decent matches he had, I mean I can think og the ones like the Mania triple threat, Cena, but other than that im stumped. Now Hardy well I can think of the ladder match vs Taker, the triple threat at armageddeon, morrison, Jericho, punk, TLC Triple Threat Tag matches, HBK, RVD, Styles in TNA. I'm not really sure if this is a troll comment or not.... Here's an even simpler argument for Bryan - 18,000 people paid to see him win the title from Cena at Summerslam. 78,000 people paid to see him win the title again at Wrestlemania.

I'd go with Bryan by a long distance. The reactions Bryan was getting from like spring/summer of 2013 to when he got hurt in 2014 top any sort of reaction Jeff Hardy ever got. It felt like during Bryan's chase that he was the most over baby face in the company and that he was right up there with Cena. Jeff Hardy's main event run in 08 felt more like he a guy in the mix who was more over than his push than an actual top guy. Just look at where Hardy is on the WM 25 card as opposed to where Bryan is on the WM 30 card.

All Japan drive is down

Sorry for disappearing I think I owe Edgar a match.... IWRG Prison Fatal with Caristico and Trauma II vs Black Warrior and Mr. Electro

Both of these lists read like they were written in 2001-2002. Kobashi's sounds like it was written before his epic GHC title run in which he sold out the Dome twice as the A side. Michaels sounds like it was written before his comeback. Post comeback from injury HBK was a far bigger draw in his role as part time legend than he was as champ.

Razor vs Shawn Ladder Match DG 6 man from ROH Styles vs Daniels vs Joe Richards vs Elguin Meada and Takada vs Muto and Koshinaka PWG 6 man Fantastics vs Sheephearders Golden Lovers vs Young Bucks Dijak vs Lee NXT Ladder Match Pretty much all of these I'd have between 3 and 4 stars. That good but not great range.

@ Smartmark... So if you watched it at a bar how many drinks did you have before the main event started? That could explain your enjoyment of the show. Drinking from late afternoon until last call usually makes whatever is on the TV in the background seem enjoyable.

Greatest show ever? Only problem I had with the show is how over the top and excessive the opener was, yet it didnt seem to burn out the crowd.

Three fights cancelled for Saturday's show in the wake of this. I'm not holding my breath on it, but when do they say enough is enough? Depending on what he gets charged with and pleas to, he could have future Visa issues. He's also going to lose a lot of that Mayweather money to the lawsuits he's about to face. I'm going with this is a worked shoot to set up McGregor vs Nurmagomedov. Nurmagomedov roughed up one of McGregor's crew at a hotel or something and now McGregor and his crew crash a press conference and trash a bus ahead of Nurmagomedov's fight. The whole thing ends up being recorded and posted on social media and is covered by UFC's media partners. Until this happened casual fans didn't even know who was fighting this weekend. Yeah this is a work just like when McGregor and Diaz threw water bottles at each other. UFC is so much better at pro wrestling than any pro wrestling company.

http://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/23041711/conor-mcgregor-makes-appearance-ufc-223-media-day Best angle I've seen in ages. McGregor is getting that "white heat"

I find him to be actively bad. He's a heel, in the most high profile feud he's ever had in his short career. And in the lead in to what may be the biggest match of his career as a heel, he did a dropkick into a standing shooting star, which was the biggest pop of the match. It was the stupidest thing in wrestling I have ever seen.

Out of the 3 comparisons, AJ vs Benoit is the closest for me. I had AJ because his high are so much higher and against a wider variety of guys and in a wider variety of settings. However, Benoit brought an intesity to each and every match that AJ doesn't. Also Benoit's matches always felt like an athletic competition, like a fight. Early in Styles career (and even now) his matches can have the feel of watching ballet more than wrestling.

The hate you're looking for right now is between Omega and Cody. Lovers/Bucks was built entirely as an issue of respect and somewhat around who's the best tag team, with the Bucks making the jump to heavyweight. No strong personal issues between them and Omega at this point. I was talking about the Lovers vs Cody and Page match in particular....

I didn't get the Golden Lovers vs BC match. So this feud has been building since like November. The big angle was a month ago, the big blow off grudge match is in a week, yet this match looked more like an unimportant flippy indy juniors match than it did build up to a big grudge match. Where was the hate? where was the aggression? There's just a disconnect for me between the violence, contempt and hatred shown in the angles and the graceful, aerobatic displaces of athleticism that have been the matches on this feud.

Question. Is part of the build to Okada eventually dropping the title that he's struggling to put away Sanada, ZSJ, EVIL, etc, which makes for longer matches and makes him seem more vulnerable ?

Not to throw a wrench into things but Fenix and Pentagon Jr. have been confirmed for All In. Frankly I would think Volador Jr. is the next most likely name. The Friday night show of the lucha expo is being advertised as Rey Jr vs Pentagon Jr....

Oh i was in the building for both of those Paul London matches. I don't remember if the 100 some people at Murphy Rec went nuts for Paul London because he was over or went nuts because he did crazy stuff that would pop any crowd. He did a flip off the top of a backboard. He climbed a rickety 12 foot ladder and fell off to the outside of the ring. Every one of those matches he had at Murphy Rec was absolutely insane. I was 16 or 17 at the time, and I remember this feeling in every London match that something really bad could happen at any second. The sort of feeling you have watching the high wire act at circus.

Pretty much every luchador who could draw is booked for Vegas on that day. Honestly 4 shows in one weekend in Vegas that have LA Park, Rey Jr, Pentagon Jr, Fenix, Mil Mascaras, Ultimo Dragon, Tiger, Puma, Felino, Blue Demon Jr, Konnan, Maximo, Juvi, Super Crazy, Mascarita Dorada, Super Astro, Pirata Morgan, and Solar already announced sounds better than anything All Together could come up with.

Last I heard he finished up grad school (Syracuse maybe?) and now works for the CBO was what I heard through the grapevine. His sites are still up though even though he hasnt been around.

Sandman returning to the ECW Arena in October 1999 is my answer to both questions. It was incredible live. In fact, it's my favorite live experience from any form of entertainment and I still go back to watch it a few times a year. Some others.... RVD had an amazing connection with the crowd when I went to eight ECW Arena shows in 99-2000. Fans would chant "RVD" hours before the show while waiting in line. And this didn't just happen once or twice. It was every single time. Then there was the time they chanted "Van Terminator." Yes, they chanted for a move that hadn't even been seen yet. That's how over RVD was. You kind of had to be there to truly appreciate just how much that audience loved RVD. Loudest pops other than Sandman's return are just any time I saw Austin at the Baltimore Arena from 98-00. The roof blew off the place every single time. As an Austin hater back then, I gave up booing the man like 5 seconds after seeing him for the first time. It was a futile endeavor. My feeble little boos were never going to catch on. Flair had a great connection with the Baltimore crowd at the August 2002 Raw show I attended. Dark "match" was a Flair/HHH brawl with the crowd just going nuts for Naitch. But the coolest part happened afterward when I heard "WOOOO's" and saw people strutting around downtown Baltimore well into the wee hours of the morning. And I can't forget about Cheetah Master at all those early 2000s ECWA shows I attended. During the (awesome) Cheetah vs. Nana cage match I realized this was as close as I was ever gonna get to seeing Lawler in Memphis or the Von Erichs in Texas so I just embraced the glorious absurdity of it all. Yeah agreed some of the loudest pops I've ever witnessed live were for RVD and Sandman at ECW Arena. The loudest pop I've ever witnessed was at an ROH show at the Arena from like 08. It was a 3 way steel cage match and Delirious stabbed Daize Hayes with a spike. For some reason the building went fucking nuts. Kind of unsettling. As for best connection with the crowd it would be RVD back in ECW or Danielson on his indy/ ROH run. They were working smaller buildings sure, but they had the entire crowd just eating out of the palm of their hand.

For jetlag- Tenryu vs Okada 11/15/15, Tenryu's last match http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6db3ix