joeg

I think what they are building towards is he is now after 6 years unable to finish any top guys with the Rainmaker. At the Dome it took like 6 Rainmakers to put down Omega, however Omega never hit the One Wing Angel which he kept going for. And sometime this summer Omega wins the title with the One Wing Angel in a match where Omega kicks out of at least 4 or 5 Rainmakers. So then after having the Rainmaker as a finisher for 5 years and a half years, Okada comes up with some sort of ridiculously dangerous super finisher with which he wins the title back at the Dome.

Sorry to bump an old thread. I just wanted to make sure everybody knew about the All Japan google drive. hell of a resource.

I think Randy Orton is a hell of a talent. He consistantly puts on above average to good matches. He's got a great look and a natural charisma. I also think he's a much better heel than babyface. I just think that he's been so poorly booked for so long. When was his last really good angle or feud? I want to say the fued with HHH like 7 years ago was good. The angle where he booted the fuck of John Cena's father was amazing. The stuff as the legend killer was great. Everything with Legacy was good. Its just been so long since he was involved in something exciting. I do think Luger is a fair comparison for career arc, except Orton is a much better and more talented. When they were young, they were both involved in great angles and great matches and had all time classic feuds. By the time they reached what should have been the prime of their careers they never really had won any of the matches or feuds that would have solidified them as stars so their careers seem sort of more like what could have been or what should have been.

YES to Okada vs Shibata. Probably my MOTY (either this or Rush vs Park). I loved the story they told, I loved the level of violence. Shibata came out looking like a monster.

So they did an injury angle with an injury that can take months to years to heal. I don't know if thats crazy or brillant.

I think NJ is entering its late 90s AJPW phase. The increased level of violence, the incredibly dangerous, batshit crazy bumps, etc. There have been probably 6 or 7 bumps so far this year in NJPW that legitimately scared me for the wrestler's safety. I hope they tune it down a bit. I worry that this crew in NJPW is going to suffer the same sort of long and short term health affects that have affected the guys from that era in AJPW.

I'm pretty sure wrestling fans do like sandwiches... last time I went to a show I didn't see a lot of people who looked avoid simple carbs in the crowd, a wrestling show is sort of the home of the 4X t-shirt....

Ok. Not trying to step in dogshit here. As poorly chosen as Russo's words are and as much of a dumbass as he is, wrestling is kinda gay. Everybody has heard pro wrestling (as well as MMA and ametuer wrestling for that matter) made fun of for being kind of homoerotic. Didn't mean to offend, please don't take what I said too seriously.

I enjoyed to opening matwork. What I thought of the opening matwork was that it showed Okada was overmatched as one he was taken down he couldn't get back to his base. But he wasn't so overmatched that he couldn't maintain wrist control and scramble to the ropes. I thought the striking exchanges told a simple story- Shibata hits really fucking hard, Okada does not. For me the mat work and striking exchanges built this tension that Okada was out toughed by Shibata and his title was in serious jepordy. Honestly these are my favorite matches in recent years- the athletic flippy wrestler vs bad ass motherfucker shooter match up. Nakamura vs Saku, Ibushi vs Nakamura, Styles vs MiSu, Tanahashi vs MiSu, and now this match.

I'm going to play devil's advocate here. Yes Russo is a jock sniffer and a meat head. But we have a thread here dedicated to discussion on male wrestlers' physical appearance. We watch and discuss watching grown men pretend to fight in their underwear. Just sayin.

To me a casual fan is the sort of guys I watched Wrestlemania with. They watch Raw or Smackdown most weeks. They may or may not have the Network. They don't nessicarily follow ROH, Lucha Underground, or NXT, but they've heard of each of them. They too complain about Wrestlemania being 7 hours long. They don't post on message boards. They never traded tapes back when that was a thing. They watch the shows but they don't follow how the sausage is made the way we do.

Dan Rather's career ended because from using a single unreliable source and not verifing the information with an on the record source or authenticating the information that was given to him. That is essentially what Meltzer does with everything he writes- unverified, unsubstained rumors reported as proven fact.

That is his style- wild irresponsible speculation reported as fact. The way he writes citing un named sources, making wild speculation and reporting rumors as fact would get any real journalist shit canned, but he's writing about wrestling so his carny nonsense is accepted as gospel.

They are just wrestling fans. Ginnetty posts here (and other places) from time to time and one of the guys to go to for buying Japan TV.

There were multiple native vs native matches in the 76 and 77 Champion Carnival. Jumbo vs Baba being the big one. Their 76 match was for who went on to face Abby in the defacto finals, and their 77 match was the de facto finals. There were also multiple native vs native matches in the 77 Tag league.

how many episodes have they added?

Often times watching sports I have the thought "wow that dude could be a huge a draw in pro wrestling". I was wondering if anybody ever has that thought. Has anybody seen somebody with such personality and a unique look and thought that. Does anybody else watch college hoops and see Przemek Karnowski and think he could be the next Andre. Or watch the Olympics and see Mijain Lopez and think wow he could be a great monster heel.

Was thinking about the crowd reaction in BJW. The crowd always seems to be dead at the start of the main event and doesn't seem to get into the match until half way through usually. Now these main events with Okayabashi, Sekimoto, Twin Towers, Suzuki, etc are awesome matches but the crowd always seems to start off disinterested and then comes on hot at the end, especially at the Korakuen. I think I figured out the problem, the booking of these shows. Every single title match main event at the Kokakuen has to follow at least 3 body disfiguring deathmatches with barbed wire, lighttubes, glass, etc. No wonder why the fans seem uninterested. So what I wanted to know, is if BJW toned it down, would they have a hotter crowd for the main event?

NOMINATING Daisuke Sekimoto vs Hideki Suzuki BJW 3/5 Match starts of slow. The crowd starts off dead the way BJW crowds have been for the last few years. They build slowly and by half way through they turned a dead crowd rocking. They finish off throwing bombs with a lot of big nearfalls and a finish that left it open to a rematch.

Ditto. Seriously I have 2 big boxes of VHS and DVDs if somebody in the DC area wants them I'll give them away.

I like the ideas of finishers, as a concept... a strike or hold that a guy does so well it ends the match. In MMA and boxing there are guys who have that one move or big strike that just ends it. Paquiao has (or had) his left hand. Cro Cop had the head kick his saying was "right shin hospital, left shin morgue". When Rousey was doing her Tyson thing she had the armbar. Micky Ward had the left hook to the body. Ken Shamrock had the heel hook. In theory, if you carry that over to wrestling it wouldn't be too different than how you see HBO hype a fight or UFC hype a fight. You hear things like "if this guy can hit the right hand the fight will be over" or "if this guy get it to the ground it will be over" etc. The problem with modern pro wrestling is the moves that are supposed to be match ending, but they don't end matches, ever. In real combat sports what marketed as a big deal, ends the fight. On Saturday David Lemuix landed a counter hook (after Max Kellerman had said twice "he puts people to sleep with his hook") and the guy went to sleep for 4 minutes. In real sports the big moves, the big kabosh is protected because its real. In wrestling people don't protect their finishers because, I don't know why. If Brock Lesnar needs to hit 3 or 4 finishers to win any match, then that defeats the point of having a finisher, if he needs to do a dozen suplexes before the half dozen finishers, that defeats the purpose of him doing suplexes. Because he's no longer the guy who does them better, just the guy who does more of them. AJ Styles got over because the only person whose kicked out of any of his shit (that I can think of, correct me if I'm wrong) is John Cena. Wrestlers don't understand that when they kick out of a big move that's supposed to end a match, they don't just pop the crowd, or make themselves look tough, the long term effect is it weakens the impact of the move and makes the guy doing it look like a bitch.

What match with Wada was that? Wada was always one of my favs. Never got in the way, added to the drama, never drew attention to himself. Joe Higuchi is probably my favorite all time ref. never drew attention to himself, but when he did it got a shitload of heat on some ganjin for breaking the rules then picking on the little ref. His presence of being tiny and never backing down always put lots of heat on guys like Hansen. Brody and Snuka vs the Funks I think. By Higuchi just standing up to Hansen and Brody he drew just as much heat as when Baba made the save and got fucked up. And he didn't draw attention to himself but rather he drew attention to Brody and Hansen being bullies... Yeah Joe Higuchi....

NOMINATING RUSH vs LA Park 3/11 Baracal Entertainment Wow. This is my MOTY to date. Just holy shit. Just wow.

Wow. awesome. Only thing that keeps it from 5 stars is the screwy finish. Wow, just holy fuck, wow.

Something like- 1- Bret vs Austin 2- Bryan vs HHH 3- Austin vs Rock 17 4- Rock vs Hogan 5- Savage vs Steamboat 6- Bret vs Owen 7- Savage vs Warrior 8- Brock vs Reigns 9- Taker vs Shawn 25 10- Shawn vs Angle