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Yes to Rush vs LA Park 1 Rush vs LA Park 2 Rush vs LA Park 3 Yes to Okabayasbi vs Kamitani BJW 7/24 Nominating/Yes to G1 Matches Okada vs Ishii Elgin vs Nakajima No to Omega vs Naito G1 Match thoughts are in match discussion thread, Lucha thread , and G1 thread.

Wasn't it also Sullivan's call to put the title on Benoit when he had 1 foot out the door in a last ditch effort to keep Benoit , Eddie, Douglas , Malenko, and everybody else who was threatening to leave happy? And didn't he push Benoit to cover up an HR complaint

Look at the number of guys who passed through the AWA and were a bigger deal else where. I think the only star Verne Gagne was successful in creating was Verne Gagne I would also like to see where people put Ultimo Dragon as a booker. He started a promotion with only his students , and at a time when New Japan and All Japan were on deaths door managed to draw crowds of 10000 for the big yearly show before he left for the WWE. Regardless of what you think of the in ring style that's impressive.

Agreed that they didn't become big stars until WWE. For Jake I would pinpoint it at the fued with Steamboat in 86 somewhere in there. Correct me if I'm wrong but that was before the Savage match. And for Benoit I'd put it at the tag match where he and Jericho went over HHH and Austin. First match he went over somebody that mattered.

I'll be the first to say it. I didn't like Omega vs Naito. At all. They did a lot of cool shit don't get me wrong. But I found Omegas selling uneven and there were several times where after limping around Omega did something super human on that knee like a dive into the 3rd row. That shit just takes me out of it. Also I haven't watched a lot of NJPw the last few months I thought they were both heels so the whole way the match played out confused me

ECW it's what introduced me to everything else. So many of my favorite guess and angle AJPW from the debut until Baba's death. Probably the GOAt promotion. Mid South 81 ish to 86 ish. Watts at his best. Do aide at his best NOAH debut show until Misawa's death. I don't think there is anything I love more than Burnong vs Strerness feud the interpersonal feuds etc Toryumon 99 until the name change. It had some crazy angles. Great feuds , M2K vs Crazy Max, etc. Genki Horiguchi's run at El Numerous Uno 2003, Michinoku Pro 1993 to 1997. Kaientai Dx plus other goodies World Class 1982 1984. I love the whole Von Erich vs Freebird feud BJW 2006 to 2011. That was the height of their deathmatches as well as the height of the Strong BJ division RINGS Han, Tamura. Yamamato, TK, random Dutch kick boxers etc what a great promotion. WWF 85 to 93. This is what I grew up on. FMW 89 to 1995. Did anybody do big stadium spectacle better than Onita?

it wouldn't shock me if the winner of McGregor Diaz is at Raw on Monday . Seriously, what would the purpose of all this shit be . The ESPN articles/gossip, the lesnar fight, the Twitter beef, etc. They are doing a lot of working to promote something

Let's be honest it's ESPN. ESPN is one step up from tmz when it comes to journalistic integrity. They've spent the past 2 days doing nothing but fantasy football coverage. It's basically been a 48 hour informercal for their fantasy football app.

I think Brock is the only guy right now who brings that big fight feel. That's what I loved about ECW. Their top guy or top fued always was booked to bring a big fight feel ala Mike Tyson. hence my fondness for RVD.

Last fun match- the Rush vs LA Park matches Favorite wrestler- of current people probably Shinsuke Wrestler I want to see more of- that new kid in BJW Kamatani. Also the new kid in DDT Takeshita also Matt Riddle. Also I'm looking forward to binging on the Portland set Match I'm looking forward to- Ishii vs Okada. Still haven't seen it Favorite posts from this board- I like the contrarian opinion thread. I love how many opinions I agree with that others see as off the wall

And I won't appologize for being an RVD fan. I was 13 or 14 when ECW started airing in my area. It was my first exposure to anything nonWWF non WCW. It's why I'm a Taz fan too. I feel like had I never flipped to ECW on some channel buried deep in my cable package at 1 in the morning I never would have been exposed to any wrestling other than WWF and WCW. My fandom of RVD is not logical at all. He had that aura . I guess the closest guy to it now would be Pentagon Jr. Where he's just booked like the baddest man on the planet despite being in some rinky dink promotion. My love for RVD is like my love for Tommy Boy. I know Tommy Boy is a shitty movie that has no plot and the jokes are corny. But I won't let myself admit that on an emotional level because that movie was my favorite for such a large part of my childhood. I will defend my love of RVD matches and Chris Farley movies to the death.

Gordi and Daniel from the old puroresu.tv board both live/ have lived in Japan if they are around these parts to contribute. I'll throw in my two cents. I took 2 years of Japanese back in high school because I loved puroresu so much. It was easily the hardest course I've ever taken. Harder than anything I had to do in college. I can speak some basic phrases but and read some kanji and hiragana but that's about it. It always seemed to me that the foreign exchange students I met who came from Japan picked up English a lot easier than I picked up Japanese . They loved Bob Sapp, Nayoa Ogawa and Akebono. Were huge fans of Pride and K1. However most of them weren't so much fans of puroresu.

I got another one. I love RVD. In his ECW run he brought a big fight feel. His PPV matches felt like Tyson fights, that was partly booking but also partly his athleticism and that he stiffed the fuck out of everybody. Hell his AJPW run is great too. Where ever he worked he also managed to stand out

There is truth to what McGregor said which is why it struck a cord. There are plenty of guys in the WWe who don't strike me as guys who can handle themselves. That's what makes Brock stand out. Even the guys who have the athletic.background to be able to handle themselves don't carry it like that. If that makes sense

I agree with a lot of things said so far. When worlds collide was overrated. Bobby Eaton is overrated. TM is underrated as is Takada. Shane Douglas was the man circa 1996. Mauro Ranallo sucks at everything he does. Those are the ones I agree with. Somethings that haven't been said- Kobashi was better at selling limb work than Kawada or Misawa. The Super J Cup was overrated. I'm not even sure the finals or semis were the two best matches on that day, in Tokyo, let alone two of the best matches of 1994. Raven was the best heel of the 90s. Fans under estimate workers athleticism. Fans look at a guy like Necro Butcher or Taue and think those guys aren't athletic. Bullshit. If any internet fan tried to do half the "unathletic spots" that a Kevin Nash does that same internet fan would break his fucking hip. Heels should not do moonsaults. To me this is common sense. In the old days there were heel moves and baby face moves. So why are heels now doing flashy moves It takes a long time to really understand what is going on in Lucha libre. It is like learning a new language Old school guys who worked to get themselves over can be a lot of fun. I.e. Inoki, Mascaras, Brody,etc. Just because they didn't have many good matches didn't mean they weren't workers. They worked to get themselves over which they did thius they were good workers.

Stuff like this was what made ECW so awesome. ECW had just came to TV in my area less than year before it went on TNN so I didn't know the whole Raven Dreamer backstory. But even with like 8 months exposure to the product this was definately a holy shit type moment that drew a real emotional response from me.

So the Super J Cup is looking to be really disappointing.

I love how GOTNW just like to be contrarian.

I will say that Reigns is as good or better than any top guy from an in ring stand point that WWWF/WWF/WWE has ever had. I just feel the exact opposite about the top guys pretty much everywhere else. The first time I heard "this is awesome" was in live in 2002 during Paul London vs American Dragon in a fucking rec center. Paul London climbed to the top of a backboard, using a rickedy ladder, sparking a "please don't die" chant. Then did a shooting star from the top of the backboard sparking "this is awesome". I don't think I've ever heard it since that didn't cause me to roll my eyes.

Agreed. Right now I'm looking forward to the Portland set more than I am anything current. There are individual workers and individual matches from time t time that I enjoy just as much as matches from 10- 20 years ago, but I feel like what now constitutes a good match has changed. There are a lot of matches out there with no psychology and no selling, but some pretty cool shit that people rave about. 10, 15 years ago these matches were described as "fun" but not brilliant matches. Now these sort of matches are being described as brilliant and being given 4 and 5 stars. It feels like standards have changed and the bar has been lowered.

Same. I'm from the trading VHS generation. So you found a worker/style by trading for "Best of" and compilation tapes. As a kid I'm make 3 big buys a year, usually two from Lynch for Japan and one from RF or Highspots for lucha, indies, and ECW. Then when I watched them I'd hook 3 VCRs together and make copies to trade with. So at first I saw the most hyped workers in their most hyped matches on the most hyped shows and branched out from there. when youtube and torrenting came around about 10 years ago, it opened up a whole new world. I was free to see all sorts of stuff and not worry about video quality or spending money on a bad match or bad show. It has totally changed the way I watch things.

I'm positive Han vs Tamura doesn't have my favorite RINGS match. I'm also pretty sure it isn't my favorite RINGS feud.

Historically nobody comes out ahead in partnerships with NJ. Ever. Not UWF. Not UWFi. Not NOAH. Not CMLL. Not WCW. Nobody. They are the Oakland As of pro wrestling, nobody gets the better end of a trade with the As. Nobody gets the better end of a partnership with NJPW. Anyways explain what ROH wrestler should be in the G-1? who should they have that would be something other than a job guy? Excited for the usual Ishii formula underdog matches. Ishii or Honma vs maineventer in the G1 is my favorite sort of match. I don't remember him having one against Okada before. Nakajima brings something new and fresh to the tournament. Should be good for 4 or 5 good matches in match ups we haven't seen before.

Sandman's whole sctick was that he had the coolest entrance in wrestling. I often wonder how ECW never ran afoul of a county liquor board from Sandman's entrance

greatest post ever.