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You're being an asshole and taking me saying SD has the same booking problems that Raw has to mean 1:1 exactly the same 100% on everything. Take this to PMs or please leave me alone.

Because they serve the same purpose, Bryan has been involved in all the Becky/Alexa contract signings, etc etc. If you want to think I'm just really dumb for thinking differently about a wrestling show than you, feel free. Maybe call me names in PMs instead so everyone else can enjoy the board.

About time. Rude should have been in years ago. DDP deserves it as much for his out of the ring work as in it. Hopefully this means some Dangerous Alliance era TV will finally get put on the Network.

You're not discussing anything with me. You just keep telling me I'm wrong for thinking X about Y. In every thread. Not great for a discussion, especially from a mod.

Can you write me a check list of things so I make sure what I see lines up with what you see so people can talk about shit on this board again. I have my opinions about wrestling. You have yours. Can we leave it at that? Or are you planning on telling me I'm a troll or wrong at everything I post from now on?

I didn't say he dominated the show. Just like Stephanie doesn't dominate Raw, but you'd think she does if you just read what people say every week. He has the same role as Steph/Foley, in the very same manner. Why it's okay on SD but not on Raw is anyone's guess. You don't feel the way I feel about SD. I've said SD is clearly a better show and a very decent weekly show. It still has the same issues as Raw, just not as severe. Is that really a controversial thing to think? Time isn't the only issue, and I didn't say it was the only issue, just like I didn't say Bryan dominated the show. If you're going to come at me in every thread, at least characterize what I'm saying properly instead of extrapolating and putting words in my mouth.

I'm talking about Rollins as solo guy. He's been terrible in that role as a face and a heel. Couldn't get any real heat as a heel because he wrestled like a face trying to get pops, doesn't get much heat as a face because he's boring as shit, offense is either light as a feather or actually hurts people, no sense of pacing or flow or selling. Plus, after 2 years of getting 20 minutes of promo time a week, he's still awful at them. But yes, Grimmas is correct, I'm just a troll. Rollins has been a legitimate blight on WWE since Shield broke up. At least Dean got to regress without being on TV for 50% of any given Raw. Seth Rollins is a dude who injured himself because he had to get his shit in even on a house show and felt the need to powerbomb Kane while he was in the role of chicken shit champ and Kane was booked as the most monstrous he had been in a few years. And Seth is out there like, "but I have to powerbomb him". The issues I have with Seth are pretty much the same I have with Omega: Wrestling for this is awesome chants and being more worried about getting your shit in and praised as opposed to putting on a good match. When given freedom, Rollins will do shit like vertebreakers on house shows.

I do watch at least one or two eps a month and clips, plus Talking Smack. I follow SD much more than Raw. SD has Bryan on about as much as Raw has Steph on, and then Bryan gets 20-30 minutes on Talking Smack to complain about his job and put talent on the spot with questions that can ruin them politically if they go to hard in one direction. And often outright shitting on the booking anyway. In the first 3-4 months, Bryan started and ended almost every show. They have him as the GM who makes matches in the middle of the show and books petty matches against talent he doesn't get along with. It's the same thing that people have been complaining about Stephanie doing for years, but he's doing it to heels. At the same time, the SD is brutally thin, leading to Becky vs Bliss 8 times since August, AJ Styles (probably the hottest guy in the company) having all of 2 matches since August that weren't against Dean Ambrose or James Ellsworth (and one of them was at SS which featured both Dean and Ellsworth in the match), and Miz vs Ziggler 5 times since September eventhough they've already had 2 multimonth long feuds in the past. All the issues of Raw are present on SD, but they have the luxury of not having to stretch their show out for another hour. Raw would probably be a pretty decent weekly show if it was back to 2 hours as well. I doubt people would be proclaiming it perhaps the greatest wrestling show of all time even if it actually was, because Raw droolz, SD rulez has been the talking point since the original draft. You gotta stop with this "anyone whose view doesn't line up with mine obviously isn't watching/is dumb" stuff. It's terrible for discussion. I see in SD what everyone hates about Raw, but to a lesser degree. I wouldn't see anything if I wasn't following and watching.

Lol, damning with faint praise indeed, since nothing Rollins does in or out of the ring is any good.

Agreed, this blows away: 5/92 Wargames 11/26 Toyota/Yamada vs Kansai/Ozaki 7/29/93 Hansen vs Kobashi 6/3/94 Misawa vs Kawada 10/26/97 Rey Jr vs Eddy Guerrero and those are only five matches it blows away Agreed

The overrating of Smackdown is hilarious. Give it an extra hour and people would hate it just as much as Raw, because it still has the same issues (rematches, long matches for the sake of long matches, overly scripted promos, GM bullshit that everyone is sick to death of, extremely formulaic TV matches). People made up their minds before the draft even happened that SD was the better show, and they doubled down even in the first few months when SD was TERRIBLE and Raw as clearly the far better show. The last decade or so of TV has been so bland, forgettable, or terrible on a week to week basis that a show that is consistently decent enough is proclaimed as this incredible show with so many layers and *insert any southern territory* booking. Like, Smackdown is not a show where you watch every week and can't wait for it to end. It's just a decent wrestling show, much like NXT was in 2012-2014. Nothing blow away, just a simple wrestling show that doesn't suck.

The best thing about Kenny is his complete lack of care for his physical well being. He's not doing anything to change wrestling like he claims, but he's willing to fling his body with reckless abandon to do what he thinks is changing it.

I thought both guys had shockingly bad basics. Omega looks great on big spots, but simple stuff like forearms, kicks to the stomach all looked pretty shitty. There was this one missed clothesline by Okada where he swung his arm way over Omega's head so Omega didn't even have to duck, shit like that wouldn't pass muster on a JAPW undercard, much less the dome show. This seems like an issue with a lot of guys that started in the 2000s have.

Ibushi vs Nakamura by a lot. That's the greatest match of the past probably 25 years.

When people talk about Omega/Okada being heated, are they talking about heat from the crowd, or heat from the performers? Because that heat wasn't there for me with the performers. It was there for Shibata/Goto and Tanahashi/Naito, but that could also be because both of those matches have pretty long established histories and backgrounds as opposed to a first time match up with Okada/Omega. I think that's an issue I've come to had with Okada, who is usually not very good at emoting during his matches and is often stoic to the point of seeming bored. The Okada = Orton, Tanahashi = Cena talk seems just as accurate as ever, as despite a glut of fantastic matches over the past couple of years, Okada was gifted the rocket push and knows how to get every match he's in to 3-4 stars by hitting his spots and general technique, but he needs the right opponent to bump his matches to the next level. You can pretty much time Okada matches out to the minute. You'll know exactly when he's going to hit which moves, and how long his finishing sequences are going to go. It's especially glaring if you go to NJ World and watch all the IWGP matches from 2016 in succession. The match with Omega was different, but Elliot talked about how it seemed like the fans were quiet and just waiting for the next big spot instead of being interested in what was going on between the spots. Now you have Okada talking about how Okada vs Omega can reach out to international audiences more than Okada/Tanahashi could, and it goes back to my point about the entire thing feeling like it was catering to outside audiences in a bad way. It's similar to when WWE picks someone from an area they're wanting to break into and makes sure they're all over TV even if they aren't ready or suck or aren't over. Everyone ends up resenting it. I wouldn't want something similar to happen to NJ when they're so hot.

I liken Okada/Omega to a PWG match at the dome. Those are Dave's two favorite things, so it makes sense he'd speak so highly about it.

Probably not much will change, as Dunn isn't the one who calls the camera angles or edits. All the stuff that people put their Dunn boogeyman stories on is some other guy whose name evades me at the moment.

People think that 3 of the biggest spots in the junior title match being botched somehow added to the match? Weird. It's not like they were blown spots that led to great recoveries or dudes getting hit harder than they should have. They were just full on blown spots that looked bad. Between Okada and Kushida, I don't think people can really complain about Vince pushing someone he wants no matter what.

I have a full write up here: https://legitshook.squarespace.com/strobogos-wrasslin-potpourri-reviews/njpw-wrestle-kingdom-11 But the short version is that it was pretty similar to the last few years of WK shows: Almost entirely skippable until the 3-4 matches. Shibata/Goto was quite good, Tanahashi/Naito was my match of the night, and Okada/Omega was a great spectacle and spotfest but certainly not deserving of 6 stars/greatest EVER type of accolades. I'm afraid Omega in the main events is going to usher in an era of increasingly crazy stunt show main events for NJ, and that worries me as NJ has been a reprieve from that type of stuff over the last decade when it became more and more common everywhere else. Everything about the main event from the pre-match promo on felt like it was trying to cater to Americans as NJ attempts to expand. But I don't watch NJ because they cater to Americans, and I'm weary that Gedo is going to be unable to contain his inner markdown for shitty US style booking. Very pleased to be able to make brand new gifs of Scott Norton in 2017, though.

I think the industry as a whole has pivoted pretty hard to crazy spots = great, and everyone being most interested in who can get the biggest pops for the craziest stuff, but ultimately, I don't think it matters too much since there is a large amount of footage of stuff you prefer that you'll never be able to watch all of it and keep yourself entertained anyway. Never been an easier time to dial into exactly what you're looking for in a wrestling show, and then talk with others who like exactly what you like.

Crowd was hot as hell, but I felt like this match was just non stop spots and seeing how crazy they could get. I like Naito a LOT more than Goto, but the Goto/Kenny match was a much better match as a storytelling device for the match itself and the characters involved. There's a novelty factor to this kind of completely balls to the wall get as crazy as you can type of match for NJ heavyweights still.

Speaking of Zack Gibson, the disconnect of him being the only guy doing classic WOS style (including doing a Jim Breaks special IN FRONT OF JIM BREAKS) getting booed for the technical wrestling was pretty indicative of the show as a whole to me.

They had heaters and fans in/under the ring posts.

The one more match that gets forgotten is actually very solid, for sure Kevin Nash's best match in at about a year, and one of Bret's better WCW matches as well. Not a surprise, considering those two always had excellent chemistry. But the Bret/Funk match is a bummer all around. Funk in general was certainly past the point in time where he was fun to watch, and Bret taking head shots, holding his head, looking in agony, and like he wants to throw up certainly isn't fun, either.

Losing the mask didn't really hurt him for a few more months and especially into 2000. The Filthy Animals has to be the worst stable of all time to have the talent it had in it.