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Why does it always feel like Paul thinks he's being edgy when he drops that he's a Jew in a promo or on something like this? Maybe it's my background as a Jew, but it feels like he thinks other people will think you can't say JEW on TV, so he's breaking script or something.

I thought it was quite bad, mostly because it seemed like a bad American show that happened to have UK talent. JR, while excited to be there (especially in comparison to NJPW stuff), was so out of place and clearly has little to no knowledge of UK wrestling as all of his references were to 90s-00s WWE. From the backstage segments to the GM to the randomness of the matches/types to the TERRIBLE editing, it felt like it was a parody of WWE/TNA more than it was a show to showcase UK talent. Couldn't stop laughing when they'd show the clips of classic WOS that seemed to be made by a completely different production team, then they cut to Johnny Saint and Marty Jones sitting in the front row to watch a 4 way ladder match to gain entry to a battle royale. Fascinating that this is what got WWE all in a huff.

Probably about as long as WOS lasts, which, if the quality is as a good as the pilot, about 3 months.

I'm watching the WOS revival pilot and it's hilarious that THIS is what had WWE so shook. It looks and sounds just like a TNA show (is it the same production team they use in the UK, maybe?), the wrestling is poor, the first show has a ladder match and battle royale (sticking to those WOS roots), and JR sounds more excited than he does for NJ on AXS, but all of his references are to US wrestling and he was obsessed with finding ways to call Viper fat for her entire match. They keep showing clips of actual WOS throughout the show, and it looks so much better. This is just a generically poor American weekly TV show but with UK talent. And WWE freaked the fuck out over it? Lol.

The Arn/Ole vs RNR match on the Crockett Cup tape also works the nose. I'm sure there is a Tully match working Morton's nose as well. Also a few Virgil matches when he had his facial mask on.

I think she has a great look, myself. Wish she'd go farther with the Mad Max stuff she briefly wore. Add some spikes, add some face paint. Get weird with it. Splatter Sasha in the middle of the ring.

Personally I thought it was hilarious. Koji had lost to Liger 3 times on 1/4 shows. Overall, Koji was 3-10 against Liger over 6 years. Liger had already proven to be the better competitor, pretty decisively, and if you're just watching the 1/4 shows, you're wondering why the hell they keep running this match. And then Liger absolutely squashes him to prove he ain't shit once and for all. They have another 1/4 match 5 years later and...Liger wins AGAIN.

I really liked how this match seemed to be Tenryu's years of cuntiness and stiffness coming back to haunt him. When Kensuke is chopping him and punching him in the face, he's got that "I'm too old for this shit" look on his face the whole time. Kensuke treated Tenryu like Tenryu had been treating everyone for 15 years, and it was pretty great. It's pretty crazy that Kensuke retired before Tenryu, and Tenryu was already 50 at this point. As much as I love grumpy ass Tenryu beating the shit out of people, it is very satisfying when someone gives it back even harder.

Nia is good in short matches where she can be a monster. She's terrible matches that go more than 7 minutes because A. She isn't ready for those kinds of matches B. She isn't suited for those kinds of matches regardless The match with Asuka seemed to go on FOREVER, and the longer it went, the worse it got. They should have just done a variation on their dope Takeover match. If it was good enough for Nak/Joe to rehash their matches, surely it would have been okay for Asuka/Nia to do the same.

So, you didn't understand my post. Confirmation bias would make you think this great match is bad. It's a possible explanation. It's difficult if you are expecting something really great, especially if you don't think it will be great and you don't really believe the people who tell you it will be great. What the hell, I asked you for your recommendations, and trusted your judgment that it was a good match. Yet you think I was expecting it to be bad and didn't believe you? Why would I ask you for recs of matches I assumed were bad and thought you were full of shit? I did like some of them. I didn't like that one. I don't even know how to respond to this. You think everybody is trolling you in liking this match? You didn't read the lucha thread where you laughed at this match? You didn't read the lucha thread where you shit on lucha? It's very possible you watched this match, a match even Joe Lanza gave 4 stars, and thought it was awful. Sure. Its more likely that your previous attitude about this match and lucha in general had an effect you were not aware of. It's not a ridiculous speculation to make. I don't know who Joe Lanza is or why he matters to this conversation. Nowhere did I say people were trolling me about liking the match. You said I went into it not believing you and assuming it sucked, which is completely the opposite of what I thought going into it on both counts. I believe you obviously think the match is great. I believe you enjoy lucha very much, which is why I asked you for the top matches on that list to watch. I went in hoping to enjoy them. And I did enjoy 2 or 3 of them.

So, you didn't understand my post. Confirmation bias would make you think this great match is bad. It's a possible explanation. It's difficult if you are expecting something really great, especially if you don't think it will be great and you don't really believe the people who tell you it will be great. What the hell, I asked you for your recommendations, and trusted your judgment that it was a good match. Yet you think I was expecting it to be bad and didn't believe you? Why would I ask you for recs of matches I assumed were bad and thought you were full of shit? I did like some of them. I didn't like that one.

This was such a neat spot: Match started slow, but once it picked up it got pretty great. Really felt like an end of an era type of match, as both guys were now starting to break down and be outside of their physical primes, with Mutoh especially looking like he could barely walk or stand up straight even before the match started. Kind of like they were doing their last "big time" match that they could do with each other while they still could. It and the Tenryu/Kensuke match were the only things to stand out on the show, but they stood out pretty notably.

Well, you're saying it is a match of the decade, I would expect it to be at least pretty good. I don't think that's terribly unreasonable. I wasn't expecting it to be bad.

See, I didn't get any of these high stakes and emotion out of that match at all. It didn't feel like they were fighting for anything important, it didn't feel like there was any intensity in their physical actions, because everything looked so limp and soft and sloppy. I'm not expecting Shibata style headbutts and stiffness or anything, but I do expect something that looks a little more intense than Kelly Kelly punches. I just watched Eddie/Art vs Santo/Octagon, and THAT had intensity and stakes despite me not knowing anything about the history of the angle. I also wouldn't say it was my turn your turn stuff, mostly because nothing happened besides the weak and standard brawling. Perhaps if there was like 3 years of context to it it would impress me more. But I didn't know anything about Casas/Heircero and liked that match a lot because I didn't need context to understand what they were doing and why it worked. I'm asking for explanations beyond a run down of the match. Which is what I've been told. And I don't see at all what I've been told, but that's not willingly ignoring it. It's still not understanding it because we saw different things in the match. Covering 8 lucha MOTYC for my site, going outside of my comfort range of what I like to watch and taking recommendations from people who are into lucha, is totally trolling. You caught me.

Match really falls apart in the 3rd fall, and it's fascinating at how much higher of a level Eddie and Art were operating on in comparison to Santo and Octagon. They were just working circles around those two. The heat Eddie and Art garnered was amazing, and they were fabulous assholes in the match. A real shame how awkward and weird the 3rd fall got. But it's nothing compared to the hilarious awkwardness of the main event cage match after it. Almost everything that could be botched was botched in that match.

Do you accept PayPal? I read your paragraph, Phil. It's giving a run down of the match, but I don't need a run down. I watched it. I know what happens. I want to know WHY it is so great, because what I saw was weak brawling, a ridiculous blade job for a weak chair shot, and more weak brawling. Bad looking punches, bad looking chops, sloppy execution, short falls that had no sense of build up except for the last few minutes of the final fall, which had a guy go from being put in a neck brace (and it awkwardly/hilariously falling off immediately) and unable to move to him locking in a wacky submission and flipping around. It reminded me very much of the kind of matches ECW guys have today at tiny indies. Similar to the Galactar/Delta match that had Delta eat a package piledriver (why was that legal, btw? Are only certain type of piledrivers illegal in Mexico or was it a promotional rule?) and doing rolling German suplexes 15 seconds later.

IT'S GREAT! isn't really an explanation. Great near falls, great blood doesn't really tell me what people are seeing that I'm not.

Someone please explain what I'm missing in that Trauma/Canus match.

I said in my Ric Flair thread that I think 1997 was one of his best years, and this was one of his finest moments. He was so fired up working with the Wolfpac, and despite what revisionist history tells you about the NWO being cool heels that faces couldn't get any heat on, nothing could be further from the truth when they were in the ring with guys like Flair/Piper/DDP/Lex/Giant. Also shout out to Hall forcing Flair to take his first flat back bump in 20 years. Flair would follow it up by trying to murder Syxx every time they were on TV together, and it was a very fun part of a (mostly) good year for WCW. Both Nash and Syxx getting hurt around the same time after Fall Brawl really put a damper on what the NWO was doing on TV, because that left Hall to do most of the heavy lifting on his own, then 6 straight weeks of Curt Hennig main eventing Nitro. Especially bad because it pushed off the NWO split that had started earlier in the year with Nash being too violent and leading to Ted Dibiase leaving the group and Hogan having to pull rank and get shit back in order.

You could say that for just about every angle in WWE over the past 10 years or so

Dominatrix Steph flexing her alpha nuts was like...the best match of that show, though.

Ultimately, her losing has less to do with her legacy and reputation than her reaction to losing. Every great has a point where either time catches up to them, or the game passes them by. She's still the most dominant force there has ever been in women's MMA, and almost singlehandedly put it on the map as something that can headline and sell out 30K seat arenas and get 1M PPV buys. No one holds those last couple years of Ali's career against him. Tyson was definitely on the decline and came off of two embarrassing losses when he showed up on Raw, but it was still a huge deal because that's Mike fucking Tyson. Ronda is still Ronda. Brock came back into WWE on the heels of two pretty brutal loses where he got the ever loving shit kicked out of him. But he's still Brock and we saw how that went. Honda Housey is still $$$ in UFC, too. Should she have another fight, it will be hyped as a comeback redemption.

I'll have my full posting sometime in the next week or month on my site, but quick hits: KAMAITACHI VS DRAGON LEE Kama has some nice heel swag, but nothing impressive here. Super short falls, repeated spots, Dragon Lee seems to have a move set made completely of signatures from popular US and Japanese stars. General lack of selling, flow, and story, but some cool spots. MASCARA DORADA VS CAVERNARIO Super short falls, lack of selling/flow/story. All of Dorada's matches in the CWC were better. NEGRO CASAS VS REY HECHICERO This was a lot of fun. Falls were a little longer, but they had a clear progression of style and feel. First fall was mat based, second fall was Casas baiting Rey into making mistakes, third fall was strikes and bombs. Plus a Backlund Lift, which I will never not mark for. RUSH VS L.A. PARK Really liked the wild atmosphere, super hot crowd, craziness of the spotlights whirling around, random sirens, fans throwing trash, and so forth. La Parka, fat and 50, still has more charisma than 90% of guys working today. Hampered by the complete lack of a finish. REY MYSTERIO JR. VS PRINCE PUMA Nice to see Rey in much better shape and performance than the end of his WWE run. Nice story of Puma trying to prove he was better than Rey, and forcing Rey to change up his offense to keep up with the younger, stronger, bigger, faster guy. I assume there were some sloppy spots based on the awkward cuts to the crowd when they were on the ropes. Matt Striker continues to be about as awful of a commentator since Mark Madden. TRAUMA 1 VS CANUS LUPUS Grimmas, what the fuck. This was TERRIBLE. These guys were so fucking bad at everything in the match. The shittiest, weakest looking brawling, no fire from either guy, terrible pacing, terrible selling. Just terrible. All of it. The blood did not save it, and the amount of blood for a weak ass plastic chair shot was ridiculous to begin with. 115 year old Dory Funk Jr. is throwing more convincing looking strikes in Japan in 2016 than these guys. VOLADOR JR. VS CAVERNARIO Another match with super short falls, no selling, no momentum, and my turn your turn shit. DELTA VS GALACTAR I enjoyed Galactar doing some real heel shit at the start, but that gave way to sloppy spots and trading moves with no flow. The best part was this granny completely ignoring the two brawling 6 inches away from her face. So, in the end I enjoyed Casas, Rey, and La Parka still doing their things. The rest can get out. Unlike what you said in the lucha vs puro thread about Americans not liking the production or thinking it is cheap, the production of lucha is probably my favorite thing about it. A lot of neat camera angles, proper usage of hard cams, replays when you need them, cool set ups. It's like something you'd see in the background of a dive bar in a cool movie. Not particularly surprised, as I tend to like 70s/80s stuff more than after than in general, but particularly in lucha where I very much enjoyed Negro/Perro/Canek/Dos Caras in the limited exposure I've had to them. Even El Solar and Halcon.

So...what's the deal with the Parka/Rush ending? They just kind of stopped, posed, and walked off. Was there something to the rules I wasn't aware of?

Negro Casas vs Rey Hechicero I like MUCH MUCH MUCH more than the junior shit.