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Ultimo Dragon is probably at the top of my list. Loved him as a kid, now realize he was one of the sloppiest dudes. Like, bordering on Super Calo level sloppy. In Japan and WCW. You're lucky to find a match on WCW TV, in SWS, or NJ where he doesn't have at least one huge botch on stuff he would do regularly. And even worse, if one of his opponents would botch, he'd get pissy and stiff the fuck out of them, usually kicking them full force in the head. In general, I've really soured on AJ in the 90s and find it so much less interesting and enjoyable than 70s and 80s AJ. That structure got so old by like...1994.

I'd definitely go chill in Japan in about 1975-1979 and watch AJPW. Jumbo's meteoric rise. Baba when he could still go. All the gaijin who would come and be so much better there than in the states. 1970s AJPW is pretty much the best wrestling ever, imo. Just a wonderful time for grappling. Then I'd bounce to about 1984, check out Memphis/Mid South/JCP when they were about as hot as they'd ever get. I'd also make sure I was at Beach Blast 1992.

I checked it out. Certainly not the most user friendly streaming service...

Having been running a wrestling based review site for 3ish years now, I have the same thought pretty regularly. The only thing that seems to matter is content, and there's only so much wrestling you can watch and write about per week/month/year. You can't take time off. You have to consistently get more content out. It's a constant grind and when you start having hosting and domain bills that eat a hole in your pocket because you aren't getting the traffic to pay, or the traffic coming is using ad blockers....giving up on it is always in the back of my head.

For the HBK/Savage thing, the rumor is that Macho came up with like a 2 year plan to feud with HBK eventually ending with HBK beating him at WM 10, but Vince shot it down because he thought having Macho in such a prominent spot while pushing the New Generation didn't make sense.

Does NWA On Demand do a trial? I've been meaning to check this out for my site but I'm always leery of quality/streaming platforms without being able to check them out a bit.

WWE's current style could be improved dramatically with having a few matches per month end with a non-finisher. It would instantly make the MOVE MOVE MOVE NEAR FALL NEAR FALL NEAR FALL stuff actually mean something and make those near falls be actual near falls again. Let Sami win with the BTB once in a while. Let KO win with one of his 15 moves that look more like finishers than the papa powerbomb. Let Charlotte win with the moonsault. And on and on. As of now, the only way you can win a match in WWE is with your finisher, a roll up, or countout/DQ. The entire paradigm of the indie based spot fest style can be given substance and meaning with just letting a few matches end with one of those random moves. It's so simple that it's bizarre that I, as a drunk wrestling fan, can understand this concept, but people putting together matches in WWE can't seem to.

That's not what my post was about, but okay. My point was Charlotte doesn't get as much guff about her sloppiness because she usually isn't doing anything to hurt herself or others. Except when she's in matches with Sasha, where both are going to be trying stuff they shouldn't be trying and you never know which one of them is going to die.

I mean...I just did. But the main difference in their sloppiness is you don't have to worry that Charlotte is going to end up dead after a spot. It's usually just getting lost and not knowing what to do. Except when she and Sasha are together, then you never know what's going to happen. this spot happens Then they went for this and I've never been so tense and wondering why the fuck anyone approved this spot.

One of the greatest commentary teams of all time, and I'm not even joking. Invasion 92 is so great and I wish it was online https://legitshook.squarespace.com/wwf-videos/2016/6/18/wwf-invasion-1992

One of my least favorite dudes to listen to is Bill Watts. Dude always sound so bored with his own product, and he'd openly shit on the talent or point out their mistakes, while being far more interested in talking about their non-wrestling achievements than wrestling qualities. He really harms the quality of MS shows for me. Which is sad, because Mid South is probably the best territory to pick a random TV episode and watch outside of him. Other guys I'd put on my list of all time terrible commentators lower than Ed: Mark Madden Lord Alfred Hayes Mark Madden Mark Madden Dok Hendrix Rob Bartlett (can you believe Vince stuck with him for as long as he did?) Mike Tenay Mark Madden Jerry Lawler for all but like the first year of his WWF run Mark Madden Fuck Mark Madden. What a sack of shit he was. And is.

My rule of thumb is: Would Arn Anderson do this or give you a thumbs up for doing it? If not, then it is excess.

I could see the argument for Sasha being exposed - but don't really see it for the other three. Charlotte's clearly improved since NXT. Bayley hasn't really had a chance to do anything yet. How has Becky been exposed, in your eyes? She's one of the best workers in the company, in my opinion. All four have been so sloppy. None can cut decent promos (although Charlotte comes close sometimes, only to kill it with her weird inflection and modulation choices). Charlotte has more poise than she did in NXT, but in the ring has regressed. Very often gets totally lost in her spots and has no idea how to improv around it. Sasha can't go more than 2 weeks without almost breaking her neck. Becky looks awkward more often than not, and that STRAIGHT FIYAAHHH and crossbow stuff is just...weird. I can't name any quality matches she's had on the main roster. She was just finding her groove in NXT when she got called up and I don't think she's ever recovered from it. Bayley was obviously a step down from those 3 to begin with, so her fall from grace hasn't been as pronounced, but she's just kind of there. There's nothing about her on the main roster that makes you want to care about her, even outside of a writing perspective. Sasha is the real tragedy. In 2014-2015, I think it could be argued she was in the top 2-3 people on either roster, if not the best overall performer in the company. If you're only exposure to her was from Raw and PPVs, you'd have no idea why there was any hype about her. She's an absolute mess in the ring, and about as bad as anyone at promos. It seems like all any of the 4 were trained to do is hit their big spots and know when to pose for a commercial break.

I'd rather watch Alexa and Dana than any of the Horsewomen. All four have been badly, badly exposed on the main roster. It's really exposed what is the fundamental flaw of NXT: It doesn't prepare talent for what they'll need to do on the main roster. They work in front of the same crowds, sleep in the same bed every night, get to work in the same gym every day, get to work out their matches for 2-3 months in advance with their opponent every day, get to retape everything if they mess up, do all of their promos as 30 second inserts in the back, etc. They aren't trained to be told the day of the show to go out and fill 10-15 minutes in or out of the ring. They don't have instincts to change directions when things go bad. They don't know how to speak in front of crowds. They don't know how to hold back, because all they know is going full blast for the most amount of stars they can get like they're playing the video game. The second NXT went to the Network and started doing Takeovers, it completely lost its way as an actual developmental program for WWE. And that has really shown, as the majority of call ups that weren't 10 year + vets have floundered hard. Keep people in NXT for years to learn the WWE style, but don't actually teach them the WWE TV style, then wonder why they don't catch on like you'd hoped for.

I'll take Ed over Bob Caudle any day. And Johnny Weaver. Lance Russell and Tony Schiavone are my GOATS, although immense love for all variations of the main Golden Era WWF teams.

I've been getting into Dory a lot over the past 2-3 years. As a kid, he was a weird old dude who was boring. As an adult, he's a weird old looking dude who was pretty damn dope. Fascinating that he looked middle aged at like 25.

They probably knew that the WWE and others were looking to acquire indie wrestling content and felt that the change in direction was inevitable, so they tried to move first and strike a favorable deal for themselves. Seems short sighted, because there's no way this thing is going to last very long, and then your content has been devalued. You can't put that genie back in the bottle. Just like no one would pay for a WWE PPV after the Network. Once you go that way, there's no turning back.

This thing seems DOA to me. Why would companies who are making a profit selling their shows at $15-20 a pop want to be part of a service that is $20 total for a bunch of different groups without the kind of exposure they'd get for doing the same on WWE Network? No one signing up for this is going to be unfamiliar with most of the promotions, so they're just able to watch the same content for cheaper. This is why I don't understand the "price of indie wrestling is skyrocketing" comment, because when this fails, how are you going to convince people who were paying $20 a month for your shows plus 30 other shows to pay $20 for one show again? In the very short term it could get some guys some money, but ultimately seems like it'd have a negative impact once it shuts down. Some people have trouble with the simplest of tech tasks so mileage always varies on these things. I seem to recall people complaining to Meltzer on twitter about how hard it was to use the site.Dave also said they would have English menus eventually. I never subbed for that reason. No apps, no English menus, etc. If numbers are that low, they probably never will. They do have English menus. And an app. Some people have trouble with the simplest of tech tasks so mileage always varies on these things. I seem to recall people complaining to Meltzer on twitter about how hard it was to use the site. Dave also said they would have English menus eventually. I never subbed for that reason. No apps, no English menus, etc. If numbers are that low, they probably never will. They do have English menus. And an app.

Isn't it sad that Michael Elgin counts as a HOSS gaijin in Japan these days?