SmartMark15

Janela-Omega Lights Out was the dark main event.

Seems pretty telling to me that NXT is already cycling back on rematches with Lee-Dijakovic next week then Strong-Dream the week after whereas Dynamite continues to promise fresh cards each week.

That show ending brawl was so delightfully layered and paced to get the maximum reaction for everyone and to move everyone's stories forward. It's crazy how well booked that was.

Just finished the show and my god, two weeks of me being a satisfied customer guys. All the little things they do add so much to the overall presentation. I was halfway through the show when I realized that the nameplates displayed each wrestler's win-loss record. That's crazy to me. Such a subtle touch. And that main event angle? Perfect retaliation for the Inner Circle beatdown of last week. Allin skating in to take down Jericho had me SCREAMING.

Catching up on some of the recommended highlights. Love both the first two matches but much preferred the tag (I mean, look at my display pic, you can tell why). I do think the gimmick spots worked better in the tag.

My video looking into this crazy masterpiece.

And now both Rush and Lee have been fired.

I honestly believe it can go either way but Bryan's been leaning towards babyface in the last couple of weeks. I saw him live at a house show in Manila and he worked a title match with Kofi completely clean without diving straight into his YES! babyface shtick. It's a real subtle character change with what appears to be the intended effect.

Was at a WWE house show in Manila tonight and Daniel Bryan was amazing, as expected. But of note is that he worked the match pretty much as a pure babyface (just subtracting the YES! shtick) including three separate clean handshakes along with raising Kofi's hand to end the night.

The last of their singles matches which is sad as it feels like a set-up to a much bigger pay off. Here's a video I did on this match as well as their preceding singles match from 2009.

One of my favorite rivalries from CHIKARA and some of Kingston's best work, overshadowed by the Hero series. Here's a video I did on this video and the rematch in 2011.

Not gonna lie, marked out for that opening. Didn't expect Triple H to be doing that live. That's the kind of subtle production that separates WWE presentation from other stuff when it's at its best.

Anyone else hoping to see the first live NXT?

Here's my take on probably the most talked about comedy match of the year.

Definitely seen the King's Road comparisons around here and other parts of the net. I think that it probably did the best version of that style than most others have tried in the decades since. And oh BOY have many tried.

An indie-epic style match mostly designed as a greatest hits match for Red to show off all his best spots. Just a shame we couldn't get the Code Red one last time, unless I missed it in all those flips. Nice to see dickhead Ospreay pop up for a bit as he worked over Red here with his size and strikes. Overall though, this went way too long at nearly 30 minutes and there just wasn't enough in there to sustain the length. Crowd loved every minute of it though and the post-match felt very genuine from Ospreay who's clearly a huge Red mark. It was fun but the post-match is definitely worth going out of your way to see. ***3/4

Because comedy wrestling deserves to be talked about too. Here's a video I did with my thoughts on this match: .

What would you recommend from 2017 other than the Ishikawa Sumo Hall match?

I've dipped my toes into his stuff and so far, I don't quite see the best in the world arguments. He puts on some great title matches though so maybe it's a matter of me not diving deep enough or following him closely? I've enjoyed everything I've seen but nothing that particularly stands out as best in the world.

WWE Championship: John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan, SummerSlam 2013 WWE Universal Championship: Brock Lesnar vs. Finn Balor, Royal Rumble 2019 WWE Raw Women's Championship: Charlotte Flair vs. Sasha Banks, Falls Count Anywhere, Raw WWE Intercontinental Championship: Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat, WrestleMania III NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair, Clash of Champions VI NXT Championship: Andrade Almas vs. Johnny Gargano, NXT Takeover: Philadelphia NXT Tag Team Championship: The Revival vs. #DIY, NXT Takeover: Toronto NXT Women's Championship: Bayley vs. Sasha Banks, NXT Takeover: Respect WWE UK Championship: WALTER vs. Tyler Bate, NXT UK Takeover: Cardiff ROH World Championship: Nigel McGuinness vs. Bryan Danielson, ROH 6th Anniversary Show ROH World Tag Team Championship: The Briscoes vs. El Generico & Kevin Steen, ROH Man Up IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega, Dominion 2018 IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi, WrestleKingdom 9 IWGP United States Championship: Jay White vs. Juice Robinson AJPW Triple Crown Championship: Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa 1/20/97 AJPW World Tag Team Championship: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue

Here's my video discussing this plus the rematch.

Watched the footage, crowd was fantastic all the way through. The "Kaze ni Nare" was electric.

A hundred mile an hour bombfest: Kenny's comfort zone. And it certainly showed. These two moved at such a speed and with the way they both bumped so big for each other, it was impossible for this to be anything less than very good. Things did start to slow down after PAC clipped his knee on the barricade (which Omega did too) but I thought they kept the intensity high even after the botched Poison Rana. It was big moves at a brisk pace, I can definitely get behind that. ****1/4

40 minutes? I was horrified. They came through. First thing of note is that the crowd really boosted this match so much. With their constant energy, everything felt bigger, better, and more intense. But yeah, the 40 minutes breezed by. The heat segments got heat, the comebacks got all the love they needed. Tyler played a fantastic underdog, selling the damage to the back even as he tried to push past the pain to accomplish the feats of strength needed to try and take down WALTER. Probably his best moment for me was not flinching for a second once WALTER kicked out of the Tyler Driver. No Taker face for Tyler, just jump to the top and stay on your man. Good lad. WALTER was brutal and imposing and this was his best work on top all year. He felt much more imposing and threatening than the Dunne match and that worked to this match's advantage. Really is the instant classic many have called it. I loved every second. *****

When it comes to Drew, I thought it was a real shame to see how everyone finds his WWE promos bland. He delivered a really great one in his last indie run when he made his return from injury to WCPW. That promo really sold me on the guy at the time.