Boss Rock

I will say I am very happy NJPW World finally works on Chrome.

Solid Rampage, and the Buy In was really good.

Which is kinda funny, because I can't imagine that having been on anyone's bingo card. Really good match though, easily the best Tonga singles match.

Any time!

Ibushi and Kenny have always struck me as being very similar yet Kenny has always been more polarizing.

Ishii-Hiromu was very good though I think their NJ Cup match last year was better. Loa had an impressive showing against Shingo even if the match was too long. KENTA-ZSJ was good, but it also seemed to go on forever. And O-Khan looked really good against Ibushi. Granted, Ibushi is one of the best in the world, but O-Khan continues to impress me with his ground game. He seems to be putting the pieces together.

The only GOK matches I've watched have been ZSJ and Ishii, both of which were good and the former shows the guy knows what he's doing on the mat. But I haven't heard much praise for anything else he's done. And Okada continuing to bounce back from last year to show how good he still is has been a very welcome development. He and Taichi had a great one today. Kevin Kelly apparently said folks might cancel their World subscriptions if EVIL wins, which is both hilarious and likely.

I've seen it mentioned that Miro was likely to be in this tournament had it not been for the pandemic. Brodie would have as well...RIP. The best stuff has pretty much delivered as expected but I agree that the best is likely behind us. I've still been cherry-picking but the tournament hasn't been as dire as I expected (it also helps when Big Match YOSHI-HASHI steps up). ZSJ seems like a lock to win the A Block and my new prediction is that Okada and Cobb go into the final day of the B Block undefeated.

I may revisit those. I pretty much just watched the ME (which was very good) and Ibushi-Yano which is the type of Yano match I like to see. Standouts from yesterday were definitely Goto-Cobb and Okada-YOSHI-HASHI. Tonga-Tanahashi was also pretty good but not must-see.

I do agree to an extent a match doesn't need a ton of callbacks to be a great match, but long-term storytelling can absolutely make a match better or add to a narrative. Like when I first saw 6/9/95 I was already convinced it was one of the greatest matches ever. But with the added context that Misawa had a broken orbital bone (which I was not privy to before), it made even more sense and was even more effective.

Well, that finish sure did suck didn't it?

Pretty much.

As damning an indictment as the empty building was for EVIL, night four was still pretty solid. I only watched the last three matches, but they were all pretty good with Taichi-SANADA being the best (which was a bit surprising to me).

I honestly thought this was the best Rampage ever, or at least since Punk's debut. Punk-Hobbs and Superkliq-Jurassic Express were the highlights. 8-man tag was a lotta fun even if commerials ate up a ton of it. Main event was also really good. Only real low points were the MOTY-Jericho/Hager tag and Penelope-Anna which didn't get a ton of time. As far as ATT, I don't quite know how I feel about it. Definitely think PVZ should make the jump to pro wrestling but the only other person I would be interested in seeing is Arlovski. As old as he is, him wrecking dudes with the fangs mouthguard would be awesome to see.

Terrible luck, especially given Naito's knee issues. I was a bit concerned when he didn't get up for a while, but I just thought it was excellent selling.

Okada-Tanahashi was great although probably still on the lower end of their series. A bit too slow but the long-term selling was good and the finishing stretch was excellent as expected. Surprisingly really strong card. I expect there to be some largely skippable shows, but perhaps this tournament will exceed my expectations.

Naito-Sabre and Ishii-Shingo delivered as expected. Finish to Yano-KENTA was also amusing and clever.

I will definitely check a few out, but whew if there was a year they desperately needed outside talent, it was this.

G1 starts tomorrow and...I just don't really care unfortunately.

Zayn strikes me as the guy who has given everything his all but has wanted out for a while.

I don't think there's ever been anyone who changed my opinion of them more drastically than Page. When I first saw him in ROH and NJPW I could tell he was a young guy with some potential, but never cared for him. The same thing happened when he came to AEW and fought Jericho for the title. Yeah, he was a well-enough known name who could put over Jericho, but he still wasn't all that great.. It's almost like as soon as he lost the Dynamite Diamond Ring match to MJF, it all immediately clicked for him. He not only found a character that was interesting and relatable, but he was starting to put on really good matches. Now he's one of my favorite wrestlers.

I'd like to be wrong but I assume Page won't be back in time for Full Gear. At that rate I expect him to return to confront Omega and ideally you build that to another Winter is Coming-esque Dynamite to close out the year. No need to wait until Revolution.

Darius Lockhart was also there wrestling Ricky Starks.

They're calling it the All Elite Zone. Nice.