Boss Rock

Good call, I completely forgot about the Mania 19 go-home. And I do recall that other handicap match.

I remember that story. Vince was also convinced New Day were going to get over as huge babyfaces with their initial gimmick and was supposedly devastated when they flopped.

It was a triple-threat match, but Kurt pinned Brock at Vengeance 2003. Show also pinned Brock in a 3-on-1 handicap match with the World's Greatest tag team. But as far as singles matches go, you are correct haha.

Holy crap the Fiend is terrifying. And good to see Bray wrestle like a powerhouse.

I think Big Show and Angle each beat him 2-3 times during his first run.

Really good ME. I don't care about either guy so the result doesn't really make a difference to me, but Seth getting a clean win which Reigns has never gotten is ridiculous.

I totally agree and despite the fact that Okada is my favorite wrestler, he absolutely should not have won at WK. There's very little ground left for Okada to cover so now would absolutely be the time to go with Ibushi.

I like the Nightwing getup.

Goldberg destroying folks will never not be entertaining to me.

For a second I thought they were trying to recreate the Hardy-Undertaker thing with Goldberg and Ziggler.

They could always go back to Bryan, but his heel run from what I've heard has been going very well. And A.J. seems to be in the twilight of his career (also currently a heel). As much as I've never been a fan of Finn because I don't find him particularly interesting or all that great, he's always seemed to be really over with fans and was a proven draw in NXT. They've never really given him a chance.

There's still a lot of time between now and WK especially considering it's a two-event show, but if they were going to make Naito the ace I think they would have done it already. I still personally think they should give him another title run, but now may be the time for NJPW to go all-in on Ibushi as well as establish SANADA and Ospreay as main-eventer's.

I would be fine with that too and the time to strike with Ibushi is now, but considering how these tournaments have been booked in the past (champion and challenger never in the same block, not doing a title change before WK), I'm convinced Jay wins.

Yano-Cobb *** Decent Yano match. Trying to pin Cobb with his hands in his singlet was clever. Glad Yano was more of a spoiler this tournament. Cobb was meh overall but had his moments. Definitely an improvement over Tonga and Makabe. Taichi-Ishii **** These guys just have really good chemistry together. Taichi either needs to turn face or drop the shenanigans altogether because he can deliver in straightforward matches. Hard-hitting match like the Dominion encounter. Juice-Moxley **** Not as good as their first match but still very good. Liked the story of Mox working over Juice's leg and trying to introduce plunder while Juice tried to wrestle by the book. Juice's selling was really good and his win felt like true redemption. Goto-Shingo ****1/4 Expectedly a very good, hard-hitting match. Shingo rivals Ishii as the tournament MVP. Goto was a bit inconsistent this tournament but he did a good job here. Naito-Jay ***3/4 A good match hurt by a flat finish. The dueling neck work was good but this match never really kicked off into another gear.

Interestingly enough Dave was rather critical (although he agrees it "wasn't bad").

Even before I knew what a "self-conscious epic" was, I knew that HHH-HBK match was a self-conscious epic.

Welp, full speed ahead on Jay. Can't say I'm surprised.

I like to joke that the Progress guys have had too much influence on Triple H, but considering how a lot of those main events go I wouldn't be surprised.

Andrade getting called up and Ciampa staying screwed a lot of things up. Even still they could've easily given Ciampa something else to do or take him off TV again to let Johnny win the title and do other stuff. If the feud had to continue, they should've given it more time to breathe and not have the second match until Brooklyn.

Same. I could barely pay attention to the second match but it seemed like way beyond overkill.

I will say that I thought the first Gargano-Cole match worked in the context that Johnny had basically been a failure for a year and for him to kick out of all those moves and overcome all that interference sort of in a way redeemed his crappy booking.

Looks like it was 46:41 (I didn't watch the match). This has to be it for Gargano in NXT, right?

Yikes. I mean if Shayna had to win there was at least still the history with her and Candice.

I still think they screwed up by not having Bianca beat Shayna, especially with how their match went at Phoenix. Really seemed like they were building up to something there and the crowd was behind it.

Archer-EVIL ***3/4 Really good clash of powerhouses with Archer dominating early and EVIL never quite being able to fully recover. Push Archer. Fale-SANADA ** This was a match that happened. As clever as I think it is that Fale has been winning matches by relying on his size for all these pin variations, did he REALLY need this? I know SANADA beating Okada is really all that matters, but getting 10 points I think would have helped him break out from the rest of the pack at 8. And Fale gettting more points than Archer, who has smoked him this entire tournament, is garbage. KENTA-Sabre ***1/2 Dragged a bit in the middle and was longer than it needed to be, but this was good. Sabre dominating with submissions but every once in a while would poke the bear and get the shit kicked out of him. KENTA's run in this tournament probably had the most ups-and-downs of everyone. He had some really good performances and some rather meh ones. And even in the really good performances, his presentation as a possible top guy never quite matched his actual output. I think he would fare best as a midcard heel. Ospreay-Tanahashi ****1/2 Will Ospreay could be a top star in NJPW and this match was proof. Not only were his selling and comebacks fantastic, but the crowd was hot for him pretty much the whole time. Tana also did a great job as the finally fading for good former Ace grasping at straws. This win really felt like a changing of the guard and I hope NJPW treats it as such. Okada-Ibushi ****1/2-****3/4 I've been critical of Okada's lack of urgency even if he's been pretty great this whole tournament. But with him only needing a draw to win the block, taking it easy in the beginning really worked. The neck work was also well done and smart. It was only until Ibushi started mounting his comebacks that Okada realized he was going to need a win. This match was 25 minutes but it honestly felt like 15 with how quickly they moved down the stretch. The ending was also a bit of a surprise even if the result was not. Definitely one of the best matches of the tournament.