Boss Rock

I think a triple-threat would work much better if it was Yano rather than Cody. They could do sooooo much with Yano repeatedly trying to steal the win. While probably not as exciting an option as say Shingo, Kawato's always had loads of potential is already better than more than half the junior division. I'd be thrilled.

I haven't seen too much of him this year, but I really liked the Aramis match and he still looked as quick as ever. And the aspuestas match with Adonis was not only easily the best singles match of Adonis' career, but was borderline great.

Thoughts from this past week's episode. Azteca-Ivelisse was a solid match, but I've sort of been underwhelmed by Azteca this season. For some reason he seems slower and sort of like he's just going through the motions. The handrail spot was particularly nasty. Cuerno-Mil was sort of choppy in-ring but the brawling on the outside was awesome. I really liked how they didn't just pretend their past feud didn't happen and that really fueled their actions in the ring. Jake Strong is every bit as dynamic on the mic as he is in the ring. I don't know why I'm surprised he's sucked so much considering how his WWE career turned out, but in all honesty I missed much of his singles run and only recall him having decent matches with Rusev and an awesome tag team with Cesaro. This feud with Drago and Aerostar would be soooooo much better with a guy like Cage. Hell, just use Hernandez again. The matches with Drago weren't classics but he knew how to be an effective bully. I dig Jeremiah as part of the Reptile Tribe as it not only allows them to highlight Callihan's positives as a crazy sprint worker, but he's also over-the-top enough to make the whole snake thing work. I just find it funny there was no further development with him and Catrina. Like, was he a ghost? What was the importance of that board he took from Dario's office last season? The direction with Fenix should certainly be interesting to say the least. And not to spoil anything, but lots of folks will be happy with the ending vignette.

Kenny and Okada are probably my easy picks for most athletic right now. Not just the variety of their movesets but how much they've been able to do in matches that have gone 46, 60, and 69 minutes. Misawa definitely stands out when considering past wrestlers. Guy's movement and execution when doing stuff like the corkscrew lariat and the running plancha were incredible. Even after years of wear and tear on his body he still looked quick and smooth as hell in the 2003 Kobashi match.

I feel like the only Money in the Bank scenario they could still do that they haven't done yet is someone cashing in during a ladder match right after the two competitors get wiped out in a huge spot. Briefcase holder cashes in and easily unhooks the title.

But the questions here really isn't "was he a good worker or promo". It's was he important. That's why pretty much everyone says Cena was more important than Hansen even if Hansen is a better wrestler in every single way. And Goldberg was never a great worker and he was absolutely important. And in this case, merch sales and audience reaction rivaling Cena who's one of the biggest wrestling stars ever seems pretty important. Even if his run at the top was relatively short, no one outside of maybe Punk for a brief period got close to doing that. And while he may not have been the first to do big ladder spots, he's almost always the first guy people think of and emulate when doing ladder spotfets today. The ROH ladder war and even the most recent NXT ladder match were absolutely love letters to the triangle ladder/TLC matches of the 2000's. And he may not have been the only guy in those matches, but other than the Edge spear spot, almost every highlight involves him. Now whether or not that's a good thing is again personal opinion. Now was Bryan more important in regards to how WWE views/signs talent and how NXT is built today? Absolutely. But saying Hardy wasn't important just because he wasn't a very good worker I don't think is really relevant to the question.

Action-packed and no padding, exactly what this match needed to be. Tons of urgency in this one as both guys (Penta in particular) were hitting each other with some nasty shots. And while both guys are occasionally prone to excess, they did a great job of escalating each spot. Penta also looked every bit the main event player Kenny is. Not just with his insane physical charisma (seeing this match live, his crowd control skills are fantastic), but how he was able to keep up with Kenny move for move. Excellent match. ****1/4.

Loved this. Was every bit the high octane balls to the wall action you'd expect from having these four in the same ring. Compared to the Tanahashi and Okada tags where everyone sort of felt like they were taking it easy, everyone busted their ass to make this a ppv caliber bout. I thought Ospreay was great in this match and proof that the juniors shouldn't just be the fall guys in these tags. Ospreay, KUSHIDA, and Hiromu would not feel out of place at all against the heavyweights. Tag team spot wrestling at its finest. ****1/4

Loved Brenda during the wedding. Her soundbites are always hilarious and I agree they've done a good job of keeping her featured but not over-exposing her.

I originally voted that I couldn't decide, but ultimately I would go with Bryan. I still think Hardy deserves credit for being the star that he was and for being at least partly influential for the high risk indie style. But Bryan is one of the biggest indie stars ever and while Punk was really the first to open the door for indie darlings in WWE, Bryan played a huge part in that too and proved a guy who didn't have the typical "look" or personality of a guy like Austin or the Rock could become a top star.

I think this sells Hardy short, although I won't defend his transgressions or claim he was the greatest worker. It's true that he mainly got over due to his spot-heavy style in the TLC and ladder matches, but I really don't think those were just cheap pops. He legitimately connected with fans in those matches and he continued to build that connection in later years. I don't know who else at that time would have gotten those reactions against the Undertaker in the famous "Make yourself famous kid!" match. And during his 2008-2009 face run he rivaled Cena in terms of audience reaction and merch sales. I also have to think he at least partially inspired the spot-heavy indie style you see so often today. Whether or not that's a good thing is truly in the eye of the beholder, but it's still pretty impactful.

Hardy never really got that "top guy" run but he was easily one of the most popular wrestlers of the aughts and is the only wrestler who legitimately rivaled and perhaps even surpassed Cena in merch sales which I don't believe has ever been replicated.

I was sort of considering punting on this season considering it's been largely just OK and I've been watching other things, but I had some time today and finally got caught up. And I have to say, these last two episodes were definitely one of the better ones this season. I agree with Savage about how rushed the story with XO, Ivelisse, and Joey is but I thought the No Mas match overall was really good. XO has easily been one of my favorite wrestlers this season. Jack remains a tremendous dickhead. My only issue was XO not getting the clean victory and Ivelisse and Joey helping him. Still, this seems like a really cool trio. Jake Strong sucks. He just looks so bored and lifeless like he doesn't even want to be there. Easily my least favorite wrestler this season. Really liked the wedding angle but the alignments continue to be all over the place with Worldwide Underground. While I like that Taya and Johnny aren't completely one-dimensional characters and genuinely love each other, their treatment of Ricky made Matanza laying out Johnny, Famous B (loved his selling of the wheelchair suplex), and PJ very cathartic. Like Ricky is a psycho killer now, but we're clearly supposed to feel sorry for him. And Johnny going from feuding with the Reptile Tribe and freeing Drago to being a complete and utter douche to Ricky, it's just confusing. Ricky letting out Matanza to wreak havoc was a fun twist rather than Matanza just ruining the wedding for reasons, though. The Catrina-Melissa martial arts fight was tremendous. One of my favorite LU vignettes ever. And it's clear that Fenix is probably corrupted in some way. Killshot-Havoc is developing rather nicely. While I again agree with Savage's sentiment that everything feels rushed this season, the motivations are a lot more clear in this feud. Killshot-Steve was also a surprisingly solid match. Killshot was methodical in breaking down Steve, who in turn did a great job selling the damage. Pentagon-Hernandez was fine but definitely the worst of Pentagon's title defenses. That being said, this felt more like Hernandez being bad than Pentagon not delivering. And I've been waiting for a Pentagon-Cuerno feud forever, so I'm definitely excited for that.

Can't believe I forgot about Mil. Co-sign.

Show was an absolute blast. Crowd was hot throughout, most of the matches were at least good, and Kenny-Pentagon and the main event were must-sees. I remember right as the bell rang the tron cut to the production company credit so I figured they had run long, but I had no idea the Okada-Marty match went over as much as it did until later. I actually wasn't surprised at the time by how long they went considering it was one of their more-heavily promoted matches.

Shuji and WALTER are the first two that immediately come to mind not just because of their size, but because both are legitimately top 10 in the world right now if not higher. Also love Joe Doering and Braun. And in the "not exactly tall but really big" category, Kazusada Higuchi, Yuji Hino, and Manabu Soya are good from the little I've seen.

Definitely interested in the last few people they get for the battle royale. MJF and Matt Cross are both booked yet don't have announced matches so they seem like a no-brainer. But that's still two or three spots still open.

I'll be there live. I'll admit there's a lot more they could have done with this card, but Ibushi and the Bucks vs. Rey, Fenix, and Bandido and Kenny-Penta alone make this one of the most interesting indie cards on paper this year. Also glad Janela-Page got the street fight stip. Should be a lot of fun.

I'm glad this thread exists because I've always been convinced Jared Harris and Trent Seven look alike. Their voices even sound similar.

Is Hijo del Tirantes still in AAA?

This whole angle with the Rabbit Tribe definitely gives me hope they're finally gonna do something interesting with them. So often it seems like they might be going somewhere only to lose virtually every match they're in. Same. I keep reminding myself that season 3 started off slow and then really took off, so I'm still hoping they turn things around.

I sort of like how LU has steered into the skid of being goofy and not taking itself too seriously. The Haunted House match was cheesy fun and surprisingly violent but far from the best match of the season. And the enhanced "slap" sound of the strikes is getting really annoying. Almost every single punch these guys threw sounded like a thigh slap. And the Melissa and Catrina stuff was good even if they totally botched the last part. Jake Strong continues to look bored and his matches are lifeless. Hard pass. Last Man or Machine match was fine but kinda disappointing. Heck, their brawl last week was more exciting. This largely felt like hardcore stuff for the sake of hardcore stuff. Still, the opening few minutes and the ending were really good.

Haha, finally figured out how to do this. Like I said, Daisuke Ikeda is kinda good.

Interesting that they're doing Okada-Tanahashi at Destruction and not KOPW. So Jay is most likely getting a certificate shot against the winner. While I still expect Tanahashi-Kenny to me the WK program, Okada or Jay stealing it wouldn't entirely surprise me. And them breaking the Destruction tradition of the heavyweight title not being defended makes me mad when they could have perhaps gotten the Okada title defense record out of the way BEFORE WK 12. Although if the Fale '16 match was for the title and he defended against maybe Suzuki last year, that would have only put him at 11.

Absolutely sucks for Jordan.