Boss Rock

Was there a particular time it started to go downhill? It always seemed like holding off on Kawada hurt them. Then again, Kobashi finally beat Misawa in '03 and became a huge draw.

I wonder if they're gonna let freelancers work both. Because unless that is the case or AJPW and Noah are partnering up, no way Marufuji beats Kento.

I do think guys like Okada and Trevor Lee are good at having those kinds of matches even if they drag or take a little while to get going. There are tons of folks who couldn't make a 30+ minute match engaging in any way.

90's AJPW, but I've also seen so little of ROH. Was really hoping they could get the classic stuff up for their streaming service but I've heard that they've lost a lot of it over the years.

90's AJPW and '10's NJPW are the only promotions I've really followed/viewed closely (although I think your point about 00's ROH is certainly applicable to later workers like Richards). I do think NJPW has the great long-term storytelling that AJPW had, but as Loss mentioned above the slow-burn over multiple years can get incredibly frustrating. Also, I agree that the 90's AJPW workers were better at building up the finishing stretch and bigger moments of the match whereas a lot of NJPW main events could lose the first 10 minutes and not be affected too much.

I think the indy workers trying to recreate 90s AJPW is kind of like rappers in the late 90s tying a bandanna around their head and expecting to become 2pac. Sure, they were fans and liked that style, but they kind of cherry picked the aesthetic parts, but not the deeper parts that made those style work. AJPW was a lot of flashy moves, but those moves were built upon years of character development, story-telling, and psychology. That's not something you can really recreate in a high school gym with a cast of characters that is fluid by nature. You can do a bunch of flashy moves and drop people on their heads, but without the foundational psychology of AJPW you're putting solar panels on the roof of a dog house. That's generally how view I a lot of the excess problems with indie wrestling today. Although I think it's certainly fair to say AJPW got more and more excessive in later years (and by extension so did Noah), but they also had the storytelling, psychology, and sense of escalation a lot of the imitators did not.

Great match to close out the A Block. Kento can be a dick in his matches, but he was in full babyface mode here (even letting go of the post choke without the ref having to grab his hair!). Kento started off strong and would get in some short bursts of offense before Hino would turn the tide with a huge strike or suplex. Kento would get overpowered for several minutes but as soon as he mounted his comeback, he would be drawn right back into Hino's game whether it be a striking battle or fight on the outside. Hino was incredibly dominant for the entire finishing stretch and looked like he would put Kento away, only for the champ to literally snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Great ending to a great match. ****1/4.

Davey is still wanted for questioning it seems.

Saw that attendance was way up this year from last.

Not that I've heard.

Yeah, that makes much more sense.

This one also.

That was awful. It just sounded like a bad imitation of a Rock line that would sound ridiculous but he would get over regardless because of his charisma.

I'd say "Suffering succotash" and "Donkey dung for brains" were the ones that did irreparable damage to his promo reputation. The tea party thing was just a cute PSA on fatherhood.

Definitely considering going.

This wasn't terrible, but barely an improvement over the Mania match. Not as much finisher overkill, but a very paint-by-numbers of a paint-by-numbers Brock match with some cage escape spots. And even if they toned down the finishers a tad, would it kill them to do more than Germans, superman punches, spears, and F-5's? I don't believe a match needs a ton of moves to be good, but this still seemed lazy. And while spearing Brock out of the cage was a cool visual, the finish and explanation was laughable. The booking of Reigns, as draining as it's been, has been one of the greatest unintended comedies in recent memory.

I thought the first part of this was good as the disdain was evident from the very beginning. I also thought Naito's leg selling was good for the most part even if the leg submissions went a tad long (and we took our time getting there to begin with). That being said, the comeback spots were definitely blown. The usual hot finishing stretches were negated with sloppy transitions and labored offense from Naito. The neck breaker was awful and the brainbuster transition was laughable. Suzuki on the other hand tried his damndest and the slap exchanges were definitely the highlight of the finishing stretch. Overall, I didn't think this was bad at all until the last 10 minutes or so. Really hope this was just an off night for Naito and not indicative of an injury or that he's done as a top-level performer.

Agreed.

I was surprised they'd have Marufuji go over and then just run another title match, but a cross-promoted show or Kento simply doing a one-off there makes sense. I do sort of have to laugh though at Noah putting the belt back on Sugiura and then potentially back on Marufuji when they seemed to be at their hottest pushing a different act like Kenoh.

Spot-on.

Really good sprint. Typical awesome performance by Mysterio, but Big Show was great in this as well. Mysterio utilizes a hit-and-move strategy and tries to chop down the giant while Big Show does a great job showing ass and selling frustration and rage. When Show is finally able to get his hands on Rey, the latter mounts one of the most creative comebacks with multiple 619's to the lower body. But in the end, the giant is just too strong. Awesome, sub-five minute match.

I think that's what bugs me the most. The half-assed booking is so draining as a viewer.

And Reigns is absolutely done as a top face now. He was never going to work as the Guy to begin with for a multitude of reasons people smarter than I have already mentioned countless times before, but this feud has absolutely destroyed him. Talks for weeks about how Brock is a lazy part-timer while he's busting his ass off every week and...loses. Then he gets a rematch for absolutely no reason and loses again on a made-up technicality. Take him off TV for a few months and bring him back as a heel.

Very good point. I know Sasha was never going to be their top star, but having her lose to Charlotte every time for the sake of a ppv streak that ended on a B-level show was terrible.

The middle inevitably dragged due to how long the match was, but this was still a very fun Rumble. Right guy went over.