jiraffejustin

Do we know the $$$ amount WWE made from this show?

I don't know why I thought he was already dead, so this was shocking to me too, but for different reasons. Either way, R.I.P. Bruno.

If Gage was more violent this match would have been worth something more than the average match that it was. It was decent in context of the whole show, but it wasn't anything more than that.

This is my first match for both guys, so I am pleased to see the style Garrini works here as a BJJ guy. This is a special show, so I don't actually know if this is Garrini's usual style. I really hope it is though, because that would be right down my alley. This match wasn't long or all that important, but it was fun while it lasted. It was a good way to get the crowd into the action and open things up. One thing I'm noticing though is the commentators keep talking about MMA and Pro Wrestling as if MMA is more dangerous and "real" than pro wrestling, which it is, but I don't want them to keep reminding me that what I am watching isn't the real deal. I already understand that, but I am trying to live in this universe, bro. I really hate when wrestling rubs your face in kayfabe being dead, but that keeps happening throughout the night. Flash triangle is a nice finish, and makes Garrini look like a guy who can stop somebody from anywhere, even his back.

I am not a fan of Triple H, Angle, or Stephanie, and Ronda's never even had a match before, so how in the world was this so good? I almost don't even care about pro wrestling in 2018, but this match made me want to start watching so I can watch Rousey progress. The build up to this match was terrible, but this match was anything but. Stephanie was an amazing heel the likes of which I don't think exist anymore. She was expressive in ways that made you believe everything she was doing, and I really don't mind her defending armbars or gaining an advantage by going to the eyes. This match felt like a spectacle, and I like the idea of Stephanie McMahon training HARD to develop an armbar defense. Of course, it wouldn't make sense for her to go on offense without going dirty and the eye rake was played up as an important moment, which lets me know that it was a very conscious decision to make sure it's explained how it was even possible for Stephanie to gain an advantage. It looked great too, with Ronda's face pinkish-red and eye shadow smeared. I agree with all the Steph praise in the thread.

I don't know how felonies work with visas, as if he is initially charged will it be revoked? Or what happens if his attorneys manage to get the felony knocked down to a misdemeanor?

Has Conor been formally stripped of his title yet? Because if he saved his title this way and his tweet was correct, he is the greatest heel of all-time.

Yeah, it's not looking like a work right now. But I wouldn't blame somebody for smelling a conspiracy here, especially if a Khabib/McGregor fight in Russia happens later on down the road. I really wish everything was pro wrestling, because this is the angle of the year. If it doesn't lead to anything, it will be criminally disappointing.

I really didn't enjoy this match at all. Maekawa's selling was shoddy and inconsistent and her facial expressions get on my nerves. Sometimes she just has this blank face when it feels like she should be showing something on her face, whether it be pain, frustration, annoyance, or something, anything. I hated a lot of the yelling and shrieking from both of them, especially Wakizawa. Hopefully she will (speaking as if I watched this in real time) learn that selling is more than just making a lot of noise to get over your pain, because I don't think that's all that realistic, especially if you are going to be on that leg that apparently is in so much pain the only relief you can find is yelling until you have no voice. It was also sloppy and neglected the long sequences of legwork that should have gone somewhere.

I almost liked this match, hell, I almost loved this match. The middle section where Togo was dominating and his cronies are doing crony shit was fantastic, but I can't get past the beginning and the ending. I don't like the mat wrestling section that's quick and forgettable and pointless and I don't like Delphin blowing off all that legwork making the best part of the match feel meaningless.

From the get go I could tell that I was going to be into this. Murahama, apparently in his first match, looks like my favorite dude in the first four days of the year. I like the idea of him striking in bunches, but not necessarily putting all his power in his punches a la Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Just keeping touching the opponent until he wears down, then start unloading a little more. Also, leg kicks. One of my favorite things in all of combat sports is leg kicks. So, when people throw leg kicks, I am just going to enjoy it all the more for it. The story of Murahama making his debut and being a whirling dervish of kicks and punches is great, so it's even better in the match when he drops Hoshikawa and immediately celebrates as if he had been practicing that and couldn't wait to pull it off in a match. Then he is taught a lesson, he's a rookie,and rookies make rookie mistakes. He paid for with a nice German suplex. He's taken down a few times in the match and has enough defense to not let any kind of submission happen, knowing he'd be stood back up so he could do more damage. This felt like I was watching a young stud figuring things out as he went along. I really enjoyed it.

While this match doesn't seem to be anything that will change your life, it is still a lot of fun. I could do without the crowd stuff, the shrieking, and a various bits of wonkiness in execution, but those are minor hindrances to an otherwise enjoyable experience. If Miho wasn't doing all that shrieking, I think she would have been my favorite performer in the match. I like her spunk, her quickness, and her getting axe kicked on top of the head. The way she would go for those quick flash pins were a lot of fun. Some of the logic in these tag matches doesn't add up to me still though. I don't understand why every time the opposing team's corner member runs into the ring, the other team's doesn't do the same. Especially considering everybody comes into the ring from the corner at some point. That's also a bit of a minor quibble though.

I don't really like the logic of crowd brawling and then getting back into the ring, it just feels like weird. Like, I just can't understand how you'd go from wanting to fight anywhere but in the ring to wanting to stay in the ring. Then going back to crowd brawling later, it's just a weird choice. That said, this certainly violent, and I like that. It's a long squash match with a couple bullies beating the piss out of two much smaller opponents, and I am fin with that. It never feels like the underdog has a chance, so maybe that is negative, as there is no tension, but I don't really mind. I guess that keeps it from being a four-star match or whatever, but pro wrestling is fun when somebody is beating somebody's ass.

Man, this could have been so much better without the silly DX stuff. I know it set up the low blow into the Pedigree for the finish, which is a boring, but decent enough finish for a match like this, but they could have been more creative with the finish and still set up the referee being distracted with something else. DX looming awkwardly on the ramp just set the wrong atmosphere for an otherwise sort of interesting match. Like most everybody else, I enjoyed the bumping in this match, but I do think they should have done a better job with Big Show resisting some of these bumps as it doesn't make sense for a guy as big as him to moved so easily by HHH. The first bump I can live with, as it was established well enough that it was his own momentum that carried him over the rail. The second wasn't as well done as HHH reversed the Irish whip and then whipped Big Show. I really didn't like that spot, but Big Show bumped well and that aspect was impressive. I just don't like HHH being able to the put the brakes on that Irish whip and then have the strength to then pull Big Show from a dead stop into the steps with that much force. There are other, smarter ways to do that spot. The bump into the announce table was a little awkward, but it made a lot more sense. HHH bumped impressively in this match, that hip toss over the barricade was pretty gnarly and probably the best moment of the match. This match is a disappointment because it showed potential for something interesting and failed to deliver all the way through.

Yeah, I guess everybody here is right about this match being totally lifeless. The crowd is dead and you can't blame them, but if they had a pulse the workers might be a little more energized by them. The match before this one is a whole lot better. Maybe these guys just weren't feeling it. Not much to say about this match. The finish was decent with that frog splash looking kind of nasty, I think it probably should have ended the match, but I'm fine with the kickout followed by the elbow.

There is a few things I didn't care for, but for the most part, this is a pretty solid match. You'll have to forgive me if I mix up the two dudes in black that aren't Takayama, but I think it was Asako that went to Irish whip Kanemaru into a Takayama big boot on the outside, but Kanemaru looks like he takes off before Asako starts his whip motion and the camera was right there behind it making it look kinda silly. There was also those mounted slaps Takayama was laying on Kanemaru, but the camera was looking right at it so some of them looked good and others not so much. There's some weird moments in tag wrestling where multiple members of one team are in the ring and the other team has a guy, or in this case two guys, standing on the apron just watching their teammate taking an assbeating and not doing anything about it. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. That said, that dick headbutt was pretty funny, and not long after that Kanemaru eats a good uppercut on a cutoff spot that made me chuckle. Takayama is a guy that I am really looking forward to watching a lot more of. Most of my exposure to his work is from the 2010-2012 timeframe and the awesome Don Frye fight. He just seems violent, and I like that a lot. His big boot usually looks pretty great, and he doesn't seem afraid to lay into his opponents. He is my favorite part of this match, and every time he got in the ring I was excited for what was about to happen. Akiyama didn't do a whole lot, but I liked the work he put in on Asako's knee to start that section of the match off. It wasn't the best limb work I've ever seen, but it was good enough for this match and this setting. He attacked quickly and Asako, to his credit, sold decently enough, even if he did kinda forget about later on. Kanemaru was fine enough getting his ass kicked most of this match. Worthwhile match.

I'll start with what I like about this match since it isn't a whole lot: Yamakawa's entrance is pretty great, Honma's sitout tombstone was nice, and this one is more a general observation about Japanese wrestling, I like their chairs more than the WWE chairs. I don't know why I had that thought in this match, but it popped into my head. Anyway, this matched was totally ruined for me when they walked all the way out of the arena into the hallway, through the hallway, back into the arena, and Honma had his head kinda pushed into a sign a few times. I don't like that level of cooperation. I don't need my matches to all look like real fights, but I have a problem with suspension of disbelief when things reach that level of disregard for a struggle. Honma had a moment where he reached out to catch Yamakawa for the rana setup off the top rope a little early once too, and it's little things like that that can put me off too. After those moments, I just have a hard time caring about what I am seeing anymore. Nothing was done after that that brought me back into the fold.

My knowledge of Lucha is very slim, with only having seen a handful of the true classics I am not all that familiar with a lot of the great workers. Most of lucha viewing is from the 80's and 90's and early 2010's. I am not that familiar with Tarzan Boy, so seeing him in a Chapulin Colorado get up made me mark out a little bit. I was upset when the shirt got ripped, because I'd love to have that shirt. It made for a great visual seeing it hanging off of him though, so I can forgive that atrocity. If there is a lucha formula I appreciate the most, it's probably the one that calls for the rudo to absolutely beat the shit out of the tecnico in the first fall. And Bucanero does a good job of laying it on Tarzan Boy who looks perfect for getting his ass kicked. There is something about the pretty boy taking an ass beating and looking very vulnerable that makes me uncomfortable, which makes for good pro wrestling. It makes for a good story as well, because you know the pretty boy will have to find a way to climb back in it, because that's what pretty boys do. The flash pin is a good way to progress the story, almost like a guy getting his ass kicked in mma stealing the second round because of a flurry before the bell. It changes the dynamic of the fight, and now the last round is a lot more interesting. TB working over Bucanero between the last two falls was a nice way to sort of even the playing field a bit, and Bucanero's bleeding looks really cool with his make-up and sweaty head. The highlight of the match is probably TB's dive, it looks dangerous and lands enough Bucanero in a way that doesn't feel contrived and over-choreographed like too many dives do. TB gets a tone of height on it, it looks great. Satanico puts the match over the top with his post-match beatdown. I wanna see where that goes. I quite enjoyed this match. ***1/2

Lucha is the style that I've probably seen the least of, but I've always been interested in. I tend to prefer singles apuestas matches, and I am not all that keen on the trios formula a lot of the time. That said, it's because I usually only try to see the best matches and I don't really watch full shows that often. I think if I did, I would appreciate trios for what they are. I realize that they often set up feuds and progress them and are a good way to get multiple guys on tv. I am trying to use this project as a way to get a bigger hold on pro wrestling than I've had before. That said, the first two falls of this match didn't do a whole lot for me. I don't even remember that much about them, but I really started to enjoy this in the last fall. Everybody was getting some cool stuff in that fall, and I love Mr. Mexico's dive gone wrong, it actually got an audible reaction out of me. It's a decent match, but I look forward to bigger and better lucha matches to come this year.

Both guys will go on to do great things, but this is like a great director's first foray into shooting stuff on Super 8. Spanky has personality and flies around nicely already (that dive and the elbow off the steps were both pretty nice), but both guys seem to be moving in slow motion most of the time. It's clearly quite sloppy and maybe lacking in confidence from both performers, but considering what's to come, I think they can be forgiven for this less than stellar outing.

Terry Funk is good at eating chair shots to the head. That's about the only good that can be said of this match, and I guess the powerbomb at the end looked kinda nasty. Okay, I also like how reckless Terry Funk's moonsault looked. And that's really it. The NWO stuff is just played out and boring and been there, done that at this at that point. I've never really been a big Bret Hart fan, but I was hoping for something interesting between these two guys. I didn't realize this was post-concussion Bret Hart, so if I had realized that, I think my expectations would have been severely tempered. He wasn't looking good at all in this match, and he didn't really do a whole lot. I don't blame him for that, but it just wasn't a good look. But that's probably been said a lot out about late era WCW.