Richeyedwards

The Order of the list of wrestlers is always interesting as it shows who they think is the most important for the show. Having Shane third and Shawn Micheals before the likes of Orton is odd. ...

Show closes with an endless 3/5 fall 8 man tag that sort of just stops when the curfew comes into effect.

This was an AJPW triple crown title match. This match had a difficult hill to climb, While Kento is really over as ace Dylan James is not he is tag champ but has only been in the company for 4 months and did not have a great CC meaning that he was quite a weak challenger. They only drew just over 1000 people to Korakuen compared to the 4 1600-1750 Korakuen shows in a row for the company. The nobody believed that James had a chance at winning especially with the big osaka show coming up next month and Jake lee making noises about facing Kento. Faced with this challenge of not having anyone believing that Kento would lose the guys did a very admirable job of giving the chance that James could possibly win. They did this by having a very one sided match more so than the match at this show last year when Shuji ishikawa beat Kento for the title. James controlled the majority of the match by working over Kento's chest. This is a simpler and easier body part to work over as it does not really limit the moves that the wrestler worked over can do like leg selling would but still shows the dominance of James in the match. James largely worked over Kento with chops, back elbows, elbow drops, lariats and stomps. It was a brutish display by James with Kento putting over every chop like his chest was being crushed. The comebacks of Kento were quite regular but he never got an extended period of control until the very end where he hit several knee strikes and the shutdown German for the win. What hurt James in the match was that he would control the match with his simple brutish offense but when he went for something more complicated or bigger it was countered and it showed the story of Kento being much better than James in holds and reversals but outgunned in terms of striking. This was how James lost the match, he went for a powerbomb to the floor and a powerbomb later in the match which were reversed he went for something to big and he paid for it. Overall it was a match on the lower end of the great scale with very good performances from both men and did not have any moment when I thought that they ignored selling like I thought Kento did in the second Marufuji match. This match was something of a missed opportunity, not in the work done but in the buildup. With a better built James going in the crowd would have been better and bigger and it would have had more of a possibility that James could win something that myself and the crowd did not seem to think could happen until towards the end. This match could have been really great with a better build up but as it was i will settle at just great. ****1/4 Another great Triple crown title match probably the second best of the year after the Zeus vs Joe match and on a level of the maru and Joe vs Kento Matches. ...

I love how every Kobe World hall outsells the previous despite them all being sold out. From 2008-2014 the next one outsold the previous by 100 until they get to the point now where they are announcing that they get 9800 in kobe world hall a building that holds 6500 at the most. DG always has huge gaps from the big stage to where the audience seating starts at kobe or dead or alive, final gate, gate of destiny and dangerous gate which is obvious space they are not using. ... ...

Who are those people and have they been living under a rock? I have no idea. I'm guessing they don't follow the scene closely. I just know I get weird comments on Reddit from All Japan fanboys if I mention they have to start doing better than DDT before they should be aiming for New Japan. As an all Japan fanboy I can say of course ddt and especially dragon gate are bigger. Ajpw just ran a Korakuen and got 1000 people in for a relitivly weak card, Dragon gate can run one without a single match announced and get 1600+ (they will announce it as 1850 but that is bullshit). Ajpw are the 4th biggest promotion in Japan but are growing quickly so they do have the potential to move past ddt and dragon gate, especially if DG does not recover well from the recent changes. I don't see it happening all to soon as both ddt and DG have very strong core fanbases.

Wow, this is great let's hope for the best for this journey

I remember this run from just after it happened and was loving it, it is something that has been seen before the arrogant invaders facing off against defiant company men but the reason it has been done many times is that when it works it really works. I did not know much about sakuraba at the time having only been watching japanese wrestling for about a year and do not care about MMA so he was not impressive to me when he first came out the first time i saw him.. My first impression of shibata was just wow this guy carries himself so well and seems so baddass without him trying to hard to be badass. As for the match itself it is really good with a great crowd. We start with an interesting contrast that sets the stage for the match, inoue drives shibata into the corner and then proceeds to do pro wrestling style stomps to him while stomping his other leg to get the noise but shibata fires back with a slap and spin kick to the gut with zero theatrics. This ever so simple introduction sets up the differences in styles and that both guys are coming in with high intensity. Both guys get an extremely short period on offense on the other that shows that both styles are valid and one will not completely steamroll the other but still puts over the intense danger of the more shootyish style of the invaders. It is so quick and simple but so very clever. The rest of the match features some good back and forth action always angry from inoue especially. I thought this was a great way to introduce laughter 7 in a bigger match than the squash they had a month earlier. around ***1/4-***1/2 ...

A simple pointed elbow drop, not a diving elbow drop or multiple jumping elbow drops to a downed opponent but the wrestler lining up an elbow drop to the throat of the downed opponent sort of like how dibiase or earthquake used to do.

I can find records of them one on one 6 times and footage of two matches. This is from 4/02/83 on Dallas tv This is from 11/01/85 from the sportatourium for Japanese TV. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5bk960

"The one true giant of the wrestling world!" lmfao I've always heard that Giant Gonzalez was planned to be the Yeti orginally, and then was planned for this match. But he couldn't make it and didn't end up in WCW (Visa issues is the most consistent report out there that I recall off hand.) As for who booked it...I mean, clearly Hogan had a big hand in this match. It was originally a #1 contenders match, then suddenly it's for the title, and Hogan does his BS at the end, even though he's not going to be at Starrcade and going to be off TV...the paranoia is obvious. Kevin Sullivan was the main booker at this time, and he put himself in the same ring as Hogan. Bischoff tends to insist he wasn't very involved in creative until 1996, but I've got to wonder, given that this event was repeated so many times in his run, including I think periods where Sullivan was taking time off. I have heard about the third giant that it was supposed to be giant Gonzalez but I have no idea if that was just a rumour, it is good to know that I was not the only one to hear about that.

A giant in every ring: The Giant, The Yetay And Hogan???

Not sure if it a guilty pleasure or just a weird one but the lacrosse. He was a random gaijin brought in to fill up cards and had some good stuff. He is great in a January 1997 korakuen main event with his interactions with asako and misawa being great and he was really over. He turns into the wolf hawk field character at the 1997 RWTL which I think was a tie in with a fighting game, maybe virtua fighter. Sadly a lot of his one biggish run in ajpw when he wins the all asia belts with jonny smith not much of it is on tape.

Another excellent match between these two, not a patch on the masterpiece that they had in the cc final but still great. I really liked the character work of maru as he was the cocky veteran with his great headlock work for a good few mins that set the tone of maru being the older and more Wiley one who could reverse every counter kento had. Maru and his control segment over kento's face to set up for his knees later in the match was really good, for a maru control segment that is a miracle. There was one moment of the match I did not like when after the pile-driver there was a short no sell sequence before they went back to selling which was really bad and did not work. The cc match was the best match I have seen in several years this one was great but it was missing some of the drama behind the match it was something transcendent in that first match. ****

The ace crusher making an appearance would have made that match get all the stars from me, if he couldn't of gotten kobashi at least the patriot or Shane Douglas to reform the dynamic dudes. I request that I doubt you would ever do based on your hatred of Russo would be the 'match' and segments surrounding Hulk Hogan Vs Jeff Jarrett bash at the beach 2000. A finger poke of doom lite scenario, several shoot promos and the show being rebooked on live ppv. Just a complete shower of shit.

I was brought up in the south west of England in somerset and Dorset by two Welsh parents, the south west of the UK is one of the richest and whitest areas of the UK but we were not very rich it was safe to say there were a lot of elitist and racist people around. Both of my parents work for the NHS one is a GP manager and the other a biomedical scientist, working in the NHS their jobs are constantly in danger as with every new budget and act of the health secretary their job might not exist a month later or will be moved to some other place in the county, with a long term conservative government more and more of the health service is being privatized and they do not know who or what is next. For example my Mother has worked the same or similar job in 6 different hospitals over the last decade or so working at one then another then back to the first then to a different one and so on it was not great, it led to my parents being split geographically as my mother moved to work on the shithole known as the isle of wight, while dad, me and my brothers stayed in Dorset, they were still together but just separated by work. I would not say I have any vices or whatever, I don't drink any alcohol or have never done any drugs, none of it appeals to me, but I do have a endless list of mental health problems relating to anxiety and major depression. I still get terrified when I write a post on here and somebody responds to it, pretty much any talking to somebody is scary but more-so when it is not in person as I cannot see their facial expressions or body language or whatever. For food, when I do actually eat anything I adore curries, also aside from proper curry in Wales there is the delicacy of chicken curry (not curry sauce) and chips from the chippy, it is absolutely brilliant.

I presume you listened to the Warner media interview a day or so after? In my eyes, what he didn't say, confirmed what most think about the situation and the three of them were the fall guys for everyone else involved. Lehmann absolutely knew what was going on, not to mention Smith's talk of a 'leadership group' that came up with the plan. Surely a 'leadership group' would include one of their senior bowlers (Starc, Lyon) and when has two people ever been considered a 'group'? I doubt we'll ever find out know, or at least not until one of them writes a book many years down the line. Smith has a future he is just too good so he will come back soon, Bancroft is young so he will be playing again, not sure if he will get in the international side but he will be back. Warner is in his 30s now and did not have a great winter or SA tour I don't think he will play internationally again and will go and do the kp role of touring the t20 leauges and he will be the one to come forth with the truth or at least a larger part of the truth than we know now. The whole thing of sending handcomb down to tell Bancroft he got busted pretty much confirms it and that handscomb probably knew as well. All of the bowlers must have known or at least suspected as they would have noticed the ball getting roughed up faster than usual, or maybe this was usual and they have done it for several years. Bancroft was caught so he had to be punished, so did Warner and Smith as they were captain and vice captain and it happened under their watch, the use of 'leadership group' was just a way to not incriminate others. Lehmann resigning I think was cricket Australia's way of telling him 'we are clearing you but you must resign'. It is all a sorry state for the team. It is all pretty awful for the game when it's most historically successful side is proven to have done this. But more than that, for how long? I don't see it happening under Clarke, but then again I would not of thought that Smith would have done it so who knows.

For myself: Music: As my username might suggest I am a massive fan of Manic Street Preachers They are my favorite band ever and their music has affected and influenced me more than any other media, wrestling included. Other music i listen to will include the likes of radiohead, the clash, elastica, dead Kennedys, liberteens, NIN, Oasis, Pulp, Blur, Sleeper, strokes, Suede, Verve and wolf Alice. Mostly punk and alt rock stuff. Tv: I dont watch all that much, i will watch game of thrones when it comes back on but I really have not cared for the last two series of it, really when it went off the books I lost interest very quickly. For other TV I don't really watch any now, that is helped by not actually having a TV as being a student I cannot be bothered to waste the little money I have to pay for a TV license when i dont want to watch much. Sports: I keep up with cricket and formula 1 the most, I support somerset in the county championship but dont support England in the internationals, it is the standard thing for a welsh person to do in sport, just support whoever is playing England. I was a fan of Australia until recently when Steve Smith (who i thought was the best batsman in the world and the best since Sachin) decided to resort to cheating along with Warner and Bancroft, now Lehnman was almost definitely involved as was probably some of the bowlers such as starc but they were just not caught. In F1 I dont like any of the three front teams, really despised red bull from 2010-2013 and that bled over into now same with Mercedes winning everything recently and Vettel has always struck me as a petulant child and I dont enjoy him either. I mainly support the midpack teams of force india, Mclaren and haas. Alonso will always have a special place for me due to him being the first guy I remember from f1 in around 2006. I am 19 and living and studying at Univeristy and am doing Modern History and Politics. I am not married or in a relationship, A girl I was dating for a short while broke up with me a few weeks ago . I don't work a proper job at the moment just doing casual jobs that are advertised by the uni and usually for the uni each of which will last for around a day but i get paid about £10 an hour for it.

I will watch whenever there is a new AJPW show, other than that I will cherry pick some Noah, Bjw, dragon gate and WWE. So it does change from week to week depending on how much wrestling those companies are putting on that week. Last month for example with the cc on I was watching far more than I am now. It will usually end up being a good few hours a week. As loss says i am spending far more time researching, discussing and listening to podcasts about wrestling than i am watching.

I like it when a promotion I like is doing well business wise because well quite simply good for them. But i don't really like talking about the business side all that much, i appreciate that it is massively important and maybe the most important thing but i would much rather discuss matches and wrestlers and to a lesser extent promos and announcing etc. Discussing what i see on screen holds far more interest to me than discussing backstage or business goings on. This is not to say that the backstage stuff cannot be fascinating but the tv ratings and sponser money and all that, really i don't care what I do care about a good wrestling product.

There is the infamous one: The Macho Man Penis Which works with a certain wrestling urban legend

They can't do it at some other time of the week because in wwe land stuff only happens on a Monday and Tuesday evening and nobody talks to each other at any point for the rest of the week.

When particularly Cole reads out what a wrestler has tweeted he will say something like #bosstime #*pause for effect*legitboss. The first time I heard it is thought he was pausing because he misread it or something but no he pauses for at least a second before finishing the sentence

Goldberg, that Lesnar match was great.

tis makes others hte me 4 it, i have odd opinons

Ajpw easily,I am 19 so going by this board I am incredibly young I started watching Wrestling in around mid 2009 I can remember seeing snippets of it before around my cousin's house but it was background noise. But as for watching stuff as a fan of Wrestling it would be the hbk Vs undertaker match from mania 25. The thing is I was never into wwe, I watched some shows but have never watched a full episode of raw for example (I have watched full segments and large parts of RAWS but have never seen one all the way through). I liked Wrestling but instantly hated what felt like the overproduced feeling of wwe. In mid 2010 I looked up what the internet said was great Wrestling and names that kept appearing the most were, Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi and Ric flair. I went on YouTube, and typed in kobashi's name, the first thing that came up was the 2003 noah match Vs misawa, I watched it and fell in love. It was light years ahead of any wwe I had seen on the internet up to that point. From there I went through as much of both men and by proxy Kawada, taue akiyama takayama etc careers as possible. I started watching njpw noah and ajpw when available from 2011 onwards. Because of this way in which I watched 90s ajpw stuff extremely early in my Wrestling fandom compared to most western fans I had seen all of the misawa Vs Kawada matches before I had ever seen Andre Vs Hogan for example. My growing up in Wrestling came through ajpw and it is the promotion I have seen the most of, it was what I watched predominantly through my teenage years and too today. WWE has always felt like the promotion that was the biggest game in town and if I were to talk Wrestling with my friends it would be about wwe but it was never an important part of my childhood like it was for many fans.