Tetsujin

Mox/Darby might be the most uncomfortable match I've seen since the 1983 Hansen/Funk singles match. Holy shit.

The thing with Cena is that you can see the wrestling sicko he is and the kind of wrestler he would've been had he lived and worked in any other time and place than PG WWE. There's no way you watch the Umaga match and don't think "Cena would have been awesome in 80s MidSouth or Arena México". So, when he's having a great match thanks to a much better dance partner (the Lesnar match, for example) and he suddenly lives the moment and taps into that hidden potential, it definitely elevates the match into something else than just great. I believe that quality of him is what resonantes with more hardcore fans like ourselves, although I would agree it tends to overrating him, as it didn't happen as much and there's still a lot of bullshit to go through while examining his career. He's a "moments" kind of wrestler, both in the best and worst way possible. Obviously Bret is far better at everything inside the ring than Cena.

She'll be my highest woman on my list, and what finally gave her the edge over Hokuto (both in my top 10 atm) is these recent performances where she takes full advantage of her limitations as well as her usual strongs (the stifness and the character work). A lot of +20 years veterans would kill to be able to still deliver at the level current Aja with +30 years of experience is delivering. She's my #7 right now, but I can see her climb as high as #3.

What they have done with those two Mox/García matches + the turn on Darby is amazing classic pro wrestling right there. I'm as excited as I was when the original BCC turn on Danielson happened, I wanna ser where this all goes. There are tons of interesting dynamics to explore (Garcia-Darby, Garcia-Yuta, Garcia-Menard, García-Bryan...)

Mox/Garcia was awesome classic pro wrestling for everybody. Hope they do something with Dani and the Death Riders because they are acts that could complement each other perfectly. The FCA was terrific. One of the best Claudio performances in recent months, as this hasn't been his best year in terms of neither input nor output. Darby is obviously insane at his role and I can't wait for what he's about to do with Mox. Basically every segment and match of the show worked perfectly. E&C vs FTR should have been for the titles, but whatever, it still will be a great match. Every time Megan Bayne and Kris Statlander collide gives me joy. Mercedes' segment was good, but she needed some new challenger crushing her celebration and putting her through that table with all the belts. I guess they didn't do It because for whatever reason Windsor wasn't there and they don't wanna move from her yet (but they should, because sadly she's a charisma vacuum and not as good in the ring). I can see Wardlow being the next challenger for Hangman, and while that doesn't seem the most exciting program ever (specially considering the gigantic momentum Hangman is having atm), having Omega around could give it some life with some crazy tags and all star multitags in these next weeks, and it's not like Wardlow is gonna be more than a one month feud. Hurt Syndicate I believe has run its course, these last few weeks of the tag titles messiness has been a little bit embarrassing and they need to either compromise to put someone over when the time calls it (because they're a great act and I would love to keep them together, since I would hate a Lashley main event singles run), or leave (honestly Shelton could stay with MVP, but Lashley complicates things). If Athena didn't beat Toni, who will? Maybe a Death Rider Statlander?

It's gonna be hilarious when they use his retirement match at Saturday Night Main Event 2028 against Jey Uso to counter program the sickest All In London in Wembley Stadium card ever.

As somebody who knows absolutely nothing about Negro Navarro, I would love some info dump about him objectively developing two types of match still relevant today. Heavily interested.

That fucking main event was metal man. And that PPV ending. Holy shit. Fuck Jon Moxley forever.

Less and less people is watching New Japan but hey, the few that are staying support HOT so there's that I guess.

I'll just vote for the 100 nominated wrestlers I feel I like the most based of what I watch. Obviously *why* I like them can be pretty wide, but if I feel any posible reason for me to like them (for example, business success) doesn't affect my enjoyment of them as they wrestle, I won't take that reason into account. I will rate Stone Cold over Triple H, but not because of Austin being a better draw or because he had more success both in WCW and WWE than Hunter. Those things don't matter to me while I'm watching them wrestle.

You can trace back Gedo's awful booking run to WK 12 in 2018, but 2019 as a proper year was the first time NJPW felt out of its new golden age, both story wise and in ring. COVID only made far worse a situation that was already beginning to stink, except for Naito's two first months of reign before the pandemic.

This company is so doomed man.

I'm heavily behind the G1 this year, just watched Shingo/Takeshita today (and thank god I'm cherrypicking). The ringwork has not been bad, it actually has been kinda decent, but not enough for a company that feels this ice cold. And that's because the booking and character work are atrocious, but no surprise from Gedo there after all these years. By far the MVP of the tournament from what I've seen is, no surprise, Taichi, who feels like the only one in this dreadful company with a genuine connection with the crowd and who portrays himself in the ring as a true wrestling star. Shingo is not far behind, though. Takeshita is great but he's basically an outsider (I know, I know), so you know he's gonna get the Ibushi treatment until (if) he signs full time. O-Khan rules (most of the time) but there's no ambition behind his booking, so there's always low stakes on his matches. Tanahashi is doing surprisingly well and he's using his washed up body to his advantage, as per usual these last two years or so. ZSJ also rules, but sadly NJPW never knew how to make him feel big as their world champ. All young lions need to step up for good, Tsuji is the only one living to his potential right now, and other guys like Boltin and Newman still feel a little bit too underdevelopped. They're also, you know, non japanese. Kidd is a hit or miss and the injury didn't help (or did it? Maybe he gains more babyface love out of this one). David Finlay is weird, because he's a charisma vacuum and a Jay White cosplayer, but his matches tend to be some of my favourites, at least the ones where he ends up loosing. That leads me to EVIL. I'm an EVIL and SANADA denier (as singles acts, specially at the top of the card), always have been, and I can't believe they're still pushing for their stuff. I have not seen any Oiwa matches yet but I'm looking forward to what Tana can do for him next. If they continue with the dumb "G1 winner doesn't need to challenge at the Tokyo Dome show" thing, just give it to whoever, who should care. I know the G1 is prestigious enough by itself, but honestly... can you say that while looking at this roster, this booking and this output? I don't think you can. I guess Tsuji wins this and mayb takes the title from Zack, who I've been reading elsewhere he's not working as a draw (fuck you Gedo forever), and maybe there's enough time to book a Tsuji/Uemura rematch for the title at January 4th? Honestly I would push Taichi but he's gonna be busy carrying the company with Ishii as a tag team once the G1 is over.

Not even wrestling but he just had a great match (and an awesome performance specifically) with Último Guerrero this past friday. It's surreal how well he moves and how hard he goes still. We are almost 3/4 of 2025 done and Blue Panther has two MOTYC as of today.

I believe that's because usually pro wrestling teaches you about micwork much better than shoot sports. Even (some would say specially) WWE. Brock being decent there at best is still enough for him to be great on UFC at the mic.