Eduardo

Him beating Zack Sabre, Jr., cleanly by submission (!!!), in his first EVOLVE match was so frustrating.

Re: Jericho-Omega's place within Jericho's career. I really disliked a lot of the Jericho-Punk feud at the time, and thought the trash talk that was conveniently picked up by the mic and camera during the WM match was cringeworthy and bad. I thought they were a bad match up for one another, and both guys did better when paired up with Rey Mysterio and Jeff Hardy. I remember reading a lot of mixed reactions during the Jericho-Michaels feud, but I did think some of it was great. But there was a lot of valid criticisms out there regarding those matches. The Jericho-Mysterio stuff was/is pretty great, probably the best matches Jericho's been involved in, thanks to Mysterio who at the time had a legitimate case for best in the world. The feud with Jericho/Christian-Booker/Goldust is something I remember being really good too, the highlight of that era of RAW episodes, and something that I'd rather watch than some of Jericho's more famous matches. There was a period in the late 2000s where Jericho had good work with MVP, of all people, and Dave Batista too. I've watched everything Jericho's been involved in, most of it in real time, and I don't see any issue with calling Jericho-Omega the best match of his career or one of the best matches of his career. With the exception of the pair of matches against Mysterio in 2009, Jericho-Omega is within the same range as the underrated Fall Brawl 1997 match with Eddy Guerrero and the Jericho/Benoit-HHH/Austin match. Jericho-Omega was pretty great, and like Jericho/Benoit-HHH/Austin, it was a match that was helped out a lot by the circumstances and context surrounding it.

Highspots is the best right now. Just an incredible amount of content. Also I am loving Powerbomb.TV, just subscribed against to watch the epic match between Joey Janela and the Invisible Man. Loving the live streams and all the content they've been adding. So cool that you can see a mix of a lot of under the radar stuff there. NJPW World is pretty disappointing at this point. I cancelled two days before December 1st, was still charged, and sent a few emails asking why I was charged if I had cancelled days before, and no response. Also annoying how it deletes your entire account if you cancel. I actually dig the NJPW product a lot, so not hating on them, just legit disappointed since I wish they had a better platform.

Yeah I think he may have said that on WOR.

Huh? He was involved in that mess? This is the first time I've heard that. If I was him, I wouldn't even admit I had to do with that. That was atrocious. Takada was involved in some really bad worked PRIDE fights. The Kyle Sturgeon fixed fight was far worse however. He's talked about it on the audio before, and here is a quote, that I think is originally from Wrestling Classics: "Coleman-Takada was a work. I can tell you that 100% because weeks before the fight I was involved in a discussion regarding how they would work the finish. There's a lot more to this story but people who don't understand Japan, wrestling and the fight business will never get this, but had Takada not been given some bought and paid for wins early on, Pride would have folded long before Sakuraba got hot and turned it into what it turned into. Business was not good those early years and Takada was the only guy over, and people were losing faith in him. He needed a big win at that moment. It's never been an issue in Japan because all they were drawing were pro wrestling fans until probably 2001 anyway, and they understood business is business."

This seems relatively benign, to be honest. If we went back and rewatched the match and what he's describing didn't happen, or if he's overstressing the crowd's reaction, that'd be different. If anything, it almost helps Dave, because he's gone from the guy who "knows nothing because he's never been in a ring" to a guy who served in a director's/screenwriter consultant role on a PPV match. On the other hand, his creditably is shot as a journalist. Now people will say that it is absurd to be a journalist in wrestling but he's making a living off of it. We already knew he had friends in the business over the years, that they were often his sources, that he arguably gave them better coverage, and that he even fielded consultation calls for Vince at one point or another. I said relatively and I mean it. The bar wasn't super high. I don't think this lowers it in the least. Dave has talked about this type of stuff all the time. He has talked, on several occasions, about giving advice and input to that worked PRIDE fight with Takada vs Coleman with the people involved in that.

The odd comparison (or joke or I don't even know what it was) Meltzer made about segregation in Memphis during the 1950s and NJPW limiting Wrestle Kingdom tickets to Americans was really bad. Glad Mike Sempervive immediately stepped in with a modern day sports comparison that made more sense.

I legit would love to see Drew Gulak at my local flea market, getting into arguments with little kids and grandmothers.

I wouldn't go if it's in the east coast, but if it's in Chicago, I'd consider it, especially to meet and hang out with Loss.

I had forgotten that Amell appeared at SummerSlam years ago, didn't even realized he or his show had a following and was shocked at how popular he was at the ROH in San Antonio.

I think Kris Zellner has had talked about that Atlanta show. In the past month I've gone to a ROH and local lucha libre show that have legitimately drawn around 1200-1500 each. The lucha show was built around Penta and Fenix, while the ROH show was built around Kenny Omega's first San Antonio appearance. I wish them luck but 10K sounds unlikely. I like that they are attempting this though and hope they do great. Penta, Fenix, and Rey Mysterio Jr. could help the card out a lot. Funniest outcome would be if they announce attendance as 10K, and Dave Meltzer goes on Twitter to say it was 8,800 fans or something. All hell would break lose on Twitter. But overall, pretty interested in seeing how this all plays out.

I'm really surprised to hear about the different interpretations of "pop culture icon". El Santo is one, Hulk Hogan is barely one to me but he is. Love Ric Flair, but I wouldn't label him as one and don't see how that's a hot take.

Funny that in 2017 Dave Meltzer is being accused of being a hater of Ric Flair on Twitter. Maybe he could have articulated certain things better and not blown up at random people on Twitter but I also understand his definition of a pop culture icon doesn't include Flair, and I don't get why people are so upset and defensive about this particular take.

Yeah McGregor has drawn very impressively in the UFC and is the clear top draw there. In the Twitter arguments that Meltzer is involved in, he's using figures based on his fight with Mayweather Jr. without mentioning how McGregor was the b-side to that monster buyrate.

I love that Dave Meltzer in all his talks about the monster buyrate that Conor McGregor drew in August, he conveniently leaves out Floyd Mayweather Jr., the best PPV draw of the past decade. By Dave Meltzer's own logic, Conor McGregor ain't shit compared to Mayweather, Canelo Alvarez, Oscar de la Hoya, and Manny Pacquiao. I don't care for Mayweather Jr., but I also don't care how Meltzer is trying to act like McGregor's buyrate against Mayweather Jr. is the norm rather that the once in a lifetime exception. Anyways, in my own personal experience in the South Texas area, John Cena is overwhelmingly more well known than McGregor. That's just anecdotal and my own bubble, but people I know from everywhere, from non-profit and grassroots organizations of all kinds to people and families newly arriving to America, know who Cena is, either from the WWE, from movies, or memes.

Even though AJ Styles has been in the company less than 2 years, he's already pushed as the "best of his generation" by announcers and color commentators. They pretty built Smackdown around him for a good while, and he has been trusted to deliver when they want a great match.

What was so funny about this is that the Kurt Angle vs Shawn Michaels series in 2005 was more of a car-wreck style than AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels in 2005. Remember thinking Styles-Daniels was so overrated at the time in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and its circles, but watching it again recently, it holds up pretty well and is more of a traditional wrestling match - with clear heel and babyface structure - than what Angle and Michaels were doing on WWE TV and PPV in 2005. Same with the Styles vs Samoa Joe series, which has very clear roles from both men, but I guess I can see the car-wreck thing being applied to the three-way series between Styles, Joe and Daniels.

I had this spot-heavy view of Styles in the early 2000s, but started to turn around during his 2005-2006 run, though I still viewed Bryan Danielson and Samoa Joe as being better than him at the time. I remember some folks online being upset when he won the ROH Pure Championship, questioning why a worker with his style would win that title instead of a more "technical" worker. But I'd say he was viewed as someone way better than Christopher Daniels, even during those days in the early 2000s. Styles going up against the indy favorites at the time got people way more excited than Daniels going up against the exact same favorites.

AJ Styles is one of the best American workers of this century. I still love Bryan Danielson and Chris Hero more - in Danielson's case I really loved his style during the 2000s and I think Hero's probably the smartest and most interesting of the three - but the highs Styles reached in ROH, TNA, NJPW, random indies, and WWE are very impressive, and the fact that Styles is still producing consistently great work in 2017 is amazing. When I saw him taking absurd bumps in the mid-2000s, couldn't imagine him still taking absurd bumps in 2017, and this time it's at dome shows and 20,000 seat arenas. I've seen Styles three times live this year - the match with John Cena at the Alamodome, a house show match with Baron Corbin and Kevin Owens, and the match with Brock Lesnar - and each time I came away thinking this guy is the most complete worker in the world. There's a lot of workers I really like right now, but Styles is up there with the best at having an engaging match beginning, middle, and end. Some people have amazing finishing stretches but the beginning of their matches don't have much going on there. I think Styles surpassed Shawn Michaels years ago. Styles' resume at this point is wild.

Yeah I have NJPW World and while it's easy to use for me, there are plenty of things to improve upon. It's not even on the same league as the Highspots Wrestling Network, in terms of accessibility, available streaming devices and billing.

Yep, people have been tweeting at him that correction and of course, he hasn't replied or corrected his previous talking point.

Pretty disappointed in Dave on Twitter today. I and other people I know have talked about how cool it is that Kenny Omega and other people, like Penta, on the independent wrestling scene have been impressive as of late, without doing eyerolling comparisons to John Cena or making up a Jeff Hardy ROH run that never happened. Just embarrassing.

Cody Rhodes as the partner to Hardcore Holly or Goldust was really fun to watch. Cody Rhodes as a main eventer is really tough to watch.

If you can't pay your workers, don't contract them for work.

Pretty ironic considering that Paul Heyman committed wage theft for years and how lightly that is treated in the WON and among internet circles.