Robert S

I would put the point of change to 2000/01 when due the NOAH exodus, the WAR death, Inoki-ism at it's maximum and the ZERO-1 start the talent wheel started to turn quite quickly and weird jumps started to happen. New Japan nowadays almost is a WWE-light promotion where the start grabbing interesting talent from the Japanese talent pool (completely contrary to the indy-stench that used to dominate treatement of non-major-promotion talent until the mid 00s).

Times are changing in that regards, KUSHIDA's professional history is the best example (started in MMA training in Takada dojo, wrestled as free agent in Hustle, AJ and Osaka Pro, after wrestling in North America for a year somehow ended up in NJ). The New Japan roster is full of guys that somehow ended up there. Japanese guys on the WK13 main card, that did not train in the NJ dojo: Ibushi (DDT -> NJ) Bushi (AJ -> NJ) Shingo Takagi (DG -> NJ) Kanemaru (AJ -> NOAH -> AJ -> NOAH -> NJ) Ishii (WAR -> freelance -> World Japan -> freelance -> NJ) Sanada (AJ -> Wrestle-1 -> NJ) Ishimori (Toryumon -> freelance -> NOAJ -> NJ) Okada (Toryumon Mexico trainee -> freelance -> NJ). That's much more than 50% (there were only 6 New Japan dojo trainees on the main show).

I looked this up, as I could have sworn that Dave told this himself. The full story (according to Meltzer) is that Gordy pissed on another guy called Dave (Katz or so, never heard of him) in the bathroom of Ribera Steakhouse while Meltzer was in Japan as well and the story became that Gordy pissed on Meltzer (Meltzer thinks that Gordy mistook the other guy for him). Full audio: https://archive.org/details/BestOfF4WWONaudio2010 (starting at 27:20 or so) So my memory was good enough to remember part of the story and even where I heard it 8 years ago but not good enough to remember the gist of it (that Gordy pissed on another Dave).

During one Japan trip during the late 80ies one or multiple of the Freebirds (I assume Gordy was there, I don't remember the details) pissed on Dave in the bathroom. Meltzer was puzzled why they would do that as he did not know why they would be mad at him until someone told him that this was a sign by the Freebirds that they liked someone (that they considered him as one of the "boys"). Dave has told this story many times on the air.

By these standards Meltzer should also put a disclaimer into the newsletter that the Freebirds (literally) pissed on him, i.e. that a key backstage persionality of WWE at one point considered Dave as someone that he liked.

The question to me is how many people the WWE will let go. The WWE has stopped firing (well, future-endeavoring) people appart from guys screwing up personally (like Enzo or Big Cass). Now with another potential big player on the scene, WWE will be even more hesitant.

This seemed more like a huge discrepance in size, skill and experierence than a work to me.

Is that true? I don't think Lasartesse was involved with the Swiss Wrestling Federation (where CC initially got trained, though I am sure he attended lots of training sessions in Germany early on) which to me always looked like it was mostly guys training themselves (I assume under the guidenance of some guys who had some ring experience) with the occasional training sessions by some Germans wrestlers and later US guys. I know that Lasartesse was attending a training or two (I remember a Chris Hero interview where he mentioned him), but I don't think he was involved with training itself. For those speaking (Swiss-)German here is short report on him from Swiss television from 2012: https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/sportlounge/video/der-basler-koenig-des-catch---ein-leben-mit-privatjet-und-anabolika-vor-50-jahren?id=c3eafc73-f6d8-4518-b9ae-5747710dbda8&station=69e8ac16-4327-4af4-b873-fd5cd6e895a7 Besides some clips from 60ies and 70ies wrestling he also talks about taking steroids for some time while he was working in the US.

If this WWE or TNA?

Is there a bigger loser in pro wrestling right now than Johnny Gargano? He lost what? 6 of his last 7 big matches? He is 0-3 against Almas, 1-2 against Ciampa and now 0-1 against Black and how the story is going I assume there will be a second loss against Black quite soon (unless the teased cage match ends in a schmozz).

Drake Younger saying "my key does not fit" was so stupid considering that Fish put the second lock there right in front of him (or at the very least directly on camera). The first thing you would expect the refs (or at least GM Regal, he is supposed to be watching this, right?) to go looking for a bolt cutter during the three minute period. Tables have to be my least favorite foreign objects in pro wrestling due to this whole Chekhov's Gun thing. Once a table is in or at the ring you know the match won't end until the table is broken. Gargano losing seems to be weird booking, for one it's his very first (televised) match after the turn and two the idea of this whole turn was a "decend into madness" as he kept losing as a face. The only possible reasons for him losing are either Black challenging for the title at the next TakeOver, Gargano being called up before Mania or that they did not want to have three heel wins in a row on the card.

So either that guy very much looks like Virgil or I am "they all look the same" racist.

Please tell me that Virgil and the Kayfabe sign are photoshopped in.

That many video packages coming after the battle royal?

I am not sure how long this stays up, but here it is for now:

I somehow managed to get through the first two matches, I am not sure if I can motivate myself to watch the rest. Something like 30 of that 50 minutes were video packages about how they revolutionized women's wrestling (albeit stating that they continue what was started by Mae Young / "Alundra Blayze" / Trish Stratus etc.). I mean I FF through that shit, but still. The wrestling itself is (so far) also not very good. Though kudos to Mickey James for her performance in the opener, she was working for three women at least (the less said about Lita the better).

My bet: they will stop plugging the event on US TV and the Network, but nothing else will change. Unless the plugging is part of the deal with the Saudis. In that case nothing will change at all. I mean it is not as if any sponsors have threatened to quit in the case that if they go forward with the event. The only way this gets cancelled is if somehow there would be a risk in losing money that is remotely in the ballpark as the Saudi deal. And the only such thing I can think of is the TV deal, and there is just no way that they will lose that over this event. Not to get too political, but it's just the same thing as the weapon's deal: moral highground stops as soon as it effects the bottom line. And this November to Dismember joke made me laugh far too much. I am a bad person...

Nicole Matthews' battle with her top was too funny. She had to adjust it after every move to ensure her boobs not popping out.

If Cole says "the monster among men" one more time something is going to fly through my TV.

He looks like a smaller, more roided JBL. Actually, muscular-wise he looks pretty small by Cena standards.

If you take away the fuck-finish this match was awesome.

As part of the British Commonwealth, isn't Queen Elizabeth II technically the head of the state (like she is of Canada)?

Why do they show the five minute pre-match recap video AFTER the entrances?

The event starts at 11 AM over here (mainland Europe), so depending on the weather, I might watch at least some parts live.

The whole thing looked a bit like the Nagai vs. Iizuka match from 2001 New Japan where Iizuka put his head down (or was knocked down) after some brutal knees which only ended getting an even more brutal knee directly into the face which completely rearranged Iizuka's face.