soup23

Family always has known. No one else has watched since 2001 so it never comes up. Wife knows and knew fairly early on when it became apparent that I had to explain away the 150 VHS tapes that were in my room with my handwriting on it. I don't think she has fully accepts wrestling and doesn't think it is entertaining in the slightest but she has accepted it as my "hobby". All of my closest friends know but like my family, they dont watch so it rarely gets brought up besides, "is Sting coming to the WWE?" I stayed fairly hidden at work for the first 5 years of my career after college. Then the perfect storm of going to Wrestlemania and being tagged in facebook photos outed me to my current job. I was only friends with a few co workers at the time and while most were receptive, I will say me liking wrestling did hinder my friendship with one co-worker when I saw insulting tweets after the fact about me flying up there. Now, everyone at work is aware and they speak openly to me. As I mentioned a few days ago, I work extensively with two hispanic workers and they take great delight in me knowing who Super Porky is. One even listened to the podcast last week and she said she enjoyed it.

This echos my thoughts, the counters to Goto's clotheslines in this match vs. Okada looked natural. At times the Okada counters can come off like a dance routine and it burns me out. I love the move and how protected it is and also greatly enjoy the work opponents do on Okada's arm even though I thought switching that up mostly with Goto's strategy here was a smart change of pace. One little tidbit that hurts other matches for me that this one didn't fall into. Okada is overall my favorite guy in Japan right now with Ishii and Nakamura occupying the #2 and #3 spots.

I really dug Okada vs. Goto and think it is up there with Okada vs. Naito as the best Japanese stuff I have seen so far this year. I thought that match was smartly worked in the way they presented both competitors. Goto had no shot of winning the belt so they were in a funky position where you don't want to bury Goto for good but also don't want to weaken Okada in any way by having him get his ass kicked and be in grave danger vs. someone like Goto. They worked the match to overcome these limitations. Goto was able to hit a ton of high impact moves and even utilize some top rope assisted moves but they continued to show how resourceful Okada can be by him countering the clothesline with a dropkick. The final front dropkick he gives Goto may be one of the most beautiful dropkicks in wrestling history and turned the tide of the match for good. I also liked how after that sequence Okada hit a tombstone and then immediately got the Rainmaker for the win. I think he only went for the rainmaker once earlier in the match which alleviated some of the spots I hate where he is constantly going for it and they have to dance and counter around each other. Great match overall.

I enjoyed this Austin a whole lot more. I also liked Slaughter standing up straight showing he was taller than Austin. Austin responds with some puns like thats an order. He then stuns Ross to a huge pop. Great PPV segment.

This starts off right as RVD hits the ring. RVD has been inserted into the main feuds in ECW. Him and Sabu beat up Dreamer, Beulah, and Sandman in sucession. They do the WWF flag burial thing which I still hate and don't really get. Taz comes out at the end and puts Fonzie in the tazmission to a big pop as we fade out.

Who is Doomsday, that dude was huge? I liked this as a way to get BJT back in the fold officially and have another great brawl with Christopher. Really digging this feud.

Billy has quite the wadrobe around this point. he is able to sneak in and waylay on Christopher with a chair. Was this the first week they showed the show at midnight or was it the next week?

Im in the very good but not great camp as well but did like the story i was able to gain of Akiyama's overexuberance and Misawa bringing in "jumbo' qualities vs. a young gun. The tiger driver finishing Akiyama off felt like it was a little bit of a dig though. Really interested to see the 1998 All Japan stuff as the 1997 has been *good* and you cant reiterate that enough but besides 1/20, few matches have been superb.

Austin unloads with his gun. i really didn't like this and think its my least favorite Austin stuff of the year.

Pillman cuts a great promo letting the sexual terms linger just long enough that they all resonate. Feud is kind of stupid on premise but good mid card stuff to me.

This segment didn't really do it for me. I like the anit-estblishment stance of Austin but he sounded too hellcious and whiny I guess with the way he described it here. Shooting the arrow at the three pictures made him look like a 10 year old redneck that just got dumped by his first girlfriend.

Slaughter does his first Tunny esque promo and strips Austin of the tag belts. Austin's house looks just as I would have imagined it.

Besides the heat stealing, I was fine with this. Tony was again disgusted and Hogan is able to make a beatdown. I still like that Hogan gives a shout out to Syxx every time.

I love this segment so much and find it hilarious. The aftermath at Fall Brawl ruins it and I will cross that bridge when I get there. Konnan as Mongo - C+ : He had the least to work with but did a pretty good job overall. He had the Bears jacket and football prominent. The fingers were taped like Mongo. He does get knocked some points for being in the way of key camera angles like Syxx doing the water works for the first time. Buff as Hennig - C- : My least favorite performance. he does have the towel and the polo and ponytail but he doesn't really seem to replicate Curt's mannerisms very well and didn't have any fun bits like the gum thing he could have done that was mentioned above. he does nail the "it would be an honor" handshake. Nash as Arn - A-: Amazing performance here for a seven footer to transform into Arn. The lines and cooler stuff had me rolling. Syxx as Flair - A: I think this is some of the best stuff ever on tv and showed how big a fan Waltman really was. Him yelling Wooooo throughout his segment with Buff, the dancing, the tears, the wig, MEANNNN GENE. Everything was pitch perfect here. Schiavone as mentioned is awesome trying to talk about his pull on the weekend programming and getting over the disgust.

One of my favorite matches of the year and I also liked this a smidge better than April. Everything is done with such violence and hatred that the smallest things get amplified. I cringed no less than five times while watching this and look forward to the entire series between these two.

I did have a Thunder party disguised as a Nitro party but somehow a bunch of 12 year olds wearing Austin 3:16 shirts didn't win the grand prize of the Nitro Girls. Kimberely cant keep a beat to save her life in this segment. The video package for Sting was good and showed his evolution over the year.

This seemed like a workmans man package which is really appropriate for Arn. They are dedicating tonight's show to him.

I really enjoyed the leg work and focus Togo laid out here. sasuke got a little spotty with the selling which didn't allow this match to reach the plateau I would have liked, but the finishing run was good and Togo and Kaientai look really strong. The pop again seemed small considering Sasuke was pinned clean.

Pop seemed a little lackluster as the numbers game catches up to Hashimoto with a ton of big matches in August. I really enjoyed the finishing stretch here.

Really looking forward to this and think the sabr market is just now scratching the surface in regards to wrestling data.

I am obviously limited to my own scope but when I used to live around the Cobb County Civic Center, there was a highly distinguished hispanic population. Even at my current job, 3 out of the 10 employees I work with were born and raised in Mexico. Very interesting talking lucha to them and the historical significance it really carries even to individuals that are non-fans.

I am obviously limited to my own scope but when I used to live around the Cobb County Civic Center, there was a highly distinguished hispanic population. Even at my current job, 3 out of the 10 employees I work with were born and raised in Mexico. Very interesting talking lucha to them and the historical significance it really carries even to individuals that are non-fans.

Anyone have any thoughts on the lesser known guys announced for the lucha show in Norcross, GA on Sunday. I'm thinking of going to it just to see Atlantis live if for nothing else.

My biggest issue with naito vs. Ishii was that Ishii came back from everything too quick. I thought the opening wasn't exceptional, but at least Naito was focusing on the neck. Things opened up for a bit and then Naito hit a great german and I was waiting on him to dominate for a while. Instead we get the awkward top rope spot and Ishii is pretty much back on top within two minutes. The home stretch had some cool stuff but Ishii kicking out of a urnage at a 1 count really negates any damage done to the neck and makes the match seem kind of pointless. Match made me realize how big a disconnect I have from New Japan stuff as even something like Invasion Attack which I don't have at *****, I still liked a good bit. i don't know if I would rank this match above *** and liked Togo vs. Sasuke (also a match with flaws) more than this when I watched them back to back.

How successful would he categorize his ROH run so far? How well did he know Tadarius Thomas before he started teaming with him? What areas would he say he has grown as a tag worker based on being in that tag team?