Death From Above

The only fake reality TV shows I like are all on the Nat Geo channel for some fucking reason. (And boy for a channel that is supposed to in theory be a higher standard than average TV, Nat Geo can slum with the best of them.) I can't even explain it. Why do I watch Wicked Tuna? I don't know. All of the conflicts between boat captains are an obvious work, and they edit the shit out of everything to patch together an interesting narrative. But somehow it works. They had a show with teams doing this race through the Alaskan wilderness that was full of obvious eye rolling fake "danger" moments too, yet somehow I watched the whole season even though it was ludicrously obvious the whole thing was a work. Pro wrestling works.

West of Dudleyville.

Jumbo Tsuruta and Barry Windham had a match in All Japan that was about the most disappointing thing I can imagine Jumbo Tsuruta and Barry Windham having. On paper that should be, like, absolutely amazing, but it just never got going and was an unbelievably nothing match in the big picture. The Misawa/Hase match isn't a bad choice. Hase works the arm all match and Misawa just won't sell it. I'm a massive Misawa fan but that match is really hard to find a defense for. Hase/Kawada was just miles better.

I could see him winding up in a GM role or something. But I agree at this point, he isn't needed, and this feels too late for me to be that excited about it.

When I say 90's Japan it's not just All and New Japan although those are obviously the meat, but so many of the little companies went through periods of ridiculous goodness before falling away. It was a totally bizarre buffet of styles you end up going through when you look at the total picture, to me. No region is close to that sort of variety now, and it seems pretty unlikely to happen any time again in the foreseeable future. In terms of just an individual company, although I don't watch it week to week I have no particular beef with the current WWE.

I think Flair wrestled Stan Hansen once, but it isn't on tape as far as I know. So that sort of qualifies.

Hansen's a guy I'd have a completely awful time picking a best year for, but the whole is just something else.

I love what Japanese wrestling was, but that was a long time ago now. To be honest I'm so out of that scene now I wouldn't even know where to begin starting over. Even by the end of the 90's it was obvious things were degrading and by about 2003/04 I found my interest waning. Nothing today is the Japan of the 1990's, but then again nothing else ever was or likely will be either.

Based on all the TV we have, Misawa in 92 or 93 is fine by me.

I watched the Nagata/Chono 1 hour draw twice. Once because I had just bought it (God, even the days of disk trading feel antiquated now), then after being trolled by the usual NJPW fans of the day about what an asshole I was for not liking it, I watched it again. Like a lot of one hour draws, there was like 20 minutes of good material in there. But that other 40... yeesh. It's really bad and slow, even for a match going an hour. I have nothing against long matches at all, Japan's actually got a ton of good 45 minute+ matches out there for sure, but this is a clunker. I would not really recommend the experience to others.

I'm trying to think of a less interesting Vader match I've ever seen than Flair/Vader and I honestly can't come up with anything. If it's the same match against anyone but Flair and anywhere but Starrcade no one even brings it up as a top 100 Vader match.

I actually feel like, at least in the IWC circles I run, that me liking the Bret/Owen cage match puts me pretty solidly in the minority.

And, confirmed by Meltzer via twitter if there was any remaining doubt. Also up on WWE dot com and confirmed by Alvarez.

The timing is just so utterly bizarre. I don't really know what else to say about this at the moment.

With a day to digest, this was a really memorable Wrestlemania. I mean, I couldn't tell you half of what was on 29 a year later. I really doubt that will be true of this one.

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Pic of shocked crowd guy is already my favourite meme of the year.

WHAT

It's almost as if booking like 7 matches on a 7 hour show is a bad use of your talent.

Most bizarre crowd singing possible.

Not to be a downer because this is really cool. I just wish Randy Savage was alive to be a part of this moment. That would have been perfect.

If the hall of fame was any indication, a live tweeted Wrestlemania is going to be hilarious.

Really curious to get a look at the Billy Robinson piece. I imagine it could potentially cover a ton of ground considering what a world traveler he was.

By fucked up I hope you mean awesome.

The whole selling thing in wrestling is bizarre. Like, I've yet to watch a baseball game, see a guy get hit in the arm with a line drive, then keep playing with it hanging limply at his side for six innings. Or that time Joe Thornton played a playoff series for the Bruins with a busted rib but he just forgot to sell I guess. The whole notion of pro wrestling is that it's a fake competitive event, and while there are guys that have used the ole' wounded duck trick well in wrestling, most of the time I just find myself asking "if that other guy is trying to kick your ass why are you making it as obvious as possible where he should be hitting you".