El-P

Well, THAT turn was surprising to say the least. Mayu Iwatani apparently has watched Kurt Angle matches and tried to outdo him in term of scariest/most impressive moonsault ever.

'member when people where having fantasies of big time matches against WALTER when he signed ? That good ol' WWEptimism...

They don't want "indy style" in their product because WWE Style (tm) is the law. However, they hire "indy guy who never worked in the main roster" as trainers. Make sense.

Those multi-men cluster fucks are so much fun. Ford vs Conti wasn't exactly a UWF classic, but it was fun enough, with some cool looking submissions. Yeah, Daniel Garcia should eventually get a more serious push hopefully. This company really has way too much talent already. Cody can't get cheered against Dan Lambert, and even against Cody Lambert can't get cheered either. That's fucking HEAT. If they do a tag match with Dustin vs Men of the Year, the reactions will be fun for every tag. Is Eddie Guerrero the most over deceased wrestler ever ? That's been almost 15 years and people chant his name and pop crazy for every tribute (which are kinda overdone sometime honestly). Picture an audience in 1994 going crazy for guys paying tribute to a 1970's worker. That's pretty telling of how the audiences and the landscape have changed over the last 40 years.

In a perfect world, Randy Orton is one I would absolutely need to get into with fresh eyes and brain. In a perfect world...

That's what I thought. That you mixed it up with Sak I mean.

..... ? They are not tagging. I have no idea how Dick Togo gained any power in the NJPW structure, but he needs to get axed. He's been a disastrous influence on the booking. And here's booking himself during that NJPW vs NOAH show, while Gedo also gets a spot. For fuck's sake.

It's a testament to D'Amore's focused booking that I actually care about a main event involving both Matt Cardona and W. Morrissey. I'll say it again, IMPACT is the best booked promotion in term of getting the most out of their roster. Morrissey has improved since his WWE days, but he still isn't much, but the way he's been booked is very smart in protecting him and allowing him to shine the most that he can. Cardona since the GCW stuff has gained a certain aura and all the angles leading up to the PPV have involved Chelsea Green in a pretty engaging way, up to the last terrific one this week. And Moose may be the best heel in pro-wrestling today, love everything about his game (the way he talks, his demeanor, his angle work, plus he really has killed it in the ring this year). So, the main event should actually be quite good, with Moose and Cardona doing the heavy lifting. Jonah vs Alexander and Trey Miguel vs Steve Maclin should be excellent. Ditto Deonna vs Mickie in a Texas Death Match. The first women Ultimate-X match is a cool attraction, whether it'll be good is another story. Not that bad a start for IMPACT in 2022. And of course this week-end Throwback Throwdown is gonna yet another mind-blowing WTF experience, perfect to watch later during the usually depressing Holliday seasons.

So the NJ vs NOAH card is a bunch of multi-men tag matches. Underwhelming. Hopefully it leads to some real singles dream matches later, as it is it's still kinda cool of course but also not that engaging.

Hangman Adam Page In the last three years, Adam Page became legit one of the best worker in the world. He's still a work in progress in term of career and I admit I am not familiar with his ROH work, although he was already showing signs of being really good in NJPW (or better than signs, actually). But from his tag work with Kenny Omega, which happened to count arguably the greatest tag-team match ever to his latest accomplishments as a babyface singles main event wrestler, at this pace, of course Adam Page makes the list. (going for the obvious) Hangman Page & Kenny Omega vs Young Bucks (AEW - 02/29/2020) Hangman Page & Kenny Omega vs FTR (AEW - 09/05/2020) Hangman Page vs Kenny Omega (AEW - 11/13/2021) Hangman Page vs Bryan Danielson (AEW - 12/15/2021)

Ishii getting EVIL is a big disappointment. What a waste of Ishii. STARDOM getting a legit spot is cool as hell. Otherwise, yeah, pretty solid WK card considering you don't get outsiders and no Ibushi (and no Jay White, so I guess he hasn't been back in Japan, but yet hasn't done anything in eons in the States either).

I totally bought it and thought they could go for the Gedo trick of teasing the draw that actually ends up in a win at the very last limit.

They did after a really hot nearfall around 45mn. Crowd kinda goes quiet for what follows for a (short, admitedly) while, as if they overshot the apex (like it happened in the FTR vs Lucha Brothers title match a few weeks back). They got it back though. Totally disagree. The Hangman getting treated was way overdone, way too long and nothing Danielson did to him was justifiying such a lull. Some people started chanting "bullshit", which is a first in AEW. The work that came afterward, sure, and it's what, more than 30-35 mn of (great) work.

Actually, this entire description absolutely fits every 60 mn Flair vs Steamboat match ever. If I never ever hear the word "crossfit wrestling" it'll be way too soon (dunno who used it first, but it's the worst), but Flair was actually the epitome of crossfit wrestling before crossfit even existed, his entire gimmick was that he could go "all night long, wooooo!". And if we're being fair more than to Flair, the infamous Toyota vs Inoue 60 minute sprint from 1995 was probably the apex of going batshit for 60 minutes (I admit I haven't rewatched it in 20 years though). I will agree that in term of psychological depths and structuring, this wasn't an Omega match (not sure that's where you were going, probably not, but that's were it leads me !). And it's not the first time I see that with Danielson, also happened in the Miro match where they did kinda lose the crowd for a little while and seemed to wandered a bit. Happened here too before the awesome finishing stretch. Mind you, it's a small observation and criticism and like I said, this was MOTYC and we're talking elite level anyway.

Awesome match. Page will be fine. He just had to MOTYC in a matter of a few weeks with two GOAT contender. Meaning : he delivers when called to the task. Welcome to the GWE 2026 list too Hangman. Awesome match, although there was a lull at one point when the doctor was "taking care" of Page, as it went on for too long. The crowd even began to chant bullshit, thankfully Dragon put an end to it but this is a trope that has disrupted some NXT matches in the past and should not be overused, especially when that cut was about 1,7 on the Muta scale. Kinda lost the crowd at about 45 minutes too before getting them back for a hellish finish. La Majistral craddle got a legit nearfall, which was nice. Great finishing stretch. Yeah. What a year for AEW. So happy to watch Danielson in this setting. Love the booking too of having him looming like a shadow over the top guys, he hasn't beat them but no one can beat him either yet. The first pinfall on Danielson has to be special now. I just love Serena Deeb. Hopefully she gets a title reign sometime in 2022, she's too good not to. Final match was very good, Dante has ways to go but damn is he ridiculous in the air. Mix of Rey, RVD, Fénix and no one else before. Brodie King, fuck yeah ! I kinda wanted Julia Hart to get Alexablissed, but Brodie King in AEW is gonna be so awesome. Perfect fit with Black. I love those kinda characters, and yeah you should add some female with them (and no, I don't mean Abadon, all due respect). (Darwin Award of the night goes to that idiotic Corny fan holding his stupid sign for two hours while an all-time awesome show was happening. I'm sure he expected the security to take it off, but nope, he had to get tired by the end. Actually paying good money to look like a complete idiot on TV, job well done. )

The one thing, and it's been said by several people, is that at this point the reaction to this in relation to his potential AEW jump is gonna be : well, ok, too bad, whatever, next. That's how ridiculously stacked AEW's roster is right now. A year ago, it would have been a pretty big disappointment probably (if you had the idea that he could jump). Today ? Not so much.

The answer to the last question asked is that if you're looking for a way to rationalize your approach, you just can't compare, period. I know I said pretty much the opposite during the discussions last Spring when the project started, but at some point you gotta draw a line, and there's no way if I want to be fair to myself that I'm gonna make an assessment on someone with so few matches available. So there, 180 on that point. Same goes for people who only got clearly past-prime stuff, like Stevens. There's exactly no way to know how good he was during his, whatever can be said about his post-prime is that it wasn't that great and that's it, it says nothing else. Anything else is strictly attribution and confirmation biases (in one way of the other, positive or negative). So there goes people with not enough footage to me. I mean, I won't be able to watch everything I would probably want to watch, so, some stuff is gonna get the axe anyway. Tony Neese, for the very few I've seen, is really good. Looks like a young Tommy Dreamer who hit the gym a lot and without the charisma too.

Funny thing is that when you look at the direction the company is taking for the future aka huge young muscular guys with good looks, I don't see where a guy like Kevin Owens fits in. Of course he's an upper echelon guy and will stay at that level I guess, but his biggest role lately was basically cannon fodder for Roman Reigns (ok, everybody is, I know), and he's not from that generation where even as a second fiddle to Cena you'd be considered as a star (like Edge, although he really hasn't moved the needle one bit) so he's not gonna get that "people from way back when were big stars" treatment when he's 40.

Kevin Owens re-signed. He's 37, he's made in WWE (whether he could be much more than what he is is debatable). I guess it would have been fun to see him work elsewhere. There goes that one.

The question with Hangman is this : was the chase better than the reign ? Of course it's ridiculous to call it a failure when it has barely even began. I do agree that thus far, Hangman has not been the main focus of the promotion, CM Punk vs MJF has (and quite frankly, it has all the right to me). But again, although Danielson is the big TV match, this is gonna lead to a bigger match (I know, that's sounds kinda odd but it is the reality), whether against MJF or Punk. Omega's reign has been a great success, both as a drawing card (2021 has been a legit period of growth with the Elite on top, and of course Punk boosted the whole thing even more) and of course in-ring. But the landscape is not exactly the same anymore and it seems there's kind of a pro-wrestling crush happening in term of viewing audience, with too much pro-wrestling on TV and a market getting dangerously close to saturation. The switch to TBS should help. Anyway, the match should be awesome. Last really big show for AEW this year. Let's go.

So Marina Shafir was on Dark this week, and here's one woman I hope they sign and get serious pushing. She's got something unique.

Blood Runs Cold 2.0. The shitty CGI and the screams made it as hilariously cheesy as the 1995 movie. And the 2021, probably. But I'm pretty sure the template is 1995...

Well, this year will definitely the year of Stardom in term of awareness, thanks to the well deserved bype from Syuri vs Hayashishita. Been watching the big shows since that time, and it's easily one of the easiest promotion to watch in this format. What struck me is the average level of the work, everybody is really good (there are no dull-ass matches like you see on NJPW undercards, and sometime higher). Hayashishita ia a legit top 5 worker of the year, Syuri and Tam Nakano are terrific too. Shirakawa should be a star eventually for many reasons beyond the obvious one, seems crazy to me she has only worked for 3 years now (while starting so late to boot). Great depths in talent with Maika, Iwatani, Kamitani, Starlight Kid, AZM and a few whose names I don't recall too (still getting familiar with everybody). They are having the last big show of the year on 12/29 and the biggest joshi show in decades probably, and Hayashishita vs Syuri on paper is MOTYC level (Nakano vs Kamitani should be excellent too). If Kairi Hojo goes back it could be quite a 2022 too.

Awesome read. Thanks for sharing. The last part is pretty damn hard though, with some really striking parts.

Sadly I don't keep a list of great matches I've watched (I tried until about April, then got lazy). But basically go for Shingo Takagi and Hiroshi Tanahashi's big matches over the year and you'll pretty much get the best out of NJPW apart from the G1, which as always had its share of Ishii and Okada greatness too, and had a *killer* Zach Sabre Jr. string of matches too. Oh, and speaking about Okada, his series vs Jeff Cobb series was pretty much one of the best of the year too. Never go close to an EVIL match, ever. If someone with more detail in term of dates can chime in. But out of the top of my head that's what I remember really enjoying this year, Takagi being crazy awesome and saving the day and Tanahashi just cementing the fact he's a GOAT contender, making the most out of his broken body and having killer matches on the fly (like when he was thrown into that Dome show main event from nowhere this Spring).