Sean Liska

It's now going to be weekly on - wait for it - Saturday mornings!! http://www.cerritolive.com/cerrito-live-podcasts/exclusive-jerry-lawler-announces-memphis-wrestling-is-returning-to-saturday-morning-tv/ We need to find somebody in Memphis to tape this thing in case something new pops up.

I watched this match and then immediately after I watched Atlantis/Niebla-Cuatrero/Angel De Oro and I legit enjoyed this medicore CMLL match much more. I hate being an old man behind the curve or whatever but NJPW big matches don't do it for me. One big problem is if they're not in Korakuen or the last few nights of the G-1, I never hear people say this, but these crowds really don't make much noise until the finishing stretch. So we have these guys laying on the mat between each spot doing their Oscar-bait selling and the place is silent and I don't understand how everyone loves it so much. I don't mind selling big spots but every NJPW is the same with the big spots and long selling in between and I don't know, just doesn't work for me for some reason. I far prefer NJPW Korakuen shows that are fast-paced and have the crowds into each spot of each match. Those shows are a bunch of fun. Even the undercard to this one I enjoyed. But the last three matches, I don't know, I just don't get it. Has jdw ever watched modern NJPW main events and given an opinion? I'm legit curious what he would think.

Blocked already!

I think you're a little cynical on them not caring about attendance or Network subs, or maybe I'm not understanding what you mean. Vince did everything he could to make Roman the guy to replace Cena and keep attendance strong for another decade, he broke The Streak so Roman could avenge it. Now, Vince didn't do a very good job with that push and you could write a book about why it hasn't worked, but I think Vince put a lot of work and thought into trying to have his next Cena ready. Sometimes it just doesn't work. The Goldberg-Lesnar feud was classic simple pro wrestling. Same with Brock/Joe. They put a Mania caliber card on in September with the Cena/Roman and Brock/Braun matches. Vince took a shoot headbutt to sell a B-show PPV in a time of year that's usually boring and then had Shane wrestle. They put a ton of work into hyping Survivor Series with the brand warfare angles. Again, you can complain about how good things are, but I think the effort is still very much there if not competence at times. I think Vince very much cares about those old metrics.

Even 205 Live has an interesting hook to it now with reports of Vince stepping down and letting HHH control it. There's just too much going on.

OTT is so much fun. Amazing atmosphere. Can't wait for this weekend's shows to pop up on their On Demand.

Dave on the Observer board said people at the building NJPW is running in LA told him they could have easily sold 13k tickets for this show. With no matches announced. 2018 is INSANE! Embrace it!

It's like having a master satellite dish in 1983 that let you watch all the territory TV and big shows whenever you wanted! It's such a crazy time. And that's without going into how easily accessible so much great old-school stuff is now, but that's off-topic.

I guess I'm just curious what everyone thinks this industry looks like in 5 years. There's so many moving pieces now, so many interesting things happening, so much growth, so much change.

It sounded a little more creatively ambitious than the usual solid and steady NXT TV. Gabe influence possibly? Now I'm fantasy booking real life but how funny would it be if the story turns out that HHH started his own ROH, Gabe gets hired and finds his 2004-2008 juice, and we have another great run like the old days. Unlikely I know, but I enjoy these real-life storylines like Akiyama trying to restore some glory to AJPW.

Just want to take a moment here to appreciate all the wacky stuff going on in pro wrestling now and how wrestling hasn't been this interesting since the late 90's. - WWE currently has a higher valuation than any pro wrestling company in history. Dave is indicating that they are considering Ronda Rousey the biggest star in their company moving forward. AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura is your WWE title match at Mania. Vince has so much money he's restarting the XFL. There is a lot of speculation about their next TV deal, with Dave saying they could even end up on the Fox network itself. -NXT has HHH, HBK, Regal, and Gabe creating a possible second boom for the yellow brand, with a great roster, TV shows that sound awesome for the next 6 weeks, and they just had the first 5* match in WWE in 7 years. How big can this brand get? Can Gabe get into a creative position where he's able to recapture some of that 2004-2008 magic? - NJPW sold out 5,000 tickets in LA in minutes for a show a week before WrestleMania, meaning it was likely just locals buying tickets. That's insane! How big of a crowd would a Dominion type show do in LA or NYC or Chicago? How big can they get here? Also their business is fantastic in Japan, having just done the best Tokyo Dome number in 15 years. - Lets stick with puro - AJPW! They may be having a resurgence, the success of NJPW seems to be helping the entire industry, and they're delivering a fun product. Can they grow into being a legit #2? How about NOAH? - ROH is doing better business than ever despite the lack of buzz here. How big can they get? Will they get screwed by relying too much on NJPW and the Bucks or are they going to just keep growing? - Impact is even worth paying a fraction of attention to, with Dixie and Jarrett gone and Don Callis getting his chance to show us if he's really as smart as people say. Can they resurrect themselves? - The UK indy scene keeps getting bigger and more interesting. ICW drew another big crowd for Fear and Loathing and the Square Go sold out weeks ahead of time. They're so tight with WWE that HHH made an appearance at a show and WWE.com posted an article about Drew Galloway going into their HOF and plugged ticket sales for them. Progress sells out every show and is running an 8,000 seat venue in September. OTT has the most fun atmosphere in the world and are able to draw over 2,000 for their big shows and seem poised for growth. Where is this all heading? How many streaming services can the market support? How big can these groups get? Will technology continue to create more and more hardcore fans, making things like this NJPW LA show possible?

I've seen some really good Southwest TV shows but it's hard to get dates to know what you're watching.

The Royal Albert Hall show is really fun and unique with the venue, you'll enjoy it.

Roman-Miz was great stuff. I continue to be conflicted by loving Roman in-ring and hating the idea of him being the guy because his promos and personality are sedatives to me. Cena's one minute little video is so far ahead of anything Roman can do. But Roman keeps having these great heated matches.

4/16 is a really fun show. A good Rotundo-Fuchi match, hot angle with Valiant and Kabuki, hot angle with Slaughter/Kernodle-Steamboat/Youngblood, good promos throughout the show, this show had some juice, good stuff.

The problem with this show was that nothing interesting is happening creatively with Raw for the nostalgia to enhance. At Raw 1000 you had Cena cashing in his MITB to face a hot CM Punk, Punk turning heel and setting up a great 6 month run, Rock in the ring with Punk and Bryan which was surreal for us ROH folk. This show had Miz-Reigns and a Kane title match to hype. The Ambrose and Joe injuries are killers too.

Oh they would be awesome. I know 85 is pretty easy to get online, I think 86 may have some gaps they could fil, not sure on 87. With all the Mid-Atlantic, Dallas, and Mid-South they've put up, I think we should all be cheering for good financial numbers for the company to see what else they might do.

It sounds like one problem is us not getting to see the local promos that gave more clarity to what's going on. Like, we see a segment with Sandy Scott saying there will be a cage match between Slaughter/Kernodle-Steamboat/Youngblood, but the real hype for the match must have just been in local promos that aren't here. Like, wasn't there a stip that Stemaboat and Youngblood would have to split up if they lost? We don't get that. Georgia TV has the advantage that it was on TBS so we get to see everything. Memphis WMC footage is ideal, but often the Louisville or Evansville feeds would have cards close enough to the MSC show to get a feel for what's going on. Territories like Crockett and New York had more general TV since they were running so many different shows. Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken here.

What I've seen from Georgia seems like better TV than this Mid-Atlantic. But I've seen old school Carolinas fans say the really good period of TV was late 70s taping in Raleigh which was less cramped, George Scott booking, and Flair still around regularly. That stuff sounds amazing.

If you ever wanted to see Ric Flair vs. Masa Fuchi, check out 3/12.

I don't know, I've watched a ton of Mid-Atlantic TV since the release and it's fun, but I keep thinking about how Memphis at this time seemed 15 years ahead of everyone when it came to TV. Overall roster and house shows could be different.

2/12 has the crazy Steamboat/Youngblood-Slaughter/Kernodle brawl that I think was on that Jim Nelson set, also has Sandy Scott telling Sarge and Kernodle that there will be a cage match in March,

Bit of a gem on 1/22 at the 27 minute mark with Piper and Slater having a fun verbal duel and then pull-apart brawl.