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Ditch

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Everything posted by Ditch

  1. Ditch
    We did get rematches, though IIRC all were JIP.
  2. Ditch
    It says something about how conservative Baba's booking was that it felt big when 3 year pro, #2-in-stable Taue would drop falls in a 6-man. And now that I think about it, did Kawada *ever* drop the fall in a 6-man after becoming Misawa's #2?
  3. Ditch
    Good but not great, which is why it didn't make my 'recommended for the set' list. The next 6-man is a big step up.
  4. Ditch
    In a shoot, he talked about his booking philosophy of doing workrate underneath and blood/brawling/freakshows on top to draw. Can't have all garbage or the main event won't stand out. The fact that he does appreciate the need for quality somewhat mitigates his often questionable taste in top angles (ie. Hogan vs DoD cartoonishness).
  5. Ditch
    Nigel never became an every-tour guy and only had one bomb-throwing match in NOAH (July '07 vs Kotaro Suzuki). I don't know how much effect NOAH would have had on his thought process.
  6. Ditch
    Nigel was reasonably over in ROH with the more technical style, but he never would have had the big reign without the style change. His matches didn't have the bigness to them that the ROH main event style demanded. I think Nigel ended up going overboard and could have reigned it in a LOT without sacrificing 'bigness', though he probably would have gotten wrecked even if he dialed it back a notch or three. I can understand why he was deeply frustrated by how his career went, but in this day and age to not grasp how long the odds are against going from indy darling to WWE star...
  7. Ditch
    I love how much sloppier Melter's writing is than anyone else on a website like MMA Fighting despite the fact that he's been writing for a living for so many decades. So many typos...
  8. Ditch
    Not as much as a grand total percentage of all wrestlers, but in terms of historical main eventers, yes. Less so in the modern era, but still 'a thing'. For instance, today Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle would have gone straight to MMA. Also there were various pro wrestlers who might have been more known for another sport but had wrestling in their background somewhere and thus were more open to it.
  9. Ditch
    I though Bischoff taking Hak's sig was an attempt to make Hak look like a Steve Austin type.
  10. Ditch
    The bottom line is that for college wrestlers, who historically have been a HUGE part of wrestling's talent base, the ability to earn a living with MMA is a factor in terms of WWE's struggling developmental system. And MMA is more of a factor now that UFC salaries are much higher than they were ten years ago, whereas pro wrestling salaries have (probably? definitely?) not gone up in 15 years. Not to mention that kids in their early 20s are that much less likely to properly weigh gross vs net income and related financials (see: Diaz, Nick).
  11. Ditch
    I know that UFC "actual" salaries are deliberately obscured. Back in the day, WCW/WWF/ECW salaries were somewhat common knowledge. How much do we know about current WWE salaries? I can't help but think we should know more considering WWE is public now. I actually have no clue how many are pulling down, say, 500k a year in WWE. Whereas I think back to the '90s and the likes of Stevie Ray got 750k a year, guys even below Stevie were making 400-500k. WWE doesn't stupidly throw money around like WCW did, but they're actually profitable and could afford to pay guys well, so I can see midcarders getting that kind of money. I can also see them in the 150-200k range because of WWE's monopoly and the disposability of so many midcarders. There are UFC guys making more than that range who aren't even top 50 on the roster (ie. Mike Pyle). Reasonably high-end athlete (especially wrestlers) without a lot of charisma... MMA is more likely to get you a good living. Hell, look at how thin UFC is in terms of heavyweight talent. 6'3", 250-280 pounders are a dime a dozen in WWE. Seems like all you need to be a UFC heavyweight is a good punch and mediocre ground skill.
  12. Ditch
    And yet the Sid angle payoff was about a million times better than even a standard 'good' WCW angle payoff.
  13. Ditch
    Calling it their 2nd best match is absolutely a valid opinion, and hell I lean that way myself based on not actively enjoying the '96 match and thinking the '94 match was flabby. Between that and the 10/15/91 6-man (if you still haven't seen it), there's some AJ hidden gems yet for ya!
  14. Ditch
    I vividly recall how shocked I was by all the clean finishes on the PPV. Sting for one hadn't done a clean job in like... ever. Benoit over the Triad was the kind of clean-plus ending only the likes of Goldberg got against top stars.
  15. Ditch
    Wondering if this has the post-match with Hogan *burying* the WWF title.
  16. Ditch
    This aired reasonably complete IIRC; because of how it began they couldn't do a standard 50% JIP clip. Damn good match that would be a standout in any other promotion.
  17. Ditch
    UFC has made a lot of guys a lot of money. I don't think the odds are worse, especially if you're not a big personality.
  18. Ditch
    MMA isn't helping either. It hurt pro wrestling in Japan and I'd bet anything that a number of otherwise WWE superstars are in UFC.
  19. Ditch
    I really liked the August tags leading up to the 9/4/91 tag title match. Better than the standard quality of the feud. Not AMAZING, but clearly better, and done in a way to make you want more. Depends on what you mean by this. They didn't do one immediately, but there was the February '92 match between them.
  20. Ditch
    IIRC, Meltzer reported that the constant title changes were done in the hopes of getting over new stars in order to build the division, which was made more difficult by how much better Liger was than everyone else. The strategy somewhat worked for Benoit but clearly failed with Honaga and Nogami. Akira did finally hit his stride but it wasn't until he was a 14 year(!) veteran. Thankfully they finally got some rivals for Liger in '92 with Ultimo and Samurai.
  21. Ditch
    Lesnar no-selling, or quickly recovering from a sledge shot followed by coming back and winning would have accomplished something; it would have been an even more decisive finish than Summerslam and it would make him look nigh unstoppable even after he lost to Cena last year. Then they could work towards something like Lesnar/Ryback for this year's Summerslam. But nope, gotta have the WWE guys win at Mania.
  22. Ditch
    This works on every possible level. I can see fans who aren't familiar with puro getting into it without a problem, since big vs little is a universal concept and they use 'universal' moves. Good crowd, good pace, good action, feels important, and when it's over they both look good.
  23. Ditch
    I was roughly 99.9% sure of that but also figured it would be worth noting for others. Telling you to watch PWFG is not really necessary...
  24. Ditch
    While he had his flaws, Choshu really cared about making stars, more so than the vast majority of big league Japanese bookers. edit: Choshu was on the cover of the program magazine, and but did the worst of anyone in the tournament. Absolutely brilliant booking. Nobody batted an eye when he won the title in January so the losses didn't hurt him, either.
  25. Ditch
    I liked his match with Fuke from Will's PWFG set.
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