Ditch

If Lieberman retires or tries to run as a Republican, we might get Linda 2012. So... yay.

"the deal has already been worked out where Gonzales will receive a lengthy probation but serve no prison time" WHY?!

NJ bailed out Vince?

Yeah the 'Takada as all-time great worker' line of thought has not done very well over the last few years, and it was a very problematic case to begin with. But Saku is even more baffling unless those are shoot-only fans voting for him.

$45m this year or in total?

That was positive, though. 'Moyle of Mayhem', c'mon.

Pretty sure that was going to be part of a 'Mossad badass' character, which if anything would make him just about the only anti-stereotype or 'positive' stereotype gimmicks ever.

Inoki's political aspirations might have affected NJ, but it's hard to discern from his usual insanity. Several wrestlers have run for office but it didn't change the product.

I'm watching a tape back in 2002 with a college friend who took Japanese. During the opening for IIRC All Japan, characters fly into the screen, and he calls them out: "pu! ro! re! su!". Etched into my memory. What a baffling thing to deny.

Fantastic point. Certainly it re-directed/wasted more overall company resources than did WWF NY or Linda for Senate. The *opportunity* cost was exceptionally high.

Something like the restaurant is with pre-tax money. Linda's campaign is post-tax. So that's something.

JWP bankrupt in 1988? 'Original UWF'? It's like these take place in an alternate reality.

Yes, at Korakuen because the ring they got from the US was busted.

I'll bring up a rather macabre reason to not lift the age minimum... the number of wrestlers who die before age 45. I don't see where 40 would be a problem. In the case of Angle, it would have pushed things back from 2004 to 2008, and by 2008 people were looking at him quite a bit differently. Benoit died just after turning 40, so I'm not sure how that vote would have gone down, but I'm sure it would have effected things and either forced him to not be considered for a while or... SOMETHING. I dunno. 45 seems arbitrarily long and based mostly on Angle.

I doubt any amount of ROH Newswires would make people think Sawa was must-see. It's not as if he's someone like 2007 Ibushi who was unknown but you could put together a great highlight reel for. Sawa's trademarks are the Shining Wizard (which was already ubiquitous in like 2003) and the baseball-style punch. KENTA, Marufuji and others had built-in hype when making an ROH debut because they'd been talked up by Meltzer and other puro followers for years; Sawa hasn't. Someone like Hidaka, who's a notch or two below KENTA in the eyes of the IWC, is way more marketable thanks to his longer career, more WON mentions, and multiple appearances in the US pre-Evolve... and I still doubt Danielson vs Hidaka with little undercard support would have drawn 800 in Jersey. Before Evolve got going I was asked by someone with a connection to them who I'd recommend they try to use, with a strong implication of "that wouldn't cost much". Sawa and Hidaka were the ones they liked going in, and I just didn't see Sawa as someone to come in and right off the bat have a money-producing MOTYC dream match. He can certainly get over and become a couple-hundred-people draw in time, but it's starting from scratch with a guy who lacks a spectacular moveset. edit: Evolve isn't the draw ROH was, or is today. It's a young company that runs irregularly. That match on a proper ROH card would have drawn better, but it would have had more support and a much more recognized brand behind it. Maybe that's what he's referring to? But in that case, Danielson vs Sawa would only have been responsible for a fraction of the overall draw.

I'm going to add that Sawa couldn't draw 800 people in Japan.

9/20 WON: What an odd statement from Gabe. 1. It isn't at all true. Sawa is only a fraction as 'over' with today's puro fans in the US compared to, say, KENTA in 2005/2006. Let alone a big name like Kobashi. Also, three years ago Sawa wasn't nearly as well known. Unless he means 'Danielson vs generic good Japanese worker', but even then, Sawa simply isn't viewed as a MOTY-type guy. Japanese wrestlers are helped by doing well in WON voting; Sawa hasn't done that, even though IMO he deserved to for a tag in 2008. In terms of who was available for EVOLVE to use, Sawa was a good choice, but that's the extent of it. 2. It isn't at all true in a way that makes the promotion look worse! The indy scene isn't down 50% from where it was; ROH just drew 1300 in NYC for instance. It's down some, but not enough to make up the difference between 800 and 350. In which case if it really would have done 800 three years ago, EVOLVE should have done closer to the 500 number he mentioned. In reality it wouldn't have done 800 three years ago, so EVOLVE doing 350 with no TV should be acceptable.

I have a feeling '87 All Japan will be like '84 New Japan on the set in that both companies struggled a bit after losing Choshu & Co. Of course I say that after wading through '87 TV (via. the internet) and watching far more Waijima content than is likely to be on the set.

That is the #1 thing I'm looking forward to. After watching a lot of '80s AJ, SWS and WAR over the last year, I think the case for Tenryu as an all-time great wrestler is just as easy to make as the case for Jumbo was. Tenryu has weaknesses in things like matwork and athleticism, but makes up for it with such incredible consistency in so many feds and against so many opponents. No weak years at all between '83 and '94, then '95 was (as near as I can tell) an 'off' year for WAR, then back to good stuff in '96 and straight through to the World Japan disaster in '03. And even there it's not like he was bad. Then he goes to NOAH and tears the house down a bunch at age 55. Taken as a whole his body of work is incredible. I think he absolutely smokes more-beloved wrestlers like Liger at this point, and I say having probably seen a higher % of Liger's big matches than I have of Tenryu's.

I don't follow WWE but that seems like a fair assessment. Still that's only two promotions when in the '80s and '90s you always had several great ones to choose from. Masters as top 5, 10, whatever in today's WWE would put him up pretty high globally, but that level of performing in a stronger year would have him quite a bit lower. Whereas, many people probably think Davey Richards' 2010 is strong enough that he would rank high in any year.

So much of the issue right now is a complete disconnect between people who think Davey Richards and the Dragon Gate crew are the best things going in wrestling, and those who not just disagree but view them as actively bad. The former group is really happy with the number of high-end matches in 2010, and the latter (as near as I can tell) is not, or at the very least thinks 2010 is bad relative to other years, and thus someone like Chris Masters is a standout. Nobody is saying that Masters is wrestling at a level such that he would be high-end relative to, say, the mid-90s, or that he's having a bunch of four star matches. But if someone is coming from the perspective that Davey Richards has been in a dozen or so MOTYCs so far this year, and they see praise for Masters and see matches that are good in a 'competent' way than a 'spectacular' way... it's hard to bridge the gap. Let's go back to, say, 2006. A match like Danielson vs KENTA from exactly four years ago is something that appealed to pretty much all the IWC. An opinion along the lines of "ROH puts on the best matches/shows in the US" would not be hugely contentious; even those who disagreed could see a lot to love in ROH. The same absolutely cannot be said about Dragon Gate USA in 2010. Some think it's incredible, others can't stand it. This issue isn't new; for years there has been disagreement with the Meltzer/F4W preference for spotfests (ie. a multi-person ladder match is four stars almost by default). But it's never been so stark, and that's why things are so much more heated between the two factions. There's very little in the way of matches that are consensus MOTYCs anymore.

And it can only serve to confuse casual/WWE-only fans while upsetting hardcore fans.

I vividly recall they alluded to win/loss record in promoting Taker defending against Mankind in '97. Or at least, "nobody has more wins over the Undertaker"

There was also PWFG.