Matt D

I feel like Cena vs Shane might be the biggest money match they can put on right now. Is that the craziest notion given the last year?

I am kind of excited for a Joe vs HHH match six months down the line.

I don't know the answer to favorite either. The Rockers vs Rose/Somers match that was brought up is a good choice. Bockwinkel vs Robinson and Bockwinkel vs Funk are up there. Funk vs Martel and Funks vs Martel/Zenk are up there. Owen vs Bret from Mania probably is too. RnR vs Russians maybe? One of the Dandy vs Satanico matches. It's tough. One thing that's interesting is that a lot of my favorite wrestlers (Casas, Garza, Cota, Rose, just to name a few) aren't necessarily people that are in a lot of my favorite matches. It's more of a constant performance thing on a week to week basis from them.

The really interesting question is what people's favorite match would be.

I don't want to be that guy but the big matches for Mania aren't Rollins vs Joe and Reigns vs Braun. They're Rollins vs HHH and Reigns vs Taker. Logic sort of dictates something in the meantime.

I caught a blurry, single angle, fan cam on youtube where the sound cut out for two minutes at the start of the last third of the match. I don't care. It was still great for what it was, which was pretty much exactly what you'd want it to be: two of the best hybrid style luchadores (maybe the best of such of the 00s vs the best of such of the 10s) going at it with tricked out twisty submissions, solid rope running, some nasty shots, and transitions that made sense, even though it was very back and forth and evenly worked. The camera was just far back enough that you lost some of the intricacies of the matwork, but you get the broad brushstrokes. Holds were complex enough that they looked painful but allowed for openings. Those openings led not just to an escape but to the next hold. Maybe because Cerebro isn't as young as he once was, some of the rope running sequence wasn't as smooth as it could have been, but it was smooth enough that the slight roughness added a sense of struggle instead of detracting. They looped in some fun big moments, like a Hechicero Backlund deadlift out of an armbar that popped the crowd and a really well executed rolling tapitia. I thought the selling was generally appropriate. They had some pop ups in an early bomb exchange, but it was early enough that I was fine with it and they made sure to take their time and balance the explosiveness with a methodological moment to let what just happened sink in. In general, I love how good Hechicero's gotten at working the hand-motions/crowd interaction into his matches. That character mystique implanted directly into his ringwork is his biggest development as a wrestler since moving into CMLL. If you're a fan of this style, this is well worth fifteen minutes of your time.

That was Enzo's purpose. Although Santino at #28 or #29 would have been a dumb idea too I was watching with the sound off due to multitasking so I actually thought the colors on the tron meant it WAS Santino.

I'm kind of annoyed we didn't get Santino.

Hell of a long game.

Jericho winning and Owens trying to convince him to challenge Cena could be... nevermind.

Taker vs Brock vs Goldberg would be the ultimate part-timers match.

Can Joe be 30? Wasn't there a rumor that he might be getting the Cena match?

Past Gallagher, they should have given some of the longshots about 10% more than they did. Enzo even getting a punch or two off would have mattered more. There's no reason why Harper couldn't have hit Sister Abagail before getting the RKO, etc. They used to understand that better.

I could go for the Texas crowd trying to make Harper into babyface Brody.

Braun anticlimactically eliminating big guys.

I'm kind of into Cass and Mojo going at it repeatedly, actually. And yeah, the Gallagher stuff was great.

This does feel like the longest "two minutes" of my life?

He's tired and delirious. He probably thought Styles was Raven or something.

I only caught the last minute due to parenting duties, but I do like how Cena sold the win including the hug with Robinson.

What the heck was Funk talking about with the Suplex and Piledriver at the same time? A Brainbuster?

No one slaps his thigh quite as well as Swann.

I looked back over my notes from when we did remedial wrestling over at DVDVR. I had general style complaints, like Childs notes ("That's the tragedy of this match to me. They have such attention for detail, such thought in the layout, such care in their selling, such intensity and willingness to just give themselves to pro wrestling. If they worked this match in a style I actually like, it could be like nothing I'd ever seen before, because of the talent and the work put into it. Instead, we get something that is exquisitely beautiful, but that manages to succeed despite its loudness and brightness and not because of it."), but my biggest specific concern was, yes, Kobashi. Here's what I said about that (keeping in mind that I said this 2.5 years ago): "The biggest real issue I had with the match was the Kobashi superman run. That's exactly what it felt like. It's funny that I've always heard that this stuff was somehow "more real." Personally, I don't mind it all that much. It felt like something out of a cartoon or comic book or sci fi, but I like those things. Actually it felt like the kid who got the Charles Atlas correspondence course and beat up the guys who kicked sand at him, or even more like it should have come after a montage with "Simply the Best" in the background. What it felt like most of all was some sort of kung fu movie (and Kung Fu Hustle came to mind) where the hero finally found his inner power and peace of mind and was able to develop super powers. It was hugely entertaining and kind of emotional, but not in the same way 99% of wrestling comebacks, even comebacks like Hogan's and Cena's, are. It felt anything but real. The issue to me wasn't even that, but that it ultimately didn't really matter. Kobashi had this once in a lifetime comeback, this sort of thing that stretches credulity so far past the breaking point that his hair should have turned hot blonde and energy waves should have been coming off of him, and it was awesome, and ultimately, they still lost. It just seemed like a story element that belonged in another match, maybe? Not the one where they were finally putting Kawada/Taue over. "

Half honest question: would you consider the fact that I really don't want to revisit it to be a flaw?

6/9/95 definitely has its flaws. I'm not sure what the flaws are for Sangre Chicana vs MS-1 or Bock/Hennig.

I only caught the first half due to parental obligations. I'll catch the women's match and the Nak vs Roode one later, though.