Matt D

It's new. You've missed the entire Japanese handheld boom.

I mainly meant as the main title holder.

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2019/08/new-footage-friday-boogie-jam.html?m=1

And it's really cool. Definitely the best look at Babyface Greg we'll ever get.

Look pal, Let's not go do crazy things like bump a three and a half year old Russo thread.

I always assume Jetlag can speak 7 languages myself.

In 2019, the line between creator and audience is definitely thinner than ever. I think we see all the time writers/artists/etc. interacting with fan questions and complaints. I'm not sure we see it with actors quite as much. Wrestling is a fairly unique art form where the performer is involved in the creative element of a match, the actual performance of the match, though not necessarily the result or some of the broad strokes. They have corporate oversight. I think about comic books where a writer might have a corporate mandate but craft a lot of the broad creative strokes, then execute those, but they're not actually portraying the characters in question. If you have a writer/director/actor all in one for a movie or TV show, you might get that, but I can think of few cases personally along those lines. The way Stephen Amell interacts with his fans sort of comes to mind? I don't think it's a black and white situation. I do feel that pro wrestling is fairly unique and presents unique challenges. I know what I'd prefer personally, but we are in a different world in this age of social media with different fans and potential fans who interface with the world in a different way.

I wouldn't call that lashing out.

What if the choices were Ziggler or Seth?

The answer is Shane.

Kevin Smith films.

Around here we call this "selling."

Back to parenting here. We've got more Chamber of Secrets to read.

That was the best possible version of that match. Which is saying a lot because they don't often manage the best possible version of anything these days.

Elias sliding Owens a steel chair is a cute little spot too.

I will say I sort of enjoyed that initial stall segment, especially the trip.

I love that the ten minutes I have to watch right now it's the end of that Bayley match and Shane.

I do like Bayley's Blue Pants color tribute though. And the top rope belly to belly looked good... once she actually got her footing.

I just turned this on for a few. This has not looked good for the minute I saw. The reverse crab thing was not good, and I have no idea what the elbow drop/kip up spot was supposed to be.

I'm still two hours from getting these kids to bed. Do you guys need me for this one or will you be ok?

Florida is basically the second worst territory (past Stampede) for that. I'm glad we got these though. Pretty much everything was work watching. You got a really good sense of the Briscos tag. You get the beginning and end of the Brisco singles match. I wish we'd start to get some entire 80 babyface Flair matches though, yeah, because the glimpses are really enjoyable. The outtake was great. I love how Frenchy Martin just turns it on when the camera starts rolling. The craziest part of the demo (which was cool in general) was seeing the Iron Sheik with hair.

@NintendoLogic I really liked this actually. This is probably my favorite Fergal match ever and I've certainly seen a decent amount of his NXT/WWE work. I've never seen him so present in a match. He's a much more natural heel, whereas he's a smooth and occasionally explosive babyface and one that the crowd can at times get behind (more because of who they are and what they want than who he is and what he delivers I think; he fits the mold of the times). There's just so much more personality here, so much more reactiveness. His natural dorkiness plays right into the bullet club motif and the little gestures he makes (whether it be the gun or doing the "I see you" to the ref). I really liked how most of this breathed too. They were going twenty minutes and there'd be a lot of bs and nearfalls at the end. They made sure to work in the Anderson spots smartly and it all fit into an overall narrative about Gedo's swagger. I imagine this had run for a while by this point, and it was enjoyable to see a lot of the interference attempts backfire while still not deflating the idea of a threat. Fergal's selling was excellent even in the back third of the match. Gedo had to work to take out a leg. It was a good strategy early on but not one that he could really engage with. Transitions were generally good. I liked the back focus and really liked the whip reversal cut off; it just seemed that Gedo was less hurt after that than the first time he went into the buckle. I bought into the finishing stretch. The double stomp not working was a great moment, and I did buy the next one or two move from Fergal despite the fact that his leg should have been shot. He portrayed adrenaline bursting through it quite believably because he was just so into the moment. When he had the chair towards the end, you got the sense that it was empowering, that it almost made him feel super human. That's, in part, why he made a mistake with it. I thought everything after the frog splash was a little much, especially the chair roll-ups. It was a near comedy bit way too late in the game, and I get part of what was over here was the Bullet Club and you need a bit of that right at the end, AND they played with it metatextually but I thought it subtracted more than it added. In general, though, this had really good set pieces, was very aware of what it was supposed to be, and hit the right marks. You have Gedo sell the back a bit more, cut a minute off the end, and maybe have Fergal struggle just a bit more after his flurry after the double stomp, and you'd REALLY have something.

Worcester?

It's the crossfit. Coming into being a fan as a teenager during the Attitude Era? The interesting comparison point is Jinder Mahal maybe?

I was trying to make sense of why the heck they were focusing so much on 97. It's because he's building to a big Survivor Series 97 show, I'm guessing. Part of the problems is that the most interesting thing with these shows aren't the shows themselves but the little news bits from the month that JR then comments on. That becomes less interesting if you're doing a bunch of PPVs in a row instead of jumping around.