KB8

Hey, this was a really nice, spirited little contest. The stand-up was sharp and clean and I dug Naruse playing underdog. He sold getting knocked around pretty well and I loved how he used the ref' to drag himself back to his feet after the penultimate knockdown. Nagai hurled a few mean leg kicks but still wasn't the full crowbar Nagai that I'm used to, as it was crowbar Nagai that was my first introduction to Nagai way back whenever. They sure telegraphed Naruse catching that high kick, but to their credit they threw a curve ball and switched up the finish nicely. Not spectacular by any means, but definitely fun and a super breezy nine minutes.

Kind of a poor man's Eastern European grapplefest, but a fun one and with another few fights under his belt Todorov could be really good (I'm sure I've seen later Todorov fights, but I don't remember anything about them). Gotchev had a bunch of nice throws again, almost setting them up via bearhug before heaving Todorov over and practically onto his head. At one point he hoisted him up, walked around the ring and hit a body slam. I'm not sure what Todorov's discipline is, but he had a killer harai goshi and once or twice he almost tied Gotchev up in suitably RINGS fashion. Finish was really cool too. There's something about a shoot style STF that's just aesthetically pleasing.

I knew I shouldn’t have gone to bed (where I’m evidently unable to sleep anyway). A big name or two is absolutely going to RAW at this point. Surely. Charlotte and Styles?

I've seen Carmella no more than about four times but I'm assuming she's always been this fun? Because between this and last week she is craaazy fun.

Kurt Angle is surely due the sack after this. He's getting absolutely Brooklyn Nets'd on these trades. Joe has more of a knack for making these scripted promos come off organically than just about anyone in the company. When the fuck did that happen? (EDIT: yeah, what he asked)

This is tonight, then? Cool. I have a shit ton of work to do so I'll be up until the wee hours anyway. I'll probably give it a watch and see what's what.

I read that earlier as well, and it's easy to make the connection in hindsight, but yeah...that was total Shawn Michaels big feud melodrama (with good acting).

I'm not so interested in what's overrated, but based on Dave's tastes (and most people know what they by now), I wonder which match he's given 5 stars to is the one you'd least expect him to. I'm not anywhere close to being in the loop with modern New Japan - or even Dave's star ratings - and by all accounts he's given a bunch of those matches in the last few years 5 stars, but it's kind of interesting looking back and seeing things that are sort of perplexing in hindsight. I mean, the Kyoko/Toyota broadway sure isn't for everyone, but that's a match you can just see Dave raving about if for no reason other than the cardio display. Are there any that come across as major outliers based on his pretty obvious preferences?

Volk Han v Sotir Gotchev (12/19/92) I was pretty hyped for this and I'm happy to report it didn't disappoint. I don't know how many worked fights Gotchev had, but I'd assume this was only his second (after the Kopylov fight). That he can throw guys around with aplomb goes a ways to making you forget about the bits where he obviously looks inexperienced. Han was Han. All of his wrist manipulation stuff looked awesome; the nasty wrist lock thing, the crazy standing armbar, and best of all the way he used it to grab Gotchev in a sort of dragon sleeper before dropping him with an elbow to the chest that looked like a fucking Kill Bill execution blow. He did this thing later on where Gotchev was on all fours and Han grabbed the arm, drew it underneath Gotchev's leg, planted his foot to keep that leg in place, then pulled upwards like he was trying to hyper-extend the elbow under Gotchev's own thigh. Basically this had about four things to add to the running list of Volk Han submissions I'd never seen anyone do in a match before. It wasn't quite like Gotchev could slam Han at will, but Han was clearly having trouble with him, and when Han would try to roll upon landing Gotchev would just drop him super awkwardly on a shoulder or elbow. It actually led to Han using a decent amount of his rope breaks, but of course in the end he found a way to deal. I'm not entirely sure what it was - could've been a choke, could've been an armbar, could've been a bit of both - but it looked like it hurt and every bit the Volk Han way of submitting someone. Really good bout. Dick Vrij v Herman Renting (12/19/92) This didn't start out great, but it got better as it went and by the end it was about as lively as you could hope for between these two. Renting is never really aggressive in his fights and sometimes he'll outright stand in the corner as if he's waiting to be hit. I don't know if he's gassed or what, but you can imagine how compelling it is. He started this like he actually intended to do something, and you may not have bought him actually hanging with Vrij, but you maybe bought him being able to grab a submission if the stars aligned. Vrij was pretty much coasting for the first couple rounds, but they got a bit chippy with each other and some little cheapshots were thrown. Last couple rounds picked it up. Renting kept retreating to his safe haven (the corner), but Vrij is not the guy who'll let you rest on your laurels that way. In fact he probably kicked him harder. Akira Maeda v Chris Dolman (12/19/92) Pretty listless main event, at least until the last forty seconds. Lots of tepid stand-up. At one point they wound up clinched in the corner trading slow knees to the body, like they were doing assisted knee raises at a Body Combat class. Maeda's leg was taped up heavily again and they drew attention to it a few times. Crowd picked up on it when he'd back away clearly favouring it after Dolman's probing kicks. Set up to the finish was pretty telegraphed, but the finish itself was surprising.

I'm surprised he went with the full five stars for the ladder match. Gargano/Ciampa was right up his alley for sure and that one's not surprising, but even judging by car crash ladder match standards I thought it probably had too many moments of slow climbing and reaching from two feet off the ground. I actually enjoyed the ladder match, which makes it the first one in a while, but that's because I was invested in a winner (I really wanted Dream to win). I don't think it would be nearly as fun on a re-watch, but you know, whatever.

The Afa match from MSG is about the best broomstick match I've ever seen. It's pretty much 90% Murdoch working shtick around a guy who brings mostly nothing, but it's my favourite shtick reel ever. The 9/22 and 10/14/85 matches against Reed, where he gets to work extended holds, the DiBiase feud has him working more brawls, the 7/11/87 Windham match is your old school title match similar to the Reed defences, then there's the 6/13/87 Dr. Death match (all of those are from Mid-South). The DiBiase double turn angle on Mid-South TV is great. It's been ages since I watched most of the New Japan 80s set, but there's lots of good Murdoch on that. Not everyone was so hot on the Murdoch/Adonis team, but his appearances later in the decade during the six-man tournament and his singles with Inoki were great fun. The Fujiwara match from dying days PWFG isn't exactly shoot style, but it's two old guys working their magic with the crowd on strings.

Ranallo somehow hasn’t really bothered me on NXT despite being mostly terrible and probably worse than he was on the main roster, when I literally found him intolerable and had to mute certain matches. I can’t explain how he hasn’t broken me yet, but he hasn’t. Maybe I’m better at tuning him out at this point.

Wasn't the Like function a necessary inclusion with the board update, but Loss basically disabled it so as to prevent folks "hunting for likes" or...whatever the terminology may be? Re: recognising people from avatars, this place peaked avatar-wise during the GWE when we all had avatars to match whichever wrestler we were the high voter on and someone (Ackerman, maybe?) wound up with an avatar of Kodo Fuyuki covered in beans.

That was a great little tv main event and probably the perfect way to put some heat on Nakamura at the end. His dedication to hammering AJ Styles in the balls is admiral and ruining fantasy matches should probably be his gimmick from here on out. And of course more of those interviews explaining why he’s doing it. Super fun couple hours of wrestling. First time I’ve watched RAW and Smackdown in the same week in about twelve years. Part of it is because I was up doing work anyway, but I may do the same next week for this draft.

This feels like a show that's mostly given fans exactly what they want, so I'm guessing Rusev gets to look strong here and pin Orton on his way to winning the US title at the PPV...

Well damn, how about that for a debut?

Imagine those mannerisms and in-ring gesticulations coupled with condescending interviews and promos about faux remorse because he no speak English. I'm sure down for that.

Is Nakamura the best promo in the company?

I'm guessing they bring up the AoP for this tag tournament...or would that be a call-up too much after Moon and Jose?

Alexa is a tremendous sociopath.

I don't actually believe they're doing that, btw. I think they've just booked him poorly and that's about it.

Unless WWE are trying to out-meta everyone. Maybe they think that by calling a late audible and keeping the belt on Lesnar because they promised Saudi Arabia a title change, the folks who hate Roman are now going to sympathise with him for being the victim of Vince's capricious booking. By booking him shambolically bad, they're actually booking him well!

I've found Cole's NXT run more than fine. He's someone I couldn't really be bothered with before, but I hadn't watched enough of him to be actively annoyed or...anything, really. I had no real opinion of him. He wasn't far off clean slate territory with me upon entering NXT, basically. EC3 was the same, and if we're going on first impressions I liked Cole way more in that extreme rules match with Black from Philly than EC3 in the ladder match from Saturday (though there's obviously a huge asterisk there as a multi-man car crash ladder match isn't necessarily the best way to introduce someone, or the best setting for someone to look good). I don't think he's GREAT in ring, but he has a sort of chickenshit quality to him that I can get behind. Maybe I'll change my mind once I watch him in a lengthy straight singles match, but as of now the Edge comparison feels a wee bit unfair even if I understand it (and can agree to an extent). I also feel like the Adam Cole Baybay catchphrase is pretty lame, but lame in that good way where he thinks he's the coolest motherfucker walking except people are laughing at him, not with him (or at least *I'm* laughing at him, not with him).

Yeah, I'm a sucker for a royal rumble match and it looks like they're really going for it top to bottom with this.

I watched this again just there. The miracle of all miracle matches. Going in I fully expected this to blow. I don't think any of us in the Wrestlemania thread were anticipating much beyond a car crash. Angle somehow moves slower than Undertaker and Undertaker moves slower than my 88 year old grandfather. HHH is less interesting to me than lots of uninteresting things. Rousey has looked awkward at best in the build up. Yet this match went from kinda nothing when it was Angle/Helmsley to way hotter than expected when Rousey got in to flat out awesome by the end. I was practically in slack-jawed disbelief at one point. When they did Rousey/Helmsley I fucking flipped my melon and when she put him in the armbar I was stripped to the waist. I thought he was actually going to tap for a second there. Steph was the best McMahon on this show by a million miles and I loved how she was basically a cheapshotting Jim Cornette for the most part. Did she look stronger against Rousey than she should've? Maybe. But she took the advantage by clawing Rousey's eyes and Rousey sold it great and her eye shadow was all over the place like Steph had maced her or something, so it's not like she bested her with wrestling proficiency. She certainly never looked as strong as most of us probably feared she would. I wouldn't have hated it if Rousey just ragdolled her silly, but I don't mind her showing a wee bit of vulnerability out the gate. Can't say enough good things about Rousey in this match and it felt like a true star making performance. I mean, she absolutely felt like the biggest deal on this card and she probably main events Summerslam and that is fucking wild. Match was probably laid out to the letter but I don't give a shit. Lay everything else out to the letter if it ends up being this enjoyable. I wasn't sure how it'd hold up on a rewatch, but it was somehow even better and it was already one of the most fun live wrestling experiences I've ever had. Amazing spectacle and genuinely one of my favourite matches in company history.