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That might change some if I saw it on a less choppy platform (DM is not ideal).

Do you have an ad blocker? I recently got one, and it's made DM a million times more tolerable.

 

On the All Japan front, there needs to be more love for Sekimoto/Okabayashi vs. Akebono/Hama. It's not the best match of the year, but it might be the most fun. Styles make fights, and power offense vs. fat man offense is a matchup that rarely disappoints.

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Aces and .8's killed me. I may have to rethink Dave's sense of humor

The guy who gave Ray the spinebuster was unmasked as Devon. Everyone acted shocked. Nothing else was revealed. So Aces and 8s will be on TV with the masks every week. Maybe they can become Aces and 0.7s soon.

:)
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On the HoF John's talk leads me to believe Sonnenberg is getting in via fiat, and something Dave wrote in a previous update makes me think DeGlane might too.

I don't know if two are getting in. There was some push for DeGlane, then there was a stronger push for Sonnenberg. Given the lack of strong candidates, it's probably wise for Dave to go with one a year from pre-1950.

 

There's another strong candidate from that era that isn't in, stronger than DeGlane and pretty much has just been an oversight. I would expect that candidate to go in next year if folks like Steve marshal their advocacy. I keep trying to make the point: focus on the best candidate, get a consensus, get him in, then look for the next best candidate, get a consensus, get him in, wash:rinse:repeat. Avoid going for "favorites", learn from ones where you run into a brick wall with Dave (say like Orville Brown), and set them aside until you can revisit.

 

At a certain point he'll need to add pre-1960 to what is essentially the Vet Committee group of candidate.

 

John

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Dylan: Remember, Pre-1950 candidates don't go in via balloting at all anymore, so DeGlane being removed from the ballot doesn't mean he's going in this year.

 

I know. I only mention it because Dave claimed in a recent write up to be actively pursuing info on him. But after reading what he wrote, I think it's more a case of "we need to know more," than "DeGlane is going in."

 

I assume the other person John is referring to is Ray Fabiani who should definitely get in and will probably be fiat'ed eventually

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Trying to figure out where I would peg it for the year is tough.

 

I think it's fair to call it a MOTYC from Japan. I think I liked Finlay v. Tajiri better, but I'm a big mark for both of those guys. Funaki v. Akiyama was fucking awesome, but way too short to be a legit contender. I like the fat man v. muscleheads tag from early in the year, but that's more of a really well worked novelty than anything else. I still need to see Funaki v. Suwama and that Tanahashi v. Okada match I've been avoiding mainly because I want to get some distance from the hype.

 

Over all? From Lucha you've got Casas v. Panther and Sombra, the two Terry v. Che matches, Blanco/Solitario v. Santo/Villano IV. I like both of the Calihan v. Finlay matches better, I thought Cena/Punk and Cena/Brock were easily better, I think Bryan/Punk and Sheamus/Punk are better matches, and there several others that are not noticeably ahead of or behind it one way or the other.

 

I could see it making my top twenty at the top of the year if I were in the right mood, but the key difference between that match and everyone of the above matches is that all of the above matches feature very good or great performances by more than one party.

Now that I'm caught up on lucha, I think this is off. I thought Tanahashi contributed way more to the Suzuki match than Sombra did to the Casas match or Che to the first Terry match.

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Dylan: Remember, Pre-1950 candidates don't go in via balloting at all anymore, so DeGlane being removed from the ballot doesn't mean he's going in this year.

 

I know. I only mention it because Dave claimed in a recent write up to be actively pursuing info on him. But after reading what he wrote, I think it's more a case of "we need to know more," than "DeGlane is going in."

 

That's generally the way I feel. Not sure if I got that across to Steve that the case needs to be built up more.

 

 

I assume the other person John is referring to is Ray Fabiani who should definitely get in and will probably be fiat'ed eventually

I will neither confirm or deny that. :) But will say he's someone that we should have put in a good while ago... probably right after Curley (who in turn should have gone in the original class).

 

John

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Dylan, it seems like, and I could be off base here, that you just simply hate Tanahashi?

 

I'm not a fan, but that's largely irrelevant to my point about the match.

 

Even the people who are pro-Tanahashi aren't pointing to the match as a tremendous display of Tanahashi's skills. Almost across the board the big plusses are being attributed to Tanahashi. There are some that I think are being overly harsh on Tanahashi (Phil for example), but I don't really think I'm one of them. I'm not arguing that he was a hindrance to the match. Just saying that I don't think he added a lot to it, aside from the obvious fact that he's got a connection with Japanese crowds.

 

Again it's a very good match. I wouldn't rate it with the best matches of the year, but it's more than "pretty good" also. There is nothing I have written on the match that borders on "man I fucking hate Tanahashi he ruined this shit" so I have no clue what the point of even posting this was.

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Even the people who are pro-Tanahashi aren't pointing to the match as a tremendous display of Tanahashi's skills. Almost across the board the big plusses are being attributed to Tanahashi.

Eh, I think you're reaching a bit on this one. Saying Suzuki has the stand out performance of the match and saying Tanahashi brought nothing to the table and was just a body along for the ride are two diffrent thigs.

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I don't see how I'm penalizing him.

 

Again there is disagreement with how much Tanahashi added to the match. There is near unanimity formed around the view that Suzuki was the standout.

 

Tanahashi's performance was far from bad. He was perfectly serviceable as the other guy in the match. I just don't think he contributed anything that pushed the match into "very good" territory.

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Just watched Tanahashi/Suzuki from 1/4/2012

 

Not on the lvl of the October match but still really good and in a completely diffrent way. A few spots that got repeated in the 2nd match but that's to be exspected, Suzuki & Tanahashi both did arm/leg work as well though it wasn't a major theme in this one. Much more your traditional big puro match style with more giant moves, near falls, fighting outside, etc.. One interesting contrast was that Suzuki was much more his usual dickish heel self, he made funny faces, joked around a bit, taunted Tanahashi, did balarena leg raises while Tanahashi lay on the floor knocked out. Works well as a set up for the 2nd match whear the over riding story was Suzuki was coming into it in 100% serious i'm not fucking around mode.

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I think that in all the big matches Tanahashi has had this year, he's clearly been the second best guy in the match. He's been someone who basically plays the part he's always played in big matches and lets the other guy shine, and then he finds a hole, fills it with his stuff and they head to a finish. I will say this, though: The role of an Ace in a promotion is to make the opponents he faces in main events look good, and Tanahashi does that more often than not. Both the Okada matches have been good and both the Suzuki matches have been good, but the work in the match shines more on Tanahashi's opponent due to this being a lot of what Tanahashi has done before in other big matches.

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Pat Laprade will be on with Dave & Bryan to talk about Montreal history today. I am very giddy about it.

 

Edit:

 

So is Dave:

 

--Bryan and I will be back tonight with Wrestling Observer Live. We'll run down the latest news, plus have Patric Laprade as guest and talk about the history of pro wrestling in Montreal. This will be fun. Whenever I go to Montreal for UFC, one of the highlights of very trip is going out with Laprade to talk about Montreal history. To me, among the historical wrestling hotbeds in North America, Montreal is the city with the most wrestling tradition that gets talked about maybe the least. You can send in any questions about Montreal wrestling or anything for us on the current or past MMA or pro wrestling scene to [email protected]

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I really hope Dave does a lengthy obit on Jeff Blatnick. Such an important figure in MMA and Greco Roman wrestling, I would really like to see one. Sad that he passed away so young.

+1

 

Another sad part is today is supposedly it is Dave's birthday. He sounded particularly upset on the audio update he did.

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I really hope Dave does a lengthy obit on Jeff Blatnick. Such an important figure in MMA and Greco Roman wrestling, I would really like to see one. Sad that he passed away so young.

+1

 

Another sad part is today is supposedly it is Dave's birthday. He sounded particularly upset on the audio update he did.

 

I haven't heard the audio yet but that is pretty sad. Blatnick really was such a genuinely well liked guy, all around classy man.

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This may sound silly, but does anybody else think that when somebody emails Dave a link to a website he later transcribes it on the news updates letter by letter instead of copying and pasting it? Way too many links end up having spaces or misspelling errors on the URL, when such a thing should seldom happen.

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