Spontaneous

I thought the AJPW show was really good. Ashino looked good in defeat and I didn't think he was winning here. I think he could win the TC at some point in the next year or two. It's just Lee's time and I thought this was probably meant to be Ishikawa losing here. AJPW is one of the few promotions where the heavyweights wrestle like heavyweights. I really liked Iwamoto going after Miyahara. If he starts showing more fire like this I could get behind his move to wrestling heavyweights. All Asia tag between Purple Haze-Stronghearts was fun. Issei Onitsuka trying to go blow for blow with Zeus was hilarious and he actually got the better of Zeus at one point! I had never seen him before, hope to see more. I have to say, Akira Francesco-SUGI didn't re-invent the wheel but because there was a short jr tag earlier and no one else doing jr matches it stood out. I thought the rookie looked good in his debut. I really enjoyed this show as you can tell.

It'll be a joke, just like the first women's MITB featured James Ellsworth helping Carmella win, like Kid Rock getting 15 minutes so the divas could enter to his awful music, and the 2nd (or 3rd?) women's rumble had Santina enter it. Expecting dignity from Vince booking the women is to ask for the impossible.

Could see him and Bushi challenge the winners of the Jr Tag match afterwards.

They did just let SHO work Gleat of all places. He won but it was odd to see that be where they slightly opened up. Could have been just to get him a payday since he isn't active on this tour as much as he had been the last year.

He's got educated feet!

Are big guys even still draws? The average indy crowd does not want to see that style. It's not like Babatunde was some big attraction when he worked Evolve, people were there to see the NXT wrestlers working the show or the other indy darlings. If Omos had showed up in say PWG one day, what would he do? That PWG over the top style has spread to most promotions.

Vince is a genetic jackhammer, I don't know what you guys are going on about.

Danshoku Dino vs Shingo! In all seriousness, pull Kota and sub in Tanahashi. After their NEVER title match Shingo said they'd have a rematch at some point. Do it now.

Seen it. Khali-Cena was better on the same show. I bought that on DVD, mostly because I must have been a masochist in a previous life.

Release Vince. Big savings there. Dude hasn't drawn since the 90's.

Looking to see if Lee-Ashino can deliver in a big spot. The All Asia titles and Jr title also should be fun. Iwamoto also has a chance to produce a fun match with Miyahara as he continues as an "openweight".

Too bad Big E cashing in and challenging Lashley after he's crushed his friends wasn't the match. When they want to they can make a guy in a night. Let's not forget Philly popping for Roman beating Sheamus and Vince on Raw not even a year removed from booing him out of the arena at the Rumble.

@Gordberg Tomoaki Honma vs Jun Kasai from BJW 3/26/2000. It's not too violent by BJW standards and most importantly sub 15 minutes. Enjoy!

Shuji Ishikawa is out of the hospital and recovering from Covid.

@Zimbra Super Vader/John Tenta vs Garl Albright/Kazuo Yamazaki 10/8/1994 This was some good shit. I always have enjoyed Vader's UWFi work far more than any other promotion. John Tenta is John Tenta to me, I've never seen him as Earthquake. Yamazaki I'm not super familiar with. Albright has always been ok to me. I liked the pre match scrum between Albright and Vader. Really added tension to the match. This was a fun physical match. I liked Vader's selling here. He made Yamazaki and Albright both look dangerous. By the time it ended I was shocked. It seemed like they could go back and forth another ten minutes. Nasty strikes, suplexes and holds ends in a stiff power bomb. Great match.

I'd rather they go full DDT and Bo-Chan managed by Kenta was in it than Yoshi-Hashi.

Gedo's booking style doesn't seem to lend itself well to abrupt disruptions. Between the general pandemic, injuries, travel restrictions and the outbreak that completely shut them down earlier this year they have been booking on the fly. Guys like Cobb and Desperado have benefited by getting major profile matches they didn't seem set to get earlier in the year. I still really hate the long matches though. They are all for the most part technically good but just once they need to run one or two that only go twenty minutes max. It feels tedious when you know the match isn't ending until you've heard the thirty minutes mark called. The worst offender was Hiromu-Sho. It wasn't bad but I remember Kevin Kelly kept hyping how it was now the longest jr title match ever. It feels like a match gets stretched to go an hour draw. Yeah, they went an hour but they didn't have an hour of material. Which is why I'm not hyped for the Dome show. I fully expect Shingo-Ibushi to go near forty minutes, probably longer. I liked Ibushi-White earlier in the year and Ospreay-Shingo, they had matches that justified the time. It's hard to get excited to watch though because I know I'll have to set aside an hour for one potentially drawn out match. I can't blame people for hating the time the matches are going even though I understand why they are going that length.

The last three matches from the Freedoms July 5th show were great. Rina Yamashita vs Masashi Takeda was a crazy intergender death match, this was the first I've seen of Yamashita. She gave it to Takeda as good as that crazy bastard gives out.

Can't he just kill Ziggler again?

Outside of him losing to Roman, I can't think of many Goldberg matches I'd be down for. Is he that much of a draw anymore? The McIntrye match felt like the extent of what he can offer.

I still say it should been Sanada in the role they gave Evil. It all plays out better.

Why not both? I want that option.

I like Sanada. I think his charisma is more physical, under the radar. He doesn't wrestle like everyone else and I appreciate it. I just wish I knew if Skull End is a reverse neck crank or a dragon sleeper. It looks too loose as a choke but if it's a crank it's KOing people from the pain, I guess? Ishii needs to beat Evil and then NJPW should ship him to NJPW Strong/Impact to rebuild himself or do something to retool since the roster is thinner right now. I used to love him but ever since Dominion last year his shtick blows. An excursion could maybe get him out of this rut. At least get rid of Togo.

My wife has to have surgery either this week or next. Minor procedure when all is said and done but she is nervous. It's been building to this for over a year. I'm so tired. I just want to see her well again. Neither of us is the religious type so I guess we get no solace there. I'm going through a bout of depression and trying to mask it but it's so obvious. Feel left behind. Why can't we both be happy?

NEXTREAM vs Total Eclipse for the AJPW tag titles was ok. I think the Twin Towers defense from June was better. Triple Crown: