Jiji

Can't wait.

The Nagata/Iizuka vs. Kawada/Fuchi tag from early on in the working agreement is one of my favourite matches from that decade. Each of the four establish the hierarchy in such a masterful way and it plays up the dramatics. Near wrestling perfection.

He asked the Stoichkov question! Awesome!

I love the way Archer carries himself. He's not the most technically gifted but he's usually so much fun to watch. He was gold before his injury and he's looking pretty good on his return.

New Japan and All Japan worked extensively after the NOAH exodus.

If you get the chance to see him live, I urge you to take it. He's a fucking monster. His size doesn't really strike me as anything special until I saw him live. And he's so smooth technically too. He's got anti-charisma though and while a master of the basics and simple match formula I don't know if he's capable of more at least in singles matches.

It's hard to know exactly how good Ngannou's stamina is when he finishes fights so quickly. He went two rounds with Blaydes and looked to be slowing down and was heavy on his feet near the end of the second, but that was over a year and a half ago. I would suspect that he's improving that aspect of his game over time, or at least I hope he is. Reem's been far more calculated the past few years, but as Rogan was saying on his MMA podcast... guy has been stopped a lot when you look at just his MMA record, 13 times when you add in his kickboxing career. I don't know if his chin can handle Ngannou's power. He's not Andrei Arlovski but he doesn't have much of a beard. He'll have to be incredibly cautious and pace himself without taking many risks. It's also a rarity where he's not the bigger, stronger athlete in a fight, so that's another interesting dimension. Elsalvajeloco has talked about Alvarez struggling when pressured in the past IIRC, and Gaethje is nothing but a guy who will push forward and take 2 shots to land his own combinations. Alvarez has a huge advantage in technique, but he gets suckered into brawls too often and doesn't have the mental or physical fortitude that Gaethje has. This fight has FOTY potential, easy but if it's the barn burner we're hoping for, then that favours Gaethje. Charles Oliveira is one of my favourite fighters but he's struggled against fighters like Felder, who will be desperate to move up the rankings before he becomes a gatekeeper type. Another potentially fantastic fight. Cowboy/Medeiros could be a fun scrap. I was shocked to find out that Oliveira is only 29. Guy looks 40 easy. Does anybody buy Aldo's camp when they said he was fighting through a leg injury in the last Holloway fight? It will be interesting to see how often he uses leg kicks this time around. Rogan was gushing about Teymur/Klose, saying it's a sleeper. Teymur's power is pretty scary for lightweight. Not too many guys in that division have one punch KO power but he certainly does.

As I was typing that, I thought of that as perhaps the lone exception.

The crowd wasn't hot for the pinfall finish either though IIRC. And there are ways of putting the spotlight on a submission/surrender spot that makes it pretty obvious. I've never been fond of the mic usage in I Quit marches but that could be an option.

Fair. He liked Shield/New Day a lot more than I did.

Bullet Club as a whole. But yeah, That's impressive. Whether or not you like their rasslin', their hustle game is on point. Being The Elite alone has made me a fan of Flip Gordon.

I think UFC 218 may be the most I've been excited for a UFC show this year. Loaded with potentially great fights, none more exciting than Gaethje/Alvarez. Oliveira/Felder is not far behind. I'm thinking Ngannou continues his momentum and beats Reem. God damn, what a card. I know that 217 was proclaimed event of the year already but this could give it a serious challenge if things go as they should. We also get Aljo/Moraes, Perry/Ponzinibbio, Lawler/RDA, Khabib/Barboza, and Lineker/Rivera next month too, though there are more appealing fights than just those. I appreciate UFC's strong Decembers recently.

Babymetal. It's all about Babymetal.

Big Dave had a blurb on his site saying Amell's shirt is the top seller on Pro Wrestling Tees, so he's getting that benefit at least. Guy is a freak athlete so if he ever does get to do more matches, I'd be down.

With mods, the pc experience will beat out the console version. And it's doubtful they figure out cross platform sharing so you'll be getting the best edits too.

I'm making my way through the show now and holy shit, you aren't joking. So clean, lightning quick counters and combinations, excellent footwork. Incredibly impressed. And yeah, super enthusiastic crowd! Love it.

Today's patch adds, among other things, the bionic elbow, testicular claw, Tanahashi's twist and shout, Hiromu's Time Bomb, more European uppercuts, airplane spin, Atlantida, Chaos Theory and hair pull/push downs. I see the alternate versions of the atomic drop keep the opponent up which is nice for certain priorities but what do the new face raking/thumbing to the eyes add the originals did not? After playing WWE 2K18 and just not really enjoying it and not even being able to download 100 caws without running into the logo limit, I think I'm going to stick with FPR as my main rasslin' game. It was always going to be the case but I don't think I'll be getting into 2k18 as much as I did 17. edit: the face rake/thumb to the eyes stuns opponents. So just like the new atomic drops, they'll work for chaining priority attacks.

"We just came here to say... WAHBUH!"

Fuck yeah. Should be great. I still feel like 219 is a weak (almost) NYE card, so hopefully Diaz/Woodley is added soon.

Samir doing the HBK cell bump through the table was more entertaining than anything in the Survivor Series main event.

I don't know how I haven't seen it before but Hirai Kawato (who is awesome) totally has the same eyes as Kairi Sane. Not quite cross eyed but they got an inside bias. Fuck, I need to go back and watch all the young lion shows.

He's come a long way in the ring imo. His run at the top of PWG has been fantastic and the last match with Zack Sabre Jr. is still probably my North American MOTY or at least still in the conversation. I only just finished up Power Struggle, but I'm now looking forward to checking out the tag league for the new guys and seeing Kitamura hopefully progress some.

The idea was you were locked in a cage with no escape with 5 other men you and your team were supposed to despise (this faded over time). The only way the match ends is if somebody does something so awful that you are compelled to surrender to save yourself, or better yet, a teammate. Big tough guys were forced into conceding to a blood rival. It was a sense of humiliation that a pinfall cannot capture. Both the cage and the submit/surrender aspects added to the feel of something dangerous and violent happening. This was a scramble cage match built around highspots that the production team sometimes captured and sometimes did not. It was fun but didn't have a wargames atmosphere.

You didn't like the Goldberg match at Mania?

Matches kind of under-delivered outside of Brock/AJ in my mind. Nothing awful but a couple goodish matches, outstanding match and then a bunch of dog shit.