Jiji

Teenage, babyfaced Haku with Baba and company! Spoilered for size:

He'd run a car dealership out of Sweetwater.

I so want that poster in JJ's house, with the Horsemen in suits toasting behind two bloodied jabronies and a busted table. So sweet.

He'll play the '14-'15 as Jersey's number one. He could/likely will outplay Marty for the starter's job this year and get the lion's share of games as well. If he gets injured again, then yeah, there may be some warranted criticism directed his way for being a lightweight.

You're welcome. Hope you like it. That was really good. Okada was a bit awkward at times during his controlling the first 10 or so minutes but Naito sold well and the leg work was interesting. Nice finishing stretch too. I was impressed by Naito. Thanks again for the recommendation.

Only having your daughter or sister get romantically involved with one ranks higher on that list.

Even if the ownership problems and Kovalchuk situation didn't happen, it would still suck for him to sit on the bench in favour of old man Marty. He's only there for two years and then he can sign for stupid money as a 29-year-old free agent.

Thanks, will check it out.

Here, but be warned... it's shite. http://youtu.be/z1SXZcFaVWM I agree with everything you say outside of the Naito love. He's better than Ibushi and the other run-of-the-mill modern Japanese dudes but he's still pretty weak psychology-wise. Yet, his match with Ibushi was surprisingly pretty decent and you could really tell he was carrying the load on that one. I don't think it's just his Robert Gibson eyes, but I can't really get behind him. Hoping either Shibata or Ishii make it out of Block A. What are some highly touted Naito matches from outside the G1 worth checking out?

It must be sweet being a North American sports owner. Show up when the times are good and when the team starts to lose money, disappear.

From New Japan's first promotional pamphlets in '72. LITTLE HAMADA. Edit: This is from '81 or '83. Look at babyface Yamazaki with his hot babe posters.

Agreed. Big let off after three solid and one fantastic show to start the tournament.

It's almost like having a billion promotions isn't a good idea.

"How big is Batista's dick" is a Youshoot staple.

DDoS attack; they had it up again last night and this morning but it kept going down, so they've taken the servers down temporarily. Don't know when it'll be back up. PWT isn't nearly as fast with updates but it's been uploading G1 stuff.

I remember him standing out in that 60 minute IWGP tag title match from '02 with Nakanishi against TenChono. Speaking of which, is that match online anywhere? I have it on tape but God knows where that is at the moment. It wasn't perfect and 60 minutes was too long for Tenzan and Nakanishi but it was a nice, ambitious effort. But, yeah, Nishimura was great back in the day.

Ibushi comes off as a super generic modern Japanese wrestler, right down to the shitty trunks, shinguard boots even though he doesn't do a tonne of kicks, and lame haircut. His athleticism is off the charts but that's the only thing that stands out to me. Nakamura's always been a disappoint in my eyes but watching a handful of his matches from this year, he's progressed quite a bit from when I last regularly watched ('07-'08) when they were still were forcing him down everyone's collective throat. He's got some really weird mannerisms, but weird in a good way. Their match from day 4 was good, but nowhere near the level of either Ishii instaclassics. I'm also not getting the love for Naito. Comes off much like Ibushi though his match with Suzuki from day 4 improved my opinion of him, but that was like 90% Minoru's doing. What matches of his should I check out to get a better appreciation of him? Natural, check out all of day 4 if you have time. Great top to bottom card with the only thing falling flat being Shelton/Nagata but even that was decent enough. Kojima/Tanahashi from day 1 was good as well.

I'm having G1 withdrawals. Yesterday's show was so good. Tomorrow's (today's?) card doesn't look great on paper, but that hasn't meant much up to this point. I'm very excited for Shibata vs. Goto in Sumo Hall in the penultimate show. Ishii's got a run of Kojima, Davey Boy, Okada, Makabe (YES, FUCK YES - violence!), and Goto. Those could all be great.

Togi Makabe's dragon suplex is the finest dragon suplex around.

For real though. People would definitely tune in to watch 15 minute Diva matches.

Hokuto's run in particular sits well among the best stretches of work by anybody in a single year. Second half of 1985, all of 1986 and 1992 for All Japan may not get the attention '93-'95 get but are great in their own right. '85-'86 had Choshu's Ishingun help evolve the style of All Japan from the more old-school, plodding wrestling (nothing wrong with that but All Japan was really struggling prior to Choshu's invasion) to a higher tempo with greater chaos. Jumbo pre and post-Choshu were pretty darn different and Riki influenced him for the better. Wajima drags down 1986 though. Fuck him. '92 has the tail-end of that wonderful Jumbo vs. Misawa feud and the beginnings of Misawa vs. Kawada. Triple Crown champ Stan Hansen also beats the fuck out of a bunch of Japanese dudes so well, like only he can. Love, love, love his match against Kawada from that year to bits. Add the love for classic Gabe ROH, WCW '96 up to the shitty booking of Sting-Hogan '97, and '83 WCCW (though I need to see more). Bill Watts' 1992 run in WCW was also awesome.

With Hash it's hard to tell... He was pretty grumpy in the first '94 meeting and was really, really laying in the kicks.

Ishii/Shibata is like Choshu/Maeda in the year 2013 and it's glorious. Completely different style of match from the Tanahashi beauty a couple of days ago and almost as good. I adore both of these guys. Ishii spitting all over the place while in the sleeper was a great touch. Haven't seen much of Ishii since his humble beginnings in Riki Pro and early New Japan days but he's been a fucking superstar during this tournament.

That was the rematch.