Jiji

A keeper! A keeper! My kingdom for a keeper!

He absolutely does, though to be fair to him he's a way better heel promo than baby. Him shitting on Taylor at All Star Weekend was really great. One of the most exciting wrestlers who's still figuring out certain elements of the character work needed to succeed in WWE and to be an all time great. He's a frustrating guy to watch at times, because he's capable of some of the best matches out there but so often falls into a meaningless parade of spots. He's at his worst working babyface in a place without agents and paired up against another flippy dude. When he's got somebody helping out on match structure like in Lucha Underground, he is capable of magic. Even PWG Ricochet ranges from eye roll inducing to fantastic. Said match against Chuck was another North American MOTYC imo. This was after a BOLA performance I didn't really rate all that highly. While I think the WWE style and system has become increasingly formulaic to a comedic degree these days, he could end up really being helped by it in a lot of ways.

Is EC3 going to be able to piss clean for WWE? Guy is built like a Greek god, but that's absolutely the right place for him so I hope so for his sake. He could be a big deal there after wasting his talents in TNA for the past however many years. Why'd they let him go in the first place again? Speaking of questionable urine content, I'm so glad Cage is finally getting something other than the 1 month of Lucha Underground work every (maybe?) year. Guy is great and I'll be reading results to see what Callis and company have planned for him. I hope this bunch can finally get this shit show moving in the right direction. I know it hasn't been nearly as bad as it used to be this past year or so but still...

From Meltzer's notes on the tapings.

Doering vs. Zeus was a great mean guy match. You know it's going to be good when it starts with the two big boys charging each other and Doering shouting "come on motherfucker, show me power!" Joe bullying around the smaller Zeus then Zeus getting power hope spots with some really amazing suplexes on the relatively giant Doering made for a fun match. Fucking guy got Doering up for a press slam and some legit deadlift vertical suplexes. I haven't seen much of Zeus, so I'm going to guess that he went out of his comfort zone on the dive and top rope maneuvers against the big man, right? Anyway, super fun match well worth your time. P.S. When did Kyohei Wada turn into only a slightly less annoying Red Shoes? Guy literally dragged Zeus onto Doering after the Jackhammer. He was without rival in the '90s and now this. I know he started doing the delayed third count ages ago, which pisses me off to no end (takes the art of the kickout away and is just absurd for kayfabe reasons), but now he's getting way too involved in matches. Add to that, he was the official for the Act Yasukawa/Yoshiko disaster.

You guys listen to Woodley on Rogan's podcast? Guy is insecure about his legacy and how people view him in the MMA hierarchy. I found it fascinating that he was completely upfront about it too. Rogan said he's crazy for thinking guys like Condit get more respect than him. I think because people love a blood and guts fighter and Woodley is far more calculated, he may have a point. The average hardcore fan probably doesn't really give a shit about him compared to Condit/Lawler because he's not an action fighter.

I have done rando Vince gif searches on numerous occasions and each time it is a fully rewarding experience. Don't like the man, don't like his idea of russling, but what a fucking character.

I've never been super high on jacked up Mysterio beyond the obvious matches, so my bias is clear, but I thought that match was really by the numbers and was bemused by the high praise it got.

Damn, the elbow as an apron grapple would be so neat. I wonder if we get much more in the way of patched moves in the next few months, as I imagine/hope they will add a good deal of specific moves for New Japan wrestlers.

I am disappointed Big John is going over to Bellator to replace Smith. He won't be officiating UFC events anymore which is the big bummer, but he'll continue to referee in a limited capacity elsewhere.

The brass knux and Cactus piledriver are things of beauty. Not sure what's up with a slightly different emerald flowsion or the numerous falcon arrows but those two aforementioned moves are perfect.

Trent Barreta has a new shirt celebrating his graduation to the heavyweight division in NJPW.

If you can navigate between all the fictional creations, there are some real gem edits on Arena. I think the general vibe of the board is pretty good but they can sometimes have their heads up their collective asses.

COLONEL KLINK!

Will pick it up on switch and finally beat it.

I watched Yoshitatsu/Miyahara vs. Suwama/Ishikawa from the RWTL last night and it was really fun. They smartly worked the dynamic of the vulnerable Yoshitatsu and the ace Miayahara and the crowd, while initialliy pretty dead for the extended heat on Yoshitatsu, really started to buy in after about the 8-10 minute mark of the big boys beating the crap out of Yoshitatsu. It's great to see All Japan doing some very good attendances at Korakuen these days. I hope this is only the beginning of a longer resurgence for them.

Jericho is very delusional and it's helped him throughout his career but it makes him look downright foolish at times (see "originating" the springboard -> counter RKO spot).

Not a tonne of new information in the Twitch stream tonight. Big thing is management mode drops either at the end of January or early February and they'll do another Twitch stream before its release going over details then. Didn't give a price. In tomorrow's update: ' Fuck yeah, Funk/Cactus piledriver. Fuck yeah, non-pinning powerslam. Could "Corkscrew Cannonball Senton" be the spiral tap? Fuck yeah, brass knux. Sad news: the story mode will have real wrestler photos instead of the beautiful FPG illustrations.

Don't do this to me.

Better yet get rid. The six-man titles are a joke. I like the idea of six-man tag team titles in a company where there are so many factions and 6/8-man tags, but it's the hottest of hot potatoes and the title carries no weight because of that. When you've already got a secondary singles title (and now Kenny's elevated the US title above the NEVER...) and a junior title, I don't see the point of the NEVER singles title. It has little-to-no prestige regardless of who holds it and I don't see that changing.

My guess is because he's winning the NJ Cup finally and we get a kick ass all-Chaos title match and they're wanting to make it seem like he came out of nowhere for it. That's my hope, anyway.

Okay, so El P vs. Dunne was pretty great. Dunne didn't think Phantasmo deserved to be in there with him for the first half of the match, completely dominated him. I thoroughly enjoyed the match structure, because it wasn't your standard 50/50 or 60/40 in favour of the guy doing the job. Good stuff. Phantasmo looked a little nervous at the start, which surprised me, because he's pretty cocky here in Vancouver and has worked guys like Brian Cage at biggish shows. He eventually settled in though. One of his better matches I've seen but not as good as the Cage or KOR Commodore matches.

It's already up on rev pro's pivot share site.

Things I want to see in 2018: 1) Khabib vs. whomever for the title in a huge Russian venue 2) UFC run more stadium shows