bodyslamdunk

This is a photo I never dreamed I’d see and never knew I needed in my life until now.

I worded this very poorly—meant to say I selfishly WANTED him to be back, and thought he wouldn’t because he was doing well at something else. The promo wasn’t good. It was like a dozen TNA promos we’ve heard from guys debuting over the years. And him being in the ring with Kip Sabian hugging him, instead of beating his ass, was pretty lame. But I’m happy to forget it ever happened next week if they’ve got something good lined up for him.

True, it’s possible those numbers are inflated. But I guess my point was he seemed like he had something good going and I selfishly thought he wouldn’t be back in the ring. Although debuting him in a segment where he puts over Kip Sabian? Y I K E S.

He has about 5,000 subscribers. After Twitch’s cut, that’s good for $12.5k per month, not counting ads, donations, or sponsorship. Define “tearing it up.”

Very excited for Miro. Someone in another topic mentioned that they don’t think he’s making bank on Twitch, which is absolutely not true. He def doesn’t NEED wrestling money, so I was nervous we wouldn’t see him again, at least not for a long time. Mox / Archer does nothing for me at the moment. AEW, unlike WWE, actually acknowledges the history of the roster in other promotions (which I love). Mox beat Archer in the Tokyo Dome eight months ago. In that time, Mox has grown and improved, where Archer has almost regressed (definitely not coming across as strongly as he was in the G1). I know, different companies, but if you follow the character arcs this should be an eeeeasy win for Mox. I also think Jake is taking away from Archer at this point, rather than adding anything. Archer should be doing what we’ve been wanting from Roman Reigns forever—forget the long promos, just show up and absolutely demolish people. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that they’ll take it in an interesting direction. They’ve got over a month to build. That Matt Hardy promo, woof. I get they wanted the company to save face, but having his wife out there, when she’s been ridiculously critical of how everything’s been handled, came across incredibly phony to me.

Japan has only just started allowing foreigners with Japanese residence back into the country this week, as mentioned in another topic. I imagine almost none of the non-Japanese roster members have Japanese residence, if I recall most of them live in the US. If that’s the case, it’s not a matter of 2-week quarantine—they won’t be admitted into the country, period. Unless Kenta has become a US citizen, he would be available, and would only need to quarantine upon arrival for 3 days. But they haven’t brought him over yet, and he just won the tournament in US, so it seems like they want him on those shows going forward. They can either scale it back or find randos to fill the slots, either way we’re still in for some bangers just like every year.

Japan is still so isolated in many ways. It’s highly unlikely a Japanese NJPW fan would know about this, or care the least bit if they did know. What happens in gaikoku stays in gaikoku, basically.

Probably, but they run something like 40 shows a year in Korakuen Hall, which I imagine is hella expensive as well. Maybe enough events to make it worth owning vs renting.

A page late, but I’m all about AEW bringing back ROH managers. And now I can’t stop imagining Julius Smokes shouting at Penta to TRANSFORM, or Prince Nana asking Darby Allin what he knows about shrimp cocktail.

Surprised to see so much love for the tag chamber. Yeah there were some cool “momentz” but there were several points where guys looked completely at a loss, one in particular where Otis literally got into the ring, then back out, then back in again. The production didn’t help showing this in a closeup, but I guess they couldn’t go to wide because they didn’t want to show Lince climbing the chamber. Dumb. Also, Tom Phillips doubling down on the played out “[X] loves to have fun with the WWE Universe!” re: Montez Ford, after Lawler rightfully calling him out on it, was fucking hilarious. Lawler is rough to listen to on commentary but he shut that down hard saying something along the lines of “No, it’s about retaining your championship” and Tom laughed him off like “ok, boomer.” I’d pay cash money to hear a Jesse the Body absolutely bury this line on live commentary.

Ehh—these are valid points, but honestly, living in Tokyo, it has more to do with 6:30 start on a weeknight being a very difficult sell. The last set of shows at Korakuen were during the week and had so many empty seats. Japanese people in general have a hard time getting off work that early. Worth noting from the Tiger Hattori retirement show—WWE sent a traditional retirement bouquet (with Nakamura listed on the card), which was on display just outside the elevators next to the ones from AJPW and NOAH. As much as Vince seemingly likes to distance himself and his company from pro wrestling, WWE does uphold certain traditions. They ALWAYS send flowers to these events, at least to all the ones I’ve been to.

I really didn’t care about Joe Coffey as a character before watching this, but damn this was a great special. They let everyone show their personality. These pieces are on such a different level than the “main roster” stuff. It’s really such a waste. It also reminded me that Grizzled Young Veterans are low key maybe the best tag team in wrestling at the moment.

This occurred to me on my way home from the show. First time he hasn’t appeared on 1.4 since 2003. Also realized LiJ could all be champs for the roll call. Although I’ve probably just jinxed it by typing it.

Anybody checked out the backstage comments from the last three “Road to” shows at Korakuen? Don’t know if I’m alone in this but I took Ibushi’s comments as all but promising a heel turn. As others have said, I don’t see him winning on 1.4 as I can’t imagine Okada not in the main event on both nights. I’m not sure I can see Gedo following through with a turn as Ibushi is a perpetually loved babyface, but the story is there if they want it. They are in desperate need of a big faction shakeup (not to mention a hot angle for 1.6), and seeing Ibushi’s dark side when he’s pushed too far in the ring and snaps, I have no doubt he could brilliantly pull off a dickhead heel character. I’m not sure where ticket sales are for the dome shows, but last I heard 1.4 is doing much better. If that’s the case, I’m perplexed that Okada would cut a promo basically saying 1.4 is more important and 1.5 is whatever. I get that the storyline is he doesn’t care about the IC title (which is a problem in itself—if he doesn’t, why should we?). But you’re not exactly talking people into the building there, champ. If there’s one big flaw with Okada, I think he’s actually gotten worse with promos over the course of his run. Last thought on promos—is anybody in wrestling even remotely close to Jay White’s level right now? Even Cody, who’s been crushing it, to me doesn’t come off as natural and real.

Not sure if this is kosher, but please delete if not. I have 2 good seats to AEW’s first TV this week, but travel plans have changed and I can’t use them. Have tried to sell them on Stubhub and Ticketmaster, cheaper than I bought them, but no luck. If you’re interested, PM me. This is a “pay what you want” situation at this point, otherwise they’ll just go to waste.

Was it ever clear why Alexa was out of the ring for some time? I seem to remember a report (Meltzer?) about her being injured, which she vehemently denied? Then she wasn’t working matches, had the talk show thing, and got put in this tag team. She’s looked fine in the ring, although noticeably smaller than she was previously, which leads me to believe she wasn’t able to work out for a while. Anyway, I’m enjoying both the story and matches she and Nikki have been having, and interested to see where it goes, which is more than I can say about most of the product.

Yep. Doesn’t help that she usually looks like she’s about to laugh while cutting a promo. Or that the script about her actually dead father was full of clichés. In fairness to Nattie, I can’t think of anyone who’s evoked even a hint of sympathy delivering a WWE written promo in years. Hell, I’m struggling to come up with a recent sympathetic in-ring performance from the main roster, from the company that “makes movies.”

Maybe Kelly put the work in to improve his knowledge of the product, but his delivery is so, so bush league. The last few shows have been particularly embarrassing, as he’s been wrong on who’s eliminated and who isn’t. It’s great that NJPW has the English commentary, but the fact that there’s apparently zero QC on it is maddening.

When Raw went to commercial after Alexa/Bailey ended, Bayley immediately stopped selling and walked to the back like nothing happened. Yeah, it’s a TV show, but good grief, really? As for anyone who trashes their own company on social media (not only Sasha), I won’t shed a tear for what follows. Can any of you get away with something like that? I wouldn’t even bother showing up to work the next day. They’d have already cleaned out my desk for me. The booboo face is a whole other level. You gotta stick up for yourself, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it. Sabotaging your colleagues is the wrong way.

It actually was, but during the show. We noticed the helicopter above the stadium earlier in the night, it hovered around for several minutes before landing outside the building. Don’t remember what match it was during, but at the time we assumed they were just grabbing some overhead shots of the crowd.

I’m very happy Becky won, and I don’t think they’ve done anything to take away from her moment (yet—we’ll see how tonight plays out). But there are interesting conversations to be had. I sort of get why one wouldn’t want Rousey tapping out, but that line of thinking is bizarre to me. It fits with the recent Twitter garbage where she’s going on about how “this shit is fake” or whatever. Even 25 years ago, I absolutely loathed stuff like Dean Malenko being called “The Shooter.” If he’s a “shooter,” what is this guy over here, a “faker?” Dumb. Even if you’re ok with all this, making it a three way protects Rousey, because there’s no MMA equivalent to a triple threat. In addition, it’s ostensibly no DQ, so it should be VERY easy for the agents to come up with a submission finish that would satisfy Rousey or Heyman or whomever it is who insists on protecting their “real” fighters. All that said, Seth Rollins absolutely STEAMROLLED Brock fucking Lesnar on the same card, with Heyman at ringside! Was that somehow not believable?

I don’t understand how Johnny Gargano exists in WWE. The main event was peak more is more style, which, no matter how you slice it (or whether you even care for it or not), is incompatible with “slow down and tell a story,” “make everything count,” etc. that you always hear from people who supposedly know better (and are allegedly putting these matches together). Are these people just full of shit or what? Also, I get that Vince is hands off with NXT, and these are “separate universes,” but why does it have to be one extreme or the other? Dudes kicking out of springboard Canadian destroyers or whatever on one show, while guys are losing to rollups in 2 minutes on the other. 1 show full of top tier superstars, and 1 full of inept geeks. Can’t we just find a happy medium? A separate issue—I feel like I must be crazy, but I don’t accept Johnny as a baby face after the way everything has played out. Am I crazy? Did I miss something? Just because he got the drop on Ciampa when he tried to turn on him again? Or because of his injury/surgery? Are we supposed to just forget about Johnny being a dickhead for 6 months? He never apologized or actually turned or anything. I don’t get it at all.

Preshow: 6 woman tag was pretty good and the few people who were there at 6:15 were into it. Rumble was fine for what it was. Muta was a big surprise. People really wanted a Liger win. I imagine commentary didn’t catch it, but we saw Kenny sneak under the ring so we knew where that was going. Opener was very hot and one of the better matches of the night. People were shocked (and not thrilled) about the fast Rush win, but the last time I saw Castle he could barely move, so I guess it makes sense. Women’s match was a bit of a mess and was not well received live. The Bully Ray thing started off hot, people popped for Flip, but I think a lot of people don’t know Lifeblood as a group because when the graphic and music first kicked in, everyone was screaming for Taz(!). The whole thing was dreadful, the people played along but it felt like this long plodding nothing. Juniors were great and got the crowd back immediately. 4-way was decent, some fun spots but a lot of standing around waiting on the outside which can be hidden on TV but looks so phony live. Enzo-Cass thing seemed real for about 30 seconds, but when it dragged on and security didn’t get involved, it was clear live that it was a work. People did go nuts for it, though (ugh). I maintain my strong dislike of ZSJ. That aside, the crowd was really not that into this match at all. Big pop for the entrances and TAKA intro, but the match itself received polite applause that came off as “we’re supposed to like these guys, so we’ll clap for them, but this isn’t anything special.” Naito-Ibushi was great, but there were 3-4 sloppy miscues. I wonder if there was an early concussion or something. Very uncharacteristic. Ladder match was the spectacle you’d expect. I’d say people were most into Marty to win, but Taven really won the people (including me) over with his hard work and crazy bumping. Other than that sick bump by Lethal at the end, I think Taven took the most here. When the big purple ladder came out, we definitely got the sense Taven was winning it. Main was great. Jay got a great heel reaction, and Okada might have gotten the loudest pop (close call between him and Naito). I really like how these 2 match up, and would like to see more from them down the line. Short promo in English by Okada after (not sure if this aired). About 5:45 (including preshow), definitely too long. I don’t think any matches needed to be trimmed, but the women’s title and street fight back to back felt like an hour.

I got into town from Japan last night and saw random folks all the way from JFK to my Airbnb in Newark (Jamaica Station, Penn Station, on the trains...) wearing NJPW merch, crazy. I see Los Ingos stuff all the time around Tokyo, but it’s wild seeing it in NYC. On another note, a friend in my group going to this show has boned us at the last minute, leaving me stuck for a ticket. If anyone needs a single, feel free to PM me. (If I’m breaking any rules mentioning this here, please let me know and I’ll take this paragraph out right away.)

Bundy is a tough one for me. One of his brothers taught P.E. in my elementary school district. He was a big guy (not as heavy as Bundy), big voice, big personality. I was in kindergarten when WrestleMania 2 happened, and don’t remember quite that far back. But I do remember that for the rest of my time up through 6th grade, he never let go of Hulk Hogan beating his brother in the cage. Anytime someone tried to talk wrestling in gym class, he’d launch into a promo, trashing Hulkamania and shilling for Bundy. It’s one of my favorite memories from that school. I teach elementary school now, and often cut heel promos on my kids when they mention John Cena at recess. They love it.