DylanWaco

Most weeks I like the show a good bit, but man did I hate the Mundo/Cuerno cage match. A gimmick that limited the strengths of both guys, and in the case of Mundo really shined a lot on his weaknesses (absolutely awful looking strikes of all sorts). I really wanted to like it, but it was one of the more disappointing matches of the year given the hype. That said Pentagon Jr. is indeed awesome

Opener was good. Not great, but good. I would have been happy with that. Then ECIII v. Spud decided to have a legit great match. Spud is awesome. If I was TNA I'd build around him. Why not? He's sympathetic, over, works hard, can talk and has charisma. The only other guy on the roster who might be as complete a talent as him is Aries.

2 of them are in the NXT bubble

Okada v Galloway is a highly amusing Sweet 16 match up

Several false idols were destroyed today. It was a good day.

Couple of brutal match ups lining up for next round. The worst is going to be deciding whether or not to abstain in Neville v. Rollins or vote against the lesser evil.

TomK tweeted me yesterday that post-comeback Brock is a Cena creation. I think that is exaggerated, but it is hard to ignore that of his five really good or better post-comeback matches, four involved Cena.

This is one of those quietly close matches that could swing at the last second and not surprise me at all. Breeze was down by 12 at one point and is now in striking distance. The Chosen One needs to watch his back.

I understand what you are saying JR and I tried to qualify some of what I wrote about on Brock by noting that i DO think he's a unique and dynamic performer. That said I'm not entirely sure I buy the argument that ONLY Brock could work this way. I suppose it's true in the sense that only Brock has been UFC heavyweight champion, but I see no other reason why it is true. People forget that in 2011 Mark Henry was really over as a monster, to the point where he his run on top helped SD business in noticeable ways. Did he have the aura of Brock? No, but he had an aura, and he didn't have the benefit of working less than five matches a year like Brock does. I think it's entirely feasible that if he was protected as much as Brock he would have a similar sort of feel to Brock. Its impossible to proof of course, and I'm biased because I love Henry, but I don't think it's a crazy notion.

Okay, I can't see Gulak turning this around at this point, so I don't think it's a lot to ask - if you are a Dolph supporter what are your top five matches/performances from him last year? Would like to hear someone make a case for him based on a top ten, but I can live with top five.

The case for Gulak is tough to make relative to some of these other guys because the majority of his best matches are not available for free. The entire Thatcher series (Evolve, FIP, AWO) is from the voting period, and I don't think there was a single one of those matches that was less than great - but not a one of them is on youtube or dailymotion to my knowledge. He had a very good match with Busick from CZW, and I MOTY level tremendous match with Busick from CZW on 4/27. Neither is up on youtube or dailymotion to my knowledge. The really good match v. Roddy Strong of all people from FIP isn't either. Really the best look at what makes Gulak good is the Gacy match and that's a 35 minute match, from a warehouse, in front of a smattering of people. The setting there compared to say the 4/27 show couldn't be more different, and I can see some people not even bothering because of that. But it's worth noting that you could make a case that that match is the fifth best Gulak match of the time period. And that's a match that people really seem to have liked. I mean, I enjoyed his carry job of Ricochet (which is on Youtube) and the match teaming with Busick against the Bucks from Smash (which might be on Youtube), but I'm not sure anyone is going to watch those matches and take him over Dolph. Dolph is a perfectly fine wrestler, but I don't think he's even in Gulak's universe to be honest. If people want to see him in a "different" light they may want to try that match v. Ricochet from House of Glory. It's a really solid Superstars-ish match that shows some range from Gulak. All that said I would still like to hear something of a case for Dolph.

You're talking about a company who can't book monster heels for more than a month at a time. Seriously, how long into a Big Show or Mark Henry push before they start running away from John Cena? This company doesn't know shit about strong heels. That's all thrown out the window with Brock because he is Brock. A force of nature, special attraction whatever you want to call it. If it was someone else they would have already fucked it up. That's a point for Brock in my mind. The best booked guy in the company last year - even better than Brock really - was Rusev.

I wanted to address the point I made earlier about Honma and "transcendence." With Brock there is no question he's presented as a MUCH bigger star than Honma. When he's around it does feel like an event and not all of that is the booking. Brock is a legit great worker, with a unique physical charisma that few people in wrestling history have had. But, a lot of it is the booking. 5No one else got to end the streak. No one else has Heyman as a mouthpiece. No one else gets to squash John Cena. No one else gets to treat the F5 like an armdrag. No one else gets to work three or four matches in an entire year, while also holding the promotions top title for months. So Brock is transcendent in some sense. Part of it is him and part of it is booking. But my question is what is the result of all of this? The easy answer is that Brock matches and appearances feel like big events, which combined with his natural physical charisma makes him the biggest - or at least most exciting for a lack of a better term - star in wrestling. I would not necessarily deny that, but for me at least what Brock's "transcendence" (and I"m not sure that's event he right word but it was invoked earlier so I'm going with it) also means is that the rest of the card looks like shit by comparison. This is not really Brock's fault. He can't help the way others are worked. And I can't fault a guy that got himself a very favorable contract where an "appearance" can consist of occupying space while your mouthpiece talks. But the reality is that from my perspective absolutely no one other than maybe Seth Rollins (and I think that's a big maybe) has benefited from the "transcendence" of Brock Lesnar. He is not a huge draw. He rarely does physical altercations when he's around. He has almost no interaction with anyone on the roster directly. His stardom is basically self contained and does not benefit anyone other than himself and Heyman. That's good for him, and does help his matches in a way, but I think it hurts the product as a whole. Honma by contrast is basically a jobber as mentioned before. He never wins. Ever. There is really no reason for anyone to ever be invested in him given how he has been booked. Accept for one thing - he is a brilliant worker. In fact I would say he is a "transcendent" worker in the sense that he transcends his role as a jobber to the point where he feels like a legit star, works like a legit star, gets over in defeat, and helps others feel like bigger deals in victory even though there is literally no reason to believe they are in danger against Honma from a purely logical perspective. Honma "transcends" jobberdom in a way that I'm not sure any wrestler in the history of wrestling ever has. Again this is a guy who did not win a single match in the G1 - and yet he was very likely the best guy in the tournament. When Makabe got hurt they threw Honma into the Never Title match Ishii and no one questioned it - in fact they went nuts for it - because even though there is no reason to believe in Honma beyond his work, people believe because of his work. When Ibushi needed a big win on a major show after losing to Nak at the Dome the could have fed him a ton of different guys with stronger kayfabe resumes - Shibata, Goto, Naito, Anderson, Kojima, Nagata, et - but they gave him Honma because even as a fucking jobber a win over Honma means something and the match is going to be great. Brock has an aura about him. It's very possible he's the most over wrestler in the WWE. But he's presented in such a way where that shouldn't be a surprise at all, especially when you factor in how good he is. Honma is very possibly the most over guy in NJPW. And he's a guy who's probably won fewer singles match in the last several years than Zack Ryder. Brock may have "transcended" the standard notion of what a very good wrestler is, but what Honma has done is almost unfathomable. There is transcendence and then there is transcendence.

Fin, Balor.

I'll explain this later, but I actually think Honma is the most "transcendent" wrestler in the world at least in the sense I think you are using that term JR.

Voted for Harper. I hate it and it pisses me off because I would have voted Casas over all but a few people in this whole thing. What killed him is those periods every year where CMLL just doesn't seem to do anything with him. Honestly if CMLL allowed Casas to work C-show matches against random undercard acts I'd have probably voted for him.

I think this is what really stands out to me. Even IF I was lower on Cavernario, I'd have to be REALLY low on him to take Owens over him. Owens has in fact been great in NXT, but it's been what, a fifth of the relevant voting period? Prior to that he did have a great match with Mike Bailey in C*4, and that Nakamura match from ROH which I didn't love but was over huge with the live crowd. He had become really stale in ROH as a whole though, and I don't remember anyone talking about him having a great year prior to his signing. I think some people might argue "well yeah, but Owens has had his career moments in this period and they are really tremendous moments," to wish I would argue "so has Cavernario...and he's 21 years old." The En Busca de un Idolo run and winning the tournament, taking Cometa's hair on the biggest show of the year, getting a main event title shot against Titan and delivering, et. Cavernario had some pretty big time career highs, on top of having way more volume than Owens. during the period.

I would say that the only possible reason to vote Brock over Honma is that Brock has been presented as a guy who is unbeatable. So basically if you are voting as if this was a real match, I could see you voting for Brock. Other than that? Well you'd have to show your work to convince me it's even close. Honma - as a job guy who wasn't even supposed to be in the tournament - was at WORST the co-MVP of last years G1 which was universally praised (I'd argue that he and Styles were the best guys in the tourney). And he did that without winning a single match in the tournament. Honma is a guy who works throw away tag matches on house shows when everyone else is mailing it in and ALWAYS works hard and always gets over. Brock works a three matches a year. Honma is a guy booked as a jobber, who is as over as anyone on the New Japan roster, and managed to maintain his value AND make others look better when they beat him despite the fact that he never, ever wins. Brock is the most protected guy in the WWE, never shows up to t.v. to make you feel like he's vulnerable or even a part of the show in a meaningful way, and as such it's hard to suspend disbelief and imagine that anyone can beat him, hurting the entire active roster in the process. Honma has two of the best singles matches so far this year. Brock has one, despite being his promotions champion. Honma is a better worker than Brock, more consistent than Brock, has a higher volume of good matches, is believable and delivers against a much wider range of opponents, has a better character despite it being a character that arguably shouldn't work at all whereas Brock has a massive booking advantage on paper, and is arguably even more charismatic than Brock. Also from a kayfabe perspective the biggest underdog in wrestling getting the big shock win over Brock feels like the biggest possible payoff to the Honma story.

This is actually closer than I would like to admit. I dig the Breeze character, and he always works hard. If anything he feels like he is better than he should be. Galloway on the other hand feels like he is worse than he should be in some ways. Having said that he had some underrated matches in Evolve last year, the ICW return angle, and the WELC performance. If Breeze had one or two high end matches I might have voted for him, but I have give it to Drew based on what is out there.

The WWE has done everything in their power to strip away the elements of Ambrose's character that were unique and exciting, and I think his work has suffered for this too (to say nothing of his promos). That said, he's not a change channel guy for me, and he had plenty of matches/performances in the time period I loved, so Balor has no chance with me. Honestly there are a whole lot of people both in and out of this tournament I'd vote over Balor, but I did want to note the sad decline of Ambrose.

Dolph will win. I voted Gulak, and would vote him over most people in this tournament. I could explain why, but I am more interested in why Dolph is regarded so highly by many people. I would ever call him bad, and lord knows he's stayed more over than his push, but even in what felt like a down year for the WWE I don't think he was a top ten guy in that promotion.

I might abstain here. Based on what little I've seen I can't honestly say I thought Mastiff was better, but Rollins is the first guy in years in the WWE where for a several month long period if he was holding a microphone I would literally change the channel.

No

Voted Suzuki, not sure I can justify it.

Cool to see some really close match ups this round. I doubt Cesaro could catch back up with Neville (though he's only eight down at this point), but I could see Suzuki/Ibushi and Okada/Ultimo going either way by tomorrow morning.