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Cyanide

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Everything posted by Cyanide

  1. Agreed on 15 minutes being more or less the sweet spot. I've been thinking about this for years, and of course it's all relative to what anyone watches and what's formed their expectations for a match over time, but anything stretching past 20 really starts to test my attention span, and begins feeling more like an exercise in just getting to an arbitrary time spot rather than an organic development of the bout--unless people are really clicking with one another, or there's a compelling narrative reason for stretching things out. This has really been a thing for me in NJPW over the last few years, as the big bouts have stretched closer to King's Road lengths rather than the traditional strong style sub-20 minute matchtimes. It has definitely made me appreciate the G1 a lot more, given the hard 30 minute time limit on block match-ups, with most seeming to hew closer to 18-22 minutes.
  2. I'm sure someone can speak more authoritatively to the specific dynamics at play, but my view is Kobashi is essentially the Superman of wrestling in this period, and nobody wants to see the hero actively fight against an official to try and continue to brain a defenseless opponent, even if its a villain on the scale of Takayama. He had gone well past losing his cool, and Akiyama was trying to bring him back down to earth--more so in looking out for his partner's own sense of honor than expressing any immediate concern for the outcome of the match, I'd think.
  3. I'm in the middle of one of my manic periods where I binge a bunch of shit and then go into wrestling hibernation for six months, but I just watched this for the first time and it's perfect and beautiful and I love it and I had to talk about it somewhere: Takayama is the baddest man alive (natch). Kobashi goes psycho. Omori is a fucking goon. Akiyama starts off a house of fire and then plays FIP because somebody has to. It's 15 minutes of four guys beating the shit out of each other (Takayama puts on two holds lasting maybe a combined 10 seconds) and that's the Platonic ideal of a match for me right now.
  4. Pure fantasy booking, but coming off the two big Ls I can totally see another disappointment or misstep leading to a (at least pseudo-)turn on Tanahashi and an extended run in that disassociated state. Speaking of Ibushi/White, I still get chills thinking of the former hauling off on the latter in the G1 finale. Brutal, brutal stuff.
  5. I haven't seen Nakajima in a minute but he's looking tremendously scummy and I'm here for it.
  6. You absolute fools. Clearly this is the culmination of a half-decade campaign to secure the financial backing and political buy-in for the relaunch of Party Marty 2020.
  7. After the NEVER division tag at NYD (a reddit comment to the effect of "four unrestrained refrigerators in the back of a moving truck" has stuck with me), Shingo vs LA Dojo TrimSpa Goto is maybe my most anticipated match of this tour. Also, I am both excited and terrified at the prospect of Hiromu and Lee making a point to ball the fuck out in their reunion bout. Take the over on cervical compression! Sidebar: my parents shipped down to Florida early last year, and being that they're an hour and change outside of Tampa, I was thinking of rolling a first visit into that New Beginning USA show... but boy is that a card I'd be hard-pressed to watch for free.
  8. Late to the party, but after working my way back into NJPW a little over the second half of 2019, Naito Two-Belts and Hiromu coming all the way back and taking gold has me bought way the fuck back in right now. I dug a lot of stuff over the two days, with Ibushi/Okada maybe taking the cake, but special s/o to the emotional crescendo of Naito/Okada. Also: Okada is probably the best big match wrestler and purest "top guy" in the business right now, and he's out here taking avalanche poisoned ranas on his fucking dome (...at the Dome! ?). Insane.
  9. Outside of the SCU/Elite six man title bout, the lineup for next week's UMBC show is brutal. Particularly with no Jeff Cobb (at least currently announced) on the card, it really shows a product hard up for new and exciting talent and development beyond running through retreads and relying on the novelty of foreign talent (when available).
  10. Boy is that the most vanilla design possible for the Pirate Princess.
  11. Bullet points from last night: Darby Allin is the fucking truth and maybe a top 10 guy on the planet I'd pay money to see. Banger with Anthony Henry, but I'd watch him work a broomstick these days. Surprisingly, Drake/Bravado also topped my favorite matches of the night. Equal parts character work and physicality, played to a T. Dream was predictably amazing, especially working full-on babyface with Theory. Very good match that wouldn't be out of place in NXT, which Dream played up in his post-match promo. Came off as a super sweet and appreciative guy for all the success he's had so early in his career.
  12. Updated Joppa card now: Janela/Fox is a big improvement to me (as opposed to vs Theory and vs Dickinson, respectively), Dream of course, and Allin/Henry should be dope. Think they got me back in now.
  13. Huh! Clearly Gabe and Paul are listening to me... But that is a much more interesting show now. Curious/kinda confused on who gets a match with Janela in Joppa now, if they are pulling Theory out of the WWN title shot to match up with Dream.
  14. Poking around the Events page, it looks like the SD crew just has Eastern Canada dates on their Saturday 8/25 to Tuesday 8/28 run, and then Ohio and Michigan shows from 9/1 to 9/4. So Raw (and Roman, and Ronda) still enjoying the flagship "perks" at the moment...
  15. H/t to Cageside: this upcoming Raw travel leg sounds like it should be illegal.
  16. I'm not really into the endless BC shield variants, but I am a sucker for this:
  17. Both were good matches with results that made me happy, but I thought Kairi/Baszler was significantly better overall than Ricochet/Cole.
  18. Ricochet and Pete Dunne is the Odd Couple tag team I never realized I needed in my life until now.
  19. Fred Yehi and WWN cut ties earlier this year because ???? I think after they were touting him as "MVP of 2017" too.
  20. And yeah--on one hand I don't want to come down on them too hard because they've had a lot of turnover and seem to be resetting a lot of story with the last few shows. But on the other... it's a premium indie ticket price for what really isn't a premium indie card right now. I'd think if anything they could lean a little harder on the NXT relationship and spring someone from the Florida loop for the weekend or something for situations like this. It has me thinking I'd be better off trying to make it to NOVA Pro on Friday for an at least as fun (if not more) card for almost half the price.
  21. Swerve is still working both (or at least he's booked for the next MLW event and is EVOLVE champ).
  22. Definitely need more coffee. At first glance I was thinking "Willow, Elven Sports... what kind of Middle Earth ass package is this..."
  23. Matches announced for the Joppa show in a few weeks: Darby, the WorkHorsemen, and Kincaid still to be announced on the card, but woof is that a hollowed-out roster post-Riddle/Keith/ZSJ/the attrition of Catch Point. Especially sans Shane Strickland and/or a special attraction like WALTER.
  24. Some jumbled thoughts halfway through the batch of stuff I planned to watch (a month past relevancy~): Like Hiromu and Desperado from the spring, Ishii vs Naito is the sort of great, heated brawl that stands out in a sea of High Technical Achievement. Just another out-and-out slugfest between two guys who absolutely do not like or respect one another, only tarnished by the comparatively weak finish. I'm honestly finding the evolving dynamic of SANADA as ZSJ's nemesis to be the most interesting thing to have happened thus far in his "Cold Skull"/LIJ run. Otherwise he's Goto-tier for me: a big, athletic, eminently capable performer who lacks a real spark most times out. I get that his aloof (and, yes, "cold") demeanor is kinda part of his whole deal, but both Golden Lover matches (and especially the hometown hero bout with Ibushi) really highlight how much less of a total package he is right now in direct comparison to guys more or less cut from the same cloth. Now that I've invoked Goto... that Ishii showdown really brought the BEEF. A physical, relentless match in the "classic" NEVER title scene style. As touched on above, Goto really feels like he's just missing that something extra from his toolbox (and obviously history shows Gedo feels the same way), but he still excels in these settings when paired with someone like the Stone Pitbull. Speaking of Ishii again... holy shit that Ibushi match. Just a borderline-irresponsible level of violence. It's the kind of match that stirs up all my internal misgivings about what I like in pro wrestling and the ultimate physical toll of it all... but also Ibushi punching above his weight class is absolutely one of my top guilty pleasure in the business. Incredible bout, with all the requisite caveats. Having focused on three brutal contests, Naito vs Juice was another standout for me, mostly in showing how an insanely compelling match can still be put together in an NJPW ring without sacrificing oneself on the canvas altar. So smartly constructed and worked, with Juice scouting all of Naito's offense early, Naito getting that first shot at Juice's wounded paw, Naito adapting all of his moves to focus on the hand, Juice finally taking to defending his exposed weakness, and Naito transitioning right back into his usual head/neck-based attack when given the opening. It's crazy how a guy the size of Juice is so preternaturally good at (and completely believable in) working from underneath against a real bully, with just an endless supply of babyface energy. Such a good match.
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