Teflon Turtle

Looks like it's official, Roiland is out. I'm having trouble with links and such, but the Rick & Morty Twitter account has confirmed it. The reports are that work on S7 of the show is continuing and any character Roiland voiced will be re-cast. (Edit...we'll see if this link to an article containing the tweet works...) https://www.avclub.com/adult-swim-justin-roiland-will-re-cast-rick-and-morty-1850026866

You can count me amongst those whose pro-wrestling fandom trajectory was greatly altered by Muta. I was too young for his NWA run - missed it by a couple of years. There were probably other Japanese wresters I saw first. Kaientai in WWF, likely Liger in WCW and definitely Ultimo Dragon, maybe even Tajiri and Ikuto Hidaka in ECW. All of those wrestlers combined led me to want to research puroresu. So on to the internet I went. But...I saw images of Muta and some of his elaborate NJPW entrance attires along with maybe some short video clips, and that sealed it for me. Muta was the wrestler that flipped the switch between "I think Japanese pro-wrestling might be of interest" to "I NEED to see this in motion and find out what it's all about." I'm pretty sure the first puroresu VHS order I ever put in was for two Great Muta comps, a "Best of Ultimo Dragon in Mexico/Japan" comp, and a Misawa/Kawada rivalry history tape. I've been hooked ever since.

I am mildly disappointed that the Takeshita/MJF portion of that segment did not end with Don Callis appearing onstage with an offer to foot the bill for the fine MJF mentioned...and then with Takeshita knocking MJF flat. I understand why it didn't happen that way, but it would've been a fun way to advance the scouting storyline they're doing. I say this as someone who felt relatively early that Ricky Starks was primed to be a top guy in AEW, but I think his stuff has been uneven since the face turn. Some of that is down to what he's being booked in. But, one show has some great mic work from him against MJF, then another show later...lukewarm. He's not the sole reason his segment on this episode wasn't great, but the hot/cold aspect of what's he's been up to is of some concern. He seemed more comfortable when he was on the heel side of things.

I have not gotten a chance to watch the entire WK show yet...I'm not sure what the timeline is for spoilers but I'll put my initial thoughts in the spoiler box just in case there are others who are in the same position I'm in and didn't take the day off to watch the show: Okay. Maybe I'll post more once I watch the rest of the card and New Year Dash.

Couldn't agree more. Something that has really bugged me about the general sentiment online (I'm not limiting myself to DVDVR forum, here) that NJPW was just flat throughout the pandemic was that people like ZSJ, and especially Shingo and El Desperado weren't getting the credit they deserved for the work they were doing in what was and has continued to be a restrictive environment. I also contend that Suzuki himself has been awesome for years, and despite the fact that he's sort of in a "play the hits" phase as others here have written, he's no less entertaining and also maintained a high standard during the pandemic all things considered. Subtitles are a blessing; the guy is still a great promo and worker overall. One of the things I like about NJPW and many within it is how elegantly the kayfabe lines get blurred. The curtain is not yanked so far back to a postmodern extent (second edit: ...maybe Yano excluded), but "real life" is still acknowledged in small ways. The promos after the great Suzuki-gun final match kind of reflect that, I think. Some went further than others - ZSJ and Archer's portions when they spoke in-ring can very well be read as having been entirely out of character - but I don't think anybody went so far as to kill the kayfabe of the moment entirely, and by the end Suzuki himself goes back in to heel mode to wrap everything up. I feel like Suzuki himself may be a master of that balance, by the way. Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part, but one of my favorite things about the "Kaze ni Nare" chant during his entrance is that you can sort of see those lines blur a little each time. Minoru Suzuki the wrestler/character expects the fans to chant because he is the "king of pro wrestling" and he deserves that respect. But, I think you can also kind of see a glimmer each time that the "real" Suzuki appreciates hearing that chant, face/heel dynamics be damned. (EDIT: I think he also showed that at the end of that kickass singles match he had with Liger during Liger's retirement run where he knelt and bowed after winning. Suzuki's character will eventually grudgingly show respect to others, but that was also quite real.) Anyway, having rambled on...I think the evolution and growth of many within the Suzuki-gun stable has been evident, and though I'm sad to see the faction go, I'm hoping it opens up some more opportunities for those wrestlers to keep growing and do different things. I suspect the fact that the New Year's Dash card isn't going to be announced at all may be due in part to the dissolution of the faction so the next steps can be a "surprise" that starts at that show.

I'd probably have to think harder about this because what I came up with feels like I'm missing something. First attempt anyway...North American bracket is Side A, Japanese bracket is side B. Mostly dream matches that I want to see or matches that the wrestlers involved have stated that they want to have, at least on Side A: Side A: Bret Hart vs. Kurt Angle. So they can get that dream match they've both talked about. Bret wins. Kenny Omega vs. AJ Styles. I know they wanted to do this at a Wrestlemania. This ain't it, but I'm holding the book! But, hypocritically: they can figure it out amongst themselves who wins. To them, I don't know that the match is about that anyway as opposed to the overall performance. Bret wins the bracket. Side B: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenta Kobashi. Kobashi takes it. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada (I'm pretty sure this happened. I don't care, I want to see it again with both guys in their top form.) Tanahashi wins. Tana squeaks by Kobashi to win the bracket. Final: Bret vs. Tana. Couldn't care less who wins, just want to see it.

I watched it back: when Matt was in midair he had his hands over his chest and not in the Punk "go to sleep" position by the side of his head (which...I don't know I'd want any part of my body off-center when backflipping off a tall object either). When he landed, he sat down cross-legged (that's when I started thinking Punk) and closed his eyes as if in prayer. I jokingly had the same thought as The Green Meanie: "the moonsault itself is technically not a Punk reference; they're booing the nice Michinoku Pro-loving Christian boys!" But, maybe a prod at Punk's "Second City Saints?" Right after, Nick was aping some Randy Savage mannerisms, which I assumed was poking fun at Punk's top rope elbow. That, or the crowd was booing everything the Elite were doing at that point without even stopping to analyze if it made sense to do so and Nick was just clowning around.

Boy, those Chicago fans are going to feel like assholes when they find out the only thing Matt Jackson was trying to do with that praying moonsault was pay homage to Jinsei Shinzaki. Buncha quick-to-judge ingrates. Kidding aside, I have no idea what The Elite was trying to do with all of those CM Punk and fight references. Are they building towards something, just being jerks, taking heat where they can get it/making the most of the fact that they will likely never be cheered in Chicago again and therefore don't have to be on their best behavior...? No matter what it was, I was entertained. Speaking of entertainment: I am totally fine with analyzing pro-wrestling to the extent that we do here. It's possible to enjoy this artform on a lot of different levels. But - if we accept that pro-wrestling is supposed to be a form of entertainment and are OK with consuming it on that simple level sometimes, then I don't know if anyone has entertained me more this year than Orange Cassidy has. Building a match based around playing keep away with a dumb hat is something I can't recall seeing in thirty years of fandom, and if I have seen it, it wasn't done in a more humorous and enjoyable way than it was done by OC, Hager, and the rest of the wrestlers at ringside in this match. One man's opinion on some of the postmodern wrestlers like Cassidy we've seen in recent times: in order to subvert the tropes of pro-wrestling, one must first understand those tropes. Orange Cassidy has a character, wrestles to it, and sells the beating he's taking quite well. These are all more traditional aspects of pro-wrestling; he simultaneously sticks by them and creatively bends some of the "rules" to make entertaining matches. He's not just screwing around in there. It's a joy to watch. To refer back to my post about Full Gear: I am glad that Toni Storm and Jamie Hayter's reigns are both going to be recognized as official title runs. They both earned it. While the tweet about Thunder Rosa above is a bit much, I do think it's a shame that this couldn't have been ironed out before the PPV. Making that announcement at Full Gear itself would've added more stakes to the match, when instead Jamie Hayter was announced as a new interim champion and then had that retconned mere days later. I admit to some curiosity as to why this agreement between AEW and Rosa couldn't have been reached even a week sooner.

Most of my wrestling love comes from puroresu. So, when I saw Kingston/Akiyama and the aftermath, there was pretty much nothing that was going to top that for me. Eddie showing genuine emotion from the pre-match promo all the way through the moment he left the ring afterwards was something to witness. I'm happy he got to have that experience. I did not follow Kingston on the indies but I can see why he generates passionate reactions among some of the posters here. I'm all for a Kingston world-title run after this match. That said, there were some other nice little puroresu tributes I'll combine and ramble about for a second. I really liked Orange Cassidy using the PK after his match with Shibata. OC's growth as a wrestler and character in AEW is one of my favorite long-term things the promotion has done so far, and OC himself has been note-perfect in a lot of big matches this year. Since Shibata requested that match specifically, having OC take that move as a tribute makes sense to me. I also liked Mox throwing up Muto's "pro-wres love" hand gestures when he used the figure 4. I have mixed emotions about the women's interim title match. By the time Hayter and Storm were in the ring, there was a significant "big match feel" going, but I'd say that none of that was thanks to AEW. 100% of that credit goes to the wrestlers themselves. I do not have a dog in the fight with respect to some of the controversies that have followed Thunder Rosa around. So, nothing against her by writing this, but: Storm/Hayter should absolutely have been a decision match for the "real" championship. Both Hayter and Storm have been tearing it up lately, and both have earned the right to a legitimate championship run. The "interim" tag coming or going is meaningless; the story upon Rosa's return is the exact same regardless. She never lost the championship in the ring - it doesn't matter if she's facing an "interim" champion or the person who won the belt after Rosa was stripped of it. My next statement is no doubt influenced by the fact that I think this should've been a match for the "real" championship: the match didn't need the interference. Storm and Hayter were having a killer match until then, and Hayter winning via interference only takes away from the organic reactions she has been getting lately. It has been mentioned (by Tony Khan himself, I think) that the stance is that AEW fans can and should cheer for who they want. Yet sometimes, it still seems like AEW tries to swim against that tide a bit.

So in this promo, one of the things Hangman said is (paraphrasing) that being a champion is not just about what happens when the cameras are on, but what happens when the red light goes off. Whether Hangman "went in to business for himself" with the worker's rights comment, by responding the way he did (even if the press conference was a bit worked), Punk eventually proved Hangman right if you ask me. And maybe a bit more contentious, but Hangman wound up eventually being pretty much right about protecting AEW from Punk, too - in character or not, it wound up being prophetic.

It pains me to say it as a big fan of his, but Tetsuya Naito is a good shout. It probably really depends upon how you rate his opponents, of course, but many of his big matches have come against Tanahashi and especially Okada. Kenny Omega in the G1 final too...though I would argue (perhaps controversially) that at the time Naito was ranked by many at a tier below Okada and Omega when he was in fact their in-ring equal. More recently, Naito has wrestled ZSJ quite a bit, and Sabre Jr. has been on a hot streak for the last year or two. Courting controversy again: Naito had a good match against Ospreay in this year's G1. I personally would put Naito ahead of Ospreay, but those who rate Will highly would beg to differ.

I, for one, still like that this remains a thing. I think I've written about this before, but during the height of Elite-era Bullet Club, there was one guy (...at least I think it was the same guy...) who I kept bumping in to at local festivals or concerts when we both had BC/NJPW shirts on. Quite the coincidence, as this was over the span of a couple of years. Didn't get to know him at all, but we were always sure to compliment each other's shirt choice or exchange a quick "too sweet." That's yet another thing the pandemic has seemingly ended: I have not seen quite as much wrestling merch worn in the wild as I did during those years (never mind the logistics of Too Sweet-ing under social distancing recommendations). Maybe a bit more variety, though: I complimented someone's AEW hoodie at a comic book shop, and I saw a guy with an Okada shirt at the supermarket, but didn't want to walk over and say anything because it was during the height of things/pre-vaccines. If you want more evidence that everything in the 2020s is upside down and backwards: I have caught glimpses of what I thought were Marty Scurll shirts post-Speaking Out, and have seen a Michael Elgin shirt out there.

I don't know if she's busted this out before, but Nyla Rose wearing "Freakazoid!"-inspired gear this week is my favorite thing I have ever seen on Elevation.

Not undermining Regal's position, but I would actually submit Chris Jericho for consideration also. (Probably depends on how long you want to stretch the arc between comedy/serious, but I think he works.) Relatively straightforward young cruiserweight > Ralphus/Man of 1,004 Holds shenanigans > more "comedy" (...I guess your mileage will vary given some of the misogynistic stuff that got thrown Stephanie's way in the Attitude era) from Y2J > eventually getting back to serious, suit-wearing heel who punched HBK's wife in the face. Always in a featured role no matter what. Nowadays it's like he ping pongs every other week and is still one of the biggest names in the industry.

I don't think I've ever commented on MJF too much in the past. However...man, the start of his promo was genuinely funny. Dude even got his Mona-Lisa Saperstein impression in there, which fits him for a whole bunch of reasons. Anyway...I'll say this. After the year he's had, and after that promo, Jon Moxley should be AEW world champion until the day he retires - and when he does retire, he should exchange that belt for ten dump trucks full of money. That guy had me wanting to tear down a skyscraper with my bare hands, and I wasn't having a great day up until now. Also, I can't resist going up to a slightly more "meta" level. Having the guy who professes to be the heart and soul of AEW address the circumstances in the fashion that Mox came up with borders on genius to me. He didn't explain one iota more than he had to, didn't mention any party involved in the brawl post-PPV, and imbued the title and his chase for it with some meaning again (at least in my eyes). Of course, what we're almost assuredly going to get is MJF as champ via shenanigans with either Mox, Danielson, or Hangman on the chase. (The fantasy-booking part of me who really wants a shakeup thinks MJF should hold the belt for a bit, and the person who takes it from him should be Ricky Starks.)

I didn't feel like posting any thoughts at 3 AM for a variety of reasons, so I'll just try to get everything out now. The tag title match and the trios titles matches were both a heck of a lot of fun to watch. Tag titles especially. I know many wrestling fans will inveigh against "video game style pro wrestling," but to me Swerve is like a character in a video game or old kung-fu film who has a fighting style that is entirely unique to himself. I don't know if we necessarily see that too often in wrestling any longer, at least not to the extent he's able to take it. Not related to his moveset, but it's also pretty effective when he lets his heel side come out. He's good at it. The "call an audible" thing is insane to me. I've never seen anything out of Swerve/Lee where they would deserve to get the rug pulled out from under them mid-match. No reason why AEW can't find a way to build up to a big rematch there. HOB vs. Miro/Sting/Allin was also fun pro-wrestling. I can only hope Malakai does what he needs to do to get right, whether it's mental/physical/emotional at this point. The main event was an excellent match. Moxley absolutely has a "wrestler of the year" argument. The fact that dude is doing this immediately after having a child, getting sober, and getting back in shape is...I don't know I have a better word than "commendable" at the moment but it doesn't feel like enough. As for the scrum stuff...I've reached the point where I tie seemingly everything in life back to "The story of the Chinese farmer." AEW has joined the list. All of this "is it a work? is it a shoot?" stuff just makes me say "We'll see." Tony's comments about having more money than Jim Crockett, to me, are telling. If all of these disagreements are real, the question to me is at what point will money be unable to make all of these problems go away? If the disagreements are worked, to what extent will this bring more money in? Will the promise of enough cash be enough to get all of these clashing personalities to work together? I guess we'll see. They have some potentially interesting storyline directions to go, if they can get everyone to cooperate. After what Punk has said - real or not - it would make sense to have someone like Hangman double down on his comments and insist he was right about needing to save AEW from Punk. It would be logical for his character to continue to feel that way after the events of the PPV and the scrum; it wouldn't be unreasonable in-story to state that Punk is close to burning AEW to the ground, and he's not even necessarily doing it intentionally. He's just being himself, damn the consequences.

Well, my weekend plans have changed. "I must inquire about the actions you shall endeavor to take whilst the the most significantly proportioned upper extremities within the entirety of the celestial body upon which we inhabit are proceeding upon your person in an uncontrolled fashion. (Despite the fact that we share identical parentage.)"

There's something I want to mention about the whole Thunder Rosa thing even if the "hiding in the bathroom" thing is (almost assuredly) nonsense. There are a whole lot of physical problems that can render one's skill level in legitimate fighting irrelevant. High-level combat sports fighters drop out of fights due to injury all the time. Why? Because they run the risk of getting injured more seriously, and more to the point, the injury renders them incapable of defending themselves to their fullest ability. You can have all of the knowledge in unarmed combat in the world, but if you so happen to have something like (just for example, I have no idea if this is Rosa's issue) recurring problems with bad back spasms, the last thing you want to do is try to fight somebody. Skill level doesn't matter if you can barely walk or rotate your midsection. There are a whole bunch of reasons, physical and otherwise, why Rosa could've come to the conclusion that fighting a very strong person in the prime of their life was not in her best interest that day.

100%. Fighters have to be so careful with how they move their head in both kickboxing and MMA. Ducking and weaving under punches is pretty much out because of knees and kicks. One can slip straight punches, but must keep the movement as small as possible to avoid ducking in to kicks. Usman bought that the straight left was coming and tried to both parry it and slip his head out of the way. Because Leon's kick followed it so closely/was timed just right, Usman didn't have enough time to get his arm back to where it needed to be (looking at the replays, it appeared he was trying to, but it was just too late. Could've just been reflex). Just incredible to watch. I mostly caught it on replays; live, I looked down to take a bite of food and Usman was already falling. Truly "blink and you'll miss it." Edwards, for his part, landed that kick and put his foot right back in his stance. Didn't come off balance for a moment throughout the whole movement. Really added to that "what happened" feeling as it barely registered that Leon had left his stance at all!

If Leon Edwards wants to adopt "The Excellence of Execution" as another nickname, I'm here for it. That's as good and as precise as you will ever see that headkick setup done in MMA.

All Rockhold needs to do from here is pick up some fireworks on the way home and jump off a vending machine or two to cement his status as MMA's Kota Ibushi. I write that with (mostly) all of the affection that status is due.

Something about this whole discussion has been troubling me...giving me real "I can't tell if I'm the dumb guy or the smart guy" vibes. Or it's more AEW geographical pedantry, who knows. But anyway: am I missing something where Virginia and West Virginia suddenly became the same state? AEW absolutely was not in Hangman's hometown or "backyard," regardless of what Punk said about Hangman being from around those parts. Where Hangman is supposedly from in VA is in the southern part of Virginia, not too far from the border with NC. I have a lot of family from that area. It is a four and a half hour drive (thanks, Google) between there and Charles Town, WV. Maybe it's just my personal experience, but my family has never once talked about West Virginia being close to us. Now...sure, there were probably some Hangman fans from Virginia who made the drive, but it's not as though they were able to walk home from the arena. Chicago is roughly the same distance away from Green Bay, WI, but you won't find many in Illinois who are Packers fans based on that proximity. Maybe I should just go to bed.

We have all touched on this a bit in this thread, but much of what has been written about this G1 has been us repeating ourselves. Fitting given what the consensus opinion of NJPW has been these last few years. Much of what I have to say about the final, I feel I've written before. I still want to type it all out because the final was an amazing match, overall. Spoilers to come, but that is probably my MOTY so far and it has been a while since I've been able to say that about a G1 final. I'm probably forgetting something and need to rewatch a bunch of stuff, but gut reaction is that. A non-spoiler thought first: I've seen a few comments in the AEW subforum lately about their production. Stale as NJPW's booking might be, they are still hands down the best produced, directed, and photographed/shot pro-wrestling on the planet. I don't know if this is a contentious statement or not, but even in the pandemic they have not lost that crown. On to the final: One more thought not requiring spoilers: Kevin Kelly and Chris Charlton did a fantastic job on commentary during that final. They sounded as involved as the fans were, and that is probably the closest the two of them have come to losing their minds in the same way the Japanese commentary desk will often do, with it feeling as equally convincing. I feel Chris especially has made a ton of progress. I really look forward to how he sets up main events during the wrestler entrances. His "[Ospreay] drives it like he stole it" call during the main event was spot on. Again I feel compelled to draw an AEW comparison: Taz and Excalibur is a really fun two-man booth, but if you like your commentary a little less loosey-goosey, Charlton and Kelly are the best commentary team in wrestling.

Separate post for spoilered thoughts on the semi finals: