Control

Yeah, fuck this shit.

Hear me out: Kento Miyahara, GHC Champion.

Are any of the Shining Force games after 2 worth playing?

On the one hand, I don’t think Onita would bring anything to the CC. On the other hand, eh, why not?

Cornjob!

The most visibly angry reaction I’ve seen from a award-losing nominee was Burt Reynolds when he missed out for BOOGIE NIGHTS. While I think that the Academy is fully capable of being racist, I was a bit disappointed by how many people claimed that only racism could explain Angela Bassett’s loss. She was great, but in a small part of a pretty middling movie. If the award had been for hottest actress or best arms, she’d have won in a landslide. (Angela Bassett deserves all the awards, but hard to see this, in particular, as a snub)

Lol, so Rock could have been Muto’s last opponent to the same extent he could be my first.

upcoming AJPW cards 3/14 Kento vs Inamura 3/18 AJPW vs GLEAT 3/21 Nagata vs Ishikawa

This is an excellent reminder that I’ve never seen a Pasolini film.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/movies/bert-gordon-dead.amp.html Bert I. Gordon, director of EARTH VS THE SPIDER and THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, has died at 100.

Yes, now that the annual pass has expired, they’ve licensed season 13 to Pluto. Good idea: hard to get new eyes on the product otherwise. I thought the riffs were really good this season, so it’s worth a watch. MUNCHIE might be my favourite.

Pretty underwhelming. I wouldn’t put the Saitos in myself, but I can see why the company wants to do so. At the very least, there should be a string of very good Nomura matches. I’m curious to see how well he and Ashino work together. The online speculation is that NOAH guys will be announced as the Xs: possibly Nakajima and Soya, since they’re in the six-man tag at the retirement show. And they’d be better than some options, for sure, though I’m not high on Soya. I’m hoping either Ashino or Nomura get the win.

THE CONFESSION also remains OOP. Costa-Gavras, like Bertrand Tavernier, is a major director who has not been well-served on bluray.

TARGETS is a nice choice, and a good cover.

Full card for the Kento/Nagata show (probably not the right match order, though): AJPW "#AJPW PRO-WRESTLING DAY MANIAX", 19.02.2023 (GAORA TV/AJPW.tv) Tokyo Korakuen Hall - Hikaru Sato, Dan Tamura & Oji Shiiba vs. Kotaro Suzuki, Rising HAYATO & Ryo Inoue - Yuma Aoyagi & Naoya Nomura vs. Minoru Suzuki & Hokuto Omori - Special Six Man Tag Match: Suwama, Jun Saito & Rei Saito vs. Yuto Nakashima , Ryohei Oiwa & Kosei Fujita - Special Six Man Tag Match: Shuji Ishikawa, Ren Ayabe & Oskar Leube vs. Takao Omori, Toru Yano & Black Menso~re - Special Six Man Tag Match: Shotaro Ashino, Ryuki Honda & Masao Hanabata vs. Yoshitatsu, Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato - Yuma Anzai vs Shingo Takagi - AJPW World Jr. Heavyweight Title: Atsuki Aoyagi (c) vs. Naruki Doi - Triple Crown: Kento Miyahara (c) vs. Yuji Nagata

I cancelled my AJPW subscription a while ago. This will be the first CC I skip and don’t post a running review of. Unless they book Ibushi and/or Minoru Suzuki. Then maybe I’ll dish out the cash.

Life is too short to watch another Tajiri match. Is Mentai Kid any good?

Next big AJPW show: Not sure what a Nagata singles match is like in 2023, but he’s in there with Miyahara, so I expect it’ll be good. Doi could be the dude who unseats lil Aoyagi, after the latter has defeated a string of vets (Hayashi, K Suzuki, etc). The tag could be good—been looking for Nomura and Minoru Suzuki to mix it up.

Champion Carnival will be 10 shows this year (looks like 9 league shows + finals).

Kodai Nozaki, the 5’7”, 280 lbs star of Kyushu Pro, is leaving the company to wrestle around the world.

Kento, the Aoyagi bros, Rising Hayato, Yuma Anzai, Ryo Inoue, and big ol’ Shuji Ishikawa apparently formed “All Japan New Era.” It would be nice to see Kenta tag with Shuji, etc. Mix things up a bit. N Nomura left out, since he ain’t AJPW. Hokuto Omori I guess left out to be with Doi? And the two-person Evolution remains.

So is he going to make his own retirement show?

Actual heavyweights / blown-up juniors

I saw the RiffTrax Live and it was great. I can’t imagine watching it on its own, though.