Kevin Wilson

That is the same set I am slowly reviewing, just finished #7. Out of #147 they have made. I have awhile to go.

Anyone get an Oculus Rift yet? I am still waiting til mine is delivered in July, just curious to see if any of the launch games were any good. I am tempted to cancel until CV2 comes out (whenever that is) to give more time for games to be made for it, but I am too curious about the technology.

That is why I really wanted to get in my entry to count CW, even if I am off one or two I am pretty confident it will be Top 2 in BO and Top 3 in RT. Not a lot of other movies I felt that confident about their spots.

Yea, I just don't think that had much to do with it, I mean her start date was clearly flexible since she announced months in advance something was up in September, and it was a matter of days since Kana was still in Japan on the 15th. I don't think WWE would have cared if she was a day late. Plus they had plenty of time to do a 'farewell reunion' match if they wanted to, hell they even wrestled on the same card a few times leading up to Mio's retirement but didn't interact in ring. Also doesn't explain why Mio wasn't at Kana's farewell. I am not judging either of them, their professional relationship isn't really any of my business, I was just a bit disappointed as a fan of both that we didn't get to see them in the ring together one last time.

Captain America did as expected (very well), now it is just a test to see what its week to week drop is. Zootopia re-passed BvS, and Jungle Book will still catch both of them domestically unless it suddenly tanks for no reason (its theater count actually went up, so unlikely). That's my weekend recap.

I think it is a risk that every show runs into that spans more than four or five seasons. Pam and Cheryl are definitely the main culprits of that, I don't think Archer and Lana are worse but it is more their behavior after six seasons is just getting repetitive. We talked about it over in the South Park thread how between seasons four and six the kids started the same thing, just taking their main trait and making it their only trait. Same with The Office. The show still gets chuckles out of me so I will still watch it, but it will probably never reach the first three seasons to me in terms of entertainment as there are only so many times you can make a similar joke with the same characters. I still think its one of the funniest shows on TV and I watch it every week, I just have lessened my expectations a bit.

My gut is that they weren't targeting New Japan specifically but they did have a change in philosophy, they are a lot more active in picking up wrestlers they think can improve their shows. I mean they went after the best wrestler in LU, all the TNA guys they thought were decent, NOAH (KENTA and TMDK), La Sombra, Kana, etc. It is definitely a change but I just don't think they went out of their way just to get New Japan or they would have gone for their younger talent. Gallows and Anderson only went because they were a package deal with Styles, if Styles didn't go I don't think they would have either as just a team they aren't really needed.

It is still 5/5 in California so I hope I am not too late, if I need to take out Captain America just let me know. I'm gonna lose anyway. BO: Captain America: Civil War Finding Dory X-Men: Apocalypse Independence Day: Resurgence Suicide Squad Star Trek Beyond Ghostbusters Alice Through the Looking Glass Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows Ice Age: Collision Course Warcraft Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising The Angry Birds Movie The Conjuring 2 Now You See Me 2 RT: Finding Dory Captain America: Civil War X-Men: Apocalypse The Conjuring 2 Suicide Squad Jason Bourne Independence Day: Resurgence Ice Age: Collision Course Warcraft The Legend of Tarzan Now You See Me 2 Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows Central Intelligence The Angry Birds Movie Tiebreaker: ICE AGE - $161 MILLION

I just meant not good enough to have a ten minute back and forth promo like WWE does with their stars. When researching stuff back when I first was getting into Kana matches I had read there were some issues during the Triple Tails split, but since that was five years ago I have no idea if there were sill any issues. I found it odd that Kana wasn't at Mio's Retirement show (nor was Mio at Kana's farewell show for that matter) and Kana had no official interaction with Io in five years, but whether that was coincidence or not I can't say. Since the Shirai Sisters seemed to go out of their way to not wrestle with or against Kana after respective splits with her, either there were some lingering issues or they took 'going in different directions' really seriously.

Plus, if WWE wanted Io and Io was interested, they'd have her. Her being in the tournament (hypothetically, I don't see Stardom allowing it) wouldn't really impact things any. But Joshi promotions as far as I am aware don't pay near enough to compete with what WWE can offer so it isn't something worth worrying about since if it happens, it happens. Honestly I don't see WWE suddenly wanting a bunch of foreign wrestlers with marginal English skills, it doesn't match their methods at all, they seem a lot more interested in wrestlers that can cut promos in English. I think Nakamura and Kana will be the exceptions, not the new norm. I'd be interested to know what Kana would think about that, its no secret she isn't on great terms with Stardom (or at least Io), but I've never heard anything besides rumors on how bad the blood goes. I am not sure if she has the clout to block anything, I doubt it, but they'd likely at least ask her opinion since she is the most familar with Joshi wrestlers. Imagine Asuka vs. Io in NXT.

I was about to say, all teams are announcing that now, that is how the 1st round contracts work. They aren't allowed to wait until after the season to decide. Same rule for all teams. Silly people. There is no way in hell EJ would be picked up, most of them aren't. I am making a mental list of people that post in this forum that don't know NFL rules Here is a list of all the team's decisions.

I am assuming Ryback would want a lot more money than Juice Robinson, plus I can't see New Japan using a 34 year old ten year veteran to open shows. If something was worked out I assume he'd get more the Elgin treatment, but Elgin got in originally with the ROH agreement so it was a little different.

I agree on Watanabe, she had some solid performances towards the beginning of the year, but she has some issues when she wrestles someone she isn't really familiar with. I mean I am not knocking her, she just turned 16, but I went from "she's almost ready!" to "hmmm maybe not" over a few months. But I could see within the year her getting the High Speed title since they aren't as picky with who gets a run with it.

I mean its wrestling, having a 'right' doesn't have much to do with things, but she was in the upper mid-card when she retired and was much more accomplished than the current rookie class. Her last match was main eventing at Korakuen for the title and she retired as tag champion, if they want to put her back on that level then its easy enough to justify. If they are smart, if the crowd is into it and she isn't too rusty they won't make her do a six month 'proving herself' deal as that may just kill off the excitement of her returning. I think Kato is a really limited wrestler and is best suited for where she is on the card, I don't think she can keep up with Threedom and some of the rookies have shown more variety in their abilities, even though she is definitely a solid hand. But Matsumoto should be used more for sure, she has the rank and skill to hang with anyone. They still need to do more to bolster the roster but Bito coming back is a good start if she can return to old form. Watanabe is almost there but still needs more work, and I am guessing by 2017 Kyouna will be further along if she continues to develop at the same pace as she is now.

The main issue is that very few promotions in Japan have the money to fly over Americans anymore on a regular basis (ie not just for one tour or one big show), and the few that do (New Japan, Dragon Gate) don't really need any at the moment. Ryback in W-1 would be great, for example, but it isn't in their budget.

I have heard on Twitter that people are just making new accounts because changing the credit card is either impossible or way too much work. Yea, I mean it has been mentioned, even though Stardom World isn't showing live events, their service is so much more convenient for English fans to use and understand. If they are disappointed at their numbers, the fact it is not user-friendly is probably one key reason as I see Meltzer occasionally having to answer questions for people that want to sign up but can't figure it out. It wouldn't cost that much to hire someone to assist with such things, I assume they are trying to spend as little as possible because there isn't a reason a company that big can't have a better service. I understood it at first, it was a new service starting from scratch and using their own player/website does take more work, but its been a year and a half, no reason not to make more improvements by now.

Shinya Hashimoto 24/1. Seriously though, there is a lot they could do to improve the service and enough time has passed that they have seen areas that could be better. Apparently it is still hard/impossible to change the form of payment, the lack of english subtitles is a bit mind-boggling, and they could add a lot more to the archives. I am currently not a member but I'd probably have to sign back up if they suddenly dropped a lot more classic footage. But I don't see their numbers so maybe there is a reason they aren't putting too much effort into it.

Yoko Bito announced she will be returning to the ring for Stardom on June 16th, I wrote a brief article (with some match videos) for those not familar with her. If Yoko Bito is indeed healthy enough to make an impact, that is a pretty big deal if she returns to a full schedule. It will help fill in the gap a bit as right now the tiers in Stardom are more segregated than I would prefer. I don't really like that there is Threedom, and then everyone else, with no other native regular affiliated wrestler really even being seen as a realistic challenge to Threedom. But that partly happened because that is the spot that Act and Koguma filled and no one has really stepped up yet. Hopefully they can get a few more freelancers to be regular (I like Kagetsu) or Bito can return to old form so the promotion can have an upper mid-card again.

This sounds awful, but I think one reason they were able to do what they did back in their heyday is the amount of drugs they were taking. Taking pain medications will be a constant in wrestling and I don't know what else they do today, but I think its safe to assume they don't abuse illegal drugs like they did in the 80s. And it is a bit ironic coming from Arn, who I also like, but retired early due to an injury. Although the high spots/style of wrestling is also obviously a huge factor, I am just not convinced if you take away all their drugs if in the 80s they could have wrestled every day either.

I wonder how old the video is. I mean it could be a year old and mean nothing now, nothing about him failing any drug tests at the Combine. Someone with his account information really, really hates him. That much is clear.

He cried about it but Jordan ended up where he wanted to be, which is how it should be. That just supports my theory that it sometimes benefits the team and the player to reach out directly.

I didn't mean the team would get a player to sign something behind the agent's back, just a heads up to one of their star players that they were going to pull the tag. If that had happened in this case he would still be a Panther.

Its scary to think we have reached the point that $925 million is needed to be profitable in theaters.

She said that in an interview... but she gave a lot of conflicting interviews. Everyone seems to agree that Chyna, Vince, and Stephanie had a sit down, she went home after that and then was released. Probably the exact details of that meeting will never be known since I don't see Vince or Stephanie ever discussing it. Its just really sad how that just sent her right down a path of destruction, a few years ago she seemed to be doing a whole lot better, unfortunate it took a another turn downward.

Its an interesting situation. Now I don't blame her at all in that situation as emotionally that would have been incredibly difficult, but it sounds like even from some of the Interviews she did, that she was the one that found the situation too awkward. And she gave an interview before saying she threatened Stephanie which obviously would have been an issue. The problem with wrestling is that Vince has a monopoly, most people in her situation would have just quit and found a new job, probably happens to some degree across the country all the time, but there wasn't really something comparable to WWF. But it does sound like they weren't going to fire her and even had a storyline planned with Lita, but the dynamic was too tense/difficult which would have been mostly on her end. Again, not blaming her for being emotional and upset about her boyfriend leaving her for the boss' daughter, but I can't really blame WWE solely for that situation, if one employee threatened physical harm on another employee and the situation didn't cool down then that would have been awkward (and it wouldn't have been Stephanie that fired her anyway, she wasn't ranked that high in 2001). And it isn't HHH"s fault that he fell in love with someone else, that's just life. Just an unfortunate situation all the way around, and things just spiraled out of control from there.