SturmCRF

Doppel post.

Well shit, I remember it being just after Wrestlemania, so I guess I have seen CM Punk. We probably didn't stay for the dark match as I was on teen-minding duty and it's a bit of a trek back from Greenwich, but if I can forget seeing Caylen Croft vs JTG, who knows how deep my wrestle-amnesia goes.

I'm going. I guess I'm looking forward to seeing Punk the most, as I'm fairly sure I've never seen him live before (unless he was in the midcard of a Jack Swagger title reign Smackdown that I took my cousins to in 2010 at the 02). Apart from that, Ospreay because I always enjoy seeing that maniac wrestle, and Jericho because a Wembley full of people singing Judas will be a moment.

I'm happy with that news, the Bucks irritate the shit out of me, but I can enjoy their matches when I'm in the mood, and when they're in the mood they can make a Private Party or a Top Flight look like future megastars. I'm mainly happy Kenny's staying, because for all his faults, which do bother me too on a more subconscious level even if I'm not as attuned to picking them out, I do think he's one of the best wrestlers in the world and capable of insane feats of athleticism that we're kind of privileged to witness. It's not normal for human beings to be able to do some of the shit he does. And his ridiculous face just intrinsically makes me laugh. Also glad AEW keeps Hangman, his matches usually entertain me, he seems a nice guy when he's not winding up CM, and he supported Ukraine against that addle brained fuck Mayor Kane.

I'd settle for him ingesting a Young Buck.

Oh totally. All the money AEW made from selling 75,000 tickets to Wembley would burst into flames in despair.

I'm going and I'd be moderately up for Ospreay vs Jericho. I'm seeing Ospreay vs Shingo the previous night at Rev Pro, so I don't need or expect a super work rate match from him at Wembley. As long as the rest of the card is full of matches that are either good or consequential storyline wise, that'll do me. If they try and sell some extra tickets by having Paul Wight wrestle on the other hand, and I realise this is just a hypothetical that Matt threw out there, then I'd be as angry as people seem to be on the UK's behalf about the Ospreay-Jericho rumour.

If you can look past the self inflicted brain trauma sized elephant in the room, Shibata vs Okada is the best Shibata match I've seen by a mile, and possibly the best Okada match.

I really liked Aldis vs Cody on the original All In, but it had the advantage of being the only traditional, meat and potatoes, old school wrestling match on a show full of mainly flippies. It was a perfect change of pace in the context of that show.

Apparently he did his post match interview, so can't have been anywhere near as bad as it looked. Seemed like a horrendously incompetent botch from Nicholls, but I saw some people saying he himself looked concussed after busting himself open with shoot headbutts earlier, so maybe the mindless stupidity really took place at that point. Either way, glad Henare seems to have had a lucky escape, that was one of the more disgusting head drops I've seen.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1011636426338734170/1129418593591885824/IMG_5443.jpg The artistic spirit overtook me and I used my dubious marker pen skills to draw everyone in the 2023 G1 Climax, so I can cut them out, put them on a giant corkboard and move them up and down as the block standings change. Pretty proud of my efforts.

I dreamt last night that Roman Reigns finally lost his Undisputed WWE Universal Title to... Eddie Kingston. WWE and AEW had done some sort of mutual cooperation/exchange thing, but I can't remember who AEW got out of the deal. I don't hate that booking though.

Well that's a dreadful fucking shirt. Why remind people that NJPW shat on the lineage of their main title and replaced it with a new one with about two years of history? And on a purely aesthetic level, it's a hideous eyesore that nobody in their right mind could possibly want to wear.

Just on the off chance that anyone on here can go to Forbidden Door at short notice and needs tickets, I have two. Ticketmaster won't let me sell them through it directly from a UK bank account, but it seems I would be able to transfer them to someone. I wouldn't ask any more than face value from anyone on here, PM me if you're interested. And sorry mods if this is verboten, feel free to delete.

I'm assuming it means it's like the FA Cup, where you get drawn against an opponent at random each round, rather than there being a bracket. Which is actually quite a good idea considering how predictable brackets make most wrestling tourneys.

Which is a good thing, right? People can change, and also he's playing a heel here, maybe a year or two before the consensus changed to where you can't say bigoted things even in character. He could well still be a real piece of shit in a lot of ways, some would argue he has repeatedly proved he is, but I don't see any reason to think he's being insincere about supporting LGBTQ+ and women's rights. And if he is, if more influential people vocally supported those rights in the way he's been doing, even while secretly not meaning it, the world would still be a better place.

I'd be fine with a 20 man G1 if I got to pick the 20 men. In a world where you know they're not dropping the likes of EVIL, Chase Owens and Hikuleo, I'd much rather have a 32 man, World Cup sized tournament with lots of fresh, exciting entries like Kiyomiya, Kingston, War Dogs, even a Shane Haste. As far as the 20 minute limit, I don't think last year had any draws and that's no good. Time limit draws in wrestling are great, they let you protect big matches and individual wrestlers while still giving the fans something to sink their teeth into, and they make the whole thing less predictable. Maybe a Mikey Nicholls hasn't earned an upset win over an Okada, but he could turn some heads by just surviving him, and upset some brackets. Similarly, I love that there are quarter finals, as you can have some big names look fairly dominant while keeping a second place qualification in play in most of the other final night matches for a block. And then you have a high stakes eight man tournament to look forward to at the end of it all.

YOH is fine, and SHO has been making the absolute most out of his role, he hams it up but you can tell he's having fun, and he's all set to go on a massive run if they ever pull the trigger on him turning his back on House Of Torture. At the very least he'd be a great junior ace, and if it was up to me I'd put him in the heavyweight division, have him scythe through EVIL and give him a substantial push. He's built like a tank and was credible against Shingo about four years ago. The Voices Of Wresting Super J Cast were fairly harsh on Wato, but they've turned around on him now. I don't think they were ever unfair, his gimmick is stupid and using him as a big, ungainly junior plays against his strengths of eliciting sympathy. Now he's improved a lot and he's less blue and silly looking, but I'd still prefer him as an underdog heavyweight. Yujiro was one of my absolute favourites when I got into NJPW around 2010ish, and I swear at one point I wasn't the only one who thought he should be given a main event push ahead of Naito. Now that seems absurd, but it made sense to me at the time.

I think I like those blocks. Really holding back on giving us any of their three recent Japanese excursion returnees big matches against most of their established main eventers, but we'll get to see Coughlin against loads of fresh opponents. Block C is maybe the least interesting, and yet even that has a Shingo vs Henare rematch (hell, Shingo vs literally anyone is usually worth a look), and Eddie Kingston. I for one cannot wait, I don't know how I ever survived the (soccer) football Summer break without the G1.

This is less fantasy booking and much more speculating about matches that are realistic and would benefit both parties booking, but how about- MJF defends against Hiroshi Tanahashi SANADA defends against Darby (but would work just as well vs Jungle Perry or Sammy Guevara) No one will buy a potential title change for either main belt, but this can give MJF a huge scalp to brag about (and maybe something else to hold over CM Punk) and let SANADA notch another defence in a match that should bolster his current Being A Good Wrestler push. Plus those are two matches that can be excellent fun without aiming for main event epic and tiring people out before Okada/Danielson, Omega/Ospreay and Yano/Cassidy.

I need there to be a J5G You Already Die t-shirt, and I don't even care if the general public think I'm warning them about the cholesterol levels of slightly fancier McDonalds.

That seems like a very reasonable request, I will see to it that The American Danielson, Bryan The Dragon is extra cheered for.

Don't think there's much chance there aren't four blocks. Can't do two blocks of 16, but with four blocks you can do eight tournament matches a night and get to the semi finals after 14 shows.

I am very happy to be going to Canada for that show. Ospreay vs Omega, Danielson vs Okada, fuuuuuuck. Even expecting any other matches to be announced seems greedy.