Ziggy

When I first got high speed internet in late '03 I downloaded a ton of classical AJPW from the 90s I probably watched watched the famous Kobashi vs Misawa matches once with no context no order. I want to go back and watch alot of these matches again in order. It's was a whole new universe of wrestling getting to see guys like Kawada , Akiyama, Kobashi and people like that I had only read about in the Apter mags in the late 90s and reading about the formation on NOAH which became my favorite promotion in 2004 to around 2007 behind Ring of Honor at the time. Then back at the end of 2011 I was out of work for a whole month and it was around the time of one of the Joshimania weekends so I spent most of that time watching a ton of 90s Joshi and even current Joshi at the time. It was so good really learning Joshi and probably the most enjoyment watching wrestling. Alot of those Kobashi vs Misawa matches and matches with Kawada as much as I enjoyed them. I feel like I can't really count as matches I've seen because most you guys can name the dates and the arenas. That would be like someone watching the 3 Rock vs Austin Wrestlemania matches out of order and not knowing the dates or time periods

I love Sasha/Mercedes as much as anyone but She already has a reputation for being rude to fans so you can't blame him for attacking her. Rhea doesn't have that reputation and I think Bubba and his peers are fans of her work as far as I know. Sasha is held in the highest regard as a worker but even her biggest fans within the business have no issues acknowledging her track record with fans even though she probably has the most creepiest and obsessive fans of all the women in the industry overall

I thought I heard too that they didn't go over much of the match beforehand which is why I'd consider him better than Logan Paul, not that I'm not impressed by him but the fact that they'd trust him to work on the fly is more impressive to me especially as an outsider

I think alot of that is the larger number of people that have spent time on the Indies and other Countries. Most of the people that aren't good are the ones that haven't had much ring time. That's going to be more of an issue in this post pandemic era of wrestling with talent in both companies aren't working that much. Has Jade Cargill had more than 50 matches? Has Omos had much more than that. Even in AEW the only people working outside of AEW are the people that have already spent time on the indies or experienced talent that managed to take advantage of AEWs partnership with New Japan. Nash worked probably 4 times the amount of times of the time he did the entire 3 -4 years of career in his first year in WWF. It's going to be difficult for homegrown talent to get good with only once a week. WWE lucked up with alot of these celebrities actually being atleast decent in the ring. I think it Lead people to believe that they can lead anyone to have a good match if they go over it a thousand times. With people like Bad Bunny, Pat McAfee and Logan Paul being athletic enough to do entertaining spots , they've been able to be able to be lead to great matches but it's still alot they lack and would be exposed if they had to work more than just 2 - 3 major PPVs and didn't have the luxury of going over their matches several days at a time.

I listen to clips of Konnan and Discos podcasts on YouTube while I'm at work and they both talk about how they give him advice on even alot of the subtle things. I don't watch Raw but they talk about some things he's doing that even alot of the top experienced wrestlers aren't doing. You can tell Konnan has been giving advice on his character work too. I wish he got to spend time in NXT first even though he doesn't seem to be as athletically gifted as his dad but him mastering positioning and timing can make up for that

Sonny Onoo on Renee Dupree's podcast was really good. He doesn't get much credit for his role in the WCW and New Japan relationship. He also talked about his role in Sting working the NOAH show recently

I hope he does get a serious push. He seems to get a bigger reaction from the crowd than you’d expect.

I had just played clips on YouTube from both K100 and Dutch Mantels channel talking about how bad they thought Brays run has been and soon as o get off work I read that he walked. I more surprised that he could be walking away from a Wrestlemania payday. I'd expect him to atleast make it to Mania before walking out so it has to be alot more behind this than creative issues. When he started the wrestling as the Fiend gimmick a few years ago people were blaming Vince for it being so bad but now he supposedly has alot of Creative freedom so who's to blame now. Isn't he still one of the top merch sellers. He was never anywhere close to a good worker but he was able to have good matches against Bryan , Cena , the Shield and even Ryback towards the end of his run. It's spoke to the ability of those guys to carry him. Him being such a supernatural act and adding so many bells and whistles later on as the Fiend made it hard for people to buy into. It really puts him in a box. Someone like Brock Lesnar who has a reputation for not caring about the business like everyone else and is only for the paycheck even refused to work him says alot. Even against Lashley , I don't see Lashley putting his putting his foot down and saying no to certain things but even in a losing effort alot of that cinematic stuff isn't going to keep him from not being less credible when he has really maintained his credibility as one of the toughest guys even when he hasn't been featured as one of the main guys. Lashley has been one of those guys that even when you slot him in that main event spot he doesn't seem out of place

AEW diehards give JR such a hard time but he's never had a hard time letting you know he wasn't feeling something.

That's definitely a high possibility no one ever brings up. It's mind boggling that they kept Flair off the SummerSlam 92 card not having a match. If Warrior or Bulldog got popped before the card then I imagine he be slotted right in either title matches as a replacement

I'm moving to back Maryland as soon as a get a good job offer. If I'm lucky enough to get a good enough job offer before the DC show gets sold out then I will definitely try to go. I had a few interviews this week and I will probably have more in the next few weeks. I missed out on the last Atlanta show right before the Pandemic shutdown. I really want to go to a New Japan show more than any other Promotion.

Even Jey feuding with Roman came about because Jimwillmy was out for several months. You think they would have took the chance with either of the Usos headlining PLEs against Roman without either of them being hurt. Them even becoming a faction was something they talked about for a while but it wasn't until Roman came back after the Pandemic and he basically got the Hogan treatment with Vince as far as having the full creative freedom in everything he does. Alot of the best stuff has fell on their lap with the Bloodline.

I think alot of the effectiveness of last night's angle was that we've been trained for turns like this to happen on the PPVs instead of a random Raw. And if it was to happen on a Raw under Vince McMahon it would be very telegraphed. Hunter helping Kevin Owens win the Universal title was one of the few turns in recent memory that you didn't see coming and even that was a result of Fin Balor having to drop the Title. We all knew Jey was going to eventually turn on Sami but since in didn't happen at the Chamber, we didn't know when . Add to the point Jey managed to be almost as strong of a Babyface as Sami up to the turn. Unless Jey was going to be a serious challenger to Roman while he's still Champ then it wouldn't make sense for him to not be aligned with his brother.

Not the biggest Austin Theory fan but man Cena went early to mid 2000s HHH on the mic tonight. I understand Cena pretty much can say whatever he wants and deservedly so but he couldn't have a better way to babyface himself with the audience than bury his Wrestlemania opponent. At this point, it's not like even the older audience would boo Cena so I don't get why Cena would feel the need to bury him outside of that's his only style of promo

If FTR does go back to WWE, I hope they come in before Vince gets back in creative although I'm hearing Hunter wasn't big on them either? I always assumed Hunter was behind them but with them having issues with Shawn and Road Dogg, it wouldn't completely surprise me Hunter wasn't behind them. I'm a fan of the guys and I want to see them vs Usos again on a bigger stage of the card but the Tag team division still isn't as strong as you'd think it would be with Vince not in charge.

I watched her interview with Ariel Helwani today and she talking about how she wanted Damage Control to be like Evolution. She wanted in be an actual woman's stable that is more than just 3 Women put together. I hope we get a 6 Women at Mania with Damage Control against Becky, Lita & Trish or someone like that. In the interview she pretty much said she didn't think her idea for Damage Control wouldn't have gotten on TV if Vince was still booking. Even though Hunter went with the idea it seems they aren't sure how to book an actual women's faction in that division. You'd think with Hunter being so old school, he'd be ready to book a Women's equivalent of the Horseman or something

I'm just now reading this thread and I like the idea of Raven Challenging Sting at SuperBrawl. I wasn't too familiar with Raven prior to coming in with Richards. He was so unique because they kept him and his Flock as far away from NWO the whole run so Scotty lucked out lol. If Flair didn't have to be on the sidelines the rest of '97 and they added Malenko in the Horsemen by the time Bret came in that would have been fun since Eric wanted Flair to feud with Bret first because you could have used Benoits history with the Hart's to put more of a build to that. I dug Sting in the Wolfpac as a kid but now as an adult I understand that it was a way for Nash to keep his faction more over than Hogan's. I'm not saying Goldberg would be less over if Sting had stayed to himself but Sting would have been stayed more over by himself.

& most of us blamed Vince for how the last run turned out lol

I've been listening to Konnan and Discos podcast and you can tell they are really coaching Dom with his Character work and his wrestling. He has really improved in everything from sell, positioning body language. The only thing he'll be lacking is his build.

I just seen a clip on Twitter of them crowd sweetening of a clip from Raw. I know they've done it off and on for decades at this point but it makes me think, if Hunter does ever get rid of Kevin Dunn , will they still be all this inorganic production ideals

I remember enjoying all that stuff. The first Shield run was my last time watching Raw every week consistently. Those random 6 mans every week was fun to watch. When I ever get to the point I want to revisit that stuff it's going to pay more attention to Roman in those matches. Him and Rollins made a great team and that match against the Uso was the first time I realized how good the Usos were.

The only way Cody is turning heel is if the fans just reject him, which is totally possible but if they haven't rejected him in favor of Sami then I don't see that happening for now. And Roman, I doubt he would volunteer to be a Babyface again unless it a post Survivor Series 95 Diesel type tweener. Sami during the press conference basically told us that they missed out by not having him go over on Saturday. Unless he takes the title off Roman, a title win won't be nearly as effective

Wasn't The Rock vs Roman plan the real reason why Roman has had such a strong and long title run? The Bloodline storyline was something Roman came up with along the way and a way to build towards Rock vs Roman in a way that made the most scince

I think I'm in the minority that I think Roman Competes often enough. He works just about every PPV and he might occasionally defend the title on a Smackdown. He might not work a match every Smackdown but it's not like he goes more than 2 weeks appearing on a show. Some weeks he appears on Raw and Smackdown. The main Champ shouldn't be wrestling every week. To me he seems to be around enough I don't really notice he's on a reduced schedule

I went back and watched the full show and it was really good overall. They can book Brock vs Lashley over and over like Ziggler vs Kofi back in the day and I won't get sick of it. I'd rather see them against each other at Mania instead of Lashley seemingly being fodder for Wyatt. The Men's Chamber was dope , Everyone got shine. Tez is ready to break out but I also think Dawkins has improved too so if they split it might be a good showcase for both. Beth looked like a beast out there too. Roman is top tier but so was Sami. I agree with Bryan Alvarez that this was a once in a lifetime moment to put the belt on Sami but they didn't. I'm sure he will be Champ at some point soon but it won't be the same as if he won tonight.