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Matt D

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Posts posted by Matt D

    WORLDS END - 12/30/2023

    in ALL ELITE WRESTLING

    Posted · Edited by Matt D

    I just figured Cole shouldn't be traveling so they had to pivot.  I have some pretty strong thoughts about what Cole has to do in order to make this work (No storytime, no boom, no baby, no cool heel trappings that he hides behind. The fans love those things; take them away from them. Oh, and no Panama Sunrise, what being the worst, most contrived move in the company, especially if he wants to walk in twenty years given what just happened to his ankle).

    As for how we should feel about Max, I tried to tackle that in my write up of the Jay White match:

    http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2023/11/aew-five-fingers-of-death-and-friends.html?m=1

    • Like 4

    WORLDS END - 12/30/2023

    in ALL ELITE WRESTLING

    Posted

    I mean I'm looking forward to Dustin vs Strickland but that's another match I have to write up. We get so few Dustin matches and I'm going to have to be harsh to Strickland's deficiencies most likely when I've kind of sort of tried to avoid that recently.

    • Like 4

    WORLDS END - 12/30/2023

    in ALL ELITE WRESTLING

    Posted

    1 minute ago, John from Cincinnati said:

    The true wrong answer is not bringing this to an immediate resolution. Even if it were Perry tonight, it’s glass half full that it’s finally over. 

    Then we have to live with Perry as that guy for a while though?

    • Like 1

    WORLDS END - 12/30/2023

    in ALL ELITE WRESTLING

    Posted · Edited by Matt D

    Devil aside, I really like the look of this card! It has the highest floor of any AEW PPV I've encountered I think.

    • MJF vs Joe: Again, I want MJF to work this like Hogan vs Bossman. Hopefully he doesn't work it like Dusty vs Bossman. We'll see. No idea how limited he is right now but Joe's on a run and I'm sure just the David vs Goliath stuff will help this to work and MJF will have the Long Island Crowd on his side so everyone won't just be looking to the back the whole match.
    • Mox vs Kingston: Nothing needs to be said. This will be special. Hopefully it doesn't devolve into ten minutes of barely sold chop exchanges, but these two can probably make that work as well as anyone at least.
    • Toni vs Riho: Riho's probably a great, sympathetic wrestler for Toni to walk the line between the goofiness and hard hitting action.
    • Copeland vs Christian: Traditionally, Copeland is only memorable in gimmick matches and Christian can put this stuff together in his sleep. Should be fine.
    • Julia vs Abadon: Obviously these two care a ton about their craft and they have people like Dustin helping them to put it together. It could go off the rails, but I think they can lean on the character bits and the atmosphere and things will be ok.
    • Sting 8-man: Two 8-man tags on one show is a little problematic, sure, but ultimately, the right people are in here to keep this exciting. I really want to see Starks and Hobbs interact.
    • Classic 8-man: This should have a totally different feel and be way more hard-hitting I imagine, just considering who's in there. Again, here I want to see Garcia interact with the BCC. I'd give Brisco, Garcia, and Lethal big moments here too and probably protect Danielson.
    • Strickland vs Lee: They've had a hell of a lot of time thinking about how they wanted to put this match together. No reason to think it won't be solid.
    • Miro vs Andrade: A bit of a wild card. I imagine they wouldn't be running it if CJ wasn't ready to be back from her infection. Andrade is wrestling for a new contract here or elsewhere so he has his working shoes on. Miro will play into the crowd in a big way.
    • Yuta vs Hook: The FTW gimmick is less interesting than these two going with pure rules, especially with Copeland vs Christian on the show but I still think it'll work out fine as a mostly normal match with just a few over the top spots. We'll see.
    • Statlander vs Willow: I'm not expecting a Statlander turn given Skye just turned, but who knows. Strength vs Strength, should be fun.

    Of the people on this card, the only ones on my "list of 10" are Takeshita and Strickland and they're both in spots where I'm not at all worried about them. This is very much my AEW. I almost wish there was a crazy spotfest on here with Vikingo or Top Flight or something to really give the "something for everyone" feel.

    EDIT: Oh hey, there's a battle royal too. I like AEW Battle Royals. Hopefully Hangman Page doesn't win.

    • Like 5

    WORLDS END - 12/30/2023

    in ALL ELITE WRESTLING

    Posted

    9 minutes ago, zendragon said:

    doesn't Britt still have a messed up back?

    Looks like Khan listed her as injured on the media call yesterday.  I had missed that. Kyle it is then? Bobby Fish has only had one match since September and it was for a random Indy.

    • Like 1

    WORLDS END - 12/30/2023

    in ALL ELITE WRESTLING

    Posted

    Ok my actual final guesses on this, on the idea that Cole is way too injured after two surgeries..

    Kyle O'Riley (with the Kingdom/Roddy - I'd actually make Griff/Cole Karter the ROH tag champs in this scenario and loop in Maria)

    or

    Britt (Just so weird she's been off TV)

    • Like 3

    Matt Watches 1989 AJPW/1986 NJPW on a Treadmill

    in The PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

    Posted

    3/7/87: Hashimoto vs Akira Nogami: Is this my first look at Nogami? At least Hashimoto's a big dude so I can tell them apart. Nogami does well when he focuses on one body part, but when he starts to stray or try to take advantage, it doesn't go well for him. Hashimoto can hang on the mat even if he's not the more skilled of the two in at area (at least as they portrayed it), but he also had this extra gear at the end. He just started unloading kicks onto Nogami like he was Maeda or something and then absolutely crushed him with Maeda's spin wheel kick. That move only looks halfway decent when Maeda hits it in the corner and it's one of the more frustrating things about him because everything else he does is more credible, but when Hash does it... credible would be a good word, yes.

    3/7/87: Yoji Anjo vs Tatsuo Nakano: This is a HH. These guys have black tights. One has a more square haircut. The other has little triangle things on his boots. They're both good on the mat. I can't find a real pattern that differentiates them. At times boot traingles guy (Nakano) is scrappier and strikes more. At times square hair guy (Anjo?) is slicker. But then at other times they reverse roles, like the finish which is a ducked enziguiri right into a half crab for a submission. This was solid low card stuff with guys who were obviously well trained but I couldn't make much sense of it, not yet at least.

    • Like 1

    WORLDS END - 12/30/2023

    in ALL ELITE WRESTLING

    Posted

    Fightful is about to post something on Mercedes Mone so this is my last chance to get in the pitch that she's the masked man with Holliday and Hammerstone and Wardlow and it's all about her being jealous that her appearance at All In was overshadowed by something as silly as the main event.

    (My other pitch has it being Kip Sabian leading to goading Max into a title defense only to have Swerve ambush him on the way to the ring and take the shot. It's amazing how there are just no good possible ideas for this thing)

    • Like 2
    • Haha 1

    WORLDS END - 12/30/2023

    in ALL ELITE WRESTLING

    Posted

    12 minutes ago, Zimbra said:

    Love this idea but wish they had gone straight blue vs gold so we could get some fun face/heel teammate interactions.

    I think having Garcia with the BCC or even Mark after their recent ROH match is interesting. Plus you wonder how RUSH will interact with everyone.

    I was thinking about FTR vs HOB and it just seems like the card will be too much with another match. I’d do Dax vs Black on the pre-show and a very long tag as the Collision main event.

    • Like 2

    SECRET SANTO 2023~!

    in The PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

    Posted

    @Gordi the former AEW fangave me a bunch of stuff, so I figured what the hell, I'd just watch it all..

    Ivan Koloff vs Jeff Jarrett: I'm useless without Esteban to help me with context for PR, but I assume this was ~1990 and in my future for the SC project. Jarrett just missed out on Aniversario 1989 and challenging Super Medico for the Jr. Title due to the hurricane and that was a big disappointment, especially considering how random it was to see Simply Irresistible Jeff Jarrett next to Hugo. Glad he does finally get there. Koloff in 89 PR really showed how much value he still had. He was a top guy and a secondary title holder with El Profe at his side and you can still see the value here. They go ~16 and the first ten is all in and out chain wrestling. Jeff had been wrestling for a bit and had wrestled guys like Bockwinkel, for instance, but this was still a good education for him. We've seen babyface Jarrett so little over the last twenty-five years but it was probably his true calling in general. That he's so good as a heel in 2023 is more that the world has changed really. There are less people with his skillset so it makes it standout more. He was probably always a better babyface. He was great working in and out of holds here, even if was probably Koloff directing traffic. Koloff hits a belly to back at that ten minute mark, but Jarrett has no die and no quit and keeps trying to fire back only to get cut off with eye rakes and by Koloff's superior size. They do a chain shot finish with the ref figuring it out. This didn't feel like PR at all, but I also think that in Memphis, they wouldn't have been able to work this specific match either. It was only in a sort of "neutral" territory that they could have something like this and it was probably very good for Jarrett to go through these motions.

    Andre/Parsons vs Super Destroyers: I have a lot of time for the Irwins. They were big, imposing stooging heels who could give a ton in a match but still be credible when the time came. They had a big task here. Parsons and Andre came out to "We Are Family" which is just what you would imagine might happen in Dallas. Lots of the Irwins bouncing around for Andre and Parsons in the first 2/3rds, including a very fun spot where Andre does a dropdown and is slow to get up so a Destroyer runs right into his butt. It's broken up a bit by a minute or two of them getting lucky and beating on Andre (he put his head down). He just stoically comes back on a Hulk Up though. The real heat is on Parsons which leads to a huge jumping hot tag and Kamala coming out. Post match, Parsons shines Andre's shoe with Akbar's headscarf which again.. Dallas. So, so Dallas.

    Choshu vs Magee: I had some vague idea this existed. Choshu had some interesting singles matches in 86. There's a Martel match I should seek out at some point. This was never really something I was going to go out of my way to watch because there are so many more classic matches I haven't seen. What I didn't know about it was that it was an AJPW Different Styles Fight in 86. We're talking 10 5 minute rounds, though it only goes three. I imagine this was Choshu's idea? Magee was talked up by the announcers as being good at many sports and forms of martial arts but he was billed as a Canadian powerlifter. He did the flips to pre-match (goaded on by his Japanese handler) and they were impressive. The match itself wasn't terrible but you could sense how green Magee was just from the look in his eyes pre-match. You could just tell. He would do impressive rolls but not know where he was in the ring and end up in the ropes. He do a cartwheel and backflip to set up a dropkick but they'd look great and the dropkick would look crummy. The finish was basically him doing a backflip for no reason when he had the advantage and Choshu bodying him. They had set spots worked out at the start of rounds but then it devolved to general uncooperative scrappiness, but the level of skill was just low enough that the scrappiness was interesting in an unseasoned way as opposed to being too defensive and skillful (see Maeda vs Andre). It took Choshu four lariats to barely put him down. There's a world where Magee could have gotten it and been a huge star but it's obviously not this one.

    Studd vs Backlund: This is one of the more exciting big Studd matches. I think he's great at some things, absolutely great, most especially at riling up a crowd by leaning on the dissonance of what a giant should be able to do vs what he actually does. He always takes the easy way out, always cheats when he shouldn't have to, is great at leaning on everything but what he visibly should be able to lean on. The problem is, I think, ultimately his cardio. He was a giant. At times he could stooge big and create a lot of motion. He did so here vs Backlund at a few points. But he, more than almost any other wrestler I can think of, turns that chinlock into an actual resthold as opposed to something that's more dynamically working the crowd. Some of that is on his opponent but the pattern is what it is. When he's down there, he's not working it like the greatest heels can. Here, in the early bits where Backlund is dodging him and outfinessing him, like Pinocchio on uppers (He should be singing "There ain't no strings on me!" every time he gets out of a hold), Studd knows exactly how to sell the wounds of his pride and his heart, how to bluster up when something goes his way, how to build to a big, huge, meaningful spot. He's the opposite of Magee in the last match. He really, truly gets it, and he has the giant frame to make it work and make the fans care so, so much (even on top of the 10K that got me excited for a body slam spot I knew Backlund wasn't going to hit). I just think the body is occasionally unwilling to see through the vision and it drags him down more often than not. Not here though, as they figured out other ways to get to where they were going; I worry a bit that where they were going was a rematch where things were ultimately gummed up. Backlund getting counted out while he had the chickenwing on is a pretty solid piece of trademarked business to get to that next match though.

    Saki vs Mina vs Unagi - Cosmic Rules In Summer Match

    Whenever someone convinces me to watch a Stardom match, it's always something at the tip top of the card and I find it exhausted and full of way too much stuff and not enough breathing and sort of the modern day form of Manami Toyota which is not my favorite anything. This felt more like an R-Rated version of TJPW (I generally find TJPW delightful, harmless fun for what it's worth).  It was a match where anything went so long as it was beach related. They were in white shirts and denim pants. Past one particularly gnarly uraken by (I think) Mina, it was more hairpulling and using the objects in goofy ways. For instance, they made a big fanfare about the water guns entering the match with all three women pulling rope to set it up. Then the water was treated as absolutely deadly. It reminded me of playing Syphon Filter 2 on the PS2 in college against our dorm's resident pesky kid Jeremy. I'd start chasing him with the knife and he'd run from me even though he had the gun. It's just water! Even with the white shirts, they all had bikinis under it but, hey, consistent wrestling logic right? It was used to spray the ref in the eye to break up a count and break up an abdominal stretch. So long as it's consistent, it works for me. The finish was like what would happen if someone pulled off a luchador's mask and ran to the back with it. Except for she came back with a towel instead. All wrestling is symbolic. Sort of. Maybe. Let's go with that.

    • Thanks 1

    Matt Watches 1989 AJPW/1986 NJPW on a Treadmill

    in The PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

    Posted

    3/7/87: Inoki/Sakaguchi/Muto vs Williams/Nagasaki/Pogo: I've been caught up in the holidays and keeping on top of current stuff, but I did catch this last night. Still HH. That means we get entrances which means we get to hear Kendo Nagasaki and Mr. Pogo come out to Born in the USA. Wakamatsu was really making a scene for some reason. More over the top than usual and the fancam guy liked to zoom in on it. Nagasaki started and it's kind of neat to see him against Muto considering what Muto will become. He was surprisingly giving right at the start too, taking handspring elbows and letting Sakaguchi bully him about but some of that was to set the hierarchy by having Doc come in and crush people, including Inoki. It was very back and forth, probably too much so, with Wakamatsu's guys taking it 65/35 or so but never for long enough. My favorite bits were Doc vs Muto because he'd just manhandle him. He did one belly to belly where he just lifted him straight up vertically off the ropes and then caught him mid air and turned him. It seemed effortless. Then he press slammed him. Finish had Inoki sidestepping Doc's charge as Pogo was holding him, putting on the cobra twist, tossing Pogo into Wakamatsu as he went up on the apron and then hitting the back brain kick out of nowhere. Nice to see Sakaguchi mixed in with these guys I guess, but i wish it had a little more form.

    • Like 1

    SECRET SANTO 2023~!

    in The PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

    Posted

    @Gordi the former AEW fan

    Here is a match.

    It's maybe the best single match we saw out of the Panama footage and another chance to see their hero Sandokan and maybe your first look at LA Park well well before he was LA Park. (We covered it here: https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2023/06/espectaculos-promociones-panama-best.html) Also Idolo, as a rudo, who was another iconic figure in Panama. I say that because if you want a bonus, it'd be this...

    which we covered here: https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2023/08/espectaculos-promociones-panama-idolo.html

    This is really just a rudo miscommunication special with a turn at the end, but it's Idolo going tecnico after a lengthy rudo run and I swear to you, it's crazy to watch. It feels like we're watching something that doesn't belong to us, something that we're sneaking a look at. There's something kind of voyeuristic to it, like we're peeking into a neighbor's window to see some moment entirely heartfelt to them. We understand it because we understand wrestling and we can tell how special it is because we see what it means to them, but it's still a little strange, but sort of in the best way, a way that I imagine you'll appreciate.

    So you can watch one or both. Up to you.

    • Thanks 1

    Merry Christmas/Happy New Year!

    in LAND OF CONFUSION

    Posted

    Usually we do some set watching on Xmas. Muppet Family Christmas. Garfield Special. Maybe the He-Man/She-Ra one. A few other things. But after doing Muppet Family, we were waiting for the 6 year old to get up and I put on some Jack Benny Christmas episodes for the 11 year old and she was cracking up, which was a nice surprise and a potential gateway to other things. So that was a good morning so far. Anyway, Happy Holidays, guys.

    • Like 5

    SECRET SANTO 2023~!

    in The PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

    Posted

    I think given the holiday, we're going to wait until Tuesday to draw again if no one has major qualms. That'll make it easier on people giving others picks too, I think. I'm ok going another couple of weeks if people are up for it because of the relatively big pool and how well people have been doing.

    • Like 2
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