GOTNW

I explained a point in a style that bothers and specifically why it bothers me. It it doesn't resonate with you I'd rather move in in the discussion than rewatch matches pointing to moments and specifically explaining why I think a transition is good or bad if it includes running, I don't think I'm ready to go that far, you'd need to respond a little more dastardly. Let's put it this way. Kenny Omega has some running moves. I'm sure I could think of some, he's got the, urgh, the running knee and he's got the bulldog where he jumps over the opponent. The bulldog requieres his opponent to be turned backwards, and it's something that I don't remember seeing get countered, so it isn't really a factor. The running knee is a big move he does in the finishing stretch, and it's also not something he ever runs the ropes for. Often his opponent is downwards or hanging on to the ropes or he'll just bust it out mid-sequence. He's not going to set it up with an elaborate rope run. So if Kenny Omega runs the ropes five times a match and I know he's got no offence he can use in that situation I know he's getting countered. I don't think Okada has any running strikes, certainly not those that require him to run the ropes while his opponent is standing. Only thing that pops up is the kick he does after he snapmares his opponent, and that never gets countered. Someone like Elgin I don't even know or care to remember what his move-set is, I just know his move isn't going to connect because he uses that transition so many times and when he actually wants to hit a lariat, a big boot or whatever move that would require him to run those ropes, he isn't actually going to do run the ropes, he's just going to use that move in the middle of a pop-up sequence. I haven't really deeply analyzed how that particular transition is used in every wrestling style ever, because it's not something that crossed my mind before I saw it in New Japan and modern puro and kept it seeing over and over again, and then that made me think about how someone like Jumbo Tsuruta used irish whips to base pretty much every move he'd hit, how 90s All Japan used rope running, how it evolved and so on. To some "John Cena has five moves" is a valid criticism, to that you could provide evidence in the form of a "top 150 moves of John Cena" on youtube and emphirically prove their statement incorrect. If someone says Cena has shitty execution and his matches have been dumb PWG tributes in the last two years then you are moving in the direction of taste and it might not bother you that Cena's matches have 15 finisher kick-outs but it could bother me, I could think that Omega's facial expressions are dumb, you that they're great, it's normal. We disagree over things. There were four other points in my initial post, I'm sure I could think of many more, the notion I'm a hypocrite based on your interpretation of my interpretation of a match is a little silly.

There's a pretty big fanbase out there that agrees with his view of New Japan. People like what they like. There's no huge anti-Meltzer/contrarian agenda making people check out different types of wrestling. Maybe, just maybe, people check out CMLL, Black Terry matches, Puerto Rico tags, Otto Wanz matches, French Catch and whatnot because they like wrestling and not because they need to prove to anyone there are two million styles of wrestling that are better than the style a notorious critic is proclaiming to be so good. No one's stopping you from reviewing CMLL, Black Terry and southern indy matches and shitting on them. Maybe you find points like those I made "nitpicking", they're just my explanations of why I dislike a lot of New Japan and don't want to watch certain acclaimed wrestlers more than twice a year when a match gets MOTY/best ever hype. The reality is people shit on everything. No one gets mad when it's done to WWE because everyone gets mad whatever they do. No one gets mad when someone shits on matches from companies with less hype, or they do to the degree that's not really comparable because there simply aren't that many people discussing it. New Japan is in the place it is right now where it's the cool alternative so the people that do take shots at it are frowned upon as hipsters, contrarians, and whatever buzzwords you want to use when the reality is there's not that many of them and most of them made up their minds independently, often before Meltzer even started watching New Japan again. Every wrestling style ever has had running transitions. The problem with the New Japan is that it's specifically overusing them to such a ridiculous degree that you can see them from a mile away both due to their frequency, bad set-ups and the wrestlers lacking the actual *running offence* to create investment in the spot. All Japan had a bunch of irish whips and rope running in the 80s and 90s, they might as well have used them as frequently as New Japan does right now but because of the threat of actual moves that was there when transitions were done it's never been an issue like it's been with current NJ stuff.

I don't care much about Io's last big match or non-Sendai Girls joshi in general. This thread isn't Io Shirai vs John Cena. Maybe slight hyperbole, I don't actually count the number of transitions to come up with exact percentages but there has absolutely been a significant number of matches where they amounted for at least half of the transitions. It sucks elsewhere too. So now we've gone from contrarians to a backlash? What does that have to do with anything? What are the tangible results of this backlash? Results in polls done by wrestling media are the same, the people who disliked Tanahashi now dislike Okada, nothing has changed.

-actual knowledge of how to execute basic offence like low kicks, punches, bodyslams etc. that Omega, Okada, Tanahashi etc. don't execute any better than wrestlers in backyard promotions -transitions that varied more than just "run the ropes and and get hit by a move" which is how 90% of transitions occur in New Japan -actually good matwork -selling that isn't limited to "moves only hurt unless you reverse them, that frees you of all damage you've taken. unless of course you've countered with a finisher, then both wrestlers must miraculously fall down because we can't do a finisher kick-out but want to get a finisher in anyway" -not having to miss the first finisher five times before there's even a chance of it hitting in an elaborate, robotic and overly formulaic manner and so forth What the fuck are contrarian reasons? Is this where we act like people pretend to like or dislike something for some cool on the internet points? No one who lives a remotely healthy life gives a shit about wrestling enough to argue about it for any reason other than to present their own opinion.

Wasn't your gimmick that you hated Japan and loved PWG? What did I miss?

He complained about someone "stealing" a Blue Thunder Driver from him to which I replied "you got all your moves from Fire Pro".

I love Dragon Lee but this year he took a little detour with the injury and his style has been a little exposed, he is one of the best in the world at doing a bunch of high spots but I much prefer how much LA Park gets out of basic brawling and hitting people over the head with chairs making it look like he's Benoiting them without actually doing so and this year we got a lot of high end Park matches due to Elite's more focused booking, his stuff vs Rush, Rey Escorpion, Caristico etc. ruled.

Voted for Miz because he's the one that had actually good matches and also didn't block me on twitter. If great wrestling is a lot of moves immediately followed by no selling pop-ups sure.

Hashimoto vs Kawada.

Kiyoshi Tamura vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto-RINGS 24.6.1999. is the one.

Obvious answer here is the Hashimoto/Nagata vs. Misawa/Akiyama tag which is similar to the match you choose except better in every aspect. Bigger stars, more heat, more satisying finish followed by a way better post-match with a great chaotic brawl. Ohtani/Murakami brawls are also amazing, especially the first one (3/2 so it might be from the same/first Zero-1 show)

I'm not sure how related the two incidents are (not that anyone would care about it). The one you mention may have been just my countrymen making fools of themselves (thought it also could have been a sabotage like this one was) but this particular incident was carefully orchestrated and planned for months in advance. There is a portion of folks with a lot of free time and no life that are very bothered about how things are run in the Croatian Football Federation (it's about as shady and illegal as anywhere else) and always try and make a ruckus when the national team plays to get our national team punished and/or suspended and try and make the people in charge step down. It hasn't worked and it never will but that won't stop them from trying. Your average fan despises them but our inefficient laws make dealing with that group of people quite hard.

It's kind of like that song you liked as a kid that was about colours and stuff and then you grow up and realize the guy who wrote it was just high as hell. That's Jeff Hardy.

https://twitter.com/SURVIVALTOBITAA Yes-that's exactly what it is. Survival Tobita's twitter.

Something inbetween but more the latter.

Matt could defend Garza on GIFs alone.

Steve Grey needed your vote man.

This is my favourite podcast for whatever that's worth. DEAN's list is amazing.

Nom: KUSHIDA vs Will Ospreay (4/10) I enjoy KUSHIDA appropriating the Minoru Tanaka/Kendo Kashin "every move I do is Armbar" gimmick. I really, really don't care for Ospreay-I could do away with indy wrestlers in 2016 who have athletic ability and flips and not much other-but KUSHIDA does a very good job of constructing a match around him and grounding him so that Ospreay's weaknesses don't matter as much. KUSHIDA worked like a true junior ace here and the theme of him working as a base of high-fliers that tries to ground them could be a great formula. I wasn't that crazy over this match but at the least I think it is unique enough to deserve a nomination.

Nom: Jun Akiyama, Zeus & The Bodyguard vs Daich Hashimoto, Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi (AJPW 3/12) Strong BJ vs The Big Guns brings you the HOSSFIGHTING OF JAPAN PRO WRESTLING. Akiyama vs anyone from the Big Japan team sounds great, and here he focuses on destroying Daichi, and as you might know Akiyama vs young punk has been the best match in puro for the last 10 years and it delivers once again. Jun Akiyama vs Yuma Aoyagi AJPW (2/21) This is a glorified squash and Akiyama is a perfect cast for the role of the rookie executioner as he his attacks are as vicious as anyone's, his knees looked as brutal as ever but he also busted some unusual front kicks that also looked really great. It was a very interesting match to observe, as Akiyama was both working a compelling match while teaching the kid how the work, which was best exemplified when he would just flat out refuse to sell for Aoyagi's weak offence until he hit him with something worthwhile. I had about as much fun watching this as I did any match from 2016 and we don't have the shorties thread anymore so.....please watch this? It's good fun I promise.

Nominating: HARASHIMA vs Shigehiro Irie (DDT 2/28) Neat match that was really made by the surprisingly good selling. Irie has some good power spots, and him punching through HARASHIMA's guard and annihilating him with THE POUNCE sounds great in a vacuum but the way HARASHIMA just throws himself with crazy bumps really adds to them. They do some crowd brawling early on but they throw good strikes and it is more them slamming each other into the barricade and the apron then one wrestler "dragging" the other halfway across the arena to get him back into the ring which looks more like they're holding hands than actual dragging. HARASHIMA responds to Irie's power offence wih vicious knee strikes and stomps. Finishing stretch is a little too nearfall heavy but it was very exciting and fun. HARASHIMA slipping through Irie's attempted Fire Thunder Driver was an amazing spot and they executed "will he or will he not fall down" selling about as good as they could've.

I don't have much to nitpick about. Really strong show. Nakamura-Zayn was very much their best-of spots combined together into a match, but. It just clicked. The way Zayn, as the top face, reacted to Nakamura's viciousness by punching him and stomping on his head is the type of thing that makes him a great wrestler. In comparison, Bayley didn't really show anything against Asuka. She tried to work on her kicking leg, but didn't really ramp up the intensity or anything. Her one ankle lock spot was cool but she really needed to do more, especially since she almost started crying out of fear when she had the stare down with Asuka after she saved Bayley from Nia and Eva. I don't know. Sami lost but also looked really great in an excellent match and it felt like a great send off and he looks to be done. Asuka-Bayley wasn't as good as I'd hoped it would be (and I don't hold Bayley in the same esteem the people who voted her into winning MM do) and the ending made me feel they HAVE to do something more cause.......yikes. Still a good match but I hope we get a rematch and it is better. Tag match was very strong as well. Botch came at a bad time and IMO they needed to prolong the heat section to salvage it instead of continuing with what they were planning but. It was still really good. Laid out well and had a lot of great spots and ideas. Not a great match bud they'll get there. Corbin-Aries was fine, thought Corbin looked way better than Aries. Finn Balor is boring. The first couple minutes of the main were really great, with Joe just ragdolling him, but when they transitioned away from Joe murdering Balor to cute reversals and "we love strong style" exchanges I was done.

Oh man I hope his original spelling will be preserved.

So no jokes today? DEAN did submit his GWE ballot like you said on twitter right? That did happen?

Irrelevant points: What the hell is march madness anyway? What criteria do we even use for this? Best wrestler favourite wrestler? Best entrance music? Best tights? What about their twitter game? What are we even arguing about? Relevant points: Was it in the voting period?