GOTNW

This segues into Sheamus becoming involved in HHH's next WM entrance so when HHH takes off his skull costume/hammer/etc, he hands them to Sheamus who says, "I am sworn to carry your burdens." Let's face it, the only way Hunter can top himself now is if a dragon is involved at WM32.Summon Shen Long!

Sheamus' new look is the most preposterous thing ever. It's like he couldn't decide whether to go for an "alternative kid into spiritualism" look or a "GBH superfan" one. Lesnar's new contract must be fucking amazing.

Vince obviously wanted someone BIG and RED to job to Big Show but liked his tag with Kane too much.

I just realize he has a Russia shaped tattoo colored in the Russian flag. Shame to go that far to livie the gimmick just to fade away once your undefeated streak ends.That's the bulgarian flag.

I really like Rusev. Obviusly everyone does. But honestly the idea that he was the best wrestler in the world in the time period just boggles my mind. If Zayn had beaten Nakamura-fine. I wouldn't have agreed with it, but he has performed on a very high level and the NXT bias would've made it reasonable (and I'm also a huge ska/punk nerd as well and that's his entire gimmick). If Harper had defeated him-fine. He's an amazing worker and probably the most consistent one. There were plenty of reasonable arguments for him. What makes Rusev better than those guys? A gimmick? Rusev has certain strenghts-like limb selling and using Axe Kicks as dramatic transitions. And I saw glimpses of him becoming as good as some here consider him in the Big E and Sheamus matches. The Sheamus matches, while not hyped much because of happening in a non-PPV setting, showed the true potential of Rusev. They had a sense of struggle and a level of stiffness you don't usually see in WWE. However a big problem with Rusev has been that he hasn't really mastered working long control segments yet which was painfully evident in the Cena match. Looking at his stuff I really liked (as in-I like him killing Heath Slater in Zack Ryder but there's not much merit in that), there's: The Sheamus Title win match (Rusev's best match, almost great) The Sheamus rematch (very good) The BIg E matches (good-very good) The Swagger matches (solid) other matches of his people liked include: vs Big Show (thought it was dogshit and asked myself "Did anything actually happen in this match prior to the finish?" when it was done) vs Mark Henry (better than the Big Show match but still pretty poor, I'll just write it off with Henry and Show being a bad stylistic match for Rusev) vs Cena vs Ryback on a throwaway Smackdown (Did anyone except Dylan actually like this? It was a completely throwaway match) vs Reigns on......Smackdown as well I think (which was solid). So I can't really see anyone vating on Rusev based on the output of quality matches. I'll listen to an argument but I don't see it. I know Titus O'Neil got shit on inexplicably but his best matches were eerily similar to Rusev's and pretty much on the same level of quality. Now he doesn't have anything as good as the Sheamus matches, and I think Rusev has far greater potential and obviusly gets far more recognition due to where he performs, but the biggest difference between the two, whom I both considering good workers, would be in how they are presented and wouldn't have much to do with their performances. For Nakamura you've got: vs Devitt-New Japan Cup (Devitt's faux heavyweight run symbolically ends with Nakamura punching him in the face-TWICE-and then Boma Yeing him into oblivion) vs Minoru Suzuki-New Japan Cup (more of a Suzuki performance but Nakamura carried his end of the match well and brought good looking, believable comebacks) vs Bad Luck Fale-New Japan Cup (as good of a match as anyone could've gotten out of Fale, with some questioning if it would've been as good without Nakamura busting himself open on a Flying Jujigatame) vs Tanahashi-Invasion Attack (a match held in the same esteem as only a few other top New Japan matches) vs Bad Luck Fale-Dominion (Nakamura gets a maybe (in my opinion definitely) even better match out Fale and it's a carry job if there ever was one) then comes the G1: vs Shibata-a somehwat fascinating match, in the sense that they esentially structured it, worked it and paced it like it would've been twenty years ago. In a tournament where one of the strongest complaints was how similar matches were (I swear if Goto irish whips someone onto the guardrail one more fucking time.....) here was something completely unique. It felt special. A criticism I saw against this match was "legwork going nowhere". Well, there was no legwork. They never insinuated legwork was happening. Yes, a figure-four leglock was used, but more as an efficient offencie maneuver than something directly targeting the legs. This was a normal occurrence in New Japan in the past and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. Good matches I don't feel inclined to dwell upon match: vs Honma vs Nagata vs Kojima vs Tanahashi-they deserve praise for managing to constantly differentiate in how they work their matches while keeping a certain standard of quality vs Fale-he did it again. vs Ishii-great vs Okada-great a match I forgot to mention earlier: vs Daniel Gracie-this DID NOT COMPLETELY SUCK! Actually it was a somewhat compelling shooter vs pro match. I am inclined to overrate matches that are worked in that vein but THIS DID NOT COMPLETELY SUCK! Which is a huge accomplishment if you know much about Daniel Gracie-pro wrestler. post-G1 you've got: vs Fale AGAIN and by this point I'm just staring in awe at how he's doing everything by himself basically vs Shibata for the IC title the infamous WK match vs Ibushi Honestly the reason why Rusev is getting so much support is probably because of the quality of the show he's on. NXT and New Japan are very hot products and the majority backlash that they get is based on how much people like them and not the actual shows themselves (not saying the shows are perfect, because they're not). Raw is shit. It's not fun. The Raw threads are filled with endless perfunctory debates on the morality of watching a shitty wrestling show. Rusev is good, and has been booked and presented extremely well. Pretty much EVERYONE watches Raw. It's easy to latch onto something good and that's exactly what Rusev is. He comes off as a saving grace. But as a performer he's nowhere near a finished product and definitely not on Nakamura's level. It would be quite ironic if, in the year where the international competitors finally break through, the winner would be as conventional as Rusev, especially after Nakamura went through the best workers in WWE and NXT to get here, both of whom have great physical charisma and mannerisms, which have been brought up as Rusev's strenghts. But, pretty much anything Rusev excels at Nakamura does as well. And, let's take a moment to compare why they are over. Both guys have been super-pushed since day one so that cancels itself out. For Rusev, we have: -circumstances unrelated to wrestling -WWE ACTUALLY CAPITALIZING on said circumstances and modiying Rusev's gimmick -a classic gimmick that will draw a certain amount of heat by itself -other performers getting the most out of his act -good booking and timing in terms of opponent selection (Swagger) -Rusev's performance itself (which is good, no doubt about it For Nakamura, we have: -sheer talent And that's where it ends. And he is the most over guy in New Japan right now. Tanahashi is well respected, but he doesn't really get pops. He isn't given main events against Bad Luck Fale. Part of the reason why he probably isn't on top of New Japan is that he doesn't have to be. He does too much good business as a #2 or #3 without ever losing credibility or popularity. For Rusev we don't even know where goes after a hard working American finally slays him. Finally I will end this with quoting Dylan because I think he raised an interesting point: Right now, there isn't any reason to believe Rusev would turn out any better than Doc Gallows. Gallows is also a very capable brawler, but put Rusev in the same situation he is in and it would highlight his weaknesses a lot more than his strenghts. Yet, if you put Nakamura into pretty much ANY situation right now, I don't see it not working out. Japanese assassin in Lucha Undergroun? Works. International signing for NXT? Works. TNA..........ok nothing works out in TNA, but you get the point. Rusev will probably win. But I'd be interested to see someone make an argument for him over Nakamura. Plenty of arguments have been made FOR Rusev, but I haven't seen ONE that would argue he is THAT good RIGHT NOW. (also apologies for any spelling errors this post may contain but do you see how huge it is? I ain't double checking everything)

Goodbye Sami.

Nakamura has made the finals. Shit is ON now.

Horrible news. RIP.

Nakamura was a heel in 2009. He has long since transcended the limitations of "pro wrestling bad guy". And Nakamura hair hate is not cool. Just look at him: So ridiculous. You know the guy just HAS to be a pro wrestler.

To be fair every match they had ended with Takayama going over in three minutes.

No I am not voting puro for the sake of puro. I am voting for the guy wiith the better year as always. That's why I voted fucking Cena over Tanahashi, KENTA and fucking Minoru Suzuki. Do you think I actually like Cena more than Minoru fucking Suzuki? I didn't start religiously watching NXT until, like, two months ago. I tried to watch everything pimped. It's completely in the realm of possibility I missed something but if Luke Harper and his three million three star matches aren' enough for me to vote someone on consistency alone I see no chance for Zayn, whose high end stuff I didn't like nearly as much as Nakamura's. I would've watched the match but I honestly had no clue it existed. I was more aware of Zayn vs Titus O'Neil. Sorry, I have no bracket predictions and no ulterior motives. Hey if you're going to stalk me at least do it properly. I also at least voted Rush over Goto and Negro Casas over Kushida.

I stand corrected and have absolutely zero memory of the aftermentioned happening. I voted based on punch quality Only one way to redeem myself:

Uhm......he did not.Uh...yeah he did. I also witnessed this When? Fatal 4 way was Neville winning via pulling the ref. Big title match was Zayn winning despite showing concern for Neville.

Uhm......he did not.

You know what's PRO WRESTLING? Face falls for heel's handshake spots.

What are the shitty Nakamura matches?

This is a great point. Zayn carried that match with his selling and bumping, Cena just got squashed. Cena-Lesnar felt special, but it was much easier for it to be special because it's narrative was "John Cena gets squashed in a PPV main event". It worked. It was a great match. But Zayn had to do much more to make his match with Owens feel special, which he succeeded at, despite Owens' obvious shortcomings in that match.

He's competent. A super talent like Nakamura can work with that. He got a solid match out of Daniel Gracie FFS.

It's not like Nakamura doesn't have a huge volume of good to great stuff and his best stuff blows Harper's out of the water. Plus he got very good matches out of BAD LUCK FALE on multiple occasions.