mysterious_w

I've reffed a bunch too (still do a masked gimmick for one promotion I work for, as I used to do double duty as ref/wrestler). All the points above are great, in addition: I hate refs who think they're hot shit, "I don't need to know the finish, I'll just count the 3 when it's the 3" etc. The way I did it was to go up to the guys about 30 minutes before they were on and ask "Hey guys, I'm reffing your match tonight, do your know your finish yet? Also is there anything else I need to know?" Don't be a brown-noser, just act professional. As far as invisibility goes, try and form a triangle with the guys in the ring. Keep your wits about you with positioning, don't be the ref that stands in the corner as a guy is getting whipped into it. Bring a watch, then drop timehints when you're checking on guys "CAN YOU CONTINUE??? five mins in guys, five mins DO YOU WANT TO SUBMIT??" On that note, work on voice levels for shit you want the crowd to hear, and shit you only want the workers to hear. Just like how guys call spots. Signal everything to the crowd, and to the timekeeper. When there was a near fall I would shoot my hand up with 2 fingers and shout it was a 2-count as loud as I could, then signalled it to the timekeeper. Makes it seem more legit. Workers will try to use you to communicate to their opponents, do it subtlely. Also, screw black sneakers. I wore black suit trousers (cheap ones), and black dress shoes/black wrestling boots when I reffed.

Nominate: Flamita vs Susumu Yokosuka 5/5 DG From the comments I've been hearing, I thought this would feature a bunch of spots I've never seen before. That wasn't the case, but everything was stiff as hell, and the finishing run was perfectly timed.

Does anyone have that suggestive pic of Ibushi and Omega, that was taken for some Golden Lovers calendar/picture book? I'm trying to explain to a friend that suggesting that they're gay plays well with the female teen audience over there.

I love how Rampage Brown moves around the ring, he's got a crispness to his stuff that make him stand out from a lot of other indy guys. And you weren't wrong about the insane stiffness of Kawakami and Sato.

Summer's theme sounds exactly like ACH's ROH theme:

Pretty sure any of the (UK indy promotion) 4FW guys who've done tours in Michinoku Pro have flown themselves in.

Bit of an awkward question this. I'm watching the last DGUSA show, is Yosuke Santa Maria really transgender? I thought it was just an exotico gimmick at first, but then, he/she seems to be developing breasts...

Has there ever been a show where Quack, El Hijo Del Ice Cream, and Darkness Crabtree all wrestled?

My friend in one of the promotions I work at has been making some silly comedy promo videos, mostly to humour the other boys. We do have a really good cameraman/editor though, which makes all our stuff visually look pretty great: Why don't more indie promotions invest in a decent cameraman? I see so much stuff shot on phone cameras and poorly edited (if at all). Surely it makes your promotion look a lot better than bringing in an aging legend for one show. And I'm sure there's a surplus of flim students/graduates looking for experience, so I thought it would be a lot cheaper too.

I got back into wrestling properly in 2006, and before that I didn't know of the indies at all, so I was too late to catch onto the "Holy shit our guy CM Punk is the #1 guy" stuff. But I bought so many Indy DVD's and saw so many shows with Bryan that I would get that feeling from Bryan if he won it. Also, considering his size, it's probably even more of an unlikely story, and I would love to see it so badly.

As a guy that wrestles in front of crowds of 80, and when I'm lucky to have a curtain and not just walk through a door when I make my entrance, you cannot believe my jealousy when I saw Nakamura's entrance. I mean sure, he deserves it, but holy fuck how awesome was that.

Nominations: 1/4 Shibata vs Goto: Stiff. Like really, REALLY stiff. These 2 beat the fuck out of each other and it was glorious, my favourite match from the show.

I don't get Ciampa. Okay I guess he is over 6 and has some build but he constantly gets injured, doesn't have much charisma, isn't a good wrestler and does really stupid spots. I disagree with a lot of what you say here, but Ciampa is a legit 5' 9". He's not a tall guy.

Does anyone know of any bars in Boston that will be showing the PPV? I've checked the WWE website, but there's no official bars.

Ah I didn't know Jack Gallagher got a Japan tour. Good on him, but I hope he was properly brought out, there's been a lot of bitching over here lately about guys who get tours in Japan as long as they pay for their flights.