Dolphman 3000

I remember the most-downloaded wrestling video on Kazaa at one point was RF's fancam of the Xavier vs. Low Ki vs. Homicide 3-way from 2001 JAPW I'm sure that doesn't hold up at all, but everyone was desperate for THE NEXT ECW edit: hey look what I found https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2byoy

Watching back Punk's initial tour of the east coast indies in 2002 is a trip - Zandig stopped booking him in CZW because of the match with Justice Pain, and then 3PW stopped booking him because Meanie wanted him to not work for Feinstein and he said no His career almost went much differently and who knows if/when he would have got to ROH

New Japanese Women’s Wrestling Promotion Reportedly in the Works for September Launch According to a report by PWInsider, there are said to be plans in the works to launch an all-new women’s wrestling promotion in the US that will feature all Japanese-based wrestling talents. The promotion will reportedly be a completely new promotion using women from existing Japanese promotes and run their own events in the United States. Additionally, the prospective promotion wants to set itself apart from competitors with high production values and doing more than showcasing the product in the ring to give the show a different “atmosphere” for its events. The goal would be to make the events feel like authentic Joshi wrestling and also raise the show’s profile to larger audiences outside the typical pro wrestling audience. The group behind the promotion is reportedly investing significant resources and said to be enlisting notable names across entertainment, media, wrestling, and fashion businesses for their front office. PWInsider also notes the the prospective promotion has already booked a date in New York City in September for its debut event.

Looking at Cagematch, Punk had just worked a 59-minute match with Chris Hero in IWA-MS a week before his third match with Joe, so I wonder if he decided on a shorter match with Joe to not take shine off the Hero match

I just rewatched all 3 - I'd call it ***** for the first, ****3/4 for the second, **** for the third. Last one had the Steamboat nonsense with the ring bell and was way too short for a heavily hyped "no time limit" match. Crowd was 50/50 for the first, 70/30 Punk for the second and 70/30 Joe for the third - the crowd not being behind Punk for the last match was a bummer. If their match this weekend was part of the first-round, I'd say they should do a 20-minute draw to preserve the "Punk never beat Joe" aspect of their rivalry. Like how Jerry Lynn always insisted (even in late TNA) that he should never go over RVD.

Jody Fleisch vs. Jonny Storm still holds up extremely well XPW losing all its fans by the end of their Philly run gave us the novelty of a 5-star Jonny Storm vs. Juventud Guerrera match in front of 10 people

Quick look shows only their first ROH match is on the official YouTube channel I mean, bare minimum, throw all their matches on YouTube and put highlight packages on TV Going into it with an "everyone knows about Joe vs. Punk!" expectation is a horrible mistake

They still embed fine, and you can right-click on images and open them in a new tab to enlarge

Riddle should have never backed down when he was calling out Brock on Twitter

Yeah they're just trying to drum up support for a local welcome wagon, even though WWE doesn't realize "Dying cities desperately throwing tax breaks at a circus to come and save their town" is a United States thing If they're trying to eat AEW's lunch, I'd think running SummerSlam at Wembley next August and tying up the venue with an exclusivity deal to lock AEW out for a few years would make more sense

Flair was 45 and Steamboat was 41 when they resumed their feud in 1994 - their first match was 17 years prior, and their last match was 5 years prior Punk and Joe are both 44 now - their first match was 20 years prior, and their last match was 18 years prior Makes me sad Punk and Joe just missed each other in WWE - Joe jumping into the main event scene instead of lingering forever in NXT would have been fun

The main event of the NJPW show yesterday was Moxley/Homicide vs. Desperado/Jun Kasai and was really enjoyable

That's called captivating an audience My father absolutely hated wrestling, but I remember catching him watching Smackdown in 2005 for the Eddie-Rey promos I also remember having Savage-Warrior on TV when I was a kid and the non-fan ladies in the room started crying when Elizabeth ran in to save Randy If you're not watching wrestling for emotion, then I don't know what to tell ya - maybe MOVEZ~ and deathmatch wrestling hit people emotionally in a different way, but I'd have to imagine that's more like an addict getting an adrenaline fix as opposed to some deep emotional connection

ZSJ vs. Nigel McGuinness would be a hell of a consolation prize

Even after Lince stayed loyal to Quack after that, Quack still fired him a couple years later after Scott Hall wandered into a dressing room at the Florida indie he was working and filmed him with his mask off for Last Call with Scott Hall Scott was just going around asking dudes their names, and Lince shook his hand and said "I'm Lince Dorado" - Quack saw it on YouTube and freaked out

Jeff Hardy was 16 years old and lied about his age in order to get used as a WWE job guy in 1994:

This was my problem with Joker Sting in TNA - cool look, good backstage promos, but once he got in front of the crowd it was the same old Sting match

Mark Briscoe was 15 and Jay Briscoe was 16 when they debuted in 2000 - when they worked in Pennsylvania for CZW before they turned 18, they had to wear hoods as "The Midnight Outlawz"

https://www.facebook.com/TheNewWrestlingEra/videos/back-in-2016-when-tommaso-ciampa-led-the-pwg-crowd-to-sing-i-believe-i-can-fly-/1586241218167160