lostinube

Akebono was a presence in American media before Yoko's debut-- I'm sure that's what sparked the minds of whoever gave him that gimmick. Well, Akebono was on the cusp but the year before he finally broke through there was a big to-do about Konishiki getting turned down for promotion. That happened in early 92.

Alan Sepinwall on the finale. One thing I definitely agree about. Just because they filmed the ending in advance didn't mean they had to use it.

Because the part about the mother and them being together was compressed. The rest of the story wasn't. The viewers sat through years to get to this point and they feel cheated for various reasons. That's understandable. And it's because of bad storytelling. They compressed the part that people were waiting for and decompressed something (Barney and Robin's wedding) that was undone almost immediately after it happened. And not in a haha, Ted, why are you still here way. Why should we believe that Ted loved the mother so much when we barely got enough time to see them together (and then the parts that people did see, some people loved and then felt even more cheated by what happened).

The show treated Robin prettty badly in the end. She doesn't get Ted for at least a decade and then loses Barney in less than a half a decade all because she can't have babies (it was a big hurdle for Ted, Barney finally changes after he has a child).

Here it's just called a Two-Man Clothesline In an unrelated note, I was reading the Shoemaker book and in the section about Yokozuna I started wondering about the origins of the character. Did Vince have anyone else in mind for the role? Was he hoping to get a legit sumotori? The book (and his deadspin post about Yoko) mention that people mistake/mistook Yoko for Akebono (which is...stupid). Yoko's debut predated Akebono actually becoming a yokozuna (that happened in early 93, Yoko appeared in late 92).

Yeah, I liked the mother with Ted so much that I guess I would have been fine with her still dying if the endgame wasn't Ted and Robin. After all the on and off again stuff with Robin though, the Mother was always going to end up as the silver medal. Someone else somewhere said that in order for Ted and Robin to get together they had to sacrifice the life of the Mother and Barney's character. Two things that they spent years building up just to trash it all in an hour or so. Also, the mother's name is Tracy (if they said it during the show I think I missed it but it was in the closing credits). I will forever be annoyed that Ted got to have his romance with the mother and fulfill all the different things that he said he wanted in a woman yet still end up with the woman who didn't embody any of those things but still loved for ever and ever. I'm sticking with my idea that Ted and Robin, regardless of how they've changed over the years, will not work in the future. They get together and break up and get together and break up and one of them will die before they settle on whether they should have just stayed together all these years.

I much prefer the pairing of Ted/Mother and Robin/Barney. Basically Ted got to live out all the little fantasies he built up in his head from college via the Mother but still ends up with the woman he was never supposed to get. My one solace is that the show ends with Robin and Ted seeing each other again and stopping there. We're supposed to assume that they live happily ever after but it gives me enough space to imagine that they end up apart like they always did before.

So this past Friday (the 21st), I went to my first ever BJW show. I had never actually watched BJW but it was holiday and it was a day show so I could watch it and get back home the same day with no problems. There was actually a Zero-1 show at the same place in the evening but I couldn't stay. It was a fun show. I'd seen Hakata StarLanes on TV via a bunch of Dragon Gate shows so it was nice to be there in person (there was also a BJW fan thing at the bowling alley after the show). Opening match was interesting in that they were trying to get pins off of things like body slams and dropkicks. The women's match was OK if a bit sloppy. Risa Sara whiffed on a kick that Sumire Natsu had to sell and at the end of the match Natsu took a nasty looking kick from Tsukasa Fujimoto that left her with this. The main event was bloody, which is understandable although crazy since they did a light bulb tag match the night before in Yonago. At least this show was being filmed (actually, I think it was or will be broadcasted). To take that much abuse for a crowd in the hundreds is something else. A few photos. I forgot to charge my camera battery so these were all taken with my phone: Shinjiro Otani was selling stuff. He signed my poster. I had a slight bout of indy pride and decided to buy stuff.

Yeah, that's what it looks like. They even have their own page on the Japanese wikipedia. Unfortunately the link at the end of the article is old. They seem to be very parody heavy. Not surprisingly some DDT guys came out of student feds.

From Hansen's Japanese wiki page: ブレーキの壊れたダンプカー Whereas Hyper Choshu Aihara's is ブレーキの着いていないダンプカー For Hansen it's a truck with broken brakes and for Aihara it's a truck with no brakes. I think.

Oh, and the only thing I could find for Zero was their twitter account. They look like another student fed. https://twitter.com/0_prowrestling

Tottori Darazu has a youtube channel. Or they are on the facebook page for Tottori Darazu. You just have to keep scrolling down.

Dunno if this is helpful but: HEAT-UP http://heat-up.biz/ Student Wrestling Summit: http://gpws2014.blog.jp/ Pacific Ocean Wrestling: https://twitter.com/pacificproresu Matsue Dandan Pro Wrestling (MDPW): http://www21.atpages.jp/matuedandan Oretachi Pro (OPG): http://www.nh-kr.com/opg Kyushu Wrestling Federation (KWF): http://puroken-blog.jugem.jp/ Tottori Darazu: https://www.facebook.com/pages/%E9%B3%A5%E5%8F%96%E3%81%A0%E3%82%89%E3%81%9A%E3%83%97%E3%83%AD%E3%83%AC%E3%82%B9/105923179529542 KWF is a university student fed. Oretachi Pro is originally a student fed? Seems to mainly run shows in Okayama.