Roman

He better use the Penalty Kick as his finisher.

The closest we got to that in recent times was Paul Heyman:

Everyone takes a vow of silence?

I remember him wrestling before a Smackdown taping. His message board had pics and someone had found the production theme they used. He's not from 'parts unknown'; he's from 'the mists of the arcane and macabre'. They say so in the first sentence! As for 'what thoughts lurk behind that hideous mask'?

NOMINATING: Daichi Hashimoto VS Katsuhiko Nakajima (10/13/2013) – ZERO1 [DailyMotion] This match is unfortunately brought down quite a bit by Hashimoto, who doesn’t really sell at all when he’s on the offence and whose execution of moves isn’t as sharp as they should be to match his character and emotions. Apart from this, this match is very entertaining and Nakajima is great in this. The only bad thing about Nakajima in this match is his outfit. To start, Hashimoto lets his emotions lead him, while Nakajima tries to remain stoic (but can't resist goading Hashimoto). If Hashimoto wants to make a name for himself, he'll have to find someone else to go along with that plan. Nakajima's early taunting and Head Lock make sure Hashimoto gets the message. Nakajima will even sit down and let Hashimoto kick him in the back. But as much will and drive Hashimoto has, Nakajima always shows him he's got a long way to go by putting him down with a smart strike or counter. At some point, Nakajima seems to decide he's going to push Hashimoto's buttons and hurt him a little bit more to test his mettle. There's even the spot where Hashimoto is slapping Nakajima while he's in a submission hold, so Nakajima lets go and beats him up a little bit. I always love that. The only thing Hashimoto does very well is clutching Nakajima’s hand while he’s got the STF locked in. Sadly his kicks and fire are lacking. Nakajima, on the other hand, has some really vicious elbows. The aftermath plays up Nakajima’s veteran character and Hashimoto’s fiery character and leaves open the possibility for a rematch.

Punk needs a muffler.

I was chanting 'Orton.'

I think you, and everyone here are looking at the HHH COO character the wrong way. He's not some sort of egotistical anti-fan character that he wants you to think he is. The real HHH behined-the-scenes is a lonely man who feels incomplete, and lonely. Lonely to the point where he wants to test every young wrestler in the WWE to see if they have what he wants in a young wrester so he can share his wealth with him, or her for the rest of their lives. I believe that young wrestler will be the one who doesn't really the fame, and money, but instead wants the happiness, and responsibility that comes with being "The One". That's the wrestler HHH is looking for. But Daniel Bryan is right there.

He looks more like Prince Devitt to me.

I don't know what wrestler Tom Waits is, but I'm an instant fan.

I've always thought psycho Orton could be a great heel, a bit like Jake Roberts but with psychotic violence instead of snakes. No cowardice, no douchebag arrogance, just a scary, cruel sadist. I think it's not too late to make that work, but then the WWE would have to go all in and not yank his chain again and again. Give him an unstoppable run and meanwhile build up a face to eventually face him. But it can't be Cena; it'd need to be a face everyone would get behind, and Cena's not that guy.

KOTARO SUZUKI & ATSUSHI AOKI vs. SHIGEHIRO IRIE & KEISUKE ISHII (ALL ASIA TAG TITLE) October 27th YES – This is the first AJPW match I have seen in years. I read that there was another walkout a while ago. That’s so heartbreaking given all its history. When did they change the mat? It looks horrible and cheap. Poor All Japan. As for the match itself, perhaps it’s my sleepy mind, but I wasn’t that impressed with Ishii. I was impressed with Irie, though. Great young powerhouse with an ostentatiously different look. He did a lot of things just beautifully: that Black Hole Slam counter, top rope Splash and a Vertical Suplex later on were beauties and looked so crisp. And his elbow strikes and headbutt were hard and vicious. I’ll need to watch this match again and focus on Ishii. JUN AKIYAMA & GO SHIOZAKI VS. SUWAMA & JOE DOERING (AJPW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE) June 2nd NO – Despite the heat and some stiff exchanges, this match didn’t do anything for me. I don’t know why, because it wasn’t a bad match, but it failed to sink its fangs into me. At some point, I was wondering how much longer it was going to be so I could do something else instead. The only moment I truly enjoyed was when Doering Clotheslined Akiyama from the top turnbuckle to the outside. Apart from that, I just thought the match was... bland. It felt like it was on the verge of exploding into something special the entire time, and it never happened. TAKAO OMORI & MANABU SOYA VS. JUN AKIYAMA & GO SHIOZAKI (AJPW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE) March 17th YES – I liked this match a lot more than the one above, and I can’t really say why. I just felt a lot more involved and my attention didn’t stray once. And whereas the finishing stretch in the previous match was hot but at the same time I was really just waiting for it to be over, I was hooked on every move and near-fall. Strange. It may partly be because I was fascinated with Soya, whom I hadn’t seen before. But I like his look (Brody fur braces, caveman skull structure) and he did some little things I loved: he makes a running shoulder block look like it really hurts, and his comeback move being a deadweight Vertical Suplex was the perfect move to do, I thought. Not a great match, but I still liked it quite a bit.

Sai was educated in England, so his English is probably decent as well. He's also quite bland, unfortunately.

The problem of promos could be be easily circumvented by using a manager. Japanese wrestlers in the WWE seem to have the tendency of being brought in as a heel, anyway. And it would be a good opportunity to bring in a new manager who can actually talk or, at the very least, be entertaining and easy to boo. I've always loved managers who didn't scream throughout a match and thus took away from it, or interrupted virtually every single match at some point. Having a guy strictly as a mouthpiece would be nice. Sylvester Lefort comes to mind. He could make a new Legionnaires faction, too. Or a female mouthpiece like Sunny back in the day. She was actually good on promos. I think if you bring in a Japanese guy as a heel and get the crowd get used to him and his mannerisms, it's easier to eventually turn him face by his mere gestures, mannerisms and attitude. I love guys like Yoshihiro Takayama, Minoru Suzuki and Genichiro Tenryu not just because they're great wrestlers, but because they have a body language and do little things that just makes you like them. Grumpy old man Tenryu a few years ago was perhaps the most entertaining wrestler at the time, especially when he was involved in a match with Kobashi. I never saw any interviews or promos with him, and his in-ring work was still pretty good for an old man (although his chops and punches were still stiff as hell), it was the little things he did that made me love him so much. If you find such a guy and give him enough in-ring time to let that register with the crowd, I have no doubt he could get over. Although I do think he'd need a bit of a 'grim, determined ass-kicker' gimmick to make it work and to have an excuse to not be constantly interviewed. It worked well for Goldberg and Benoit.

My God, that extended main event was so much fun. I was loving it when it was just two-on-two, and it lost some of its shine when the final match-up was going on, but even then it was fun. But the original tag match was just so good. Goldust and Roman Reigns having a staredown after a tag made my head run wild with images of an extended singles feud between the two of them, which could only be good for Reigns. Goldust was rocking it, and his fire made me damn near jump out of my chair when he countered a Back Body Drop attempt with his usual 'fall to knees and uppercut', and preceded it with a fired-up, Southern-sounding, 'OH! NOT TODAY!'. Just so, so, so much fun.

Would a guy like Great Kabuki or Great Muta get over in today's WWE as much as they were over decades ago?

Must've been a hell of a match. It was shit. They were both sick and tired of doing the same old 'big, giant, fat behemoth' match and ended up doing a lucha exhibition. They really shouldn't do that, no matter how perfect that 'running sommersault plancha countered into Powerbomb countered into snap Hurricanrana' was.

If it's about the wrestlers, shouldn't they be in the spotlight?