MM17 Official SECOND ROUND Results

[RIPPA 29,400]

#DIY over Io Shirai: 46-42

Roman Reigns over Shinsuke Nakamura: 59-56

Kevin Owens over Charlotte: 67-48

Kenny Omega over Chris Jericho: 60-44

Matt Riddle advances via tiebreaker over Samoa Joe: 51-51

Hardys over Pete Dunne: 78-21

Meiko Satomura over John Cena: 52-38

Naito over Negro Casas: 59-21

Okada over Asuka: 61-31

Dragon Lee over L.A. Park: 39-34

Jack Gallagher over Ricochet: 62-36

Miz over Sami Zayn: 95-19

Chris Hero over Kairi Hojo: 59-23

Revival over Tanahashi: 81-18

AJ Styles over Volador Jr: 95-5

Drew Galloway advances over the Wyatts via tiebreaker: 45-45

[West Newbury Bad Boy 9,888]

Only one of the people I voted for lost. Feels good to be on the right side of history!

 

edit: two 

[odessasteps 11,192]

Nakumura losing kills my bracket deader than it already was. 

[The Man Known as Dan 3,391]

I got 13 of the 16 Sweet Sixteen guys, and 7/8 of my elite 8 guys left. I'm pretty pleased. Now I just need the New Japan guys to die a swift death.

[EVA 3,621]

This was a pretty interesting round.  Lots of tight matchups and a few upsets.

[The Man Known as Dan 3,391]

9 minutes ago, EVA said:

This was a pretty interesting round.  Lots of tight matchups and a few upsets.

I'm curious here what felt like an upset? Just from a perspective POV.

[RIPPA 29,400]

Reigns over Nakamura and Meiko over Cena are definitely "upsets"

Just because the "right" person won doesn't make them any less eyebrow raising

[Oyaji 7,425]

People here generally seem favourable to Reigns' in-ring work (he really has improved) and Nakamura mailed it in after the Zayn match, so it wasn't shocking from my perspective. 

[The Man Known as Dan 3,391]

Eh? Nak had a bad year, and Cena was barely there. He had hte Styles series, which is generally loved but not universally, and nothing else of note. I could see how some would find that an upset, but those were some results that seemed to be pretty clear cut to me.

The closest thing to an upset to me is Galloway finding his way to the final 16, but I think that was just a favorable draw. I'm not sure he'd have gotten 25% of the vote against DIY, for instance. Maybe I buy some thinking Gallagher getting this much love is an upset, but Jack is just such a highlight of everything he's part of.

[Matt D 10,553]

Tiebreakers hurt me here. Ah well. I couldn't rationalize making a stronger case against Riddle without being hugely disengeneous and I just didn't see enough Galloway.

[The Man Known as Dan 3,391]

*checks the bracket for the first time in a while, sees he is in first place*

... Hmmm. That probably won't last!

[EVA 3,621]

1 hour ago, El Dragon said:

I'm curious here what felt like an upset? Just from a perspective POV.

Given how strongly this board skews WWE these days, I think Riddle and Galloway could be considered upsets, in the sense that those results strayed from the conventional wisdom re: current DVDVR groupthink.  Same with a joshi soundly thumping Cena.  And board chatter for the last 6 months has had Jericho making a deep run in this, but now he's out in the 2nd round, and at the hands of a guy who doesn't have a great rep around here, no less.

I imagine Reigns over Nak surprised a lot of people, but I've kinda seen the board's opinion of both guys shifting over the last half year, so I wasn't super surprised by it.  (I even called it in the pick 'em.)

[EVA 3,621]

What's hilarious is I had Joe and the Wyatts in my pick em but actually voted for Riddle and Galloway.

I fucked myself pretty hard there.

[The Man Known as Dan 3,391]

Just now, EVA said:

Given how strongly this board skews WWE these days, I think Riddle and Galloway could be considered upsets, in the sense that those results strayed from the conventional wisdom re: current DVDVR groupthink.  Same with a joshi soundly thumping Cena.  And board chatter for the last 6 months has had Jericho making a deep run in this, but now he's out in the 2nd round, and at the hands of a guy who doesn't have a great rep around here, no less.

I imagine Reigns over Nak surprised a lot of people, but I've kinda seen the board's opinion of both guys shifting over the last half year, so I wasn't super surprised by it.  (I even called it in the pick 'em.)

Has it felt strongly WWE swayed here lately? I feel like while they get the most discussion, the general consensus was that Raw and NXT have been pretty rough, were as Smackdown is awesome almost in spite of it's cast sometimes. Joe, Nak, and Asuka had bad years. The Wyatts, as someone who liked the act with Orton, were never really a "deep run" contender. 

Basically, I thought Riddle and Galloway got some pretty good draws. I got Galloway wrong, but I had Riddle all the way through to the elite 8 just because I thought that that particular bracket wasn't that strong. As for the Joshi Cena thing, Joshi didn't beat Cena, Meiko Fucking Satomura did. Meiko who has had good runs in previous march madness and is well established with this voting base.

And Jericho probably would have made a deep run if not against Omega. That was basically a coin flip. I guessed wrong, personally, but there are a lot of New Japan folks here. 

[odessasteps 11,192]

I figured the silent minority here is prob pro-wwe, so thats how i tried to predict with my bracket for the most part. 

If i voted with my heart, i'd have an all lucha final four, depending on brackets. 

[EVA 3,621]

7 minutes ago, El Dragon said:

Has it felt strongly WWE swayed here lately? I feel like while they get the most discussion, the general consensus was that Raw and NXT have been pretty rough, were as Smackdown is awesome almost in spite of it's cast sometimes. Joe, Nak, and Asuka had bad years. The Wyatts, as someone who liked the act with Orton, were never really a "deep run" contender. 

Basically, I thought Riddle and Galloway got some pretty good draws. I got Galloway wrong, but I had Riddle all the way through to the elite 8 just because I thought that that particular bracket wasn't that strong. As for the Joshi Cena thing, Joshi didn't beat Cena, Meiko Fucking Satomura did. Meiko who has had good runs in previous march madness and is well established with this voting base.

And Jericho probably would have made a deep run if not against Omega. That was basically a coin flip. I guessed wrong, personally, but there are a lot of New Japan folks here. 

It's less a feeling that the board is wildly positive on WWE these days and more that, if you just look at what subjects drew the most discussion here over the past year, it's WWE/NXT, the Hardy stuff, Lucha Underground, and New Japan.  Probably in that order.  There isn't nearly the discussion of the American Indy scene or general lucha or the lesser Japanese promotions as there used to be, and I figure that's likely because the majority of posters aren't watching it with any regularity.  Between the fact that this as an aging board and certain prominent posters who used to drive that discussion have departed for other venues, I think our voting base is largely made up of middle-aged dudes with jobs and families who only have x-amount of hours to devote to wrestling  each week, and that's going to be WWE, along with whatever has buzz and is easily digestible (Hardy youtube videos, whatever NJPW match Meltzer gave a bunch of stars, etc.)

With all that in mind, my feeling was that if you're not watching something, you're not going to have a strong insight or opinion on it, and just vote for the guys/gals you know (WWE/NXT, NJPW, LU, the Hardys), which indeed was an explicit talking point in the 1st round.

So either I've Nate Silvered my assessment of the DVDVR electorate, or (and for Rippa's sake, I hope this is the case) people really are watching the videos and considering the debate points and doing their homework before making their choices in these later rounds, now that the homework load is more manageable. 

[nate 4,735]

I'm pleased Riddle advanced.

[Chicken Sandwich Carl 78]

I leave for the weekend and Io and LA Park lose? I feel like this is my fault. I should've campaigned harder.

[Oyaji 7,425]

1 hour ago, EVA said:

It's less a feeling that the board is wildly positive on WWE these days and more that, if you just look at what subjects drew the most discussion here over the past year, it's WWE/NXT, the Hardy stuff, Lucha Underground, and New Japan.  Probably in that order.  There isn't nearly the discussion of the American Indy scene or general lucha or the lesser Japanese promotions as there used to be, and I figure that's likely because the majority of posters aren't watching it with any regularity.  Between the fact that this as an aging board and certain prominent posters who used to drive that discussion have departed for other venues, I think our voting base is largely made up of middle-aged dudes with jobs and families who only have x-amount of hours to devote to wrestling  each week, and that's going to be WWE, along with whatever has buzz and is easily digestible (Hardy youtube videos, whatever NJPW match Meltzer gave a bunch of stars, etc.)

With all that in mind, my feeling was that if you're not watching something, you're not going to have a strong insight or opinion on it, and just vote for the guys/gals you know (WWE/NXT, NJPW, LU, the Hardys), which indeed was an explicit talking point in the 1st round.

So either I've Nate Silvered my assessment of the DVDVR electorate, or (and for Rippa's sake, I hope this is the case) people really are watching the videos and considering the debate points and doing their homework before making their choices in these later rounds, now that the homework load is more manageable. 

The only thing I'd add is, and correct me if I'm wrong, if people haven't seen enough work from BOTH parties involved, they should abstain. I try and watch as much as possible in March to help inform my opinions but I've yet to vote in a Galloway poll because I haven't seen him outside of PWG (where he's solid if not a little boring at times). I'll give that Lashley TNA match a go now that I've watched some more Meiko.

[Ryan 4,972]

I'm still in last on the brackets, by a lot! Good, cause I don't watch a lot of these people and can misjudge opinions on them.

[Niners Fan in CT 12,906]

I was surprised by round two.  I think people are watching videos and doing some research but also a lot of the dudes who lost did not have their typical years in-ring

[JonnyLaw 2,724]

I was hurt by overestimating the board's love of Becky, Hechicero, and the unfrozen Caveman wrestler.

[Eivion 2,632]

16 hours ago, Oyaji said:

The only thing I'd add is, and correct me if I'm wrong, if people haven't seen enough work from BOTH parties involved, they should abstain. I try and watch as much as possible in March to help inform my opinions but I've yet to vote in a Galloway poll because I haven't seen him outside of PWG (where he's solid if not a little boring at times). I'll give that Lashley TNA match a go now that I've watched some more Meiko.

This. Generally, I've stayed out of matches where I've only seen the one person but the other person is highly regarded as well.

[Ryan 4,972]

Satomura, darkhorse to win it all.

[OSJ 4,584]

5 hours ago, Ryan said:

Satomura, darkhorse to win it all.

You may very well be right. This is a bizarre year in that a lot of very talented people had less than impressive years due to poor booking, laziness, injuries, or combinations thereof with really only Io, Meiko, and A.J. doing what was pretty much expected of them and poor Io lost anyway. On the other hand, a lot of people really upped their game considerably and had what may well be career-defining years, (Omega, Naito, Miz, Hero to name a few). At this point, the smart money has to be on A.J. Styles to win the whole thing, but an A.J. vs. Meiko final would be really interesting and likely a lot closer than many would expect.