RIPPA Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken Sandwich Carl Posted March 18, 2017 Share Posted March 18, 2017 I stared way too long waiting for Meiko to move... Oh, DIY. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted March 18, 2017 Share Posted March 18, 2017 That picture of Meiko feels like cheating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spritenaut 32 Posted March 18, 2017 Share Posted March 18, 2017 Posting a pic of Meiko smiling just seems wrong..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Dave Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 Not sure why #DIY is still here. Neiko. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 I'm not going to fully get behind Gregg here, because that's the path of madness, but when DIY first showed up on NXT TV, he was pretty grumpy about it. Couple of indy darlings with wooden "We're so glad to be here" promo styles and lots of hard strikes and movez and whatever else. We feel endlessly far from that now. They're not perfect. You can find the parody in them pretty easily. Gargano has a little of Tommy Dreamer in him, that "Tell not show" mentality of appealing to the crowd a little too much instead of just making them want it. Sometimes you want to see him get kicked in the face even sort of despite yourself. Ciampa has a bit too much of Benoit in him, a little too much silent but violent. getting by with a little too much substance and not quite enough flash. Through presentation, through hard work, through the right opportunities, through the basic tenets of what works and has always worked in wrestling, they had a hell of a year on a relatively big stage. They were wonderful foils for the Revival. They wrestled each other in a match with so much emotion and weight, really far more than they should have been able to muster given their relatively short time on NXT TV. They, through their ringwork, their promos, their reactions, the post-match interaction, created more than the preexisting some of what parts had been previously laid out and it created as emotional a moment as you get in 2017. That's impressive. We're better off for it. You round it off with some of the social media stuff and I do think they belong this far into the tournament. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonnyLaw Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 Matt with a much more thorough response than I would have given, which would have simply been "They're here because they got more votes than their opponents in prior rounds." Off the top of my head, their CWC match may be one of my favorite matches of the past year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 4 hours ago, Matt D said: I'm not going to fully get behind Gregg here, because that's the path of madness, but when DIY first showed up on NXT TV, he was pretty grumpy about it. Couple of indy darlings with wooden "We're so glad to be here" promo styles and lots of hard strikes and movez and whatever else. We feel endlessly far from that now. They're not perfect. You can find the parody in them pretty easily. Gargano has a little of Tommy Dreamer in him, that "Tell not show" mentality of appealing to the crowd a little too much instead of just making them want it. Sometimes you want to see him get kicked in the face even sort of despite yourself. Ciampa has a bit too much of Benoit in him, a little too much silent by violent. getting by with a little too much substance and not quite enough flash. Through presentation, through hard work, through the right opportunities, through the basic tenets of what works and has always worked in wrestling, they had a hell of a year on a relatively big stage. They were wonderful foils for the Revival. They wrestled each other in a match with so much emotion and weight, really far more than they should have been able to muster given their relatively short time on NXT TV. They, through their ringwork, their promos, their reactions, the post-match interaction, created more than the preexisting some of what parts had been previously laid out and it created as emotional a moment as you get in 2017. That's impressive. We're better off for it. You round it off with some of the social media stuff and I do think they belong this far into the tournament. That is about as perfect as it gets. I want to copy and paste this every time I need to argue for #DIY. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 Matt points out their obvious flaws but also why they're here. I'm rather surprised it's so close. For those voting Meiko, what's your reasoning? She didn't have that stellar of a year from what I saw. The The Io match was great but her other high end matches didn't really go beyond "that was pretty fun!" territory. What am I missing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maciej Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 So for me a Meiko argument looks like this: First of all, I do think that while the better DIY/Revival match is worthy of all the hype that it gets and a fine choice for MOTY, and the AoP match from San Antonio match is also awesome, Meiko does actually have a bunch of matches that go above "that was pretty fun!" territory, and actually a higher quantity of great (or ****+ or whatever) matches in the period. Your mileage may vary, but the matches vs. Chihiro Hashimoto, vs. Aja Kong, w/ Hojo vs. Shirai/Iwatani, w/ DASH vs. Nanae/Yoshiko, vs. Tsukushi, and the King of Trios semis and finals, I like all of those better than the Gargano vs. Ciampa CWC match, which was totally quite good and helped build that very useful tension but for me isn't quite on that level. I forget which thread it was on where someone was putting it this way, but if you rank matches from the time period I think I would have it like #1 DIY, #2 Satomura, #3-5 DIY, and the literally like #6-#14 Satomura. The second thing is that, while there is obviously a lot more to wrestling than cool offense, Meiko just makes everything look really great. She has a variety of kicks that look great, she can be quick on the mat when necessary, the signature stuff like the cartwheel knee drop all works, and for me when you compare that to Gargano's slingshot spears and whatnot it's a pretty big advantage. Now she definitely hasn't had a year of vast improvement or incredibly important victories like DIY has. But, while I agree DIY totally belongs here and won't be too upset when they win, I'm still not sold on voting for them over who I think is the better wrestler and who has also had a very good year, even if it hasn't been as exciting of one or one that's as easy to put a cohesive narrative on. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Totally forgot the Stardom tag which is awesome and I just watched it last week or close to that. Didn't love the other matches in your list that much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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