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Great Balls of Fire 2017


The Natural

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That was the first time I've watched live wrestling since the NXT Takeover with Zayn vs Nakamura (I live in the wrong timezone for live PPVs), and almost all of my wrestling viewing the past few years has slowly been working my way through all the episodes of ECW Hardcore TV & Raw from the start, plus the the Pay Per View shows. But something about the idea of Joe vs Brock was interesting to me and as I was already up it just worked out.

Bearing in my mind that my knowledge of the current product is what I see folk talking about on Twitter, I quite enjoyed it. It was less of a chore to sit through for 4 hours from the pre-show to the main event than some of the old ROH DVDs I found which was nice. Neville vs Tozawa was fun enough as an opening match, Bray vs Seth was utterly forgettable but I guess the bloke calling himself a god needing an eye poke to win was mildly funny. I can't even remember anything about Miz vs Ambrose except how utterly mesmerising Bo Dallas looks as a sleazy as fuck roadie for a '70s rock band. I know nothing else about Bo's place right now, don't know why he's a groupie for The Miz, but I do know he looks like the kind of roadie who'd get a blowie off of groupies before letting them backstage with John Bonham. It looked so much better & more interesting than the brief still photo they showed of him wearing a suit badly. I wasn't bored at the time at least. Felt like Big Cass vs Enzo went on too long. I was expecting a squash along the lines of The Steiners murdering jobbers in 1992 and this just went too long and Cass's offence didn't look nearly vicious enough. Maybe it worked with people who watch more often but I just thought it wasn't enough of a squash. And Cassidy is going to need a manager to speak for him. Or at least he would if it was 1995 but instead he'll probably just be left to flounder out there.

As for the stuff I was more excited by, even though on hearing there was a 30 minute Iron Man tag match coming up I was close to just calling it a night I ended up really rather enjoying it. Cesaro is still utterly incredible which wasn't a surprise, but I was surprised with how well the match was put together from top to bottom. Even the predictable finish was just built to really well. So props to whomever was responsible for that. I am confused that they've not been able to come up with a cute team name for Sheamus and Cesaro though. Finish of Banks vs Bliss was a damp squib straight out of a '93 episode of Raw but everything else about it was really quite enjoyable. Braun Strowman vs Roman Reigns was really fun which surprised me. I'd never seen Braun before but he was very enjoyable. The ending, the missed spear right into the ambulance, was quite funny, and then everything after it was just mad. Let's just kill Braun Strowman. I don't know if it turns Roman Reigns or not but I'm glad I witnessed it because it was just bonkers. Absurdly melodramatic but in a really good way.

But it was the main event that I was there to watch. Was it perfect? Nah. Certainly wasn't the best Joe match I've ever seen (I had to look up Joe vs Necro from the IWA:MS Youtube page this afternoon and rewatch that and it was as insane as I remembered). But I felt like Joe came out of it as still looking really strong. Though I was also left wondering if someone couldn't teach Brock another variety of suplex than the German because it seemed a bit of overkill, maybe I'm missing context that makes that really cool. I actually believed at a couple of points that Samoa Joe was going to beat Brock Lesnar, which was cool. Felt like it would have been better with another 5 minutes, for the time they had I liked the end product. Enough where I'm seriously considering watching Raw tonight. Maybe.

More likely I end up just sinking back into a pit of old stuff that I didn't see when I was a kid because we didn't get it because it's kinda fun, though one thing I did like about watching live wrestling is just that's it's fun to chat shit with others on Twitter doing the same thing. There's less people talking about In Your House 6.

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55 minutes ago, Sky Blue Sam said:

We have to remember also that this is overseen by the same person who was in charge when Austin dropped HHH from a great height in a car, for the purpose of revenge, so I can see it's possible they'll still have Regins portrayed as face

Eh, Roman's more of a tweener with face tendencies than a straight-up face. It's perfectly in line with how the feud has gone, IMO. 

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17 minutes ago, Godfrey said:

Also, Samoa Joe has made me excited to watch RAW tonight. Priests from the Vatican are on their way to my house to verify whether that classifies as a miracle or not.

There's a moratorium on me making more bets until I pay off on the last ones, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts tomorrow.

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After thinking about it for a little bit, I think what would have really solidified the Joe/Brock match is if Brock won with the kimura (or used the kimura early in the match to weaken the choke). That move is way more protected than the F5 at this point.

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Brock should have busted out some submissions and some ground work. Maybe go for the elbows that he busted Orton with only to have Joe cover up and counter. Just something to get over how he had to abandon his usual tactics and make Joe and even bigger threat. These guys can have a really good longer match if they want it no doubt. Here's hoping it happens.

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1 minute ago, Matt D said:

I'm also curious where people are on comparisons between Brock and Hansen.

In that Hansen is the 1st or 2nd greatest wrestler of all time and Brock isn't?

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6 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

In that Hansen is the 1st or 2nd greatest wrestler of all time and Brock isn't?

In that they both have similar approaches to how their matches are structured to a degree. They're both very organic monsters who keep coming at you and it's up to the opponent to come up with effective ways to stay alive in relation. They both sell in a manner that's very appropriate and believable to what they're doing. They both have a sense of "realness" which draw people in hugely. To me, they're extremely similar. You put Suplex City Brock in 1995 AJPW against Misawa (who would dominate and go twenty minutes) or Kobashi (who would never say die and go twenty minutes) and it's not all that different from my impression of that era Hansen. It's almost entirely based on his environment and his opponents. 

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I get what they were going for with the finish, but in execution, Roman carried it like an excited German Shepherd who wanted a car ride. 

"Who's a Big Dog that wants to go for a ride in the car? You are! Good boy!"

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2 hours ago, Kropotkin's Beard said:

Braun Strowman vs Roman Reigns was really fun which surprised me. I'd never seen Braun before but he was very enjoyable.

You really need to see their first two matches from this year. Both were great. Braun's second match against big Show is also worth catching.

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I enjoyed the PPV, Brawn v Roman, the tag match, the women's match and Hawkins v Slater (jk) all over delivered.  Joe v Brock started hot then ran out of steam but was still decent.

Enjoyed that hand painted crowd sign for Joe / Brock that made Brock look like Trump.

Heyman was great during the match as well, counting the suplexes, giving advice to Brock after the start, all great stuff.

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There was no double turn last night. Roman just had to look strong...that's all. What was amusing to me was none of those people knew how to bust open a damn lock. Get a hammer and smash the door handle. It was like The Ultimate Warrior in the coffin all over again. Only this time Braun was in an ambulance that was still perfectly drive-able and they could have gotten him out the back.

Brock and Joe was good considering they had to follow all of that and I commend the crowd for being able to perk back up. I think a normal crowd would have checked out and said the hell with this. The match was a tad off though. It left me wanting more. I'm sad that Joe didn't bust out any suplexes of his own. I would have loved to of seen Joe doing a couple of throws on Brock.

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9 hours ago, APO said:

Eh, Roman's more of a tweener with face tendencies than a straight-up face. It's perfectly in line with how the feud has gone, IMO. 

Considering how much Braun has abused Roman, that receipt was due to be cashed.  But that isn't supposed to happen, because Roman should die or lose a leg due to gangrene.

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18 hours ago, RolandTHTG said:

The thing that'll hurt Joe the most is not so much the result but how little reaction the Coquina Clutch got from the crowd.

Not sure if they just didnt buy Joe winning like that or just saw it as another sleeper spot/three arm drop spot rather than a legit "holy shit, he could choke him out here and now" point that they'd built up to for weeks now. 

Chances are he goes back to his shitty uranage finish tonight and becomes another guy 

People were not going to buy it unless he got him on the mat with it. 

I don't get how his uranage is shitty. 

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On 11/07/2017 at 0:00 AM, Horton Hears a Wooo!!! said:

You realize you're talking about a 6 min match, right?

 

I know, thats what makes it crazy! Joe started so hot that 3 mins in when they went to the German > Kokina Clutch trade off it felt like it slowed down.

I really enjoyed it though!

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