Jiji

I'm in the same boat. I didn't like him from day 1 of his Inoki-fueled super push way back when. I'd occasionally watch the odd super hyped match from Japan after '07 and didn't think that much of him and the new "heel persona." But he's really grown into that character and has a unique charisma. His timing is really good and he's become a pretty smart rassler. Good for him. Good for us.

He's a dead ball specialist and is pretty clinical in front of net. On the other hand, he's got tunnel vision, isn't as supremely talented on the ball as you'd think, and doesn't make the best of decisions. He was so frustrating for his first season and a half or so in Vancouver and it's not like he's a guy that could step into a premier league squad, but for the MLS he's good, sometimes great.

ROAD HOUSE SIG! YES! "A polar bear fell on me." To go with one of this month's themes:

Oh. My. God. I finally got around to a late '70s-early '80s Portland set and it's just amazing. It starts in '79 with Buddy Rose, Ed Wiskowski, Roddy Piper, and KILLER TIM BROOKS challenging babyfaces Adrian Adonis and Ron Starr to an 8-man elimination tag match. They then bring a wheelbarrow full of belts and show 'em off for the camera. Great segment. This is followed by the match itself and it goes for about 25 minutes, full of solid action with Piper bumping all over the place for the faces, before Wiskowski and Rose turn on Piper and Brooks following miscommunication during the match. Rose hits a backbreaker, holds and Wiskowski comes off the top with a knee to Brooks' head. This leads to a stretcher job. Fucking awesome! Haha, Rose boasts that they broke Brooks' neck. Buddy is so skinny at this point. I mean, he's pudgy but compared to what was to come.

So, a two or three month run with the IC title is in his future then? Not really a hard push as it doesn't amount to much these days and is a nice place to stash guys they have nothing much for.

That's fantastic. Dick the Loser... haha

I was thinking the first quote exactly, then the second thing popped in my mind when he went into the shed. "There could be much worse things than Japanese wrestling mags in there..."

And how! That Jason, what a man.

It really is amazing they can fit all of this on a current gen game. I feel cheated by all those who came before it. (Okay, not you Red Dead). I'll be on PS3 as well.

If only he were better on the mic, he would have been on a lot more Monday Night Raws. Jason rocked the classy mullet.

Agreed. Washington makes the most sense. Anaheim second. Saku ain't going to be putting up those numbers again over 82 games.

BUT IT'S THE HUMAN GAME OF CHESS, DAMMIT.

Yeah, those were great. Though, why didn't he explain what the mounds of loose paper he was standing on were!? Whomever Dave gets to eventually convert his tapes to DVD needs to torrent that shit up STAT.

He's a legitimate second line center. He was playing some of the worst minutes the league (same with Double Dion) and put up good possession numbers despite this. For all his failings, Ron Wilson used him properly and he was putting up 50+ points. He's a much better center than Tyler Bozak in every way other than faceoff ability, and that's overvalued (see: Gordon, Boyd [he's pretty good defensively, that too... but c'mon!]). He works his balls off, so I don't get the Klima comparison. NHL executives have shown a reluctance to go with guys that have any bad marks against them. This added with his camp wanting too much money are likely why he's still available. Still, I think $4-4.5 up to 3 or 4 years is fine value for him. The Leafs don't use much in the way of advanced stats from what I've read and looking at their moves, but even they have to be negotiating from the standpoint that Kadri (and his teammates) were scoring at unsustainable rates.

It's not his fault these new guys are clueless half the time, dammit!

Well, that answers my question. This will likely be his last season before some top team from a middling European league comes knocking. I don't see how the team can keep him past the January transfer window. Could they sign him to a new designated player status contract to make it at least a bit more financially enticing?

Good thing they shortened the length of contracts, huh. Hey, guys, why hasn't Mikhail Grabovski signed with a team yet?

Then why waste the first half of the match working on it? Just hit fucking moves.

Out of likes for the day, bro, but that was fun.

Does anybody not irrationally hate Tottenham? When it's that widespread, perhaps it isn't so irrational.

The old timers in their books always talk about how agile Don Leo was. Cool picture.

He worked better than DiBiase or Ace in terms of meshing with Hansen and his style, but the short lived team with Gordy before Williams switched over from New Japan was the most bad ass. It was all about the Spivey Spike... It must have been so cool to sit behind the All Japan commentator during live events in the 90's. Except you had to exude the bourgeois notion of self-control and be a blank-faced wanker.

Spivey was decent in All Japan.

Trash was awesome. "What" was always lame.

In the first minute of the final, I thought they had established the story nicely. Naito's surgically repaired knee will be the target. If he's to make the next step up to WHERE THA BIG BOYS PLAY, he has to take it, survive, and still be able to finish off his opponent. It's a great story for his character as he's gotten really close but hasn't won either the IWGP or G1 before, it just could have been executed much better. He did a good job of it during the early and middle stages of the match but kind of pulled an Okada (though not nearly that bad) in the final stretch. You can tell there is a fundamental understanding of wrestling psychology with these younger guys but they have a really difficult time playing it up when it matters most. Ultimo Dragon and his army of cat... er, rather, army of good looking, athletic dudes mostly concerned about moves and executing them as quickly as possible more so than telling a story have really fucked up Japanese wrestling it seems. And the escalation of the All Japan heavyweight style in the late '90s too. That didn't help much either.