username

The problem is that 90+% of 30+ minute matches are at least 5 minutes too long, and 90+% of 40+ minute matches are at least 10 minutes too long, and that basically covers every big NJPW match now. Every so often one will make good use of that time but generally they are now all lesser versions of what we could be getting. Shingo/Ospreay probably would have had at worst as good a match at 25 minutes. Add in that most of these matchups aren't exactly fresh and even if the work is solid it's a lot to have to work against. That's not even getting into the issue with the current state o

I feel like everyone remembers this whole stretch different than I do. The festival of friendship was great as was the list shtick... but Owens's title reign was bad and Jericho was involved in much of it. It was basically a less severe version of "Kurt and Austin are funny together but this isn't a good idea when they are the top two heels" and while I don't think I needed Goldberg to hold the belt at that time him winning it off of Owens was basically a mercy killing. Then again Goldberg's match at Mania was better than theirs (which wasn't anything more than fine, them in a top spot would h

I only interacted with John a few times, mainly when I'd randomly mention I was reading a book recommended to me by an author I never heard of that he'd reveal was actually a genre titan (after one of these he posted in one of the "what are you reading threads" asking how people who weren't already into books, or at least genre fiction, were managing to find out what's worth looking into). Anyways I think the last time this happened was when I wrote I was reading and enjoying "A Voyage to Arcturus", he praised the hell out of the writer and recommended picking up a copy of "Devil's Tor" which

If I recall correctly I believe the story was that New Japan lost interest in Riddle once they learned of his fairly open marijuana use, so I think even if WWE had zero interest in him that door was likely closed to him.

It very much looked like he hurt his shoulder, but it is hard to tell if he just grinded his way through an injury or decided to play it up since he visibly jammed it hard and reacted on that powerslam spot.

Yeah I think the argument that Joe was mailing it in at any point in his WWE/NXT run kinda nuts. I saw people feel that a number of his matches in his last year or two as an active competitor underwhelmed compared to expectations, but I think that was more a result of being a larger wrestler who wrestled a physical style most of his career being 40 years old and no longer having much of his previously impressive speed rather than him not caring.

I mean if we are really honest with ourselves no one watching Dynamite will buy that as a significant win, I'm not sure most of their tv audience has seen Jack win a match. AEW is really bad about things like, that where Red Velvet was at one point the #2 ranked woman in the company while having lost every single televised match she ever had (I think that is still true FWIW). Even when the audience was less "smart"/plugged in that wouldn't really work, nowadays even less so. Using the hours to try and scam a streaming service exec is the best argument for it I've ever heard BTW.

I think it is fair for people to hold the seemingly incompatible thoughts that "people losing their jobs is bad and I feel bad for them" and "a certain degree of roster turnover is needed every so often for the benefit of both the company and its fans". Unless someone appears to be a legit scumbag or a truly dreadful worker I generally feel sad for them when they lose what was likely their dream job in WWE or whatever other wrestling promotion, but there has been several times over the years I've watched shows and went "they desperately need fresh faces" which eventually either requires people

I watched that Tenryu/Hansen vs Baba/Rusher match because of this thread and damn was that snazzy.

What I take from this is I wonder exactly how bad Joe's concussion issues were and if WWE simply were just never gonna clear him. While it always felt like they could do more with him when he was available he was generally always used, it's not like he was stuck in the spot Ricochet, Black or Andrade found themselves in. Hoping for him to have a bunch of dream matches now is one thing, but I hope he's actually healthy enough to do so and not ignoring any medical advice. I feel bad about Mojo as he always showed flashes of something and just never seemed to be given enough work to t

I disagree strongly. I want them in the suits with the masks.

It is very much not the easiest read in the world, for the first bit of it I actually had a notepad next to me to jot down names and brief descriptions of who they were which is probably the first time outside of school I had to resort to that. I think probably a good half of the people who give it a shot will likely bounce off of it for those reasons, but if you can get past that it really does a remarkable job laying out what all the major players were facing at home and abroad and hence why they made the disastrous series of choices they made.

This is probably the most "known" recent one but I thought "The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914" by Christopher Clark was a good dive into the conditions that lead to the start of World War 1. This might be too specific of an ask on the history front, but I had a soft spot for the few counterfactual books I read as I found looking at how history could have went a different way put the actual events into greater context so if @Kuetsar knows any good one of those I'd be interested to hear them.

Pfft, if you paid attention you'd have known that his punch is actually fine, it's his chop that was usually awful...

Stylistically AEW is about as homogeneous as WWE is. Under the WWE umbrella you have a more grappling-centric wrestler like Thatcher or the rare times they care to let Gulak do stuff, or a true bruiser like WALTER who will just beat you to death with strikes. New Japan also has people to fit those molds (ZSJ and Ishii for example) but AEW mostly does not. The closest to the latter is probably Kingston, although he's more focused on his own selling than either of those other two are. AEW mainly has people going for your big modern indie 2.9 style approach complete with big kickouts