Loss

I've just come across a mack truck of listings for shows that happened and were taped in January 2014 in Japan. I'm trying to figure out who is worth watching and who isn't these days, aside from the usual New Japan suspects. Just wanted to ask how these guys are in modern times for the most part: - Shinjiro Otani - Koji Kanemoto - Masato Tanaka - Daisuke Sekimoto - Kota Ibushi - Antonio Honda - KENTA - Takeshi Morishima - Yoshihiro Takayama - Minoru Tanaka - Yoshiaki Fujiwara - Ryuji Sai - Yuji Nagata - Akitoshi Saito - Taiji Ishimori - Mohammed Yone - Jun Akiyama - Kohei Suwama - Taiyo Kea - Go Shiozaki - Rush (in Japan, I know his Mexico rep but that doesn't always translate) Are there any guys that work a totally different style than they did in their heyday, other than Otani? I'm just trying to put together a playlist for myself of stuff to check out, but I don't really want to watch complete shows or else I'll never get anything else done, and I'm just trying to increase my chances of watching good stuff as much as I can. Any help is appreciated.

I just saw Smackdown. If Bryan vs Cesaro never seemed like it went into next gear, the bar is awesomely high in WWE right now, not that I'm complaining at all. I thought that was a very good TV match with an excellent finishing sequence. Sheamus/Ryback was well laid out, but Ryback's selling is too exaggerated and over the top for a big guy in that gimmick. The match was also sloppy as hell. I feel like someone needs to work with Ryback on working like a big man outside of just the power spots. Sheamus looked really good though. Goldust/Bray was a fun 80s Jake Roberts match at the beginning, but ended up going in a different direction when I think a match full of stalling and showboating could have been more effective and entertaining. It also feels like he and Cody are becoming an afterthought now, which sucks. It's frustrating to me that he and Cody don't get to show any long-term frustration over being attacked by Brock or losing the tag titles. I don't think Orton/Christian was a bad match, but it was a big step down from Monday night and came across as second rate as a result. Between Cesaro, Bryan and others, the style seems to be moving in a more aggressive direction, which makes these Christian matches that are well laid out but lacking brutality seem passe. Orton's promo in the match amused me, even if it did nothing to help the match or get anything over.

Previously on PWO: It's brought up all the time by people who talk about puroresu of that era. It's been talked about since the day it washed up on US shores back in 1990: Dave Meltzer's 65 Best Matches of 1990 #6 and given ****3/4 at the time. It's been brought up lots of times since then, both in terms of being a terrific match and also in putting over the underrated greatness of Tommy Rogers as a worker. There are very few All Japan matches of the 1990-97 period that are unknown or haven't been much talked about. Some tags or six men matches might get less run than some others. But if anything, All Japan of that era is probably the most "over discussed" thing in puroresu. That's from someone who has over disussed the promotion about as much as anyone. John This is the match that sold me on the Fantastics. smkelly, I'm glad you're enjoying everything.

Previously at PWO:

Also, if you do Reigns vs Ambrose, what becomes of Rollins?

Previously on PWO: We re-watched that a while back... and I'm trying to remember why I wasn't blown away by it after so many years of not watching it. Not in the sense of thinking it was "bad", or wasn't good. Just that something was off. I don't think it was the heat, or the general "action". It either was some of the layout, the work to the finish, or the Southern Boys (since I remain a MX & Corny fan and doubt it was them). Crap... now I need to watch it yet again. John

I see what you mean. It looks like that is only an issue for "legacy" content, which I realize is 99% of the board's content. I just did a test and it's not happening on new posts now. Sadly, I'm not sure if there is a solution for it. For those willing to invest the time in cleaning up your posts, it would probably be a huge help to take that on. I am doing cleanup in one way or another (in some cases just enhancements) in every thread on the board. I'll try to fix obvious paragraph breaks when possible too.

I remember 10 years ago when he was on Wrestling Observer Live with Jasmine St. Clair. Jasmine mentioned Buddy Rose and they ended up talking about him for a while.

I'm also wondering how they're going to handle the nip slips from 1998-1999 from The Kat and Jacqueline. There may have been more, but I remember both of those. If they edit them, they may get "THIS WAS ADVERTISED AS UNEDITED AND YOU LIED!" and if they don't edit them ... yeah.

Previously on PWO:

Midnight Express vs Rock & Roll Express, from both Wrestle War '90 and the 4/22/90 Main Event. Wrestle War '90 has him almost getting in a fistfight with Cornette when Cornette gets in his face, and the Main Event match ... that spot is too good to spoil.

I'm not sure what you mean.

I'm terribly in the bubble. I know about here, DVDVR, WKO, Wrestling Classics, Kayfabe Memories and the F4W board, but that's about it. What other boards are out there that get a reasonable amount of traffic that you are aware of? I'm setting aside issues of quality for now and just trying to get a handle on what else exists.

Using the term "IWC" is more annoying to me than just about anything else anyone can say about wrestling. Saying it out loud seems even worse.

He was not at all a good traditional wrestling referee, but when you needed something complex from a referee, be it involving himself in a sequence or getting over an angle, he was the guy.

I meant to record Smackdown and forgot until it was too late. How were the Orton/Christian and Bryan/Cesaro matches?

Previously at PWO:

Was this while using the default skin or the Legacy skin? Do you have a screen shot you could provide me?

Tags are expanded from January-March 1990 now if anyone wants to see how it will all work. This is labor intensive and will take a while, but eventually, it will be in effect for every thread on the board. And the threads for "just about everything ever" that were recently mentioned will also have this when that's rolled out.

I believe so, yes. It should work the same way. Sadly, no. It's going to be a bit labor intensive, but I'm editing thread titles. Check the January 1990 folder to see what I've done so far. I've applied hashtags and edited titles there, so you can see where we are going. The good news is that you'll be able to sort those threads in all folders when I'm done by: - Wrestler - Day of the Year - Feud - Promotion - Title on the line - Title Change - City in which it occurred - My star rating (Plan to layer in others eventually, including WON ratings)

That's because people requested that we turn off likes. I'm not sure what the issue is with the skin, but I will look into it.

It's at the very bottom of the home page next to the RSS icon.

If anyone prefers the old interface, click 'Change Theme' at the bottom of the home page and select 'Legacy'. It will look more like the old interface. Secondary titles I think are still there, but aren't visible right now for some reason. Working on it.