gordi

You didn't know that six hours would go by in six hours?

It's REALLY interesting watching everyone's rosters coming together. Some guys have had a pretty clear and obvious plan from the get-go. A couple of guys (Elliott and El Boricua) had me wondering at the start but as Matt D points out they were working with a plan all along and it's obviously coming together as we head into the 6-hour rounds. I am getting a real sense of how 12 of the 14 promotions are shaping up now. I mean no offense to either dkookypunk or smartmark but those are the two promotions where, at this point, it seems like there is a ton of talent up and down the roster but I can't quite get a sense of how the pieces fit together just yet. I'm wondering if you guys are taking more of a "best available wrestler" approach to the draft and will figure out booking and style issues later... or if I am just too dumb to figure out where you are headed. I'm very much looking forward to reading how people are going to book their shows. It's possible that my ideas of everyone's "clear and obvious plans" are totally mistaken. Maybe superkix is * actually * planning to book a comedy-style promotion!

That is a great main event. I am all but certain they never had a singles match. Looked on cage match. They faced off twice in tags. Akira Maeda & Nobuhiko Takada vs Rick Steiner & Steve Williams in NJPW in 87 looks like something I'd fantasy book.

I am looking forward to reading that.

I kind of hope Lee Casebolt's first show features something like: Doc, The Steiners, and/or Shamrock taking turns just beating the living snot out of Koji Kitao. I had an idea in the back of my mind that I would take Tenta and Kitao and have John just punch Kitao's ugly face in. Of course, Big John ended up going to the moon instead... hopefully somebody else will hand out the beating that racist and unprofessional jerk deserves.

Joeg wanted Samson Fuyuki.

Card, as always, is subject to change, but as of now it looks like the top three matches on the first グリサン プロレス Supershow will be: Main Event: Gli-San Heavyweight Champion Terry Funk vs Shinya Hashimoto Gli-San Tag Team Champions Bam Bam Bam Bam (Gordy and Bigelow) vs Aces (Jumbo Tsuruta and Giant Baba) Gli-San 6-Man Tag Team Champions MIsawa, Kobashi, and Kikuchi vs Doug Furnas, Dan Kroffat, and Owen Hart

The Can-Am Express - Doug Furnas and Dan Kroffat 1992 El Boricua Low Blow Elliot Lee Casebolt Joeg SirEd Jetlag Beast

Take care!

You could give Hokuto the gimmick

Man, I am pleased with my gaijin contingent: Terrry Funk, Terry Gordy, Bam Bam Bigelow, and Owen Hart. All guys who, in my opinion, can get over with Japanese crowds. I also had my eyes on Hansen, Doc, and Brody... but I am more than happy with what I got. Plus: Jumbo, Misawa, Hashimoto, and Kobashi as my native core! Hard to ask for more than that. Tenryu and Kawada would have been nice, too... but they are (hopefully) in good hands. I sure can't complain about how it's shaking out for Gli-San Puroresu so far. I am gonna have such a good time booking these guys.

We are still in the top 100 picks, so it's not that amazing that there are still some great wrestlers left on the board, particularly given the time frame we are working with.

with the scorpions and cactus:

I was trying to convince LowBlow on pm that Japan would be the best landing place for Andre (because nostalgia goes a long way over here and fans would be inclined to overlook his decrepitude...) ...but even I have to admit that the moon wold be better. Also, I am bummed that everyone no-sold my Terry Funk vs Shinya Hashimoto question back on page 11.

Me, too

Uraken!!! Killer B's up next: Bleh Boricua Beast

Close enough Just to avoid * any possible * confusion; Hashimoto, Shinya. the 1991 version. GRIMMASSSSS! You up!

Have Terry Funk and Shinya Hashimoto ever had a singles match? Have they even faced off in a tag? Is that a match anyone might be interested in "seeing"?

Damn...

This is the biggest downside, that your draft will be compromised because of the (in)actions of others. It's none of my business, but out of curiosity: Where are you going that you will be out of contact for a full week? I live in Japan, so it's hard for me to imagine a location without wifi and computers.

Sadly, it is asking too much to expect 14 out of 14 people to be considerate enough to check in here more than once or twice a day, or to provide a proxy list. I had honestly assumed that it would be no problem. Not the end of the world, though. As has been said before, patience is a virtue.

There were a lot of things I liked about this. Mostly the extremely indy touches: Guys who don't own any actual ring gear, the one heel who actually showed some fire on the stick, goofy announcers tripping over their own tongues, only having three guys per side in a War Games match... I'm not trying to be funny. I like that stuff. I really liked that they threw each other into the cage and got busted open, and booked it so that the good guys were at a a constant disadvantage. What put me off, though, was the "Money Mark who is also a Huge Mark For Himself" booking: Quackenbush faces down impossible odds alone against the heels inside the cage, hits the huge high spot, and then, on the verge of death-from-exhaustion, is forced to face down the heel champion for his belt and yet SOMEHOW AMAZINGLY the dude in charge manages to overcome impossible circumstances yet again to triumph. FFS. I can imagine Jeff Jarrett at the peak of his Stone Cold Cosplay Fantasy Booking EgoMania period watching this and going, like "Dude... really???" It was a bit much, in my opinion.

The cage is a very cool-looking, double-tall lime green chain link job. A couple of minutes in we get a helpful graphic explaining that the Good Guys are: Hijo de Lizmark, Black Dragon, My Boy Felino, Ultimo Vampiro, and Super Parka. The Bad Guys are: Enterrador (who is very large and wearing a Misfits t-shirt), Super Mega and his tag partner Mega, Blue Panther and Oficial (who has a police-style outfit and mask that are kinda reminiscent of early Osaka Pro, so I like him even though he doesn't seem to be all that good at the pro wrestling part of his job). They all kind of mill around for nine minutes and 59 seconds, tossing dudes into the corner and doing some half-hearted mask ripping... but at the ten minute mark there is some kind of explosion, and then everyone goes nuts, scrambling to escape or to stop dudes from escaping. It gets pretty exciting, as dudes don't climb up slowly so that the other guy can catch them. They look for a free corner and fly up there as quickly as possible... you know, like dudes who are actively trying to escape a cage might do. Black Dragon is the first man free, he pulls an amazing athletic leap half-way up the cage and is up and over like Spider-Man, except that he seems to slip going over the top of the cage and just plummets straight to the floor, dead weight style. After that, understandably, most of the other dudes climb up very quickly but then go over the top kind of gingerly and make sure they have secure footing before climbing back down outside the cage. A quick Google search reveals that this is the first ever El Castillo del Terror match. It's become an annual event. The last guy to escape loses his mask or hair. Presumably, nobody is allowed to try to escape until ten minutes have passed. That's a pretty good idea. The problem is that you are left rooting for your boys to escape but then you are left watching the guys who are not your boys, if you get what I mean. The Final Four end up being Ultimo Dragon, Oficial, Super Mega, and Super Parka. They do a nice job of story telling for each of the last four eliminations. One of the tecnicos escapes first, leaving the other tecnioco to take a nasty double team and earn some sympathy, then there is a classic malfunction at the junction spot that evens things up, then outside interference and a turn-about is fair play spot... Overall, pretty unique and very entertaining from the ten minute mark on.