Childs

For somebody who no longer watches ROH, the 40 minutes since the opener ended have felt like a whole lot of nothing.

The Ospreay-Cobb opener was exactly what you'd want to see from those guys. I hope Cobb becomes a bigger presence in New Japan this year. He'd be a welcome addition to the G1.

Dream-Riddle and WALTER-Dunne were great. Women's match and tag match were fun. Main event was too much.

They were on their way to having a classic, but it came apart a bit in the last 10 minutes. I like Suzuki's schtick, but I really like it when he's pushed to do something more, and Barnett pushed him early. The chair stuff and the forearm exchange were less interesting, and I was not a fan of them doing the extra time only to finish in a draw anyway. Still a cool spectacle on top of an engaging top-to-bottom show, but they left a little on the table.

I enjoyed the NJ Cup quite a bit but thought the final was a dreadful bore. It was built on the worst cliches of the company's main-event style, from the uninteresting opening matwork to the 10 minutes of counter-fu at the end. Okada and Sanada are too similar -- athletic, theoretically charismatic guys with lots of shitty offense. Just didn't work for me at all.

I was not a KENTA fan before WWE, but he was a physically impressive worker at his peak in Japan. I saw him live a few times in ROH, and his talent stood out. He never seemed to have his old athletic snap in WWE. I'm not sure if he was out of sorts with the style or just broken down physically. But he was not the same guy.

I listened to the Observer recap, and Meltzer was lukewarm about this match, suggesting it needed more time to be great. And I thought that was fucking insane. There was no way this match was getting any better. They hit all the perfect beats without a wasted moment, not to mention the timing on the show. I have never looked forward to a Balor match but Ieft this kind of wanting to see them do it again.

You mean the whole card, right? Didn't think the men's Rumble was anything special overall.

You woo me for five hours and then shit in my mouth. Never change WWE.

JBL gleefully cheering Randy Orton attacking a woman is just ...

Leave it to the old Memphis guy to throw a good worked punch.

Brock is such a good all-around performer when he gives a shit.

The work in that match was terrific, and I'm fine with them giving Bryan a crew. But the pacing of this show is nutty.

After two excellent women's title matches, this has been ... not that.

Rousey-Jax has been tremendous. The Ronda haters are such dopes, and Nia has great chemistry with her.

I don't watch a lot of Big Japan, but this was good. Liked the way Suzuki pressed his size advantage early, Nomura's intensity as he tried to take control of the match and the dickish finality of Suzuki's last big punt. You get the sense these guys have an even better match in them, but I'm glad we still see glimmers of shootstyle in 2018.

Just know that if you wait until morning, I may no-sell your offense.

How did the throws not matter? He had Bryan beaten in a squash and picked him up because he's a cocky asshole. It fit his character, and Bryan spent plenty of time selling the damage. And I wouldn't say he slipped on a banana peel. Bryan hit a small cluster of moves on the leg, and they paid off in a single moment. It was a small, well-timed reward for Bryan's opportunism. I'm not saying it was the height of wrestling storytelling, but it was an effective, well-executed match that made good use of their talents and personas.

To me, you're going too far asking a match to be a perfect math equation. In sports (and certainly in life) input doesn't always equal output. Sometimes, you hit a few moves at the right juncture and your opponent falters, regardless of what happened earlier in the match or in another match on the same day. I'm not saying you abandon all logical causality, and I don't think they did. But the ratio doesn't have to be, and probably shouldn't be, one-to-one. They took the fans on the exact ride they intended.

Great main event. Thought it was every bit as good as Lesnar-Styles in a different way. Really good show.

I agree. Thought this was great. I can't say with certainty that it was their best match, but it might have been. Everything these guys do well was on display. The sense of moment-to-moment competition was tremendous.

I guess if you're going to promote a grotesque disaster, you might as well double down on it.

I think I'm done with WWE if they go through with this show. It's an arbitrary line given all the awful shit they've done over the years. But enough.

Watched this again because I was sleepy the first time, and my opinion fell much more in line with the rest of the thread. I got into Ishii's performance and the crowd's reaction to him.

Watched Ishii-Omega again because I was groggy the first time, and I liked it a good bit better. Ishii's performance and the crowd's support for him popped a lot more. It lacked the hellbent intensity of the G1 match, but that's not a criticism. It was a great match in its own right.