NintendoLogic

For those who are completely lost, start here. I have no clue what any of this has to do with Matt LeBlanc.

That was quick.

There's always been an inherent tension with the heel authority figure. If he comes out on top, he get his hand-picked corporate champion. If he doesn't, the rebellious babyface he's opposing makes him a lot of money. When you get right down to it, he wins either way. The concept should have been retired a long time ago before the weight of those tensions caused it to collapse upon itself.

A pretty big step down from the New York/New Jersey Hitmen and the Memphis Maniax, IMO.

I read up on what happened on Smackdown. Did Kevin Owens seriously apologize to Shane?

So it looks like Ronda was dangerously close to coming back as Mocho Rousey. https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/27428063/rousey-nearly-loses-finger-filming-tv-show

Brand spanking new #1 for 2009. What do you know, another hidden gem Suzuki tag. Also updated my top three for 2010.

One thing I've learned from scouring 2000s puro is that Minoru Suzuki consistently delivers the goods in tag matches. Suzuki and Kea come in with a clear game plan: neutralize the heavy hitter Suwama and isolate the junior Kondo. The opening minutes are centered around Suzuki goading Suwama into blowing his stack, resulting in him eating a spike piledriver on the floor. When Suwama is the legal man, Suzuki and Kea go crazy with blind tags, even catching him off-guard with a fake blind tag. Suwama and Kondo string together a nice run of offense near the end, but Suwama's exuberance once again leads to him being taken out and Kondo is overwhelmed by the numbers game. Lots of hard-hitting action as well as quite a few nifty details that aren't easily picked up on initial viewing, making rewatching a rewarding experience. One of the few highlights of the Pro Wrestling Love era.

I downloaded this on a whim from Ditch's website and almost immediately had buyer's remorse when I saw that the file was 387 MB. I certainly wasn't expecting a bona fide classic, but that's what this ended up being. For those who approach long Tanahashi matches with trepidation, rest assured that this is nothing like his usual fare. The veteran outsiders control probably 90% of the match, and they put the young guns through the wringer with a combination of technique, brute force, and underhanded tactics. It was like watching Jumbo and Fuchi torture Kobashi and Kikuchi. It's easy to forget that Nakamura used to do moonsaults and corkscrew planchas. The combination triangle choke/Shining Wizard was a pretty kickass spot. The lack of crowd heat for most of the match hurt it somewhat, but the work in the ring was excellent. Bonus points for Tanahashi continuing to sell the leg after the match.

Wasn't Flair a babyface in the Carolinas in 1984?

New post-G1 top three for 2019 as well as an updated top three for 2017 and 2018. In addition, I decided to select a MOTY for every year going back to 1970 but only do a top 3 from 1980 on.

Tired: Sports entertainment Wired: Performance fighting

According to the latest Observer, visa issues are preventing AAA from announcing an MSG card. The current administration has made the process harder for everyone but especially workers coming from Mexico. Approval used to take about a month, but there are some that still have yet to be approved after eight months. So an AAA show being a disorganized mess might not actually be their fault this time. Well, not entirely.

I had pretty much tuned Beth out by this point, so I missed this gem when it happened.

WWE knew going in that Nikki had serious neck issues, so there's no excuse for having no plan B beyond putting the women's tag belts on ice. The Bellas/IIconics matches almost certainly would have been unwatchable, but having the belts be the centerpiece of a prominent feud would have elevated them in prestige.

It's surely no coincidence that the company's creative and popular nadirs (1995 and 2019) were both marked by the lack of strong heel challengers. But at least the company had enough sense in 1995 to not run Diesel vs. Mabel for months on end.

Tama Tonga trying to rip up Shibata's shirt and being unable to do so made him look like a huge dork.

Let the record reflect that over a third of the people on this poster did not appear on the show in any way.

Seth's selling was fine. The only moves he performed that directly impacted his ribs were the frog splashes. Both times, he registered that he was in severe pain and had to take some time to collect himself before going back on offense. If a rib injury requires you to spend the match curled up in a fetal position, no wrestler in history has ever sold ribs correctly. As for Big E, he's like Bryan in that he can show personality and be entertaining because he's an upper-midcard comedy act. If he ever got a serious main event push, everything authentic about him would be scrubbed away.

It's not that the Takeover thread has an exceptionally high number of replies. It's that the thread for WWE's second-biggest PPV of the year has an exceptionally low number.

This thread actually has fewer replies than the Takeover thread did when that show went off the air. That's pretty astounding.

So that's it? Roman and Bryan didn't appear on the show at all?

Fuck it, that match ruled. Lesnar is God.

This is the second time Balor's been tasked to get a Bray Wyatt gimmick over. When is his contract up?

This crowd is unbelievably dead. I actually thought the sound went out on my feed for a second after that frog splash.