NintendoLogic

Given how closely identified Taker is with WWE and their current financial windfall, you would think that they would pay him whatever it took to get him to sit home and do nothing rather than do anything even remotely affiliated with AEW. Then again, Vince does have a tendency to expect loyalty from others while rarely if ever giving it in return.

Interesting to see Taker at Starrcast after he removed all WWE references from his social media. Everyone had pegged him as a WWE lifer. I wonder what they could've done to drive him from the fold.

The Performance Center needs to do a better job of teaching body part psychology. This past episode of NXT had two separate matches where a guy had a limb worked over the entire match and he sold it by doing the stuff he normally does with no apparent difficulty, grabbing the limb for a few seconds, and then going about his business. In a way, that's even worse than completely blowing it off because you're acknowledging that it should matter but you can't seem to think of a way to really make it count.

Why would you think that Kawada should have ever been the man in pre-split All Japan?

The optics of talent fleeing to a startup promotion en masse being terrible for WWE gives them leverage.

Creative control as a midcard comedy heel. He's talented enough to make it work more than it should, but come on. Saving the planet by being WWE champion? That's some WWF New Generation shit.

The thing is, the journey is as important as the destination. Even if all this is building toward Becky triumphing at Wrestlemania, adding a bunch of WWE bullshit to what should be the simplest storyline imaginable will only diminish its impact. That probably doesn't matter in the short run since Becky appears to be bulletproof. But so did Daniel Bryan, and look what happened to him. You can only swim against the tide for so long before you get pulled under.

These threads remind me of being on DVDVR circa 2013 with all the blind optimism and willful overlooking of all the red flags. I can't wait to hear people start bending over backwards to explain why Charlotte being added to the match is Actually A Good Thing.

OK, I'm caught up now. HeadCheese gave me two matches. They're both pretty short, so I'll review them both. The first one is from the Payback 2016 preshow and pits Ryback against Kalisto for the US title. I remember absolutely nothing about the 2016 WWE midcard, so this feud is new to me. Still, styles make fights, and smaller high flyer vs. bigger guy who tosses him around is pretty idiot-proof. All I ask is that the big guy keep things somewhat lively during the heat section and the little guy's comebacks be somewhat believable. For the most part, this match succeeded on both counts. Ryback isn't the most dynamic offensive wrestler, but he did execute some cool power spots between his taunting and posing. And Kalisto made his comeback with some high-impact spots of his own, including an apron DDT that looked like it could've separated Ryback's shoulder. Unfortunately, he was also responsible for the two worst parts of the match-at the beginning when he nearly landed on his head doing a corkscrew plancha and at the end when he no-sold a top rope military press to hit the Salida del Sol. The latter could've been due to the ref giving them the time cue, though. The second one is a trios match between products of Chikara's Wrestle Factory, five of whom are dressed as some sort of arthropod and the other of whom looks to be a long-lost Brood member. They're all pretty green (Hermit Crab was the only one not in his first year), so this is little more than an exhibition of high flying and comedy. They didn't blow any spots, do anything terribly business-exposing, or overstay their welcome, so there's nothing really to complain about. I did get a kick out of the commentators trying to put over Danjerhawk by saying "You know he's an athlete just by looking at him." Not only was he the shortest and skinniest guy in the match (and being the skinniest guy in a Chikara match is like being the guy with the most scarred-up body in a BJW deathmatch), he was wearing a full body suit that covered up whatever physique he might have. He did throw some nice elbows, though. From aaeo_, I got a match that sounds like the setup to a joke: a shooter (Hikaru Sato) and a deathmatch veteran (Shuji Ishikawa) doing battle in a sleazy DDT spinoff for something called the Union MAX Championship. Neither one seemed to be too eager to get things going, as the first five minutes or so are practically a tribute to Severn vs. Shamrock. Things finally pick up when Ishikawa lands a gourdbuster on the apron. I'm an unabashed mark for a good running knee lift, and his are the best of anyone since Takayama. And he's not thought of as a technician, but his combination abdominal stretch/bodyscissors was pretty swank. Still, I couldn't really buy Sato as a serious threat, which meant the match never really had the potential for true greatness. His strikes couldn't keep Ishikawa down, and the Big Dog kept powering out of his submissions. Granted, Sato was the champion going in, and simply being able to survive Ishikawa's onslaught (the match went to a time-limit draw) was a fine story. But going in cold, it wasn't quite enough to suck me in. Then there's the post-match angle, which I can't even begin to make heads or tails of. From joeg, I got Jushin Liger vs. Masashi Aoyagi in a Different Style Fight. For some reason, this had two simultaneous commentary tracks, which when combined with the frequent jump cuts made this feel less like a match than a phantasmagoric spectacle not really suited to conventional analysis. My main takeaway was that 1990 Liger had a killer mullet that made him a virtual dead ringer for Branscombe Richmond when he lost his mask. From Matt D, I got a fancam of Kobashi and Kikuchi going up against Furnas and Kroffat in 1991. It actually was taped (it's available on Ditch's site), so it's not really a find. Regardless, their 1992 match is an all-time classic, so it's cool to have the opportunity to see it in embryonic form. As one might expect, the meat of the match is two separate Kikuchi-in-peril sections. It's not quite the torture session of the 1992 match, but it's not as if they let him off easy. To be honest, he probably deserved worse for spiking Furnas on a vertical suplex attempt early in the match. Speaking of Furnas, he really was an athletic marvel. You know you're doing something when the crowd is popping for your leapfrogs. And I don't think anyone in history matched his combination of height and precision on dropkicks. The finishing run was heavy on nearfalls and light on selling (Kikiuchi took a Doomsday DDT and was back on offense less than a minute later), which kind of took me out of it. And of course, the referee completely botched the finish, which makes me surprised that Baba released the footage. I wonder if any potential classic matches were left on the cutting room floor due to similar botches. Other than that, the biggest problem with the match was Kobashi being way too aggressive in breaking up pins and submissions. Not only was he inadvertently heeling himself, he was stealing Kikuchi's thunder. Thankfully, he learned his lesson and was much more judicious in that regard in the 1992 match. Finally, from Jetlag, I got a match featuring everyone's favorite copyright-infringing lucha trio: Los Thundercats. I only know them from their bloodbath against Trio Fantasia, so I'm curious as to how they'll fare in a straight wrestling match. I knew nothing about their opponents going in, so I relied on Luchawiki to bring me up to speed. They were collectively known as Los Arqueros del Espacio, and they were another kid-friendly trio. Apparently, Robin Hood was the most notable member due to being part of the Alvarado family (he wrestled as Brazo Cibernetico before his death). Confusingly, Lasser is also dressed as Robin Hood. At least Danny Boy has the courtesy to wear a black singlet for my convenience. This is a title match, so the first fall is spent mostly on the mat. Nothing too fancy, mainly lots of armdrags and leglocks and crucifix pins and the like. Danny Boy seems to be leading things on the mat, but the Thundercats do a good enough job of keeping up. Interestingly, Danny Boy works the entire fall for his team, which I've never seen in a trios match before, so he sits out the second fall. As a result, the fall is more comedic with a particular focus on the antics of Robin Hood. I would not have guessed going in that the literal cartoon characters would be the straight men in this match. In the third fall, we get some fancy lucha submissions, a few dives, a would-be triple pin from the Arqueros, and Robin Hood breaking up a Thundercats triple surfboard by sneaking in for a pin attempt. The Thundercats were down one after Robin Hood pinned Tigro with a fisherman suplex, but Panthro got the win for his team by submitting Danny Boy (the captain of the Arqueros) with a torture rack. That's another thing I don't recall ever seeing in a trios match before. Overall, this worked for me as kind of a budget Brazos/Infernales with some interesting wrinkles in the usual lucha match formula. Thanks for the recs, guys. We should do this again sometime.

Okada challenging White for the belt would be a much better match to main event MSG with than Tanahashi defending against Naito or Ibushi or whoever else. It may not be as good from a wrestling standpoint, but it'll have tons more heat. I still don't quite see it with White, but Gedo seems to be all in on him, and his hits as booker have far outweighed his misses. Trust the process.

Here's a question for the historians. How did Jerry Lawler get an IWGP title shot in 1989? As far as I know, he never toured Japan before then, which isn't surprising since they liked to bring in Americans who were hosses and/or headliners in major territories and he was neither. Was it winning the AWA championship that did it for him? Even though the AWA was on life support at that point, their title was still traditionally considered a major world championship. I'm thinking it might have given him the necessary credibility to work in Japan.

I can only imagine what having Vince in your ear constantly must be like. The surprising thing to me is that we don't see announcer meltdowns more often.

I believe the TNA/NJPW relationship was from 2005 to 2011. In addition to their treatment of Okada, TNA got in hot water for booking an IWGP tag title change without NJPW's permission. Apparently, the last straw was TNA not allowing NJPW to get dates on Team 3D when they held the IWGP tag titles.

Maybe Roman being gone made them too sad to watch anything WWE-related. But seriously, I don't know why anyone would expect women's wrestling to draw in female viewers. I can't think of any sport where the women are more popular than the men even among female fans. I guess stuff like gymnastics and figure skating. OK, lay it out for me then. If I'm somewhat new to WWE and aren't thoroughly familiar with the histories of Becky Lynch the character or Rebecca Quin the person, how is all this supposed to get me behind her and want me to see her succeed? Honestly, the only way it even begins to make sense is if it's leading to Charlotte being added to the match, but nobody seems to want to address that elephant in the room.

Do we know for a fact that the Pacific Northwest John Rambo is the same guy as the Mid-Atlantic John Rambo? After all, there's been a million wrestlers who have been called Rambo or some variant thereof. In addition to this guy/these guys, there's the luchador who lost his mask to Villano III, the guy who worked for Otto Wanz and joined the Truth Commission, and Ron Starr in Puerto Rico. Who else?

Interesting that Double or Nothing is on May 25. Vegas on Memorial Day weekend is an absolute madhouse. It makes me think that maybe some people in the company are looking to get their party on.

I'm going to go ahead and add Bugenhagen to the pile of gimmicks that get over huge in NXT and die horribly on the main roster.

Some of the boys in Portland suspected him of being a stooge for the athletic commission (Sandy Barr was in hot water with the commission for putting on shows without a promoter's license, which he tried to get around by billing them as public workouts). Art Barr shot on him during a match and destroyed his face.

The fact that your objection is rooted in semantic quibbling says it all. Guys, there's nothing wrong with admitting that you're willing to overlook typical crappy WWE booking because it's (hopefully) leading to a positive end result for a change. There's no need to bend over backwards to insist that Bad Storytelling Is Actually Good.

A statistic that blew my mind was recently brought to my attention. This is shaping up to be the first Wrestlemania without a single Kliq member on the card since 4.

Let's recall that Becky's current storyline arc began with her turning on Charlotte at Summerslam because she was upset about her constantly receiving title opportunities she didn't really earn (and even then, Charlotte did more to earn a title shot at Summerslam than Becky did to earn a slot in the Rumble). They feud for the title, which Becky wins. They then reconcile for no real reason other than it being the time of year when Smackdown wrestlers face Raw wrestlers in a series of matches that mean nothing and are never mentioned again. Becky loses the title to Asuka at TLC when Ronda interferes. In the rematch at the Rumble, she loses fair and square without even a hint of controversy. Later that night, she weasels her way into the Rumble match and wins. She decides to run from Asuka and use her title shot to go after Ronda instead. And the WWE powers that be, who sat back and allowed her to enter a Rumble she had no business being in, are now trying to screw her for some reason. If you didn't already know and like Becky and weren't inured to WWE's storytelling incoherence, would you find any of this even remotely compelling? It'd be beside the point if she were bringing in new fans the way Hogan and Austin were, but there's zero evidence that such is the case.

How's this for a historical what if? The latest retro Observer is the issue covering Keiji Mutoh and Satoshi Kojima's jump to All Japan. One of the guys they tried to recruit to go with them: Hiroshi Tanahashi.

Becky got the match with Ronda by conniving her way into the women's Rumble after tapping clean to the other women's champion earlier in the night. If Alexa Bliss had done that, it would be seen as a total heel move. But since it's Becky and we love her, it's supposed to be OK. I get that it's WWE and you have to turn your brain off for anything to make sense. But calling it perfect booking is a bit rich. On that note, have they explained why WWE brass is trying to screw Becky after letting her enter the Rumble when she did nothing to earn a spot? I'm reminded of Roman Reigns trying to paint unearned title shots as a conspiracy against him.

Jay Lethal now holds the record for combined days as ROH champion. Off the top of my head, I can't tell you a single title match or program during his time as champion.

Dave said on Twitter that if you liked this match, you'll love the last few years of PWG. That sounds about right.