NintendoLogic

How dare anyone who hasn't watched every single Battlarts match on tape attempt to offer an opinion on pro wrestling.

Before this thread goes completely down the shitter, I just want to point out that the only Observer subscribers questioning things on Dave's forum are confirmed trolls and people who have no idea how journalism works.

What sort of disclaimer should Dave provide when covering the Elite? That he really likes their matches? That the Bucks named a move after him? It's obviously a different story if he does have some sort of paid consultant role, but again, there's zero evidence that such is the case.

That's the thing, though. What would the Bucks gain from paying him that he isn't already giving them for free?

I'm pretty sure it became a thing after the HBK/Undertaker match at WM25. It worked in that match because Shawn kicking out of the tombstone was a genuinely shocking moment that warranted a reaction of stunned disbelief. But of course WWE couldn't leave well enough alone and had to turn it into yet another cliched big match spot.

WWE has made a habit in recent years of drawing the wrong lessons from their top stars. The Rock taught them that babyfaces have to inject comedy into their promos. Cena taught them that audience reaction doesn't matter. Bryan taught them that you can get someone over by jobbing them out repeatedly.

Bryan defended the title against Cena a few days ago at a house show in Long Island. Apparently, the crowd was completely behind Cena. Imagine how you would have reacted if someone had told you that a year ago. My guess is that the plan for Mania is Cena beating Bryan for #17 to go along with WWE's plans to promote him as the GOAT.

Like I've said in the past, Bryan virtually single-handedly changed how WWE evaluates talent and how WWE matches are worked.

See, this is an example of how even the most dire material can be salvaged if the delivery is good enough. I actually kind of want to sign up for cougarlife.com after listening to this.

For HeadCheese:

So much for closing the book on 2018. In fact, I ended up going full contrarian with my MOTY pick. NOAH the Reborn, indeed.

That's the case for every one of these polls, though. All of these wrestlers are great on some level, and ranking one over the other is purely a matter of personal preference. It's not like we're being asked to compare Ric Flair and Raja Lion.

It's from the 9/30/90 Misawa/Kawada vs. Jumbo/Taue match. https://imgur.com/r/squaredcircle/18RptGN

That one time Kawada did a moonsault.

I think I'll have to redo my MOTY list after seeing GoKai vs. The Aggression from May 29. I don't know if it'll be my MOTY, but I enjoyed it more than any Japanese tag match in years.

@joeg, my Christmas gift to you is the biggest match to ever take place on that day. It's obviously a pretty famous match, so let me know if you've seen it and I'll give you something else.

I'm not too keen on Ibushi/Ospreay being for the NEVER Openweight Championship. For the past few years, it's served as New Japan's tough guy belt with the likes of Ishii, Goto, and Shibata competing for it. If you take that aspect away, it's just another secondary title with nothing to distinguish it.

Dave mentioned in Jimmy Hart's HOF bio that he was making as little as $250 a week when he was carrying the territory. So it's not like it was total fiction.

It was Nagata's numbers with current wrestlers, who apparently voted for him almost unanimously, that put him over the top. That's the only group of voters he's done HOF-level numbers with, and he's only done so the past two years. Maybe it was his run in the 2017 G1 that did it for them.

A couple of things jumped out at me looking at the numbers. One, there were more votes in the Mexico category than the Japan one, which almost never happens. Two, LA Park's absolute vote total nearly doubled from last year. This leads me to believe that a bunch of voters submitted ballots for Mexico just to vote for Park.

Scott argued today that Minoru Suzuki would beat Brock Lesnar in a shoot.

At this point, I don't think Alexa will ever wrestle again.

I revised my 2018 selections after going on a rewatching spree today. I don't think we'll be getting anything with MOTY potential before Wrestle Kingdom, so I'm going to go ahead and close the book on this year.

@SomethingSavage no doubt taking a victory lap this very moment.

Looks like I was right. The agents focused on the women's match and left Seth and Dean to their own devices.