NintendoLogic

AJ and Tanahashi have both said that their match in the 2015 G1 was their best match ever (that is, best match period, not best match with each other).

It's been a while since we've had a good comparison thread, and it recently occurred to me that these two guys track each other pretty closely in terms of in-ring style, career length, and popular/critical acclaim. A year ago, I would've picked Shawn without a second thought, but now I'm inclined to give AJ the nod. His 2014 to whenever it ends is shaping up to be one of the all-time great runs by a US worker. It certainly smokes any comparable stretch of Shawn's career. Part of that is having better opponents, but he's also been able to produce quality matches with guys I normally have little use for like Kevin Owens and Finn Balor. I still think that Shawn's very best matches are better than AJ's best, but the gap isn't large enough to overcome the sheer volume of high-end Styles output. Thoughts?

Really good show overall. I feel like the trend with WWE PPVs is that the ones that look really promising on paper tend to disappoint while the ones that seem underwhelming overdeliver. I'm glad to see them buck the trend.

Did Saxton seriously say that Raw was the longest-running television show in history?

Best Lesnar match since WM31. Big match AJ does it again.

Some pretty hardcore gynecomastia on Brock.

That was actually a pretty decent poor man's Takayama/Ogawa.

Ashura isn't a Japanese given name. It's a warrior demon in Buddhist cosmology. As for actual names, Masa Saito's name was announced in the Western order, at least from the 80s on. Anyway, really enjoying the writeups. Keep them coming.

Rick Rude of the Year

I actually thought the Sasaki and Tenryu matches were pretty awful the last time I watched them. "I'll stand here and let you hit me and then you stand there and let me hit you" wrestling will never appeal to me on any level. I do really like the tag match at the first post-split Budokan show, though. Overall, I'd give the nod to Akiyama in 2000 on the strength of the Misawa and Vader matches. Kobashi is up there as well, but his best match that year was against Akiyama.

They'd probably make more than a few of the wrestlers.

I don't think Vince would've signed two of New Japan's four biggest stars if he didn't know or care about them.

What did Jinder Mahal do on the indies?

Plus, the optics of New Japan making a deal with a longtime WWE top guy as opposed to a midcarder like Cody Rhodes or a has-been like Billy Gunn can hardly be overstated.

They started doing European tours instead, which I assume were more profitable.

Is this the version Tabe was talking about?

If she's so great at connecting with a crowd, why are crowds dead during her matches?

Because professional wrestlers want to win their professional wrestling matches. Why would the wrestlers not want to be on the winning team? Regardless of if they're going to switch teams once the next draft/shake up happens. It's not like free agency makes pro athletes not care about winning the games they play. Athletes care about winning games with something real on the line. Raw vs. Smackdown is more akin to a preseason or All-Star game.

There's a discussion on the F4W board about Alexa Bliss. I hardly ever watch now, but what they're saying matches up with my view from afar. She's a heel champion who hardly ever gets upstaged in promo battles or has to resort to cheating to win big matches. There's the occasional countout/DQ/screwjob finish, but then she wins the blowoff match clean. Her programs consist of her calling her opponents losers and then being proven right. It'd be one thing if she were having great matches along the way. But she's a middling worker at best, so it's just a bummer all around.

I'll be honest. I had never even heard of this match, let alone seen it pimped as anything special, until I saw this post. I'm not even slightly a fan of actual shoot-style, but I do generally enjoy guys with shooter gimmicks in pro-style matches, so I figured this was worth a look. This match is for the WLW (Harley Race's promotion) Heavyweight Championship. Let me begin by saying how much I love Morishima's Inside the Heat Beats theme, largely because it's so incongruous for someone who's supposed to be a monster/power wrestler. It sounds like it could be Sakura's theme in a Street Fighter game. Then again, Morishima does look like a giant schoolgirl, so maybe it it is appropriate. Anyway, the match. I've been on a NOAH kick recently, and Morishima's lariats might be my favorite thing in wrestling right now. He dominates the opening minutes other than an Ikeda kneebar that would come into play later. There's a funny moment when Ikeda tries to block a backdrop by grabbing the referee, so Morishima just smashes both of them into the turnbuckle. This leads to a visual pinfall off an Amaze Impact. The action spills to the outside, and Morishima grabs a chair and obliterates Ikeda with a JBL to Eddie Guerrero-level shot to the head that I'm surprised didn't bust him open hardway. Morishima then tries to backdrop Ikeda off the apron through a table. It's kind of interesting to see Morishima work a brawling style rather than monster style, more Stan Hansen than Vader. Ikeda blocks it by going after the knee he worked over earlier (psychology!) and turns the tables with a Death Valley Driver through the table. Ikeda starts throwing punches in a desperate attempt to keep the big man down and gets the win with a series of kicks to the head. Super match.This is almost certainly Ikeda's best NOAH match and quite possibly his best match overall, at least for my tastes. It's a shame he never got a big run with a major promotion. With his grasp of pro-style psychology and flair for the dramatic, I think he could've gotten over.

Dude. There comes a time to just give up . I know you maniacs want to bitch and moan about everything. I get it. Youre all diseased and its not your fault. But this time, just stop. Some of you people really need to have some sort of internal sit down about how you react to Dave. If you think his opinions about matches stink than thats fine. But when it comes to reporting, history, and obituaries..all written terribly.. no one compares. So stop with the Well I know what Dave said but I have a hunch, bullshit. Dude. It should be obvious by now that I'm hardly the type to reflexively take issue with everything Dave says, so step off with that bullshit. He's by far the best in the business at what he does, but he's not infallible. He's not above making mistakes or being worked by his sources. Taking his reporting with a grain of salt when certain things don't add up doesn't make you a maniac. She must have asked for time off. But seriously, this makes the Asuka matches even more inexplicable.

The reason that is, because people who don't watch PWG don't watch it because they don't think it's good. Partially, yes. But there are also plenty of people who've never seen it and base their opinions entirely on GIFs and match reports. Those people tend to have pictures of Kevin Nash or Roman Reigns as their avatars.

I saw what Dave wrote. I remain skeptical for the reasons I stated. WWE isn't exactly known for being liberal with granting time off.

I honestly don't know what to think. The idea of someone who isn't a Reigns/Orton/Styles level star being freely granted time off for anything other than a family emergency sounds kind of fishy to me.