Everything posted by WingedEagle
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[2020-06-07-WWE-NXT TakeOver: In Your House] Karrion Kross vs Tommaso Ciampa
Couldn't agree more. Thought this struck a great balance between squash and competitive affair by giving Ciampa a meaningful comeback before Kross decisively put him down. Arguably that both are more interesting coming out of the match as it was structured.
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[1990-11-09-WWA-Tom Robinson Benefit] Jerry Lawler vs Eddie Gilbert
Watching this I couldn't help but think its a match that would play much better in person than on tape. Oddly I think that holds for small gyms like this as well as for Domes, whereas arena matches can go either away but often benefit from being there live. The nuances from seeing both men's facials and the timing of their bumps while taking in the full presentation would play a lot better from a few rows out when that's the intended audience. I'm not sure why that's what struck me here but it did. Leaving that aside, they worked a fun match that built well utilizing a strong babyface/heel dynamic and the ability of both to punch and respectively sell/stooge.
- [2000-07-02-NJPW] Jushin Liger & Kendo Kashin vs Shinjiro Otani & Koji Kanemoto
- [2000-06-25-NJPW-Summer Struggle] Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka vs Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa
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WWE TV 06/01 - 06/07 Hiding in my bunker to avoid the collapse of civilization
Let's get this out of the way. I'm not defending WWE. At all. But they did have contracts signed by each of the released talents. Those contracts gave the company the right to terminate employment subject to certain terms (notice, non-compete, termination pay, etc.). The timing and circumstances of the releases are awful. But what makes these terminations any worse than any terminations or furloughs by other companies? Perhaps some top of the card talent have guaranteed contracts without an out for the company. Are those all deals negotiated by Barry Bloom and similar reps? Do most talent negotiate and review contracts themselves? Or do all contracts come with an out for the company? If so, has any talent tried to negotiate away such provisions? I just don't quite understand the outrage here relative to any other employee let go elsewhere given that their employment contracts specifically allow for such terminations.
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Outrageous real-life heeling it up
Michael Jordan is the greatest man who ever lived. That's assuming he's human rather than deity.
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Steve "Mongo" McMichael - Is he the best of the worst?
Tough to argue that Mongo was a good professional wrestler. But he was rarely, if ever, put in situations that would rank him among the worst. Most of his matches weren't incredibly long singles affairs so as much as they show someone who wasn't all that strong in most aspects of the job, he was never around or exposed for so long that it was excruciating to watch. A bad 6-8 minute match never makes me hate what I'm watching the way poor 15+ minute matches do.
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Comments that don't warrant a thread - Part 4
Thanks for that. Summerslam commentary suggested the Baron was debuting, but I couldn't recall seeing him on TV at all so wasn't sure it lasted but knew he was gone by Survivor Series. I definitely remember Humperdink as Bigelow's mouthpiece for a bit. Never mind the character, but the look of the Hump next to this fire-scalped bad ass who could fly around the ring didn't make much sense, even to an 8 year old.
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Comments that don't warrant a thread - Part 4
I'm watching Summerslam '88 and was surprised to see Baron Von Raschke managing the Power of Pain. How long was he in for? I had zero recollection of him being in the promotion and thought the PoP were operating on their own until the angle with Fuji at Survivor Series.
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WWE Network... It's Here
Does that mean he's okay with discriminating against people unless they're in his family or house? Legitimate question.
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Is Charlotte Flair the most overpushed WWE wrestler of the century?
Heel Charlotte has been one of the best acts on the roster since she turned a few years back with the big Sasha feud. She's pretty cringeworthy as a babyface character and her toeing the line as seems to be the case lately doesn't do it for me either. But when she's obnoxiously cocky and powerhousing smaller women I think she's a terrific performer. One can easily argue that she's been part of the best main roster match for Sasha, Bayley, Becky, Rousey, Trish, Asuka and others. Perhaps she's been more aggressive in asserting her role/push in recent months, but her name isn't McMahon. At the end of the day she's a voice and not a decision maker. Like every other significant booking decision in the company the credit or blame goes right to the top.
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WWE TV 05/18 - 05/24 The Last Dance was fucking incredible
With AJ moving to Smackdown followed by Riddle/Thatcher in a cage, I could easily see the loser there taking his spot on Raw.
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Hana Kimura passes away
What a horrible, crushing tragedy. I'm well past hoping a horror like this spurs any kind of cultural change, but 22 years old? I don't know how her friends and family deal with something like this but hope they can find some kind of peace at some point. What a nightmare of a week for this business.
- [2004-02-15-NJPW-Fighting Spirit] Genichiro Tenryu vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan
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[1994-06-03-AJPW-Super Power Series] Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada
Love the review as always. No one needs an excuse to rewatch 6/3/94 but one upside of quarantining is plenty of time for rasslin so with your recent blog I'm going to have to check out all of these classics again. Really interested in everyone's thoughts on the quoted piece here. How much does a crowd add to a match and enhance your enjoyment? Does the absence of a rabid crowd like you'd find here or for Kobashi/Kikuchi vs. Furnas/Kroffat or Hogan/Rock limit the ceiling on a match? We're often acknowledging how a crowd may enhance a particular match, but why? How much? Should it? Unless you're talking an incredibly small show there's a big difference in how the live crowd will see a match as opposed to those watching on tape and what translates well in one setting may be less effective in another. I'm not sure how I feel about what the priority should be for those in the ring but am curious what others have thought about this.
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Comments that don't warrant a thread - Part 4
How did Johnny Ace go from Dynamic Dude to top tier gaijin for Giant Baba to a reasonably high level exec in WWE? What was the connection in Stamford that got him in the door?
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WWE Money in the Bank : what the world is not watching
Michael Jordan, obviously. Two more hours of that tonight along with the time to watch this morbid curiosity while working from home make it an easy call to skip a live watch.
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[1990-10-19-AJPW-October Giant Series] Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi
While not quite the 5 star all-timer I recorded it as a few years ago, this was still an outstanding match and legit MOTYC. Kobashi's FIP sequence with Jumbo's squad working over his face was incredibly vicious and compelling, with the selling as pointed and impressive as the offense. It didn't go as long as I remembered but still made Kobashi a legend in Korakuen and brilliantly brought the crowd behind him for the finish. ****1/2
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WWE Network... It's Here
Send me Wilson via overnight shipping so I've got someone to hang out with, but I love that match. Botches and all. Taker at Mania still had an aura and Roman brought the goods both in terms of selling and in attacking the legend. A legitimately great match.
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AEW Dynamite - April 29 2020
This is a fact. She's been the most entertaining character in wrestling for some time now and somehow has risen above the morbid cloud that hangs over current shows.
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The Bridge of Dream
Recently posted in case anyone would like to check it out:
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AEW Dynamite - April 22, 2020
Can we make a Strowman? Or a Braun?
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Comments that don't warrant a thread - Part 4
So the WWF Title was vacated following The Main Event on 2/5/1988 with the twin Hebners angle. The initial bracket for Mania 4 that was released on the following Prime Time and hyped for at least a few weeks would've seen Savage and Dibiase meet in the tourney semifinals. It wasn't until the 3/8/1988 Prime Time that the bracket was revised and Dibiase was moved to the Andre/Hogan half of the bracket to set his path to the finals with a bye. Was there any talk about original plans other than a Savage/Dibiase final that were scrapped and forced a reshuffling or was this simply a lack of attention to details?
- [2007-02-25-LLPW] Meiko Satomura vs Shinobu Kandori