Jmare007

Hmm, watching the brackets. It seems like Okada has a pretty clear path to the Finals and probably to get the title shot at MSG and get the belt back. And it's funny how Naito losing the IC belt "frees him up" to got for the main title 1 month later. When his whole thing right now is being double champion and Gedo will basically be giving an IWGP title shot to a guy who just lost a big match. I'm all for Naito finally winning but that's just bad booking.

Are we sure they are getting rid of Owens at Mania? Wouldn't shock me if they make it a Triple Threat too.

HOLY SHIT I did not expect these two to have this type of match. They actually went for a minimalistic approach to this and it worked like a fucking charm. It's kind of a hoss version of what Sekimoto and Hideki Suzuki have been doing in the last 2 years in their matches. Every move and strike matters, there's struggle for control on almost every exchange and both pay the price of landing or receiving a hit. 5 years ago these two would've had a slow start that just fills time until they go full speed ahead and just clash against each other until the end. 2019 version of them? They actually build to every sequence. They get to the strike battle - the lariat exchanges were SICK, dear lord - and they get to throw a lot of bombs, but how they get there and how they make every single thing they do matter, shows how two wrestlers that were already awesome, can learn new ways to have a great match. And even the bombs were done in a pace and in a way that showed the wear and tear of the match, fucking loved it. What Sekimoto has done since 2017 in terms of style is really incredible. At one point Daisuke has Hino in a Boston Crab and Yuji starts powering up´to get to the ropes, but it's not your typical spot were the wrestler just gets there because has has to, Hino fucking DRAGS Sekimoto - you can see him leaning forwards, trying to stop Yuji - until he gets the rope break. If you just want to watch a bomb fest, this will probably underwhelm you - because it takes 22-25 minutes or so to get there - but if you have patience, this will be rewarding. I was actually fine with the ending, which just blew my mind. THE YEAR OF THE DAISUKE CONTINUES

My guess is that HHH and DC Dave have a WM rematch in PARTS UNKNOWN in front of MBS and close as the main event. Probably a big gimmick match.

Yuji Okabayashi is in the Champions Carnival and on the same Block as Kento Miyahara, Shuji Ishikawa and Zeus. SO FUCKING HAPPY RIGHT NIOW!

Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi defend the AJPW World Tag Team TItles. To my surprise this was a very competitive/back and forth match, it didn't have the feeling nor was it worked like an invader/interpromotional match but more as a standard tag. I think they took too long to get the match into a higher gear though. The big control section of Lee/Sai over Sekimoto dragged for the most part, Daisuke's hope spots could've came in sooner. But this is a Strong BJ tag so there's a ton to love here. The early exchanges were pretty damn good and Strong BJ's early dominance was. as always, a joy to watch. The final 7 minutes or so were really good too with Okabayashi being a beast and Lee going toe to toe with him. I think I might like this ever more on a rewatch but I'm just too lazy lol.

Roman is also making a GMA appearance on Tuesday so whatever he is announcing in RAW it's big enough for him to promote it the next day. He's at the very least hosting WM, imo.

Joe Mangianello better be Randy Savage. Man the high levels of fuckery we are about to get. Verne Gagne should be hilarious in this.

That program and match will tank badly. People will get pissed it's not Kofi and will be "meh" about the whole thing. The match quality could be really good depending on card placement, but it will most likely end up getting crickets like Bryan vs AJ from the Rumble (or AJ vs Nakamura at WM for that matter).

It's so transparent that I can't help but think it's a work somehow

I wouldn't put much thought into the Lacey Evans plans. The same was supposed to happen with Eva Marie and Lana (twice). And once both of them showed they couldn't really do much, their planned superstar pushes stopped.

By the way, Dave already changed his report and is saying Kofi is the front runner for the Fastlane title shot (he wasn't on those plans either as of the WOR post RAW) he also says it's not clear if that will change the plans for Mania. I hope the crowd stays behind Kofi. He needs to be the most over male talent on the roster in the next month to have a legit shot at Vince changing directions.

Very fun tag match, specially for an exhibition show/match. It had a lot of really good exchanges and they did not shy away from the stuff people wanted to see the most. Tana was the star in this, as he gave us asshole heel Tana and he's always fucking amazing in that role. His cutoffs were perfectly timed and I loved the little things like doing to Mutoh sign right in from of him after doing a dragon screw. I also gotta give him MAJOR props for making Sekimoto look amazing, Tana let Daisuke chop him hard as fuck, lariat him to oblivion AND do the doble german suplex spot, that's a level of generosity that's rarely seen in a interpromotional match, specially between such a big star and a big indy name. Kento did the most with his interactions with Tana, and he really came off as a star too imo. He had control of the crowd and his defience over Tanahashi felt natural and not try hard. The air guitar bit was Yoshi was fine, he doesn't do anything wrong but his stuff doesn't really resonate with the crowd (and myself), he's just there. The finish kinda hurt because of that, as the pairing to bring to match home was Miyahara/Yoshi, and even though what they did was good, it didn't really got much of a reaction. This really makes me want to see Tanahashi vs Kento - maybe at this year's CC? Tana is gonna be available - and Tanahashi vs Sekimoto, but that one has no shot of ever happening Cool match, kinda long but I was satisfied with what they did.

As someone who really enjoys a hot crowd, this was fucking amazing. A lot to love here, from Joe and D-Bry beating this shit out of each other, to Jeff being fucking insane, to Houston SALIVATING for a Kofi win. I knew after Tuesday that Bryan was going to try to do the Santino Marella thing from 2012 but holy shit this was even better. A career moment for Kofi - who was so fired up he messed up a couple of spots -, I hope they book on the fly and give him the title match at Mania and make him fucking win.

Yup, after Tuesday it seemed they were gonna re-do the Santino thing and this time it was even better.

Make Kofi win at Mania, the crowd would fucking love it and it would be an awesome moment.

The crowd is making this incredible

Jeff is fucking insane.

That was hilarious

I think Bryan vs Cena at Summerslam 13' has aged very nicely and it's a good nomination too. Punk vs Cena at MITB is an obvious contender imo. Ciampa vs Gargano at Takeover: NOLA Sasha vs Bailey at Takeoveerr: Brooklyn Sami Zayn vs Shinsuke Nakamura at Takeover: Dallas I'd have to rewatch Cody & Goldust vs The Shield at Battleground 2013, I remember it being pretty damn special though. On that note, are any of the Cesaro vs Zayn matches are worthy? What about Bryan vs Wyatt at the Rumble? Seems like a nice project for some rewatches, but if I'm honest I'm just too lazy to do it.

Oh, of course. I mean Japanese promotions. I'm still praying to Baba that something positives comes out of All Star Battle next week.

My guess is that one Dome show will be Okada vs ?? (probably Naito) and the other will be Ibushi vs Omega. Would LOVE to see some interpromotional matches to boost up the cards.

But the Ibushi love goes back to when he was a Junior. He's always been treated better than any other free lancer (except maybe Sasuke? though his run was shorter) and the sabbatical didn't mean anything as he was right back to being treated like a big deal, his announcement for the G-1 was heavily promoted. RE: Naito. How can you say he was an afterthought and that for the WK 12 match the fans were eagerly anticipating Okada-Omega IV?? Okada vs Naito did amazing business for the Dome and he got Hashimoto-level reaction during that match. The fans wanted a title change, Gedo just decided to keep his (at the time) 6 year formula and give the belt to the gaijin. I'm way more inclined to believe Ibushi hasn't gotten a run because Gedo's booking style than him not signing a long term contract. He had no issue giving the belt to gaijins that he knew were always getting tempted to leave to the U.S. At some point he's gonna have to change it up. Hopefully it will be 2019, but if Okada is the one that gets the belt at the Garden, we might have to add anothe year to the Tana/Okada/Gaijin formula. That's insane, specially because it keeps working

I still contend the "Gedo hasn't pulled the trigger on Ibushi because he's non committal" narrative. I mean, New Japan has made him a way bigger star than he was 5 years ago, and that's even after he took his shit and went home for almost a year. They LOVE Ibushi. Gedo hasn't pulled the trigger on fucking Naito yet, he's just content with what he has in Okada/Tanahashi and likes to add a gaijin to mix in between. It's been that way for 8 years now, unless you wanna count Naito's 1 month transitional reign

He most likely was. Seeing how that first match went, I can totally see Ali getting that exact type of W.