Jmare007

They were horrible for that awesome AJ vs Rusev match.

Man I can't fucking stand this crowd.

Yes, I just think it was funny how Seth got the DQ fall after Drew first interfered but then nothing happened when he kept beating him and even hit him with his finisher. Should've been 4-0, where's the VAR dammit? Even DDT can afford one!

LMAO at that whole beatdown only costing Dolph 1 fall

I don't even watch RAW but dude is super over and every time I see him on PPV or read results it looks like he's being put in position to look great and establish him like a big deal.

I see more likely this match goes 45 minutes than getting a Hogan segment.

I wonder if WWE is actually gonna capitalize on how over Rollins is. It seems he's being prepped for a huge main event-Universal title push any day now.

Rusev always shows up when given the chance, come on now.

Damn good fucking match. Rusev was game and AJ in form as always, exactly what I wanted.

How?

Can't wait for this match.

That finish made no sense - both took big moves but shrugged them off just to hit their own move - but up until that point I really liked that match. It was really annoying how the crowd refused to give them a chance though.

It's amazing how far people move the goalposts when it comes to New Japan booking

They could come up with an angle/rivalry thing for him to get a title shot in the Fall anyway, but if that was the plan it's weird they didn't do the typical thing of pinning the champ in the G1 to earn a title shot. Or maybe he's actually gonna win the whole thing back to back. I'm all for Gedo no repeating the 2015 story with Naito/Okada, but the WK 12 finish is gonna look as stupid as it did in January if Okada wins the G-1 and the payoff of WK is Naito being out of the title picture for more than a year. White beating Okada was actually expected. Day 1 upsets are almost mandatory in the G-1 (and most puro tournaments) and they are running with the angle that Okada has lost a step after losing the belt and is trying to find his groove again. RE: Naito. It's kind of hard picturing him winning the tournament back to back - specially before today's results - so his best bet to get to the WK 13 main event title match (and make this year's ending worth a damn for him) was winning the belt from Kenny before January. The path for him to get that title shot would've presented itself if he pinned Omega today, as it's become a tradition of sorts for every guy that beats the champ in the G-1 to get an IWGP title match in September/October/November. With him losing, he either has to win the G-1 or they gotta come up with a new reason for him to challenge Kenny before WK. Or hell, maybe Naito becomes the first person to challenge the G-1 winner and actually beat him for the n°1 contendership.

Naito losing today is kind of a shocker.

As WingedEagle said, not as quick as it used to but way better than last weekend.

I wonder what kind of new deals Daniel Bryan will be getting from WWE in the coming weeks. Everything seems to point to him not signing anything yet and we are 2 months away from his current deal expiring.

From what people that have worked on creative say, they come up with ideas for a specific wrestler, or an angle or a feud. But after that it all comes down to Vince and if he's willing to follow a certain direction or just fuck everything up because he changes his mind all the time. They probably had a plan for Almas that was going to take X number of weeks but by the third one, plans changed and they had to go back to the drawing board. With other people still having programs on TV, he just got shoved to a side and spent like a month or more without any TV appearance. I'm not defending creative by the way, I'm just saying that their job is very limited and more often than not is scrapped eventually or significantly changed.

A very simple match. Nakajima is the veteran - his new sleazy look works perfectly with his demeanor - and does not give one single fuck about the Strong BJ young kids, so he takes any chance he gets to beat the fuck out of them. Kitamiya is the enforcer of the team, though he never establishes control like a Nak, he's there to change the pace and do some cool exchanges with Kamitani. As we know, Nomura and Kamitani are not easy to put down so we basically get one of those "4 people stiffing each other for 20 minutes" tag matches. Everyone involved plays their role perfectly so of course the simple formula works like a charm. Korakuen is red hot and behind the Big Japan underdogs to give this a proper atmosphere. The ending sequence was fucking brutal and it served a very clear purpose, loved it.

Tyson Kidd

Tha hell? I guess they are gonna change it to a tag match after the first segment or something?

And to think the IC title started exactly like the current US belt. Once Nakamura won it, the whole status of the title began to change.

I'm only having issues with the main page, it takes forever to load. To the point I'm just going straight to the board (which has no issues at all for me).

Yeah, this was pretty awesome. Juice did a great job as the babyface with his facial expressions, selling and timing for his hope spots. White did a good job too with the cutoffs and pissing the crowd off. Also loved how it only had 1 nearfall (that worked perfectly), and for a 2018 New Japan match, they kept the excess to a minimum and didn't went for a "your turn/my turn" type of match. Really glad I watched this.

I'm surprised Dave talked about the zabuton/pillow throwing thing as a "never seen before" thing when it was a tradition in Sumo. I get not knowing about it when Vader/Mutoh first happened, but still going with it in 2018 is weird. Or at least that was my impression when I heard him in the WOR podcast.