C.S.

I just wanted to say how much I really liked this article, and I hope we get more of these types of long-form, in-depth pieces examinations of wrestling from angles most people would never consider. I don't want to spoil the piece, which is certainly worth reading in its entirety, but I do want to highlight one of my favorite passages. Fantastic stuff, Charles. Here's the link for anyone else who hasn't read it already: https://www.prowrestlingonly.com/wrestling-on-fast-forward

Watched Vader vs. Hansen the other night. It was the NJPW World Freebie of the Week (not sure if it still is). Even after Vader's eye popped out of its socket, Sloppy Stan seemed to take liberty after liberty. I know he's blind as a bat, but damn! Not sure how Hansen doesn't have more of a rep of being an unsafe worker, between this Vader incident and fucking up Bruno's neck. Even though it was 30 years ago and Vader is no longer with us, I still felt worried for the big guy.

I subbed to NJPW World and finally caught this. I remember the magazines making a big time about how much "better" Hogan was in Japan, but I sure didn't see it here. I think you're all being too easy on Hogan (not that Muta was any great shakes in this match either). The spot at the end where Muta grabbed the netting to glide onto Hogan was pretty cool though. This felt like a heel vs. heel match, and not in a good way. A disappointing match, especially considering the classics both were capable of at the time.

Anyone else really pleasantly surprised by what an awesome (no pun intended) actor Kong turned out to be? Seriously, she's not just "good for a wrestler" - she's a good actor, period. No spoilers, but her episode was one of the best, rawest (again, no pun intended), and most heartfelt of the season. Really glad she got upped to series regular. I have no idea why Chris Lowell (Bash) is still a guest-star. I think I've followed him from show to show (not intentionally) and this is easily his best work. I mean, if you had told me a few years ago that Dell from Private frickin' Practice was going to gush over

That is the most ass-backward billing system ever. But I guess I could sign up today and get 99% of the value. I was flipping through the app (I got a Fire TV Cube, so I finally have a way to watch NJPW World on TV) and was intrigued by all of the archive matches - Muta vs. Hogan, etc. I have to confess I didn't even know the G1 was coming up. Edit: Fuck it - I signed up! If nothing else, I'll have fun watching old matches I've only heard about but have never seen (I was never into the tape trading scene for whatever reason - other than buying a Dustin Rhodes comp from a seller on DVDVR many years ago, before the WWE Network - probably someone from PWO, which - come to think of it - is probably how I found this site).

Question about NJPW World: How the hell does the billing work exactly? It seems no matter when I try to sign up, I get charged the same amount. To use the December example above: Let's say I sign up Dec 29. and get charged $9.99 (or whatever the exchange rate is). Do I get charged another $9.99 on Dec. 31st?

Watch Watched Vader vs. Hansen last night. It was the NJPW World Freebie of the Week (not sure if it still is). Think it was the one where Vader's eye popped out of its socket. His eye certainly looked fucked-up in any case. Sloppy Stan seemed to take liberty after liberty. I know he's blind as a bat, but damn! Not sure how he doesn't have more of a rep of being an unsafe worker, between this Vader incident and fucking up Bruno's neck. Even though it was 30 years ago and Vader is no longer with us, I still felt worried for the big guy. And yeah, Vince really fucked up what could have been. One of the most frustrating missed opportunities in WWE history. For all the shit Trips got about holding guys back (and rightfully so), at least we eventually got token reigns from RVD, Booker, etc.

I just finished Season 2. No spoilers, but it was better than Season 1 IMO. Such a fantastic show!

Holly was kind of a cantankerous prick about Matt in his book. From what I recall, he was sympathetic about Matt's cancer diagnosis but said Matt would have never made it in the business because he cried after the assault.

Oh wow, where did you hear this? Do you have a link? I tried googling it (including the words "best friend") and all I get are stories about the original incident.

Matt Cappotelli was only 38 years old (younger than many of us, including me) and died after two long bouts of brain cancer. That sucks. From his wife's Facebook page: Hey Team Capp...I've been struggling with what to say and how to say this, and I'll probably end up rambling, but here goes. Today my love-my strong, sweet, beautiful love-took his last breath at 3:30 a.m. and went Home to be with Jesus...exactly one year after his brain surgery. You think you can be prepared for this when you know it's coming, but you just can't. The only person who's comfort I want right now is the one who can't give it to me. I miss him so much. I know where he is now is so much better, but it doesn't change how much I miss him. His most famous moment arguably was getting assaulted by Bob Holly on Tough Enough. If not for his health issues, I think he would've done big things in the wrestling business.

I don't think it's CTE issues but rather SSP issues (shitty scripted promos). Nash became a wretched talker during the Punk feud because he was forced to memorize lines.

That would be more entertaining than anything Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman do these days.

Do you have more details? I've heard only good things about Mero. And, really, if WWE wanted Luna to have the title, she'd have it - Sable didn't have that much stroke. The fact is, Luna was "unconventional" (but still a beauty to me), and that's not what WWE wanted at the time - or even now, if you think about it (Alexa Bliss and Carmella say "How You Doin'!" while Sasha Banks and Bayley frown like abandoned shelter dogs as they enter the fifth or sixth month of their meaningless, heatless program).

According to the rumor mill , the decision was made for Regal not to attend this week's NXT tapings and he hasn't been around in months. Really hope everything is okay there.

I think I remember hearing that too. BTW, it's not my favorite podcast - it was just the only podcast I was listening to by virtue of it being on the Network. I listened to the Jerry Jarrett podcast yesterday during a long drive, and I'll probably continue to dabble in other audio podcasts from time to time (the Bob Holly episode of my "favorite" podcast sounds like fun).

Don't forget about Lawler's horrible faux-Rock outfits during commentary on Raw.

You're getting way too deep into that Bruce character now. Hahaha. I probably am watching way too much of them. I cleansed my palate with a Jerry Jarrett podcast today. (Posted after 11 p.m., so let's see if this survives the new board.)

But so what? She wasn't filling the same role others were. She did very well coming out, looking good, and being the foil for angles ("jealous" Marc Mero, etc.). Sure, she was put in the impossible position of being expected to wrestle, but why hold that against her? Russo did that bullshit with all the non-wrestling women. (In WCW, he did it with Elizabeth and the Nitro Girls, for example.) You can't blame an untrained woman for not being Chigusa Nagayo or [insert random Japanese women's wrestler that Dave Meltzer gave five stars to and put in his Hall of Fame].

He's doing the same thing Bruce & Conrad does, he recycles his stuff. I'm actively waiting for tomorrow's show. Sable has potential to be a fascinating dive in the Attitude Era peak, not to mention Russo's inanity. Don't tempt me or I'll start a separate thread dedicated to just my thoughts on the Prichard podcast. Anyway, am I the only one who thinks Sable unfairly gets a bad rap?

I finally listened to the first episode (I was saving it for a long drive). Awesome, awesome stuff. I won't spoil anything, but I'll just say that I was really surprised by what Jerry Jarrett said about the drawing aspect of Andy Kaufman's run. Sean did a great job. He was prepared and knowledgeable, but he never interrupted or overstepped Jerry. It also helps that Sean has a good voice. I know that's superficial to comment on because not everyone is blessed that way (including me), but it really makes things much more enjoyable to listen to. Jerry's Southern dialect and pronunciations were darling too. The audio quality was also superb. It was like Sean and Jerry were in the car with me. No, actually better, because I think my car's audio system is superior and easier to understand than live human voices. All in all, the hour flew by, and I'm definitely looking forward to more (I know the second podcast is already out, but since it's a two-parter, I might wait for the third first). BTW, I'm really happy that this podcast is on iTunes now. For the first podcast, I Dropboxed it onto my phone. That worked very well, but having it native to iTunes will be even easier. I've already subscribed.

Doesn't change the fact that he would've been used like London and Kendrick in 2006.

Something Else to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard: Hardy Boyz (WWE Network) A pretty missable episode. No real information. When they discussed the Hardys' various singles runs, Bruce inexplicably focused on Jeff and ignored Matt. Yeah, I get that Jeff was the bigger star, but his constant drug problems can only be interesting for so long - and by so long, I mean never. I'd much rather hear about what Matt was doing during that period instead of Junkie Jeff self-sabotaging his career and life for the 20th time. Prichard even admitted that Matt was more passionate about wrestling, but Jeff was more over. I've personally always preferred Matt, and it sounds like Bruce did too. At least Matt got credit for being a creative genius when they briefly touched on the Broken/Woken Universe. Prichard was wearing a "Pronouns, Pal" t-shirt - referencing one of Vince/WWE's linquistic quirks - and rarely spoke in pronouns during the podcast, which became distracting as hell. "When Jeff was in this match, Jeff did this," etc. Conrad was in a very jovial mood, which was also boring. Even though it's mostly fake, I think I prefer their bickering. Unless you're a diehard Hardys fan, you can easily skip this episode. The biggest news coming out of it had nothing to do with the Hardys - it's that Something Else to Wrestle is wrapping up "Season 1" soon, so I guess this show won't be on the Network 52 weeks a year like I had previously thought for some reason. This is exactly what it was. It wasn't an exaggerated Bruce hate-fest. He said he enjoyed the matches once he knew they were all safe.

Something Else to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard: Hardy Boyz A pretty missable episode. No real information. When they discussed the Hardys' various singles runs, Bruce inexplicably focused on Jeff and ignored Matt. Yeah, I get that Jeff was the bigger star, but his constant drug problems can only be interesting for so long - and by so long, I mean never. I'd much rather hear about what Matt was doing during that period instead of Junkie Jeff self-sabotaging his career and life for the 20th time. Prichard even admitted that Matt was more passionate about wrestling, but Jeff was more over. I've personally always preferred Matt, and it sounds like Bruce did too. At least Matt got credit for being a creative genius when they briefly touched on the Broken/Woken Universe. Prichard was wearing a "Pronouns, Pal" t-shirt - referencing one of Vince/WWE's linquistic quirks - and rarely spoke in pronouns during the podcast, which became distracting as hell. "When Jeff was in this match, Jeff did this," etc. Conrad was in a very jovial mood, which was also boring. Even though it's mostly fake, I think I prefer their bickering. Unless you're a diehard Hardys fan, you can easily skip this episode. The biggest news coming out of it had nothing to do with the Hardys - it's that Something Else to Wrestle is wrapping up "Season 1" soon, so I guess this show won't be on the Network 52 weeks a year like I had previously thought for some reason.

Fantastic news! Thanks so much, Loss.