Rah

That or he cannot use a touchscreen phone to save his life

Shodate has been on Youtube for years. His comments are memorable. There is no intended gimmick here. Either he is Japanese or he thoroughly believes he is. His writing style doesn't bare a lot of L1 interference. Japanese English lacks verb inflection and ommision of articles at the most basic - things Shodate does relatively successfully. He also uses grammatical structures and expressions that an intermediate most likely wouldn't know or use - especially someone who is East Asian. Gordi has far more experience in dealing with Japanese students than I do (not many come this side of the world for business) but the Japanese are the one nation that you can bet flawless writing on. Grammar is drilled incessantly in school yet they can't speak the language due to no conversational practice. For Shodate it's most likely the complete opposite. It's definitely likely that no writing practice or guidance can produce a style like his (I've seen it from Central African students of different languages) but, as an esl teacher, his command and ironically seemingly lack thereof is fascinating. All that aside, Shodate has a great knowledge of wrestling beyond even the niche tastes of this board. He's validly watched thousands of out the box matches of which I suggest others take note of and try watch. If he's good for nothing else to the board, he's provided a great primer into a side of puro no many people know.

Please keep me out for the forseeable future. I'm so far behind on watching matches and with overtime hitting me, I don't think it's fair to keep taking matches without giving back.

I think the problem may go a bit deeper than just Reigns winning. If Miz wins (they need a Smackdown guy to take the title and Bryan/Miz seems a lock), and drops the IC title to Bryan at a later PPV, does that help or hinder Reigns' chances main eventing that show? Will fans be happy with Bryan winning a title, again, or will they feel hard-done with Bryan not being the guy? Single-branded PPVs would likely negate that scenario but that's a fall-back long gone.

A wtf thread for a wtf Mania

@WingedEagle Team Hell No & Kofi Kingston vs. The Shield - Six-Man Tag Team Match: Raw, May 20, 2013

Main event is apparently Triple H vs John Cena. Other matches: The Miz © vs. Seth Rollins vs. Finn Bálor vs. Samoa Joe Ladder match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship Cesaro and Sheamus © vs. The Hardy Boyz (Jeff and Matt Hardy) Tag team match for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship

For Tim Evans Aerostar, Angélico, Jack Evans vs Machine Rocker, Pentagón Jr., Soul RockerAAA on Televisa: 2013-08-31 (taped 8/16)

If it wasn't for VISA issues, Super Smash Bros w would likely be in that spot for Meltzer not Ospreay. SSB/Bucks produced far better crashcar spots and gymnastics than Ospreay has.

Is that why Russo keeps popping up on Periscope? Someone needs to tell him how to use a phone camera cos most of his vids are just a zoomed in angle of his double chin.

Dawho5 had me watch Jun Akiyama vs Yoshinari Ogawa ( 09/11/98)http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/27373-jun-akiyama-vs-yoshinari-ogawa-ajpw-summer-action-series-ii-091198/ Cool match I wouldn't have watched if not for Secret Santo, but this was another feather in Jun's cap more than it was a good match.

While I'm on the Ogawa bandwagon, I don't quite think this match was as good as it was due to him. He does the cocky rookie role fine enough but it was light and day between his performance and Jun's. Jun is a world class wrestler when it comes to levelling lower-pecking guys and knows how to layer in a beating and he did it tremendously here. Whenever Ogawa got too cocky and Jun could take control, he was the ass-kicker of all ass-kickers. His elbow shots and suplexes were rough. Cool match I wouldn't have watched if not for Secret Santo, but this was another feather in Jun's cap more than it was a good match.

Troll allegations or not, Shodate really does produce the most obscure yet amazing matches. A young Jushin Liger doing a great kickboxing performance. Surreal.

ALS is a generational shift from Lou Gherig's - as I assume that is not a name most are now familiar with. Lou Gherig's Disease was a literal naming from an early 20th Century baseball player as it was through him that it first really came to prominence.

@Dawho5 Love that you linked me to Akiyama - I'm a huge fan of him and think he's had a tremendous career that's gone under the radar. I'll give you my own Akiyama: CHAMPION CARNIVAL 2013 - FINAL: 07. KAI vs Jun Akiyama http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzpfai Please let me know if you've seen this, I'll swap it out, if so.

Paypal Black Terry Jr. He recorded the match. I don't have his deets, so someone else will have to provide that, sorry.

Am I wildly confusing timelines here on when Victoria was wresting? I always found her to be the far superior talent. TNA had the likes of Kong, Melissa, Gail Kim, Victoria, Mickie James and Sarita to put out good matches even when the product treated them as eye candy or slapped them with sexist crap. I was never as high as others on the Kim/Tiffany stuff but the Tara/James cage match from 2010 knocked it out of the park and felt like a big moment for women's wrestling. I guess it never quite went anywhere after that but despite its huge flaws TNA was at least throwing a few scraps in the women's direction. Kim leaving as she did with WWE in her second (?) Run is all the more telling. WWE only really had the likes of Mickie James, Victoria, Kim and Michelle McCool. There was a narrative of Beth Phoenix and Natalya being good workers trapped within a shitty division but I don't see the evidence. Nicki Bella was probably the one worker of the 2010s to actively be good before the likes of Bayley and Sasha came along.

Much better than the other Murphy/Roach match that is also on Youtube. This is the type of British wrestling that I love - snug holds and stiffer punches. It's what got me to love William Regal as much as I do. While their other match felt like two men just bumping around like some comical 80s MSG house show, here each hold was struggled for and felt like a legitimate contest. A fairly even fight until something pisses Roach off and he hulks up into this destructive monster of a man. Everything is all she wrote from there as Murphy pinballs around for the big man's offence and does a great sell job of Roach's big boot. Super fun match!

SPS had me watch Vader vs Ricky Steamboat (29/05/1993 WCW) http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/41327-vader-vs-ricky-steamboat-29051993-wcw/ Cool find and a pretty nice TV iteration of a title match. _________________ Matt D had me watch two Pat Roach/Skull Murphy matches this week. Admittedly, I was rather bored by the first match. It felt like a 80s MSG house show performance in its comical nature. The second, though, had all the bells and whistles that I love of British wrestling. More people need to jump on it ASAP! http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/34858-skull-murphy-vs-pat-roach-reslo-3291990/

Pretty nice TV iteration of a title match. Steamboat has a helluva mountain to climb, here, if he has any hope of winning as not only is he against Vader but Harley Race is at ringside getting up to all sorts of shenanigans, as well - from mugging Steamboat to straight strangling him while Vader has the ref tied up and distracted. I think for how good Steamboat is at rallying the fans behind him, the fans seemed mostly subdued for this, but his hope spots were well timed for me. This was a foregone conclusion but I kept hoping Steamboat would build enough of a comeback to topple Vader. Vader seemed quite content on not putting on much of a showing, though, which dragged this below my expectations. May 1993 was a helluva time for Vader with an all-time squash performance in UWFI against Nakano but I guess he was taking it easy here. Pity, as this was structurally sound enough to be more than just a "cool find" match.

@ Matt D El Faraon vs El Satanico (Arena Mexico, 6/30/1989) - mano a mano Hope you enjoy!

What 2002 Virus matches should I be hunting down?

At SPS William Regal vs Evan Bourne (WWE Live Event in Romania ??/04/2011)

If Frank Spencer was ever a wrestler he'd probably be Ospreay

For: Tim Evans Stan Hansen vs Toshiaki Kawada (All Japan June 10th, 1990).