pol

I'd say AJPW and BJW are roughly tied. DDT and Dragon Gate are significantly above them and NJPW is of course leagues ahead of everyone. NJPW won't work with BJW for whatever reason. Sekimoto and Okabayashi disappeared from NOAH around the same time Bushiroad got involved with them, too. I don't know anything, but it's not hard to venture a guess as to why a company whose bread and butter is making card games for kids wouldn't want to work with a deathmatch group.

Remember when he didn't understand why Jon Jones gets pulled over so much more than he does?

you can stop banging this drum now dude. we get it.

Couldn't Baba changing the finish to Misawa/Jumbo 1 the night of when he saw how hot the crowd was for Misawa be interpreted as 'letting the crowd dictate to him?' And if it was, does that make one of the smartest business moves he ever made somehow bad? Likewise, does he win points for steadfastly sticking with Misawa as Ace after 1995 when doing so caused business to drop off?

It's not really petty when it could cause them to lose a sponsor.

Omega's emoting almost always feels insincere to me, lol. The NOAH vs. NJPW tag from the undercard is worth a watch. Had that sloppy, vaguely uncooperative vibe you expect from a heated interpromotional match. Felt like something from the days before Japanese wrestling lost its way.

My bad. I didn't remember and didn't want to go back and check. Ishii only works matches with Makabe, Goto and Shibata like that. Admittedly he's been matched up with those guys a lot, but it's a total myth that that's all he does.

High Fly Flow to the back, High Fly Flow to the front is pretty much the standard Tanahashi big match finisher.

What a shame that the huge gate a Rush vs. Park hair vs. mask Aniversario main event would surely do apparently isn't worth pissing off whatever CMLL sponsor doesn't like blood. Corporate wrestling is the worst.

Yeah. Good article on that subject: http://deadspin.com/why-are-so-many-mma-fighters-truthers-conspiracists-a-1782042590

When they kept fighting after the DQ finish it took the crowd to another level.

At least we still have Rush and LA Park

Rush/Park is probably my MOTY right now

Nominate: Rush vs. LA Park (Elite 7/13) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_31g1QCwN0 Just pure insanity in front of the hottest crowd of the year. Can see this being a lot of people's MOTY.

Voladar Jr. vs. Rush from last night is must-see. One of those great, heated matches that makes you realise how great this promotion could be if anyone in charge gave even the slightest shit. https://youtu.be/f7nAToWOyww?t=7186

Tag match was easy MOTN. Lots of slightly iffy execution on spots but nothing major. I wish Dash and Dawson had cheated to win though. Good God was Aries's heat segment absolutely horrible. Guy seems to have no idea how to do compelling heel work. Match was carried by the crowd and Nakamura's selling/charisma. I don't think that apron DVD spot could have been placed at a worse point in the match. They just made it mean nothing. WWE cage match rules make the match less violent than a normal match. People are really starting to come around on Balor not being all that good now. That corny-ass Demon entrance has to be at least top 5 on the list of current wrestling things I'd be embarrassed to show my non-wrestling friends.

Nominate: Crazy, chaotic, bloody brawl kinda reminiscent in parts of those early 90s Onita brawling tags. Cuervo is the star of the show, showing both great selling and great fire. Wacky antics abound towards the end in the best possible way. One of the heels takes a crazy bump into a steel chair and a taser gets involved. Just awesome stuff.

it's spanish

TNA has been a bigger obstruction to a viable #2 than anything WWE has done.

It doesn't help that Cometa isn't all that charismatic, but Arena Mexico on Friday nights is a HEAVILY rudo-friendly crowd anyway. It's a tough proposition for any tecnico there. Like, even Mascara Dorada gets booed out of the building.

It's a little late to start being concerned about NJPW getting too American-influenced.

I didn't dig into the matches yet, but here's EricR's defense of Pierroth: http://segundacaida.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/on-liking-comandante-pierroth.html I agree that bad-faith nonsense is uncalled for. Much more interesting (and less toxic) to discuss the substance of someone's argument than question their motives.

I don't know if I'd call it a MOTYC, but Jun Akiyama/Daichi Hashimoto vs. Yuji Okabayashi/Yoshihisa Uto from BJW 04/29 was definitely one of my favorite matches of the year. The crowd was hot as hell for Akiyama's first BJW appearance, and especially his interactions with Okabayashi, which were total fire. Uto and Daichi were kinda just there, but that's fine as Akiyama has made a career out of carrying tag matches where most of the other participants were just there, and especially smacking around twerps like Uto. Speaking of which, Uto did at least have one great moment with the Jumbo-mockery that gets paid off later on. This was pretty much all you could ask for from a match that exists to build to a singles match.

I thought pretty much everything on the show underdelivered and Ishii/Naito was ridiculously bloated even without taking into account that it's the world champion taking 30 minutes to beat a midcarder. A huge step down from Invasion Attack (which may be my Show of the Year) for me, the NJPW faithful seemed to love the show though.

"Grabación" is Spanish for "recording". But yeah, those are the Friday Arena Mexico shows.