joeg

Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. And I can understand the son of Syrian refugees and a practicing Muslim having the opinions Zayn does. I don't really agree but I can at least understand. This situation is cancel culture at its worst. Zayn expressed an unpopular opinion on social media and people are calling for him to lose his job. The lack of empathy and respect for cultural differences is mind boggling. Now Drake Younger is a different story. He needs an intervention or some sort of help from a mental health professional as it isn't even funny anymore.

Right now gun to my head? 1- Daniel Bryan 2- Terry Funk 3- Ric Flair 4- Stan Hansen 5- Kenta Kobashi 6- Tenryu 7- Misawa 8- Kawada 9- Hijo Del Santo 10- Austin Cena, Rogers, Rey Jr., Eddie, Casas, Akiyama, Okada, Hokuto, Liger, Bret Hart, LA Park, Rose, Piper, Tamura, Andre, Lawler, etc would all have a shot at the top 10. None of the great workers from the 60s or 70s really did well in 2016 because of a lack of footage. It would be interesting to see what footage from that era pops up online in the next 5 years and how it shapes the outcome in 2026.

https://www.barstoolsports.com/blog/3364346/pro-wrestler-lights-his-entire-cock-on-fire-in-arguably-the-worst-wrestling-stunt-of-all-time Unreal what goes on at some of these garbage indies.

His AEW run and the WWE TV matches in 2017 and 2018 will bump him up for me.

Wasn't the big buy rate more to do with it being such an outrageous stipulation and a loser retires match (even though Hogan lost and wrestled on Nitro the next night)? I dunno, I just remember by mid-99 there was a tremendous amount of fatigue around all the top guys in WCW. At that point everything in WWF and ECW felt fresh and exciting and everything in WCW felt stale and chaotic, including Ric Flair.

@cm funkYeah Kim Wood is the best, I've seen interviews he did on performance enhancing drug use in pro sports. There was one on HBO where Wood said the biggest reason people use PEDs is that most pro coaches are scumbags who will do anything to win and then named some names. Back to Meltzer. I just got caught up on the Charlotte drama from a few weeks ago. People need to stop referring to Meltzer a journalist and a reporter. That's just not what he is. He's an opinion columnist, a podcast host and a historian. When he gets referred to as a reporter, people assume his fact checking and sourcing is similar to that of an actual reporter in tradition media. That's not the case. His standards for verification and fact checking are more in line with what one would expect from opinion pieces. There's nothing wrong with that, but if we treat his as an opinion columnist, commentator or podcaster he doesn't get blow back for saying stupid, awkward shit all the time. Joe Rogan, Steven A. Smith, Bill Maher, Rachel Madow, Tony Kornheiser, Joe Scarbough, Thomas Friedman, etc are all wrong from time to time and all say stupid things occasionally, yet rarely are called out on it. We treat what they say as one person's opinion. I think that's how any thing Meltzer says should be framed- leading wrestling commentator said xyz rather than leading wrestling reporter said xyz.

I dunno. WCW's booking at that time really hamstrung him and he sort of had go away heat by mid 99 as did Hogan, Nash, and anybody else who had been on top. Going from Goldberg's streak ending, to finger poke of doom, to leaving Bret Hart home for reasons?, to a first blood barbed wire cagematch loser leaves town World Title match where the winner was on Nitro the next night, to Flairs heel turn, all of that in 6 months killed it. Nobody wanted to boo Flair, but nobody really wanted to see him or any of the top WCW guys on their TV by that point either.

Facinating. I knew Wajima lost his shirt in the restaurant biz and had a messy divorce which put him deep into debt. And that his debt was why he got into wrestling. I didn't know he used his Sumo Association stock as collateral for loans and got kicked out or that was the reason for AJPW running Tokyo Municiple Gymnasium and Budokan Hall in stead of Sumo Hall. Thanks. I learn something new every day on this board.

@NintendoLogic Really that's why they stopped running the Sumo Hall? I had heard that they stopped running Sumo Hall a year before when it moved from Kuramae to Ryogoku.

@strobogoForced isn't the word I would use. I don't think at 38 needing 2 new knees, Wajima was expected to be an all time worker or have a lengthy career. But I'm sure Baba expected Wajima to draw better than did. Wajima was the first yokozuna to go into pro wrestling in like 20 years and really should have drawn better. Ultimately he served his purpose of being a big name from another sport who came in for a short time and put over Hansen and Tenryu.

I think an invasion angle would draw money. There's a lot of matches that drew well in Japan that they could now run the return in the US in AEW. There were a lot of unfinished feuds and a lot of money left on the table in NJPW when AEW started up. An invasion angle with NJPW would capitalize on that.

Correct....

No. Just no. Who in modern wrestling is a legit tough guy in a bar fight whip you sense, can talk, can work against anybody, bumps his ass off, and has the size to be physically imposing? Nobody, and Steen checks like one of those boxes.

Ok. So sequence of events of the Riddle situation as I now understand them- He cheated on his wife. Wife found out. He broke it off. The former mistress may or may not have stalked him. Then she drove down from NY to Florida to see him and was thrown off the property at the PC. Then she accused him of rape and choking her on twitter, yet she didn't file any charges. He filed a restraining order. He then dropped restraining order. She sued him and every company he ever worked for. All lawsuits against his employers were thrown out, the lawsuit against him is still moving forward.... do I have this right? I'm not defending the guy. He sounds like a shitty husband and father. But this woman sounds absolutely insane.

@C.S. I actively avoid following Speaking Out because all of the breaking "news" happens on twitter and twitter is the worst. But my understanding is that Riddle had an ongoing, lengthy affair with a female indy wrestler while on the road. His wife found out so he broke it off. The woman he broke it with has since has make claims on social media of sexual harassment and vandalized some property at the performance center which earned her a restraining order. Correct me where I'm wrong but the whole thing seems more like an episode of Jerry Springer than a serious accusation of sexual misconduct. Wrestling isn't exactly covered by the WaPo or the Wall Street Journal. Most wrestling news I get comes from this message board or a guy who tells me he read it on twitter or a guy who tells me he knows somebody in the business. With that said feel free to correct me where I'm misinformed.

I remember he sharply declined in 07ish. What exactly happened with Morishima?

I believe what they've done with Matt Riddle is morally reprehensible..... 6 years ago I saw the guy on an Evolve show against Chris Hero and posted here that he was fucking money. I said he was the next Kurt Angle. He a former pro athlete and legit shooter with a great look, big personality, quick wit, and a natural charisma, why wouldn't he be? He gave a stoner/frat bro vibe but in a cool way which I kinda dug. WWE could have molded him into anything they chose to. And they chose for his role to be minor character on a family friendly sitcom who exists solely to get cheap laughs. Shameful.

Just read the article. Ok now I'm calling shenanigans on all claims I've heard of Homicide being a power 5 level athlete. College recruiting just doesn't work like that. Maybe a scout saw him at some point. Maybe he was on a D1 school's list of potential recruits at some point. But the article, the wikipedia page, yeah it all is starting to sound like stories somebody who never has been around the college recruiting process would make up to explain why they weren't an athlete.

I'm a lot higher on Misawa's late 90s/ early 2000s than most here I'd assume. I'd still put him as one of the top 5 in the world in 2004 ish. He was having good tag matches up until about a month before he died. His last GREAT match was the 07 Kobashi return tag match. His last good singles match was probably early 08 against Morishima. His last GREAT singles match was probably 04 vs Kojima.

Somebody correct me where I'm wrong. I'd been told Homicide went to FSU for a year on a football scholarship before getting kicked out. Short of attempted murder no football player gets kicked out of FSU, especially back then. If there's any truth to this it makes him extremely credible as a legit athlete and an all around dangerous person. Low Ki too by proxy I would suppose.

@WingedEagle In the early 2000s I thought Toryumon/Dragon Gate had the best weekly TV out there. Where can I check out their current TV?

@WingedEagle exactly. There was discussion a few years ago here if this is the best time ever to be a fan for those very reasons. Also I keep hearing good things about what Dragon Gate has done recently. I followed them religiously back 15 years ago but haven't seen anything in at least 3 or 4 years. What are they up to now?

@strobogo We have common ground- I would agree WWE is usually unwatchable. @Childs Exactly. I'm not tuning in for a random Korakuen show at 4 am on a Wednesday or a main event with EVIL. So my perspective isn't the sky is falling. My perspective is they are waiting out the pandemic.

Consistent and predictable isn't bad or lazy booking, its a good thing. Still even during the pandemic NJPW is probably the best booked major promotion in the world. Has been for nearly a decade. There are small indies that have had better booking at points like CWF or OTT. And thats all Gedo. I think people forget how bad New Japan's booking was before Gedo took over. I also think people fail to recognize just how bad the booking is in every other major promotion around the world the past decade.

I don't know. My whole take on the past 14 months of New Japan is that every bad booking decision has been made because of the pandemic and when the world gets back to normal then New Japan will get back to normal. They want to save big matches and feuds until after capacity restrictions are lifted. At the same time if gives them an opportunity to elevate some underneath guys and some young guys without hurting at the gate, because there is limit to what they are able to draw. And as long as they can't fill bigger venues might as well run Korakuen to death and pick up some crumbs where they can. That's my take.