Boss Rock

For a Fox debut, they needed to have Junior Dos Santos come in and KO Cain.

I don't think PAC would be in the running for a title run any time soon, but I definitely see him as a potential title challenger for Cody.

Pretty awesome news for AEW.

I was sort of worried they were going to blow it and that the show would be an absolute mess. There's still kinks to be worked out, but I think they passed their first test tonight.

Jericho with his own stable is pretty cool. And of course conspicuous by his absence MJF... I agree the pacing with the commercials wasn't great and they could've used more promos and a little less time on matches, but I liked this a lot. Some cool developments

Good match, post-match was...something.

I stand corrected.

Weird commercial break, not even an intro for the title match.

I think late 2016-early 2017 SDL and most of NXT is proof that TV-PG can work. WWE just sucks at long-term storytelling.

Great showcase for MJF.

OK this I'd be down with.

There's been word Jack Swagger is debuting. Can't say I'm thrilled.

Late to the party but I saw the opening theme and it's awesome. Very nostalgic.

Such a shame about Mauro. I used to love him on SDL even if his name-dropping could be a bit much.

I like KENTA in BC but I punted on the YOSHI-HASHI match just a few minutes in. It's a shame because HASHI has been know to overachieve in these types of matches, but this and the Sabre matches were disappointments. And as good as KENTA is as a heel, he's been pretty inconsistent.

Luchablog tweeted earlier Lee is supposedly scheduled for the Junior tag league, so it seems likely he'll stick around for that long.

NJPW desperately needs more tag teams, bring 'em in full time!

Ishii and Amazing Red certainly is a tag team. KOPW looks really good, I may actually watch the undercard, heh.

I would be fine with Ibushi taking all as it really does seem like his time now, but honestly they should give Naito his redemption and then have Ibushi win at Dominion or something. Okada-Naito seems like the most likely ME of night 2 considering they've been kept apart for close to 2 years now in singles matches. Jay taking all is definitely less than 0% as there's no way the top heel gaijin stands tall in the Dome. However, I don't completely rule out Okada winning either just to give him every single glory/record imaginable.

One thing that bothers me about Nomura is that he still looks and comes off too much as a plucky up-and-comer rather than a potential generational rival for Kento. I usually don't have a problem with a wrestler's look as charisma and presence counts for way more in my book, but Nomura still doesn't look like a main eventer. It also doesn't help that his and Jake Lee's pushes feel a bit sudden. I don't watch every single AJPW match or show, but just last year Nomura was still losing the majority of his CC matches and now he's positioned as one of the top guys in the promotion. Obviously he's done a great job in these big match situations, but it's just not quite all there yet.

The little bit I've seen of Naito's early 2010's babyface work has generally been good. He certainly was bland as a character, but he was a bit flashier and had some nice offense. Obviously he struck gold with LIJ and gave us one of the best characters in recent memory. He kept some of the flashier stuff in his arsenal but took out a lot of his high-flying stuff as well. It was a smart move as he's much more of an anti-hero and cool rogue now. I'd have him as at least a top 20 worker the past few years with 2017 being his peak. I do agree that there are times where he looks off and I'm not sure if that's just laziness or years of wear-and-tear (from what I've heard his knees have been in awful shape for some time). I agree the Suzuki match is a good example of him not gelling well with a sadistic and/or dominant heel although I'm higher on the Destruction match from last year than most. I really need to see more of his early tag and face work to say if he'd make a top 100 list for me, but the next few years are probably going to be very telling.

Standard great Kento title defense, but I really think Nomura's fire and near victory at the end really took this to a whole different level. Kento's formula almost never fails, but sometimes it can be too by the numbers when the end result isn't in doubt (Kento starts strong as a cocky prick, opponent mounts come back, Kento throws a barrage of suplexes and knees, opponent gets one last surge before Kento finishes them off). The finishing sequence of Nomura obliterating Kento with forearms and escaping the Waterfall added some extra drama to an already-great match and made for one of the hottest finishing stretches this year. ****1/2

Super J Cup was pretty good. Red-Ospreay, SHO-Ospreay, ELP-Ospreay, ELP-Eagles, and the finals being the must-watches. Tanahashi-Sabre at Destruction was as good as expected but it feels like they've run that match into the ground. Hopefully they don't face off again for a while. Birds of Prey-ELP/Ishimori was great, best NJPW tag match in ages. KENTA is easily the biggest heel in NJPW. He plays it to perfection and the crowd loathes him. The Ibushi match was very good and maybe a hair better than their G1 outing. It's a shame KENTA is as banged up as he is because he would be perfect as the top heel.

He used the Pedigree again. Rollins as Triple H 2.0 confirmed.

I was optimistic about Reigns-Rowan, but that was still way better than I expected.