Boss Rock

I really admire the ambition and think it would be really cool if an indy could pull a number like that, but I don't see it happening unless they get Bryan, Punk, or both.

Oh no worries at all and that makes a ton of sense.

Quick, violent, and exactly what it needed to be. Continued to make Lars look like an unstoppable monster and made Kassius look good as the first guy to give him a real test. The gatekeeper role is really what Ohno has always been best at. Give him sprint matches like these to test new talent against. And Lars may very well be NXT's answer to Braun Strowman. ***1/2.

His storyline brother? I always got the impression that Taker was a more credible attraction and when guys lost feuds to him, it seemed more like an inevitability than a straight-up heat killer like Kane. I've also always thought Taker was a better wrestler even if he wasn't great.

Could be wrong, but I thought I saw in one of Foley's books that Funk's punches were like actual strikes.

Has there ever been a wrestler more over-pushed than Kane?

Tenryu is one of those few guys whose peak wasn't limited to just a few years. In the 80's he had awesome matches with Jumbo and Hansen. In the 90's he had awesome matches with guys like Hashimoto and Onita. And in the 2000's he put on one of the greatest sprint matches I've ever seen against KENTA. When ranking wrestlers I really like to see longevity + peak. Not to say I'll discount someone who had an all-time great peak but a relatively short run, but the ability to put on such high level performances for multiple decades really screams "all-time great". It's true he was sloppy as hell and his enziguri, powerbomb, and even lariat on occasion could be downright awful, but the way he carried himself in a match almost made it inconsequential. For all his sloppiness, I struggle to think of a Tenryu match I didn't think was at least very good. And while I prefer him as the grumpy asskicker pounding away at the soul unfortunate enough to challenge him, he was also an incredible babyface who made his comebacks count every single time.

His '86-'92 run is an all-time great run. Tremendous striker and made everything he did look painful as hell. Excellent as the veteran and ace looking to teach those young Four Pillar whippersnappers a lesson. Even if it wasn't a blood feud, he always looked pissed off and ready to hurt someone. Everything prior to '86 I find pretty boring, but maybe that's because I got so used to pissed-off, grumpy Jumbo that everything prior came off as a bit of a shock. Even the Kerry match, which is good, seemed a bit underwhelming compared to what he did in later years.

Lack of older stuff on the World is disappointing, but I wanna say I heard a lot of that content is owned by different TV stations they can't get the rights from. At any rate, Fujinami is definitely a guy I've been meaning to dive in to. Thank you for the write-ups!

I agree that a shorter season might be to their advantage. One of the things I liked about season two was how quickly the plot moved for several feuds. One of the problems season three had was dropping feuds and then picking them up almost months later, although that was probably due to the Cueto Cup.

Unless that's what you meant with the Big Bang Theory.

I actually know a ton of people who probably couldn't name John Cena if shown a picture either.

Work in progress here: 1986: Stan Hansen 1987: 1988: Stan Hansen 1989: Ric Flair 1990: Jumbo Tsuruta 1991: 1992: 1993: 1994: Mitsuharu Misawa 1995: Mitsuharu Misawa 1996: Mitsuharu Misawa 1997: 1998: Kenta Kobashi 1999: 2000: Kenta Kobashi 2001: 2002: 2003: 2004: Kenta Kobashi 2005: A.J. Styles 2006: Bryan Danielson 2007: John Cena 2008: Bryan Danielson 2009: Rey Mysterio 2010: 2011: 2012: 2013: Daniel Bryan 2014: A.J. Styles 2015: A.J. Styles 2016: A.J. Styles 2017 (so far): Kenny Omega

It's funny because when I first started really watching wrestling, it was right before Summerslam 2002. So from the very beginning of my wrestling fandom I was taught that Shawn Michaels was one of the greatest of all time, ha.

While I'm not sure WWE will ever push his mythos as much as they do Shawn's, they repeatedly called his 2016 the "greatest first year-run in WWE history". This leads me to believe he'll be pretty well-celebrated.

And when Brock is at his very best (in-shape and gives a shit about who he's facing), he's an amazing wrestler. Stuff like the matches against Punk, Cena and Rollins, and Reigns are what originally made me a huge fan of him. It just seems to me that he's physically shot and incapable of carrying a match beyond 5-6 minutes. He still does a good job throwing guys around and can be a great seller, but after a few minutes he gasses and is incapable of doing much else without a ring general like A.J.

I don't take it personally at all. And it's not an issue with super heavyweights either. I love Braun Strowman and Keith Lee. When it comes to Brock in this match I thought he did two things well: toss A.J. around the first few minutes and sell the leg. But other than that, he gassed really quickly and A.J. provided the more dramatic parts of the match in the latter half.

Supposedly per the Observer, season 4 is only around 20 episodes or so.

Thought Dunne-Gargano was really good. Although the realization was a bit long, loved how Johnny noticed Dunne's mouth guard was dislodged and hit him with a super kick. Great stuff.

Think you pretty much nailed all of it here.

One of the best NJPW matches this year. Great escalation with Tanahashi gradually working over the leg before Ibushi would mount his comebacks. And while Ibushi is pretty famous for no-selling damage to his legs, it never seemed excessive or forgetful. Really more like he was dealing with but managing to find a way to overcome the damage. Tanahashi did some solid heeling here as well. And despite both men being faces, they really sold the contempt they had for each other with the vicious slap and strike sequences at the end. Excellent match and low-end MOTYC with Tanahashi proving that even at 41 years-old and one arm, is still one of the best big match wrestlers in the world.

Pretty good TV match. I love how Miz has made the softness of his strikes part of his character. Great heeling on his part and very good comebacks from Reigns who's pretty easily the TV match kings this year.

2017 has really been the year of A.J. getting the most out of absolutely anyone not named Kevin Owens. First few minutes were your standard Brock squash, but A.J. did a great job bumping and selling the devastation. Once A.J. made his comeback we were off to the races. Very smart work going after the leg and the set up for the Calf Crusher was great. And as shot as Brock was after the opening few minutes, he did a good job selling the leg at the end. Fantastic carry-job. ****1/4

I'm actually not super-high on the A.J.-Tanahashi matches. They're very good, great even. But the chemistry isn't quite there as much as it is with other opponents. Even before A.J's WWE stint the Suzuki match is pretty clearly his best match (I'd say either the Extreme Rules Reigns match or Royal Rumble Cena match is his best now). And with Tanahashi, I think the later Okada matches and the King of Pro Wrestling match with Suzuki trump the A.J. matches by quite a bit.

What was so funny about this is that the Kurt Angle vs Shawn Michaels series in 2005 was more of a car-wreck style than AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels in 2005. Remember thinking Styles-Daniels was so overrated at the time in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and its circles, but watching it again recently, it holds up pretty well and is more of a traditional wrestling match - with clear heel and babyface structure - than what Angle and Michaels were doing on WWE TV and PPV in 2005. Same with the Styles vs Samoa Joe series, which has very clear roles from both men, but I guess I can see the car-wreck thing being applied to the three-way series between Styles, Joe and Daniels. I feel the same way about A.J's 2005 especially when it comes to the Joe and Abyss matches. Guy played a really good babyface.