Sean Reedy

This was awesome. Just nice warm comfort food. You've got a Sumo Hall crowd that understands the assignment and elevates the big moments. You've got Fujiwara throwing headbutts, Murdoch throwing elbows, Saito throwing suplexes, and Inoki busting himself open hardway off a headbutt. I could have done another 30 minutes. Built to a strong fever pitch.

Honestly thought this was pretty tepid. First 2 falls were 30 minutes of laying in some holds. Baba started selling the knee big in the third fall and it got dramatic but it didn't hit a high enough level to justify the first 30 minutes.

What can be said about this stuff. it's everything I love in pro wrestling in one match. The violence, the grit, the genuine crowd investment, the blood, the emotion, the ugliness you can't turn away from, it's as beautiful to me as Steamboat-Savage

30 minutes air out of 60. Its fine, nothing too surprising, slog is the right word.

This was fabulous. Hata was great as Baba's little buddy who always took an ass kicking. I've been impressed by Iaukea in 78 AJPW. Ramos is a solid foreign heel brawler here. 4*.

My favorite stuff is Memphis and ECW so you can guess how I feel about FMW at its gutsy bloody resilient chaotic peak. Everything good about pro wrestling. Five stars.

Beautiful. Hashimoto was such a genius. It really does feel like a peak modern Brock match in a lot of ways.

Schiavone and Larry Z! One of my favorite announce teams. There's an ad for the first house show I begged my dad to take me to, El Gigante vs. Ric Flair. I was sure Gigante was bringing it home. He said the UIC Pavillion was in a bad part of town. Finish has a little Memphis flavor as Ron Simmons shows up throwing haymakers at AA and it turns into a pier six with the ringside table and a chairshot to the head. The punches in this match! It was solid but not great as they went 20 without a ton of heat and kept it pretty deliberate. Lots of smart stuff and worth watching of course.

Adoniis and Starr were tremendous face foils for Buddy. Great crowd heat. Frank Bonnema deserves to be mentioned alongside Lance and Gordon (and Vince). One of those territory matches where the fans are just dying with the faces as they make each hot tag attempt. 2nd fall ends with an electric hot tag and then one of those intricate Buddy finishing stretches that tears the house down, 70s Adonis was already so tremendous, he has a great hot tag in the 3rd. I can't say enough about how good this was. Bonnema at the end is great. :"The belts should stay with Adonis and Starr....NO THEY'RE NOT! SANDY BARR IS AWARDING THE BELTS TO ROGERS AND ROSE!!!: Frank was great because he was so completely chilled out 90% of the time but at the money moments he turns into 1986 JR.

Cody vs Bray under the current creative team would be brilliant. The current team has one Bray feud under their belts and has created one star out of it

That match and ending gave me 6/9/95 vibes

Im just telling myself the advertising is a lucha tribute

I swear this is so simple and effective and over I feel like I'm watching Smoky.

Oh I like this pace and style and storytelling very much thank you.

Thank you sir. I'll post a whole thing at some point but he was a tremendous human being and I think he belongs in the very top tier of wrestling geniuses alongside Vince and whoever else you want to put there.

Ok the greatest segment in AEW history really snuck up on me

Well I can handle Bryan and Rush doing an indy lucha brawl tribute in El Paso

I'm choosing to start consuming AEW like it's 1998 Worldwide at this point and enjoy the crazy matches. Very excited for Bryan and Rush in that context

The fact that the biggest money Mania history is built around this authentic loving tribute to Dusty Rhodes blows the mind of my late 80s fan self.

It's like if people got obsessed that if Tommy Dreamer doesn't beat Raven at Barely Legal the whole feud was a farce. What a no fun way to watch wrestling. This is one of the most clever storylines ever. Who says it ends at Mania. They've set up a whole cast of characters who can bounce off each other for another year. Have HHH and Heyman not earned some good will from their booking runs at paying off stories? The guy who gave us Sami beating Neville is in charge, he understands the appeal of this Sami guy. Heyman has significant input and the link with Gabe and ROH, ROH basically being ECW's child, he gets it.

WWE main event scene is basically early 97 ECW where you had multiple big favorites in Funk, Richards and Sandman all jostling to dethrone Raven going into Barely Legal. Right down to Roman face palming a defiant Sami like Raven did Stevie before they snapped. Funk wanted to win for Dory Sr and family legacy like Cody wants to win for Dusty and wrestling's other royal family. I mean WWE Twitter called the Sami chair shot "the chair shot heard around the world" people. Owens left limp in a crucifixion pose. Sami an honorary Uce like Lance Storm was honorary Triple Threat member not allowed to throw up 3 fingers. I have zero inside knowledge but I think I can tell who is steering this one. Maybe Sami gets involved in countering interference in Cody match like Dreamer with Funk/Raven.

Life in 2022 means YouTube recommends me an August 1995 Wrestling Challenge with a thumbnail of JR and Michael Hayes doing commentary and I'm sucked in for an hour. Anyone ever watch this era? I'm watching a Barry Horowitz-Hakushi banger in front of a red hot crowd. JR and Hayes sound just like their 1986 UWF selves! Was this when Watts was around? I was expecting them to be much more WWE-fied. Its so fantastic but weird to be watching this be labeled Wrestling Challenge, I need to see how long they worked together here. Edit: Ah, just saw Wikipedia had the history of announcing on that show and this only lasted a month. Damn. Thought I might have 4-5 months of peak Watts feeling TV I had not seen. I put the JR/Hayes team up there with Vince/Jesse and Gorilla/Heenan and JR/King for great heel commentator announce teams.

To me the problem is that Bryan isn't actually making anyone. If he was 1994 ECW Terry Funk, not the champ but making pivotal new stars, I think everyone would be fine. But he's more like WCW Bret Hart. Somehow the narrative has become - Bryan experiences personal happiness and works meaningless matches that don't help the company. Or he's miserably forced to have the company built around him. He needs to be consequential to make new stars, you can't make stars if the fans don't see you as a big star anymore. If 1994 Terry Funk was battling it out and losing to Hack Meyers on TV he wouldn't have elevated anyone.

At least in that one Heyman put Punk over and tried to pivot to Taker-Brock. And they had to do something because the whole building was chanting for Punk before the show even started. This was just, what, sticking it to AEW fans who liked the top guy in the company who was presented as being the most important thing on the show for a year? It's Russo level thought process.

I'm baffled by the idea to shove it in the audience's face that the beloved top face you built the company around for a year is gone. They should be apologizing to the fans, not trolling them and turning off customers.