El-P

The idea that everything has to be meaningful in the grand scheme of thing is a big flaw of pro-wrestling analysis. Be pragmatic people. The leg work was fine was what it was. It did not *have* to be a focal point of the match. Come on, this is 50 year old legend yet traitor to AJ coming back as the "savior", or might you say the imperialist old fuck coming to grab what was his eleven years before and taking it from the hands of the only faithfull All Japan legend and his own understudy turned Ace-that-never-really-was. So they beat the shit out of each other, showing themselves up, trading the master/students spots like nobody's business. Tenryu is bigger, stronger and meaner. Kawada is quicker, younger and has the All Japan spirit in him. Tenryu has seen it all, he's the Gold Saint to Kawada's Shiryu. Or rather Hyoga, because Kawada's bit of a bitch. Damn, Kawada kicking Tenryu off the apron was stuff classics are made of. Such as the selling of every damn punch or kick to the face. You can see where Kawada got it from. This is every bit of a classic. MOTYC (and yes, probably a MOTDC). 50 year old Tenryu, damn, this guy was the best.

The board is absolutely fine, thank you very much.

Misawa is fascinating to watch when it's been a while. He does so many little things right. And damn, these elbows. This is not as great as their previous match together, but this is even more of a slugfest, which gets ugly in a good way toward the end. I don't even get the whiole "they blew up" argument. Hell, maybe they did, but it only made it look more real anyway, considering they were just smashing themselves in elbows and kicks. Finally, Takayama just doesn't have enough in him and even old gassed up Misawa can deliver an elbow that looks like it will knock the fuck out of anyone. Great ugly match. And now Misawa can do the job to yet another of his guys, trying to pass the torch because he's old and doesn't want to be that Ace anymore.

Quite the NJ B-team. Naruse, the poster-boy for late 90's early 00's random kickpad worker. He's quite ok. Sammy's sporting a shiny black outfit and is awkward and good as only he can be. NJ guys are heelish, but don't bring the disdain like Liger did. Kikuchi elbowing people left and right is always fun, although he really looks completely fried at points. Kanemaru was the best here, bringing in the work (yeah, he used a top-rope DDT as a transition, except it was very logical considering his positionning in the ring, and that makes it absolutely right and valid) and being a dick, but the in-house dick. Very good match with that cool interpromotionnal feel you really don't get much anymore, as these company really never mixed before.

The Takeshis. A blast from the past. Early NOAH was pretty fascinating as a company, they really were trying to build new stars left and right. This was not about Jun at all, akthough he was indeed the best of the four. It was about Wild Two taking on two veterans and trying to upstage them despite they lack of experience. Morishima already had tons of potential. Rikioh, less so in my eyes. He was a mauler, but never struck le as anything special apart from his size. Plus, this match was also about making Saito a legit upper-mid-card mainstay : he got the heat put on himslef and then got tons of offense and the pin. Saito is underrated. Superb striker, pretty good seller. The Wild Two working on top isn't the most interesting thing in the world, obviously, they're green and don't really have much in term of interesting stuff to do, but when they are reacting in the finishing stretch, it gets really good. Morishima was that young Terry Gordy like worker already. Tons of stiff shots back and forth as it should be. If one expect an old Four Pillars classic, of course he's gonna get badly disapointed, but it's really not the point. This match was four guys beating the hell out of each other, with two younger up and comer giving their all against a star pushing his new partner to stardom. In that way, it was actually quite good and successful.

I wish Backlund had worked a whole lot more in UWF. It was so freakin awesome to watch him out of his usual waters. Takada being the master of working with pro-style guys was the perfect guy for him.

The Ogawa project was quite interesting, although I don't think it was a success as a drawing card. But what a refreshing take from NOAH to even try it. Goes against about everything you'd expect from the AJ school of booking. Takayama was the hottest free agent in Japan at the time. Fun days. This of course is excellent as Ogawa is a sneaky bastard who gets killed by Monster-shooter Takayama for a while, then manage to make a comeback by being, well, a sneaky bastard. Despite the fact he was pretty much the Mickey Whipreck of puroresu, they manage to get true near-falls toward the end, with small packages and shit. Bret Hart would be so proud. Finally Takayama stomps the little bastard and rises to the top, but what an intricate piece of work, which also demonstrate that you can reach excellence in about 15 minutes and without having to do ridiculously dangerous stuff. Ogawa's in-ring stuff was indeed a success. Early NOAH was so much fun, it looked like the future of puroresu was right there.

Well, *that* is bad timing. (happens more often than you'd think though)

I guess that RVD would have asked Bruce to pick a hand pretty easily. And yeah, not listening to a "clean", WWE approved version of the podcast. I'm afraid it will take its toll on the original one.

Listen to Tony watch ECW from this week. I'm not saying EVERYONE should, but you should. A little goes a long way but it's appropriately surreal and ridiculous. I definitely will ! I agree this has become an issue. Just let Tony by funny when he wants to be.

Because a single tweet about facts prevent the Twitter crowd (consisting of people who never even met the guy, never knew him and most of them probably never even saw him back in the days) from "mourning" (which is a term that really should be reserved to the actual family and friends) ? Come on now... People really need to stop being so fucking sensitive about everything. Dave Meltzer was a friend of Bruno, so maybe the classeless ones in this story are the douchebags who pack up on Twitter to patronize and insult Dave in *his* time of mourning (of a man he actually KNEW) because they can't get over a single fucking tweet about MSG sell-outs which is actually a very important part of Bruno's legacy. Lack of decency indeed, but Twitter and social media in general are a cesspool.

Except : none of the idiots on Twitter who chastised Dave for being "unapropriate" or being a "dick" and "disgusting" is a family member of Bruno Sammartino. Nor a friend. Nor even a vague acquaintance. So there. And actually, Dave was a friend of Bruno. He was closer to Bruno than any of the people who actually think so highly of themselves to tell him what is appropriate or not. That's what is ridiculous. And yes, that's social media hive culture and political correctness bullshit. And again, Dave didn't say ANYTHING negative about Bruno. So there. If people need to live surrounded by cushions, that's their problems. I'd rather have a tribute to Bruno that actually pays hommage to what he really accomplished, which was already awesome and awe inspiring, not a bunch of bullshit that is gonna get repeated left and right without any attention to the facts. (and really, people talking shit at funerals is the reality of life anyway)

Being called "disgusting", "dick" etc… on Twitter is not exactly "That is a little socially clueless, maybe you should not have said that"… People are hateful for nothing.

Sadly, yes.

I would agree it's not that big of a deal. But it really isn't that big of a deal to correct it either. So the Twitter Dweeb Society acting like Dave grossly disrespected Bruno is just ridiculous to me. This hive mentality is awful. Dave is certainly truly mourning Bruno a whole lot more than any of these people are.

This. People acting like Dave is disrespecting Bruno need to get a grip. And again : Dave was friend with Bruno. Like in : *he really knew the guy*. And Bruno respected Dave. They had an actual relationship. So, if anything, the whining (and fake sensitivity) is actually showing disrespect, especially when Dave is only stating the fucking facts about "one of his favourite people in the world".

Honestly I don't see the issue at all, especially when it's something dealing strictly with the professionnal career of Bruno. I mean, it's about a number of MSG sell-outs… Really, getting outraged about this means you really want to be outraged about Dave to begin with.

Because the crowd of Twitter self-righteous dweebs who have never even met the guy would rather hear a bunch of mythological bullshit rather than facts, because that's how you "celebrate someone's life". And the guy who actually was a friend of Bruno pointing out inacurracies is the bad guy, not the ones who sprout a bunch of bullshit. Gotta love the calls to "decency" and "time for mourning" from idiots who again, don't even fucking knew the guy anyway. They really are mourning jackshit, they just cry for attention and jack off their low self-esteem by playing "houlier than thou" on Twitter, really. I hate to use that acronym because I know what political side usually uses it but… yeah… the sad thing is that they exist and this is a clear cut exemple of that. Dave was a friend of Bruno, he paid a genuine and sincere tribute. He's also supposed to be a journalist and that's his job to not let bullshit spread out, *especially* under those circumstances.

The cliché is "The House that X built". Well, the WWE truly is the House that Bruno built. With Vince & Hogan, they are the triumvirat of the promotion. I really am not familiar at all with his work (seen a few matches back then for the GWE 2006), but I loved hearing his interviews on the WOL, he was fascinating to listen to (what a life story !) and had that gentle voice too. What can be said ? One of the all-time giants of pro-wrestling.

Actually, Dave is probably more touched about this than any "wanker" on the internet going "RIP RIP RIP" (make that a chant if you will) for a guy they never met and barely even seen when he was active, as Bruno was an actual friend of his. And Dave actually did report on Bruno earlier with this : https://mobile.twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/986631594122203136?p=p So yeah, I understand that this thread on all about "Metlz is a grouchy evil human being" but let's not be a Youtube comment section either...

It was really damn good for 15 minutes, until Cody cut off Omega's comeback and went into the figure four. From then on, it really dragged and Cody got exposed as a guy who just shouldn't try to do "workrate". He's a really good heel, his duo with Brandy works wonders. Have him work around that (basically, work like the Miz more, although I'd argue than at this point, Miz is a better in-ring worker actually, although I would never want to see him work a single match that long either). He took some pretty poor bumps for Omega's offense, which made the match pretty unbalanced, as Omega on the contrary made everything Cody did look terrific. Even the crowd kinda died during a long period. The bump that woke up everyone of course was Brandy going through the table. She's a trooper. The false finish (near-fall, let's not get crazy) which followed was really effective. Problem is that the dynamic really died down again for me after that point, and no self-conscious "This is awesome" chant will convince me when the actual crowd noise isn't sustained. Then they got into "kick out of big moves/lay down selling" mode, with the super annoying "fight forever" chant and my goodwill is beginning to wane seriously as I felt I was watching that big Mania Match I thankfully didn't get to see this year. Add in overbooking, ref bumps and run-ins and really, to me the match is dying now. Way too long. The match ending one minute after the Brandi bump would have made it really good overall. As it is, it's just an overblown mess to me at the end.

Kanemaru is the first GHC junior champ and he's a dick. Sugiura is the Kurt Angle of NOAH. Almost. His Olympic Slam looks a lot more devastating (headrop baby). Again, this is a slow burner turning into a hot sprint at the end. Hearing the crowd slowly and slowly getting louder and louder is a pleasure, really. Instead of simply busting out intense sequences at the start, Kanemaru is dominating by being a veteran, keeping Sugiura down (and not exposing him as green). So yeah, it starts kinda mundane, but then Sugiura catches Kanemaru outside and slams the fuck out of him, which is nice since that's the kinda of dick stuff Kanemaru likes to do. Sugiura is all about amaresu (I wonder if that word sounds bad in Japanese), suplexing Kanemaru on his head and showing his strenght. Yet another very good, slow building match by Kanemaru, Suguira looks promising here as a powerhouse amateur style junior. Kanemaru proceeds to kill him off by ways of several brutal brainbusters in a row, without any kick-outs BTW, because Kanemaru is that much of a dick.

There's something to be said about these early junior NOAH matches, they were all into building toward a hot finishing stretch as opposed to just do a zillion spots like today's stuff. ANd it's really refreshing to have the guys take in down slow at first. Kanemaru is a dick and when he tales control, he bodyslams KENTA outside and shit's on. Nice dynamic actually, with KENTA being bullied around until he finally makes a comeback then it's bomb throwing times. Very-good/Excellent match with the trademark delayed selling on a killer spot exchange, leading to one of them taking advantage. Kanemaru is slept on, he wasn't flashy but he was super solid and had the dickish attitude down pat. KENTA was still in the early stages, sporting what I think are Kobashi's old boots. As New Japan was the junior territory until that point, NOAH was doing a great job establishing their division as something important (as opposed to AJ under Baba).

Exactly what I thought.

Nope, haven't seen any of his other work. Not really interested considering what I've seen from him, really. I usually enjoy Joey Ryan's crass comedy. The match with Hart managed to be boring as hell because Hart can't seem to do comedy either. Damn, for a guy with a name like this, he's absolutely worthless. Not surprising he never got anywhere.