Matt D

That's great. He's the best at what he does.

Ha. I knew we weren't getting a full match out of Stampede.

The weird heel turn came a week after everyone was excited about what looked to be a Reigns heel turn but obviously wasn't.

So UK themed for tomorrow. AWA 09/13/1981 Billy Robinson vs Ray Stevens 15:03 @khawk20 is this new in full? CWF 09/13/1981 Les Thorton vs Jerry Brisco Looks like we have this but could be a VQ update. Some Harts/Davey Boy Smith vs JR Foley's Army match from Stampede in 1981. Says 21:24 which seems like the longest Stampede match ever. It could be an elimination match with Davey Boy Smith, Bruce Hart, Keith Hart, and Robbie Stewart (Chic Cullen) vs Duke Myers, Kerry Brown, Dynamite Kid, and The Great Gama. It could be something else. I have no idea on whether we had it or not. Who's our stampede expert? plus a modern match with Dunne and Andrews

If he was working in Japan instead of WWF at the time and had done a run in on Superbrawl 95, maybe?

Ultimately, I think for your health and sanity, it's good to step back and try to figure out what you're trying to handle and why you're trying to handle it. What do you want out of watching current pro wrestling in 2019? Do you just want one or two promotions that you can really bite your teeth into and follow to get that episodic/ongoing story buzz with matches you enjoy? Do you want to keep up with the discussion for the social element so that you can be on the cutting edge and sort of live in that moment? Do you want to be able to create a credible best-of list at the end of the year (and if so, figure out WHY you want to do that)? This is a hobby. It shouldn't feel like work or a chore or an obligation. The only exception is if you really want to be part of the current conversation and that specific social element of it overpowers other elements of your enjoyment. That's no more or less valid than anything else (though it's almost a different sort of hobby, just like following the business side of things is a different sort of hobby), but come into it with open eyes at least as it'll affect how you follow things. Maybe you just want to make sure you don't miss any matches that you'd love. If that's the case, I'd suggest leveraging the resources at your disposal, namely this board and twitter and whatever else. I'm pretty confident that if there's a match that happens that I'd really, thoroughly enjoy, and I don't catch wind of it through normal channels, someone I know will flag it to me. If you want to be part of the social elements of it all, then reap the benefits of it.

It's all going to come down to revenue streams, I think. How do you make money in 2019? You can partially crowdfund the Young Bucks. You can't really crowdfund AEW. Or can you? I don't even know and I'm not sure anyone does. I think the balance of it all is a valid question. If they get a solid TV deal, does that close doors when it comes to other funding sources? Is the Hot Topic merch trend still on the upswing or did they actually miss the boat by a couple of years? What sort of muscle can WWE flex at this point in halting this? I get the 84-5 comparison, but I think a 1987 might be more interesting, where WWF went out of its way to block JCP PPV. Plus, it feels like a much more crowded marketplace than ten years ago. Maybe that's just an illusion, but there's much more wrestling out there to consume than anyone possibly can, both local and otherwise.

Sorry guys, got a big caught up in things. Microstatistics and aaeeoo are stepping off. I think we'll revisit things a bit after this week, make sure that we all want to move forward. For now, we've got 10 still, which is a pretty good number for this. We might see some dupes in here starting now though not many (I think this is the second match that cad gave headcheese for instance): NotJayTabb boss rock Jetlag joe g Matt D NintendoLogic Tim Evans SirEdger cad Headcheese @NintendoLogic Did you catch this newly uncovered handheld when it popped up last year?

Initially, I had taken Kaoru to be younger and less experienced than she actually was, and that colored the two areas of the match which are a little problematic (being the opening and the abruptness of the finish) as better in my eyes initially. So far as I'm lacking context, I'm going to continue to be kind to them, however. I enjoy matches that are presented like puzzle boxes, the idea of "How is wrestler X going to deal with situation Y?" and a lot of times, situation Y is a wrestler that's bigger/stronger/more dominant/more established. It's one reason why I'm so disappointed with so many Brock matches that devolve into the suplexes within the first minute (and one reason I loved the start of the Joe vs Brock match so much). It's the most enjoyable part about later Hansen matches or the Aja Kong GAEA matches I saw. Obviously, that's at play here as Kaoru rushes in and assaults Hokuto before the bell. She DOES hit a few bombs right off the bat, but there's also a strange nonchalance to her stomps. Honestly, if you look at what she actually hits, it's a kick out of nowhere, the stomps, the dive which isn't super clean, a slam, a moonsault. Most of that stuff would have a big impact on a wrestler later into a match, but maybe less so on one that's fresh. We're not looking at a bunch of headdrops or postings or power bombs. Even the moonsault, when you think about the physics of it, may be something that'll knock the wind out of a battered opponent more than doing damage to a fresh one. It was all effective in keeping Hokuto on her toes and unable to fire back, but none of it was going to do enough damage to really knock her for a loop. When Kaoru got too cute about it with the springboard (which is a high risk-high reward sort of move), Hokuto yanked her off the ropes like someone swatting a fly. She was more pissed off than hurt and I thought that was both believable and effective. From a kayfabe perspective, Kaoru had a good idea but poor execution. Honestly, I thought the selling was perfectly appropriate as the match went on after that. There was a lot of cumulative damage. Except for one run towards the end, Karou was just trying to contain Hokuto however she could. Again, at first watch, I thought Karou was a bit younger/less seasoned than she was, and the end stretch and kick-outs felt like a pretty effective way of getting her over as tough, even though she was going to fall to one move too many. Now, I'm a bit iffier on it, but just a bit. I get the sense that I might not enjoy other Hokuto or Karou matches from this period, but I thought this held up pretty well for what it was.

Going to reroll tomorrow (and write up my match, which I did enjoy). MS is off. Anyone else? And hey, if anyone jumps on, just let me know. It's been a bit of a bumpy board week so we can all give each other matches and feel better about things.

As aggravating as the last couple of years of Lesnar have been, if Brock (or Ronda) played a role in the TV/Saudi deals, he's worth every cent and at least the short and medium-term damage of having a part-timer as your dominant champion. Frankly, for as many good matches and programs as he's had and how reliable he is to carry TV time, I wonder how much a guy like Styles (let alone a potential Omega) helps the company's bottom line. It's so hard to tell what makes any difference business-wise these days.

With their revenue effortlessly locked in as deeply as it is, I just don't see that happening. I could see them doing more petty things, though, which will lead to another few dozen threads like this over the next year or two.

I vaguely wonder if this correlates inversely with having a spouse, kid(s), and mortgage.

They're a bunch of oxymorons.

Where to even begin. Let's go around this circle again. 1. Bryan getting beat down on an almost weekly basis. 2. Them trying desperately to siphon the Yes chants onto Big Show, which actually worked for a few weeks until the actual match stunk. 3. Putting a ton of heat on Michaels even when they knew that there couldn't be any meaningful payoff to it. 4. The entirety of the Wyatts angle, which had a bunch of Bryan losing 5. The fact that it wasn't even "booking." Booking is when you do a bunch of things with a specific intent and that intent works out. This was a course correction that the fans forced upon them by rejecting Batista. The booking was to use Bryan to heat up Orton so that he'd be positioned for the unification match with Cena, and then leverage Batista's return into putting over Brock so that you can eventually get to Reigns. Along the way, they could use Bryan to help establish Wyatt for Cena too. On paper, it's not even that bad booking, though some of the week-to-week stuff was pretty rough. It's just that they completely misread the crowd and what they had on their hands.I'm pretty sure they thought Bryan was the world's best Eugene, a midcard act that was over for being an oddball and that could help put on some good matches with Orton. What they ended up getting instead blew up all their plans.

Personally, I'd go all the way back to Dusty being on the road too much, but that's just me.

This has been an unmitigated disaster. I say we just close this thread and just never speak of this company again. Maybe WWE will go back to Saudi Arabia again soon or something and we can talk about that.

All of the shit we cared about so much as kids made sense almost solely because of him.

I'm barely paying attention to this stuff (look, I'm about 500% more excited by the fact that I found a bunch of 2007 Dustin Rhodes on Highspots that wasn't on anyone's radar, even if I don't plan on actually getting it, than anything to do with AEW), but this does remind me a little of the disclaimer Marcy Wheeler puts at the bottom of every single one of her posts on the Mueller investigation on her blog (which is probably comparable in relative legitimacy to what Dave does, if you really squint), because she provided some evidence to the FBI at some point. It feels just a little like overkill or even self-aggrandizing but it also provides a buffer. "As I disclosed in July, I provided information to the FBI on issues related to the Mueller investigation, so I’m going to include disclosure statements on Mueller investigation posts from here on out. I will include the disclosure whether or not the stuff I shared with the FBI pertains to the subject of the post." It probably wouldn't kill him to put something like that in the Observer or at the end of the daily updates or what not, just for the sake of transparency.

This is annoyingly filmed but the most complete version online.

@Microstatistics This was a little tough actually. I know as of a few years ago, you hadn't seen much Virus or Jim Breaks/WoS. Those are two people in my GWE top 10. But I decided I'd go easy on you since I know you've got a lot on your place. .... Or not. The Virus vs Valiente lightning match from 2009 is no longer online. Something with meat on the bone then. Here's one of the very best CMLL matches of 2014 then (if not the best):

Ok guys. Let's take this into 2019. cad Tim Evans joe g boss rock Jetlag SirEdger Matt D Microstatistics NintendoLogic aaeeoo_ Headcheese NotJayTabb I think these are new pairings. Micro, I'll get something to you tomorrow. Remember, even if you can't hit your own match immediately or are behind, get your partner something. Happy New Year, guys.

I'll be honest that I haven't seen as much Yokota and Asuka as I probably should have. A lot of the 80s AJW stuff I've seen is the Nagayo vs Dump stuff, and while Asuka's on the side of that, it's not quite the same. Therefore, this lost a little big of significance to me. Thankfully, it's so direct and impactful, it didn't really need it. By this point, these were past the point of fully formed to be almost transcendent. Asuka had this air of danger to her, like she could sneak a kick in at any moment, do damage, and turn the tide of the match. Just a dominant force. Yokota was almost preternaturally smooth on the other hand. The opening agility demonstration, while probably rote for her, seemed akin magic while never feeling like an exhibition. Her consistent selling of the arm for most of the match was great too. It's a shame she dropped it in the stretch, as it would have added to her first failed attempt to hit the double-underhook pile-driver for instance. That sort of goes back to what the point of the limb selling is. Is it just to kill time? Is it to garner sympathy? Is it part of a larger attempt at storytelling? If it was the latter, she missed an opportunity or two to tie it up with a bow, even after Asuka had moved on to other things. The stretch might have played upon their matches from years past but it didn't really call back to the match they had been wrestling up until now. It was great action, but lacking resonance. I really did like everything leading up to it though. (One interesting thing here is that PeteF3 watched this match almost as blind as I did back in 2015 and he came out of it wanting to see more of Yokota's smoothness and agility. I came out of this wanting to see more 90s Asuka crushing people).

@SirEdger @aaeo_, Are you two back on? I'm rerolling tomorrow (and I'll write up my match too). Anyone need to hop off?

Do you think they might have the full Flair vs Bockwinkel match?