He does. Apparently he prints out all of his emails and doesn't go back to the original to C&P from when he does the update.

No complaints here. He actually gave me a plug in last night's update for a charity I'm running the marathon for this year. Any such efforts are always appreciated -- well above and beyond the call of duty!

He does. Apparently he prints out all of his emails and doesn't go back to the original to C&P from when he does the update.

Which leads to a lot of potential for human error. Back when I produced UWC TV, when I would send the link to Dave for the daily update, there were more than a few days where he would get the link wrong and I'd have to send a correction.

When I did the pre-release review of the Punk DVD set, I made sure to do a custom Bit.ly URL because I figured it would work better than Dave transcribing the whole direct URL to the page on Bleacher Report.

 

He misspelled bit.ly.

When I did the pre-release review of the Punk DVD set, I made sure to do a custom Bit.ly URL because I figured it would work better than Dave transcribing the whole direct URL to the page on Bleacher Report.

 

He misspelled bit.ly.

In that case I feel blessed. But that's pretty funny. Hate to think how an editor might slow him down.

I want to go back to Tanahashi/Suzuki. Specifically this:

 

I think that in all the big matches Tanahashi has had this year, he's clearly been the second best guy in the match. He's been someone who basically plays the part he's always played in big matches and lets the other guy shine, and then he finds a hole, fills it with his stuff and they head to a finish. I will say this, though: The role of an Ace in a promotion is to make the opponents he faces in main events look good, and Tanahashi does that more often than not. Both the Okada matches have been good and both the Suzuki matches have been good, but the work in the match shines more on Tanahashi's opponent due to this being a lot of what Tanahashi has done before in other big matches.

I think it's largely correct that Tanahashi as ace means that his matches tend to be more showcases for his opponents. But he's still the fulcrum around which the matches revolve. Saying that Tanahashi was just a warm body in the Suzuki match is off-base because Suzuki was clearly working within the Tanahashi formula. Suzuki was like Steamboat or Windham versus Flair. They brought more to the table than most opponents, but they were still unquestionably Flair matches.

 

I also think it's worth noting that New Japan and All Japan seem to have both largely adopted the other company's traditional in-ring style. The notable IWGP matches have been rather King's Road-esque with things like learned psychology and targeted body part work. And Funaki's Triple Crown matches are a lot closer to a Hashimoto match than they are to a Misawa one.

Suzuki was working within the Tanahashi formula? Is that a serious statement? Now granted I don't watch a ton of Tanahashi, but I've watched at least a half dozen matches of his every year for the last six or seven years (probably more but I'm being conservative). I have NEVER seen him involved in a match like that. If that match is indicative of Tanahashi matches I've been missing, please point to those matches so I can watch them.

Tanahashi centering his matches around attacking his opponent's leg is one of his trademarks. People bitch about it all the time, so I find it difficult to believe that it's something that's escaped you. Do I really need to cite specific matches?

Citing mode of attack is not really what I think of when I think of formula/type of match. Flair would usually attack the leg too, but I don't think anyone would say "leg work and psychology built around that are is what Flair formula is." Suzuki/Tanahashi was clearly not your standard Tanahashi style match even if general mode of attack was similar. Honestly I can't believe this is even an argument as even people who like Tanahashi a hell of a lot more than me have pointed to this match as distinct and different from his usual efforts.

I'm wondering if the Tanahashi stuff can be broken off into it's own thread... "Current NJPW" of something. There has been a lot of good discussion, very little of which relates at this point to Dave... and it kind of gets buried in here around other Dave stuff. Wonder if it might be worth being broken off to seed further discussion of NJPW.

 

John

My quick take on Tanahashi: he'll do his part to bring a match up to a certain level, but he leaves it up to his opponent to take it beyond that. TanahashiSuzuki was better than other Tanahashi matches because Suzuki brought more to the table than other Tanahashi opponents. But that's quite different from saying that Tanahashi was just a warm body. Suzuki couldn't have had that match with a broomstick.

Not really a Dave thing, perhaps a WON thing. I am on a long vacation in a country where I don't have great internet, and when I do I just check my messages and little more, so I hadn't been to WON or MMA websites in a few days. I read about Brad Armstrong so I went to WON to see if anything was up. I read "John LaRocca talks Brad Armstrong", having no idea who John LaRocca is, and I saw this:

 

"Over the last few years I got in touch with Jeff Gagliardo, long time WON Newsletter subscriber. Jeff was the cousin of an old friend of mine in high school. Jeff facebooked me and we became good friends. It was fun talking with someone about the wrestling that I grew up watching and we both regret not meeting when we were younger. Jeff wrote me and e-mail telling how much he loved Brad Armstrong's work. I wrote back and I said the same thing. We sent back an forth a few e-mails talking about how great a worker Brad was. "

 

Really?

Jose let me advise you not to read the majority of columns on there because it will make your head hurt.

Not really a Dave thing, perhaps a WON thing. I am on a long vacation in a country where I don't have great internet, and when I do I just check my messages and little more, so I hadn't been to WON or MMA websites in a few days. I read about Brad Armstrong so I went to WON to see if anything was up. I read "John LaRocca talks Brad Armstrong", having no idea who John LaRocca is, and I saw this:

 

"Over the last few years I got in touch with Jeff Gagliardo, long time WON Newsletter subscriber. Jeff was the cousin of an old friend of mine in high school. Jeff facebooked me and we became good friends. It was fun talking with someone about the wrestling that I grew up watching and we both regret not meeting when we were younger. Jeff wrote me and e-mail telling how much he loved Brad Armstrong's work. I wrote back and I said the same thing. We sent back an forth a few e-mails talking about how great a worker Brad was. "

 

Really?

I have had conversations with a longtime WON subscriber and HOF voter about photography!

John LaRocca is the former booker of All Pro Wrestling in California. Due to this he has great insight and hence any email he sends to Dave is posted on the website.

John LaRocca is the former booker of All Pro Wrestling in California

He still books it. There's tons of local wrestling but APW's pretty much the only one Meltzer pays any attention to at all & will rarely attend so he knows him from thear.

Jose let me advise you not to read the majority of columns on there because it will make your head hurt.

 

Case #235982908652:

http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-sto...the-state-it-is

Dave should have told him what a dick he comes across in those messages.

Ion then used an armbar, which they called “submission impossible.” I’m guessing it’s named after Dinner Impossible, the TV show that Gail Kim’s husband is the star of, although there was a TV show decades ago (and later a movie) called Mission Impossible.

I'm praying he's pretending to be that dense there to confuse his readers.

 

If not....yiiiiiikes.

In todays update:

 

--Coveh Solaimani is looking for a Ric Flair ring worn robe and is willing to pay $15,000 for the right robe. He can be reached at [email protected] or at 804-316-8177

 

Does Ric himself not have any robes he could give up. 15k for him seems like a nice pay day.

Lance Russell's interview from last week was awesome. What a great man.

An amusing one-two of stories on the Observer site:

 

First this:

http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-sto...-angle-from-raw

 

Then this of Sabu in the ambulance fame:

http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-sto...ng-this-weekend

 

Ion then used an armbar, which they called “submission impossible.” I’m guessing it’s named after Dinner Impossible, the TV show that Gail Kim’s husband is the star of, although there was a TV show decades ago (and later a movie) called Mission Impossible.

 

What really gets me here is that someone would really name a move "Submission Impossible," which basically implies that the move sucks and would never get you the win in a match.

Or that it's impossible to escape from

--Sabu vs. 2 Cold Scorpio headlines on 3/2 for the Hardcore Roadtrip promotion in London, ONT with a 2 p.m. show. They show also features a one-night tournament for the Hardcore Roadtrip championship with first round matches of Pitbull Gary Wolf vs. Jason Knight, CZW Anderson vs. Blue Meanie, Stevie Richards vs. Vito Lograsso and Axl Rotten vs. Angel of Da Baldies. They will have two shows that day, with the semifinals and finals of the tournament at 8 p.m. Also appearing include Sandman, Raven, Tod Gordon, Joel Gertner and Bill Alfonso.

would be a great gimmick