rolling Jericho calls The New Day trap queens 2016

OMG there's a director's cut of that Hardys video. How does TNA have money to spend on mini-movies?

I agree that Roman Reigns vs Big Cass is looking more and more like a potential Survivor Series main event with each passing day.

BOTSJ was great today, I had time and watched the entire show. Don't skip the undercard matches if you can help it, especially the CHAOS vs LIJ six man tag, I can't say enough about how good those matches have been. This is my favourite faction vs faction feud in I don't know how long. Even Goto, who I usually find boring, is suddenly interesting again just by being involved in this feud.

been taking a little break from the rasslin just recently but i watched the Ricochet vs Ospreay match tonight out of some sense of duty bcuz everyone has been talking about it, even though i usually hate this sort of thing. it was interesting! wasn't anywhere near as bad as i feared it might be anyway.

i feel like it occupies quite a strange space rn in that it was a match that supposedly exists on the absolute cutting edge of what wrestling can be yet in many ways it felt kinda... unfinished? like it points to something greater to come at some unspecified future date.

this seems to have been the fate that eventually befell the canonical Tiger Mask / Dynamite Kid series, in that it was uber-modern in its day in a "this is what we are capable of now" sorta way but it was quickly surpassed by guys doing the same sort of thing while telling a much more interesting story, and if you watch those matches back now it's difficult to see them as these timeless classics precisely because so much of the appeal was bound up with the athleticism and the wow factor and the choreography. compares unfavourably with e.g. some of Jerry Lawler's best 80s stuff because in those matches the story was doing all the heavy lifting and that stuff doesn't age in the same way.

various people, Ricochet included, have come out on twitter this week saying "well it's horses for courses, different styles of wrestling will suit different fans" etc. but i do feel that what's at stake here is something more than simply enjoying different styles. feeling like there are actual stakes involved in a match is not a stylistic thing imo, it's fundamental to the appeal of wrestling. and there would be ways to work this kind of match without it being quite such a relentless, no-selling go-go-go spotfest.

but idk that either of these guys are in a place yet where they can deliver on the promise they showed here and put on a match that offers the same virtuoso athleticism while telling an awesome story it'll definitely be cool to see what they can do together in a few years.

also Will Ospreay's facials are the worst, that guy has got all the physical ability and moves~! that one could ask for but he needs to work on those extras real bad. he could be incredible in a couple of years

Ospreay vs KUSHIDA showed that with the right opponent he can work his athleticism into the story. Plenty of famous wrestlers never figured that out in their entire careers (e.g. RVD, and even Kota Ibushi to a large extent).

Brock is fighting at ufc200 and punks debut is ufc202

i hate will ospreay's entire face so much, not just his facials but during promos and everything, he should realize his face sucks and incorporate it into heeling

on a brighter note i want to commend mattel on a meta job well done on this comic con exclusive
http://news.mattycollector.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/DWF99_005_600px-198x300.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/F6BlB1H.jpg

Yesterday's BOSJ final was a perfect example of what Ospreay can do in a "story"-driven match with the right opponent (although who would have thought that Taguchi would be that opponent).

KUSHIDA vs O'Reilly on day 1 was the best match of the tournament for me. O'Reilly moving up to heavyweight would be great, especially if it happens in time for the G1. There are a lot of free spots in the G1 this year (Styles, Anderson, Ibushi, and Nakamura have all left, Yano is in NOAH, Tanahashi might be injured). At least there will be plenty of fresh matchups.

i guess you take bailey off the card and i dont even notice there was a nxt ppv. anyone watch it? im sure its really good but i guess i just dont care that much atm. might catch it later in the week. feel a bit like an internet nerd with the view 'but its not developmental anymore, its njpw v. tna!' but man, that just loses half the fun.

Not watched it yet as I'm on holiday and the sun is shining but I'll get round to it tonight probably.
Don't really gaf about the to show rn but there's no way I'm skipping out on nak/aa or the la sombra debut. Or fuxkin JOE man, he's great at.m

I wasn't nearly as stoked for this as I was for the Dallas ppv, but I'll watch this sometime in the next few days. I've seen the results, it sounds like a typically good NXT show.

It was fine. Spoiler-free musings: Dillinger looked great in the opener with Almas, he's the new Tyler Breeze (for good and for ill). The tag match was super, the booking in the NXT tag division is where all the action is at the moment. Nak/Aries was good but it went too long, and lacked the spark of something really at stake (like a title shot or something). Asuka and Nia Jax was my second favourite match of the night, yet another Women's Title match I was more pumped for than the main event - Jax is so close to being great as a badass. The cage match disappointed, I just don't feel any heat in that feud. Balor is great, but I didn't really feel him as champion last year, and I didn't see the hunger to get the belt back in the run-up. Think of Zayn and Owens and it doesn't even compare. Also, it was another TakeOver main event suffering from the lack of a cooldown spot. Nice how they fit the cage in Full Sail, though.

Ah I feel like that was overly negative, it was better than 'fine'.

watched everything but the first match (got to my pals house late), predictably revival/alpha slayed, nakamura is still the funnest dude to watch do anything anywhere on earth, women's match great, balor/joe solid as well. i can't wait until we have alpha and revival on the main show mixing it up, they are just SO good

they are, and in such perfectly complementary ways, may their rivalry continue for another decade.

nia jax has improved so much since she started, i'm looking forward to her run as the vader of the women's division.

yeah so this way dope (as is to be expected now); tbh i have very little time for people complaining about NXT specials. Totally get why you might not be into the tv at the moment but these live shows are always grrrrreat. Problem for NXT is they've set the bar so high now that apparently 3 or 4 awesome matches in a night isn't quite good enough. all that said, would agree with MacDara that the Finn/Joe match lacked a certain something, I lay the blame firmly at the feet of Finn tbh

i also really enjoyed the Breaking Ground episode they aired after the show. i don't care if that shit is scripted to high heaven, there are moments in there that feel real and that works for me, and if anyone at WWE had half a brain cell they would leave off with the 2 hrs of totally talent-exposing in-ring promos every Monday night and start integrating more of this kinda backstage shit because it is just as fake (though in a much more appealing way imo) and also approximately 10,000,000x more effective at establishing motivation and character.

also I am quite thoroughly in love with Dana Brooke, cannot account for why rn but i'm ruminating on it. hope the rumours are true that Vince thinks she's dope and wants to push her as a major thing

it may be wrestling fan sacrilege but i'm not a huge fan of cage matches, at least not pg ones, the climbing and the door opening and all other escape stuff always seems to throw off the momentum

nah nah you are otm, cage matches w/ pinfalls and submissions (as in the old NWA) - CLASSIC, cage matches under escape rules like what WWE does - MAJOR DUD.

like, the psychology of it as a feud ending match is totally backwards. these guys are meant to be ready to murder each other at this point, the gimmick is supposed to be like one guy desperately wants to get out of there and the other guy just wants to tear his head off , or maybe they mutually want to tear each other's heads off, but the point is "THERE CAN BE NO ESCAPE". that is the whole fckin point. doesn't work so well when you say "ok only way to win is by escaping"

What was up with Almas's entrance gear? He looked like he'd be taking a loss to Glacier on an episode of WCW Saturday Night. And the announcers can call his finisher a double knee strike all they want, but that move is a running crotch to the face and no one can convince me otherwise. (He was good in the rest of the match, though.)

Speaking of entrances, this might have been the lamest Finn Balor "demon" entrance yet. It occurred to me that he would fit in well with what the Hardy brothers are doing in TNA right now. But those guys are a laughing stock while Balor is the toast of the most critically acclaimed brand in wrestling. I don't get it.

The middle three matches on this show were all fantastic.

just watched the NXT tag match back again, would be interested in hearing pitches for best ever straight-up tag matches in WWE (so not including the TLC matches). bcuz errrrr AA vs Revival was really a quite extraordinary thing

extraordinary as in, you can shove yr Benoit/Jericho vs Austin/HHH because that was just four singles dudes teaming up to have a cool match, this match on Wednesday was something else entirely imo. when you're out-performing Shinsuke Nakamura and Samoa Joe that's when you know you're onto something

American Alpha apparently gonna be called up imminently what with the brand split and all, would be a crying shame never to get pt. III of this already all-time series

fuck it, revival got their 2-time, first 2-time ever, drop it real quick to the australia express and give us pt. iii on smackdown idgaf

and by that i mean the mighty don't kangaroo

or drop it to the new road warriors aka the meat shield aka those guys

the meat shield (ft. ellering) was the most interesting part of the night imo, though the actual tag match was great

the revival deserve a lot of praise for being a part of that and the enzo/cass match at roadblock which i thought was better

it's weird that i get so excited about finn getting main rostered when he's been in more dire need of a heel turn than reigns for the past, oh, ever. at this point he's just doing a bad job.

Revival vs AA keeps getting better, these teams were born to feud. They probably have a two 2 out of 3 falls or tag team iron match in them that would break all superlatives.

Nak vs Aries was surprisingly one-sided, but I guess that fits the story they were telling. Aries is pissed that Nakamura has been upstaging him, and the match came off like a showcase for Aries to really show what he's made of for the first time on an NXT special. Mission accomplished, he looked good and had cool counters to much of Nakamura's offense, but still couldn't manage to beat him.

The stupid pin or escape the cage rules completely killed Balor vs Joe. Climbing the cage gave them a reason within the match to do some highspots and take big bumps, but the intensity isn't there when two guys are trying to run away from each other to win the match.

Asuka vs Nia Jax was OK, but I did love the finish.

Almas vs Dillinger succeeded in getting the wrong guy over.

Almas hurt more by the entrance attire and the awful, awful, AWFUL name (Andrade "cien" almas - is that even right? Idek) than by being in a ring with tye Dillinger.

Dillinger obviously the new Tyler breeze in that he is really good and is destined to be horribly misused in order to get new acts over with the nxt crowd.

Almas showed enough in his match that you can see him getting over fine, he had a bunch of great spots worked into the match

There were chants for Will Ospreay at the start of that match, so anyone who'd been rewatching Ospreay vs Ricochet all week wouldn't have been blown away by Almas in that match.

I can't stand those super smarky crowds -- nobody cares how many other promotions you follow so stfu and enjoy the match -- but that's the Full Sail audience so it was the wrong opponent in front of the wrong kind of crowd for that kind of debut.

re hot tag team matches, benoit / angle vs edge / mysterio at no mercy 2002 is very very hot

i'm gonna make some ox baker shirts

guess i gotta get swole first

fuck

greatest gimmick ever. twice killed a man.

WWE Money in the Bank and NJPW Dominion on the same day. It could be an all time great weekend for wrestling.

i love this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcKQR8u6J2s

I guess we're posting ****SPOILERS**** now?

A babyface that people actually like won the world title and everyone cheered and it was a great moment. Funny how that works.

The finish for Cena vs Styles was awful, but they're going to have a million rematches so I guess it's OK. Hopefully Finn Balor shows up, turns on Cena too, and joins the Club to take this feud up a notch.

Dominion was a great card too, albeit without any must see matches. I'm surprised they changed so many titles, and Naito's loss was especially disappointing so soon into his run. I don't see the point of resetting everything back to how it was before Invasion Attack, unless Okada won a bet in a drunken card game with the owner of NJPW during one of their vacations together. The ladder match was way too long, although both guys worked their asses off and Omega in particular was bumping like a suicidal maniac. Shibata vs Nagata was perfect for what it was, and a great culmination of their feud.

The main event was the best and worst of Okada. I don't understand how someone in his position can be so aloof and boring sometimes. Way down the card you had YOSHI HASHI, showing fire and getting the crowd behind him for the entire match (even though he almost always loses) because the LIJ vs CHAOS feud is awesome in no small part thanks to him. In the main event, Okada should have been ready to kill Naito because he's been getting his ass kicked by Naito's stable for weeks. Instead, he was looking bored for the first ten minutes, showing no real urgency or fire. This is getting to be a pattern -- the same could be said about his match with Tanahashi at WK10. The crowd noticed it too. Osaka crowds hate Naito, it should have been a total gimme for Okada to get them on his side but they didn't seem particularly interested in cheering him, even though everyone else in CHAOS was super over.

Hopefully Finn Balor shows up, turns on Cena too, and joins the Club to take this feud up a notch.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1205602132/275px-WWE_Nexus_logo.svg_crop_340x234_normal.pngaaaahhh...

Supposedly the build of the century, the Shield triple threat is...

happening at fucking Battleground.

Way to blow yr load and show everyone you don't know what you are doing vince.

it makes sense from a scheduling perspective in that the brand split is right after, but yeah

wtf roman

this is so wild it feels like it has to be a work

seriously

omg

The suspension is up before the ppv, they can smash his face in again on SD, send him off TV for "surgery" and bring him back in time to save the day at Battleground.

Bryan and Mauro to call the Cruiserweight Classic, they know their audience when they want to

I'm surprised Bryan is back for that; just going by what I've read of the type of person he is, especially from his own book, I can't imagine it's easy for him. I mean, even Edge had more of a clean break and a longer time away from the business before he returned.

He used to be *indie superstar* though, it makes sense the thing that draws him back is essentially WWE welcoming the indies under their banner. Might not be the same as why tf am i not headlining the biggest wrestlemania ever?

Oh no, I get *why* he's the choice for this, it's totally appropriate. But it must be difficult for him as a person whose first love is wrestling, not peripherally but being in the ring actually doing it, having to sit there on the outside and talk about people who are essentially his peers, even more so than his WWE colleagues. I mean, we don't know that he's doing this of his own accord or whether it's something he's been persuaded to do as a contracted talent. I really hope it's the former, and that he's coming to terms with the end of his in-ring career.

I think Edge, CM Punk, and even Jericho when he left in 2005 were completely burned out on wrestling after doing it for 15 years without a break. Bryan's really the perfect guy for this gig, and I'm sure he knows it.

Dragon also spent 2 years on the sidelines, barely wrestling and eventually coming to terms with having to retire. Punk and Edge had to wrestle up until the day it was over, so it might be quite different.

You both missed my point but whatever.

i get you, i was surprised about this after he bailed on his tribute shows or w/e. i've just assumed this has been really difficult for him and he doesn't want to be around wrestling for a while

which is probably a lot to assume