rolling Jericho calls The New Day trap queens 2016

in other (SPOILERISH) news.....

*********SPOILERS FOR MONDAY NIGHT RAW*************

i am pretty stunned at how hard they've pushed Balor out of the gate. I expected him to come in as a big-ish deal but I didn't expect him to get such a huge chance at Summerslam.

also the de-push of Roman Reigns is a wonder and a joy to behold. of course it's totally possible that they get properly behind him again once he's paid off his debt to society, but i dream of a future where "What if Roman had never been busted for a wellness violation?" joins "What if Magnum TA hadn't crashed his bike?" and "What if the first Mania had flopped?" on the list of legendary "what ifs...." that would've changed the course of the business

Watching Raw now. I'll have to leave for work in a bit so I'm only seeing up to the end of the second fatal 4way but I love that wwe has learnt how to do multiman matches now. These are awesome and in the ast year we've had zayn-joe-Corbin, the four horsewomen, brock-dean-reigns and the extreme rules one. Oh and rusev-cesaro-ko. I've not seen the end of bttleground yet but I presume that was fun too. 20 years too late but now they understand the formula I love it.

lol Ziggler jfc you have gotta be fuckin kidding me

Raw was so good, and Smackdown was so.... not

Is that gonna be on the ss pre show or

Baron Corbin gotta be pissed after destroying ziggles for 2 months

true, but corbs at a clear disadvantage in a 'six pack challenge'...

Note to self: Must poll terrible sports illustrated 101 greatest wrestlers ever list when I get home

Orton at 17 is some great trolling but the thing is full of it. Davey Boy Smith as the technical master of the 80s and 90s also a+

lol yeah there are some treats in there for sure. no idea who the writer is but he certainly hasn't watched very much wrestling

gargano / ciampa at the cwc was so good.

obviously lots of good stuff at the g1 too but my head is spinning trying to keep up.

i haven't watched wrestling in like 2 months :(

if you haven't watched wrestling in two months, do yourself a favour and catch up on cwc. so many great matches. and gargano/ciampa is like... a contender for moty for me. top 5 anyway.

Past two months has Zayn v. Owens and Sasha v. Charlotte. Both are ESSENTIAL VIEWING.

Didn't expect to be particularly into the match but the way Ciampa vs Gargano was done was like genuinely extremely gripping television to me, kind of awesomely out of nowhere for such a pure wrestling-focused show

massively fun to see Jack Gallagher looking like a million bucks with some highly convincing, recently-discovered Cesaro clone too, best episode so far

when jack gallagher is asked if he wants to give up while in a submission and he shakes his finger as if a waiter is asking him if he would like more tea --- classicccccc

okada / ishii at the g1 yesterday was =-o =-o =-o

certainly interested that gallagher connected so much more with the world of wrestling style than zsj did

certainly interested that gallagher connected so much more with the world of wrestling style than zsj did

Definitely. Last week was the first time I saw ZSJ (because reasons) and I was distinctly underwhelmed. Gallagher, however, simply has it; could have been his chemistry with Aichner, who was surprisingly great, but he's so much smoother in the ring, and has his character down to a T and all. That's the kind of package WWE (or at least NXT) wants.

It's like when Taka Michinoku got signed over Sasuke because he connected with the WWF in a way the bigger name didn't.

in my limited exposure to zsj he's far more fun to watch on a highlight reel than one of his whole matches. but again if they ran him as a patrick-bateman-except-submissions-instead-of-murder heel he'd be fantastic.

I'm a week behind on the CWC, but it's been great overall. I'm almost caught up on the G1, with the "rest" day I'll make time for Day 15 before the next round of B-block matches.

Yes, Ishii-Okada was easily the match of the tournament thus far. Okada has been sleepwalking through his matches since the one vs Marufuji, so it was great to see him motivated again. Tanahashi's limbs are hanging on by threads but he's still managing to be one of the best performers in the tournament yet again, I have no clue how he does it.

Agreed on Okada/Ishii. B Block has been more fun for me overall but that match, and the last 10 minutes especially, was tremendous. I have a friend who was there and says the crowd atmosphere was something else.

i loved how the crowd seemed to completely buy the near fall about 20 seconds in, good precedent to set for the rest of the match

My favourite part was Okada doing the rainmaker pose and Ishii jumping up and chopping him in the throat. I hate how guys have to play dead waiting for moves to be set up (e.g. John Cena does his you can't see me/hit the ropes/five knuckle shuffle routine), it exposes the business worse than anything else I can think of.

Gallagher, however, simply has it; could have been his chemistry with Aichner, who was surprisingly great, but he's so much smoother in the ring, and has his character down to a T and all.

Gallagher definitely "gets" it -- his character, the mannerisms, the ring attire, everything.

Ciampa vs Gargano told a hell of a story in and out of the ring. They made 90% of the other competitors look like amateurs.

holy fuck ibushi v alexander

go watch it NOW NOW NOW

just catching up with last week's CWC final round before I move on to last night's ep, everyone itt totally otm about Jack Gallagher. I'm only a few minutes into that match but it's already obvious that he's got that World of Sport style down to a fuckin tee, comedy Les Kellett spots and all. I wouldn't want it all the time but there's definitely room on the roster for one awesome midcard guy working that schtick

fuck, Ciampa / Gargano was low-key MOTY territory. What was it, like 11 minutes? I don't think you're gonna see a circa-10-minute match better than that. Serves a dual purpose as well because I immediately buy them as a tag team far more than anything I've seen from them on NXT. Absolutely great character work, and Ciampa looks fuckin vicious

I was really disappointed with sabre jr. Isn't he supposed to be the second coming?

Maybe he'll put it out later but I much preferred Gallagher for a similar style.

Also tajiri and Kendrick as the vets have been outstanding. I think the Kendrick match might be one of my top five so far, he was so good.

I dig Ciampa and Gargano, but I didn't get into that particular match like I thought I would, it seemed a tad over-rehearsed, like maybe they were trying to compress a 25-minute match into half the time. But as I said, still love those guys and want to see more of 'em in NXT and beyond.

Haven't watched this week's yet, maybe I'll triple-bill it tonight with CWC and yesterday's G1 matches.

I could nitpick Ibushi vs Alexander (the botched rana from the top, the somewhat sudden finish) but it was a great match and definitely served its intended purpose (as a showcase for Alexander). Tajiri vs Gran Metalik wasn't far behind either.

tanahashi / okada yesterday was some incredible stuff. so much good wrestling these last few weeks

i guess i really need to start watching njpw. are tanahashi/okada the anti-orton/cena?

They are Orton and Cena; or rather, they are them as they...should have been

Sanada vs Tenzan, Ishii vs Makabe, Goto vs Marufuji and Shibata vs Tenzan all v watchable from that show too

I'm not saying Bad Luck Fale vs Tama Tonga wasn't watchable so much as I didn't watch it

Omega/Naito in a tie with Styles/Nakamura for match of the year for me. Jesus Christ.

Omega vs Naito was the match of the tournament, easily, and the MOTY thus far in NJPW. I can't say enough good things about it.

here's where i am:

CWC: stalled after the first 3 episodes
NXT: stopped watching but i wanted to check back in
raw and smackdown: watched the first episode of each, still feel like i need to follow both for a while
LU: stalled like midway thru the season, really hard to watch something with someone else i always hate doing this
NJPW: still on BOSJ night 1! i wasn't even going to watch all of the matches but i can't decide which ones not to watch
90s wwf: haven't watched in forever, stalled in june 97

there is too much wrestling, that week where WWE became notable again just destroyed me and now i'm stuck and i'm so bad at prioritizing

so i haven't been keeping up with this thread i just wanted to say that i'd never actually heard ZSJ talk before and i had no idea he had that accent

he sounds like he comes from the richest, evillest part of england

it's a bummer that everyone who was big somewhere else is a default babyface in WWE because his actual speaking voice is more befitting bill regal's heel persona than bill regal's

also his chin looks like a sweaty buttcrack

CWC is so much better now they're in the second round - I really wasn't feeling it the first couple of weeks, not like I'd hoped - but that last episode with Jack Gallagher is worth watching. This week's was fantastic. I'd say you could safely skip ahead and watch it from now.

yeah it's the first thing on my list and i've been looking forward to the second round, i'm just so behind and i never intended to watch THIS MUCH wrestling when i got back into it

Oh I hear you loud and clear - I only got through the G1 by skipping the undercards and all the Fale matches! It's only worth doing if it's fun, not a chore. Haven't been watching Raw or SD because that's exactly that, a chore (oh how I wish the Network had them a week later rather than a fucking month).

I'm still only a few eps into the first season of Lucha Underground, feel like I can go back whenever it takes my fancy tbh. I've got a Chikara sub too that I would have let lapse only they're doing a special event before SummerSlam so that's next weekend sorted.

Just watched Omega/Naito. I'd never seen a match from either man, but I've been hearing great things about both and I already thinking Kenny Omega is the coolest-looking guy in wrestling, so with that plus the hype I was pretty excited. The match certainly lived up to it.

[Quasi-spoilers ahead, but I won't give away the result]

For better and for worse, it was absolutely insane. The things these guys kicked out of in this match were just criminal. You had a power bomb through an announce table, over-the-guardrail dive, dragon suplex on the apron, and dragon suplex in the ring, all in one sequence, as a mid-match nearfall. At times it felt like they were fighting the last pro wrestling match in world history.

And yet the whole thing was built around a time-honored wrestling trope, with Omega hurting his left knee early and struggling with it for the duration. Omega sold it consistently and beautifully, too. So the match was 2016 state-of-the-art overkill and a purist's delight at the same time.

Not to mention that it was worked like a double-turn, which Omega teased following through with in the post-match promo before turning on the crowd again. That was a nice touch.

yeah i've had to let more committed souls guide my selective approach to the g1*, but it's been worth it. only styles / nakamura and zayn / nakamura are competing with ishii / okada, tanahashi / okada, and omega / naito in moty stakes imo.

*and not seen any super j-cup! unbelievable they have both on at the same time**

**okay looking at the schedule i guess it's only been the fairly insubstantial but presumably still quite fun first round so far

omega sells like no one else, i loved him hurting himself on the german suplex counter

Yes! That was so good!

Just watched Omega/Naito. I'd never seen a match from either man, but I've been hearing great things about both and I already thinking Kenny Omega is the coolest-looking guy in wrestling, so with that plus the hype I was pretty excited. The match certainly lived up to it.

The weird thing is, people have been so down on Omega during this tournament, probably 'cause they've worked themselves into a shoot fantasy booking a jump to WWE, and all they could see was him being conspicuously de-emphasised with the rise of Naito (plus Tanahashi's injury didn't help, and while his ladder match with Elgin was great, the IC belt is kinda doing nothing round his waist ATM). So a lot of people didn't see Omega/Naito coming, which adds to it in a way.

The character work in Omega vs Naito was top notch, which is one of the many things that put it over the top as an instant classic, even for people who haven't seen them before. That level of character work, psychology, selling, and build toward the finish is almost unheard of even in NJPW, outside of Tanahashi's matches and maybe also Ishii's.

gallagher/tozawa as good as any other match in the cwc imo, except for the crowd's awful tozawa mock-screaming

his finisher, the gentlest german, requires some suspension of disbelief though

I make peace with it by assuming that the snap german is what really does the damage, and the deadlift german is just a bit of showing off.

ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sure

has anyone been more disappointing here than noam dar? i know he's very young but the way people talk about him, i'm not sure what's missing here that usually isn't elsewhere. he's got a great look, good mannerisms, great hair most importantly, tremendous accent, wrestles kinda like shawn michaels, but he doesn't have the thing that makes him a compelling wrestling character. he doesn't have a hook, so none of that other stuff really matters. not to be mean to finn balor, but finn balor would be in the same situation if he didn't have the paint.