MPDTT

Got in online, but on FireTV its busted

Anyone else having problems with NJPW World?

Any concerns that ROH will struggle without the Elite can be put to bed.....the Beer City Bruiser has signed a new contract!

I thought he was NXT bound.....

24 minutes ago, Accident Prone said:

I find people who always chat about the positives to be incredibly irritating at best and incredibly fake at worst.

I'll take irritating....if I have a choice

I'm reflecting on this discussion and Keith is right about me. If I get bored of a product, I move on to something else.

Its a shame that for the majority of wrasslin fans today, the lack of perceived choice means we do tend to complain about a bad product, but don't have the choice to switch over to a WCW or a ECW or a TNA (when it was good prior to 2010). In short, that's why WWEs product stinks - they know the fans will complain, but keep coming back. I'd really like to see AEW succeed - WWE needs competition a credible alternative to give the fans the power to vote with their feet.

Wouldn't it be great if the majority of fans felt that same passion for a product the way it was in the late 90s?

 

20 minutes ago, Accident Prone said:

I find people who always chat about the positives to be incredibly irritating at best and incredibly fake at worst. Ignoring the bad stuff adds nothing to conversation whilst simultaneously sucking it dry. Like people who'll say "Hey, it's just a movie, turn your brain off and just enjoy it!" as a way to excuse horrible film making.

I LOVE wrestling and I stopped watching WWE because there's way too much awful dirge for me to truly commit anymore, but that doesn't mean I unconditionally love the promotions that I do follow. I'll harp on about the great stuff and I'll point out what I think is bad as both topics are just as fun to discuss . Fight Club Pro holds a special place in my heart but I can harp on for ages about stuff that has bothered me about them or what I think they can do better. It's great to take the good with the bad, it's only when the bad outweighs the good do you drop the product entirely and find something else.

There's a guy on Twitter who constantly praises New Japan and won't hear a bad thing said against it (no, not Meltzer) and he received a lot of flack for his stance and rightly so. If you act like everything is amazing whilst ignoring everything else, you come across more like an annoying fan boy type rather than a someone you can actually connect and have a good chat with. 

But then again, this is how I conduct relationships with people and I still have the same friends I did when I was 20, so I'm probably in the minority. However, I'm not going to grin my teeth and bare it whilst someone at the pub goes on about how great the Justice League movie actually is ...

That was a terrible movie....

1 hour ago, Accident Prone said:

I appreciate the write-up @MPDTT. I understand that you don't want to chat about WWE, but have no fear in discussing the negatives of something as well as the positives. Discussion like that actually brings more attention to this thread and ROH in general, and will also stop people from ignoring your posts all together. No one likes a shill at the end of day, and singing the praises of a company with as much buzz as Kris Marshall comes across as rather phoney,

Personally, I think ROH are stagnant and have only gotten milestones like MSG because of the NJPW connection, booking their biggest shows during WresleMania weekend and some air of name value, so I'm really interested to see how they progress from here now that they might be losing a lot of key people.

They've quickly signed up some names (really weird picks, but promising names never the less), now they have to work on their image problem. The Beer City Bruisers and Brian Milonas' and Matt Tavens and Silas Youngs and fucking Bully Rays need to be shown the door, right now. The fact that you nominated Flip Gordan as 'Best New Talent' (Flip debuted in April '17) highlights their issues with talent scouting and their struggle to keep people on-board.

Also, the Honor Club service needs a lot more classic content uploaded in order to entice lapsed fans like myself and the booking needs to be more dynamic and needs to feel less like an exercise in mediocrity.

At the end of the day, ticket sales and sparse crowd reactions at live shows are really telling and they need to react now seeing as AEW are right around the corner with Cody, The Bucks, Omega (maybe?) and Hagman at the helm. The ROH brand on it's own won't be enough considering all the growing competition out there and I really want ROH to succeed in today's modern wrestling market.

Feedback is a gift.....point well made and taken on board. 

I have not personally found ROH stagnant - the opposite in fact. The company largely is the reason I fell in love with pro wrestling again after several years of not giving a shit since TNA went to pot. But that said, how much of that was due to The Elite? Time will tell on that one now they are gone from Ring of Honor. On the other hand HonorClub has been a massively positive shift for ROH and regardless of the Elite. The company has a history of reinventing itself when stars leave and I think they will continue to do so. The link to NJPW is crucial though....

I disagree on Bully Ray and Matt Taven though. Bully Ray is an amazing heal who can get people over. He did a great job in his programme with Flip Gordon. Keep him around if he is going to continue to put over younger talent. Matt Taven is awesome and I think we will see great things from him next year.

2019 is going to be a fascinating year in wrestling.....

 

 

 

 

 

4 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

I saw that on Twitter recently. I had no idea what or who it was or when it was from, I just knew that it was incredibly good.

Hence my link...enjoy the match.

My positive awards would be:

1. ROH Wrestler of the Year

Cody

2. ROH Tag Team of the Year

The Young Bucks

3. Show of the Year

Final Battle 2018

4. Best new talent

Flip Gordon

5. Storyline of the Year

Bullet Club is Fine / Cody v Omega fued

6. Tag Match of the Year

The Briscoes v Young Bucks at Best In The World

7. Singles Match of the Year

Cody v Kenny Omega at Supercard of Honor

1 hour ago, Accident Prone said:

How about we turn that on it's head a little? You're consonantly being called out for being a ROH shill and ,until very recently, you rarely posted in any non-ROH/New Japan thread.

So here's your chance to redeem yourself; what was the worst of ROH this year? Prove you're not just here to hype up ROH news and events, and actually go into the negatives about the promotion, What sucked? What was disappointing? What could've been done better?

I love New Japan, but I can go on for quite a bit about what I don't like about it and what I think they've done wrong this year and what I felt was disappointing. Having a balanced view is healthy but you seem to actively avoid discussions about the piss-poor booking, shoddy talent decisions and bland shows. 

Let your hair down, let off some steam and prove you're not part of some ROH 'media team'.

Seasons greetings @Accident Prone

I'll happily answer your questions. But first, let me raise a point.You are the third person to accuse me of working for ROH in some manor, which I find rather odd. This is a wrestling forum, not a WWE forum. The reason I post about Impact / ROH and New Japan is because these are the promotions that interest me. 2 years ago I mainly watched Impact, then I subscribed to HonorClub, then more recently NJPW World. I post about promotions that interest me. I don't post about promotions that I don't. Its that simple. Live and let live.....

On to your questions, although as I commented on the annual Awards page, I don't like to dwell on the negatives....

1. What sucked?

The Honor ReUnited Tour - Touted as a repeat of the successful Honor United Tour, this centred round a tournament that was meaningless and was done to save money and limit the size of the ROH roster they needed to bring over. Poor events and poor ticket sales followed.

2. What was disappointing?

Dalton Castle's world title reign. He really went nowhere and lost steam after beating Cody at Final Battle.  

3. What could've been done better?

Women of Honor - holds zero interest for me and the talent just isn't there in any depth to make it meaningful.

4. Piss-poor booking

Bernard The Business Bear - absolutely pointless, went nowhere and he was just gone one day without explanation

5. Shoddy talent decisions

The TV Title has gone nowhere in 2018. It should never have been put on Punishment Martinez and Jeff Cobb has done nothing in the promotion to warrant getting that strap so soon.

6. Bland shows

Death Before Dishonor. Small crowd in big arena hurt the show, as did little promotion (the show was just 'there' not long after All In. Plus the undercard was underwhelming as they put Cody, Scurll, Hangman, the Bucks, Okada and Ishii all in one match.If they had used them all, but spread them across the card, the show could have been awesome - headlined by the superb Ospreay / Lethal main event. 

So what is everyone's ROH match of the year?

13 hours ago, AdamTH17 said:

It’s a great match, but it doesn’t really fit in with the nature of the thread. The entire purpose of this match was to build up two matches, which would surely make more sense to put in here if they live upto expecrsfion, and then cite this match as being a key component of build.

Hi @AdamTH17

My reasons for including as "fucking great" are:

- That moment of Ospreay landing on his feet and the camera work capturing the look on Ibushi's face is just incredibly well done by all concerned

- The match is a 'match of the year' candidate and NJPW have chosen to give it away free just 10 days after it happened on NJPW World. A nice Christmas gift!

- The match itself could be the textbook answer for what amazing tag team wrestling looks like

In short, I just thought it was fucking great from all angles, so posted the free link in this page so others who hadn't seen it could enjoy it.

1 hour ago, King Pitcos said:

But then you'd have hated WCW.

Hate is a strong word. I dont hate WWE, even though I dislike the modern product. I don't think WCW winning the war would have led to the demise of WWF either. If WCW had stayed on top longer, Vince would have moved away from Monday night and the head to head era.

I don't believe, in that era, anyone felt that there was not room for both promotions. Yet now, it is reasonable to question whether there is a sufficient market for 2 major western promotions - purely due to what WWE has morphed into since 2001.

Maybe I should correct my post to 'I wish WCW hadn't lost the Monday Night War'

When it’s Good it’s Fucking Great.....and free.

Dec 15, 2018 Tokyo・Korakuen Hall (English Commentary) Hiroshi Tanahashi＆Will Ospreay VS Kenny Omega＆Kota Ibushi

https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00501_4_07

Free match. This is as good as it gets.

 

I really wish WCW had won the Monday night wars.

4 hours ago, Tommy! said:

I was told that I could listen to ROH at a reasonable volume from nine to eleven, I told Bill that if Sandra is going to listen to her headphones while she's filing then I should be able to listen to the ROH while I'm collating so I don't see why I should have to turn down ROH because I enjoy listening at a reasonable volume from nine to eleven.

Welcome to my life! But without the plant, I don't get one of those......

11 minutes ago, gmoney said:

Dingus. 

How very nice of you. 

 

 

 

 

Hmmm, I'm not going to vote on these awards.....not a fan of focusing on the negative. But @Keith Houchen and I can agree on Austin Aries.....

Just now, Keith Houchen said:

Oh man, I forgot all about that! Will have to give that a nomination in the negative awards.

And I forgot to look at the negative awards - thank you Keith!

If I'm allowed 3, then I'd like to add Will Ospreay

1 minute ago, gmoney said:

You can pick three, dingus. 

Dingus?

2 minutes ago, AdamTH17 said:

Haskins is good, yeah. He’s got a style where you’re guaranteed a solid match out of him. It’s a shame that he got injured when he did, because he was properly getting momentum behind him after winning the PROGRESS Championship, he was winning titles everywhere, and then in his absence was when the BSS trio started getting around everywhere and he got shafted a bit in the booking of PROGRESS. It’s very obvious they’ve got nothing for him at the moment, and it’s been that way for a solid while.

His promos are dreadful, but if they stick a mouthpiece on him he’ll do well. Plenty of fresh matches for him overseas which should invigorate him a bit.

I wonder if Vicky is going with him?

On 12/21/2018 at 7:52 AM, BrodyGraham said:

I really rate Haskins. Everything that lad does looks like it has intent and malice behind it and I'm frankly surprised he hasn't been picked up sooner.

I saw him on Honor United, but my favourite Haskins match I've seen live was the death match with Jimmy Havoc at Ally Pally 

Best pro wrestler - Kenny Omega

Quite simply the best wrestler on the planet. Kazuchika Okada would be #2 if I could have 1 more choice - the 2 had the best match of all time in 2018

 

Best women's wrestler - Becky Lynch 

I've really switched off to WWE this year, having let my WWE Network subscription lapse post Wrestlemania. I was only using it for NXT and was just frustrated that they continued to use NXT as a feeder promotion, when its the best product they offer. That said, big fan of the 4 horsewomen and what they have achieved. Becky was the unsung hero for so long...I'm glad she is getting the success she deserves. 

 

Match of the Year - Kenny Omega v Kazuchika Okada at NJPW Dominion

Best match of all time. Meltzer's 7 star extravaganza. I have this match on my phone and have watched it time and time again on the daily commute. Never grows old.

 

Best wrestling event - All In / Slammiversary

Slammiversary was great and signified that Impact had some fight in them....

All In was the start of something HUGE in my opinion, time will tell.....and was absolutely awesome!

 

Best wrestling show - Impact

I should probably say NXT, but I don't have the WWE Network anymore. I've given up on Raw and Smackdown.

 

Best feud or angle - Pentagon Jnr / Sami Callihan 

All kinds of awesomeness across this fued. The highlight being the Slammiversary match

 

Moment of the Year - Cody winning the NWA World Title at All In

The old school build, the entrances, the history. The match wasn't the greatest, but the finish was special.

 

Best babyface - AJ Styles

Been an AJ fan since the early days of NWA-TNA. All credit to him, I never thought Vince would allow him to have the success he has had in WWE, despite his matches being nowhere near the quality of the one's he had outside of WWE, but thats not his fault.

 

Best heel - Sami Callihan

The guy has been phenomenal. When he debuted for Impact, I thought he was just an indy worker who wouldn't amount to much. But he's great on the mic, his fueds with Pentagon Jr, Eddie Edwards and LAX have all been highlights and earned him lots of heat. I'm sure he will hold the Impact World Title soon enough. 

 

Funniest moment of the year - Bucks of Jericho, or is it Y2Jackson?

I struggled with this one. I also liked the "205 live" skit by Kazuchika Okada against Marty Scurll, which turned into a finger snap.

 

Best tag team - The Young Bucks

Easiest question. What the Bucks have achieved outside of WWE is incredible. 

 

Best wrestling podcast - Wrestling Inc's Two Faced podcast

I watch this from time to time, don't watch any others.

 

Few more categories that should exist:

 

Breakout star - Jay White

From 'young lion' to NJPW headliner. Great future....

Hardest Worker: Cody Rhodes

Whether it was masterminding All In, his social media presence, his schedule.....Cody has to be credited. He took a chance and its paid off massively. Cody isn't the best in ring performer, but he made up for it through his work ethic both in and out of the ring.  

Most Improved: Hangman Page

Just watching Hangman had some great performances in Tag League and his match with Jeff Cobb at Final Battle, that stole the show, reminded me of how awesome Page has become as a performer this year.

 

"Let's make myself look like a knob" Award: Austin Aries no selling the finish at Bound For Glory

None of us ever found out why he did it, but man, didn't he look like a twat!

 

Announce Team of The Year: Don Callis and Kevin Kelly for NJPW

No question. Both are fantastic and I hope NJPW retains both men next year.

 

Promotion of the Year: New Japan Pro Wrestling

Folks think I'm an ROH mark. But most of my 2018 highlights are from NJPW. 

7 hours ago, Weezenal said:

Do you work for ROH?

Nope , sorry to disappoint, just a fan. My skills lie in The City of London as an HR Director. I don't see jumping to a wrestling promotion being part of my career trajectory unfortunately.

 

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