What are you watching? Part 6312

[JNLister]

On 7/25/2023 at 9:40 PM, SuperBacon said:

Summerslam 96

Hilarious that WWE seemingly put what looks like four 20" TVs around the ring for people to watch. 

 

Apparently the closed circuit of the first WrestleMania was in Reunion Arena in Dallas (rather than a movie theatre) and rather than install a big screen, they did exactly this, but of course it was for a full show.

[air_raid]

Forgotten by history but remembered by me, I watched this again the other day.

Call me crazy, but this is far better than it had a right to be and was far more fun than most title matches in the "Divas"/women-as-piss-break era. Yes, it helps that Kaitlyn gets good support as the Texan going for gold in Texas, but still. Eve came on leaps and bounds and this actually had story and build - Torres could lose the title by DQ or count-out having weasled out with the belt in two previous defences. The match is enjoyable, the finish strong. A superb comeuppance for the total bitch character Eve had perfected, in her last match on the roster. If only every exit could be this good - she made Kaitlyn look formidable.

Edited September 19, 2023 by air_raid

[Lorne Malvo]

I really liked Kaitlyn. I'm not sure why it didn't quite work out for her, maybe if she'd came around a few years later she could've been a big part of the womens revolution era.

Also that match reminded me that Kaitlyn was another wrestler to add to the massive list of 'did the Spear better than Edge'.

[air_raid]

26 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said:

I really liked Kaitlyn. I'm not sure why it didn't quite work out for her, maybe if she'd came around a few years later she could've been a big part of the womens revolution era.

It wasn't so much that it didn't work out so much as that wrestling was never her first love. When she jacked it in she had multiple irons in the fire - she knew she had plenty of work waiting for her back in fitness modelling (and still does), she was launching a clothing line, plus - like Eve before her, funnily enough - she had a wedding to plan. You're not doing that shit while catching a late night burger and coffee at Dennys before your three hour drive to Badiddlyboing, Odawidaho.

[Tommy!]

First smackdown of 2000

Opens with HHH & Steph saying how they are punishing DX for loosing to the rock on raw, much to their indignation.

Peppered through the show are medion as "mankind" being a nob at Orlando resort, being scared of rides and being ignored by fans. In the last but one he says he'll go on the back to the future ride to see if he can get to 1982 which was the last time Collette found him attractive enough to have sex with him. On exiting Foley is there to beat him up outside the ride for being a nob.

- X-Pac defeats Big Show after sausage fingers throws the ref away for a DQ. Fun match because pac is bouncing around for show making him look good. 

- Bob holly & Crash go over Jericho & Chyna. Some nice exchanges between buttplug and Jericho while Chyna refuses to tag in. Furthers the dysfunctional co champs story ok but it's just a shit story.

- Bradshaw & Faarooq V Gunn goes to a non finish when dogg shows up and they all brawl into the crowd. Fun enough watching ron do his thing. 

Tori goes into Steph's room asking if she can take a shit in her en suite. Then dogg comes in and Steph tells him HHH is in there waiting to talk yo him, so he walks in on her mid dump (which way she was facing remains unconfirmed) setting up Kane Vs dogg after Kane demands a match with "that pervert"

- Kane pins Road Dogg. Dogg keeps chopping away, Kane no sells and tombstones him. Pac appears mid match making a breast honking motion at Tori to continue the Kane v pac story

- Kurt Angle beats the The Rock (via DQ). Fun back and forth match, again Kurt's got it already and the two have clear chemistry. Blackman runs in but Rock beats him and Angle up with Steve's stick first getting himself DQed. Angel milks the celebration before Rock gives him the elbow to get his shine back.

- Edge, Christian & Jeff Hardy vs The dudleys Boyz & Al Snow. Matt's got his fingers taped after getting them whacked in the cage on raw, which is a nice touch. Doodleys vs Jeff makes most of this, which is a great dynamic and shows what were on the cusp of. Edge wins with his downward spiral, which looks as shit as I remember. Al gives both doodleys head after the match.

- Test pins Boss Man after 8 3/8 kicks the bean can. Hopefully that's the end of this. Enjoyable enough filler, bossman works the broken nose of test which is a bit different, but it's going nowhere.

-Taka & Funaki beat The Posse. Fucking hell, this was short but surprisingly fun. Starts with an asai moonsault onto all 3 from taka before the posse take charge.Also who knew the posse had finishers, abs and Rodney do a beautiful backdrop into a powerbomb, Cole calls it the stock market crash or something, and gas hits "the gas mask", a double overhook like a full nelson but face to face into a sit out powerbomb. Taka dropkicks someone into a schoolboy by funaki for the win. Funakis blue and white striped gear also looks like those cheap plastic bags you'd get on market stalls or corner shops.

HHH has his opponent drawn from a tumbler. First is andre, then moolah. So they ask fink to do it, who falls over and knocks the balls everywhere. He picks one but evidently it was meant to be fixed and he's fucked up, but the who segment was shit. Anyway it's rikishi for a long overdue IYH rematch  

-Rikishi beats H by DQ. Night and day yo the big show match on raw, Rikishi bumps H around and has the upper hand at nearly every turn. H hits him with a chair but gets a 2 so clocks him with the belt in front of the ref for the DQ to keep the title. He then gives him another couple of shots but he keeps getting up eventually running H off before dancing with 2 cool. Fun match, much more competitive than I expected. Looses points for having Steph on commentary though

 

highlights 

- Rikishi vs H

- taka & Funakis vs the Posse

- angle vs rock

- Pac vs show

lowlights

- 10 minutes of hilarious tumbler action, including no one being able to open the balls that look like kinder egg surprises with the names in

- Tori asking to take a shit

- test & the bean can. I love boss man but it's just a bit of a jumble with these 3.

- Al snow getting in the way of the tag teams. Heel Al is the shits, soon goof ball opening act Al is back the better.

Edited September 19, 2023 by Tommy!

[Loki]

Japanese wrestlers fighting on a bullet train - 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-66856413

That's Minoru Suzuki and who?

[AndyUK]

I've started watching the 'Reliving the War' series on YouTube over the past couple of days by Wrestling Bios. It's been running a few years but I've only just found about it.  It basically goes through RAW v Nitro a week at a time, comparing and rating the matches and segments against each other in about 20 minutes. 

Perfect for someone that like me that wants to relive the Monday Night Wars but can't be bothered to spend the number of hours it would take to watch all the RAW's and Nitro's in full. 

So far I'm up to very early 1996, and in the early days of Nitro it is already night and day ahead of RAW in terms of its presentation and match quality for the most part, with the only thing really dragging it down being anything involving Hulk Hogan, who felt very out of place at this point but still had to be at the centre of everything  

Edited September 29, 2023 by AndyUK

[air_raid]

10 hours ago, Loki said:

Japanese wrestlers fighting on a bullet train - 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-66856413

That's Minoru Suzuki and who?

Tokyo-based DDT Pro-Wrestling organised the battle between Minoru Suzuki and Sanshiro Takagi in a carriage for 75 passengers.

Can you guess where I read that? 😜

[Doog]

Been watching the build up to WrestleMania 17 recently and aside from the build up being pretty shit, now you know the Austin heel turn is coming there are a fair amount of hints leading up to it.

Rock is in a handicap match pretty much every show, put in my Regal, but Austin never has anything like that and hardly wrestles at all, I know his neck was probably bad at the time and he didn't want to overdo it, but the heel authority putting Rock in all these matches and not Austin is interesting looking back. There's also a RAW where Rock is waiting for Austin in the parking lot and his "flight is delayed", and then there's the obvious sit down interview with JR that foreshadows it.

I just found It interesting as on the night of Wrestlemania as a kid it felt completely out of left field and didn't see it coming at all, and maybe I'm looking into it too much now but there are signs

[SaitoRyo]

I've been watching some of the latest Superstars dump on the Network, which has finally started working (on my laptop anyway). 

They're building to the 97 Rumble and while there's a lot of the usual shite, there's a few really decent matches to be found in there. Chief among them a wonderful sprint between Flash Funk and Salvatore Sincere, of all people, on the January 5th episode. 

The AAA luchadores are all over the shows, too, giving us gems like Hector Garza versus TL Hopper and Mil Mascaras putting himself over on commentary. 

[waters44]

I watched NOAH’s New Year 2024 show this week.

The reviews will all lead with Ibushi’s performance in the main event but there’s other stuff to enjoy here

There’s a three way tag team match at the bottom of the card that is absolutely fantastic! 

Then Tomohiro Ishii and Masa Kitamiya have a banger (although I could do without the stiff headbutts!)

And the GHC Championship match is really good too. Manabu Soya looks a beast, luckily for him he’s got a strong neck as Kenoh nearly kicks his head off at one point. 

Re Ibushi - I feel bad for him honestly. The match was going ok although clearly they don’t have much natural chemistry together. Don’t get me wrong, Ibushi wasn’t firing on all cylinders but Marufuji also blew a spot or two. They tried these “stare at eachother to demand respect spots” that the crowd had no interest in at all. Can’t really blame them as at this point they are six hours into the show!

Then Ibushi does a moonsault to the outside which clearly fucks his ankle. It’s amazing / stupid he did anything after this all things considered. One spot he lost balance on the top turnbuckle and nearly landed on the apron on his injured foot with all his weight, that would have been absolutely miserable for him. Things pick up a bit towards the end and they get to the finish but the crowd is absolutely dead. So it’s not a great match at all BUT they were fighting against a few different things here

Are NJPW, NOAH and AJPW still the big three promotions in Japan? I’ve been loving rediscovering puro recently 

[Merzbow]

15 minutes ago, waters44 said:

Are NJPW, NOAH and AJPW still the big three promotions in Japan? I’ve been loving rediscovering puro recently 

Yeah but there's also GLEAT (pronounced Great) ran by the former owners of NOAH and they're doing pretty well, it's a mix of pro wrestling rules with guys like CIMA and other former Dragon Gate stars and then there's the shoot style roster who are doing UWFi matches along with legit MMA guys.

[BomberPat]

The last couple of years it's been harder to gauge the top three than it has been in a while, both NOAH and AJPW went through some rough patches but are on the up again now, and there was a point that I'd have argued either DDT or Dragon Gate probably broke the top three ahead of AJPW, though their target audiences are often completely different, as are their business models; DDT in particular tend to run a lot of smaller shows, and shows under sub-brands, while AJPW run bigger shows but less frequently. 

Dragon Gate consistently do really well, but it's been a long time since they really seemed to trouble international interest - a mixture of them being based outside of Tokyo, and having carved out a bit of a niche for themselves as a promotion built around selling attractive male wrestlers to a larger female audience than most Japanese promotions attract.

Stardom tend to do really well, too, on the Joshi side of things, often outdrawing what you'd generally consider the number two or three promotions. Tokyo Joshi Pro also do well for themselves though, like DDT and NOAH, they're owned by CyberFight, so can afford to weather the storm of lower attendances and still be in a more stable position than "bigger" companies.

[Devon Malcolm]

I've been watching some of WWE's compilations of Royal Rumble matches over the weekend, an amusingly random selection. It did remind me how dead the crowds were for the last couple though, and how brilliant that Becky Lynch vs Asuka match from a couple of years ago was.

[Devon Malcolm]

I'd forgotten how perfectly Johnny Ace played a boring authority figure by just being himself. Particular attention to this moment:-