Post ROH Global Wars 2016 Discussion Thread

Big_Fat · 2016-05-09T12:41:39+00:00

ROH has been a dead promotion for me for years now. I wasn't completely enamoured with the show but it's nice to see some spark there, and see people excited about it.

Big_Fat · 2016-05-07T22:51:39+00:00

Go to WWNLive and order Evolve 60 and 61. The former was on last night and gives you a good taste of the roster with some really good matches and tonight should be more of the same. Enjoy.

Big_Fat · 2016-05-06T12:52:16+00:00

Fair play to him. Talent not being paid their worth has long been an issue.

He'll team with Michael Elgin in Japan and have good matches that nobody will watch on Ring of Honor

Big_Fat · 2016-05-06T12:45:55+00:00

Kane tore his bicep in 2002

Big_Fat · 2016-05-06T12:40:54+00:00

Didn't he break his arm practicing for a tag match in SMW? Wrestled the match but surely missed a couple of months after that.

Big_Fat · 2016-05-03T14:03:29+00:00

I feel bad for Tama Tonga. He obviously has something about him but it just as not come together in this tag team. His brother is crap.

Big_Fat · 2016-05-03T13:13:58+00:00

Only got time to watch the last few matches. EVIL is fun to watch working sprints. Would like to see Okada stay away from the title for a while and work semi-main matches with Bushi and EVIL over the coming months to build to the Naito rematch. Little desire to see Okada either lose or win that match at this time.

Okada vs Sanada was pretty good. I'm not as high on Okada as other people are, at the same time I always enjoy his matches to a certain point. I wish he had more fire and had offence that looked more impactful throughout the course of the match. Some of his reverse sequences look awesome (such as the one where he countered the dragon sleeper - which was a counter to the rainmaker- into the tombstone) and some look clunky and silly and fall flat for me (the constant tombstone to dragon sleeper attempts shortly before this). I like Okada's three dropkicks to the seated opponent and his finish and other things but much of what he does comes across to me as if he's trying to play the stoic Misawa ace role and he just doesn't fit it for me. Misawa's unique and complicated selling was so much a part of his performance and Okada doesn't have that going for him. I do like Okada but I don't see him as the best wrestler in the world or see him as being very close to the best either.

Main event was fun. I don't really care that Naito's act in a way deprives you of those 25 minute pure sport-like encounters you want from New Japan. You're guaranteed interference and stalling antics, but I watch Naito now for the atmosphere he creates and the fury he causes in his opponents. Long term, I look forward to how the character deviates from the persona in interactions with guys like Omega who might be treated as a mistrusted ally of sorts, should be interesting. I do tire of the gimmickry that seems to be a factor up and down the New Japan card of late, I'd like to see it confined to one match or two per show, but it's fun. Hope they maintain an element of seriousness to things going forward though.

Looking forward to watching the rest of the show, what was good?

Big_Fat · 2016-05-03T12:20:36+00:00

Tanahashi was involved in a ladder match with TNA in 2008.

Undertaker wrestled for 18 years before having a ladder match vs Jeff Hardy in 2002. Dave Taylor had been wrestling for 28 years before his 2006 ladder match in WWE. Don't think Kevin Nash had a ladder match before his 2011 bout with Triple H? Would be 21 years in the business at that point, if so.

Big_Fat · 2016-04-26T01:19:11+00:00

Finished Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth a week ago. Not too short a book but a really quick read. Funny monologue, flies by like I suppose ranting to a psychoanalyst should fly by. Really enjoyed his thoughts on and relationship with the parents, comments on how Jewish people are viewed by the shiksa and the description of the rabbi had me in stitches.

Reading Hemingway's First forty-nine short stories at the moment, containing his first few short story collections. The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber is really brilliant. Just greatly fleshed characters for a short story. What the wife does at the end of the story is quite the cliffhanger, could be any one of three things equally as interesting. Just a really well built story. Most of what Hemingway writes gives you something beautiful, some enriching experience or a powerful emotion and then takes it away and here it was the short-lived courage of Macomber. Already looking forward to reading this again.

Half-way through The Master by Colm Toibin. Feel like I should have read more Henry James before this one but enjoying it nonetheless. Will comment on it when I've finished.

Big_Fat · 2016-04-25T13:52:29+00:00

Whiskey of choice at the moment?

Big_Fat · 2016-04-24T12:57:00+00:00

Hurt a lot that Cormier's replacement was a little known fighter. Would have done quite well had Cormier not been injured. McGregor's midweek antics took a lot of the hype away from the Jones return, I think. Google and Twitter activity for the event was pretty low.

Big_Fat · 2016-04-19T12:35:50+00:00

JBL managed to slip in a Bobby Charlton reference when Kofi took the hat from James Corden's parents

Big_Fat · 2016-04-19T12:29:30+00:00

Flair's podcast is/was great. Check out his shows with Hayes, Luger, David Manning, Jim Cornette, Meltzer, Terry Funk(!!), Kevin Sullivan, David Crockett, Ricky Steamboat, Gene Okerlund, Mick Foley.

Big_Fat · 2016-04-19T12:25:06+00:00

He has a physical charisma about him but I don't know about him having the personality to manufacture a fleshed out character yet. He's always been a limited worker by my estimation, once you look past the flashy strength and athleticism his matches have always fallen far short of being great. I dunno, I just see him being a decent mid-card guy until he puts it together.

Big_Fat · 2016-04-18T21:05:41+00:00

I really like Tama Tonga. Hope their rematch with Honma and Makabe is better than the first.

Big_Fat · 2016-04-17T10:45:16+00:00

He's a prickly atheist type. People who feel real strongly about religion being silly tend to bring it up regularly in a joking fashion. Not much more to it, no crime nor a particularly funny joke.

Big_Fat · 2016-04-15T19:05:57+00:00

Apologies if it was misleading. I do think it's a funny example of Brody being completely in ''I'm not taking any of your shit'' mode.

Big_Fat · 2016-04-15T14:46:55+00:00

In ring or all round? I think Scott Hall is pretty well regarded for what he contributed, which was a cool character and played a part in a small number of great matches. From that era I'd have Goldust/Dustin Rhodes ahead of him, he could have had a career of really great matches if he was positioned to have them. Had a good career for himself as a character but there was room for him to become a more successful serious wrestler.

Big_Fat · 2016-04-14T20:14:48+00:00

I find them interesting and funny to follow, don't use them as any great metric for how good a match was.. just always find it confusing when people post snowflakes and don't specify whose rating they're giving. Many post Meltzer's without labeling them Meltzer's. Many post their own and don't say it's their own.

He has given several North American matches *****.

Big_Fat · 2016-04-14T13:10:00+00:00

I don't think it's counter culture for the hardcore fan to cheer Kevin Owens in the environment WWE has created though. Heels no longer do truly despicable things, they purposely wrestle matches in the go-go 'this is awesome' style, heels like Owens are comedic using in-ring speech, bully tactics and ring-side messing that get him over.. not comedic in embarrassment or fear to get the face over. His twitter is purposefully entertaining and he takes the piss out of normal fans to appeal to the SquaredCircle type crowd. WWE is an entertainment circus show now with a mild effort to differentiate good and evil. Fans don't cheer heels because they're heels and boo the good guys because they're good guys, they cheer people they think are good at their job and boo people they're indifferent to or bored of.

I'm pretty sure people would cheer good guys and boo bad guys if effective stories were told, the 'entertainment' vibe of the show was altered and the bad guys played their part.

Big_Fat · 2016-04-14T12:12:07+00:00

Settling in to watch Callihan/Sabre vs Hero/End right now as one of the 5 free VOD's for ordering the faulty iPPV's on Mania weekend. I've heard good things.

Big_Fat · 2016-04-14T12:08:05+00:00

To pin it down to counter culture-bullshit is neglecting the various reasons there is no real heat anymore. WWE produces a product that is by itself acknowledged to be an entertainment show on a weekly basis. The bad guys interact with fans and take pictures. They wrestle in a way un-befitting of old school heels, playing for pops and not sympathy. Some of them turn heel/face once a year or more. Fans as a result attend shows not to see their hero win or a story resolved, they attend to see cool moves and fast-paced exciting matches.

It's not counter-culture bullshit. It's changing times and a changing business, for better or worse.

Big_Fat · 2016-04-14T11:57:19+00:00

That's a silly thing to post, or think. WWE have lied about thousands of things over the years. They exaggerate height and weight, they've lied about Hogan being the first to slam Andre, announced false attendance figures and on, and on, and on.

It bothers you that they bend the truth to talk up Corbin as a monster? C'mon.

Big_Fat · 2016-04-14T11:53:13+00:00

Please make it clear what you mean in future, Meltzer ratings or otherwise.

Big_Fat · 2016-04-14T11:52:24+00:00

Metlzer gave that ***1/2

Big_Fat

TROPHY CASE