#eternal champions pro wrestling

[questintheskies]

Wrestling’s next breakout international star is upon us. His name is “Switchblade” Jay White, and the former New Japan Pro-Wrestling world champion is ready to showcase his talent to the world.

“So much is possible,” says White. “Impact, AEW, WWE—we’ll see.”

Jamie White truly transformed into “Switchblade” Jay White when most weren’t watching. Since 2017, he worked a demanding schedule that included stops all over Japan—most of which were not broadcast. Repeated stops, from Sapporo to Hirosaki to Kanazawa, provided a platform away from wrestling’s blaring spotlight to sharpen his skills, shaping White into the masterful performer he is today.

While White would not discuss his contract status, industry sources have confirmed that he is set to leave New Japan. A two-time IWGP world champion, White exceeded all expectations during his run in the company.

“I’m at peace with it,” says White, who brought new life to Bullet Club as its leader. “I don’t know if there is much more I could have done. I don’t feel like I left a bunch of boxes unchecked. I’ve been living it, so it can be hard to appreciate it in the moment, but as I move on, I’ve started to look back at the weight some of it holds. As time goes on, I hope people appreciate it even more.

“To me, I was doing what I was meant to be doing. Now I’m looking at what’s next.”

As leader of Bullet Club, White gave the group a unique edge. His persona was different from past leaders, presenting the group in an altogether vicious, cunning manner. One key reason for his success in the role is that he never attempted to mimic Kenny Omega, the man he replaced.

“I always chuckled when people compared me to Kenny Omega after I took over Bullet Club,” says White. “I don’t think you can find two wrestlers who are more different than me and Kenny. I think a lot of people wanted me to try to be just like Kenny, but that’s just not me. If I tried to do that, I would have failed. I did it my way.”

White is still working New Japan dates, even after losing a Loser Leaves Japan match to former Bullet Club partner Hikuleo this past weekend at The New Beginning in Osaka. He will wrestle AEW star Eddie Kingston on Saturday at NJPW’s Battle in the Valley card in San Jose.

“I can’t go back to Japan, but there is nothing that says I can’t compete at the shows in the United States,” says White. “Hikuleo was everything I always knew he was. I’ve always believed in him. I’m proud of him, and his moment came against me, so now we’re tied to each other forever.”

Only 30, there is no limit to the heights White can reach. He is a world-class wrestler who can cut exquisite promos, and he has spent the last half-decade enhancing his presence and physique. But before he moves on to his next conquest, White still has unfinished business with New Japan—including watching his eternal rivals, Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi, wrestle in the main event.

“People are getting all worked up about it, but my future is this Saturday,” says White. “You’re going to get a treat in seeing the storied rivalry of Okada and Tanahashi on the card, too. I hope Tanahashi got his teeth fixed—his three front teeth fell out when he bit into a protein bar. I guess that happens when you get to his age. And speaking of Okada, I’m proud of him. He’s finally listening to me. I like his approach going after [Kaito] Kiyomiya from NOAH. I met him once when I was on excursion, which is quite funny now that he’s now their champion and I was over in New Japan. Props to Okada; he’s obviously learned a thing or two from myself.”

In addition to the next chapter of Okada-Tanahashi, the Battle in the Valley card also includes the NJPW debut of Sasha Banks, who is now wrestling as Mercedes Moné. White against Kingston is also a worthy addition to the card. Very few pros connect with their peers in the same manner that Kingston does, and he has a style that should mesh perfectly with White.

“What you see is what you get with him,” says White. “Eddie’s real. That doesn’t mean I like him, but he is real. He doesn’t sugarcoat anything verbally or physically. He’s probably got the hardest chops I’ve ever felt, and I was just in there with Hikuleo, who has some huge damn mitts on me. I know Eddie can hit hard, and I know what he’s capable of, and I know Eddie wants his moment, but you can’t get what you want all the time. I’m going to teach that to him at Battle in the Valley.”

[ecpwrestling]

Cruising for a Bruising

This past week ECPW hosted their yearly Cruisership Classic. Whether you liked it or not, I think we can all agree the Classic this year was certainly quite the adventure. Brought to us by Oceania Cruises and hosted on actual cruise liner USS Champion, the tournament had much to offer this year - an exciting venue, an interesting roster, and indeed, the ECPW debut of Brian Bryan fresh from the Developmental Leagues.

The tourney opened with a top-deck match between former manager Jack Stroker, now reinvented as Jack-Senpai, and new talent Bryan. The match was pretty impressive, with Stroker showing a surprising degree of skill and Bryan proving he deserves his spot up in the big leagues. But, as all things with Eternal Champions, the tourney was not without its troubles. Longtime lush Bobby Crood’s animosity towards Senpai saw him mercilessly attack the man following the opening match - resulting in yet another injury for the bruised Senpai and the booking of a vengeance match to be hosted in the future; Bryan’s win was left untouched.

There were a few unremarkable matches, such as the tag team match between The TerrorWrists and their long time rivals The SWOT Team, before returning to the main lineup with Yumi Shinisawa vs Akcer Jace (who the hell is he?). The famously antisocial Yumi was cornered by some fans who were left alienated before the fight, and many were bemused by her late arrival to the ring: tired, and tangled in cables. The subsequent arrival of ‘SwordBro’ Mako Takehiko revealed that the Japanese Hardcore hadn’t slept but instead been playing Tekken. Perhaps she’s looking to join Bullet Club with ingame items? Jace, however, was clearly unimpressed by his groggy competition, as, soon into the match, he dashed to the bar, returning with a glass of water to douse Shinisawa in a move of disdain that really got the crowd riled. After some solid wrestling, who else should crash the party but Jack-Senpai, ambushing Yumi as she neared the ropes. But that wasn’t the only interference with this match: going into a rage hearing the name 'Jack Stroker’, Bobby Crood charged from the hall bar to the ring, bludgeoning his target with a bottle for the second time in the tourney. After some tense moments, General Manager Cody B. Stabbe managed to break up the fight, Yumi finally finished Jace off with a fairly standard throw into pin, and everyone involved ended up exhausted at the bar, where Yumi managed to redeem herself in the eyes of some fans with a friendly exchange talking about the fighting game.

There were no major matches over the following two days, and time was taken instead to focus on promotional efforts. Bryan was seen shooting a video promoting fitness for all, and Senpai once again continued his exploits with the powerhouse that is Boss Coffee. Bryan’s video came tantalisingly close to being a disaster as he nearly brought a child to tears, but managed to salvage it at the last moment. Senpai somehow managed to avoid Crood long enough to make sure that this advert, shot on the Pacific cruise, was just as professional as all of his others.

Two thirds of the way through the tournament the Champion docked at Honolulu, where Yumi was billed in the semi finals against the seedier member of The Brits: Jack Vaden. Whether it was due to prompting from management, or just her own initiative, Yumi was far more prepared, and was drinking at the ringside with Takehiko well in advance of the fight. Vaden made his entrance in particularly anarchic fashion, bringing his battered old guitar with him in preparation for the hardcore match. Getting up from the bar to fight, Yumi had her drink pinched by her friend in an amusing move with a clear message: finish fast. Opening with a flurry of blows it wasn’t long before she’d driven her opponent in a corner but,  just as she was about to break Vaden���s own guitar against him, a shrill whistle from the crowd stayed her hand. In an uncharacteristically heel move, Sir Justin Thyme had assaulted Takehiko in an attempt to buy Vaden some time to recover. After a scuffle between all four of them the referee managed to break them up, but the rest of the fight saw more interference from the two noncombatants. Towards the end of the fight, Vaden was thrown from the ring to the sands of the beach, but in a surprise move blinded Yumi with pocket sand as she approached. Surprisingly, Yumi was counted out leaving Vaden to progress to the finals - a move that left many of us asking 'was that supposed to happen?’

Our second semi-final was a poolside bout with new blood Bryan facing Crood, who held the seeded place. Commentated by surprise guest Enzo CF, the match itself was a clear display of skill from both of them; Bryan eager to defeat his one time idol turned rival, and Crood showing that, despite his age and addictions, he’s still a competent wrestler. Despite the overall quality of the match there is definitely a moment that outshone the rest: after throwing Crood from the ring Bryan managed to execute an absolutely flawless Tope Suicida from BETWEEN the middle ropes and landing square on the defenseless Crood - something fans are already calling a Mythic Moment . Clearly running on ‘juice’ fumes at this point, Crood managed to get back up despite the crushing blow and the fight continued. A tense exchange began on one of the posts, with control exchanging between both wrestlers as they teetered towards the pool. Eventually Crood sent Bryan  crashing down into the water below. After some floundering, both fighters managed to make it back to the ring, though by now Crood was clearly looking worse for wear. Perhaps his body reacting to having something other than juice in it for the first time in what could be years. After a brief struggle it became clear that Crood wasn’t going to win it, and indeed he went down and was pinned by Bryan within five minutes of leaving the pool. Unfortunately for Bryan, Crood wasn’t to be dissuaded by something as small as losing. After the fight he left steaming, and many on site let us know that he’d been seen backstage - not only attempting an attack on Bryan shortly after his loss, but cashing in favours and leveraging his stroke in an attempt to reverse the ruling.

All of this unrest culminated in an obscene all-out brawl, already dubbed as the Ballroom Blitz by fans. Rendering the rest of the tournament irrelevant, the Blitz would give two wrestlers a ticket to the final. How you ask? By throwing their opponent out a window, and OFF THE BOAT. Classic slapdash brutality - the likes of which we’ve come to know and love from ECPW. After a few moments of uneasy calm, all hell broke loose as a bottle of 'juice’ was thrown from across the room at Jack-Senpai. While official cameras didn’t catch it, we can confirm that it was thrown by none other than Bobby Crood. Tables and chairs were smashed, blood was spilled, punches, kicks, throws, and more suddenly burst to life all across the room. Takehiko, now wielding Vaden’s patched up guitar and eager to settle a score, struck Justin Thyme clean in the face with the weapon sending him sprawling. Yumi struck in a similar fashion towards Vaden, breaking a chair across the Brit’s head as he attempted to charge her down. Across the room Senpai and Crood fought it out in a desperate and underhanded clash between the two older wrestlers, both of whom are know to go to extreme lengths to secure a win. Not to be outdone, Bryan interrupted the fight sending Senpai sprawling to the side. Perhaps it was his disgruntlement at having his win nullified, but he ignored the easy win with throwing Senpai out and instead focussed his attacks on Crood after his initial charge. Returning to Yumi and co. it became clear that The Brits had been utterly trounced by their Japanese opponents and were set to be thrown from the boat through a previously shattered window. With a tumultuous splash, Yumi’s place in the finals was secured. Takehiko, as a non-participant in the tourney, left the second spot open. Taking advantage of the momentary lapse in calm Yumi’s security caused, Crood attempted to break off his fight with Bryan to shove Yumi after The Brits, but was intercepted by Senpai and Bryan both. It now became a desperate race to second place between those three as they scrambled to push one another from the boat. In the end, Yumi was sent tumbling out the window by Bryan, and so the final was (apparently) settled. Crood however, was still raging. Arguing that it was in fact he who’d pushed Yumi from the boat, he successfully levelled his influence once more to demand the final of the Classic be a triple threat between Yumi, Bryan, and himself. It was at this point that Yumi, hands bleeding and full of glass, somehow heaved herself back in the window and latched herself to Bryan’s back, clawing at his face and smearing blood across him. She was dragged off her prey by security and the other wrestlers, but not before a good few blows were put in direct to Bryan’s head.

And so we come to the final. The big one. The culmination of every bit of violence and pettiness the Classic had shown us so far. Set in the terribly dramatic engine of the cruiseship, Brian Bryan was the first to enter, but no sooner had the electric guitars started the familiar riffs of Flight of the Valkyries than Tubthumping cut in and Bobby Crood attacked Bryan before the promising talent had set foot in the ring. Yumi Shinisawa entered last and the ultimate clash of the tournament began. It was a brutal battle, with all three combatants bearing the scars of past confrontations, punctuated dramatically by the engine room’s red lights. There were several close calls throughout, and for many moments it’s thought that not even management was sure who’d come through victorious - though ultimately, it was Crood who secured victory by pinning Bryan and promptly collapsing, exhausted by the strain of facing both the Eternal Champion and the hot blooded rookie. But the brutality was not yet done: Enraged and covered in blood, Yumi assaulted the unconscious Crood with a shattered bottle, before turning her blind fury on the shocked Bryan. Security intervened and Shinisawa was dragged, snarling, from the ring.

So finally, at the end of this confusing tourney, the USS Champion arrives at its final destination: Osaka, Japan. It was here that Cody Stabbe revealed that this Season of ECPW would be featuring the All Japan tour, culminating in their next pay-per-view: DOOMSDAY. Many are wondering what nonsensical shenanigans could untold next on the show, but one thing’s for certain. I’m watching that shit.

UPDATE: Thanks to an inside source from ECPW who wishes to remain anonymous, we can confirm that Yumi’s rampage at the  end of the finale was was in fact a SHOOT that left Crood and Bryan injured! While Crood and Bryan were left shaken, but with relatively minor injuries, Yumi is set to face serious punitive action from Management. Currently it appears that she’s to be suspended for an unknown duration - how will removing the home talent from the roster affect the All Japan Tour? Time will tell.

[phantomlordreshiram]

Okay so in my Black and White universe with my OC, he is related to Iris. How?

So in my universe, Iris is an orphan taken under the wing of Drayden to be a mentor for her. Drayden feels that he is too old to raise a kid, so he asked Ellis' mom (working on a name for her, Elena maybe?) to adopt her after the events of Black and White. Ellis's mom agrees because both of her sons are gone (N left and Ellis left for him after a year in Unova) and is lonely.

Iris is ecstatic as she doesn't remember having a mother figure in her life, and she loves Ellis (sibling love, not romantic) so she agrees to this. With the help of Drayden and Elena (yeah that's what I'll call Ellis' mom, and both are dragon trainers) she trains to get ready to become champion. Before leaving, Ellis stepped down from being champion and passed it on to Iris. Before that, he had her battle him to see if she was capable. She was.

Ellis is glad to leave being champion because he is stressed by the job (still friends with Shauntal and Caitlin), and Iris is eternally grateful because she always wanted to be champion.

After BW2, Ellis and Iris become extremely close as siblings, Ellis giving Iris one of his prized possessions, a gold ring with an amethyst (his birthstone), as a thank you gift for teaching his pokemon Draco Meteor.

Since N is also a sibling of Ellis and now Iris, Iris has mixed emotions on N. On the one hand, he was with Plasma. On the other hand, he was manipulated by Ghetsis.

Since Iris was champion, Ellis was given gym leadership of Opelucid City by Drayden when he retired. Iris knew Ellis was stressed by politics, so asked Drayden to remain mayor.

Iris is tomboyish and liked Ellis' pro wrestling theme for his dragon gym. Despite being creative, Ellis is bad at actually making costumes. Iris helped him create a singlet with the design of a dragonite torso and an orange jacket and pants to resemble the limbs of one. Drayden feels this is tacky, but Iris finds it cute in a way.

The two dont always get along. Ellis's mental issues have gotten him into fights with Iris, but they often reconcile after a day or two to relax. Stress is a major problem with Ellis.

Speaking of stress, Iris is one of the few people that Ellis knows who understands his mental issues.

Sorry if this dragged out, I just really liked this idea. Iris is my favorite champion and I love fleshing out my OCs.

[puroresu-musings]

NJPW KING OF PRO-WRESTLING 2019 Review (Oct 14th, Tokyo, Ryogoku Kokugikan)

El Desperado Comeback Match: El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Roppongi 3K  ***1/4

Tanahashi 20th Anniversary Match IV: Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomoaki Honma vs. Togi Makabe & Toru Yano  **3/4

Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi vs. Taichi & DOUKI  *1/4

Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Minoru Suzuki  ****1/4

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title Match: Will Ospreay (c) vs. El Phantasmo  ****1/2

Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Jay White, KENTA & Yujiro Takahashi  **1/2

IWGP U.S. Title Decision Match: Juice Robinson vs. Lance Archer  ***1/4

Tokyo Dome No.1 Contenders Contract Match: Kota Ibushi vs. EVIL  ****

IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. SANADA  ****

Photos.

This was a problematic show in that it suffered several misfortunes due to Typhoon Hagibis, the worst typhoon to tear through Japan in a generation, and this caused both Jon Moxley and Zack Sabre Jr to miss the show due to not being able to get into the country. As a result of Moxley not being able to make the show, New Japan stripped him of the U.S. Title, and the belt was declared vacant, with Juice now taking on Lance Archer in a decision match. Beyond this totally unforseen and unpreventable natural disaster, the show had an issue in that it didn’t offer anything especially interesting from a fresh match stand-point. Beside the long-teased Liger/Suzuki bout, it was a card full of matches we’ve seen before, granted matches we knew would deliever, but still, it hardly got me really excited at the prospect. A probelm New Japan’s been facing this entire post-G1, pre-WK season. However, those matches we knew would deliver did, so on the whole, despite being somewhat disappointing, it was a very enjoyable supershow.

The returning El Desperado lead his team with Kanemaru to victory over Roppongi 3K in a hot opener, which saw the masked man get the win over SHO after he took the whiskey in the face off Kanemaru, and Despy nailed Pinche Loco at the 10:44 mark. Tanahashi hit the High Fly Flow to pin Toru Yano in a fun, but unspectacular 9:43 doubles match to celebrate his 20th anniversary as a wrestler. It was weird seeing Tana in a totally nothing old-timers match. The Naito/Shingo vs. Taichi/DOUKI tag match was by far the worst thing on the show, and it ended in a DQ when Taichi nailed Naito with the mic stand right in front of the ref. Taichi laid Naito out with a Last Ride in the post match. I honestly couldn’t give a rat’s ass about another match between these two. Then things got great with the long-awaited Liger vs. Suzuki battle. This wasn’t the crazy brawl they’ve been teasing for months, instead it started as a mat based grapple battle, then turned into a Strong Style grudge match. At 55 and 51 years respectively, these guys worked an excellent match with incredible emotion. They started hitting each other really hard, with Liger, in Battle Liger garb, laying in the Shoutei’s and Suzuki coming back with hard strikes and forearms. It looked like Liger might get the submission win with the Brakes Special arm submission, but Suzuki escaped and locked in a sleeper. Liger scored a very close near fall with the Thesz Press, then hit his Brainbuster finish, but again Suzuki kicked out. After hitting his trademark big dropkick, Suzuki floored the masked legend with a stiff forearm, then hit the Gotch Piledriver at the 17:38 to end this. In the post match, Suzuki nailed the Young Lions with a chair, then threatened to hit the helpless Liger with it, but instead threw it away, kneels and bowes to Liger in a sign of total respect as Kokugikan went crazy. Liger thanked Suzuki over the house mic as he left his final match at Ryogoku Kokugikan. This was great.

The Junior Title Match followed and it was pretty damn crazy. They were out there for 28 minutes and hit so many crazy spots that its impossible to remember them all. Whilst it was my favourite match of the night, I can’t help but feel they maybe did too much. It reminded me of those Adam Cole NXT main events that I just can’t get away with in that they hit so many big moves that weren’t the finish, it became a bit beliveability-stretching. Now thats out of the way, this was a tremendous encounter. The story was that ELP in the early going decided to eschew his evil ways and play the honest babyface, which of course everyone knew was bullshit. After attacking the eyes and hitting frankly brutal back rakes, Ospreay sent Phantasmo into fellow Bullet Club member Gino Gambino at ringside. This lead to them brawling through the crowd, where Phantasmo hit a massive balcony dive. Back in the ring, ELP tried the tree-of-woe-nut-stomp, but Will countered into a Spider German. Ospreay escapes a CRII on the apron and hit an Oscutter off the guardrail whilst Phantasmo was still on the apron, which teased a countout, but ELP ate a huge corner-to-corner dropkick as he enters, and Will gets a near fall with the Shooting Star Press. After Ospreay scored a near fall with Oscutter, Taiji Ishimori ran out, but was sent packing by Robbie Eagles. This allowed ELP to hit a dick punch and a belt shot, then hit the Big Splash, but Will kicks out. A Styles Clash from Phantasmo gets another near fall, then he hits the V-Trigger, then attempts One Winged Angel, but Ospreay rolls through into a cradle for a near fall. Will gets a near fall with Essex Destroyer, then gets crotched as he tries to go up top. Phantasmo tries the super Frankensteiner, but Ospreay turns it into a massive sitout Powerbomb, hits Hidden Blade, then retains the title, and finally avenges his losses to Phantasmo after putting him away with Storm Breaker. As I say, I thought this was great stuff indeed, but it got a bit silly, and I mean PWG levels of silly, by the end.

The six man that followed was the epitome of an OK bout, with the focus being on White and Goto, KENTA and Ishii tearing it up, and Yujiro looking frankly terrible out there in this one. Goto won for his team when he hit Takahashi with GTR at the 12:27. The match for the now vacant U.S. Title followed, and was made a No DQ match (the planned Moxley/Juice encounter had the same stip). This felt utterly superfluous as there was no reason for this to be No DQ, and the plunder spots felt forced. Much of the match was spent setting up furniture, which hurt it slightly. Juice suffered a nasty looking dislocated finger along the way here. The finish saw Archer hit Black Out into a pile of chairs for a close near fall. The big man became infuriated and slammed Juice’s head into the pile of chairs repeatedly, then applied the EBD Claw to win the title at 14:58. Before he could do anymore damage, the returning David Finley ran out and hit his Stunner on Archer, so thats The American Psycho’s first title programme. Interesting. Kota Ibushi avenged his G1 defeat to EVIL in his successful defense of the IWGP Briefcase in another great match. This wasn’t as good as their G1 outing in July however, and personally speaking, the show felt as though it was starting to drag by this point. This started slow, but built into a hot closing stretch with loads of great counters. The King Of Darkness gets a near fall with Darkness Falls, but Kota counters into the Bastard Driver, and scores a near fall of his own with a Last Ride. Ibushi tries Boma Ye but EVIL turns him inside-out with a huge Lariat counter. The STO is turned into a Straight Jacket German, and EVIL hits a Half Nelson Suplex, then tries another Lariat, but Ibushi counters with one of his own, hits a V-Trigger, then Kamigoye for a super close near fall. Ibushi lifts EVIL up and hits another Kamigoye to keep the briefcase at the 24:05 mark.

And in the main event, Okada and SANADA squared off for the fourth time this year in a major bout. This was an excellent match, no doubt, but it had several things going against it. Namely that its the fourth match between these two this year, it was probably never going to live up to their G1 encounter, and no one could feasibly have believed SANADA was going to win this. Indeed he didn’t, but he still put in a great effort. However, I’ve been saying this for years now, and this match just cements this with me, but he needs to drop that Skull End as a finish. It just isn’t a believable submission in the slightest. The amount of times he locked it on in this particular match really jumped the shark, especially when it never looked good, and no one bought it. This was a long, story-based match that went 37 minutes and felt every single second of it. It started really hot but slowed to a very methodical pace, and by the end, I was very tired indeed, so perhaps I’m doing this a disservice. This featured tremendous counters sequences. SANADA turned a TKO in to Skull End but Okada reversed into a Tombstone attempt. SANADA reversed that into a Tombstone of his own, then nailed the TKO for a near fall. Cold Skull locks on Skull End again, Okada freeing his head, but SANADA kept locking on Skull End. He laid there in the hold for what felt like an eternity and Red Shoes really tried to sell us that he was going to stop it. Okada finally fought free and counters a SANADA rolling elbow into a Rainmaker atempt, but SANADA turns it into another Skull End attempt, but Okada hits a dropkick to the back for the double down. Okada with a dropkick, but SANADA escapes another Rainmaker, and locked on another Skull End. SANADA with a Moonsault to the back, rolls the champion over and goes for another, but Okada gets the knees up. Another goddamn Skull End is applied, but Okada escapes by walking up the turnbuckles and hitting a Tombstone. SANADA escapes another Rainmaker and scores a fantastic near fall with the Rolling Leg Clutch. Okada arm drags his way free of maybe the 47th Skull End attempt, and SANADA ducked another Rainmaker attempt. The finish saw SANADA again try Skull End, but Okada turned it into a Fire Thunder Driver, then hit the Rainmaker to finally retain the title.

As I say, this was an excellent match, but it started to lose me by the end. The post match however, was incredible. As SANADA lay on the mat crying, knowing he’s now 7-1 against Okada, the champion sat next to him giving him a thumbs up. This is the sort of believable emotion that sets NJPW apart rom almost every other company. Okada cut a promo in the post match saying he believes one day, these two will main event the Tokyo Dome. We’ll see. This brought out Ibushi, and Okada noted that Ibushi has avenged his G1 losses, but Okada, who lost to Golden Star on the final A Block day at Budokan, has yet to do so. Okada then said Ibushi was overlooking him in wanting to become a double champion, when theres no way he’s getting past Okada on January 4th. They then pretty much made the main event for the first Dome show official, and Okada thanked everyone for coming out in the midst of a Typhoon, and noted that its the wrestlers job to give the fans the energy to carry on through such adversity.

NDT

[valiantpiratealpaca-blog]

Wii Sports open the highway for other physically

Wii Sports open the highway for other physically reactive sports-based video plan, such as Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, the first official entitle to shape both Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog, in which players utility the Wii Remote to counterfeit running, jumping and other Olympic play. In 2008, Nintendo free Wii Fit, which permit gamester to do aerobic and fitness practice worn the Wii Balance Board. In a homogenous existence, 2008 saw the disengage of Mario Kart Wii, a racing plucky which permit the libertine to use their remote with a Wii Wheel to play as a steering gyrate, relate to those on traditional arcade racing marathon. Arena Sports is a family-spread employment focused on family merriment. We immolate year-round Association football for people of all lifetime and abilities. Plus we have super dispassionate intramural inflatable FunZones, awesome encampment, and rockin' birthday participator. Learn more here. “We are commotion up the frolic video game rule set and re-writing it for a novel generation. We’re starting with the gamer first and empowering their conceit to create the ultimate fifteen of athletes across mirth, in a highway only they can visualize,” before-mentioned Ben Freidlin, CEO and establisher of Bit Fry Game Studios, Inc. and the originator of “Ultimate Rivals.” 13IronHammersFCSat 10th Aug 2019 Doesn’t criticise pes when it is at 14th, Fifa is 2nd and you smack the gameplay lags behind it. IMO, gameplay is more important than a finical hero alliance presentment so a very exciting settlement. 0 In 1997, Sega loosen one of the first mainstream skateboarding crooked, Top Skater, in the arcades, where it induce a skateboard overseer interface. The ensuing year saw the release of the console skateboarding game Street Sk8er, improved by Atelier Double and published by Electronic Arts. In 1999, the subgenre was further democratize by Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, an arcade-inclination skateboarding quarry where gambler were disputed to fulfill perfected tricks or gather a succession of elements secret throughout the level. 3KALofKRYPTONTue 2nd Apr 2019 @get2sammyb I read the review before I purchased it.Whether through updates since launch or just essential taste, I can't no kidding check the survey to the game I've been playing other than mite of the appearance obtainment tautological.It's as sagacious as you want it to be, or not. Looks and whole pious, direct is marvelous too. And there's an wonderful amount of appease there. 1 Doesn’t criticise pes when it is at 14th, Fifa is 2nd and you smack the gameplay lags behind it. IMO, gameplay is more serious than a particular champions confederacy presentment so a very interesting division. With 2K & EA Sports' domination, the fair has befit very difficult to enter; contend plan in any of the above genres, with the disapprobation of racing lame, tend to be unhappy. This has led to a sarcastic drop in jeer-themed ownership over low donkey’s. One of the most notable exceptions is Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer gradation, which is often designate as an reciprocal to the FIFA series, but does not restrain as many commissioned teams, idler, kitten, or competitions. Another transgression from the standard is Sony's MLB The Show course, which now has a monopoly on the baseball genre after the withdrawal of 2K after MLB 2K13. Racing games, due to the variation that the mock can propound in extremity of course, cars and call, offer more scope for competition and the choice of Olympic on attempt has been considerably better (examples being F1 and the World Rally Championship, and many unlicensed plucky). Sports management lame, while not as popular as they necessity to be, live on through unimportant and independent software development residence. Management designation now have transitioned to the very popular fantasy sports combination, which are available through many websites such as Yahoo. Independent developers are also creating mirth name like Super Mega Baseball, The Golf Club, and Freestyle2: Street Basketball. Sports games impede you be the boxer second-hand orderly your mouse and keyboard. They're a great interval to kill measure while playing your top dog jeer in some of the craziest ways ever. Run, kick, jolt and score your journey to eternize! From classics liking soccer and soccer to movement-full ones, like skateboarding; our sports games let your play win the game! Take a front at some of our gamble and you'll see quantity of strong choices that range from real-spirit style graphics to cool and eerie ones. Whether you alike 3D marathon, top-down scene or even chaste 2D gambling, you'll find that while sports have prescription, our games clearly don't! Try your workmanship at tennis worn no hands in Sports Heads Tennis or one of our other Sports Heads games. Duel in midair, jumping around liking a whetstone band while trying to charge baskets in basketball lame liking Basketball Legends and Dunkers. If you poverty a 2D plucky that'll take you for a lie, attempt to require it through the spring and obstacles in our skateboarding project. Wacky is always sport, but sometimes you just dearth a feeling of the true water. Not to torment, for we have you hooded. You can practice your diving skills by jumping off platforms and rocks in Flip Diving. Watch your four from above as you disport to victory with 4th and Goal 2016. Knock some balls out of the paradise with naturalistic 3D design in Smash and Blast Baseball 2. Thanks to WebGL and Flash, we're able to cause you the best gaming and graphics worn true your web browser. So levigate off your uniform, grab your custom and jump into the Big Game. We promise that there's something for everyone. Those championships dwelling't win themselves! Around that time, electrotype-mechanical frolic arcade crooked were being produced. Examples include Taito's Crown Soccer Special , Sega's racing gamble Grand Prix , and Chicago Coin's racing game Speedway . In the 1970s, arcade video project gin to appear, many of them focused around the amusement genre, after it was popularized by the first commercially fortunate video game, Atari's Pong . Another rathe jeer marathon to show multiple camera angles in 1983 was Irem's MotoRace USA, a motorbike racing gamble that option between vertical-escroll and third-hypostasis opinion depending on the idler's location on the mappemonde, switching to third-man view when intimately a metropolitan and to a aplomb-scrolling view when on country roads. Another seasonable sports game to shape finger voices from that year was Alpha Denshi's Exciting Soccer, an seasonably influential football soccerball gamble, which obstacle one or two idler syn from six brood, featured a govern outline where they could harness, shoot, short-elapse, and long-surpass, featured an above view, and had positive strike probable perplex kicks, throe-ins, penalty shots, and cheerleaders. Other seasonably soccer soccer games from that same year were Data East's Pro Soccer and Commodore's International Soccer. Two auroral weaken game games, both supported on waterskiing, were also disengage that year: Taito's Water Ski and Irem's Tropical Angel, the latter also featuring a female player character. That same year, Taito disengage Joshi Volleyball, an early volleyball lame, and they released Irem's 10-Yard Fight, an American-football Olympic that shaped an early career custom, where the gamester progresses from full school, to college, professional, playoff, and Super Bowl, as the embarrassment increases with each gait. Meanwhile, 파워볼사이트 Kaneko released Roller Aces, an auroral rundle glide crooked played from a third-one perspective. An matutinal wrestling plan, Technōs Japan's Tag Team Wrestling, was also extricate that year, and was followed by another wrestling Olympic, Sega's Appoooh, the year after.

[chikaraspecial]

The Princess Who Saves Herself

The enchanting Princess KimberLee first appeared on the CHIKARA radar in 2013, gracing the ring of our sister promotion, Wrestling Is Fun! Though she dabbled in singles competition during her brief tenure there, the Princess primarily accompanied the primary-color-clad tag team of “Knight Eye For the Pirate Guy”, comprised of Lance Steel, and Jolly Roger. She frequently took credit for any and all of the team’s success. In short order, Kim outgrew the humble confines of Wrestling is Fun!

And so, Princess KimberLee made her proper CHIKARA debut as one-third of Knight Eye For the Pirate Guy in 2014, at the massive King of Trios tournament. Her team lost in the opening round to GEKIDO (made up of the imposter 17, Jigsaw and The Shard,) but the Princess proved that she was no damsel in distress. More than either of her teammates, she took the fight directly to the GEKIDO, never taking a back-step or shortcut.

Slowly amassing more and more impressive wins, Princess KimberLee built her reputation through the Young Lions Cup XI, and then at our celebration of National Pro Wrestling Day 2015. As the gigantic, double round-robin “Challenge of the Immortals” emerged on the horizon, KimberLee was one of dozens of wrestlers that vied to be chosen as a team captain, and despite being a relative newcomer when compared to long-tenured veterans like Hallowicked and Fire Ant, Princess KimberLee was chosen.

Each "Challenge of the Immortals" squad would consist of four members - a team captain plus three handpicked partners. The draft for the tournament took place online, and in each round, KimberLee chose last, often leaving her with a diminished pool of options. With many of the most-proven performers plucked from availability, the Princess ended up with the unlikely combination of perennial losers Los Ice Creams with the time-displaced Jervis Cottonbelly. Dubbing them "Crown and Court," KimberLee set her sights on the tournament prize: a Golden Opportunity for every member of the team, and immortalization in the halls of The Wrestle Factory.

In the early going of “Challenge of the Immortals,” the clear underdogs were Kim's "Crown and Court" quartet, and for months, could not manage to post a win. Just a match away from being mathematically eliminated from the tournament, the Princess took it upon herself to inspire Los Ice Creams, and sang to them as a stunned audience looked on. The team embraced, and this pivotal moment sparked a turning of the tide. After enduring a long losing streak, "Crown and Court" started posting up points, hot off three consecutive upset wins over teams that were more heavily-favored to win the round-robin. As the tournament drew to a close, "Crown and Court" improved their place in the standings dramatically, finishing in Third Place, just one position shy of a berth in the finals.

Fate, or more accurately, fair play, intervened before the tournament reached its climax. Point-leading quartet "Dasher's Dugout" forfeit their points at the insistence of team captain Dasher Hatfield; he discovered that at least some of his team's wins were the result of cheating, and because it was not clear how many of his wins were "tainted" he chose to forfeit them all. Thusly, the Third Place team of "Crown and Court" found themselves inserted into the tournament final of "Challenge of the Immortals."

All eyes were on CHIKARA’s Season 15 Finale event called “Top Banana,” held at the ECW Arena in south Philadelphia. There, "Crown and Court" survived an onslaught from Sidney Bakabella's hulking foursome, "The Wrecking Crew" and in the final moments, they mounted a nigh-unthinkable comeback. To those that were witness to the "Challenge of the Immortals" final, the sight of Princess KimberLee tossing men twice her size, with one German Suplex after another, will remain eternally etched in our memories as a genuine, star-making moment. Victorious over the brawn and brute strength of "The Wrecking Crew," KimberLee and her comrades-in-arms were each presented with a Golden Opportunity, to use where and when they wished. Later on that same night, “Top Banana” would feature then-Grand Champion Hallowicked defending the title against both Icarus and Eddie Kingston. After Hallowicked proved his dominance by retaining the belt, an emboldened Princess would march down the aisle, hand her Golden Opportunity to the referee, and cash in immediately. Mere moments later, KimberLee would author one of the most memorable tales in CHIKARA history, by applying the CHIKARA Special submission hold and forcing Hallowicked to both tap out, and relinquish the big, gold belt!

What made this title change so significant, was not just that it made Princess KimberLee the first female Grand Champion of CHIKARA, but the first female wrestler to hold the top title of what many considered to be a "male-dominated" organization. (There is no division by gender, nor by weight class at CHIKARA.) As guaranteed, her team was immortalized with a regal banner that hangs to this day in the halls of The Wrestle Factory. Kim then went on to defend and retain the Grand Championship over the course of the following five months, defeating the likes of Oleg the Usurper and Heidi Lovelace (now better known as WWE’s Ruby Riott) before losing the championship back to Hallowicked in Glasgow, Scotland at "Aniversario: The Lost World."

Following her title loss, Princess KimberLee went on to have a successful year in her new role as a leader in CHIKARA. She continued a friendly rivalry with Heidi Lovelace up until King of Trios 2016. For this run in the tournament, the Princess formed the "Warriors Three," recruiting Oleg the Usurper and the Estonian ThunderFrog as teammates. Together, "Warriors Three" made it to the semi-finals of the tournament, first defeating Team CWC (Johnny Gargano, Cedric Alexander and Drew Gulak) as well as a trio representing the "Original Divas Revolution" (Mickie James, Jazz and Victoria) before finally facing elimination at the hands of Meiko Satomura and her "Team Sendai Girls" (featuring DASH Chisako and Cassandra Miyagi.)

Season 17 saw the Princess haunted by ghosts of her past, and subject to manipulation at the hands of a mysterious interloper. She went on to defeat supposed friends Fire Ant and Solo Darling in grim and violent fashion, before taking a loss to Ophidian. As the season came to a close, it was revealed that the Princess’ sudden shift in behavior was the result of being blackmailed by newcomer, The Whisper. The Whisper claimed to possess damaging information that would irrevocably taint KimberLee's squeaky-clean reputation. When KimberLee reneged on this arrangement by losing to Ophidian, she handed over her tiara to The Whisper, and made her exit from CHIKARA.

Exiled from CHIKARA under the threat of her secret being revealed, Princess KimberLee would find success in a new kingdom. She began making appearances on NXT's Florida circuit, even teaming again with old friend Lovelace (nee Riott,) until officially debuting in June of 2017 under the alias of "Abbey Laith." On July 13th, the Princess entered the Mae Young Classic, the first-ever women’s tournament held by World Wrestling Entertainment. Going into the tournament, Laith had an immediate advantage. Her inescapable pinning combination, the Alligator Clutch, had been passed down from Mildred Burke to tournament name-sake Mae Young, who taught the hold to Wrestle Factory head trainer Mike Quackenbush...who passed it on to Abbey Laith.

The Alligator Clutch would come in handy. After a stunning victory in the first round against Jazzy Gabert, in which Laith was once again the underdog that would overcome the odds, Laith used the Alligator Clutch to win and eliminate Rachel Evers in the second round. Laith advanced to the quarter-finals where her journey came to an end, eliminated by seasoned pro Mercedes Martinez.

Ditching her "Laith" moniker, Princess KimberLee made her grand return to CHIKARA on April 28th, 2018 at "Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes." There, the Princess announced she would enter the Infinite Gauntlet match. Despite a strong showing in the 33-person battle royal, (which included dumping CHIKARA’s resident menace Merlok on his head via German Suplex,) the Infinite Gauntlet match would ultimately be won by the debuting Danjerhawk.

Thereafter, the past she thought she’d buried came right back to haunt her, in the form of La Loteria Letal 2018. This unique tag team tournament randomly pairs up sixteen CHIKARA roster members and esteemed guests. The winning "odd couple" will have defeated three other duos throughout the tournament, thus earning three points (enough to challenge for Los Campeonatos de Parejas.) Princess KimberLee drew the unluckiest of partners: The Whisper.

Despite the Princess’ absolute disdain for her partner, these arch-enemies went on a rampage through the tournament. With the help of more than a few German Suplexes from the Princess, and Whisper’s use of a very familiar finisher, Lance Steel’s pet move the Boston Crab, Princess KimberLee and The Whisper won La Loteria Letal. With their wins and points, they were next in line to challenge The Closers, the powerful pairing of Sloan Caprice and Rick Roland, at the Season 19 Finale. In an effort to save herself from having to team further with The Whisper, KimberLee chose an opportune moment to launch The Whisper with a German Suplex, sending him sailing through the air, but he collided with, and ultimately landed atop, Sloan Caprice. With Caprice's shoulders both touching the mat, the referee counted three and awarded Los Campeonatos to The Whisper and a dubious Princess.

The odd pairing held on to the titles into the new year and Season 20, defending them against former campeones Crummels & Defarge at the Season 20 opener, National Pro Wrestling Day 2019. Despite all of the Princess’ attempts to sabotage their title run and end the partnership, every attempt backfired and she was forced to endure. KimberLee's feelings toward The Whisper were no secret: at "Once Upon a Beginning," Princess KimberLee challenged her championship partner to a one-on-one match. For the only time in CHIKARA history, the reigning Campeones de Parejas would do battle against one another. After nearly breaking the world record for Most German Suplexes In a Match, the Princess put The Whisper down for the count.

The champions continued to in-fight right up until CHIKARA’s "Fright Knight," where Princess KimberLee effectively threw the match, in a clever manner that prevented The Whisper from seeing her crafty play. This allowed their challengers F.I.S.T. (Travis Huckabee and Tony Deppen) to walk out of the Poconos with the two title belts. While KimberLee thought this would free her from further torment by The Whisper, she would receive a rude awakening just 4 weeks later at "Aniversario: The Apes of Wrath."

Ophidian’s clandestine group, revealed to be "The Crucible," comprised of a group of fighters that participated in an illicit, after-hours training program, made a bold move as the anniversary card closed. Physically attacking Princess KimberLee, The Whisper revealed that he had been blackmailing the Princess, pushing her out of CHIKARA and consistently attempting to ruin her career, because of how she had treated his older brother...Lance Steel. Since last being seen in a CHIKARA ring, Steel had acsended to the rank of "Jewel" within the cruel world of Ophidian's "Crucible." The Whisper asserted that the Princess had used Lance Steel as a literal stepping stone on her way to singles fame and the Grand Championship. Looking back on archival footage, there is evidence to support this claim. This physical attack, coupled with a verbal assault and ugly reckoning cast a dark shadow over the entire event.

Princess KimberLee had some time to consider her past actions and how to move forward. After a hard fought battle against Solo Darling at "Chikarasaurus Rex," The Crucible's self-appointed "Herald," Ophidian, took to the ring and made it clear to the Princess how to be forgiven for her past sins. Team with Lance Steel and make a path for his stardom, starting at King of Trios 2019. A sullen Princess agreed to this penance, and in joining Ophidian's trio, unknowingly took the place of The Whisper as a member of the threesome. In an effort to set old wrongs right, KimberLee must fight alongside Lance Steel once again.

Contributed by Neil May

[worldwrestlingfanatic]

Classic Review: Royal Rumble 2006

This is definitely a "spur of the moment" idea for me to review. I have no idea what brought me to wanna watch and review this pay-per-view. As I'm watching the intro while typing this I dont remember any of the feuds or big matches going into this event so I've got an open mind going into the pay-per-view.

Kid Kash (C) vs. Funaki vs. Jamie Noble vs. Nunzio vs. Paul London vs. Gregory Helms

This match feels so weird. A match name so complicated and long I didn't even bother including it in this review, its pretty much just a six man free for all with the first person to score a pinfall or submission winning the match. To me it kinda just feels like around this time the cruiserweight title picture didn't have much going on but WWE still wanted to include all these guys so they were just all put together last minute to make this match. A few quick notes, Jamie Noble looks a bit odd to me in any attire other than jean shorts and it's insane to me how Paul London wasn't better utilized. Hes easily my favorite in this match and arguably the most talented. That being said, Paul London did attempt a shooting star press off the top rope into the crowd of opponents and he kinda just missed everyone and landed face first on the outside of the ring. Another quick note, does anyone actually remember Kid Kash or anything he did in WWE? I knew of him before watching this but other than this match I can't name anything he did during his time with the WWE. Gregory Helms ended up winning by pinning Funaki. The cruiserweight championship, a smackdown exclusive title was won by a Raw superstar. Not only that but he kinda had the lowest amount of impact in this match. He hit a neck breaker on Paul London off the top rope but other than that he was kind of a nonfactor. Last quick note, on commentary they mentioned that Gregory Helms used to be the Hurricane. That's crazy to me, that's like if WWE referred to Stardust as Cody Rhodes. Weird way to start the show. Not boring, not overly exciting, just... weird.

Odd Rant: I dont typically speak on backstage segments in these reviews but watching Vince McMahon interact/touch on the "Divas" was pretty uncomfortable to witness, I feel the further I go back to do these reviews, the more common stuff like this is going to be and I'm not looking forward to it. But in this same segment we got to see a young Randy Orton and that's always great.

Mickie James vs. Ashley - Special Referee - Trish Stratus

Ah yes, the storyline of unrequited love between Mickie James and Trish Stratus. Not too sure what role Ashley plays in this storyline but I'm guessing it isn't because she was super over with the fans at the time considering the crowd was pretty silent as Ashley made her way to the ring. I was confused seeing Trish be the special referee of this match since at the time she was the womans champion. Just odd to see a champion at a ppv with her championship but not defending her title. Mickie James gets the win and immediately tries to celebrate with/hug Trish but was just met with Trish not wanting anything to do with her. Neither Mickie or Ashley were really.... the greatest wrestler at this point in their careers to say the least.

Odd Rant: its increasingly getting more uncomfortable to watch Vince interact with the "Divas". If we're going to keep cutting here between matches I'm pretty worried how far these segments will go

JBL vs. The Boogeyman

The man who ate worms for real for the sake of the character who gave me creeps as a kid taking on the corrupt wall street millionaire. Wrestling has certainly given me plenty to talk about over the years. I cant even imagine how people who faced the Boogeyman planned for these matches. "Oh you're going to spit a worm into my mouth at this point in the match, okay sounds good". The Boogeyman was more entertainer than wrestler. A guy that wasn't very diverse when it came to in ring talent and was very reliant on his gimmick to get him over. Boogeyman wins in a pretty uneventful match. His finishing move was a pump handle slam and just one was enough to put away JBL which is odd because I've seen this man bleed buckets in an I quit match against John Cena so I guess Boogeyman and his pump handle slam was just that damn strong.

Royal Rumble Match

Weird that the selling point for this pay-per-view takes place less than half way through the event but like I said, I don't know any of the matches going into this show so maybe they just have a big main event planned. As I'm watching I'm now a little more than half way and this certainly isn't a very star studded rumble match. Out of the 17 entrants so far the only notable superstars have been Triple H, Rey Mysterio, Big Show, Kane, Chris Benoit and Bobby Lashley. Not even surprising returning legends its just been some mid carders who aren't too great and jobbers like Simon Dean. RVD now comes in at number 20, hopefully this is a sign of things starting to pick up. Matt Hardy is now being dry humped by Viscera in the middle of the ring and before I could even finish typing that sentence Viscera eliminates Matt Hardy. I just felt that was a notable highlight to add. Now that I've seen all the entrants I feel like I can now fully discuss the match since I already know the winner. Rey Mysterio wins if you don't know. The lack of star power in this match caused really legitimate possible winners to be a bit of a short list. It's very disappointing that it took the death of Eddie Guerrero for WWE to give Rey Mysterio a title run. A pretty forgetful title run but a title run nonetheless. The match wasn't really much to talk about until we hit the final five. I do wanna add that I appreciate that this match was also treated as a Raw vs. Smackdown event. I mean, it was everyone for themselves but on commentary they frequently added who in the match currently was on which brand, which makes sense because Raw and Smackdown are competing against each other and whenever theres a match where superstars from both brands are present, on commentary at least, it should be treated as a competition. Just something I wish WWE would do more of today, I hated when Raw was just one big "supershow" I prefer the brand split, but that's a different topic for a different time. Overall the match did feel like a bit of a chore to get through but in the grand scheme of things I did appreciate the story they told of Rey Mysterio overcoming all odds with the deck stacked against him to make good on his promise that he dedicated a victory to his best friend, Eddie Guerrero.

Edge (C) vs. John Cena

John Cena came to the ring in what Joey Styles called a "Spaceship Catwalk" and I cant really think of a better name for whatever this was so I'll just go with that. Cena isn't even the champion and he got a wrestlemania style special entrance and Edge didn't. It was such an odd touch, could've went without it but at least it looked cool I guess. Edge was such an absolute heat magnet, he knew what to do and what to say at all times to make the crowds boo him it was a bit of disappointment to see Edge drop the title in this match. I understand that in the long run Cena winning was probably the smarter move but if their plan all along was to send Cena to wrestlemania as champion I wish they didn't tease us with an Edge title run. I mean, in 2006 everytime Edge won the title, he beat Cena to get it and everytime he lost it, it was to Cena. Edge had a nice title run as world heavyweight champion on smackdown years later but in relation to this event, that smackdown title reign felt like it was an eternity away. If nothing else this WWE title run turned Edge from a midcarder to a main event talent and he was deserving of it. All in all, I just wish Edge had a more lengthy run with the title instead of losing it in a month after being the first superstar to cash in money in the bank.

Kurt Angle (C) vs. Mark Henry

Listen, I get it, Mark Henry is a cool guy, but he isn't really an amazing athlete. Maybe its just me but I've never been able to get behind anything Mark Henry has been apart of, besides the hall of pain storyline but doesn't have for another few years. I don't know the story going into this match or the full smackdown roster at the time but I just feel like this match shouldn't have main evented. After seeing that this was the match they picked to go on last I wish they would have just saved the royal rumble to be the main event, they would've sent the crowd home happy with Rey Mysterio winning. I know we got a surprise Undertaker return at the end and that made people excited but looking back, Undertaker vs. Mark Henry at wrestlemania wasn't really all that great. Kurt Angle is fantastic but he cant carry everyone to a good match. Angle retains but other than that there just isn't too much to say about this match, it was slow paced and just didn't pack any real punch for me.

I cant really make a pros and cons list for this event, nothing was overwhelming entertaining and nothing was offensively bad. It was just a pretty "meh" event. Rey Mysterio won the royal rumble and Kurt Angle did an interview that made me laugh a little bit before his match and those are the highlights for me. The real lowlights I guess would be just how underwhelming this event was and how bland everything felt. Say what you want, I love womans wrestling today but watching the story progress between Mickie James and Trish Stratus was mildly entertaining too. I'm really reaching here.

2/5

[bullymagnet]

submission: kabaedactyl

i originally planned for this to be a stress-relief ficlet for aged up bullmag but 3k words later this happened so..here u go…i also took some material from this blog, which are all linked: this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this. There’s also a voltron comic reference that's here. - dactyl

🌺 — 🌺 — 🌺 — 🌺 — 🌺

Max and Johnny started dating in middle school.

It was an awkward, bumpy start. They never called themselves ’boyfriends’ in middle school, it was unheard of, you’d never tactical friendship fuse with your boyfriend — that’s another subject. If you did it with your boyfriend, you’d tactical boyfriend fuse, which was another day’s work. So, at first, they didn’t call themselves boyfriends. They called themselves best friends. They were best friends who, in late, ungodly hours of the night, watched Slenderman and Bigfoot documentaries and have conspiracy theories about whether or not they’re real. They were best friends who tested out the point to their spectral abilities, including biting literal pieces of wood and metal and trying to lift trains just because it was attracted to your metal, magnetic bat.

Throughout their years in Mayview middle school, they never counted themselves as boyfriends. They were best friends, through thick and thin.

They were plenty of summers that included Mayview’s lakes and ponds and public ditches large enough to jump in. One summer, their first summer as not-boyfriends-but-best-friends, Max got so fast at changing into bathing suits by just hearing Johnny’s voice and the tuptuptUPTUP of his feet that he could discard all of his clothes and get into a bathing suit quicker than Johnny could get to him. Johnny, consequently, got much faster that summer. (Did you know that Johhny’s natural hair is black? It’s darker than Max’s. Max was so surprised his soul left this dimension.)

That summer, Johnny also found out that Max unapologetically and horrifically, without fail, bit into every single ice cream cone he got. Not only does he do it more than once but once he figured out that Johnny is physically disturbed by it he did it more often. Every chance he got. He bit into popsicles, ice cream, ice, literally anything cold that would send chills up someone’s spine if you bit into it. He did it. His will was more powerful than anything Johnny had ever seen.

The first Halloween they spent together they dressed up as each other. Max got his father to buy all the crappy, dirt-cheap red dye he could get, and dyed his entire head red. He stole Johnny’s shirts. Despite Max’s epic parkour core strength, Johnny has way more muscles, and it hung loose around him. Johnny stole every single cap Max owned and put them all on at once, including ‘borrowing’ Max’s father’s insolent children shirt. (Everyone knew Max’s shirt wouldn’t fit him, after all.) Once they saw each other that Halloween, in their ridiculous get-ups, they both cried with laughter. They were the most ridiculous goofballs anyone had ever seen.

The school years and summers after included epic fights and slime monsters and big wolves with spectral abilities. It included researching mediums and putting “No, Google, I am not asking for Amazon t-shirts I’m talking about GHOSTS” into search bars at late, late hours of the night. It also includes weird trips into Mayview’s woods (but not far enough to the barrier) trying out weird tests of their spectral abilities. It’s also good to test their strength — Johnny can bench press Max easily, but can he bench press Max and about fifty other indistinguishable pieces of metal lying around? (Yes.)

🌺 — 🌺 — 🌺 — 🌺 — 🌺

At the very end of middle school, they became boyfriends. It was a very quick change but it didn’t impact their dynamic. At fourteen, they were completely done with beating around the bush about their boyfriend-y-ness.

They can thank Suzy and Isabel’s relationship for that.

Isabel never backed down from a challenge and calling Suzy her girlfriend was certainly one challenge she never could have backed down from. Suzy, ever the devoted journalist, referenced Isabel as her girlfriend whenever possible. Dimitri and Colin had no problem with it. They weren’t going to let their newspaper be exclusive for anybody. They were going to be an all inclusive, pro-lesbian middle school newspaper.

They were stuck in this eternal war with Suzy and Isabel and their own competitive feelings. Suzy loved being a public affectionate monster with Isabel, much like Johnny was to Max. Isabel and Max were stuck in an indefinite war about which boyfriend/girlfriend was better to cuddle with and better to wrestle with. Suzy was a tangle of limbs and too much energy to vent out, so she won the title of Cuddle Master Champion. But Johnny was a beast in wrestle-and-smooch matches, so he won the title of Wrestle Kiss Master Champion.

Finally, one day in Mayview’s own local high school, Suzy had demanded what they called themselves. “This isn’t a middle school newspaper anymore,” she had said to them while they passed each other in between classes. “This is serious Business with a capital B, boys! What is your relationship?”

Johnny and Max looked at one another for a solid second before resignedly nodding and turning back to the two girls. “Boyfriends.” they said at once, smiling.

🌺 — 🌺 — 🌺 — 🌺 — 🌺

High school was no less messy than middle school was. Though, Johnny and Max got acquainted with each others’ ghosts. Scrapdragon had a superiority complex, apparently, and liked to shove Max into the heightened state of perception and then talk through his body. It scared Johnny out of his mind the first few times it happened, which involved lightning-fast talking and a few kicks to the stomach. After a while, Scrapdragon became a nuisance, and Johnny responded in whatever he could muster in the language it spoke, depending on its tone. More often than not, Scrapdragon was sarcastic, and Johnny was teasing.

Forge was a much weirder case. Despite his standoffish nature, he was intelligent, which often butted heads against Max. Forge only forcibly pulled Johnny into the heightened state of perception during battles, when Johnny got distracted by Max, in order to keep him safe. During the early parts of high school, Forge took up the majority of Johnny’s concentration, since he kept asking questions about human culture, their methods of education, and questions about Max and Scrapdragon. (“What is… a Scrapdragon?” “How am I s'posed t'know?)

Now older, they had a fairly good idea on mediums and tools and the differences between them and, sometimes, when they saw a spooked kid on the way to Mayview middle school they made sure to say hello and make sure to tell them that ghosts aren’t scary, if you know how to handle them right. Most of the kids were being taught by Mr. Spender, who taught history, and the wonder duo made sure to tell them he was a pretty good guy to talk to about ghosts. He knew all about ghosts and all their business. Then, when they had to go to school, Johnny and Max would wave bye and head to school, as well.

The two of them got noticed early on as the couple who were six feet into the world of ghosts. Not only that, but Max’s house — which was conveniently the upper story of the convenience store down the block — would get visited by kids who liked to confirm rumors. Max and his family and Johnny and his family all came up with various stories and tangents and hour long theatrical acts to get the kids to leave them alone.

Max did his best impression from the woman from Long Island Medium, telling people weird, half-truths. Johnny struggled to keep a straight face whenever Max did things like that, at first. After a while, Johnny joined his boyfriend. They both would cry and sob and be so melodramatic people couldn’t maintain eye contact for more than a few seconds.

There were some doting moments, as well. Max had become a monster about affection, especially alone. He also lost his filter, over the next couple of years. It included him practically clinging to Johnny’s waist and mumbling things like warmer into his chest, which made happiness bubble in Johnny’s gut as he, cooperatively, warmed up his body. He had gotten better at the whole 'I-have-a-ghost-made-out-of-fire’ thing and could control the fire that now inhabited his body at will. When he got rowdier, however, he tended to breathe out smoke after a particularly epic stunt. Max thought it was cool.

They got more clever as they got older. They stayed doting and devoted, just as bigger, busier boys. They were still the twelve-year-old boys in bigger, taller, lankier bodies. Johnny was rowdy and kind-hearted and talked too loud during class and did arts-n-crafts during English. He got nearly all As during high school, though. Despite his rowdiness during class he was an excellent note-taker when people talked to him about classes and teachers and subjects — something god knows Max did often. Max mumbled and ranted and went on long-winded tangents to help his brain digest information and Johnny took that information and made good notes and got good grades.

They went through ridiculous montages of chasing after ghosts and going through terrible, terrible plans. Johnny has said, “wait, watch this.” one too many times to make Max worry — each and every time Johnny did them, he would be fine. Each and every time he did that, after every stunt fail and every success, after every triumphant leap of faith and roundhouse kick to a ghost’s face, Max always made sure to compliment Johnny on his talents. "You know, Johnny, I’ve known you for six years now and you still somehow don’t fail to amaze me.”

The whole Activity Club was sparking with life along with the wonder duo, even as young adults. Isaac was still as emotionally constipated as ever, but he got way cooler looking. Scars ran up his arms and neck and whenever he used his spectral abilities, they glowed with an electric sky blue. Isabel was lovingly nicknamed the Tool Minute Dater because she could only stick with a tool for like, two months. Whatever she did, she did fantastically, and did it with her bullheaded force. She became broad and tough and was the perfect bodyguard to her small, curious, and invasive no-filter girlfriend. Ed’s tool stayed with him, getting bigger, and he’s much broader and much more agile than he was in middle school. He’s still Isabel’s best friend, he’s just as obnoxious about video games as he was, but he is one heck of a real fighter.

Spender was less and less seen, as a Mayview middle school teacher, but he was on missions occasionally. Each and every mission he was one brought chaos to the team. He’ll stuff every single member into his little tiny gray Hybrid car and they would get a move on to whatever dangerous activity they were on to next. Isabel sat in the passenger seat, Johnny would double up with Max, Ed would be squished in the middle, and Isaac would be on the other side. Johnny and Isabel’s bright red spectral energy would butt heads against the spectral energy of Isaac, which was just as lively. Isaac’s energy, like lightning, would spark and bubble at sporadic times. Max’s black energy would grow as time went on as his embarrassment grew. Ed’s green energy and Spender’s bright yellow energy never stood a chance.

🌺 — 🌺 — 🌺 — 🌺 — 🌺

At eighteen, the wonder duo became legends. After graduating from high school, they both got arrested and went to jail for a night. It was a beautiful moment when two ghost-chasing eighteen-year-olds got arrested. It was for trespassing and loitering and unlawful entry. The ghost was volatile and going to hurt someone, Max would have reasoned, but ghosts don’t make sense to police. Not when Max and Johhny’s clothing is torn, their hair is disheveled, their faces are flushed, seen in an empty, abandoned building in the middle of the night, closer to two am than midnight. If Johnny had said they were ghost hunting, Max wasn’t sure he could stomach the embarrassment.

It didn’t stop the police from asking, though. “So, why were you two in there?” His tone ran dry when he said there and Max grimaced. The ride there was intolerable to begin with, they didn’t need to interrogate them to make it worse. Max’s tiredness was creeping up on him and he wasn’t sure he could give them a coherent answer. Luckily, Johnny noticed, and stepped in.

“Someone said online that this place was s'posed t'be haunted. 'N it kinda was, doors openin’ an’ closin’ without anybody bein’ there. Some mo—uh, wails, an’ stuff comin’ from the walls. We couldn’t figure out what was happenin’, then y'all showed up.” Johnny offered his hand to Max, who gladly accepted it, and they both gave each other a reassuring squeeze.

“Ghost hunting? Like those tv shows?” Said the driver, who was slightly broader than his partner. He had a rather obnoxious worm ghost clinging to his hands, slinking back and forth. It left an intangible slime trail that Max and Johnny couldn’t help but make faces at.

“Just like those shows,” Max said. He blinked, like he was forgetting something, before he added another word, “Sir.”

“Yeah,” Johnny agreed as nonchalantly as possible, “Sir.”

They were only in jail for the night. They didn’t do anything bad in the building. They didn’t break any fences or do anything to the private-owned property. They didn’t put up any graffiti. When they got their items back and left the police station, they quickly told the group chat.

[ 10:01 ] max 👻 guys guess who got arrested

[ 10:01 ] isabel 🔪 im telling suzy

[ 10:01 ] ed burgz details??????

[ 10:01 ] isaaaaaac Do we even want to know.

[ 10:01 ] here comes johnny it was SO COOL

[ 10:02 ] here comes johnny boom bam POW THWIP SHA-BANG KA-POW

[ 10:02 ] here comes johnny then we were in jail

[ 10:03 ] isabel 🔪 suzy says johnnys text isnt sufficient

[ 10:03 ] max 👻 tell her thats all shes getting

[ 10:04 ] isabel 🔪 she says she hates the both of you

[ 10:10 ] isabel 🔪 in college, i will not be so lenient!!! i will have ALL the details, you will soon know your fate!!!!!! -suzy

Suzy did not get all the details. She ended up getting all the stories, but it was like a comedy trope in Fast & Furious. Every time Johnny or Max opened their mouth to tell the story, out came completely different, completely contradictory, completely riduculous stories. She also got jokes. She got hours of Max’s tearful tangents about how hard it is to be dating a criminal. It’s even worse when he accidentally went on a tangent about wanting to be married to a criminal, or wanting to propose to a criminal — she regretted ever asking.

And when she didn’t ask, they alluded to it anyway. They would vaguely reference the Night or the Incident. The Activity Club got to know it as the Night but there were several instances where it was referenced with a variety of different names. The Day, the Building, the Fight with the Man, the Argument with the Two Men. It sounded like a twelve year old’s horror story on fanfic.net and it drove all of the others up the wall.

🌺 — 🌺 — 🌺 — 🌺 — 🌺

When they turned twenty-one, it kind of became unbearable to just be boyfriends. Nine years, now, nine years of being boyfriends and best friends and each other’s support and fighting partners. Nine years is a lot of time to be dating and nine years is enough time to look at someone who you’ve been dating non-stop and say, yeah, that’s him. (The love of one’s life.)

Johnny and Max are sappy, affectionate boyfriends. They always had been, even during their friendship fuses fighting against each other in deadly dodge ball matches and fighting slime monsters. It was almost tooth-rottingly sweet. Their many shenanigans could have been listed off as a Halsey song or a surreal 80s love song with the right instrumental. They rode on the back of Target carts during sunsets when Target didn’t have a lot of people in their parking lots. They found the Karaoke places with the nicest people working there and the dumbest, sweetest 80s love songs they could. They bought Wiis and Just Dance and Rock Band just to jam out together. You bet your butt when Johnny and Max found out that electric ukuleles were a thing they bought one as soon as they could find one. Their relationship was mesmerizing and they didn’t stop for anyone.

Johnny and Max, at age twenty-one, were comfortable with one another; they were both on their brand new apartment’s couch, exhausted, half-dead, and ready to sleep for thirty years, but it was comfortable. This new thing to them was comfortable. This new thing should be overwhelming and strange and new but since they were twelve they’ve been doing this. At Max’s house, they slept together, one top of one another, half-dead and entirely brain-dead. At Johnny’s house, they slept, ready to become the next Sleeping Beauties. On the bleachers or under them, in their high school, sleeping, because they couldn’t make it to P.E. because last night was so exhausting. Suzy would snap pictures from her terrible antique polaroid camera that would blind them for long enough to let her get away, but they were furious, and chased after her for days. The pictures always ended up on the high school newspaper, though, despite their best efforts. They would sit on Johnny’s motorcycle that he got for his twentieth birthday and it included a lecture from one of his moms, who was chewing him out for using her motorcycle for years and without a license.

But it’s in their apartment, half-asleep and doting, when Johnny piped up. “Muxxy, will you marry me?”

And it’s half-asleep Max, who said, “Of course. This was goin’ t'be permanent t'begin with, wasinnit?”

Johnny smiled at that, that kind of butterfly-squeezing-gut-bubbling happiness that seized you and every bit of you. The kind that gave you shivers despite feeling warm all over. “Yea, 'course it was. Go back t'sleep.”

Max nodded off. “Y'too, Johnny.”

Johnny nodded off, too, with a soft “I love you, Max,” leaving him as he fell back to sleep. Though, he swore he heard it returned.

🌺 — 🌺 — 🌺 — 🌺 — 🌺

That night, they took everything seriously. They got the rings. They told everyone. They told Suzy over the phone and as soon as they said the word marriage they could hear Discord’s dial tone and Colin and Dimitri’s voices as she translated every last detail. They’re running their own independent paper and blog called Mayview News Now! and they report everything that happens locally. Johnny and Max were going to outdo Mulan’s off-screen wedding and invite the whole of Mayview and they were going to get awesome wedding gifts.

They were going to talk to every single contact they know. They were the famous wonder duo of Mayview and gods and ghosts alike will know that their determination doesn’t lack in any amount. They’re going to get the biggest, prettiest venue possible and have the most wonderful wedding and do it Johnny-Max style. They’re going to have the funniest wedding and no one in Mayview — no one in the world is going to be able to top it.

The wedding reception is beyond what anyone could have thought. It might be labeled as a catastrophe, with both of the grooms’ suits trashed beyond repair and all the pent up strength they’ve been giving to ghosts who can barely feel anything at all were now all over each other. Johnny and Max specifically and insistently requested no glasses in this event. No glass cups, no glass punch bowls, replace the windows with plastic or aluminum foil or wooden screens, just not glass. And they were right to be persistent.

The wedding had delved into a food fight.

Johnny threw the first hit. Of course he did. It was a small one-bite snack and it had nailed Isabel in her face. Suzy took a sharp intake of breath before she gave her girlfriend, — bride to be — two bite-sized snacks and then smiled devilishly at the newly wed couple. Isabel’s spectral energy lit aflame which only egged on Johnny and then they were head-to-head, with every other guest and waiter getting in the crossfire.

Not only was that something to witness, Ed threw something at Max. The no-good biased capital g Gamer had thrown the second throw. Max vaulted a counter with ease and grabbed a discarded crab leg. He then smiled and it was war from then on.

It became a mess of food and laughter and surprisingly calm wait staff. There were really amazing and drastic and dramatic measures taken, tactical formations and a lot of people on the catwalks, people with the capability to jump onto a counter, then grab onto a wall, then hoist themselves onto the catwalks above with nothing more but calloused hands and freewill. Despite the discord that was all around them, it was fun, and the only thing regrettable was the trashed suits and fancy dresses that people wore, despite the wedding’s formality only being casual-wear.

At the end of it, in the trashed interior, with the wait staff patiently behind the counters with the ice chests full of soda and cold sweet tea and orange juice and energy drinks; with the people hiding behind walls with fairy lights dangling from the ceilings and on the walls in dazzling formations; with the people laying flat on catwalks with trashed, mushed food in their hands; with the wonder duo in a tactical husband formation standing in the midst of it all, in their trashed suits and funny grins and shaking hands because of pure adrenaline; and then they laugh.

It’s roaring. It’s thunderous. They’re all laughing. At twenty-one, Johnny and Max are married, newly wed ghost-hunting partners, and they just had a food fight for their wedding reception. And they love this experience and each other so much.

[thephantomprojectionist]

Dragon Profiles: DON NAKAYA NIELSEN (1959-2017)

Source

When it comes to living a rich and exciting life, not many can compete with the scope and thrill that Don Nakaya Nielsen experienced. Starting out as a college football player, Nielsen moved on to a career of combat sports that began with amateur boxing and transitioned to professional kickboxing. Tough and charismatic, Don became an international superstar while capturing three major championships. His popularity allowed an easy move to pro wrestling in Japan, wherein Nielsen competed in shoot-style matches while wearing boxing gloves. Around this time, Nielsen initiated a short but successful film career and co-starred in three movies. These were Filipino productions but made for the western film market, and subsequently found homes in retail and rental shops during home video’s heyday.

Eventually, Don traded his fighting career for one in chiropractic and opened the first official clinic of Thailand in 1993. He continued this practice until the end of his life on August 15, 2017 – the result of a heart attack stemming from surgical complications. He was cremated nine days later.

Styles & Accomplishments Kickboxing (WKA US National Champion; WKA International Champion; UKF International Champion) Muay Thai Tang Soo Do

Films to See Blood Ring (1991) – co-starring role Eternal Fist (AKA Fist of Steel) (1992) – co-starring role Blood Ring 2 (1995) – supporting role

Trivia: Nielsen played an important role in the establishment of Japan’s mixed martial arts scene when he faced Frank Shamrock in a 1992 mixed rules bout. [VIDEO] Though Don lost, the match itself was a popular success and helped lead to the founding of the Pancrase Hybird Wrestling promotion in 1993.

Videos Vs. Rob Kaman Vs. Akira Maeda (pro wrestling)

[rebuiltrollins]

WWE Battleground 2017 Predictions:

This will be the night of bad stipulations!  WWE made sure some of these matches had a greater chance of being bad before they even had a chance even happen.

Tye Dillinger vs Aiden English:  Aiden English wouldn’t be booked to beat a baby that was born without limbs.  Winner: Tye Dillinger

Charlotte Flair vs Becky Lynch vs Natalya vs Tamina vs Lana (Elimination Fatal 5-Way No. 1 Contender’s Match):  It genuinely frustrates me that this match is happening here, at this PPV.  It was booked to happen two weeks ago.  Now,we have yet another multi-person “we gotta get ‘em all on the show” match.  It’s like WWE just decided to stop writing storylines.  The Smackdown Women’s Champion isn’t even defending.  This booking is theoretically great because of how many people got onto the card but they could have gotten everyone in and had a title match if this match had happened last Tuesday and had a title match tonight and a tag match as well.  Anyways, rant over.  None of the heels are over but Naomi has to face one of them because WWE isn’t having a face vs face match and risk a crowd completely turning on one of them.  Lana had her chance, Tamina never wins anything and that’s not changing now.  Winner: Natalya

The New Day vs The Usos (Smackdown Tag Team Championship Match):  This could be the match of the night.  These teams work well together and they are more than capable of delivering any given night.  While, in my opinion, The New Day’s act has gotten stale, I mean they’ve pretty much told the same jokes and done the same thing for two years straight now, there is no denying the in-ring prowess.  The Usos have completely revitalized themselves.  Expect The Usos to somehow escape with the titles and save the New Day’s moment for a bigger show.  Winners: The Usos via *insert shenanigan here*

Sami Zayn vs Mike Kanellis (w/ Maria Kanellis):  Mike’s PPV debut and Sami can get it back at SummerSlam where it really counts.  Winner: Mike Kanellis

AJ Styles vs Kevin Owens (United States Championship Match):  They aren’t going to take the title off Owens in a non-tv match just to give it right back to him.  Winner: AJ Styles

John Cena vs Rusev (Flag Match): The first of two awful stipulations that will be appearing at this show, the flag match shouldn’t be in 2017 because 1996 really misses it and wants it back.  This stipulation sucks, I don’t want to watch two men fight over flags and race up a ramp to “plant it” in a flag stand.  Anyways, no way Rusev win on the grounds of “go USA”: the eternal rule of American Pro-Wrestling.  Winner: John Cena

Shinsuke Nakamura vs Baron Corbin:  This match should be very great and very physical.  It should continue to prepare Nakamura for his completely inevitable US Title showdown with AJ Styles and Baron Corbin continues to prove he is WWE Championship material.  Corbin has the case, doesn’t need the win.  Give the Shinsuke the momentum.  Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura

Breezango vs TBA: Fashion Files is great and they’ve built this up surprisingly well through the most stupid (in the best way) possible.  It’s all about Breezango so it’s got to go to them.  Winners: Breezango

Jinder Mahal vs Randy Orton (WWE Championship Punjabi Prison Match):  Ah, our main event.  Two pretty talented guys saddled with an impossible task.  Make one of the worst stipulations of all time work.  Nevermind what’s going to happen, I’ll get to that, let’s discuss the stupidity of this thing.  First: There are no rules was stated by Jinder Mahal.  Second: The Singh Brothers said the rules are (even though there supposedly aren’t any) that the doors in the first cage open for 60 seconds once, ONCE, and then they close forever.  Luckily there is a gigantic hole in the top that you can get out of that makes the doors pointless. Third: You win by escaping both cages.  This match has a ridiculous amount of rules for a match with no rules.  Also, it’s a nightmare to see through at home where they can get the best camera angles possible, let alone in the arena at ringside.  This stipulation is terrible and unless Randy Orton and Jinder Mahal pull off a miracle this will be the worst main event of the year.  The Punjabi Prison should have stayed buried where it belongs.  Jinder is of Punjabi descent but that doesn’t mean you bring back things that never worked!  Anyways, Randy winning would ruin Jinder forever.  Winner: Jinder Mahal

[ecpwrestling]

Ordeals in Osaka

ECPW Season 2 officially kicked off in Osaka Japan, following some archival footage of Hiroshi Minami, Deputy Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations, explaining that Japan would not sign to the Protection of Ancient World Treasures Bill that drove Cody Stabbe into hiding last season.

While the crowd worked their way to their seats we were treated to footage from Jack Senpai’s appearance on Gilgamesh Night where he explored Osaka and connected with both the populace, and the audience of Gilgamesh Night.

After that, Jack Vaden hyped up the crowd with his exciting return to the country where he made his name.  Vaden and Thyme are challenged by #UndeadAnimalArmy but make short work of the soulless slaves, showing off a London Bridge into London Calling and teasing the return of Vaden classic finisher the Clash Crash.

This lead into the first of Bobby Croode’s first self imposed match with Jack Senpai.  Displaying the keen tactical judgement we’ve come to expect from Croode, he declared that the match was to be (God help us all) a Sixty Minute Iron Man Match.  After a gruelling fifty nine minutes of sweat, blood, and vomit (so much vomit), the scores were set to four/four meaning Crood would retain the Cruisership Title.  In a last ditch attack with ten seconds remaining on the clock, Senpai hit Croode with a chair and got a pin.  Though this initially led to four/five in Senpai’s favour, the ref awarded Croode a fall due to Senpai’s use of a weapon leading to a five/five which let Crood retain the Cruisership Title.  Croode impressed the Osaka audience so much with his sheer charisma that as he was being carted away they stormed the ring and body surfed him around the arena while chanting “Baka Kah-rudoh!”.

Following that prolonged pandemonium we were treated to Jack Vaden facing off against McLargehuge of the SWOT Team in a Catch-As-Catch-Can Match in order to show off some “Proppeh Bri’ish  Graplen” to the Osaka crowd.  Though McLargehuge managed to trick Vaden in to taking two warnings, he ultimately lost to the London Lad.

The Terror Wrists then resolved their rather lackluster squabble in a competent but ultimately unremarkable match. I will admit, however, that seeing L and R use each other's finishers against one another and THIS being what ultimately unites them once more did bring a smile to my lips.

Due to Senpai and Crood’s unprofessional behavior in their prior appearance, Cody Stabbe saw fit to subject them to a punitive match: A Tag Team bout between Zoen Chook and Small Sacc against Croode and Senpai.  Senpai was initially overjoyed at the prospect of throwing the match in order to cost Crood his Title, but once Croode realized the full mechanics of his Cruisership Title defense, he used his sway to declare that Senpai would be fired if he lost.  Despite the poultry passionate pair’s best efforts, they couldn’t succeed against their opponent’s experience and skill.  Of note during this match are Chook’s surprising charisma on the mike, and Crood’s unprecedented display of teamwork in a dramatic tag with Senpai.

The Last bout of the evening was Akcer Jace (who?) against Grylla, in a rather baffling booking.  Where either of these two really talented or popular enough for the main event?  None can argue Grylla’s pedigree and charisma (and marketability), but I don’t think that I’ll be alone in saying that the Scanidavian gorilla has been a bit buried recently.  I guess Grylla has more sway backstage than we realised?  All became clear, however, when Jace (I swear I’ve seen him around) got the win after dodging Grylla’s thrown barrel, sending #UndeadAnimalArmy into a storm of rage and despair.

The post-credit sequence found Toro and Grylla wandering the back alleys of Osaka, and we had Yumi Shinisawa’s dramatic return as they pledged allegiance to her and were taken by her newfound yakuza-esque friends.  WTF!?  Has she got a Yakuza now or what?  Gang leader Yumi?  I can get behind that, it’s certainly more character development than she’s had in the whole prior season.

Got any theories or predictions as to where this could go?  Email us at

LayersOfKayfabe@WrassleHassle.com

and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

[flauntpage]

WWE's 'Hell In a Cell' Was the Right Kind of Gruesome

It had to happen, at some point. WWE’s run of execrable to mediocre pay-per-views for the past six months, starting with WrestleMania and lasting through SummerSlam, mercifully ended on Sunday night. 2018’s Hell In A Cell was a fun, lively show, a stark contrast to the turgid slogs which have taken up so much of WWE’s calendar.

It came on the 20th anniversary of the famed second ever Hell in a Cell match, between The Undertaker and Mick Foley. You know the one, even if you’re not a wrestling fan: that match, with that bump and that call.

It’s probably the iconic moment in modern pro wrestling history, which also happens to be something that should never happen again. The Foley bump set an impossibly high standard as to what a Hell in a Cell match should be, and WWE’s been chasing the dragon ever since. But they’ve been chasing the dragon in a safe way, turning the Cell into a mini-brand. Each year there’s the PPV named after the match, which usually has two of those the Hell in a Cell matches. And they’re safe: the big spots are planned, there’s padding for the big bump, and the tables are made to collapse.

This should be made very clear: it should be that way. Mick Foley is extremely lucky he didn’t die, as he quite readily admitted in a remarkable combination spoken word/comedy set shown on the WWE Network after Sunday’s show. But there’s an uneasy tension between all of the breathless fawning by WWE’s commentary team over the always eminent danger of the Cell and the fact that it never really materializes.

This is why the first match, between Jeff Hardy and Randy Orton, was an all-timer. It was the right kind of gruesome, with the violence largely controlled for maximum effect. It felt dangerous like those old days of Foley and the others, without being as deadly.

Jeff Hardy is likely winding down his career. His brother, Matt, announced his retirement over the weekend, and Jeff is certainly in no better physical shape, just younger. But there’s no way he’s not going out without maximal bodily harm. He’s not wired for it, and against Orton—whose one top level skill is projecting menace and barely restrained anger—everyone was primed for something crazy or possibly stupid.

It didn’t disappoint. The two men used the cage to proper effect, bouncing one another off of it and ramping up to a crescendo. The spot of the entire night, not just the match, was pure body horror. Orton found a toolbox and grabbed a screwdriver. He went over to a prone Hardy and inserted it into the large gauge earring hole in his left ear. Then Orton twisted, or pretended to twist, stretching just enough that the rubberband of Jeff Hardy’s dangling earlobe looking to be twisted 180 degrees.

The crowd went nuts, gasping and shrieking. My daughter got up and screamed, declaring that she was going to throw up, while I laughed in delight. It was an old school freak show by two workers in the throes of their craft. And it didn’t stop there: Orton got a legit gash on his thigh at some point which looked gross, with a flap of meat hanging off of it, and Hardy wrapped the match up by crashing through a table after dangling from the ceiling of the cage. It was the best singles Cell match in ages and the most enjoyable Orton’s been in almost as long.

That set the tone for the entire night. Right after the opener, WWE did the right thing and had Becky Lynch beat Charlotte cleanly for the Smackdown Women’s title. They’re still positioning Charlotte as the babyface after their top notch match, with her trying to shake Lynch’s hand and Lynch stalking off (the crowd went wild for Lynch when this happened), but they’ve avoided turning her into Roman Reigns. It can’t be stressed enough how important that is: Charlotte as the unbeatable monster when everyone was clamoring for Lynch (and, earlier, Asuka) would be a death sentence.

One of the things which came through as the night wore on, especially in the tag match between Seth Rollins/Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre, was how much time the participants were granted. The typical WWE approach is to cram more and shorter matches into their PPVs, which always feels weird because their weekly shows are all commercials and angles. This has been especially true since even the basic, non-Big Four shows expanded to four hours. They’ve felt interminable.

Hell In A Cell was four hours and eight matches, and it felt like way less. The matches were better paced, and even the out of ring stuff felt better. As an example, they replayed a Samoa Joe video package of him reading a fairy tale about him killing A.J. Styles and becoming his family’s new patriarch. In a more crammed PPV, this might’ve been folded into a collage style video package or cut entirely; here, everything was allowed to breathe.

The one sour note was the main event, between Braun Strowman and Roman Reigns. Nothing about their match was memorable up until they inexplicably both lay prone while the tag participants from earlier in the night fought on top of the Cell. That bit was capped by Rollins and Ziggler doing a double spot where they both methodically fell off the side through side by side tables at the same time. It was everything the Hardy-Orton match wasn’t: perfectly safe (or as safe as pro wrestling can be) but feeling safe, which isn’t what you want from a Cell match but too often get.

And then Brock Lesnar showed up.

Lesnar is the guy Vince McMahon just can’t quit and is Ronda Rousey’s future, a legit athlete who has to be positioned as a demigod for all eternity due to WWE’s monomaniacal pursuit of mainstream acceptance. There was no need for him to be here, and once he beat up both Strowman and Reigns, with manager Paul Heyman macing guest referee Mick Foley on the way in, we were left with no doubt who the only actual star on WWE’s men’s roster is.

Yes, it was cool that Lesnar kicked the gimmicked cage door open, but note who didn’t get his usual crazy strongman spot. Braun Strowman did more or less nothing, they made him a heel rather than a cool tweener doing even cooler stuff, and in the process he’s less now than at any point since his debut. For what? You’d say to feed to Roman Reigns, except he wasn’t fed to Roman Reigns.

So now, who knows? The Universal title picture is more muddied than ever, Reigns still isn’t over, Strowman is becoming Just Another Guy after a year on the cusp of Next Big Thing, and the oxygen supply is being held hostage by a part-time, disinterested, middle-aged former MMA champion. It’s not good and WWE seems content with that.

But also, who cares? I was certainly bummed out by the way the main event went, but everything else was delightful. It may have been by accident—hell, it was probably by accident—but there was a template established of good pacing, fewer but more important matches, and cool spots which can make up for any gaps. Let’s hope WWE makes a lot more shows in the Hell In A Cell style to close out the year.

WWE's 'Hell In a Cell' Was the Right Kind of Gruesome published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[dojopro-blog]

Dojo Pro — in Partnership with Ring of Honor — Launches A New Opportunity for Pro Wrestlers to Climb Into the Spotlight on Amazon Prime Video.

New professional wrestling television series Dojo Pro makes its world premiere on Amazon Prime Video. Dojo Pro is the ultimate professional wrestling opportunity that culminates in a shot at a major championship title — but with a dynamic twist.

Like all industries, advances in technology and new media have changed the sport of Professional Wrestling, and how new wrestling stars are being discovered.

Differentiating itself from other wrestling programs, Dojo Pro is a gauntlet-style competition in which 13 independent wrestlers — including indie stars like the “Bad Boy” Joey Janela, Shane Strickland, and former World Champion James Storm — fight their way up the ladder.

Every match has real stakes which not only impact the competitors’ future in Dojo Pro, but with one of the top wrestling companies in the world, Ring of Honor. The winner of each match receives the coveted Dojo Pro White Belt — their ticket to advance and face the next hungry competitor. The loser is immediately eliminated. At the top of the ladder waits the Dojo Pro Black Belt, and a guaranteed title shot for the Ring of Honor World Television Championship.

“Ring of Honor is excited to partner with Dojo Pro on their first season,” said Joe Koff, COO of Ring of Honor Wrestling. “Dojo Pro is an incredible new take on how professional wrestling is presented. Just as RoH has always been committed to showcasing new talent, Dojo Pro gives the world access to impressive independent wrestlers that they may not have seen, as well as amazing matches. And at the end of the competition, Dojo Pro could even introduce us to a new Ring of Honor World Television Champion.”

But to get both the Dojo Pro Black Belt and the Ring of Honor title bout, the last wrestler standing will have to overpower and out-wrestle the Dojo Pro №1 seed, and daunting Olympic athlete, Jeff Cobb.

Dojo Pro presents pro wrestling in a unique way that respects the viewers’ time. Each of the 12 episodes run under 30 minutes and the gauntlet style format is easy to follow, quick to digest and completely binge-able. Dojo Pro is committed to providing a combat sports experience that the whole family can enjoy together, on their schedule.

“Dojo Pro has created a unique viewing experience that is made for the modern era,” said Eric Bischoff, Fmr. Executive Vice President of WCW. “Releasing on Amazon Prime Video not only means it can be watched anywhere on any device, but it is a show that was specifically created to be enjoyed that way. You can binge Dojo Pro or watch it on your lunch break. As a friend of the production team, it has been fun to see the show develop and I’m excited to see the reaction from the audience.”

Dojo Pro, and it’s panel of advisors, have hand-selected independent wrestlers from all over the world for this new competition, and ranked them based on a list of criteria — with the most important trait being potential. Since Dojo Pro will be available internationally, it was important the competition have worldwide appeal.

“I’ve been thrilled to work with Dojo Pro as their International Consultant,” said Legendary Professional Wrestling Manager and recipient of the 2018 Joe Lewis Eternal Warrior Award, Kazou Sonny Onoo. “My background in the world of martial arts and pro wrestling made me uniquely qualified to help with blending the traditional and modern elements of combat sports from around the world. I’m actively working with the team to expand distribution worldwide. My goal is to facilitate Dojo Pro in showcasing some of the best American talent to an international audience.”

Along with intense matches, viewers will get to know each wrestler, and see first-hand what this chance means to them. For many of these competitors, Dojo Pro is a long-sought after opportunity to propel their career into the spotlight. Any wrestler from any background has a chance to overcome the odds and become a champion.

Dojo Pro Season 1 is available for free to Amazon Prime Members right now on Prime Video in 12 binge-able, single match episodes, each under 30 minutes. It is high-octane, title-shot entertainment for busy fans and families. This is a new kind of wrestling show. This is Dojo Pro.

For full roster information and details visit dojopro.co .

[amtushinfosolutionspage]

NJPW Has Declared Itself a Global Promotion

The lasting image from NJPW’s Dominion show on June 9 isn’t Kenny Omega hoisted aloft the shoulders of The Young Bucks and Kota Ibushi, or Chris Jericho smirking in hastily applied corpsepaint. It’s of the minutes immediately after the third and decisive fall in Omega’s final (for now) match with Kazuchika Okada, the one where Omega finally won the IWGP Heavyweight championship and Okada lost for the first time in what seems like living memory.

The two men, legitimately spent after over an hour of explosive, grueling pro wrestling of the highest quality, existed on the knife’s edge between real physical collapse and the sort of exaggeration pro wrestlers always do for the audience. Okada was flat on his back, staring up, vanquished and glassy-eyed. Omega, on his knees, crouched over one of the greatest five or six champions in modern history, regardless of where and when, checking on him in a show of babyface magnanimity.

It was, again, for show but also not. Wrestlers do the tenderest things when a big match is over. Seth Rollins telling Roman Reigns “thank you so much” when he pinned him, or The Rock telling Steve Austin he loves him at Wrestlemania 19. This felt of a piece with those moments, and others like them, moments of appreciation for one another, for the ways magic can be conjured, for the impossibility of seeing men flying into one another at breakneck speed but keeping one another safe. And they knew they’d nailed it.

How could they not? The two best wrestlers in the world wrestled the best match of a four-match series Friday. The story was of Omega, the cherub-faced Canadian nerd who can fly, chasing Okada, the once-in-a-generation talent. Importantly, Omega only beat Okada when the title wasn’t on the line, a day after last year’s Dominion and a loss in a title match.

After that, nothing. New storylines, new rivalries. The expectation in the summer of 2017 was that Omega would win the G1 Climax, ensuring a fairytale ending at Wrestle Kingdom 12, where the chase would finally be ended. It didn’t happen. Tetsuya Naito won the tournament and wrestled Okada for the Heavyweight championship at Wrestle Kingdom; Naito, of course, lost.

The night of Wrestle Kingdom 12 was an odd one, because it seemed like New Japan made a rare mistake. The crowd at the Tokyo Dome was rabid for Naito to win, at least as rabid as they’d been for Omega months earlier. It seemed for all the world like it was the right time to get the title off of Okada, give him a break, and bring him back after an injection of new blood. Regardless of whether it should’ve been Omega, it could’ve been Naito, and in any event, it would’ve been amazing either way.

But New Japan knew, or came to know, how to time things to perfection. They always do, and it’s nearly maddening how even a possible mistake leads to the best storytelling at the right time. Because if Omega had beaten Okada for the title at Wrestle Kingdom 12, it would’ve been expected. The story beats in pro wrestling have to follow this arc: the beloved underdog (my god, Kenny Omega as underdog) beating the arrogant, perfect champion. At Dominion there was enough doubt about the outcome to make the perfectly logical, final culmination of this iteration of their rivalry shock and delight. Omega’s story wasn’t done, after all.

The greatest matches in history, in my mind, are Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat doing their 1989 series for the NWA World title. There was a similar vibe: a beloved babyface working a (for the time) high flying style against the face of a company. The chemistry, too, was the same, with two men who clearly respected each other translating their mastery of ring psychology into enduring classics.

Omega and Okada have at least equalled that, and probably surpassed the 89 Flair-Steamboat matches if I strip away the childhood nostalgia of watching them live on a grainy television at the age of 11. Certainly, Omega and Okada are now eternal, every bit as much as Flair and Steamboat are, and they are the Flair and Steamboat of this new golden age of wrestling we live in.

For all that, the conclusion of Omega’s quest for the title may not be what reverberates the longest in the broader pro wrestling world. Chris Jericho wrestled Naito for the Intercontinental title and won in a wild brawl.

Under no circumstances was it expected that Jericho was going to win. He’s a WWE guy, regardless of his freelancer’s contract, and his age seemed to preclude him from anything more than some solid matches in the midcard for NJPW. Yet there he was, winning gold and setting up for a long- ish run in Japan, if not a long one.

This meant that of five title changes at Dominion, four (Omega, Jericho, the Young Bucks winning the Heavyweight Tag Team titles, Mike Elgin winning the NEVER Openweight Championship) were won by non-Japanese wrestlers. What’s more, they’re not products of NJPW’s famous wrestling dojo.

All of this, but especially Jericho’s high profile win of a title practically considered the co-equal of the Heavyweight Championship, looks an awful lot like NJPW unambiguously declaring themselves a global wrestling promotion. Which we all knew, but there’s something about the night which feels declarative of that fact.

As we look forward to NJPW’s show in California—which will see Omega rekindle his long-simmering feud with Cody, only this time for the top title—there’s something tantalizing going on in the non-WWE spaces of pro wrestling. It’s starting to feel like the Territories again, when pro wrestlers traveled and made big names in a variety of settings. Chris Jericho can be a household name from WWE while becoming a champion in New Japan, all with an eye toward his pro wrestling cruise stacked with names from all sorts of promotions. Don Callis, English commentator for New Japan, can work All In and be involved with Impact. Cody can be a latter-day traveling spectacle, working everywhere in the world, honing his craft.

It’s difficult to say where this all goes. WWE has so much money and reach, but they seem increasingly disinterested in the pro wrestling part of what made the McMahons so rich. Which is not to say that WWE stinks (a necessary qualifier in pro wrestling discourse), but it is to say that it seems to be good despite Vince and family, who seem way more focused on politics, wholesome licensing deals, and Emmy consideration.

Certainly, it goes someplace different than where we were in the doldrum days of the early 2010s. And at the core of this different, thrilling world is New Japan, its seemingly can’t mess up booking, and our new Flair and Steamboat.

NJPW Has Declared Itself a Global Promotion syndicated from https://australiahoverboards.wordpress.com

[flauntpage]

WWE's 'Hell In a Cell' Was the Right Kind of Gruesome

It had to happen, at some point. WWE’s run of execrable to mediocre pay-per-views for the past six months, starting with WrestleMania and lasting through SummerSlam, mercifully ended on Sunday night. 2018’s Hell In A Cell was a fun, lively show, a stark contrast to the turgid slogs which have taken up so much of WWE’s calendar.

It came on the 20th anniversary of the famed second ever Hell in a Cell match, between The Undertaker and Mick Foley. You know the one, even if you’re not a wrestling fan: that match, with that bump and that call.

It’s probably the iconic moment in modern pro wrestling history, which also happens to be something that should never happen again. The Foley bump set an impossibly high standard as to what a Hell in a Cell match should be, and WWE’s been chasing the dragon ever since. But they’ve been chasing the dragon in a safe way, turning the Cell into a mini-brand. Each year there’s the PPV named after the match, which usually has two of those the Hell in a Cell matches. And they’re safe: the big spots are planned, there’s padding for the big bump, and the tables are made to collapse.

This should be made very clear: it should be that way. Mick Foley is extremely lucky he didn’t die, as he quite readily admitted in a remarkable combination spoken word/comedy set shown on the WWE Network after Sunday’s show. But there’s an uneasy tension between all of the breathless fawning by WWE’s commentary team over the always eminent danger of the Cell and the fact that it never really materializes.

This is why the first match, between Jeff Hardy and Randy Orton, was an all-timer. It was the right kind of gruesome, with the violence largely controlled for maximum effect. It felt dangerous like those old days of Foley and the others, without being as deadly.

Jeff Hardy is likely winding down his career. His brother, Matt, announced his retirement over the weekend, and Jeff is certainly in no better physical shape, just younger. But there’s no way he’s not going out without maximal bodily harm. He’s not wired for it, and against Orton—whose one top level skill is projecting menace and barely restrained anger—everyone was primed for something crazy or possibly stupid.

It didn’t disappoint. The two men used the cage to proper effect, bouncing one another off of it and ramping up to a crescendo. The spot of the entire night, not just the match, was pure body horror. Orton found a toolbox and grabbed a screwdriver. He went over to a prone Hardy and inserted it into the large gauge earring hole in his left ear. Then Orton twisted, or pretended to twist, stretching just enough that the rubberband of Jeff Hardy’s dangling earlobe looking to be twisted 180 degrees.

The crowd went nuts, gasping and shrieking. My daughter got up and screamed, declaring that she was going to throw up, while I laughed in delight. It was an old school freak show by two workers in the throes of their craft. And it didn’t stop there: Orton got a legit gash on his thigh at some point which looked gross, with a flap of meat hanging off of it, and Hardy wrapped the match up by crashing through a table after dangling from the ceiling of the cage. It was the best singles Cell match in ages and the most enjoyable Orton’s been in almost as long.

That set the tone for the entire night. Right after the opener, WWE did the right thing and had Becky Lynch beat Charlotte cleanly for the Smackdown Women’s title. They’re still positioning Charlotte as the babyface after their top notch match, with her trying to shake Lynch’s hand and Lynch stalking off (the crowd went wild for Lynch when this happened), but they’ve avoided turning her into Roman Reigns. It can’t be stressed enough how important that is: Charlotte as the unbeatable monster when everyone was clamoring for Lynch (and, earlier, Asuka) would be a death sentence.

One of the things which came through as the night wore on, especially in the tag match between Seth Rollins/Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre, was how much time the participants were granted. The typical WWE approach is to cram more and shorter matches into their PPVs, which always feels weird because their weekly shows are all commercials and angles. This has been especially true since even the basic, non-Big Four shows expanded to four hours. They’ve felt interminable.

Hell In A Cell was four hours and eight matches, and it felt like way less. The matches were better paced, and even the out of ring stuff felt better. As an example, they replayed a Samoa Joe video package of him reading a fairy tale about him killing A.J. Styles and becoming his family’s new patriarch. In a more crammed PPV, this might’ve been folded into a collage style video package or cut entirely; here, everything was allowed to breathe.

The one sour note was the main event, between Braun Strowman and Roman Reigns. Nothing about their match was memorable up until they inexplicably both lay prone while the tag participants from earlier in the night fought on top of the Cell. That bit was capped by Rollins and Ziggler doing a double spot where they both methodically fell off the side through side by side tables at the same time. It was everything the Hardy-Orton match wasn’t: perfectly safe (or as safe as pro wrestling can be) but feeling safe, which isn’t what you want from a Cell match but too often get.

And then Brock Lesnar showed up.

Lesnar is the guy Vince McMahon just can’t quit and is Ronda Rousey’s future, a legit athlete who has to be positioned as a demigod for all eternity due to WWE’s monomaniacal pursuit of mainstream acceptance. There was no need for him to be here, and once he beat up both Strowman and Reigns, with manager Paul Heyman macing guest referee Mick Foley on the way in, we were left with no doubt who the only actual star on WWE’s men’s roster is.

Yes, it was cool that Lesnar kicked the gimmicked cage door open, but note who didn’t get his usual crazy strongman spot. Braun Strowman did more or less nothing, they made him a heel rather than a cool tweener doing even cooler stuff, and in the process he’s less now than at any point since his debut. For what? You’d say to feed to Roman Reigns, except he wasn’t fed to Roman Reigns.

So now, who knows? The Universal title picture is more muddied than ever, Reigns still isn’t over, Strowman is becoming Just Another Guy after a year on the cusp of Next Big Thing, and the oxygen supply is being held hostage by a part-time, disinterested, middle-aged former MMA champion. It’s not good and WWE seems content with that.

But also, who cares? I was certainly bummed out by the way the main event went, but everything else was delightful. It may have been by accident—hell, it was probably by accident—but there was a template established of good pacing, fewer but more important matches, and cool spots which can make up for any gaps. Let’s hope WWE makes a lot more shows in the Hell In A Cell style to close out the year.

WWE's 'Hell In a Cell' Was the Right Kind of Gruesome published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[flauntpage]

NJPW Has Declared Itself a Global Promotion

The lasting image from NJPW’s Dominion show on June 9 isn’t Kenny Omega hoisted aloft the shoulders of The Young Bucks and Kota Ibushi, or Chris Jericho smirking in hastily applied corpsepaint. It’s of the minutes immediately after the third and decisive fall in Omega’s final (for now) match with Kazuchika Okada, the one where Omega finally won the IWGP Heavyweight championship and Okada lost for the first time in what seems like living memory.

The two men, legitimately spent after over an hour of explosive, grueling pro wrestling of the highest quality, existed on the knife’s edge between real physical collapse and the sort of exaggeration pro wrestlers always do for the audience. Okada was flat on his back, staring up, vanquished and glassy-eyed. Omega, on his knees, crouched over one of the greatest five or six champions in modern history, regardless of where and when, checking on him in a show of babyface magnanimity.

It was, again, for show but also not. Wrestlers do the tenderest things when a big match is over. Seth Rollins telling Roman Reigns “thank you so much” when he pinned him, or The Rock telling Steve Austin he loves him at Wrestlemania 19. This felt of a piece with those moments, and others like them, moments of appreciation for one another, for the ways magic can be conjured, for the impossibility of seeing men flying into one another at breakneck speed but keeping one another safe. And they knew they’d nailed it.

How could they not? The two best wrestlers in the world wrestled the best match of a four-match series Friday. The story was of Omega, the cherub-faced Canadian nerd who can fly, chasing Okada, the once-in-a-generation talent. Importantly, Omega only beat Okada when the title wasn’t on the line, a day after last year’s Dominion and a loss in a title match.

After that, nothing. New storylines, new rivalries. The expectation in the summer of 2017 was that Omega would win the G1 Climax, ensuring a fairytale ending at Wrestle Kingdom 12, where the chase would finally be ended. It didn’t happen. Tetsuya Naito won the tournament and wrestled Okada for the Heavyweight championship at Wrestle Kingdom; Naito, of course, lost.

The night of Wrestle Kingdom 12 was an odd one, because it seemed like New Japan made a rare mistake. The crowd at the Tokyo Dome was rabid for Naito to win, at least as rabid as they’d been for Omega months earlier. It seemed for all the world like it was the right time to get the title off of Okada, give him a break, and bring him back after an injection of new blood. Regardless of whether it should’ve been Omega, it could’ve been Naito, and in any event, it would’ve been amazing either way.

But New Japan knew, or came to know, how to time things to perfection. They always do, and it’s nearly maddening how even a possible mistake leads to the best storytelling at the right time. Because if Omega had beaten Okada for the title at Wrestle Kingdom 12, it would’ve been expected. The story beats in pro wrestling have to follow this arc: the beloved underdog (my god, Kenny Omega as underdog) beating the arrogant, perfect champion. At Dominion there was enough doubt about the outcome to make the perfectly logical, final culmination of this iteration of their rivalry shock and delight. Omega’s story wasn’t done, after all.

The greatest matches in history, in my mind, are Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat doing their 1989 series for the NWA World title. There was a similar vibe: a beloved babyface working a (for the time) high flying style against the face of a company. The chemistry, too, was the same, with two men who clearly respected each other translating their mastery of ring psychology into enduring classics.

Omega and Okada have at least equalled that, and probably surpassed the 89 Flair-Steamboat matches if I strip away the childhood nostalgia of watching them live on a grainy television at the age of 11. Certainly, Omega and Okada are now eternal, every bit as much as Flair and Steamboat are, and they are the Flair and Steamboat of this new golden age of wrestling we live in.

For all that, the conclusion of Omega’s quest for the title may not be what reverberates the longest in the broader pro wrestling world. Chris Jericho wrestled Naito for the Intercontinental title and won in a wild brawl.

Under no circumstances was it expected that Jericho was going to win. He’s a WWE guy, regardless of his freelancer’s contract, and his age seemed to preclude him from anything more than some solid matches in the midcard for NJPW. Yet there he was, winning gold and setting up for a long- ish run in Japan, if not a long one.

This meant that of five title changes at Dominion, four (Omega, Jericho, the Young Bucks winning the Heavyweight Tag Team titles, Mike Elgin winning the NEVER Openweight Championship) were won by non-Japanese wrestlers. What’s more, they’re not products of NJPW’s famous wrestling dojo.

All of this, but especially Jericho’s high profile win of a title practically considered the co-equal of the Heavyweight Championship, looks an awful lot like NJPW unambiguously declaring themselves a global wrestling promotion. Which we all knew, but there’s something about the night which feels declarative of that fact.

As we look forward to NJPW’s show in California—which will see Omega rekindle his long-simmering feud with Cody, only this time for the top title—there’s something tantalizing going on in the non-WWE spaces of pro wrestling. It’s starting to feel like the Territories again, when pro wrestlers traveled and made big names in a variety of settings. Chris Jericho can be a household name from WWE while becoming a champion in New Japan, all with an eye toward his pro wrestling cruise stacked with names from all sorts of promotions. Don Callis, English commentator for New Japan, can work All In and be involved with Impact. Cody can be a latter-day traveling spectacle, working everywhere in the world, honing his craft.

It’s difficult to say where this all goes. WWE has so much money and reach, but they seem increasingly disinterested in the pro wrestling part of what made the McMahons so rich. Which is not to say that WWE stinks (a necessary qualifier in pro wrestling discourse), but it is to say that it seems to be good despite Vince and family, who seem way more focused on politics, wholesome licensing deals, and Emmy consideration.

Certainly, it goes someplace different than where we were in the doldrum days of the early 2010s. And at the core of this different, thrilling world is New Japan, its seemingly can’t mess up booking, and our new Flair and Steamboat.

NJPW Has Declared Itself a Global Promotion published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/