- 30,184
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- Joined
- Oct 15, 2000
First off, my update for @Degenerate423 - I am waiting on an item to be delivered to me. It should be to me later this week. Assuming all in on track, you will have your NTWT SS gifts by the end of next week. Again, I apologize for the delay, but consider it an early Royal Rumble gift instead.
I did not see Raw last week, but I listened to all my normal podcasts to stay up-to-date on the show. Edge and Christian hosted last week which all played into the big main event storyline of Seth Rollins forcing John Cena into allowing The Authority to return. After "THE BIGGEST SURVIVOR SERIES MAIN EVENT IN HISTORY," the stipulation of the match was upheld for a whole 40 days. Hunter and Steph will be back in power tonight, seemingly to make the lives miserable of John Cena, Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, and others. I would assume this will go on until THE VIGILANTE Sting returns to put Hunter in his place.
Tonight, we should finally get some build to The Royal Rumble which means tonight is also the unofficial start of The Road to WrestleMania. I mentioned in last week's thread, but WWE could really go 1000 different ways with this year's Mania card. With Daniel Bryan announcing his return last week and he would be entering the Royal Rumble, I don't see how he cannot win it (other than the fact that this is WWE). If Bryan does not win, WWE is just begging the crowd to turn on the match and whoever the eventual winner is, likely Roman Reigns. Even as blinded as WWE is, they have to know this and realize that the Philadelphia crowd would boo Reigns out of the building if he wins instead of Bryan.
The other major wildcard is the status of Brock Lesnar. The only things we know as of now is Brock's current contract expires with the Raw following WrestleMania. WWE does not expect him to sign a new contract before this time. The feeling is Brock will let his contract expire, and then negotiate with WWE, UFC, and Bellator to leverage the best possible deal (aka most money) from them. Because Brock is not expected to have a new contract signed with WWE, it is inevitable that he is losing the WWE Title. It is just a matter of if it will be at The Royal Rumble or WrestleMania. Despite putting the title on Brock and letting him hold the title all of these months without being on TV, I think WWE (Vince) is going to get cold feet and take the title off Brock at The Rumble. Brock getting the best of Cena three straight shows also seems unlikely which furthers leads me to think he's going over Lesnar. However, Cena getting the win over Brock is just so WWE can make their guy look strong because I Rusev immediately laying out Cena, leading to a Seth Rollins MITB cash in. With all this said, my projected WrestleMania card as of Jan 5 is:
We have an Ambulance Match between Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt in the latest WWE feud that just will not end.
Jerry Lawler will not be on Raw tonight as he was hospitalized with a bout of diverticulitis. Booker T will be joining Cole and JBL on commentary.
New Japan Pro Wrestling - Wrestle Kingdom 9 last night was an amazing show. I have never before sat through a NJPW show start to finish, and damn was I missing out. I'm not sure why I never did... time, or maybe the lack of English commentary, but having JR and Striker call last this weekend's show made it a must see show for me. It's funny how every week, it is an incredible struggle to sit through 3 hours and 15 minutes of Raw, but last night's 3 hour and 45 minute PPV flew by. The main event was 31 minutes and I wished it went another 20. Not to mention the Nakamura/Ibushi match which was only 21 minutes but is certainly an early candidate for Match of the Year. I had never seen Nakamura before, and he was incredible. Here's my quick rundown of the show:
I did not see Raw last week, but I listened to all my normal podcasts to stay up-to-date on the show. Edge and Christian hosted last week which all played into the big main event storyline of Seth Rollins forcing John Cena into allowing The Authority to return. After "THE BIGGEST SURVIVOR SERIES MAIN EVENT IN HISTORY," the stipulation of the match was upheld for a whole 40 days. Hunter and Steph will be back in power tonight, seemingly to make the lives miserable of John Cena, Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, and others. I would assume this will go on until THE VIGILANTE Sting returns to put Hunter in his place.
Tonight, we should finally get some build to The Royal Rumble which means tonight is also the unofficial start of The Road to WrestleMania. I mentioned in last week's thread, but WWE could really go 1000 different ways with this year's Mania card. With Daniel Bryan announcing his return last week and he would be entering the Royal Rumble, I don't see how he cannot win it (other than the fact that this is WWE). If Bryan does not win, WWE is just begging the crowd to turn on the match and whoever the eventual winner is, likely Roman Reigns. Even as blinded as WWE is, they have to know this and realize that the Philadelphia crowd would boo Reigns out of the building if he wins instead of Bryan.
The other major wildcard is the status of Brock Lesnar. The only things we know as of now is Brock's current contract expires with the Raw following WrestleMania. WWE does not expect him to sign a new contract before this time. The feeling is Brock will let his contract expire, and then negotiate with WWE, UFC, and Bellator to leverage the best possible deal (aka most money) from them. Because Brock is not expected to have a new contract signed with WWE, it is inevitable that he is losing the WWE Title. It is just a matter of if it will be at The Royal Rumble or WrestleMania. Despite putting the title on Brock and letting him hold the title all of these months without being on TV, I think WWE (Vince) is going to get cold feet and take the title off Brock at The Rumble. Brock getting the best of Cena three straight shows also seems unlikely which furthers leads me to think he's going over Lesnar. However, Cena getting the win over Brock is just so WWE can make their guy look strong because I Rusev immediately laying out Cena, leading to a Seth Rollins MITB cash in. With all this said, my projected WrestleMania card as of Jan 5 is:
- Seth Rollins (c) v Daniel Bryan - WWE Title
- Brock Lesnar v Roman Reigns
- John Cena v Rusev
- HHH v Sting
- Randy Orton v Bray Wyatt (as I said, Bray is the only "top" heel available for Orton)
- Dolph Ziggler (c) v Cesaro - IC Title
- Dean Ambrose v Barrett
We have an Ambulance Match between Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt in the latest WWE feud that just will not end.
Jerry Lawler will not be on Raw tonight as he was hospitalized with a bout of diverticulitis. Booker T will be joining Cole and JBL on commentary.
New Japan Pro Wrestling - Wrestle Kingdom 9 last night was an amazing show. I have never before sat through a NJPW show start to finish, and damn was I missing out. I'm not sure why I never did... time, or maybe the lack of English commentary, but having JR and Striker call last this weekend's show made it a must see show for me. It's funny how every week, it is an incredible struggle to sit through 3 hours and 15 minutes of Raw, but last night's 3 hour and 45 minute PPV flew by. The main event was 31 minutes and I wished it went another 20. Not to mention the Nakamura/Ibushi match which was only 21 minutes but is certainly an early candidate for Match of the Year. I had never seen Nakamura before, and he was incredible. Here's my quick rundown of the show:
- reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly) (c) defeated Forever Hooligans (Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero), Time Splitters (Alex Shelley and Kushida) and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) - Four-way tag team match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship - An awesome opener. I have limited experience with these four teams, but you know what you're going to get. A ton of spots that make for a really fun, really cool match. One of my favorite matches of the show, and that's saying a lot.
- Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima and Tomoaki Honma defeated Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Jeff Jarrett and Yujiro Takahashi) (with Karen Jarrett, Mao and Scott D'Amore) - The story here was Honma finally getting the win with his diving headbutt. Match wasn't much but was ok.
- Mikey Nicholls, Naomichi Marufuji, Shane Haste and Toru Yano defeated Suzukigun (Davey Boy Smith, Jr., Lance Archer, Shelton X Benjamin and Takashi Iizuka) - Yano brought in three outsiders from NOAH to face the heel team. The match only got 5 minutes and was realy there to give a quick spotlight to Nicholls and Haste.
- Minoru Suzuki defeated Kazushi Sakuraba - This was fought basically under MMA rules. When I heard this, I was a little worried going in, but the match was awesome. It was only 9 minutes, but Sakuraba injured Suzuki's arm with a kimura. Suzuki wouldn't quit and eventually choked Sakuraba out with a rear naked. The story of the match was great and both guys worked it perfectly.
- Togi Makabe defeated Tomohiro Ishii (c) - Singles match for the NEVER Openweight Championship - I cannot say enough of this match. These guys beat the living hell out of each other. The story was Ishii has had an injured shoulder since August but has not taken any time off. Makabe worked over the shoulder. Makabe won with a top rope knee drop to the injured shoulder. Again, when I say these guys beat the hell out of each other, my God. Top 3 match on the show.
- Kenny Omega (with Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) defeated Ryusuke Taguchi (c) - Singles match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship - These guys worked a good match, but coming right after Makabe and Ishii, it fell a little flat for me. Omega won with a really cool finisher that he calls the One Winged Angel.
- Meiyu Tag (Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata) defeated Bullet Club (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) (c) (with Amber O'Neal and Tama Tonga) - Tag team match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship - A very good tag match. It was amazing seeing Gallows here compared to his time in WWE and TNA. Goto and Shibata were put over as lifelong friends that finally won the big titles.
- A.J. Styles defeated Tetsuya Naito - The story was the Styles Clash is the most deadly move in the world. AJ tried to use it immediately. They both worked a very good match. Probably the 5th best match on the card for me. If this was WWE, that would sound terrible. But here, that is still an excellent match. Naito went for a top rope hurracanrana, but AJ caught him and hit a Styles Clash off the middle rope to get the win.
- Shinsuke Nakamura (c) defeated Kota Ibushi - Singles match for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship - This match was so freaking awesome. Nakamura has more charisma than the entire WWE roster combined. His ring entrance was great. He's known as the King of Strong Style and came out dressed as a very flamboyant king. The two beat the hell out of each other, but in a different way than Makabe and Ishii. Ibushi used many of Nakamura's signature moves, but in the end, Nakamura got the best of him, hit the Boma Ye Knee to get the win. Nakamura put over Ibushi after the match, and JR and Striker put over both guys really strong, especially Nakamura.
- Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) defeated Kazuchika Okada (with Gedo) - Singles match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship - These two also had a match of the year candidate but it was a very different match from the previous match. They went 31 minutes with many near falls, including kicking out of each of their finishers, the High Fly Flow and Rain Maker which is very uncommon in New Japan. Tanahashi hit a crazy High Fly Flow off the top rope over the ringside barricade onto Okada. 29 minutes into the match, Okada hit maybe the most beautiful dropkick I've ever seen. If you think Randy Orton throws a nice dropkick, you have to see Okada. The finish saw Tanahashi used a series of Dragonscrew Legwhips followed by the three High Fly Flows to get the pin. Okada left the ring literally in tears, heartbroken about losing such a big match. This was so damn refreshing to see, instead of when your top guy loses a big match, he laughs it off and says "eh whatever, titles come and titles go". Tanahashi did a long celebration in the ring to end the show. JR said that Tanahashi was a once in a century talent that took New Japan to levels they had not been to in decades, and Okada (who is only 27) is the next generation and will take New Japan to even greater heights.
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