So what has everyone been watching lately?
I thought Extreme Rules had some great matches (that four-way might be the best one WWE has had in a loooong time?)
I watched some Joshi with friends over the weekend, All Japan Women’s from the 80s and some current STARDOM. Talking purely about “strong style” or whatever, holy shit! It’s insane how hard those women go.
I’m cuing up some NJPW Best of Super Junior tournament matches to play while I work, it sounds like there’s been a lot of good stuff so far.
You?
I’m watching Extreme Rules right now and wondering why the hell WWE are still trying to push AJ and Roman.
Do the crowd need to start chanting “We’ve stopped caring” before WWE will get it?
I am also creating a new Tier 3 Compact for Hunter the Vigil for use as antagonists in the WOD society i’m part of, which should tell you how much i’m enjoying the PPV ¬.¬
Extreme Rules was much better than I feared it would be; the only match I didn’t care for at all was the Asylum match. The others were varying degrees of good to excellent, the high points being the four way and the Ziggler/Corbin kickoff match.
I subscribed to Chikaratopia a few weeks ago, so I’ve been viewing the events from 2007, started with the first King of Trios (which I’d seen before) and this morning just finished the inaugural Rey De Voladores (as Chuck Taylor puts it, “King of the Flippity Little Boys”.)
Weekly, I watch Impact Wrestling, NXT and Lucha Underground.
This friday, Full Impact Pro Wrestling Accelerate will take place at Gods and Monsters and I’ve already got my ticket. Might watch the last event of theirs (which I attended live, too) from April, Florida Rumble 2016, in anticipation sometime this week.
I’ve never watched wrestling, but reading your game recently got me to watch Lucha Underground, which I’m loving. I’m pretty ignorant about these things, but I’m digging it.
Rebel Wulf Funny, I think the AJ/Roman feud is the best thing WWE has done since Rollins got injured. Different strokes!
Terry Willitts The Asylum match was abysmally bad. I usually shrug and go “not for me” but I think it was conceptually flawed, poorly put together and not particularly well-wrestled.
Lowell Francis Awesome! LU rules.
Lowell Francis Lucha Underground is one of my favourite things going on today. It’s one of my favourite tv shows (wrestling or otherwise) today – the production values are awesome, I love the full on embrace of the dramatics, the cut-scenes, the melodrama. It’s not olde sk00l ‘rassling, but it’s not meant to be, though a lot of fans of the older generation don’t understand that.
Nathan Paoletta I like cage matches and gimmick matches and gimmick cage matches (War Games, Elimination Chamber, even Lethal Lockdown, which the Asylum seemed like a poor knockoff of), but I just wasn’t invested in the feud or the concept and I agree it wasn’t very well-wrestled. The talent in the match should have led to a much more entertaining match, even with the other strikes against it. I walked into the match going, “Meh,” and walked out feeling it was worse than I thought it was going to be.
I too, watched extreme rules. That 4-way match had me whooping and hollering – Zayn, Owens and Cesaro in a ring is just magic.
I really dug the Women’s championship match, for a couple reasons.
1, I like submission matches.
2, I love how it was just a straight-up skilled face v. cheating heel match. Almost like they were real wrestlers! Fancy that.
3. I mark the hell out whenever anyone uses a Sharpshooter. Easy to please!
I actually really liked the way the Reigns v. Styles feud, but I can’t help but approach this from a literary analysis standpoint. I really liked how they built a credible conflict between these two guys without undermining either’s competency, making either a villain, or compromising their characters.
On top of that, it provided a platform for character development for both guys.
As a writer, and more directly, as a GM, there’s some solid gold inspiration there. Textbook job on keeping both guys strong, and having two ostensibly principled characters beat each other half to death.
Comic book writers, take note.