Don Callis told a story on his podcast recently about Kawato being invited to spar with Minoru Suzuki. Thus Kevin Kelly and Don Callis and presumably several other concerned spectators witnessed Suzuki tap this kid out several times over the course of 45 minutes without even losing his breath. At the start the next opening tag match Kawato comes out of the gate hot, goes after Liger hard and gets over huge with the crowd. After the show he has the energy to help break down the ring and do everything else expected of trainees. All of this was apparently because Suzuki told him that if he didn't go in hard on Liger and get himself over the next training session would be worse.
I hope Kawato spends his entire career being as intense as possible out of fear that Minoru Suzuki will come after him if he doesn't.
PwnanObrien on
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CuvisTheConquerorThey always say "yee haw" but they never ask "haw yee?" Registered Userregular
Braun Strowman might just be the most exciting big man since The Undertaker was in his prime.
I feel like it was exactly what I expected. the only people who will react negatively are people who 1) take the perspective of someone at the manhattan center which, fine, but I wasn't there and didn't spend money so I see no reason to complain with them and 2) people who expected something other than exactly what WWE told them they were getting
I feel like it was exactly what I expected. the only people who will react negatively are people who 1) take the perspective of someone at the manhattan center which, fine, but I wasn't there and didn't spend money so I see no reason to complain with them and 2) people who expected something other than exactly what WWE told them they were getting
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I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU!!!
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LasbrookIt takes a lot to make a stewWhen it comes to me and youRegistered Userregular
As someone who had no frame of reference for a lot of what was going on I still thought it was fun, I liked the looser style vs. how structured a normal episode of raw is.
VariableMouth CongressStroke Me Lady FameRegistered Userregular
sorry for assuming otherwise I just didn't get that sense from anyone in this thread. but what I said re: the manhattan center stands. I'm sure some folks who were there are upset but I personally have no reason to judge the show based on that.
Looking at 411Mania, their Raw reviewer Larry Csonka absolutely hated it.
I’ll watch it eventually.
I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU!!!
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PwnanObrienHe's right, life sucks.Registered Userregular
May
Fuck you! It's May! The month of heels!
Wrestling Dontaku was the typical bland fucking amazing show by New Japan's standards in 2017. Sure 70% of the show being tag matches felt a bit repetitive but part of that was a decent IWGP Heavyweight Tag Triple Threat where War Machine defended against Guerrillas of Destiny and Tencozy. It's great because there's zero chance you can hear them call spots over all the swearing. There was also a title change as Bushi, Evil and Sanada won back the NEVER 6-Man titles. For my money though the real highlight of the show was Kenny Omega and Tomohiro Ishii having a secret Match of the Year contender consisting of brutal V-Triggers, Ishii lariats and Kenny Omega diving off the top rope and over a barricade into the first row. That was a bit scary actually as Ishii was actually in the press area slightly in front of the first row. This was easily the match of the night and proof that The One Winged Angel is a match ender even if Kenny's opponent has a triple reinforced neck. It was a bit of a step down then for Okada to have to drag another three star performance out of Fale in the main event. It was the typical beast slaying affair we've seen from the two in the past in which Fale looked like a monster and Okada sold well enough to keep it interesting. The show concluded with a showdown between Okada and Omega which made it obvious the whole night was booked to set up a rematch, not that anybody minded.
NXT rolled into Chicago's Allstate Arena in front of “we're not telling you how many because it would make Backlash look bad” fans on May 20th. This marked the third year anniversary of TakeOver, traditionally leather is the third anniversary gift so Roderick Strong and Eric Young leathered the shit out of each other in the opening contest with Strong hitting the End of Heartache for the win. It was the right conclusion to a feud based on the idea that Roderick Strong is capable of being interesting if you let him talk about himself and Eric Young is interesting if you let him gargle molten rocks or whatever he does during promos.
Nice young man Tyler Bate had been defending his championship against the likes of Joseph Conners and Mark Andrews but the first real nice young babyface vs snarling dickhead match of the title's history was set for TakeOver Chicago with Pete Dunne as the challenger. It was a match called by the UK announce team meaning the voice of Europe Jim Ross made an appearance. The fifteen minute match was an absolute sprint to pack in as much as possible from start to finish. Bate and Dunne started by showing the world how evolved the British style had become in recent years with technical wrestling and good old school graps. Catch as catch can. Mat wars. Etc. Then gutter dweller Dunne suckered Bate into going outside of the ring where the match transformed into a brawl. The two Brits punched each other in the head so much John Douglas Marquess of Queensberry started to commission new rules for pro wrestling from beyond the grave. The match went into a fantastic finishing sequence with the two men countering each other's finishers and Bate going for a trio of high spots only to be forearmed in the jaw on a suicide dive attempt and dragged back into the ring where Dunne hit the Bitter End. It was quite arguably not only the best match of the night but the best match WWE had in 2017.
Ruby Riot and Nikki Cross tried to dethrone Asuka in a triple threat for the NXT Women's Championship. Key word tried. Hideo Itami had his best match in a long while taking on Bobby Roode for the NXT Championship. It was a hard hitting match Roode only barely escaped that left Hideo embittered and aggressive. That wasn't the main event though as for the first time a match for the NXT Tag Team Championship Titles headlined a TakeOver. The Authors of Pain defended their belts against DIY in a ladder match. The match featured every ladder spot you could think of and several new ones previously undiscovered by ladder scientists. There were dives from ladders, splashes through ladders, dives through giant ladders, even a spot where Gargano shoved Ciampa out of the way of being internally decapitated by a ladder like he was taking a bullet for him. Still all of that wasn't enough to stop the Authors of Pain from pulling Gargano and Ciampa off the belts and hitting a Supercollider before retrieving the titles. Ciampa wasn't exactly understanding about it.
Since DIY's inception fans have been waiting for the Sicilian Psychopath to finally snap and attack the wide eyed innocent one. Gargano would probably be stood there looking around at the crowd smiling like and idiot when Ciampa did it. Yet it was still shocking when exactly that thing happened. As the show started to go off the air Ciampa whipped his now former tag partner into the sharp steel edge of the entrance before dropping him off the stage through some conveniently placed production tables. The whole thing was a such an upsetting finish after such an amazing match at the end of such an amazing show that everybody seemingly forgot Tommaso Ciampa was working the night with a ruptured knee ligament. In fact the surgery to repair his injury would put him out of action until sometime well into the next year. Get well soon Ciampa you piece of shit.
WWE Backlash is here and Shinsuke Nakamura can't legally be considered part of the main roster until he's beaten Dolph Ziggler in a match that should be better than it was. Then it was time for the Usos to defend their Tag Team Championships against Breezango, a janitor and an elderly woman in a two on four handicap match. The show also featured some matches between Sami Zayn and Baron Corbin and a six woman tag that saw Natalya Tamina and Carmella defeat Becky Lynch, Charlotte and Naomi. The face of America Kevin Owens retained his United States Championship trapping AJ Styles' leg in a large rectangular hole larger than his leg. Luke Harper defeated Erick Rowan with a discuss clothesline and at this point the show was really starting to feel like it might have been a particularly slow episode of Smackdown.
As the main event of the show drew near worry started to set in. Too little had happened even for a B show and there were rumors that Jinder Mahal was being groomed to be the next champion ever since people noticed he was starting to look more veiny than a Todd McFarlance sculpture of a Ninja Turtle. Maybe more of a toad given all the back acne.
A Randy Orton match where Randy Orton isn't motivated usually feels slow. A match where babyface Randy Orton has to put over established loser Jinder Mahal felt so slow scientists began remeasuring what speed the universe was expanding. There were a few good spots where Randy got to have fun with The Singh Brothers ragdoll physics. That only served as a distraction though allowing Jinder Mahal to hit the Khallas and become the 50th ever and 50th best WWE Champion.
Over on RAW Elias Sampson finally made his in-ring debut despite having drifted through backstage segments as early as March. Sampson was known in NXT mostly for being treated like a nuisance not to be taken seriously by everybody especially fellow heel Corey Graves. Elias lost so much he actually lost the drifter moniker. All of this despite the fact that he looks like somebody shrank Randy Savage in the wash. Give it seven years and he might be holding the WWE Championship. Can't be the worst to ever have the title.
Looking at 411Mania, their Raw reviewer Larry Csonka absolutely hated it.
I’ll watch it eventually.
It was exactly what it said on the tin - whole bunch of nostalgia and a little bit of wrestling. Pretty much how all the special celebration shows go. Not sure what else would be expected here. Felt like a fun show to me.
Posts
Wish he got to talk more though
hey yo?
REPEAST
I AM LOSING MY FUCKIGN MIND
Where is Brock and co?
YOU FUCKS WILL WATCH 6 HOURS OF RAW AND LIKE IT!!!!!!!!!!!
Whomst
Rep East? Re Peast? Repeas T?
Overstuffed show.
Good luck, Kawato!
I mean I wasn't exactly expecting any match of the year contenders tonight...why have wrestling on a show celebrating 25 years of RAW?
Don Callis told a story on his podcast recently about Kawato being invited to spar with Minoru Suzuki. Thus Kevin Kelly and Don Callis and presumably several other concerned spectators witnessed Suzuki tap this kid out several times over the course of 45 minutes without even losing his breath. At the start the next opening tag match Kawato comes out of the gate hot, goes after Liger hard and gets over huge with the crowd. After the show he has the energy to help break down the ring and do everything else expected of trainees. All of this was apparently because Suzuki told him that if he didn't go in hard on Liger and get himself over the next training session would be worse.
I hope Kawato spends his entire career being as intense as possible out of fear that Minoru Suzuki will come after him if he doesn't.
He mixes that with the excitement I got from Stone Cold
Tumblr | Twitter PSN: misterdapper Av by Satellite_09
can you explaaaaaaain
what reviews or reactions are you reading?
I feel like it was exactly what I expected. the only people who will react negatively are people who 1) take the perspective of someone at the manhattan center which, fine, but I wasn't there and didn't spend money so I see no reason to complain with them and 2) people who expected something other than exactly what WWE told them they were getting
My dude I do not know how you could possibly have come to this conclusion from the last four pages
I’m reading some pretty harsh comments on it. Mostly dealing with the Manhatten Center stuff.
Comments here
Steam
I’ll watch it eventually.
Fuck you! It's May! The month of heels!
Wrestling Dontaku was the typical bland fucking amazing show by New Japan's standards in 2017. Sure 70% of the show being tag matches felt a bit repetitive but part of that was a decent IWGP Heavyweight Tag Triple Threat where War Machine defended against Guerrillas of Destiny and Tencozy. It's great because there's zero chance you can hear them call spots over all the swearing. There was also a title change as Bushi, Evil and Sanada won back the NEVER 6-Man titles. For my money though the real highlight of the show was Kenny Omega and Tomohiro Ishii having a secret Match of the Year contender consisting of brutal V-Triggers, Ishii lariats and Kenny Omega diving off the top rope and over a barricade into the first row. That was a bit scary actually as Ishii was actually in the press area slightly in front of the first row. This was easily the match of the night and proof that The One Winged Angel is a match ender even if Kenny's opponent has a triple reinforced neck. It was a bit of a step down then for Okada to have to drag another three star performance out of Fale in the main event. It was the typical beast slaying affair we've seen from the two in the past in which Fale looked like a monster and Okada sold well enough to keep it interesting. The show concluded with a showdown between Okada and Omega which made it obvious the whole night was booked to set up a rematch, not that anybody minded.
NXT rolled into Chicago's Allstate Arena in front of “we're not telling you how many because it would make Backlash look bad” fans on May 20th. This marked the third year anniversary of TakeOver, traditionally leather is the third anniversary gift so Roderick Strong and Eric Young leathered the shit out of each other in the opening contest with Strong hitting the End of Heartache for the win. It was the right conclusion to a feud based on the idea that Roderick Strong is capable of being interesting if you let him talk about himself and Eric Young is interesting if you let him gargle molten rocks or whatever he does during promos.
Nice young man Tyler Bate had been defending his championship against the likes of Joseph Conners and Mark Andrews but the first real nice young babyface vs snarling dickhead match of the title's history was set for TakeOver Chicago with Pete Dunne as the challenger. It was a match called by the UK announce team meaning the voice of Europe Jim Ross made an appearance. The fifteen minute match was an absolute sprint to pack in as much as possible from start to finish. Bate and Dunne started by showing the world how evolved the British style had become in recent years with technical wrestling and good old school graps. Catch as catch can. Mat wars. Etc. Then gutter dweller Dunne suckered Bate into going outside of the ring where the match transformed into a brawl. The two Brits punched each other in the head so much John Douglas Marquess of Queensberry started to commission new rules for pro wrestling from beyond the grave. The match went into a fantastic finishing sequence with the two men countering each other's finishers and Bate going for a trio of high spots only to be forearmed in the jaw on a suicide dive attempt and dragged back into the ring where Dunne hit the Bitter End. It was quite arguably not only the best match of the night but the best match WWE had in 2017.
Ruby Riot and Nikki Cross tried to dethrone Asuka in a triple threat for the NXT Women's Championship. Key word tried. Hideo Itami had his best match in a long while taking on Bobby Roode for the NXT Championship. It was a hard hitting match Roode only barely escaped that left Hideo embittered and aggressive. That wasn't the main event though as for the first time a match for the NXT Tag Team Championship Titles headlined a TakeOver. The Authors of Pain defended their belts against DIY in a ladder match. The match featured every ladder spot you could think of and several new ones previously undiscovered by ladder scientists. There were dives from ladders, splashes through ladders, dives through giant ladders, even a spot where Gargano shoved Ciampa out of the way of being internally decapitated by a ladder like he was taking a bullet for him. Still all of that wasn't enough to stop the Authors of Pain from pulling Gargano and Ciampa off the belts and hitting a Supercollider before retrieving the titles. Ciampa wasn't exactly understanding about it.
Since DIY's inception fans have been waiting for the Sicilian Psychopath to finally snap and attack the wide eyed innocent one. Gargano would probably be stood there looking around at the crowd smiling like and idiot when Ciampa did it. Yet it was still shocking when exactly that thing happened. As the show started to go off the air Ciampa whipped his now former tag partner into the sharp steel edge of the entrance before dropping him off the stage through some conveniently placed production tables. The whole thing was a such an upsetting finish after such an amazing match at the end of such an amazing show that everybody seemingly forgot Tommaso Ciampa was working the night with a ruptured knee ligament. In fact the surgery to repair his injury would put him out of action until sometime well into the next year. Get well soon Ciampa you piece of shit.
WWE Backlash is here and Shinsuke Nakamura can't legally be considered part of the main roster until he's beaten Dolph Ziggler in a match that should be better than it was. Then it was time for the Usos to defend their Tag Team Championships against Breezango, a janitor and an elderly woman in a two on four handicap match. The show also featured some matches between Sami Zayn and Baron Corbin and a six woman tag that saw Natalya Tamina and Carmella defeat Becky Lynch, Charlotte and Naomi. The face of America Kevin Owens retained his United States Championship trapping AJ Styles' leg in a large rectangular hole larger than his leg. Luke Harper defeated Erick Rowan with a discuss clothesline and at this point the show was really starting to feel like it might have been a particularly slow episode of Smackdown.
As the main event of the show drew near worry started to set in. Too little had happened even for a B show and there were rumors that Jinder Mahal was being groomed to be the next champion ever since people noticed he was starting to look more veiny than a Todd McFarlance sculpture of a Ninja Turtle. Maybe more of a toad given all the back acne.
A Randy Orton match where Randy Orton isn't motivated usually feels slow. A match where babyface Randy Orton has to put over established loser Jinder Mahal felt so slow scientists began remeasuring what speed the universe was expanding. There were a few good spots where Randy got to have fun with The Singh Brothers ragdoll physics. That only served as a distraction though allowing Jinder Mahal to hit the Khallas and become the 50th ever and 50th best WWE Champion.
Over on RAW Elias Sampson finally made his in-ring debut despite having drifted through backstage segments as early as March. Sampson was known in NXT mostly for being treated like a nuisance not to be taken seriously by everybody especially fellow heel Corey Graves. Elias lost so much he actually lost the drifter moniker. All of this despite the fact that he looks like somebody shrank Randy Savage in the wash. Give it seven years and he might be holding the WWE Championship. Can't be the worst to ever have the title.
It was exactly what it said on the tin - whole bunch of nostalgia and a little bit of wrestling. Pretty much how all the special celebration shows go. Not sure what else would be expected here. Felt like a fun show to me.