January Wrasslin |OT| Every Mark For Himself
- Thread starter Mr. Sam
- Start date
- Status
cartoon_soldier
Member
Come on Jericho!
I'll be so pissed if it's Taker or someone else not named Jericho
It is Taker. Written in the stars
Realistically it's gonna be everyone posting random wrestler at the airport photos like they were doing before the Rumble last year iirc.
Which is both awesome and hilarious
Well than at least give him a dubstep remix of his entrance theme, vintage WWE network
Now that would be a surprise.
BillRiccio
Member
Happy New Year's Wrassle Gaf!!!!
So If you guys could remove a wrestler from wrestling history who would it be and why?
I choose Owen Hart. He gets to live a normal life which is nice. Austin won't break his neck which means a longer in ring career and possibly one off matches now. Bret would also probably have come back to the E sooner since his brother didn't die under Vince's watch.
So If you guys could remove a wrestler from wrestling history who would it be and why?
I choose Owen Hart. He gets to live a normal life which is nice. Austin won't break his neck which means a longer in ring career and possibly one off matches now. Bret would also probably have come back to the E sooner since his brother didn't die under Vince's watch.
BoboBrazil
Member
oh shiiiiiii
Arrowgigantic
Member
There's a guy named Rickard Gillberg who likes to take pictures at airports, so my image search is shot.
looool winning race to the case has deluded you old man
Morgadeth
Member
I've seen that glitch outside the ring but damn that's awesome.
What you don't know is G-Fex II is making his debut soon. And Rumor is Super G-Fex is currently in training for a mid year debut also. 6 man tag team champs have no chance.,No chance in hell of retaining.
Let's get real here.
somehow he will get lost and will miss the January 2nd show.
TNA's taping looks like it's going to bring the star power.
Nah, the jet is Flairs and one Limo is for Hogan and Bishoff and the other is for Scott Steiner.
British Monsoon
Member
Rather than going through the hassle of re-watching my favourite matches from the year and trying to decide which is best, I'm just going to list all the things I thought that wrestling got right in 2011 - lengthy post incoming;
. Summer of Punk II (sort of) - what a goddamn month that was. It's undeniable at just how important the Money in the Bank PPV was, not just for the Cena vs Punk match, but for the aftermath which saw a WWE storyline break into outside news for the first time in years. However, it's amazing how quickly the buzz disappeared as focused shifted from Punk, the self-styled messiah of wrestling, the antichrist of WWE, to that doofus son-in-law Triple H, effectively confirming to the world outside of the WWE Universe that this was all another dumb wrestling work, and not a controversial real-life incident between the maniacal Vince McMahon and his erstwhile employee CM Punk.
. The rise of Eddie Edwards - I first noticed it back in January, as Edwards competed against Kotaro Suzuki for the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title; Eddie Edwards was ready to step out of the shadow of his tag team partner, Davey Richards, and he proved it in a big-way as he got to main event a NOAH show at Korakuen Hall. Despite being a relative unknown to the NOAH crowd, over his month-long tour he ingratiated himself to the fans and by the eve of his title match against Suzuki he actually managed to elicit sympathy and excitement from the Japanese audience, something many gaijin wrestlers can only dream of. Fast forward to March at 'Manhattan Mayhem IV' and Edwards shocked the wrestling world when he captured the ROH World Heavyweight Title from Roderick Strong, which led into one of the best builds for any angle this year...
. Edwards vs Richards II - the story was simple; here were two tag team partners, best friends, brothers, and although everyone expected Davey Richards to become the next ROH World Champ, it was Eddie Edwards who dethroned Roderick Strong and no-one was happier for Eddie than his tag partner Davey Richards. However, while Richards was content to sit back and let Eddie bask in the spot-light, Edwards felt he needed to prove himself against Davey, that he wouldn't be a proper champion until he'd beaten his own partner for the gold. And it was that simple set-up that led to the best ROH match of the year; Eddie Edwards defending the ROH World Heavyweight Championship against Davey Richards at 'Best in the World 2011'.
. CHIKARA crowning their Grand Champion - a 10 month build towards CHIKARA's first ever iPPV 'High Noon', 7 months of round robin tournament matches to decide who gets to compete for the belt and one epic, entertaining and emotional match between 'Lightning' Mike Quackenbush and the 'War King' Eddie Kingston. Not only was the match goddamn amazing, but it was the emphasis CHIKARA put on how important the match and the belt was that made it feel like a really special night on one of the best PPVs of the year.
. Best of the Super Juniors - NJPW proved why they're simply the best wrestling promotion in the world with the Super Juniors tournament, which was held over 10 days back in May/April and featured SEVENTY FIVE matches, many of which were just plain awesome, too many to list infact.
. G1 Climax 2011 - further cementing the fact that NJPW is just simply awesome, the annual G1 Climax tournament rolled on in August over 10 days with a crazy NINETY ONE matches. In the end, it came down to two men; Shinsuke Nakamura, former IWGP champion and leader of CHAOS, and Tetsuya Naito, the break-out star of New Japan in 2011.
. WWE finally shifts focus - for the past month or so WWE has been rather uncharacteristically forward thinking in it's approach to the main event scene with all the top WWE gold held by wrestlers who are undeniably an important part of the companies future; CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Zack Ryder & Cody Rhodes. Sure, one bad rating might be all it takes to restore the status quo, but for now let's just be thankful for a month or two without John Cena & Randy Orton at the helm.
. Tanahashi equals Nagata's IWGP record - at Wrestle Kingdom V Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Satoshi Kojima to become the new IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Despite the misgivings many foreign fans have over Tanahashi's ability and with him beeing booked so strongly, he's insanely over and an undeniably great performer who this year managed to equal Yuji Nagata's record of 10 defences of the IWGP Heavyweight Title. As Tanahashi heads into Wrestle Kingdom VI to face Minoro Suzuki, can he break that record and make it to 11 defences?
. Dynamic Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament - in March PWG held their annual DDT4 Tag Team Tournament and, as usual, it featured some of the best tag team matches of the year; The American Wolves vs RockNES Monsters, Nightmare Violence Connection (Steen & Tozawa) vs The Briscoe Brothers, The Young Bucks vs The American Wolves & the final; The Young Bucks vs Nightmare Violence Connection.
. Jun Akiyama captures the grandest prize in puroresu - after 19 years since debuting for All Japan, Jun Akiyama, now a NOAH mainstay and multiple GHC title holder, returned as an outsider to All Japan to face Suwama for the AJPW Triple Crown Championship. Suwama had a fantastic year himself, with successful defences against Taiyo Kea, KENSO, Yuji Nagata & Seiya Sanada before he faced Jun Akiyama in October, but he couldn't stand up to the 19 year veteran and succumbed to the Sterness Dust (a wrist-clutch Death Valley Driver) and with that Akiyama had finally captured the Triple Crown, the title he was denied by the game-changing split in 2001 that saw Mitsuhara Misawa leave AJPW and form NOAH.
. Akira Tozawa - being a Dragon Gate contracted wrestler, you'd expect Tozawa to have been utilised best in Dragon Gate USA, but it was infact in PWG that he made his mark over the past year or so and improved exponentially, before returning to Japan and claiming his place as one of the top players of Dragon Gate. Through singles matches against the likes of Low Ki & Chris Hero to tagging with Kevin Steen against teams like The Kings of Wrestling, 'Mr High Tension' Akira Tozawa endeared himself to the fans and got over in a huge way, so much so that when he returned to Japan it felt like something was missing from PWG, although thankfully one man stepped up to fill the gap...
. 'Mr Wrestling' Kevin Steen - undoubtedly the MVP of PWG, Kevin Steen worked his ass off in 2011 and put on a ridiculous number of top quality matches, starting with his match against Chris Hero back in January, right up to teaming with the returning Super Dragon against The Young Bucks at FEAR this past December. He wrestled an amazing 16 times on just 8 shows, missing only one PWG event this year and in the process he put on some amazing matches; Steen vs Willie Mack, Steen vs PAC, Steen vs Fit Finlay, Steen vs Eddie Edwards, Steen vs Richards and Steen vs El Generico in an epic ladder match for the PWG World Championship. Meanwhile, after spending 2010 embroidled in a bitter war against his former tag team partner El Generico, Steen was banished from ROH for good, but returned at ROH's 'Best in the World 2011' to spark off one of the best angles of the year as he wreaked havoc in ROH, infuriating Jim Cornette into sanctioning a match against Steve Corino at Final Battle which saw Steen brutalise his former mentor and regain his position in ROH, vowing to turn ROH on it's head in 2012 and capture the ROH World Title from Davey Richards.
. Strong BJ invades AJPW - Big Japan isn't ALL about light tubes and barbed wire, it's also about huge dudes like Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi who this year invaded All Japan to take on Seiya Sanada & Manabu Soya for the All Asia Tag Team Titles. The two teams would face a total of 5 times this year, each match a perfect example of heavyweight tag team action done properly. The first two encounters were 30 minute time limit draws, but the 3rd encounter saw the BJW duo capture the All Asia Tag Titles which they held for 3 months until Sanada & Soya reclaimed them, only to lose them again 4 months later as Sekimoto & Okabayashi rounded out an excellent year as the All Asia tag champs.
. CHIKARA gets women's wrestling right - be it booking Sara Del Rey as a legitimate title contender, bringing in top women's wrestling stars like Kana, Madison Eagles, Tsukasa Fujimoto, Makoto & Portia Perez, or hosting the 3-night celebration of Japanese wrestling legends past and present, JoshiMania, featuring names like Ayako Hamada, Aja Kong, Manami Toyota & Mayumi Ozaki, CHIKARA have firmly shown that women's wrestling is an important and integral part of their promotion and frankly, they've done it better than any other promotion in the US not named SHIMMER.
. Somebody gonna get their ass kicked - somebody gonna get their wig split. Rewind a year or two and there's no way anyone then would believe that Mark Henry, you know, Sexual Chocolate, MVP's tag partner, would be a WWE champion in 2011, and not only that; but the BEST WWE champion of 2011. And I'll be the first to admit that I would have been one of those people. But Mark's heel turn and subsequent title run is one of the few things WWE got VERY right this year, a great change in character for Henry that saw him cut some excellent promos and a perfect example of how a monster heel should be booked.
. Kojima & Tenzan celebrate 20 years - 2011 marked the 20th anniversary of both Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima's 20th Anniversary in wrestling and NJPW honoured two of the biggest stars of puroresu by giving them their own anniversary shows. However, the real treat was seeing Tenzan & Kojima reuinite as a tag team which will go on to face Bad Intentions for the IWGP Tag Team Championship at Wrestle Kingdom VI.
. Super Dragon returns - at Steen Wolf in October, Steen attempted to defend his PWG World Championship in a brutal ladder match against El Generico, but due to interference from The Young Bucks he ultimately lost the title. As he lay battered and beaten after the match, The Bucks returned once more to deal more damage to Steen, but then the lights went out and when they came back on the Reseda crowd lost. their. shit. Why? Super fucking Dragon, that's why, standing in the middle on the ring, he administered a brutal Curb Stomp to Matt Jackson and then hit Nick with the Psycho Driver. For the first time in 2 years or so, Super Dragon was back in the promotion he helped start, and at FEAR he and Steen took on The Young Bucks in, what by all accounts was, an excellent tag match (can't wait to get my hands on the DVD!).
. CHIKARA honours British wrestling legends - at the CHIKARAsaurus Rex shows CHIKARA brought in two of the best proponents of the British catch-as-catch-can wrestling style, Johnny Saint & Johnny Kidd. Despite Saint being 70 years old and Kidd being 56, they both put on a hell of a show on Night 1, wrestling a classic World of Sports rules match that stands toe to toe with any other technical wrestling match this year, while on Night 2 Saint teamed with Mike Quackenbush and Kidd teamed with Colt Cabana to put on an epic tag match. CHIKARA deserve praise for exposing a new generation of fans to these highly talented and technical wrestlers.
. Yuji Nagata wins Champion's Carnival & New Japan Cup - another record breaking year for Yuji Nagata as the veteran becomes the first person to win both the NJPW New Japan Cup and the AJPW Champion's Carnival in the same year.
. Takashi Sugiura's record-breaking title reign - making an unprecedented 14 defences of the GHC Heavyweight Title, Takashi Sugiura saw off pretty much every wrestler in NOAH and seemed nigh-on unbeatable until Go Shiozaki finally capture the title in August.
. Bad Intentions dominate NOAH & NJPW - Takayama & Sano had held the GHC Tag Team Titles seemingly forever, no one in NOAH could defeat them, so it fell to two gaijin NJPW wrestlers at the Dominion PPV to dethrone them; Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson, Bad Intentions, who successfully defeated Sano & Takayama to become both GHC & IWGP Tag Team Champions.
. King of Trios & The 1-2-3 Kid - CHIKARA's King of Trios is always one of the highlights of the year, but 2011 more so than ever as CHIKARA brought in some of the best names from overseas and gave Sean Waltman a chance for redemption as he competed once more as the 1-2-3 Kid. There were so many great matches across all 3 nights it would be tough to list them all, but matches like Mike Quackenbush, Jigsaw & Manami Toyota vs Team Michinoku Pro (Great Sasuke, Jinsei Shinzaki & Dick Togo) and the Rey des Voladores final between El Generico & The 1-2-3- Kid, stand out as some of the best of the year.
. Yamato vs Sato - this past November DDT's Hikaru Sato came to All Japan to take on Hiroshi Yamato in an excellente best of 3 match series. Both Yamato & Sato are impressive young wrestlers, but for many, myself included, this series was the catalyst that made the wider wrestling world take notice of their talents.
. SMASH crowns it's champions - over the course of 2011 Tajiri's SMASH promotion held title tournaments to crown the SMASH Heavyweight Champion and the SMASH Divas Champion, yet just a month after Starbuck became the SMASH Champion and Kana became the SMASH Divas Champion, both wrestlers had lost the title to outsiders; Dave Finlay and Tomoka Nakagawa, and so, much to Tajiri's chagrin, 2012 begins with SMASH holding no control over their champions.
. Daichi Hashimoto debuts - Shinya Hashimoto, a legendary figure in puroresu, died in 2005, and now six years later ZERO1, the promotion Hashimoto helped found, brought Shinya's son Daichi Hashimoto into the world of wrestling. While still very green and opposite to his father in size and style, Daichi has had a great year wrestling some of the true greats of puroresu including Masahiro Chono, Keiji Mutoh & Yoshihiro Takayama, and he's sure to have a great future ahead of him for ZERO1.
. All Together - in late August NJPW, AJPW & NOAH got together to host the biggest co-promotional show in years to raise money for the earthquake/tsunami relif effort. While many of the matches couldn't be considered classics, it was the spectacle of the event that was important, with 17,000 fans turning up to see once in a lifetime match-ups, including the first ever teaming of Keiji Mutoh & Kenta Kobashi.
. BattlARTS bows out in style - 15 years after their formation, Yuki Ishikawa's cult shoot-style promotion BattlARTS closed it's doors for the final time. Despite gaining in popularity in the late 90's, MMA's rise effectively stole away BattlARTS fanbase and the promotion was forced to close in face of dwindling interest. Unfortunately this also prompted Munenori Sawa, one of the last BattlARTS students, to retire. However, in November BattlARTS bowed out in style with a fantatic final show that saw Keita Yano take on the final BattlARTS student Kenji Takeshima, the hard-hitting Kana facing Aki Shizuki, the return ex-BattlARTS students Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Tanaka, Munenori Sawa taking on Manabu Suruga and Yuki Ishikawa facing his old rival and FUTEN promoter Daisuke Ikeda.
. Summer of Punk II (sort of) - what a goddamn month that was. It's undeniable at just how important the Money in the Bank PPV was, not just for the Cena vs Punk match, but for the aftermath which saw a WWE storyline break into outside news for the first time in years. However, it's amazing how quickly the buzz disappeared as focused shifted from Punk, the self-styled messiah of wrestling, the antichrist of WWE, to that doofus son-in-law Triple H, effectively confirming to the world outside of the WWE Universe that this was all another dumb wrestling work, and not a controversial real-life incident between the maniacal Vince McMahon and his erstwhile employee CM Punk.
. The rise of Eddie Edwards - I first noticed it back in January, as Edwards competed against Kotaro Suzuki for the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title; Eddie Edwards was ready to step out of the shadow of his tag team partner, Davey Richards, and he proved it in a big-way as he got to main event a NOAH show at Korakuen Hall. Despite being a relative unknown to the NOAH crowd, over his month-long tour he ingratiated himself to the fans and by the eve of his title match against Suzuki he actually managed to elicit sympathy and excitement from the Japanese audience, something many gaijin wrestlers can only dream of. Fast forward to March at 'Manhattan Mayhem IV' and Edwards shocked the wrestling world when he captured the ROH World Heavyweight Title from Roderick Strong, which led into one of the best builds for any angle this year...
. Edwards vs Richards II - the story was simple; here were two tag team partners, best friends, brothers, and although everyone expected Davey Richards to become the next ROH World Champ, it was Eddie Edwards who dethroned Roderick Strong and no-one was happier for Eddie than his tag partner Davey Richards. However, while Richards was content to sit back and let Eddie bask in the spot-light, Edwards felt he needed to prove himself against Davey, that he wouldn't be a proper champion until he'd beaten his own partner for the gold. And it was that simple set-up that led to the best ROH match of the year; Eddie Edwards defending the ROH World Heavyweight Championship against Davey Richards at 'Best in the World 2011'.
. CHIKARA crowning their Grand Champion - a 10 month build towards CHIKARA's first ever iPPV 'High Noon', 7 months of round robin tournament matches to decide who gets to compete for the belt and one epic, entertaining and emotional match between 'Lightning' Mike Quackenbush and the 'War King' Eddie Kingston. Not only was the match goddamn amazing, but it was the emphasis CHIKARA put on how important the match and the belt was that made it feel like a really special night on one of the best PPVs of the year.
. Best of the Super Juniors - NJPW proved why they're simply the best wrestling promotion in the world with the Super Juniors tournament, which was held over 10 days back in May/April and featured SEVENTY FIVE matches, many of which were just plain awesome, too many to list infact.
. G1 Climax 2011 - further cementing the fact that NJPW is just simply awesome, the annual G1 Climax tournament rolled on in August over 10 days with a crazy NINETY ONE matches. In the end, it came down to two men; Shinsuke Nakamura, former IWGP champion and leader of CHAOS, and Tetsuya Naito, the break-out star of New Japan in 2011.
. WWE finally shifts focus - for the past month or so WWE has been rather uncharacteristically forward thinking in it's approach to the main event scene with all the top WWE gold held by wrestlers who are undeniably an important part of the companies future; CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Zack Ryder & Cody Rhodes. Sure, one bad rating might be all it takes to restore the status quo, but for now let's just be thankful for a month or two without John Cena & Randy Orton at the helm.
. Tanahashi equals Nagata's IWGP record - at Wrestle Kingdom V Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Satoshi Kojima to become the new IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Despite the misgivings many foreign fans have over Tanahashi's ability and with him beeing booked so strongly, he's insanely over and an undeniably great performer who this year managed to equal Yuji Nagata's record of 10 defences of the IWGP Heavyweight Title. As Tanahashi heads into Wrestle Kingdom VI to face Minoro Suzuki, can he break that record and make it to 11 defences?
. Dynamic Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament - in March PWG held their annual DDT4 Tag Team Tournament and, as usual, it featured some of the best tag team matches of the year; The American Wolves vs RockNES Monsters, Nightmare Violence Connection (Steen & Tozawa) vs The Briscoe Brothers, The Young Bucks vs The American Wolves & the final; The Young Bucks vs Nightmare Violence Connection.
. Jun Akiyama captures the grandest prize in puroresu - after 19 years since debuting for All Japan, Jun Akiyama, now a NOAH mainstay and multiple GHC title holder, returned as an outsider to All Japan to face Suwama for the AJPW Triple Crown Championship. Suwama had a fantastic year himself, with successful defences against Taiyo Kea, KENSO, Yuji Nagata & Seiya Sanada before he faced Jun Akiyama in October, but he couldn't stand up to the 19 year veteran and succumbed to the Sterness Dust (a wrist-clutch Death Valley Driver) and with that Akiyama had finally captured the Triple Crown, the title he was denied by the game-changing split in 2001 that saw Mitsuhara Misawa leave AJPW and form NOAH.
. Akira Tozawa - being a Dragon Gate contracted wrestler, you'd expect Tozawa to have been utilised best in Dragon Gate USA, but it was infact in PWG that he made his mark over the past year or so and improved exponentially, before returning to Japan and claiming his place as one of the top players of Dragon Gate. Through singles matches against the likes of Low Ki & Chris Hero to tagging with Kevin Steen against teams like The Kings of Wrestling, 'Mr High Tension' Akira Tozawa endeared himself to the fans and got over in a huge way, so much so that when he returned to Japan it felt like something was missing from PWG, although thankfully one man stepped up to fill the gap...
. 'Mr Wrestling' Kevin Steen - undoubtedly the MVP of PWG, Kevin Steen worked his ass off in 2011 and put on a ridiculous number of top quality matches, starting with his match against Chris Hero back in January, right up to teaming with the returning Super Dragon against The Young Bucks at FEAR this past December. He wrestled an amazing 16 times on just 8 shows, missing only one PWG event this year and in the process he put on some amazing matches; Steen vs Willie Mack, Steen vs PAC, Steen vs Fit Finlay, Steen vs Eddie Edwards, Steen vs Richards and Steen vs El Generico in an epic ladder match for the PWG World Championship. Meanwhile, after spending 2010 embroidled in a bitter war against his former tag team partner El Generico, Steen was banished from ROH for good, but returned at ROH's 'Best in the World 2011' to spark off one of the best angles of the year as he wreaked havoc in ROH, infuriating Jim Cornette into sanctioning a match against Steve Corino at Final Battle which saw Steen brutalise his former mentor and regain his position in ROH, vowing to turn ROH on it's head in 2012 and capture the ROH World Title from Davey Richards.
. Strong BJ invades AJPW - Big Japan isn't ALL about light tubes and barbed wire, it's also about huge dudes like Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi who this year invaded All Japan to take on Seiya Sanada & Manabu Soya for the All Asia Tag Team Titles. The two teams would face a total of 5 times this year, each match a perfect example of heavyweight tag team action done properly. The first two encounters were 30 minute time limit draws, but the 3rd encounter saw the BJW duo capture the All Asia Tag Titles which they held for 3 months until Sanada & Soya reclaimed them, only to lose them again 4 months later as Sekimoto & Okabayashi rounded out an excellent year as the All Asia tag champs.
. CHIKARA gets women's wrestling right - be it booking Sara Del Rey as a legitimate title contender, bringing in top women's wrestling stars like Kana, Madison Eagles, Tsukasa Fujimoto, Makoto & Portia Perez, or hosting the 3-night celebration of Japanese wrestling legends past and present, JoshiMania, featuring names like Ayako Hamada, Aja Kong, Manami Toyota & Mayumi Ozaki, CHIKARA have firmly shown that women's wrestling is an important and integral part of their promotion and frankly, they've done it better than any other promotion in the US not named SHIMMER.
. Somebody gonna get their ass kicked - somebody gonna get their wig split. Rewind a year or two and there's no way anyone then would believe that Mark Henry, you know, Sexual Chocolate, MVP's tag partner, would be a WWE champion in 2011, and not only that; but the BEST WWE champion of 2011. And I'll be the first to admit that I would have been one of those people. But Mark's heel turn and subsequent title run is one of the few things WWE got VERY right this year, a great change in character for Henry that saw him cut some excellent promos and a perfect example of how a monster heel should be booked.
. Kojima & Tenzan celebrate 20 years - 2011 marked the 20th anniversary of both Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima's 20th Anniversary in wrestling and NJPW honoured two of the biggest stars of puroresu by giving them their own anniversary shows. However, the real treat was seeing Tenzan & Kojima reuinite as a tag team which will go on to face Bad Intentions for the IWGP Tag Team Championship at Wrestle Kingdom VI.
. Super Dragon returns - at Steen Wolf in October, Steen attempted to defend his PWG World Championship in a brutal ladder match against El Generico, but due to interference from The Young Bucks he ultimately lost the title. As he lay battered and beaten after the match, The Bucks returned once more to deal more damage to Steen, but then the lights went out and when they came back on the Reseda crowd lost. their. shit. Why? Super fucking Dragon, that's why, standing in the middle on the ring, he administered a brutal Curb Stomp to Matt Jackson and then hit Nick with the Psycho Driver. For the first time in 2 years or so, Super Dragon was back in the promotion he helped start, and at FEAR he and Steen took on The Young Bucks in, what by all accounts was, an excellent tag match (can't wait to get my hands on the DVD!).
. CHIKARA honours British wrestling legends - at the CHIKARAsaurus Rex shows CHIKARA brought in two of the best proponents of the British catch-as-catch-can wrestling style, Johnny Saint & Johnny Kidd. Despite Saint being 70 years old and Kidd being 56, they both put on a hell of a show on Night 1, wrestling a classic World of Sports rules match that stands toe to toe with any other technical wrestling match this year, while on Night 2 Saint teamed with Mike Quackenbush and Kidd teamed with Colt Cabana to put on an epic tag match. CHIKARA deserve praise for exposing a new generation of fans to these highly talented and technical wrestlers.
. Yuji Nagata wins Champion's Carnival & New Japan Cup - another record breaking year for Yuji Nagata as the veteran becomes the first person to win both the NJPW New Japan Cup and the AJPW Champion's Carnival in the same year.
. Takashi Sugiura's record-breaking title reign - making an unprecedented 14 defences of the GHC Heavyweight Title, Takashi Sugiura saw off pretty much every wrestler in NOAH and seemed nigh-on unbeatable until Go Shiozaki finally capture the title in August.
. Bad Intentions dominate NOAH & NJPW - Takayama & Sano had held the GHC Tag Team Titles seemingly forever, no one in NOAH could defeat them, so it fell to two gaijin NJPW wrestlers at the Dominion PPV to dethrone them; Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson, Bad Intentions, who successfully defeated Sano & Takayama to become both GHC & IWGP Tag Team Champions.
. King of Trios & The 1-2-3 Kid - CHIKARA's King of Trios is always one of the highlights of the year, but 2011 more so than ever as CHIKARA brought in some of the best names from overseas and gave Sean Waltman a chance for redemption as he competed once more as the 1-2-3 Kid. There were so many great matches across all 3 nights it would be tough to list them all, but matches like Mike Quackenbush, Jigsaw & Manami Toyota vs Team Michinoku Pro (Great Sasuke, Jinsei Shinzaki & Dick Togo) and the Rey des Voladores final between El Generico & The 1-2-3- Kid, stand out as some of the best of the year.
. Yamato vs Sato - this past November DDT's Hikaru Sato came to All Japan to take on Hiroshi Yamato in an excellente best of 3 match series. Both Yamato & Sato are impressive young wrestlers, but for many, myself included, this series was the catalyst that made the wider wrestling world take notice of their talents.
. SMASH crowns it's champions - over the course of 2011 Tajiri's SMASH promotion held title tournaments to crown the SMASH Heavyweight Champion and the SMASH Divas Champion, yet just a month after Starbuck became the SMASH Champion and Kana became the SMASH Divas Champion, both wrestlers had lost the title to outsiders; Dave Finlay and Tomoka Nakagawa, and so, much to Tajiri's chagrin, 2012 begins with SMASH holding no control over their champions.
. Daichi Hashimoto debuts - Shinya Hashimoto, a legendary figure in puroresu, died in 2005, and now six years later ZERO1, the promotion Hashimoto helped found, brought Shinya's son Daichi Hashimoto into the world of wrestling. While still very green and opposite to his father in size and style, Daichi has had a great year wrestling some of the true greats of puroresu including Masahiro Chono, Keiji Mutoh & Yoshihiro Takayama, and he's sure to have a great future ahead of him for ZERO1.
. All Together - in late August NJPW, AJPW & NOAH got together to host the biggest co-promotional show in years to raise money for the earthquake/tsunami relif effort. While many of the matches couldn't be considered classics, it was the spectacle of the event that was important, with 17,000 fans turning up to see once in a lifetime match-ups, including the first ever teaming of Keiji Mutoh & Kenta Kobashi.
. BattlARTS bows out in style - 15 years after their formation, Yuki Ishikawa's cult shoot-style promotion BattlARTS closed it's doors for the final time. Despite gaining in popularity in the late 90's, MMA's rise effectively stole away BattlARTS fanbase and the promotion was forced to close in face of dwindling interest. Unfortunately this also prompted Munenori Sawa, one of the last BattlARTS students, to retire. However, in November BattlARTS bowed out in style with a fantatic final show that saw Keita Yano take on the final BattlARTS student Kenji Takeshima, the hard-hitting Kana facing Aki Shizuki, the return ex-BattlARTS students Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Tanaka, Munenori Sawa taking on Manabu Suruga and Yuki Ishikawa facing his old rival and FUTEN promoter Daisuke Ikeda.
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
When was the last time we had a Raw revolving around a motorcade on its way to the arena?
I hope they do that tomorrow.
I hope they do that tomorrow.
Never change WrassleGAF
HarryDemeanor
Member
Well done.
The Faceless Master
Member
1/2/12
1+2 = 3
1/2/3
RETURN OF SEAN WALTMAN AS THE 123 KID!
1+2 = 3
1/2/3
RETURN OF SEAN WALTMAN AS THE 123 KID!
BillRiccio
Member
Vin Gerard continues harassing CHIKARA and now he's posting voice mails from Leonard F Chikarason. This is getting good. I can't wait for Season 11 to start!
http://youtu.be/K2FzqSH_ZIg
http://youtu.be/K2FzqSH_ZIg
Let's get real here.
Can someone please explain the hype about brodus clay? Is it some inside joke? Even on NXT he was awful, why are people anticipating his next debut?
Keyser Soze
Member
Okay...
Spinning-bird kick!
Spinning-bird kick!
Arrowgigantic
Member
:lol :lol
Uno Venova
Banned
Those airport pics are hilarious.
-Pyromaniac-
Member
hahhaaha
- Status