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[Data West]

I kind of figured this had to have been around the time of the steroid scandal (i forgot when that exactly happened) i mean, look at Hogan at WM9, this is the thinnest I think he's ever been

Partially that, but people forget, Hogan was also doing movies at that point. There was no reason for him to be huge when his other stars were 'normal folk.' This was the year that wrasslegaf classic 'Thunder In Paradise' was filmed.

 

[Ithil]

Also, why did they go to arenas instead of stadiums around 2000?

The Wrestlemania brand wasn't what it was today, even though business was big then. Even though WM was the top show of the year, it didn't have that "superbowl/world series" presentation for a lot of its run. Not to say it was "just another show", but, well, it was kind of just another show. For whatever reason, 1998-2000, WWF didn't go for the gigantic buildings (eventhough WCW did stuff like the Georgia Dome easily).

They started to go back to the stadiums they had for WM 3 and 6 from WM 17-19, then business had died again so WM 20-22 were back in smaller arenas (though 20 was obviously in MSG, a different scenario). Nowadays they've built the WM brand so that even though business is nothing special, WM is always in a stadium and is a major acquisition for cities, if they can host it.

 

[Paracelsus]

Partially that, but people forget, Hogan was also doing movies at that point. There was no reason for him to be huge when his other stars were 'normal folk.' This was the year that wrasslegaf classic 'Thunder In Paradise' was filmed.

The year is 1993, same year as WMIX

 

[JavyOO7]

Macho Man co-hosting Prime Time Wrestling is everything you want and more.

'I LOVE THAT MUSIC! WHERE'S IT COMING FROM?!'

And this episode isn't on the network yet. /sad

I hope the tapes are in good condition...

 

[slightconfuse]

I like the wm 9 set

 

[Data West]

I can't believe Dragon Gate still books Don Fuji. That dude was balls 10 years ago. Next you're gonna tell me that they still book Magnitude Kishiwada.

 

[Fox318]

didn't cesars pay WWF to hold the event?

They didn't have to pay an arena fee.

 

[Ithil]

I like the wm 9 set

I don't like the arena though. Open air stadiums have the issue with crowd noise disappearing, but at least have the scale/spectacle.That's a regular arena size crowd open air.

Look like a Seaworld crowd or something.

 

[British Monsoon]

I can't believe Dragon Gate still books Don Fuji. That dude was balls 10 years ago. Next you're gonna tell me that they still book Magnitude Kishiwada.

Don Fujii is great! Well, OK, he's not that great, but he chops people hard and the crowd love him. Also, grumpy heel Don Fujii is objectively awesome. Don't think they've booked Kishiwada for a few years now, though. They still have Stalker Ichikawa on occasion.

 

[spindashing]

Random fact but when I was younger, I always thought the actor playing Stryker was Ken Shamrock. I'm not entirely sure why but that made Stryker even more bad ass in my eyes.

 

[Data West]

Don Fujii is great! Well, OK, he's not that great, but he chops people hard and the crowd love him. Also, grumpy heel Don Fujii is objectively awesome. Don't think they've booked Kishiwada for a few years now, though. They still have Stalker Ichikawa on occasion.

GAMMA is over and that dude used to never be over. I get the feeling that the Dragon Gate crowd will love anything. Of the last 6 matches I watched, 5 of them involved a 'big guy' wrestler. Of those 5 big guys (Fuji, Okabayashi, Sekimoto, Ishikawa, and Hino) Okabayashi was the only one who didn't fill his moveset with chop filler spam.

edit: oh i forgot t-hawk. so that's 5/6.

 

[Data West]

From my 'attempting to get back into Dragon Gate after not having watching it since Blood Generation' this is my studies of my binary opinion

I like Maria-chan(obviously), Yamato(i've always been positive on him the few times i've seen him. that elbow smash is pure beauty), T-Hawk, Mondai Ryu is kind of half and half. He's not amazing, but he looks cool and has that flying clothesline I like a lot. Doi & Yoshino(my two favorites of all time from that promotion going back to Blood Generation days). Flamita, Ricochet(is he even still there?), K-Ness(though he was way better back in the Toryumon days)

Jimmyz can fuck off. Boring as shit stable.

 

[Sibersk Esto]

What about Hulk? He doesn't impress me

 

[FyreWulff]

I kind of figured this had to have been around the time of the steroid scandal (i forgot when that exactly happened) i mean, look at Hogan at WM9, this is the thinnest I think he's ever been

you reminded me of this

 

[plagiarize]

you reminded me of this

That looks like Scotty 2 Hotty crossbred with Buff Bagwell.

 

[Kaladin]

I miss Michael Buffer as a ring announcer. He made WCW's main events seem like boss fights.

Why can't WWE capture that spirit again?

 

[Hasney]

I miss Michael Buffer as a ring announcer. He made WCW's main events seem like boss fights.

Why can't WWE capture that spirit again?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb0ZxCYmpoY

 

[Kaladin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb0ZxCYmpoY

I'd still take Buffer over any WWE ring announcer of the past two decades.

 

[Fox318]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUJzj4DXHYE

 

[Fox318]

I miss Michael Buffer as a ring announcer. He made WCW's main events seem like boss fights.

Why can't WWE capture that spirit again?

because he is something like 500,000 a pop.

 

[Hasney]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7UCpOYBQ-E

Bret "Hitman" Clarke

 

[Aiii]

I miss Michael Buffer as a ring announcer. He made WCW's main events seem like boss fights.

Why can't WWE capture that spirit again?

I think this every time I watch Bruce Buffer in UFC. It adds so much to give matches a special feeling.

 

[FlammableD]

 

[Host Samurai]

Howard Finkle>>>>>>>>Buffer Brothers

Finkle just sounded epic as fuck when he announced.

 

[Fox318]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7UCpOYBQ-E

Bret "Hitman" Clarke

Phil "CP Drunk" Brooks.

 

[British Monsoon]

Jim Cornette, proving once and for all what a rational human being he is, said on his latest podcast that he'd "like to slit Kenny Omega's throat from ear to ear" because he wrestled that match with 9 year old Haruka.

Jimmyz can fuck off. Boring as shit stable.

I really like Kagetora and Ryo Saito's pretty fun, but entirely bored of Genki and Kanda. Also, Mr. Quu Quu Naoki Tanizaki Toyonaka Dolphin is without question the silliest name in wrestling.

Kagetora's gutwrench driver is such a cool move, surprised I haven't seen anyone rip it off;

 

[sf2fanatic]

Howard Finkle>>>>>>>>Buffer Brothers

Finkle just sounded epic as fuck when he announced.

+1. Nobody will be as good as the Fink

 

[somedevil]

Man I don't get Meltzer opinion on Itami. It seems like he is the only one who hasn't seen his improvement since he has come into NXT. He is always down on him.

 

[Sephzilla]

Man I don't get Meltzer opinion on Itami. It seems like he is the only one who hasn't seen his improvement since he has come into NXT. He is always down on him.

He probably only half pays attention to Itami's matches then. Itami has improved a ton since coming to NXT (it also helps he's not fighting The Ascension anymore)

 

[Data West]

Man I don't get Meltzer opinion on Itami. It seems like he is the only one who hasn't seen his improvement since he has come into NXT. He is always down on him.

Improvement from his start to NXT or from NOAH to NXT? Because he was having far better matches as GHC champion than anything he's done in NXT.

 

[Host Samurai]

WM 13 feels like it's the lowest budget. Just a dark small arena with little pyro. Didn't feel like a specticle at all compared to WM 12 and 14

 

[plagiarize]

Improvement from his start to NXT or from NOAH to NXT? Because he was having far better matches as GHC champion than anything he's done in NXT.

Improvement within NXT I would imagine. It's a new style to learn and a new political environment to adjust to, and he's coming along if albeit a little more slowly than I might have thought, but he'll be just fine.

 

[Sibersk Esto]

WM 13 feels like it's the lowest budget. Just a dark small arena with little pyro. Didn't feel like a specticle at all compared to WM 12 and 14

it has a terrible stage

 

[Fox318]

Man I don't get Meltzer opinion on Itami. It seems like he is the only one who hasn't seen his improvement since he has come into NXT. He is always down on him.

I think he is just depressed to not see him in Japan.

Meltzer seems like he is at the point where he wishes he didn't have to cover WWE.

 

[British Monsoon]

Honestly, I'm down on Itami's progress as well - they've struggled to find a way to present him as special ever since he made his debut. The timing of it wasn't great as well, with Balor coming in at the same time and getting 'it' very quickly, then Owens a few months later. One of the biggest aspects of his success in Japan was built on his attitude - it's not so much that he isn't kicking people really hard, but that he doesn't LOOK confidant or intimidating and that's something they need to work on, he needs his confidence back, his attitude, his swagger, whatever you want to call it. KENTA had it, Itami doesn't.

 

[Data West]

To this day, I have no idea why they signed KENTA over Shibata. Unless KENTA speaks better English or Shibata didn't want to sign.

Because Shibata is basically Super KENTA. Shibata is so smooth he'd make anyone a fan instantly, WWE or not.

 

[somedevil]

Improvement from his start to NXT or from NOAH to NXT? Because he was having far better matches as GHC champion than anything he's done in NXT.

Within NXT. He is not going to do Noah type matches in NXT. Of all the new people brought in his style was one the one that clashed the most with the WWE style.

 

[Ithil]

it has a terrible stage

WM 11, 12 and 13 all have the exact same (shitty) stage. They literally just pasted the WM 12 and 13 logo on.

 

[Fox318]

Is it Vince or HHH that wants a uniform style?

 

[Kaladin]

Honestly, I'm down on Itami's progress as well - they've struggled to find a way to present him as special ever since he made his debut. The timing of it wasn't great as well, with Balor coming in at the same time and getting 'it' very quickly, then Owens a few months later. One of the biggest aspects of his success in Japan was built on his attitude - it's not so much that he isn't kicking people really hard, but that he doesn't LOOK confidant or intimidating and that's something they need to work on, he needs his confidence back, his attitude, his swagger, whatever you want to call it. KENTA had it, Itami doesn't.

I think of any of the talents, he probably had the biggest struggle coming over because of the language barrier. Especially when you have guys like Demott running the place, it could be hard to find that confidence.

I think the feud with Breeze is doing a lot for him though, these matches are the best I've seen him in NXT.

 

[Cagey]

Honestly, I'm down on Itami's progress as well - they've struggled to find a way to present him as special ever since he made his debut. The timing of it wasn't great as well, with Balor coming in at the same time and getting 'it' very quickly, then Owens a few months later. One of the biggest aspects of his success in Japan was built on his attitude - it's not so much that he isn't kicking people really hard, but that he doesn't LOOK confidant or intimidating and that's something they need to work on, he needs his confidence back, his attitude, his swagger, whatever you want to call it. KENTA had it, Itami doesn't.

I can't speak to him as KENTA, as it were, but what you said about him as Itami is what I've been saying since his introduction.

I know he's supposed to be a Big Deal and Very Talented because he was successful prior to joining NXT. Aside from that singular fact, there's been nothing since he joined NXT to make me see him as any better or worse than the rest of the NXT group. If I didn't have the bias of reading about his Japan exploits, I'd be rather indifferent to him.

Independent of his resume, being Asian is the only thing that currently stands out about him. He's just a guy.

 

[sf2fanatic]

Hercules Hernandez was awesome!! F the 80's haters.. RonnieGarvin stomp on all ya

 

[Data West]

KENTA has been stale since like.. what, 2006? He got a little better when he won the GHC title but him and Marufuji have always been super complacent with where they are. I guess because they were used to Misawa and Kobashi always looking out for them.

Is it Vince or HHH that wants a uniform style?

HHH is the one who's basically wanted to have a strict system in place of overseeing developmental since the OVW days and he's just now getting it. So it's likely HHH.

 

[FallingEdge]

To this day, I have no idea why they signed KENTA over Shibata. Unless KENTA speaks better English or Shibata didn't want to sign.

Because Shibata is basically Super KENTA. Shibata is so smooth he'd make anyone a fan instantly, WWE or not.

KENTA is a bigger star than Shibata. This doesn't mean anything in the WWE world, but that is my first guess.

 

[Ithil]

Honestly, I'm down on Itami's progress as well - they've struggled to find a way to present him as special ever since he made his debut. The timing of it wasn't great as well, with Balor coming in at the same time and getting 'it' very quickly, then Owens a few months later. One of the biggest aspects of his success in Japan was built on his attitude - it's not so much that he isn't kicking people really hard, but that he doesn't LOOK confidant or intimidating and that's something they need to work on, he needs his confidence back, his attitude, his swagger, whatever you want to call it. KENTA had it, Itami doesn't.

There's times when he gets fired up and badass in his matches, but it's still just glimpses of who he was. He does need better presentation for his entrance, and a proper finisher already.

But really, he needs to just be let loose in the ring. He also has to start doing promos, even short ones. He's been doing English since what, June, July? He should know enough to be able to memorize short promos.
Right now he has very little character, while the top guys like Owens and Zayn are the exact opposite.

 

[Data West]

KENTA is a bigger star than Shibata. This doesn't mean anything in the WWE world, but that is my first guess.

Absolutely not. Even when Shibata wasn't wrestling, Shibata was bigger than KENTA. Shibata was Brock in Japan where people just always thought about how big he could have been. It's why he's gotten so over in NJPW so quickly. People remembered what a big deal he was.

 

[Fox318]

KENTA has been stale since like.. what, 2006? He got a little better when he won the GHC title but him and Marufuji have always been super complacent with where they are. I guess because they were used to Misawa and Kobashi always looking out for them.


HHH is the one who's basically wanted to have a strict system in place of overseeing developmental since the OVW days and he's just now getting it. So it's likely HHH.

I understand part of it but you also want guys to be different in wrestling and not just fake name/hair color/gimmick

It seems shortsighted.

 

[Kaladin]

I think they got KENTA because of his experience in Ring of Honor and around the US. I would seriously doubt if Triple H even watches New Japan or NOAH on a regular basis. KENTA also came highly recommended from Daniel Bryan.

 

[TimeEffect]

Bryan looks like he is 60 years old

Also on SD, they cut the part where he

Spoiler

asks the crowd if he's a turd, and they say no

 

[FallingEdge]

Absolutely not. Even when Shibata wasn't wrestling, Shibata was bigger than KENTA. Shibata was Brock in Japan where people just always thought about how big he could have been. It's why he's gotten so over in NJPW so quickly. People remembered what a big deal he was.

Really? I did not know that. I always heard of KENTA before Shibata. That was due to ROH tho.