The Wrestling Thread

[herzeleid]

Most new people in UFC have extensive backgrounds in MMA though and have been training all their lives.

[Jobdone]

Yeah, you can't just walk into MMA fights anymore.

As an aside, if you want hilarity watch the first UFC. It's just a bunch of random karate and sumo masters and shit fighting each other instead of the amalgamous blob of grappling/striking thing we get now as the MMA style

[Matty_the_Emo_Slayer]

Yeah there's literally no connection between the original UFC no holds barred spectacle stuff and what it is now. In the first UFC there was only 2 rules- no biting and no gouging. You were still allowed to do things like rabbit punching, groin shots, small joint manipulation, stomping, kicking with boots etc. up til about UFC 10. It's definitely for the better they remodeled themselves on Pancrase and PRIDE in the early noughties and became a sport, but the early stuff is hilarious too.


Anyway, final Wrestle Kingdom card has been announced.

PRE-SHOW

--Over The Top Battle Royal--

(no names announced yet but I'm guessing it will be Captain New Japan, Lance Archer, Davey Boy Jr., Tama Tonga, Yuji Nagata, Yoshi-Hashi, Takashi Iizuka, Bushi, El Desperado, Gedo, Jado, Taichi, Tiger Mask IV and Jushin "Thunder" Liger)

MAIN SHOW

--IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Match--

ReDRagon vs The Time Splitters vs The Young Bucks vs Forever Hooligans


--Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima and Tomoaki Honma vs Bullet Club (Jeff Jarrett, Bad Luck Fale and Yujiro Takahashi)--


--Toru Yanu plus partner TBA vs Suzuki-Gun (members TBA)--

(my guess is Yanu's partner will be The Great Muta who he teamed with last year or Yuji Nagata and the Suzuki-Gun team will be Shelton X Benjamin and TAKA Michinoku, or maybe Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr.)


--Pancrase Rules Match- KO, TKO, Submission or Referee Stoppage Only!--

"The Gracie Killer" Kazushi Sakuraba vs "King Of Pancrase" Minoru Suzuki


--NEVER Openweight Championship Match--

Tomohiro Ishii vs Togi Makabe


--IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Match--

Ryusuke Taguchi vs "The Cleaner" Kenny Omega


--IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Match--

Bullet Club (Karl Anderson and DOC Gallows) vs Katsuyori Shibata and Hirooki Goto


--Tetsuya Naito vs AJ Styles--


--IWGP Intercontinental Championship Match--

Shinsuke Nakamura vs Kota Ibushi


--IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match--

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada




Pretty clever of them to book a battle royal for the opener, even if it will be jobber central. An over the top rope battle royal, with staggered entry, in January, with Jim Ross calling the action. It's basically a mini-Royal Rumble, absolutely for the benefit of the English-speaking fans. My guess it will be Liger to win it as he's vaguely known to American wrestling fans and JR can talk about calling his WCW matches back in the early 90's. It won't be brilliant but JR will make it work.

Everything else on the card looks solid with some real 5* match potential in places. JR calling a worked MMA fight in the Sakurabu vs Suzuki match will be interesting and he will be going nuts with all the head-drop maneuvers in the tag title and openweight title matches. Ross compared Okada/Tanahashi to Rock/Austin recently and said this may be the best main event he ever calls, but Styles vs Naito or Nakamura vs Ibushi could easily steal the show from under them.

The 6-man tag looks a bit weak on paper seeing as Jarrett is the strongest wrestler on the Bullet Club side but Ten-Koji can drag anyone to a good match and make them look good. Even a DQ finish won't matter as it's all about making Bullet Club look strong. Taguchi and Omega are in danger of looking a bit average compared to the rest of the card but this is Omega's first Tokyo Dome show so he'll probably really be bringing his A game. The Yano & ??? vs Suzuki-Gun is the only potential stinker then. Yano sucks to be honest and if it is Muta as his partner things won't be much better as Muta has been relying on tag team partners for the past few years.

All in all though it is pretty much guaranteed to be the wrestling show of the year though. It's a shame that there is no NWA titles on the line this time but representing 3 American partners on one show (ROH, GWF, NWA) on one show would've been a bit overkill.

[Jobdone]

I'd take whatever card they gave me with JR on commentary, but that card just makes it so much better.

What kind of time do NJPW events start, and what sort of time is that for us?

[Matty_the_Emo_Slayer]

It'll be starting 7am GMT as far as I can find out. If you've got work then tell them you've got a dentist appointment that morning!

[Jobdone]

It'll be starting 7am GMT as far as I can find out. If you've got work then tell them you've got a dentist appointment that morning!

On the monday? Bugger.

I've got the 12 days before off, so I don't know if I can wrangle another one

[Bearstock]

Well I'd already decided not to bother getting WWE 2K15 but this shit makes me even more pleased I decided not to:

https://twitter.com/stephensonmc/status ... 4730931200

[Applecore]

Well I'd already decided not to bother getting WWE 2K15 but this shit makes me even more pleased I decided not to:

https://twitter.com/stephensonmc/status ... 4730931200

To be fair, it's hardly surprising that they're banning people for uploading Benoit stuff. WWE already more or less refuse to acknowledge he ever existed (even at Survivor Series, JBL said how Cena was a lone survivor in 2003, when it was actually Cena and Benoit who made it to the end).
The thing that strikes me as fucked up about that guy's situation is that he wasn't warned at all and just banned outright. Yes he should have known better, but he also wasn't aware of the rules - even pointing out that custom made Benoit character skins from 2K14 are still online.

[CrappyMike]

this is a new rule as benoit creations have always been fine as far as i know. i dont recall seeing it announced anywhere. a warning would have been more appropriate than a ban, but its their game and they can do what they want.

[Bearstock]

Just seems harsh, always had Benoit on the games no problems previously.


In other news Melina just announced for Southside Raw Dal 4 in April which I'm likely going too.

Should be good

[CrappyMike]

oh its definitely harsh, personally i dont see the problem with having benoit created characters as they are not official but wwe have the final say i believe.

paul heymans documentary has been added to the wwe network so i watched that today. some stuff i knew but lots in there i had no idea about. worth a watch. also new episodes of monday night wars and rivalries (hogan vs piper)

[Matty_the_Emo_Slayer]

Cathal Pendred has tweeted he'll be facing Punk in his first fight. Not sure what the truth of that is given that everyone has been thinking Punk would be facing someone inexperienced rather than someone who is 15-2 in pro fights. However, given that Pendred is an Irish-American fighter he would be an ideal choice to co-main event the Aldo vs McGregor title fight that is bound to happen in the first half of 2015. Normally they wouldn't need any more hype for an event like that, but given that it will likely happen in either the Aviva or Croke Park then I reckon UFC will be trying to break their attendance gate record. Punk co-main eventing his first show could help do that. Holy shit Dublin will be a fun place to be on that night if that happens!

[CrappyMike]

chael sonnen recently said punk would not be fighting a bottom tier guy so that could well be true

[Jobdone]

Genuinely would be amazed if CM Punk doesn't come in as a co-headliner.

People are like "He'll fight some guys on his level".

He's 36. He doesn't have time to work his way up. he's there as a PPV draw for wrasslin fans.

[Bearstock]

He's sgned a multi fight deal though.

Assuming his first fight is gonna bring in a lot of extra eyes and attention.

If he loses that's wiped most of the casual interest out.


If he wins people would keep watching, even those wanting him to lose because he's still there.