Crowley

Couldn't get into Talk'n Shop. I do love me some Good Brother though. Hopefully that's his gimmick in WWE.

Is there anyone from Evolve that isn't a jobber/dark match guy in NXT yet? I don't watch the show as much as I did a year ago. I've seen Matt Riddle. I forgot he was a WWE guy. He actually seems pretty cool. In my opinion, they're not second best, or even the third. I think Lucha Underground is by far the best wrestling TV show in the world. I expect to see WWE draw a lot of influence from them in the coming years, just like how Vince borrowed a lot from ECW in the 90's. As far as putting together great cards from top to bottom, I agree that nobody has NJPW beat. PWG comes pretty close though. I like NXT, but I think ROH still does the old school style of wrestling show better. They were going through a rough patch there for a couple of years, but it's gotten pretty damn good recently, especially with Lethal as champ. Balor as the star of NXT has been somewhat underwhelming. As far as filling Nakamura's shoes go, I think Kota Ibushi was that guy but... Yeah. Hopefully he comes back soon. Like I said, I actually wasn't the biggest Nakamura fan in the world and there wasn't many fresh matches left for him so I'm not too sad to see him leave. AJ on the other hand, I'm really disappointed to hear about. I just can't imagine him entertaining me anywhere near as much in WWE. Despite how I feel, I agree Nakamura is the bigger loss for NJPW. Part of the reason I may seem particularly cynical tonight is because I kind of feel like WWE isn't even actually interested in Nakamura so much as they're just excited to create some extra hype. I mean, come on. Do they really even need the guy? What kind of plans could they possibly have for him? He's a 35 year old Japanese guy that barely speaks english (I've heard people say otherwise, but I've yet to see any proof of him bing this fluent speaker) and the average kid watching WWE has no clue who he is.

As far as I can tell that's pretty much all there is to it. Basically Gabe Sapolsky agreed to let Triple H use Evolve as a farm system. Now they can attract a lot of indie wrestlers hoping to get signed to NXT, plus Gabe gets his revenge on ROH. The Sami Zayn appearance seemed like it was just an advertisement for WWE, aimed at indie wrestlers. It'll be interesting to see if any more WWE wrestlers appear at Evolve shows. Yeah, that was weird. I got the sense that she isn't even that big of a celebrity. Anybody know what her deal is?

I was just talking about this in the PWG thread. WWE doesn't discriminate when it comes to what companies they go after. I really believe that their goal is to put every other wrestling company out of business. But they're especially petty when it comes to ROH. They used to get along pretty well with them, but once ROH started introducing more exclusive contracts for wrestlers, WWE got very aggressive. How dare they not allow us to come in and steal their talent on any given day!? Then ROH committed the cardinal sin against WWE; they planned to make merchandize featuring the likeness of a WWE Superstar™! After the Kevin Steen action figure thing, shit hit the fan. It seems like they're willing to use every dirty trick in the book now. The saddest thing is, not only did ROH do nothing wrong, they always had a positive attitude about their stars graduating to WWE and making more money. They wanted to see their wrestlers succeed. WWE on the other hand, clearly doesn't care about anyone who works for ROH. They'd be happy to put them out of business tomorrow and ruin many people's lives.

Nakamura can go ahead and *Censored* off to NXT. Of the three or four main characters in NJPW, he's probably my least favorite. If he leaves it could be a good opportunity for guys like Shibata and Ishii to rise up. I'd be really disappointed if AJ went to WWE though. I have no interest in that whatsoever. Even more disappointing is that I know fans will continue to watch and complain about WWE yet celebrate every time they poach a great wrestler. It seems like Triple H has successfully convinced a lot of people that WWE hurting smaller companies and remaining a monopoly is a good thing.

Shibata is so *censored*ing cool. It has to be his time. He's finally going to win a singles championship. The best part was Okada bawling his eyes out. Big Match Tan' will do it again. "I have to be more of a star. I have to make wrestling fans of more people. How? Beat Okada. Make him cry again." - Hiroshi Tanahashi

I didn't hear them call KOPW, so for me it's going to be a fresh pairing of voices. I'm glad to hear he did good and you're right that if nothing else, he's more knowledgeable about the ROH talent. It's a shame we never got to hear Mauro Ranallo call a WrestleKingdom, but I'm excited to see what he does for Smackdown. I think people who have never heard him before are going to be blown away. There's quite a few great commentators out there these days.

3 AM EST, 8 AM GMT. I just found out that the english broadcast is Matt Striker and Kevin Kelly. I wish it was Striker with Jim Ross again or Josh Barnett instead of Kelly. I can't decide if I want to watch the english or japanese broadcast. I wonder if Matt Striker will dial back the kayfabe breaking comments. I'd rather hear him take the same approach he takes to calling LU. Then again, it's funny seeing people get so worked up over comments like "there's no slapping of the leg here!". I like watching the smart marks and old school guys like Jim Cornette rage over it. You could probably power a small city with the energy created from Dusty Rhodes spinning in his grave.

I haven't been following NJPW that closely as of late but I love the heavyweight tag division and usually enjoy the NEVER title matches. I'm really looking forward to Ishii vs. Shibata. If nothing else, the fact that they can fill up all these title matches with bonafide, established stars is a testament to them being booked pretty well. Compare it to other promotions that have a lot of belts that end up getting devalued because the wrestlers chasing them aren't over enough. Having that been said, aside from Kenny Omega himself, I'm not a fan of the junior heavyweight stuff and don't view most of those guys as major stars. That whole division needs an overhaul. Don't get me wrong. The wrestlers themselves are pretty fantastic, but most of the divisions are booked quite uninteresting and always has the same people in it, with the occasional Ibushi, Makabe or Shibata mixing it up. I mean...Nakamura is a 5 time Intercontinental Champion already. And there have only been 12 reigns in total so far. I agree on the IC title. I think they've done a hell of a job of bringing it to the same level that the heavyweight title is at in recent years, but it started out as more of a typical midcard title. Nakamura deserves all of the credit for making that belt what it is, but you can't rely on him alone. My biggest complaint with New Japan is that they seem so afraid to push new stars. The IC belt is still pretty new and the fact that Nakamura is already a 5 time champ really isn't encouraging.

I haven't been following NJPW that closely as of late but I love the heavyweight tag division and usually enjoy the NEVER title matches. I'm really looking forward to Ishii vs. Shibata. If nothing else, the fact that they can fill up all these title matches with bonafide, established stars is a testament to them being booked pretty well. Compare it to other promotions that have a lot of belts that end up getting devalued because the wrestlers chasing them aren't over enough. Having that been said, aside from Kenny Omega himself, I'm not a fan of the junior heavyweight stuff and don't view most of those guys as major stars. That whole division needs an overhaul.

I wish KENTA never left now.

I thought Kevin Steen and Jimmy Jacobs were supposed to be good guys.

I wish they'd find a way to stream this Synergy event. That card really interests me.

I'm really looking forward to Final Battle tonight. The card looks outstanding. I can't wait to see Steen get reinstated.

^^ lol. Yeah, not only was it on there, it was at the very top. Not sure how I missed that. Thanks anyways, I ended up finding the song somewhere else.

Do any of you guys have the ring-side membership on their website? Is it worth getting? I'm only buying it if you automatically get access to a bunch of old matches and DVDs. Also, can anyone identify this theme? I can't find it anywhere. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL3JSSlBRzE