General Wrassling III: I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU!!

[Kalmado]

Haven't watched it yet, but word on SC is Hiromu Takahashi and El Desperado had an insane match. Watching as soon as I get home from work.

[Melena]

Yeah, gonna stick with just watching Takeovers. They have been creeping up to 3 hours lately, but that 2-2.5 hour range was the sweet spot imo.

That's why All In is going to be capped at 3 hours. Was an interview with one of the Young Bucks and he said you get past that point, people start getting burned out before the main event.

[Delirium]

if anyone has a chance, watch Kagetsu vs Io Shirai from the May 5 show. I'd give it a solid 4.5*.

[Vil]

Haven't watched it yet, but word on SC is Hiromu Takahashi and El Desperado had an insane match. Watching as soon as I get home from work.

Best thing so far this tour. Very good show overall.

If you just watch the tournament matches, here's the Jericho video from earlier in the show:
https://twitter.com/njpwworld/status/998888797273112576

At this point, I think he's got to have a bet with someone about how many F bombs he can drop while keeping a straight face.

[Xno Kappa]

Lana being in the MITB is a terrifying thought lol.

[Delirium]

Lots of rumors swirling about WWE because of this result in Stardom.

Spoiler: show

Momo Watanabe won the Wonder of Stardom belt by submitting Io Shirai with a tequila sunrise. Lots of people think this means Io is dropping the belt and will join WWE and be in the MYC. WWE is touring Japan next month and announcing Io would be a big-ish deal(Joshi wrestling isn't as popular now as it was 20 years ago). That being said, she is arguably the best female wrestler on the planet. I'm not sure it is anything more than Stardom wanting to elevate a new talent. Momo is really good and only 18 or something. It will be interesting to see what happens, if anything.

[Kalmado]

Lots of rumors swirling about WWE because of this result in Stardom.

Spoiler: show

Momo Watanabe won the Wonder of Stardom belt by submitting Io Shirai with a tequila sunrise. Lots of people think this means Io is dropping the belt and will join WWE and be in the MYC. WWE is touring Japan next month and announcing Io would be a big-ish deal(Joshi wrestling isn't as popular now as it was 20 years ago). That being said, she is arguably the best female wrestler on the planet. I'm not sure it is anything more than Stardom wanting to elevate a new talent. Momo is really good and only 18 or something. It will be interesting to see what happens, if anything.

Spoiler: show

That will be a very interesting dynamic if they do bring her in. Maybe that's why Kairi is still in NXT. Maybe help Io with the transfer. While this is pure fantasy booking, imagine once SDL hits Fox you have a stable of Asuka, Kairi, and Io.

[Nitsuki]

Sooooo her neck is cleared to for WWE standards now?

[Delirium]

Sooooo her neck is cleared to for WWE standards now?

She got surgery and has been wrestling multiple times a week for Stardom since September. In that time, she has had some great matches, did an exploding baseball bat match(admittedly not that dangerous), moonsaulted off a large truck onto Kelly Klein, and more crazy Io shit. Whether WWE clears her or not is largely up to them. Obviously, Japanese doctors cleared her.

[Vil]

Johnny Mundo/Nitro/Morrison/Impact/Hennigan is on the next season of CBS's Survivor. Based on the filming schedules for recent seasons, I guess it took place probably about a month ago. If he makes it a decent amount of time, he better have put on some padding before flying out.

[Anoat]

Supposedly "at least one" major broadcast network in the US is interested in purchasing live broadcast rights for WrestleMania. If that ever happens Vince is gonna go full on Scrooge McDuck.

[Delirium]

I think my heart stopped for a second. Io is nuts

[Nitsuki]

Supposedly "at least one" major broadcast network in the US is interested in purchasing live broadcast rights for WrestleMania. If that ever happens Vince is gonna go full on Scrooge McDuck.

We still won’t get pyro.

[Vil]

Io Shirai is reportedly heading to WWE according to Tokyo Sports.

According to Meltzer, there are offers out there to Stardom other than just her and Toni Storm. This is a joke, right? At least the Cruiserweights got to slither away and get their own show. In the past 6 months, besides Rousey (and Zelina) the main roster has had debuts of Absolution, Riott Squad, Iconic Duo, and Ember Moon. That's 8 and while I understand that not everyone can get a big push at once, 7 of them aren't even in this shitty ladder match whenever Mitb is.

[Kalmado]

It's not even about a push to the top. Multiple people can be highlighted at once but WWE won't for whatever reason. It's worse for the women since they have to share time with the men and since Steph has to get her airtime. I hate using Attitude Era references, but anyone can go from let's say 96-06 and see on multiple occasions where multiple people are doing decent storylines. Today it's smiling babyfaces and everyone is happy to be there while a couple get highlighted every week. It makes for boring programming.

[Delirium]

Io Shirai is reportedly heading to WWE according to Tokyo Sports.

According to Meltzer, there are offers out there to Stardom other than just her and Toni Storm. This is a joke, right? At least the Cruiserweights got to slither away and get their own show. In the past 6 months, besides Rousey (and Zelina) the main roster has had debuts of Absolution, Riott Squad, Iconic Duo, and Ember Moon. That's 8 and while I understand that not everyone can get a big push at once, 7 of them aren't even in this shitty ladder match whenever Mitb is.

Io is a fucking star and will outshine everyone, if they let her(big if since WWE loves their tall blondes). The only other wrestler for Stardom on the Japanese side that I think would be successful in WWE is Hana Kimura, but she is technically signed to Wrestle-1 and so you have to go through Keiji Mutoh. Hazuki, Mayu, Kagetsu, Momo, Kyona are all good to awesome, but they will get lost in WWE. Viper and Bea are signed to itv. Toni Storm is already signed to their UK thing. Not sure who else they would target tbh.

[Delirium]

Just watched the Mauro Ranallo: Bi-Polar Rock N Roller documentary on Showtime. It is fantastic.

[Vil]

It's not even about a push to the top. Multiple people can be highlighted at once but WWE won't for whatever reason. It's worse for the women since they have to share time with the men and since Steph has to get her airtime. I hate using Attitude Era references, but anyone can go from let's say 96-06 and see on multiple occasions where multiple people are doing decent storylines. Today it's smiling babyfaces and everyone is happy to be there while a couple get highlighted every week. It makes for boring programming.

The women's division is kind of baffling in general. There's the title chase scenario, there's the neverending/never starting saga of Sasha vs. Bayley, and now nearly everyone else is slotted into random configurations for meaningless matches just because certain people are designated faces and others are allegedly heels. Would the introduction of two tag titles help? In terms of storytelling/characters, probably not that much, but if it could at least be like the 6-man titles in NJPW and (I assume) in ROH, that might not hurt. Even though the last thing they need is more titles with all PPVs being dual brand, the ladies could actually be doing something rather than winning (or losing) against the faces (or heels) only because it's the opposite of what happened in last week's pointless match.

As for the last part, it's so true the "I'm just happy to be here", but while that has always just been a joke for those "wacky internet fans", is that basically Lashley's character now, as actually booked by WWE?

@ Delirium, with the Stardom bit, the scoop is that it's more than Io, though I'm not sure if that just means for the tournament or full contract. Thanks for the clarification on some of those and their dual contracts and whatnot.

I caught the Mauro doc the other night, and I agree. Very well done.

[Xno Kappa]

God I wish WWE would stop with these stupid selfie confessionals.

EDIT: What the fuck? Did they really just go to commercial in the middle of an Elias promo?

EDIT2: Yes! They pulled a 1001 holds Jericho list return lmao.

[Vil]

Yeah, I appreciated him still there and immediately thought of Jericho.

Thankfully Rollins got some new gear. The design was fine, but that color before blew chunks.

Also, one of the things that annoys me about the selfie crap is they put no effort into it at all on the production side. It's basically the same font/color for everyone, right? Maybe it's not, but they often pick colors that look bizarre with them. I shouldn't be surprised considering how the trons (or whatever they're called now) look like they have no effort put into putting their name up there.