General Wrestling VI: Did You Come Here To Fight or Did You Come Here To Drink?

[Vil]

The extra time regular Raw has had the past two or three weeks hasn't been used well, so I'm kinda meh about it staying or going. Not surprised, as after the first episode of it, I think I expected it to last a month tops. Also that other guy that Raw Underground was supposed to get over (Arturo Ruas) was drafted to Raw too.

Anyway, Night 17 of G1:

Spoiler: show

WWE has NCIS lead-in for NXT. NJPW one-ups them by having that girl come down to get involved in the Okada match. Oh, that's just Ospreay's girlfriend. Ugh. It's nice to see Oka back and not in that excursion gimmick, aside from his name. Does this confirm that "Master Wato" is/was a rib/punishment? I'm just so excited for Willy inevitably getting much more mic time. Joy. Having these heel turns this year without the crowd being able to react vocally is an interesting choice.

For the other matches, I'm all for Suzuki/Shingo again maybe at Power Struggle or the Dome. This wasn't as good as their previous match, but I'll forgive them because it's at the end of a tournament where those two did so much only to get so little out of it.

Ibushi/Taichi was fascinating to me. Taichi fascinates me. He's still got the heart of a total troll, but he also likes to sometimes play tough guy and punch above his pay grade. While his success rate doing that is probably not great, he at least is constantly able to hang at that level.

I really dig that main event. As much as I was hoping for Switchblade to win the tournament out of the "likely options", Ishii is the perfect person to stop him on the final night. lol @ commentary saying that Ishii said earlier in the tournament that he always hated Ospreay anyway.

Overall in the block? There were a clear top 6 performers, a gap, then the other 4. The top 6 being Ibushi, then some combo of Suzuki/White/Ishii/Taichi/Shingo. Those 6 were constant quality performers this tournament.

[Vil]

and the G1 finals are set:

Spoiler: show

Ibushi vs. SANADA

Of all the possibilities going into these past two shows, it's the best option not featuring Naito in the finals.

Overall, I think this block may have performed better than the "bestest block ever", but this show was not a strong finish. The main event was weak. KENTA has been good at times this tournament, and Naito has for the most part far exceeded my expectations of him, but I had like 0 memory of that match at all by the end of the show. ZSJ/Tana was like Suzuki/Shingo in that it's a familiar match that they've done better, but both are out of the running so are just getting business done quickly and getting out of there. The first two matches existed. They were just there to balance the points tables a bit.

There's not a huge difference between 2 and 3 wins, but YH deserved a 3rd, rather than the pity final night win just to get his 2nd. Dude was the first person eliminated in the entire G1, while you've got SANADA sleepwalking his way to the final.

[Tyrath]

Watching Smackdown and I was wondering how many times Freak was said. Thank god the internet exists

https://twitter.com/JeansJeansMusic/...35942932332545

[Nitsuki]

Watching Smackdown and I was wondering how many times Freak was said. Thank god the internet exists

https://twitter.com/JeansJeansMusic/...35942932332545

I thought the same thing, good lord how bad...

[Vil]

Yeah, I saw a comment last night during the show that it was straight up video game commentary, where you give the "commentary name" or whatever and that's all they can call you.

[Melena]

So Caristico (ex Mistico & Sin Cara) did the ultimate lucha fuck up. Didn't realize his stream was still running and unmasked himself.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc...cara_unmasked/

[Lucavi]

I thought the same thing, good lord how bad...

Vince in his ear: "SAY IT MORE, YOU CLOWN! SAY IT MORE! MORE FREAK!"

[Vil]

Then one time towards the finish, he called him "Sullivan" and probably got screamed at by Vince for 10 straight minutes.

Ok, so maybe I was wrong, since The Great O-Kahn actually dressed basically the same as he did during excursion.

WK to be two nights again this time around.

G1 Finals:

Spoiler: show

SANADA is such a goddamn pest because he not only does some of those flash pins well, but has enough success with them to be scary. THAT pinfall attempt, whoa. I'm half asleep, so hard to really gauge right now. This was a great, but not quite as good as a few of the others in the past 5 or so years. A lot of shows and hyped matchups during the tournament have been a bit lukewarm, but this was a strong way to end the tournament. The one problem I can think of initially is the same thing with way too many SANADA matches. So much time spent on that terrible Skull End. Trying to get it on, getting it reversed on him, releasing it like an idiot, etc. You could have probably pruned off a good 5-7 minutes and this would have been better for it.

lmao @ Jay White immediately showing up to Ibushi's winner's interview, drinking a Zima with him and predictably telling him that he didn't really win, since he didn't beat him.

[Delirium]

I'm so fucking behind. I've watched literally 0 G1 cards and Im like 14 cards behind on Stardom. Stupid real life keeping me busy

[Vil]

Power Struggle (Nov 7) card released:

Spoiler: show

Yano vs. ZSZ
Suzuki vs. Shingo
Okada vs. Great-O-Khan
KENTA vs. Tanahashi
Ibushi vs. White
Naito vs. EVIL

ZSJ had one of my favorite Yano matches during the tournament and made a point of "acknowledging" the KOPW trophy, so this is fine time-killer for Zack. Suzuki/Shingo before the Dome is unfortunately not a surprise considering they matched up yesterday. Still sounds great. KENTA is a good option for Mox at the Dome. Tana is a great option for Mox at the Dome. Jay White is the first person that I think has a legit shot at winning the G1 case, and all bias aside, I'm not sure it would even be a bad call. Some insist that it should never happen and "invalidates the entire G1" or some BS, but I'm not in that camp. Can this be the end of EVIL please? I was a massive fan of his from 2016-2019, but I'm tired of this.

Notable, seems like the double champ is going through WK. So I guess I'll have to wait til NYD or later for hope that they split the titles somehow.

[Vil]

Where do you go from tapping out immediately in an 8-man tag and then getting beat up by ONE guy? Besides "back to developmental", that is.

Goddamn, AJ's new backup is huge.

[Nitsuki]

Where do you go from tapping out immediately in an 8-man tag and then getting beat up by ONE guy? Besides "back to developmental", that is.

Goddamn, AJ's new backup is huge.

The black ninja went from Tozawa’s ninja, to Shane’s Raw Underground bouncer, to AJs bodyguard lmao

[Vil]

I know Styles isn't tall, but dude is like 2 feet taller than him. Surely they could have had him beat someone else besides Riddle, though he'll just be tagging and playing second fiddle to Jeff Hardy anyway within 2 weeks. Why even bother have that introduction video for him?

Did they really explain Riott Squad (SD people) being on Raw because the title can go either place, so why not have people from there too?

"Peyton, we're breaking up your tag team."
"Oh, I'm getting my push?"
"No, we're putting you in another tag team."

[Nitsuki]

Soooo Peyton gets split from The Iconics to be teamed with Lacey? Ffs

[Melena]

On top of T-Bar tapping, slap jack got straight up knocked the fuck out by cedric with the elbow in the corner.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[NotGreyheim]

Man, I didn't expect the dead silence during "Kaze Ni Nare" to bum me out so badly...

[Tyrath]

Where do you go from tapping out immediately in an 8-man tag and then getting beat up by ONE guy? Besides "back to developmental", that is.

This was so fucking dumb lol

[Tomiko]

Soooo Peyton gets split from The Iconics to be teamed with Lacey? Ffs

Not just that, but when Peyton went to tag her she avoided the tag. Why the fuck did she even go out there then?

Last night was just terrible altogether.

[Lucavi]

All those stupid, silly speeches from them. The stupid names. T-Bar? Good Lord.

Just die, Vince, if you aren't going to transition powers and just sign the checks.

[Vil]

Well, the Ali promo was very good, but when you tie that to this group after all that's gone on with it, does it matter? The way things are set up now, at best Ali has 3 flunkies with him. I have no idea if they're even going to do anything with Mia, though "getting her ass kicked in a mixed tag against Fiend/Alexa" may be up soon.

There's also Keith Lee losing to an injured Braun. If you're going to have Braun win in a dirty manner as the start of the feud, whatever. But there was no need to bring up the beatdown that wasn't even from this angle or on this show. People don't even sell injuries on Raw from a PPV the night before. Now they're doing that with a different show and he still wins despite having a built-in excuse to lose?

Man, I didn't expect the dead silence during "Kaze Ni Nare" to bum me out so badly...

I think the crowd not being able to cheer/boo impacted this tournament a ton for me. Great for Jay White trolling the crowd, but it was seriously missing during matches. I was shocked that he didn't grab a mic and sing along to that part, though I think he knows his limits to provoking Gramps.