I mean, if you canāt trust Vince Russo then who can you trust?
(Non-wrestling fans who stumble upon this: please do not trust Vince Russo as he will swerve you mercilessly.)
never listened to Talk is Jericho before but i couldnāt resist hearing the Moxley episode and itās fascinating to hear his perspective as a major WWE star feeling trapped and unhappy, knowing that his days at the company are numbered. you can hear the relief in his voice.
Dean (much like the other Shield guys) was always someone who i liked but never really cared to follow in any meaningful way and hearing him talk about his creative unhappiness and script issues, you see why. you see how goofy they turned his character, how awful Vinceās influence is on promos (somehow even worse lines about Romanās leukemia that ended up cut??), trying to burying him on the way out and all these things that we all knew happened behind the scenes but itās great hearing it from one of their former top stars, finally free and happy in a brand new venture.
seems like everyone else feels the same way too
The only TIJ episode I listened to was the Benoit one with Benoitās wifeās sister and that was some hard listening, but well worth it.
I will check out the Moxley one though because Jericho seemed like a pretty good interviewer when he has a topic he cares about.
Jericho barely talks in this one, Moxely is chomping at the bit to spill his frustrations about being in WWE. he only really chips in to agree with some of the stuff heās saying
Knowing enough to just let people talk is definitely part of doing a good interview. Too bad I am in a meeting all day tomorrow so wonāt get to listen for awhile.
hell of a brawl, and what a cool entrance for Moxley. he looks reborn.
The whole show was good. Osprey-Shingo was nuts. Kinda funny that the screen cap for the Moxley match gives away the end, but itās still worth watching.
jesus, that BOSJ final was electric
i find Osprey personally obnoxious but heās undeniably one of greatest and seems to really love putting his whole body in beautiful jeopardy. i figured heād be the one to stop Shingoās streak, but towards the end of the match it really felt like it couldāve gone either way! Shingo continues to look like the absolute coolest and strongest dude.
happy first match, Ex-Dean, you finally look and sound like the Stone Cold you were probably always supposed to be
Yeah, Osprey comes off as kinda a dick, but then he can do amazing shit so it seems justified. His post match speech was great, just for watching him get super pumped with himself for saying āIām moving to Japanā in Japanese and not completely fucking it up. Shingo looked like a total beast though, and they played well off of each other, so it was a solid match.
The not-Dean match was pretty solid, and him and Juice were having fun calling some audibles on things. I did appreciate that the katakana for his intro (and the Japanese announcer) just called him Dean Ambrose. Itās always refreshing when they just acknowledge these wrestlers have had lives outside of the current promotion.
Also, minor spoilers but I am not gonna bother hiding:
RIP Juiceās hair.
DEATHU RIDER
I watched the match last night and while I do kinda think Juice carried most of it (heās underrated as hell over here I think, love his promos too), I do think Mox did about as good a job as you could possibly expect for an old CZW guy coming straight off WWE into a high profile NJPW match. I really really didnāt like him in WWE for reasons which heās mostly all pointed out in his interviews since leaving so itāll be cool to see how he handles having some creative control.
Also, any kind of Implant DDT has been my #1 favorite wrestling finisher since I saw Gangrel do it 20+ years ago so Iām a little biased there as well.
This is me being way to concerned with tiny details but I was curious as to how MOXās worked strikes would look outside of WWE as theyāve gottenā¦ mediocre at best over the past several years, and I feel like I still donāt know as he basically just kept hitting Juice legit in the skull a lot. I hope he bought Juice a drink or a concussion screening afterwards as Juice went above and beyond making him look good.
BTW I have probably said this over the years every place except SB, so let me take this opportunity to say that one of my least favorite things in wrestling is the refereeing in NJPW. I get taking out of so many of their matches trying to work out the internal logic of the almost purely theoretical DQs and countouts, I swear the ref rolls a die of some sort before deciding whether he should start a 20 count or not.
Anything involving interference or rule breaking is usually fucking terrible in NJPW. Exceptions being stuff like Tanahashi doing nutshots after getting nutshot himself. Youād think theyād be better at it after years of Bullet Club (and to a lesser extent LIJ) but no. It sucks shit. Woulda been nice if Red Shoes flipping the bird during the G1 lead to less stupid refereeing but nope.
I thought Juice came out of that match looking like a huge fucking star and if the US title just becomes the idiot gaijin garbage brawl championship I think it would be very good.
Really loved the top 3 matches of that show which is something I did not expect cuz not many things can hold my attention lately and now I am looking forward to Sundayās big show, which I may watchā¦on-lineā¦in a chatroomā¦if anyone actually expresses interest (if you know what I mean.)
Juice Robinson, one of the best promos in the biz today
This was one of the funny things in the AEW show as well, in how the announcers had to keep talking about ārefereeās discretionā any time anything illegal happened. The Cody-Dustin match was hilarious for this because they didnāt even pretend that Hebner was going to count them out.
Juice has a really good way of coming out looking like a star in these things, and it is great. And yeah, I am all for the garbage bullshit brawl US title forever. Just let these idiots do dumb shit and donāt even pretend the ref is there.
I am super hyped for Dominion, but probably wonāt get to watch it till like Sunday night, but that is OK with me. Depending on when it is being watched āonlineā¦in a chat roomā¦if you know what he meansā, I might join in that?
I canāt fuck with NJPW hours but Iām always down to catch a restream at some point.
I have a bit of an attachment towards Undertaker as when I was a kid he was the only wrestler my dad showed any enthusiasm towards.
May he please stop wrestling before someone dies.