WWE Network & NXT Arrival

It would be crazy of me to have a wrestling blog and not talk about the WWE Network launch. It's not a perfect launch, but it's been pretty damn good. I still can't get it to work on my X-Box 360 which is a bummer, but it's working well on my computer and they are improving the experience every day. The first day the search function would show you the matches for a wrestler and then start the PPV the match occurred on. Two days later all the PPVs had bookmarks on the timeline so you could jump to the match you wanted to watch. Today, being Thursday even though this probably goes up after midnight and is on Friday, I searched a match and when I clicked the link it jumped right to the part of the PPV where the match started. So it's pretty awesome so far.

The thing I appreciate the most about the Network is being able to essentially construct best of DVDs for wrestlers that I love that will never get those DVDs. I started my searching with Lance Storm and watched his match against Chris Candido at ECW Heatwave 1998 and just watched most of that show and the first three matches are really good. Beside the match I already mentioned you get Justin Credible vs. Jerry Lynn and Masato Tanaka vs. Mike Awesome. I have a good list of wrestlers I want to search after Storm. Some of them are guys I vaguely remember liking and want to see if they are still good like Lash Leroux, Val Venis,  Essa Rios, and Too Much. But more importantly is the ability to check out people like Storm, Dean Malenko, Christian, and all the other wrestlers that are great in the ring, but didn't have the personality to get them DVDs or big time matches.

The biggest high point for my excitement about the Network was NXT Arrival which aired earlier today. The stream broke for me before the main event, but I can live without that match live, although I do want to see Neville vs. Dallas in a ladder match.

The show started with Cesaro vs. Zayn and that match was so good. It played off the history the two men had facing each other in so many great ways that while the match would be good for somebody watching this as their first exposure it was enhanced by having watched the previous matches. So much good stuff in this match, so there's lots to talk about so I'll try and keep it brief. First off the commentary for this whole show and especially this match was so much better than what the main shows get. Why Regal hasn't gotten called up to the main shows is beyond me. Zayn starts off strong, but of course Cesaro puts a stop to that and then goes to work on the injured knee of Zayn and he does a beautiful job of it. He does some dragon screws and rolls up keeping a hold on the leg and does it again and he has some nice submissions to work the leg without being submission moves you'd expect to end the match. Zayn has an attempted comeback where he's on the apron and gets Cesaro on the outside. Zayn's knee is injured so when he does the dive it's an Arabian Press Moonsault so he doesn't put any more pressure on the leg, unfortunately Cesaro caught him and slammed him onto the ramp. Zayn of course refuses to give up and fights into the ring and they just do more awesome stuff and everybody should watch this match. Kind of bummed Zayn didn't get to pull out the win, but if this match doesn't get him onto RAW before March is over WWE is crazy.

Mojo Rawley beat CJ Parker in a short match which is good because I don't care about CJ Parker.

The Ascension beat Too Cool in a decent tag match. I don't care for the Ascension, but I'm a big Too Cool fan ever since they were Too Much so that helped get me interested in the match. Both teams do their usual stuff it was good enough.

Then we get the Women's Title match between Paige and Emma and it was great. A lot of technical wrestling and submission attempts in this match, so anybody worried about Emma being too much of a comedy wrestler on Raw and Smackdown can put those fears on the backburner. Much like Zayn/Cesaro it had the two competitors countering each other based off their previous matches and they did some beautiful looking counters. Emma is in control for more of this match than their last match and I appreciated it. It's not often Paige plays the face in peril so it was good to see her play it here and Emma puts her in some brutal looking submissions to do it. Best part of the match Emma hitting a sitout powerbomb on Paige for a two count while the crowd chanted "Better than Batista," and she did the move perfectly so the chant fit. Paige fights back and hits the Page Turner, but Emma kicked out and then got put into the Scorpion Deathlock Double Chicken Wing and Emma taps out to an awesome looking submission after a hard fought contest.

There were entrances for Xavier Woods and Tyler Breeze before Rusev came out and beat the shit out of both of them which sucked because Tyler Breeze is awesome. Then the stream died and I missed the main event, but I'll watch it soon and I'm looking forward to it, but even without the main event Arrived is worth the two hour watch time, and the Network is worth the 9.99 a month price tag.

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla TEN: Review

B-Boy, Candice LeRae & Willie Mack vs. Peter Avalon, Joey Ryan & Ryan Taylor

I want to say this is how you start a show, but this match is so awesome, I'm not sure that's actually true. I'm a huge fan of the PWG six man matches though so every time I see one it hits every part of my wrestling enjoyment buttons. Everybody looks awesome and we also get Taylor nailing Scott Lost who's sitting ringside and then Lost comes back to hit an ace crusher on the apron later in the match. B-Boy also hits Taylor with a ridiculously brutal combo of kicks before the ace crusher. Joey and Candice do some great stuff including Candice hitting a beautiful springboard reverse hurrincanranna then doing a suicide dive into a tornado DDT. Willie Mack hits Avalon with a Chocolate Thunder Driver for the win in a super satisfying match that I could watch every day.

Brian Cage vs. Anthony Nese

This match be intense. These two guys are jacked to the gills with muscles, but they can still move and do awesome shit. Nese takes a sick looking bump on the apron when Cage sweeps his feet out on him and he lands face first, it's awesome. Nese pulls out some nice power moves and high flying moves and the power moves look so much more impressive being done on a monster of a man like Cage. Nese looked really impressive with the Fosbury flop to the outside and landing on his feet. Lots of good back and forth action in this match before Cage hits Nese with a buckle bomb and then then Weapon X for the win.

Forever Hooligans vs. RockNES Monsters

This match starts with shenanigans and gets the Hooligans corner spot turning into a fake brawl between them out of the way and from that point on it is fucking hard hitting action. The Monsters look really strong in this match and get a lot of near falls toward the end, but it's not enough to overcome Azucar and Koslov. Awesome stuff from all four men and it is a joy to watch this unfold. I really like the finisher that the Hooligans use. It just looks painful.

Michael Elgin vs. AR Fox

The classic battle of speed versus strength, but it's better considering you have one of the strongest and one of the fastest guys in this match. Fox does some big dives and lands on his feet to make them look even more impressive. Elgin does his delayed vertical suplex and holds Fox up for approximately forever if I counted correctly. Fox doesn't just go with speed and dives though, he gets some big moves in and they go back and forth perfectly before the brutal ending where Fox is on the top rope and Elgin nails him with two hard backfists then hits a top rope powerbomb for the win. Just great stuff from these two guys.

Johnny Gargano & Chuck Taylor vs. Paul London & Brian Kendrick

A fun tag team match between these two teams which may have best opening of any match ever. The tag belts are suspended above the ring for the main event ladder match so Gargano gets on Taylor's shoulders and Kendrick gets on London's as they try to grab the belts and then Taylor and Kendrick start wrestling on there and it's phenomenal. Good wrestling throughout this match with some fun shenanigans as well. Nice to see a match that doesn't try to be epic on a PWG show and this fit that bill well and was just good fun.

Kyle O'Reilly vs. TJ Perkins

If you like techinical wrestling you have to watch this match. The beginning of this match is just super slick catch as catch can wrestling and these guys make it happen fast and smooth. TJ is probably the best wrestler who loses almost every match he's in. Lots of great back and forth until O'Reilly catches TJ on the apron and twists his arm down over the top rope and starts to work the injured body part. Perkins eventually makes a come back and they start to go back and forth with near falls before O'Reilly counters a frog splash with double knees and then hits one of his crazy combos with like 15 moves in a minute and when Perkin's kicks out O'Reilly spins right into the cross armbreaker to get the submission. Fantastic match between these two which showcases submissions, strikes, and wrestling and is just a delight to watch. Definitely the best match on the show.

Adam Cole vs. Kevin Steen vs. Drake Younger (PWG Championship, Guerrilla Warfare Match)

If you like violence, piledrivers, and hard hitting action, this is the match for you. It starts off with Steen and Younger working together to beat the living shit out of Cole all around the Legion Hall. The truce doesn't last forever and it becomes a real three way match and everybody gets hurt violently. Lots of near falls, but I like that they are ended by the third guy interfering instead of just a kick out, because a lot of the moves they take are huge. Best example being when Cole does the flipping piledriver to Younger through a table, Steen pulls Cole out of the ring, hits the apron powerbomb then rolls in to cover Drake for a two count. The end of the match is perfect. Steen gets Cole up on the top rope and hits Generico's top rope brainbuster for a two count before Younger pulls him out of the ring. Young goes for the cover, but Cole rolls him up with a crucifix pin and gets a quick three count to retain the belt.

The Young Bucks vs. Dojo Bros vs. Inner-City Machine Guns (PWG Tag Championship, Ladder Match)

Like most tag team ladder matches this thing is like watching a car crash in the best possible way. Lots of action from everybody to start the match with dives and craziness, but it doesn't take long before a ladder makes its way into the ring followed by an even bigger ladder, because that's how ladder matches work. Rich Swann seems to take the biggest beating out of everybody involved. I loved Nick Jackson saying he got it while the ladder was being pushed over in reference to his normal falling off a ladder then springboarding off the top rope onto everybody, but instead missing and crotching himself on the top rope. The ladders are used well, but not relied upon for the match which was nice. The end sequence is a little bit flat as Matt low blows Edwards and then superkicks him and Roddy while Nick climbs up to grab the belts.

Surprise, surprise a PWG show is awesome and you should buy the DVD. Lots of good stuff on this show and it seems a little more varied than some of the other PWG shows which can be a lot of hard hitting mile a minute matches.

RoH Border Wars 2013

Nothing says timely like a review seven months after the show happened. I might have a review of PWG TEN tomorrow depending on if I get my highspots.com delivery tomorrow or not.

ACH & Tadarius Thomas vs. Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander

Fast paced tag opener to start the match and Coleman and Alexander pick up the win after Coleman leaps up to the top and hurrincanrannas ACH off the top and Alexander hits a springboard frog splash. A fine match from all involved and a good way to start the show. I don't dig the team of Coleman and Alexander, they are just too similar as wrestlers. ACH and Thomas are both high flyers, but nothing like each other with ACH being flippy and super charismatic and Thomas with all his capoeria kicks.

Roderick Strong vs. Mike Bennett

Another solid match in the show between these two guys. I've really enjoyed Bennett since he came back from the break he took. He's really cut down on how much heel stuff he does outside of the ring to jaw jack with fans, but still has that slow heel style that works well. These guys do some good brawling on the outside and Bennett hits an impressive spinebuster from the floor onto the apron. Some shenanigans at the end, but Roderick picks up the win with the sick kick and that's the important part, Strong winning.

Rhett Titus vs. BJ Whitmer (I Quit Match)

Despite the stipulation this is pretty much just a standard brawl between these two guys. They do it well, but with an I Quit Match you want something more and it never happens in this match. Plus the ending is horseshit. Titus grabs some zip ties, but Whitmer stops him and then ties Titus to the ropes. He grabs a chair to wallop him, but Corino comes out to take the shots and instead Titus quits which is immediately followed by Jacobs and Compton attacking and then right into the next match. Why didn't they attack before Titus quits? Or free him? I don't know and I don't think anybody does. Just a blah match all around.

Jay Lethal & Michael Elgin vs. Jimmy Jacobs & Cliff Compton

It's all Lethal and Elgin to start the match and it starts hot and they do some awesome brawling on the outside before going into the ring and the RoH team keeps the advantage and Elgin gives both SCUM members a delayed vertical suplex. Lethal does a suicide dive and hurts his leg and is helped to the back. Elgin keeps the advantage all on his own for a bit, but eventually the numbers turn on him. Elgin has Jacobs on his back with a sleeper hold but Elgin doesn't care and grabs Compton and hits a deadlift german suplex and crushes Jacobs as well. Steen comes out and becomes Elgin's partner and comes in hot. Steen goes for a package piledriver, but Jacobs cuts his knees out and rolls him up for a quick three count. An exciting good match from these men. Elgin looked very impressive as he always does.

Eddie Edwards vs. Taiji Ishimori

This match was awesome. Hard hitting, athletic, and tons of near falls, everything I like to see in a wrestling match. Ishimori's chest gets lit up and is a nice bright red color from Edwards chops after the match. Ishimori hits an awesome meteora from the top and lands perfectly to stay on top of Eddie for a two count. A nice sequence of hard kicks from each other that ends with Ishimori hitting a reverse hurrincanranna that Edwards stands up from and delivers a lariat that leaves both men down on the mat. The finishing sequence is Edwards hitting Ishimori with everything and then some including a hurrincanranna from the top with them both standing up on the top. Ishimori then kicks out of a powerbomb followed by a sitout powerbomb so Edwards hits the Die Hard Driver for the win. Just great stuff from both men and so far the best match of the show.

Matt Taven vs. Mark Briscoe

I'm pretty sure Matt Taven is a good wrestler, but from his title defenses I haven't been able to find out. Mark Briscoe beats the shit out of Taven for almost the entire match all of Taven's offense comes in after Martini interference. Taven works Briscoe's right arm for a bit, but Briscoe doesn't give a single fuck and when he starts his comeback it's all about red neck kung fu with his right arm. The ending comes when the Hoopla Hotties get on the apron and makeout so Taven gets an Oklahoma roll with a handful of tights for the win. Just a squash where the guy getting squashed picks up the win after shenanigans. RoH is not doing Taven any favors with this title run.

Davey Richards vs. Paul London

This match is awesome. Davey accepts that people hate him and plays dick heel well. They start off with some nice chain wrestling and then both men do what they do best. Richards kicks really hard, and London does some cool high flying. I want to say the ending sequence has some cool stuff, but since London get's legit fucked up during it, I'm not a huge fan of it. London goes to headscissors Richards out of the ring and lands on his feet holding Richards for a tombstone then Richards flips over and hits a tombstone on the outside. London gets onto the apron and Richards goes for a double stomp and one of his feet misses the chest and hits London in the face and concusses him. But still they go to the top and London flips over Richards with a powerbomb then goes for a shooting star press and takes knees to the chest and Richards rolls over for the pin. Great to see London back in RoH and a fun match to watch knowing London ends up being okay afterward.

Jay Briscoe vs. Adam Cole

A good match between these two with Cole working the leg of Briscoe to setup the figure four. Briscoe does a good job of selling the leg and gets his hope spot when they fight onto the apron and he hits a big DVD there. Briscoe keeps starting comebacks, but Cole just gives him a shot to the knee and takes back over. The end closes in as Cole hits a top rope german suplex, then delivers a superkick, followed by a superkick to the back of the head, and then the bridging straight jacket german suplex for a two count. Cole goes for the figure four but Briscoe pushes him off and into the ref. Corino comes down and offers Cole a SCUM shirt, but Nigel trips Corino on the top rope and hits the Tower of London. Cole turns around and Briscoe hits the Jay Driller for the win. Just such a shitty fucking ending to this match.

I don't know how I feel about this show. It does have two really good matches in Richards/London and Ishimori/Edwards. The main event is really good until a shitty ending, and the SCUM vs, RoH tag match is good, but it's pretty okay stuff and not great. I want to say pass on it, but the two great matches are just so good. So if you've got the disposable income for lots of wrestling pick it up, but if not you can find better wrestling in PWG and other RoH shows.

RoH has been the biggest indy promotion for so long and they still can't balance their cameras so the lighting doesn't look completely different on every camera, it's infuriating. Or they do the lighting poorly, I don't really know which it is. I hate Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuiness on commentary. I'm also tired of how much interference there is in RoH matches. I know the idea of what RoH is has changed, but goddamn just give me the best wrestling without all these horse shit finishes.

Major League Wrestling: Reloaded Tour Day 1

Stampede Bulldogs vs. Bobby Quance & Puma

A fun back and forth match between two good teams right here. Puma plays the face in peril and Quance gets a nice hot tag. Puma and Quance get a close near fall with a tombstone from Puma and a follow up shooting star press from Quance before Harry Smith makes the save. The Bulldogs end up with the win after a springboard blockbuster sitout powerbomb combo for the pinfall. An exciting way to open up the show.

Shane Twins vs. Criado & Chad Hart

Then we get this where the Shane Twins use their power to dominate the match until one of the Shane's misses a running clothesline in the corner and Chad Hart rolls him up and has his feet on the ropes for the three count. Quick match, not much too it, and not much fun to watch.

Chayson Rance vs. PJ Friedman vs. Matt Martel

Really short match between these three, but it had some nice comedy of Friedman and Martel beating up Rance and pulling each other off from making the cover. Friedman hits Martel with a sick exploder suplex and then Persephone gets on the ringside and hits Friedman with her heel and Rance rolls him up for a quick pin. Super short match, but had some nice spots.

Roderick Strong & M-Dogg 20 vs. Dark Fuego & Pete Wilson

A back and forth match between these two teams that gets a lot of time. Wilson looks pretty weak on offense, like he doesn't really know what to do, but when it's Strong lighting him up with chops and throwing him around it is glorious. They do some brawling on the outside which is highlight first by how Wilson ends up out there which is Strong nailing him with a powerbomb then picking him up and flipping him out of the ring and onto Fuego, and then after some brawling Fuego and Wilson go up on the second level and moonsault off onto Strong and M-Dogg. The ending is a little weak as Strong and M-Dogg go for a big boot on Fuego, but he ducks and they kick each other then Fuego and Wilson hit 450 splashes for the win. Good work from all these guys taking a match where the crowd was booing some decent back and forth technical stuff from M-Dogg and Wilson to the beginning to making the crowd super hot for everything they were doing. Lots of fun to watch.

Chad Collyer vs. Chris Hero

Wrestling! Exactly the kind of match you'd expect from two awesome technical wrestlers and they do some smooth chain wrestling at the beginning before kicking it up a notch. Everything is crisp and just looks really good. Hero picks up the win when he counters a vertical suplex into the Hero's Welcome. Chad Collyer is a wrestler I love to watch and I wish he had gotten a big break in one of the bigger indy promotions.

Sonjay Dutt vs. Jack Evans

We get a flippy spotty match from these two and it's one of those nights where Evans isn't on his game and it's pretty sloppy. Even the ref gets in on botching the rollup finale so Dutt hits a standing shooting star press to get the three count. Not a bad match, but nothing that good either.

Havana Pitbulls vs. Los Maximos

Solid match from these two tag teams as Los Maximos were on their game and didn't mess up any spots, but they didn't go for any high spots so that definitely helped them out. Finish comes by way of Reyes hitting a Maximo with a backbreaker and then Romero comes off the top with a knee drop for the three count.

American Dragon vs. Teddy Hart

Oh God! Teddy Hart beats Bryan Danielson by submission, I'm so sad. Still it's a good match between these two and it's really intense from the get go with awesome back and forth chain wrestling and Danielson laying in some stiff looking shots. Danielson controls the match until he rips off Teddy Hart's stupid pants and then Hart starts a come back and hits a corkscrew plancha followed up by the shooting star DDT that Danielson avoids into the cattle mutilation, but Hart escapes and gets the submission by armbar.

Jerry Lynn vs. Mike Modest

Decent back and forth between these two before Homicide interferes and distracts Lynn so Modest can roll him up and get a pinfall with a handful of tights.

Steve Corino & Sabu vs. Raven & Vampiro (#1 Contender Match)

This is the dumbest fucking match ever. So Corino is the champ and whoever gets the pinfall gets a title shot except for Raven because Corino used his stroke as champ to stop him from getting that. And whoever gets pinned can't fight for the belt for six months. Corino keeps laying down for Raven and the tag partners keep fighting each other. The match ends when Sabu legdrops Corino through the table and then Vampiro DDTs Raven and puts him on top of Corino so Raven wins, but doesn't get a title shot and then Vampiro beats the shit out of Raven after the match and demands they go one on one at some point in the future. Just a bad concept for a match, although everything is done well it's just too convoluted and takes away from the wrestling.

Homicide vs. Low Ki

And then we get to the main event and these two do what they do which is good stuff. They bring the physicality and go all out for this match. Homicide hits his tope con hilo and kicks a fan as he goes over the guardrail, but it's cool he gives her a hug before going back to beating up Low Ki. Ki escapes the cop killa a couple of times and the second time locks in the dragon sleeper, but Homicide rolls him over to get the three count while still in the submission. After the match there are shenanigans. Jerry Lynn comes out for revenge, but Low Ki stops him because he and Homicide and buddies and just wanted to see who was the better wrestler. But then Gary Hart comes out and has Homicide and Ki beat the shit out of a 'fan' and then Homicide hits Court Bauer, the promoter, over the head with a broom and then they spit on him a bit and talk about how they don't care what he wants he's bringing violence to MLW.

Overall it's a pretty solid show from MLW. In general every MLW show has way too many matches for the amount of time the show lasts, but this time it cut short the matches that deserved to be short and the good matches got enough time although I would have liked to see Danielson vs. Hart and Collyer vs. Hero go for a bit longer. So if you can find this bad boy for cheap think about grabbing it. It's worth the time spent watching it even for an almost ten year old indy show.

Lucha Libre Thoughts

I haven't been watching whole shows, at least not with the intent of reviewing them lately so I've been pretty quiet on here, but I have been watching wrestling so I should write something. I've watched the three PWG DVDs that have come out, those being TEN, and BOLA Nights 1 & 2 so I'll get reviews of those soon. And of course I watch RAW and sometimes Impact if I'm not at work. The biggest addition to my wrestling watching schedule has been CMLL on Fridays at 9:30 PM that you can stream on terra.mx The actual link changes every week and if you can't read Spanish it's probably tough to find so you have to follow people on twitter with the link, which I do. I also retweet the link when I see it pop up so if you want to watch you can follow me here https://twitter.com/magell2 Or just follow me until a Friday when I retweet the link and you can go right to the source.

I'd love to do full reviews of the shows, especially the 80th anniversary show which was the first one they streamed and the one that got me watching, but I don't have the background in Lucha Libre to really know how to do that, but I do enjoy the style and I'm hoping I'll pick up enough watching the part that they stream which tends to be about an hour and a half to two hours. I'm still getting used to the wrestlers and identifying them, but it's interesting. The biggest adjustment is the style of Lucha as it is quite different from US and Japanese wrestling, it always seems a little more fake as the moves require more work from both men, but I still enjoy it a lot.

Everybody is a high flyer of some kind in this style and the wrestling is very smooth and fast paced and it's a nice change of pace to watch every once in a while. I haven't watched a lot of lucha before this, some random matches on youtube and a couple of matches from Rey and Eddie DVDs WWE put out. The CMLL 80th anniversary show was a good introduction, although my reaction toward getting La Sombra vs. Volador Jr, probably because I didn't know what was promoted ahead of time until learning about the tag match winners getting to face each other, and the fact that I loved the matches Sombra had against Shinsuke Nakamura. You can watch the Sombra/Volador match here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S4qD4Py4Q8 and I recommend you do because it was great. If I read things correctly this was also the show where they debuted the new Mistico and he did really well and the crowd reacted positively for him. I really enjoyed this show as a whole, and I think it being my first foray into Lucha really helped that. I like being able to follow CMLL fairly regularly so I hope this stream thing continues, because it is one of the best streams I've watched and I've had almost no problems with it which is impressive for a free stream and my bad internet connection.

CMLL has a couple of things that bother me about the product and neither is the fault of the wrestlers. First is the fact that every match is two out of three falls and follows a pretty basic formula. Rudos get fall one, Tecnicos get fall two, and then somebody gets fall three after a bit. The first two falls are also pretty short. That aspect is made worse by the fact that there are lots of six man tags and those require that a fall requires either the captain or both other members of the team be pinned or submitted, although there are lots of simultaneous pins/submissions for a team. The second and much bigger problem is the refs. First of all the counts for pinfalls are super slow and drive me crazy, it really takes a lot of emotion out of near falls. Secondly they don't seem to give a shit about any rules. A whole team will come in without any tag to beat up a tecnico and the ref won't stop them and the other tecnico's just hangout on the apron. I guess it's just a quirk of the product I'll have to get used to even though it drives me crazy. Even crazier than ref's in US Japan ignoring a face tag because they didn't see it and then allowing a heel tag they didn't see.

I regularly listen to the MLW podcast which you can find at mlw.com which features the booker of the now defunct MLW promotion Court Bauer, Konnan, and Mister Saint Laurent and is generally pretty interesting. Konnan is the booker for AAA or maybe a booker I'm not completely sure, but he is important in the company and they are definitely coming to the USA next year and from what I've heard March is the target date and I'm excited as it should mean Lucha on TV and an actual alternative to WWE and not just the pretend alternative that TNA is. I haven't watched a lot of AAA because they don't have an easy way for me to watch in in America like CMLL does, but I'm always willing to give new wrestling promotions a chance and I'm looking forward to its debut.

TEW Fantasy Draft

With my cousin, brother and sister we have created a four player draft of all the wrestlers going and each of us got 25 to create our cult level promotion in the addicting and awesome game of Total Extreme Warfare 2005 which you can download here http://www.greydogsoftware.com/tew/ and then you can download real world stats here http://www.ewbattleground.com/index.php?%2Ftopic%2F92076-tew05-real-world-update-july-2013%2F I'll probably throw updates for how the game is going every time we get through a month as the person who gains the most popularity and makes the most money will get to sign a free agent. So now I will present the drafts. The order went Jeff (brother), Emily (Sister), Rob (Cousin), Kevin (Me) based on our knowledge of wrestling. The order alternated by rounds so with numbers it went 1,2,3,4,2,3,4,1,3,4,1,2 and so on that way so everybody got first pick in some rounds and second in others. Everybody also got to use a tag team pick once where they go both members of a tag team, but then lost their next turn.

So for background on all of us to figure out how we made our picks. Jeff hasn't watched wrestling in a long time until I came up with the idea to do this so he mostly used old knowledge and then searched rosters and apparently picked either popular or big wrestlers.

Emily has been a wrestling fan for almost a year because she lives with me and my force of will made that happen. Her picks are largely influences by how attractive the wrestlers are, and also she thinks Kane is cool.

Rob is good wrestling fan so he knows what he's doing, but is a little weak in Japanese wrestling.

Kevin watches too much wrestling. That's why I have a blog dedicated to the wrestling I watch.

Jeff
1. CM Punk
2. Jeff Hardy
3. Randy Orton
4. Cody Rhodes
5. Dean Ambrose
6. Jay Briscoe (Tag Pick)
7. Mark Briscoe (Tag Pick)
8. The Miz
9. Bully Ray
10. Sheamus
11. Christian
12. Curtis Axel
13. Gunner
14. Ryback
15. Abyss
16. TJ Perkins
17. Kazarian
18. Rob Terry
19. Titus O'Neill
20. Darren Young
21. Mr. Anderson
22. Zack Ryder
23. Sting
24. Jey Uso
25. Jimmy Uso

Emily
1. John Cena
2. Antonio Cesaro
3. Seth Rollins
4. Roman Reigns
5. Magnus
6. Wade Barrett
7. Sin Cara
8. Kofi Kingston
9. Kane
10. Davey Richards
11. Alberto Del Rio
12. Takashi Sugiura
13. Shelton Benjamin
14. Justin Gabriel (Tag Pick)
15. Tyson Kidd (Tag Pick)
16. Caprice Coleman
17. Masaki Mochicuzi
18. Johnny Gargano
19. Curt Hawkins
20. Mike Bennett
21. La Mascara
22. Matt Morgan
23. Rey Mysterio
24. Santino Marella
25. Yoshi Tatsu

Rob
1. Daniel Bryan
2. Austin Aries
3. Kevin Steen
4. Dolph Ziggler
5. Mark Henry
6. Bray Wyatt
7. Luke Harper (Tag Pick)
8. Eric Rowan (Tag Pick)
9. Chris Sabin
10. Chris Hero
11. Damien Sandow
12. Kyle O'Reilly
13. Bobby Fish
14. James Storm
15. Hiroshi Tanahashi
16. Rocky Romero
17. Alex Koslov
18. Christopher Daniels
19. Kazuchika Okada
20. MVP
21. Kenny King
22. Tomassa Ciampa
23. William Regal
24. Fandango
25. Karl Anderson

Kevin
1. Samoa Joe
2. AJ Styles
3. Michael Elgin
4. Nick Jackson (Tag Pick)
5. Matt Jackson (Tag Pick)
6. El Generico
7. Bobby Roode
8. Roderick Strong
9. Alex Shelley
10. Eddie Edwards
11. Adam Cole
12. Ricochet
13. Rich Swann
14. KENTA
15. Colt Cabana
16. Shinsuke Nakamura
17. Naomichi Marafuji
18. Samuray Del Sol
19. Kota Ibushi
20. Paul London
21. Brian Kendrick
22. Player Uno
23. Stupified
24. Jimmy Jacobs
25. Kurt Angle

I don't know how Kurt Angle fell of Jeff's radar. Rob forgot he was an active wrestler and I was mad at him because I was playing some TEW earlier with the TNA roster and he wouldn't job to Samoa Joe so I was made at him. I wanted to take Brian Cage so I'd have the farthest apart tag team connection with Elgin and Cage, but I couldn't not take Angle. I overestimated how little Rob knew about Japanese wrestling and lost out on Tanahashi so I made sure I got Nakamura. I also let TJ Perkins go too far. I only drafted one WWE wrestler and that is El Generico from NXT. I also went for a lot of tag teams with the idea of creating stables like Dragongate has.

NJPW G1 Climax 23

Last week New Japan Pro Wrestling had their G1 climax and I've slowly been making my way through the shows that they've presented and I haven't been making awesome headway, but I have been making headway. So far I've watched Day 2 and Day 4, and I started with those because of the early hype for those shows and they live up to it. I've seen a couple of matches from Day 1 as well. My major thought coming out of those matches is that Tomohiro Ishii is the shit and I am now a fan of his. I've seen three of his matches and all of them were awesome. Day 1 vs. Lance Archer was a match where I didn't expect much from either man and it was just fun to watch. Day 2 vs. Tanahashi was fucking awesome and fit the main event perfectly. Loved to see Tanahashi play the heel and there were so many near falls which I love before Ishii won with the Steiner Driver. Day 4 had the match vs. Shibata which Meltzer gave 5* and while I think it was a good match I wouldn't go that far, but only because I liked a match on that same show better.

And that match is Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi. Nakamura is just awesome with everything he does in the ring and the way these two played off each other was awesome. Nakamura was a dick to Ibushi earlier playing to his size and strength advantage, and that made it all the better when Ibushi took control of the match and did the same dick shit to Nakamura. Near falls abounded in this match and then we get my favorite finish in all of wrestling which is the sequence of moves which are all finishers before getting the pinfall. Nakamura hits two flying knees off the top rope before just hitting the running knee he is known for to get the three count and it is just phenomenal.

Not everything is about having the absolute best match on the show and everybody on these shows is delivering. Toru Yano has been entertaining me a lot with his delightful cheating to win matches. His match against Takahashi was a delight of the two of them trying to out cheat each other and the crowds enjoyment of that. On a similar note I really enjoyed the Tanahashi vs. Devitt match. Captain New Japan's shenanigans to counter Fale's shenanigans were awesome. The best part was obviously Tanahashi coming to the ring on Captain's shoulders like Devitt does on Fale's, but he just made it a more fun match.

Naito has had some good matches, but both were flawed. His match against Ibushi was awesome except Naito spent a lot of time working Ibushi's leg and then Ibushi made his come back and was like, fuck that shit I'm not selling my leg, but still it was a lot of fun with a great finishing run. Then Naito's match against Suzuki was similar, but with Suzuki working Naito's leg and Naito not wanting to sell, but except for the inability to sell the leg injury during the match the action was good and had a hot finish and was fun to watch, which is always the bigger concern, although I would prefer to see damage sold than not.

Overall everything I've watched has been solid to great and that's impressive considering I've watched 7 hours of wrestling from the tournament so far. Even the short matches are well done. Shelton Benjamin vs. Karl Anderson was only like 7 minutes, but it perfectly sold a story of Benjamin knowing the ace crusher is going to finish him and avoiding the move whenever Anderson tries it. If you like wrestling watch these shows. If you don't like wrestling and want to see why people love it watch all of Day four of this tournament and you'll know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyGwpDkxS-4&list=TLL01jqrE72Ig