The Wrestling Thread

[Raging Justice]

Really cool seeing Jordynne Grace, Iyo Sky, Giulia, and Roxane Perez in a match together on NXT this week. Iyo was super over, much like Stephanie was on Raw last night. Stephanie has two Raw appearances so far, and she's gotten "This is Awesome" chants both times. Steph and Iyo are really bringing a lot of fun to the women's division, and with Giulia and Roxanne both making appearances on Raw as well as Stephanie, feels like the two of them will be called up soon. That's probably why Roxanne has been jobbing to everybody in NXT recently, including Iyo tonight. She's gonna be on the main roster soon no doubt.

I don't see Stephanie leaving NXT just yet as she's on her first title reign, but it is interesting that she keeps popping up on Raw to wrestle people. Honestly, she already kind of feels too big for NXT already

[Reprise]

Call me cynical, but I think TKO is quite enjoying this TNA partnership. They aren't going to buy TNA lol. Why would they? What benefit is there? In their partnership, they get to 1. Build them up, in order to carve into AEW's position. It inadvertently hurts AEW 2. Continue to cut spending by releasing a whole bunch of talent, but push for TNA to sign them, thus allowing them to continue to utilise that talent without spending a penny on them and 3. Puts them in a prime position to pick up TNA's best talent, getting in first and starving AEW of new signings.

But yeah, the main reason I am writing this is because of all those releases WWE just did. There is so many of them, but I reckon TNA will pick up at least half of them, if not more. And then WWE will be able to continue using them and can pick them back up whenever (it ever) they want.

Smart.

[Raging Justice]

Call me cynical, but I think TKO is quite enjoying this TNA partnership. They aren't going to buy TNA lol. Why would they? What benefit is there? In their partnership, they get to 1. Build them up, in order to carve into AEW's position. It inadvertently hurts AEW 2. Continue to cut spending by releasing a whole bunch of talent, but push for TNA to sign them, thus allowing them to continue to utilise that talent without spending a penny on them and 3. Puts them in a prime position to pick up TNA's best talent, getting in first and starving AEW of new signings.

But yeah, the main reason I am writing this is because of all those releases WWE just did. There is so many of them, but I reckon TNA will pick up at least half of them, if not more. And then WWE will be able to continue using them and can pick them back up whenever (it ever) they want.

Smart.

That all makes a lot of sense actually. I wonder if Rebellion was any good. I haven't actually watched it. I know that somebody almost had a career ending injury (or worse)

People are raving about All Star Queendom. Meltzer rated the main event 5 and a quarter stars. Broke his scale again. I'm not saying people should put too much stock in his ratings, but he rarely gives out ratings like that for women's matches ESPECIALLY ones from Japan. He also gave Iyo/Bianca/Ripley from Mania 5 stars, slightly below that Tam Nakano/Saya Kamitani match. Strong month for the ladies. Iyo and company saved this shitty Wrestlemania. All Star Queendom had Meiko Satomura on it. So, this was Mayu Iwatani, Tam Nakano, AND Meiko Satomura's last Stardom matches. Legendary careers. Though Mayu's already wrestling in Marigold so less of a big deal for her.

[Raging Justice]

https://wrestlingheadlines.com/moty-say ... am-nakano/

[Reprise]

Interesting. I have never watched much Stardom, but I might check out the match and see if there are any Youtube videos that cover their history.

[Raging Justice]

Interesting. I have never watched much Stardom, but I might check out the match and see if there are any Youtube videos that cover their history.

I feel like awesome retirement matches could be a fun rabbit hole to go down. Most people agree that Sting's retirement match was awesome, so much so that they even gave it a shout out on WWE television, and reaction to Tam's last match (which I think I'm going to watch today) has been extremely positive. I also posted an awesome one once in this thread between Combat Toyoda and Megumi Kudo where Combat Toyoda retired. It's an interesting subject given the number of retirements and last matches we've had in the past two weeks with Mayu Iwatani, Tam Nakano, Tetsuya Naito, and Meiko Satomura all retiring from their respective promotions or ending their careers entirely. Kind of weird that these departures and career endings coincide with WWE releasing a bunch of people.

Anyway, It's kind of interesting that some people have been saying that Meltzer doesn't typically give out five star ratings for women's matches and yet has done a few this year. I never actually realized that Dave doesn't typically give those out for women's matches until people started pointing it out recently. I think the topic has come up due to the back to back 5 star women's matches we had at Wrestlemania and Stardom's All Star Grand Queendom (actually 5 and a quarter for that one). Here's a list of the ones that have received them from him in the past 30 years including the ones that received it this year:

5 1/2 - Utami Hayashishita vs. Syuri - STARDOM Tokyo Dream Cinderella 2021 Special Edition

5 - Iyo Sky vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Bianca Belair - WrestleMania 41 - Night 2

5 - Toni Storm vs. Mariah May - AEW Revolution 2025

5 - Saya Kamitani vs. Tam Nakano (Loser Leaves STARDOM)- STARDOM Nighter In Korakuen 2025

5 1/4 - Tam Nakano vs. Saya Kamitani (Career vs Career World of Stardom title match) All Star Queendom 2025

5 - Tam Nakano, Saori Anou, and Natsupoi vs. AZM, Starlight Kid, and Miyu Amasaki - STARDOM Supreme Fight 2025

5 - Manami Toyota vs. Kyoko Inoue - AJW G*Top 2nd 1995

5 - Manami Toyota vs. Aja Kong - AJW Zenjo Movement Night 40 1995

5 - Manami Toyota vs. Mima Shimoda - AJW Japan Grand Prix Night 8 1995

5 - Kyoko Inoue and Takako Inoue vs. Manami Toyota and Sakie Hasegawa - AJW WWA Champions Night 1995

5 - Akira Hokuto vs. Manami Toyota - AJW Destiny 1995

It's an absolute tragedy that we didn't get more meaningful appearances from Tam Nakano in AEW/ROH and no appearances at all from Mayu Iwatani including Forbidden Door shows where she easily could have defended the IWGP title. We're much more likely to see Mayu maybe wrestle someone from WWE now given that Iyo made a one time appearance in Marigold. Plus, both Stardom and WWE talents have been on GCW shows.

[Raging Justice]

I watched the Tam vs Saya match that Dave gave 5 1/4 stars. In terms of what they did in the ring, the match was very good but nothing mindblowing enough to justify some of the super high ratings some people are giving it. I don't say that as a criticism, but to prove a point. I think much of the praise the match is getting is because of what happened before the match, after the match, and the storytelling within the match itself.

Sure, Will Ospreay can go out there and do a bunch of mindblowing spots and impress people, but a lot of times all you really need to get people to remember a match is the build up to the match, the pageantry surrounding the match, the video packages, the story, and the follow up. Also, having a great crowd helps and this one did

I wish guys like Tony Kahn understood these things. Simply throwing two people in the ring and saying, "Dream match" means nothing in the grand scheme of things. 90% of the matches I see in AEW these days just feel pointless and meaningless. When you watch that Tam/Saya match, you can feel the weight of it all. Everything they did felt like it had meaning, and you could hear and feel the emotional investment of the crowd as well. This is how you create moments, something AEW doesn't seem to know how to do anymore.

[Raging Justice]

There was a moment during the post match promo where I was listening to the girl on commentary trying to translate what Saya Kamitani was saying to Tam to English. Saya said something to the effect of, "I am in Stardom because of you and now I am the one who ended your career. Everything...was because of you"

Later in the promo she says that she realizes now that she loves Tam

Goddamn man, that's heavy.

I wish storytelling like that was a bit more prevalent in pro wrestling.

[Raging Justice]

Three belts Mercedes just became two belts Mercedes

[Reprise]

I was surprised AZM won.

In other news, Josh Alexander won the MLP Canadian Championship.