Wrestling

[redfiona99]

I come with praise. One of the now graduated PhD students was down to hand in the final version and he showed me the famous Junior Heavyweight match from NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom VII. Or the "why is Low-Ki dressed as Hitman?" match. (Actually, all awesomeness aside, if someone does know the reason for the fancy dress, do tell.)



Oh it was awesome.

It was like someone said "let's give Red all the things she loves best in a match". There was flippy-flippy nonsense and beautiful suplexes and near falls and it all looked as crisp and smooth as it could be. We didn't have the sound on and the match still dragged us in. Heck, R doesn't even like the flippy-flippy and he thought it was fantastic. Also I fear I will now always have a Pavlovian response to Kota Ibushi throwing up the metal signs. Something awesome always happens shortly after (as an example, please see - (yes, that is a springboard corkscrew moonsault) (Gif made by CewshReviews)

I wish I understood Japanese just so I could properly get into NJPW.


On to less praiseworthy things -

Sorry, I'm being mean. It's just that they put everything I'm interested in into the first hour and the second hour is filled with blah. If my timing is slightly out, by blah I mean Aces and Eights and the main event scene.

This week, they even forgot that there was an X-division. I suspect this was because the X-Division One Night Only was on the Wednesday before last. Not that I saw it because Challenge decided not to advertise it. So very annoyed.

Anyway, the one bright and shining light in all of this (honourable exceptions for the Knockouts and Aries 'n' Roode) were the ever wonderful Bad Influence, AJ Style and James Storm. I swear their super-power is that, no matter how sucky the set-up, they will at least make it as entertaining as possible and frequently more fun than the angle deserves.

I mean, I may have told Storm to be quiet because I think he's more likely to get an answer out of AJ if he lets him talk but Kaz and Daniels's promo! I'm not even Twig and I was all hearts in my eyes about it.

I can't remember the original NWO - Sting in his tent rafters angle, but did he ever get offered a 3rd way? If not, at least TNA have added one tiny variation, even if we're never going to get the Phenomenally Bad Influence we all want. When I say want, I mean to the point of coming up with a name for them.