Just John

Definitely a surprise. Angle might not have been there because it would violate his WWE contract, though I'm not sure on the specifics of it. Can't wait for Angle vs. Joe.

How long til Warner gets benched?

Good call on Sting/Hart. That should've been a great match, but turned into a slow, boring mess. Every Angle/Taker match (save for the godly NWO 2006 encounter) was dissappointing to me. Usually, Angle was made to look horribly inferior, and often out-mat-wrestled by UT. Not to mention, bad finishes all around. Even the SD rematch this year had the same problem with Taker dominating the action and Angle looking like he was about to get pinned before Henry interfered. NWO was the only time they ever did the match right, and not surprisingly, it worked very well.

I like Edge a lot, but I don't agree with that statement.

Just because they can doesn't make it ethical or right. Or a smart business move. But, then again, I guess that would be par for the course in WWE.

The GAB match sucked, but I thought their Summer Slam match was good for what it was. Loved the finish on that one too.

Yet HHH can openly say on air that Cena's not a good wrestler in a shooty tone? Cena's a better wrestler than most give him credit for, but I don't see why he gets this protection. It certainly won't make more fans cheer him, if that's what Vince is looking for. Did "Die Rocky Die" signs ever get taken away?

I agree with Jericho/Austin. Those two never clicked for some reason. The Booker/Angle series should've been a lot less boring than it was. At least we had Kurt raving about guttersluts and bestiality sex.

Oh yeah, one more thing... When are they gonna pull the trigger on the Tatanka heel turn after getting screwed by bad ref calls in every match? And where do they go with him from there?

JBL may not have been a sound technical worker like Benoit or Bret Hart, but he was good brawler and was proficient during his final 2 years as a wrestler. He had good brawls with Guerrero, Cena, Batista, and Taker. I still think he was pushed too fast, but SD was messed up at the time with Lesnar leaving and Guerrero feeling the pressure of being champ. It would've made more booking sense been if the last two years of his career had been reversed, but that's not always the way things work. All things considered, I think he did fairly well.

I'm glad he'll be sticking around. I'll admit that I hated it when he first won the title, but towards the end of his reign he started to win me over. I think he's been great ever since, and he was essential to getting Cena and Batista over in 2005 with some quality brawls. His announcing is terrific as well.

Decent show overall. The opening segment was good. Loved it when Booker got pissed and ditched the royal accent for street talk. Liked the opening tag match. I'd like to see Regal get some pins, though. Divas stuff was pointless, but JBL referencing Amy Weber leaving in Japan is always fun. The Miz is great. Fuck the haters. I love how the announcers try to make him seem like a face, but he's such a jackass that he gets some of the loudest heat on the show. Celebrating after an arm-drag and a body slam was a nice touch to his character. Good stuff with Hardy and Helms. They have good chemistry, and I liked the finish. I love it when WWE throws out the word "rape" to make storylines seem more serious. It always seems so forced and unintentionally funny. I think the last time the word was used was when the The Big Show was "raped of his dignity" after being tranq'ed and having his head shaved by Kurt Angle. The Rey/Chavo feud is still awful. Even if there's only 3 teams, I like that at least some effort is being put into the tag division. I think they really missed the boat by not doing a 3-team feud earlier in the year with L/K, Mexicools, and MNM. This feud isn't quite as appealing (thanks to the blandness of James and Stevens), but it's still not too bad. I also like L/K getting put over as legit champs. Cena on SD next week? Eh, should be a fun match. Booker/UT was hurt by the typical UT tv match finish. I know people love Booker's gimmick and all, but looking past that, has his reign been any better than Rey's? Not from where I stand.

Won't the people who go out of their way to watch strip poker already be avid WWE viewers? I don't see that special drawing non-fans, unlike Ortiz/Shamrock.

I'm slightly curious as to what stupid way they'll avoid showing nudity, but otherwise I'll probably forget about this. It'll draw about the same rating as the Diva Search finale, maybe higher because of the established divas. I'll laugh if it does out-draw UFC. Would it have any affect on the perceived Wrestling/MMA rivalry if WWE could embarrass UFC with a diva special?

Didn't TNA already make this mistake once? This company is retarded beyond belief.

Honestly, I don't know if you can pick out weak links from great teams. I mean, part of being a great team is the chemistry between the two guys. Even if you replace one guy with a better individual wrestler, the team probably suffers a net loss in quality because the they lose the team aspect. If you took, let's say Edge and Christian, and replaced Christian with 1994 Bret Hart, would the team really have worked as well? Or what about putting 1989 Ric Flair in place of D-Von Dudley? Even on teams like Harlem Heat where one worker is clearly superior to the other, the team dynamic still plays to the strengths of both guys, and is more valuable than the individual quality of the wrestlers.

The Kobashi/Sasaki and Misawa/Kawada matches are recommended for significance primarily. The Kobashi vs. KENTA and Marufuji matches are good no matter how you look at them. I don't think you were supposed to get the vibe that either of them had a better-than-slim hope at winning. Kobashi's still the #1 guy, but I think each guy got something out of fighting him. KENTA showed drastic improvement from his 10/9/04 attempt. The main thing that kept it from looking like he might be able to pull off the win was him botching the G2S. If he hit that, then the 3 KO kicks, then the busaiku, I think he would've had a quality near fall. He got something from also damaging Kobashi's arm to the point where he got the WC Burning Hammer instead of a routine midcarder kill. Marufuji got a lot from his match, so much that he was automatically credible enough to get GHC title consideration. He looked incredibly smart and crafty as he managed to keep Kobashi off his feet for a good chunk of the match. He also had a very hot comeback starting with the blocked throat chop that really got the fans behind him. Starting his demise with a top-rope half nelson suplex was a good toughness-credibility builder too.

Some of these are for straight match quality, others for significance (i.e. high name value, title change). NOAH 2005-2006 Recommended Viewing: * = Above Average Recommendation ** = High Recommendation Kenta Kobashi vs. Minoru Suzuki (1/8/05) Kenta Kobashi vs. Takeshi Rikio (3/5/05) Kenta Kobashi & Go Shiozaki vs. Jun Akiyama & Genichiro Tenryu (4/25/05) * KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita (5/8/05) * KENTA vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (7/18/05) * Naomichi Marufuji & Minoru Suzuki vs. Jun Akiyama and Makoto Hashi (7/18/05) Kenta Kobashi vs. Kensuke Sasaki (7/18/05) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada (7/18/05) KENTA vs. Minoru Suzuki (8/27/05) KENTA vs. SUWA (9/18/05) * KENTA vs. Mushiking Terry (10/28/05) Naomichi Marufuji & Minoru Suzuki vs. Jun Akiyama & Shiro Koshinaka (11/5/05) Kenta Kobashi and Go Shiozaki vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima (11/5/05) ** KENTA & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Takeshi Morishimia & Mohammed Yone (11/5/05) * Takeshi Rikio vs. Akira Taue (11/5/05) Akira Taue vs. Takeshi Morishima (12/4/05) KENTA & Ricky Marvin vs. Naomichi Marufji & Kotaro Suzuki (1/8/06) KENTA vs. Naomichi Marufuji (1/22/06) ** Akira Taue vs. Jun Akiyama (1/22/06) Naomichi Marufuji vs. Akira Taue (3/5/06) * Takeshi Morishima vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (3/5/06) * KENTA vs. Kenta Kobashi (3/5/06) Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Takashi Sugiura vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita (3/5/06) Naomichi Marufuji vs. Kenta Kobashi (4/23/06) ** Jun Akiyama vs. Masao Inoue (4/23/06) KENTA vs. Takashi Sugiura (6/4/06) Kenta Kobashi & Tamon Honda vs. Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone (6/4/06) KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio (7/16/06) * Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Yoshihiro Takayama (7/16/06) KENTA & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Akira Taue & Go Shiozaki (9/9/06) Jun Akiyama vs. Naomichi Marufuji (9/9/06) Some random ROH stuff to see (Admittedly, I'm not as well-versed here): Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi (10/1/05) ** Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong (11/5/05) * Bryan Danielson vs. Naomichi Marufuji (12/17/05) KENTA vs. Low Ki (12/17/05) ** Bryan Danielson & Samoa Joe vs. KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji (3/25/06) Do Fixer vs. Blood Generation (3/31/06) * Bryan Danielson vs. Homicide (6/3/06) KENTA vs. Roderick Strong (6/23/06) KENTA vs. Davey Richards (8/5/06) I assume Joe/Danielson, Marufuji/McGuiness, and KENTA/Danielson are also must-see when they're released.

Save for a cheap laugh here and there, he was pretty worthless. I'm glad he's gone. His feuds with JBL and Booker were pointless, but in WWE-land jobs occuring more than 2 weeks ago don't matter, unless explicitly stated on air.

<Insert generic authority figure title> Ric Flair: Right here tonight... It's gonna be Bradshaw and Stone Cold... vs. the NWO! The following week... Flair: TONIGHT, in this very ring... We're gonna have Stone Cold and BRADSHAW....... vs. the NWO! The FOLLOWING week... Flair: Tonight, in the main event, it's gonna be.... the NWO..... vs. Bradshaw................... and STONE COLD! The correct format is this: Flair: Tonight, in the main event, it's gonna be the NWO vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin... *Loud pop* ... And Bradshaw! *Silence*

Say what you will about the excessive crossovers, but the only reason I watched this show was for Booker. Well, him and CM Punk. Booker's backstage tour was fun, especially when he met Balls and Punk. I hope Punk does go to SD soon and challenge for the World title. Or fight Benoit. The possibilities are endless. Booker/RVD was a decent match, but typical bad finish. I hate how every extreme rules match has to have blatant interference. Everything else on the show was forgettable.

I'd want to win the approval of the smarks and marks alike. Work consistently good matches. Come up with at least one innovative move/spot so when people see it again, they say "Hey, he did the (insert my stage name here) spot!" Tour Japan and win a title over there. If I started my career earlier, I'd like to work with Kobashi too. Get a massive pop for showing up in another promotion unannounced. Be a top star in WWE. Build up a few future stars during my career. Have a good run as a heel and as a face. Brutalize someone in a hardcore gimmick match and get brutalized in another one. Bring some prestige and honor back to professional wrestling (yeah right).

He got pinned clean on Raw in a handicap match with HHH and Edge. Yeah, it was a handicap match, but HHH and Edge were fighting each other as much as Cena. For an untainted singles loss, I'm having to go back to his match with Angle at No Mercy 03. Since his face turn, I can't really think of any clean jobs, but then again, the top faces in WWE very rarely lose clean.

That's a very elaborate cover for Cena resetting the tables after the second one fell off just because the ring shook. If only they'd put this much effort into other things like the tag team division.

I'll agree with this, especially when it comes to foreign wrestlers. It's like they pick 2 or 3 big names to throw in the top 10, then stop caring. How did Nakajima rank above Misawa in kayfabe?