Hawkius Maximus

You really shouldn't link to that. The site's been having bandwidth issues. Plus, he specifically asks NOT to be linked on boards. and AJPW 1990's is NOT the first place someone should look for Puroresu. If you get the wrong match, that'll kill puroresu for you before it even begins. 1990's NJPW has almost the same quality of work, and takes far less time to understand. If you don't want to do modern stuff, either that or FMW would be where I'd start.

No. They lost a handicap match against Stalker Ichikawa where the loser had to drop their gimmicks, then in their final match as a team they voluntarily lost to their team-mates Johnston and Jackson so they could keep doing the gimmick every so often. Funnily enough, Stalker lost his gimmick not too long ago...He's now known as "Stalker Ichikawa Z"... Michael Iwasa was immediately recruited by Akira Tozawa, who is a very inexperienced young wrestler, whose gimmick is kind of hard to explain...He's like a cross-breed of a male cheerleader, and a gang leader. The faction's gimmick is that it's a "school" where wrestlers gain support through cheering, and polish as wrestlers. Despite being ranked the lowest in his stable, the group is named "Tozawa-Juku" and all the members treat him as their leader. Iwasa is now Taku Iwasa, and has seen a dramatic rise up the cards. Since the faction is half comedy/half serious, Iwasa's pretty much the leader of the serious side and acts as Tozawa's second in command. While Tozawa handles the comedy aspects. He's added a variety of power moves, including making his Axe Bomber-style clothesline a finisher, and adding a funky ass Fisherman Buster where he hooks the opponent's leg with his HEAD. You can see all of Tozawa-Juku, here: http://dgusa.puroresufan.com/tozawajuku.html Their easily the best thing in DRAGON GATE. Every wrestler in Tozawa-Juku has added signatures, called "Tozawa-Juku Hidden Techniques"...Iwasa said in an interview that his "Ultimate" hidden technique is to strike the opponent with a lightning bolt... Daniel Mishima (Real name Raimu Mishima) was courted by Tozawa as well...but was basically told he wasn't wanted on the same day Iwasa was accepted. Mishima decided to leave DRAGON GATE since he had never really had any status there, and seemingly left wrestling, before reappearing on the first KENSUKE OFFICE show against Satoshi Kojima. Mishima gave a good fight before losing, and Akira Hokuto asked the fans if he should be allowed into the KO. Like out of a sports move, the entire crowd one by one stood up and applauded Mishima causing him to break down in tears. He's now aligned with Kensuke Sasaki, and his adopted son Katsuhiko Nakajima, and the same rules seem to apply for him...If Nakajima or Sasaki are booked, Mishima goes with them. He's currently working in AJPW with them where Nakajima is Junior Champion, and Sasaki is in the Champion's Carnival. Essentionally, he's an AJPW worker, but he's affiliated through KO and will go where-ever Sasaki goes.

My advice, would be to skip DDT and move to Hustle. Hustle is pretty much the evolved form of DDT's style of wrestling with far, far better workers, and some great storylines. Including the Esperenza, the cybernetic reincarnation of Nobuhiko Takada, who can shoot air bullets, and has already killed off one character with it. Hustle shows can be found on Puro torrents, or just wrestling torrents, and I'd highly advise you to look into them if you like Japanese sports entertainment. Generally, you CANNOT find Hustle on DVD sites, but I don't know if that's changed. Right now, Generalismo Takada, aka the legendary Nobuhiko Takada who has sworn to destroy pro-wrestling, has bought HUSTLE and is forcing all the Hustle Army members to turn evil...Naoya Ogawa and TAJIRI have both gone evil, with only Razor Ramon Hard Gay, Real Gay, Shinjiro Otani, and Wataru Sakata fighting against Takada, however with their own allies turning on them and the unbeatable Esperenza looming in the background, their fight looks hopeless. Another option I'd suggest, is to look into some DRAGON GATE. While their currently restructuring everything, Dragon Gate is easily the greatest of all the "lucharesu" promotions in Japan. The level their top line guys wrestle at is unmatched throughout the world. A typical DRAGON GATE six man tag won Dave Meltzer's match of the year on an ROH show...and they do matches at that level nearly every show, if not higher. On top of that, their very SE-ish, and with a little reading, you can understand everything going on. DRAGON GATE USA is a great site to get info on the promotion, and it's history, you can find it linked from Puroresufan which was already posted. In DRAGON GATE, the evil super group, the Muscle Outlawz have been terrorizing the fed, but a new faction of the top DG wrestlers have formed a new faction called "Typhoon" to destroy the Outlawz. Every member of the group has had their career terrorized by the group, and the feud has turned personal. Their TV is currently a little whacky, with a bi-monthy digest of shows that cover two weeks at a time. They condense everything to about 110 minutes with some clipping, but you get all the major angles and matches. Their also getting back on PPV after a long lay off with a show coming up. You should be able to find them on torrents. Hope this helps.

I take serious offense with people who say what Mistico did was "stupid" that was a BRILLIANT political move on his part. One of the best in some time. Not only did he show CMLL that he was in high demand, but he also got to show WWE his skills for future reference. When his CMLL contract comes up, not only will he be the biggest draw in Mexico, but he will also be in demand from American feds, and damn sure the Mexican feds remember the last time their stars were in "demand" by an American fed. On top of that, Vince loves to get what he can't have. If he wanted Mistico signed, and he couldn't do it, do you honestly think he WON"T try and sign Mistico when his contract is up? Come on now. Mistico will make a killing off this. Dear god he'll make hard money from one simple move. and I laughed at WWE's jab at him. Petty, sure, but kinda clever.

PRIDE booking Arona versus Sokoudjou makes no sense, on any level, at all. Arona's one of their top MW's, Sokoudjou is a newcomer who is coming off a major win. Logic dictates that you put Arona against an established MW, and build Sokoudjou slowly up. Instead, ONE of them is going to be hurt from this. Arona is either going to get KO'd, or Sokoudjou is going to be exposed. PRIDE is deliberately booking to kill the drawing power of their guys in Japan. Scorched Earth tactics, if they go under they don't want anyone making money off their guys.

MATCHUPS: Elite Snobs/Boardum/Pit bracket: Incandenza vs. Chave Black Lushus vs. AgentOfOblivion TSM Vets/Shit Folders bracket: bob_barron vs. CWM Czech vs. Special K Sports Folder bracket: alkeiper vs. Ripper Kingofthe909 vs. Vitamin X The Awesomely Mediocre and/or Unknown bracket: DrVenkman vs. AndrewTS CanadianChris vs. gary floyd Since I know about this and all now, I figured I should vote.

Melina is so fucked. If that's accurate, they've completely set her up to fail. Melina's not that good of a worker, so how the HELL is she supposed to pull out a miracle and save her job? That's one of the coldest newsbits from WWE in some time.

There's really no words to explain the fall from how much potential TNA once showed, and to where they are now. Bad booking, not enough match time, lame storylines, no focus to the shows...etc, etc. When your main fanbase, the one that attends EVERY SHOW starts chanting for you to fire your booker then perhaps, just maybe...You should fire your booker. But, in all honesty, it's not all Russo's fault. Management demands the shows have no focus whatsoever with fifty thousand wrestlers on screen. It's just about 99% his fault. Give or take one percentage.

Had I noticed this earlier, I would have posted with the greatest "vote for me" message ever. I beat the impostor Hawk, without even KNOWING I was in the damn tournament. VENGEANCE IS MINE NAME STEALER. I noticed most of my votes came from the wrestling sections. That would explain why some people know me, and the vast majority have no fucking idea who I am.

...annnd they show Muta in the most unspectacular way humanly possible. He's THE GREAT MUTA, and you have him come out of a LIMO? MUTA TRIES TO *EAT PEOPLE*! I mean...seriously. Is it THAT hard to play up that it's the first time he's been on American TV in what? Seven years, and most have some sort of SINISTER PLAN~!? I expect way too much from TNA I think.

The Great Muta is enough to get me to watch the pre-show. Maybe download it depending on his role. Muto's been DYING to get back on American TV for awhile now.

Here's why I should be nominated. I've been advertising something in my signature for nearly a year that's been dead without even realizing it because I have signatures turned off. That takes fucking TALENT.

Hunter loves Benoit, and he loves working with Benoit more. On RAW, Benoit was HEAVILY protected. He wasn't the star of the show, but he dropped all of maybe five direct pinfall loses in 2004. Hunter protected the hell out of him, so he could work with him and look better. The second Benoit got shipped to SD, he stopped being under Hunter's immediate oversight and lost a lot of his push. He went from nearly beating Batista at the start of Batista's megapush to being a midcard act. That was a drastic fall from grace. Benoit going back to Raw, and going back to being on the same show as Hunter every week will be big for Benoit. Benoit is Hunter's Ricky Steamboat, and will most likely be pushed accordingly. He may not be the star, but I'd look for Benoit to EASILY be in RAW's top five.

Couture coming out to "Back In The Saddle" was a huge markout for me for some reason. I HATE Aerosmith, but hearing that song with Randy Couture just made so much damn sense. I don't know if he had used it before, but it really sent a message of "I'm back asshole!" It was like the old sheriff just walked back into town to whoop some more ass.

Tim is never holding the UFC HW title again. Ever. Doesn't matter if he magically became the best heavyweight in the world, he'll never hold it again after this reign. It isn't the fact that fans consider Sylvia boring. Which he is. Sylvia is UNIVERSALLY HATED now. It's not the good type of heat either. Sylvia doesn't understand why the hell he gets booed. Tito Ortiz plays it up. Semmy Schilt cut a pre-fight promo on the K-1 Show last night playing heel. Sylvia just doesn't GET IT. Dana is going to keep Sylvia as far away from the title as possible. He's been wanting someone to beat him for awhile. Hence why he's been headhunting PRIDE HW's. He BADLY wanted someone to beat Sylvia, and now that he's gotten it, if Sylvia ever gets a rematch or title shot again I'll be amazed. Sylvia won't draw for UFC, and his fights are pretty much dead to the crowd beyond raising their wrath. I'm not sure where you go with Sylvia, but he won't be contending for the title anytime soon.

That was one of the best moments I've ever seen. As I watched, it kinda hit me...Sylvia is Semmy Schilt if Semmy Schilt sacrificed his punching power for a slightly better overall game.

To me, and this is purely me, Arlovski seems like the type of guy who'll leave something out there for the opponent, just so he can counter it. Against PDP, he left that out there, then just ROCKED him with that punch. I'm not saying it's a smart move, but it was effective as fuck. It made PDP lower his guard due to the submission...Plus he took advantage of the momentary ref stoppage. Clever move if nothing else. But yeah, you are right. Werdum's training with Mirko, but that doesn't mean he'll want to take Arlovski's shots and we've never seen Arlovski in those situations. I was perhaps a little hasty in my judgment.

The people kicking PRIDE when their down are really going to regret it in two years or so if PRIDE dies. Without PRIDE, UFC loses it's top competition. The same people who are creaming over the idea of UFC controlling all the major fighters will find out that just because they DO control all the talent, doesn't mean they'll actually showcase it. Once UFC has Fedor and Shogun and those guys, and yet still stack UFN full of TUF castoffs, maybe people will wake the fuck up. One company controlling the fight game IS NOT GOOD.

Other then the fact that Werdum has better overall skills and effectively neutralized most of Nogueria's game just a few months back, of course. You can have all the straight grappling skill in the world, but if you can't APPLY it in a MMA setting it means nothing. Arlovski/Werdum won't have a finish, it's going to a JD no matter who wins it I'd be willing to bet. Arlovski's too good with submissions to be caught, and Werdum's technical enough as a striker to avoid getting his face beat in. I'd pick Werdum to take Arlovski down and control him most of the fight, and if they get in a slug fest don't be surprised to see Werdum nail Arlovski a few times. He DOES train with Mirko Cro Cop.

Okay, let's assume that happened word for word. I'm not seeing "I'm don't want to job to Brock", I'm seeing "I don't think that's a good idea". Do you not see the difference in tone between those two phrases? There is a huge difference between outright refusing, and suggesting a counter idea. HOGAN outright refuses. UT doesn't. If UT didn't want to directly job to Brock, why the hell would he have jobbed to Brock the very next month in a match where he bled BUCKETS in his own gimmick match? One plus one three does not make.

No offense intended, but post count means nothing to me. If someone's a quality poster, I take notice of them. That's why I post so infrequently and rarely get involved in "silliness". I'd rather people see my name and think "Hey, a good post!" That or mistake me for 34. It happens.

PRIDE's in VEEERY bad shape. I think all the hyperbole of "THIS IS THE FINAL SHOW!" is fucking stupid though. PRIDE's got at the very least two more shows setup. They'll run those, then after that it's a crapshoot. Until PRIDE can get back on Japanese TV, their circling the drain. TV plays such a major part of the fight scene in Japan, that you can't exist as a major fed without it. If they could get back on TV, they could come back, but their screwed if they can't. The people kicking PRIDE while their down kind of pisses me off though. PRIDE puts on one of the best shows in years, and people bitch about how the show killed draws, and all kinds of inconsequential crap. It's basically exactly how they treated UFC before UFC became the favored promotion.

UT never refuses to job. Understand the significance there. He has enough say with Vince that he talks Vince into different plans. That's what I mean by Slyly. He doesn't go "Hey, Vince, I don't wanna job", instead he goes "Hey, Vince, I have this idea for this match..." and gets it changed. BIIIIG difference. Punk does not have the say to pull that off. Randy Orton doesn't have the say to pull that off. You grin, and you take the plans. That's your job. When you've gained enough confidence from the bookers then you can apply some pressure. Until then, you do as your told.

Trump should pick The Great Khali. Don't dismiss that. Think about it. Vince picked Umaga...Who on the roster has been more dominant then Umaga? Who doesn't give a fuck who he faces? Who wants better competition? The Great Khali fits all of that. In a perfect world, Trump would pick Khali and they could do a storyline where Trump is giving Khali's family money to help them out, thereby turning Khali quasi-face for the feud since he's feeding his family. Plus. The match itself? WOULD BE THE GREATEST MATCH EVER. On the actual match that has a chance of happening, I think alot of people are selling Jamal really short. Jamal is a fine wrestler, who should be able to carry Lashley to a decent to good match. Depending on the level of booking, it could even be a great match. For Lashley, Umaga is almost the perfect opponent. In storyline, he's as lethal as anyone in the promotion, he's strong as an ox, and seen as a legit threat. Cena only beat him by a surprise pin, and using his wits. Lashley being nu-age Hogan versus Umaga, the nu-age killer heel is perfect. I think it'll be a fine match, and with the right booking could catapult Lashley to a level he hasn't hit yet.

AVG is still free. Goto their website, and download the 7.1 to 7.5 update.