WWE Elimination Chamber 2020 Preview & Predictions

Oh right, there's a WWE PPV this weekend....  Nothing like a major event with only a week's build.  WWE has put about as much effort into this show as I put into these columns predicting their stuff.  So I guess, let's pick some winners?

This here is one half-assed lineup.  Six matches as of this moment, very little star power, a bunch of talents treading water until the proper 'Mania build starts.  These Saudi shows are really fucking everything up.  Christ, let's get this over with.

US Championship: Andrade vs. Humberto Carrillo

These two have had some solid matches in the past, so this could actually be good.  I'm guessing the plan for 'Mania is a four-way with these two plus Rey Mysterio and Angel Garza.  A blistering match here could help people give a shit about this title again.

Pick: I'll go with Humberto to win it?

RAW Tag Team Championship: Street Profits vs. Seth Rollins & Buddy Murphy

The Viking Raiders kinda got fucked out of a nice long dominant title run.  Now they are an afterthought.  Rollins and Murphy didn't really need to win these belts when they did; instead the VR and AOP should've had a hard-hitting monster feud.  So now it's Seth & Buddy against the upstart team who beat them on RAW, Street Profits.  This match should be fine, but it's just keeping Seth busy till he fights Kevin Owens next month.  Obviously the Profits are keeping the belts for now.

Pick: Street Profits retain

AEW Revolution 2020: The Moxley Era Begins

Man, what a fun PPV AEW Revolution was.  Seven main-show matches in front of a molten crowd that was simply ecstatic to be there, one match a huge Match of the Year contender, four others in or near **** range, only one bout that didn't deliver, and some fantastic storytelling across the board.  Plus a monumental title change signaling the start of a new era.  This PPV was delightful, in all the ways WWE PPVs aren't these days.

The main show kicked off with kind of an unconventional choice, as Jake Hager and Dustin Rhodes had a 14-minute slugfest.  I'd probably have put Allin vs. Guevara first considering how high-energy it was, but this was fine for its slot.  It took a little while to get going, but the crowd was into everything.  Hager made out with his wife at ringside before the match, which got good heat.  The bout was back-and-forth, with Hager using power and amateur wrestling against Dustin's scrappy brawling tactics.  It's astounding to me that at age fifty, Dustin looks and wrestles better than he ever did in his 30s.  Hager took control midway through and his wife oddly started yelling instructions to him.  Dustin knocked Jake down and Mrs. Hager tried to slap him, but he caught her hand and kissed her, smearing facepaint all over her face.  This bit was probably not advisable for a babyface in the Me Too era.  At the end of the match, with referee Aubrey Edwards distracted, Hager hit a low blow and locked in a standing triangle choke, causing Dustin to pass out.  Hager is undefeated thus far in AEW.  A solid, if unremarkable match to kick off his AEW in-ring career.  ***

Things picked up in a major way with Darby Allin vs. Sammy Guevara, in a match that technically only went five minutes but was preceded by wild, death-defying action before the bell.  Allin dove through the ropes and pounced on Sammy.  After a couple minutes of fighting on the outside, Sammy set Allin up on a table and hit a 630 senton through it from the top rope.  Just an insane spot.  After the match officially started, Allin went for a tope with Sammy draped on the barricade, but came up a little short, which was scary.  This was one of a few frightening moments on the show.  Sammy hit a gorgeous-looking top-rope Spanish Fly but after exposing a turnbuckle got monkey-flipped into it.  Allin hit his over-the-shoulder stunner move followed by the Coffin Drop to get the win.  Both guys looked phenomenal here and as I said in my preview piece, they should be vying for a new secondary belt.  These kids are future main eventers.  About as good a five-minute match as you'll ever see.  ***3/4

WWE and The Oldberg Show, part 2

Sweet fucking Christ on a popsicle stick, did they just seriously take this indestructible monster heel they've been building nonstop for six months and job him out in under three minutes, to Bill fucking Goldberg??  Is this real life?  Am I having a stroke?  Is Vince?

How sad is it that nine years later, CM Punk's infamous "pipe bomb" promo is just as relevant as ever?  Vince McMahon, year after year, keeps demonstrating how appallingly tone-deaf he has become as a promoter.  This guy in 2020 is so bad at building new stars he threw his hands up and put one of his two top championships on a 52-year-old WCW headliner who hasn't had a good five-plus-minute match since 2003, sacrificing the one current star he's been consistently building up over the last half-year.  And to boot, this scenario is just a rerun of 2017, when he did the same thing to Kevin Owens in 21 seconds.  Last October the Fiend basically got murdered with a hammer by Seth Rollins after taking eleven curb stomps, but still got up.  Yet he can't withstand four spears and the most feeble-looking jackhammer of all time?  This is just embarrassing.

Look, I have no problem with booking the dream match of Goldberg vs. Roman Reigns at WrestleMania (aside from the fact that Oldie can't actually take bumps or do more than a four-minute finisher-fest - but tell me more about how WWE main events are about psychology and storytelling...), but there was zero need for the Universal Title to be involved.  Zero.  Goldberg could've been booked to beat literally anyone else at Super Showdown to build him up for this.  Squashing The Fiend, who may not be a ratings-mover but nonetheless has sold a lot of merch, is 100% counterproductive and there is no rational argument to be made to the contrary.  Yay, Goldberg popped a rating on Smackdown.  Super.  So in five weeks after he drops the Title to Roman and goes away, then what happens?  The ratings go right back to where they were, yes?  So what long-term benefit comes out of this?  Spoiler alert: none.  And anyone who thinks Roman won't get booed like crazy for beating the beloved legend is delusional.  We're going right back to 2017 when he beat Taker.

Elsewhere on that Saudi shit sandwich, we got to see AJ Styles lose to the 55-year-old Undertaker, in 20 seconds, after a single chokeslam, allegedly to set up another 'Mania dream match.  But who the fuck wants to see that now?  AJ lost clean after one move.  Why should I care about seeing the heel redeem himself?  Speaking of delusional, Vince, Taker and anyone else who thinks the near-senior Dead Man is physically up for a match reminiscent of his 2009-2010 feud with Shawn is not being honest with themselves.  That feud was a decade ago, and in 2020 Taker can barely walk around comfortably.

AEW Revolution Preview & Predictions

A-E-Dubs!  A-E-Dubs!  This Saturday night AEW is back on PPV with Revolution.  You see, the puppy was just a dog.  But the PPV.....that my friends, was a revolution.

Sorry, had a Billy Madison moment there.  Anywho, this show is nicely stacked from top to bottom and the weekly Dynamite series has done a pretty excellent job of building up the big bouts.  I expect a new company highpoint with this PPV.  I hope I'm right.  From a star power standpoint this main event is their biggest match to date, the tag title match has the potential to be their best bout so far, and we're getting the long-awaited payoff to a hugely personal feud.  This oughta be great.

Let's pick some winners.

SoCal Uncensored vs. The Dark Order

This feud is built around the tease of Christopher Daniels joining the Dark Order and revealing himself to be the Exalted One or whatever they're calling it.  I don't think Daniels is the guy, as it's too obvious.  I think they're biding their time until Luke Harper/Brodie Lee is free from his WWE no-compete clause and he can be the new leader.  That would be a good move.  That said I think the Order wins this in spite of Daniels' rejection.

Pick: The Dark Order

Pac vs. Orange Cassidy

Mr. Cassidy is finally wrestling a match in AEW.  I imagine this won't be a clinic given Cassidy's gimmick, and it probably won't last long, but it should be entertaining.  Pac will get something of a good match out of him before winning.

Pick: Pac

Darby Allin vs. Sammy Guevara

This'll be a wild one - Allin is a crazy man and Guevara is super athletic.  This is a potential show stealer and they've done a great job of building interest.  If the company had a secondary singles belt this would be a good fit for it.  Time to introduce an AEW Television Champion or whatever they wanna call it.

Pick: Guevara kinda desperately needs a win

Top Ten Things: February PPV Matches

Hello and welcome to another edition of Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com, where I make a nerdy, dorky list of the ten best examples of something I like, and you are forced to read it.

Today I'll be talking about the top ten February PPV matches of all time, as decided by me.  February falls smack-dab in the middle of the Road to WrestleMania, and its PPV event is often the forgotten little sibling of 'Mania and the Royal Rumble.  But that doesn't necessarily make it a throwaway event.  Some real gems have occurred in the second month of WWE's PPV calendar (which in some cases have outshone every match at 'Mania itself), and even outside WWE there have been some excellent matches and events held in February (I've included some NWA/WCW and NJPW entries as well).

So let's get to it!

10. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tomoake Honma - NJPW The New Beginning in Sendai 2.14.15

After defeating Ishii at WrestleKingdom 9 for the NEVER Openweight Championship, Togi Makabe suffered a sudden injury and New Japan vacated the title.  Ishii then faced perennial underdog but huge crowd favorite Honma to crown a new champ.  And the result was a brutally stiff battle full of knifing chops, diving headbutts, and crazy intensity.  Honma ultimately came up short and the "Stone Pitbull" Ishii regained the Title.  This match was highly praised as one of many 2015 Match of the Year candidates on NJPW's calendar, and I can't disagree.

9. Kurt Angle vs. Undertaker - WWE No Way Out 2.19.06

The main event of No Way Out '06 saw World Champion Kurt Angle lock up with a man he considers possibly the greatest wrestler of all time, The Undertaker.  This epic bout was presented as a clash of two babyfaces and ran over 29 minutes, featuring loads of dramatic near-falls and action ranging all around the ringside area.  Finally after his Anklelock was countered into a Triangle Choke, Angle rolled forward to trap Taker underneath him for the pin.  This was WWE's best match of the year.

Top Ten Things: Corrosion of Conformity Songs

Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com, where I rattle off a list of things I dig.

Today I'm talking about a band of unsung stoner metal heroes that began in the early 1980s as a hardcore punk trio and evolved into thrash, groove metal, sludge, and southern rock, along the way becoming a quintet and then a four-piece.  These guys were briefly in rotation on FM rock radio in the mid 90s but have unfortunately spent most of their career in relative obscurity despite always putting out quality, iconoclastic molten sludge, I'm talking about Corrosion of Conformity.

I first became aware of COC thanks to that great old staple of MTV, Headbanger's Ball, which presented three hours of metal awesomeness every Saturday night.  In early 1993 I happened upon two videos featuring this surly group of southern hicks pounding out groove-oriented guitar dirges and barking anthems of revolt and rebellion, and I was hooked immediately.  I went out and bought their third album Blind, and was knocked squarely on my ass by the sledgehammer rhythm guitars and righteous rage-infused lyrics.  In late 1994 they followed it up with Deliverance, which featured a major lineup change (guitarist Pepper Keenan had taken over on lead vocals from Karl Agell, while original bassist Mike Dean had returned in place of Phil Swisher) and a turn to Sabbathy, pothead alt-metal, yielding some well-deserved mainstream attention.  From then on COC was a staple around my house, and I've been groovin' to them ever since.  This band doesn't get nearly enough love.

With that, let's take a look at the best of Corrosion of Conformity!

HM: Damned for All Time

After the evil-sounding instrumental "These Shrouded Temples..." kicks off the Blind album, the late Reed Mullin's (RIP Reed!) syncopated drums transition us into a midtempo groover called "Damned for All Time," a scathing rebuke of politicians and their warmongering, that shifts feels from section to section.  Karl Agell's narrator reels in disgust at the crimes against humanity perpetrated by America's ruling class on a daily basis, fearing that we are all, like Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, damned for all time.



HM: Clean My Wounds

Maybe COC's best-known song is this simple tune from Deliverance, lyrically a toned-down thematic cousin to "Damned," as Pepper Keenan laments the violence around him, his cries for absolution unanswered ("Help me Jesus, help me clean my wounds/He said he cannot heal that kind").



HM: Seven Days

This melancholy dirge over a shuffle feel seems to be from the point of view of Christ, trying to make sense of his obligation to a human race he isn't sure is worth saving, while acknowledging his own human shortcomings.  It's one of Keenan's most powerful vocal performances and contains some of his most poignant lyrics ("Well I'm the one/I face the change I know that stands before me/Believe in me, cuz I damn sure don't believe in you").



HM: Dirty Hands and Empty Pockets/Already Gone

One of COC's most unusual tunes is this two-part shuffle that stars with just bass and drums, over which Pepper's sandpapery spoken verses eviscerate America's exploitation of third-world countries ("As we bleed another nation so you can watch your favorite station").  The lyrical perspective then changes, giving way to a high-energy guitar boogie from the point of view of the exploited soldier ("One day you will see when you're six feet down like me/Remember me when you're safe at home/I'm already gone").  This song also shows off veteran drummer Stanton Moore's bouncy chops.

Movie Review: Fighting With My Family (2019)

Wow, after 17 years WWE Studios has finally made a good movie.  The Paige biopic Fighting With My Family, written and directed by Stephen Merchant, is slyly funny, poignantly inspiring, oddly sweet, and quite superbly acted, while showing a respect for the craft of professional wrestling that's unusual for a Hollywood film.  More than respect actually, it displays a pretty intimate knowledge of what these performers go through to become successful WWE stars.  Of course that should stand to reason being that the film was co-produced by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, based on a UK documentary about Paige and her family.

Led by a wonderful Florence Pugh performance as Saraya Bevis/Britani Knight/Paige (Pugh absolutely shines in this role, conveying a touching vulnerability under the grizzled exterior of a young woman raised by wrestlers), the film also boasts strong supporting turns from Nick Frost and Lena Headey as her wrestler/promoter parents, Jack Lowden as her brother Zak who's worked his whole life for a shot in WWE, and a surprisingly compassionate Vince Vaughn as Hutch Morgan, the WWE coach/talent scout who has to be tough and cynical with his recruits but underneath has his own regrets about the business.

The History of NXT TakeOver: Portland

The NXT brand once again delivered a killer TakeOver special, stringing together six good-to-excellent matches with nary a low point on the card.  While for me some matches went too far in a few places and the show lacked a true MOTY contender, NXT Portland was nonetheless a tremendous effort.

The show kicked off with the North American Title match, pitting old rivals Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic in a hard-hitting power battle.  These two powerhouses threw everything at each other, including a few death-defying dives and a climactic Spanish Fly off the top rope from Dijakovic.  The crowd was red-hot for this and every match, and bought into all of it.  Lee and Dijakovic's chemistry was very evident, as they've been working together for years, and this felt like NXT's version of a crazy indie match.  My only complaint was that after the Spanish Fly spot, Lee kicked out, Dijakovic went for a power move but his back gave out, and Lee just finished him with the Big Bang Catastrophe out of nowhere.  That felt like a parody of the WWE-style finish, where one guy seemingly has the match wrapped up but the other guy does his big move suddenly and wins.  Aside from that though, this was really good.  ****

The surprise hit of the night for me was the Tegan Nox-Dakota Kai Street Fight, which was shockingly violent, crisply worked, and exciting all the way through.  It was probably still the weakest match of the night by default, but that's not a knock on the match itself.  Nox and Kai did some spectacular stuff, including a German suplex on a trash can, a top-rope chokeslam, and a top-rope Molly Go-Round.  The story was that Nox was so preoccupied with punishing Kai, she declined to go for the pin after a Shining Wizard and instead put her on a table and put a chair around her head with the intent of Pillmanizing her, but Raquel Gonzalez tossed her off the top rope on to the table (another brutal-looking spot, as the table didn't break but instead tipped over on contact), allowing Kai to get the pin.  Damn good fight.  ***1/2

NXT TakeOver: Portland Preview & Predictions

Welcome to another round of PPV Predictions, here at Enuffa.com!

This weekend we're getting an NXT TakeOver show that doesn't immediately precede a main roster PPV, and it's on a Sunday to boot.  This here is what you'd call "NXT trying to stand on its own."  The lineup looks pretty spectacular as always, and we're getting an unusual six matches instead of five.  I imagine this means the show will go a full three hours, and I ain't even mad.  At least one major NXT star seems to have a WrestleMania match in her future, and I wonder if others will follow.

Let's take a gander and make some predictions....

Street Fight: Dakota Kai vs. Tegan Nox

This is the long-awaited payoff to Kai's shocking heel turn at Survivor Series and the rules are out the window.  Should be heated, and the crowd should be into it.  I think it'll get somewhat lost in the shuffle on a loaded card like this, but it should be a fun bout.

Pick: This being Nox's revenge story I'll pick her to win

North American Championship: Keith Lee vs. Dominik Dijakovic

The two monster babyface pals face off for Lee's newly won NA Title.  This should be a real battle of the bulls.  Keith is obviously keeping the title here and will I assume face Roderick Strong at the 'Mania weekend show, but Dijakovic should give him an entertaining first big title defense.

Pick: Lee retains

The Great PPVs: Chi-Town Rumble '89

Welcome to another edition of The Great PPVs - whether you're reading this via our friends at TheGorillaPosition.com or at our own site Enuffa.com, I hope you're enjoying this series thus far as we look back on some of the all-time great wrestling shows.

Since it's February I thought I'd take a look at one of the old NWA's greatest offerings from the 1980s, Chi-Town Rumble!  This one-time PPV took place on February 20, 1989 (a Monday night for some reason) and is most remembered for its critically acclaimed main event that launched one of the greatest rivalries in the annals of the business.  But this show had a damn good undercard as well, with most of the company's major titles on the line and a some big feuds resolved.  Chi-Town Rumble served as an excellent sequel to the previous year's Starrcade (for my money the 1988 edition was the best of the bunch), while also kicking off what was pretty universally considered the greatest year in the company's grand history.

The show got off to a slow start with a pair of undercard singles bouts.  First up was the returning Michael Hayes facing one of the Russian Assassins.  This match oddly got nearly sixteen minutes despite being little more than a showcase to re-establish Hayes as an upper midcard babyface, but it was largly inoffensive.  It was followed by another pseudo-showcase match for Sting, who went over twenty minutes against Butch Reed, with better results.  Neither of these matches is terribly important or all that memorable except in building up two future singles champions, but from the third match on the show never faltered.

The first of five good-to-great matches pitted The Midnight Express and Jim Cornette vs. The Original Midnight Express and Paul E. Dangerously, with a Loser Leaves the NWA stipulation (Unfortunately Dennis Condrey had jumped the gun and left the company before this event, and utility man Jack Victory replaced him).  Like the MX vs. OMX match at Starrcade, this was a wild, fast-paced affair with the added bonus of the two managers scuffling.  After almost sixteen minutes the babyface Midnights scored the pin after a double flapjack to Randy Rose.  While not quite at the level of the Starrcade bout, this was a very entertaining match and a good blowoff to the feud.

Music Review: Kesha - High Road

Kesha's fourth album High Road is sort of a mix of her early party pop sensibilities and her more poignant, introspective material found on 2017's Rainbow (her first record free from the abusive contract she'd signed with Dr. Luke).  Where that album was a cathartic, often heart-rending purge of personal demons, High Road (as the title implies) attempts to get back to a sense of fun and carefreedom while still exploring a bit of Kesha's thirty-something maturity.

The album's first third is lighthearted pop fare - "Tonight," "My Own Dance," and "Raising Hell" are all about going out and having a good time, albeit with a tinge of Kesha's debaucherous self-awareness ("I'm getting so drunk/I haven't seen my boyfriend in a few months").  "Tonight" is the best of these, with an anthemic, Nate Ruess-esque chorus (Ruess co-wrote a couple of the other tracks in fact) and evocative word-pictures.  The fourth and fifth tracks, "High Road" and "Shadow," seem to indicate Kesha's intent to move past the struggles chronicled on Rainbow and just worry about the future, critics be damned.

For me it's the second act where High Road really comes alive.  "Honey" is a scathing rebuke of a former friend, featuring layered R&B vocals over a Weezer-esque guitar loop.  Songs like this one showcase Kesha's admirable directness and free-flowing spontaneity.  My two favorite tracks are next, both understated, folky, affecting laments of missed boats and eroding love.  "Cowboy Blues" is a sweet and sad duet about a fella she met at a dive bar and never saw again, while "Resentment" (featuring Brian Wilson and Sturgill Simpson) deals with being taken for granted by a longtime lover.  These two songs are quite beautiful and I'd love to hear Kesha do more of this.

Parents' Night In #28: Lost in Translation (2003), A Pivotal Film for These Two Parents....

Welcome to the first PNI of 2020, where Kelly and Justin watch and discuss Sofia Coppola's breakout film Lost in Translation, starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson!  This was one of the first films we watched together as a couple, on our first bona fide date, and we've been enjoying films together ever since.  LIT holds sentimental value for us as a sweet, poignant film about two lonely people finding a deep emotional connection in a strange city.  It's funny, thoughtful and delightful, and we love watching it.  We'll also discuss Oscar history, traveling, and the dawn of text messaging.

Join us for some fun!

#ScarJo #ScarlettJohansson #AcademyAwards #Oscars

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Movie Review: Little Women (2019)

Greta Gerwig's new version of the much-adapted Little Women injects a bit of 21st century sensibility into the classic story, while lending more urgency and even a bit of meta-fiction to the narrative.  

Starring the wonderful Saoirse Ronan as lead character Jo (a largely autobiographical creation of the novel's author Louisa May Alcott), Emma Watson as her loving older sister Meg, Eliza Scanlen as sickly Beth, and Florence Pugh in a powderkeg performance as the youngest, Amy, Little Women jumps back and forth between the four sisters' harmonious Concord, MA upbringing in 1861 and their splintering apart as young adults in 1868.  As someone already familiar with the story from Gillian Armstrong's 1994 version, but fuzzy on the details from a quarter-century ago when I saw it, I found Gerwig's disjointed approach actually more engaging than a chronological structure would've been.  Instead of waiting for the inevitable story beats I remembered, I had to piece together what was happening in which time period; there are no titles as the film jumps back and forth, it just does.

The film begins with Jo negotiating the sale of some short story work to her New York City publisher, before learning the news that her younger sister Beth is gravely ill, and rushing home to Massachusetts.  She reminisces sporadically about events from seven years earlier, when Jo and her three sisters lived a rather poor but overall content life with their mother, keeping each other's spirits high by performing plays and visiting with their neighbor Laurie (a charming but deeply troubled Timothee Chalamet in a superb performance).

At the same time in Paris, a now-grown Amy reconnects with Laurie, who once proposed to Jo only to be turned down, but now seems drawn to Amy.  Both Amy and her older sister Meg struggle with the idea of marrying for money vs. for love; in the mid-19th century women who married got to keep essentially nothing of their own.  Their money, property and children all became their husbands', thus women like Amy view marriage as little more than a business transaction, while Meg has taken the opposite path, marrying a penniless teacher, content to raise a family on a modest income.  Someone like Jo on the other hand has little use for marriage, preferring to keep her own identity.  This theme is front and center in this version, cleverly woven into the later scenes involving Jo's publishing deal.

NJPW The New Beginning in Osaka 2020 Preview & Predictions

Welcome to another round of NJPW predictions, here at Enuffa.com!  I was on vacation last week and totally forgot to do this for the Sapporo New Beginning shows, dammit.  But anyway, I'm back for the Osaka lineup, which is really the important one.  That said, definitely check out the final two bouts of each Sapporo show - all quite excellent.

This lineup has four big singles matches and a Jr. Tag Title defense, including Tetsuya Naito's first defense of his double championship.  I wonder how long he'll keep them both, or if he'll even defend them separately.  Anyway, this show features a modest 8-match lineup but should be a very easy watch and provide some new entries for my Top Ten February PPV Matches list (stay tuned for the updated version).  Let's pick some winners....

Tencozy, Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Ryusuke Taguchi & Toa Henare

Part of the Nakanishi retirement tour, this opener is a lot like Jushin Liger's 8-man at the Dome.  A nice little pre-retirement send-off.  Should be a fun match, likely ending with Nakanishi doing the job.

Pick: Team Great Bash Heel

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: RPG3K vs. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru

Sho & Yoh will defend their newly-won Jr. Tag belts against the team they apparently can't get enough of wrestling.  These two teams have yet to really tear the house down together, so I'd like to see Sho & Yoh move on to a really great pair of heel juniors.  I can't imagine RPG3K loses the belts already.

Pick: RPG3K retains

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, Juice Robison & David Finlay vs. Chase Owens, Yujiro Takahashi & Guerrillas of Destiny

Another 8-man tag, this will be Kota Ibushi's return after a pretty serious flu-like illness that kept him off the US tour.  Dude needs to take it easy and rest up for the New Japan Cup.  I like the babyface side of this match, while the heel side is eh...  GOD just won back the tag belts and I don't know if FinJuice will continue chasing them or not.  But I think the good guys win here.

Pick: Tanibuicelay

Top Ten Things: Film Directors

Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!

Today I'll be discussing my all-time favorite filmmakers.  As a cinefile I've spent years seeking out quality films made by gifted directors, and there have been more than a few whose careers I've followed very closely, at least for a while.  Some directors fell off my radar after a downturn in quality (Rob Reiner anyone?), but in each of the below cases I actively seek out films by these directors.  In some cases they are essential viewing for me.

Here now is the list....

10. Paul Thomas Anderson

One of Hollywood's quirkiest, most adventurous directors, Anderson has made a career of creating non-traditional films centered around flawed protagonists.  He often wears his cinematic influences on his sleeve, but always injects his own style and sensibilities into every picture.  His noirish debut Hard Eight garnered positive reviews, but it was his sophomore effort which brought him to my attention.  Boogie Nights chronicles the rise and fall of adult film star Dirk Diggler, set against the messy transition from the artsy smut of the 70s to the more utilitarian, VHS-driven industry of the 80s.  Anderson created such a fully realized universe and cast of characters in this movie I couldn't help being totally immersed, and Boogie Nights remains one of my all-time favorite films.  He followed it up with the uneven but superbly acted Magnolia, the Kubrick-esque opus There Will Be Blood, and the puzzling but never dull The Master.  Even in light of his two (in my opinion) misfires Punch-Drunk Love and Inherent Vice, Anderson has enjoyed a stellar career thus far, directing two masterpieces and three other uniquely admirable efforts.

Top Three Films: Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, Magnolia

9. David Fincher

Perhaps no other director seized my fascination so early on in his career as David Fincher.  His debut film Alien 3 (which he later disowned) disappointed me severely, but there was still something about his visual style that struck me.  His ability to play with light and darkness lent Alien 3 a richness that its script sorely lacked.  He brought that sense of intensely tangible dread to the forefront in his second film, the overwhelmingly bleak Se7en (another one of my all-time favorites), and again in his Hitchcockian thriller The Game.  But it will probably always be Fight Club that audiences most closely associate with Fincher.  This mindfuck of a movie had such a profound impact on our cinematic lexicon, and along with The Sixth Sense, made plot twists a must-have in any thriller for several years.  Much of Fincher's recent work has been a little more conventional (but often still excellent), from the police procedural Zodiac, to the Gump-esque Benjamin Button, to the darkly droll The Social Network.  His two most recent films (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Gone Girl) were both based on bestsellers, with mixed box office results, but they cemented Fincher as a visually gifted event filmmaker.

Top Three Films: Se7en, Fight Club, The Social Network

8. F.W. Murnau

One of cinema's earliest visionaries, Murnau created some of the most optically stunning images ever photographed for a film.  At a time when most moving pictures featured static, flat camera angles, Murnau brought expressionist atmosphere and movement (In The Last Laugh for example he used a swing and a wheelchair to create motion).  He also made use of deliberately fantastical special effects to lend his films a moody, dreamlike quality.  Consider the opening passages in his horrific epic Faust, which depicts a struggle between God and Satan.  These effects don't strive for realism, yet they're more effective in conveying the story than some of our modern CGI.  Undoubtedly Murnau's most famous film is Nosferatu, the first major adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula.  Murnau set the bar for all future versions of the immortal Count, inventing a loathsome, disease-spreading apparition.  Some of film horror's most iconic images came from this film and it remains mandatory viewing every Halloween.  Murnau was sadly killed in a car accident shortly after being imported by Hollywood, and it's a tragedy we never got to see his intended American filmography.  His first American film, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, won three awards at the first Oscars ceremony.

Top Three Films: Nosferatu, Faust, The Last Laugh

92nd Academy Awards Preview & Predictions

Welcome to the 5th Annual Academy Awards Predictions column here at Enuffa.com, where my colleague Mike Drinan (@mdrinan380) and I compete for bragging rights, prognosticating the Oscars!

2019 is in the history books and we've got quite the slate of films this year - films about war, auto racing, 60s Hollywood, mentally disturbed comic book villains, 19th century women, gangsters, strained marriages, imaginary Nazi friends, and whatever the hell Parasite is about.  I've seen six of the Best Pic nominees and hope to catch the last three before Sunday.

This turned out to be a very strong year in film; several good popcorn movies (Avengers: Endgame, The Rise of Skywalker), some really innovative genre pictures (Us, 1917, Joker), multiple offerings from under the expanding Netflix umbrella (The Irishman, Marriage Story, The Two Popes), and yet another neo-classic from Quentin Tarantino, featuring a pair of actors being referred to as "The last two true movie stars."  We'll eventually write a piece about the films of the 2010s, and I'd likely include multiple entries from 2019 on my Best Of list.

Once again the Oscars have no host this year; I think most people enjoyed the streamlined format to keep the running time down and the show simpler.  I generally like the idea of a host, but aside from the opening monologue/song I suppose there isn't much need for one.  Regardless, this should be a fun evening.  But enough blathering, let's pick some winners (As of now Mike is trouncing me in the predictions)....

Best Picture

Ford vs. Ferrari

The Irishman

Jojo Rabbit 

Joker

Little Women

Marriage Story

1917

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Parasite

Justin:  This category is between two frontrunners, each of which won a Best Picture Golden Globe.  1917 is an incredible, immersive war film done in one continuous shot (or at least edited to look like it), while Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is a love letter to the late 60s set against the backdrop of the Sharon Tate murders.  I loved both of these films.  My favorite of the year was OUATIH and I'm a little sad Tarantino's going to come so close to winning the big one only to fall short again.  But it seems clear the Academy is going all-in on 1917, which Sam Mendes based on World War I stories his grandfather used to tell him.  I'm fine with that winning, as it's my second choice (Poetically Mendes's debut feature won this award 20 years ago).  I'm also happy Joker got a nod.  What a surreal film; a Scorsese-esque character study about a comic book character.  It's kind of mindboggling this film got made and even moreso that it made a fortune.

Prediction: 1917


Mike: I've managed to see 7 of the 9 nominees this year and I'm sure I've seen the eventual winner. Parasite is a master class in filmmaking and storytelling. The theme behind the story and how it was delivered was just incredible. However, no foreign film has ever taken home the top prize and I'm not so sure that will change, even for the best reviewed movie of the year. Joker was great and JoJo Rabbit was such a great movie. Funny and absurd but then takes a turn into the serious. It reminded me a lot of Life Is Beautiful. But my favorite film this year was easily 1917. It was really hard to get past how great the storytelling was, how it was shot, and the suspense it captured.

Prediction: 1917

Best Director

Martin Scorsese – The Irishman

Todd Phillips – Joker

Sam Mendes – 1917

Quentin Tarantino – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Bong Joon-ho – Parasite

Justin: Like the Best Pic category, this is a two-horse race.  Quentin Tarantino vs. Sam Mendes.  Again I'll be sad to see Tarantino, one of my all-time favorite directors, fall just short of this award, but the smart money is on Mendes.  Todd Phillips's work on Joker was a little too Scorsese for him to deserve this, while Scorsese's work on The Irishman was a little too.....well, 90s Scorsese.  Bong Joon-ho could be a spoiler but I'm sticking with Sam.

Prediction: Sam Mendes


Mike: I agree with you that this is a two-horse race however Tarantino isn't a part of it. For me, it's between Mendes and Bong Joon Ho for Parasite. 1917 is a film that ranks up there with Saving Private Ryan (the most famous of all the Academy's sins) and if he was awarded the Oscar, it's deserved. However, Parasite is a masterpiece and its delivery is crazy good. This was a film I actually had to digest after it was over. Also, considering how the Director's branch of the Academy is primarily made up of directors from other countries, I think Parasite's theme is actually going to translate more in this category than any others.

Prediction: Bong Joon Ho

WWE Royal Rumble 2020: I'm Just Not Seeing It With Drew....

Soooo, that was a Royal Rumble. Nothing more, nothing less. It was alright. We got a couple decent Rumble matches, a couple very strong singles bouts, and a couple not-good matches. If part of the Royal Rumble’s purpose was to get people excited for WrestleMania, then this show was a bit of a failure for me. The three big matches set up so far don’t do much for me at all, and one match I do actually want to see doesn’t appear to be happening. Why the hell not I couldn’t say.

The show kicked off with an overlong bells & whistles brawl between Roman Reigns and Baron Corbin. This pairing has never done anything for me and this was no different. They fought in the ring for several minutes and then brawled all around the stadium; since it’s such a big venue this undoubtedly helped bloat the running time. Near the end of the match Roman locked Corbin in a porto-crapper and tipped it over. Uhhh, okay. Then both guys ended up on top of a dugout, where Reigns finished him with the punch/spear combo. At least the finish was fun. This didn’t need more than 15 minutes but it got 21. Shane vs. Miz at Mania 35 was more entertaining. **

The women’s Rumble was shockingly early in the lineup. This was definitely better than last year’s women’s Rumble but not a great one, and the wrong woman won. I cannot fathom how they justify Charlotte winning here when the moment was so clearly Shayna’s. On the plus side though, Shayna was booked like a monster for her four minutes, and Bianca Belair looked like a huge star in her 33-minute run. Each woman tossed out 8. Other than that we got a helluva run from Beth Phoenix, who withstood a bad cut on the back of her head and made it to the final three after tossing out her bestie Natalya (payback for 2018), a lot of overly quick eliminations of NXT stars, and for some reason no Sasha Banks. Is she hurt? It came down to Shayna vs. Charlotte, and rather than go the logical route set up at Survivor Series they had Charlotte head scissor Shayna over the ropes to win. Sooo, Charlotte vs. Becky for the thousandth time? Oh joy. Or worse, Charlotte vs. Bayley? Or does Bayley drop her title to Shayna and we get yet another triple threat? Can’t we just have the Becky-Shayna match we’ve been waiting for? This Rumble was fine but I didn’t like the result at all. ***1/2

WWE Royal Rumble 2020 Preview & Predictions

It's the first WWE PPV of the new decade!  Let's get ready to Rumb-- wait, only five women have been announced for this thing?  Seriously WWE, let's get ready to Rumble, huh?  What the hell are you sitting on this info for?  Is it just gonna be 25 surprise participants?  When did this company forget how to hype a show?

The inaugural WWE extravaganza of the New Roarin' 20s is upon us, and like last year's Rumble it appears they've booked more matches than can possibly fit on the main show.  So get ready to see two or three of these bouts get bumped.  I for one can't believe how fast the last couple years have gone by.  The 2018 Rumble feels like it was one year ago.  The 2019 one feels like it just happened.  The 2000 Royal Rumble still feels like a state of the art event, as though it kicked off the current era.  And that was twenty goddamn years ago.  I'm gettin' too old for this shit.....

As is always the case nowadays, WWE's build for this event has been all over the place - sloppy, disorganized, and poorly communicated to us viewers.  Seriously, they've only announced five women for that Rumble match and there are basically no stories being told going in.  The men's Rumble at least has the Brock Lesnar "I'm so good I'm gonna enter at #1 and toss everyone out so there's no Title challenger" thing.  The women's Rumble has nothing.  What the fuck guys?  It's only the second-most important match on the show (maybe even first if Becky headlines 'Mania again).

Anyway, let's take a look at this card, which is not without interest but overloaded.

Sheamus vs. Chad Gable

I refuse to call Mr. Gable by the name they've given him.  Vince really is like a 12-year-old ("He's short, it's such good shit!").  I find this a very odd inclusion for the returning Sheamus.  Why not just put both of these guys in the Rumble?  This match hardly seems important enough to get its own slot.  Also why does Sheamus think Gable is the reason WWE sucks now?  Gable is one of several WWE stars who needs to get the fuck outta this place ASAP.

Pick: No way Sheamus is losing in his first big match back

US Championship: Andrade vs. Humberto Carrillo

This is a late addition for a championship that's been bouncing around like crazy lately.  Both these guys are hoping to take up Rey Mysterio's mantle as WWE's biggest Hispanic star.  Andrade has all the tools, to be sure.  Not sure yet about the other guy.  This match should be good but will also likely get moved to the pre-show.  Andrade should retain since he just won the belt, but maybe Humberto will help his stock even in defeat.

Pick: Andrade retains

Smackdown Women's Championship: Bayley vs. Lacey Evans

Well this is weird.  The former snobby heel vs. the former lovable babyface, roles now reversed.  I'll say this persona works much better for Lacey.  Why they didn't play up her military service to begin with I'm sure I don't know.  Let's hope she's improved in the ring over the last 12 months.  I don't think they have a WrestleMania season plan for the SD Women's Title at all, so this could go either way.  I'll pick the champ to retain I guess.

Pick: Bayley retains

Movie Review: 1917

What a spectacular technical achievement is Sam Mendes's latest film 1917.  This simple story of a pair of World War I soldiers tasked with crossing No Man's Land to call off an impending British attack that will surely end in disaster is presented in a way that's so visceral and mesmerizing you won't be able to stop thinking about it.

Based loosely on stories told by Mendes's grandfather (a WWI soldier himself), 1917 is staged as one unbroken shot (there are edits here and there but except for one instance they're seamless), creating a sense of claustrophobia, tension and inevitability.  The film opens on our two protagonists dozing in a field, roused and called into the trenches to be briefed on their mission.  From the opening moments the camera drags us into the action, and for the next two hours we're never given a reprieve.  The technique forces the audience to become participants in these harrowing events, as Lance Corporals Blake and Schofield crawl through corpse-laden fields of mud and barbed wire, navigate abandoned German trenches, dodge crashing aircraft, and so on.  I won't say more about the story, as it's best to go in cold.  Were these events presented in a traditional way this film would perhaps not be as engaging, but that's sort of the point.  Like Saving Private Ryan, 1917 is about the "how," moreso than the "what."  It is designed to make the audience experience the film rather than just watch it.

The film's lead actor George MacKay gives an understated but note-perfect performance, reluctant to be a part of the mission at first, then determined to complete it at all costs, no matter the increased weight heaped upon his shoulders.  It's not a flashy performance but it's exactly the right one for this film, and mostly conveyed with facial expressions and physicality.

TV Review: Dracula (2020)

Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss of Sherlock fame are back with another television take on an iconic character, this time in the form of a three-episode adaptation of Bram Stoker's classic Dracula.  And well, it's very good, but it's not Sherlock.  Or Dracula really. 

The miniseries closely follows certain beats from the novel but deviates wildly from others.  Some of these inventions are effective, some not so much.  As someone who's been waiting three decades for a truly faithful screen adaptation (I love Francis Ford Coppola's version, and it's pretty close but still not totally authentic), I'm always vexxed when someone puts out a new Dracula film or TV series that almost compulsively reinvents the wheel.  First off, the book got this story right the first time; Stoker's version is absolutely loaded with chilling moments of dread.  Second, at a certain point the idea of "doing something different" is no longer doing something different.  If everyone is radically changing the story, your "bold new take" is neither bold nor new.  In this case Moffat and Gatiss start out with Stoker's material but diverge within the first half hour, to the point that by the end of the first episode we're in a totally different narrative space.  By the third episode we've strayed so far (aside from some characters and moments that parallel the novel) that the show can hardly even be called Dracula.

But enough about the show's lack of faithfulness.  Is it any good?  Yes, it's quite well-made.  As with Sherlock, the writing is crisp and darkly humorous at times (though often the dialogue is far too modern sounding), and information is doled out gradually, creating some shocking plot twists.  The performances are all strong, particularly charismatic Finnish actor Claes Bang as the Count (who's written a little too charmingly funny for my taste but that's not his fault), a suave, sardonic and pragmatic vampire who takes on the skills and personality traits of his victims and thus has to be discriminating about who he feeds on.  Another standout is Dolly Wells as Sister Agatha, an amalgam of a classic character and a new one, who serves as Dracula's crafty and resilient nemesis.  The cinematography and art direction are mostly impressive and atmospheric, often mirroring that of Coppola's version (though they sometimes betray the modest budget of a TV series as opposed to a feature film), and several of the visual choices are obvious nods to nearly every previous Dracula film (as well as moments that recall The Shining, The Fly, and Interview With the Vampire).  If nothing else this series certainly rewards sharp-eyed fans of the genre.

NJPW WrestleKingdom 14 Night Two Review: Naito Reigns Supreme

If Night One of WrestleKingdom 14 was like an album A-side featuring two monster hit singles, Night Two was the B-side with deeper cuts but more consistent quality from song to song.  Of the eight matches on this show I'd only rate one below three stars, and while there was nothing on the level of the Ospreay-Takahashi or Okada-Ibushi classics from Night One (which would've been nothing short of miraculous), we got multiple ****+ bouts and a huge climactic moment.

Click HERE for Night One...

The main card kicked off with part 2 of Jushin Liger's retirement, as he teamed with Naoki Sano against Ryu Lee and brand new Jr. Heavyweight Champ Hiromu Takahashi.  This was fine, but nowhere near as fun as Liger's 8-man tag the night before, and at 12 minutes it felt longer than necessary.  I'd have liked a Liger-Takahashi singles match much better, but maybe the company didn't want to make Takahashi work back-to-back singles bouts.  After some decent back-and-forth, Taka pinned Liger with the Time Bomb finish.  The crowd was pretty dejected at Liger's loss, but it was the right move; Liger passed the torch to the new Jr. champion.  **1/4

Things ramped up quickly with the second match, for the Jr. Tag Titles, as Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo (both working as fantastic douchebag heels) faced Sho and Yoh.  The bad guys cheated like crazy and did a ton of unnecessary posturing to draw great heat, as RPG3K played the underdog babyfaces to the hilt.  Late in the match, during a ref distraction, ELP hit Sho with a low blow (a common move for ELP), only to find that Sho was wearing a cup.  RPG3K then hit a double-stomp/Shock Arrow tandem move on ELP to win the match and the belts.  This bout was super-fun and high-energy, and a great mix of athleticism and babyface vs. heel dynamics.  ***3/4 

The most unusual bout of the night was Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Sanada for the British Heavyweight Title, a mat grappling showcase where Sanada went hold-for-hold with the technical wizard.  Zack as usual had some great counters, like catching Sanada's standing moonsault into an arm hold.  Late in the match Sanada snared the Skull End several times (Zack is perfectly built to be put in this hold) only for Zack to escape or counter.  Finally after a series of cradle near-falls, Zack caught Sanada in a European clutch to retain.  I was shocked Sanada didn't win here and I wonder what the plan is after this.  Fun little technical match.  ***1/2

NJPW WrestleKingdom 14 Night One Review: Okada and Ibushi Make Art

The first-ever two-part WrestleKingdom is in the books, and it was overall a helluva weekend of pro wrestling.  The two shows played like a double album of sorts, with the first disc containing by far the two best tracks, and the second disc being a more solid overall album.  To break things up I'll review each show separately, so stay tuned for my Night Two review coming soon.

Night One took a while to really get going, thanks to three consecutive 8-man tags.  I would've liked another singles match in one of these slots rather than just trying to get everyone on the main card.  But the three openers were inoffensive at worst and were kept short.  The first of these was the best, thanks to Jushin Liger and his old-school pals (plus Taguchi) having one last romp to show off their stuff.  Everyone in the match looked great for their age.  After nine minutes Taguchi hit Liger with a Buma ye (that's Nakamura's finisher except with a hip attack instead of a knee), followed by a Dodon for the three-count.  I'd have had Liger win the Night One match, because why not?  He's in there with mostly other old-timers anyway, there's no torch to pass in this match.  But this was a fun opener.  **1/2

Next was Suzuki-Gun (led this time by Zack Sabre Jr. to hype his Night Two singles match) vs. LIJ (minus Naito of course).  This was technically the best of the 8-man tags but still too short to amount to much.  The story was Zack vs. Sanada, and Zack won the match by tying Bushi up in knots while smiling sadistically at his Night Two challenger.  This was fine.  **1/4

The final 8-man pitted Goto, Ishii, Yano and Yoshi-Hashi vs. Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, Yujiro Takahashi and NEVER Champ Kenta, in another match to hype a Night Two singles bout.  This was pretty basic, with the biggest spot being Ishii hitting a hard-fought brainbuster on Fale.  After all eight men started brawling in and around the ring, Goto hit the ushigoroshi followed by the GTR on Takahashi for the win.  Another serviceable but forgettable undercard match.  **

The 2019 Enuffa.com Pro-Wrestling Year-End Awards

Welcome to Enuffa.com's 6th Annual Year-End Awards! 

2019 was, putting it mildly, an interesting year in pro wrestling.  For the first time in nearly two decades, the industry juggernaut WWE faced real North American competition, in the form of Tony Khan and Cody Rhodes's brainchild All Elite Wrestling.  An upstart company that promised to be more fan-and-employee-friendly, that promised to make wins and losses matter, and that promised to present a more sports-like atmosphere than WWE's three-ring circus, AEW launched its weekly TNT program Dynamite to mostly positive reviews and solid ratings, winning the first seven head-to-head weeks (It's been a see-saw battle since then) against the revamped NXT show.  Even more impressive was the near-instant sellouts of the company's first two PPV events, Double or Nothing and All Out (the latter of which saw upwards of 80,000 people vying for seats.  The company isn't without its flaws, as was expected for a brand-new promotion, but with Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks, Cody, Chris Jericho, and WWE deserter Jon Moxley as their core main event crew, plus a host of promising young stars, AEW is a breath of fresh air in what had long been a stagnant North American wrestling landscape.  If nothing else their existence will hopefully force WWE to put more effort into their creative and worker harder to keep employee morale up.

AEW's top stars sadly came at the expense of NJPW, who found themselves in a bit of a lurch immediately following WrestleKingdom 13.  Amazingly though, as they'd done in 2016, the company adjusted quickly and put the focus on a crop of new and up-and-coming stars, selling out Madison Square Garden (the first non-WWE promotion to play there since 1961) and once again delivering loads of great matches and moments.  Impact's parent company Anthem purchased AXS TV, which also cost NJPW their weekly American time slot, but I don't doubt New Japan will find a workaround.

As for NXT, WWE's third brand had maybe their best creative year, delivering multiple yardstick TakeOver specials and amassing one of the best rosters in the business.  The AEW situation has been great for NXT, as the company is now motivated to treat the former developmental brand as a full-fledged part of the whole.  Given how badly the main roster squandered all the 2019 call-ups, I've about gotten to the point that I hope no one from NXT ever gets called up again.

Speaking of the main roster, there's probably never been such a collection of wrestling talent so badly used, ever.  RAW and Smackdown are bursting with great athletes and somehow they have no idea how to utilize any of them.  Pushes were bungled (perhaps intentionally in some cases), payoff matches were poorly booked, undeserving people were elevated and overexposed, angles were dropped without warning, PPV lineups were thrown together last-minute.  2019 provided so much more evidence (as though we even needed it) that the industry passed Vince McMahon by a long time ago and he needs to step down.  It's gotten so embarrassing I can't imagine how bad things will be in ten years if he's still there.  I skipped six main roster PPVs in 2019.  I haven't done that since 2010, and that was back when you had to pay for them.  For someone like me (a WWE Network subscriber since Week One) to not bother watching nearly half the company's PPV events in a given year, things have to be in really rough shape.  2020 isn't looking very promising for the red and blue brands.  Were it not for NXT I'd have likely dropped my Network subscription already.

But enough grim news.  Let's do something fun.  Let's hand out some pretend awards!

NJPW WrestleKingdom 14 Preview & Predictions

A new decade dawns.  A new Tokyo Dome extravaganza looms.  A new kind of supercard is born.

Welcome to a special edition of PPV Predictions, here at Enuffa.com!  It's the beginning of a new year, and that means it's time for NJPW to drop a 500-megaton PPV Awesome-Bomb on all of us.  This year's WrestleKingdom is a two-parter, and if all goes well it could be the template going forward, not only for New Japan but for WWE's WrestleMania and perhaps other super-shows.  WrestleKingdom 14 will take place on January 4th and 5th, with 16 main card matches plus four pre-show bouts over the two days.  The first night is built around the huge G1 Climax A-Block rematch, Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi for the IWGP Title, plus B-block rematch Jay White vs. Tetsuya Naito for the Intercontinental Title, while Night Two will see the winners of those two matches face off to become the first-ever Double Champion.  This pair of shows should have far-reaching consequences for NJPW's Big Four guys and will set the stage for the company's attempted US expansion in 2020.  My biggest hope for New Japan in 2020 is that they partner with AEW.  Both promotions would benefit enormously; AEW could use New Japan's top stars to boost their own ratings, while New Japan's US footprint would be greatly expanded by their stars appearing on TNT.  It's a win-win.  Make it happen.

But enough about that stuff, let's predict some WrestleKingdom matches...



Night One

Jushin Thunder Liger, Tatsumi Fujinami, The Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask vs. Naoki Sano, Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Ryusuke Taguchi

This eight-man tag will be Liger's penultimate match and is mostly a throwback bout for the old-timers.  It's all about the nostalgia, and I expect Taguchi will do most of the heavy lifting.  It won't go very long and probably won't earn a ton of stars, but it should be a fun little pre-sendoff for Liger.

Pick: Team Liger obviously has to win

Evil, Sanada, Shingo Takagi & Bushi vs. Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi & El Desperado

Of the throwaway matches on these two shows, this has the most potential.  There's a ton of talent in this match and a strong faction vs. faction vibe.  It's also the only main card match for Suzuki, Evil, Shingo and Bushi, which is very sad.  That's actually really wrong when you think about it.  Anyway, hopefully these guys will get enough time to make the match count and be set up for something bigger in February.

Pick: I'll go with LIJ

Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Kenta, Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi

Ishii is another great talent being criminally shortchanged on these two cards.  You mean to tell me you couldn't find a singles match, out of sixteen main card slots, for fucking ISHII?  This match is all about previewing Kenta vs. Goto on Night Two.  It'll be brief and energetic, with some good hard-hitting exchanges.

Pick: Chaos