Mad Dog

I always thought he was more suited to being a manager. Good talker and charisma but totally unbelievable in the land of giants that the WWF was in the 80s and early 90s. I think had he entered wrestling in the 90s he would've turned out a lot better.

His stuff as the Genius is interesting but the gimmick usually takes priority over the wrestling. His tag work with Mr. Perfect in 89/90 was decent though I'm unsure of how many times they teamed together.

What work of Poffo's have you seen?

I think no selling can be done without being bad. I think the way Sting did it was acceptable. He would no sell chops, have a flurry of offense and then wear out again. I think that can be believable as an adrenaline rush. The Flair Flop isn't so bad either. There have been some MMA knockouts that have looked similiar to it. Michaels kip up is exposing because he never sells the injuries he had before that moment ever again. It's stupid that his back gets worked over for 20 minutes and he's suddenly at 100% when it's time for his comeback. Also his warming up the band before the finish is business exposing as well. Any experienced wrestler would know what's coming and just roll out of the ring instead of standing up. On the other side. If someone worked over your knee during the first 5 minutes of a match and you're still selling that 20 minutes later it looks stupid. Pain does go away and someone should sell damage less the further they get away from the move.

I think the only reason Smackdown is watchable is because no one on the writing staff gives a shit about it.

I tuned back in for the battle royal and I could barely tell anyone apart.

I thought it lost a little steam in the middle and the very end could've been cut off. I thought James Storm was the MVP of the segment.

McMahonamania is running wild again. I tune in for 5 seconds and it's Austin and Steph. Did I die and end up back in 2001?

I don't think any aspect of the WWF will improve with the McMahons in power.

So I was bored and had some extra cash and bought some of the WWF DVDs I had been putting off getting. Benoit, Road Warriors and the 80s Stars are the ones I got. I watched the 80s one and it was almost disgusting the way Michael Cole would never say wrestling during his narrations. It was always sports entertainment. I know wrestling is a dirty word and everything with the WWF but come on this was just stupid.

Bah, clip jobs. I used to love how Turner Video would butcher their undercards on released tapes. Nothing like seeing the guys come out, the screen to flip or something and then see one guy pinning the other.

Some of the more hardcore RoH fans at times seem to think there's no sports entertainment in the fed. There obviously is and always has. How else can you have guys fight each other more than a few times unless you have the SE side of things to keep things fresh. These are typically the types that buy into everything the announcers say and show up on the RoH boards.

I think the WWF bringing in the old timers and having them beatup some 20 or 30 something guy in peak shape is really business exposing.

Has anyone seen his U-30 defense against Bryan Danielson? I've been wanting to pick it up but not sure if it's good or not.

I'd go with his two Dome Show appearances this year. It'll give you an idea of what he's liked. His G-1 Final against Tenzan in 2004 is a good one as well. Also his U-30 defense on 1/4/04 is probably the best match Yoshie has ever had. I forgot to add Osamu Nishimura. Something about his bland appearance and ringstyle has really grown on me over the last year.

After seeing Turning Point, Abyss should never take his shirt off ever again.

Abyss The best big man in wrestling right now. I've been trying to sell people on his skills for the last 6 months and thankfully more people are catching on. He even drug Lance Hoyt to a good match this summer. Hiroshi Tanahashi He hasn't had a great year but I see a lot of potential in the guy. I really hope New Japan gives him the ball in the next few years. I'm a little down on wrestling overall so I'm only listing two.

NWA 1989 Terry Funk's heel run might be my favorite. It just shows you how good Flair was that he could turn a forgotten past his prime legend into the biggest heel in the company in a matter of 5 seconds. On top of that you got Sting/Muta and Flair/Steamboat. WWF 1988-1992 The wrestling wasn't so hot but nostalgia does a lot. WCW 1996-1998 Cruiserweight action, the nWo and Chris Jericho's heel run. This was the era that turned me into a hardcore wrestling fan and I doubt that any will ever entertain me in the same way again. WCW 2001 The cruiserweight division returns and the Mag 7 storyline. WCW was already dead but they really had some good storylines going on and there was some great talent like Shane Helms, O'Haire and Jett starting to climb the card. WWF 2000 The only year that McMahon really got it as far as running a wrestling company. Just so much talent on the rise. It saddens me to think none of the up and comers ever got a shot. New Japan 1991-1995 The big three were still capable of great things and you had some great gaijen in the Steiners, Benoit and Eddie hanging around. The G-1 Climax Final in 95 is when New Japan started to go downhill as Mutoh stopped giving a shit.

It's been years since those posters have been around and with everything shoved into general now I would never be able to find it. True but they do a lot of the same things. They'll hang from a guys nuts forever but he suddenly starts working somewhere else or leaves and "he's overrated" or "he could never wrestle." They also tend to overrate everything that comes from the company. And as we've discussed before crow about aspects of the product that just don't exist (sports entertainment). Geography. Like I said if you just watch All Japan and that's what you like that's what you like. I myself watch more New Japan than about anything else right now. It becomes snobbery when you shit on something because it wasn't in Japan or the workers don't work mostly in Japan. It would be like me shitting on every U.S. lucha style match because it didn't happen in CMLL. Usually the nonsense you get is "Flair's matches are all the same" or "Flair dared to use the same move in two different matches" or something similiar. And I very easily can. I enjoy new Japan more because they have a superior junior division and juniors are what I dig in New Japan. I also enjoy them because I like a little sports entertainment mixed in and you tend to get that from them more. Plus I feel most New Japan shows are a little more complete than All Japan. All Japan usually is awesome at the top of the card but you have to suffer through a lot of matches you won't remember in an hour to get there. I also hate 60 minute draws. I don't care how good the match was I always feel ripped off when I invest an hour of my life into something and don't get a decisive finish. Joshi, I just don't care about women's wrestling. I can put up with a match or two on a regular card but a whole show is just overkill for me. And this is going to sound really stupid but screaming Japanese women just grate on my nerves like nothing else. There's jsut something about it that just irriates the hell out of me.

No, there are several people in the old TSM crowd that would wander into threads and say "I've only seen one or two **** matches in the history of the U.S." and it would have at least one puro worker in there. It's a lot similiar to how the ECW mutants were except that they enjoy a higher quality of match. You'll also notice them storming into threads where a U.S. match is getting some buzz and start declaring it was only **1/2 or some nonsense like that. The difference between you and a snob is that a snob will go out of his way to attack the U.S. scene. You just watch what you watch. Snobs also typically attack other puro watchers for not watching the right kind of puro. I've taken a lot of heat on other boards for preferring New Japan to All Japan and having no interest in the joshi feds. It doesn't make me any less of a puro fan but certain types act like it does and that it makes my opinion lesser than their own.

I won't even get into RoH mutants. Another couple of years and they might be worse than the ECW fans ever were.

It exists. You can just go back to the older TSM puro threads before the purging and see it in action. It's a very tiny minority of people but they're bad enough that they give every puro watcher a bad name. The worst side effect of this is a lot of fans just getting their feet wet get attacked and chased away from the Japanese scene. But puro snobs are easy to spot because they spend most of their time attacking Ric Flair.

He does break out of the high spot fests a lot. You just have to be lucky to catch those matches. His Lockdown match with Abyss was pretty good. Actually I think you should give Abyss a closer look. He's probably the most underrated wrestler and the best big man in wrestling right now. He's pulled some amazing carry jobs over the last 4 months and he works really well with smaller wrestlers.

I thought the funeral segment was a mixed bag. There were some hilarious moments but it went too long.