Timbo Slice

This is an awesome, awesome bit with Woody Paige talking about a time he hung out with Piper after a match one night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1LADs_ZIVA&feature=youtu.be

Not on YouTube, but here's the DailyMotion video: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2hid3c

The biggest thing for me is that everything is micromanaged. Too much. The best parts about wrestling at its peak was that everything was managed, but loosely. Generalized, even. Here, everything is so high-strung and calculated that it screams overly scripted, even to many people who aren't hip to the business, so to speak. It's the new corporate mentality, which has been prevalent at other sports institutions, most notably ESPN. Brand over stars. The problem is that stars improve the brand. The brand doesn't make stars. The one time it worked was with Hogan. Everything else was by chance or by being forced into the situation. Unless they break that down and let people stand out without having to have a rigid structure in place, it's going to slowly erode.

Steven, I'd add the other 8/22/85 match between Chig and Devil on that list, too. The main was more dynamic, but Chig and Devil showed just how advanced the women were by incorporating all the other major styles at the time into one match. Absolutely sensational stuff.

I understand not wanting to ding Satomura because of the landscape she worked most of her prime in, but at the same time, if you're gonna tell me that Satomura's best against Hojo was better than the two DreamSlam matches, the '93 Grand Prix and TLTB matches she had, the St. Final match that, while not much of a match was one hell of an angle, and, if you want to go a bit further, better than the Queendom tag, then we're gonna be apples and oranges. Simple as that. The 16 month stretch Hokuto had from Dream Rush to the Queendom tag is one of the greatest stretches in wrestling history, let alone female wrestling history. She's a fine performer, but her best doesn't touch Hokuto's. Or Aja's '94. Or Kandori's 93. Or even Kyoko's '93. Or Toyota's 13 month stretch from Dream Rush to the St. Final tag, maybe even out to tag title match with LCO a few months later. That's what Meiko is going up against when it comes to peaks. She doesn't have that peak, and while that's not entirely her fault, it's still a part of the equation.

See, that's totally subjective and goes back to my point about expectations for how guys work. People see how Hero works and wonder how a guy looking like that works like he did, while as with the guys you mentioned, the look amplified what they did because it was more inherent to their character. I don't get the double standard here. You can't have one and say it doesn't work the other way. Hero has done plenty to make himself standout with that physique. It doesn't matter that he looks that way. The guys you mentioned had personalities that made you fear them. It wasn't their look that did it. You want an example of Hero looking like a badass with that physique? Check out him taking a shlub like Reed Bentley and carrying him to a damn good match because of how he carried himself. It was one of his first matches post-WWE and it looked like he had something to prove, and he did it in spades

Meiko in 2000's joshi being better than Hokuto in 1993 is rubbish.

To Bill's point, they had him rile up a dead crowd basically by himself before his match with Thatcher at the WWNLive Supershow and it absolutely made that show. He made me feel like it was worth the money I paid to see that show BY HIMSELF. That was also the night where he had his awesome "I Work Hard For This Body" shirt, so that should tell you how much he cares about what you think of his body. This is more stemming that people are pissed he didn't work harder to get into "WWE" shape so that he could be working NXT, I'm pretty sure. There's an air of disappointment there. Which is understandable. There's also the idea that a guy should work like he looks, and then people get surprised and think it's awesome when Owens is as agile as he is, or Cage, or Vader, etc. So I'm not buying this idea that because he looks a certain way he should work a certain way. He works how he works, and he's a compelling worker, which is the point of the project. Now I feel like putting Hero #1 just to spite you all.

Thatcher does everything that Zack Sabre does way better. Flashy doesn't always mean better.

Bottom of my list, but she could be pushed out.

Was just about to post this. It's gonna be Rose more than likely.

I get he's supposedly on a hot streak right now, but he had all those years in NOAH and didn't really look good at all. He still doesn't. Not even close on my ballot.

I'm glad people nominated these guys for all the previous mentions. I'm not sure if they'd make my list, but them being so enjoyable is a huge feather in their cap that isn't in a lot of others.

Fingerpoke of Doom. Katie Vick. The Gobbledygooker.

I'm a sucker for the 30-minute draw with Taue from 04. I want to say 8/1/04.

Good ol' Inoki booking: Gotta get Hash paired up with Ogawa!!! So he was pushed down while Tenryu got groomed for the title win over Mutoh a few months later. Just hilariously inept.

Awesome stuff, as per usual from you guys. Rave was a great guest, hour flew right by. He was the Young Bucks before the Young Bucks were.

Footage of Will after the show ended: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9lg6HqJeY0

Thought only some spots in the tag matches and the Styles/Shibata match did anything for me. Naito actually going full Ingobernale with his entrance gear is inspired, but everything else wasn't. Not off to a great start here.

Los Gringos Locos (Art Barr and Eddie Guerroer) via the 90's threads. Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castignoli): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l2FkqMmlFA vs. Colt Cabana and El Generico https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rULzl70_-8o vs. The Briscoes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXifIH1iILE vs. The Young Bucks

Basically the best thing Ole was ever a part of, and the RnR feud was aces. I'm such a huge fan of their act that I want to include them, but we shall see.

I prefer Sato from a work perspective, but Yuki really was fun to watch. Tough to see her on my list, but now I feel like I need to nominate the Beauty Pair because they were a really good team in the 70's and they have a lot more than a lot of the other teams nominated.

I think around '81, she turns into a true world-class worker. She's the first worker to truly separate herself from the rest of the pack in a lot of ways, but it doesn't become more apparent for a little while longer. It's neat watching her do stuff as a youngster, though. There's a good match with her and Jackie Sato in 1980 that was the first standout for her in my eyes.

Um...http://www.wwe.com/wwenetwork.

He was fine, but he won't be close on a list like this. The Kawada match is probably the greatest single feather in the cap of ol' Dangerous K, and I did like his chases in UWF-i, but there just wasn't enough there.