Timbo Slice

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-second-annual-pro-wrestling-draft-board/ BRAY WYATT AT #2!!!! Because reasons.

I think you can arguably call him the greatest trainer in the history of wrestling. He's responsible for more of the best wrestlers of the modern era than anyone else, even if he couldn't book to the times and pay his best guys. But man alive, that class in 1972 alone makes him an all time great. Rest in peace.

Because it's Chicago, basically.

So am I gonna be the outlier on the Payne/Cactus vs. Nasty Boys SuperBrawl IV match? Payne started the match off throwing the Nastys around like Gary F'n Albright and Cactus breaks out the Nestea Plunge AND gets busted up from the inside because of it. I thought this was actually a pretty well laid out match considering it was the Nastys in there, and the faces did more than their fair share to carry the bulk of everything. Ending was kind of a cop out but then it set up Spring Stampede well, too. I dunno, it's definitely watchable at the very least, if not good.

Just came across that Bryan is out for tonight. Neville will face Barrett on the kickoff show.

THE CARD (UPDATED AS OF 5 P.M. EST): -Seth Rollins vs. Randy Orton (WWE World Heavyweight Championship Steel Cage Match) -Roman Reigns vs. Big Show (Last Man Standing Match) -Dolph Ziggler vs. Sheamus (Kiss Me Arse Match) -John Cena vs. Rusev (United States Championship Russian Chain Match) -Dean Ambrose vs. Luke Harper (Chicago Street Fight) -Nikki Bella vs. Naomi (Divas Championship Match) -Tyson Kidd & Cesaro vs. The New Day (Tag Team Championship Match) -Bad News Barrett vs. Neville I'm not sure what to make of this card. A lot of retread stuff, not much that has me psyched unless the Russian Chain Match goes full on bloody (which considering Cena's pull, don't rule that out), the main event should be a clusterfuck of epic proportions, Bryan's injuries messing up the IC title match a bit...maybe Ambrose and Harper go crazy a bit? Maybe the Tag Team match delivers? This really seems like a placeholder card while they figure out where to send people over the summer feuds. Either that, or they really don't know what the hell they're doing. As it's been said before, they aren't booking to crowds and they're really in a vacuum, which is going to make tonight's normally-hot Chicago crowd probably as insufferable as the Post-WM Raw crowd.

Regal's shot up the board for me where I can safely consider him in my Top 50 and more likely in my Top 30. If I were to pick out my favorite performance I've seen of him since watching stuff for this project, the Arn SuperBrawl IV match is right up there amongst his best, as is the Larry Z matches. 1994 might have been his best year in the US as far as his work goes.

Kyle O'Reilly is someone I'm actively seeking out to watch now. He was awesome in that Fish Tank. His response to all the craziness was sensational.

This is something that I think a lot of people are gonna have with a lot of different wrestlers, not just top-tier guys like Jumbo or Flair or what have you. A lot of it is oversaturation, but there's also the element that over time, when you see something you like, you're drawn more to work of that caliber than even those who are considered GOAT candidates just for the sake of being considered GOAT candidates. I totally think that's a worthwhile reason to not rank someone that highly, and it mainly has to do with the fact that when you expand your horizons, if you enjoy something else, it's gonna come before it and so on. I don't think any of us are going to be able to watch as much as we want to for this project, only what we can, and going back and not ranking Jumbo highly or even at all on anyone's list is not going to be something I argue about with anyone. There's no mandatory picks here, even if they're held in high regard by a general consensus. Now I fall onto the opposite side of the ledger here, in the sense that over time, I've come to appreciate the stuff I really enjoyed when I first expanded my horizons into 1990's Japan and such. Some of it is a bit nostalgic, most of it is stylistic, but there isn't much that's going to change my mind at this point. I'm hoping to get to a lot of other things that are pimped highly in the 80's or in the nooks and crannies inbetween, but at the same time, I'm only going to seek out the stuff I think is noteworthy relative to what I like (which we all do to an extent). If I'm not excited about watching a guy work, there's a good chance I won't rank him that highly anyways, and so it's a moot point. The problems for me come up with "This guy is such a slam dunk #1 candidate that he has to be seen" when in reality, while we all seek out recommended stuff, sometimes it's not going to interest us that much. And that's fine. I understand some people think this is a hivemind-type place, but let's not actually become one here. That's why I really love this project as a whole and why I'm sticking to my guns about this being a really tight Top 10 vote. Just from how I've seen people talk about a lot of candidates, I'm ready for about a dozen different wrestlers occupying the top spot, and a Top 25 that could have some extremely interesting candidates, which a couple that will come out of nowhere and really surprise people. I'm also totally ready for the idea that guys who were a part of the last SC poll near that top of the list having heavy falls down the list or being omitted completely. I'm really getting excited for how this is all going to shape up.

Tenryu and Fujinami are gonna be in my Top 10, but I'm not sure where. I don't think I can put Tenryu over Hansen and I like Tenryu a bit more than Fujinami. The overall top 10 is probably going to be uniform save one or two names and it's going to be close all the way down. It's really crazy to think just how close a bunch of these guys are.

Jumbo has become a guy I've seriously considered as replacing Flair as my #1. I think he's the most enjoyable wrestler I've ever watched, and his three distinct periods (70's up and comer, 80's ace, 90's old man badass) offer so many different perspectives on him. I was trying to think of career arcs that were as good as his and I think the only guy I could come up with was Lawler. I know some people will say Funk, but Jumbo as The Man and Lawler as The Man are different compared to Funk as Grizzled Tough Old Outlaw. Right now, I'm thinking Flair and then a tough choice for me between Lawler and Jumbo. Funk 4th, probably Hansen 5th. But it's pretty much splitting hairs at this point.

Watched it last night as I trudged through the pre-Hogan WCW PPVs and this was a fantastic match. I had seen it before and loved it but really grew to appreciate how both guys worked chain wrestling sequences that were so enthralling and peppered in these great "high spots" in between. Regal must have been loving the idea of working Arn simply because of the fact he isn't afraid to get rugged and work snug and so they just tattooed each other. Felt like an old heavyweight boxing prize fight at times where guys worked an opening and then came up with a crowd-popping shot and made it stand out. Feather in the cap for both guys and as lauded as Spring Stampede is, it's right up there with the two brawls for the best match of 1994 for the company.

I wasn't on big as others were on Red when he was at his zenith, but at the same time, he's got the claim of being one of the more influential wrestlers of his era. His work varied all over the spectrum, but he was at least fun to watch and at his best, he had some of the most jaw-dropping spots I'd ever seen at the time. I don't think he'll make my 100, but at the same time, I feel like he's undervalued to an extent and was happy to hear Wes, Naylor and Kris talk him up big during the latest Exile on Badstreet podcast.

Well be interesting to see what new finish Rollins comes up with since the curb stomp has been banned.

He's the most polarizing guy in the field for me. When I was a kid, him and Lyger absolutely mystified me, and then later on, seeing him make his comeback in 2001 was the craziest thing ever. But man he was a part of some shit stuff, too. Really tough to judge.

If there's a Part 2 of this, count me in for hoping it's another 3 hour show. That timeframe had so much going on that breaking it down would be incredible, and I don't think Naylor was joking when he said they could talk for 12 hours about it. Another Bay Area note: Around the same time APW was coming up, Morgan and Modest broke off to form Pro Wrestling Iron after they had their run in NOAH. Had a working agreement with bringing in NOAH talent to some pretty interesting spots, a lot like Hash in the garage. Misawa came out for a couple shows, and EricR has a crazy story about going to one of their shows, but that's up to him to tell it. They ran the CLOVERDALE CITRUS FAIR, which was incredible to me. The GHC Jr. Heavyweight title was defended in a city whose population at the time was smaller than the Budokan.

As someone watching Masahiro Tanaka currently trying to be the outlier for Tommy John surgery when his stuff has diminished while everyone and their brothers are getting the procedure done after tearing his UCL, I'm just a bit off about a guy who decided not to get a procedure done in favor of alternative processes that delay the inevitable because he wanted to get back in the ring quicker. Lost in all this seems to be the fact that there were plenty of questions about whether or not he was even ready to come back when he did. The issues that came up with his neck were all pointing towards getting the invasive surgery and being out for a year. But this talk about taking off the rest of the tour for precautionary reasons is most likely a cascade from that decision not to get surgery done (unless KrisZ's conspiracy theory is founded, in which case, WWE is just straight up stupid). If that's the case and his body's even more worse for wear than it was when the diagnosis was first done, that's a mistake. There's a calculated risk in making the decision and he's been a guy who's been open to trying a lot of different health options over the years, but this looks like it was a mistake.

This has been fantastic to listen to. Top notch stuff all around. And Wes is the man for loving the Young Bucks. They might be the act I love most in wrestling right now.

I have a feeling they were told it was strictly going to be NXT, meaning a drop in pay for them considering what ROH pays them. Even with the idea of growing the brand, the Briscoes make a lot, are still young, and if it does blow up, they can make the move whenever they want.

They already said he was going to be on SmackDown! almost exclusively because of him breaking down. He might be one of those cases where the injuries that have built up over the years just cascade quickly. The alternative process to his neck issue was a mistake. He hasn't tried to work a different style, really. I don't think he's done, but at this point, I can only see him breaking down, getting surgery for whatever, taking his time on the shelf, and then coming back as a special attraction-type guy.

I was gonna bring up the elephant in the room, too. No way Kawada should have jobbed on 6/3/94. Yeah, Misawa made Williams and then Kawada got his first title, but I think it would have worked out better that Kawada won, even if the Williams booking was straight out of the Hansen playbook and was the transition to him as the #1 gaijin. But you know better than I on the intricate details. I just figured it would have been better business for Kawada to be the guy to take the belt off Misawa. That was circumstance at the time, though. Lesnar wasn't really going to be winning much that year as there were still questions as to whether he was going to be around for the long haul since he signed only a one year contract. That was more precautionary than anything else. I'm trying to think of anything egregious off the top of my head, but it lends itself more to booking the guys that did go over (Sting at Starrcade '97, Austin going heel at WM 17). Here's an interesting one: I think Al Snow should have beaten Shane Douglas at Wrestlepalooza '98. Snow was the most over guy in the company at the time and it would have been great for him to win. Even with him going to the WWF, a win and then him dropping it back would have been great.

Parv, as you'll see, it's not even the best Hansen match ever a couple months later. And then it's for sure not the best Hansen match a couple months after that. In the grand scheme of 90's All Japan, it's in that second tier below the usual suspects. That being said, I don't think it's not as hyped so much as that there's a lot that comes later that seems to overshadow it. Watching in order like you are, that's definitely a sentiment I'm not surprised to see. It's a top flight match. It was ranked #15 in the DVDVR 90's poll, too. One of my favorite Hansen lariats ever in that match, and definitely one of my favorite Kawada sell jobs when he drops like a ton of bricks on that shot from Hansen about halfway through the match.

I think he can build a feud better than few guys in the history of wrestling. He can make you put down money for what he's about to sell you with the promos and angles alone. But I do feel underwhelmed when it comes to the payoffs with him. I don't think he'll be making it for me.

Automatically on my list from what I've seen, but I want to dive into the 80's stuff a bit more to see if he's as top tier as everyone is making him out to be. Offhand, he's definitely Top 50, but I wouldn't be surprised he gets up there into the Top 25 range when it's all said and done, maybe even Top 15.

Jungle Jack was a really good tag team at the time, but she didn't really have much on the singles end that stood out. At the time, she probably wasn't a Top 15 joshi worker. Not gonna make it.