Timbo Slice

I definitely liked what Savio brought in his WWF time, and the random PR stuff I've seen from him has been really good. He's underrated a lot due to exposure, but I think even Austin himself said that Savio was one of his favorite guys to work because it allowed him to show he could go, and Savio brought that out of him in their matches. He's on the outside looking in, but he's not a bad nomination at all.

Backlund's a guy I won't go back and rewatch that much because I don't think he had enough to have me coming back for more. I actually think of him in a similar vein as Dory, where he worked a deliberate pace mainly because that's what he was best at, but it wasn't something that worked well against a wide variety of opponents. But then at the same time, when he did have to change things up because of his opponents almost by necessity, there was some really interesting stuff that happened because of it. Call it a product of the MSG environment, but he's really tough for me to pinpoint on a list where I think the more I look over it, the more slam dunks I realize I'm going to have. Backlund not being one is going to hurt him on my list. Don't see him on it right now.

Dory's methodical pace does have its benefits, but I think where he loses points with me is that at a time where the longer matches were in vogue, there were a lot of his contemporaries working 30-60 minute matches that were a lot more compelling. Baba, Destroyer, Robinson, the list goes on. I don't think he's aged well, I think he's best in a tag environment as has previously been said, and he does have one of the greatest run-ins in wrestling history during that Hansen/Funk match when Hansen was trying to hang Terry with his bullrope and Dory makes the save looking like a middle-school principal. Won't be on my list, though.

Aesthetically pleasing, but I will say that in the last couple of years, he's honed a lot of things that made him someone I'd pass over. I think his stuff as Puma has been compelling to an extent, and he's incredibly charismatic live. At the WWN shows at WM weekend, he had a star quality about him that few others had (or wanted to have - Hi, Johnny Wrestling). I don't think I'd have him on the list, but there's a part of me that thinks the LU exposure is going to help him become a better overall worker. Then I see him do some of the same old stuff and I think differently. He's definitely impressive to watch, though. Not sure how much that's going to go in something like this, but he's not the worst selection on this list.

I thought I remember him getting some highlight matches in NJPW when MPro had the working agreement with them. I think he had a match with Koji that made a Schneider Comp (might have been someone else). He's one of the best trios workers ever, though. That's a really weird career foundation to have in a competition such as this, where there's so many more great singles workers, but it's an interesting thing to consider if you're looking for wrestlers who honed a specific style better than others.

If she were to make my ballot, she'd be at the bottom, as I have about 10 joshi workers off the top of my head I'd probably put above her, but at the same time, she's probably Aja's best opponent, she's very good at carrying other workers to dramatic matches that are actually enthralling (no joke, if you watched random joshi matches over the last decade based on hearsay, there's a good chance she was the reason why and you enjoyed yourself). She's another personal favorite of mine that I really want to put on my list, but I wouldn't be surprised if I take a look at who I'd consider and realize she's in the 125-150 range.

NXT focused a lot on Itami this week and even had a nice video package about his WrestleMania weekend. As much as seeing him get brought up this early means they might not have much for him now, It would be extremely weird if they didn't do something about this, especially considering they've protected him hitting the GTS about as well as anything in the company for a long time. I hope he gets an opportunity to shine at some point. Owens and Zayn is the main attraction but I'd like to see him get a shot.

I thought S.L.L. was going to beat me to it, but Meiko Satomura most definitely needs to be nominated via the 90's threads.

Current favorite wrestler to watch: Timothy Thatcher Last fun match you saw: Thatcher vs. Chris Hero from WWNLive Supershow on 3/28/15. Wrestler you want to see more of: Tommy End Last live show attended (if applicable/different from last time you answered): WWNLive Supershow on 3/28/15 Match you're most looking forward to watching: Samoa Joe vs. Kyle O'Reilly on this week's ROH TV. Last fun interview/promo you saw: Rich Swann coming out to talk to the crowd before the WWN show because he was injured, complete with crowd sing along to "All Night Long." Last interesting thing you read about wrestling: The piece that was just posted by Justin Roberts on his time with Connor Michalek and how he feels WWE was using his memory for publicity. Roberts has caught grief from some folks (including me to an extent, but I'm also a broadcaster who is incredibly nitpicky about what I like in announcing) but I think it's some must-read stuff. Last worthwhile podcast you listened to: I've been a podcast fiend so I'm all over Brainbuster, Will's Wrestlemania week shows, The Pro-Wrestling Super Show with Grimmas, Wrestling Culture's latest on WWE Developmental history, the list goes on and on. Most fun you've had watching wrestling lately: Live at that WWNLive show. The Hero/Thatcher match is in my Top 5 for best live matches seen, maybe Top 3. Favorite recent post on this board: Everything in the Brainbuster Episode 3 post. The trash talking has been tremendous. Favorite thing about the wrestling landscape in the past three months (if you live in the past, then go with your past three months of time-traveling): NXT showing they can draw in select shows on the road and talking about doing their quarterly specials on the road.

Picture of a future result of Brainbuster once I'm on there to take on Kelly: Eat, Sleep, Brainbuster, Repeat. Although that means you win 19 more times...which means I wouldn't beat you until Thanksgiving 2016. Hmmm....

Basics as I would see it: -Around 30 appearances a year, including four PPVs, with certain PPVs possibly being mandatory due to market size and extra appearances being paid in the $100-250k range. -Base salary close to $5 million per year as previously said. -Creative veto power, I'm guessing, probably with the ability to have preferences on who he'd like to work with. -I don't think the advertising stuff is as big a deal right now, but I imagine he's gonna take a bit more on merchandise than most guys on the roster. At this point, I'm not sure if that's a part of the $5 million per year, but it wouldn't be a surprise if it was extra. I actually think UFC would have offered him a similar base salary, but the incentives wouldn't have been worth it to him, I don't think. I think Vince offered him a 3 year, $12-$15 million base with a ton of creative freedom, big time overages on appearances and a bigger percentage on merchandise to offset his previous sponsor losses. Nothing UFC could offer outside of outright paying him $7.5 million a year to start would have done it, and there's a good chance if he had to do three years that Dana would have asked for at least 10 fights.

Matt D begging off Johnny's questions.

Supposed to be the least of the three Thatcher matches that weekend for Evolve/WWN. The Hero match was crazy good on Saturday and I really enjoyed the Tommy End match on Evolve 40, which I'm sure is coming next.

I actually thought the 1995 WCW one was Starrcade because when he changed the number of matches by the end, I thought he was trying to figure out if the Triangle Match was either one or two matches. But then the Joe Louis Arena hint would have been the dead giveaway, for sure. Kris tried to powerbomb Kidman. He should know better.

Yeah, I think I was a bit to gung ho about thinking they could run every month. I do think they should take the specials on the road, though.

Per Enzo Amore's Instagram, it looks like CJ Parker has left the company.

Also, that crowd was terrible.

Yeah, Trips truly booked the show to make a lot of "his guys" look great. Lucha Dragons, Neville, Rollins. Then bury guys like Reigns, Saxton, Sting on the post-show, etc. It's definitely within the realm of possibility. EDIT: That almost reads sarcastic, but it's not. This was almost a throwaway show from a booking perspective outside of catering to the "Smart" fans wants.

What the hell is happening in the final hour with all those audio drop ins?

Also, quite possibly the only time in the podcast's history that a moose was mentioned that many times.

45 minutes in and Kris is winning, especially with the whole "Starts with an A" jump-in.

I was totally impressed with Reigns tonight. I was dreading the booking throughout until Rollins came out, and then it was like all was forgiven and it made what I had seen that much more appealing. He never really had to win me over, per se, but the booking made it hard to be 100% behind him. I hope it changes, as it looks like Rollins/Reigns should be their main at WM 32, if not there, at SummerSlam. All the matches delivered in some way, which is all I really ask. Between this, Evolve 40 and WWNLive, I saw three pretty dang good shows this weekend, two of them live. Even though all three had flaws, none of the flaws were so bad that the show wasn't enjoyable overall.

Eh, Monty Python was a bunch of surrealists. You had to be prepared for anything.

I totally understand the question Loss is presenting and I'm not trying to patronize him. You build to the match for two months, gotta have a winner, and neither guy wins. Considering how every other major show has been booked, there's plenty of precedent for this backfiring. Problem was that in the specific instances that were mentioned, the fact that the third guy got involved or it got changed the way it did was receive poorly was the main reason why people were down on it. It's a causation/correlation thing. One doesn't necessarily lead to the other, but when one happens, it's normally similarly received akin to the decision being good or bad. The ethics in the decisions made were WAY more poor than the ones used to make this decision. If anything, the decision was made only when Brock re-signed, which would make plenty of sense. The switcheroo with Goldberg was completely unethical. The decision on Bryan/Orton was short-sighted and questionable in its ethics, as well. This, however, was a main event that was dying on the vine coming in, and I think it was almost necessitated by what happened coming in. The reason why people look to the two you mentioned was because there was money in a Goldberg rematch and it was thrown away due to ego. The reason people hated the Bryan thing was because people thought Bryan deserved a run and it would have been worth money to see him as champ. Yet when he was thrown in the main event picture at WM, that money definitely came in to see it happen, so I'd even say that specific PPV wasn't nearly as egregious as the Fingerpoke of Doom. I'd be in total agreement with Loss if more people were clamoring for a Brock/Lesnar straight-up match. But fans were turning on this and were expecting for it to be a complete dud. It's the opposite scenario of the others that have been mentioned. Ethically, this was actually the right move considering what people thought of the match coming in.

I think you're overestimating the amount of fans who wanted to see that. The majority of fans wanted to see Brock eviscerate Roman, didn't want to see a competitive match, etc. Considering the options, Reigns going over like he did would have killed a lot of what Brock did dead where he stood considering how that match was laid out.