Loss

Draft #2, which I made last night. It's interesting reading Dylan's post now, because obviously, some of the things I was thinking about my own list are things he verbalized here. No Terry Gordy? 1. Ric Flair 2. Jumbo Tsuruta 3. Toshiaki Kawada 4. Nobuhiko Takada 5. Kenta Kobashi 6. Negro Casas 7. El Hijo del Santo 8. Jushin Liger 9. Eddy Guerrero 10. Jerry Lawler 11. Mitsuharu Misawa 12. Harley Race 13. Akira Hokuto 14. Chris Benoit 15. El Dandy 16. Aja Kong 17. Terry Funk 18. Blue Panther 19. Stan Hansen 20. Mayumi Ozaki 21. Chigusa Nagayo 22. Jaguar Yokota 23. Genichiro Tenryu 24. Akira Taue 25. Ricky Morton 26. Hiroshi Hase 27. Fuerza Guerrera 28. Billy Robinson 29. Arn Anderson 30. The Destroyer 31. Vader 32. Rey Misterio Jr 33. Bull Nakano 34. Nick Bockwinkel 35. Dynamite Kid 36. Devil Masami 37. Terry Gordy 38. Kiyoshi Tamura 39. Villano III 40. Dick Murdoch 41. Dump Matsumoto 42. Kazuo Yamazaki 43. Bret Hart 44. Shinya Hashimoto 45. Barry Windham 46. Ricky Steamboat 47. Atlantis 48. Manami Toyota 49. Ted DiBiase 50. Jack Brisco 51. Bobby Eaton 52. Dynamite Kansai 53. Tully Blanchard 54. Marc Rocco 55. Volk Han 56. El Samurai 57. Pirata Morgan 58. Owen Hart 59. Steve Austin 60. Akira Maeda 61. Juventud Guerrera 62. Mariko Yoshida 63. Bob Backlund 64. Sgt. Slaughter 65. Dan Kroffat 66. Lioness Asuka 67. Rick Martel 68. Brazo de Oro 69. Tommy Rogers 70. Shinjiro Otani 71. Randy Savage 72. Bill Dundee 73. Adrian Adonis 74. El Satanico 75. William Regal 76. Javier Cruz 77. Dennis Condrey 78. Kuniaki Kobayashi 79. Dory Funk Jr. 80. Satoru Sayama 81. Buddy Rose 82. Giant Baba 83. Jake Roberts 84. Antonio Inoki 85. Steve Williams 86. Curt Hennig 87. Brian Pillman 88. Shawn Michaels 89. Rick Rude 90. Tatsumi Fujinami 91. Don Muraco 92. Mick Foley 93. Taka Michinoku 94. Ron Garvin 95. Roddy Piper 96. El Texano 97. The Rock 98. Jerry Estrada 99. Naoki Sano 100. Kyoko Inoue

Okay, I've made my first draft. I'm sure I'll look at this and see things I want to change. I need to look at this again when it's not so fresh on my mind to make sure I'm not doing anything really obviously boneheaded, but at this point, the following people are looming outside the top 100 and I really want to place them. Mick Foley Dustin Rhodes Lioness Asuka Shiro Koshinaka And here's the list right now: 1. Ric Flair 2. Jumbo Tsuruta 3. Toshiaki Kawada 4. Nobuhiko Takada 5. Jushin Liger 6. Negro Casas 7. Jerry Lawler 8. El Hijo del Santo 9. Harley Race 10. Kenta Kobashi 11. Akira Hokuto 12. Eddy Guerrero 13. Mitsuharu Misawa 14. Chris Benoit 15. El Dandy 16. Aja Kong 17. Genichiro Tenryu 18. Blue Panther 19. Mayumi Ozaki 20. Stan Hansen 21. Terry Funk 22. Chigusa Nagayo 23. Arn Anderson 24. Akira Taue 25. Hiroshi Hase 26. Masa Fuchi 27. Ricky Morton 28. Fuerza Guerrera 29. Billy Robinson 30. Jaguar Yokota 31. The Destroyer 32. Vader 33. Bull Nakano 34. Dick Murdoch 35. Dynamite Kid 36. Devil Masami 37. Rey Misterio Jr 38. Kiyoshi Tamura 39. Villano III 40. Nick Bockwinkel 41. Dump Matsumoto 42. Kazuo Yamazaki 43. Bret Hart 44. Shinya Hashimoto 45. Pirata Morgan 46. Barry Windham 47. Marc Rocco 48. Atlantis 49. Ricky Steamboat 50. Jack Brisco 51. Bobby Eaton 52. Juventud Guerrera 53. Dynamite Kansai 54. Ted DiBiase 55. Volk Han 56. Satoru Sayama 57. Rick Martel 58. Akira Maeda 59. Randy Savage 60. El Samurai 61. Steve Austin 62. Mariko Yoshida 63. Javier Cruz 64. Sgt. Slaughter 65. Dan Kroffat 66. Owen Hart 67. Brazo de Oro 68. Adrian Adonis 69. Shinjiro Otani 70. Tully Blanchard 71. Bill Dundee 72. Manami Toyota 73. Tatsumi Fujinami 74. William Regal 75. Bob Backlund 76. Dennis Condrey 77. Kuniaki Kobayashi 78. Dory Funk Jr. 79. El Texano 80. Buddy Rose 81. Giant Baba 82. Jake Roberts 83. Antonio Inoki 84. Steve Williams 85. Taka Michinoku 86. Brian Pillman 87. Don Muraco 88. Shawn Michaels 89. El Satanico 90. Fit Finlay 91. The Rock 92. Jerry Estrada 93. Ron Garvin 94. Roddy Piper 95. Angel Azteca 96. Curt Hennig 97. Americo Rocca 98. Naoki Sano 99. Rick Rude 100. Kyoko Inoue

Okay, I've made my first draft. I'm sure I'll look at this and see things I want to change. I need to look at this again when it's not so fresh on my mind to make sure I'm not doing anything really obviously boneheaded, but at this point, the following people are looming outside the top 100 and I really want to place them. Mick Foley Dustin Rhodes Lioness Asuka Shiro Koshinaka And here's the list right now: 1. Ric Flair 2. Jumbo Tsuruta 3. Toshiaki Kawada 4. Nobuhiko Takada 5. Jushin Liger 6. Negro Casas 7. Jerry Lawler 8. El Hijo del Santo 9. Harley Race 10. Kenta Kobashi 11. Akira Hokuto 12. Eddy Guerrero 13. Mitsuharu Misawa 14. Chris Benoit 15. El Dandy 16. Aja Kong 17. Genichiro Tenryu 18. Blue Panther 19. Mayumi Ozaki 20. Stan Hansen 21. Terry Funk 22. Chigusa Nagayo 23. Arn Anderson 24. Akira Taue 25. Hiroshi Hase 26. Masa Fuchi 27. Ricky Morton 28. Fuerza Guerrera 29. Billy Robinson 30. Jaguar Yokota 31. The Destroyer 32. Vader 33. Bull Nakano 34. Dick Murdoch 35. Dynamite Kid 36. Devil Masami 37. Rey Misterio Jr 38. Kiyoshi Tamura 39. Villano III 40. Nick Bockwinkel 41. Dump Matsumoto 42. Kazuo Yamazaki 43. Bret Hart 44. Shinya Hashimoto 45. Pirata Morgan 46. Barry Windham 47. Marc Rocco 48. Atlantis 49. Ricky Steamboat 50. Jack Brisco 51. Bobby Eaton 52. Juventud Guerrera 53. Dynamite Kansai 54. Ted DiBiase 55. Volk Han 56. Satoru Sayama 57. Rick Martel 58. Akira Maeda 59. Randy Savage 60. El Samurai 61. Steve Austin 62. Mariko Yoshida 63. Javier Cruz 64. Sgt. Slaughter 65. Dan Kroffat 66. Owen Hart 67. Brazo de Oro 68. Adrian Adonis 69. Shinjiro Otani 70. Tully Blanchard 71. Bill Dundee 72. Manami Toyota 73. Tatsumi Fujinami 74. William Regal 75. Bob Backlund 76. Dennis Condrey 77. Kuniaki Kobayashi 78. Dory Funk Jr. 79. El Texano 80. Buddy Rose 81. Giant Baba 82. Jake Roberts 83. Antonio Inoki 84. Steve Williams 85. Taka Michinoku 86. Brian Pillman 87. Don Muraco 88. Shawn Michaels 89. El Satanico 90. Fit Finlay 91. The Rock 92. Jerry Estrada 93. Ron Garvin 94. Roddy Piper 95. Angel Azteca 96. Curt Hennig 97. Americo Rocca 98. Naoki Sano 99. Rick Rude 100. Kyoko Inoue

I thought TLC III was a terrific match. Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho had the deck stacked against them in a huge way, trying to beat the top three tag teams in the company at one time in one match. Excellent booking that made every point so well -- Jericho gutted it out and was the strong one, Benoit fought back from a horrible injury to secure the victory for his team. It was the only TLC match that really had any major substance outside of the big bumps and highspots, mainly because of Benoit's selling. They also played off of Edge and Christian always winning these things by having them pose the greatest threat to the champs. The conchairto to the ribs, and the way Benoit sold is, is one of my all-time favorite spots. Build, story, heat, world class spots and fantastic selling. I don't see what's not to like in that match.

I know a lot of casual fans, and the main complaint they all seem to have is Angle, Big Show, Edge and John Cena being involved. Even RVD, to an extent. They don't understand how this is different than RAW or Smackdown.

Two things: (1) This is bad. Not just bad in the sense that it was a bad show with no crowd reaction that doesn't bid well for the future, but bad in the sense that Vince will see this reaction and instead of tweaking the formula will just push it harder out of spite for his fanbase. That's how he operates anymore. (2) Nice to see Heyman already manipulating the way word gets out on this. Every time something happens on TV that ends up getting a bad response, we immediately get a report that Heyman was against it and fought it, but lost. Not saying the show last night was necessarily his brainchild, but just that he's the master at working Meltzer, Keller, Scherer, etc.

Love the Dusty DVD, but I wish you would have said Dusty DVD Match Lith!

A DJ moonlighting as a cruiserweight for a short time, before quitting and going back to the clubs. He wore a mask and had a really bad looking cheap costume, but he was quite the spot machine.

The Jerry Lawler/Nick Bockwinkel $500 per punch angle, which is brilliant and was recently posted at DVDVR.

Feel free to post links to your heart's content.

Also, between keeping Cena a babyface and pushing outside companies as sometimes face/sometimes heel groups, they seem to be booking to challenge their loyal fanbase at this point. They're being told pretty much all the time lately that they're going to get the exact opposite of whatever it is that they want.

Barring something major happening in the next 3 1/2 years, the '00s will be remembered as the decade without any identity at all. Everything is something either leftover or borrowed from the Monday Night Wars era.

The wrestling climate worldwide isn't the same it was 10 years ago. There's not much worthwhile Japanese talent to steal, almost everyone worth having except Danielson in ROH is locked up in TNA and just about anyone who'd be worth signing from Mexico is under a long-term contract to CMLL.

Well, I was watching the GH's Lawler comp (which I'll be talking about in MUCH more detail this weekend) and noticed that they got over Jos LeDuc's bearhug as something fierce by just having five men pull from either direction, while he was able to maintain his grip, selling the idea that 10 men couldn't break the hold. A bearhug. As a killer move. I know times have changed, but if a bearhug can get over as a death move, any move can get over as a death move, as long as it's pushed properly. I think one of the things lost in modern wrestling is that you don't just push wrestlers. You push the announcers, the belts, the level of competition, the offense. You protect them and accentuate their strengths, just like wrestlers.

They definitely need to cut down on the weapon shots and work on getting everyone's wrestling offense over. A clothesline at this point is sold the same way as HHH's sledgehammer. Using a weapon should be rare so it's a big deal when it happens.

I don't think it's upset as much as it is commenting that it is what happened. They did come back from break with Tazz crying. Lawler packs a punch!

Bruiser, I think the video we're talking about made whichever CHV Hulkamania volume covered that time period.

Something that doesn't make sense. Most fans who have switched to TNA from WWE have done so because of the lack of good wrestling in WWE. So explain why seeing Impact every week is important when Smackdown has matches every week with better, more experienced wrestlers that are given far more time to develop.

I agree that was probably the best right cross ever thrown on WWE TV. I liked the special because of all the talking, but hated the special because of all the wrestling. There are so many strong interviews in that group, and it really plays to the strengths of the ECW wrestlers to spend more time talking and less time wrestling. At least, until they get some wonders out of Deep South or OVW or something.

No, that was actually Tenta. The angle started as a push-up challenge between Bravo and Warrior. Earthquake was pulled out of the crowd to sit on the back of each guy. When it came time to sit on Warrior, he attacked him. It was revealed to be a set up.

He was pushed and got over. That's wrestling.

It's really not. Long, televised matches are more common in modern WWE than they've ever been in that company, maybe even more common than they ever have been in any nationally broadcast company. Four-six minute matches on TV have always been the norm. We went through a spell from 1998-2001 or so where the longest match on TV was an 8-minute main event, typically speaking, but we're long past that. Rey, Benoit, Finlay, etc have long matches on TV all the time. It happens on both shows too. It's part of the reason Benoit has gotten as over as he has in the past few years, because the TV format plays to his strengths. WWE has more crap than any company. WWE also has more good wrestling than any other company. What makes watching the programming frustrating isn't the lack of good stuff so much as it is the good being drowned out by the bad so much of the time.

If I was going to remember anything, it would probably be that superbly edited video the WWF did to the slow version of "Real American", with a slow violin version of the song and 'Quake killing Hulk. I remember the write-in Get Well Hulk campaign as well. IIRC, this was Hogan taking time off to film Suburban Commando.

Well, the tOA belief, for some weird reason, tends to be that no good matches happened in Japan after 1998.

I think he's referring to the tOA types who think he's useless now, and guys like Dean Rasmussen who think he wrestles like a teenage girl.