Loss

My only thoughts on this are that I was rooting for him, simply because he was an older guy starting out who showed some promise and seemed like he'd overcome the age thing just fine. He had great success in OVW before being brought to the main roster and given a horrible gimmick. I never saw anything particularly great out of him, but I don't know that he ever really got a chance to do anything particularly great, either. Nonetheless, it's always disappointing when someone with potential gets in the business and they're disenfranchised within a few short years. From my understanding, the writers buried him to get back at Jim Ross, who they were upset at because he called him up from OVW before the writers had anything for him. Cornette and JR were huge supporters of his, and the writers had beef with those two, and they took it out on Rico. Too bad.

Add Davey Boy Smith to the list. He was scheduled to face Roddy Piper in this round, and there's no need to run that match again, since Piper defeated him before.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end tomorrow morning at the latest. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end tomorrow morning at the latest. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end tomorrow morning at the latest. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end tomorrow morning at the latest. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end tomorrow morning at the latest. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end tomorrow morning at the latest. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end tomorrow morning at the latest. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Once we get to the final eight wrestlers in the tournament (four from the first bracket, four from the second bracket), they will all square off with each other in round robin matches. From there, we'll determine seeding. If there's a tie (say, Bret Hart and Steve Austin are both 6-1, as an example), whoever won the individual match they had will get top seeding. The guy who has the best results wins the whole tournament. The reason for not having the winner of bracket #1 face the winner of bracket #2 is that it penalizes guys like Bret Hart, Steve Austin or Hulk Hogan who don't lose until they make it to the finals of the original bracket, when maybe those guys deserve a spot in the finals, while someone like the Honky Tonk Man may have gotten lucky with his opponents and made it a little further by proxy.

#1 - Chris Jericho v Kurt Angle #2 - Owen Hart v Ric Flair #3 - Rey Misterio Jr v Edge #4 - Undertaker v Yokozuna #5 - Ted DiBiase v Shawn Michaels #6 - Honky Tonk Man v HHH #7 - Jake Roberts v Rick Martel #8 - Davey Boy Smith v Roddy Piper (*) Asterisk (*) indicates that Piper will get a bye here, since they had a match before and Piper got more votes then, so there's no point in re-running the poll. Winners will face off in the following round for Bracket #2 (winner of match #1 in this bracket meets match #2, #3 meets #4, etc) and the winners of those matches will face of with the losers of the Bracket 1 Quarterfinals. This is the final 24, in alphabetical order: Bret Hart Chris Benoit Chris Jericho Eddy Guerrero Edge HHH Honky Tonk Man Hulk Hogan Jake Roberts Kurt Angle Mick Foley Owen Hart Randy Savage Rey Misterio Jr Ric Flair Rick Martel Shawn Michaels Steve Austin Ted DiBiase The Rock Undertaker Yokozuna

Adding to the list: Mr. Perfect Razor Ramon Marty Jannetty Bad News Brown Big Show Tito Santana Kane Brock Lesnar

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end tomorrow morning at the latest. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end tomorrow morning at the latest. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end tomorrow morning at the latest. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Vote for the wrestler that you think had the better career in WWE (whether you base that on impact or match quality is your decision), from 1985 to 2005. Voting will end tomorrow morning at the latest. Please give the wrestler's name first and any explanation thereafter. Thanks.

Round 3 results: Chris Jericho (13 votes) defeated Mr. Perfect (3 votes) Owen Hart (14 votes) defeated Razor Ramon (2 votes) Rey Misterio Jr (15 votes) defeated Marty Jannetty (1 vote) Undertaker (16 votes) defeated Bad News Brown (0 votes) Ted DiBiase (14 votes) defeated Big Show (1 vote) Honky Tonk Man (9 votes) defeated Tito Santana (7 votes) Jake Roberts (15 votes) defeated Kane (1 vote) Davey Boy Smith (10 votes) defeated Brock Lesnar (6 votes)

I don't unfortunately. I'm still coming to terms with DVDs. I'm hoping I can jump on the download bandwagon by the end of the year. Thanks for offering, though.

Thanks. Yeah, it had sort of escaped me as well until I gave it a rewatch.

I don't, unfortunately, but I'd be down for some Misawa v DiBiase.

Bob Backlund v Antonio Inoki - NJPW 11/30/79 I was under the impression for years that this match contained a legitimate doublecross, but I later found out that wasn't the case. Nonetheless, this is for the WWF championship, and they did do a phantom switch here, only for Backlund to take the belt back and bring it home with him a week later. The matwork in this match rocks! There is a struggle for every bearhug, for every single leg, for every go behind -- nothing comes easy here, much like Devil/Chig. Inoki keeps trying to neutralize Backlund, but Backlund is too fast and he has trouble keeping him stationary. They work a side headlock and headscissors for a few minutes, which is more fun than it sounds, with Backlund trying everything he can and nothing working, at least not for any length of time. The holds are credible here because they're so locked in -- I think about the bodyscissors in RVD/Orton on RAW in 2004 and how loose it looked compared to this. Backlund does eventually fight out, but he ends up right back in the hold the second he breaks free. It was most likely rare in this age for Backlund to find a challenger who could keep up with him on the mat, but that's the story being told here, as Backlund tries all of his usual tricks and none of them seem to be working. He finds a way to get in his own headlock, but he can't sustain it, even when he tries to speed up the pace, as Inoki is right with him every step of the way. They have their first of two great standoffs before Backlund gets outwrestled yet again, but he's finally figured out a strategy -- work on Inoki's leg. Inoki sells the leg well enough, limping when walking and trying to shake out the pain. They also do enough fun stuff between the stationary moves to create movement and speed things up, with Inoki often getting sudden bursts of energy and catching Backlund totally off guard. Again, the battle is in place for every move, as they trade attempts for a vertical suplex several times before Inoki wins that struggle. Bob shifts his focus and tries to go vertical, and in an amazing showing of strength, picks Inoki up off the ground in an armbar position and places him on the top rope, which causes some slapping and brief brawling to take place, with Inoki even getting a really good nearfall on Backlund in the meantime. By the time Bob has an idea of what to do to counter Inoki, he's too weary to fully capitalize, as his belly-to-back suplex and piledriver do the trick, but he's so drained that he can't move in for the kill. He decides to take a big risk, which doesn't pay off and leads to Inoki having another exciting stretch of offense. In the same way Inoki was saved by the fact that he dominated Backlund so clearly early on, Backlund was saved by his placement in the ring after the onslaught, as he's in the ropes and Inoki can't get an immediate pin. This buys him some time, which puts them on a level playing field again as they work the final stretch, with Inoki trying a butterfly suplex and it not working and almost falling prey to a sunset flip as well. He can't even keep an abdominal stretch locked on, as Backlund hiptosses him out, and just to remind him who's the champ and who's the challenger, he butterfly suplexes Inoki himself and goes for an abdominal stretch, which works against him with Inoki locking in the octopus. The finish is a little contrived, with Tiger Jeet Singh showing up at ringside and having to be escorted away, leaving a distracted Backlund open to a pinfall, but it's not enough to drag the match down at all, and the post-match angle with an enraged Backlund going after Singh is great fun! I really need to seek out every match these two have had together, because something tells me the 60-minute draw from 07/27/78 is even better than this! ****1/4, 28:11

Antonio Inoki v Dusty Rhodes - NJPW 11/08/79 Who would have ever known Dusty Rhodes could be such an effective in-ring heel? I don't know that I would have, but here he is, trying to get in a sneak attack, having Inoki startle him and bailing ... all before the opening bell! The strutting, chairshots, and drunken selling go a long way in establishing this as well. Inoki is fun on the mat also, and this isn't a match that I'd expect to be as good as it is considering the performers and their reputations, but I guess that goes to show that sometimes, reputation isn't everything. The story is ongoing of Dusty missing elbows when he attempts them, and he has a way of creating a hesitation in Inoki whenever he threatens to use it, so in that sense, they do a great job putting over the bionicism, or whatever you want to call it, of those elbow shots. Dweem focuses most of his early stuff around Inoki's arm and has mixed results, especially when he gets caught trying to use the ropes for leverage. The crowd starts rallying behind Inoki, which causes Dusty to show some awesome facials, putting over the concern or the idea that he's fighting an unstoppable tide. There are admittedly a few awkward moments, specifically when they both go sailing over the top rope. Inoki focuses his attack primarily on Dusty's leg, but Dusty is the one who's mostly dominant here. It makes the comebacks, however, the most fun part of the match, as Inoki has far more offense at his disposal, such as the piledriver, standing dropkick and the octopus, and Dusty's stuff is a little less credible and a little more dramatic, which admittedly works, but would work better if he was able to switch gears a little more and seem a little more threatening, especially when he's not doing something with his elbow; the boxing shuffle and American heel stuff is great fun, but it doesn't ever really translate to Inoki being in a great deal of danger. Speaking of those elbows, he finally lands starts landing them with some accuracy as the match progresses, specifically when he hiptosses Inoki out of the abdominal stretch. Inoki's comeback also features some terrific headbutts and the match ends up spilling outside, where it would ultimately stay until the double countout finish. Surprisingly fun match, despite some of the limitations. ***, 13:49

I have that!

My favorite remains the call at the RWTL in '81. "Hansen? STAN Hansen?"

Oh man I *love* the announcing, especially in AJPW. What's-his-name gets so excited and it lends so much to the atmosphere.