Loss

It's that time again. What are yours? Considering that I accomplished absolutely none of mine in 2015, I want to think about it a little bit more.

Because sometimes, people do things that are nice even if they aren't necessarily the best option.

I 100% agree that pro wrestling is more all-encompassing than just the ring work. 100%. If someone can come up with more broad criteria that is relevant to all forms of wrestling in all cultures, I am interested in hearing it.

He sounds like Scott Hudson in that clip.

Yeah, it's not so much to be dismissive of the value and importance of promos as it is trying to find a baseline that works for every wrestler in the history of the world.

It makes the heat on Lana for showing off her engagement ring all the more puzzling.

I really have a tough time getting into Nakamura for reasons that I'll explain more as I start watching some of his matches soon. Last time I watched this, I just couldn't get into it, which I'll admit is odd considering the virtually universal praise for this match. I think the big issue for me is his flailing execution. Nothing he does really looks very crisp to me. It's not the Terry Funk brand of organized chaos either, it's more that he doesn't seem like a wrestler in command of what he's doing. He almost strikes me as Edge, but with stiff offense. It's an opinion I need to flesh out more, and for all I know, I may watch this match and some others soon and wonder why I ever thought that.

The log disk was full and was running out of space quickly. Still investigating why it's filling up so quickly, but for now, there's plenty of breathing room, so the intermittent outages should be behind us.

Hard to say, but Muto never really seemed inspired working in the US after his 1989 run.

Does anyone know how they are recruiting women now? I'm certain they've evolved past John Laurinitis flipping through bikini catalogs, but I have no idea where they are finding talent.

Why did they put Nia Jax in a title match so early in her run instead of doing a longer buildup to it?

It's evidence for why a strong worker is always needed near the top (not that Hogan was terrible, but I mean a great working heel). A worker can convincingly put over another worker. A worker can convincingly put over a gimmick. A gimmick can even convincingly put over a gimmick. But a gimmick putting over a worker is a tough one.

Something interesting about this last time Dave talked about it on WOR. Vince told pretty much everyone at the time that Bret couldn't be Hogan, but Bret could be very big if they were patient and stuck with him. Original plans were for him to beat the Ultimate Warrior at the Royal Rumble and then Hogan at Summerslam. Vince felt like those two wins would make him. The resentment over the WMIX finish was by design and was the intended reaction, as Vince was banking on that resentment to be the selling point for Hogan-Bret. Unfortunately, Warrior was fired long before the Rumble and Hogan wouldn't put over Bret at Summerslam because he made his stardom in a time where he would never put over a smaller guy, so he didn't understand the reasoning. There was resentment from a lot of wrestlers at the time toward Bret because a lot of them didn't understand wrestling was changing. So you had a lot of guys who felt like they had better bodies than Bret and didn't understand why he was pushed higher on the card. Dave used to hear the same complaint from guys about Shawn during this time. Even Curt Hennig was putting over Bret because he thought he was done in '91, but in his mind, he wasn't doing it to pass the torch or anything like that. He resented the push Bret got above him in 1993, because he felt like he was the bigger star.

Injuries would have slightly changed things of course, and maybe it wouldn't have been for the best, but I remember the thought at that time was that it wouldn't be the worst idea for Brock to retain and keep only showing up sporadically, since the IC and US titles were on Daniel Bryan and John Cena, who could carry the weekly TV. They could build around those two titles with champions who were more over than usual titleholders and in turn get those championship matches over as main event matches. They'd be in a much better place if in 2015 if they could headline with the IC and US titles. That would have boosted the world title even more.

Nia Jax looked awesome - I don't get that.

I would guess as we speak Kofi is trying to figure out how Xavier could use the trombone in a spot to save him from elimination.

To be fair, New Day does seem on paper like the type of act that will eventually go the way of Mizdow or Fandango. Hopefully it won't though.

Mr. Bob Backlund was really an amazing gimmick, and his title win remains one of my favorite wrestling moments. I do laugh at Backlund being told that, because I don't doubt for a second that Vince told him that with no intentions to honor his word.

I thought they specifically signed Asuka to a NXT contract only and told her she would never be called up?

I thought the same when I watched it about two years ago. An absolutely sublime match that is as good as just about any match I've ever seen.

I suspect they'll at least keep him babyface long enough for Rollins' return, at which point they can do a Shield reunion with all three as babyfaces until someone turns again. Maybe this time, that guy can be Ambrose.

In terms of chemistry, I think HHH would play better off of Ambrose than Reigns.

I'm watching the last few episodes of ROH on Destination America. No one thinks Veda Scott is good or serves an actual purpose, right? She's a horrible second, more like someone pretending to be a wrestling manager than a wrestling manager. Just her presence at ringside makes the whole thing seem pretty bush league.

So is all the Raw from 1993-2000 there now?