Loss

The world title would mean so much more if only guys at that level held it.

This isn't on the list but it bugs me that the winner of the Royal Rumble earns the opportunity to main event Wrestlemania. It should be that the winner of the Royal Rumble earns the opportunity to compete for the WWE World Championship at Wrestlemania.

A lot of these rules are good and just aren't followed. WWE announcing would still have pointless quirks but it would be much better if all the rules were followed consistently.

Ratings did tank when Hogan was champion for a month, but that was inevitable to a degree. It was clear from the start that Hogan could be successful at that stage, but not for very long.

Bret and Davey Boy feuding for two weeks in 1987 Stampede.

Stephanie McMahon's personal trainer Muffy. And later that year, Just Joe. And later that year, Eric Angle.

Vince has gotten grumpy and overly critical of talent as he's gotten older, and he seems to think guys should prove they can draw before they get an opportunity to draw. It's nearly impossible to do that, but because of the few like Jeff Hardy that managed to pull it off, that will always be what is cited. I'm sick of this idea that Vince and Creative are something that wrestlers have to overcome. I wish it was that you had wrestlers who clearly had a connection and were on the cusp of something special, with the Creative designed to get them over the top instead of to put them back in their place. It's only a matter of time that we hear that Cesaro doesn't really move merchandise or draw television ratings. When it's one of their hand-picked stars, all they expect is that they don't see a decline in those categories when they are on top. Double standards galore - welcome to WWE.

Well, they've done similar things with others in the past, so I'm inclined to believe it. Remember Batista nailing Melina right around the time she started cheating on Morrison with him? It seems like there was tons of that in the last half of the 2000s in the John Laurinitis era where he'd look through bikini catalogs to find women to hire, with Dave often reporting that it was an attempt to boost morale because the guys needed new women around.

Simple, crisp, stiff offense.

I love Honky Tonk Man, even though he sucks.

Dave's been saying cryptically that Vince thinks Lana is too attractive to be with Rusev so they've been booking all this stuff in an attempt to break them up in real life. It wouldn't be the first time they paired or broke up people on camera based on how they wanted their relationship to go off camera. I don't know how much Rusev and Lana study wrestling history, so I'm not sure if they'd figure out that's happening or not.

Is running NXT in a big venue like that realistic?

Both of those Oya matches are worth checking out. Also, he has the awesome tag on the AJ New Years Giant Series '99 comm where he teamed with Shinzaki against Tamon Honda and Jun Izumida.

NWA @ Little Rock, AR - April 19, 1989 Not the first show I saw, but the first one I specifically remember. Cawthon doesn't have a card posted, but the main event was Ric Flair & Michael Hayes vs Lex Luger & Ricky Steamboat. People next to us also got ejected for spitting at the Samoan Swat Team. I later went to a WCW house show in the summer of 1992 where for whatever reason, the audience HATED Madusa -- so much in fact that she hugged the ringpost all night long while fans called her a C U Next Tuesday and a "gutterslut". Lovely.

I think Gannosuke has a strong case. He always reminded me of Greg Valentine as far as his style, and I'd probably have him above Valentine on a list like this. Gannosuke I'd recommend: Hayabusa, Ricky Fuji & Ricky Morton vs The Gladiator, Hisakatsu Oya & Mr. Gannosuke (05/13/97) Masato Tanaka vs Mr. Gannosuke (01/06/98) Hayabusa vs Mr. Gannosuke (04/30/98) Mr. Gannosuke vs Hisakatsu Oya (01/05/99) Mr. Gannosuke, Hisakatsu Oya, Yukihiro Kanemura, Hideki Hosaka & Hido vs Yuki Ishikawa, Daisuke Ikeda, Mohammed Yone, Takashi Hijikata & Katsumi Usuda (05/05/99) Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs Mr. Gannosuke, Yukihiro Kanemura & Hido (06/15/99) Mr. Gannosuke vs Masato Tanaka (08/20/99) Mr. Gannosuke vs Hayabusa (08/25/99) Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs H & Mr. Gannosuke (12/12/99)

I don't know that he has any I'd go to bat for that don't involve Espectrito, but I think they are equally great workers. The list in the Espectrito thread would be the same one I'd offer here.

FYI, El Mariachi = Solar. Check out the Blue Panther match from 10/94.

He is to Liger as Buddy Landell is to Ric Flair. Excellent worker who has a varied collection of strong singles matches (Liger in the BOSJ '94 final, Taka at the Skydiving J, Sasuke in '93), tags (that M-Pro Southern Style tag in '99 & the two Delphin/Sasuke vs Teoh/Funaki tags in November '97) and multi-mans (countless). Terrific at comedy and can also work serious. I've seen really good face and heel performances from him as well.

Yes. I'd highly recommend checking out: Espectrito, Piratita Morgan & Pequene Pierroth vs Octagoncito, Misteriocito & Mascarita Sagrada (04/17/92 CMLL) Espectrito & Jerrito Estrada vs Octagoncito & Mascarita Sagrada (08/28/93 AAA) Espectrito vs Mascarita Sagrada (03/12/94 AAA) -- This even if no others Espectrito vs Super Munequito (07/08/95 AAA) Espectrito, Espectrito II, La Parkita & Fuercita Guerrera vs Octagoncito, Mascarita Sagrada, Torerito & Super Munequito (06/18/95 AAA) My thoughts on them are in each of the threads. Great ring general.

Useless and worst seem like two different things to me. nWo Souled Out was at least a ballsy attempt at doing something different and certainly felt aesthetically different than anything I'd ever seen, so even though it wasn't really a success, I can't pan it too much because it was so gutsy. When I think of useless PPVs, I think of bland ones, which sort of leads me to the RAW-based PPVs in 2003.

I agree with pretty much everything in this thread. There is value in both, but I'd be more likely to stand by my thoughts on a match in hindsight. I overrate live stuff, sometimes ridiculously.

Does Dave care at all about the sport's integrity? Even a little? I ask this because I am not an MMA fan and usually skim past his WON coverage of it, but he always seems to talk about things in business terms, almost to an extremist level. I've never seen a baseball, football or basketball journalist use that same framework to discuss those sports, so it's not something I understand.

One of the better heels of our era for sure.

"The world does not expect logic and precision in poetry or inspirational pop philosophy; it demands them in the law. The stuff contained in today’s opinion has to diminish this Court’s reputation for clear thinking and sober analysis." "When the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868, every State limited marriage to one man and one woman, and no one doubted the constitutionality of doing so. That resolves these cases." "Buried beneath the mummeries and straining-to-be-memorable passages of the opinion is a candid and startling assertion: No matter what it was the People ratified, the Fourteenth Amendment protects those rights that the Judiciary, in its 'reasoned judgment,' thinks the Fourteenth Amendment ought to protect." "This is a naked judicial claim to legislative—indeed, super-legislative—power; a claim fundamentally at odds with our system of government." "But what really astounds is the hubris reflected in today’s judicial Putsch. The five Justices who compose today’s majority are entirely comfortable concluding that every State violated the Constitution for all of the 135 years between the Fourteenth Amendment’s ratification and Massachusetts’ permitting of same-sex marriages in 2003." "The opinion is couched in a style that is as pretentious as its content is egotistic." "It is one thing for separate concurring or dissenting opinions to contain extravagances, even silly extravagances, of thought and expression; it is something else for the official opinion of the Court to do so." "Really? Who ever thought that intimacy and spirituality (whatever that means) were freedoms? And if intimacy is, one would think Freedom of Intimacy is abridged rather than expanded by marriage. Ask the nearest hippie. Expression, sure enough, is a freedom, but anyone in a long-lasting marriage will attest that that happy state constricts, rather than expands, what one can prudently say." "If, even as the price to be paid for a fifth vote, I ever joined an opinion for the Court that began: ‘The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity,’ I would hide my head in a bag. The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie." "Hubris is sometimes defined as o’erweening pride; and pride, we know, goeth before a fall."