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I can't speak for anyone else, but I picked Michinoku Pro because I like M-pro and I wanna book M-pro like M-pro, if you get my drift. So, even if Stan Hansen or King Kong Bundy are still up there when it's my turn to pick... as amusing as the idea of Bundy working base in a fast-paced six-man might be... I'm not gonna pick 'em

Yep. Makes it very interesting right off the bat.

M-Pro saves Naniwa, Delfin, and TAKA. (Seems that Togo, Terry Boy, and Funaki were all out of action in September '95. Damn. I'd have saved Togo over Delfin if he were available).

It's gonna break my heart when someone steals DIck Togo from me *crying emoji*

IF Japan gets included and IF the promotions you want are all taken, I'd like to do Michinoku Pro. My local indy (Osaka Pro) wasn't formed until '98, but it was in some ways born from Michinoku Pro (particularly in re: Super Delfin) and I just have a genuine love for Japanese regional indies. If not, no hard feelings!

Ambrose vs AJ (Title) Cena vs Miz (IC) American Alpha vs Bray/Rowan Usos vs Vaudevillians Becky vs Bliss Orton vs Corbin Kalisto vs Ziggler Apollo vs Del Rio You are right, it is not easy. Hard to do much better then that. Here's hoping Styles and Ambrose have good ring chemistry. That could carry them for a while. Hopefully they will be able to add Joe and/or Shinsuke down the road. Otherwise, it looks like the interesting match-ups are going to dry up pretty quickly.

Oh, man... Try to fantasy-book an exciting, compelling PPV card with the SmackDown roster as it stands right now. It's really, really difficult.

And all this time I have been thinking that Ebessan and Kuishinbou Kamen invented that "promenade" spot!

That's hilarious but I may in fact have an explanation. There is an independent wrestler out of Toronto scene who got his start in Stampede, who took the name "Ruffy Silverstein" presumably as a tribute. He worked some squash matches for the WWF in the mid-2000s. Most likely, the WWE legal department ran a search for his name...

In the early-to-mid 1970s, as a little kid, seeing Big Thunder Gene Kiniski on the local Vancouver All Star Wrestling show call himself Canada's Greatest Athlete. I went to get my dad, to ask him if that was true. Dad's opinion was that Bobby Orr was more likely Canada's Greatest Athlete at that time. Nonetheless, I was intrigued. All Star had guys like Kiniski, Don Leo Jonathan, Dutch Savage, Jimmy Snuka... and, though I didn't know it at the time, they were cross-promoting with Don Owens, so guys like Piper and Buddy Rose were probably around then too. At that age, I think I was mainly just trying to figure out for myself what was going on with those guys, but it kept me tuning in. My dad, bless him, never told me, "It's fake" or anything like that. Never dreamed that I might actually be on the show myself some day.

Well... obviously the 'you' on a pole match would be number one. 2) The match where Goldberg speared him through the cage and he won the belt. 3) Reverse Battle Royal! 4) David Arquette's world championship victory. 5) Surprisingly, the 1984 NJPW vs. UWF gauntlet match.

Toshiro Mifune = Jumbo - Ultimate intensity. Capable of giving more than anyone else ever, when motivated, Unbelievable body of work. Peter Sellers = Johnny Saint - You think he's just goofy? Look closer. He's great. Absolutely, great. And truly one of a kind. Humphrey Bogart = Dick Beyer - Can make you laugh, gasp, fight back the tears, laugh again, then blow your mind and break your heart. Heath Ledger = Bryan Danielson - Already clearly one of the best when he was working in the indies. Taken away from us at his peak, and before his time. Jonah Hill = Kevin Owens - That guy's a star? That guy? Look at him. That's not what a star looks like. Ken Watanabe = Mutoh - Better known in America than other, arguably better, Japanese guys. Capable of greatness in the right situation. Rinko Kikuchi = Kana - Poised to take over America's hearts. Takeshi Kitano = Atsushi Onita - Did it his way, and and in the process re-imagined his art form. Ran the show as well as starring in it. Anthony Quinn = Negro Casas - Versatile, charismatic, capable of creating great drama and big moments Sean Connery = Billy Robinson - Tough as nails, but a true gentleman... except when he isn't. Could be more versatile, but does what he does as well as anyone ever has or ever will. Tom Hardy = Dynamite Kid - You wanna mess with that little British guy? Didn't think so. Perhaps even more versatile and talented than he's generally given credit for being. Jack Lemmon = Ricky Morton - Who's better at being beat down but not quite out? Robert Downy = Jake Roberts - "Give me a scotch, I'm starving." Tom Hanks = Ricky Steamboat - Can he play a heel? Who cares! Anthony Hopkins = Jim Breaks - A classic heel with a million tricks up his sleeve. And I'd vote Eastwood = Funk

It's cool how everyone is being so realistic and restrained here, but for me it's more fun to go hog wild. Assuming I have the book and also I have sufficient Jedi Mind Powers to convince Vince, Hogan, Warrior, et al. to go along with it, and assuming we've got Ric, Sid, Dusty, and The Road Warriors to play with: I would book an "NWA Invasion" angle, but with a twist: We bring them in as Good Guys. I HATED the Gulf War Angle, so I'd drop that completely. Maybe give Sarge something with Tenryu instead. Imagine the stiffness. In the run up to the Rumble, I'd have DiBiase and Heenan obviously up to something big. DiBiase would buy Quake's contract from Jimmy Hart, they'd be seen having covert meetings with Savage and Sapphire, stuff like that. Dusty would slowly evolve away from his polka-dot character and back into something more like how he we like to remember him. I'd have Savage go over Warrior for the strap at the Rumble, with help from Quake, the Barbarian, and Haku, setting up both a new heel stable and a heel run for Savage as champ. Warrior would get taken out in an ambulance (strapped to a gurney, but struggling valiantly to get up and continue the fight). Hogan would win the Rumble, eliminating Quake last... only to get jumped by Bararian, Haku, and Demolition while he's celebrating. Dusty and the LOD would run down for the save... but then Quake would join in... and here comes Sid to the rescue! But out come Savage and DiBiase! Everyone else is brawling outside the ring. Savage and DiBiase are about to go to town on Hogan with a chair. Who will make the save?!?!?! (Cue "Sunrise" from Also Sprach Zarathustra) With this heroic deed, and much subsequent hype, we'd get Ric over as a hero to the WWF crowd by the time WM VII rolls around. The "NWA" faction of Flair, Dusty, Sid, and the LOD would have Hogan and Warrior's backs against The Million Dollar Family. If for some reason Sid can't get over as a face, he can turn on them and Bossman can fill the "One More Big Strong Good Guy" slot. At some point between the Rumble and Mania we'd have a SNME featuring Haku, Barbarian, and DiBiase vs. Dusty and the LOD. Quake, Demolition, Savage and DiBiase would interfere. Hogan, Warrior, Sid and Flair would make the save. There would be a stand-off. Earlier on the show, the newly formed tag team Horrorshow (Jake and Taker) would take the straps from the Hart Foundation with some help from Mr. Perfect, who distracts Bret while the heels take Neidhart out. So: The meat of your WrestleMania 7 Card: Bossman vs. Heenan, Weasel Suit Match Dusty vs. DiBiase Tenryu vs. Sarge, Falls Count Anywhere Horrorshow vs. The Rockers, Tag Titles. Bret vs. Perfect, for the IC Strap WAR GAMES: Quake, Haku, Barbarian, and (two members of) Demolition vs. Hogan, Warrior, Sid, and LOD Savage vs. Flair in the Main Event for the World Title

It was only one match (I believe it was vs. Chris Dolman) and of course he lost, but it just blows my mind to think that Bill Kazmaier once fought in RINGS. Kaz is one of the greatest strongmen and powerlifters of all time, quite legitimately The Strongest Man in the World in the early 80s... but holy cow was he ever a terrible pro wrestler! The thought of him in the same ring as Maeda, Kosaka, Tamura, Volk, Fedor... my brain can barely handle the cognitive dissonance.

I know that you qualified this, but I think in this regard, look is a tool just like moves or blood or southern tag tricks or spots or weapons or whatever else. A lot of the discussion we have is split into a couple of categories. 1.) How good are the tools? 2.) How well does a wrestler use the tools he has? In this regard, when it comes to look, I think we do a pretty good job hitting #2 a lot of the time. Maybe not enough focus is given to #1 when it comes to "look." Wrestlers have to work extremely hard to get a good body just like they have to in order to hit moves smoothly and what not. It's not a big issue to me because I care about #2 a hundred times more and I'll factor that in just as much as I will anything else. That means that if Mike Shaw was able to utilize his look extremely well to have good matches, I'd value that as much as Scott Steiner doing the same, all other things equal. To clarify: I am not suggesting in any way that a leaner, more muscular body (or a handsome face or a nice hair-do or interesting ring gear) in and of itself makes for a "better" pro wrestler. I agree with you wholeheartedly that what is important with Mike Shaw and Scott Steiner is not how good they look, but how they use their look. Young Scott Steiner had a typical late-80s power wrestler physique when he first showed up in JCP... but he wore a stylized amateur-wrestler singlet. So... is this guy gonna mix power moves with technique? Maybe toss guys around with innovative suplexes? Yes he is! Boom! You have got a nice synergy with look and ring work. And wow! A guy that big and muscular doing a hurricanrana!?!?! Here you have a great example of juxtaposition of looks/expectations vs. execution that worked like a charm. If Steiner had the look and build of the kind of guy who you'd normally expect to pull of that kind of move, then the Frankensteiner likely never would have got so over. Then, later in his career, after turning heel, the guy changed his look from "boyishly handsome, muscular jock" to "overly muscled preening jerk" and was able to get himself even more over as a loud-mouth strutting bully. What's important for me (and, I expect, for you as well - and for most of us here) is not how he was built or how he dressed taken in isolation, but in the synergy he created by having a character and look that went well together, and a ring style that matched up with both of those things. Similarly: Mike Shaw, who could not have looked more different from Steiner, got over like Grover with the Makhan Singh gimmick in Stampede. However, he never managed to get over in the WWF or in WCW. Was that because he had a bad body and wasn't conventionally handsome? Hell no, of course not. I suppose you could argue that in a better world Norman the Lunatic and Bastion Booger could have been characters that suited Shaw's look... but something in the way those gimmicks were set up kept that all-important magic from happening. My best guess is that Shaw's in-ring style just wasn't suited to playing up an over the top gimmick, and also perhaps audiences at that time were looking for more realistic characters. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure Yokozuna was well over as a heel in 1993, and he had a pretty goofy look and gimmick... but somehow with him it all clicked. Synergy. Magic. Was Rodney Agatupu Anoaʻi simply a better wrestler than Mike Shaw? Or was it just a better match of wrestler and character at that time? In a lot of ways, this is what I think makes a "better than the sum of their parts" wrestler. That's what synergy means. The right combo of look, character, and ring style creates synergy. It also ties in with GOTNW's new character/execution thread. The element that I think is missing in a lot of the online discussions I get involved in is the importance of look as it relates to character and execution. It's really really important. It doesn't get talked about nearly enough.

If you wanna define "parts" as "each and every possible aspect, tangible and intangible, of a wrestler's ring work, mic work, charisma, look, etc." then of course it should be impossible to say that any wrestler is "greater than the sum of their parts." However: there is a pretty strong tendency on line, in general, to focus on ring work above all else... in such cases, I think it could be reasonable to list wrestlers like The Road Warriors, Dump Matsumoto, and Abdullah the Butcher as being better wrestlers than you might think, given their in-ring limitations. even here on PWO, I think it's not unfair to say that a wrestler's look and the relation of look to character, and the way that both connect to said wrestler's ring work can sometimes be undervalued in comparison to finer points such as punches and selling. So, maybe a guy like Jake or a guy like Rude - both of whom have that look/character/work connection perfected - such a wrestler might reasonably be seen by some as "greater" than their punching and selling (which are only above-average). on the other hand, even here a guy like C.S. or myself might point to Bryan... indicating, perhaps, that we consider look and mic work to be really important for World Heavyweight Champions.... and really, it's amazing that Bryan, great as he is, was able to get so over with the WWE Universe (cough) So... if we allow for the idea that maybe different people have different ideas of what the "parts" might be, there is room for debate and room for a wide variety of opinions. Maybe even if we go with the most optimistic view, that every part can be seen as important by everyone participating in the discussion, it's still possible in my view to see that even some of the most over and most successful and most famous and most beloved pro wrestlers of all time have achieved that status in spite of having a deficiency in some important area (Abdullah's selling, Bryan's look, Onita's mobility, Kobashi's sense of restraint...) Maybe part of being a great wrestler is knowing how to use your strengths to balance your weaknesses... maybe it's fair to say that wrestlers who are really good at that are in fact "greater than the sum of their parts."

And I can't hear "kick your leg" without thinking "out from under your leg." I also can't eat a chicken nugget without thinking, "I'm NOT a NUGGET!"

Something that is apparently not widely understood is that the ref is often responsible for more than just playing the role of the referee in the match. Particularly in the indies, they share the responsibility for calling spots, keeping the wrestlers aware of the time, controlling pacing, and so much more. You can see that WWE refs wear an ear-piece. I have long assumed that the agents or Vince or HHH or someone is in their ears, and the refs have to act as the go-betweens conveying instructions from the back, while simultaneously playing their more obvious role. Refs are the unappreciated glue guys of pro wrestling. SLAM wrestling hall of famer "Vicious" Verne Seibert, an old hand and a long-time fixture of the Vancouver Indy scene, is in my opinion a *GREAT* referee. Not for the kind of things written about in this thread, but because of how he facilitates communication, and helps guide and shape things in the ring, unobtrusively, so you'd never notice it. THAT is actually what makes a great ref, in my book.

This is a pretty common one, and a lot of wrestlers do it, but... When wrestler A whips wrestler B toward. the ring ropes, then wrestler B TURNS AROUND AND BOUNCES OFF THE ROPES and runs back toward wrestler A. Totally unbelievable. Takes me out of the match every time.

17 years ago today my friend Yuji's dad, and my nuber one pro wrestler of all time, passed away. In memoriam, I'm gonna watch this one now:

Wow. Time flies.

Don't wanna hijack your thread, but... Not nearly as often since Osaka Pro moved to Umeda then basically shut down. I still go drinking with Kuuga and Ebessan from time to time. I go to a couple of Doutonbori Pro shows a year. Now that my friend Yuji has moved back into this general area I may hit a couple of AJPW shows again. I really miss going to Move On Arena, where we saw that Osaka Pro show. That was pretty much perfect for me. Also, we've got two kids now, so free time and spending money are in slightly shorter supply... Have you been to a show recently?

Yeah, that's kind of what I was imagining. A bump that blew the crowd away in the 50s might not seem like any big deal to those of us who have seen so much insanity from guys like Misawa, Adrian Adonis, Buzz Sawyer, Bobby Eaton, Dynamite Kid, Great Sasuke, Mick Foley, Necro Butcher... But who knows, maybe later in Snyder's career...? (And yeah, I haven't been online so much recently. It's nice to be able to talk wrestling with you and Jerome and the rest again)!