Kostka

Yes.

This one should split the crowd: Jerry Lawler or Jumbo Tsuruta?

Short peak: Samoa Joe (04-06) Long peak: Stan Hansen (was great from as far back as ive seen him in 78 or 79 vs Beyer all the way through 93, which is as good a year as anyone ever.)

Dylan you need the Bill Dundee book. I just started reading it after getting it for Xmas and so far, so good.

Triple H or Antonio Inoki?

After tracking this match down and watching it, my answer is yes. The story the match told was simple, but it was executed at a very high level, with focused and engaging work on the ribs by Taue, and Hansen selling it like a God, with his only offense coming from Taues big mistake (flying elbow). Even though that gave him a window to shut down Taue, his bad ribs gave him problems for the rest of the match...and thats how Taue ultimately cut him off to pull off the upset. It may have been "one note", but I wish more wrestlers could hit ANY note as well as these guys hit one. Great match.

For Savage I'd go 1. Steamboat 2. Lawler 3. Santana 4. Andre 5. DDP Did any of the Savage/Mantell matches make tape? I recall Dutch talking about having like 1 1/2 - 2 hour matches with him in Memphis. That sounds like an excellent pair in my head.

It's so fucking true, though. With pro wrestling, context is everything.

Jesus Loss, that post was just full of win. I'm using some of that next time someone tries to slam me with the "he's too small = he's not credible" shit.

The 12/19 edition of Raw did a 2.9 rating with 4.3 million viewers. The show did hours of 3.04 and 2.81.

I'm with Jerry on this. I came away from the All Japan set (finished two weeks ago) a bigger advocate of Jumbo as a GOAT contender than I did coming in, and coming in I had seen his 70s work against Funk, Race, Robinson, Brisco, his early 90s work and the most famous Jumbo-Tenryu matches from the 80s, but now that I have a big picture of his career, his resume stacks up against anyone in wrestling history. He's my pick for best Japanese guy ever, anyway.

Perhaps Ric was ahead of his time, and was indeed the first smart mark!

I think the key is that it needs to first "make sense" within it's context, then HOW good it is/what they did to maximize that is your criteria. If it doesn't make sense first then it's pointless. If its pointless then it's not effective... And if it's not effective, then it's not good. I don't watch UFC, but I'd imagine fighters have strategies, some that work out for them, and some that don't. Pro wrestling psychology consists of failed strategies. It's not as black and white as "softening up a leg for an ankle lock = psychology defined". Lawler and Dundee punching the fuck out of each other is psychology, storytelling, and everything else, just as much as Flair working Lugers leg for a figure four is.

How about late 80s/early 90s Sting?

Yeah Brock Lesnar was the first to come to mind. Butch Reed was mentioned... Lex Luger was pretty great in the late 80s... And Batista was pretty good. He doesn't have anything as memorable as Warrior/Savage or Warrior/Rude, but he's a lot better at basic fundamentals and was an underrated seller. He had some low points, but especially during his last run as a heel, I'm not sure how anyone could consider him any less than "good".

That sounds fucking awesome.

Yeah all the time. The FIP hot tag tease of "try to jump over heels body to make the tag" is a pretty regular spot in WWE tags. I think they've improved a lot in recent years in how the southern style tags are structured in WWE. The Dolph/Swagger v Sheamus/Ryder tag Dylan mentioned featured everything you'd want out of one... nicely milked FIP, heels building heat, cutting off the ring, good double team spots and strategies, over babyfaces, great hot tag and stretch run.

Me too, but Hogan vs Doink in 93 sounds oddly compelling to me.

On a recent interview, Matt Borne said that because of how over he was getting as a heel, an idea was pitched for Hogan vs Doink at WM 9, but Hogan shot it down, saying he didn't want to work with someone who had a clown gimmick.

You'd probably like it. Story was worked as both guys were evenly matched, sportsman-like babyfaces who knew each other extremely well with neither guy gaining any kind of sustained control through the opening stuff... tempers flaired and Roode busted out some pretty nice punches in corner to which Storm answered with some chops. Decent striking went on. Did the Show/Henry strike exchange from their knees. They got some hot nearfalls down the stretch off a roll through crossbody, spinebuster and flying back elbow. Roodes crossface spot where Storm nearly got his fingers on the ropes, to which Roode turned into a rings of saturn, to which Storm had to use his foot on the rope to break was a pretty sweet spot that worked in building Roodes frustration for the finish. I thought the finish and how they set up the ref bump/heel turn worked. I actually kind of want to see next weeks match now.

The Roode/Storm title switch match was quite good.

THANK YOU

I can't watch wrestling like a lot of you guys. I can't have hundreds of discs and shit laying around that I feel like I NEED to watch...that spells immediate burn out. It can't feel like its a job. Its gotta be at my own pace when I feel like or else I tap out. Right now all im watching is the 80s All Japan set, weekly WWE and whatever I feel like pulling up on YouTube in the moment (watched Luger/Guerrero from 96 Sat Night that I saw being pimped and really, really liked that as a late in the game Luger gem and Eddy being a great spunky babyface).

I'm about the least informed person when it comes to Buddy Rose apart from listening to you guys pimp him and I'll watch him on the upcoming 80s sets... But I youtubed him and watched the face turn from 6/83 in Portland...where formed an alliance with Hennig and Billy Jack. Great angle. The ring filling up with fans to congratulate Buddy and put him on their shoulders for jumping to the other side of the fence was pretty amazing. That's what you call a face turn.