cm funk

Cena has had way more matches I really liked in the last 5-6 years than Angle has. I think I can count on one hand how many Angle matches have really impressed me since he went to TNA. Most of the stuff he does looks good from a technical and execution standpoint, good punches, good throws, and he's a really great athlete obviously......but the sprinty, high spot oriented, half dozen ankle lock attempt matches don't do anything for me, it feels like you're watching the same match every time, no matter who the opponent is. Cena's execution of moves is not nearly as aesthetically good, but he works much smarter, more varied and more interesting matches. A match with Punk is different from a match with Orton, which is different from a match with Big Show etc. etc. The Lesnar match alone blew away anything Angle has done in recent memory.

Thesz/Flair should and will go to Punk I don't watch enough indies/lucha/puro to feel confident picking someone for most outstanding. From what I've seen Bryan and Aries have both had good years, but neither feels like a great pick. I'd probably lean Bryan due to having good matches with such a wide variety of opponents (Show, Henry, Kane, Sheamus, Punk, Cena etc.)

Based on what I know about Big Daddy, he'd probably get my vote. How many wrestlers, worldwide, have crossed over to become mainstream cultural icons the way he did? It's a short list, and personally I think that level of fame trumps workrate. If you're going to have a separate category for the UK he kind of has to be in I'd also vote for Apter, and despite questions I think we have a fairly good idea of what he did (principal photographer, liason with offices/wrestlers, some ghostwriting, part of the panel that decided on creative directions/rankings/etc.). I think it's probably better to honor the "Aptermags" as a group, but Apter wouldn't be out of place. I like Hamada, Colon and Morales as candidates. I've been supporting Sting for years. I don't like a candidate like Cena going in only 10 years into his career and I wish they'd change the requirements (recent inductees Jericho and Mysterio had been wrestling almost 20 when voted in just as an example), but he's about as slam dunk as an active wrestler could ever be. Would vote for practically everyone on the non-wrestler list, but Owen, Jarrett, Gary Hart, Monsoon and Ventura for sure.

Turner S&P always sounded like a Russo bullshit excuse to explain away his failings as a booker. I know Bischoff has mentioned it too, but they had no problem putting out a fairly edgy product during the peak years. The excuse of, "we couldn't push the envelope as far as WWE and that's why we lost" doesn't hold any weight. The company failed due to mismanagement and bad booking, plain and simple.

So why didn't Hogan come in until 2002? I've always thought he was sitting out on a Turner contract like Nash, Goldberg, Flair etc. The Invasion would have been an entirely different ballgame if they'd had Hogan and Flair leading it.

It pisses me off, absolutely. It's a disgraceful act. Any American who doesn't get angry when they see images of the flag being burned by mobs in Pakistan, Iraq etc......I don't know, it pisses me off to my core, and I don't consider myself any more patriotic than the next guy When people are protesting in America I say turn the flag upside down. You want to burn the flag? Fuck you, move along.

From multiple accounts Vince respects talent that is passionate and opinionated and not afraid to speak up for themselves, as long as they've got the goods to back it up. Jericho, Foley and Punk would be some examples of guys who over time won him over and earned a measure of creative freedom for themselves. Somebody like Jack Swagger for example, since you mentioned him, doesn't seem like the type of guy who's going to speak up for himself or really push back against how he's booked. Or on the other end of the spectrum, there's people like Carlito who are opinionated, get the opportunities, and don't capitalize on them.

AW, Young and O'Neil had the start of a good act, it's too bad we won't get to see how that would have played out. I'm interested to see how they write him out If you can excuse a brief moment of fantasy booking, I'd like the explanation to be that AJ fired him over the weekend, the Prime Time Players are pissed off at her, they find a sympathetic compatriot backstage in Daniel Bryan, and it leads to a loose alliance between them going forward. Bryan could do well with some muscle behind him. Maybe AJ books them in a 6 man tag against Kane/Kofi/Truth.

Between Survivor Series 98 (Rock-Mankind double turn), the series of title switches between Rock and Mankind, the Austin-McMahon feud peaking at the Rumble and the Valentine's Day cage match, and Rock-Austin at Mania.......that was arguably the hottest peak of the attitude era In a sense it was a "gold watch" for Foley, and they sort of pushed it like that, the average slob who nobody thought would ever make it that far winning the biggest prize, but he was absolutely a vital and irreplaceable component of what they were doing at the time. Eddie had been the most over guy in the company for at least 6 months, crowds were going nuts for him everywhere and he was popping big ratings.....they wanted to build around him as the next big superstar until whatever happened there where he or the company or both decided he couldn't handle that role Benoit getting the belt was a "lifetime achievement award" sort of thing for sure. He'd been the darling of the hardcore fans for years, the hardest working, most respected guy who was always over in whatever role you gave him. Gave up the WCW belt to go to WWE, paid his dues in the company, all the hardcore fans wanted to see him get that final push over the top.......WM20 with Benoit was built as "thank you to all of you diehard fans who've stuck with us, here's your moment"......and the aftermath at least past the first month showed that it was just a token honor and they were waiting to get back to regular business I've always been interested to know when and how things went off course from the Benoit/Lesnar/Heyman buildup where Benoit had to win the Rumble to get another shot at Lesnar.....to ending up with Benoit taking his shot at the WHC and Eddie beating Lesnar. That all went down before Brock decided to leave, and I think they knew Goldberg was leaving.....they built up Benoit v. Brock for a few months on SD.....that had to have been the WM plan when they started that. HHH not having an opponent was the only reason?

Gathering of the Juggalos is objectively one of the biggest indy wrestling events going. It's not my cup of tea, but I'm certainly not going to look down on Flair for taking a well paying booking that will have him in front of many thousands of people and get lots of press coverage. It's a great show to be booked on all things considered. Is it any worse than working on TNA house shows that drew 200-300 people? This year's has all sorts of names involved.....Rock N Roll Express, Waltman, Vader, John Morrison, Masters, Lashley, Carlito, Matt Hardy, Steiner, Corino, Cabana.....fairly impressive lineup

02-03 when Stephanie was GM of SD they had a number of run-ins

Thanks, I'll check that out!

I thought the implication was that once married, Bryan was going to have AJ committed AJ as the GM is a terrible idea. Besides the crappy payoff, Bryan and AJ could barely keep straight faces while Slick did his thing, which kind of ruined it. I haven't really seen anyone using the "Bryan's getting buried!" talking point, but I'm sure it's out there, and it's stupid. In WWE getting booked in a celebrity angle is just about the biggest compliment you can get as a performer, especially with someone as famous as Sheen. Think of all the press coverage it will get if Sheen works SummerSlam, that's huge exposure for Bryan. They're putting a lot of faith in him. Thought Meltzer being so fascinated by the Steph-Heyman interaction was odd because it was pretty much the same dynamic they've always had on sceeen

Yeah, I noticed that Dave did almost 90 minutes with Sempervive on Friday....when was the last time, if ever, that him and Bryan have gone that long? And co-sign on his MMA analysis being much better, and bringing better thoughts out of Dave

Yeah, I think even Eadie gives credit to the Road Warriors for being an inspiration for the gimmick, that and the Judas Priest/Twisted Sister style of metal that was huge in the mid 80's. They became Vince's answer to the Road Warriors for sure, I just don't think they were a copycat gimmick per se. Blade Runners in CWA/UWF were a total Road Warriors copy, Powers of Pain as noted, and I'm sure other territories had their own low rent versions as well That's kind of an interesting topic of discussion actually, who are some of the more notable forgotten and failed copycat gimmicks in 80's territories?

Demolition was different in a lot of substantial ways, and they actually weren't a McMahon creation but a gimmick that Eadie came up with if you believe him (and he did win that court case, so somebody did), but they definitely became Vince's answer to the popularity of the Road Warriors once he started pushing them, I don't think that's arguable. If Vince had wanted an out and out copy of the Warriors he would have taken a couple of huge stiff working roid freaks and threw paint on them. Powers of Pain were the blueprint copy of the Road Warriors, and they were created by JCP to feud with the Roadies!

Also, they have one of the raddest themes of the era HERE COMES THE AX AND HERE COMES THE SMASHER WE'RE DEMOLITION WALKING DISASTER Does it get any better?

I understand the common complaint about their look and ring gear, but it was the 80's. Metal was huge. Sure we'd all laugh at guys who came out dressed like that today, but there was nothing weird about it back then. You have to look at it in context of the era, some shit from the 80's gets trendy again (new wave, neon, the hip hop fashions of the day etc.)......a lot of it doesn't....but shoot, the 80's "S&M as high fashion" Grace Jones type of stuff has even become trendy again with pop stars like Rihanna and Lady Gaga. Not so much with men, but all it will take is one rock band that hits it big to bring that type of look back into style. As far as Eadie goes, the dude looked like he could kick ass and stand toe to toe with the biggest and baddest without giving up an inch, he projected the vibe of being somebody you didn't want to f with, and that's really all you need in wrestling. I never cared that he looked old or fat, I just saw him in there against whoever and thought that he was one of the toughest SOBs around. In the early 90's it was definitely noticeable that he was aging and hurting and slowing down, but Demo in their prime? Ax was badass.

Gordi looks like fun to hang out with. Do you get in drunken chopping battles?

I mostly just watch WWE these days, and it's hard to enjoy sober I need to quit watching WWE

There is a ton of stuff there, most of it I've never heard of before and can't find much info on via google.......could anybody recommend a good place to start? I'd be most interested in 80's proto dirt sheets, but any early-mid 80's kayfabe roundup/fanclub/newsletter type of stuff for specific regions or territories would be up my alley

The best wrestler in the world right now is a guy that just quit active wrestling again to be a road agent for the WWE. The second best is a fifty-something Lucha legend who has made tape a lot less than I had hoped this year. IMO, from what I watch, it's definitely Rey, but I'm woefully out of touch with current lucha, puro and a lot of the indies. And he's my favorite wrestler, so I'm a little bit biased It's definitely not Punk, and it's not Bryan either. I've been a little bit disappointed in their series to be honest. They've all been really good matches, bordering on great at times, but they're a little bit too spotty and kicky for my tastes, and there isn't that overarching story told by the work that you see in the really great series', where they build on the previous matches. Maybe I should watch them all again, but I haven't been seeing those "that worked in the last match, but now it's countered" or "one of them found a weakness or something that worked last time, so now they're gameplanning it" kind of touches to the work. Maybe I'm missing it. I think Jericho works smarter matches than either of them, but like Rey, he's got the benefit of a decade of experience and different variety of opponents that they could never have....part of a dying breed of workers (and you can throw Finley and Regal in there too), it's going to be sad when that generation is gone

Did he spit on Gordy's grave? That is like.....perfect Freebird

I know it's been a common gripe in this thread, but I still get surprised by the randomness of what is and isn't behind the paywall sometimes Headline: TV commercials with Lesnar already airing is obviously going to be something like, "SummerSlam commercials hyping Lesnar v. HHH have started airing in some markets" right? what else could it be? Why is that behind the paywall?!?

That can't be the case at the top level, surely? I'm certain WWE will carry a pretty sizable wardrobe and makeup department around with them. I know Sting and Jeff Hardy have always done their own paint