Marty

Randy Orton I really hate to pick Orton here, but it's hard to compare his push with Tajiri's. Tajiri's a far superior worker, but is going to be stuck in the midcard and probably will never have a cup of coffee with the main event, while Orton will get opportunity after opportunity, no matter how much he bombs. A really reluctant pick here.

Rick Martel Both guys are known for tag runs, but Martel's tag runs were longer when you go back to the Can-Am Connection days. Both that team and Strike Force were fun teams. I loved the Demos, but after their three year run, Smash bombed as a singles star. Martel had a silly gimmick, but still had some solid matches, with Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon, and others.

Roddy Piper Tough call here, but Piper got to headline many shows with Hogan in 1985 and draw tons of money. Still a pretty competent worker too. Had one of my favourite angles in 1987 with Adonis and Beefcake too. Jericho, while a good worker, has never had the opportunities that Piper got, thanks generally to politics. A shame every time I look at it.

Davey Boy Smith Headlined a major PPV in 1992 at a stadium show, had a great tag team career, solid enough singles career where he at least had a presence, and is known via casual WWF fans. TAKA has none of those upsides, with the closest taste he had to a main event being the TV match with HHH.

Brock Lesnar Tough call here, but I voted based on Lesnar's working ability, plus the fact that Warrior somewhat contributed to the downswing of the WWF back in the day. Neither guy's title reigns were earth-shattering, although when Lesnar was heel, he was probably far better than when he was a goofy face. Tough one to pick, but I'll go Lesnar, since he had better matches, for the most part.

Bret Hart I remember back in the day when wrestling magazines were comparing a young Bigelow in the late 80s to Bruiser Brody and asking if he can live up to those standards. I often wonder if Bigelow had better booking if he could've been anywhere near those comparisons today. Anyways, Bret's an easy choice here, with the biggest reason being that he was one of the greatest international draws the WWF ever had. There's many others, which I'll let other people mention.

I can see Venis vs. Tomko being good. Venis is the only guy I've seen that can get a good match out of Tomko. Funny, but I had thought about watching the show at the theatre back at say, Friday or so. However, I completely forgot about the show tonight until seeing this thread. Figures.

Since everyone is making requests to HTQ, I'd like to throw in Undertaker vs. Big Boss Man from WrestleMania XV.

But what about Bad News Brown's work in the ring? Can you direct me to any matches that were worth watching for work value or historical value or even markout value? Probably not. I don't really have to. Adrian Adonis was John Heidenreich or Gene Snitsky-level embarrassing during this time though, so I'd probably vote for anyone else against him. I still don't see how Bad News did anything better than the feud with Piper. Do you remember Brown's brief feud with Randy Savage? Was great for the short time it was and could've been even better if they blew it off on a PPV (although I'm sure Vince isn't taking back Hogan vs. Savage at all). Brown's attacking of Tunney after accusing him of "accepting favors from Elizabeth" is ahead of its time in a way. Savage and Brown had some good street fights in the house show circuit (I remember watching one from Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto that they taped for TV and I remember really liking it). Also, Brown partly contributed to the break-up of the Mega-Powers (see Royal Rumble 1989). This was when Brown was rollin'. I also remember him challenging Hogan at the time and claiming that Hogan wearing yellow was symbolic of his real nature. Good, good stuff. Let's not forget WrestleMania IV and Bret Hart either. I never saw a match between the two, but I recall hearing that Hart and Brown had some good house show stuff too. That would be quite the summer actually. House shows of Savage-Dibiase and Hart-Brown. Good times!

They faced each other in '89. The Harts faced the Demos in '88.

Val Venis Al Snow seemed to stop caring about wrestling once the Head gimmick hit and relied more and more on garbage matches until he faded into Tough Enough hell. Val Venis was a solid worker and still is that today who probably deserves better. I still really like his matches with Goldust in 1998. Thought he could've been good with his "take no bullshit character" he had when with Trish Stratus, but Vince felt the RTC thing was more necessary. Still can work today, and I liked his match with Edge last week.

IRS. I didn't mind Savio as much as others here do. His strap match with Austin was fine, but he also had a couple good matches with Goldust, IIRC. IRS had more of an impact, and was far successful. The team of Rotundo and DiBiase is one of my all-time favourites.

Terry Funk. I'm a sucker for his skits with the Funk family on TNT, and his tag matches with Mankind were good for Attitude-era matches. Had a good match with Foley on TV that was one of the better TV matches at the time. Rikishi, while a solid midcarder, showed a lack of ability of playing heel, something Funk showed (albeit in two different eras). The Fatu and Sultan eras are forgettable, and his notable contribution as Rikishi was "I did it for the Rock." I'm going with the Funker here.

Brainbusters Bees had a feud with the Harts and did nothing else of note. Looking back, I loved the Busters title reign, because I was a huge Demolition mark at the time and didn't want them losing the titles. Tully and Arn made great, great heels in the WWF.

Bad News Brown. I almost thought Adonis, because the Adonis-Piper-Beefcake angle is an old favourite of mine, but as a whole, the guy was a joke around this time. Brown was Stone Cold before Stone Cold ever came up.

Honky Tonk Man. Lawler had one notable feud with Bret Hart, while Honky had a year and a half of people just WANTING him to lose badly. The Warrior squash was the ultimate payoff, no pun intended.

Greg Valentine. If we extended the beginning of the years back by about 5, it would be a tougher call, but Muraco did nothing notable in the late 80s, aside from moving somewhat far in the WM IV tournament. Hammer had some fun feuds at the time.

Tajiri. Mero started off well in the WWF but once the wifebeater/boxer gimmick hit, it was death. Tajiri's been a solid midcarder who can put on an entertaining match fairly often.

Grumble, grumble, double post. Okay, it's the one I thought you were talking about. The other one he did that was similar in tone was one in December of '95 just before the end, where he talks about being beaten by Mikey Whipwreck at less than 100%, plus got back into some details of his past, IIRC. The one you covered is one of my favourite interviews he ever did too. Minor correction: It wasn't Bagwell he was talking about; I believe it was Alex Wright. "Go out there for 7 minutes and make that German kid look good" or something along those lines was his quote.

Okay, it's the one I thought you were talking about. The other one he did that was similar in tone was one in December of '95 just before the end, where he talks about being beaten by Mikey Whipwreck at less than 100%, plus got back into some details of his past, IIRC. The one you covered is one of my favourite interviews he ever did too. Minor correction: It wasn't Bagwell he was talking about; I believe it was Alex Wright. "Go out there for 7 minutes and make that German kid look good" or something along those lines was his quote.

Which one is this one, Loss? He did a couple of these worked shoot interviews.

You know, I hope we wind up having a lot of lurkers here, particularly blind ECW marks, just to read that, especially the last paragraph. Well put, Loss. As for Eddy/JBL, I'm with Loss and SG: Watch it again, then again. I liked it the first go-around, but watched it again right away, and realized the stuff I missed the first go-around, or didn't totally get. (Example: JBL throwing Eddy into the table. The first time it looked like a good spot in that type of match, the second time, I recall more easily Eddy doing something similar and how this was more of a revenge spot for it, which worked well.) I respect Al's views of the match, at least, because unlike Keith, he didn't write off the match because Bradshaw was in it, and was at least honest in his lack of perspective with the latino crowd. All the more reason for a re-watching, however.

This shocked the hell out of me when I heard it. Sad, sad news. My condolences to Tammy and Chris' family.

EDIT: Yeah, I liked it so much that I had to post it twice. Smackdown tag title match tonight was really fun and interesting. First time I've seen NMN, who came across as a lite Matt and Jeff Hardy, with Melinda being Lita lite, at least as a second. I like the gimmicks, though, as they're the Hollywood Blonds gone completely over the top. I don't know if the paparazzi photography is a total necessity to accompany the entrance, but it hammers the point home. This is going to be a fun team and maybe a team to revitalize one tag division with. As for Rey and Eddie, their angle about a potential split continues, after Rey's inadvertent crossbody. Eddie's reactions for the rest of the match are incredible, from leaving halfway to returning, as well as the facial expressions for the rest of the match. I hate to say it, but I almost feel Rock should get Eddie into Hollywood, as his acting ability is being wasted here. You really do, though, feel that Eddie is neither a good person, nor a bad person, just someone who's stuck at a crossroads right now as far as his relationship with Rey goes. The crowd itself feels he is bad, but that doesn't last as long, as it really is tough to conclude what's on Eddie's mind. I won't spoil much aside from that, but you'll have to check it out to see what I mean. As for the ring action itself, it's really fast-paced and makes a fine WCW cruiser tag team from 2001 style of match. I see now how everyone compares Rey to Kawada, as he was fine selling, but I really like the kicks he's thrown into his offense. The stuff with Eddie at the beginning is okay, but I found NMN were on the money in the first time I've seen them, as they really weren't out of place for any moment of time. The angle will mean more than the match, but if you need a free TV match tonight, you could do worse.

Smackdown tag title match tonight was really fun and interesting. First time I've seen NMN, who came across as a lite Matt and Jeff Hardy, with Melinda being Lita lite, at least as a second. I like the gimmicks, though, as they're the Hollywood Blonds gone completely over the top. I don't know if the paparazzi photography is a total necessity to accompany the entrance, but it hammers the point home. This is going to be a fun team and maybe a team to revitalize one tag division with. As for Rey and Eddie, their angle about a potential split continues, after Rey's inadvertent crossbody. Eddie's reactions for the rest of the match are incredible, from leaving halfway to returning, as well as the facial expressions for the rest of the match. I hate to say it, but I almost feel Rock should get Eddie into Hollywood, as his acting ability is being wasted here. You really do, though, feel that Eddie is neither a good person, nor a bad person, just someone who's stuck at a crossroads right now as far as his relationship with Rey goes. The crowd itself feels he is bad, but that doesn't last as long, as it really is tough to conclude what's on Eddie's mind. I won't spoil much aside from that, but you'll have to check it out to see what I mean. As for the ring action itself, it's really fast-paced and makes a fine WCW cruiser tag team from 2001 style of match. I see now how everyone compares Rey to Kawada, as he was fine selling, but I really like the kicks he's thrown into his offense. The stuff with Eddie at the beginning is okay, but I found NMN were on the money in the first time I've seen them, as they really weren't out of place for any moment of time. The angle will mean more than the match, but if you need a free TV match tonight, you could do worse.