Dylan Waco

The Wyatts are absolutely not mid-carders at this point. I would argue that they maybe should be (and I love Harper), but they aren't. They are extremely well protected. I would be shocked if Bryan was in a "lame mid-card match" Mania. If anything the fact that the last thirty minutes of the last Raw of the year on a show where Brock returned were dedicated to Bryan suggests to me he will be in a high profile match at Mania. All WWE angles are overly dramatic. The angle made tons of sense. The authority has fucked over Bryan, he has the fan support, but he has nothing else because they are fucking with him. The Wyatts keep going at him to bring him aboard and he eventually gives in on the last Raw of the year after it's announced that he's basically being passed on for the big title match again. Honestly if anyone other than Bryan was involved in this angle it would be universally praised

I often disagree with Johnny and Kris when it comes to WWE stuff, but they are dead on here. Hell I have soured on the Wyatts up until tonight, but I honestly thought it was a very strong angle and the match before it was excellent.

I absolutely loved the ending to RAw

You know if you aren't into Regal and/or Cesaro or there match that is fine, but I have no clue how that match could be described as "plodding."

I think there were also guys who clearly got extra points for promoting

It's in the massive group of names thanked after the results. I actually had it pointed out to me via PM by someone on the Board.

Methodist?

I don't even like the Inoki v. Hansen match from 80 all that much. Or Chavo v. Fujinami actually. 1980 is a light year in terms of footage, but there might be ten Portland matches alone I would rate above both of those matches from 1980.

I think it's probably the best singles match of 1980. I'd listen to arguments for a couple of other matches (Robinson v. Bock from AJPW, Patera v. Backlund Texas Death, maybe even DK v. Fujinami), but I doubt I could be convinced to go against it. Having said that my MOTY from that year is Wiskowski/Buddy v. Piper/Martel.

Almost as puzzling as me being thanked in the big thanks section this week, though I haven't sent him anything in weeks, and the last thing I sent him wasn't really a result. Edit: Not complaining, as it's a nice gesture, I just have no clue what I'm being thanked for.

There are two ways of approaching this question. The first is would Dustin have been as successful (or more so) a drawing card as Sting. The answer there is that it's hard to fathom him being any worse, but there is no reason to think he would have been better either. It's likely that he just would have been another guy fucked by WCW booking and incompetence. If he had been pushed as the top face from say 92 (the earliest when that is even feasible, and that is a stretch) through til Hogan came in in 94, he would have probably slid into that "other face" at or near the top of the cards role that Sting had prior to the Hogan heel turn in the middle of 96. This means it's possible he would have headlined some decent house show runs, and maybe had a memorable feud or two, but not one would have seen him as THE star of the show. It's hard to imagine him coming through all of that without at least one heel turn given the nature of the business in the MNW Era. In a sense the best case scenario for Dustin in WCW might have been to weather the storm of 95 in a U.S. title level role, maybe turning heel then, and then coming back as a WCW aligned face during the NWO breakout in the Summer of 96. From there I could actually see Dustin being one of the most over babyface acts in the company as a sort of "heir to tradition" good, but tough, guy. Sort of a less hammy, more rooted version of DDP. The second question is would Dustin have been as good or better than Sting artistically. To that point I would argue that he already was in the period when they were in the company together, and since Dustin is one of the only guys who paired up with Vader nearly as well as Sting did, there is every reason to believe he would have been just as good, if not better had he been positioned in the top position during those years.

Yep. I cannot imagine trying to do with matches which I find infinitely more difficult to rank in comparison to each other. I will probably o a top 200 matches only because of peer pressure, and will no doubt regret the bulk of it

- Get started and finished on my Greg Valentine research - Have my top 500 of 2013 finished and public by the end of the first quarter of 2014 at the absolute latest - Continue researching Puerto Rico wrestling

I think Sayama could be good against the right people during this period, but he was almost never the best guy in a match.

Good stuff there Grimmas. MOTY was a brutally tough category this year, there were probably fifteen-twenty matches I wanted to include in three spots. I should have included Maria as a non-wrestler, total airball on my part

In general I don't like mixed awards. I voted Mayweather up top for two reasons 1. If you are going to have mixed awards based essentially on who and what Dave covers, then the guy who is the hottest ticket should win and 2. A vote for Mayweather is a vote against mixed awards, because it's effectively a vote against MMA. I put Cena over St. Pierre, because even though St. Pierre drew bigger in two single outings, I think the first show had as much to do with Diaz being Diaz as it did with Georges and the Hendricks fight - while a good number for this year - was a big disappointment in the grand scheme of things. Cena had some really disappointing stuff too, but I think this year really illustrated that he was the biggest draw in wrestling given his ability to pop Raw, SD and even ppv for his comeback, plus the Mania number was huge and someone deserves credit for that. If GSP had done two shows with over 750k buys I would have rated him above Cena fwiw.

On Snuka v. Steamboat, I agree with the critical comment about it earlier. Watching it I thought it had some of the most business exposing big bumps I'd ever seen and as a whole the match was terribly phony to me on both watches (yes I watch all the 80's Sets from beginning to end at least twice before voting). I said this at the time and people thought I was joking, but I seriously think I saw a half dozen or more Billy Wiles/C.W. Anderson v. Roadkill/Danny Doring fancam matches from the ECW Set that were clearly better than that match.

There was really no one better for that spot. I thought about leaving it blank, but that would have been obnoxious even by my standards.

Just sent this to Dave LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD 1. John Cena 2. Kazuchika Okada 3. Daniel Bryan MMA MOST VALUABLE FIGHTER: 1. Georges St. Pierre 2. Anderson Silva 3. Nick Diaz MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER: 1. Antonio Cesaro 2. Negro Casas 3. Rush BEST BOX OFFICE DRAW - 1. Floyd Mayweather 2. John Cena 3. Georges St. Pierre FEUD OF THE YEAR – 1. Rush v. Negro Casas 2. Antonio Cesaro v. Sami Zayn 3. The Shield v. The Rhodes Brothers TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR – 1. Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins 2. The Rhodes Brothers 3. Los Traumas MOST IMPROVED – 1. Roman Reigns 2. Seth Rollins 3. Antonio Cesaro BEST ON INTERVIEWS – 1. Mark Henry 2. John Cena 3. Zeb Colter MOST CHARISMATIC – 1. Daniel Bryan 2. John Cena 3. Negro Casas BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER – 1. Blue Panther 2. Timothy Thatcher 3. Virus BRUISER BRODY MEMORIAL AWARD – 1. Rush 2. Negro Casas 3. LA Park BEST FLYING WRESTLER – 1. Aerostar 2. Andrew Everett 3. Shockercito MOST OVERRATED- 1. HHH 2. Paul Heyman 3. American Wolves MOST UNDERRATED – 1. Antonio Cesaro 2. Tomohiro Ishii 3. Luke Gallows PROMOTION OF THE YEAR – 1. WWE 2. NJPW 3. CMLL BEST WEEKLY TV SHOW – 1. NXT 2. WWE Main Event 3. CMLL MOST OUTSTANDING FIGHTER: 1. Johnny Hendricks 2. Jon Jones 3. Robbie Lawler PRO WRESTLING MATCH OF THE YEAR – 1. Charles Lucero vs. Rey Hechicero - Monterrey 8/4 2. William Regal vs. Kassius Ohno, NXT 3/21 3. Antonio Cesaro vs. William Regal, NXT 11/21 MMA MATCH OF THE YEAR – 1. Gilbert Melendez vs. Diego Sanchez – UFC 166 2. Michael Chandler vs. Eddie Alvarez - Bellator 106 3. Georges St. Pierre vs. Johnny Hendricks - UFC 167 ROOKIE OF THE YEAR – 1. Andrew Everett 2. Ryotsu Shimizu 3. Charlotte Flair BEST NON-WRESTLER PERFORMER – 1. Zeb Colter 2. Stephanie McMahon 3. Bruce Tharpe BEST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER – 1. William Regal 2. Jim Ross 3. Michael Cole WORST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER – 1. Nick Nitrus (SAW) 2 Taz 3. Mike Tenay BEST MAJOR SHOW – 1. WWE Summerslam 2013 2. WWE TLC 2012 3. NJPW G1 Climax Day Four "CATEGORY B" AWARDS. PICK ONE IN EACH CATEGORY. WINNER CHOSEN ON THE BASIS OF FIRST PLACE VOTES. WORST MAJOR SHOW OF THE YEAR – TNA Hardcore Justice BEST WRESTLING MANEUVER – Antonio Cesaro's toss/euro uppercut combo DISGUSTING PROMOTIONAL TACTIC – Nigel McGuinness withholding his Hepatitis status from fans and friends, marketing his documentary around that big reveal, and making blood in wrestling a major issue while ignoring any mention of the likely cause of the bicep injury that was the actual reason he never achieved his "dream." WORST TELEVISION SHOW – TNA Impact WORST MATCH OF THE YEAR – Eddie Edwards v. Jay Lethal, PWG All Star Weekend Night One (3/23) WORST FEUD OF THE YEAR – HHH v. Brock Lesnar WORST PROMOTION - TNA BEST BOOKER – Dusty Rhodes (whoever books NXT) PROMOTER OF THE YEAR – Vince McMahon BEST GIMMICK – The Shield WORST GIMMICK – Aces and Eights BEST WRESTLING BOOK – Mad Dogs, Midgets and Screwjobs BEST PRO WRESTLING DVD – Barbed Wire City DVD

This one shocks me, because I absolutely hated this match, and think it is one of the worst matches to ever make an 80's set.

I can't be the only person who wants to see Honma work every top level or upper mid-card guy in ten-fifteen minute matches.

I think Punk, Bryan and Reigns in that order are most likely to win the Rumble. With only one title now, it can't be someone who is going to turn around and work for a secondary belt, which means I can't see it being Sheamus even IF he returned on schedule which is looking less likely. Brock wouldn't stun me either to be honest

I actually don't disagree with this, but I don't feel strongly about it either way. What hurts 02 a lot for me is that aside from Christian/Jericho and BookDust, I can't think of anything on Raw from the year that I enjoyed. I have no doubt that there was other stuff, but nothing jumps off the page. In a sense the "SD Six" era became so iconic with hardcore fans because it was something distinct and different from the RAW brand, in a way that catered directly to many of our interests.

That would probably make sense if it didn't follow directly after said low point. Maybe you disagree, but I thought the company bottomed out from an in ring perspective in 99 and got progressively better in 00, 01 and 02

99 WWF/E was a cesspool. You can literally take any year in the history of the company and compare it favorably to that year. Except for all the millions of people who were watching then that aren't watching now. Pretty obvious this thread is not about business. I've never heard anyone - I mean seriously no one ever - claim 99 was a good year for the WWF/E in the ring. If they were setting the high-water mark for business, it's pretty clear people liked what they were seeing. It's an angry smark myth there were no good matches in 99 WWF. It wasn't the main focus obviously, but you still had things like the Rock-Foley feud, the Austin-Taker feud, Rock-Austin on back to back PPV's, Austin-Trips at No Mercy, E&C vs Hardys, and Test-Shane was perhaps the most surprisingly good match of that year. That's just off the top of my head. Sure there were lots of 3 minute Raw matches but it's not like there wasn't good stuff as well. People like a lot of things that I wouldn't consider "good." There is good stuff in just about any promotion if you look hard enough. The fact that a few good matches can be pointed to, doesn't tell me much.