Dylan Waco

Biggest difference between Dusty and HHH is that Dusty was one of (if not) the greatest promos of all time, whereas HHH is one of the absolute worst promos of all time

Cable changed television in general. With cable and national syndication it was inevitable the territories would die

This is admittedly a bit of an odd topic, but I was watching a portion of TNA's Hardcore Justice II (got help me and no I didn't get through the whole show) and Sam Shaw was on the card which I found unbelievably funny. For those who don't know Shaw was a part of the Gut Check thing and was a part of TNA for a brief period of time before recently being let go. Shaw was never a guy with much buzz around him, even within the world of South Georgia/North Florida indies where he has been a regular for several years. In fact of guys from that area I don't know that he's even a top twenty guy. There is nothing particularly interesting about him and while he has a passable look, he's not someone you see and think "this guy has something special." It struck me as a completely random signing and it got me thinking about random/bizarre/puzzling signings in the wrestling business in general. I have some others in mind, but I'd like to throw this open to the rest of the board first before I chime in with more names.

John and I have discussed this before, but Stevens is an interesting case. With him we really have none of his prime, or at least no meaningful representation of it (I think some matches from Australia of all places popped up recently on youtube). We do have a few tag matches with him and Bock from the AWA studio in full and I think those show that he was a solid tag wrestler then, but even at that point (73ish) no serious person could watch the footage and consider him one of the absolute top guys on the planet. There is a fair amount of old man Stevens, primarily in the AWA. A few of those matches I enjoy a good bit, but unlike his partner Pat Paterson (who's prime we also have no footage of), you don't have matches or even moments in matches where you see the flashes you would expect from someone who is often called the best worker of all time. The overall impression I get of Stevens based on what we have heard in general and specifically is that he was probably a very high spot heavy wrestler for his era, which may have made him stand out more. Even now big theatrical bumpers tend to be rated high almost as a pure reflex by both wrestlers and hardcore fans and Stevens - while certainly not the first - may have been the biggest/craziest at the time. He also had a finish that was crazy over and historically canonized which probably helped his resume as well. In other words he was sort of a prototype for your Michaels/Flair types and my guess is once he lost a step physically he was never really the same

I'd love to have the Jeff Walton L.A. stuff

Seems like I should at least watch Ishii v. Suzuki which aside from Sak v. Suzuki is the closest thing to a "dream match" I can get out of NJPW. I also sort of want to see the tag with Tanahashi to see if I hate him any less in that setting, but that could probably be gathered from watching a couple of the house shows that have popped up in the last few days

I already watched Sakuraba v. Nagata. I wouldn't call it horrendous, but it wasn't a good match. I actually thought Sakuraba did a few cool things, but Nagata did nothing interesting in the match and it came across as two guys who legit dislike each other, going out of their way to make the other not look good. I may review the whole show when/if I can find it.

Fuck, man a Big Show return would have been the best ending ever to that show. Hopefully he is there on SD

Pretty much agree with this, but again I'm a Darren Young mark.

I love Mark Henry, but I didn't care for that segment at all. It seemed like everyone was on a different page and this came across like them just trying to hammer the point home, rather than advancing the angle in any way.

I like Christian v. Titus a lot for a match of it's length. Honestly it was the most I've liked Christian since he's been back as he made a good rag doll and I am a Titus fan. Didn't really care for the finish, as I can't buy Christian having the power to hold a guy Titus size in place for that long

I'm usually not bothered by Del Rio's offense - at least not moreso than some others - but man would it have hurt him to lay it in a bit more throughout that match. At points his shit looked really sharp and at other times it looks really pathetic. In any even Sheamus stiffness, hulk up fisticuffs spots and selling were awesome, so I still enjoyed the match, but with better Del Rio performance that would have had a chance at being a top tier WWE singles match this year.

How on earth could Nakamura v. Sombra be better than Sakuraba v. Nagata? Of course it's possible that we will just have a strong disagreement here, but Sak v. Nagata as one of the worst matches of the year? Fuck

I am too lazy to look, but I think it is the May 1980 match with Rose and Martel that some consider one of the better singles matches ever (I wouldn't go that far but I"ve seen multiple people say that) and the best singles match in the history of the territory (I wouldn't go that far either, but it's certainly upper tier and almost certainly the best singles matches of 1980). For my money Buddy Rose & Ed Wiskowski vs Roddy Piper & Rick Martel (08/02/80) is the best Portland match of all time and probably one of the ten best tag matches I've ever seen. It's also the best match I've seen from anywhere in the world that year - the aforementioned Rose v. Martel is probably my number two.

Brodie Lee is a MUCH better worker than Bray Wyatt

Yep, completely idiotic. Absolutely no good reason to do that.

For better or worse I am going to honor this quasi-request. I got my hands on this and was on the fence, but Scorpio, Guido, Bob Holly and Spike Dudley were on the show which makes it the sort of perfectly random thing I don't feel I can avoid.

Hack Myers is the man

It wouldn't shock me if they ran Punk/Bryan v. Brock/Axel at Summerslam.

Kris is right, in hindsight there was really no reason Bryan needed the MITB. Hell they can easily have Maddox, HHH, Vince, whoever the fuck, come out tomorrow and say "Bryan was clearly going to win before Axel interfered, so he gets the shot against Cena at Summerslam" and it would actually be a perfectly reasonable thing to do even without the Bella's stuff.

I like how anarchistxx reviews WWE, like I review New Japan

As much as I don't give a fuck about Orton, I actually have zero problem with the decision. Orton is a guy that needs something like MITB to justify a title run or any interest in a title match. He's just that stale/overexposed. A MITB cash in is also probably the best possible way to turn him heel which desperately needs to happen. I almost expect Bryan to somehow beat Cena and have Orton cash in on him immediately in your Hardy/Punk 2.0 scenario. As a match I agree that it was longish, but Sheamus being the bump freak of the match was awesome. Also Bryan was the most Mark Briscoeish I've ever seen him here. On Henry v. Cena I thought it was an awesome match, but it's exactly the sort of match that will have almost no resonance to people who aren't Henry or Cena converts. I'm not sure it's my WWE MOTY (I definitely can't see it ahead of Ohno v. Regal if you consider that WWE and you should), but WWE ppvs have been unusually dismal this year and this is probably the best WWE ppv match I've seen this year if nothing else (Elimination Chamber Shield Six-Man would be a contender). I also have zero problem with Henry losing and this is coming from a guy who turned down free tickets to Mania because I hated the way Henry was booked going into that show. I would ave preferred him lose by pinfall, but that's a relatively minor complaint. I had work and missed the majority of the show, but it seems like it's worth going back to check it out so I will

Bret himself has said many times that he always agreed he would come back for an HoF induction

Actually I think perspective is a good thing, but it works both ways. On Bret and Montreal you would be hard pressed to find anyone, anywhere, more extremely pro-Bret than I am. I think he was 100 percent in the right and the blame is ALL on Vince's end. But that has nothing to do with this in my eyes and in fact I think it is the subject of this thread (Bret's ego) that convinced Bret to get back in bed with Vince at all. How many other guys would have a sit down with a guy who had royally fucked them so badly, at the funeral of their brother who had died due to b.s./negligence from the same guy and say "hey, I don't want to be blackballed by history, so if you ever want to put me in your Hall of Fame or do some DVD stuff I"m down and want my input!" Not very many

So if I had started the thread it would have been ok? My thought is that Bret gets a pass for some of the nuttier things he says because he was the hero of a lot of 90's fans and because he was seen as the ultimate victim of Vince douchery. In general threads like this aren't my thing, but it's not like Bret is some Jim Brunzell type