Dylan Waco

What is Storm's best match? I'm guessing v. Dreamer from Hardcore Heaven 99. I like that match a lot, but I'm not sure it's better than Tito v. Lawler from MSG in 93. Peak Storm isn't even as good as post-prime Tito

Lawler was a better opponent for Savage, but Hogan was up there. No way in hell Verne could have kept him.

Michaels had more heat on him than Bret? After USA v. Canada? I know DX was over at the time, but I'm not buying that. Vince always had an unhealthy man crush on Shawn and saw him as a guy who should be the next big draw. My suspicion is that Vince would have done just about anything to try and make reality mesh with his vision. Shawn got hurt, Austin fell into his lap and that was that

Watched Onita v. Hayabusa and Onita v. Tenryu in the Barbed Wire Cages. Really interesting to see them back to back. The Hayabusa match is almost incredible in how little Hayabusa gets. To be fair it made sense from the perspective that they were trying to put over Hayabusa as someone who could take the punishment you need to take to be effective in that style and he definitely did that in the match. The timing on the big bump into the cage coinciding with the exploding ring was a bit shaky, but it made for a huge dramatic moment which was really the point of all of the big Onita FMW matches. Everything after the explosion was really good as you got Hayabusa surviving the Thunder Fire powerbombs, his rana near fall and of course the missed moonsault. Good, but not great match, though it was a great moment in a way. Still I can't imagine how anyone could have thought it was good business for FMW going forward to turn over the promotion to a guy who had just been eaten alive for the entire match by the guy who retired with the title. Tenryu match was a better match in my view despite a couple of awkward moments. Still crazy for me to see Tenryu in that setting. Him taking a head bump into the wired cage was pretty nuts in hindsight. Also was interesting to see how different this was form the Busa match as here Onita takes most of the major punishment and gets put away after a sequence of bombs from Tenryu.

That's interesting because while I liked the Christian/Orton series, I thought they were among the most telegraphed/scripted looking "good" WWE matches of the last decade

I'm actually fairly shocked that OJ thought so highly of Orton v. Christian

He was a good wrestler for the bulk of his career. I don't think he was ever a great wrestler, though there were times when he could have great performances. Having said that there is more Hogan I like then Hogan that I think sucks. Far more. Good matches v. Funk, Orndorff, Race, Savage, Bock, Inoki, Backlund, Sarge, Warrior, Piper, Rock, Flair, and probably a bunch of others I'm forgetting. I'm not a huge fan and he's not even a Luger type who had a single year where I thought he was really fucking good, but I think Hogan gets a bad rap in the ring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui2uXcAxwjI I remember loving the Taz/Jerry Lawler/Jim Ross angle from 2000 despite how silly a lot of it was and watching it back now I still really loved it. Shame they didn't get more time, but the pay off match was fun while it last and JR celebrating the shot with the candy jar was tremendous

There was a free wrestling hotline in Charleston starting right around the beginning of the Nitro Era. Mooneyham has had a column in the local paper here since around 88 or so IIRC so it was possible to get relatively timely news here every week regardless

I love Flair on the mic and would have no problem with someone saying he was the best, but I hardly see how Flair could be considered head and shoulders above Dusty. Arn Anderson is my personal favorite ever, though he didn't have the range Dusty had and his job on the mic was a lot different

The only aspect of it that Bret can be blamed for is when Vince came to him and said "hey now that I've killed your negotiating power after you signed with me for far less money, I'm refusing to honor the contract, so go to WCW and see what you can get now lol" Bret could have gone the litigious route and sued the fuck out of Vince. Instead Bret was naive enough to trust that he could continue working for the WWE in the interim without getting the same treatment that Vince wanted to give his cousin back in North Carolina. Instead Bret got crushed leafs for dinner and Vince got the beginning of the biggest heel character in the history of his promotion (if not the history of wrestling).

Watching 89 AWA and man does it make me feel like the Destruction Crew should have eventually become a great tag team. Also really, really wish Pat Tanaka was a guy that had made more of his chances. He was tremendous back then

Jimmy Hart Obviously should be in and should have been with the first class. One of three guys I would consider legit contenders for best manager ever and you could argue that unlike the other two he actually carried a promotion for a long time. All the heels in Memphis cycled through Hart during the hottest period in the history of the territory. At the risk of incurring the wrath of OJ, I think his involvement with the music/video end is a nice icing on the cake and I actually like a fair amount of his initial WWF run though it is largely irrelevant to his case. Bill Goldberg Even though I would never vote for him, I tend to favor him because I think if you were one of the three or four biggest stars in wrestling during a period where wrestling was at it's (arguable?) all time peak you probably merit some consideration and you definitely are a good yardstick to use to compare others against. It's debatable how big a draw he was, but I'll be god damned if he wasn't a massive household name and he certainly SEEMED to be the co-equal or superior of Hogan at his peak. Would be interested in seeing the quarter hour comparisons there but I'm far too lazy to do it myself. Yuji Nagata Believe he's been on the ballot and fallen off. Another one of those guys who seems like he had to pop up on the ballot at some point given that he was a main eventer in Japan and at times a good worker. In a sense he always felt like a poor mans Chono to me and I don't see how a poor mans Chono gets in. Not sure I would even rate him over Akiyama using Observer HoF metrics. Skandor Akbar I liked him a good bit as a manager but I don't know that he was ever even the top manager in a promotion during a really hot run. Don't think he did enough as an in ring performer to offset that handicap. Ultimo Guerrero I'd be a liar if I said I knew enough to be sure, but my general inclination is to say he doesn't deserve another crack as I'm fairly sure he's been on the ballot before and I don't see any Lucha fans lobbying hard for him. Cima Can't envision any scenario where I would vote for him, but you could argue he's been one of the more successful stars in Japan of this generation so I feel obligated to say he deserves a shot on the ballot. I don't know how much he can be said to be the driving force behind Dragon Gate, so maybe I really shouldn't be touting him. But he seems like another Nagata type who at least deserves a chance. Los Hermanos Dinamita I've seen enough Lucha fans speak highly of this unit to say they should definitely be on the ballot. They'd almost certainly get a fair number of votes. Masato Tanaka Flik being the biggest FMW fan ever I'm not surprised he would put him in on work alone I high up the depth chart he was in FMW self always like Kanemura a lot more, though I did like Tanaka in his heyday. Not sure how high up the depth chart he was in FMW or how many big drawing shows he headlined. I do think he managed to remain a fairly relevant name after the Japan seen collapsed. Does he really deserve to be on the ballot over Hayabusa or Kanemura? I'm not averse to another guy from FMW's peak getting on the ballot if someone can make an argument, but I'm not sure he's the right guy. And I can't really see any way I would vote for him based on what I know. Hector Garza Don't know enough. I've actually heard conflicting thigns on his degree of stardom. Naoya Ogawa I don't see an argument, but then I did argue for Goldberg and some have called Ogawa the Japanese Goldberg. Not sure I totally get the comparison. I'm sure Dave would argue his Pride work should count which would bolster his case I suppose. Manabu Nakanishi Seems like a huge leap. Not sure he's even a good "affirmative action" pick for modern Japan.

I mentioned Adnan. I think if you consider him a manager he was a very good one and one that was effective in both garnering heat and drawing money. In fact he was really good at sustaining heat and helping to draw money. I actually think Adnan is a reasonable candidate for the WON HoF to be honest.

The only reason Sheamus win was surprising is because he has done jackshit for the last couple of months. He's probably the highest level "star" who has had the least to do over that time period. When Bryan first won the belt I actually said "I bet he works Sheamus at Mania" maybe even in this forum. It just seemed like the logical place after the Henry/Show rematches. But I didn't figure they'd get there via this vehicle

In a HoF discussion you really aren't talking just about workers. To that end you could possibly add Styles. I actually don't think Dreamer has any case over the Dudz other than longevity in the promotion. The Dudz were really THE main event act from the period where ECW really started to expand nationally, right until the moment they left. Dreamer's "heart and soul of ECW gimmick" makes him as identifiable with the brand as anyone, but I don't see him as a guy who was consistently a centerpiece of the promotion and really he felt like a hanger on relative to the other "major stars" of the company

Hum, what ? Terry Funk Sabu Sandman Shane Douglas RVD Raven Taz ... ah, you're right. You could add Heyman, Todd Gordon and The Dudleyz

Bobby Bass was an awesome manager/wrestler in the vein of Adnan in the Maritimes.

God I hated Alfonzo. Initially I liked him and thought he added to the ECW shows, but I thought he was absolutely wretched with Van Dam. During the ECW project by FAR the worst part was knowing I was going to get a 20 plus minute RVD match where he is working a Carrot Top gimmick, with Alfonzo blowing the whistle the whole time, talking up Gabe or whoever was shooting the handheld, rolling around setting up RVD's stunts, et. Just fucking terrible, totally distracting and annoying. I suppose the whole point was to be annoying when he was a heel, but as a face? Even still it wasn't annoying like "man I want to kick this guys ass" but rather annoying as in "man I wish this guy would fall off a cliff and never come back."

I wouldn't vote for Dreamer, but I can see why some people might want him on the ballot. If you loved the overbaked ECW style of brawling (and many still do), he was certainly one of the top guys in that niche. For being a mediocre talker and a one-dimensional wrestler without anything even resembling a gimmick (besides "local whipping boy"), he never had any problem connecting with the fans. He generally stayed over wherever he went, and was managing to have surprisingly watchable matches in WWECW when his fragile body was long past its prime. Plus he's done plenty of backstage work in every company that ever employed him, booking and writing and training and merchandise and various other stuff. Admittedly he wasn't a good booker from most reports, but just wearing all those extra hats does strengthen his case a little bit. But the simple lack of ever drawing any crowd bigger than a couple thousand people is probably enough to dismiss him. I suppose if you are a total ECW fanboy Dreamer is a guy you might want on the ballot, but even within ECW he's not one of the five most important guys in the companies history. He also struggled to get over there for the first year or so. I'll grant that Dreamer is a rare case of a guy who always seems to try really hard, but he was never better than average in the ring. He's a substantially worse candidate than say William Regal by just about every metric and I can't imagine people advocating hard for Regal on the ballot.

Actually I did like Sunny a good bit as a manager in SMW and at times in the WWF

Everything is about him and getting the heat placed on himself. There are times when he says funny shit but that is a low standard

Jim Mitchell is awful

I've not seen enough but Richard Lee might be worth discussing

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Tommy Rich as "The Big Don" with the FBI. He would absolutely make my top ten as he added to ever match he was in and actual got real heel heat in an ECW setting where that wasn't always easy.