Dylan Waco

A couple of comparisons that I think will be interesting for people to consider once the AWA, ECW, Portland and SMW Sets drop (I know this could be a while of course), but are worth discussing now: Rick Martel or Curt Hennig? Mikey Whipwreck or Spike Dudley? Tracy Smothers or Chris Candido/Little Guido or Chris Candido? Sabu or Abdullah The Butcher? (probably seems like a weird comp, but I'll explain later) Nick Bockwinkel or Buddy Rose? Tajiri or 2 Cold Scorpio? Some others that may be worth talking about based on recent sets that have dropped or at the very least sets that have dropped sense this thread was shelved: Ricky Fuyuki or Hoshino? Michael Hayes or Kerry Von Erich? Masa Saito or Yoshiaki Yatsu? Tatsumi Fujinami or Jumbo Tsuruta? And a few more based on things I have watched or things that have happened in the wrestling World over the last two years: Dick Togo or Great Sasuke? Ron Garvin or Greg Valentine? Christian or CM Punk?

Psicosis v. Rey is a brilliant match and aside from the obvious lack of a compelling storyline interest is every bit as good as Rey v. Eddy from HH 97.

All of the Funk squashes from 89 are great for one reason or another by the Cougar Jay squash is insane. Jay appears to be totally untrained and takes those two bumps on the floor face first and full impact like he was tope'ing air. The Hall and Eddy squashes are well know, but the Ricky Santana one is also really great and worth looking out for.

Was talking about this the other night, and at this point I would have to go with Rey. His 09 and 2010 runs were too fucking good. Versatility helps Eddy but when Rey has twice as many great years that has to matter for something.

I'm not even sure Luger ever really "sucked" in the way we usually use that term. He was definitely boring and lame as fuck during his WWF run but do I think he was awful? Going from memory no. I actually liked him for big chunks of 96, 97 and even 99 though admittedly none of that work is blowaway great or even close. Trying to think of what he was doing in 98. Anyway I would say there is enough from 88-92 that is clearly strong to put him above HHH by a very comfortable margin.

This isn't surprising. Sarge is in the argument for best bumpers of all time. Yeah but he was 43 at the time. As for Warrior, I think he was EXCELLENT at following direction. When he had someone good laying out his matches, his matches are good. It's pretty much that simple. You got as much out of him as you put in. Sarge was still taking big bumps as recently as this decade.

This isn't surprising. Sarge is in the argument for best bumpers of all time.

Unless there is a BatBat guy who had a really great year, Tajiri was the best guy in the World in 99 for my money and yes I'm counting the AJPW guys. Guido might even be my number two.

I could drag and dump a lot of ECW thoughts I guess, but I think Will might have most of that covered. I will say if you guys can find the Fabs v. Dundee/Lawler match on disc that is available on youtube you really should include it. Great match with a nice role reversal and a cool atmosphere with Lawler trolling fans into getting thrown out.

I was actually pretty blown away by this when I saw it on Will's Funk set. I watched that set from beginning to end, and this was one of only two matches I watched two times during that stretch

Totally true. Really SMW to me will always boil down to five acts - The RnR's, Smothers, DWB, Corny and Bob Armstrong. Once all of those elements were in play it became a consistently good promotion. Prior to that it was more hit or miss.

Totally disagree on Orndorff. I'm not a huge fan of the guy over all, but I thought he was very good in early SMW. In fact I thought over all he was the best guy in the company during the early going.

The whole Pillman v. Windham feud is extremely good and very underrated. Good tv matches and segments including a great one with Pillman diving onto Barry as he cuts a cocky post-victory promo and the taped fist match payoff match that was actually borderline excellent given the time they had to work with. Pillman really was a great face and Windham was Windham so none of this is surprising, though it is rarely talked up

Hansen was never in any U.S. territory long enough to make a huge stand. Right now he has 8 nominated AWA matches which considering the length of his tenure with the company is actually quite good. Looking at what is out there I would imagine everyone of those matches would make the set in some capacity or another. I'd say a couple of them are top ten contenders. I could see Bock v. Hansen from Wrestlerock doing really well also. Hansen is one of my favorites of all time. It's strange to compare him to the guy, but I always saw him as Rey Misterio type in the sense that he has a distinct character and style that he is so great at that you don't want to see him do anything else though when he does deviate he hardly looks out of place (for example Hansen was a pretty fun chain wrestler when he wanted to be). Even with all of the new footage and wrestlers I've seen over the last few years, Hansen is someone who I literally can not fathom being worse than top twenty all time. Realistically I would probably have him in the 10-15 range and he would rate ahead of at least some of the "usual suspects" candidates (for example I would rate him above Kobashi, Vader, Steamboat, Windham, et). Hansen v. Inoki series hasn't been mentioned yet. I did not think this was an off the charts series, but I thought it was a very fucking good one and I think it says something about Hansen that he was arguably the best gajin opponent of both Inoki and Baba. The build and psych in the Inoki matches are really good and their is a narrative to the series as a whole that I liked a lot. Finally getting around to answering Naylor outright. My favorite Hansen matches at the moment (and I still have A LOT of the AJPW Set to watch) would be: 1) Hansen v. Funk 4-14-83 Possibly my favorite match of all time actually. Violent brawl, with Terry selling his ass off, and the stuff with Hansen and the rope being some of the craziest images ever in wrestling. Great match. 2) Hansen v. Andre 9/23/81 Fucking great clash of the titans match with cool psych and build to the lariat, Andre bumping like a champ, et. Probably a top ten "epic feel" match with Hansen's lariat v. Andre's size being a great dynamic. 3) Hansen v. Kobashi 7/29/93 Probably my favorite AJPW singles match of the 90's. Definitely my favorite finish of the 90's, made even better if you have seen the post-match images of Kobashi. Awesome match. 4) Hansen v. Hennig Not sure of the date on this as they had two tv matches. One of them was great. The match I'm talking about goes to a draw and follows an angle with Jerry Blackwell's ankle being destroyed and is a tremendous, balls to the fucking wall, fight. Also doubles as the match where Hennig really "arrived" as a contender in the AWA. 5) Hansen v. Funk (1990) Nowhere near a top Hansen match or Funk match for that matter, but I love the outdoor setting, the fight in the lake and the post-match chaos so much. Probably my favorite example of how wild and crazy the U.S. indies were in the post-territory-pre-ECW/SMW period. Really I could have included any Funk v. Hansen match or a match that includes those two on opposite teams. It's also worth noting that the top three here would probably be in my top fifteen, if not top ten all time favorite matches period.

To be clear there is floor brawling in those matches, just not crowd brawling. Of course there is plenty of floor brawling from Hansen in Japan as well. And in Japan he made his entrance swinging a cowbell at fans half the time. If you watch the Hansen v. Hennig draw it is different than Hansen v. Kobashi but not so much because of any brawling that does or doesn't happen on the floor and more because of what the opponents bring, the differing styles of the promotion and the amount of time allotted.

There is no crowd brawling in any of the matches I mentioned, nor is there any in the Leon White match that I can recall. There is a lot of stuff "in the ring" in all four matches.

No way it doesn't make the set. And yes Hansen worked much the same in the AWA.

I agree with everything that has already been mentioned, but want to note that there are two Hennig v. Hansen matches from the AWA that are fucking awesome, plus a Hansen v. Sarge handheld that is blowaway great as well.

Some indy needs to book Finlay v. Chavo ASAP

In hindsight Chavo had a remarkable run

I'm Straight Edge and I think all drugs should be totally legal.