Dylan Waco

Bryan will get in this year, or next at absolute worst. I won't vote for him, but I have no problem with his inclusion. Nakamura is emerging as an interesting candidate just now - no way he should go in at this point, and it's possible he will never be deserving. CIMA is someone I am happy to see on the ballot, but there is no way he should be in if Hamada isn't. Styles coming back on so early after being rejected is ridiculous. Orton is probably the most interesting one of all of those names, because your position on him is likely a good indicator of how you view the HOF as a whole.

Nominated Ricky Banderas/El Mesias/Mil Muertes via Lucha Underground and LA Park match reviews.

I liked Lane v Takano

I had every intention of doing the reaction show last night, but we had people over at my parents, and I was tired so I had to bow out. As a whole I thought the show was very good, maybe even great, but not quite at the Show of the Year level. Having said that, for a first time effort in a big building, I don't think you can view the show as anything other than a great success for NXT. There was nothing on the show I thought was bad other than the HHH opening monologue which I found creepy and completely out of synch with how I view NXT. Beyond that the show either gave me what I expected, or over delivered, in every segment/match. I actually think the biggest success of Takeover was that it had a real variety show feel. We got a Liger greatest hits match, a solid tag match with a title switch and a great feel good moment (Blue Pants), a fun enough debut from a flashy guy, a clean Joe win in a hoss fight, and then the two big title matches to close the show. Balor v. Owens exceeded my expectations. Not a blowaway great match, but I feared it would be middling. There was no way they were going to follow the match that preceded it, but they still delivered. Balor still does little things that irk me, and I may never really buy Owens as a great worker, but the match felt like two guys who were in their element. On first and second watch Bayley v. Sasha is my match of the year. I just can't think of any match this year that better combined the macro and the micro, delivered on the big time spectacle and the nuance, and made the most on delivering on a big moment. I will be the first to grant that I may be missing something, but every other match I can think of has at least one moment that I thought was decidedly worse than anything in this (Ibushi's stupid ass pop up right before the finish v. Nakamura) or didn't quite deliver the ending that I wanted and/or thought fit the story (Reigns v. Lesnar leading to the Rollins cash-in, which I didn't hate but...). I really loved just about everything in the match from Sasha's heeling and mannerisms, to the build to the big spots, to the pacing, to the wild feel that a lot of the bigger spots had, to the arm work, and yes to the arm selling. I know some people thought Bayley's selling was poor and I think that's insane. I'm not going to sit here and say it was an all time great performance in that regard, but she wore the damage, she tried to change her attack at least in the initial, the Bank Statement counter failed in part because of her hand (or at least that's how I saw it), and I even read in a story that may not have been intended with Sasha losing in part because she didn't stay on the injured wing. I'm not saying it was the perfect match, but I thought it was an outstanding performance from Sasha who is no worse than top five in the world, and a fine effort from Bayley who I feel much more comfortable about in that top spot now than I did coming in.

Only WWF tag team from 86-91 in positive I would put above them is The Rockers

I like the Harts in many ways, and like Neidhart in particular more than most, but I just don't see it. I'd be curious to see what their biggest fans think puts them above teams like MNM or Londrick to take 2 examples of very good teams who aren't revered to the degree the Harts are.

Main thing that hurts this team is it's the 3rd best Spike team from ECW

I strongly suspect I'll be the high voter on Tracy Smothers. Not that I'll have him top ten, but he could conceivably be in my upper third, and I haven't completely dismissed the idea of him in the top quarter. It's also possible I could be the high voter on Fujinami, though I dont think it's a certainty.

It's gonna be really funny when I have Tracy Smothers in my top 25. Also Chad going all in on Tanahashi is tragic.

I am willing to give shootstyle Takada a second chance. May go on that binge this week in fact. NJPW is a lost cause with me - I thought he was boring as piss in New Japan, and I wasn't expecting that at all coming in to watching the footage.

Watched a bunch of 00's Akiyama recently and here is a statement that many will dismiss as insane - I think he's a perfectly reasonable top ten contender. He really was amazing in NOAH, and in any big match he was put in once he was a "guy." I don't care that he never reached his potential as a star, because as a performer I think he SMOKES Kobashi in the 00's, with both variety, nuance, and adaptability, and globally the only guys who can hang with them are Danielson and Mysterio who will be incredibly high on most lists.

On limb selling/psych, all styles have their quirks, and it's okay to acknowledge that, but not all styles are created equally. I will say more later, but for now, I'll just note that all of my opinions on New Japan are now scientifically tested fact, based on my victory in the VoicesOfWrestling.com G1 pick em.

Let me sort out the confusion. The promoter Scott Hensley wants to do a separate "event" on Black Friday. It will NOT be the SCI version 2.0. The second SCI will occur next year around this time I would assume. Scott has already been contacted by people who are interested in working that show, and though I haven't heard the names yet, I would expect there will be a great field next year (as there was this year). The Black Friday show is still up in the air. That would be a single night show (the SCI will almost assuredly not be changed to single night next year), a special event in it's own right, that would be a different sort of tourney. My preference would be a trios tourney, but a tag tourney would almost certainly be really good too. I think they could get some awesome tag teams to work the event (Day/Hollis, Washington Bullets, Double Dragons (The Hamill's), Team IOU, are all teams I could see working the tourney just among locals/semi-regulars in the area), and would not be surprised to see a big surprise or two if things shaped up right. I will try my best to make whatever show goes on Black Friday, because the SCI was outstanding and the same people would be running it. But they will be completely distinct events. To answer NotJayTabb, last I talked to the people at Whoo!, it was planned to be available via DVD and VOD, so if VOD is the better option for shipping reasons I think you will be good to go.

I am way behind on posting my thoughts on the Scenic City Invitational here because of travel and other craziness, but let me just say both shows were brilliant. If you are looking for a card full of "this is awesome!," MOTYCs, neither show will give you that, but that's not really my preference especially in a tournament format. Instead what the promoters and booker managed to do was put together a great couple of shows where the local talent was put over strong, build to big spots and moments occurred from one match to the next, surprise finishes (both in terms of execution and winner and losers) got over huge and had meaning, and absolutely nothing on either show was less than entertaining. There is no question the live perspective and hot crowd may have helped, but I honestly enjoyed every match, perhaps in part because they were all worked differently. I thought the booking of Jimmy Rave throughout the tournament was genius (I also thought the booking of Kongo Kong was excellent, and I hope Empire considers bringing him back in), and made more so by the way reality, rumor and work sort of blended together. That is almost NEVER done right in wrestling, but it was done perfectly here. I even ended up thinking the decision to do a four way elimination final was the right move, after being lukewarm on the idea at first, because it was also booked brilliantly. To me Rave was the standout performer, and his match with Anthony Henry was a MOTYC (this seemed to be a quick consensus opinion of virtually everyone who was there, and the match got a post-bout standing ovation which almost never happens on Southern indie shows), but so many guys really brought their A game. I was talking about it briefly with my buddy Ben who attended the shows with me, and we were both really impressed with both the local star Gunner Miller, and Gunner from TNA (who you could argue was the second best guy in the entire tournament). The responses to Kongo Kong were interesting as he seemed to have gotten over huge by the end of the main event, and the fans were buzzing about him after the shows (he's practically all my dad and uncle could talk about), but Larry Goodman of Georgia Wrestling History, and a couple of other people who will remain nameless felt he was a little incomplete. I don't want to dwell on that point but it was interesting to see how strong the difference of opinion seemed to be with him. I would strongly recommend people buy these shows via Whoo! Wrestling when they become available. If you like diverse wrestling cards, where things build to a payoff both within matches, and from match to match, the SCI was excellent. There were several matches I absolutely loved (Henry v. Rave, Rockwell v. Gunner, the four-way main event, Chip Day v. Gunner Miller, Gunner Miller v. Jimmy Rave which had an awesome angle at the finish, Jason Collins v. Caprice Coleman, et), but as top-to-bottom enterprises they are definitely the best indie shows I've ever been to, and very probably the best wrestling shows I've ever been to. If you can make the trip next year do not miss it. Here is the article I wrote on the event for VoicesOfWrestling.com. Results are included at the bottom, as well as a link to Larry Goodman's reviews of the shows. http://www.voicesofwrestling.com/2015/08/10/the-scenic-city-invitational-an-appreciation/

I think that's the crux of the argument. Meiko wrestles a style you like, but that doesn't necessarily mean she's the best at working Joshi puroresu the way it's traditionally been worked. This is not a troll, but I'm curious as to why you think this matters (i.e. traditional over non-traditional) and in what ways is Satomura a non-traditional performer?

I think the problem with Tiger Mask, is that his best remembered matches just aren't that good. I actually think he suffers because of the hype surrounding the DK series. I remember at the time of the New Japan project, TM was a guy who consistently frustrated me, but he was also in a lot of matches that I really liked. Yeah I am not sure I can think of a single instance where I thought he was the best guy in the match, but when I compare him to some of the other guys who rubbed me wrong at times during that process (Takada, Koshinaka, Inoki) I'd take him over all of them relatively easily. I still think a guy like Hamada was doing stuff that was just as athletically impressive as well or better, and I can't see him in a top 100, but I'm actually not reflexively opposed to the notion of his inclusion either.

I'm not saying he'd be my number one, but if you are picking Onita you have to at least think about Carlos Colon. I've said this before, but I find it completely impossible to believe that Onita didn't develop a lot of his big spectacle, death match style, based off the Colon template - the similarities are just too obvious. The Hansen feud is a great feud of course, but I think that big "ball park" death match spectacle that Onita mastered, was something Colon had mastered years before working guys like Abby, Jos Leduc, Hercules Ayala, Steve Strong, and others.

Rey is my pick, and I don't think it's close. He was a guy you could plug in against almost anyone, on any level show (A show, B show, syndicated t.v., WWE C-shows, et.) and you would get something fun 99% of the time. It didn't matter if he was working a hoss, a mid-card technician, a main eventer, a tag worker, a luchador, et. and it didn't matter how much time you gave him - he was going to work hard and give you something entertaining at minimum. I doubt very seriously that there is any wrestler in history who has more good t.v. matches than Rey as his run of greatness in this regard started with the Monday Night Wars and went straight into the (continuing) over saturation years with the WWE. It would probably be feasible for me to come up with 100 guys Rey has had t.v. matches with that I thought were good which is pretty astounding.

They sped up their movements and pace during that sequence dramatically, literally sprinting full speed with no indication at all that they had just taken a shred of damage. That's not my interpertation - that is a literal description of what occurs. If you like the spot because you found it exciting fine, but don't tell me that sequence was an expression of selling in the traditional sense. Maybe it was some of that "next level" selling Meltzer saw in Makabe, maybe your definition of selling is radically different than mine, but claiming that sequence was an example of moves having great meaning expressed through consistent selling smacks of "I like these guys and the sequence excited me, let me find a straw to grasp to on the selling front because I don't want to have to consider any criticism."

Sorry shoe, gotta do it, but I find this rating to be horse shit and Will should bury you more for this than Young Bucks love. I have liked both guys this year, and the bulk of this match was very good if not great. But that no sell fest sequence was absolutely terrible. I've become accustomed to, and semi-tolerable of, singular instances of that sort of thing in a match even if I find it absurd in principle. That said this was possibly the worst sequence I've ever seen in a match, because it killed the entire feel of the match for me. It's one think for Sekimoto to no sell massive head trauma at the hands of Ishikawa - that was stupid and the match sucked, but they started from that point so I can except it as just a dumbass match from beginning to end. This on the other hand was the equivalent of two guys standing up in mid-match, looking at the camera and screaming "WRESTLING IS FAKE, NOTHING MATTERS!" For a sequence like that to occur with guys taking big time shots and head bumps and not only not selling but actually INCREASING the pacing during that point in the match is just awful. Why sell anything at that point? When do we know if a move has any impact or causes damage? Why sell big spots sometimes and not others? It's just nonsense, lazy as fuck, dogshit air dropped into a match that didn't need it. The story was already there, both guys were looking tough without that bullshit, and after that I just threw up my hands and said "fuck this bring back Tenzan and Makabe." They did some fun/violent looking stuff after, but who cares? They already established nothing matters, so why should I? That sequence was every bit as bad as the famed Edwards/Richards suplex, actually worse because it was in an otherwise strong match. Despite hating that sequence that much I STILL might have been all in on this match if they had closed it with some near falls of note. The match REALLY needed those after that sequence. Instead we didn't get those and the match ended after a weak looking Shibata sleeper into his PK. I have no problem accepting the idea that NJPW hardcores, people who don't care about selling and/or define it in a way that has no relationship to my definition, or people who solely care about "excitement" in their wrestling and value nothing else, would view this as a nearly perfect MOTY. But YOU having that high an opinion on this is utterly puzzling to me. From what I thought I knew of your tastes you would basically have to have thought EVERY OTHER aspect of the match was flawless, and transcendently great. I just don't see it at all. Now that that rant is over I actually really loved Tanahashi's perfomance v. Fale and thought they had a very good match, Styles v. Naito was rock solid for the style they were working, and I kind of loved Yano v. Gallows as your weirdly booked face John Tatum-clone v. heel Scott Putski-clone match.

I think Kawada was better in the 80s, but I wasn't blown away by him. I don't even think he was the best guy on his team in the 80s

I thought Nagata v. Nakamura was fine, but nothing special. I've felt that way about a lot of the matches. Through four nights I think the best matches have been Shibata v. Naito, Styles v. Yano, Styles v. Shibata and Ishii v. Kojima. There is other stuff I've liked to one degree or another, but those are the only four matches I would tell people to go out of their way to see and the fourth of those is pretty borderline in that regard. Styles individual performance v. Yano is the best performance I've seen out of anyone in the tournament by a WIDE margin. Night 3 is the only one of the four shows I would even consider good. Other things to note is that I enjoy Naito's new ridiculous character, and I sort of shrug my way through Honma matches at this point because I know he has no chance so the "hot" stretch runs just feel like shit they do because it's expected.

I really couldn't survive a 60 minute Lethal match. I didn't think I could either. But there I was in real time, totally buying in thanks to Roddy

I only saw the main event live and I loved it flaws and all. I do not care for Lethal as a worker at all, but if you are going to try and establish a new heel ace, and put Roddy over huge still, this was the way to do it. There were a lot of things about the match that fell flat, but Roddy Strong managing to keep me interested in a 60 minute draw (which I figured was going to be the result about 35 minutes in) with Jay Lethal in 2015 is a Herculean feet. He's officially vaulted over AJ into my number one slot for workers in 2015.

Watched the Jumbo matches because I said they would, but my god was it tedious. I just cannot get into the idea of watching that guy for that long. I enjoyed the first match, and thought the roles were clearly defined, with falls that built well from one to the other. Robinson almost comes across as surviving due to the young kids mistake and singular reliance on a bulldog which I liked. I thought it was a real good match, with all the quality staples of Robinson (fun escapes, cool leverage/struggle spots, those awesome escalating bumps), and sense of controlled chaos that is hard to hit on effectively. Definitely a mach I'd recommend to others. The second match never grabbed me. I realize they were carrying over some of the stuff from the first match and working stuff off of it, but it almost felt like it was stuff they felt obligated to go to, rather than some grand psychological plan. I HATED big chunks of the Jumbo in control stuff early. Just meandering stuff at times where I guess it was supposed to have a king of the mountain feel, but instead it made everything seem awkward. I liked the matwork in theory, but it paled in comparison to a lot of the grappling I've watched this week so it didn't stand out as much as it probably should have. In no way would I argue that it was bad despite the shit finish, but I can't imagine watching it again.