Dylan Waco

Jessie v. Robbie E was legitimately good. I have always liked Robbie and feel he's been wasted in TNA like most people. Crowd heat for the match and the show so far has helped a lot. Still this one had an abrupt, lacking, finish.

Tigre Uno v. Manik v. DJ Z was the right kind of opener in the sense that it got over, was worked at a crazy pace, the guys hit their big spots well, and the pace was on point for a bout of this kind. Not a high level match, but very useful. I like all of these guys and was impressed by their effort.

Against my better judgment I am going to try and watch this show tonight. I doubt there will be a reaction show at PTBN because I doubt anyone else is this stupid/brave. But I will post comments here. Will anyone else be suffering with me?

You are absolutely right that it was Edwards. There was a terrible Strong v Lethal match I saw at one point years ago I believe on a TNA show which the Edwards/Lerhal match always reminded me of. As for the Danielson match I strongly disliked their hour long match from 06 the last time I watched it.

Arguably the best wrestler in the world right now, and he's done it by having good-to-great matches against a very diverse group of people (Nakamura, Tanahashi, Galloway, Thatcher, Sabre Jr., Patron, et). I also liked his team with Aries a fair amount at the time. Beyond that he had years of being one of the most bland and stale guys on the indie landscape, had one of my least favorite Danielson ROH matches ever, and had the worst match I've ever seen on a PWG show v. Jay Lethal. He'd need about two more years at the level he's been at this year for me to even consider him at this point.

House of Hardcore can be really hit or miss. I think it was there first show that I thought was absolutely awesome, and I think they had one other that I really liked, but they have had some complete shit shows too. The Bucks v. 3D match from 2CW last year was a fun little match, but if the HOH match is anything like it it wouldn't be enough to get me into the building on it's own.

I finally watched this last night and well...I don't think it was even close to a MOTY and I am probably one of the bigger fans of focused limbwork you will find on this board. Don't get me wrong. It was a fine match all things considered. The guys had to deal with a ring busting early and I thought they did an admirable job saving a match that by all rights should have run off of the rails. That said I think saying the execution of this was on point is a bit much. There were several times during this where things didn't seem to come off right and/or both guys appeared to be standing around almost lost about what to do. I honestly didn't fault them much for this given the condition of the ring, as at least a few times I suspect that was the reason for hesitation, but it was still really obvious. The story of Akito going after the body part of the bigger, tougher guy did work, and was an effective way to build the match, but I wanted more drama surrounding the bum wheel then I got. I did like the falls themselves, and the stretch was well built to and largely delivered. That said I left the match fairly amazed that people were rating it so highly. I would recommend people watch it, as it was a smart match, and a match where two guys who I am sort of iffy on showed that they could adapt well to a less than ideal environment, but three have been a lot of DDT matches alone this year that I thought were clearly better.

One of the most fascinating guys to think about for something like this because on the surface he seems like an almost silly candidate, but when I really break it down - especially because I'm one of the few guys who closely follows Southern indies - he actually has a good case for inclusion. While his early Wildside run wasn't other worldly, he was very good, very young, and added a lot both to the early days of the promotion, and the later period when he was around. His matches their weren't always good, but they were almost always entertaining, and never bad. I have not watched any of the CZW matches in years, but remember thinking Rave was really good there, to the point where I was cheering for him to become a breakout star. ROH Rave I always liked as an almost trollish character, who nearly always overachieved, had great matches with a bunch of different people, and delivered in feuds more often than not in a promotion where not all of the feuds worked. But what puts him over the top to me is his Southern indie run where he has been great as a face and a heel for years now. He's one of these guys you can put on a card v. anyone and he will have a good match 90 percent of the time, and a great match more often than you think. He also can carry feuds on these shows which even a lot of the better Southern indie guys aren't particularly good at. The Jimmy Rave Approved act helped get a lot of young guys (Hollis, Posey, Day) get exposure, and led to lots of good matches. His rivalry with Kyle Matthews has produced a bunch of good matches over the span of several years. He was absolutely awesome in Rampage when that promotion was open and doing weekly t.v. This year he is hovering around top ten status in the World for me and has several more big time opportunities on the horizon. I don't really know that I could see someone including him without the Southern indie stuff, but if you've followed him on that scene he is a very viable contender. I'd take him over a bunch of indie darlings, including ones who I really like and have had individual years that may have been better than the best Rave year.

Portland would like to note that it is working on a strict trade deadline. While talent trading and special dates can be negotiated at any point any true roster trades will be considered up until 12AM EST on 6/29 and only up until that point.

This week is going to be my LU catch up week as I am way behind. Expect lots of annoying comments on this thread

Goc covered it, but Burrheads association with Rufus made him a star even as a jobber, outlaw and "legend" on indie shows down here before he moved back to New York. Some of the craziest reactions I've ever seen live were for teased and/or limited Burrhead physical interactions. He was working Carolina outlaws in 83, he's an awesome guy, and I think he's a steal for my last pick.

Swede was actually the last name on my list that went. I would have drafted him if you didn't

With it's last pick Portland selects Burrhead Jones.

I can only speak from my experience at the time. I didn't like it, but the other people I was around absolutely hated it. A few weeks into Credible's run as champ my entire group of ECW friends that I had watched ECW with for years at that point vanished completely. This is not an exaggeration. They were all gone, and all cited Credible's title run as the reason.

To me the answer to this is Justin Credible. The guy was not a bad worker at all. In fact he tried really hard in ECW, almost never half assed it, and had good matches. But he never had great matches, and his whole push came across as a desperate attempt by Paul Heyman to prove that he could get any big league castoff over if he got behind him. While ECW houses were still strong with Credible on top, I don't think the promotion ever recovered the mystique it had before his push as champ. The way the title win was done was especially bad, as it came across as a big "fuck you" to the most loyal fans who had years invested in the product up to that point. In my own personal circle of friends there were a half dozen or so people who completely gave up on ECW because of Credible's run as champ, and they were huge ECW fans at that point. I feel bad because Credible was not a bad performer, but he was horribly miscast and overpushed by Heyman.

Portland selects Bruiser Costa

Portland selects Don Kent

We will see if I can make it another round. It really depends on who goes before my next pick

After careful consideration, Portland selects Moondog Moretti

Well, one more pick should get you to twenty (save pick + 19 rounds). I could swear I only counted 18 names under my current roster in the goc thread

I will be in the air most of the day tomorrow. I'll give a list to someone early tomorrow morning if my pick hasn't come around.

Ideally I want to get to 20, but this definitely could be it for me. The field is really thin

They kind of do, but more the John Cena beats Heath Slater way, then the Ric Flair beats Bob Cook way.

I am actually down to 8 names on my list and one of them is injured. My next pick might be my last one.

Couldn't pass on Goldie. My goal all along was for him to be one of my undercard guys, glad I got him. Negro feels like a steal this late in the draft, but I think he was basically done.