Dylan Waco

Meltzer has been down on the intergender aspects of LU and to some degree the business model itself (though there I think he's more realistic than negative). He also is oddly critical of the "all big moves!" style their at times which doesn't really bother me except for the fact that he seems far less critical of it in places like Dragon Gate. That said he has been very high on many of the matches and shows produced by the promotion. As a whole I would say he is more positive on LU than negative.

To be clear my position isn't so much that he took nights off, but rather that he doesn't have the rich body of second and third tier level work you ideally want out of an all time great performer. Again I may in fact be wrong there and would be happy to concede that I am. I just need to watch the footage.

I have a soft spot for Sarge and I am more than willing to reconsider that position. I'll see what I can find from him from 81.

I like Dave, but once he has a narrative in his head that is what he is going to stick with facts be damned.

Wanted to note that I totally agree with Naylor on Red. He was ALWAYS one of my favorites from the early days, if not my sentimental favorite. I think part of this may have been that my brothers had seen him via the TNA weekly tv stuff, so I gave them my copy of the Ki v. Red match on VHS and it was one of the first times I remember them calling up and marking the fuck out. And they were still just kids. In any case I always thought Red was really underrated both as an influential figure during that early wave of indie wrestling, as a dynamic spot worker, as a guy who could sell his ass off AND as a worker now. He has popped up in the last several years having really good matches for HOG but I'm one of the few people who watches random shit on YouTube. I also loved the Wildside talk, in part because so many of those guys were guys I saw live a few times, and Devon (Exposer) saw once a week or more during the same time period at North Georgia/East TN shows. Guys like Adam Jacobs, Slim J, Tank, Iceberg, Dan Wilson, et. were staples of that scene...hell they still are. The Dan Wilson stuff got me laughing given that he now does a Black Metal "Reverend Dan Wilson" gimmick.

This is one of the best shows I've ever heard. Great combination of analysis, laughs, and just marking the fuck out. One thing you didn't talk about much was Michaels TWA which totally hooked me in. Believe it or not that was the first promotion I can remember where I purchased everything in its existence and worse the tapes out watching them. Devon you will love the show. They cover Wildside and several of your favorites get mentioned.

Been looking forward to this. The return of Wes!

That probably deserves its own topic to be honest, but while I don't think intergender wrestling will really harm the business, I also don't really like it.

Watched the latest Scorp match to show up from this year in AIW today and I thought it was a really great effort for a guy who is only nominally active. It's not a "must see" match necessarily, but it was probably the best match on the show, and I think it showcases what Scorp does well - lay out a match smartly and then build to the big moments/spots that you want to see out of a Scorp match. In an age where so many guys just do their shit to do their shit this really stands out even more. Scorp is a guy who probably has as many or more "holy shit!" spots than just about anyone that he could pull out, but he only pulls out a few in the match and they were all done at the perfect time. That's a staple of how he works which is why those spots stay "holy shit!" spots and not "oh whatever, another flip/spot off the ropes." Anyhow the bigger point here is that as I was watching this I got to thinking about Scorp as a candidate for this and I really feel like I could be the high voter on him. Part of that is because I saw all the ECW, so I saw him as a guy who never really phoned it in, and went out and had great matches against all sorts of guys even after he was allegedly past his prime. But what really hit me is that I need to watch the NOAH and maybe go back and watch some of the indie stuff, because if I'm looking strictly at the 90's I don't know that I think Eddie or Benoit were better than Scorpio. I realize that will sound insane to some people, but I really prefer Scorp in 96 to any individual year either of those guys had barring MAYBE Eddie in 97 and that had a lot to do with the progression of his character. Even saying that, I legitimately think Scorp was better from that 93-98 corridor when all three guys were featured to one degree or another regularly than Benoit or Eddie.

Just watched Fiera v. Casas and yep, that's it. Great, great match.

My quick response to this is Nishimura v Tajiri from 07, but I can't remember if I saw that before or after the idea was made public.

My dad marking out for Pez Whatley appearances when I was a kid. Hell my dad marking out in general, especially screaming "kick him in the balls!" at Cena when he thought Brock legit KO'ed him at Extreme Rules a few years back, and shouting "Run, Charles, Run!" waking up from a dead sleep when his favorite referee had to sprint down the aisle in the Taker/Edge main event at Mania 24.

Barring something strange I'll be starting a South Carolina research project soon and the aim is to go as far back as I can

He was also great in that six-man from ROH TV.

Rush is the best example.

CMLL has been shit virtually all year. I'm behind on it, but when I watch there is little that stands out or grabs me at all. Dragon Lee and Virus have been fun, but no one has a top five case.

Southern indies that upload their content to YouTube. Especially those that do it seemingly at random. Pablo Marquez bumping like a lunatic for everyone in ECW. Bobby Bass waving an American Flag in Sunny War Cloud's face as a troll on a Maritimes wrestling show in the early 80s. Random, under appreciated journeyman wrestlers like Ron Starr and Dave Sierra. 2001 WCW Every version of The FBI, but especially The Big Don Tommy Rich

I'd take Styles as the top in ring performer because he's a rare case of a modern performer who is traveling a lot of places, working a lot of different people, and has found a way to adapt himself to pretty much every situation he's in. What this means is that sometimes you get a great AJ performance, that maybe isn't quite a truly great match. For example I thought Styles v. ACH from the ROH PPV was just short of being a great match, but AJ worked the match in a hierarchical fashion which you rarely see out of the "this is awesome" indies. He hasn't had any match as good as Ibushi's best two or three matches, but I think his performances, the variation, and the depth of his work is more impressive than Ibushi's. That said, if you are a great match theorist Ibushi has had a hell of a year, especially if you are someone who is really high on the NJ Cup matches (I wasn't, but I know many were). Brock is a great performer and completely unique, but it feels weird to rate him first when he's had the same number of great matches and performances as Roman Reigns. Nakamura is probably the best wrestler in the world...when he wants to be. Which is two or three times a year.

Rufus R. Jones in Puerto Rico

Wrestling Ninja Turtles

Best argument I've seen yet for reopening the "Comments that don't warrant their own thread" thread.

Odd show for Americos to reemerge on. He had some good stuff in TCW a couple of years ago. Absolutely devastated that Will didn't get to see Cheeseburger live. Pumped to see that main event.

This came up on the latest Karl Stern audio over at the Observer site and he did a pretty poor job answering the question. So let's try it here. At what point were there the most territories in wrestling (including outlaws), and how many total operations are we talking about?

That was my Dave Musgrave tribute line.

Reigns selling, bumping, and stiffness were huge facets of that match. In no way was it a Brock carry job. On first watch I thought he contributed every bit as much to the match as Brock did.