Stuttsy

I'll co-sign Liger and add Tajiri, for many of the same reasons.

Probably too clever, but definite potential in that scenario. Seriously, the ROHbots are goddamn stupid anyway, who cares what they chant?

Terry Funk. The punch drunk sell, swinging at anything that moves. The way he slowly walks to the ring, as if taking it all in. The man has mystique about him and his body language matches it accordingly, whether his role is the veteran underdog, tough old bastard or general maniac, he knows how to be all that and more.

I whole heartedly agree with and support the following: Wrestle War 1992: Seriously great War Games match that brings the whole Dangerous Alliance angle to a brutal, beautiful end. Plus the Steiners arbitrarily roughing up the Japanese, a good Brian Pillman vs. Z-Man match and a Freebirds vs. Terry Taylor & Greg Valentine match I always liked for no particular reason. Beach Blast 1992: One of the best cards ever as Rick Rude vs. Rick Steamboat do the best 30:00 iron man match ever (and for me personally, the best match ever in the genre), Sting vs. Cactus Jack do a really good brawl around ringside, Doc & Gordy vs. the Steiners for another 30:00, Scotty Flamingo vs. Brian Pillman and one more great Dangerous Alliance tag match for old time's sake. SuperBrawl III: Generally speaking I advocate tracking down the trimmed two hour Turner Home Entertainment versions but SB III is a rare example of the PPV version having a lot of great stuff that hit the editing room floor on video. Rock n Roll Express vs. Heavenly Bodies; Paul Orndorff vs. Cactus Jack; Chris Benoit vs. Too Cold Scorpio; Sting vs. Vader are all good-to-great, plus Barry Windham finally winning the World Title and an early Brian Pillman/Steve Austin tag match. Spring Stampede 1994: Vader vs. Bossman; Flair vs. Steamboat; Sting vs. Rude; Cactus Jack & Maxx Payne vs. the Nasty Boys street fight. Seriously, who could ask for anything more. Great something-for-everyone card that actually has several things for most people. Great American Bash 1996: Steven Regal vs. Sting; Mysterio debuts vs. Malenko; Chris Benoit vs. Kevin Sullivan in a match that set the stage for really an entire genre of sports entertainment hardcore matches make this an easy thumbs up show. Some of the undercard isn't exactly great matches, but it's a thoroughly entertaining top to bottom card. I don't know how far back you consider to be "WCW" but the 2-hour version of Capital Combat '90 is pretty bitchin also with a good Rock n Roll Express vs. Freebirds match, an awesome Midnight Express vs. Pillman & Z-Man match, a good Doom vs. Steiners match and a really good Flair vs. Luger cage match before the foolishness. On the T.H.E. version, the Robocop stuff is downplayed and it comes off as a really good show.

Agreed 100% Personally, I thought the Embassy tag match from the next night was much better.

I want The Revolution versus the Briscoes like yesterday. Versus Aries & Strong could be great too. Seriously, Doug Basham should by all right take over the world via the indys now. He's got everything to be a huge star. I hope Gabe picks him up and goes the Brent Albright route.

I love love love that match. Actually, Kid (fresh off a heel turn from the Monday before the PPV) replaced Pierre. Prichard was advertised as part of the team from the beginning. Same thing happened to me during WrestleMania 8, the feed cleared up right at Flair's post-match insane rambling promo. Every now and then, you could luck out with that. WOW. I never even thought about that, but you're exactly right. The Vipers should've been renamed Substance Abuse.

Oooh, great call. I definitely agree with that one.

I could not agree more. ECW I usually watch was its happening and by 10:45, when the intros are happening for the main event and I know that everything we've seen is all we're going to see, I find something else to watch usually. Part of the intrigue about ECW for me is not knowing 100% what to expect. I like looking forward to the possibility of another cool Thorn/Ariel promo or a random Shannon Moore cameo or whatever. Or Monty Brown's debut. You never really know who is going to get sent there so you never knew who might show up. But by the time the main event is being intro'd, you know there's nothing more to see here. It was like that for me with Big Show and it's like that with Lashley.

Inspired by a thread over at DVD-VR where the question was asked why you love Smackdown. Simply put, who are your current favorites and why? For me, personally: Smackdown: William Regal & Dave Taylor are definitely my favorite act on the show right now. I love when WWE presents someone as a wrestler, as if to say "this guy is a REAL wrestler, unlike what we normally do" and they are the perfect twosome to be a no-nonsense rough tag-team. Long time love for Matt Hardy, Finlay and Benoit too, though Benoit vs. Chavo has been a really boring feud for me because I'm not down with the whole Vickie Guerrero deal. Kendrick & London and Gregory Helms have been my other favorites for the last several months, I've been really into both long title reigns and think they've done a fantastic job carrying the belts and actually giving the aura or being genuine champions. Raw: Jeff Hardy has been great since his return and the recent reunion of Haas & Benjamin gives me hope that they might be my favorites on the show again soon. I'm also a really big mark for Trevor Murdoch's whole shtick and Umaga/Estrada. Umaga squashing John McChesney was one of the most memorable matches I saw on WWE TV all last year. But the one who absolutely has my attention every time they are on the screen? Maria. She just has presence, that can't be taught or learned. I've known people who were casual (at best) fans that mentioned her to me because they were flipping through the channels, landed on her doing an interview and stopped. The eyes, the face, she comes off as cute and sexy and sweet all together and she's pretty much perfect at her ditzy shtick, though that has been toned down lately. The trial of Eric Bischoff skit was a shining example of how awesome she can be. ECW: Similar to Maria, Shelly Martinez as Ariel commands attention. Her and Kevin Thorne are probably my favorite act on the show doing the vampire gimmick. Shelly is perfect as the creepy sex vixen, the facials, the fangs, the huge tits, whole package is very cool. Thorn's facials, mannerisms and presence are right on. He comes off very calculating, cold and methodical, with an understated viciousness. Without swinging chairs at people, he comes off like someone who could do some damage. They're perfect in their role. I always watch CM Punk's matches too and am mostly enjoying his stuff but I do agree with some of his critics that he does come off sort of mechanical sometimes. The last several weeks I've been really digging Elijah Burke's shtick too. I was a big mark for him in OVW but never saw him work heel and have been really liking his promos and overall shtick since his ECW debut. ROH: Delirious. Everything about his shtick just comes off as funny, fresh and entertaining. At first I basically dismissed him as another Willow the Whisp indy type but the whole Deliriese language and his mannerisms totally set him apart. The promo he cut after getting his hand sliced open by Bryan Danielson is another thing that really sticks out as a highlight of 2006 for me. He was barely speaking in words but it was so hugely effective and well done. I am a huge mark for his stuff. I've also really liked Emo Jimmy Jacobs and the whole Jimmy loves Lacey story arc. He's really fantastic in the role and while I initially didn't like the involvement of Colt Cabana in the story, seeing it actually unfold on the DVD's kinda won me over and I enjoyed most of it. TNA: Tough pick these days as you've got the stars like Joe and Daniels who have done their best career defining work elsewhere and really there hasn't been anyone sticking out since Russo got there and brought his whole fucked up TV format to the show. So Cal Val honestly has more presence than anyone on the roster except for maybe Joe and in my opinion has the most potential to be a huge star, and they just have her as the ring girl. If TNA ever truly takes off and then inevitably crashes, I can totally see her being to TNA as Torrie Wilson was to WCW, the one who WWE picked up and then turned into a huge star. Val has so much presence, she just walks by and you notice her. Plus she's good on the mic and actually gets the business, I could totally see her as a Sunny type who stands out amongst all the other female talent. Besides her, there really isn't that much going on these days. LAX were unquestionably the best act in the company, but even that stuff has been really watered down and Russoized in the last several months. I am a big mark for Abyss and think he works the gimmick perfectly but in some instances I almost feel like his presence and timing are wasted on what so many people see as a one-dimensional knock off gimmick. Lately the only things really worth checking out have been the Paparazzi segments, which I think Shelley, Starr, Nash, Sonjay have shined in. Feel free to add your own promotions as well.

The acquisition of Kurt Angle really isn't *that* significant. The people who were already watching are excited by it, but it isn't really bringing in new viewers. Meltzer had a blurb about a journalist who spend a day with Angle on a press junket and commented how EVERYONE was coming up to Kurt and knew who he was and was asking why he hadn't been on WWE lately. TNA has virtually zero mainstream presence, whereas when most people think of pro wrestling in the United States, they think of WWE. What was it Lance Storm said, like Band-Aid or Jello, WWE has built up a brand name that most people consider basically a definition of the product.

Both please. PM'd you. -- Loss, 01/17

God, there's just SO much. Personally, I think a strictly NWA compilation would be amazing, but I expect that all the Horsemen line-up changes will be covered. With that in mind, here's the stuff that really comes to mind: Flair & Andersons attacking Dusty in the cage is a must of course. I actually don't think the Nikita MATCH is necessary, but, I dunno..something more than the exact segment from the Flair DVD would be nice. Maybe something with a couple more promos to put the whole thing in context more? There's an awesome segment from May 1986 where Flair and Dusty do a brief TV match on Worldwide that is the back drop for Ole Anderson making his return and an awesome post-match promo with all the Horsemen together. As many random Worldwide/Pro/6:05 tag matches as possible. Everyone has seen Andersons/RnRX from Starrcade by now, it really doesn't warrant inclusion. I could do without any Tully/Dusty singles matches too, actually. Definitely agree that the Ole/Luger angles need to be included. Anderson & Blanchard vs. Luger & Windham from Clash 1 (or the rematch featuring the windham turn) would be super. Wargames '87...eh, sure. Hugely significant but I can't imagine *that* many people who'd be seeing it for the first time...but I could be wrong. I really for something from the Horsemen/Midnight Express feud but I don't expect it. Arn Anderson vs. Barry Windham, Slamboree 1993. Anderson & Flair vs. the Hollywood Blondes would be okay. Flair vs. Anderson from Fall Brawl 95, with the promos leading up to it and Pillman's turn would be awesome. Bonus points if the Halloween Havoc clip of Flair's heel turn is included as well. Chris Benoit vs. Kevin Sullivan from the '96 Bash would be cool, especially for the post match promo and Arn talking about Benoit earning his stripes. Actually, if there's a WCW Pro or Worldwide or Saturday Night random tag match that has Pillman & Benoit as a two-man team, I'd throw that on there too. Arn's new world order promo, I think it was the first Hog Wild, would be sweet. In fact, Arn has an awesome 1:30 quasi-squash match with Hugh Morrus that'd be fine to include there too. The September '98 Flair return angle should at least be touched on, I would think. I'd love one of the Benoit/Malenko tags to be included also. Either against Windham/Hennig or Raven/Saturn.

I don't think Hardys/MNM is happening as Matt, Jeff and Nitro are all in the Rumble and no one appears to be pulling double this year. I'd expect a token cruiserweight title match or (hopefully not) Helms vs. Boogeyman also.

'91 is pretty bitchin, as Rockers/Orient Express still holds up as awesome today, as does Barbarian/Bossman. I really like 2000 too, although Taz/Angle is basically an angle more than a match and the IC & Tag title matches are nothing really notable. It still features the Hardys/Dudleys bringing the tables & ladders match to the 'Fed and HHH/Cactus giving an incredible World Title match.

Might not be the absolute proper place for this, but it was clearly inspired by the Rumble thread so I figured I'd put it here, since I was watching Survivor Series 89 while checking out the board and I think there were some near-perfect teams in '89. The babyface super dream team of Hogan, Roberts AND Demolition. The smarmy prick heel magic of Rick Rude, Curt Hennig and the underrated Rougeaus. Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka and the Bushwhackers all bonding in their mutual insanity. I also always liked the Savage/Steamboat/Roberts/Beefcake/Duggan team from 1987 and the Owen/Bulldog/Jarrett/Michaels/Diesel team from 1994. Who are your favorites?