Coffey

Triple H doesn't have to win. He can just eliminate Roman. He doesn't even have to be in the match itself. He can just come out with his angry face and they can brawl over the top rope and into the crowd or whatever. Even better if Triple H is #2 and Roman is #1 and they're both eliminated before #3 comes out. So then the entire rest of the Rumble the crowd knows they're getting a new champion.

I'll have to catch RAW later, or the highlights of it, but I am curious about a few things. Namely if the show will open with Roman & Steph/Vince doing dueling in-ring promos again. The last week, I have seen that same picture shared about the last five openings of RAW starting the same way at least a dozen times. I imagine the main event ends in a donnybrook featuring a plethora of wrestlers flying over the top rope & making both Brock and Roman look strong for the Rumble. On Twitter today, Alex Riley made a comment that he "misses real rap music" & posted that he was listening to Eminem. So of course, there was some backlash. One of which was from Kevin Owens that said he misses real rock and roll & posted Avril Lavigne.

I did actually check out the new show that was the debut show on POP. I saw Mike Bennett & Maria debut & I said "why?" I saw a bloated Matt Hardy in the main event & it just felt like he shouldn't be there. James Storm went back & they reunited Beer Money & it felt like a reset. Even Eric Young looks worse. I think they have some talent. I like EC3 & Rockstar Spud. As for an entire show though, it's tough to sit through.

I've always really liked the Jesse/Ross combination & until this thread had never even noticed Ross "no-selling" him at all before, honestly. Never even crossed my mind.

If Eva could work, she never would have got the heat that she has.

During the Monday Night Wars, whenever D-X came on RAW, I would change the channel back to Nitro. To me, nWo was cool, D-X was corny. It wasn't D-X that made me more interested in RAW, it was Austin, Rock & Mankind. Admittedly later on New Age Outlaws were megaover though. I remember going to a Buffalo Wild Wings to watch a WWF PPV and when Road Dogg came out to do the intro spiel, the entire bar chanting along with him. It was pretty surreal. I think my big thing was about finishers watching back then. Like I used to love when Kevin Nash would Powerbomb someone on Nitro. Even if it was the expense of an undercard guy getting his match interrupted so Nash could have some microphone time. That's a big reason why I was an Austin fan... cause he just stunned the shit out of everyone. D-X just did skits. And most of them I didn't think were funny. I think that's why I liked Goldberg too. Because his squash matches were so fast, it was pretty much like just doing a run-in & finish anyway. Spear/Jackhammer, thanks for coming. Everyone got what they wanted to see and it was less than five minutes. Usually a lot less. The comeback with Shawn Michaels kicking "Stan" backstage had some funny moments. Most of it was super cringe-worthy though. Little People's Court comes to mind.

We get to see the results of the voting tonight. First new show for NXT of 2016.

Roman Reigns Vs. Triple H?

Chris Jericho is making me second guess being a pro-wrestling fan.

In my top 25.

He's currently my #99 but he might fall off in the next couple of months.

Low Ki above Jerry Lawler was one of the first things I noticed but it's fine, everyone's list is going to have things that some of us find odd. GOTNW's profile says he's only 19 too. He didn't grow up in the same eras that others of us did too. I find it interesting. Happy birthday, by the way.

I'm in the same boat with Savage. He keeps dropping... I need to go read his thread.

I have 100 working names now. The order is still being arranged, almost daily... and a few guys at the very bottom might move off & be replaced with other fringe guys for me. But I do have 100 names now & if I had to turn it in tomorrow, I could. I'm more happy with my top 50 than bottom 50. I don't feel like I'm finished yet. I'll admit though, since this project started, I've never watched this much pro-wrestling in my life. I mean, we're bordering on unhealthy at this point, legit. If I could go back in time, however, I would have spent more time on people I was totally unfamiliar with that were nominated instead of watching more footage of people I was familiar with to try to remind myself of how I felt about them or get a better, more familiar understanding of them. There are a few Puroresu names on my list that will be higher on the list of others than they are on mine, and that's because I'm terrible at time management. Tenryu, Fujiwara, Hase, Choshu, Hashimoto... I've just accepted that there's not enough time now. I mean, I spent a couple of days doing nothing but watching John Tenta, One Man Gang & Big Boss Man matches but I think I've only seen one Jerry Blackwell match in my life & he's not on my list, nor will he be. Just as an example. Biggest surprises for me were Larry Zybysko & The Destroyer. At the end of the day, we're all going to have different lists & there will be a lot of debating & arguing over numbers but I'll be able to say although others will disagree with some of mine (and that's fine) I know that I put the time in & am presenting something that I'm OK with my name being attached to. What more can be asked?

It'll be Big Show & Kane.

This reminds me of how good Alberto El Patron is but how boring & bland he becomes in WWE as Alberto Del Rio.

Speaking of Meltzer, did he rate the Wrestle Kingdom 10 matches yet?

And Cesaro & Tyson Kidd. They were the tag champs last year.

Man, in the year 2016, if those are the names they're banking on to sell Wrestlemania, I am going to be super disappointed. And next year will be even worse. Eventually they HAVE to make NEW stars. They can't keep banking on wrestlers from years past. They have Roman Reigns. Build-up Ambrose & Wyatt more. Bring back Daniel Bryan. Maybe call-up some NXT people. They should not be looking to guys like The Undertaker, The Rock and Chris Jericho every year. They have to make new names of this problem is only going to get worse, injuries or not. They need to stop with the parity booking & allow some people to get a lot of wins.

I like how you laid that out. I certainly have weaknesses in my game too. Strengths: WWF/WWE 1987-present All of WCW First five-seven years of TNA ECW from 1996-close Early 90's AJPW A lot of 1980's NWA Most of ROH Modern New Japan Weaknesses: Lucha Joshi A lot of Puro (especially older stuff) A lot of territory stuff (especially Portland, Florida or Montreal) Anything in black in white.

Re-watched Ishii/Shibata, Nakamura/Styles & Tanahashi/Okada all three again today because I was showing them all to a friend that had not seen the show yet. I'm still a big fan of all three. I mean, I could find flaws & pick them apart somewhat if I wanted to but this early in the year, I'm just glad I got a good PPV. I imagine all three matches won't be forgotten when we're at the end of the year.

I'll believe Nakamura is going to the main roster when I see it. WWE doesn't exactly have a great track record for their Japanese stars.

Yes, very weird. You should see a doctor weird.

Both guys are capable of having great matches built around selling and psychology, so yeah. I find it a disappointing waste of talent that they're content to have this kind of match with each other. Let's not forget what two matches were following that match & what kind of match the people following them were having. It's a good thing to have different matches in a row.