NintendoLogic

I would argue the opposite: Misawa working more cruiser-ish in the June match gave it a David-vs.-Goliath aspect that made it more compelling.

It seemed to me that WOODOO was going to bat for Khali as actively good. But there was plenty of "good at his role" talk, which is what Jingus was talking about.

Here's all you need to know about that match: DiBiase gets outworked on the mat by Tenryu.

Ditch's site has a Martel/Jumbo match where Martel comes out to Let's Hear It for the Boy. It sounds like it was dubbed over whatever his actual entrance music was, but it's still awesome. The best part of this match is the commentator saying "ooh la la" at one point. I wasn't aware French people actually said that.

I don't think this is nearly as good as the June match, but Jumbo going into a Wolverine-like berserker rage might be the best moment from either match.

We could do an exhaustive promotion-by-promotion breakdown that won't change anybody's mind, but what it really boils down to is that I'm just not that big a fan of 80s wrestling.

When I went through the DVDVR thread, I came across the following gems: I'm sure there's more.

How does Yamamoto compare to Diablo Velasco?

I took a Grandpa Simpson quote and added an Irish accent. It seems to me they have similar styles of rambling anecdotes.

"So I toied an onion to me belt, which was the stoile at the toime."

Well, yeah. Most things in these types of discussions are. Also, for what it's worth, there seemed to be a consensus a while back that 1988 to 1997 was the best ten-year stretch in wrestling history. http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?showtopic=14200

Which is why I said "or close to it." With a topic like this, absolute standing is more important than relative standing. To put it in numerical terms, suppose Flair was a 90 for most of the 80s with no one else scoring higher than 85. If Misawa was a 95 for most of the 90s, I don't think he should be penalized if Kawada or Kobashi scored a 97 a couple of years. I don't see this. Virtually every promotion was better from an in-ring standpoint in the 90s than in the 80s. All Japan was better. WWF was way better. New Japan was probably better. AJW was better. CMLL was most likely better, but there are footage availability issues. 90s WCW and 80s JCP are close to equal. About the only promotion that was clearly better in the 80s was Memphis. Granted, you have promotions like Mid-South that were no longer extant in the 90s, but I don't think that's nearly enough to tip the scales in favor of the 80s.

Quite a few promoters have the mindset that guys in the undercard shouldn't work too hard and have matches that are too difficult for guys in the main event to follow. I think that's bullshit myself. Anyway, I'm also in the Loss camp on this. I think mainly in terms of matches, and my favorite wrestlers are the ones who've appeared in the most matches I like. At the same time, I have a few one-hit wonders, wrestlers I couldn't care less about overall who are in a match or two I really dig.

There is this: http://board.deathvalleydriver.com/topic/3...good-match-now/ It's threads like that that are responsible for DVDVR having the rep it does. Bonus points for the "Meltzer hates wrestling" and "Meltzer only likes matches with big moves" talking points.

I don't know. There isn't really an established term to describe a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none type. Jim Ross used to use "catch-as-catch-can style" to describe Shawn Michaels, but that's quite wrong. The difference is that Liger had plenty of matches where he spent a significant amount of time on the mat. You can argue about the quality of it, but it was there.

I have been following. And I've said in this and other threads that matwork is a necessary component of technical wrestling. If you don't work the mat, you're not a technical wrestler. See, I don't really consider kicks and chops to be brawling. That's, like, martial arts or some shit.

Just out of curiosity, what do you think of Buddy Landel vs. Freddy?

I don't see this. When did Misawa ever demonstrate mat skill? About the only time he ever went to the mat was to apply the facelock. And he never worked his way out of holds that were applied on him, he just made the ropes. It wasn't his technique that got him out of trouble, it was his elbows. I don't really see this either. I did some thinking a while back about what constituted a brawl. Like, I've heard Shawn Michaels described as a brawler, and that didn't sound right to me. I've decided that a brawl should have at least two of the following elements: -Punches -Blood -Foreign objects I would also add a lack of working holds. If you're fighting a guy on the street, you're not going to put him in an armbar.

You guys are seriously overthinking this. If you're skilled at hold-counterhold wrestling, you're a technical wrestler. If you're not, you're not. Simple.

A term being misused doesn't make the term meaningless. Also, since when is Randy Savage a technical wrestler?

To me, the ur-example of wrestlers having loopy opinions is Terry Funk saying that Masato Tanaka was better than the All Japan boys. Who you gonna believe, the Funker or your lying eyes?

As far as apples-to-apples comparisons between guys with similar gimmicks go, I think Brody had better strikes than Abdullah. Pretty much anything Abby did that didn't involve a fork looked like garbage.

Add me to the list of those for whom Brody's popularity is a complete mystery. I'm no Sayama fan, but when I watch old Tiger Mask matches, I can totally see why he got over. But for the life of me, I can't figure out what would've been particularly appealing about Brody when Stan Hansen was right there.

I thoroughly despise Abdullah the Butcher. A morbidly obese man waddling around and stabbing people with cutlery is emphatically not my idea of good wrestling. I can't stand Dump Matsumoto for similar reasons.

I didn't make any substantive changes to the list, but I did give up on rankings after the top ten. Also, I considered swapping out a match for Rock/Jericho from No Mercy, but after a rewatch, the ending with Stephanie getting Rock Bottomed left a bad taste in my mouth.