NintendoLogic

It could be a language barrier thing, but for me, "not very good" has always been a euphemism for "shitty."

It isn't? I'm pretty sure that saying someone isn't very good at his job isn't a compliment. And yes, he's awkward. So what? That really has no bearing on his ability to perform. Plenty of wrestlers with much more severe physical limitations have had good matches.

What a stupid thing to say. Just for reference, in case it wasn't clear: That was a (paraphrased) statement by some crank on WrestlingClassics more than a half decade ago. He wasn't without supporters who thought the say thing. So please credit it to WC cranks. I like Rey. Suspect I saw and liked him before all but one or two posters on this board, and certainly have defended him against cranks over the past two decades. John Yeah, I didn't mean to imply that those were your actual sentiments. And that WC thread was a hoot and a half, especially the notion of Kurt Angle as the standard-bearer of wrestling based more on psychology than risky highspots. Anyway, I want to go back to Dylan's statement about Rey being one of the top five workers in the world right now. I don't disagree, and it really is incredible how well he's been able to adapt to his increasing physical limitations. But that ranking is also a reflection of how drastically the bar has been lowered over the past decade or so. In fact, I might even go so far as to say that from an overall standpoint, wrestling right now is as bad as it's ever been. If you took 2011 Rey and stuck him in, say, 1993, would he still be a top five worker? Or even top 25? Rey is definitely an all-time great. But I wouldn't put him in the GOAT conversation. Then again, I don't think anyone who worked primarily in the US merits GOAT consideration except for Ric Flair. ETA: jdw sort of beat me to it.

People are still shitting on Cena's wrestling ability? He's been in way too many good matches to be considered a bad or even a mediocre worker.

More TSM highlights: I think that WP/RE's comments about being a ladykiller were something of a put-on. Kill Bill is wrestling! Wait, what? And this, a fitting coda to WP/RE's posting career.

Could this be where Vader's rep for taking liberties with jobbers comes from? If you're enhancement talent, you're not really in a position to give as good as you get.

Oh, man. The TSM archives are an absolute gold mine. Like this thread, which is chock full of VINTAGE WP/RE nuttiness. He starts with the insane claim that the Rocky series has more hardcore fans than the Star Wars series, and it spirals out of control from there. ETA: I almost forgot to mention that he refers to Rocky's bouts as five-star matches. http://forums.thesmartmarks.com/index.php?showtopic=74188 Also: I FOUND IT!!!!!!!!!

The Onion AV Club has a "Cowboy Bebop at His Computer"-quality writeup of the most recent Raw. http://www.avclub.com/articles/wwe-monday-...-edition,60462/ Hey, who's that in the comments section?

Really? Best 100? Rey is easily in the highest of highest echelon of pro wrestlers to ever wrestle. Rey can flip and fly but that is hardly the only thing he does well. In fact, I want to edit the sub title to this thread because it offends my internal wrestling fan meter. Fucking flippy flop guy. I agree that calling Rey a flippy guy is selling him criminally short. The subtitle was a tongue-in-cheek reference to jdw's post in the Punk thread.

Per the orders of goodhelmet, the Rey discussion going on in the Punk thread must now be directed here.

Allow me to present what I consider to be the definitive WP/RE quote:

Pretty interesting to hear that from Stan Hansen of all people.

To be honest, I can't really remember the last Rey match that was great in the same sense that Rey/Eddy or Punk/Cena was great. To be sure, he's AC/DC-esque in that he's been consistently good for a long time and doesn't have too many outright clunkers to his name. But I kind of feel like some people are taking his Stiff Upper Lip and Black Ice and trying to pass them off as Back in Black.

I view this as less of a commentary on Rey than the overall quality of the worldwide product.

Hell, The Rock is more of a cartoon character than Del Rio.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurn

Didn't the WWE go on a witch hunt against the potheads on its payroll a few years ago and smoke them all out (pun intended)?

That reminds me of the story in Ring of Hell about WWE commentators being on the gas.

So where was RE from, anyway? He apparently grew up watching Stampede Wrestling, but his writing was a lot more British-influenced than you'd expect from a Canadian. I thought I remembered him saying he was from New Zealand, but that was probably ohtani's jacket.

I enjoyed the PPV too, and I could see thinking that there's been more good than bad with this angle up to this point. But the long-term direction is troubling, with the focus being moved even more strongly away from Punk and toward HHH. He's not? I guess I imagined the crowd chanting for him loudly in the opener tonight. They were in LA. It'd be like if Sheamus got a huge reaction in Boston. There's no chance in hell Sheamus is getting a reaction in Boston the way Del Rio got one in LA. Maybe not, but it's a difference of degree, not of kind. Of course a Mexican superstar is going to get a big reaction in a city with a big Mexican population. There's no way he would've gotten anything close to that reaction in, say, Minneapolis.

So we've gone from "greatest promo ever" to "booked better than the Nexus?"

I enjoyed the PPV too, and I could see thinking that there's been more good than bad with this angle up to this point. But the long-term direction is troubling, with the focus being moved even more strongly away from Punk and toward HHH. He's not? I guess I imagined the crowd chanting for him loudly in the opener tonight. They were in LA. It'd be like if Sheamus got a huge reaction in Boston.

Yeah, but whose side is he on?

I like Daniel Bryan's explanation for this during his feud with The Miz. He aid that security didn't recognize him and wouldn't even let him in the building if he wasn't wearing his gear. That doesn't explain guys like Randy Orton, though. It also raises an interesting chicken-or-egg question for John Cena. Is he weird for wearing his wrestling gear all the time or for wrestling in street clothes? I think of it like being issued a weapon in the military. You'll be in serious shit if something happens to it, so you have to have it within an arm's length of you at all times.

That, and it raises a pretty big question. If someone walking out with the belt is just a momentary speed bump, why did Vince even bother screwing Bret? I know wrestling is no place for those with long memories, but Montreal isn't something you can just stick in the memory hole.