Ricky Jackson

I think one thing we can take from the results of the WON awards is that North American wrestling on a big time level is in desperate need of rejuvenation.

I've never liked Taz and Tenay's soul was probably crushed years ago.

16 mini tournaments, one for each territory. 4-8 wrestlers in each mini tournment, depending on how big you want this to be. The winners of each mini tourney, ONE wrestler from each territory, advance to the 16 man main tournament. 16 wrestlers, 16 different territories represented. This tournament could be fun, or it could be a complicated clusterfuck.

Raw certainly deserves worst TV show of the year. Didn't watch Impact, ROH or any of the other contenders though. I like what I've seen of NXT, although tonight's show was kinda dull. I don't even know if I can get Main Event with my cable package and haven't been motivated to download it yet.

I wish I could forget WWF in 99 or WCW in 2000.

Yeah, the whole Aces and 8s gimmick sounds very Russo-like. Are we sure his firing wasn't just a work and he's going to be unmasked as the mastermind and we get "It was me Austin Sting, it was me all along!!!"

Is TNA really better since Russo was canned or are people just pretending it's better in order to maintain their "Russo is Satan" narrative?

In case anybody hasn't seen this elsewhere, here are the awards not included in the original links WORST PROMOTION OF THE YEAR 1. TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION 269 2. Ring of Honor 202 3. World Wrestling Entertainment 80 4. Pro Wrestling NOAH 72 5. Extreme Rising 65 6. Strikeforce 56 7. Bellator 44 8. Inoki Genome Federation 32 9. Championship Wrestling from Hollywood 18 BEST BOOKER 1. GEDO & JADO 592 2. Joe Silva 154 3. Mike Quackenbush 58 4. Vince McMahon 20 PROMOTER OF THE YEAR 1. DANA WHITE 379 2. Takaaki Kidani 289 3. Vince McMahon 171 4. Mike Quackenbush 59 BEST GIMMICK 1. JOSEPH PARK 154 2. Damien Sandow Savior of the Masses 147 3. Daniel Bryan Yes/No 111 4. Kazuchika Okada Rainmaker 97 5. C.M. Punk all year as champion 58 5. Ryback 53 6. Team Hell No 26 7. Antonio Cesaro 21 8. Bray Wyatt 19 9. Bully Ray 17 WORST GIMMICK 1. ACES AND 8S 163 2. Tensai 148 3. Natalya farting 92 4. Claire Lynch 90 5. Brodus Clay 48 6. The Miz 27 7. A.J. as General Manager 21 8. Joseph Park 18 BEST PRO WRESTLING BOOK 1. SHOOTERS BY JONATHAN SNOWDEN 137 2. Heroes and Icons by Oliver/Johnson/Mooneyham 72 3. From Prison to Promise by Booker T 49 4. Storm Front by Lance Storm 23 BEST PRO WRESTLING DVD 1. C.M. PUNK BEST IN THE WORLD 548 2. Last of McGuinness 21 3. Such Great Heights: The Jon Fitch Story 19 Congrats evilclown!

I guess Kane now being involved in the worst feud of the year 7 times is impressive if not interesting.

For what it's worth, my "source" (Coffey, who quit the board a few months ago) said it was Del Rio who told Vince the product sucked last year.

Yeah, a sub form is probably needed to do this thing right, or maybe it could be part of the microscope, because we'll essentially be analyzing different wrestlers and discussing their respective pros and cons. No need to rush things.

I thought somebody else would have jumped on this already. Here are the results, in two parts because these were the best links I could find: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi...24044619AAAaxG9 http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi...24045106AAIcsLw No surprise, New Japan dominates.

Robinson's backbreaker is one of my all time favorite moves.

One way you could set up the brackets is to begin with essentially 16 mini-tournaments--a 4 man WWF tournament, 4 man AWA tournament, 4 man Crockett tournament, etc., until you have a "Final 16", with each territory having one representative in the main tounament. This would guarantee no one or two territories dominate the whole tournament. If you want to get really ambitious, the individual territory tournaments could be made up of 16 guys as well ("The First 16") and we could have a 256 man mega-territory tournament! Of course, it would probably be tough to come up with 16 names for places like Central States, Stampede, etc. And I'll just say this: some of the absolute worst wrestling I've ever seen was a disc of 86-87 era Central States. I'm sure the area had better days, but that stuff was really shitty.

What's the exact timeframe, 80s or just early 80s?

A poll or vote of some sort would be more fun.

Harley owned a piece of both at one point and wrestled extensively for both as far as I know.

I think wrestlers and classic Hollywood stars is actually a better comparison than most. Many/most movie-goers paid to see Grant, Gable, Bogie--the Star being "themselves", being their persona, not necessarily because they wanted to see a good story. Same can be said of most wrestling fans, who paid to see the Star--Gorgeous George, Hogan, the Rock, Cena today, and were not terribly concerned about seeing a good match.

Historically, Canada can't be lumped together as one spot. Toronto and Montreal were major cities for wrestling at their peak, comparable to New York, St. Louis, Houston, etc. Vancouver was apparently a wrestling hotbed in the late-60s-early-70s. Winnipeg was a big town in the AWA. Stampede, despite what one thinks of its worth, existed for nearly 40 years as a promotion. The Maritimes also had a long wrestling history. But for the purposes of this tournament, outside of a few guys, I'm not sure how much the regulars around here know about Toronto and Montreal, let alone Vancouver and the Maritimes. I'm not sure what the best option is for your tournament regarding Canada.

This could be a fun idea. I'm sure some will wince at Stampede being on the list. St.Louis definitely needs a spot. As for other areas: LA and San Fran were major territories at their peak, but sadly little footage from their best years exists. Same thing with Toronto and Montreal, not to mention Vancouver, where any pre-80s footage at all seems to be extremely scarce. Continental/Alabama has its supporters I think. Detroit, Indianapolis, and NWF (Cleveland/Buffalo) are all but forgotten today, but each had periods of pretty significant success as far as I know, and the NWF produced this fun little piece of business Central States/KC...well, um, Harley owned it, and Slick started there...never mind.

The last segment on Raw tonight was dreadful. Just turn Cena heel already so he can get some new material, that shit tonight was so bad. Backlund's HoF speech could be interesting.

Yeah, I forgot about GLOW. It was on around midnight in my neck of the woods, but I rarely ever watched it. I remember a friend of mine being into it.

I was a backyard wrestler in the 90s.

I just want to say I think this board has hit a pretty good stride in the last month or so, especially with the wrestler analysis in the Microscope and the podcasts. Keep it up guys.

The match with Johnny Valentine can't be from 78. Valentine was paralyzed from the waist down in the same 1975 plane crash where Flair broke his back. That said, I'd like to see the match, as I like both guys.