Yo-Yo's Roomie

Daniel Bryan's stuff with Big Show and Mark Henry (though Henry was a heel) when he turned heel after winning his first World title.

I can kind of forgive a guy getting into a heated argument and turning to violence. The things Warrior's said betray something much darker, and his views are much harder to tolerate. Also, at least there's an element of humour in Sid's antics, looking at them from afar. People trashing Sid's wrestling skills like Warrior is fucking Volk Han. Warrior was the pits.

I can see myself voting for Rogers. I've watched everything I can find of his, and he really does seem to have been a great worker, with an act he had perfected, and that really added a lot to his matches. As Tim said, you could probably drop Buddy in any era, and his shit would still look great, and completely modern. Very quick in the ring, very nimble, bumped well, his offence looked good, good punches, good shtick, charismatic. Doesn't stand out to me as a great technician for the era, and I preferred to see him work a more aggressive style, which he did very well. Does seem very much like a bridge between the golden age, and a more modern style of wrestling.

I feel like you could probably do a bit more with Sid, get more out of him. He had more long-term value. You could believably cycle him up and down the card, switch him from face to heel, plug him into a few different roles. Warrior was a bit more one-dimensional, and once you'd got what you could out of him, there was pretty much nowhere for him to go. They tried using him as more of a special attraction for his 96 run, and it mostly rendered shocking results. Plus Warrior is a piece of shit human being, so I'll go with Sidney.

For some reason the quote function isn't working for me, but to answer Grimmas, the match is actually quite good. Probably longer than it needs to be, and not something you'd consider classic Bret, but definitely interesting in the way he works the match, giving loads of the match to Patriot, and basically escaping with the belt on a fluke (well, as much as a tap out win can be a fluke anyway).

Watch Bret Vs The Patriot from, is it, Badd Blood in 1997 for another good example of Bret as touring champ.

Murray is way more fun to watch than Nole. Nadal too honestly.

Don't know about it being the best, but Blue Panther Vs Villano V is undoubtedly my favourite.

When a wrestler gets the pin, and is so surprised he holds up 3 fingers to the ref to ask "that was a 3?" Jushin Liger hitting a top rope Frankensteiner and collapsing backwards into a pin.

Very nice tribute. Actually almost made me cry with that last paragraph.

Jesus, that's horrible news. I've seen quite a bit of Perro recently, incidentally through researching people for the GOAT project, and I always enjoy what he brings to the table. What a tragic accident.

Just watched that No Way Out match against the Rock, and thought it was piss poor. I wouldn't hold that up as an example of Angle being a great pro wrestler.

Seemed to be the glue that held Los Brazos together, as he really did the lion's share of the work in the ring, and looked good doing it. Porky was the show-stealer, of course, and even El Brazo seemed a little more charismatic, but I think Oro was definitely the most technically good of the three. He also has the best singles matches I've seen of the three, with the matches against Pirata Morgan and Santito both being really good. I have him behind Porky, but ahead of El Brazo, with a shot at making the back end of my ballot.

Seemed to me to be the weakest member of Los Brazos. I've never seen a Los Brazos match that wasn't at least fun, but I don't think I've seen one where Brazo was close to being the best guy on his team. Most memorable thing I think he did was when he was suddenly a bloody mess in the second trios against Los Bucaneros on the Lucha set. I enjoyed the little singles stuff I saw of him (him tasting Hector Garza's blood was pretty cool in that gross pro wrestling way), and thought he looked decent in the maestros match I saw him in, teaming with Black Terry. I don't think he has much chance of making my list though.

Porky definitely has a chance of making my ballot. Just one of the most fun guys to watch in his pomp. Moved incredibly for a guy his size, and I'm always a mark for athletic fat guys. I especially love his cartwheel spot. Great comedy wrestler, of course, but I think he was really good about transitioning from comedy stuff to serious stuff. One minute he'll be falling off the apron or crying because his brothers are hitting him, just being a total buffoon, the next he'll be headbutting the shit out of someone, or hitting a sweet back suplex. The cons are that I haven't seen a great Porky singles match. Not saying they don't exist, but I haven't seen it. So, is his trios work great enough and varied enough to warrant him a place? Also, latter day Porky is just sad to watch. Like, it actually depresses me.

I don't believe I said or implied that Davey Richards is better than Heenan.

I love Bobby as much as the next guy, but he seems a bit of a joke candidate for a list like this. Great bumper, but you can't build a match around just bumping.

I like Orton a lot. Really smooth execution, could mix it up on the mat and brawl really well, had some nice high-end offence, bumped and stooged very well, but still maintained an aura of toughness (unlike, say, Adonis, who's bumping was too liable to cross over into ridiculousness). Extremely hard worker too. I saw him against a number of guys who were either unable to or uninterested in doing much of anything, and Orton worked his ass off to make the matches entertaining. The big mark against Bob, from what I can tell, is the lack of footage of him from his pre-WWF days. I didn't really see much out there. I'll probably find a spot for him somewhere towards the bottom of my list.

I pretty much agree with the consensus on Backlund, as seen in this thread. I think he had it in his locker to be a compelling mat worker and a compelling brawler, but he just took too much of his matches, and steamrollered too many guys. That coupled with the goofy mannerisms makes him a real long-shot to make my list. I think his best match (that I've seen) is against Killer Kahn, for the record. He worked more of an underdog style, which really helped the match.

Lock city, and I imagine he will place somewhere between 30 and 50. I saw too many disappointing matches from him to where I'd consider him an absolute upper-echelon luchador (the Art Barr matches in particular were disappointing as hell, the Octagon matches, vs. Super Astro), but his highs are so high that he is just right below that. As good as he was on the mat, I actually prefer him using cheap heel tactics, or as a brawling old man. Great fire and emotion, and sold way better than he did when he was younger. The mask match against Villano V is a must-see. One of my favourite matches.

Terry is in the maybe pile for me. His biggest attribute is his longevity, as you look at him working now and you look at him working in the early 90s, and there's really no difference. Nearly always looked the best guy in the maestros matches I saw. Willing to take big bumps. Great brawling, can hang on the mat, though sometimes I thought he gave too much on the mat. I'm not as high on some of the high end stuff as others seem to be, and there are a lot of gaps in his career which is a problem for me.

My enthusiasm for the show is tied up in the fact that I'll be watching a Mania with my best friends for the first time since 2006. I have low expectations for the show itself.

I think in the mid 90s the talent really wasn't there to sustain a strong tag division. The roster was weak all over. At least at that point they still tried to give teams their own identity. So, I think that's a viable answer, but I personally look at the period after the brand split as when the belts really became meaningless. You look at some of the teams who were holding and competing for the belts during this time, and ti was basically just a parade of thrown-together jobbers, or newcomers who weren't over yet.

Shawn Michaels probably. Just irritates the fuck out of me.

Never got the love for Steph as a great heel during this run. Far too interested in putting herself over at the expense of the wrestlers. At least 2000 Steph would let the faces get over on her.