Yo-Yo's Roomie

Just watched the Atlantis/Ultimo Guerrero match. Thought it was great, but that finish... Definitely took the shine off it a bit for me. I like Atlantis, but I want to like him more than I actually do. I think I prefer him just doing flashy stuff in trios matches to working big emotional singles matches. I've still got a ways to go on him though, so we'll see how high he can make it up my list.

Mention Foley on wrestling classics and this will change.

If it looks stupid, yes, a little bit.

I like Hall, and think he was a smart worker, but it just didn't translate into being a great worker.

It's not that he's setting up a move, it's that the set-up is so contrived and unnatural. If you kick someone in the gut, the natural reaction is to double over. Working a leg to set up a submission is a totally different beast and has no relevance to this discussion. It's really stretching believability that Rey's opponents are falling into that same position so often. Sometimes it looks okay, but usually it looks stupid to me. As bad as all of Rey's opponents trying to sunset flip him, but I've mentioned that one so many times now, and no-one has ever responded to it, that that's obviously just a personal bugaboo.

Watched about 20 Azteca matches, the majority of them trios (which is a shame because it's harder for me to get a good sense of a guy's ability in that setting, but you work with what you've got). A quite beautiful worker at his peak, very smooth, great on the mat, I love the armdrag he does where he springs off the ropes first, and he had a lovely missile dropkick. The Dandy title match is an all-time classic for sure, but the none-title match between the two is really good too. The Blue Panther stuff is a step down, but still really solid. General rule of thumb, I'd say, regarding his trios work, is that the earlier it is, the better he's likely to be in it, and also the more he's featured in the match, the better he will be. That sounds redundant, but what I mean is he didn't strike me as a worker who would do much to stand out in a bit part role. If the match is built around his exchanges though, he doesn't disappoint. I would recommend: Angel Azteca/Xavier Cruz/Atlantis Vs El Satanico/El Dandy/Emilio Charles Jr- quality trios, with Azteca looking very much on the level of his contemporaries Angel Azteca/Americo Rocca/Xavier Cruz Vs El Dandy/Chavo Guerrero/El Texano- a technico vs technico match, with things getting a bit spicy between Azteca and Dandy Angel Azteca/Misterioso/Volodor Vs Blue Panther/Fishman/Mascara Ano 2000- Azteca working a more brawling style, trying to rip Panther's mask off Angel Azteca/Konnan/El Hijo del Santo Vs El Satanico/La Parka/Psicosis- an example of post-peak Azteca (1994), where he still looks great and plays an important role in the match. You do have to suffer Konnan for this one though. I also recommend Azteca/Misterioso and Rey Misterio Jr Vs Heavy Metal/Ice Killer and Espanto Jr, just to see young Rey coming out to A Little Respect by Erasure, and Ice Killer, the lucha Goon, coming out with a hockey stick and wrestling in a bedazzled hockey mask, like a gay Michael Myers. I wish there were more singles matches available for Azteca, but as it is, he'll probably be fighting for a spot in the bottom quarter of my ballot.

JR was garbage as early as the early 2000's. I remember me and my friends were all cheering for Coach and Al Snow in their feud with JR and King. That's how badly we wanted Ross and King gone.

I watched this the other day as part of my GWE project swotting, and thought it was amazing. I echo what Loss said about the way the holds are being applied here. They look really tight and painful. I haven't anything to add, but just wanted to add my praise for the match.

I've a scary feeling that the Authority loses on Sunday, thanks in no small part to Rusev walking out on the team. Then, the next night on Raw, Rusev and Lana are doing their usual shtick, when Triple H comes out, says he's still got a wrestling contract and the two brawl, which leads to Trips being the first to pin Rusev. An Austin/Angle post-Survivor Series 2001 reset. That's my worst case scenario. Second worst case is the Authority just winning and things staying the same.

I really enjoyed the Kopylov/Han series and, even though he was outshone by Han, I enjoyed Kopylov's role as scrappy matworker who was gonna hold off from taking the rope break for as long as possible to see if he could work a counter. Everything else I saw Kopylov in he was kinda dull. Not bad, but just not terribly interesting. Ultimately, I don't think I have seen enough to think about ranking him. I'm super-excited to see more Han though.

They were saying "wooo".

My take on Maeda: Pros His real biggest plus for me is that I thought he was the best of the UWF guys on the New Japan set. That's not including Fujiwara. I thought he was really good at mixing in the shoot-style stuff into traditional pro wrestling matches, and he contributed a lot to lots of really good matches. Had really good kicks. As others mentioned, just had the aura of a big time player, something that sets him apart from others. I don't think it's the same as what Choshu had, as Choshu was just dripping charisma, and I don't think Maeda was that charismatic. I'd say it's more of a Triple H thing, where he kind of wills you to believe he's the man. Except more legit. Cons I think it's a problem that in almost every shoot-style bout I saw him in, I thought the other guy was better. That includes Han, Yamamoto, Yamazaki and Karelin. Not that he was bad or being carried in these bouts, just that I found his opponent more engaging a lot of the time. It seemed that he wasn't that good until he started UWF. The earlier bouts I saw him in had him looking kinda out of his depth. He kinda sucked working from underneath. Maeda is a definite contender for my list, based mostly on his work in the NJ Vs UWF feud. I would imagine he'd be somewhere in the bottom quarter, if he were to make it.

I've done a bit of a Hokuto binge, and here's what I thought: Pros What I like most about Hokuto is that she brought such a great sense of drama to her matches, and I think she was really good at getting across her story, her journey. Like, I don't know anything about her injury history, or how she came to be the Dangerous Queen, so I went into this really without context, but with her performances she was able to sell who she is and what she is about. There's also that famous "big match feel", which I think is something she was very good at creating. Those two big matches against Aja, for example, had me really buzzing. Great seller. Just really good. There was that one tag where she teams with Aja against Kandori (can't wait to watch more of that badass bitch, btw) and Eagle Sawai where her arm is just shot and it's amazing watching her trying to fight through the pain. Then there's the leg. Also... Great on offence. Great moveset. I was very impressed by her ability to play so vulnerable, but also be the baddest motherfucker when the match called for it. Cons She was kinda bland before she became the Dangerous Queen, I guess. I mean, I thought her character work was really good in the Chiggy match, but her other pre-DQ stuff I saw, there was definitely that feel of technically good, but lacking in charisma. I have to mention the peak thing, and I have to kind of take experts like OJ and Loss at the word a bit with it, because the later stuff I saw with her she was still looking pretty damn good to me. But, I didn't watch that much of it, and there's just no way I can start from pretty much scratch on a performer, and try to get a sense of their whole career, and make these kinds of judgments. I guess I'll just be ranking her on her peak, but I did want to address it, as it's something I've always seen brought up with her. There was a bit of a sense that she needed that big match atmosphere for her matches to really transcend. Or maybe it's just that she was so good in those big matches that a 10-minute semi-squash type match was a big letdown. Hokuto definitely makes my ballot. The things she brought to the table far outweigh any negatives she may have, to me anyway. She's the kind of person that could end up pretty much anywhere on my list depending on how I feel at the time. I could talk myself into having her around the top 20, or she could end up towards the bottom. At any rate, I really enjoyed going through some of her stuff.

Surely Noble and Mercury aren't actually going to main event this pay-per-view. I'm sure the Authority will recruit some ringers, and we'll see someone like Henry or Rusev or even Cesaro on their team.

That WM6 match was awful. Not all Bruti's fault either.

What they should actually do is have Mizdow distract the ref while Miz cheats (foreign object or something), but Mizdow mimics Miz's cheating right in front of the ref and they get disqualified.

The most interesting iteration of Team Authority is clearly Seth, Hunter, Noble, Mercury and Stephanie, right?

God, no. The guy's just a charisma vacuum, and nothing he does in the ring comes off as authentic.

" • “Brain Buster” — a front facelock combined with a vertical suplex in which the victim lands headfirst; • “Bulldog” — a wrestler grabs his opponent’s head and leaps forward, so that the victim’s face is driven into the ground; • “Cobra Clutch Slam” — a wrestler places the opponent in a hold called the cobra clutch, lifts his opponent, and then jumps into the air, landing his opponent on the ground; • “Facebreaker” — a knee to the face, including many variants involving throwing an opponent down onto one’s propped up knee, headfirst; • “Jawbreaker” — a move in which the opponent’s jaw is slammed into the wrestler’s body, usually the knee or elbow; and, • “Powerslam” — a move in which the performer falls face-first into his opponent. The above was posted on DVDVR, which makes the facebreaker sound like the GTS. I'm not sure on what planet that describes a powerslam though.

It just seemed like they were teasing Otsuka landing a sneaky knock-out shot, and the finish they went with seemed incongruous. I kind of feel like Otsuka might have sold the beating a bit too well then, if that makes sense. It was an awesome sell job, but then the finish was off.

I watched all the recommended matches that I could find (which was most of them), plus a few other bits and bobs, and here are my impressions of Otsuka: Pros He seems to be a very versatile wrestler. I saw him in a lot of different situations, and he didn't seem out of place in any of them. This includes working a pseudo-death match against Matsunaga, working as a dick heel against Masato Tanaka, working on-top in matches, and working as an underdog. My favourite Otsuka was getting his ass kicked Otsuka, and that's because I found him to be a very good and charismatic seller. Very good working the mat. Knew how to keep things interesting. I love his moveset. I love that he uses a giant swing in a shoot-style setting. As Alan said, fearless in that he'll try anything. It didn't always work, but he was open to trying it. I thought he was good at getting the most out of his opponents, while also making himself stand out. I think he was a very smart worker in that sense. Even in that NOAH tag where he was the lesser guy, he was doing stuff to stand out, like shit-talking Misawa after throwing an elbow. But then he would also bring lesser opponents up to his level. Cons I didn't always feel like his matches were structured as well as they could have been. I'm not really used to shoot-style wrestling, and had seen no BattlArts before this, so it could just be something I'm not used to, or in tune with, but certain ways the matches would ebb and flow didn't feel right to me. The finishes to his matches sometimes left me feeling a bit let down. Like, they built to something, but then didn't deliver. That 97 Ikeda match, for example, saw Otsuka taking a huge shit-kicking, but teasing that he had a chance if he could connect with a strike. I was really into that, but the pay-off didn't match the build, as Otsuka ended up winning via suplex-spamming. These aren't huge issues for me, as I enjoyed most of the matches anyway. The Sekimoto was probably the weakest match, as they just didn't seem to mesh all that well, but I thought everything else was at least good. Oh, the Super Tiger wasn't all that either, thinking about it. I really liked the Sugiura match, and the way it escalated from some pretty spirited grappling into them just headbutting the shit out of each other. The Yamamoto match was choice too. I can't say for sure if he'll make my 100 or not yet. I would probably need to see more of the style to have a better idea of where he fits in amongst his contemporaries, but I'm certainly not ruling him out, and would say right now he stands a decent chance of featuring. Thanks again for the match recs.

It's a matter of degrees. If someone is dogging it on the regular, then that'll hurt him/her. I won't hold the occasional phone-in against someone though.

So, I watched the 6 Sarjeant matches that I could find, and, man, was this guy something? Surely the lack of more footage of him is one of the great if onlys in wrestling, as he would be a lock for my ballot if there were maybe 10 more matches of his showing the same sort of quality of what is available. The unbreakable bridge is such a great little tool he can pull out in his matches, and his general smoothness, movement and variety of holds made him quite captivating to watch. My favourite of the matches I watched was the Clive Myers one, as that had a lot of the high-end technical stuff best exhibited in the Thompson bout, but also seemed to be a bit more keenly contested. It's nice that we got a bit of a different look at him in the McManus match too, and I really liked the way he was firing up in that one. I can't justify putting someone on my ballot based on so little footage unfortunately, but it's the great benefit of a project like this that we get to discover new and interesting workers.

Thanks so much. This should prove most helpful.

Otsuka is who I'll be looking at next. I know nothing about him, so it would be great if someone could drop some recs, not necessarily just his best stuff, but a good representation of his work.