Yo-Yo's Roomie

Rocky was in several great matches, was an underrated sympathetic babyface, and was kind of a modern Piper in that, while mechanically he may not have been the best, his charisma was enough to make many of his matches watchable. All that said, he had a really short run, so don't see any way he makes a 100 greatest of all time.

Dusty: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/19186-harley-race/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/15947-nasty-boys-dusty-dustin-rhodes-vs-arn-anderson-bunkhouse-buck-terry-funk-col-parker-wcw-fall-brawl-091894-war-games/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/18217-ted-dibiase-virgil-vs-dusty-dustin-rhodes-wwf-royal-rumble-011991/ Chris Jericho: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/27257-chris-jericho-vs-dean-malenko-wcw-monday-nitro-072798/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/14421-ultimo-dragon-corazon-de-leon-felino-vs-el-dandy-negro-casas-bestia-salvaje-cmll-030395/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/26830-chris-jericho-vs-juventud-guerrera-wcw-superbrawl-viii-022298-mask-vs-title/ CM Punk: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/25384-john-cena-vs-cm-punk-wwe-monday-night-raw-022513/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/25523-cm-punk-vs-dean-ambrose-wwe-monday-night-raw-120913/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/25416-cm-punk-vs-chris-jericho-wwe-payback-061613/ Tommy Rich: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/17649-stan-hansen-vs-tommy-rich-nwa-world-championship-wrestling-071490/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/16120-tommy-rich-vs-bill-dundee-uswa-on-wmc-5-122494/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/18864-terrence-taylor-richard-morton-thomas-rich-vs-big-josh-dustin-rhodes-tom-zenk-wcw-pro-111691-cage-match/ Mark Henry: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/19214-mark-henry/page-4?hl= mark henry

He's in one of my very favourite matches ever (Vs Ohtani, 96 BOSJ), and I have a bit of a soft spot for him, just because, to paraphrase DR, I thought he was awesome as a kid. But, yeah, he's not one of the 100 best wrestlers ever.

Ohtani is my favourite junior heavyweight, but I haven't seen any of his heavyweight stuff. What, if any, of it is worth seeing?

We could do with John pulling over his Kobashi Gordy list for this, or at least providing a link to where it can be found.

I think I mentioned this in another thread, and it got no-sold (maybe deservedly so), but what do people think of the omnipresent Rey match trope of his opponent trying to sunset flip him, only for Rey to roll through and kick them in the face? I've seen 300lb guys trying to sunset flip Rey, and guys trying to sunset flip him in battle royals. I may have brought this up in relation to the Flair going up top just to get thrown off talking point. A lot of people gripe about the 619, but I don't think I've heard anyone talk about that spot before.

I just feel like you're gonna get that anyway, because people value different things when judging a match, even if you restrict it just to "match quality". "This match had great matwork", "but it didn't go anywhere". "The stiffness was incredible", "but wrestling is supposed to not hurt". "Flawless execution throughout", "but it lacked narrative drive", and on and on. I guess it largely depends on, as someone else said, where soup sees this ending up as a project. I just think people tend to micromanage these things a bit much. edit: response to Matt.

Why not just let the voters decide whether to factor in drawing? "Hall of Fame-worthy match" already seems so subjective that I think any attempt at a tightly-defined voting criteria would still lead to wildy varied results. Just have the criteria be something like "matches that you feel set the standard for professional wrestling excellence". I also don't fully understand the need to compartmentalise the voting group into different regions, especially if only matches that are on tape are eligible.

How did he drag the others down? All he had to do was hit his spots, and he did, cleanly.

It does hurt when you're using that as a crutch, instead of elevating other people into that spot.

It is WWE's job to make people want to see it. Or they could just put him in a compelling match in the first place. I mean, it won't be the worst thing ever, but I can't imagine it's a match that has any sort of cache, seeing as Brock has beaten Show numerous times in the past. I could very well be wrong though. Personally, I'd rather see Kane face Lesnar. Seriously, Kane. At least that's a fresh match-up.

It might make sense, but do people really want to see Show versus Lesnar again?

Is there much 70s Hoshino out there? He was one of my favourites from the NJ set.

Very good match which I think is marred by the two restarts. Was this the first big main event match where they did a total shmozz finish? I don’t mind the run-ins and the no contest finish, but I think the restarts hurt the flow of the match, and it seemed really unfair on Diesel in particular, who had Bret beat with the jackknife. Diesel’s selling of the leg is spotty at best. Bret, though, puts in one of his best selling performances here for me. I especially like the way he sells a sternum-first impact into an exposed turnbuckle. Everything he does looks so believable. I also like how Bret would heel it up in face/face matches. I think he was a very selfless worker in that regard.

God, this is rotten to the core. What a shallow roster they had at this point, and yet they still run an angle where one of their best wrestlers (Owen) gets attacked on his way to the ring and lasts mere seconds in the match. So many tag teams in this one- The Gunns, The Headshrinkers, The Heavenly Bodies, Men on a Mission, Well Dunn, the fucking Blu Brothers, the motherfucking Bushwhackers in 1995. Then just a conveyor belt of jobbers (Mantaur! Aldo Montoya!). Luger probably should have won this and turned heel to face Diesel, as Shawn just didn’t feel like a main event-level star at this point (though he was clearly on the cusp of a breakthrough). Cool seeing Dick Murdoch at least.

It’s kinda sad watching Goldust in this gimmick. He deserved better. This is pretty good, but I would have liked to see more of Goldust on offence. For example, he low-blows Vader to counter a Vader Bomb, but the match just continues with Vader on offence. Cool visual of Vader hitting the Vader Bomb with Luna on his back, although I’m not sure how cool Luna thought the landing was.

If I’m not mistaken the bump that did for Shawn’s back comes really early on in this, in which case credit must go to Shawn for continuing to bump around like a loon for Taker. The turning point comes with a fun little mugging from Shawn and Hunter, with Shawn busting out the piledriver on the steps to good effect. The match ends up turning into more of an angle by the end, with Kane coming out to help, and then turn on, his brother (complete with hokey post-match), but the meat of the match is really quite good.

This match is all about Austin, and it doesn’t really get going until he enters. That is a great moment, with the whole ring stopping when his music hits, and Austin sneaking in behind them all. Match begins with Foley and Funk braining each other with chair shots, which just looks stupid in retrospect. The three faces of Foley all being entered is a neat angle. This seems pretty poorly booked, with the ring filling up and then a bunch of guys being eliminated at the end in quick succession. Once we get to the final four it gets pretty good though. And who decided 8-Ball should go half an hour in there?

Was it that feud where Flair was dressed as a woman at one point, so he could sneak attack Savage? I got a Roman Polanski in The Tenant vibe from that.

Or "Smackdown"

I'd like to see someone go through Ric's reigns and break down how much value each one has. Same with Cena's.

I think it was this thread where we were talking about this. Anyway, someone at DVDVR just posted it, so just to prove that I wasn't insane or making shit up: https://www.jrsbarbq.com/blog/one-drunk-fan-spirit-squad-eddy-dvd-muta-hero-stone-colds-cross-country-road-trip "Reading recently about the Great Muta, it reminded me of the time when I was on the WCW Booking Asylum, Er, Committee and I suggested that the handsome, young and talented Kenji Muta might make a great protagonist at some point in his WCW run. The look on the faces of many of my peers reminded me of what it must have been like when it was suggested to Caucasian wrestling territory owners that African American wrestlers be put into positions of prominence in the territory. I was passionately reminded that American wrestling fans would NEVER support a Japanese protagonist thanks to December 7, 1941 and the attack on Pearl Harbor. Forget that moment occurred almost half a century before as the idea wasn't embraced and never fully materialized. I just know that Muta was a star and without the face paint back in the late 80's the ladies in the CNN Center in Atlanta loved the guy."

I hate 'X is being pushed down our throats' or any iteration of that. It always connotes a petty bitterness to me.

The point is that maybe Austin being so protective of his spot forced other guys to push themselves that much harder in an attempt to break out. On the other hand, Cena being so generous to his opponents maybe just means that none of them truly stand out as being special. I remember a few years back him having a really good match with Swagger on Raw (before Swagger was damaged goods), where he gave Jack a ton of offence. Looked like a possible star-making match for Jack, but then when he does the same thing for all his opponents, regardless of their position on the card, how does one stand out from the pack? Generally, I think you're right that creative just has a different outlook on things nowadays (more competitive matches in general, afraid to push someone too hard too soon, etc), but I do think it's interesting to look at the part Austin and Cena have played in the development of other stars. Maybe it's not really relevant to this particular discussion (or maybe it is), but I think it's interesting nonetheless.

I was just thinking earlier about how when Austin was on top, the company was able to develop these other hot stars (namely The Rock, Foley, and Triple H). How much credit do you think Austin deserves for that, and do you think that has any value when analyzing his performance as the ace? I was specifically thinking about this in relation to Cena's (much longer) run on top, and how he hasn't really been able to drag anyone with him to that elite status (I suppose Batista, Punk and Bryan would be nearest, unless I'm blanking on someone obvious). Conversely, can we lay any of the blame for that on Cena, or does the blame fall solely on the company?