WingedEagle

Love this topic and any others like it that have the potential for ID'ing a ton of matches I haven't seen. Onto what fits where: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Bad Luck Fale (6/21/2014) AJ Styles vs. Lance Archer (2014 G1) - A pair of matches with ace-level talent working against bigger man. Neither approach MOTYC territory but step out of the traditional comfort zones you'd see Nak or AJ work and for that and their execution are good fun and variety. The Club vs. Reigns & Usos -- all of their 6 man tags from TV build around the Reign/Styles feud at Payback and Extreme Rules. Just about perfect for what they set out to accomplish. AJ Styles vs. Amazing Red (TNA 2002) -- nice heel showing from a young Styles where's just a cocky prick and bullying the smaller man for a change. AJ Styles vs. Sean Waltman (TNA No Surrender 2005) -- Waltman was long since forgotten in my eyes by this time, but this was no AJ carry job. Both more than held their own and kept a great pace. Rhyno vs. Abyss vs. Sabu vs. Jeff Hardy (Monster's Ball, Bound for Glory 2005) -- shockingly great spotfest where everything clicks and there's little wasted time moving from murder to death to kill. One of the best of its kind. Samoa Joe vs. Rhyno vs. Monty Brown (Hard Justice 2006) -- Not at the level of the above, but yet another really fun, spotty brawl. Rhyno brings great intensity while Joe holds it together. Rockers vs. Orient Express (Royal Rumble 1991) -- Some are in the great match camp on this one, and I might be there if I watched it in '91. But I didn't. Very good and stands out for its time though. Slaughter vs. Warrior (Rumble 91) -- Underrated Slaughter performance with tremendous bumping, great booking and a memorable finish. Curious why this is never mentioned with Rude & Savage matches among Warrior's best. DDP -- mentioned above, but his feud with Savage and the Raven/Benoit/Saturn/Goldberg/Sting matches from this period are the epitome of this list. Could go on and on. Hope I do at some point. But now time to watch a little.

Cosign all the Styles love here. The way he positioned himself to take that dropkick and make the bump that much more spectacular was just terrific. Everyone simply looks better when in with him and his positioning.

Absolutely loving the heel Usos. Not breaking any news here, but book Reigns the same way and he will have a ton of steam come eventual babyface turn.

Women's match started pretty strongly with Alexa Bliss shockingly looking great, but once the eliminations got going they really rushed through them in short order without a whole lot in between each one. Felt like a big win for Lynch, but not sure why it had to be that rushed, especially given the long promo to open the show.

Crews vs. Corbin was worlds better than I thought possible. Possibly both men's best match yet.

Ha that sounds pretty nice. Would've gone but couldn't convince a single non-wrestling fan friend to skip the late games for it. Shocking, I know.

I'm very excited for a long AJ Styles PPV match. Hopefully he begins an extended reign with the title tonight but I could easily see them delaying that. Double Usos action also looks promising. After that? Its going to be a long show.

Exactly what supremebve said. This isn't about pro wrestling. This is about MMA. Its preposterous to think that anyone in any athletic shape is going to step into the highest forum of the sport and succeed without even a background in any of the sports / martial arts that are within the scope of the rules. The Brock talk is just silly. Wrestling is a significant aspect of MMA. Success at the higher amateur level in the country is a pretty formidable base upon which to build.

Did UFC make any extraordinary money here? Haven't yet heard anything suggesting this fight did numbers beyond what would be expected ex-punk. I didn't think expectations were that high to begin with.

You can say he tried something. Not entirely wrong. But the reason he "tried" it here is because Dana & co. saw a potential payday when absolutely nothing about his background, skills or potential suggested a remote possibility of anything more than what we got tonight. If not for his name he'd be "trying" the exact same thing on a minor league level, albeit with the exact same outcome. Not taking anything away from him as by all accounts he legitimately trained for the fight. But let's not pat him on the back for some great accomplishment either. A little perspective never hurts. One might also "try" participating in a discussion without immediately resorting to referring to those in said discussion as losers, but hey, that might also require some gym time.

I thought the Anniversary show was a lot of fun. Dragon Lee/Mascara wasn't quite Atlantis/Sombra from last year, but they did their best to make it memorable and Rush's involvement raises a lot of possibilities even if he came close to outshining the participants. The 2 big trios matches also delivered what they set out to do, particularly the Barbaro/Felino/Casas vs. Atlantis/Caristico/Dorada match. All of the big matches were a breeze to sit through.

ZSJ is someone I've never been able to understand the fuss about. He's smooth and wrestles pretty smartly. Beyond that I think he comes up short in most departments. He offense is incredibly light, and while stiffness is not any kind of prerequisite in wrestling, his offense legitimately doesn't look like it would hurt me or any of my friends. And we're not tough guys. There's zero impressive impact. Most of his spots and chain sequences also look terribly cooperative in that they often look as though he's relying on his opponent to help him through them. It would also help if he developed his selling beyond the glassy eyed / eyes roll back in his head. Great name though.

In the WON obituary there's a great story about a rib Lonnie Mayne & Dutch savage pulled on Fuji in Portland.

The bell might as well be a spot or transition in the match. Unless its clearly broken up with something else occurring beforehand, I'm usually inclined to treat it at all as part of the match.

So it really was that incredible to see this match after hearing about it for so long. Not quite how accurate my initial thoughts are after watching this without context, but with pictures and an imagination, as well as without any time to look back objectively, but here we go. - Loved the opening with Buzz seizing the opening to work the arm after Rich misses an elbow and hits the cage. The arm work here was probably the highlight of the match for me and I only wish it wasn't abandoned so quickly. - They got to the blood very quickly and wasted very little time, space, motion or offense here. Just about everything was conducted in close quarters after the opening lockup, with great pacing and every big shot was sold - Did I mention the blood? Two classic gushers, and bonus points because blondes really do bleed better. - Really dug the PA announcer counting both men down at various points. In some ways I preferred the audio environment here to Magnum vs. Tully, as the screaming and use of the mic there became grating very, very quickly. This never crossed the line from violent to something hokey that took me out of the moment. - Did it live up to expectations? No, its not a five star classic here but its tough for anything to carry that kind of weight for years. My biggest issue is that the match it didn't take me on that much of a ride. They kicked things into high gear from the arm work on and never really relented or changed paces whatsoever. Additionally, the finish felt a bit flat and looked like any of a number of spots we'd seen earlier. Hey, not every match can be an all-timer, even if this is an all-time find. The matches I hold as classics have their ebbs and flows and will generally build to a peak. That's just not what they were aiming for here. ****1/4 feels about right. Its neither here nor there, but the WWE Network is phenomenal. Perhaps the time I spend watching non-live wrestling is often dedicated to older material or recent footage from Japan, but they've given us a ridiculous archive of footage to go along with all of the PPVs for less than I spend on lunch some days. There's always lots to complain about and they could add so much more, but it really is special.

Loved the heel turn. It was a quick, strong injury angle with a clear and loud attack on Gable's leg that was sold well. Apparently on Talking Smack it was announced that American Alpha are out of the title match on Sunday with the winner of an Usos/Hype Bros undercard match on Sunday to face Rhyno & Slater. Really like that to further the Alpha/Usos feud. Hopefully its not rushed and they get ample time for the matches.

Pete, is it available online anywhere these days?

Indeed promoted by one of the magazines, Weekly Pro Wrestling. At one point I had a copy of the show saved in a Youtube playlist, but it was of course removed long before I had a chance to watch. Would definitely like to see what's available if its at all quality.

Not a ton to add here -- Bayley not as fiery as Sting but overcomes that with more natural charisma. As silly as it is to say that Charlotte is not exactly the old man, the name, look and act make it a natural thought. But it seems as though the development of her character and performance as heel champion have really gone under the radar. Very comfortable calling her the best true heel on the roster on the moment, and that's not intended as a slight -- Styles would be but people like him both because he was programmed with Cena and because of how terrific he is in the ring and as an overall performer. Meanwhile Charlotte is simply lout there looking for ways to get a live crowd to dislike and boo her. Its very simple and she's very good at it. Dad should be as proud as he sounds on his podcast. She's also probably come the furthest of the women since they were called up to the main roster. Really fun house show match that I wouldn't mind seeing live.

I was stunned to see an obit, including photo, of Fuji in the NYT today. Didn't think there was any chance he'd merit that recognition.

Reigns's 2015 was really carried by the Bryan & Lesnar matches. The Show Match was solid and the Wyatt stuff towards the end of the year was looked upon more favorably by some than others, but the depth is so much greater this year. His 2016 includes a pair of PPV classics against Styles, as well as the Ambrose/Brock and Ambrose/Rollins triangles on PPV, the Rollins PPV match, really strong TV outings against Rollins, Rusev, Balor and the recent four ways. Throw in the six man tags with the Usos against The Club and you've got a very long list of big performances.

Jesus, that is some high praise. Where is this available?

I don't recall those TV matches but was thinking of straight singles matches rather than giving credit for Mania XXX or the Evolution/Shield tags. No doubt some Bryan singles affairs in that period were solid.

When was the last great Randy Orton match? Anything since Bryan presumably carried him on TV at some point during his run? Kudos to him for taking the abuse he did here, but I couldn't point to anything else he did to make this match interesting.