WingedEagle

That's probably the best assessment. Number of great matches being weighted so heavily bugged me a lot, especially if it was more important than how someone performs. Some people were just in positions to have a TON of great matches and to have those seen by a lot of people. Others did not. The folks who didn't get those chances aren't necessarily worse than those who did. Being in position means they still have to take advantage of that opportunity. And doing so may very well be why they're so often put in such a position.

Beyond stoked for this and going to jump on it as soon as I get in the car. The podcast backlog I'll have from all of this a week from now is daunting, but hey, GWE.

Sleeze, you are my man. How great was Baba against Hansen and Race at this point? No qualms at all about putting Hansen (or anyone, for that matter) over strongly and didn't even need to lay down for it. He's Mr. All Japan and just getting rolled by this Texan beast shows he's a force to be reckoned with. He may not be quick or sudden enough to pull out offense with as much impact as the Lariat, but between his chops, legsweeps, boots and suplexes he could cut down any opponent and it was all super over. The very definition of an amazing limited worker.

Do people actively dislike this match or is it overlooked given that the '83 draw is an all-timer? Certainly started a bit slow but as Sleeze noted, when this does pick up they put together a really solid title match that holds up incredibly well. Bonus points for Jumbo's curls here as well.

Echo those thoughts for Ashura Hara. Him, Ishikawa & that ilk were all late bubble cuts for me that I really wanted to make room for quite couldn't. Vital players in a ton of great matches in big feuds.

Didn't rank Hamaguchi but really happy to see that others did. Feels like a superior Akitoshi Saito who never really had his own classics but but played an excellent role in a ton of multi-man matches.

I know its all good fun. Some wackiness I can wrap my head around, some I can't. We all have our hangups right? I'm sure no one who posts here would try to troll things, and we'll all have a few names on our list at the bottom of the overall. That's just how it goes. But this top 10 business I can still find baffling

I'm not going to be able to unsee this Full House gimmick now, especially with middle Tanner on the cover of Us Weekly this week. As for this Kendrick gimmick? I know its all in good fun and everyone has their presumably legit opinions, but its the kind of thing that makes it hard to take the results seriously.

Are you going to add back photos for those below 499?

Can't lie, seeing a podcast that long is a huge buzzkill. Just need to be prepared to make dents and get through it in time. But loving it so far. Makes the commute and traffic a whole lot more tolerable. Oh believe me it's a buzz kill for me as well. Going in to this I wanted it to be the "concise" GWE pod. Silly me Ha I bet. Absolutely no clue how you guys block out that much time. A huge help is also listening at 2x speed. Don't lose anything but helps you churn through material a bit quicker. 3x sounds like listening to a cartoon though. Just can't go that far.

Can't lie, seeing a podcast that long is a huge buzzkill. Just need to be prepared to make dents and get through it in time. But loving it so far. Makes the commute and traffic a whole lot more tolerable.

We should probably just make everybody change their avatar to the pic of the lowest ranked guy they were high voter on. Scarlet letter the shit out of this place and shame everyone. It would be glorious. That's a great idea......unless you're me.....the guy who's the high voter on someone who played a pro-apartheid gimmick. You're right. Then its the best idea ever. Let's make PWO great again.

I was about to change mine to Teranishi but looks like the pics have been taken down.

I'm an hour in and very much enjoying this. Traffic on the drive home tonight will dictate how much further I make it before the weekend, but already loving Marty's list and appreciate where Kelly's coming from even he's determined to make war with Japan.

We should probably just make everybody change their avatar to the pic of the lowest ranked guy they were high voter on. Scarlet letter the shit out of this place and shame everyone. It would be glorious. This is absolutely brilliant. Would happily put Teranishi as my avatar. So far him and Reigns are the only 2 on my list to pop up. As much as I don't love ranking Reigns at this stage, he was half of 2 classics and that's not something I could simply dismiss.

I expected Mistico to get a lot more love. Probably shows what I know about lucha, but figured he'd rank on a number of ballots.

Christian Rock? I was thinking that was more calendar material.

How often did Bruno or Graham make it Florida when they were champ though? Would seem at that point like its not a two way street.

I might very well agree with that. 5/25 gets all the love whereas the July match seems very much overlooked.

Wouldn't it be to Graham's interest to keep Backlund a regular in Florida, or at least no more than a special attraction in NY?

Not really NXT at this point, but Enzo & Cass are on Austin's new podcast. No earth-shattering insights, but a very fun listen.

I seem to recall Meltzer had a really fascinating piece (maybe more) about some of these shenanigans -- perhaps in connection with a Moolah obit or related story? To be fair, unless any of the current female crew has really gone digging outside company archives they probably wouldn't have any idea about the history there. Was Laurinaitis scouting for the boys or himself?

I think this is the key point. Perhaps its somewhat more formalized now or there's greater awareness, but it doesn't necessarily mean there's any dramatic shift in the relationship or approach.

So I finally started Backlund's book this week and thus far its really terrific. Very detailed and well laid out. Its also not at all choppy and a very easy read, as his co-author clearly did a great job. Big recommendation for anyone on the fence. I had a question about his move to New York. So he has a successful run in Florida for Eddie Graham and apparently does well for Muchnick in St. Louis. Why would Graham recommend him to Vince Sr. as a potential babyface champion? Wouldn't that ensure he'd almost never be able to headline with him? Seems like those interests are a bit at odds.