WingedEagle

Haven't thought much about my list past the top 10-20, but can't imagine how Angle wouldn't make the bottom quarter. Way too many terrific matches with a variety of opponents as touched on in the post above. I see the points many make in their criticism as at times he could become very robotic, but absolutely cannot see how some people seem to paint him as everything wrong with wrestling. There were just too many great and varied matches.

Is this like TNM? Used to love that back in the day.

Warms the heart to hear you found Ozaki the standout there. Either she or Bull Nakano is my favorite personality in joshi, but Oz is much more subtle about everything she does and never does anything without meaning. She's the best supporting actress who often steals the show.

He was really solid in the Shield, but upon turning face and the split he developed that twitchy persona which is incredibly hard to take seriously. His offense has also become incredibly routine, with the plancha and rebound clothesline and a lot of weak punching in between. The character is really terrible though.

Absolutely. Just confident we can say a firm no with respect to Mania 32. There will come a day when that call isn't meant with laughing or a hang up. Not sure how the conversation is resolved, but am sure it will happen.

Fully confident a day will come when they offer Punk big money for a return. He may laugh it off then, but definitely will until he gets the MMA thing out of his system and loses whatever heat he had with wrestling at the end.Will make for a fun story at that time.

What was the trouble in pinning down a date on this one? Seems unusual for that period.

Of course not. But speaking or documenting those words at a company are different from approaching creative with that mindset.

Implied is much looser than an attempt to frame it as an outright quote, much less without attribution. Would believe almost any implication.

Call me crazy but it feels like New Day lost all their steam the past few weeks with the Nickelodeon humor. Cringeworthy now.

It actually is a bit of a big deal when you factor in that the show also doesn't have Orton, Rollins, Bryan and perhaps another couple names that would round out the top half of the card. Forces quite a bit of reshuffling

Cena reportedly out 6-9 months for shoulder surgery. This show is absolutely snakebitten. Really curious what direction things go now, and whether this contributed to a last minute push for the NJ crew. There'd been talk about Styles & Nak going back a bit so I can't imagine they all of a sudden upped the ante, but it is coincidental.

Not buying it.

It's not hard, they just haven't been doing this at all lately. Just eliminate them in a way that teases a big Mania feud that people would be excited for. Remember when Micheals eliminated Angle in 2005 to setup their Mania program? Or Brock/Goldberg in the 2004 Rumble? They never do that anymore... Agree you can absolutely set up a marquee match that way, but no one there was debuting in the Rumble. Just not sure how you don't blunt the momentum of the debut by having the segment close with that person coming up short.

How would you book an impressive Rumble debut without having the eventual elimination bring things down? Pretty crazy to see talent & the company tweeting about the NJ crew today.

This is really incredible to see. http://www.wwe.com/inside/are-aj-styles-shinsuke-nakamura-karl-anderson-doc-gallows-coming-to-wwe

Not sure if it makes any sense but Jake's psychology and work translates better on the character front than it does in the ring. Undeniably has a unique presence, delivery and way of carrying himself but it doesn't seem to yield great matches.

Very curious what, if anything, signing the NJ crew says about Cena's future prospects. Perhaps they're looking to truly develop NXT into a second touring brand and run bigger venues than ROH. Or maybe they have a heads up about a huge hole opening up at the top of the card and got panicked about talent there. Seems unlikely that they'd slot Styles & Nak at that level on the big show from day one, but will be interesting to see the year develop.

Pretty awesome and some absolute old school classics there. Those boxes are just spectacular as its a real shame what became of event posters and boxes over the last 15 years. I rented those Supertapes as often as I could.

Reports are that both Nak & Styles gave notice, so if true, someone had to take the win. They both have bookings through February and perhaps a bit further out. Doesn't mean anything is happening in the next couple weeks, but business in the Orlando territory may get a big shot in the arm.

I actually rewatched the top 2 matches from last year's show this weekend as well. All year long I had Nak-Ibushi as a top 3 MOTYC and absolutely nothing about it this time around was on that level. Similarly, and much moreso to my surprise, is that I found the same thing about the G1 Finals with Tanahashi vs. Nakamura. At the time I didn't think I'd seen a better match since maybe Bryan-Cena but at least far as 2015 goes it is now comfortably below Brock vs. Reigns, Bryan vs. Reigns annnnnnnnnd Tanahashi vs. Okada from Wrestle Kingdom 9. For the first 15 minutes or so you're watching them go through the motions, which is fine when they do it because of their history, the event and what they bring to the table, but when Tanahashi hits the High Fly Flow from the Dome across the road to Korakuen and going forward, between Tanahashi's leg work, the first-ever Rainmaker kickout, Okada's perfectly timed counters and an ultimately satisfying conclusion (which along with the post-match very clearly set the stage for this year, much like Mania's 4-5), it was my favorite outing of theirs as well as my #2 MOTY. Hope to watch the top 2 matches tomorrow and the rest of the show throughout the week.

Solid match with a nice babyface performance from Arn, but some odd decisions here. Muta wasn't at all interested in selling the arm that Arn was working on. Rising babyface Keiji Muto would've made a better dance partner here as he could've played the underdog role that the Great Muta just wasn't designed for. Given that, this should've been about 5-7 minutes shorter and at a quicker pace. Solid outing from Arn and the J-Tex crew along with a nice pop on the title change, but more what could've been than what was. 3 days into 2015 and I'm only a day behind on this wrestling 365 business. Raw & WK10 count in real time right? **3/4

It really something the see the main event of Sam Muchnick's retirement show. Loss hit the big points here as this was not your typical Flair vs. Dusty. The matwork and struggle over a gutwrench suplex really stood out, as did Dusty's punching and the clean simplicity of the booking in each fall. I don't recall if Dusty is remembered as an all time puncher but he looked like one here. The work in each set up the finish that followed very nicely as well as the match's overall progression with the knee work finally paying off as the deciding factor. This doesn't rival Starrcade '85 which remains my favorite Flair-Dusty encounter and a legit classic, but its not far off and for all we know may have reached that level without clipping. ****1/4

1. Watch 80s Ric Flair. I haven't done this seriously in years. Its time to reconnect. This is a bit of a cheat as I confirmed the request with Jewish Santa and have quite a bit of it on the way. 2. Convince my friend in Dallas to go to Mania if I feel like spending travel money, or convince another friend to come watch it here. Its our Super Bowl and none of my friends are into wrestling. Someone will have to suck it up and join me. 3. Write my GWE ballot in pencil, on carbon paper and revisit it at least once later in the year after ticking through some older material. 4. Get to the Garden or Barclays for a show this year. Its a few minutes on the train so no excuse. Will owe the wife a musical or something. Glad I didn't go to the Christmas show though. 5. Post more about what I watch. Made great headway in the '92 MDA and stopped midway through '93 even though I'm now near the end of '94. Must correct this. 6. Not be overwhelmed by what's on the to-watch list. Will get there eventually and nothing wrong with having things to look forward to. Happy New Year, mf'ers.

I watched all of the Memphis 80s material a few years ago. Enjoyed a lot of it and thought it was a very easy set to get through. At the same time, nothing I saw felt like all-time material. Fast forward to the last couple weeks when I decided to rewatch some choice matches from the period. Lo and behold I'm all of sudden seeing the light on Jerry Lawler and rating Funk even higher than before. Also feeling a whole lot of Ted Dibiase love, even if I can't block out most of his work in Japan. Point is I can only imagine how off base my rankings will look like come Mania as opposed to 6 or 12 months later. Will definitely submit my list but if I can muster the effort will be just as eager to revisit it a little bit down the road after giving fresh eyes to some pros.