WingedEagle

The first period that comes to mind is late 96/early 97 with the rise of Austin, Bret's turn and formation of the Hart Foundation all the way through Survivor Series '97. I think you can then essentially skip ahead to the night after Mania 14 with Austin as the focal point of the promotion and take that for a while, perhaps even until late 99 or so? Some others may be able to provide more specific dates there. 2000, with the Radicalz, great stuff from Rock, Foley, HHH and Austin's return building to Mania 17 the following year is also great. From there, the next can't miss period is whenever The Shield and Daniel Bryan started having weekly matches on TV in 2012-13. Even if you don't find much to care about on the rest of the shows, those outings will always deliver and are well worth seeking out.

What are the WALTER matches I need to be seeking out? vs. Dragunov (3/12/17) vs. Riddle (3/12/17) vs. Riddle (Progress 3/26/17) vs. Riddle (7/9/17) vs. Riddle (8/12/17) w/ Thatcher vs. Briscoes (WXW 10/6/17) w/ Thatcher vs. Simmons & Starr (WXW 10/8/17) vs. David Starr (WXW 10/28/17) There are many others if you want some deeper cuts, especially on the tag side, but those are some of my favorites from this year.

Its like Spencers Gifts. I'm guessing neither have a presence in NY? I haven't heard of either.

Legit cracked me up. I actually agree with the comments about Chicago and New York (though being from NY am obviously and unreasonably biased), but would think that the ability to drive here from so many other big cities (Philly, Boston, DC, Toronto) is an advantage. I'm sure they know their markets and Cali may very well be logical, but it doesn't seem like a completely unrealistic endeavor with the right main event. At least for a single event.

Unwitting self-parody is often my favorite. Elsewhere, I missed Smackdown last night but hope to catch it this evening. Apparently no chatter about it here -- anything solid on the show?

Beyond the Suzuki G1 match, off the top of my head I remember loving the Okada match at Dominion, his outings against Ibushi, Tanahashi in the G1 and Nakamura at Wrestle Kingdom. His first WK match at Naito wasn't at the same level as those already mentioned, but a fun match that might be interesting to watch now given the trajectory of both careers.

Rollins vs. Cesaro was a pretty terrific TV match and Rollins's best singles outing in quite a long time. Roman/Elias was a different, also entertaining match and textbook Roman special where he puts over someone lower on the card throughout the match before picking up the win. I also really liked that both matches had clean finishes and set up upcoming TV programs with Rollins & Ambrose vs Sheamus & Cesaro and Roman vs. Joe. I've got no use for this Kane nonsense, but two matches like the above and some mostly harmless filler (save the godawful Bray stuff) make me a satisfied consumer of televised wrestling.

Sleeze, really dug your reviews of the HOP over the years. I'm in 2009 on my PPV rewatch on the Network so it'll take me approximately 17 years at my current pace to get there, but looking forward to it!

Not everything is that simple or necessarily silly. It depends how one defines star. Is it drawing dollars via their commercial endeavors? If so, Conor takes that matchup in a rout. But if you put Cena and Conor on TV next to Kelly Ripa, its very likely that a greater number of non-fans -- my wife, mom, coworkers, etc -- would recognize Cena if not outright know who he is. That doesn't mean his next match will outdraw Conor's. But it may very well mean he is a bigger star and has more of a public profile by some measures. What's so controversial about that?

AJ is very easily the pick here. Which is funny, because a few years ago MIchaels would have easily been my pick. Until seeing AJ on a regular basis in NJPW I really only saw him sparingly, pretty much through picking up the odd ROH DVD here & there and catching certain recommended TNA matches online or on TV over the years. From those choice clips he looked like someone with spectacular athleticism and spots that could shine when given the chance. Having gone back to a lot of his work that I previously hadn't seen, along with everything he's done on the NJPW & WWE runs, it became clear pretty quickly he was a much more diverse and well rounded performer who excelled working babyface and heel, sprint or psychology, and with an incredible variety of opponents. A legitimate candidate for wrestler of this century and a true all-time great. It doesn't hurt his case that going back to a number of Michaels' classics on the Network didn't hold up nearly the same way. Count me among those who viewed him as the runaway all time company performer, which no longer feels like any kind of certainty.

Unreal. Need to wash that taste out of my mouth, but we got Shield/New Day, Usos/Bar and a fantastic Brock/AJ. Good show!

This all sucks.

Survivor Series 2017 was really a terrific show until this match.

Jeez, bring back Cena so that *Angle* can get the rub of eliminating him? Now that is frustrating.

There is absolutely no good reason this match should run past 11. Which means they'll undoubtedly come up with a few terrible ones to do so.

Not much longer.

Roode lives longer than Shinsuke!

I clocked it as 13:17 from the first note of Angle's music until the opening bell. They're definitely working fast tonight.

Great points about the suplexes and F-5. The former were touched on to establish Brock's control but hardly overblown or used as a crutch, while the F-5 is back to being a KILLER move.

Not trolling, but did anyone, anywhere express a desire to see Jinder vs. Brock?

Brock Lesnar vs. AJ Styles Absolutely terrific match and layout. Loved how Brock basically killed him for the first half of the match to build for AJ's comeback, and did they ever give him that comeback. He took basically the entire back half of the match before the finish and got 1-2 legit near falls that had me biting despite knowing there was no chance he was winning, especially that late forearm. Major props to Brock for how he sold the Calf Crusher after building to it with all of the leg work. Loved it. ****1/4

Charlotte vs. Alexa Bliss Decent, inoffensive match that featured a number of big spots -- both hits and misses -- that created some decent tension even with the size disparity. Babyface Charlotte is just such a waste. **1/2 BUT -- we're over 90 minutes from the scheduled show close with only 2 matches to go. Even if Brock/AJ goes long (hopefully) and intros and bell to bell of the man's tag go long, there's still no good reason for us to go to bed late. You can do it!

Heel Charlotte to Babyface Charlotte is nearly as big a downgrade as Jinder to AJ is an upgrade.

Well over an hour with intros. Just let Brock/AJ go north of 15 and I won't complain.