concrete1992

I answered the question based on being in the GWE part of the forum. And that's a far easier question I think with it being CM Punk. Think they both have the fun addition where the AEW runs probably helped their perception with rounding out some of their later period careers.

Personally? I think this is a good episode of the podcast

I haven't watched a lot of Chono but the G1 Climax 1992 probably removes him from consideration. If that's the good stuff then I can't imagine ever buying in.

I don't think I foresaw a few years back that Claudio would come out of WWE and have enough juice to climb up the big board but he's doing just that. The Eddie Kingston match from SCOH this year is wonderful and is looking like we are going to be able to close a long open indie arc in Ring of Honor. Those two are 100% two great flavors that taste great together and they understand how to get the most out of one another despite being deeply different wrestlers. I think he's been largely good in AEW but the ROH run is going to allow him to spread his wings again.

I'm going to have bad dreams about this tournament

Feel like my wrestling watching has been a little weird recently but myself and Dan talked about wXw's 16 Carat Gold from 2011!

I think this is a good podcast that you should listen to and I don't care who knows it: https://twitter.com/wdkwpn/status/1612656660727664640

A bit disappointed as our last few episodes have been our lowest listened yet but think they are probably our best! New episode out now talking about the NWA title tournament after ECW left them in the wind.

Love the Yano shoutout as one of the great tourny tools. Has a role and just crushes it. Watched him in the NJPW Intercontinental Title tournament recently and there he was by far the standout. Not just a goofy wrestler but also clearly the one who cared the most about building things up. Wish MVP had done the same but what are you going to do.

Doing a wrestling podcast talking about tournaments, I felt like I should make a thread to discuss some of the thoughts that come from that in the context of Greatest Wrestler Ever. Being a great tournament doesn't necessarily take a unique skillset, but it does put wrestlers in a position where they have to carry a throughline across a variety of opponents versus a feud where they can build off one another. The format is something I value though as it creates something that is more self-contained. Ideally it gives you a glimpse of a wrestler against a few different folks and how they approach in a somewhat condensed period of time, in a specific context. Now that might be one night or a couple months but usually we are looking at something that spans a whole year or something. It creates a quasi-snapshot of a wrestler as well. I won't expect folks to put huge stock in being a good-great tourney wrestler but it I'll continue to value it throughout the process. I'm interested in who folks think are among the best at crafting tournament performances, I also want to use the space as I see folks in different context's and head they end up stacking up. But first, the folks I consider immediately, most being modern: Necro Butcher - Too many deathmatch tournaments to name and his precence nearly elevates every single one of them Chris Hero - Someone that has had the opportunity to be in All The Tournaments. That also leads to him being fundemental to the history of certain tournaments such as TPI where he goes from participant to then into a couple of the more modern versions, The Guy. Similarly with 16 Carat, became the crux of that. Then have to mention his SCI 2015 performance which is nerdball stuff but one of the great little tourney runs. Shibata - Defined a style for the G1 with Ishii but also managed to work bigger epics in that tournament structure. There is a limited amount of work here but I don't think any one wrestler has defined an annual tournament quite like him.

Tony couldn't stop talking about NJPW being involved it felt lol. A Strong alignment (in more ways than one) I think would be an immediate win for everyone. Tom Lawlor wrestling in pure rules would rock. Frankly, $10/month for new Briscoe matches is going to get me if they can commit to 1 or 2. Would love to them run some smaller venues not as a way to make it look lesser than AEW but definitely different. I think the production has been great for the PPVs. Also hoping they find a way to get Shane Taylor involved in all the promotions. Just an absolute stud.

The set-up for the Briscoes versus FTR was pretty poor. More of an output guy myself though Overall, another great PPV from ROH. It is the easiest gig in the game to book for this promotion. Just book a match between two of the best teams of the past 20 years, then book a bunch of stuff that sounds good that you don't actively have to build towards, I love it. For the Honor Club business, I could be absolutely swindled into paying $10/month I just wish this hadn't been built up like it was a big thing. If this was announced today and not on the scrum I would be all over that.

We are chatting MAW again bby!

Thank you! Dan and I have been having a blast. Been fun to give myself an excuse to bounce around in my wrestling watching.

The next two episodes of Talking Tourneys are our best yet! Dan and I are hitting our stride and I hope you join the ride.

Out here talking NJPW's Intercontinental Championship Tournament. You know, the MVP one

Feel like Ultimo praise was so high that he's become underrated again. Now, that means he's more like a top 300 wrestler versus a top 100 or top 500 but still, he's not THAT bad.

New talking tourneys on the AAA Triplemania Mask Tournament! https://twitter.com/wdkwpn/status/1587067402470232070

Talking Tourneys is BACK with another one talking King of the Ring 93

New Talking Tourneys talking Super J-Cup 1994

It is a sort of crossover episode of Q and T Are and Talking Tourneys as I enjoy two have my favorite wrestling podcasters to talk Black Label Pro's TurboGraps24 (the guys also break down some of the recent DDT activity which is also great)

Will say more at later point (probably) but ranks SO high on Random Match Theory. Anything Buzz I throw on is going to be a great Buzz performance it seems. Sometimes that leads to a great match, sometimes that leads to him killing a jobber, other times you get matches like the Mike Jackson match brought up last post where he shows a little ass. Buzz Sawyer, great at showing ass

There is a much bigger Butch Reed post in me but for now I will say he's a fringe wrestler based on what I've seen from 83-85 (up to the 6/24 Flair match). That seems generally to be considered his peak so I'm a little concerned that stuff like Doom isn't going to carry him into more of a lock but we will see. Going through, his pros to me are that he is a great athlete who figured out how to use his literal strength to his strengths. I think he is a more natural babyface than heel, the latter which is seemed to take him a little while to figure out everything from how to adapt to offense to how to carry himself. Eventually he really was a real POS. One of the best press slams of all time, got to hand it to him there. The main con to me is that I don't find him dynamic. His charisma goes a long way to making things come off better than they should but there isn't enough juice in the engine at times to take things that are good into that next territory. In the grand scheme, I haven't seen much high-end Butch through that period though. The 12/25/83 tag with Neidhart against Mangum and Mr.Wrestling II is maybe one of my favorite wrestling matches I've ever seen so that's the type of match that makes me not want to move Butch into the "probably not" category. And then there are just the performances where he doesn't do a ton but provides a strong presence with matches featuring Mangum and Hacksaw.

After watching about 10 Dump matches (plenty of them against Crush Gals so not a huge amount of variety), I'm not inclined to think she will make my list. Biggest thing against her is that she has this incredibly menacing aura but doesn't back it up with her hands. When she has a weapon, looks like she is about to commit a homicide, but her finish is a soft as a pillow lariat. I probably put too much emphasis on it, I'll admit that. But it sticks out so badly to me. Then there is the general house style of her matches features ton of interference. I'm not opposed to interference on its face but it typically infects every part of the match to the point it breaks up a ton of flow. When I think GWE, I feel like they either need to be S Tier at at least one thing or A-B Tier at a good amount of things and Dump feels like an A Tier aura with not a ton else to lean on. Maybe she really pops outside of Crush Gals stuff...but my breath is not being held.

NEW SHOW ALERT! Okay, I was extremely excited to get this off the ground with Dan Rice. We will be talking pro wrestling tournaments from across time and space on Talking Tourneys. It is a format of wrestling we are all about and excited to see folks responses. If you have recommendations for tournaments, let us know! We started with Tournament of Death 3 and going to a more prestigious tournament next go around so nothing is off limits https://soundcloud.com/wedontknowwrestling/talking-tourneys-1-czws-tournament-of-death-3-bannedmy-ass