Bierschwale

Daniels did ECW shots as well. He was also brought in at WCW's death door, and worked for WWF as a light heavyweight warm body in '97-'98 (had a fun title match with TAKA) and had tryout matches in 2000-2001, and was part of the Conquistadores angle.

It wasn't on his 5-4.75 list. I meant to ask Loss about it before; it seemed like a bigger drop than even ThunderQueen.

Watched it a few months ago, liked it a good bit. I thought that Shida was fantastic all-around and that Nakajima certainly held her own but that it went a little bit too long. If I gave it a Pitchfork-style rating, something like a 7.8 would feel right (so ***3/4, I guess). Just, just below the "Best New Music"/"MOTYC" level.

Flair/Thesz: 1) AJ Styles, 2) Sasha Banks, 3) Roman Reigns/The New Day. Most Outstanding: 1) Cesaro, 2) Roderick Strong, 3) Jimmy Rave/AJ Styles, Feud of the Year: 1) Kamaitachi vs. Dragon Lee, 2) Sasha Banks vs. Bayley, 3) The Briscoes vs. The Kingdom/Ethan Carter III vs. Rockstar Spud. Tag Team of the Year: 1) The Briscoes, 2) La Dinastia Felino, 3) Burning Wild/The Usos. Most Improved: 1) Darren Young, 2) Bayley, 3) Kamaitachi/Roman Reigns. Best on Interviews: 1) The New Day, 2) Ethan Carter III, 3) John Cena/Rockstar Spud. Most Charismatic: 1) Mark Briscoe, 2) Rush, 3) Dean Ambrose/Sami Zayn. Best Technical Wrestler: 1) Hechicero, 2) Virus, 3) Drew Gulak/Cesaro. Best Brawling Wrestler: 1) Kongo Kong, 2) Roman Reigns, 3) Katsuyori Shibata/Mil Muertes. Best Flying Wrestler: 1) Dragon Lee, 2) ACH, 3) Mike Bailey/Kairi Hojo. Most Overrated: 1) Sexy Star, 2) Seth Rollins, 3) Togi Makabe/Stardust. Most Underrated: 1) Luke Harper, 2) Tama Tonga, 3) Mascara Dorada/El Torito. Promotion of the Year: 1) WWNLive, 2) CMLL, 3) RoH/DDT. Best Non-Wrestler: 1) Xavier Woods, 2) William Regal, 3) Maria Kanellis/Renee Young. Best TV Show: 1) CMLL Super Viernes, 2) NXT, 3) RoH on SBG/Shotgun TV. Best Announcer: 1) Corey Graves, 2) Rich Brennan, 3) Rob Naylor/Dan Wilson. Worst Announcer: 1) Steve Corino, 2) D'Angelo Dinero, 3) Vampiro/Booker T Best Maneuver: Kairi Hojo's diving elbow drop. Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic: Dario Cueto feeding Bael to Matanza. Worst TV Show: Paragon Pro Wrestling. Worst Feud of the Year: Pentagon, Jr. vs. Sexy Star. Worst Promotion: TNA. Best Booker: Ryan Ward. Best Gimmick: Dalton Castle. Worst Gimmick: Vampiro.

He got booked in Beyond's futures tournament from November. Is it all just a weird inside joke?

They just need to shit or get off of the pot with guys like Dalton, Gresham, Hollis, Slim J and so on.

Obligatory Dawkplex post:

Truth is genuinely worthless. As for the other managers, I can't agree at all with someone saying that Maria doesn't CONSIDERABLY add to The Kingdom's act. Mostly because she IS the act.

I could kinda take or leave Veda, but she's certainly someone with a lot of internet fans for whatever true reason.

I don't know how you could watch the Minowaman match and not love Necro.

Because everyone turned on the Usos sometime in July or August last year after their awesome Battleground match against Harper & Rowan, which was better than any tag title match that didn't involve them from this year, for some Godforsaken reason. It did coincide with Stardust's debut and the formation of the Dust Brothers, too, which was exciting at the time until Cody decided to just be the absolute least valuable guy on the roster. Most of those people still love Stardust, though!

The RoH vs. Dylan Approved Southern Jobbers half of last night's episode was fantastic. War Machine looked completely awesome killing the Bullets. I also love the RoH monopoly on redheaded managers continuing to grow, because Taeler Hendrix's reaction shots were the best part of the Lethal/Lynn segment by miles. Rocky Romero tried to ruin that all by being Rocky Romero, but still a really good show.

Anvil & Pillman were Stampeders and hence adopted Canadians.

An idea that I KNOW is flawed but has recurred to me too often to never mention: Could the LHW title have actually been saved with Steamboat as the guy to take it off of Flamingo, instead of Steamer being in the Austin feud for the TV title? Could you have run US-title level feuds with Steamboat as LHW champ, especially with the HW title having so many legitimate heavies as challengers? You can still introduce everyone who'd make weight named by Loss earlier, use the NJ deal to work in a lot of guys who were at the 235 range like Hase and Koshinaka, plus the true juniors (Was there an actual UWA deal or just Watts getting King/Texano for that one-off?), and obviously Armstrong, Eaton, and Pillman are still around. Steamboat had the credibility to keep it from just being a set division, which would then elevate the new guys and so on.

Yeah, it's hard to say exactly what he would call it now that every move has four or five adjectives before it, but it's done with great fluidity and as too big of a spot to write it off. Feels like something that should have become an indie staple spot.

The SummerSlam match with DBS. We all know the story behind that match but it's not like that keeps it from being a ridiculously cool spot.

Bret deserves 3/3 on offense just for the pescado neckbreaker and ringpost figure-4.

The TV show thing reads like a complete red herring within this as an actual story, which is what happened surrounding the woman with whom he had an affair, the domestic violence claims, and whether it's been a recurring issue. I actually think that the worst thing that Dave says or implies is within the TV show part, which is "she was a wrestler so she should understand kayfabe " (also, and not that she was a huge star, but "from years and years back" is a dig at her fame level compared to Honma's... so he should get a pass for having had a more prolific career?). But the way that he trails off on the dinner incident minimizes the hell out of the actual violence and in a way implies that she should be able to handle a kick to the face. Kyoko Ichiki was a pro wrestler, yes, but she's also maybe five feet tall and about 120 pounds. That just sounds so creepy.

I think that Jarrett works if you actually give him a full royal band of merrymakers. It's not Diesel vs. Jarrett, it's Diesel vs. Jarrett, The Roadie, the Blu Twins, Dutch, plus Lawler and any of his cronies. Really any white guy who was in Memphis/SMW who wasn't nailed down could be brought up as a fool for Diesel (and Bret, connecting the Lawler feud) to have to wreck while dumb-ass King Jeff plays the mouse.

Nothing else to say about Dragon-Necro that hasn't already been said, except that I'm sad that neither of them has ever faced Cena. I don't know why that I have the masochistic desire to see JvK eviscerate one of my favorite-ever matches in the Hardy-'Taker ladder match from '02, but I kind of want him to review it. I'm signing my own warrant here.

I agree that there's something to be said for what Lesnar-Reigns-Rollins as an actual third act of the match would have made it. If it's suddenly a single-fall triple threat, then by WWE logic, that means that it's also a no DQ match. Heyman was out there, of course. What if Rollins inserts himself into the match to be met with a Paul E. chairshot? Not to review a match that didn't happen, but a rapid-fire version of the Rumble title match attached to the Lesnar-Reigns match that we did see certainly would have been something else.

Seeing if Michelle could walk the Queen's Road is an intriguing thought.

It's not a big deal at all, and there are many reasons why they wouldn't/shouldn't, but in a perfect world, out of the two American promotions to which NJ has a formal connection, Gedo should always book Kongo Kong-Chris Masters for the GFW title instead of Elgin-Lethal for the ROH title, right? How could anyone vote against Kongo in the Dome?

Not to imply that Luger was uniformly beloved during his active career, but I've always thought that what officially did him in and made him a reviled figure was the death of Liz. And I cannot think of anything more paternalistic and misogynistic and just pathetic in wrestling history. You'd think that Elizabeth was Rosemary Kennedy from how little agency that fans have given her over her personal life. And of course we all now know that her relationship with Savage was much more dysfunctional and emotionally/mentally abusive. But I can't count the number of times that I've seen "Lex killed Elizabeth", particularly in the mid-2000s.

It really doesn't get sadder than Marty in full Rocker dress in WCW in 1998. Especially because, of course, he could still really work.