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I totally agree with this. Even the last match he had against CM Punk was great fun to watch, I vividly remember watching that on my phone on a work break and enjoying it so much. My favourite match of his is probably the one against Hogan at Mania 19. To this day I can't believe how Bret / Pat / Vince screwed up that Wrestlemania match so badly, with the basic psychology being so completely ass backwards. Regardless, he wouldn't crack my top 200, there simply isn't enough matches to gauge it properly, and as said above, I don't think he has ever been in a straight wrestling match.

Different strokes for different folks, but he absolutely makes my top 10. He'd not only make my top 10 based on what I consider to be good wrestling, he's possible crack my top 10 wrestling personalities.

I prefer to think of him as the most horrible GREAT wrestler Dylan hit the nail on the head earlier with the Shamrock comments: I remember being EXCITED for his match against Big Show back in 2006. There's something about Sabu which makes him appealing to watch. We all know he can be clumsy and awkward (some of his spot set ups in FMW and ECW are the worst offenders - there was also a cringe moment in the above Big Show match with a table) but as noted elsewhere, it's always exciting. He sells brilliantly, he punches brilliantly and I don't think he gets enough credit for tackles and holds, it's not all crash bang.

I'm calling it now: Cena will wrestle at Wrestlemania 32.

WCW in 2001 was pretty darn good with a stripped back booking approach.

I don't think this would work. The Rumble surprise pop is always cued by the familiar music hitting, AJ wouldn't have that. It would create that awkward silence where people are trying to work out who it is. Sure they could have his face on the video screen, but his image isn't as iconic as say, Sting at Survivor Series when it all went dark and then we saw the white face paint. The only way I can see a Rumble debut work for AJ is if he were entrant #2, allowing a slow entrance (sans the countdown) for it all to digest, the commentators to get their hype in, etc, and a calmer ring for AJ to shine some.

Agreed, this is the match I was looking forward to the most and it delivered. AJ will be sorely missed in this environment but it was awesome whilst it lasted.

I love the Mankind match from Shotgun in 97 for what it was, a 10 minute match similar to the matches Bret had with JPL which would incorporate a more wild aspect at times. Being a throw away television match in early 97, both were protected with a lame non finish though. I would have loved to have seen babyface Bret work a proper programe with heel Mankind in 1996 / 1997. You have to believe they would have created a classic or two. I can't see that. Mankind's strength was his bumping and selling. I don't think Bret had enough of a high end kind of offense to highlight Foley. At least with Shawn he could fly all over the place and attack Mankind that way. What is Bret gonna do? Wear him down? Well maybe we would see more of the "stab fork in the affected area" kinda psychotic selling from limbwork. You don't think Bret delivered high end offence? If Bret worked a style similar to the above quoted matches, coupled with a meanness that we saw against, say Jerry Lawler in 1993 Summerslam against 1996 Mankind, I have to believe they would have created magic given a decent platform. As I said, the 1997 match was good fun for what it was, just imagine the dial turned up.

A couple of years back I was really hoping for Daniel Bryan vs Brock Lesnar... Didn't Daniel Bryan recently say that's the match he wants or am I imagining this?

RVD / Austin happened on Smackdown in 2001 when RVD was pretty hot. Stupid they didn't pull the trigger with RVD in 2001. I know there are countless arguments for pushing / not pushing people but RVD in 2001 is one I am totally behind. Girls wanted him, guys wanted to be him, he looked like a film star for your marketing, was young, healthy... the only thing he had going against him was an inability to act. He was put in some stupid situations where you could tell he was out of his comfort zone and thus, his square peg didn't fit into their round hole. It would have been interesting to see if he would have evolved his in ring act had he been given the ball, or would he have still settled into the routines like he did too. I always cite his TSN interview with Michael Landsberg as proof positive you could have put him on any mainstream talk show and he would have held his own. EDIT: Sorry, took this well off topic.

You gotta give the crowd a reason to care about a match before giving them the match. This is a match on Raw in 2015 we're talking about right?

http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/27903-what-would-have-been-a-bigger-draw-mike-tyson/?hl=%20mike%20%20tyson Goldberg vs Austin at Mania 19 comes to mind as both were under contract. But the reality is, as big as Goldberg was, 2003 was pretty damn far removed from that 1998 -2001 white hot period and both men have cooled off by then due to lack of exposure. It would have done good business, but wouldn't have been a record breaker. Now in some parallel universe if there was a cross promotional show in 1999 with this headlining, that's a different story. But I've always imagined the two having a massive clash of styles though, I think the match would have been rotten in execution. Conversely, Rock vs Michaels could have theoretically happened at many points in 2003 and once in 2004. I think they would have had an excellent match as their styles would have matched nicely.

I think there is a lot of validity to this post. Elsewhere, WWE have done nothing with Sasha on TV since she has been on Raw. People in general are fickle and will turn on you at the drop of a dime. "We want Sasha" was partly a rebellious cry. Like many things, once popular or trendy, it suddenly becomes less cool. Like a small band who hits it big. Or the Capital City Goofball.

The biggest money match is Rock vs Brock, by a large margin to anything else. I'd be excited for the match to see how it goes down, I'd be excited to see Rock and Heyman go at it on the mic... The whole concept excites me greatly to be honest. I'd say pull the trigger... With Reigns vs HHH and Undertaker vs Cena as the other marquee matches, I envision a sell out.

Yeah I clocked that as well. He actually pauses for a split second before saying "WWE world championship belt" as if his brain just had a fart.

I've said in the past Taker vs Cena was a big money match, but that was when the streak was alive. I still think there is a lot of value in this match, they just need a creative reason to book the match. It can be done.

That's what I like about Baron Corbin - I legitamently think the guy is a cock. Thus, he has probably worked me good and proper, so have WWE in their presentation of him. The bastards.

For me, I always associated the hate with his 2002 return. He had put on so much muscle mass, he wasn't the same in the ring anymore. 2002 and particularly 2003 were bad in ring years for him where his ring work wasn't justifying his spot. Especially highlighted by Kurt Angle tearing it up on the blue side.

Away from the danger aspect (I agree it's not smart to get jacked in what looked like the jaw first and then head multiple times) in today's environment in a throwaway bit of television by a character who cannot get any comeuppance, it's stupid. People try to say she shows ass, but she really doesn't. The Ronda thing... a bit of vanity booking. Being thrown in the mud pit by Vickie... Vickie was out the door. In fact if you look back at her whole career, from the days she couldn't work a mic (she can now, very well, but it has limited consequence) and was as plain looking as you get, and Vince was adamant in media interviews Steph was on television because she deserves it, up until now, Steph may be the biggest vanity project in wrestling history.

Also, Jake Roberts treatment of Liz in 1991 was far worse than what he did to Savage.