stomperspc

I thought it was a fun show and hope they make the NXT specials a semi-regular occurrence. The idea of doing a special one once a quarter (which they have mentioned as a possibility) seems like the perfect amount. Anything more would be too much given the talent they have there now. That was evidenced by tonight's show largely being filler outside of the three promoted matches. Cesaro/Zayne was good but not in the top tier of 2014 matches so far for me. Felt like they could,have chopped off about five minutes without losing anything and they likely would have benefited from a tighter a match. The big spots (uppercut on Zayne's between the ropes dive, top rope hurricanrana, Zayne's dive, ect.) were all great. I am not a big fan of the "kickout at one" spot mainly because it seems so unnecessary. They would have gotten the same reaction had he kicked out at two and then did his fired up new-say-die routine. The ladder match was good and better than I expected. It felt like a big match. For that matter, so did Paige/Emma. The hype video for the woman's match was really well done and something they could do more often on the main shows. Main event was one of the more crisply-executed ladder matches I've seen in a while which is a real credit to both guys. They also avoided the slow ladder-climbing stuff and I really liked Bo scrambling to get up the ladder two seconds before the finish. Usually there is a battle up top before the finish or the other guy is nowhere to be seen, which made the way they handled the ending stick outl. I am not overly concerned about the two glitches in the stream. The big thing for me is that when the stream was working for 95% of the show, there was zero buffering and zero quality issues. I have been an MLB.tv subscriber for years and while overall they do a fantastic job, you do oncee in a while run into some issues with buffering and having to settle for a lower quality picture. The fact that WWE was able to pull of a great looking stream of a live event with the feed only going out (shortly) twice is impressive. I am confident that there won't be any major issues with WrestleMania.

I have no idea what you are talking about. Help me out. Quack's interview was pretty much just 40 minutes of him saying if you don't get the great angle he's doing then you aren't smart enough to be a fan of Chikara. As I said in the thread on the BOARD~! he sounded like a local community theater director who thinks he's the next Fellini. I didn't get that impression from the interview. Quack certainly comes off as pretentious. At the same time, I thought a lot of the underlying points he made were interesting even if I did not buy all them. I see a lot of people getting worked up over him continually referring to wrestler as performance art. I am not sure how pro wrestling is not a performance art by the standard definition. Quack saying that pro wrestling is one of the best (that might not have been the exact term he used) forms of performance art could certainly be viewed as a pretentious statement, but I am not sure how categorizing wrestling in general as performance art is inaccurate. I don't regularly follow Chikara because the presentation style is not my ideal style and the wrestling is hit or miss, although I can see why some people really like it. From a creative/booking standpoint, I think Chikara gets what pro wrestling is traditionally about more so than a lot of other places. Indie wrestling is a niche of a niche to begin with. The fact that at the end of the day they were able to get a huge reaction to the return angle at National Pro Wrestling Day in front of a decent sized indie crowd is a creative accomplishment. I thought the core of the angle itself also didn't stray very far all from the basics of wrestling angles, even with all the cutesy and ironic coating on top. The long layoff almost certainly did nothing to help them financially (likely the opposite) and I would be surprised if it is any sort of impetus for a big financial turnaround. I guess the pretentiousness part that bothers others just doesn't bother me that much. I have a younger brother who was a musical theater major in college so I have been around a lot of pretentious artistic people in my life. Despite that pretension, a lot of them still are admittedly talented and creative people. I tend to feel the same about Quack/Chikara.

The Usos/Langston spear/dive sequence was ridiculous. I agree, really fun match. Main Event has had a few matches I have really liked this year like this one and Del Rio vs. Sin Cara from a few weeks back.

Titan vs. Virus (CMLL - 1/29) I was hyped for this and it didn't disappoint. Usual great Virus mat work and Titan holds up his end very well. Everything was very well executed. I don't want to spoil too much other then just to say it is a very we'll worked Lucha title match with excellent mat work, well placed flying spots, and some very good near falls. Probably moves ahead of Wyatt/Bryan for my favorite match so far this year.

According to the latest Observer, international (meaning non Japan) iPPV buys are topping out at around 1,500. That's not only the U.S., but Europe and everywhere else too. They are doing about 100,000 total worldwide for the biggest shows, which is great obviously, but 99.9% of it is coming from Japan. New Japan has grown exponentially in Japan since 2011, no doubt, but the growth abroad is still tiny and really just the hardest of the hardcore. Agreed. However, if New Japan is serious about running the US sometime in the next couple of years as they have indicated having Punk as the US headliner on those cards would be their best bet to not have it end in disaster. There is a good chance that the talk of running the US soon is all bluster, of course. If they are determined to do so, getting their feet wet by running a smallish, well-promoted tour with few shows headlined by Punk in places like Chicago and New York would seemingly give them their best chance at making such a risk worthwhile. There are a lot of question marks in that statement, but the point is it is probably not ridiculous to think that New Japan might reach out to Punk because they see the potential for him to help them in the US market. Whether that is prudent or not is another subject altogether.

Sorry, that was me. I kept trying to post on Friday but continually got an IPS Driver Error. My vote is for is for the Pequeno Reyes del Aires cibernetico from 1/11 CMLL Guerreros del Ring. Really fun, all-action match with a bit of an abrupt finish due to the injury to Astral. Lots of great moves, most everything was hit smoothly, and it had a nice flow to it with well-placed eliminations. Shockercito did not do a whole lot but what he did do tended to be pretty phenomenal. I thought Electrico, Astral, and Demus 3:16 all looked strong as well.

Oliver John vs. Timothy Thatcher (Wrestling Cares Association – 6/29/2013) Wrestling Cares is a promotion run by Les Thatcher where their main selling point – at least in 2013 – is a year-long tournament with a lot “big name” indy guys involved. For some goofy reason, each match is contested under “most falls in ten minutes wins”. That sounds like it will be a disaster but most of the better guys in the tournament have found ways to utilize the stipulations or work around them without resorting to inexplicable falls 2 minutes in. This is the opening match of the first round for the second block and is easily the best match in the tournament I have watched so far. John and Thatcher had a fun match in January in APW that was entirely built around a headlock. This match is worked more worked-shoot style and they are surprisingly adept at it. It makes sense to build a match with these particular stipulations around submission and knockout attempts because in theory that strategy is going to lead to quicker falls than working an opponent over in a more traditional US pro wrestling manner. The work is also very good. John shows some good striking that I haven’t seen a lot from him in prior matches. The submission attempts are not necessarily state of the art but for the most part they are pulled off smoothly (save for a couple of slower submission attempts by Thatcher late in the match). I thought they did a good job not only make the fall system work, but also utilizing the clock in an effective and entertaining manner. The match would have benefited from being contested under different rules in terms of no pins and a point system to award rope breaks and takedowns, but I thought they did the best they could with the rules they were given. I’d definitely recommend checking this out – it is probably my favorite US indy match of 2013 and is very good in a unique way.

Yea, I was just about to mention that. Chi-Town Rumble has the first 1989 Flair/Steamboat match, a good Luger/Windham US title match, and an entertaining Loser Leaves town six-man with both Midnight Express teams. Plus the two major singles titles changed hands. WrestleWar is really about the main event but there the US and World singles titles change hands again. GAB has Flair/Funk, Sting/Muta, Luger/Steamboat, and War Games all of which are good (or better) matches. WrestleWar is the weak link in that chain but the great main event might be enough to hold it up as a "great" PPV. At least everything else on that card was kept short.

I think the term territory does have a specific place and time connotation to it. That’s the point I was trying to make earlier in the thread. Promotions that were territories existed when pro wrestling in the United States operated under a territorial system. No more territorial system means no more territories. It is sort of a semantics debate, but I do think there is also a real distinction too between territories and regional promotions that came after. The main distinction is that the regional promotions are not bound by the same constraints that territories were but there is more open competition with other regional promotions and national promotions. Memphis survived being swallowed up by a national promotion so they essentially transitioned from a territory to a regional promotion. There is not necessarily an exact date because the death of the territorial system was not an instant occurrence – it was a gradual shift. That’s why I hesitate to call SMW a territory because it didn’t operate under a territorial system. SMW used a lot of the elements found in territories – a regular loop, rotating talent, and local television – but it operated under a system in the United States where there were two national promotions who toured nationally and had national television. The competition and the existence of national promotions is the distinction between territories and regional promotions/local promotions/current indies. SMW was a regional promotion but they also had to directly compete with both WWF and WCW with TV and live events. In 1978 in Knoxville, there was just Southeast Championship Wrestling for wrestling fans. In 1993 in Knoxville, there was SMW operated regionally along with WWF and WCW operated nationally and coming to town as well. I think that’s a big enough difference between the two promotions to warrant two different terms. SMW was certainly different than your once-a-month indie promotion. I’d call it a touring regional promotion or something along those lines. ECW was a national promotion later on in their existence. They were largely an unsuccessful national promotion but they ran in enough places and had exposure in enough places (through TV and PPV) that I think they definitely have to be considered national. They just weren’t that successful with their expansion efforts. Like jdw said, there are a lot of similarities to AWA at the end. I’d group both ECW and AWA in the “unsuccessful national promotions” bin. ROH is more or less the current equivalent of those two today. They have enough national visibility via TV and tour in enough different places that they are a national promotion, even if they are far less successful/visible than the other national promotions.

I think there is a difference between "territory" and "local/regional promotion" in the way each term is generally used. To me the word territory specifically refers to the regional set-up before WWF, JCP & AWA really started expanding and before cable TV brought wrestling television national. Territory is a time/era-specific concept. Once promotions went national and once WWF was successful in doing so, the territory concept was gone. Promotions like Memphis continued to exist as a local promotion in the sense that they only promoted locally, had local TV, ect. It was not a territory in the old sense because that system was obsolete and the National promotions did not respect territorial boundaries. WCW and WWF ran Memphis as national promotions and Memphis continued as a local promotion in a way not really all that different from the way most independent promotions exist today. Anyway, Memphis survived every being taken over as most territories were and continued on as a regional promotion. SMW was a local or regional promotion since it came after the dawn of national promotions. Any independent group out there today running one localized area is a local or regional promotion. ECW started as a regional promotion but expanded nationally even though those efforts were a mixed bag and contributed to their eventual demise.

I agree that Cena & Punk smokes Okada & Tanahashi as the best in-ring rivalry of the last several years. Dave is just not as high on the Punk vs. Cena matches as a lot of others are. 07.17.2011 (Money in the Bank): ***** 08.14.2011 (Summerslam): *** ½ 09.16.2012 (Night of Champions): **** ¼ 02.25.2013 (RAW): **** ½ Compared to Tanahashi vs. Okada: 06.16.12: **** ¾ 01.04.12: **** ¾ 04.17.13: ***** 08.10.13: **** ½ I think he underrates the Summerslam Cena/Punk match quite a bit and overrates pretty much everything from Okada and Tanahashi but at least his assertion that Okada vs. Tanahashi is “the greatest rivalry of this era” is supported by how he has rated the matches. Sometimes with Meltzer he’ll make a statement like that and what he wrote in the past will completely contradict it which at least is not the case here.

I like Dean Allmark a ton. He is a really great babyface. I am not sure if it would translate all that well somewhere else but he is really great in his own environment in All-Star Wrestling. I thought this was fine but a level below some of the other Allmark vs. Brown & Dynamite matches from 2013. Brown & Dynamite are a great heel tag team that would do well pretty much anywhere. One great thing about those guys is how well they work different gimmick matches. The ladder match Dylan mentioned is okay. There is a table match between Dynamite vs. Allmark that is legitimately good match and before that I am not sure I ever saw a table match I liked at all. I think I mentioned in another thread the 8-man elimination over the top rope match from ASW in August that sounds like a messy gimmick match but was exected very well. James Mason, Allmark, Brown, Dynamite, and El Ligero are all really good in ASW currently. Outside of ASW I’ve liked what I have seen of Zack Sabre Jr. this year. The Johnny Moss match from wXw was sort of oddly structured but I thought it worked. Doesn’t necessarily fit in this thread since it happened in Japan but I liked Sabre’s GHC Jr. title match versus Ishimori quite a bit mainly because of Sabre. I think he is still sort of figuring things out but in terms of who he is but he has the tools and is getting there. Is this available anywhere?

I agree that Smack2K is overrating it a bit but there is some good stuff in 2001. From Sin until the end I would say that the television and pay-per-views were legitimately good which I think is a bit better than just "watchable". The real selling point to watching 2001 WCW is to see how e promotion had set itself up to potentially have a legitimately good year from a television and pay per view quality standpoint. The renewed focus on the cruiserweight division is the most obvious. By March they elevated Helms to champion and he had gotten very good as a singles wrestler in a short period of time. Chavo had the best run of his career to that point as the heel cruiserweight champion. Rey & Kidman were good veteran anchors for the new cruiserweight tag division and were starting to shake off the rust of not doing much cruiserweight style wrestling in a year and a half. Throw in Jung Dragons, Skipper, Kid Romeo, Shannon Moore, Noble, and AJ Styles and you can see they the foundation for a good CW division in 2001. Christopher Daniels and Mike Modest had also recently been on Nitro and there is a safe bet some other indie/ECW guys would have been brought in as well. The main event story was progressing clearly and logically. WCW was clearly heading towards Steiner taking out the top faces one by one leading to the return of Goldberg to take him out which had been built really well. They were pushing mid carders well. Palumbo and O'Haire rapidly improved in 2001 and were pretty over as tag champs by the end. Jason Jett (EZ Money), Kid Kash, a newly returned Alex Wright, Mike Sanders, Shane Douglas, Lance Storm, Alan Funk, and Mike Awesome made for a good midcard. For the first time in forever they brought in a midcard wrestler like Jason Jett and gave him an honest-to-goodness push right out of the gate based on his in-ring work. There were a lot of positive things happening. I liken it to 70-win baseball team that goes 18-10 in September. When the season ends the team and fans are left with the memory of the good play in September that helps build hope for next season. When next season comes maybe they are still a 70-win team or maybe the end of the season was a sign of good things to come. With WCW we never got "next season". However, there was enough good things happening in early 2001 to at least establish realistic hope that the promotion was truly turning the corner. That's why I like watching and discussing 2001 WCW. WCW probably was not "great" in 2001 (actually, I am pretty certain of that) but it was more than watchable and clearly heading in a very positive direction.

I thought it was really well booked. I am not sure if anyone came out of the match looking weak. The setup with RVD (and to a lesser extent, Kofi and PTP) being injured in other matches prior to the main event played out well in the 11 on 3 match. Reigns, Ambrose & Rollins all looked good facing insurmountable odds. They continued building Usos vs. Rollins/Reigns and Ziggler vs. Ambrose with the Reigns and Ambrose eliminations. Prime Time Players had a little segment with the Shield that can be built off of. Even Ryder got in some offense before being pinned. It would have been easy to layout the match so that it came down to Bryan vs. the Shield but I thought the way it actually unfolded was a lot better. Not to discredit the wrestling in the match which was very good, but I thought the overall booking of the match was really the strong point. It was really well done and not necessarily in a way that WWE usually does things.

I really love Jim Ross' call of War Games '92. His genuine enthusiasm and excitement for Steamboat and Dustin's entrances is contagious. He gets nearly tongue-tied with excitement during Dustin's come back just prior to Madusa climbing the cage. His back-and-forth with Ventura is spot on. Ross in WCW was so good at reacting to the action in a way a good sports broadcaster does where you can tell he is just observing what is happening, processing it intelligently, and spitting it back out without getting too theatrical or spinning what he sees. There's a spot in the match where the cameras ease drop on Dangerously who is holding an impromptu strategy session with his team members outside of the cage. Dangerously says something like: "If we get him into the corner and we can keep him alive. . ." It cuts off there so there is no way to really know what Dangerously is referring to. Ross pauses, tries to process what he heard, and goes: "He is talking about a corner or something . . . I don't know." I love that reaction. No attempt to weave a story based on a half of sentence we overheard. Just a pause to try and figure out what he meant followed by a frank statement that he doesn't know what Heyman is babbling on about. It's small things like that which gave him an air of legitimacy back then. Meltzer mentioned this in the 1996 back issue the other day but Tony's call of the entire Bash at the Beach '96 PPV, particularly the six-man main event and aftermath, is really excellent. He sounds legitimately concerned as the match is about to begin, asks really good leading questions to Dusty and Heenan, and just puts the entire match over as the landscape altering moment that it really was for WCW.

If a babyface is scheduled to compete in a tag match of some sorts later in the evening but is laid out backstage away from cameras and then emerges mid-match, chances are it is a ruse and he is turning on his partners. That's a big red flag and you are probably better off not tagging him in just to be on the safe side. There are a lot of examples but Flair at Havoc '95, Hennig in War Games '97, ect.

The ending to RAW was much needed last night. Watching the 1997 Yearbook it is obvious that once WCW got by April or so they went on far too long with the NWO getting over on WCW nearly ever week. It is pretty ridiculous that in October of that year a WCW wrestler can still get jumped by the NWO without anyone coming out to save him, to the point that the announcers harp on WCW's lack of unity constantly (despite being the supposed good guys in the angle). This angle is far more recent so they have a long way to go to get to that point but it was still the right move to have the babyface roster stand tall at the end of RAW. I am sure everyone who disobeyed will be put back in their place next week, but it was still a well executed and needed ending. The best part of RAW for me was that they let Orton stand on his own a bit. All of the heat prior to this was on Triple H and Stephanie. Orton taking out Miz by himself and then being featured by himself (or least away from Triple H) during the main event got him more in the spotlight. If they are going to continue with Orton versus Bryan for any length of time, they needed to start giving a reason to want to see Bryan beat Orton other than the "he was hand picked by Triple H" story. It will be really interesting to see how they pull all of this together. There are a lot of guys that need to get revenge at some point in the future when all of this wraps up but only a few (four) full-time heels, one part-time wrestler, and one non-wrestler right now to get it against.

A few other matches I’ve really liked that haven’t been mentioned yet: * Dean Allmark & El Ligero vs. Rampage Brown & Robbie Dynamite (ASW – 3/31) * Dean Allmark, El Ligero, James Mason & Cool Carl Curtis vs. Rampage Brown, Robbie Dynamite & Blackpool Blondes in an over the top rope eight-man tag elimination match (ASW – 8/15) * Dean Allmark vs. Rampage Brown in a Tables Match (ASW – 8/27) Basically all of the Allmark vs. Brown & Dynamite stuff that I’ve watched from 2013 has been good but these are probably my favorite. The first is a tag title match that is one of the better basic, Southern style tag matches I have seen this year. The stipulations of the second match might sound like something Russo would cook up and I was skeptical going in , but the over the top rope rule really adds a lot to the match. It is a good example of using the gimmicks to enhance the match, not detract from it. Same goes with the third match which is a relatively short tables match, but is worked smartly and has a few neat spots. The core ASW guys are really good at working gimmick matches in a way to get the most out of them without having to resort to over the top theatrics. * Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Yuji Okabayashi (Big Japan – 3/31) * Yuki Kondo vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara (U-Spirits – 3/9) The first is a different Big Japan Strong Championship match in that it is focused on limb work and it is very good. The U-Spirits match is the best shoot style match I’ve seen this year which I know isn’t saying much since that is basically a dead style. Still, this is a good match in its own right, especially considering that this was (I think) Kondo’s first pro wrestling match. * Ricochet & Rich Swann vs. Samuray del Sol & AR Fox (PWG – 3/22) * Dinastia, Mascarita Divina & Rey Celestial vs. Mini Abismo Negro, Mini Charly Manson & Mini Histeria (AAA – 4/15) Two enjoyable high flying matches. I hesitate to call either match a “spot fest” because that phrase has largely a pejorative connotation and both are legitimately good matches even if the selling point is the flying and incredible moves. * Titan vs. Polvora (CMLL – 1/1) * Negro Casas vs. Mascara Dorada (CMLL – 6/2) Both of these are title matches and while neither are blow away, I thought they were two of the better Lucha title matches of 2013 so far. EDIT: Forgot to mention that everything but the U-Spirits match and the PWG match should be on Youtube. U-Spirits is on Daily Motion I think.

I agree with this. They were getting some really great reactions to the near falls for an extended stretch so it clearly worked on some level. In the context of their feud and this being a masked match, I thought the long stretch of big moves & near falls worked. In another context it would have come off as huge overkill but I thought it was fine. The trios championship match and the Panther/Averno hair match were both pretty great and my favorite two matches of the night, although nothing was that bad. The Ultimo Guerrero & Atlantis mask match is the bigger match which is exactly why you do save it for further down the line when it can be the center place of a major card. The stream was not as smooth early on as it was last Friday but by the time the big matches rolled around it was running smoothly. For a free stream, I can't complain at all. Much better quality than any US indies that are charging for their live streams.

I think Robert Gibson gets a bad deal. He might not be a whole lot more than mediocre but I don’t think mediocre is necessarily bad in this case. Ricky Morton was such a good babyface especially in a tag team role that Gibson did not have to be much more than what he was which was a competent tag team wrestler. He is going to pale to Ricky Morton in comparison as a lot of other wrestlers would but he was far from just some schmuck along for the ride in the Rock ‘n Rolls. He brought something to the team, even if that was just his ability to be a competent babyface tag team wrestler. I would have RNR, Midnight Express, and Tully & Arn all above the Rockers in terms of US tag teams. I think I’d likely have the Fantastics above the Rockers as well but that would probably be a better and closer comparison than the RNR/Rockers one.

I think there are really two separate groups of non-main eventers. You have guys like Morton and Smothers who were on top of Smokey Mountain Wrestling but whenever placed on a slightly larger stage were considered mid card guys. Then there are guys like Regal and Arn who never had a sustained main even run anywhere, largely because they spent the prime of their careers in bigger promotions. I don’t think you can exclude one group and include the other because it is not a fair or direct comparison. If Arn would have left WCW in 1994 and worked SMW, he’d have been in the main events. If you exclude Morton, it is just on a technicality and missing the point of the discussion, I think. Along those same lines, I wouldn't consider Dustin a main eventer. A ton of guys have been in main events (Arn was in his fair share) but that does not make them a main event wrestler.

There is a fine line between a good fast match and the go-go style being described here. I think that fine line is mainly selling – both in terms of taking some time to sell in between big moves but perhaps more importantly not immediately shrugging off the impact once you go back on offense. For example, the Guerrero vs. Benoit Nitro match from Oct. 95 is worked at a really fast pace and they cram a ton into a ten minute match. However, they take time to sell the impact of the big moves rather than continuously hopping right into the next spot. When they do go to the next spots, they also do a noticeably better job in projecting their general fatigue and impact from the previous moves than guys like Davey Richards or Kurt Angle do. You could turn on a typical Davey Richards match at a random spot in the match and not be able to tell what part of the match it is (beginning, middle or end), who has had the majority of the offense so far, or even who was just on offense 20 seconds ago. For me that is the difference between a good fast paced match and one that is go-go style. One match feels like it is progressing (because of the selling) while the other match is moving 100 miles per hour but not getting anywhere. In addition to the guys already mentioned, most everyone in current ROH works the Go-Go style more often than not.

I’ll save actually filling out a ballot for the end of the year but here my thoughts on some categories. Wrestler of the Year This category – like MVP in Major League Baseball – is so poorly defined that I have little interest in voting on it or even debating it. The general definition is that this award should go to the best overall wrestler in the year which is fine if there was a general consensus on what defines success for a wrestler. Dave’s guidance tends to indicate that drawing and popularity are the most important attributes here which is fine, but then I am not sure why we leave something like that (which can be measured objectively) to a subjective vote. My solution would be to select a small committee to select “Wrestler of the Year” with the guidance that drawing/popularity metrics should be the big factor and in-ring ability, interviews, ect. should be used to differentiate between close candidates. It makes no sense to me why you would have people who are not privy to the numbers vote on an award that is based – in good part – on drawing and popularity numbers. Leave “Most Outstanding Wrestler” as the award for the general public to vote on based on performance (in-ring, interviews, ect.). Most Outstanding Wrestler This is a tough category this year because unless you are a big Tanahashi or Okada fan, the front runners are largely guys with a lot of good television matches but not a ton of big match performances in 2013. Bryan is the perfect example of that. He didn’t wrestle a one-on-one singles PPV match until August versus Cena. Besides for that match, his case is made on a few standout single TV matches, some tag matches, and a bunch of good TV matches. Cesaro and Rush are kind of in the same boat. On the other end is Punk who has a few really good PPV matches (vs. Lesnar, vs. Undertaker), some good PPV matches (vs. Rock at Royal Rumble, vs. Jericho) and my favorite TV match of the year versus Cena but not a whole lot in between. Right now my candidates are Bryan, Rush, Negro Casas, Punk, Shinsuke Nakamura, Dean Allmark and Cena. Best Tag Team Rampage Brown & Robbie Dynamite are #1 for me so far. I knew nothing about them coming into this year but have gotten hooked on all of their matches (singles and tags) versus Dean Allmark and company. They have just had an incredibly solid year and have their heel tag team act down pat. I imagine Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov will get a lot of votes because they have had as much exposure as any tag team in the world between NJPW, ROH, PWG, ect. I don’t mind them but they are probably not in my top 5. The Shield lacks the matches (at least thus far) as a team for me to consider them for the top spot. Feud of the Year WWE hasn’t had many coherent, long lasting feuds in 2013 at least until recently and even those (Punk vs. Heyman and Bryan vs. HHH) are wrestler vs. non-wrestler in nature. I think I might lean towards Rampage Brown & Robbie Dynamite vs. Dean Allmark. They have wrestled all year in a ton of different match variations and the matches are almost always solid or better. Negro Casas vs. Rush is probably my other main candidate right now. Promotion of the Year WWE, New Japan and CMLL have all had good years. If that is not the top 3 in some fashion then I’ll be surprised. I imagine New Japan will win and Meltzer will probably make the case for them as well, but I’d go with WWE after factoring everything in. Best Flyer There are a lot of flyers I’ve liked in 2013 because their flying offense is truly spectacular, they work it their flying stuff into their matches well, or both. Working Dragon Gate isn’t going Ricochet a lot of favors but for pure spectacular ability I like him as well as anyone. AR Fox, Andrew Everett, La Sombra, Kota Ibushi, Rich Swann, and Samuray del Sol all have cases as well. Match of the Year I need to give a bunch of matches that I really liked the first time around a second watch before narrowing it down.

You cannot develop an opinion on the quality of something without watching it. I am sure everyone reads results form shows and decides whether it "reads" good enough to actually watch. Nobody has time to watch everything so we all discern what is worth our time to watch that way. I wouldn't really consider that forming an opinion as much as making an assumption. You are assuming based on what you read that won't like (or will like) a match. Someone who actually watches the match in question can develop an opinion as to the quality of the match. If two people are debating a match and one person hasn't seen it, he has absolutely zero ground to stand on. If you are going to pass a judgment on the quality of a match or angle, you have to have seen it.

I’d break down Tanahashi like this. Positives: * Charismatic * Relatively polished – weak offense aside, he does not blow a lot of moves or spots * Pacing – his matches tend to maintain a brisk pace while still clearly building from an opening segment to the body of the match to the stretch run Neutral Attributes: * Bumps fine * No major issues with selling at least relative to the style of his promotion Negatives: * Weak offense * Struggles to effectively work extended periods on offense * Matches can be a bit back and forth perhaps because his limited offense necessitates I not a big Tanahashi fan or anything but there are guys who have gotten by with far more negatives and/or fewer positives than that. The Cena comparison is not a terrible one because if I had to point out a major weakness for both, it would be offense. On the same list for Cena, I’d keep all of the positives and bump up both of the neutrals to positives. I’d also get rid of the negatives except for “weak offense” although if we are weighing them Tanahashi’s offense is more of a problem for him than it is for Cena. Like I said before, I believe that’s largely a reflection of the stylistic differences between their respective promotions. If Tanahashi were in a WWE-like environment and positioned as a typical face where he could sell most of the match and make a short burst comeback, his match quality on the whole would likey improve. At the same time, we can only judge a wrestler on the actual matches they have and the bottom line is Cena has been able to compensate far better for his weak offense than Tanahashi has for his in their respective careers. (On a side note, I don’t have any issue with Tanahashi’s limb work. I liked the April Okada match a lot better than their prior matches and other Tanahashi matches mainly because it focused his offensive attack more and allowed him to rely a little less on his usual offense.)