cubbymark

Where to begin? As hyped as 90s AJPW is, it's something I am not all that interested in seeing. I should take a look at the DVDVR Remedial Thread before I do anything else. But, there's so much more out there that is so much more interesting to me. Lucha (past and present) Negro Casas, Hijo Del Santo, Blue Panther, Black Terry, LA Park, Los Misioneros De La Muerte, Satanico, El Dandy, young Atlantis. Basically, I need to save my pennies and buy Will's 80s lucha set! I also feel a cultural duty to better understand and appreciate my Mexican heritage. Memphis: I find it such a refreshing change of pace to the ROH/PWG highspot/puroresu style that dominates US indy wrestling nowadays. By proxy, Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee will be looked at. Ric Flair: To be the man, you got to beat the man! 90s Juniors from NJPW: got to better inform myself on Jushin Lyger. WCW post-Turner buyout. JCP: I need to see more of Magnum TA. Watts UWF: I need to watch more, and there's good DiBiase stuff that might get me to get on Parv's bandwagon. World Class: Seeing the Von Erichs in their element, having Dallas in the palm of their hand. Portland (if only to get a true taste of Buddy Rose's case for Best Ever) Randy Savage WWF New Generation: Bret Hart. 1950s Chicago archives: Lou Thesz, Verne Gagne, Buddy Rogers WWWF: Bruno Sammartino. I really enjoy Memphis Lawler, perhaps I'll grow to appreciate Bruno's "less in more approach" 1990s-2000s US Independent Wrestling: Early Danielson, Zayn, Cesaro, Punk JWA: Rikidozan. Stan Hansen: Yes, this might force me to watch 90s AJPW, but I can explore his AWA, WWWF, and WCW runs first. World of Sport Terry Funk Harley Race Maybe find time for Joshi, which I don't know much about. I'm sure I'm missing stuff too, but so much to explore.

The Dudley Boys. Great example of a team whose sum is greater than the sum of its parts. Kayfabe credentials having won ECW, WWF, WCW (post buyout), IWGP, TNA and NWA tag team titles. Crazy wicked brawlers who would also bump like freaks. Served as great foils to the Hardy Boyz and Edge and Christian during their car crashes. Great heels, very good babyfaces.

Nakamura's probably the only guy of the modern NJPW heavyweights I have a vested interest in. Ever since he seemingly got a personality transplant, Nakamura has been nothing short of awesome. Perhaps I am speaking in hyperbole, but compared to Tanahashi, it's night and day. One other thing to Nakamura's credit is that even when he is in Mexico, he doesn't really phone it in unlike other Japanese guys like Tanahashi do. I'm very interested to see if upon further exploration of Nakamura I find him as enjoyable as I currently do, which could influence his placement on my list.

Starrcade '85: I QUIT. If that's the only thing you've ever seen of Magnum, that's as good a reason to include him in this conversation. I never got to see him in his prime as I was 2 or 3 by the time he had his accident, but what I have seen of him is pretty f'n amazing. The wrestler showcase podcast on Magnum a few weeks ago with Johnny Sorrow and others on Magnum is as good a place to really hear the case for Magnum outside of I QUIT. He's among the biggest "What Ifs" in wrestling history as he could be a lot higher on people's lists if his body work had a few more years on it.

I did a search for "Generico" and "Zayn" in this forum and I didn't see a thread for this particular wrestler. But how far-fetched at this point would a nomination for Sami Zayn/El Generico be? The heel work may not be there, but as far as being a "Ricky Morton/Ricky Steamboat" type, honest to goodness babyface, from what I have seen, there isn't anyone in modern wrestling that connects as well as Sami/Generico does on that level.

The Elephant in the Room for me. Prior to the double murder-suicide, Benoit would have been in my Top 5, no questions asked. He may have been my favorite at time just before the murders-suicide happened. The ending to Wrestlemania XX at the time was probably one of the most emotional things in wrestling I had ever seen. That's a really hard memory to take away from someone, although the double murders-sucide pretty much did that. His Smackdown World Title match vs Austin in Edmonton is one of the best WWE title matches I think I had ever seen up until that point. That said, the physical toll he put his body through is quite comparable to the toll the Japanese AJPW guys put themselves through. Misawa unfortunately passed away in the ring. Kobashi is a shell of himself and can barely move. Kawada is pretty beat up as well, and that hasn't necessarily diminished the opinions of everyone towards these wrestlers. But it has made me more receptive to guys who can do "more with less" a la Jerry Lawler or Bill Dundee. Could I vote for Benoit as GOAT? No. But if I look at things with a cognitive dissonance, did I get more enjoyment out of Benoit matches than other people who have threads up on the site, like Edge, Hulk Hogan, Tommy Rogers or Chris Hero? Yes.

El Hijo Del Santo is such a privilege to watch live. I got to see him once at the Congress Theater in Chicago almost ten years ago. The place is an absolute dump, the show started late, security was lax if non-existent with fans running up to the ring after every match, but Santo went out there and busted his ass. Seeing him do his trademark tope was pretty amazing even then. My opinion of him may have fallen a bit over the years in part due to the "Axel-Nieto Del Santo" situation and his current "neck injury retirement" screwing over some of the Todo X El Todo indy guys, but as far as lucha guys go, he'd be the front runner of that style with Negro Casas being really close behind.

If this were "Most Annoying Wrestler" Jarrett would rank very highly on that list, in part because his TNA run concurrent to HHH's run made me call him JJJ for quite a while on message boards I frequented at the time. But for GOAT, I don't see it.

In later years, Casas has turned into a fantastic "comedy wrestler." His Peste Negra stuff seems to have really rejuvenated his career and given him that much more longevity. Negro and Zacarias el Perico is amazing. I also really enjoy "Tio Casas" whenever he teams up with his nephews Puma and Tiger, it makes for such another interesting dynamic to an already legendary and versatile repertoire.

If Tanahashi got in as a first ballot Hall of Famer last year, I see no reason Punk shouldn't be a first ballot Hall of Famer, either. Especially since from a historical perspective, he will be seen as the trendsetter that made WWE open their eyes to independent wrestling being the right venue to look for their batch of superstars. Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, Luke Harper are reaping the benefits of Punk's work, and in due time, Sami Zayn will have a chance to do so on the main roster. That's 5-6 guys WWE has been high on and will get every chance in the world to be "Best in the World." Does Tanahashi have a memorable "career-defining moment" akin to Punk winning the WWE Title at Money In the Bank? As for the lucha guys, I really want Blue Panther to get in this year.

You poor unfortunate soul.

Half way through it listening in bits and pieces walking to/from work and it's absolutely fantastic. Johnny shitting on Kowalski the worker but praising Kowalski the man is quite funny. And people not understanding "Born in the USA" and what it really means was outstanding.

Orton to me is a natural heel. He looks like a smug prick, he should act like a smug prick. He really shouldn't be doing babyface shtick. And if he were in Mid-South, he would have made Bill Watts a shit-ton of money. That said, he is extremely boring to me. For having the "look" everything he does comes across so forced and phony. The IED stuff was silly. Coiling into a viper every single time is silly. He's just "meh."

I had heard some stuff before in her Art of Wrestling interview. But she did a great job of putting CMLL over.

My jaw dropped. I wasn't expecting that at all.

Let's see how VOD holds up for Rey Mysterio/Eddie Guerrero from Halloween Havoc 1997. Buffered during Eddie's entrance. Sliding forward then back does the trick but it takes a minute.

Alice's solo podcasts are pretty good. She'll be fine.

Johnny's impassioned defense of Hulk Hogan was hilarious, but fuck Hulk Hogan.

Twitter live scrolls during Hardcore TV is quite a trip. As is seeing Sandman not wearing pants.

Kind of annoyed that it's 12:30 EST and Harcore TV isn't on. I got WWE Countdown instead. Boo-urns. Gotta browse the archives for an hour.

Finally in! Wanted to watch Fall Brawl 1994 War Games, but that's buffering like crazy. The live stuff is working perfectly on my iPhone. Currently showing Cesaro/Cena from last week, so not a bad consolation prize.

After unsuccessful attempts to create an account via the network page, I was able to create a wwe.com account without much issue and clicked on the free trial option. But the video is not available. Going to try to log back in and out and see if that makes any difference.

This is probably cheating, but Papoose used CM Punk drops for "Pipe Bomb"

I'm kind of in the same boat in that the angle while interesting, came off as really stupid. And the "Wrestling Is" being the epic disaster that it was didn't help matters either. It also didn't make sense for me that arguably the fourth largest US wrestling promotion would close up shop and masquerade some kayfabe reason, when everyone knew the end result would be them coming back. That said, my interest in indy wrestling really took a hit with the disappearance of Chikara. Let's see how things go upon the reboot.

Perhaps too simplistic of an answer, but TNA/Impact Wrestling. That shit is awful.