Gus_McCrae

I don't understand Rey's ranking. I never will understand Rey's ranking. Don't get me wrong he was a great pro-wrestler, but he played the same role in every match. I can buy him as the best baby face working from underneeth ever. I can't buy him as a top 10 guy. A top 15 guy. A top 20 guy? If I am overlooking something and he was ever anything but an underdog baby face who got beat on and then came back so be it. I don't see it though, and I hope I am wrong.

As the high vote on Eddie, I can say with complete conviction I can understand the case for almost everyone left being ahead of him. I cannot understand the case for Rey as better. I'm OK being in the super minority but, I don't get it at all. he never worked heel!

I'm happy my first high vote was Michael Hayes. I never understood why people liked Gordy more than PS.

Really fun. Thanks.

Is their a delay in this getting posted to the podcast app on an iPhone? I checked earlier this afternoon for the drive home and didn't see it.

I'm arguing you may not get as strong a reaction (live + twitter) from a styles win if they pushed him stronger, because then you don't get the surprise. What's better, long term investment in a character or a few shocked reactions on Twitter? People who are into Styles would still be happy for him that he's getting a shot at the main event no matter how he was being booked prior to Monday. But making a guy a big deal by giving him big wins is what gets them over with more casual fans, that's clear even today. Is it though? That isn't what got BD over. That isn't what got Ambrose over. It didn't get Cesaro (until he was buried). Giving guys big wins didn't get Roman over. I'm not steadfast here, but we are at a point in time thats a bit weird, were the most over person in recent history got over by being booked weakly and the guys booked strongly haven't worked out. I can see why they are doing it, I don't know if its right or wrong but I'm not going to get super worked up about it until we see how it plays out.

I'm arguing you may not get as strong a reaction (live + twitter) from a styles win if they pushed him stronger, because then you don't get the surprise.

"If AJ was presented strong throughout, if he was debuted even more strongly, if he was protected in his first couple of matches (a showcase to debut, for instance, his offense not kicked out of so much so early), if he won at Wrestlemania, then this would matter even more right now." Matt D I don't know if I agree. Sure, in another time that was right, but now? I don't know. When was the last time a prolonged push for a baby face resulted in a big time baby face? The most over faces are the guys who overcome losses, and "bad booking". Maybe you can disagree with execution, but I get their theory. Going into that match last night I didn't think AJ had a shot, and figured he'd take the pin. I was pissed. I played right in. I think that's what they were setting up. They "created us vs them" again. All I have to say is well fucking done, and I'm going to enjoy being worked until they screw it up next week and piss me off again. (See what i did I there?)

Who cares - it's not always about the "big picture". Enjoy, the moment.

HA HA - we are all marks.

I liked the HHH - Roman match quite a bit. I thought it was easily the match of the night. I do have to re-watch the woman match and the Styles match, because I was having feed issues that took me out of the moment but from what I saw neither were great, which I do think the main event was. Worked hard out of gate to get HHH over as heel, with Steph on the mic. Then contradicted by HHH holding ropes open for Roman, after a great over the top bump. Roman shine was great. Great selling of low blow, followed by crotch work after the low blow with 2 inverted atomic drops. Crowd killing Roman, at each hope spot. After every transitions Roman's selling was great. Loved the HHH neck breaker on the floor, and a really cool hanging knee drop. Roman, working really hard. Both selling exhaustion, not for the first time either, after cool spear on the floor, which was visually impressive. Great heel work by Steph, breaking up a pin then strolling into the ring like she owned it. Roman injured shoulder on spear, and HHH quickly goes for arm-bar submission, twice, using same power bomb counter to escape took away from it. Very slow pace. Crowd did pop big for pedigree counter. And popped big for Steph spear and pedigree kickout, but otherwise any Roman offense gets mixed cheers, which is improvement versus earlier in the match. He does gets a winners pop on the cover. Good stuff. A couple things took away. Using the same escape twice on the arm bar back to back. HHH schizophrenic heel/face dynamic took away at times. Specifically, inviting Roman back into the ring after a big bump to the floor, and getting in the two coolest spots of the match with the neck breaker and the knee drop, with Roman getting nothing even close to as cool in. My biggest criticism, is one, that has kept me from getting completely behind Roman as a worker: His offense. Very very reliant on super punches, clothes lines and spears. His work in total during the match was very good, but his offense is a problem for me. Not much variety, and his three goto’s are all very similar. He needs a driver or a suplex, outside of the samoan drop, something more than what he currently is using. 4.25 stars. Other matches: Ryback vs Calisto: 3.5 stars, going into the main this my MOTN. Ryback was so great. 10 woman tag, I missed this. Cooking dinner. Usos vs Dudleys: 1 star, I hate super kicks. Lader Match: 2.5 stars, KO and SZ ruled but you can't do anything compelling with this many people unless you have memorable spots and there weren't. Jericho vs Styles 3 stars, needs a rematch. My gut is people here are killing it because they don't like the booking. New Day vs LON, 2.5 stars, Rusev and Big E were awesome. Also, liked some of the tag psychology. Banks vs Flair vs Lynch - 3.25 stars, needs a rewatch due to feed. Some really cool stuff, and some stuff that could have been cool. Finish was underwhelming, I'm not sure Becky Lynch is good. 3.25 stars. Brock vs Dean 2 stars, this didn't work at all. Undertaker vs Shane, 2.25 stars, pretty much all of it from the cage spot. Terrible match.

I was really disappointed in Nakamura's character work. He won't get opportunities with those effeminant mannerisms. He needs to be an asskicker.

Let me start this by saying I expect almost all of you have more experience and aptitude thinking critically about wrestling than I do. I've watched a ton, but never digested most of it to the level that I believe many if not all of you have. Recently, I began thinking about what I think makes a good match. I came up with 5 criteria. In no particular order: 1) does it all is me to suspend disbelief 2) is it worked with intensity 3) does the outcome feel like it matters 4) does it effectively transition at 2nd or 3rd gear 5) does the match communicate a story In my view, Cena as a worker is consistently off the charts at intensity and making a match feel like it matters but very uneven at getting the match to a higher level, or communicating a story. I. My view he is rather poor at making me suspend disbelief, which is a function largely of his poor punches, mechanical issues, and general "looseness" in the ring. In some matches against some opponents his strengths combined with opponent strengths deliver excellant, wonderful matches. I'm thinking Cessaro, Umaga, Punk, Bryan off the top of my head, which I don't think I'm discounting. What I'm struggling with is how do you rate a wrestler that highly with obvious flaws? Am I exaggerating his flaws? Do all wrestlers outside of the top dozen have such large weaknesses? I'm trying to avoid the context issue here which I don't know how to reconcile. It's been touched on in other places, but Cena has probably been given more opportunity for big viewable main event style matches than anyone in history. That has led to both grandslams and strikeouts for him. It's the opposite of Dustin Rhodes, Steve Regal, Arn Anderson and their ilk. I'd love some help thinking through these issues because it not obvious either what I'm missing or how to account for opportunity.

I recently re-watched the No Way Out 2003 match between Cena and Angle, and I was surprised by a couple of things: #1. That the match existed, since I had completely forgot. #2 That young heel Cena had a nice mean streak. Nothing says mean streak like kicking a guy when he is down, when it has the right level of savageness which Cena boots here did. #3 I think Cena main event style borrows pretty liberally from Angle. This was clearly a situation where Angle would lay out the match being the vet and Cena would follow. The formula was very much like a lot of Angle upper mid card matches from the time period. Yet, at the same time you could completely see this being a Cena versus Rollins match mext week on Raw with a very similar layout with Cena playing Kurt Angle and Rollins being Cena. Not in terms of move set but in terms of layout, pace, timing. It was pretty good. The story wasn't effectve: angle the wrestler, versus Cena the brawler, but it felt like an important match where the result mattered, it kicked into a really good second gear leading into the finish, itsuspended my disbelief (which is something I struggle with for both of these guys sometimes), the intensity was decent.

So how do you do it? I marvel at so many of the posters here seemingly recollection of matches, dates, quality and even move sequences. I've seen tons of wrestling in my life. Re-watched a ton, but most of it is a blur. How do you keep track. Do you use notepaper and pencil? Excel? Word? A blog? Help. I feel like matches I watched last week are already going fuzzy!

As someone who loves wrestling but hasn't watched nearly as much as most on this board that list is amazing. Even though I have seen a ton of Indy and WWE Daniel, there are some stuff there I haven't. If those sorts of things keep popping up for other wresters (with links!!) this project will be a treasure trove of must see wrestling. Well done.

I just watched that Kawada vs. Kobashi match from 6/30/90 and it was pretty weird. The structure was very unusual, they start to go at it pretty heavy then Kobashi slaps on a chin lock? It eventually turns into a fun brawl inducing some old school schoolyard rolls. Eventually Kobashi does some nasty nasty leg work that I loved. Clover leaf, one legged crab, figure four, a really cool double leg bar spot, something that I think I'd call a horse collar crab... Sick stuff, super nasty. But 45 seconds after the leg work portion is done, Kawada never sells the leg and Kobashi never gets back to it. After a while they start exchanging and countering big spots but it ends abruptly on a reversals of a couple of roll-ups. Fun, very cool match. Kobashi was awesome outside of a botched cross body outside the ring. Kawada was really disappointing. I think I'll make an effort to watch a bunch more of this matchup in sequential order, because you can tell they are to some degree figuring it out. I've see a bunch of Kobashi before, but Kawada really only in the pimped tags and it was a long time ago. So it should be fun. Kobashi did nothing here to make me think he shouldn't be near the top of my list, which was my impression going in. While Kawada didn't show me anything that would justify the love he's been getting. More to come.

I just finished the 4/14/83 Funk vs Hansen match and was underwhelmed, If I viewed it randomly, I'm sure I would have liked it, maybe loved it. However, after the pimping in this thread I expected a lot more particularly, from Hansen. Funk totally stole the show and was amazing. Hated the ending. What am I missing? Did adore the Andre vs Hansen match - that was amazing. I can't believe Hansen arm dragged Andre. Didn't like that Hansen didn't sell the arm after the punishment Andre put on it. Liked the finish here.

I'm not sure if this is a common match criticism, but it should be. I really like no-selling in the middle of the match. Particularly, if it's a big bomb or slam or some type death strike that was established as devastating early in the match. A great example is from a Masato Yoshino vs. Masaaki Mochizuki Dragon Gate's match from February. I was really into this match. The opening was super hot including this great spot that really struck home. A very basic arm ringer that Yoshino used. He must have rolled under Mochizuki’s arm 4 or 5 times with his arm noticeably twisting tighter and tighter each time he rolled through. Executed wonderfully, with great expressions through out, and illustrative of what was turning into a really good match. Then they lost me at the back end of the second act – where they started a no selling sequence, which included some very heavy moves. The no selling detracted from the match, it was distracting and really broke up the flow. I hated it. Outside of that sequence the match was great.

As someone who hasn't watched hardly any wrestling in the last 5 plus years I was blown away by the Zayn - Cesaro match. In fact I'm completely blown away by the top end of WWE right now. Shield vs Wyatts, Bryan vs Bray, Cena vs Cesaro at the very high end and the a handful of other matches right below it. The Elimination Chamber, Orton vs Bryan, and Orton vs Cesaro. I've never seen a 2 month stretch of this much high end stuff in the 25 years I was following. Maybe their was a 2 months stretch in All Japan in the 90's this good at some point, but it doesn't jump out at me. So much of their high end stuff was spread out a bit. When did the WWE get so good? This really is remarkable. I really liked the pace of the Zayn/Cesaro match. I think Loss made the point above that it was too "mover heavy", I disagree. It is a fine line, but from where I sit they walked up to that line but did not crossed it. It was an excellent blend of in-match narrative, intensity, execution, psychology, packaged around the storyline narrative. Pro-wrestling at its finest. Zayn is so much better now than when he was Generico years ago. Just much crisper in execution than he was 5 or 6 years ago. I don't know where this match falls relative to the Shield vs Wyatts or Bryan vs Bray but it's at that level to me. Really great stuff. The rest of the card was good - but really Zayn and Cesaro was just at another level.

Hi I'm Gus, I'm not sure how to describe what has been a complex life long interest in only a few words. I'd say it's an addiction, but the negative connotation isn't appropriate. I was hooked for the first time at the age of 10, and was a dedicated viewer for about 20 years. In late 2008, they lost me for the time. Likely more due to my life than waning interest. I almost came back after Punks pipe bomb promo, but the lack of coherent follow through lost me. However, the quality of the Daniel Bryant saga really has me hooked again. I think it's possible that the wwe has really worked the 'net over the last year in maybe the greatest escalation of all time. I've been more exposed to most of the US. majors 86 to 08 and the earlier better known regionals, plus the better independent stuff from 02 to 08. I'd say my favorite match of all time was Steamboat and Dustin versus Arn and Larry from the clash. I plan on spending my viewing time for the next little while watching some 90's all Japan and using the Network to fill in the gaps during my 08 to mid 13 dark period. WWE PPV recommendations from that period would be greatly appreciated.