funkdoc

The impression i get is a non-joke version of the WWF Lawler role, i.e. commentator who does the occasional Special Attraction Match That might be wishful thinking, though

Doubtful, i've been in watch parties of old PPVs with a bunch of folks who are younger than the average here and as ACAB as it gets...and they were really impressed with Bossman's work. @Grimmas the Sasha comment wasn't meant as a dunk, just pointing out how much more appreciated women's wrestling is among the wider fandom since 2014. When i bring up GWE with my Twitter mutuals they're always shocked at the low number of women in the final results. And what i was getting at with the other part is that i see the Trish/Lita generation kinda falling off as a result of the quality of work being so much higher now - some folks went to bat HARD for Trish before, and i suspect a lot of that was due to a lack of other choices in the mainstream US women's scene. That's no longer a problem...

i thought Loss was pretty clear in what he laid out, but those weren't official guidelines so yeah. Guess that's what you'd have to do this time around... Maybe the explosion in US women's wrestling means people won't lose their minds for Trish Stratus this time, whoknoz EDIT: if we got a big Twitter crowd like we did for the last GWE i would bet money on Sasha making the 100 tho

They're largely anime/video game fans who enjoy wrestling for its parallels with those artforms. i would say wrestling as part of sports culture is dead, but that stuff is even becoming a bigger part of sports culture these days (cf. JuJu Smith-Schuster doing a Dragon Ball Z touchdown celebration) Winning & losing just isn't a matter of life or death to people now like it was for us when we were younger, even in actual sports. Given everything going on in the world now, the entire concept of pro wrestling seems inherently silly and even a bit corny; people want performers who embrace that corniness. Especially if they can make a genuine statement in the process, like i described above with Itoh vis a vis the idol industry.

Totally empathize with Loss here - part of me has always been uncomfortable with the push on this board for Lawler as the GOAT, as his particular offenses hit close to home for me. i'm sure some folks feel that way about Carlos Colon as well... EDIT: i also consider it rather damning that GWE only had one woman and one black wrestler in the top 50...and they were the same person!

It was an amazing vehicle for learning more about wrestling history and different regions - opened a bunch of eyes to Puerto Rico (as more than just Stabbyville, anyway) & World of Sport, for instance. But it could bring out the worst in some folks on occasion and was a grind to get through if you took it really seriously. Note how much less activity the tag-team ballot got and how heavily biased it was toward 80s US teams - the people who joined the board for just GWE had all their energy taken up by the main ballot.

The other part was that GWE also brought a bunch of Wrestling Twitter regulars onto this board, but that turned out to be temporary That part's easy for me to understand given how much older the membership here trends. Hell, i remember what happened on here when i tried to point out how closely younger wrestling fandom overlaps with anime fandom...

Maki Itoh is exactly the sort of person who *gets* modern wrestling fandom infinitely more than Cornette or even a lot of this board. i've followed her Twitter for a while and it's a good time, as the snippets here can attest to. Basically, to fully appreciate her, you have to understand the toxic elements of the Japanese idol industry that called her ugly and threw her away; her entire existence now is both a figurative and literal "FUCK YOU" to that whole business. And as i've attempted to explain on here before, younger wrestling fans also tend to be anime fans who are familiar with this context.

Quick tangent, but Axl was in WCW for a very short time in '91. They even had him feud with PN News, which incorporated both the obvious Metal vs. Rap angle as well as a "who has the better top-rope splash" deal since both used that as their finisher.

Guessing that would've been around the time he decided to retire to save his marriage? Think that was the story anyway...

Yeah, i've thought for a while about who's most widely despised in the business according to shoot interviews. Warrior & Russo would be the most obvious picks for most, i reckon, then you have Moolah. Sawyer is kind of a dark horse but i get the same impression as you there.

JDW has talked before about how Riki Choshu had a Hogan-esque reputation in Japan, and folks were worried when he became the booker in early 90s NJPW...then he proceeded to do far more jobs than anybody expected and put over the Three Musketeers strong. Still had some moments that went against the spirit of this thread though, such as his handling of invasion angles... EDIT: re: Backlund, it's tricky to figure out how much was him vs. the office. He says in his autobiography that the office told him not to sell for Stan Hansen in their final MSG match, as payback for Hansen playing politics to get that match in the first place. Terry Funk absolutely belongs in this discussion as well. He volunteered to drop the NWA title himself, and we all know he put over a ton of guys after that.

Ah, thanks! So before that, but i remember hearing it was still just the week before the show or so that they started really moving tickets.

Also, there was still a bit of a "save it for the house shows" mentality at the time of the first Mania since it was a total gamble. The show was drawing poorly until Hogan & T's guest spot on Saturday Night Live, IIRC, so i imagine they didn't want to risk major blowoff matches besides the women's title one. Note that the US Express won the tag titles back not long after WM1, and the world title wasn't even on the line! Also re: Race vs. JYD from WM3, Race was higher up on the card at that point so it made sense to give him the win then have the face get his heat back afterward. FYI, Race would go on to a full house-show run vs. Hogan a month or two after WM3 - that year saw quite a few pre-Hulkamania stars going for those juicy paydays.

to be fair, didn't JR mainly use "playing video games" as code for things like "having cocaine parties after the Smackdown tapings"?

trying to think of the closest modern-era equivalent and the best one i got was Brock ending the streak EDIT: Kevin Owens beating Cena clean in his main-roster debut was also huge at the time, though IIRC that was right at the start of the period when Cena began jobbing way more so it doesn't have that staying power also interesting to think about what the Japan answer would be for this. the one off the top of my head is Vader beating Inoki in his debut...

eh, Bigelow's long been considered overrated on this board - cf. his placement in GWE the usual line on him around here was that he never did anything better than his rookie work with Lawler, and a lot of his career was less than the sum of its parts. respect for the LT match tho!

The problem was that the streak had gotten TOO big to make a new star, weirdly enough - if they'd tried with anyone newer, it would've felt forced and the backlash probably would've made Reigns look like the Rock. IMO their only choices were to have an established guy like Brock/Cena end it, or never end it (my preference).

Quick nitpick: it was actually Lanny Poffo. He'd do it a bunch as a WWF TV job guy.

Man, this forum used to have a waaaaaaayyyyyy stronger pro-Big Daddy contingent. i guess a lot of the big UK heads don't post here anymore, and i think Dylan might've been in that camp too... Anyway, glad to finally see Jun get his due! And always down for more Mexico inductees, that's still the most logjammed category.

Ahhhhh, thanks for the clarification there! Yea, same reservations but i'd rather have this than Jake's life story being aired out for the 100th time Also really glad to see Nick Gage on there just bc i think this would be the first story that breaks out of boomer territory lol

i've thought for a while that Koji Kitao would make for an *amazing* episode for a Japanese equivalent to this series...

so word is season 3 will have episodes on: -Jake Roberts's entire family (or mainly just "Grizzly Smith" apparently?) -Brian Pillman -Collision in Korea -Nick Gage personally i love that the Jake ep won't just be about Jake, there's so much else that isn't as widely known

Meiko is a great call, and i bet KANA/Asuka & Io Shirai would be a shoe-in for the top 100 if we did it again now. Kairi would be a legit possibility too. Not to mention the Western women who've made an impact since then, like Becky/Charlotte/Sasha... In fact, i'd bet good money that a new GWE poll would have multiple ballots where the majority of the top 100 are women. re: Brock, it's not the suplexes themselves that are my problem with him - it's how many of his matches are literally nothing but trading finishers with zero transition involved.

Looking back on this now, the lower ranking of women in particular makes this list look dated AF to a lot of younger fans. Also Brock being so high, though i think the Suplex City bullshit hadn't taken over yet when people were voting. Really curious what a 2026 community list would look like, not going to lie...though you'd get vastly different results on here vs. the regulars on wrestling Twitter or such.