BillThompson

It's a subjective art, you don't have to agree or even like it, but being offended someone nominated a certain wrestler makes no sense to me.

I've written about at least two examples of it on my blog recently. At some point I'll probably do a bigger piece on Angle here.

I disagree, as I feel Angle excels as a pro wrestler and he's a far different wrestler than Michaels. Watching his stuff during my Network PPV rewatch project has solidified how great Angle is in my mind. Tremendous storytelling, believable offense that looks like it can finish, sells really well, has an intense character that fits his style, etc.

Someone who thinks he deserves to be nominated. You don't that's fine, but the tone you're taking with this strikes me as needlessly confrontational.

Since the first month, and I still use it regularly.

Sting Wolfie D I mean, WOLFIE D C'mon. Not only would I place all of them above Shawn that year, but they'd place above him all time. Listen, I can't stand Michaels as a performer and don't think he's worth all that much. As I've previously stated he does have some great matches to his credit, but those are only in gimmick matches or when he's being carried by a much better worker. Had Shawn stayed a Rocker he might have a shot at my list because I do think he was terrific in that tag team. But, Shawn Michaels the superstar singles performer who can't sell worth a lick, has weak offense, ruins matches by acting like a baby, can't execute a Hurricanrana to save his life, doesn't grasp psychology, and so on ad so forth isn't among the greatest wrestlers ever, he's not even close.

In no particular order, and if I took a deeper look at the year there are probably wrestlers I would swap in/out plus more people I would rank ahead of Michaels, Bret Hart Owen Hart Jeff Jarrett Davey Boy Smith Mankind Psicosis Juventud Guerrera Jushin Liger Rey Misterio Jr. Damian 666 Ultimo Dragon Shinjiro Otani Aja Kong Kyoko Inoue Manami Toyota Meng Johnny B. Badd/Marc Mero Steve Austin Vader Brian Pillman Hakushi/Jinsei Shinzaki Goldust Savio Vega Mariko Yoshida Megumo Kudo Kenta Kobashi Takao Omori Gary Albright Stan Hansen Akira Taue Mitsuharu Misawa Toshiaki Kawada Jun Akiyama Yoshinari Ogawa Sting Steven Regal Patriot Too Cold Scorpio Mikey Whipwreck Genichiro Tenryu Chris Benoit Brian Christopher Wolfie D Jerry Lawler Tracey Smothers El Dandy Silver King Koji Kanemoto Shinya Hashimoto Eddie Guerrero

Ads are one of the methods they are using to start uploading new/old content again.

Sorry, but I find this an insanely dumb idea. Not only would it devalue Lesnar and the WWE title, but I'm fine without legit MMA in my pro wrestling, thank you very much.

Not sure why people are up in arms about the ads, or viewing it as a step in the wrong direction. They've said ads were coming since the day they launched the Network. It's an easy revenue stream for them, and the way they are implementing them it's not going to impact anyone's viewing. It's better than an increase in a subscription cost.

I'd leave Michaels off a top 50 1996 list.

Only thing I will say is that your line of "there is no logical argument that could be made that Hayabusa is the greatest wrestler to ever lace them up." is not something I agree with. The beauty of the voting process for something like this is that people are going to put wrestlers in places you don't agree with. They will have well reasoned arguments that are completely logical to them, and that's really all that matters. I mean, I really don't see an argument for Michael Elgin getting a single vote, but if he does I know that the person who voted for them has their reasons and I will respect those reasons.

Interesting, I always thought it was the over the top throw at SuperBrawl that was the career ender.

Martel isn't English Speaking. And yeah, he was great. The more I watch him, the more I think of him. His comeback in 98 was pretty terrific as he looked like one of the best guys in WCW almost immediately, and it took those sloppy-ass Harlem Heat to cut his career short. Not that he would have hang on for too long though, he was making money in real-estate for a decade already. To be fair it was Perry Saturn throwing him over the top rope that wrecked his knee and ended his career.

Daniels is a guy I'm on the fence about. I see the great matches, the influence, and I generally enjoy his work. But, the smoothness is a problem, because it's not fluid smoothness. Too often it's the sort of smoothness that is over choreographed and kind of like ballet. There are times I'll watch a Daniels match and really appreciate what he's doing, but there are just as many times where I'll watch a match and think he's exposing the business with the obviously choreographed nature of what he's doing,

common ground *high five* I live to surprise

His brawling period is a big hurdle, because I found Austin's 98-2000 brawling to be pretty darn horrible.

Absolutely no chance, now or ever. I find everything about Elgin to be terrible; his moveset, the way he structures his matches, his fundamental lack of understanding of psychology, his selling, his bumping, his repetitive nature, and so on and so forth. Essentially Elgin wants to be some sort of Kurt Angle/legit shooter hybrid, only minus any of the charisma, legitimacy, or grasp of what makes for a quality pro wrestler,

For the 100 greatest singles wrestlers it's not really excluding their tag work though. Guys/gals will be boosted because of their tag work. I can understand if you guys don't want to place him high on the 100 greatest workers list because he was primarily in tags, but while the tag list is only for a wrestlers tag work the singles list is all-encompassing of their whole career; singles and tags.

I've made my views on drawing known, but I don't think it is a reliable metric nor do I think it should matter. These are performers, they should be judged on their art, not on the money they make. For me it really boils down to that and it is that simple. I know lots of people will disagree, but if you're spending you're time worrying about drawing power and money made you're really missing the point of pro wrestling, in my opinion.

This is one of those things where you should probably expand on your thoughts a bit. The discussion side is that I've enjoyed the VoW podcasts and the forum threads where the work of the wrestlers is really dig into. I find that sort of talk deeply compelling and I'm happy that Meltzer's HoF inspires talk of that kind. As for why the actual HoF is a joke, --Who and who does not have a ballot is completely arbitrary. Guys like Dylan are just getting a ballot, while someone like Mark Madden gets one every year. --It's pro wrestling hall of fame, all the MMA and other outside pursuits should have no bearing. That's like saying Steve Tasker should get an extra bump to be in the NFL HoF because of his charity work. --Speaking of MMA, Dave is incredibly vague about how people should factor in MMA careers into their voting. He refuses to take a stand and that means people are voting from vastly different sets of criteria that could easily be centralized by Dave taking a stance. --The region/bracket process is horrible and yields horrible results every year. Guys are in regions that make no sense, or don't get in based on some sort of bracket methodology that is both confusing and irritating useless. --There's never been a true standard as to how wrestlers get in. Some people have been grandfathered in, others have to go through the voting process, others disappear from the ballot and reappear at random times. --Dave uses polls to decide who gets on a ballot sometimes, that's a really bad way of doing such a thing. --I don't believe any emphasis should be placed on drawing power. It isn't a trustworthy metric, it tells us very little about the skills of a wrestler, and Dave has shown that when he feels like it (the High Flyers) for example he will ignore drawing power to suit his own needs. There's more, but I'm tired and that's all I have right now.

I actually think Buh Buh is underrated as a worker. Is he a top 100 guy, probably not, but he has great timing, an arsenal of moves that fit him well, a nice big match resume, and he's always been a hard worker who gets the most out of what he can bring to the table.

The WON HoF is a joke, in every possible way. That being said, I enjoy the discussions that come about because of it.

I actually don't think PWG has one style of wrestling. I generally love PWG, but I can't stand Davey Richards and that includes his PWG stuff.

So, it will be a while before I provide my list because for the second time in as many days my computer decided to eat it.