BigBadMick

The sheer volume of stuff available now is tough. I also get fidgety after settling on a particular promotion/timeframe. Just today as an example, I watched three late 1991 AJPW matches, then moved on to early 80s Memphis. That was partly inspired by Kris's podcast from a couple of weeks ago. I marvel at the amount of footage Will, Kris, Pete, Dylan, Chad and Parv have consumed. Like someone said earlier, it's a pity this footage explosion/youtube etc hadn't happened when I was a teenager.

Also, the AJPW match was helped by much better video quality. As was pointed out, even if Dory was being stoic, it was impossible to tell with the Florida footage. I know some prefer that gritty, in-the-stands feel, but better quality footage and clear facials etc. are certainly an advantage in drawing me in.

I think you both hit the nail on the head in talking about differing preferences/priorities for Brisco/Funk. Like Goodear above, I didn't see a thread holding the match together. That's not helped by being clipped obviously, but generally it was difficult to me to see it as more than random collections of moves at times. Perhaps the Solie/Brisco/mystery man commentary would help, as Parv suggested. By the way, it's clear Parv and Will are as stubborn as each other, and not really going to influence each other too much. Makes for fun audio though

Watched Murdoch-O'Connor this morning. I have quite limited experience of 70s wrestling (probably less than 50 matches) but certainly enjoyed it as the tempo picked up in the second half. Enjoyed the first part too - having you two for commentary certainly kept it interesting. I liked Will's point about being of a certain age to appreciate older wrestling/wrestlers. I'm 37 now, can't imagine sitting through that first half 15 years ago.

Parv, I watched Hansen-Kobashi from Sep '91 last night. Thought it was phenomenal, and the yearbooks gushed over it. I remember you didn't seem overly enthused on your podcast - did you write up a review on it?

Just getting to this today and wow guys, way to pile on Parv for his review of Backlund-Adonis! Don't the PWO rules of anything goes as long as you back up your opinion extend to Titans? Anyway, great show as always. I'm sure Parv will get over it....

Getting through this today. I'm up to the ECW talk. Interesting comparing 95 and 96. I agree with the consensus that they peaked in summer 96 (that is the consensus, right?), but I have awfully fun memories of the 95 stuff. Seemed like a lot of coming and going, and everyone seemed to be used effectively. Really enjoyed that year. Jannetty, Snow, Sabu, Taz, Malenko, Benoit, Guerrero, Funk, Cactus, Austin, Raven, Sandman, Scorpio, Steiners, Whipwresck, Public Enemy, Douglas, Gangstas - Hell of a cast of characters there.

In the last post, no I wasn't really, I suppose. And ultimately, that is what I am saying. In this past post I was just saying the conversation has made me think more about why I pick Austin. I think Loss is right in that Austin doesn't default get scrutinized like HBK does. On first response I was far too visceral. I have been thinking more about it recently and the distinction between the two is much more about style than about anything that resembles an argument for objective production. HBK probably had longer stretches of quality matches and no doubt he helped lift overall weaker rosters. Austin was pretty fortunate to work really talented rosters, especially during his best runs. For example, I like Austin’s early 90s work in WCW, but that roster was stacked. When he was in his absolute prime in 96/97 he was mostly working with awesome talent and most of his memorable feuds/matches were with really good workers. And everyone knows that the attitude era featured a lot of talent, even if they underperformed on the whole in terms of actual matches. I am not sure it is fair to say that Austin dumbed down the wrestling though. Wrestling was dumbing down in America overall and Austin’s popularity/injury probably didn’t help anything, but I am not sure that is a cause/effect relationship. If anything Austin changed his own game to stay a bit ahead of the curve in some ways. He wasn’t a fluid and crisp wrestler post injury, but he was a good brawler who used space and pace really well. He still told good stories, kept things pretty tight, and tried to present believable wrestling. Injured, Austin got a lot out of guys like young Angle, Taker, HHH, and The Rock, and even Kane (as mentioned before). Austin was pulling disproportionately good matches out of them for the time period. Austin probably has The Rock and HHH’s best matches and I actually don’t love either of them in the ring. I would maybe contend they are remembered more positively because of their work with Austin (though admittedly they are not Nash or Sid). Changing his own style, Austin – I think – helped hold up in ring wrestling in a time when matches really weren’t that good on the whole. He was able to do this because his original style (though much more fluid athletic before the injury) was still focused on believability over theater, where as HBK – and this isn’t a knock – has a more theatrical style. And this is where the rubber hits the road for me. Austin’s focus on in ring legitimacy and intensity is something I find more compelling and more entertaining. I think it something you see very early in Austin’s career and something he was sort of in a league of his own with by the time he was having his Hart Feud and then ultimately his main event run. That all said, I think HBK should get more credit for getting more out of his opponents and for having long runs of quality wrestling matches. His consistency is fairly impressive and even though I am not a huge fan of post-return HBK, there are still matches in that run that I am a sucker for. And MJH summed up the point I was going to make here. Stylistically, HBK was made for making everyone around him look better. His showmanship bump and feed style makes for memorable (especially WWE style) matches that build drama. For that, I give him a lot of credit. This is ultimately a style issue for me. If I had to bet on one of them to have a match that I will love and call a five star match against a game opponent, I would probably pick Austin. If I had to pick one to put on a series of matches with just about anyone and produce quality, it would be HBK. I would probably rather watch 3 hours of random Austin matches, but there are probably more memorable HBK matches I could name off the top of my head as matches to watch. So, even within the criteria of in ring performer I sort of can’t help but parse out a few different ways of thinking about this. However, ultimately – even if it is just “I like him more” – Austin’s in ring body of work is more entertaining and compelling. Anyway, the conversation here did make me think about both guys quite differently, which is cool. I need to find some time to watch some stretches of each now. This got me thinking about how Austin might have fared in All Japan when he was fielding offers from there in '95. With Hansen and Williams tutoring him, could he have made the grade there? An interesting 'what-if', anyway.

Another really enjoyable show - PeteF3 certainly earned his keep, I've enjoyed his notes in the yearbook on my stop-start journey into early 90s All Japan. Parv, wanted to commend you on your patience in not rushing to all the highly touted stuff. Going chronologically through the 80s set and half the 90s to get to here is really impressive. 06/03/94 was one of my first stops when I started getting tapes in 1995.

Also, did they actually work together after Pillman's injury in August, when Regal replaced him at the Clash show?

I know that wasn't aimed directly at me, Loss, and agree with a great deal of it. Ironically, I started this about a year ago.... http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/28533-how-does-austin-stand-up-as-an-all-timer-amid-the-attitude-era-backlash/

Oh, ok. Bix!

Love these so far Kris but any chance of getting time stamps to break this up a bit?

It's been a while but yeah, I enjoyed it for the standards of Attitude era WWF.

Kane, KotR '98.

Rumor has it that DID happen. The Harris twins allegedly caught Shawn away from his bigger buddies, with only Waltman being there. Ron or Don, whichever, one of 'em beat the crap out of Shawn while the other one held X-pac down, with a prison-like warning: "You didn't see shit!" Yeah. That was Sep or Oct 1995, though. Morale must have been really crappy backstage in 97 with Shawn's antics going on.....

The latest Fighting Spirit magazine has this - - The 50 Greatest WWE PPVs of All-Time, as the FSM team gets together to bring you its definitive list

Lust Hogan - some stuff about it here http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/4999-the-wade-keller-appreciation-thread/page-19

Just got through the GAB talk. Great stuff so far. Kris - I'm intereted in the Sting peaking in 89 stuff. Do you believe he was that badly derailed by the knee injury? I've always looked at 92-93 as his best years.

HHH doesn't respect Cena? That's news to me.

It's just me and you waving the TNA flag around here, Savage!

Another great one - kudos, guys. Kinda cool listening to Parv recap almost 2 years worth of Titans talk for the first half, then previewing the next 2 years in the second.

That's all fair enough Parv. Personally though, I find that when I go down the 'watching pimped stuff' road it can start to feel like homework.

Parv, do you think there should be a required viewing set in order to participate? I'm not trolling, it's something I was wondering about in general.