The Man in Blak

I hope that Goldberg is saving everything for the match because he literally looked like he might not make it to the ring.

The cosmos apparently wasn’t a big fan of the Becky/Belair angle either:

“It worked for Daniel Bryan when he lost to Sheamus!” They just cannot get out of their own way. I’m not a huge Bianca fan by any means, but she deserved way better than this.

EVIL sucks and the execution of the angle after the main event was awful, but I can see the idea that Takagi needs a tomato can to buy some time for Ibushi to come back and/or get some space between the Okada/Takagi rematch. As it ended up for this card, I think New Japan actually stumbled their way into a great main event story and match with the substitution. Tanahashi's homage to Ibushi late in the match, in particular, was a nice little note that got a rise out of the crowd.

I'm still making my way through Dominion, but I liked Ibushi/Cobb quite a bit! https://twitter.com/JJWilliamsWON/status/1401856926753902595?s=20

Her return match with Riho on the Buy In pre-show for Double or Nothing (5/30/2021) was arguably better than any of the matches on the actual PPV: The "mean streak" that she adopts in this match to break up the face-vs-face dynamic is nice, especially with all the legwork serving as a sort of retribution for her knee injury from their previous match.

I felt like at least Kingston had a built-in excuse with his knee taking so much punishment earlier on in the match - it’s hard to dive across the ring to break up pins on a bad wheel. I do agree 1000% on the double teaming, though. If there was actually a crooked ref story being worked, it needed to actually be sold by, well, anybody. It wasn’t in the hype package for the match that they ran twice during the countdown/buy-in, it wasn’t mentioned by commentary (except by JR calling attention to it because it was ridiculous), and it didn’t really get any play in the post-match. There are ways to try to sell this as a non-crooked ref story - just say the ref didn’t want this title match to end in a DQ unless it was absolutely necessary - but the structure of the match didn’t really support that either. They started with a walk and brawl through the crowd (complete with a Sandman homage), they had a blink-and-miss-it interference cutoff with Kazarian and the Good Brothers, and the end of the match ended up being a non-stop series of double team spots from both teams without any semblance of pushback from the ref. Why not just make the match a no DQ tornado tag in the first place?

Brandi's going to stick up for her spouse, especially on Twitter where the new kayfabe gets worked. That doesn't make her Steph - that makes her someone that's married. Ultimately, I actually don't have a lot of complaints for how they've handled Cody up to this point, other than wishing they would have held him off camera to sell the loss to Brodie Lee even more. As good as he's become on the stick, he always has a tendency to get over his skis a little bit in promos and this last one is far and away the most egregious example of that, which is all the more reason to keep giving him the celebrity matches and the matches to elevate or introduce new incoming talent. (The TNT Title run was absolutely perfect for this.) Let the undercard ride along on his heat, however weird he may make it at times.

My 2016 Top Ten was: Funk Misawa Bockwinkel Fujinami Liger Casas Satanico Kawada Hansen Bryan with Flair, Eddie and Hashimoto just missing the cut. I still feel really good about my Top 5 -- if I had to reorder my ballot based on 2021 impressions, I would probably have Bryan just outside of that in the No. 6 slot -- but Kawada and Hansen are definitely two that could very easily slide out for, say, Jaguar Yokota and Sangre Chicana.

I don’t associate the “history making epic” with Michaels, for many of the same reasons/matches that @strobogo pointed out. Larger-than-life melodrama has been the WWF’s weapon of choice for decades. What I *do* think Shawn bears some responsibility for, however, is reconfiguring that into an ethos of “stealing the show” as an entertainer at the expense of the match, even if that meant burying other people in the process. Some of that is attributable to the steroid-inflated context of the 80s WWF, where Shawn and Bret (and Savage, Steamboat and Dynamite) knew that the only way they could really stand out as smaller competitors was to crank up the workrate in contrast. But I think Shawn, being one of the most physically gifted athletes in the history of the business, was far more willing than those other guys to bend the rules and forms to show off what he could do and, in the process, I think he ended up creating the Modern WWE Superstar archetype that is concerned, first and foremost, with bringing The Best Match Possible to the Universe. He was rarely ever content with being a competitor, but he was always comfortable being a performer. Shawn Michaels internalized the use of signature spots (I won’t say formula) that made Ric Flair one of the best ever and simply emulated it without also bringing along Flair’s intuitive understanding of what actually holds those spots and his matches together as a simulation of competition. And now, years later, WWE Superstars have internalized so many of his tropes to such an extent that they can casually emulate them (without Shawn’s once-in-a-lifetime athletic ability) as the situation dictates. Of course, this approach is not necessarily a liability if you’re a publicly-traded corporation that is much more interested in creating a consistent and sustainable product. That Michaels has gone to NXT and further advanced this ethos in his capacity as an agent/producer/whatever just reinforces that his approach — the WWE’s approach — is Working As Designed.

Not sure if it‘s a real “find”, per se, but I found a full archive.org account of Herb Abram’s UWF that I added to the master list in the OP.

I love Misawa, but I would say he’s decent at best in the WK3 tag and the match, as a whole, is kind of a mess. The other three work around 2009 Misawa’s limitations well enough, though yeah, Nakamura does absolutely blast Misawa with a spinning heel kick. I liked the finish of Goto finally being able to hold Misawa in check on the outside for Nakamura’s flash submission winafter Misawa held him for-freaking-ever during Sugiura’s ankle lock earlier; the first half of the match meanders a LOT though, including an exchange between Goto and Misawa that was depressingly loose. I wouldn’t cite it as an achievement for Misawa, except that he was present and more active than, say, Tenryu lumbering around in his match with Okada. When you’re as good as Misawa was, though, isn’t that damning with faint praise?

Updated with the official CMLL YT channel, along with KinchStalker's link.

CMLL has an official Youtube channel where they post all their weekly TV - VideosOficialesCMLL: https://m.youtube.com/c/VideosOficialesCMLL/featured I actually missed this in my footage post in the general folder (argh), so I’ll add it there as well.

He has more of a non-WWE career than you might think - a few matches in PWFG as Glenn Jacobs, a tag team stint with Al Snow in SMW, and some Puerto Rico matches (for starters). That said, I think any case he would have is going to hinge on longevity and tag work and those might be the two criteria that I factor the least. I’ll be digging back into his catalogue, though, since I want to take full advantage of the five-year period to do my due diligence on all the candidates. Any of his very early St. Louis stuff out there?

Dibiase was near the very bottom of my list last time around, so he’s going to be in real danger of falling off with the new “incoming class.” He might have been a bigger victim of Bret’s aborted late 80’s singles push than Bret, since he almost certainly would have been on tap to build him up and they had fantastic chemistry in the ring. Has any new footage from his early St. Louis days emerged online recently?

Updated!

Somehow, Hayashi ended up working the opening match of GLEAT's inaugural card (2020/10/15): GLEAT 2020.10.15 GLEAT Ver.0 全场-体育-高清完整正版视频在线观看-优酷 (youku.com) It's not a particularly great match - Hayashi going for a bearhug in the opening match of a UWF-style revival card, in particular, feels like a bad play - but it did make me wonder if anyone had caught any of his Wrestle-1 work or any of his cross-promotional matches with TNA since the last period. Anyone feel compelled to make a case for exploring him further?

I had him just outside of the Top 25 on the last ballot but, in retrospect, I think he might have been my favorite discovery from my 2016 explorations. I was gunshy about ranking him under other luchadors because I couldn't find as many of his matches as other top candidates -- I want to spend my 2026 journey putting that excuse deep into the ground.

Updated! I didn't include Ice Ribbon with this pass but, if someone can get more of the details and/or links, I'll add them.

All right, OP has been updated with the links - thanks! If there are other suggested playlists or services, just throw them in here and I'll update when I can.

Okay, let's see if we can get this rolling. For many of the individual candidates, posters are already providing match references that can be picked up through direct google search (and you'd be amazed how far direct searching will get you), but this thread is meant to cover more generalized flyovers of promotions or eras if you don't necessarily know where to start. As such, I definitely don't have a comprehensive knowledge of all of the resources out there, but I'll try to organize and list the little bit that I do know in the OP - replies can feel free to add suggestions and revisions and I will try to keep the OP up to date (or mods can as well - feel free to pin this post and edit as you see fit). Also, some of you may have noticed a supplemental folder that Loss created here - please refer to his posts there for more details. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ For starters, let's cover some links that are good to keep on hand for general reference: If you somehow don't already have Segunda Caida bookmarked, fix that immediately. Many of the writers are already participating in the GWE discussions and their blog is a great catch-all for picking up interesting footage off the beaten path, including numerous Complete and Accurate (C+A) compilations that focus on particular wrestlers or promotions. Goodhelmet (Will) has curated numerous collections that are excellent references of different territories and eras. I'm not sure which ones are still available for purchase, but the year-by-year 90s collections (for example) are the foundation for the match archives on this very site. @goodhelmet, feel free to post below and I can update here with details as you see fit. Ditch's site is a fantastic starting point for significant matches from AJPW and NOAH history (chronological listing here), particularly from the 80s and 90s. dataintcash's Youtube page is a treasure trove of classic Lucha, with hours upon hours of singles, tags and trios. PuroresuDream has an extensive run of AJW Classics videos, which covers a lot of classic Joshi. Niagara Driver's doc of Stardom (see Stardom World below) and 90's Joshi is a fantastic place to start for that as well. The Cubs Fan has covered Lucha for a long time and has a few accounts in that link with tons of video to run through. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Now, let's hit the official streaming services and channels: WWE, NXT, WCW, ECW: Peacock ($5/month with ads, $10/month). The WWE Network thread here at PWO covers updates as they come but, in general, you can expect most PPVs from the 80s onward for all three promotions here, in addition to some TV and a handful of episodes for some indies (EVOLVE, ICW, wXw, PROGRESS) TNA/IMPACT: IMPACT Plus ($8/month, $72/year). PPVs, some TV archives for Impact, and a few oddities here and there (like some Wrestling at the Chase episodes). AJPW: AJPW TV (900 yen/month) NJPW: NJPW World (999 yen/month) NJPW's official streaming service, with a ton of older matches as well as live broadcasts of the latest supercards. Senor Lariato's comprehensive Google doc of matches with links is a frequent reference point, since the NJPW site can be a little fussy to work with for searches at times. ROH: Honor Club ($10/month for TV/PPV archives, $120/year for VIP to get monthly benefits + access to live PPVs) DDT, TJPW, NOAH: Wrestle Universe (900 yen/month) Dragon Gate: Dragon Gate Network (1650 yen/month) Stardom: Stardom World (920 yen/month) Revolution Pro Wrestling: RPW On Demand ($8.49/month, first two weeks free) Shimmer: streamshimmer.com ($9.99/month) - includes the first 80+ Shimmer shows CMLL: VideosOficialesCMLL (free, official Youtube channel) Joshi City has a solid list of Joshi streaming services beyond the ones I've already included above that is worth checking out (hat tip to Marksman for that recommendation). ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ And some general streaming services and other official promotional playlists (more to come, I'm sure): Independent Wrestling TV ($10/month, $100/year) has a truckload of North American indies (such as CZW, IWA Mid-South), along with some smaller Japanese shows (Big Japan, mid-00s Battlarts revival) Title Match Network ($9.99/month) has a similar variety of indies, plus some additional content for Mission Pro Wrestling and the Ladies Night Out shows (with some YouTube content as well) Gatoh Move ChocoPro is Emi Sakura's Joshi promotion and there's a lot of on the YouTube channel there Poster submissions for various playlists (thanks to bennyowens, GSR, Witlon, Reel, Grimmas, jiraffejustin, King of Debt, corwo and KinchStalker for their links below): Roy Lucier AAA Roy Lucier UWA Roy Lucier CMLL Roy Lucier Japanese Classics Roy Lucier Territories Roy Lucier Houston Classics of All Japan Armstrong Alley (Territories) RNR Wrasslin (Lucha) Kings AARK (AJPW/NOAH) Brett Williams (All sorts) *unsure, sorry* (Classic puro) Pro Wrestling Rarities (Handhelds/deep cuts) Pro Wrestling Preservation Society (territories) Real Hero (Puro) AWA stuff (Territories) WCW Cruisers Classics WWC Joe Dombrowski's Wrestling Library (indies/assorted) Matt D (territories/classics) Trader Jack (territories) Vrnam Nchnm (puro and German catch) Rob D (territories) Joshi puro oshi The Wrestling Archivist (territories) Old School Wrasslin tellumyort - primarily WoS that aired on The Wrestling Channel Arthur Psycho - has lots of stuff that never aired on The Wrestling Channel including matches from the Screensport wrestling show British Wrestling Classics - post 2000 British wrestling, so you get looks at the likes of Doug Williams, Jonny Storm, Pac, late Steve Grey stuff and a few U.S. guys when they came over The FWA Files - an extensive collection of FWA shows from the 2000s. If the show was taped, it's probably here. There are also Best of's and rare compilation tapes for the likes of Jonny Storm, Jodie Fleisch and Doug Williams. Marco's Catch Sammlung - German catch stuff and some Reslo USWA Texas has USWA Texas shows and some Southwest more recently. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_OknTVVX8tMnAwjEwtnxKA/videos Memphis Wrestling Video Vault https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTim1Uvfvm86blvU4inQhEw Verity Chandler has some Poffo ICW (a lot of the longer matches are split into multiple videos, but it's something.) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzrLGyTej1cJ5A7_TvsiZug/videos NWAWildside has old Wildside TV and videos with a lot of good stuff. https://www.youtube.com/user/nwawildside/videos PuroArchive IWE YouTube channels (One, Two) piercetapes (Southern indies) JNLister (WoS) Mister Cacao (late 90s-2000s lucharesu, with some CMLL Japan) Herb Abram’s UWF on archive.org

Well, I mean, it *is* a thread on the board here : But that’s an ongoing thread with a lot of pages and I’m wondering if it’s worth maintaining an OP with those playlists along with streaming services as a more approachable reference.

Is it worth putting together a page with a "living" (i.e. frequently updated) index of streaming services or YT/DM playlists to refer to for various eras or styles? Footage is always a huge question with these discussions and something like that might help guide people on where to go or how to best optimize their time and expenditure with a given service.

Goldberg had multiple seasons in the NFL before coming into WCW, so I wouldn't call him a "totally unknown guy" either, but that's sort of beside the point. Just as a point of contrast: last time around, I had a lot less enthusiasm for John Cena than other people because I saw him as a "system quarterback" that, with a few exceptions, mostly worked within the carefully mediated confines of the WWE production and agenting machine. I was reluctant to give him full credit for his successes then; I'm not sure how I'll approach them yet for this time around. With Brock, I think the question cuts the other way - how much blame he should get for his, um, narrow in-ring work in this second run? Once WWE took their receipts for his original departure (i.e. the first Cena match and the Hunter match), they have gone above and beyond to protect him as an Akuma-esque spectre that lords over the rest of the roster, like a demigod that occasionally comes down to play with the mortals. With that lens, I think Brock's video-game matches can make sense, even if they aren't aesthetically pleasing according to the usual traditions of pro wrestling. But is that lens valuable to the broader project here? Is the subversion of those traditions actually part of the act and, if so, how much credit does Brock actually get for that? If the purpose of a post-2013 Brock match is solely myth-making rather than athletic performance or storytelling, then where does that leave him in contrast to other historically protected workers like Hogan or Undertaker?