-
Posts
365 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Everything posted by Goodear
-
Just such a frustrating watch as he seemed to get so much about wrestling so quickly his first couple of years and then regressed into the "main event wrestler" style he has to this day. The guy just never learned to let things breathe even a little and always seems more interested in making memorable moments instead of having meaningful matches. Whoever discovered that Angle could do pretty moonsaults should never have told him about it. It made him way worse.
-
I've watched some of the most recent New Japan stuff and I just don't get the feeling that he presents himself like a main event big deal even now. There is just a combination of stuff going on there that doesn't make me think of him as a big deal even now carrying a major title around. I don't know if its the hair, the gloves or the weird way he executes things like a knee drop but something is refusing to click for me. He's a heck of a talent and a good wrestler but that disconnect is what keeps him off a list of elites for me.
-
I don't really see a compelling argument for Edge other than he was in main events in WWE and was good at plunder matches. He obviously had a noticeable deficiency when it came to offensive execution with his finish being particularly weak. With some nominees, I can overlook such a negative if they have some glowing quality in another category, but I just don't know where Edge stands out as a performer. That being said, I think the idea of the spear worked well with his opportunist character who was always looking for a paper-thin opening. The move was typically well-placed, but not well-executed. In terms of diversity, the tag team with Christian is vastly overrated in my eyes and struck me far closer in tone to two singles guys working together than a cohesive unit. It seemed to me like their chemistry only really came out during promos and segments. The team with Rey worked better in my estimation since it gave Edge a clearer role on the team than with Christian. To be fair, Christian hadn't matured as a performer until well after the team with Edge ended.
-
The difficulty is in that Meng has to drop this match to Sting on Thunder this week and put over Goldberg on Nitro and make both matter. To by the nature of his performance put that tiny bit of doubt in your mind that maybe he might win despite the fact he isn't. Take a look at this. If I were to tell you a guy was going to lose a match in under five minutes via clean fall to another guy's finish, you would think its a simple job match where one guy goes over because he's better. Instead both guys get over and Meng looks like the hardest man in the room just by the way he carries himself and how the match gets put together. I'll look around some more, but this is the nutshell.
-
A bit off topic but the "best in the world" thing really was pretty funny. He wasn't booked as the top guy, wasn't sold as a killer like say a Ryback was, didn't work a particularly dazzling style or present himself as a technical master or anything ... it had nothing to do with his gimmick or character, it was just something he said a lot. Its funny, I was watching people for the DVDVR March Madness tournament and when I saw Kana for the first time it was like 'This is the worker CM Punk should be' in terms of style so he could match his work with his promos.
-
Just as a basic question, is there anyone primarily known as a TNA talent that is worth considering like a James Storm or Bobby Roode? Is Gail Kim their best candidate?
-
I'm with Loss. Punk is a big match worker and his whole is more than the sum of his parts. But by the same token, his television matches can be pretty wretched with spotty execution and a lack of a wrestling hook to the character that matches the 'best in the world' gimmick. He doesn't stand out bell-to-bell for me and doesn't have a role to play in most matches.
-
I nominated Meng for a lot of different reasons and think he's going to fall somewhere in the 70s or 80s when everything is done. I put more stake in guys that fill difficult roles than your average watcher which is why you will probably see me advocating for white meat babyfaces at some point like Tito Santana and Ricky Steamboat. That beuing said, one of the hardest things to do in wrestling from that standpoint is to be the midcard gatekeeper. You end up putting guys over consistantly while still having to maintain your aura of being a threat. Meng pulled that off in a roster bloated beyond all reason. I honestly don't know what you would consider his biggest win, but he was a guy who could come out to face anyone on the roster and maintain that level of aprehension.
-
Nominate Meng/Haku Haku vs. The Big Bossman Thread http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/19715-big-bossman-vs-haku/page-2?hl=meng Please let me know if you need specific match reviews.
-
I think the thing I picked up the most watching early Andre was how good he could be executing limb work. Just the guy grabbing a hold of someone's arm could be very effective with the consideration of how powerful he was presented. All in all, I have him slotted low in my top 100 and he very well may fall off as time goes on and more people are reviewed. There simply doesn't seem to be the amount of tape of him being even just past his prime physically as opposed to being almost immobile. That said, a very intelligent worker probably with some of the best economy of movement you will ever see. Granted a lot of that wasn't by choice but it is what it is.
-
I think Flair's best 'non-Flair' prime stuff comes when he's pushed by other veterans like Terry Funk and Ronnie Garvin out of his zone. I find him to be an underrated brawler and while I don't think his punches are great, they fit the mentality those matches were going for at the time. I think they work better in non-stand up positions like when he has someone in a headlock or sitting on the canvas. His propensity to fish hook also came out during these times and was a welcome change from say the thumb in the eye off a beg off spot. His stomps always seemed on point as well.
-
Then you might as well just say pro wrestling is the dumbest shit ever and move on to a different hobby. People have different lines when it comes to 'fake wrestling crap' and what will break their ability to enjoy the hobby when it goes too far. I might as well say if you don't like Chuck Taylor's invisible hand grenade, you might as well find a new hobby if we take your argument to an extreme position. I personally need there to be an actual something there to buy in. I'm pretty sure I saw Heenan work a match with the Ultimate Warrior based around hiding a tongue depressor and that was enough for me.
-
I also felt his hot tag sequence while being admittedly fired up as all hell, would fall into a rut of doing the same sequence over and over again with his opponents having to put themselves into position for stuff the same exact way each time. Again a nitpick but, again, talking GOAT so nitpicks are going to separate top 10 from number 50.
-
I'm not sure I would put him over Bret or Savage although I don't know that Savage was ever 'the guy' with Hogan's shadow all over his reign. John has a lot of strong positives and strong negatives that are probably going to keep him out of my top 100. Negatives first, he might be the least coordinated guys to ever be so effective. His rope running almost always looks awful like he is mentally counting the steps he has to take in order to go where he has to end up. His out of nowhere finishes don't always come of as desperate as he is trying to make them and can leave a viewer unsatisfied. I don't have the issue with the STF that most do since he's (in my opinion) intentionally not choking guys since he knows kids would be imitating it and would end up on the nightly news when someone got strangled. That being said, the guy uses his power well and does a good job of selling effort when picking up guys 350 lbs plus. He actually does a good hierarchy match when put against lower guys where he dominates. He leans into stuff. His lariat is the tits and has become a highlight for me watching his more recent stuff from the last year. He's also not scared to put people over but understands he can't put everyone over every week or the jobs he does won't have meaning.
-
In my initial review, I'm finding Aja has too many structural and emoting issues for me to put her in my top 100 list. There doesn't seem to be a sense of proportion to her matches and her offense tends to go over the top for me. Working an undercard person means you don't really have to break out 3 piledrivers for a near fall as well as one on the outside of the ring. I think if she did less and paced it better, her work would be more enjoyable. As it is, she tends to do the same things regardless of the level of opponent and it lessens the impact. I think her facials are weak in that the expression hardly changes as the match progresses, including at times when she should be selling in a hold. There were brief times where she would break out a grin on offense that was effective but it was so muted and infrequent that it wasn't as effective as it could be.
-
I usually want to make a first determination after 7-8 matches usually with a tag match thrown in and hopefully something under 10 minutes when it comes to people from Japan or Mexico. This is generally to slot them either in either the top 100 or not. If I'm planning on slotting them, I will move to another block of about the same length to get a better feel. There simply isn't a way for me to watch every hyped thing ever and if I didn't like the initial sample, I move on to something new.
-
I'm going to have to delve into Memphis more (especially to get more information on Dundee and Dutch) and I'm hoping to see more of the fired up babyface that I've seen in a few old VHS tapes where Jerry could tear the house down with Randy Savage or with the Road Warriors. The amount of heel stuff I have seen and some of the TV matches I've caught can make Jerry seem almost lazy considering the lack of action and deliberate pace. Like a few people have mentioned, I think heel Lawler could spend way too much time hiding foreign objects that may or may not exist and I considered what I saw to be a major drag.
-
I cannot goddamn stand Blue Panther to the point I am starting to become concerned that I may be going mad since so many people like him so much. I just don't see this all time great. I see a guy who has a high number of holds stored in his memory bank and nothing else. I've watched primarily current stuff as I'm trying to keep reasonably timely on lucha so I understand I'm seeing a guy well past his prime. But he just doesn't do anything to make me think he understands what he is doing out there. I watched a match with Averno turn on Panther seemingly not understanding how rope breaks work and that's just poor construction. I keep watching this guys matches thinking it is going to click with me at some point and it never does.
-
I was also a contributor to that thread on DVDVR and would have the following notes. 1) I think Misawa's execution is some of the best I have ever seen. Not so much that everything looks effortless but that everything looks like the aim is to do damage. A lot of times on suicide dive, it looks like a guy is just trying to land in the right place. But Misawa actually delivers a blow that looks like he is trying to knock the other guy out cold. The way he lands on people with his senton and frog splash look like a ton of bricks are landing on the opponent. I've seen guys with 150 pounds on Misawa throw splashes that don't look they hurt as much. And the elbow is just such a cannon shot across the bow that you totally buy how much it is getting sold. 2) The fighting spirit stuff that I saw during that project was way less pronounced than I originally feared. I had been dabbling with New Japan stuff at the time and was totally sick of people forearming each other 15 times with no selling. Misawa (and the other guys) didn't seem to just wade through suplexes and strikes. They might hulk up out of a strike exchange, but it seemed way more earned. I think its a case where people took the trappings of the style and didn't really understand why it worked as well as it did. 3) He's a little too stoic for my tastes and his selling doesn't reflect to me a sensation of where we are in a contest all the time. I want to know that 'he's in major trouble now' and I don't get that sensation from him. His nervous tights-adjusting habit lends to this at times. 4) There are times when I don't get a sense of strategy from the matches lay out. Like it seems like if you were to pin down why he won match A and lost match B, it would boil down to reasons not presented in the actual match (that he is the ace is not good enough for me). 5) The ending sequences tend to be bloated which Matt covered. The peek of the action passing and the match still having another 6-8 minutes to go was a frequent concern of mine.
-
I basically have started on my list by creating three separate lists. 1) Guys I have seen a ton of and feel as though deserve to be in the final list 2) Workers who bear further scrutiny and 3) Guys I've seen a ton of that I'm guessing won't make the final list but are worth considering. So far the actual ranked list in only about 30 guys with a ton more people in the other two. I'm hoping that I will be able to move people out of that second list quickly and work more on rankings than selection but there is so much to watch. In terms of selection, I tend to value trends of excellence over great matches. I agree with Matt that you can learn a lot about someone from watching 1-8 minutes of action as opposed to only watching 30 minute epics where they through everything they have out. I think working tags can be just as worthwhile as singles and think some of the all time tag guys without singles runs should be represented just as much as guys who don't have tag team experience. I enjoy being able to watch a match and understand afterwords why one guy won and the other lost from a strategy standpoint. I value the narrative way more than moveset or work rate.
-
Thanks for that addendum, I was working on my 'to watch' list alphabetically which started with Aja Kong and I was wondering why she was allowed to grab things to hit people with the referee not doing anything. I don't think it helps the matches any to be honest since Kong is usually so physically dominate anyway and the weapons work isn't anything to write home about. It just seems like needless filler.
-
Well it depends on the actual performance of that headlock and if Backlund was able to compensate for his opponent by being active with the hold. To me, the real why of a situation doesn't matter as much if it fits the why of the story being told.
-
I don't have the network so I don't know. Its on Hulu however and I found it on Youtube.
-
I would think one could prefer Regal-Ohno on a couple of levels if they were so inclined. Its certainly an economical match where there are a minimum of bumps (if I recall correctly there is one belly-to-back suplex) and a whole lot of limb work and brawling. It certainly feels more gritty than Steamboat-Savage with the finger work especially lending to that sensation. I guess if I'm trying to boil it down, the matches are so stylistically different that what matters to you as a watcher is going to make a huge difference in how you rank them.