GOTNW

How so? Brock Lesnar can have that match with a dozen other people. Roman Reigns can't have that match with anyone else.

How does he fare now that he has two more high end matches? Personally I wasn't so big on the Rumble match but the Reigns match was great and has been getting universal praise and it was 90% Brock. I just watched his matches vs Taker at Unforgiven & No Mercy in 2002 and you almost forget how good he is at stuff like selling and bumping now that he's booked like Broly. I'd say that with one more very good-great match he'd make my list. He's almost too special not to.

Good.

It was pretty awful like everything in WWF/E in 1998. Interestingly booked, but the show itself was dogshit.

WWE is trying to present itself as a worldwide organization. Running territorial gimmicks that were aimed at a regional audience just further points out their hypocrisy. And there's nothing novel about the act either, especially for someone who's not from the US like myself. Pretty much everyone I know has cut at least several Lana-esque promos about how stupid americans are, which kind of diminishes her success.

Rusev's hype on PWO and DVDVR sometimes seems as ridiculous as Tanahahashi's on WON. I live for stiff hoss fights. I'd much rather watch Riki Choshu than Flair, Rey, Michaels, the entire Dragon Gate roster etc. Rusev doesn't even work stiff hoss fights regularly. If he can retain his aura after going through the booking parity everyone else has, then he's worth pushing as a long-term top heel. This situation could've easily been avoided had they just put Cena over Rusev in a tables match and fed him to Reigns at a later point which would've given Rusev more time to develop as a performer and ready him to survive the booking parity that awaits him. Alas, Rusev wasn't a name ten years ago, so he isn't worth protecting in their eyes.

The only guy who has gotten over as a heel. He has been wrestling for five years and only doing long matches for a year. In that time he has had great matches with everybody and seems to get better every match. He does every small thing great and is tremendously charismatic and great on the mic. Bray Wyatt had a similar run into a match with Cena at Mania and look how more important the Rusev match felt compared to the Wyatt match. There is so much here I disagree with. Firstly, Rollins is more over and a great example of the fact WWE fans aren't super evil dicks some are making them out to be and are willing to play along. And he is better at the "little things" WWE wants from their performers. Secondly, the great matches aren't there. He hasn't had any. Good? Yes. Great? Nah. Thirdly, great on the mic? That's not even worth discussing. He has a manager for a reason. I don't really care for Bray Wyatt but his act has a lot more mileage than Rusev's. Not to mention Wyatt's already gone through a lot of booking idiocy Rusev has yet to experience.

Like what?

Orton, yes. However, you need someone as a top heel. Rusev is the best candidate, so screw everyone else.Best as in "better than Luke Harper?". Yeah, no.

How much Angle have you actually watched and from what time period? For instance any fancy Ankle Lock counter. Why is AJ Styles trying to Tombstone Piledrive Angle even though he never uses that move? Oh right because he's not going to actually use it it's a contrived set-up to an Ankle Lock counter that we're going to get because it looked cool in a 2006 match vs The Undertaker that Angle's been trying to recreate since. As evident in any watch where he was actually calling the spots. Could you honestly point to an example where Angle offered something other than moves? He'll do the "repeated German Suplexes" spot and have the other guy no-sell it for a shitty transition out of control and yet they're supposed to be what, his third most efficient maneuver? Your defence here could be "well it's the other guy going for the Tombstone/no-selling the German, so it's not his fault" but these are things that happen exclusively in Angle matches and are obviusly his calls. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xywkzi_kurt-angle-vs-jeff-hardy-no-surrender-2010_sport No argument I could make would depict Angle's flaws as good as this match.

It's not the fact that he works "go go go", it's that he's fucking terrible at the stuff that makes pro wrestlng matches feel special. He has zero grasp of selling and psychology and comparing him to guys like Kawada and Kobashi who carried enormous portions of their matches on selling and emotion is ridiculous and stupid. Not to mention how inferior he is at working the style, how poor he is at structuring matches, how weak his strikes are, how limited his move-set is and how he has made his offence seem completely worthless. Also the All Japan guys could and did work more than one style.

I have had zero emotional investment in the WWE product for years. I'm pretty sure I went a year without watching a full WWE produced show. Then I watched like six months worth of Raw in two weeks. Not because I enjoyed it, merely as a means of escapism. Last year's show didn't do much for me. It was booked absolutely perfectly-but most of the matches were bad and the show was aimed at people enthusiastic about the product, whatever their thoughts on it may be and that, to me, just seems insane (caring about WWE, not aiming at people that care-which WWE dislikes doing for whatever reason). I'll watch it. It probably won't be very good. The card looks shitty and none of the matches have an aura of specialness to compensate that. Best case scenario is I'll make shitty puns with my friend and remember absolutely nothing from the show other than perhaps minor hallucinations during the pre-show. Or maybe we save that for the following Raw that will actually be good.

I'll probably be the low vote for Flair. I appreciate him a lot more than I enjoy him. I know next to nothing about lucha, but i'd easily take Negro Casas over him. There will probably be more guys once I make an effort to actively watch non-contemporary lucha. From the US I'd take at least Vader and Stan Hansen over him. And then there's about 20 puro guys I'd have above him.

Ibushi should, and probably will, lose. There's no intrigue in his push if he just steamrolls over everyone.

Cena-Lesnar 2012 was an amazing experience the first time I watched it just because of how unconventional it was for a WWE match. When I rewatched it with the question of "is this really an all time great match some pimp it as" my answer was a resounding no. Their 2014 matches were better. I wouldn't argue with someone who'd call the Summerslam 2014 match an example of great storytelling in pro wrestling.

Wrestling isn't "a collection of moves and their execution". Offence is just one of the components that affect match quality. When I engage in detailed reviewing of pro-wrestling I want to analytically break down what I liked/disliked about it, and I'm far more inclined to write about a match's layout, how much struggle there was, how were the transitions etc. than to concentrate on MOVES. Honestly analyzing pro-wrestling matches as stories just sounds ludicrous to me. They're not literally pieces, it strikes me as worthless meta-analysis. Because at age 11, when I stumbled upon an episode of Smackdown and saw two guys fighting each other I was immediately attracted to it because I liked action movies and MMA/kickboxing? I wasn't a self-conscious dick that needed to justify his viewing choices. I can't even imagine how my thinking process would look like if I were to think like that. "Well I guess if they can't produce something on the level of Macbeth I won't waste my time with this nonsense". Pro wrestling is fucking amazing for what it is. Its controlled nature allows the workers to artificially create amazing action that real life can't AND it allows them to make that action mean as much as it possibly can by using all of their other, equally (if not more) important tools. Just think of how many advantages say, selling gives the workers in creating a dramatic spectacle. I believe Superstar Sleeze's post(s) deserve a proper, seperate reply which I shall type out later.

It is more interesting that you only found that last few minutes great when they established a great story with heated exchanges from the outset. I loved Rusev suffocating Cena and never letting the match get away from him. Cena had to resort to wild swings and awesome double leg takedowns. It was just Cena's indefatigable resolve to win that kept him in it. Just when that willpower looked to win Rusev had the answer with a ballshot. It was an incredible dramatic and heated contest between two combatants struggling to win a match and were invested in its outcome that established a story early based on their strengths, never wavered and delivered a great finish. That's great wrestling to me beginning middle and end The narrative you thought up to best depict your viewing enjoyment means nothing to me though. Pro wrestling isn't a great storytelling medium so when it does tell great stories I feel it tells them in spite of its nature, not because of it. But what you described to me isn't a great story. It's a C level action movie scenario. I expect a sequel titled Cena 2 where the good guy gets his win back. Story interpretations can make for interesting reads-but I'd rather discuss what actually happened. The work that they did was subpar-Rusev's control segments were reduced to stomping, Cena's facial expressions were preposterously bad as were his punches, Rusev's Spinning Heel Kick missed, the match featured the weakest Alabama Slam I have ever seen, the AA has been killed and meant nothing....need I go on? The WWE is super micromanaged-if there was a story they were trying to sell they would have made it known-just like they did in the main event. A lot of the complaints I made may seem like "the usual stuff", but in general Cena has been reliable in performing on a high level despite limitations that come with issues that are engraved in his performances. But there was nothing to salvage the match here-the only interesting bits that happened (big counters and transitions) did so late in the match, and that particular part of the match I did enjoy. If Cena could've matched the sympathetic selling Zayn displayed against Owens or if Rusev made better offencive choices the first half would've been different-but as it stands I see no merit in it. (sorry if I came off as a dick but that was kind of essential in the point I was making)

It's interesting how Rusev-Cena gets called great when the last few minutes were the only part worth taking notice of. I wonder if any of the people that did so also criticised Meltzer for giving Hirooki Goto matches ****.

This would be a good knock against WWE style but not a solid case for a match being blowaway great, though I agree with you. The progression *was* there, it just wasn't very interesting. Bryan vs Reigns was a WWE MOTYC. An excellent performance by Bryan and the best Reigns has looked yet, his punches and forearms came off really well. Loved how snug and calculating Bryan's work was. His desperation submissions looked great and were a nice refreshment in WWE's "use x moves in y situations" setting. Unfortunately the attempted drama near the end was completely unconvincing and the finish was overly transparent. ***3/4 in my book.

The botches were pretty apparent. I could time code them. I'm not a fan of the Mistico tribute act in general and the sloppy execution doesn't help it. "The match built well"-to what? The armwork went nowhere-and the "build" was lackluster. Cesaro wasn't wrenching and bending Sin Cara's arm, he was putting on Randy Orton "get up and make your babyface comeback" restholds. " Sound psychology doesn't have any merit in itself (I'm sure someone will attack me for that but it's an easy point to defend) and the big spots weren't there.

I was startled to see Cesaro-Sin Cara get significant hype around some places. The opening was promising but then Sin Cara botched everything and Cesaro's workovers (which were pretty uninteresting to begin with) went nowhere. His final cover had a nice touch (the keylock on the arm he worked over) and the Suicide Dive Armdrag looked cool but that's about it. It honestly looked like a below average match to me. Bryan/Reigns vs The Usos from the February 12th Smackdown was pretty great. Bryan looked amazing just beating the shit out of the Usos and Reigns didn't detract from the match as his work was limited to just hitting his spots with good timing and execution. I was pleasantly surprised by his apron work and facial expressions. The Usos brought the goods as usual but Bryan's performance pushed this into (WWE at least) MOTYC territory for me.

I also can't understand why someone would watch wrestling with the sound turned off but that's because I love the sound of bumping and the strikes. The commentary isn't really a factor for me unless it's especially good or bad. Japanese commentary is generally amazing. Lucha commentary amuses me though I understand nothing. American commentary is shitty. My favourite commentators would be the guys who call BJW.

Agree on Owens-Zayn. Great match made mostly by Zayn's amazing bumping and selling. Owens unfortunately did too much stomping and chinlocks for the match to reach it's full potential. I'd go ***3/4-****.

Hashimoto will probably end up as my #1. I love 90s All Japan to death but the way Hashimoto structures and paces his matches suits my viewing needs more than anyone else's does. He had amazing offence, could hang on the mat with the best of them (as astonishing and definitive Hase's performance in their 1994 title match was Hashimoto's was equally as important because of how big of an obstacle he made himself look like and how hard it looked for Hase to transition into better positioning) ,carried himself like a star and made everything around him *FEEL* special, always brought a sense of struggle and urgency to his matches, was marvelous at creating the illusion of strategy and sold fantastically. A lot of wrestlers see selling as "grab limb and yell loudly a lot" but Hashimoto managed to sell subtly enough so it wouldn't compromise his aura of the greatest warrior ever but he would sell enough for you to remember the injury *was* there. The 1991 G1 match against Chono is a great example of that. Had great facial expressions that sold the importance and the intensity of his matches. His stalling was also superb and it lead to outbursts of violent strikes which of course make for astounding pro wrestling. He was also an amazing draw and was consistently awesome from at least 1989 onwards. And CHOSHUUUUUUUUUUU~! is the greatest moment in pro wrestling history. A wonderful pro wrestler any way you look at him.

They should have DB beat Reigns precisely because they inserted him into the title match in a similar way last year.