NotJayTabb

The first thing he said all show was "Yeah I'm yelling, that's what I do", and I briefly considered turning the show off

Makes me think of the old line about how your rating doesn't represent the show you've put on, but rather the show you put on the week before. People tuning in because of Punk debuting getting rewarded with such a bafflingly mid show might not come back next week. I'm really confused why they ended on a squash of Arn's not-over kid with a perennial jobber making the save, a hot ending would have at least left a good final impression.

I'd have guessed Zack Ryder, if he'd stayed there for more than a month. Part of me wonders if the correct answer is Cody.

They've definitely picked the correct two finalists for the Breakout tournament. Odyssey Jones is green, but has a natural charisma and likeability, whilst Carmelo Hayes already feels like a star. Again, great natural charisma and a very good wrestler. They were my two favourites from the initial line up, and I'm glad they're the last two

That's great news, the arrival of the new football season means that I'll be missing alternate weeks in the future (the time difference means that most Watch Parties will be starting just as games end, and by the time I've driven home from Coventry, they'll just be finishing), so that's an invaluable resource.

Ridge Holland is 6ft 1, jacked, with a legitimate sports background who they signed before he was 30 (as I recall, he had to spend a year on the British indies while they sorted his visa). He's exactly the kind of guy they're looking for. Plus he's a perfectly good looking guy, don't think toothless vagrant is a fair description.

Odyssey Jones is green, but him and Carmelo Hayes are the two clear standouts in the breakout tournament in terms of having something about them. When they introduced the competitors on the ramp, Jones was the one who had the most obvious physical charisma. What they need to be careful of is his presentation. There was a Twitter post by a wrestling site that was rightly called out for being lazy which said "WWE have debuted a new Mark Henry", but WWE didn't help matters by having him win his debut on 205 Live with a World's Strongest Slam in a singlet that looked like it was straight out of Henry's Nation wardrobe. They thankfully changed it for his next match, but they need to be careful they don't make him into Mark Henry's Renegade.

The watch party was so good. I think I said at the time, he's the best wrestler that people don't think of as a great.

Hi, 2016 Jeff Jarrett high voter here. I'm not sure where I'll be placing Jarrett this time, though he's absolutely a lock for my list. Last time I had him at 44, which feels really high in hindsight, and there's a bunch of new discoveries who I'll probably place above him, but then I think about my old list, and there's also a bunch of guys I placed above him who I'm not sure I'd still do that with now. I'm not convinced I'd have Davey Boy Smith, Christian or Curt Henning, for example, higher than him. JJ is a guy who's always good value to watch. He's comfortably the best squash match worker in 1994 WWF, and his TV matches are always good. Really giving as an obnoxious heel, not afraid to stooge to make his opponent look better, and as a babyface he's got tremendous fire and times his comebacks excellently. I also maintain that he gave both Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle their career best matches.

I started listening to the Cornette tribute pod, and quickly realised I was going to have to pace myself with it or I'll be a big sobbing mess in no time. I'm going to finish it, because I've heard it's got a bunch of fun stories in it, but the opening 10 minutes were Cornette like I've never heard him before, and it was incredibly visceral and sad. I felt so bad for him.

Yeah, even if you don't ever plan on using (for example) Mercedes Martinez on the main roster, your freshly trained new wrestlers will need a player-coach to guide them through their initial matches. Same reason I thought Chris Hero being released felt odd.

It's the kind of thing that might have been effective years ago, but in 2021 where you can go on social media and see Allie Katch is generally quite likably goofy in real life, it doesn't work. It feels less like "Allie Katch is a dangerous psycho" and more "Oh, they've worked this silly angle, that kinda puts me off watching it".

Absolute hero, thank you

Gutted that I missed this Watch Party. Is this playlist available on YouTube or am I best off looking up the match individually? No surprise Meiko and Pete had good chemistry, they matched up a few times in the UK in that time frame, and I know Dunne is a huge Meiko fan.

Two of the best pure babyfaces of all time. Neither of them are guys who you should consider turning heel (even though Rey was surprisingly competent at it). Who've you got higher?

So, I was thinking about this during the watch party on Saturday, two guys who came up on the indys at the same time, formed a formidable tag team, then both went to the WWE with differing levels of success. I think they're an interesting comparison.

That HIAC match is one I went into with minimal expectations, but it ended up being bizarrely great. That moment where Orton went after Hardy's ear lopes with a screwdriver was more memorable than the last 3 years of HIAC combined

Agree with the above sentiments. I don't think I'll be voting Chris Adams, but I do like him. Rollins was fine as part of the Shield, but I've not enjoyed him as a singles worker.

Two big Celtic heavyweights with similar length careers. Both former WWE champions. McIntyre has a credible indy run in his favour, but Sheamus didn't spend time as a comedy job guy. Who you got?

Agree that the Von Erichs/Shield comparison is tight, but I'd say that even within that, Reigns is more pivotal to the Shield than Kerry is to the von Erichs. I've been rewatching the original Shield run, and by mid 2013 Reigns is looking comfortably the best of the trio. Better offense, better presence, he's even a remarkably good seller for the monster of the group. Also, whereas the Shield run feels like the career highpoint for both Rollins and Ambrose, Reigns went on to do better work as a solo. I'm not even convinced Kerry was as good a worker as Kevin within the von Erichs.

I think the word was that Bray asked for time off due to some mental health issues, hence the loss at Mania and subsequently being AWOL

I've been watching wrestling since 1992, started exploring the indies and puro/lucha in 2001, yet somehow today was the first time I'd seen Dump wrestle, and I'm immediately full of regret for not getting there earlier. Absolute chaos, she came across as the most diabolical human in wrestling. Her stabbing Yukari Omori was more of a "What the fuck!" moment than most deathmatches I've seen. Loved her team with Nakano, and loved the fact that she wasn't just smoke and mirrors. When she got down to business, she was clearly capable of having very good matches. Stabbing someone in the leg with a pair of scissors to break a figure four is pure pro wrestling.

Very much looking forward to Piper and Eva Marie winning the tag titles, with Eva pinning Natalya after Piper does all the work.

I watched this for the first time the other day, and it blew my mind, two absolute psychopaths. Watching that, I'd rather have to fight 95% of modern day indie workers of any gender than either Bull or Aja.

I loved the Havoc 91 2/3 falls match against Luger last time I saw it, remember thinking that Simmons looked great in it and Lex played cowardly heel really well.