NotJayTabb

On my current WIP list, which admittedly is pretty rough, I've got Arn just in my top 25, and Tully just in my top 40. I see Arn as more consistent over a longer period of time, which goes in his favour.

"Rob Black: idiot or carny" feels like a debate that could go either way.

It's a fun match, but even then IRS slows it down in the middle for a lengthy abdominal stretch session or two

XPW once booked a Buck Naked match, where the object was to strip your opponent naked in the middle of the ring. Now obviously, two women willing to take part in such a match aren't going to be highly trained grapplers, but given that Rob Black was a pornographer, and both Lizzy Borden and Veronica Caine had a history in adult entertainment, the audience were clearly expecting some nudity. The execution was terrible. Borden and Caine were both members of heel factions (the Black Army and the Enterprise), so the crowd ended up babyfacing the Black Army for interfering and helping try to strip Caine, despite them being massive heels in a previous segment. It got to the point where Borden was just about to strip Caine....and the lights went out. When they came back on, Caine had vanished. The Enterprise took credit for this to big heel heat....which was promptly wasted in the next match as Enterprise member Steve Rizzono jobbed to a man in a monkey suit (literally billed as "A monkey") in a comedy match. What they managed to do was annoy their entire audience, taking away any reason to trust XPW stipulations in the future, accidentally babyfaced their main heel faction and wasted any heel heat with a throwaway 3 minute match in the next segment.

Nowhere near my top 100. He's been in some good matches, but he's probably #1 on a list of wrestlers who I don't want to watch wrestle. There are worse wrestlers, but none who will have matches of such a length that are so uninteresting. There's nothing about him that compels me to watch a match, and he's been responsible for some of my least favourite matches ever - I still have nightmares thinking about that wretched Last Man Standing bout from the 2004 Rumble.

I really like Tommy End, but I think it's a bit soon for him to make a list like this, and I think he'll have a better shot in 10 years time when we next go through this process. I've seen Tommy live numerous times in the last few years, as he wrestles a lot for Southside Wrestling, who often run 5 minutes from my house, and I've seen him have great bouts and not-so-great bouts. He's really fun to watch as a heel - his 2013 match with ZSJ based on him slowly breaking Zack down with strikes and trying to avoid getting taken to the mat was a lot of fun, and seeing him beast Rich Swann and Robbie X in competitive squashes was enjoyable. The problem is that they were almost TOO fun and resulted in him being turned quasi-face, where's he's less fun. I don't think he's a sympathetic enough seller to rally fans behind him - what was great in the ZSJ match was that he sold Sabre's comeback strikes in a way that showed they were hurting him, but he was too dominant to let his mask slip to his opponent. He's not as able to tell a story with his selling as a face, leading to matches like the Hero stinker* I sat through last August, two guys working a "I'm a great striker" gimmick against a guy totally no-selling the blows. Made me think that you can't be that good a striker if your opponent is bellowing "Come on!" in response to your elbow/kicks to the head. Hopefully these kinks can be ironed out, but for now he's not getting near my list. *In the interest of fairness, I should point out the rest of the audience loved it and gave both guys a standing ovation. It WAS terrible though.

Ha, I can't believe they're continuing the Big E/Nattie's sister storyline. Tyson Kidd's horror at Big E cavorting in his hot tub is one of the greatest Total Divas moments

Really enjoyed the All-Star tag match, there's something about the All Star style I really love. There's not enough places in wrestling where the face will move away from their corner to persuade an audience of kids to yell "cheat" at the heel. I've always kinda thought that All Star would be a perfect place for the WWE to send guys who aren't quite NXT-ready, having good simple matches night after night, and the stage set-up is perfect for getting used to wrestling to the hard camera.

There's something really disappointing about the fact I'm going to have to get through 6 hours of work and then 3 hours of college before I can get to watch that tag match.

Doug is a guy I'm considering for the bottom part of my list. He's been ever so consistent over the past 15 years, and he's been a mainstay in the UK scene for most of that time - It was once said that you could go to any BritWres show in the country and you could be guaranteed two things: a pre-main event raffle and Doug Williams in the main. He reminds me of James Mason, in that you can put Doug Williams in a match against anyone, veteran, import or rookie, and he'll put on a good match. What he has over Mason is that a lot of his better matches have made tape, which helps his case. His RoH run was fun, he was the most reliable competitior in 1PW, putting on some great matches against Nigel McGuinness and Lance Storm, and he's a rare guy who isn't hurt by spending a few years in TNA. He made the British Invasion into an enjoyable faction, despite being paired with two green guys, his run as non-flying X-Division saw good matches against Kendrick and Kazarian, and even his brief TV title run saw him put on a cracker with AJ Styles to win the belt. He's a real contender for my list.

Nominating Doug Williams Doug Williams vs Mark Haskins (TNA Destination X 2011) Haskins is the mystery opponent for Williams, an opponent none of the crowd have heard off. Still, this shouldn’t give them the right to be total dicks, which unfortunately, they are. For despite putting in a good performance, they shit all over Haskins. The opening sequence is particularly fun, with Williams slightly dominating on the mat, but still falling prey to a couple of pinfall attempts. Williams is larger and more experienced, so it makes sense he controls much of the match, but Haskins does some really nice stuff. I especially like the way that, when Williams hits him with a forearm to break a hold, Haskins replies with a straight headbutt. Haskins also takes a nasty looking bump on the ring apron. Haskins does slip a couple of times (which the crowd shit on him for), firstly in the middle of an otherwise smooth sequence of offence whilst trying a springboard clothesline, and secondly when trying for a Shooting Star Press, though this plays into the finish: having wasted a few seconds by slipping, he misses the SSP and Williams rolls him up for 3. A pretty good match, a terrible crowd. Doug Williams vs Pete Dunne (TXW King of the Royal SummerMania Series 2014) Williams was Eddie Dennis' choice to fight the number one contender to his Triple X title. Williams cheap-shotted Dunne to kick off, but this soon developed into a fine technical affair. Williams was dominant on the mat in the early going, which makes sense given his experience advantage, but Dunne was able to get back into it with some tough-looking strikes, and locked in a cloverleaf for a near tap. Dennis distracted Dunne mid-match, and Williams attacked from behind to fully complete his heel turn. Despite this, Dunne was able to pick up the victory. as Dennis lambasted Williams after a two count, and this distraction allowed Dunne to get a roll-up for the victory. After the match, Williams and Dennis put the boots to Pete, until brother Damian came in to make the save. Pete seemed a little put out that Damo didn't make the save sooner, but they left united. Fine main event, and I liked the way that Williams' initial superiority made Dunne look even better when he was able to fire back and take over himself. Doug Williams vs Tyler Bate (TXW Wrestle***** 2014) One of the big success stories in Triple X in the past 12 months has been the rise of Tyler Bate, who keeps getting better show by show, looking like he belongs with the bigger names that he's been put up against. He's been so impressive, it's easy to forget that he's not picked up a win yet since his debut, yet remains massively over with the crowd. Here, he took on one of the biggest names in BritWres and the result was another terrific match. His style gelled perfectly with Williams, as both guys like to work the mat, throw in cutesy spots (there was a repeated criss-cross section here that was a lot of fun) and hit a nice suplex or two, and this was a really good bout. The story here was that the younger, less experienced Bate was having to struggle to keep up with Doug, but was growing into the match as it progressed. Bate managed to block the Chaos Theory and hit his ever-impressive deadlift German suplex for a very close two, but ultimately Williams was able to tie him up for the three count. Another top performance by Bate, who must be the most promising young wrestler in the UK at the moment.

I find play-by-play a bit tedious and it's something I try to avoid unless I really can't think of much to say about the match. I generally try to pick out the bits that are important to the match result and bits of the match I like/dislike. For example, if someone hits a nice highspot or does something logical that I want to comment on, I'll put it in there. Likewise if something looks really shit or something about the match annoys me. It's tricky sometimes though, and I do sometimes use too much play-by-play as a crutch to mask my limitations at analysis. I actually think your reviews are really easy to read JvK. You explain what's happening in the match, but with little bits of your own opinion in there to give it some flavour. I like guys who get over their own opinions in the review, and aren't afraid to be honest for fear of going against popular consensus. Dylan had a thread here where he reviewed full shows for a year that I really enjoyed, and I go to Segunda Caida every day. The recent NXT review, where they were laughing at "Giant" Colin Cassady for wrestling like a cruiserweight, was terrific and spot on.

Really enjoyed reading this. I assume (hope) this is something you're intending to keep up all year? Just one thing I picked up on... I think the reason Bayley was FIP is because Carmella has a title shot coming up where Bayley is the clear favourite, so they had to show that Carmella can be a winner. Carmella getting beaten up for most of the match, and Bayley saving the day, would make it look like Carmella had even less of a chance of winning the belt.

The only person making my list solely on 2010- footage is Sheamus. That said, there's a number of guys who wouldn't make my list solely on 2010s footage, but probably wouldn't make the list on pre-2010 footage either; guys where the combined eras get them included: Christian, Orton, Henry, Hero. Finally, there's guys like Danielson, Styles and Cena who would place, but lower, without the 2010's footage.

Don't think he's been mentioned yet, but Tyson Kidd seems pretty much set in a mechanic role if he ever comes back. A lot of guys have been given their debuts against Kidd over the years, and I'm pretty sure he was one of the first guys they put against Sin Cara when they were trying to adjust him to the US style. He's always been moderately popular, but never a guy likely to threaten the main event, but is able to get a decent match out an opponent.

Been going through 1994 Raw's recently, and Jeff Jarrett is a guy who is a lot of fun in squashes, really good at getting his character across which helps keep things interesting. He's so cocky that he leaves openings which the jobbers take advantage of to take control on him. He'll get up embarrassed, beating the jobber down in fury, then start letting his guard down again, repeating the cycle. It gives a fun edge to his squashes. He ended one match by pulling the jobber's tights, a totally unnecessary piece of cheating.

I'll be just below Microstatistics, in that I've got Liger pencilled in for #4-#5, depending on how I end up judging between him and EHD Santo

I've seen people complaining about the Authority putting Reigns in a number one contender match, making no kayfabe sense. The bigger question is why would HHH want to risk having to face Brock again?

I'm not sure where I said he was only over with kids though. He's popular with women and believe it not even some grown men. Everything I ever read about merchandise sales says that his stuff sells. And that he's either the most over or 2nd most over guy on house shows (outside of the UK) From my personal experience, I went to 2 house shows in the UK last year headlined by Reigns, and he was over as fuck in both of them. Biggest pop on both shows. I know British crowds have a reputation for being "smarky", with Brit reaction to Cena being a key reason why, but I think we're more likely to accept a guy like Reigns than Cena. There's something very un-British about Cena that I think puts people off, something a bit too flawless.

I don't think it was fully on the up-and-up. Reigns got #1 in a rigged number pick, HHH got #30 in most likely another rigged pick, and the McMahons orchestrated a mass beat down of Reign's by the LoN, who've been portrayed strongly as their henchmen. They executed it clumsily (someone on commentary should have speculated how HHH got the best number), but it's something they can bring up tonight on Raw

I'm quite intruigued to see how they use AJ tonight, if they will at all. Part of me would like to see him get a quick showcase squash over someone like Rose or Miz, as that crowd would give him a huge reaction and make him look like a star on his TV debut, but part of me suspects they might take him off TV for a month and build to his Raw debut with vignettes.

I think his big "AJ" tat would have forced their hand a bit there. I also think he's a big enough star to have kept his name, same way Joe has in NXT

I love Reigns as a wrestler, he was one of the few shining stars of 2015 WWE for me, but you have to wonder if they need to take a step back from his main event face push at the moment. For every positive crowd reaction he gets, you still get crowds booing him like last night, no matter what booking tricks they've tried to employ. They had to know last night Reigns was going to get booed the instant Styles came in, that Triple H would get the "returning star" pop, and they can't be so short-sighted as to think that Roman disappearing for half the Rumble would win the fans over, so it's hard to tell what their mindset was with that. I know it's the same thing people have said about Cena since 2005, but a heel turn would do Roman a load of good. The only problem is whether or not there's any faces strong enough to take his place

Woah, that's a bit mental, just read the story. Yeah, the last time I saw them was in Triple X, where he was a wrestling zombie and she was distracting Grado by flashing her norks at him. Not sure who the Daily Mail think they're fooling by calling her "X-Factor star Michelle Thorne" though...

Chocoball Mukai was, I believe, in both businesses, and I think he became a wrestler after becoming an adult film star. In the UK, I know Steffan Hard is in both industries, and has taken bookings for wrestling shows alongside his wife Michelle Thorne, who is a fairly well known performer over here. And, of course, Val Venis ;-)