NotJayTabb

Why would we wait 10 years? He would be eligible in only 2 years from now if he was worthy of it. Only because this is in the GWE folder, and I believe the plan is to create another list in 10yrs, so I linked it to that. Certainly we'll be able to make a judgement on him in general in a couple of years

It's arguable that the first 2-3 years were the best years of Angle's career, always enjoyed him then. Danielson was pretty great a year or two into his career. Too early to say for sure at the moment, but isn't Chad Gable only a year into his career? He could be an answer when we run this process again in 10yrs

Always loved the Barbarian, can't believe I'd not considered him before this nomination. Totally believable beast of a wrestler, loved the way his big boot looked like it was taking guys heads off, and his flying headbutt was great too. If nothing else, this nomination is a good excuse to dig out the Barb compilation I bought a couple of years back. Has a reasonable shot at my 90-100's

Thanks man. Misawa is very much on my list of people I need to spend more time on. I've seen 10 of his matches in the last couple of months, and there's definitely something there that I like, but it's not quite clicked yet. It's that difference between trying something and knowing it's not going to be for you, and trying something and wanting to try more, even if you've not fallen in love with it yet. I had the same thing where I bought 4-5 Sonic Youth albums before it finally clicked and they became one of my favourite bands. I've bought a comp of Misawa's early career which will hopefully give me an insight into where he's come from, and will give me something to refer back to as I explore his career in more detail. In many respects, I see Bret as the Ken Barlow of wrestling. Though Vince would love to be able to book a feud quite as long-lasting, multi-layered and ratings grabbing as the 25yrs of Barlow/Baldwin. Also, don't get me started on my comparison of Flair's farewell match at Wrestlemania with Hilda Ogden departing with a singalong of "Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye" setting a national TV record :-)

Top 5 (in rough order) Bret Hart Stan Hansen Rey Mysterio Jr El Hijo Del Santo Jushin Liger 6-10 Contenders William Regal Terry Funk Toshiaki Kawada Randy Savage Ric Flair Bryan Danielson Negro Casas I've not got access right now to my spreadsheet with my current rough rankings, but I think you could add Fujiami, Windham, Steamboat, Eddie and Arn to get my top 20. There are still some gaps I want to try and fill before the submittal date - I'm just about to start on Bockwinkel and put in a proper shift to get to grips with a good number of the more feted Japanese guys. I've seen enough of the likes of Hashimoto and Fujiwara to currently have them in my top 100 list, but not enough to justify a higher ranking yet. I'm trying to put together as honest a list as possible, so I've got a shortlist of guys who I want to get a better feeling for, guys who I get the impression are "my kind" of wrestler but I've not seen enough of. If any of them make the step up to the top 20, even the top 10, is to be seen, but I want to make sure my list is one I'm sure of. Why I've got Bret as my current number one links in to the above. I know I'm likely to be the only person with him top, heck I know most people don't have him in their top 20, but throughout this process I've had him as a top 10 guy and as I've tried to figure out placings, I've not felt comfortable ranking anyone above him (Hansen is REAL close though, it'll probably go down to the wire between those two). I rate Bret highly in areas I care about: I think he's a great sympathetic seller, I love the way that Bret having an injury isn't just something that'll last a match or two, he'll still show the effects of it down the line. I think he's a great offensive wrestler, everything he does looks crisp and impactful. He threw great punches, always looked like he was putting in a real snap to his backbreakers and I always felt he threw the best dropkicks in wrestling. They may not have been as high or as graceful as other guys, but when he runs towards Yokozuna and leap at him feet first, it really looked like Bret was hurling his legs at him with all his might. I love his finishes and especially the way he'll reference things back to his previous matches. So he'll beat Bam Bam in a big match at KotR 93 with a victory roll, so he'll try the same move to beat Owen at WMX and this time it'll lead to his defeat. The victory roll isn't one of Bret's established finishers, but it's a move he's had success with before so he tries it again. Or the way the finish of SurSer96 calls back to WM8 when he uses the same move he did to beat Piper. Again, reversing a sleeper into a pin isn't a regular move he pulls out, but he's aware enough to know he's in trouble and to know that he's had success before with this counter. I love things that are aware of their own history and refer back to it - it's the same reason I love Coronation Street (terrible analogy I know, but it fits here) - and that's something Bret is so great at. For me, I'd rather watch a Bret match than anyone else (except maybe Hansen) and that's why I feel comfortable having him so high.

Bret will probably be my number 10 at the lowest. I've currently got Bret at no 1, so I think I'm going to be the high vote on him

Billy Gunn's TNA outfit that looked like Torrie Wilson's cast-off's was the worst. On the subject of TNA, Chris Sabin's post-injury look with the big baggy shorts made him look like a child playing dress-up in his older brother's clothes. Looked especially bad when he was their world champion.

Really surprised at how much I enjoyed the tag match. The Mechanics really are one of those teams that you buy as a legit team, rather than two guys put together. The crowd chanting "Which one's Dash? Which one's Dawson?" really ignores the bigger picture, you don't need to know which one is which, as they're one well-oiled unit. It was also the first time I've thought Enzo looked somewhat competent in ring, and someone who might have a future as a solo act. Big Cass remains absolute garbage though, 7ft tall with absolutely zero presence. If he'd not been partnered with Enzo and allowed to take half of his catchphrases, he'd have been fired before you could say "shittier Lance Hoyt"

I'm in a similar boat to El McKell in that I could submit a ballot today, but I'd not be totally satisfied with it (I'll probably be the same in April, but that's the nature of the beast). I've got 75 guys locked down in a vaguely right order, and 40-50 guys I'm trying to pair down for the final 25 spots.

I'd have to look to book shows as an on-going concern, as there's enough promotions running in the UK to make a one-off show a hard sell. Especially as a lot of British guys will work each other around the country anyway, you'd need some kind of stories to lure people along. I'd run in Birmingham, in the middle of the country to make it easier to persuade people to travel from all over, and I'd probably allow myself three imports with a bit of buzz to sweeten the deal (in this case, Dalton Castle, Roderick Strong and Pentagon Jr). Probably a 7 match card, looking like: Rampage Brown vs Pentagon Jr The Dunne Brothers vs Mark Andrews & Eddie Dennis Mark Haskins vs Roderick Strong Zack Sabre Jr vs Jack Starz Martin Kirby vs Dalton Castle Drew Galloway vs Joseph Conners Dave Mastiff vs Tyler Bate

This show was the first time I've seen Gossett, and yeah he's great from the little I've seen. So utterly obnoxious, and even though he's a manager, a guy that fat hitting a splash would still hurt (and it's even more demeaning coming from an out of shape manager).

Wisest thing to do tonight is have Reigns fired at the start of the show and not come in until the end of the show. He's a guy who always enters through the crowd anyway, so it makes sense for him to emerge that way and attack Sheamus (who I'd assume was in the main event). Saves him having to cut a promo and playing a brooding lone-wolf vigilante outsider would be his best possible character evolution right now.

Just remembered Davey Boy's turn back in 1995, which I believe was his first heel run in the WWF. He'd been teaming with Luger as the Allied Powers just before his turn, and I remember he turned up on Raw with Jim Cornette on Raw the week after he'd turned. Cornette cut this great promo pointing out that, despite them representing two nations, the crowd had chanted "USA" during all the Powers' matches - "This man is from England!". As a young Brit, I'd noticed the crowd chants during the Powers' matches, so I was right on side with the Bulldog.

One of the first full shows I ever watched was Survivor Series 88, so I've always had a soft spot for the Warlord. I actually think he's somewhat underrated nowadays. Not that he's actually good, but he's become such a poster boy for "early 90's muscle guys who Vince loved" that some of his good points get overlooked. The PoP, whilst not exactly original, were at least memorable and relatively over, which puts them over some other egregious Road Warriors rip-offs (the Master Blasters, anyone?). Warlord was also a fun squash wrestler - I loved his suplex where he'd just drop the hapless jobber mid-move, and he had a great running powerslam. The Bulldog series was surprisingly fun too. As I said, he's not a "good" wrestler, but he's wasn't utterly terrible either.

Thanks man, appreciate it. Yeah, totally forgot to shoehorn in a link to my blog, go read it now :-)

As the person who nominated Tom Zenk, I feel I should defend my nomination. I'm not nominating him in an attempt to persuade others that he should be on their list, more that he's a lock to place on mine and to do that I needed to nominate him. I understand that a lot of people don't rate the Z-Man, which is why I hesitated to for so long to nominate him, but my list wouldn't be honest if I didn't place him on there. Back in 2010, I was in a bit of limbo regarding my wrestling fandom and decided to start a blog in order to encourage myself to watch more wrestling, to think about it more and, if I wasn't enjoying it, maybe consider knocking wrestling on the head. As might be evident by the fact I joined this site 5 years later, it worked. One of the first things I decided to do was look back at my favourite childhood wrestler Tom Zenk to see if I would still be a fan 18years on. As a kid, Zenk appealed because he was the archetypal mid-card face - he was athletic, he wore very colourful tights, he had high-flying offence and even if he didn't always win, he tried hard (gallant failure is an important factor in my sporting heroes, as evidenced by my supporting Coventry City and the Wales national team). Now obviously "liking him as a kid" isn't a good reason to put Zenk on my list, but the thing I found was that I still thought he was great as an adult. Zenk was a great fired-up babyface, with a good sense of timing. He was agile enough to be a decent high-flyer, but he's also well built enough that he can work big against smaller opponents, changing up his moveset to incorporate more power moves. I also think he's a great tag wrestler - his teams with Martel and Pillman were both fun, even if they had relatively short run. Also, as probably the only man on the planet to buy IVP Videos' Best of Tom Zenk comp, I've seen him be in some really fun tag bouts in Japan. Matt D mentioned the Can-Ams/Funks match, but he's also part of really good matches w/Kroffatt vs Footloose and w/Brunzell vs the Fantastics. The WrestleWar 92 match with Pillman was great, even better than Pillman's match with Liger at Superbrawl in my opinion, and Zenk more than played him part in that. As I said, I don't intend to change anyone's opinion on Zenk, just wanted to clarify that, no, I'm not taking the piss with this nomination and wanting to explain why he will end up being on my list.

Jericho turning heel on Michaels in 2008 was entirely justified. Jericho claims that HBK may have been faking his injury in a PPV match against Batista, but Michaels still continues the lie. When Jericho accepts that Michaels may well have been injured, he gets blasted with a superkick to big cheers as Michaels admits he had been lying to everyone all along. As Jericho himself pointed out on the night he turned, Michaels lied and cheated, and people kept cheering him. Jericho did the right thing and got booed.

I've got no problems with Dreamer pinning a member of the Wyatts. Him and the Dudleys have been battered at every turn by the Wyatts, so him getting to pin the runt of the Wyatt litter in an elimination match stops him looking totally pointless. It's not like he pinned Strowman or Bray. If ever proof was needed that they're not really committed to getting the women over, it's the fact they've started turning Charlotte midway through her storyline with Paige. So Sunday will see dead-teenager-mocking Paige vs arrogant heel Charlotte in a match guaranteed to confuse the crowd.

The closest we came was Arquette shrieking "You don't trust someone from Hollywood" on Nitro the next night

There was that gimmick where La Parka had a voiceover cutting his promos for him, which would start insulting his opponents and lead to Parka begging on the floor for (as example) Meng not to kill him, whilst the voiceover would keep insulting Meng's hair. It seemed like it might lead somewhere, or they might explain why Parka was using this obvious arsehole to talk for him, but they never did.

Sadly doesn't stop there being a large number of creepy looking guys sending photo's of themselves in "I'm A Hugger" t-shirts to Bayley on Twitter :-)

You know what, fuck it, I've got to be true to myself... Tom Zenk Here's a mammoth blog post I wrote about a man only I like. http://notjaytabb.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/you-can-only-imagine-my-joy-when-weeks.html

In the tag title match, which pairing of the Origin was it? I'm assuming by the cardio comment it was Cruz and Ligero rather than Mastiff. I really need to get round to watching some Progress, the idea of heel Ligero just sounds odd to me.

I think Nia beating Bayley is the right way to go. She may be green, but having the monster get conquered at the first hurdle is just bad storytelling, and ruins her aura within a month or two of her debut. I'd go the whole hog, have Nia squash Bayley in 5 minutes and spend the next 5 months until the Mania shows showing Bayley trying to build herself back up and learning from her mistakes. Given how invested the crowd are in Bayley, I think it'd work. I also would have Dash & Dawson retain the belts until they meet Jordan & Gable. Aside from the fact Enzo/Cass are appalling at everything, it also feels like the tag belts have pinballed about since the long Ascension run, so keeping them on the heel team for a while makes more sense. Jordan and Gable have considerably more upside than Enzo/Cass and are getting to be as over.

Growing up in the UK in the 90's, my first exposure to wrestling was 1992 WCW on ITV, so my memories of this era are positive. I remember watching Steve Austin win the TV title from Barry Windham on my second ever episode of Worldwide, and I was hooked from that moment on. For my blog I've been revisiting 1992 WCW (admittedly at a very slow rate) as we didn't get the PPV's or Clash's over here, and it all more than holds up. I was watching the start of WrestleWar 92 last night, and the second match is Johnny B Badd vs Young Pistols-era Tracy Smothers. A green guy with a colourful gimmick taking on a lower-card tag wrestler, and it's a load of fun. The crowd are into it, Smothers looks fantastic on offence as well as stooging for Badd, whilst Badd plays the gimmick to the hilt and more than carries his own. WCW was chock full of talent in this period, and the shows have been a load of fun to watch.