NotJayTabb

I agree with the above, except maybe switching Naomi and Paige around. Naomi has blossomed as a heel, it's allowed her to slow things down in the ring and removed some of the sloppier elements of her work. Plus, as long as she keeps her current ring music, she's impossible to cheer. I actually agree that Paige is more comfortable and more natural as a heel, but the audience seems to like her more than a lot of the faces. There's a precedent in the WWE where women with a less conventional, more "outsider" look seem to build a stronger connection with the audience (Lita, AJ Lee), and you can see on places like Twitter the number of young girls who dress up as, or look up to, Paige, and that feels like something they should embrace.

Like everyone else, I'm glad you're back in it, and that you've found a system that works for you. As someone who watches a lot of footage, it'd have been a shame if you'd not put in a list. One thing I'm curious about, will you be sticking rigidly to your scores, or will you allow yourself some flexibility to move? For example, if you put your list together using BIGLAV, and you see a guy in the low 70's who your gut instinct tells you should be in your top 30, would you move him or keep him in the 70's?

I agree with most of what you said, but I disagree with this. Of course Mabel shouldn't have happened, but Jarrett wouldn't have been a great substitute (and I like Jarrett). Much better match, obviously, so there's that - but no one would've believed that Jarrett would actually win the title (just as they didn't believe Mabel would win). That was the problem with most of Diesel's defenses, and this era in general. Definitely build guys up, but create believable heels who could plausibly take the title. Too many PPVs were main evented by champion vs. midcard heel who has zero chance in hell of winning. Also, on the one hand, you say to tone down the goofy country music aspect of Jarrett's character, but on the other hand, that would only be replaced by the midcard goof "King" gimmick, which every heel played up to maximum silliness. Only face KOTRs (Bret, Austin, etc.) were allowed to avoid the silly costume and "royal" trappings. I suggested Jarrett as it's hard to think of heels in the WWF at the time who were credible AND could put on a decent match with Diesel. For example, I'd buy Sid or Bundy against Diesel, but I wouldn't buy a PPV to watch it. Jarrett was IC champion and was credible enough to have a competitive PPV match with Shawn Michaels later in the year, so a bit more build and a few tweeks (better haircut, less goofy outfits) would make him a credible challenger for the 2nd biggest show of the year. As regards KotR, I'd have him avoid the goofy aspects of the title, but instead play up the fact he beat 3 men in one night, and maybe use it as an excuse to add a few regal colours to his attire (purples, gold) to make him look a bit more dignified.

The main area that needs focus is on the world title, and that means making a few changes to Diesel. I wouldn't be opposed to him having a long term reign, but it needed to play to his strengths. Nash wasn't convincing as a smiling baby face - his look and promo style require him to have a bit more edge. The guy is dressed in black, for goodness sake, he needed to be an edgier character and times had changed since the 80's - having a badass face champion could definitely get over. Don't book him vs Bret at the Rumble - it's his first PPV title defence and going to a non finish (or worse, winning) against someone the fans like more is a big no. You need to give him a comprehensive win over an upper mid carder - maybe Owen or Backlund. Give him the Michaels match at Mania, but don't let Michaels control as much of the match. Make Michaels sneaker, hiding behind Sid and cowering from Diesel. Basically make the fans want to see him get beaten up. The heel pool was pretty thin, so building guys up would be a must. King Mabel should never have happened- use Feb/Mar/Apr to tone down the goofy country singer aspects of Jeff Jarrett's gimmick, give him a push to the KotR and book Diesel vs Jarrett for Summerslam. Jarrett is another guy who can make fans want to see him get beaten, It'd be a better match than Diesel vs Mabel and it wouldn't hamper most of Nash's moveset due to being too heavy to lift. There's loads that could be said for the undercard, but the big issues need to start from the top.

Team Big Muscly Guys I Inexplicably Like (Mason Ryan ©, Powers of Pain, Hercules, Wrath) vs Bumping Superjobbers (Barry Horowitz ©, Kenny Kendall, John Chrystal, Dolph Ziggler, Duane Gill) 8-minute clean sweep squash. Anyone on Team BMGIIL caught selling gets fired. Anyone on Superjobbers hitting an offensive move is also fired.

Roman still dresses like he's in the Shield and still uses their ring music. Guy needs to get over it :-) How about Davey Boy? Not only kept the attire and ring music, but appropriated the team name for his own nickname.

The 87 does have a great moment when one of the heel team hits a dropkick, which prompts Monsoon to sneeringly say "I'd like to see the Anvil try that". Within seconds, the Anvil DOES hit a dropkick, to which Jesse crows "He must have heard you Gorilla!". Love it.

Ziggler was the first name that sprung to mind. There's a lot of fans who see him the poster boy for the charismatic superworker held back by the WWE so they can "keep Roman Strong", but there's also an increasing number of fans who see him as an egregiously over-bumper with soft-offence, brutal promos, an over-reliance on superkicks, woeful fashion and one of the worst characters in the company. I've had many conversations with some of my friends who can't believe I would rate (for example) Sheamus as a better in-ring wrestler than Ziggler.

I loved Sasha/Bayley, but Brock/Roman is my MOTY. Was watching it live at 4am, out of coffee and beginning to flag, and it gripped me from start to finish. I loved how Roman's game plan got thrown out of the window early on, and became just a case of surviving and slowly (but surely) exposing little chinks in Brock's armour, until he's able to start throwing big bombs and have him on the verge of defeat. I hated the ending at the time, but I understand why they did it, the toxic reactions to Reigns winning could have been a disaster for his career. I've rewatched it countless times since, and still love it. Sasha/Bayley is also great, probably top 3 of the year for me, but there's one or two nitpicky reasons I've not got it top - I didn't get why Sasha, who is in control, would hurl herself over the top rope to inflict more damage to Bayley's arm, felt like a risk that she didn't need to take. It's only little details like that, but I just loved Roman/Brock more.

Yeah, the promos are such a breath of fresh air. In an era where "enemy of the authority" Roman Reigns is allowed to open the show with full theme music and talk for 20 mins about hating his bosses, seeing Ronnie Garvin take less than 3m to explain why he's dropping the MACW title was so refreshing, and crucially more interesting. It shows how far things have gone when the show from 30 years ago is the one that feels more exciting.

I'm going to go 88, one of my favourite matches growing up, and the reason I'm still a big Powers of Pain fan to this day. I actually enjoyed the Conquistadors defying the odds and somehow surviving until the end (and clearly hoping the PoP would get counted out at the end when they're attending to Fuji). It also featured my quintessential Tully Blanchard moment, as he tags in, realises he in the ring with (I believe) one of the PoP and does this hilarious sneaky walk over to the Demos to tag out.

But why would ZZ, of all people, be the one that breaks through? It seems apparent to me that they're setting up Mojo Rawley, Dana Brooke, and to a lesser extent, Tyler Breeze and Jordan/Gable as the ones that will break through. (Obviously, we already know Tyler ends up on the main roster.) "Break through" was probably the wrong choice of words. What I mean is going from looking like they're going to get the chop to improving and impressing the coaches. They've dedicated a lot of TV time to ZZ so far, and given that the show is a little scripted in places "naive kid starts badly, works hard and improves" is a better narrative than "naive kid starts badly, stays crap, gets sacked"

I think generally Kirby enjoys doing the stooging comedy stuff, and he's not afraid to look like an idiot. Not many wrestlers would be comfortable dressing in drag and cleanly putting over women wrestlers (as in the "Martina Kirby" vs Viper match I saw this year). But when he does get a more serious role, he's always excelled. The El Ligero/Ego Dragon war was the best thing in Southside for 2012/13, where they just beat the tar out of each other every match, followed by the Kay Lee Ray feud where he forced broken glass into her mouth before superkicking her in the jaw. Hopefully you'll enjoy Chaos, I really like that their undercard consists largely of guys who don't get much exposure in the rest of the UK. Guys like Gideon, Big Grizzly and the Henchmen deserve more exposure.

Glad to see some love bein shown to the UK scene at the moment, there's a load of great promotions running at the moment, and there's so much talent available that promotions are able to build up unique rosters whilst still putting on great shows. Look at a company like Pro Wrestling Chaos - growing at an impressive rate, selling out 400 seater shows only a year or so into their existance, and doing it without a lot of big stars. Their big title feud has been between Mike Bird and Wild Boar, both great wrestlers, but not names you're likely to see high on the card for the bigger companies. But by putting on good show after good show, they've built a deserved reputation without needing to spend a fortune hiring big name stars or aiming for the "international dream match" audience. Promotions like HOPE and Attack! have also built up loyal audiences by the consistency of their shows. In terms of UK talent, I'd have to put forward a vote for Martin Kirby as amongst the elite. He's been performing at a top level for a few years now, and I'd say he's been at his peak this year. He's an all-rounder: really compelling face, hilarious stooging goof heel and utterly convincing vicious arsehole. In August, he had a streetfight with referee Joel Allen that was ridiculously heated, all because of how hateful Kirby had been in the build-up. Not only that, the match itself was terrific because of Kirby, who had to convincingly sell the offence of a non-wrestler whlst at the same time managing to maintain his aura of being the actual trained wrestler in the match. As an audience member who had earlier sat through a tedious Chris Hero/Tommy End strikefest slog, it was a real standout performance.

Yeah, Ryder really felt like an older brother being forced to babysit his hyperactive younger sibling. I can understand why, Mojo came across as a lovely guy, but someone who would drive you mad if you spent a lot of time in their company. It did make me want to see him succeed though, and I've actually thought he's been looking better on recent NXT's. I actually think ZZ will turn it around. They've already has Devin Taylor released on the show, and the trailer for next week's show doesn't look too promising for Cal Bishop, so they need one guy to actually break through. He also comes across as a nice chap, naive, but honest, so I can see his being the big redemption story of the show.

If the WWE are so concerned with Reigns getting the positive reactions they want, it probably best not to book him in a tournament final up against another popular face. Even if Reigns was fully connecting with the audience, you're pretty much guaranteeing a split crowd with that booking. Even though he's a directionless character, add me to the list of people happy to see world champ Sheamus. Having endured 7 terrible months of Rollins' run, Sheamus is a huge upgrade - better promo, better wrestler, less likely to try and wrestle like a face on PPV's. Just better.

Battleground 2013 was headlined by a really good Orton/Bryan match that was ruined by a terrible finish, and I think that hurt the overall perception of the show as a whole. Give it a proper ending, and I think it gets remembered as a decent show. As it is, Big Show comes down, knocks out Bryan reluctantly, then knocks out Orton, before sitting on the top rope doing a "Yes!" chant on his own, as if the crowd should be celebrating him ruining the main event. If anyone remembers that match at all, they remember the crummy ending, and not the good work beforehand.

Harley Race and the Collossal Kongs. Not only was Race not able to get the Kongs over (a Herculean task for anyone), even as a kid I wondered why Race was managing these losers. Harley had only managed world champions in Luger and Vader, and in my eyes would only manage the elite. The Kongs were so obviously not on the level of Race's other charges, and it actually diminished Race's aura for me.

Currently working my way through Big Vision's "Before They Were Stars" DVD for Rey Mysterio Jr. Was really looking forward to it, especially as Rey is a top 5 contender for me on the GWE project, but it's got a lot of things going against it. It's largely handheld footage, which is often shaky to the point of being unwatchable. Worse yet, the crowd noise has been overdubbed (so you can't hear any impact when a move is hit) and there is terrible commentary provided by XPW alumni Kriss Kloss, which is ghastly. Matchwise, it's been a bit of a mixed bag. The opener of Rey & El Torrero against Jerry Estrada & Negro Azteca is made up of the rudos attacking Rey's leg with a chair for 95% of it's runtime (with Kloss not realising when the rudos win the first fall). There's a decent Rey/Juvi match and a mixed Rey/Octagon vs KGB/Pentagon tag. Honestly, when Rey working decent underdog sequences againstTom Howard playing faux-Russian is the best part of a DVD so far, it's not a good sign.

I was going to say the same thing, but for Regal. It showed a touch of class as he'd wipe his feet before entering HIS ring, always thought that suited his character well. On the subject of Regal: - his little wave he did to the audience when he was the Goodwill Ambassador slayed me - the way he grinds his forearm into his opponents face on a pinfall - they way he'll throw himself whole-heartedly into an embarrassing comedy skit he's given, be in dressing as Burchill's busty wench, doing full Goldust mannerisms during a "switching roles" stip match or throwing some Morecambe & Wise moves into an enforced dance routine I also thought Perfect's gum swipe (which he always hit) showed off the cocky, assured side of the character perfectly. I also loved a gif I once saw on DVDVR, where Perfect threw his towel casually over his shoulder, behind Heenan who stuck a hand out backwards to catch it. Pure class.

Been rewatching the 98 Survivor Series this weekend, and what I really loved her was that Mankind jumped Gill as he was entering the ring. Just the idea that Foley could have easily beaten a semi-retired Duane Gill anyway, but chose to assault him before the bell anyway just struck me as hilariously cruel

Yeah, Sunny was a great heel promo, just the right level of obnoxious to be annoying, but not channel-changingly so. I hated Sunny at the time, and you have to be pretty great at heeling to get a 14yr old boy to boo a hot lady. Part of what made "Horowitz wins!" so great was that his win humbled two of the most arrogant stars in the company. As for hotness, Sunny 100%

I love Regal. The fact that his favorite thing he's ever done in his career was dressing in drag in Vegas is just awesome. Regal talking about how he'd always try and make a change to his appearance to make sure they'd create a new action figure of him was great. As was Barrett joking about how they're the three least-effective King of the Ring winners.

That 'Yeti Nation' was so terrible. Didn't watch Tough Enough, so know nothing about the guy, but he seemed pleasant enough...but that promo was terrible. Highlight of the show was easily Dillinger and Breeze searching for bats. WWE List was awful too, none of the factions seemed like failures to me (OK, maybe the MIA). 3 Count achieved everything you'd expect them to, as well as providing the launchpad for a decent 10yr run for Helms. Really, this list was less "failed factions" and more "enjoyable undercard stables"

I've enjoyed watching the little Kellett I've seen...his match with Brian Glover/Leon Arras is a lot of fun. Every time I think of him, I just remember what Jackie Pallo said about him: "People see him on the telly and think 'Oh isn't he funny, he's fun'...(tone changes) but Les was HARD. He was a hard man"