NotJayTabb

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"

Yeah, this drove off a number of my friends too. There used to be a bunch of us who would chip in to watch PPV's together, and that EC match was the final straw for them. We'd spent two years getting more and more frustrated as Triple H charmlessly beat a load of our then favourites (Jericho, Booker, RVD), so we were all hoping that Goldberg would put us out of our misery once and for all....then one sledgehammer shot ended all that hope. I'd not seen my friends so deflated since England lost to Argentina in the 98 World Cup. Some of us watched Mania XX the next year out of habit, but the group was halved, and most of them gave up on wrestling entirely.

Turning Paige heel against a not-massively-over Charlotte is remarkably lunkheaded at the best of times (as shown by the pop when Paige attacked Becky and Charlotte 2 weeks ago). Doing it to correspond almost perfectly with the UK tour where Paige is guaranteed to get cheered over Charlotte feels like sabotage.

On the subject of Andy Dalton, there's an Inspire Pro full show on YouTube (the Quick and the Dead), where Dalton has a street fight which is really fun. He's fighting the kind of guy who thinks throwing multiple reverse ranas makes sense in a street fight, but Dalton is so good that the match is still really good.

I may be the only person to think so, but I'm all about corporate champion Sheamus hlding the title until Mania. He's perfect for the role - he gets actual heel heat, he's been long rumoured to be real life friends with HHH anyway, he's got a more "classic" WWE look, he's a better promo and wrestler than Rollins...also, there's no way the eventual Reigns/Sheamus title match wouldn't be a stormer.

I know she was in there with Asuka, but I though Cameron looked much-improved on NXT this week. Thought it was the first time she actually looked natural in the ring in terms of movement and postioning, and I loved her look of terror and confusion after that swank slap-straight-into-an-armbar sequence right at the start. Put into comparison with Eva Marie's big boot/shitty flatliner combo, and I was pleasantly surprised.

Yeah, even really good TNA matches somehow feel a bit off. I've never quite been able to put my finger on it, but I think Jingus has nailed it. I think wrestling in front of the same jaded crowd for years didn't help, moments that should have felt big often felt lacklustre due to the lack of crowd reaction.