NotJayTabb

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.

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.