NotJayTabb

I always thought Del Rio/Christan from SS13 smoked the Punk/Lesnar match. You had the perfect combination of a guy who is excellent at working body parts in fun ways vs a guy who was great at selling bodypart damage. Whereas even at the time (ie - after the dreadful HHH series threatened to ruin Lesnar's aura) I couldn't buy Punk as any sort of threat to Lesnar, and it felt ridiculous that Heyman had to interfere to save Brock. My favourite SS match has always been Davey Boy vs Bret from 92. Not only is it a great match, but I think for a lot of people in the UK, it represents the pinacle of our childhood wrestling watching. I was 10 years old at the time, and wrestling was incredibly popular at the time: everyone in my school was talking about it and I remember a load of us gathered at my friend's house to watch the show. Davey Boy was so popular in our group, and I don't think they've ever had a British wrestler since that has resonated with so many people over here. Well, except maybe DJ Gabriel :-)

Butch, did you ever see the documentry S4C did a few years back on Orig? It was really good, had some great stories about his early football career and his poor disciplinary record. It was hosted by his daughter, and they even flew her to America for a couple of minutes chat with Mason Ryan. At work so can't check if it's online, and it's all in Welsh (I had to make do with subtitles), but it's really worth watching.

How likely are the shows to be VOD? I've been hearing a lot of good things, but not sure I could justify the likely cost of DVD shipping to the UK

I had a dream a while back that the tag team of the Attitude Enforcers, John Cena and Arn Anderson, were getting inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. I only remember this as I thought it was a cynical way of being able to refer to Cena as a HOF member on TV without having to give him an individual induction whilst still active. I also had a dream this week where I was on the WWE creative team. In my dream, Naomi got injured, so I suggested to Vince that Sasha be paired with a reunited Laycool, who would later turn on her and turn out to be in cahoots with Naomi (I accept in the cold light of day this makes no sense). Maybe wisely, Vince rejected it and I woke up.

He was always Bulgarian. They never tried to play him up as FROM Russia. He debuted with the nickname 'the Bulgarian Brute' One of my favourite things about the Lana/Rusev storyline is the fact that Lana said that Rusev was controlling her and making her say bad things about America, when he was the one who had to adopt her nationality for a year and has made no reference to Russia since the split.

Didn't John Morrison reportedly see an acting coach during his WWE tenure, and he was forever terrible. I remember seeing one of the Performance Centre acting clips featuring Adrian Neville and Mason Ryan. It involved Neville as a customer complaining that his burger wasn't made properly, which sent Ryan off on a strangling spree. It was surreal.

Always hated DX, even as a 16yr old I could tell they were grown adults acting like idiot teenagers. They were largely responsible for my switching back to watching WCW in 1998

Said it on Twitter, but wanted to repeat how much I dug the review. I agreed with pretty much all of it. It's not a MOTYC or anything, but it's just a fun, well-worked tag match that goes just about the right length.

Hall of Pain-era Mark Henry?

Especially when it's Nick Patrick and the wrestlers are smaller than him. The other day I caught him hesitating to intervene on Morton post-belling Pillman. He was literally a head taller than both. Especially since Patrick is a former wrestler. To follow on from this discussion, I've seen matches where active wrestlers have been special guest referees and STILL get taken out by the same bumps that take out normal refs. You just think "All it'd take is to crush this guy in the corner during a match, and you could pin him easily"

Something that struck me as unusual on NXT last week: Kevin Owens came out for a squash match against former NXT signee Martin Stone (FKA Danny Burch), who I think lives in Florida now. The ring announcer called him "Martin Stone", so I was curious to see what name the announcers would give him...and they didn't. Not once did they refer to him by name, which must've been a deliberate choice. They didn't even refer to him as Danny Burch, which is a name they own. Felt really odd that the jobbers don't even get a name now, which in a way took the emphasis away from the ring apron powerbomb by taking than human element away from them. Also of note: former TNA X-division wrestler Jessy Sorenson (he of the horrific neck break) getting squashed by Baron Corbin.

On The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior DVD, they claim that Warrior turned around on the night of the show and demanded more money otherwise he wouldn't do the show, which Vince reluctantly agreed to before firing Warrior straight after the match. They even have other wrestlers like Hogan backing up this lie. The truth was that Warrior wrote a letter to Vince in July, saying he didn't believe his payoff for Wrestlemania VII was fair, and saying he'd rather stay at home until his demands were met. Still not great behaviour, but better than the mis-truths portrayed on the DVD. In the real world, Vince wrote Warrior a friendly letter agreeing to everything, before suspending him after Summerslam. I'm pretty sure he didn't even get fired, and was kept under contract without using him.

Was watching Judgement Day 2006, and had forgotten all about firey face Jillian Hall feuding with Melina. It also reminded me of Beth Phoenix's debut as a face, where she was a mysterious figure from Mickie James' past, before (I believe) Victoria broke her jaw and put her out of action for a year.

Might it just be a case of easing guys in so they can make the best possible impression in the first round, before the style clashes in the second round? If you've got guys making their debut, it makes sense for them to face guys they work well with and are comfortable with, then the next night they can be tested a little more without worrying about the crowd turning on them. The line-up looks like a lot of fun to me anyway. End/LDRS vs Strong/Bucks could be sensational.

Wrong on so many levels. Name some levels. I think it's wrong on the level that the Bellas are perfectly decent wrestlers, albeit not on the level of a Becky or a Sasha. Nikki especially has been putting out good performances since winning the title, and I thought Brie more than held her own during the Battleground 3-way (arguably looking better than Charlotte in the process). Separating them from the other women wrestlers implies they're on the level of the Rosas and Camerons of the world.

ZSJ was my nomination, and he's a guy who might get the final spot on my list, mainly for personal reasons. For the last two years in a row, he's been in my favourite match I've seen live that year, and in fact his match with Pete Dunne last January was actually the best match I've been present for. It really was a case of every move, every little detail meaning something and, whilst I think Pete is great, this was very much a Sabre-led match. Even though he's really blossomed in the past three years, he was still good early on in his career - the LDRS were a really good tag team, the Danielson match in 08 was really fun and he's the one name guaranteed to make me want to see a card nowadays. I'm sure he wont be appearing on any other lists, but he's probably going to appear on mine.

At the end of May, an indie that runs local to me booked Kenny King for a pair of shows as part of his UK tour. When he came out for his match, much to my surprise a load of fans started a "BDC" chant, a good number of whom were wearing "Beat Down Clan" t-shirts. Really confused me that anyone actually cared about the Beat Down Clan, I think of those guys every time another BDC member hilariously leaves TNA

Bull Dempsey fits the out-of-shape, bearded brawler aesthetic for the Wyatts. It's also the only way I can ever imagine them calling him up, plus I can imagine people being disappointed by the choice. I mean, it almost certainly wont be him, but I'd really like to see it.

Master P vs the West Texas Rednecks. Paying a fortune to a really bad rapper to run an angle pitting rap vs country. Not only running said angle in southern America, but giving the heel team an impossibly fun, catchy anti-rap theme song, then wondering why the fans were cheering for the heels. To cap it off, WCW obviously thought "Hmm, we can use this to put one of our underused workers in a prominent TV role. Who on the undercard screams 'urban'? Of course, Brad Armstrong!"

One of the many problems the WWE face if Bryan comes back is what level of push they give him. Given his susceptibility to concussions, and how they've had to drop two big storylines in consecutive years due to Bryan's injuries, it's clear they can't give him a huge main event push in case they have to shelve plans yet again. However, will the fans be willing to accept this? I believe that a good proportion of the Reigns backlash wouldn't have happened if Bryan hadn't been back in time for the Rumble, so is the presence of a non-pushable Bryan going to overshadow another face they want to make a top guy?

Nominate: Zack Sabre Jr Was half of the best match I've ever seen live, and a guy who has been really good for several years. Has a shot at the 90-100 spots on my list. Reviews: Vs Mark Andrews: http://notjaytabb.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/the-best-of-mark andrews-fly-or-die.html Vs Pete Dunne: http://notjaytabb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/triple-x-wrestling-clusterfuck-iii.html Vs Tommy End: http://notjaytabb.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/southside-wrestling-menace-ii-society.html

The good news is, that's hopefully the end of Macho Mandow

I heard he was gone from Tough Enough and just assumed it was due to his sex tape case, but if they've gone to this level to disassociate themselves from him, then he must have done something serious. Likewise, my "Hulkamania" t-shirt is going to have to be moved to the "sleeping t-shirts" pile. It feels a bit much to totally remove any mention of him from the site. Parting company with him on current projects makes sense, but it's not like removing him from their history will stop the world from associating "Hulk Hogan" with "WWE" - he's too ingrained in their history.

Yeah, I saw Red wrestle last month, and was pleasantly surprised that he still looked in good shape and that he was still good in the ring. I'd say he looked no worse than he did when he returned to TNA in 2009

I really like Fritz in ring, and think he's certainly worth consideration. Big, nasty convincing tough guy, really like the way he works his big offensive weapon (the Claw) into matches. As Jetlag said, his matches with Baba are a load of fun, and Fritz is great in them. I love the way he'll stalk the ring like a vicious bully one minute, but the moment Baba is on offence he'll cower away without it seeming forced. Even old man Fritz in his retirement match with Bundy is fun, as he's still got the size and an aura that suggests he's not to be messed with. Might well make the lower part of my list.