Quentin Skinner

Big update because I'm very forgetful The Art of Stardom with Dylan Harris https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/psychology-is-dead-art-of-stardom All 4 parts of the top 120 matches of 2017 series with Brock https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/psychology-is-dead-top-120-matches-of-2017-120-101 https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/psychology-is-dead-top-120-matches-of-2017-90-61 https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/psychology-is-dead-top-120-matches-of-2017-60-31 https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/psychology-is-dead-top-120-matches-of-2017-30-1

All three parts of Timothy and I running through our top 50 Wrestlers of the Year lists http://placetobenation.com/psychology-is-dead-top-50-wrestlers-of-2017-part-1-50-31/ http://placetobenation.com/psychology-is-dead-top-50-wrestlers-of-2017-part-2-30-11/ http://placetobenation.com/psychology-is-dead-top-50-wrestlers-of-2017-part-2-30-11-2/

Top 5 probably goes wXw AMBITION 8 EVOLVE 79 ATTACK! Thank God It's (Not) WinterSlam NJPW New Beginning In Osaka NJPW in Long Beach Night 2

Trevor this year doesn't have anything non-CWF that I loved as much as the Hero match from 2016. Closest is the Janela match from ASW 13 but the Hero match is a different level. It's a lot of good stuff but the main appeal is the character work that he keeps getting better at.

Zack Sabre Jr for me. I think variety in opponents, variety in settings and volume are undeniable and hard to argue anyone above him in these areas, but I think he's taken a big step forward in his individual performances this year. Going heel almost everywhere and working more as a tweener figure when he's not a full fledged heel has led to increased nastiness and great vicious control segments which I eat up. Also cuts down what a lot of people view as his weakest area and that's selling.Was able to go between working legends, top flight current names and "lesser" talents without skipping a beat, often times raising the stock of a guy lower in status like a Jaka. I think something I adore about the guy is other than David Starr, I don't think anyone else visibly makes wins and losses look important to them in the aftermath of a match. Whether it be throwing temper tantrums after losing to Gabriel Kidd, Chris Brookes, or Negro Navarro or punching the air and yelling in celebration in victory, he makes it clear he cares about the result of a match. He was close last year but now I think he's found the perfect balance between the cutesy WOS stuff, legit amateur and BJJ transitions and holds, tough guy/macho spots and a Danielson-esque arrogance and mean streak. While Zack is my number 1, it's pretty fitting WALTER climbed his way to number 2 in the last week. He was at 4 on my top 50 WOTY podcast but since then he's added on 6 more matches I've seen that I've given 4* or more, and evenly split between tags and singles. Best tag worker of the year by a mile, MVP of one of the best Carat tournaments ever, plenty of work to choose from as a face and a heel, arguably feud of the year with David Starr. While he has a ton of great matches to choose from and quite honestly zero bad matches I've seen this year, his case really is strengthened by how easily he went from this menacing, dominant, big bad brother of Axel Dieter Jr to the fiery babyface hot tag guy with Thatcher. That's an incredible skill to boast.

New episode on Kenny Omega http://placetobenation.com/psychology-is-dead-art-of-connection/

For the most part in the UK throughout in the notable companies other than maybe RevPro who focuses on big super shows more than anything, heels get heat and the desired reaction. Now that isn't to say the crowd can't take to an act and almost force them to turn babyface because they're so likable in the ring (example being South Pacific Power Trip) but from acts like Jinny, Zack Gibson, Sebastian, Jordan Devlin, CCK (although it's slightly changing now), Dan Maloney, The Prestige, The Anti-Fun Police, The Origin and more, the heels all get booed to hell. Even in PROGRESS, British Strong Style is getting tons of heat still. Marty Scurll as champ got heat and this isn't even mentioning how intense the crowd hate was for Jimmy Havoc during his 2013-2015 run. Will Ospreay has managed to get good heel heat in places like WCPW and PROGRESS. Or someone like Paul Robinson who consistently for 3 years was one of the most vile and hateable characters in wrestling. The clear distinction between faces and heels and the crowd buying in to it is definitely a big reason why I'm more in to following the UK scene than most of the US right now.

Latest Psychology is Dead on aging in wrestling http://placetobenation.com/psychology-is-dead-the-art-of-age/

Brock and I managed to somehow do a 4 and a half hour podcast on one person, and that person being the Phenomenal AJ Styles http://placetobenation.com/psychology-is-dead-art-of-style/

Quentin and five guests go in-depth on the genre of Lucha Libre. He talks to Sam DiMascio, Case Lowe, Rob Viper, Dylan Harris and Brandon Wagemann in different segments about how they got in to lucha, why do they still follow and questions ranging from why might Lucha be hard to get in to, the place of high flying and showmanship and much more along the way. http://placetobenation.com/psychology-is-dead-the-art-of-lucha/

Bryan Danielson vs Zack Sabre Jr. - 3/2/2008 Wrestling In Europa. It's Danielson working a green as hell ZSJ in a small bar room in the Midlands and he turns it in to something special. It's a magnificent heel performance from Danielson, picking ZSJ apart, building great sympathy for him and allowing him to get enough shine to make it a coming out party for himself. Sami Zayn vs Adrian Neville - 12/11/2014 NXT. Sami Zayn gives the performance of his life in the culmination of a year long build. He conveys the emotion of it being his last chance at the title and leaving if he comes up short. His facial expressions here take you on a journey of focus, self-doubt and eventual triumph. Akira Taue vs Mitsuharu Misawa - 4/15/95. Taue's urgency here when facing the ace of the company and his by any means approach is the highlight of his standout 1995 run. Kiyoshi Tamura vs Nobuhiko Takada - 2/13/1993 UWFi. It's the quintessential young punk match to me. Tamura disrespects his boss and gets the shit kicked out of him for it, but doesn't go down without a fight. Team Austin (Shawn Michaels) vs Team Bischoff - 11/16/2003. Shawn's performance as the sole survivor here is something I've watched back so many times at this point and I never get tired of it.

Thank you, just went and fixed that

Yes sir! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OKiXMz-_j5KvSBHnaStdUOlImnP7Mg3ozR7qzt68uXI/edit

Whenever I watch Rush I can't help but think he's came around too late. I imagine him mixing it up with the likes of El Dandy, Chicana, Perro Aguayo, etc having these bloody, dramatic apuestas matches.

This was stellar. KAORU going for the quick start only for Aja to unleash hell on her was a great way to kick off the match. KAORU bleeding all over the place was unexpected but established early on how violent this was going to get. Main thing I loved here though was the limbwork. The brutality and desperation of it really resonated with me. KAORU is essentially stabbing Aja's arm with the jagged side of a broken table and it looks nasty. Aja is writhing in pain and it's one of the only times I can ever remember Aja being that level of vulnerable. At times it almost gets to being uncomfortable to hear those screams of pure agony. To see Aja, someone who had been a star and complete wrecking ball in the joshi scene for more than 10 years at that point, be down so bad, leaves a lasting image in my head. A lot drama, hate, almost uneasy level of violence, excellent work from both of these women.

This was an excellent match with maybe one of the most brilliant dirty finishes I have ever seen in wrestling. People talk about Atlantis' legendary apuestas matches all the time but I thought he was excellent here working the title match style doing some slick matwork with Villano. As soon as I saw Villano go to the back I knew something fishy was about to happen. At first I thought Villano was just going to show up through the crowd and roll up Atlantis for the win. But the switcheroo they did is so much better. Probably would go ****1/2 because I thought the finish was executed so fantastically by everyone involved from Atlantis losing his mind, the Villanos bailing out of the arena with the crowd throwing drinks at them. Just great stuff.

Myself and Brock have death wishes as we run down the top 100 matches of 2016! This broken up in three parts, 100-51, 50-26, 25-1. http://placetobenation.com/psychology-is-dead-top-100-matches-of-2016/

70s: Marty Jones vs Terry Rudge 12/4/76 80s: MS-1 vs Sangre Chicana 9/23/83 90s: Akira Hokuto vs Shinobu Kandori 4/2/93 or Kiyoshi Tamura vs Nobuhiko Takada 2/14/93 00s: Low Ki vs American Dragon 3/30/02 10s: Kenny Omega vs Kazuchika Okada 1/4/17

Keith Lee, Jeff Cobb, James Drake (from the south, not the guy from the U.K. tournament), Ace Romero, and Kongo Kong are the names that stick out to me right now. I guess Rampage Brown would be a good shout here too.

It's way more of an angle than anything but I absolutely loved this. I thought the pre match skit was a nice touch because it gave even more reason for Tarzan Boy to be so fired up and I wish these type of lead ins were used more often in lucha. It's something I really liked in the Rush vs Maximo Sexy feud from 2016. The way Los Infernales dispatch of Olimpico and Rivera so they can dismantle Tarzan Boy is super convincing because not only were they thrown in to chairs, in Rivera's case his leg literally got stuck in the chairs. The beatdown on Tarzan Boy is wonderful because Los Infernales is so compelling, especially Satanico as their diabolical ringleader. Would implore everyone to seek this out. Very short, but very impactful.

This exceeded the expectations I had going in despite everyone in here really enjoying it. Great bloody, hateful match with a very clear rudo and tecnico dynamic that's easy to get in to and I thought Satanico was excellent as Bucanero's second. This was the first I've seen of Tarzan Boy and I'm definitely hooked on seeing more of him because he was awesome here.

Calling Lee and Skyler unpolished or "green" is actually pretty baffling, especially on Lee where I know a number of people here who keep up with modern wrestling think Lee was at least a top 10 guy in the world in 2016. I'm not as high on the match as Chad is (had it at ***3/4 IIRC) but still think it's pretty great work in front of what's not their "home" crowd.

1. Keep track of every match I watch from 2017 2. Do a deep dive project/retrospective on wXw 3. Participate in PWO2K

Yes, I think this is such a perfect comparison. It's an all time "what the fuck" level spot that made it clear Kenny was willing to give literally anything for this night. The build to the spot was genius and the table involvement in the match was even a callback to when Omega put Okada through the table with a One Winged Angel off the apron on one of the Road To Tokyo Dome shows.