Cap

Yeah, Necro is a very self aware and articulate man. He has no illusions about what he is or what kind of wrestling he does. I appreciate that. Once I heard a few interviews with him I started looking at his matches a little differently too.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Necro. His match with Dragon is one of my personal favorites. He also had a match in West Virginia with Low-ki that i am really partial too, a wild brawl up into the bleachers. I am not sure I am going to have room for him on my list. As much as I would love to put him on there. It would feel sentimental to me.

Yeah I saw Sydal's beard at Wrestlekingdom. Ugh... just makes me dislike Gabriel now too. Add him to my list.

I haven't seen Sydal in ROH recently, no. I haven't really seen him aside from the random match in the past 3-4 years. It wouldn't matter. When I did see him he just rubbed me the wrong way. His size isn't the issue. It is that he is all smiles and usually clean cut, more athletic and good looking than anyone has any business being. He reminded me of the jocks that were all manners and happy to be alive in front of authority figures but total dick bags the rest of the time. And even if he wasn't a jock and he was just a super nice guy, fuck him for being so handsome, nice, and athletic/hard working all at once. Isn't that the point, though? Of course the reasons say as much (or more) about me than they do about him. I'm not trying to make an accurate analysis of his persona nor am I really saying anything about his talent. I just don't like him.

I have never really liked Evan Bourne/Matt Sydal. He just reminds me too much of every pretty-boy jock I hated in school. Consequently, no amount of athleticism, not teaming with someone has ever made me like him. He is also so spot heavy to me most of the time, so I just don’t dislike his character I rarely care about his matches at all. I always hated Jeff Hardy since day one. I liked Matt for a while because he did all the work in the matches and then Jeff would jump off of something. Even when Jeff got a lot better (and weirder) I couldn’t stand him. He is turn off the TV bad to me. I was completely down on Styles until he went to NJPW last year. I thought he was so repetitive in the ring and more or less had like two good matches that he repeated over and over until they were outright boring. I hate his pele kick because it is overused and more often than not doesn’t look very good. His insistence on calling everyone “fagot” in the ring was not particularly appealing to me. Not that I am super sensitive about being PC in wrestling, but it just seemed unnecessary and boring. He really turned things around though and I quite enjoyed him over the last year.

I have a feeling he would probably make the very back end of my list if I wasn't sort of binge watching a bunch of wrestling I had never seen. He will most likely get bumped for me. I do however enjoy some of his higher end stuff, especially the Benoit, Joe, and Eddie Guerrero. Honestly, probably had more to do with those guys than ol kurt though.

Vader makes a lot of sense to go in next to Sting. They used to sort of loosely theme the class around the headline inductee it seemed. Maybe this is the year they forgive Rick Rude and bury his induction behind Sting, Vader, and a few Texas-centric inductees.

I was always sort of down on Shawn. I find so many of his spots really contrived in matches and always have. However, this process has actually made me a little higher on him. He will probably make my list just on the strength of his body of work. He has some of my least favorite matches ever, but he has too many good performances to not make my list, honestly.

I am not as high on him as some, but I do like some of the chaos he can bring to a match. It does make his matches feel dfferent, not always better, but different. His use of the rebound lariat did bring him way down for me. Fuck, I hate that move. I honestly think at least some of the buzz is because people really like responding to the first 5 seconds of his music.

If the rumors about Bryan being ready to go for WM are true that will help. Styles and Nakamura might actually help sell some tickets to wrestling fans who might not otherwise go. I ultimately think WM sells out no matter what, even if Vince's "friends" are buying up the last 6,000 tickets I can kind of see them going with Owens vs Taker as a backup. Owens could build interest in the match pretty easily (a la Punk) and would be a safe choice in terms of ensuring match quality.

I see Styles winning the IC title at Mania in some sort of clusterfuck ladder match (he will do at least 10 pele kicks in the match too), sparking a collective throwing up of hands that will be audible on internet message boards. Styles will be the latest "the guy" to bring the belt back to its proper prestige and they will feature it on Smackdown more, cycling in NXT guys and the Owens and Ambrose of the main roster as their way of elevating it. Somewhere along the line everything will go south as Vince gets in the mood to put the belt on Seamus for zero reason. I just feel like maybe if I type it out it wont happen. Does Nakamura speak enough English to get by on NXT? I honestly don't know. I imagine that will be his biggest hurdle. As much as I love the dream booking that is thrown around all over of Heyman representing him, that obviously isn't happening on NXT and might even be dicey on the main roster.

I am not off to a hot start with my predictions... ugh.

I think the big thing with Jake is that he produced matches that probably worked fairly well for him in the moment and accomplished specific goals (getting other guys over as either heel or face, making other people look strong and/or important, developing characters and storylines), but they didn't have a lot of rewatch value, which I think is an important distinction, at least for me. I can watch a match and think that was awesome for what it was but I never want to watch it again because in more or less a vacuum it will be pointless. Jake was such a powerful charicter who was so smart about building a match, I always kind of saw him as constantly building people and moments and very rarely ever having a match that I would be excited to go back and rewatch. That is why when I talk about Jake's psychology I don't mean his in ring storytelling and the placement of moves and transitions and so on, like I might with other people. I generally refer to Jake's psychology in terms of how he builds the dynamic between himself and his opponent before, during (to a much lesser extent), and after a match. Jake's best characteristic was not just that he was a great and compelling promo, but that all his angles seemed to have an extra layer or two that only he could bring. He was a thoughtful persona and articulate, but in that way that was borderline (and sometimes not so borderline) psychotic in a way that provided him with an expanded set of "reasons" for wanting to fight someone and he was very good in explaining the complexity of his animosity (even if it was just because he was evil) in a way that was digestible and added to the match. The problem is the matches (that I have seen at least) don't live up in a vacuum. He has a few nice little bright spots (Savage SNME being my personal favorite - love that match) where everything came together to produce wrestling with great rewatch value, but for the most part his character, his style, and maybe his skill set produced matches that were underwealming but probably served the broader stories he was trying to tell a little better than they did produce matches that have rewatch value. For me, I don't think he will make my list, but even still I have to judge him with a little bit different analytic. He is a guy who had insane wrestling talents that I don't think translate well into how I currently think about "Greatest Wrestler Ever". He will likely not make my list, but if you changed the question to, "what 100 wrestlers would you pick to start a promotion with?" he might very well be on that list. I need to watch more older Jake because most of my thoughts on him are sort of off the top of my head thinking about his prime WWE run and later.

With NXT setting up to tour more and potentially move into its own completely distinct brand (I have my doubts), this move makes a lot of sense. NXT will need to really fill out its roster because touring won't really be in place of the Orlando stuff. I imagine they will have some time shares with the more ready talent touring and the orlando shows being more the up and comers with a few guys coming back for spots, promos, and main events on a rotation. This all said, Nakamura and Styles better finish out their dates with ROH in Feb. or I am going to be very disappointing and might even write a strongly worded post (or two) on the internet about my displeasure. That will teach them. Seriously, please let them work their ROH dates - maybe a farewell match against one another? Please!

Yeah, I am pretty excited to come home tomorrow after work and watch this show, but in my brain the hype ends at Nakamura vs Styles. I just can't get excited for Tana vs Okada anymore. I don't keep up with NJ as much as I would like but I have seen most of the highly touted stuff. Tana and Okada always do good stuff, but a lot of it blends together to me. Ultimately, I am just not as big a fan of Tanahashi as a lot of people seem to be.

I like the comparison of him to Sabu. He really was the unique wrestler who stood out, made matches feel different and special, and helped set shows he was on apart. He was to the indy boom (particularly ROH) what Sabu was to ECW. I sort of agree that his stiffness for stiffness sake can be a real downer. He doesn't elevate lesser talent (like say Danielson, Joe, Styles, and even Daniels did at the same time). Rather, he often would just beat them senseless. Still, his high end stuff since 2002 is just so good, so much fun that I can see him anywhere from 75-100 on my list. I will need to take a look at his early nonROH stuff and some of what he has done since 2012 before I make a final decision.

I just watched this match and really loved it. I have just been getting into Lucha so there is still some adjustment to the rhythms and psychology, but the high end stuff is still really easy to appreciate. I watched it right before the Triple threat between Casas/Dandy/Santos (which I LOVED) and a day after watching some more recent Casas stuff (vs Rush and vs Mistico). I think that was a good place because I got to see how much more fluid and realistic this felt than say the Mistico match (which I loved when Casas was on top, but didn't love when he had to wait around for Mistico's offense). Santos is so quick in transitioning from being in a world of shit to being on top with a big dive or a quick and brutal shot. For example, when he is hanging in the tree and sits up to avoid a slide and before Casas is even really set Santos has jumped tot he outside. It was awesome. That made the back and forth really easy to get into let me get lost in their aggression and urgency. I absolutely love Casas and his confidence, how he has swagger between his moves that constantly adds to who he is as and what he wants to accomplish in the match. It also provides some room for his offense to set in. I loved the leg and arm work too, it kept the match grounded. Just fantastic stuff overall. I am glad I watched it before the triple threat. The brutality of that match was such that I might have not really looked at this match fairly.

Watch more Lucha. Keep up with NJPW . Catch up with Lucha Underground and Progress Wrestling I am moving to North Carolina this summer so I want to find some Indie wrestling in the region. Finish my dissertation by the ROH 14th Anniversary show so I can enjoy the show free of immediate professional responsibility and spend the last month of the GWE project binge watching wresting.

I have so much I want to watch because I came pretty late to the party. I am trying to mostly watch stuff that I wasn't really familiar with and rewatching high points to parse out the details.

Zayn's greatest strength is his babyface comebacks. He takes a great beating, sells well, and puts together high energy comeback sequences in a way that I think would translate well to the main roster, give the fans what they are missing with Bryan out.

I might be hoping against hope, but I am pulling for Nakamura vs Styles in a rematch for the IWGP IC title at the 14th anniversary show. I am going to both shows that weekend, bought tickets as soon as they announced Nakamura.

Ricochet will be signed by NXT/WWE. Bryan will at least begin his split with the WWE so he can wrestle again elsewhere. I'll be a little surprised if he is in the ring by the end of the year. I don't see their split being too messy, but I see it being prolonged. Styles will beat Nakamura for the IWGP IC title at Wrestle Kingdom and it will steal the show (MOTY). They will have at least 2-3 great matches this year over the title. (I am hoping one of them is at the ROH 14th Anniversary show). Brock wins the rumble. Reigns beats Brock clean as a sheet at mania. Sami vs Balor wrestlemania weekend at the NXT show for the title. Steen outperforms the booking and is a main eventer by the end of the year. TNA will continue to slowest burnout in wrestling history. Somehow, someway, things will get worse for them but they will still be a company when 2017 rolls in. WWE will start Reigns on a title run that will eventually exceed Punk's He might lose it once and get it back before that starts, but that reign will start this year. Cesaro will get really hot at least once as the E looks for opponents for Reigns that can help him maintain momentum as the ace. The WWE will promptly forget about him and he will fall back into the old booking ruts. Cena and Reigns will have a match of the year candidate at either Summer Slam or Royal Rumble (though they might save it for mania 33). Itami will be the most important return to NXT this year. He and Joe will tear down the house once or twice. NXT pursues Styles and Nakamura, but neither will come to terms. I will become completely obsessed with Progress wrestling this summer.

I was trying to explain this to my buddy the other day regarding Balor. I like Balor. I really do. He has just felt like he hit a plateau as ace. He is good at just about everything, but nothing (even the demon stuff anymore) really seems exceptional anymore. It came up because I really loved the Joe/Balor match. I thought it was easily Joe's best match since joining NXT and probably Balor's too. There was a sense of urgency in that match that just built and was contagious. The finishing sequence had me dead hooked, too. I think Balor needs to keep working with Joe. It could also help give him an edge, pushing him beyond being just really good and add some dimension to him as an NXT/WWE performer.

That makes sense, however the journey works for you is cool in my book. I have been at thinking about this less time than you so maybe I am in a different stage of a similar journey. I am using this as a chance to check out lots new things, watching stuff more carefully, rewatch great wrestling, and really parse out more explicitly what I like about wrestling. I don't know if I agree that is post hoc justification, at least not in terms of the negative connotations that often come with that. I think most people don't really watch wrestling thinking about their criteria for what constitutes good wrestling; we just start liking what we like, so being wrestling fan more general trains people to think in a sort of post hoc way of parsing out criteria. Certainly I didn't start thinking that way until probably 2007 or so and even then it was because I noticed patterns in what I liked. Exercises like these encourage that sort of thinking and I think any good reflexive list will be working through the symbiotic relationship between "what" one likes and "who" one likes. That is all six of one, half dozen of the other though. Like I said, we are all going through this in our own way. I just like how much more good wrestling I have been watching because of thinking about it and how I have been thinking about wrestling since deciding to possibly submit a list.

So then will your list be a list of who you think the greatest wrestlers of all time are or will it be a testament to the system you have created? In other words, how do you conceptualize contradictions? If Jumbo is your number one, but he winds up number three do you think of Jumbo as “really” the third best wrestler ever in your eyes or is he still your personal number one, but just not the best according to your system systems? I am not trying to be critical of the system; I really like the idea of systematizing it, but I am very curious about how someone deals with such a system. For me, it honestly just seems hopeless to try to quantify wrestling, but I applaud the effort all the same. I have my own processes to account for personal bias and to make a list I can stand by on more than just “I like them” but anytime I try to create any sort of quantifying system to measure wrestlers or matches I either get frustrated or I see too clearly how my preferences for what constitutes good wrestling are informing how I structured the system, criteria, and various micro-ratings. In turn, I am curious about how this works for people who find it successful and rewarding.