AJS

Infrequent poster but I thought i'd have a go at this Current Favourite Wrestler to watch: Buddy Rose. I'd seen a little bit on youtube but bought Will's dvd set recently and i'm currently speeding through that. To first see him he doesn't look like he'd be a great wrestler, but he's been absolutely compelling. Last Fun Match: Kobashi Vs Takayama April 04 Wrestler you want to see more of: El Dandy Last live show you attended: a WWE show in my home town years and years ago Match most looking forward to: The next match on the Buddy Rose set Last Fun Interview/Promo: Ric Flair and Jerry lawler in Memphis Last Interesting thing read about wrestling: Dave Meltzer's Kobashi Bio Last worthwile podcast listened too: I didn't expect to but really enjoyed Chris Jericho's interview with Brian Gerwitz. Particularly the insane wrestlers court story Favourite recent post: the list of "against the grain" opinions from JerryvonKramer Favourite thing about the wrestling landscape: I don't watch much WWE but from what i've seen the brand split looks interesting so far.

Just watched this for the first time on the Memphis set and was absolutely blown away. I was expecting a lot based on it's rep, but it actually managed to exceed my expectations. Obviously no great wrestling match but a tremendous presentation. Funk is phenomenal showing the various parts of his personality. We get psycho, coward and comedian all in one. He is pretty scary here but he also made me laugh a lot. I thought his back and forth with Russell was really funny. Right at the start Lance tells Terry he needs to watch his language so they can broadcast the segment later. Of course then Terry just carries on swearing. i thought that was comedy gold.

First Rumble I ever watched and still the best. Maybe one of Flair's last truly great performances. I've always loved the moment when, after eliminating the big boss man, Flair drops to the mat exhausted as the countdown to the next entrant begins. Then out comes Piper and flair has this awesome 'oh please God no' expression on his face. Heenan adds so much with his near apoplectic performance on commentary, and Flair's post match promo is a masterpiece. Okerlund's 'put that cigarette out' line is very funny too.

Definitely. The One Night Only match from the UK PPV in 1997 is fantastic, and shows what they could do together, but this one is so plodding and boring, coming just before the Mankind Series in 96, where Taker was able to progress to do more than choke, punch and sit up. The fact it ends in a DQ I think also doesn't help this one. Yeah DQ definitely drags it down even further. Such a long dull match with nothing going on. I'm glad they managed to sort it out for future matches. Loved the ONO match and enjoyed SS 97 quite a bit too.

It's cool to see Kurt Angle in your top 20. I was surprised to see him reach 68 overall as most of the regular posters didn't have him on their lists at all. Silent majority I guess.

Jumbo Tsuruta's Dropkick, Bret Hart's Back breaker and I must admit i've always' enjoyed Kurt Angle's run up top rope belly to belly.

Bret Hart Vs the Undertaker RR 96. Although i'm aware that a lot of people don't think the Undertaker was great.

I've always loved Barry Windham's float over suplex and Tully Blanchard's slingshot suplex. I've always liked the 'special occasions only' type move. Kobashi's burning hammer springs to mind.

I'm excited to see this back!

I've been watching John Cena matches recently. I posted in the wrestlers you hate thread saying he's a guy I just don't get. Someone mentioned the Umaga RR match, so I checked it out and enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. From there I thought it might be interesting to delve into Cena PPV stuff from a period i'm very unfamiliar with, namely anything from 2010 onwards. It started pretty well but went down hill quickly for me. I quite enjoyed the Extreme Rules match with Bastita but I thought that the Sheamus and Wade Barrett bouts were quite dull. Then I went and watched the Miz Mania match. Well that well and truly sucked! Not sure that I want to continue along these Cena path after that.

I haven't seen the Punk matches since they happened so it might be interesting to revisit them. Don't think i've ever seen his matches with Bryan or Owens so I'll probably check those out next.

I watched the Cena vs Umaga match and liked it quite a bit. I definitely enjoyed it more than the JBL match at Judgment Day 05, which I found relatively disappointing. I didn’t have my usual issues with Cena’s selling here. One minor nitpick is that I wish it looked like he was applying a bit more pressure when he was chocking Umaga with the ropes and screaming his lungs out but I guess you can’t have everything. I thought his look to the crowd post match was pretty cool actually. Maybe there’s hope! also Umaga running across the tables/splash = Awesome!

Thanks. When I was going through some Cena matches, the Umaga match was one I missed for some reason. I don't think I even watched it at the time. I'll check it out. I'd never seen Reb Brown in Space Mutiny but I just had a look on youtube and I definitely see the similarities!

John Cena. I didn't like him in 2005 and I don't like him now. I've tried but I can't seem to get past the sloppy execution, cartoonish facial expressions, the stfu, the five knuckle shuffle, the spinning belt, the juvenile one liners and ring attire that makes him look like an overgrown 10 year old. People talk about his many great matches but I struggle to enjoy them, because the of various things about him that annoy me. I'm fairly new here and seeing people argue so passionately and eloquently for him, convinced me to watch more, but I still really struggle with him. I guess he deserves credit for working hard and being on top for so long, but he's one guy I just don't get. I'll admit that I haven't seen much of his work post 2011 yet, so maybe i'll turn a corner on him at some point. seems unlikely though

There's a ton of Buddy Rose Portland footage on Youtube, which i'm currently working my way through.

I loved that Bockwinkel's piledriver got him the first fall. The use/abuse of the piledriver is one of the things that really annoys me in wrestling. Whenever I see the move executed well, i'm thinking that logically the match should be over. But so often this move, where you're lifted upside down and driven down to the mat head first doesn't lead to anything meaningful or is shrugged off by the recipient like it was nothing. Here, the move got Bock the 3 count and he continued to work on Morton's head and neck into the second fall and Morton continued to sell it. great stuff!

I just finished watching this and thought it was excellent. I haven't seen many Nick Bockwinkel matches but I'm looking forward to seeing more of him after this.

I came on board too late to contribute to GWE but it's been fascinating to follow the countdown. I'm really surprised to see Chris Adams so low. i haven't seen that much of him so far, but what I have seen has been great. I'm looking forward to seeing more of his Texas run.

I find it very hard to believe that the standing ovation was orchestrated by WWE. It's not as if the company particularly pushed it as a must see match at the time. As far I can remember most of the hype went into that vile Triple H-Steiner match. Anyway, I watched this today for the first time in years to see how it looked and I still enjoyed it. Since I last watched it i've got into the All Japan 90's stuff and it obviously can't compare to those classics, but still a fun match. There are issues, such as Kurt's problem with long term selling. I was really hoping to see him sell the back after Benoit had worked on it, but apart from putting his arm behind his back a couple of times, he didn't really bother. Shame. Still, I enjoyed the finishing stretch and as ever i'm a sucker for Angle's run up to the top rope belly to belly. That is a great looking move.

No worries Jerry and thanks a lot for your kind response. I've ordered most of the 80's sets from Will so that should keep me going for a while! I'm looking forward to working my way through them.

Poor Kurt. I'm new to this board and I can honestly say that the biggest shock for me has been seeing how hated Angle is around here. My absolute favourite wrestler in the early 2000's. I totally understand the criticisms though.

I greatly enjoyed this. I don't watch much modern WWE but I really want to check out some Sasha Banks matches now after what you said about her Jimmy.

Hi Jerry. I don't know whether you'll see this but I just wanted say how much I enjoyed the Flair podcasts. I've heard you say on other podcasts that you got a lot of criticism for them and that really surprises me as I thought they were great. They were the first PWO podcasts I ever listened to and they brought me to this board. They all so inspired me to watch a lot of Flair footage for the first time in years and watch matches i'd never seen like the Tenryu match from 92. It was cool to hear someone go into such detail on one wrestler, and i'd love to hear more of that type of thing. Thanks Andrew

Hi Shrike02, Regarding where to watch footage, i'd recommend sending Goodhelmet a PM asking for a list of the compilations that he sells. I've just ordered a few myself and they sound great.

Hi i’m Andrew. I’m 33 and i’m from Exeter in England. I’ve been a fan since I was eight and the first show I watched was the Royal Rumble 92. It’s still my favourite Rumble match. I’ve seen a lot of Flair in his prime and 90’s All Japan which I love, but it’s mostly been 90’s WWE and WCW. I stopped watching wrestling for a few years because I got sick of the WWE product. I’ve come back to it again recently, watching a lot the Japan stuff that has been uploaded to you tube. I love the all 90’s Japan guys, particularly Kobashi. I listened to the Fair for Flair series by Parv a while ago and really enjoyed it. Listening to that inspired me to go back and watch Flair again for the first time in years. It was nice to be reminded of his greatness. Listening to that podcast also led me to this site and I was astounded to realise how much stuff there is out there that i’ve never seen and how limited my knowledge is. I would have loved to have taken part in the GWE project, but i’m embarrassed to say that after over 20 years as a fan, right now I would probably struggle to put together a credible top 30. Hopefully I can expand my knowledge and get involved with the discussions over the next few months.