joeg

@C.S. I gotta disagree about the Briscoes, I don't see why it would be a hinderance to the Briscoes getting signed.... Jay made an offensive, ignorant public comment nearly a decade ago. If there's anyone in this ever changing world who has gone the past decade without saying something stupid, then by all means cast the first stone. But I doubt that perfect person exists. I have two points every time stuff like this comes up, first it was a long time ago, people grow and change. Second are we to expect an uneducated, slower lower, chicken farmer to have enlightened views on social issues? GTFO here with that. The Briscoes are their gimmick, they really are good ol' country boys who like a good fight on occasion. I wouldn't expect a product of that environment to have an intelligent, well thought out position on something like gay marriage. And as a wrestling fan, if somebody with their gimmick were to make intelligent, informed public comments about social issues, I'd be disappointed that they broke kayfabe.

Loved Kingston's promo and MJF's promo too.... I've said it before those are the two most relatable characters in wrestling, everybody knows an Eddie Kingston and everybody knows an MJF. Cody's promo was actively bad. The main event was what it it was. I'm not a fan of stuff being silly for the sake of things being silly. If something is going to make me laugh, it needs to be airtight. I can't laugh at things that I can spot holes in. To me its like a bad party magician, its just hard to buy in. For example, why did Cutler simply not remove the duct tape? His hands were free. Why does a plastic Halloween costume proton pack lay guys out like a steel chair? There were a dozen things like that in the match. If I'm preoccupied by the gaps in logic, I can't relax enough to laugh. Its one of those things where as long as I don't think too hard, I can enjoy it.

I think their efforts to expand past northeast cities along i95 and past northeast talent is what started the downturn. The company had been struggling to break even on live events ever since and its been over a decade. Its a shame as the past year or two they really did a good job of getting previously unknown workers over.

Yeah I don't know about that. ROH is dirt cheap for Sinclair and they average around 700k viewers a week. Its the exact sort cheap, low maintence programing that a media company built around syndication would want.

Completely off topic.... would BJW draw better if they did away with deathmatches? I know its their thing, but their deathmatches haven't drawn well for almost a decade and their top young acts are all on the Strong division. At this point, one would think the excessive violence in their deathmatches is actually turning people away not bring them in.

I don't know if you are being serious or not, but yes! I agree with this 100%. Its why I always complain about closed fist punches to the face.

In the Walter PCO match, the most dangerous parts were PCO's bump on the apron and the bump on the floor.

Walter beats the shit out of guys, but his work is safe. Its a lot of hard open handed strikes to the chest and shoulders. Yeah it leaves a bruise, but he doesn't do anything that actually could result in injury. There are no closed fist strikes, there are no kicks to the head/face, there are no head drops or spikes, there's minimal running the ropes, there are no big bumps at weird angles, there are no big bumps period, there are no dives. Walter's style of work is a lot safer than lets say Kenny Omega or Okada or Seth Rollins and looks so much more dangerous because he does leave his opponents bruised and covered in welts.

I picked Roman. I think Mox has more carisma and is a better promo than Roman, but Roman is just the better worker. Mox seems to be more creative and more will to take creative risks, but it doesn't always work out. Its not just that there are so many more high end Roman matches, but the average run of the mill Roman match blows the average Mox match out of the water. Mox frequently has matches that miss the mark and just don't make a lot of sense. Rollins is facinating to me. Back 12-15 years ago, I saw him and thought wow with the way he moves and his creativity, he's going to be really good when he learns to slow down and make things mean more. Its 15 years later, he's been on national TV for a decade almost, and he still hasn't figured out how to slow things down and make it mean something.

The notion that Fatu hasn't been picked up by WWE because he had a juvenile record is insane to me. Speaking from experience, juvenile records (and even records from college years) don't show up on any background check. If getting into trouble as a kid doesn't prevent employment in financial services, banking, law enforcement, education, etc., how does it prevent somebody from employment in pro wrestling?

I never was a fan of the heart punch, when in real life have you ever seen somebody get punched in the chest and go down? I don't know why somebody with good looking punches hasn't used a liver punch/hook to the body as a finisher. The most dramatic knockouts in combat sports are always the body shot to the liver where the person just seizes up and goes down. Agogo did it in that one angle with Cody and it looked awesome.

Saw the MLW Fightland. Jacob Fatu and Alexander Hammerstone are so fucking good its rediculous that they are in such a low rent, shithole. Fatu should be a top guy in WWE or AEW and Hammerstone should be an upper mid card guy in WWE or AEW. Instead they are fighting each other on the worst produced, most busch league wrestling show out there. Its such a waste of talent.

@El-P I didn't know you were the guy who came up with that term! Yeah when I think of that sort of match, for good or bad I think the big Shawn matches, the big Omega matches and the NXT main events of the past few years.

When the term "self conscious epic" was being used around here, these were the two guys I most associated with that style. These are two wrestlers known for epic, spectacular matches but whose work is often times blatantly cooperative.

I see Steveson's floor being Kurt Angle. He's much bigger physically than Angle. He's got a bigger personality. He's younger. And he doesn't have the injury history Angle had when he joined WWE. My worry would be that they push Steveson to the moon right out of the gate and he's not as over as his push. Then WWE responds by undercutting his push, which WWE has done multiple times

Lio Rush's entrerpreneur gimmick is not good. It doesn't make any sense. Its so similar to Big Money Matt Hardy which also isn't very good

I'm thinking its going to get worse over the next couple of years. They don't really seem to have any real plans in place beyond Lesnar vs Reigns at Crown Jewel and potentially Reigns vs Rock at Wrestlemania. So I expect things to keep getting worse and more disorganized these next couple of years. Where I do see hope in the long term is Gable Steveson. He seems like a can't miss sort of prospect like Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar, Bill Goldberg, The Rock etc... As long as they don't undercut him I think he'll draw them a lot of money.

This. My biggest pet peave is when something we've all witnessed or experienced in a real fight happens differently in pro wrestling. Arms fully extended on armbars without injury/submission, punches to the face that don't leave a mark, somebody throwing punches with an unwrapped hand and not hurting their hand, picture perfect back bumps on a takedown or a strike to the head, etc. It makes it hard to suspend disbelief when obviously unnatural things happen in a match.

What legit athlete goes into wrestling while they are still on top? And many of the wrestlers in AEW are geeks, they don't need to be matches up next to former pro fighters to look that way.

Valasquez and Fury are sort of weird cases. Valasquez was in some fights that were huge but he was always the B side guy, JDS and Lesnar were the A side. And Fury's following is mostly in England and Ireland as he hasn't really had many fights. The fight this weekend will probably be the first time Fury cracks a million PPV buys in the US.

But their not nobodies. JDS, Masival and Van Sant are proven draws that have all done million dollar gates and over a million buys on PPV. Wrestling hasn't had anybody draw like that in nearly 25 years.

It drives me nuts when they completely bury the ref like that.

I like Bobby Fish, but they've got 30 guys just like him. Even with all the additions the past year, their roster is still full of short guys who can work but don't have a lot of personality. Doesn't make sense to add another.

Hijo Del Santo, Negro Casas, LA Park, Eddie Guerrero and Atlantis will all be top 20 for me. Rey Jr, Blue Panther, Sangre Chicana and Mil Mascaras will all be in the top half of my list. Dandy, Perro, Fuerza Geuerrera, Villano III, Negro Navarro, Black Terry, and Rush will be on the bottom half of my list. Art Barr, Mistico, Pirata Morgan, Villano V, Blue Demon Jr, Trauma I and Dr. Wagner Jr. will all be bubble guys for me. As for guys I didn't consider in 2016, I could see Barbaro Cavernario, Bandido, Villano III Jr., Pentagon Jr., Dragon Lee, Templario, Psycho Clown, and few others doing enough over the next 5 years to make it into my list.

Outside of Misawa and Kobashi, everybody in my top 10 to 15 will have had successful runs as both a babyface and a heel. I think when talking about all time greats (in anything) versatility is important. An ability to be successful in a variety of roles and in a variety of different places is incredibly important.