joeg

Selling. Unless its offense in a reckless dangerous, hurt people Maeda, Ogawa, Lesnar, sort of way.

I'd want to go see something of huge historical signifigance. No wrestlers that I saw in person multiple times. Gotch Hackenschmidt. El Santo vs Cavernario. Or El Santo vs Black Shadow Mask vs Mask. El Santo vs Perro Mask vs Hair. Rikidozan and Kimura vs the Sharpe Brothers. World Class at the height of the Freebirds vs Von Erichs. I'd want to see Lawler and Funk. I'd want to see the everything Funks vs Sheik and Abdullah as that became my favorite feud ever while doing the best of the 70s project. I'd want to see the spectacle of an Onita era FMW Anniversary show. I'd want to see the Battle of Atlanta. I'd want to see the first 3 Starcades.

I would think the episode of Mid South with Flair Dibiase. All time Great angle, and a great match. Also would recommend the Money in the Bank 2011 match with Cena and Punk as well as the angle and promo leading into the match. That was probably the best promo on WWE TV in 5 years, the best angle in 2 years, and the best match in 10 years. Shame they went nowhere with it.

I think Matt Riddle has some serious box office in him. Like I see him as being potentially the babyface in WWE to replace Cena and Bryan or the biggest top ganjin heel in Japan since Vader. Or anything in between, but i'd be shocked if he didn't make somebody in a major promotion a whole lot of money some day. I see Riddle having that level of box office in him. Other than him... there are guys that I personally enjoy for what they are, but I don't see main eventing any major show, anywhere, in any country, and drawing money. Mechanics like Thatcher, Davey Boy Smith Jr., or Cobb, or brawlers like Los Traumas, or guys that just never worked out like Chris Masters. There are also guys who were huge draws back 10-15 years that are still going strong that are available. Guys like Mysterio or Akiyama. Even then, even if you pick up the 10 to 15 available guys who are good and push Riddle to the moon, you are still going to need to steal another 10 to 20 guys from NJPW, WWE, ROH, CMLL, and you are going to have to do it Vince style. So you better have some good lawyers.

Low Ki- small guys working stiff as fuck to seem like badasses doesn't seem as novel an idea as it did 15 years. Everybody in Toryumon/Dragon Gate.- I still love the promotion's booking, but the in ring style is just so flippy. Tommy Dreamer- I loved Dreamer back when I was 14. Now I can't think of one thing I really like about him. I guess I loved seeing him wrestle in person because there was a point in every match where you may have to run so you don't get trampled by the wrestlers brawling through the crowd. Sabu- same as Dreamer. Misawa- I've had a hard time watching Misawa matches for 7 years now without feeling some twinge of guilt or remorse. Jesus died for our sins, Misawa died just for our entertainment.

I would think that it would be sometime around 84. WWF, Crockett, Mid-South, AWA, World Class, and GCW all had national television exposure. All six territories were in 50 plus markets thanks to cable tv and syndication. By 86 half of those territories would be on death's door, by 1990 only two would be left. So if you look at it by what year were the most guys making the most money I'd say 83 or 84. 83/84 there were probably 10 places a guy could go and make a really good living, working on a widely seen TV show and working in front of large audiences. Also at that time Mid South, All Japan, New Japan, and World Class were putting out some great TV. GCW was down but it still had national exposure. The first UWF was starting up in Japan. Mid South had DiBiase doing all sorts of awesome shit. WWF had Shiek vs Sarge and the start of Hulkamania. AWA was sort of down the second Hogan left. Memphis was awesome with Lawler vs Savage. In World Class the Freebirds feud which was going strong until the passing of David von Erich, but they drew a huge audience for their Cotton Bowl shows in 84. It was the last year of the NWA as it was. Correct me if I'm wrong but 84 was the last year for an NWA board meeting. Mexico was awesome with Satanico, Sangre Chicana, El Dandy, MS-1, Perro, etc all having awesome years. There's the second Starcade. In NJPW there's the gauntlet, Hogan's push, Fujinami vs Choshu, Dynamite vs Tiger Mask. Portland was still doing well. A few years later it would be dying a slow death. So just looking at 84, a lot of places were still doing good business, expanding, putting on good matches, putting on good TV, and running great angles. A few years later, a lot of those places were gone, re-structured, or on death's door.

I think that is the thing about art, great art. Whether it be film, literature, music, sculpture, etc, whatever the artist intended to convey is only part of what the patron takes away from the experience. Every patron approaches with their own biases and past experiences which shape how they view whatever they are seeing. Its why so many people are able to take so many different things from a great work, many of which the artist never intended. It doesn't mean that any of them are wrong. And if pro wrestling can be considered a performance art, which for this it can be. So it would make sense that watching the greatest matches, by the great in ring story tellers, we could all come away with different interpretations based on our own experiences and backgrounds. And the more detailed and more layered the match is, the more open to different interpretations.

I was wondering out of the guys who were the big native stars in the 80s who were the biggest draws? I always got the impression based on moving the needle with TV ratings that Choshu was the guy. But with popping attendance figures Maeda was the biggest draw. Is this close or am I totally off? How do they stack up with Fujinami, Jumbo, Tenryu, Samaya, etc. Also how were these guys still over shadowed by the stars of the previous generation throughout the decade?

I could see a conspiracy theory who was behind keeping Roman Reigns down angle. People around here were the ones who came up with the political hit conspiracy theory. Basically turn that into an angle where Reigns is too talented not to be a top guy, and WWE is too good at promotion for him not to be successful if they wanted him to be successful. Therefor somebody in a position of power never wanted him to be successful, but who?

The crowd reaction for Roman is their own fault. I honestly lost count at the number of things they did wrong in handling his push.

I think current fans fall into two camps- First, people who watched Goldberg in WCW and WWF/E and remember what a shit show his match his whole WWF/E run was and how horrible his WM match against Lesnar was. Second, people who are too young to know who Goldberg is/was. Its not like Sting where the older fan base always was hoping for a WWF/E run. Goldberg got his WWF/E run and it was disappointing.

Why would anyone want to see this? This is even less appealing then Lesnar vs Shane.

Wow. best match I've seen in a very, very long time. Cam I get information on the fued, where to find the buildup to the match.

Yeah wasn't Ditch a strategist for Romney or something? And he's now working at some Congressional think tank or something. I think that's what somebody over at puroresu.tv said back when that place was still around. What I want to know is how much longer is he planning on keeping his sites up. Those might be the single greatest resource for wrestling footage in existence.

I don't know Meltzer personally. I haven't subscribed to his news letter in a number of years. Some of you do know him personally, many of you are subscribers. One this as a neutral outside observer, is that he always has struck me as a guy with foot in mouth disease. I'm not saying he's racist, I'm saying he regularly says stupid uninformed shit which he has to backtrack later or says stupid shit which is later contradicted by other statements he makes. Its just this time he opened his mouth and commented on race relations not whether or not Mistico and Pedro were draws. You say something stupid and informed about wrestling , which he does, a bunch of nerds get their panties in a bunch. Your a white guy who writes something stupid and informed shit about the n bomb in print, then you are goingg to receive a South Park style public shaming.

Michael Tarver from Nexus. Also I think Karl Anderson throws a pretty good punch. Hayato Jr Fujita throws a great punch and it means different things and different places in the match, the way Flairs chop would mean different things.

I could swear I saw the entire show at somepoint.

I'd also argue that the best Dragon Gate stuff, is the gritty stuff, it is the stuff with loads of heat. I can't think of a single wrestling show that I enjoyed more than El Numero Uno 2003. I mean Genki Horiguchi's run in that tournament was amazing, the finals had so much heat. The Dragon Kid vs Kondo match was loaded with hate. I really think that was the perfectly booked wrestling show despite it being in a flippy company.

I think it depends upon the company's in ring style, card placement, and buildup. All of those impact how much time a match gets. I've seen Volk Han matches that went less than 12 minutes that I'd consider great. But a main event title match that only goes less than 12 minutes in a lot of places is a glorified squash or a non finish to build to the next big show so it all depends.

I think my simple answer would be KENTA vs SUWA from 06 for the GHC Jr Title. For a mid card match, for a secondary title, with less than 1 month's build, that match had a shit load of heat. SUWA did all sorts of old school heel shit in that match. Makes me wonder what they could have achieved with a real feud, with a long build, for a real title, if they were heavyweights. The two Hayato Jr Fujita vs Kanemoto matches.

I watch Rock's show on HBO. That show has taken two or three digs at Vin Diesel that were pretty hilarious.

NOAH has the same problem only worse to the point it's been unwatchable for awhile. Personally I dontbknow how NOAh isn't dead. I mean to me the thing with BJW is they went a long stretch where they were reconditioning their fans as they were changing their product and they were drawing flies and the fans they were drawing were sitting on their hands and that took away from the matches for me. From like March of 2012 to March of 2015 when the Twin Towers came in, the AJPW crew came back, the young kids had gained some experience, etc the product was suffering

A friend of mine whose a life long casual fan described the undertaker the best- he and DX were the guys who when he came on you flipped to Nitro to check what was going on with the nWo simply because you weren't flipping off Austin Rock or Foley

The Strong BJ division is way better now that they have guys like Hideki Suzuki and Shuji Ishikawa to complement Chopmasters, as well as a group of very promising young guys. Definitely agree. Now that Kazuki Hashimoto is returning soon, they have the best Strong BJ roster they've had. They've had an uptick this year, no doubt. but 2012,2013,2014, and a large chunk of 2015 were down periods for the Strong Division as this new crop of guys were greener than goose shit and are just now reaching their own. Guys retired, left, moved, etc., and then it took 3 or 4 years to build the company back up after loosing guys like Sasaki and Sasaki. Plus the biggest problem with Strong BJ right now is that after 7 or 8 years of blugening one another there is diminished returns on every stiff shot, every snug strike gets less of a reaction from fewer people in the crowd than it would have a year before. Their crowds are slightly better this year, but still not good and they aren't reacting to anything.

It didn't look hard way. I didn't spot a blade but it looked like he did it sometime during the whole throwing a filing cabinet and chairs at each other on the floor section of the match