Scarlet-Left

Much obliged... then, I officially nominate her.

You're right... fixed.

I've been looking over the nomination index and I don't see Kana on there (could just be missing it). I'd assumed with her recent NXT stuff she'd have forced her way onto someone's ballot or, at least, into consideration. Meltzer's "may be the best worker in WWE, man or woman" line has got to carry some weight, surely. There're plenty of rated matches with her in this post, but I'm struggling to find full write-ups. I'll have to find time to do it myself if there aren't any/enough.

I've always liked Owen. Interestingly, he was my favourite wrestler before I knew anything about wrestling. He was a usual pick whenever I would play 'WWF War Zone' on the PS1. Most recently, I remember being really impressed with his colour commentary at 'King of the Ring' in 1996 when I went back and watched it again. He improvised really well and knew exactly what his role was; he didn't just try to get himself over or Davey over. He even puts Goldust over, since he's a heel and that's what heels do on commentary. Excellent.

Yes, I got that wrong. It was the second one. Summer Slam '95.

I've just gone through the thread. Here are my results (I could be a little off)... Rick Rude Dino Bravo Greg Valentine Ron Garvin Curt Hennig Brian Pillman Paul Orndorff Roddy Piper Rick Martel Barry Windham Mike Rotunda Steve Keirn Tito Santana Butch Reed Mike Enos Wayne Bloom Ted DiBiase Koko B. Ware Dory Funk, Jr. Haku Harley Race Tom Zenk Tommy Rich Hulk Hogan ... all answered on page one. Kurt Angle Keji Mutoh Shawn Michaels Shane Douglas Rick Steiner Dean Malenko Mistico Taz Kevin Nash Scott Hall King Kong Bundy Sid Justice Raven ... all answered on page two. Road Dogg Billy Gunn Sean Waltman Chyna Edge Randy Orton Brian Lee Chris Candido The Blu Brothers The Sandman Rocco Rock New Jack Tim Horner Balls Mahoney Nightstalker The Barbarian ... all answered on page three. Hiromichi Fuyuki Manabu Nakanishi That 70s Guy Virgil Kendall Windham Scott Norton Reckless Youth The Amazing Red Trent Acid Sting Lex Luger British Bulldog Owen Hart ... all answered on page six. Big John Studd Hercules Hernandez Junkyard Dog Bad News Brown The Warlord Jim Neidhart Brian Knobbs Jerry Saggs The Man With No Face Adam Bomb Yokozuna Ahmed Johnson Rikishi Ken Shamrock Thurman "Sparky" Plugg The Godfather Test Kane Charlie Haas D-Von Dudley Shelton Benjamin Rob Van Dam Mr Anderson Johnny Nitro Kofi Kingston Jack Swagger Ezekiel Jackson George Steele Barry Horowitz Manny Fernandez The Repo Man Tatanka Cw Anderson Perry Saturn Tom Zenk Al Snow Dave Taylor Paul Burchill Van Hammer Jimmy Del Rey Tony Mamaluke Damien 666 ... all answered on page seven. K-Kwik Terry Taylor Plowboy Frazier Greg Gagne John Nord Ted DiBiase, Jr. Cody Rhodes Chavo Guerrero, Jr. Harry Smith Aldo Montoya Tony St. Clair Mark Rocco Steve Wright Cien Caras Canek Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. Blue Demon, Jr. Nobuhiko Takada Minoru Suzuki Minoru Tanaka Koji Kanemoto Dick Vriji ... all answered on page eight. Nightmare Danny Davis Jeff Gaylord Billy Joe Travis Ian Rotten Reggie B Fine Miss Texas ... all answered on page ten. Otto Wanz Akeem the African Dream Bruiser Brody Carl Oulette Buff Bagwell Nickolai Volkoff David Flair Wahoo McDaniel Rhyno The Dingo Warrior Leo Burke Stevie Ray Mongo Sam Houston Tom Brandi JT Smith George South ... all answered on page eleven. Angelo Mosca, Jr. Lance Von Erich Savannah Jack Norman the Lunatic Jake Milliman Buck Zomhofe Ron Bass Firebreaker Chip Rene Goulet ... all answered on page twelve. Santino Marella Vladimir Kozlov Kid Kash Roderick Strong Jack Evans Alex Shelley Jimmy Garvin Robbie Eagle Lance Storm Devon Storm 911 The Blue Meanie Colonel Mustafa ... all answered on page thirteen. The Mountie Raymond Rougeau Brian B. Blair EZ Money Jinsei Shinzaki Maxx Payne Bob Armstrong Steven Casey DJ Peterson Ricky Rice Al Madril Buck Robley Mark Starr ... all answered on page fourteen. JT Southern Soldat Ustinov The Russian Brute Tommy Jammer Mitch Snow Davey Richards Eddie Edwards ... all answered on page fifteen. Goldberg Ray Traylor Scott Steiner Paul Roma Mike Von Erich Jeff Jarrett Booker T Rad Radford Ernest Miller Mikey Whipwreck Jerry Flynn ... all answered on page sixteen. Montel Vontavious Porter Seth Rollins Scotty 2 Hotty Chuck Palumbo Kendo Nagasaki Jay Strongbow Shane McMahon Nikki Bella Alberto Del Rio Dolph Ziggler Sasha Banks The Ascension Road Warrior Hawk Bob Brown WING Kanemura Power Uti Steve Simpson Tugboat Bob Backlund Billy Graham Jimmy Snuka Bill Watts Erik Watts Bob Orton, Jr. Mr. Hughes Billy Kidman Chris Kanyon Jay Lethal Sonjay Dutt Douglas Williams Ray Lloyd D'Lo Brown Rocky Romero Bruno Sammartino Bradsahaw Hiroshi Tanahashi Sabu Batista The Young Bucks Road Warrior Animal ... all left unanswered.

I largely agree, it's just interesting to think about. As per my third question, it's impossible to know certain details for sure. With a lot of guys, though, especially from the Eighties and later, there's usually enough footage to distinguish between guys who could be manipulated by a booker (or road agent) into a good match and guys who could get there by themselves.

Has anyone else tried the '1970' mod for the previous version? I love the idea of it but I can't get even a single year booked without burning out or getting too frustrated that talent I've been cultivating keeps getting poached.

This is inspired by the passage in Bret Hart's book where he talks about his experience with Flair. Supposedly, Flair liked the old style of calling the action in the ring, whereas Hart liked to have things planned out ahead of time. It then feeds into his match with Bulldog at Summer Slam which, if you listen to any of his lengthier shoots, Bret almost always brings up as "the only match where you see me calling spots" (or some such similar phrasing). In my mind, that logically raises two different questions (and a third one, indirectly): 1. Do you consider crafting and scripting a match before hand to be more, or less, impressive than calling it in the ring? 2. Would it affect your rating of a worker if you knew that a lot of his better matches were called or scripted by another person (say, a road agent, or his opponent)? For example, I remember reading that Hunter had a lot of input on the second HBK/Razor ladder match. 3. If a tree falls and no one hears it, does it make a sound? (Meaning; how far would you be willing to go, if at all, with your suspicion that a certain worker's best matches were heavily choreographed by someone else?) These questions may have come up in other threads, so I'm sorry if this is an unoriginal discussion. In fact, it would probably heavily intersect with any debate on workers who could be carried to good matches, but couldn't put them on autonomously.

Isn't there? It's very short but there's this:

I don't know if this frowned upon, or not, but I'm also factoring in his stuff with Stevens. Edit: It was Blonde Bombers footage that first turned me onto him. Yes, I've noticed that myself. That said, I'm happy with it. As it gets down to the time, there're probably some guys I'll have to really scrutinise.

These are for fun... but a little contrived: The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, the British Bulldog, Owen Hart and Brian Pillman) versus the Varsity Club (Kevin Sullivan, Mike Rotunda, Steve Williams, Rick Steiner and Dan Spivey) Team AWA (Curt Hennig, Nick Bockwinkel, Rick Martel, Scott Hall and Shawn Michaels) versus Team NWA (Ric Flair, Lex Luger, the Great Muta, Arn Anderson and Sting) Kings of the Ring (Harley Race, Bret Hart, Randy Savage, Steve Austin and Kurt Angle) versus the Masked Monstrosities (Mankind, Vader, Kane and [the team of] Doom) Here's something, semi-serious, I've got planned (not there yet, so may change) for Survivor Series 1996 (in TEW 2013): Team WWF (Bret Hart, the British Bulldog, Steve Austin and the Thrillseekers) versus Team AWA (Curt Hennig, Rick Martel, Shawn Michaels, Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee)

He gets a boost based on how entertaining I find him despite his physique (same with Race and, to a lesser extent, Sullivan). Hennig and Luger get a hand-up, in that regard. Does that make sense?

My locked-in top five are; Bret Hart, Ric Flair, Curt Hennig, Harley Race and Pat Patterson (though not, necessarily, in that order). My locked-in "somewhere on the list" workers are; Roddy Piper, Lex Luger, Tully Blanchard, Shinobu Kandori, Owen Hart, Terry Funk, Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Undertaker, Terry Taylor, Kana, Lance Storm, AJ Styles and Buddy Landell. My "probably on the list" workers are; Ted Dibiase, Mike Rotunda, Greg Valentine, Sasha Banks, Chris Benoit, Ron Simmons, Steve Keirn, Nick Bockwinkel, Madusa Micelli, Scott Hall and Kevin Sullivan. My "should put on the list but won't" workers are; Shawn Michaels, Hulk Hogan, Sean Waltman and Jimmy Valiant.

My biggest problem is probably with the nominees. I've got a core of about sixty guys and it's just about ordering them fairly, but I've got a lot of Japanese women (I'm a bigger fan of Joshi than most, it seems) who will probably end up being turfed off my ballot since they haven't been nominated. I'll nominate a few of them myself if I think it's too much of a crying shame to leave them off. This is my top-tier of guys (not in order): I'm having some trouble ranking the others on my list because, at some point, it becomes fairly arbitrary. What's really keeping my 58 over my 63, for instance? The post-20 part of my list, actually, looks a little weird the more I mull over it. It's because of my tastes, I think, which are JCP (and early WCW), New Generation Era WWF, Modern Joshi, 2005-2009 TNA, NXT and a dash of "random matches I've found online". Who's better, Steve Keirn or Io Shirai?

He speaks well enough of him in his book and there's a nice photo of him with Bret's (then) wife and kids. That's besides the point, of course.

I don't know how active I'll be, since I've got a lot of studying to do over the Christmas break, but I though I might as well make an introductory post either way. I'm fairly young so my first real introduction to wrestling was in the early 2000s. I remember once "borrowing" a book from my infants school library, which I still have to this day, and it was a UK version of the WCW annual from the year 2000. After that, I remember a demo of one of the early 'Smackdown!' games coming on one of the massive load of demo discs my uncle had given me for my PS1. There were only four playable characters and me and my friend both wanted to play as 'the Undertaker' so we decided that, to be fair, neither of us would; I picked 'the Rock' and he picked Steve Austin. I also have vague memories of watching the 'WWE Experience' when we first got cable (we never had sky), and my mother bought me a pencil case to take to primary school which she decorated in felt-tip with the words 'the Undertaker' and either '14-0' or '15-0' (can't remember which). I can then remember two live experiences which came in quick succession, a local indie promotion came to my town (they promised they'd come again, but they never did) and I remember rooting for 'Lionheart' even though everyone else was booing (which I couldn't understand, since I had basically zero knowledge of any of the wrestlers). Then, after that, I remember seeing a wrestling show at Butlin's which featured American and British indie guys and an inter-gender (one mixed team against the heel team of just guys) tag-team match which I remember enjoying. After that, I remember getting into TNA from 2007 to about 2010, which I really enjoyed, especially since it was such a new experience for me to be able to regularly see full-length matches and storylines play out (TNA aired their PPVs for free in the UK). AJ Styles really stood out to me and became my favourite pretty quickly. Then there was a lull period after I'd moved to a different town, where I barely watched any wrestling at all. That all changed when I decided to watch the Royal Rumble in 2013 (I already knew the roster since I'd never stopped playing the games, usually getting a new one every Christmas). That solidified me as a fan, and I would spend hours tracking down and watching whatever I could find on the internet (matches, reviews, interviews, etcetera). Then, after a surgery on my foot this October kept me house-bound for about a week, I decided to get a subscription to the Network and my interest has increased exponentially. I would watch a different 'Starrcade' everyday for that entire period. Since then, I've discovered a podcast called 'Where the Big Boys' and am up to Clash of Champions 7. Favourite Wrestlers (in no particular order): Harley Race Bret Hart Ric Flair Pat Patterson Chris Jericho Lance Storm Goldust AJ Styles Nikki Roxx Chris Benoit William Regal Kurt Angle Gail Kim Buddy Landel Austin Aries Terry Taylor The Undertaker