brockobama

Ah ok, I only saw Sean Ross Sapp posting the two side by side, figured it was meant to be an official company photo.

If people perceive or feel things I don't in a match they must not exist

This works both ways and is way messier than people would care to admit but yeah, on some level the thing I least care about is whether a wrestler is "good" He's definitely joking with that tweet though. Would love to know what that's all about, was it just sheer laziness out of WWE's part or is Triple H not allowed in Titan Towers anymore?

Personally I welcome messageboard drama like this. Healthier (in a sense) and more fun than the open cesspool that is the public forum of social media. Yeah I can't imagine this bubble existing too much longer without it popping. Either the TV revenue craters in another contract cycle or two or WWE burns their remaining fans bad enough (something that I think is fairly unlikely due to how diehard the people left these days are, but who knows what new/returning management does) that this whole thing just falls apart. The foundation has been crumbling for years, as detailed repeatedly throughout this thread. WWE's in a weird spot where they're not large and diverse enough a company to weather the storm of fundamental changes in how people consume media nor are they small enough to get by with a dedicated core fanbase like I imagine AEW will. I doubt the company will truly die off in our lifetime but I can't see it existing at this size for much longer. But enough boring wrestling speculation, let's talk about whether tipsy hookups will get your house raided by the ATF by the end of the decade.

What if I don't want to sound intelligent

Yeah as much as I believe WWE is a racist and possibly antisemitic company, I honestly think this is answer: one person or a group of people, whether it's just somebody in the media department or an actual executive, playing a joke at the company's expense. How many times over the decades have we heard stories about someone being ribbed incessantly, often in televised segments and with long-running gimmicks, simply because it made one of these cretins laugh? With the Gunther stuff especially I think it's probably just some producer or writer or whatever making a comment to some friends and that snowballing into this ongoing farce of name changes and video game ratings. The simplest, stupidest answer. Obviously there's something to be said about how these "innocent jokes" function as dogwhistles but that's not a discussion I think we ought to be having here, really. Also for what it's worth there were absolutely tweets pointing out the use of the Auschwitz footage the day it aired, four days before the memorial ever made mention of it. This was not a case of a business trumping up some unknown controversy to drive ticket sales.

Meant to ask this months ago and totally forgot: was there a consensus take on Matysik's Bruiser Brody book? Really enjoy Matysik on old mid-2000s WOR and am always a little surprised by how close he apparently was to Brody. Normally I wouldn't be interested in a hagiography but coming from a polar opposite who was nonetheless one of the guy's best friends maybe I'd find the time. Looking forward to reading that Abe Riesman book. Some of the screenshots I've seen have me worried but excited either way.

I put my full faith in the virtuous and commendable American judicial system. They'll sort this all out, yessir.

I think Sunday proved wrestling only has one royal family

Actually prefer Chono after the injuries, when he taps into that charisma and learns to get the most out of big boots and so on. Even beyond the cool persona he's more expressive in general, with the emotion of his G1 finals against Takayama and Fujita blowing the flat workrate "classic" of '91 out of the water. That said he's not making my list either way. Like him plenty but not more than 100 other people.

He should really do one

Very much of two minds about Roman. Absolutely would not have voted for him last time around but he won me over in a big way in 2017, slowly improving his case for me. Warts and all I believe he's been doing his best work during this endless title reign since the pandemic started, being that I'm relatively down on the Shield run. I think he's been one of the better wrestlers in the world these last few years but 1. it comes at a time when there's very little serious competition in my eyes and 2. has also produced some of the most discursive, disappointing wrestling we've ever seen. In terms of skill and quality matches, I think I'd easily find a place for him in the 90-100 range if not for the absolute muck so much of his career is mired in. We'll see how the next few years go I guess.

Came here to laugh about Cody so I'm seconding his nomination, let me shitpost plz

Has any more pre-84 stuff popped up in the last few years? Love Fujiwara to death and will have him fairly high on my list but I hesitate to put someone in the top 20 or so without having a better grasp of what the first 10+ years of their career was like.

Was always curious how the Detroit territory came to encompass Buffalo and Cleveland, love that this piece managed to clear that up. Keep up the good work Cameren!

Was this why he didn't get picked up by WWF in 2001 along with that first batch of WCW guys? Was talking to a friend about this the other day, it's very odd to me that they didn't see the potential in him. Or was it that Rey wanted to go back to Mexico for a while?

Wrestling wasn't meant to be enjoyed, much less something like this.

Bummed that podcasts sorta supplanted the shoot interview format, especially the Kayfabe Commentaries crew. You can cast a wider net with podcasts of course, with more voices in the mix and stories you might not get with a two hour video, but with rare exception I find them far less informative and far less charming than a good sit-down with Sean Oliver. In particular I feel that podcast hosts are far less likely to push back against a bit of bullshit or hearsay, which Sean's great at. On a different note, also bummed that recent-ish events have soured Sammy Guevara in practically everyone's eyes. Ever since I first saw him I thought the guy was a great midcard shithead heel and I thought he really proved his worth by being quietly one of AEW's most reliable performers in 2020 between the big Darby match, Stadium Stampede, and the extended Matt Hardy feud. Hate that a disastrous, ill-conceived babyface run last year and all the drama since then has made people overlook that. No idea where he goes from here, whether in AEW or otherwise, and that's a shame because wrestling needs people who you want to punch in the mouth.

Very well said. Don't have it in me now to do the big writeup I think Inoki deserves but in the wake of his passing I've found myself thinking similar thoughts, wishing that the struggle and the emotion at the core of Inoki's work was more widespread today. The last few mockups I've done had the man landing somewhere in the teens and I don't see any reason why that'll change.

Would love to hear more about this, yeah

I'll say that the IWGP title match with Sasaki is really bad, maybe the worst of its era, because Nishimura tries so hard to leave his own wheelhouse and adapt to a faster paced, high impact style with tepid, repetitive results. Still, Nishimura rules and I'll wholeheartedly support anyone making a spot for him on their list. And yeah Mike Awesome is so overrated. Was gifted big matches with some of the greatest bump dummies ever and looked like a fraction of the man in every other match without them. No dawg in him.

Rising: "Cartoon wrestling": In some ways I've always been a sucker for colorful, kid-friendly wrestling but as my tastes have changed since the last GWE these sorts of figures are shooting up more and more. Did a big writeup on Hacksaw Jim Duggan, a guy I'd never have dreamt of considering a few years ago and who will definitely make my list now. Two of his great rivals, Andre the Giant and Randy Savage, were already going to make it but will get a boost in no small part due to this kind of work. Have always had Gran Naniwa penciled in for a vanity 100 but more and more that seems like a lock. Jim Breaks: Of all the WOS wrestlers who may end up on my list Breaks feels like the most likely, as well as the one likeliest to rise higher than the back half. The crybaby heel shtick is more of that sweet, sweet cartoon wrestling but moreover of anyone from that scene he feels like the one who's had the longest impact, whose influence I can trace directly to the present day. Sure, plenty of dorks will do the Lady of the Lake or whatever but that's plucking one wacky move out of a guy's arsenal and throwing it into an otherwise unrelated match. I think it reflects far better on Breaks that one of the two biggest British stars of the last decade has wholesale lifted his entire routine much to the amazement of American indie and NJPW audiences. William Regal: Another of the great cartoon wrestlers. In particular I've been really impressed by how much genuine heart he brings to the Eugene angle/team in '04/'05 WWE, making the best of a bizarre gimmick after over a year on the shelf. Having settled on the Ambrose rematch as the best match of the 2010s (along with the Cesaro match making the top ten) has also raised his stock tremendously for me, capping off a career of delightful midcard work with some incredible main event melodrama. It's not gonna raise him to the top 10 or anything but he was teetering on the edge of the list and now has firm footing somewhere in the amorphous middle. I'll also echo Randy Orton as a guy making a case as a borderline candidate. Straight up loved his big 2020 matches and have really enjoyed that brief post-Evolution babyface run. Falling: Dick Togo: Still enjoy his classic tag work plenty but every time I've gone back to watch an old Togo singles match over the last few years I've come away thinking it was borderline awful. Dry, directionless, overindulgent, catering to lesser opponents in all the worst ways. Even the famous retirement run in DDT left a bad taste in my mouth. I'd love to rank the guy for his strong work anchoring many of my favorite tag matches but I can easily find 100 wrestlers who don't stink when left to their own devices. Need to revisit some things but right now it feels like a long shot. Claudio Castagnoli/Cesaro: Still grappling with this one. Definitely a great wrestler who I've loved for as long as I've loved wrestling but one who never feels like he belongs, listed next to my obvious locks and probable picks. Part of that's due to how he'd disappear into the WWE morass for years at a time, part of that's due to his relative lack of charisma compared to just about every other candidate I like, but mostly I just think it's the difference between a skilled worker and that next level of achievement. Doesn't help that I like him way more against lesser wrestlers than people on his level or higher. Ric Flair: Haven't soured on his work at all, this is more a function of having a conversation that made me realize there's no way he's making my top 20 based on how many people I'd gladly list ahead of him. Not sure where he ends up but the mental math isn't shaking out well for ol' Naitch.

Man had a nice ass, it's true

I think it very much depends. The weather is obviously one concern but it goes further than just temperature and precipitation, as wind can be an issue both in the ring and especially the higher up you go. Nothing worse than gale force winds drowning out what little sound you could be hearing up in the cheap seats. Visibility is also a factor beyond a certain point, as it is in huge indoor arenas too. I remember having difficulty following the ball when I used to work Purdue home games and Ross-Ade isn't particularly big as far as college football stadiums are concerned. I sort of can't imagine what it's like for the top few levels of a WrestleMania crowd. That's another thing, the nature of the crowd. You get a big enough group of people together and there's real volatility in terms of interests and responses. How many times have we seen perfectly enjoyable matches on Mania undercards or Dome shows that got no reaction because 40,000 people were just there for the main event? (Or the spectacle of the event itself, a whole other can of worms.) The outdoor setting only worsens this, as the sound going straight up even more than in an indoor arena makes it harder for disinterested fans to get into a match because of the reaction of others around them. You can win over a huge indoor crowd but it seems damn near impossible to win over a huge outdoor audience. Also there's an added level of unpredictability with an outdoor show. Very easy for the production crew to cut from one shot to another only for a wrestler to shift slightly in the ring and suddenly the full force of the sun is shining into the camera. Same goes for the wind suddenly blowing someone's hair in their face at a key moment. The weather shifting on a minute to minute basis can be a real nightmare and does impact the viewing experience to some degree, at least with some shows. I don't mind when cloud coverage is a factor in the Zona23 junkyard but when the color temperature of the image on an overly-polished WWE show changes suddenly it feels real weird, throws the entire aesthetic off. And that's my last point, that the aesthetics of an outdoor venue itself can make or break a show. I love when AEW runs Daily's Place because it looks incredible but I find Raymond James Stadium bland on the inside and ugly on the outside. The appearance of the arena is all the more noticeable when you're running in broad daylight. So yeah, it depends. There are outdoor shows I like and a lot that I would've preferred to stay indoors. If you can get all the little nuances right it makes for magic but it's real hard and not entirely in your hands.

Had no luck looking around for it a few weeks back but I figured I'd ask here on the anniversary of his death: is there footage of that Brian Hildebrand/Mark Curtis benefit show from '99 floating around somewhere, preferably on the internet?