strobogo

Idk seemed like a full match or two in there. I'm not saying that I personally would put him or anyone from that era on my list. I'm just saying I think an argument could be made for him as a clear stand out from his era and significant influence on the development pushing towards modern pro wrestling, and I wouldn't try to argue someone was wrong for having him on their list.

There is a whole lot of Jim Londos in the GWE media. A lot of newsreel clips and also some full matches. You can tell he's a stand out because he's just better than everyone he's in the ring with. His grappling is better. His athleticism is better. His strikes are better. His slams are better. He has more charisma than anyone. Great look and physique.

A real stand out in his era. Appears to be one of the first guys really doing high spots and signature spots/moves. Tremendous athlete. Very charismatic. Obviously a huge draw all over the world, which is pretty impressive considering televisions weren't even common until many years into his career. There is an oversized sample size of him compared to others in the era, but he very clearly is head and shoulders above his opponents from that era.

I will absolutely have Buddy Rogers on my list. I can see an argument for Londos, too, tbh.

Did Buddy Rogers invent King's Road. Note: he follows it up immediately with a brutal head drop (stump piledriver).

There's definitely a ton of no selling in the early days, which I guess makes sense because people don't take time to sell in amateur wrestling or boxing/MMA. The first explicit no selling spot I saw came in the late 30s with a scary exotic heel no selling a series of punches/elbows and then taunting as the face gets scared and crowd ooooohs.

I don't know if that's the reason or not, but I'd have to assume the milage is catching up to him at this point. KO also seems like it's caught up to him but he's still taking crazy bumps all the time.

I don't want to see him go back to Generico, but boy am I sick of scum bag heel Sami.

Because I'm in a bad place I decided I'd gif all the GWE footage. I've completed 1899-1939. Some moves that I was surprised to see were invented before the 1940s: Powerbomb https://photos.app.goo.gl/myAraeBrzfmYNEXf8 DDT, although a lot of them seem to be botched hatch suplexes to be fair https://photos.app.goo.gl/vERngqWF433cAtsi9 A flying head scissors attempt that was damn near a shoot Canadian Destroyer https://photos.app.goo.gl/vr7BUgsFSHUEmmnK8 An early Texas Cloverleaf https://photos.app.goo.gl/e4vaZLqk46WW4n6dA An early sharpshooter/scorpion death lock https://photos.app.goo.gl/A9xcdqA3fn6P21Jz8 Spiderman rope spots https://photos.app.goo.gl/iSPBRNfm3Y8tn4dZA Submission tap outs https://photos.app.goo.gl/92DPKrM8f2Fw6C7x6 Kamigoye https://photos.app.goo.gl/V1wALu65FPy2SM9D8 Oklahoma Stampede https://photos.app.goo.gl/jf3NeP9bH5JoSRgTA The FU/AA https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZZi6smfL3gY6qcXQA The vertical suplex https://photos.app.goo.gl/J8d9LJ2qEe5or5sx9 Neckbreaker https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZFfmpqogCLQDvWcUA Back/rib breaker https://photos.app.goo.gl/mLbDNZXZHdfk9D4d9 Chair spots https://photos.app.goo.gl/mNCNE3tfbXoFhL137 Bombs away/Earthquake Splash, even seen one done on the apron https://photos.app.goo.gl/wMUUhREKP6qQgu5P8 https://photos.app.goo.gl/uEQUweXuVdvFoYAi6 which also led to an accidental shining wizard https://photos.app.goo.gl/TUHCgv3oXxxhQdNv5 Also a frankly unbelievable number of dudes doing dives out of the ring, but always in the context of missing a shoulder tackle. But these mfs absolutely are doing dives and eating absolute shit over and over and over. A very large number of refs getting very physically involved, too.

WWE having Thatcher and Hideki as trainers but then just having people do front rolls for months and months on end

Pedro vs Mulligan from 3/15/71 has one of the dumbest fucking finishes I've ever seen. Mulligan hits a huge back body drop and makes the pin. Pedro very, very, very blatantly taps him to break the pin at 2. Mulligan gets up celebrating despite the ref absolutely crystal clearly not counting to 3. Pedro immediately gets up completely no selling, dropkicks Mulligan from behind and hits a bombs away from the top to win. Like....what lmao

Those Outsiders tags in 1996 and 1997 are real strong, imo

I think Nash is underrated for sure. The last 2-3 years of WCW of pure and absolutely laziness really colors his entire career, but you can go back to even the Oz and Vinnie Vegas days and he was not just a big slug in the ring. There are certainly a lot of guys his size who are a lot, lot, lot worse. His matches with Bret are absolute top tier WWF main events in the 90s, the match with HBK is probably the best match of HBK's entire run as top babyface, all of his matches in WCW though 1997 are real strong to great. His short WWE return wasn't bad, either. His TNA run(s) has a lot of entertaining work. Top 100 all time, probably not. Top 100 big men, absolutely.

Because in a good match, the first 15-20 minutes sets the base for last 15-20. It's not like a NJ main event epic where the first 15-20 minutes literally are just killing time and have no impact whatsoever on the rest of the match either in story or character stuff. In the history of pro wrestling, the vast, vast, vast majority of hour long draws have next to nothing going on story wise for 45+ minutes of the match. I don't really like the idea of matches having everything make 100% logical sense 100% of the time. That's never the case in real combat sports or even non combat sports. Super super super dialed in psychology everything has to make perfect sense makes it harder for me to suspend disbelief.

I've seen a lot of 60 minute matches in my time, but not many that not only stayed hot the entire time, but got hotter and hotter all the way to the finish. And the crowd started off super hot to begin with. Very enjoyable professional wrasslin in the year of our lord 2021.

Lol at Sting finally painting on a new hairline

Bryan is a coward if he doesn't enter BOLA

Have to think they see a lot more value in KO, who has been used as the ultimate utility player on both brands since being called up, working with just about everyone on all levels of the card, versus NXT standouts who Vince probably hasn't worked directly with more than 2 or 3 times.

These mfs no sell everything unless it's the end of a fall though. EDIT: the fuck just saw a spinning powerbomb from 1930 :pop

Are we going to call this a hatch suplex or the first DDT

Okay

If there is such a thing at winning at life, The Rock absolutely won at life

I would find it nearly unthinkable that Vince has ever heard of Billy Corgan or the Smashing Pumpkins

Maybe, but how much of that perception is from her being pretty much the only character on the shows where they explicitly portray her as being the same in "real life"?

It's really impossible to separate Charlotte the character and person more than just about anyone in wrestling in recent years. And her booking has frequently intentionally been used to annoy fans that she gets preferential booking, so it all wraps back in on itself. It's pretty weird, really. Even if you ignore all the times she's lost her cool in the ring and semi-shot on co-workers on live tv.