strobogo

If Gargano comes to AEW, I think he should get somehow even tighter jeans

Sting the absolute king

I think anyone should be able to put anyone if they can justify it to themselves, but I don't make the rules, just the gifs. The line of thinking of "the footage is probably the best footage of them" and therefore it isn't fair to judge on that makes no sense to me as that would disqualify a ton of 70s and 80s dudes. Ideally, I would think most people are going to vote based on a subject's best work by default, no?

TUE vs The Elite will probably be pretty cool one day down the line when Kenny comes back

Londos spinning slam go brrr

Putting together a match means sometimes vastly different things in different eras, though. You can't hold talents from different eras to the same standards of how they put a match together. A match in the 20s/30s has a much different structure than the 50s, which is different from the 70s, which is different from the 80s, and so on and so on. Not to mention different areas and territories had different styles even before the territory system was really firmly established. Wrestling in Chicago was different from wrestling in New York City was different from wrestling in LA even in the 1930s-1950s.

I think you can extrapolate from a few clips and minimal footage of a pro wrestler. You can definitely tell when a dude is complete dogshit from a handful of clips, I think you can tell when someone is a great talent just the same. People are going to be voting for guys that are clearly terrible but they like them for whatever reason

If 3 full matches is the criteria, then I suppose an argument can't be made after all

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