strobogo

This is exactly how I'd sum him up as well, and while my hatred of all things Michael Hayes makes me hold their association against Gordy, I actually think I find him more engaging in America even often with lesser talent. I think he was a guy who really vibed off the crowd energy and so a couple hundred rabid rednecks got him more amped up than 10-13k of engaged but not ravenous Japanese people.

I lol every time at how weak Tenryu's powerbomb looks in the 80s. But each year it gets a little stiffer or at least not as hilariously gentle. His shoulder breaker he was doing for much of the same time in the early to mid 80s looks far more brutal. He takes quite a while to really start to find himself, which is kind of interesting considering his longevity and also how quickly someone like Jumbo go it. Even deep into the 80s, Tenryu from time to time seems completely lost and hesitant but also it doesn't matter at all. That's a major point in his favor because most wrestlers you'd really dock heavily for stuff like that but no one seems to mind at all with Tenryu.

I don't know about this. Certainly not Sting post Bladerunners when he dropped some of the bulk. I would also probably argue that Nikita seemed like he had more potential and skills to be great right from the start and also delivered on it more than Goldberg, but much different eras and working styles. Although I believe Nikita was Goldberg's main inspiration. I really don't think Goldberg could have been much better than what he was. In WWE, he was working with better talent in longer matches with a style that required more than just smashing dudes in 90 seconds and never comes off as any better in the ring than he was in WCW. But honestly I don't know why you'd want more out of him than that. I also don't really want to see 10-15 minute Road Warriors or Warrior matches outside of a couple of pretty specific matches and circumstances. Or Barbarian/Meng. But I do like seeing them just annihilate dudes. Goldberg definitely could have been in some more great matches if he worked more with guys who were willing to put more thought and effort into the lay out like DDP in the same way that Warrior could be carried to some real classics if they lay out and opponents were right (I think Goldberg was better than Warrior at just about everything in the ring, though). Goldberg is an all timer for being able to project his character and aura into everything he did physically, which quite often is more important than anything else.

I think that particular spot in the EC was because her arm was actually injured from the Ronda match and she couldn't actually apply the hold normally. But yeah I fully agree with her making memorable moments in big matches that stick with people in a way that really very very few can.

I also don't believe there would be any heat on Charlotte for anything nor any chance of her leaving

I've actually seen more of his AJPW work than FMW work and he was a real solid guy in the ring before the injury. Basically all the things that have been mentioned about his deathmatch work, but applied to junior heavyweight wrestling. I would imagine the junior scene in AJPW would have been wildly different in the 80s had Onita not suffered what appeared to be a complete freak and stupid injury. After Onita's injury, the title is barely defended. Chavo has a nearly 300 day reign with 4 defenses, Mighty Inoue has a 468 day reign with 6 defenses and I've seen all these matches with him and had no clue he was even a title holder during this period. It's briefly part of the Kobayashi vs Tiger Mask feud and as soon as Misawa Mask wins it, he has all of 1 defense before the title quietly goes dormant and is replaced with a non NWA affiliated championship about 9 months later. I will say I watched the Funk/Onita barbed wire match after the Mox/Omega one and was actually offended at how they directly just redid 90% of that match including the post match stuff but every single thing they did was worse than what Funk/Onita did in 1993.

Bro, Regis interviewing Tenryu at Wrestlemania is an all timer "wtf that happened?" moment in wrestling

The real cynicism is how many of these wrestlers actually have personal relationships with Meltzer and will use him to leak out shit they want leaked out but then make a public show against him when they feel it works for whatever narrative at the time. Also, jeez how does anyone listen to the radio show? Dave's bumbling, mumbling, stumbling, and ums and uhs, and inability to finish a thought before jumping to 7 other things will turn your brain to mush in just a few minutes.

Remarkably talented at such a young age, but the way NXT UK is presented and booked, he might be in a limbo of only getting to show it off 2-3 times a year for the next few years. He's a guy that definitely would be well served to go on a worldwide tour for a couple of years, picking up influences and styles from all around to blend into his own style. And since he's young enough, he could do that and be back in WWE before he's even 30 as a completely well rounded talent and be able to go beyond the UK or even US NXT.

Oh I love Goldberg. But not as a slow old man. The come back matches with Brock were a perfect return and send off, though. Everything else has been a bummer. But I could probably put Goldberg in my 100 just based on how rad his squashes were in 1998 and the Halloween Havoc match with DDP.

Goldberg is not the type of character or wrestler where an old man back for one last run works at all for me. He was all about being this freakishly strong huge jacked up high intensity high impact guy smashing guys, but coming back in his mid 50s, being smaller and public about how hard and miserable it is to get into "Goldberg shape", being slow, and all of his moves looking like shit, even having to change to board shorts to hide his old man legs as he likely isn't doing heavy squats or deads anymore....shit is a bummer.

Goldberg squashing KO/Dolph/Fiend in seconds, or the 2 minute losing matches to Braun and Drew were awesome to you? It's not like physical prime Goldberg smashing jobbers and cruiserweights. It's mid 50s Goldberg getting less muscular and more flabby each appearance, struggling to hit his moves, which is definitely not awesome or fun to me.

I would hope they don't do another Page/Omega match until they can get out of Daly's Place. I feel like they can do some Hangman is too anxious and turns down a title match to stretch this thing out until they can tour again.

Gotta lotta love for random SWS/WAR shows

It's only 34000 matches bro what's the big deal

Thinking about going through the cagematch match guide and watching what is the most easily found that I either haven't seen or haven't seen in long enough to not really remember the details

Ok. 1984 to 1989. Also 1990. And 1991. And 1992. And 1993. Every year is great if you have the right attitude. But I have a bad attitude and I'm going to say whatever the Guest Host Raw era was was dreadful worldwide, too.

I feel like the greatest eras have to be 1984-1988 and like 1996-1998, globally each time.

Ted is too good to not have more great matches to his record. It's kind of weird. He does everything right, he's very good to great at everything he does, he worked with some of the greats in the US and Japan, but I can't think of many or any truly great DiBiase matches. I think his character work outshines his ring work especially in America, both in Mid South and as the Million Dollar Man. He has what feels to be 50 matches against Tenryu and I have no idea why Baba kept booking it because they had next to no chemistry. The Hansen/DiBiase team was probably more consistently solid than Hansen/Brody, but he certainly did not bring anything extra out of Hansen like Brody did. I think the matches of his I enjoy the most are Mega Powers vs DiBiase/Andre at Summerslam 1988, Macho vs DiBiase at the SNME right before WM 4 where they basically did the entire WM match but it was much better than it was at WM, a Bret vs Ted in 1991 at MSG, and a whole gang of real fun stuff on Mid South TV in 82/83.

I feel like pretty much all NWA champs that I've seen from Thesz/Dory/Harley/Terry/Flair all probably gave too much to their opponents. Brisco, too, in the few NWA Championship matches I've seen with him. I suppose that's because they're almost always in the role of a heel or heelish going up against whatever territory's top face.

When I was a youngster, god damn did Harley bore me. Thought this dude could not have been more boring and ancient as a manager in WCW and anytime I'd see old matches I couldn't believe how slow and boring he was at everything. Of course I was a dumb kid. Harley rules. There are so many small things he did so perfectly. Like his knee drops. Those things look fucking brutal every time. Much, much more violent and brutal but also simpler than the Flair/HHH roll through type. Also the classic 70s style punch through/off your chest that looks like a million bucks every time. But the thing that has really stood out to me over the past few years is that dude took the flattest back bumps possible damn near every time, for every bump, for every opponent, on every move. It's almost like magic. It's almost cat like, except for landing completely flat on your back. It's really just fascinating to me for whatever reason. I also see now that he was basically the Kurt Angle of his time in terms of GO GO GO borderline spotfests, and also Flair took most of his spots for himself. I've seen a lot of good-great Harley matches in the past 4-5 years. Really enjoy his work now and he'll definitely get a spot somewhere on my list.

Good point

Yeah definitely lucha brawls are the vast bulk of lucha I've liked, but also some of the weirdo technical stuff and guys like El Canek/Dos Caras in Japan in the 70s/80s, and of course the WCW cruiser crew. It also could be most full lucha shows I've seen are AAA shows and they're the either absolutely horrible or hilariously sloppy in ring and production wise. I've liked a lot of lucha guys doing good lucha things outside of lucha. It's definitely a big blind spot for me.

I left out the second part I meant to type out which was that it's such a broad scope that it could include every type of wrestling, including lucha.

I don't need stuff to look "real", but I do need things to feel like a real contest and struggle as opposed to holding hands doing stunts, which is why I've never given lucha a fair shake because every time I do tune in, it's the most messy and choreographed nonsense and I hate it. Which is certainly not to say I haven't seen good lucha matches or great lucha guys.