MichaelZ

This match was really well put together with a lot of disparate elements: brawling, technique, and detestable acts. Garvin and Flair went after each other with gusto and it made for a compelling 30 minutes.

I gave this match a try and I share the negative view. It felt like they were going through the motions and nothing was making sense. I do think Baba was the better of the two. But I would not recommend watching.

The matwork is strong here, but when things get heated this match takes off. Go seemed like he really wanted to win when he went after Fujinami’s leg and applied the figure 4. The tumble outside on the abdominal stretch felt like a big spot and then they went to war first brawling on the outside and then with high impact moves with a great sense of urgency. I am really digging late-70s Fujinami and am curious to see where this pairing goes from here.

I try to stay positive and everything Roman is involved in is great but Smackdown is otherwise rough and WWE can’t get out of their own way. Crews and Owens may have been having a decent enough match but the camerawork was so brutal it was hard to tell. The linguistic quirks may be getting worse. One of the Mysterios got “out of harms way” 3 times in about 45 seconds. Maybe we get Roman and Rey at Hell in the Cell?

The matches I’ve seen where she is La Galactica against Jaguar are amazing. Jaguar is an all-time great but Surena is hanging with her and doing impressive work, it’s a great feud. I’d be interested in the Lola match for sure and would like to see if there is a case here.

Valentine has been rising in my estimation. The matches and feuds with Wahoo, Piper, Tito, and Garvin are all great and well-regarded for good reason. I haven't watched the Backlund matches but I am sure that is a stong feud as well. Some supplemental pieces I've seen make his case more well-rounded and corrected some assumptions and misconceptions of mine. - He and Fujinami made a more natural pairing than I had expected. It made me think that Valentine could make it work against a wider variety opponents than I would have thought otherwise. Valentine vs anyone feels like a dream match - He changed his style just a bit and was effective as a babyface before he left mid-atlantic, and the praise for his work against Slater is in line with my feelings. - I thought of the Garvin feud as a last hurrah of sorts, but the next year his cage match against Carlos Colon showed he still had more to give. I am excited to watch more Hammer going forward and expect him to do well.

I was excited when I saw this matchup happened and it lived up to expectations. Fujinami is really versatile, combining matwork, highspots, and some fired up brawling. Valentine brings limbwork and stiffness. I thought there could be a clash in styles but they seemed suited to each other and this seems like it could have been a great rivalry.

I always had a soft spot for Larry. All time great vocal seller and trash talker and a master at heating up feuds and getting the crowd worked up. His team with Arn is one of my favorite short-term teams.

A lot of current WWE is the dregs, but I want to echo the praise for Rey's work vs. Ziggler and Roode at Backlash. I couldn't believe he got me to care about that match and is a worthy addition to his resume.

I can't add much to KB8s insightful, detailed review, so I will just say that this was short, sweet, and had a lot of elements of why I love wrestling. They went after each other in a way that captured my interest and had me on the edge of me seat for what would happen next. And what would happen next was almost always awesome. Tenryu's offense looked painful and his sell at the end of the match was one for the ages. Great bit of work here.

You can be the biggest shack of shit in the world and Dick Murdoch is getting something fun out of you. And if you're not it might be something special. I'm takin that match with Afa with me to the moon; everything on that list is amazing.

Boricua did an amazing job at the watch party. Everyone should check out some Colon. And some Ron Starr and Herules Ayala as well.

I probably have a lot more liquidity than many of you, but I'll give this a shot. In no particular order: Current Top 10 Ric Flair Terry Funk Stan Hansen Jerry Lawler Akira Hokuto Kenta Kobashi Bull Nakano Jim Breaks Tenryu Jaguar Knocking on the Door Bockwinkel Chigusa Nagayo Dick Murdoch Need to See More I want to watch more of many of the people listed above. I also need to see more of Fujiwara, Hashimoto, Fujinami, and all of the touted lucha candidates. Good thing I have 5 years! That top 10 is going to be tough to crack though the more I look at it. What do I want to see out of a top 10 candidate I want to feel an emotional investment when I am watching their best matches and I want to be entertained no matter what. I want them to be true to themselves and for the stories to make sense. I appreciate when they bring out the best of whoever they are facing. I am struggling about how to rank foxes vs hedgehogs. I don't want Jim Breaks to be anybody but the Jim Breaks I know. I can't penalize him for being who he is not. As it's been said, Terry Funk can be an all time face and an all time heel; but he is always Terry Funk and that's what makes it work. I guess I am concerned that weighting versatility too strongly is tipping the scales in a way that is opportunity-based or inherently unfair. But we reach this level, it seems like a tiebreaker we can rely on, and it tough to think of others that are meaningful at the moment.

Thanks for the recs and links! I did see and enjoy one of those tags at some point, and I liked that as well, so I am looking forward to checking these out.

I watched the 5/26/2000 match vs Kobashi while I was on the bike this morning and I was really impressed. Great heeling it up with the attack before the belll and the cocky covers, and then targeted limb work, and finally some really good staggering selling. I got a sense of his character right away and everything had a purpose. And then after that a match vs KENTA popped up and I really enjoyed watching Takayama toss him around. I didn't notice the date, but it was exactly what I would have wanted. I'm excited to check out some of the recs above. And I have only seen a handful of Anjoh as well, but that sounds like the most enjoyably dislikable team possible.

I've watched some of the recommended Steve Grey this week and he is a great, well-rounded babyface. Great limb selling, great selling when he is victimized by cheating, fired-up comebacks with memorable payback spots, sprinkles in some comedy, and he comes across as a good guy. He seems equally adept in technical match-ups as he is against dastardly heels. I'm looking forward to watching more and expecting him to do quite well.

His match against Le Petit Prince had me wanting to see more. The athleticism that I was used to from other Prince matches was there, but Sanniez a little bit of roughness and fire to the match to get you a little bit more emotionally invested.

I had to leave the watch party early yesterday, but was wondering what people thought of what they saw yesterday and about Virus as a candidate. The first match impressed me for sure.

I get a huge kick out of Ladd being such a sneak even thought he is physically imposing and had a rep as an athlete. I don't know if he ends up in the top 100, but he feels special when you watch him and gives you something to remember him by. I especially like his match against Backlund.

Lawler's matches simultaneously contain touches that reveal forethought but still always feel natural and spontaneous. They are almost always pretty good and fun to watch at worst, and he has classics against a wide range of opponents, many of whom end up performing way over their heads. The fact that he's putting on passable matches even now is icing on the cake; a top-flight candidate and number 1 contender for sure.

She snuck up on me in a way, but when I look back on it she has tons of high-end matches and I never, ever regret watching any match she is in. You can't ask for much more than that out of a high-end candidate. I haven't been let down by a Crush Gals tag match yet, and I have two on deck to watch right now, so I am jazzed.

I love this topic. I have a lot of catching up to do on numerous fronts and want to give unfamiliar styles and candidates a fair shake. I've been trying to take a multi-pronged approach to make decent progress. 1) Keep a list of wrestlers that I need to watch more of; decide on 2-3 to focus on for some time. Watch their recommended matches in the Google doc and other famous matches, plus just watch some matches taken at random. 2) I am also participating in Greatest Matches Ever, so I want to cover matches that have ranked highly that I haven't seen. Sometimes that will happen organically from the wrestlers I am focusing on, but sometimes I will just grab a match from that nomination list. 3) Have a long term watching project to fall back on (e.g. AJW classics) 4) Attend the Saturday Watch Parties to give me a taste of a candidate and a chance to chat with others, and follow up as needed. Having a few different wrestlers to focus on helps me assess wrestlers against each other and is letting me make new discoveries. And having a number of different avenues is keeping things fresh for me. I realized already that this variety works better for me than a deep dive, at least right now.

Maybe my earliest wresting memory was when Iron Mike Sharpe was facing Corporal Kirchner on All American Wrestling. Kirchner was kicking ass, and Iron Mike Sharpe took a powder and walked all the way back to the dressing room, I had never seen anything like it and was wondering what was going on. He eventually made it back to the ring to get beat, and I made sure to watch the following week. Iron Mike Sharpe always brings a smile to my face and if anyone wants to use one of the bottom spots on their list on him, you'll get no fight from me.

This was a fun watch along; I enjoyed every single match. The match against Kylie Rae was the highlight and a match to go out of your way to see, the work around the stipulation was really smart. The match against Divina Rose/Bayley was not the second best match but it is the type of match that strengthens a GWE case. They worked within a clear hierarchical dynamic, everything mattered and made sense, and it put across the characters of both women. They packed quite a few distinctive and memorable notes in a 7 or so minute match.

TTK: Want to add my voice to wishing you the best, take care.