MikeCampbell

On a regular basis? Hell no. Once in a great while, when it's effective in shaking things up? Absolutely. I think Kennedy stating that he's going to wait until WM 24 to cash in his title shot is pretty stupid. Now instead of having everyone wondering week after week whether or not he'll do it, it's known that it's not going to be until a show that's nearly a year away.

WWE ought to name Murdoch's finisher "The Waxahachie Destroyer" RE: Cena/Michaels. I wouldn't call it a MOTYC or anything, but I enjoyed it for the most part. It's funny, I've been reviewing the NOAH 9/9/06 show, and I've found some parallels between Cena and Akira Taue. Neither of them is much of a move to move ring worker, but both are able to work around that by working smart. Cena did a nice job it in his Rumble match with Umaga, and he did it here as well.

I've not watched the match yet. My fiancee taped Raw for me, and I've not had a chance to sit down with it yet, most likely will tomorrow. For what it's worth, I agree with Anarchist on the Umaga match. I liked it and thought it was worked very smartly, but not in a "OMG MOTY" type way.

Nope that's not the one. According to the interview, it's a top 100 list.

I can back up Gordi on Brody getting a #1 spot. An edition of "WRESTLING SUPERSTARS" which I think was one of PWI's quarterly mags, put out a top 50 list in one of their '86 editions and ranked him #1. An issue of Wrestling 86 contains an interview with Brody where that fact is brought up.

WWF wasn't shy about occasionally breaking kayfabe in a sense, even back in those days. Just look at the reactions from Heenan and Monsoon when Flair debuted in '91 and Ellering joined the LOD in '92. While they didn't go right out and say "He's from WCW!" they didn't mind acknowledging that he was famous elsewhere. Brody wouldn't have had to juice Hogan to get himself over, or get his feud with Hogan over. He could have easily hung him with the chain. It worked for Steamboat and Muraco. And as I already said: Bringing in Brody to feud with Sting would sound better on paper than having to go crawling back to Ric Flair. Probably not Watts. And again, Brody could probably have gotten a deal based of selling himself to Frye as being an international star. Brody would have been a good fit with Harley's stable, and Brody did work in St. Louis from time to time.

The only time I can see for that to happen, would have been in the Summer of 1990, with Brody in Earthquake's place. Warrior was bombing as WWF Champion, and Hogan vs. Brody would surely have been a drawing card. Herd and Frye were both clueless about the business. I could see Herd bringing him in to get Sting over after Sid and the Black Scorpion flopped. On paper, it would sound better to Herd than going back to Flair. Not that Brody wouldn't have screwed that up. And Frye was known to love throwing money around. Brody could probably have sold himself as a big international star and gotten himself a deal. And again, Brody would have most likely screwed it up in short order. Good point there, I'm sure Watts would have been smart enough to avoid the hassle. Of course one possible reason for Brody not working Mid South could be that Brody and Fritz were pretty tight. Anytime after Bischoff took over until he brought in Hogan. As soon as Brody mentioned that Vince "wanted him for a run against Hogan," you can bet Uncle Eric would do all he could to get Brody under a contract.

I was actually just thinking the other day, on what would have happened if Brody wasn't killed in PR. I'm guessing most likely he'd have wound up in FMW, and then W*ING, IWA, etc. Baba wasn't shy with casting legends aside to make room for fresher acts. As far as the US goes, Vince wouldn't have been dumb enough to take him on, but you can be sure one of WCW's rotating nitwits would have signed him eventually.

Los Cowboys vs. The Freebirds 6/16/92 This is just a blast to watch. The Freebirds are clueless as to how to work with the luchdores, so Los Cowboys just bust out a whole bunch of great offense, while the Freebirds look pretty much lost. War Games The match that pretty much defines 1992 for me. This is the model for how War Games should go. Buckets of blood, the pairings and order of entrance making sense with current rivalries, a little twist here and there to keep the match from feeling like it's falling into a rotation. Plus the conclusion of the will he/won't he mystery whether or not Sting can trust Nikita.

The only place I really ever see his name come up anymore is the ROH board, whenever the quarterly Joe/Kobashi = Overrated subject comes up and some nitwit uses his ***** rating of the match to justify the praise.

Re: Lawler: I've actually been slowly making my way through Will's Lawler set, I knocked off two discs yesterday as a personal tribute to my late grandfather. And I'm sort of stuck in the middle it seems, because I can see where both WP and more or less everyone else is coming from (aside from WP's argument about Lawler's punches). I'd not classify Lawler as a great *wrestler* and both Lawler and Jim Cornette have said that Memphis, and Tennessee in general, was not big on technical wrestling. But what I've been watching out of Lawler (just finished disc #4) has been phenomenal. His punches are probably the best I've seen (maybe second to Hansen). His bumping and selling is great. And he's excellent in terms of getting the crowd excited, whether he's the babyface (Dundee LLT match) or a heel (the Sweetan match). So I'd classify Lawler as one of the best *workers* of all time, although not for his actual wrestling skills, if that makes sense. As far as Meltzer worrying about younger fans thinking Batista was great worker. I don't think he needs to worry. The combination of technology being what it is (as far as things like youtube, and all the file sharing programs), and people like Bix, Will, Bob Barnett, etc there isn't any shortage at all of avenues to seek out truly great wrestling. Re: Brody: I can see where he was a real attraction due to the relative rarity of being able to see him on a regular basis. But I've yet to see any really great matches out of him, aside from the 1981 Tag League final night w/Snuka against the Funks. But one of the golden rules in wrestling it seems is that folks who died are often placed the pedestal, and with a few exceptions (Owen Hart, Curt Hennig) none were as great as they're made out to be.