Eduardo

It's from two years earlier, but Loss, have you ever seen El Dandy vs Javier Llanes?

Apparently, Rey vetoed losing the IC title to Dolph Ziggler, but that was after WWE promised him a long reign with the IC title. Shortly after, he was suspended for a Wellness violation.

Helms also used it on AJ Styles on WWE Metal in early 2002.

Wasn't DDP another guy that was labeled "doesn't know how to work" because he liked to the script his matches?

Ah okay, makes sense. Yeah, I think 1998 was maybe the turning point in Juventud being talked more than Psicosis, because of the feud with Jericho and the three title reigns.

Was Juventud really given much more credit than Psicosis? EDIT: To elaborate more, I should ask what criteria is being used to determine how much credit these guys were getting, like from hardcore fans of the era, newsletters, etc. From that time period, I thought his shtick, his bumping, and his look made him stand out and get more credit than Juventud. I may be remembering wrong, but didn't the Observer pimp Psicosis more in 1994-1996 than Juventud? The sort of hyperbumping style and shtick he was using was stuff that I think more people would have eaten up from that era than what Juventud was serving.

Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa in 1998 and 1999.

Have K-1 fights always been eligible for "Shoot Match of the Year"?

Yeah, I'm kinda amazed that it seems that Dave still uses VHS tapes. Some of the K-1 stuff he said doesn't really jive with what actually happened, but it was a pretty amazing sight seeing Aerts take out Schilt at like 3 AM.

It's not really surprising that he hasn't finished reading Hart's book. I remember a few years ago, he used to bring up how much he hated reading professional wrestling books and how he would rather read anything else instead.

So, it looks like UFC is going after Japan and has already signed Michihiro Omigawa to fight Chad Mendes and 'Kid' Yamamoto to fight Demetrious Johnson. Sean Shelby's been after these fighters forever, but the lack of money has always been an issue. It would have been nice to see Yamamoto vs Faber ages ago, but this is still great news.

Zuffa is bringing back Ivan Menjivar to join their bantamweight division, so that's pretty great news. He's fighting Brad Pickett on the last WEC show in December. Menjivar's fight with Hideo Tokoro at K-1 Hero*s 6 is one of my favorite fights of 2006.

Yeah, Edgar losing twice to Maynard in a very decisive manner could have him going down, I could see that happening. It's impressive he's gotten this far fighting above his natural weightclass. The most interesting thing about the merger is if it is now more likely that Zuffa will go after the top featherweights in Japan (Bibiano Fernandes, Michihiro Omigawa, Marlon Sandro, Hatsu Hioki) or less likely. If they don't go after outside talents, they will probably build up their featherweight ranks with guys dropping down in weight or having a TUF: 135 lbs & 145 lbs season with Urijah Faber as one of the coaches. But it would be nice to see them going after some international guys. Speaking of Faber, he would have been such a big star at this point if he had been in the UFC for the last 3 years. I'm hoping he still has something to offer now that he dropped to Bantamweight.

No way UFC ever does a super heavyweight division, not enough talent to sustain such a limited weight class. I don't see featherweight ever going away also, it wouldn't surprise me if a handful of UFC lightweights drop down to featherweight. There are guys like Cole Miller, Clay Guida, Yves Edwards, Tyson Griffin and a few others that are closer to FW's than they are to current LW's, they just didn't drop down since the pay difference between UFC and WEC were really significant. Aldo cuts more weight than Edgar, but I doubt Edgar would drop down any time soon, even if he loses to Maynard. Also, most of the current "TUF: GSP vs Koscheck" season guys are natural featherweights and have competed at featherweight for years, so I'm expecting Spencer Paige, Cody "Mr. Guillotine" McKenzie, Jonathan Brookins, and Nam Phan all to be added to the featherweight division after the season is over. Also, Sean Shelby is apparently going to still be the matchmaker for the 135 lbs and 145 lbs division.

From hearing Meltzer talk since July about Lesnar-Velasquez fight, he was either subtly or outright picking Velasquez to defeat Lesnar. Maybe Alvarez would need a tissue though.

Not really, you got your time frame mixed up. The UFC Hall of Fame started in 2003, by the time Meltzer opened the MMA HOF in 2006, the UFC HOF had already inducted Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, and Dan Severn in the previous years. But if I remember the story correctly that Dave once told, he said that some of the people around him told him it wasn't a good idea and it would be a better to get rid of it. I can't remember if he said why they thought he should get rid of it or who it was that told him although I think it was his fellow colleagues in the MMA media.

Wow, that was awesome. When Regal's on, he's probably the best actor I've seen in pro wrestling. Did Regal write/improvised all his WCW sketches? I can't imagine WCW management telling Regal to to make a reference about Danny Kaye and Laurence Olivier being lovers.

What did they do?

That's a nice article Keith. I wish I had kept my old Wrestling Observer issues but I remember Meltzer having a very nice story about Cena in 2006 that goes along with this article. He talks about how around that 2006 time period, Cena made an appearance at some sports memorabilia convention. After his part in the event was done, he was walking out and encountered a paralyzed kid out in the parking lot. They had a nice pleasant conversation and when the kid mentioned how he saw an autograph football helmet for sale at the convention that he really liked, Cena quickly took out 3 hundred dollars out of his wallet and handed it over to the fan to go purchase that helmet. Meltzer then said something similar to that last quote you posted in that article Keith about how Cena has done a lot of really nice things that no one knows about.

Meltzer's take on Jake Shields is mind boggling.

Ask him about working U-Style, and if he did anything to prepare for his work there. EDIT: Also, how did he meet Dave Meltzer?

I really don't think Ariel was trying to justify "MMA is his real pro wrestling". He was pretty much saying that after finally being able to spend time with some of the guys (like Kurt Angle - that kjh already mentioned), that it was pretty depressing to be around all these delusional guys living in a bubble with drug problems and crippling injuries (something Brock has also said in the past). Ariel mentioned that he had already known the depressing and dark side of pro wrestling since he was a hardcore fan, but it never really affected him until he got a up close personal view. Yeah, I'm pretty confused that he would bring up this story and try to use it as a positive for MMA. What's even more sad is that if Dan Miller loses on Saturday, he'll probably end up being cut.

Dave went on this odd rant on Observer radio that was basically the MMA equivalent of Jake Shields "disrespecting the boys in the back". Dave talked about how dare Shields go to UFC after Strikeforce put him on CBS twice and about him being a ratings bomb. Even threw in random praise for Leonard Garcia as to say Garcia is a company man that helps his promotion as oppose to Shields. Probably has something to do with Dave's buddy Frank Shamrock legitimately hating Shields. I understand criticisms about Shields for the post-fight brawl, but criticisms about Shields going for a better contract just felt weird.

It was '99, and it was some vignette they were doing in the streets of random city. HHH came up to some homeless guy who had a sign that said "Will Work for Food" (or something very similar), and HHH said "You can't work, you're like Jericho!". At least, that is how I remember it, and I am pretty sure it's close to correct. That sounds right. Thanks.

KrisZ already answered the question, but just to get an idea of how different they look: