EricR

You're ignoring that wrestling's a cooperative performance art and not a sport, so the fact that Sting didn't single-handedly become a national phenomenon in a bad promotion is not necessarily a damning measure of his worth as a performer. To use counter-examples from other performance arts: despite being given starring vehicles funded by major Hollywood studios, Brad Pitt didn't become a megastar until 1994. This sort of Gordy Lister logic would suggest that Brad Pitt was not good at his job until 1994, when in fact we should be considering that Sting is a guy that spent the majority of his career starring in the wrestling version of Cool World but when tested with non-destructive angles passed with flying colors. There's no reason to treat his ability as a performer or draw as merely theoretical when he was a critical part of one of wrestling's hugest and best-drawing angles. Orson Welles could be dismissed as a guy with a "single good year" for Touch of Evil who invariably failed during the multiple times he was pushed on top. This is, of course, nonsense indicative of an overly-exclusive and arbitrary approach to quantifying worth that pretends it's anything but. Goldberg found wrestling's version of overnight success in an already molten hot promotional environment -- created with the help of, uh, Sting -- a luxury a handful of wrestlers have had and certainly one Sting didn't have in the late 80s and early 90s. Sting was tasked with lifting dead weight, Goldberg was carried on shoulders. No one find success in a vacuum, and the idea that building a monster aura was a trick that Goldberg had to perform all by himself not once but twice is laughable. Some stars just burn brighter over shorter periods than others. Goldberg is John Cazale. Many others have been given pushes similar to the beginnings of Goldberg's push, but none of them caught on anywhere close to the same level as Goldberg did. The implication that Goldberg got over mostly due to booking while completely ignoring his instant star appeal is just annoying. Both were lucky enough to start their careers with the right people at the right time, but shone with his given material like few actors ever have. Sting is more like Lance Henriksen or Michael Ironside. Tons of great moments over his career and plenty of opportunities to give great lead performances, then spending the latter part of his career doing good work in bad productions. Also, Sting isn't nearly as cool as Ironside or Henriksen.

Sting had 10 years to get over to a massive degree. Goldberg took less than one year of beating Jerry Flynn 20 times and Jackhammering Reis to become a bigger star than Sting ever was. Then after a couple years of inactivity came into WWF and was still a bigger star than Sting ever was. Nobody is arguing for Goldberg's inclusion into the HOF, but to me he seems like a way more worthwhile candidate than Sting.

I remember a spot in the match where Anderson hulks up with his stupid gritted-teeth, spittle-spraying, nose-breathing grimace and flips Angle the double birds, and me and all my friends crying from laughter. One of the most eye-rolling moments I've ever seen in wrestling. And then I went on the boards the next day and a bunch of people were talking about what an intense, badass moment it was and I was baffled.

I like the baseball comparison. Sting is Don Mattingly. Mattingly had great numbers while he played but his back shortened his career. His WAR totals would be among the lowest in the HOF. But he was also the face of the Yankees for a decade. It's like Will Clark with the Giants. Face of the franchise (20 years later a LARGE percentage of Giants fans still have The Thrill as their favorite player, myself included) and arguably had HOF numbers, but chose to retire early and couldn't rack up counting stats that a lot of hall voters like. Yet to many Giants fans he's the greatest.

Oh man that Anderson cage match was fucking terrible. That is being pimped as a top 10 all time Angle match!?

Meltzer would say a worse-worded version of that ^ and then the next 14 posts would say "Dave'd".

I couldn't imagine Low-Ki getting even 5% of the vote if he were on the ballot. It doesn't matter that he was an undercarder in NOAH. Michael Modest was my favorite wrestler in the world at one point, and he had a much longer, much more successful NOAH run and at one point was also seen as arguably the best worker on the indies. I couldn't imagine voting for him though. For comparison, Fit Finlay couldn't even get 10% on his one year on the ballot. He's regarded within the industry as one of the best workers and one of the most respected workers of the last two decades, and he couldn't get 10%. How the hell is Low Ki supposed to get anywhere close to 10%?

Windham looks like M.C. Gainey now. Which is his most awesome look in a couple decades.

1982-06-21 Bill Dundee vs Sweet Brown Sugar (2/3 Falls Scaffold Match) He had it listed, and the match is fucking great. It was my #1 match on the Memphis 80s set. Great match and incorporates the scaffold perfectly. Tons of drama with guys hanging, great comebacks, and the storyline being that Dundee had SBS right in his wheelhouse because he used to not only be a circus performer but also did high-rise construction. Dundee whipped around that scaffold like a monkey and the match was one of the most dramatic, stunning spectacles I've ever seen. Perfect match.

I don't know FLIK but I am going to take a guess: He is upset that Obama got re-elected and is part of the crowd that wants to secede from the union. FLIK has been put in charge of establishing the language for this new Obama-less nation and that's how he wants where and there spelled. Just playing percentages, I can say with 93% certainty that FLIK would support Obama.

Aristocratical inbreeding

I hated whenever Ross would talk about how Rico was a cop and had a child during his matches. I never understood the point of it. How did it help his character, or any storyline. Was I supposed to think "This guy who is prancing around used to be a police officer. Neat." Was he implying that he used to be "tough" but now he's a "fruit"...so did he betray his family and profession by being a gay-ish pro wrestler? Was it Ross getting all insecure about people being judgmental while watching wrestling, so this was him going "don't worry y'all, this is just a show. This man isn't really a homo." I just do not understand what the point of it was. It would be like putting over Kane's political beliefs.

Any chance you can CnP your Patera/High Flyers debate from F4W for those of us without subs?

No, her gross shriveled titty didn't make it must see. Super Bowl panicking and stop desperately trying to be hip made it must see. Because that made them go out and hire awesome established live bands like The Stones, Prince, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, Springsteen, The Who, etc. Janet Jackson made America wish they were watching Up With People.

Don't forget Ted Dibiase Jr.

When he slicked his hair down while waiting to hit the spear, he really had me believing that he was bad at pro wrestling.

He found a way to get Edge inducted as both a wrestler and a non-performer for his promos and incredible acting.

Sorta related, but did he ever do a HOF bio for Mysterio?

I was scrolling through this page to type almost the exact same thing as Vic.

I've also enjoyed a lot of Big Daddy stuff I've watched, but I do tend to have a thing for fatties. But jeez people talk about him as if he's Giant Gonzalez or Giant Silva level bad.

Plus for awhile Sheamus was putting on super strong sunblock whenever he was outside, to achieve that "see through" white look. I think I remember him saying that it gave him an extreme vitamin deficiency.

The first Brody/Dory match on the set was awesome. The 2nd one was exactly like the match-up sounds on paper and was horrendous.

When I was 16 I thought DX was funny. When I was 26 I did not.

Bastien was a really awesome bumper. I always really loved the one where he hit all three ropes in succession while falling.

Would anybody be that stunned if Meltzer owned a piano key necktie?