Ryan Faulconer

I've had a slowly boiling interest in some of the foreign talent at the 2015 BOLA. I've been slowly going through youtube and watching all of the Ospreay/Sabre Jr/Scurll/Andrews footage I could find. Apart from random youtube footage I haven't paid or watched any indy wrestling after 2011. I finally broke down and ordered a bunch of 2015 PWG that featured those four. It looks like streaming matches from their home promotions or from older Highspots streaming videos makes a lot more sense fiscally for me in the future. The WrestleMania EVOLVE Ospreay and Sabre Jr. matches were really great. I'll have to settle for their PWG work for now since EVOLVE is like a year behind in DVD/blu ray production. I watched a Thunderbastard match the other day. Is this a regular or traditional gimmick concept? I clicked on it based on the name only. The match was fun but the wrestlers I was watching for weren't in long enough. How large are the rings that they use in Progress/Rev Pro/WxW? I don't have any problems with them being so small compared to what I am used to seeing...but an six man tag would look a little claustrophobic. Is there a set date when wXw started doing English commentary? Whenever I check some wXw out on youtube It is always a toss-up involving the two different languages that they broadcast in. I watched the recent draw for the Super Strong Style Tournament early yesterday morning. Doing eight shots in fifteen minutes seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. Then I ran into the previous year's draw that involved toy eggs...that is quite an illogical switch in gimmicks for the draw.

I really really enjoyed the match. First of all there was great heat going almost throughout the entire the match. They didn't wear out the fans with a flat finishing stretch. It was a few minutes in before I realized that there was no commentary. If anyone heard them call spots it would probably be less noticeable with a commentary track. Their creativity made Red/Low Ki look like that Hase/Muto match 2001. Everything looked like it hit the right spots. There was believable selling. I'm not exactly how a Space Flying Tiger Drop is supposed to be sold ten minutes after it gets used. Apron bumping doesn't look as spine crunching in the New Japan ring. They seem to have more space to work with on that ledge where the ropes end and the edge of the apron begins. In a perfect world the DVD doesn't happen. They can still get to the rebound spot from a lot of other spots. This wasn't a feud ending brawl or attached to an angle outside of the tournament itself being one. I just watched Hero vs ZSJ from Wrestlecon show. I have a hard time picking which match is the better of the two. The more they work with veterans like Hero the better they will get at the punches and using slight of hand to make five spots mean just as much as ten. Hero/ZSJ was almost the opposite of Ospreay vs Ricochet. This was just the next step ahead for fast paced action in wrestling. Ten years ago the Dragon Gate guys in ROH were the future. Ten years before that it was the AAA and/or MPro guys. The fans in attendance for Ospreay/Ricochet were having a blast watching the match. I don't mind the chanting at all when it seems spontaneous as it did with this crowd.

They tried Sid/Warrior/Luger/Diesel/Undertaker as their next huge Hoganesque guy (either by height or width). They did end up using Kurt Angle as de facto Austin in the feud against Austin. Even The Rock was very similar to Austin. They even used Eddy as a latino-Austin. Whoever it is that they pick as a baby face hero will be chiseled and formed into some sort of archetype that Vince is familiar with. I'm not sure where Triple H's influence falls. Maybe Cena is comparable to HHH until he surpassed him in quality and popularity years ago. Oh...the cruiserweight tournament! They should use that Reckless fella or that skinny Corino dude...who reminds me of Sean Waltman I'll believe the tournament when I see it. Until they DON'T throw a bunch of Scott Taylor-types into a bracket or table of three minute matches the burden of proof is in their hands.

The show doesn't seem to want to download from iTunes. It just stops after a few seconds trying.

Has anyone listened to his appearance on The Art of Wrestling? When he was Jon Moxley he talked about how he really hated the Dragon Gate-style of working. He didn't like all the moves and nearfalls that don't mean anything after awhile. Even Toryumon/DG annoys me less than Ambrose' style of working. I really soured on him around the time he started feuding with Rollins. He looked like he picked up that style in NXT or whichever nebulous purgatory he existed in before The Shield debuted on WWE TV/PPV. I thought I was too harsh on him when I commented in the Greatest Wrestler Ever forum. I was really disappointed when he got his big push against Rollins at the time. Did they just sign him to be another 6'4 20something hollow husk of a wrestler to add to their roster? He can't do his unique (for the indies) promo style or wrestle the way he used to when he was Jon Moxley. What is the point of signing someone? (rhetorical question...I know)

Wow. This thread really took the starch out of two of my favourite things. Maybe I should say *one* thing since I'm one of those who would call pro wrestling an art form. It doesn't belong in a museum (unless Santo and Blue Panther are in the UK) but it is judged on various individual criteria that aren't entwined with statistics like sports are. In Canada all pro wrestling shows are classified by the PVR listings as SPORTS. Then again there are broadcasters who compare athletes to artists and sports to art forms. It felt like ten years ago or so almost everyone who posted on DVDVR or someplace like PWO called pro wrestling an art. It wasn't a bunch of stats that sports fans could compare or relate to the standings that teams are always trying to climb. It was around the time Eddie Guerrero died a lot of the fun of talking about wrestling and writing about it online was lost.

MPro guys in WCW would be fun but there really wasn't much left to pick from. TAKA and Funaki were still in the WWF at that point for another year - although they did get a trip to MPro here and there because they meant so little. MENS Teioh stopped working in the WWF in November 1998 but he would go to Big Japan initially until popping back up in MPro in late 1999. Tiger Mask IV was doing Super Astros for WWE. He was getting better each year - until he apparently fell off a cliff into mediocrity in 2004. Gran Naniwa kept breaking a leg here and an arm there. He could have been a La Parka-type fan favourite if the announcers didn't bury him. He would have a good stretch and then he'd go and break something to stall his momentum. Naohiro Hoshikawa was coming along nicely but then Osaka Pro went and happened in January of that year denying WCW the use of Super Delphin/Dick Togo/Hoshikawa. I guess Minoru Fujita was still in MPro back then and he actually had a long(ish) stay in the US in 2001 touring the indies. He didn't show a lot of personality but WCW should have given him a tryout or something. Seno and Sugamoto never really reached higher than being average or inoffensive. Seno was a junior "big man" so that MAY have added something different to the cruiserweight division but this is Osaka Pro and none of these guys are available. Sasuke along with Hamada and Shinzaki are really all that's left over besides the cavemen. Shinzaki couldn't be Hakushi and he and he could be very inconsistent. I don't think WCW would want Masao Orihara/Takeshi Ono/Masayoshi Motegi. The first two are scrawny Battlarts guys and the other is just not good at all. For a few months into 1999 WCW had Crazy MAX along with Magnum TOKYO and Dragon Kid from Toryumon. They could have (and rumours persisted that they did) negotiated with Ultimo Dragon but I don't think they were all that friendly after the botched hand operation. The Mochizukis/Kennichiro Arai/SAITO/Horiguchi/Kanda would allow WCW to cut all the small heavyweights that would pop up from time to time in the cruiserweight division. Stalker Ichikawa in WCW would have melted some minds. WCW should have gone after the foreigners that MPro booked. James Mason Robbie Brookside (I think he did work some in WCW) Jody Fleisch Dos Caras Fantastik (Shiryu II)

"I'd like to ask about Survival Tobita and Ken the Box..." - caller from DVDVR chatroom "Oh come on guys...no more Tobita." - Meltzer The controversy over the DVDVR 500 was one of those rare times that I heard Meltzer get annoyed with callers back in the Eyada days. I guess talking about wrestling on a wrestling radio show was taboo unless it was about the dying WCW or Chyna or Vince Russo. James from Kentucky still calls in to wrestling shows? He used to call in on WCW Live and the WON Eyada shows. I guess wrestling shows are his anti-drug. Then there were the pot bangers. They grew up a lot didn't they? God - I am so old. Alvarez always seemed pretty lazy when it came to history or analysis. One episode he seemed shocked that someone dedicated an entire webpage to a wrestler...not realizing that there is this thing called wikipedia and every wrestler to lace up the boots or tape his feet has some sort of representation. That's only wiki. There are the OWW/Puroresu Centrals as well...which we all know about but someone who gets paid to write and/or talk about pro wrestling does not. I enjoyed the little lucha and japanese wrestling content that they had on the podcasts but I've never subscribed for more than a month at a time.

I've heard the "this stuff fake..." and then when something violent happens they get all indignant like I'm watching some criminal acts being committed. There are the people who say how much they hate how wrestling has changed. They hate how it looks more violent or raunchy it gets...then ten seconds later they are booing the heel and cheering the babyface. I tried to explain the paradox to them and they looked at me with what I can only describe as the confused puppy look. Then they want to watch more wrestling. A friend of mine doesn't like wrestling most of the time...until someone "cool" like The Rock or Brock Lesnar is on the screen to kick some ass. He is also the type that I mentioned earlier who says it looks so fake. I show him something a little (not a lot - nothing death match or bloody) more violent and he says that it is too violent to watch.

You know how it is though. A lot of fans can't see past one promo. With a name like El Dandy along with curly hair and tights from the 1980s destroys any credibility or buzz that other fans attach to him. The fact that he rarely won matches in WCW plays too much of a role in a wrestler's reputation as well. Then there are some people like Cornette or Bret or so many more who can't think past what they saw on some random tour or promotion that they came up in. I look for lucha articles online all the time. From what I've read most of the fans who know him from WCW think he sucks for any of the reasons I mentioned above. A lot of fans still think all luchadores wear masks and do crazy highspots. El Dandy doesn't fit that mold either...so he must REALLY suck

Every WWE announcer sounds almost identical to the others. Excluding Renee - Every male WWE commentator speaks with the Vince McMahon-bass sound in their voice. I had to check to see that Vince wasn't commentating some nights with Cole/JBL/Saxton/Sanford/whoever speaking in the exact same way that Vince always has. They use exactly the same cadence while calling a match. The only difference are audible when the catchphrases or current buzz words are deployed in the action. It is so difficult hold any suspension of disbelief when certain camera moves always lead to commercial breaks. That breaks kayfabe more than wrestlers not keeping in character or engaging storylines. I don't get the network here so going commercial free isn't an option whenever I do decide to get into an episode of RAW/Smackdown/NXT. WWE has a terrible make up stylist. From Stephanie to Lana and Renee Young are looking more like someone in drag lately. The divas have a similar problem. None of it would be a problem if there was some sort of variety to the style. They either look like plastic Barbies or frightening Divines. They are raising their own clone army. Whether it is in the match layout or commentating or makeup/costume design everything is such a formula.

I would be more specific for these three suggestions if I could find links online for them. There is a Bobby Heenan promo from early 87 that I can't seem to find anywhere. He just goes on a legendary tirade against Hogan and advocating for Andre the Giant. I heard it on one of the Wrestlemania Rewind shows that the Place to Be folks did for Wrestlemania 3. I don't know how there could still be anyone in Hogan's corner after that promo encapsulated everything that makes Hogan look bad in Heenan's POV. In another direction entirely there is an awesome Briscoes promo recorded right after the ROH Man Up PPV (9/15/97). They are bloody and disgusting to look at but the intensity and emotion is enough to keep you on their side instead of having weeks of nightmares. The Spike Dudley promo from ECW TV building up to Guilty as Charged 2000 falls into the same category too. He just goes insane in the catering area while swearing revenge on Mike Awesome for what he did to his girlfriend's teeth. I still think a Top 100 interviews of all time project would be a great thing for this forum. It would be so much easier to digest than the polls we have done for matches recently.

D'oh! Double post.

All of those older wrestlers have appeared at ROH events in the past. I can't remember if they attracted more than the regular number of fans though. They didn't have HHH (of course) but they did have Bruno back in 2006. The legends would get a good ovation from the crowd but didn't really have much of an impact on the gate. While I can't recall the attendance at shows that Flair/Bret/Bruno/Midnight Express w/Cornette/Bobby Heenan/etc they would probably be memorable numbers like their bigger shows have drawn over the years.

I haven't been paying much attention to ROH since 2012. Is it weird that whenever I see the mention of "Hanson" on an ROH show I immediately think of Ref Hansen who reffed (of course) the Northeast indies from fifteen years ago? Maybe they will bring back that Dana valet and Donnie B too!

Without the music I don't think ECW would be half as memorable as it is today. It isn't a proper time capsule without the original music that the wrestlers used when they came out to the ring. I don't have the network but I can't imagine Sandman or New Jack without the correct music. New Jack matches must be REALLY bad now without Ice Cube and Dr. Dre blaring during the chaos. I would compare it to watching Attitude era WWF without any wrestler promos or announcers (especially Jim Ross). It would be pointless.

Commentary with the right emotion behind it lifts the match to a higher level for sure. Watching lucha and the Japanese promotions for years trained my ears to believe in the emotion in the announcer's voice rather than the words. I can't speak Spanish or Japanese but I really enjoy heated commentary - English/Spanish/Japanese/Inuit throat singing makes everything better. Commentary that compliments the action in the ring has become almost white noise for me...white noise that can help sell the action. Crowds already do that for probably everyone who watches wrestling. Commentary has just blended in to compliment not just what I see in the ring but also what I hear. Having said all that...WWE makes me want to jam scissors in my ears Throw-Mamma-From-The-Train style. When I watch Lucha Underground Vampiro can cause similar bouts with overreacting to compensate. Sometimes it can be a little bit of a struggle to watch wrestling without any commentary. Handheld footage can be frustrating if the crowd is dead...or non-existent as per the Hero/Punk 60 Minute match from 2002 IWA-MS. Other times the ambience of a good crowd can trick me into forgetting that there is nobody calling the match. There are a lot of Japanese commercial releases over the years that didn't have commentary and I didn't mind it at all. The first MPro tape I bought back in 2000 was a good ten or more minutes into the match before I realized that there was nobody commentating. I'm very legally blind so my viewing perspective might not synch up with the viewing and/or listening preferences of others.

Mr. Niebla/Olimpico/Safari have a pretty good trios team around that time. Niebla doesn't really fall off until later years. DVDVR has some discussion of the good stuff from that period. It isn't easy sorting out which events are where over there though. cubsfan started watching/recapping the lucha around this 2000-2001 period. The CMLL PPVs were almost always good to great. They ran in March/August/December 2000 and March/September/December 2001. There was also a really fun tournament show from August(?) 1999 that ends in a mask match between the losing team - if you want to go back that far. I'm pretty sure that Lynch has all of those events. There aren't many idividual matches that stand out in my memory. Check out the recommended matches at luchawiki for the best stuff that didn't appear on the CMLL PPVs.

For me the 619 is pretty far down on the list WWE's sins against wrestling. I first saw Black Tiger III/Silver King do it in CMLL in 2001 and it seemed to work better as a heel spot...but Rey's is fine with me. Rey is just sad to watch now. He would be great replacing Vampiro on Lucha Underground. Like others have said the 619 shouldn't feel like more than a moment of personal agony on a two or three hour show with so much that is sillier and unbearable. I'd put it far behind spots like... The horrible tag team comeback spot that is always the same with the same style of punches and clotheslines. Wrestlers who have individual punching styles have to tow the company tag team line whenever comebacks or hot tags break down in a match. I used to enjoy tag team/multi-person tag matches more than singles matches in every company. In WWE I skip them unless it is a big match that is supposed to mean something beyond being filler. Most signature spots have only one way to set them up. It changes a bit in a match that Vince is awake for. Randy Orton does a few different things for the RKO but that seems to be it. I have been a huge fan of Cesaro's since 2006 but his finisher is the worst in the company. THAT is what we call a contrived and awkward setup and delivery. When I sense that his TV matches are ending I usually look away or change the channel. The fact that secondary champions almost never win. I don't really care about the US/IC titles but the long losing streaks that every champion goes on when they win it is excrutiating to sit through. I missed all of Rey Jr.'s WWE Title run but from what I have read he suffered the same fate while he got the "big push". And so on and so forth. I don't mean to derail the thread anymore than I have. I would put Rey in my Top 20 at worst. I don't know if I have the concentration to go through with the ranking the entire 100. That is the kind of fan that I am. I love me some big wrestling ranking lists. I want to fill my Top 10 entirely with luchadores if I get through it all.

Moxley worked in Gabe's promotions along with PWG and CZW and AAW and AIW. He really stood out in Evolve and Dragon Gate USA in so many ways. He was a much better promo than almost everyone else. He was much larger than everyone else. He acted like a cross between Roddy Piper and Stan Hansen. He had a feud/program with Bryan Danielson. I think I have that show on DVD. I haven't watched it once yet because I burned out on the promotion after their first few shows. He had said on Art of Wrestling that he didn't really enjoy the Gabe style of wrestling. He then went on to work that style in WWE. He's not Ziggleresque or Kofi Kingstonrific he doesn't really stand out on his own without the other Shield members teaming with him.

Check out the AAA shows from the US that they put on in 93-94 for a fun way to start off a show. It might be nice...and possibly cheaper - for WWE to bring in other minis to work with Dorada/Torito instead of whatever they feel will get over with their universe. Slap some colourful costumes on the other minis and everyone looks better in the ring for it. Four minis going half-lucha speed should still pop the crowds from young to old to the jaded and unkempt. The rabbit gimmick was done in mini form in the 90s. Mini versions of WWE guys isn't the answer either. Pick some monsters or aliens or animal costumes and you have yourself something gives a different style of wrestling than the heavyweights do without WWE losing their shit over their superstars looking small. Call them WWE ministars or something ™ if they are so intent on labelling everything as their own creation.

I guess I'm stuck on spotfest meaning a match that looks or feels disjointed. It doesn't have consistent drama. If it does have a consistency they tend to beat a dead horse with it and go into extreme overkill territory. The action loses its meaning by that point and I usually start looking at my watch and hoping the match ends soon. I would say that Rock/Austin at Wrestlemania 15 is a total spotfest. It wasn't a bad match but it was definitely a match hindered by the match relying on the next big pop or stunt. I only knew the match was coming to a close based on the length of the match. The nearfalls were just piled one on top of the other with no sense of drama apart from the use of their finishers. A lot of the lesser Toryumon/DG tags over the years had the same problem...if you consider that a problem. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it is overkill and leaves me feeling disoriented. I stopped watching Dragon Gate in 2006 for the most part because the big singles matches always followed that formula. "spot monkey" is a wrestling slur to me

Yeah. Bumping instead of selling works in tag matches...but even then they should be selling something until they can transition or make a tag. Ziggler should stay exclusively in tags...if they don't release him when his contract is up. Was Dean Ambrose intentionally channeling Clint Eastwood at the Republican Party Rally last night? Why would anyone think that was a good idea? WWE must be more out of touch than most of us could ever dream. Yikes.