Tawren

What? Dave states himself that he saw Murdoch several times live. Quote: "I saw Murdoch all over the world in the 80s in a bunch of territories and also socialized with him many times in Japan." So agree or disagree with his opinion, he's seen what he's talking about. This is a talking point that should be taken out back and shot. \

Jeff Siegel wrote that, not Dave. Unless it's a pen name or something

WWE is a public company. I'm curious what their protocols are if their Executive Chairman (or whatever Vince's job actually is) passes away. I understand that his shares can be in his will or whatever, but his actual company job. That could make a large difference and lead to some possible friction and or schisms.

So about a month ago, I picked up goodhelmet's MOTYC compilations and have begun to work through them in the hopes that I can determine my Match of the Decade. I have not liked to keep a lot of matches on my computer and I don't have access to most of my collection right now, but these comps have basically every really pimped matches from 05-08, I've been keeping up to date with 09, and I have a feeling most of the recommended stuff from 00-04 is available online. I'm pretty slow at watching wrestling and there was a fair amount of content on the 2005 set. This is when the indy scene was really starting to peak, WWE was firing on a few cylinders, and NOAH was still hot. That said, here is my MOTY list for 2005: 1. 6/23/05 Eddy Guerrero vs. Rey Misterio Jr. (SD!) 2. 12/16/05 Santo/Casas v. Mephisto/Averno (CMLL) 3. 12/17/05 KENTA vs Low Ki (ROH) 4. 9/18/05 KENTA vs SUWA (NOAH) 5. 4/3/05 Angle vs. Michaels (Wrestlemania) 6. 7/18/05 Kenta Kobashi vs. Sasaki (NOAH) 7. 10/1/05 Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi (ROH) 8. 5/14/05 CM Punk vs. Jimmy Rave (ROH) 9. 5/2/05 Shelton Benjamin v. Shawn Michaels (RAW) 10. 11/5/05 Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong (ROH) 11. 1/8/05 Kobashi vs. Suzuki (NOAH) 12. 6/26/05 Angle vs. Michaels (Vengeance) 13. 11/5/05 Santo v. Atlantis (CMLL) 14. 5/7/05 Samoa Joe vs. Jay Lethal (ROH) Nothing else I saw resonated with me enough to put it on the list. Thoughts on the matches: 1. 6/23/05 Eddy Guerrero vs. Rey Misterio Jr. (SD!) This is crazy good. They do a masterful job of building the heat and the crowd is going insane by the finish. The rest of their 2005 feud got too silly for me, with Dominic becoming the focal point of the feud and long stretches of Eddy staring at him. Here, they focus on each other and it's amazing. It's weird to think how they can have such a different match than their 1997 WCW classic but they pull it off, working a much slower pace but still fitting in tons of moves and spots. This is probably the peak for Eddy's facial expressions - featuring confidence, disgust, disappointment, anger, and finally worried and desperate. The crowd loses it for the finish. 2. 12/16/05 Santo/Casas v. Mephisto/Averno (CMLL) For the first two falls, I was wondering why this was on the set, and then the third fall they just kicked it into gear hard. Santo in particular was amazing, just fluid and crisp to the max. Another great finish here. 3. 12/17/05 KENTA vs Low Ki (ROH) 4. 9/18/05 KENTA vs SUWA (NOAH) I'm a big fan of KENTA, and these were two amazing performances. Low Ki was his usual self in their match, but the ROH crowd loved seeing him get stiffed back. Just a brutal, violent match. There are pointless NOAH Jrs matwork to keep it from really reaching that upper echelon, but they ditch that quickly and get into beating the shit out of each other. The SUWA match is completely different, built around SUWA being a huge dick. Getting into Joe Higuchi's face, spitting on a dude at ringside, and eating his comeuppance like a man. I loved these. 5. 4/3/05 Angle vs. Michaels (Wrestlemania) 12. 6/26/05 Angle vs. Michaels (Vengeance) I wanted to rank the Vengeance match higher, just for the turnbuckle powerbomb (which was SWEET) but Michaels forgets how to sell in that one. I hate the "stay in the ankle lock forever" thing, but that happens in every Angle match so you kind of have to overlook it. 6. 7/18/05 Kenta Kobashi vs. Sasaki (NOAH) 7. 10/1/05 Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi (ROH) Epic 2005 Kobashi is great, but there is little substance to these past the spectacle. Which is fine, spectacle is great to watch too. The chop war on 7/18 is basically the pinnacle of all chops ever. The Joe match is insane, huge heat, but the crowd pissed me off so fucking much. "THIS IS AWESOME" twice, "ROH!", "I CAN'T SEE SHIT!" when they're fighting on the outside, "SIT THE FUCK DOWN" as a continuation of that, "PLEASE DON'T TAP!" REALLY? for fuck's sake, and "ARIGOTO" after the match. But great desperate work from Joe and Kobashi puts him over huge. 8. 5/14/05 CM Punk vs. Jimmy Rave (ROH) This is their cage match, and like most of these matches it has huge heat. It's CM Punk's ROH climax and the best performance of Rave's career. Tons of comeuppance spots and pay offs, and thats really all you can ask for in this. The finishing superplex off the cage is bonkers. 9. 5/2/05 Shelton Benjamin v. Shawn Michaels (RAW) Anyone who says Benjamin can't get over in WWE forgets this match. The crowd loves him and is begging for an upset. Tons of false finishes and a great spinning enziguri by Benjamin, followed by the infamous springboard-into-superkick finish. Great TV match that if followed through on would have made Benjamin a main eventer. 10. 11/5/05 Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong (ROH) I hated when ROH found out Japan does time limit draws, because then they figured they had to do them all the time. It was cool for Joe/Punk, but the 2006 stuff and the 75 minute Aries/Dragon match were fucking retarded. I'd forgotten the result to this, and when the announcers (who are terrible, by the way) started going on about how "these men could go 60 minutes LOL foreshadowing~" 5 minutes in I figured I was in for a long borefest. They managed to suck me in anyways through some great near falls and when Dragon just murdered Strong with the elbows to finish it I was beside myself. Too much pointless opening stuff to rank higher though. 11. 1/8/05 Kobashi vs. Suzuki (NOAH) I just love watching Suzuki do shit. He's awesome. Here he is being a bigger dick than usual and working Kobashi's chopping arm constantly and out of nowhere, and finally Kobashi will have none of it. Really good. 13. 11/5/05 Santo v. Atlantis (CMLL) 14. 5/7/05 Samoa Joe vs. Jay Lethal (ROH) These are just really solid matches that did their genre to perfection that I couldn't justify ranking ahead of any of the above matches but were heads and shoulders above the rest of the discs. So there's my 2005 thoughts. I think Rey/Eddy is the only one that will contend for MOTD, but we'll see. A solid year of wrestling.

MMA isn't pro wrestling in the sense that it isn't fake. MMA has many (though not all) of its roots in pro wrestling. Dave Meltzer covers MMA in his pro wrestling newsletter, and has for many years now and isn't going to stop. Subscribers are aware of this when they subscribe. These are all facts. I really wish we could move on. Though admittedly, Bryan Alvarez and Meltzer going on about "UFC does wrestling better than wrestling" is annoying too

42ish minutes in They make fun of you for defending CM Punk, saying he must be your only friend because you always defend him As a casual F4W audio show listener I was very confused

Ehhh...I really doubt they ever made money off the PPVs in the first place. I don't think ROH has expanded its market presence at all in the last couple of years since they started doing those, in fact I'd put money they've lost ground. Did Meltzer ever report their PPV numbers? Obviously since they've stopped doing them they weren't good.

Off The Record is like, the weak version of PTI or Best Damn Sports Show. And the reason they constantly got interviews was that TSN wanted to promote RAW (which probably made them a boatload of money). Notice how they aren't interviewed on OTR now that RAW and SD are on the Score? And as far as anchors, I can think of several instances where Dutyschen (sp) or one of the other TSN anchors would joke about RAW or mock what just happened during the in-show SportsCenter segments. I know it's fun to think that in far-off lands, wrestling is respected and our fandom is justified, but at far as Canada goes it just isn't true. Wrestling results aren't reported in the paper, it's not some venered cultural institution, and Bret Hart isn't our Michael Jordan.

As far as Canada, in Bret Hart's mind that is true but not in anybody elses.

I don't hate him yet, but likely I will end up hating him as a generic pandering face. As Dave Batista, man about town who was a total bad ass and had the greatest set of suits ever, yes I was a big fan. But already he is a generic good guy with lame taunts and lame catchphrases - the thumbs down and "the animal is unleashed" are just terrible. They've taken everything that was cool about Batista and taken it away to make him a generic good guy. Soon enough he will be hitting on random chicks backstage ala Orton. LAME.

"American Dragon" Bryan Danielson: Best wrestler on the indy scene today. Perfect execution, great at involving the crowd, great facials, incredible at comedy, basic moveset that WORKS (seriously - airplane spin? awesome). Sometimes is too ambitious, but even that really isn't bad. Mitsuharu Misawa: One of the best wrestlers ever. Anyone who has seen any All Japan from the 1990's will agree. And he founded NOAH. What a great guy. El Hijo del Santo: One of the best wrestlers in the world, as well as probably the most underrated on the interweb due to how few people watch lucha. He had a great 2004 (the 3/28 Atlanta match vs La Parka, even clipped down to 10 minutes, is incredible, as is the 11/19 Guadalajara tag with Mistico against Guerreros Dos Infernos). He has a few stinkers, particularily the match vs Averno, but really, nobody is as good or consistent as Santito is. Christian: Needs to expand his moveset and drop the chinlock. Also needs a push - he is on the top tier of good wrestlers in the WWE. Nick Bockwinkel: I wish I've seen more of him. From what I've seen, he is really good. Haven't seen enough to form a real opinion though. Shawn Michaels: MY BACK...OH GOD MY BACK...I CAN'T MOVE...SOMEBODY HELP ME...PLEASE GOD (BTW I'M RELIGIOUS) HELP ME...OH GOD THIS HURTS... *nip up*. Kane: Has anybody gone through as much crap as he has? Katie Vick, the Shane feud, his backstory changing every week, being unmasked, being buried, "You're GONNA FACE KANE! What? You won?" every week for a year, turning every week, raping Lita, and more. And he is still way over. Surprisingly decent when wrestling somebody good. Nobuhiko Takada: Haven't seen a lot of his stuff, but the Vader and Backlund matches are absolutely incredible and must see. All of you who haven't, see them ASAP. Terry Taylor: I have seen next to no matches from him. I was going to make a bad Red Rooster joke, but that would be mean. And unfunny. Honky Tonk Man: I hate him, if only for making promoters think they can do a "heel escapes every match with a cheap win and retains the belt for a year and no match can end clean" even now. But still, really good chickenshit heel.