Big Rob

His late indy matches with Sara Del Ray and Generico were both really good I thought, I'd need to watch more early stuff of his though. I haven't seen a lot of his FCW work lately either, to know whether or not that holds up - there was a period where they were giving him a lot of time for his matches.

That promos was pretty epic, although I remember it mostly for just how horrible Dustin's shirt was. I know it was the 90s, but christ he wore some ugly tops around that period. Back to Dustin the worker, this most recent run of his is one of my favourite things in wrestling for years. Seriously, the pairing of him and Cody are right up there now with my favourite tag teams of all time, and as good as the inevitable split and match will be, I really hope they draw the team out as long as possible.

Some of the US midgets came over here in the 70s, I believe. I've definitely seen an old poster that had them billed as the main event.

I just want to watch *more*. More stuff that I've not seen before, and more new stuff as well from the upcoming year. Also, I really want to get involved with a project (be it WKO 2014 or similar) and actually stick it through to the end. I have a bad habit of not seeing those kind of things through to the end, so to finish at least one would be a good goal.

I agree with this. Angle was at his best in 2000-01. Working with Benoit turned him into what he is today. Angle's at his best working shorter matches. Give him twenty minutes and it tends to fall to shit, with the clichéd trading of multiple German suplexes, Ankle Locks that last for an age, etc. The Angle who worked with Roderick Strong, Jay Lethal, a debuting John Cena that Summerslam match with Rey - that's the guy I dig. Super intense, throwing bombs and giving his opponent enough to look strong but not making himself look weak by having them kick out of a million Germans.

There's a new Lawler set? Are the listings about anywhere?

Yeah, he was still good up until the late 90's atleast. He did a random tour for Battlarts in 98 and had a fun match vs Hisakatsu Oya WWE have a sub-five minute match on their Youtube channel with Greg working Rob Conway on Heat from 2005, and I'll be damned if the Hammer doesn't bust his arse for it. I don't remember giving it a second thought when it actually aired, but rewatching it, it's lots of fun albeit marred by a lame Eugene run in. Based off of this thread, I'm watching a bunch of Valentine stuff as he's not someone I've paid close attention to in the past. Several matches in, and I'm a big fan - the guy is just so damn believable with pretty much everything that he does, and has amazing timing. Even his goofier bumps and selling come off as pretty credible and still work in a serious environment. I loved the Toronto tag with him and Brutus against Steamboat and Santana, although that's a pretty amazing showing for Tito too. Damn those two guys had fantastic chemistry with one another.

Is the Lawler/Fargo barbed wire match available online anywhere? I have the original Lawler comp that Goodhelmet did but can't find it on there, and can only see clips of Lawler/Fargo matches from a Google search.

Just given this a watch. Never seen it pimped before, and a thirty minute match involving Ron Simmons doesn't automatically sound like my cup of tea, but I like the other three guys plenty, so here we go. It was pretty great, Gilbert worked most of the match for his team so it never got bogged down at all, though to his credit everything that Simmons did looked really good, and his first missed shoulder tackle in the corner was one of my favourite moments in the whole match, it looked killer. There's so much stuff that I liked in the match, too much to list. The heat section on Gilbert was probably my favourite portion of the contest, but it was far from treading water before then - as has been mentioned, there were several layers/stories to this one. The finish was inspired, although I could have done with a little tighter cover. That aside, a really good match.

I've come in *even* later on this, as I kind of dip in and out of this website and completely forgot all about this particular forum! That said, I'm so glad this match was nominated as I've never watched it before, and ten minutes later, I'm totally sold on it. The opening portion was great, with Bubba getting stung with jabs and the crowd popping like crazy for each one. He takes a nice powder to the floor as well, plus both the early soda and nickel spots are lovely. What I love about this match is that it's worked like a street fight, rather than a regular match with regular moves and psychology, but with a chair shot every now and then like a lot of matches would be done today. The style probably covers up for Bubba's lack of experience as well, and his strikes aren't that great yet, but he moves really well for a very big dude, and even then his timing is pretty perfect. Garvin is someone I've not seen a ton of, but I dug him a whole lot here. His street fight attire was bad ass too, which puts him up in my estimation several notches too. Finish was great, a very clever way of giving Bubba the win without making Garvin look weak. Tommy Young pushing Cornette out the ring was fucking great too, I forget how much of a good referee he was. Cornette shouldn't be slept on in the match either, I loved it when Garvin got thrown out of the ring early near Cornette, prompting Jim to duck under the scaffolding to escape. That was good, but following it up with the line "Garvin's a coward" was awesome. "Don't worry about me, worry about Garvin, he's gonna need people worrying for him" was amazing too, I popped for that. So yeah, this seems like a fun project - any reason why the weekly matches stopped? I'd definitely be up for participating. Also, if anyone wants to check this match out, I found it on Youtube: someone uploaded the whole three hour show so you have to skim through it, but it's totally worth your while tracking down.

Santino can also turn it on every now and then too. His performances in the 2011 Rumble, 2012(?) Elimination Chamber and also the battle royal to qualify for the EC were all pretty great.

You'd keep Camacho but not Hunico? And you'd keep Khali citing popularity with the kids, but not R-Truth? Dude is over like a motherfucker still, at least with kids.

Hunico and Camacho are back? Seems like they've been off TV for years. I really enjoy Hunico. Haven't seen enough of Camacho to form an opinion yet. I believe they're back in developmental now, but them being on is probably just a case of filling out a show when most guys were already in Europe as opposed to a big return.

Main Event is pretty much a the undercard show now, but this week had two real good tag matches - I particularly enjoyed the Wyatts vs PTPs which I'd probably rate above Harper's match with Bryan later on in the taping for Smackdown. Usos vs the returning Hunico and Camacho was a lot of fun too, and both got a decent amount of time, which is refreshing for Main Event in recent weeks.

Not to be a pedant, but unless the UK broadcast is cut up more than the US version, it only went like 13 mins of TV time. I really dug it though, Harper's great and a nice throwback to a time when guys didn't have to do tons to get over or have good matches. I'd totally agree that this is the best year in WWE's history for great TV matches. There's been times when one of the shows has been on fire, but we routinely get really good matches every week on multiple shows, to the point where a Raw can have two top notch matches on but still be regarded as not worth a watch due to the regularity that we've been getting all these grand TV bouts.

I suppose I'm biased as I was the photographer, but that Rev Pro show was one of the best shows I've been to in years, just completely loaded with great action. Smoked the (still very good) York Hall show from earlier in the year. Lucha on the Friday night was pretty great too, Cassandro's always fantastic to watch in person.

Surely the skill (and art, if you want to go that far), is in making it look good without it actually being too stiff?

Chuck Palumbo had pretty great punches, I seem to remember a pretty nifty discus punch that he used to do. Goldust's strikes are a given, he throws a great right hand. Big fan of Christian's slaps too.

Zack Sabre Jr vs Jonny Storm has been announced for Sunday too, just seen that on Facebook.

Lazy journalism on the Mirror's part there. Saying that there were currently no plans for it to air isn't that same as confirming that it wont.

If you're going to Rev Pro, I'd strongly suggest coming a day early and/or staying a day late. Lucha Britannia are running a show on the Friday night at the Resistence Gallery (a stone's throw from the York Hall), and a trainee show on Sunday afternoon. Ultimo Dragon is on the trainee show, both should be pretty great, though I believe the Friday show is close to a sell out. Lucha is an amazing night out, the main shows are a combination of great British wrestlers under wacky gimmicks, as well as some amazing cabaret and burlesque acts. The trainees for the most part are pretty damn good too, they have a fine school there and it makes for some real fun events.

Did this get filmed at all? I know Afa wasn't the best but I could see this being quite a lot of fun, lots of Murdoch prat falling and stooging.

Given that they worked together as Pro and Rookie in the first season of NXT, it's entirely possible.

Just found a link to the Barrett vs Truth match here. Still can't quite get over the quality considering it's a 2013 Truth match.

Also, whilst it sounds a bit mad, Wade Barrett vs R-Truth from the July 31st Main Event was a damn good TV match that got a lot of time afforded to it. It kinda seemed like Truth realised he's getting on a bit in years, and really busted his arse in it. Unexpectedly grand stuff.