Hollinger.

He's been having good/great matches on weekly american tv for 16 years now. I think if you haven't heard much about him, that's more on you. People talk up Roddy all the time online.

Yeah, I would categorize more of the fights as guys playing with their food long enough to look competitive, and to me that's still looking to build an entertaining match in a similar vein to pro wrestling. I don't think we know enough about the inner workings to differentiate from RINGS in any meaningful way as both transitioned further into a more fully shoot style after developing enough fighters to be able to do so.

I also don't know that it had any kind of actual impact on my ballot. I voted for Funaki, Suzuki and Sakuraba but it's not like their MMA work had much of a positive impact. Maybe slightly more with Sakuraba.

By that I just mean I'll consider stuff like PRIDE fights for Takada or Otsuka or whatever pro wrestler as part of their cases. Definitely not considering the whole of MMA in something like this. If a guy has a case as a wrestler already, basically.

I tend to count Pancrase (and MMA in general) where it adds to a pro wrestlers case, but it’s not something that I count against them. There’s really not all that many places where it’s all that applicable… Suzuki, Funaki, Sakuraba, Shamrock, Severn if you really want to try to make a case for him. I see MMA as a point in favor for a Yuji Nagata, even if he got his shit rocked, just because he wore it like a champ and fought a couple killers. But something like the inverse, trying to make a case for a Mark Coleman or Kevin Randleman based on their MMA careers and some cameos in wrestling, I wouldn’t do.

I think it’s less them adding to their cases and more the voter base changing drastically and those being two japanese guys who are known to more casual fans.

I also think it's going to lead to a huge jump for Sting, who was a mid range guy already that will get a huge propaganda/nostalgia push.

Everyone was worried about how guys like HHH, Taker and Rollins were going to do with all the outsider ballots coming in, but I don't think there was ever any chance of them breaking through in a big way. None of the most extreme cases of WWE propaganda are picking up any votes with most of the PWO base, so it's just leaving them in the middle of the pack. The actual push is going to be Bryan, Punk, Joe and Styles. The guys that already had support from the existing base that are also super popular among the normies. I'm sure there are guys that fit into that mold that I'm forgetting. Everyone is expecting Low Ki to drop soon, but he may have just enough cross over appeal.

I like it as a bit of a safeguard against the poll getting shared in the WWECWTNA Super Mega Storytelling With Boobs Federation Fans facebook group and getting an influx of 1000 votes for Bray Wyatt as one of the 20 greatest wrestlers of all time. Is there a chance of that happening? Probably very little, but a less extreme version of that kind of happened with twitter.

Yeah, all of the old head huge collectors starting to sell digital files changed the game. Still lots of random shit out there that no one has bothered to upload anywhere.

It's also now something that costs $3 and will get to you in a day or two instead of $30 and a week or two.

Also have to take into account that in 2006 everyone's ballots were still largely defined by individual tape collections. By 2016 there was so much more footage easily available. In 2026 you can now literally access anything that exists on tape either instantly for free or at most in a day or two with a cheap ISO from Lynch or Lorefice.

Guilty. Those matches are among my all time favorites and I have not seen them anytime recently. Liger is a guy that has underwhelmed me more often than wowed me over the years, but seeing the stuff I do love again would have bumped him up my list considerably. Sano is a guy that probably would have made the back end of my list if I had spent some time hemming and hawing over the last 25 spots rather than hitting submit the moment I had a list with only 100 names on it.

Jake is the first guy that came to mind for me. He had several very good/great matches, but had he stayed healthyish and soberish in the 90s, I think he was capable of a lot more than we got.

Something that has interested me in reading some of the puroresu history translation threads has been notes about what kind of stuff played better on the rural AJPW shows vs the bigger shows. It got me wondering about what the traveling fanbase was like for the company. I know hardcore fans here have no problem traveling a couple hours to see shows when certain promotions come through and would think it’s the same elsewhere. Did the hardcore AJPW fanbase not travel to more rural shows? Just a case of a more regular schedule meaning fewer fans needed to travel to get their fix?

I've tried to work this out before, but I think the key to booking like they do and still getting people over is to adopt something similar to the old All Japan system, where you have loosely organized groups of guys with a hard kept hierarchy. 2/3 top level faces, 2/3 top level heels. Underneath each is a US title tier guy and/or an IC title tier guy, a tag team, and maybe a low card/job guy. You don't present them as a group, the way WWE usually tends to, but for tv you run lots of tags and six mans, etc, and this is where your pairings come from. You enforce the strict hierarchy in that you keep apart your 1 vs 1 and maybe even 1 vs 2 matches on tv. Same with 2 vs 2, 3 vs 3, etc. You build those rivalries through tag matches, etc, and save the equal matches for something with a payoff. When you establish this order, you can effectively build guys by booking the upsets. The upsets need to have meaningful changes to the depth chart, though. Guys moved up, guys moved down. I have no idea if this makes sense. I'm at work, and have written this in several intervals. I'm trying to put together a depth chart, but the current roster makes it hard.

Robles was telling me about that match the other night. Said it has to be seen.

Earlier this year they ran a poll to vote on the top 18 matches in company history. Most of it is pretty great. All of the matches are uploaded here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLygDmwlLXUJhuARQxZBxA2RJD0ASFXdf8

Looking at this card, it's a bit light because so much of the talent is working the main event. But it's also 2-3 matches longer than most Ring of Honor shows. The opening six man is nothing, just some local guys warming the crowd up. In the three way, you have Hollis & Posey who have worked a lot of southern ROH shows and are "names" for the area. Not sure what the story is with Samson getting the win and the match with Lethal. He's not really a name, but he's got some size and maybe they just wanted an excuse to get a look at him against Lethal later in the show. Kingdom tag match was likely a squash. Adams and Paco are both midwest guys who can be really fun, but they are both small and green, so I'm sure it was a jobber tv tag. Page is an established guy, and Ferrara is a trainee that has been elevated to a regular. Both are smaller, but both are good. Cheeseburger is popular, and was playing the tiny dude in the ring with three established hosses. Total comedy spot, and gives them someone to throw around. Castle and Romantic Touch are regulars, though neither are big names. I mean... I can see the complaint, but it's largely just part of going to a TV taping. A couple TV main events with name guys, and then feature matches against local guys/trainees/young guys.

FWIW, he's getting ready to film a movie in London, so they might be doing something to get him off of TV for a while.

The problem being that you can't just bring guys in for a 6 month run and then let them go elsewhere until you want to use them again. And they've never really figured out how to cool guys off and then elevate them again, beyond guys like Big Show or Kane whose size makes them instantly credible(ish) when they need it. If you want a hot heel, they need to be able to disappear. And ideally, you have a Bobby Heenan in place as the real main event heel, giving instant credibility to whoever he decides is getting the next run at the super baby champ.