Robert S

I saw Cesaro about half a year after his debut, and you could see something in him already back then (considering the people on the same card as him), at least that he was serious about it and not just playing wrestler (like almost all of other guys of the Swiss scene back then). Considering who he had to work and train with until he left for the US (besides the occasional weekend camps with US guys visiting like Hero or Quack), it's not surprising at all, that it took him some time to get going. The German (and Swiss) scene in the early 2000s started out as a mix of backyarders and guys playing wrestler a couple of times a year. It took time for the scene to get to a level, to be able to produce talent who could hold up with the better US indy guys. People like Walter (who I guess benefited from quite early getting linked to the post-catch Austrian scene that had some more experienced and polished wrestlers to learn from) or Marcel Barthel are "2nd generation" Euro indy guys. If you want to see something really funny, check out his debut match (which is out there, it's on the first ever wXw show). Ignoring that you can barely recognize him, if someone told you, that this guy 15 years later was one of the best workers in the biggest company in the world, you would laugh and laugh and laugh.

Is that a (weirdly shaped) dumpster on fire?

The Rock one year in was in the WWF midcard, two years in on the verge of becoming a main eventer, three years in the number two guy in the business and a year later the man. Brock Lesnar's ascend was comparable (though with a lower peak). Regarding Rousey: there are a bunch of people coming from MMA (or similar combat sports), that were great from the get-go, Volk Han the first name that comes to mind. Apparently Kevin Randleman also was a natural (though I have never seen him in ZERO-ONE or Hustle later on). Bas Rutten did a 30 minute-long mat wrestling match in his 8th pro wrestling match.

That almost makes the Hogan-Warrior segments from 98 Nitro look good.

Didn't Edouard Carpentier already use some moonsault-like flips in the 1950ies?

Is Taue the number 4 (in a mixture of star power / push and in ring performance) of 90ies All Japan though? I would think Hansen and Tsuruta would be above him. Regarding Taue vs. Kobashi: my feeling always has been that Taue was the smartest wrestler of the the four pillars. Look how broken down he was post 2000 but still was able to have one or two great matches a year until 2006 or so, when he was reaching 90ies Giant Baba levels of being broken down). Going by physical talent, he was dealt the worst cards of the four pillars but was still able to hang on.

The whole concept of sports people being part of history books seems strange me. For one in school, about 3/4 of the time is spent on pre-1900 stuff, ergo (ignoring ancient Olympic games and stuff like chariot races and gladiator battles) there were no sports to talk about and when talking about the 20th century, there is so much stuff to talk about that I cannot see wasting a minute talking about any sports person, at least from a European perspective. Some teachers might mention Berlin 1936 or maybe even Moscow 1980, and when going over the terrorism of the 1970ies and 80ies, Munich 1972 might be mentioned as well (though I suppose in Germany and Austria, where is might be most topical, the RAF and the political unrests of the late 1960ies are much more important regarding that topic), but that is definitely not essential knowledge or stuff essential for understanding history (Berlin 1936 might work as a good example of the Nazi propaganda machine, so suppose that's the closest you get).

Going strictly by numbers, a guy like Georg "Schurl" Blemenschütz also has to be a decent candidate. He was the top star and main promoter in Austria for something like two decades and going by reports, alone during the summer months, they did almost daily shows in Vienna drawing up to 15.000 at the Heumarkt (I obviously don't know how often that happened and what a regular crowd size was). Like many people, he hung around too long in the ring (into his seventies), at the end being called "the mummy of the Heumarkt" by fans.

Thank god for all the safety improvements over the last 25 years. There is a reason why there was a death every 6 GPs in the 1970ies and since Senna and Ratzenberger there was "only" one fatal accident in Formula 1 (and that one forced the creation of the halo, without which Grosjean might have got decapitated). Though when the race was restarted and Lance Stroll's car ended up turned around, I heard JR in my head to ask for someone to stop the damn GP. That the race ended behind the safety car because Checo Perez car got lit up three laps before the regular finish was fitting.

The biggest problem with the categories is not even the self-assigning by the voters. The whole "rest of the world" category is the best example for that. To be able to make a good selection who to vote for, you would have to be an expert in Australian wrestling, UK, mainland Europe and Puerto Rico (was there any candidate on the ballot this time? I would guess Miguel Perez Sr. was part of the "historical US & Canada" category?). Besides UK and mainland Europe, there is no cross-section at all between this regions.

The total number is not that hard to estimate: the cut-off in "US and Canada modern" was at 207, 207 / 60 * 100 = 345, so there were 345 voters in that category, which I assume to be the biggest by far. Using the same calculation, "US and Canada historical" had 288 voters, Japan had 218 voters, Mexico 132 voters and "Rest of the world" 180 voters. Theoretically, you could end up with 1163 voters, but I assume in reality the number to be well below 500, probably closer to 400.

To be honest, that is not a big surprise. It's actually astonishing that he got to 60 considering his life style for the last 30 years (at least).

From what I remember, it was a mostly complaining about the "reporters" voter category (and I think it is no secret that Dave has given out ballots left and right to "reporters" who only match that term in the broadest sense) and to a lesser degree about the "active wrestlers" - while ignoring that historians also had Omega pretty high up there. That plus using the whole thing and the situation with Orange 45 for a not too funny joke. One problem with having Kenny Omega in the Japanese category is that loads of people voted for him, who would not be called experts on Japanese wrestling. I.e. by voting for Omega, they inadvertently voted against Akira Taue or Yoshiaki Fujiwara, for example. But that is mostly a general problem with Dave's system.

Damn, why did I click on that link (and spent 10 minutes reading through that stuff)? Oh the humanity! Really, watching the Hindenburg go up in flames could not have felt much worse.

I watched the farewell thing life as I woke up early and could not get to sleep anymore. Weren't people speculating that this was a setup for a Wrestlemania match? Once the Godwinns came out, I think it was clear to everyone that this was no angle. By the way: was Dennis Knight part of the BSK as well? I thought that Canterbury was the only Godwinn that was part of that group. Apros pos BSK: I still remember how strange the 95 Survivor Series team of the Undertaker seemed (Undertaker, Fatu, H. Godwinn and Savio Vega).

There is a huge difference: Japan always had Corona pretty well under control (the highest number of new cases per day was something like 2000, a lot of European countries with a fracture of Japan's population would kill for such numbers), which might have something to do with the fact that wearing masks has a long tradition in Japan.

Well, I guess you could say the last part if you mean that by running 36:35 it was 36:32 too long. I doubt you could cut that match together to a decent 5 minute match.

Just mathematically speaking, a vaccine alone won't eradicate the virus anyway. For that to happen, you would need a vaccination rate of something like 75% to 80% (if the basic reproduction number without any social distancing is, as estimated, in the range of 3 to 5, the efficiency of the vaccine is in the promised range of 90% to 95% and the vaccine relatively stable against mutations of the virus), which just won't happen (it took something like 50 years to (mostly) eradicate Polio, and that is a very cheap, simple and safe vaccination (unless your name is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.)). I am not even sure if an authoritarian country like China can reach that number.

I don't have a strong opinion on him one way or the other (on the one hand he has main evented four straight Wrestlemanias and will main event more, on the other hand this is the age of the Brand, where individual guys don't matter), I just meant that in a couple of years people will ask Dave to put him back on the ballot (with the argument being that since his last time on the ballot he had more time on top of WWE - which he will have by all likelihood) and he will do so. Someone how I am surprised to have dropped of the ballot due to less than 10% of the votes is Mario Milano. Wasn't he THE guy in Australia for some time, or am I confusing him with someone?

Reigns will be put back onto the ballot in a couple of years and will get in easily.

There are people believing that the earth is flat, others that a significant part of the leading politicians are nothing more than a pedophilic, satanist cult, not to talk about all the bullshit spread about COVID-19 all over the net. Believing that an election is rigged is nothing compared to that.

On the positive side, this couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Cornette (who was involved in bringing them in) has said as much. I guess giving them shitty gimmicks was to make clear that they were just JTTS. Mantaur (Bruiser Mastino, a cousing of Cannonball Grizzly / PN News) was a year earlier than the other guys, so there might has to be other reasons for his gimmick (maybe for a short-term Undertaker run on house shows?).

He might have gotten a good USWA run or two, but he would never have had the career Jeff had. I don't see Tracy getting a serious midcard run even in mid-90ies WWF or a upper midcard to main even run in late 90ies WCW. For the national landscape of that time, he was just "too southern".

I had a silly thought: wouldn't the Wild Samoans be decent candidates going by influence? Just consider the list of wrestlers, that would have never stepped into the ring without them: Family: Roman Reigns, Yokozuna, Rikishi, Samu, Tonga Kid, Umaga, Rosey, The Usos, Jacob Fatu, LA Smooth, Manu, Sean Maluta, ... Trainees (going by cagematch): Michael PS Hayes, Batista, Kidman, Rocco Rock, Kanyon, Virgil, Snitsky, ... Not all guys on this list turned out to be stars, but there quite some good names on this list.