Death From Above

Reading this is amazing now as it seems clear El-P is past his breaking point but simply refuses to let Russo defeat him.

I would love to see more Andre from before he broke down because almost everything that's out there suggests he was absolutely worthy of the legend. I haven't seen a ton of pre-broken down Andre but it has almost all been interesting stuff. To me Inoki is a guy at his best when he's put in there with guys that he can't just fuck around and do whatever he wants. When he's forced to think a bit more, he can be a really good wrestler. Sometimes I think he got a bit lazy and complacent, but certain people could get him into a headspace where he could have great matches. Andre is certainly one of the guys that forces him into that space.

Eaton for me. Mostly for the variety of stuff I have seen him do. I've turned around on the Rock n Rolls again after sort of burning out on them for a while, but I'd rather watch Eaton vs. Random person than Morton vs. Random Person.

I want to say Sabu is the best bad wrestler I can think of. And I admit when I was in my teens and a huge ECW fan, I thought Sabu was the man. So I'll kick him a vote.

It seems to be more than enough to generate discussion if it was done in an American territory (not referencing you specifically but in general). But people vastly overrating the second tier of the US is an entirely separate discussion really.

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He showed up on the one Montreal tape I had as Mr. Toshiaki but only as one of about a dozen people that was sent out to break out a brawl. Didn't get to see him work. That was an official comm tape built around an Abdullah the Butcher vs. Steve DiSalvo match (which was actually pretty decent).

If you actually wanted to roll back to the 1990's... FMW was a very Americanized company really, and if you can get past (or into) the whole exploding fireworks thing, a lot of it doesn't feel that different from Memphis or Mid-South. Especially once you get into the Hayabusa and Tanaka vs. Team No Respect era, it's just blatantly ECW except actually really good. I really feel the garbage element causes FMW to be somewhat underrated for what a good "transitional" company it is for fans that are lost on the differences between continents. A lot of Japanese shows book as Athlete vs Athlete, especially in New and All Japan when outright heel heat in the traditional sense is overall less common (which isn't to say it never happens). Even guys like Hansen and Vader who in the states would be getting booed still get cheers because they are "good wrestlers" in the fans eyes and that is the main thing they look for. Where as FMW is really a classic American face/heel structure where the bad guys try and fuck people over, cut promos where they yell a bunch, cheat, all that good stuff. But with a lot of All Japan you get the feeling that it's not important if Kawada is being a dick to Kobashi or not, what's important is that each guy has a style and which will overcome the other, and if Kawada wants to be a dick so what, that's his choice. The fans see him as a good wrestler and that's the more important factor. I don't know how to explain it better. I actually started from FMW and things like that when I first got into tapes and then worked into All and New Japan later back in the 90's, and in a sense maybe I'm thankful for that because it softened the transition on things like the commentary barrier. The wrestling in All Japan is better overall (although FMW has some really good periods), but that doesn't always equate to easier to follow for new people. I don't think this sort of thing gets brought up enough. I could probably make the same case for a company like Michinoku Pro or something, if I'd followed that more closely. The Athlete vs. Athlete thing as opposed to the really black and white face/heel reactions you get in the states I think is a big part of what throws some people off, but it's a key point. It's not that there aren't lines between good and bad guys there, but the fans just react to it differently in the big two companies for the most part. If you look at a lot of the American guys that had trouble getting over in Japan, I think this point plays into it a lot. It's not that people won't get into your schtick, but they want to see (the local fan's idea of) a good match while you do it. You could build whole matches in the states just around heel schtick with very little wrestling, you don't see that a lot in All or New Japan being successful (though I'd say there were FMW workers that did it). Furnas and Lafon vs. Kobashi and Kikuchi could draw monster heat because Furnas and Lafon could do both the athletic stuff but also play "nasty foreigners beat up your heroes", but in the States they were basically just "some guys". Where as the reverse was true for others who were big names in the states but didn't always succeed at becoming a big deal in Japan. I know all my references are like a million years old, but this is what I've got.

Go-go-go actually works just fine in the correct context. I've never had a problem per se with "wow this is very athletic and makes no sense" so long as it doesn't go on much too long. I wouldn't say RVD or Manami Toyota are among my personal favourites, but both have done stuff that makes me go wow. The problem is most wrestlers doing it haven't apparently played enough Street Fighter II or Marvel vs Capcom to understand how to make "getting all the fancy shit in" as interesting as that makes it. Not even trying to be cute there either. Fighting video games are almost all a go-go-go style built around showing you as many goofy things as possible in 3 minutes or less, and have successfully entertained millions.

Shortest answer I can give: depends on the quality of the write up. I followed TNA this way for a couple years.

I'm with Phil Rippa in that I couldn't hear anything over AJ's gloves.

How is this any different from the general tone on this board that anyone who enjoys Brody at any point in his career must have a mental malfunction?

I really don't get how they get into that situation with the tournament. I mean if you know in advance you have X shows and you can't get in all the matches just lie on TV and say "these matches happened at such and such a place" like wrestling has done for 100 years now. Seems easy to prepare for and just leak some "results" each week. But just "oh out of time, forget it"... really?

Pitbull has never had a peak the kind of which that implies. That's the thing people are missing. I'm sticking with Sable the more I've thought about it.

In fairness that describes a lot of people on subjects much more important than wrestling now.

People are offended because they don't think she is as pretty, basically, and I guess that makes it wrong. I really wish the answer wasn't that shallow, but I fear that it probably is.

My main appeal to Japan was always that there were long matches, generally more so than you would get in the US. For me it was always a somewhat athletic thing as opposed to "I hate Amurrican rasslin and it's stories" which isn't true at all. They are just different things but both good. Backstory on Japan to me was always supplementary to that. I mean it's nice once I had it but never was a tipping point to me enjoying it I guess. Then again I'm also a guy that's never understood how commentary is really important to wrestling and would probably be happy to get just raw footage with no talking. So I may not be your everyman. I do get how to fans of certain kinds of American wrestling the lack of angles/story build is going to be a hurdle but at the end of the day I just have trouble seeing it as a dealbreaker myself.

Also I'm not sure I've ever seen a shoot discussing pre-Wrestlemania 1 era wrestling that hasn't included at least one story about a riot in a wrestling arena.

"The fans in Japan don't cheer for things."

Lots of people are geniuses in one field and dogshit terrible in others. Having said that, in this case a genius should probably know "hey imma gonna pick a fight with the NFL and college football" is a bad idea.

The thing is I think you have to look for someone that was way over with casual fans but all the die hards hate. I think a lot of these picks so far are off the mark a bit there. I know no one that takes music "seriously" in this day and age that listens to Pitbull. But people that want some PARTAAAAAAY MUSIC a couple times a month must dig the guy. I am trying to think of who the equivalent of that might be. I want to say Sable just off the top of my head. But this probably needs more thought.

If it is just "lol carny bullshit" then it's the really low end of carny bullshit, since a good carny tells lies to actually, you know... gain something. There's really no payoff here. More the sort of lie you'd expect from C-grade wrestler trying to make his RF shoot more interesting. Not saying it's impossible Flair is into that mindset now, but given the shit he's done to his body "his memory isn't very good" seems at least as likely. Considering normal people are going through that by their 60's pretty regularly the idea that it isn't happening to Ric Flair given all he's done to himself would be a medical miracle.

Getting dates mixed up is one thing. We all do that. Getting mixed up about weather you were on a show where a guy was stabbed to death in the locker room in one of the most famous incidents in wrestling history then had to go work on that same show is something entirely different. I do think this was likely a "Flair's brain isn't what it used to be" thing by the way, as opposed to a "Flair is bullshitting people on purpose" thing. But it isn't the most encouraging sign.

Honestly that's up there with Hogan's story about the Undertaker dropping him on his head in 1978.

Every time I go through the yearbooks and see the term "good for joshi" (or some other thinly veiled insult backhanded compliment variant of that), I feel like turning off my computer. Just thought I'd get that out there. Anyway, overall Aja for me. Though other women had better peaks. But I like her overall body of work that I've seen a lot.