Death From Above

Fuck, this one hurts. Absolutely one of my favourite guys from my formative years as a fan of Japanese wrestling. Hayabusa/Liger was a huge dream match for me, and I guess always will be. He was a great worker and deserved a better life than he wound up with. This one really sucks, I can't come up with much more to say right now.

Hahahaha oh boy.

The build is so odd. Ambrose has been the clear lead babyface for a few weeks now. What was the lead-in to Wrestlemania VIII like? I honestly can't remember. But I can't think of a comparable to Roman in the title match at Wrestlemania but not being pushed as the lead babyface, other than possibly Flair/Savage and Sid/Hogan.

Your constant need to take shots at others while pretending not to take shots at others is a situation where you could take your own advice.

I feel like they might shoehorn a bunch of teams into a gimmick match. New Day/Usos/Dudleys/League. Or something. There doesn't seem to be any clear plan yet.

My Geocities page had a lime green background with black text, a picture of Hayabusa, and it was awesome.

I think Tenryu is in many ways a better Lawler comparable than Flair. Guys that can finish in the top 20 but require a very circumvented argument to make #1 sound realistic.

Without reading over 14 pages, I will just say that I think at times Flair doesn't get enough credit for the fact that he was a #1 national spotlight guy for as long as he was without (1) burning out his character or (2) being a guy that had a rep for burying his opponents in the ring. That he was on top as long as he was without offending on either of those points is honestly somewhat remarkable. When you combine it with the depth of his resume of matches that are "very good or better", there's really few guys in his league. No matter how I feel about the fact that his career has sadly lasted far too long and the last chapters aren't adding anything great. I think he has a pretty strong case for wrestler of the decade in the 1980's.

Seems more like standard wrestling booking. Just the latest who management wouldn't get behind 100%. There will be others to follow. The thing is, as Dylan/Loss describe the theory, I think both what they say and what you say here are true. I don't see it as an either/or thing. This IS how wrestling works. It's that kind of business.

I smiled way too much at this,

Vince is the goddamn greatest though.

I'm not doing a ballot because I simply don't know lucha well and I refuse to participate further in any form of Listmania if I am personally unwilling to go all in on a subject. But I feel I should probably speak up, since he is my bloody avatar and all. I honestly think he's close to the ultimate example of "better than the sum of his parts". Not the biggest, fastest, or strongest. Had some kind of weird match structures at times. But he was very unique and found ways to make that work. He was one of the first Japanese wrestling stars I got into (I got on with FMW a little before All or New Japan in the tape trading days), and I admit I still find enjoyment in him. I don't really know how much if anything charisma is supposed to count in this kind of a vote, but not even speaking a word of Japanese the guy is just magnetic, couldn't take my eyes off him. He is absolutely a guy that I'd buy as a "you'd have to be there" figure, but he was completely integral in my developing an interest in Japanese wrestling in the first place. Even if for the most part that transitioned away from FMW to All Japan over time. I think the fact he had some pretty good matches with some absurdly limited workers in what was, at the time, honestly a weak territory he had to carry, should count for a lot. Unfortunately by the time FMW got legitimately good he was really on his way out as a star. I'm not touching the "death matches aren't good wrestling" thing because it tends to come 99% of the time from marks that still haven't worked out that shoot style wrestling is a gimmick that was taken way further and has ended up endangering far more wrestler lives than anything Onita-era FMW tried. I think dismissing someone on the basis of "they pioneered a dangerous style" is a slippery slope criteria I wouldn't go down. But if I did the first three people it disqualifies from consideration are Inoki, Maeda, and Takada. Two of whom I happen to think are pretty great wrestlers.

I'd vote for him ahead of Rob Van Dam. Better strikes, much better promos. Better bumper too. I do agree that Stephanie is a far better promo than Shane, though.

At this point I feel Rollins coming back is the best opportunity to salvage Roman, by doing a double turn where Rollins ends up face and Roman heel.

I think the Sasha match issues have as much to do with WWE not being good at disguising which matches are supposed to be "good matches" and which matches are just a means to an end to advance an angle.

Great summary!

"Shane's punches looked bad blooo blooo blooo" God I love the IWC.

Dean Ambrose responds to being beat up by stealing an ambulance and driving it onto the RAW set. Roman responds to his friend getting beat up by checking his texts. Someone surely has to realize which of these things will get over.

People should like them. It's the one thing they've consistently done well for like 20 years.

That was a really "important" RAW and I enjoyed it as an event, and yet... man, I'm not sure how to feel about it all. What a strange show.

I have no issue with him coming back, I Just really hope the people suggesting Shane vs. Undertaker is a swerve to try and see if they can get Cena back are right.

Roman's character is dead barring a miracle.

Triple H is literally doing a segment where he cosplays Ian Rotten vs. Corporal Robinson. Crowd turns him babyface.

Main event is starting relatively early. Giant angles, ho!

Yeah it was sort of lamely done, but I put him there with the Dudleys where I just flat out prefer this character as a heel anyway so... okay?