El-P

Hansen was already great in the 80's, carrying the no-selling Brody to great tag matches by doing the workload. He carried old Baba to super matches in the early 80's. Hansen was basically excellent for 15 years, from the late 70's to mid 90's. Vader has been great for a few years in the 90's (90/95 and then good again in AJ but not nearly as good as Hansen was there for 15 years). Don't get me wrong, I like Vader a lot, but I also agre with some of the criticism that he'd bump too easily and that he'd try to cram to much "big spots" for the sake of it. How is that a criteria, especially for a guy for worked basically his entire career in Japan? Hansen beating the shit out of Luger in 90 was fun. But like Dan says, and I mostly agree, Vader worked basically the same way everywhere, including UWF-I. People that are big on stuff like Rey adapting greatly to the WWE style should hold against Vader the fact that he couldn't adapt once he was deprived of working super stiff. Not that I would personnaly agree, but it seems like a big criteria these days.

I knew you'd catch me on that one Dan. Rey has become an efficient but typical WWE worker. Kudos for him for adapting to this dull style (and getting roided to the grill in te process). Doesn't mean I have any interest watching any of his stuff.

Hansen, easily. Longer prime, better matches, better seller, better psychology. Eddie easily. Rey WWE stint is obscenely overrated (ok, send the hate;). Eddie was better than Rey pretty much at every point of his career. Bret easily. Shawn is one of the most overrated worker ever, right next to Kurt Angle (althougyh much much better than Angle and has been excellent in his prime). Marufuji. Much more creative, in a good way, which is rare, than KENTA and more a total package in term of being able to work with difefrent kind of opponents.

That I can agree with. His WCW character was a lot worse than what he did before, because it was forced as hell. In a way I think he made the country singer gimmick work much better than the "pissed off" Jarrett which never seemed natural to me. Jarrett was at his best from 95 to 97. The "Choosen One" gimmick was terrible and didn't suit Jarrett very well to me (basically, it was HHH's real life gimmick), Jarrett was much better as a chickenshit. He did way too much compared to the actual amount of heat he recieved at this point, and the fact that he was never made to be a regular main-eventer was the killer (although I'd argue that HHH is just as bad in that respect, only he was pushed down everybody's throat forever and fed every biggest star of the business at the time). Jarrett was a very good upper mid-carder to me, but I never bought him as a main event guy.

No, not even close. Well, I don't think Angle ever worked a smart match where the smart was coming from him. The Chyna match is Jarrett's masterpiece, but maybe Patterson was here to help a lot too, although I do think Jarrett didn't really need him. Jarrett was so good in WCW in 96 and the fact that the audience didn't want him as a Horseman was what made the thing work. Jarrett had better match with Benoit and Deano than these two had working together, and in that respect, that makes him a great go along worker. And he could carry weaker people to solid matches too. Not main event potential, but I take Jarrett over HHH any day as far as who I'd enjoy to watch the most and who's the smartest and best worker in the ring.

Tricky. Of course Hardy does cool spots and insane stunts falling off ladders, but I never bought into him being a good wrestler nor a big star. Luger sucked for most of his career, but the way he worked hard against great opponent in his younger days produced much more excellent matches than Hardy ever had. Plus I loved his Total Package stint with Liz, his most fun years to watch purely because he was so good at being the character. Luger. Angle is the most overrated wrestler in history probably, and Jarrett has been criminally underrated especially since the TNA years. Jarrett all the way, I can't stand Angle's idea of a "great wrestling match". Malenko could be dull, Candido could be spotty, but Candido was much more fun to watch overall, thanks to his goofy antics and dynamic ways. Malenko was too set in his ways which on occasion took matches down (like with Rey or Benoit). Candido

Funny, I agree with all three points you make here. I'd rather watch Luger at his best than Jeff Hardy at his best, without any doubt.

At this point we can only wish that the worst doesn't happen to Angle, or to someone else because of Angle. The kids and Karen are much better off with Jeffrey than with this raving lunatic. It's mind-boggling that he hasn't been suspended at least after this shit. But no, let's keep the belt on this guy. Angle is unhealthy and fucked up in the head.

Sure, having your company represented by a complete nutcase who gets arrested for stalking and drug posession is not a problem at all.

So not only Abyss is a terrible wrestler but he's also a terrible booker/writer? This guy gets the cake of all cake to me. I think I enjoy Tiger Jeet Singh more.

Yep. It can be very homoerotic at some points. The old days had wonderful bears like the Andersons. Nowadays, if I was gay, I would probably love to watch Randy Orton, just like joshi puroresu had a vast lesbian audience (LLPW anyone?).

Well, pro-wrestling is a decade or two when it comes to racism, mysoginism and homophobia. I guess it's the nature of the beast. Pro-wrestling is designed after the average intelligent white man whose biggest fears are : gay (because it questions and threatens his virility), foreigner (because he can't understand their language and culture) and women (because they are women). It's not a coincidence that these three are mostly used as an object of ridicule and disgust, a focus for simplistic hatred and as sex objects in the pro-wrestling landscape. The delusion of the WC people is quite pathetic.

"I was a bit of a free spirit. I thought I could get by on talent alone." He's got a sense of humour too...

I would have never guessed either. Amazing to hear. Cornette's promos on the republican is hilarious too. Corny at his best.

Same thing in France. MMA is refered to as barbaric and anything goes like it was 95 or so.

So, is Benoit vs Malenko vs Hogg Wild a very good match that was ruined by the lack of crowd noise (or even negative heat in this case), or was the match a bad one because they worked like they were in the ECW Arena or Korakuen Hall and didn't do anything to try to get back the attention of the audience and draw them into the match? Because really, in a void, it seems like an excellent match. But in front of that audience, it was a disaster that look much worse than it is. Of course said crowd wasn't a wrestling crowd to begin with, so maybe they said "the hell with it", and seeing how the crowd treated Harlem Heat later, I can't blame anyone for not trying to work for that crowd in particular. But still, I can't decide if that match was very good or if the workers just did a bad job because they weren't willing or able to do anything to grab their audience. It's puzzling to me.

Ah! That one was funny.

I see. To me Duke Droese struck me as an updated version of the happy-go-lucky 2x4 swinging Hacksaw Duggan.

Bischoff showcased the NJ3 and allowed them to get over through their work, the same way he did with Rey and Ultimo Dragon. They got time on Nitro and PPVs to shine, belts (Cruiser, TV, even US), angles (Benoit in the Horsemen, Dean vs Jericho, Dean vs Eddie vs Syxx). WWF grabbed Scorpio, give him lot of production, a stupid name, dancers, and he never got over and was a jobber 4 months into his stint. Bischoff was surely much better at promoting all these guys. He was much better letting Raven get over with his stuff. Bischoff struck me as a lot more open-minded in his approach of the product. Really, if not for Bischoff, none of the NJ3 and Rey would have been grabbed by WWF. These guys were made by WCW and WWE only worked from there with Benoit, Rey and Eddie (although Eddie got awful stuff to work with early on with the Chyna nonsense). If Rey had not been pushed as the star of the cruiser division in WCW, the WWF would have never used him better than TAKA. Hell, they couldn't find a way to use Malenko, Saturn and Raven who were way over in WCW. Bischoff and WCW don't get enough credit for making those guys and allowing them to be used by WWF later on. They were too small and worked a style to far off from what WWF was used to to be used by Vince if WCW hadn't paved them the way. Duke Droese was influenced by early ECW and TWA? He was working hardcore matches with blood & broken bottles? Really? First real ECW influence in WWF was Bret lifting up a Sabu table spot in his SS match with Diesel in 95.

Great review. Thanks for this, it certainly gives me the urge to get the book.

Not only that, but Benoit did a lot of stupid shit during his WWE stint. The german suplexes overkill is one of the dumbest thing I've seen. SUre he didn't bridge and the suplexes were flat as hell, but it still had to hurt the guy, especially with a bad neck. And what a bad idea this was from a work standpoint. Instead of getting big reaction out of one move, let's kill any reaction you can get before you reach the right quota. That was stupid, that was bad wrestling, that was pure "workrate" jerkoff. The fact that Harley Race of all people, told him to stop the flying headbutt after his neck got fucked up, and he wouldn't listen is telling.