Matt D

2010 was a pretty weird one: Dibiase Inoki Wendi Richter Mad Dog Vachon Gorgeous George Stu Hart Bob Uecker

I do think this top ten would have been fairly different ten years ago too, for the worse.

I'm not going to deny that, as a spectator, it was a pretty enjoyable top ten.

I was looking through 88-89-90 results and while you'll get some interesting ones on the house show tapings like Randy Savage & Brutus Beefcake vs WWF IC Champion the Honkytonk Man & Greg Valentine, they generally just did the same match over and over again with him on these. That'd be Savage vs Dibiase or Andre for most of 88, and then vs Warrior/Hogan/Duggan for most of 89, and then Dusty/Warrior for most of 90. We're probably talking very similar 7 minute matches again and again. It definitely lessens the pool.

What benefit do they get from doing that? What's the purpose behind it? Do people have Fastlane as a free preview but are still oscillating about subbing for Mania?

Or if its outright encouraged/demanded by the office.

I think you can cite general trends. Also Id be curious to see exactly what elements of the match he praised. Like I said, some of those AAA matches are great, just for a lot more reasons than the ones he tended to focus on.

The biggest, flashiest, dumbest wrestling possible (to the point that he misses so much nuance in even the stuff he watches). 100% Michael Bay.

That six man was what jumped out to me too. Maybe the Narcissist match too. I know Ive never seen that.

Hey, I hope I can enjoy this stuff that much when I'm almost 60?

It's not an entirely new notion either. I was a teenager during ECW's heyday and I got to go to a show right around my 18th birthday in 1999 in Boston. It felt like a big deal that I got to see ECW, even then. Likewise, it felt like a big deal when ROH came to Boston for the first time, like I got to be part of this wave that was happening. So I get the notion, especially for someone who is 16-25. it's just expanded due to the rise of social media. The fact that Bullet Club shirts have made it into Hot Topic and are probably scraping up against the idea of being socially acceptable (while still being hip and elitist in some way) plays into it too. It's not like walking around with a Randy Orton shirt on. "No, this is different." Again, this is them tapping into something as tangible as Watts using JYD to tap into something in 1981 or whatever.

I think there are a lot of people who self-identity very heavily with pro wrestling, who want to feel like they are part of something, and who have a decent amount of disposable income without strong responsibility-driven drains upon their time and money. I don't think this is a crazy notion. I certainly wouldn't bet against you.

I increasingly think they should do something like that around a big UK show. They could probably charge a million bucks for the tickets and the UK fans would gobble that up. Bulldogs (or at least DBS), Johnny Saint, Lord Alfred Hayes, Regal, (I was going to say Haystacks Calhoun but he's already in). Maybe Big Daddy? Finlay? Does Haystacks Calhoun have some UK ties I'm not aware of or were you thinking of Giant Haystacks/Loch Ness? I hired the one wrong legged guy. As for what Stiva said? I'm not even sure how to deal with it. Trips is MUCH more inclined to put in Johnny Saint who he had Regal talk him into being a guest trainer at the Performance Center than anyone who's wrestled in the UK in the last 20 years. It doesn't matter what UK wrestling fans of the last twenty years would know.

I increasingly think they should do something like that around a big UK show. They could probably charge a million bucks for the tickets and the UK fans would gobble that up. Bulldogs (or at least DBS), Johnny Saint, Lord Alfred Hayes, Regal, (I was going to say Haystacks Calhoun but he's already in). Maybe Big Daddy? Finlay?

I've seen TM61 live but they were against AoP so I don't have a great sense of their size. Are they good candidates for the Cruiserweight tag titles that are being rumored?

For joeg, Matt Borne rudo doink teaming with Fuerza

They could do Undertaker related people. From the streak alone: Sid. Bundy. Albert (for NXT as much as anything). Henry. Maybe Bruce Prichard too as Brother Love. And Michelle McCool to boot.

And he is going to do some amazingly stupid things in that match.

I wouldnt blink if Droese got in.