Matt D

Here's a thought I had while going through the Holiday Appreciation thread and dealing with one too many work secret santas: My time is pretty limited right now between a relatively new baby, the other kids, and work. I don't have enough time to seriously follow Raw/Smackdown/etc. right now, let alone that and CMLL and indies and whatever else. I will again at some point (curated at least) but not now. I also don't have time to post things on Segunda Caida and, much to my dismay, I didn't have time to cruise through 1980s NJPW handhelds or other such things. I do have time to watch a match or two a week though, but it's hard to manage that. I know myself though; it's a lot easier to do it if it's part of a project or what not. If there's just a little bit of obligation. So I came up with this. Someone suggests a match to me. I suggest a match to them. We both write it up. Then someone else, so on and so forth. It could be something wildly outside my normal viewing (though probably not something that people would think I'd absolutely hate). Maybe nothing longer than 30 mins and it has to be something that can be viewed relatively easily (youtube, dm, certain yearbooks, certain archives, etc.). And it's not just me. Other people could pair up and keep pairing up. And this could be something we do in 2018. I'm sure there are matches people want El-P or Microstatistics or Marty or CapitalTTruth or whoever to watch. People could put out an open request to want to watch something and someone else could chime in and both people post a match review of their respective matches in the MDA. If everyone thinks it's a terrible idea, nevermind, or even if people just want to do it with me and no one else is interested. Hell, if no one's interested in the reciprocal part of it all, I'd probably just take suggestions from people one at a time to write them up as I can. But I thought it could be a fun social thing.

Whoa. That sounds awesome. Thanks for the heads up.

I think Chad's got some 2000 goggles on here. The high praise made me want to check this out and the fact that no one's around today let me. I wonder if this is the sloppiest match that he ever gave 4 snowflakes to. To begin, it's a good match. It's controlled chaos. I imagine it would have been an absolute blast to watch live. It's also proof positive that you can insert almost any tools into the traditional southern tag structure and so long as they're used in a consistent and relative (see: balanced) way, it'll work. For instance, instead of the RnRs and the Rockers leaping over the top rope to continue to work on the arm for a shine, Legrande and Thompson just obliterated the Ballards with double teams. The kick outs were appropriate though, because the damage was just starting to be done. In 2000, with the size differential, you bought it and it worked within the match. I liked how different the Ballard's double teams felt relative to the Playas, more finesse and set up and about increasing the impact on a strike as opposed to the power double teams. It's an obvious distinction but one you don't see within a single match in practice all that much. I liked how the hot tag was still earned (with one more rotation after the power bomb hope spot) even though it didn't have to be and even though it probably wouldn't have been on the indies a few years later. That matters. I would have liked to see just a little bit more heat, with a little bit more Melissa and a little more subtly in the distractions. The finish felt earned and a lot of that was the Ballard's selling actually, though you didn't see a ton of it. They were absolutely portraying being on the wrong side of a war in the last third. So well-executed in layout? Sure, absolute. But well-executed in general? That's a tough one. They hit ALMOST everything (more on what they didn't hit later). None of it was what I'd call clean. Some things stood out especially, like the blind tag, out of nowhere, poetry in motion kick transition, one of the most important spots of the match since it was where the shine ended and the heat began. The blind tag worked. The rope running worked. The kick didn't. Overall, though, the transition did because the set up was so visually effective and the IDEA of it was so effective. There were a bunch of Playas double teams that just barely hit. In the finishing stretch, there was a sort of quizzical spot where Legrande (I think) seems willing to let his partner eat a super duper plex in order to capitalize, which you can buy but it does seem a little wonky (it was blocked by his partner to set up a spot, but my suspension of disbelief was stretched for that). The dives were nice. Great job catching by the Ballards. Pretty obvious that the Playas totally mistimed a double team afterwards, however, causing one Ballard to brutally get spiked. It set up the finish but man it looked nasty. Anyway, I thought this was just more evidence of what we already knew, that it's real hard to screw up a southern tag if you get the flow of it right. I think this is a match that's very good, a little bit because of itself (the smart and effective implementation of modernity, color by number with much brighter colors than usual) and a little bit despite itself. That's an accomplishment in and of itself, but maybe more of one for the form than the specifics.

This is the first site on my "Chrome Frequently Visited" sites so I guess my internet habits speak for themselves. There's a number of you I've gotten to know well enough to consider friends and a number more than I just hadn't had the time for yet but that I still regard highly. Best of the Season. I hope you all make it through the Affective Disorder ok.

It's not about "Real." It's about allowing for the suspension of disbelief and utilizing the conventions of the genre to tell a story instead of just tearing them all apart for a cheap shortcut that over time renders them ultimately meaningless?

I thought the Zenk bio was pretty solid this week.

It's so screwy. The problem is that there's almost no comparison. With a play, they're doing the same thing every night. But it's basically like an episode of Criminal Minds being aired live and having the showrunner walk in during the middle of a court scene to tell everyone they're getting a Christmas Special for the first time and all the actors clapping and hugging each other before going back to portraying a serial killer as if nothing happened.

This is what I said in June, 2015 in their nomination thread for GTTE.

Just listened to the Brody stuff. Allan did fine but the second Brian came on about "1983 glasses!" I was pretty much done (Allan's Shakespeare comeback was good). Yuck. 1982 Heel Duggan is so, so much more fun to watch than almost any heel Brody (even relatively giving 1977 Brody). You can watch other people from 1982 and judge the matches against each other. That's the point. People aren't comparing 1982 Brody with 2017 Luke Harper or whatever. People are comparing 1982 Brody with other 1982 wrestlers.

Whoa, whoa, I'm talking about Tazz vs Angle here! Come on, guys. Not everything is about Raven.

So Rousey is Tazz? Got it.

Its interesting how much more they do it with the women. Is it because of Steph, the fact theyre all out there so much on social media anyway, or the long-reported idea that to Vince/Dunn women arent characters, just catty, insane objects so why would it matter?

Not whole matches, no. I think I can get my point across with moments and segments. He's not a great worker, but he was great at certain undervalued things.

My wrestling goal for 2018 is to get people on board with my very specific points about John Studd.

This seems relatively benign, to be honest. If we went back and rewatched the match and what he's describing didn't happen, or if he's overstressing the crowd's reaction, that'd be different. If anything, it almost helps Dave, because he's gone from the guy who "knows nothing because he's never been in a ring" to a guy who served in a director's/screenwriter consultant role on a PPV match. On the other hand, his creditably is shot as a journalist. Now people will say that it is absurd to be a journalist in wrestling but he's making a living off of it. We already knew he had friends in the business over the years, that they were often his sources, that he arguably gave them better coverage, and that he even fielded consultation calls for Vince at one point or another. I said relatively and I mean it. The bar wasn't super high. I don't think this lowers it in the least. Dave has talked about this type of stuff all the time. He has talked, on several occasions, about giving advice and input to that worked PRIDE fight with Takada vs Coleman with the people involved in that. I ignore even the worked MMA coverage?

This seems relatively benign, to be honest. If we went back and rewatched the match and what he's describing didn't happen, or if he's overstressing the crowd's reaction, that'd be different. If anything, it almost helps Dave, because he's gone from the guy who "knows nothing because he's never been in a ring" to a guy who served in a director's/screenwriter consultant role on a PPV match. On the other hand, his creditably is shot as a journalist. Now people will say that it is absurd to be a journalist in wrestling but he's making a living off of it. We already knew he had friends in the business over the years, that they were often his sources, that he arguably gave them better coverage, and that he even fielded consultation calls for Vince at one point or another. I said relatively and I mean it. The bar wasn't super high. I don't think this lowers it in the least.

This seems relatively benign, to be honest. If we went back and rewatched the match and what he's describing didn't happen, or if he's overstressing the crowd's reaction, that'd be different. If anything, it almost helps Dave, because he's gone from the guy who "knows nothing because he's never been in a ring" to a guy who served in a director's/screenwriter consultant role on a PPV match.

Moments in time: 75% of the AWA except for Brusier Brody by the WON in 1984/5. (High Flyers by everyone but us, always) Mocho Cota by WON (1993, DEAN 1998) Akira Taue (By everyone but like ten of us, always) Demolition Ax and Earthquake by the Scott Keiths of the world Jose Lothario through no fault of anyone. Most ignorant/ill-informed/shortsighted performance-based opinions in pro wrestling could potentially be more interesting, but it probably wouldn't be all that interesting either.

Not CMLL.

Someone point me to a few free WALTER matches online. I havent seen anything of him at all.

This is a great point and surely, the more savvy board members of WWE will be resistant to it? I know for a fact that a Mr. Levesque will see a massive opportunity stemming from this, if everything pans out how people are expecting. Theres probably money in it though.

I'm implying this is welcomed by the POTUS. I'm even being slightly paranoid about it since it's that sort of week.

You have to wonder if hes got support from the top on this.

This is the real issue. It isn't players protesting or anything like that. CTE and everything we know about concussions and all of the players we've watched kill themselves over the past 17 years is the cause of the NFL's declining ratings. Also. The fact that football is actually secretly boring as fuck doesn't help. Basketball is right there. Go watch that. Or the DVDVR 80s Puerto Rico set. You'll be way happier. You're giving people a lot of credit (or maybe "lot" isn't the right word. How about "too much.")

I can just imagine the tweets.