Matt D

Re: 3/1/86 show. Solie is such a worm. I can't understate how good the territory was in March, 1986 though. Pritchard just turned heel. Ron Fuller was back wrestling. Mr. Wrestling II was in as a heel part of the Stud Stable. Nightmares were still going strong. Adrian Street had the pink belt back. The Bullet drama which should have been played out was reaching a dramatic point as the LLT stip was almost over on Bob Armstrong. Golden/(robert)Fuller were working like the world's sloppiest but most daring wrecking crew dismantling limbs and having just gotten the titles against Tommy and Johnny Rich in a way that kept the Nightmares in the mix. Stubbs was unmasked and a total jerk as the Alabama champion. All of the Armstrongs were back. Just great stuff. I've enjoyed almost everything up til now, especially some of the big angles and certain talents especially (heel Robert Fuller, Nightmares, etc), but this is the first time where it's all been working this well.

This was just briefly mentioned, but I want to go deeper on the idea that Masters vs McIntyre could be a "memorable moment." I hadn't been thinking that way but I do think it's valid in the same way that something like Jumping Bomb Angels vs Glamour Girls at the Royal Rumble or Tiger Match vs Dynamite at MSG might be. The problem is that Masters vs Mcintyre was only really lauded within a subgroup of a much more schismed fandom relative to the others, but it was a touchpoint for that year for that group. The first two were examples of what "smarks" thought wrestling COULD be packed into the morass of what the WWF currently was. There was an element of that to Masters vs McIntyre, though I think it was pushing up both against what was being pushed on top in the WWE at the time AND against what was considered to be tops critically from an insider perspective (a lot of that coming from Masters being a more traditional selling-based babyface instead of a moves based babyface just as that shift was starting to take place more and more in the mainstream),

I just turned back. I swear I thought he was going to dislocate Jinder's arm when he raised it in victory. (also, guys, just to help you through, this was just posted with way better vq than what's been on youtube for the last year and it's pretty great:) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS3tT748zAM

Is it too late to make Maria Brother Love's daughter?

I mean, when you get the opportunity, I know some other matches you couls watch... At this rate, with NWAonDemand down, i'm going to have to lose bets just to figure out what to watch. I'll have both of yours watched/written up by the end of this week barring disaster. I'm running casual and noteless tonight. (which means I'm not writing up this Bate/Dunne one either, though I will say that I love how into everything Dunne is. Surly teenager isn't necessarily a hard character, but the commitment is charming).

I made it about this far through the Nak match and while I think a bearhug is a good heat-generating move for Corbin, I decided I'm going to go back and watch that Dunne/Bate takeover match that people really liked instead. I'm just not good at modern WWE PPVs I guess. There's no urgency anymore and as much as I like you guys, without that, the shared live experience is good for Mania and little else. Nothing feels like it matters anymore.

I caught most of that tag match. It needed to be about 40% more Tag-Team-Y and 30% less Triple Threat Guy On The Floor-y.

This is going to make the hour and a half drive I have to do right now much better.

How much of this was losing Ward?

Wasn't his big face turn about Santa Claus?

Did post comeback Brock even draw more than once?

They should mention it in a measured way. Hell they do that on Ninja Warrior. "Here's a football player. He's big and strong and explosive, but football players don't always transfer well into Ninja warrior because..." There's such an inferiority complex in wrestling that the idea of someone saying "Brock's been competing in MMA circles for the last few years but WWE is a different game with different rules and different needs (stamina in a non-round system, different things being legal, pressures of submissions different with rope breaks, I don't know)" would never, ever happen. Steph showing ass for the first time in a year to Ronda didn't do anyone a bit of good when the night was over.

To be fair, I never quite liked it then either. I'm consistent on this one. Speaking of that, it's not kayfabe so much as consistency across a card (or, hate to use the word, but "universe") that's an issue. Brock is at least physically massive in a way that's not replicated with females.

I'd be happier with Stacey's deranged Diva's Revenge angle than this.

I don't like it because the Von Erich's had great matches. But I kinda like it because that makes the next logical step that the Dems are the Freebirds. Michael Hayes is Bernie Sanders? By this logic, Killer Khan is James Comey.

At the end of the day and with all details aside, the service was the most I enjoyed wrestling in a long time. It was something to look forward to every week if not every day. I know not everything probably went how you thought it might, but there's never really been footage quite like this (I stand by that), and we've seen enough of it to recreate a clear and vivid image of Paul Boesch's Houston Wrestling, something that had been lost relative to other "territories." We're going to carry that forward, like we do with Portland or Memphis. I hope we get more. But I'm glad that we were able to see what we did.

The build was for something more than a Brock match. They didn't deliver.

She did basically get Sasha's top of the card heel run on Raw, no?

Is there more from the 50s than the 60s?

I think he's going to do fine on the indies.

crossposting: Simple, straightforward wrestling works for a reason. This was meat and potatoes. Roddy started strong. Roode kept getting advantages by taking a powder or using space or the ref as a distraction. The babyface outwrestles the heel in the shine. The heel gets advantages in underhanded (but not necessarily chickenshit) ways. The face powers through it. Roode was great at stooging throughout this, at drawing heat, at making the babyface look good. Their timing and crispness was solid the whole match. There was polish throughout. Everything looked like it it like it was supposed to but always organically. There was just base professionalism in that regard. Strong made up for the size disadvantage with speed and finesse and by focusing right from the get go on the back. The first act ends with a bit of heat and comeback/cut off spots before Strong's comeback. He gets his foot caught in the stairs. Roode capitalizes and we're into act 2. Legwork is used so often for a reason too. It's highly visual, with the whole body coming into play. There's a ton you can do to the leg (and Roode does both simple and more complex things). The selling works for the back rows. And it's so, so easy to set up cut off spots with it. Even a crowd so smarky can be taken up and down (especially given the emotional build and use of the family), and they do that, with Roddy fighting back repeatedly, occasionally getting in shots on Roode's back, only to get cut off with a kick to the leg, or by not being able to lift Roode up correctly. They use this to foreshadow him eventually hitting moves, thus giving everything meaning. Ultimately, that sort of thing is what I loved about this match the most. Nothing in the match happened without reason. They didn't do any spot just to hit a spot. Everything had a narrative reason behind it or at least in shaping it. Nothing was done because it was cool. I'm not just talking about transitions here. The first glorious DDT didn't end the match because Roode had just eaten a bunch of backwork and made sure to sell just for a couple of seconds before trying for the pin. It wasn't just another finisher kick-out; it was worked as part of the match. That foreshadowing? It was for a fireman's carry lungblower, and when Strong DOES hit it, it's by the ropes and Roode rolls out. By the time Strong gets him back in, he can't get the 3 count. It protects the move, protects Strong to a degree (if only he hit that in the middle of the ring!), makes Roode seem both vulnerable and canny at the same time, and furthers the escalation of the match. The kickouts, even finisher kickouts, aren't WWE MAIN EVENT STYLE (or, I assume, NJPW style), but instead something explained and organic. It's not about workrate or fighting spirit. It's about storytelling. That's why this works.

Early 1984 Dave was fairly energized/optimistic by/about Hogan. It didn't last (to the point where he does his "retirement" issue, what, a year later?). I think that even if current Dave might give Hogan a specific sort of credit, he wouldn't have love for some of the actual matches (let's say... oh, Quake, Slaughter, Bossman) that some of us thoroughly credit and enjoy. I'm not even sure he could understand WHY we enjoyed them, even if we tried to explain it to him.

Cagematch is an awesome resource but their 2000 indy results are fairly spotty. To be fair, everything about indy wrestling after 2000 is fairly spotty.

Opinions are opinions, but 1.) That's probably true. It syncs up with pretty much all of the 90s WON comments on lucha and a whole bunch of other things and 2.).. what a shitshow that this guy was and is the driving force on pro wrestling commentary forever and always. What a terrible, empty, way to gauge good pro wrestling.