Matt D

I only caught Metalik vs Tajiri (and thought Tajiri looked really great), but one of my favorite things in this tournament has been the post match selling as they raise the hands. It feels so different from the instruction given to the main roster. I'm not spoiled, but part of me has hopes up far, far too high for Gallagher vs Metalik in round 3. I'm half inclined to spoil myself so I'm not let down when they put Tozawa over him Jack instead.

They'll probably give you Brutus Beefcake for free.

RVD is a tool. Stan Hansen is a better tool.

I liked Bryan's reaction during the CWC when he was going nuts over Ciampa chopping Gargano in the face. They sure made that one mean a lot.

"Slightly injury prone journeyman whose impending hair loss means that he can no longer portray the gimmick he's had for most of his career." would be a decent way to describe him, no?

The Austin thing seems like way too much foresight to me. Even AFTER his ECW run, he was brought in to WWF to be a mechanic in a gimmick they had come up with independent of him.

I just assume that most top-level MMA fighters in 2016 are so used to fighting within the current confines of the sport as it has developed that Heath Slater charging at them with flailing arms like this would befuddle them into getting smacked in the face repeatedly.

My point is this: Nothing in wrestling, including stiffness, is great simply for the sake of itself except for maybe lucha mascots.

I know it's not 2017 yet, but I'm kind of ready to talk about this stuff more, to be honest.

Let's take a look at what Zenjo said: So he didn't give us a lot to work with here. I think any opinion can be explored so long as it's backed up. "Someone who was never a star, never a draw, and not an influence" and not "a worker who stands out from the crowd." Really, the "star, draw, influence" things, whether true or not, are not major things people voted for in GWE (some voted for all of those but I would think they were a minority). Then, not standing out is a particularly frustrating argument because it's not saying what he does poorly, just implying that he didn't do anything particularly well. It shifts the onus back on the people defending him, sort of from ground zero.

Current favorite wrestler to watch: This is a tough one. Maybe Pat Patterson, due to all of those Richard Land uploads? No, let's go with Marty Jones, because I saw some of his heel work in Stampede and it was a lot of fun and just added another dimension to him. Rey Escorpion is up there too for modern guys. Last fun match you saw: I saw the Kendrick CWC match last night and that was fun but for pure fun, nothing this month beats Escorpion vs Dorada from Elite. It was a dive a minute but still managed to mean something. Wrestler you want to see more of: Raul Mendoza looked like a guy worth seeing more of in the CWC. Let's go with him. Last live show attended (if applicable/different from last time you answered): Ha. I'm not driving to Joppa to watch wrestling. Forget that. It's like... 40 minutes away. Match you're most looking forward to watching: I know it'll be short, but I'm not spoilered on Dorada vs Tajiri and that sounds like a blast. Past that, Reigns vs Rusev probably? Last fun interview/promo you saw: I really, really loved the Ambrose/Ziggler exchange from last Tuesday. Yes, I get that Ambrose was partially no-selling him and it could be long-term damaging, but I loved the fact that he took Ziggler's completely disingenuous boyhood dream speech and just shit on it. It was cathartic. Marty Jones' promos in Calgary are not all that good though. Last interesting thing you read about wrestling: Probably the saccharine commentary from Foley on the Sasha win? Some of the tidbits about backstage were sort of interesting, I guess? I haven't read much this month apparently. Oh, I liked Dylan's dad's article. When was that? Last worthwhile podcast you listened to: I'm slowly working through the 6:05 stuff, and really liked episode 13(I think) with the second part of the Scott Teal interview an the Ric Ratchet stuff. Did Teal's book on Chavo Sr ever come out? Most fun you've had watching wrestling lately: NWAOnDemand, definitely. It's just so great when new matches pop up. You never know what you're going to get. It's like wrestling combined with opening a pack of baseball cards when you're ten. Who knew Bull Ramos was so explosive? It's way better than this "indy wrestling" stuff people seem to be watching. Favorite recent post on this board: What the hell? Let's go with Stacey's CWC post. Favorite thing about the wrestling landscape in the past three months (if you live in the past, then go with your past three months of time-traveling): It's a conservative answer but the brand split (and live Smackdown) does feel like it's shaken things up and energized them a little bit. We'll see how long that lasts. I really like the Rush vs LA Park feud too, just in general.

The reason why Striker was exciting to people wasn't Grisham holding him back but the fact we had a snarky announcer on WWE tv for the first time, mostly unsupervised. He'd reference companies other than WWE or Cure songs or whatever. I think people take for granted how crazy that was in 2009.

I meant that them making Styles support... ah, I blew the joke, nevermind.

I wonder if supporting Trump was a bridge too far?

If nothing else, they should have pushed Barton as a challenger to Shamrock's IC belt in November. It could have been inconsequential but would have probably had some interest and kept him at least partially in view before the Butterbean thing.

What it has, I think, is a very visceral sense of "Sport" in how it's presented. That goes from the round system, to the strategies in matches, to weight classes and title contention, to Kent Walton talking about the other jobs the wrestlers have when not wrestling. Yes, it has its own folds and wrinkles but someone like Marty Jones is able to create a "real sport feel" as well as any wrestler I've ever seen, especially when he's up against other babyfaces.

Come on guys: 1.) Yes, of course he was patterned after Goldberg. Big bald guy who they gave squash wins to in an era where they didn't give them to anyone. He didn't talk except for saying a catch phrase. He had a finisher which involved a suplex position after an impact move (in this case the meathook). They were trying to replicate a specific formula (one that very often works because people love a dominant monster babyface) and that's why there were all the Mania rumors that they'd bring Goldberg back to wrestle him, why Goldberg was asked about him so much, etc. Why the heck are people denying this? 2.) That said, by the end, he had developed into a more interesting wrestler, whether it was implementing some of his more dissonant personal beliefs into his babyface character, or embracing the nasally bully and he ended up being a strong base for smaller wrestlers and much more than his stereotype or the sum of his parts. Just because a guy is a muscle bound goofball doesn't mean he can't learn to work with that in ways that are effective outside of six minute blow-up fests. He was relatively self-aware and dare I say, sensitive, for a guy in his role. I get the impression that some people disliked the idea of Ryback so much that they didn't actually give him a fair shake, especially when it comes to how he developed.

I want to see him wrestle Akebono?

You'll get a kick out of the Boesch matches. Oh, add Brisco vs Spoiler to the list too.

Lothario everything, basically. The Slater/Stomper match was really cool. Did we mention that yet?

I say watch Mil vs Duggan and Dusty vs Patera. I need to look at the broader list.

I am a few weeks behind but I enjoyed Shane Haste, who was new to me, in their first few matches in NXT. He has this way of reacting to every little thing that happens in the ring that I appreciate.

I did a quick write up over at SC: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2016/08/mlj-la-park-vs-rush-7312016.html

Found this today. Thought of you guys. http://www.apollo-magazine.com/jousting-is-closer-to-performance-art-than-an-olympic-sport/

Last time he was actively cheered it was because Sheamus was a complete heel and not some sort of tweener, smarky "other choice." Rusev is in that same category.