Matt D

I don't think babyface Perfect in 93 was all that much based around the big bumping. He was even able to tap into some of the AWA-era offense in the Doink series.

Someone's posted a ton of 3PW in the last day. I won't link to the whole show but this is out there, currently, as part of the "A Night for the Flyboy" show. Keep that in mind. This was a Ted Petty tribute show, immediately following Jasmin St. Claire turning on Blue Meanie and going with Tod Gordon and preceding Saby vs Pitbull Gary Wolfe. So you can imagine the sort of crowd here. The match itself was very cool for what it was. Hennig was bloated, absolutely, as this was just a few months before his death, but it fit the way he was working, and was very appropriate for this match. Past a couple of big bumps (a 360 off a punch and one over the top onto the announcer's table) and the neck flip, he was mainly bruising. It was almost like he was slowly turning into his father and I feel like we were robbed from years of cool indy Curt "the Axe" Hennig senior tour matches. Lawler, on the other hand, wrestled this as if it was his first big babyface appearance in the Northeast in twenty years (which I'm sure wasn't the case). He came out to the theme from Rocky but this could have been 1981 with him coming out to Star Wars after recovering from the leg injury. There was that same serious, no-nonsense vibe to him, playing off Hennig's cocky, grumpy heel performance. They never really got out of second gear, but they never had to, able to achieve everything they set out to do by mainly brawling and working a TV style main event match. I had a lot of fun watching it. It provided some level of closure with Hennig too. After jawing with the crowd post-match, when he's almost back to the end of the ramp, he raises his hands to let some of the rising applause sink in. That's as good as a farewell moment we'll get for him.

That's the big question, isn't it.

Lightning matches aren't my favorite thing in the world either, certainly. I have less of a problem with the hierarchy of what will finish a match, though, just in general. You can rationalize it a lot of ways, but I generally see lucha as symbolic and what matters more in any moment is whether or not a trios team, for instance, has the momentum, the mandate of heaven, really. Pretty much anything can finish a lightning match at any time and we're lucky in a lot of ways that mostly anything could end mostly any fall in a title match. The doubt is at least there.

Regal's half nelson suplex is great.

That's the biggest intersect with NXT in my mind. Wins GENERALLY matter. Losses generally matter. Titles matter. Feuds transition from one to the next. Things are remembered from week to week and even season to season so far. Characters develop. It's fundamental stuff, basic stuff, but it's been so rare in the US scene since, what, the early 90s? It stands out.

I'm generally more forgiving with lightning matches, I'll admit. It's an expectation thing. Here's last night's show. I didn't catch most of it so I can't speak to the quality of most of the card, but I did see the end and the main event is well worth watching. It starts at 1:51:45 or so.

Probably in 2036

I think Riverdance Becky totally had some wings. Granted, i think Steampunk Becky (collect all 5) could too if they dug deeper on it. Having Cole or Saxton say "She's a Steampunk Enthusiast" and giving her goggles and clockwork gear isn't exactly character development. Granted, can you imagine someone trying to explain "Steampunk" to Vince?

Hope people caught the Dorada/Mephisto match. Really strong tercera. Exciting stuff. The only problem is that so much of Dorada's offense involves elaborate set ups which doesn't always work well with the sort of selling they try to do in a title match tercera (I hate the no sell corner clothesline spot but that's not going away so I'll get over it). Some crazy spots/bumps (including Mephisto BOUNCING after a top rope rana and some nutty stuff using the apron) with real escalation. People should check it out. EDIT: yeah, what Quentin said

I don't think I buy that. This is a simulated fight. I don't think anybody is pushing for intergender fights in UFC. This is a pretend fight that I believe is art. Why can't women fight men the same way Nancy and Frank Sinatra sing a duet? Wrestling is ultimately about "presentation over time." The fans need to be conditioned in a certain way to accept what they are seeing as plausible within the confines of the environment created. In this a lack of "reality" isn't a dealbreaker, but I think "reality" makes it easier for fans to accept things. That's just a starting point though. It's about consistency in conditioning (which is really about announcing, selling, and wins and losses).

I appreciate those issues. I wonder if they structured it the way that they did because he was going to sneak out the win. Cavernario certainly didn't lose much heat in that loss. I think the bigger issue is this: I know Cometa hits his things well and he's looked pretty decent in the Elite matches vs the Traumas or what not from last year, but I think he, more than anyone I can think of as of late, was hurt by losing his mask. There's a real lack of it factor to him. I'm not entirely sure he had it before, but he definitely doesn't have it now. He really needs to do something with his look.

I enjoyed the Cavernario vs Cometa lightning match:

I think of the matches listed previously, what I'm most curious about now is Patera vs Lothario.

This isn't a full answer, but it's part of one: Portland was a very interesting place. It's a very interesting feel for a promotion. There's something welcoming about it. So much of that is Frank Bonnema blatantly lying in the booth about things like how many sell outs Stan Stasiak has had in MSG (which actually carries over to inflating young Curt Hennig's importance in NYC even after Bonnema's death) or the fact that the head ref, one who stymied Buddy all the time, also promoted one of the other cities and had a big flea market in the Arena. Then there's Dutch Savage being all over TV and Don Owen getting so frustrated with grandstanding loser leaves town challenges because they cost him money, or how he rationalizes the big matches due to the sponsors demanding them, and then, to give some credence to that, you see the sponsors in the studio, right afterwards. It's the fans mugging for TV. It's Rick Martel getting flowers and Bonnema saying that the reason kids get in free is because Martel DEMANDED it. And yeah, it's Buddy pretending to have gone to Hawaii for a few weeks. The fans were in on it in every territory to some degree, obviously, but Portland was a crazy fantasyland, up in the corner, distant from the rest of the country. People have it right to some degree when it comes to Flair, but you also have to keep in mind that Ric Flair meant something different in 1982 (or 1985) than he did in 1978, and Buddy is pretty much the same thing even back when Ric was facing off against Steamboat for the first time and teaming with Valentine. He's not just a bullshit Buddy Landell version of Flair (as glorious as that version is). He is, however, a star in his own mind. He's also someone who's hugely dangerous. He's a squealing opportunist, but one who could absolutely go. He was protected. He won. He and his cronies often had all the belts, but he more overtly hid behind them than Flair did the Andersons (though that was always covertly implied). Beneath the charming lies and the BS and the mass delusion that surrounded Portland was the basic truth that if and when Andre came in, Buddy was screwed. If Harley Race came in, Buddy wouldn't really have a shot at him, not really. He was a big fish in a small pond, and that came through in his ringwork. He might have faced off against Jay Youngblood or Rocky Johnson or what not, guys who were known entities, but a lot of times, you came through Portland on the way up and would stay there for a bit (which I think is different than Memphis where they'd create very short term monsters and bring in very short term threats, along with the lifers like Dundee and Mantell and Valiant) and it was up to Rose to balance being credible and dangerous with making talent who weren't true stars and didn't come off as true stars, seem bigger than they were, not just in one night, but over a span of weeks and months.

But there are countless more styles in music than there are wrestling. What is the wrestling equivalent of dubstep? It's hard to draw a parallel. Young Bucks matches.

I'm crashing before the main but this has been a pretty fun night of lucha at Puebla. Nothing amazing or anything but a lot of fun stuff. Solid lightning match with Dalys looking good. I really kind of love de facto babyface Peste Negra with Cavernario. Zacarias is so endearing. Plus there have been so many challenges. They almost have to do something next week. Even CMLL has to. I'm hoping for Cavernario vs Terrible since they matched up really well here.

I still owe a reply here. I'll get it soon. Promise.

1 Nick Bockwinkel 2 Negro Casas 3 Buddy Rose 4 Terry Funk 5 El Satanico 6 Jerry Lawler 7 Jim Breaks 8 Ric Flair 9 Andre the Giant 10 Virus 11 Arn Anderson 12 William Regal 13 Bobby Eaton 14 Rey Miysterio, Jr. 15 Ricky Morton 16 Hijo Del Santo 17 Barry Windham 18 Ricky Steamboat 19 Dustin Rhodes 20 Bret Hart 21 Eddie Guerrero 22 Steve Grey 23 Daniel Bryan 24 Aja Kong? 25 Mocho Cota 26 Stan Hansen 27 Tito Santana 28 Billy Robinson 29 Black Terry 30 Rick Martel 31 Blue Panther 32 Randy Savage 33 El Dandy 34 Masked Superstar 35 Atlantis 36 Pat Patterson 37 Larry Zbyszko 38 Christian 39 Ted Dibiase 40 Sgt. Slaughter 41 Emilio Charles, Jr. 42 Brian Pillman 43 Sangre Chicana 44 Jon Cortez 45 Greg Valentine 46 Bill Dundee 47 La Fiera 48 Tully Blanchard 49 Curt Hennig 50 Fuerza Guerrera 51 John Cena 52 Dick Murdoch 53 Jerry Blackwell 54 Vader 55 Butch Reed 56 Terry Rudge 57 Dennis Condrey 58 Marty Jones 59 Steve Austin 60 Harley Race 61 Bob Orton, Jr. 62 Fit Finlay 63 Ernie Ladd 64 MS-1 65 Matt Borne 66 VIllano III 67 Clive Myers 68 Pirata Morgan 69 Perro Aguayo, Sr. 70 Jose Lothario 71 Solar I 72 Dick Slater 73 Tracy Smothers 74 Buddy Landell 75 Ken Patera 76 Negro Navarro 77 Masa Saito 78 Mick McManus 79 Mark Henry 80 Shawn Michaels 81 Cesaro 82 Koko B Ware 83 Ron Garvin 84 Steve Veidor 85 CM Punk 86 Hector Garza 87 Roddy Piper 88 Mike Jackson 89 Wahoo McDaniel 90 Tommy Rich 91 Big Boss Man 92 Mick Foley 93 Zoltan Boscik 94 Samoa Joe 95 Sheamus 96 Eddie Gilbert 97 Johnny Saint 98 Brazo de Oro 99 Les Kellett 100 Judy Martin If I could do it again, I'd switch Dibiase and Henry.

This discussion, and the run-up to it, really did sort of make me look at how the contemporary 90s AAAs love was almost completely workrate-driven in a different light. It had been giving me some conceptual troubles.

I admitted that I was, in fact, the bad guy there as well, Parv. So at least you're in good company.

I think there's something to the Taker thing, if for no other reason, than because of the environment at the time that it dropped, after the HHH stuff that already alienated people. It was a lightly intended joke that dropped to partially make fun of an already battered and frustrated crowd (and i say this fully admitting that I could have been more receptive and less emotionally engaged in a negative manner, even before the Buddy Rose stuff). In a vacuum, I could absolutely see it being light-hearted and I doubt anyone would see it as otherwise. In that moment, though? After what had happened? Considering that many of the HHH voters also voted for Taker? it maybe showed a lack of empathy? I don't think your intent was malicious, though.

There's that entire Undertaker thing.

Pro Wrestling Comfort Food at its finest. This has 3-4 minutes of Lawler on the mic with Crow feeding him material to use (in the way a heel would feed a babyface's offense), about another 5-8 of shtick where they really delay each lock up to the point that it's a little joy to see what Lawler does when they happen, some fun stuff with Lawler goading Crow into repeatedly going down for the three point stance, a few minutes of heat, and then the finish. The transition is directly based off of Lawler's previous goading (and if it's not, I don't care - that's how I'm reading it). I spent about half the match smiling. Crow's reactions to Lawler are very good and it's obvious that he knows full well who he's in for and how to maximize the impact of Lawler being Lawler. I'm glad this surfaced.

Actually really good Brody stuff here. He took a lot at the beginning (probably as he should have). The image of Gino, prone, going for the handshake, is hilarious and they went to it twice. Gino trying and failing to use a chair was great too. But Brody gave a ton in the second fall. In fact, REALLY, I think they should have given Brody the first fall here if the match was going to end like it did. I love Gino as a Brody opponent.