Matt D

And isn't that kind of frustrating?

EDITORIAL NOTE FROM 2020: I end up apologizing for this rant a few pages later. Dear reader, I ask for your kindness and for you to celebrate my passion. Please do not judge me too harshly. I fight but for my own personal truth and I fight with all my heart. I hope for you to do the same! Dandy was in my top 30, I think. I don't think he holds a candle to Satanico. But he's an emotional wrestler, and I tend not to trend quite as highly on those. I think the footage is highly in Satanico's favor as well, mind you. It's interesting to see that he was in maybe 10 less ballots than Dandy but ranked higher on average. As for Buddy and why I can't just shut up and celebrate it? Let's see: 1.) I'm personally invested. As in I ranked him high, I'm passionate about him as a wrestler, and I wrote probably fifty match reviews and an essay that is the most I have ever put into anything in wrestling, probably. 2.) I honestly think he's better than almost any other wrestler I've come across, save for one or two (as he's my three) and I would have ranked him higher than those areas I did not rank without hesitation. 3.) He trends against "great matches" though he has those, so I guess I'm a little personally frustrated anytime I see a thread asking "What Buddy Rose matches do I have to see?" because the answer is all of them from 79-82, and you won't fully get even half of the picture if you don't take that journey. The footage is out there for anyone to see right now. I get why people can't or won't do that, but that's just a general frustration about life and the watching of pro wrestling, not against any specific person. 4.) Because I don't really care about the growth. I wasn't part of 2006. Most of the voting base wasn't. And with some people I care to some degree, but with Buddy? No way. What I care about here is the primal truth. I'll feel exactly the same about Bock when he drops. I get the arguments against them when it comes to time and what we don't have. I really do. But I don't see them outside of the top fifteen even with those. In 2006, people had the excuse of ignorance. Most of the footage wasn't out (or was JUST out) or wasn't easily available. It's a different world now, and in this world, he's too low. I understand the placement and why he wasn't higher, but understanding and celebrating are two different things. I am not celebrating the growth because I care enough to still be frustrated at the positioning and I'm not going to apologize for caring.

Still complaining. The footage is all out there. Good on Hales the younger. I was the #3.

You all suck.

Satanico should have been higher. I don't see a case for Dandy over him. Frankly, I don't see a case for almost anyone over him. He was in my top 5.

Michaels was in the right spot on my list, #80, one under Mark Henry. I had Henry way too low though.

I wish Johnny apologized a little more.

This is a true statement, but we lost two as well, so I won't point fingers.

I am extremely happy that these exist.

He even successfully predicted me being an ass in my placements of him. That's some human chess stuff right there.

And you didn't even have BIGLAV to power your way.

Swagger would have been a lot of fun in 90s Japan.

I think it goes without saying that you helped Satanico's case more than any single person helped any single wrestler in the top 100.

Where did Bock fall last time? He probably had a slight death bump too even with people who were more casual in this process.

And I put Dibiase slightly than I wanted for reasons that are slightly dubious at best, which had the same effect. But I'm okay with it, really. They're very similar in a lot of ways to me.

No, I didn't want to put Christian quite that low.

Seems about accurate to me.

Now I want to know if there's anything hugely interesting you've found not represented on Graham's site.

All of the main roster injuries (though those are fading off now) couldn't hurt him heading up.

A couple of us are already thinking of how to do a WoS project for people, looking at it in ways that aren't the previous conventional ones, as a direct response of the last couple of weeks.

I will say that I'm tremendously happy with the top 125. I'd love to see us report it that way instead of the top 100. In general, I think I see it as a good sign of where work needs to be done. There's a lot of wrestling to explore and a lot of wrestling that people aren't as familiar with and efforts can be continued to be made for those things that we've found either in the last two years or before that which we want to share with others.

The Mil vs Tully video feels like one of the most special nights I've seen in Classics so far. There are two matches in the video. Mil vs Tully feels like one of the better, more weighty five minute matches we have, but the chaos that ensues and the heat and the impromptu match that follows (with the drink-assisted transitions!) and the crazy scene at the end. All of it adds up to what we'd consider a classic episode of TV if it was in Memphis or Mid-South. It's the sort of night that you can see the fans telling their kids about someday. That's how it felt at least. I can imagine the heat a few weeks before when Mil lost and I can imagine the heat a week later with Tully in a cage for the blowoff match. This feels like the greatest Houston feud we weren't expecting.

THE DEATH VALLEY PLAYAHZ. six fists in the face of wrestling don't exactly count.

I actually think ranking all 4 outside of the top 15 does sort of come off as anti-AJPW relatively. I think it's going to be a fairly unique rating for someone ranking them to not have at least one in the top ten.

Tully's looked really good in Houston this week so far. (goc in before me)