Matt D

There are three or four different threads here. That guy tried to link them all and I was responding accordingly. I can understand why someone might link Benoit's style based brain damage with Misawa's style based physical damage but it's a lot to unpack and tying it to Colon in the same one paragraph post complicated matters.

You get it. Colon is something of a historical relic. Benoit was hugely personal to almost all of us, the symbolic hero of the community, the person who we were furious at WCW for because they wouldn't acknowledge his fucking TV title reign. I can't speak for Misawa as in many ways he's a relic for me too but I imagine for others it's the combination of the personal, the years of religious celebration of the style that led to things, and the unspeakable details of the murders(and how much more detail we have relative to whatever Colon may or may not have done) that sets Benoit apart from him. It's one thing to not agree with it, but it's another not to "get" it.

I was barely watching at all in 2007, Parv. It really wasn't a big deal for me after 2004 when I got back from England, and especially after January, 2006 when I moved to DC. The death happened within a few weeks of me moving in with my wife to be, so I was weaning off even more. When i started getting involved in wrestling again in 2009, it was primarily old school stuff, especially nostalgia WWF, and it was WWECW too since it was so different than what i was expecting and so engaging. It has a huge affect on me. It changed almost entirely how I look at wrestling.

Great. Now do your best to forget it.

It didn't really matter one way or the other. I had no desire to revisit him. Without the ability to revisit him, I couldn't rank him.

He's about to challenge you to a duel.

Don't look at me, I really like the two Hogan vs Taker matches from 91.

Dynamite isn't a bad pick. His misfortune is that his most famous stuff is far from his best. But even there, I blame Tiger Mask and WWF tag formula more than I blame him. I didn't vote for him, but he was a gifted wrestler who managed to stand out in a lot of places. I would have voted for him before Taker or Angle. Dynamite needs to get more personal blame for Heel In Peril than he gets. but it's admittedly worst in 1988.

I guess it's an accomplishment for lucha that it only lost Psicosis (And Ultimo Dragon who has chunks of his career there), relative to, I don't know, Joshi.

Good cardio

Much of the Flair criticism was about him vs other number 1 contenders, not vs #101 "The Rock" or anything.

Remind me to watch this stupid chop match next month.

I regret not voting for Jerry Estrada. Not that it would have mattered.

Everything has been worth it.

Finlay was boring to me in person in 1998. Tastes mature.

I voted against people for Texas, so that's sort of countered.

Luckily we're past the workrate mentality that included wisdom like "chops=great tehnical wrestling" and pretended amount of moves used is a valid criteria to judge wrestlers on.Exactly! I'm fact a wrestler should be able to get bonus points for having a compelling match doing nothing but punches!!!! True, but someone should also get props for a match focused around body part work with lots of cool, varied offence working on a limb, not just taking a lazy approach to it and calling it minimalist. Less can be more, especially if you are a Jim Breaks who can make little things seem incredible...but nobody is telling me Kenta Kobashi would have been a better worker if he had ditched all the bombs and varied shit and had a tiny move set, relying on punch exchanges and personality to have great matches. Steve Austin vs Undertaker in 2001 is a prime example of a lazy, lazy match where they just work punch exchanges for twenty minutes. Give me dives and suplexes and bombs over that anyday, so long as they are put in smartly. No, but if he did 20% less stuff in his matches I'd love him 100% more.

Oh hey, Virus made it.

if that's the case, I put forward a motion that whenever the list is presented, we present 1-110 instead of 1-100.

Christian is doomed.

We just jumped big to 68 ballots for Waltman.

The sprint match with Bock, too, is pretty much the antithesis for the old idea of what Larry was.

Today is the day that hope dies.

Flair, the choice of anonymity.

Today will be the worst.