Matt D

"It's a Ring. They're contained. I don't have to be fast. I catch them. I squash them."

I think, even towards the end, he was a very smart wrestler. The 90-92 Freebirds just used their powers for evil and that's probably enough to keep Hayes off my list and it's definitely enough to keep Garvin off. This is what I wrote about Garvin vs Badd:

It only works if Roman costs Hunter the title. THAT solves so many problems. Roman would come off as hugely sympathetic, sacrificing his title shot so that his friend can go over and so that Hunter gets screwed just like he screwed Reigns in the past. Ambrose gets the rub but now has to deal with the drama of having to survive Brock to keep the title.

Not everyone is Jose Lothario, I guess.

Definitely. It's what they did in 2006 with Cena in Reigns' current position. Cena was just much better equipped and better established to handle the blowback. Plus, the company a decade ago at least had some strong heels being groomed for Cena to work with after the Triple H program was over. What would we even have in 2016? Reigns vs Owens? Reigns vs Jericho? I half bet they'd do Reigns vs Show or Kane.

I've been waiting for a Dale Valentine match. And hey, we get another Spoiler match too!

Really, I think it's more the year, year and a half of freelance work that led up to him getting signed that moved the needle. It wasn't an overnight thing.

I tend to like Flair the tag wrestler, but this is a fun look at something we don't often get to see from 78. It's just a few clips and we don't get a shot at Flair vs Andre, but I really appreciate how he's working the crowd on the apron and at one point he gets on the house mic to mock Mulligan to give Andre an excuse to come chase him which felt notable.

There are two Chavo matches that we might get from Houston at some point I'm looking forward to seeing.

That Dean Ambrose is sure Never Say Die, huh?

Patera vs Snuka was interesting. There were a lot of individual things I liked a great deal: Patera fed for Snuka so well. He had some really distinctive selling. I've never seen Snuka work quite so well from underneath before. There was a call back at the end of the second fall to the end of the first fall that I thought was very well done. Snuka showed great fire. This was one where I'm not sure the whole added up to be more than the parts, though. There were some little things, like how I wish he used the bearhug in the second fall and the full nelson in the third and not the other way around, but I think this one might have been on me and not the match itself. Looking forward to seeing other thoughts.

It all depends who's watching. The nerds who watch Up Up Down Down are the new guys in business suits in the front row cheering Flair?

Bagwell can't win. I get that he was getting pretty good in 96-97 when he started going to NJPW, but even if he had continued in that direction and never gotten injured, Russo coming in would have totally destroyed any chance he had of putting on quality performances in 99-00 and his general attitude would have tanked him in WWE. We would have ended up with a lot of mid 00s Ken Anderson matches or something. Even in an alternate reality, it doesn't work out for him.

Dustin is a 10 no matter which way round we do it, so it doesn't matter. That was just a general clarification question with the best example I could think of.

Does Longevity have to be contiguous? Dustin, for instance, was excellent from 2009 to 2014, but wasn't for a number of years previous. That's just an example. it'd seem to fit with Taue maybe from what people are saying?

How high do you think that 40 will get Dustin?

I think it would freshen things up in the short term. I think it also had that effect in the beginning. You suddenly had Bubba Ray Dudley or Bradshaw getting singles babyface pushes and what not. As a 3 to 6 month thing, it could be a lot of fun.

I think just on the odds, a brand split feels like it should provide twice the chance for a change. At the same time, it provides twice the change for more of the same.

I think people really want change at this point.

Liger, as much as anyone nominated, is someone I can't wait to really delve into after March is over.

Rey is someone I don't personally feel strongly about but that I also can't deny. He'll be in my top 20, no doubt.

The Angle/Race comparison (now a little bit debunked I think) would have probably been a positive for him then too. It's a negative now.

Sombra is a perfectly serviceable flying tecnico, though I'm not sure he can still pull off some of what he was doing ten years ago, but he's way better as a cocky, asshole rudo.

I don't think Lothario will make this list, but I think he would make it on in 3 years or so.

Steele reminds me of the tall, thin, soft-spoken pushover local vicar who gets pushed further and further as Bertie Wooster or someone gets under his nerves and he finally snaps and falls to unexpected but wildly competent (if righteously exasperated) fisticuffs. You know, in a good way. I thought he came off almost as well as Rudge in the two Rudge matches I saw.