Matt D

Only if he talks like Popeye while doing it.

I want mat wrestling but I want it all to be nostril based holds.

Shawn will be in the last quarter of my list. If Kurt is a wrestling moron, then Shawn is very canny, but often uses his skills to the detriment of a match (but the benefit of himself) or has grand ideas that he doesn't have the dramatic range to execute.

I have no idea what to do with Savage either. I can't see him cracking the top 20 though.

No. I wish I could. Thoroughly. But he's more dynamically fabulous than great. If he had a few more years doing this, then sure, but he wasn't in the 80s. But in WWF he's Brody on Ecstasy, a fulfillment of the promise that the Apter Mags and Meltzer gave us when they waxed poetic about Brody. He's not just better than what Brody was but he was better than what Brody was supposed to be, a technicolor barbarian, a Proto Barbaro Cavernario. Watch the match. Watch what he brings to it. Watch how he moves in between moments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ3W8PRGWDE Watch this and basically shut up. I can't even begin to oversell how great Nord was in this either. He's the most engaging WWF wrestler of this period, maybe? He's constant frenetic motion, just amazing energy. So fucking dynamic, so credible, even as he stooges and bumps harder than anyone in 91 except for Perfect and the Rockers, MAYBE.

Johnny Time involves New Math.

When it comes to CVs that Parv hasn't seen in 20 years, I trust him most when he's talking about Lord Alfred Hayes teaching Sherri etiquette.

They'd situate him well at 255 under a Mulkey or Barry O or someone who can fulfill their role well much closer to most of the time without actively harming matches.

I'm not saying my list is 100% about instincts and ideas, but it's probably about 85% about that (so long as, you know, I see proof in matches, which involves a wrestler executing them).

I don't disagree but I do think they need a bandaid this time and to rebuild from a place of strength, not weakness.

I think he is an effective tool for a smart wrestler to try to use, athletic, willing to work hard, good physical charisma, able to hit moves. He is very willful though and you aren't going to constrain his habits or terrible ideas about pro wrestling. So if you are masterful, he's a great tool, one of the greatest tools in decades. Good luck utilizing him well though.

He wouldn't make my 300.

I'd like to think that my essay on Buddy Rose in 1979 works, on some level, to fulfill that for him (from my perspective at least). Obviously it doesn't cover everything necessary and covers some extraneous elements but it hints at my feelings based on the footage. I'll be happy to write something about Bockwinkel (who to me, fits into an entirely different and more traditional category than Casas and Rose) and Casas at some point soon. My criteria is very different than other people's though, so it may not be entirely satisfying when it comes to what you're looking for.

I appreciate the idea of watching and documenting everything out there. Likewise, I appreciate the idea of watching and documenting him week to week. Finding the best match on tape year to year isn't really something I'm interested in, though, even for the sake of this exercise. That's not why I watch watch in the way that I do. Someone else can certainly try to do that. I'll have Buddy Rose and Negro Casas in my top three. Watching just their best matches completely misses the point of both wrestlers.

Some of it's a footage issue, you know. But I think I've done around 50 Negro Casas matches on Segunda Caida (it's not entirely certain to me since blogspot's not exactly the world's best searchable thing): (https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=site:segundacaida.blogspot.com+%22by+matt+d%22+%22negro+casas%22+) And I was going in blind, just trying to find anything I could, really. I absolutely wasn't just going for the touted ones. That's not how I watch wrestling. As a whole, SC has 140 entries tagged with Negro Casas, though I'm sure there's a bit of overlap over the years.

To be fair, I should have taken the Panther match off that list before saying that, but I really stand behind it. There's a lot of Puck on that list and not a lot of Old Scratch. I'm going to make a counter-list at some point soon.

This just popped up and has some things different from what Our Friend in Japan's posted (though I don't think anything not already in circulation, but maybe some things not online) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1sltmMy_dqGb4r6x6ZfZcQ

I need to check out the Stasiak matches there. I absolutely love him in Portland but he his WWWF work has such a bad rap.

He did think this was a good idea. He has to get points for that:

So former WWE writer Kevin Eck posted the following on his Baltimore Sun blog (I think). The part in bold is what I'm wondering if people believe: I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by the questionable booking. During my time on the WWE creative team, we actually were told that there really are no babyfaces or heels in the Divas division. It was strongly implied that the Divas are all just a bunch of catty chicks, most of whom are mentally unstable. A perfect example of that philosophy was the booking of the program between AJ and Paige last year. Instead of establishing a babyface and a heel, both characters acted heelish, Their "frenemies" angle was more confusing than compelling. Thus, the rivalry between one of the most "over" Divas of all time and a heralded newcomer to the main roster wasn't nearly as good as it should have been. The audience needs someone to root for. It's really not that complicated. If the idea now is to get fans to cheer the Bellas — and I'm honestly not sure if that's the case or not — don't have them just show up on Raw one week acting nicer and wrestling a babyface style. Tell me a story. What circumstance has sparked this change in their personalities? Speaking of the Bella twins, their reunion last year after Nikki had turned on Brie three months earlier is a textbook example of uninspired and illogical storytelling. Nikki told Brie that she wished her twin had died in the womb and went on to demean her sister for a month due to a stipulation that made Brie her personal assistant. Yet at Survivor Series, Brie helped Nikki retain her Divas Championship. Why did Brie do it? We were never given an explanation. That's not only lazy booking, it's also insulting to the audience. My guess is that either Vince himself or someone in creative threw out a cliche about blood being thicker than water, and that was that. Move on.

This is pretty definitive. I'm going to do one more though.

It's a catch-22. So many people are out that they can't afford anyone to take time now.

That's a Negro Casas who would make my top 30 but not my top 3.

There's value to keeping opponents apart before a match anyway. Part of the problem with modern WWE is that they run the same match so many times on TV in so many different variations. It sort of makes sense to have your champion only work now and again on the road to Wrestlemania.