Matt D

I'm an hour into this one, ALMOST caught up on all of the BTS episodes. Listening to too many of these my favorite things are Bix correcting something he thought Kris said when Kris didn't say it at all and Kris blatantly BSing that he knows or remembers something that Bix is talking about when he obviously doesn't. I think, of the two things, it's the first that's going to cause Kris to piledrive Bix on the concrete within ten more episodes though.

Fun match. A lot of shine but all entertaining. Just as importantly, the heat on Mascaras meant enough due to how well Superstar controlled him. He had a tendency to fight back no matter what so the quick tags and cutting the ring in half meant all the more here. The hot tag was timed a little weird but I thought the finishing stretch was chaotic enough to set up the upcoming singles matches well.

They screwed up Bo. They didn't restart his arc.

I'm 20% into the Revolution book and have really enjoyed the Jess McMahon stuff.

Demolition is entirely a variety thing. They work differently against different opponents in a huge way. Everything in the match is earned too. The downside is a lot of loose "symbolic" offense.

vs Bubba, vs Demolition (the three house show matches we have, one even has Ronnie Garvin as a ref), vs Sabu. He's really much more of a great consistent performance sort of guy than a great match one, excellent at projecting character and playing his role. That plays better on my list than some people's. I don't want him to end up on Parv's list. I just don't want Parv to be bitchy about revisionism gone too far if someone does go with him or even say that they might go with him.

Parv, I have no confidence that you've revisited WWF Gang matches recently (I've not seen any such write ups) and figure you are instead going off of memory or conventional wisdom. I said he could well make my 100. He could well not too.

I could well have Andre, Vader, Yoko, Mark Henry, Gang, Bigelow, Blackwell, Bossman, and Tenta in my 100.

For people looking for a live alternative, the Arena Puebla card is slightly better than normal tonight:

Right now Virus is still in my top ten.

Better to get the most out of it now then.

Akeem?

Unless Podcast Naylor is in on the work, which seems unlikely....

Berserker was a top 5 WWF guy in 92.

I kind of want to see Ambrose vs Taker. I think that could work, maybe. Sorry.

They should push Miz to the moon again then.

I'm thinking those sweet spot matches for me would be Bret vs Perfect '91 or Bret vs Owen WM, Rockers vs Demolition from MSG in 88, Rockers vs Hart Foundation from Summerslam 88, Arn/Larry vs Steamboat/Dustin or maybe Pillman/Austin vs Scorpio/Bagwell from Worldwide. Maybe Regal vs Christian from 09. I'm not sure I'd call any of those the greatest contenders, but they're personal favorites. I'd actually be curious to rewatch Brock vs Punk. I should do that sometime soon since that's one of the last matches I was really emotionally invested in while watching it in real time (that didn't have Bayley in it). On the other hand, Christmas Eve here is new pajamas and a movie and furious setting up of stockings after bedtime for the kids. I imagine Chad's traditions will be wildly different in a few years given that strapping young lad he's got in the mix now. 1 year old is very different than 3 years old when it comes to this stuff.

I'm high on the Backlund MSG match. And it's a huge testament to Bret that he has it one night away from Survivor Series where he has the Bigelow and Hennig matches.

I didn't think it was one of the strongest of the two ring six mans. Lots of claws to just kill time. I did like how the babyface in the middle's job was really to keep the heel busy or else he'd just interfere however he wanted. There were a couple of moments where it seemed like it was going somewhere but then it just led to a pinfall. I thought Dutch looked good.

Nope. But it'll be close.

Thankfully, I don't care about any of that really. I mean I do enough that he's not #1, but not enough that he's not #30. I may have Martel above him (and if I don't, it's because he's hurt by his heel work and because I don't think he shows QUITE the level of understanding that I think Tito does). If I were to rate Kobashi, I'd probably have him above Tito.

I thought of that but part of the problem there is that I came into Bock and Buddy fairly late in life so there's not that long-time attachment to anything.

Past maybe Ricky Morton, he's the purest living definition of the shine-heat-comeback structure of wrestling, who obviously had strong feelings about what wrestling should be and executed that understanding over years and matches to great effect. He is primal and iconic, tapped in to the very leylines that power pro wrestling.

It's weird. I wouldn't have the slightest what to watch here. I'm not sure I could tell you my top ten favorite/best/sentimental match if I had a week to try to figure them out. I'm glad for those who do and who have this as a tradition though.

If I had to guess right now 25-35, but I'm going on feel.