Matt D

Yeah, Stampede isn't coming back anytime soon. Dave talked about it today. Bret contacted Vince and apparently said he might have to sue and Vince said he'd take care of things and did.

I shouldn't post this until I think about it more. There is Hansen who can build up that capital over years and pay it off at key moments, maybe even years down the line. There are other wrestlers who can keep their capital and cash it in each and every match that they are in. Maybe it's not quite as meaningful but it's still extremely meaningful and it doesn't take a decade of steamrolling guys to make it work. So even if it is intentional (and I will entertain the idea that at this point of his career, as opposed to ten years earlier, it was), there's a potential "Yes, but.." involved.

I echo everyone's else sentiments. Fight. We're thinking of you and yours. We'll toss wrestling your way if you need or want it.

I watched 4/21/93 (I think). First off, I loved the last third, everything from the arm to arm collision on, though relative to matches I've seen from this era, I thought maybe the finish needed one more wrinkle, even if that was a couple of knees right before he got him up or something. Again, that's not really on its own, but more relative to what else I've seen. I had expectations it was crashing up against. Obviously there's a ton of context I'm missing. On the other hand, those expectations really helped the first third of the match. Hansen basically treated Misawa as if he was 1980 Andre. At least, that's how it felt, and for the most part it was credible. That is a huge testament to Misawa. I didn't love the opening exchanges but bits like Hansen not able to lock in a chinlock or headlock until after he put the kneepad down and did the two giant elbow drops (including one off the ropes) was a very nice touch. The middle third lost me. Some things like that corner dropkick were nuts but I around the 14 minute mark on the video I was watching off youtube, I was kind of gone. A lot of times with these matches, the ending stretch validates the middle and I go back on a second watch, knowing where it ends up, and find bits to value more, and maybe I'd find that here knowing it all leads to the collision, but in the moment, I was tuning out somewhat. I lost the narrative. But yes, he treated Misawa differently, or Misawa was able to hold his own more, or what not, but it meant something because of all the times Hansen just swallowed people before. That's capitol that you can build up to pay off in a match like this. I'm not convinced it's intentional though, and I still agree that it mainly has to do with his opponent.

Give me a few days. I'll put up the fight.

Morgan is a guy I have a real hard time placing.

I feel like we need to nominate Ultimo Guerrero even if just to dismiss him. He's been a part of too many great matches over decades, someone who's highs are higher than a huge chunk of people nominated, but whose lows can be extremely low as well. SC review by Phil/Eric on his hair match vs Rey Escorpion (2015): http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2015/12/2015-ongoing-match-of-year-list_3.html GdI vs Casas/Santo by me (2001) http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2015/05/mlj-guerreros-del-infierno-12-rey.html SC review by me on Wagner, Guerrero, Euforia vs Casas, Mistico, Sombra (2007). http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2015/12/mlj-sombra-spotlight-3-dr-wagner-jr.html Singles from 2015. Trios from 2007. Tag from 2001. All really good matches and performances by UG. There's something to that. If only he wasn't so crummy in his singles title matches over the years.

Sasha vs Bayley shouldn't beat Dragon Lee vs Kamaitachi for feud of the year. That much I think is pretty certain.

The top rope rule is so easy to deal with. Make it apply to everything but Light Heavyweight matches. Suddenly it's a tool to make rules matter AND it makes the Light Heavyweight matches stand out and be more exciting.

Do people think they could have brought Bigelow in to play the Yokozuna role (dominant big man heel champion, not sumo wrestler) in Dec 1992-January 1993?

Didn't they do some Canadian survey with a bunch of options back when it looked like they might have to put up a lot of content to meet cultural law requirements?

You know, Larry Nelson talked about what I think was this show in his book, and I remember thinking to myself at the time "I don't remember ever seeing that show", especially with how randomly weird it seemed to be in terms of presentation with Larry. My guess is it was something syndicated in small doses, perhaps in the Minneapolis area so the "home" Base had some sort of different or local content, but that show, besides what Larry talked about in his book, is unfamiliar to me.Talked to one other big AWA guy that I know and he's never seen it either. Would love to see a match/segment list if anyone wants to break it down when they watch it. Very quickly, the AWA SUPERSTARS 02-28-88 one has: "Day of Champions" -Larry Nelson bitching about his chair and being generally amazing -Greg Gagne vs Brian Knobbs -Nelson interviewing Raschke with a great promo on Adnan. -Nelson being goofy "I'm on now?!" -Compliments of ESPN with Donna on commentary: Curt Hennig vs Kevin Kelly -Nelson interviewing Zenk and Rice -Rockers vs Adonis/Orton -Nelson hyping having the AWA in your hometown and he tries to hype the main event for next week but they don't know what it'd be, plus general goofiness with a giant logo and card tricks.

After all this, the polkadots put it over the top for me and I just tied the vote (I hadn't realized it was 36 to 35 at the point).

It's like reading page 217 of a book and then page 232 and then page 271. Maybe it's a fun page or hey, the page has a really nice turn of phrase or a character you recognize from page 1081 of the next book which you're familiar with already. But it's still not a very satisfying experience. My main takeaways for the excitement for people that a lot of this is new to is mainly "You know all of 1984 Mid-South is on youtube now, right?" I get the argument. I just think that the hundred of us are a drop in the bucket and it doesn't really matter one way or another what we do.

The answer is still heel Razor paired with Dibiase, and probably eventually usurping him.

De facto weighing seems to get away from the purpose behind this a little, no? Unless of course you find a way to be transparent about it.

Variety: It's tricky to me. During the same period, someone might have the same match for 6 months with the same opponent in WWF and someone else might be going from territory to territory -facing dozens of opponents. Also, I think Psychology should be weighted more than Offense or Selling.

Loyal Company guy, fondly remembered from the cartoon, spent another decade as a Coliseum Video lynchpin, and then another after that as a goodwill ambassador. One of the iconic figures of the rock'n'wrestling era. Big name value from fans of a certain age. All of those things are more important than wrestling skill, titles, etc, for the WWE hall of fame.

Why the heck isn't Jim in?

-7?

Mercy

And Yoshi Kwan too.

I want to see the statistical system for ranking different Shakespeare plays now.

I have some conceptual problems with this in general, but I am looking at it as a specific tool that Parv is using, something he finds helpful and that makes his process more credible, to himself, in his eyes, not something he is trying to force on to others, and so long as that's the case, more power to him. I think delineating between selling, psychology, and intangibles, for instance, is very difficult.

This is a rabbit hole, but I'd put both Andre and Hansen higher on roles. Andre working almost completely immobile as a heel in 89, having the action come to him but knowing exactly what to do to move the crowd at every moment is very different than how he worked earlier his career as a more athletic babyface. Moreover, we have the Andre vs Race match now where he basically wrestled a NWA title style match, and we have other 2/3 falls matches from Japan, etc. He would work somewhat different against someone like Kamala than he would in a handicap match in Japan. Also, I think Hansen worked wildly differently in AWA vs Bock, for instance, than in Japan, and I'm not overly inclined to defend him right now. He was a chickenshit heel there, though, and that's about as far from standard Hansen as you can get. How much of him as a babyface in Georgia do we have?