Matt D

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?

Here's where I am on this after seven pages: I think that Brock vs Reigns was a remarkable accomplishment. They were able to get fans who wanted nothing more than to boo Reigns behind him by the end, to the point that when the ball was taken away from him, I think there was real momentum and if they had capitalized on it, we'd look at this entire year differently, that it could have been one of the great narratives in wrestling, the way to really build a star. That was solely on one Raw being cancelled due to weather and on the work of two wrestlers in one match, some blood, some fire, some grittiness, and a year of building up a wrestler as unstoppable. It's as much of a shame as anything in the WWE this year (and that's saying so much) that it didn't end up working out that way. Just a remarkable accomplishment of a match. Sasha vs Bayley doesn't feel as remarkable. It doesn't feel as impressive at first glance. What it is, instead, is more iconic. It's good vs evil in 2015. It's a face vs a heel in an era where that seems quaint and passe. I'm not even sure what could compare to it, really, in years. Bryan vs the Authority was more Revenge of the Nerds than anything else,and that fits the times that we live in. And people bought into it so thoroughly. They believed. That, to me, is impressive too. A lot of it was carried upon the build, but the match was laid out to pay off that build, with Bayley standing up for herself, not just within the context of the feud but within the match itself. It played off her injury. It played into the finishers and her redemption road. I think Brock vs Reigns was a miracle match and I'm higher on the finish than anyone here. I think Bayley vs Sasha was a match which was laid out to be exactly what it should be, a monolith to what wrestling can and should be when you marry story and action, when you set up a plan and execute it. It did what it was supposed to do. It did what it should have done. The plan was carried out. The people bought into it after all. Reigns vs Brock felt like it did the impossible, that it went against what should have been doable. I was in that Rumble crowd two months before. Brock vs Reigns was more impressive, but Bayley vs Sasha was wrestling done right. It's not remarkable because they're women. It's remarkable because it wasn't wildly post-modern, because it was so simple and straightforward and primal. Reigns vs Lesnar was everything wrestling could be. Sasha vs Bayley was everything wrestling should be.

I think if you're going to go that far, you should just go all the way into tokenism and wish fulfillment and be done with it. Someone probably should, if only so it can get dismissed. The idea that people want Bayley vs Sasha to be the best for symbolic reasons as a blow for female wrestling in the US (as opposed to being just a blow for the part timer or the put-upon company favorite putting on a good match on a big stage) or in order to feel progressive, etc. I'd rather we just get it out of the way, even if we are six pages in.

Turn Razor. It basically fixes everything.

Finished this yesterday. I thought it was excellent, that Kevin was a fresh voice on these and so full of context and information, and also great insight into the mentality of an AWA fan of the era, even in just his tone. If anything, I wish the show had more time, to go even more in depth. I'd be really interested to hear you guys do a focus on Mad Dog Vachon with him at some point, for instance. Again, just a great job from everyone. The only major thing I'd amend, was Dylan, towards the end talking about how much joy babyface Bock had. I really think that's something you see in his heel work as well, especially when he's not up against the monsters like Verne or Hogan. There's a glee in him punishing or showing up other wrestlers.

"He's alive, hasn't been in the news negatively for a few years, and more people know who he is than Danny Hodge."

I do intend to get the NJPW set at some point, but mainly for the Choshu's army stuff.

The sunglasses were to hide the hangovers.

You keep going that way and we're going to get Taker/McCool vs Cena/Nikki.

I think that if they do Cena vs Taker, it should have some sort of stakes. I mean, in general, I think almost every match at Wrestlemania should have some sort of stakes.