Matt D

My guess is that Will thinks that people hold Jericho's personality against him. There's been something of a backlash based off of his last few returns and elements of his podcast, self-consciousness, and towing the company line, which is especially poignant considering that a lot of us really associated ourselves with him in 98-01 or so. Personally, I think reevaluation of the in-ring work shows that Kane had a better 1999 in WWF than he did and the demand, by the WWF, that he learn to work their style from Kane, was not actually egregious in the least. But at the time it was fury-inspiring.

Except for when it comes to Sting's drawing, of course! Have you seen much of the Dusty Rhodes, Jr. stuff Dylan? He worked Turnbuckle, right? How much of that is out there?

Genius vs Hogan is fun.

There's just so much out there. I'm tempted to get a few months here or there from Lynch, something like the first quarter of 1998 CMLL TV (hypothetically), just something where there isn't a lot of information for online and not a lot of reviews, etc, in order to map it out for people, but I can't rationalize the cost when there's so much I haven't seen out there for free.

I want to know more about Eddie Gilbert no-showing because he didn't want to be part of the Varsity Club. I took a quick look through Observers and couldn't find that. The main thing I found was Dave praising how great the gimmick was and what it had done for Rotunda.

I would like to see more Black Reign, actually. I know that sounds crazy but all i found online a few months ago were some garbage matches.

I'm going to put this out there for discussion and it's mainly based on what people wanted for Rusev. Past HHH, Andre, and maybe Orton, are there any top card WWF heels that stayed on top of the card for more than a year, year and a half at a time? Yokozuna comes to mind. He showed up right before Royal Rumble 1993 and lasted until a little bit after Wrestlemania X. By KOTR he was in a tag match with the Headshrinkers. He was off of Summerslam and he'd be tagging with Owen by the next Wrestlemania. Umaga debuted, crushed some midcarders, crushed some giants, feuded against Cena, and then ended up with the midcard belt shortly thereafter. Savage may have feuded with Hogan earlier, but his main event turn was at the beginning of 89 and it more or less ended with the Main Event in 90 (though his feuds with Dusty and eventually Warrior were very high on the card). Andre barely counts because of the lack of big events in the mid-late 80s and the fact he was out for most of 87. It's basically just HHH and HHH protege Orton, right?

One of my major goals is to watch a lot more British wrestling between now and the end of the period. I already realized that I can just stack lucha guys on the list and everyone's lack of familiarity will just allow for a lot of shrugging and general acceptance.

I can't imagine Hansen in my top twenty right now. That may change.

I voted for Dustin, but in general I wish he had a better resume of heel work. I like him vs Michaels in 96 on house shows and I think his matches vs Ahmed (especially Ahmed. He got such amazing heat in that match, not even doing much at all) and Piper are both interesting performances but that's about it from that run. There's not a ton (or the opportunity for a ton) in early 98 or in 99. His early 00s return was mainly against RVD which is about as frustrating as you'd expect. The less said about Black Reign the better. And then there's last year, which wasn't bad by any means, but I just wish there was more. I have a theory that he's not as compelling on top as a heel as he ought to be because he was so good working from underneath as a face. Because of that he thinks that it's not necessary to do a ton. He's up against a litany of guys not even close to being as good as he was as a face though.

Part of me thinks that the audience they can draw in with Total Divas is at odds with the audience they could draw in by focusing on Bayley and also with the audience they could draw in with Sasha Banks workrate classics. That's either part of the problem or can be presented as part of the problem by conservative elements inside the company who don't want change.

Ronda to counter steph seems weird. Chained to Kane seems more appropriate.

There is none. It's just a thought, since they don't get many women viewers. Has an increase in female viewership ever been attributable to female talent? Are we counting the Dawn Marie/Torrie Wilson/Al Wilson storyline?

At this very moment, I'd have to see Negro Casas and El Hijo del Santo. When they teamed reguarly in 00-02 there was just so much history behind them and I love the interplay between them and they're, you know, two of the best wrestlers of all time, which helps.

There are also two other elements, the first being that a lot of things that do work in NXT work because they were built to. That can be a small thing like Emma starting out as a heel trying to yell at the crowd but winning them over after a taping or two with her awkward attempt at things. Or it could be a big thing like Bo Dallas pushed as a top babyface for two years as the crowd slowly turned against him, until they were able to run with the delusional character that didn't realize it. Then when both came to the main roster, they came up fully developed without the work the fans needed to buy into what they were. Obviously, it wasn't going to be successful. The second is sabotage but that's another story.

You've picked up Mark Yeaton?

The problem is Jericho is a "not nearly as good as I wish he was" wrestler.

Parv. Look at this. This is what WWE.com does with its time now.

You and I will probably be low on the AJPW guys and high on arn anderson.

How is this note still going almost ten years later?

I've not nominated anyone as of yet, I don't think, but a guy I could potentially see towards the end of my list is Adrian Street. So I'm nominating him for discussion.

When I watch those Misawa and Kawada matches suggested to me in the other thread, I'll make sure to watch that one too. I did stick in the execute to desired effect bit in there too. I was going to go on about how a general "desired effect" might match up or not with my own desired effect and then my grand theory of Flair, but I've got to write about Larry Zbyzsko in Japan here.

The joke is: "No, no, you're thinking about Johnny." The statement I will say instead is: I value the outcome of one over the outcome of the other but think both are important. I am well on record in saying that the most important element of wrestling to me is "making moves matter." Understanding pro wrestling and then utilizing that understanding to a desired effect. It helps, as well, when that desired effect matches up with my own preferences, but I try to understand situations when it doesn't, so long as I feel that understanding is there from the other end.

Fuck it. I'm actually really frustrated that no one bit on this statement from before: That comment sort of made me feel it again.

I think this is a tough one to accurately compare without more complete Stampede footage.