Matt D

I've not. I've seen very little Inoki in general, to be honest. At some point soon I intend to create a thread just asking people what I need to watch in the limited time I have. I'm not quite there yet though.

For Hansen, I need to see a few of those early 90s matches, and I also need to see some of his big late 70s work. I think I saw a 92 Kawada vs Hansen match which I did like, but it wasn't a revelation. I found Kawada working as an underdog a lot more interesting than what Hansen did, but Hansen was effective in his role. I definitely like uneven Hansen matches more than even ones, whether it be him playing chickenshit to Bock or dominating a younger wrestler. The Hansen and some other bull charging at each other for twenty minutes thing doesn't do much for me at all. I will admit that there's a very natural sort of storytelling to both guys working very hard, being unyielding, and any selling that's done (or advantage taken) being completely earned, but it's sort of an accidental storytelling and it's not my favorite sort of wrestling. When I do like it, it's in more holds-based matches than unrelenting stiffness based matches, if that makes sense.

I deeply appreciate what he does, but appreciating it and valuing it are two different things.

While we have some varied Bass performances, I just don't think there's enough out there. I'm sure people with more easy access to Maritimes footage than I do would feel otherwise. There's a special place in my heart for guys like Chris Colt, Rip Rogers, and Bass, but I just don't know if I could sneak them onto my list. If I do, it's only because I've seen so little footage when it comes to certain other things.

I get this, actually. The term doesn't bother me, but matches that are like this definitely do. The Cena-Bray Wyatt WM30 and HHH-Undertaker WM28 matches come to mind as the most glaring examples. Too much acting and bad attempts at Shakespeare, not enough wrestling (and I don't mean "action" by "wrestling" necessarily). I wanted to give some praise to Emma for her character work specifically last night and Jerome had me self-conscious about it. There's a big difference between Shawn Michaels crying and Emma putting her hand over her heart as the crowd with a little sigh as the crowd is chanting that she's evil and then later on forcing Bayley into a hug to mock her. Or Cavernario, who might be the best guy in the world at portraying his character right now. He's able to integrate the caveman wildness into varied things like lucha matwork, crowd interaction, and outright comedy in a really natural, effective way that shows that he's always "on." And never just going through the motions or hitting his shit.

Good list Elliott. Just based on that, I need to see more Tenryu and Choshu, and rewatch some Sangre Chicana. I know I need to see more Jumbo, Baba and Fujinami. Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi are going to be big problems for me. (I still kind of want to put Taue in front of all of them, but I've seen less than twenty matches). The biggest problem with this project in general is that I have maybe 2-3 hours a week to watch wrestling, and once I get past wrestling obligations I have, that means just a couple of matches, especially if the matches are over 20 minutes and the ones with most of the wrestlers I have to look at are. So certain guys are going be hampered (or benefit) from what I can do. Funk and Hansen are issues for me too. I'm not saying I'm ready to write off Hansen, but from what I've seen, no way does he make my top 10.

Bret would see his innovation in transitions and finishes, I think.

How much money does Corgan have again?

Like I said, 10-15% at the beginning, but by the end, I really didn't care. I cared enough to mention it but with the caveat that the match overcame it.

Just finished the woman's match. I loved it. I thought the opening stuff might have been 10% or so too choreographed/practiced but by the end of the match I really didn't care. At first watch, I'd call that the best NXT women's match too. I can see the argument that Becky may not have sold her arm quite enough at first, but once things got going, she definitely did. I've no real qualms about that since it was progressive.

Will, you should watch NXT tv if you get the chance. It's a well-paced studio show and i think there are elements of it down your alley. I'm sure Johnny would agree that it's a lot of fun generally.

There was almost nothing to that match. Nothing meant anything. The match was basically just Rhyno getting clotheslined when he went for the gore and the End of Days. That could have happened one, five, or ten minutes in. There was some stuff like the weak corner barrage and Rhyno's power moves but none of it had any ebb or flow to it. A match like that can work with enough intensity but Corbin can't begin to bring that yet. You can learn clever wrestling and good execution, but you can't really learn that. The switch just has to flip and there's no promise it ever will.

This match is making me want to see a Valiente/Rhyno tag team. Unfortunately, they'd probably be up against Corbin/Thunder.

Dana is definitely not ready for primetime, especially when she was feeding for Charlotte after the hot tag. I thought that Emma was really good in getting her character across though and Charlotte was having so much fun with the Bailey pairing. Match needed one more cut off during the heat and a lot less Dana miscues.

Real life got in the way and my plan to catch up on NXT failed horribly. I made it about half the way there but I still have 3-4 episodes I didn't get to. Ah well.

Man, Bret bombed the question on why he's better than Flair. Any of us could have done a better job there.Even Flair did a better job answering it.

On a message board, I'll take someone who's negative about everything but tries to explain why they're negative in a well-thought out fashion over someone who's positive about everything but doesn't bother to explain anything in any real depth. I'd probably rather WATCH wrestling with the other guy, mind you.

My list is going to be absolutely ridiculous due to lack of time (and another year wouldn't help so it's not about that).

I don't think Parv's criteria for Greatest Wrestler is necessarily the one who is Greatest at Wrestling. EDIT: That's not a knock either. I was just typing it on my phone at midnight last night. I think he places "value" much higher than most of us do.

I'm with El-P on the headbutt thing but his dislike of "character work" is one of my pet peeves today.

Most telling is that the announcers didn't bury him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHsuWP7q-mQ Meta Powers is the WWE name for them.

Don't you listen to your brother's conspiracy theories?

That was actually a star making replay on the arrow.

I don't give Barrett enough credit for his body language.