Matt D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWPbZAB6xH0 Judy Martin vs Desiree Peterson from Boston 7/22/85 - WWF This is well worth watching. It was a blast, actually. They started out with some matwork, just a bit before Martin took a powder and jawed a bit. She had a great way of sort of stalking around the ring to get her opening. After that, they had some back and forth sequence ending with missing each other on various moves (and selling well). There was less of the hair-pulling and hold trading than in the Victoria match; less chicanery too. More action and some hard hits. After a final missed shot in the corner, Martin took over and boy did she ever. First she got Peterson up in a fireman's carry into a clothesline over the top. Then she followed it up with a powerbomb and lifted Peterson up after one which garnered her some very real heat from the crowd. She followed THAT up by tossing Peterson right onto poor Mean Gene (who was announcing). For once, he was a gentleman and just raised his hands up shocked. This was all pretty chaotic,with Peterson out for a while including getting tossed over the barricade. When she got back in, Martin stomped her far too low causing even more outrage, from the announcers, the crowd, and the ref. Peterson tried to come back, including a dropkick but she got tossed out AGAIN, this time onto Gorilla. It was quite the scene with people in the crowd shouting for Gene to have a go at it. Classy. Finally, Peterson made it back in, ducked a shot, and hit a cross body out of nowhere for the win.I would have liked a bit more for a comeback but in a lot of ways the flash pin felt more believable because of how Martin was just killing her dead.

I hope they fasttrack Itami and Finn to the main roster as a tag team, actually, because Devitt could get a lot out of working Dustin around the horn and that's an opportunity that might not be there in six months to a year.

In rewatching this, I was fairly amazed by how violent the Chamber match was. That wasn't in my memories of this. Speaking of memories, I'm very much like Parv as these were some of the iconic shows of my youth so things like Windham's hand getting wedged into the door are indelibly pressed in my mind so for him not to immediately place it is strange to me on some level. It makes for a good balance between the two of you.

It was more to show that there were things he valued more than the elements we lauded heavily in the Rusev match. I was all over the place in that post as I had to run to a meeting and I haven't felt up to fixing it because enough of the point is there and no one's really contested it or grabbed hold of it to the point of needing clarification.

They made Cody and an Uso wrestle a match right before they had a cage match too.

I really liked the message of the Zayn video package on Main Event. "We're in this together," is exactly the message they should be using with Zayn. Zayn is "one of you."

I don't really have time to make the point I want, but I honestly don't think it's about Henry at all but instead about the broader style. Henry and Angle make for a great comparison. You can look at things like how Dave gave Rusev vs Swagger 3 1/4 stars and Orton vs Reigns 4 stars for Summerslam. Henry's really more of a symbol of being able to like a guy who works a slower, deliberate style, but that has great timing, knows when to jaw with the fans or the ref, and how much to give and when to give it, and how there's a huge cross-section of the online audience that would never give a guy like that a look. I don't see how you can have the Henry argument without talking about workrate (though it's not like Henry's stuff doesn't look great and he's certainly not afraid to bump over the stairs and what not), since I don't think it's really about Henry at all. The things that Henry does well a lot of people simply don't value (and I still think that they're things that take more sophistication and thinking and deeper analysis to really understand and appreciate. They're not candy). That's what's being railed against more than anything else.

Bear with me here. I was watching Royal Rumble 89 last year at some point and during the Jumping Bomb Angels match, I thought that far and away the best wrestler in that match was Judy Martin. I never really had a reason to follow up and watch more matches to see though. Now I sort of do. Judy Martin vs Princess Victoria, WCCW, 1983 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NBpABrMKzw I actually think both women show a lot here but Martin probably shows a little more. She's the heel and she's fairly classic in that role, for the time, jawing with the fans, using the hair to win exchanges (including a ponytail in the top wristlock), claiming hair pulling when she lost them, etc. She feeds into Victoria's offense very well bumping and selling and carrying on. There's an extended leghold which she sells well and she finally takes over after feigning that the leg was more hurt than it was and drawing Victoria in. Her offense is pretty brutal, both the hair-based stuff and the blows. There are a couple of good hope spots and comebacks until Victoria's had enough and does the typical native American comeback with some pretty nice looking shots into a fairly hot finishing stretch. I'd say this was actively good and I'm looking forward to seeing more.

This makes me think of Race, but (and I haven't done the legwork enough, but from what I've seen) is it that the forward-looking elements were different between Brisco and Race, and Brisco actually kept the elements of the 70s style that some of us miss and appreciate while adding another element and Race jettisoned those for HIS element that he introduced? I don't know. Does that even make sense?

He never came back as NXT commissioner either and that was an implied stip of the Rhodes tag match.

We're all amazingly consistent, aren't we?

Is it easier to compare Aja Kong and Vader or Jim Breaks and Vader?

Just caught up with the show.I'm really glad they gave Henry vs Show so much time. They did the singles match now because they'll be on the Survivor Series main, I think. Really fun deliberate match with both guys giving when they should and taking when they should and everything looking like it had weight and meaning behind it. I loved the Big Show elbows to the back and the Toss-Flair-Off-The-Top spot was both unexpected and believable, since you'd think Show would be frustrated enough to up his game like that against an opponent that he knew he had to bring more against. I thought the whole thing really built in violence from sort of a clash of the titans beginning to the DQ on the floor at the end. Good match.

I had caught Tyson vs Sheamus earlier in the night and it amazed me just how bored the crowd looked when on camera. It didn't seem like any of them wanted to be there at all. Also, I really wish they'd do something more with Big E. They should use him for comedy. I know he's huge, but he's also pretty funny. Maybe they could make him Miz-E and have him out there with Mizdow doing the same act. The visual difference would probably be pretty funny.

The main problem is this: how can they make Main Event feel important when they can't make ANYTHING feel important?

Personally I have a way easier time comparing The Glamour Girls and The Rougeaus than Atlantis and Bam Bam Bigelow.

The Taue Revolution

According to Jim Ross, Brian Pillman is pound for pound the best athlete in 1991 WCW!

I was there that night. We were excited. Then we were disappointed. So, so disappointed.

In general, I'm much more impressed by someone who uses limited athletic ability to great effect than someone who uses a lot of athletic ability to pretty good effect.

Khali has a very specific value to the company though, as he's a celebrity in India which is a huge market and can stand out for publicity reasons, as well as has a certain level of credibility just due to his size when it comes to putting someone over. Thanks to Total Divas, I'd actually say the Bellas are more valuable to the company than he is right now, but it's pretty close.

100 heels.

People were pretty high on Bagwell in late 97-early 98 after he'd spend some time in Japan. I remember DEAN for one being so in the workrrate reports from the time. Also, he was a perfectly fine partner for Scorpio in 93.

From what I've seen from the shoot stuff so far, I like the more grappling-heavy stuff, the whole "building off openings that the other person lets me" to create counters and what not, but I have a long way to go. I've seen very little strike heavy matches.

I had a post that I didn't actually go through at one point talking about the general feeling in 98 when he had the phantom TV title win and people's reactions when it wasn't acknowledged but I didn't quite feel up to articulating it