Matt D

I kind of like to see HOW a wrestler half asses stuff. If they take shortcuts or just lock in a chinlock. If so, how do they do it. You get the idea. I don't have to go in depth. Do you get the sense that they can be lazy and still be effective, etc?

This was really great. I loved the talk on craft and also having him talking about some names you wouldn't normally hear about. I'd never heard the Fuji thing before (though I might have heard the Bravo one).

I really hope we get an entire episode focused on Steph's heel turn at the end of 99.

RVD is my least favorite wrestler of all time, but I can separate favorites from best. Therefore, he will be #1012 on my list of best wrestlers ever, just ahead of Moppy and Pepe the hobby horse, but hey, if he's on your list and all, that's cool, because we're open minded.

Brusier Brody/Stan Hansen vs Mil Mascaras/Dos Caras This match did not disappoint. I wanted, so very badly, to see what would happen when the two most selfish wrestlers in the history of wrestling, Brody and Mil got in there together, and it was beautiful. neither gave the other anything. On one level you might think that would be great because it would mean there was a visceral sense of struggle, but it wasn't competitiveness. It was just a lack of cooperation or selling. They'd just hug each other around the ring or grab a leg and then shove off and it was just tedious and terrible, maybe some of the worst wrestling I've ever seen in my life. There was one point where Brody was absolutely fed up and tagged out to Hansen just because he didn't want to deal with the bullshit and another where I swear that Mil did the same thing, tagging out to Casas. At that point they tried to do a double atomic drop (which Hansen ate later), but Brody would have nothing to do with that. Hansen was better than Brody; he'd take stuff at least but he'd never sell it for more than a few seconds, always punching his way back up. Given the size difference that might have been okay in a different match with a different partner. Dos was fine. Hilarious match. Everyone needs to see it. As bad in parts as anything I've ever seen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utpghisMA0M

I would drop a few dollars in to make sure Parv could get the network so that we could see him review Monday Night Wars. That'd be hilarious. If he's angry about this...

They should have just thrown out the Best of 7. It's been a long time since they did it.

Didn't they market Bruno as "the Living Legend?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTRej6vOCuM I had NO idea this ever happened.

It's probably too late for Mookie to do a really comprehensive Brock Lesnar-As-A-Wrestling-Draw overview isn't it?

That crazy Bock vs Larry Z match from the AWA set was pretty short.

I really want to find a great or at least very good Model match. I watched Martel vs Red Rooster from MSG last night and while I thought he did a great job during the shine, really selling the arm and then the leg and making Taylor look good and his stuff meaningful, I fell asleep once he got on offense. Literally. Monsoon was particularly brutal too and I love Monsoon. Heenan getting exasperated that Hillbilly Jim could identify the patella cracked me up though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnYsLz2PKAQ

I will watch any Davey Richards match that Parv, Charles, Bill, and Dylan all agree that I should watch. Past that, I'm not watching anything.

Did you talk about Ricky vs Tito vs Martel?

There's a lot of stuff from Japan from the 70s that I really do want to see, but it's going to be a long road for me to get through them all.

It was over as a legitimate threat at the Royal Rumble that Santino came in second on though.

I think on a small level, something like the Cobra getting over as well as it did, because it was sold to get over, is telling.

It amazes me how well Sabu did in the 1994 Observer voting. I feel like he came in #2 in almost every category.

I'm pretty happy with my sum up earlier in the note. That covers a lot of my philosophy on wrestling more succinctly than I've manged before.

This is vaguely anecdotal, but there was a highly touted AJ vs Daniels match from a few years ago. I think it was a FCA. I remember enjoying Styles a lot in it but getting frustrated because Daniels kept doing stupid things and screwing up the match. I get the feeling that this might be a common theme for most of AJ's career, and I might underrate him accordingly.

Lawler (and others) posted on twitter that Ox Baker passed away.

All of these 30-40 minute matches i'm trying to watch for GOAT are killing me. I rarely have more than 20-25 mins at a time to watch anything.

Conditioning fans is pretty much the entire point of pro wrestling.

In general, spots are a tool. If they're a tool well used to tell a complete, coherent, consistent match, even if they're rapid fire and there's little room to breathe, great. That's a good match. It's very hard to make anything mean anything in a match like that though since, unless you're dealing with a huge multiman match, there's no time to actually sell anything in a weighty manner. It takes very talented wrestlers and very clever layout generally. It's possible; it's just hard. A match like that can be entertaining and not actually any good. Everyone likes watching explosions. They don't take the place of actual substance though, even if they can be used as part of a total whole to create that substance. They just don't substitute for it inherently. To me, in a good match, moves have meaning and that meaning adds up to something even more meaningful. Can that happen in what I think to be a spotfest? Sure. Is it hard as hell? I think so.

I suppose we have to take a step back and define spotfest then, and maybe the difference between a spotfest and a sprint?