Matt D

Jarrett/Brown vs Christian/Sting - Final Resolution (?) Let me put it this way. I don't think it's worth looking up when this was. As far as I can tell, I think it was Sting's first TNA match and he was fine. Christian was fine. Brown wasn't even that bad, but my god, if you wanted to define the stink of TNA this would be a good match to find it, and frankly, I think it's not even that bad an offender. The first ten minutes of the match are fine with a nice little shine where Sting got to hit some stuff, a good FIP on Christian though I get the feeling that he didn't QUITE have the real polish he'd develop over the next year or two yet. Little choices seemed slightly off here and there (the one that comes to mind was a pretty poor looking ddt/final shot combo that was just ill conceived, but the timing on his hot tag could have been better too; some of that isn't him). But the back third? Oh man. They put in some really fun flourishes like Christian using the Stinger splash or both of them hitting their reverse ddts at the same time on team canada who interfered. It felt a little like Edge teaming with Hogan in that regard. And SOME of the BS was okay (like the aforementioned Team Canada destruction) but a lot of it was just brutal and went on way too long. Jarrett could only tap (with the ref out) after reaching the rope on the Deathlock (the ref bump lasted forever by the way). In a tag match. Against the big new icon you're bringing back. And that was just the tip of the iceberg with all the interference bs and overbooking. I will say this. Sting felt so iconic that it sort of worked. Him hitting the guitar with the bat felt like a real moment. He just had a crazy presence to everything else going on. Christian was fine and he was able to make himself feel, if not on Sting's level, at least able to be in the ring with him, but this whole thing was a mess by the end.

There are a lot of words to describe RE but I'm not "strategic" would be one of them.

Ok now show them Onita, Hogan, Cena, Satanico, and Flair/Steamboat vs Arn/Larry and report back with your findings.

Are you only into post modern wrestling structures or something? EDIT: I don't mean that in a hostile way, either. I'm honestly curious.

"Big match feel" is probably the single least important metric in wrestling to me. I do think that sometimes Cena is a wrestler who believes that the best creative choices to make for the moment and the crowd aren't necessarily the ones that'd lead to the best match.

I think Honky might be a guy deserving of reevaluation to be honest. A lot of the traditional strikes against him seem to be workrate-heavy ones. I'd be curious how some of his vulnerable heel champ shtick aged.

I'm looking to maybe go to the Rumble. I haven't been to a wrestling show in ten years and not to a PPV since Rumble 02. Just looking at the way the board is set up right now, I think there's a pretty good chance I get SOMETHING memorable.

By definition I don't think either TNA or ROH could be considered indies. They're both corporately owned. You could say that there's Coke and then there's OK Cola though.

It seems like too much to ask for Murdoch and Santana vs the Moondogs from 83. Asking for old man Murdoch vs Vampire Warrior seems way more reasonable.

How much foreign money does TNA take in? Is there any merchandising anymore? Action figures and video games seem so far back now.

Like I said, we're all going to be really freaking smart in a couple of years.

I want to see Murdoch vs Gangrel badly now.

I hated those brawls when I was 17-18 and just wanted to see cruiserweights and Danny Doring/Roadkill vs Nova/Chetti Movez matches. I can't wait to revisit them now.

Welcome Andy, Richard, and Lauren. Richard, definitely participate in the Buddy Rose Microscope note. I really want to get posting there again soon too (though the board reformat a few years ago sort of chopped up a lot of my older scribblings).

A few years ago, I blamed Watts for gutting the light heavyweight division by instituting the no top rope rule and trying to center it around Brad Armstrong. That probably wasn't fair.

Imagine having Dylan as an influence during your formative years. It's a wonder he's not posting from a jail cell. That said, Devon will be running this place in ten years.

I want to rank Pillman. He's the most important wrestler of my youth, but maybe because of that I'm wary and I need to rewatch a lot.

Did any of his MSC matches with Brian Christopher in 93 make tape?

Johnny's nickname is "The Trippy Time Capsule" I need to really reply to this one at some point.

I'm not against Tanahashi being in on principle or anything, but I don't think it should have necessarily been so soon and I think Dave thought it was a matter-of-fact and presented it that way from the first second he could. How many of the voters are from Japan? Do we have any sense of that?

It's a system that feeds into itself, certainly, but if Dave really doesn't want someone in, they're probably not getting in. If Dave really wants someone to get in, I imagine they get in eventually. Tanahashi is a pretty good example if you want to break this down. Is there someone that Dave obviously wanted to get in that didn't get in? Or vice versa?

I sort of think it's the WON HOF and not the Pro Wrestling HOF. The WON is a very specific thing with specific views and specific criteria. Frankly, being good at MMA sort of matters within the confines of the WON. We bitch about how much he dedicates each issue to it, for instance. It's Meltzer's HOF and he sees it as connected. As for drawing, I do kind of think the defense is funny on a page where the first post on it is meltzer talking about how you can't tell whether a guy is a draw or not (at least at certain times after the territory days died off).

OJ, I sort of dipped my foot in the Joint Promotions waters with this match. I thought a lot of the action was quite good, though, especially for something seemingly so throwaway in your examination of UK wrestling. How much of it do you think was Breaks leading the 17 year old through holds and exchanges?

Business was actively down in 02-03-04 right? Anecdotally, I know I went to my only MSG show in 03 and we got great seats because they were way marked down for the show. He was on top vs Taker.

I watch TNA. May the wrestling gods be merciful. Christian vs Samoa Joe, No Surrender, 2007 I don't do star ratings but I think if I did this might hover right under 4 stars. It might even hit it. Maybe it'd make it slightly over? Okay, to hell with star ratings. Let's go with "So, this was actually pretty good," instead. The video package would have me believe there was heat, with Christian feeling that Joe cost him a title shot and Joe pissed off because Christian gave a con-chair-to to a Samoan dancer or something? Anyway, Joe came out super intense and his stuff looked great and Christian sold it like death, getting beaten around the ring and ringside area. He'd get a little flurry here or there but would get cut off immediately. Heel-in-peril works when you have a monster face, vulnerable heel, and a reason for said face to kill said heel. Eventually, Christian came back with a pretty great looking "Reverse Falling DDT" thing that was his original finisher, off the top. It felt organic and looked great, the former being more important than the later. Most of his attempts at offense were containment chinlocks, which made sense in the context of the match but weren't very exciting. The announcing was pretty good here; if anything they tried TOO hard to explain the match and get things over, which is not a complaint I'm used to having these days. It felt a bit more like psychology guesswork. Sometimes less can be more. Anyway, the heat wasn't all that drawn out or compelling but it probably wasn't supposed to be in a match like this. Christian kept whatever momentum he had coming into this by kicking out at the last second time after time after time during a far more lengthy third act. I think maybe he kicked out of one too many bombs (DVD, Powerbomb, etc) and the story would have been tighter with a bit more restraint. It all led to Joe hooking on his finisher but Christian being in the ropes and the ref breaking it up a bit too harshly, which led to Joe going nuts and killing half the locker room and trying to hang Christian before Cornette and Matt Morgan came out to stop him. The finish worked fine for me. Christian came out looking pretty good. Joe came out looking like a force. Morgan ended up looking dangerous enough to be a deterrent. Yeah, pretty good match.