Matt D

First off, glad to be on board, especially for the start of year 3. It's like you guys ended a season and crashed right into Great American Bash 91 in your season premiere. A whole new threat. Other thoughts as I go. That Studd/Flair match isn't hard to find, btw. Flair being managed by 1991 DDP is something to see. Also, the in ring Danger Zone with PN News is way better than the Hervey one since News makes Heyman do it and it's a hilarious performance. That's harder to find but I think I saw it on a WCW Pro Chicago.

EDIT: Bill replied again while I was typing this To be fair, Big Show is HUGELY talented. Hugely. Look at the Wrestlemania match with Mayweather. It's an amazing performance, one of the best of my lifetime. There isn't one breath that Show takes in that match that's not exactly where it should be. It's not a case where one guy is great and the other sucks. That said, it's still a pretty nutty statement if only for how brazen it was and certainly not a given on any level. Maybe it shows some true colors when someone sees "talent" only as "athletic ability," but even then, Andre had that in spades in the 70s and early 80s. That's still where I'd choose to get the pitchforks out, were I to.

If I was going to the live shows, I'd probably be pissed because Rush too most of the match, won so handedly, even if it was screwy, and now where do things go? There's no one on the horizon positioned at all to even be a threat to give Rush comeuppance.

It almost felt like one of those mid-movie scenes where the hero faces off for the villain, one on one, for the first time for revenge, and due to either being over powered or chicanery he gets his ass handed to him and he has to spend the rest of the movie building himself up to face him again with that doubt in his heart. Or maybe I just liked Guardians of the Galaxy a lot more than Rush vs Negro Casas?

I wouldn't call it terrible, at least not relatively. I thought the second fall was sort of clever, with the way the interference backfired and I liked some of the callback stuff with Casas hitting the corner dropkicks, but in general, it wasn't at all worthy of the build. In fact, and I know lucha doesn't always work this way, the ending was so unsatisfying that you almost think they can run it again. It was hardly definitive.

Everyone loved that Brad Rheingans match.

Ignoring the Andre thing completely: At this point, I'm kind of okay with a "standards are transitory and good wrestling is timeless and not in the very least tied to them." mindset, if it'll make this argument go away?

Heyman and Cena would work well together.

Star ratings for Dustin matches (WCW PPVs+Clashes): Dustin Rhodes vs. Buddy Landel = *1/4 Dustin Rhodes vs. Terrance Taylor (w/Alexandra York & Mr. Hughes) = ** Dustin Rhodes vs. Terrance Taylor (w/Alexandra York & Mr. Hughes) = *3/4 Six Man Tag Team Elimination: Dustin Rhodes & The Young Pistols (Steve Armstrong & Tracy Smothers) vs. The Fabulous Freebirds (Badstreet, Jimmy Garvin & Michael Hayes) (w/Big Daddy Dink) = *1/4 WCW World Television Title: Steve Austin © vs. Dustin Rhodes = ***1/2 WCW World Tag Team Title: Dustin Rhodes & Ricky Steamboat (w/Barry Windham) vs. The Enforcers (Arn Anderson & Larry Zbyszko) © = ****1/4 Lethal Lottery Tag Team: Dustin Rhodes & Richard Morton vs. El Gigante & Larry Zbyszko (w/Madusa) =3/4* Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes & Ron Simmons vs. The Dangerous Alliance (Arn Anderson, Beautiful Bobby & Larry Zbyszko) (w/Paul E. Dangerously) = **** Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs. Larry Zbyszko & Steve Austin = ***3/4 War Games: Sting's Squadron (Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, Ricky Steamboat & Sting) vs. The Dangerous Alliance (Arn Anderson, Beautiful Bobby, Larry Zbyszko, Rick Rude & Steve Austin) (w/Madusa & Paul E. Dangerously) = ***** NWA World Tag Team Title Tournament First Round: Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs. Arn Anderson & Beautiful Bobby = ***1/4 Six Man Tag Team Match (Special Referee: Ole Anderson): Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes & Nikita Koloff vs. The Dangerous Alliance (Arn Anderson, Beautiful Bobby & Steve Austin) (w/Paul E. Dangerously) = **3/4 NWA World Tag Team Title Tournament Quarter Final Match #3: Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs. Rick Rude & Steve Austin = *1/4 NWA World Tag Team Title Tournament Semi Final Match #2: Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs. Hiroshi Hase & Shinya Hashimoto = ** NWA World Tag Team Title Tournament Final Match (vakant): Steve Williams & Terry Gordy vs. Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes = 3/4* Butch Reed & The Barbarian vs. Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes = ** NWA/WCW Unified World Tag Team Title: Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes © vs. Steve Austin & Steve Williams = *** NWA/WCW Unified World Tag Team Title: Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas vs. Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes © = **1/2 Battle Bowl Qualifying: Big Van Vader & Dustin Rhodes (w/Harley Race) vs. Kensuke Sasaki & The Barbarian = * Six Man Tag Team Steel Cage: Cactus Jack, Dustin Rhodes & Sting vs. Barry Windham, Big Van Vader & Paul Orndorff = ***1/4 WCW United States Heavyweight Title: Dustin Rhodes © vs. Maxx Payne = -1/2* Paul Orndorff & Rick Rude vs. Dustin Rhodes & Kensuke Sasaki = ** Big Van Vader, Rick Rude & Sid Vicious (w/Col. Robert Parker & Harley Race) vs. Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Rhodes & Sting = *** WCW United States Heavyweight Title Thirty Minute Iron Man Match (vakant): Dustin Rhodes vs. Rick Rude = ** Dustin Rhodes & Road Warrior Hawk vs. Rick Rude & The Equalizer = 1/2* War Games: Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Rhodes, Sting & The Shockmaster (w/Road Warrior Animal) vs. Harlem Heat (Kane & Kole), Big Van Vader & Sid Vicious (w/Col. Robert Parker & Harley Race) = *1/2 WCW United States Heavyweight Title: Dustin Rhodes © vs. Steve Austin = **3/4 WCW United States Heavyweight Title: Dustin Rhodes (w/Dusty Rhodes) © vs. Paul Orndorff (w/The Assassin) = *1/4 BattleBowl Tag Team Match #4: Dustin Rhodes & King Kong vs. Awesome Kong & The Equalizer = -*** WCW United States Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls: Steve Austin (w/Col. Robert Parker) vs. Dustin Rhodes © = ** WCW World Television Title: Lord Steven Regal (w/Sir William) © vs. Dustin Rhodes = * ThunderCage Six Man Tag Team: Dustin Rhodes, Flyin' Brian & Sting vs. Paul Orndorff, Rick Rude & Steve Austin (w/Col. Robert Parker) = ****1/4 Bunkhouse: Bunkhouse Buck (w/Col. Robert Parker) vs. Dustin Rhodes = **** Bullrope: Dustin Rhodes vs. Bunkhouse Buck (w/Col. Robert Parker) = *1/2 Bunkhouse Buck & Terry Funk (w/Col. Robert Parker) vs. Arn Anderson & Dustin Rhodes = *** Dustin Rhodes & Dusty Rhodes vs. Bunkhouse Buck & Terry Funk (w/Col. Robert Parker & Meng) =**1/2 War Games: Dustin Rhodes, Dusty Rhodes & The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs & Jerry Sags) vs. Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck, Col. Robert Parker & Terry Funk (w/Meng) = ***1/4 Dustin Rhodes vs. Arn Anderson (w/Col. Robert Parker & Meng) = ***1/4 Vader (w/Harley Race) vs. Dustin Rhodes = ***1/2 Blacktop Bully (w/Col. Robert Parker) vs. Dustin Rhodes = *1/4 King Of The Road: Blacktop Bully vs. Dustin Rhodes = -** Kind of weird curve there with a few blips here and there.

Orndorff is wonderfully delusional about his role in the history of the business.

The PWO Army.

Maybe we should be talking about the idea of progress instead?

Watch it when you get a chance. It's not hard to find and what's online is just an extended clip so it's only a few minutes. It's interesting though and would show you a bit of what you were looking for in that regard.

Have you ever seen the Pedro vs Fuji match from the mid 70s, Parv?

It's funny, because I know you guys have your stuff down as well as anyone on the internet, but at the same time, I kind of like that guy who makes a note full of talking points BEFORE filming the podcast and I kind of wish you'd do that too. Especially with a Mark Henry thing. Because maybe I want you to think about Henry vs Vader from when he was a rookie that might get overlooked or I think it's important to look at his babyface tag work with D-Lo and then later on with MVP to see if there's an interesting contrast there, ten years later, to see how he improved, etc. Those are just random examples, though. I also get that these podcasts aren't always for the 30 people who post regularly here but for the broader audience you have, so that changes how in depth you have to go and also that you have to hit talking points and discussions that we all know and have been over a dozen times that other people maybe have not.

If this was Johnny and not Parv doing this, we could be talking about F-Troop instead.

Alright, I guess there's no point to any of this anymore. Let's all just go home.

I do the same thing but for New Japan also. Then I get annoyed if my phone loses its place since I have to start over. TO BE FAIR, I did actually read the Jon Jones (that the right name?) stuff this week because of how it was presented, so I guess I'm a huge hypocrite or something.

There's something to that. You can watch late era Duggan or JYD and see what they do well and effectively and how they relate to the crowd and how and why the crowd relates to them. I think anyone on this website can easily explain why people were behind Warrior and it's even easier if you go back and watch the matches and pull out bits of evidence. Parv is doing this with Strongbow and the well seems empty. I imagine Parv is actively looking for something to cling on to and not just trying to further damn the guy here. He wants it to make sense.

I have a hard time placing EXACTLY when I started watching wrestling again in 98 since I really didn't totally dive in until the build up to Wrestlemania in Boston, but I distinctly remember this, so, maybe?

This is PWO where you never have to ask forgiveness for MMA ignorance.

Rush-Del Rio (no it's the UFC thing)

I really, truly feel that there's so much nuance in wrestling that I just missed out on completely when I was a teenager and in my early 20s and much more tuned into workrate. I've said it before, but what Benoit's death did to me was take me away from wrestling for a few years, and when i came back, the 96-06 period was really radioactive to me. I started a lot more of the stuff I grew up on and I started watching a lot more whole shows/months/etc and not just the big hyped matches and classics, and it hugely changed the way I thought about wrestling.

I think we're all a little like that when it comes to Dusty actually.

Totally. I want to relive everything in chronological order I want All American Wrestling. I want that Wrestling Spotlight show. I want Mania I want everything in chronological order. I am insane.