Matt D

Ivory is a reasonable choice. She's got the GLOW stuff for color, was around for a while during the attitude era, had the RTC run, and then was an announcer/host for a while.

I also usually have a couple things going on at once. Recently I had the Remedial wrestling thing and Lucha all the same time, plus obviously some current things.

Can I watch some WWWF Dibiase instead?Oh hey, I watched that Dory/Terry vs Sheik/Abdullah match! And i started this Dory/Murdoch tag match from Japan in 71.

Personally, I think the big thing is to pick a project and ride it for a while and then find another one. If I'm just watching matches, then it's harder for me to keep interested than if there's some purpose behind it all.

To me, you can do the same things as long as you do them differently for different situations and aren't just working the same match over and over. They're tools. That's one reason I really like 2009 Christian. He uses the same stuff but he always does it differently and teases it for different effects, etc. Bret from 92 also does this a lot. Now what I will say is that I would really like to see Flair back when he was working for mid-atlantic in front of the same crowds every week. That would be the real evidence of whether or not he switched things up to that extent or if he just did his shit, because as a travelling champion, it makes sense for him to just do his routines. It makes him an unimaginative wrestler, but you can't hold it against him, you know?.

Hell, just have him reform the NWO. I bet that'd sell merch. It's a goofy enough idea it'd work.

Interestingly enough, that's actually a theme that's going to come back into play very soon.

I'd love to see someone write a lot about Vince running the Cape Cod Coliseum. EDIT: http://heartpunchwrestling.blogspot.com/2012/03/wrestling-and-hockey-collide-on-cape.html

How was Reigns vs Del Rio?

I actually kind of liked this for what it was. There were a few nice parallel spots and they really worked the holds, even if they were brief. I kind of think it should have ended after the low blow by Kid, but even that was sort of mirrored by the atomic drop and it all came back to end with the tornado DDT which was a call back to Eddie hitting the superplex earlier. Oh yeah nice dive too.

I'm oscillating between Sting's crow theme and Oh Radio since I heard Ryder on Jericho today.

Why haven't Tiger Mask matches aged well?

Can he sing?

I think the way to go is to have Bryan introduce him. Months ago I thought he could be the Authority's attempt to recreate their own Bryan but it is too late for that.

The kid at the WWE panel asking Bryan why he was so exciting when Randy Orton was so boring was pretty hilarious.

That's how you book any TNA card.

Ignoring the star rating you just gave, watch the match vs Martel/Zenk. I love that thing.

You are the Papa Shango of wrestling statistics.

They think most people need to trade wins due to the amount of TV/exposure. They had figured out a great answer last year too: 6-man matches on every show.

The make-a-wish thing is a little tricky.

I agree with all that, but I do think there's something to the counter point: if you plotted every move being done in WWE on a graph, and tried to plot the level of reaction that move had gotten, I think you would see a move towards escalation over the years, but there's nothing innate that says it has to be like that.

I actually have been wanted Swagger to be a face forever. Yes, sure, he's Biff, but so is 40% of America. There's something endearing and corny about him. I miss him as the All American American. I miss the Eagle. I think there was a natural face run that would have happened that year or the year after if they didn't abort the experiment. I think they could ride the babyface rush of patriotism for a few months and then he could be a mid-card babyface gatekeeper for a while. Also, he could be a pretty good hot tag for a babyface tag team with someone smaller.

That's a good question. You'd hear about some things, like how he wouldn't work with Rude because Rude was too stiff or how he attached himself to Demolition at Survivor Series 89 because they were very over when it made more sense for them to be on Warrior's team vs the Heenan family, or his role in Warrior's celebration at Wrestlemania VI(which, interestingly enough is looked at as a terrible thing now but at the time, Dave thought it was a perfect gesture and good for Warrior). I think it was all really after he lost to Yoko at King of the Ring 93 though. 93 in general I guess. Right around then is when you have him not wrestling Bret at Summerslam, but he was so much worse after 93. He didn't give Flair a single win in their program. The Butcher program is INSANE for how it was set up not to draw anything. He only removed the mask after he definitively legdropped Beefcake. He had it so Vader beat up Bockwinkel instead of himself. He got right up after the power bomb. Etc.

Obviously, no one would care about explosions in Michael Bay movies if they didn't create better storytelling.

I probably never had more fun at a live show than watching sandow in 2000. We went to shows just to see him be hilarious.