Matt D

Weirdly enough, I think he could get a ton of heat with old Missy Hyatt by his side.

I really, truly think that they gave Taker Bearer because he was too scary with Brother Love.

It's interesting because Hunter's put a ton of attention on himself. He made his proclivity not to put people over part of the story. You almost think he might be on his best behavior just to stick it to people. EDIT: I missed Charles saying a lot of this, but I agree with him on the point.

They'd boo RVD if they paired him with CJ Parker.

It'd have to be a strong contrast to Summerslam, and I think the way to do it is to have Bryan as dominant as Austin was in 98, on the idea that HHH created this populist monster out of just a wrestler, that he forged him in fire over the last 9 months.

The 88 edit is annoying. We lose Horowitz vs Blazer and Tito vs Haku. Hell, I'd even be up for Bass vs Poffo and face Powers of Pain.

I am putting in a late request for Jay Strongbow.

Do guys still get paid if they're not on a PPV?

People can still ask for refunds and what not. Maybe because most of those old MSG, Philly, Boston monthly shows had a LOT of boring, nothing, matches. I think some of it is that they want to fit something an hour long into the schedule.

Darsow should obviously be in three times, for the Russians, Demolition, and Repo Man.

I think the easiest way to understand the term feeding is "running into the babyface's fist." There's more to it than that, but think of a hot tag where guys just charge into the fresh man's offense and make him look great and get the crowd going. I really do think there's an element of going up well in slams and over for arm drags here, usually in rapid fire sequences. I saw this the other day (and yeah, WWE probably owns it but it's old and handheld and I'm posting it). Check out the 55 second mark when Jones tags in. Paul Jones is pretty lame, but he doesn't look lame for a twenty second span there, and that's really just a few punches.

Been watching things on my tablet while biking which makes it hard to write too much, but the general ebb and flow of what I've been watching lately is the following. Bock/Brunzell vs Len Denton/Billy Robinson. AJPW, 1980. I can only vaguely conceptualize a lot of the King's Road stuff, but one of my general impressions is sort of what you got in this match. Instead of straight up face/heel dynamics, each character is distinct and has his own motivations outside the usual genre conventions. You definitely had this here. Each guy got to be a face in peril, some of them upwards to three times. All four guys wrestled differently and brought something different to the table. It was enjoyable. I need to go back and watch whatever else there is of the Brunzell/Bockwinkel pairing. the CMLL Parejas Increibles tournament from this year (up to the semis): Some really clever finishes (or maybe just clever to me since I'm not used to them). The Maximo/Escorpion pairing is pretty hilarious but the best part of the whole damn thing was Casas putting his arm around a bemused and untrusting Panther's shoulder. It's so surreal watching Jindrak tower over guys. It made me want to go back and watch last year's and the year before but it's hard to get all of those ducks in a row on a tablet. I might have to make a playlist for myself. Steamboat vs Roberts/Steamboat vs Valentine/Steamboat&Andre vs Fuji&Muraco: There are a few Steamboat vs Roberts matches, but these were the easiest ones to find. I really liked the FIP in the former, with Roberts mainly using punches but using them really well.The crowd was molten for Steamboat/Valentine at MSG. Just nuts. There were a couple of moments where Ricky just stopped everything and channeled the crowd and it was great. Fuji is such a great Andre opponent. Just a perfect stooge to work off of.

I could actually see them putting in the Kliq in 10 years in order to get Hunter in for a fourth time or something.

I thought this was rhetorical but since this is being answered, the real answer is : Because WWE.

He had such a good 1994 and worked with such great heels that it's just frustrating to me in retrospect.

I agree, but I'd also love to see current-day Dustin work heel. He's so creative, it'd be fun to see the spots he'd come up with. Can you even imagine how amazing a heel team of Goldust and Regal would be? Looking back at Dustin's 95-96 as a heel, the only stuff that was really compelling was his tag work with Mankind. He was a bit too chinlock heavy and while his cut offs were pretty good, it just wasn't great stuff. He was best when the gimmick played into it heavily, like in the Ahmed KOTR match. I've seen a decent amount of Black Reign too and it's hard to say what he would have been able to do there with a bit more athletic ability. I do think his pacing was a bit better but he wasn't given a lot to work to work with either. At some point I suppose I have to revisit his heel run from 99 but that seems like a fool's errand. I suppose, sure, I'd be curious what Dustin could do in a heel run in the current environment.

I feel like they usually go underwhelming in Manias these days, as if what they promoted is "enough."

I envy you for that since there's not a lot of footage out there from the first half of the decade especially. I will say that the matches with Verne from the very early 80s are some of my least favorite Bockwinkel work. He's a bit more frantic than usual and tends to bump around the ring for Gagne and to give him a huge chunk of the match, to its detriment. It could be that this was sort of the farewell run for the old guy or that's just how you wrestle your egomaniacal boss, but I've always wondered a bit if that was just more how Bockwinkel worked earlier into the 70s when he was younger and more athletic.

Bryan came off especially bad. Jericho really cracked me up at one point (though I forget when, maybe during Adamle's segment which was the best), but he didn't come off that great in general.

I think it's going to be a faux-MMA heavy match, actually. Not a ton of bumps, but a lot of strikes and maneuvering. Tonally, it'll be different than the last 5 or 6 years of Taker matches.

I will say this: For years, we've been complaining about how every PPV match has a five minute recap/hype video before it even though everyone watching knows what the story is else they wouldn't have bought the PPV. That said, if they're not going to put up old Raws, then it's pretty useful to have these when you're watching some random PPV from 2006 or what not.

I assume they'll use a few NXT guys. Even if he's not ready yet, that'd be an awesome stage to debut Breeze's entrance.

You figure he has to have a podcast sooner than later.

WON is reporting that the Los Matadors are added to the tag. Brotherhood are left in the cold. Not sure if this is for Colon's sake or what. With all the guys out of the battle royal, you end up with people like Justin Gabriel in it.

Frankly, he's awesome at putting matches together and is pretty good as an announcer, or at least has the potential. He could be a boon as an agent/announcer. I do think he has another few years shelf life as part of a tag team though.