Matt D

It's based in truth though. He's mentioned Daniel a ton recently and he doesn't want them to chant him to come back. He just wants them to leave him alone. It's all stuff he'd plausibility say. It's not like he's asking them to chant for Batista.

I kind of wish Regal had been at one of the four Road/Hog Wild cards to see what he would have done in front of this crowd.

I think the best way to deal with Chicago is to have, as part of the terms of his release, Punk film a short thing beforehand letting people know that he's leaving on his own, that people can chant for whoever they want, and Punk always encourages that freedom of expression, but chanting for him won't bring him back right now and if they want to chant for someone who deserves it, then they should chant for the best in the world, Daniel Bryan. Something like that.

One of my favorite talking points lately is how John Tenta was the guy most negatively impacted by the love of workrate in the 90s-00s.

I think it was a blurry line?

The DVDVR Workrate reports very often didn't end up talking about the traditional idea of "workrate" either, especially the ones with the What Worked/What didn't work? categories.

Bunch of kids and southerners. Though, for the sake of amusement, I have an e-mail account I only use for wrestling. I have very few DVDs and I usually send them on to someone when I'm done watching them. Right now I'll buy the 80s projects because, given the way my life is set up, I really like the social aspect of watching them. I mainly watch stuff when I'm on the exercise bike or in the background at work since most of the time I'm home and not biking, I'm doing stuff with my family (and even when I am biking, I'm usually watching something else with the kid as well and I just have it on my tablet/laptop on the tv tray by my bike.

Honestly, Bischoff should go in at some point.

I think the Outsiders can include Hogan. It was sort of how they were referred to at the very beginning.

At the least it's not a very interesting thing to talk about.

Yeah, that's what I call a match that's not as good as a match with shit that is there.

Yeah but you're also a crazy bearded malcontent.

There are matches where I lose the narrative, and then I go back and try to find it and I can't.

There's something to this. If you say you like obscure 80s mid south or are partaking in a lucha set from 30 years ago, there's some social protection there.

Did they really plan the Backlund match the night before KOTR 93 to go that long?

And i will watch that Baron/Dom match this week and give it the full write up.

Though I imagine if I was outright open about being a wrestling fan, it'd negatively impact how I was regarded at work. I mean I MIGHT be able to swing it because I'm pretty good at bullshitting, but I could in all honesty see that impacting my ability to get a promotion (and maybe surprisingly enough, probably far more so than if I was homosexual, though I don't want to belittle the experiences others might have or have had there. I'm just commenting on my unique situation.).

You know, you two could have named the board a little less conspicuously if you were trying to stay closeted on it. Sheesh. It's easy to explain away deathvalleydriver. It's a bit harder to explain away prowrestlingonly when someone walks behind your cpu. I was closeted to even my wife until October. It was just sort of the nature of our lives. When we finally decided to have a relationship years ago, we started out long distance for the most part so my life was very compartmentalized. People in college knew. My family knew. I just didn't show her that aspect of my life. We moved in the same month Benoit died and it stopped mattering much. I got a little embarrassed when someone would bring it up and I'd shrug it aside. My best man (who went to shows with me in college) mentioned it in the wedding speech as a throwaway thing. I brushed it aside. I just did it on my own time and it really didn't negatively impact our lives. I came clean though because it was getting ridiculous not to. She always went on record of hating it in general but in specific I think she was sad that I thought she'd judge me poorly for it (and that's why I'm trying to get a friend at work to come out to his partner about his Days of Our Lives obsession. It's just not worth it in the end). It's still a little weird. I've a 12 year old stepson too and I've been in his life since he was three and he knows how to lock in a cobra clutch or a figure four, but we don't talk about it or watch it together. If he comes to it on his own I'll support it but I've seen too many wrestlers I followed die or be revealed to be horrible or both. I just can't draw him in. I think he did find the signed JJ Dillon pic someone got for me recently the other day but there were no questions. I was trying to explain Parv and Johnny to my wife last night. As for the rest of my life. Nope. I work for a fairly prestigious international organization. It's the last thing I'd talk about. I have some DVDVRers that I've known for the better part of 5-12 years on facebook but they're all cordoned off and I have tags controlled.

A guess: "What would really happen?" over "What is a good narrative for this fake fighting we're portraying?" maybe with an undertone of being embarrassed by pro wrestling?

Hall should go in with Nash. Maybe Waltman too.They could probably headline a HOF. Michaels and Hunter should induct them. Maybe Hogan, but I don't think Hunter would let anyone else do it. Alternatively I guess you could put them in separately and then induct the Outsiders as a unit to get Hogan in again.

That's interesting. He also reported on Portland way longer than he should have. My gut was that he didn't do it for the sake of Memphis and Portland but because they had weekly TV and they could make the world of wrestling look bigger than it was at the time. It was a reactionary move in a transitional time.

So I kind of understand what workrate is, right? It's a tool like anything else. It's a style. It can be exciting as hell in small doses. It's not my thing anymore, but I pay attention and try to listen to people and remember how I used to feel. I never want to come into an argument from a place of ignorance or closed-mindedness for what others are thinking. I was tempted to make a flowchart. I really was. If I was at work I would have. I don't quite have the tech here. Basically, it's like this. Does the match tell a story? | Is the story good/interesting/compelling? | Is the story well executed and consistently told throughout the match? If you've made it through these three steps, I'm probably going to like your match. If you make it through two, I'll probably like it but be a little frustrated. If you make it through one, I'll probably be very curious to see what went wrong and try to figure out what the hell they were thinking. The story being good/compelling is actually important. I think people tend to disregard that one with me because I do lean towards extremes. Once you hit the third step, a lot of other factors come into it if I'm starting to compare matches against each other. Also, as a caveat, this is just "Good Wrestlng" to me. You can have exciting wrestling or fun wrestling, or a "guilty pleasure." It's not that I can't enjoy things I don't think are good wrestling. I just don't think that they're good pro wrestling. As it pertains to working hard vs working smart, OBVIOUSLY both together are best. I, in general, give a lot more credence to working smart over working hard because athleticism isn't nearly as impressive to me as using your brain to accomplish a goal.

I didn't love Cesaro vs Orton. I really liked the finishing sequence, everything from the first rope-assisted DDT attempt on. A lot of the match seemed unfocused to me, though, fairly even. My favorite part was when Orton faked the injury to take over and I think I would have liked it more if they played it up as Orton being out matched (or just worn out from the gauntlet he's gone through) vs this fresher, stronger wrestling machine, and him having to pull out every dirty trick he had to stay on top. Something like that. I didn't really see a through narrative in this at all, especially compared to some of the earlier Orton matches in this series. I liked Zeb being excited about the win and as silly as the Mania pointing is, Cesaro doing it with a little wave to Orton was fun. I've seen two dozen Cesaro matches I've liked more in the last two years.

Again, I don't want to put words into anyone's mouth. My idea of workrate is tied to 1999. When I think workrate I think SAT/Red vs Quiet Storm and Brian XL. I think go-go-go. Lots of motion. Working hard. Lots of action. Lots of stiffness and headdrops and hard hitting. Suplexes. Movez. Kickouts at two. Working hard and maybe working smart, maybe not. Fan chants. Fighting spirit. Kip ups which might be called Nip ups. Chopfests. Dives. Cardio. I think Angle vs Benoit from 03. I think Escalating finisher trading. Dynamite Kid vs Tiger Mask. Big bumping. Unprotected chair shots. Stiff kicks. Working hard. That move where you put your leg on the guy's head and flipover to hit a suplex. Working hard. Hot ending stretches. Power Bombs. Sabu vs Cactus Jack. Elaborate chain wrestling followed by a hesitation while the crowd claps. Great execution. High spots. Complicated moves that involve cooperation. Unnecessary rotations. Lightning Kid vs Jerry Lynn. Superkick reversals off the top rope. Working hard. You know. Workrate. It's not just one thing, but it's maybe less than three dozen?