Matt D

People should go out of their way to watch the Dr. Tom match just to see how he puppets the other guy around through the matwork.

What he created was more marketable to the mainstream than what they were creating though. I don't think you could have a Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen cartoon. Or Jim Duggan vs the Russians cereal. I'd love to see Bill Watts on MTV in 1985 though.

And as an outlier - I thought their commentary on the Bret/Shawn cage match was sub par with Polo just nagging about the same thing over and over. Took away from the match a bit. You obviously don't want Gorilla/Polo on a serious match. You do want them on Damien Demento vs Tatanka.

His natural setting is generally "Lebowski."

http://www.youtube.com/user/WorkhorseWWE?feature=watch So, I don't know how long these will be up. Catch them while you can. They give me some level of hope though. So far i especially enjoyed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVxhRlFhVzA and actually, But I have a ton more to watch. EDIT: Obviously this one - This is good too:

Pro Wrestling USA?

I've always kind of wondered this: Does Lawler have any idea that at least a subsection of people think so highly of him as a worker? Not as a presence or as "The King." It used to be such a small minority and now it's not.

Ease of access then. I just paid up for the lucha set today but in general I'm a total shameful freeloader relative to the sheer amount of stuff I watch and at least half of what I watch now is from before 1990. I bought some comps and what not in the 99-01 range or so when I just got to college but you could count on two hands the non-commercial tapes I owned.

Footage being more easily available makes a big difference, not to downplay what you guys have done. The idea that I'd watch 150 AWA matches (and probably double that with all the extra watching I did) would have been outlandish five years ago. He has less positive things to say about Robley since he was brought up.

I will say this is why, as a kid, I absolutely loved Survivor Series. There's a third element to this i think, which is continuity over years, something really rare in today's WWE. I feel like it takes a wrestler to actively care, like Big Show seems to, to make mean something.

Gold star, Kelly. I did a screen grab from a (still Prince) Curtis Iaukea match on youtube. So far as avatars go, I'm fairly pleased with it.

I watched the Garea/Martel title losses vs the Moondogs and vs Saito/Fuji. Martel was really over in both, enough that poor Garea got outshined in the Moondogs match. The Saito/Fuji match is legitimately very good. The Moondogs match has way too long a shine though the tandem armwork is a lot of fun. It had the stronger hot tag too, but the loss vs Saito/Fuji was better at just about everything else. The shine's good but a reasonable length. Garea really gets the fans behind him as FIP. Saito looks unsurprisingly great but Fuji could still go better than you'd think and the finish is awesomely timed. Worth tracking down and checking out.

I don't have much to say about it but I do love the Fuji-running-a-marathon stuff in the build.

He is talking about two other matches (Usos or PTP vs. Shield and Ambrose vs Ziggler) for the PPV.

To be fair, I am rarely affected by atmopshere/big match feel, but the way they dedicate a whole show to that match and make it seem almost as special as any match in the history of JCP matters. I still think it's a great match with a double FIP but if I had seen it without the build it may have been different.

HHH should come out on Monday and dock Daniel Bryan part of his payoff for the match due to what he and Armstrong did in order to pay for this.

I am the world's biggest fan of Demos vs Rockers and I'm not sure I put it above the RnR vs Russians title change.

I bet a Memphis stalling wrestler could beat a boxer. They'd just roll out of the ring until they could get the boxer to chase them. Then they'd roll back in and put the boots to the boxer when he rolled back in after them. How the fuck did Scott LeDoux beat Larry Z?

I always meant to see the first Cannonball Run since I never have but they always had Cannonball Run II on netflix/on demand/tv instead

How much credit do we give to Bill Dundee? I'm kidding. Regal's background in British comedy and what not is probably as much an influence.

Few bullet points on Monster Roussimoff vs Strong Kobayashi -His headlock takeover are just amazing. They're just huge and the amount of air he gets dragging Kobayashi over is nuts. -I love how they start from the headlock base and build to the headscissors counter. It matters a lot when it actually happens. -I also love how pissed Andre gets when the fans say he's cheating on the top wristlocks. He's like king kong rampaging as they take all the pictures of him. -Andre already has a lot of the Andre-isms, including the big set up to the nerve hold, etc. -The slam is pretty huge but I love how it just pisses Andre off to lead to the first fall's finish. When did he stop using the tombstone because Andre the Giant fucking tombstoning someone is the awesomest wrestling thing imaginable. -Kobayashi's attempts to find a way to hurt Andre are pretty great. The slam didn't work so he goes to the hand. That ultimately fails as Andre is able to start the nerve pinches again so he goes to the midsection. -The "Choke in the ropes" spot is great. It's nuts heel Big Show doesn't use that. Would it not work with the WWF ropes? -One of the most interesting things in the match is that Andre isn't Andre yet so there aren't all of those proscribed "Things you cannot do to Andre" rules that seemed to be in there by 1980 and mandated by the NWA and Vince, Sr. Here there's the old "Hanging on to the bottom rope as my opponent grabs my legs and pulls me out so I can take a bump" spot which would never happen to later Andre. -He's already got the in the ropes tie-up spot down, and I loved the over the top rope bump. -I really like the big TIIIIIIMMMBEEEER spot too and the epic battle for the crab. -Andre's stooging with the handshake towards the end was great and the countout finish was beautiful.

What do you think of Watts as an announcer, Will?

I can't listen to the Titans show since I'm too unfamiliar with the specifics of the material. It's stuff I might pick up some day though and if I do I'll be sure to listen. For now I have to miss out on that part of the Johnny Sorrow Michael Winslow comedy review.