Matt D

That is fun, of course. But it also would have been fun if Austin went.. "Ah, come on you jackass. You weren't there!" in his Austin voice and they both had a big laugh about it. I don't think anyone was actually think Austin should have started to contradict him like it was some sort of presidential debate. That's what we're for.

"I didn't get smartened up until I was out there for my first match." is pretty common for older guys.

Alright. So I saw both singles Lucero vs Hechicero matches, and now that I've heard Dylan really talk about it, i think everything he mentioned about the first fall of the title match was so much more pronounced in the first match. Lucero's holds were so much more simplistic in gritty in the earlier match than in the title match. He'd would just cruelly wrench a leg or something and then Hechicero would do something very elaborate. Lucero's holds in the title match were far more complex and I think it made for a much less well-defined and complete story (especially if the story is as Dylan was presenting it). Then, in the first match, it all builds to the brilliant moment in the second fall where Lucero just gets pissed and hits that amazing punch out of nowhere, which was such a great payoff. I get that the matwork and escapes were more complicated in the title match and in a vacuum might have been more compelling but I can't see at all how the first two falls told a better, more interesting story relative to the earlier match. I thought there was something else I was missing (and Dylan's mentioned body language throughout the fall and what not) but from what you said in the podcast, everything you talk about with the gritty holds Lucero was using and his frustration with the more elaborate stuff Hechicero was doing was so much more pronounced and interesting in the first match than the title match. Now if you wanted to put forward the idea that Lucero was trying to do more elaborate stuff to keep up with Hechicero in the title match, I might have been able to see but from the story you presented in the podcast, that's shown much more in the match the week before. Of course, the third fall in the title match is absolutely it's own beast. Edit: I explained that really poorly. Mainly, I thought that a lot of the things Dylan mentioned in the first fall were more pronounced in the match that came a week before the title match. Maybe it was the nuance that made the Title match more special and those things were still there and my neophyte lucha watching made me grasp on to something simple instead of something more complex, mind you. Edit 2: Finished up. Great show. There's so much to like right now, even if I'm only tuned into a relatively small amount of it. One great thing in our hobby is that if you miss stuff it's not hard to catch up weeks or even years later.

If you only saw this set, you might think Zhukov is a Tier 4 guy or something. I'm not even totally kidding. It's nuts.

Khawk, I think that the stock of the AWA, at least in our part of the internet, has risen hugely over the last year. You have to be glad about that.

Not to bring it back to me, but I do thoroughly enjoy wrestling, certainly. I've dug the Buddy Rose matches I've been watching a ton, I think, and I would imagine that stuff would come through in what i write (since it's generally train of thought and for my own use later on), even if the ultimate essay I wrote was more analytic. THAT said, PWO is its own animal and I'm going to be more analytic here than even DVDVR because the level of people I'm talking when it comes to knowledge and breadth of watching and just experience in talking about pro wrestling is incredibly high.

I wasn't necessarily saying analysis should be fun for Austin. Just for me in direct response to Johnny's line. I do think Austin does really love wrestling though and he really loves figuring out what works and what doesn't. He's well known (even past what he says) for being a guy who always watched all the matches on the card early in his career even when other guys would be doing anything else.

I think the pop for the We're Here would be insane, but I can't see it happening.

Can you imagine the HHH promos on Hero?

Given the roster, who would you introduce? Hero? Ritchie Steamboat? I don't know. Styles? When's Rey due back? It shouldn't be a small guy like Styles or Rey. Having two underdogs vs the World makes no sense in the DB storyline. The perfect candidate would actually have been Kane if not for the Wyatt storyline. I didn't realize Sami Callihan was only 5'10". I got nothing. They obviously wasted Brody Lee's debut.

Given the roster, who would you introduce? Hero? Ritchie Steamboat? I don't know. Styles? When's Rey due back?

Analyzing wrestling is fun.

It's tricky because we're a lot broader than we used to be. I'd maybe say Goldberg in 98 relative to the internet wrestling community at the time that very much hated him?

Nah, what Austin does generally in those situations is just move on rather than be a dick and argue. It's part of why he's such a great host. That's why he's a great host? Because of letting inaccuracies slide? I've heard his podcast. There's nothing there that would make me suspect he would have any idea whether Flair was in Puerto Rico that night. That's true of 99% of the people who will ever interview Flair. What makes him a great host is him not arguing and moving on so the show has a flow and stays fun. When Flair was saying hardcore wrestling started when Funk pile driver him on the table, and that no one had ever done that before, Austin just moved on. That's a great host. I don't want Austin playing Mike Wallace, I want the fun enjoyable show he does. Remember folks, some people like to think, analyze and discuss.

2012-2013 poor cardio Rock then?

I still think you guys are sort of missing the mark. If you wanted a really big WWF guy, then maybe Bobby Lashley in that he had a very high profile match that had a decent amount of media attention but an ultimately forgettable run. Glacier's tempting but I'm not sure how well known he was despite the marketing campaign. (Kiss Demon would maybe fall on this level too).

My general argument is that the first few times out were very fun since he was making guys run past him, the vignettes were great, but most of all, adding El Paso de la Muerte to his offense made his matches so much more interesting. Since he stopped using the Figure Four post-Strike force, every tito singles match would have him hit the flying forearm in the finishing stretch but the heel would get to the ropes or out of the ring. At that point you knew Tito was going to lose since he already hit his finish.

I hate that they don't show a picture of Tito in the matador book.

I do think Vince has a couple of things going for him. One is an insane, probably quite literally, work ethic. The second is a bevy of ideas and, in general, an ability to think outside of the box when encountering something new. I think a lot of his outside partners he's worked with such as Ebersol or Andy Heyward would say as much. I think the fact he has such a quantity of ideas matters, as it helps to average out the quality.

Manny's whole shoot is awesome for how carny it is.

I think you guys are shooting in all the wrong directions. Hillbilly Jim: Someone who a lot of casuals know for various reasons including the cartoon and the WWF marketing machine but who was injured for most of his time in the WWF and never really had a lot of big programs or big anything. Huge exposure though.

Versatility is hugely important to me in a great wrestler. El Dandy was a guy who I was really looking forward to seeing a lot of and this only solidified that.

To your response to Redman's post: Wrestling is subjective. Totally okay that you feel how you do and it's validating to me that you've seen as much of the good as you have, even if you do think they are missing elements, since there are so many people out there who would not see that, and it's only through seeing multiple matches that it really comes to the forefront. It's one of those things you'd never know if you just looked out for Great Matches.

I'll post mine too. I will say that the first SNME match I think is absolutely brilliant. Also, it's a really tricky line. We have someone earlier in this note complaining heavily that Demolition gave way too much in the Twin Towers matches. For the story they were telling in these matches, I think they gave the Busters exactly what they should have. Also, it's been a few years since I've seen these and I've watched a lot of stuff since, so I'm not sure if I'd feel slightly different or not. I know I stand by the first match though. 5/89 7/89 9/89