Matt D

The real issue with Danielson is that the act was hot and it was working and it was a shame Mania showed up when it did since it had the legs to go another few months as it was. The last thing I care about with Punk/Jericho is the crowd, given the circumstances. A hot crowd would have helped, but it was a smart, well structured, well executed match. My biggest problem with it was that Punk didn't specifically sell the back more, though he was definitely selling plenty in general. The only other thing that bugged me was Punk going for the top rope rana, which I don't remember having seen him do in years, but it's Mania so there's the "pulling out all stops" counter.

I've never really thought of it that way. But it's pretty much true, isn't it? Dusty did a lot of that stuff (AND did a lot of developmental work) but bigger.

Hunter was part of the booking team in 97. Also, just looking at OMG's WWF work is STILL enough to put him over Hunter, thank you very much. As for Jarrett, I Don't think HHH was ever as compelling a heel as Jarrett was during his first heel turn at the end of 93 in memphis. That said, it was desperately needed at that point.

there is a little twitter bird with a lucha mask.

It should have booked itself. Easiest thing in the world.

The 5/2 Ottawa Bret vs Shawn match is really good but I'm not sure how it compares to, let's say, the 4/29 Syracuse match on the Bret vs Shawn dvd

Everyone knows that Dustin made Sheamus

I think it'd only matter relative to someone else doing it better. For instance, Rock's Sharpshooter is only a problem if someone is around doing it better or if people can REMEMBER someone doing it better.. Past that, it's all in how the audience is trained and that has more to do with selling (both from opponents and announcers) not execution. Considering that Nattie does a positively brutal sharpshooter (given the flexibility of a lot of the divas), maybe it's a problem.

Now, if we were in the territory days. Is there a coherent moment where the shift happened? Piper at Wrestlemania I? Orndorff turned shortly thereafter so he didn't need to be protected as a heel.

I'd totally get into Lucha right now (I'm sure there's an internal logic that matches follow and things work or don't work relative to that), but I'm trying to learn French for work, not Spanish, so it's just L'Ange Blanc matches for me for now (not that I can find any of those).

I think the reason that Teddy vs Johnny is so over is that it's getting twice the time as anything else. Almost any mid-card match is involved somehow. Then on smackdown they even had the Bellas randomly talking about it.

On paper, it bugs me. Actually watching the matches, Rey really DOES center a lot of his offense around getting his opponent in that position. It's rarely haphazard and even when it is, Rey somehow makes it seem like it was all part of some master plan of his.

I'd have to see the match to confirm it but that was the Faces of Fear's finisher. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NDbAmJ0g5Q They do it to glacier about 1:35 in.

It bugs me that Edge/Lita and Edge/Vickie should have been Jericho/Steph

Tom's just posted some of the best stuff I've seen on this board and that's really saying a lot.

The frustrating thing is that on paper, pairing Stephanie with Jericho should have worked. They should have gotten molten heat. They almost went out of their way to make sure it didn't work.

For me, I want the match to tell a story and I want that story to make sense. Then I'd like that story to be good. After that I'd like every move to matter as part of the story. Now, again, some of that stuff completely goes against Meltzer ...doctrines?

But what if he got Dusty!

I also think, and some of you guys know this better than I do, but on some level, for Dave Good = Effective. Now whether effective means "Did it work for the crowd?" or it means "Did it work for Me (or my shareholders) at the time?" is a different question I guess.

The guy was in the corner. He didn't really have anywhere TO go. The manager fanning him with his shirt was hilarious though, subsequent dickery nonwithstanding.

I think one flaw Jericho has is is that sometimes he tries to go out and have a MATCH OF THE NIGHT, and in doing so ends up with an exciting, incoherent mess.

God damn WCW Prime. I had that post on the DVDVR that I linked to on the last page, but those justin.tv links are all down now. They had a great little run with the Lightning Express/Armstrongs

95 WCW was not very good. Eddy and Benoit were better once they came in but they were only there briefly. Arn ruled and would in the discussion. I wouldn't mind someone picking him. Flair wasn't bad, but was not setting the World on fire. Pillman had a couple of really strong performances and lots that weren't very good. Regal was better on paper than in reality. Who else is there? I assume we're talking pre-fall when everyone shows up. Bunk, Slater stand out immediately. Immediately. Armstrongs. Tim Horner. Eaton. Tenta. Vader. Austin was amazing in 95. Dustin was really good (pre-uncensored obviously). Pittman(I'd take a 95 Pittman match over a Wright match anyday). Ray Traylor had lost something by this point, but maybe early in the year. Meng. Orndorff I put in the same category as Bubba, but I'd have to really go back and watch him a bit more. I'd like to see someone make the DDP argument.

I still can't get over the fact you said Wright was potentially the best guy in 95 WCW.

"He was better in WCW!" sort of became a smark rallying cry to stick it to Vince for a while and I imagine that is the origin of that. Well that and their was a point where junior fetishism was so widespread online that it was automatically assumed that the guys in the "smaller" classes had to be better workers no matter what. That was me in 2000 or so. Absolutely.