Matt D

I subscribe every year for one month around Thanksgiving with the deal, and copy all of the old Observers they've posted since my last time subscribing into text files which I then save. It takes an hour or so but then I have a searchable repository.

I should have added the word "only." It's very frustrating to try to get someone to make a coherent, detailed argument AGAINST Roman.

The in-ring arguments that I've seen or heard from others for Rollins relative to Reigns tend to be moveset, workrate, and push. "Reigns only has three moves." That sort of thing.

So @NotJayTabb never gave Edger a match. If you want to take his match and suggest something quickly, go for it. But it'll have to be quick. Otherwise, just wait for Monday-Tuesday when I reshuffle. I think moving forward (mainly at Xmas time if we do it again), anyone who doesn't get a match for their partner in 2-3 days of the pairings will be out the next week. Life happens, but it's not that hard. Here are my comments on the Lightning Kid vs Jerry Lynn match: Global is this sweet spot of my youth was actually a really big deal to me for a kid. I'd watch it after school and distinctly remember being frustrated when it was preempted due to the expansion draft for the Rockies and the Marlins. I was scrawny and the idea of light heavyweights really appealed. I felt like I could be the Lightning Kid, so even though he was a heel and I was 10 or so, I think I secretly supported him. I don't remember the match specifically from my childhood though. The network isn't cooperating with its upgrade, so I'm watching the version on youtube. It's a little clipped but I assume this is the same version as the network. I'd be interested if the network version isn't clipped. Immediately, it was great to hear Craig Johnson who I think had one of the best wrestling voices ever. The early back and forth was certainly cutting edge for its time and it mostly hit. Lynn had this tendency at this age to hit everything but to be just a little off. Because no one else was doing this stuff in the states, it didn't really matter though. No one had a real idea what 'right' was supposed to look like. That was true with Lynn's diving forearm in the second fall. Kid, on the other hand, was a lot further along in his character work, even if some of his offense was a bit beyond his strength and size. The chain wrestling, leading to to the outright heel kick, was fun, and because it wasn't something people saw every day and was so blatant, it worked. The end of he first fall did as well, as it was all about the kid playing to the crowd. In retrospect, I know why they brought him in to WWF as a babyface, but it was such a waste. I love the idea that a tombstone is a lightning strike that can come out of nowhere. Things seemed to fall apart a little in the third fall, with them just laying in a front facelock for a minute for no reason, for instance. It really felt out of place in the match. There were moments which just lacked that level of polish as they tried to get each other into the right place. I would have liked more attempts for the finishes in the match itself. They had a logical tool and they didn't use it nearly enough. They did really play with the fans' perceptions in the end, making it look like they were protecting Lynn with two visual falls and the interference, only to invert it at the end, so I thought that was clever even if the execution didn't quite work. This held up well, I thought. It was ambitious, more ambitious than it could actually achieve and it could have been tightened up a dozen ways, but on this stage, with these players, at this time, there was a lot more to gain by trying to be ambitious than to just coast. They tried to make this feel like a big deal and they succeeded more than anyone else in wrestling would have thought they'd be able to.

I am willing to take sidebets with you deeper into the summer if you have some stuff you want me to see and will review a few matches in return. @C.S. I haven't seen that match in twenty years. Happy to revisit it with adult eyes.

Yeah. I could MAYBE see someone watch one of his Heenan matches just for Heenan but I can't see myself ever watching any of his stuff again personally.

Buck Zumhofe vs. Steve Regal. Larry Sharpe vs. Bobby Duncum. The Samoans vs. Tom Zenk and Steve Olsonoski. Kendo Nagasaki vs. Jim Duggan. Jimmy Garvin vs. Baron von Raschke. The Fabulous Freebirds vs. The Highflyers and Tonga Kid. AWA Americas Heavyweight Title:Larry Zbyszko vs. Bob Backlund. AWA World Heavyweight Title: Rick Martel vs. King Tonga. AWA World Tag Team Titles: The Road Warriors vs. Curt Hennig and Larry Hennig. Ugandan Death Match: Kamala vs. Sgt. Slaughter. With a two hour runtime, we are likely not getting the whole card. The world does not need another Buck vs Regal match.

Paging @khawk20 I know we have at least one Tonga vs Martel match but I'm not sure if it's this one. Any idea what might be new here? Oh hey, it's the show from Highlander too.

Pinging @NotJayTabb to get something for Edger in case he hasn't seen this yet. When there's just six of us, follow up is easier.

I don't know. I only caught bits and pieces of that, but I saw the last couple of minutes, and you watch that and you just beg for something, anything to happen. If the ship is sailing smoothly, you can have fun, light hearted filler. It's not.

It's maybe the best Blonds match. I've just got access to the Network currently.

@C.S. Have you seen this one?

Got six people, including me. That's ok to do pairings for a few weeks at least. I say we do this. Matt D C.S. NintendoLogic Jetlag SirEdgar NotJayTabb C.S, I'll have something for you soon.

We have a lot of 80-87 Dibiase Footage now, between WWWF and Georgia and Houston and Mid-South in general. I think we'll be getting more Georgia in the next year as well. It's very easy to make a judgment that's not at all based on what "old timers" think. I think his babyface stock has risen quite a bit. I can't at all say the same for his heel stock, which I'd define as "soullessly impeccable." I'm curious what others feel given all the new footage we've gotten in the last four or five years.

It also makes very little difference who the top heel is when your top face is Rollins.

"Oh god, please stop talking. You'll kill my push again!"

I get the sense that the reboot hasn't happened yet. Last Monday was more of a teaser for what will come after the real transition, and we haven't even had a teaser for Smackdown.

So, it's July, if people want to do a few weeks, I'm away from the 15th to the 19th, but I'm willing to spin the wheel on the 20th or the 21st. This gives everyone a couple of weeks to express interest. Let me know here.

Presumably it's so they could do the watch along. I just ff'd through with my 15 second skip (which at 1.5 speed took about 30 seconds of my day).

Just got the kids down (first night sharing a room. I have dread). Anything Bischoff-y tonight so far?

Tossing this here, but this is Conrad on the Arn show, which is basically everything I wanted the Arn show to be. The fact he's leading with the "John Cena's agent" bit is really telling. When it was first announced, I didn't know if they were going to touch that at all. SN: What can expect out of this podcast that is different than the ones you are doing right now? CT: Everything in his career up until now. The high potential in doing a podcast with Arn is that Arn was John Cena’s agent. So all that stuff that Bruce missed because he was gone, Arn is there to fill in the blanks for. Everything from The Undertaker’s streak ending to CM Punk leaving. So it’s going to be everything in between including the territory days from Georgia Championship Wrestling, the Alabama territories and talk about matches in Pensacola and when he made the jump to Jim Crockett Promotions which led to the Four Horseman, where he made a name for himself. Who else has had a career like that going from the territory days to the NWA to Jim Crockett Promotions? It’s WCW, and it’s WWE/WWF. It’s a unique story and one we have never had before because except for the show that I had with Ric (Flair), I have been with office and never an actual in-ring performer. So it’s a different take and coming from someone who’s never done a shoot interview or a real book and never really broken kayfabe. The idea that we get to do that now is great because everyone will get to hear what they have listened to for years backstage. It’s a unique combination. It’s going to be a really popular show. Link to interview: https://www.mandatory.com/wrestlezone/news/1108915-conrad-thompson-starrcast-iii-arn-anderson-ric-flair#O2iOskri6t7ufWuV.99

This week's was really good with a lot of talk about his relationship with Vince.

You know what this AEW demand talk reminds me of? The initial demand for NXT seats. It felt like a huge deal a few years ago when they were coming by Bel Air, MD for the first time. It felt like you could be a part of something by going. The second time they came around? Not so much. Now? Not at all.

@The Thread Killer I've listened to a lot of the Bischoff podcasts too, even though i don't often comment there. I usually listen over the span of a few days given the length and that I do it on my commute. That said, you get the sense that he's learned a lot, from market research back in the day and from going back over all of these shows. I don't agree with everything, of course, but I usually think that he's pretty reasonable about a lot of things. He claims to value long-term storytelling, surprises, in-ring storytelling, etc. He comes off as very consistent about which creative decisions he agrees with and which ones he regrets from decades ago. You hear a lot of patterns and they at least sound reasonable. Would you agree?