Your Current Fav Five

[Graham Crackers]

Jerry Blackwell - The other guy who I loved to watch on that set. I'm watching his match against Butch Reed from St. Louis right now and it's awesome. Top 3 best fat guy wrestler of all time?

What 2 fat guys would you have above him? Are you including Vader? Yokozuna?

 

Yes on Vader and no to Yokozuna. The other possible top 3 fatty is Super Porky but I'm conflicted about how he ranks next to Blackwell because he is mostly being ranked for trios matches. Los Brazos might be my all time favorite wrestling team and I want to represent them somehow on a fatness based list.

[JerryvonKramer]

Jerry Blackwell - The other guy who I loved to watch on that set. I'm watching his match against Butch Reed from St. Louis right now and it's awesome. Top 3 best fat guy wrestler of all time?

What 2 fat guys would you have above him? Are you including Vader? Yokozuna?

 

Buddy Rose??

 

*ducks for cover*

[Graham Crackers]

Jerry Blackwell - The other guy who I loved to watch on that set. I'm watching his match against Butch Reed from St. Louis right now and it's awesome. Top 3 best fat guy wrestler of all time?

What 2 fat guys would you have above him? Are you including Vader? Yokozuna?

 

Buddy Rose??

 

*ducks for cover*

 

I don't see how anyone could call him fat when he weighs in at a trim 217 pounds.

[Dylan Waco]

Rose's best stuff was before he got huge.

 

I'd listen to an argument that Blackwell is the best over Vader. Not sure I'd quite buy it, but I'd listen to it.

[PeteF3]

1. Jerry Lawler - Even though I used to think he was the greatest ever at being either a heel or babyface I'm now convinced well into the 1990 set that he was better as a babyface, and oddly better as a babyface champion than heel champion which is pretty backwards. That said, Lawler's high-end stuff is more versatile than he gets credit for and as the Snowman feud indicates the dude is full of surprises. Not everything hits (I really didn't like that Fujinami match at all) but you're always at least glad you saw it.

 

2. Terry Funk - See above, but more versatile. Would be a #1 GOAT if I had to do a ballot right now.

 

3. Steve Veidor - Really one of the all-time great babyfaces--sadly I don't think a ton more footage is going to turn up of him that isn't out there already, unless someone digs out the Inoki match that I think he had or that damned missing third fall from his match with Pete Roberts. Veidor vs. Gwyn Davies is still my favorite WOS match (or at least my favorite complete one) and it's about as epic as the style ever got. His matches that exist never fail to be less than awesome when he's not albatrossed by Haystacks and Daddy.

 

4. Stan Hansen - Not really a pick that I feel the need to explain. My plowing through of the All-Japan seasons died out at the beginning of '93, so what I really want to see are the last vestiges of Hansen as the aging, respected veteran.

 

5. Angel Azteca - Because I'd never heard of the guy before starting the 1990 yearbook and he's had a MOTYC that some people are calling a GOAT candidate and looked really awesome in the trios matches, too.

[ohtani's jacket]

Steve Veidor is a guy who really grew on me too.

 

Angel Azteca really should have been the Lizmark/Solar/Atlantis of his generation, but sadly after 1990 he's never the same again. He has some decent stuff in AAA, but he should have been a major player throughout the decade.

 

That Blackwell/Mulligan match is pretty cool. Shame about the video difficulty at the end, though.

[soup23]

Great call on Azteca Pete. He has been really awesome on 1990 and as great as Dandy has been, he has been right there with him.

[Ricky Jackson]

I agree with a lot of the choices already discussed, so I'll throw out some names that haven't been mentioned. A lot of this is wishful thinking, since the footage is sparse:

 

The Destroyer

 

Really love what I've seen of his work. Dictionary definition perfect heel and mat wrestler. I love guys like this who wrestle a style that is all but extinct, on a mainstream North American level anyway. Also love the old school masked guys.

 

Kendo Nagasaki

 

That BBC doc on British wrestling really got me excited about this guy. I'm just a big fan of the whole mystery and living the gimmick side of him and need to track down some of his work.

 

Johnny Valentine

 

Similar to the Destroyer, as I'm intrigued by the old school style of work. I'm sure some of his legend has been exaggerated, but whatever. I love the idea of a guy working a match that at first bores the shit out of the crowd with lengthy holds and such, but by the end he has basically willed them to believe he is legit and the toughest motherfucker around.

 

Dutch Savage

 

Not sure what exists of his prime years, but that PBS Portland doc from the 70s made him look like a Clint Eastwood-type tough as nails, badass man's man defending the wilds of the Northwest from scum like Bull Ramos and the Iron Sheik. And I love how his specialty was the Coal Miner's Glove Match.

 

Damien Sandow

 

I'll throw out some love for a new WWE guy who captures the spirit of the old days. I've been almost totally off WWE for months now, but I've decided to keep my eye on a few of the new guys they're pushing lately, and Sandow is my fave of the bunch. Just a great breath of fresh air from what I've seen of him, and I need to see more.

[Matt D]

i made a very honest effort to get DEAN to draw Sandow today.

[Death From Above]

In the same vein of "guy I wish there was more of him in his prime", probably Giant Baba. I mean hell, I love his 70's stuff which is at least some of his peak years. And a good chunk of his 80's. I even like his rare appearances in "real" matches in the 1990's for goodness' sake, which I know can be pretty polarizing. Very little of him (or anyone else) out there from the 1960's, but what there is suggests he was pretty great then too. I know some people find him to be the most awkward dude ever, and can't stand him once he's past the best before date. I find him hypnotic and still quite entertaining.

[Johnny Sorrow]

1. Daniel Bryan: He went from "the guy I'd see at ROH shows who bored me to tears", to "the guy I'd see at ROH shows who's finally interesting now that's he's a bad guy, to "The guy in WWE who I'm digging, but is never gonna make it", to now...where he's always awesome in the ring, just as awesome with his character and how that character effects how he wrestles, AND over as fuck. I love the guy. He's put together all the aspects needed to be a fucking star, and he made it. I always enjoy his stuff. He was so awesome in the TLC match. Seeing him run roughshod on the Shield as the toughest little motherfucker in wrestling was jump off the couch and cheer shit.

 

2. Tony Anthony: I'm digging back into the Smokey Mountain Set and finally getting to see his stuff there. I fucking love it. The feud with Smothers and the stuff with Ron Wright is just killer. Funny story, I also just watched his shoot interview and when he was talking about his WWF stint as TL Hopper, Russo would go up to him with horrible scripts for his promos telling him, "This is how a plumber talks." Anthony was like, "My Dad was a master plumber for 60 years. I think I know how plumbers actually talk."

 

3. Antonio Cesaro: His matches since winning the US Belt have all been good to great, and even the so so ones against Brodus have him doing feats of strength like lifting Clay. He's avoided the "Indy star" stigma, as he's embraced his WWE name and character to the point where I think of goofy Claudio in ROH and it seems like a different guy, and for the better. They're pushing him really well, I love his dialed down anti-USA gimmick,as well as his "not silly European stereotype" gimmick, (think Rene' Dupree wearing a beret, carrying a loaf of French Bread, and walking a poodle.), and he's been great in the ring, where his "tough guy" deal is what's important. And his finisher is super-protected, as well as the fact that his flying, falling, mega bionic, European uppercut of doom looks so awesome that he should shout "There can be only ONE!" right before he hits it.

 

4. Dusty Rhodes: I'm also diving back into Will's Dusty set. That immediately puts Dusty in my "current top 5". No explanation needed.

 

5. The Big Show: Ever since his last heel turn, Show has just been great. The whole, "I've got an iron clad contract now, so I can finally be who I really am..and that's a fucking Giant who can knock you out with one shot who's angry about all the bullshit he's had to go through his whole career" character is good soup. And he's never been better in the ring, working a Giant style that gets across that character, while still being able to sell guys offense; and vocals that the cameras pick up that add a hell of a lot. The Shaemus series has been the fucking tits. I'll give a lot of credit to Shaemus as well, and would have possibly included him on this list, as he's been fucking awesome all year long. But every time he does shit like "Back in me village, we had an' ol' goat that me Uncle Finnigan used ta fuck...", I just get the douche chills.

[Jingus]

I'll give a lot of credit to Shaemus as well, and would have possibly included him on this list, as he's been fucking awesome all year long. But every time he does shit like "Back in me village, we had an' ol' goat that me Uncle Finnigan used ta fuck...", I just get the douche chills.

...what?

 

The weird thing is, I actually spend more time talking about wrestling on here than I do watching wrestling. I turned on Raw last week for the first time in months. I enjoyed most of what I saw, I thought the Santa car angle was hilarious. But it didn't make me want to tune in nest week. Why the hell do I keep picking at this wrestling itch, when there should be nothing left to scratch?

[Johnny Sorrow]

I'll give a lot of credit to Shaemus as well, and would have possibly included him on this list, as he's been fucking awesome all year long. But every time he does shit like "Back in me village, we had an' ol' goat that me Uncle Finnigan used ta fuck...", I just get the douche chills.

...what?

 

 

You know, those stupid colloquialisms he does about his village back in Ireland, "Ya remind me of ol' Tom McGuffin, not only did he have the village's biggest donkey, he was an arse as well!"

[goodhelmet]

I knew what you were talking about Johnny!

[Matt D]

I'm still blanking. I think he needs to write a few more.

[NintendoLogic]

"So I toied an onion to me belt, which was the stoile at the toime."

[goodhelmet]

I don't hear Sheamus but good try.

[NintendoLogic]

I took a Grandpa Simpson quote and added an Irish accent. It seems to me they have similar styles of rambling anecdotes.

[Johnny Sorrow]

"I got me a friend ,fella, his name is Dan Sullivan, he's Irish as they come, just like me. We used to drink together a lot in me village. After two drinks, he would look like an Irish pirate. You know? You think he had luck? In one day he got his car stolen, like I did to Alberto that one time, and the stupid, he had no insurance, and no license, and he gets locked up for being drunk. And after that, he takes off for someplace like India or Nepal, or someplace like that. And his mother dies, ya know, so they wire him to tell him to come to the funeral. It's his mother's funeral, that's all. And he's in India or Nepal, sitting squat-legged listening to some sacred cow. So he comes back and he gets stopped at U.S. Customs for trafficking illegal drugs, not holding, he's trafficking! I mean, here's this guy Sullivan, his old lady kicks off, he gets popped at the border and he's sitting on fifty pounds of black Tibetan finger hash and two keys of slam. Now that's not bad luck, fella... that's DUMB luck. I don't think luck has anything to do with it meself, I don't think he has any brains at all. First of all, he's drunk, then he's a junkie. I don't know what's worse. Don't ask me, ask Sullivan. And what happens? He calls me up and says, "Hey man, I got busted at the border. I need five grand bail." I said, I said, "Five grand man!? Hey man, I've never even seen five thousand dollars in my life, so don't ask me for it, man, why don't you ask your Ma!!" Which was a dumb thing for me to say because his Ma just died. So, fella... now, I got this drunken Irish junkie who wants to kill me because of what I said about his mother being in terminal dreamland. Oh fella. One thing! One thing!!! We love our mothers, boy, oh we love their mothers. It's momma this, momma that. Oh me Irish mother! Ireland must be heaven, because me mother comes from there... and so does me Brouge Kick!! So consider yerself Sullivan, fella. And me boot, well, it's yer dumb luck.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

William Regal- I'm currently going through all the WCW ppvs. I've just come to the end of 1992, so Regal should be showing up fairly soon. He's always been one of my favourite wrestlers, but I haven't seen any of his WCW since it happened, so I'm really looking forward to revisiting it.

 

Riki Choshu- I discovered him with the NJ set, and he quickly became one of my favourite wrestlers. I have some All Japan stuff featuring him lying around, which I'm eager to get into.

 

Buddy Rose- it was when he died that I started getting into Buddy. I have a bunch of Portland stuff, and he's the undisputed highlight so far, and, I imagine, will continue to be once I get back into it.

 

Antonio Cesaro and 3MB- a bit of a cheat, but these are the guys I'm most enjoying from the current product.

 

Barry Windham- my WCW watching has confirmed him as one of my all-time faves. Heel or face, BW never lets me down.

[jdw]

Alpha order:

 

Steve Austin - I think of the biggest stars of all-time, he along with Rock are the ones that we have the entire careers of. Austin's is more interesting since it passed through the minors to a major where he had an interesting midcard push as a singles and tag then passed to the other major where he wasn't going anywhere, caught a break, made something out of nothing, and crept up before exploding. If one wants to study pro wrestling, I suspect he's the best "complete" example we'll ever find. Good worked, the variety would make him an interesting one to revisit in totality.

 

Bob Backlund - there's a helluva a lot more in the vault yet to come out. Such an odd bird relative to other workers that I've liked over the years that he's a "fav" for being different.

 

Toshiaki Kawada - got to watch him grow from being Tenryu's protege to being Misawa's partner to being Misawa's rival chasing the Great White Whale. I could dip into any point of his 1989-98 career and all the old vibes come back.

 

The Midnight Express & Jim Cornette - they along with Ric Flair turned me into pro wrestling fans. Flair stuck around too long and wore me out. The MX went out while still on top, and there continues to be a lot of their stuff I still haven't seen. Really look forward to the coming set.

 

Jumbo Tsuruta - Love him at every phase of his competitive career, peeking with the last one. Still so much left to watch and enjoy.

 

Obvious picks, with perhaps the exception of Austin.

[shoe]

Alpha order:

 

Steve Austin - I think of the biggest stars of all-time, he along with Rock are the ones that we have the entire careers of. Austin's is more interesting since it passed through the minors to a major where he had an interesting midcard push as a singles and tag then passed to the other major where he wasn't going anywhere, caught a break, made something out of nothing, and crept up before exploding. If one wants to study pro wrestling, I suspect he's the best "complete" example we'll ever find. Good worked, the variety would make him an interesting one to revisit in totality.

The Yearbooks do a good job of showing his career develop.

[khawk20]

Just saw this thread....

 

Greg Valentine: I've been watching some 70's era WWWF stuff over the last little while and I've enjoyed his work a lot. Valentine's work pre-1986 has always stood out for me as excellent.

 

Rick Martel: Going over some of his 1984 material, including matches against Abdullah the Butcher, Nick Bockwinkel, and King Tonga. Lots of fun. I'm hoping puropotsy can find a copy of Martel vs. Leo Burke from 1984 for us someday, it was supposedly a prety big event out in the Maritimes when it happened.

 

Bobby Heenan: Hulk Hogan leaving the AWA wasn't the turning point for that promotion, Heenan leaving was. You never didn't want to see Heenan get his ass kicked no matter how many times he'd been put in a situation to get it kicked before.

 

Bret Hart: I've met very few Bret Hart matches I didn't like in my time. His bout with Rick Steamboat from the Boston Garden remains a personal favourite and has stayed a fav for 25 years now.

 

Nick Bockwinkel: I could have paired him with Heenan but there is a lot of Bockwinkel after Heenan left that is really good and very enjoyable to watch.

[Kostka]

I NEED that Lawler set when it's out, Will.

 

Because hes my

 

1. Jerry Lawler. I just love everything about him. He's my favorite baby face of all time. He's my favorite heel of all time. He's my favorite talker ever. I just think he's the best total package ever and I get excited about watching any match he's involved in, even at 62.

 

2. Bill Dundee. I knew of him but he's my pick for favorite "discovery" from the whole 80s project, as far as a guy I saw so little of, and quickly became an all time favorite. I think he was an excellent face but an even better bad guy, especially on the mic in his Elvis outfits. Pure greatness. The 2/3 falls scaffold match blew my mind. I just loved the Memphis set...my favorite 80s promotion. He's another guy who's still great now.

 

3. Rey Mysterio. He had kind of a weak year, but he's a guy with like a billion great tv matches all over the place. I love watching him. He's one of the most athletically pleasing wrestlers and one of the smartest wrestlers ever at the same time.

And I like his costumes.

 

4. Tully Blanchard. The fuck doesn't like Tully? No one worth a fuck. I wish he had a longer peak because he was awesome as fuck. Tully vs Ronnie Garvin is one of 2 matches I keep on my phone.

 

5. William Regal. Killer Kahn. Bobby Heenan. Dutch Mantell. Terry Funk. John Cena. Flair. I don't fucking know.

[NintendoLogic]

I guess I'll contribute to this. Every once in a while, I'll go on a kick where I'll watch a bunch of a wrestler or a promotion I think I might have given short shrift to, but my tastes overall are pretty static. So here are the four members of my personal wrestling Mount Rushmore.

 

Mitsuharu Misawa-What can I say? No one in history can touch him in terms of all-time great matches he's been a part of. I also find his measured stoicism much more appealing than the cartoonish histronics that most wrestlers seem to prefer. To me, he's everything that an ace of a promotion should be.

 

Bret Hart-My tastes have narrowed in recent years (Kurt Angle used to be one of my all-time favorites), but Bret is one of the few guys who I like more now than I did previously. He's one of the few guys who almost never makes me feel like I've completely wasted my time after watching one of his matches. There's hardly anyone better at constructing logical matches where things happen for a reason.

 

Stan Hansen-Death From Above pretty well nailed it. Hansen made clubbering an art form. Almost certainly the greatest of all time at getting the most out of basic strikes and holds.

 

Steve Austin-Maybe it's a consequence of being in high school during the Attitude Era, but Austin will always resonate with me. Even so, it's the matches that keep me coming back. 1997 and 2001 are arguably the two greatest years in WWF history from an in-ring standpoint, and he was a big part of both of them. Even his matches from the much-maligned Russo era hold up better than expected. Every time I go back to one of his showcase matches from that period expecting to totally hate it, I end up pleasantly surprised.

 

I don't know who I'd have as my fifth guy. It could be anyone from Jumbo to Kawada to Eddy to Vader to Lawler.