My Latest Insane Project

[Badlittlekitten]

Athena is definitely a worker to look out for. Arguably the best American female worker right now.

I think that's a bit strong. There's promise there for sure but I think Athena's yet to piece it all together. She can look lost when she's not going through her RVD like spots. I haven't seen the match in question, mind, although I'm sure it's at least good as Hamada is Hamada.

 

Out of curiosity, what was the Eagles vs Mckay match like from that vol 53 show ? Their match from Shimmer last year was an absolute blinder. Madison Eagles is quite brilliant.

 

Anyway, Dylan, I think you might appreciate Sweet Saraya Knight. I haven't caught up with her stuff from this year to recommend something in particular yet. She's a great old school British bruiser, stiff and ugly and scary as fuck.

[Alucard]

Out of curiosity, what was the Eagles vs Mckay match like from that vol 53 show ? Their match from Shimmer last year was an absolute blinder. Madison Eagles is quite brilliant.

Probably the best match of the show IMO. Kind of a shorter version of their grand main event match from vol 35 back in 2010 (my all time favorite Shimmer match, and one of their best top to bottom shows). Eagles is indeed one of the very best, her run on top was Shimmer's peak for me. Great wrestler, character, and promo.

[rvd356]

Tentative Mid Year Top 100. Comments on omissions, placement, et. are welcomed. Also note this is based on the first six months of the calendar year, i.e. no dated "Observer" rules or anything in the last week comes into consideration.

 

1. Antonio Cesaro

2. Negro Casas

3. Daniel Bryan

4. Virus

5. Rush

6. Vordell Walker

7. LA Park

8. William Regal

9. The Big Show

10. Kyle Matthews

11. Trauma II

12. Alberto Del Rio

13. Jun Akiyama

14. Dean Ambrose

15. Villano IV

16. Demus 3:16

17. Blue Panther

18. Rampage Brown

19. Robbie Dynamite

20. Kazushi Sakuraba

21. Sheamus

22. Dean Allmark

23. KT Hammil

24. Trauma I

25. Shaun Tempers

26. Timothy Thatcher

27. Necro Butcher

28. Damien Wayne

29. Kahagas

30. Sami Callihan

31. Seth Rollins

32. James Mason

33. Negro Navarro

34. John Cena

35. Tajiri

36. Jack Gallagher

37. Freelance

38. Black Terry

39. Alan Extreme

40. Casandro

41. Yuki Ishikawa

42. Roman Reigns

43. Terrible

44. Chris Masters

45. Valiente

46. Shockercito

47. Ryota Hama

48. Chico Che

49. Jeff Cobb

50. Andrew Everett Cross (Chiva Kid)

51. Minoru Suzuki

52. Dr. Wagner Jr.

53. Ray Mendoza Jr.

54. Jay Briscoe

55. Cyrus The Destroyer

56. Mark Briscoe

57. Tracy Smothers

58. Eddie Kingston

59. Amazing Red

60. Harry Smith

61. Namajague

62. Too Cold Scorpio

63. Pierrothito

64. Astral

65. Shinsuke Nakamura

66. Fuego

67. Califan

68. Cancerbero

69. Sami Zayn (El Generico)

70. CM Punk

71. Mark Henry

72. Drew Haskins

73. Jeremiah Plunkett

74. Angel Blanco Jr.

75. Kassius Ohno

76. Dolph Ziggler

77. Tomohiro Ishii

78. Tank Norton

79. Rich Swann

80. Rey Hechicero

81. Manabu Suruga

82. Jack Swagger

83. D.O.C.

84. ACH

85. Dinamic Black

86. Austin Aries

87. Jeremy Wyatt

88. Derrick King

89. Michael Tarver

90. Akebono

91. Gunner

92. KAI

93. Keith Hammil

94. Andrew Alexander

95. Randy Orton

96. Wade Barrett

97. Kazunari Murakami

98. Savio Vega

99. Bully Ray

100. New Jack

 

Last Five off: Jon Malus, JC Ice, Big E. Langston, Rob Conway, Raziel

Wow cool list. Cesaro was so awesome-shit on in booking so bad-then we get a Raw main event with Danielson that just brings him right back to the forefront of my mind. Lots of work went into compiling this I'm sure. I don't like Lucha much so I am ignorant on 60% of the list and don't even know where you see all this Indy stuff(maybe its free online somewhere?). Hate to be the asshole that questions someone's opinionated list but here's a few:

 

CM Punk- he's got to be higher. Ryota Hama really had a better year? That guy is worthless garbage and I love fat guy wrestlers, even Bundy & Shockmaster & the worst of the worst. I've never seen him in an even decent match. It's hard to believe he was a Triple Crown champion. Held the belt that Stan Hansen attempted murder over & some of the all time best matches occured over. Sometimes I feel like lists are made just to be unique. Everyone does it, I find myself putting random stuff on all my lists just to do it. I'm open to classic or even passable Hama 2013(or ever) recomendations. Different strokes though.

 

I know Punk's a 'Made Guy' now so he doesn't need out love as much as he did in say, 2004 but he's still been outstanding. Maybe not as good as '11 or '12 to most but to me he's refined and even better(maybe). For my money he's had the 2 best matches of 2013: vs. Undertaker @ WrestleMania 29 & vs. John Cena @ Raw 2-25-13.

 

I am a WWE watcher(of current stuff) over anything current by a big margin but I thought these 2 matches were universally praised. Of course Punk/Rock I couldn't even near the hype surrounding it and while I liked it (***) I was totally bummed out because it looked SO good on paper. Didn't see the rematch but I haven't heard anything good about it.

 

Punk/Brock is coming up soon and I have a feeling it's going to shoot right past my other 2 MOTYC's. My 2 favorite talents on the roster, 1 on 1, no bullshit on the #2 PPV(debatable) of the year. Can't believe Summerslam is in LA(a short 2 1/2 hour drive from the hut I inhabit) and I'm missing Brock/Punk, Del Rio/Christian(have a feeling the 75% Mexican crowd is going to finally embrace Del Rio & it will be his moment), Danielson/Cena II(Velocity rematch 10 years in the making! Still remember tuning in to see the Dragon)

 

Will ask more tomorrow, thanks, great post.

[Badlittlekitten]

Do you need to quote the entire thing? Punks been hurt by the fact that he had two good matches and then disappeared for months. His been pretty bad since his return. Poor bloke looks like he's still hurt and struggling to me. I'm surprised by how high Regal is. Has he done anything of note outside the Ohno match?

 

Out of curiosity, what was the Eagles vs Mckay match like from that vol 53 show ? Their match from Shimmer last year was an absolute blinder. Madison Eagles is quite brilliant.

Probably the best match of the show IMO. Kind of a shorter version of their grand main event match from vol 35 back in 2010 (my all time favorite Shimmer match, and one of their best top to bottom shows). Eagles is indeed one of the very best, her run on top was Shimmer's peak for me. Great wrestler, character, and promo.

 

Oh yeah . . 2010 is obviously what I meant when I said "last year" . I agree with everything you just said actually. Eagles carries herself like a proper star.

[Smack2k]

Dylan,

 

Have you seen anymore of the IWC shows from PA? Its a good promotion that has some decent stuff...

 

The Super Indy Tournaments are good every year....

 

I know the owner as we used to work together...after Norm Connors sold it to him...

 

Just wanted to know if you've seen any or if you like it?

[Dylan Waco]

I've seen a couple of IWC maches this year (Hollis v. Matthews qualifer comes to mind as one though I know I saw at least one other), but not much. If you have specific shows/matches to recommend feel free to do so here.

 

First on Hama - we just disagree. I really like Hama a lot. He's not my absolute favorite or anything, but I thought he was easily the best guy on a night to night basis in the Carny this year (which I watched a lot of).

 

On Punk - frankly if not for the Cena Raw match he doesn't make the first half list at all. In truth I thought he sucked dick for most of the first half of the year. His matches either followed a very modern ROHish NEAR FALLS, BACK AND FOURTH! pattern which I generally dislike, where sloppy as fuck or he looked unmotivated as all hell. I do think he will show up for the Brock match though.

 

On Regal - He's a controversial pick for the top ten because it's almost entirely on the strength of one match (though the little tidbits where he's showed up other times he always looks good), but here is the the thing - he was easily the best guy in the match that I think is easily the best match so far this year. I can see the argument for ranking him lower, but when I look at the guys who I have below him it's either guys who were consistently good/very good, but with nothing even bordering on an outstanding performance or guys who might have looked tremendous in one match but were really off in others (Akiyama for example). The only guy I could maybe be convinced I should have had above him is Show. Everyone else lacks the homerun you need to lap a guy with a performance that great, especially for a list that is first half of the year only

[Jimmy Redman]

Yeah, just looking at the WWE names on the list, I don't see how Punk should be above any of them. There are even guys below him on Dylan's list who I would consider ranking higher (Henry, Dolph, Orton).

 

To me Punk has the Cena match. It is still my MOTY at this point. I liked Punk/Taker a lot, probably more than most people on this board, but since the explosion of TV wrestling post-Mania I don't know that it makes my Top 25 or so for WWE. And I cannot think of a single other match of his that even approaches great. So we're talking about one high-end match for the year. And unlike Dylan ranking Regal high on the strength of one match, I don't think Punk in particular gave a transcendentally great performance that made the match, enough to push him above a group of guys who have been consistently having good and great matches and being consistently good and great in them.

[Smack2k]

Dylan,

 

What are your thoughts on Chance Prophet? Both his look / interview style and his in ring work?

 

Do you think that his "look" affects him? By this I mean, he's got a GREAT killer lookin face paint all the time and cuts some cool psycho type promos, but his body isnt very athletic and his ring gear doenst help that part of it.....so if you've never seen him before, like what happened to me a few years ago..you see these really good promos from this really interesting looking guy, but then see him in full and it takes a LOT of that mystique away...

[Badlittlekitten]

Are you going to make a list of your 2013 matches as well Dylan? I'm picking off the wrestlers that I'm unfamiliar with and putting them in the Youtube (love what I've seen of Vordell and Matthews so far). It'd be cool to get an idea of why you're rating who as well as a nice addendum to your current list.

[Dylan Waco]

Will probably do a top 100 matches list, though I find that way harder than rating wrestlers.

[Hollinger.]

Some bad news, Dylan. Saturday was the last Metro Pro show for at least a long while. Time Warner Cable just signed a big deal with KU athletics for the station, and lots of programming changes are coming down. Wrestling was one of the cuts, and without access to the cameras/editing equipment at the tv station, Chris doesn't want to sacrifice the quality of the product just to keep going. So the promotion is going on an indefinite hiatus, and I don't know if it will ever really come back. At the very least, Chris wants to run a show for Wyatt's retirement, which is probably coming in the next year or so. We went out with a fucking bang, though. Crazy, bloody dog collar match with Wyatt and Pearce for the belt. Will make one hell of a last episode.

[Dylan Waco]

I literally just heard this from someone else and it breaks my heart. I'm not going to pretend that Metro Pro was my favorite promotion in the world, but it was one I really enjoyed following for the last year or so and it was one of the few indies that I felt had a nice combination of solid production, varied talent and quality matches. I enjoyed Richards v. Wyatt which I just watched tonight. Look forward to Wyatt v Pearce even if I hate the fact that Metro Pro may be done, while a terrible company like ROH keeps kicking somehow

[Dylan Waco]

I have watched and enjoyed a ton of wrestling this year, but as I keep watching stuff and surveying the scene it is shocking how big the drop off is after the first five guys or so and with so many guys I really like virtually vanishing in terms of footage, getting injured or being crippled by shitty booking there is no telling what my top twenty or so is going to look like at the end of the year.

[WrestlingPower]

NWA Fusion link

http://www.nwafusion.com/fusionmedia.html

 

I think they are still actively putting stuff up but are a good ways behind from what I hear. I think they still produce it as if it's building to future shows even though the shows are long past.

 

Edit: latest show up there was uploaded a month ago & match was from May 25

[Dylan Waco]

I am going to look at some of the Fusion this week Tim, but offhand do you know what any of the other dates for these shows are?