Organize your wrestling

[Grimmas]

There are two parts to this.

 

The first part is your physical dvds. Are they in cases? Spindles? How do you know where to find things?

 

The second is more about your thoughts on matches. I see guys like Loss and Chad pull out star ratings all the time. Do you have amazing memory skills or some kind of spreadsheet?

 

I am kind of curious as I am trying to get my stuff more in order. I will explain what I do when I get home, because I don't like typing from my phone.

[khawk20]

Maybe the first part of this would be better off discussed somewhere else on the board? Just askin'...

[BrickHithouse]

The few dvds I have were purchased directly from fine retailers such as Wal Mart, Best Buy, and wwe.com. And they are neatly arranged on a single small shelf.

 

I look up other stuff on youtube.

[Loss]

My organization is here at PWO. I should probably keep a list outside of the board, but I don't.

[Jimmy Redman]

On match thoughts, I have a whole bunch of lists in notepad form, both Microsoft Notepad files and actual, real life notepads, since I got bored easily in school and would make MOTY lists to pass the time. I don't really do star ratngs, but do jot down shorthand notes on matches and rank them for MOTY lists.

 

Having said that, I do have a really strong memory and can recall most relevant details, dates and thoughts off the top of my head. For example, I was just having a conversation elsewhere and could recall the dates for three random Kofi Kingston matches instantly. Very rarely do I have to actually look up my notes or Google for the date of a match or show or whatever.

[Loss]

Not to brag, but here's a brag ... ask goodhelmet about my freakish memory.

[soup23]

I have a good memory but I keep a Wrestling File for all of my rankings on matches. Only started doing this around two years ago and it has become very beneficial. Before I was apprehensive if my opinion changed on a match and I was sort of "scared" to put out a rating that would look foolish in retrospect. Now, I just try to defend my position as best as I can and if I change my mind, I change my mind.

[Jimmy Redman]

One thing I am is very fluid in my rankings and ratings of matches. I like to rewatch stuff and if my opinion of a match goes up or down as a result of the latest viewing, so be it. I often take into account how I felt watching a particular match live or for the first time, but I don't always and I'm not bound by it.

 

To me, a rating for a match isn't definitive as much as merely a snapshot of how I felt about it at a certain point in time.

[Grimmas]

A few months ago I was trying to figure out my match of the year and I was having trouble, because my memory sucks.

 

What I did, at that point, was start a spreadsheet and just put star ratings next to any match I watched going forward. I find it easier to hand out ratings when I can see what matches they are compared too. I adjust any time things look weird. It's really helped to have something to look back at.

[Zenjo]

My DVD's are largely kept in sealable transparent plastic bags and strewn over two houses. The storage is generally a bit of a mess, but I do have a 'to watch' box for easy access. I'm very organised at knowing what I'm going to watch in the near future so can sort it out in advance. I could tell you most of the stuff I'm going to view over the next 3 years!

 

I have hundreds of pages of hand written notes on matches. Only the reviews that I put on this site have so far made it onto computer. All my ratings of matches go on word or excel files, along with plenty of other wrestling data. Like Loss I have a goal of producing a best of the 90's list. I don't know how long it will be yet but have decided on a minimum rating. It's the standard where I'm confident all but the absolute best house show matches wouldn't reach.

 

I've listed all the Y***B*** matches and a longlist of everything else in my collection that could potentially make the grade. So now I know all the things I currently have to watch, and after viewing a match it simply gets given a rating and moved from one list to another.

[MikeCampbell]

The actual legit DVD masters that I own, I keep in a locked bookcase in my living room, to keep the hellions children out of them. The others I keep in various spindles or in envelopes and grouped together so I can pretty much find anything I might be looking for with minimal difficulty.

[Wahoos Leg]

There's a rack that's full. Two racks attached to the wall, one of which got to such capacity I have to buy anchors for it. More on the shelf in my offive.

 

About seven spindles.

 

All organized on a spreadsheet.

[MikeCampbell]

I've always had a pretty good memory for wrestling, certain things just seem to stick with me. The Johnny Hotbody question that I stumped Corny with in the Youshoot, was just something that I happened to read in a PWI Almanac in their title history section, and always kept in the back of my mind. Now, as a thirty year old husband and father, it usually winds up getting me in trouble. I don't remember to take out the hamburger our for dinner, or to change the cat's litterbox at 5:30 AM when I've been up for 18 hours, but I can remember 'stupid wrestling shit' from fifteen years ago without blinking an eye.

[goodhelmet]

Ikea shelf

 

In terms of organizing matches, I just ask KrisZ or Loss. They are my official organizers.

 

"Hey, what show is this match on?"

 

"Yo Kris, do you have the dates for the following matches?"

[Mando]

Ikea shelf

I work at IKEA -- we definetly have plenty of options!

 

I have my own makeshift methods. It'd look like chaos to a stranger. I basically have two different closets where I have bins and boxes and bags full of DVDs. It's not the most organized system but I can generally find whatever I'm looking for. My bigger problem is the ratio of wrestling/MMA:movies to watch in what little free time I do have.

[kayfabe1984]

The collection my wife and I have of masters fills up a small bookcase and part of another larger one. As far as other DVDs, right now they are in mostly either paper sleeves in a storage cabinet with my wrestling VHS tape collection and other non-wrestling master DVDs. Its somewhat organized with everything banded together in stacks and labels on the the stack and I can somewhat find stuff. It's sort of aggravating though. Definitely going to work on getting those non-master DVDs organized.

 

As far as match rankings and whatnot, all of those are on the blog I write at with Mando (http://neverhandover.blogspot.com)

[thebrainfollower]

My 100 or so Coliseum Videos are at a friends. DVD's and blu rays here in order of release. PC files are down by promotion and then into sub categories of full show or match. Match then subdivided by year when necessary. I own tons of WCW, WWF up to 97, and other major promotions. To be honest my Rock/Austin/Mankind/Taker DVD's contain all the Attitude era WWF I want to rewatch.

[victory]

I have all my DVDs in binder sleeves by company. Such as AWA in one binder, World Class in another and so on. For comps I have Best of binders for those. I keep them all in a huge filing cabinet. I also have them in order in the binder so for example all the WCW Halloween Havoc shows are in order by year.

 

As for the official WWE DVD's I just have those in a small tv stand cabinet in order as well.

[Mad Dog]

I have a giant tote with thousands of DVDs in it.

 

As far as matches and stuff go, I lost that capability years ago. I just dig through IVP or Wikipedia. I'm a mess with that and I've forgotten a ton about wrestling the last 4ish years.

[Log]

I've got quite a few dvds, but not nearly as many as you guys it seems. I have all my official (WWE, etc.) dvds in a small drawer in our guest bedroom. The rest of my stuff is in big dvd binders. Got one for lucha, one for japanese stuff, one for comps, etc. I try to keep them all together.

 

I used to have a ton of ROH, Chikara, PWG, IWA MS official releases, but having a baby meant needing more space. Got rid of a bunch of those on ebay. Still have a few in a plastic bin in the garage.

 

Between youtube and comps, I don't really feel the need to have a bunch of whole shows lying around.

[WrestlingPower]

My storage method is in flux. In the VHS days I had the tapes #'d, stored on shelves in the closet in numerical order. Then detailed lists on the computer of what was on each. When DVDs came around I decided to keep the list WITH the disc so I made slim case covers for each disc with the list of what was on them in the sleeve. Stuff with color covers or stuff I made covers for to resell or whatever got thicker cases. After 10 years of DVD making/collecting I realized I was starting to run out of potential space for these too.

 

So anything that used to get the slim-case with list treatment is now going to go in a binder & have it's detailed list go in one big Word document broken down by American/Japan/Lucha. Before I had a seperate file for each tape/disc that was more detailed & a smaller/summary of each went on a master list for the website. The eventual (years down the road) goal would be to get everything not with a color cover into binders with their corresponding detailed list in one big Word file that I could convert to a PDF for viewing on a tablet. Currently all watched discs occupy a full closet along with the VHS and one book shelf that's 2 deep full of discs in covers.

 

Unwatched discs are mostly grouped by promotion/comp/transfers, etc. and stored in old racks that were used for CDs before we got a huge furniture piece for storing CDs. All unwatched international is in a huge binder grouped by promotion. This is shockingly heavy but did free up TONS of envelopes & sleeves.

 

I don't really have any method for storing reviews or anything but I've tried to save off full show reviews I've done online for eventual hosting on my site. But that's not even on the radar of priorities.

[RyanClingman]

I'm pretty obsessive when it comes to the safety of the digital media that my wrestling is stored on. I will only use first class Mitsubishi disks (as far as I can tell from tests that I have done, Will's comps do fit the bill) and keep all my DVDs in plastic cases on a book shelf standing vertically. Everything that hasn't been burnt together with random matches, episodes of RAW, PPVs etc. are kept on two 2TB internal HDDs inside of an Xtreamer hooked up to the TV. For newer shows

 

As far as ratings or thoughts go, for newer stuff I can look back at newsletters that I have written to keep track of everything so that isn't an issue. For each year I have a list for matches rated above *** 3/4 listed in order inside of a Dropbox directory entitled 'DATA'. For compilations I have documents in my Google Drive with the full match lists for easy editing. For random things that I may come across I have a spreadsheet in the dame DATA folder organized by region and then company in chronological order.