Reactions to the Honorable Mention List, Part 2

[goc]

You clearly didn't watch his WWECW run then.

[Grimmas]

 

 

 

Goldberg was too high.

 

Sydal did pretty well all things considered. I voted for him pretty much solely based on his WWE run but I did watch a few of his more recent matches just to see if he was still really fucking good (he is)

I think Goldberg is a better wrestler than Sydal.

 

You're wrong but you are entitled to your wrong opinion.

 

They are both borderline unwatchable. Goldberg had 1 good match against DDP, I can't think of a good Sydal match. Goldberg squashes could be fun. I wouldn't expect either guy to do well on the BIGLAV. Sydal was never a top guy and Goldberg wasn't much of a draw when he was on top...

 

wow.

 

Goldberg had more matches than that. Ogawa, Hogan, Raven and some WWE stuff. Probably missing some. However, that being said, he wasn't a draw? He was the hottest star in wrestling in 98, maybe second next to Austin. He was definitely on par.

[Eegah]

I wish i could see more of Gorgeous George to rank him but i do appreciate someone having him so high.

[Mrzfn]

I can think of a solid half dozen Sydal matches that I think are flat out great, and a lot more good ones besides. I love how crisp and measured a lot of his stuff is, much more so that most who wrestle in that style. Glad I could fit him on my ballot.

[El-P]

Goldberg, ah ah ah. The guy had like three really good matches in his career.

 

Can we get rid of Hogan & HHH already BTW ?

[conker8]

If you listen to the podcasts, you would know that Hogan is not coming soon.

[El-P]

I don't listen to podcasts. And that's a terrible news. Booo ! I don't remember how Hogan did last time. Probably not too good.

[Dylan Waco]

I will say that I thought Sydal was incredible for a couple of years. I didn't consider him, but the idea that he's a dismal performer is something I can't really buy into

[KB8]

Sydal definitely had a lot of fun stuff in WWE. I remember almost nothing now of the ROH/Dragon Gate run from around '07 that I watched at the time, but the WWE run was good.

 

Gorgeous George is the first top 5 vote to drop, right?

[Stiva]

I THINK that's all my bottom 10 dropped now but I'm struggling to remember who I placed there. I kind of wish I'd placed Sydal with all this talk about his awesome ECW run but I'm sure that won't be the only regret I have.

[stunning_grover]

Nice stuff, grover. I always did like the cut of your jib.

 

Thanks

[El-P]

 

Nice stuff, grover. I always did like the cut of your jib.

 

Thanks

 

 

I second Dan, I like what I see of your list.

[The Russian Daydream]

I think this has been a really fascinating part of the list because there are two types of nominees mixed in here. There are the wrestlers who most of us wouldn't consider but a few people with different views really like, so they get a few votes. There are also the ones who lots of people appreciate and may have placed in their 100-150/200 region but only managed to scrape onto a few top 100s. At this stage it's hard to differentiate the two, though I suspect we are coming towards the end of that section of the list now with most who appear now having been on a fair number of ballots.

[Scarlet-Left]

This is my second time writing this out, I'd got all the way to the bottom and the site went wacky on me and erased it all, so I apologise if some of these are brief.

 

As the guy with the most drops so far, unless anyone has more (twenty three), I felt the need to go through them and give you all a little insight into my reasoning.

 

16. Terry Taylor

 

It was Buddy Landell v Terry Taylor at Starrcade '85 that proved to me that wrestling was worth watching. Of course, Tully Blanchard then came along and stole my heart, but, ever since then, I've tried to give those two guys the benefit of the doubt and looked for the positives in their work.

 

24. Ron Simmons

 

He had greatness in him. You could see it in his work with Reed, that he was more than just solid, that he really had an extra something to give. On a personal note, I'm also naturally inclined to sympathise with the ace/figurehead of a company during its darker times, as a result of the association between Bret, the New Generation and a downturn in business. I don't care about the Acolytes because I hate the Attitude Era, but I have enjoyed what I've seen of Farooq as the leader of the Nation.

 

25. Steve Keirn

 

This guy represents a lot of the problems with my list (not just the fact that it's heavily influenced by personal favouritism and gut feeling). I once asked, who is better, Io Shirai or Steve Keirn? I'm still asking myself that, because it gets to the root of my difficulty compiling this list; I like a lot of different people for very different reasons, and I like a few very different styles. Also, Skinner was great.

 

27. Io Shirai

 

It's upsetting.

 

29. Alberto Del Rio

 

Del Rio has everything I'm looking for; solid work-rate, great physique, natural charisma and, as a heel, great intensity and aggression. Of the feuds/match-ups WWE could put on, at the moment, I'd be most interested in a programme between Del Rio and Styles. I don't know if it'd be best for business, but I'm confident it'd produce high-quality matches and some great television.

 

40. Alex Shelley

 

If it weren't for the Motor City Machine Guns, I'd probably have drifted away from wrestling years before I found this brilliant site. They kept me watching TNA, almost single-handedly, and Shelley was the stand-out of the two. However, I'm not sure if I'm being honest with myself when I say that. Was his work better, or was it just his look? I really liked his look.

 

56. Doug Williams

 

This is another TNA pick, though I've seen a lot of his work on the British indies (including a blow-away match with Danielson). He gets bonus points for carrying two poor workers in his British Invasion stable, and keeping their matches enjoyable. If he'd have received a bigger push from a bigger company I, genuinely, believe he could've eclipsed Benoit as an excellent technician; he's a better talker and I don't think his grappling is far off. Maybe you think I'm crazy.

 

58. Arisa Nakajima

 

She was a very late addition to my list, and I have to, sincerely, thank the person who nominated her (and Shirai, who could've gone the way of Lance Storm). I started considering her when I was re-watching Kana's old stuff (trying to justify pushing her into the top ten). She'd never stood out to me before, but I had to ask myself: Can I really justify leaving her off when she's having consistently good matches? The answer, as it turns out, was no.

 

61. The Patriot

 

Wilkes benefits from being in the right place at the right time (sort of). He was mentioned in glowing terms by Cornette in one of his shoot DVDs and it inspired me to try to take a better look. He's good. Not top fifty good, but good enough to hop onto a list that also includes Jay Youngblood.

 

72. Joey Ryan

 

He would be the odd man out, if my list wasn't already very weird. I can't say much more than that I find him entertaining. Of course, his girlfriend's leagues better than him but, alas, she wasn't nominated.

 

79. Shane Douglas

 

He's a guy who clearly wanted to be an all-time great and, through his efforts, got really good. I have to admit that my anti-Kliq policy worked in his favour, because it also worked backwards, to some degree.

 

82. El Mesias

 

I was young at the time, and I've not gone back and watched it, but I liked him in his his TNA run. I had this, sub-conscious, feeling that he should have been kept stronger. If it weren't for that, I probably wouldn't have even considered him, since there were quite a few other guys I'd not seen much of who, arguably, deserved priority.

 

83. Adrian Street.

 

"A man kissing another man! I don't believe it!"

 

86. Tarzan Goto

 

It was a match against Dan Severn that turned me onto him. As I've explained before (to Parv?), I tend to think highly of guys who have a poor physique/look (I'm very particular!), who can pull me into their matches, as I'm inclined not to care.

 

88. James Storm

 

He's been good for so long, with quite a few moments of greatness, and he's, so obviously, had a lot of his potential wasted by that company.

 

90. Matt Sydal

 

Fun high-flier. Good-looking.

 

91. Bobby Fulton

 

I don't really need to justify, since a few people have said he was one their radar but just didn't make the final cut.

 

93. Jay Youngblood

 

He's there, I guess.

 

94. Jinsei Shinzaki

 

Good match with Bret, plus great look equals ballot-worthy.

 

95. Jacques Rougeau

 

I'm inclined to agree that Ray was better, but I think the Mountie tips it in his favour. Really fun.

 

96. Lanny Poffo

 

What the fuck, WCW?!

 

97. Mike Rotunda

 

Did his captaincy of the Varsity Club entitle him to naval rank or did he just buy a boat in order to keep his ring name?

 

98. Kevin Sullivan

 

Great heel in his prime, fun heel in his senility.

 

Numbers ninety-nine and one hundred probably won't show for a while. They aren't guys I genuinely think of as being worse than the others guys in the bottom ten, but guys I think of as great, on the basis of only one or two matches.

[Matt D]

"GWE: it's upsetting."

[El McKell]

I love that you went to all the effort to justify all those pics and it was a fun read but this exemplifies why for the most part I can't see where you're coming from.

 

Alberto Del Rio...great intensity and aggression.

[Tim Cooke]

Myers did okay. He's in some pretty decent company. Cortez hasn't dropped yet, has he? That surprises me. I keep thinking I'm gonna cry into my cornflakes over Grey.

 

Grey did really well on my ballot so he still has a fighting chance to get close to top 100

[Scarlet-Left]

I love that you went to all the effort to justify all those pics and it was a fun read but this exemplifies why for the most part I can't see where you're coming from.

 

Alberto Del Rio...great intensity and aggression.

 

I don't think I've ever seen a match from Del Rio (as a heel, at least) where he doesn't come across like a massive arsehole. Of course, that might not be down to his acting ability.

[NotJayTabb]

I think you can point to my favourite babyface revenge match of the decade (Payback 2013 where the virtuous Del Rio kicks the head off of the thieving Ziggler) to show Alberto does have some real nasty aggression when he needs it.

[Matt D]

When Alberto is on, he is on. It's just rarer than one would like. I thought one of the best moments of the last year was when he showed up at the top of the stage to interfere in the Mundo ironman match, and a lot of that was the emotion Alberto was portraying. Lucha Underground is so thoroughly produced that it could have been staged in some ways, but it was a crazy fist pumping moment and there aren't a ton of those in modern pro wrestling.

 

I can't think of many wrestlers with such a gap between peaks and valleys within the same time period as him.

[Goodear]

Alberto is one of those guys I have zero emotional attachment to despite being able to recognize he has physical tools and some intangibles. To me, he's a guy who requires a heavy push to be over and if he isn't, he fades into the woodwork pretty heavy.

[victory]

Well my 99th pick is gone in Goldberg. My main reason for having him on my list is I think he did a great job with his gimmick. It was clearly defined as an Ass Kicker and he played the part great. He didn't try to be something he wasn't. One of the best sub 10 minute match performers.

[Cap]

Del Rio has always been a guy I wanted to like and in a few moments (return against Cena, quite a bit of his time on on LU) I did. However, despite how much I want to like him, he bored me to tears. Even his fire bores me. I don't really know why, but I just can't relate to him as an intense and compelling wrestler, at least not with enough consistency.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

Has HHH really not shown up yet? I'm starting to get worried......

[Scarlet-Left]

A quarter of my list has now dropped, with Stan Lane and Kenny Omega.