Reactions to the Honorable Mention List, Part 3

[Dylan Waco]

I literally came into this thread to argue that I think what hurt Yatsu the most was the absence of really any jump off the page singles match. Damn elliot beat me to it.

[Timbo Slice]

That being said, his tag work might be the best in the 80's.

 

I ran into that issue with Yatsu as well, because I really liked him, especially when he was fiery with Chosyu, and I wish I saw more of his tag with Jumbo, because I'm pretty sure that would have put me over the top on him.

[Jetlag]

19 guys have dropped from my list. Feels like it's going to be eviscerated in the next couple days with guys like Navarro and Fuerza that I had very high falling.

[Danish Dynamite]

9 guys down. Bob Orton Jr. replaces Yatsu as my highest ranked loss so far at #59.

 

And:

- No. I definetely don't have HHH.

- I have Andre in the top 50, based on work. If it had been on rep, as some say, he'd be top 10 for me and not close to the top 250 for those who've only heard that he stinks.

- and oh yeah, Inoki's boring...

[Danish Dynamite]

Really starting to wonder who the highest placed guy I didn't rank will be... I only have two joshi workers (only from a lack of watching, 'cause I like what I've seen) so maybe someone there? Who'll be the highest female wrestler? ... Could be a lucha guy, but I've surprised myself with how high I've rated them. ... Could definetely be a modern era wrestler. Especially if someone like HHH turns out to be loved by a lot and pushed by others to spite that "hive mind" some fear or want to provoke. ... Makes me almost want to change my handle to "Hive Mind", but I'm getting off track...

 

Anyway: I will make it a point to watch the 5 biggest match recommends for whoever is ranked highest, that I didn't include, immediately after the last name is revealed. And I will watch these regardless of wether or not I've seen them before.

 

Fuck it: I'll make it a point to watch 5 matches of everyone in the final top 100 that I didn't rank, to see what I missed or confirm my own list.

[El-P]

A night passed and I only lost Dutch Mantell, at #98. Not exactly a guy with great matches, but whenever he appeared he was always very good. I must admit I believe the fact he was the best color guy ever in SMW pushed me to represent him too.

 

I'm shocked by the spot Scott Hall got. Really, he's never been pimped around here, what does he have that people really like apart from the two ladder matches ? Hell, I believe I'm basically alone stating that he was actually pretty good in WCW too. No idea how he got so high.

 

Scott Steiner #1. I dunno. Drugs ?

 

I though Tiger Mask would have dropped way sooner too. In a way I'm glad since I really like his UWF stuff.

 

Yatsu was great for a few years. Then fell off a cliff, so I'm perfectly ok with this ranking.

Michael Hayes is officially way overrated now. Went through Texas, wasn't particulary impressed by his work. But like I said, Texas as a whole fells like a dire territory to me and the Von Erichs vs Freebird stuff is something that you probably had to be there to really enjoy it. Doesn't translate well on tape, hasn't aged well at all. BTW I felt Hayes was underrated for the longest time, it's not like I felt his work was the shits. But now the pendulum has swung too far on the other direction.

Ditto for Mark Henry. Never got the hype. He's a good big man, ok. So what.

 

I had probably voted for Adonis last time around. I really soured on him since them. Well, basically since seeing a lot more of him.

 

When did Luger get so popular ? And again, Luger is a guy whom I always defended and whose stock rised quite a bit after going through WCW TV. But still, I'm surprised.

[El-P]

Forgot to mention, that Davey Boy Smith picture warms my heart, bringing me back to the early days of being a fan. So early 90's. No idea how he got so high either though.

[NotJayTabb]

My ballot took a big hit in the last 24 hours, with Davey Boy, Fiera, Henry, Necro, Ogawa, Sasaki and Psychosis all falling. 71 of my lads left, though the all-important top 23 is still standing

[Danish Dynamite]

Ah, fuck it. Had somehow forgotten that Patera fell a long time ago. I'm down 10 guys then.

[jamesie_2015]

Genuinely thought Henry might make the 100. Love him to bits. :-(

[conker8]

Lost two lucha guys last night: Negro Navarro, Fuerza Guerrerra.

 

It's good to see Verne Gagne with 25 ballots.

[The Thread Killer]

I'm suing Michael Hayes for that picture and I'm naming Grimmas as an accomplice for causing me mental pain and anguish. It's going to take a lot of therapy and medication to get that image out of my brain. Screw you guys.

[jackwebb]

Jack Webb is my hero. Own it brother.

That has been the plan. I saw yesterday that the pick was finally revealed. Decided to wait until the morning to look at all of the reactions to the pick. Thoroughly enjoyed reading them. You know I thought that Steiner would go under the radar until my pick was made. I come into the thread a couple days ago and JVK is talking about him. I was just like wow. I made what will universally be considered the worst pick of project. To make matters worse I am now getting a build up for it. I do thank JVK for that though as it was amusing knowing what was to come.

 

When I initially handed in my list I chose to go anonymous with the vote. Figuring I don't want to feel obligated to explain a few bizarre picks. I came to my senses though a few days before the deadline. Took it off anonymous. Since as a top pick he goes against the spirit of how most other people voted. The door was to use your own criteria and I went through that door like Shockmaster going through the wall. My words trying to explain this may come off as the incoherent ramblings of a madman. Which I suppose is appropriate.

 

I am an unapologetic Scott Steiner mark. He embodies pro wrestling to me. The good and the bad. All the stuff I love comes together with him packed in a ridiculously roided body. Whether it be his stiff work and freakish athleticism in his early tag team days. His funny promos. Sometimes intentionally funny, other times not so intentional. Result is the same though. Which, again, I can understand why some people would have a problem with me taking that into account so heavily. Viewing negatives, the unintentionally funny promos, as a positive is kind of ridiculous. Especially since promos aren't a consideration at all for so many you.

 

Did he lack professionalism at times? Yes. I loved the controversial shoot promos on Nitro. I get why people would find that distasteful though. Those promos contribute to what I find appealing about him. His whole loose cannon persona. He has managed to make it difficult to tell where the character ends. This isn't something that would have mattered to me years ago. Twitter and the whole loosening up of kayfabe has made this more of an asset to me. Like having his picture posted at Axxess to ban him from getting in.

 

I ended up weighing in ring character and the ability to do comedy pretty highly. My favorite thing about the whole process was Dick Murdoch becoming a favorite. Steiner brought that Big Poppa Pump character to his matches. In my opinion he had a genuine aura of danger at times. My favorite thing as a wrestling fan was him going into the crowd in India and people fleeing in terror. I'm not going to pretend that this lead to great matches though. As Big Poppa Pump his matches peaked at good and a lot never even reached good. With only rare exceptions like that great brawl with Goldberg.

 

I noted his lack of professionalism earlier but he does deserve some credit for his run in TNA IMO. He had his priorities correct. Only one of the ex WWE/WCW stars that they brought in that would give an actual rub to his opponents.

 

I get that the pick is highly flawed by any objective standard. Most of his great matches were in a tag team. There isn't even a consensus if those matches should even be considered great. He is just my favorite guy to watch. I did my rankings based on who would I most want to watch. Worked my entire way up the list with the 140 guys I was considering using just that question. If I had a half hour to kill I'd prefer 2 10 minute Steiner matches and a couple of promos over a 30 minute Misawa match. Not that I have a problem with watching Misawa. Just using him as an example. I don't think most of my list is all that outrageous. My #1 and #2 are bizarre no doubt. Especially when you look at both of their names together. My number 2 might be Steiner's polar opposite. I don't know if any of this actually explains making the pick. To be honest part of this is rationalizing and coming up with reasons after the fact. This is definitely the most extreme case of subjective pick possible. Be thankful Sid wasn't nominated.

 

Also fuck you Triple H.

[JerryvonKramer]

Also fuck you Triple H.

 

[Karl]

That is a perfect response. Kudos.

[anarchistxx]

Ditto for Mark Henry. Never got the hype. He's a good big man, ok. So what.

 

This. At his peak he is an incredibly fun big angry bad ass, but he still seems pretty high to me. Maybe my psyche is unduly influenced by the fact that when I started talking wrestling online he was derided as a laughing stock and the biggest waste of money in company history - even when he did some good work in 2003 a lot of IWC fans refused to even entertain the idea he was anything other than horrendous.

 

Clearly the pendulum has swung completely now, understandably given the quality of some of his work in the interim. Still seems a bit weird to see him over Inoue or Sasaki or even Ibushi. Maybe I'm just out of touch, or underestimate how much people love modern WWE or a nasty big man.

 

Still, Undertaker and fucking HHH are still to come it doesn't matter too much.

[KB8]

Fuerza biting the bullet is the hardest one to take so far. One of my five favourite wrestlers ever and my favourite luchador. He's also the first guy from my top half to fall. This is not fun for me.

 

Henry falling last night as well takes my total up to 23 casualties now.

[ohtani's jacket]

Y'all are way off the mark on Inoki. Backlund/Inoki draws are tough to sit through? Can people upload more of them cos I really wanna see them. I get that his style was boring at times, but the wrestler himself was anything but boring. Shooting on the nephew of the Great Gama in Pakistan with only your ring aids to cover your back is ballsy. All of his fake MMA matches were ballsy regardless of how much cash he shilled out to the participants. I haven't watched the Ali fight yet. but what other wrestler aimed that high that they tried to take on Muhammad Ali? He makes Takada and Anjoh look like pissants for the challenges they laid down. Inoki's not just legendary in Japan because he was tall, handsome and good at BS'ing. Not that long ago I thought that Akira Maeda was more badass than any political figure from his era could be, and maybe he still is, but Inoki is nowhere near as fake as I once thought.

[anarchistxx]

That is a perfect response. Kudos.

 

It isn't though. The whole ethos of this board has been about reasoned, well thought out discussion. Not posting gifs and pictures as a flippant, meaningless response like we're on Twitter or Vine or whatever.

 

JVK shouldn't get a pass for such lazy, worthless posting just because he has written his fair share of bulky essays. It comes over as him being a patronising, elitist dick because he thinks his ridiculously mechanical way of ranking workers is worth far more than any of your reasoning and criteria. At least you talk about your picks with some passion and investment.

[Jimmy Redman]

I think he meant jackwebb's response...

[NotJayTabb]

I assumed Karl's post was directed to Jackwebb

[JerryvonKramer]

I was laughing at the sign off.

 

I loved the post. Also don't forget Scott Steiner was on my ballot.

[ohtani's jacket]

I was laughing at the sign off.

 

I loved the post. Also don't forget Scott Steiner was on my ballot.

 

You might wanna quote the sign off in your post. The rest of us aren't that bright.

[anarchistxx]

My bad, came across like you being a dick, apologies. As you were.

 

Edit: I stand by the fact people shouldn't just resort to just postings gifs or pictures like this is a Tumblr feed. It doesn't add anything to discussion and it rarely funny or interesting.

[JerryvonKramer]

I'll edit that in, good idea. It did genuinely make me chuckle a good bit.

 

I think that'll be the last of my gifs.