Your "Mount Rushmore" of All-Arounders

[BrianB]

Good episode. Too much love for Shawn imo, but knowing these panelists not completely surprised. Still not sure how Savage's slight promo decline (and I was still usually entertained all the way up until 1999) was worse than Shawn's bad babyface promos for most of his career (we're going to overlook how HBK was a face until that Summerslam 1997 heel turn?), or how Savage's drawing power didn't cancel out any perceived in-ring advantages Shawn had and then some given what was said about other candidates and how Savage could go in the ring too. But Savage is one of my favorites and the 2nd name that came to mind when I first read this topic, so I may have some personal bias.

 

I enjoyed the discussion of Austin and The Rock too. Pretty thorough and fair coverage there.

[Jetlag]

My top four:

 

1-Sano

2-Vader

3-Finlay

4-Fujiwara

 

Honorable mention: Tajiri

 

For those interested, Alexander Otsuka has a match in Puerto Rico where he plays a somewhat chicken heel with Otani-ish facial expressions.

[pol]

One thing about Japanese commentary is that the lead announcer is provided by the TV network, not the promotion. I've wondered exactly how "inside" they were, how much they were involved in helping the promotion get over what they wanted getting over.