Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About PWO2K But Were Afraid To Ask Or Maybe Weren't Afraid But Just Didn't Ask Because It Didn't Occur To You To Do So Before This Thread Was Created But Now It Is Here So You Do Not Have To Ask

[Loss]

Who is participating in PWO2K?

 

Chad (soup23) and I are taking the wheel, but anyone who wants to join us, be it selectively or by watching everything that we watch, is more than welcome to do so.

 

What exactly is PWO2K?

 

It is a project to rewatch as much footage from promotions all over the world as possible that took place between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2009, in chronological order. Each match has its own thread and as we watch each match, we'll both post our own thoughts and then go to the next match. At the end of each month's worth of footage, we will do a podcast summarizing our thoughts on the month we just watched and post a list of our match recommendations in four tiers:

 

Tier 1 - All-time classics (****1/2+)

Tier 2 - Great matches (***1/2+)

Tier 3 - Good and solid matches (***+)

Tier 4 - Worth watching for other reasons

 

At the end of each year, we will curate our lists to produce a top 100 matches of the year, which we will post with fresh mini-reviews at Place To Be Nation.

 

How does this differ from yearbooks?

 

This differs from yearbooks in that there is no actual physical set. We have a match list and we are watching the matches on the list, but there's no actual set. We are also limiting our scope in some ways while expanding it in others. Our focus will ONLY be on matches, not promos or angles. We are also not limiting ourselves to a finite number of hours for each year. Our current estimate is that one year of footage will equal approximately three 1990s yearbooks. We are also diving deeper on the 2000s, making a good faith commitment to attempt to watch every title match, apuestas match, or special gimmick match from a major (or minor, in most cases) company.

 

How do you determine what not to watch?

 

If a match has no historical significance, has nothing at stake, has workers that ultimately didn't do much, has no reputation or is otherwise pretty meaningless in the big picture, we'll cut our losses and focus our time on the matches more likely to be a worthwhile viewing experience. Anytime something is left on the cutting room floor, oversights are made, which will almost definitely happen to us. We are open to going back to view anything if someone points it out to us and makes the case for why it's worth watching.

 

What is your ultimate goal?

 

To see where this takes us. Nothing more, nothing less. Obviously, there are certain wrestlers and matches we'd like to view again to see what we think, but there's no agenda beyond that. As long as it's fun, we'll keep doing it.

 

How long do you expect this to take?

 

A really long time. Probably a few years. It took me 4 1/2 years to get through all 1200 hours of 1990s footage. Admittedly, there were long breaks in viewing there that I don't anticipate this time around, but this is a lot more footage. I turned 37 less than a month ago. I expect to be well past my 40th birthday and still working on this project. Hopefully Chad is done with this before he turns 40.

 

Is it possible to get the footage you're watching?

 

Um, I, um, well, it's not that easy, because of issues with ... um, hey look, over there! ooklae in illagevae reengae oonsae

[soup23]

Charles covered the housekeeping but I am so excited to be a part of this.

 

Part of it is that this time period is so bizarre in that it feels like in some ways it happened last week and in some ways it is a different world. I really enjoy the fact that as we are seeing the clear shift in the stars of this decade wind down, we can see how they developed. Who looked the most polished early on? Who was a lost worker of this era? etc. I also think this entire decade isn't really vetted in discussion like the 1990's or 1980's which is kind of weird to think about but I feel you hear more talk and reviews nowadays about something like SNME #1 than the first ROH show. Maybe that has to do with the 2000's seemed to be a time of really segregated hardcores where you had the CZWFANS contingent, DVDVR contingent, Observer readers only, etc. I also think part of the issue is that some of the flag bearers of content in the era like Zack Arnold, Quebrada, etc are no longer around.

 

Either way this is going to be a LONG journey but I am super pumped to see where it takes us.

[Grimmas]

I'm on board with the lucha stuff, at a minimum. I will watch other stuff as time permits. Very excited for this, as Villano III vs Atlantis is the first lucha show I watched and I loved the entire card, adding context makes me happy. Then in 2005 (or 6) CMLL aired on Quebec Television and I watched weekly and it ruled, so very much looking forward to getting into that. Plus all the gaps!!

[Wahoos Leg]

I wanna play, too, schedule permitting

[cheapshot]

I really like the idea of this. I'll dip in to threads from time to time to add my thoughts.

[ohtani's jacket]

What does WOTD stand for? Wrestler of the decade?

[soup23]

Yeah, wrestler of the decade. We are trying to tag everyone that we think MIGHT have a chance at being in a discussion for the award at the end of the decade.

[Grimmas]

It's going to be LA Park.