Greatest Match Ever Project

[Childs]

Its weird to me that people remember GWE as this dark thing. It was an exciting, engaged period for the board. Was there a bit of collective hangover? Yes. But I would do it again.

 

Not sure matches will ultimately work as well, because there are just too many of them. But should be fun regardless.

[Mad Dog]

I didn't do the wrestler one because I didn't feel up to taking into account all the factors that make a wrestler great. With this, I feel like if I really like a match I just have to place it correctly. Also, I have this wonderful list of matches I can watch and consider instead of going big picture with a single wrestler.

[El-P]

Does Great Match Theory applies ?

[Matt D]

Does Great Match Theory applies ?

No, but Great Wrestler Theory does.

[ShittyLittleBoots]

Definitely will try & be a part of this. Sounds very fun!

[Cap]

I don't remember GWE as a dark thing, but I think its clear that the ethos of the board changed going into the homestretch and then coming out of the project. I have said here many times that I completely understand why, but it doesn't change the fact that there was clearly some negative feelings coming out of it. Emotions ran high one time and now everyone is most over it. That is a thing to poke a little fun at from time to time. That's all people are doing.

 

I don't worry about this having the same effect. I think generally people are going to find it easier and less stressful. There will be more nominees but each nominee represents one match. In GWE each nominee represented countless matches, promos, runs, feuds, etc. It was overwhelming and much more unwieldy. Even in the massive age of footage now it felt like accessing everything to catch up on certain people was impossible. With GME you just find the match or ask around. You don't need 30+ hours of footage to keep up with some of our more knowledgeable and dedicated peers to understand a nominee. Sure, context matters, but it is still less of an undertaking to grasp a nominee than GWE demanded, in my opinion. The biggest issue with GWE causing such strife I think was that a lot of people put massive amounts of time and energy into it because it was so unwieldy, took the standards very seriously, and then saw that other people didn't put the same effort into the project specifically, even if they had watch a ton of wrestling and knew what they were talking about. I suspect between GME being at least a little less complicated in terms of variables and how many people learned from GWE that this just wont have he same type of results.

 

That said, I am sure there will be people who passive aggressively dismiss people who don't see wrestling like them or haven't watched as much wrestling or whatever. There will be miscommunications, insults, and people will get upset. Its the internet. I have hope that this can work more as a project to share great matches with one another than anything else. Also, I am sure when HBK vs Taker finishes #1 and #2 I'll be exceedingly bitter and have to eat my words in this post too.

[AstroBoy]

Yeah I wasn't nearly as caught up in the inner whirlwind of the GWE project but I look at that time fondly and consider it a time when I really started enjoying more wrestling. I also think it was rich in great discussion and there was no point in ever letting it cause any personal anxiety about how anybody else went about it. That said, I hope people just have fun and good discussion over this and I hope lots of people drop in at least for discussion purposes

[Cap]

Yeah I wasn't nearly as caught up in the inner whirlwind of the GWE project but I look at that time fondly and consider it a time when I really started enjoying more wrestling. I also think it was rich in great discussion and there was no point in ever letting it cause any personal anxiety about how anybody else went about it. That said, I hope people just have fun and good discussion over this and I hope lots of people drop in at least for discussion purposes

Agreed... and to be clear for my part. I am extremely grateful for GWE. I got introduced to a ton of good wrestling. I didn't participate, but I followed it closely and came away with zero hard feelings toward anyone individually.

[SomethingSavage]

I love this place, especially as a resource to find and discover such a rich amount of wrestling I'd otherwise never stumble upon or seek out myself. With that being said - it seems really silly to me that people took the GWE so seriously and personally. Aren't these projects meant to be fun? I mean, sure. It's also meant to stir up discussion.

 

And I don't mean to dismiss or downplay anyone's contributions to these projects. But yeah. Surely there are other things going on in life that require more attention. Priorities, folks. If you're getting THAT caught up in the rankings of pro wrestlers on a message board - to the point where it legitimately upsets you and ruins relationships? Then you may need to step back and reevaluate.

 

It's a hobby. If you aren't genuinely enjoying it, then here's a heads up. You're doing it wrong.

 

Of course, I was pretty far removed from the process. I was going to participate but bowed out early on, as soon as I saw people criticizing others' opinions and raising the talking point about people being unqualified if they haven't seen much puro or lucha, etc. I knew there & then that it wasn't for me.

 

Again, I'm grateful for this place and its contributors. Absolutely enjoy reading through the threads, following the podcast feeds, & absorbing all the info I can. But I'm perfectly comfortable being a consumer on the outer circle if this is how these things will always shake out. Guess I'll never understand why people would let these things affect them personally. Just my two cents.

[Cap]

I hope we don't go too far down a rabbit hole here. That wasn't my intent.

 

GWE was a great project that I think most people found a lot of value in. I have endless appreciation for those who put time and effort into the project and into producing content about the project.

 

Lets not get too caught up on what that project was.

 

GME is up and running. I am really happy with how the nomination process has gone so far. We have had a few small hiccups on our end, but nothing serious. The match list is growing rapidly and there is a ton of diversity there. I am looking forward to digging into some new stuff and seeing what might work its way into my own list and/or shape my tastes a bit.

[Loss]

To be clear, I blame no one except myself for any bad feelings anyone had with GWE, even if everything didn't involve me directly. I posted my critiques of the whole project early on, which sort of undercut what people were going for from within in a way that I still regret. It's no one else's fault. I don't want to be in the way of people doing a GME project and having fun with it, but I've learned my lesson there. The bigger issue is that I don't want to create burnout after the fact that results in activity slowing way down or people leaving and not coming back. I'm sure the project will be great. For the most part, GWE was great. It just left PWO a little worse off than it found it. I take responsibility for that, which is why I don't want to let it happen again.

[SomethingSavage]

Definitely didn't intend to derail the thread or anything - just wanted to chime in with my perception of the GWE project and its fallout, since I only occasionally post things around here.

 

But yeah. I'll be following the GME, especially if there are any accompanying podcasts and whatnot.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

Does Great Match Theory applies ?

It’s a way of life, bruh.

[Cap]

Definitely didn't intend to derail the thread or anything - just wanted to chime in with my perception of the GWE project and its fallout, since I only occasionally post things around here.

 

But yeah. I'll be following the GME, especially if there are any accompanying podcasts and whatnot.

No worries at all. I just wanted to reroute a bit back to the project at hand.

 

I imagine there will be podcasting. Project seems ripe for it.

[Jetlag]

Looking forward to everyone burning out even worse than GWE after watching too many five star classics and nit picking which should go higher.

[dawho5]

I think that whatever GWE did to the board, good or bad, it did introduce a whole lot of people to PWO that had not even heard of it before. However you view the fallout of GWE, that particular aspect has to be a positive. And I suspect that those involved in the negative aspects will come around eventually. Perception can be a very powerful thing and I think that is what is driving a lot of those negative aspects. Once things are looked at in a different light they can be moved past.

 

As far as the concerns of Loss, we all make mistakes. They get magnified when we happen to be in charge of something a little bigger is all. The worst thing you can do is let it make you afraid of doing it again.

 

I'm thinking about this, but I have to say that doing the top 100 matches out of Japan in the 2000s was a slog. The top 100 ever seems like a very big challenge I may or may not be up for.

[Cap]

Looking forward to everyone burning out even worse than GWE after watching too many five star classics and nit picking which should go higher.

yeah... that is my only real legit concern here for myself. But there are worse problems to have than watching too much classic wrestling in a year and some change.

 

I am guessing that my appreciation for matches that AREN'T all time classics will actually grow.

[Matt D]

From the outside in because i see myself sitting this one out due to other responsibilities, I guess what I'm going to be most interesting in seeing is how people shape their criteria. How much do you value checkhov's gun, or a proper balance between shine and comeback, or clever transitions, or downplaying obvious cooperation in setting up spots, or counters. What about "learned psychology" where a match plays on previous matches. Etc. People will have to come up with their own metrics to compare matches. Or not, I guess.

[victory]

I signed up for it. This is even more up my alley than ranking wrestlers. It should be a fun process and hope to try and participate as time allows. I'm not nearly as good as most on here in conveying my thoughts on matches, but I'll give it a shot.

[El McKell]

I've decided I'm gonna try to get involved in this but started with a bunch of grumpy posts this morning right as I woke up, so maybe it's a bad start. This is less likely to expose me to as much new stuff as GWE did so I'll probably not enjoy it as much but whatevs.

 

Oh and Matt mentioned Chekov's gun, that can great in matches when done in a creative way but is shitty if its just the tries for a big move and it's avoided so then we know the 2nd time its tried that it's gonna work.

[Exposer]

I'm thinking about it. I'll at least join in the discussion a bit. I've always thought ranking wrestlers is easier than matches. I'm more interested in the former as well. I agree with jetlag that it will get difficult when there's fifty five star matches or whatever & people end up grasping for straws to put the #44 five star match over the #45 one.

[gordi]

From the outside in because i see myself sitting this one out due to other responsibilities,

 

 

 

I'm in pretty much the same boat. I'll follow with interest and try to contribute what I can, but I'm not able to commit to being a major player in this debate at this time. It's the same with your excellent match review exchange idea, Matt D. If I had time, I'd be all over that, too.

[El-P]

I signed up. May push some nominations. Not sure how much I'll contribute in the end, kinda like Matt & Gordi.

[dawho5]

To me it's more that projects like this seem like "scheduled" watching. Where I have to watch all of this stuff in a certain amount of time. Once you start that it's very easy to get into a mode where you kill your own enjoyment of the matches because you feel like you have to watch them. I very much prefer to watch what I feel like watching right now and not feel like there is a ticking clock on watching this group of matches. I have found that it helps my enjoyment of wrestling a lot.

[Cap]

I agree. I sort of hate feeling like I HAVE to watch things.

 

At this point (and this very well could change) I don't feel that way about this project because I have a base list already. Sure, I want to rewatch some stuff and I will want to watch new things, but I am not holding myself to watching every hyped match ever. I will get to what I can while watching stuff I enjoy. I could submit a list today that I would feel pretty ok about. The way my list grows is a bonus.

 

Again, this might change as the project evolves and I feel pressure to see things.