The Microscope

I've been reading some Jarrett discussion in the top 10 U.S. workers thread. Let's get more in depth and talk about him here. Was he only good in Memphis? Like him elsewhere? Personally, I haven't seen hardly any of his Memphis work but love the HBK match and actually enjoy some of his TNA work. So, let's talk Jarrett.

Will said in the Hayes thread that Gordy slides down his list everytime he discovers someone new which I can understand because what's fresh in the mind and new to you will stand out in the moment like any great new album but let's not put any shade on Gordy here. Gordy was a great worker basically from the beginning and was one of the most consistent guys in the business before his health issues caught up with him. Gordy had great matches in every environment he was in no matter the territory he excelled other than WWF. Gordy's matches with the Von Erichs, Dr. Death, One Man Gang are legendary here and then in Japan his matches with Jumbo, Misawa, et al before his stroke…

Will questioned me calling Gordy the superworker and Hayes the supertalker of the Freebirds in the Buddy Roberts thread but I didn't mean it the way he thought I did. I was by no means slighting Hayes as a worker but when it came to that team that was the roles they had in the team even though both were just as solid in doing the other. Hayes as a worker was extremely underrated and you can mainly thank Bill Watts for that as he was the one who preached that Hayes was better as a manager/announcer than a wrestler so it made guys like Meltz and others at the time take that meme and run with it. It just wasn't true as the more Hayes got a chance to work in the ring the bett…

Terry Gordy was the superworker, Michael Hayes was the supertalker, but it was Roberts who was the man who made this act complete as he could both work and talk. We don't have a lot of Buddy pre-Freebirds other than Dale Valentine footage from Southwest in 78-79 but when he joined the Birds he was the guy who could get his ass kicked by the faces while pissing them off in tag matches and then in the rare singles matches which is what I enjoyed the most, he was able to show off his unorthodox working style. Roberts was kinda like Ronnie Garvin in that he used his whole body as a weapon and would do things that you would never see in matches which wasn't movewise but strike…

Recent WON HOF'er who is having more matches circulated with the recent Japanese Comm releases (though many of those were already available from Lynch prior). Schmidt vs. Verne Gagne (Buffalo - early 60's) This is from Lynch Oldies #1 and is a terrific match. I can't pin down a date but it would appear to be the early 60's as the TV announcer mentions the SF 49'ers as "long standing" team in the NFL and they started in the NFL in 1950. 10 years seems like a decent length for a long standing team this early into a league's history. Schmidt starts out very Stan Hansen like (as has been described by Steve Yohe and jdw) with clubbering forearms, a knee drop, …

Dr. Death is someone whose name didn't pop up once in the top 10 US all time thread. I can see him being a viable candidate for top 25 based on his 1992-1994 output and think he was one of the 10 best wrestlers in the world in 1994. I have also enjoyed his slugfests in 1990 with the likes of Hansen. His Crockett run from what I have seen has been pretty unspectacular but as the Windham thread reveals, maybe there are bigger fans of that stuff than myself. I did really like his performance in the Starrcade 88 opener. So where would people rat Doc overall? Good, great, top 25 US contender or not?

I decided to talk a little bit about Jerry Lynn. I just back from an Indy show here in Austin that was billed as his last match in Austin. I have seen people shit on him for his 2.9 and near fall fests. I always thought the guy worked hard. Sure their were flaws in his story telling method, but I don't think you can challenge the fact that he worked hard. I mean in a main event in front of 300-400 people he worked his ass off . It started with some basic exchanges and turned into a nasty brawl. I mean Lynn went through plywood , took a couple of ladder bumps, did a sunset flip through a table with no padding on the floor. ( I know his opponent took the brunt of the bump) …

Can anyone shed light on II or suggest matches or angles? Saw a little bit of him on the Mid-South set and always found him interesting despite knowing virtually zero about him. I've always heard he was extremely over in Georgia which is another promotion I know little about but what I've heard sounds very good. So was he a top guy? Was he overrated? Would he be considered a top territory guy at least?

The two promos of his on the 1992 yearbook blew me away, especially the second one he cut on Warrior, which makes me wonder if he's almost been tainted by the 'half the brain' promo from WCW. Not that long ago I watched Halloween Havoc '90, and Sid put on a pretty good performance in the main event, much better than Sting.

I have watched about 2/3rd of the WWF PPVs from the last 15 years and I never thought Kane was a good wrestler. With that said, what are the very best Kane matches that deserved to be watched? To keep it simple, I only want tags where Kane played a significant part or singles matches. I remember enjoying the TLC and MITB matches he was in but I think it is much easier to be part of a good match / clusterfuck with 6 people where you hit your big spots than it is for a singles match where you actually have to work the entire match.

So I've been reading Piper's book lately & wanted to check on some of the things I've run across in there that I've never heard before. I assume if these are totally false then he must be Hogan-level in being a fiction writer but I'm assuming maybe there are just exaggerations. 1) Claims he broke his neck in a plane crash while working in Mid-Atlantic in the early 80s. His story talks about how Sgt. Slaughter was thrown across the plane & that Piper hit his head on the roof & broke his neck. Claims he needed 4 people to help him walk off the plane but wrestled that night. He doesn't give a year this occurred nor mention how much time he missed after …

This is a direct challenge to Dylan MF'N Waco. I think the WON award for Best Brawler is the Bruiser Brody Award. If it isn't, fuck it. I thnk we can safely make a list of 100 better brawlers who are more deserving of the award. I'll get the list started with some Mid South and Memphis guys... 1. Dick Murdoch2. Ted Dibiase3. Buzz Sawyer4. Hacksaw Duggan5. Butch Reed6. Jerry Lawler7. Bill Dundee8. Dutch Mantel9 & 10. The Moondogs Edit : Merry Xmas Everyone !!!

But others do not love both of them. Discuss.

While checking out WKO, I came across the following topic: http://z11.invisionfree.com/wrestling_ko/i...?showtopic=5078 This seems like it'd be a fun topic to discuss, so I thought I'd bring it over here. My initial inclination is to say most likely yes, but I'd have to give it more thought to know exactly where. I can say with absolute certainty that I would never in a million years rank him above Jumbo Tsuruta.

I'll start it off. It still amazes me to this day when I go back and watch Bash at the Beach 1996. The fans were legit outraged at what Hogan did and he then proceeded to just stir the pot and get them even more pissed off. Also from this era, it still seems like Hogan is legit terrified of Sting and it really gave Sting this aura of being a guy you didn't want to fuck with. I loved his cameo in Gremlins 2. I fucking hate that they never show it on tv. Adding to his media roles, I thought his commercial with Alf was enjoyable. Loss has mentioned this before. But his match with the Genius on SNME where Poffo covers his mouth with his hands during the Hulk U…

Perhaps this should be its own topic, but I am of the perspective that from an in-ring standpoint Chris Jericho is as overrated if not more so than Lance Storm. For years I have heard and read people talk about how he's a great worker and I think somewhere along the way it just sort of became accepted as a fact due to it becoming the general consensus (at least in my mind). However going back lately and watching a lot of Jericho, to me his best stuff was all done via vignettes and promos, not in the ring. He's not bad, mind you. I would say pretty damn consistent and even has a lot of above average matches. But when looking at his whole body of work that I have seen, Japa…

What are some of the best Espectrito matches? I know about THE AAA match in '94 against Mascarita Sagrada, and there have been some other things I have liked, but what else would you recommend?

This question was asked on the Observer board by the author of this blog discussing whether Hogan or Cena is the better in-ring performer - http://www.wetalkwrestling.com/?p=740. I think it's too interesting of a topic to go to waste there. This is a tough one for me because I think both guys have been way underrated for most of their careers. I'm of the opinion that Hogan was pretty great in the 80s. When I watched the 82-83 NJPW seasons, I found myself looking forward to his matches and thinking they were some of the more consistently smartly worked ones on the set. Watching 80s WWF house shows made me appreciate the way that he gave the fans a fast-paced match tha…

Ok, reading Naylor's post at DVDVR made me go WHOA. I have seen tons of Flair in this 80s project, and I still don't have a grasp of the Flair Formula that everyone claims is Flair-by-the-numbers. Maybe I am missing something but I don't think Flair has this generic match in his head. Sometimes he has good matches and sometimes bad but not because of any specific pattern. After watching matches for the 80s project, there are so many good Flair matches to grab onto. If you are going to reference matches, be specific. I am trying to get a grasp of this formula that I have not actually seen in watching the matches.

http://www.tmz.com/2011/05/20/randy-savage...estler-florida/

Yeah, the leg shaking off of bodyslams. And the neverending poses. And that all of his matches as Hollywood Hogan were terrible and overbooked to shit. And that I'm surprised his back is in such bad shape considering he didn't take very many bumps in his career, compared to Flair, who bumped a ton and moves around much better these days. And we've talked about how in the 80s, he acted like a privileged heel instead of a babyface, and how from 1994-1996, he was incredibly nauseating and had the astroturf fan support. What else?

I've been watching some Sting lately and finally starting to like him. I haven't really seen the big matches, unless you count vs Foley at Beach Blast. What are his recommended matches? I assume Flair and Vader, for starters. But which ones? Anyone seen his 2006-08 TNA stuff lately? Does it hold up at all, if it was ever good?

This thread had me thinking about Alex Wright for the first time in forever. The guy had tons of potential. Check out this amazing promo directed toward the terrible people of Norfolk, VA, who refuse to even sympathize with the guy. Heartless jerks.

I saw his name in a match result over on cubsfan's site for the first time in what seemed like forever. I know he's not the easiest guy in the world to work with but I'm shocked neither of the big two Mexican companies have called him yet. I know Paco would rather swallow a jar full of bees than give up on a grudge, but CMLL hasn't exactly been on fire as of late. It's just odd in a world where Hulk Hogan still draws a paycheck from a major company at a point where he can't really even bump anymore, a guy who was arguably as big a star and can at least still work can't buy a ticket to a major show.

"Cowboy" James Storm has been in TNA Wrestling since the first PPV. He was the best part of two tag teams (America's Most Wanted & Beer Money) neither of which sucked. He's a homegrown TNA talent, not a "WWE reject". He's charismatic, funny and not a bad wrestler. He's also a pretty good promo. If there was anyone on that roster that I would try to build the company around, it is probably him. Honestly, I figured WWE would have scooped him up quite some time ago. Although I still think Bobby Roode should have won the World Title on Sunday from Kurt Angle after all of that build-up, last night James Storm won the title. The show was not good, especially after that …