Pro Wrestling

There is so much footage out there. I thought a thread where people could go to get help making decisions and narrowing stuff down might be helpful. In fact, I've been debating watching the ECW's I haven't seen (mid 95-96) or the nWo beginning Nitros (mid96-97). Which should I do?

Just announced it on his twitter. Seems like complications from congestive heart failure. Claims wear and tear of football and wrestling weakened his heart

So, for this week's podcast, we're looking to discuss rivalries/storylines that had some momentum or major potential, but for whatever reason fizzled out, and would like to get your input. Of all the rivalries in wrestling history from any company, which ONE stands out to you personally as a feud you were into, until a certain pivotal moment that let all the air out of the balloon? So the questions are - what was the feud, what made you super into it in the first place, and what was the moment that made it fizzle out and stopped you caring? As always, the best contributions will be read on the show and you'll be credited accordingly. So what gets your vote? EDIT - O…

So for this week's podcast, we're looking at wrestlers that you once held in high regard but soured on over time - whether something about their act changed, whether they regressed as performers, or whether you feel you started to see through them and they weren't actually as good as you once thought. If you could name one wrestler or act that sums this up for you throughout history, who would you pick and WHY? As always, the best contributions will be read on the show and you'll be credited accordingly. So who fell from grace in your eyes? EDIT - Our show discussing Favourites That You Soured On, featuring many of your contributions, is now online and available to …

Sometimes, you have to go back to your past. In 1998, I bought my first batch of japanese pro-wrestling tapes. The IWA King of the Deathmatch, of course (well, thanks for nothing WWF, for putting extracts during those Mankind interviews), an interpromotionnal women's card (we didn't say "joshi" as a generic term yet back then) and of course, both Super J Cups, the "greatest cards of pro-wrestling history" (this side of Dreamslams & Super Egg). I must have bought these 20$ a piece + postage. Well, it took more time and money than to download an MP4 file from a torrent site. I have no idea what I actually thought about them back then, except I was supposed to love them.…

When watching wrestling do you prefer to watch wrestling with defined segments, such as falls or rounds, or would you prefer a more consistent flow? Matt D's post in his NOAH Microscope made me think about it. People say that young people want all that action because they can't pay attention but I almost feel the complete opposite. I need consistent stimulation when the wrestling is happening but not OVERstimulation. Falls or rounds can break up that action which gives me time to digest and regain focus. You get that moment to pull together threads of the story. While it isn't exciting when a 2/3 falls match starts with two quick falls I do end up enjoying that more than…

I happened to be reading over the discussion here earlier: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/32049-fair-for-flair-a-mini-series/. Looking back, the debate in that thread was remarkably measured and pitched at a level of respect, insight and intelligence that I was pleasantly surprised to see. From it, one post stood out to me, I thought it was interesting and might be pulled out for discussion here: Just leave Ric aside for the moment. I was more interested in the general principle in the sorts of reviews people write all the time here. A lot of the stuff written on the 90s AJPW classics between Misawa, Kawada and co, for example, all talk about th…

Complex topic but I pose a simple question: generally, what is more important to you, that a wrestler have good offense or they sell well. I ask this because I've observed that many people seriously value offense to the point that poor offense takes them out of matches or makes them hate the wrestler. But is it more important than selling?

I thought this could be a nice resource for us wrestling fans. Here's some I know of. Add ones that you know of. Some of these have fees. I know the OVW links aren't working write now. Some of these channels are just fans who wrote the code for the channel. Some are public and some are private channels. Just add on your computer and system update your Roku and you're good to go. https://www.roku.com/channels#!details/37966/wwe-network https://www.roku.com/channels#!details/49775/world-wrestling-network https://owner.roku.com/add/2KMVR https://www.roku.com/channels#!details/41867/ringscoops.com https://www.roku.com/channels#!details/42797/logan's-world…

This is something we've discussed over a number of years now. I've gone back and forth on it over that time, and I think I have now made up my mind (see title). Around a year ago, some might recall that I drew up these: These are all things that I still value incredibly highly, but I also recognise that they cannot and indeed should not apply to every scenario or context. There can't be a universal standard because different times and places have different demands. An audience for an indie show in 2011 expect to see high spots, a certain amount of high impact offense and innovation in the moves; if the match is being billed as a kind of "dream match",…

I had this thought the other day and thought it would be fun to ask here, hoping it hasn't been done and beaten to death. I have been thinking this over a bit as a dork-exercise. If you could time travel – after of course you kill the superbowl and bet on hitler or whatever - what matches or events would you move across time and space to see? Of course there are infinite ways to go about this, so I will just organize mine around 10 matches. Feel free to follow along or organize it in whatever way you want, obviously; you don’t need my permission. I’m just curious how people would prioritize live wrestling if they had every event at their disposal. I am choosing 10 …

There are a lot of things that affect our perception of wrestling that haven't been discussed yet, I think this is an important one. It's only natural you'd compare something new to things you've seen before. Personally I try to get a feel for a wrestler and a promotion/style before watching their best stuff. That's not always going to be possible and if I think it's truly elite stuff I'll usually give it a rewatch if I feel I may have missed out on my first watch due to not understanding the conventions of the style. Similarly I think it's possible to overrate a match based on your lack of exposure. Someone's regular spot may amaze you when you see it for the first time …

If you were to start a promotion with money as no issue (you can have as much as you need) what would be the 16 wrestlers you would pick to start. Let's say available talent, so no WWE, NJPW, or ROH contracts, because those people seem stuck. Who would you build around and why? This is basically an excuse to talk about all the great talent out there that is not signed up.

I've brought this up in the "A " total is greater than the sum of his parts" wrestlers" thread but it is something that is worthy of discussing on its own. If Santito fucked up a dive that'd be sad because your want and expect Santo to hit beautiful breathtaking dives. He is the guy that does those. However, If Sabu fucks up a dive it's great because he's just a lunatic jumping around trying to kill himself. I realise for many execution is very important, and sometimes it is for me but not RINGS matches aren't a very big percentage of pro wrestling bouts. I think this is a Matt D talking point (and if it isn't it sounds like one anyway)-pro wrestling is about symbols to m…

A common criticism of styles like 90s All Japan and a lot of modern wrestling is that the matches have a ton of excess. I was wondering what exactly is people's definition of excess. Is it too many big moves and spots? Is it too many nearfalls? Something else? For me, excess is anything that does little to drive the narrative and basically does not play any meaningful role in a match . So, hypothetically, if a match has a 100 nearfalls and all of them are consequential and further the match, then it's not excessive. While a match with 5 nearfalls, where 3 of them were pointless, that could be considered excessive. I ask this because the criticism is mostly associated …

The type of matwork done varies depending on location and era and different people prefer different things. Shoot-style and lucha matwork are easily my top 2, light years ahead of NWA style matwork which can be sleep inducing at times to be honest unless someone really dynamic is doing it. I like British matwork a lot but not nearly as much as lucha or shoot-style matwork. It was a difficult decision for me but even though lucha matwork can be jaw-droppingly great, shoot-style is probably my favorite style of pro wrestling ever so I went with that.

Thoughts on G-1 Matches from Night 1: Tenzan vs. Ishii Starting the tournament off with a bang. The "I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was" Toby Keith tribute act Tenzan is doing is really endearing. Tenzan was never my guy, but he certainly has the crowd support behind him as evidenced here. He is also really throwing everything into his matches here. This started out with some suspect kicks and Tenzan's chops and I was worried it was going to be a lightweight strike exchange match. Instead, they start trading good looking forearms and then mixing it up with some brutal headbutts. I also thought this did a masterful job of building to …

Didn't see a thread for this. He was 66. http://www.wwe.com/article/frenchy-martin-passes-away

Didn't see a thread for this. He was 66. http://www.wwe.com/article/frenchy-martin-passes-away

Twitter is an interesting beast, where some wrestlers use it to advertise or push their gimmick. I think there is some discussion to be had about how wrestlers should use twitter. Also who are the best people to follow? I do find it fascinating that some wrestlers will seek out there name being used in a tweet and re-tweet it, while others will not even re-tweet something if you use their handle in the name. Today, Mick Foley said he will not direct message with any fan again, because that fan posted their DMs. I think a little silly of Foley there.

Anyone else excited about this? Or should they have awaited another while to let anticipation build before using brand rivalry? And does it devalue the concept by having Lesar-Goldberg on top? For the main match, I'm hoping for some combination of Styles, Cena, Ambrose, Orton, Ziggler and Miz v Reigns, Rusev, Rollins, Owens, Jericho and Zayn.

I was curious who you all think are the most gorgeous women in professional wrestling - 1995 and earlier! This is kind of funny but Miss Elizabeth was the first celebrity I had a crush on. Like 5 or 6 years old kissing her poster in WWF catalog! LoL! Madusa was sooo hott in AWA and scorching hot in WCW when Ventura was there! MiMi Sherri Martel Jimmy Garvin's girl in WCCW. Sunshine I think was her name? Anyway I hope you enjoy this topic.

Since the last thread got nuked. What I wanted to post: 2000s TV & popularity Wrestling was never on croatian TV as far as I can remember (and probably never was). It aired on serbian TV from around 2007-2009. At its peak it aired at prime time (8PM) on a popular channel [1] on a work day. It got moved to a late night time slot after a while and was eventually cancelled. This was one of the causes of a mini-wrestling boom-pretty insignificant on a cultural level but huge in terms of an increasing number of people you could talk to about wrestling. If there's one thing you need to know about balkan mentality it's that people love to complain aboutt things a…

I was wondering out of the guys who were the big native stars in the 80s who were the biggest draws? I always got the impression based on moving the needle with TV ratings that Choshu was the guy. But with popping attendance figures Maeda was the biggest draw. Is this close or am I totally off? How do they stack up with Fujinami, Jumbo, Tenryu, Samaya, etc. Also how were these guys still over shadowed by the stars of the previous generation throughout the decade?

So for this weeks podcast, we're looking to debate a theoretical "Mt. Rushmore", based on being the best all-around performers ever, the most complete packages, of all time, and we'd like to get some feedback on the topic. Typically a Mt. Rushmore discussion centres around fame and prominence, but if you applied the same idea to pure talent, and those who were great in every area of the field (whether it be in-ring work, promos, presence, effectiveness, etc), who would you put on your Mt. Rushmore of "All-arounders", and why? As always, we'll be reading the best contributions on the show and crediting you accordingly. So which four guys do you think stood out as being t…