Pro Wrestling

My very casual wrestling fan friend decided to give the network a go because he thought it was a fantastic deal. He's usually too stubborn to listen to my suggestions, but faced with an overwhelming catalog, he's asked me for a playlist of match suggestions. While he has good, highbrow taste outside of wrestling, within wrestling he's the quintessential casual fan that lived through the attitude era - Thinks every top WWE guy of the attitude era is a no questions legend, that ECW is the coolest, very resistant to anything old or southern and places no value on the legacy of Flair/WCW/Crockett (to my chagrin). Also, he would probably be very offended if I tried to ex…

I saw Steve Yohe post this over at TOA and I thought it was good info so I decided to steal it.It's really interesting stuff. Jan. 4, 1980—Kiel Auditorium (Att: 11,055—sellout) (NWA WC) -) Harley Race drew David Von Erich 2/3 falls (60:00 1-1) -) Kevin Von Erich drew Dick Murdoch via DDQ (WWF) -) Bob Backlund over Tom Andrews (Woman WTC) -) Leilani Kai & Judy Martin over Winona Little Heart & Kandi Maloy 2/3 falls -) Lord Alfred Hayes drew Pat O’Connor -) Ed Wiskoski & Bob Brown over Ronnie Etchison & Art Thomas -) Eddie Gilbert over Ron McFarlane Owners listed as Verne Gagne, Robert Geigel, Patrick J. O’Connor & H. Race received a p…

This is mind boggling and a must read. If you see any other articles about the customer service aspect of this, or have stories of your own, please post them here. http://pwupdate.net/2014/02/26/networked-by-the-masked-mark/

I am pretty amped up for this show. I don't know if it will be a particularly great show from an in-ring perspective but I think it will answer so many questions on if they changed any plans for Wrestlemania. So, before the show starts proper... do they stay to the original plan or do they listen to the fans and shoot DB to the moon? Here is the card... Ryback & Curtis Axel vs. Cody Rhodes & Goldust (Pre-Show) Darren Young vs. Titus O'Neil Big E vs. Jack Swagger (IC Title) New Age Outlaws vs. Usos (Tag Titles) Batista vs. Alberto Del Rio The Wyatt Family vs. The Shield Elimination Chamber

Paul Heyman, Bret Hart and Kevin Nash did the pre-show. Outside, it looked like they were going to run an outside show similar to the old Spring Break NItros. Show starts inside the NXT arena and it doesn't look as cool. Sami Zayn vs. Cesaro - Great commentary by Regal and Saxton. The stroy was Zayn wanting to earn Cesaro's respect. Cesaro counters all off Sami's shit early. He attacks the leg and dissects it like Regal reincarnated. Great hope spots by Zayn lead to some great moments. I'll comment more on the post show podcast I am doing at P2B but maybe the best Generico match I have ever seen and an easy MOTYC.

Simply put, no Japanese wrestler has ever become a headline attraction in WWE. There has never been a Japanese WWE champion (excluding Inoki, who wasn't part of the company - lets not go into this one!), nor have any of the Japanese wrestlers that WWE has employed throughout it's history been given any kind of gimmick that A. has main event potential, and/or B. isn't heavily focused on their ethnicity. There has to come a time where an ace in NJPW, AJPW or NOAH joins the WWE and really takes off. The names in the poll , in my opinion, are the most realistic candidates - in the scenario that one of them were to sign with WWE - at breaking the glass ceiling in WWE. …

So I am starting a new job next week and was just playing around with some software I use for it. I wanted to build a very simple infographic and settled on using WWE data (was tired of playing with normal business data). Anyway I used Meltzer star ratings as a means of calculating an overall 2013 WWE PPV MVP. While I usually don't pay much attention to the ratings, it at least offers a consistent and somewhat unbiased view towards performance. Anyway, I plugged the data in, messed with the filters and display some and was able to generate the below. I did set the criteria at a minimum of four appearances (thus no Lesnar, Rock or Undertaker). While is more just a fu…

Vote here, discuss in the discussion thread.

It was in the latest WON that he's being investigated for stealing $30,000 from the local Iwate government and using it for his personal stuff. Anyway, I think this guy is a legit lunatic based on the stories we have heard about him over the years, and thought this would be a fun thread to capture all the stories we know about. I know about this, doing a porn movie and a supposed acid-induced booking run, but I'm sure there's more. Let's try to capture all the crazy stories in one thread. What else is there?

What were the plans for the NWO Silver and Black in early 2000 IF Bret doesnt get hurt and Goldberg doesnt destroy his arm / Hall does what Hall does? Always wondered what could have been? I still think that COULD have been good. Anyone wiht more info know the original plans?

Poor Nelson Frazier passed away from an apparent heart attack. Seriously I actually loved this guy. Not so much jobber Viscera BUT I loved '93-'95 babyface rapper Mabel. He was a lot of fun anD damn if his spinkick wasn't great. "King Mabel" well he was just miscast in that role. Fast forward 10 years to his repackaging as "Big Daddy V" and damn that was an awesome character. With the black tights/suspenders,crazy scary upper body and the full blacked out sleeve tattoos...I mean THAT was a unique wrestling character. I noticed watching the Rumble 2014 match that there isn't much variety in looks. His best run of his career was definitely his WWECW monster hee…

The Rumble with Bryan, Bryan/Orton SSLAM13, Rock/HHH JDay00, Luger/Flair GAB89.....? What others. From big excitement to huge letdown. Doesn't necessarily have to be finishes.

W2DBT... Johnny Sorrow... Ok, so what makes a great wrestler? Discuss.

So I was thinking about responding to Loss saying that the Elimination Chamber match was a top three match in W/WWF/E history by asking how many other EC matches he's seen, since he's followed the current product only sparingly for a while now up until pretty recently. If he had said "not many" or something along those lines, I would have then recommended he check some out, since they tend to be pretty good - sometimes great - matches, and I would've especially pointed to any of the ones Rey was in. I would've illustrated that point by saying Rey was the master of the Elimination Chamber, that he had perfected the gimmick like...and then I found I couldn't finish the anal…

Was fuckin around on the interwebs tonight and found something interesting written by a user stating that Bret Hart wasnt used right away by Bischoff as he was waiting until he really needed him to put him in the spotlight, once the WWF got closer in ratings as they were beginning to do in early '98. He goes on to further state that after April 20, 1998 when Hart comes in and helps Hogan win the WCW Title from Savage by knocking out Kevin Nash and pulling Hogan on top of Savage, that the idea was that they would start there and work their way through 98 to a Hart vs. Hogan Match at Starrcade '98, with Hart at first aligning with Hogan, then obviously splitting and going …

According to Meltzer...

Week 7! Discuss in the discussion thread.

This is meant to be a companion to the thread 'What is good wrestling?' I think it helps to answer the question of what makes wrestling good by coming at it from the other end and asking what makes wrestling bad. The short answer is LOTS of things. But here's an intereting thing to consider: What makes good wrestling -- whatever that might be -- turn into bad wrestling? If you like workrate-y wrestling, at what point does the action become all style and no substance? If you like sound, technical wrestling, at what point does it devolve into Dory-levels of fatal boredom? If you like story-driven wrestling with good psychology, logical ringwork, compelling …

It was becoming a logistic nightmare to update this through my blog, so I decided to start a thread here again, but start it all over and clean it up a bit. Some things I looked at while transferring this that I doubt I'd agree with now, but that's the joy of opinions changing with time. So anyway, here's the full list again. To be updated on a fairly regular basis as more stuff is watched. BEFORE 1980 1957 #1 - Lou Thesz vs Rikidozan (JWA 10/07/57 Tokyo, Japan) ****1/4 #2 - Lou Thesz vs Rikidozan (JWA 10/13/57 Osaka, Japan) **** 1962 #1 - Rikidozan vs Fred Blassie (JWA 04/23/62 Tokyo, Japan) 1963 #1 - Rikidozan vs The Destroyer (JWA 12/02/63) ***1/2 …

Without a doubt, my favourite member of the AJPW "four corners of heaven". With the spate of Puro retirements from his era (Kobashi, Taue and now Sasaki, among some other names) in the past couple of years, I'm starting to wonder whether or not Kawada is ever going to return for one final match. Kobashi got the big fanfare he deserved, and both Taue and Sasaki went out on their own terms, with Sasaki essentially "passing the torch" to his protege - Nakajima, in an unadvertised retirement match. Granted, we have no idea what kind of shape Kawada is in physically, but there was never any indication that he left wrestling in 2010 due to injury(s). He could potent…

On the "Blogs" section of this site, it turns out that I can create a link to anything, even external sites. So I wanted to ask what wrestling websites and blogs you'd like to see listed there. Please keep in mind that I'm not referring to "reference" sites in this case, but rather websites that are updated on an ongoing basis. I'd like to ideally create a one-stop shop where you could click on the Blogs page and have access to the latest wrestling news, reviews, opinions, etc ... whether they are at PWO or not. Please help me build a comprehensive list. I don't want to just put anything and everything there, but if we can round up the good stuff, that's good.

The recent podcast on Wrestlemania IV put me in mind of how difficult it is to pull off a great match that ends in a Time Limit Draw. Done well, it can be an exciting tension builder, wondering whether or not someone is going to pull out the victory before time runs out. Done poorly, it can be a boring display of restholds and strung together, meaningless spots. My current favorite is the Hennig vs Bockwinkel one hour draw from the AWA, which told a great story of the young gun getting more and more anxious to put away the veteran champ. On the other end of the spectrum is the recently discussed Jake Roberts vs Rick Rude Wrestlemania IV match. The Steamboat vs Flair epic …

I think as we get older and more entrenched in behind-the-scenes news, the less we appreciate the art of a good swerve. This is probably compounded by the criticism of Russo's 10-swerves-a-show writing in the late 90s. But when I was a kid, there was nothing better than when something really shocking happened. One of my favorites will always be the 4 Horsemen turning on Sting at...Clash 10? Ole Anderson is just tremendous as the heavy in this scene. Ric nails Sting with a right hand out of nowhere and a good beatdown commences. It may not even be that special from an objective standpoint, but it hit me at the right age to make an indelible impact. So, what are your fa…

While lying in bed last night, I got an idea for an ambitious/ridiculous/insane project: compile a list of the best matches to take place on every single day of the year. Some of the days, like June 3, are no-brainers. Other days are more difficult. For example, off the top of my head, I can't think of a single great match to take place on New Year's Day. So who wants to chip in? THE MASTER LIST January 13-El Hijo del Santo vs. Brazo de Oro, 1991 15-Kawada vs. Taue, 1991 20-Misawa vs. Kobashi, 1997 21-Ohtani vs. Samurai, 1996 22-Han vs. Tamura, 1997 31-Liger vs. Sano, 1990 February 5-Fujinami vs. Dynamite Kid, 1980 9-Liger vs. Ohtani, 1997 …

Inspired by the Korakuen post by Loss in the general thread. What are you favourites settings for pro-wrestling and why ? And what are your least favourites ?