Pro Wrestling

I was thinking about this earlier as a common criticism you see of certain guys is that their matches lacked a "big match feel" or something akin to that. That doesn't make or break a match to me, but I understand it to a degree. Still when I think of who would rate highly on a depth chart for me, virtually every one I can think of in the top couple of levels is a guy who was a consistent top of the card level guy, if not out right ace/night in and out main eventer in a major promotion. So in this thread I was interested to see who would be the top guys we could think of who wouldn't fit in that category necessarily. Keep in mind that main eventing here or there does …

When I mentioned "trouble" in the Heenan Family earlier, it got me thinking about Survivor Series 89 and just how amazing Arn, Haku and Heenan are in that match given the circumstances with Tully. I was thinking: is this the best example of a group of guys just staying completely pro and pulling out a great performance to salvage a match, despite last-minute changes of plan? What other examples are there?

So I've been giving this a fair amount of thought lately. I've got a very small collection of Japanese matches on my hard drive, probably less than 50 as opposed to say about 1000 80's and early 90's North American matches. And the vast majority of those involve at least one US based wrestler. I was thinking about what Vince Russo said about US fans basically never caring about Japanese (or Mexican wrestling IIRC) wrestling enough to make it worthwhile. And while I hate to sort of kind of agree with that viewpoint I am thinking he might not be totally wrong. The problem for me is context. With the exception of some smaller promotions (Central States, Contin…

After reading about this for a page and a half in the WWE thread with potshots included I thought I'd make a thread for it. I read the Smackdown results every week. Sometimes, I'm unable to watch the show because I'm either out with friends, forget to tape it, or just don't get around to watching it or any of the pimped stuff from each show. With that, I do find myself forming an opinion on what I read. I'm able to ignore the jackasses who write these reviews and develop my own opinion on what I've read about the show. I think it's fine for opinions to be established from reading about shows. The direction of the company, the storylines, and the angles are very…

I know there are other threads that get into this but I'm not sure if these specifics were discussed so apologies in advance. I read through some topics talking about the wwf style compared to how Crocket and even early 90s wcw ran matches. I also saw one of the won threads talking about how Meltzer thought some of the wwf's talent in the 80s should go to other promotions so that they can work the kind of matches they want. So here is my point. If you start with 1985 since that was the beginning of the Crockets and the first wrestlemania and finished around mid 1994 before Hogan joined wcw, what wrestlers would have been more suited for the opposite promotion. For e…

I call it the Go-Go style but somebody else may call it by a different name. Offenders: Kurt Angle (at his worst), Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, DG roster.

Just stumbled on this googling for something else: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1420801...cond-look-today My initial reaction was that this is one of the worst articles I've ever read, but then I remembered this thread and thought it could provide some talking points. The article lists 25 stars who just wouldn't have made it today. For those of you with an aversion to clicking 26 times, a summary: - Jake Roberts: didn't have a six pack - Junkyard Dog: "his overall look was kind of bland" - Larry Zybysko: " he would more likely be a "Living Jobber" than a "Living Legend," but most likely he'd be a "Living Garbageman" than a full-time wrestler" - Buddy…

As someone who missed the entire period when this group was awesome, what are the best matches? I know 2002 is talked about as the best year. I'm not sure how long before or after that they were putting on good shows pretty consistently.

I have heard on several podcasts that so and so match was #6 or so for 19XX WON's Best matches list. Is there somewhere to find the Top 10 matches of each year from the WON? I can only find the winners online for each year.. Help a moron out!

The Bruiser Brody thread reminded me that while it was barely in the top 20 (at number twenty, in fact), the Funks vs Snuka/Brody was the highest ranked AJPW match of 1981. That got me thinking, what was the best 1980/1981 stuff out there? I went back through results of the DVDVR sets and here's a quick synopsis the just shy of a hundred matches that would be eligible material that at least has made the sets: 1980 N/A. Lord Alfred Hayes vs. Bobby Heenan = n/a points in AWA on (1/13/80) 96. Tatsumi Fujinami & Kantaro Hoshino vs. Dynamite Kid & Steve Keirn = 3655 points in New Japan on (1/18/80) 102. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Steve Keirn (2/3 Falls) = 347…

School me on the best 1990's - 2000's NJPW Heavyweight matches... Looking for some good ones to watch...

BACKGROUND (you can skip this part) In the fact, in the 2nd Quarter Conference Call, Vince McMahon had this exchange with an analyst (full transcript available at http://seekingalpha.com/article/1597822-wo...all-transcript) essentially laying out that he expected they could double their domestic TV Rights Fees (for RAW/Smackdown).. A few months ago, George Barrios presented at the Citi Global Conference (link to presentation): What four contracts? Why India? Why Mexico? Sports Fee vs Scripted Fees Just for comparison, here is a TV Rights vs PPV revenue chart I made awhile ago. THE QUESTION (here's my real question) They didn't w…

The business has changed irrevocably since the territory days. Newcomers would face routine beatings from the likes of Hiro Matsuda, and once they were "in" face strictly split locker rooms, near-paranoid levels of protecting the business, and a life constantly on the move from one territory to the next. This system has given way to training schools and annual salaries, while the travel schedule remains intense. So three questions: 1. Have the ingredients for "what it takes to make it" changed at all between then and now? 2. Who from the current generation of wrestlers (any promotion) would definitely have made it in the 1980s? 3. Same question, but let's s…

Some of the bigger egos in the industry, Hogan for example, are well known for not wishing to job if they can possibly help it. This is something I've never quite understood. Why was Hogan always so reticent to lose a match? Can anyone think of any examples where a big loss has significantly damaged someone's career?

Haven't heard much talk about this. I got this from the KM boards: Here is the content list DISC 1 MAIN FEATURE Documentary Chapters Run Time- 2 hours Chapters Big Jim Crockett, Sr. Tag Teams John Ringley George Scott Valentine and Wahoo Plane Crash Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling Rotating Bookers Dusty Gets the Job TBS Four Horsemen Magnum TA National Expansion Starrcade '87 What Happened Legacy of Jim Crockett Promotions BONUS FEATURES Mid-Atlantic Memories David Crockett Stories DISC 2 SPECIAL FEATURES and BOUNS MATERIAL George Pa…

What does the WWE offer for medical coverage for retired performers? I'm asking because the NFL just settled its concussion lawsuit for $765 million -- or about $170,000 per plaintiff. There are a bunch of people Tweeting that WWE offers much more comprehensive retirement coverage for its retired performers than the NFL does. Is that true?

Did he draw well in Central States in the 70's - 80's? He is bad everywhere he's gone and I have NEVER once heard a "you should see him vs..." or that kind of talk and never heard anyone defend him as a wrestler...yet he was featured in several areas and in big roles.... How did he last so long in a big role if he was soo bad and universally seen as bad...unless I am missing something... Curious where the disconnect is.

If anyone has an mp3 of this song, would love to have it as a finishing touch for the 1990 Year In Review that Loss, Childs and I did.

For reasons I cannot completely explain, I have decided to watch as much wrestling as I can from 2013. Obviously I am primarily interested in good wrestling, but the point is that I am watching more current wrestling than any point in recent history as I watch tons of Lucha, random U.S. indies, stuff from Europe and of course WWE every week. I have even made an effort to watch a lot more Japan this year (I've probably watched more than any year since 06). Of course every year I do a WKO ballot, which is a top 100 for the calendar year. But this year I am seriously entertaining the idea of doing my own top five hundred. Why? Well largely because I'm a list obse…

For the life of me I can't figure out why Pitbull is a Big Star. His albums have peaked at #14-15-50-8-65-7-14, which is staggeringly bad given how few albums it takes to hit the upper reaches of the charts now. Look... Springsteen has been a washed up album seller in Pitbull's era of releasing stuff, and has still done this: New Studio Records: #1-3-1-1-1 Boxed Sets: #18-27 (on the same Album 200 charts) Compilations / Unreleased Vault Material: #43-16 Live: #93-23 Bruce's best Box/Comp/Vault/Live albums as #16-18-23-27 would damn near fit in well with Pitbull's stuff... and Bruce is washed up in terms of moving records compared to 1975-85. Okay... so Pi…

Joined in Progress (for me)... RVD vs. Dean Ambrose - Caught this with RVD putting Ambrose in a sleeper and Ambrose tossing RVD to the floor to escape. Ambrose sells great for RVD's tired offense but the crowd is into it. I was hoping RVD would have better strikes but they still look shitty. After a 5-star splash, Reigns spears RVD for the DQ. Man, the crowd was really into this but RVD's offense was so bad. EDIT: Holy shit... HBK the Mountain Man!

OK, With all the stars that stopped in Hawaii during the 70's and 80's for a vacation or on their way to / back from Japan, I am sure there have been a shit ton of good matches...how many great ones made video and are worth tracking down to watch? Outside Flair / Kerry 60 Min Draw in '85, I dont know much else. I know Bock and Martel went an hour, which I'd love to see, but dont know if its out there.. What's out there?

This is admittedly a bit of an odd topic, but I was watching a portion of TNA's Hardcore Justice II (got help me and no I didn't get through the whole show) and Sam Shaw was on the card which I found unbelievably funny. For those who don't know Shaw was a part of the Gut Check thing and was a part of TNA for a brief period of time before recently being let go. Shaw was never a guy with much buzz around him, even within the world of South Georgia/North Florida indies where he has been a regular for several years. In fact of guys from that area I don't know that he's even a top twenty guy. There is nothing particularly interesting about him and while he has a passable l…

Any good stories of him picking up tabs at the bar and such? Even personal stories welcome.

I nominate Jeff Jarrett. He was around for the ass-end of USWA in Texas, a Main Eventer in 00-01 WCW, and a Main Eventer in TNA - a promotion that has seemingly been circling the drain since it's first show. Who else?