NintendoLogic

Bill Apter is not, in fact, in the WON HOF.

I think most people who are passionate about a particular subject are snobbish about it to a degree. If you spend a ton of time and effort trying to develop your views and expand your knowledge base, it's easy to fall into the trap that your way of viewing things is not merely correct but obviously so and that differences of opinion are rooted in ignorance or bad faith. It's something Meltzer and his critics have both been guilty of. As for shodate, I haven't been able to detect much of a chip on his shoulder. His views may be pretty off-the-wall, but I haven't seen him come across as excessively combative or disruptive.

The problem with Flair/Lynch was that it was presented as a comedy spot rather than an unambiguously reprehensible act.

The Bucks are Phil Collins. Their best-known work is largely crap, but a lot of their under-the-radar stuff is pretty brilliant. Even if you like them, you don't want to admit it because you're afraid someone will get you whatever their equivalent of the Tarzan soundtrack is for your birthday.

Which ones? Keep in mind that Awesome Kong trained in Japan.

Are there any pre-Women's Revolution matches involving only North America-trained women's wrestlers anywhere near as good as Trish/Mickie at WM22?

It kind of bothers me that Stephanie's interview is the one everyone remembers when you had Bradshaw calling for genocide on the very same show.

I don't have much interest in revisiting these matches, but my recollection was that 8/5/82 was clearly their best match together. As for the series as a whole, I agree with a lot of the criticisms about them not really holding up that well, but I also think that some of them miss the mark. It wasn't just the highspots that made the series revolutionary. It was also the pacing and structure. People can point to something like Hamada/Babyface and say that the spots were cleaner and more impressive, but it's mostly a conventional mat-based match with the spots serving mainly to break up the matwork. With TM/DK, the reverse is true. The spots are the meat of the match with the matwork serving mainly to set up the next series of spots. You'd be hard-pressed to find matches prior to this series worked in that vein.

I didn't think Robinson was stooging or going into business for himself. It felt to me like he was lying back and trying to bait Inoki into making a mistake because he was up a fall and had the luxury of turtling. The way the match was worked, I figured Robinson would get the win if it went to a time-limit draw because he was up 1-0. In that case, Inoki evening things up with 30 seconds remaining was the perfect finish.

I always get confused when people here call Observer subscribers a niche or an isolated subset. Compared to what? More people probably voted on the Observer awards this year than have ever posted on this board in its entire history. Anyway, my biggest problem with the results was Marty Scurll's finger break making the Best Wrestling Maneuver top ten. It might actually be my least favorite maneuver in wrestling history. Also, I'm mildly surprised that Orton/Wyatt at Mania beat out House of Horrors for Worst Match.

It recently occurred to me that TNA's most lasting legacy will almost certainly be the "this is awesome" chant.

Which Inoki/Choshu match was that? The short, heated one? If so, Phil and I dug it. Will, not so much. Most likely their 8/2 match. I only discovered it because it was so highly rated at Cagematch of all places.

My pick for Jetlag is Chigusa Nagayo vs. Akira Hokuto (3/19/89). Also, I'm curious. Is there any effort to keep the matchups fresh? Because this is the second time I've been paired with someone I've already traded matches with. It doesn't matter to me either way, I was just wondering.

Whats with all the nasty comments about Moolah? I don't mean you particulary but there are alot of message boards that just constantly slag her off which is a bit tasteless when she's dead. She always seemed regulary respected by WWE after all the years she gave. Jesus Christ, dude...

It can't be named after someone who's still alive. I guess they figure picking someone who's died is the safest route since they can't do anything further to embarrass themselves or the company.

Finally, someone who realizes that Negro Casas was actually the least talented of the Casas brothers.

In fairness, what other dead woman can they memorialize? They try to avoid drawing too much attention to people in the business who died of drug overdoses, so Elizabeth, Sherri, Luna, and Chyna are out. Who else is there? Vivian Vachon? Bertha Faye? Those names mean absolutely nothing to the vast majority of fans, and they're pretty sad stories themselves.

Going by past classes, the headliner is always someone with either a good deal of mainstream name recognition or an extended run as a main eventer, preferably both. Looking at prospective future inductees, Rock, HHH, Undertaker, Jericho, Cena, Lesnar, Bryan, and Orton fit the bill for sure. Possibly CM Punk as well since WWE loves to push whenever a prodigal son returns to the fold. I don't think Vince will headline (although if any non-wrestler deserves it, it's him) because he probably won't be inducted until after he dies and they don't like featuring deceased individuals as headliners.

@concrete1992 I saw that you didn't much care for Killer Khan's match against Bob Backlund, so here's a match that I hope presents him in a better light. Khan had an incredibly fascinating career. His overall output isn't that great, but he seemed to produce at least one all-time great match everywhere he went except the WWF.

I believe Memphis was the only territory that actually got paid for TV, although the station did cover production costs in Portland. The arrangement in most territories was that the station would give the promotion TV time for free in exchange for a cut of the house show revenue. The WWF coming in and paying for TV time completely changed the game.

All the big bumps he took gave him brain damage to the point where he couldn't remember spots and finishes. It's the reason he was shunted into old man comedy matches at a relatively young age.

This match was pretty interesting, although mainly of value to All Japan completists. The highlight, of course, was Kawada and Fujiwara squaring off. I was taken aback at how little respect Fujiwara showed to Kawada. He ate him up on the mat and treated his kicks and chops as little more than minor annoyances. Between this and their 2001 match (which I haven't seen, only read Phil's review), I kind of wonder if the two had legit heat. Other than a few minutes of grapplefuck with Fujiwara and Fuchi, there's not much more to this match. It should be noted that Kawada beat Kikuchi with a cross armbreaker. I guess they didn't want to risk him taking a powerbomb in the condition he was in.

Barr was in fact juiced, so it works on a number of levels.

I don't care much about individual use, but I do have a problem with it if enough guys are doing it that it becomes a de facto requirement because not using puts you at a serious disadvantage.

Okada/Ospreay was pretty fantastic, though. It's not a Michael Bay wrestling match at all. It felt more like the Roman Reigns/AJ Styles matches than a typical New Japan main event. In fact, if Reigns and Styles had the exact same match move-for-move (or using equivalent moves like spear instead of Rainmaker), there'd probably be people on this board declaring it the greatest match in WWE history. Unfortunately, Ospreay continues to have the worst vocalizations in the history of wrestling. Is anyone else having trouble with the F4W board? It says I entered an invalid username or password when I try to log in, but I have no trouble logging into the main website.