NintendoLogic

I haven't watched Cena/Bryan in a while, but the main thing I remember about it is how much I hated the slapfight at the end. And yes, I saw the Raw promo. I still hated it.

I'm in the same boat as Jerry in that I thoroughly despise the modern WWE main event style. I just can't get over how blatantly choreographed it is. When I watch a typical Cena match, it's abundantly clear to me that I'm watching a performance where all the spots are laid out in advance, and it destroys my suspension of disbelief. It takes a truly special worker to be able to rise above the constraints of the style and make things seem organic, and beyond a handful of exceptions, Cena hasn't been been up to the task. There's also the question of how responsible Cena is for the content of his matches. He's a system quarterback whose only real responsibility is executing the spots that have been laid out for him beforehand.

If you're looking solely at their time in WCW, then Dustin wins. But things changed when they arrived in the WWF. Austin improved by leaps and bounds while Dustin stagnated and even regressed. Dustin's recent career resurgence isn't enough to overcome a decade-plus in the wilderness. He's also hurt by the fact that he has hardly any classic singles matches to his name (and none in the past two decades).

I would rank them Misawa-Kobashi-Kawada-Taue, with the first three being far closer to each other than to Taue. I'm no Taue hater by any stretch of the imagination, but come on. Also, the anti-Kobashi backlash has gone way too far. In his GWE thread, you've got people claiming that he was incapable of structuring matches on his own and was terrible at limb selling. They're making him out to be a proto-Davey Richards.

That's only if you think both guys have amazing peaks. In my book, peak Kawada absolutely demolishes peak Tenryu. Looking at it in terms of fundamentals, Kawada had better offense, better execution, better psychology, was better at selling, and was better on the mat. What was Tenryu better at?

These are more or less my thoughts exactly. This is a tough call for me, since I have these guys 1-2 on my all-time list. The way I see it, in-ring performance can be broken down into three categories: great matches, versatility, and longevity. I rate Jumbo the GOAT because he's the only wrestler who excels in all three categories. All of Misawa's success was in a single style, although in fairness, it was the most mentally and physically demanding style ever devised. That fact, along with the sheer volume of all-time classics, has Misawa securely in the #2 spot on my list. Also, I think Misawa was clearly Jumbo's #2 opponent, maybe even #1. 6/5/89 is probably better than any Jumbo/Misawa singles match, but all those classic six-mans can't be denied.

I don't see a GOAT contender when I look at Tenryu. To be sure, his sheer presence elevated just about everything he was involved in, and he almost always contributed at least one memorable moment to his matches. But he also had trouble keeping things consistently compelling, so his matches tended to have tons of dead time. For a guy who was supposedly all about kicking ass and taking names, he spent an awful lot of time lying on the mat doing nothing. For that reason, I find he was at his best in a tag setting or when reeled in by a superworker. Like Jumbo, for instance.

Dave has explicitly stated that "he was in the main event for X years" is not a valid reason to induct someone. The stated criteria: Working ability Quantifiable drawing power Positive influence Is Kane HOF-caliber in any of those areas?

Who cares how long he's been on top? It's the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of Pushes.

I agree with this. Choshu's supposed off-the-charts charisma has always been lost on me, so I've always found him pretty dull.

I just heard Daivari's TNA theme for the first time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBluf_YzRg4 Holy shit.

I can definitely see Rocco as a workrate innovator, but I don't know about Jones. He's always struck me as a Regal-esque somewhat methodical worker.

Simultaneous hot tags in WWE tag matches. My least favorite thing in wrestling. Hell, my least favorite thing period.

Heels insulting the local sports team. A babyface getting tossed out of the ring by the heel and immediately rolling back in. A babyface winning the title and all the other babyfaces coming out from the back to celebrate with him. Scott Steiner promos. Tony Schiavone's excited voice. Howard Finkel announcing a new champion.

Like anyone who works for TNA actually gets paid.

I've always gone by the old Scott Keith definition of workrate as the ratio of action to inaction. Obviously, that's neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for having good matches. But the Bulldogs definitely upped the action in a way that, say, Greg Valentine didn't.

I'll freely admit that the podcast wasn't my finest hour. It was my first experience in that format, and I was clearly nervous as hell. Of course, I come across worse if you attribute to me things I didn't actually say. As far as overall body of work, sure. But I maintain that the KOTR 93 match with Bret is Hennig's single best match. And that's not me being a Bret fanboy, because it's Curt's work that makes the match. As for the tag team stuff, I guess it depends on how one defines "effective." I define it as "being over while having good matches." The latter element disqualifies teams like Demolition and the Powers of Pain. Also, people are overlooking the keyword "extended." MX were babyfaces for what, a year? And DiBiase and Williams were only together for like two years total. In any event, I'm not claiming that the Hart Foundation are literally the only team to meet the criteria, so listing other teams doesn't negate my argument. I'm simply pointing out that most tag teams of the era worked almost exclusively on one side of the fence. That the Hart Foundation was able to have success in both roles is a feather in their cap.

Personally, I find the notion that matches can be ranked to a quarter-star degree of precision rather questionable. But I recently whittled my 50 favorite matches down to a top 20, and if pressed, I would rank them thusly: ***** Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee (6/6/83) Sangre Chicana vs. MS-1 (9/23/83) Stan Hansen vs. Toshiaki Kawada (2/28/93) Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori (4/2/93) Stan Hansen vs. Kenta Kobashi (7/29/93) Misawa/Kobashi vs. Kawada/Taue (12/3/93) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada (6/3/94) Kawada/Taue vs. Misawa/Kobashi (6/9/95) Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin (11/17/96) Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi (1/20/97) ****3/4 Jumbo/Tenryu vs. Choshu/Yatsu (1/28/86) Midnight Rockers vs. Rose/Somers (8/30/86) Hansen/Gordy vs. Tenryu/Kawada (12/16/88) Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk (7/23/89) Hansen/Tenryu vs. Jumbo/Yatsu (12/6/89) Jumbo/Fuchi/Taue vs. Misawa/Kawada/Kobashi (10/19/90) Vader vs. Sting (7/12/92) Sting vs. Vader (12/28/92) Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin (3/23/97) Eddy Guerrero vs. Brock Lesnar (2/15/04)

If the goal of this poll was to flush me out of hiding, you've succeeded. Two things. First, the Hart Foundation was awesome. Like I pointed out on the Bret podcast, they had sustained effective runs as both faces and heels. How many 80s tag teams can you say the same for? Second, it's worth noting that the best match of Hennig's career was with Bret.

I actually don't think the "You know it's fake, right?" question is that stupid. I've encountered a disturbing number of people who believe that some of the matches are real. Or that it used to be real even though it isn't today (as in, it was real back in the 70s, not the Gotch/Hackenschmidt days).

I'm shocked that anyone thought that any result other than Cena going over was even remotely plausible. How many promotions in history have had evil foreign heels win feuds against patriotic tippy-top babyfaces? Even Stevie Wonder could see the writing on the wall once they went all-in on the USA vs. Russia storyline.

I think the reason I'm more down on this show than most is that for me, Rollins walking out as champ was the worst possible outcome. He's Orton 2.0 in that he's a borderline channel-changer for me despite being mostly good to great in the ring. Also, between the Mania main event and the Bryan match at Fast Lane, we've established that Reigns looks awesome when the other guy is doing 90% of the work.

Didn't watch any of the pregame crap. IC ladder match: I'd be perfectly happy if I never saw another multi-man ladder match for the rest of my life. It's just completely played out. Orton/Rollins: There was nothing wrong with this match from a technical standpoint. I just didn't care about it at all. The ending sequence was pretty good, though. HHH/Sting: I had a bad feeling about this match when the babyfaces won first two matches. And sure enough, HHH got the pin. At least it was overbooked six ways from Sunday, which is the only way the match would have been watchable. Divas tag: Ummm...the Bellas repeatedly knocking AJ off the apron was pretty cool. Cena/Rusev: I remember people scoffing when I suggested that they were building Rusev up to feed to Cena at Mania. Well, who's laughing now? As for the match itself, it was OK, but the Fast Lane match was much better. Rusev's Rocky IV entrance was off the charts, though. Oh boy, Rock/HHH at WM32! I'm slightly more excited for that than I am for a 2 Girls 1 Cup sequel. Taker/Wyatt: Jesus, this was sad. It was like they were wrestling in a tar pit, they were moving so slow. Taker should never wrestle again. Neither should Bray. Lesnar/Reigns: So they spend all that time building up Lesnar to have it culminate in a chickenshit MITB cash-in? Fucking bullshit. On the plus side, I loved the "this is awesome" chant when Lesnar was beating the hell out of Reigns. It's the only this is awesome chant I've ever liked. I said a while back that Reigns chasing the Authority was my vision of wrestling hell. Adding Lesnar to the equation makes it somewhat more tolerable, but not much. I'm seriously on the verge of canceling my WWE Network subscription. Fuck this company.

As for the "Vince killed the territories" nonsense: the territory system was rotten to the core. All it took to bring it crashing down was a little push. If Vince hadn't killed the territories, cable would have.

It's worth pointing out that HHH was one of the biggest critics of Cornette and OVW on the grounds that someone who never drew money himself can't teach others how to draw money.