NintendoLogic

John Cena vs. Kurt Angle Unforgiven 2005 Well, color me shocked. This match is surprisingly good, and this is the best individual performance I've seen from Cena so far. If you watch the Summerslam match and this back to back, it's like night and day. His offense is more varied, his execution is crisper, and he looks more comfortable in control. Now, this is a Kurt Angle match, which is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, you get Angle trademarks like an extended sequence of finisher counters and counters to the counters and his opponent sittinng in the ankle lock for several minutes. On the other hand, the match is worked much more evenly than Cena's previous matches, so Cena looks much more willing to take the fight to his opponent. Based on this match, I'd say it was around this time that he really started to get it as a worker. Unfortunately, it did nothing to stem the backlash. He's not getting booed out of the building yet, but the cheers he receives are almost exclusively high-pitched. Oh, and Cena gets bonus points for selling the ankle until the end.

John Cena vs. Chris Jericho Summerslam 2005 By this point, the backlash has begun in earnest, as evidenced by the rather lukewarm audience reaction to Cena's entrance. It should be noted that he's expanded his offensive repertoire somewhat, busting out a three-point stance shoulder charge and a diving guillotine leg drop. For the most part, though, he sticks to his clotheslines and back body drops. That's when he's on offense, which isn't often. To be blunt, this is a total Jericho carry job. We get our first dueling chants, as "Let's go Cena" is countered with "Let's go Jericho". There's a clear pattern emerging: Cena gets his ass kicked for 90% of the match and then hits the FU out of nowhere and gets the pin. The only match where it seemed like he really earned the victory was the I Quit match. It's easy to see how a lot of fans would come to see Cena as an unworthy champion and turn on him. This also lends credence to my theory that Cena haters are basing their views on his 2005 work.

You certainly want a babyface to be able to sell and garner sympathy. But you need more to be a top guy. John Cena vs. Chris Jericho vs. Christian Vengeance 2005 At this point, the crowd is still solidly behind Cena. The match itself doesn't merit recapping in much detail, as it's a pretty standard triple threat match. I'm more interested in Cena's performance. Two things jumped out at me. One, his offense is still pretty bad. His punches are weak, and he still has the worst hiptoss of all time. He mainly sticks to clotheslines and back body drops, and that's probably for the best. Two, he still isn't on offense all that much. When all three are in the ring, he spends a lot of time getting double-teamed by Jericho and Christian. But even when he's fighting them one on one, he works mainly from underneath. He gets the pin with an FU, but it comes out of nowhere and seems kind of flukey. Cena comes across here as someone who can withstand an asskicking but not as someone who can kick ass himself. So far, WWE has been using booking smoke and mirrors to emphasize Cena's strengths and hide his weaknesses. We'll see how long that lasts.

John Cena vs. JBL Judgment Day 2005 I really liked this match when it first happened. I still liked it when I rewatched it a couple of years ago. But since then, I've pretty much soured on the I Quit concept. Let's see how this holds up. The opening minutes are pretty weak. This is a blood feud and you guys are doing headlocks and armbars like you're Flair and Steamboat? Come on, guys. Fortunately, things pick up once they go to the outside, and Cena takes some pretty nutty bumps. Of special note are a Sgt. Slaughter-esque bump over the guardrail and a shoulder-first dive into the ring steps. Pretty soon, JBL destroys Cena with a vicious chairshot. Sorry, but unprotected chairshots to the head are automatic demerits in my book. Regardless, Cena does a five-alarm bladejob, and by the end of the match, his face and chest are covered with blood. JBL is outstanding as he delivers an asskicking worthy of Stan Hansen. Overall, I thought they did a great job of incorporating the gimmick into the match. The microphone silliness was kept to a minimum, and the garbage spots were creative without being overly contrived. I especially liked JBL taking the timekeeper's belt and strangling Cena with it. I also liked how JBL took advantage of no DQs by cutting Cena off with things like low blows and eye pokes. Super, super match. Both Cena matches have been at least pretty good so far, but he hasn't really been asked to do much other than sell and bleed. It still remains to be seen what he's capable of at this point. JBL, on the other hand, has looked awesome in both matches. Honestly, this is kind of making me want to revisit JBL's title reign.

The discussion about how good Cena was when he first became champion has inspired me to revisit all the PPV title matches from his first reign. Let's start at the beginning. John Cena vs. JBL Wrestlemania 21 I have to admit, this match is a lot better than I remembered it being. But that can't really be attributed to Cena, as this is basically a one-man show from JBL. Cena's comeback at the end is literally the only sustained offense he gets the entire match. But that's OK, because JBL looked great in control. All his offense looked crisp and vicious, and he had several well-timed hope spots and cutoffs. Unfortunately, he ran out of gas pretty quickly, so we get four consecutive double knockdown spots to allow him to catch his breath. At this point, Cena's comeback routine includes what is probably the worst hiptoss of all time. The biggest problem with the match was pacing, as the ending came out of nowhere and felt tacked-on. Considering what Cena would become, it's kind of remarkable that his first world title win doesn't feel like a big moment at all. My guess is that the company didn't quite trust him to hold up his end of a world title match. We'll see how this develops.

Bill Simmons on Bret Hart: He goes on to say that Mr. Perfect was a more interesting and entertaining version of Bret. Urge to kill....rising....

The whole wrestling match as macho pissing contest style of work is not my cup of tea at all, and Kenskay is pretty much the epitome of that. So yeah, I kind of hate him.

Here's a compilation of stuff from lucha guru Steve Sims. http://z11.invisionfree.com/wrestling_ko/i...?showtopic=2331

I showed my non-wrestling fan friend a Flair promo compilation, and he hypothesized that Flair's head would eventually explode.

The truth is, Cena was pretty bad when he was first elevated to the top spot in 2005. And bad first impressions are difficult to overcome. Look at Mark Henry. It took years for most wrestling fans to come around on him. On top of that, I think that fans being resentful of his push makes them reluctant to reconsider their preconceived notions.

Random question for Dylan: why do you capitalize lucha? Is it because you hold it in Christlike reverence?

We also have to consider Shawn Michaels' inevitable involvement in this angle. The obvious thing would be for him to seem like he wants to help out his former student only to betray him and join up with Team McMahon-Helmsley. But there's the question of whether Jesus will let him play a heel.

A while back, I got the idea to draw up a March Madness-style GOAT bracket. I wasn't able to come up with a complete one, but here are the names I came up with. US REGION: Wrestlers who worked primarily in the US Arn Anderson Steve Austin Nick Bockwinkel Bryan Danielson Ted DiBiase Ric Flair Bret Hart Curt Hennig Jerry Lawler Rick Martel Shawn Michaels Harley Race Randy Savage Ricky Steamboat Barry Windham JAPAN REGION: Wrestlers who worked primarily in Japan Tatsumi Fujinami Yoshiaki Fujiwara Shinya Hashimoto Akira Hokuto Toshiaki Kawada Kenta Kobashi Aja Kong Jushin Liger Mitsuharu Misawa Nobuhiko Takada Genichiro Tenryu Dick Togo Manami Toyota Jumbo Tsuruta Jaguar Yokota MEXICO REGION: Wrestlers who worked primarily in Mexico Perro Aguayo Atlantis Black Terry Blue Panther El Dandy El Hijo del Santo MS-1 Negro Casas La Parka Pirata Morgan Sangre Chicana El Satanico Villano III WORLD WARRIOR REGION: Wrestlers who for one reason or another didn't neatly fit into one of the other regions Chris Benoit The Destroyer Dynamite Kid Terry Funk Terry Gordy Eddy Guerrero Volk Han Stan Hansen Mil Mascaras Dick Murdoch Rey Mysterio Billy Robinson Vader Steve Williams That's 57 total. It's not the definitive list of great wrestlers, but I think it's a good starting point for trying to come up with wrestlers who belong in one of the four tiers. Feel free to add or subtract as you consider appropriate.

With Bret, it's also worth noting that most of his great matches weren't main events. In fact, during his run as a main eventer, he wasn't actually in the main event all that often.

I assumed it was that the Wrestler had signed a contract agreeing to have their business interests managed by a certain entity, i.e. "Mr. Fuji Incorporated". In exchange for some of the purse, the manager agrees to protect that wrestler's general interests (including, but not limited to, transportion & lodging needs, match promotion, promotional materials including interview supplementation, "external bias nullification" - i.e. ensuring opponents will not try to use underhanded tactics to secure victories and general publicity). However, that manager could then sell their controlling interests in that entity to another manager organization, and hence " Mr. Fuji Incorporated" was now controlled by Sensational Sherri. After giving this some thought, I'm not sure it's accurate. If a manager works for a wrestler, how can a manager fire a wrestler? We have seen this happen many times. Furthermore, when a manager turns on his client, shouldn't he be held liable for breach of contract? At the very least, you'd think that'd be grounds for having your managerial license suspended.

You can assume someone's contractual obligations in WWE by signing a contract written up for that person, so I have no trouble believing in a contract that allows you to assault the owner. I don't disagree with the broader point, mind you.

Vince did fire Austin. Shane brought him back with an ironclad contract.

My greatest fear is that when HHH finally gets put in the Yes Lock, he does the HBK in the ankle lock deal where he struggles for like five minutes before tapping out.

I'm sorry, but wrestling is far too low of an art form to merit the kind of critical analysis and standards we apply to things like cinema and theater. I think that trying to figure out what exactly in wrestling appeals to you is a worthwhile endeavor, but that doesn't change the fact that taste is inherently subjective. You can point to consensus as some sort of objective benchmark, but this board is all about challenging conventional wisdom and finding your own path.

I'll give my thoughts later, but I think the I Quit match with JBL and the RVD match from ONS definitely belong on a list of consensus great Cena matches.

I'm have no clue what would make MS-1/Sangre Chicana difficult for a novice to get into. I think it's the most accessible lucha brawl by far.

Wait, I thought Terry Rudge was the GOAT. Now he's only Tier 4?