Jmare007

No particular order, no way I'm opening that can of worms at this point: Terry Funk Ric Flair Jushin Liger Mitsuharu Misawa Daniel Bryan Genichiro Tenryu Stan Hansen Toshiaki Kawada Negro Casas Shinya Hashimoto I plan on doing a deep dive on Bock at some point (have seen A LOT from him, but not everything I wanted) and he's most likely gonna take one of these out.

Fuck man, gonna miss it

Really interesed with what they do with Cesaro tonight. He's not gonna have Bryan to cut a promo for him and after last week, he needs an emotional promo or a sick beating to get things going. So far they've tried to put him in the best position posible, I hope that continues to be the case.

I kinda got that vibe from the audio. Sort of a "Bryan ain't telling nobody anything, at least not yet".

Hi literally said the same thing last time around too and no one gave a damn once he had an ROH-lite run with the WWE title. I honestly don't see people resenting him just because he chose a steadier paycheck and is gonna show up 5-10 times a year to have great matches.

The amount of fans that not only know about that, but that could get pissed at him for not doing it is too damn small to matter.

I don't know. Seems to me his last contract they gave him a lot of what he wanted. If they are "pushing hard" I guess this time around they'll let him work NXT and any WWE- partnered promotion he feels like working for a couple of matches? He's gonna be pushed in the main roster because he's a 10 year veteran in the company that's constantly over and make shit work, it's kind of a no-brainer. He didn't even want to be in the WM main event and they book him there anyway

How the hell do we have a Christian thread and there's not 1 post from his biggest fan @C.S.???

Like I said in a previous post, I think Misawa is by far the most "flawed" n°1 level candidate. His candidacy is all about peak (that you can still poke some holes, like mainly working the same people for 10 years) so I wonder if the narrative of him flips this time around and folk talk more about everything surrounding his peak and ends up putting him way lower than last time around. Then again, it will also depend in how many people "discover" or revisit 90's All Japan this time around too.

Yeah that WK tag is fun as hell and Misawa is a big part of making it work.

He didn't get the same introduction each time, in fact I got the impression he probably got that intro a few times or during a specific time period before being introduced as the "El pequeño Maestro" (The little Master). But the one I got from the WP, it was: "He's more dangerous than Typhus, a bigger destruction than AIDS,...Virus!".

I had Lawler #6, mainly for his 80's and whatever 70's there was out there. I did watch some 90's work but I wasn't able to do a real deep dive. I wonder if that's gonna add to his case for me or take him down a peg this time around.

Yup, he was #2 for me last time and I can totally see myself putting him #1 this time around. No matter what I watch from Terry, he hooks me in. Kinda hard to follow up what Elliot said because I feel the exact same way. And yeah, new Funk stuff showing is legit one of the highlights of my fandom each year. It's crazy that no matter how stupid high expectations I might have over something (like the Harley Race match), the Funker matches it or exceeds it. He's wrestling's God, indeed.

As with pretty much every highly tounted lucha guy, I was really impressed with the way Virus was able to execute basically every single thing he wanted to do in the ring. And when you add the fact that a lot of that was either very innovative or very complicated/high risk, I can completely see why people love him. Having said that, the only match that really had me invested was the Metalico one, and what made it so compelling was Metalico's urgency, knowing that he was no real match for Virus -the difference in how much effort Metalico put on everything he tried to do and how "easy" it came off for Virus was really glaring- and that he had to throw the kitchen sink to have a shot at winning. I'm by not means faulting Virus of anything, that last match was basically a last showcase for Metalico so it made sense that Virus kind of took a back seat and was just there to show flashes and establishing he was indeed better. But at the end of the day I did not leave the watch party wanting to seek out more stuff. At this point I think I'll end up just watching more Casas (btw, really liked the trios match at the WP) because he's basically the one guy I legit wanna see more when it comes to Lucha. Felt that way in 2016 and continue to feel that way today.

Hard disagree. Once live crowds are back we'll see how long they last booing him. The Mania crowd booed Bryan too because they loved Edge so much. Nah, he can do it again in 5 or 10 years when the new guys comes along

Goddamn, sounds like an epic fight in Attack on Titan. This dude is gonna be a MASSIVE babyface when he turns...hopefully in no less than 2 years.

Great fucking match, I hope WWE uploads the whole thing without the commercial breaks on youtube.

Roman's new theme is flames.

So bubba @KawadaSmile how much time you think they are giving Roman and D-Bry? Do they try to have a MOTYC to send DB off to parenthood or they go more storyline heavy so Cesaro can step up for Backlash?

I don't think Cena was more over in that period of time than before so it's not like it made him more popular per se. So not sure "gave people what they wanted" applies. Guys like Rollins and Owens lived and breath that style and they basically tanked RAW. I can't not hold it against Cena when he was a guy who actually stood out because of being "big match John" without having to go full indy, for lack of a better word, in the previous years. He adopting it and only having IWC praise to show for it doesn't really move the needle for me.

I soured on "PWG Cena" FAST. When we voted for 2016 that was just starting with the Owens feud being half a year old and then it got worse as time went on. At some point his matches stopped being great-compelling and became funny with the excess and random big moves. Was that awful? Well, no. I wouldn't go that far at all. But it was a disappointing development for a guy I was really high on before 2016. The Reigns match was such a let down too. I don't see myself ever being as high on Cena as I was five years ago.

Very good highs but not a chance in hell of making my ballot. I watched too much "bleh" Del Rio stuff every week on WWE TV to overcome the times he had great matches. He was a very situational guy, it really depended on how motivated he was and the type of match he was having (or his opponent).

I said it in their threads, but Takuya Nomura and Fuminori Abe are two names I can totally see putting in my ballot with more chances to show what they are made of in the next 5 years. Shit, I might just need 1 or 2 years to be convinced.

Yeah, I'm always puzzled by people letting this kind of shit fly with Dave. He's a reporter and journalist with 40 years of experience and sometimes he doesn't do the most basic shit any journalist has to do. Not to mention he's a communicator that has an increasingly hard time communicating his thoughts. I get that WOR is an uncomfortable grey area as Dave can just be shooting the shit with Bryan but he's constantly giving material for people to pile up on him (and yes, there's a lot of times when that's uncalled for). That's journalism though. Specially when your job is reporting on stuff people don't want to be public. Some sources will try to use you for their own agenda, leak you shit and talk off the record, and then act like your public enemy n°1 in public.

I hope Roman wins clean next week and destroys D-Bry, forcing Cesaro to become extra aggressive and go for revenge for his friend. I wonder if Bryan will be back for a Summerslam match on RAW or his hiatus will be longer. He's gonna be part time regardless but that's gonna be close to when his contract supposedly expires.