Rah

Didn't Teen Dream also have a voice message leak? A mutual contact also verified Dream's phone number as the one used to harass the kids.

Couldn't find it - so I upped it (really bad quality).

You get a longer clip from the attack on the Continental Wrestling 8/13/88 episode. That clip is still out there. I also came across this which seems pretty cool.

Having read KillSteve's thead over on WKO, I've realised I'm in a very similar position to him. Trying to form some semblance of a list has been a daunting process for me - I think not only because there is just so much wrestling out there but also I want it to accurately represent my true feelings which seem to be, at this point, far too fluid to cement a best of. Compartmentalizing things and looking at "categories" individually has allowed me to remove some of that stress and make easier comparisons between wrestlers as I'm judging them by the same metrics. I realise a few of these categories are slightly disingenuous and could be branched out further. Lumping Joshi and NA women's wrestling together is more on my limited experience in both categories than any other malice. This list is far from complete, and I knowingly have a lot more wrestlers to investigate, but at this point in my fandom I'd go like this (in no order): Mexico Negro Casas Satanico Sangre Chicana EHD Santo Virus Mexican Matwork Virus Blue Panther Negro Navarro EHD Santo ? Mexican Brawling Pirata Morgan Sangre Chicana Perro Aguayo Satanico Black Terry Shootstyle Tamura Han Ishikawa Carl Greco Ikeda North American Big Leagues (WCW/WWE - non-women) Barry Windham Rey Mysterio John Cena Cesaro Daniel Bryan Japan (Non-Shoot/Joshi) Kawada Jun Akiyama Hashimoto Fujinami Minoru Suzuki (?) Women's Wrestling Sasha Banks Aja Kong Asuka? Satomura? ? 2000s-Present Indies Necro Butcher Low Ki Samoa Joe (have not seen the majority of his WWE work so I've added him here) Kyle Matthews Super Dragon North Americans - Other Terry Funk Hans Schmidt Stan Hansen Bockwinkel Ric Flair?

I think a big blank for me that I'd like to delve into would be his work in Mexico or against lucha workers. I know of the Casas 90/91 matches in Japan [title and tournament] as well as the match against Villano III in 1990. I think I'm OK with his work post 2009 (and the match against Virus is already mentioned), but does anything else before that stand out? Does any of it exist? I know we have: vs Dr Wagner [1996 for Wagner's title] vs Shocker [1999 for IWGP JH title] Triplemania 2 [8-man] Anything else?

SUWAMA vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW 10/23/2011) This goes looooooong so you're gonna need some patience for it. It has all those little cliches of longer Japanese matches (chess match/strategic style wrestling) which might leave the meat feeling a little uninspired for some but I adored Akiyama's vicious streak in trying to crack SUWAMA's neck. Jun Akiyama vs Masakatsu Funaki (AJPW 6/28/2012) Fantastically violent 4 minutes. I'm a huge Funaki apologist, so take this one with a bit of salt, but I had no issues seeing this as one of the most fun matches to come out of Japan that year. Jun Akiyama, Yoshihiro Takayama & Mitsuo Momota vs Kensuke Sasaki, Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Super Tiger II (Rikodozan Memorial 12/16/13) This isn't something you're watching to find a "good match" but it's an example of how, between all the mindlessness, Akiyama can be so, so great. Jun Akiyama vs Takao Omori (AJPW 6/15/2014) Fantastic match. I checked my review for this, now, and I wrote "Akiyama must be the single best wrestler alive nobody here talks about." Akiyama has a few other "good ones" a little later in the year (e.g. vs Miyahara), but I thought this was his strongest showing. He's at his best when he picks a specific body part and just goes to town with it in fantastic ways - RIP Omoroi's arm. They have another killer a couple years earlier (02/03/2012). From 2015, puro fell of a cliff for me so I just gave up on it all together. I'm sure there's something that stands out, but I've not seen it. 2010s AJPW house-style was already starting to grate me from as early as 2012ish, because, amongst other copy-paste jobs, it felt like the irish whip into the barricade was a checklist spot. I honestly feel their style actively hampers their ability to deliver legitimate epics yet Akiyama would always ensure he gets the most out of that environment. I wasn't much aware that he had broken away from them and ended up in DDT as a grizzled, grumpy vet. Sounds a lot like Kingston in Chikara - which is a fantastic foil.

Jun is a weird one. In the last decade or so, it seems he'll randomly pop up in a recommended match and everyone goes "this guy's the best in the world right now" before we go back to forgetting about him again. It's a shame that he doesn't get the coverage he (probably) deserves, though I'm guessing a lot of it has to do with the loss of interest in Japanese wrestling by those who would see Jun as a transcendentally great guy. His longevity is unreal and list of great matches stretches almost 3 decades. Boss Rock has a pretty lengthy list there but I can still see a couple obvious omissions - that's how bolstered his work is.

I hate Shawn Michaels. Yes, there are worse wrestlers in the world but there isn't a single guy I'd prefer to watch less. For every good moment there are a myriad more where he is actively trying to sabotage his opponent or make them look bad. Focusing on his supposed classics, from the Diesel match to Mankind, I can't go a few minutes without wanting to switch the match off or throw the remote at the TV. Whether it's purposefully no selling (or comically overselling) HBK has no qualms with making his opponent look like a chump. I'm not much of a Razor fan but he had his work boots on for their ladder match and HBK was shitting all over it. The less we say about his awful return run in the late 00s the better. I hate Shawn Michaels.

I've yet to watch them but there seems to be a few possible hits: vs Virus vs Panther vs Rush vs Cerebro some tags with Navarro/Panther/Lucero as well as the usual Trauma stuff Some I have no idea how they'd be: Terry/Skayde vs Penta/Fenix vs Erick Ortiz vs the other older (past their prime) guys Solar/Super Astro etc Those are just the ones I've got queued to watch. I'm sure there are more I'm missing.

Like I said, I don't know when he nose-dived in WWE because I don't follow the product but I found it strange that at his age (and his talent) he's disappeared from view. Terry Crews was an example I had in mind. I was hoping they weren't connected, and I'm glad if they aren't, but the thought doesn't seem too far removed from what WWE would do.

This might be wildly inappropriate and grasping at imaginary straws, but what is the timeline looking like between Keith Lee breaking his story and losing his momentum in WWE? I've not kept up with the company in the slightest but C.S. post made me wonder, especially considering Vince's obvious disdain for "weaker" men (Drew being one all that time back).

Kid me thought it was his parents that he killed in the fire. Bearer would show 'Taker the urn as a reminder of what he had done both as a motivator and as blackmail to control 'Taker. There was also another fan theory that 'Taker was actually dead and his spirit was summoned through the urn. As for any official explanation, the closest we got was Punk, during their feud, saying it had Bearer's ashes inside it (following his death).

Was the Gran Cochisse/Cota apuesta available before? It's not great or anything but it's a great look into Mocho's character work.

I really enjoyed the watch party and will try join future ones. Virus, like Regal, is someone that benefits from deep diving, though. His consistency is unreal. Unlike other workers, he had to carry rubbish (Fuego, Titan, Dragon Rojo) for 25+ minute title matches and most usually made these scrubs look, at minimum, passable. He can work magic in 5 minutes (check the early/mid-90s stuff in Japan and Puerto Rico) and build a coherent story (condensing his title match formula) to under 10 minutes for CMLL's lightning matches. I'll go into more detail when I can, but he's very high on my list. I will also find a blood-letting brawl if it's the last thing I do. I will also find a blood-letting brawl if it's the last thing I do. I know there's some more "violent" Virus out there (he ripped and gnawed at Fuerza's head in their match as well as busting open Judas hardway[?] and stabbing the splintered board into the back of his neck). Surely must be blood? Found one!

It always makes me laugh when Christians spout that verse from Acts. It doesn't mean anywhere close to what they think it does. Literally in the next book is this:

Not sure about 'stand out' but that match against Demon where he lost his mask was better than it had any right to be (if you take it as a car crash Attitude Era apuesta, anyway).

Kane also ended up in AAA for a tiny bit. That Cibernetico/Canek vs Kane/Fake Razor was... something. I do think he's slightly underrated, in comparison to how he's viewed by some here, but he's so bog-standard once the bell hits. Comedy is subjective, but I think Kozlov/Santino smokes him. His early work as Kane is fine from memory, character wise, but he quickly devolves into Days of Our Lives soap opera nonsense - especially in the mid 2000s. I'm drawing a blank in thinking of a better "monster" in terms of a WWE contemporary (Boogeyman?) but he's certainly not the best character worker in WWF/WWE, let alone worldwide. Look, I wouldn't skip his matches, if I'm watching a card, but I'm not seeking him out, either (unless it's novelty factor like I did for his Mexico/PWFG work).

Roy Lucier is on a UWA uploading frenzy. Perhaps he has it? They had a title match back in 1992 with one of the most deflating endings to a match I've ever seen. Not that the match was any good, mind you, so I'm not holding my breath for the apuesta.

Does anyone have this hair match with Sangre Chicana and El Faraon? I've been looking for about a decade or so now. I had a highlights clip of it done by the company but I lost that with my HDD crash. Someone upped a slew of their matches about a year back but, like an idiot, I never downloaded them in time (only 2 are left on Youtube). I 100% know that Rob Viper has it, he's the only one I've ever seen review it, but he ignores all of my messages pleading to get it. I'm literally willing to throw money here. Anyone? I made a GIF from the highlight clip here, this is all I have left: https://imgur.com/OtIGiVN

Jmare007 makes a good point about it really depending on how motivated he was. He has some legitimately great performances (vs Big Show most notably), especially when he returned to Mexico following that (first) debacle with WWE. The problem with Del Rio, though, is I don't think he's ever been the best guy on the card. Certainly not the worst wrestler mentioned (Canek is on the list) but he has way too many "ughs" putting me off doing any meaningful deep-dive with a fine-toothed comb trying to find his motivated work. He's the Randy Orton of Mexico, basically.

There's a TV match with Cesaro in 2013 (2014?) that I really loved. Cesaro was on an absolute tear at that time but Cena held up his end.

Charles Lucero. It might sound strange to list a 61 year old on this list but, for whatever reason, he's slowly gaining steam on the Mexican indy circuit. In the past couple years he's been given some really nifty matches to shine in (running alongside the other maestros) while also working the "younger" talent (20+ minute mat-based match with Trauma 2). There's also a Virus/Lucero match I'm trying to track down that looks amazing in clip form. The more traction he's getting, the more it seems his older stuff is making it online (via Youtube and Facebook). He's someone I'm probably rooting for the most because that pair of matches with Hechicero was bonkers good.

What on god's green earth gave Wuertz the idea that giving this speech in his NXT gear would be a good idea? Even if Vince agrees with his views, there's no way he'd take kindly to this negative press Drake's going to create with his logo flashing for all to see.

Navarro is a weird beast - he was still doing Vale Tudo as of 2 years ago (and won!). I'd guess a better lucha comparison would be Sangre Chicana - godlike highs but his last few years are woeful. His caballera match with Satanico in 2019 (his retirement match) is depressing to watch as he is so immobile. I think it's also a Mexican mirror to SHLAK/Necro as its equally/more so incredibly worked for who's in the ring. That said, it would be a crime not to rate him, and rate him highly. Much the same as Necro. Their peaks are too high to ignore but that tailend of their career exists and its bad. If they had retired at the right time they'd be slam-dunks, but that footage exists and I'm not sure what to do with that.