BillThompson

Eh, I think you're selling his 1998 very short. He was a key player in his ability to get a lot out of guys who were really green. Edge and Ken Shamrock were put in with Owen because he dragged something good out of them when they had very little to offer. Owen could still go in the ring, his main problem was a lack of a compelling story. You stick him in the ring come 2000+ with the influx of better workers and give his character interesting stories and direction and he's be a top player again.

At this point I wish WWE would change their mind and release Emma. I'd much rather see her do her thing in SHIMMER, SHINE, or WSU than be stuck in two minute match hell on Raw.

Emma versus Paige from NXT Arrival, and it only served to make me disappointed that WWE is doing absolutely nothing with a super talented worker like Emma.

The problem isn't how they did it. It's that they've largely stopped releasing ANYTHING new. Hopefully ECW Week is the sign of a change. I think the dumps approach is a problem though. It's a terrible way of releasing content as none of it seems special or different, or something that you need to anticipate coming,

I think trickling is actually the right approach with the old content. Unfortunately they don;t seem to be doing that, rather they dump large chunks of it at once so that people can forget about it right away. They need to be releasing this old content in chronological order and at a nice clip where they are slowly populating the Network with content.

Always a favorite.

Triple H is another odd choice, but one that bears mentioning. He went from a decent wrestler to being a damn great wrestler by 2000. Then he tore his quad and he was never the same. His post quad tear career is super disappointing because he went from great to awful most of the time. In terms of what he showed us he could be for a brief two-three year period and what he ended up being over the course of ten or so years thanks to the injury and his stylistic choices he is very disappointing.

People are going to think I'm trolling, but Shawn Michaels easily. Such a fantastic tag wrestler, but a very weak singles wrestler. I know he has the WWF/E hypse machine behind him, and there are lots of fans who legitimately think he's the best of all time. I don't see it, I see a great athlete who squandered that athleticism for the most part by being a mediocre wrestler most of his singles career.

This is one of the matches that I point to as showing how a spotfest can be much more than just a spotfest. Yes, the match is driven by spots, but they are mostly inventive, hit clean, they sell the damage from them, don't waste time setting up overly intricate spots, and the match tells a nice little story about killing yourself to make it in the WWF. Also, deceptively simple; all reasons why I do think this is a MOTYC.

Did WWF do an on-air tribute as well, can't remember?

Same here, he's one of those wrestlers that doesn't really stick in my mind for his wrestling, and most of the time the wrestling of his I remember is when he was pretty terrible.

I listen to a lot, probably subscribe to 20 or so. I prioritize new eps, and usually manage to get through all the new eps released in a week. I listen to podcasts on my rides to and from work, as well as all day long at work when I'm not on a call.

I think Ishii is far and away better than Tanahashi. More believable, more variety, better bumper, better intensity, and I buy him as a legit wrestler, something I can't say for Tanahashi. But, I'm still delving into Tanahashi's work and am hoping that at some point he sways me.

He has a connection with the crowd, but I'm not sure why. He does have a lot of natural charisma, so again it may be similar to an HBK situation where his flaws really don't matter as what he does entertains the crowds who come to see him. I had trouble with the nearfalls in the Ishii match because I didn't buy Tanahashi's low impact moves stunning the physically more impressive Ishii as much as they did. I don't mind Tanahashi's selling in low bursts, and he's a good bumper. But his long term selling is never really there, or at least not consistently and not in that match. That being said, they really weren't going for a long term selling match that night so I certainly don't hold that against them. My main beef, and the reason I think that match is about 95% Ishii, is that Ishii is so physical and Tanahashi is trying to match that, but failing. That would be okay, but Ishii sells and bumps for Tanahashi's low impact offense because Tanahashi is the man in the company and his offense has to be sold for. It's not believable to me though, because Ishii selling for Tanahashi's terribly weak Forearm strikes doesn't make much sense in the grand scheme of the match and the NJPW style.

He doesn't know how to pull them though. If he did they would still look good, his just look awful, and that's bad in a promotion that relies so heavily on believable physicality.

Been working my way through your guys backlog. Have to say that while we disagree often (Although not as much as I disagree with Kevin Kelly who I honestly don't believe has any intelligence when it comes to pro wrestling) I really like the work you do. I'm especially enjoy the PTBN-PWO Summit shows, but it seems like you only did a few and then they disappear. You need to bring those back man, top shelf podcasting right there.

I've been catching up with some Tanahashi, specifically for this project. I keep hoping he'll wow me like he does Alan, Joe, and others, but I don't see it. He's a competent wrestler, sometimes very good, but nowhere near great. I haven't seen a match yet where his selling or match structure has impressed me, but he's not actively bad in those categories. What I can't get over is his weak as all get out offense and terrible strikes. It doesn't matter if he's throwing a Chop, Punch, or Forearm; his strikes look like they wouldn't hurt a fly. It's laughably bad when he engages in the NJPW "I give, you give" Forearm exchanges. His opponent is usually really cracking him and then you have Tanahashi throwing these light as a feather Forearm shots that somehow hurt his opponent just as much as the stiff shots Tanhashi is being drilled with. The rest of his offense suffers from the HBK effect of looking pretty, but lacking impact. When he hits a Straightjacket German it looks beautiful, but carries little to no impact. In the wrestling aesthetic of NJPW his weak offense sticks out like a sore thumb. A great example of this is his 2013 G1 Climax match versus Tomohiro Ishii. Tanahashi's strikes are awful and his offense isn't high impact enough to knock out a ten year old boy. Being in the ring against a heavy hitter like Ishii just makes Tanahashi's offense look even worse. I believe Alan and Joe when they say they love the guy, but I don't see any of the reasons they list and it's especially hard when the physicality argument is brought up and Tanahashi is the exact opposite of a believably physical wrestler.

I've been thinking about writing about how wrestling discussion has grown in recent years. And by grown I mean become much better than it used to be in the early 2000s. However, today I got to thinking, has it really grown and gotten better? Am I insulated in the PWO (sometimes DVDVR/VoW/TWF) bubble and don't see that things haven't really changed? Is it just that I've chosen to surround myself with people like Charles, Dylan, Sam, Lee, Kris, Tim, Pocket Vampire, the VoW crew, the PWP crew, and so on and so forth that is truly making the difference? I'd love to think that discussing wrestling online has gotten much better in 2014 when compared to 2004, but has it really?

Current Favorite Wrestler to Watch Tito Santana: Watching his feud with Valentine has been a delight. I always liked Tito, but I never gave him the credit he deserved for being essentially the perfect babyface. Last Fun Match You Saw Giant Baba versus Billy Robinson from 1976. Billy is tremendous and Baba's skill is a revelation; watching the internal narrative of the match unfold is a thing of beauty. Wrestler You Want to See More of Mascarita Dorada: Grimmas is spot on with his Rey Jr. in 1996 comparison, easily the best mini I've ever seen and his style in the ring screams of inventiveness, precision, and balls to the wall fun. Last Live Show Attended Still some WWF House Show back in 1998 or 1999. Match You Are Looking Forward to Watching Soon the Most Shinya Hashimoto versus Steven Regal from 1990s NJPW, for all the obvious reasons. Last Fun Interview/Promo You Saw Kurt Angle and Ric Flair from Vengeance 2001. Last Interesting Thing You Read about Wrestling Probably Sam's Tanahashi and Cena piece. Last Worthwhile Wrestling Podcast You Heard The PTBN-PWO Heels Summit, Part One Most Fun You've Had Watching Wrestling Lately As much as I didn't like the match all that much, Prince Puma versus Johnny Mundo from Lucha Underground, it's fresh approach to filming and presenting wrestling was a lot of fun.

I team up with TJ Hawke yet again. This time we look at CM Punk vs. Masato Tanaka from Pro Wrestling WORLD-1 in 2004, CM Punk vs. Masato Tanaka

I see both sides of the argument here, seems like a lose-lose situation no matter how you book it; which I suppose is a problem with a touring champion.

Ok too late on the harping thing. I like Mark Henry when he actually delivers. Just the Raw match was a terrible Mark Henry match. That's it. That's fine, take no issue at all with what you just said. However, other people will feel differently, and that's okay too.

This has been done a million times before on here. I like when Henry and Show do good work but the Raw match is horrid. Saying otherwise is essentially saying they can't have a bad match ever. Again how terrible of a match do they need to have before the whole shoehorned cerebral and deliberate thing is dropped? If they were that smart of workers they would have found ways to not further kill off the crowd. Wrestling being as subjective as it is you have to see how this comes across as trolling? People are going to like what they are going to like, just because you don't agree that doesn't mean they're pretending.

Nope, nothing essential. It still wouldn't hurt to ask someone like dawho5 for some more matches to check out from that time period. But, you're being fed a beefy diet with the matches they are covering as is.