BigBadMick

Probably true, but the fact is, wrestling is best watched in the moment, as it's happening. The 98-99 stuff was successful in 98-99. It worked for that specific time period, era, and audience. That's what really matters. I'm not saying there isn't any merit rewatching old stuff, but the fact is, it cannot be judged as accurately because something is always lost in translation. Sure, you can still enjoy or not enjoy something from a bygone era, but no matter what, you will never experience it the same way as people who were there as it was happening. Certain references, nuances, and period-specific attributes will be lost on you. I agree that 1998-99 WWF was best in 1998-99, but some of my favourite wrestling has been watched years after the fact. Also, I thought WWE 2005-06 was pretty rubbish at the time, but have a stronger connection to it on a recent rewatch.

Listened to the first 40 minutes on this, right up to Mania 8. Bret gives good thorough answers (as you'd expect) and so far is one of the better guests on this series. Good stuff on his discussions with WCW at the start of the year, the WBF, the steriod and sex scandals, and a thoughtful dissection of the differences in match layout between him and Flair.

God, just remembering Ross's obvious annoyance at working alongside Jesse. Awkward!

Didn't Austin say he would interview Undertaker? Hasn't happened yet, he must have gotten cold feet.

He's got the Hansen interview coming up - lariato!!!!!

I think 2005-6 was TNA's strongest years, closely followed by 2012. There's more good than bad in 2002-04 and 2007-08. Just my opinion.

She's more dated than anything else. Shouting your retorts was perfectly acceptable in mid 80s WWF.....

One of the funniest, biggest 'what an asshole!' moments with Hogan was his celebrating beating Sheik for his first WWF title. He's backstage, Mean Gene, champagne, camaradarie etc and then Gene introduces his proud parents. Gene asks his father something, and the poor man gets a few words out before Hogan interrupts and launches into another yelling Hulkamaniac tirade. His own father! It's hilarious though.

Interesting. To each his own, but I'd say for me watching TNA from 05 and 06 would be a preferable to WWE in those years.

Which 4, Matt?

Just to give him credit, it's here http://camelclutchblog.com/top-50-matches-tna-wrestling/ Written in June 2012, in case anyone's wondering about recent omissions...

Alright suckers, I've had enough of this! Someone put together this top 50 TNA matches list. Put that in your pipe and smoke it! 50. Last Man Standing: AJ Styles vs. Bully Ray (6/12/11, Slammiversary) 49. TNA World Heavyweight Championship: James Storm vs. Robert Roode (10/26/11, Impact) 48. TNA Knockouts Championship/No DQ: Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong (1/6/08, Final Resolution) 47. NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Jeff Jarrett vs. Christian Cage (2/12/06, Against All Odds) 46. AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels (7/10/11, Destination X) 45. Monster’s Ball: Jeff Hardy vs. Abyss vs. Rhino vs. Sabu (10/23/05, Bound For Glory) 44. Super X Cup Semi Final: Chris Sabin vs. Frankie Kazarian (8/27/03, Wednesday PPV) 43. NWA World Tag Team Championship/Ultimate X: The Latin American eXchange vs. AJ Styles/Christopher Daniels (9/24/06, No Surrender) 42. TNA World Heavyweight/Steel Cage Match: Robert Roode vs. James Storm (4/15/12, Lockdown) 41. 30 Minute Iron Man Match: Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe (1/14/07, Final Resolution) 40. AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle (5/13/12, Sacrifice) 39. NWA World Tag Team: Bobby Roode/Eric Young vs. America’s Most Wanted (1/16/05, Final Resolution) 38. NWA World Heavyweight: Jeff Jarrett vs. Raven (4/30/03, Wednesday PPV) 37. TNA World Heavyweight: Kurt Angle vs. Robert Roode (10/16/11, Bound For Glory) 36. Samoa Joe vs. Chris Sabin (7/17/05, No Surrender) 35. TNA World Heavyweight: AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels (12/20/09, Final Resolution) 34. Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett (10/12/08, Bound For Glory) 33. Fight For Your Right Final/Ladder Match: Christian Cage vs. Kazarian (11/11/07, Genesis) 32. TNA World Heavyweight/King of the Mountain: Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe vs. Christian Cage vs. AJ Styles vs. Chris Harris (6/17/07, Slammiversary) 31. NWA World Tag Team: America’s Most Wanted vs. AJ Styles/Christopher Daniels (6/18/06, Slammiversary) 30. Ultra Male Rules/Steel Cage Match: Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett (4/17/11, Lockdown) 29. TNA X Division/30 Minute Iron Man Match: AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels (10/23/05, Bound For Glory) 28. TNA World Heavyweight: AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle (1/4/10, Impact) 27. TNA World Heavyweight: Robert Roode vs. AJ Styles (5/15/12, Impact) 26. Texas Death Match: AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle (8/10/08, Hard Justice) 25. Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Hardy (3/18/12, Victory Road) 24. AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle (6/8/08, Slammiversary) 23. TNA X Division/Double Elimination: AJ Styles vs. Jerry Lynn vs. Low Ki vs. Psicosis (6/19/02, Wednesday PPV) 22. NWA World Heavyweight: AJ Styles vs. Raven (8/27/03, Wednesday PPV) 21. Kurt Angle vs. Desmond Wolfe (11/15/09, Turning Point) 20. NWA World Heavyweight: Christian Cage vs. Samoa Joe (3/11/07, Destination X) 19. For a TNA Contract: Austin Aries vs. Low Ki vs. Jack Evans vs. Zema Ion (7/10/11, Destination X) 18. Steel Cage Match/#1 Contendership: AJ Styles vs. Abyss (4/24/05, Lockdown) 17. Three Degrees of Pain: Kurt Angle vs. Desmond Wolfe (12/20/09, Final Resolution) 16. TNA X Division/30 Minute Iron Man Match: AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels (2/13/05, Against All Odds) 15. Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe (11/19/06, Genesis) 14. Steel Cage Match: Kurt Angle vs. Mr. Anderson (4/18/10, Lockdown) 13. Super X Cup Final: Chris Sabin vs. Juventud Guerrera (8/27/03, Wednesday PPV) 12. TNA X Division/Ladder Match: Low Ki vs. Jerry Lynn vs. AJ Styles (8/21/02, Wednesday PPV) 11. TNA World Tag Team/Steel Cage Match: Triple X vs. America’s Most Wanted (6/25/03, Wednesday PPV) 10. TNA X Division/Ultimate X: Petey Williams vs. AJ Styles vs. Chris Sabin (1/16/05, Final Resolution) 9. Steel Cage Match/TNA World Heavyweight: Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe (4/13/08, Lockdown) 8. Steel Cage Match/Losing Team Splits Up: America’s Most Wanted vs. Triple X (12/5/04, Turning Point) 7. Super X Cup Finals: Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles (8/14/05, Sacrifice) 6. World Title Tournament Semi Finals: Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Hardy (9/5/10, No Surrender) 5. TNA World Heavyweight: AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Samoa Joe (11/15/09, Turning Point) 4. Texas Death Match: James Storm vs. Chris Harris (5/13/07, Sacrifice) 3. TNA X Division: AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe (12/11/05, Turning Point) 2. Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe (12/10/06, Turning Point) 1. TNA X Division: Christopher Daniels vs. AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe (9/11/05, Unbreakable)

Actually, on top of all THAT, I recall Fred Ottman's shoot interview including a story about the Money Inc-Disasters match being shortened at the last minute, and DiBiase refusing to cut it. Would explain Skinner-Owen going about 60 seconds. Oh what a night!

Alice had the decency to do her homework and fall in love with Barry Windham. Let the hatred cease! Interview with/by Missy was good. I'd like to hear her being interviewed by Cornette sometime.

There's a bit of truth to this. Paul Bearer talked about it in one of his ROH shoot interviews. it was Jake's last night with the company and didn't want to get beat clean with the Tombstone in the middle of the ring. Therefore, he changed the finish to where Taker tombstoned him on the floor and then rolled him in the ring to get pinned. According to Paul Bearer, Vince was furious over this and blamed Taker since he couldn't do anything to Jake. I can't remember the exact details but that was pretty much it. Thanks. Between that, the 2 unapproved bladejobs by Flair and Bret, and Sid kicking out of Hogan's legdrop because Wippleman (or Papa Shango - can't remember) was late for the dq-causing run-in, this was one headache of a night for Vince.....

Listened to his interview with Bret Hart this morning. Any truth to Bret's claim that Jake ballsed up or sabotaged the end of his match with taker at mania 8 and was fired? Jake himself claimed he held up Vince for more money on the show. And I assumed he was fired for substance abuse around then anyway.....

We definitely have different definitions of the word "significant." I'm strongly, strongly opposed to the decimation of historical artifacts and records, but if there was one library on this Earth I wouldn't mind seeing burned, it'd be TNA's. Come on! All of it?!! They're plenty of really good stuff in 2005-06 just off the top of my head. The 'TNA Is worst promotion in history' thread had a 'in defense of TNA' bit a couple of months ago, I'll dig through that for more....

Really enjoyed this Parv. Any chance you could get the boys together again for 1982-85 or so?

Listened to the first half hour or so - wow! I'd like to congratulate the rest of the gang for their patience with Johnny 'Art Donovan' Sorrow. And Johnny too - rambling wildly but still making coherent points about Stampede wrestling's legacy - kudos!

Random thought that popped into my head. One of the funniest signs I ever saw was in ECW arena, autumn of 1995, concerning Sandman - A Beer is a Terrible Thing to Waste Are fans as smart ie literate, witty, connected to anything outside wrestling anymore?

Listening to Bryan and Dave discussing the Daniel Bryan burglary. Bryan starts asking how upset the dog was, and whether it was available for interview. He's a profoundly unfunny man.

Good listen, guys. I enjoyed the lengthy discussion about DiBiase's WWF work. Your consensus that he got into a bit of a rut and did what was needed seems fair. I agree that he was solid but never really stood out in the AJPW stuff I've seen.

Easy on the new kid, Parv. Takes a while to find your feet on here....

My first experience of Dave was with the Tributes book in 2001. I found his style a bit jarring but had enough background info on most of the wrestler bios to fill in the blanks myself. I agree that it's a challenging, almost interactive, way to get through his longer articles, but I enjoy it. My next encounter was his Wrestling Gold commentary with Cornette. This was staggeringly good. Took a few rewatches to absorb all the info therein.

There's a big disconnect between PWO and Meltzer when it comes to modern NJPW, huh? I really haven't watched as much as I'd like to so can't really comment further.