NotJayTabb

Of all the "meme wrestlers" on the indies, Danhausen is probably one of the better workers and there's definitely a creative mind at work there. It just depends how much of his indie schtick he brings across. That spot where "Tequila" plays over the tannoy whilst his opponent staggers confused on the floor, for example, is dreadful and I hope TK wont allow it.

Feels like Veer might get a big ironic pop when he finally debuts

Gutted that I fell asleep during the Bolshoi watch party on Saturday (I'd been up and about since 6am, so by the time we got to 10pm for the WP, I was shattered), but I'm going to take an active interest in this thread because Bolshoi seems great. Also Jetta rules, big fan of Coventry's Loudest.

I imagine when the eventual split comes, MJF will fire him, only for TK to come out and sign Wardlow to a contract and a match with his former employer.

I think Theory has the benefit of being young - he's only 24 - yet already pretty talented, so Vince probably feels he can mould him early into the kind of wrestler he likes. I can definitely see Vince looking at a young guy in good shape, solid in ring and the mic, and thinking he is someone that he can work with. It's just novel to see Vince do that with a wrestler under the age of 30 these days. Agree with all the points on WALTER. In isolation, WALTER isn't a great ring name either*, and if a new wrestler emerged called Gunther Stark (U-boat connection aside) I don't think anyone would say it was a bad name. But when you've let the guy wrestle on one of the big 5 PPVs as WALTER, plus him wrestling on TV throughout the year, a name change makes zero sense. * This might be a cultural thing, arguably the best known Walter in the UK is a cartoon character called Walter the Softy, who is a typical bullied nerd character.

What the selection of matches does do well is show the length of time that Mickie has had good matches over. She's definitely had a few down-periods as well (just before she got her first WWE release it felt like she wasn't as motivated as when she'd debuted, not helped by trash like the Piggie James angle), but having a career that long and being able to get her motivation back and still have good matches at this stage of her career is a positive. She's one of a very few wrestlers who went to TNA after a WWE release and rebuilt her reputation. Having good matches spread over a near 20 year career shows a level of consistency, even with the lows. As for my top 100? I like Mickie a lot, but my initial shortlists of Definites/Probables/Need To Watch Mores/Personal Favourites is already 250+, I would be surprised if she makes it

Getting anything out of the non-selling Fiend in a strap match was remarkable. It felt like they were putting the biggest possible obstacles in the way of him having a good match there

Also, I know this is technically last week's TV, but 205 Live is proving to be a very easy, fun watch at the moment. Last week had 3 matches in it's 30 minutes, all of which were enjoyable with even the greenest talent seeming to have some promise. I really enjoyed Jiro/Ru Feng, and the opener between Draco Anthony and Malik Blade was good in a "two green guys at an indy show who'll be really good in 2 years time" way. Weakest match was Nikkita Lyons vs Erica Yan. Yan is clearly very inexperienced, and repeated a flubbed spot awkwardly, but she's very likeable and sold well. Lyons has a great look and did a few bits that looked great, like a slingshot rolled through to a single-leg crab, feels like she'll be a star with some more polish. For a 30 minute rookie show, I thought it was good value.

Pleased to see Doudrop win that match. Bianca's big retribution should be at Mania, and Doudrop is both a fresh match-up and a better wrestler than Liv. Not sure how it'll work as a heel/heel match though. I suspect Becky will be the defacto face with the crowd, but you don't want to turn her before she faces Bianca again.

So I watched the Shelley/Ruby Soho match from Beyond last night, and it really made me want to do a dive into Shelley's back catalogue. It was a good match with a great Shelley performance where he seems fully aware of the size difference between the two and how to incorporate it into the match. He even uses a bearhug, which is not a move I'd associate with Alex Shelley, but totally works in this context. I don't know how long this IWTV title reign will last, but he feels perfect for the role. An elder statesman of the indy scene, going from territory to territory defending the belt against all comers certainly fits him better than it did Warhorse. Given that he's been good for 18 years now, I think he's a good contender for my 100, looking forward to revisiting his older stuff.

Would Hardy still be under a no-compete?

I think part of the issue is that Tony Khan needs to remember how much power his words hold, especially as he's a hugely popular figure with a lot of online fans. Publicly highlighting Swole's comments and saying "She wasn't any good anyway" is basically inviting his fans (who otherwise may not have read the comments) to go and swarm her with abuse, not that I think that was his attention.

My least favourite member of one of my least favourite factions in recent history. The Gargano matches pretty much killed my interest in NXT, I went from staying up late to watch each Takeover (UK time) to barely being aware they were on. None of the Undisputed Era members were big, but whereas Roddy and O'Reilly had good looking offence and could wrestle convincingly against larger opposition, Cole was never believable against a Keith Lee or an Aleister Black. When your NXT run wasn't as enjoyable to me as Lars Sullivan's, you aren't making my list.

You've got to admire the balls on Coach Tony K to conquer NXT, then go out and hire 3/4 of the act most associated with the worst era of NXT. He'll be booking hour long Gargano vs Ciampa matches next...

In fairness, he'd basically played the same character in TNA before then, so I think this is something he's happy with. It feels like a rare case of them just letting him do his previous gimmick, rather than repackaging him.

It feels risk free for KO though. If WWE fire him in April, for example, do you think AEW would pass on him? He's able to take this new contract that he's happy with in WWE, safe in the knowledge that AEW provides a safety net in case he does get cut.

He's a former 205 Live guy, who was never one of the 5 most interesting guys in the cruiserweight division at any time. He's perfectly ok.

I don't think he'll be on my list, but Kushida has a really good live presence too. I went to one of those WCPW shows where they brought in a lot of NJPW juniors, just to see Liger live, and Kushida is the only other guy who felt like a big deal. I think there's some good stuff in his NXT run that gets forgotten, that Walter match was great.

Togo is a cert for me, and I had Sasuke and Delphin in my 60s last time, so they've got a good shot. I've a few names I really want to dig into (CIMA, Dragon Kid, Mochizuki) in the next few years too.

It's kinda mindblowing that people's reaction to an indy wrestler getting a $1200 speeding fine wasn't "How dangerously were you driving to get a fine this big, you lunatic?", but rather "Oh LOL, how can I contribute you pay your fine so you learn nothing?"

I think Roddy re-signed in the past year, so I don't think he's going anywhere unless cut.

I agree with the above, the Watch Parties are really good fun and also pretty informative, to the point that I'm frustrated that the glut of football over the festive season is forcing me to miss a few. As far as getting motivated to watch wrestling again, I know how that feels. In 2020 a combination of Speaking Out, the tediousness of WWE TV, the mediocrity of the AEW roster and watching hollow no-crowd indie shows put a real hit on my desire to watch wrestling. I found the best way was to ease myself back in with wrestling "comfort food", which for me was 80s episodes of Wrestling Challenge and Prime Time, just a bunch of short squash matches I didn't have to concentrate on with fun commentary, that I could just sit back and enjoy. That, plus the return of live crowds, AEW signing better talent and NXT 2.0 being kinda fun, has helped me get back in, plus the aforementioned Watch Parties. My advice is just pick something you can sit back with easily, and just try and have fun.

I know he's on the verge of becoming a meme wrestler at this point, but the fact that Tony D'Angelo had only the 4th match of his career in a big event WarGames match, and didn't look lost or out-of-place, is pretty impressive too.

I really liked how Barb moved forward with the times too. By the time we were watching his Nitro-era run, he'd added a load of fun slam variations into this mix. The Eddie match on Nitro was an absolute blast, they worked really well together. I'll be stunned in Barbarian isn't on my list again in 2026

Vince had more overall credibility than Russo or Arquette too. He'd been part of the on-screen product for over 20 years, people fully associated him with the promotion, so it didn't feel as fly-by-night as Russo. Plus Vince had worked matches at that point, which made him feel a bit more legit, and he was built like a tank. Russo and Arquette were just normal sized men, Vince looked more like he belonged, even if he wasn't a wrestler.